#i adore drew and i adore the aphrodite cabin

[zmorowanie]

drew girlboss gaslight gatekeep

[sunshines-child]

Piper

What if instead of being a pick me, she refused femininity because she grew up in hollywood light, and she has seen things done to women she never wants inflicted. What if instead of hating on the Aphrodite cabin, she fears for them because hell, how are they so calm with wearing such short skirts and cutting the camp t-shirts into tiny chic tops? Don't they know what could happen? She fears for them because she never wants her sister and her brothers receiving a fate worse than death that leaves scars. "I'm not afraid of God, I am afraid of Men" she fears what could happen to her. She fears for every girl, young to old, that she sees when she walks around camp. She doesn't hate Drew, she really doesn't. She's jealous. She's jealous of how strong Drew is, how she's not afraid to use the power she was given to get what she wants. She's so fucking jealous, because she's too scared of that. Piper knows she's weak. She had a measly charmspeak conjured up in less than a weak that can't do anything. It never helps. Swords feel too strange in the palms of her hands. She works out all the time, she's a jagged stone, she doesn't have the patience to learn to wield a dagger or hone her voice. She tosses her weapons away, hilts Katoptris, and runs in with bare hands. It works. Piper is proud of her heritage, she really is. She adores it, but she covers it up because she doesn't want to end up as some "foreign bimbo" Piper Mclean wants so much, but she's scared

[7s3ven]

UNBEARABLE. connor stoll (pjo)

( master list )

IN WHICH… Connor Stoll finds enjoyment on pulling all sorts of pranks on Y/N L/N, the charming daughter of Aphrodite. It isn't until he catches her in a moment of weakness that he begins to sympathize with her.

A/N : I kinda feel like I’m carrying the PJO fandom on my back with all these fics lol. Also, people said I could be cast as Drew from PJO. Y’all should ask for my insta so you can confirm me as Drew 😽

Warnings : not following plot, luke is still here bc I adore him, mentions of luke x y/n here and there (Y/N’s an Aphrodite kid, ofc she’s kissed multiple people 😭)

—

A shrill scream pierced the peaceful silence of Camp Half-Blood, waking up most of its campers. Connor Stoll creeped around the corner with a cheeky grin, holding an empty bucket of pink paint. A moment later, Y/N L/N and Silena Beauregard stormed out of the Aphrodite cabin, covered from head to toe in paint.

"I'm going to kill him!" Y/N shouted, eyebrows furrowed in fury. The paint dripped off her body, staining the green grass below. She scoffed.

The Stoll brothers, more specifically Connor, were at it again with their never-ending pranks. Ever since Y/N arrived at camp, she had been the main victim of Connor's tricks. And she hated it.

"Are you okay?" Y/N asked Silena, all of her anger suddenly simmering away once she looked at her sister. Silena nodded, combing the dried paint out of her black hair. Y/N looked over her shoulder, locking eyes with Travis Stoll. She fumed as she quickly strutted towards the elder brother.

"You," She sternly pointed at Travis and poked his chest, "Get your brother under control before I do it myself!"

Travis lifted his arms in surrender, teasingly grinning. “I think he’d like that.”

"Just make him stop! I am sick and tired of being covered in paint when I wake up! Honestly!" Y/N groaned as she stormed back towards her cabin, ushering Silena inside so they could wash up.

Y/N clicked her tongue as she scrubbed the drying paint off her face. Silena was beside her, drying her now clean face with a warm towel. "I can't stand this any longer." She mumbled, running a brush through her hair. She peeled a patch of paint off, scowling in disgust. "Do you think the paint will harm my skin barrier?"

"Oh, absolutely." Silena quickly nodded her head, "We need to do face masks tonight."

Y/N was getting sick of all the pranks that seemed to target her and only her. "Hey, Y/N, we're gonna get breakfast. You wanna come with?" One of her other siblings poked her head around the corner, in the process of changing into a pink shirt.

"Oh, yeah. I'm coming." Y/N flashed Silena a bright smile before joining the other Aphrodite kids.

"Hey, Y/N, don't you think that Connor is kinda cute?" One of the girls nudged her as Y/N tucked herself between Momona and Jacob. Y/N glanced at Connor, frowning.

"No." She scoffed, something she did often whenever Connor was around. "He keeps pulling pranks on me. I can't even see him half of the time because my eyes are always covered in paint."

“She has a point.” Vivviene said, causing Y/N to frown.

“Of course I do. I’m always right.”

Her siblings laughed, throwing their heads back. “Yeah, right!” Jacob exclaimed, “What about that time you said Luke wasn’t guarding the flag and you were wrong? Because he was and he whooped your ass badly!”

Y/N pushed Jacob, playfully scoffing. “It was one mistake! And I landed a few good shots! He got stuck in the infirmary for a week."

“Yeah. And you were with him because of his beating! The Apollo kids found you making out a few times!” Jacob slung an arm around her shoulder, bellowing out another laugh.

Y/N accidently caught Connor's eye from across the room and her smile faltered. She quickly turned her head, the image of her reflection covered in paint engraved in her mind.

She still had paint stuck under her nails and she picked at it. "I'm getting fed up with him." She mumbled, causing her siblings to groan. Y/N scoffed, rolling her eyes. "What?"

"You always talk about him at meals." Jacob said.

"In fact, you're always talking about him. Period." Momona added.

“What if I’m not talking about Connor?” Y/N asked, unknowingly falling into her siblings trap.

"We never mentioned a name.” Vivviene pointed out. Y/N groaned, running a hand through her soft hair. “Maybe he keeps pulling these pranks because he likes you." Vivviene shrugged before eating another spoonful of her food, not noticing how everybody turned their heads to stare wildly at her.

"Excuse me?" Y/N almost choked. "He does not like me. If he did, I don't think he'd be annoying me so much. But I guess boys are naturally annoying." Jacob pursed his lips but nodded in agreement. "Anyway, I have to help some kids with archery practice. I will see all of you later." Y/N grinned at her siblings, teasingly tapping Momona on the nose.

"Oh, great. Tell them to duck when you shoot." Jacob teased.

Y/N rolled her eyes but she still smiled. "Well, I'm off. Bye!" She stood up, gracefully walking away. The kids in the arena seemed to light up as she made her presence known. "Hey kids, great to see you all again! Y'all ready to learn some archery?" The young demigods cheered, excited for their next lesson with the Aphrodite cabin leader instead of the harsh Clarisse.

"So, you just pull the arrow back. As far as you can," Y/N uttered, showing the kids a demonstration. "And once you've got it as far as you can, you just shoot." She let the arrow go, watching as it spiraled through the air and hit bullseye. With that sort of aim, she may as well be an Apollo kid.

The kids clapped while she outstretched her arms, enjoying the applause. "Thank you!" She playfully bowed. "Okay, bows out, arrows ready, and shoot your shot! Quite literally. Aim for the targets over there, not at each other."

The children excitedly grabbed a bow and arrow, trying their best to impress to Y/N. Even if they missed completely, she still clapped and gave them an encouraging pat on the back.

"Great training session guys! I'll see y'all tomorrow!" Y/N waved goodbye to the small group. She was cheerful until she spotted Connor in the distance, conversing with Travis and holding yet another can of paint. She clenched her jaw.

"Connor Stoll, don't you dare use that paint for anything relating to my cabin!" She stormed towards him, sternly pointing at him.

"We weren't planning to but now that you say it, we might." Connor cheekily grinned while Y/N glared at him.

"Stoll, you know I adore everybody in this world... but you are an exception. I loathe you." She poked his chest, "Now, please get rid of the paint in that can."

Connor shrugged. "Okay." He, without a second thought, poured it all over Y/N. For the second time today. She gasped, glowering at Connor.

"You are dead." She said through clenched teeth. "Dead, you nitwit!" She threw a lump of paint at him, hitting him directly in the face. “Honestly.” She scoffed, shaking the paint off. “My skin is going to break out soon and you’ll be to blame!”

She slapped a paint-covered hand on his shoulder before walking off, muttering to herself as she glared at any camper who dared to laugh at her.

“Well, that went smoothly.” Travis said, taking a peek at Connor. “Maybe covering a girl in paint isn’t the best way to woo her.”

“Luke told me it was.”

Travis clicked his tongue, resting a heavy hand on his brother’s back. “… He was messing with you.”

Connor wasn’t a complicated boy. He loved playing pranks but lately Y/N’s reactions had been getting less rewarding. She looked at him like he was the bane of her existence, which he probably was. But how else was he supposed to get her attention?

Without the constant tricks, Y/N would have only ever seen him as another Hermes boy, not worth remembering because her eyes were always on another.

Luke, with his brown-curled hair and a faint scar that ran down his pretty face yet it only elevated his beauty. Connor was pretty sure whatever chemistry and romance between them was done but Luke still snuck glances at Y/N from time to time.

If he was being honest, Connor was a little jealous of his brother. What was his secret to getting Y/N to notice him? Sure, Luke was good-looking but Connor wasn’t lacking in that department either.

"You'll think of something to grab her attention." Travis reassured his brother, nudging him in the ribs, "My advice... plan a picnic. Who knows, it might get you somewhere." The elder Stoll brother tilted his head back, letting out an amused laugh, as he walked away.

Connor clicked his tongue, thinking for a moment. His eyes lit up with mischief as an idea popped into his head. He couldn't guarantee that it was a good one but it's Connor Stoll we're talking about. Y/N woke up with a surprised look on her face. Paint wasn't splattering around her cabin and everybody was sleeping peacefully, not awoken by shrill screams. Y/N furrowed her eyebrows as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. It seemed Connor had finally decided to leave her alone.

She stood up, shivering slightly when her bare feet hit the cold tiles below. She sleepily staggered over to her vanity mirror, peering into it to check her skin as she did everyday. Her appearance was spot on, as usual, except for one thing that made Y/N lose her mind.

Her hair... was pink. It wasn't an ugly type of neon pink but gone were her H/C locks. Y/N tried to hold back a sharp screech but the panic was beginning to set in.

Her half-siblings woke up in alarm.

"My hair..." Y/N seethed to them, barely able to contain her fury, "That little..." She couldn't even find an appropriate insult as her body trembled in anger.

"I'm sure we can wash it out." Silena rushed to Y/N's aid. "It's still early. I'll draw you a bath and we can scrub it out."

Silena was wrong. Two bottles of shampoo later, the color was still vivid.

"I can't go out like this." Y/N said, tugging at the ends of her hair. "They'll laugh at me... and mother, oh gods... she's going to hate me for changing my hair."

"It’s not your fault." Silena comforted her. “I’ll talk to Connor. I’ll make him tell me how to get rid of it. Then we can fix it. Okay?”

Y/N slowly nodded. “This is fine.” She muttered to herself when Silena was long gone. She applied a thin layer of gloss to her lips, soothing herself. “Mother won’t hate you because it was all his doing…” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she looked at her reflection for a second time, she felt her anger flare up again.

As an Aphrodite kid, her appearance was everything. It was her identity and more. "What about personality?" Other campers would ask her and she'd simply laugh. What about beauty? The first thing people will see is how you carry yourself, how you walk, how you look. Personality had nothing to do with first impressions.

Y/N was a beauty among the Aphrodite girls, standing out more than she should. She had always been her mother's favorite. Without her carefully styled H/C hair, who was she? Her hair was an important detail to her and she didn't know what to do now. Would people still love her as they did before? Without her outstanding looks, she was nothing.

Y/N slipped out of her cabin via the window. Everybody was at breakfast so it wasn't hard to avoid people from seeing her hair. Y/N was supposed to be teaching archery again today but she'd rather battle a hellhound than show up with pink hair.

She wandered around the forest, eventually finding herself in front of a small river. A few nymphs sat near the water, giggling together. They spotted Y/N and all gasped in unison, scrambling away except for one who was brave enough to stay.

"I like your hair." She shyly said, coyly kicking her leg into the water. She charmingly smiled before hurrying off after her friends, who laughed at timid behavior.

Y/N fell to her knees in front of the river, staring mindlessly at the cool liquid. She wondered what it found feel like to dunk her head beneath the water, an action she saw the nymphs do quite often.

She didn't know how much time had passed. Maybe it was minutes or hours but Y/N found herself sprawled on a warm rock, basking in the sun. She heard footsteps approach her and she hoped it was Silena. It wasn't. It was Connor instead.

"Oh." Y/N deadpanned, displeased to see him. "It's you." She deeply scowled, turning away.

"You, uh, weren't at breakfast." Connor kicked a nearby rock as he cleared his throat, "And the archery kids were wondering where you were too. Luke had to take over and he may be the best swordsman but he's far from the best archer. He kept missing the target."

Y/N let out a small huff of amusement. "What are you doing here, Connor?" That was the first time she had called him by his first name. She often referred to him as Stoll.

"I wanted to check up on you. Are you... okay?"

"No, Connor, I am not okay!" Y/N suddenly snapped, "Why can't you ever leave me alone? Did I do something to hurt you? I could deal fine with the paint and water buckets but my hair? You dyed my hair pink! My mother loved my H/C hair and now you've ruined it!"

"It won't last forever." Connor retorted, taking a step towards Y/N.

"That doesn't matter!” She screamed, standing up. “My looks are important to me, Connor! I can't pull off pink hair, it doesn't match my skin undertone! I need to be perfect otherwise my mother won’t love me!”

"You can pull anything off, Y/N. You're pretty."

Y/N's eyes momentarily softened as she gazed at him, her cheeks flushing a light hue of pink. "You think I'm pretty? Even... even with messy pink hair, smudged mascara, and fading eyeliner?"

"I think you're always pretty." He answered, “Even when you do those heatless curls that make you look silly. And I think you’re the prettiest when you aren’t trying.”

“Don’t think your compliments will get you off the hook.” Y/N warned, glaring at him.

“Will a star-gazing date at seven get me off the hook?” Connor asked, mischievously grinning.

In turn, Y/N narrowed her eyes. “Maybe.” She uttered before turning around and walking back to camp, concealing her pink hair once more.

