igrab
in
grabi_hands
drabble roundup!
i numbered all the PJO characters from 1-35, and asked my flist to pick out pairs/groups of numbers, and i'd write fic with those characters. so there we go! [they all range between PG and PG-13]
Characters: Briares, Thalia
Wordcount: 246
"And I don't see why I have to watch you, too, anyway," Thalia snapped, fidgeting with the straps on her arm braces.
Briares gave her his 'I am going to pretend that what you said isn't incredibly stupid' look, which was really all that needed to be said.
She flushed high in her cheeks and turned away. "I mean. Not that it's a big deal or anything. Just don't get in my way," she added.
It was 'quietly amused' now, but she didn't seem to get it. He wondered, if he kept quiet, would her insults get worse and worse, or would she start in on other things?
"...Artemis trusts me, you know," she muttered defensively.
Ah. Number two, then, which was slightly comforting, but now he was curious.
"The other girls - they'll warm up. Artemis put me here because she trusts that I can hold this. You sure you're up to this? Have your arms ever gotten tied in knots?"
He suppressed a chuckle, doubting that would go over well. "No more than you can tie your own, miss. They're still flesh and bone."
She scowled. "So you can talk!"
"Yes." Three of his arms patted her on the head, which made her eyes flash in rage. "I just wondered where you were going with all the fussing. You really don't need to be so worried."
"I'M NOT WORRIED!!"
Characters: Silena, Ares, Hermes [implied Clarisse/Silena and Beckendorf/Silena]
Wordcount: 416
Well, this was... awkward.
"You do realize I'm not actually dating your daughter?" Extremely awkward, since Silena pretty much knew her mom was fucking this guy on a regular basis. "I have a boyfriend. His name is Charlie."
"I didn't say anything about dating," Ares growled. "Clarisse has never had a friend like you. I want to know why."
Silena gritted her teeth and tried not to scream. "How would you know? The only time you care about her is when she's killed something and brings its head home for you to gawk at. There's more than one kind of bravery, you know!"
"I know that! I just want to know that you're not bewitching her with your charms, I know what you're capable of - "
She was staring, staring with wide eyes because she suddenly understood. "This is about my mother."
He scowled. "Of course it's about your mother."
"But I thought you... liked her," Silena ventured, timidly, because she really wasn't sure how their whole relationship... worked.
Ares sighed, and at least had the grace to look embarrassed. "Yeah, I do. Too much. Just... just tell me it's not like that."
She was about to ask what 'that' was, precisely, because yes she had a boyfriend and yes he was her earth and sky but she loved Clarisse, too, and she didn't believe in having to choose. She was saved, though, but the timely arrival of Hermes, practically racing into the room. He slammed the door behind him, and leaned against it, breathing heavily.
"Oh - oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"
"Yes," said Ares shortly, just as Silena smiled and breathed, "No!"
He looked from one to another, frowning critically, then smiled. "Ares, I've a message for you."
"Not now..."
"Oh, but it's very, very important. Top priority, in fact! Also, rose-scented." He wafted the petal-pink envelope under Ares's nose, and Silena almost, laughed - she could recognize her mother's perfume anywhere, and the look on the War God's face was almost comical.
"I'm... but." He looked so torn. "Damn it all, I'm having an important conversation..."
"We can talk later, sir," Silena murmured sweetly, and smiled her absolute best. "It doesn't do to keep her waiting."
"Right," he muttered. "Wait. How did you kn-"
"Goodbye~!"
Characters: Athena, Rachel, Luke [implied Rachel/Annabeth]
Wordcount: 407
"And you foresaw this."
Of all the goddesses, Athena was the one who Rachel had the highest respect for - well, there was Apollo, but Rachel wouldn't exactly call that respect. She was under his domain, so he was kind of like her boss, but she didn't respect him. Not like this fine lady here, who was Annabeth's mom, making her well and truly awesome in Rachel's eyes. And that sort of meant she didn't want to lie to her. "Yeah, I did."
