#Jason tried to be a bad guy for a while and then flaked out because he missed his family

[koraesdoodles]

One of my favorite things about JayRose is that whenever the two of them are together Jason just seems like SUCH a little drama queen with beef with his dad and all of his angstyness and badboy-ness just pales in comparison to Rose who is looking at him like ":) aaaaaaaaaaw he's so cute when he's trying to be evil."

[mischiefandspirits]

Bernard Figures It Out

Was reading through all the comments on @frostbittenbucky's post and all I could think of was that it was Bernard talking to Tim. Then I got to thinking...

"I've connected the two dots."

"You didn't connect shit."

"I've connected them."

Bernard figures out Tim's a superhero... sort of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tim fidgetted nervously as he waited on the front porch of his boyfriend’s house. Bernard had sounded so serious when he’d called during Tim’s lunch to ask him to come over after work so they could talk about something.

Which Tim had done, after spending an entire board meeting just going over the past week trying to figure out what he’d done.

The only thing he could think of was that he’d ducked out halfway through their lunch date on Wednesday to give Duke some backup, but Bernard had seemed understanding when Tim explained there was an emergency at GRC Labs. It couldn’t have been a tipping point, either, since Tim had managed to only flake on three other dates over the past few months they’d been dating. Kate had been happy to cover for him as often as she could “out of queer solidarity” when she found out Tim was dating a boy for the first time and Tim had managed to trick Bruce into covering a few actual Wayne Enterprises emergencies for him when they came up.

There had to be a reason Bernard was breaking up with him, though. Had he missed something? He definitely wasn’t forgetting an important day. He was good with days and Tam was even better, so she would have reminded him on the off chance that he had forgotten.

What was he missing?

Bernard was smiling when he opened the door, but there was a nervous energy to it that had Tim’s stomach sinking. “Hey, Tim.”

“Hey.” Tim gave his own nervous smile then slipped inside.

They went into the living room and sat down on the couch.

Tim frowned when Bernard grabbed a manila folder off the coffee table. Crud, had he screwed up enough that Bernard had had to make a list? He knew he was new to dating a guy, but he hadn’t thought he’d done that bad. He’d really been trying, especially with how his and Stephanie’s relationship had fallen apart at the end. “What -”

“Just let me speak, Tim,” Bernard said, waiting for Tim’s nod. “Okay, so you know Clark Kent, right?”

Tim blinked as Bernard opened the folder to show a picture of Clark. It looked like one of the employee pictures from the Planet’s website, with his dorky “I’m just a humble country boy” smile and the golden globe from their roof photoshopped in as the background. “Uh, yeah? I think so. He works for the Daily Planet, right? I think he’s worked at a few of Bruce’s events. Not a lot of outside reporters are willing to come to Gotham.”

“Exactly!” Bernard said, snapping his fingers and pointing at Tim.

“What?”

He pulled out the picture to show the next page was an article titled, “DAILY PLANET REPORTER… BATMAN!?”

A wave of relief washed over Tim and he placed his face in his hands. “Were you up all night on the hero conspiracy boards again?”

“No. I mean, I found this on a board and was up all night thinking about it, but I found it reasonably early.”

“One in the morning isn’t reasonable, Bernard.”

“Says the guy who’s always wide awake when I call to infodump.”

“Touché.” Tim leaned against Bernard and gave him a smile. “So tell me, why is some reporter from Metropolis from all places Batman.”

“First of all, living in Metropolis is the perfect cover. Everyone assumes Batman would live in Gotham, no one would consider he could be from anywhere else. Metropolis is outside the GMA, but close enough that the commute is still possible.”

“But it’s Metropolis.”

“And who would think Gotham’s Dark Knight lives in the sunshine capital? Plus, I hear he disappears a lot on the job. There’s gotta be a reason for it!”

Tim made a note to let Clark know he needs to cut back on the disappearing act some since people are catching on.

“And have you seen the guy? He is swol AF, babe.”

“Please don’t call me babe while you’re talking about how hot another guy is.” Especially Tim’s honorary uncle.

“You know I prefer twinks.”

“BERNARD!”

“I’m just saying,” he continued, ignoring Tim’s shout. “The guy is definitely hiding something! Besides, Kent is an investigative reporter. He’s gotta know a lot about cases and the underground and detective work.”

Not as much as he likes people to think, but more than he likes people to know Superman does, Tim mused. “But what about the other vigilantes?”

“Well, Kent has a cousin…” Bernard flipped through a folder and pulled out a picture of Kara. It looked like a screenshot of her interviewing Lena for CatCo. “She’s obviously the latest Batgirl. Look at her hair. And the first Batgirl and the current Batwoman were obviously Lois Lane, the red hair is just a wig. Did you see how she kicked butt at that last event she went to? She’s not as subtle as Kent. That means their son is the latest Robin. He’s exactly the right size.”

Oh, Damian better not hear about this, Tim cackled internally. His youngest brother hated being reminded that Jon was the same height as him despite their two years age difference. Damian definitely took after Talia when it came to body type, no matter what he said.

“And Kent also has a brother.” This time he pulled out a picture of Kon. The clone must have been caught by a reporter out shopping with Ma since he was carrying some paper bags and glaring at whoever was behind the camera. “At least, he’s supposedly Kent’s brother, but he was a teenager when he first showed up with the Kents. A lot of people think he’s actually Kent’s son, that Kent got a girl pregnant when they were teenagers and something happened to the mom so Kent had to take him in. Now the Kents are trying to hide it by saying the two are brothers.”

That was… scarily accurate actually. Especially given Luthor and Clark were close friends at the time that Kon would have theoretically been born.

“And that beef would explain why the younger Kent brother went all crime lord on Gotham for a while before reconnecting with the family.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, Kent Jr.’s got the perfect build for Red Hood.”

Tim bit back a comment on how Kon was shorter than Jason by a good foot. Timothy Drake-Wayne should not know that. Add Jason to the list of people who can’t hear this theory.

“And then there’s this girl,” Bernard picked up a picture of Lois, Jon, and Natasha Irons walking down the street together. “No one’s sure exactly who she is, but she’s been spotted with the Kents a few times. I think the cover story is that she’s Jon’s babysitter.”

“And the actual story?”

“She’s Black Bat, obviously. That’s why she wears a mask that fully covers her face. She doesn’t want to stand out as the only African American Bat.”

“Isn’t Signal also Black?”

“Yeah, but he works in the daytime so he’s already a standout.”

“And who is Signal in this? And what about Nightwing and Red Robin?”

“Well, Nightwing’s just a Blüd who came to Gotham. He doesn’t count.”

Ouch. Sorry, Dick.

“And Red Robin is obviously an older Robin, the one who was Robin when we were kids. Kent wanted to keep him on, and I don’t blame him. As for Signal, he’s got the same backstory as all the other Robins Kent picked up, he just went the Signal route because he didn’t fit the usual Robin mold.”

“Because the female Robin fit the mold,” Tim snorted. Robin Mold, as if he and his brothers were even the same ethnicity. Or even had the same hair color. Jason dyes his hair, Dick’s is brown-black, Tim’s is pure black, and Damian’s is more a dark brown and it’s only getting lighter as he gets older.

“She didn’t, that’s the point. Kent tried to give breaking the Robin mold a chance by letting his cousin have a go at it, but he realized it just didn’t work so she went back to being Spoiler and he got a new Robin.”

Not touching that with a ten-foot pole. “Right, and where does he get the usual Robins? Please tell me you’re not back on the secret government orphanages theory.”

“No, no, no. Kent travels sometimes for his job, right? And a lot of the time he’s going to places that have been hit by disasters or major crimes. So he’ll take in some of the displaced children to train as his robins.”

Tim pressed his face back into his hands.

“You see it, right?”

Honestly, Tim was just wondering how his boyfriend could be so close, and yet so far off. “How would Kent even afford taking care of a bunch of secret -- possibly illegally acquired -- children without anyone noticing?”

“Simple. Bruce Wayne is funding him.”

“Bernard, I love you, but what the heck?” Tim blushed and looked up as he realized what he’d said, but Bernard didn’t seem to notice as he steamrolled ahead.

“It’d also explain how he can afford all the gear and how he’d be able to travel to Gotham or anywhere else Batman goes without anyone noticing. He probably has a secret Batplane or something.”

“Why would Bruce do that?”

“Because Wayne cares about Gotham, everyone knows that, and this way he can make sure someone’s taking care of the city without anyone putting two and two together.”

“And two plus two is?”

Bernard gave him a hard look. “I’m not stupid, Tim. Bruce Wayne is obviously Superman. His face is right there.”

Oh, the others are going to love this! Too bad I can’t tell Damian or Jason. Jason especially would have loved this. “Right. Bruce is Superman.”

“He is. Superman is known for being nice and Bruce Wayne’s basically all that’s keeping the city running at this point. That’s nice as hell.”

Oh my god.

“And Wayne does charity for the victims of cataclysms, doesn't he? I bet he first saves people from them as Superman and then builds them new homes for free.”

Oh my god! Why am I not recording this!?

“And the Wayne’s were rich enough to hide the fact they adopted an alien baby.”

Tim raised an eyebrow. “If you’re about to tell me this is why Bruce’s parents got killed, you might want to stop while you’re ahead.”

“It’d make sense. There’re all sorts of unanswered questions about their deaths,” Bernard muttered under his breath, flipping through the folder. He pulled out another picture of Kara. This time she was in full Supergirl attire with a bus held overhead. “So if Wayne is Superman, then that’d mean your ex-girlfriend could be Supergirl. They look a lot alike and it’d explain how she got involved with you all.”

“Bernard, she has a human dad. You know, Cluemaster. The supervillain.”

“Yeah, her dad. But we don’t know anything about her mom!”

“Let me guess…”

Bernard pulled out a picture of Karen. She and Helena were suited up and talking to a group of cops, two goons held over each of Karen’s shoulders. “Her mom could be Power Girl! Some makeup and a wig and she could look just like Crystal Brown! And Damian Wayne is obviously the new Superboy! That’s why his background is such a mystery, right? He had to stay a secret until he could control his alien superpowers. That’s why he’s always so mean. It’s a cover since everyone knows Superboy is super sweet!”

Sure, when he’s not helping Damian pull pranks or using his adorable powers to put the blame on Kon and I. “No, Bernard. Damian and Steph are just very human hellspawn. And Bruce and Crystal are human too. I can’t believe you called me over here just to tell me you think Superman is both Batman’s sugar daddy and my adoptive dad.”

“Well, that’s not exactly why I called you over,” Bernard admitted, the nervous energy coming back. He grabbed Tim’s hands. “Tim -”

Tim’s stomach sank. “You are breaking up with me!”

“What? No! I don’t want to break up!”

“Why are you acting all nervous and serious then!?” Tim asked, pulling his hands away to throw them up in the air.

Bernard shook the folder. “Because I’m trying to tell you I figured out you’re Superboy!”

Tim’s brain blue-screened and his hands slowly dropped. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I know you’re Superboy. The older one, obviously. By the way, you and Damian really need to figure out separate names.”

Forget Jason and Damian, Kon can never find out about this. He’d never let me live it down. “Bernard, you called me a twink five minutes ago. Su-” Shoot, I can not risk getting Kon’s attention! “The older one might not be as big as Superman, but he’s not a twink.”

“Well, yeah, that’s the shapeshifting at work.”

“The what?”

“Obviously you Kryptonians can shapeshift. Why else would you look so much like humans?”

… Why do Kryptonians look so much like humans? Was there some - Wait, no! Break into the Fortress of Solitude for research later! Reassure your boyfriend that you’re not an alien now! “Bernard -”

“And that explains why your step-mom was so hot.”

“Gross.”

“She and your dad were actors hired by Luthor so you could have a normal life! But now Bruce has custody so he adopted you.”

“No.”

“That’s why you and your dad were so weird with each other when I met him.”

“We were weird because he’d just gotten out of a coma not long before to find that his wife was dead so he decided to actually be a dad for once in his life, but overcompensated and became a helicopter parent to a kid who was mostly on his own for his entire life!” Tim blurted out. “I am not an alien, Bernard!”

“Well, not technically since you were cloned from Superman on Earth.”

“Oh my god! You were just talking about Steph being Supergirl! Why would I date my dad’s cousin?”

Bernard blinked. “Supergirl and Superman are cousins?”

Right, Timothy Drake-Wayne wasn’t supposed to know that. “I thought they’d said something like that before, yeah. Are people seriously saying I’m Superboy on the internet?”

“NO! No, I swear I would have led with that if I thought your identity was compromised. A few people have mentioned Wayne and Damian, but not you or Steph or Jason.”

“Wh-Jason!? You think Jason was an alien too!”

“No, not exactly, but a few times when I’ve visited I swear I’ve seen a guy in the manor who looks like Jason. It’s just been out of the corner of my eye and he’s gone whenever I look so I’ve always thought it was just Dick or Bruce or some picture of Jason that my mind was playing tricks with, but it makes sense now that I know Wayne is Superman. He must have been able to heal Jason with alien tech, but couldn’t say anything because that would give away that he’s Superman.”

Damn it Jason! And damn it Bernard! I’m dating the smartest moron in the world! “Bruce did not bring Jason back with alien technology and none of us are aliens!”

“It’s okay, Tim. I won’t tell anyone.”

Tim grabbed Bernard by the jacket and pulled him into a kiss. When he started to feel lightheaded, he pulled back, “Could someone whose skin is as solid as stone kiss like that?”

Bernard blinked dazedly at him for a moment. “How do you know what Superboy’s skin feels like?”

Tim screamed internally. “He’s saved me from a kidnapping before.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I can get you the police report if you want.”

“Huh… And the others?”

“Not Supers. I can stab Damian the next time we’re at the manor if that’ll prove none of us are aliens.” He’d rather stab Jason, but that would probably only confirm to Bernard that Bruce used alien technology to bring him back.

“You probably shouldn’t stab your brother if he isn’t an alien.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “I won’t stab him anywhere deadly.”

“That’s not the point,” Bernard said slowly.

“He’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.”

“So do you believe I’m not an alien now?” Tim huffed, letting go of Bernard’s jacket.

The blond’s eyes dipped down to Tim’s lips. “If I say no, will you kiss me like that again?”

“You’re ridiculous,” Tim said, but he kissed him anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, but I still say Clark Kent is definitely Batman.”

“Sure, Bernard.”

[willsimpforanyone]

Hey there! Ok, first of all, your writing is ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS 🤩!!! Okay, on to the actual request now. Could you plz write a Heroes of Olympus fic with the seven (plus Reyna, Thalia, Nico and Will) X fem!reader who is a daughter of Khione (Greek goddess of snow)? R is struggling with controlling her powers cause they r linked to her emotions. Individually each character helps her with her powers in some way. Thanks! (Idk if that made sense btw but hopefully it makes sense!) okay, bye!!

no stop you're so sweet!! thank you so much omg

i can absolutely do that- for context, we're gonna say that the camp jupiter kids are visiting

i haven't given R a name and i refuse to use y/n

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The camp was huge and busy and full of people. She was overwhelmed, her breaths coming in sharp, shallow bursts. Steam blew around her as her freezing breath met the warm air and her hands fisted in her skirt. She wasn't gonna panic, she couldn't panic with all these people around, gods there were so many people in this stupid little tour group and oh shit she was panicking. She could see tiny flakes of snow start to flutter down around her, settling on everyone's skin. They started looking around and up at the sky and her nails dug into her cold skin as they finally turned and looked at her, the light snow turning into larger flakes and increasing in number. Within seconds there was a blizzard spanning six feet squared. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying her hardest to calm down. A hand touched her own, and a voice reached her ears, muffled by the snow. "Hey, I'm Percy, is it okay if I touch you?" She forced herself to nod, and Percy pulled her gently away from the group. As soon as there were fewer people, she could breathe a little easier. "We're away from everyone else, it's okay, can you open your eyes for me?" Her eyes opened and met green eyes and black hair and an encouraging smile. "Take some deep breaths, that's it, you're doing great." Her breathing became more regular. "It's overwhelming for a lot of people, that's okay. You're safe now that you're here, I promise." The blizzard had all but stopped, just a few flakes brushed off her hair by Percy's caring hand. "It's okay, we don't have to go back until you're ready." She would be ready in a little bit.

The forest was quiet. She liked the quiet. She knew she hadn't been avoided, exactly, but it was hard to feel that way when there wasn't anyone sitting at her table. No one talked to her, but it was just because she was new. Talking to new people was awkward, she knew that. So it was her choice, and her choice alone, to go sit in the woods. She didn't know why there were tears down her cheeks, and she hated that they froze on her skin. A snapped twig made her look up sharply. There were two people in front of her. The girl sat down next to her. "It's cold out, why are you sitting out here?" She shrugged. "Don't really feel the cold. And it's either being alone out here or alone in a cabin so it doesn't really matter." She gave a small smile. The guy sat next to the girl. "You're the daughter of Khione, right? No wonder you feel lonely," he turned to the girl. "Hazel, there's no one else in her cabin." Hazel gasped and rubbed her shoulder. "Come with us. We'll see if you can be moved to my cabin, there's only me and my brother in there." "Oh, I couldn't do that to you," she said, but the warmth of hope and companionship bloomed in her chest. "If you really don't want to, that's okay, but at least come with us to the campfire, come with me and Frank." Hazel's soft smile melted away the resistance, and Frank stood up, offering his hand. She stood, using the hand held out, and followed the pair. Frank held her back a moment while Hazel joined the group of ten, twelve-ish people around a campfire. "If you really don't want to join, it's okay, I'll take you back to your cabin, I promise." He smiled warmly and a little nervously. "But it might be fun. Coming?" She smiled back, and walked towards the promised warmth.

Hunched shoulders, her ears were being assulted with jeers and taunts. Loser, loner, ice freak, anti-freeze. That one wasn't even right. The small table felt a lot bigger when she was the only one there, but she was getting used to that. It didn't help that the Ares cabin was very loud. To be fair, it wasn't the whole cabin, just the very loud minority. She tried to remind herself of that when she got called all these names. The table was covered in a heavy frost, the cutlery in her hands was cold and clutched tightly. She took a few deep breaths. There was minimal snow, and she smiled to herself. She was gaining a little more control. A plate slamming onto the table made her jump, and she looked up to see sharp blue eyes and a shock of black hair, piercings decorating ears. The girl sat next to her, scowling at the Ares cabin. "Hey! Leave her alone, assholes!" The girl turned to you. "I'm Thalia, ignore them." She smiled at Thalia. "Thanks, but you don't have to be here." "It's no problem," Thalia shrugged. "My brother is at his girlfriend's table so I was alone anyway and you looked like you could use a little help." That normally would have made her defensive, but Thalia seemed more protective than pitying. "...thank you, I'm not good at confrontation." She frowned. "Sorry about the... ice." Thalia shrugged. "I struggled too. And being the daughter of Zeus, my power was a lot more destructive than yours, trust me," she grinned. She felt less self-conscious with this strong, angry girl next to her.

The rings of seats surrounding the dead campfire were cold. There was a light layer of frost, but she was too tired to know if it was because of her or just the chill of the night. The nightmare had been bad, and waking up in an icy cabin alone hadn't helped. The outside had seemed warmer, more welcoming, and as she looked up she could see the stars. The campfire was central to the camp, she felt like she could check every direction. For example, the second she heard footsteps coming from the left, she snapped her head to see another girl, wrapped in a blanket and walking with determination towards her. The girl sat firmly beside her. "You're the kid of Khione, the one Frank and Hazel introduced us to the other night, right?" "...yeah," and suddenly she remembered the girl's name. "You're Piper, right? Daughter of Aphrodite?" Piper nodded. "Yep. What's up, why you out here?" She shrugged. There was no stigma around nightmares in the camp, everyone got them, but she still wasn't comfortable going into detail. "Just a nightmare, didn't want to stay in the cabin." Piper made a noise of understanding. "Me too," she shivered. "The frost natural or you?" She laughed ruefully. "Not sure, to be honest." She ran a hand through her hair, and it came away covered in ice. "Although judging by that, I'd say a good portion of it is me." Piper stood up. "Stay here, I'll be back in a minute." She grabbed her blanket and ran back to her cabin, returning with a larger blanket and a wide-toothed comb. "Can I get the ice and frost out of your hair?" Surprised, she nodded hesitatingly. Piper sat cross-legged on the wooden seat by her side and wrapped the blanket around them both, gesturing for her to turn round. "I'll be gentle, I promise. It'll calm us both down, then you can get the frost under control."

The sword shattered yet again and she threw the hilt on the ground, yelling in anger. She barely noticed the two others in the arena, too focused on the fact that the blade of her sword had gotten so cold it had broken- this was the third time. Every time she got into her training and concentrated too hard, ice spread from her hands to the sword and it was only a matter of time before she shattered it. "Hey, stop throwing stuff on the ground, kids train here." A harsh female voice came from across the arena, and she flinched. Turning, she recognised the pair- Jason and Reyna, they must be training. "Sorry, I'm sorry, I'll clean it up." She frowned, kneeling and picking up the remnants of her sword. Jason jogged over, followed slowly by Reyna. He knelt down too, helping with the jagged edges. "It's okay, what's got you so worked up?" She sighed. "If the metal gets too cold, it breaks. I get freezing if I concentrate too hard on fighting, apparently, so I've broken three swords in the past two hours." Reyna grabbed the discarded sword hilt, examining it. "You know, you should find a specific sword for your abilities." "You can do that?" Jason and Reyna nodded. "Yeah, mine turns into either a sword or a spear depending on the flip of a coin," Jason explained. "I'm sure we could find something that can withstand low temperatures." Reyna frowned, considering. "I'm sure if you asked Chiron he'd figure something out. Although maybe you should work on controlling the temperature issue." Jason's eyes lit up. "Hey, you should go see Leo! Remember him from the campfire the last week? He's always too hot, but he's great at changing his body temperature. Go see him tomorrow!" Reyna nodded her approval. She smiled. Okay, let's go see Leo.

"Um, hey, Jason said you could help me?" She knocked on the open door of the Hephaestus cabin, settling her eyes on the curly-haired kid- Leo- screwing around with bits of metal on the floor. He leapt up, scattering metal everywhere. "Yes! Hello! I remember you from the campfire, Piper said you'd be knocking on my humble door." She grinned as he approached, hands still fiddling with a screwdriver. "She was right, she recommended I talk to you about helping with my heat regulation?" Leo practically vibrated with enthusiam. "Yeah! I'm always hot-" he winked, she laughed. "-but it took me a while to regulate it, so I wasn't spontaneously bursting into flames. May I?" He held out his hands for hers. They were searing hot against her freezing skin, and she yanked them away. Leo pulled away too, a dismayed look on his face. "Uh, okay, too hot, got it. I'll lower my temperature as best I can." She placed her hands back in his, the difference a little less painful this time as she breathed deeply. "Sorry, it was just a little surprising, I wasn't aware of how cold I was." Leo shook his head, and pulled her further into the room. "Don't worry chica, you'll get the hang of it. Don't concentrate on the hands, focus on the feeling inside," he nodded towards a small bench, and they sat down. "Think of your body as a... car. If the hood it hot, you open it up and cool down the engine, right?" Nodding, she relaxed her shoulders and hands. "Got it, focus on the internal cooling issue rather than the results." That earned her an encouraging squeeze of her hands. They sat together for an hour, maybe two. She could almost increase and decrease her temperature at will. Leo taught her a weird handshake, where they changed temperature every time their hands met. "Thank you so much, Leo," she grinned, getting up to leave. "No hay problema, I'm glad I could help," he lightly punched her shoulder. "And hey, any time I need to cool down, I know who to come to."

