Michael POV
Percy and I walked towards the Hermes cabin. We had concluded the meeting I had set up and everyone had gone off while Percy and I were sent to check up on whoever had just been broken up with. I had a pretty good idea, but I hoped it wasn't true. Okay, maybe I did a little bit. Call me what you will.
My brother knocked on the cabin door and Luke opened it.
"Hey," he said, obviously surprised to see us. "What brings you two here?"
"Is there a crying boy or girl in there?" I asked bluntly. Luke blinked in surprise.
"No," he said slowly. "Not in here." We sighed in unison.
"Thanks anyways, Luke," Percy said. We turned to continue our search when Luke spoke up.
"But I did see a boy we all know walk into the woods," he said. "One we know would have no problem taking on whatever lurks in there."
"Once again, thanks," Percy said. Luke nodded and closed the door. I sighed through my nose. "I know," Percy said. He started walking towards the woods. "C'mon. We have to find him quickly."
We searched through the woods and eventually found Killian sitting on a rock, staring at Kampê's rock formation.
"You okay, Kill?" I asked as we walked up to him.
He didn't say anything as we sat down next to him.
"You wanna talk about it?" Percy asked.
He stayed silent.
After a couple minutes, he said, "Alexia doesn't think I'm over Lilly. So she broke up with me."
I bit my lip to keep from commenting.
"I'm sorry, Killian," Percy said. "That was unfair of her."
"No," Killian disagreed. "She was right. I'm not over Lilly. I never was."
It was quiet between the three of us before Killian broke the silence.
"She kissed me. Back in the labyrinth, before I blew up the telkines. She kissed me and told me to come back." I didn't need to ask who he meant.
"Is that why you tried avoiding her?" I asked.
He nodded. "She was dating Theo at the time. It was wrong of her, wrong of me to have allowed it. I feel like I caused her and Theo to break up, and now she's the cause my and Alexia's break up. It's like we're cursed that we can't be in any relationships because of the other. I don't want to have to see her go through that again. Maybe I should just tell her that she doesn't have to worry about me messing up another one of her relatio—"
"Killian, shut up for a minute," I interrupted him. "Lilly is almost head over heels in love with you. I know you are, too. I admit, it was wrong of you to use Alexia as a distraction, but it's time for you to demigod up. You are the son of Hyperion, a Titan. You've faced Titans and monsters and the labyrinth. You are a brave kid and you need to get that through your thick skull. She likes you. Lilly likes you. Go tell her you like her."
Killian shook his head.
"I can't, Michael," he said.
"Bullshit. Yes you ca—"
"No I can't!" he shouted. Tongues of fire flickered through his hair. "I can't do it! I just can't."
I stared at Percy, wide eyed. He stared back at me, his expression the same.
"I'm not you guys," he said. "I'm not meant to have a good romantic relationship. Michael, you have Bianca. She'd do anything for you, and you'd do anything for her. Percy, you and Zoe promised each other that you'd protect the other from the world, no matter the cost." My brother blushed. "The universe just doesn't want me to have that."
I laid my hand on Killian's back. "Killian, you aren't going to have a relationship like us. No relationship is the same. I doubt there is ever going to be a relationship like mine and Bianca's. Percy is in love with a 2,000 year old woman. That's not normal at all."
Percy tried to protest. "I'm not in love with her."
"Yes you are, Perce," I said. "My point is, each and every relationship is unique. Yours and Lilly's? You helped save her from the brink of death when you guys found her. You're friends with her friends. When she was hurt, you tried to fight on her behalf. She tries to care for you. She wants to love you. She helped you when you were stabbed."
"Killian, Michael has a song for every one of his friends," Percy picked up. "It describes them the way he sees them. The one for me is Till I Collapse. Zoe's is Fight Song. Yours? Legend. And Lilly's is Legends Never Die. Even he knows that you two complete the other."
"Guys, just stop." he said. "I'm not gonna get together with Lilly right after I broke up with Alexia. Just leave me alone."
"Kill-"
"Please."
I sighed. "Alright. But know that you can come to one of us if you ever need to. We will never shut you out."
With that, Percy flashed away and I shadow traveled away, leaving Killian to stare at Kampê's rock.
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Later, Bianca and I were watching a Disney movie with Percy, Alexios Asher, Andy, and Estelle. The three of them were all into this movie called Tangled, and they wanted to watch it almost nonstop.
The only thing that would ever get them to stop would be if they fell asleep, which Estelle doesn't really do anymore. Every time Andy or Alexios fell asleep, Bianca and I would put them down to sleep and then come back and take Estelle to go do something else. Normally, we'd go see Silena or Maddie, but sometimes Bianca took her alone to go see the girls, and they'd have a girls' day, which I was slightly jealous of.
Beckendorf and I created the perfect baby monitor. It was installed in their room and had a camera. It was connected to my phone so that it would go off whenever one of them woke up, which normally woke up the other one as well. It was quite handy. I could check the app we created (we've tended to create a lot of those), and I could see their room through the camera.
Right now, Alexios was falling asleep in my arms while Andromeda slowly dozed off in Bianca's. Estelle and Percy were on the floor, watching the movie with great interest. The only two other movies Percy and Estelle would watch were The Little Mermaid and Nemo.
For some odd reason, Percy had this strange fascination with The Little Mermaid. I think it had to do with him being Ariel's uncle. Actually, that would be Alex. Oh well.
