#ethan nakamura fanfiction

[lafleshlumpeater]

can you do an ethan nakamura x reader pls 🥺

If you can't it's okay ❤️

i hope you werent looking for anything specific but this is what i came up with<3

(i tried to make this as gn as possible- lmk if theres anything wrong w it)

Warnings: ethan is a bit (a lot) in love, unbelievably cheesy plot, gn reader

(im sorry for tsitp reference i had to okay- also for the plot we’ll just pretend ethan is the only nemesis child)

ethan nakamura masterlist

To say Ethan was infatuated was an understatement.

The few who knew him well had never seen him like this before. Jaw slack, eyes wide and blind to the rest of the world every time you walked past.

He wanted to talk to you. If only his voice didn’t fail him every time you offered him a courteous smile, asking how he was and if his day was going okay.

He was torn- between wanting to be bold, asking you out with an air of confidence he didn’t care to admit his lack of, and admiring you from a safe distance, sighing wistfully with want.

And one day, the opportunity to be bold was granted to him, although seemingly insignificant-  teasing him, forcing him to make the decision between taking his chance or letting it fly past him.

“Ethan,” you greet, awfully chirpily, Ethan thinks, for a cold Sunday afternoon. He can’t help but love it, though.

“Hey,” he responds, feigning at indifference. Really, his heart rate sped up a notch and he could feel his face grow warmer, and just knowing that fact painted his cheeks a more prominent red. You don’t seem to notice, and he thanks all the gods (bitterly) for your oblivion to his adoration.

Kicking the cabin door shut behind you, you hold a clipboard and a pen in your hands. “Cabin inspection,” you smile smugly, eyes honing in on every detail of the room which made it an utter mess. Ethan cringed.

“That was today?”

“Unfortunately for you.” You smirk. With a facade of innocence, you bat your eyelashes and Ethan’s stomach flips. “I assume someone… forgot?”

He bites his lip, indiscreetly kicking rubbish under the bed. “Uhh…”

You shrug, scribbling on your clipboard. “Cabin Sixteen… stable duties.”

“No!” he exclaims in protest, louder than he meant to. You look up at him through your lashes.

“No?”

“Can- can we forget about this, just for once? For one, there’s no- one else to help me clean, and this is the first time I’ve…” Ethan falters once he realises you’re teasing, lips quirked up into a playful smirk.

“What’ll you give me if I do?”

His racing mind slows.

What?

Was this you flirting with him?

With him? Of all people?

After a tense pause, he slowly rises to his feet, taking a small step towards you, letting out a highly intelligent, well- deliberated: “Huh?”

You giggle coyishly. “I said, ‘what’ll you give me if I do’?”

Ethan swallows.

He’s never been the most outgoing of people.

Taking another step towards you, pauses for a second. His decision could mess everything up, but better to mess everything up rather than to have the regret eating away at him for ages to come, right?

Wetting his lips, Ethan walks slowly to stand in front of you- leaning in slightly. When you don’t pull away, he takes it as encouragement.

With a deep breath, he reaches out, gently tilting your chin to face him and presses his warm, soft lips to yours.

This wasn’t proofread at all so… please lmk if it doesn’t make sense anywhere before i re read it one day and cry <3

READ: this account stands with palestine, and so— i require everyone who interacts to educate themselves, and support/donate. READ THESE; 1 and 2, HELP HERE, BOYCOTT. silence is complicity, do not scroll past this.

[captainsophiestark]

Happy Ending

Luke Castellan x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2023!

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Day 22 Prompt: "Who takes care of you?"

Summary: What if Luke had come by to see Y/N, his pre-betrayal best friend and SO, instead of Annabeth between books 3 and 4?

Word Count: 4,189

Category: Angst, Fluff

A/N: I really loved the vibes of this post by @m4gp13 so this is very loosely inspired by it, even though the main body of the story doesn't have much to do with it lol

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I sighed, staring at the piles of boxes on the floor of my dorm room. The spring semester of my second year of college was just coming to a close, and I still had a lot to do to be ready for everything after it finished. I was moving into my own apartment for the summer, and needed to move from the dorm room to my new apartment. As soon as that was over, I'd planned a visit to Camp Half-Blood, the training camp for heroes I kept going back to, even though I was technically an adult.

I needed to pack everything in my dorm, move it to my apartment, and then be able to unpack everything I'd need for a few weeks visiting camp. This packing job would need to be strategically worthy of Athena.

I'd just barely managed to psych myself up to get started when a knock came at my door. I huffed a sigh, but I really didn't mind the distraction all that much.

"Coming!" I called. I glanced out the peep hole, then froze solid when I saw Luke Castellan staring back at me.

My heart stopped dead in my chest. I looked again and saw he had no monsters with him, at least not visibly, but I couldn't understand why he would come here without them.

Luke had been one of my closest friends in the world since we met as kids, on the run together from our mutually shitty families. We'd met first, then found Thalia and Annabeth after. Luke and I were the same age, and we'd been thick as thieves since day one, Hermes pun intended. As we'd gotten older, a small crush I'd had on Luke had grown massive, and luckily for me he'd returned my feelings. We'd been happily dating and in love ever since, until two summers ago, when he'd betrayed me and every single one of our friends and joined Kronos.

I'd barely talked to him since. We only had contact once and a while, and every time, it went the same way. I was hurt, he was apologetic but not willing to change any of his decisions. Me and the rest of Camp fought him and his monsters, and I tried not to fall apart at the loss of the love of my life.

The distraction provided by college had been a serious, serious relief.

But now, Luke was here. In the middle of space where I very intentionally avoided thinking about him, on my doorstep for whatever reason. And I had no idea what to do.

"Y/N? I know you're in there. I'm here under a flag of truce. I just want to talk."

Just like that, any desire to duck and hide crumbled. The rational part of my brain screamed at me that he could be lying, that this might just be a trap, but I ignored it. After everything we'd been through, if Luke said he wanted to talk, I wanted to hear him out.

I opened the door, and Luke's shoulders sagged with relief when he saw me. I wanted to dart forward and wrap him in a hug, something I hadn't been able to do in two years, but I held myself back. Luke shifted a little from foot to foot, looking incredibly awkward, so after a second's hesitation I stepped to the side.

"Would you like to come in?"

He gave me a suspicious look, like he thought it was a trap or a trick or something. My heart shattered in my chest. How had things gone this wrong, that we stood on opposite sides of the door as basically strangers?

"My house is a mess, because I'm in the middle of packing up to move, but... if you want to talk, Luke, I feel like the hallway isn't gonna be the best place to do it."

He gave me a curt nod, not quite meeting my eyes as he walked past me into my apartment. I glanced down the hallway, taking one last look to make sure we didn't have any lingering monsters, but things were deserted. I sighed and went back into my apartment, closing the door behind me.

I found Luke hovering in the space between the kitchen and the living room, surveying things with a strange look on his face. I moved toward him carefully, not getting too close in case I spooked him.

"Do you want some tea or something? I haven't packed my electric kettle yet-"

"I think tea might take longer than the five minutes I promised."

I turned to look at Luke, raising one eyebrow in challenge, a little bit of our old rapport back. He shifted his weight around and glanced towards the door, then met my eyes again.

"Luke... is some giant monster going to burst through my door in five minutes? Or an army of small monsters, or anything under that general monster-army umbrella?"

"What? No, no, there's... no. I'm here under a flag of truce. There's nothing coming to hurt you, and when I leave... I'll leave."