PJO TAG LIST : @lostinhisworld @julielightwood @outerbanks-stuff @jennapancake @csifandom @evrybodydies1 @kkrenae @s0ulsniper @annispamz @justanotherkpopstanlol @soraya-09 @simpforeveyone @papichulo120627 @corpsebridenightamare @lilacspider @prettylilsimp @urmomsbananabread @ur-lacol-dsylexic @hottiewifeyyyy @kamiliora @be-bap @finnickodaddy @th0tblckgrl @shoyofroyoyoyo @uniquely-her @imafrkinsimp @syraxesrevenge @ahh-chickens @dracoslovergirl @midnightstar-90 @8812-342 @liv1104 @krkiiz @arialikestea @ch16rles @lizziesliz @maryclx01 @lukecastellandefender @yuminako @coryoskywalker @julielightwood @crybabysbakery @jsbabyyy @liviessun @p3pperm1nttea @angie-esc @purplerose291 @prettylilsimp @10ava01 @froggiesstalks @happy-jj @czennieszn @gisellesprettylies @loveyava @csifandom @luvvfromme @mashiromochi @kamiliora @yorksyree @mqg125 @jamesmackreideswife @niktwazny303 @2hiigh2cry @user021099 @living-in-my-imagination88 @xx-all-purpose-nerd-xx @randomgurl2326 @niktwazny303 @connorstollfanpage

[ssparksflyy]

piper mclean dating hcs !

pairing : piper mclean x gn!reader warnings : grammar and speling mistakes, cursing ( whoops ! ) a/n : ty soooo much for all the love on my percy hcs <3 im currently working on a small annabeth fic that i keep putting off.. yikes. i want to try and update atleast once each week, but pls forgive mee, my family's got a busy schedule, and finals r coming up </3 also IK IK piper's aesthetic isn't too beach-y, but, i adore aphrodite's semi-connection with the ocean so pls forgive me (again, wow second time in one a/n)

piper mclean ily pls marry me

piper is SUCH a sweetie to u &lt;33

that sounded weird- sweetie? is it sweetie? idk

this girl LOVES to spoil u

we all know she's loaded af bcs of her dad

and girlie just adores spending money on things she loves

( aka you )

piper doesn't gaf about the thousands of times you've told her that it really wasn't necessary, and she didn't have to get you anything

she'll do it anyway cause she knows you'll give her a big ol' kiss right after &lt;33

of course, piper'll buy you things that she knows you like or have had you eye on

but she'll also buy you things that'll remind you of her

allow me to explain

say, you don't like hello kitty / it just isn't something you pay attention to

( everybody moved on, i stayed there. page 5. annabeth's pov. mark of athena. "today she was dressed in tattered jeans, worn out sneakers, and a white tank top with pink hello kitty designs." dont play w me )

anyway, say you don't like hello kitty, piper'll still buy you like a tiny plushie or keychain that u can carry wherever, and it'll remind you of her

she also buys herself things that u like, so she can also get reminded of u !

speaking of buying things, piper has all of your favorite colors ( ur lying if u say u only have one ), favorite snacks, fast food orders, and alllll of your preferences down and memorized in her brain

but just in case she also has them down on a small notepad she carries in her bag

movin on, piper adores kissing you omg

she's always peppering you face with quick little kisses

nd then when she stops, she'll just stand there, leaning her cheek towards you bcs she wants kisses too

piper'll kiss you at the most random times

lets be real this girl does not give 2 fucks about pda, she's with her #1, got a problem with it?

so she'll just sneak up behind you, spin you around nd give u a kiss

she's so cute i love her

now

say you were a little nervous about dating piper, bcs yk, many children of aphrodite want their rite of passage, nd she can charmspeak

piper will literally do anything it take for u to trust her completely

i don't think she'd exactly be hurt if u didn't trust her completely in the beginning of your relationship, like, she gets it, but she'd still want to try and solve that asap

she'd literally never use her charmspeak on you unless she HAS to

like say you were gonna do something really stupid that could hurt you

example a : stealing a blue cookie from percy

( idfk bro )

girl would tell you to either put it back or dispose of all evidence befor eyou get smacked in the face with a hurricane

she's js looking out for u ya know

piper's hav hobby is spending time with you

if you tell her that's not a hobby she'll straight up pull out her claim evidence and reasoning

( can u tell english is kicking my ass rn )

she loves cuddling in the aphrodite cabin, as a way to be like "HAH yall wish you could have thisss" to her jerk siblings *cough* DREW

piper likes trying different things, i feel like she'd be really crafty ngl

like she'll LOVE making matching frinedship bracelets for u

and im talking like NICE ones like she's got soo many beads omg

js an example ^^

and ofc she'll want to teach u how to make fancy wavy ones yk

her love language is definitely quality time fight me

in summary, if ur looking for a hot, adorable, trustworthy, affectionate, caring, sweet, spoils u, mrs. treat ! you ! right! , piper's the one for youuuuu !!

a/n pt. 2 : hii! hope u enjoyed this but omg i feel like its kinda short and all i did was ramble abt random stuff in this one ahhh srry

ALSO tumblr WHY won't you let me do a little heart like how much pain would it CAUSE YOU someone make a petition pls

once again, lmk if u want a part 2 to this! currently working on an annabeth fic but after that i think i'll cook up some more percy hcs

speaking of percy, once again again, TYSM for all the love on that, tbh, i thought it was gonna flop but then tumblr was all like "holy moly ssparksflyy! you've reached 100 likes!" and i was like WHAT anyway ilysm and ty for listening to me yap <3

thats all for now! wishing u a wonderful day / night !

peace from manhattan,

percy jackson

[solisaureus]

Robin's Solangelo Fic Recs

many of these fics are old or have a lot of attention already, but if you're antsy waiting for The Sun and the Star to come out, here are some solangelo fics to fill your brain with heart emojis!

double-crossed, star-crossed, fingers-crossed by orphan account - 2.2k - During their first kiss, Nico sees Will glowing, but keeps it to himself. Will doesn’t even know he’s doing it until someone else sees them kissing and gets very flustered. Soooo cute

echoes of lies that i told by demigodbeautiies - 29.9k - College AU, Nico agrees to be Will’s fake boyfriend for Naomi’s wedding. He curses himself later when he catches real feelings, assuming Will would never actually see him that way (spoiler alert: he would).

 My memories of you by Fl_utterby - 56.1k - Will is cursed by Niobe to lose his memories, including his years-long relationship with Nico. When he shows up at Camp Jupiter, Nico arrives to take him to Camp Half-Blood in a cross-country quest with Reyna. Bittersweet and soft with a happy ending!

 i could be your hero by sundaysabotage - 10.8k - a few years down the line, now that Percy Jackson is off at college, Nico finds himself in an unexpected position of senior authority at Camp Half-Blood. It’s not easy to reconcile with his own self-image. Light on the solangelo, mostly a Nico character study, but very good!!

The Rose of Paphos by Tundras_and_Taigas - 19.3k - The Aphrodite cabin unearths a magic item that indicates whether the holder has romantic feelings for someone, and discover that Will has a big crush on some person he won’t identify. Nico finds out about this and gets in his head about who that person could be. Feelings ensue! Also has a whole chapter for Mitchell/Connor if that’s your thing. Very cute and soft with a nice take on the Aphrodite cabin.

our lips set the sun by @thebhorror - 4.1k - a soft first kiss that Nico has spent 10 months agonizing over. In-character and sweet with a delightful payoff.

lich by @pinkerpick - 2.6k - content warning for death, torture, injury, and suicide! Since Thanatos was chained while Nico was in Tartarus, he dies many times and always comes back still trapped in the pit. Also light on the solangelo and more about Nico, this is some seriously well-done angst. The follow-up fic, penitent, wherein Nico confronts Hades about the events of this fic, is also very very good!

i bleed for your love by flannelfeelings - 7.5k - Nico semi-unintentionally keeps getting himself hurt so he can hang out with Will in the infirmary, because he is too repressed to just ask Will to hang out. Super well written, heartwrenching character voice, and butterflies-inducing romance!

Austin’s Best Barbecue also by flannelfeelings - 3.8k - Will gets hurt protecting Nico from a monster, so Nico shadow travels against doctor’s orders to Austin to get Will some of his favorite comfort food from home. While there, he accidentally meets Will's mother for the first time. Super super cute and funny, this author has great fics!

 Falling for You (Literally) by peanutbutterapple - 4.8k - Nico is acting weird before he visits Hazel at Camp Jupiter. On his return, before Will can ask him about it, Drew Tanaka pranks everyone with a magic hat that makes the wearer feel their romantic feelings very intensely for everyone to see. So adorable and Nico’s reason for his weird behavior is the best thing. 

Opportunity Knocks by nikkiRA - 35.5k - Nico tries to kiss Will, who freaks out and rejects him. Nico decides the same day to run away from Camp Half-Blood, but is intercepted by some meddlesome gods who trap him in a time-loop. He repeats the same day over and over until he can find out what it is he was supposed to fix about this day. I love a good Groundhog Day AU and this one is awesome!!

 constant craving (however hard i want, i never really get) by @thebhorror - 5.5k - another banger character study focusing on Nico’s unmet (and then met) need for affection throughout his character arc. A very believable and heart wrenching deliberation on Nico’s character arc and how his relationship with Will complements it! 

there are so many lives i want to share with you by penandblankpaper (@kiarrahatesboys) - 8.7k (so far) -  still a WIP but a WIP that slaps, this is a post-ToN, pre-TSatS solangelo mini-quest story. Rachel informs Will and Nico that they need to take a journey with no goal before they go to Tartarus or they will die. Lots of soft banter and gentle familiarity with a bullet train of angst incoming! Please read it (for me) please please please

Bonus: Solace by solisaureus (that’s me!) - 73k - A Will character study to complement all these Nico character studies, this work spans the entire narrative across all three series. This is my longest PJO fic and the one I poured the most love into! Though the fic is about Will and his coming of age, there’s plenty of solangelo in here.  

I (and many of the other authors in this list) also write a ton of other PJO fics so do check those out too!! :) happy reading!!!

[freddie-77-ao3]

bubblegum bitch was made for drew tanaka no i will not explain further

i just think some of the lyrics really fit

Got a figure like a pin-up, got a figure like a doll -> we see people compare aphrodite kids to dolls all the time

Don't care if you think I'm dumb, I don't care at all -> she created a persona in which she's just the mean girl, even though she isn't actually that 2 dimensional

Candy bear, sweetie pie, wanna be adored -> her entire motivation from what we see is to be liked

I'm the girl you'd die for -> again, she doesn't want to fight (which is fair, she's 14) and would rather have others do it

I'll chew you up and I'll spit you out, 'Cause that's what young love is all about -> Drew views love as a commodity, something to be passed around and played with, esp following silena's betrayal

I'm gonna pop your bubblegum heart -> the entire aphrodite cabin ritual

[jeanmoreausautismstickers]

Silena and Clarisse Headcanons

okok i know im mainly a marauders girly but also ruegard my beloved i must talk about my sunshine x grumpy girlfriends okay i dont care

Silena’s middle name is Rose and Clarisse uses it as a nickname for her (she melts every time)

picnic dates in the strawberry fields!!

Silena is actually really insecure and Clarisse never misses a moment to tell her how gorgeous she is

when they first started dating, Silena figured Clarisse wouldn’t like affection so she tried to hold back on how touchy she is, but then Clarisse actually ended up loving physical affection

Clarisse is SO possessive (Silena adores it)

when Clarisse first met Silena’s dad, she was really nervous because most parents don’t like her, and Silena takes her dad’s opinion VERY seriously, but he ended up absolutely loving Clarisse and they became really close

on the topic of Silena’s dad, Clarisse didn’t like him when they first started being friends (long before they started dating) because she didn’t trust that he was actually good to Silena (she’s a doormat and thinks the best of everyone)

Clarisse asked Silena out but she was in DISTRESS because she wasn’t fully sure Silena liked girls

double dates with Beckendorf and Malcolm Pace :)

Silena calls Clarisse ‘Risse’ (Reese) when she’s not doing great mentally or physically, and its always a signal for Clarisse to try and clear the rest of her day to spend it with Silena

when Silena’s really upset, she goes nonverbal, and the first few times she did it with Clarisse she was really nervous because she wasn’t sure what Clarisse would think and if she would hate her, but Clarisse ended up learning ASL for her and being really patient 

Clarisse doesn’t listen to music, but Silena is a hardcore Swiftie and is obsessed with Harry Styles

Clarisse spends a lot of time in the Aphrodite cabin because she hates the cramped feeling she gets in the Ares cabin. not that the Aphrodite cabin isn’t cramped, but Silena laying on her chest helps ground her and make her more comfortable

they frequently get in trouble with Chiron for sneaking out of their respective cabins, either to go to each others cabins, or to look at the stars together

almost everyone already liked Silena before they started dating, but after Clarisse announced it to her siblings, they all became super protective over Silena

Silena has only every been in three relationships. the first was when she was fifteen with a mortal boy from school and it was super toxic and only lasted a few months, but he had a lasting impact on her. the second was with Beckendorf because they were to scared to admit that they’re queer and then they eventually broke up (and stayed best friends they’re absolutely soul mates just platonically). the third is Clarisse and she’s been the happiest and healthiest by far

Clarisse had never been in a relationship before but when her and Silena started dating, she actually ended up talking to Annabeth about how to be a good girlfriend, and it was a way of apologising and mending their relationship. not only does Silena make her happy, but dating her helped Clarisse apologise for a lot of her past actions and begin new friendships with people

Silena would NEVER ask Clarisse to change herself, but she does frequently scold Clarisse if she feels she’s been too mean to someone

Clarisse would do literally anything Silena asks

Silena gets so mad when she realises she is actually really attracted to Clarisse’s atrocious fashion sense because it makes her look buff and androgynous as hell

Drew doesn’t like Silena At All because everyone likes her more, and she frequently makes fun of Silena for dating Clarisse. Clarisse couldn’t care less until one day she overhears Drew say something incredibly mean and one of Silena’s biggest insecurities to her and she gets so mad she ends up breaking Drew’s nose. Drew didn’t talk about their relationship or Silena again

Lacy thinks their relationship is absolutely adorable and loves gossiping with Silena about it

Silena was like. never told no as a kid. like she was spoilt rotten and Clarisse had ZERO idea how to navigate that when they first became friends so she just let it slide. then it got worse when they started dating and she never quite learnt how to say no to Silena

Silena got to put makeup on Clarisse one time and she was so excited that she couldn’t sit still (she ended up nearly blinding Clarisse, hence why it was one time only) 

Clarisse absolutely adores when Silena wears cute dresses and miniskirts because she loves walking around holding hands or sitting with her arm around her pretty girlfriend and everyone knowing they stand no chance between them

[imaginechb]

Love Letters

Synopsis: You and Connor have been seeing each other in secret, but what happens when that secret gets out?