They both paused for a moment, watching. Luke moves through the crowd like air, like it was meant to be, like he'd never left. Athena's lips narrow to a fine line. "He cannot stay."
Rachel slowly folded the ends of her scarf around chipped purple fingernails, and she looked down her feet, nervous. "I know. I know that. It's only for a week, at most." Just an echo - an afterimage, like he's only here long enough to keep the wounds fresh.
"I confess I cannot tell how my daughter will react."
Annabeth? Rachel thought of Annabeth, bent over her potter's wheel, streks of clay in her hair and iron wires sticking out of her mouth. She thought of how they stayed up all night, talking and talking and talking, because Annabeth's mind was sharp and brilliant and her designs were utterly picturesque. She thought of the precious laptop, never out of her sight, and the day she'd turned it around, casually, to show Rachel a sctructure so beautiful that it took her breath away.
Hm, Annabeth.
"Well, I think she'll be glad of the chance to say goodbye," Rachel finally managed, and Athena's look was longer this time, and even more incisive. She knows she knows she knows oh gods, Rachel thought, but the goddess only turned back to the party, and sighed.
"A week. No more, and it won't be me you'll answer to, I'll have you know."
Rachel opened her mouth to say, it wasn't her, she had nothing to do with it, all she'd done was see a little - but then she understood.
In not doing anything about it, she had caused it to happen. She had let it happen.
She breathed a quiet breath of relief, and nodded. "A week."
Characters: Travis, Dionysus [implied Travis/Connor]
Wordcount: 274
"Travis Stoll."
He froze, oh shit oh shit what did I do this time? Was it the food coloring? Or the lake thing? Did he find out what we did with Luke's porn? Really, there were too many things that Mr. D could've been talking about, so Travis decided to assume it was 'None of the above' and continued smiling angelically. "Ye~s, Mr. D?"
The man sighed heavily and pressed a hand to his temple. "Look, as much a fan as I am for wild debauchery - "
"Yes, you're quite known for it, sir."
"Shut up." Dionysus scowled. "You're a student of my camp and we have rules, and the rules say, no more sex in the stables, or it won't be me you'll be answering to, you'll have to deal with Chiron."
Travis went white.
"And don't try telling me you didn't, you think I don't know about every sordid little hookup in this camp? Try again." He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, like there were way better things he could be doing with his time than lecturing stupid horny teenagers about where they should and shouldn't be getting it on. "So next time you want to bone Connor, I don't care, just not in the stables."
He breathed a long sigh of relief. "Ye~s, sir. I completely understand. Not the stables, got it." And he planned to hold himself to that agreement, too.
The next time? They'd do it on the front porch.
Characters: Annabeth/Rachel preslash
Wordcount: 346
Annabeth found herself in Rachel's apartment, again.
It wasn't that she didn't like Percy's house. And it definitely wasn't that she didn't like Percy - mostly. Well. That was a whole 'nother casket of snakes, and she didn't really want to think about it, and that was the reason she was here - one of them, anyway.
But no, the real reason was - Rachel's apartment (and it was kind of an entire floor) was a paradise.
She had every art supply imaginable. A huge drafting table. A potter's wheel. She had wire cutters and a jewelry saw and a pet rat, which - didn't have anything to do with anything but his name was Alexander and he was adorable. Plus, her bed was big enough for two, and - well - once again - Annabeth liked Percy (she did, honestly) but he kicked. Probably dreaming about swimming, or something else equally inane.
Annabeth found herself wondering what Rachel dreamed of. She found herself wondering if she dreamed in colors and patterns, like the images she saw, or maybe her dreams were more like a half-blood's - prophetic and all-too-real.
They were sitting on her floor eating dry bowls of frosted flakes the next morning when Annabeth asked, out of the blue.
Rachel considered it, though her eyebrows went up a notch. "...Well, I had this one dream where my algebra teacher was actually a goldfish. And then this other one where I was climbing a flight of stairs with my best friend, only she kept jumping off at every landing and running back up, and then she turned into a monkey and jumped on to a tree and then there was a hurricane siren." She caught the look on Annabeth's face, and laughed. "Well, it made sense then!"