"Okay then," I said, deciding not to comment on just how shaken and pale Luke looked, at least not right now. "Then I'm giving you a pass on the five minutes. And electric kettles take like two seconds anyway, seriously. They're magical."

Luke huffed, shaking his head as an incredulous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. My heart squeezed, but I made myself move towards the kitchen and act like things were normal.

"Take a seat, Luke. Or come pick your tea."

Luke took the second option, and my heart doubled its speed when I felt him hovering behind me, closer than we'd been in a long time if you didn't count combat. He leaned over my shoulder to point to the bag of black tea on my counter, and I nodded as I poured the hot water into our cups. I dropped two teabags in each of our drinks, then turned to Luke with a smile.

He stood a little more than a foot from me, and he took the cup from my hands carefully, like he didn't want this bubble of peace and normalcy to burst either. I stared into his beautiful, bright blue eyes, a smile growing on my face again despite myself. I'd missed this. A lot.

The moment lasted another few seconds, and then Luke cleared his throat and looked away. He took a tentative sip of his tea, then looked at me again, his face deadly serious.

"I don't know how to say this. I... I learned some things recently, about some plans I wasn't aware of before."

He paused and took another sip of his tea, and his hand shook a little as he brought the mug away from his lips. Shock coursed through my body as I realized Luke was scared.

"Kronos, he- he's going to use me. He's going to use me to take over the world. This summer... he's going to use me like a stepping stone, until he gets so much power he's unstoppable."

"Luke... what are you saying?"

His eyes had wandered to stare holes in the wall of my kitchen while he'd talked, but now they snapped back to me, wide and full of urgency.

"I'm saying I want to run away. I want us to run away, like the old days. Before... before he gets the chance to carry out his plan."

I stared at Luke for a few minutes, then shook my head, scoffing and pushing past him into the living room of my house. I paced a little, trying to make sense of what he'd just told me. What he'd just asked of me.

"Luke... I don't know what to say!" I finally admitted, completely honest as I turned back to him. He watched me, his expression guarded. "I don't... I don't think I can just run away. Not from the life I've managed to build, not from our friends still here and risking their lives!"

"So that's it, then?" he asked, taking a few steps forward, his tone angry. "Your answer's no?"

I huffed a laugh, staring at anything in the room except for Luke and trying to think. My brain was working a million miles an hour, but I still needed a little bit of time to think things through. But I wasn't sure I had time.

"Okay, Luke, can we sit down for a minute? Actually talk about this?" I said, taking slow steps towards him. I set my mug down on the nearest table, then reached out to gently rest my hands on his. A storm of emotions raged behind his eyes, but he didn't stop me or pull away. "This is a lot to take in all at once. Can we work through this together?"

His jaw worked like he was holding back some retort, but he let me pull him along towards the couch. Slowly, together, we sank down onto the cushions. I only pulled one hand back, and made sure our knees rested against each other, hoping it would do something to help keep Luke grounded.

"I don't want to run," I said simply, meeting his eyes. He opened his mouth, looking ready with an outburst again, but I continued before he could. "But Luke, think about it. Where are we gonna go that he doesn't find you, especially if he wants to? Monsters can sniff us out. We'd never, ever be able to live another day without looking over our shoulders."

Luke's shoulders sagged, and he shook his head miserably as he stared at the half-full mug in his hand.

"Then there's no hope."

"That's not what I said. And it's also not true." Luke scoffed, shooting me a look out of the corner of his eye. I looked right back. "If you don't want to follow through on what Kronos is asking of you, why not just come back with me? To Camp, to my somewhat normal life. I have an apartment with space for two. You could even enroll with me next semester, if you wanted to."

Luke shook his head. He pursed his lips as he raised his head to meet my eyes again.

"And let the Olympians continue exploiting us? Let them keep destroying people and lives because we don't matter to them?"

I huffed a sigh. "Look, I'm not their biggest fan either, but right now it seems like it's 'let Kronos kill you' or 'stop fighting the Olympians'."

Luke shook his head again, more energized this time, more angry. He stared at the wall ahead of us, the same hurt and bitterness I'd seen from him over the years burning in his eyes.

"It's just not right. There should be something we can do. Something that isn't Kronos, but isn't letting the Olympians win."

And just like that, a lightbulb went off in my head.

"Luke... what if there was a way we could do that?"

****************

That night, Luke and I stayed up until almost two in the morning brainstorming and working out the details of my plan. When we finally decided to get some sleep, he stayed with me, and curling up in the same tiny twin bed, falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat, had me more at peace and ease than I had been in a long, long time.

The next morning, we finalized a few things over breakfast. Then, there was nothing left to do but put our plan into action.

Luke stayed in the apartment, tasked with keeping his head down and finishing packing for me, since I had other places I had to be. Namely, Camp Half-Blood. A little earlier than I'd talked about with Chiron, and hopefully, before the place was crawling with campers for the summer.

Thankfully, it didn't take me too long to get to Camp. I arrived a little after lunch and found the place expectedly deserted. From the top of the hill, I could see some of the year-rounders moving around the lake. I tried to keep them from noticing me as I headed straight for the Big House.

I paused just outside the front door to steel my nerves one last time, then marched inside. I found Chiron and Mr. D sitting together, apparently deep in conference. They both looked up when they noticed me, matching looks of surprise on their faces (although Chiron's had a noticeably happier edge to it).

"Y/N! We weren't expecting you for another few weeks-"

"I'm not staying for long. Something just came up that I needed to talk to you about right away. To both of you, actually, especially Mr. D."

He raised a bored eyebrow in my direction but otherwise didn't move. Chiron motioned to a chair at the table.

"By all means, please."

"That's alright, I think I'll stand," I said. I took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders and straightening my spine. I would not back down, wouldn't leave until I'd succeeded. Luke and I's future depended on it.

I took a moment to make very intentional, determined eye contact with Mr. D. His other eyebrow raised.

"I'm here to bargain for a pardon for Luke Castellan."

Silence. Both Chiron and Mr. D just stared at me for a few long moments, then turned to look at each other. Chiron looked concerned, but Mr. D burst out laughing.

"He's a traitor and an enemy of Olympus! This has all been very boring and ridiculous, and a waste of our time. Get out."

Mr. D's last word had a firey threat behind it, but I didn't flinch.

"You and the rest of the Olympians are perfectly aware what a threat Kronos presents. Everybody's getting scared, and they should be. He's got a plan for returning to his Titan form, the one he had before he was defeated the first time, before Zeus cut him apart and cast him into Tartarus. And it's a plan that he can definitely make succeed.

"Luke knows all about this plan. Obviously. And he's willing to defect and tell you all about it, so we can stop it before it happens. But you have to give him a complete pardon, sworn on the River Styx by Zeus."

Mr. D snorted again, this time raising from his chair and taking a few threatening steps towards me. I still didn't back down.

"Y/N, listen," Chiron interrupted, shuffling forward a little bit to stand partially in between me and Mr. D. "If you have information that could save Olympus and the camp-"

"Oh, I have some. Just like Chris Rodriguez had some. But Luke has all of it. And you're not getting any of it without giving him a pardon first."

"Or we could force it out of you before finding your little boyfriend and doing the same to him," said Mr. D, his tone light but his eyes blazing. Chiron started to step in again, but I spoke up before he got the chance.

