theseusernamesarehard

[theseusernamesarehard]

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter six

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pairing: Luke Castellan x Olivia Messer daughter of Apollo oc)

word-count: 3k

summary: Olivia and Luke make up.

Luke sighed. There was no way he was sleeping. Lee had finished stitching up the wound and there was really no further concern there, but that was the least of Luke's worries anyway. Why did he have to play capture the flag? Why did he think he could just act all smug and make Olivia laugh until she forgot why she was even mad at him? Probably because it had worked a million times before but that was beside the point. Maybe the wound was simply too deep and there was no fixing it. She sure seemed to think so.

But it didn't seem fair. Why did she have to give up on them completely? And how was it so easy on her? Even the thought of her never speaking to him again caused Luke physical pain. He barely survived the winter without her and now it seemed certain it would have to last forever. How could she not realize that he cared about her? He'd face Ladon again if it meant she'd smile at him like she used to. He'd face two Ladons if it meant he could kiss her, even just once.

But that was a thought he liked pushing away. Although pushing it away had seemed harder lately. He was already more aware of everything in their interactions as before, but there was another level to it. Luke knew he missed her more than just a friend. He knew it because he didn't just miss her. He missed how her hand felt against his, how her head fit in the crook of his neck so naturally and he missed feeling her next to him at night. Chris was right, they didn't act like friends because Luke didn't want to be friends, he settled for it. Settled for it because he was scared of messing everything up. He'd rather have half of her than have her fully and then lose everything. Or so he'd thought. But now it seemed like he was losing all of her anyway.

Fuck it. No use wallowing in the infirmary. At this point he had nothing to lose. He got up and snuck out of the infirmary, careful as to not wake up the campers who had returned after Olivia left and avoided his gaze the whole time. He set foot towards the pier, hoping she'd be there and praying to every god that she would hear him out.

"Does the word 'alone' mean anything to you?" Olivia sighed.

Luke was standing behind her, hesitating. He sat down next to her and luckily, she didn't get up. Not yet at least.

"I just needed someone to talk to. And you were the first name that came to mind. Even after everything."

"You used to be the first person I wanted to talk to too. But apparently I was...what was it? Putting the weight of my world on your shoulders."

"I didn't mean it, Liv. I was acting out."

"I don't care what you were doing Luke, it hurt and I don't want to hurt anymore."

"It'll never happen again. At least not like that, it was never my intention. Last fall was...a mess of emotions I didn't know how to handle. I ran away from everything to the mortal world, to Sheila."

"Why couldn't you run to me?"

Olivia was crying again. Luke wanted to make it the last time he ever made her cry.

"Because you were the reason for all those emotions. I fell in love with my best friend over that summer and I didn't know what to do. We'd been each other's everything for three years already, but suddenly you were in my bed and I loved it. I loved waking up and realizing I'll spend every waking moment with you from that point on. It wasn't just friendly and though I tried to pretend otherwise, I didn't want it to be."

A silence, interrupted by a few sobs from Olivia and the quiet sound of waves hitting the pier.

"You have to say something, Liv. I feel like I've made myself pretty clear here."

"Fuck you."

"What?"

"Fuck you. Did you talk to Annabeth?"

"No! What do you mean fuck you?"

"You can't just say that!"

"Say what? I love you? Fuck you. It's not like it was easy."

"Seemed like it. I've loved you for two years and haven't been able to do it."

"What?"

The tears weren't going away but there was a small smile accompanying them.

"When we first came by here actually. Or when I first came here and found you with your feet dangling in the water."

Luke looked at her intently, like he was finally allowed to do so properly.

"And we talked, really talked and even though we'd done the usual camp hangouts, lava wall, sparring and whatnot, that was the first time I really got to know you. And I don't know if you remember this, but you said it always stressed you out, having to lead the biggest cabin, take everyone in and I had just started running the infirmary so I said I felt the same and we agreed we'd share the load, be there for each other. That felt like the 'best friends forever' -agreement, but I've loved you ever since then. And been scared of it too."

"Is that why you pushed me away this fall?"

"Things got too intense. I used to be able to keep everything in check, pine from afar I guess, but last summer was too intense, too intimate to ignore. So when Sheila happened on top of everything else, I couldn't take it."

"I'm sorry about that."

"You had every right to be with her", Olivia shrugged.

"Not when I could've been with you."

"It might not work out. We could lose each other forever."

"That's what I used to think. But then I almost died and all I could think about was how I never got to know what it would've been like. I'd rather take a moment of this than forever of uncertainty."

"You're getting poetic."

"Your influence. Can I kiss you now?"

Olivia didn't respond, she just leaned in.

Both of them had thought about this moment many times, sometimes feeling ashamed of it, but always imagining it in vivid detail. The distance between them closing. Up until this moment they hadn't realized that at the end of the day the imaginings were still from a third person perspective, like watching it happen to themselves. Nothing could've prepared them for the real thing.

Sure Luke had had Sheila and Olivia had had a few drunken bush makeouts during their time at camp, but this was different. Their lips met and it didn't feel like it was only their lips connecting, it was as if they could feel their connection change. Everything from their friendship transferred and transformed into that kiss and came out of it...different. Changed in an indescribable way. It was addicting.

They were careful at first, almost still. But when they pulled back to look at each other, two pairs of brown eyes seeing each other for what felt like the first time, it was clear that it was the start of something. Luke's hands went to Olivia's waist and when he pulled her back in he could feel her smile against his lips.

Olivia found her way into Luke's hair and he swore he saw stars at that moment. She could taste the leftover nectar on him, although it started to be unclear whether he tasted of nectar or nectar tasted of him.

Somehow they'd ended up laying down on the pier, the wood panels slightly digging into Luke's back, but he was far too busy kissing Olivia's neck to be worried about it.

"Wait", Olivia sighed.

"I'm a little busy here", Luke mumbled. She felt his voice against her skin and smiled.

"We should probably talk about this."

"All we ever do is talk, we've never done this before", Luke nabbed at her earlobe, which elicited a new reaction from her.

"I'm just saying, I don't want to wake up in the morning wondering what just happened."

"We already know", a kiss on her cheek. "I love you", another one on her nose. "You love me", one on her smile. "As is obvious", he said after it grew even wider. "I think it's settled."

"So we're in a relationship?"

"Is that what you want?"

"Seems like the obvious choice, doesn't it?"

"We don't have to do anything just because it's obvious."

"Would it be weird if we just saw where it went without defining it yet? I don't want to put pressure on everything immediately and lose you because of that."

"You're not losing me."

Olivia rolled off Luke and he put his arm under her head.

"But we don't have to define anything yet", he continued. "And honestly I could deal with not telling everyone immediately."

"Am I going to be your dirty little secret?" Olivia smirked.

"Just for a little bit. So the relentless teasing is only what we're already used to and nothing worse."

"I could do with a little bit of peace."

"We've certainly deserved it", Luke brushed his free hand against her cheek and leaned in. Olivia put a finger on his mouth.

"Speaking of which, how's your face?"

"You're not on the clock, don't worry about it."

"I think we've established the fact that I worry over you anyways a few times."

"It's fine. Lee put the stiches back together."

"No strenuous exercise though. For at least a week, maybe two."

"Kissing won't count, though."

"Not as long as it's just kissing."

"Buzzkill."

"If it helps, I'm only saying this because I love you."

"Doesn't help. I love you too though."

"It's still weird to hear it."

"Also weird to say it."

"Admittedly, it's been like an hour since we first said it."

"I'm happy we did."

"I'm happy too. Obviously."

They sat in silence for a while.

"We should probably go to sleep", Olivia said.

"Sure, you want to go to my cabin or yours?"

"I kind of want to stay here, honestly. Are you cold?"

"Nah, I've got you to warm me up."

"I've always thought of this as our spot."

"Me too. I'm glad we ended up here."

"I'm glad too. And sorry. Maybe this would've been a quicker ordeal if I didn't push you away so much."

"Also might've been quicker if I wasn't such an asshole."

"But we're here."

"We're here."

And they fell asleep, happier than ever. The tension between them was finally gone and they could just...be.

Until the morning when they were four by a grinning Chris.

"I'm guessing you two made up?"

What followed was an awkward endeavor where Olivia tried to get up, but had to also try to move a sleepy Luke off of her.

"Uh, yeah. I mean we talked it through and I guess fell asleep here", she laughed awkwardly.

Luke was only beginning to stir.

"What time is it?" he yawned.

"Just past nine"; Chris answered.

"Shit", was said in unison by the two counselors.

"Don't worry. I handled the Hermes cabin and Lee took over Apollo."

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver!" Olivia sighed.

"So...", Chris stretched out the vowel. "What happened here last night?"

"What are you talking about?" Luke was nonchalant, but hopefully not too nonchalant.

"I'm just saying. Last I heard you two were once again screaming at each other and now you're here all cuddled up. Did you guys get together or...?"

"Or. We just made up and fell asleep", Olivia assured. "Had to unpack a few things before we could carry on normally."

"And the cuddling?"

"I don't know, we just woke up like that. Must've been cold", Luke continued.

Chris was doubtful, but luckily it wasn't the first time they'd spent the night cuddled up together.

"Alright, well nice to have you two on speaking terms after all! We should probably get to breakfast."

Both Luke and Olivia refrained from sighing out of relief.

They walked to breakfast with no further doubts, discussing the schedule for the day and rest of summer. Chris was happy to start co-counseling with Luke and as soon as Luke was fully healed, he would take back the position.

They arrived at the pavilion and Olivia tried to go to her table, but Luke gently pulled her back by her arm.

"You're not eating with us?"

"I gotta go and thank Lee. But I'll see you after lunch for a checkup."

Olive looked at his lips the whole time they were talking. She could kiss him right there. It was a nice thought. Just a few steps, a lean and her lips would mould with his. She didn't, but just the idea that she could now was enough to spread her smile even larger. He let go and she went by her table, but she could hear Chris saying something sounding like 'dude get it together' to Luke.

And Luke was indeed getting told off by Chris.

"You like her, she likes you, it's obvious Luke. She was staring at your mouth the whole time you were talking with her just now. So can you just make a move and put us all out of this misery? Are you even listening?"

No, Luke was not listening. He was too busy wondering why Theo was sitting down at the Apollo table.

"Does he know that it's against the rules?"

"What?" Chris sighed.

"You're supposed to sit at your own table during meals."

"You're one to talk."

"Yeah, but I'm supposed to break the rules, son of the god of thieves and whatnot. Theo seems more like a stickler."

"Just ask her out dude. That's all I'll say on the topic."

"Although it seems like Theo beat you to it", Travis said.

"Too bad", Connor said. "I was really rooting for you two."

"She won't say yes", Luke said.

"Someone's confident", Travis whistled.

"Know something we don't?" Connor inquired.

"We should probably get everyone to arts and crafts", was Luke's diplomatic response.

Inside, however he was annoyed. He trusted Olivia, but that didn't mean that he liked Theo hitting on her. Or he didn't like the fact that Theo could just do it. If they were together Theo would be an asshole for even trying anything. Now he was just another dude. Shit, maybe Luke did want everyone to know. Sure Travis and Connor would be borderline unbearable, but they were so already. And it would make Chris happy. But Liv didn't want that, se wanted to keep it undefined. He'd just have to deal with it for a while.

Which was becoming increasingly difficult now that Theo seemed to be determined to get Olivia to go on a date. The arts and crafts cabin was close to the archery field, where Olivia's cabin was doing some training. And for some reason Theo was there.

Luke wasn't very good at dealing with jealousy. He just wanted to waltz in there and tell Theo off, explain to him that he had no business trying to date his Liv. But he couldn't do that. She wasn't his anything.

But then she turned around, saw him and smiled. And everything was fine for a moment. He was lost in thought thinking how much he wanted to kiss that smile, when she nodded her head, inviting him to come along.

He put his arm around her shoulder, somewhat of a friendly gesture, but still enough to make Theo shift awkwardly from one foot to the other.

"How's arts and crafts?" Olivia asked Luke. "Able to make a bracelet yet?"

"Nah. It was too hard so I gave up."

"Sounds like you."

"When have you made one?"

"I'm sure it's easy."

"You know", Theo began and Luke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "My mother is the goddess of weaving so I have a bit of experience in bracelet making if you're interested in learning."

He really was sweet. But that didn't mean Luke had to like him.

"Yeah, don't know if I'll really have the time though. With the infirmary and all of this", Olivia gestured to her siblings shooting perfect bullseyes.

"Can I actually talk with you for a minute? Alone?" Luke asked.

"Sure", Olivia answered and they moved to the side.

"What's Theo's problem?"

Olivia smirked.

"Problem? Are you talking about the fact that he has a crush on me?"

"Just saying, he seems to keep on bothering you."

"Are you jealous?"

"No!"

"You are! You're practically turning green."

"Listen, I just don't like him."

"Because he likes me."

"Okay, because he likes you. And technically there's nothing holding him back."

"There's the fact that I don't feel the same way."

"Still. It kind of...bothers me."

"But you didn't want anyone to know about us."

"And you didn't want to define it."

"Sounds like you want people to know."

"Maybe I do. Is that okay? I understand if you want to see where it goes in private."

"You know, I've already spent the most of today wanting to kiss you, but not being able to, so I don't know if I want to keep it private anyways."

"And defining it?"

"At the end of the day it's just a few words; boyfriend, girlfriend. We managed to say 'I love you' so I feel like we can handle it."

"Cool. Can I now be obnoxious and kiss you in front of Theo so he'll get the hint?"

"Just remember that my siblings are here as well and I think Chris is watching us from the window there."

"Bet."

And he delivered. The kiss was sweet enough, but his hands were digging into her sides, and she'd wrapped her arms around his neck in a way that made it feel rather intimate. As seen by a blushing Theo leaving the scene quite quickly. Olivia almost felt bad, but then again she had other things occupying her mind. Like the sound of disgust coming from poor Will.

"Eww! What is that and why is it happening?"

"Sorry, buddy", Luke said, but with his unabashed smile, he did not look very apologetic.

"Man, I thought it would take you at least until the end of the summer. I owe the Stolls twenty bucks", Lee sighed. "But good for you I guess."

"Lovely to hear the support, Lee", Olivia gave him a thumbs up. "Now how about everyone focuses on the archery again?"

"Holy fucking shit finally!" Chris yelled out as he ran from the arts and crafts cabin.

Olivia and Luke barely had the time to yell out 'language' before they were engulfed in a hug.

"Dude, you're suffocating us!" Olivia laughed.

