A/N: So I suck at remembering characters's birthdays, but I got a warning in advance that today is Dazai's so I figured why not. I'll still post Friday as normal but here you go.
Chuuya POV
There was a loud banging noise in my ears sometime later. When I tried sitting, there was a weight on my chest holding me down. I looked down, confused by the unfamiliar presence, and found Dazai laying there, the other teen's head resting on my chest. Glancing around the cabin, I saw that there was still a fair amount of light everywhere and knew that we couldn't have been asleep for more than a hour or two at most. I really didn't want to wake the other teen up, knowing that this was probably the most sleep he'd gotten all week, and would get for the next few days, but the banging continued relentlessly and the other boy didn't stir.
Nudging the other boy's head, I tried to get him to roll over and move on his own enough for me to slip away without waking him, but when the sleeping teen finally started to shift, he was lucid enough to hear the noise.
"Lunch," the younger teen mumbled out, curling in on himself like that would make the world go away.
No sooner than the word was out of the other boy's mouth did I feel my stomach start to grumble, the noise startling the other teen enough to make him dig his head deeper into the comforter that he'd rolled onto.
I was tempted to leave him here and go eat on my own, but I don't know demigod customs and I knew just how much the other teen needed to eat. I poked the younger boy in the cheek where the blonde girl, Chase, had slapped him earlier. While it didn't do much to hurt him, it seemed to be just strange enough to make the other teen sit up, looking back at me with an eye still heavy from the thralls of sleep.
I watched silently as the other teen hopped off of the bed, seemingly waking up mid fall as his stance became more aware. The younger teen turned back to me, resting his arms and head on the bed, looking at me with clear eyes.
"Come on Chibi, it's lunch time," the taller boy mumbled out before slipping away from the bed, waiting for me by the door.
Jumping down from the top bunk, I felt every bit the slug that the other teen had taken to calling me recently as my body moved at a subdued pace. Food sounded great, but the prospect of having to deal with the other campers, or worse, another staring contest with the supposed centaur almost didn't seem worth the trip.
We left the safety of the cabin, making our way to what I assumed to be the dining pavilion, my skin prickling the entire way. I felt like crushing all of the staring demigod punks into the ground as they bunched together and whispered among themselves, staring at the pair of us, but went against it in the end. Killing children right before some big mythological war didn't seem like the best of ideas that I could have, but that didn't stop me from staring back.
We sat down at what I assumed to be the Poseidon table, all of them looked exactly the same except of the twelve present, four were completely devoid of any people. A new wave of whispers and stares erupted from the campers as we sat down, but Dazai just returned their gazes with vicious glares until they looked away for the most part.
I really don't understand children.
Cups and plates were whisked around to all of the tables quickly as more and more campers joined. The teen across from me grabbed the cup in his bandaged hands, holding it seemingly gingerly as we watched it fill quickly with some type of blue colored soda.
"The hell is that?" I asked, pointing at the glass in the other boy's hand.
The other teen only shrugged and took a small sip of the fizzy drink in lieu of a proper answer.
Shitty Dazai.
A certain amount of grogginess from jet lag weighted down my body, but I knew that it was only lunch and the chances of us going back to sleep were slim to none, so I decided to try my luck with magic made coffee, pleasantly surprised to find that it was exactly the way that I liked mine made, right down to the temperature.
My plate filled with a healthy serving of tea on rice the moment that I touched it, something I haven't really had since leaving the Sheep. It tasted exactly the way that we used to make it. I got a few bites in before I noticed something.
"Mackerel," I chided lightly, feeling like I was mothering the younger teen, "you've got to eat something."
The other boy hadn't so much as touched his plate since we sat down, the magical entity still laying there empty of anything. It will take me a long time to forget just how light the teen was this morning, the definition of his ribs. It wasn't something that I was planning on letting continue.
"Sorry," the other teen apologized in a tone that told me just how little he meant it, "just waiting for someone to smite you. Or would that be sacrilegious?"
