#thalia thursday

[angynomadsimp]

Thalia just wanted to be a pin up model~

[lateatnewyork]

HEY STEPHEN…

charlie bushnell x singer!reader

warnings: fluff, smau

summary: you release a new album !!

a/n I SWEAR ILL HAVE THE CHEST OF LOVE OUT BY THIS WEEK potential pt two if i finish the chest of love this week

liked by sabrinacarpenter, ynln and others celebgossip rumours say that yn ln is releasing a new album featuring sabrina carpenter andtaylor swift comments are closed

liked by iamcharliebushnell, sabrinacarpenter and others ynln all those other girls are beautiful…but would they write a song for you? view comments

hearts4yn WERE GETTING AN ALBUM iamcharliebushnell no they would not 💯 ➔ dior.n.goodjohn she wrote a whole ass album 😭 ➔ ynln 🙈 gracieabrams AHAJWJJSNSNS ➔ ynln STOP ILY sabrinacarpenter yall are not ready for the photoshoot 🫣 ➔ ynln 😘 walkerscobell HEY STEPHEN !! ➔ ynln I KNOW LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING ➔ leahsavajeffries i taught him this. leahsavajeffries ALBUM !! ALBUM !! ALBUM !!!!!!!!! ➔ ynln ALBUM !!!!! dior.n.goodjohn IM IN LOVE WITH THIS ➔ ynln i’m in love with YOU ➔ iamcharliebushnell … i.am.andrewalvarez 🤫🧏‍♀️ ➔ ynln get out ➔ aryansimhadri 🤫🧏‍♀️ elliebellykim i’m so excited 😆 ➔ ynln MY GIRLLL ➔ aryansimhadri wtf man leenascobell RELEASE IT EARLY !!!! ➔ ynln @treepaine PLSSS this comment is now deleted ➔ ynln my manager won’t let me 😞 honeymoon oh my baby’s all grown up ➔ ynln PLS ILY taylorswift it’s ur 3rd album already !! i’m so proud of you 🤍 ➔ ynln CANT WAIT FOR TTPD

liked by sabrinacarpenter, gracieabrams and others ynln i’m in love ‘fictional daydream’ version is now available on my store, with the bonus track “book of love” your support on this album has been so unwavering i thought i’d give you a couple of little presents.

as you know my album is coming out in 3 weeks (so close already), as a little thank you to everyone who has showed their love on this album i will be releasing ‘cherry on top’ NEXT WEEK !!

and for everyone who has been there for me since i posted covers with my bestie sab on youtube; IM GOING ON TOUR, the i’m in love world tour starts in 3 months !! tickets will be available at the same time as cherry on top releases

i love you guys 🩷 view comments

ynloml MOTHER IS FEEDING US iamcharliebushnell i’m so proud of you 🫶🏻 ➔ ynln ilysm char<3 ➔ hearts4yn their so cuteeee dior.n.goodjohn 😍 ➔ ynln BBYYYY leahsavajeffries you’re so pretty ➔ ynln leah babes ur my favourite ilysm user34 this albums going to be shit ➔ hearts4yn this album is NOT based off of u liked by yn sabrinacarpenter charlie is shaking ➔ dior.n.goodjohn uh huh ➔ i.am.andrewalvarez can confirm

*1 month later*

liked by ynln, dior.n.goodjohn and others grammysofficial we present to you the future of the music industry AND best dressed of this years grammys view comments

taylorswift my childrennnn ➔ honeymoon our* children hearts4yn the first time in forever i felt like the grammys weren’t rigged moonchildswift help what am i doing wrong yn is 19 and has 2 grammys 4 vmas acting in two of the biggest shows of 2024 and a model ➔ user78 wait what were the shows ➔ moonchildswift she’s thalia in pjo and she’s flora in damsel (the new movie on netflix) ynloml MY QUEENSSSSS ynishearteyes YNNNNN ➔ iamcharliebushnell ur username is so real ➔ ynln 🙈 ➔ ynishearteyes HELPP

liked by ynln, milliebobbybrown and others ynslove throwback thursday to when yn starred in two of the biggest shows of 2024 and released her third album (I GOT TICKETS TO THE IM IN LOVE TOUR LA N2) view comments

hearts4yn IM GOING ON DUBLIN N3 ➔ ynloml SINGAPORE N6 ➔ ynismywife CINCINNATI N1 user56 YN LIKED fcklife MILLIE LIKED

liked by sabrinacarpenter, walkerscobell and others ynln lil bf appreciation post view comments

walkerscobell ew… ➔ ynln who gave him his account back iamcharliebushnell 💕 ➔ walkerscobell whipped ➔ iamcharliebushnell loud and proud liked by creator and 5400 others leahsavajeffries CUTIESSS dior.n.goodjohn MY girl elliebellykim aryan could never ➔ aryansimhadri EXCUSE ME ➔ ynln LOLLL

liked by ynln, taylornation and others ynsminions yn at opening night of the ‘i’m in love’ world tour !!! see you tomorrow nyc 🩷🖤 comments are closed

a/n i’m literally gonna crash ramadan has started 😭 and we’re going to india on 5th of april so i’ll be afk for a month 🫶🏻 ALSO TT IS BANNED IN INDIA IMA HAVE TO DELETE IT 😭

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Thursday 11 April 2024

These containers had great ‘cages’ made from the colourful woven stems of Salix (willow) and Cornus (dogwood) species. The planting included the pale coloured flowers of Narcissus 'Thalia' (daffodil) and contrasting dark purple blooms of a Helleborus x hybridus cultivar.

Jill Raggett

[natlacentral]

Avatar: The Last Airbender reveals live-action Mai and Ty Lee — watch a sneak peek

Princess Azula's closest allies make an early arrival in the live-action adaptation.

Two more characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender are making the jump from animation to live action.

With one more day until the new Netflix series arrives on the streaming platform, EW can exclusively unveil Thalia Tran as Mai and Momona Tamada as Ty Lee. With Mai described as "an unflappable and deadpan teen" and Ty Lee as "energetic and upbeat," the two are the closest allies of Princess Azula (Elizabeth Yu) in the Fire Nation.

These two characters didn't show up until season 2 of the original Nickelodeon animated series, but they arrive early in the context of the latest live-action adaptation. A clip from the first season (shown above) reveals Azula venting to them about her brother, Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu), and the praise heaped on him by their father, Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim).

Yu previously signaled to EW that there would be multiple moments like this; in other words, scenes we didn't get to see in the original show. “A lot of the O.G. series was through the eyes of Zuko,” she said. “I feel like our show lets [Azula and Ozai] have their own start to their story before all the stuff that we know them to do later on.… We get to see her origin story, which is really cool."

Set in a world of benders, those with the ability to manipulate one of the four natural elements, Avatar: The Last Airbender tells the story of Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young airbender who learns he's the next Avatar, a reincarnated entity who can control all four elements in order to maintain balance in the world. But Aang has been missing for 100 years, allowing the Fire Nation to wage a war for global domination. When he finally returns, Aang must lean on his new allies, waterbender Katara (Kiawentiio) and her brother Sokka (Ian Ousley), if he has any hope of honing his abilities and stopping the war.

"We don't start the show the way the animated series starts. That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series," showrunner Albert Kim told EW. "We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama," he added. "So I'm very curious to see what'll happen in terms of reaction to that."

Watch EW's exclusive clip above, and see all the other characters in live action compared to the animated original.

Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres Thursday, Feb. 22, on Netflix.

[wanderingmind867]

I'm dreading the end of the Titan's Curse, since I'm rapidly approaching it's end now (if I had more time to read at school, I could be done by next Thursday). But I'm dreading the ending, because parts of that finale aren't great. Atlas is forced to hold up the sky again, Thalia becomes a huntress, Nico succumbs to grief. It's not a great ending. Also, we saved Artemis (one of the worst goddesses), so I can't even bring myself to care too much about our conflict resolution. So I'm dreading the end of the book. I'd still prefer reading it to dealing with my period 1 teacher, though. And I don't hate the book. I may sound like I do, but I don't. At least not completely or anything.

[filthforfriends]

Chapter 5: Guardian Angel

Omegaverse: Alpha!Damiano

You’d made it three whole weeks. No frenzied hookups, no touch starved desperation. You’d been good, keeping your hands to yourselves for all intents and purposes. Can we just hang out once a week or something turned into Friday movie nights. Meeting regularly at the omega’s house was a normal part of the courting process. Of course, your beta father insisted upon making everything difficult, so week one was a bust. He demanded the whole family watch a movie together, never allowing Damiano to be alone with you. 

Despite the film being vetted and pre-selected it still had a sex sceen in it, albeit highly sanitized.The camera slowly panned up the barren thigh of the heroin, showing nothing but suggesting lots. It took exactly one gasp of implied pleasure for you to burst out into laughter. The whole moment was so terrible and awkward that it became comical. Your mother actually broke before Damiano, who let out a gleeful cackle. He was so overcome that your boyfriend ended up laying sideways on your lap as he laughed. This earned a dirty look from your father and Cleo simply rolled her eyes. Thalia was, of course, deeply confused as you snorted to the point of nearly hyperventilating.

“What's funny? Do I still have to watch the movie?” Your mother quickly collected herself, patting Thalia’s hand and releasing her from this horrendous obligation. She scurried up to her room before the TV was even paused. The only positive result was Cleo actually greeting Dami and bidding him goodbye.

 Week two, you watched a movie in your bedroom, with the door partially open upon your fathers demands. He’d also tried to decree that you must sit upright at all times without a blanket. Your mother reasoned with him.

“Kevin, it’s January.”

“Fine, but I don’t want to see them all wrapped around each other,” he seethed. Headstrong betas were useless as parents to omegas and alphas. Your poor omega mother tried to be patient with him across this numerous conversations you’d overheard. However, she was practically repeating herself verbatim by Thursday.

“Healthy physical contact with her partner is important to her emotional well being. Part of parenting an omega responsibly is facilitating a positive relationship with their own sexuality and their mate as they mature.”

“They’re not mated,” he bit back. Your mother took a deep breath that signified she was at the end of her rope. Hearing her actually stand up to your father was so satisfying.

“And aren’t we lucky they are taking things so slowly? Aren’t we lucky that Damiano is so respectful? Hmm? Aren’t we lucky that they’re taking their time?”

“We should be making damn sure they do take their time,” he retorted. It was blatantly transparent that your father was angry that he no longer had the highest degree of social power when an alpha was involved. It was further evidence that his ego dictated the way he treated his wife and daughters more than his moral code.

“They’re dating Kevin! They’re even exclusive!” For a blissful moment, that tripped your dad up. Of course, then you had to listen for footsteps, so your parents didn’t find you right around the corner, eavesdropping.

“Y/n went on birth control, and got an HSIUD. She’s not going into heat. She’s not getting pregnant. And if you went to the Supports Kevin,  you’d know that they’re doing quite well. In fact, you’d actually understand whats going on!” You were smiling so hard your face hurt. Whenever your mother played the Support Meetings card, it shut your father right up. Beta parents of hormonal children can attend lessons on a customized schedule for their child’s entire development to bridge the knowledge gaps. Obviously, your father failed to do so and your mother always had an ever-growing list of friends whose beta husbands went to those Support willingly in her arsenal.      

“I don’t need a class to learn common knowledge, Sheela,” he spat. “I know that they’re biologically engineered for each other.”

“And you make it sound so simple.” She spoke quietly in a way that suggested danger, not calm.

“I’ve already raised one! Look at Cleo, she turned out fine.”

“I would use many words to describe our eldest daughter. Kevin. Intelligent, resilient, articulate, beautiful, loyal. Fine is not one of them. So, over my dead body will you make Damiano feel uncomfortable in this house.”

So the following day, Damiano drove you home from school. He gave you an exhaustive lesson on the rules of soccer and basketball for when you attended his games (with the door five inches open). However, the movie was watched in your room, screen propped up at the end of your bed. Just tangling yourself up with Damiano was worth all the awfulness. You nominated one of Thalia’s favorite ancient architecture documentaries, since you already knew it by heart. Damiano watched the film, and you lay on his chest, face against his neck, with your eyes closed (but the door was five inches open). 

“Are you watching it?” You could feel the speech rumble in his chest.

“Mm mm,” you sighed, shaking your head.. The hand not resting on your back, moved to stroke your hair.

“Want me to tell you what's happening?”

“A white, bald guy in his 30’s with thick rimmed glasses and a baby blue button down is pointing at something,” you groan. Dami chuckles, but gets engrossed in a reenactment of a battle sequence. Its gory accuracy is your least favorite part of the film. His heart speeds a bit and he tenses, probably a natural reaction.

“How many times have you seen this?” 

“Like…” you wrack your break for a number. “Four times that I can remember and at least two that I can’t.” He chuckles and you finally look up, only to see Damiano’s smile. The adrenaline has him in alpha headspace, eyes dark, canines prominent, body ready to pounce. It thrills you that he allowed himself to shift. Your father walks by, checking in like the prison warden he is, and you hope that he notices Dami’s face and that it scares the shit out of him. No such luck. You admire Dami openly, his severe beauty and intensity.

“What are you thinking?” he whispers. Truth was you weren’t thinking, you were lusting.

“I really want to know the right thing to say so you know how happy this makes me,” you answer honestly. Damiano allows himself to smile, fangs and all. You know tertiary sex characteristics are supposed to be terrifying, but to you, Damiano does’t look like an apex predator. His alpha smile is actually really cute. Moving carefully, you lower your mouth to his. Out of curiosity, you lick his canine with the tip of your tongue. To avoid injury, you barely brush the sharpened point, but lick up the sides of the tooth and the front. You do the same to the otherside, affirming what you already suspected. His canines are smooth. Once you move back a couple inches, Damiano lets out a breath you hadn’t realized he was holding.

“So you’re coming to watch me tomorrow, right?” He’s shifting the conversation before you two get carried away, which is probably for the best. Soccer season was starting up and Dami had his first game Saturday afternoon. Historically, you mocked people whose self worth depended on getting to wear their partner’s jacket. You didn’t need David to be sprawled over your back like you were Dami’s property. In fact, you brought plenty of layers to keep yourself warm. However, any event where screaming profanity-laden opinions was socially appropriate was an event you had to try.

The best part was Cleo, who’d very much been that girl at sporting events. She walked into the bathroom where you were glamming before your ride to the field arrived. In her hands was a palette of plastic rhinestones and eyelash glue.

“No one is wearing gemstones at 10am.” 

“Have you ever been to one of these games before?” You shook your head, conceding. “You need my wisdom,” Cleo declared. 40 minutes later you had on a garish eyeshadow look, an oversized scrunchie, rhinestones glued to your cheekbones, and little stars painted on with eyeliner. All of it in the school colors: blue and yellow. You’d argued your way out of pigtails fastened with ribbons by allowing Cleo to curl your hair in a high pony. The absolute refusal to wear fake eyelashes at 10am almost ruined the morning, but after the application of even more glitter all was well. 

“No one is gonna be wearing all this shit,” you groan, trying to fade the makeup with your fingers. Your big sister slapped your hand away.

“Fucks sake, stop touching it!” she hissed. “Y/n, if you’re gonna go to this game you might as well be the most committed to supporting the team.”

“Ugh, ew!” You did not want your regalia mistaken as taking part in the gratuitous and unhinged traditions of sport.

