#just coming by to drop that the pjo show annoys me more and more each episode

[thissmycomingofage]

.

#just coming by to drop that the pjo show annoys me more and more each episode #6 was without a doubt the worst one #I hate how percy is so knowledgeable about greek mythology to a point where watchers not expert on the subject could feel dumbed #by all refs dropped in just a minute #and the way they trest the gods KILL ME #stop making them nice parents doomed by circumstances!! #they're assholes! #they're pricks! #what's even the message behind that ?? #if you kids think your parents are distant it's judt in your head they do their best??? #shut up #and on the 7th episode #have you ever see more lazy set or costume ? #I am this annoying fan who wants respect put into THAT #and they gave us the plain cliche gray when charon was supposed to be so flamboyant #the balance between tons is so badly handled I hate it #they took away so much of the charm of the original #(at least we have the musical that goes full into it so I guess it balances) #but still a real waste #now that this rant is done I do ADORE what they did with Hades #but once again in relation to the myths #if you know nothing about them the guy is just random #anyway stream the pjo show #don't watch it on disney+ #riordanverse #pjo/hoo #show: percy jackson and the olympians #text #oli schist!

[rosesradio]

Hello, i'm a valdangelo fan because 100% if Nico was a girl and/or if Bianca went through Nico's story in PJO (not a Huntress, his STORY), Rick Riordan would have PAIRED them together. They would have been endgame status. He would not have had Leo act weird with Hazel, either, because that familial dyniamic would have stayed intact into a "we could have been family, and ironically enough, years later we kind of are because I have a crush on your older SIBLING."

Leo and Nico together makes sense on every standpoint once you think of them like that. A couple that got the short end of the stick. They have weird history like this that barely touch one another, like regarding Leo's father and Nico losing his sister at the Junkyard. Why not use all those storylines, their individual arcs, and wrap it together? They DO work as a couple, they were not given the CHANCE because of gender, specifically. No, Nico coming out doesn't negate this. They dropped the ball by not pairing them together because three books of Leo and Nico interacting in the MAIN story as MAIN characters (Nico is secondary, but he is as important to readers) is what should have happened and would have Actually Been Brave as a book series, they were just too chicken at the time and dumped both of them off with random characters nobody was even thinking about.

anon i’m sending you flowers rn

i don’t have much else to say because you put it into words perfectly. but watch me ramble anyway lol

there’s a certain level of frustration to it—like come on Richard, you could have had a really great pairing here!! but i think one of the glaring issues would be, like you said with nico being a girl or bianca following nico’s storyline, how richard considers Leo the straightest of all, the bitchless Ladies Man(tm). He and calypso don’t make sense to most of us because they have nothing in common, meanwhile he and Nico have a lot in common while still being very different characters.

yk seeing the tv show (if you’ve been watching idk if you are), I’ve seen A Lot of changes from the source material, and many people say it’s almost as if richard is rewriting tlt for a modern audience. He wrote the lighting theif twenty years ago, and heroes of Olympus ten years ago…i can’t help but wonder, if richard did get the opportunity to rewrite HoO…what would he change?

probably not valdangelo being canon lol, and that’s okay—canon and fanon are equally fiction, neither one is more ‘valid’ than the other. but perhaps, if he showed just a bit more of Leo & nico exploring their characters & how they interact with each other…other people might see what we see.

or we can just convince them with fanfiction lol. by chance have you read Ceaseless Eve?

i’m annoying lol, thanks for the ask 🤠

#valdangelo #rose’s asks #pjo #anon let’s be besties we’re sharing a wavelength rn even though you clearly have more brain cells 🥲

[viscountessevie]

I was turned off from the hype of Brigerton early on (idk I wasn't feeling it) but I've been seeing gif sets of Kate and Anthony and I'm kind of obsessed. Would I need to watch season 1 for me to get it or can i skip right into season 2 for the kathony canon content?

Ohmygod hello! I'm so flattered you regard my opinion highly enough to ask me about this! Honestly you're so valid and I'm SO happy that Kathony is drawing in people who were never interested in Bridgerton before S2 dropped. More under the cut because as always this got LONG: 

Okay so this is tricky and really depends what you're into as a romance fan? S1 is about Simon and Daphne and they are a fake dating trope which was really fun and wholesome to watch! S2 is of course Kate and Anthony and they are PEAK Enemies to Lovers and are very HOT. While the romances each season are stand alone - S1 does have a storyline for Anthony which acts as a prequel for his story in S2 I'll talk more about later in this post. 

Honestly as much as I adore Kathony but their season was all over the place as a cohesive story - at times it felt like I was watching two different shows because there was an annoying plotline that didn't connect to the main story and romance AT ALL. (Honestly I always skip their scenes on my rewatch feel free to do the same).

It was shit as an adaptation which is why I'm currently an S2 hater like I love the Kathony of it all but the rest of the season can get fucked - and its mainly because I'm a huge fan of their book. So I would recommend just watching S2 and then reading their book for more of their scenes together - for all her flaws Julia Quinn really FED US with the Kathony content. Also Kate's family is featured more and they are so wholesome! Kate even gets a fully fleshed out backstory (minor spoiler but we were robbed of that in the show) My friend did that and she said the book after watching S2 first felt like a comfort cos you got more scenes. Whereas a book reader, we felt robbed of a lot of pivotal book scenes.

If you have the time and are up for it, I would definitely recommend watching S1 because it was a solid adaptation of Book 1 and Anthony's arc in it is so compelling - yes he was a dick and everyone thought he was annoying af (not me though I've always loved my hot mentally ill eldest sibling clown) but really it's a shield to protect himself from his past trauma - no spoilers but it gets covered in S2! So to see his development from S1 to S2 is very satisfying if you want the whole picture.

Simon and Daphne are cute until their main conflict which was pretty fucked up and going to try to keep it vague but spoilers for S1EP6 at timestamps 47:15 to 49:40 there's a sex scene that turns into an assault at 48:50 and it just soured the rest of the series for me because the perpetrator never atones for their actions. If that's a trigger for you I would suggest just skip that scene all together and come up with a conflict of your own for the couple lmao.

Other than the SA, it was a pretty solid first season, a good introduction to the main family and characters and a cohesive story, the side plots actually worked and the main characters were actually connected to most of them so it didn't feel as disconnected.

Storytelling aspect aside, I will say Kathony is the superior couple just because Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey have INSANE CHEMISTRY and that's what you're seeing in the gifs so I'm not surprised you're hooked! And honestly ignoring the issues I had with the season itself, all their scenes are HOT and amazing and I love these two fucked up clowns in love so much.

Do let me know if you end up watching it and what you think of the show! Honestly if you would just prefer reading, then I recommend just reading the books only (Kathony's book is Book 2 named The Viscount Who Loved Me) I wouldn't bother with the show (it's slowly becoming my new PJO movies/ATLA live action)

#Bridgerton #kathony #kate sharma #anthony bridgerton #Bridgerton S1 #Bridgerton S2 #Bridgerton Asks

[dom--minnie]

Fire Starting in my Heart

Pairing: Chuu (Kim Jiwoo) x Reader

Genre: demigod au, basically a pjo au, fluff, angst

Summary: Kim Jiwoo is the newest demigod to come to Camp Half-Blood. You get to show her around the first day. After that you're stuck like glue, training her and with her nearly every day. With a girl as sweet as her, it was kind of inevitable for you to form a little crush. In between those moments, there's something that Dionysus and Chiron aren't telling you. Somehow you have a feeling it's related to the campers, new and old, who come to the camp with burns...

Word count: 11k

Warnings: violence mildly described, slightly graphic descriptions of burns and injuries, casual use of weapons, low self esteem, heavy self deprecation near the end,

Part of the Hamartia Collab hosted by @/delicatewerewolfsoul and @/sleepylixie masterlist here, please check out everyone else as well!

It was not painfully early in the morning when Dionysus, or Mr. D as you called him to annoy him, called you to the Big House to be a glorified tour guide to a new camper. He very rarely called you to do this job as you generally had about a thousand other things to be doing as well as the sadder reason: There were few new campers coming each year. On your way out you remembered to wear blue and put on some slightly corny sea jewelry, the visual reminder of the sea just feels good. 

Not even bothering to knock, you opened the door and turned into the ‘living room’ that Chiron had designated more cozy for bringing in new campers. Honestly, you’re thankful for his entire existence because Dionysus would probably end up welcoming half of the new campers in the dusty attic. 

Across the room was a small girl half swallowed by the large and plush red chair that her clothes match surprisingly closely in colour. Her hair was curled adorably over her shoulders and an oversized bow sits crooked on the back of her head. The white shirt was the most wrinkled and rumpled as well as the vest over top, but she seemed intent on smoothing out the matching red skirt. Overall, one of the best states recent campers have been in when they arrived.

It seemed she was still lost in thought over… something, but probably the events that had led her here in the first place. As well as simultaneously learning that the pantheon of Greek and Roman gods and creatures exist in our world, just very hidden. Many other pantheons and creatures exist as well, but you’d wait a bit before dropping that equally overwhelming information. 

Since you had been born into this world of creatures you never had that experience but you learned fast enough that telling them everything at once was… a poor decision, at the very least.

Dionysus saw you and cleared his throat making the girl’s attention snap up to your face, her eyes wide and innocent. You waved and put on a little welcoming smile, hoping and praying that Dionysus hadn’t done much to break her soul yet.

“Ah, you’re here. Unclaimed, as usual. Her name is…” Dionysus trailed off and you looked to the girl instead, hoping she’d take the hint and just introduce herself to you.

“Ah! Kim Jiwoo. And.. what does unclaimed mean?” Her voice was just as innocent as the rest of her, but the softness might just be due to some lingering shyness or hesitancy, a valid concern when Mr. D was there.

You sighed and shook your head, not directly at Dionysus as you might be cursed for that or something, but just generally at the state of the gods.

“My apologies, Jiwoo. I’ll explain as I take you on a tour. Come with me?” 

She was half-standing before you even fully extended your hand to her. Most certainly, the award of bravery was given to her since most new campers were hesitant to leave when they learn a literal god was sitting in front of them. It’s not really like you could blame her, Dionysus, especially at the camp, was hardly the most pleasant person to be around. 

When you stepped outside with her a fair amount of campers were already milling around looking for distractions for the morning. Breakfast must have just ended since a few people were still sitting and talking at mixed tables. Maybe it was better if you hadn’t eaten yet, Jiwoo would probably feel better with a slightly familiar face rather than sitting completely alone. 

Of course, you had faith someone would come up to her eventually, the more established campers were always extra welcoming to new faces.

“Sorry about him. Try not to take it to heart he doesn’t remember your name though, I doubt he even remembers mine and I’ve been helping him directly for years now.”

“Hm… If your job is just to help the director then you’re not a demigod, are you? What are you then?” She seemed to be talking to herself and you at the same time, then turned to you with wide eyes. “I’m sorry, that was probably so rude! Let’s just start the tour.”

You laughed lightly and started walking ahead of her, hearing her little steps following up behind you.

“I don’t mind, just be careful with strangers, for obvious reasons. I’m an Atlantian, so-”

Jiwoo suddenly jumped in front of you, analyzing you as if there was some feature that may have given it away. You tapped the top of her head and simply kept walking. After that, she stood ramrod straight and kept walking.

“I just- Atlantis was… is? Is real? And you’re from there? I’ve learned more in the last day than in like, 4 years!”

You expected her to sound a bit more overwhelmed but for now Jiwoo seemed thrilled to be exposed to this new world. Probably a bit of a high to being exposed to so much that was living right under her nose.

“It’s not like it used to be, but yes I have been there a few times. Quite a few Atlantean people have moved to the surface over the years and just return occasionally, and my family is one of those. We’re here, so if you want to know more then I’m around, just come and ask.” 

The abrupt stop you make in front of the metal shed shook Jiwoo from listening to you. She was nodding like she was still listening but you could see her really peering through the windows to all the weapons inside. You just went up and pushed the door open, creaking slightly on the hinges. It was not in the best condition if none of the Hephaestus kids were even oiling that lately, you’d have to tell them about that later.

Each wall was lined top to bottom with various weapons. You’d heard there was even a plan to try and anchor some of them to the roof but that hadn’t worked out, at least not yet. Right behind you was Jiwoo, watching each corner light up as you lit the lamps. Really, what were those campers doing trying to put things on the roof when they hadn’t even done the lights yet?

Either way, Jiwoo didn’t head towards any particular weapon immediately. Instead, you headed off and let her look while you check that there were no ridiculous practical jokes waiting for anyone. 

Not as many as you would expect when no one has checked the building for this long, but still enough to be annoying, which you know was the purpose. Blades that looked sharp but couldn’t cut a leaf if wielded by Ares himself, buttons on switchblades that just popped out different flowers, and several more. The creativity was amusing, but you could never tell them that, of course. 

When you finished, Jiwoo was still standing at the small weapons wall and running her finger over various double daggers. You walked up behind her and find a small amount of amusement and guilt at the way she jumped when she realized you were there.

“Find anything in particular you want to try? You probably won’t gel 100% on the first one you try so bring a couple options.” 

You turned and grabbed a crossbow, modeled after the gastraphetes, from the opposite wall and headed to the training dummies. Jiwoo came out a moment later with throwing and claw knives around her fingers, a boot dagger hanging from a string on her wrist and a xiphos in one hand. The sight of such a small and pretty girl loaded with knives drew out a small laugh from you.

When she got closer and realized Jiwoo pouted about it, but looked down and laughed along when she saw it through your eyes. It was just a cute little giggle that suited her well but the grin that accompanied it was wide and bright. The force shook her a bit and the xiphos fell from where it was tucked. She gasped and picked it up quickly, as if hoping that you wouldn’t notice.

“They’re made for fighting so dropping it on the ground is fine. Let’s test some of these things out, hm?” 

With an enthusiastic nod she put all of them down and examined what she wanted to do first with a little furrowed brow and twist of her mouth. It wasn’t as if you told her that only one could be tested but with the intensity she was hovering over them with it may as well be so. 

Soon enough though, she stood with the throwing knives in hand. Each ring was set over her fingers in a very natural way that would make you think she had practiced with them for years.

“Feels alright to hold them? You look like a natural.” You complimented. 

Her cheeks flushed and the same sunny grin appeared. Even though she had only been with you for an hour you felt a sense of pride at being able to make her laugh. 

“It was like I just knew how to hold them. To put the rings around my fingers, and how to make them lay so that I caan grab them easier.” 

As if to demonstrate, to you or herself you’re not sure, she took one and put it back without looking. All of them sit completely still on her and it was like she never grabbed one at all.

“Well, it’s no good if you can’t throw them. Try for the chest first.”

Jiwoo turned to face the dummies head on and you let out a noise to make her stop, as you had seemed to forget she didn’t know the first thing about how to do this.

“Okay, put one foot forward, same as the hand you’ll throw with. Right dominant? The usual, good. So, you need to..” 

You go about instructing her, or trying to, on how to stand. It didn’t proceed the best as you hadn’t had to do this in a while and she had only held kitchen knives before. When her foot placement consistently wasn’t working you huff and walk over. 

“Kim Jiwoo.” You muttered and stood behind her. 

Bending down, you grabbed each leg and put it into the position you needed. Then, you stood and turned her, first her torso then her neck and head. Only when she turned her head to look at you do you come back to yourself; half pressed against her and a hand still rested on her cheek. It took a second of staring before you stepped back and sputtered some half-apologies. 

Jiwoo just snapped her head back to the dummy and raised an arm. It wasn’t the best form but you weren’t about to step towards her again. Finally, she had the chance to actually throw it and did so with relative confidence. You puffed up a little in pride when she maintained the stance and landed the knife surprisingly close to the middle. 

She turned to you and you swore, each time she smiled it seemed a bit brighter. You let her have the moment before kind of breaking it and gesturing to her 3 other knives. 

Normally, new campers didn’t get that close and kept trying until they hit the dead centre. Jiwoo immediately surprised you by throwing her next one to the head. She hit it right in the centre, not the best place practically, but impressive nonetheless. 

“Well! Seems like you’re a natural with those. There’s plenty of people around who can train you even better. Hitting moving targets while you’re moving, and whatnot.” 

