#stuck on the puzzle | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theseusernamesarehard · 11 days

Text

Stuck on the puzzle: Chapter one

next | masterlist

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

word count: 2,3k

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not as poisonous as her voice, Will thought.

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

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

Once again, a soft smile.

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

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

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

Will shook his head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sure."

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

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

"It's not fair."

"Life's not fair. Go."

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

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

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

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

"I mean in the vial. The shot."

She grimaced a little

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

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

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

"I won't."

She had a very bright smile, Will noticed.

"It was my blood."

"Huh?"

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

"Your blood has healing powers?"

"Yup."

"So you have like a superpower?"

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

"Like what?"

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

"Who's your parent?"

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

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

She nodded.

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

Will was quiet for a moment.

"When did you get claimed?"

"It happens at a different time for everyone."

"It was quick, wasn't it."

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

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

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

There was a knock on the door.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"My guess it that it's both."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Absolutely."

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

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

"What's the problem?"

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

Lee raised an eyebrow in surprise.

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

"Good thinking. Olivia give him a shot?"

"Yup. Along with some nectar and ambrosia."

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

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

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

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

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

"I got it in a sword fight!"

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

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

"You weren't suppose to say that!"

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

"You're no fun, Olivia."

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

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

"I fucking nailed it!"

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

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

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

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

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

"Hell yes!"

"Dude!" Olivia sighed.

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

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

Whatever that meant.

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

21 notes · View notes