My face scrunched up, my eyebrows pinching together at the other teen's statement. The boy simply just pointed to the small fire burning in the pavilion and the kids throwing a portion of their food into it like that was something you're supposed to do. Dazai stood, holding a small plate of what looked to be canned crab in his bandaged hands. The teen walked over to the fire, scraping more than he probably should've into the flames. I followed the other boy's lead, half expecting lightning to strike me down on the way there, but I made it there and back without a scratch.
We ate our food quickly, the younger teen seemingly picking at his more than eating it, though I did notice him take a few bites here and there. When we left the pavilion, I took a hopeful step in the direction of the Poseidon cabin, but a hand waving in front of my face stopped from walking any farther.
"I have a training idea," the taller teen said, his voice tinted with something close to excitement that made me decidedly against anything that was about to come out of his mouth.
This might've been one of the strangest things that the other teen has said to me since I've known me, that includes the conversation this morning at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill and a very weird cover story that he came up with one time to get the cops off our asses during a mission. The boy that I know is someone that had a tendency of throwing himself into work when he needed a distraction, but never seemed to actively create it. Training definitely counts as work, the only type of work that I've seen the other teen avoid as much as possible.
The boy pointed at the archery range, ignoring the headache that he must've known was growing in my mind.
"We don't really use bullets all that often here," the teen explained emotionlessly, "but we do have arrows."
The other boy's logic was impeccable in a way that made me want to shove the teen into a wall if only to kill some of those brain cells that come up with shit like this.
I sighed heavily, following the teen to the range.
—-
Dazai POV
We made our way to the range where Michael Yew was instructing the older campers on the archery lesson. I waved the teen down as we got closer, getting his attention while the others were retrieving their arrows for the targets they'd been using. The boy's head tilted to the side as he walked over, his eyes slightly glazed over as if he was lost in a memory that the rest of us didn't seem to quite share.
"Hey Michael," I greeted, making my voice purposefully soft to put the teen at ease.
The boy blinked a few times, the haziness slowly fading from his gaze as he did before he smiled at me warmly. "Heya, Percy," the other demigod started, his voice tented with a poorly concealed awkwardness, "I thought I heard a rumor that you were back."
I could see the other boy shifting with a nervous energy that seemed to be faked by the ADHD tendencies that demigods tend to have. The other demigod and I were never close in the little time that I spent at the camp during two summers that I was here, so I could tell that he was grateful when I finally decided to cut to the chase.
"I need a favor, man," I told the other, slipping on the smile that I used to wear. I pointed a thumb at the shorter teen next to me. "Chuuya here can manipulate the gravity of the things that he touches," I explained, waiting for the other boy to come to the proper conclusion like I knew he would.
Michael Yew's face fell with every word that I spoke, the other boy seeming to be adopting a look that said that he'd already dealt with too much shit for one week for me to throw this at him too.
"Perce," the other boy started, his voice careful as if he was talking to a small, upset child, "don't tell me that you want to..." the other demigod trailed off, seemingly unable to finish his thought.
Though he didn't really have to worry about that for long.
"He does," the manipulator of gravity in question cut in, further throwing off the son of Apollo with how willing the redheaded teen seemed to be with this inane plan. "The mackerel is crazy, but he's still right."
In the other teen's tone I could tell that he understood why I was having him do this. Stopping arrows and stopping bullets may be the same to someone with the teen's ability, but what the ability user did with the ammunition after that was going to feel completely different to the boy, the sooner that he gets used to this, the safer and easier life will be for the shorter teen.
The other demigod's face looked torn as I knew that it probably would. Had we been back at the mafia, Chuuya and I wouldn't have even had to explain ourselves since requests like this were more normal for us than it really should be.
"If he ends up with an arrow wound it's not my fault," the other demigod said, steadily glaring at me as he gave in.
Perfect.
—-
Chuuya POV
The bandage waste had the demigod archers surrounding me on close to all sides while I faced the line of targets not far from the lot of us. Each of the archers were set at varying distances from where I was, the other ability user had justified that this was to help with timing and distance judgment as any of the arrows fired at the same time wouldn't hit at the same time or place as any others, though while I knew that was one of the reason, I figured that the boy just liked the idea of playing conductor for a little while. The teen in question was standing right behind me, using the coverage that I created to point at the archers that he wanted to have shoot me from a safe place.