“I thought you liked being the best at things.” Well she did have a point there. When you fall silent Cleo crosses her arms and gets a self-satisfied look on her face. Damiano comes to the house like a gentleman to pick you up. When the front door opens, you run down the stairs to meet him, forgetting about extra adornment. 

“Aww!” Damiano exclaims, when you come down the stairs, bag in hand. At first you freeze in confusion, then remember all the shit on your face and roll your eyes.

“I’m getting makeup remover,” you declare, turning to stomp up the stairs. 

“No, no, baby it’s cute!” Dami has never called you by a pet name in front of your parents before. It's a slip up, but true to his confidence, he just rolls with it. 

“I think the fuck not,” Cleo answers, stepping out of her room. “I spent way too long on that.”

“Did you curl her hair too?” Damiano asks.

“Mhm! Since y/n refuses to learn how to use a curling wand.”

“It looks great.” You roll your eyes. Cleo puts a hand on her hip, and smiles. Cocking an eyebrow as if to say I told you so. Your eldest sister doesn't seem to realize that she just accidentally had a pleasant conversation with your boyfriend. The both of you slip out the door before she wises up, your mother yelling something encouraging. 

Damiano brings your hands to his lips as soon as he shifts the car into drive. He kisses each knuckle, eyes focused on the road. It feels adult and exciting to be traveling with your boyfriend on a weekend morning. Dami is wearing a blue sweatshirt and athletic shorts. His socks match and his cleats are new. Most notably, his hair is pulled back into a sleek ponytail, displaying a freshly shaved undercut. You run your fingers over it, expecting to feel stubble, but his recently buzzed hair is actually quite soft.

“Do you hate it?” he grimaces, scrunching his nose up.

“Mm-mm,” you shake your head. “Is it less hair to get pulled?”

“Naw, I’ve just been getting too hot at practice.” Damiano, red, sweaty, disheveled hair, probably shirtless, but focused. Yum. 

“I should come to your practices.” Dami chuckles then shakes his head.

“I would get nothing done.” You love that you’re so distracting that it hinders Damiano’s ability to function. That just your presence, your desire, would be enough to impede on his athleticism. 

“What about today?”

“Today you’re just watching me warm up.” Damiano turns into the drive through for a cafe.

“If I don’t eat a second breakfast I’m starving 15 minutes into the game,” he explains. “What do you want? You’re gonna get so bored without coffee.” Having Dami buy you breakfast gives you a funny feeling in your chest. It dawns on you that this is your first date-like situation, because he’s never properly taken you out.

“You need to take me on a date.”

“You’re right, I do,” Dami agrees, smiling as he turns out of the parking lot and onto the street.

“Good answer.” You place a hand just above his knee and squeeze, conscious to avoid a car crash. “And thank you for buying me breakfast.” You tuck the food into your bag for later, removing a couple items as you do. Seeing your phone reminds Dami of something.

“Hey, can you check who we’re playing? They don’t post it until an hour before the game.” You follow Damiano’s directions, logging into his collegiate sport account. The way he freely gives away his password reminds you of his permanence in your life.

“Look at us being in the same car without acting like we have rabies,” you compliment. The Friday movie nights had made both your lives better. There wasn’t the touch starvation or the desperation of not knowing the next time you’d have intimacy. Dami’s anxiety had decreased and your bond had strengthened. Sure, your bodies were still trying to make decisions for you, but those demands became progressively easier to manage. Or, perhaps, they became progressively less intimidating.

“No frothing at the mouth,” he quips back. “Hey, what's the team name beside the insignia?”

“Okoro Academy,” you answer slowly. Damiano sighs then rolls his shoulders a couple times, in an effort to shed stress.

“What? Have they beaten you before?”

“No, they’re an alpha only school.” Your stomach drops at this. Dami is going to be focused on the game, not on protecting you. Of course you won’t need protection, because its just a fucking socc game, y/n. Damiano’s comment also raises another concern.

“Wait, how are you gonna focus if you’re worried about me?”

 “Because you’ll be sitting at the bottom of the risers on our side with the other…partners.”

“Omegas?” you supply, know he’s trying to avoid making gendered distinctions.

“Well not just omegas, but yes. The alternates and assistant coaches sit right in front of you guys. No one will mess with you.” Dami feels relatively confident, so you do as well. “Plus you’re so shiny that you’ll be easy to spot,” he chirps. You roll your eyes, pulling the visor down so you have a mirror to peel the gemstones off.

“Wait, no no, don’t. I’ll stop teasing, I promise. It really is cute.” You give him a dirty look and flip the sun visor back up.

“Fine,” you sigh, slumping back into the chair. It's a real effort, but you hide your smile in response to Dami’s compliment. 

“I didn’t expect you’d get so into it. I know the cheerleading vibe isn’t your thing so…I kinda thought I’d be dragging you onto the field,” he confesses. Part of you is above the stereotypical domesticity of going to your boyfriends soccer games. Another part of you likes the ease of mainstream, the path of least resistance.

“Oh, I can still make your life extremely difficult. Maybe I’ll cheer for the other team.” Something passes over your boyfriend's face so you backtrack. “Hey, I’m just being a asshole, of course I’m gonna cheer for you,” you assure. You’d thought the teasing would roll right off his back, but Damiano had been more sensitive and nuanced than you expected before. 

“I know, baby, I know. I was just thinking that Okoro’s team might misinterpret that.” Not cheering for your boyfriend, while unmarked could read like an invitation to a group of hypermasculine alphas. It was a stupid joke to make and you were chastising yourself. Another teasing comment didn’t seem like the way to go. Instead, you just leant over and pecked Dami on the cheek.

“I like your new hair,” you murmured, giving a sincere, sweet smile. Damiano thanked you with a grin, and you spent the rest of the car ride in comfortable silence. You needed to grow out of sarcastic phrases and comedic commentary into just saying what you meant. The prospect of vulnerability made you feel afraid, but Damiano had overcome fear for you. Now it was time to return the favor. When Dami parked you came around the other side of the car and halted him.

“Hey, I’m really glad you invited me. I know I act like I’m above genuinely liking popular shit, but I’m really happy to be here for you. Because I truly, really like you, which you already know.” Damiano’s face tells you that he’s lost for words, so you move to get your bag out of his car. Once you slam the door and turn around, you walk straight into Damiano’s chest. He backs you against the car. 

Trap isn't the right word to describe the situation because trap implies that you want to be freed. You are, in fact, thrilled to be Dami’s prisoner for as long as he desires. Proximity to your alpha always has a push and pull. Push because the mutual chemistry excited you, adrenalized you. Pull, because you regulated each other, pheromones told the other’s limbic system to chill out. He takes a deep breath and you follow him. Maybe your boyfriend needed extra help leveling.

“You’re gonna do great.”

“You don’t know that,” Damiano sighs. He was right.

“I don’t give a fuck about sports so win or loose its all meaningless to me.” You feel a rumbling in Damiano’s chest, the cotton of his sweatshirt soft against your cheek.

“That’s actually comforting,” he replies. Snuggling closer, his heartbeat is thundering right under your ear. It's beating so hard you can hear it through the thick fabric.

“Woah, baby, your heart is going way too fast.” You pull away to look at his face. Damiano is flushed, corners of his mouth slightly upturned. 

“It’s totally normal, I promise.” He shakes his head, brushing it off. 

“What is it?”

“I. Like. You.” Dami sways back and forth each word. “Hmm?” he hums, as if to say: get it now? You nod vigorously, because if you try to say anything it’ll come out as a squeak. Now the both of you are blushing. Damiano’s face shifts to that of focus. He’s doing that thing with his eyes where he rapidly flits from feature to feature with intensity, trying to discern the meaning of your expression. You prepare yourself to attempt a situationally appropriate face when he speaks.

“Can I scent you?”

“Abso-fuckin’-god-damn-lutely!” you said, beaming. “I thought you were about to ask a hard question!” Damiano snorts a laugh, forcing himself to keep it together.

“You realize that people will know?”

“Is that not the point?” you counter. Alphas won’t bother you and omegas will know that Damiano is taken.

“Okay, I need you to not scent me back. I just can’t get lost in you right now.”

“Got it,” you nod goodnaturedly, tilting your head to the side.

“C’mere,” Damiano whispers, one hand on the base of your skull. He tucks you against his neck, nuzzling. Immediately you want to float away into omega headspace, but you force yourself to stay present with eyes wide opened and first balled up in the fabric of his sweatshirt. When Damiano takes a step back you let out a breath and slump against the car, having to collect yourself. Your underwear are already moist and your groin throbs. It's not his fault, just the instinctual reaction to being scented.        

“You good?” Damiano extends his hand and you take it. Instead of walking towards an open field, you’re walking towards a building. 

“So alpha sports are at the amphitheater,” he narrates. You knew that alphas, betas, and omegas all played on different teams, but hadn’t considered that alphas were the only ones that really mattered. One of the exterior doors is propped open, and you can hear the voices of the players echoing in the cement halls. 

“I’ll spare you walking through the locker room,” he explains and your face crinkles in disgust. You round the corner of the building to reveal the field that sat between the bleachers. On the near side your flag is displayed and you can see the other team is mounting theres. It's a lot more seating than you expected. There's already two people on the bottom row, against the barricade. At this point you feel like a child whose mommy has to hold their hand all the way into day care. 

“I’m fine, Dami. Go do your thing,” you encourage, even though you feel uneasy. It's a lot of teenage alphas and not much else right now. You’d just have to battle with your instincts today, remind yourself that you’re safe. If Damiano had marked you it wouldn’t be an issue because his pheromones would be intertwined with yours. Scenting was like putting perfume over the smell of cigarette smoke.

Instead of going back around, Dami throws his bag then vaults over the barricade to meet it. Alpha behavior. Someone calls out and Damiano disappears from your line of sight when he goes to greet his team mate. Trying not to fall over and eat shit with a coffee in your hand, you carefully pick your way down to what you assume to be the unofficially designated omega area.

“Whew!” the omega on the right exclaims, as you approach them. Unsure who it was directed towards, you decide to sit two rows back. The other turns and glances at you. They both look to be seniors, so you feel out of your depth and fall silent. 

“Emmaline come on,” the girl on the left jostles her friend, who also turns around to look at you.

“Oh shit, ignore me! Your alpha was just awful thorough,” she giggles. So intensely did you yearn for mate behavior, like being scented, that you never considered it could make you self-conscious. Unsure what else to do, you apologize out of habit.

“Ugh, yeah, sorry.” 

“She’s just teasing.”

“She’s also tipsy,” Emmaline answered, speaking about herself in third person. Your eyebrows shot up and both of the omegas burst out laughing. 

“I’m Athena and you can come closer. We won’t turn you into a delinquent I promise. Emmaline has just been to too many of these damn things.” Emmaline raises her flask in agreement and winces after taking a swig.

“Is that whiskey?” you ask, sitting on the other side of Athena, leaving space.

“What kind of heathen do you take me for?” she gasped, scandalized. “Clear alcohol only until noon.” You wince at the thought of drinking vodka with your coffee.

“Tequila or vodka?”

“Gin,” they answer in unison, then dissolve into laughter. You feel stupid for forgetting that gin existed, but they’re laughing at themselves, not you. Ditzy, but friendly. You’d take it.

“And Athena you’re…sober?” She snorts, and Emmaline nods her head.

“Takes me some hard liquor to just catch up with her personality.” Athena gasps and shoves Emmaline with her shoulder. Thinking of a joke, you take the opportunity to make a good impression.

“I wouldn’t push her over, she might not get back up again.” Both of them burst out laughing. It wasn't a super great joke, but you’d never complain about an easy crowd.

“People would have to step over her. It’d be a real tripping hazard.” Athena lifted up the blanket spread across their laps, inviting you to share it with them. You scooted close enough, allowing you to read their pheromones. They were mated, both of them. Not just marked, but mated. There was suddenly an ache in your chest so severe it made you feel sick. Damiano hadn’t even marked you, which is why he had to scent you. Otherwise people would assume from your biology that you were single. Maybe your face fell or maybe they inferred it, but Emmaline and Athena sensed that something had crushed you.

“You know Damiano talks about you right? To the team.” You looked up right away, surprised.

“Really?”

“Yeah, Lars said that he was really hoping you’d come to the game, but was trying to act like Mr.Cool,” Athena rolled her eyes.

“Star said he’s been much more tolerable since you guys started seeing each other.” You might as well not have brought a coat due to how warm this information made you feel inside. Their faces were so encouraging and you wanted to flood them with questions. Questions about being an omega, about Damiano, about dating someone on the team, about protocol for attending games. They were both wrapped in scarves with the team name printed on them: Romero Public High. 

Your thought process was interrupted by Emmaline letting out a piercing whistle, cat calling Lars as the team came out onto the field to warm up.

“Fucks sake,” you groaned, one hand over your ear. 

“Sorry, shoulda warned you about that!” Athena let out a cheer as well and you tried to figure out what to do. They hadn’t scored a point, not even in practice.

“What are we cheering for?” you whispered.

“Because they came out on the field,” Athena chirped. They all look kinda dorky with their high socks and shirts tucked into their shorts. Most of them were wearing the team’s sweatshirt over their uniform. It was so giant that it bounced every time they took a step. They didn’t look like the height of masculinity, they looked like blue marshmallows with legs. Romero Soccer is doing this ridiculous looking kicking exercise where they swing their leg upwards with a bent knee. Meanwhile, you get the sensation of being watched and glance at the opposing team. Their stretching has faced Okoro Soccer straight at your team's bleachers. Literally half of its players are staring at you. Or maybe they’re staring at the two omega’s next to you who are older and gorgeous. You check behind yourself and see that another group is seated two rows above you.

“Do they always stare at us like this?” 

“It's because they don’t get much exposure to potential mates being in an alpha only school,” Athen grimaces. 

“They’re not staring at us, darling,” Emmalina confesses. “You’re new and available and –”

“I am not available,'' you snapped. Emmaline throws her hands up in surrender. Your face reddens in embarrassment.

“Sorry, I –”

“No, you’re right. I remember how frustrated I was before we mated.” Instead of turning away to stretch the otherside, two of Okoro’s players have the audacity to sit down on the terf and continue staring. Channeling all your anger into courage, you flip them off with both hands to a mini-round of applause from your fellow omegas, including a few you hadn’t heard come in. Overwhelmed, you busy yourself with finishing your breakfast and coffee. 

“Pst, y/n. Y/n,” someone behind you hissed. You looked up in surprise only to observe them nod towards the field. By the time you turn around Damiano is only 10 yards away from the barricade. On his face you could see an awareness of what had transpired. He beckons you over with a hand. Wishing this didn’t have to be dealt with in front of other people, you squat down to speak to him. Only then does it dawn on you that he might be embarrassed by what you had done. First outing.

“Hey, you okay?” His brow was furrowed in concen, but no shame or disapproval.

“Yeah, yeah. It was nothing,” you dismissed. “I just didn’t think omegas get bothered when they were scented.” Really, it had shaken you, because something you knew to be safe now wasn’t.

“With the wind on the field they can’t tell and don’t give a fuck trying to discern if they’re mad dogging someone’s omega. They’re assholes, I’m sorry” He pulled off his hoodie. He handed it over. Part of you wanted to resist being branded as Damaino’s property. You wanted the world to know that this wasn’t something important to you, belonging to someone.