"I bet," Annabeth said, doubtful, but she couldn't help laughing in return. Rachel's happiness was just so contagious - free of worry, of regret.
It was beautiful.
Characters: Ares, Triton
Wordcount: 502
"You look familiar," Ares muttered, staring at the boy with narrow eyes. "Have I threatened you before?"
He smiled sharply. "That is, quite possibly, the worst line in the history of the world. I can't believe you just used it."
"Boy, there have been some pretty awful lines in the history of the world."
"You'd know?" He cocked an eyebrow, looking smug and even more familiar, then, gods this was going to drive him crazy. "Anyway, I'm not a boy."
The god snorted. "Sure you are. And yeah. Maybe I would know."
"Oh, all right." His lips did a slow curl, and he lifted his cup to them - took a deep drink of water, and Ares watched his throat working as he swallowed. "Are you going to explain yourself, or leave me hanging on a limb, here?" Eyebrow raise - a challenge, and fuck him, Ares could never resist a challenge.
He leaned forward, until the boy's sharp sea-green eye were nearly poking him with their combined coy venom and curiosity. "I've been around these parts a long, long time. Before your dad, and your dad's dad, and your dad's dad before that."
He only looked amused, and tucked a strand of black hair behind his ear. "You don't look a day over forty," he purred.
"Forty?! How can you possibly look at me and say forty - "
"Spit it out, big guy," and now he was swirling one long, slender finger in the water, drawing Ares's attention like a magnet. "Tell me why you're so much older."
"I'm the God of War, you fuck, now stop that. You're like, twenty." He ground his teeth and forced himself to look away, and the boy laughed.
"Hardly. See, wasn't that easy?"
Ares blinked. Thought about what had just happened. "Either you don't believe me or you're not surprised, and I'm putting bets on option number two."
"Bingo." The smirk was back, but it had lost all its warmth, leaving only a frigid cruelty in its wake. "By the way, what you said, about my dad and my dad's dad? I highly doubt that." He was turning to go, now, picking up his satchel and slinging gracelessly over one shoulder, and now Ares could see it - the mark of the trident on his bag, sewn in blue on a seafoam green field. He felt his pride crumbling into tiny, itty bitty pieces. "We had a bet, you see, on how long it would take before you coughed up. I should think I've just won."
All that teasing, all that - "What's your name?!" he called out, because if he was going down, he'd at least like to know who bested him.
A last careless glance over his shoulder - playful, and utterly heartless. "Triton."
Characters: Bianca, Poseidon [implied Percy/Nico]
Wordcount: 421
"Hello- oh, I'm sorry!"
Poseidon paused, and held a finger up for Triton to shut up for a minute. It wasn't often that ghosts appeared in the ocean kingdom - much less spirits from Elysium, as her misty gold form indicated. "Don't apologize. You're not interrupting anything. Go, we'll finish this later," he said to his son, and waved him gruffly out of the room.
Then they were alone, in the throne room. He noticed with some intrigue that her hair seemed to understand that it was underwater - it floated like it was, though it was much less corporeal. "Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"My name is Bianca." She twisted her hands in the edge of her shirt, looking nervous. A ghost from Elysium, looking nervous. What a day. "Bianca di Angelo - I'm here about Nico."
Ah. The boy's sister, then. Percy hadn't told him in so many words, but the gods had other ways of getting information, and she'd been quite the subject of discussion, for a while there. "I see. What about Nico?"
"It's - " it looked like it was a difficult subject to talk about, and then suddenly, it all came out in a rush. "Is it true he's dating Percy? That's what the Furies say and it's not like I think they'd lie, except they wouldn't, but I can't see why unless it was to upset me, should I be upset by this? Is he all right?"
Poseidon nearly burst out laughing, but managed to keep it under his skin, out of respect for her and the dead and, well, he didn't want to make her more upset. "He's fine, he's perfectly all right, and they were telling the truth. But it's nothing bad. Nico's been carrying a torch for years."