"Sorry, sorry, just excited", Chris said. "I mean I've been waiting for this day ever since I met you two."

"Man you really are serious about this", Luke chuckled.

"Not as serious as Travis and Connor are about to be", Chris smirked. "We should go tell them now, actually!"

They laughed and protested when Chris started dragging them towards the cabin. It wasn't a problem really. Now they had each other.

The puzzle was finally complete.

[theseusernamesarehard]

okay i promise i haven't gone anywhere i just have writers block and chapter six is is proving itself to be quite difficult (although that was anticipated) so its coming! might just take a little while more 🥴

[theseusernamesarehard]

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter five

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pairing: Luke Castellan x Olivia Messer (daughter of Apollo oc)

summary: Luke hurts Olivia once again and it takes them right back to their first fight.

word count: 3,5k

"You don't know what you're doing", Chris told Luke.

They were sitting in the empty Hermes cabin, Luke was finally dismissed and didn't have to spend his nights in the infirmary. He just had to go there twice a day for a checkup, although Chris notified him that he was there a lot more. The kids were off at archery practice, so the counselor and interim counselor had some time to talk while Luke unpacked.

"I know", Luke sighed. "I feel like I'm walking on eggshells around her, but after everything, I'll take what I can get."

"There has to be a reason why she's being friendly again. Maybe she just needed the time to cool off."

"She's hasn't been able to stay mad at me for longer than a day in three years and suddenly she goes eight months? It wasn't just cooling off. I think she never meant to talk to me again unless she had to."

"But now she is."

"When I came back she suggested a deal where we act like everything is fine and nothing ever happened between us", Luke pondered. "I think it was supposed to just be until she can get the poison out, but it's been a week now. It might be for good."

"There's no way you can just keep being friends when she cut you off for eight months and you don't even know why. You two have to talk about it."

"But do we? If I bring it up it might just end up the same way it always did when I tried to mend things. She's going to yell at me and close off from everyone around her. I finally have her back."

"Do you?"

"Pretty much yeah."

"You feel like you can just casually hold her hand while you two roam around camp again? Throw her in the lake or sneak her in here when you can't sleep? As much as you two were 'just friends' you sure didn't act like it."

Luke blushed.

"I think that if you can't do those things anymore, things are not back to the way it was. And besides, there's the whole Theo issue."

"Theo issue?"

"Athena cabin counselor who clearly likes her and who she doesn't push away like she's been doing to everyone else in her life lately."

"And why is that an issue?"

Although Luke knew exactly why it was, an uncomfortable feeling growing in his chest.

"I don't know Luke, why is it?"

He didn't respond.

"I think the kids are about done with archery", he said instead.

"I'll get them to lunch. But this conversation isn't over", Chris sighed.

Once he left, Luke plopped on his bed and looked at the wooden ceiling, thoughts starting to race through his head at an alarming rate as they had been lately. He finally understood the dragon that tried to claw his face off. He felt like he had a hundred heads as well.

One head didn't think he had anything to complain about. He'd finally gotten his best friend back, which was something that he'd prayed from an embarrassing amount of gods, he was back at camp and best of all, he was alive. Was there even anything else to ask for?

Yes. There were so many things Luke still wanted. He wanted to forget the fact that he ever went on that stupid quest. But he wanted his father to do anything except go back to ignoring him like he did before. So maybe he didn't want to erase the quest. He wanted to have succeeded in that quest. He wanted to receive anything other than the looks of pity he was getting. He wanted his goddamn kleos, felt entitled to it actually, and that feeling brought out a head that he hadn't seen since their years on the run with Annabeth and Thalia. One he didn't particularly like.

And then there was one head. The one was always able to crawl its way to his consciousness, even if he had bigger, more important matters at hand. The head had been suffocated for a bit, willed out of existence, but it was back and filled with thoughts of curly hair that Luke liked playing with, a soft smile that made life worth living and eyes that felt like they could x-ray his soul. Even in his darkest moments, alone in the silence when he felt like all there was left to do was rip apart this world and build a better one by his design, his thoughts wondered over to the person he wanted to build it for. Whose hurt and pain should be his to carry just because he was already too lucky, too blessed to just be able to exist in her vicinity.

Luke's thoughts always found their way back to Olivia. To Liv.

Who looked like she was regretting ever meeting him. Luckily she didn't slam the infirmary door in his face, although he knew it was close.

"Don't tell me you played", she sighed.

Her brown eyes were fixated on his face, clearly hoping for an answer he couldn't give. He looked down when he couldn't bear looking at her.

"If it helps, he was on defense", Annabeth Chase replied.

Yes, Luke was so scared of her, of losing her, that he had to beg his adorable little sister, who he knew Olivia had an extra soft spot for, to take him. Incase that maybe stopped her from ghosting him again.

"You're un-fucking-believeable", she huffed and dragged him in.

Annabeth followed, seemingly finding this whole situation a tad bit amusing.

"I didn't think anything would happen! Like Annabeth said, I was on defense, I just wanted-",

"You wanted your honor, your kleos, didn't you? Just admit it. Admit that you haven't changed, you still need to show everyone how tough you are and you don't care who ends up being collateral!"

"No one's collateral."

"It's exactly like last time. You think you can do whatever because I have this goddamn blood that's going to fix everything and you don't even think about what giving it away does! Nobody does! It's like I'm not even a person. Just a healing concoction that happens to also administer the dose. I'm the fucking collateral."

Annabeth didn't find it so funny anymore. People recovering from the game were silently leaving the infirmary, trying to avoid getting into the crossfire. Annabeth started slowly stepping out as well with the excuse that she needed to help the people figure out where they could do the healing now.

"Sit down, Luke."

"Come on, Liv."

"Sit down. I'll patch up your cheek."

She wiped her face, trying to get rid of the tears inconspicuously, but Luke saw, or rather he knew. And he cursed himself for hurting her again. He was longing for the times when all he meant to her was comfort, something to take the pain away, not cause it.

"I really don't think of you like that, Liv."

"It's what everyone thinks of me at some point. Just hurts more when you do it."

She took off his gauze, which was now stained slightly with blood.

"I'll just redo the stitches. The strain made it open up again."

She was back to being cold, there was no glimmer in her eyes, no soft smile reserved only for him. He felt like going back to San Fransisco and letting that dragon finish the job.

"Will you ever talk to me again?" his voice was weak and in another life he might've felt embarrassed, but he was so scared that he was willing to go down on his knees and beg her if it meant he could have her back.

"I'll clean it, which might hurt a little bit."

"More than this. Liv, please I can't do this again. I can't have you not talk to me again."

"I don't know if I can do this, Luke", she sighed. "I'm tired."

And she did look it. Eyes red with crying, eyebags deep and dark, matching Luke's. He wondered if she had gotten a full nights sleep since they stopped talking. He for sure hadn't. And he still didn't fully know what it was about.

Last fall, Olivia and Luke had started school once again. Olivia went into her junior year and Luke had his last year of high school. Luke's senior year had begun exceptionally well. He was doing fine in his classes and the nightmares were finally easing up. The more time he spent with his school friends in New York, the less he seemed to struggle. They helped him take his mind off the other world they didn't even know existed. Especially Sheila. Sheila, who he found he really liked. And who was nice to kiss. So they started dating. Which meant that Luke was spending even more time in the city with her.

Meanwhile Olivia's life was starting to go downhill, quick. There was a weird infection going around camp. It was some sort of internal poisoning, which meant that she was constantly giving blood, organizing shifts for the infirmary and overall trying to keep everyone alive. Her iron was low, she felt dizzy all the time and she wasn't sleeping for a few reasons. Her nightmares hadn't eased up, in fact they seemed to be getting worse with the stress and now that Luke had a girlfriend, they obviously couldn't share a bed. Which she understood. And she wanted to be happy for him, really did, but she just didn't have the energy.

Especially when it felt like he was flat out ignoring her. She noticed that their joint breakfasts' were only happening when she sat down at his table and decided to see if he'd notice her absence and join her at her own table. So they stopped having breakfast together. He didn't seem to realize or care how stressful her life had become, since he was too busy recapping events and parties he was going to in the city and although he always asked her, he didn't bother to concern himself with the fact that she could never go.

But the last stitch happened on October 2nd. October 2nd was the day Olivia's mom died, the day she was left with no one in the world to look out for her and chucked into a foster home. She eventually found the note her mom was trying to write to her about her origins and found the address to camp Half-Blood through that, but it was preceded by the absolute worst months of her life. So saying it's a hard day was an understatement. But Luke had always made it better. He always had something special planned and he somehow managed to make it into a somewhat nice day. You're never going to look forward to the anniversary of your mom's death, but at least trying to figure out what Luke would do for it gave it some other meaning.

So when he ended up going to Sheila's straight after school, Olivia went back to camp and cried in her bed. She had wanted to continue that activity for the whole day, but seeing she had ten new sick campers, some of which were her siblings and co-healers, she got a good half an hour before she had to get back to work.

So when Luke came home injured from a run-in with a hellhound, she was less than pleased to be woken up. Reason one being that she was actually sleeping finally and reason number two being that of course she had to heal him. Which to her credit, she did.

"Thanks, Liv. That dog really had it out for me", he chuckled.

Luke was flashing his signature smirk, which Olivia had once found borderline irresistible. Now it was just annoying. And a little bit irresistible. The smirk was dropped quickly when she didn't respond and just started returning the things to their places.

"Why the long face, doc?"

That was admittedly the worst question he could've asked at that point. She let out a laugh that sounded an awful lot like a sob to Luke.

"You know that's probably the first question you've asked me in a month."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing."

"Come on, Liv", he grabbed her arm, pulling him towards him.

"Don't do that", she warned.

"Then just tell me, what's going on with you?"

Olivia sighed.

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Tuesday, why?"

"What date Luke?"

His face dropped.

"Shit. Fuck, sorry Liv I didn't-I didn't even realize. I don't know how I forgot."

"I do. It's like you've been ignoring me. We haven't had breakfast together in ages, you only hang out with Sheila during and after school and you haven't even bothered to check in on me on the rare occasion we do get to talk."

"Why haven't you said anything?"

"I have enough on my fucking plate already. Which you would know if you bothered to care about me."

"Of course I care about you, are you kidding?"

"Well you don't really show it, do you?"

Luke sighed.

"Sheila asked me to take some distance from you. I didn't mean to flat out ignore you, but I figured it was fair."

"Fair", she let it hang in the air.

"You know how it looks from the outside, you get as much shit for it as I do. This was always going to become a problem eventually."

That made her properly tear up.

"Doesn't take away from the fact that I really needed you today. I've actually needed you for a long time, but especially today. Everyone's sick, I'm already giving out too much blood and everybody expects me and me alone to fix it."

Luke took her hand and interlaced it with his own.

"And I used to be able to handle it. Feeling like everyone is thrusting the weight of the world on my shoulders was fine when I had you. When I had one fucking person that didn't expect everything of me. Who instead knew how it felt."

Luke was silent, cursing himself. Olivia took her hand out of his.

"But now you're becoming just like everyone. You don't care how I feel anymore, you don't stop to think about me. You're blowing off your duties not thinking about who they fall on or not bothering to check in with what's going on in the camp 'cause you're too focused on yourself."

"That's not fair, Olivia. That's not fucking fair and you know it."

She didn't like the way he said her name. Her full name.

"I've given up so much for other people", Luke began. "I've been on my own since I was nine, I took care of Thalia and Annabeth, I run the biggest cabin in the camp. It's me who takes in the new kids, assures them. I'm their older brother, their parent, whatever they didn't get growing up and I get nothing. I think I deserve some time to be a teenager."

"And I don't?"

"Never said you didn't. But you can't put it all on me. Maybe you should let other people in too."

"It's not that easy."

"You could try, though."

She glared at him.

"Come on. You can't blame others for expecting you to carry the world on your shoulders if you try to put yours on mine. It's the same thing! You're just relying on me for constant support with everything."

"I thought you wanted to support me."

There was no more anger, no yelling. Just a teenage girl who was losing trust in the one person she thought loved her.

"I do. I do, but I can't do it forever."

"Let's not be friends."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Let's not be friends than. If you can't do this forever, why prolong the time you have me to drag down your life? No more hanging out, no more talking, we can maybe say hi to each other and that's it."

"That's not funny."

"I'm not trying to be. It's what Sheila wants and clearly what you want as well. You'll be free from me and all my fucking baggage."

"Liv, let's just think about this."

"No. No more Liv. No more we. I'll be Olivia from now on. Liv is what friends call me."

"You can't be serious. You're not throwing this away."

"Maybe we've just grown apart. A lot of people don't talk to their childhood best friend."

"We're more than just 'childhood friends'."

Luke didn't know it, but that was the worst thing he could've ever said. Hearing the words she'd been hoping to hear for the last years in the wrong context solidified the fact that Olivia couldn't bear to be friends with him while loving him the way she did.

So she walked out, got Lee to do the rest of Luke's healing and refused to go in the infirmary until he was dismissed.

Eventually it was found out that the strawberries had been cursed by some weird disease and the epidemic stopped. But Olivia still wouldn't speak to Luke despite him trying everything. He broke up with Sheila immediately, followed Olivia around for days and spoke extensive monologues riddled with apologies. Eventually she threatened him with her knife and that made him stop. But it didn't stop his shocked face appearing in her dreams. Those brown eyes looking in shock at the knife she'd angled at his throat and despite Olivia repeating in her mind that it was for her own good, it didn't make the pain any easier.

And they once again arrived at the same place, months later. There were too many feelings unspoken, too many words unsaid. For two people who knew each other better than anyone had ever known them, they seemed to have certain blindspots.

"Liv, I swear. I'll do anything you ask me to, anything. I'll never get hurt again, I'll never tell you you're a bad singer, whatever you want. Please. Just don't leave me."

"That's the problem Luke. It'a not about you getting hurt, it's not about you making fun of my singing."

"Then what is it about? I know you want me to just know and I wish I did, but I don't! I know absolutely everything about you except this and it kills me."

"I just need some time to think. Alone. Lee can deal with the rest."

Luke just nodded and turned his head. Olivia had never felt so bad, but she couldn't do it. It wasn't even about the fact that Luke played, it was all the feelings that him being hurt caused her. When he showed up she realized she'd never loved him more and he'd once again taken her for granted. As someone who was there, who was his friend, in the background. Olivia didn't want a future where she had to stand at the altar and watch Luke marry someone else. Or where she had to look his dead body in the eyes and once again have someone she could've saved haunting her. She had to cut him off. They didn't work, even though she felt like Luke was all she was.