The tiny ice towers sparkled in the sun, almost looking like crystal. She was curious- she'd come so far from the girl who caused a snowstorm at the slightest anxiety, so how much control was she capable of? The ice was sharpened to a point, but there wasn't much distinction between the small structures. There was someone who could help, with a mind almost as sharp as her ice. "Hey Annabeth? Can I steal your attention for a second?" The girl looked up from her Ancient Greek book, and smiled upon seeing her friend. "Sure, come in, what's up?" She walked towards Annabeth, sitting next to her on the bed. "You're good with architecture, right?" "'Good' is an understatement," Annabeth nudged her in the ribs. "But yes, architecture is kind of my thing." "Can you help with my power? I think I can control it better now, but I need a guideline- can you draw up a blueprint or something for me to model out of ice?" Annabeth's eyes sparkled as brightly as ice in the sun, and she darted to her desk, grabbing graph paper and a pencil. "We can experiment with different temperatures and thicknesses of the ice-" starting to spout facts about architectural structures and buildings. "Annabeth, this is awesome, but just know you have to be patient with me," she said. "I need a lot of practice." Sitting back down on the bed, Annabeth wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I know, but we can do it. It'll be awesome."

"Hey! Over here!" Will beckoned her over. She smiled and jogged over and into the medical tent. "Hey Will, what's up?" She gave a small wave to the shadowy boy next to him. "Hey Nico." She recieved a vague nod in return. Will gestured to a kid, maybe eight or nine, holding his wrist sitting on a camper bed. "We've run out of ice packs, and we're waiting on an order of ambrosia and nectar so can you do me a favour?" She shrugged. "What do you need?" His next words came as a surprise. "I need snowballs." Laughing, she nodded. "Okay, sure, how many?" Nico kicked an ice box next to him. "Fill this." She nodded, and started creating lumps of snow, balling them up in her palms and chucking them into the box. The kid stared, fascinated. She grinned, pausing her snowball-making to blow a flurry of snowflakes in the kid's face, eliciting a delighted laugh. The slight smile on Nico's face didn't go unnoticed. She leaned into Will. "Hey, get Nico to summon a skeleton outside the tent." "What? Why?" She whispered a plan into his ear, and Will giggled. He grabbed his boyfriend by the arm and dragged him outside. She kept making snowballs and entertaining the kid with snowflakes until Will grabbed her arms and pulled her outside, a huge smile on his face. "Come on, come on, do it!" Will jumped up and down excitedly. Nico raised an eyebrow, but smiled fondly. "What did you want the skeleton for?" She grinned, and pushed her hands forward, snow flying from her hands and surrounding the skeleton. Bones clad in thick snow and from somewhere Will produced a carrot. Nico rolled his eyes, but took out two solid black earrings to stick into the face of the snowman for eyes. Together, she and Nico manipulated the snowman to walk into the medical tent, and from within came screams of delight- it was Christmas in August.

She felt home.

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this took me so long and my shoulder is killing me but i did it! i very much hope you enjoyed, thank you so much for requesting!

[knuffled]

just practice - chapter thirteen

here’s it is! it’s a shorter chapter, but i hope to have chapter fourteen up within two weeks, so be on the look out for that! if you enjoyed the chapter, reblogs are greatly appreciated! it helps make the effort needed to write the chapters feel worth it! 

here’s the link for ao3

Takashi’s Batting Cage was a quaint, almost run down affair not far from Seneca Falls. The building was owned and maintained by an old Japanese man that had immigrated in the late sixties, and there was something about the place that made it feel like it was frozen in time. The walls were plastered vintage, hand-painted posters of bands like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, and The Shadows. Mr. Takashi himself often sat near the entrance with a cigarette hanging between his lips, polishing the wooden baseball bats that he had carved.

Behind him, there were two kiosks, one where you paid for rounds in the batting cage, and another where you could buy hotdogs made by Mr. Takashi’s wife, sold cheaply at a buck fifty. All you got was a bun, hotdog, minced onions, and a drizzle of mustard and ketchup, but Reyna had assured Annabeth that they were nothing short of life-changing.

The kiosks themselves faced a huge chain link fence that housed three pitching machines that whirred like projector reels. The fence was painted green and touching it was enough for the paint to flake onto your fingers.

To a newcomer, it didn’t make for a particularly impressive sight, but there was a warmth and coziness to the place that could only be experienced firsthand. Over the years, the batting cages had developed a devout following as a spot where anyone could go to have a good time. Spending even a few minutes there was enough to leave the impression that the place was well and truly loved, like an old baseball mitt.

Annabeth had never heard of the place until Reyna had suggested they hang out there the Saturday after Percy’s swim meet. She was therefore surprised to see the number of cars parked outside, although she suspected that that might also have had to do with the weather calming down some. Reyna was already waiting for her inside when Annabeth entered, leaning against the wall.

Once she spotted her, Reyna offered Annabeth a smile and said, “Hey, thanks for making the drive.”

“It was no big deal,” Annabeth said, unwrapping her scarf. “I couldn’t help being curious after how enthusiastic you sounded about the place.”

Reyna raised an eyebrow and her smile widened. “Oh boy, the pressure is on now, huh?”

“Just a little,” Annabeth said, grinning.

“Ooh, scary,” Reyna said. “C’mon, lets head inside.”

Annabeth nodded and followed Reyna to the first kiosk. There were families using two of the pitching machines, but thankfully they would have the third to themselves. A wooden sign was bolted to the kiosk, informing her that it was three dollars for five pitches. Reyna mulled it over for a short while before handing fifteen dollars over to the clerk and looking at Annabeth.

“I think we can start with that much and see how you like it,” Reyna said, shrugging.

Annabeth nodded and took a helmet from the clerk behind the kiosk before heading inside the cage with Reyna. They slipped off their jackets and set them aside on top of wooden bench that sat against the fence. The astroturf inside the cage was an oddly modern touch that felt anachronistic when juxtaposed with the otherwise retro atmosphere, but Annabeth didn’t have long to dwell on it because she was forced to move off to the side for Reyna’s first round on the machines.

Reyna slipped on her helmet and took a few practice swings before she stepped up to the plate and nodded to the assistant operating the pitching machine. The machine whirred on the far side of the fence and shot a ball towards them at incredible speed. Annabeth could barely even see the ball, but Reyna waited for the right moment and swung, making perfect contact. The ball cracked off the bat and sailed across the cage.

Annabeth focused more on the second pitch so that she wouldn’t make an ass of herself when it came for her to try as well. It was still almost faster than she could register, but even Reyna missed this time, which made her scowl. Although Reyna hit the three remaining pitches, she still looked peeved when she handed Annabeth bat at the end of her turn.

As she moved towards the plate, Annabeth couldn’t help feeling like she didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of hitting a single ball. Her suspicions were confirmed when the first ball fired past her before she even had a chance to react. The second one was no better, but she could at least make out the course of the ball. She managed to swing on the third and fourth pitches, but she didn’t make any contact. It was on the final fifth ball that she grazed the ball with her bat, sending it shooting upwards into the fence.

She ignored the way her face burned and turned to Reyna with a wry smile. “I think I’m gonna need you to give me some tips.”

“Your form could use some work,” Reyna admitted, stepping towards Annabeth.

Reyna put her hands on Annabeth’s hips and turned her slightly. “Angle your hips like this. Turn your shoulders a bit more this way. Move your left hand a little further down the bat.”

Annabeth couldn’t help feeling flustered by how casually Reyna was shifting her around. She was exactly the most touchy-feely person. She was only comfortable with it when it was someone she knew really well, but she was surprised to realize she was far less uncomfortable with Reyna than she thought she would have been. Still, she couldn’t help wondering if Reyna was aware of what she was doing.

“Do another round. I’ll go after you,” Reyna said, stepping back.

Annabeht cleared her throat and nodded before turning towards the pitching machines again. She grazed the first ball again and missed the second one entirely. On the third pitch, she finally managed to make contact, but the ball didn’t travel very far. The fourth and fifth pitches traveled further each time, but they didn’t pop off the bat the way they had when Reyna hit them.

She paid even closer to attention to Reyna during her turn to pick up on what she was doing that Annabeth wasn’t. Reyna missed the first pitch but hit the four subsequent ones. Each one shot farther and farther across the batting cage, soaring higher and higher, almost like she aiming for something. It was then that Annabeth noticed that there was a wooden target tied near the top of the cage. Although Reyna was still off the mark by some ways, she got progressively closer and closer with each attempt.

Nevertheless, Reyna still failed to hit the target once over the course of the next half-hour, which was presumably why she suggested taking a break to get some hotdogs. Annabeth was more than open to the offer, albeit for different reasons. Although she was improving, she still wasn’t anywhere near consistent enough to hit the ball properly more than once or twice a round, and it was beginning to get frustrating.

Once they bought a pair of hotdogs, they sat down at a table facing the fence and watched the other families play while they ate. Annabeth wasn’t really a huge fan of hotdogs, but she had to admit that Reyna had been true to her word.

After her first, she turned to Reyna and said, “Okay, this is stupid good for a dollar fifty.”

Reyna gave her a knowing look and grinned. “I know right?”

“I’ve never heard of this place before,” Annabeth said. “How did you come across it?”

“I heard about someone at school talking about it, so I figured I’d check it out sometime. Seemed like a good way to let off some steam,” Reyna said, taking another bite.

“I don’t if it’s just because this was my first time at a batting cage, but this is a lot harder than it looks.”

Reyna laughed. “That’s because the machines here are faster than at other places. You’re doing really well for your first time, though.”

“You didn’t have nearly as much trouble,” Annabeth noted.

Reyna shrugged and said, “I’ve been coming here for years now. I barely got any hits my first time around either. You’re doing better than I did then for sure.”

Annabeth chased some ketchup threatening to drip off her hotdog. “That would be enough to turn most people off from trying again.”

“It rubs me the wrong way to be shitty at something.”

“A friend of mine who said he went to summer camp with you said you weren’t bad at anything,” Annabeth said, smiling.

“Really? Who?”

“Jason Grace.”

Reyna’s eyes widened in recognition. “Oh, I remember him. Nice guy. Almost thought I had a crush on him, but that was before I realized I wasn’t straight.”

Well, that was news to her. Annabeth raised an eyebrow and tried to stifle a smirk. “Really?”

Reyna’s face turned a gentle shade of pink, which made Annabeth’s grin widen. “I was like thirteen, okay?”

“I’m not judging or anything,” Annabeth said innocently. “Just thought it was interesting.”

“That shit-eating grin on your face says otherwise,” Reyna grumbled.

“It’s okay, we were all cringe at thirteen.”

Reyna snorted. “Cringe is a good word to describe it, even if it’s mean.”

Annabeth waved her freehand dismissively. “What Jason doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides, he’s got a hot girlfriend now anyways.”

Reyna gave her a sidelong glance. “Are you sure you’re straight?”

“What was it you said last time? ‘I might be gay, but I still have eyes?’” Annabeth said. “Same thing, except other way around. Besides, jury’s still out on the topic of my sexuality.”

“Fair play, I guess,” Reyna rolled her eyes. “Speaking of last time, how are things with your fake-boyfriend going?”

Annabeth picked at the onions on her hotdog and said, “You are awfully interested in him despite hating his guts.”

“I don’t hate him,” Reyna protested.

“Thinking he has bad vibes is pretty much the same thing.”

“You’re doing a rather poor job not answering the question. Sounds like something must have happened,” Reyna said suspiciously.

Annabeth sighed and resigned herself to telling Reyna what had happened on New Years and subsequently at the swim meet. Despite her initial reticence, it was honestly refreshing to be open with someone about the whole fake dating arrangement, just like it had the last time they had talked. The main thing that had been bugging Annabeth recently had been how during the aftermath of the swim meet, she’d come face to face with the realization that she had actually been totally okay with the idea of Percy kissing her. More than okay, actually.

I could have stopped the kiss at literally any point if I hadn’t wanted it to happen. It was just as much my decision as it was yours, okay?

Those angry words of hers had kept echoing in her mind at random intervals almost every day. The fact that she had basically implied that she had wanted Percy to kiss her was an epiphany that she still struggled to make sense of. On the surface, she didn’t feel any differently about Percy, but it was the only explanation for why she had felt so disappointed on New Year’s Eve.

“That means I like him, right?” Annabeth asked aloud.

“Babe, you wanted to kiss him so bad you felt disappointed when it didn’t happen.”

Annabeth’s cheeks began to prickle. “I know jack shit about romance and relationships, so excuse me for not knowing.”

Reyna snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. “This kind of goes beyond not knowing. It’s honestly kind of mind-boggling to me that you’re struggling so much with the idea that you might have a crush on someone.”

Annabeth pursed her lips and said, “I’ve been thinking the same thing too, lately. It seems like it’s natural for everyone else, but it feels so weird to me.”

“At one point, I thought that you were aromantic or something, but I get the vibe that it’s something else. Like, you dissect your emotions so clinically that you abstract them and save yourself from feeling them,” Reyna said.

Annabeth laughed despite herself. “Holy shit, that sounds exactly like what a therapist would say.”

“Fuck off,” Reyna said, bumping her with her shoulder.

Annabeth bit back a smile and said, “Not sure I totally understood you, but you’re sorta right. Only thing is, I feel all my other emotions normally. Just not this stuff.”

Reyna thought for a moment and said, “I don’t know, this is just me talking out my ass, but maybe you have some baggage about romantic relationships or something.

“If that’s you talking out your ass, you’re gonna make me feel real stupid,” Annabeth joked.

Reyna screwed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. “I take back what I said about having a crush on you. Dealing with this level of sass gives me a fucking headache.”

“I’m sorry,” Annabeth said, holding back a laugh. “I’m usually the one getting bullied, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity. I promise I’ll try to stop.”

Reyna rolled her eyes and looked thoroughly unconvinced, so Annabeth leaned into her and said, “Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? When I see you at the Olympics someday, I wanna be able to brag to people that you once thought I was hot.”

“Don’t try and flatter yourself out of this,” Reyna snorted.

“I’m not,” Annabeth protested. “I could totally see you at the Olympics someday.”

At this, Reyna was oddly quiet. Annabeth thought she had touched a nerve, but Reyna looked up at her demurely and said, “You really think so?”

Annabeth blinked. “Yeah, I do.”

A shy smile made its way across Reyna’s face. “Thanks, Annabeth. It’s always been a dream of mine to compete in them someday, so it means a lot to hear you say that.”

“I have full faith in you,” Annabeth said earnestly. “I’m sure you can do it.”

Reyna laughed and said, “What ever happened to wanting to beat me at a meet?”

“Oh don’t worry, you can still be an Olympian after I kick your ass at State,” Annabeth said casually.

Reyna raised an eyebrow, her eyes darkening. “Is that so?”

Annabeth coughed surreptitiously and turned to finish her hotdog. Reyna bit back a smile but otherwise chose to spare her by not pursuing the topic any further. The silence gave Annabeth time to collect her thoughts and dwell more on what Reyna had said. There was a lot to process, but one thing in particular had struck a chord with her.

“About what you said earlier, about me having baggage about romance and stuff,” Annabeth began slowly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt like being in a relationship was something meant for me. Not sure if I told you, but my mom left my dad and I when I was still a kid. She never explained why, but it really wrecked the both of us. Eventually, my dad remarried and moved on, but I don’t think I ever did. Move on, I mean. It’s hard for me to think about getting into a relationship when I saw what it did to my family, what it did to me,” Annabeth continued.

Reyna pressed her lips in a line and nodded. “My mom left our family too. I can understand how that would really affect your views on romantic relationships.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry to hear that.”

Reyna shrugged. “She had a good reason for it, so it’s whatever.”

She was tempted to ask Reyna more about it, but she was afraid of overstepping her bounds so she remained silent.

“I don’t know if it’s something I never wanted or if it’s something that I never allowed myself to want,” Annabeth said quietly.

Reyna was silent for a while before she said, “Does that even matter though?”

Annabeth looked at her with a frown. “What do you mean?”

“Do you really get any value out of getting an answer to that question? Isn’t the only thing that matters what you want now?”

There was a pause. “I don’t want something that isn’t meant to last.”

“You have no way of knowing unless you give it a shot,” Reyna said softly. “Besides, what have you got to lose?”

“Everything.” Annabeth dug her fingernails into her palms. “I could lose everything. Percy is too important to me. I- I can’t lose him.”

Reyna was silent for a while before she said, “I don’t have any advice for you. I think, at the end of the day, it comes down to what you want and what you’re willing to risk for it. Only you can answer that.”

Annabeth nodded slowly and said, “Yeah. You’re right. I just wish it were easier.”

“Something tells me you’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out,” Reyna said. “Besides, if all else fails, we can come here and you can hit baseballs as hard as you fucking can to get it out of your system.”

That managed to get a laugh out of her. “I might have to take you up on that sometime.”

Reyna opened her mouth to say something more, but then she looked past Annabeth’s shoulder and smirked. “Speaking of the devil.”

When Annabeth followed Reyna’s line of sight, she saw Percy standing by the entrance by three of his teammates from the swim team. One of that had said something that made him laugh, so he still hadn’t noticed her. She wasn’t sure how to feel about seeing him here, but she didn’t have long to dwell on it because one of his teammates spotted her and nudged Percy to get his attention.

Percy smiled once he saw her and gave her a small wave. At first, it didn’t seem like he would come over, but his teammates shoved him towards her, making him scowl.

He walked over and said, “Hey, fancy seeing you here.”

Annabeth cleared her throat and said, “Um, yeah, likewise. Reyna invited me here to hangout.”

Percy nodded to Reyna in greeting and said, “Hi, forgot if I ever introduced myself, but I’m Percy.”

Reyna offered him her hand and said, “Reyna. Annabeth here has told me a lot about you.”

He shook it with a bemused smile. “Only good things I hope?”

A sly smile danced on Reyna’s lips. “All sorts of good things actually.”

Percy’s questioning gaze flitted to Annabeth’s for a fraction of a second before immediately returning to Reyna. Though the way they spoke was casual, Annabeth felt a charged tension in the air, like anytime the two of them met. She assumed Percy was only going to make things worse until he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“I, um, wanted to apologize for how standoffish I acted the last few times we met. It was a dick move, and I’m sorry about that,” he said.

Reyna blinked in surprise. “Oh, no worries. I wasn’t much better either.”

And just like that, the tension dissipated almost immediately. The two of them still looked awkward around each other, but the vague sense of hostility between them had faded. Percy’s apology had been enough of a metaphorical olive branch, Annabeth supposed.

“I know you came here with some friends, but do you want to try going a round or two in the cages with me?” Reyna asked suddenly.

Percy swayed on his heels. “Um.”

Reyna shrugged and said, “Just some friendly competition, promise.”

Percy looked to Annabeth for guidance, but Annabeth was just as clueless about Reyna’s motives as he was so she could only shrug. He mulled over it for a little while longer before nodding and following Reyna inside the batting cage. Before she joined them, Annabeth threw away the left overs of her hotdog and washed her hands to get the ketchup off her fingers. When she returned, Reyna finished slipping on her helmet and turned to Percy.

“We’ll do three rounds each, so fifteen pitches total. The person that hits that wooden target over there the most or gets closest to hitting it wins. Deal?” Reyna explained.

Percy nodded and leaned against the fence, next to the bench where Annabeth sat. They watched Reyna hit four of the first five pitches before it was Percy’s turn. Percy missed the first two pitches and only barely grazed the third one, sending it shooting upwards into the fence. He got decent hits on the last two, but like Annabeth, they barely traveled further than halfway across the batting cage.

Reyna hit four pitches again, and the last three sailed close to the target but fell just short. Percy’s next turn went much like his first. He managed to hit the ball each time, but the contact was too shaky to send it a decent distance. On Reyna’s last turn, she hit every single pitch, each getting closer to the target than the last, but in the end she didn’t manage to hit it. Reyna scowled when she stepped away from the plate and removed her helmet. Annabeth didn’t see why she was so upset. Judging by the previous rounds, it would be very unlikely for Percy to do any better than her.

Percy got good contact on the first three pitches, actually sending them all the way to the back fence, but they lacked the height needed to reach the target. On the fourth pitch, Percy’s grip on the bat slipped, causing it fly out of his hands instead of hitting the ball. His face was grim before the final pitch, but Annabeth could see that there were still traces of hope burning in his eyes. He had been subtly altering each of his swings in the last round, like he was testing something.

The pitching machine launched the last ball towards him, and Percy waited for the right moment before swinging. The ball exploded off his bat and shot all the way to the other side of the cage. Annabeth stood up from the bench and held her breath, watching the arcing trajectory of the ball. When the ball hit the target, barely off center, she grinned and threw an arm around him without thinking.

“Holy shit! You actually did it!” Annabeth beamed.

“Somehow,” Percy said, grinning. “I’m pretty sure that I just got lucky.”

When Reyna cleared her throat, Annabeth grew aware of how close she was to Percy, so she quickly disentangled herself from him, her face burning.

“You won, fair and square,” Reyna said, offering her hand again.

Percy turned to her and shook her hand. “I’m just glad I didn’t totally embarrass myself.”

Reyna rolled her eyes and said, “If anyone embarrassed themselves today, it was me. That was the second time I’ve lost to you.”

Percy furrowed his brow. “Second? There was another time?”

Reyna hummed under her breath, a twinkle in her eye. “I wonder.”

That did nothing to clear his confusion, but it was clear Reyna wasn’t going to elaborate so he didn’t press the issue. It was clear to Annabeth that Reyna was messing with him, but it didn’t seem malicious enough to make her angry. Still, she wished she knew what was going through Reyna’s head.

One of Percy’s teammates called out to him from the rental kiosk, so Percy thanked Reyna for the game and said goodbye to Annabeth before he left. Annabeth waved to him and watched him leave before she turned to Reyna with a frown.

“What was all that about?”

Reyna shrugged. “Nothing.”

“It was super obvious that you were messing with him,” Annabeth said, narrowing her eyes.

“Only a little bit,” Reyna said, smiling. “Don’t worry, it was just for shits and giggles.”

Annabeth pursed her lips. “Well, as long as you weren’t doing it to be mean, I guess it’s fine.”

“It’s nothing to get working up about,” Reyna laughed. “How do you feel about going another round?”

It was a poorly disguised attempt to change to the conversation, but Annabeth didn’t feel like pursuing the topic any further, so she sighed and said, “Sure, why not. About time I get my ass kicked again.”

[jinmukangwrites]

Whumptober Day 19

Grief | Survivors Guilt

Ao3

-o-o-o-o-

It's a cold autumn night when Tim enters the manor. There's been an early snowfall this year, one that has Tim shrugging off his winters coat and hanging it up beside the manor's front door along with his gloves. 

He looks around the foyer, thankful to immediately spot Alfred walking towards him from the familiar hallway leading towards the study. However, any kind of good mood Tim was in from being back at the manor for the first time in what was probably close to a month leaves when Alfred gets close enough for him to see the little, worrying details.

He's not wearing a suit or tie. Just dress pants and a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up. There's spots of red on Alfred's sleeves... and a rag is held in his wrinkled hands, stained with blotchy pink spots.

And Tim suddenly remembers why he's here.

"Hi, Alfred," Tim greets as Alfred finally finishes approaching. He looks haggard. Likes he's been up all night. He probably has been. 

"Master Tim," Alfred says, offering a small smile. "I apologise for not greeting you earlier. I trust the travel wasn't unpleasant?"

Tim shakes his head. Roads were scary slippery, but because the snow is still fresh and the time’s approaching dawn, there wasn't much traffic to make Tim's drive from the penthouse towards Bristol too horrible. "It was fine. And you don't need to apologise… I'm sure you've been busy. Where is…?"

Alfred sighs, his hands running through the rag without much purpose. Alfred's shaken. Tim heard it was bad, but he didn't think it was this bad.

"Masters Dick and Bruce are both downstairs with Doctor Thompkins. Master Dick has yet to wake, but considering we've just finished surgery, I don't expect him to be awake in the near future."

"How bad is he?"

Alfred sighs and moves so he drapes the blood stained rag over his wrists. "Major head trauma is the worst of it. Some broken ribs, a snapped wrist, mostly bruises and cuts. Doctor Thompkins is hopeful that he'll make a full recovery in time."

"And… Damian?"

Damian was there right? He was a part of this whole catastrophe? Nightwing and Robin were supposed to be on a team up. With a sinking stomach, Tim realizes Damian must have watched Two-Face repeat his ever so famous beating of Nightwing tonight. 