"You haven't been able to find him this long, you won't be able to find him now. And anybody who knows anything about interrogations knows that torture just plain and simple doesn't work for getting information." Mr. D grunted, but we both knew I had him there. "Besides, if Luke gets his pardon, that means more than just getting all the information from Kronos' former right hand man. It also means that Kronos loses said right hand man, who's been organizing and leading a lot of the work so far."

Chiron and Mr. D shared a look, and I tried not to let it show just how much my heart was racing. For the first time since I'd walked in here, I actually felt a glimmer of hope that my plan might succeed. Chiron turned back to me, the worried look still on his face.

"Y/N... what makes you so confident that Luke wants to defect?"

"He sought me out," I answered simply, trying to dance around his location at least a bit. "He's realizing quickly just how bad Kronos would and could be, and he's scared. Terrified. He wants a way out, so when he found me, he asked me to run away with him. I suggested trying this plan first, mostly so I don't have to leave behind everyone else I love. But also because, this way, you might stand a chance against Kronos that you wouldn't have if we'd left without offering information."

The conversation continued for almost another hour, centered mostly around Mr. D making threats and, when I didn't back down, reminding me that I was trying to demand something of Zeus. He made plenty of good points, but I'd thought through all the ways this plan could go terribly, painfully wrong with Luke before I'd come here. I wasn't going to give in, for anything.

Finally, after restating my points and my argument a few times, Mr. D agreed to bring my request to Mount Olympus. I waited anxiously in the Big House with Chiron, whose brow remained deeply creased the entire time. I didn't engage, intentionally avoiding the conversation he looked like he wanted to have, but I saw him watching me out of the corner of my eye.

I started to get worried as the evening came, but finally, Mr. D reappeared. The first time he'd delivered his news, I honestly hadn't believed him. I asked him to repeat himself, which he rolled his eyes over, but the words were the same. Somehow, by some miracle, I'd managed to succeed.

Zeus was willing to give Luke his pardon in exchange for information and defecting.

I wasn't a complete idiot, so made sure the terms were clear when Mr. D brought me to Olympus to witness the oath. The words covered any retaliation, punishment, or harm that might come to Luke, and completely prevented it. Zeus spoke the words and the sky rumbled with lightning. I tried not to shake in relief or from the adrenaline dump as I bowed and promised he wouldn't regret his decision. Hermes shot me a grateful look on my way out, and I returned his nod. He'd been awful to Luke, but we were aligned in not wanting to see him dead, and I got the feeling Hermes had been helpful in pleading my case.

When we returned to the Big House, I headed for the door as quickly as possible, promising to bring Luke back with me in a week when I'd been planning to return anyway. I still had to move out and then move in to a new place again, and Luke had assured me that week of time wouldn't cost the war.

I raced back home, breaking almost every traffic law in the process, but I didn't care at all. I called out to Luke from the hallway, so he wouldn't be scared when I flung the door open, then rushed to wrap him in a giant hug. We sank to the floor together, crying in relief, and stayed like that for a long, long time.

The next week felt like a dream. Luke and I finished packing up my old apartment, then moved together into the new one, which we'd started calling 'ours'. We had to duck monsters a few times, and Luke was still in significant danger, but this time we were on the same side. As we settled into our new place on the last night before we were supposed to head back to camp, I quite literally couldn't have been happier.

It was a little strange returning to camp with Luke, but I quickly got over my own concerns when I saw how tense he was. I held his hand the whole way in, and thankfully, we'd still managed to get here before most of the summer campers. Luke and I sat shoulder to shoulder in the Big House while he told Mr. D and Chiron everything about Kronos and his operation. It took hours, and I could tell Luke struggled to get a lot of it out. But he did.

It had taken long enough that we decided to stay the night, even though I could see Luke clearly didn't want to. We stayed in the Big House, and the next morning, we finished the last of the intel-sharing before heading back home.

Chiron stopped Luke on the way out the door with a hand on his shoulder and said he was so happy to have Luke back. Luke just nodded, but I squeezed his hands as I noticed a single tear making its way down his cheek as we left.

"You know..." I said as we climbed in the car. I was driving, and Luke stared determinedly out the window. "Chiron's probably not the only one who'd be happy to have you back. There might be some apology tour type-stuff, but for the most part... I think you'd get a warm welcome home."

Luke just gave a noncommittal grunt, and I let it go. That was a bridge we could cross later.

For now, we still had one final part of our plan to put into action.

The reason Luke had joined Kronos in the first place was because he'd been neglected by his Olympic parent, especially since his mortal parent had been in such a bad place. He'd discovered the hard way that Kronos was no better alternative, but the fact remained that the gods used their mortal children at best, and at worst completely ignored them for their entire lives.

We needed to find a third option, some middle ground way to make things better. So, we decided to be the change we wanted to see.

As legal adults with a newly moved-in apartment that had a decent amount of space, we had the power to make our home a space for demigods who had nowhere else to go. If their immortal parents were neglecting them and things weren't good with their mortal parent either, they could come to us. For a little while, or to stay for good. We made our own little sanctuary, then shared it with all the kids like us who'd needed it.

Over time, the operation expanded, and we moved into a bigger apartment with more space. Thanks in part to Luke and I, Camp Half-Blood won the war, and we were able to do even more once Kronos stopped being a threat. What had started as not much more than a dream of doing good had turned into a loud, busy, happy house with people constantly coming and going.

Which is how we'd ended up in an alleyway talking to a scared teenager, after helping defeat a monster who'd been bearing down on him.

"Who takes care of you?" asked Luke, a sympathetic and understanding frown on his face as we stood a little ways from the kid. We didn't want to make him uncomfortable, but we'd gotten good at spotting the signs of a young Half-Blood in distress and helping them.

"I take care of myself," the kid spit. I tried not to glance at Luke.

"We used to do that, too," I said, moving a little closer to Luke. "We both ran away from home, survived on the streets, although I guess we really took care of each other."

"Now, we take care of people like you," Luke continued, right where I'd left off. "Do you know what you are?"

The kid hesitated, then half shook his head. He at least had some idea, then.

"You're a Half-Blood," I said. "Half mortal, half immortal Olympian god."

"...What?"

"Look, I know it's a lot to process," said Luke. "But the longer the three of us sit in this alley, the more likely it is another monster's gonna come and pick a fight."

We managed to get the kid up and moving, heading back for our apartment. On the way, we explained more about the Olympians, and told him about Camp Half-Blood.

"It's a good place to get training, and to meet other Half-Bloods like you," I said. "A place for heroes."

"It's only one option, though," Luke added. The kid nodded, looking a little overwhelmed but excited as we stopped outside our apartment door.

"And... what's the other option?"

Luke and I shared a smile, then he pushed open the door to our apartment.

Inside, we were immediately greeted with a wave of noise and excitement. We'd left Ethan Nakamura, one of the Half-Bloods Luke had met away from camp, in charge, and he'd been leading the rest of our group in basic combat lessons.

"What... what is this place?"

"A place for normal kids who need somebody to take care of them," Luke answered. "You'll still get training, since monsters will always be trying to kill you."

"But we won't ever ask anything of you, other than to do your own damn dishes," I said. "No dangerous quests, no tribute to the gods. Just our own little makeshift family going through life together."

Luke put his arm around me, pulling me into his side and kissing my temple as Ethan noticed our newcomer and waved him over to join in the fun. Luke and I stayed where we were, watching the bubble of happiness we'd made together with smiles on our faces. We'd gone through hell and back to get here, but as far as I was concerned, every moment of pain had been worth it for Luke and I's happy ending.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury

Percy Jackson Taglist: @valkyriepirate

[catihere]

A fic where Alabaster, Chris and Ethan sneak a bunch of cats and dogs on the board of Princess Andromeda. That’s literally all that happens.

