Chapter Text
“Rise and shine, gremlins!”
Michael groaned as he sat up in bed, rubbing at his eyes and frowning when he saw Dan stood in the middle of their cabin, a wide grin on his face and eyes sparkling. He immediately had the urge to crawl back into his bed because gods it was cold, but he was stopped by Cleo swinging down from the bed above his, grinning.
“Snow day! Up, up, up!”
Michael looked at her in confusion. “Snow day?”
Alex laughed, rolling out of bed and dragging Lee out of his bed by pulling the blanket off him. “Yep! Look, it’s snowing.”
Michael moved to the window, and looked outside to see-
White. Pure white.
He’d never had snow where he lived, and he gaped at the large expanse of white powder in amazement. He had not expected that.
“I thought it was only sunny in camp?” He hummed, and Alice smiled, climbing out of her own bed and wandering over.
“It normally is, but the border sometimes lets snow in during winter. Particularly if it’s close to Christmas.”
There was that word again. Christmas. Cleo had excitedly explained it to him, what with Michael never having heard of it before, and it sounded pretty cool, so he guessed if snow came with it that was okay. His opinion of this was thrown slightly when he opened the window to stick his hand outside and touch the snow, and he yelped, quickly retracting his hand and shutting the window.
“It’s cold.” He grumbled, and Alex laughed, walking over while Alice flitted off to convince Cleo to wear a jacket to breakfast.
“Yup, that’s the fun bit. We have fun in the snow and get really cold and wet, and then we get to come inside and warm up with hot chocolate. Win-win.”
“Does it have to be cold though?” He complained, and Alex chuckled, ruffling his hair.
“Sorry bud, but you’ll just have to wear a jacket. Come on, go find something warm to wear.”
Breakfast was far too cold for Michael’s liking, the son of Apollo shivering in his jacket as he ate, and by the time he’d had his first insulin dose and had been dragged out to have a snowball fight, he thought he actually might die of hyperthermia. Fortunately, he was taken out quite quickly during the fight, thanks to his lack of enthusiasm and slow movements due to freezing his feet off, and he got to retreat to the ‘out’ group, where he quickly found Jake, the son of Hephaestus also bundled up in a coat, but he didn’t look nearly as cold. Jake smiled and waved at him, and Michael wandered over, flopping down to sit next to him and leaning on the other’s arm in hopes of the physical contact giving him warmth. Jake grinned, ruffling his hair gently. “Good morning.”
“Hi.” He mumbled in response, shivering as a cold breeze washed through the area, and Jake nudged him, smiling.
“Having fun?”
“No.” Michael grumbled, burying his hands in his sleeves. “It's cold. And wet.”
“What did you think snow was?”
“I don’t know!” He whined. “I just didn’t think it’d be this cold. I’m actually turning into an ice cube.”
“Drama queen.”
“Are you telling me you’re not cold?”
Jake shrugged. “A bit, but I’m not dying. How cold are you?”
Michael stuck his hand out at the other boy, concerned to see it was almost purple from the cold, and Jake winced when he touched it.
“I take it back. Gods, come here.” He reached for the son of Apollo, then paused, looking at him cautiously. “Can I give you a hug?”
Michael raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“For warmth? Ally says I’m like a toaster, and penguins and stuff huddle for warmth or whatever.”
He smirked, looking at the other boy in amusement. “Are you comparing us to penguins?”
“Yes, now let me give you a hug so you can warm up.”
Michael snickered, smirking at the other boy. He had nothing wrong with getting a hug from Jake, but it was fun to play with him. “No thanks.”
Jake rolled his eyes. “Michael.”
“Nope.” He shuffled away, then changed his mind and shuffled back. He did actually need the warmth of Jake’s side before he legitimately froze solid. Jake sighed, looking at him, unimpressed.
“If you freeze to death, I am not to blame.”
“Okay.” He stuck his chin up determinedly, and Jake rolled his eyes, smirking as Michael shivered again.
Unfortunately, he didn’t make it to the end of the snowball fight, and by the time his siblings found him, he was cuddled up on his best friend’s lap, much warmer than he had been, but with a very damaged ego. Jake apparently had no regrets, snickering and hugging him tightly, which Michael would not admit he liked because it was warm, no, not at all. It just so happened that his temperature increased when the son of Hephaestus hugged him, absolutely nothing to do with Jake being right.