“I'm fine, I’m not cold.”  

“Take off your jacket, sit on it, and wear this,” he requested. “I want them to have a visual reminder that you’re spoken for. That should stop the staring.” It still felt reductive to pull on Damiano’s soccer sweatshirt. These thoughts vaporize when Dami carefully pulls your hair out from under his sweatshirt. Then Dami brought his necklaces you wore out from under your clothes. He takes his time centering them, not meeting your eyes until he is satisfied.

You’d never done PDA before. Your boyfriend’s careful touches to make sure everyone knew who you belonged to were far more intimate than some sloppy makeout. 

“Mine.”

“Yours,” you answered, sitting on the edge of the barricade. Damiano stood between your legs, steadying you. You bowed your head to meet his, taking a deep breath of his smell as you have earlier. He was a little sweaty, and his scent was still on your hair and skin, perceptible even below the hoodie.

It was the first soccer game of the year, so he was understandably nervous. Given, you didn’t comprehend the strategy of what was going on, but Damiano seemed to be engaged on the field at all times. His role was important, which meant pressure. Helping him steady, you put both hands on his shoulders and took a deep breath. The next breath he joins yours and you remain there, breathing together, for a few moments. It was a lot more effective than some empty assurance.

In the next 15 minutes, a couple hundred people filled up the amphitheater, and the game began. Emmaline was slurring her words pretty early on and argued with the ref on everything. Everytime someone jeered or heckled in your section, you took it as a opportunity to mirror their sentiments, but louder. The referee cursed at your section before halftime which had to be a local record.

After scoring a goal on your side of the field, Damiano used the time out to fix his hair. His hair tie snapped, but they continued the game so quickly that he couldn’t go find a new one. The person Damiano stole the ball from noticed his obscured vision. He ran him off the field in the same way the wind blew Dami’s hair in his face. This visibly pissed him off, chest heaving. Next, Damiano managed to get the ball back, fighting in a tight cluster with other players from both teams. When he broke out, Okoro’s captain body slammed him, causing Damiano to trip over the ball and land on the terf. Okoro Soccor stole the ball and took it half way down the field before the referee blew his whistle.

Both sides were on their feet, yelling terminology that was only vaguely familiar. You focused on Damiano, who sprung right back up, obviously uninjured. Immediately he was in the face of the guy that knocked him over. He started to shift, which was concerning because you’d never observed a player do that before. A harsh whistle sounds from the back of the stands, and you look up to see Damiano’s parents. You didn't know they were coming. He was probably trying to spare you the anxiety of a formal introduction today.

Dami’s head snapped up in the direction of the whistle, but it didn’t solve the situation. He just tensed, trying to force control. The coaches were talking, going over the footage on a reader.

“Dami!” you shout, trying to get his attention. You check your wrists for hair ties then start taking down your ponytail when you find nothing. When Damiano’s eyes began to change you forced down panic.

“Vampiriano!” you call, hoping it's unique enough to grab his attention. You get the hair tie out and remember it is Cleo’s selection. Dami’s head snaps up, and you lean over the barricade where you’d sat before. Damiano jogs over to meet you, his face returning to normal. 

“Sorry, I know that was an overreaction. I know I shouldn’t –” You hold up a hand so he’ll stop talking to you like someone who’s upset at him.

“How about you get a bat from one of the storage rooms and I’ll be the distraction. We can kneecap him on the way to his car,” you suggest, wiggling your eyebrows. Damiano grins wide at that, his whole demeanor changing. Obviously your boyfriend knew better than to commit murder admist a public game. He’d shown that by apologizing as soon as he came over. Objectively, that player had been an asshole and Damiano needed someone to validate that he had been screwed over by the entire situation. You wonder if you’re the only person in his life whose first reflex isn’t chastising. 

You hand over your jumbo, polka dot scrunchie. Damiano grins again, this time with a bit of disbelief as he slides it onto his wrist.

“You don’t have anything else,” he sighs, flipping his hair over.

“Even if I did, I would still make you wear it.” He snickers, bun obscured by the ridiculous size of your scrunchie. 

“David!” his coach barks. He kisses our hand and runs over to resume the game. Everything goes smoothly from then on. The game is also much more amusing with your boyfriend’s new hair piece. Based on the way his team takes jabs at Damiano, you can tell he’s in a position of seniority. No one says anything of substance and they all laugh it off, Dami unbothered. At the end of it, Romero wins by two points. Some of the other omegas run across the field into their boyfriends arms when the winner is announced. That particular spectacle made you feel like an idiot. Straight out of the type of feel good, mass appeal movie that made you dread family time. Instead, you pack up your stuff, shoving your coat in the bag. You decide on finding him after he greets his parents, but Damiano comes to you first.

“Congratulations!” you exclaim, pulling your bag on. When Dami doesn’t immediately extend thanks you wonder if you’d somehow got the triumph team confused.

“You did win right?” Damiano is still sweating, a v-shaped stain in the front of his jersey.

“Yeah, we won,” he nods, a huge smile across his face. You’re not sure what to do next, so you deflect.

“Want to go say hi to your parents and meet me back at the car when you’re ready?”

“Yeah, sure,” he panted, climbing up the bleachers. Not touching at all was definaty awkward. It was one of those moments where you’re distinctly aware that you should know what to do, but are totally clueless. You looked out at the field. The other partners had met the alphas on the field as well. So many of them were mated, or at least marked. They embraced and kissed people far less attractive than Damiano. People with whom they didn’t have age gaps. Partners who were far more beautiful than you. 

You were dating arguably the hottest alpha on the team. He was two years older than you. Despite deciding on you over two months ago he hadn’t marked you. Two months and this was the first time he’d taken you in public. Was he ashamed? People must think you were a fucking idiot. You indisputably looked like an idiot. Had other people been staring? Were they staring now? You whip around, looking behind you, but everyone seems to be preoccupied.

Looking out on all these mates didn’t make you feel jealous. You skipped right over to feeling sick. Your heart hurt, there was a stone in your throat. You knew Dami, knew your dynamic, was closer to him than almost anyone. So why was this the first time he’d introduced you to the world? You tried not to let that change your perception, but maybe it should. Maybe it did say something about your relationship. No, maybe it said something about you.

 Feeling like absolute shit, you gather all your belongings and throw away your trash. Everyone around you was glowing and their happiness only made your sadness darker. 

“Oh shit, I know that face.” Recognizing the voice, you turned around to see Athena, pity written all over her expression. “C’mere.” She pulls you by the hand out of the main thruway. “Saw all the omegas running into their alphas arms and wanted to throw yourself off a cliff?” She wasn’t far off. “Just join them next time! I guarantee Damiano will be there to catch you.” For some reason this made you choke back a sob. Emmaline’s scuffed boots come into view. She throws an arm around you, liquor on her breath.

“I’m just torturing myself,” you choke. “I don’t know why, everybody does things at their own pace.”

“Ah, so you saw that everyone else was marked and wanted to throw yourself off a cliff?” Athena guesses. You need in agreement, a couple tears falling. You wipe them away roughly and look up.

“This part is always bumpy. Remember that your hormones fucking with your head. It's not real.” Steeling yourself, you decide to do the opposite of what your emotions suggest. You want to curl into a ball in the parking lot and cry, so you’re going to walk to Damiano’s car, head held high, glowing with confidence.

“Okay,” you say with finality. “Thanks, I’m fine now. I’ll see you guys at the next game.” Your phone buzzes and you check it to see a text from Dami. 

“Meet me by the sign in the front.” It's in the opposite direction of his car, but much closer and more public. By the time you respond and put your phone away, you feel like a totally different person. Despite the mood swing passing, you have emotional whiplash. You try to conceal this is Damiano comes into view. Making up for earlier, you run the last couple steps, and hug him. He wraps his arms around you, so tight its stifling and you’re trying to pull away.

“So I was wondering if you want to meet my parents right now? You look adorable and we could get it over with.” Damiano’s compliments had way more influence than they should. Speaking of things that should have already been done in the past two months. Dami could assume that you not meeting his parents was a sign that you weren’t truly invested, just using him for status. But he didn’t, he was warm and encouraging. 

“Sure,” you grinned. Dami laces your fingers together, pulling you towards what you assumed to be his parents' car. They stood on the opposite side, looking in the wrong direction. Seeing them before they saw you somehow made the moment manageable. You’d gotten past Dami’s hard exterior, no reason to be anxious about getting his parents to like you. You could see this written all over their faces as soon as they realized you were behind them. How did you get him to let you so close so fast? 

“Y/n!” His dad exclaimed, grinning. “How did you enjoy the game?” You could try to make up an appropriate answer, but instead you decide to be honest.

“I’ve never been to something like this before, but watching the ref get pissed off was fun.” He chuckled and extended his arms for a hug. Alright, so one of them already liked you. Damiano’s father hugged you like your mother did. Not as though it was some obligatory gesture, he actually conveyed affection.

“This is my father Matteo,” Dami narrated. “And my mother Isabella.” Her face was discerning. It makes you self-conscious, trying to fix your hair, and stand straighter. Matteo was definitely the welcoming of the two. Isabella was so mild mannered that you couldn’t tell if she was reserving judgment or hated you. It was nerve wracking. Damiano placed a reassuring hand around your waist and pulled you against his side.

“It was wonderful to see you make Damiano laugh today,” Isabella commented. You thought back to which moment she might have observed and drew a total blank. You made him laugh often, but most of your interactions were private.

“When that asshole shoved me and the ref was asleep. Your scrunchie?” 

“Oh, right!” you gasped.  Nodding, trying to remember why this moment had been brought up in the first place. Isabella was acknowledging that you could make hee son happy in a tense moment. That was a positive, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

“She’s pissed at me for losing control, not you,” he whispers. Isabella, lets out a nervous chortle, suddenly very self-aware. Her eye makeup settles into the creases of her skin when she laughs. Isabella’s expression finally relaxes into something readable.

“Sorry, I forget that people can see exactly what I’m thinking on my face.” She waves her hand, dismissing the previous tension. “Why don’t you come over for lunch today and let me make a better impression?”

“Well, she –” Damiano begins, trying to give you the option of an out.

“Yeah, that sounds great! Thank you for inviting me.” Your smile is genuine and they can tell. More time with Dami? Less time at your house? Fuck yeah.

After bidding goodbye, you and Damiano head back to his car. He pulls you by your hand, fingers laced together, his palms sweaty. The introduction was more important to him than he let on. He was practically skipping. 

“See? Of course they’re gonna love you, they raised me.” When you arrive at his car, Damiano slides your bag off your shoulder and throws it in the back seat next to his. You start to walk around to the car to the passenger side, but Damiano stops you.

“I haven’t had the chance to properly thank you for coming,” he smirks.

“You don’t have to, oh mm.” He kisses you passionately. Sure, he is marking his territory, but at this point you're happy to be marked. Happy to be had. It is a lot for your first public PDA. It’s hard to stay in the moment.

“Does this happen after every game? Because I think I might like sports.”

“Ssh, shut up,” Dami coos. He repositions so his body is blocking yours in. You’re hidden from public view. Feeling unobserved allows you to finally pay attention to Dami. He smells like sweaty teenage boy, very adjacent to wet dog. However he also smells delicious. All the exercise had deposited pheromones on his skin after the sweat evaporated. Other omegas must sense it, but they don’t get to have him. He’s yours, all yours. And they have to suffer through watching you enjoy him. 

Of course Damiano is aware of his eligibility. He’s aware that he’s actively attracting potential mates. He is using that time to shove you up against his car door and put his tongue in your mouth. Its remnicist of telling Damiano “I know I belong to someone.” He’s doing the same, demonstrating that he’s unavailable and happy about it. He might as well call you out by name on the loudspeaker.

A sick part of you thoroughly enjoys that you’re ruining other omegas afternoon with his display. Deciding to rub it in their face, you get a hold of his jersey with one hand and his neck with the other, pulling him in so close that neither of you can function. Mine. Mine. Look at how much belongs to me. You mean to make a hum of approval, but it comes out as a little growl. The noise actually startles you.

“Ooh, kitten’s finally feeling territorial,” Dami purrs. “Lucky me.” He takes your bottom lip in his mouth and nips. It sends a shiver of excitement down your spine. The sensation is electrifying enough that it brings some awareness to your current setting.

“Dami, rabid. We’re being rabid again,” you choke out. Damiano pauses and looks up, only then registering where you’d been clawing at each other. You don’t even check how many people are looking. If the answer is one that’ll still be mortifying, and it's very likely more than one.

“Sorry,” he chuckles, taking half a step back. “The exercise, adrenaline, endorphins, winning the game. It gets me going.”

“I’ll say,” you pant, bending over slightly to catch your breath. “Okay, let's leave before…” You trail off, walking around to the otherside of the car. Windows down, both sets of eyes forward, but still worked up. You both know that you can’t show up to lunch with his parents like this so you take turns naming things that turn you off.

“Ingrown toenails.”

“Clear-cutting.”

“Eye boogers.”

“Mono-cropping.”

“Raw chicken.”

“Capitalism.”

“You know, you’re making me seem like a real piece of shit here,” Damiano retorts. You both end up laughing, but force yourselves to stop because a good sense of humor is a turn on. That turns into listing what you like about eachother.

“Intuition.”

“The new hair.”

“Your fucking persistence.”

“I also noticed you have nice calves today.”

“Who’s the superficial one now?” 

“Why are they so hairless though? You’re Italian for fucks sake. I have more leg hair than you.” You gasp theatrically, inserting an impregnated pause.“ Do you shave?”

“No, I don’t shave!” he blurts, turning the corner on a yellow light. 

“It actually might be more embarrassing that you don’t. At least if you shaved you’d have an excuse for legs smoother than a baby’s ass.” Damiano tries to poke at your sides while still staring at the road. His hand still isn’t easy to dodge and you’re doing contortions. Then Daiano brakes hard, arm coming in front of your chest like a seat belt. The lack of collision and the squirrel running in the corner of your vision mean that everything is fine. You splutter and resume giggling. Damiano keeps driving, shaking his head at his own blunder. His hand resumes its position on the steering wheel.

“Sorry, are you okay?” There's so much genuine concern on his face, as if going from 20mph to a full stop would cause harm.

“Cleo drove me to school last year. Cleo. I’m fine, baby.” You twist a stray lock of hair around your finger. “Hey, at least that broke the sexual tension!” Damiano scoffs, shaking his head, but his smile returns.

“Fuck, it’s hard not to get distracted around you,” he groans, squrming around like he’s trying to shake something off. You resist the urge to remind him there's an easy, and very enjoyable solution to that because you’re pulling up to his parents house. He puts the car in park and you open the door, but Dami stops you.

“Mm, wait.” As soon as you turn towards him he captures your chin in his hand, uses it to guide you in. “C’mere, baby,” he murmurs, eyes on your lips. He kisses you long and soft, just once. It still throbs between your legs. Affectionate Damiano might be your new favorite. 

Isabella is much warmer this time around. Her entire disposition was based on feeling in control. That was a behavior you recognized, so you knew not to take it personally. It's actually easier to answer the litany of questions while Damiano is showering. Delicate family situations were your forte, so not having to worry about his reaction made things easier.