@spitsonyou1 motivated me to finally finish it, so thanks for that. The AU where this would supposedly take place is @everythingwasalreadypicked ‘s. Oh, and about the code names detail at the start, I think I stole that from a fic by @m4gp13 . That’s all. Enjoy my nonsense, I guess.

[charlotte-stant-romanzi-disney]

Sunflower

Ethan Nakamura had thought of Silena as soon as he saw that sunflower. It reminded him of her carefree nature.

He had to give it to her.

He had gotten it at night. From spending time with the sons of Hermes he had learned a few tricks of his own.

It had been harder to get the help of a daughter of Demeter to make it eternal.

He didn't want it to wither.

Of course he hadn't told her it was for Silena. He didn't want them to point out to him that she wasn't made for someone like him.

Ethan wasn't stupid. He knew that. Not that it changed how he felt. He imagined Silena with someone else. A pompous boy, the son of a greater god. Someone who would give her something complex, not capable of illuminating her true being. His sweetness.

Ethan toyed with the sunflower.

Maybe he was the one who was wrong.

Maybe Silena wouldn't appreciate the flower. She would find it banal.

He left it in front of the door of the House of Aphrodite for Silena. In the hope, dashed, that she would understand.

[icarusignite]

Divine Retribution (Luke Castellan x Daughter of Nemesis! OC)

A/N: Percy Jackson was a huge part of my childhood, so its only fair I do a fic for this universe. As a kid, I was obvi obsessed with Percy himself and the "good guys" but having grown up I think there's some really cool themes and nuances to explore with the Titan Army kids and their storylines/relationships with each other. Would love it if you checked it out <3

Ao3 | Wattpad

Summary

A monster is not such a terrible thing to be. From the Latin root monstrum, a divine messenger of catastrophe, then adapted by Old French to mean an animal of myriad origins: centaur, gryphon, satyr.

To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.

To be a demigod is not much different.

Rin Nakamura is more like her mother than she thinks. She enjoys tearing down the proud and powerful, and there is no one who deserves tearing down like the very goddess she descended from. They say that the children of Nemesis, even when unclaimed, are deadly when they have a grudge to settle, and no one has a greater grudge against the gods than Rin herself. When the primordial god of time extends an invitation, offering Rin the power to confront the Olympians in a war that transcends the mortal realm, she seizes the chance to finally balance the scales.

Luke Castellan is a charming visionary with something to prove. Disillusioned by the gods, whom he perceives as indifferent and ungrateful towards their demigod children, his driving force is a desire to overthrow them and create a world where demigods are free from the shackles of divine manipulation.

Ethan Nakamura is a boy who cannot stop wanting, even when the price is too high. He wants his mother's approval; he wants recognition for the minor gods; he wants victory for the Titan Army, the members of which have become his family. Most of all, he wants his sister to stop being so angry all the time, but she is all he has left and for her, he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

[starthornisscratching]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Luke Castellan/Thalia Grace, Luke Castellan/Ethan Nakamura, lukethan, Thaluke Characters: Luke Castellan, Ethan Nakamura, Thalia Grace (Percy Jackson) (mentioned), Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson) (mentioned), Grover Underwood (mentioned), Camp Half-Blood Campers (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: Pre-The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson), Luke Castellan-centric, Luke Castellan Needs a Hug, Bisexual Luke Castellan, Thalia and Ethan Parallels, Angst, Emotional Whump, Whump, Whumptober 2024, Hurt Luke Castellan, Prompt: Because I want you to know what it feels like to be haunted, Prompt: Left For Dead, Developing Relationship Series: Part 14 of Starthorn's Whumptober 2024 Summary:

He hated that he had left Thalia to die even if it was what she had wanted. He hated that she had sacrificed herself instead of letting him do it. He hated that she had always been the strongest fighter of their trio because maybe if he was better he would have been the one to stay behind. He hated that he was all Annabeth had left because he had let Thalia die. He didn’t deserve her respect or her love.

There were a lot of things he hated.

Or: Luke and Annabeth made it into camp with Grover. Thalia wasn't so lucky and even now that's he's counselor of the Hermes Cabin, everything keeps reminding him of her.

[franciswasteland]

MASTERLIST‿⋆﹒

Requests are open!

My masterlist part 2; the remake because i genuinely have no idea what happened to my old masterlist??

Percy Jackson

-Coming soon…

Annabeth Chase

-Coming soon…

Grover Underwood

-Coming soon…

Jason Grace

-Jason Grace X Naiad!Reader

Piper Mclean

-Coming soon…

Leo Valdez

-Tech!Leo X Theater kid!Reader

Frank Zhang

-Confession in another language (Frank X GN!Reader)

-Movie night (Frank X GN!Reader)

Hazel Levesque

-Coming soon…

Nico di Angelo

-Coming soon…

Luke Castellan

-Coming soon…

Others

-Coming soon…

[tsarisfanfiction]

Truth Comes Out of His Well (Chapter 11)

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Rating: Teen Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family Characters: Lee Fletcher, Kronos, Apollo, Apollo Cabin (and many more) As always, @stereden is responsible for the accompanying podfic! You can also blame her for the end of this chapter :P << Chapter 10 Listen to chapter 11 on AO3

The demigods had started to fight back.

For what had felt like forever, Silena and Michael’s reports – especially Silena’s – had more or less boiled down to “camp life is going on as normal”, which had relieved Lee and pleased Kronos.  Lee still disagreed with Silena’s blind belief that if the demigods just stayed out of the war, they wouldn’t get hurt, but he wouldn’t disagree that the less of a target they painted on their own backs, the safer they would be.

Living out camp life as per usual, training and playing Capture the Flag – albeit with vastly reduced numbers during the winter, as Lee recalled well – meant that Kronos seemed to be content to leave them alone, and anything that had Kronos leaving Lee’s family and friends alone was a positive in his book.

Lee himself was not doing too well, admittedly.  He had lost a lot of weight, muscles atrophying from inaction – the brief spells of freedom to go to the bathroom did a little but nowhere near enough - and being chained up the rest of the time meant he couldn’t even do any exercises to keep in shape.  His diet was enough to keep him from starvation and keep his brain sharp, because Kronos clearly wanted Lee’s mental faculties intact, but it wasn’t ideal, either.

Worst of all was the fact that he hadn’t seen the sun since being captured.  He had never worked out exactly where in the world Kronos was keeping him, but it was far enough underground that the sun never came close, not even a distant warmth just reaching him through the corridors.  What he had worked out was that Kronos had more than one base, and a way to move between them both quickly and also undetected by the gods.

The biggest clue for that was the Princess Andromeda, a boat he’d heard mention of back when he was still at camp, and also heard mentioned in passing as Kronos barked out orders.  From what Lee could tell, that was where a lot of the monsters were kept – which was a relief.  The other demigods ranged from neutral to cruel but they had enough fear of Kronos to not hurt Lee, except with sharp words and venomous tongues.  Years of instincts told Lee that if a monster came across him, his much-reduced healing abilities would be tested, and he wasn’t certain that was something he could survive.

Although there were times when he’d wondered if it would be better if one of them did stumble across him and put him out of his misery.  Kronos wouldn’t be able to use him anymore, then.

