Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Michael wasn’t quite sure what he was doing at Camp Half-Blood. 

It was early August, and he was still trying to process the whole your father is a Greek god and not some loser that left you when you were a baby thing. Although, he was still under the impression that his father was a loser, because the guy hadn’t even claimed him or whatever. He’d been dumped with the Hermes cabin when he’d arrived earlier that day, and they were nice, he guessed, but he wasn’t used to so many people in such a small place. 

And small didn’t just extend to the place, either. 

His cabin mates had quickly realised that he wasn’t younger than he looked, just extremely short for his height (like, under four foot at nine years old sort of short) so he’d had a lot of people asking if he needed help with things, which annoyed him. He wasn’t a toddler, he could do things, but his head counsellor, Tim, didn’t seem to think so.  

“Hey, Michael?” Tim asked as he walked over to Michael’s spot on the floor. Tim was a tall, redheaded boy, and seemed like the kind of person who could organise anything if he tried hard enough, so it made sense why he was the Hermes head counsellor, with all the rambunctious kids in the cabin. “I’ve got someone I want you to meet.” 

Michael scowled at that. He didn’t do well with new people or introductions. “I’m good, thanks.” 

“Yeah? Well, dude, you don’t have much choice here. Camp has a buddy system, and anyone under the age of ten, lest they are a veteran camper, needs a buddy. Which means you’ve got a buddy! Isn’t that great?” He smiled at him, and Michael huffed. A buddy system? Those never worked on him, he’d just find a way to slip away and hide in a corner. He scowled at Tim and the head counsellor sighed, waving to another boy with curly brown hair and brown eyes, fiddling with something and sitting on his sleeping bag on the other side of the cabin. “Jake! Come here and meet Michael.” 

Jake raised an eyebrow, but got up, tucking whatever he’d been messing with into his pocket and wandering over, pausing when he spotted Michael. Tim smiled at him, then gestured to him and Michael. 

“Jake, this is Michael. Michael, this is Jake. Jake got here a few days ago and Michael got here today, and you’re about the same age, so you’re buddies, okay? Jake, that means you have to help Michael with things if he can’t do them, yeah?” 

Michael glared at him. “I’m not a baby. I can do shit on my own, thanks.” 

“Language.” 

“Fuck off.” 

Jake snickered, smiling at Michael and offering a hand to shake. “Hi. I’m Jake.” 

Michael looked at the other’s hand for a moment, trying to hold back the wave of panic flowing through him at the thought of being touched, and quickly shook his head. “Uh, Michael.” 

Tim glared at him when he refused to shake Jake’s hand. “Michael, shake his hand.” 

Michael tapped his finger and thumb together rhythmically. “No thanks. I’m good.” 

Jake just shrugged. “Fair enough.”  

Tim looked exasperated, having already dealt with Michael’s attitude plenty over the last few hours, and poked the younger boy gently. “You can’t avoid everyone. That’s not how it works here.” He said, ignoring Michael’s flinch at the contact, and Michael just squeaked, quickly shuffling away and grimacing. 

“Yep, sure.” He rubbed the area Tim had poked, a way of soothing himself he’d developed years prior. For whatever reason, his own touch didn’t burn like everyone else’s, and it made it feel a bit better. Tim rolled his eyes when he noticed him rubbing the spot. 

“I didn’t poke you that hard, honestly. Don’t be dramatic.” 

Michael glared at him but said nothing. He didn’t notice Jake looking at him as he turned around to organise some of his belongings he’d bought with him. He didn’t have much, just what he’d grabbed from his mom’s house before he left that fit in a small backpack, and most of it was just sentimental junk, like a little bracelet his brother had made him the week before he left. He grimaced at the thought. Jasper was safer without him anyway, since Michael was the cause of most of the problems in their house, so his little brother would be okay now he was gone. At least, he hoped. 

“What are you sacrificing?” 

Michael shrugged as Jake asked the question. “Why?” 

“Just asking.” The taller boy was stood behind him in the line to the brazier, and Michael leaned around his cabin mates to see the brazier itself, then grimaced when he spotted it. An older camper named Luke had explained it to him, and how they sacrificed food in the fire, which was fine, Michael understood that. 

The only problem was that the brazier stood at four feet tall, meaning Michael’s head didn’t even reach the top. 

Ah. 

Problematic. 

He quickly scanned his plate for what food he had that he could put in there, and how to put it in. No, no, no, definitely not- 

“Would you like some help putting it in?” 

“No.” He said instantly, and Jake smiled. 

“Okay.” 

He was surprised the other boy didn’t protest or offer help again, but he appreciated it. Most people followed his statement up with are you sure? It’s fine, don’t worry or some other source of degrading talk.  

Michael paused when he spotted something on his plate, and smirked. That would do. When it was his turn at the brazier, he heard snickers from some of the other Hermes campers when he wasn’t anywhere near eye level with the top, and he rolled his eyes. Michael flipped them off and grabbed an apple, chucking it over the rim and smirking when it dropped straight over the edge into the fire. He heard Jake chuckle behind him, and he grinned, walking back to the Hermes table to flop down and eat. Midway through the meal, he was accosted by one of the older Hermes boys, he didn’t know their name, who was sat opposite him.  

“How old are you?” 

He scowled. “Nine. What’s it to you?” 

The guy snorted. “What are you, a gnome?” 

Michael glared at them. “No. I’m not.” 

Luke sighed. “Guys, don’t start a fight.”  

His brother shrugged, sitting back a bit and smirking. 

“But he’s so short. What’s he gonna do, kick my ankles?” 

Michael scowled. “Fuck off.” 

“Language, Michael, for the gods’ sake.” Tim complained. “You’ve only been here five hours, and you’ve already swore ten times more than people five years older than you.” 

He shrugged. “Whatever.” 

“Ooh, he’s feisty as well?” Mr Jackass across the table grinned. “Maybe he’d bite my ankles instead.” 

Michael threw his knife at the guy, which managed to impale him in the arm. Luke groaned. “Michael, it’s your first day! Don’t throw knives at the dinner table!” 

“Don’t insult my height. I’m not short.” He scowled, and Mr Jackass smirked, pulling the knife out and passing it back. 

“Want another shot? I think your throw was a bit short to hit my face.” 

Michael growled, grabbed the knife, and made to throw it before Tim quickly grabbed it out of his hand. “Michael! Don’t throw knives!” 

“Then tell him not to be an ass!” 

“Did you see him at the brazier? He wasn’t even eyelevel.” Jackass snickered, and Michael was about to throw himself across the table at the guy, before Luke glared at his brother. 

“Ben, don’t antagonise him.” 

“It’s so funny though! He’s like an angry chihuahua.” 

“Oh, I’ll get you for that-“ He was abruptly grabbed by Tim and he shrieked, pulling away and falling off the bench. Half the Hermes table turned to look at him, but Tim just rolled his eyes and gestured for him to get back up.  

“Come on, eat your dinner now and fight later. Or just, don’t.” 

Michael scowled, getting up and sitting back down on the bench, resisting the urge to rub his arms. It was fine, it was fine, it was fine.  

“Whatever. Don’t touch me.” 

“Sure, dude. Come on, eat your food or you won’t grow at all.” 

He glared at the older boy and Luke sighed. “Tim, you’re not helping.” Tim just shrugged, grinning. 

“You’ve got to admit it’s a bit funny.”  

Michael scowled, turning away to poke at his food while Luke groaned and explained that he was a bad example for the younger kids or something. Michael just zoned out, poking at his food with his fork and glowering.  

Chapter Text

The next day started rather chaotically, in Michael’s opinion. 

Provided by chaotic you meant terribly. 

He was dragged out of bed at about seven o’clock, which would have been fine, provided he wasn’t quite literally dragged. Apparently, he’d woken a while after everyone else, and their solution for how to wake him up was to grab him and shake him out of his sleeping bag. This did not go down well, and he shrieked, instantly attacking the person that had grabbed him on instinct. He heard a woah of shock as he lunged at the person that had grabbed him, kicking their feet out from under them and elbowing them in the stomach. There was a fair bit of commotion, but Michael didn’t register most of it, too overwhelmed by the feeling of someone grabbing him and all the noise in the cabin. He managed to calm down, and quickly realised that the person he’d attacked was actually Tim. The older boy groaned, sitting up and holding the side of his stomach, glaring at Michael. “Now that was just rude. Come on dude, I was trying to wake you up.” 

Michael winced. “Sorry.” Tim huffed and got up, rolling his eyes. 

“Whatever. Breakfast, get up.” 