Jiwoo nodded at you and put the remaining knives back on her belt, then went to retrieve the other ones. You quietly chuckled about her struggle to get them out of the dummy. Whether it was her current physical weakness or how hard she embedded them in the wood, or a bit of both. 

By the time she was back to you all the knives were in her belt and a xiphos was in her hand. You hadn’t planned on duelling her but you also hadn’t planned on her ranged weapon being so easy to choose, but there you were. A natural beauty and a natural talent all at once, it seems. 

“Are we duelling Miss Kim?” You raised an eyebrow at her continued eagerness, knowing the type of day she had.

Jiwoo nodded quickly at you, poking her weapon at the middle of your chest and grinning. “Take out your sword. Unless you’re that confident, but I’m better than I look, obviously.”

She stepped back and confidently stabbed at the air, making little ‘pah pah pah’ sounds under her breath. You grinned at the slightly childish display of confidence and how the sword wobbled as she swung it. 

“Come on~ I’m getting bored here, invisible enemies can only entertain a demigoddess for so long!” She stepped back further, making a mock fighting stance that reminded you she was still innocent and had no idea what to do in such a dangerous world like this.

So, you mirrored her moves and took a few steps back, drawing your sword from your side. It shone nicely in the afternoon light and you took just a minute to appreciate the work you did to polish it. It looked damn good and you knew it.

“This is around the most common length of sword you’ll see other campers and other creatures or people using, so get used to it.”

Before you even started to duel you went over basic steps to make sure Jiwoo wasn’t going to trip and cause self-injury before you even got close to her. Even then, she had a close couple of encounters and you had to come up and stop her from swinging her sword any closer to her own head. Generally, you tried not to notice how often you were touching her to move her body but gods was it hard to ignore entirely. But you didn’t let it show, being a good mentor and all. 

The bell rung for dinner before you even know it. When you look, the sun was distinctly lower and you weren’t sure how you missed it considering you were outside the whole time. 

“Alright, cutie pie. Time to meet some fellow campers, follow me.”  

You led Jiwoo away to the dining pavilion where you could already hear a fair gathering of campers talking like the dull hum of an engine. For a second, you wondered if Jiwoo would be uncomfortable surrounded by so many people at once but she seemed pretty bubbly and positive so she’d probably make it through either way. 

You were proven correct not 5 minutes in. Admittedly, you did kind of abandon Jiwoo since you’re not meant to sit with the campers, but you definitely did anyway, but when you looked back she was integrated with a group of kids at the Hermes table. You did hope she would be claimed soon, she was really meant to be claimed years ago, so she would have a proper place to fit in rather than just a ragtag group from the Hermes cabin.

Once you realized your own train of thought you looked away and shook your head. She was just like any other camper, why were you getting so attached this time? Oh well, she was fitting in well enough so she probably wouldn’t be spending too much time around you, back to the Apollo cabin with you.

Just the next day you were proven wrong, however. What you were expecting was for Jiwoo to go find some kids from Hermes to try out some more weapons with but she came bounding over to you mid gastraphetes shot and tapped your shoulder. Confusing, since most of the campers were little demons and just screamed when they wanted your attention, but it was nice to know that someone here had developed manners.

“Hey, Jiwoo. Did you run away from everyone or did everyone run away from you?” You teased, knowing that no one could have the heart to run from her.

She giggled and poked your shoulder. “I ran away! I liked training with you yesterday, so I hope it’s okay that I came back?”

Somehow, it seemed like she just naturally pulled the puppy eyes on you. With great willpower and effort you resisted the urge to pull at her puffy cheeks and coo at her cute face. 

That became a routine, everything about it. The training, especially with weapons, and you resisting the urge to poke at her cute face and wanting to make her blush. Having both of those happen every day made it a lot harder for your feelings to go beyond the initial physical cuteness attraction.

Now there was emotional investment as you learned that her icing exterior was accompanied by a cute cake interior. Weird metaphor. Basically she was cute inside and out, which really wasn’t fair, but it was too late now. 

It seemed like every moment with her flew by, and when you add in that you end up spending quite a bit of time together every single day… yeah, the months flew by faster than you ever thought. The summer passed by and smoothly into fall. You half-expect her to go back to high school or college or something but she didn’t say anything about it and neither did you. Some people were able to go back, mostly kids of less powerful gods and goddesses who were less in danger, yet your routine with Jiwoo continues. 

Your favourite was probably the quieter mornings. Somehow, Jiwoo was still as lively in the morning as any other time of day, but she toned it down when she saw that you’re not awake yet. Paperwork for new campers kept you awake to odd hours, unfortunately. And all the new time with her was kind of taking away from your other duties… but you’d never tell her that because even if you’re being serious about your tasks, time spent with her was still fun. 

Though, maybe there was probably a tie for your favourite time of day. Sometimes, if you had been working for too many hours, Jiwoo will come to your office and pull you out for a walk. Generally, you had no idea why she was awake or why she knew that you were still awake, you gave up asking when she never gave an answer to either of those questions. Oftentimes you’d sit by the lake with her and dangled your feet in, since the water is still just a bearable temperature. 

Soon after that started, she’d finally claimed by her godly parent. There were certainly moments before that when you felt like you were putting the pieces together.

There were several gods that could talk to animals and many kids have certain specialities. So, her ability to talk to fish? Definitely takes out some godly parents, but left too many options for anything definitive. The funniest part was the first time she talks to the fish around the lake out loud. You could understand most of them but when you questioned why she could the confusion set in.

As it turned out, she had been doing it for years. Most kids would beg for a cat or a dog but she wanted fish, because who wouldn’t want to be able to talk to their pets? Though her mom stopped when she got overly depressed everytime the fish died. Apparently, genius Jiwoo, had just thought it was a demigod thing to talk to fish, and not whoever her specific godly parent was. You wished there was an Athena kid nearby because they’d flip their lid. Most of them wished to talk to animals to create strategic advantages, but alas that is not an Athena ability, not as far as you knew at least. 

The second one was her ability to manipulate water. That came as a bit more of a shock to everyone, most of all Jiwoo herself. At some point she was put on guard duty for Capture the Flag and in a moment of pure panic she flung a stream of water in her opponents’ face. Later you learned it was the senior counselor of Ares, whom the mental image of getting soaked with a rogue stream of water was admittedly amusing. 

You didn’t know of too many gods that could manipulate water in any way, but you didn’t want to get her hopes up too soon for anything. You had never had the experience of being claimed since you weren’t technically born directly from a god, but you knew how amazing it felt to watch someone be claimed by their parent. 

As it turned out, you didn’t have to wait too long either way. 

By her own admission, Jiwoo had walked into the forest by herself. It wasn’t strictly dangerous unless the camp was infiltrated by monsters, but in an attempt to avoid injury it was generally advised against. As she was out there, something moved behind her, and she had heard about your stories of monsters being in the forest before and panicked. With her eyes slammed shut, Jiwoo couldn’t exactly see what happened but when she hesitantly opened them a circle of tree trunks were covered in frost. 

Yeah, there were no other gods who were powerful enough to control water in that way without just being one of the ice-related gods. The moment she stepped back into camp and view of the other campers, Jiwoo was being claimed. The trident of Poseidon was a radiant blue like a spotlight on her. Ironic since the first outfit you saw her in was red but you do admit that she looked just as pretty in that deep ocean blue. 

You got to explain to her later what exactly it meant that she was now officially claimed. She did get her own cabin all to herself, which also meant she automatically became the senior counselor. Presiding over herself and the fish tanks she had always wanted. As well, she was technically meant to sit at her own table in the pavilion but you assured her that the Hermes kids would take her back if and when she got lonely. At which point she decided to get mischievous. 

“But what if I want to sit with you instead? We’re both people of the water, come sit with me~” 

She said it in a half-cheeky and half-serious tone which made you slightly unsure how you were supposed to answer. Instead, you just awkwardly poked her and laughed.

“Sit with your friends, Jiwoo. It’s a lot more fun than sitting with us stuffy camp staff, trust me.”

Something flashed across her face but she turned away and when she looked back at you it’s gone, replaced by puffed cheeks and a pout you’re embarrassingly weak for. 

“You’re my friend, too! And I don’t care if I have to deal with you talking about stuffy camp business sometimes.”

With a face like that, how were you meant to deny her? So she joined you there as well and you could only fall deeper into your attraction.

The fact that she was claimed by Poseidon and is now a child of the Big 3 only made her more popular around the camp. Younger campers coming up to her and saying how they want to be cool like her, or people trying to watch her practice combat. It didn’t seem like it bothered her all that much, which you found rather impressive. 

Yet, Jiwoo still found the time to follow you around, indeed she spent more time with you than with anyone else. You took a strange pride in it, in being her fellow water companion and connecting with her in a way that the others didn’t. It also worked like that because there weren’t any other children of the Big 3 there at the moment. You were sure it’s only a matter of time since those 3 gods were always out doing something but that was how it was then.

When you realized how much you enjoyed that she spent so much time with you, the guilt was rather strong. Why were you happy when she denied an invitation, only to spend that time with you later? Or when you approached and her attention got diverted from someone else to you, a smile lighting up her face. It all convinced you that maybe she felt the same spark of affection in her heart that you did.

One night you were walking and stopped by a small stream in the forest. It was a bit spooky being in the forest so late at night but being able to turn and see the lantern lights from the cabins was comforting enough that you didn’t mind. Jiwoo also helped with that, because of course. 

She was soft that night, dressed in something between pajamas and just lounge clothes. Still, your heart squeezed and you just have to say it. 

“Hey, Jiwoo?” Your voice came out softer than you intended.

She just hummed, continuing to run her hand over the smooth rocks in the streambed. 

“I like you. Romantically, I mean. I know that you haven’t been here long but you’re such a bright force in my life that I don’t know how I was getting by before.”

The silence stretched on and you start to think that maybe you did read it wrong, maybe that was just how she was with friends. Finally, Jiwoo stood and the look on her face was what did it. Her mouth was slightly curved down where it normally curved up and her eyebrows were pinched together.

“You shouldn’t have said that. Confessing like this was selfish of you, why would you do that.” She stepped away and the noise of the gentle stream blended into the static of your mind. “If it wasn’t obvious, that’s a no. Good night.”

The soft yet shaking voice she used hurt more than if she had yelled. As she stalked back to her cabin you’re left staring at where she was standing before and the ribbon that fell off her shirt. Purple, red and blue, combining herself and her father. 

Your attention quickly became diverted in two directions after that night, because something was wrong with Chiron and Dionysus. 

They kept talking about something when you weren’t there. Always in quiet, but rushed voices and always stopping once they noticed you. The first few times you asked what it was but after they told you not to worry you just had to let it go. But you hadn’t, not really. Attempting to listen through doors, having other campers ask them about it, anything you could think of to finally figure it out.

If Jiwoo was still talking to you then she’d probably have some weird, but maybe plausible idea for what to do. Instead, you were forced to stew in all these feelings alone. I mean, you’re not forced to, but talking to any of the campers about that was a little strange. You were meant to be this figure of protection and guidance for them, not the other way around!

Then your attention got split in a third direction. You were just not having a great month, honestly. Some new campers were coming in, which was all well and good, but some of them were tragically burned from their journey. New campers getting injured on the way in isn’t new, but in the same specific way of a burn every time? That’s suspicious. 

Most of the campers didn’t know and didn’t suspect any strange happenings, at least as far as you could tell. You weren’t about to be the one to tell them either, you couldn’t see the looks on their faces if your guesses came true. Still, you couldn’t stop thinking about Jiwoo. How the light smiles on her face would turn into serious looks, getting ready for a fight. A fight you just couldn’t fathom her having, couldn’t imagine that she was ready for. 

Jiwoo almost spoke directly to you during a Capture the Flag game. She was co-captain of the team and ended up giving you directions on where to go. It wasn’t much of anything, and she barely even looked at you, but you’d take it. It was better than sitting in the dark and wondering why she got so angry that night in the forest and permanently moved on. 

There was another possible opportunity to speak to her that you completely fumbled. She happened to find a new camper waiting at the border tree, and you came to find them both to lead them back. It was a bit of a long walk, especially with the camper’s injured leg, and there were so many things you wanted to ask Jiwoo. Instead, you said nothing at all and just listened while she talked with the new boy. Anthony, who his friends usually just called Ant. 

By the time he was introduced to Mr. D you could have sworn that he had already developed some mild heart eyes for Jiwoo. You felt the increasing harshness in the way you stepped and pulled him along, but you could hardly help it. You were the one who led her into this camp, who spent nights with her by the lake where nobody knew where you went. It wasn’t the most righteous cause for anger but your smoldering heart was there regardless. 

All three things break on the same day. Over the last week, Chiron and Dionysus were being even more secretive than before. You saw Chiron’s light on late into the night when he was generally the one shoving you to bed at a reasonable time. Dionysus was out doing who-knows-what for most of the day and immediately went to Chiron’s office when he came back. 

Only after you had been basically ignoring them for quite awhile, other than the usual necessary duties and communication, did they tell you a bit about what was going on. Simple details at first: a dangerous creature running around the nearby area, a mythological one, and they were trying to track it. 

But then one morning they had finally explained it all. The fire and scale of the creature had narrowed it down to either a dragon or a chimaera. You prayed to literally anyone you could think of in that moment, just begging for it not to be a dragon. Sure, chimaeras were dangerous but dragons were on another level. If it was to be so, then there would be a whole lot of problems on your hands soon. 

So with that information you set out to the training area, only to find a mini tournament being set up. Honestly, fighting real people as opposed to some unmoving dummies was preferable. So, you snuck in, successfully scaring Changbin and Wooyoung, the organizers. 

It was like Apollo had twined you and Jiwoo with a golden thread, or maybe he put the fates up to it, because this was getting ridiculous. You didn’t fight her first but in the semi-finals, you do. Even with this ice between you, you had to congratulate her on getting so skilled so fast. Something had been pushing her to train and you were impressed with the work ethic. 

Still, your uncertainty and anger over the whole dragon/chimaera situation was not gone yet. Seeing her right in front of you, so close yet so far away, did not help you at all honestly. Being the mature adult you were, you were sure that you can handle a fight that’s only about 2-3 minutes long. Not quite. 

Within one minute you were struggling to hold it back. Each emotion that flitted through you with a look at her face was building. It all coalesced to anger inside you, anger at why she said such harsh things that night and why she felt that your friendship couldn’t come back from it. 

You swept your leg and the moving gravel kicked up a little dust around your feet. She jumped back, but it was too late and your foot caught around her ankle and caught hard. Once you felt the resistance, you pulled even harder, the adrenaline making your brain flash that she was a real, threatening enemy for a moment. 

Your fight or flight instincts kicked in and you pulled more with your leg. Her hands flew out to catch her but the shock took too long to wear off and she still hit her face on the ground. Your shock took nearly 3 times as long to wear off of your mind. Slowly, your eyes tilted down, only to see her already looking up. But you didn’t see what her face looked like, only the fact that you may have genuinely hurt her. 

The sound of a few people rushing forward to check on her was what snaps you out of it. Quickly sheathing your sword and keeping your head down, you rushed away from the scene. 

Congratulations, genius. Whatever chance you may have had about making up with her is certainly gone with the Anemoi now, you think bitterly.

All that mental questioning about why she had gotten so angry about nothing, and all the disapproval you had given her about it. Now you had gone and done the same thing, possibly hurting her because of your uncontrolled anger. Technically, it was equal on both sides but you didn’t feel like she was any closer to talking to you, if anything you would guess she was taking even more steps away.

You sunk into the chair with your cup in hand and waited for Chiron to speak. Strange that Dionysus wasn’t there but with so much going on you assume that there was more pressing things for a god to be doing related to his camp.

Chiron knocked on your door early the next morning, two things he never did. Usually, he waited for you to get up to talk and that was breakfast by the latest. Over the hills and the trees you could see the sun just rising but Chiron’s face immediately dispelled any complaints you had about being up so early.

“There’s a chimaera loose. Dionysus has been tracking it loosely for a while but we’ve never actually caught it, often being a few minutes behind. It lets us get to the new campers sooner, if nothing else.”

You had suspected that something like that was going on, but with no evidence and no knowledge of the situation it wasn't as if you could do much.Something built up in your chest and you saw it as anger, a more common feeling for you recently. It took a couple more breaths until you were sure that opening your mouth wouldn’t cause you to lash out about why they left you out of such an important issue. 