Bianca blew out her breath in a relieved sigh, almost diminshing in a direct emotional reflection. "Thank gods. Oh, that much, I know." Now her eyes sparkled, as she looked up. "He's liked him ever since they met. So they're really together? Does Percy really care about him?"
He chuckled. "Slow down, slow down. How long do you have?"
"Oh- um-" she checked a small hourglass in the palm of her hand. "...Just a few more minutes."
"Then I'll talk as fast as I can, and tell you everything I know."
Characters: Travis/Connor
Wordcount: 318
They couldn't fuck in the stables, in the cabins, down by the lake, in the training fields, or - and this had cost them a week's worth of hard scrubbing - on the porch of the Big House.
But there was one place they hadn't tried.
"You know, Peleus could kill us," Connor said reasonably, though he was just as frustrated and fed up - he just had to play the Devil's Advocate, that's how it worked.
"Shut up," Travis muttered.
"Or Argus. If Argus finds out we've been near the tree - "
"Shut up."
"I'm serious, I think he's got eyes in his asscrack, I bet he could see us even there - "
"What the fuck?" Travis laughed. "I think you've just got ass on the mind."
"Mmm, probably." In particular, Travis's. It was a lovely ass, if he did say so himself. "Bet I'm not the only one."
"Gods, wonder who that could be." He smirked.
"Iiiii wonder."
"Bet it's Beckendorf."
"Oh, ew!"
"Lee."
"Stop that."
"No wait, I've got it - " Travis pulled Connor close, and whispered in his ear like a secret. "....Mr. D."
"EW!" Connor pushed at him, but he was laughing, and they were both laughing until they were laughing into each other's mouth, which turned into a slow, sultry series of kisses.
"Mmm, bet it's Nico."
They both considered this, which only made the space between them hotter and more electrifying. "Fuuuck. Bet it's Percy."
"Bet Nico is thinking of Percy's ass."
Well, at this rate they weren't going to make it to the tree, but they hadn't been specifically told not to do it against the wall of the cafeteria, so it would be fine... right?
Characters: Briares, Thalia
Wordcount: 246
"And I don't see why I have to watch you, too, anyway," Thalia snapped, fidgeting with the straps on her arm braces.
Briares gave her his 'I am going to pretend that what you said isn't incredibly stupid' look, which was really all that needed to be said.
She flushed high in her cheeks and turned away. "I mean. Not that it's a big deal or anything. Just don't get in my way," she added.
It was 'quietly amused' now, but she didn't seem to get it. He wondered, if he kept quiet, would her insults get worse and worse, or would she start in on other things?
"...Artemis trusts me, you know," she muttered defensively.
Ah. Number two, then, which was slightly comforting, but now he was curious.
"The other girls - they'll warm up. Artemis put me here because she trusts that I can hold this. You sure you're up to this? Have your arms ever gotten tied in knots?"
He suppressed a chuckle, doubting that would go over well. "No more than you can tie your own, miss. They're still flesh and bone."
She scowled. "So you can talk!"
"Yes." Three of his arms patted her on the head, which made her eyes flash in rage. "I just wondered where you were going with all the fussing. You really don't need to be so worried."
"I'M NOT WORRIED!!"
Characters: Silena, Ares, Hermes [implied Clarisse/Silena and Beckendorf/Silena]
Wordcount: 416
Well, this was... awkward.
"You do realize I'm not actually dating your daughter?" Extremely awkward, since Silena pretty much knew her mom was fucking this guy on a regular basis. "I have a boyfriend. His name is Charlie."
"I didn't say anything about dating," Ares growled. "Clarisse has never had a friend like you. I want to know why."
Silena gritted her teeth and tried not to scream. "How would you know? The only time you care about her is when she's killed something and brings its head home for you to gawk at. There's more than one kind of bravery, you know!"
"I know that! I just want to know that you're not bewitching her with your charms, I know what you're capable of - "
She was staring, staring with wide eyes because she suddenly understood. "This is about my mother."