Michael nodded quickly, and the moment Tim turned around, he moved his hands to his sides, rubbing circles on the spots that burned, sighing slightly when the pain lessened.  

Breakfast was fairly easy, with only some slight comments on how he couldn’t reach the brazier to put anything in other than an apple or orange, which he had to throw, and after breakfast they had climbing wall practise. The climbing wall was a massive wall of jagged rock with lava and fire pouring down it, and Michael frowned as they approached it. It wasn’t that he wasn’t a good climber; on the contrary, he often climbed trees and such in his spare time. But the handholds and footholds were a bit too far apart for his liking. Apparently, Luke seemed to think this too, and looked at him in concern when they arrived. While everyone was warming up to give it a shot, he gently pulled Michael aside, not noticing the slight flinch when he touched the younger boy, and gestured to the wall. 

“Michael, not to be rude, but would you like to sit this one out? It’s nothing against you, I just don’t want you to get hurt, and Tim would be a bit more blunt about this, so I’m just saying... would you sit out for a bit?” 

Michael huffed. “He thinks I’m too short to climb the wall, doesn’t he?” 

Luke winced, then shrugged. “Possibly.” Michael scowled, and Luke hummed. “But, it is a genuine safety issue. If you can’t reach, then you could get hurt.” 

“I’ll be fine.” 

“Michael, it’s lava and fire. The most professional of us get burnt when we climb, let alone you.”  

He huffed, glaring at the older boy, who raised his hands in a don’t blame me! gesture. He looked over at where the rest of their group were getting ready to go, noting that Jake seemed to be watching him in confusion, and spotted a tall tree in line with the climbing wall, of about the same height. He studied it for a moment, then pointed at it and looked at Luke.  

“If I can climb that, can I try the wall?” 

Luke looked at it for a minute, then called to Tim. “Tim! If he climbs the tree, can he try?” 

Tim looked over at them, and Ben snickered in the line for the wall, smirking at Michael. “Too short to climb?” 

“Shut up!” 

“Shorty.” 

Michael scowled at the older boy, and Tim sighed, then shrugged. “I guess? If he can’t, though, he’s not allowed to protest.” 

Michael huffed. “Fine.” He walked over to the tree, flipping Ben off when he whistled at him, and stood under the first branch, his hands on his hips as he looked up at the tree. It would be hard, but not impossible, and he reckoned he could do it. Worth a try. He took a deep breath, then jumped and pulled himself up, climbing from branch to branch and swinging back and forth around the tree. He heard muttering below him, but didn’t look, and instead frowned when he reached a pair of branches a fair way apart, too far to jump or swing safely. “Screw safety.” He muttered to himself, then took a step back, pushed off from his current branch, and jumped for the other, just about managing not to roll off and fall the ten or so feet to the floor. He still had about the same to go, and he sighed, pulling himself up by another branch.  

It took a few minutes, but he made it, and waved at Luke and Tim from the top. Tim pinched the bridge of his nose like he had a headache and Luke just shook his head, grinning. It appeared that half the group had watched him climb, which was off-putting, but he’d live. He suddenly felt the tree creak and bend beneath him, tipping him forwards, but he didn’t panic too much. He’d fell from taller trees. As the branch pitched him forwards and he fell, he heard someone shriek, and smirked in amusement, tucking and rolling to absorb the impact as he hit the floor. He stood and took a mock bow in front of his slightly traumatised head counsellor and second in command, and calmly walked over to join the end of the queue for the climbing wall, behind Jake. The other boy looked terrified, and stared at Michael in shock for a moment, then snapped out of it, quickly looking him over. 

“Oh my god, are you okay? You just fell, like, twenty feet!” 

He smirked and shrugged. “I climb trees a lot. Fallen from higher.” 

“And you want to do the climbing wall?” 

“Why not?” 

Jake just sighed, shaking his head. “You’re insane.” 

“You’re also in the queue to climb.” 

“Fair point.” 

They climbed the wall in twos, so Jake and Michael were climbing at the same time, and Luke waved at him when he was about to set off. “Do you want a harness? We don’t usually use one, but you can if you want.” 

He scowled at the older boy and didn’t reply, just pulled himself up by the first handhold and started climbing. It was a bit more difficult that a tree, and the handholds were quite far apart, so he had to jump from one to another instead of climbing. He heard Jake yelp slightly below him, and looked down to see the other boy had burned himself. He frowned. “You okay?” 

“Yeah- Michael, look out!” Jake squeaked, and Michael turned to see a spew of lava rolling down the wall straight for him. He yelped and lunged for a handhold to the side, but missed and fell down the wall, scrabbling for a handhold. He managed to grab onto something and ended up hanging by one hand beside Jake, the other boy looking at him worriedly. His hands were thoroughly scraped up and bleeding, but he couldn’t feel it, and instead attempted to figure out how to move on from this position, considering the nearest foothold was way out of his reach, and there weren’t any handholds he could get to nearby. Jake grimaced. “Are you okay?” 

Michael huffed. “Just fine.” He considered swinging to a foothold, but he might miss and tumble down the wall, and that would not end well. He groaned, still hanging by one hand, and Jake shuffled slightly on his footholds, offering Michael a hand.  

“Would you like me to pull you over?” 

Michael grimaced. On the one hand, he really didn’t want to accept help from another person, particularly if it involved touching, but on the other, he was about to slip and fall down the side of a burning wall of rock. He sighed heavily, then reached for Jake’s hand, which seemed to surprise the other boy, but he grabbed Michael’s hand anyway, pulling him over to the footholds nearby. Michael almost slipped, and Jake quickly grabbed him, wrapping an arm around the other’s waist and pulling him back, before quickly letting go when they were stable. 

“Sorry.” 

Michael paused, confused about something, but didn’t let it show and just nodded, scrabbling to find his footing. “Thanks.” 

“Anytime. Try not to burn yourself.” 

He snorted. “Yeah, because that was on my to-do list today.” 

Jake smirked, then watched him climb back up, closely following behind. Against all odds, they both managed to reach the top, although Michael slipped a few times, tumbling down the wall before climbing back up, and he sighed in relief when he reached the top, smirking down at the rest of their group, who had all sat on the grass together to watch the newbies climb. Jake grinned at him and he managed a small smile back.  

Chapter Text

Michael had decided that fighting with a weapon sucked. 

He’d been at camp for almost a week now, and he’d tried fighting with a sword on multiple occasions, but he just couldn’t get it. There was never one the right size either, all almost as long as he was, and he’d tried working with knives, but stabbing with the small blades just felt wrong.  

Therefore, he was not massively excited to try archery. 

Luke had reassured him that everyone had a different talent, but so far climbing seemed to be his only one. Even Jake had figured out his own talent when they’d spent some time in the forges, and Michael had been impressed by the other boy’s skill with building things when they were paired up. He, however, couldn’t make anything, but Hannah, the Hephaestus head counsellor, said that his fine motor skills were good. Fine motor skills weren’t great for building weapons, though, so he was pretty useless there.  

Anyway, he wasn’t expecting much from archery, but he was stopped by the Apollo head counsellor the moment he walked in. They had archery with the Apollo cabin, and none of his cabinmates seemed massively hyped for it, so he assumed either the Apollo kids were show offs, or the entire Hermes cabin just sucked at archery.  

“Hey, hey, buddy wait up.” The Apollo head counsellor, Michael thought Tim had introduced him as Dan, motioned for him to come closer. He scowled, but stepped out of line and walked over, and the guy looked at him for a second, then called to one of his cabin, who had been rummaging through the storage cupboard on the side of the archery range. “Lee, would you come here a sec?” 

The guy he was talking to, a blonde boy of about twelve, looked up and spotted them, wandering over and pausing when he spotted Michael, then grinned. Michael glared at them. “The fuck are you looking at?” 

Dan snorted, but smirked and looked at Lee. “Are you seeing what I am?” 

Lee grinned. “Hell yeah, all over.” Michael scowled, under the impression that they were commenting on his height, and he was about to turn around and walk back to his group, but Lee’s next words stopped him. “Hey, what’s your name?” 

He frowned. “What’s it to you?” 

Dan snickered. “Just interested.” 

Michael huffed, but answered anyway. “Michael.” 

“Well, Michael.” Lee smiled. “Have you ever tried using a bow?” 

He raised an eyebrow. “No?” Lee grinned at that and looked to Dan, who nodded, smiling as he turned back to the rest of their cabin. Lee stayed and smiled at Michael. 

“Well, would you give it a go for me? I think you might be really good.” 

He heard Ben snort behind him, and he turned and glared at the other boy as the son of Hermes snickered. “What, you think he can shoot? He’s the same height as most of the bows.” 