"Connor stop," you said as the boy in question trailed kisses down your neck. "We're gonna get caught."

He stopped and sighed. "You're right," he agreed. He looked you in the eyes before kissing you again softly and backing up, allowing you to remove yourself from up against the tree.

It fell silent. Not a comfortable silence, but a painful silence. The two of you wanted nothing more than to be together, but you were a daughter of Aphrodite. When you were a daughter of Aphrodite at Camp Half Blood, it was almost a requirement, initiation if you will, to break a heart. Your mother was the goddess of love, and love could be cruel. You knew that, and you were fully prepared to live up to everyone's expectations. At least, until Connor.

You had been friends for as long as you could remember, both being year-round campers who had been there for years. You had never really seen each other in that light before, and then the two of you went on that quest to bring a couple of half-bloods back to camp. You had hidden yourselves in a janitor's closet, leading to rather close quarters. You caught your breath as you hid from the empousa chasing you, standing chest to chest in the darkness.

You looked at him. He was sweaty and covered in gold monster dust, but he was grinning like he was having the time of his life. It was like you were seeing him for the first time. Like, "this is the same dork I met six summers ago?" His crooked smile, his messy curls, the twinkle in his eye. All traits you had seen a million times before, but you had just noticed now.

He turned to look at you and your heart skipped a beat. You were a daughter of Aphrodite, you knew the look he was giving you was a look of adoration. The same look you were giving him. The two of you made eye contact before rushing to close the already short distance between you. You kissed each other so passionately it was like it had been years in the making.

That was four months ago now. Nobody knew about you and Connor, because if they did they would expect you to break his heart. That's what you were supposed to do. So you decided you wouldn't tell anyone and you continued to see each other in secret, the passion never dying. It was nice, and you were happy.

The two of you walked back out of the woods, making sure to leave in separate directions at different times. You couldn't be too careful. You went back to your cabin, where your siblings quizzed you on where you'd been. You had to be very careful what you told them. As they were also children of Aphrodite, they would be onto you in a heartbeat. Especially Drew.

If she had even the slightest notion that you and Connor had been seeing each other, she would charmspeak you into breaking his heart. You'd seen her do it before. Ever since your half-sister Silena died a few months ago, things in Cabin Ten had been... different.

"Hey, y/n! Where did you go?"

"Yeah we missed you at monster fighting class!"

You gulped before turning to face Lacy and Mitchell. "Oh hey guys! Uhh, I was just... at the camp store, talking to Cecil!"

They looked at you for a moment before seeming to buy it. You could have sighed in relief. You were so tired of this, having to hide your love for Connor and lie to everyone at camp. It was exhausting to say the least.

The rest of the day passed by rather uneventfully, and so did the next couple of days after that. Friday brought capture the flag, hot dogs, and the liveliest campfire you'd seen in a long time, with songs and stories told by your peers.

"Alright guys, I've got something I'd like to share with you all. It's rather interesting, I think."

Everyone went quiet and stared at Travis, waiting for him to continue. He pulled something out of his pocket and unfolded it. Then he cleared his throat and began reading.

"'Dear Connor, I wish we didn't have to sneak around like this, I just want the world to know you're mine.'"

Your eyes widened and you gasped. You knew those words. After all, you had written them yourself. But those words were not meant for Travis to read, nor for the rest of camp to hear. They were for Connor and Connor alone. Yet there Travis stood, reading your love letter out loud to the whole camp.

"'But I know that's not possible, I know the consequences. And if I'm honest, I look forward to our secret meetings. The possibility of getting caught makes it that much more exciting. yours always, y/n.' I don't know about you guys, but I had no idea those crazy kids were smooching!" Travis laughed, but no one else did.

Everyone was silent for a few moments before they all started whispering at once. That was it. They knew your secret. You looked at Connor with panicked eyes, and he gave you a nervous expression.

You stood up and the entire amphitheater fell silent again and stared at you. Connor stood and moved toward you, taking your hand in his before clearing his throat.

"So um," he started, using his free hand to scratch his neck. "I guess the cat's out of the bag. Y/n and I are dating. And uh, we didn't wanna tell you guys because she was supposed to break my heart or whatever, and she didn't want to let you guys down. So yeah."

Thank the gods Connor did all the talking because with everyone's eyes on you, under all that pressure, you don't think you could've gotten one word out. That is, until Drew Tanaka stood up.

"Well, y/n, I think you know what you have to do now. I mean, come on, it's tradition! Be a true daughter of Aphrodite. Break his heart. Right here, in front of the whole camp."

For a moment you almost let her charmspeak get to you, but then you looked at Connor's face. He was smiling at you sweetly, knowing what was about to happen and trying to tell you it was okay. His eyes were kind and encouraging, and you knew you couldn't hurt him. You had to break out of Drew's hold.

"No."

Drew looked shocked and appalled. No one had ever been able to resist her charmspeak before. She blinked and her pink eyeliner moved with her eyelids. "Wh-what?"

"You heard me. I'm not going to break his heart. I-I love connor. And I'm not about to let your stupid little initiation ruin what he and I have."

Drew looked infuriated but that didn't even phase you because the boy holding your hand spoke up.

"You... you love me?" He didn't sound upset. He sounded pleasantly surprised, giving you the courage to nod.

"Yeah. I do. I love you, Connor."

"I-I love you too, y/n," he said, giving you the biggest grin you'd ever seen.

The camp aww'd at the display, and Drew rolled her eyes and stormed off. You knew your relationship was safe. You also knew you'd be wearing the shoes of shame for the next week, but right now that didn't matter to you. All that mattered was Connor.

Rae

[drewlover]

Tumblr user drewlover do u have ficrecs for Drew fics?

yes yes ofc ok so buckle up here we go

personal fav is exit, pursued by bear by mcpicktwo. the Drew characterisation in this is *chef’s kiss* i have reread it so many times

i know a girl from a lonely street by makemelovely another very good characterisation of not only Drew but the entire Aphrodite cabin as well. it’s a bit short but i still highly recommend

one of the very first drew fics i read was sidekicks to a story no one asked you to write by book_addict99 and in all honesty was one of the many reasons why i started to like drew and adore her character even more I loved the perception of love in this one

past, present, future by rosegoldblood i just read this earlier this morning actually it has drew & nico friendship i do not need to explain further

those r my faves i’m sure there’s plenty more but these r the only ones i remember atm </3 we need more drew fics in this fandom

[parcai]

Female Characters (PJO and HoO) - Rick Riordan Crit.

Rick Riordan’s portrayals of females are trash because 1) he believes that femininity equates to weakness, 2) to overcorrect the “femininity=weakness” toxic mentality, he promotes faux girl power which is basically just a watered down crash course on toxic “feminism” for impressionable 12 year olds (because that’s exactly how we want to raise our youth; good job, Rick), 3) any girl who is not able to be part of a romantic subplot is disposed of, and 4) there is little variance among his females.

There are a ton more issues interlaced with this, like the fact that he oversexualizes them as minors [Piper with her “embarrassingly low” v-neck dress after Aphrodite’s blessing, or Hazel who’s 13, dating Frank who’s 16 (middle schooler dating a high schooler)], or the balance of power between his WOC characters and cishet female characters (like Annabeth being portrayed as the most powerful when a lot of the WOC characters should be more capable *cough* Hazel is literally the daughter of one of the big three, so why does Rick pretend she’s so weak compared to Annabeth? Could it be that she’s not whi— *cough*), but those are separate tangents for another time, so I’m just going to focus on these four points first.

1) In Rick’s mind, femininity equates to weakness.

The first and probably perfect example of this mentality is Drew Tanaka and the entire Aphrodite cabin. Not only is Drew a terrible portrayal of Asian women, but she’s the worst “mean girl” trope. Drew Tanaka is shown as being gorgeous, and it’s stated that she is interested in makeup and fashion and subsequently bullies girls who aren’t as glamorous. Of course, there are actually girls like this, and that’s terrible, but then Rick turns around and solely promotes “tomboys” and always, always shames “girly-girls,” and that’s when we have an issue. In only villainizing stereotypically feminine interests, Rick shames girls who enjoy these sorts of things. He uses Piper’s distaste for the Aphrodite cabin like a weapon:

“They passed the next cabin, Number Ten, which was decorated like a Barbie house with lace curtains, a pink door, and potted carnations in the windows. They walked by the doorway, and the smell of perfume almost made Piper gag.

‘Gah, is that where supermodels go to die?’

Annabeth smirked. ‘Aphrodite’s cabin. Goddess of love. Drew is the head counselor.’”

- The Lost Hero

In this quote, he shames pink, Barbie, and even carnations just by associating it with Aphrodite, and then it shames Aphrodite too. First of all, what’s wrong with carnations? They’re just flowers. There is nothing feminine or masculine about plants. And Barbie? Barbie’s entire brand is that anyone can be anything, and even if there are many flaws in that company, it shouldn’t be shamed like this, and neither should lace or pink. There is nothing feminine about love either. Love is a universal experience: we feel it in familial bonds, platonic bonds, and romantic bonds. Humans have the ability to bond with goddamn Roombas, for God’s sake. Shame Aphrodite for being a crazy lady, just like the rest of the Olympians, not for being the goddess of love, and do not shame her children for the same. There is absolutely nothing wrong with liking any of these items.

Rick later describes the Aphrodite cabin as despising capture the flag and never participating. (I’m too lazy to find the quote, sorry). Everyone practically shuns them for disliking that game. Why? What’s wrong with having different interests? What’s wrong with liking pink and not wanting to get your hands a little dirty? I would love capture the flag, and I still like pink, even if it’s not my favorite color. Why does Rick have to make it a dichotomy? Why do you have to be either pretty or strong? Why must everyone who adores fancy things be rude? Why is Piper praised for not liking these things? They’re just different, arbitrary interests. Neither should be superior. Rick seriously missed out on the opportunity to show strength in being softer and kinder.

Some people like to bring up Silena as a counterpoint to this. People like to go to their graves saying, “she was a hero, not a traitor,” but the fact remains that the only girl who is more in touch with her feminine roots and not mean ended up spying on the camp for Luke, and her reason wasn’t even completely honorable: 

“Before . . . before I liked Charlie, Luke was nice to me. He was so...charming. Handsome. Later, I wanted to stop helping him, but he threatened to tell. He promised...he promised I was saving lives. Fewer people would get hurt. He told me he wouldn't hurt...Charlie. He lied to me.”

-Silena, The Last Olympian

We could’ve done without the “He was so…charming. Handsome.” part. It would’ve made the whole thing ten times more honorable. If she had followed Luke because she really thought she was doing the right thing and was just a little naive, if Luke had only blackmailed her with Beckendorf’s life, then she would’ve been a hero through and through. Instead, Rick just pinned her as a girl who screwed over the camp because she thought Luke was cute. Not really a stellar resume there.

Like I said earlier, Rick missed out on the opportunity to portray strength in being kind and gentle. Some strong women are athletic with bold personalities and speak nothing but the brutal truth. Some strong women are emotional, enjoy dresses, and love children. Some strong women are hard workers and like STEM. Some strong women are extremely maternal. Some strong women enjoy cooking for their friends, family, and significant others.

There is no perfect mold that can form an exact representation of what a strong woman must be. In society, a strong woman is seen far too many times as an ideal man. They’re praised for doing the equivalent of a man, and that’s great that they’re being praised at all, but women should not be expected to prove their worth in terms of men. While we should continue to highlight when women break barriers and surpass records set by men, women should also be allowed to enjoy activities labeled as feminine. Women are allowed to enjoy “feminine” interests without feeling obligated to apologize or fearing that men will think them weak. Women can do what men do and more, but having “feminine” hobbies do not diminish any gender in any way.

Being “womanly” has been trained into our senses since we were young. The color pink was associated with femininity, and boys shame other boys for liking it, and girls would proudly announce they liked blue more to gain boys’ respect. Any girl who didn’t like sports in elementary school but liked competition in other ways, like mental sports, or didn’t enjoy competition at all and just liked to have fun were deemed “really girly” by every boy and even other girls. Females have been deemed as less worthy girls for enjoying certain colors or activities, and it’s preposterous. Do not feel obliged to feign love of anything for a man’s approval, and the fact that Rick would push such a ludicrous agenda on young, impressionable girls makes me sick.

2) To overcorrect femininity = weakness, Rick basically spitballs faux girl power.

“I’m not like other girls” is basically Rick’s motto for every one of his female characters. He frequently pits girls against one another. As I mentioned earlier, Piper McLean and Drew Tanaka are really good examples of this.

“There was some giggling from the Aphrodite cabin. God, what a bunch of losers, Piper thought. But it didn’t do much to break the tension.”

Piper - The Lost Hero

Congratulations on turning Piper into a Strong Woman™, Rick. Apparently giggling is cancelled too. By depicting Piper as a “not like other girls” girl and then praising her for it, he encourages his young female readers to compare themselves to other girls and participate in this competition of women created by society. I think most people know about Drew and Piper being set against each other, but another one that I think more people forget is the beef between Annabeth and Rachel.

Normally I would say jealousy is a good flaw to give a character. The best flaws are relatable flaws, flaws that regular people have. And people do get jealous. But if that's the only flaw Rick’s really going to give Annabeth besides “pride” (which is also romanticized for absolutely no reason) and then also have no one hold her accountable for it, then I don't want it. Annabeth is consistently praised and thought of as “funny” for calling Rachel stupid and basically being a bitch about someone else liking Percy, despite Rachel remaining cordial the entire time. Then Rick goes ahead and paints Annabeth as a badass feminist who doesn’t take crap from anybody else. Yeah, okay. Because hating other women makes you really strong. Sure.

The third example is Reyna, pitted against both Piper and Rachel. I won’t really delve into it because I feel like I’ve made my point for this, but it’s basically the same thing: “I, a girl, am very strong and hate people and I dislike you, another girl, just for fun, and it makes me strong.” Revolting.