"You know," I called out to the boy hiding at my back, my voice dripping with a snarky tone while all of the campers involved loaded their bows, "there's got to be easier ways to kill me if that's what you're aiming for here."
I could hear the other teen scoffing in a mock offended tone. "You don't have to do this," the boy retorted.
But I knew that I did have to do this. Learning to adjust to kicking arrows in the middle of a fight wouldn't do me any good against beings, some with powers possibly much stronger than ability users back home, aiming to kill me. The other ability user knew this too of course, maybe even better than I did, which was why he didn't give me time to come up with a proper response.
Dazai must have signaled for the first archer to begin, because an arrow came shooting at me from my right. I stopped it like I do with bullets, just barely letting the projectile touch me before I took away the thing's gravity, encasing it and myself in a deep red glow.
Twisting my body, I aimed a small kick at the arrow, releasing it from my hood as it fired off. I couldn't help but grimace at the feeling of kicking the long slender arrow instead of the bullets that I'd grown accustomed to over the years, that and just how poor my aim was with the wooden piece.
We kept going for over an hour, only stopping to retrieve the arrows from the targets and replace the arrows that I accidentally kicked wrong and broke along the way. By the time that we finally stopped, I was used to the feel of using the arrows in the way that we were, even going as far as to almost have fun with it, trying for fancier moves at the end. When we called it quits for the day, the teenage demigods around Dazai and I all smiled, seemingly happy to have just practiced as we had, solidifying my impression that all demigods were crazy, just as all gifted are.
I turned to the bandaged teen, only to find him staring off at the arena with a strange gaze.
"So," I started, drawing the other teen's attention back to me, "do you want to go and practice sword fighting or something?"
The other boy was staring at the arena with something close to a thoughtful gaze for long enough that I'd figured that something like that must be up.
"No," the teen replied dully, looking back towards the arena, "I'm good. I've been practicing with Ane-san for the past few months."
A dull shock of surprise went through my body at the sudden information,dulled only by the soreness in my legs from doing almost nothing but kicking for over an hour. I haven't seen the two of them so much as look at one another outside of meetings, let alone train together like the bandaged teen was suggesting. Though it did make sense in a way since they're both use swords for combat, apparently.
"So then why are you looking at the arena like it personally offended you then?" I asked, almost immediately regretting my choice as the other boy turned to look at me, his eyes still seeming to glow slightly as they always tend to do when he's serious.
"I have an idea."
—-
Dazai POV
Taking the other ability user over to the arena, I readied myself for some mind numbing training on my part. It's been two years since I've consciously tried to use my godly powers, I couldn't help but feel like a beginner all over again.
But instead of a quiet training arena or the loud thrum of kids playing at heroes, we were met with hell on earth.
I opened the arena door only to swiftly close it back not even a moment later. The other ability shot me an amused look, clearly entertained by how I reacted to whatever was inside the battle arena. Stepping aside, I made a sweeping motion with my arm, indicating for the other teen to try.
The other teen stepped forward with a cocky look on his face, head held high and shoulders straight as he pulled the door open, only to copy my move and close it right back, the door shaking in its hinges from the sudden force the other boy put into the action.
"Big dog," the smaller teen choked out, still standing frozen by the door.
"Hellhound," I corrected, not in any better state than the other ability user.
We looked at each other and then back at the soundly shut door next to us. Stepping forward, I slipped by the other boy, creaking open the door just enough to peek inside like a small teenager spying on their parents. The other boy slid under me, fitting himself to where he was kneeling down between me and the door so he could see too. The demon dog was running around the arena, throwing around one of the practice dummies like it was some kind of chew toy meant especially for him.
The smaller boy looked up at me with a serious gaze. "Do you think it's safe?" The teen asked, poking a finger in the hellhound's general direction.
I looked down at the other boy, trying to discern whether he was joking or not. I knew that Chuuya loves dogs, but even he must see that whatever this social experiment is with tailing one is just a little on the crazy side, even for us.
At least it only has one head.
"Did you kick out some brain cells while I wasn't looking earlier?" I asked, flicking the other teen on the back of the head lightly. The other boy shot me a dark look before we both turned back to the scene on the other side of the doors.