Lee wasn’t stupid.  He hadn’t caved and told Kronos what he wanted to know, not once, but clearly Kronos still thought it was worth having him listen in to all his spy reports.  He hadn’t physically reacted to lies in years, but with so many forced overloads, Lee was aware that he had almost certainly developed a nervous tic – not that he’d worked out what it was.

Thankfully, for the most part, Kronos’ various spies told the truth.  That made sense – they’d be poor spies if they didn’t give accurate information – but Kronos clearly had enough paranoia over the possibility of double-agents that he had resorted to using a lie detector anyway, unluckily for Lee.

Michael was probably the least truthful, but they were all small things, a lack of certainty when he claimed it, and other similarly unremarkable things.  Silena, on the other end of the scale, was meticulous in her truth-telling, almost honest to a fault.

As far as Lee knew, Silena was also the only spy, including Kronos’ lesser used ones, the ones that kept an eye on the gods and some demigods who weren’t at camp over the winter, who knew about him.  When Kronos took a report from Michael and the others, he settled himself on the ever-present outcrop of rock which he posed on like a king.  A tyrant, if Lee was being specific.  It was only when the face materialising in muted colours was Silena’s that Kronos moved, instead lounging next to Lee, looking so much more like Luke, so that Hecate’s spell picked him up on the visual transmission, too.

Lee hated it.  He hated the way Kronos still moved and posed like Luke, not always but enough, and always when he was after reactions, or the sadistic pleasure of watching his victim force themselves to suppress their reactions, because they knew it wasn’t Luke, despite appearances.  He hated how Kronos posed next to him, like he and Luke were chilling against the side of a building somewhere, rather than Lee being chained to a wall and Kronos inhabiting his once-friend’s body.

Silena didn’t outwardly react, but Lee knew her well enough to know that the sight hurt her, anyway.  There were things he didn’t know about the daughter of Aphrodite, now, because she’d lied to him for so long, but one trait that kept shining through, even in her spying, was how much she cared for people.  To call it a shame that she’d channelled that care into some twisted belief that if she worked with Kronos she could protect people would be a massive understatement, but Lee hadn’t particularly inherited his father’s talent with words.

Music and healing weren’t doing him any good, not now that his healing spluttered and died at anything greater than bruises, and truth…  Well.  Truth was what had put him in this situation in the first place.  Lee didn’t hate it, because it was from his father and he could never hate anything Apollo gave him, but part of him didn’t think too kindly about that particular ability of his.

Then again, it had always been awkward, knowing when someone was lying.  He’d alienated many classmates as a kid, before he lived at camp, by not knowing when it wasn’t worth calling out a lie.  It was also why he didn’t advertise it at camp – he didn’t need everyone looking at him, on edge every time they told a white lie.  He’d alienated a few campers, too, before he’d learned when to keep his mouth shut and ignore a lie.

Lee did at least appreciate that Silena went out of her way not to tell a lie – more or less the only thing he still felt positively towards the daughter of Aphrodite for.

Unfortunately, that made it all the more obvious to Lee when suddenly, Silena did lie.

“I don’t know,” she said, pulling all the perfect expressions to mimic her own face when she spoke truths.  “The head counsellors have narrowed it down to two opportunities, but they haven’t decided which one to take, yet.”

They were talking about cutting off some of Kronos’ reinforcements, and Lee dearly wanted to get back in contact with camp himself to tell them that it didn’t matter, the titan just called more up from Tartarus to replace his depleted ranks.  They would be much, much, better off keeping their heads out of the way and not going out of their way to target Kronos.

Before Lee had been snatched, camp had always been reactive to Kronos.  Lightning bolt stolen?  Send a trio to retrieve it.  Camp defences failing because the tree they were currently tied to was dying?  Send Clarisse out to fetch the Golden Fleece.  An invasion of camp?  Fight back.  Now, it seemed like the head counsellors were getting more and more proactive.

Lee wished he could say he didn’t expect that of Michael, but Michael had always been trigger happy and quick to lash out, impersonating the old adage of how offence was the best defence.  It was one thing that Lee had never fully managed to stop him doing, and it didn’t surprise him that his younger brother had fallen into the safety of familiarity.

He wasn’t even surprised that Clarisse was reportedly touting similar sentiments.  She and Michael had always been more similar than either of them would admit even on pain of death, after all.  The two of them working together would’ve been something to celebrate, in other circumstances.  As it was, Lee wished they weren’t enabling and egging each other on.  Sooner or later, they’d come up with something that had Kronos furious enough to retaliate.

With Silena suddenly lying, he got the sinking feeling that she, at least, thought it was going to be sooner rather than later.

He also realised she was relying on him to not broadcast her lie to Kronos, even though she didn’t look at him once.  She rarely did, any more.  Lee didn’t know if it was because he looked so awful she couldn’t bear to look – his hair was longer now than it had ever been, and he was sure his skin looked bleached and sallow, even in Hecate’s visual transmissions – or if it was guilt, the acceptance that she had thrown away their friendship for good and that Lee could only forgive so much.

Lee didn’t do it for Silena, but he did it for the demigods risking their lives to whittle down at Kronos’ army, even if it was a futile endeavour.

The grilling he got once her report was over was the most intense it had been in a while, leaving Lee in no doubt that Kronos had noticed something, but Lee hadn’t given in yet and he certainly wasn’t going to cave with demigod lives potentially on the line.

Even when Kronos pushed and pushed and pushed, and the by-now familiar torment of multiple lies being thrown at him by a crowd of uncomfortably eager demigods lasted so long that Lee was sure he’d blacked out before they were done.  Even if he hadn’t passed out, he’d certainly lost awareness.

Coming back to his senses, face tight with dried tears and aching cheeks, and wrists screaming from where they’d still never lost the habit of fighting for freedom when his senses overloaded, to see Kronos still waiting, golden eyes burning and arms crossed in a way that was for once less Luke and more terrifying titan, was different.  So was the way Kronos resumed the interrogation immediately, pushing and prying and pulling to get the details of Silena’s lie out of him.

Lee had no idea how he held on.  The continued lack of physical violence likely helped – if Kronos had snapped and decided physical torture would be more effective, then Lee wasn’t sure if he could have done – but eventually Kronos stalked out of the room, glowering and presence oppressive even as he walked away with a single, terrifying, parting shot.

“You only have yourself to blame.”

To blame for what?

The next time he saw Kronos, several meals so likely at least a week later, the titan was no happier, and Camp Half-Blood’s target had been hit.

Lee actually heard the account from Ethan, who had scoffed about it as he watched Lee eat his food tentatively after his attempted healing session ended almost before it began.  His wrists were weak, and permanently ringed with red welts and various shades of bruising, and hairline fractures in the bones weren’t sealing up.  Still, he had long since stopped taking for granted the freedom to eat at his own pace, feeding himself instead of being at the mercy of someone else.

Ethan hadn’t been impressed at what the campers had done.  In another circumstance, Lee would have found it hilarious, but all it really inspired was dread, instead.  A contingency of monsters had been travelling via coach, heading for the Princess Andromeda to meet with Kronos and receive their orders.  None of them appeared to have been particularly bright, but the implication was that Kronos thought them at least capable of following orders.

Someone had snuck into the coach’s toilet and rigged the flush to set off a series of Greek Fire bombs, annihilating the coach and turning all of the monsters to dust.  The part of Lee that had been a camp counsellor for many years saw the unholy combination of cabin eleven and cabin nine in the carnage – cabin nine to set up the mechanics behind the trap, and cabin eleven to sneak it into position.

