pjo oneshots

soft epiphany

"-alright, and the Iris and Aphrodite cabins can help Hephestus in either the forges or Bunker 9. Dismissed." Chiron finished his ultra-long-super-boring announcement on who would be doing what, snapping Drew from her thoughts. Piper immediately gathered the cabin, letting them separate themselves into two groups with the Iris cabin. Unsurprisingly, most people wanted to work in the forges. The forges sucked, with fire and heat and everything, but the location was much more convenient and saved having to make the half-hour trek through the forest.

"Hey, Drew?" Piper called, and Drew realized she was still standing a few paces away, arms crossed, with probably a judgy look on her face. She glanced up at Piper, raising her eyebrows. "Could you join the Bunker 9 group? Considering there's not a lot of people, and you used to be head counselor-"

"Yeah, sure." Piper looked surprised at her willingness to follow her instructions.

"You- okay, great. Thanks." Drew walked over to the Bunker 9 group, who were milling around with the Hephestus kids, as Piper darted off to join the forges. She wasn't an idiot, a larger group needed their counselor. She also knew that Bunker 9 was painful for the girl, after the untimely death of Leo Valdez. As much as Piper McLean frustrated her, Drew wasn't a monster.

Nyssa Barrera was shouting to be heard over the murmuring buzz of the group, struggling to assert her authority. Drew marched over to her, and yelled a loud "All of you, shut it.", filling her voice with charmspeak. A dozen pairs of eyes snapped to her as the group fell silent immediately. Nyssa looked slightly taken aback, but muttered a quick 'thank you' anyways. The girl called out a few words, instructing the group to follow her and not to wander away under any circumstances. It would be tragic if someone were to get lost and never be seen again.

The scenery changed slowly from sand to dark earth, tree roots and shrubbery littering the path. Drew stayed a few paces away from Nyssa, who twisted her fingers together as she walked, occasionally glancing back to make sure no one was getting eaten. "Uh, thanks for yelling back there."

"No problem hon."

Nyssa nodded awkwardly. "Okay." They walked for a few minutes in what must have been uncomfortable silence for Nyssa.

She only spoke because she felt bad.

"So, what are we gonna do in Bunker 9?"

The other girl looked at her, eyebrows furrowed. "Well, we make new designs, or explosive, potentially dangerous things in there. Before we found it, we would make all this stuff in the forges or on the beach, but it's safer to do it there, so we made a new policy. Our designers, Athena and Ares have given us a bunch of designs to try out, so yeah. You guys really don't have to do much, just carry things around or pass a tool or whatever. Mostly the carrying things, it saves us so much time."

Drew nodded. "No problem. We can do that."

"Yeah." Nyssa's thumb stroked her throat, a nervous habit, probably.

After a near age, they arrived at what must have been the entrance to Bunker 9. "Okay people," Nyssa called, clapping her hands together. Her voice was full of authority, loud, and very clear. "This is Bunker 9, as some of you know already. Before we go in, I want to set some ground rules. When you work with someone, if they tell you to do something for your own safety, such as covering your eyes or ears, or not to step too close, you do it." She went on for a few more minutes, making sure every single person was crystal clear with the rules.

At one point, later, Drew was standing a few feet from the daughter of Hephestus, watching her hunched form, carefully piecing together a small...something of celestial bronze. Suddenly, the girl stood up straight, a huge grin splitting her face. In her callused palm rested a delicate sphere with small spinning rings moving in every which way, but never colliding with each other.

Nyssa's smile was infectious, white teeth contrasting her brown skin. Her dark eyes crinkled, and her nose scrunched up. The girl had dimples, for gods sake. Fucking dimples. Drew watched as she shouted down at her siblings, brandishing the sphere in her hands. They whooped up at her, yelling their praises and laughing amongst each other.

She turned back to her, smile fading slightly. "This was from Archimedes' papers. We've been trying to figure it out for the last few weeks, for, for Leo." her voice choked slightly.

"I'm sure he would be so proud of what you've made." Drew said.

"I hope so."

They rested like that for a while, Nyssa sniffling and stroking the sphere as Drew patted her back gently. It was nice, like this somehow.

"Thanks, Drew." She mumbled after a while, wiping her eyes with a trembling hand.

"Of course hon."

been wanting to write smth for this ship for ages but could never think of anything so thank you selene 

so sorry this took so long words are really hard for no reason ;-;