“It was my idea if you must know.” Your mouth snapped shut when Chiron continued speaking, he wasn’t looking at you anymore. “I wanted to protect you. There is no need, you’re a fine young adult now. But for someone with such a long life as me, I cannot help but to still see you as the child you were when you got here. At this point, I can only hope that it is not too late and that you are willing to help us with this.”

With a heavy thunk you set down your cup and rolled your eyes at Chiron. He saw it clearly, you made sure he would, but you cut in before he could go on.

“You think I’m not gonna help you, old man? I’m kind of offended, really. This is my camp, my campers, my kids. I want to protect them just as you were, and maybe still are, trying to protect me.”

Chiron sighed and shook his head, but you could still see the smile he let out. When he looked back up it was gone, replaced by the serious Chiron you’d gotten used to seeing over the last few weeks. 

“It’s coming this way, and rather fast. Mostly it’s been wandering the city but for some reason it’s coming this way.”

You could only hope that there wasn’t some sort of other force behind this, someone strong who would wish to do harm to these demigods. It only strengthened your resolve to think of the helpless new kids, literal children, who had come to the camp. 

“I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” you nodded. “This chimaera can catch these hands!” 

You punched your first into your other hand as if the first thing you do in danger wasn’t pull out your sword. Chiron took a few steps forward and put his hand on your head. Honestly, you could kind of see what he meant about still seeing you as the younger version of yourself who came to the camp. Especially, when he did things like that which make you feel so much younger, to reminding you of a simpler time when you didn’t have to worry about rogue chimaeras breaking into the camp. 

About a week later you were wandering when a new camper ran up to you. 

“Hey! Chiron told Jungwoo, who told Ona, who told Kira, who told Jay, who told me that Mr. D is looking for you!”

You raised an eyebrow as they went down the chain of people the message took to get to you. If the message had been anymore complicated it quickly would have become a terrible game of telephone, quite honestly. Dionysus rarely looked for you so specifically and directly so you had to assume it was important. The whole chimaera debacle, hopefully, unless something new had popped up somehow. 

“It’s in the forest now. I’m looking for good fighters and trackers to go find it, tell anyone you think can do it.” Chiron told you.

You wished it wasn’t such a concern, but unfortunately he was probably thinking about how to keep certain campers away from the thing. Those old enough that they thought they could fight it, or just wanted see it, but young enough that they definitely couldn’t fight hard enough or even run fast enough. Smart enough to know they shouldn’t get close, but reckless enough that they’ll trail behind someone more experienced. 

You’d admire their commitment if it weren’t such an obstruction to their own, and others’, safety. Though, you couldn’t fault them overly much because, as Chiron would love to remind you, you had tried to do something similar as well. 

The first stop of your trip was, of course, the Ares cabin. They had the most experience generally, and also the drive to fight against a real opponent. Most of them weren’t there but you knew where to find most of the people you’d need. 

Changbin, the cabin counselor, grabbed his sword and despite the situation it almost cracked you up. The blade was nearly as long as him and the handle reached over his hand by just a little. The moment he turned around the laughter was gone because there was a dark look on his face and the familiar Ares flame in his eyes. You hoped that for everyones’ sake that he at least got a crack at the thing.

Jisung from Hephaestus was the only one in their cabin, but thankfully he was the one with fire-controlling powers, and exactly who you happened to need. Fighting fire with fire, which always goes perfectly, especially in a giant forest. 

Last destination was the dummies and sword fighting area where you picked up Jiwoo, Jungwoo, Kim and Hwang Hyunjin, Chaeryeong, Felix, Chenle, Bomin, Wooyoung, and Sanha. About half of them agreed because they have nothing better to do. It may have seemed like a knock against them but you had faith that they had as much drive to protect the younger campers, especially from their own cabin, as you do. 

It was a bit odd to tell them all about what you’re sending them into. One, sending them into danger, two making them fight in the woods, which was only ideal for about 2 people in the whole group. The rest would have to figure how to fight so close to each other and the trees. Somebody proposed groups or pairs, an idea you wished you had thought of yourself. Before you could blink half of the group had paired themselves off. Apparently, the friends Chuu had joined had become an odd number of people, which just so happened to leave you two as the last ones. 

Ignoring that, you all quickly talked about your ‘flares’ to call other people to your location. It was a good thing Jiwoo had more affinity with water control than you do so she could actually make a visible signal in the air. It was all fine and dandy at first when there were other people to talk to, but as you got further into the forest people split off in different directions. Before you knew it it was just you and Jiwoo. After being in the camp for so long and almost constantly surrounded by sound it felt almost wrong to only hear the silence. You stared off in the opposite direction of Jiwoo, watching and listening for anything out of the ordinary.

When you did hear something and looked back to check if she did as well, you finally noticed that she had up and disappeared. It sent a little jolt to your heart, wondering if something snatched her away. That idea was gone nearly the moment you thought about it, realizing she probably just didn’t want to be around you and wandered off to be by herself. Once that settled in you started to mentally curse her, wondering if she knew just how much extra danger she had put both of you in. 

The silence in the forest was unnerving, even more so by yourself, each crack from a branch or leaf could be one of your fellow people or something just waiting to pounce on you. But you of all people couldn’t sit idly by when you knew that you could protect these people, especially since some of them were such young, young kids. Even though Jiwoo was long gone and you should really wait for her, you stepped confidently forward like there’s 100 people at your back. 

The sound of your own breathing, your heartbeat, every step, you could hear it all. Something flashed at the corner of your eye and you turned towards it. Then to the other side. Were there multiple or was this thing just that fast? Neither were good options for you. Each move of shadows brought a little waver of the leaves and some quick crunches on the undergrowth. It was stalking you, waiting to see if you would let your guard down for even a moment. 

You loaded a bolt into your little crossbow, hoping to have time to fire it off first. All the crunching and darting of shadows was far off again, so you stood and waited, hoping it would come to you first. 

It did, with a blur from the trees that you hardly saw and had time to jump away from. Having to roll with a crossbow in your hands was far less than comfortable and easy. You positioned and fired once, hoping to catch it as it landed. You hit the torso but it was hard to tell if it was even bleeding with the darkness and size of the thing. 

One look later and you were putting the crossbow away in favour of your sword. Fumbling, you took another few steps away and sent up a bolt of water, letting it scatter and reflect rainbows across the sky to use as your impromptu flare signal. 

Once again, it leapt towards you and you crouched under it and swung at one leg. With how narrowly you missed, you had to assume that it lifted its legs to go over your sword. Great, it seemed to be even smarter than you thought it would be. 

The next time you weren’t caught so off guard and swung higher, making a substantial cut on one leg. Still, that hardly acted as a deterrent or hindrance, as it continued to move and lunge with all the speed and strength it had before.

Further cementing its intelligence, it leapt toward you but instead of swiping, it opened its wide maw with the intention to clamp down on your torso. 

You jumped backwards to avoid the bite but hit a tree, hard. It half stunned you and it took longer before your brain could actually get your body to move. In that time the chimaera unleashed a breath of fire on you. It caught you straight in the chest and you screamed a bit. To stop the show of pain, it would use that to its advantage honestly, you bit down on your lip so hard that the pain, and likely blood, distracted you. 

The moment you lifted your sword to swing again the burned skin flashed white hot in pain and you reflexively dropped it. Okay, hopefully someone would find you soon, because you didn't know how long you could dodge this thing. 

After a close call with a swipe to the head, someone did find you. 

Kim Jungwoo bursted through the trees, spear in his hand and ready to be used. He came out so suddenly that you nearly stabbed him instead but your brain caught up in time. Normally, it was hard to believe that he's a son of Ares, but in the midst of battle like that there was no mistaking it. 

There was a reason no one dared to make him angry. 

It was easier to dodge and weave with 2 people. Sure, sometimes you got in each other's way or go for the same swing, but generally it worked out. Even more so when Dami from Nyx and Yeonhee from Apollo started to pester it with arrows from the trees. 

You grinned a little as Jungwoo dispatched a final blow to its chest, the adrenaline fully taking over you. More people found you over the next few minutes as you all calmed down and started trying to breathe normally. 

As the adrenaline wore off a bit, you started to feel the uncomfortable movement of your large area of burned skin. 

As you turned to head out of the forest a knife embedded itself in the tree next to you. You turned and saw the familiar pattern of it, Jiwoo's. She pinned the body of an abnormally large bug, one that definitely seemed like it would attack you, to the trunk. 

Training must have been doing her good, you nodded and continued on, not daring to look back.

The adrenaline began to wear off and the pain of the burn became even more acute. Tramping your way through the bush, you had hardly any care for whatever other natural predators may have came out and found you. 

Your fight or flight instincts were still running rampant through your body and you had to actively resist stabbing the person who came running up next to you. And you were very glad you did because you didn’t think anyone, including yourself, could forgive you for stabbing Chenle or Felix.

One on each side of you, each winced at the slight burning smell you were sure you carried and at the nasty looking skin. You wanted to say it wasn’t as bad as it looked but the resident chatty boys spoke up before you could. 

“That looks really bad, I’m sorry you had to come upon the chimaera first. But… thank you for protecting us, protecting all of us. Bomin told us that you had been fighting it alone until they found you. I just don’t know who might have gotten hurt if you hadn’t done it, so thank you again.” Felix said earnestly. 

Chenle must have been hyped up on adrenaline with how fast he was bouncing and speaking. 

“Mhm! I would've frozen up for sure if it was just me. Guess I should’ve kept to the Apollo cabin instead of going to look for it. Speaking of which…” he awkwardly looked off and nodded at you before pushing past the line into the cabin. 

You wanted to say that he should have, the more people in Apollo cabin to soothe and treat any injuries the better. You had already heard that some people got scared and stabbed or shot at a fellow camper. It was unfortunate, but not everyone had realistic combat experience so this must have been worse than you expected for a lot of them. 

Contradictingly, you hoped some campers would come talk to you but at the same time you knew you’d need to lay down and not irritate your burned skin for the next few days. 

"Chiron, can you set up the bed for me? I'm heading to the Apollo cabin for a few minutes."

Chiron turned the corner and grimaced when he heard that, and winced even more when he saw you. You were sure that you looked rough from the romp in the forest, maybe even worse than you thought if his reaction was so uncontrolled and strong.

You both knew what that meant, you were expecting this to be an extended stay, longer than anyone in Apollo cabin would prefer. Nathaniel wasn't surprised when you said you needed him to come to the Apollo cabin with you. Over the last few years he had dealt with many of your injuries from the monsters of the world. 

Still, he didn't seem to expect how bad it was and grimaced when you peeled your shirt off of it. 

"Alright, okay, this is fine." He said, in a way that told you it was not really fine. "Scratches first, then we'll see what I can do."

It was calming, the warmth of Nathaniel healing you. The feeling of your skin stretching or growing back or whatever he did, was very disconcerting but you were more than used to it bythen. Like an old friend that it took you a minute to get used to. 

"Gonna be honest: not sure I can do much for you. It's not too late, but I would have liked to treat it immediately and the Chimaera was powerful. It'll be painful, so you need to rest a lot, but I think you know that." 

Nathaniel let out a sigh as he looked at the edges of it, a clear red compared to your skin. 

"And the scar. It should only be in the spot where the fire originally hit, rather than where it spread to after. I wish I could do more for you, gods." 

He ran a hand through his shiny blond hair, though whether he was more frustrated with you or himself was unknown. You reached out and put a hand on his arm. 

"Nate, it's honestly fine. My fault for getting burned by the damned thing in the first place. And if it's as small as you say it is then I won't see it that often anyways." 

A grin slipped out and Nathaniel shook his head at you, hair falling perfectly over his forehead. 

"You're so lucky I like you enough that I won't hit you for immediately calling me Nate like that." 

You gasped dramatically, hands coming to clutch at your heart as you fell back. After just a second you popped back up to playfully glare at him. 

"Threatening to hit your favourite patient? How dare!" 

This time he did smack you, a light one over the back of your head. Really, you saw it coming from a mile away and you both knew you could dodge it, but you let him do it, for fun. 

"Please stop saying you're my favourite when I have a boyfriend from Aphrodite. He's actually my favourite because he hardly ever gets injured, unlike someone I know." 

You shoved him away and then shoved him again, towards the door this time. 

"Go away then, I don't need you! Also the look on your face when you talk about him is disgusting and I hate it. Bye!" 

You successfully pushed him towards the steps and slam the door on him, wincing at the movement of your shoulder. Why, oh why, must our whole body be so connected? 

The silence allowed you to finally think back on the stressful experience you just had. And as your mind was prone to doing lately, it drifted back to Jiwoo eventually. The way she seemed to have moved on like your friendship never happened at all. Entirely oblivious to the way that you weren’t like what you had become and had instead become what you were before she came along. More withdrawn and into your work rather than the social aspect of your job you had come to enjoy.

Focused on training almost wholly, studying with a close second, and only talking to people who came up to you first. Save Chiron and Dionysus who had camp duties first and generally didn't have thought to spare to your relationship problems.

It seems they got involved anyway, as you learned after your self-imposed bed rest expires. It felt good to be free of having to walk around the camp and see Jiwoo around every turn, at least that was what it felt like. You laid there and did quite a lot of thinking, and quite a lot of paperwork once you could sit up. Chiron was a blessing every day of his life but managing tens of people who also have superpowers basically, takes a real toll on you.. 

That felt like a real return. Just sitting in your office, like the days before you accepted that working with the campers was far more useful than just doing an office job.

Chiron didn’t bother to knock, you had rather moved past that in the Big House. 

“Jiwoo came by and asked about you the other day.”

Your eyebrows shot up farther than you thought they could. She had made it abundantly clear that she didn’t want to talk to you over the past little while, so why would she be trying to check in on you now?

Chiron took your lack of response as good enough and kept going.

“Right up the door and knocked like she had been doing it all along. And when I asked her that, didn’t she know that you had been burnt in the forest, she ran away. Just got this pained look on her face and blasted away faster than any children of Hermes that I’ve ever seen.”

You leaned back in your chair for a moment, going over what he just dumped on you. It felt like a cold bucket of water, like you had just been shocked awake. So Jiwoo didn’t actually hate you like it seemed she did? You needed answers, and you were more determined than ever before to get them from her. 

Oh yeah, from the look on his face, Chiron also wants some sort of explanation. From budding friends to completely ignoring each other in just a month or so? He was going to need to check if you're ok, like the comforting uncle figure that he was. 

That night you went back to the lake with the little dock, honestly someone needed to repair it. When you got closer and saw someone there you were ready to turn around but then their head turned and both the bow and the way her hair fell was familiar to you still. You let out a quiet breath, not quite sure if you were happy she was there. So, you walked up and sat next to her. 

Finally, she didn't walk away but she didn't speak either. You must have sat there for half an hour, silently playing with the water. Neither of you spoke, and she didn't even look at you. Eventually, you just stood up and accepted it. What she said when you were in the forest that night was it, the end.

Before you could take more than half a step Jiwoo called your name with panic in her voice. When you turned back she was looking at you wide-eyed and her hand was hovering near your arm, like she was waiting for permission to grab it. 

"Stay, please." Her voice was quiet but pleading. 

You were too happy about her speaking to you and even saying your name again to consider doing anything else. 

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. For everything really, but first the burn. If I- If I hadn't left you then you probably wouldn't have been burnt at all. They said it wasn't all going to scar, but even some of it is a reminder. A reminder to you of how terrible I was in my anger, and fear." 

She glanced at you and a small sob wracked her body when she saw the edges of the burn on your arms.

"Woo, hey, don't cry please." You laid your hand lightly on her shoulder and she took in a shuddering breath. 

"Ugh, why am I crying? You're the one who's probably still in pain. Nevermind how terrible I've been to you." 

Hesitantly, you moved your hand from her shoulder to her back, and she stared back at you the whole time. 

"Jiwoo. If you had been with me I might still have gotten burned, we don't know. Or worse, you could have gotten burned like this." 

Before you could say more she burst into tears. You hesitated just a moment before wrapping her up in your arms. Jiwoo tensed before melting and throwing her arms over your shoulders. 

It felt amazing to touch her again, it was just unfortunate that it was while she was sobbing against you. It took a few minutes for her to calm down and lean away, wiping away the falling tears. After that it only took Jiwoo a few moments before she was speaking again, her voice thick. 