Another tactic Rick frequently uses to portray the strength in his females is making them very shouty and loud and very powerful. While some women really are like that (which is okay too!), not every girl is. It’s a shame that’s the only depiction of strong female characters Rick can offer. And then he also takes it too far. Not only are Annabeth, Rachel, Reyna, Thalia, Piper, *insert all his other female characters* really loud and angry individuals, but sometimes they get downright abusive, and it’s supposed to be funny? I think? A good example of this is Annabeth judo-flipping Percy when she sees him at the Roman camp for the first time. (Hurting Percy Jackson, omg sWOoN). Like, what is this? A kink or something, Richard? Strong women do not need to put down men to be strong. Feminism is the belief that women deserve equal respect as men, not that women are superior to males. This whole “tsundere” look is in bad taste in my opinion.

People often use Hazel as a counterpoint to the “shouty girls.” And that’s fair. Hazel is soft and kind, except there’s the issue I mentioned way, way earlier: Hazel is kind and soft-spoken (unless it’s something very important), and then she’s also shown as being weak. Because kindness and quietness means you’re weak. Perfect. Good job, Richard.

(I would also like to point out that it’s not just girls putting down other girls either in this whole toxic “feminism” agenda:

“Some girls kept looking over at Piper and Dylan and snickering. Jason figured these girls were the popular clique. They wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a Halloween party.”

Jason - The Lost Hero

Matching jeans and tops. Makeup. Oh, the horror. How could they like dressing up? How evil!!!11!1

3) Any girl not part of romantic subplots is thrown out.

This means that Rick associates value in characters with romance, and that’s disgusting. He does this a bit with boys too, like with Grover who we never see again after getting Juniper, and other examples, but at least they have purposes by themselves. Grover was meant to find Pan, and once he did that, I guess I can excuse dropping the ball with him. But sometimes it just makes zero sense.

Examples: After Percy chose Rachel, Rick really just yeeted Rachel out of the universe. He just said the Oracle can’t date, and we basically never see her for more than a couple moments despite the fact that she’s really good friends with Percy, was/is super respectful of Percy’s choice to date Annabeth, and is overall just a cool girl who chucked a blue hairbrush at Kronos.

Another example is Thalia. Thalia just randomly joins the hunt. I can see how she joined it to spite her father, or because she didn’t want to be part of the prophecy, but I just find it weird that she’s super attached to Luke and everything, and then just dips as soon as he’s dead. We deserve to see her still ruffling Percy’s hair, much to his distaste, and dropping by to hang around Jason, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, hanging out with Annabeth. So, what, just because Luke dies, so does her familial relationship with Annabeth? Bullshit.

Third example: Calypso. In @meclusa’s rant on Leo, she explained this really well, so I won’t delve super deep into it and will rather redirect you to her blog, but basically, Calypso was just rejected by Percy and then passed over to be someone else’s prize instead. She’s “awarded” to Leo because poor Leo never got a girl (Alexa play despacito). Revolting. I would’ve loved to see her get off the island and then go explore the world on her own before even considering being shipped with someone else. I could also totally see her joining the Amazons or the hunt, not because she deserves no page time, but because she just wants to be free and travel from place to place.

The fourth and most famous example is Reyna. After being rejected by both Percy and Jason, what does Rick do? Rather than allowing her to be a strong Praetor who’s independent and still kickass, he ships her off to the hunt full of twelve year old girls. Praetorship is such an honor, and she worked so hard to get there, and you really think she’d give it up to run around with prepubescent girls just because two boys didn’t like her? Give me a break.

Female characters should not be disposed of because they can’t be paired with anyone. The same goes for boys, of course, but this post is mainly about his interpretation of females, not males.

4) Who’s who?

I’m going to give y’all a description, and I want you to tell me which character I’m talking about: “She’s strong. Beautiful. She fights really well. Funny. Sarcastic. She’s loud and opinionated.” Confused? Great, so am I. My fourth main point is that Rick gives his female characters no discernable personalities. I mentioned this a bit earlier at the end of point two, but I really want to expand on it here.

When we compare discernibility to the boy characters, it’s a little bit easier. If I say, “He’s strong. Ruggedly handsome. He fights really well. Funny. Sarcastic. He’s loud and opinionated,” we would probably immediately pin that to Percy, right? He’s the most sarcastic of the boys, besides Leo, but Leo’s not shown as fighting really well or incredibly physically strong, so it’s easier to pick out who we’re talking about. Granted, it’s still not perfect because his development of HoO characters is nearly non-existent, but it’s still easier:

Jason is very much the Good Guy™, and he’s a leader who always serves the greater good; Percy is loyal to the select people that he loves, and he’s more rebellious and snarky and dark (his hatred of the gods and understanding that he serves his friends first, not the greater good); Leo is supposed to be the ironic comedian with a sad backstory whilst still providing humorous relief (though @meclusa had a very good essay as to why this is a huge L); Frank is…actually, I don’t even know what his purpose was, seeing as he had zero characterization other than a buff glow-up (which was fatphobic but whatever); Nico carries the greatest burdens of them all, what with growing up in another time period and struggling with homosexuality as well as the stigma of being a child of Hades, and he has this wonderful nuance and operates in shades of grey, but ultimately, he has a good heart; Luke is Percy’s counterpart, in that they share similar values, but he’s more like the cautionary tale of what happens when you take any belief to the extreme.

In comparison to these guys, the female characterizations fall flat. They have little to no discernable personalities, other than the fact that they have different names, different parentages/powers, and different appearances. They either fall in the category of being weak and powerless and kind, pretty and fashionable and villainous, or Strong Independent Woman™ where they just do and say questionable things while yelling at the top of their lungs and stabbing boys and wearing sneakers but still being oh-so-effortlessly-pretty-how-does-she-do-it-wOW.

Rick has no place pretending that he knows how to write strong female characters. You do not just create Mary Sues and hand them weapons and then market them as the perfect role models for girls. You do not create beautifully nuanced boys (Percy and Luke are my favorite examples for this) and then pretend that girls cannot be as complex and dynamic of characters.

You do not under any fucking circumstance shove these toxic ideas into the faces of young, impressionable middle school girls so that they grow up thinking they can’t like pink and be opinionated and be compassionate and be intelligent and kick ass and look fabulous while doing it all. Humans are not black and white. They are not inherently good or evil. Please extend the same courtesy to your female characters. We deserve to be represented just as well, and we deserve to be given more thought in the writing process just like your boys.

Fuck faux girl power. And fuck Rick’s idea of feminism and female portrayals. If you read through this whole thing, thank you lmao. I’m sorry if it was a little messy. I was rushing through it, and I could talk about this for hours, but I tried to shorten it.

Also shout out to @meclusa and @finding-my-culture whose criticisms of Leo and Piper, respectively, inspired me to write my own on another thing I despise about Rick’s writing. Y’all really are iconic, and I love you. Oh, and shout out to team seven and other PJO bloggers in the PJO discourse (@valgraced, @hazelmagix @caiprisa, @reynaisalesbian, @tridentgum, @dykeplants, @hazelslevesquee, @silima, @bunkernine, @mclean, @piperisgay, @pjolesbian, @charlesbeckendorf, etc.) (If you don’t already follow them, go do that right now). I recently followed all of y’all, and your rants are honestly something else. And that’s on holding authors responsible for their shit.

[toffrox]

Rumours (3)

this one’s for you @yourlocalgryffindorsolangelostan! 

read on Ao3

read part one | read part two

October

The rumours started before they even got back to camp.

Jason and Piper were perched on the edge of Sally Jackson's couch, their bellies full of blue chocolate chip cookies. They had already finished telling Percy and Annabeth about their unsuccessful search for Leo, and the gloom that had settled over Jason from the moment they'd decided it was useless to keep searching had not quite lifted. Percy seemed to have sensed this and had subsequently launched into an uproarious account of everything that had been happening with them in New York in the time they'd been gone.

Jason made himself focus on Percy, letting the rambling way he talked lull him back into some kind of familiarity after weeks of uncertainty on the road.

Things were weird with Piper, and Jason could tell that Annabeth had noticed. He feigned obliviousness, avoiding her calculating stare and laughing along to Percy's story about swim tryouts at his new school.

Perhaps Piper was attempting to avoid Annabeth's scrutiny as well because she kept Percy talking by steering the conversation to what they'd missed at Camp Half Blood. She asked after her siblings first.

"Yeah, they're great." Percy told her. "Drew's running a tight ship, as usual, when she's not disrupting archery sessions with Nico."

"Archery sessions?" Piper repeated blankly.

"With Nico?" Jason raised an eyebrow.

"I know, I was surprised too," said Percy. Annabeth smirked at them both, looking very much unsurprised.

"Nico's still partnering with the Aphrodite cabin for chores." Annabeth explained. "They've been getting close ever since you left."

"Why archery?" asked Jason.

Percy shrugged. "Who knows?"

Jason guessed that the answer to that question was 'Annabeth', given the way she was still smirking, but she didn't say anything.

"Nico's been practically joined at the hip to the Apollo cabin these days." Percy said, a smirk of his own starting to tug at the corners of his lips.

"Yeah?" said Piper.

Annabeth smiled. "Yep. Every time we visit he's with them. At archery training with Kayla, at their cabin for movie nights... in the infirmary with Will-"

"Or at dinner with Will, or at the beach with Will or helping set up the campfire with Will." Percy chipped in. He had his arms crossed, like he wasn't quite sure whether he approved yet. But he was fully grinning now, unable to resist the opportunity to tease his friend.

"I'm sensing a trend." Piper's voice was warm with sarcasm.

"So are the two of them-?" Jason raised his eyebrows and locked eyes with Annabeth.

Nico had admitted to having feelings for Will just before Jason left. Jason had encouraged Nico to share his feelings if he felt ready. He had been certain that Will felt the same way. But he hadn't been completely convinced that Nico would go through with it. Hope and excitement started to build in his chest at the thought that maybe he'd underestimated him.

Except that Percy and Annabeth were now exchanging frowns.

"We don't actually know," said Percy.

"It's possible they're together and they just haven't told us but..."

"Mostly they just act adorable together over dinner and hold hands at the campfire when they think no one can see." Percy finished off. He rolled his eyes. "Everyone at camp will be talking about it. I'm sure they'll fill you in."

"I'm sure they will." Piper said darkly, no doubt thinking of her siblings.

Jason held back a grin, and for the first time in weeks he started to actually look forward to returning to Camp.

-

Sally dropped them off at Half Blood Hill later that day and Chiron met them at the camp border.

Jason let Piper fill him in on their search attempts, unable to say the words himself. Guilt roiled in his stomach. He hated that they were returning to their lives while Leo was alone and Gods knew where.

Chiron didn't seem angry or disappointed. He praised them for their restraint. He said it would be good for them to focus on their studies after so long questing. He was probably right, but that didn't make Jason's conscience any lighter.

He felt Piper's hand on his arm, gentle and reassuring, like she knew exactly what he was thinking.

He thought about pausing his step and turning to thank her, to talk to her about how he was feeling. In the end, he was glad that he didn't, because she had already heard it about a million times over the course of the past week, and because the sight that greeted him as they came into view of the Big House porch was an even better comfort.

"Jason!"

Jason's mouth stretched into a massive grin before he could stop it.

For a few moments, thoughts of Leo spun out of his head entirely. His entire body felt lighter without them.

Nico was standing on the balcony dressed in head to toe black, his jacket still worn and oversized and his hair still uncut; it was almost brushing against his collar now, some strands pushed away from his face and some flying loose, tickling his cheek. His smile was open and relaxed.

Jason's heart lifted to see him so happy. Over the summer and at the start of fall, Jason had watched Nico grow more comfortable at Camp, but the change in him now was even greater. And Nico knew it, too. He welcomed them back onto the porch like this really was his home.

When Jason reached out for a hug, Nico didn't hesitate. And when he pulled back he turned to greet Piper with equal fondness.

"It's so good to have you back." He told them eagerly.

"It's good to be back." said Jason, surprised to find he actually meant it. At his side, Piper was beaming at Nico, a knowing spark in her eye.

Nico asked them both how they were, but he mercifully did not mention Leo. It was as if he knew that returning their thoughts to their unsuccessful mission would irreparably dampen their thoughts.

Instead, he asked after the Jacksons and Annabeth. He walked with them across the green, leading them to the Aphrodite cabin so that Piper could reunite with her siblings. He walked ahead, half turned back towards them, his body familiar with the route.

There was a great screech when they reached the porch of Cabin Ten, and Jason watched as Nico's face scrunched into an affectionate wince before Lacy's tiny body was hurtling past them and slamming into Piper. Piper stumbled back, laughing. Her other siblings hurried out of the cabin and down the stairs to meet her. Even Drew came to the doorway, leaning against the doorway and rolling her eyes. She acknowledged Nico with a tiny nod, and the corners of Nico's mouth twitched.

Jason watched it all. His chest was warm with a mixture of fondness and wonder and a little bit of jealousy.

Nico caught his eye and stepped back slightly from the chatter of the Aphrodite campers.

"Cabin One?" He suggested.

Jason nodded. He gestured to Piper that he'd see her later and then pulled back, watching Nico with a sidelong glance as he fell into step alongside him, his footsteps light and breezy.

"Mind if I hang with you this afternoon? I don't have anything scheduled for the afternoon."

"You got a pretty tight schedule these days then, huh?" Jason teased.

"I guess so." Nico shrugged.

Jason's grin only widened. "That's really great, Nico."

He tried not to investigate his feelings too deeply upon returning to Cabin One. The hard stare of Zeus was still uncomfortable, even after so long living under it in the time before and after the quest on the Argo II. And yet Jason's things were all here. There were photos tacked on the wall and the beds had been pushed and dragged around into a formation he actually liked; his own bed tucked out of the Zeus statue's gaze and another pulled out across from it to act as a couch for movie nights or visiting friends.

Nico dropped onto that bed now, making himself at home as Jason began to unpack.

They hadn't been in Cabin One long when there was a light knock on the door. Before he had even looked up to see who it was, Jason watched, astonished, as Nico's entire posture changed.

His shoulders, laidback in a slouch before, became filled with tension. His back ratcheted straight. He looked coiled up, ready to spring forward at any moment.

At the same time, his eyes brightened. His hand jumped to his hair, smoothing it down and out of his face. He turned his gaze to the door, his smile wide and eager and almost... giddy.

Jason felt his own lips curling into a smirk as he turned his own face to the door to see-

Will Solace.

Of course.

Jason tried to rein in his grin, but it was difficult when Nico and Will were gazing at each other with such open adoration.

Will turned to Jason with an easy smile, as if nothing was out of the ordinary at all.

"Hey Jason, welcome back!" He said cheerily.