Alex seemed to disagree, and took the absolute piss out of him for the rest of the day.
“Michael’s a penguin, Michael’s a penguin!”
“Alex, I will kill you.”
“Once you get out of that hoodie, maybe.”
He grumbled and cuddled back into the hoodie, far too cold for whatever Lee was dragging them out to do; something to do with a hill. He soon became aware that this was sledging, and he was convinced by Cleo to sledge with her, since he was too small to go in one on his own, and it was apparently more fun as a pair.
“Ready bud?” She asked as they approached the hill, and Michael looked up at her, still cold despite wearing a long-sleeved shirt, hoodie, jacket, and coat at the same time, in addition to his gloves and scarf.
“Uh, sure?” He replied, the looked at the sledge. “How do we do this?”
She smirked. “I sit on it, and you sit in front, basically on my lap. Then we slide down the hill. It’s fun!”
He shrugged, climbing in after her when they got there. “Okay.”
Cleo grinned, wrapping her arms around his waist for safety, then Dan pushed them down the hill, the wind whistling past their ears and wow-
Okay. This was actually kind of fun.
Sledging quickly became his favourite activity of the day, even more so when other cabins started showing up, and he took turns riding with all his siblings, until everyone split off into pairs, Cleo grinning and dashing over to pair up with Max, who had arrived earlier and was grinning at her hopefully, while Lee went with Castor and Alice went with Hannah, leaving Dan and Alex to mess around together and Michael to fend for himself. He quickly wove his way through the crowd in search of a certain son of Hephaestus that he’d seen earlier sledging down with one of his brothers, and grinned when he spotted him, bounding over and smiling at him.
“Hi!”
Jake grinned at him. “Hey! How’s it going?”
Michael hummed happily, bouncing around the son of Hephaestus and smiling. “Good! Can we sledge? Cleo ditched me.”
Jake laughed, gently nudging him towards a sled, and they spent the remainder of the time before they had to go inside sledging down the hill together and laughing. At one point, Jake smirked and dumped a snowball on Michael’s head, which almost caused a fight between the two, and ended in Michael grumpily attempting to ride the sledge on his own, which he soon realised was a terrible idea as he was too light and the sledge went spinning into a snowbank, covering him head to foot in snow and leaving him sulking back to Jake again in hopes of warmth. Jake seemed all too happy to let him cuddle for warmth, and when they eventually went inside Michael was delighted to be informed that his cabin had been invited into the Hephaestus cabin because it was much warmer than cabin seven, which was always well-ventilated for sanitary purposes. Lee squirrelled off to cabin twelve at the first opportunity, much to everyone else’s amusement, but the rest of them huddled in cabin nine, Michael very happy to shed his wet coat and jacket as soon as he got inside, and migrated over to Jake when he spotted the son of Hephaestus sat on a bed that was clearly his, with photos pinned on the wall behind it. Alex laughed when he spotted them cuddled up in Jake’s blanket together, Michael sat on Jake’s lap happily while Jake wrapped the blanket around them, and smirked at him teasingly.
“Feeling cold, buddy?”
He stuck his tongue out at the other boy and Ally, one of Jake’s sisters, laughed.
“Don’t blame you dude, Jake is like a freaking furnace. I don’t know what genes you got from Dad, but you’ve definitely got the internal fire going on.”
“I thought Apollo kids had naturally high temperatures?” Beckendorf mused, and Dan chuckled.
“Not Michael. He is a literal ice cube. I actually thought you were constantly sick for a while, but I suspect it’s more to do with your small frame and lack of body fat.” He hummed, then raised an eyebrow at Michael. “Speaking of, how are your levels? The cold might affect it.”
Michael sighed, checking his sugar levels, and was unsurprised to see that they’d dropped quite considerably thanks to the amount of rolling around in the snow he’d been doing. He sighed, rolling his eyes at Dan’s suspicious look, and dug his bag of skittles out of his kit, which he’d taken to carrying around in a medpack bag, because it went around his waist instead of hanging off him and getting in the way of his quiver. He offered Jake one first, ignoring Dan’s unimpressed gaze, but Jake just raised an eyebrow at him and gently pushed the bag back. “You first.”
Michael rolled his eyes, but ate a few, glaring at his friend, then offered the bag again. Jake raised his hands.
“I’m fine, they’re for you.”
“Eat a fucking skittle.”