He scowled. "Of course it's about your mother."
"But I thought you... liked her," Silena ventured, timidly, because she really wasn't sure how their whole relationship... worked.
Ares sighed, and at least had the grace to look embarrassed. "Yeah, I do. Too much. Just... just tell me it's not like that."
She was about to ask what 'that' was, precisely, because yes she had a boyfriend and yes he was her earth and sky but she loved Clarisse, too, and she didn't believe in having to choose. She was saved, though, but the timely arrival of Hermes, practically racing into the room. He slammed the door behind him, and leaned against it, breathing heavily.
"Oh - oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"
"Yes," said Ares shortly, just as Silena smiled and breathed, "No!"
He looked from one to another, frowning critically, then smiled. "Ares, I've a message for you."
"Not now..."
"Oh, but it's very, very important. Top priority, in fact! Also, rose-scented." He wafted the petal-pink envelope under Ares's nose, and Silena almost, laughed - she could recognize her mother's perfume anywhere, and the look on the War God's face was almost comical.
"I'm... but." He looked so torn. "Damn it all, I'm having an important conversation..."
"We can talk later, sir," Silena murmured sweetly, and smiled her absolute best. "It doesn't do to keep her waiting."
"Right," he muttered. "Wait. How did you kn-"
"Goodbye~!"
Characters: Athena, Rachel, Luke [implied Rachel/Annabeth]
Wordcount: 407
"And you foresaw this."
Of all the goddesses, Athena was the one who Rachel had the highest respect for - well, there was Apollo, but Rachel wouldn't exactly call that respect. She was under his domain, so he was kind of like her boss, but she didn't respect him. Not like this fine lady here, who was Annabeth's mom, making her well and truly awesome in Rachel's eyes. And that sort of meant she didn't want to lie to her. "Yeah, I did."
They both paused for a moment, watching. Luke moves through the crowd like air, like it was meant to be, like he'd never left. Athena's lips narrow to a fine line. "He cannot stay."
Rachel slowly folded the ends of her scarf around chipped purple fingernails, and she looked down her feet, nervous. "I know. I know that. It's only for a week, at most." Just an echo - an afterimage, like he's only here long enough to keep the wounds fresh.
"I confess I cannot tell how my daughter will react."
Annabeth? Rachel thought of Annabeth, bent over her potter's wheel, streks of clay in her hair and iron wires sticking out of her mouth. She thought of how they stayed up all night, talking and talking and talking, because Annabeth's mind was sharp and brilliant and her designs were utterly picturesque. She thought of the precious laptop, never out of her sight, and the day she'd turned it around, casually, to show Rachel a sctructure so beautiful that it took her breath away.
Hm, Annabeth.
"Well, I think she'll be glad of the chance to say goodbye," Rachel finally managed, and Athena's look was longer this time, and even more incisive. She knows she knows she knows oh gods, Rachel thought, but the goddess only turned back to the party, and sighed.
"A week. No more, and it won't be me you'll answer to, I'll have you know."
Rachel opened her mouth to say, it wasn't her, she had nothing to do with it, all she'd done was see a little - but then she understood.
In not doing anything about it, she had caused it to happen. She had let it happen.
She breathed a quiet breath of relief, and nodded. "A week."
Characters: Travis, Dionysus [implied Travis/Connor]
Wordcount: 274
"Travis Stoll."
He froze, oh shit oh shit what did I do this time? Was it the food coloring? Or the lake thing? Did he find out what we did with Luke's porn? Really, there were too many things that Mr. D could've been talking about, so Travis decided to assume it was 'None of the above' and continued smiling angelically. "Ye~s, Mr. D?"
The man sighed heavily and pressed a hand to his temple. "Look, as much a fan as I am for wild debauchery - "
"Yes, you're quite known for it, sir."
"Shut up." Dionysus scowled. "You're a student of my camp and we have rules, and the rules say, no more sex in the stables, or it won't be me you'll be answering to, you'll have to deal with Chiron."