"That's Mrs. O'Leary," a small, quiet voice called out from behind us.
Chibi and I whipped around, instinctively pressing together with our hands behind each other's back in a practiced motion. The older boy and I have done this movement too many times to count before when sneaking in alcohol from the kitchen or from a mission to one of our offices. No one else in the mafia really cares if two teens get drunk, but it's too much of a pain to have to deal with the boss.
The owner of the voice was a small itialn boy that somehow looked like he'd managed to get even less sleep than I have. The younger teen was wearing an avatar jacket that seemed to swallow him, his pale hands pressed Getty against his cheste as he messed with some kind of silver ring on his finger. A skull ring it seemed.
"The hellhound," the smaller boy elaborated, "her name is Mrs. O'Leary. She's friendly."
I couldn't help but observe the small teen, the way he stood and speaks, how he was able to sneak up not only on Chuuya but me as well, two of the people with the most situational awareness in this gods forsaken camp. The smaller boy's eyes were shifty, like he couldn't hold our gaze, like he never learned how. In a way he looked like a boy that used to be in constant motion, brought to a premature stop. It was a look that you become all too familiar with in the world that Chuuya and I have come from, but for much different reasons. He looked like he couldn't be older than fourteen.
How strange.
"Are you her owner," the other ability user asked, seeming to have finished his analysis of the pale teen as well.
Chuuya seemed almost as dazed as I was by the whole situation at hand. The sudden arrival of the boy, the mere idea of taming a hellhound of all things, they were strange.
Something dark flickered across the younger boy's face but was gone before I could place it with a good amount of certainty.
"No," the youngest boy said in a thick voice. "I just help when I'm here," the teen explained, "her real owner is dead."
Now that's interesting.
"Who was her old owner?" I piped in, drawing the boy's dark, lightless, eyes to mine.
There it was, that flicker again.
"Daedalus," the boy answered after a small pause, "he was the sword master last year."
A quiet noise of surprise slipped past my lips as something vicious carved itself onto my face. "The Ancient Greek inventor," I mused, enjoying the possibilities running through my mind. "Robot body with a transferred consciousness?" I guessed, knowing that immortality wasn't something that would be granted to someone like him, not after what he did to his nephew.
The redhead teen shot me a look that seemed to imply that I've finally lost my last marble, if I ever had it to begin with. "I didn't kick you in the head earlier, right," Hatrack asked, glancing up at my head as if to check for damage, "just arrows?"
My hand flew to my chest in a dramatic manner, tacking on a dramatic gasp just to annoy the other boy further. "So mean Chibi," I whined, seemingly pouting, though neither of us believed the act for a moment.
"A-actually," the youngest boy broke in, his voice sounding shaky and unsure, "that's exactly what he did." The teen tilted his head like some kind of lost puppy. "How did you know?"
Chuuya just groaned loudly, too used to the workings of my brain to really be surprised that I ended up being right.
"I'm Percy Jackson," I said, grimacing internally at how strange the name sounded on my tongue after such a long time being in disuse. The name tasted like ash. I held out a hand to the supposedly younger boy, letting the smaller boy shake it while I ignored his question.
"This," I gestured to the Hatrack, "is Chuuya Nakahara." The gravity manipulator followed my example and shook the dark haired boy's hand quickly before shoving his hand back into his pocket.
"And who are you?" I asked, stepping closer to the small boy, watching as his eyes shook lightly with something close to fear. "Son of Hades, boy out of time."
The boy stumbled back in shock, I followed the teen forward, getting closer to him as the boy's eyes moved quickly between Chuuya and I as if asking for help. The sun was beating down on the three of us, I moved around the smaller boy, cutting him off as he tried to step into the shadows for whatever reason. I knew that demigods had strange powers according to their godly parents, cutting him off from what he so clearly seemed to be sneaking to seemed like the only logical thing to do.
"How?" The pale boy asked, steadily losing the fight with schooling his features as panic seemed to take over.
"Your all black clothing, minus the jacket, with the skill ring points to you being a son of Hades," I said, pointing to each piece of clothing as I called it out. "That and the fact that you just tried to escape to the shadows instead of running away like a normal, cornered child would."