Tim hopes Harvey Dent and his stupid grudges stay in Arkham for a very long time this time around. If Tim sees him any time soon, Tim's not sure he'll be able to pull his punches as much as he should. 

Alfred's voice pulls Tim out from his thoughts. "Master Damian is… outside. Near the Graveyard. I was just about to check up on him, it's rather cold out..."

"Know what?" Tim says. "I'll get him. You look like you could use a nap."

Alfred's face softens. "If you're sure… then I will begin making some hot chocolate for the two of you to warm up."

"Thanks, Alf," Tim replies, a genuine smile rebelliously appearing on his lips. 

After he shoves himself back in his jacket and gloves, he's sure he’s prepared for how cold it is outside in the October air. 

Immediately, he's pelted by a harsh, gray colored wind speckled with small, glittery flakes of snow. The snow is wet, immediately melting when it touches his coat, and just managing to glaze the grass, but regardless of that it's still cold. 

What's Damian doing at the Graveyard at this time with this weather?

The trek towards the Wayne Graveyard is mostly uneventful besides a few slip ups on the stone path. He almost falls on his ass once, but by the time he sees the gate towards the family graveyard, he's relatively unharmed. 

The moment Tim walks past the gates, his eyes immediately fly towards the back of the plot where a giant angelic statue stands, her face shrouded with a hood and her hands brought up in prayer. 

Jason Todd's grave, Tim feels, has always been a part of Tim's life. Because his life never really began until Robin, didn't it. Which is… depressing to say but he can't really call the years spent practically alone with his emotionally distant parents anything close to a life. Tim decides to head that way. If Damian is sitting at any grave, it's probably near the ones dug recently, and not the old, weathered ones filled with names belonging to Wayne's no one actually really knows about. 

Ya know, no one knows about until they’re revealed to have been a part of some super secret old-timey cult or something.

He's probably at Martha and Thomas's graves, wondering what it would be like to have known them. The most experience he has with grandparents is Ra's Al Ghul, and, well, no one wants that guy as a grandfather. 

However, when Tim finally sees the form of a small teen squatting besides a grave, it's one that's no longer… valid. But one that keeps it's gravestone anyway, the dates scratched off. 

Tim feels something try to crawl into his throat to choke him. 

Of course the grave Damian's visiting is Dick's. 

Tim immediately decides to make his approach more cautious than what he was initially planning. He can't… really think of a time where he's seen Damian sit at this grave, even while they thought Dick was actually dead. Tim was… off with the Teen Titans and if he remembers correctly Damian wasn't even in the country for long after he came back to life. Bruce got amnesia and for quite a long time, it was only Alfred and Bruce in the manor, living in a carefully constructed illusion that Bruce wasn't Batman and had never taken kids into his home. 

Tim wonders when Damian found out Dick "died". How did he react? Did anyone even try to reach out to tell him gently, or did he find out on his own?

"Hey," Tim greets softly, lowering himself down to Damian's level in front of the fake grave. He sits on the balls of his feet and curls his arms over his knees before he turns to really get a good look at Damian. 

The kid huffs in response, just staring ahead of him like the gravestone was the most interesting thing in the entire world. His cheeks and nose are red, a stark contrast to his normally dark complexion. His green eyes shine vividly too beneath his sopping wet black bangs. Tim wonders if he's been crying. However, he doesn't dare ask.

"Alfred's making hot chocolate," Tim continues, really feeling out of his league now. He doesn't know what to do. He's never had to confront a clearly vulnerable Damian before. "I don't think we should keep him waiting."

Damian blinks slowly, his gaze finally leaving the gravestone to flicker towards Tim. 

And if eyes were the windows to the soul, then Damian's eyes have always been barred for as long Tim's known him. Barred and locked and shielded by blackout curtains. Now though? They're a stained glass window, shattered and hanging by twisted metal framework thanks to a rock that has been thrown through. 

Tim can't recall ever seeing Damian like this before. It makes him ponder what really happened tonight. If Dick's injuries were simply because of an unfortunate Two-Face run in. Bruce called Tim over to help go over evidence, but now Tim gets the feeling the real reason he's been requested is because Damian's hurting in his own way too, and Bruce doesn't know how to deal with it. 

Not that Tim knows how to deal with it either. The only person that really knows Damian inside and out is the very person who's just finished fighting for his life thanks to a brutal beat down via a psychopath armed with a wooden baseball bat. Again.

"Timothy…" Damian finally speaks, and Tim suddenly feels a chill enter his bones that's not from the wind. "What is Robin's purpose?"

Tim swallows, forcing surprise to stay off his face. Where has this come from? 

"What do you mean?" Tim asks slowly. 

"Tt." Damian turns back towards the gravestone, his usual sound of annoyance sounding half-hearted and incredibly tired. "Just answer."

And it must show how wrong this all feels because Tim doesn't even get the urge to roll his eyes at the demand. He lets out a breath that turns into a visible vapor the moment it leaves his mouth. 

"I guess… it's different for everyone. There's no… job requirement when it comes to Robin. What it means can change on who wears the suit. As long as you wear the colors and fight alongside Batman, then you're Robin."

Damian frowns. "I was told Robin is supposed to be Batman's partner. Robin is supposed to watch Batman's back and protect him."

"Who told you that?" Tim asks before he could stop himself. Damian gives him an unimpressed look. "Oh. Lots of people, huh? Um… I guess protecting Batman is a big part of Robin. I know… that's the reason I became Robin. To save Bruce from his own darkness."

"Then… I am truly an awful Robin."

The words are so shocking that it takes Tim a second to realize a single drop of clear liquid that wasn't snow has dropped down Damian's cheek. 

"Richard died while I was gone," Damian continues, water in his voice. "Even if his death was really a ploy to go undercover… he still got captured and tortured. I wasn't… there to protect him. And now, all I could do was stand uselessly while Dent…"

Damian brings a hand to his cheek to wipe the next tear that tries to fall. The sleeve of his jacket folds up around his wrists to reveal rope burns that definitely look like they sting.

Tim thinks he has a clearer picture now. Damian was definitely there, tied down and held back as Two-Face beat Nightwing to a bloody pulp. 

Tim is so caught up trying to imagine what Damian is feeling, that he almost misses what's said next. 

"If Robin is supposed to protect Batman, then… then it should have been me."

"No," Tim turns so he's facing Damian more head on. More tears drip down his cheeks and Damian looks done with trying to wipe them away. He's looking at the gravestone like he's the one who put it there. That the only reason it's there in the first place is because he wasn't there to stop it. "No, you're not allowed to say that. I take it back, Robin isn't meant to protect Batman-"

"You just said-"

"I was wrong, okay?" 

Damian opens his mouth, then closes it. 

Tim has to take a moment to catch his breath and gather his thoughts. "Look… Damian… you're a kid. It's never a kids job to protect the guardian. It's their job to protect you."

"That's the issue, Timothy, he was protecting me." Damian wipes his eyes furiously, his cheeks growing redder but not because of the cold. "Two-Face wanted me, but Richard tricked Two-Face into letting him take my place. Richard died because of me, and stayed away because of me, and now he's- he's hurt because of me-"

"Stop it," Tim snaps. He can feel his heart beating so quickly. His stomach feels like it's in knots. Damian snaps his jaw shut with a tiny, barely choked off whimper that almost has Tim wanting to stand up, go to Gotham, and show Two-Face what a baseball bat looks like from the other end of the beating. "Just… stop. It's… none of this is your fault. And if Dick heard you saying things like this… that it should be you… he'd tell you the same stuff. 

"You didn't do anything wrong Damian. Sometimes… Batman gets hurt. But you can't hold yourself responsible for that. Sometimes Dick gets hurt to protect you… us, and we can't blame ourselves for that. Dick did what he thought was right, and it's our job now to make sure he gets better. Okay?"

Damian's silent. Sniffs. From the cold or from tears, Tim doesn't ask. 

He wakes in the chilling silence of the Wayne Graveyard until Damian finally jerks his head in a tiny, ridged nod. "I… understand."

"Good." Tim then rises to his feet and grabs Damian's bicep, dragging his little brother up with him. Damian stiffens at first, but eventually complies. Soon, Tim has his arm wrapped around Damian's shoulders. Damian sniffs again and wipes his eyes. 

"You said… Alfred was making hot chocolate?" He asks, and Tim smiles. 

"He sure is. You think we can convince him to put in marshmallows this time?" 

Damian puts on a watered-down thoughtful face. Then nods. "I'm sure if we work together, we can also get cookies."

"Sounds like a plan, gremlin."

"Tt."

"Oh, don't give me that look. You like the nickname."

"I do not."

“Yes you do. Look! You're smiling!"

"You're seeing things, Timothy."

[bigskydreaming]

My kingdom for a fic where Dick just full on ignores the fuck out of every reservation, concern and condemnation Bruce has about Jason and his choices after his return, because like this is his brother, the only family member that’s ever come BACK from the dead after Dick’s lost them, and he’s not about to let anything get in the way of that, thanks. 

(But also in this AU Jason didn’t almost kill Tim, because that’s the one thing Dick wouldn’t easily be able to look past or forgive and still be in character, even for the sake of another brother, and its crazy to me that it doesn’t come up more as Dick being like, hey Jaybird, you are Valid for a lot of what you feel and are doing but you were NOT Valid for almost killing Timmy and I can be and am quite rightfully peeved at you for that like wtf bro).

Right, so here, Jason doesn’t do that, and literally everything else he does Dick is more than capable and willing to shrug and go oh is that it? And then blithely resume having a relationship with his little brother wherein they hang out and have movie nights and be obnoxiously competitive, with not a single fuck given about anyone else’s feelings that Dick should not be doing this. 

Meanwhile, the vein in Bruce’s forehead has grown so large its evolved its own consciousness and identity, its name is Vinnie, Vinnie the Vein, and Bruce and Vinnie are of one mind when they’re like “Richard John Grayson, I FORBID you from shenaniganning with your wayward brother until he has ceased his murder sprees.”

And Dick’s just like can’t stop, won’t stop, anyway love to stay and chat but I promised Jay I’d meet him in half an hour and I’m already running late, gotta go love ya lots, byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye.

Eventually Bruce really tries to put his foot down because its highly unlikely Jason will come in from the cold on Bruce’s terms if Dick keeps ‘enabling’ his brother, mostly because Jason’s not really out IN the cold in the first place as long as the brothers are hanging out, as they do, having a perfectly chill familial relationship whilst waiting for their father to get the hell over himself and also unclench long enough for Timbers to escape the inexorable magnetic pull that is Bruce’s Aura of Contagious Paranoia, and like...come join them on their brotherly outings, it’ll be fun.

And finally Bruce is all, Dick, you realize your brother is killing people, right? And Dick serenely is just like: “Oh is that what all the fuss is about? Gee, I thought it was all just a fight about the proper pronunciation of ‘gif.’ You know how out of control those can get. No shit Jason’s killing people. I’m aware. Also, I don’t care.”

Before Bruce can finish firing up his Righteous Indignation and Judgment and jump in there, Dick continues, ticking points off his fingers one at a time.

“One of my best friends is literally the daughter of Evil, and has on occasions, plural, been evil herself. I couldn’t care less. One of my best friends has a daughter with an internationally infamous assassin who has definitely tried to kill me multiple times, with this quite probably being a violation of some kind of Bro Code. I couldn’t care less. One of my best friends was possessed by evil spirits and did tons of terrible things right before he died and I couldn’t care less when visiting his grave, nor do I care that his dad, an even more internationally infamous assassin than Roy’s baby mama, and who has DEFINITELY tried to kill me multiple times, does lots of terrible things on the regular, both before and after we meet up for coffee every now and then to reminisce about Joey.” 

He comes up for air, refuels his tank, keeps going.

“One of my teammates is an identical duplicate of the former teammate who betrayed us all and almost got us all killed. Its weird and awkward but we make it work. Another one of my teammates was a killer robot that previously murdered one of my dearest friends. SUPER fucking awkward, but again, we made it work. Other things I give no fucks about: the rap sheets of any of my teammates on the Outsiders, the rap sheet of one of your star-crossed lovers, the body count of your other star-crossed lover. I mean sure, I’m a snarky asshole about it, but I’m a snarky asshole about butter pecan pie too. I don’t like, care care. Not like the way you cared about Huntress’ unwholesome methods before I was her booty call, and yet that too played no part in my decision making before I let her hit this. Half of your teammates decided to treat your memory like an Etch-a-Sketch once, but somehow you all managed to make nice again, but not until after the invasive spy satellite you made got hijacked and unleashed an army of killer robots that definitely did kill a metric fuck ton of people. Major Disaster and multiple other Justice Leaguers have done some Very Bad Things, Diana snapped a guy’s neck on candid camera and still isn’t sorry, you play chess every once and a while with a guy who spends half his time as a millennia old demon who has eaten entire fucking civilizations, and do not even get me started on Hal Jordan. Are you starting to see a point here, B?”

Bruce says nothing, but Vinnie the Vein has a shit poker face. Dick sighs.

“And you know what all of those people have in common, Bruce?”

Bruce bites. “What’s that?”

“None of them are my goddamn brother. So if I can figure out a way to coexist in the same sphere as all of that insanely hot mess, I can figure out a way to coexist with my brother, so long as I know and trust he’s still fighting the good fight. Which I do. Do I like that he kills people? No. Does he know that? Yes. Do we fight about it? Occasionally. But know who I’m not gonna let be the reason me and my miraculously back from the dead brother don’t meet up for Taco Tuesday night? A bunch of murderers and rapists, because I wish they were sitting in Cell Block D for the next sixty years instead of dead. End of the day, their lives just aren’t as important to me as my little brother’s, and that may make me all kinds of hypocritical, but I’ll give you three guesses what’s another thing I don’t give a shit about. Now you can go home and spend the night hanging out with your moral convictions, but if you don’t mind, I’d rather spend it hanging out with Jay. And if we’re all done here, buh-bye, I’m late and I wouldn’t want Jay to think I flaked and wasn’t coming, who knows, he might go out and kill people instead.”

And eventually Bruce too pulls his head out of his ass because he can be Unconditionally Moral or he can be Unconditionally Dad but he can’t unconditionally be both, and this was kinda a choice he was supposed to have made back when he first signed on the dotted line that supposedly meant his kids would no longer be pinballing through life looking for someone to unconditionally love and support them, because he was volunteering as tribute to do just that.

And finally Bruce makes nice, or at least actively less hostile, baby steps are sometimes required with superhero cryptid shaped a-holes, and then they all live dysfunctionally ever after. Periodically interrupted by one of them dying and the rest of them besieging Death’s door and banging obnoxiously on it and refusing to let her get any sleep whatsoever until she crankily says none of them are worth this aggravation and she’s not getting paid enough for this shit and tosses their recently deceased relative on their ass back on the mortal coil just to be rid of the annoying pests.

[hearthstvnc-blog]

     hey fam!! i’m ollie and i love bringing back old muses of mine... sry if this intro gets a little a lot long...

     ++ Who’s that running into Camp Half-Blood? Oh, it’s the [OC] demigod [LAWRENCE HEARTHSTONE]! They really look like [CODY SAINTGNUE]. Rumour is this [NINETEEN] year old [CLAIMED] [SON] of [KHIONE] is very [QUIET & CLOSED-OFF], but at least they’re also [ADAPTABLE & GROUNDED]. Hopefully the monsters won’t get them. {ollie, 20, she/her, est}

THE STORY:

     opposites attract, but they never ensure true love.

     jason hearthstone is a kind man with a warm heart who lived for a game played on the ice --- and maybe that’s why khione was drawn to him in the first place; not for the game he played, but the fact that the prettiest lights are the best to snuff out.

     lawrence is born ice cold on the coldest day of the year, the product of a drunken one night stand between a pretty girl and a guy fresh off a win. he never gets told all the details, but what lawrence know is this:

          --- he was not meant to be           --- that does not mean his father loves him any less

                                                             ( despite the hectic schedule of an nhler. )

                ( despite the fact he sees his aunt                     more than his father sometimes. )

     in the end, it’s no surprise he follows in his father’s footsteps, into a world of skates and sticks and pucks and ice --- and maybe with her blood in his veins too, it was never meant to be anything else.

     the truth hits like a snow storm.

     it’s february in winnipeg and the temperature is dropping to that point where it’s almost too cold to snow. the winters are harsh here, harsh enough to turn lakes into hard glass ( but harsh winters bear the toughest people ). jason hearthstone laughs at his son –newly turned twelve– who begs him to let him play shinny on the frozen pond in the woods behind their house. he lets him go after bundling lawrence in clothing with a stern reminder to be back for dinner to which the child enthusiastically nods.

     there are some days that jason hearthstone sees so much of himself in his son.

     ( there are other days that he’s reminded of her, though –from cold eyes to cold hands. perhaps he had always known that was going to be more than a one night stand ).

     on a frozen pond, lawrence hearthstone practices his skating and shoots pucks into a net. these are the drills he’s known forever now –from watching is father, from the little leagues, to elementary school. but pond ice is not perfect. it’s shaped by the elements, rough and imperfect. lawrence’s skate blade catches in a flaw and he twists his ankle as he goes down.

     lawrence falls to the ice, to cradle his leg, gritting his teeth against the pain. a few tears escape as he tries to stand again only to fall back down. the snow seems to fall more thickly, and when lawrence looks up, she is there.

    “ my dear— ” her hand is cold on his skin. 

    the khione lawrence sees is young, barely looking past twenty one, probably the same she looked to his father all those years ago. “ —any child of mine knows to be wary of tears for they can freeze. ”    with his face in her hands teardrops freeze in their tracks.     “ do you know who i am? ”

    lawrence blinks back, silent.

     “ i suppose your father never would tell you about me— he never had a reason to. ”

    and that’s “ —-mom? ”

    her laugh is like icicles rattling together, bell-like but a touch too sharp. “ most know me as khione —but you’re not wrong. i trust you will do me well. ”

    she says very little after that, disappearing in a burst of snow that drifts slowly down with the rest of the flakes. jason hearthstone would find his son hours later, half buried —and he would know that the truth was out.

    three weeks later, lawrence freezes his waterbottle solid in the middle of practice. he thinks he can almost hear her laughing in his ear.

    it all starts to snowball after that. it’s perhaps a mixed blessing that he spends so much time at the rink --- ice disguising ice and snow well.

    and his cyrokinesis isn’t the only thing that gets better. 

    it’s like a switch gets flipped in him, an extra sense he can feel all ends of the ice when he’s on it, feels slightly off when he’s not. he gets better and better and better and his father is delighted --- his laugh never seems to quite meet his eyes, though, like he’s waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.

    for a while it’s easy. easy to play hockey, easy to catch the eyes of scouts already, easy to wipe away a sheen of frost, easy to disguise a few snowflakes.

    lawrence turns sixteen and things stop being so easy.

    he’s locked into a playoff game when the puck drops --- along with the other shoe.

    it’s all a blur, monsters, a whirlwind of action. breaking his stick across the nose of something. a satyr --one of the team’s trainers-- finds him, and takes him where things will never be the same.

    it’s snowing when lawrence crosses the boarder by thalia’s tree for the first time. one minute his boots are in a foot of snow and the next they’re on grass and the sun is shining above. almost immediately, he starts sweating in his jacket.

    ryan –his satyr– guides him to the big house while lawrence remains in a stupor —still rattled from the attack and exhausted from the plane ride from winnipeg to new york. he never needs to be claimed with a glowing symbol. they ask him that first night and he says “khione” as snowflakes drift above his head.

    he stays the summer and learns how to protect himself –learns the details of greek myth and all the things his father had half hinted at but never really told. but he wants to go back home –he has a future built on ice, but not the kind his mother gave him. the future he wants is the same as his father’s ( sweat and ice and skates and goals and team ), but his mother’s blood in him has other ideas.

    lawrence goes home and learns the hard way that once things go bad there’s no returning to the past.

    the gorgon severely injures his best friend josh as it and its cohort attack the team in an attempt to get to him. lawrence still doesn’t know what nightmares they saw in those moments manipulated by the mist. his best friend out for an entire season, his team in shambles —only then did lawrence see.

    ( maybe he’d always known --- dating back to a frozen lake in winnipeg, his mother warning him of the dangers of crying as tears froze on his face ).

    it’s snowing when lawrence crosses the boarder for the second time, alone and unsure.

HEADCANONS:

the one time lawrence has left camp boundaries was at the beck of hestia who no doubt found his last name to her amusement. her cat had escaped and found itself literally on thin ice and lawrence was recruited to retrieve it. honestly, he’s not even sure if this counts as a quest.

ironically, lawrence’s most prominent scar has nothing to do with his demigod genes. under his left eye there’s the remains of a nearly two-inch scar slightly paler than the rest of his skin from a wayward puck while he was playing shinny. he has other very small and various scars from accidents, pre-chb and post.

when it happened, he had planned to have his draft day tattooed on him, but that passed six months ago. he doesn’t think there’s any chance of that ever happening now.

lawrence is always extremely cold to the touch. his hands are freezing and his skin never warms even if he’s sweating. he functions much better in cold temperatures and thinks CHB is too hot literally all the time. if it’s above freezing, it’s too hot.

the water nymphs HATE him because he always wants to freeze the lake to skate.

lawrence is VERY competitive. boy may not be the happiest here, but bet he goes HARD in capture the flag.

lawrence is very aware of what khione had done and her role in the fall of olympus ��obvious he does not condone it, but he’s not ashamed of the power he has either. you cannot help who your parentage is –but you can decide what to do with the power you’re given

personality-wise, lawrence is very loyal and down to earth --- but he is very good at hiding his emotions and intentions, and that he did not get from his father. 

CONNECTIONS

i’m too terrible at this to really list random ones. but come to me or give this a like or something and i’ll read ur chara’s intro and i’m sure we can rustle some fun things up !!

my discord is olofsson#5730

[xthis-rebelle]

Don’t Let Go.

So I entered the PJO Secret Santa 2017 ( @pjosecretsanta2k17) and here’s my piece for my giftee; @basic-volk ((if you have an ao3, please give me your username so that i can gift it to you there, thanks))

Hope you enjoy it! Special thanks to @rosyredlipstick for beta’ing this for me.

title; don’t let go.

pairing(s); solangelo (Nico di Angelo//Will Solace), jasiper (Jason Grace//Piper McClean); percabeth (Percy Jackson//Annabeth Chase); reynabeth (Reyna Arellano//Annabeth Chase).

rating; general//teen.

notes; you didn’t ask for anything specific and this was gonna be a series, but I didn’t have the time to write it, so here’s 4.8 k words of solangelo angst and fluff instead :) also, nico calls will ‘amore’ (love) and things are implied, but not shown. This also set in a mortal a/u. Read it on the AO3.

Will Solace knows when his boyfriend is keeping a secret. For all the years they’d been together, (eight years, they’d gotten together when they were seventeen, exactly two months after Nico and him went on their first date: an annual Christmas fair that Nico knew Will badly wanted to go to) Nico has kept a secret exactly three times.

The first time, when he was nineteen, he told Will he was fine. In fact, he wasn’t. It had been his first Christmas since his mother and sister died. They were out shopping, and a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle, ran a red light and slammed into the car they were using, and they both, along with the di Angelo’s driver, Jules Albert, didn’t make it. Nico didn’t tell Will that it was eating him up inside. That he felt guilty, because he constantly questioned himself: how could he enjoy himself with his boyfriend and his mother and Bianca weren’t there anymore?

Another time, when he was twenty-one, he kept the fact that their close friends, Percy (who Nico liked at one point) and Annabeth had broken up and Annabeth was now together with Reyna, someone who Nico considered a second sister.

And finally, when he was twenty-three, he hid from Will the fact that he’d quit his job after graduating from college and was going to start to work at the DA’s office. The DA’s office had approved his application as soon as they saw he’d graduated at the top of his law class. Will, a medical prodigy, was going to start residency soon. Nico felt as if that would take a toll on them both and their already tight finances and so he wanted to be able to pick up whenever they fell short. They barely had any funds left for themselves after they paid rent, bills and bought monthly necessities, such as groceries. The drastic increase in salary for Nico would be able to comfortably cover it all, plus there would be enough left over for them to actually start saving properly, instead of depositing some money at random times only to have to withdraw it for some financial emergency, like the time when their rent had raised unexpectedly and they had to dip into the savings pool.