Travis went white.
"And don't try telling me you didn't, you think I don't know about every sordid little hookup in this camp? Try again." He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, like there were way better things he could be doing with his time than lecturing stupid horny teenagers about where they should and shouldn't be getting it on. "So next time you want to bone Connor, I don't care, just not in the stables."
He breathed a long sigh of relief. "Ye~s, sir. I completely understand. Not the stables, got it." And he planned to hold himself to that agreement, too.
The next time? They'd do it on the front porch.
Characters: Annabeth/Rachel preslash
Wordcount: 346
Annabeth found herself in Rachel's apartment, again.
It wasn't that she didn't like Percy's house. And it definitely wasn't that she didn't like Percy - mostly. Well. That was a whole 'nother casket of snakes, and she didn't really want to think about it, and that was the reason she was here - one of them, anyway.
But no, the real reason was - Rachel's apartment (and it was kind of an entire floor) was a paradise.
She had every art supply imaginable. A huge drafting table. A potter's wheel. She had wire cutters and a jewelry saw and a pet rat, which - didn't have anything to do with anything but his name was Alexander and he was adorable. Plus, her bed was big enough for two, and - well - once again - Annabeth liked Percy (she did, honestly) but he kicked. Probably dreaming about swimming, or something else equally inane.
Annabeth found herself wondering what Rachel dreamed of. She found herself wondering if she dreamed in colors and patterns, like the images she saw, or maybe her dreams were more like a half-blood's - prophetic and all-too-real.
They were sitting on her floor eating dry bowls of frosted flakes the next morning when Annabeth asked, out of the blue.
Rachel considered it, though her eyebrows went up a notch. "...Well, I had this one dream where my algebra teacher was actually a goldfish. And then this other one where I was climbing a flight of stairs with my best friend, only she kept jumping off at every landing and running back up, and then she turned into a monkey and jumped on to a tree and then there was a hurricane siren." She caught the look on Annabeth's face, and laughed. "Well, it made sense then!"
"I bet," Annabeth said, doubtful, but she couldn't help laughing in return. Rachel's happiness was just so contagious - free of worry, of regret.
It was beautiful.
Characters: Ares, Triton
Wordcount: 502
"You look familiar," Ares muttered, staring at the boy with narrow eyes. "Have I threatened you before?"
He smiled sharply. "That is, quite possibly, the worst line in the history of the world. I can't believe you just used it."
"Boy, there have been some pretty awful lines in the history of the world."
"You'd know?" He cocked an eyebrow, looking smug and even more familiar, then, gods this was going to drive him crazy. "Anyway, I'm not a boy."
The god snorted. "Sure you are. And yeah. Maybe I would know."
"Oh, all right." His lips did a slow curl, and he lifted his cup to them - took a deep drink of water, and Ares watched his throat working as he swallowed. "Are you going to explain yourself, or leave me hanging on a limb, here?" Eyebrow raise - a challenge, and fuck him, Ares could never resist a challenge.
He leaned forward, until the boy's sharp sea-green eye were nearly poking him with their combined coy venom and curiosity. "I've been around these parts a long, long time. Before your dad, and your dad's dad, and your dad's dad before that."
He only looked amused, and tucked a strand of black hair behind his ear. "You don't look a day over forty," he purred.
"Forty?! How can you possibly look at me and say forty - "
"Spit it out, big guy," and now he was swirling one long, slender finger in the water, drawing Ares's attention like a magnet. "Tell me why you're so much older."
"I'm the God of War, you fuck, now stop that. You're like, twenty." He ground his teeth and forced himself to look away, and the boy laughed.
"Hardly. See, wasn't that easy?"
Ares blinked. Thought about what had just happened. "Either you don't believe me or you're not surprised, and I'm putting bets on option number two."