She was so deep in thought she didn't even notice Annabeth trailing her all the way to the forest until the little girl opened her mouth.

"He feels the same way, you know", Annabeth said, scaring Olivia.

"Christ Annabeth!" Olivia put away the knife she'd reflexively drawn. "You can't just go around following people."

"Luke's just an idiot who doesn't know anything about anyone, least of all himself, but I can see that you're the most important person in his life. And I'm counting myself in that."

"He sure doesn't show it", Olivia muttered. She really didn't want to have this conversation with an 11-year-old, but she was intrigued to know more.

"Doesn't he? He might not say it, but I've never seen him more scared than just now, when he realized he'd lose you again. He hasn't been himself since your fight and now he's going around sulking all the time if he isn't with you. I know Luke is clueless about his feelings, but I didn't expect the same from you Olivia."

"It's not that simple. Maybe he has feelings for me, so what? That doesn't mean everything will magically fall into place. You just said he doesn't even know it", she took a deep breath. "I love him so much it sometimes feels physically painful. That's not something I can just 'not realize'. I don't want to feel this much for someone who can just go and date Sheila fucking Widows and ignore me because she asked!"

Olivia had never revealed to anyone why she was really so upset at Luke, but since Annabeth seemed to once again know everything about anyone, she had to let it out.

"Didn't he break up with Sheila based on sheer hope it would make you talk to him again? You should take into account the fact that maybe Luke ignores his feeling because he's scared."

"Luke's barely scared of anything. I feel like he could handle a crush."

"It's not a crush. Anyone can see it's not just that."

"I don't want to waste my energy on this. It's easier to just let the entire thing go."

"Easy? Has it been easy for you? Staying away from Luke. Because from what I can see you're doing absolutely terrible and there's a simple solution."

"No offense, but you're eleven. I think I know what's best in this situation", Olivia huffed and started walking away.

"You're doing exactly what Luke is doing, hiding your feelings away because you don't want to face them!" Annabeth said after her.

Olivia kept walking away. Annabeth sighed in annoyance. Luke and Olivia were two pieces of a puzzle, it was clear to everyone. So why were they getting so stuck on solving it?

[theseusernamesarehard]

okay part five is going to be looong it's only partially written and not proofread, so it might take a little while to get out. i think it'll be good though!

[theseusernamesarehard]

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter four

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pairing: Luke Castellan x Olivia Messer (daughter of Apollo oc)

word count: 2k

summary: A year before the quest, Luke and Olivia go for kleos.

It was finally time for the first capture the flag game of the summer. Luke and Olivia had paired their cabins together for as long as they could remember, but they had ended last summer with two losses in a row. Which meant that they had spent the entire winter figuring out how to win this year. The key step had been realizing they both suck at strategy and leaving it to the Athena cabin, aka Luke's found little sister Annabeth Chase. The 10 year old was tiny, but she had a brilliant mind like her siblings and could figure out the best positions for each soldier, depending on their weapon of choice. Everyone trusted her to make sure she brought a much needed victory for the blue team.

She was the one who came up with their brilliant little attack plan. A bigger group of soldiers would approach the flag head on and keep most of the defense on bay, while the actual attack was made from the side. Simple yet effective. It required quite a bit of manpower, but Annabeth compensated for that by guarding their flag with a fleet of archers and soldiers scattered around within hearing distance, ready to gather at any sight or sound of attack from every direction.

Luke was attacking the flag from the right, walking casually with his sword in hand. He was hearing distant yells and swords clashing, which meant that the front line had clearly reached the red teams defense. Still, Luke wasn't shocked to see red when he was just a few feet away from the flag. What he didn't expect was to see Bryce and Lily, two Ares kids with vicious glints in their eyes.

"I really did think you guys would be on attack. But I suppose that's on me for stereotyping."

"We were hoping Messer would be on your heels like always, but I suppose we'll just have to deal with you", Bryce sighed. "Too bad, would've loved to send her to her own infirmary."

"And since we'll be punished for maiming, I was hoping we'd at least be able to get a package deal", Lily finished.

"Man you two are really starting to sound like cartoon movie villains. How long did you practice that?"

"Shut it, Castellan."

Luke was getting a tiny bit nervous. Sure, he was good with a sword, but two-on-one was never fair and both his opponents had spears, which meant that they could probably just ward him off. But he wasn't left with much choice when the two soldiers charged and all he could do was focus on the fight. Luckily, swordfighting felt like it was what his body was made to do. Sidestep, stab and block came to him very easily, but there was no way he could do any proper damage.

Just as he was starting to think 'where the fuck is she?', the red helmets flew off the Ares kids. They looked around, confused and before the knew it, two arrows were shot so precisely that the edges just barely scraped their knuckles, leaving friction burns on them and making them yelp and drop their spears. Luke wasn't as dumbfounded as the two so he managed to pick up one spear and point it at Bryces throat while his sword found Lilys.

Olivia, who had a habit of making an entrance, dropped down from a nearby tree with her bow on her back.

"Well, Bryce. I'm here, as you hoped, but it looks like we might have to leave the maiming for next time. We're a little busy."

They started tying their enemies to trees with the rope that Olivia brought.

"You were there to hear that? Why didn't you come help me sooner?" Luke questioned.

"I was enjoying the show. And I half expected Bryce to trip and take care of himself."

Bryce scoffed at that, but it was hard to keep your dignity when being tied to a tree.

"Fair enough. And it was partially to show off your shooting skills, wasn't it", Luke smirked.

"Well we didn't practice all winter for nothing, did we?"

"All right. All done here", Luke said, finishing up the last knot. "Should we go get our flag?"

"Let's go."

They didn't have much trouble finding the flag atop a tree branch and with a quick climb from Olivia, they were making a run for it. They came out of left field for the troop of fighters defending the flag on the front line and managed to slip through. According to Annabeth's plan, the blue team's attack team switched into defense and started holding off the red team so Olivia and Luke could make their escape. They crossed the river gloriously and the entire blue team erupted into cheers.

Luke and Olivia were lifted onto the team's shoulders and walked to the pavilion's for dinner. They laughed their entire way there. In the pavilion they started a cheer for Annabeth Chase for the brilliant strategy and the entire team was overjoyed. That high lasted for the entire evening into the bonfire and not even the grumpiest members of the red team were able to resist the contagious joy of the Apollo cabin as they led the sing-along. Bryce was obviously an exception, but he'd get over it. Although Olivia did stick her tongue out at him, which made him sulk in his seat for the rest of the night. After the crowd favorite, an ancient greek song about packing to travel to Olympus, Olivia turned around to see Luke looking at her and smiling.

"What?", she asked, a slow smile spreading to her face as well.

Along with the tiniest bit of blushing when she was Luke's feature's, illuminated by the fire, staring so intently at her own.

"It's just...You really suck at singing."

"Shut up!"

"It's just weird. I mean aren't all of you Apollo kids supposed to be gifted with musicality?"

"I am!"

"You sound like a harpy."

"That's so mean!"

"I'm just being honest!" Luke laughed.

"My archery skills saved your ass today and you still choose to make fun of me?"

"I would've handled it."

"Two spears? You can barely fight against one."

"Bullshit."

"I've beat you more times than I can count with a spear."

"I've beaten you more times than I can count."

"Well you can't count very high, then."

"Okay, tomorrow morning after breakfast, we ditch the kids off to make friendship bracelets or whatever and settle this once and for all."

"Better start stretching, Castellan."

They shook on it.

Despite the hectic day, at night Luke just kept tossing and turning, not able to fall asleep. Although that might’ve been because he didn’t want to sleep, not really. Sleep meant nightmares and he honestly would rather just be tired tomorrow. He pondered going to the Apollo cabin, but he didn’t want to risk waking up Olivia in case she’d actually been able to fall asleep this time. After the party, the first full night either of them had been able to sleep peacefully, it had become more of a routine for them to spend the nights in each others cabins.

But then again Luke also didn’t feel like explaining to everyone (specifically Travis and Connor) that it was actually 100% platonic and they just couldn’t sleep with each other. He’d infact told Travis that if he would like to snuggle Luke to sleep that would probably work. To which Travis said no, but if Olivia needed help he'd be happy to oblige.

Which annoyed Luke so much, even in retrospect that he decided to go to the pier, in case the lake would help him sleep. He smiled when he approached the pier with his blanket to see someone already sitting on the wooden surface.

"Can't sleep?" he smiled as he sat down next to her.

"Didn't want to wake you up incase you'd actually gotten some sleep finally."

"Same."

"Wishful thinking."

"Do you think the others have it this bad?"

"They're not here, so clearly not."

"I don't now why we're so plagued. Or I guess why you are. I suppose I'm meant to have these weird prophetic dreams that I can't make any sense of."

"Being a demigod really is a curse", Luke sighed, moving down so he was now lying on the pier and looking at the stars.

"You know what's crazy? I wouldn't change it", Olivia replied, joining him. "Like if I could start everything over and have my dad be some other deadbeat and not a god I would say no."

Luke turned to face her, she kept her eyes on the stars.

"Because it brought me to you", she continued. "Despite all the monsters and the fights and the dreams, I couldn't imagine a world where I didn't meet you. Where we don't spend every day together.

Luke was quiet.

"You don't have to say it back", now she turned back to him.

They were looking each other in the eyes, faces inches apart.

"I know it's different for you", she almost whispered.

"Different. Meaning my mom might be fine if not for everything", Luke said, eyes glimmering with tears.

"While mine would've still gotten cancer", Olivia responded.

"Imagine if we didn't have to go through all this though", Luke sighed.

"Then we wouldn't be us."

"But it's not fair. It's not fucking fair."

Tears were now running down Luke's face. Olivia reached out a hand to wipe them away.

"We can't get stuck on what would've been, what should've been."

"My mom went crazy because she saw my fate, my fate that's been predetermined that I can't for some reason change. What should've been is all I have Liv."

Tears were now brimming Olivia's eyes as well.

"All those years on the run so I can find this place and my dad still won't talk to me. Again because of my goddamn fate. What kind of bullshit even is that?"

Olivia turned back to look at the stars.

"I'm sorry Liv, I just don't know what to think and I get so worked up and on nights like these where I can't sleep it's tough to find the silver lining like you. I try to be positive, but sometimes I can't."

"Every time I heal someone the first thing I think is could I have healed her."

"What?"

"If I knew then what I know now, would my mom still be alive? Every time I give blood I think if I'd known what it could do then would she still be here?"

She was blinking hard to avoid the tears, but a few strays managed to escape and disappear into her hair.

"And then that thought strays into the fact that my father, who she loved and who presumably loved her, is the literal god of healing and he couldn't bother to heal her."

"Gods are assholes, Liv."

"But then I think, if I had his power, what would I do? Especially since for some part I do. I sometimes think if I should just spend every moment I can donating blood to blood banks so I could save every possible person on the planet, but I can't do that, can I? And the gods can't either Luke. You can't expect them to be able to fix everything."

"Shouldn't be too much effort to claim their children. Maybe even talk to them every once in a while."

"Maybe. Or maybe it is. But I don't really think of them as parents you know? I've thought of myself as an orphan ever since my mom died and finding out I have an omnipotent 'father' didn't really change that. He's like my distant uncle who sometimes sends cards."

"Cards?"

"With lazy poems. Every birthday."

"It's nice he remembers your birthday."

"I guess."

There was another pause. They looked up at the blissful night sky.

"I've been thinking about going to the city", Luke admitted.

"Oh", was Olivia's response.

"I kind of feel like I need a little break. Just a normal day."

"With Sheila."

"With Sheila. And the others too, probably. I'll try to email them from Chiron's computer."

"Sounds nice."

"You could come too."

"I don't really know your friends."

"I'd feel a lot better with you there."

Olivia looked back at Luke.

"In case there's a monster attack or anything", he said.

She turned back on her back.

"Right", was her reply.

"We could look out for each other."

"I don't think I'll come."

"You can meet up with Callie and Meredith too if that's what you want. We can go our separate ways and meet up for ice cream afterwards."

"I don't know, I need to be training Lee in healing and I've already been slacking off with that."

"Just promise you'll think about it."

"I'll think about it."

"Pinky promise?"

Olivia chuckled at that.

"Haven't done one of those since I was like twelve."

"Well might as well do one now", Luke said and grabbed her pinky in his own.

They went silent for a while and when they woke up the next morning, their pinkies were still intertwined.

[theseusernamesarehard]

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter three

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pairing: Luke castellan x Olivia Messer (daughter of Apollo oc)

word count: 2,8k

summary: Luke comes back from his quest and doesn't know which is worse, the injury on his cheek or the fact that his ex best friend is the only one capable of keeping him alive.

Luke awoke with a painful groan. The last thing he could remember was barely making it up the hill to camp Half-blood before passing out. Someone seemed to have found him, since he was currently on a bed in the hospital wing. He was aware of the burning pain in his face, but it had gotten better somehow, since he'd nearly passed out on the way back from the garden. He turned his head slightly, big mistake. His cheek felt like it was on fire.

From his new point of view he could see Chiron discussing something with Lee Fletcher, one of the healers on shift it seemed.

"She's on her way. End of discussion", Chiron told Lee.

"I'm just saying she seemed pretty serious in her promise", Lee said, hesitating a little. "I'm sure I could at least stich everything up."

"I'm sure you're a very capable healer, but this is something I could only entrust to her. I'm sure she'll be able to put any personal things aside."

As vague as the conversation had been, Luke knew exactly what they were talking about. He knew it had to go this way, but he wished it didn't. But of course the one healer he didn't want to see would be the only one who could help him. Classic.

He was lying on his bed for far too long for something that should've just been a quick walk from the Apollo cabin, but he got the answer when his savior came in a dark blue prom dress instead of her jeans and worn out camp Half-blood shirt.

"Did you do anything to the wound ? Try to close it?"

She always liked getting to the point. Although she might've been more brisk now that she hated her patients guts.

"No. Just cleaned the general area. Chiron told me to lay off", Lee said, sounding a little offended.

"Good, Ladon's poison works most effectively when the wound is closed. I need to get the blood out before I do anything."

"So if I'd closed the wound he would've-", Lee sounded horrified.

She softened a little.

"But you didn't."

Luke almost smiled. Although capable and bossy, she still had a heart. Just not for him. Not anymore.

"Claw or teeth?"

He didn't realize the question was for him until she looked at him and repeated it.

"Claw", he answered, not sure how to act around her. These were the first words they'd spoken since Will arrived.

"Okay."

"Is that better?"