Soon, Alexios was passed out in my arms, and Andy had lost her fight to stay awake. I stood up carefully and took Andromeda from Bianca. I light traveled upstairs to their shared room and placed them in their separate cribs. They were right next to each other, side by side, but I had installed a removable gate between them incase they were both on timeout, which hasn't happened often, but it's happened enough that I've learned.
I silently removed the gate and covered them both in their individual blankets. Alexios had one that was black and covered in milky stars. Andy's was white with dark swirls. That was one of the ways we could tell which was which when we had to get up in the middle of the night to feed or change them, and we were too tired to check.
Bianca and I had a system with the twins. It went like this: I would change Alexios the first time, and she'd change Andy. The second time I'd change Andy, and she'd change Alexios. And then we'd repeat the process. It kept us surprisingly organized.
I turned off the light in their room and quietly closed the door. I crept back down stairs and found Bianca asleep in her chair. It was a simple black recliner chair. I quickly grabbed a blanket from the guest room and covered her in it before sinking into my chair, a matching version of the one Bianca was in except white.
You can tell that we like doing this white and black thing. It kept it easy for us to tell who's thing was whose.
Let me tell you about the house. It was a big two-story house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, thank you Athena.
The master bedroom was in the left wing of the house on the second floor. It was a massive room. Next to the door was a gas fire place and next to that was an alcove with a built in shelf. Next to the bedroom, part was the huge bathroom. It had a glass shower and a bathtub next to it. The bathroom was connected to our walk-in closet, which Bianca absolutely loved. There were three or four windows, which allowed a lot of naturally light into the bathroom and bedroom.
Andy and Asher's bedroom was down the hall, across a carpeted balcony type thing. It was smaller than ours, but it was big enough for their cribs. There was a closet in there, which was where we kept the two, light weight celestial bronze dressers that Beckendorf and Jake had created, and Silena and Maddie had painted. Asher's was a combination of blue and black and Andromeda's was a combination of pink and purple. Silena painted their names in elegant cursive on their respective dresser.
There was a bathroom next to their bedroom and the stairs were right in front of it, which was quite a risk, but we were willing to take it.
In between the two rooms was an office of sorts, but we mainly stored gifts and toys in there. It had a giant window in it, and the doors were a thick glass.
Downstairs was where everything else was. By the stairs was a guest bedroom, bathroom, and storage room. Bianca and I put shoes and coats in the storage room, and the bedroom was free for anyone to use if they wanted.
Next to those was a living room type area. It was big and carpeted, compared to the rest of the downstairs which was tile, except for the last guest bedroom at the front of the house. Not a lot was there, but there was a fireplace, which was where we sacrificed food in the situation that one of us was sick.
The next room over was our actual living room. We had two couches pressed against the walls. One was pressed against the behind the wall, and the other was against the wall separating this room and the one I had just described. There were two recliner chairs next to each other opposite of the couch against the back wall. I had installed a TV in front of the wall opposite from the other room; the one Percy and Estelle were watching so intently. I had covered the hard tile floor between the furniture in this soft, white wool.
Then came the open kitchen area, complete with an island, microwave, oven, stove with five burners, refrigerator and freezer, and washing machine. There was a small table near the island in an open area in front of where we kept the food that doesn't have to be refrigerated. Bianca reorganized the food almost daily so I always had a hard time trying to find something to snack on.
When you enter the house, it immediately opens up into this huge, open, tiled area where nothing except a chandelier was.
To the right of the door (if you are walking in) was a door that led to where we washed our clothes. A small room but it was big enough to fuck in.
Finally, there was the last guest bedroom. It was right next to the laundry room, but it had its own bathroom and was almost wholly separate from the rest of the house. The only problem was that it got really cold during the night because the heat doesn't reach it.
It's a good-sized house, and Bianca and I love it. "Hey Perce," I whispered.
"What's up?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the TV.
"Do you think Killian is gonna be alright?"
He didn't say anything, and I thought he didn't hear me. Then he said, "Yeah, he will be. He's just gotta work through it."
I sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
We resumed watching the movie until I heard someone open the front door and close it quietly. "Whoever is there," I said, "please be quiet. Asher and Andy are asleep and so is Bianca."
I heard quiet footsteps on the hardwood floor as the person walked into the living room.
"You have a TV in here?" I heard the kid ask incredulously. I looked over my shoulder to see Killian standing there, staring at the TV.
"Yeah," I smirked. "Come on in. We are almost to the part where Ariel pulls a stupid." I waved my hand, and a red blanket popped up on the couch across from me. He smiled and sat on the couch and covered his legs with the blanket.
After a while, he said, "I'm sorry for snapping at you guys earlier."
"It's fine," I waved him off. "We had it coming."
"No, I'm really sorry. I wasn't thinking straight."
"When is anyone ever thinking straight?" Percy asked.
"You're fine, Killian," I said. "You don't need to apologize to us. I just gotta know: will you protect Lilly?"
"Always."
I groaned, and Percy smirked at me. Killian looked at us like he'd done something wrong.
"Don't worry about him," Percy said. "You just quoted Professor Snape from Harry Potter. Michael thinks the line is overused."
"It is!" I hissed. Percy laughed, and Killian did nervously. I huffed in frustration. "Why don't we watch the Harry Potter movies and catch you up, Kill?"
"I'd like that," Killian agreed.
"But I like The Little Mermaid," Percy protested.
"Deal with it." I told him. "Go put our sister to bed while I find the first one. I have to DVD somewhere in this house."
Once we did that, and I'd moved Bianca to our bed upstairs, we started the movies and had a good time.