 It was immediately apparent though that Isabella and Matteo wanted to like you. They wanted your relationship to be successful and believed in your emotional resourcefulness. There was no you’re not good enough for my son. While sure, Damiano didn’t do great at the STEM part of academics, but he was popular, respected, and important to the schools sport teams which is where a lot of their reputation lay. Damiano was well-groomed, stylish, and inarguably intelligent. Even if he sucked at algera, he’d let you sneak peaks at the essays he actually tried on and the boy could write to. So you expected some exclusivity. 

You explained this all to the Davids. Then when you realize you’d been talking too long. Trying to fix the look on their faces, you joked that since STEM was your strongest point and you’d already had two concussions before high school, you and Damiano were sort of the mismatched perfect pair. Then you realized that you’d just insulted their son and decided to shut the fuck up and smile sheepingly, hoping they’d chalk up any social failures to nerves.

“Your parents must be so proud of you,” Matteo gushed.

“Heh?”

“People go their whole lives not understanding what you do at 15,” he complimented. “The reverence and empathy you have for Damiano is unique. It’s special.” So that was the look on their faces. You’re too busy thinking thank fuck to process Matteo’s words.

“Being so emotionally intelligent and doing well in school,” Isabella beamed. “I’m sure your family is proud of the person you’ve become.”

“Well I barely pass English every term and I’m not on the math team or anything.” Her brow furrows, and you try to read what the expression reveals. “My sister Thalia is the smart one! She goes to Emerson and she’s trying to get into this summer volcanology program. Poor Damiano has had to endure the rite of passage that is listening to Thalia talking about geology for half an hour.” The whole table chuckles and you feel better about things.

“She must be really helpful then, for your science classes.”

“Yeah, well she…” Thalia had helped you in school maybe twice. “Actually, I guess I kinda do things on my own,” you shrug. “She’s two years older, but we learned to talk around the same time. I just recall how panicked my parents were,” you chuckle at the memory of all the strategies and treatments they tried, to get Thalia talking. Matteo tries to be amicable, but Isabella’s expression has you reeling. Concern, something else maternal there too. This anecdote usually did just fine with your family. 

Matteo senses your plight and taps his wife’s hand, reminding her that you could see the unease in her expression. No wonder Damiano made himself impossible to read. Growing up with a mother whose every feeling was perceptible must have felt unsafe when he was little.

“So what would you like for lunch? Any allergies? Preferences?” Matteo gets up from the table and opens the fridge.

“I’ll eat almost anything,” you answer honestly. You feel Damiano’s presence in the room and let out a breath. You’d bumblefucked your way through a first conversation, but at least it was over. Damiano puts his hands on your shoulders and leans down.

“My bedroom is at the end of the hall or the living room is just through there,'' he whispers and nods towards a doorway on the side of the kitchen. “Whichever is fine with me. You pick.” Of course you would love to lounge around in Damiano’s bed, surrounded by his smell, his dirty clothes. At that thought you catch yourself. If you’re thinking about his dirty clothes, you can’t be trusted alone. 

You stand up and walk into the living room. The ceiling is slanted and the walls a pale, azure blue. The stress from the moment had made you overheat. You unzipped your jacket and went to hang it up in the entryway, before realizing that there were voices in the kitchen.

“Why did she look so freaked?” Oh, they’re talking about you. “I really don’t want her to avoid my house, okay? So whatever your opinions –”

“Dam, I think she’s lovely, and so smart. You need someone who sees things a little differently.”

“She’s tremendously emotionally intelligent.” Such genuine, heartfelt compliments were making you choke up.

“Okay, so everything's fine?” You don't have time to hang around for words of confirmation because you’ve got to make it seem like you were eavesdropping. Your face is hot with blush, bright red. You end up taking off your sweater too, so you’re left in just a very sensible tank top. Folding yourself into the corner of the couch, you pretend to be browsing the coffee table books, all of which are about birds. Damiano walks into the room, presence assured and calm. It makes you chill out too. He sits right beside you, almost on your lap, so you retire the bird photography book back to the coffee table.

“Hey,” you sigh, followed by a big breath. You hadn’t been aware you weren’t breathing deeply. Damiano brings a hand to your face, which means you’re visibly flushed, too.

“They had you sweatin, huh?” You look down at yourself, but you’re not visibly sweaty. You raise your arm and conduct the sniff test. It's barely perceptible.

“Stop that,” Damiano chuckles. “C’mere,” he falls backward, laying out on the couch and taking you with him. “I just meant you looked nervous. I really like the smell of your body odor anyways.” You let out a whine of protest at turning you on. “Oops. Sorry, but it's gonna take a lot to gross me out.” Damiano reached behind himself to situat a pillow under his head. You allowed yourself to relax against him, oversized hoodie and sweat pants.

Daminao ran a hand up and down your back. The sensation made you shiver so hard it was comical. However, drying sweat and cold air on bare skin made you start shivering for real. All your layers were on the opposite side of the couch and you really didn’t want to move. It was partially the come down from the adrenaline of meeting his parents, but your teeth were chattering. 

“Hey, put on my sweatshirt. I’ll go get another one.”

“Mm-mm,” you shake your head, objecting to Damiano getting up and moving.

“You can’t make me watch you shiver, y/n, c’mon.” You scooch around, considering getting up and the movement pushes Damiano’s sweatshirt. His tan, bare skin is revealed, resulting in a stroke of genius.

“Are you wearing anything under this?”

“No. That’s why I need to go get another sweatshirt,” he says impatiently.

“Let's share it.” 

“Okay…” You sit back on your heels, pushing the thick fabric up. It looked to be an old sweatshirt for another team and was huge. The neck was cut, and the fabric faded and stretched out. It must be his dad’s. You ducked under, skirming upwards. The hard part was finding a way to get your head through without choking the both of you. This was solved by tucking your face to Damiano’s neck. Immediately you were a little high from the vicinity of his scent glands. Dami swept the hair from your face, but it didn’t matter because you closed your eyes as soon as you were situated.

Damiano shifted around and pulled the sweatshirt back down. He was so warm and the skin to skin contact leveled everything out. This is why you’d had your mood swing earlier. The same spike in your hormone levels that allowed for mates to bond also fucked you over when you didn’t spend enough time with your alpha. It terrified you how detectable the difference was. Immediately, your temperature was perfectly comfortable. Your heart rate regulated, your oxygen intake increased. Suddenly you could take deep breaths and realized they were exactly in time with Damiano’s. Your hearts were probably beating the same. It was the first time you’d felt like a whole person in who knows how long.

The fact that Dami wraps his arms around you in the cherry on top. The weight soothes your anxiety even further as your cortisol levels drop. You can’t remember the last time you felt this safe and assured. Calming down from a state of hypervigilance has you yawning. Damiano’s house smells faintly sweet and he’s right here. In the kitchen is the ambient noise of cooking, from people that admire you. There’s nothing to shield yourself from. You don’t mean to fall asleep. Your thoughts are only swimming for a moment before you slip under.

“So I was thinking that you could stay for dinner if you wanted,” Damiano ponders. You don’t respond, you don’t even move.

“Y/n? Y/n?” He cranes his neck to look at you, which is impossible in the present position. Damiano listens to your even breathing and tries whispering your name a couple more times. Then he just lets you rest, turning on the TV really low, using subtitles. It strikes him how peaceful this is, how fulfilling and nurturing even though you’re doing exactly nothing. He also feels guilty because obviously you really needed whatever this is fulfilling if you could pass right out.

“So y/n, I was wondering if you wanted some tea? We have –” Isabella falls silent as she walks into the room. Dami holds a single finger up to his lips, signifying to be quiet. Isabella speaking at full volume only distrubed you enough that you shift around. Dami wraps both his arms around you again and this settles you. Now your mouth is open, tiny hot puffs of air on his neck.

“She’s asleep,” he whispers. His mother tip-toes over, checking if she woke you up, but your face is peaceful. Once she takes a look at how you’re configured she has to hold back a laugh with four fingers pressed to pursed lips.

“Well this is inventive,” she whispers. Isabella cocks her head to the side, like viewing you from a different angle will fill in all the gaps in her knowledge. 

“And she fell right asleep, like this?” Damiano nods and she tsks, sighing.

“It's like she needed…I don’t know what.”

“Hormonal shifts are especially difficult for people in her family, I think.” She smoothes the hair from your face.  Matteo walks into the room with purpose, looking for his wife. His paternal instinct stops him a few steps in, noticing that no one is talking. He begins to back out, but Isabella waves him over.

“Come look, it's the sweetest thing,” she whispers. Matteo tip-toes over and silent awe’s at you tucked against Damiano, fast asleep. Dami smiles wide up at both of them. Come see what's mine. Mine.

“I’ll stop the kettle from boiling,” he murmurs, rushing back into the kitchen.

“She desperately needed steadying,” Isabella comments. “Things at home are less than ideal?” Her tone lilts up like it's a question, but in actuality it's a statement..

“Yeah, her dad is under some misinformation of who his daughter is.”

“Beta father parent fails their omega child,” she narrates. “Expected, but it always makes me sad.” Isabella brushes her hand down your back, touch too light to register as a sensation. “She said Thalia is the smart one, but she’s a beta. So is her mother there when things are acting up omega-wise?

“Cleo is the sick one,” Dami retorts.

“So Thalia’s the smart one, Cleo’s the sick one and what about her? Does she get room to exist?” They sit in silence as Damiano tries to come up with as accurate and fair an answer as possible.His mother cuts him off preemptively.

“I think you should have Friday’s here. It's not customary, but I think it’ll be much less stressful. Someone needs to defend this poor omega’s nervous system. Christ, only a beta father would demand you keep the door open at all times. Ridiculous,” she tsks, walking into the kitchen. Damiano’s phone vibrates and he tries to wrench it out of his pocket before the buzzing wakes you. It's a text from his teammate.

Star: Em said y/n was crying after the game, but not to make it into a thing. Still thought you should know.

 Damiano sighs, stroking your hair.“Why don’t you tell me these things, baby?” he whispers, speaking mostly to himself because you’re fast asleep.

Notes: gonna do the tagging and stuff that gets me notes tomorrow, but I know some of y’all are waiting for this chapter so here ya go😘

[looseleafteeaves]

Aspects AU, Part 2

Okay, I find it really importang to share some random headcannons from Turtleduck and I for this AU.

Also I just finished the TV show, and the Brain Rot is back.

The day that Luke and Thalia and Annabeth stumbled to camp, Annabeth didn’t lose a big brother and sister- she gained one. Dionysus showed his care. Unfortunately, this didn’t save Luke.

It is incredibly important to me that you understand that Dionysus is basically a licensed therapist and he enforces good mental health practices on the kiddos.

Therapy Thursday is camp wide group therapy around the campfire. Yes Grover learned the Consensus Song here.

Luke, after his quest, becomes hyper-paranoid and avoids Dionysus. This backfires, as Kronos’s manipulation gets worse and worse, and Luke can barely tell which way is up by the time Percy gets to camp. Kronos had to use a lot of effort to use him to hurt Percy.

However… this helps in Titan’s Curse, because Di senses the magically inflicted madness when he snaps the human mercenaries minds.

You also need to know that some of the kids unironically call him Daddy. Some do it as a joke, but the youngest ones tend to see him as a second(or third) dad.

Percy meets him, and Di’s actions are what secures his loyalty to Olympus. The same for most kids. If Luke controlled his own facilities, he wouldn’t have helped Kronos.

Its super important that you know Luke is ABSOLUTELY a victim in this AU. ALL the demigods are. Percy is loyal only because at least One god showed that he cared.

Dionysus hs beef with Ares after the lightning thief. He also found the medusa thing HILARIOUS.

Dionysus sends Demigod Report Cards home. Godly parents are expected to sign the jacket and send it back. He even got several to pay an allowance.

Dionysus is not staying sober. He regularly sends kids on a “quest” to smuggle him alchol. He gifts magical objects for it.

Thats it, thats all I got. @two-turtleducks feel free to add to this.

[hairpintvrns]

STARTER FOR: @edwardsthalia Valentine 📲 Thalia

VALENTINE: Hi 😇 Is this Thalia Edwards? I hope you don't mind that I got your work number from the receptionist. VALENTINE: It's Valentine Finch from the Thursday yoga session?

[disneytva]

June 2023 Programming Highlights

Friday, June 2 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior SuperKitties “Cat Tree Caper/Showstopper” (1-16) (8:30-9:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/1:25-1:55 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Cat Tree Caper” – The SuperKitties have to stop Cat Burglar from swiping all the cat trees from the cats of Kittydale.

“Showstopper” – Mr. Puppypaws tries to make the Singing Squirrels give him a private concert. TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures “Squadron/Forest Defenders” (1-06) (9:00-9:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD; 7:30-8:00 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Squadron” – The Jedi put their flying skills to the test.

“Forest Defenders” – Kai and friends defend the forest creatures’ homes. TV-Y

Thursday, June 8 Original Series – Series Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Hailey’s On It! “The Beginning of the Friend” (1-01) (8:00-8:30 p.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) After learning that her to-do list will save the world, Hailey attempts to ride every ride at the county fair. TV-Y7

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Hailey’s On It! “Beta’d and Hooked/The Wild, Wild Mess” (1-03) (8:30-9:00 p.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) “Beta’d and Hooked” – Hailey and Scott set sail to catch the legendary Blue Ono so they can win the top prize at the Fish Taco Festival.

“The Wild, Wild Mess” – After becoming ‘Sheriff for a Day’ at a western reenactment town, Hailey uses her newfound authority to rid the town of an invading dirt bike crew. TV-Y7

Friday, June 9 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Mickey Mouse Funhouse “HALT, Tiger!/You Gotta Be Kitten Me!” (2-16) (7:30-8:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/12:00-12:30 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “HALT, Tiger!” – On Shadow Mountain in the Land of Myth and Legend, Mickey and friends meet Cho Sook, a mythical Korean shapeshifter. *Jee Young Han (“Perry Mason”) as Cho Sook, a Korean gumiho.

“You Gotta Be Kitten Me!” – Daisy and Minnie help Thalia overcome her fear of cats. *Yasmine Al Massri (“Quantico”) guest stars as Bast, an Egyptian cat-like statue. TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior SuperKitties “Sparks vs. Sparks/Poochy Playdate” (1-17) (8:00-8:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/1:25-1:55 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Sparks vs. Sparks” – When animals accuse Sparks of stealing, the SuperKitties must find the real thief.

“Poochy Playdate” – A jealous Mr. Puppypaws traps all the other dogs to keep them away from the park. TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends “Super Scooter/The Lost Web Shooter” (2-22) (8:30-9:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/1:00-1:30 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Super Scooter” – When the villains team up to take out the heroes and their super-powered vehicles, it’s up to Ghost-Spider and Ms. Marvel to save the day.

“The Lost Web Shooter” – When Spidey loses one of his web-shooters, two kids get the dream of a lifetime to help him recover it from Doc Ock. TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures “The Jedi and the Thief/The Missing Kibbin” (1-07) (9:00-9:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD; 7:30-8:00 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “The Jedi and the Thief” – Kai and Master Zia must get back her stolen ship.

“The Missing Kibbin” ‒ The young Jedi helps a bounty hunter find a lost pet. TV-Y

Wednesday, June 14 Original Series – Series Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Pupstruction “Built To Build/Pup DE-struction” (1-01) (8:00-8:25 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney Junior) “Build To Build” – Phinny must build a new bridge so Petsburg’s kids can get to school.