So Will knows when Nico is keeping a secret. He sees the signs. Nico is even more quiet than usual and he avoids looking Will in the eyes. In the aforementioned instances, Nico eventually caved and told Will everything. After talking through them, after letting Nico know that he could trust Will and he shouldn’t hide anything because effective communication was the key to a healthy relationship, all was good again.

But this time, Nico isn’t only keeping a secret, he’s lying. Even though Will gets a bit ticked off when Nico has his secrets, he respects Nico’s privacy, so he doesn’t push it, but something rubs him the wrong way when he knows Nico is lying and keeping secrets.

It’s almost seven o'clock when Will sits on the couch, thinking about all these things, waiting for Nico to come home. He has the night off for the first time this week. His week so far has been really hectic; working in the E.R. is no child’s play; all doctors were always busier during Christmas time, and honestly? He just wants to relax with his boyfriend.

His exhausting fifteen hour shift yesterday also adds to his exhaustion, doing nothing but giving him baggy eyes, a lethargic, sluggish feeling and dull, but normally brilliant blue eyes.

Outside is snowing and the couch is so warm and he has his favourite blanket wrapped around him. The news broadcast plays softly in front of him and the fire in the fireplace blazes bright.

He doesn’t know when he falls asleep.

When he wakes up, he groans and stretches his hand, grabbing his phone from the night stand next to his bed. Blurred numbers meet his eyes for a few seconds as he turns it on, but he gasps when his vision clears. It’s almost nine in the morning. Then, he realizes that he’s in his bed. The other side smells of Nico and the sheets are wrinkled. Nico was there, and it seems as though he’s already left for work.

Will starts to panic when work crosses his mind, and quickly checks the hospital roster he keeps on his wall. He doesn’t have a shift today, thank God, but he does have a twelve hour tomorrow morning at eight.  

He goes to the kitchen, sleepily pushing his blonde hair away from his forehead and makes a cup of coffee, black, just the way he likes it. After, he pours some Frosted Flakes into a bowl. He sits and has breakfast alone on a small dining table meant for two, his heart sinking in further into his chest.

He misses Nico so damn much.

They knew it was going to be hard when Will started residency and when Nico started working. They promised each other to face their obstacles together and to talk to each other if it was becoming too much for them to handle. But now, they were doing the exact opposite, and it feels like Nico is slowly drifting away. The distance and lack of communication between him and his boyfriend is slowly taking its toll on him. He can’t help the wobbling in his lower lip. One of the things he was always afraid of was watching their relationship slowly crumble, and Will feels like that’s exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t have the emotional energy to deal with this so he goes back to bed after, and cries softly into his pillow.

His phone vibrates and there’s a tiny hope that it’s Nico.

Instead, it’s his best friend and fellow resident, Jason Grace.

Hey Will, I’ll drop by in half an hour with Piper to pick up the stuff for the annual hospital children’s Christmas party.

Will drags himself out of bed again, does his usual morning routine of brushing his teeth again after breakfast, showering, then changing into his at-home favourites: a plain, round-neck t-shirt and black sweats (it was too cold for his usual cargo shorts), and then brushing back his unruly hair, only for it to fall over his forehead again.

Finally, he puts on his happy face, smiling at himself in the mirror. The smile looks believable, so he leaves his bedroom.

Will knows outside is still cold and snowing, so he starts to prepare some hot chocolate for Jason and Piper to warm them up when they get to his apartment.

Then, he sits on the couch, picks up the novel he’d begun to read a week ago from the small table next to him, opens it to the bookmarked page and lets himself be taken into a different world for a while.

True to his word, Jason arrives within half an hour after the text within half an hour of the text being sent, Piper at his side.

“Hey Jase,” he greets them both with a hug, “Pipes.”

Will ushers them inside, since Piper is shivering in Jason’s arms.

“Do you guys want some hot chocolate? I just made it, so it’ll warm you up,” Will offered.

Piper gratefully accepts the offer. Will goes into the kitchen while they hang their coats and settle in and he comes back with two tall, steaming mugs of hot chocolate, which he places on the center table for them.

“How are Annabeth and Reyna?” Will asks.

Piper is close with the couple. They hang out every other week, even though Annabeth and Reyna married two years ago. Will never found out the whole story, but from what Nico told him, the whole thing between Percy, Annabeth and Reyna was really, really messy and they didn’t want anybody involved, so it was kept secret. Nico and Piper were the only ones who knew the actual story because they were the closest to the three.

Although Will should have been mad at Nico for keeping the secret (he was, for a few days, until he found out Piper hadn’t told Jason anything either), he let it go because he knew when not to pry. And that was a no-go zone. Whatever happened was so bad, Percy and Annabeth don’t even talk anymore.

“They’re fine. They’re actually starting to consider adoption,” Piper says to Will, a large smile gracing her lips as her eyes sparkle, excitedly.

“Wow, that’s a pretty big step,” Will’s eyes widen.

“It is,” Piper coos, sipping her chocolate, “They think they’re ready to start a family. I might be an aunt this time next year!”

“That’s really good, I’m happy for them,” Will says, with a small smile, “They’ll be really great parents.”

“And what about you? And Nico?” Jason asks innocently, unaware of the couple’s inner turmoil, or rather, Nico’s obliviousness to Will’s inner turmoil and insecurity.

Will sighs, his smile leaving his lips, “We’re fine.”

Jason narrows his eyes in suspicion. Will isn’t acting like his normally bright, bubbly self. He gets the feeling that Will isn’t telling him something, but he feels as though it isn’t his place to point out his observations. They make more small talk while Piper and Jason are finishing their hot chocolate, and the couple doesn’t stay too long after.

Will’s left all alone again when they leave.

He receives a text from another co-worker, Kayla, shortly after. The words makes his heart drop.

Hey Will, don’t mean to alarm you, but I wanted to let you know that I saw Nico walking past the hospital with a dark-haired, surfer-type of looking dude.

Will’s breath catches in his throat.

Dark hair, huh?

Percy.

Although he tries not to think about it, there’s a tiny voice in the back of his head that keeps nagging at him, keeps asking the one question that he’s trying to avoid.

Was Nico cheating on him? Was Nico finally bored of him, like he’d worried?

No. He wouldn’t, Will thinks firmly, silencing the voice in his head, Nico wouldn’t lie to Will without a good reason for doing so. And he definitely wouldn’t cheat. He’s a good person.

Against his better judgement, Will lets it go, picking up his novel again.

He doesn’t know Throne of Glass could be so interesting. Or distracting.

It’s about six o'clock when Nico gets home. Will is in the kitchen, preparing dinner.

“Will?” Will hears his voice call as the apartment door opens.

“In the kitchen!” Will replies.

Will sees Nico walking into the kitchen. He hugs Will from behind, pressing his lips to Will’s cheek as Will cuts carrots on the island. He’s making stir-fried vegetables and, not to toot his own horn, it smells heavenly.

“Percy stopped by, wanna come say hi before he goes home?” Nico asks, burying his face in the curve between Will’s neck and shoulder, arm still around his waist.

Will shoves away the unpleasant, green eyed monster that threatens to unleash itself when Nico lets him go. He turns off the stove and turns in the direction of the living room to tell Percy hi. What kind of person would he be if there’s a guest in his home and he doesn’t say hello?

Percy leaves after saying goodbye to them both and Will goes back into the kitchen to resume making dinner.

Nico follows Will into the kitchen, noticing his cold and detached attitude. It’s not the type of attitude he usually has, and they both know this.

“You’re mad at me, aren’t you?” he asks Will, frowning, “What did I do?”

“What?” Will’s eyebrows knit together, “Look, can you please let me enjoy my day off and make dinner? I don’t have the mental capability to get into this right now.”

“Will,” Will can see the hurt in Nico’s eyes as he says this, “You’ve been acting strange all week. Just talk to me, please.”

“Okay, fine!” Will finally raises his voice a tiny bit, not full-on shouting, but just enough to allow some of the frustration he’s been bottling up free, “You wanna talk, Nico? Let’s talk!”

Will’s phone rings, startling both him and Nico, and they jump in shock. Will looks at the caller I.D.

It’s the hospital. He answers the call.

“Will Solace,” he says.

“Oh thank God,” Will recognizes the voice of his supervisor, Dr. Chiron Brunner, “Will, I need you down at the E.R. stat. We need all hands on deck right now.”

“Is everything alright?” Will asks, keeping his own tone calm, despite the underlying hint of panic in Dr. Brunner’s voice.

“I have the other residents busy with a patient who suffered a stroke and caught a seizure when he was rushed in and victims of a four way crash on an intersection due to a driver skidding on some ice. The ambulance just went for a pick up and we need the help,” Dr. Brunner says in a rush.

“Dr. Brunner, it’s my day off. I’ve been pulling over twelve-hour long shifts all week,” Will responds, while rubbing his forehead, his frustration at it’s maximum point, “Plus I have some personal issues right now that I really have to work out. I don’t think I’m fit to be working at the moment.”

“I understand, Will I really do, but we really need you here. Our hands are really full. Even Jason and Kayla are here,” Dr. Brunner says.

“Dr. Brunner,” Will starts, but he’s cut off.

“Please,” Will can hear the desperation in his superior’s voice.

Will feels upset and agitated, because there are lives that are at stake here and saving them is supposed to be his priority as a future doctor. But at the same time, he needs to talk to Nico, he needs to deal with his own issues, their issues. Will realizes that he has to make the choice he knew he had to make eventually, but was dreading to make.

It’s either his job or his relationship.

“Okay, I’ll be on my way,” Will says and disconnects the call.

Dinner is forgotten as he explains the situation to Nico while grabbing his phone, wallet, keys, hospital I.D. and coat. It’s a good thing he lives almost five minutes away from the hospital.

“We’ll talk as soon as I get home, okay? I promise,” Will says to Nico before he rushes out of their shared apartment.

He doesn’t kiss Nico on the cheek this time. Nor does he tell him he loves him.

The hospital lights shine brightly above him, in the dark December night. Inside the hospital smells of bleach and disinfectant.

He catches his breath, tired from running. He dusts the bits of snow off his hair and clothes. The weather had thankfully held up until he’d gotten to the hospital; it was lightly snowing, unlike this morning. He hurriedly puts on his scrubs in the residents’ office and goes into the main E.R., where, he meets Dr. Brunner. Together, they wait for the ambulance to arrive as Jason and Kayla and two others try to save another patient.

Will is functioning purely on caffeine now. Ten hours have passed since he came to the hospital and he’s on his fifth cup of hospital brewed coffee. It’s cheap coffee and it tastes horrible. Dr. Brunner takes Will into his office after everything settles and asks him if he’s okay. Will mentally adds that to the list of questions he doesn’t know how to answer, ut laughs Dr. Brunner’s question off, telling him he’s okay.

Within those ten hours, however, they’ve saved multiple lives.

The man who had caught a stroke and had the seizure, a teenaged boy, which was the one the ambulance went to pick up, and so far, two of the persons involved in the accident.

Dr. Brunner sends him to talk to the boy, since no one else seems to have any luck.

The boy’s name is Brandon, he notices, glancing at the chart in his hand, and he’s reminded of Nico. Brandon has black hair and blue eyes whereas Nico’s was brown, and whatever they were lacking in height, they more than made up for in attitude. Will looks at the chart in his hand.

He’s reminded of his boyfriend again, of how they’d met. Nico had been hospitalized at fifteen, too, for the same reasons as Brandon. Will’s dad was his doctor and he brought Will to see Nico, to keep him company, so that he wouldn’t be as lonely and he’d have someone his age to talk to. They went to the same school and Will made sure Nico was up to date with all of his work. While they talked, they discovered they  both had lots of things in common and a friendship was born. Will had even been there when Nico’s dad had broken down at the thought of losing any of his family (completely unaware of the tragedy that would later befall the di Angelo’s) and even though he never fully accepted it, which was the reason why Nico had ended up in the hospital in the first place, he tried to come to terms with Nico’s sexual orientation.

Two years later, after being close friends and lots of mutual pining, Nico asked Will out, and soon after, they got together. Nico’s dad was still trying his best to accept it, but he was genuinely happy for both his son and Will.

The world beneath Will’s feet spins uncomfortably. He presses his fingers to his temple and finishes Brandon’s chart. He gets the hell out of the room right after.

He’s sitting in the waiting area, eating a pack of potato chips when Jason finds him.

“Are you alright?” He asks Will, biting his lip worriedly.

“I’m fine,” Will smiles, the lie slipping easily.

Will knows he’s not. God, he must look like a hot mess. He’s too exhausted, he hasn’t had a proper meal for the past day, and his brain feels like it’s being fried inside his head.

Half an hour later, he passes out in the residents’ office.

The rest of the night is a blur. He’s vaguely aware of Nico’s voice arguing with Dr. Brunner. Someone helps him to Nico’s car and then he’s in their apartment.

When he comes to, for good this time, he can hear Jason and Nico talking. It takes him a moment to gain his bearings. He’s in his bed, in his room.

“— Hasn’t been taking care of himself. Something, and my instincts tell me it’s related to you two, is off. So you better man up and talk to him,” Will hears Jason say seriously, “It’s been bothering him all week.”

“I knew it,” Nico sounds frustrated with himself, “I knew that something was bugging him. We were going to talk before he was called to work.”

Will doesn’t want to get out of the bed. He rolls onto his side, yawning. He feels like he’s been hit by a train.

“Dr. Brunner cancelled all his shifts for the next week,” Jason says, after a heavy pause.

“Oh. I’ll let him know,” he hears Nico reply, and then a door closes.

Nico comes into their room. Will see his mess of black hair first, followed by his lithe, small body. Will turns, facing Nico as he lies next to Will, on his side, and runs his fingers through Will’s soft curls.

“How’re you feeling, babe?” Nico asks, pressing his lips against Will’s forehead.

“You want the honest answer or an answer?” Will responds, relishing the small touch.

“Honest answer, always,” Nico answers, furrowing his eyebrows, pursing his full, rosy red lips, “Are you implying something?”

“Do you think I’m implying something?” Will whispers.

“Damn it, Will,” Nico says, “If you have something to say, just say it—“

“Are you cheating on me?” Will blurts, looking him dead in the eye.

Nico looks taken aback, as though that’s the most ridiculous thing Will has ever said.

“What?” Nico still looks shocked as he stares at Will.

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Will feels like he’s about to cry.

“No, Will. Babe, why would I do that?” Nico asks, grabbing Will’s hand, not breaking eye contact, not even once.

“You’re keeping something from me. You’re hanging out with Percy all the time and you’re lying to me,” Will mumbles, letting a few tears escape his eye, “And I know how you felt about him. So I..I don’t know. I just thought.”

Nico reaches out, hesitantly, and wipes the tears away from Will’s cheek, his pale hand standing out nicely against Will’s evenly tanned skin. Nico’s touches are warm and comforting, and Will wants to do nothing but lean into them, but he resists the urge to do so.

“Amore, what I felt for Percy is nothing compared to what I feel for you. Percy was nothing but a stupid crush,” he tells Will, still maintaining eye contact.

Will feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulder. His heart is not as heavy. He lets out a broken sob, nodding in relief and Nico just shakes his head before he wraps Will in his strong embrace. Will buries his head in Nico’s chest and inhales deeply, taking comfort in his familiar, earthy scent. Just like that, Will is grounded. He’s home.

Don’t let go, he silently pleads.

Instead, Nico holds on to him as he cries, the ugly, loud gasping, hiccupping, snotty type of crying, finally snapping and letting go of all the pain and frustration. Nico runs his hands through the taller man’s hair, rubbing soothing circles into the small of his back. His touches silently reassure Will; I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you. Let it out, babe. I’ve got you.

They stay like this until nightfall, Will safe and tucked away from the world in Nico’s arms, until Will hears his stomach growl loudly, breaking the tension in the room. His face heats in embarrassment and Nico lets go of him with a small smile, gently pulling Will up to a sitting position with him.

“Wh-What are you doing?” Will realizes that throat is sore from all the gasping and sobbing as he asks this.

“Come to the kitchen, I made us lunch. But I guess it’s dinner now,” Nico tells him, furrowing his brows, “We’ll talk more over a proper meal. The only reason you got to come home was because your supervisor pulled some strings. I never realized how badly this was affecting you, amore.”

Will realizes he only remembers bits and pieces of that night as he allows Nico to lead him to the kitchen. He doesn’t care about what he remembers and doesn’t remember anyways, all that matters right now is food. His stomach lightly growls again as he inhales the aroma of whatever Nico cooked.

Nico tells to him not to sit yet, and Will watches curiously as he shuffles around in the kitchen, definitely out of his element, running his hands through his hair and swearing in frustration in soft Italian.

He places a tablecloth on top of their small dining table. Then, he adds silverware, and he places a small candle in the middle of the table.

Will’s curiosity doesn’t diminish as Nico pulls the chair out and motions for him to sit. He does so, and Nico pushes the chair in.

Then, he brings around a plate of what looked like fettuccine alfredo with chicken and places it in front of him.

Will’s favourite Italian dish.

“I, uh, meant to do this on Christmas morning, but that’s, like, two days away,” Nico rubs the back of his neck, “And it seems that now would be the more appropriate time.”

“To do what?” Will asks, totally confused as he takes a bite of the alfredo, but Nico ignores him, going into their room.

He comes back with something in his hand.

“What’s that?” Will questions, looking at Nico, who looks a bit paler than usual.

Nico doesn’t answer, but sits opposite him and sets the small velvet box in front of Will.

Will gasps, his heart beating faster. The tips of his ear tinge red. Oh God. Did Nico get him some kind of jewelry? He never did like jewelry–

“It’s custom made,” Nico explained, “This is what I’ve been keeping from you. Percy was with me when I went to pick it up. And he was helping me come up with a special way to give it to you.”

“Wh-what?” Will gasps.

“So no, I wasn’t cheating on you. In fact, I wanted to ask you if you would give me the honour of calling you my husband,” Nico says, his voice calm. He gets out of his chair and goes down on one knee in front of Will and his hand shakes ever so slightly as he opens the box.

Inside it is a silver band, inlaid with garnet, sapphire and amethyst patterns. A line of amethysts ran in a circle on the outside of the ring, sapphires below the amethysts and garnets above them. It took Will a moment to realize the meaning behind the stones. It was their birth stones; January, Nico’s month, were the garnets and September, Will’s month, were the sapphires, and month they’d gotten together, February, were the amethysts.

“See, I love you, and I’m sure now that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Only you. You’ve seen me at my worst and you’ve seen me at my best and you’ve always accepted me for who I am. You’ve been there for me at my lowest, and you’ve helped me overcome some of the biggest challenges in my life; especially when my mother and Bianca died. You helped me with my depression and my insomnia. You helped me overcome my insecurities, but I wasn’t there to help you with yours. I wasn’t there to reassure you that were my sun and my stars and I wasn’t there to make sure you were taking care of yourself. I wasn’t a good boyfriend over the past few weeks and I’m so, so sorry for that. But I promise, I’ll do better, because I don’t plan on letting go of us, of you, anytime soon. So will you make my year?” Nico asks, softly, “Will Solace, will you marry me?”

Will is in awe. Of all the things he expected, this was not one of them. He put his hand over his open mouth, tears of pure joy running down his face this time. He nods. Nico takes his hand and slips the ring onto his finger, almost reverently, tears of joy streaking his own face.

Perfect fit.

Will looks at it in the candlelight. It’s beautiful. A warm feeling blossoms inside Will’s chest as he looks at his boy—no,  fiancé. The love of his life. The man he was going to marry.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly, getting up from his chair, going down to Nico’s level (he’s still on the ground) and throwing his arms around the smaller man, “I knew you wouldn’t cheat on me but seeing you with Percy so often just made me think about all of these.. possibilities and everything just… kind of spiraled out of control.”

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry,” Nico tells him, tightening his hold on Will’s waist, “You were putting yourself under unnecessary stress because of me. Will, you don’t know how frightened I was when I got the call from the hospital. I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I was part of the reason as to why something happened to you, mio amore.”

“You’re forgiven, darlin’. I love you, so much, Nico di Angelo,” Will sniffs and although his words are muffled into Nico’s shirt, he knows that Nico hears him use the pet name he loves.

“I love you too. You are my universe,” Nico gently pulls Will from the hug and kisses him on the lips, softly, sweetly and passionately, despite the stickiness left on his face from happy tears, “My sun, my stars, my entire galaxy. Merry early Christmas, Will Solace, soon to be di Angelo.”

Despite the cold December, the couple spends the night on the couch in their apartment, their love keeping their souls burning bright and warm, warmer than their fireplace ever could, wrapped up in each other’s loving embrace. There are no barriers between them; everything is out in the open. There are no more secrets, only a sense of love, understanding and blissfulness.

And Will Solace would not trade it for the world.

[percyjacksonfan3]

Finding Home

Part 1

Written for the pjohoobigbang2017, this baby really took a lot out of me guys. Coming to a grand total of 64 446 words I am super exhausted but also super proud to be in this and included amongst all of the other wonderful writers and am so, so grateful for having the chance to meet so many great people. 

Which leads me to thanking my lovely beta, @lemonlestered. You put up with my constant changes in the story and fixed everything I was too blind to see and I can’t thank you enough!

Finally thank you to the amazing @dianas-steve, her artwork is just incredible guys, please go and check it out! 

Read on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11833296

Alright! On to business! 

Pairing: Percabeth, obviously it’s me, but the other couples of the Seven are included as well.

Rating: M, cause there’s violence and sexual themes, language, that kind of thing

Summary:  The second time Percy’s kidnapped, it isn’t by Hera. No, this time, it’s a giant who wants revenge- and he’s smart enough to get it. Of course Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter aren’t going to take the abduction of Percy lying down. Especially with Annabeth there to kick their ass.

The first thing Percy is aware of is the sound. 

He hears dripping. It's coming from feet away and he listens to the constant sound of liquid splashing into what sounds like a puddle or a quickly-filling bowl on the ground.

The first thing Percy feels is the cold, and he automatically shivers, letting out a raspy groan at the pain from the movement. He's in nothing but his Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and jeans, and the cold air bites against his bare skin.

The first thing he sees, when he finally manages to open his eyes, is a fire. The light from it is so bright, casting hulking shadows on the surrounding walls in the surrounding darkness, that Percy has to squint until his eyes adjust. It's too far away for any heat to reach him but the light seems unnaturally bright in the enclosed space.

His shoulders are throbbing in agony. His knees are frozen, water having seeped through his jeans; it feels like it's seeped through his very skin to his bones. The joints are smarting from being pressed against the floor for so long, having grown stiff. More than anything though, he feels sharp shooting pain coming from his wrists.

He blinks his eyes once, twice, three times more, before everything comes into focus.

Dread is an icy pool in his stomach and his heart speeds up from fear.

A cave.

He's in a cave.

Memories of Tartarus, of Grover trapped in a wedding dress and of the Labyrinth come back to him in a sudden rush. Percy hates being enclosed. Absolutely hates it. His breath picks up. The cold air scrapes his throat and he wonders if there's something more to the weather in here. It shouldn't be this cold in the cave, especially with the fire right there in front of him.

His head lolls, he lets his eyelids flutter closed, and his thoughts leave him.When he comes to again his thoughts are clearer.

He's in a cave and his wrists are chained to the wall above his head. His body hurts where it’s kneeling on the cave floor, in as comfortable a position as he can get, his wrists raw and shoulders aching, drives agony through his veins with each shift of muscle. His knees feel like they're bruising by the second and freezing just as fast. When he tries to stand, his legs shake and his shoulders scream in protest, so he stops moving and slumps down once more.

Percy can't remember how he got there.

He only panics for a few seconds before he shakes his head and tries to think; tries to look around and get some idea of what the Hades is going on. He remembers waking up from his Hera coma, Lupa standing over him and growling. He remembers how off guard he'd been and the fact that it had almost gotten him killed.Never again, he'd promised himself. He's been through worse than this. He's sure of it.