Specifically, Lee would have pointed fingers in the direction of the Stolls and Beckendorf, if he was still at camp.  It was the exact sort of uncontrolled chaos that the trio could get up to, even if Beckendorf at least pretended to be above Hermes cabin levels of shenanigans.

Lee had known the son of Hephaestus far too long to be fooled by that act.

Above all, though, the biggest hint to Beckendorf’s involvement was Silena’s lie.  She hadn’t lied about any of the other planned attacks, which had left Kronos in a position to counter them, even if his idea of counter so far seemed to be throwing more monsters at the problem – and with Clarisse and the Ares cabin so frequently leading the charge, that wasn’t doing a whole lot.  Beckendorf, however, she had always been close to.  Her crush on the other boy had been blatantly obvious to everyone, with the possible exception of the boy in question, and the same was true of the reverse.

Even now, Lee could see Silena risking everything to try and protect him.

Ethan’s recounting of the events from what he knew bordered on entertaining – certainly satisfying, from the point of view of someone who was no more eager for Kronos to win the war than he had been before he’d been captured – but when Kronos swept into the room later, after Ethan had re-shackled Lee and left, there was no entertainment at all.

There was fear, which slowly evolved into horror.

“You’ve been very stubborn, Lee,” Kronos acknowledged.  Normally when he spoke like that, he leaned into the way he was inhabiting Luke’s body, but the body language stayed all wrong, more accurate to the titan inside.  It didn’t bode well.  “I do admire your loyalty to the gods.  Perhaps if more demigods had your devotion, I wouldn’t even be here, but fortunately for me, you are an oddity, and not the normal.”  His tone lightened for a moment, before snapping into something dark and sharp.  “However.”

Golden eyes burned and Lee wanted to be anywhere that wasn’t on the receiving end of a titan’s intensity.

“This little rebellion of yours ends now, Lee,” Kronos told him, a truth, something that he believed with his entire being.  He’d said several things to that effect before, and Lee hadn’t stopped yet.  “I have entertained your pitiful attempts at stonewalling me for the past year” – gods, it had been a year? – “but my patience is now at an end.  You will co-operate with me from now on.”

Lee got the sense that something very bad was about to happen.  Kronos was too certain, too angry, for it to be more of the same, and that meant the odds of it actually being something that could break him were much, much higher than he liked.

Kronos snapped his fingers, an action that sometimes accompanied part of Lee’s body – often his mouth – freezing in place, but nothing happened to Lee.

There were footsteps instead, heavy and loud and uneven, like someone didn’t want to be walking.

Alabaster walked in, his face unbearably smug, but it wasn’t the son of Hecate that had Lee’s insides slumping all the way down to the cave floor in despair.

No, that was the demigod in his grasp, cuffed and writhing in a desperate yet so clearly futile attempt to escape.

Gods, please, no.

Chapter 12>>>

[yonemurishiroku]

Dropping this in because I love pain and Ethabaster. I blamed @phoenix--flying and @everythingwasalreadypicked for their child of Akhlys Ethan au and my headcanon that child of Akhlys have a rite of passage where they have to poison someone they love and experience true misery in order to been seen as her (Akhlys') child. Anyways, ENJOY! Ethan watched as the life drained Alabaster's body, the purple veins slowly growing up his neck. Ethan had no power to stop it. Nothing he could do could save his love. Alabaster sagged against Ethan, smiling softly. "Thank you," he whispered, coughing up blood. "For what?" Ethan fought back tears. "I'm killing you. You have nothing to thank me for." Alabaster smiled as brightly as he could. "For bringing me to my mother's temple. The stars a beautiful tonight." He didn't have the strength to lift his hand to hold Ethan's hand. "For staying with me." "I don't want to die alone." "You're not alone," Ethan let a tear fall. "I promised I'd never leave."

*screaming into the pillows*

[marsconer]

݁⠀⠀༉ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ̽ THE TITAN ARMY — do you hear the people sing ?

“ This barricade is made neither of paving stones, nor of timbers, nor of iron; it is made of two mounds, a mound of ideas and a mound of sorrows. Here misery encounters the ideal. Here the day embraces the night, and says: I will die with you and you will be born again with me ” — victor hugo, les miserables

[i-need-to-get-a-life3]

finally

Okay everyone I am happy to announce that I am now a fan fiction author! Woo-hoo! I love books and I simp for the characters so I'm finally decided to share my obsessions.

I will wrote for:

Pjo characters

Hoo characters

Lotr characters

Kotlc characters

Aruh shah characters

Hp characters

Rodrick heffley

Big hero size characters

Atla but specifically zuko bcs I haven't watched in ages and only remember that cutie

And if u ask I may or may not have others that I just forget about .

O will write lgbtq and gender neutral but if a character is gay or sm I will respect their sexuality and only write for x that gender. I will do headcannons and fluff, and angst but absolutely no smut. I will write persons of color and overweight underweight short reader tall reader, anything bcs the struggle is real. O also do mood boards and other stuff. I will cuss in My writing but if u don't like that, put that in the request and I will ofc respect that.

Pls request stuff bcs I have zero motivation 😔.

[captainsophiestark]

Flickering Firelight

Luke Castellan x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for my personal fic writing challenge for 2024, Sophie's Year of Fic! Featuring a new fic being posted every Friday, all year long :)

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Summary: Three snapshots of a relationship with Luke Castellan, before during and after the things he does for Kronos.

Word Count: 1,258

Category: Angst, Fluff

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I sighed, leaning my head against my boyfriend's shoulder, both of us illuminated by the flickering light of the campfire we'd made on the beach. Everything had been so busy over the last week, and it was nice to finally have a moment just for us.

"Lotta new campers this summer," mused Luke, my best-friend-turned-boyfriend as of a few months ago. "We're gonna have a hell of a time with them in the Hermes cabin."

"Yeah. Hopefully it won't take too long for them to get claimed. Some of them have been pretty good about it, lately."

Luke just grunted, not really giving me a full response. I knew exactly how he felt about the Olympians and the things they did, so I let it drop.

"I have to say, it's nice to have everybody back, though," I said, gently changing the subject. I took Luke's hand in mine, gently tracing lines with my thumb. "The whole place just feels more alive with the summer campers here."

"True. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to getting them all back into shape in the sword arena, since I just know almost none of them practiced while they were gone."

"Now that is a show that I'd like to watch."

Luke huffed a laugh, and I pulled back just enough to look him in the eyes. The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smirk that I absolutely adored, and which made my heart race.

"I've got a good feeling about this summer," I said, moving a little closer to Luke as I spoke. The smirk faded from his lips, replaced with a more thoughtful expression I couldn't totally read.

"Yeah. So do I."

****************

I hadn't seen the love of my life in a long time, and now we stood on opposite sides of a battlefield. And he wasn't really my Luke.

The flickering firelight of the burning city around me reflected off of gold armor, in the gold eyes I didn't recognize.

"Luke..." My voice broke on his name, turning into a hoarse whisper I hardly recognized. "Please..."

The only indication the man I loved was still in there was the slightest twitch of his eye. Time slowed as the monster that had brought him into this mess smiled at me, nothing like the mischievous grin I knew and loved.

"Nice try, little hero. But he's gone. And so are you."

I tried to raise my sword as Kronos advanced on me, but my arms were like lead. I was among the last defenders of Olympus, further out from the final ring my friends had made. I wanted to make a meaningful stand to try to stop this here and now, but as the seconds inched by, it became more and more clear that wouldn't be possible.