I watched the way that the boy's eyes shook even more violently as I spoke, clearly not used to being found out as quickly as he was.
"Now, out of time is another thing," I continued, watching as the teen twisted the ring faster and faster with each passing sentence. "Thanks for confirming that for me by the way," I said, snapping my finger lightly into a finger gun motion. The boy looked to the ability user standing at my side for help, but only found a sullen teenager, too used to having to sit through my explanations before he could call me a show off and move on.
"The avatar jacket looks to be an authentic one from around the World War II era, that also seems to be in as good a condition that you can get for a demigod child of the big three, and shows no real signs of aging.
"You're Italian, but have no real accent, Italian, American or otherwise. Now this could just mean that you moved around a lot, but I don't think so. Your mother seems like she was probably pure Italian as well."
"A bigger factor," I added, slightly enjoying the look on the smaller boy's face, "is the promise between the Big Three."
I held up a finger as I spoke.
"Zeus broke it first with Thalia."
Another finger.
"And Poseidon with me."
The boy nodded along, seeming to already know all of this from camp gossip and the like.
"But Hades isn't the type to break promises. When I visited your father a few years back, the god was overly angered by my existence," I continued, circling the boy, watching as his head spun around to keep an eye on me. "Well I thought he was mad. Now though, I can't help but wonder if he was just jealous. Posiedon could flaunt me around as much as he wanted now that everyone knew I existed, but Hades had to keep you a secret, a child of a world war, born before the prophecy was given."
I stopped in front of the smaller boy, my cousin as it seems, looking him in the eyes with my own. "Tell me, dear cousin," I said, looking down on the boy. I had a good few inches on the smaller teen, but he in turn had a few on the eldest in our little trio, if you go by apparent physical age, "how was the Lotus Casino?"
"Damn show off," the older ability user cursed from my side, slapping me on the shoulder lightly. "You can't just say shit like that, Mackerel," Chuuya reprimanded. I didn't really understand why, but I knew better than to act sorry or to keep pressing the child.
"You wound me, partner," I said, stumbling as if I'd been shot, an experience I, surprisingly, haven't had the pleasure of just yet.
"Jackass."
"I hate you," I lied.
"Hate you too," the other teen shot back, but the smile on his face seemed to say otherwise.
The small demigod was giving us a look similar to the one that Kouyou will give when we bickered during meetings right before she complained about how two executive candidates shouldn't be acting so childish.
"So," I started, diverting my attention back to the other demigod, watching the way that the boy's eyes shook with something like fear when I started talking again, "what's your name?"
"Nico di Angelo."
—-
Annabeth POV
I walked over to the arena dressed in light body armor. Playing with Mrs. O'Leary is always a good workout and a way to erase pent up frustration, something that I had a little too much of right now after Percy came back. A haunting sea green eye flashed in my mind, accompanied by the trickle of fiery red hair. Di Angelo was supposed to be leaving on some type of trip before dinner, looking for something to help with the upcoming war. I don't really know, but I figured I might as well keep the big dog company.
As I got closer to the arena, a loud banding noise entered my ears. I looked around at all of the other demigods in the area, but everyone else already seemed used to the isenent noise, still going about their days as normal. The archers even had the guts to look mildly amused.
"Little less gravity, Chibi."
"Maybe try less water, Mackerel."
I finally made it to the arena only to find the owners of the voices destroying it in a way that not even the hellhound had managed quite yet.
Percy had a half filled bucket of water sitting at his feet while the red head boy, Chuuya apparently, was standing at Percy's side, his arm crossed against his chest. The pair looked as if they were fighting, but from the smiles on both teens' faces, I could tell that it wasn't anything remotely serious.
The two were standing in front of a set of heavily beaten practice dummies, each of them looking like they'd seen better days. The dummies were ridden with holes and splatter of mud, each spot a kill shot in its own right. There were holes carved into the ground all around them making the area look a lot like the pictures I've seen in history books of lands after a series of minefield explosions. I watched as the two boys moved with each other and learned why the arena had this effect to it.