"Why are you being so nice to me? I've been cruel and put you through so much pain. So much unnecessary pain." 

You saw her eyes go to the burn again and breathed out heavily through your nose. Her eyes snapped back up to yours, obviously concerned that this was where you finally lost it.

"Jiwoo, you better not think you're responsible for my burn. The chimaera did that, not you." 

Her mouth fell open and you mentally heard her protests long before they happened. 

"I'm not hearing it. It is not your fault, and I'll tell you that as many times as you need." Your 'teaching voice' unintentionally comes out, firm and unwavering with no room for protest.

Jiwoo looked up at you, shocked, but closed her mouth and swallowed her protests. You cooed and leaned forward a little to pat her head. 

"Good girl~" 

She flushed just enough that you could see it in the dim light and smacked you lightly. You just laughed and nudged her towards you, one arm still firmly over her shoulders. 

To your surprise, Jiwoo slid away. As if she burned it, you moved your arm away. Then you noticed the look on her face, pained. 

"I was angry because I knew I couldn't ever be good enough for you. A strange kind of anger, I know. But I was. I was angry that you would stoop down to my level. My pitiful little self." 

You opened your mouth to speak but she continued, the words now spilling out of her like she couldn’t stop them if she tried. 

"From the first day I came I've seen how capable you are. Able to handle almost any weapon with ease. Comfortable with any campers, whether they've been here 5 years or 5 minutes. I even saw you convince Mr. D to do something once! And everything in the forest. Fighting after you were burned. Holding in the pain so half of us didn't even know. And leading the camp back to safety, back to where we belong."

Her words slowed and she let out a choked little noise. You wanted to reach out, to say her name and comfort her. But she shook her head and continued before you could do it. 

"Then there's me. Falling on my face, literally sometimes. I nearly stabbed myself with every weapon I picked up. I know nothing of the gods. It took me weeks to approach any of my fellow campers. In the quest... it was so much worse there. Failing the most basic tasks. Failing to protect you, body or heart." 

You could barely hear her talking about how she 'failed' you between the whisper of her voice and your own rushing thoughts. 

You cut in before she could go on any longer, "Jiwoo, just listen to me." 

She nearly whipped herself off the pier in her hurry to turn towards you. In that moment she seemed almost scared. Scared of what you may say after she had bared her heart like that. Like you could ever live with the knowledge that you had hurt her.

"All of those things come with experience. Every single one. I've been at Camp Half-Blood for nearly 10 years now. When I got there, I can guarantee that I shot hundreds of arrows beyond the targets, or smacked myself in the back of the head with a weapon. And it's not as if I met all of the campers at the same time. I met them one at a time as they came in, getting to know them and getting to know how to settle in new campers at the same time." 

You turned to her with a sly, little smile. 

"None of them have compared to you, if I'm being honest." 

Her mouth fell open a bit more with every sentence you spoke, like for some reason she couldn't believe you being a bit of a clumsy fool at first. With that last sentence she smacked at you again, grumbling under her breath. 

"Really, Woo. If you took me to the city I'd be far less capable. I don't know anyone there. I know how the shops work but I'd probably try to pay with Drachmae anyway. Or look for a place to Iris Message rather than a payphone. All sorts of things that being holed out here have gotten me used to." 

You let out a little sigh and think of anything else you should say. It was getting harder the closer you felt Jiwoo getting, both physically and emotionally. The urge to cuddle her until any and every problem goes away was like a flashing light. 

"Oh, right. You think that you know what I 'deserve'?" You raised an eyebrow at her like a challenge. "I don't care what I deserve. I want you, by my side, as long as you'll have me." 

Finally, finally, Jiwoo flung herself towards you. Squeezing and attaching herself to you with every bit of her like any less would allow you to disappear. You held her close, your face in her neck and felt her pounding heart. That time you knew it was from happiness. 

Silently, you looked at a nearby fish in the lake. It swam up to your foot and you asked, extra kindly, if it could make a crown for Jiwoo from the lake plants. It vanished with an excited little gurgle. You were pretty sure she wasn't listening, but Jiwoo moved back at the same time that the fish reappears. That time it had many friends and was holding a pretty little crown. 

You thanked them and took the crown off their backs, wasting no time before taking the water away and put it on Jiwoo's head. She blinked and looked at her reflection in the water. You weren’t sure how well it shows in the dim light but it must have been enough from the way she looked back at you. 

When she took it off her head you froze. It seemed like she liked it, did she not? The feeling crystallized to frustration when she tried to put it on your head.

"Why won't you take it!?" She whined.

From her expression you had expected something a bit more intimidating from her mouth. Either way, you shook your head and put it back on her.

"It's a queenly crown from the lake. That is what you deserve, darling." 

It seemed like Jiwoo stopped breathing for a moment and you worried that the pet name was too far, too soon. Suddenly, Jiwoo turned her head toward the lake, but not before you saw the deep red on her cheeks.

The fish came back, some the same as before and some not. For some reason, you couldn't understand them or her as they conversed about something. Then they disappeared again and you were left to wonder. Jiwoo didn't offer any words, just put her hand in your lap, staring at something. Something behind you it seemed, though you couldn't tell. So, you grabbed her hand and waited, waiting until she told you what her strange actions meant. 

It was pretty easy to guess when the fish returned with a crown like the one you had asked for before. Jiwoo chattered eagerly with them for a moment before taking it. The crown was dry the moment it touched her hands, and you couldn’t even see the water flow out the way you had to do before. Children of Poseidon.

You fixed her with a playfully flat look as she put it on your head. By the time she pulled away to look at it better you had already lost your expression to a fond smile.

So, you pulled her back to your side, looking at your reflection. The moon shined from above, lighting Jiwoo so you easily traced your eyes over her features. After tonight, you'd be content to sit like this with her until the sunrise. But she has other plans. Jumping up, she pulls on your arm to have you follow her. When you just raise an eyebrow at her, she gestures towards her cabin with her head. 

"Stay with me? For tonight at least." 

"I said I'd stay as long as you'll have me and I meant it. Lead the way."

#hamartia collab #chuu x reader #jiwoo x reader #chuu oneshot #jiwoo oneshot #loona oneshot #chuu scenario #chuu imagine #chuu fluff #jiwoo scenario #jiwoo imagine #jiwoo fluff #loona scenario #loona imagine #loona fluff #my writing

[foreverfallingforthestars]

I think my dad is Santa Claus

🎄Day 6 of 12 Days of PJO Christmas🎄

At first, when the screaming started when Annabeth was sitting in the Athena cabin doing some reading, she didn’t know what was happening. Her first instinct was to think that a monster had somehow broken through the barrier and was attacking the camp.

However, when she ran out of the cabin holding her sword, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight.

It wasn’t a monster attacking camp.

It was Poseidon dressed as Santa.

PSA: These drabbles are canon-compliant till HoO and just acknowledge the existence of Estelle. Also technology use is a thing.

Read on AO3

~~~~~

At first, when the screaming started while Annabeth was sitting in the Athena cabin doing some reading, she didn’t know what was happening. She was alone in her cabin, and her first instinct was to think that a monster had somehow broken through the barrier and was attacking the camp.

She dropped everything, grabbed her sword and ran out, expecting a battle to be going on, but when she ran out of the cabin, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight.

It wasn’t a monster attacking camp.

It was Poseidon dressed as Santa.

“What the—” she muttered, staring at Poseidon handing out wrapped gifts to the younger campers near the center of the camp. He was wearing the bright red Santa hat with the white beard, covering his own black one, with a red overcoat and white pants. In his hands was a big red bag filled to the brim, and he kept taking boxes out and handing them out to the cheering kids. Annabeth blinked in confusion, wondering if she had accidentally been given something by one of the Stolls — who had also come to visit that winter — that was causing her to hallucinate, but after a quick pinch to her arm, she deduced that she was, in fact, not hallucinating.

She immediately glanced around for Percy, knowing that he must have a hand in bringing Poseidon to camp, and sure enough, she found him talking to a group of young campers near the Big House with a look of apprehension on his face. As she quickly jogged over, she kept noticing that he was constantly stealing glances towards Poseidon — god, she couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that the King of the Seas was wearing a goddamn Santa hat and beard — and looked just absolutely stressed. His messy hair was even more messy and looked almost like a bird’s nest; Annabeth could imagine that he had already run his hands through it several times.

Percy caught sight of her when she was within a few feet of him, and he broke away to grab her arm and drag them away from the horde of kids that were surrounding Poseidon. He took her towards the weapon shed, and once they stopped, he turned to look at her with wide eyes.

“Annabeth. Help.”

“What did you do?” she hissed, flinching when a bunch of kids ran past them, screaming about presents. 

“I didn’t do anything!” She leveled him with such a flat look that he winced and retracted his statement.

“Okay, technically I did do something, but I didn’t mean to! It was an accident,” he pleaded, taking a hold of her hands. 

“Percy, I have way too much work that I should be doing right now to be dealing with this,” she threatened. 

“I may have, uh, accidentally wished for dad to bring a few presents down.”

She raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend. “Accidentally?”

“Okay, see, one of the younger Ares kids was complaining about how he realized Santa didn’t exist, and he was so upset. It made me think of Estelle, and so I said that it was okay that Santa didn’t exist because his parents would get him gifts, anyways. But then, he started crying about how Ares had never once given him a gift, so instead I ended up showing him that maybe if he asked for a gift during offering, Ares might agree. Then I ended up asking dad for a gift and maybe also have him bring down extras to give to a few to the younger campers as well. How was I supposed to know that he was going to become Santa?!” he cried, hands pulling at his hair. “What am I going to do, Annabeth?”

Annabeth was stunned at his word vomit, her brain slowly catching up as she understood exactly what happened. Biting her lip, she resisted the urge to start laughing and took a deep breath to calm herself. Percy must’ve misunderstood her actions because he started apologizing profusely, but that triggered her, and Annabeth lost her control and ended up laughing.

“Oh my god,” she laughed, a hand coming to rest on her stomach as she bent over slightly, “that’s so funny. Percy, I’m not mad. Just slightly annoyed, but gods. Just look at Poseidon! You have to admit, it’s kind of worth it to see him like that.”

“That’s my dad!” he moaned. His wish to want to jump off a cliff was written all over his face, and she grinned at the reminder of the Christmas dinner from last year when Athena and Poseidon showed up at their family dinner. She felt a tiny bit bad for the poor guy who was going to be reminded of the fact that his godly parent had dressed up as Santa for the next year (at least), but it was also just so utterly ridiculous that she couldn’t help but laugh more.

“Alright, Santa spawn, let’s go deal with the mess,” Annabeth laughed, grabbing Percy’s hand and leading him down to where the presents were being given out. It took them a while to get even through the campers that were crowding around Poseidon, and Annabeth wondered why it was taking them so long because it seemed like the campers who had already gotten a present were going back for more. 

It wasn’t long before Annabeth and Percy pushed through to the center of the crowd to realize that the reason the crowd had grown exponentially was because Apollo and Mr. D had also joined in the gift giving. Thankfully, they hadn’t fully dressed up as Santa but they were wearing Santa hats. 

Mr. D was helping Poseidon pass out gifts as Chiron tried to control the kids from jumping all over the gods (and stop Mr. D from giving out wine) while Apollo stood a few feet away singing All I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey.

Suddenly the crowd had become chaotic, and it wasn’t long till a lot of the older campers had finally come out to see what was happening and join in the crowd. Apollo’s rendition of Mariah Carey brought about a round of caroling where the campers began to join in, and all Annabeth could do was stand and stare until Percy dragged her out of the stampeding group of demi-gods.

“I can’t believe one dumb wish led to this,” Percy muttered, leaning against one of the cabin walls. “We can’t even get through to them to stop them. Hell, Chiron’s stuck too.”

Annabeth snorted. “I can’t believe Mr. D went along with it. We all knew it was a matter of time until Apollo showed up.”

All I want for Christmas is you was already stuck in her head.

“I think he just lives to bother me at this point.”

“You are his favorite Peter Johnson, ”she teased, poking him in the ribs repeatedly. “I guess he wants to give you the special treatment.”

Percy glared at her and swatted her arm away. “I was talking about dad.”

“You're his favorite son,” she replied.

“Annabeth.”

“Oh come on, Perce,” Annabeth laughed. “You have to admit that this is actually really nice of them. A lot of the kids aren’t going home for Christmas this year, and it’s hilarious.” She walked closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Hey, at least my mom’s not glaring at you this year.”

“Don’t even say that,” he groaned, wrapping his arms around her waist as well. “I feel like she’s going to magically jump out of the statue, and then it’s going to be a repeat of last year.”

“You would think that being nineteen and spending the majority of our lives in this world would make us immune to most of the stuff we’ve seen, but this is just…” Annabeth trailed off, not knowing how to explain the bizarre sight that involved a Christmas concert given by Apollo. 

‘’Do they not have better things to do with their time than whatever the hell this is?”

“Clearly not.”

They stood in silence for a bit, just wrapped up in each other’s arms, as they watched the crowd slowly begin to start dispersing as Poseidon’s huge bag was running out of gifts. Chiron had also managed to drag Mr. D away, and Percy took that as a chance to walk up to his father.

Percy didn’t bother with formalities as he just spoke up, “Dad, seriously?”

Annabeth bit her lip as she tried not to laugh as she took a closer look at the Santa Claus costume.

“What? I granted your Christmas wish last year as well, despite the fact that you were joking, no?”

Percy gaped, and Annabeth lost it (again) and let out a loud laugh. 

“Oh my god,” she breathed. 

Percy groaned as he face-palmed. 

“I hate myself. I’m never asking for anything ever again.”

~~~~

Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3 || Day 4 || Day 5

#percabeth #percabeth fic #pjo fic #comedy #12 days of christmas #percy jackson #percy #annabeth #poseidon #apollo #poseidon is santa #12 days of pjo christmas

[lxiewrites]

Capture the Flag

The complete fic of the PJO au from klance au month

also tumblr decided to take out most if not p much all my italics but i’m too lazy to put them allll back in bc I’m an italics ho and there would be a lot

Ao3

Lance scrutinized the stance of the baby warrior in front of him. Circling around the young half-blood he kicked her right foot farther behind her. “You would have a better center of balance if you place your right foot here—you're right-handed right?”

She adjusted her stance and nodded, gripping her sword tighter in her fist, hand shaking a bit with effort. Lance bit down a sympathetic smile. She was a fresh camper; just dropped off by a satyr a few days ago. He could see the embarrassed flush on her cheeks and her eyes darting to the other campers practicing their sword fighting.

“Okay, so loosen your grip a bit. That much tension ends up straining the tendons in your elbow for whatever reason, trust me.” He scooped his sword up from the dusty ground next to her and took his stance. “Okay, let’s start with the basic attack.”

They took a step in sync, swiping their swords down with one hand slicing the air in front of them. Nadia blocked her invisible opponent with her wooden shield while Lance brought his sword up in a block. Together they sliced down once again, the air whooshing at the speed. Stepping back into formation Lance turned to his pupil with a big grin. “Good! With enough practice you’ll be beating flying pigs and hellhounds.”

Nadia offered him a small smile before biting her lip. Dropping her sword, point down, into the dirt she asked, “Could I just… skip capture the flag tonight?”

He wrapped an arm around her slight shoulders. “Sorry, kid, Coran says the best teacher is experience. And our cabin is leading this time. Our own members can’t just sit out!”

“But--!” Nadia objected, gesturing helplessly to Lucas and Katy painting each others nails off to the side of the arena. One or two more of the others dropped off from practicing and went to relax and gossip in the shade, only a few still sparring on the field.

Lance ran a hand through his hair to cup the back of his neck, sheepishly smiling at the baffled twelve-year-old. “Okay, so they’re more lovers than fighters. We’re a work in progress; sue me. But I got a feeling about you, Nadia. We’re Aphrodite cabin, we can go to fight just like anyone else, we just look better doing it.” He winked to punctuate his statement but she still looked skeptical. Finally he rolled his eyes, “Fine,I got Hecate cabin, Demeter, Athena, and the Apollo kids. And,” he said, raising his voice to be heard across the entire arena, catching the attention from their other cabin members. “If we win I’ll treat everyone to a spa day with my special face masks.”