“Pup DE-struction” – Mayor Gilmore tasks Phinny with building a skate park, but an indestructible boulder stands in their way. TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Pupstruction “Hush Puppies/Beach Day Build-Off” (1-02) (8:25-8:55 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney Junior) “Hush Puppies” – Phinny struggles to build quietly for a family whose chinchilla neighbor needs to sleep.

“Beach Day Build-Off” – Bobby Boots wants to show up Pupstruction in front of the mayor, but his attempt backfires. TV-Y

Thursday, June 15 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Pupstruction “Bailey’s Birthday Coaster/Doggone Tired” (1-03) (8:00-8:25 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Bailey’s Birthday Coaster” – For his little sister’s birthday, Phinny builds her the wildest roller coaster ever.

“Doggone Tired” – The Pup Crew must save the grand opening of a new Petsburg restaurant, but Tank’s too sleepy. TV-Y

Friday, June 16 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Pupstruction “Fast and Furriest/Luna Digs Deep” (1-04) (8:00-8:25 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Fast and Furriest” – When a hamster ball rolls out of control, the Pupstruction Crew tries to stop it.

“Luna Digs Deep” – Luna loves playing with her new excavator scoop so much she can’t get any work done. TV-Y

Saturday, June 17 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Kiff “Fresh Outta Grandmas/Maybe-sitting” (1-16) (8:30-9:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) “Fresh Outta Grandmas” – Tensions rise when the crew gets wrapped up in a new collection craze.

“Maybe-sitting” – When Kiff shadows Harry and Terri as they watch Kristophe, she learns that being in charge is not so easy. TV-Y7

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Hailey’s On It! “The Last Sand/The Show Must Go Wrong” (1-02) (10:00-10:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) “The Last Sand” – Hailey and her dad enter Oceanside’s Sandcastle Building Contest, but a cheating A.C. goads her into a small-scale medieval war of epic proportions.

“The Show Must Go Wrong” – When the star of the school musical injures herself in the middle of the show, Hailey must overcome her fear of performing in front of an audience. TV-Y7

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Hailey’s On It! “Cubix Dudes/Cos-played” (1-04) (10:30-11:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) “Cubix Dudes” – When Hailey’s plan to build an owl habitat is derailed, she learns the value of sacrifice for the good of a friend.

“Cos-played” – When Hailey, Scott and Beta discover that they’ve been scammed at a Hero Force cosplay event, Hailey finds the hero within her to stand up to the bullies. TV-Y7

Friday, June 23 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Pupstruction “Bailey and the Doggy Doctor/Dog for a Day” (1-05) (8:00-8:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Bailey and the Doggy Doctor” – Bailey is scared when she finds out she’s having her very first checkup.

“Dog for a Day” – Bobby Boots sneaks into Pupstruction HQ to get a hold of Phinny’s blueprints for a new waterpark. TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior SuperKitties “Voice With No Choice/Brother Battle” (1-18) (8:30-9:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/1:25-1:55 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Voice With No Choice” – The SuperKitties stop Zsa-Zsa from turning animals’ voices into musical instruments.

“Brother Battle” – Sparks and Buddy accidentally hurt each other’s feelings. TV-Y

Saturday, June 24 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Kiff “Everyday I’m Riddlin” Riddlin’/Life On The Inside” (1-17) (8:30-9:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) “Everyday I’m Riddlin” Riddlin’” – Kiff and Barry help a local bridge troll but discover he has some tricky riddles. *Rhys Darby (“Our Flag Means Death“) guest stars as Trollie, a troll living under a bridge.

“Life On The Inside” – Kiff and Barry get detention and meet a ragtag team of students who help them plot an escape. TV-Y7

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel Hamster & Gretel “Let’s Sea What You’ve Got/Churro’s Day Out” (1-20) (9:00-9:30 a.m. EDT) “Let’s Sea What You’ve Got” – Gretel and Bailey experiment with Gretel’s powers at the beach.

“Churro’s Day Out” – Churro has a day out while the family gets a portrait done. TV-Y7

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Hailey’s On It! “Road Trippin’/Escape Doom” (1-05) (10:00-10:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) “Road Trippin’” – Kristine feels like the third wheel after she unexpectedly joins Scott and Hailey on a road trip.

“Escape Doom” – Hailey must lead her friends out of an Egyptian-themed escape room that chaos bots have rigged to crush. *Martin Starr (“Silicon Valley”) guest stars as Cody, an escape room attendant. TV-Y7

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD Hailey’s On It! “The Flamingo Must Flamin-Go / Splatter of the Bands” (1-07) (10:30-11:00 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel and Disney XD) “The Flamingo Must Flamin-Go” – Hailey secretly adopts a smelly, old flamingo and quickly realizes she’s bitten off more than she can chew. *Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure”) guest stars as Carla, a local animal shelter owner.

“Splatter of the Band” – Hailey must decide between perfection and fun in order to win a local music festival. *Blake Anderson (“Workaholics”) and Brandon Mychal Smith (“Sonny with a Chance”) guest star as Swagmeister and JT, an influencer duo, respectfully. TV-Y7

Friday, June 30 Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Firebuds “The Super Safety Show/Job-O-Rama Day” (1-21) (7:00-7:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/1:50-2:20 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “The Super Safety Show” – Iggy and Rod’s jealousy of the Firebuds leads to an emergency.

“Job-O-Rama Day” – Violet can’t decide which of her moms’ jobs to present at a school event. TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel and Disney Junior Pupstruction “Adventures in Bulldozing/Safe and Hound” (1-06) (8:00-8:30 a.m. EDT on Disney Channel/11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT on Disney Junior) “Adventures in Bulldozing” – Roxy is babysitting Bailey when she accidentally inspires the young pup to go on a demolition spree.

“Safe and Hound” – Phinny’s dad decides the Pupstruction Crew needs a “Safety Supervisor” — him! TV-Y

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 7: WE MEET THE GOD WITH TWO FACES

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! For everyone else, here is an extra chapter this week to celebrate this mundane Thursday!

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Will was whistling cheerfully to himself as he flipped to the next chapter like he wasn't about to read of the most evil place right beneath his camp. Nico had spent immeasurable hours down there feeling so alone and wishing for Percy's company and the stupid jokes he'd crack and the great, protective warrior he was to help him.

Looking back on the running, terror, broken bones and constant isolation left him unsurprised how different he was from those around him in retrospect. His first friend had been a ghost who deceived him.

It was a nice thought for a moment as Will read the chapter title, that at least as he remembered the stenches and adrenaline rushes of his own in to vivid detail to come right along with Percy, at least he'd come out with friends now.

Alex's eyes were alight at once with whom Percy was set to meet next. "If I could vote for you to kill a god, it'll be this one!"

"Alex, no," Magnus said in vain once more.

"Where's the downside?" He demanded. "Nobody would ever get stabbed in the back again, the worst of cowardly moves!"

"That's not how that works, in the slightest," Thalia sadly corrected. "Just because you killed Zeus doesn't mean lightning wouldn't flash through the sky and storms wouldn't come." Though she suspected it was happening above at just the hypothesis being put in the world.

Percy got an amused look in place as he imagined Zeus in his chair spitting out his drink and glancing around suspiciously.

"Poo," Alex huffed. It was actually a bit worrisome a two-face god was going to get one over on Percy instead, as nice as he was. He swore right then if this god resembled Quintus for one second he'd have to face facts on that answer.

We made it a hundred feet before we were hopelessly lost.

"Life goals. I can't make it down the block half the time without forgetting where I'm going some days," Jason said sardonically.

"It's a maze," Thalia rolled her eyes, "and Percy! It's a miracle he didn't get lost turning around."

"Your faith in me is instilling," but Percy's voice was nothing but accepting facts.

The tunnel looked nothing like the one Annabeth and I had stumbled into before. Now it was round like a sewer,

"If you actually run into a ninja turtle, I will take back every crack I ever said about you," Alex promised.

"Eh, depends on which one," Magnus mock agreed.

I shined a light through one of the portholes out of curiosity,

"Your soul animal is officially a cat Percy," Will chuckled.

"I still say it's seaweed," Thalia scoffed.

but I couldn't see anything. It opened into infinite darkness.

I thought I heard voices on the other side, but it may have been just the cold wind.

"Already understanding why Chris lost his mind down there," Jason muttered.

Annabeth tried her best to guide us. She had this idea that we should stick to the left wall.

"If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it," she said, "we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course."

"Good in theory," Nico was already shaking his head though, "not an execution that can be followed." Which she already knew from her studying, mildly annoying him why she thought she was smarter than this place already.

Unfortunately, as soon as she said that, the left wall disappeared. We found ourselves in the middle of a circular chamber with eight tunnels leading out, and no idea how we'd gotten there.

Magnus made a very loud, awkward laugh that died quickly at this place literally mocking them in the face. It wasn't funny, but he wasn't screaming in terror, so this was better, right?

"Um, which way did we come in?" Grover said nervously.

"Just turn around," Annabeth said.

"If there is a brick wall behind you I will have no choice but to really laugh," Alex promised.

We each turned toward a different tunnel. It was ridiculous. None of us could decide which way led back to camp.

"Trippy, I actually like that answer better," Alex still laughed any ways.

"At least somebody does," Percy sighed.

"Left walls are mean," Tyson said.

"Tyson, still holding strong with the best lines in these," Jason applauded, and they couldn't decide how much sarcasm was in that.

"Which way now?"

Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as I could tell, they were identical. "That way," she said.

"No consensus huh?" Thalia chuckled. "No voting, not even a flip of a coin?"

"Annabeth was our compass," Percy shrugged without surprise.

"I'm going to encase you in a magnet one of these days so you have to figure something out for yourself," Thalia mock threatened.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Deductive reasoning."

"So...you're guessing."

"Just come on," she said.

"See, exactly the plan I would have had. Bring the magnet on!" Percy laughed.

"Only you," Thalia shook her head at these two.

The tunnel she'd chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to gray cement, and the ceiling got so low that pretty soon we were hunching over. Tyson was forced to crawl.

"Poor guy," Will frowned, "I bet he was carrying all the heavy stuff too."

"If he could have smashed his way to the surface I wouldn't blame him," Percy agreed.

Grover's hyperventilating was the loudest noise in the maze. "I can't stand it anymore," he whispered. "Are we there yet?"

"Thalia, your kid wants you," Percy smirked.

"On the weekends he's still yours," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"We started this quest on a Thursday!"

"I'm taking an extended vacation," she said with an unamused air, this joke had officially gone to a level that wasn't funny as images of her mom came to mind.

"We've been down here maybe five minutes," Annabeth told him.

"It's been longer than that," Grover insisted.

"I actually believe him on that, considering it was a few minutes to you but hours last time," Will nodded.

"And time means very little down there," Nico needlessly reminded.

"And a magical satyr thing that knows the time of the day too probably," Magnus rolled his eyes.

"And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite of the wild!"

"I bet he got lost too," Percy said in something close to sympathy.

We kept shuffling forward. Just when I was sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would squish us, it opened into a huge room. I shined my light around the walls and said, "Whoa."

"The good kind or the bad kind?" Magnus already had a pit in his stomach no matter the answer, with Percy one could easily mean the other.

"The mildly impressive kind," Percy shrugged with a small grin.

The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but I could still make out the colors—red, blue, green, gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast. There was my dad, Poseidon, with his trident, holding out grapes for Dionysus to turn into wine. Zeus was partying with satyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals. The pictures were beautiful, but they weren't very accurate. I'd seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes's nose wasn't that big.

"Yeah, but like," Will was shaking with suppressed laughter, "if you knew the gods were real, you wouldn't question how they wanted to be painted."

"I can't draw, I wouldn't know," Percy rolled his eyes. Even if he tried doodling stick figures, he wouldn't exactly be doing his best to care.

Jason didn't hear them, there was a low buzzing in his ears. Something about the way that was described, something he'd been absently wondering but didn't know how to put into words until this moment. That sounded Roman. Should he know this labyrinth existed? He was certain he'd never been in, but finally, at this moment, he had the tiniest bit of a guess wondering if he'd ever tried to find this place.

In the middle of the room was a three-tiered fountain. It looked like it hadn't held water in a long time.

"That was the part you said whoa too, another fountain," Alex smirked.

"Guilty, I still felt bad about mine," Percy grinned.

"What is this place?" I muttered. "It looks—"

"Roman," Annabeth said. "Those mosaics area about two thousand years old."

"It must be exhausting knowing everything," Nico huffed.

"Probably," Will said innocently. The Athena cabin was the worst about asking for help, but when he saw one to many sleepless nights on them, he was a tad guilty about slipping something into their meals and blaming it on Travis and Connor's pranks.

"But how can they be Roman?" I wasn't that great on ancient history, but I was pretty sure the Roman Empire never made it as far as Long Island.

"And you think the Greeks did?" Magnus asked in concern. The whole point of these odd books was their never ending migration here and how that mingled in.

"I didn't think they brought souvenirs from the Roman Empire that toppled them," Percy rolled his eyes while Jason looked like he was swallowing his teeth one by one in consternation.

Thalia cleared her throat sharply to keep them moving fast when she saw.

"The Labyrinth is a patchwork," Annabeth said. "I told you, it's always expanding, adding pieces. It's the only work of architecture that grows by itself."

"I wish those words to never be spoken in that order again," Magnus groaned.

"That is so cool!" Alex yelped.

"Or those," Magnus huffed, it never meant anything good in this lot.

"Like, like Daedalus really built a second layer into the earth that's as alive as this planet!"

"Man was a mad genius," Percy agreed with a kind of awesome dread as he pictured someone in a white lab coat with lightning crackling screaming about it being alive over the whole planet.

"You make it sound like it's alive."

A groaning noise echoed from the tunnel in front of us.

"Does anybody speak labyrinth?" Will asked with mildly less cheer than usual, he didn't at all like the idea of being underground. "Maybe it's trying to tell you which way to go."

"I wish we could ask the labyrinth if they prefer he or she pronouns," Alex tapped his chin in thought. "I know most people depict the earth as feminine, but that gets into a long line of stereotypical depictions of nurturing and-"

Alex was only one part taking the mickey and one part serious, so he laughed it off and shelved that for later as Will politely cleared his throat to keep going over an answer they couldn't get anyways.

"Let's not talk about it being alive," Grover whimpered. "Please?"

"All right," Annabeth said. "Forward."

"Down the hall with the bad sounds?" Tyson said. Even he looked nervous.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "The architecture is getting older. That's a good sign. Daedalus's workshop would be in the oldest part."

"And because she said that, I'm guessing it's going to remodel itself in twenty feet to look like a stainless steel lab." Jason frowned.

"I just hope there's not a monkey in there playing on the computer, I do not want to walk into an alternate dimension by accident," Percy wasn't sure he'd have the heart to fight cute animals if they were the dominant species.

That made sense. 

"I'm glad it did to you," Magnus muttered, now personally trying not to imagine Daedalus packing up a phone booth and carrying his workshop around to never be found no matter what logic was used.

But soon the maze was toying with us—we went fifty feet and the tunnel turned back to cement, with brass pipes running down the sides. The walls were spray-painted with graffiti. A neon tagger sign read MOZ RULZ.