The last thing I saw was Luke's stupid sword Backbiter, with its bronze and steel blade, flashing through the air towards me, held by a monster using someone I loved as a mask.

****************

I sighed as I put my feet up on the stone ring of the firepit before me, leaning back in an extra-comfy lounge chair. The sun shone down on me, warming my skin despite being Olympus knew how far underground. Here, it didn't matter. I'd found paradise.

Based on the fact that Elysium still existed at all, I knew my friends had managed to succeed. It hadn't been too long after I'd first arrived here that someone brought news that confirmed it: Kronos and his Titans had been defeated. Olympus had won the day.

Sadly, I wasn't down here by myself. Too many friends were here with me, all of us dying in the fight and at least making it here together, as a small silver lining. We'd taken over a whole section of the place as our own secondary Camp Half-Blood, enjoying the peace here together while we could.

Some of us had even tried for rebirth, and more were headed that way. But I couldn't bring myself to leave. At least, not yet.

I kept waiting for what I was almost confident wouldn't happen, but I refused to move on all the same. Silena had made it down here, after all, despite being a spy for the Titans. She'd realized her error and made a change, helping our cause and redeeming herself enough for Elysium. Based on other accounts from above, Luke had done something similar. He'd also done much worse than Silena, but I still couldn't make myself give up hope of seeing him here too.

"Hey."

I looked up to find Ethan Nakamura, one of Luke's lieutenants who'd defected at the very, very end, looking at me from a few feet away. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he blew out a breath.

"Somebody's here to see you."

I frowned, then shot up straight in my seat as a familiar face stepped out from behind one of the residences of Elysium. Luke, looking more sheepish and unsure than I'd ever seen him in either of our lives, struggled to meet my eyes. I froze, hardly believing what I was seeing. It was him. Like he'd been before all this shit with the Titans.

He finally looked up, and his eyes were his own, all trace of that horrible gold gone.

Tears flooded down my face as I rushed forward, wrapping him in a bone-crushing hug. I sobbed into his chest as I held him, my Luke, somehow here with me after death when I never thought I'd see him again.

He breathed my name like he didn't believe I was real, his arms finally coming around me and holding me tight. We stayed like that for a long time, holding each other, hearts pressed against each other. Finally, it started to sink in that he was really here with me, after everything we'd been through. I pulled back just a bit, so I could look him in the eyes again. Those beautiful eyes that I loved met mine.

"Luke..." I breathed, a smile lighting up my face. Slowly, a beaming smile spread on his own, mirroring mine.

"I- I didn't think you'd be happy to see me."

My heart ached at his words, and I leaned in to give him a soft kiss on the cheek before meeting his eyes again.

"I wasn't happy with the choice you made, Luke, and a lot of bad things came from it. But you came back to me in the end. If what I've been hearing is right, you helped save the world, at the cost of your own life. And even at the worst moments, I never stopped loving you."

"I never stopped loving you, either. If I could go back, if I could do things differently-"

I put one finger to his lips, gently cutting him off before he could get too far down that path.

"I know, Luke. But you can't. None of us can do anything to change the past. So we might as well enjoy where we are now."

He nodded, a soft smile gracing his lips. I leaned up to press mine gently against his own, the kiss soft and sweet and everything I'd been missing since that last summer we'd had together. I let myself enjoy the moment, Luke's hands tightening on my waist, then pulled away.

"Come on," I said, trailing my hand down from his shoulder to take his hand. "Let me show you around, and then we can get some marshmallows and hang out by the fire."

Luke beamed. "I can't think of anything in the world that I'd rather do."

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989

Percy Jackson Taglist: @valkyriepirate

[save-the-moonpjo]

Excerpt:

“So when do we have the big party?” Percy had asked one morning, sliding into his seat beside Ethan at breakfast. The older boy promptly snatched a piece of bacon off of Percy’s plate and Percy retaliated by stealing a slice of toast. 

“What party?” Ethan had asked in return, his words muffled by the bacon. 

“For the campers coming back for the summer?” Percy had technically been around for three of Camp Half-Blood’s legendary celebration bonfires. The first he had been unconscious in the healing tent. The last-

Percy rubbed the scar on his cheek and forced his thoughts away from the last party. 

“Ah,” Lou Ellen answered from her spot across from them. Ethan stared into the distance, still chewing but somehow with more anger. Angry chewing. “We have a different kind of party.”

By July 1st the camp stopped waiting for the rest of the campers to return. The bonfire was for their shrouds, not marshmallows.

[charlotte-stant-romanzi-disney]

Understanding

Ethan Nakamura was angry. He put his hands in his jeans pockets and walked down the sidewalk. Cars whizzed by. People who knew nothing about gods, monsters, and the like.

People who could live happily. Without worries.

Could there be no understanding for him?

Neither his father nor that stupid school he ended up in had understood him. Camp Half-Blood. That was the worst place. He had to live crowded together like an animal with other demigods, children of the so-called lesser gods, in the house of Hermes. The others, on the other hand, were privileged. Children of Athena, Dionysus, Apollo. They moved as if they had the world in their hands.

Ethan kicked the air.

It seemed like no one in the world cared about him. Not even his mother. It was ironic that she was Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance. Maybe that explained the anger.

He needed something to hold on to.

Someone who understood him. What…

-Ethan Nakamura?

He clenched his fists. Ready to fight. He turned around.

A boy with green eyes smiled at him. He was lanky, a little awkward looking.

-Who are you?

-Luke sent me, I'm the one who can help you- the boy crossed his arms.

-Luke?- Ethan remembered Luke. He was a son of Hermes. One of those people he always wanted to be.

-He thinks you might be interested in his proposal

Ethan knew what he had to do. Because if there was a chance of understanding he couldn't lose it. -Where are we going?

[artemx746]

So glad the first pjo fic I read was of Sally Jackson adopting Ethan Nakamura

[ineedibuprofen]

Percy Jackson + 137?

Percy doesn't even see it coming.

His instincts and reflexes are something he's always been able to rely on and that was only confirmed as the River Styx's curse protected him. Achilles' mark was unpredictable and dangerous there was no doubt, but Percy found it a whole lot easier to focus on the fight when he wasn't worrying about being killed. For the most part.

He finds himself on the other side of Manhattan, crossed paths with a demigod on the opposite side of the war – a child of Hermes, ironically enough, and Percy would be lying if his familiar sandy blonde hair didn't cause equal parts hesitance and resentment to stir up inside him. He doesn't know his name, doesn't recognize him from if he went to camp before, but that wasn't all that surprising. Most of the demigods on the other side Percy didn't recognize.

He's a good sword fighter. Percy knows he's good himself, taught by Luke, the best swordsmen in hundreds of years – he swallows down the hesitance and resentment that rises once again at the reminder – but this kid's been able to hold his own for a good while now. Kid, not just because it was Percy's default nickname to call other people, but also because he really was a kid. He looked maybe fifteen, if he was stretching it, but probably younger. Definitely younger than Percy.

It's a bitter reminder of where they are. In the center of Manhattan, Percy stresses about disarming this kid so he can run and get back to the main fight. Everything is stock still frozen, a time capsule city, and it still feels unreal. It was easy to get lost in the illusion that none of this was actually happening.

"Give it up," the kid grits out as Percy loses his footing.