When the clang of swords resumed, enough that they echoed around them, he snickered, not noticing the person that crept up behind him.

“So that’s how you get your team motivated. Bribery.”

Startled, Lance yelped as he spun around, shoving Nadia behind him, sword at the ready. His sword clanged against a familiar knife that extended into a sword, the dull side barely grazing his cheek.

Lance smirked, dropping his sword and smoothly ducking under Keith’s, bringing him in very close to the son of Ares. Close enough he could smell cedar and smoke from the offering fire. “You’re just jealous you can’t get your cabin to be a team on anything.”

Raising a brow Keith looked around the arena, probably taking in every flaw, every sloppy stance or messy attack. “At least my cabin can fight.”

Frowning, Lance crossed his arms. He debated firing back, saying that they’re doing their best or even taking a jab at Keith’s cabin. Instead he stepped aside, out of Keith’s space, to introduce his new recruit.

“Keith, meet Nadia of Aphrodite cabin. Nadia, this is Keith, head of Ares cabin.”

Lance watched how Keith’s stance softened, the corners of his mouth quirking up in a small smile. Biting down hard on his lips Lance forcibly turned to watch Nadia tentatively shake Keith’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Keith nodded, respectfully and still stupidly soft. “You too, Nadia.”

Clearing his throat Lance jerked his head towards Virgil who was getting disarmed way too many times in a row. “Hey, Nadia, why don’t you go over there and spar with Virg?”

Nadia’s hazel eyes darted from one head counselor to another before scurrying off to the struggling thirteen-year-old.

Watching her go, pointedly not looking at the other counselor Lance asked, “So, have you come here to check out the competition, Kogane?”

“Something like that,” Keith murmured.

Heat flushing through him, Lance bit down on his lip. He willed his cheeks to cool, unprepared for Keith’s answer. They’ve known each other for four years. They went on their first quest together, fought together, bickered, picked strawberries, did all the stupid camp activities dangerous and mundane. They didn’t do this! They didn’t… flirt. They fought, they pushed, they challenged each other. Ever since they went on their last quest to retrieve his mom’s girdle—which was really just a fancy belt that shifted to an accessory that would compliment the wearer’s outfit, kinda lame—Keith’s been… flirty.

And it’s not in Lance’s head! He’s the son of the goddess of love and beauty he knows when someone’s flirting! And furthermore, he knew Keith. He knows when Keith is being flirty, which is so subtle he normally won’t notice but—

He knows. It’s exactly like that time he was flirting with this one guy two years ago when they were going to fix whatever was happening with Iris. Gods he was so annoying, always ”mission first, Lance” and the first guy to show interest in him and he’s all ”Oh, I like your weapon” “that’s a cool knife”.

And recently he’s been looking for him for help with strategies against other cabins or partnering up with him. Somehow their stupid fights seem more lingering, softer, the rough edges sanded down to a fine grain like the beaches back home. Where Lance can’t help but stay and run his fingers over it in fascination.

And he has no idea how to handle it.

Face, unfortunately still hot, Lance said, “Well, you better watch your back, Keith. ‘Cuz Ares cabin is going down.”

Keith scoffed, eyes twinkling, “Maybe you should worry less on Ares cabin and more on your own.”

“Oh, my cabin is great. We’re a well-oiled machine. We got everything down to a science.”Lance ignored the fact he could see some of his siblings in the corner of his eye, stopping to look at them. Lucas and Katy whispering to each other and snickering. “We’re gonna whoop your ass, and I’m going to gloat it over you until the end of the summer.”

“Sure, Lance.”

“Hey, once upon a time Aphrodite was worshipped as a war goddess as well as love. Don’t underestimate us. Aphrodite cabin is gonna whoop your ass!” Behind him there was a weak cheer from his siblings and Lance had to restrain a sigh.

“Sounds like a lotta talk.”

Okay, he’s had it up to here with him. “I bet you that we whoop your butt!”

Keith paused, giving Lance enough time to hear what he just came out of his godsdamned mouth and regret. “Okay,” Keith drawled, “it’s a bet.”

“Fine! What’s the bet?”

Keith shrugged, the obnoxious orange T-shirt stretching over his shoulders. “I don’t know. I’ll think of something later.” Smirking, Keith started towards the exit, calling out, “Good luck with the troops, Lance!”

When he disappeared Lance buried his face in his hands, groaning in them.

From the side he could hear Katy shout, “Does this mean no face masks?”

-

Lance sighed as he adjourned the meeting with the other head counselors. Many were skeptical when he proposed the strategy to them, Pidge kept interjecting with other strategies—those Athena kids are such know-it-alls—but he was insistent.

He knew Keith and he knew how he worked. Impulsive, direct, but crafty and a quick adaptable thinker. He might play at strategy for a while but it won’t last long until he rushes in.

Lance has faith in his team. They might be outnumbered and facing against the kids of the god of war but they got this! They totally got this! Keith might have the numbers and strength but Lance and his ragtag group got the razzle-dazzle!

He made his way to the mess hall to devote some more garlic knots to his mom for some divine luck in capture the flag. He had full faith in his team but some godly help couldn’t hurt.

At the mess hall, he made the rounds from table to table, not staying too long for Coran to start pointedly clearing his throat. Most of the cabins he convinced to be on the side of love were because a) he was just that good or b) either they owed him a favor or he now owes them a favor. The only reason Hephaestus cabin was on Ares’s side was because Keith got to Hunk first damnit. And he saved his life during that fight with a giant pig but whatever.

He cornered his own cabin when Katy just got back from the offering fire. Bracing both hands on the table he looked at each member of his cabin in the eye. “You all know your roles?”

There seemed to be a simultaneous eye-roll across the table. Sophie waved her freshly manicured hand as if she was shooing a bug away. “Yes, yes, we all know what to do. Honestly, Lance, you’re way too into this game.”

Lucas snorted into his cup. “Oh, I don’t think it’s the game he’s into,” he said wagging his brows.

Giggles rose up around the table, each of his half-siblings chiming in at what that could possibly be. The only one not sticking their unwanted concealed nose into his love life was Nadia, who was a dear angel child who did not know what anyone was talking about.

Lance, face way too hot, closed his eyes and willed the blush from his face. Snatching a piece of garlic bread from Katy’s plate he chucked it at Lucas and hit him square between the brows. Lance turned to Nadia as Lucas was screeching about the grease and acne.

He looked into her hazel eyes and wiggled his brows, making her giggle. Crouching down he asked, “So, are you ready for capture the flag?”

She bit her lip, frowning so hard creases formed between her brows.  “I don’t think I’ll be good at it.” She turned to look at him, eyes big and pleading, using every bit of what she inherited from their mother. “Do I have to play?”

Lance gave her a sympathetic smile, hand brushing her soft, brown hair from her face and tucking it up into her bun. “Unless you’re injured you gotta play, kid, Coran says.” At her silence he sighed and darted his eyes around, lowering his voice in a conspiratorial whisper he gestured for her to get closer. “Listen, I got a really important job for you during the capture the flag alright?”

At her nod he leaned in to whisper her directions, her shoulders relaxed and she even chuckled. Patting her on the shoulder he stood up. “All you gotta do is stick with Romelle and you should be fine.”

He gave the rest of his giggling siblings a look, using the universal signal for ‘I’m watching you’ by jabbing two fingers at all of them. “Remember. No face masks unless we win.”

After a chorus of boos he left, restraining himself to only stick his tongue out instead of flipping them off because there are children.

“Real mature for a head counselor.”

Lance, for the record, did not squeak. He yelped. A very manly yelp. “Keith! What are you doing here!”

Keith scrunched up his face, nose wrinkling like a little bunny instead of the son of a war god. “It’s…the mess hall?”

Lance felt his face heat, from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. Spluttering he grabbed Keith by the shoulders, turned him around, and shoved him out of the mess hall.

Now, Keith might be mostly made out of solid muscle but he’s also a seventeen-year-old boy and Lance had witnessed him try to talk to a squirrel because he thought it was a type of dyad. Lance, similarly, has been on nearly every one of Keith’s quests and has just as much muscle. Moving him was not an issue.

The issue was feeling that muscle under his hands. How easily Keith let Lance maneuver him when sometimes he didn’t move his stubborn butt even for Coran. How stupidly adorable his face is, all scrunched up and cute.

It made Lance’s stomach twist and sweat in uncomfortable places and that was the issue.

“Nope! Nope, nuh-uh, I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to steal our strategy! Not happening buster.”

Keith’s face slowly shifted from a confused bunny to a smug bastard. He tried to press his mouth in a line but Lance could see his smirk. Whenever Keith tried to not-smile he would get damning dimples on each of his cheeks. And there they were! Damning Lance to Tartarus.

At his glare Keith gave up, lips tilting into a full smirk, one dimple disappearing. “If you’re so worried maybe you should just give up now.”

Lance stabbed a finger in his smug, stupid face. “Oh, you would like that wouldn’t you? Just wait, you’re going to eat those words.”

“I guess we’ll just have to find out won’t we?”

Cheeks burning for no good reason Lance opened his mouth to say something… only to find he had no words. Just a burning face and a heart beating way too fast.

Normally, Keith would fight back, say something just as petty and childish as Lance. Now, he fights back in a way that Lance can’t? Instead of pushing back he gives in and flipping sneak attacks him leaving Lance flustered and burning.

Smirking, Keith patted Lance on the chest before brushing past him to the mess hall, leaving Lance gaping at him still trying to find his words.

-

Lance helped slide a chest plate over one of the younger Hecate kid’s heads, securing the straps nice and tight. With that done he tied a blue handkerchief around their arm in a neat knot. The kid beamed up at him before scampering off somewhere. Their smile a shade bloodthirsty but that’s what he wanted to see! Furious little warriors that will kick Keith’s butt!

“Are you sure you don’t want me on the front lines?” A voice wheedled behind him.

Lance tipped his head back and groaned to the gods. “For the last time Romelle, I need you to hang back.” Leaning forward he lowered his voice, “I really need you to watch Nadia.”

Romelle threw up her hands, a whining noise escaping. “You’re putting me on babysitting duty? What if you break a leg? If I’m with you I could swoop in and cast a healing spell! Or, or, boost you with extra speed or strength and save the day! Oh, oh!” Lance took three quick steps back when the daughter of Hecate’s hands flew up in excitement, magic crackling off her fingers. “I’ve been working on some offense spells and this levitation spell. If I get close enough to Keith I could just levitate him and bam!”

Lance silently prayed to the gods to shut the girl up. “Romelle, please just watch Nadia?” Lance widened his eyes and laid it on thick. “You’re the only one that I can trust to protect her.”

Her lip pushed out in a pout, huffing, she crossed her arms and turned away. “Fine. But you are wasting my talents.”

“And I will forever regret it.”

She rolled her eyes, popping out her hip and pinning him with a stare. “I know you’re mocking me but you will regret it. And when you lose against Keith you’ll have no one to blame but yourself and I will laugh.”

Lance huffed and spluttered before settling on a stilted laugh. ”Ha, ahahaha, ha. No. Because I will beat Keith because I know him better than anyone here and therefore know the best way to defeat him!”

“Yeah but doesn’t that mean that he knows how to defeat you?”

“W-well, in theory—“

“Which is why you should put me in front He’ll never see it coming!”

Irritation grated on Lance’s last nerve as she rambled on. He loved Romelle and she was a key player in his plan but by gods she was annoying to deal with sometimes. She was two years younger than him and just as annoying as he was then. To a point she reminded him of himself, except more cringe—but that might just be him.

“—In fact, you should bring me with you to keep you from getting distracted by your crush on Keith—“

“Woah, woah, no, wrong,” Lance interrupted, taking Romelle by the shoulders and physically turning her and walking her forward. “No, nope, there’s no crush and you have your position. Just stay with Nadia and make sure she stays out of trouble.”

“—But!”

Lance pushed her forward towards where Nadia was fumbling with her shoulder straps. “Bye!”

Ignoring her complains he turned on his heel and marched away. Romelle was a sweet kid with ideas too big for her brain, and some of them were completely ridiculous! Him? Letting a crush ruin this? Nah, this has been in the works since Keith first flattened him on his back the first day of training. Sure, the rivalry might have not been at the forefront, especially with the last few quests but it’s still there! And it will continue to be there until Lance beats Keith.

Crush or no crush he will defeat Keith Kogane.

-

Lance waited in the front of his troops, the point in a semi-angular formation. He could barely make out the speck of red in the distance. The enemy’s flag.

He swallowed, feeling stones in his throat, pressing, making it harder to breathe. Sweat beaded up under his armor as he waited for Coran to blow the whistle, making his orange T-shirt cling to his chest under his chest plate.

As he stared at his goal with his friends and allies behind him he could almost feel his heart rate calm. He had a rock solid plan and a secret weapon. He knew Keith inside and out. In fact, Keith was probably snapping at James or Rebecca for poking at his plans.

Today was the day he was finally going to prove, at least to himself, that he could keep up with Keith.

The whistle blew and he could feel his lungs expand with humid air as he and team shouted, charging into the forest.

-

Lance’s heart pounded in his chest as his team broke into groups. Each group disappearing in the foliage and leaving the sword-competent veteran kids in front.

He and the first line of defense battled through the first wave of campers, the red handkerchiefs fluttering like butterfly wings with each disarmed kid.  He let Francesca of Athena’s cabin organize a small troop to tie them up, uncurling a length of rope from her enchanted fanny pack—which, normally, hideous, now, very useful.

Lance scanned the woods around them, so far no one in sight. He could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance, the clashing of swords and the dull thuds of weapons against shields. They couldn’t be more than a fourth of a mile away. His nose stung from the scent of smoke, someone—probably a Hephaestus kid—launching Greek fire at someone smoke rising off to the left of him.

“I’m going on ahead. Stand your ground here and wait for the archers to move up.”

Francesca didn’t look up from where she was tying up the other team. “Shall we proceed as normal or send reinforcements to—“ she nodded in the direction of the plume of black smoke.

Lance was already jogging ahead through the trees. “Send three of the archers over and go ahead!” he called over his shoulder.

Further away there was another explosion, more kids shouting in either fear or indignation. It seems like Keith didn’t waste time in bringing out the big guns. The quickest route is a straight line, after all.

He sprinted forward, uncaring to see if his group followed him, he was a man on a mission. Bursting through the trees and into a small clearing—that was smack dab in the middle way of the two flags—he shouted and brought his drawn sword down.

Another sword screeched against his as he stared right into the shocked eyes of Keith Kogane, close enough to see the whites of his eyes and the enlarged pupils surrounded by a galaxy of colors. They narrowed in concentration as he pushed against the sword. Lance smirking as he let him throw him off.

Keith didn’t look particularly surprised, maybe disgruntled at how Lance attacked first but not from his presence. Keith might be direct in his battle tactics but he was never one to search for glory for himself (something Lance learned about him after, oh, the fifth adventure he went on with him). He probably had another group headed for the flag but Lance wasn’t worried. They were fine.

Lance casually swung his sword around, twisting his wrist in what only looked like a complicated maneuver. “Surprised, Mullet? Thought I’d bring the fight to you this time.”

Keith lunged forward and swiped at Lance, making him dance back. Advancing, Keith slashed at Lance; his attacks practiced and smooth. Lance could barely keep up as he deflected each attack, each hit jolting his wrist making it ache.

Just as his back hit a tree he used his sword to guide Keith’s momentum from his swing to the tree trunk, his sword embedded into the bark above Lance’s head.

Keith panted, his chest heaving in his T-shirt, not even wearing any armor—the idiot. Sweat dripped from his temple and his eyes were lit up as a smile played at the corners of his mouth. “What fight?”

Lance felt his face screw up and his heart speed up as anger and adrenaline mixed in a dangerous cocktail in his chest. “Oh, screw you.”

And he punched Keith in the stomach.

Keith’s wheezed as his breath left him, hand slacking on the handle of his sword. Lance kicked his chest, pushing him away and losing his grip on the blade. Lance tore the blade from the tree and threw it on the ground in front of him, face hot and chest tight.

“I might not be the greatest half-blood of this generation but I’m just as good a fighter as you,” Lance gritted out, heart drumming against his breastbone.

“What?” Keith wheezed, reaching out to grab his sword, stumbling to a stand.