Michael was about to snap back, but Lee just shrugged. “I dunno, I think you’re underestimating him. Here, Michael, would you try with one of these for me?” He grabbed a bow, which appeared to be one of the ones they used for little kids, but it was still a bit big on Michael, much to his annoyance, and offered it to the younger boy while the Hermes cabin started practising nearby. He shrugged and took it, giving it a quick twirl and looking at the nearest target.  

“You want me to shoot that?” 

“Mhm. Here, take an arrow.”  

Lee gave him an arrow, and Michael frowned, taking it and nocking it in his bow, aiming at the target and firing, all in about the space of three seconds. Straight bullseye. Lee grinned.  

“Knew it.” 

Michael scowled. “Knew what?” 

“Nothing, just, you said you hadn’t shot before, right?” 

Michael shook his head. “Don’t think so.” 

“I didn’t have to tell you how to use the bow and you did it perfectly. Also, that’s a bullseye at fifteen yards, in case you hadn’t noticed. We use five yards for newbies, ten for normal cabins, and fifteen or twenty for ourselves.” 

Michael paused. “Oh.” 

“Yeah, oh. Have you tried knives yet?” 

He grimaced. “I’ve tried fighting with them.” 

“Have you tried throwing them?” 

“You can throw knives?” 

Lee smirked, grabbing a pair of knives from his belt and looking at them. “Might be a bit big, but you can try it if you want.” 

For once, Michael wasn’t offended by the statement, and instead took the knives, chucking them both at a pair of targets. Two straight bullseyes. Lee laughed, and one of his sisters grinned, quickly walking over and looking at Michael. “New one, Lee?” 

“Did you see him throw those?” 

“Gods yeah, imagine what he could do with ones the right size. And a properly weighted bow at that.” She smirked, then looked at the knives for a moment, before turning back to Michael. “Hold on a sec.” She walked over, pulled the knives out of the targets, and gave them back to Michael. “Can you throw them without looking?” 

“Cleo...” Lee warned, but Michael looked at the older girl in interest.  

“Without looking? Like, at all?” 

She smirked. “Look at the target, then back at the knives and throw.” 

Michael did as asked, then grinned when he hit, again, two straight bullseyes. Cleo laughed and Lee smirked. “Wow. Dan!” 

“I saw! How the hell he hasn’t been claimed yet, I don’t know.” 

Cleo grinned. “Dad had better claim him by Friday. We need that for capture the flag.” 

Michael looked at them in confusion. The Hermes cabin was still attempting to shoot behind him, and he had now answered his question as to why they disliked shooting practise. The Hermes cabin just sucked at archery. “What do you mean? Claimed by who?” 

Lee grinned. “Apollo. If he’s not your dad, I don’t know what’s wrong on this earth. Is it your dad that’s the godly one?” 

“Uh, yeah.” He paused. “Wait, you think Apollo’s my dad?” 

Cleo laughed. “Buddy, if he isn’t then there is something seriously wrong. Most newbies can’t shoot a target if it’s right in front of their face, let alone at fifteen yards. Gods almighty, I have seen few people in our cabin that can shoot that well, let alone a- how old are you?” 

Michael grinned. Apollo. He could work with that. “Nine.” 

“Nine- holy crap. Lee, can we just adopt him even if he isn’t claimed?” 

Lee chuckled. “Unfortunately, no. For now you’ll have to go back to Hermes.” He saw Michael scowling and smirked, leaning forwards, as if about to share a secret. “ But , any time you want to do some shooting, feel free to come down and have a go. One of us is normally here, but if not just be careful.” He winked, and Michael smirked, then walked back over to cabin eleven. Jake was grinning at him and he shrugged. He’d become fast acquaintances with the other boy, considering Jake seemed to be the only one not intent on teasing him twenty-four seven, and he normally asked if Michael wanted help instead of just doing it for him, which was nice. Sometimes, he quite enjoyed the other’s presence. Jake smirked when he slid back into line next to him. 

“Archery?” He asked, and Michael nodded, grinning. 

“Archery.”  

Chapter Text

Michael visited the archery range on many occasions over the next few days, and he quickly discovered that archery was pretty much the best thing ever. Lee was normally at the range, and Michael quite liked the son of Apollo, considering he never mentioned his height or pushed too hard. The older boy seemed to get slightly frustrated by Michael’s lack of claiming as the days went on, often looking to the sky after Michael had done a particularly good shot, as if to say come on, you saw that, right? Michael found it quite amusing, but also super annoying, because he really wanted to get out of the Hermes cabin, ASAP. The only decent thing about the cabin was Jake, and that soon changed after the other boy was claimed by Hephaestus during a forge lesson.

The giant burning symbol above Jake’s head had really freaked Michael out a bit, and Jake looked extremely nervous and uncomfortable as he was claimed, which wasn’t massively reassuring. He had heard the other boy nervously talking to one of his siblings as he was led away from the group, occasionally glancing back at Michael.

“Will I still be able to see Michael?”

His sister had chuckled, ruffling his hair and saying something back that Michael hadn’t caught.

Either way, now that Jake was gone there wasn’t much to love about the Hermes cabin, and he found himself getting more and more panicked every day, as the cabin just seemed to get more full and noisy, and he often found himself squished between people or teased. He’d so far managed to hold off any panic attacks, but he could tell he would fall apart soon enough.

The archery range was where he liked to cool off, shooting arrows with Lee or just by himself. On one of such afternoons at the range, Jake had wandered past and spotted him, stopping and sitting on the grass just outside, watching Michael shoot. He hadn’t realised the son of Hephaestus was there until Jake had grinned and given him a round of applause after a double bullseye shot with the bow, and he’d jumped, swivelling around to face him. Lee was due to arrive and chill with him in a few minutes, so it was currently just him and Jake, and the other boy grinned at him as he relaxed and smiled slightly, walking over to flop down next to him. Jake was probably the closest thing he had to a friend, not that he’d admit it, and the other boy smiled at him when he sat down beside him.

“You’re getting really good.” He commented, nodding to the range, and Michael shrugged, flopping back so he was lying on the grass.

“Lee’s convinced I’m a child of Apollo. Supposedly I should have been claimed days ago, when I first picked up a bow, but.” He sighed. “Oh well. How’s cabin nine?”

Jake grinned, fiddling with his hands. “Great. Although I am constantly covered in grease and grime, but that’s the only downside. I don’t mind getting a bit messy.”

“Hm.” Michael nodded, and Jake suddenly paused, as if thinking.

“When’s your birthday?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because I’ve already told you mine, and I’m trying to figure out how much younger you are, because you’re nine and I’m ten.”

“Oh. Uh, next week. Tuesday.” He shrugged, and Jake turned to look at him.

“Next week?! Why didn’t you mention that?”

Michael frowned. “Because it’s not massively relevant?”

“It’s your birthday.”

He shrugged again. “I don’t celebrate my birthday.”

“Why not?” Jake frowned, and Michael resisted the urge to say because there was never any reason to. Instead, he just hummed.

“Never very important in my family.”

“Oh. Is it like religion, or...?”

He huffed. “Not really. Just never did.”

“So, what, no presents, or cake, or celebration at all?”

He shook his head, biting back the slight wave of jealousy. Other kids got to celebrate their birthdays. His brother got to celebrate his birthday. “Nope.”

“Interesting. Did you ever want a celebration?”

He frowned. “Yeah, but that’s selfish.”

“Michael, it’s your birthday.”

“Still.”

“Do you have siblings? Like, mortal ones?”

“Brother.”

“Did he ever celebrate his birthday?”

Michael paused. “...Yeah.”

“So why didn’t you?” Jake was looking at him with something he didn’t recognise, but it wasn’t pity, or amusement, so he let it slide.

“Just didn’t. Mom wasn’t into it.”

The son of Hephaestus scoffed. “What, not into celebrating her son’s birthday?” He said it like it was ridiculous, then looked at Michael, noting the other’s sudden silence as he picked at his fingernails awkwardly. “You’re kidding. Your mom never celebrated your birthday, but she did your brother’s?”

He shrugged, not looking at the other boy. He wasn’t quite sure how the conversation had grown to this, but it wasn’t too personal, so he went with it. “He deserved it.”

“And you didn’t?”

Michael shrugged again and Jake frowned, then looked up when Lee walked into the range, and waved at Michael. Michael quickly got up, walking over and waving to Jake. “Gotta go. See ya.”

He didn’t notice the other’s look of sadness when he left.

Chapter Text

Capture the flag was interesting.