"Thanks." Jason said, forcing himself not to slide his eyes back to Nico with curiosity.

"How was the last leg of your journey?" Will asked.

"Not too bad. Glad to be out of the monsters' reach."

Will nodded. "Figured I'd drop by and check there was no healing required."

Nico watched them closely. There was an expression of admiration on his face like Will had just offered to cook Jason a three course meal as a welcome home present.

"Thanks, man. I'm all good." Jason said.

"Sweet."

"Are you staying to hang out?" Nico asked, unable to keep the hopefulness out of his voice.

Will looked at Jason uncertainly and Jason attempted to school his expression to make it clear that that would be totally fine with him. Except then Will checked his watch and grimaced.

"I'm actually on duty until late today." He admitted. "I don't get off until after dinner."

He seemed almost nervous telling Nico this, and again Jason watched as Nico struggled to hide his obvious emotions (disappointment rather than hopefulness this time).

"You two could drop by the infirmary on your way to the campfire, though?" Will suggested. "Then we can walk down together?"

It was such a short walk across the green, but Nico seemed to perk up at the suggestion.

"Actually-" Jason cut in, watching Nico closely for his reaction, "I'll probably be walking with Piper and her siblings. I'll meet the two of you at the campfire instead maybe."

Nico's delight at the prospect of alone time with Will and his embarrassment at Jason's clear read on the situation was so obvious that Jason had to physically restrain his own laughter. He couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He had never seen Nico so ineffective at hiding his emotions.

Will didn't seem to find this out of the ordinary, which only made Jason's laughter harder to hold back.

"Works for me. Guess I'll see y'all tonight then?"

Jason grinned at him and watched Nico shift as though to stand up and say goodbye before visibly forcing himself to stay seated.

Will shut the door behind him. Nico leant back against the cabin wall, as if nothing unusual had just happened. Jason stared. The laugh he'd been holding in finally made it to his throat, and it spilled out of him, fuelled on by Nico's half-embarrassed scowl.

"Um- what was that?"

"What was what?"

"You and Will!" Jason folded his arms, unwilling to budge on this one. Nico's cheeks were steadily turning red.

"W-What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?" Jason scoffed. "You just spent that entire interaction practically gushing."

"I did not!" Nico cried out, mortified.

"Um. You definitely did."

Nico swore and turned away from Jason. Jason smothered another laugh.

"Dude, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, he was the exact same way."

Nico rolled his eyes. "No, he wasn't."

"Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious!"

"Why would Will be gushing about me? And even if he was, then he shouldn't be. He deserves-"

"Nope." Jason cut him off, suddenly stern. "We are not having this conversation, di Angelo. I've been back like two seconds."

Nico begrudgingly let it go and turned back to face him. His cheeks were returning to their normal colour and he attempted a smile, but it came out guilty. Jason sighed.

"So are you two, like... a thing now?"

"What?" Nico looked aghast. "No! Of course not! I- We- Is that what people have been saying?"

"No, no!" Jason backtracked. "I just assumed, from the way you were both- I mean- I dunno, isn't that what you want? To be a thing?"

"I- Yes. No. I don't know!" Nico threw himself down on the bed, covering his face with his hands. Jason waited.

"I've... been thinking about making a move." Nico admitted, his face half smushed into the mattress of the bunk. "Like an actual move not just... And I think that Will wants that. And I know that everyone else already thinks we're together, I just... haven't got round to it."

"You haven't got round to it." Jason repeated.

Nico looked up from the bed properly to glare at him.

"Sorry." Jason said immediately, except he was grinning. "I mean, that's fine Nico. You don't need to make a move until it works for you, right? Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. It clearly isn't an issue for Will."

Nico chewed his lip. "You don't think it's weird how everyone at camp is talking about us?"

Jason sighed. "Maybe it's a little weird. And I know it makes you uncomfortable but... maybe they're just excited for you?"

Nico did not seem convinced.

"Anyway, let's talk about something else. How has it been running combat training?"

Nico's posture relaxed at the sudden shift and he smiled at Jason, relieved and grateful. Jason smiled back, happy to be back with his friend.

-

At dinner, Nico was restless, his eyes flicking to the Apollo table whenever there was a lull in conversation.

Jason did not comment on this. He pulled a book on the lesser Greek Gods that Annabeth had leant him out of his bag and flipped it open on the table, since it seemed unlikely that Nico would be particularly chatty over dinner.

Earlier they'd dropped by Bunker 9 to give Leo's siblings an update on his and Piper's search.

The update had been extremely depressing. But Jason had been temporarily distracted from that towards the start of the conversation when one of the younger Hephaestus kids smiled slyly at Nico and asked: "How was your afternoon at the beach with Solace the other day, di Angelo?".

Nico had shot her a glare so withering it probably could have killed all the plants, small animals and insects within a six foot radius. Had they been outside and not in a workshop full of electronics, it probably would have. And yet the Hephaestus campers had just sniggered, their eyes glittering with a mix of delight and guilt at Nico's reaction.

Now, Jason could tell that Nico was positively itching to ditch the Zeus table and make a beeline for the infirmary where he planned to meet Will. It was a miracle Jason had resisted teasing him up to this point.

Mercifully, Jason hadn't long finished his brisket when Piper and her siblings sidled up to the head of their table ready to walk down to the campfire.

"You coming?" Piper asked, looking cheery and gorgeous as ever in the dwindling light of the evening.

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you down there, Nico?" Jason asked, dragging his gaze back across the table to his friend.

Nico was completely zoned out, still staring slack jawed across the pavilion to the Apollo table, despite said table being empty (Austin and Kayla would already be down there with the satyrs, setting up instruments).

"Nico." Jason reached out and waved a hand over Nico's face.

Nico blinked and started a little, his gaze snapping rather confusedly to Piper and Lacy and then back to Jason. The two girls were smirking at Nico openly.

"I'm gonna join Piper and head down to the amphitheatre," Jason said. "I'll see you and Will down there?"

"Oh," Nico said. His cheeks reddened at the mention of Will's name. "Uh, yeah, see you there."

Jason grinned and tucked his book under his arm.

Once they'd left the pavilion, Piper and Lacy looked at him expectantly.

"So?" Piper prompted. "Did he tell you? Is it official?"

Jason huffed out a rather surprised laugh.

"Um, aren't you supposed to be clamping down on the overactive Aphrodite camper rumour mill, as head counsellor?"

"Technically." Piper admitted. "Except that Drew usually acts as a counterbalance to that by spilling literally everyone's dirty secrets to anyone who will listen, but she's remaining suspiciously tight lipped on this particular topic."

"It's true." Lacy chimed in, looking grave.

"You're our last hope, Grace." Mitchell said heavily from behind him, where Mitchell and two of Piper's other sisters were listening attentively.

Jason rolled his eyes.

"I'm not disclosing anything." He said.

"Boooo!" Lacy and the others pouted.

"Because, there's nothing to tell." Jason added. "I don't think anything's actually happened that you're not already aware of."

"Ugh, this is driving me nuts!" Lacy cried. "They have been spending practically every day together. And still, nothing!"

"Did you see him helping out in the infirmary this morning?" Sighed Paris, one of the girls behind them. "So cute."

"I still don't buy that nothing happened when they disappeared off to the beach on Tuesday." Mitchell mused. "They were gone all afternoon, and Drew said he spent the evening with her and the Apollo cabin for a movie night that evening."

"Something must have happened." Paris agreed.

"Ok, ok, we gotta stop." Piper intervened right as they were coming into the amphitheatre. She looked amused, despite her heavy tone. "Leave the poor lovebirds to confess their feelings at their own pace. No more gossip for the rest of the evening."

Her siblings grumbled and pulled faces, but they grudgingly shifted the topic to what songs they hoped to be singing tonight and took their seats.

-

As it turned out, Piper's instructions would prove very difficult to follow, even for Jason and Piper themselves.

When Nico and Will sidled down into the amphitheatre, only just making it on time, they were both vibrating with nervous energy.

They were rather determinedly not looking at each other, despite the fact that they were walking so closely together their fingertips were almost brushing and their shoulders were practically pressed together.

Something had definitely happened in the space between Nico leaving the dining pavilion and the two of them showing up here.

Jason attempted as best he could to keep a straight face and lifted a hand in greeting. Nico led them down to the row behind Jason and Piper and they took their seats.

Will was staring straight ahead somewhat resolutely when Jason leaned back towards Nico. Nico leaned forward to meet him. His eyes were flashing in a silent warning, but Jason simply couldn't help it.

"You're looking cheerful. Didn't realise you missed me so much."

Nico's lips twitched and Jason heard a puff of laughter.

"Don't read too much into it, Grace." He muttered.

Jason's eyes flicked over to Will, who was now very unsubtly watching Nico out of the corner of his eye. He turned his own gaze back to Nico.

"Oh, I don't have to." He said, smirking as Nico blushed down at his own lap, unable to retort. He looked happier than Jason had ever seen him, and Will was now staring at him with an achingly soft smile, completely unguarded.

Jason smiled. He turned back to face the campfire, leaving the two of them be.

Piper caught his eye, and Jason felt his heart creep into his throat when he saw the unfettered joy on her face.

He knew that the delight in her eyes would be mirrored in Jason's eyes too. The two of them hadn't had good news in a long time.

Jason grinned back at her.

He was pretty sure that in the row behind them, Nico and Will were holding hands.

[thebigqueer]

rick wrote drew's character horribly. it was so sexist and stereotypical. like 90% of the asian characters he does are assholes. he did her and the Aphrodite cabin sooo dirty. silena was the "good" one, but she's dead so- Anyways, can you do some "if drew wasnt bad rep" hcs

hey babe you’re fuckin right you’re so smart. i hated the way he portrayed not only drew but like the entirety of the aphrodite cabin in such stereotypical & harmful ways. like no? not every child of aphrodite is going to be “AWWW ROMANTIC LOVE IS THE END GOAL!!!” or all about fashion or whatever. and drew did not deserve that - what was the point??? i mean i guess it shows like this power imbalance but still. he just doesn’t really know how to write women imo

anyway yeah

she actually adores dogs idk i feel like she would

all that anger & meanness that she projected onto her siblings wasn’t really cool and shouldn’t really be excused (and i wish rick hadn’t even made her that way) but i think one of the reasons for her anger was b/c she and silena may have been close and she just feels betrayed so its like her response to trauma ig??

she actually listens to like lana del rey or something (yes ik ldr is kinda problematic but like i think drew would be into the vibes, not the actual artist)

her fav color is purple

i don’t know if this is actually canon or if my brain has just short-circuited but anyway she does hip-hop dance classes and she’s pretty good

i ship drillie so... she’s queer (haven’t decided on sexuality) and dates billie <3 (thanks to @liperbicons for getting me into them aslkfjd)

she actually really likes pegasai

she loves to travel 

she’s amazing at photography

i hope you liked those!

[whatohitsonfirewelp]

I’m just going to adopt all side characters from J.K Rowling and Rick Riordan and make them mine.

Like yes Seamus and Dean are together and happily married.

So are Lavender and Parvati and they are awesome and have their own little shop with tea and tea leaves and all that stuff.

Blaise got a freaking vacation after having to deal with all the drama that he absolutely did not sign up for and when he comes back he’s really chill and it freaks everyone out at first but they get use to it. Just don’t get him angry, he will blow up at you.

All of them get therapy, I don’t care how old they are all these traumatized shits need therapy.

Next gen also gets therapy because it’s not easy.

James Sirius Potter is not a prankster but he does enjoy jokes and he has more of a dry humor.

Fred Weasley Junior is a prankster but he becomes a healer because he wants to make people laugh and heal them. His parents get really emotional over it and still call him their “baby boy”

Hugo Weasley adores reading but it’s mostly fictional and sci-fi and he gets them from muggle book shops. Ron ends up loving them and both will read a series together and argue (in a nice way) about whatever their reading and what they think will happen and stuff. He also gets diagnosed for adhd or something and that opens a whole new world for their family and their magical community.

Molly and Lucy are not twins and Molly is a squib. I read a fic about that but I can’t find it or remember who wrote it. She’s still a badass and adores who she is. Lucy has like mechanical leg but spells were created so that she can still fly on her broom and play quidditch.

Moving on because I can’t remember all of that right now

Drew is a bitch but she isn’t the worst person ever and after having a small breakdown everyone realizes that she’s still really hurt by Selina because that was her big sister who still betrayed her. Drew also can not paint her nails to save her life but she can walk in any heels without batting an eye and she’s tall, this is a tall girl who will wear heels without any shame and it’s the best thing ever.

Malcolm is the biggest nerd of all time. He knows everything about whatever he’s hyper fixed on but this boy can’t tell you anything about Greek mythology because he simply does not give a shit. Seriously, this dude can tell you everything about glue but he repeatedly mixes up gods and goddesses (it just got worse when he learned about Romans)

Clovis as we know travels through dreams and all that jazz, this dude when awake is the biggest gossip and no one (including him) actually knows if what he says is true because it’s from dreams. But he does give the great updates on celebrities and the younger campers love him because he’s the best story teller. He’s also lactose intolerant because I said so and he hates it with his entire soul and when he’s feeling petty he will eat an entire tub of ice cream even if he regrets it later.

Mitchell (son of Aphrodite) cares about what others think of him but he’s also really kind and while he won’t always stand up for himself he will absolutely destroy someone if they say anything about his siblings (and aren’t one of his siblings. Only his siblings can make fun of each other) and at some point he decides to change his entire bed and colors. Like this dude says screw social gender norms and now the cabin is this beautiful disaster and all of them love it. He also once shaved his entire head after one of his siblings got their eyebrows burned off.

After the wars Jake Mason is completely done with everyone’s bullshit. This boy is tired and he have zero fucks left to give. He’s unhinged and is chaotic lawful. He always has an energy drink in one hand and while he respects and listens to the camp counselor and Chiron he once climbed on top of his cabins table at lunch and sat in the middle while eating some sort of candy that he refuses to share.

Travis Stoll and Connor Stoll are not twins. Connor is trans and gay and Travis is bi and cis. Connor is literally one of the smartest people in camp and he had a small side business where he does homework for others (even over iris message) for some stuff in return. He and Annabeth are great friends and scare everyone when the team up. Travis changes a bit in college, it’s been so long since he didn’t have to constantly take care of other campers and younger siblings and at first he has no idea what to do. He’s literally the definition of disaster college student that has no idea how he’s passing class but he is. He’s also great friends with Annabeth but not as close to her as Connor. But the three of them absolutely consider each other siblings since they grew up together and with Luke as their older brother who hurt them.

