Octavian
Oh.
So that's why he never answered his calls. Why he stopped sending letters. Stopped everything between us. He never said goodbye.
Just stopped sending stuff.
"Hey, Octavian!" I heard Percy chase after me, and I stopped. I was just walking. Thinking. About everything we never go to do together.
Luke and I, we had this huge plan. When we graduated, we were going to go off together and tell the rest of the world to fuck off. Make our own world.
And now we can't do that.
Because he's dead.
"Hm?"
"Sorry," he said as we started walking together. "But did... Did you know Luke?"
I nodded my head, shoving my hands in my pockets. I still had the promise ring. The letters. Everything he gave me.
"Yeah, we grew up together." I haven't talked about Luke in a long time. To somebody that actually knew him. No wonder he thought I seemed familiar. People always mistook Luke and myself as brother. But we weren't. "We ran away together. We were boyfriend's. We had this huge plan to get the hell out of Westport, to go anywhere. And we got caught. They brought me home, but Luke got away. He sent letters all the time. He told me about camp. But my mom never let me leave the house. When we were 17, going into senior year, he just stopped sending stuff. I even came here after I graduated. The next summer. And I was told he wasn't there and that he was dead to them. That was all I ever heard of. I could understand if he ran from here, he fucking hated his dad. But that... When did he die?"
"Well, he was possessed by Kronos three... Three years ago." I don't think Percy realized how long it had been until he told me that. "But he lived, and he died two years ago. He could've left something for you. His room, to this day, has gone untouched. Annabeth, Thalia, Grover, me, we all have stuff from him in there. Nobody has the nerve to go in. Let the dead die. Let him sleep."
I noticed how deep this sunk into Percy. Luke's death. It was fucking tearing away at him.
"Do you miss him?"
His eyes watered over.
"Well yeah." He thought that seemed kind of obvious. "People think I'm insane for it. But I mean, he was the big brother I never had. The one I needed because when I met Luke, my life was absolute shit. And he did everything he couldn't make me feel not like I do most of the time. He was there for me and he left and my life fell apart again. I almost left to join. Then again, he wanted to leave Kronos. But it was too late. What happened happened and I just have to deal with being pissed off because of it. I mean, that's how I broke my wrist. I was pissed off."
"Seems fair." I responded, hearing running from somewhere nearby. "I just can't-"
"Percy!" Reyna yelled, getting the attention of both of us. "There's... There's a demigod here for you? Chiron told me to get you, the guy is in cuffs. That's all I know."
Percy
Luke.
Fucking.
Castellan.
He was sitting in the meeting room, and nobody else was allowed to go in. Chiron said he hasn't been harsh or anything. But, to be safe, he's cuffed up to the table. They messaged Olympus. They're debating whether or not to charge him with treason.
If he's charged with treason and found guilty, he's killed. It's pointless.
I closed the door behind me. He looked kind of bored.
"So how'd you manage this?" I asked as I leaned up against the wall, making him jump.
"My gods, I didn't hear you come in," the son of Hermes said. "I didn't do anything. Thanatos came to me. Told me to get the hell out. I was sent here. As soon as Chiron saw me, he put me in cuffs and shoved me in here. Said you'd be here to do something."
He motioned at my forearm.
"Did you at least fuck up the other person worse?"
"What? It wasn't from a fight." I told him, uncuffing him and pulling up a chair. "I was having a bad night a few weeks ago. Punched a brick wall harder than I should've. Have they told you anything?"
He shook his head.
"Well right now the gods are in council," I filled him on what was happening. "To see if they want to charge you with treason. I think it's kind of dumb. You'd get death and then it's pointless. But yeah, you've actually missed a lot. There was another war. It ended. Grover, Thalia, and Annabeth are on a quest, I guess. I was suspended for a few weeks. I was gone when they were issued out. So they're not here. Um..."
"Aren't you and Annabeth together?" Luke never liked the idea of Annabeth and myself being together. And I didn't either. Annabeth always swore she'd never tell Luke had we ever gotten together. And we did. Regretfully. "I mean, it's going to bug the hell out of me, but I might as well know."
"What? No." We also agreed that when she found out I was gay that we'd just say it nebernhaooened. "She uh... She tried. Didn't get very far."
That seemed to surprise him.
"Really?" Luke asked, trying to figure that out. "I thought you liked her."
I might've laughed. Just a little.
"Luke," I informed the former leader of Camp Half-Blood. "I'm gay. I don't like Annabeth as anything more than you do."
"So Grover?"
"I will throw you back into the woods," I threatened jokingly. "Plus, Grover's straight. I've never really had a crush on him."
"You would date him?"
"I would date a lot of guys if they were gay."
He got some humor out of that, rolling his eyes. And he looked at the wall of councilors. Seeing that he really didn't know many of them anymore.
"Life's been treating you okay, though?" I knew he'd ask how I was doing sooner or later. "Even though everyone's gone now. Doing one thing or the next."
I shrugged.
"Life sucks," it's I tell him now or he pries it out of me the hard way. "Can't do much about it. Aside, you know, kill myself. But I don't think that'd swing too well here."
"Had you shown up dead because your dumb ass killed yourself," Luke turned into that big brother I was talking about earlier, with Octavian. "I would've shoved your ass back here."
He hesitated, and gave me a wary look.
"You're not suicidal, are you?"
"Not anymore."
"Okay, good."
It was silent for a minute or so until Chiron came and told us he wasn't getting charged. He just didn't hold any power anymore. Which made sense.
"That's good to hear,"I said as Chiron left to go to archery lessons. "But uh... I think there's someone else that's been waiting to see you, man."
"Like who? All of my friends aside you are-"
I motioned for Octavian to come over here.
"Sorry about what I said earlier," I told the camp augur. "I guess I was wrong, I didn't know either. Just keep it in your pants, please."
"What are you...?" Octavian asked, confused by what I said. And I motioned towards Luke.
"Percy," Luke said from behind me in the room. "Who are you talking to? Nobody from Westport should be here. And everyone else is gone."
"He's from the other camp," I explained to him. "But he's also from Westport. Just please, keep it in your pants. I'm going to go find my boyfriend because we have dinner plans tonight. Don't have too much fun with yours."
Luke
When Octavian hugged me, I started to cry and he did, too.
This wasn't how we planned on meeting up again after graduation. But I mean, whatever works, right?
There must've been a solid ten minutes after we got back to my cabin and in my room that we just held each other. Not used to having each other around.
To be able to feel Octavian is something I've missed for like ten years. Whenever we got separated from one another.
And we always wrote. But Kronos lied, as usual. Cut off our communication.
I just really missed him.