He still hadn’t been claimed by Friday, much to Lee’s frustration, so he was dumped with the Hermes kids again. The good thing about this was that Jake was also on Athena’s side for capture the flag with the rest of his cabin, and he got partnered with the other boy for scouting or something, since they were both pretty much the youngest, aside from an eight-year-old girl in the Athena cabin, who was with one of her brothers.

They spent a while wandering through the trees and such, occasionally talking about this and that, but they didn’t really encounter much trouble until a pair of Ares campers, seemingly also scouts, ambushed them. Both of them were boys about four years older than Jake and Michael, and they seemed to take great pleasure in taking them down, as if jumping a pair of (almost) ten-year-olds was fun and worth their time. Michael gave them a piece of his mind, shooting one of them full of arrows when they tried to attack, but he was distracted when Jake went down nearby, pinned to the floor with a sword pointed just above his sternum. The Ares camper Michael was facing took advantage of the distraction, grabbing Michael and picking him up, throwing the smaller boy around like a ragdoll. Michael shrieked, fighting to try and get out of the older boy’s grip, but the son of Ares just squeezed tighter, throwing him over his shoulder. The burning sensation started, and Michael yelled, hardly noticing that his vison had blurred and tears had started falling down his face as he hit and cursed at the other boy, trying to make him let go so the burning would stop. His panic increased, and he heard Jake yell something, but he blocked it all out, holding his hands over his ears and sobbing quietly as the older boy threw him around. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.

He felt himself be dropped to the ground, heard voices, several of them yelling, and a familiar voice that he couldn’t recognise. It wasn’t Jake, or one of the Ares kids.

Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.

He felt a hand on his arm and shrieked, flinching away and shuffling backwards, sobbing when his back hit what felt like a tree trunk and he couldn’t move further.

Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.

He wanted to run, find somewhere to hide and wrap himself up in his blanket like he did at home, knowing he couldn’t be touched if there was nothing to touch. Instead, he felt the constant burning sensation over his arms where he’d been grabbed, and he frantically rubbed over the spots.

Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.

Eventually, he managed to calm enough to make out voices, and he recognised one as Jake’s, followed by who he could now make out as Lee.

“-doesn’t like being touched. Don’t touch him, you’ll make it worse.”

“I have no idea how to help him if I can’t touch him. He can’t hear me until he calms, and I can’t help him calm unless I touch him.”

“Can he calm himself?”

“It depends whether he’s realised he’s having a panic attack. Most your age won’t be accustomed to them, and those that are normally have traumatic pasts or experiences.”

Michael took a deep breath, focusing on their voices. Breathe. One Mississippi, Two Mississippi.

He finally managed to calm enough to look up, and he sighed when he registered that the Ares camper wasn’t there anymore. He paused when he noticed Lee and Jake had both stopped talking to stare at him, then Lee groaned in exasperation.

“Really?! Now you claim him, when he’s having a panic attack?! What sort of sick-”

Michael faintly registered the words, then realised there was a soft golden glow illuminated above his head, and he looked up to see a large golden sun symbol floating above him, radiating light through the forest around them. Jake was gaping at him, while Lee seemed to be about ready to murder someone, scowling at the sky and ranting things about terrible timing and use that power to help him instead!

The glow slowly faded, and Jake was first to realise Michael had calmed down from his attack, quickly running over and flopping down beside him. “Hi! Are you okay?”

Lee paused, then walked over and joined them, crouching down in front of Michael and snapping his fingers to get Michael’s attention. “Michael. I need you to breathe.”

He rolled his eyes, hands still rubbing circles along his arms. “Lee, I know how to calm down from a panic attack. I’m good.”

Lee looked worried at that, gently sitting down in front of him. “Does that happen often?”

Michael shrugged. “Once a month or so.”

Lee paled, then quickly composed himself and smiled at Michael. “Alright. How are you feeling?”

Michael sighed. “Like shit.”

Jake snorted, and Lee smirked. “Fair. Uh...?” He gestured to Michael’s hands rubbing his arms, and Michael huffed.

“Hurts. Rubbing makes it feel better.”

Lee appeared to get more worried by that, for whatever reason, but pushed it to the side. “Okay. What else makes it feel better?”

“Uh, doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t matter?”

He shrugged again. “No need to be an inconvenience.”

Jake scoffed. “You just had a panic attack. Telling us what you need is hardly an inconvenience considering I was pretty sure you were about to die two minutes ago.”

“Ugh. Blanket, normally, but I’ll live.”

Lee raised an eyebrow. “What's the blanket for?”

Michael blushed slightly. “Hiding.”

“From?”

“Stuff.”

Jake hummed. “You can have my hoodie, if it’ll help? It will be a bit big on you, so it’s kinda like a blanket.” He tugged his hoodie off, offering it to Michael, who considered it for a moment, then nodded and took it, wriggling into the red fabric and humming happily when he was immediately much warmer. He felt safer, too, with his arms covered, and the hoodie smelled of smoke and bonfires, which was comforting. Perhaps Jake had worn it to campfire a few times. He sighed and slumped slightly, leaning on Jake’s shoulder without much thought, and both Jake and Lee looked surprised at first, then Jake carefully wrapped an arm around him.

They sat there for a while, as Michael let his heart rate climb down, then he paused, recalling something. “Hold on, did I imagine the glowing?”

Jake laughed and Lee smirked, shaking his head. “Nope. You got claimed.” He frowned, looking at the sky. “Would have been nice if he’d done it at a better time, though.”

Michael hardly registered the last bit, instead sat straight up and grinned. “I got claimed?!”

Lee laughed. “Yup. Welcome to the family, little brother.”

Michael beamed, punching his fist in the air in celebration. “Yes! I got claimed!”

Jake grinned. “No more sleeping on the Hermes cabin floor.”

“Nope. Thank fuck, I am sick of waking to people rummaging through my stuff.”

Lee snickered. “Yeah, that doesn’t happen so much in seven. Come on, let’s go get your stuff.” He stood, and Michael and Jake followed, the former slightly unsteady on his feet, but not too bad. Lee looked at him in mixed shock and amusement. “I have never seen someone recover from a panic attack so fast. Gods.”

Michael shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

“You do realise that’s not good, right?”

“Eh.”

Chapter Text

He’d moved into the Apollo cabin that very same evening, and instantly, everything was better. There were a few people, but nowhere near as many as in the Hermes cabin, and no one teased him about his height too much either, or acted like he wasn’t wanted. In fact, when Lee had walked through the door with him, there had instantly been whoops from his new siblings, all grinning at him. A lot of people claiming I knew it! and a bunch of smiles. Dan had quickly made a few arrangements inside the cabin after asking whether Michael wanted help with things or not (to which the answer had been a firm no) and he’d been given a small, light stool to use if he wanted to reach things in high up places, supposedly in the name of encouraging independence, which sounded like bullshit, but he’d take it. He had five new siblings in total: Dan, head counsellor and oldest at seventeen, Alice, who was second oldest at fifteen, Alex, who was fourteen, and finally Lee and Cleo, both twelve, but apparently Lee was slightly older. This instantly made Michael the baby of the cabin, which should really have got on his nerves, but he mostly just found it amusing because his siblings were all so nice and sincere about things that it ended up being funny.   

Mealtimes were interesting, because he was often encouraged to eat more, since he didn’t eat much, and his normal complaints of I’m not hungry were met with unimpressed stares. They usually had archery for two slots after breakfast, followed by lunch, then another parent-related activity such as music or healing before an extra-curricular activity like the climbing wall, then free time, dinner, and free time again. He appreciated the extra archery time, but was not happy when Alice plonked herself down next to him in the infirmary during healing, and asked him to sing. He looked at her, unimpressed, and she shrugged. “Sorry bud, but it’s a mandatory thing. Gotta know how strong your healing power is. You might now have any at all, but either way we gotta know because it’s useful. Trust me, I don’t like singing either, but we’re not allowed to skip on it.”  

He scowled. “I’m not singing.”  

“Why not?”  

“Don’t want to. I can’t sing, anyway. I’m terrible.”  

She raised an eyebrow. “I really doubt that. Come on, do you know any of the campfire songs?”  

He frowned. “Yeah.”  

“Do you sing along?”  

“No.”  

“Right. Do you know the lyrics?”  

Michael huffed. “No.”  

“Lie.” Alex called out from where he was reorganising the stock cupboard and turned, winking at Michael. “Truth powers from Dad. Wasn't listening to the first bit though, so you’ll have to repeat.”  

He frowned. “Uh, I’m good.” Alice looked at him expectantly and he shook his head, crossing his arms. “Nope. Not singing.”  