"I'm thinking this is not Roman," I said helpfully.

"You never know, I bet some ancient Roman could have gone by the name of Moz and been way ahead of time on, um, pipework," Will snickered.

Nico couldn't really find the humor in it, Will would have to really try to make him laugh about anything to do with this place, but it was a tad amusing to see Thalia roll her eyes at someone other than Percy.

Annabeth took a deep breath, then forged ahead.

"I've found the best way is to ignore him too," Thalia mock agreed as if Annabeth were her to commiserate with.

Her cousin was, and he didn't bother to muffle a snort.

Every few feet the tunnels twisted and turned and branched off. The floor beneath us changed from cement to mud to bricks and back again. There was no sense to any of it. We stumbled into a wine cellar—a bunch of dusty bottles in wooden racks—like we were walking through somebody's basement, only there was no exit above us, just more tunnels leading on.

"Jeez, I'm getting claustrophobic just hearing about this," Alex tugged at the collar of his shirt.

"Can't exactly go outside and stretch our legs in the sun too," Magnus agreed with an uneasy twitch. This room was by no means unbearable or small, but he'd never thought he'd have to associate constant common amenities with entrapment. And that group had it even worse down there.

Alex clearly wasn't going to let that keep him down though as he bounced back and asked, "please tell me you nabbed one of those! I can't even imagine the vintage on a long-lost bottle of wine!"

"I bet it was a cellar only Dionysus uses," Percy shook his head quickly. "Do you want to find out what would happen if we disturbed one of those cobwebs?"

Alex looked very much like he was contemplating that answer, and Thalia sighed once again at what a bad influence all of these idiots were on each other.

Later the ceiling turned to wooden planks, and I could hear voices above us and the creaking of footsteps, as if we were walking under some kind of bar. It was reassuring to hear people, but then again, we couldn't get to them. We were stuck down here with no way out.

"You're telling me if Tyson really wanted to he couldn't smash a house down?" Alex scoffed.

"Not a hundred percent sure," Percy admitted, "the labyrinth might fight him, turn into something even he couldn't break and shrink on us. Do you want to make the sentient maze mad?"

Alex didn't seem as concerned at the implications of that as Percy would have hoped, but then, he really should have known better by now.

Then we found our first skeleton.

It was the first dead body Percy had ever seen, and it didn't look like those fake skeletons for a Halloween decoration. He'd been killing monsters for years now, and yet he never thought of the mess they left behind as their form of a soulless husk. He rubbed his fingers together thoughtfully, his mind flickering to his mother and her clear sight. What she saw through the dust. She probably would have shielded his eyes from this, but it made his head and stomach groan in symbiotic pain to imagine her down there.

He was dressed in white clothes, like some kind of uniform. A wooden crate of glass bottles sat next to him.

"A milkman," Annabeth said.

"Those guys actually existed?" Nico asked in surprise. "I thought that was a weird gag in cartoons."

"It was a real job," Thalia nodded.

"When the fridge was invented, they went out of business," Magnus added helpfully.

"Huh, learn something new every day," Nico said with a surprised smile.

"What?" I asked.

"They used to deliver milk."

"Yeah, I know what they are,

"Which kind of concerns me how much Annabeth thinks of you," Thalia told him with sympathy.

"She never knew with me after I told her I thought my TV just wasn't big enough to see some old cartoon character's faces," Percy shrugged.

but...that was when my mom was little, like a million years ago. What's he doing here?"

"Some people wander in by mistake," Annabeth said.

"Those poor mortals," Magnus said with sorrow. He couldn't imagine how many little kids had fallen down there and never made it out. Maybe a few horror novels of things beneath the surface of the earth had been inspired by getting a peak down there, like the Labyrinth itself had enticed a kid with a clown and red balloon.

"Some come exploring on purpose and never make it back. A long time ago, the Cretans sent people in here as human sacrifices."

"And yet sadly, we've let cretin fall off the insult radar," Alex shook his head as if taking personal responsibility for this.

"Something I hope you won't bring back with historic accuracy," Magnus muttered.

Grover gulped. "He's been down here a long time." He pointed to the skeleton's bottles, which were coated with white dust. The skeleton's fingers were clawing at the brick wall, like he had died trying to get out.

"Well I hardly thought he was casually walking around chugging milk," Jason winced in disgust for getting details.

"Only bones," Tyson said. "Don't worry, goat boy. The milkman is dead."

"The milkman doesn't bother me," Grover said.

"Dead bodies still bother me," Magnus offered in case anybody had been in doubt about this.

"I guess this is one of the side effects to falling asleep every night singing Circle of Life," Percy shrugged.

"It's the smell. Monsters. Can't you smell it?"

Tyson nodded. "Lots of monsters. But underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people."

"Oh, good," Grover whimpered. "I thought maybe I was wrong."

"I can't think of a good instance of being happy to be wrong about smelling something," Alex nodded. "Usually it's food and I'm entirely upset I was wrong my senses lied to me."

"You smell smoke and think your house is on fire but your mom's just a bad cook," Thalia said with a way to twisted smile for that to just be a joke.

"Point to Thalia!" Alex chuckled all the same.

"We have to get deeper into the maze," Annabeth said. "There has to be a way to the center."

"I'm guessing taking a shovel and just digging won't work?" Nico rolled his eyes at her still trying to apply logic to any of this.

"The shovel would melt eventually," Will helpfully reminded.

"We could give her a spare shovel, gosh Will, be more creative," Percy snickered.

"I'm going to dump you in a volcano head first," Thalia sighed at them.

She led us to the right, then the left, through a corridor of stainless steel like some kind of air shaft, and we arrived back in the Roman tile room with the fountain.

"Oh, so it even circles around! That's much worse than being lost forever in a maze of endless rooms!" Magnus's voice was choking up by the end as he tried not to sound hysterical.

"It had added some decoration," Percy didn't soothe him one bit with the uneasy frown he spoke with.

This time, we weren't alone.

What I noticed first were his faces. Both of them.

Nico tried his hardest to swallow the lump of jealousy and hurt in his throat. Percy hadn't been in there but a few hours and he got a visit from a god already? He'd been in there for weeks before he'd found Minos and gotten any handle on what to do. Afraid to sleep, starving, only surviving on water that bled from the walls from gods knew where as the ghosts whispered which way to go to get further down...

He told himself he should be grateful instead. He wasn't the child of the prophecy, nobody had cared what happened to him. He'd made his own way out eventually without anybody's help, not even Minos had been there every step of the way.

They jutted out from either side of his head, staring over his shoulders, so his head was much wider than it should've been, kind of like a hammerhead shark's looking straight at him, all I saw were two overlapping ears and mirror-image sideburns.

Magnus was poking the middle of his forehead to make sure his head hadn't actually fallen apart at that newly brain-melting image.

"Not going to lie, when it said god of two faces, I didn't think it was going to be literal," Alex sounded grudgingly admirable of choosing to look like that. "I was picturing, like, two totally different faces melted together. Like the Batman villain."

"I have a feeling the two would still get along," Percy already had that now familiar look on his face like they should brace themselves for him to make a life long enemy.

He was dressed like a New York City doorman: a long black overcoat, shiny shoes, and a black top-hat that somehow managed to stay on his double-wide head.

"Classy," Will said in admiration.

"Never trust a man in a top hat," Alex scoffed.

"Now there's a story I'm sure," Magnus grinned.

"Don't get me started on Abe Lincoln," he agreed with distant eyes and a scowl at the ceiling.

"Well, Annabeth?" said his left face. "Hurry up!"

"Don't mind him," said the right face. "He's terribly rude. Right this way, miss."

Annabeth's jaw dropped. "Uh...I don't..."

Tyson frowned. "That funny man has two faces."

Jason scratched awkwardly at his nose before stage whispering, "has anybody ever come up with a polite way to scold kids for doing that?"

"Um, let them be curious but make sure they're polite questions?" Thalia offered.

"I'm not putting Tyson in time out if he offends this guy," Percy rolled his eyes.

"The funny man has ears, you know!" the left face scolded. "Now come along, miss."

"No, no," the right face said. "This way, miss. Talk to me, please."

"I need to know real quick if you can sign a different conversation than you say out loud?" Percy asked Magnus.

"I suppose if you can have two conversations at once it's possible, but not typical," he shook his head.

"Yeah, good to know, I got no better answer than chopping this guy in half to shut him up," Percy scowled, already wishing to uncap his sword to stop this guy focusing solely on Annabeth.

The two-faced man regarded Annabeth as best he could out of the corners of his eyes. It was impossible to look at him straight on without focusing on one side or the other. And suddenly I realized that's what he was asking—he wanted Annabeth to choose.

Behind him were two exits, blocked by wooden doors with huge iron locks. They hadn't been there our first time through the room. The two-faced doorman held a silver key, which he kept passing from his left hand to his right hand. I wondered if this was a different room completely, but the frieze of the gods looked exactly the same.

Behind us, the doorway we'd come through had disappeared, replaced by more mosaics. We wouldn't be going back the way we came.

"The exits are closed," Annabeth said.

"Duh!" the man's left face said.

"Where do they lead?" she asked.

"One probably leads the way you wish to go," the right face said encouragingly. "The other leads to certain death."

"I—I know who you are," Annabeth said.

"Oh, you're a smart one!" The left face sneered. "But do you know which way to choose? I don't have all day."

"Why are you trying to confuse me?" Annabeth asked.

"He's, um, not," Nico looked from the book to the others in concern if he was missing something. "He's pointing out the obvious as of right now. Does Annabeth find that confusing?"

Percy gave him the very exasperated sigh of a teacher explaining the obvious. "Just because she accepted the responsibility of something didn't mean she was okay with every layer of it." He knew that feeling all to well from all this big bad prophecy talk.

Nico looked at Percy with interest for how he'd unintentionally put that. He doubted Percy knew that's how he felt about what he'd said the other night, but it was another kind of relief to hear it put into words.

The right face smiled. "You're in charge now, my dear. All the decisions are on your shoulders. That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"I—"

"We know you, Annabeth," the left face said. "We know what you wrestle with every day. We know your indecision. You will have to make your choice sooner or later. And the choice may kill you."

I didn't know what they were talking about, but it sounded like it was about more than a choice between doors.

The color drained out of Annabeth's face. "No...I don't—"

"Leave her alone," I said.

"That honestly took a page more than I thought it would," Will told him.

"I'm not fool enough to think Annabeth can't handle her own fights," but Percy looked plenty agitated enough to try right then with or without her approval.

"Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm your best friend," the right face said.

"I'm your worst enemy," the left face said.

"I'm Janus," both faces said in harmony. "God of Doorways.

"There's a god of doorways now?" Magnus asked, making the sign for door just to be sure. "What, did the Greeks have to stop and ask his permission and the owner before they entered?"

"He's not Greek!" Jason shouted at the top of his lungs like somebody had finally called on his name in class. He was more jazzed than if somebody had pumped him full of ambrosia...and yet so confused they might have put a Greek puzzle book in front of him for all the sense this made. "What the heck is a Roman god doing down there?"

"He's, ah, more symbolic than literal," Thalia was still watching Jason with mild concern as she tried to go on. "Let Will finish."

Beginnings. Endings. Choices."

"I guess that makes sense," Magnus agreed, though he still knew next time he walked down the block he'd get a twitch wondering about blood sacrifices and a crazy two-faced god throwing a key around following him. Gods forbid what someone was expected to do when a tree was cut down to make a door. Were you supposed to be making nice with Pan or the god you were using the wood for in that case?!

"I'll see you soon enough, Perseus Jackson," said the right face. "But for now it's Annabeth's turn." He laughed giddily. "Such fun!"

"We complete each other like two sides of a door," Percy grumbled, not looking remotely impressed that, for once, a god had the same reaction to seeing both of them.

"Shut up!" his left face said. "This is serious. One bad choice can ruin your whole life. It can kill you and all of your friends. But no pressure, Annabeth. Choose!"

Jason had a bad feeling he'd had his own reunion with this God too, maybe not so literal and in person, but the intense feeling circling the room of nobody disagreeing with that felt personal.

With a sudden chill, I remembered the words of the prophecy: the child of Athena's final stand.

"Don't do it," I said.

"I'm afraid she has to," the right face said cheerfully.

Annabeth moistened her lips. "I—I chose—"

Before she could point to a door, a brilliant light flooded the room.

Magnus instinctively didn't like that. He worried Hearth would get hurt and freak out, the light being too bright and temporarily blinding him, and he only usually saw Blitz at night, so he might have to step up real quick with no clue how if whatever this was ever found them.

Janus raised his hands to either side of his head to cover his eyes. When the light died, a woman was standing at the fountain.

She was tall and graceful with long hair the color of chocolate, braided in plaits with gold ribbons. She wore a simple white dress, but when she moved, the fabric shimmered with colors like oil on water.

"Are we meeting Iris?" Alex asked with immediate interest. He really hoped the rainbow goddess was cool. One of them had to be, right?

The disappointed sigh Thalia gave was an answer before she even said, "not even close."

"Janus," she said, "are we causing trouble again?"

"N-no, milady!" Janus's right face stammered.

"Yes!" the left face said.

"At least now I know which face I like better," Jason said as if this had been a serious concern.

"I still don't like any part of him," Percy huffed, he'd never like anyone who had hassled Annabeth.

"Shut up!" the right face said.

"Excuse me?" the woman asked.

"Not you, milady! I was talking to myself."

"I see," the lady said. "You know very well your visit is premature. The girl's time has not yet come. So I give you a choice: leave these heroes to me, or I shall turn you into a door and break you down."

"What kind of door?" the left face asked.

Alex gave an involuntary laugh like he'd been punched. And he was so sure he'd hate this god, yet that had been the first question to come to his mind too.

"Shut up!" the right face said.

"Because French doors are nice," the left face mused. "Lots of natural light."

"Shut up!" the right face wailed. "Not you, milady! Of course I'll leave. I was just having a bit of fun. Doing my job. Offering choices."

"Causing indecision," the woman corrected. "Now be gone!"

The left face muttered, "Party pooper," then he raised his silver key, inserted it into the air, and disappeared.

"Do I have to begrudgingly thank a god now?" Percy groaned. Apollo and Artemis had proved they weren't all bad, but he wasn't getting a good feeling from this one.

It wasn't very comforting Thalia didn't answer, but her scowl only grew.

The woman turned toward us, and fear closed around my heart. Her eyes shined with power. Leave these heroes to me. That didn't sound good. For a second, I almost wished we could've taken our chances with Janus. But then the woman smiled.

There had been something in that smile that reminded him of his mother. The kind of smile she'd given Gabe when she promised him meatloaf.

"You must be hungry," she said. "Sit with me and talk."

She waved her hand, and the old Roman fountain began to flow. Jets of clear water sprayed into the air. A marble table appeared, laden with platters of sandwiches and pitchers of lemonade.

"Who...who are you?" I asked.

"I am Hera." The woman smiled. "Queen of Heaven."

"I didn't know God was married," Magnus rolled his eyes. "No, wait, is she the goddess of nuns?"

"Stop trying to mix religions, it's more of a headache then we're already hearing," Nico groaned.

"Wrong heaven," Percy snorted, knowing full well Magnus had known that, but revenge was sweet.