That’s all for now!

[stanning-reyna]

A Different Tail - Chapter 3

Annabeth now expected to see Percy each evening she went out on the dock. She’d leave the dining pavilion after all of her siblings finished dinner, head to the beach, and wait for him to poke his head out of the water. He wasn’t a big talker, but she didn’t mind. It was nice to see him, and nice to know that she made a good enough impression that he wanted to come back. 

Annabeth found herself thinking about him all the time, even during training when she needed to pay attention or risk getting hit with a sword. He had the prettiest eyes that she couldn’t get out of her mind, and his voice constantly occupied her brain.

She was aware of what this was - she had a crush. Under any normal circumstance, Annabeth would talk to her friend Silena, a daughter of Aphrodite, about any sort of feelings she had, but this time she couldn’t do that without risking Percy’s safety. Camp was very clear about how unwelcome creatures would be treated, especially merfolk. 

Tonight was Camp’s weekly game of capture the flag, but instead of partaking in the activities as usual, Annabeth was taking the opportunity of distracted counselors to spend the entire evening on the beach.

The shallow waves crashed on the sand as she made her way to the canoe dock where her and Percy always met. From where she walked she could see his tail sliding along the surface of the water, both elegant and powerful. It always amazed her just how strong his tail was, made of impressive muscle and at least twice the length of her legs. 

As Annabeth stepped onto the first wooden plank of the dock, an arrow flew right past her, landing in the water. She whipped around and drew her dagger, expecting a foe. Instead she saw Michael Yew from the Apollo cabin, bow draw and arrow notched. 

“There’s something in the water, just look.” he said with urgency in his voice. Oh no, Annabeth thought. He must’ve spotted Percy. She turned towards the ocean and knelt over the edge of the dock. There was no sign of Percy, she had no doubt he was long gone, spooked by the arrow. 

“There’s nothing there. The sunlight must have caught your eye or something,” she announced. He looked skeptical for a moment, but Annabeth shot him a challenging look and he accepted it. “What are you doing here anyway, isn’t capture the flag supposed to be starting?” she asked. 

“Yeah, I was sent to get you.” She hadn’t expected anyone to notice her missing that evening. Curse Camp and its stupid ‘include everyone’ rules.

“Tell people I’ll be there soon. I have something to finish up first,” Annabeth told Michael. He nodded and ran back towards the woods to join his team. She waited till he was out of sight, then sat down, her feet dangling over the water. Her hands were pressed against the dock, the old wood threatening her skin with splinters. 

Something tapped Annabeth’s foot and she looked over the edge. She was greeted by Percy’s face staring up at her from between her feet. He looked anxiously towards the direction Michael had run to.

“Don’t worry, he won’t be coming back,” she said in an attempt to ease his nerves. It seemed to work and he poked her foot again, causing a smile to spread across Annabeth’s face. She found Percy’s fascination with new things adorable. He had spent most of their time together examining her legs in awe, but she couldn’t deny staring at his tail more than the acceptable amount herself.

Suddenly a pout formed on Percy’s face. He’s cute when he pouts, she thought. “You’re very nice. Other humans aren’t nice to me,” he said without meeting her eyes. She had just witnessed firsthand with Michael the distaste for merfolk that humans had, and it made her heart break. Percy had the innocence of a baby seal, and how anyone could hate him was beyond her.

“I’m sorry about that boy who shot his bow and arrow at you. You don’t deserve that,” Annabeth said in the gentlest tone she could manage. He said nothing in reply and raised his hand up out of the water towards her. She interlocked her fingers with his and felt a blush creep up onto her face. 

Annabeth had never held hands with a guy before, but she could bet his soft hand felt better than most. All the humans who despised merfolk were really missing out.

[randomfandomnerd]

Sunshine and Shadows-Chapter 3

When everything had settled down with all the patients, Will sat next to Nico’s bed, keeping a close eye on him. Thankfully ,the son of Hades was now significantly more solid than he had been a few hours ago, however his sleep was restless and every now and again, he would flinch or mumble something incomprehensible. Will had heard Annabeth talking about nightmares brought on by Gaia and the giants or, before that, the titans. Of course this only ever happened to the major demigods who were sent on quests, like Clarisse, Percy and Piper, or members of the Hypnos cabin, like Clovis. Will had never really had nightmares, but then again, it wasn’t often that he got a lot of sleep. Whenever he tried to sleep, he’d end up lying awake in bed, staring at the ceiling. He’d think about all the demigods that had died in the two wars. Lee and Michael. And Leo, who had barely arrived at camp before he was sent away to go save the world. Sometimes Will thought about how he felt so helpless that he wasn’t able to heal everyone. If he’d been given a gift that could make him good at fighting, he could have prevented more deaths. People were always saying that healers were essential during battle, but there was no good healing someone if they were dead. Then there was Octavian. Yes, he may have been a 1st-class schmuck, but Will couldn’t help himself for feeling sorry for him. In a camp of highly skilled warriors, he’d had to fake his way to the top. Being as insecure as he was, he’d done everything he could to grab onto any power that drifted his way. Insecurity was no excuse for what he did, but Will kept remembering the moments leading up to Octavian’s death. How he’d called Michael Kahale a good friend until the end.

How not even the person he had seemed closest to had warned him. That look Nico had given him, as if Will was ridiculous for wanting Octavian to live. Of course, it all was ridiculous, and Will was just being the weak and sympathetic healer he was, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that death was never a good punishment for anyone.

At the sound of approaching humming, Will snapped his head round to look at the clock. 11:20. The end of his shift. Will took one last look at Nico, before standing up and heading over to the door, carrying a folder to give to Austin, who was washing his hands.

“What’s that?”

Austin asked, tilting his head towards the folder.

“Your sheet music. Perhaps consider that the infirmary is not the place for these”

Austin guiltily looked down at the new sheet music tucked under his arm that he’d just brought in.

“Sorry Will, I like to keep it on me at all times incase a tune comes into my head that I want to try out later”

Will shook his head and left the folder with Austin, before leaving the infirmary, closing the door gently behind him.

Almost immediately, he was ambushed by a very excited Mitchell. Startled, he let out a tiny squeak that made the son of Aphrodite cackle. Mitchell was very happy with his new head counselor, and had been celebrating by wearing all of his favourite outfits that Drew had called ugly or attention-seeking, without giving a damn about the occasion. Chiron, thoroughly baffled by the apparent unending depths of Mitchell’s wardrobe, had allowed him to.

Currently, he was wearing black skinny jeans, an oversized t-shirt depicting a scene from Howl’s Moving Castle, Doc Martens (bright blue platform heeled ones. Will had no idea how he was able to bounce around in them so much) and copious amounts of black eyeliner. A small hoop with a little golden star dangled from his left earlobe. After waiting for Will to calm down again, he flung his arm round the taller boy and practically dragged him towards the Hephaestus Cabin, chatting away.

“You have no idea how excited I’ve been for this. Apparently he finished it ages ago, but needed to prepare how he was going to show us.”

“He” was Jake Mason, the 3rd part of their unlikely trio of friends, who had been working on a top-secret project in his spare time away from making weapons. The son of Hephaestus took revealing his creations very seriously, and there was always some sort of grand ceremony involved. Will and Jake had always been pretty good friends, and they’d had each other's backs after they’d become head counselors during the Titan War. Mitchell had joined them more recently, after volunteering to help Jake with his recovery after being in a full body cast (his mortal mother was a yoga instructor and he knew a lot about useful stretches and exercises). After physiotherapy sessions, the 3 boys always hung around to chat, and they’d found that they had a lot in common.

Mitchell skipped up to the door of Cabin 9, and enthusiastically knocked on it. It swung open to reveal a very smug-looking Harley, who was holding a tray with 2 glasses on it. Offering them to the 2 older boys, he gestured for them to head up the stairs. Amused, Will took a glass and, upon drinking it, found the contents to be apple juice. At the top of the stairs, Jake was waiting outside their usual room they used to meet up. Jake was wearing jeans, an orange camp t-shirt and the sturdy boots preferred by the Hephaestus kids (protecting them from any heavy equipment they might drop). However this rather ordinary outfit was finished off by a top hat that he’d gotten from gods knew where. Jake had always enjoyed dramatics. When he was at school, he enjoyed creating sets for plays and musicals. Jake stepped aside to usher them both into the room.

Once they were inside, Will took a look around. Their usual chairs had been moved to one side of the room to make way for what appeared to be a large set of theatre curtains. Knowing Jake, it was entirely possible that he’d spent more time on making the presentation than on making the actual product.

When he was satisfied that Mitchell and Will were seated, Jake cleared his throat.

“So, as you know, I have been working on an incredibly top-secret project and I have now decided to give you the grandiose reveal”

Mitchell smirked and muttered in Will’s ear

“Let’s hope that the display doesn’t fall on top of him this time”

Will snorted, remembering the large white sheet that had covered Jake like a little kid being a ghost at halloween when he’d shown them the grandfather clock he'd made that was an exact replica of the one from “Whisper of the Heart”.Jake frowned at them

“That was only one time”,

he grumbled. He quickly dashed over to a console in the wall, flipped a switch, and a spotlight focused on the centre of the curtains, as they began to pull apart, revealing…

“Jake Mason! You didn’t actually do it! I thought that was a joke!”

Will exclaimed. Beside him, Mitchell was looking between them, confused. Jake grinned.

“Yes William, you know I would never joke about something so serious. This is indeed a scale model of an X-Wing fighter, with a cockpit that is the perfect size to hold a cat. And yes, I do fully plan on somehow getting this home to Lola”

Lola was Jake’s mother’s grumpy tabby cat and Jake was the only person she really allowed to pick her up. Jake insisted that this was because she loved him, but Will suspected that it was because he always snuck her extra treats. Jake had many photos of her carefully arranged around his bunk and although she was grumpy, she was very adorable.

Not many people were aware of it, but Will was a MASSIVE Star Wars fan. Back home in Texas, his bedroom at his grandparents’ house had posters all over the walls of his favourite characters, and it was always a treat when he got to watch The Empire Strikes Back (his favourite of all the movies) with his grandfather, who was just as invested as he was.

Will sat back and admired the precise workmanship of the model. Jake had gotten every single detail in, from the shape of the windows, to the markings on the side.

The 3 boys sat down and chatted and, for a while, they were able to forget the horrors and pressures of being demigods, and were able to laugh and talk like 3 ordinary teenagers.

Taglist: @rainbow-sheepofthefamily

@emava04

@percabethfangirl

@nightmareghosts

@luna0713hunter

@seven-halfbloods

[chameleonwritess]

Feels Like Home (Ch3)

Myriad of Stars

Not-So-Secretly in Love

Feels Like Home (Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3)

Forever Starts Today (Epilogue)

Extras:

Infirmary Duties

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Pairing: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace

Winter is upon Camp Halfblood and Nico is panicking. What in Hades is he supposed to get his boyfriend for Christmas?

Word Count: 6300

Read the whole Myriad of Stars series on AO3

To put it simply, Nico was panicking. Will was due to return later that day and Cecil had very unpleasantly reminded him of a Christmas tradition just that morning. Considering all of Nico’s previous Christmases had been spent rather separated from the festivities, he had almost completely forgotten about it altogether.

“So, what are you getting Will for Christmas?” Cecil had asked casually as the two made their way to the canoe lake for a session with the Aphrodite and other Hermes kids.

Nico stopped walking.

“Dude, please tell me you remembered to get your boyfriend a gift,” Cecil said, noticing his shock at the statement.

“I, uh,” Nico began, wondering how he could phrase this without seeming like a terrible person, “I sort of forgot that people gave gifts?”

“You what? Nico it’s Christmas!” Cecil practically yelled.

“I’ve not exactly had the best experiences of Christmas over the years,” Nico snapped back as a means of defence, but as soon as he noticed Cecil stumble backwards at his abrupt tone, he relented. “I’m sorry. I’ve not really been around anyone else at Christmas before and now I have to get Will a gift or he’s going to think I’m a terrible boyfriend. What do you even give people on Christmas? How am I going to get something?”

“Do I hear relationship problems?” a girl’s chipper voice piped up from behind Cecil and a panicking Nico. Nico turned around to see Lacy and Mitchell from the Aphrodite cabin, also headed down to the canoe lake.

“Not really,” Nico huffed. He refused to resort to advice from the children of the goddess of love.

“Yes,” Cecil butted in, “Nico hasn’t got Will a Christmas present yet. He arrives back at Camp today.”

“Oh, that’s bad,” Lacy sighed.

“Not that bad,” Mitchell added helpfully, “Christmas is still a couple of weeks away.”

“I’m going to Camp Jupiter next week, though,” Nico pointed out, “I promised my sister. And Frank, Reyna, Piper and Jason.”

“Hey, maybe they can help you find something over there!” Lacy grinned cheerfully. Nico raised an eyebrow.

“Have you been to New Rome? It’s hardly a place I can find a Christmas gift.”

“I can always steal something for you,” Cecil added helpfully. Nico sent him a quick glare that shut him up in seconds.

“What sort of thing do I even get him?” Nico asked exasperatedly. Lacy and Mitchell looked at each other thoughtfully and before Nico knew it, he was spending the day floating on the canoe lake with Cecil, Lacy and Mitchell, deciding what he could possibly get Will for Christmas that wasn’t too expensive, too cheesy, something Will would dislike or something Nico would never get him.

“This is impossible!” Lacy huffed two hours later as the four made their way back to the Mess Hall, “why can’t I think of anything that’s just right?”

“What’s impossible?” an all too familiar voice asked from behind them. Nico spun around faster than lightning and before he could even consider what he was doing, his arms were thrown around Will Solace’s neck as his boyfriend picked him up and spun him around.

“You’re back,” Nico stated very obviously, not even attempting to hide the grin on his face at Will’s return.

“Miss me?” Will asked, leaning his face down towards Nico. Nico didn’t even bother to respond, taking Will’s actions as invitation enough to place his hands on either side of Will’s face and kiss him.

Will made a contented hum that had Nico’s heart skipping a beat before he drew back, keeping his hands firmly on Nico’s waist.

“‘I’ll take that as a yes,” Will smirked. Nico rolled his eyes when a short cough interrupted the moment between the two.