He can see the cave opening faintly in the distance, there's moonlight shining, illuminating the opening, so the cave must be pretty deep. He must be a fair bit in. Everything except the fire and a couple of logs beside it are shadowed and too dark to make out. No sound except the  dripping water. There's something, something that makes his senses prick, and when he takes a deep breath he smells something that is strangely like...

...french toast?

He panics again, mind jumping. Before you have a stroke you always smell something, right? What was that again? Was it french toast?

Burnt toast, Seaweed Brain. Annabeth's voice, calm and teasing, breaks through his thoughts and he relaxes as much as he can in his current position. Burnt toast is before a stroke. French toast is... odd.

Annabeth.

He looks around again but he can't see anybody else. No other sign of life. The only thing he notices is the sound of water dripping closer to the entrance- and the feeling of blood on his face. When he scrunches his nose some dried red flakes fall.

Once again he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Nobody else is here, which means if there had been people captured with him they'd either escaped or...

He shakes his head. Without knowing anything for sure, he shouldn't freak out, shouldn't jump to conclusions. Annabeth and his mom both tell him he's bad for that. Anything could have happened. This could be anything. Just think, he tells himself. There must be something to tell you what happened. Something you can do.

Use your surroundings, what do you have? Annabeth’s voice rings out in his mind again and he calms down a bit.

There's a weight in his pocket that could be Riptide, but with his hands chained he can't make sure. He tries to think back, but he has a headache and his memory is foggy at best. How did he get here? And, more importantly:

How was he going to get out?

oooOOOooo

Grover really loves his girlfriend.

Like really, really loves her.

Juniper is such a constant in his life now that he can't picture a world without her. Thank the Gods her tree is only about 50 years old. It would be such a bummer if she were too young for him.

Grover comes back to Camp from searching for more demigods exhausted, every time. Sometimes he finds half-bloods, sometimes he doesn't, but Juniper is always there to greet him at the hill and it makes up for whatever the journey had taken from him.

Then there's the nights after Council of Cloven Elder meetings when Grover is frustrated and bleating angrily about Silenus and Maron. For example, when they wouldn't agree to send more satyrs out searching for demigods when Olympus closed, instead keeping more satyrs than ever back at Camp. Grover had fought hoof and nail for them to widen their search for any unclaimed demigods, but no, it was too risky until they knew what was happening. Even though the solution seems obvious to Grover- don't leave the kids stranded, obviously- Silenus and Maron are older and have a different perspective.

This is what Juniper tells him. Grover bleats that they're old and outdated.

(He doesn't actually think so. To a certain degree, he actually respects his companions more than most satyrs. It's just frustrating when they don't agree with him based on the experiences he and his friends have had.)

It will be ages before he calms down enough to even think about anything else, and Juniper will listen and nod, occasionally butting in to disagree with him.

She puts up with him disappearing and going through the Labyrinth on quests with Apollo to take down the Triumvirate, she defends Camp while everyone leaves to go help the Romans defend their home and she always, always threatens to kill him if he dies while away on a quest.

She's a gift from Zeus himself, and Grover is so, so in love with his girlfriend.

Of course, there were also the months when Percy was missing. First the empathy link dulled until it was barely there at all, which caused him to panic. Then it came back full force and he was helping Annabeth as much as he could, both of them staying in Bunker Nine all night, not sleeping, and not eating enough either. Satyr searches for their friend came back empty handed, and Grover didn't get a good night’s sleep again until he'd helped Annabeth and Jason pinpoint Percy's exact location at Camp Jupiter on a map.

Juniper went through all of that with him. Some nights she would stay with them, just to be there. Others she would drop of plates of food before she went to her tree for the night. Everyday she would remind them to eat, to sleep, to shower and get out to speak to people.

"Let the Hephaestus kids build the Argo II." She asked him, eyes wide and soft, caring and full. "Come have lunch with me."

Annabeth was harder to persuade, but occasionally Grover took Juniper up on it. He realized he'd been neglecting her and took her on picnics by the streams, and they watched the Camp fireworks together.

Of course, then Leo said the Argo was finally ready and the five travelers (including Hedge) set sail, leaving Grover behind to wave at them from the ground.

That's when things got scary.

It was alright for a few days. When Percy and Annabeth reunited Grover actively had to dull their empathy link because the emotions were so strong. But at least it was a good day, at least they were happy emotions.

A few days later Grover was picking up so much distress, fear, helplessness and anger that he was crying from the feeling without realizing it.

Piper Iris-messaged Chiron later that night. Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus.

Juniper was one of the only things that got Grover through that week, and then the next. In Tartarus it wasn't easy to feel anything concrete because Percy's emotions changed so rapidly, and some were too terrifying for Grover to comprehend. At one point Percy seemed to have the mind of a murderer, and Grover was hyperventilating as the feeling rose and then subsided all at once.

Juniper held him close and whispered soothing words in his ear. She clutched his hand and woke him up from the nightmares. She grounded him by making Grover remember that he wasn’t Percy, he wasn’t in those situations, the fear and anger weren’t his own. She was there for him to talk to about everything. About how he was worried for his friends. This was the first quest, the first real quest, that Annabeth and Percy had gone on without him involved. Sure Percy had recovered Hades' Sword with Nico and Thalia, and yes Annabeth and him had found Festus in the woods with Beckendorf and Silena without Grover being there, but this was a a real, true quest with Chiron’s permission and warnings from Rachel and they were out there without Grover.

He hated it. He knew why he'd had to stay behind, but he hated it.

In Tartarus it wasn't like he couldn't read Percy's emotions or occasional thought, it was more that it changed so rapidly it was impossible to keep up and get a concrete idea. He got occasional glimpses and feelings, but it was overwhelming and Grover more often than not tried to focus on other things.

It never shut off completely though. It was always there in the back of his mind, constantly pulling at him to look deeper. Even when Percy was asleep for all those months, the buzz was there. Faint and too hidden to trace, but the feeling was always there. Grover knew he was alive and, for that time, calm.

So that was why today Grover shot up from sleeping at the base of Juniper's tree with a start.

It took him a few minutes to figure out what had woken him. Juniper appeared from the trunk of her tree almost immediately to crouch before him.

"What is it, Grover?" She asked urgently. "A nightmare? Are you alright?"

He met her eyes and breathed in deeply. After calming down a bit he'd finally searched his head and realized what had woken him- or, more accurately, what's absence had woken him.

"It's the empathy link." His lip trembled but he quickly got it under control. Juniper's eyes never wavered from his. "It's gone."

Juniper gasped and her hands flew to her mouth as her eyes went wide.

He nodded and went into her embrace immediately, clutching back at her desperately. She smelled like she always did, and his breathing calmed down a little bit as she held him close.

His head was just... empty. Where before there was that gentle tug, now there was nothing. He hadn't had his head all to himself for about five years.

The fact that he wasn't reincarnated as a fish or something didn't help ease his worries. Neither Percy nor Grover knew what would happen if one of them died. Percy could become a shrub, Grover could become a sea creature to join Poseidon, or they could be completely fine, just with no more empathy link. It was all uncharted territory for them.

Which really didn't help Grover. If their empathy link was gone- well. There was only one explanation he could think of for that. Percy didn’t know how to dissolve it.

Juniper held him and Grover let his shoulder rest on her shoulder. "Something's happened on the quest," Grover muttered, eyes squeezed shut and trying, as hard as he could, to reach out and find his friend. "I can't feel Percy anymore."

Juniper stays with him until he finally calms down. "We should go see Chiron, Grover. You should tell him. Maybe he'll know what's happened."

Together they go to the Big House and Grover knocks timidly on the door.

He stumbles backwards when Mr. D answers them, his face looking very uninviting.

Mr. D did not readjust to Camp nicely. Being able to live on Olympus for months with Ariadne during the lockdown was what he'd waited for since being sentenced here. Having to go from Camp, back home and then sent back to Camp to finish his sentence was not agreeing with him.

So could you really blame him for his attire?

A fuzzy purple bathrobe that was really not as long as it should have been caught Grover's attention first. (Also shouldn't a god's knees be more... godlier? Less knobbly? Not that Grover would ever day say that out loud to Mr. D's face. Ever.) Secondly, he noticed bright tiger striped boxers peeking out from underneath, and purple slippers on the god's feet topped off the whole ensemble. Mr. D's curly hair was sticking up on one half of his face, and the other was all pressed in to form a crater-like shape. His eyes were narrowed even more than usual.

"What?" He barked. "Do you know what time it is, Mr. Underwood? When the stars are out that means I should be in my bed, not woken up at 2 in the morning and standing on this Zeus-forsaken porch with a satyr and his girlfriend."

Grover cowered in fear.

Juniper giggled.

"I- Mr. D, I'm so sorry, I was actually looking for Chiron-"

"Oh, were you?" Mr. D drawled. "Oh Fates, my mistake, I do apologize. Why, I get up to answer the creature banging on my door before dawn and lookee here, it's not even me he needs. How perfect." He stomps past them to go stand on the lawn in front of the Big House and looks up at the sky. "Is this you testing me again, Father? Sending these two to punish me for stealing that wine from Olympus and bringing it back here? Was me waking up to find it gone not enough amusement for you?" He's yelling and Grover looks at Juniper, shuffling his hooves. She looks back and shrugs at him, but there's still a faint smile still tugging at her mouth.

The clip-clop of hooves makes them both turn around. "Mr. D I thought Zeus had taken all of the wine back to Olympus-"

Chiron's voice cuts off abruptly at the sight of Juniper and Grover. "Oh, my apologies. I thought Mr. D had managed to get drunk after all."

Mr. D's humph of disgust is loud behind Grover, but the satyr doesn't turn from Chiron. "Chiron, I need to tell you-"

"Make these two clean the toilets tomorrow, my dear centaur." Mr. D proclaims, climbing up the steps and making his way back to the door.

"They come here and wake me up, just for fun it seems-"

"We told you, we were looking for Chiron-" Juniper tries but Mr. D holds up a hand and she quiets immediately. A god in a ridiculous bathrobe and slippers is still a god; something both of them know well.

"Looking for me?" Chiron intervenes before Mr. D can speak further, making the god cross his arms and humph at them all again. "At this hour?"

Grover nods. "I need to-"

"Well come in then." Mr. D snaps and Juniper frowns in irritation before Grover gulps and nods. "No need to stand outside for anyone to see."

They follow Mr. D, Chiron bringing up the rear and end up in Chiron's office. Mr. D takes the liberty of sitting in the only chair available in the room, so Grover and Juniper are left to stand. Chiron moves to stop behind his desk.

"Well," Mr. D snaps his fingers and rests one leg across the other, causing both Grover and Juniper to flush an alarming shade of crimson at the reappearance of the tiger boxers. "Get on with it, Mr. Underwood."

Grover peeks nervously at Chiron. "My empathy link with Percy is gone."

Chiron shifts so that it appears he's leaning away from his desk. His face remains impassive. "I see."

There's a beat of silence.

"Is that it?" Dionysus interrupts the silence. "That was the urgent news that couldn't wait 'till dawn?"

"Mr. D, that means something's happened." Grover says politely, trying not to bleat in frustration instead. "That Percy could be-"

Mr. D lets out a sigh. "You're all so young." He scoffs. "Empathy links end, my dear satyr. Sometimes it's because one of the participants has died, other times because they've been gravely hurt. It can also be because one of them has decided to cut off the connection- oh yes, it is possible- or that the magic has simply exhausted itself. From my understanding, you created the link in a time you needed it, as a last hope for your survival. You had no former training in empathy links and were entirely unsure of both it and your powers, making it shaky at best. Since then it has undergone a tremendous amount of use and strain considering the lives both you and Porticus lead. The magic may have simply ceased, Grover, it does happen."

Grover glanced towards Chiron who nodded. "It is probable that Mr. D is right, Grover," the centaur says gently. His eyes were soft but Grover thought he saw worry in them. "Empathy links, especially one cast by a satyr who has no experience with them, can simply end. However." Grover and Juniper both look at Chiron sharply. "Knowing Percy, and seeing as he was sent out on a scouting mission meant to return today I believe there is cause for concern. You were not rash to bring this to us."

Grover didn’t relax at the words. "Thank Gods," he muttered and Mr. D raised an eyebrow at him. "If something's happened-"

"I can Iris-message the group right now," Chiron says smiling gently. "No doubt Percy will have been woken just as you were. I believe he will most likely still be awake."

Grover nodded. "Thank you, Chiron, Mr. D."

Chiron smiles once more and turns towards the fountain in the corner of his office. He grabs a drachma from his desk and tosses it in the constant rainbow. "Iris my dear, would be you be so kind as to show me Perseus Jackson?"

The image flickers. For a moment the mist turns pitch black, impossible to make anything out of, and then a face appears.

The goddess smiles but her eyes look troubled and her voice is frenzied. "Hello Chiron! Why is it always this demigod I have trouble with? Perfect service for the last thousand years… well forgetting that nasty Nero business of shutting me down, and then last year Percy Jackson has to come along and ruin my stellar performance rate. Soon, I'll have to start giving out discounts and getting Fleecy to send out apology baskets of all-organic baked goods. Do you know what this will do to my reputation, Chiron? Hermes will have me fired!"

Chiron blinked at the sudden onslaught and Grover could see him mentally sifting through the wave of information. He settled on the question Grover himself wanted to ask. "Is it not connecting?"

She throws her hands up in the air. "Tell your demigod to stop finding people who can block my magic! First Hera, now this new guy, who really doesn't look so friendly. Percy’s making friends with a whole new sort." She frowns. "I told him to stay at my shop with us. Spare him everything."

She meets Chiron's eyes. "Obviously he didn't take me up on the offer."

"Speak plainly, Iris." Mr. D snaps. "Can you get us to the demigod or not?"

"Oh," she pouts but it's not happily. "Hello, Dionysus. How's sobriety? You're really helping your liver you know, I'm so proud of you! Perhaps you'd like to reinvent your diet altogether and start a completely organic lifestyle. Really flush out your system."

Dionysus grins wickedly. "Not likely."

She shrugs. "I almost convinced Ariadne once. She declined, saying she needed the wine while you were away." Iris cocks her head. "Truly, all those parties you two have must hurt your health."

"Iris, please," Chiron injects quickly before the fire in Mr. D's eyes becomes harmful to those in the room with him. "Do you have any idea of where Percy could be?"

"Oh, no, Chiron, I'm sorry. The one with him is quite powerful in cloaking magic. If my Iris-message can't get through not much will. However, I can connect you to Percy's friends. They're just waking up now to look for him actually. And don't worry, take as long as you need, Chiron, for the inconvenience."

"Wait, who is Percy with-" Grover tries to interrupt but Iris is already gone and Piper takes her place.

"Chiron! Oh thank the gods!" Piper's voice is panicked. "Something's happened, Chiron, Percy's gone!"

Piper's hair is out of it's usual braids, and she's wearing the Camp store's p.j. set, complete with tank top and shorts. Sold at the first Camp Half-Blood store near you!

"McLaren, slow down." Dionysus interrupts. "Explain."

"Well we were scouting out the area, like you guys asked us to, but there was no sign of anything suspicious," she says, ignoring Mr. D getting her name wrong. They’re all well used to it by now. "Nothing that hinted at what could be attacking and kidnapping the people around here. Jason hasn't seen anything resembling the monster from his dream."

Chiron nodded, urging her to continue.

"Well we were going to come home tomorrow after deciding there was nothing here, so we just settled down, made camp around a fire like usual. Percy was with us all night, and then he went to sleep along with everybody else. Leo left Festus on watch even though the rest of us were doing it in shifts. It was a completely normal night."

"What woke you up?" Grover asked them.

"Oh, hey Grover, Juniper.” Her voice brightens before the frown comes back. “Erm, well it was Festus. One moment we were all sleeping, the next he was roaring and making this awful sound. He was looking and running around, sometimes he even lifted off to fly. Annabeth was the first person to notice Percy wasn't with us when we woke up, and after that Leo realized that Festus was looking for him. And then, well, you called."

"Where are the rest?" Chiron asked. “I don’t see them with you.”

"Leo's up with Festus, they're flying and trying to see if Percy sleepwalked away or something like that. Annabeth's checking back the way they searched today, seeing if Percy went to get something he'd lost, that kind of thing. And Jason was checking our campsite some more but he's back now."

"Hey guys," Jason's head pops into view. "I checked all around, Chiron, there's no sign of him. His bedroll and pack are still here, it's like he just up and left. Annabeth said he was wearing a Camp shirt and jeans so we're checking for any sign, but so far..." He trails off and the look in his eyes is calculating. "So far there's nothing."

"Grover," Piper said. "Could you do your thing- you know, use that link you guys have-"

"That was what made us message you, Piper." Chiron interrupted, voice sounding grave. "Grover came and told us that his link with Percy has..."

"It's gone." Grover said, speaking past the worry lodged in his throat. "I can't sense anything."

They both blinked. "What?" Piper whispered. Her face had gone pale. "Like... when he was under Hera's sleep gone? Or gone-gone."

Juniper placed a hand on Grover's arm. He leaned into the touch. "Gone."

The two of them paled further and glanced at each other. Jason and Piper seemed to share the way Percy and Annabeth had of having silent conversations. Finally Jason turns back to them and says, "But that means-"

"It could be an unfortunate coincidence," Mr. D. said carelessly, though Grover notes that his eyes are following everything carefully. "Empathy links are never reliable. Perhaps Peeta's dangerous situation has been the catalyst for the link's termination. It does not mean he is dead."

"Thank you, Mr. D, for those comforting words." Chiron looked back at Piper and Jason who were watching them all with scared looks. "When Annabeth returns-"

"Who's that?" Annabeth's distant voice is audible to them all in the room. "Percy?"

"No, Annabeth, it's-"

"Chiron." Annabeth appears and cuts off Jason's answer. "Chiron, it's happening again. Something's going on."

"My dear-"

"He wouldn't just leave! Not without telling me." She says, hair flying around her face from her quick movements and eyes sparking dangerously. "You know he wouldn't. Especially not after last time."

Chiron is quiet for too long. Grover looks from him to the Iris-message. "Annabeth." He hopes he doesn't sound as scared as he feels, but the way Annabeth looks at him makes him know she understands. "Our empathy link is gone."

"Gone." She repeats flatly. "Gone like Hera's coma gone or gone-gone?"

"Gone-gone," Piper says softly. "Annabeth I-"

"Is that true?" Annabeth asks Grover. "It's completely gone?"

He nods.

Chiron finally speaks again. "I want you all to come back."

Grover actually takes a step back. "What?"

"Yes," Mr. D says, finally sitting up to lean towards the centaur. "I must repeat my satyr's sentiment, Chiron. What?"

Chiron turns to Dionysus. "There's something out there kidnapping people. I suspect it's been doing that to lure us out there. So, we bring them back home. And we regroup. Then we send people out again to find Percy."

"You're not doing that," Annabeth says disbelieving, not even a question, like an unsure command. "You're not just leaving him out here alone. Not you."

"Annabeth-"

"I'm staying." She crosses her arms. "They can come back and tell you what's happened. I'm not leaving until I find him."

"You will not." Chiron says, and his voice is stern, with no room for argument. "Annabeth, I will not leave you out there alone when there is something killing people. Something we have no defense against."

"But you'll do that to Percy?" She asks. "Chiron, this isn't you. It's Percy, you wouldn't just leave him-"

"Come back." Chiron interrupts, and his front left hoof is pawing at the ground nervously. "All of you. If Percy isn't found by dawn then you leave to come home. We'll decide what to do from there."

Jason nods behind Annabeth's shoulder.

"No!" Juniper says just as Grover cries, "Chiron, what are you doing?"

"Hush, satyr." Mr. D is watching Chiron with a curious look on his face. "You heard him. The rest of you, come back in the morning. That is all."

He waves a hand and the Iris-message disappears. "As for you two." He turns to Grover and Juniper but he's distracted. "If you wake me at this time again it won't only be one of you that is a piece of nature, I assure you. Now get. Return in the morning and we will discuss a course of action. Chiron and I must talk."

And with that he kicks them out of the Big House.

oooOOOooo

After getting back from Boston and meeting Magnus with Annabeth, Percy had thought they deserved a couple of months of respite. He hadn’t been naive enough to expect things staying peaceful forever, there always seemed to be a new set of gods waiting to screw things up for him, but so far they'd been averaging three, maybe four months between potential apocalypses. He's kind of been counting on having those few months.

Of course, that was forgetting Apollo was still at Camp Half-Blood. The god practically invited danger their way with his presence alone.

And, obviously, Apollo expected Percy and his friends to help him out of these horrible situations and save the world, etc., etc. Because they were such good buddies and all. Now that he’d become a god again, he was about to leave for Olympus, but not before giving one more quest.

"With Meg gone there's no one else around I really trust to get the job done, if you know what I mean," Apollo had muttered after pulling Percy away to talk in private. They were at the entrance of the dining pavilion, and seeing the other demigods eating breakfast had been making Percy's stomach growl. "Plus, you've got years of experience under your belt. It'll be fine."

Percy had raised his eyebrow. "What about your cabin? You know, your kids? People who would love to go on a quest with you?"

"Oh, I'm not going." Apollo had shaken his head and laughed as if the idea was completely outrageous. "I have things to sort out on Olympus, talks to have with my Father, that sort of thing. And a certain Jaime I must find… an accountant student you know.” He said to Percy, as if expecting him to have any idea what Apollo was talking about. “And I’d rather my children stayed here, where it’s safe. But I've known something wasn't quite right since we defeated the Giants, and Nero hinted at something… one last trick up his sleeve. If I had still had my gifts of prophecy and foresight before..." He trailed off, looking out into the distance and leaving Percy standing in front of him, his foot tapping impatiently at the god's dramatics. "Well, now even though I have them back,  I’m coming up blank. And since your friend Jason's had his dream, it puts things into perspective. I need a group of you to go and check things out. After consulting Rachel, of course."

"You realize Annabeth and I just got back from saving the world, right?" Percy asked, looking at the Athena table to find Annabeth watching them curiously. She raised an eyebrow and he made a face in return, causing her to purse her lips. "The Norse gods are almost as bad as you-"

"No, no, no!" Apollo covered his ears and shook his head vehemently, squeezing his eyes shut. "Can't hear you, blah, blah, blah." He stopped imitating a dancing squawking chicken after peaking to find Percy not saying anything, just watching him unimpressed. He cleared his throat and straightened up, blushing slightly. When he glanced towards the suddenly silent eating demigods they all looked away quickly before he could see they'd been watching. "There's a reason we don't run in the same social circles as the other mythologies, Percy." Apollo said, regaining his composure. "Bad, bad things, the unraveling of the world being the least of them, would happen. It's testy to even let you run around with the other demigods. Best not to mention or even think of them in our presence. It's bad enough I can detect their stench on you." Percy opened his mouth to protest because he was getting really tired of immortal beings telling him he stank, but Apollo just clapped his hands over Percy's mouth to stop him.

"This has nothing to do with them, this is strictly Greek with maybe a hint of Roman. You and your friends need to take care of it for me."

Percy had wrinkled his nose at Apollo’s hand covering his mouth, letting out a sigh when the sun god removed it. "Someday, I don't know when, but someday I'll be able to say no when you guys ask me for something. And it's going to be really satisfying."

"Please," Apollo had replied, becoming serious. "You're a Hero of Olympus, Percy. Whenever any Olympian needs something it's going to be you we turn to. It's the fate of our heroes."

The familiar feeling of unfairness had swept through Percy, but with a deep breath it was replaced with grim acceptance. "Sure. Where are we going?"

Apollo had smiled victoriously. "Perfect. Let's gather the others and go see Chiron, shall we?"

From there it had all been normal- or something that was quickly becoming normal for Percy. They'd decided on a group of 5 to go and scout out an area in Iowa. There'd been increased reporting of kidnappings there, but Apollo had said it wasn't a human doing the kidnapping. Jason had agreed, saying in his dream he'd seen a huge four legged creature, oddly shaped and prowling outside some sort of cave. Chiron had told them to take Festus and scout the area so they could figure out what kind of threat they were facing. Annabeth had gone to see Rachel and that was that.