“Why not? What if we sing with you?” She offered, and saw him hesitate at the request, so she turned to yell at Lee. “Lee! Guitar please!”  

Lee grinned, dashing into the office and returning with a guitar, brightly painted with grapevines and smiley suns curving around the soundhole. He smiled, flopping down on the bed next to Michael. “What are we singing?”  

Michael scowled. “We’re not. Alice is trying to use sorcery to make me sing.”  

Alice just grinned. “Campfire song number twenty-eight. You know the one I’m talking about.”  

Lee smirked, his fingers dancing over his guitar strings rhythmically as he started the tune to one of the more popular campfire songs. Alex had told Michael that Lee was a rare ‘all-rounder’ child, where he was excellent at all three of their dad’s main gifts: music, archery and healing. Michael had to admit that he was the sort of person who seemed like he could do anything if he put his mind to it.   

As the tune echoed through the infirmary, Cleo grinned and started singing the lyrics, closely followed by Alex, then Lee, Alice and Dan. They all smiled at looked at him expectantly, until Michael sighed and joined in, singing quietly under his breath. Alice gestured for him to get louder, and he glared at her, but did as asked. When his voice reached the same volume as his siblings’, they all turned to stare at him incredulously, and he frowned, but kept singing. Was his singing really that bad? He’d never sung much, definitely not for a good few years aside from the occasional bit of humming, so he had no idea. As they finished the song Alice stared at him, then whistled and grinned, slapping her thighs and getting up off the bed.  

“Apollo almighty, you talk some bullshit!” She laughed, ignoring Dan’s yell of language! “How in the world is that terrible? Bud, you might not have much healing power there, but holy hell can you sing. You should have been doing campfire singalongs long ago.”  

He scowled, cheeks faintly pink. “I don’t want to sing at singalong.”  

“Why not?” Cleo hummed, straightening a bedsheet. “You’re amazing.”  

“It’s big. And embarrassing.”  

Lee shrugged. “We’d be right there with you.”   

Dan smiled. “Just think about it, yeah? You don’t have to, but we’d love it if you did.” Alex nodded.  

“Yup. It’s fun when you get used to it. A little scary at first, but everyone gets stage fright sometimes.”  

Michael huffed. “No thanks.”  

“Alright, buddy. Whatever you say.”  

A sudden knock at the infirmary door came, and Michael looked up to see a blonde boy with violet eyes peering in at them and smiling, his eyes fixed on Lee in particular. He waved at them all. “Hey.”  

Alex grinned, beckoning the guy in. “Castor! Come in, dude, come in! Hey, you haven’t met Michael yet, have you?” He gestured to Michael, who scowled at Castor suspiciously. Castor just smiled and waved.   

“Hi! I’m Castor. Cas is fine.”   

Michael nodded. “Michael. No nicknames, thanks.”   

Cleo perked up at that. “Ooh, not a nickname guy?”  

He scowled. “No. Nothing to do with my name, at least.”  

“Alrighty.” Dan hummed. “Cas, hurry up and drag Lee out of here, I know you want to.”  

Both Lee and Castor suddenly blushed, much to Michael’s amusement, then Castor grinned and quickly grabbed Lee’s hand, pulling him out of the infirmary, both giggling. The door slammed shut behind them and Alice sighed heavily. “They’re so obvious.”  

Alex snorted as Cleo snickered. “Oh, just a bit. Dan’ll be giving them the chat about condoms in no time.”  

“Alex!” Dan scolded, and Michael snickered, much to the confusion of Cleo, who looked at him.  

“Hold on, do you know what a condom is?”  

He shrugged. “Yeah?”   

“And what it’s used for?”  

“Uh, yes?”  

Alice hummed. “That’s concerning. You’re nine, and you know about sex.”  

“Yippee.” Alex said dryly. “At least we don’t need to have that conversation with you. Back to Lee and Cas, though, because I swear , what are they doing ? Lee needs to get a grip soon or I’m intervening.”  

“No, you’re not.” Alice frowned. “Let them figure it out.”  

Michael hummed. “I’m guessing the blushing is a regular with those two?” Cleo nodded, sighing in exasperation.  

“It’s driving me insane. They’re so freaking hopeless it’s sad.” She suddenly seemed to remember something and looked at Michael again. “Speaking of, I have no idea how much you know about the LGBTQ community, but it’s widely accepted at camp, and if you have any questions-”  

Michael snorted. “Save the chat, I had a friend who was gay and it’s cool, don’t worry.”  

Alice smiled at that. “Alright. And if you decide you’re gay, then I want you to know that we will always support you and you don’t need to worry about any of-”  

“If you give me a pep talk, I will hit you. Like, thanks, but no.”   

Dan snickered. “You heard him. Back off, Lizzy.”  

“Shut it, Daniel.”  

“Ooh, low blow, pulling the full name on me?”  

“Shut up.”  

Chapter Text

“Happy Birthday!”  

Michael jumped when he slowly sat up in bed and was immediately accosted by his siblings, all grinning. Cleo was twirling around the cabin, Alex was hanging upside-down off his bed, Lee had flopped down next to him, and Alice and Dan were sat on their bunks and smiling at him. They all randomly burst into a round of ‘Happy Birthday’ and Michael stared at them as they all finished, completely and utterly perplexed.   

“I... How did you- Oh.” He recalled telling Jake his birthday by the archery range and realised the son of Hephaestus had probably told his siblings about his birthday. “I’m going to kill him.”  

Alex snickered and Dan raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Why?”  

“Because I told him I don’t celebrate.”  

“Well, apparently you also told him that you wanted to celebrate but just never did. So, we said screw it and we’re celebrating, yeah?” Alice grinned, and Michael considered this for a minute, then smiled slightly.  

“Okay.”  

Cleo grinned at that and skipped over, plopping a strangely shaped object covered in paper. “Happy Birthday! That one’s from me.”  

He looked at it for a moment, then at Cleo in confusion. “What do I do with it?”  

Lee looked taken aback. “Uh, you open it. It’s a present.”  

Michael frowned. “But how? There’s no, like, opening thing.” He carefully picked it up and turned it over, nodding along with his assessment. There were just bits of tape stuck on the paper, nowhere to open it. His siblings stared at him.   

“Have you never had a present before?” Alice asked, and Michael paused, then shook his head.  

“My brother gave me a bracelet once, but that wasn’t covered in paper.”  

“But, like, you’ve never had an actual present before?” Alex slid off his bed, perching next to Dan on the one below. “Like, wrapped or given by someone other than your brother?”  

Michael shook his head, and Dan frowned. “Not even for Christmas?”  

He looked at them in confusion. “What’s Christmas?”  

Cleo gasped dramatically, and Michael frowned as she worriedly sat next to him. “You don’t know what Christmas is?!”  

“No?”  

“Is your family religious?” Lee hummed, and Michael shook his head again.  

“Not really. She had a statue of- Oh. Yeah, she had a statue of Apollo in the hallway, but she never worshipped it or anything. I should really have figured out he was my dad from that, to be honest.”  

“She?” Dan asked, and Michael unconsciously grimaced.  

“My mom.”  

“Right. Let’s go back to that later, yeah?”  

“Yeah.” Alice nodded, then smiled at him. “Anyway, with a present, you have to rip the paper to open it.”  

Michael frowned. “But the paper’s pretty.”  

Cleo laughed at that. “Thanks bud, but there’s no other way to get in. Go on, open it.”  

Michael hummed to himself, then carefully ripped open the paper, which was actually quite fun. It made a nice sound when it ripped. When he opened it however, he gasped. “A penguin?”  

Cleo grinned. “I thought you might like it. He’s quite heavy because he’s filled with beans so he’s like a hot water bottle, but I think you’ll manage. Don’t throw it if possible.”  

Michael beamed, picking up the penguin and hugging it. He’d never had a stuffed animal before, and the penguin was really cute. He instantly turned to hug Cleo instead. “Thank you!”  

She paused for a moment, then carefully hugged him back, smiling. “Anytime, bud.”   

The hug didn’t hurt too much because he’d been the one to touch someone else, not someone else touch him, so he followed every present with a hug to whichever sibling had given him one, constantly surprised that he was getting presents. Lee gave him a quiver full of arrows, Alice had given him some new throwing knives, Dan gave him some climbing chalk since he’d been up and down trees and the climbing wall at every opportunity, and Alex had given him a few rolls of string for re-stringing his bow, plus a small guitar. Michael had looked at him in confusion, and the older boy just winked.   

“I have a feeling. Trust me.”  