She shrugged.

"It's not worse. Still have to get all the poison out of your bloodstream. When did it happen?"

"Like three days ago."

"Shit."

"That's not very calming, Liv"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry."

Luke cursed himself. It had truly just slipped out.

She directed her next words to Lee.

"Can you get me some regular clothes from the cabin, some shoes and a red bull if the Hermes cabins still have a stash."

"Sure."

"What do you want?" she asked Luke.

"A healer that doesn't hate me", Luke was getting annoyed. She didn't get to be the only one who didn't like the situation.

"I was thinking more like sugar free or blueberry."

"Why can't Lee do it?"

"I think that means sugar free", she said and Lee got out of there much too fast for Luke's taste.

"Luke-"

"You swore you'd never heal me again. You don't have to start now."

"You'll die if anyone else does it."

She held him by the chin and angled his face away from her to inspect the wound. Although the lack of distance between them was uncomfortable, Luke found it easier to talk to her when he didn't have to look in her usually kind eyes and see the hatred she harbored for him.

"And what do you care if I die? You haven't spoken to me in 8 months."

"I don't want you to die just because of some stupid fight."

"I'd love to agree on the fact that the fight was stupid, but seeing as I lost my best friend during it, it had to have meant something."

"Can you not?"

He didn't realize she'd started crying. Just a few tears, but it was still shock. Almost dumbfounding. She didn't like it when people saw her cry. Luke was the only one allowed to witness it for years. Back when they'd go by the lake after curfew and she'd sob into his shoulder while he scratched her back and told her whatever it was would pass. He didn't know if she even cried now or she'd found another shoulder, one of her siblings, perhaps. Or that Athena boy that he kept seeing with her. Not that it was even his business now.

"It's just that I'm going to have to do a very intense and long operation on you where I just might have to give blood in the middle of it cause we're running out. And you and me both have too be awake for the entirety of it."

"You can't put me to sleep?"

"Why do you think you're getting a red bull? You fall asleep, I can't tell whether the poison is slowing down your vitals or not, which I can't have, since we're probably already in a rush. As soon as I get out of this dress and these heels, I'll start extracting.

They sat in silence as she got her setup ready and gave him something to help the pain.

"It won't do much, but it's something."

"I'll be fine. I lived with this for three days."

"The poison isn't too bad going in. Your bloodstream is exactly where it wants to be. Getting it out is going to be the painful part."

"Am I going to die?" Luke's voice had gone quiet.

He knew he was lucky to be alive. He was 17 and a demigod, a lot of his friends hadn't made it past 16. But that didn't mean he wanted to die, even though he knew that was the risk with the quest. The stupid quest. It made absolutely no sense and even though he'd been excited at first for the attention he'd gotten from his father, he knew that it would be back to radio silence now that he'd failed.

"No."

"You can't be sure."

"Luke, my father is the god of healing, my blood can clear wounds and I've spent hours studying Ladon's poison. You're not dying on my watch."

"When did you study the poison?"

"When I found out about your quest."

Luke was shocked. He supposed he shouldn't have been since that was exactly like Olivia. At least like the Olivia he had known. Maybe she was coming back.

"If I don't die will you tell me the real reason we stopped being friends?" he had the impulse to ask.

Lee barged in before she could answer and she disappeared behind a curtain to change. Luke felt more at ease when she came back in the camp shirt, sweatpants and her hair up and out of the way. With the dress and open hair, she had looked like a goddess coming down to berate him. Although that might've been partly due to the blood loss. Still, she'd looked gorgeous.

Lee handed him his red bull. He opened it and almost winced (he hated sugar free, which she definitely knew).

"What do you need from me?" Lee asked Olivia.

"Just get some rest. You'll probably need to be on call tomorrow instead of me. This should be simple enough, just time consuming."

"I'll be right over in the cabin if you need anything."

"Thanks."

They were silent for the first hour, but even though she kept him on a constant yet small supply of nectar and ambrosia, the pain was getting to Luke.

"Can you distract me with something?" he groaned.

"Like what?"

"Just talking."

"About what."

"I don't know? We haven't said a word to each other in months, I'm sure we could figure something out."

"Okay, I think it would best suit us both if we went this operation acting like nothing happened. We don't mention the fight, the not talking. Just... just Luke and Liv, how it used to be."

"Deal", Luke smiled at her in an attempt to show reconciliation, but failed as the pain kicked in.

"Might want to refrain from facial expressions, by the way. I'm pretty deep into your cheek here already."

"Yeah, I figured that out just now. What are you even doing in there?"

"I'm using healing magic to get the poison out."

"I thought you had to hum spells out loud."

"Not for this. There's two main types of healing magic. One is used to speed up healing, its purpose is to assist the body in its natural process and we sometimes sing or hum for it. It's a way of being in harmony, connecting with Apollo. What I'm doing here is a more rare type. It's used mainly for viruses, but once strong enough, it can work for poisons as well. Whereas the singing is healing in the literal sense, this is a fight. Which is why it hurts so bad."

"Does it drain you?"

"Healing always drains me. But the more I do it, the better I become and the less energy it takes."

"But this is going to drain you bad, isn't it."

"It's going to be less draining if you don't bring it up."

"Okay, how was prom?"

"Interesting question."

"I'm still a little shocked you went."

"Me too. But everyone else was going and in Callie's words 'they barely ever see me' so I figured it wouldn't hurt. Plus not much was happening here anyway."

"So how was it?"

"Pretty boring, honestly. I never realized how crazy every day at camp is so I assumed that such a hyped up event would include something a little more fun than boozy punch and horny teenagers trying to grind."

"Were you expecting a lava climbing wall then? Or some impromptu sparring?" Luke smiled, even though he was just told not to.

"I was expecting something like the parties we have in the summer. Or just something with a little more adrenaline."

"That's a yes on sparring."

A pause.

"Did you go with anyone?"

"Yeah, Harry Mellows asked me."

"I hate that guy."

"Not bringing up the banned topic, but that may have been a reason I went with him. Regretted it though."

"He's just so lame."

"To put it lightly. It was so bad I was almost relieved to see Argus there early. And the feeling must've been mutual since he went to ask Helen to dance as soon as I said I have to go."

"Did Sheila go with anybody?" he felt her hand tense on his chin at the mention of his ex.

"I think she went with Brad Conover."

"They'll probably start dating now."

Olivia shrugged.

"She asked me where you were like a week ago", she replied.

"What did you say?"

"I told her you were sick with a weird bug."

"I guess you're right now."

"Well if you heal in a week and get to go to school before summer vacation you'll have some explaining to do."

"I'm sure I'll come up with an illness."

"I mean with the scar."

Luke froze. He hadn't even thought about the fact that the injury would leave a permanent mark. Then again, he had been quite certain he would die before that became a problem.

"Will it be bad?"

"Depends a lot on you. I can only say it's going to be there, but we'll see. Might be tiny. But injuries of the magical sort always leave a mark."

Luke's gaze fluttered to her waist, where he knew the scar from Olivia's entrance to camp still was. She always jokingly lifted her shirt up and said it was her permanent reminder of the day they'd met.

"Thinking about that day?"

He wanted to smile so bad. It had been forever since they'd talked without any tension and he didn't know if it would be the same. But she was still just as capable of reading his mind as always. Luke just wished he could read hers as well so he could figure out where he had gone wrong.

"I still think it should go down in history as the best entrance into camp Half-blood ever."

"I don't know, I feel like it's pretty ordinary for this scale. Most people have to clamper up the hill with a monster on their feet."

"But most people don't take spears of the campers to slay the monster themselves while being deeply injured."

"Most people don't also faint the second they set foot on the grounds."

"Most people also don't wake up with their wound mysteriously healing by itself."

"That I will admit was badass."

"It's when I knew you would fit in here."

"Self-healing is a pretty useful trick around here. Along with a proper use of a spear."

"Not just that, you were so tough. You were 14 and still managed to boss people around just a few days after you arrived."

"Although you found it incredible annoying."

"Well I had been there a year longer and I was a counselor so I was bound to be. I was supposed to do the bossing around."

"The poisons out", Olivia announced.

"Thank fuck."

"You toughed it out well. Now comes the hard part", she said as she brandished a needle.

"That is not going in my cheek", Luke felt, weirdly enough more queasy about this than anything else."

"That's fine, I can also put it in your arm. I just need a vein. Or like five, cause you're going to need a lot of blood."

"I don't think I've lost that much."

"You're running on nectar and my powers right now, so of course you don't think so. I'll give two shots and then set you up on an IV, okay? We just need to get the healing going."

"Do what you must."

"I always do."

Olivia administered the shots and told Luke to go to sleep, which he did immediately. She didn't know how he'd managed to stay awake for that long, but then again she knew the pain must've been intense, although he had attempted to hide it.

She was worried about him because of two things. First, there was the obvious question of his survival. She knew for a fact the poison was gone, she couldn't say how or why she knew, she just did. Like she knew that tomorrow was going to be a sunny day. But it was still uncertain whether or not he would survive the blood loss. She checked everything else while he was sleeping and luckily there wasn't much else. A broken toe and misaligned rib along with some unrelated scratches were quickly healed and they barely even took effort.

The camps last supply of her blood was currently slowly dripping into Luke's bloodstream from the IV so she sat down to draw some more. They tried to keep the supply quite full, but she'd had a cold in the spring that prevented her from giving for some time and they were running out now.

Olivia didn't like giving blood. It felt quite awful actually, but she was getting used to it. She didn't know if it was her or the fact that her blood had some remnants of her godly fathers power, but she felt so drained when she gave it away. The process felt agonizingly like she was giving away her life force, her essence and it always made her existential in ways she didn't fully like. Which is why she told Luke to go to sleep. She would've preferred to keep monitoring him, but she didn't know what she would've said during the process.

Which brings us to the second cause of worry, the fact that they'd had a normal conversation. She had been quite good at keeping the distance between her and Luke. If not physically at least emotionally. since they did still live at the same camp, just 100 feet from each other. She didn't particularly like being cold and unresponsive to the one person she'd always told everything to, but she knew she couldn't go back to the way things had been last fall.

But now she was left with qualm that she really fucking missed her best friend. Like missed him to a level she hadn't even understood until she'd been called from prom to make sure he didn't die. She thought never talking would make everything alright and she'd be able to live her life, but now, met with the reality that she could've lost him forever, made her realize it was the dumbest thing she'd done. And for what? So she could spare her emotions, avoid confronting them and eventually move on from the whole thing heart not quite shattered to pieces, but broken nonetheless?

She realized now, life flashing before her eyes, as it always did when the amount passed half a liter, that she'd been able to spend all this time without him just on account of her on stubbornness and the fact that eventually she forgot what it was like to actually talk to Luke. How everything flowed so effortlessly and she didn't need to sacrifice another thought to what she should say. But then he'd brought up Sheila and it'd been like a knife to her chest once again. She supposed she'd have to decide which hurt less, a life without Luke, or a life spent desperately in love with someone who only saw her as a best friend.

[theseusernamesarehard]

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter two

previous | next | masterlist

pairing: Luke Castellan x Olivia Messer (daughter of Apollo oc)

word count: 2,9k

summary: Two best friends are starting an auspicious summer. Set the summer before part one (almost a year earlier).

The clock was ticking slow. So. Fucking. Slow. Luke felt like someone was slowing it down or purpose. And who knows, maybe someone was. Some god he had pissed off without knowing. But he didn't ponder too much. Only five minutes and he'd be free. His thoughts were already moving forward towards the idea of summer. Summer campers were arriving at different times, but most of them would be there today already. He could do more exiting sword fighting lessons, now that he once again had more participants and best of all, the Apollo cabin had a new camper who seemed very gifted at healing which meant Olivia would get some extra time off this summer.

They'd planned it all out. A morning swim at least once a week, some time to lay on the pier and sunbathe and most importantly, they would absolutely wreck anyone and everyone at capture the flag.

The bell rang and he gathered his stuff, ready to walk out, when Sheila Widows fell into step with him.

"Excited for summer?" she asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe", he sighed.

"I don't get how you can be so happy when you don't get to see any of us", she pouted.

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder", he joked.

"What kind of a foster home doesn't let the kids leave or have friends over though?" she persisted.

The year round kids at Camp half-blood were distributed across different schools in New York to avoid the threat of too many demigods attracting monsters. It didn't always work, per the 'empusa at a pep rally' incident, but it was safe enough. The cover story they all used to explain why they lived together and weren't (usually) related was that they stayed at a foster home in upstate New York.

"The kids there are going through a lot especially the small ones. They can't really handle visitors. And I can leave-"

"You just don't want to", the pout was back.

"I just have a lot of responsibility there. The kids need me."

"It's cute how much you care about them."

"I'll see if I can come, but we might be a bit busy with-"

He was interrupted by someone jumping on his back. He didn't have to wrack his brain much to figure out who it was. The yelp of joy was enough of a hint.

"We're fucking FREE!" Olivia yelled.

Luke laughed and did a twirl, holding onto the arms she'd wrapped on his front. She let out a yelp and hopped down. He squeezed her into tight hug.

"Although my excitement is slightly dampened by the mountain of summer reading Ms. Hobbs gave us", she sighed.

"That was the dampened version?" Sheila meant it to come out teasing, but her tone was just slightly too serious.

"Which is probably for the best. Can't have you blowing the roof off this place", Luke laughed and let her go, leaving his arm to rest around Olivia's shoulders. "And lucky for you, Ms. Hobbs religiously recycles the readings. You can just copy off mine from last year."

"The day just keeps getting better", she beamed up at him.

"You'll owe me though."

"I most certainly won't. You're the one who owes me."

"You've got it all wrong. Remember when I-"

"Let's settle it later", Olivia cut him off with a quick glance to Sheila.

"Anyway, we should probably find Chris, right?"

"He's off with some friends, Argus is picking up some new kids for the summer first so he'll be another two hours. Which means-"

"Luke has time to hangout?" Sheila butted in. "Perfect."

Olivia and Luke looked at each other.

"Uh...yeah", Olivia said awkwardly.

"Were you going to suggest we go to that ice cream place?" Luke was still looking at Olivia.

"No, no! I mean...yes, but you can go with Sheila."

"Exactly, you two will see each other for the entire summer!" Sheila mused.

"You sure?" Luke asked Olivia once more, expression unreadable.

"I'm sure. Callie and Meredith were going to go to central park anyway. I'll get to join them now", Olivia subtly shook Luke's hand off her shoulder. "I'll see you here at five."

She walked off, hiding her face.