So they’d went, none of them expecting it to be a dead end mission.

It had taken just half of the day to fly with Festus to Iowa. There had been no monster attacks, something they all agreed was odd, and even with five passengers Festus flew fast. When Leo finally directed him to land it made Percy’s stomach swoop at their quick dive from the sky. He may have trusted pegasi in the air since he’d convinced himself they were some middle ground between Zeus and Poseidon (the horses and the sky) and even the Argo II had seemed to be a compromise, what with being a flying boat and having the purpose of helping save the gods and the world.

This mode of transportation however was not on Percy’s Top 10 Ways to Travel list.

He liked Festus, really he did, and on the Argo II he liked to think that the two of them had reached a new understanding, what with their history. Percy had been there when the Camp had rediscovered Festus close to a year ago; Hades, he’d been one of the four of them to do the rediscovering. Silena, Annabeth, Beckendorf and him had battled giant Myrmekes for Festus and while Percy definitely hadn’t been too fond of the automaton, watching Beckendorf and the rest of the Hephaestus cabin reprogram, upgrade and take care of him had been heartwarming.

Of course, that also meant that he’d had a front row seat to watching as the Gold Dragon (he hadn’t had a name back then) had slowly gone haywire after Beckendorf’s death. Percy had tried more than a few times to help the camp capture the giant machine once they’d realized it was dangerous, hoping that his powers with water would help counteract the flames from the old thing.

Nearly being burned to death and seeing what had happened to Jake quickly put a stop to those missions.

It was okay now though, because here they were, with a tame, lovable and caring dragon taking care of them. Leo had obviously given Festus some major T.L.C., because before the Argo II, last time Percy had seen the dragon there had been scorch marks on the metal plates and the distinct aroma of ash following the automaton like cologne. He’d heard the dragon had been torn apart in the battle against Commodus before Leo and Calypso had begun staying at the Waystation. Now the scorch marks were gone, the metal polished until it gleamed and the ash smell had been replaced with Tabasco sauce. The fully recovered dragon was like it just came out of Hephaestus’ shop.

If it made Percy sad to see Festus so cooperative with Leo, to see how far the dragon had come since losing Beckendorf, well, that was his problem. He didn’t need to say anything about it. He knew that sometimes when he met Annabeth’s eyes and saw the sadness from his own reflected there that she felt the same way.

So they’d landed in Iowa, just outside of Missouri Valley. They’d touched down on a patch of grass surrounded by trees, near the Missouri River and as soon as Festus had landed Percy had slid down and walked out the nerves in his legs. Annabeth had followed, slinging her pack from her shoulders and taking out a granola bar before sitting down and watching him pace. She’d raised an eyebrow, he’d stuck out his tongue and she’d smiled before taking another bite after realizing he would be fine.

It was their special way of telling each other they were alright. Very romantic. Born from years of being around one another and a deep pool of affection. That’s what Grover liked to say.

The others jumped down after them and Leo went around to Festus’ head, speaking in gentle tones. Festus’ mouth opened, teeth whirling in something Percy guessed was a smile before walking a few feet away to curl up and rest.

“Not a fan of air travel, Percy?” Piper had asked kindly, unpacking a Ziploc baggie of nuts from the pack she’d brought before handing Jason a PB and J sandwich. She sat down beside Annabeth and got out another sandwich for herself.

Percy grimaced. “Try being a child of Poseidon who’s been personally threatened by Zeus multiple times about going in his domain and see how you feel.”

Jason shuddered. “So that’s why I hate boats.”

“Hey!” Leo chimed in. “You loved the Argo II.”

Jason sat down between Piper and Leo before smiling at him. “That’s why I hate boats, with one major exception.”

Leo took a bite of his chicken sandwich before saying, “I wish you’d told me you didn’t like flying before we left, Percy. Maybe I could have made something to help.”

“He’s fine,” Annabeth answered knowingly. “Honestly. It’s more the fear of Jason’s dad than anything that makes him nervous.” She looks back at him when he moves to stand behind her. “And we all know the King of the Gods wouldn’t smite his own child out of the sky, so we’re all safe, right Seaweed Brain?”

Percy had nodded, not feeling reassured. “Yeah, uh huh.”

Jason raised an eye. “You seriously think he hates you enough to throw a lightning bolt at you when I’m here?”

Percy opened his own pack and pulled out a couple of blue cookies, taking a bite and ignoring the now familiar exchange of looks at his coloured food that came from the trio. “Zeus really hates me. Besides, a lightning bolt probably wouldn’t hurt you, Jason.” He told Leo, Piper and Jason while Annabeth just gave a nod beside him when he sat down. A small rumble from the sky had the four of them looking up while Percy rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry, I mean the All Mighty Immortal Ruler of the Skies really hates me.”

The thunder rolled once more but quieted quickly, making Percy think Zeus may have picked up on his sarcasm. Just a little. And then the rest of the gods had been so busy laughing the King’s anger had quickly switched to them.

Piper bit her lip. “You really shouldn’t taunt them that way. The god’s I mean. Don’t they punish people for that?”

“Not that I’ve seen,” Percy replies, taking another bite of cookie.

“Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth mutters, sounding half annoyed and half amused. “Yes, they do, as you know. Chiron keeps telling you names have power, sooner or later you’re going to be sent up there to be someone’s personal slave for the day.”

Percy almost choked on his cookie and set it on his knee. “No.”

Leo looked up. “Would you mind? I mean, just a day can’t be that bad and at least you’d get to spend it in Olympus.”

“Knowing my luck it would be Ares, and I’d get to switch between being his personal punching bag and cleaning toilets all day. And believe me, by now I know every inch of Olympus by heart from Annabeth’s blueprints. I swear they’re tattooed behind my eyelids from all the times she’s shown them to me.”

Annabeth turned a glare on him. “Oh really?”

It’s not exactly fear that fills Percy at the look in her eyes, but it’s a near thing. “Not that I don’t love seeing your plans. Any time! They’re all so perfect, and exactly what the gods want! In fact I love your architecture so much, I want you to design our future house! How does that sound?”

“Oh, Hephaestus,” Leo mutters to Jason quietly, watching Percy practically grovel. “Do we all do that with our girlfriends?”

“You definitely do, Valdez,” Piper replies, taking another bite of sandwich and watching amusedly as Percy pleads with Annabeth. “You’re the most whipped out of you all. Calypso has you wrapped around her finger.”

Jason watches the humor in Annabeth’s eyes grow as Percy leans forward to kiss her and she dodges out of the way. “Really?”

Piper looks over and hums. “If either of you were dating Annabeth do you think you’d be acting any better?”

Jason and Leo exchanged looks and winced. “Well…” Leo trailed off.

“I mean…” Jason started.

“Don’t even try it, Sparky.” Piper pecked him on the cheek before standing up and dusting off the crumbs from her lap. “Anyway, if you feel Percy’s earned your forgiveness, Annabeth, should we start looking around?”

Annabeth’s sitting and watching Percy with crossed arms, but a smile keeps threatening to break out over her face. He’s currently trying to sing You Are My Sunshine with very little success.

“-My only sunshine! You make me happyyyy, when skies are grey!” He frowns. “Umm, there’s something… you’ll never know… there’s something you’ll never know… which obviously isn’t true, because you know everything.” Annabeth’s eyebrow climbs even higher and Percy hastens to rectify his mistake. “I mean not everything, obviously one person can’t know everything and you’re not as smart as your mom of course-”

Percy gives up with a groan and flops down to lay on the grass, throwing an arm over his eyes. “How does this happen every time I say something stupid?” He peeks out from under his arm. “Have I mentioned I love you?”

Annabeth’s mouth twitches again. “Next time I think you should just lead with that.”

Percy groans again and his arm comes back down over his eyes. “If I’m missing tomorrow, it’s Annabeth. She looks all forgiving and loving right now in front of you three, but when my body turns up somewhere you’ll know who did it.”

Jason rises to join Piper, mouth twitching. “The question is, will any of us turn her in? What if we think you deserved it?”

Leo jumps up excitedly. “Sorry man, Annabeth’s too scary to double cross. I guess you’re kidnapping will remain a mystery forever.”

Percy sighs. “I knew it. Abandoned by my friends, left to suffer at the hands of this-”

Annabeth interrupts him. “If you finish that sentence I can tell you that the kidnapping and torture will start right now, even in front of the witnesses.”

She’s smiling though, just resting her arms on her knees and watching her boyfriend with a happy, relaxed look in her eyes. He removes his arm from his eyes and moves to kneel beside her, closing the distance.

“You wouldn’t.” He dares, meeting her eyes, seeing the happiness there.

“Care to test that?”

“Not a chance.” He grins and stands, holding out a hand to pull up his girlfriend. “We both know you’d win. Again.”

“I keep telling you, even strength bows to wisdom.” She shoots him a knowing smile and he returns it.

“I thought that was only sometimes?”

“Is this foreplay? Is that what I’m seeing right now?” Leo interrupted, turning to speak again to Jason and Piper. “Are they going to sneak away again together and ‘just fall asleep’?”

The last three words are accompanied by air quotes, and both Annabeth and Percy turn to look at them and flush.

“We did fall asleep!” Percy protests. “I told Frank that so many times.”

Annabeth’s face is so pink it makes Piper giggle. “Get it girl!”

“I didn’t! I mean I don’t! I mean-” Annabeth’s blush turns from pink to red in seconds and Percy’s follows. “We only fell asleep.”

Jason claps hands over his ears. “I don’t need to hear this.”

“Weren’t we going to start searching?” Percy breaks in, almost desperately. “You know, looking for the big scary monster so we can start saving innocent citizens, that kind of thing.”

“I don’t know guys, if you think you can be alone together and keep it PG.” Leo says, holding his hands up in a wardIng off gesture. “None of us needs to witness anything personal, you know?”

“Oh my gods,” Annabeth mutters, grabbing Percy’s hands and stepping back. “Okay, Percy and I will look around here for anywhere the monster could be living. Apparently the people’s bodies always show up here, Leo?”

The son of Hephaestus loses his grin and a serious look overcomes his face, making him nod. “Yeah, this is near the place Jason saw. And where Apollo said to land.”

“Good. We’ll go that way. You three?”

“I’ll search from the air with Festus,” Leo says after shooting a quick look between Jason and Piper.

Jason and Piper look at him in surprise before meeting each other’s eyes. “Okay, we’ll…?”

“Search this half of the clearing and a little in the trees?” Piper finishes, waiting until Jason nods. “Meet back here when?”

“For dinner.” Percy says immediately, rummaging through the pack for another sandwich. “Whenever you get hungry.”

Annabeth rolls her eyes and checks her watch. “Let’s say six then. That gives us roughly five hours to look around and find anything suspicious.”

So they’d split up, Annabeth and Percy still holding hands, but not speaking until they’d reached the edge of the trees, because by then Percy had finished his sandwich and worked past his embarrassment enough to start.

Percy had cleared his throat. “So, Piper doesn’t know that we-”

“Yeah.” Annabeth cuts in, her grip on his hand tightening slightly as she studiously looked at their surroundings and not at him. He followed her example.

“Oh.” Percy replied. “So she thinks that night  on the Argo II we really did-”

“Wait, what?” Annabeth glances at him. “No. She knows we didn’t on the Argo II.”

“Then why’d you say yes before?”

“What were you going to ask before?”

“Whether she knew we didn’t do anything on the Argo II.” They stop, hands falling to their sides, looking at each other. “Why, what did you think I was going to ask?”

Annabeth flushes once more. “Nothing.”

Percy grins and looks at her until she meets his eyes. “Come on, what?”

She opens her mouth and closes it again before speaking. “I thought you were going to ask whether or not I told her about the other night.”

“Oh.” Percy closes his mouth, not expecting that, and he feels his face flame.

Last week they’d been at his apartment and Annabeth had slept over. Mom and Paul had been out, wanting one last date night before the baby came.

They’d been alone. In his apartment. No one had been trying to kill them and yeah, maybe they’d gotten a little carried away once they’d started kissing.

So they’d taken a step. A big one. A good one.

“Oh.” He repeats dumbly before his mind starts to work again. “So, wait- you told her? Piper knows?”

Annabeth bites her lip. “I mean, when you ask whether I told her-”

“You did tell her!” Percy asks, not sure whether to be indignant or proud. “What did you say?”

“You know, the same stuff you told the guys!” She hesitates. “Just that it was- it was good, and you were good, and… stuff.”

“What do you mean, same stuff I told them? I didn’t tell the guys.” Percy told her. “I didn’t tell anyone.”

Annabeth looks up at him. “You didn’t tell anyone anything?”

He shakes his head. “You told Piper everything?”

“I- no, not everything! Of course not! But… a lot, I guess.” Annabeth replies. “Don’t you guys talk about stuff like that?”

“No way.” Percy says. “Everyone at Camp is like family, we’re all like brothers and sisters. That would be weird.”

“Huh.” Annabeth says, turning to keep walking. “Yeah, well, Piper knows.”

Percy cocks his head. “What kind of things did you say?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “I’m not going to tell you!”

“Why not? You told Piper! Plus, I was already there! Technically,” he holds a triumphant finger in the air, in an Aha! gesture, “I already know.”

“Yeah but I told her things like, what you did, and how.” Annabeth blushes harder now, if that’s possible. “And how- how much you have to work with.”

Percy stops abruptly. “You did not.”

Annabeth’s face is permanently stained red now and she looks down. “Of course I did. Girls tell each other those things.”

“You told Piper- Piper knows how big- oh my gods.” Percy stumbles back to lean against a tree. He’s not proud anymore, but he’s not angry either. He’s more... stunned. “I can’t believe you told her that!”

“She asked!”

“Why would she ask that?”

“It’s just a curiosity thing!” Annabeth replied. “Believe me, she’s definitely not looking at you any worse for it.”

“Annabeth, oh my gods!” Percy covers his face with his hands. “Don’t tell me that!”

“It’s true! She said Jason’s-”

“No! Nope, we’re not doing that.” Percy shakes his head. “I don’t need to hear anything about that. Gods, I can’t believe you know about- about Jason, and what they’ve done.”

“They haven’t done what we did, so calm down.” Annabeth assures him. “And fine. I’m just saying, you definitely have nothing to be insecure about. She was very impressed.”

“Just leave me here.” Percy tells her, hiding his face in his hands once more. “Here, on this patch of Earth, Percy Jackson made his last stand but was eventually overpowered by the embarrassment of his girlfriend telling all of his secrets to her best friend. May he rest in peace.”

“Don’t be such a drama queen,” Annabeth said, but she’s watching him closely. “I- I didn’t say anything bad, Percy.” She moves to take his hand and stand closer to him. “You know it wasn’t bad for me.”

“It wasn’t great for you either.” He mumbles, thinking back.

“First times usually aren’t for girls.” She reminds him. “Honestly, I’ve heard stories from a lot of different people. I think ours was perfect. Just because I didn’t, you know.” She bites her lower lip again. “It was good. I liked it. Please don’t think I didn’t.”

He sighs. “I don’t want Piper- or anyone else- thinking I’m that kind of guy. Who just- you know, does what he wants and doesn’t care about you.”

“I know you’re not that kind of guy.” Annabeth says. “And believe me, nobody I’ll speak to about this, ever, will think any different. Anyway, next time-”

“Next time?” Percy asks incredulously.

She draws back, cocks a hip, crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, were you planning on remaining celibate for the rest of your life?”

“Well, no.” He blushes. “But shouldn’t we… wait, or something? Do we need to talk about it? We just did it for the first time.”

She laughs. “We don’t have to wait unless you want to,” she reassures him. “And all I was going to say was that next time we’ll be able to help each other out. Improve. Tell each other what we like. Then we’ll both… you know. It all comes from experience, Percy.”

He nods. “Right, yeah. Okay.”

She squeezes his hand. “I’m not trying to pressure you. I just want you to know that all of this… I’m okay with it.”

He meets her eyes, seeing her searching his own for something. So instead of replying he leans forward to kiss her.

It makes his gut tighten from anticipation and a low simmer start in his blood when her tongue slips in his mouth to meet his. When he reaches forward to hold her waist she moves forward, pressing against him, walking him back to lean against the tree and his arms wrap around her and pull her closer once he has that support behind him. Her hands have moved from his to slide up his arms and rest at the base of his neck, one of them playing with the hairs there.

“Maybe Leo was right and we can’t be left alone,” he gasps against her mouth when she pulls away to catch a breath and her grin is as good a reply as any. Now that he knows what she feels like, what all of her feels like, he can’t seem to get enough.

“Soon we’ll have time.” She answers. “When we get back to Camp?”

“With the gods watching who comes into their cabins at night? No thanks, I don’t think your mom would let me live if that happened.”

She sends him a knowing look as they continue to scout the trees after fixing themselves. “Your cabin, obviously. I have siblings that sleep in the same room at night. And be honest, would your dad really turn me into a dolphin?”

“Maybe not him, but your mom would definitely not hesitate to make me an owl. Not to mention if Chiron found out.”

“Chiron pulled you into the Big House and gave you condoms months ago, he told me already.” Annabeth replies, looking down at a pawprint in the ground before moving on. “He’s already given me the safe-sex talk too, if it makes you feel any better.”

“Did everyone thinks we were already doing it?” Percy asks, feeling slightly offended.

“I think the Argo II story got around.” She says back thoughtfully. “Clarisse was sending me some weird looks after we got home.”

“Gods, even Clarisse?” Percy asked. “Hey, do you think she and Chris-”

“Oh yeah,” Annabeth answered right away. “A lot. The long-distance thing does not stop those two.”

“Ew. That was not the answer I expected.” Percy said, wrinkling his nose.

From there the talk devolved into who was crushing on who (Travis on Katie, like always, Reyna on the new arrival, Stacy, at Camp Jupiter), who were the cuter couples around Camp (Juniper and Grover, of course, and Will and Nico), and how Frank and Hazel might come out to visit soon; either that or how soon the two of them would go to Camp Jupiter and visit before college. The summer air was warm and the weather was so beautiful it was like taking a walk in Central Park.

“Can you imagine us in New Rome?” Percy swings their hands back and forth perhaps a bit dramatically but Annabeth doesn’t seem to mind. “Going to school together, safe from monsters… listening to professors drone on and on about normal people stuff, like statistics.”

She hums and he sees a soft smile grace her lips. “Is it awful of me to say I can’t wait? I know someone has to keep saving the world, but I’m going to be happy when it’s not us anymore.”

He squeezes her hand. “Me too.”

They share a quick smile before turning back to scouting the area. It takes them a few hours but finally they each admit that there’s nothing there to find and head back to meet with the others.

Leo is already there and they find him sitting against Festus, head back and soft snores coming from his mouth. Annabeth’s mouth twitches and Percy holds back a laugh with nothing less than sheer willpower.

“He’s exhausted after his mission with Apollo,” Annabeth says softly. “He didn’t get many days to rest at the Waystation with Calypso. We should let him sleep while the food cooks.”

Percy had agreed, and he and Annabeth had set about making a fire and cooking dinner until Piper and Jason showed up a short time later. Piper woke up Leo by knocking his foot softly with her own. “Who’s the princess now, Sleeping Beauty?” She teased him.

Leo started and a jet of flame burst from his left hand. Luckily it landed on the already burning fire, causing Annabeth to fall backwards on her butt in surprise. Percy laughed at her and Jason couldn’t hold back a snort, making her eyes narrow as Leo rubbed at his eyes. “Ah, Pipes what the Hades?”

“Dinner time.” Piper announced happily in answer, handing Leo a cheeseburger and munching happily on her own tofu burger. She sunk down to sit beside him, crossing her legs. Festus shifted but allowed both of them to rest their backs against him.

“So,” Jason sat beside Piper. “Did we find anything?”

Percy and Annabeth both shook their heads while Leo frowned. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. But there was one spot Festus and I flew over and it felt… weird.”

“Weird how?” Annabeth leaned forward to question. “You didn’t see anything there?”

“That’s the thing, it looked exactly the same as the area around it. Nothing strange at all. I don’t know, it just had a weird energy or something.”

Piper frowned. “Weird energy? Like evil spirits energy or something creeping up behind you energy?”

Leo waved a hand in the air, as if batting away pesky questions. “Just weird.” He looked down for a few seconds before shaking his head suddenly. “Look, it’s probably nothing. I’m just stressed from everything going on. There’s probably nothing here for us to find, we should just go back to Camp.”

Percy frowned now and looked at Leo closely, just as Jason said, “But what about the missing people? Apollo’s feeling? My dream?”

“Mortals go missing all of the time.” Leo snapped. “Life sucks, okay, there are kidnappers and murderers. Monsters exist in the mortal world too, not just ours.”

All of them looked at him in surprise at his outburst and his eyes flickered from one pair of eyes to another before he looked down again. “Look, all I’m saying is I don’t think it’s something to worry about. I didn’t find anything. What about you guys?”

Piper watched Leo for a few more seconds. “Well if you’re sure,” she said, moving to place her hand over his. She squeezed and Annabeth saw Leo squeeze back.

“I’m sure.”

Piper nodded and then turned to Jason, taking her hand back to continue eating. “Well we didn’t see anything either. Everything looked normal. What about you two?”

She turned to Percy and Annabeth and Percy immediately flushed when she met his eyes, remembering his conversation with Annabeth earlier. His skin prickled uncomfortably and he looked at Annabeth, silently urging her to speak.

Annabeth, noticing his blush, bit her lip  to stop her laughter before replying. “Nothing with us either. As far as I can tell it’s just trees and this clearing. We saw a few animal pawprints but apart from that…” She shrugged. “Seems ordinary.”

Jason poked at the fire with a stick. “That doesn’t make sense. I saw something. And Apollo did too. He said it wasn’t a human doing this. We can’t both be wrong.”

“I think we should go home.” Leo said watching the flames. “Regroup, tell Chiron what we found before coming up with another plan. Maybe they’ll just forget it.”

Annabeth frowned. “I’m with Jason. Something doesn’t feel right. Maybe we’re just looking in the wrong place.”

“But if Leo’s right and there’s nothing to find?” Piper said. “Then we’re just wasting time when we should be focusing on other things. Like recovering from Nero’s attack, for example.”

Leo shuddered. “Don’t like him. Or his toilet seat friend.”

“I think we should go back to Camp too.” Percy agreed. “Talk to Chiron.”

Annabeth looked at him in surprise. “Why?”

Percy glanced at the other three before meeting her eyes. He was trying to tell her something, she could see it, but he never said it out loud. Instead he said, “Piper’s right. We shouldn’t spend time on a problem we don’t know we have and ignore a bigger one. If something else happens we can come back.”

“But people are dying out here!” Jason said. “We can’t just leave them-”

“We also have no idea what we’re up against or how to stop it.” Percy interrupted. “We don’t even know if this is a monster. Leo could be right, there are monstrous people in the world too.”

“And my dream?” Jason challenged. “The creature?”

Percy hesitated, meeting Jason’s eyes, and something in the sea green ones looked pained. “Jason, you don’t even know what you saw. You said it looked like it had four legs and was furry. That could be anything. A wolf, even a bear. Sometimes dreams are just dreams.”

Jason searched his gaze before crossing his arms. “No. You don’t believe that. You think there’s something here.”

“I think we should talk to Chiron.” Percy said firmly. “Do we need to vote on it?”

He turned to face Annabeth and she saw something grim in his expression. She cleared her throat. “No, I don’t think so. Jason, Piper?”

Piper shook her head but Jason kept watching them both carefully. “What is it? What do you two know?”

“Nothing,” Percy insisted. “We scouted the area, that’s all we were meant to do. Chiron will want us back.”

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Fine.”

“Good!” Leo clapped his hands and his voice was bright but he was watching Percy, head cocked. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning.” He looked away from Percy to turn to Festus. “Get ready for another trip, Big Guy.”

It was getting dark by that point and Annabeth managed to grab Percy’s hands when they were packing up the food. “Hey. What was that, back there? You know Jason saw something, and if Leo thought he felt something weird-”

Percy glanced at the others who were sitting by the fire, laughing. “Did you see him?” He asked her in a whisper. “He was talking about feeling something weird and then a second later, bam, he says he made it up? Do you know what that reminds me of?”