He didn’t question it too much, too happy and bouncy to be confused, and they had all laughed and smiled at his ‘happy aura’ since he never smiled a lot. More frowning and scowling, normally.   

He’d been stopped in his tracks after breakfast before archery by Jake, and his siblings had all grinned and ran ahead, leaving him with the son of Hephaestus. He raised an eyebrow at the other boy and Jake grinned, offering him a bow. “Happy Birthday! I didn’t wrap it because it was obvious either way, sorry.”  

Michael stared at him. “You got me something too?” Jake smiled, nodding.  

“Yup.”  

“Why?”  

“Because you’re my best friend, dummy. That’s what you do for your friends.”  

“Oh.” Michael smiled, but internally he was screaming. I have a best friend! I have a best friend! He’d never had a proper friend before, let alone a best friend, since everyone at school thought he was super weird and made fun of him being short. Jake just grinned, offering him the bow, and Michael looked at it for a moment, then carefully took the weapon, grinning when he realised it was perfectly fit to his height, and better weighted than the kid bows, so it was like a proper bow, just smaller. Jake was rambling on about something to do with how he –had to get the measurements and stuff from Lee and I’m hoping it’s correctly balanced because it can be a bit off sometimes, but Beck assured me I’d done it right, but I’m not completely sure, so-   

Michael cut him off by flinging his arms around the other boy happily. Jake squeaked in surprise, but quickly laughed and hugged him back, wrapping his arms around Michael’s waist as the smaller boy grinned. “Thank you!”  

Jake laughed, carefully letting go and grinning when Michael happily bounced around with the bow, smiling. “No problem.”   

Michael quickly said goodbye, excited to go try it out, and Jake just laughed again at his quick departure to the range, smiling and waving at him as he ran off. His siblings grinned at him as he entered, and Alice smirked, leaning against one of the targets and pointing to his new bow. “What’s that, bud?” Michael grinned.  

“Jake made me a bow! I don’t have to use the kid ones!”  

Dan chuckled and Cleo laughed, gesturing for him to try it out. “Go on. Give it a shot.”  

Straight bullseye. Again, and again, and again.  

It was safe to say that bow quickly became Michael’s most prized possession.   

Chapter Text

Michael hated the Ares cabin. It was official.  

They’d been bearable at first, but this was getting ridiculous. He was constantly plagued by short jokes and teasing comments, and they seemed to take great pleasure in how fast he could switch into a temper. Clarisse, a burly twelve-year-old girl, was particularly getting on his nerves. She just didn’t know when to quit.  

He’d managed to bump into her on his way to the climbing wall, and today seemed no different in terms of their usual bantering matches. She’d commented on how aren’t you too short to climb, you fucking toddler , and Michael had not found this massively amusing. Now, they were yelling at each other near the climbing wall, and he could see out the corner of his eye that Dan had spotted them and was sprinting over, likely to break up the argument. That would have been fine, until Clarisse made a particularly rude and childish remark, and he snorted. “What are you, five?”  

“Yeah, five heads taller than you.” She snapped back, and Michael growled.  

“Fine. I’ll give you to the count of five.”  

The daughter of Ares scoffed. “Like you could take me dow-”  

He was pretty sure they heard the screams from the canoe lake. He kicked her in the crotch and punched her in the stomach, and when she doubled over, he snapped his bowstring across her collarbone. Clarisse shrieked, punching him, but he dodged and ran around the back, kicking her in the back of her knees. They continued to scrap for the next few minutes, until Clarisse was grabbed by Dan and pulled away from him, and the older son of Apollo looked at him sternly. “Michael. Pack it in.”  

He looked at his brother for a moment, then realised that Dan was giving him an opportunity to show he didn’t need to be physically restrained, because they’d all figured out that he wasn’t a massive fan of physical touch. He took a deep breath, then flipped the daughter of Ares off and marched away, towards the climbing wall. He smirked as he heard Clarisse shouting obscenities behind him, quickly followed by Dan asking her if she had really just picked a fight with a ten-year-old half her height and almost lost.   

Cleo grinned at him as he walked over, and Alice chuckled, clearly having watched the whole thing. Alex whistled, shaking his head and smirking. “La Rue really just got beat up by a ten-year-old, didn’t she?”   

Lee, who was up on the climbing wall, called down to them. “Did he actually beat her up?”  

“Pretty close! You heard her shrieking.” Cleo snickered. “My little brother beat up one of the nastiest Ares kids in town. What the fuck are you on?”  

“Language!”  

“You’re twelve, Lee, don’t act like my mom!”  

“Shut up!” The son of Apollo kept climbing, and Cleo rolled her eyes, swinging herself up onto the wall below him and scrambling up the wall.  

“I’ll shut up if you beat me to the top!”  

“Oh, you’re so dead!”  

Alex smirked as he watched them. “Dummies. What did Clarisse do, anyway?”  

Michael shrugged, chalking up his hands so he could swing from handhold to handhold. “Being a bitch. Said I’m too short to climb.”  

Alice snorted. “Has she seen you? Bud, pay her no attention. She’s just looking to start a fight.”  

“Well, I’d appreciate it if she fucked off sometime soon.” He huffed. “She just can’t shut her mouth.”  

“Mhm.” Alex nodded, then gestured to the wall. Lee and Cleo had reached the top, and by the looks of it, Lee had won, because Cleo looked rather subdued as she slapped him silently. “You going?”  

Michael hummed. “Why not?” He walked up to the wall and jumped up to grab the first handhold, frowning as he missed. He tried again, also missing. He tried a different one further along the wall, but again, couldn’t reach. He looked back in frustration at Alex and Alice, who were both biting their tongues to keep from laughing. “Did the wall grow?”  

Dan chuckled, walking over and smirking. “Possibly. There had been complaints from the Ares cabin that the wall was too easy, so Chiron did some sort of enchantment to make the handholds a bit further apart.”  

Michael stared at him, internally raging. The Ares kids made the wall harder? “You’re kidding. I can barely reach them anyway!”  

“You can always ask for help if you want, bud.” Alice offered. “I know you don’t like to, but it’s no problem.”  

He scowled, then looked up at the wall, walking along it until he found a decent path that he would be able to handle with only slight difficulty. The only problem was that said path started way too far off the ground for him to reach. He huffed, glaring at it, then reluctantly looked back at his siblings, who were all smiling at him. Michael sighed.   

“Can you please lift me up?” He grumbled, and Alice grinned, walking over and gently picking him up by his waist, lifting him up so he could grab the first handhold. She quickly let go once he was stable, and he scrambled up the wall a bit, then sighed. “Thanks.”  

“Anytime, bud. No problem with asking.”  

“Hmph.”  

He did manage the wall in the end, but denied asking for help vehemently. Alice just laughed.   

Chapter Text

Canoe races were officially one of the best things ever, right up there with archery.  

He hadn’t quite got the idea when Lee had explained it to him, but he said that he’d try it, and now he was walking to the lake with Lee, to participate in a canoe race with Jake and his brother, one of Lee’s friends named Beckendorf. Well, apparently his actually name was Charles, but everyone called him Beckendorf, and Lee always referred to him as Beck.   

They were already there when Michael and Lee got there, and Jake grinned when he spotted Michael, waving. Michael waved back, wandering over to stand by the son of Hephaestus, and looked at Beckendorf. He was a big guy, even at thirteen, with chocolate brown skin and a satchel slung across his shoulder. He grinned when he saw Lee, giving the other boy a hug, then turned to Michael and smiled. “Hey, you must be Michael! I’m Beckendorf. Beck’s fine.”  

He offered a handshake, but Michael declined. “Michael.”  

Beckendorf didn’t seem too put out over no handshake, and instead just smiled, then nudged Jake. “Have you met Lee?”  

Jake shrugged, looking at the older son of Apollo. “Sorta. Michael talks about you a lot.”  

Lee grinned at that, and Michael coughed awkwardly, avoiding his brother’s eyes. “All good things?”  

“The best. Apparently, you’re his favourite brother.”  

Michael groaned. “Jake!” Jake just laughed and Lee beamed, ruffling Michael’s hair teasingly, an action Michael had got used to after all the times Cleo kept doing it. He didn’t mind it too much.  

“Thanks bud. Love you too.”  

Michael blushed in embarrassment, then spotted some canoes and pointed at them, attempting to find another topic of conversation. “Are those the canoes?”  

Beckendorf smiled. “Yup. Lee, what are we thinking team-wise?”  

The son of Apollo hummed. “Siblings, then age groups?”  

Michael snorted. “You’re making that sound so professional. Brothers, then buddies.”  