"Be safe", Luke yelled after her.

"You too!"

He tried not to frown. It's not that he didn't like Sheila. She was nice, pretty and when he was with her he wasn't reminded of the responsibilities he had at camp or the dangers lurking behind every corner. Besides, Sheila was right, from here on out he could spend pretty much every day with Olivia if he wanted to. He decided he wouldn't try to figure out why Olivias smile didn't fully reach her eyes when they said goodbye and went on with Sheila.

Luke returned to the school where Olivia and Chris Rodriguez, who had arrived to camp two months ago were waiting for Argus. Luke wanted let out a sigh of relief when Olivia said she was dead tired and leaned on his shoulder to nap for the ride back to camp.

At camp they were almost immediately separated. As counselors, their first job was to help the summer campers unpack in their cabins and after that they were almost immediately rushed to a counselors meeting about the summer itinerary. Once that was settled, it was already time for dinner, which also required them to do some policing around since the amount of kids had almost doubled from the day before. From there it was directly to the campfire where Olivia and Luke managed to sit together for an entirety of five minutes until they had to stop a marshmallow fight that was about to turn real between the Ares and Hephaestus cabins. That put a bit of a quick stop to the bonfire and after the debacle that was trying to get the youngest kids to brush their teeth properly (a task that mainly Olivia took seriously) it was finally time for a bedtime story and lights out.

Which meant that it was time for the older campers to go to their start of summer party. Olivia let her siblings go first, straining from the path to the lake to someone waiting for her on the front stairs of the Hermes cabin, holding two cans of red bull and a small bottle of vodka.

"That's so incredibly bad for your heart, Castellan", she sighed as she sat down.

"I don't think you get to chastise me when you drink them yourself, doc", he chuckled.

"Everyone has their vices."

"I'll cheers to that."

"I'll cheers to Mr. D for vodka red bulls."

They clinked their cans together, their own little pregame.

"I considered skipping out, you know", Olivia sighed. "My bed has never looked more appealing."

"You know I couldn't have let you do that. I would've dragged you out."

"And woken up half the camp in the progress, undoing everything we worked so hard for today."

"I don't know how we do this every year."

"And yet we do."

With their red bulls half drunk, they filled the rest of their cans with vodka.

"How was your date", Olivia asked after a few sips.

"Wasn't a date."

"What makes you think that?"

"I would've known if it was a date."

"It was so obviously a date."

"We're just friends, we've hung out before."

An eye roll.

"Never just the two of you, though."

"Still. It wasn't a date."

"Fine. I'll give you that, but that doesn't take away the fact that she definitely likes you."

"Maybe. But no use thinking about it now. I'll see her again in the fall."

"Will you two go on a date then?"

He shrugged.

"Like I said, no use thinking about it now."

"I suppose so."

"Got any predictions for tonight?"

This was Luke's favorite game. Olivia was gifted with the tiniest bit of prophecy, nothing that's ever going to change lives, as she put it, but sometimes she had vague inklings of things before they happened.

"Lots of strong emotions, although I feel like that describes every start of summer party ever. Reunions, anger and...love. That's what I'm getting, anyway."

"And you've never been wrong."

"I feel like one of those women's magazine that has the daily horoscope predictions in it. Anything can come true if it's vague enough and you have some speck of imagination."

"Or you're always right about everything."

"Are you getting absolutely wasted on one shot of vodka or are you having a stroke?"

Luke grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into him dramatically.

"Revel in it now, 'cause I'll never repeat it but you, Olivia Messer, are a genius and I'm proud to call you my best friend", Luke declared.

She laughed into his neck.

"And I don't care who knows it!"

"Shh, you're going to wake up the cabin!" Olivia gasped from laughter. "And you're also such a lightweight."

"No I'm not!"

"You're drunk!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Better get to this party before you fucking black out", she teased.

Olivia made a motion to get up and stumbled a bit, swaying to the side when she stood up.

"Well it's nice to know I'm not the only one", Luke laughed.

"Yeah well...race you to the party!"

They stumbled through the woods, hand in hand, for safety reasons obviously, although they were supposed to be racing each other. A lot of the older campers were gathered around a tiny, makeshift fire drinking cheap beers smuggled in by the Hermes cabin.

"Oh great, the narcs have arrived", a fairly new Ares kid, part of the crowd starting the marshmallow fight, groaned.

"Not right now, dude", Luke grinned. "You kids are going to have to sort out your own issues."

"And no one's allowed to get hurt", Olivia declared, taking another sip "Or better yet, get hurt all you want, see if I care, 'cause I'm not on duty tonight!"

"Wow, is that caffeine? After 4pm?" Travis Stoll, one of Lukes brothers, gasped.

"Mom and dad are going fucking crazy tonight", Connor Still, Travis' identical looking not identical brother, continued.

"Damn right, so crazy, I won't even correct you on the fact that I told you to stop that mom and dad shit", Olivia said.

"With a threat of immense violence, if I recall correctly", Luke said and ruffled the boys' hair as they walked past them.

Luke and Olivia went to sit on little logs by the fire with some friends. Chris was there, he smiled when he saw them. Next to him was Meg, a new camper who'd arrived with Violet, a daughter of Aphrodite just that day. Poor girl still looked a little confused by everything, but she was nursing a cup of something that looked like it might make the whole thing more digestible.

"How you holding up? Meg, right?" Luke asked.

You can take the man from the cabin, but you can't take the cabin from the man.

"You know, everything is absolutely insane."

"It doesn't get any less crazy, you just have to get crazy with it", Olivia said. "You'll fit in just fine."

"We should do an ice breaker!" Violet gasped.

"Truth or dare! Truth or dare!" the Stolls started chanting.

Which is why, after a few rounds of people making out or admitting when they'd last peed their pants, Luke and Olivia were now standing on the pier, debating whether or not they should keep their clothes on.

Technically it was only Olivia who had been assigned this certain task, but Luke said someone has to stop her from drowning, with all the vodka she'd drunk (he'd had more).

"I think we go full skinny dip", Luke said.

"Of course you do. You'll be fine with any excuse to take your shirt off."

"I'd think that as a doctor-"

"I'm not a doctor."

"-you should know that walking around in wet clothes is extremely dangerous and could cause you to catch a cold."

"Underwear."

"Excuse you?"

"We'll strip down to our underwear and jump."

"Alright professor boring", Luke sighed.

"I'm just saying that us jumping in the lake buttnaked and drunk off our minds right at the beginning of summer will take away any respect or credibility we might have for counselor meetings. Or capture the flag."

"Our credibility is reliant on the fact that we kick ass at everything we do. And people finding out we also kick ass at being naked-"

She sighed, he was so drunk.

"-will not take that away."

"Underwear."

"Still requires you to take some clothes off, you know."

"I'm aware."

"That rhymed. Aware, underwear. Should you be getting to it?"

"I'm getting to it right now."

And with that, she pulled her camp shirt off, shorts soon going down with it.

"Your turn."

Luke chuckled and discarded his garments as well. Although the two had been friends, best of friends for a few years now, they'd been clothed throughout it, despite what Travis and Connor liked to suggest. They both tried not to stare, but with a bottle of vodka in their systems, it wasn't entirely successful. Eventually it took someone, probably the Ares kid, yelling 'Are you going jump or start banging?' for them to plunge in the cold-ish water of the lake.

Their swim ended quickly though, when a nymph started raging at them for 'disturbing her sleep with flying cans and having the gall to swim in her afterwards'. Luke apologized profusely, while Olivia had a different agenda.

"Who's throwing cans?"

The nymph shrugged, said it didn't matter to her, it was one of them. Olivia stumbled out of the water, five feet six inches of pure annoyance, while Luke carefully got out after her.

"Who's. Throwing. Cans?"

Nobody answered for a second.

"It's not that big of a deal", the Ares kid said.

He hadn't spent much time in the Hermes cabin before getting claimed, so she didn't recognize him. Luke clearly did, though.

"Bryce, there's no need in throwing the cans in the water, we'll take care of it", Luke sighed.

"Man, you really have everything figured out", Bruce rolled his eyes.

"You know, Bryce, you really haven't been here long enough to catch a fucking attitude", Olivia said, voice low and dangerous.

"You're cute doc, but you could really relax. Maybe with me, by the stables in a few minutes."

He had no shame in the way he checked her out, eyes stopping at the scar on her waist before coming back up. Luke wanted to punch him, but he didn't.

Olivia beat him to it.

The last thing you want to do is get in a fight with a healer. Because they know which part of your jaw to aim for.

Not that it was much of a fight. All that ego and yet Bryce didn't take an effort to get up. Just complained that she'd broken his jaw. Another problem with pissing off a healer; they're the one that's supposed to heal you. She grabbed his chin (right in the spot she'd punched it), told him it was fine and he should just sleep it off, quit being a baby and start caring about the fucking environment.

"You don't want to make an enemy of me", he tried, but was losing most of his valor.

"I don't think that's going to be a problem. I could argue that I'm going to be a much worse enemy than you'll ever be. So I suggest we sober up, sleep this off and act like it never happened. How's that sound?"

She didn't wait for an answer, just got up and went to get her clothes. Luke followed her grinning, Luke always, kicking sand in Bryces way while he went 'by accident'.

They got dressed and without really saying it, agreed that it was the end of the party for them. Usually when someone gets punched at a party, the puncher or the punchee has to go. In this case Olivia decided it would be the puncher. Mostly because she was dead tired. They walked in silence for a while, but when Luke hugged her goodbye in front of the Hermes cabin, Olivia didn't want to go.

"Luke", she said into his neck.

"Liv", was his response.

"I haven't been sleeping."

"Nightmares?"

"Nightmares."

"About what?"

"Nothing, really. Or nothing visual. Just feelings; sadness, danger, loss. I don't know what it means. Or if it's even prophetic. I think that's what makes it worse."

"I have nightmares too. But more of the same-old. Monsters, ancient creatures crawling out of Tartarus and me dying over and over again."

She didn't know if it was the vodka, sleep-deprivation or coldness that was now seeping into her bones, but she couldn't help asking.

"Can I sleep with you?"

She felt him tense a little around her. It wasn't as if they hadn't fallen asleep together before. They usually went by the pier when they couldn't sleep and had woken up there more times than they could count. But they'd never spent the night in each other's cabins. Or arms for that matter.

"It's just that I always feel better with you there and I don't know maybe it's stupid, but I feel like the nightmares would stop. Maybe. It sounds dumb when I say it."

"No, I-I think it's a good idea too. Anything to get a good night's sleep would be nice", Luke agreed then.

They let go of each other and Luke led Olivia to his cabin where she borrowed a shirt and shorts. They did their best to be quiet and hopefully no one woke up when they crammed themselves into Luke's bed. Luke's twin bed. Which of course meant that there was no space unless they cuddled, which was a little awkward at first, but eventually they relaxed and it felt like it was were they were meant to be. Facing each other with their arms wrapped around and legs tangling together felt like peace.

Luke could tell Olivia had fallen asleep quickly from the way her breaths slowed down on his neck, but he took awhile. He wanted to will her nightmares away, make sure that nothing ever bothered her and he was so concerned with that that he fell asleep not even thinking about the next day. When he'd have to explain to his friends and the younger campers why he woke up with the Apollo counselors hair in his mouth. And why she was lying on top of him in the first place.

But that concern was for tomorrow because now he was only hoping that she could find peace in her sleep. And secretly wishing that it was because he brought it to her like she did to him.

[theseusernamesarehard]

published fan fiction for the first time in four years 🫠scary as shit, but exiting!

[theseusernamesarehard]

stuck on the puzzle

In which Luke Castellan and Olivia Messer are two pieces of a puzzle, struggling to fit together.

Chapter one: A harpy attack, shocking revelations and two people not being able to be in the same room without glaring at each other. Or in other words, Will Solace arrives to camp Half-blood.

Chapter two: One year prior. Olivia and Luke start a summer for the books.

Chapter three: One year later. Luke comes back from his quest only to find out that the only person who can heal him hates his guts.

Chapter four: One year prior. Luke and Olivia play capture the flag and spend the night on the pier.

Chapter five: Luke and Olivia repeat their fight from a year ago.

Chapter six: Luke and Olivia meet up by the pier.

[theseusernamesarehard]

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter one

next | masterlist

pairing: Luke Castellan x Olivia Messer (daughter of Apollo oc)

word count: 2,3k

summary: Will Solace arrives to camp Half-blood and finds that the two people helping him really don't get along.

Will Solace was having the weirdest day of his life. He had stumbled on to this weird camp place with his friend Mark only to find out that Mark was actually 20 and not 8 like Will and he wasn't his friend, but his protector? He also had hooves and antlers, but weirdly that didn't bother Will so much. He had always seen weird things, scary creatures hidden in dark alleys, winged horses and such. Every adult in his life had always chucked it up to him having a wild imagination and he hadn't questioned it until the pigeon started following him from school and suddenly started to grow bigger and bigger. Mark managed to scare off the creature for some time and within it they managed to make their way out of New York and almost onto the grounds of camp. Will barely made it across the border, but he did, the creature managing only a small scratch on his ankle.

The scratch was so small that he didn't think to mention it when a centaur (crazy) and the god of wine (crazier) explained to him that he was the son of a greek god who would maybe claim his as his son. He also didn't think to mention it to the dark haired teenager, who introduced himself as Luke Castellan, head counsellor of the Hermes cabin. Only when Luke started showing him around, was the scratch becoming a problem. He had to limp slightly and that was slowing him down, but Luke was a little intimidating with his knowledge of the camp and the way everyone greeted him with utter respect. Still, it was unapparent that Will was moving slowly, and eventually Luke noticed.

"Are you hurt? Mark said the harpy didn't get you", he frowned.

"It's no big deal", Will said shyly, but it was starting to really hurt.

"Let me have a look", Luke said and knelt down gently.

Luke lifted Will's pant leg and they both winced. The scratch seemed a lot bigger now than it was and it was starting to get yellow around the edges.

"Okay, next on the tour is the infirmary. And not to stress you out or anything, but we might have to get there fast, can you get on my back?" Luke asked.

Will nodded, suddenly in a lot of pain. Luke lifted him on his back and sprinted to the infirmary, a small building on the side of the cabins.

Luke let Will down to knock on the door and Will had the urge to hide behind him. He hadn't spent much time in hospitals and he didn't really want to start today.

The door opened to reveal a teenage girl. She had a smile on her face, but frowned immediately as she saw Luke.

"I'll get Lee", she said curtly.

"Wait no, it's not for me", Luke replied.