Controlling some of the water from the bucket, the son of Posideon moved it to the arena's dirt floor before shutting it quickly at the other boy. I tensed up, waiting for the the inevitable, incredible splatter of mud onto the other boy's clothing, but it never came.
The shorter boy light up with a brilliant dull red glow comparable to that of the blessing of Ares, the mud stopping as it touched the teen and floated in the air almost gently. The boy flicked his hand lightly in an almost bored motion, sending the mud flying at one of the dummies. The ball hit the dummy straight in the heart, another deadly shot to add to the collection that the boys seemed to have made.
The pair sleeked forward, seeming to inspect the damage before steeping back to where they were. The partners turned to each other, looking at one another almost simultaneously.
"Keep the gravity level," the suspiciously bandaged teen suggested, seeming to look over the damage once more.
"And drop the mud level," the supposed gravity manipulator finished, Percy agreeing while mumbling something about not being allowed to use lethal force on non monsters.
Non monsters...?
Ideas ran around in my head, none of them any that I particularly liked, so I decided to ignore the encounter all together.
After one last peek through the arena doors to check that Mrs. O'Leary was fine with the strange pair invading her space, I left the arena without speaking to either boy, though I couldn't shake the feeling that I saw them glancing at me out of the corner of their eyes. I just shook the thought from my head. The boy that I remembered was someone that would get too engrossed in training like this to notice a door being slightly ajar. Him and the other boy, Chuuya, didn't seem to have the situational awareness needed for that, not really.
The dull thrum of hooves stomping on the ground caught my attention as I walked away from the arena, heading to the Athena cabin to catch up on some of the sleep I've been missing from all of the extra missions and war preparations. Looking up I saw the centaur waving me over tiredly with ink covered hands. The ink that was apparent even from across the field told me that they were finally making some progress on the escape plan. Chiron walked away knowing that I would follow as he led us down to the beach.
We stood side by side for a few long moments in the sand. The sun still had some time before it would go down for the night, but the air felt cooler here than it had earlier. We didn't say much for a little while, only staring out at the sea in front of us as if something, or someone would appear and give us all of the pieces that we seemed to find ourselves missing today.
"What do you think of Percy?" Chiron asked, his voice carefully neutral. The centaur didn't look at me as he spoke, but that was fine, I didn't look at him either.
I thought for a moment, considering how to word my answer in a way that wouldn't dim the memories that we both had of the sarcastic little boy.
"He's changed," I decided, stating something that was obvious for anyone that ever met the boy from before to see. The Percy of my memories was a boy that was goofy and sarcastic, a living, breathing teacher's worst nightmare.
He was the child that sent the head of Medusa to Olympus just to be imprudent to the gods. This Percy... this boy that I barely recognized would do it in hopes of turning a god to stone.
He's dangerous, they both are.
Chiron sighed heavily, similar thoughts probably going through the older man's head as well. "Time will do that," the centaur said as if it explained every problem in the world.
"He's different," I countered, "he's cold."
Time will change you sure, but how could it completely change some like it did to Percy. Like it did to Luke.
I could see the man nodding out of the corner of my eye. "I noticed that too," the teacher commented, seeming to agree with me, "the only person he's been anything like himself with is the strange boy that he brought him, Chuuya."
I couldn't help but think back to the scene I saw earlier in Poseidon cabin:
Percy never called me Wise Girl like he normally does. Instead the other boy, Chuuya did, before switching to something much less favorable. The black haired teen all but leaped to the shorter teen's defense, taking a tone with me that he's never had before, not even when I was rude to him when we first met. The two were close in a way that seemed hard to touch.
"Percy's fatal flaw has always been loyalty," Chiron continued, the tiredness in his voice increasing by the second. "He left us and came back because of that loyalty. It just seems that he's more loyal to Chuuya than he is to us."
I couldn't help but wonder what the pair have done with each other over the last two years to call each other partners of all things. To read each other the way that they do.
Percy was my best friend for two years; him, Grover and I, we were a team. What kind of experiences does it take to just erase all of that like it was never there?
"Do you know what all of the bandages are from?" I asked the centaur. If anyone could study the other demigod and know what was going on with him, even this much, it would be someone that's trained demigods since ancient times. But Chiron only sighed tiredly once more in return. "I'll take that as a no then."