“Alice has had way too much of an effect on you. Since when did you say buddies? ”  

He grinned. “Alice told me to.”  

Lee sighed heavily. “Of course she did. I hate our family.”  

“No, you don’t.” Beckendorf grinned, poking the son of Apollo. “All you can ever talk about it how amazing all your siblings are. Or how wonderful Cas is.”  

Lee blushed at that and Michael groaned, pointing an accusing finger at his brother while Jake laughed. “Gods, don’t get me started on him and Cas! I’ve barely been here a month and a half and I can already tell they’re hopeless as fuck!”  

“Language!”  

“Lee, he has a point.”  

“They keep walking in together, flopping down on Lee’s bed and giggling as they chatter and play cards, and they fall asleep next to each other and cuddle up!”  

“We’ve been friends since we were six, it’s normal!”  

“It’s so bad! You blush like a fucking tomato!”  

“Language!”  

Jake was in fits of laughter and Beckendorf was snickering, patting Lee on the head sympathetically. “There, there. He’s just as hopeless, don’t worry.”  

“Beck! You’re not helping!”  

Beckendorf just grinned, grabbing Jake and making a run for the boats. “See ya on the water, sunny!”  

Lee groaned and Michael snickered, running after them and grabbing an orange boat. “Lee, we’re orange!”  

“Alright!”  

Jake grinned and climbed into a red boat with Beckendorf, and they set off, racing for the other side of the lake. Michael and Lee jumped in the orange one and followed them, attempting to catch up on their head start. Lee leaned forwards to whisper in his ear as they approached them.   

“When we get alongside them, shove your oar under the boat and flip them.”  

He turned around to look at his brother, and Lee winked. Michael smirked, and once they were alongside the other two, he copied Lee and dug his oar under their boat, flipping them. Both sons of Hephaestus shrieked as they fell into the water, and Michael snickered as Lee laughed, speeding on to the shoreline.  

“Cheaters!” Beckendorf called, but he was laughing, and Michael smirked, flipping him off as they reached the shore. Lee didn’t even reprimand him; he was laughing too hard.   

Eventually, Jake and Beckendorf got back in their boat and paddled back to shore, both soaking wet, and Lee smirked at them. Beckendorf rolled his eyes, and Jake huffed, attempting to shake the water out of his hair. Michael snickered at him and he flicked water at the son of Apollo, which made Michael squeak and Jake grin. Lee snickered and Beckendorf sighed, then shoved his brother over to Michael.   

“I’m taking Lee this time, and we’re kicking your backsides.”  

“Sure, Beck.” Jake grinned, and Michael smirked, climbing into the orange boat again and rolling his eyes as the boat became quite wet when Jake sat behind him. “You’re getting water everywhere!”  

“Because you dumped me in a lake!”  

“Ugh.” He huffed and Jake snickered, then they were off again, racing Lee and Beckendorf back to the other shoreline. They made it about halfway before the other boat came up alongside them, and Michael saw Lee’s oar coming in to flip them just a second too late. He and Jake tumbled into the water, spluttering, and Beckendorf laughed as they passed. Michael smirked and quickly swam after them, pulling himself up and pushing all of his (rather small amount of) weight down on one side of the boat, so that Lee and Beckendorf fell out of their canoe as well. Jake laughed behind him, pulling himself back up into their boat, and quickly paddled up alongside Michael, offering the other boy a hand up into the canoe. Michael accepted, letting Jake pull him up into the boat, and quickly grabbed one of the other pair’s paddles, shoving it in the bottom of their boat as they sped away, back to shore. He heard Lee yell his name behind him, but he just snickered and kept going, Jake laughing uncontrollably behind him.  

“You are brutal, you know that?”  

He shrugged, grinning. “There was no way I was letting Lee get away free.”  

Jake just snickered, and they reached the shore first, getting out, sitting next to each other and snickering as they watched Beckendorf and Lee attempt to make it to shore with a single paddle. Eventually, they managed, and Michael smiled innocently as his brother glared at him. “Cheater.”  

“Oh, it was all your idea.” He shrugged. “You said flip the boat, so I flipped the boat.”  

“I said that last round!”  

He grinned, nodding. “And I applied that knowledge forwards.”  

Jake snickered, nodding along with him, and Beckendorf smirked, then pointed to the lake. “Anyone fancy a quick swim?”  

“Can I jump off the dock?” Michael asked, and Lee hummed, then shrugged.  

“Sure.”  

“Yes!” He quickly got up, running over to the dock, and cannon-balled off the end. Jake laughed and jumped in after him, and Beckendorf and Lee joined, snickering as they pushed each other around, jokingly trying to drown each other. Michael smirked and Jake grinned, splashing the son of Apollo with water, which quickly encouraged a group-wide splash fight, and Michael smiled. Camp really wasn’t as bad as he’d first thought.   

Chapter Text

“What do you mean I have to do schoolwork?” 

Dan winced, fiddling with his leather bracelet, and Alex laughed from where he was reluctantly sat with a large textbook. “Yeah, that’s what I said too, bud. Not much fun, is it?” 

Michael scowled. “I don’t want to do schoolwork.” 

Dan hummed. “Well, you’re staying year-round, and normally summer campers go to school during the year, but you won’t, so you need a home education instead. I’ve got some textbooks and stuff, and we do a little group study session together in the evenings.” 

“Do I have to?” 

“Yes. We just do Math, English, Science and Latin, so it’s not too bad. Anything else you want to learn you can just ask.” 

“Ugh.” He groaned, and Alice chuckled, beckoning him over.  

“Come on bud, I’ll help you out if you want. And if we’re really nice, Dan lets us play music through Lee’s iPod sometimes.” 

Cleo snorted, chewing on a pencil as she thumbed through a biology book. “Even if it is just sappy love songs because Lee’s hopeless.” 

“Oh, come on, I am not!” 

Michael snickered slightly, then sighed and took the four textbooks Dan was offering him, before walking over and flopping down between Alice and Cleo. Alice smiled and pointed to the books, explaining how they were kind of interactive, with little question sheets that you had to answer after you studied a few pages, and Michael groaned, but tried anyway. He soon came to a stop when he realised his dyslexia was acting up, and he had no idea what the English book said. He huffed and hummed over it for a minute, then sighed and pushed it away, crossing his arms. “Can’t do it.” 

Cleo raised an eyebrow. “Why not?” 

“Can’t read it. My dyslexia makes the letters do cartwheels.” He grumbled, and Lee chuckled. 

“Yeah, fair enough. Got it bad?” 

“It sucks. I can’t read shit.” 

“Language! Gods, why does a ten-year-old swear so much?” Dan complained. 

Michael stuck his tongue out at his head counsellor, and Alice smirked, then pulled the book back and nodded at it. “Which bit are you trying to read?” 

He pointed to the line. “That bit. It’s just gibberish.” 

“Hm.” She looked at him for a minute, then offered him her hand. “Would you hold my hand for a sec?” 

He glared at her suspiciously. “Why?” 

“Because I’m gonna figure out how bad your dyslexia is. If it’s too bad we can get you books that write in Greek instead.” She smiled, and Michael huffed, but took her hand, watching as a golden glow flew up his arm. He’d seen Lee and Dan do the same thing on many occasions to heal people, and it was over quickly. Alice took her hand back, wincing. “Yeah, that’s not great. Definitely worse than most of us. Alex, what did we do for you?” 

Alex looked up from his book at that, grimacing. “It’s as bad as mine?” 

“Worse.” 

“Shit, bud, I feel you.” 

“Language!”  

“Dan, I’m fourteen.” 

“Michael’s ten.” 

“Michael swears more than I do!” 

“Irrelevant.” 

“Ugh.” He huffed, then looked back at Michael and smiled, patting the bed next to him. “C’mere, let me show you my hacks for reading English. I can’t read either, the letters like doing the cha-cha-cha backwards.” 

Cleo rolled her eyes at that. “Dramatic.” 

“Hey, to be fair, they do a good cha-cha-cha. Better than you.” 

“It was one time!” 

“I almost filmed it.” Lee snickered, and Cleo huffed. Michael sighed, getting up and wandering over to sit beside his brother. Alex smiled. 

“Right, so the first step to reading like a normal human being is...” 

Ten minutes later, Michael had thrown his book across the room twice, and had resorted to hanging upside down from Alex’s bunk with his arms crossed in order to avoid schoolwork. Dan wasn’t happy. 

Chapter Text

“Lee, where can I get paper?”  

Michael poked his brother from his seat on the infirmary desk. The older son of Apollo turned around to look at him in confusion.  