"She obviously uses that title because she doesn't think much of herself," Alex agreed casually, while the others all twitched uneasily once more. They'd never quite get used to these guys being so flippant about how they addressed the gods, whether they were in the room or not.

I'd seen Hera once before at a Council of the Gods, but I hadn't paid much attention to her. At the time I'd been surrounded by a bunch of other gods who were debating whether or not to kill me.

"The real question is, do you remember if she was one of those to vote yes or no?" Nico asked with all the presumption in his voice of the answer.

Percy had to really think about it for a moment, and then shrugged and gave in, "no, not really. I remember who abstained though, so she fell into a lumpy category."

"She was lumped into a-" Magnus began, but he stopped with his own exasperated sigh as he realized Percy wasn't listening and back to humming a song that sounded suspiciously like something Jesse McCartney would sing.

I didn't remember her looking so normal. Of course, gods are usually twenty feet tall when they're on Olympus, so that makes them look a lot less normal. But now, Hera looked like a regular mom.

"Plus that whole they can change their appearance at whim thing," Will shrugged, he still wasn't over his dad, the homeless god Fred.

She served us sandwiches and poured lemonade.

"Grover, dear," she said, "use your napkin. Don't eat it."

"Excuse her, I live for that multi-purpose life," Alex scoffed.

"Yes, ma'am," Grover said.

"Tyson, you're wasting away. Would you like another peanut butter sandwich?"

Tyson stifled a belch. "Yes, nice lady."

"Queen Hera," Annabeth said. "I can't believe it. What are you doing in the Labyrinth?"

Hera smiled. She flicked one finger and Annabeth's hair combed itself. All the dirt and grime disappeared from her face.

"Gods, does she tuck your pockets in too and fuss about your weight?" Will's laugh was indulgent while Thalia looked like she was sucking on a lemon. More grateful by the moment this goddess would never give her faux motherly affection any more than her bio mom had.

"I came to see you, naturally," the goddess said.

Grover and I exchanged nervous looks. Usually when the gods come looking for you, it's not out of the goodness of their hearts. It's because they want something.

"I hope Athena has a little gold star waiting for you somewhere out there," Magnus told him cheerfully. "You do deserve it for moments like this."

"Stating the obvious?" Percy snorted.

"Not saying that out loud," Thalia scoffed.

Still, that didn't keep me from chowing down on turkey-and-Swiss sandwiches and chips and lemonade. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.

"And, now I'm hungry," Will huffed.

"I can usually tell how long when we've been at this when my butts gone numb," Magnus nodded.

"Food has been mentioned pretty frequently in the last few chapters," Percy agreed as he eyed the door to the rooms.

"We might as well take a snack break before anything to horrible in this Labyrinth does show up," Thalia agreed, and there was no more argument after that as they all took five. Before Hera could announce what she was there for, before the first monster showed up, before they realized how lost they were.

Will and Nico stepped back into the room where they'd set up their card game that indeed had not been disturbed one bit. They sat carefully on the bed, as far apart as normal on that couch, and split a plate of multiple different sandwiches with fruit-loops sprinkled on top, because the power of subliminal messaging had honestly left them craving exactly that.

Nico was clearly eating with reluctance, but he also didn't protest his half of the meal while Will found a way to talk about anything other than the Labyrinth for those moments. He talked about silly songs he wrote sporadically and his favorite color being orange and that time his sister Kayla had set the stables on fire while Nico watched with ever growing fondness for just being around him.

When they settled back down now prepared for the worst, Nico took the extra goofy minute Alex used to stretch and flex around like he was about to embark on the quest himself to share one last smile with Will when he opened the book up again whistling to find his place once more.

Tyson was inhaling one peanut butter sandwich after another, and Grover was loving the lemonade, crunching the Styrofoam cup like an ice-cream cone.

"All you're missing from that meal is bananas," Magnus grinned, he'd just housed five. He'd been taking full advantage of fresh fruit without a bruise on it here.

"I didn't think—" Annabeth faltered. "Well, I didn't think you liked heroes."

Hera smiled indulgently. "Because of that little spat I had with Hercules? Honestly, I got so much bad press because of one disagreement."

"A very large disagreement that caused multiple murders and is the most popular myth for a few reasons," Thalia muttered, not exactly Hera's biggest fan herself. It was a miracle she wasn't in the same boat as Hercules...and this goddess was definitely in her top five contenders of who might take Jason away to do gods knew what with all these years before Oceanus plopped him in here.

"Didn't you try to kill him, like, a lot of times?" Annabeth asked.

Hera waved her hand dismissively. "Water under the bridge, my dear.

"Is that bridge also on fire and broken in several places?" Thalia asked wearily.

"I didn't think to ask," Percy admitted, but he also didn't doubt it. He'd have to hear it from Hercules before he believed it, and even then, he'd still suspect something was up. Those stories were Not Pleasant, and even if they'd gotten lost in translation over time and they'd heard the wrong side of them, somebody had done something to make it all infamous.

His mind flickered to Zoe, and that snack of his tried to make a comeback. His instincts were still to distrust Hera, and Zoe had made him never wish to take Hercules's side without hearing every fact about what really happened, so this felt like a war he hoped to all the gods he'd never be in the middle of.

Besides, he was one of my loving husband's children by another woman. My patience wore thin, I'll admit it. But Zeus and I have had some excellent marriage counseling sessions since then. We've aired our feelings and come to an understanding

"I'm kind of wishing in this instance they'd taken the twenty-first-century approach and gotten a divorce though," Will sighed even if he knew that would never happen. Goddess of marriage and all that, gods forbid she ever admit she was wrong and should be in a real long term loving relationship, but man would it save a lot of demigods a lot of grief.

—especially after that last little incident."

"You mean when he sired Thalia?"

"Sired?" Thalia snorted fantastically. "What am I, a horse?"

"Just be grateful you came to mind at all," Percy chuckled, "I'm sure there are other much more famous kids of Zeus I could name instead. Like me!"

"How dare you," she sniffed, pressing her hand against her heart with wide blue eyes.

I guessed, but immediately wished I hadn't. As soon as I said the name of our friend, the half-blood daughter of Zeus, Hera's eyes turned toward me frostily.

"Percy Jackson, isn't it? One of Poseidon's...children." I got the feeling she was thinking of another word besides children.

"Sires," Magnus chuckled.

"Abominations?" Alex snorted.

"Minions," Thalia smirked.

"Disasters," Jason grinned.

Percy considered for a moment before shrugging and not denying any of those.

"As I recall, I voted to let you live at the winter solstice. I hope I voted correctly."

"Which does show some proof to her claim she doesn't hate all of us on principle," Will happily agreed.

"I'm sure she's still plenty selective about it," Nico said sullenly. He doubted if he'd been up for vote any god would have voted to let him live.

Will heard that in his voice, the reluctance, the edge of fear. He wanted to protest no god would dare vote against Nico after he'd helped save Olympus, but he could hardly argue that now. He stubbornly kept reading with the knowledge that he would.

She turned back to Annabeth with a sunny smile. "At any rate, I certainly bear you no ill will, my girl.

"I'm glad she sees that," Magnus said with a hint of relief, here finally was a god none of them were going to start on bad terms for merely existing. "A virgin goddess didn't technically have kids so she has no reason to dislike them."

"Loopholes for the win," but Percy only gave a halfhearted cheer. He had a bad feeling technicalities hadn't made his life easier much longer.

I appreciate the difficulty of your quest. Especially when you have troublemakers like Janus to deal with."

Annabeth lowered her gaze. "Why was he here? He was driving me crazy."

"Trying to," Hera agreed.

"Isn't Dionysus the god of the crazy people?" Magnus asked with a quiver of unease. "Does he have a deal with Janus to add to his list?" He clearly hadn't grasped from Jason's ever increasing gasping there was a significant difference at all, they wouldn't be making deals like that about anything.

"Just because he can turn people crazy doesn't mean he's responsible for all of them," but Will didn't sound so sure. Mr. D was supposed to be out here keeping an eye on these minor gods, and it seemed strange it hadn't been him to pop in and intervene...but would he even know this god existed? He knew the myths where his dad accepted the sun from Helios, the existence of other gods wasn't too world shattering in that regards, but not exactly at the same time like this was so casually being shown.

Alex, Magnus, and Jason sat right there though. So plainly Not Greek even before Rachel had confirmed it. A Roman god casually popping up wasn't the wildest thing he'd heard over the past few days.

"You must understand, the minor gods like Janus have always been frustrated by the small parts they play in the universe. Some, I fear, have little love for Olympus, and could easily be swayed to support the rise of my father."

"Your father?" I said. "Oh, right."

I'd forgotten that Kronos was Hera's dad, too, along with being the father to Zeus, Poseidon, and all the eldest Olympians. I guess that made Kronos my grandfather, but that thought was so weird I put it out of my mind.

"And I wish it would stop coming back!" Percy groaned, looking likely to rip his ear off if people didn't quit trying to name every branch of his family tree!

"We must watch the minor gods," Hera said. "Janus. Hecate. Morpheus. They give lip service to Olympus, and yet—"

"That's where Dionysus went," I remembered. "He was checking on the minor gods."

"Indeed." Hera stared at the fading mosaics of the Olympians.

"I will never get over the sheer audacity of you interrupting them," Will admitted.

"And yet here I sit, audaciting away," Percy shrugged. Magnus looked in physical pain that's not how that word worked.

"You see, in times of trouble, even gods can lose faith. They start putting their trust in the wrong things. They stop looking at the big picture and start being selfish. But I'm the goddess of marriage, you see. I'm used to perseverance. You have to rise above the squabbling and chaos, and keep believing. You have to always keep your goals in mind."

"What are your goals?" Annabeth asked.

"The perfect question at this time," Jason nodded without surprise.

"It's like she should be leading this quest or something," Percy nodded very seriously in agreement.

She smiled. "To keep my family, the Olympians, together, of course.

"Sounds like, the right answer," Alex said suspiciously, but then, he seemed automatically suspicious of everything.

At the moment, the best way I can do that is by helping you. Zeus does not allow me to interfere much, I am afraid. But once every century or so, for a quest I care deeply about, he allows me to grant a wish."

"A wish?"

"If you don't say world peace I'm going to have to revoke my friendship card with you," Magnus said. "That's like, The obvious answer!" He pulled out an imaginary card from his pocket and waved it around threateningly.

"Um, I'm pretty sure it has to be a wish she could do?" Percy said with a nervous smile like he thought he was serious. "I don't think the gods can actually do that without taking away free will, or something."

"Hmph, passable," Magnus agreed, stuffing the imaginary card back in his pocket.

"Besides, it would be Annabeth to ask," Alex reminded him in exasperation. "I have high hopes she'll come up with something good." His tone was almost threatening, like Annabeth better live up to those expectations. They weren't sure what would happen if she didn't.

"Before you ask it, let me give you some advice, which I can do for free.

"The day we can't give free advice is the day I lose faith in everything," Will said with an awkward smile.

"I'll make a mental list of how not to start the apocalypse," Nico grinned.

I know you seek Daedalus. His Labyrinth is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.

"Well that's, the opposite of encouraging," Magnus frowned.

"I'm sure it wouldn't help if she cheered and promised she wouldn't be any real help," Percy huffed.

But if you want to know his fate, I would visit my son Hephaestus at his forge. Daedalus was a great inventor, a mortal after Hephaestus's heart. There has never been a mortal Hephaestus admired more. If anyone would have kept up with Daedalus and could tell you his fate, it is Hephaestus."

Magnus blushed neon red as an awkward question came to mind.

Alex had no such reserves as she spat out an imaginary drink and shouted, "Wait, did Hephaestus and Daedalus do it? Or does she mean Daedalus is a child of Hephaestus? Or both?"

"A male god can have a child with a male mortal in the same way as Athena has brain children," Thalia agreed, grateful her answer surprised Magnus enough his gray eyes looked likely to never stop blinking at the implication. Alex was still staring at her for the other part of that question, weirdly as unphased by the answer as he was by everything that went on in here, but gratefully didn't pursue Thalia for more except for a strange smile.

"But how do we get there?" Annabeth asked. "That's my wish. I want a way to navigate the Labyrinth."

Alex and Jason both groaned at Annabeth.

"She did something I'd tell you was to impulsive," Jason huffed. "She could have asked a lot more questions!"

"And she should have been a lot more specific! Like asking for that string thing in her hand!" Alex huffed.

Percy didn't much like them criticizing her when she wasn't here, and he was still far more worried about Janus trying to terrify her than whatever Hera had done to let himself be distracted arguing with them.

"Cut her some slack guys, she's stressed up to her ears and won't always make the most rational decision every moment," Thalia did anyways with plenty of robustness.

Hera looked disappointed.

"Because she should have asked for world peace," Alex muttered under his breath to agree with Magnus, which he at least snickered in surprise over.

"So be it. You wish for something, however, that you have already been given."

"Oh come on," all seven of them yelped in surprise at that. In what world had that answer been laid out?! Now this goddess was just messing with them and calling it help!

"I don't understand."

"The means is already within your grasp." She looked at me. "Percy knows the answer."

"I do?" Percy managed to say at the same time as the book.

"He does?" The others all asked dubiously.

"You wouldn't hold out on that kind of information on Annabeth though," Magnus scoffed at once. "Let alone heard it and not, um, mentally, reported it?" Why was it suddenly so weird to describe what they were listening to?

"Glad you don't all think I'm keeping a hidden secret copy up here," Percy said with only a touch of relief as he tapped his temple. He kind of wished someone would call him an idiot again and get to the answer faster. Even Thalia looked dubious though why Hera thought he'd already been given the answer. The only link she could draw was their brief conversation that Rachel could see through the mist last winter, and even then, Percy yet had knowledge that was Ariadne's true ability, so she called bull on Hera's 'help' too.

"But that's not fair," Annabeth said. "You're not telling me what it is!"

"There is nothing stopping her from just, saying it! Make it clear as freaking day down there," Will agreed, looking personally hurt Hera seemed to be going out of her way to make this difficult after she'd just offered endless help.

Nico's touch of jealousy vanished at least. Turns out even if a god had cared enough to try helping him out of there, it probably wouldn't have done him any more good.

Hera shook her head. "Getting something and having the wits to use it...those are two different things. I'm sure your mother Athena would agree."

"Oh great, so the best advice we got out of this is be cryptic, thanks," Jason groaned with his hand pressed against his stomach like he was going to be sick.

He was sick. Of these Greek gods never making any sense. Why would Juno act like she'd done anything of value right now?!

The room rumbled like distant thunder. Hera stood. "That would be my cue. Zeus grows impatient. Think on what I have said, Annabeth. Seek out Hephaestus. You will have to pass through the ranch, I imagine.

Alex's mind flashed back to that Triple G Ranch that had been mentioned that apparently supplied scorpions Quintus had seemed so fond of. He didn't really believe in coincidences.

But keep going. 

Nico's heart quivered at that possibility. If Percy had never shown up, gods knew what could have happened. Maybe he would have murdered Daedalus, who knew what Geryon would have done to him.

But then, why had Percy shown up there? This seemed like actual useful advice he couldn't imagine them ignoring for any reason.

And use all the means at your disposal, however common they may seem."

"Is a toothbrush going to come in handy on this quest?" Percy grouched. "Is she saying we should start tossing our extra pair of socks around to get results!"