“Language!” Dan called, rolling his eyes.
Jake ate a skittle, much to Michael’s appreciation, and he tucked the bag back in his pack, turning and raising an eyebrow at the rest of the room, who were grinning at them. He frowned. “What?”
Alice chuckled, ruffling his hair as she walked past to sit next to Hannah. “Nothing, bud.”
Cleo grinned. “Yup, nothing. You two having hot chocolate?” She waved a pair of mugs at them, both boys taking one happily, and Michael looked at his sister suspiciously.
“Why aren’t you in cabin four?”
Alex snickered, nudging her suggestively, and Cleo rolled her eyes, batting him away. “Shut up. It’s warmer here, and Max is on babysitting duty.”
“Cute.” Alice hummed. “You should offer to help him out some time.”
“I’m not taking relationship advice from my sister.”
“Why not?” Alice gestured to her and Hannah; the daughter of Hephaestus sat with an arm looped around her girlfriend happily. “I’m doing fine.”
Michael snorted. “I’m pretty sure taking relationship advice from Alice would be better than taking it from me. I don’t know what was going through your head that made you listen to your younger brother for relationship and fashion advice.”
“Oh yeah!” Cleo pointed at him, grinning. “Go to Michael for fashion advice. I don’t know why it works, but it does.”
Michael smirked, shrugging at Alex’s sceptical gaze, and Dan chuckled, then switched the topic of conversation to board games. They played a few rounds of chess and cards, before Dan attempted to shoo them back to cabin seven. Michael, who had no interest in going back to his very cold cabin, pouted when Dan tried to usher him out, much to Jake’s amusement.
“Do I have to? It’s warm in here.”
Dan chuckled. “Sorry bud. Come on.”
He frowned, shuffling and burrowing into Jake’s blanket with his friend, scowling at Dan. “No. I’ll freeze to death.”
He heard Jake snicker and swatted at the other boy, then looked at Dan pleadingly when his head counsellor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You can’t just invite yourself round to someone else’s cabin for a sleepover, buddy. That’s not how it works.”
“He’s invited.” Jake nodded, and Hannah chuckled, leaning over to ruffle her brother’s hair as she got up and shooed Alice out the door.
“I don’t think that’s your choice to make, Jakey.”
Jake pouted, copying Michael with the puppy-eyes look to his head counsellor, and Hannah sighed, snickering as Dan huffed, shaking his head in fond exasperation. She patted the son of Apollo on the back, grinning as she walked away.
“This one’s on you, Dan! He’s welcome, but I’ll let the senior counsellor handle this.”
“I’m only a year older, let it die!” He called back, then sighed and turned back to Michael, who smiled at his brother hopefully. Dan hummed, then swatted Michael on the head lightly, a slight smirk on his face. “Fine. But only because you’re too cute to turn down.”
Michael grinned, bouncing happily and hugging his brother. “Thanks!”
“Two conditions, though. You have to do your math work by Friday, and you need insulin before I go.”
He huffed, but nodded and let his brother inject him. The ones before and after he slept were always in his stomach, simply because Alex thought it would chill him out a bit more if he wasn’t able to see the needle easily, whereas normally during the day he was more distracted by other things, so Michael flopped back on the bed and dug a needle out of his pack, letting Dan inject him and take the needles away to be thoroughly cleaned, as they were at the end of every day. Once he was done, he sat up and squirrelled back over to sit by Jake, the son of Hephaestus grinning and lifting up the blanket for Michael to sit next to him. Michael hummed happily, very warm, and Dan chuckled, turning away and rolling his eyes at a laughing Hannah, saying something that Michael only caught the end of.
“-too cute together.”
“Mhm. Now shut up and get out.” She laughed, and Dan raised his hands in surrender, winking at Michael as he left. Michael grinned, smiling at Hannah as she smirked and walked past them to the bathroom, ruffling their hair when she passed. “Lights out in ten, boys! And if you’re gonna stay up until midnight whispering, at least do it quietly.”
Both boys snickered, and Michael hummed happily as they settled in to sleep, not at all minding when Jake slipped an arm around him as they drifted off, seemingly to stop him from falling off the bed in his sleep, which was a valid concern, since he was a very fidgety sleeper. He’d got very used to contact from the son of Hephaestus recently, and found it quite comforting in most respects. Very warm, which he’d definitely take right now.