It took a minute for everything to catch up to him but when it did Lance felt the adrenaline dip down, leaving him shaky but there’s just enough for him to say what’s been bothering him.

“We have been on practically every quest together since we came here when we were twelve. You lead practically every quest, you’re the best fighter, you are… so hard to chase after. I just—“ Lance wanted to look away. He wanted to look away from the realization flickering across Keith’s face. He swallowed hard and kept his head up. “I just want you to take me seriously for once.”

“Lance,” Keith started, eyes scrunching up, nose wrinkling. “What are you talking about? I always take you seriously.”

Lance sighed, shoulders slumping. “Dude—“ He barely heard the whistling of air, his arm moving before he fully registered the action. His sword clanged against a familiar sword, diverting its path from his face.

“Dude! What the fuck?!” he shouted at Keith.

Keith was already on the move, running toward where Lance knocked his sword and scooping it up before running at him.

Lance blocked when Keith slashed down, the contact reverberating down his arm. They pushed against each other, swords sliding, the screech of metal on metal grating Lance’s ears.

“I always take you seriously,” Keith gritted out before dancing back on light feet. “Why do I always choose you to be on the quests with me?”

“I don’t know,” Lance snapped back, out of breath, stepping back in to swipe at Keith’s leg, barely nicking the fabric of his jeans when he dodged. “Because Coran told you to.”

“No you, dumbass.” They circled each other; eyes open for any opening in their defenses. Keith went on the offense, sprinting forward to aim at the vulnerable parts of Lance not covered by his breastplate.

Lance caught Keith’s sword with his own, locking them together and wrenching Keith’s sword out of his hand. Before he could swing his sword around Keith tackled him to the ground. Lance hit the ground hard, sword falling somewhere and the breath knocked out of him, making him wheeze.

Keith sitting on his stomach didn’t help him with the breathing situation. A hand was wrapped around his wrist and another on his shoulder, pinning him down. Lance gasped for breath, neck straining as Keith was haloed above him like some sort of godsdamned angel.

“I choose you,” he panted, “because you always have my back. I trust you.”

Keith’s expression was fierce. Brows furrowed and lips pressed in a firm line, ready to attack if Lance dared to disagree with him. His eyes were flitting over his face, searching, open.

The trick with Keith is that his scowly face and general grumpy body language only made him look like a closed book locked in a box in an underground safe. His eyes were what gives him away every time, which is why he never wins the poker nights with any of the Hermes kids. That and he sucked at lying.

Lance huffed out a laugh, head falling back to the ground with a soft thunk. He convinced himself for years that when he and Keith were equal then he’d be good enough. He spent so much time trying to convince himself and others that he was just as good as Keith when, apparently, Keith always thought he was.

Gods, he just… really liked him.

“Why are you laughing?” Keith demanded, “I’m being serious here.”

Lance quieted until he had a big, goofy grin stretched across his cheeks. Keith was still glaring at him from where he was sitting on his stomach. “I know you are.” He closed his eyes and groaned. “Gods, I’m so stupid.”

Keith’s mouth twisted like he ate a lemon. He eased the pressure on Lance’s wrist and shoulder, settling back onto the bone of his pelvis. “What was this about, Lance?”

“How about I tell you after I beat you?” Lance taunted, smirking up at him.

“I’m on top of you. I think that ship s—gah!”

Lance braced his feet against the ground, thrusting his pelvis up and jostling Keith into a tabletop position above him, his right arm still trapped but Keith’s left hand slipped to press into the dirt by Lance’s head. He used the opportunity to use his left arm to hug the one trapping his wrist at the elbow. Planting his left foot on the other side of the leg Keith has pressed against his side he pushed, toppling Keith over and landing between his thighs.

Keith was disoriented enough to allow Lance to swipe his sword from where it fell, hovering the blade above Keith’s throat.

Lance leaned over the demigod under him, his hair just long enough to fall forward and tickle his ears. He braced his hand against Keith’s shoulder, keeping him pinned just in case. His sword was close enough that with one sudden move Keith would need a medic and a ton of ambrosia.

Keith’s eyes were wide, darting back and forth between the blade and his eyes. Lance pressed harder on his shoulder. He didn’t want to actually hurt him but he still wasn’t about to lose either.

His cheeks were pink and he licked his lips, opening his mouth to speak when the woods erupted in cheers around them.

Lance straightened, head twisting around to see if he could see whose team was cheering. “Wait, who won?”

He stood up and wandered to the edge of the clearing. Where was his team? Godsdamn someone just tell him who won!

Behind him, Keith stood up, face hidden by his bangs as he dusted himself off. Combing his fingers through his hair Keith walked over. “Can you see the banner from here?”

Lance sighed and shook his head. The trees had too much cover and they were in a little dip between the two flags. Wherever he looked it was just more and more trees.

The cheering got louder, the trees shaking with celebration. From the direction of Keith’s base, a small crowd of screaming kids from the Ares and Hephaestus cabin surged through the foliage. Seeing Keith they cheered even louder, nearly popping Lance’s eardrums.

Crowding around them they grabbed onto Keith and hoisted him in the air, chanting.

Behind him, he felt a couple of hands on his shoulders. Lucas’s mouth was twisted in a rueful smile, squeezing his shoulder. Katy next to him, arms crossed and hair a mess of twigs and mud.

It took a hot second for everything to process. The exuberant cheers from the other team and how his own was tolerating it.

“We lost?” Katy sighed, chest moving with how deep it was, and nodded. She dug into her hair and flicked out a berry. Disbelief filled his entire being; he could feel his eyebrows crawl to the top of his forehead. “How?” He gestured to Keith who was finally being put down from his grinning team. “I had everything planned. I know him so well I might as well had his plans!”

“Lance,” Keith called, lips quirking at the side, head tilted slightly and eyes surprisingly soft. “You forget. I know you just as well as you know me.”

-

Lance pouted as he turned his marshmallow. The bonfire in front of him an excited red, so bright it could probably be seen from space. That color definitely came from the Ares kids, they were celebrating enough for the whole camp.

He wasn’t upset per se but he wasn’t exactly jumping for joy. He wasn’t bright red happy. Maybe a muted orange or a consolatory yellow—godsdamnit! He was so sure they would win!

He couldn’t help the pout on his lips as he let the marshmallow fall off to sizzle in the fire with a wet plop. Poking around the fire, letting the tip of his stick catch fire and watching it burn, he didn’t notice the presence that literally popped in next to him.

He jerked as Romelle and Nadia materialized into existence next to him. ”Holy Hera, don’t do that!” Romelle pouted at him, crossing her arms as she flickered in and out of existence like static. An ace bandage was slapped on her forehead and a Hello Kitty Band-Aid was barely hanging on to her chin.

Nadia settled in next to him, slowly becoming solid as Romelle’s magic wore off. He handed her a fresh marshmallow.

Romelle stomped closer, still not saying anything but clearly saying something. He eyed her warily as she glared at him, the flickering slowing down until she was fully solid. He bit the bullet.

“You couldn’t have done that during capture the flag?” he snipped at her.

Her hand shot out before he even registered her moving, smacking him on the head. “You couldn’t have told me I was a part of your little scheme?!”

“That’s because you can’t keep a secret for sh—“ Lance cut himself off and placed his hands on either side of Nadia’s head, ignoring her insulted look. “Shit,” he mouthed over her head.

Nadia smacked his hands off her head exclaiming that she knew what swear words were. She reached around him and snagged another marshmallow or three. Her voice was a little muffled as she tried to speak with her cheeks full like a little chipmunk. “When we were separated we were hit by green balls of fire. Romelle saved me but she was knocked out.”

Romelle gingerly touched her bandage, a dejected smile touching her lips. At his look she waved off his concern before squinting her eyes at him in a playful glare. “Next time, McClain, let me in on the plan instead of having your sister tell me when we’re under attack by Greek fire.”

Lance winced. “Sorry about that, won’t do it again.” He looked between Romelle and Nadia. “Other than that you two were okay?”

“Oh yeah!” Romelle exclaimed, waving her arm in a grand gesture as if to brush off his concern but only making it look like she was swatting at a mosquito. “When we were under attack I went bwoosh and Nadia was like aahhh, but in a good way. She even got a hit in before we were captured!”

“Yeah?” Lance looked over to where Nadia was blushing. “So you had a good first capture the flag?”

She looked over at him, dark cheeks still flushed with color from Romelle’s praise. “Green balls of fire,” she deadpanned.

Lance sighed, resigned and not willing to push it. She isn’t the first Aphrodite kid to be more of a lover than a fighter. And if she didn’t like it there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“…But it was fun.”

Lance felt his eyebrows climb up his forehead, a grin spreading over his face. “Really?”

With a tiny smile, Nadia nodded.

“I’m glad, Chiquita,” Lance said reaching over to ruffle her hair.

“We can totally pair up in the future,” Romelle added giving Nadia a side hug. “Now that we got a good strategy!”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Romelle, Keith already knows what I was planning. That was how he knocked you out.”

With a heavy sigh, Romelle crossed her arms and popped out a hip. “Ugh, that guy. He knows you too well.”

“Five years will do that.”

They all jerked to the new voice, Nadia releasing a little “eep” of surprise.

Keith settled in next to him on the log bench, legs stretched out in front of him with his hands tucked into a red zip-up over his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. The fire reflecting in his eyes in reds and pinks, turning his normally blue eyes purple, as he soaked up its warmth. He had the barest touch of a smirk on his face. “You’re gonna have to work harder than that to surprise me.”

A few years back Lance would immediately think that Keith was mocking him. Rubbing the fact that he lost in his face and he would never be better than him. And, to be honest, a little voice still nags at him about it. At certain times like after losing a match or Keith being chosen for a quest. Telling him that he would never be able to be good enough, to catch up, be his equal.

But that voice has quieted. Because he knows Keith better and he knows himself better. He’s not a scared eleven-year-old running away from monsters that chased him out of his bed.

That doesn’t mean he’ll take his smack talk lying down.

“Hmm, mmhm, says the guy who I defeated today. Remember that? You know, when you were pinned down with your own sword to your throat? Hmmm?” Lance goaded, leaning ever so closer, smug smile on his face.

Red spread across Keith’s face, all the way to his ears and down his neck. “You just caught me off guard!” he shot back.

“Uh huh,” Lance was close enough to see the faint flecks of purple in Keith’s eyes. Could see how soft and smooth his skin was. A dumb, impulsive voice telling him to cup his cheek and run his thumb across it to see just how soft his skin was. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Keith scowled, lips pursing into a pout. “Whatever.” He pulled back, just an inch, and looked away, the color rising in his cheeks. “I wanted to talk to you. In—“ his eyes looked away, glancing over all the eyes on them, “private.”

Lance’s heart drummed against his breastbone. An unsteady beat that threw him off balance, unable to get back on his feet. They were too close. His heart was too fast. He had too many feelings. There were too many—

“Kiss, kiss, kiss!” A group of, unfortunately, familiar sounding voices chanted.

—people.

Lance grimaced and buried his face to hide from the world. Could a magical earthquake open up underneath him and swallow him up, please? Like right now? Where are the gods when you need them?!

Godsdamnit, he was reconsidering on the no-facemasks but not anymore those ungrateful demigods. His siblings are the worst.

Lance stood up, cheeks hot, embarrassment making his chest tight. “Come on, Keith.” He stuffed his hands in his jeans and stalked off towards the lake, ignoring the suggestive catcalls as they left.

It wasn’t a full moon but there was enough light that he could make his way down to the dock easily. The lights from the cabins fading away as the half-moon guided him to where he could think without eyes on him.

“You wanted to talk, yeah?” Lance finally asked, knowing the answer. He slowed to a stop as they approached the lake. “I’m sorry if they embarrassed you.” In his peripheral Keith shrugged.

“I don’t care what they say.”

Lance nodded, watching how the moon’s reflection wavered in the water. The silence that fell over them wasn’t uncomfortable. Just…heavy. Heavy with a lot of things left unsaid. And things that should be. He sat down on the dock, legs dangling over the edge. Keith sat down next to him.

“Are you,” Keith started in this halting, careful way of his whenever he’s dealing with Lance’s emotions. Like every word to be weighed and judged before being deemed adequate. “Okay?”

Lance sighed, trying to get some of the poison out, his chest feeling a little bit lighter for it. “I’m cool. They’re just… so fucking dumb.”

Keith snorted. “They can’t be worse than my cabin. There’s a mutiny every single day. At least your cabin respects you and listens to you.”

“Oh, oh, oh, Keith, my man, my dude, you don’t know the psychological horrors my siblings would put you through.”

Keith side-eyed him, a smirk play on his lips. ���Yeah… but you seem to handle it pretty well.”

Lance… couldn’t argue with that. He tipped his head back and groaned to the stars and the moon. ”Ugh, why are you so mature and shit?”

The low chuckled sent a shiver down Lance’s spine. He crossed his arms to make it look like it was because of the cold. “I don’t know, patience yields—“

“—focus,” Lance finished. Lance shook his head. “Gods, Shiro, off adventuring and still finding ways to make us mature adults.”

“I wouldn’t say that college in New Rome is an adventure—“

“It so is an adventure!” Lance leaned forward, eyes just as big as his smile as he tried to inject some of his enthusiasm into Keith’s grumpy butt. “It’s college. A couple of years ago that wouldn’t have been an option for us. Come on, man, just imagine it, going to classes, sleeping in a dorm, getting a degree. I bet you, you would have the time of your life.”

Keith bit his lip, brow furrowed and too slow in disguising his emotions from Lance of all people. His face smoothed out into bland indifference.

“So, speaking about bets,” Keith prompted, a touch too neutral.

Lance examined Keith’s face. Watched how despite his neutral tone and how indifferent he tried to come across the muscle in his jaw still jumped and the tense muscles around his eyes asked him to leave the subject for another day. He slumped back, shoulders dropping as he whined, “what kind of horribly embarrassing thing do you want me to do? Clean out the Pegasus stalls? Follow you around with a sign that says ‘Keith is the greatest?’”

He heard a snort next to him and he felt a small thrill of victory. A smile peeked through as Keith shook his head, face relaxed once again. He cleared his throat and turned towards Lance, the color high in his cheeks.

“You have to…” Keith trailed off, the muscles in his face twitching with little micro expressions that Lance couldn’t name. “You have to… uh, I want—“ Keith’s lips twisted into a pained grimace.

Lance smirked, “You having some difficulties there, buddy?”

Keith huffed out a breath, blowing his bangs out of his red-stricken face. ”No, I just don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to do.”

His shoulders shook from his laughter. That was so on-brand for Keith Lance isn’t even surprised. “That’s the point, man. That’s what a bet is. Making someone do something they don’t want to do.”

“Well, I don’t want to make you do what you don’t want to do.” The spots of color high on Keith’s cheeks seemed to glow brighter as his back straightened, his honor and noble-ness no doubt bolstering him. Like a knight. It would be stupid if it weren’t so attractive.

Lance smothered a smile that was starting to creep up, though Keith could probably hear it in his voice. “How about… you tell me what it is or whatever. And if I’m, like, super against it I’ll tell you no.” He fanned out his hands in a nonchalant gesture. “Sounds fair?”

Keith gnawed on his lip and nodded. His thumb ran over his knuckles as he looked at the water instead of him, clasping his hands together to stop. His lips barely moved, the sound escaping in a breathy mumble as Keith stared daggers into the fire.

“…I’m not gonna lie, I have no idea what you just said.”

Keith groaned and covered his face with his hands, still resolutely not looking at Lance.

Feeling so incredibly amused at this apparent torture Lance bit his lip because laughing at Keith’s pain would be mean. Shuffling closer, he leaned into Keith’s personal space. Close enough that he could see the flush of his skin and the faint, faint, faint freckles he sometimes gets when out in the sun too long between his fingers.

Seeing how close Lance was Keith squeezed his eyes shut and dug the heels of his palm into his eyes. A heatedly whispered, ”fuck,” later and he bites out, “do you want to go on a date with me?”

Skkkkrrt. Wait. Rewind. “What?”

Keith instantly shot up, body turning, tense and jumpy. “Fuck, never mind.”

Before he could get too far Lance had a hand on his shoulder and the other grasping his sleeve. Somehow right next to him before he even realized that he moved.

