Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

XIII. Back To Camp (And Kayla)

(A/N: In case you are wondering how long it's going to be before this two finally confess their feelings to each other, the 8th Chapter after this one is when it will happen. Just to give you a general sense of how many more chapters of slow burning you're gonna have to endure. There will be an interlude and a Kayla POV as well before then, just as a heads up. But yeah, we are getting close.)

Winter Solstice
Camp Half Blood

We got back to camp a couple weeks later, just in time for the winter solstice. Clarisse's mother drove me, Chris, and Clarisse the whole way back, which was incredibly sweet of her. We somehow encountered no monsters the whole way back either, which was very nice.

But still underneath it all, was the knowledge that camp wasn't safe.. not unless we somehow managed to destroy the labyrinth. How we would do it.. was beyond the thinking capabilities of me, Clarisse, and Chris, much to me and Clarisse's annoyance. This was just shitty honestly, I thought to myself. Here we are having to put our own siblings on edge again because Luke knows where a stinking entrance to the labyrinth inside Camp Half Blood is and we had no clue where it was or how to destroy the labyrinth to prevent the invasion.

It fucking sucked so god damn much on ice, believe me. It really, really did and I hated it. The fact that I still missed Kayla - and it had grown worse in those two weeks - did not help at all, not a bit. I don't know why, but I just wanted to take her away from all of this, take her to maybe another dimension, where she could live in happiness, safety, and peace with her hero. I mean, it would be a hell of a lot better than having to worry about her constantly in this shitty excuse of present circumstances.

Yeah, I know. Being a demigod is rough as shit. Percy probably told you that a lot already, hasn't he?

Moving on.

We thanked Clarisse's mother for driving us all the way to camp, and then jogged up Half Blood Hill. As we reached the crest, someone was there waiting for us. My heart skipped a beat.

It was Kayla.

I swear to you, I don't know why I was more happy than I thought I was going to be to see her. But I was.

The moment she saw me, she put on the biggest smile she could ever put on and just ran towards me. I ran towards her as well.

"Colton!"

"Kayla!"

We met just inside the barrier and hugged each other. The look of happiness on her face made me so full of joy. If she was happy, then I was as well. She was wearing her camp clothes, evidently having arrived back some time prior to me.

As for me, in a white t-shirt underneath a dark green sweatshirt with the words 'Gettysburg National Military Park' on it with a light gray coat on top of that, as well as in dark blue form-fitting sweatpants with long socks and my usual dark red and gray tennis shoes, I looked like someone ready for temperatures just above snow temps, which to be fair, the temperature was just around that range.

None of that mattered, because I was back in the place where it always felt warm, both in the air and in spirit. I did have to take the coat and the sweatshirt after a while due to sweating a lot, but Kayla and I didn't need to say much to describe how each of us felt.

We both missed each other, and that's all we needed to let the other know.

Eventually, I spoke. "Kay.." I spoke, using the nickname I gave her after she kissed me on the cheek. "You're just as beautiful as the day you left camp all those months ago."

She blushed and looked away, taking a bit to come up with a response. "I..I..I'm glad you think so.." she replied. "So what have you and Clarisse been up to?"