He slips back a bit and the son of Hermes brings his sword back up. Percy does the same and they meet with a clang that echoes in the silent landscape. There's no one and nothing around, aside from a smashed car that's on fire. It's a few feet away, not close enough to be of help if Percy loses Riptide, but not far enough to be a completely useless asset. Percy uses his other hand as leverage as he places at the other end of his blade and pushes. His foot catches on a rock and it helps him gain traction.

"No," he says, and the kid falls back.

He lands on his backside, taking breath after breath. There's soot and smoke surrounding them and it tastes like fire, like Mt. St. Helens, like scars in his skin that reappeared after Calypso's magic wore off, like he was fourteen then and didn't know how to control his powers and now he's sixteen and destined to die and about to kill a kid a year younger than him. His eyes are brown and round and he's staring at him with the look of a wild animal.

Percy lifts Riptide and points at his throat, feeling the way it trembles in his hands. The blade meets the kid's skin and he closes his eyes, preparing for what he believes is the inevitable. He almost looks like Nico di Angelo. Like Ethan Nakamura. Like Luke Castellan. Like any other camper who was scared shitless and rightfully angry at the Gods. Like Percy.

He swallows down the regret of this whole situation. He swallows down the nausea in his gut. He swallows down his dwindling will to live and the none of this would've happened if you'd never been born. Take a look at the damage around you, Luke has taunted in his dream, how much of it would still be here if you didn't exist? How much of it would go away if you just died?

Percy's eyes unexpectedly sting. He tries to become apathetic, but – this isn't the first demigod he's killed, even if he tries to avoid it like nothing else. It was inevitable, or so he told himself. That was his excuse. But it felt weak now, in the middle of a war with no end in sight.

No end in sight, except for this demigod who was about to die. By Percy's hands.

One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths.

He can't do it.

His eyes squeeze shut and he pulls Riptide back towards himself. He caps it. He puts it back in his pocket. The kid's eyes open. There's a strange look on his face, a combination of terror and confusion and relief. 

"Go." Percy says, voice tense. He takes a step back in a weak white flag and looks to the side, "I didn't see you. Just go."

He stares at him for another second in presumably shock before he splutters and nods. He mutters as he scrambles up, a series of okays and oh Gods and other relieved words Percy doesn't catch. When he's found his balance, he frowns at Percy.

"Why would you –,"

He doesn't get to finish the sentence.

Percy doesn't even see it coming.

There's a loud noise, a noise of a deep, familiar noise. It's exponentially loud, so, so loud, and Percy's ears are ringing before he hits the concrete. He's weightless  as his body flies. After half a second and forty years, he slams his head against the pavement as he hits the road a few feet from where he's been standing. His ears are ringing and he doesn't know the logistics of the Achilles' heel, but his head is pounding like a motherfucker and when he touches his ear, his fingers come back bleeding.

What the fuck. What the fuck just happened? What – an explosion. The familiar noise. Charles Beckendorf's final salute. The Princess Andromeda. The Titan War. It was all the same, it was – where was he? There was an explosion. What caused it? Bomb. Bomb? No, that – where did bombs come from? What was happening – definitely bomb. But no. Fire. Car. The car. Oh, shit. No, no, no. The car had been on fire.

Damnit.

He lets out a groan and curls in on himself. He's not in pain, physically, but he's off put and his ears aren't recovered yet and –

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

The kid.

There was a kid, wasn't there? A son of Hermes. Luke? No. Was it – or maybe Ethan? No, no. God – focus. Son of Hermes. Details unknown. He has to find him.

Percy, ignoring his brain's protests, manages to roll over and get to his feet. His ears are still ringing, but it's low and quieter, and he can hear the crackling of a fire nearby. He stumbles as he takes a step forward, mind not quite registering the damage.

The car is no longer there, replaced by bits of metal and rubber and other bad smelling shit that burns in the air. There's little fires scattered around them, and then a bigger one where the car originally was. The air is hot and the atmosphere is like he's in a bubble with no air. It hurts to breathe and he must've inhaled some smoke or something because everytime he breathes too much, he coughs. It's hard and forceful, rattles his lungs, and he hasn't coughed like this since he was ten and Gabe was chain-smoking in the living room while he had bronchitis. 

He can hear shouting in the distance, war cries and battle calls, and as the ringing finally fades, Percy remembers he's in the middle of a war. There are people to help and monsters to fight and when did he get sperated from Annabeth? He doesn't know. He doesn't know and it doesn't matter and he needs to focus because there's a kid that needs him.

He scans the rest of the horizon, ignores the way his mind tells him he's abandoning his post. He's abandoning his post for someone on the enemy's side and what kind of leader was he, standing in the middle of wreckage looking for someone most likely saveless to save.

He sees him, across the street from the crime scene. He's on his side, his back facing Percy, his clothes smouldering. He's not moving, except for a very faint rise and fall of his chest. This time, Percy doesn't hesitate.

He runs to the other side of him, crashes into the ground so hard he can feel the skin on his knees break. He turns him over carefully, so his face is towards the sky. His skin is covered in soot and there's burn holes in his shirt and he's bleeding in more than one place.

"Hey, hey," Percy murmurs, "get up, kid. Are you okay – you're okay. You're okay. C'mon, kid."

He doesn't say anything. Percy, feeling his panic rise and take over his instincts, rips open the guy's shirt. He assesses the injuries and takes stock of the supplies he doesn't have. He has a gash on his forehead that's bleeding, red crimson running down the side of his face. His ankle is twisted the wrong direction. Minor cuts and burns cover the bigger half of his body.

Percy has nothing. No ambrosia, no nectar, no first aid. He searches the kid's pockets, desperate for a solution, but the only thing he finds is half a square of crushed ambrosia. He shoved it in the kid's mouth, who remains unresponsive. He moves his jaw and hits him in the throat so he chews and swallow it, and then he's left to his own devices.

The only helpful thing he has is own t-shirt and a piece of sturdy wood and arm's length away. He grabs it, rips the end of his shirt off and then rips it in half and creates a makeshift splint for the ankle. He takes the other half piece and wraps his head best he can, but it doesn't even go in a full circle and he doesn't have any tape to hold it in place.

Kronos has risen and he's forever away from any kind of medical equipment and this kid still hasn't fucking moved. His chest isn't moving. Percy flicks around for his wrist, holds his breathe as he checks for a pulse.

Nothing.

No. No, no. He just had him, Percy just had him. He just – he was alive. What the hell happened? The explosion wasn't that bad, he's not bleeding that bad anywhere.

Percy reels back on his heels and let's himself sit on the floor. He stares at the body of a son of Hermes he never knew the name of. He wonders if anyone knew his name.

People die. People have died. People are dying. People will die. Percy's been at the other end of the sword more than once. That doesn't change the guilt that grows into a parasite and eats his insides. That doesn't change the tears still burning in his eyes. It doesn't change the prophecy, the hero's sould cursed blade shall reap. It doesn't change Annabeth taking a knife for him.

It feels like a cruel, cosmic joke. Like his whole life, everything he's suffered through and sacrificed, all the shit others have suffered through and sacrificed, has been leading up to the fact that he and his friends and the only safe place for people like them was going to be destroyed.

There's nothing left, at the end of the world, except for Kronos and his goons.

If there was any justice in the world, Percy thinks – he leans over and closes the kid's eyes, crosses his arms over his chest, and makes sure he'll tell others to make him a shroud – Gods hope that they've put their trust in the right people.

If there's any justice in the world, this war will not end in chaos. This war will not cater to those who started it for their own benefit.