Annabeth’s mouth thinned, immediately knowing where his thoughts were at. “The Eidolon’s.”

“Or something like them. The way he snapped at Jason? That wasn’t Leo.”

“You think something’s controlling him.” Annabeth said, and it wasn’t a question. She had a light in her eyes, the same one she got when she had figured out a difficult problem. “You’re right, getting him back to Camp and telling Chiron is the best thing to do. Making him think it’s his own plan is smarter.” She looked at Percy with appreciation. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

He grinned. “I have my moments.”

She glanced at Piper and Jason. “We should tell them.”

Percy frowned. “Can’t we wait until we get back? We know, isn’t that enough?”

“Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth said. “You can’t keep putting this distance between you guys. Especially you and Jason.”

Percy rubbed at his shoulder and looked away. “I don’t know them like you do,” he muttered. “I like them, you know I do, but-”

“I know.” She said gently. “But they’re my friends, Percy, and I think if you tried they would become really good friends of yours too.”

Percy swallowed. “Every time I look at Leo I remember him blowing up New Rome, or making you, Piper and Jason grieve for him for weeks when he let us all think he was dead. Not to mention the way he used to treat Frank-” He faltered. “I remember Jason trying to kill me, and Piper...”

“What about Piper?” Annabeth asked, a bit defensively.

“She knows how big my-” Percy broke off his harsh whisper and looked at her helplessly. “That’s weird.”

Annabeth laughed. “Percy. Leo was under the Eidolon’s control when he blew up New Rome. Same with Jason when he tried to kill you. And yes, Piper knows things about you and me. Do you think that’s what she remembers every time she sees you?”

“Yes!”

“No,” Annabeth giggled. “Not at all. She has more important things to worry about, believe me.”

Percy pouted, slightly hurt at that, but Annabeth just rolled her eyes before getting serious. “As for Leo not letting us know he was alive, believe me, he’s paid for that.”

Nico had told them of his little lineup idea when Leo had arrived back on Festus, Calypso behind her. Piper and Annabeth had joined, a little late, but carried out the punishment like all the rest. Jason had just taken one look at Leo and wrapped him up in a hug, the girls soon to join.

“And Frank’s a big boy, Percy. He and Leo worked it out, didn’t they?” Annabeth looked at him softly. “You don’t always have to protect everybody you know.”

He looked at the fire and Annabeth sighed. “Look, tomorrow we’ll be back at Camp. Maybe you could, I don’t know, try talking to them? This distance isn’t helping anybody, especially on quests like this.”

Percy nodded. “But do we have to tell them? I could be wrong.”

Annabeth shook her head. “No, I don’t think you are. You’re right, Leo’s attitude was weird. And the fact that he was the one to sense the ‘weird feeling’ and then started acting odd? Too much of a coincidence.”

“Hey, lovebirds!” Piper called, winking at Percy once the couple turned towards her. “Care to join us? We’re betting on whether it will be Katie to ask Travis out or the other way around.”

Percy and Annabeth looked at one another, both of them smiling, and Annabeth raised an eyebrow. Percy sighed, shrugged one shoulder and nodded slightly, giving in and admitting that once again she was probably right.

“Oh, no.” Percy answered Piper, taking Annabeth’s hand and dragging her over to sit with them. “You three are late to this game, the Camp has a betting pool about that already. It’s been going on for years.”

“Really?” Jason asked.

Percy glanced at Annabeth and she smiled, warmth in her eyes. Maybe she was right. These three weren’t that bad, and Percy did like them a lot. Maybe he should let his guard down.

“Oh yeah,” Percy nodded, turning back towards them. “There were a lot of betting pools going on. Katie and Travis became the couple to bet on after Annabeth and I, though neither of us knew it at the time…”

oooOOOooo

It’s slowly coming back to him.

His memory. What led him here. He doesn’t recognize where he is, but outside it looks like the same forest they’d been sent to scout. Of course Percy’s not Grover, and trees have never been his strong suit, but he’s pretty sure it’s the same ones.

Like a good 65% sure. Which is enough for him. He’s gone off worse odds before.

Reckless, Annabeth’s voice sing-songs, and Percy almost wants to grin.

As far as Percy can tell, he’s been here for a day, maybe two. Most of the time he’s been unconscious or sleeping, he’s not sure which probably a bit of both, and right now he’s starting to get really, really hungry. And thirsty. The constant drip of water is driving him crazy.

He wants his mom’s homemade lasagna. Annabeth’s PB and J sandwiches. Even one of Piper’s tofu burgers or Grover’s vegetarian enchiladas sounds pretty good-

Grover!

Percy’s thoughts are still slow, and sluggish and he blames that in the fact that he’s never thought of using the empathy link before now.

The only problem is this; he can’t feel Grover.

Percy closes his eyes and concentrates. He’s never really used the empathy link to communicate with Grover it’s usually the other way around with Grover connecting with him in his sleep. Still, there was always this feeling, this tenuous thread in his brain that he could tug or nudge that would make him feel something.

Percy searches his mind, searches every corner he can and feels deep into his very core, but he can’t feel anything. He’s empty.

Which brings another fact to his attention.

Water is surrounding him. It’s dripping from the roof, it’s soaking into his jeans and freezing his skin and bones. Yet there’s no connection, there’s no feeling in his gut or prickling of his senses. He can’t feel the water, apart from how cold and wet it is.

He feels how cold it is because it’s getting him wet. His clothes, his skin… it’s seeping through to his bones.

No matter how hard he tries to dry himself, or move the water away, stop it from dripping, anything, he can’t. There’s just the constant drip, drip, drip and the ice moving through his bones, making him cold and his teeth chatter.

Again he thinks that there’s magic in this cave, because it’s summer in America and he’s absolutely freezing. Sure he’s wet, but he shouldn’t be this cold, should he?

Panic fills him. Blind panic that absolutely consumes every nerve and cell in his body. His powers are gone. His memory is gone. His wrists are rubbed raw and he’s stopped struggling because he feels blood dripping down his arms whenever he moves. His legs are like ice, he has no connection to Grover and no idea where he is or who has him here.

Percy’s control is gone. He’s helpless.

He wants to cry, he wants to scream and yell. He wishes he’d inherited his father’s power over earthquakes, but then again he supposes that he wouldn’t be able to use them.

He misses Annabeth.

Percy misses Annabeth and his mom, Grover, Tyson and Paul. He misses them in that moment so badly it hurts and, not for the first time but definitely stronger than he’s ever felt before, Percy realizes there’s a high possibility that he’ll never see them again. That he’ll never go to college, marry Annabeth and grow old with her.

Gods, he might not even meet his baby sister.

He can’t remember being so powerless.

Somehow he doesn’t cry. Maybe he’s so dehydrated (his throat is like sandpaper, he has a huge headache and his muscles are killing him) that he has no tears.

Instead he breathes deeply. He tries to think of something, anything that could help him. Again, he remembers Riptide and he’s pretty sure the weight in his pocket is the sword. However, without a free hand, Riptide is useless.

He looks up, craning his neck to see what’s holding him up. Chains attached to manacles that are firm and cold metal around his wrists.

Percy cringes. He knows how to escape from manacles, they learn how to escape common bonds at Camp. Of course, all it takes is breaking your thumb. Or is dislocation enough? Percy can’t remember.

He grits his teeth. This memory thing is becoming a real pain.

He looks up again, neck starting to hurt at the bad angle, and wriggles his hands. One of his arm shoots with pain and Percy cries out.

Nerve damage, Seaweed Brain! Annabeth’s voice rings in his ears and Percy breathes deeply, slumping down. Be careful, dummy!

“Ah, finally! You’re awake!”

The deep voice makes Percy yell and scramble backwards as fast and as far as he can, gritting his teeth against the wave of fresh agony, eyes flying open.

Fear, as terrible and creeping as a drug in Percy’s veins, sweeps through him.

Standing in front of him was a giant.

He wasn’t as large as some others Percy had seen, like Polybotes or Porphyrion, and he didn’t look as strong as them either (though Percy knew looks could be deceiving), but there was a look in his eyes that made the fear take root and grow in Percy.

“I thought you would never wake up, just keep moaning and tossing your head around like an animal! It was amusing at first, but lost it’s charm fairly quickly, please don’t do it again.”

Percy opened his mouth, closed it. Opened it again and tried to speak, but a cough and rattle of breath was all that escaped.

“Oh, how rude of me!” The giant clapped his hands and Percy saw something yellow fly from the huge palms at the action. Something that looked almost like… was that egg yolk? “You must be thirsty, I’m so sorry, I’ll grab you some water.”

Percy would have laughed if he could at how distressed the giant seemed to be over his thirst yet completely oblivious to the fact that his entire body was in pain from being hung up and chained.

“And food too!” The giant had a lumbering waddle as he moved past the fire, throwing his features into sharper relief. His hair was pitch black, though it might have been the darkness in the cave, and his scales were a deep, emerald green. He had a large, round forehead with a smooth hairline, but his chin came to a soft point. The cheekbones were angled and sharp, leading Percy’s eyes to his lips, which were puffy and a paler green. His teeth were jagged and yellow, but all there. The giant’s eyes were deep grey and full of intellect, a sharp glint in them making Percy suspect this giant knew exactly the persona he was giving off and the impression he was making. It was a look letting Percy know that this giant was in charge and he knew it.

You know. In case the fact that he was chained to a cave wall wasn’t a big enough clue of who the real boss around here was.

“I will give you my favourite, I just made it fresh!” The giant returned, moving to go next to Percy. His skirt of leather (dark, black leather which hangs in strips from a metal chain at his waist) reaches his mid-calf and flies out slightly behind the monster when he slumped to sit down. “First though, you drink.”

A rather large bowl was placed in front of Percy and he looked at the giant warily.

“No poison, this I promise.” The giant said, eyes solemn, and Percy hesitated. “I do not break promises, Perseus. This you will see.”

The use of his full name made Percy’s gut clench in fear even more. It seemed to be a common trait of his enemies to call him Perseus, one he was quickly tiring of. Percy turned his attention back to the bowl. It was possible this had been the bowl collecting water dripping from the roof and Percy decided if he was going to die here he might as well have a drink first.

He slowly placed his lips to the bowl’s rim and the giant tilted it upwards. Percy could smell the monster’s stench, and again the overwhelming scent of French Toast came over him, surrounded by maple syrup.

Maybe he’s Canadian, Percy thinks stupidly. Then he thinks of Frank and is reminded that he needs to get back home as soon as possible. That means keeping his strength up.

So he drank, slowly at first, and then longer, steadier gulps. Water sloshed over the bowl and landed on his shirt, making him colder than before, but Percy didn’t stop, just kept gulping.

“No.” The giant pulled the bowl away suddenly. “Drink too much and get sick, this I will not let happen. You will drink again after food.”

Percy cleared his throat and finally manages to speak. “Who are you? What am I doing here?”

The giant looked at him as if he was in pain. “Questions and answers after, I have many for you as well. First you will eat. I do not know much of mortals but I think you must be hungry by now.”

He brought forward a plate and the smell strengthened. When Percy looked he saw French Toast and he wanted to laugh.

“French Toast?” He asked instead.

The giant sighed. “One question before we start, then.” He looked back at the plate and brightened. “Yes, French Toast! I love it very much, so sweet. I’m quite taken with it, I’d never encountered it before. Sadly there are no restaurants that sell it for breakfast in Tartarus. Do you not care for it?”

Percy felt like this was all a dream or nightmare. Likely the latter. Or reality, because that’s just how his life seemed to be now.

“Of course.” He said distantly. “I like it too.”

“Perfect!” The giant clapped his hands again, making more egg yolk fly. “Obviously I will feed you as you are a bit, how do you say, tied up at the moment.” He giggled and Percy realized that the monster in front of him might not only be a giant escaped from Tartarus, but an insane giant from Tartarus.

He didn’t say anything. He only bit from the (rather large) pieces of French Toast that the giant held up on a fork for him to eat.

It could be poisoned, Annabeth’s voice goes through his head again but Percy can’t do anything about it. He’s hungry and there’s no way to check and see if the food is going to kill him.

Percy grudgingly admitted that it tasted amazing.

“There, now I hope you are feeling better! Not so sore of a stomach now, yes?”

Percy refused to thank the giant, but he did nod.

“Wonderful. Now, Perseus Jackson,” the giant turned very grave very suddenly. “I would like to introduce myself. I am Aristaeus and we must talk. I have many things to say to you before I ruin you for killing my family.”

[rosyredlipstick]

Rental Love* (6\10)

(*Read Terms & Conditions)

- Male/22/Long Island N.Y.C. Tired of showing up stag at holiday events? Want your family to stop thinking there’s something wrong with you? Just want some arm candy for a work event? Look no further. Your solution is here! I will attend holiday events with you as your paid date. Accepting all genders as applicants. Email solace.w@fastmail.com if interested. Interview & application will be set up there. - Nico di Angelo has been telling Hazel Levesque about his boyfriend for weeks. The bad part? Nico doesn’t have a boyfriend, the holidays are coming up, and not all of Jason’s ideas are horrible. They’re all a bit surprised about the last one. Read Part One Here Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five

“I can’t believe we’re doing such a stereotypical Chicago tourist thing. We could literally be doing anything else.”

“Technically, I am a tourist.”

“And,” Hazel pointed out, her movements sure and without hesitation. “We did just go to Christkindlmarket which is, like, prime tourist.”

Nico glared at her betrayal as she finished up lacing up her shoes tight. She tucked the knot in and stood, ignoring his look, and grabbed onto Frank’s hand. “See you on the ice!”

He grumbled under his breath, resisting the urge to flip her off as she took to the ice, smooth as ever.

“Need some help?” Will dipped down, nodding to Nico’s knotted skates. He went to work without Nico’s response, untying the clumpy laces from whatever past schmuck had rented the crappy skates.

Nico scowled, crossing his arms. “Why can’t I just sit here while you guys skate? I’m gonna end up on my ass either way.”

Will gave him a sunny smile, “Because then ~” He dragged the end of the word out, “I wouldn’t have any arm candy, would I? Now come on, don’t be a chicken.”

“I’m not a chicken.” He muttered, standing. He wobbled once, twice, before giving up and latching onto Will’s arm.

“Course you’re not.” Will only happily agreed, letting Nico man-handle his arm into a supporting position.

Nico took a deep breath as they approached the entrance to the ice, his legs already aching. His feet were gonna be in a condition later, he already knew, and not a pleasant one.

They took to the ice, Nico letting go of Will’s arm to desperate clench at the railing instead. Good. He trusted the railing.

A child, clearly under the age of ten, zoomed past him just as he took his first few careful steps forward. Fuck, this was hard.

Will was smiling at him, happy and beaming like the goddamn sun, as he skated backwards to face Nico. The scowl on his face only deepened.

“How are you so good at this.” Nico muttered. How are you so good at everything.

Will shrugged, that ridiculous happy look still on his face. “I go ice skating every year with my sisters.” He snickered as Nico’s skates attempted to slid out from under him. “Which, apparently, you don’t do.”

The railing ended, and Nico was faced with the open ice. He took a quick breath and kept the shifting of his weight smooth and slow. Another kid - a few of them - darted around him.

“I can usually get away with sitting out.” Nico told him through gritted teeth, his arms wind milling around him as he desperately tried to keep his balance.

Will gave him a knowing look. “Ah, but not this year?”

Nico managed to keep himself upright. “Hades thinks the photos will be, and I quote, ‘incredibly adorable’ and then threatened to disown me if I didn’t come along.”

“And you believed him?” Will raised an eyebrow, mirth still playing on his fine features. He, like everyone who had ever witnessed Hades with his children, could obviously see how harmless the threat was.

Will finally seemed to take pity on him, sliding smoothing across the few feet between them to dip one of his shoulders under Nico’s frailing hand. Nico, desperately thankful and thankfully desperate enough, grabbed onto the other boy’s shoulder with a steel grip before his skates could fall out from under him. Will barely stifled his laugh.

“Careful now.” Will’s voice was inflated with hardly concealed laughter. “Don’t wanna hit a kid or anything.”

“I’m going to hit you if you don’t be quiet.”

Will went quiet with the threat. Not because he believed him at all - Nico wasn’t lucky enough for that - but because Will was grinning brightly up at Nico.

“What?” Nico growled after a moment, moving his gaze to his shifting feet on the ice.

“No, it’s just - “ Will chuckled a bit, his gaze shifting away. “It’s cute, is all. How frustrated you’re getting.”

Nico blinked a few times, and then his heart - and ass - fell to the ice.

He stared up at the sky, the cold ice creeping up his back along with an ache.

He could stay here. Forever. The rest of the skaters could just skate around him forever - he’d be an obstacle course and local legend in all.

They say he was once complimented by his fake-boyfriend and fell ass first on the ice. Now he can’t move ever again due to the sheer embarrassment. No, don’t look directly into his eyes - there’s tears there.

Will was already howling with laughter, but came over to him quickly, his hand extended.

“Sorry about that.” Will was still laughing, glancing back to the place Nico’s ass had just firmly made acquaintance. “Must have hit a rough patch, I should have been looking.”

Nico nodded, simply grateful Will hadn’t realized this guy got a compliment and literally fell flat on his ice. Hilarious.

Will held out his hand, looking like every movie star poster rolled in one. Nico gave up on the safe life of ice rink obstacle and took it, heaving himself up.

Will gave him an amused look. “You okay?”

Nico nodded, hoping the blush would stay on his cheeks. His cheeks were a lost hope, but hopefully the rough red wouldn’t spread to his neck and ears like it tended to even Nico embarrassed himself within an inch of his life.

“Your neck’s all red.” Will observed, amused. “You’re fine - everyone has a bad fall eventually.”

Not you and your stupid perfect face he thought a bit angrily.

Nico continued to slip and slide across the ice, Will’s happy eyes too pleasant for such an unpleasant activity. Nico debated punching him, or ‘accidently’ pulling them both to the ground, but eventually surrendered to the thought he wouldn’t be able to do this on his own.

“I’ll go grab us hot chocolate.” Will offered, shifting away.

Nico curled his fingers even tighter around Will’s flannel. Damn hipster.

“Don’t you dare leave.” Nico hissed, pulling the other boy closer. “I won’t last a second on open ice and you know that.”

Will gave him a pitying glance. “You’re going to have to leave the nest someday, Neeks.” He smiled and that, with the addition of Will’s close proximity and the faint smell of the caramel popcorn they had shared on their way to the rink, nearly had Nico sprawled across the ice. Ass flat and everything.

“Are you saying you don’t want hot chocolate then?” Will continued as if Nico wasn’t contemplating death via ice skate.

“Of course I want hot chocolate.” He muttered. “But you’re totally not leaving me out here.”

Will let out a false groan. “Ugh. Fine.” The sparkle in his eye was at full blast. He grabbed onto Nico’s waist, pulling him with him as he started to slid off the ice.

Finally Nico breathed a sigh of relief, his hands still curled into the fabric of Will’s shirt. It was warm, and his fingers were cold. It was only logically to keep his hand there. It was...science. Yes. Science.

Fuck. Nico didn’t know shit about science. He failed freshman biology.

Will glanced back at him, his expression his amused, and his hand tightened on Nico’s waist to start helping him off the ice.

Nico had to mentally crackle, a bit hysterically.

Nico had failed biology, but it looks like Will was determined to make him past chemistry.

Haha.

Kill him.

His skates tried to slide out from under him.

Nevermind, apparently. His own feet are going to do the job for him.

“Hurry up, the line’s getting long.”

Nico grumbled under his breath, but did as told.

“It’s not that bad.”

“It is that bad and this is all completely your fault.”

Will rolled his eyes, taking on a bit more of Nico’s weight. “It’s not my fault you didn’t wear the correct socks.”

“How the hell was I supposed to even know there is a correct kind of sock? How, Will? Please, inform me.”

“You’re so whiny.”

Nico gritted his teeth. “I can feel my peeled skin rubbing against my sneakers.”

Will winced at that, leading Nico over to the couch. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Nico did as told - sitting being the best option for him, it seemed - and began slowly peeling the stiff fabric off his feet. He heard the door click close, from where Will had probably just pressed it down. The dark fabric stuck to his skin - slightly, but slightly enough for Nico to hiss in pain - as he removed the sock. Fuck. That hurt.

There were a few blisters, nothing bad, but the angry sting that left behind was noticeable enough that Nico was already daydreaming about the bottle of aspirin he had shoved in the back of his bedside table. There was a few flakes from the bites of dried blood still on his skin and he used the crumbled fabric to wipe it off. Gross.

Will returned, his hands full, and wrinkled his nose at the small pitiful pile of Nico’s wrinkled socks on the couch. The fireplace was roaring behind him, and Nico wondered who even took the time to light it every afternoon. Surely not his father, but perhaps Persephone. She was one to enjoy the warmth.

He sat down next to him, careful as not to jostle Nico’s ankles resting on the edge of the couch. Nico gave him a curious look as he set out the plush red bag, beginning to set out supplies on the small coffee table.

Will caught him looking. “I know you said you wouldn’t trust me with a papercut.” He teased, the tone of his voice probably having much to do with the lingering presence of Persephone in the tea room. “But I can clean these up pretty well, you know.”

Nico watched him for a moment before kicking his ankles into Will’s open lap. “I guess.” He finally said as Will seemed to be waiting for his agreement. “Don’t cut my leg off or anything.”

“I’ll do everything I can to resist.” Will told him good naturally, sarcasm thick in his voice.

He used a few cotton balls to get the rest of the dried blood on the blisters before grabbing a small baggy of q-tips and a tub.

“This is gonna sting.” Will warned him, the end of his cotton swab layered with clear ointment. Nico nodded, keeping his face clear. He didn’t wince as Will applied the gel, or when Will finished that up and began applying a few tight band-aid looking things, but he did let out a small sigh as Will finished up the process.

Will began packing up his supplies, crumbling the ripped up wrappers in his hand. He stood.

“Thank you.” Nico’s voice was quiet.

Will glanced back to the other boy, looking away as he poked at his bandages. Will had wrapped his feet and ankles with care, much more care than he usually put into such simple task. It seemed important at the time, handling the pale skin, the thin bones of Nico’s feet, with his eyes heavy on Will.

Nico, he noticed, was softer when people took care of him. Will wondered if it was something he wasn’t used to.

“You’re welcome.” And Will didn’t mean to make his voice come out just as soft, he really didn’t, but he found it fit nicely in the dark and warm air.

Nico dipped his face into the shadows, and wished his face wasn’t as bright as it was.

Will vaguely wondered if the blush was due to the active fireplace feet away.

Somehow, for some odd reason, he didn’t think so.

The next morning - after a slow shuffle up the stairs that wasn’t nearly as awkward as it should have been - Will was grinning down at him as Nico woke up, slowly but surely, groaning and popping his back along the way.

“Sleep well?” Will asked, adjusting his weight on the blankets. Nico was still very curled under the warm fabric, while Will sprawled across the mattress next to him, above the blankets.

Nico only groaned in reply. That was good enough.

“What are the plans for today?” Will asked, looking too put together for nine in the morning. Jerk must have gotten up earlier and returned to bed - his bedhead was usually a lot worse. Nothing like the messy perfection Will must have tugged at for a few minutes in the mirror. Not that Nico noticed.

Nico pushed his face back into his pillow, blocking out any of the light. “No plans.” He muttered, his voice only hardly audible. “I think it’s my turn to cook later tonight - I’m totally making you help - but we’re free till then.”

Will hummed in response, flicking through his phone. The glow reflected on his eyes nicely, and Nico really, really tired to ignore that fact. Goddamn Will and his too-blue eyes.

Will’s voice was amused. “Free to sleep in until noon, I presume?”

Nico hid his slight smile in the fabric, “You know it.”

“Persephone said Allegra prepared breakfast with some of the Christmas leftovers.” Will informed him, his voice off-hand. “I was told to let you know something about a, uh, what was it? Forcatta?”