“Wait. Yes— what— yes,” he stuttered out before his mouth could do any more harm.

He used his grip to gently turn Keith more towards him. He had his arms crossed in front of him, fingers gripping the fabric of the jacket, a scowl he hasn’t seen since their first year in place. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

His heart beat faster than when he faced down that Nemean lion. And somehow this was scarier than almost becoming cat food. Heat flared in his cheeks as he lowered his voice, cautious of the prying ears around the campfire. “I want to.”

Keith’s face softened, the scowl fading into a vulnerable look Lance had only seen a handful of times. He bit his lip and sat back down.

Lance sat next to him, not close enough to touch but enough for him to easily lean over and rest his hand between them. He didn’t want to push what already felt new and fragile. Baby steps. He was 96% sure that Keith would jump out of his skin and fall into the lake if he as much as puts his arm around him.

“Are you sure?” Keith blurted out, forcing Lance to drag his gaze from shark-toothed grins.

It’s almost as if he has Hermes’ flying shoes flying around in his stomach, kicking around and messing up the place. The idea of going out with Keith… that Keith wanting to go out with him… made him far too giddy for his own good.

“Absolutely. I told you I would say no if I didn’t right?” Lance bumped his shoulder against Keith’s. “You’re not calling me a liar are ya?”

Keith scoffed, leaning back on his hands, his fingers overlapping his. His fingers practically burned at the contact. “Never.” Those same fingers shifted and weaved between his, falling together like puzzle pieces. He smirked and looked over at him, hair parting so he could see his eyes. “I know you far too well for that.”

#vld #klance #PJO au #lance #keith #nadia #romelle #Swordplay and Strawberry Fields #lexwrites #whew boi it's been a hot second since i posted anything #hello

[miraculousmidnightreviews]

The Trials of Apollo #3: The Burning Maze Book Review

By Rick Riordan

5/5 stars

Summary: After waking up as a mere mortal, Apollo must navigate Zeus’ punishment as he and his demigod companion/master Meg travel to San Francisco to rescue a third oracle from the clutches of yet another Roman emperor that is not quite dead. With the help of some familiar faces and friendly nature spirits, Apollo continues to understand the hardships of the demigods and must learn the stakes are much higher than the loss of his seat on Olympus.

Apollo’s Character Development

In the previous books of the Trials of Apollo series, Apollo’s character was more of a means to an end for me. He provided a good laugh, but he wasn’t a hero. Not in the way that I was used to at least. Going into the series, I expected a Percy Jackson type or even Percy himself. Does anyone else have that problem? In every series written by Riordan, whether Greek mythology or other, I always want Percy to jump in and save the day. I live and breathe Percy Jackson, and I would totally be okay if every book just turned into another PJO novel. But alas, that cannot be.

Back to Apollo though: In fight scenes, he normally doesn’t get in on the action until the final blow must be struck or until he remembers something helpful from his years as a god. In that way, he’s sort of a looking glass for the reader; he sees and interacts with characters I care more about. It wasn’t until this book did I finally find a connection to Apollo. It takes some work and certain demigods to bring his pompous ass back to the mortal realm but it happens. Because of this shift in him, The Burning Maze becomes more than just another journey to secure another oracle. I foresee the book as a turning point in the series, one that Riordan can never go back from.

Plot Structure

Rick Riordan has a unique way of structuring his books that has become apparent to me over the years. A classic Riordan book normally includes a beginning chapter that plants the reader right in the middle of the action (and this books does not lack that) along with a few chapters to decompress, all the while learning new information that may aid the main characters in their journeys, a sprinkle of character development, and maybe a hint of a good ole plot twist. The pattern continues like this: a few chapters where action-packed battle scenes filled with heroism entice the reader, and then, as the fighting winds down, a few chapters follow as the characters gather to strategize, impart some wisdom and whatnot as the sequence replays once again. 

 As I’ve grown older, I’ve found it harder to remain focused while reading Riordan’s novels, which is a given considering they’re aimed at a middle grade audience. However, The Burning Maze was a delightful surprise in regards to my attention span. I couldn’t seem to put it down despite how hard I tried. Yes, it may be cliché to say that, but there is some truth in clichés. Riordan’s new novel followed, well, a plot that wasn’t predictable at all in terms of structure. The storyline felt more nuanced as not one but two major conflicts drove the characters forward. The chapters didn’t lead up to an epic Riordan-esque final battle. Without spoiling, the plot for me hastened towards two pivotal moments, each a hundred pages apart. One was completely expected and one was not.

The Side Characters! (minor spoilers in this section)

First of all, I never really cared about Meg, but this book really changed my perception of both her and Apollo. They make a strange duo, and yet it somehow works. As Meg and Apollo search for the third oracle, they find a group of nature spirits that need their help and are somehow connected to their quest. The interactions between Meg and these nature spirits as well as revelations about her past turn a once prickly character into someone more tolerable, even enjoyable. The care that both Meg and Apollo have towards each other along with their funny banter really makes their relationship more relatable.

As soon as I read the end of the preceding book, I couldn’t wait to see what our good friend Grover had been up to since the original PJO series. His role as a guide brought back some major feels, especially as he helped the mains navigate the Labyrinth. I enjoyed reading about this character again, and I’m glad he wasn’t anything more than their guide. Riordan perfectly balanced his role and appearances in the book.

Piper has grown so much as a character, and it’s really noticeable in this book. What’s interesting about The Trials of Apollo is that the series shows us characters we know and love through the perspective of a fresh face. Seeing Piper take on more responsibility and aid Apollo on a quest instead of being the demigod on the quest was extremely different but quite enjoyable. It was such a bittersweet moment for me to read about her again. For those who might have found her annoying in the HoO series, I think you may like her better as a side character. Apollo somewhat idolizes everyone because they are more capable than him and that makes them more admirable. 

WOW, Piper and Jason?! Two mains from previous books in more than just a few scenes? I am truly living life here. Thanks Uncle Rick. I’ll be honest, I never liked Jason Grace. At one point, I truly despised him. He annoyed me. But now that he’s not constantly pitted against my fav Percy, I have developed a newfound respect and fondness for his character. Once again, it’s truly amazing to see these characters from my childhood grow up. They’re figuring out their lives and going to school. It made my eyes water a little at the bittersweetness of it all. 

I don’t want to spoil too much but Coach, Mellie, and their kid are adorable. That is all.

Thanks for reading! We hoped you enjoyed our non-spoilery review! Come back later for the spoilery stuff, or keep reading at your own risk! Check out our other reviews here.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

The Death of Jason Grace

Jason dies wtf

nothing else matters

JASON GRACE IS FUCKING DEAD

HOW CAN MY CHILDHOOD BE RUINED LIKE THIS?!

LIKE WHAT i am still shooketh how can this possible be?!

Okay I avoided writing this review for a few weeks because of Jason Grace. It honestly shocked me. At first, I didn’t know how to react. I cried a little. My childhood character, despite my past hatred for him, had been killed. Then I was furious. How could Rick Riordan do this to me? To the fandom? All we want is for our precious babies to be happy. THEY DESERVE TO BE HAPPY! And yet a hero never gets what he deserves.

After reflecting on it, I now understand the necessity of Jason’s death. Before this book, I didn’t really take this series seriously, and gurl, was that a big mistake. After reading The Hidden Oracle, I considered Apollo’s adventures as a joyride down memory lane. Oh look, over there, is that Percy in Camp Half-Blood? Leo and Calypso riding Festus? Piper and Jason living in San Fran? I loved it. The nostalgia was overwhelming and I couldn’t read them fast enough. But that soon ended with the murder of both Jason Grace and my soul. Now, the stakes are raised and I’ve learned from my mistakes. Riordan knows how to draw in the readers. I should have seen this coming, and yet, like that unforgettable drop into Tartarus, these characters and I will never be the same.

Another thing about Jason’s death: it really hurt. I just needed to reiterate that I felt physical pain in my chest while reading that scene, almost like I was the one being impaled instead of Jason. And to make it worse, Caligula didn’t just impale Jason and then leave. Oh no, Rick just had to make Caligula stab him again for good measure. Rub in the finality of his death with each jab of his golden spear. Jason was the perfect hero to die and that made everything a hundred times worse. He followed the rules. He was truly good. Which made it all the more heartbreaking when his adherence to the rules wasn’t enough to save his life.

ANOTHER thing: the fuck you mean Piper and Jason broke up? Yeah, not everyone can be Percabeth but really? I found myself shipping them more while they were separated than when they were actually dating. Damn, this book was pretty good. And Piper never had a final goodbye? AND LEO?! HE LITERALLY FLEW TO MEET THEM ONLY TO FIND JASON DEAD? I had to reread some of HoO because of this terrible nostalgia, and it just made me think: was that the last time they were all together? During the battle against Gaea? And now that will be the very last time, because Jason Grace is dead. And like I said before, there’s just no going back.

Thanks for reading! We hoped you enjoyed both our non-spoilery and spoilery reviews! Check out our other reviews here!

—Alexa

#toa #toa spoilers #pjo #meg mccaffrey #piper mclean #jason grace #percy jackson #trials of apollo #the burning maze #the burning maze spoilers #the hidden oracle spoilers #book blog #book recommendations #books #writing #booklr #book reccs #review #rick riordan #book reviews

[lordzuuko]

+And here is where come my new request(?) I would like to see Shiro angry, maybe at the camp someone's still saying things about Keith or does something that makes Keith feel bad and Shiro losts his pacience and face all in the camp? Other way, they're facing strong criatures and one of them manages to hurt Keith pretty bad and Shiro losts control and shows how powerfull he is?! * I'm excited about this * I'm Dei by the way(?) Last thing, you're such an awesome person

[Voltron PJO AU] Shiro was walking towards the Big House to discuss some things with Coran when he spotted Keith leaving the place. Delighted to see his boyfriend, he jogged up to meet the son of Hades.

“Keith!” Shiro greeted, giving Keith a kiss on the cheek and enveloping him into a hug that could’ve probably crushed someone’s bone.

“Oh, hey,” Keith smiled weakly. “I… I have to go help Hunk with something.” He separated himself from Shiro, pushing him away.

As Keith was about to leave, Shiro quickly grabbed his hands and asked, “You’re still up for later by the beach?”

“Yeah,” Keith slowly said.

“Okay, I’ll see you later then?” Shiro gave Keith’s hand a gentle squeeze before the younger one left him.

Something was wrong with Keith and Shiro didn’t like seeing how it affected him. He’d have to find out what was troubling his best friend after his meeting with Coran. Inside there was Pidge and Allura and their meeting began. As soon as they were heading out, Shiro pulled Pidge to the side to ask her if she knew anything about what happened to Keith when he was inside the Big House.

“They are scared of him,” Allura answered instead, clearly hearing Shiro’s question.

“What do you mean? Is this still about his Dad coming here—”

“You know what he could do, Shiro. He’s too powerful, he obliterated a group of chimeras all in one go. A lot of demigods believed he was the one who ripped your arm off.” Allura explained.

“What?! That’s not true!” Shiro protested and he felt Pidge squeeze his arm to calm him down. “Keith’s wasn’t the one who—”

“Shiro, we know,” Pidge reassured him. “We know that, but the others wouldn’t believe it, especially since they know what Keith’s capable of. It’s easy for them to believe he was ruthless enough to take your arm. A rumour was spreading that he did that because you were breaking up with him.”

Shiro blinked in disbelief. “What? That’s so messed up! We’re still together and,” his shoulders sagged down as he looked down on the floor with a sad expression. “I would never break up with Keith, I love him too much to do that.”

Pidge blushed and cleared her throat. “Gods, you guys are so sappy. Keith said the same thing a while ago.” She nudged Shiro, “why don’t you go and find him now, lover boy. He’s probably being emo somewhere.” 

Shiro left them and he wandered around looking for Keith. He wasn’t in his usual spots, so Shiro only thought of one place. He flew up and spotted a boy with raven black hair, sitting on the rock by the beach. His smile grew and he flew towards the brooding boy who probably might be in need of a hug.

“A son of Hermes said that the reason you’re only with me was because I’m too clingy and I forced you to be my boyfriend because either you become my lover or you die,” Keith said as soon as Shiro floated beside him, not even looking at the newcomer. 

Shiro frowned and as soon as his foot touched the rock Keith was sitting on, his best friend continued, “A daughter of Aphrodite said I was too ugly to be with the handsome son of Zeus and that you were wasting your time with me because I refuse to do it with you.”

Shiro understood why Keith and him didn’t have that conversation. Keith just wasn’t into that ever since and Shiro respected that. He would never force Keith to do something he wasn’t comfortable with.

“Keith,” Shiro softly said, sitting down beside his boyfriend.

“I don’t care if they’re scared of what I can do, Shiro. I can’t help that. Dad gave those powers to me.” Keith said with his eyebrows knit. Then he pulled his legs closer to his chest and rest both his hands on top of his knees to hide his face as he softly whispered, “But I care enough to actually feel hurt knowing that the others don’t feel like I’m worthy to be with you.”

“Keith,” Shiro placed a hand on the boy’s back and caressed it. “You kn—”

“I know I’m not the most handsome boy out there,” Keith scoffed. “But being scrutinised about my looks, not taking into account how I fee—”

Their conversation got cut off when screams filled the air and Shiro looked up to see a dragon with many heads like the Hydra. It was the dragon, Ladon. And honestly? Shiro was just annoyed that they had to stop just because someone decided to drop in. Keith and Shiro looked at each other and Keith grabbed Shiro’s hand to shadow travel them near the ancient monster. The demigods tried to fight, not seeing any progress until the big three joined.

“Where’s Lance?” Keith shouted, eyes wandering trying to find the son of Poseidon until he found him near the tree beside Hunk. He looked at Shiro who nodded and flew them towards their friends.

“I want you to try and drown the dragon as long as you can, while Keith and I try to do what we can. Hunk, keep it distracted.” Shiro shouted orders. They got into work but so far nothing was working, it wasn’t until one of the dragon heads caught Keith by its mouth, crushing the son of Hades’ body in the process that Shiro could see blood spreading throughout his shirt.

Now Shiro was pissed. He clenched his fist as he flew in the air, dark stormy clouds surrounding him that might have alarmed the others but he didn’t care. Keith was hurt and Shiro wasn’t going to let that go. His whole body gathered sparks as he flew towards the dragon and sliced through one of its neck that held onto Keith. Immediately Hunk was there below to catch the son of Hades as the son of Zeus gathered all the lightning that he could, forming a really huge thunderbolt that could rival his own father’s. He threw it towards the dragon.

“Lance! Now!” Shiro shouted as Lance directed the water from the beach towards the creature, electrocuting it. 

Shiro wasn’t thinking clearly, he only had one thought in mind and that was to kill the creature that hurt Keith. So he threw more thunderbolts for each of the heads, and then clasping both of his hands together, he aimed at the dragon’s body and surged to it the highest voltage he could muster for what felt like an eternity—bright light temporary blinding a lot of demigods except for him—until he could see the the dragon slowly weakening, giving it one final blow causing it to disintegrate, blasting off a shock of energy towards the entire camp like what Keith had done to the chimeras. That should’ve made him weak considering he hadn’t known he could do that, but for some reason, he had too much energy left in him that he quickly flew towards where Keith was.

“Keith!” Shiro breathed out as he landed beside the body of his lover. He lowered his forehead to touch Keith’s, unaware that it electrocuted Keith—just a little—until Keith opened his eyes in shock.

“Oh gods! I’m sorry!” Shiro stared in horror, finally seeing he was still emitting some lightning sparks from his body.  “I… I don’t know how to turn it off?”

“Wow,” Keith coughed out weakly, giving him a smile. “Sparky.”

Shiro laughed, then he noticed the other campers stare at them in horror, still unable to comprehend what they had witnessed, some backing off. “Now that makes the two of us very dangerous. We’re The Power Couple.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Keith whispered as he closed his eyes with a smile as Shiro carried him towards the infirmary. 

#roarofdragon #ask #sheith #pjo au #omg i got so inspired i'm sorry this is long hahaha XD

[solangelover]

Happy Birthday Nico!

A/N: This is my first PJO/HOO fanfic ever, but I had to do it for my baby’s birthday especially since I’ve thought about it a lot. (Does not follow TOA canon b/c that would confuse me so yeah) Enjoy!

