#stuck on the puzzle | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theseusernamesarehard · 19 days

Text

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.

#luke castellan #luke castellan fic #pjo series #pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #luke castellan series #stuck on the puzzle #luke castellan angst

21 notes · View notes

theseusernamesarehard · 2 days

Text

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter five

previous | next | masterlist

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?

#luke castellan #luke castellan angst #luke castellan series #pjo #pjo fic #stuck on the puzzle #percy jackon and the olympians

10 notes · View notes