Nico paused in his readjustment of position. His heart froze. “Do...do you mean focaccia?”

Will nodded, a bit embarrassed at his horrible pronunciation. “Yeah! Uh, with some of the leftovers? She said it would be ready when you finally got out of bed.”

Nico was frozen in the moment for a single beat before it finally hit him.

He stumbled out of bed, tripping over the sheets tangled around his legs. He - he had to go, get down stairs - and now that he thought about it he could almost smell it -

Will yelped in surprise, taking a moment before he was following Nico’s example. “What’s wrong? What are you doing?”

Nico shoved on a shirt, “You should have woken me up!”

Will gave him a doubtful look, following Nico’s frantic presence as he near-sprinted out of the room. “And risk death? No thanks.”

Nico rolled his eyes, darting towards the staircase. “Allegra only makes focaccia maybe three times a year - after Christmas, and on our birthdays.” He clenched his teeth as the heavenly fragrance began to hit him as he bounced down the stairs. “And Hazel’s going to eat it all.”

Nico skidded into the kitchen, and was so overcome with relief he nearly cried.

Hazel wasn’t here yet.

Allegra - their main chef and head housekeeper - turned as they entered, and Nico could see the small overflowing plate in front of her, still steaming.

Okay, Nico might have cried a little.

She turned on them, her fists on her hips, and stared up at them. She was small, but her her presence was anything but. Her glare could - and had - bring a strong man to his heels.

“Buongiorno, Allegra.” Nico liked using his Italian with her. She was always quick to denounce him for his horrible pronunciations, despite his words being nearly perfect, and his Italian nearly fluent. It was a nice thing they had between them.

The older woman frowned up at him, seizing him up. “Too skinny.” She finally decided on, as she always did.

Nico gave her a rare, charming smile. He liked to save them for her. “I guess you’ll have to fix that, won’t you?”

She swatted him with her oven mitt, “Making me do all the work around here.” She muttered, already turning to fix up their plates. She was smoothing a thick amount of butter over Nico’s, a scowl on her face. “Boy goes off to school, doesn’t write, doesn’t call, still expects me to remember how he likes his favorite food.”

“I call once a week.” He reminded her, peeking over her shoulder. She was layering a thick amount of her famous cilantro dressing on the bread, still grumbling. That was exactly how he liked it.

She cut her stern gaze over to him. “You could stand to visit more.” She informed him, adding a few bites of grilled meat onto his plate. Looks like he was eating a full-coarse meal. “And where are your manners, boy? You haven’t even introduced your guest to me. Where did all of your etiquette training go?”

Nico gave her a smile, pulling Will forward by his wrist. “This is Will, my boyfriend.” He told her, and her gaze flickered over to the other boy as she paused in her actions.

Allegra was strict, no-nonsense, a bit cruel, and probably the closest thing Nico had to a mother figure growing up.

Her eyes were calculating, considering. “I understand you’ve been seeing each other for a few months now?”

Nico had to suppress his eyeroll but nodded. She and Hades had definitely been gossiping late at night, like they were bound to do. Countless times had Nico waundered in the kitchen for a late-night snack and come across the two, huddled over some report card or newest art piece, laughing and discussing Hazel and Nico with fondness in their voices.

Allegra was the only person who held somewhat authority over Hades too. Older than him, Hades followed her instruction like she was the one in the charge, and not vise versa. It worked well, having someone to reign Hades in. Persephone, more the often, enjoyed the chaos that came with some of Hades’s more....out there plans.

Allegra was still eyeing up Will, the wrinkled on her face pressing back and forth as she considered the other boy. “And you - what’s your business with my boy?”

Will kept his cool, but was visibly thrown off a bit. Everyone had immediately welcomed into the family with wide - too wide - arms. Allegra’s nature was one of suspicion.

“I…” He glanced to Nico, and didn’t have to force the fond look that erupted with the action. “I like him, m’am. A lot. I like being with him. He - he makes me happy.”

“You’re not lying,” She observed, and neither of them wanted to particularly explore that statement at that moment. She turned away, nodding. “Alright. You can stay.”

Will looked thrown, like he didn’t even know ‘not staying’ was an option. With Allegra, and her subtle but loving hold over the household, it would have been. Nico should have introduced him sooner.

Allegra was shoving warm plates into their hands, taking a moment to smooth her wrinkled hand over Nico’s cheek. She patted his skin, a bit too rough, and eyed his long hair. “Cut your hair.” She ordered, “And don’t get involved with trouble. Go eat.”

“Got it!” Nico grinned, taking his plate happily. Allegra’s definition of ‘trouble’ varied from ‘going out after nine on a school night’ and ‘getting involved with the local gang’ so. Nico was probably fine.

Will let out a breath as they disappeared from sight, Nico leading them into the dining room with their plates.

Nico gave him an amused look. “You okay?”

Will blinked a few times, “I think I almost died.”

Nico patted his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s about how everyone feels about meeting her for the first time. She’s great.”

Will didn’t argue, but there wasn’t a noise of agreement. He was probably a bit still in shock.

“Eat your food.” Nico took pity on him. “It’s heaven on earth.”

Will did so, probably just for the distraction, and made a pleasant noise of surprise.

“I know right!” Nico said eagerly.

“It’s amazing!” Will dipped a bit of the bread into the sauce.

Nico nodded in agreement. “It’s not that hard to make - I’ve tried a few times - but no one makes it like Allegra.” He ripped a bite of his own square of bread, loving the salt and oil smell that was so familiar and bound to his childhood. Gods. No one made it like Allegra.

“It’s delicious!” Will was already onto his second bite. “She only makes it three times a year?”

“I could eat it everyday.” Nico insisted, despite the fact that, uh, no he probably couldn’t. It was delicious, salty, and perfectly flakey - but also made with the useage of a small tub of lard. So like. Nico probably shouldn’t.

It’s not like he ate healthy or anything - they all knew about Nico’s secret hot pocket obsession - but that would be a step too far for even him.

They finished their meal, waxing poetic about the golden flakey pieces of heaven before them, making the other snort into their plates.

They washed off their dishes, Will looking a bit relieved at the empty kitchen. It was always nice when people feared Allegra a bit. Nico wanted to be her.

“What do you want to do?” Will checked his watch, because he was the kind of person who actually wore a watch. Nerd. “We’ve got the whole day.”

Nico bit his lip and shifted his weight. “Wanna listen to some music? I mean - um,” He rubbed at the back of his neck, “You said you wanted to? When I got the vinyls from Hades?”

Will blinked at him a few times before grinning widely, brilliantly. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds cool.”

Nico lead him back into his room, feeling a bit strange. This was the first time they were going into his room for another reason rather than sleeping or changing, just simply hanging out.

He messed with the stereo for a moment, making sure there was no dust on the needle, all the controls were in place, before carefully sliding the record out of the plastic covered case.

He made a noise of appreciation, flipping it with his fingertips. It was perfect, in a way a vinyl fresh out of plastic wrapping could be. Not a scratch or speck of dust anywhere.

Nico carefully placed the vinyl on the player, moving the needle over and setting it down carefully. He fiddled with the buttons and knobs for a second until the familiar - nearly welcoming - crackle started up, and he threw himself on the bed to join Will on the mattress.  

The first song - one of Nico’s favorites - started up with a few presses of piano, and he sighed into the calm air.

Nico sang along softly, his voice rough and low, and his eyes fluttered shut with the music. Will noticed this.

By the time Nico had to stand and switch out the records, Will was sitting up, his eyes thoughtful.

“What do you think?” He asked, returning to his former position. Side C began playing with a few low, full notes. In a Week. A song about falling in love even through death. This song always reminded Nico of nature, and being alive, despite that.

“They’re very morbid.” Will observed, his head cocked to the side. “This is their fourth song mentioning death.”

“They’re amazing.”

“They’re very good.” Will allowed him, turning his head to face him. They were laying back in Nico’s bed, the music passing them. Nico had his arms crossed behind his head, staring up at the ceiling, his legs half-hanging off the edge of the bed. Will continued, “I just don’t think they’re my type of music.”

“Clearly your type of music isn’t good then.” Nico muttered, just loud enough so Will could scoff in response. There was a beat of silence before Nico asked, “Well? What type of music do you even listen to then?”

Will happily listed a few artists, his fingers out as he counted them, and it took Nico a long, worrying second of listen to this before he realized.

“Wait.” Nico cut him off, scrambling into a sitting position. He stared at Will with wide eyes. “You like top forty?”

“And showtunes. And Disney.” Will added, his face sunny.

Nico continued staring at him. “You’re a goddamn trainwreck, Will Solace.”

Will gave him a look. “It’s top forty for a reason, di Angelo. People like it. It’s good and fun and I like it.”

Nico stared at him for a long moment before falling back onto the bed. “I can’t believe you like top forty. This is...ugh.”

Honestly, this was probably good. Nico couldn’t like someone with horrible music taste. He couldn’t. This was good. This would help him stop liking Will, or at least stop his heart from attempting a jailbreak out of his chest every time the other boy did something as horrible as smiling or laughing or looking over at Nico with that fond look in his too-blue eyes.

So yeah. This was good.

“It’s good music.” Will shrugged, his voice still happy.. “It’s fun to listen to. And up-beat.”

God. And he was shameless about it. That had to ruin it. It was one thing to listen to horrible music - it was a completely different thing to be proud of it.

“If you call top 40 good one more time in this house, you’re leaving.” Nico covered his hands with his face. “Gods, had I known. Who cares about personal info and contracts - this is what we should have discussed in our first meeting. Gods.”

The other boy barked out a laugh, his head falling back, and wasn’t that fun. Realizing that fuck, his heart was probably flipping off rational thought right about now - the rational thought that Nico couldn’t like someone with horrible music taste, Nico couldn’t like Will - and Nico’s cheeks heated at the sound, filled with color, and his heart was probably laughing hysterically by the turn of events.

Fuck. Apparently -

- apparently Nico could like someone with horrible music taste.

Will began to loudly teasingly hum Justin Bieber, and Nico’s never wished for a sweet, swift death more.

Will ended up falling asleep like the lazy sack he was, half-spread out across Nico’s bed, taking up much too much space. The record came to an end, the sound of the ancient speakers crinkling a familiar take-back to his childhood. Will’s soft snores took the music’s absence in the empty air after a long while of Nico enjoying the silence, staring up at the ceiling, his mind half-thought, half cotton.

And Nico Absolutely Didn’t stare at Will for a long moment while the other boy slept - his eyes fluttering, his breath soft against the pillow - because that would be creepy and weird and they all read Twilight okay, that’s not exactly the picture of normal and sane.

So like. Nico totally, completely didn’t do that.

He pushed himself off the bed, shaking his head and the thought of Will’s slack, peaceful face out of it, taking much too much care in making sure not to jostle the other boy.

He closed the door softly behind him, careful the click behind him didn’t slam, and made his way down the hallway.

He found himself downstairs, drawn to the warmth and light fragrance drifting out of Persephone’s tea room.

He knocked on the half-open door, slightly curious, mostly bored, and let himself in after a moment.

Both Persephone and Hades smiled at him as he entered, both of them folded on separate ends of a shared couch. Persephone held a book in her lap, Hades with some sort of paperwork in his own, with tea spread out on the table nearest to them.

Hades smiled at him warmly, “What can we do for you, son?”

“Bored.” He answered, jerking his chin to the couch across from them. “Can I sit?”

Hades began gathering his paperwork into a loose, messy pile. He let Persephone answer. It was her room, after all.

“Yes, of course.” Persephone folded the corner of her page, not looking over yet. Hades stood, gathering his things. Nico glanced over at the grandfather clock in the corner. It was nearly five - he would probably have some sort of skype meeting soon. Even on his holidays, Hades could hardly get away from the office.  

Nico threw himself over the couch, his legs hanging over the arm, and glanced at her from under his messy hair. “Whatcha reading?”

Persephone snapped the novel close, a rare smirk crossing her face. “Just some book about a wife framing her husband for murder. Very informative.”

Hades leaned in to brush a kiss across her temple. “If anyone could do it, dear, it’d be you. I believe in you.” He patted Nico’s head as he past, quick enough that Nico couldn’t dunk out from under his hand. “You and Will are handling dinner tonight, yes? Allegra deserves a break after the wonderful Christmas feast she put together.”

Nico waved his question off. “Yeah, yeah. We’ll figure it out.”

Hades seemed pleased with this - was always pleased when it was Nico’s rare night to cook - and turned out of the room, nearly skipping in his step. “I look forward to it, my family!”

Nico held down a snort. His father was ridiculous.

“Tea?” Persephone questioned, her hands already in the motions of preparing another cup. He nodded, mostly absentmindedly.

She poured him a cup, nudging the sugar cup towards him with the saucer. It was a delicate tea set, fingernail thin china with precisely painted black roses trailing across the glossy surface. Hazel had gotten it for her birthday a few years ago, he thinks, plucked from the antique shop downtown from their L.A. manor.

He nodded as he took the cup from her, holding the glass close and letting the heat leach through. It was a surprising comfort.

Persephone took a small sip of the bitter liquid, always preferring hers plain. “So Nico.” She gave him a critical look, her eyes sweeping over his figure. “What do you want to talk about?”

She was always too good at reading him. What other people saw as a code-encrypted puzzle, double bound shut with redacted lines, she read as easily as an alphabet instructional pamphlet. It was hard to hate that about her. It reminded him of his sister.

He sighed, dropping all pretenses. “I need to talk to you about something. I have a friend. With a problem. And I, I don’t know what to say.”

“A friend?” Persephone raised a knowing eyebrow.

“An actual friend, it’s, um, Jason.” Nico lied, “It’s not me or anything.”

Persephone still had that knowing look in her eyes. “Alright.” She finally agreed, “What does this ‘friend’ need help with?”

Nico let out a small breath. “Okay. So.” He nodded, gathering this thoughts. “Say, okay, say this friend of mine met someone. And even though my friend and this person totally got off to a rocky start, my friend actually really likes them now. Like. Romantically. But the person they met isn’t exactly on the same...page. I guess. They don’t see their relationship like that and my friend totally doesn’t want to ruin that. But they also don’t want to lose these feelings and...yeah.”

Persephone blinked at his sudden ramble of words. “Oh. So, this isn’t you?” She blinked a few more times, “I thought we were going to hypothetically talk about your own problems and both pretend it’s completely hypothetical.”

“When have I ever done that?” Nico asked, even though the answer was many, many times.

Unknowingly, Persephone had helped a lot of his ‘friends’ deflect the law in high school.

“And this is...Jason?” She asked, thinking. Which, crap, Nico totally should have come up with a random name or person that Persephone wouldn’t ever have the chance to talk to. Not Jason, the kid that was basically Persephone’s second son. He’d have to warn Jason before New Years.

Persephone continued, “I thought he was dating Piper? Or was it Leo?”

“Honestly, I don’t think any of them know. Both of them?” Nico shrugged. “I think they’re both dating Jason but Piper and Leo are just best friends? It’s confusing, but they’re always over and eating our food.”

“I should send more fudge than.” She contemplated, her finger to her chin.

Nico held up his hands, “Back to the problem.”  

“Back to the problem.” She agreed, already writing out a post-it note that simple read double the fudge, Perse before turning back to Nico. “Jason - he wants to have another relationship? With someone new he’s met?”

Fuck, okay, Jason was a horrible example for this. Sure, Nico was in no position to judge anyone’s dating lives - and he didn’t give a flying fuck what Jason did as long as Nico didn’t have to literally hear it at two in the morning on a Wednesday night - but because he was already in a committed relationship.

It was too late. Nico played along.

“Yes.” He answered, thinking quick. “It’s very new - and Piper and, um, Leo, they know and everything. So no trouble with that. And don’t mention it? I don’t think he wants it in the open yet. Or at all.”

Persephone nodded, thinking. “Why doesn’t Jason just talk to this person? He’s a handsome young man, and he’s never had problems like this before.”

Nico gave her a desperate shrug. “He’s - he’s never really been in a situation like this before?”

“He should simply talk to the person he likes, and get on the same page as them. Then, he can either move on with this relationship or not. But he’ll have an answer, yes? Better than sitting around dreaming up horrible scenarios.”

Nico’s thoughts flashed back to the thou

“So just, like, he should get on the same page as them?” Nico’s cheeks flared up in a blush. “What if it’s not that easy?”

Persephone shrugged. “It sounds like the only one making it not that easy is Jason himself.” She adjusted the book on her lap. “I won’t mention this to him - no one wants a lecture on their love life from a mother - but I do think you should pass that advice onto him.”

Nico didn’t know what he was thinking. This wasn’t exactly a situation he could easily explain, especially so vague. And now he’d have to fast-talk Jason into an update before New Years, and

“I’ll make sure he gets it.” Nico only said, giving her a stiff, barely convincing grin. “Thanks, Persephone.” He cleared his throat, taking a quick sip of the flowery tea. He grabbed onto the first conversational topic he could get, suddenly desperate for a topic change. “So, how’s your greenhouse coming?”

Persephone lit up with the addition of her favorite topic, and Nico only wished it was that easy to solve everything in his life.  

“You can…cook?”

Nico gave him an unimpressed look, adding another line of olive oil to the frying chicken. “You sound surprised.”

Will shrugged, his gaze glued to the bubbling chicken. “Didn’t peg you for the culinary type.”

“Nico’s the best cook in the family.” Hazel gave him a bright smile from her place on the counter, “After Allegra, of course.”

“He only cooks on special occasions though.” Frank added, leaning against the cabinets next her. He popped a cherry tomato into his mouth and, with Hazel eating shredded cheese directly from the bag next to them, they were doing a quite horrible job of assembling the salad.

“If I do it all the time it’s just not as special.” Nico told them in a sickly sweet voice, sarcasm basically stenciled across his features.

“Or you’re lazy.” Hazel pointed out.

“I prefer busy.” Nico told her, dipping the pan to evenly spread the oil across the pan. “And Jason and I are perfectly happy with take out.”

“But is your body happy with take out?” Will pushed.

“Happy enough.” Was Nico’s only answer before he was gesturing to the laid out vegetables with his spatula. “Get to chopping, will ya? I’m gonna need to start the sauce soon.”

Will held up his hands in surrender. “I’m quite known for burning water, in my family. For the sake of this meal - and all your healths - I think it might be best I sit this one out.”

Nico gave him a stern look. “I think you’re being lazy.”

“I’d be happy to wash some dishes, or set the table.” He offered, “Even pouring out the wine or something. But me and cooking? I’m warning you. Not a good combination.”

Nico scoffed but didn't push the other boy. "Just sit there and look pretty, I guess." He finally conceded, fully for the benefit of Hazel and Frank only feet away.

Will looked surprised - but pleased - at the compliment. He settled into a more comfortable position leaning against the wall.

"I'm turning on some music, at least." Hazel seemed to decide, walking to the radio in the corner. It was hardly used, either by Allegra's ancient opera CDs, or Hades's sometimes odd music choices.  

Hazel turned the knob all the way up, jumping a bit in excitement as the first notes began to start up. She turned to him, a devilish, wide grin in place.

“Dance with me.” Hazel grinned up at him, her bag of cheese abandoned. Low, Dean Martin was playing. Hades’s music choice, then.

“Let’s fly, up into the clouds.” Hazel sang, swaying her hips, her hand outstretched.

He gave her a small grin, setting down his spatula. The chicken needed to cook, anyways. Will gave him an amused, but surprised, look that Nico didn’t see.

“Volare ~” Nico picked up the song, matching her rough note. Neither of them were singers, or dancers, but he grabbed her her hand.

They swayed their hips to the music, grinning with bubbles in their chests at each other, and Nico spun her under his arm. She giggled loudly the entire way, her loose skirt spinning out slightly.

They were a picture, in that moment, their smiles only for the other. Frank was there, against the counter, happy to be soaking in the atmosphere of holiday, family, and good food. The music and fragrance of cooking was almost visible in their mood and grins, and they were a picture in that moment.

And, in the background image of Nico di Angelo grinning widely at his little sister, his lips stretched out into a near barking laugh, Will Solace was staring at the other boy with wide, surprised eyes, his mouth parted, his shoulders stiff.

“Oh,” Will breathed out. “I - Oh.”

His words were said as if final - as if the end of it - but this was far, far from it.

Notes: 

SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT IT'S BEEN A BUSY FEW WEEKS IM TRYING also! you got to meet allegra! who i love! and persephone's tea time! i love family bonding so much just give me pure, supporting relationships. AND THE MUTUAL PINING BEGINS NOOOOOOW also! im almost at 500 followers at my tumblr - any ideas how to celebrate? :D thanks for all your reviews. They really do help the writing process incredibly. thank you!!! <3 any christmas\holiday traditions you're dying for the dreamteam to do? lemme know! i'm making it up as I go. sorry this chapter is a bit choppy, but I wanted to post it before the weekend. Thanks for reading, loves!

[blondie-515]

Let’s do this.

i\It’s been a pretty long time since I’ve even typed on a computer, I keep making so many mistakes. I used to be so good at it. It’s also been a pretty long tie since I’ve made a post. So here’s for an update:

I had a baby. Me and this guy, B, have been together for 15 months. Our son is now 2 months. Around 3 months of dating, we moved out of his parents basement in my hometown to a state I’ve dreamed of living. I never imagined it’d be anything like this. Skipping forward a few months. We’ve ran off 7 months in on our first lease and rented another apartment in the Baltimore equivalent in Pennsylvania. It’s pretty similar to my hometown and this is the EXACT OPPOSITE of where I wanted to be I wanted away from home because of all the fucked up people. The shootings. The violence. The city. THE DRUGS. ALL of it. And i got slammed right back in the middle of it. My upstairs neighbors are drug addicts. Everyone my boyfriend communes with is a drug addict. I never made any friends expect for 2 and my coworkers. I’ve transferred my place of employment twice being up here (Still at Royal Farms.) My son does not deserve this type of living.  I have one source of support, my friend Jason. He and I  have a special relationship. We are best friend . We met when I was 16 and he was 24. We didn’t start talking until I started dating one of his friends, whom I’ve mentioned a couple years back. We lived at his house for a while. And when the boyfriend at the time was gone, I would latch on to Jason because he was the only person that was decent to me at the time. We kept in contact since then. Granted I have dropped him for guys and boy, let me tell you, it was a mistake. He’s been a problem with every one of my relationships for the past 3 years. NOT THAT HE WAS ACTUALLY A PROBLEM. But because me and him have such a good connection and good relationship that they would actually get jealous, ruining the relationship themselves. And in my dumbass life, I’d choose the jealous asshole than Jason.  And now, in this being said. I JUST brought back Jason in my life just before I got with my current boyfriend. And that within itself was a feat. He doesn’t like to be abandoned and it took alot for him to forgive me. And so, we made an agreement. Jason was not to be made a problem and I was to not be told to drop him again or I would drop him like a bad habit. HE AGREED. IT WAS AGREED UPON.

 , He’s been made a problem. From hanging out together to talking on the phone.  I started talking to him a lot after my little baby boy, Priour, was born. And its been a HUGE problem. He’s really the only positive influence, beside Priour I have in my life, because look around me. I see nothing but drugs, work, negativity and my baby. He keeps me sane. Child protective services came to our house because I had told my therapist about how I found tobacco in the baby’s formula and how he’s been put into dangerous situations while in the car with my boyfriend. Yes,there’s two stories. but in all reality it’s been made a blame game. But seriously. How was I supposed to know to CHECK for TOBACCO IN my baby’s formula? So because I didn’t check it, THAT makes ME a bad mother? But like how did it get there in the first place? “There was tobacco on the table, how would you have known if you didnt get some in there yourself?” Let’s see. I made the bottle, first time, saw flakes, dumped it down the drain, baby crying. CHECKED the second time. Thought it was fine. Saw flakes as I tried to feed him again. NOpe, down the drain, third bottle from a different container like what the fuck why would I try to pull some dumbshit like that when I KNOW THat COULD POISON HIM.  I’M NOT DONE YET BUT HE KEEPS LOOKING OVER MY SHOULDER AND I CANT THINK STRAIGHT. FUCK.