"Not exactly advice I thought a motherly goddess would give," Magnus agreed with his disdain. He'd hoped a godly symbolic representation of marriage would have been a little more, loving. Aphrodite hadn't fit the right bill either. How was it possible none of these gods seemed more maternal with all the kids and family they had running around?

She pointed toward the two doors and they melted away, revealing twin corridors, open and dark. "One last thing, Annabeth. I have postponed your day of choice, I have not prevented it. Soon, as Janus said, you will have to make a decision. Farewell!"

She waved a hand and turned into white smoke.

Percy scowled and fought the urge to kick his chair in frustration. He'd probably kick it through the wall and cause all of his friend's death. That thought was the only thing restraining him, but he still cussed a few choice words he knew Hera would at least want to escape from.

So did the food, just as Tyson chomped down on a sandwich that turned to mist in his mouth.

"Now that was just rude," Alex looked ready to go and personally make him another sandwich just to make up for that.

"I bet you guys are under Detroit or something, can't have anything there unless it's nailed down," Thalia said in something of a mild mannered tone just because she didn't like seeing everybody stressed out and scowling under her care.

Percy gave her a begrudging laugh and a reluctant smile. "At least I didn't come away from this one with another immortal enemy?"

"There's the bright side!" Will agreed cheerfully.

The fountain trickled to a stop. The mosaic walls dimmed and turned grungy and faded again. The room was no longer any place you'd want to have a picnic.

Annabeth stamped her foot. "What sort of help was that? 'Here, have a sandwich. Make a wish. Oops, I can't help you!' Poof!"

"Poof," Tyson agreed sadly, looking at his empty plate.

"Sounds like you made a wish with a genie," Magnus frowned.

"And it was just one wish! You guys need a contract or a lawyer or something next time you run into one of them," Jason agreed.

"Now if she'd offered us three wishes, I bet at least you'd stop complaining," Percy laughed at him.

"I'm withholding judgment," Jason shrugged.

"Well," Grover sighed, "she said Percy knows the answer. That's something."

They all looked at me.

"But I don't," I said. "I don't know what she was talking about."

Annabeth sighed. "All right. Then we'll just keep going."

"Which way?" I asked. I really wanted to ask what Hera had meant about the choice Annabeth needed to make. But then Grove and Tyson both tensed. They stood up together like they'd rehearsed it. "Left," they both said.

Alex looked very torn now if he wanted to go down the right side just to get a peak of what had made Grover and Tyson agree on something. Magnus gripped his hands together, trying not to imagine Alex's hand in his as they ran for their life.

Annabeth frowned. "How can you be sure?"

"Because something is coming from the right," Grover said.

"Something big," Tyson agreed. "In a hurry."

"Left is sounding pretty good," I decided. Together we plunged into the dark corridor.

"Finished," Will said in a sing-song voice like they weren't about to start running for their life. Good for him, he knew they were all alive.

Jason exchanged an uneasy look with Thalia and Percy before he could get up and get the book. There really weren't enough breaks in the world from this to cover how much time they felt like they needed to process before the next awful thing leapt out of the shadows.

[isthataraccoon]

honestly i headcanon that by the time thalia was in 1st grade she would fill up her backpack with snacks from school on thursdays and fridays bc she didn't know if there'd be enough food at home over the weekend. and that would've been even before jason was born.

ugh that’s heartbreaking and totally rings true

[nirikeehan]

wip wedne-oops thursday

I got tagged by @melisusthewee for WIP Wednesday but at that point my only writing WIP was something I am uh, unsure will ever see the light of day.

Then I struggle-bussed myself some drawing so here you go.

I wanted to draw Thalia happy for once, so here she is pictured with the dress I was using for reference lol. She's supposed to be with Cullen. I am afraid to draw Cullen because I have never drawn Cullen and I fear he is too handsome for my unskilled hands to capture, lmfao. WELL WE'LL SEE

Tagging if interested:

@oxygenforthewicked | @highwayphantoms | @bluewren | @delicatefade | @exalted-dawn-drabbles | @little--abyss | @rowanisawriter

[slipping-through-my-fingertips]

In My Head, I'm Yours

AO3

Chapter 5: I'm Kinda Hoping For Forever

Thalia had been gone for 4 days, which meant Annabeth hadn’t seen Percy in almost a week. Her resolve was slowly cracking.

On Thursday, she broke completely.

Annabeth: are you busy tonight?

He replied almost immediately,

Percy: I’m free. Usually Jason would be here with pizza by now but he’s probably stuck in La traffic lol

She bit her lip as she typed.

Annabeth: pepperoni okay?

Percy: I’ll set the table

Within 45 minutes she was knocking on his apartment door.

“Come in! It’s open.”

He came around the corner as she toed off her sneakers. Percy was wearing a forest green hoodie, those same dark denim jeans he wore on the night they met that clung to his legs practically begging her to drag her gaze down his calves and thighs. As Annabeth did exactly that, she noticed the socks he was wearing.

“Are those fortune cookies on your socks?” She asked.

He took the pizza box from her hands and led her into the kitchen.

“Yeah, Estelle picked them out for me for Christmas.”

“Estelle, your four-year-old sister?”

Percy put the pizza on the island countertop and reached into the cabinet for some plates.

“Yeah, mom takes her to the dollar store to pick out gifts. The socks were a hit but the knock-off Clorox wipes still got used.” He smiled fondly.

His hoodie was riding up just a little bit as he stretched for plates. A thin line of his lower back.

Annabeth couldn’t help herself. After holding herself back for a solid week, she needed this. Craved it.

He was just so attractive. Even with his weirdly patterned socks yet knowing they were a gift from his little sister was endearing. His back was to her so she spun him around and pressed her body against his so he was leaning against the countertop.

“Annabeth what—“ he never got to finish his thought because she was kissing him.

And she kept kissing him. From the kitchen to stumbling onto the living room couch, she only broke the kiss to take off his hoodie and was very pleased to reveal he was shirtless underneath it.

“Are you sure—“

She didn’t want to answer questions, she just wanted to fuck Percy Jackson again.

So she kissed him and that shut down all his future questions.

They ate cold pizza an hour later.

“Do we get to talk now or are you going to delay questioning with kisses? Because either is fine,” he joked but his tone suggested otherwise.

“We can talk,” Annabeth picked up another slice of pizza and took a deep breath. She was going to take Hazel’s advice and just tell him where she was at. “I’m hyper focused on school, it’s been my life’s dream to be an architect and I am two months away from that reality. And I get sucked into my schoolwork and I don’t really have room for anything else. Honestly if I didn’t live with Thalia and Leo I’d have zero friends,” she said, shrugging.

“You deserve someone who can commit fully to you and I just don’t know that I can do that.”

She grabbed his hand and squeezed before letting it go. “I think I could really like you and I’m afraid if I get attached and then Columbia takes over my life like it has for the last four years, I’ll end up with the worst broken heart ever.”

Then, she gestured for Percy to talk, extending her hands as if to say the floor is yours.

“I think I could really like you too. I want to keep getting to know you.”

“I get having trouble balancing school and friendships, it makes dating super hard. That’s one of the things Piper and I bonded over at the start of our friendship but now she’s with Jason. Which only happened because of the band.” Percy said, “there’s something here though and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be with you. Maybe we can start as friends?”

“I'd really like that.” Annabeth smiled. “Just one issue with that idea.”

“What?”

“We’re still going to want to jump each other when we’re alone.”

“Can’t keep it in your pants, Chase?” Percy teased.

“I’m not wearing pants,” she reminded him.

She was wearing his hoodie from earlier. It was soft and smelled like him. Annabeth was half tempted to steal it but she couldn’t get caught wearing it in her apartment. Leo would call her out immediately.

But she’d happily give it back to Percy if it meant he was the one taking it off of her.

… After defiling his countertop and round 2 in his bedroom, Annabeth’s phone dinging is what brought them out of their little bubble.

“Fuck it’s in the living room.”

“That’s what you get for not wearing pants,” Percy told her.

“I didn’t see you complaining about my non-existent pants an hour ago.”

“And I’m not complaining now.”

He was quite enjoying the sight of a naked Annabeth Chase in his bedroom. With an eye roll, she left to get her phone.

Percy tried to convince himself that he could be her friend. But he knew he was a goner either way.

He thought about the lyrics he wrote about her. I’ll take what I can get from you.

They were really going to have to work on not screwing each other before they finished their very serious conversations.

He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. He wanted to pull at the ends of it and scream. Instead, he pulled on some sweatpants and met Annabeth in the living room. She was wearing his hoodie again.

“I better get going,” she said.

“Are you stealing that?”

Annabeth shook her head. “Leo will notice.”

She was ready to leave in less than five minutes. When she came back out of his bedroom, Annabeth was pulling her blonde hair not a messy bun.

Percy was nothing if not a gentleman so he walked her to his door. She kissed his cheek.

“When can I see you next?” He asked.

He didn’t mean for it to slip out but seeing Annabeth was quickly becoming an addiction.

“I’m not sure, I’ll text you.”

And then she was gone.

Percy didn’t see her for two weeks. By now, they were both back in school, he was getting ready for Delphi’s next gig. They texted sporadically. Light flirting and how was your day.

Which brings Percy back to the tightness in his chest. He invited Annabeth here tonight but she wasn’t coming. Thalia was already sitting at the bar. If she didn’t show up with her best friend, Percy knew not to get his hopes up.

Once he was on stage, he tried to shake the tightness building in his chest. He even spotted Grover in the crowd, at least that was something to look forward to.

“This is a new one,” Piper was saying, “it’s called Talk Fast.”

As soon as Percy closed his eyes and started to sing, she walked in.

I don’t wanna think about a moment with you I’m kinda hoping for forever

[survivorsfm]

oh,  how  nice  is  to  see  you  both  here,  AMIRA  SILVA  &  JAY  GRISWOLD !   with  how  things  are  these  days,  you’re  a  sight  for  sore  eyes.   do  not  forget  to  read  the  new  bulletin  at  the  information  panel,  and  above  all,  stay  safe.

WELCOME  TO  BOULDER !   jj,  please  follow  the  steps  indicated  in  our  checklist  and  submit  your  account  within  the  next  24  hours.   if  you  need  more  time,  don’t  hesitate  to  let  us  know !   ana  de  armas  +  the  originals’  pupil  &  froy  gutierrez  are  now  taken .

(   ana  de  armas.  cis - woman.  she / her.   )   ⸺   Ꮺ   ⋆   greetings,  buffalos !   walking  around  campus,  sporting  her  dark  green  coveralls  with  'sparky'  embroidered  on  the  chest,  we’ve  spotted  AMIRA  SILVA,  a  thirty - five  year  old  who  contributes  to  our  thriving  community  as  an  ENGINEER.   according  to  our  intel,  she’s  been  around  the  sanctuary  for  twelve  years  and  what  we  know  about  her,  aside  from  the  fact  that  she  does  agree  with  the  decision  to  close  the  gates,  is  that  she  teaches  guajira  flamenco  in  the  hall  of  the  agora  the  third  thursday  of  every  month,  lost  her  older  sister  thalia  in  the  infiltration  of  the  coalition  and  is  the  sole  guardian  of  her  four  year  old  niece,  she  radiates  positivity  wherever  she  goes.   doesn’t  that  make  them  fantastic ?   we  think  it  does,  and  that’s  why  we  appreciate  her  so  much,  grateful  for  what  she  gives  to  our  community.     *   (  the  originals’  pupil  )  .

(   froy  gutierrez.   demi - man.   he / they.   )   ⸺   Ꮺ  ⋆   greetings,  buffalos !   walking  around  campus,  sporting  their  pinched  frown  we’ve  spotted  JAY  GRISWOLD,  a  twenty - four  year  old  who  contributes  to  our  thriving  community  as  a  NURSE.   according  to  our  intel,  they’ve  been  around  the  sanctuary  for  three  years  and  what  we  know  about  him,  aside  from  the  fact  that  they  don’t  agree  with  the  decision  to  close  the  gates,  is  that  they're  highly  strung  and  hardly  ever  stop  shaking,  find  immense  comfort  in  having  an  entirely  sterile  environment,  powered  purely  by  black  coffee,  sarcasm  and  cigarettes.   doesn’t  that  make  them  fantastic ?   we  think  it  does,  and  that’s  why  we  appreciate  him  so  much,  grateful  for  what  they  give  to  our  community.

⸺    written  by  jj   (  she/they  .  21+  .  gmt + 1  .  already listed.  )

[mamasanctuary]

Grateful Day 11.26.22

Super late posting but I’ve been dealing with one life event after the other. My sister ended up hosting on Thursday which meant I could relax and take my time cooking Friday/Saturday instead of rushing around like a crazy person. It went well but also started some family drama being that none of the usual guests were invited. For our sanity’s sake, of course. I thought it would be dropped and we could all move on but we can’t. Yeah family. So anyway I finally had the spare time to get on here and just blog how I’ve been wanting to. And let me tell y’all.

I’ve Got Some News.

First, I want to start of by thanking everyone who supports me here. Especially those of you who have been here from the beginning. It means a lot to me that my blog has been an inspiration or even a safe place for some of you on your parenting journey. I know it’s got more personal and less *advice-y/* over the years but I’m leaning towards that direction, with a little twist. 

  I know I’ve made a lot promises over the past few months, regarding consistency, and while I feel awful about it I also realize I set myself up for failure. I don’t thrive off of hard schedules and so I’ve opened myself up to simply offering one post a week at any time during the week. Do you know how many times I’ve gotten on here to post but realized it wasn’t Sunday so I put off preparing a post and then it stayed in my drafts? A lot. I want to be able to share authentically and take breaks as needed without the pressure of only being able to post on my one day a week. 

  Additionally, I’ll make one post purely for advice and questions I’ve gotten over the past several months. You all have sent me 100s of questions/calls for advice that have gone unanswered so I want to take the time and support those who have been supporting me. That particular post will be released on a consistent date because the questions have already piled up. You can look forward to my advice column on Fridays at 3pm. 

With all of that out of the way...

I’ve been super busy prepping for baby#4 these past few weeks. Not so much with actual baby stuff, but with spending a lot of time with me “big” babies in preparation for being secluded with a newborn for, at least, 3 months. The amount of stares and unsolicited “You should be resting” I’ve gotten has increased since I’m the size of a whale at this point, but I truly live for my little outings with my little ones. As I approach my due date, I realize I have an unwavering fear about developing PPD so I think I’m forcing myself to be happy and busy so I don’t think about it. Ah well, as is life. 

The kiddos are doing well and rushing this baby out. Thalia is homeschooling well with me and we’ve decided to take that route for as long as it’s comfortable for us all. It’s definitely been experience and I’m a former teacher! Solomon and Zoe like to join in but often end up convincing me that Thalia needs a break and will rescu- I mean kidnap her from me and run outside. We’ve been taking it day by day and they’re all growing so fast as I’m sure you can see in the photo. They’ve been praying for the baby every night and have asked me multiple times if I could “grab baby out” which has been fun to explain to a two toddlers and a 5 year old. 

Our little family is growing and thriving as best as it can and I hope yours is too. This year has been hard enough with all the nonsense going on in this world so I hope you’re taking the time to care for yourself.

Until next time, 

[robins-den]

Maybe I'll start Thalia Thursday that would actually be fun (but like, expand it to all my OCS just to make myself draw A Thing A Week)