We left the topic at that, knowing that between the two of us we would find out eventually, and switched to the plans for tomorrow. The centaur ran all of the improvements and modifications made past me, startling me with the knowledge that almost all of the suggestions came from the pair, came from Percy of all people.
Percy was never smart like that, not really, not that I knew of. Straggly and the like was always my job.
Guess that's changed too.
—-
Dazai POV
After using what water was left to clean the mud up and fill in the holes that we'd created, Chibi and I made our way to dinner, sitting together again at the Poseidon table. Chiron shot us a look across the pavilion that said that I was pushing it. It was a look that I knew all too well, I just smiled at the man, scraping a portion of the canned crab into the fire before joining Chuuya at said table. The boy in question was slumped against the table like a child, staring at his glass with a look of deep sadness that didn't fit the content mood that he'd been in only moments before.
The other teen shoved the glass away like a pouting child when I sat down. "This glass is defective," the other boy decided, poking the thing harshly.
I wanted to tell him that it was a cup endowed with magic and that it being 'defective', as he put it, wasn't really a possibility, but decided against it. It would be far more entertaining to let the scene play out.
"How so?" I asked, already having a good idea as to what the issue was, but asked anyway.
I stabbed my crab with a fork while the other boy drew himself up from the table, resting his chin on his pale ungloved hand in a tired manner. The food was halfway to my mouth when the other ability user finally answered.
"...It won't make wine," the older teen said in a slightly unsure voice.
My fork dropped from my hand to the plate with a loud clattering noise that drew the attention of the other campers to us more than it'd already been.
Of course, ever the acholic.
"My dearest partner," I cooed, enjoying the disgusted look that painted the smaller boy's face as I spoke, "you're underage," I reminded him. The red headed teen shot me a dark look that seemed to be implying that I was testing the teen's patience more than normal. "Besides," I continued, not really caring for my own safety, "even if you weren't, alcohol isn't allowed on campgrounds, especially wine."
The other boy's head fell back to the table, landing not so softly there. "Why?" He grumbled out, not bothering to look up.
Pulling out my phone, I took a quick picture of the older teen for Ane-san, knowing that she would like to see this once we got back. "Mr. D, Dionysus, cheated with some off limits nymph or something," I explained, sliding the phone back into my pocket with a mental note to leave it in one of our bags for the rest of the trip as Chuuya pulled his head up off of the table. Smirking at the other teen, I leaned in before continuing the story. "Zeus wasn't happy about that, so he banished the god to working here, putting a restriction on the other god that he couldn't drink wine," I explained. Chuuya looked at me fully, our faces close enough to each other that I could see the different shades of blue in the other's eyes. "Anytime that he tries," I continued, purposefully ignoring the feeling building up in my chest, "it just turns to Diet Coke in his hands."
The other teen held my gaze for a moment more before looking away, a small smile on the other's lips as he laughed silently despite his own predicament. The boy pulled the cup closer to him, seeming to think for a moment before touching it decisively. We watched as it filled with something fizzy. I didn't ask, he didn't tell.
Dinner came to a close not long after that as everyone shuffled out of the pavilion to the campfire. The shorter teen had convinced himself that I'd exaggerated the horribleness of the campfire songs that the Apollo cabin wrote, so we were going to put ourselves through the experience of listening to them. I waved to Hestia lightly as we walked past her, she was probably one of the only gods that I could really stand these days.
I watched the older teen throughout the entire ordeal. The songs sung were some of the weirder ones that the Apollo canon had come up with over the years, causing the Hatrack to constantly look about two seconds from laughing at us all. The boy smiled at me, it was a pure, carefree smile that I'd never seen the other teen wear before as his hair danced like flames in the summer breeze. The pang came back to my chest, only going away once the boy turned back to the show. Even so, I kept gazing at him.
If Chuuya and I were normally campers, normal teenagers...
I shoved the thought away, not wanting to know where a teen's childish delusions would take my mind.
Even if Chuuya doesn't seem to hate me right now, even if he's tolerating me today because of what he knows, he could never care for me.
Monsters weren't made to be loved.
The fire went down a little bit, but no one else seemed to notice.