“Nico, if you wanna drop by our cabin later you can do. I guess you two probably want to… catch up,” Mitchell offered. Nico had the decency to at least blush red at the act of affection he’d so openly displayed in front of the others.

“Yeah, uh, sorry. I’ll probably drop by,” he said.

“Please go to the Hades cabin or something before you start making out, though. I don’t want to see my two bros swapping saliva again,” Cecil begged as an afterthought just as the three began to leave.

“Shut up, Cecil,” Nico huffed, his cheeks still glowing red. Cecil chuckled and waved.

“Have fun, lovebirds.”

“So do you want to heed Cecil’s advice, or-?” Will started, tilting his head endearingly with a mischievous smile gracing his lips. Nico looked at him properly for the first time since his return.

If Nico didn’t know better, he’d think Will had grown again which was completely unfair considering he already had several inches on Nico. His skin also seemed slightly less tanned than it had in the summer. Nico supposed the sun was out less at the moment, though, so it was only natural.

Will’s hair also seemed a bit longer, falling into his eyes a little more than it had in summer. Nico fought the urge to run his fingers through it. He could do that later. For now, he wanted nothing more than to indeed follow Cecil’s suggestion.

“Holy Hera, you’re infuriating,” Nico commented as Will continued to look down at Nico with a bemused expression, “now get to my cabin and kiss me, Solace.”

Will didn’t need telling twice. Nico supposed they could properly catch up with words later. Right now, all he wanted was to feel Will’s lips against his own again. He’d missed Will a lot, after all.

Nico didn’t remember to drop by the Aphrodite cabin later that evening. Lacy and Mitchell weren’t exactly surprised, though. They’d suspected Nico might have some more important catching up to do, after all.

Nico didn’t really want to go to New Rome. Especially now that Will was back, but a promise was a promise and he still really needed help on what to get Will for Christmas. Still, now he could wake up to blond hair tickling his face, curled up in Will’s arms in the Hades cabin again, Nico really didn’t want to leave for a week.

That’s why he did a very stupid thing.

“Will,” he said softly, poking Will’s cheek as an attempt to wake him. It was usually never difficult to get Will up in a morning, especially with his father being the sun god, but with it being winter, it was still too dark outside for Will to have received the memo that it was indeed morning.

“Ten more minutes,” Will groaned in response, rolling over to bury his face in the pillow. Nico resisted the urge to allow his boyfriend those ten more minutes purely because he was adorable in the morning and Nico could stare at him forever.

“Absolutely not,” Nico forced himself to say, “I need to ask you something.”

“If you want to get married, my answer’s yes,” Will mumbled into the pillow, still not getting up. Nico spluttered and pushed Will off the bed. He had definitely not been about to ask that. Now his heart was racing at a ridiculous pace and the only thought running through his head was an older Will in a tux.

“Nico!” Will complained as he fell onto the floor from Nico’s push.

“Don’t say stuff like that!” Nico justified. Will rolled his eyes and sat cross legged on the floor, staring up at Nico with a small pout. Nico had never been a morning person but whenever Will was around, he found himself growing to really love them. Not that Will would ever know.

“Do you want to go to Camp Jupiter with me tomorrow?” Nico finally asked. Will’s eyes lit up.

“Yes!” he grinned, “will it be decorated for Christmas? Oh, I’ll finally get to meet your sister properly.”

Nico chuckled at Will’s enthusiasm, ignoring the reprimands from his head that he had no chance of getting a Christmas gift for Will if Will was there.

Still, with Will’s excitement that the two would be together for a week longer than they’d thought, Nico couldn’t bring himself to regret the decision.

Camp Jupiter, just as Will had hoped, was decorated for Christmas. Nico couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Reyna sat in a throne decorated with tinsel, scowling at the snowflakes on the table next to a grinning Frank wearing a party hat from a cracker.

“Nico!” Hazel exclaimed as soon as she spotted him, throwing her arms around her older brother. Nico hugged her back, relieved that Hazel was still shorter than him. He was pretty sure she was the only person who was.

“Hey, Nico! Will!” another familiar voice called out. Piper and Jason had been sat with Hazel at Fifth Cohort’s table. Piper ran up to Nico and also threw her arms around him. Luckily for Nico, she hadn’t grown and was still about the same height as him.

The same could not be said for Jason who ruffled Nico’s hair affectionately before pulling him into a bone crushing hug.

“We missed you, man,” he said, “how’ve you been?”

Nico glanced back at Will and gave Jason a wry smile.

“Pretty good,” he said, “Camp rebuilding went well. We’re still working on new statues and cabins thanks to your stupid promise, though.”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck guiltily.

“Sorry,” he apologised, “you’re looking good from all the building, though!”

Nico heard Will clear his throat behind Nico before his hand intertwined with Nico’s own.

“Jealousy, thy name is Will,” Nico muttered, nudging his boyfriend with his hip.

“Shut up, di Angelo,” Will retorted, pushing Nico back.

“So,” Hazel cooed, “this is the elusive ‘Will Solace’ I’ve been hearing all about.”

“I wasn’t going to bring him,” Nico shrugged, “but he insisted.”

“That is not how it happened at all!” Will replied indignantly, “you asked me because you couldn’t bear being without me for a week.”

“Well someone’s developed an ego,” Nico retorted.

“Please,” Will rolled his eyes, “like you don’t get all soft for me in the morning.”

Nico noticed Hazel turn to Piper and Jason with a look of concern on her face. Piper just laughed.

“Don’t worry, they’re always like this. It’s adorable,” she said.

“Will’s helped Nico a lot. Loads more than the rest of us could,” Jason promised. Hazel turned back to her brother and smiled at him.

“Good,” she nodded, “I approve.”

“I don’t need your approval,” Nico grumbled but he was smiling all the same.

“I had to get my siblings’ approval!” Will complained. Nico snorted and turned to Will with a raised eyebrow.

“Kayla approved?” he asked. Will shrugged.

“Not quite. If I remember correctly, and I do, her exact words were ‘For Zeus’s sake, Will, if you don’t stop waxing poetry about Nico and snog him, I’ll snog him myself!’” he said. Nico snorted with laughter.

“You two need to come and sit at our table instead of just standing in the middle of nowhere,” Hazel decided.

“Yeah, quit flirting where everyone can see and save those eyes for the bedroom,” Piper rolled her eyes with a mischievous grin.

“Piper!” Will, Nico and Jason spluttered indignantly.

“Before you do sit down, though,” Jason added, “I think there’s a couple more people who might be interested in saying hello.”

Nico glanced up to the Praetor’s table where Reyna and Frank were looking in his direction with bemused smirks. Nico let a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he pulled Will’s hand in the direction of the Praetors.

He could already tell this would be the best Christmas of his life.

Nico’s trip to Camp Jupiter ended far too soon for his liking. Whilst it had been great to catch up with Hazel, Reyna, Frank, Piper and Jason, he knew he was running out of time to get a gift for Will, especially when Nico spent nearly every waking moment with him.

Lacy and Mitchell were not best pleased when Nico returned.

“Nico, it’s like you don’t want to get him anything,” Lacy huffed, “why did you take him with you?”

“You’re a child of Aphrodite, figure it out,” Nico muttered, his cheeks flushing pink. Mitchell patted him on the back which didn’t really feel all that comforting.

“It’s okay. Have you asked Chiron about going out into town? Maybe you could buy him something there,” he suggested.

“I’d spend hours wandering around not knowing what to do,” Nico pointed out, “plus after the trick I pulled with getting a ‘doctor’s note’ to sit with Will at mealtimes, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t let me go without Will.”

“Why don’t you ask his mom?” Lacy suggested. Nico shook his head. The thought of asking Naomi Solace what he should get for her son was far too embarrassing.

“Oh please,” a voice that had not previously been in the conversation drawled, “just ask Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. They arrived at Camp for Christmas yesterday and they always seem to have the answer to everything.”

Nico whipped his head around to find that the voice had belonged to Drew Tanaka. Nico had never really gotten on with Drew, not that he’d tried, and after Piper’s complaints he wasn’t sure he wanted to. Strangely, Drew’s advice didn’t seem all that bad.

“Um, thanks?” Nico responded awkwardly. Drew shrugged her shoulders and continued filing her nails.

“It’s no biggie,” she said, “I do have some idea about relationships. Percy’s at the Mess Hall if you want to catch him.”

Nico got to his feet.

“Thanks, Lacy, Mitchell. I think it might help to at least ask them,” he agreed. The two Aphrodite kids nodded and Nico made his way to the door.

“Oh, and Nico, sweetie?” Drew added. Nico turned hesitantly towards her again, “don’t break Will’s heart. Gods know we need some good things in our lives.”

Nico nodded his head.

“Right, I won’t.”

Drew’s usual tune was that you had to break a heart. Nico couldn’t help but wonder what exactly had brought about Drew’s change of mind but he wasn’t about to ask. He wondered if it had anything to do with the striped pink flag he’d noticed on her mirror. It looked like something he should recognise but couldn’t put a name to.

Pushing thoughts of the Aphrodite cabin out of his head, Nico approached the Big Three table, occupied only by Percy Jackson, just as Drew had promised.

Nico slid into the seat opposite him.

“How’s college going?” Nico asked. Percy grinned.

“Nico! Good to see you again,” he declared, “college is hard. I feel stupid. Reading just takes so long.”

Nico knew his struggle. Most demigods had dyslexia, Nico included, and reading English was often quite a nightmare.

“You’ve got Annabeth there, though. You can do anything,” Nico promised. Percy smiled.

“I suppose you’re right. How’ve you been?” he asked.

Nico sighed, “I actually came to ask your help on something,” he admitted. Percy leaned closer and raised an eyebrow, motioning for Nico to continue.

“I don’t know what to get Will for Christmas. I don’t want it to be some generic gift but I don’t want it to be too big of a deal because it’s just a Christmas gift and I can’t seem to think of anything in between,” Nico spluttered.

Percy didn’t respond immediately. Instead, his eyes darkened and his eyebrows furrowed. Nico knew why monsters shied away as soon as they met Percy. If the son of Hades hadn’t known him for as long as he had, the look Percy was giving him would have terrified him. Nico often thought Percy didn’t know how intimidating he could look when he was deep in thought.

His eyes represented a sea in more than just their colour. They could easily become dark and mysterious, a reflection of the terrors Percy himself had witnessed.

“How do you feel about sentimentality?” Percy finally responded, his expression changing in the blink of an eye.

“Oh, uh, it depends what you’re thinking,” Nico spluttered, having been lost in thought, himself.

“I mean, Will’s helped you to escape the ghosts of your past a lot, right?” Percy asked. Nico nodded. “What about something that showed him how grateful you were for that. Something that means a lot to you and your past.”

“I- don’t really know what you mean,” Nico shook his head in confusion.

“The Hades Statue,” Percy clarified at last. Nico looked at Percy with wide eyes. For a time, Nico had hated the statue. It had been the last gift his sister had ever given him but it was a reminder of the fact that Percy had broken his promise. Now Nico was older, he realised just how much Percy had been trying to tell him that Bianca might not have been safe.

Young Nico wouldn’t listen, though, and then he’d had his heart broken.

Sometimes Nico forgot how intelligent Percy was, especially because he was dating Annabeth. His intelligence wasn’t the same as Annabeth’s analytical, strategic intelligence, though- Percy’s intelligence was impulsive and, in a way Nico didn’t think Percy realised himself, manipulative.

Percy’s suggestion was actually incredible. Will had helped Nico talk about his feelings, something that if Nico had done at the time he found out about Bianca, would have saved a lot of hurt and heartbreak. Will had promised to always be there for Nico just as the statue was a reminder for Nico that Bianca was always watching over him, too, even in death.

Giving the statue to Will would be Nico’s way of telling Will that he truly trusted him. That he wasn’t going to ever leave Will behind. That he wanted Will in his life. Nico’s mind couldn’t help but flicker to the marriage comment Will had made about a week ago. Demigods often died young and many didn’t make it to marriage age. Nico supposed that this was his own sort of promise to Will of ’Til death us do part’, despite how young they both were.

Strangely, it wasn’t an idea that even scared Nico in the slightest.

“Thank you, Percy,” Nico smiled, “that’s actually a really good idea.”

Percy nodded, “glad I could help. Don’t tell Annabeth you came to me first, though- she’ll be salty for weeks.”

Nico grinned, “I suppose I’d better go and say hello to her, too.”

“Hey, Nico,” Percy stopped Nico from standing up by placing a hand on his shoulder, “it’s good to see you so happy.”

Nico nodded, “it’s good to see you alive and uninjured.”

With a small chuckle, Percy released Nico to go and find Annabeth.

Nico woke up to an empty cabin on Christmas morning (Will’s siblings had forced him to stay at his own cabin so they could open presents) and was surprised to find it feeling chillier than normal.

Nico sleepily dragged himself over to the log fire and started lighting a spark. Before he managed to get it started, though, there was a loud knock on his door. Nico grumbled to himself as he got to his feet and stumbled over to it, hoping it was at least Will.

Much to his disappointment, it was not, in fact, Will. Instead, Percy and Annabeth stood in his doorway.

“Merry Christmas, Nico!” Percy grinned. Annabeth stepped forwards and gave him a hug which Nico awkwardly returned.

“We brought you gifts. Can we come in?” Annabeth asked as she released Nico. Nico shrugged.

“Yeah, sure. Just let me get dressed. I only just got up,” he huffed, excusing himself to the bathroom whilst Percy and Annabeth disposed of their coats.

Nico only realised once he was in the bathroom getting dressed that their coats had been coated in white specs. It didn’t rain in camp unless Mr D and Chiron wanted it to. Nico wondered if perhaps Chiron had allowed it to snow purely because it was Christmas. If so, Nico was sort of looking forward to it. He didn’t really have any memory of snow from before.

When Nico returned, nothing looked different but Percy was smirking and looking as if he’d done something. Nico gave him a wary look as he perched down on his bed, opposite where Annabeth and Percy had sat. He supposed there was nothing he could do even if Percy was up to mischief.

“Here’s your present from me, Nico,” Annabeth announced, placing a cuboidal shaped parcel wrapped in penguin paper in Nico’s lap. He picked it up and smirked at Annabeth. It was so obviously a book.

When he opened it, he was surprised to find that it was a mathematics book.