It seemed that only then she saw Will, who was doing his best to pretend he wasn't hiding and in great pain. He failed at both.

The girls face softened as she saw Will and when she looked back at Luke, an understanding seemed to pass between the two of them and they rushed Will inside.

"It's a harpy scratch, I think. Yellow edges and everything", Luke said once Will was settled into a bed. The girl had immediately started cutting his pant leg off with a knife.

"Why didn't you take him here immediately? I imagine you know they're poisonous."

Not as poisonous as her voice, Will thought.

"He didn't say anything, I just noticed him limping."

"I'm sorry", Will croaked, embarrassed he had hidden his injury.

Once again, a soft smile.

"It's not your fault. You're a tough kid for holding out that long", she said.

Will was given a glass of something that tasted like fresh movie theater popcorn with extra butter in it and he was so dumbfounded by it that he didn't register anything else around him.

"I'm going to have to give you a little shot on your leg, okay? Are you scared of needles?" the girl asked him.

Will shook his head.

"That's good. Means you're already tougher than this guy", she gestured to Luke, who was standing behind her looking at the ground. "Best swordsman in 300 years they say, but you try to give him a shot and you'd think he's never been near anything sharp."

Will smiled, still feeling a bit shy around the girl who gave Luke such a cold welcome. Behind her Luke was smiling so wide you'd think she'd sung his highest praises.

She injected the shot after cleaning the wound and told him to sleep it off in there for the night. He nodded, knowing that there was no way in hell, or maybe he should say Hades now, he was going to be able to sleep. She seemed to be a mind reader since she gave him a sleeping pill to take.

"It's going to be okay. Everyone's arrival is a bit insane and confusing. We've all been there and it's going to get better. Just sleep it off and Luke's going to continue the tour tomorrow", she said in a voice so calming, Will almost believed it.

He took the sleeping pill, but even in his sleepy state, he managed to hear a few words between Luke and the girl.

"Thanks for that", Luke said, he sounded awkward, something Will hadn't been sure he was capable of.

"Just doing my job", the girl said, back to the cold tone that seemed to be reserved specifically for Luke.

"But still, it takes a lot out of you, I know that now."

"Sure."

"Can you just cut me some slack? It's been like seven months. I've changed and I don't see any reason we can't be friends again. You don't have to heal me, look out for me, just talk to me. Please?" Luke's last words were barely above a whisper.

"I think you should go", her voice cracked a little.

"It's not fair."

"Life's not fair. Go."

The next morning Will woke up feeling a lot better. Luke wasn't there so the girl in the hospital was nice the whole time. Will was curious, so the temptation to ask her about Luke was big, but after seeing how deathly her stare could be, he didn't want to risk it. She introduced herself as Olivia.

"Your legs looking a whole lot better", she said cheerfully.

"What did you give me?" Will thought, only now to ask.

"Thinking of the taste? It's nectar, drink of the gods. It tastes like your favorite things, but you can't have too much. I'll give you a little bit before you go though."

"I mean in the vial. The shot."

She grimaced a little

"Right, I suppose you have a right to know."

"You don't have to say it if you don't want to", Will said, once again afraid to piss the girl off.

"No it's fine, some people think it's a little weird or gross. Or both."

"I won't."

She had a very bright smile, Will noticed.

"It was my blood."

"Huh?"

"I injected you with my blood. It's got some healing properties. Even I don't properly know how it works, but I'm O negative so it's been working for everyone."

"Your blood has healing powers?"

"Yup."

"So you have like a superpower?"

"I don't know if I'd call it that, but close enough. Some kids have a bit of godly power they've inherited from their parents."

"Like what?"

"Like...Children of Demeter. Some of them can make plants grow from anywhere and all of them have a certified green thumb."

"Who's your parent?"

"Apollo. God of the sun, healing, archery, prophecy...the list goes on, but even I can't remember all of it."

"So that's why you have healing blood."

She nodded.

"I'm also pretty good with a bow, but people get stuck on that first part."

Will was quiet for a moment.

"When did you get claimed?"

"It happens at a different time for everyone."

"It was quick, wasn't it."

"For me, yes. But then again I stumbled into camp with a three inch stab wound in my stomach that was almost gone by the time they got me to the infirmary, so there were suspicions quite early on. But even then it took my dad a week. Luke said-"

She paused, cleared her throat and carried on like nothing happened, but her smile was a bit faker.

"Luke said 'I could've told you that' immediately after it happened."

There was a knock on the door.

"Speak of the devil", she muttered. "It's open!"

"How you doing tough guy?" Luke smiled, deliberately avoiding Olivia, who was now busying herself with the medical equipment on the side.

"Better. Olivia said I can have a little nectar and be on my way."

Luke looked at her, questioning before he realized he was supposed to be avoiding her gaze. She looked back and once again Will got the feeling that something was being said.

"That's great! We can continue with the tour then!"

"One glass of nectar first. You can wait and make sure he doesn't drink it too fast", Olivia said, producing a glass and going deeper into the infirmary.

"You heard her, doctors orders", Luke said.

And so they left the infirmary. Luke first showed Will the Hermes cabin where his measly belongings had been placed on a sleeping bag in the corner on the ground.

"This is where I have to sleep?" Will asked, bummed.

"Just for now. As soon as you get claimed you'll get a bed in your cabin. Or here, if we're related."

"It's pretty crammed here already, though."

"Yup. But you'll get used to it, it's not as bad as it looks. Let's get breakfast."

At breakfast, Luke introduced Will to Chris Rodriquez, who'd been at camp for a year. Before he could even properly sit down, some girl came to say that there was an emergency counselor meeting about the feud between the Ares and Athena cabins. Luke sighed and got up reluctantly. Will watched him glance an automatic glance at the Apollo table, where Olivia got up. She walked right past him and sped up all the way to the big house, while Luke was almost dragging his feet. Chris looked at the whole spectacle disapprovingly.

"When are they going to get over this?" a girl sitting next to Chris said. She introduced herself to Will as Meg, daughter of Hecate, goddess of magic.

"I don't know", Chris sighed. "Luke keeps trying to talk to her, but she's either too stubborn or he's approaching it the wrong way because it always ends in a fight."

"My guess it that it's both."

"Well you should talk to her about it, you're always braiding each others hair and whatnot."

"I've tried, but she refuses to talk about anything Luke related. One time I tried asking her until she gave me an answer, but she just walked off."

"What happened?" Will got the courage to ask.

Both of the older campers, who seemed to have forgotten he was there, turned to him.

"It's a long story", Meg said apprehensively.

"Sorry. I don't mean to be nosy, they were just really weird to each other in the infirmary."

"Well the problem is no one really knows. Even Luke is kind of confused about the whole thing. They were inseparable for a while and then last fall there was this big screaming fight and they haven't really been friends since", Chris sighed.

Will nodded and the two soon left him to his own devices. Which meant that he stayed sitting down at the table because he didn't know his way around camp yet.

"Hey buddy, sorry about the interruption", Luke was suddenly smiling beside him. "Want to continue the tour?"

"Absolutely."

Luke showed Will the rest of the wonder that was camp Half-blood, but declared he wasn't allowed to try any of the fun stuff (archery, wall climbing or even canoeing) before he got another check up. So once again, they were at the infirmary.

This time a guy opened the door. Will was smart enough to figure out that he was also a child of Apollo and through that, Olivias half-brother. He tried to find any similarities, but they were hard to come by. Olivia had a light brown complexion and dark, curly hair down to her shoulders, while Lee had dirty blonde hair, like Will that looked to be sun bleached in different spots. The half-siblings shared the same smile though, Lee's scrunching up his freckles when he greeted Will and Luke. If he held any resentment towards Luke on behalf of his sister, he sure didn't show it.

"What's the problem?"

"Our new camper Will here got scratched by a harpy yesterday. Olivia-"

Lee raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"healed it yesterday, but I figured it might be worth getting a look at before we try any activities."

"Good thinking. Olivia give him a shot?"

"Yup. Along with some nectar and ambrosia."

"Alright, let's take a look", Lee gestured them in.

Olivia was already in there, fixing up a crying kid, about Will's age or maybe a year older, who had a bleeding knee. Olivia was patching him up and giving him the regular runaround of 'you're fine's and 'it'll only hurt a little's. The kid saw Luke and his tears stopped on sight.

"Luke! Luke!" he screamed out. "I got hurt!"

"Sure looks like you did, Dylan", Luke chuckled. "What's the battlewound like?"

The kid, apparently named Dylan, showed his sraped knee off with pride.

"I got it in a sword fight!"

"I'd hate to see what the other guy looks like."

"The other guy was a doll, based on what I heard", Olivia smiled.

"You weren't suppose to say that!"

"Sorry, I'm sure Chiron will have to throw it out once you're done getting your revenge, though."

"You're no fun, Olivia."

"Don't bite the hand that heals you."

"I'm sure you were fighting fiercely", Luke insured. "You do that sidestep I thought you?"

"I fucking nailed it!"

"Language!" Olivia and Luke said in unison, then proceeded to look at each other weird.

Lee choked a laugh from where he was checking Will's knee.

"You're all done Dylan", Olivia patted him on the back. "Make that doll pay for what he did."

"Will's done too", Lee announced. "Fully healed", he told Will.

"Great!", Luke clapped his hands together. "You wanna come show Will around? He just got here yesterday", he asked Dylan.

"Hell yes!"

"Dude!" Olivia sighed.

"Let's go before we get kicked out", Luke laughed and led the two boys out, looking at Olivia awkwardly when he waved her goodbye. She didn't wave back.

Will just barely heard Lee tell Olivia something about no traces and she responded that he might be one of 'theirs'.

Whatever that meant.

[theseusernamesarehard]

announcing this to literally nobody, but i'm so deep in the luke castellan brain rot i might have to make a fic...

[theseusernamesarehard]

Heavenly pastries and mediocre coffee - Fred Weasley

Pairing: Fred Weasley x fem!reader

Summary: On an adventure for some coffee one morning, Fred Weasley happens to wonder into a bakery where he meets a flour covered woman who will leave quite the impression on him.

Warnings: None except this might be a bit boring :/

Time: This takes place the summer before the war so in the beginning of the Half-Blooded prince

A/N: Hi! This is my second fic on here and I would love some feedback especially since it’s a tad different from my other one (meaning that this might be a tad more boring). I had this idea and wrote it out, but while reading it I realized that nothing happens in this. So I would love to know if you enjoy calmer fics like this since I still liked this one!

Word count: 2,8k

gif isn’t mine credit to whoever made it!

“Oi, Fred!” George yelled from downstairs while Fred was still struggling to get out of bed.

“Whaaaat?” he groaned.

“The coffee machine is broken and I cannot fix it for the life of me.”

“Have you tried reparo?” Fred said as he got out and walked to the kitchen where George was standing next to steaming coffee maker.

“Have I tri-Of course I’ve tried reparo! What do you think I am, a bloody idiot?”

“Fine, fine. What do you reckon we do? I’d much rather have a coffee this morning, but I don’t think there’s time to go to a café before we have to open the shop.”

“I can handle the shop if you go get coffee? I’m sure there’s a good place around here somewhere.”

“All right, I’ll go. Want anything special?”

“Just a normal coffee and a pastry of some sort.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can!” Fred promised as he rushed back to his room to get dressed.

“I’ll get everything set up!” George promised.

In twenty minutes, Fred was exiting the shop, now fully dressed and hair still a little damp from his shower. He was on a quest to find a good place for coffee, which there were surprisingly little of on Diagon Alley. Finally, after walking around for a bit, he saw a little bakery that he was quite certain hadn’t been there for long. He entered with a hope that they had at least some sort of machine that produced anything caffeinated and walked up to an empty counter where he rang the bell.

After a moment, a woman erupted through a door that presumably led to the back space of the bakery. She was calm and walked over peacefully despite the fact that her face was almost completely covered in flour.

“Good morning and welcome to Bailey’s bakery! What can I get started for you?” she said enthusiastically, but Fred was trying his hardest to hold in his laughter, so he couldn’t answer right away. “What? Do I have something on my face?” she asked innocently, but the corners of her mouth were twitching as well.

“Perhaps a bit of flour, but it’s barely noticeable. Bailey, I assume?” he asked after chuckling slightly.

“Oh no, I’m actually Y/N. Bailey, the owner, is in the back preparing all the baked goods and trust me, that’s how you want it. I’m truly horrendous at baking.”

“If you don’t bake how do you have all that flour on your face?”

“Well let’s just say Bailey has been a bit stressed with the opening of this place and was not having any of my antics today.”

“So she threw flour at you?”

“Exactly.”

“I don’t think bosses are supposed to treat their employees like that.”

“They are when the employees are their best friend since Hogwarts and truth be told the aforementioned employee kind of deserve it.”

“I don’t know if anyone deserves a face full of flour first thing in the morning.”

“Well that just comes to show that you haven’t met me before. Now, what can I get for you?”

“Right, I meant to ask, do you have any coffee here?”

“Oh yes we do! And it is in fact extremely mediocre.”

“Aren’t you supposed to say it’s excellent?”

“Well see now that’s the trick. If I say the coffee is excellent, you’ll know I’m saying it just because I am meant to sell it. But if I say the coffee is mediocre, your interest is peaked and you’ll have no choice, but to try it and see for yourself. Am I correct?”

“I suppose I am more intrigued by the coffee now.”

“Exactly. So technically, this is a better way of selling coffee.”

“You are right.”

“So a coffee it is. Here or to go?”

“Two coffees actually. And both to go.”

“Two? Seems as though I am a better saleswoman than I thought.”

“Perhaps you should open your own shop.”

“As much as I clearly have a knack for selling things, I think I fair better as a worker who offers anecdotes about coffee and then pours that coffee”, she laughed and presented her skill to dot he latter. “Anything else?”

“Yes, actually. I was asked to bring some sort of baked good, but I have been given no other instructions. Any recommendations?”

“I’ll go and see what our ever-so-cheerful baker would say.”

With that, the young woman walked to the door and stood behind it to open it so that she was not in front of the door when it was opened. She clearly knew what she was doing as another handful of flour was thrown out the door onto the floor immediately.

“Ha! Missed me”, she smiled, now standing at the door. Unfortunately that was when she got another face full of flour, but she just shrugged at Fred and grinned widely. “I’ve also got a customer here, don’t know if that’s worth mentioning.”

“You do not!” a woman’s voice yelled in horror.

“Oh yes I do. A very lovely gentleman who needs some recommendations on baked goods. have any to offer him?” she smiled.

