Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter thirty-two

The girl that was in the picture that Beckendorf had on him was standing at the front of the crowd, Silena Beauregard. The daughter of Aphrodite had a concerned look painted onto her face, the girl's hair wasn't combed and wasn't wearing any makeup at all. Everything about her seemed off for how a daughter of the goddess of love should be right now. Her eyes held just a little too much worry, her appearance just a little too ragged for someone used to having their lover going on missions over the summer.

...Strange...

"Where's Charlie?" The older teen all but demanded. She was looking around the space like she thought that he would just magically appear if she asked loud enough, but of course he did not.

I could feel the centaur's eyes on me as if he was waiting to see if I would step in or not, of course I didn't, I was more content with studying the other demigod.

The man cleared his throat as if that would somehow help the words that he was about to say come out easier, a useless action in every way other than how it brought the girl's attention to him. He said something to the daughter of Aphrodite about going back to the Big House, but any words that he'd managed to speak were drowned out by the cries of the older demigod.

"No," the girl whispered, saying the word like it was some kind of lifeline. "No. No," she insisted.

Tears started to run down the girl's face as stained sobs wrecked the girl's body. Everyone watched on in a shocked silence, grief clenching at the other campers' hearts as they struggled with what to do.

I didn't share the sentiment.

Apart from not knowing the deceased all that well, I couldn't stop myself from staring at the older girl with a more calcutive look than I probably should've been wearing at that moment.

The other demigod's loss was laid bare for everyone around her to see and yet it felt as if there was something else there, some unspeakable emotion that the older girl was trying her best to push down until she was alone.

It flickered across her face again but before I could properly identify whatever emotion it was that the other demigod was feeling, Clarisse of all people pushed through the crowd and put an arm around the other demigod's shoulder. I felt an eyebrow raise at the sudden display, something that I was sure from the returned feeling of an elbow digging itself into my side that the other ability user noticed, but honestly it was a surprising display of affection between the two. Looking around though, it seemed that whatever friendship of sorts that the pair have, the other campers have long gotten used to it during my absence.

It was interesting, sure, but it didn't really matter all that much to keep paying attention

The daughter of Ares, despite being dressed in her normal permanent scowl, softened her expression towards the other girl, saying something to her in an equally soft voice as she led the girl away, almost everyone else taking this as their cue to disperse from the crowd that they'd formed as well and go back to their cabins. Only Chase, Chiron, Chuuya and I stayed behind to deal with the aftermath of the mission.

"Idiot, Mackerel," Chibi said, rounding on me as soon as most of the other campers had left. "What happened to Mr. 'I'm not going to die', huh?"

I turned to the other ability user, seeing a familiar anger there. That and something else that I didn't quite know how to identify just yet. I thought about making a comment about the other teen being worried about me, something that I knew he probably wasn't actually but just didn't want to have to return to the Port Mafia having failed his own mission and letting his partner die in the process, but one glance at the bags under the other teen's eyes told me just how good of an idea that would be.