“I know it seems a bit random,” Annabeth explained, “but I just thought since Percy and I are going to school now that if you ever wanted to do the same, you’d need to learn some basic math and English. Of course, you don’t have to go to school but if you wanted to, I’d be happy to help you study.”

Nico had never really considered going to school before. He’d always thought he’d just stay at Camp. Admittedly, Will’s stories of school and now Annabeth’s gift had him curious. Nico did sort of like the idea of learning new things.

“Thanks Annabeth,” he said, finding that he genuinely meant it, “that was a really thoughtful gift.”

“Mine’s a little more fun,” Percy added, handing Nico a more oddly shaped parcel, “Jason gave me the idea and I thought it was great.”

Nico warily accepted the parcel. Whatever Percy and Jason had conspired about together automatically made Nico apprehensive.

Still, he opened the parcel and was surprised to find a plush fall out. Not just any plush, though- it was an Umbreon plush. Nico snorted a small laugh at it.

“When I arrived at Camp Jupiter without memories, I’d been carrying around a panda pillow pet,” Percy launched into an explanation, “it really helped with the nightmares. I know it’s a bit silly but we all need something a little daft in our lives.”

Nico smiled down at the Umbreon. For some reason, the rings of yellow on its coat reminded him of Will.

“It’s really great, Percy. Thank you,” he replied. Percy smiled contentedly as Nico reached over onto his bedside table and grabbed the two parcels for Percy and Annabeth. He hadn’t bought Christmas gifts for many people but he’d already delivered most of them when in New Rome. Percy, Annabeth and Will were the only people he had gifts left for.

“I know it’s not much,” Nico shrugged, “but Merry Christmas or whatever.”

To his surprise, Annabeth grinned down at the owl patterned scarf and Percy was laughing at his pack of Blackjack sweets.

“Oh, Blackjack is gonna love these,” Percy giggled, “thanks, man.”

Nico shrugged again. He’d never been great at giving gifts but Annabeth and Percy didn’t seem too disappointed.

“This is really lovely,” Annabeth smiled, “I must say, considering your cabin interior design I didn’t trust your sense of style too much but you’ve redeemed yourself.”

“Don’t mention the cabin,” Nico rolled his eyes, huffing a laugh all the same. Percy and Annabeth looked into each other’s eyes for a second before they engulfed Nico in a hug.

“Have a good Christmas, Nico. We’ll see you later, yeah?” Percy checked. Nico nodded.

“Yeah. It’s snowing out there, right? I want to see what that’s like,” he admitted. Annabeth’s grey eyes sparkled.

“We’re having a snowball fight,” she declared.

“Woah, Wise Girl, I don’t want to die today,” Percy stuttered.

“Tough,” Annabeth smirked and before Nico could ask what was going on, Annabeth had grabbed Percy’s hand and dragged the two of them out of his cabin.

As the door was flung open, though, another face was revealed in the entrance.

“Do I even want to know?” Will Solace asked. Nico rolled his eyes and walked over to the door with a smile on his face.

“Probably not,” he admitted. Will was dressed in a large navy coat, his blond hair hidden by a ridiculous red bobble hat. Nico thought he looked adorable.

Nico was about to open his mouth to wish Will a Merry Christmas when Will’s eyes wandered up to the doorframe. Nico raised an eyebrow and lifted his gaze too, his mouth falling open when he noticed what was there.

A sprig of mistletoe was hanging from his doorframe.

“Wow, Nico, who knew the holiday spirit would turn you into such a flirt?” Will smirked. Nico furrowed his eyebrows.

“Wait, it wasn’t you who put it there?” he asked. Will shook his head.

“It wasn’t you either?” he asked. Nico shook his head when realisation dawned on him as to why Percy had looked so smug earlier.

“Jackson,” Nico hissed. Will laughed and stepped closer, wrapping an arm around Nico’s waist. His coat was cold from being outside and Nico shivered at the contact, not wearing more than a grey knitted jumper.

“I hope you don’t intend to ignore Christmas tradition,” Will whispered, his breath forming visible vapour right in front of Nico’s own mouth.

“Of course not,” Nico muttered, bringing his arms up to clutch the edge of the ruff on Will’s hood. He tugged the son of Apollo forward slightly and connected their lips, surprised at the warmth of Will’s considering the cold air around them.

Will gave a soft hum as he melted against Nico’s warmth, sending a warm trickle of affection through Nico’s own chest. Nico leaned up into the kiss when a whooping sound behind Will caused him to immediately pull back.

“Percy!” Nico yelled as he caught the sight of dark hair hidden behind one of the trees behind Nico’s cabin.

“Is that Annabeth’s phone in his hand?” Will murmured quietly to Nico. Nico glared at Percy before grabbing Will’s hand and tugging him into the cabin.

“I’m ignoring them. Get in here,” he ordered. Will chuckled and closed the door behind him.

“Wow, eager much,” he smirked. Nico glared at him too.

“Shut up before I kick you out, Solace. I just want to give you your Christmas present,” he rolled his eyes. Will chuckled again before peeling off his coat and hat, revealing a ridiculous Christmas jumper underneath, covered in cartoon reindeers. Nico snorted at the design.

“You’re such a dork,” he said.

“At least I don’t dress like the Grinch personally designed my Christmas jumper,” Will retorted. Nico furrowed his eyebrows.

“Who?”

“I forget you weren’t born in this generation. You’ve missed so much, di Angelo,” Will sighed, flopping down on Nico’s bed way more dramatically than was necessary.

“I doubt that,” Nico commented as he grabbed Will’s present and shuffled up to Will on his bed, hoping the son of Apollo would keep him warm. He’d grown quite cold thanks to the prolonged opening of his door, “Merry Christmas,” he added, handing the gift to Will.

Will looked at it curiously with a smile on his face. Nico wondered if Will could hear how loudly his heart was thumping against his chest. He didn’t think he’d ever been so nervous about giving someone a gift before.

“Nico,” Will gasped softly, “is this-“

“I know it’s probably a stupid idea,” Nico blushed, “but I wanted you to have it. You’ve helped me to move on from the darkness I carried with me after Bianca’s death so much and I wanted to give you something to show you how grateful I was for that. It’s a silly gift. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea after all-“

Nico was cut off from his fast ramble by a pair of warm lips briefly pressing against his. Nico noticed that Will had tears in his eyes when he drew away.

“I love it,” Will said, “and it isn’t silly or stupid or anything. I understand how important this statue is to you and the fact that you would give it me,” Will choked up for a second, “it means so much. Nico, I really love you.”

“I know,” Nico smiled as Will clutched the statue against his chest and buried his face in Nico’s neck. Nico could feel the dampness of Will’s tears against his neck. “I love you too.”

The two remained there for a moment or two, quietly enjoying the other’s company before Will sat up abruptly.

“I need to give you your gift,” he realised before thrusting a parcel towards Nico, “I don’t think I could ever top your gift but I tried.”

The present was quite bulky but didn’t feel overly heavy. Intrigued, Nico tore into the wrapping paper.

Inside the paper sat a black fur lined corduroy jacket. Nico smiled at it. It was just his kind of thing.

“Open it out,” Will leaned over to whisper in Nico’s ear. Nico heeded his advice and laughed out loud when he spotted the sun stitched onto the top pocket.

“I wanted to sew the patch slightly more to the right so that it would be closer to where your actual heart lies but Austin told me that was stupid and most people think the heart is further to the left anyway so you wouldn’t mind,” Will started to ramble. Nico laughed again and leaned his head on Will’s shoulder.

“You’re such a medical dork,” he snickered, “you really sewed this on yourself?”

Will nodded, “I’ve got the band-aids to prove it,” he said, wiggling his fingers to show Nico. Nico noticed that there were, indeed, three band-aids plastered over the ends of his fingers.

“I love it,” Nico said, “thank you.”

Will gave Nico a watery smile before swooping down and kissing him quickly yet again.

“What do you think about going outside and joining Percy and Annabeth’s snowball fight?” Will suggested. Nico’s eyes lit up at the suggestion.

“You’re on, Solace,” he smirked, tugging on his new jacket to race his boyfriend to the door.

When Nico returned to his cabin half an hour later, dripping wet with residual snow and dragging an equally as soaked Will into the Hades cabin with him, kissing him fiercely as soon as the door was closed, Nico couldn’t help but think that it had to be his best Christmas so far.

All the other campers that had returned for Christmas were back at school by the start of February. Will, however, had happily informed Nico that he was actually staying until March as the cold winds of late winter and early spring tended to bring about the most climbing wall and canoe lake injuries.

That’s when the disappearances started. Nico tried to ignore them- he could still sense their auras and knew they weren’t dead, but any attempts of searching for them had failed. Will was at least reassured to hear they were alive, even if Nico could tell he was blaming himself for somehow not being able to take care of them.

Nico didn’t know why Will felt the need to take responsibility for anything that could be slightly related to his healing so he advised the son of Apollo to take a day away from the infirmary to actually relax for once. He hadn’t quite expected their peaceful afternoon to be interrupted by Kayla knocking at the Hades cabin door.

“Will, are you in there?” she yelled. Nico rolled his eyes. Way to greet the owner of the cabin first.

“I’ll tell her to get lost,” Nico assured Will as he stood up from the bed they had been playing Pokémon on and opened the cabin door.

“Can’t it wait, Kayla? Will’s on his break from infirmary duties,” Nico asked. Kayla’s face looked exceptionally pale, though and the worried look in her eyes had Nico anxious that it really wasn’t something that could wait.

“I don’t think it can. There’s been… an incident,” she muttered, chewing her lip.

Nico turned around and shrugged his shoulders at Will who mustered a smile and came to join the pair at the door.

“Well, what am waiting for? Let’s see what’s happened now,” he said cheerily before turning to Nico. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised kissing Nico’s cheek. He turned around so that Kayla wouldn’t see his blush.

“Yeah, good luck,” Nico muttered as the two children of Apollo left his cabin.

It was about an hour until Will returned, bringing news Nico was certainly not ready for. Apollo was at Camp Half-Blood. And he was mortal.

When Will brought Nico to visit him, he also discovered that Apollo happened to be surrounded by a strong aura of death.

Nico voiced his concerns aloud and Will scolded him, elbowing him gently in the side.

“I apologise for my boyfriend,” he said as Nico’s cheeks flushed red. That was Will’s father and he had just announced they were dating to him like it was no big deal.

“Could you not,” Nico complained. Will’s grin only grew.

“Would you prefer ‘Special guy’ or ‘Significant Other’?” he teased. Nico huffed.

“Significant annoyance in your case,” he grumbled. He didn’t get chance to argue more as Chiron drew their attention back to the unfortunately more pressing issue. Apollo was at Camp Halfblood. Mortal. And apparently bound to some demigod named Meg who was already causing havoc. Nico suspected she’d fit in well.

Still, with the disappearances followed by Apollo’s arrival, Nico was getting slightly concerned about their safety. He really didn’t feel like fighting in another war, especially when he’d just started to settle into Camp.

When Will and Nico were excused from the conversation, Nico dragged Will to their favourite spot amongst the trees behind the Hades cabin.

“So,” he started, “your dad’s at Camp. How do you feel?”

Nico knew Will sometimes got mad at his father. Pretty much every halfblood got mad at their godly parent at least once a month and despite Nico’s frequent visits to the Underworld to see his father, he himself was no exception.

“Confused,” Will sighed, “scared. Slightly angry?”

“That’s understandable. I’d be furious if it were me. Your dad shows no sign of even being alive since summer and suddenly he shows up at Camp and begs for our help,” Nico agreed. Will nodded and placed his hand over Nico’s on the ground.

“I want to be really mad at Apollo. The thing is, I know I’m going to help him. I can’t not help him. He’s my father, after all and I just want to be able to heal everyone anyway,” Will exclaimed, an expression of frustration growing on his face, “I just want to tell him to help himself for once, though. When was he ever there for me when I needed his assistance? Where was he when I cried myself to sleep at night, wishing I had archery skill or musical ability or something other than lousy healing?”

“Hey,” Nico said softly, “your healing is anything but lousy and nearly everyone here at Camp owes you their life at least once. I know exactly why you’re mad but I also think we should help him, too. I mean, if the fate of the world ends up lying on Apollo in mortal form, we’re pretty much screwed.”

Will huffed a laugh and squeezed Nico’s hand a bit tighter.

“And for what it’s worth,” Nico continued, “I think you’re the strongest Apollo camper there is. You’re the best healer Camp has seen in years, you have one of the fiercest and yet most caring personalities I’ve ever known, your sword fighting has improved so much lately and I’m pretty sure I’ve literally seen you emit sunlight when sparring before now.”

“That last one’s a lie,” Will snorted, nudging his shoulder into Nico. Nico smirked back.

“Don’t believe me, then,” he shrugged, “don’t think you haven’t been blessed by Apollo, though. You really have. And if not, then I guess we can place responsibility for your personality on your mum.”

“She also takes credit for my ‘devilishly handsome looks’,” Will added with a grin. Nico rolled his eyes and laughed, leaning into Will’s side.

“She’s not wrong,” he commented. Will didn’t respond, simply smiling as he wrapped an arm around Nico’s back and leant against the tree behind him to support both of their weights.

“I feel like the world’s about to end again,” Nico admitted quietly. Apollo’s return had sent Nico into quiet panic since he first saw him.

“I know,” Will agreed, “but do you know what’s different this time?”

Nico shifted himself in Will’s grasp to look up at him.

“What?” he asked.

“We have each other,” Will said. Nico snorted a laugh.

“You’re so cheesy,” he complained.

“You love it,” Will shrugged, “Hey, even if I die, at least you can come visit me in the Underworld.”

“Don’t even joke about it,” Nico warned, “besides, it doesn’t work like that and you’re not going to die.”

“How can you be so sure?” Will teased, although Nico noted the slightly more serious undertone to it.

“Because,” Nico began, connecting his eyes with Will’s, “I’ll be there to fight and protect you.”

Nico was pretty sure if he hadn’t had a theory that Will emitted sunlight before then, the beaming smile that lit up Will’s face at his comment would have confirmed it.

“Good job I’ll always be there to heal you if you get injured,” Will promised quietly, sending a rush of warmth through Nico’s own face.

As Nico tilted his head up to slot their lips together, he couldn’t help but smile. Never had he imagined he might find someone that balanced him out as perfectly as Will Solace did.

For the first time, Nico held hope for just what his future would hold after the battle. With Will by his side, it couldn’t be anything but bright.