Read on AO3 or FF.Net or Wattpad

Nico blinked his eyes awake as light streamed in through the crack between his curtains. For once, he felt like he actually got some sleep, not remembering having any nightmares that night. But something was wrong.

What time is it?

Normally, his annoying “doctor” Will Solace would wake him up for breakfast in order to ensure he was eating and taking care of himself. Nico scoffs at the thought of Solace nagging him, with his stupid “Doctor’s Orders”, his blinding smile, his wavy blond hair that glints in the sun, his sparkling blue eyes that seem to reflect the color of the sky most days, the sort of blue Nico has gotten lost in several times…

No, Nico thought, I will not get lost in that. We’re close friends. It’s nice having a best friend and I will NOT be ruining this with a stupid crush.

Nico has learned over the past months how to act normal and friendly – well, Nico’s version of friendly, which means being less distant and reserved than normal. It’s a work in progress.

Nico refocuses back into reality, peeking out his curtains to see the sun decently high in the sky. Had Will forgotten about him? Nico hated how used to, even dependent on, the son of Apollo greeting him every morning he was. Was Will so integral to his life that he didn’t even know how to start the day on his own now?

Nico pushed any negative thoughts to the back of his mind as he went and got ready. Will must’ve had an early shift at the infirmary or something. Or maybe he’s giving Nico a day to sleep in for once, seeing as he complains about being up early every day. He hasn’t slept in till 11 in quite some time. He decides to head to the pavilion and see if he can still get food, even if it’s not lunch time yet. Maybe then he can skip actual lunch and train in the arena since no one will be there.

When he opens his door, there’s a note on the ground with a giant sun on it.

Solace, he suppresses a smile and rolls his eyes at the crudely drawn sun with a smiley face in it.

Gooooood morning, Sunshine!

I don’t even know if it’ll still be morning when you read this, but anyway, I let you sleep in today because I had to cover someone’s shift at the infirmary along with my own all morning.

As an apology for not forcing you awake, I wrote a haiku :)

Love, Will

Nico gets caught on that last part. He said love… Nico can only see those words, casually written by Will, who doesn’t even see how it could mean so much to Nico. It’s just a typical sign-off, don’t look into it. Nico shakes his head to clear his thoughts and remembers the rest of the note. He flips it over to read the most likely terrible haiku:

Find the green-eyed boy

Tell him “The sun will set soon”

Do it for me please :)

Nico doesn’t even think he understands what haikus should be, or that it’s more than a syllable pattern. Whatever, he reads it again anyways just to hear Will’s voice saying it to him (he’s got it so bad). On his third read through, he realizes that it’s actually telling him to do something. Green-eyed boy? He wonders. ‘Do it for me please’ Ugh, he thinks to himself. Will Solace can get away with nearly anything with Nico, all he has to do is ask and Nico will eventually give in. With an eye roll, Nico leaves his cabin to find Percy. If this is some big joke and I end up wet, Solace is gonna get it.

***

After stopping at the pavilion for an apple, Nico heads to the Poseidon cabin. He had considered shadow travelling there, if not just because he knows Solace would hate it, but decided against it. He doesn’t want to accidentally stumble upon Percy and Annabeth ever again. Ever. When he knocks, Percy cracks open the door and peeks out through the crack.

“What’s the password?” Percy says in an unnecessary whisper. He’s one of those people who don’t even know how to whisper, so Nico doesn’t know why he bothers trying.

“Percy, what’s going on,” Nico deadpans.

“Passsswoooord.” He’s as stubborn and stupid as ever, Nico thinks.

“Ugh,” he pulls out the paper, “‘The sun will set soon.’ It’s like midday, who came up with this—” Nico is cut off as Percy yanks him through the door and shuts it quickly. The cabin is pitch black and Nico starts feeling anxious. He didn’t think anything was going to happen, so he didn’t exactly mentally prepare for an attack.

“Percy, what the—”

“SURPRISE!!!!!!” The lights suddenly come on and Nico is momentarily blinded and deafened by the shouting. Instinctively, he grabs his sword and swings out, ready to fight off whatever has caught him off guard. When his senses catch up to him, he registers a certain son of Apollo standing in front of him looking shocked and holding a sign that has now been sliced in half.

“Uhhh Death Boy? Mind putting that away? I spent a long time on this birthday sign and I don’t want anything else to be cut in half, namely me.” Will blushed slightly, giving Nico a shy smile and that look that always gets Nico to do what he says.

“What in the Hades is going on, Solace?” Nico sheaths his sword and looks around, taking in the balloons, banners with his name on it, and all his friends, who look both alarmed and amused at the same time.

“Um, hello? It’s your birthday! Happy Birthday, Nico!!” Will drops the two halves of the sign to the ground in favor of throwing his arms up and grinning like he won the lottery.

As Nico tries to process this information, Percy comes up from behind and throws his arm across Nico’s shoulders.

“Bro, it’s a celebration of the day you were born! You know, your birthday. Come on, lighten up! Solace here put it all together and somehow kept from telling you,” Percy snickered at the last part.

Will’s face turned red with both frustration and embarrassment as he said, “I can keep a secret! Besides, we all worked to make this happen. So, let’s have fun!” With that, everyone cheered and started milling about, music playing in the background of happy conversations. Will grabbed Nico’s hand, much to Nico’s embarrassment, and pulled him along to show him around the party. As Will excitedly chatted about all the planning they had done (it really is amazing that Nico had no idea, Will is such a blabbermouth), Nico marveled at the fact that it was his birthday. He didn’t even remember it himself, and yet here was Will and his friends, hoping to make Nico’s day special. He looked around at all the decorations and all his friends, who looked genuinely happy to be there. Nico may have moved on from believing that he had no friends, but sometimes he couldn’t even fathom what great friends he had.

His birthdays in the past had been filled with self-hate and regret – hating that he was born, regretting his actions that caused others pain, things of that sort. Even today, he felt that somewhere in his mind, he knew it was his birthday, but he didn’t want to think about it because he knew that he’d just have those negative thoughts, as always.

“Hey,” Will pulled Nico from his thoughts, a look of concern under his gentle smile, “You okay? You haven’t said anything yet. Is the party okay? Is it too much? It’s too much, isn’t it. I knew I should’ve put up less decorations. I was too excited. Ugh and you probably don’t appreciate the little suns everywhere, but it’s all the Apollo cabin had—”

“Will,” Nico cut him off, “It’s incredible. Sorry, I was just thinking… I really appreciate you and everyone else, you know, going through all this trouble for me. I didn’t even realize today… I mean normally… how did you even know?” Nico couldn’t get out words properly, he didn’t know how to express the extreme gratitude he felt.

Will only grinned, “I’m your doctor – of course I know when your birthday is, Death Boy. And I wasn’t about to let your special day go uncelebrated.”

Nico scoffed, “Special day… my whole life has been a mess. I don’t know if the day of my birth should be celebrated all that much.”

“No, you don’t get to say that.” Will stopped Nico and stood in front of him, a frown on his lips. “You are a hero and a fantastic friend to everyone here. Without you, many of us, probably even the whole camp, wouldn’t be here. I am extremely grateful that you were born today, however many years ago, because I—” Will seemed to choke on his words, turning red in the process.

“Because you…? Are you okay?” Nico was just confused now, having no idea why Will cut himself off.

“Because I… get to do this!” With that, Will lunged forward and swiped frosting across Nico’s cheek. Nico was so caught off guard, he stood there for a good 3 seconds as Will laughed, gaining the attention of those around him. Then Nico narrowed his eyes, found the cake, grabbed a handful, and flung it right at Will’s face so that frosting and a chunk of cake slid down his cheek.

“FROSTING FIGHT!” Percy was the first to jump at the cake, resulting in an all-out frosting war.

By the end, everyone was covered in frosting and chocolate cake and giggling like maniacs. Even Nico had jumped in, shadow traveling a few times to get the jump on people.

Once everyone calmed down a bit, Will came up to Nico with a clump of cake and frosting on a plate and a single candle shoved in it.

“We still have to sing to the birthday boy,” Will said with a shy smile. Nico offered his own small smile as everyone gathered around and sang “Happy Birthday” to Nico. Nico thought about each face that was smiling at him, ending on the face of Will Solace, who beamed the brightest out of them all.

“Make a wish, Nico,” Will said gently, once the song had finished.

Looking up at that face, Nico knew what to wish for. He had a great life – far from perfect, but pretty great. He had almost everything he wanted, just one thing was missing.

He closed his eyes, and he blew out the candle.

Hope you liked it! Please like and reblog! And give feedback if you’d like :)

#thanks for reading! #first fanfic #my post #I'm really happy about this #I may post it on FF.net and AO3 #solangelo #Nico di Angelo #he is my life and I had to do something for him #happy birthday #Nico birthday #january 28 #mine was actually just the other week #Will Solace #Percy Jackson #the Seven #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #Heroes of Olympus #hoo #toa #fanfic #solangelo fanfic #solangelo fic #pjo fanfic #pjo fic #hoo fanfic #hoo fic #my fic #yay #my writing

[lxiewrites]

Day24: PJO AU

Klance au month 2k19-  Lance hypes his cabin for capture the flag and says something he regrets

so i guess i’m adding more to this later cuz this did NOT turn out how i planned but whatever

Ao3

Lance scrutinized the stance of the baby warrior in front of him. Circling around the young half-blood he kicked her right foot farther behind her. “You would have a better center of balance if you place your right foot here—you're right-handed right?”

She adjusted her stance and nodded, gripping her sword tighter in her fist, hand shaking a bit with effort. Lance bit down a sympathetic smile. She was a fresh camper; just dropped off by a satyr a few days ago. He could see the embarrassed flush on her cheeks and her eyes darting to the other campers practicing their sword fighting.

“Okay, so loosen your grip a bit. That much tension ends up straining the tendons in your elbow for whatever reason, trust me.” He scooped his sword up from the dusty ground next to her and took his stance. “Okay, let’s start with the basic attack.”

They took a step in sync, swiping their swords down with one hand slicing the air in front of them. Nadia blocked her invisible opponent with her wooden shield while Lance brought his sword up in a block. Together they sliced down once again, the air whooshing at the speed. Stepping back into formation Lance turned to his pupil with a big grin. “Good! With enough practice, you’ll be slaying flying pigs and hellhounds.”

Nadia offered him a small smile before biting her lip. Dropping her sword, point down, into the dirt she asked, “Could I just… skip capture the flag tonight?”

He wrapped an arm around her slight shoulders. “Sorry, kid, Coran says the best teacher is experience. And our cabin is leading this time. Our own members can’t just sit out!”

“But--!” Nadia objected, gesturing helplessly to Lucas and Katy painting each other's nails off to the side of the arena. One or two more of the others dropped off from practicing and went to relax and gossip in the shade, only a few still sparring on the field.

Lance ran a hand through his hair to cup the back of his neck, sheepishly smiling at the baffled twelve-year-old. “Okay, so they’re more lovers than fighters. We’re a work in progress; sue me. But I got a feeling about you, Nadia. We’re Aphrodite cabin, we can go to fight just like anyone else, we just look better doing it.” He winked to punctuate his statement but she still looked skeptical. Finally, he rolled his eyes, “Fine, I got Hecate cabin, Demeter, Athena, and the Apollo kids. And,” he said, raising his voice to be heard across the entire arena, catching the attention from their other cabin members. “If we win I’ll treat everyone to a spa day with my special face masks.”

When the clang of swords resumed, enough that they echoed around them, he snickered, not noticing the person that crept up behind him.

“So that’s how you get your team motivated. Bribery.”

Startled, Lance yelped as he spun around, shoving Nadia behind him, sword at the ready. His sword clanged against a familiar knife that extended into a sword, the dull side barely grazing his cheek.

Lance smirked, dropping his sword and smoothly ducking under Keith’s, bringing him in very close to the son of Ares. Close enough he could smell cedar and smoke from the offering fire. “You’re just jealous you can’t get your cabin to be a team on anything.”

Raising a brow Keith looked around the arena, probably taking in every flaw, every sloppy stance or messy attack. “At least my cabin can fight.”

Frowning, Lance crossed his arms. He debated firing back, saying that they’re doing their best or even taking a jab at Keith’s cabin. Instead, he stepped aside, out of Keith’s space, to introduce his new recruit.

“Keith, meet Nadia of Aphrodite cabin. Nadia, this is Keith, head of Ares cabin.”

Lance watched how Keith’s stance softened, the corners of his mouth quirking up in a small smile. Biting down hard on his lips Lance forcibly turned to watch Nadia tentatively shake Keith’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Keith nodded, respectfully and still stupidly soft. “You too, Nadia.”

Clearing his throat Lance jerked his head towards Virgil who was getting disarmed way too many times in a row. “Hey, Nadia, why don’t you go over there and spar with Virg?”

Nadia’s hazel eyes darted from one head counselor to another before scurrying off to the struggling thirteen-year-old.

Watching her go, pointedly not looking at the other counselor Lance asked, “So, have you come here to check out the competition, Kogane?”

“Something like that,” Keith murmured.

Heat flushing through him, Lance bit down on his lip. He willed his cheeks to cool, unprepared for Keith’s answer. They’ve known each other for four years. They went on their first quest together, fought together, bickered, picked strawberries, did all the stupid camp activities dangerous and mundane. They didn’t do this! They didn’t… flirt. They fought, they pushed, they challenged each other. Ever since they went on their last quest to retrieve his mom’s girdle—which was really just a fancy belt that shifted to an accessory that would compliment the wearer’s outfit, kinda lame—Keith’s been… flirty.

And it’s not in Lance’s head! He’s the son of the goddess of love and beauty he knows when someone’s flirting! And furthermore, he knew Keith. He knows when Keith is being flirty, which is so subtle he normally won’t notice but—

He knows. It’s exactly like that time he was flirting with this one guy two years ago when they were going to fix whatever was happening with Iris. Gods he was so annoying, always ”mission first, Lance” and the first guy to show interest in him and he’s all ”Oh, I like your weapon” “that’s a cool knife”.

And recently he’s been looking for him for help with strategies against other cabins or partnering up with him. Somehow their stupid fights seem more lingering, softer, the rough edges sanded down to a fine grain like the beaches back home. Where Lance can’t help but stay and run his fingers over it in fascination.

And he has no idea how to handle it.

Face, unfortunately still hot, Lance said, “Well, you better watch your back, Keith. ‘Cuz Ares cabin is going down.”

Keith scoffed, eyes twinkling, “Maybe you should worry less on Ares cabin and more on your own.”

“Oh, my cabin is great. We’re a well-oiled machine. We got everything down to a science.”Lance ignored the fact he could see some of his siblings in the corner of his eye, stopping to look at them. Lucas and Katy whispering to each other and snickering. “We’re gonna whoop your ass, and I’m going to gloat it over you until the end of the summer.”

“Sure, Lance.”

“Hey, once upon a time Aphrodite was worshipped as a war goddess as well as love. Don’t underestimate us. Aphrodite cabin is gonna whoop your ass!” Behind him, there was a weak cheer from his siblings and Lance had to restrain a sigh.

“Sounds like a lotta talk.”

Okay, he’s had it up to here with him. “I bet you that we whoop your butt!”

Keith paused, giving Lance enough time to hear what he just came out of his godsdamned mouth and regret. “Okay,” Keith drawled, “it’s a bet.”

“Fine! What’s the bet?”

Keith shrugged, the obnoxious orange T-shirt stretching over his shoulders. “I don’t know. I’ll think of something later.” Smirking, Keith started towards the exit, calling out, “Good luck with the troops, Lance!”

When he disappeared Lance buried his face in his hands, groaning in them.

From the side he could hear Katy shout, “Does this mean no face masks?”

#klance au month #2k19 #klance #AresKid!Keith #AphroditeKid!Lance #Ares!Keith #Aphrodite!Lance #I'll add more later #capture the flag #there was such a debate over Apollo Lance and Aphrodite Lance #gods #cuz i normally go for Apollo kid Lance but i wanted the underestimated aspect of Aphrodite Lance #AND FUN FACT! #Aphrodite was worshipped as a war goddess once upon a time #mainly in sparta and in another island #but it was cool #she's also the only god besides zeus that everyone worshipped #flirty!Keith #flustered!lance #this was also supposed to be established but it didn't end up that way #but OH WELL