"Bingo." The smirk was back, but it had lost all its warmth, leaving only a frigid cruelty in its wake. "By the way, what you said, about my dad and my dad's dad? I highly doubt that." He was turning to go, now, picking up his satchel and slinging gracelessly over one shoulder, and now Ares could see it - the mark of the trident on his bag, sewn in blue on a seafoam green field. He felt his pride crumbling into tiny, itty bitty pieces. "We had a bet, you see, on how long it would take before you coughed up. I should think I've just won."
All that teasing, all that - "What's your name?!" he called out, because if he was going down, he'd at least like to know who bested him.
A last careless glance over his shoulder - playful, and utterly heartless. "Triton."
Characters: Bianca, Poseidon [implied Percy/Nico]
Wordcount: 421
"Hello- oh, I'm sorry!"
Poseidon paused, and held a finger up for Triton to shut up for a minute. It wasn't often that ghosts appeared in the ocean kingdom - much less spirits from Elysium, as her misty gold form indicated. "Don't apologize. You're not interrupting anything. Go, we'll finish this later," he said to his son, and waved him gruffly out of the room.
Then they were alone, in the throne room. He noticed with some intrigue that her hair seemed to understand that it was underwater - it floated like it was, though it was much less corporeal. "Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"My name is Bianca." She twisted her hands in the edge of her shirt, looking nervous. A ghost from Elysium, looking nervous. What a day. "Bianca di Angelo - I'm here about Nico."
Ah. The boy's sister, then. Percy hadn't told him in so many words, but the gods had other ways of getting information, and she'd been quite the subject of discussion, for a while there. "I see. What about Nico?"
"It's - " it looked like it was a difficult subject to talk about, and then suddenly, it all came out in a rush. "Is it true he's dating Percy? That's what the Furies say and it's not like I think they'd lie, except they wouldn't, but I can't see why unless it was to upset me, should I be upset by this? Is he all right?"
Poseidon nearly burst out laughing, but managed to keep it under his skin, out of respect for her and the dead and, well, he didn't want to make her more upset. "He's fine, he's perfectly all right, and they were telling the truth. But it's nothing bad. Nico's been carrying a torch for years."
Bianca blew out her breath in a relieved sigh, almost diminshing in a direct emotional reflection. "Thank gods. Oh, that much, I know." Now her eyes sparkled, as she looked up. "He's liked him ever since they met. So they're really together? Does Percy really care about him?"
He chuckled. "Slow down, slow down. How long do you have?"
"Oh- um-" she checked a small hourglass in the palm of her hand. "...Just a few more minutes."
"Then I'll talk as fast as I can, and tell you everything I know."
Characters: Travis/Connor
Wordcount: 318
They couldn't fuck in the stables, in the cabins, down by the lake, in the training fields, or - and this had cost them a week's worth of hard scrubbing - on the porch of the Big House.
But there was one place they hadn't tried.
"You know, Peleus could kill us," Connor said reasonably, though he was just as frustrated and fed up - he just had to play the Devil's Advocate, that's how it worked.
"Shut up," Travis muttered.
"Or Argus. If Argus finds out we've been near the tree - "
"Shut up."
"I'm serious, I think he's got eyes in his asscrack, I bet he could see us even there - "
"What the fuck?" Travis laughed. "I think you've just got ass on the mind."
"Mmm, probably." In particular, Travis's. It was a lovely ass, if he did say so himself. "Bet I'm not the only one."
"Gods, wonder who that could be." He smirked.
"Iiiii wonder."
"Bet it's Beckendorf."
"Oh, ew!"
"Lee."
"Stop that."
"No wait, I've got it - " Travis pulled Connor close, and whispered in his ear like a secret. "....Mr. D."
"EW!" Connor pushed at him, but he was laughing, and they were both laughing until they were laughing into each other's mouth, which turned into a slow, sultry series of kisses.
"Mmm, bet it's Nico."
They both considered this, which only made the space between them hotter and more electrifying. "Fuuuck. Bet it's Percy."
"Bet Nico is thinking of Percy's ass."
Well, at this rate they weren't going to make it to the tree, but they hadn't been specifically told not to do it against the wall of the cafeteria, so it would be fine... right?