“Go get yourself cleaned up, I’ll take it from here”, a frantic looking woman with an apron and a bit of flour on her forehead appeared from the door and pushed her grinning friend inside. “I am so sorry sir. We are not usually this unprofessional it has just been quite the morning. It’s just me and her right now and she has a tendency to get a bit snarky, so hopefully she wasn’t too bad”, the woman, who Fred figured was Bailey, started to ramble.

“Oh not at all, she was an excellent saleswoman I’d say.”

“Well good. Now you apparently need to be recommended something to eat?”

Fred mostly zoned out on the conversation with Bailey although she seemed to be very passionate about baked goods, asking multiple questions which he tried to answer. Unfortunately his thoughts were quite focused on the worker who he had been talking with. 

After a lot longer than expected, he was finally returned to the shop, which was now full of customers and went to find George who seemed to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

“Thank god you’re here! Where did you go to get coffee? Ireland?” he asked as he took the cup of coffee and pastry bag with a simple pain au chocolate inside it.

“Found this new bakery with some interesting workers”, Fred chuckled.

“You can tell me about it later, ‘cause right now we have a shop full of customers and I cannot handle it by myself anymore!”

“Let’s get to work then!”

The next morning George entered their kitchen and figured he must still be dreaming. He had never seen Fred this cheerful on this time of day (Christmas as children didn’t count) without any coffee.

“What are you doing up already?”

“I figured since the coffee machine is still broken I’d go to that coffee shop again”, Fred explained. “This time a bit earlier so you don’t have to manage the shop all by yourself for as long.”

“So which one is it?”

“What?”

“Yesterday you told me there were two women working at that bakery so which one do you have a crush on?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I bet it’s the worker, not the owner. The one with flour all over her face.”

“I do not have a crush on either of them!”

“Oh please! You never wake up early and besides, if you didn’t have a crush you would’ve made me go get the coffee since you did it yesterday. So which one is it?”

“This is completely ridiculous. I’m going!” Fred declared and left to the shop.

“Get me another one of those pastries!” his brother yelled after him.

George smiled from the satisfaction of knowing he had hit the nail on the head. Fred on the other hand chose to ignore him. Sure he had thought that Y/N was funny, charming and she seemed to be a sight for sore eyes with and without the flour all over her face. 

He got further proof of this when he entered the shop and saw her ringing up a customer this time face clean. She had her hair in a slight updo away from her face and was smiling while she thanked the customer and handed them their pastry.

“Good morning again. Here for more coffee?” she asked.

“I am indeed. Two cups to go again, to be specific, please”, he replied and she got on with pouring the coffee. “And my brother found his pastry tasted like, and I quote, ‘it had cascaded down from heaven into his mouth’ so I have been asked to bring another one.”

“I’ll tell the baker her work was appreciated and get another one in a second. Would you like anything else?”

“I think I’m obligated to try this heavenly chocolate thing, since he didn’t give me any yesterday.”

“I’ll go get those for you”, she smiled and Fred couldn’t help, but notice how her smile seemed to light up her whole face.

Needless to say, the twins didn’t get a new coffee machine. George made fun of Fred for it quite a bit, but as long as he had his pain au chocolate there was no way he was going to actually complain. Fred kept on going there and talking with her while they waited for his pastries to get baked or while she was pouring him coffee was his favourite part of the day. He couldn’t help, but notice that even when she had other customers, although she joked around with them for a bit, she would always return to him and continue their conversation while she was done ringing them up or telling them to wait for their baked goods. This was all the encouragement he needed to ask her out and after a week of going there and talking with her every morning, he realized that there was no way he wasn’t going to do it So he walked to the bakery and smiled slightly when her face was once again full of flour.

“Morning Fred.”

“Bailey stressed again?” he smirked.

“Yep. There was some misunderstanding with the supplier and now we have 10 extra sacs of flour. I very politely asked if she would like me to get annoying again so she can throw it at me and looks like that was enough for her.”

“You seem like a very helpful worker.”

“Oh yes, I’m indeed excellent to have around. So the usual?”

“The usual.”

“Two mediocre coffees and two chocolate things coming right up.”

“You know, I meant to talk to you about that, because I have a complaint.”

“Really? Is it the flour throwing? Because unless we throw it at you I don’t think you have the right to complain.”

“No, I’m accusing you of false advertising.”

“Her name really is Bailey, if that’s what this is about. I’m sure I can find a way to get her to show you her birth certificate.”

“This is actually about the coffee. About how you keep advertising it as mediocre? I’ve come to the conclusion that your coffee is actually quite good and definitely deserves to be described as such instead of mediocre.”

“Seems as though you haven’t had really good coffee then. Ours is definitely good, but it’s still right in the middle of the scale. It’s very possible that you just haven’t had any coffee that’s on the better side.”

“Where does one even find that kind of coffee then?”

“The secret is little muggle coffee shops. They have the best coffee ever! I think it’s because they never use any magic to speed up the process or anything. Has a really authentic taste.”

Just as Fred was about to suggest that she could show him one of those places he heard a familiar voice behind them.

“Fred! I didn’t know you come here too!” Lee Jordan laughed.

“Hi Lee, actually just found this place a few days ago.”

“Hi Lee”, Y/N smiled form behind the counter. 

“Hi Y/N, can I get a cup of coffee and one of those strawberry pastries you have?” Lee ordered. “To go.”

“Of course, I’ll go get some. We might be out of the french chocolate things that I don’t know how to say the name of, but Bailey can whip them up pretty fast if you don’t mind waiting there”, she explained, addressing the last part to Fred.

“Don’t mind at all”, Fred said and she disappeared behind the door. 

He was just in the middle of catching up with Lee when she returned with Lee’s pastry and started pouring him coffee, which made him excuse himself to go talk to her.

Fred didn’t catch that much of their conversation, but he started listening more carefully when he realized Lee seemed to be explaining some sort of date. talking about dinner, a walk and stuff like that.

“So how does that sound?” he asked by the end of his explanation.

“Make it the nice little Italian place nearby and you’re good”, Y/N replied

Of course! Fred realized that the last time he was over, Lee had told the twins hew was kind of seeing someone, but wouldn’t tell them who. It must’ve been Y/N. Fred sighed at the lost opportunity to ask out the girl.

“Great!” he said and tried to hand her money, but she claimed it was on the house. 

A date and free coffee? Unfair. Fred thought again.

“And Lee?” she yelled after him as he was about to leave. “Three roses. Not one more and not one less.”

Fred nodded as she told him she’d go check in the back if his pastries were ready. And soon enough she came out with a bag and handed it to him along with the two coffees. He thanked her and walked away, still thinking about the missed opportunity.

Over the next few days he still kept going to the coffee shop, despite George reminding him they could always get a new one. He made sure he was being more careful, though, since he didn’t want to accidentally flirt with Lee’s girlfriend.

Y/N seemed to notice the change too. It wasn’t anything monumental and she only had a few previous encounters to compare it with, but the man was clearly being more reserved. He barely chatted with her while she was getting his coffee and she kept on wondering why. One afternoon, Y/N decided to take matters into her own hands. After she got off work, she ventured on to the streets of Diagon Alley and went to find the joke shop.

Y/N smiled as she saw the bright orange and purple store front and stepped in to find complete chaos inside. She found Fred standing around and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hi!” she grinned. The man looked at her, confused and it seemed like she didn’t recognize her. “Err...it’s Y/N? From the bakery? Just less flour in my face and no apron.”

“Ah I assume you’ve come to find my brother”

Brother? Y/N thought and then remembered. “Right! You’re twins! So you’re not Fred then?”

“It’s alright. I forget we’re identical sometimes too. Makes for scary mornings. Anyways I’m George. George Weasley, nice to meet you”, he extended his hand and she shook it. 

“Nice to meet you George, like I said I’m Y/N. Do you have any idea where Fred might be?”

“I’ll go get him. Wait here”, George grinned.

Y/N waited and looked around all the products. She grinned at how creative they were.

“You were looking for me?” Fred appeared behind her. 

“I was. I got off work and decided to stop by and see the shop for myself.”

“Well, does it match your expectations.”

“I don’t think anyone could expect this. In a good way. This is amazing!”

“Why thank you. Were you looking into buying anything here?”

“I actually came to ask you about something. I was thinking that maybe once you get off work I could take you to one of those muggle coffee shops and show you what actually good coffee tastes like?”

“Okay, hold on. Aren’t you dating Lee?”

“What? No, why would I be dating Lee?”

“The other day he was clearly asking you out. The Italian place? Three roses not one more not one less?”

“That? No, no you’ve got it all wrong. Lee’s dating my roommate and he was running his plan through me since he wanted to make the date special and I know her pretty well.”

“So he took your roommate to the Italian place and gave her the three roses?”

“Yep, I’ve never been a fan roses anyway”, Y/N smiled. “But I do like Italian food.”

“Perhaps I’ll have to take you to that place sometime.”

“I’ve already asked you out to coffee, you can’t ask me out during the same day”, she laughed.

“Can’t blame a man for trying.”

“You still haven’t answered me about the coffee, you know.”

“I figured asking you out on a date means that I wouldn’t mind going on a date with you.”

“So what time do you get off?”

“Right now”, George replied cheerfully. 

“Were you eavesdropping?” Fred asked.

“No, I just happened to be stacking shelves over there and couldn’t help, but to hear some flirting. You can go, I’ll take it from here.”

“Thanks, Geore. Why don’t you lead the way?” he said, addressing the last part to Y/N, who didn’t hesitate in taking his hand and leading him outside.

[theseusernamesarehard]

Stuck in the middle - Fred Weasley

Inspired by the song Stuck In The Middle by Tai Verdes

Lyrics from the song are bolded.

Summary: Y/N catches Fred Weasley’s eye one day, but instead of agreeing to a date, she calls him out for his player ways making him even more obsessed with her. The two keep balancing on the line between friends and more, but can’t seem to cross over onto either side.

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Ravenclaw!Reader

Warnings: cursing, some very light allusions to smut

Word count: 3.7k

(gif isn’t mine credit to whoever made it!)

Fred Weasley was certainly known around Hogwarts, for better of for worse. During his six year run at Hogwarts, he had amassed quite the reputation. Teachers knew him as one half of their nightmares, the Weasley twins, while most students, especially female ones, knew him as the fit and charming prankster who seemingly couldn’t stay single for too long. 

“What’s got you so focused Fred?” George grinned at the Great Hall, watching his brother.

“Seems to be the Ravenclaw table. Who could it be? Any guesses, guys?” Angelina replied.

“Cho Chang?” Lee tried. 

“Hmm...No, he’s looking a little bit left to her”, Katie said.

“I think it’s the girl a few seats over. She’s in our year right?” Angelina suggested.

“Yeah, she’s in my numerology class, I think. Y/N L/N”, Alicia confirmed.

“So you going to talk to her?” George asked, but he ended up having to wave his hand in front of his brothers gaze to get him to focus. “Fred?”

“Huh?” he seemed to snap out of something. “Sorry, what’s up?”

“We were just discussing the target of your admiration”, George said.

“What are you talking about?” Fred laughed.

“You not being able to keep your eyes away from the Ravenclaw table”, Angelina smiled. “Who were you looking at?”

“No one”, Fred replied.

“Really? Not even Y/N L/N?” Alicia asked.

“So that’s her name.”

“Are you going to admit that you were staring?” George asked.

“I will neither confirm nor deny that statement. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go”, Fred said after noticing the girl exciting the Great Hall. He got up and went after her, eventually falling into pace with the Ravenclaw. 

She raised her eyebrow at him, having never even shared a class or talked to the boy.

“Looking for something?” Y/N asked.

“I was. The most beautiful girl ever. Lucky for me, the search is finally over”, he said and caused her to roll her eyes. “Like the line, eh?”

“If by ‘like’ you mean ‘find incredibly corny and almost embarrassing’ then yes. I love it.”

“Good, because there are many more where that came from. You can find those out, if you agree to go to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday.”

“So you’ve come to ask me out?”

“It seems as though I have.”

“Unfortunately I’m going to have to decline.”

“What? Why?”

“I think you know why.”

“I cannot think of even one reason why you shouldn’t give me a chance.”

“You’re a player, aren’t you?” 

“Not into quidditch guys then?”

“The other kind of player. The type that plays with girl’s emotions instead of bludgers.”

“Sounds like you don’t know me at all. I’m nothing like that and if you gave Hogsmeade a chance, I could prove it.”

“Trust me, Fred Weasley, I know you quite well. And from what I know, you’re a player, whether you choose to ignore it or not. I’m very sorry, but my answer is still no. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to the library”, she said and with that, left him standing at the corridor.

“Judging by your expression she turned you down”, George said as Fred entered the Gryffindor common room.

“Sure did.”

“Why? I mean, we don’t blame her but for some reason girls usually find you utterly irresistible”, Lee asked.

“Not all girls”, Alicia noted, Katie and Angelina nodding.

“Sorry, all girls that don’t know him.”

“She claimed she did know me. Called me a player and walked off.”

“Quite rude”, Lee said.

“But understandable”, Angelina added.

“Don’t you accuse me of that as well”, Fred groaned.

“Well the time between a relationship ending and a new one beginning has usually been suspiciously short when it comes to you”, Katie said.

“I prefer to think I just go with the flow.”

“I think there have been more than a few instances where you have also blatantly disregarded girls’ feelings”, Alicia pointed out.

“Fine, maybe I am a bit of a player. But I don’t think that means she shouldn’t give me a chance.”

“She probably just doesn’t want to waste her time. You have a reputation and if she knows that, I don’t blame her for thinking you’re going to break her heart”, Alicia said.

“Well I guess I’ll just have to convince her I won’t.”

“Why not just let it go? I mean I’m sure there are other girls at Hogwarts who would die to go on a date with you”, George asked.

“Because this is now about me proving her wrong.”

Next weekend at Hogsmeade, Y/N was walking around the village with her friends, chatting about pretty much nothing when she felt a hand tap on her shoulder. She turned around to a grinning Fred Weasley.

“What do you want?” she asked him.

“Christ, what happened to the act of greeting someone? Just a simple hello, how are you?” Fred pouted.

“Don’t have a lot of time, had to cut to the chase”, she replied bluntly.

“I’ll be quick. Mind if I borrow her for a second?” he asked her friends, who all replied with enthusiasm. 

“No, not at all. Take your time”, one of her friends smiled.

“Make it quick”, Y/N corrected as she let him drag her away from her friends.

“Just wait a second.”

“Waiting is literally the opposite of quick.”

“No, slow is the opposite of quick.”

“Well waiting is very slow, so my point still stands.”

“As much as I would love to argue this with you. We’ve arrived at our destination”, he said and gestured at the sign of Three Broomsticks.

“I thought I made myself quite clear when I declined you offer”, Y/N noted.

“Ah, but you see you declined my offer of a date. Now this is another offer. How about we go to Three Broomsticks as friends?”

“Why do you want to do that? It seems quite hard to believe there are no underlying motivations here.”

“What on earth could those be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps you want me to come here as a friend with the hopes it will turn into something more? Which then means that you aren’t asking me as a friend.”

“You are right and wrong. I do have other motivations, but I am not asking you for anything more than your friendship. I want to prove you wrong.”

“Prove me wrong? About what exactly?”

“About me being a player.”

“You can’t fool me like that. There isn’t a lot that you can do to make me change my mind.”

“Why don’t you try me on that? I know you wanna be friends.”

“Fine, one butterbeer and no funny business.”

“You won’t regret it.”

And to (Y/N)’s surprise, she didn’t. Fred was good company and she ended up having fun. 

“So you’ve finished your drink. One could say our deal is up”, Fred smirked.

“Are you trying to justify any funny business? Because I was just starting to think you might not be such a prick after all.”

“Ha! So I proved you wrong then?”

“No. I said you might not be such a prick. And besides, being a player doesn’t require being a prick.”

“Well, how can I prove you wrong?”

“You don’t have to.”

“I kind of do.”

“Why?”

“I tend to be quite stubborn.”

“Well you can’t really change my mind on this.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because I tend to be quite stubborn as well.”

“So I suppose there’s no dating you anytime soon then?”

“No, but friends does sound pretty good”, she smiled.

But friends turn into sleepovers, AKA long nights in the common room, that  might have ended in one of their dorms a few times. And after some time, sleepovers turn into love or at least something similar to that. The only problem with that happened to be that neither expressed those feeling to one another. They didn’t know what they were or if they even were anything. They hadn’t had the need to figure their relationship out, until one day.

“Hello? Fred? Freddie? Frederick Gideon Weasley!” George said, trying to get his brother’s attention. Fred didn’t seem to notice him, eyes fixated on an exchange at the Ravenclaw table, until his brother poked him in the side quite harshly.

“What?” he turned.

“You’re staring like a creep”, Katie noted.

“This time there isn’t really a need to guess who it is though”, Lee smirked. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please! I saw her sneaking out of your bed just two nights ago!”

“Who?” Fred tried, but knew all hope was lost at that point.

“I saw Y/N. There is literally no need to hide it, because you two are so bloody obvious.” 

“No we aren’t!” Fred argued.

“Please, Fred. We’ve all seen you two sneak out of corridors looking a bit disheveled”, Angelina said.

“Not to mention all the times she’s come to the Gryffindor common room”, Katie noted.

“As friends! She’s come up to hang out with us as friends!”

“And yet somehow you two are always the last one’s there. Alone.”

“And somehow that always ends up either with me having to hear you two making out on your way up the stairs or me having to wake up to you sneaking back to bed at five am!” George joined.

“So will you just admit that you two are together?” Angelina asked.

“No! Because we’re not. I-I don’t what we are, but clearly we aren’t together”, he said, nodding towards the Ravenclaw table, where Y/N seemed to be talking with some Durmstrang boy.

“Ah, I see the problem”, Alicia said.

“That doesn’t mean anything, though”, George comforted.

“Please. She’s been laughing at his jokes for the entirety of dinner and even did the thing where she flings her hair over her shoulder”, Fred said, plopping his head in his hands.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to get any hair in her mouth?” Lee tried.

“See this is completely ridiculous. She clearly thinks she can’t trust me and I bet she’s just been using me this whole time. Lucky for her, two can play at that game.”

“So you’re just going to prove her point about you being a player?” Katie asked.

“No, I’m going to show her that I don’t care about what she does.”

“Sure, that seems like the healthy thing to do”, George muttered.

“Angelina, I need you to do me a favour.”

Love turns into jealousy and now we both fucked up.

Y/N was just about to walk out of the Great Hall, when she heard Fred at the Gryffindor table.

“Angelina, want to go to the Yule Ball with me?”

Of bloody course. Y/N had known about Fred’s reputation with girls and that was the reason she didn’t want to go out with him in the first place. She was supposed to be smarter than that! But she couldn’t help developing feelings for him after finding out how truly charming he could be. It wasn’t her fault that he always managed to make her laugh of roll her eyes with his cheesy lines. It wasn’t her fault that he somehow always managed to win at exploding snap. And it certainly wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t help kissing him back when he leaned in one night at the Gryffindor common room.

She originally hadn’t had any intentions to do anything with the Durmstrang boy, even though he was relentlessly flirting with her, but after seeing Fred so casually ask someone else to the ball, clearly without even sacrificing a thought to her, she was fuming. So like any sensible person, she turned around and went to find the boy. He was still in the Great Hall, so making sure that she was in hearing of the Gryffindor table, she asked him if he would like to go the ball with her. To which he agreed very excitedly, to Fred’s annoyance.

Fred and Y/N didn’t talk for the entirety of the time leading up to the Yule Ball, both mad at the other person.

“Y/N, it’s completely okay to be upset about the Fred thing”, one of her friends said carefully at dinner, the day before the ball.

“I’m not upset!” she snapped. “I knew something exactly like this would happen, which is why I didn’t date him!”

“Perhaps you were never official, but it was quite obvious something was going on there. You don’t have to try and deny that.”

“Whatever, let’s talk about something else. I’m sick of him.”

“I’m sick of her!” Fred said the same day at the Gryffindor table.

“I’m starting to be too with having to hear him complain about her all the time”, Lee muttered to the others.

“Why won’t you just talk to her”, George suggested.

“Because there’s nothing to talk about”, Fred claimed.

“Then what have you been babbling on about for the past two weeks? It’s always Y/N this and Y/N that”, Alicia said.

“She’s right. If I have to hear about her and that Durmstrang boy one more time you’re going to the ball by yourself!” Angelina claimed. “It’s already bad enough you used me to get revenge on her.”

“Not my fault you owed me one. A favour is a favour and you can’t not do it anymore.”

“Still, just talk to her. Please?” George tried one last time.

“No. She made her choice and I am completely okay with that.”

But he wasn’t. Everyone could see that. If only he could see that Y/N wasn’t close to okay either. The two should’ve seen this coming, both of them having admitted to extreme stubbornness right from the start, but they didn’t.

So needless to say, neither of them was having much fun at the ball. Both jealous and mad at the other person.

“That’s it. I can’t take this anymore”, Angelina sighed. “I’m taking matters into my own hands.”

Before Fred could say anything, she had walked off to Y/N and her date, who were sitting at one of the tables, not talking to each other.

“Hi Y/N! Would you mind if I borrowed your date for a second? Mine seems to be no fun”, she smiled.

“Umm...I guess I don’t?” Y/N said, confused as to what was happening.

“Great! You can definitely borrow Fed for a dance if you’d like.”

“I don’t think that’s a good ide-”, Y/N tried, but was interrupted by Angelina grabbing her hand and leading her to Fred. 

“You two have fun!” Angelina smiled and returned to the Durmstrang boy.

“I had no idea she was going to do that”, Fred assured.

“It’s fine”, Y/N sighed. Both of them just stood there awkwardly for a moment.

“I think we don’t really have any other choice, but to dance”, Fred said.

“I guess we don’t”, she smiled slightly.

They went up to the floor and danced silently to a slow song. His hands placed on her waist and hers wrapped around his neck.

“So...a Durmstrang boy, huh?” Fred asked after a while.

“Angelina, huh?” Y/N asked back.

“Owed me a favour”, he shrugged slightly.

“Why would you ask her as a favour when half of Hogwarts would’ve loved nothing more than to be your date?” Y/N laughed.

“Perhaps, because the one girl I wanted to go with was clearly planning on going with someone else”, he said. They were quite literally dancing on the line of something neither of them truly wanted to admit to.

“Who?” Y/N asked. 

“Wow, for a Ravenclaw you don’t seem to be that smart”, he laughed. “I err...I wanted to ask you.”

“What?” her eyes were wide with shock and disbelief. “You’re joking, aren’t you?

“Why would I be joking?” they had now stopped dancing, both just staring at each other on the dance floor.

“Because you’re the one who asked Angelina first!”

“I only asked Angelina, because you were clearly flirting with the Durmstrang boy!”

“I wasn’t flirting with him!”

“You asked him to the ball, didn’t you?”

“I asked him because you had asked Angelina right in front of me!”

Fred couldn’t help, but to stat laughing uncontrollably.

“What?” Y/N asked, not seeing what was so funny about the situation.

“This is ridiculous!”

“Why is that?”

“I thought you were flirting with the Durmstrang boy, so I got jealous and asked Angelina, which made you get jealous and drove you to ask the Durmstrang boy!”

Now Y/N was starting to laugh too, seeing how ridiculous their situation truly was.

“We’re both bloody idiots, aren’t we?”

“Maybe idiocy loves company too”, Fred smiled and finally closed the gap between them.

After breaking apart from the kiss, which had started out innocent, but had been well on it’s to getting them both kicked out of the ball, the pair noticed way too many grinning faces around them. Y/N was quite sure she saw a few of her friends exchanging coins.

“I think I could use some fresh air”, Fred said, glaring at his friends. 

“Me too, How about a walk around the garden?” Y/N smiled.

The two left hand in hand followed by a choir of ‘ooh’s produced by their friends, which they chose two ignore. As soon as they had sat down on the grass under the grass, Fred tried to lean in, but she stopped him by putting her finger on his lips.

“I want to talk with you”, she said.

“That’s new”, he smirked.

“Shut up”, she rolled her eyes. “I feel like tonight and everything leading up to tonight kind of proved something.”

“Proved what?”

“That we need to figure this out.”

“What’s there to figure out? You like me, I like you. Let’s just go back to how it was a few weeks ago.”

“Are you serious? Everything is to figure out. We’re stuck in the middle of lovers and friends. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it too. We’re not dating, but we’re not friends, we get jealous, but don’t say anything about it, because we’re not together. But if we were just friends, we wouldn’t have any reason to be jealous.”

“It’s not ideal, is it?”

“We’re losing every part of the benefit.”

“I wasn’t planning on admitting this, but you hurt me more than I ever knew” he said and Y/N saw a veil pulled back, a mask of confidence being removed. Fred had wanted to keep up the player reputation, but he found out just how bitter his own medicine tasted. “And it’s shitty ‘cause I’m doing the same to you.”

“We’ll figure it out”, she promised, placing her hand on top of his. He looked up at her sparkling eyes.

“The moonlight really does you justice you know”, he said quietly.

“Same goes for you too”, she said back, their faces now mere inches from each other.

And without realizing, they didn’t talk about well...anything for the rest of the night, especially not about what they were. But luckily, Y/N was determined to not put the conversation off for another day. So at breakfast the next day after the ball, she went up to him at his table.

“Have any time?” she asked.

“Always for you, love”, he smiled sheepishly. “Don’t wait up!” he yelled to his friends as she grabbed is hand and dragged him away.

“An empty classroom, eh?” he wiggled his eyebrows as they arrived to the destination.

“Keep it in your pants, pervert. We still haven’t talked.”

“Right. I guess we did get a little distracted last night.”

“Are we exclusive or not?” she asked, wanting to get the conversation over with.

“I don’t know. What do you want to do? Seems like you love me a lot.” he grinned.

“Can we stop the joking and take me seriously?”

“Fine”, he sighed. “I’ll do my very best, bu we’ll have to wait and see”, he promised while leaning in.

Their problem seemed to be that with them talks turn into sleepless nights and sleepless nights turn into love. For Y/N, love turns into impatience.

“You still haven’t answered me”, she cornered him one day in an empty corridor.

“About what?”

“What are we?”

“I did answer you. I said we are whatever you want us to be.”

“That’s not how it works! Both of us need to agree on it. You saying you’re fine with everything means that you don’t want anything serious!”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Yes it does. It means that you just want to keep doing whatever you want with whoever you want!”

“Don’t put words in my mouth! I haven’t been doing anything with anyone. This is just about you not trusting me!”

“No, this is about you avoiding every conversation I try to have about this, which is why I can’t trust you. You’re clearly just waiting until you eventually get sick of me and want to move on with as little breaking up and guilt as you can!”

And now we both fucked up.

“So you still think of me like that? A player who is just waiting for an opportunity to jump on the next girl that comes by, huh?” he asked, hurt by her words.

“Nothing has changed since the Yule Ball. We’re still stuck in the middle.”

“You need to understand that I don’t want anyone else. If I have to be stuck in the middle with someone, I want to be stuck in the middle with you.”

He pulled her in for a hug. Tighter than any other one before. It was like he was scared of letting go. Their problem was how bad they were at feelings. Especially their feelings for each other, that were growing stronger by the moment. ‘Cause fights turn into making up and making up turns into love. Neither of them were brave enough to admit that they were falling in love with each other. Not to themselves, and certainly not to the other person. 

“I want us to be together”, Fred murmured into her hair. 

“What?”

“You’ve asked me a million times what I want us to be and I didn’t want to admit this because...I don’t know why. Perhaps because I’ve never cared about what anyone thinks of me as much as I care about what you think of me. And besides, relationships turn into love and-”, he took a deep breath. Y/N saw that this was another one of those moments when the mask of confidence and cockyness was being removed. “Love turns into forever and to be honest, that scares me.”

“I think that scares both of us.”

“Lucky for you, I’m a Gryffindor”, he smiled, the mask not coming back, but a slight glimmer in his eyes appearing. “Facing fears is kind of our thing. So what do you say Y/N? Want to be with me forever and ever and ever?”

Y/N replied by simply kissing him.

“Is that a yes or-?”, he asked once they broke apart.

“You’re even dafter than I thought, Weasley. Of course it’s a yes. I want to be yours forever and ever and ever and ever-”, she mocked.

“Just shut up and kiss me again.”

And she did. They both broke up with wide smiles on their faces.

“So you’re my boyfriend now, huh?”

“I’m sorry did you prefer lover?”

“Certainly not, I think boyfriend will do for now.”

“As you wish, girlfriend”, he grinned, nudging her slightly.

“Don’t say it like that. Its making me want to go back to friends.”

“Unfortunately you’re stuck with me for forever and ever and ever, remember?”, he said cheerfully and put an arm around her shoulder.

“At least stuck with you and not stuck in the middle.”