“Why do you need it?”  

He shrugged. “I want to write a letter.”  

“Who to? Your mom?” Lee frowned, and Michael scowled.  

“No. My brother.”  

“How old’s your brother?”  

“Six. Seven next week, so I want to send him something.”  

“Right. Do you know your address?”  

“I know the address where he will get it.” He hummed. “I’m not sending it home.”  

Lee raised an eyebrow, momentarily abandoning his guitar and placing it on the infirmary desk beside him. “Why not?”   

Michael frowned. “Because my mom will get it if I send it home.”  

“And that’s bad?”  

“Uh, it’s for him. Not my mom.”  

“Do you want to send your mom one?”  

“No.”  

“Okay. Any reason?” Lee looked at him with concern barely masked by a cheerful smile, and Michael huffed, crossing his arms. His brother sighed, tapping his fingers in his guitar rhythmically as he spoke. “Michael, how did you end up at camp?”  

Michael frowned. “A satyr brought me here.”  

“Yes, but where were you before that?”  

He scowled. “Doesn’t matter.”  

Lee sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Michael, does your mom know you’re here?”  

He froze.  

No. She won’t care.  

“Uh...”  

Lee continued. “Right. So, why don’t I tell you a story, yeah?” Michael didn’t protest, so he kept talking. “You know I came to camp when I was six, and the reason I came to camp so young was because my mother was not a very nice person to me, because I was gay, and she never saw Apollo again after she got pregnant with me, so it was a one-night stand. My mom is Catholic, and things like being gay and having a child out of wedlock are very frowned upon by her Catholic church, so my mother greatly disliked me for the fact that I ruined her reputation. As such, she preferred my little sister, whose father she married and became my stepdad, and I wasn’t massively involved in many family activities or anything to do with any of them if my mom could help it, since she didn’t like me. Because of this, I was ditched on the side of a road when I was six, where a satyr found me and brought me to camp.”  

He took a deep breath, and Michael stared at his brother. He hadn’t expected that.  

“So, what I’m trying to say is that if you have a great dislike for your mom because she hasn’t been very nice to you, then I get it, and you can absolutely tell me anything, because I’ll understand.” He hummed. “Now, why don’t we try again? Does your mom know you’re here?”  

Michael sighed, looking down and fiddling with his hands. “No.”  

“Where were you when your satyr found you?”  

“...On the streets in our city.”  

Lee just nodded, like he’d expected this. “How long had you been there before you were found?”  

Michael sighed heavily. “A week? Maybe more.”  

“Alright. Did you run away?”  

He hesitated, then sighed again and nodded. “Yeah.”  

“Okay, that’s fine. Why did you run away?”  

Michael stopped there, finding that he couldn’t answer the question. He choked on his words for a moment, then shook his head miserably. Lee furrowed his brow.   

“Don’t want to say?”  

“Can’t.” He mumbled out, turning away and stubbornly wiping away the tears that had formed on his face.   

Don’t show weakness, honey. Doesn’t look good in front of the guests.   

Lee hummed quietly. “Okay. Would you like to tell me sometime?”  

Michael shook his head.  

“Alright. Do you want to talk about it at all?”  

A part of him screamed yes, tell someone, tell someone please , but he shook his head again. “No.”  

“Okay. Last question, is your brother in danger there?”  

Michael shook his head vehemently. The reason he’d left was so that Jasper would be okay. “No. I was the problem.”  

“You’re not a problem, Michael.”  

He shrugged at that, feeling a bit too overwhelmed to protest too hard. Lee sighed heavily, then gently ruffled his hair.   

“You can always tell me if you want, yeah? It’s no problem, and I’m always happy to listen. In fact, I’d prefer it if you did tell me than hold it in. You can tell anyone in our cabin, they’ll all get it.”  

Michael shook his head. Telling Lee was a stretch, let alone another one of his siblings. He loved them, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to share that part of himself. Instead, he looked at Lee. “Can I write that letter now?”  

Lee chuckled slightly. “If you promise to open up to someone at some point.”  

He sighed, but nodded, and Lee walked over to the storage cabinets in the office, returning with a piece of paper, a stamped envelope, and a pen. Michael took them gratefully, and quickly started writing. Lee hummed and went back to his guitar, but looked up after a moment.  

“What are those symbols?”  

He shrugged. “Code. Jasp made it with me when I was eight.”  

“You... used a secret code?”  

“Mhm.” He nodded, and Lee looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t in the end, and instead watched as Michael slipped a bead bracelet into the envelope, before sealing it and writing the secret address on the front. He gave it to Lee. “Will it get to him?”  

Lee nodded. “Yup, I’ll sort it, don’t worry. Do you want to send letters a lot?”  

He shrugged. “Every couple of months or so?”  

“Alright. When you’re a bit older I’ll teach you how to do it, yeah?”   

Michael smiled slightly. “Okay.”  

“Cool.”  

They sat there for a while, Michael doodling on the back of his hand with the pen, while Lee played his guitar. Eventually, Michael spoke up.   

“Do you think about her a lot?”  

Lee hummed. “Who?”  

“Your mom.”  

“Oh.” He shrugged, and a voice suddenly came from the doorway.  

“Hopefully not.”  

They both turned and spotted Castor leaning in the doorway to the infirmary, frowning. Lee grinned when he saw him, beckoning his friend over. “Hey, Cas. What’s up?”  

The son of Dionysus shrugged, pointing to his arm, which was covered in burns. “Climbing wall. What’s all this about moms?”  

Lee just hummed, gently taking the other boy’s arm when he sat down beside him and examining the burns. “Me and Michael were just having a chat.” He started a healing hymn and Castor stared at the other boy as Lee sang, absolutely mesmerised by the son of Apollo. Michael snorted, watching them in amusement as Castor slowly blushed a bright shade of red, closely followed by Lee as the other boy looked up and spotted Castor’s blush, staring in wonder before snapping out of it and blushing, embarrassed. Michael felt like he was getting a migraine just watching them. He quickly stood and grabbed his bow off the desk, hurrying out the door. “I’m going to go find Jake! See ya, lovebirds!”  

He heard stuttering behind him and smirked, running out the door before Lee could call him back and yell at him. Once he was outside he paused, considering where the son of Hephaestus would be. Jake was normally in his cabin... or at the forge. He guessed likely the forge, and made his way through camp towards it. He hadn’t visited the forge since Jake’s claiming, but he sometimes passed it on his way to places, and there was always the smell of smoke and sounds of clanging of metal coming from inside. He also hadn’t been in the forge when it was just the Hephaestus cabin in there, and it was massively different to when there were other cabins in there with them for the occasional extra activity. For one, it was much louder, and as he poked his head inside, he was almost knocked over by the pure noise radiating from the place. The building must have noise cancelling walls, because the sound of crashing metal and shouting was deafening.  

He soon spotted Jake, stood at a workbench in the far corner near Beckendorf. The son of Hephaestus looked right at home, yelling along with his siblings and occasionally chucking spanners back and forth with one of his sisters. There were five of them in there, but the forge was so chaotic you could have mistaken them for more than that, and Michael had to duck and dodge his way past burning chunks of lava and flying tools to make it to his friend’s bench. Jake didn’t notice him until Michael tapped him on the shoulder, and the son of Hephaestus yelped, quickly turning around, a hammer still in hand. Had Michael been taller, he would have whacked the son of Apollo in the head with the tool, but instead Michael just crossed his arms and looked at the other boy, unimpressed. Jake paused when noticed it was Michael, then put the hammer down sheepishly and quickly led Michael out a side door near his bench.  

“Hi, sorry.” He said, running his fingers through his hair and smiling at him once they were outside. “Fire exit.” He explained when Michael raised an eyebrow at the door. The son of Apollo hummed.  

“Fair enough. I imagine you’d need it in there.”  

Jake laughed softly. “Yeah, you could say that. What’s up, you never to come to the forge?”  

He shrugged, leaning against the nearest tree trunk. “I’m bored and Lee and Cas are flirting in the infirmary, so I’m skipping infirmary duty.”  

Jake snickered. “Not like you enjoy it anyway.”  

Michael rolled his eyes. “Shut up.” They had quickly discovered that Michael was absolutely hopeless at healing, and therefore infirmary duty became an absolute chore at the best of times. Jake loved teasing him about this, but the other boy’s comments didn’t seem to get on his nerves too much, for whatever reason, so he let it slide.  

Jake just smirked, then looked back at the forge. “I mean, you’re welcome to hang around, but it’s quite loud and I won’t be able to talk to you easily. Also, you might have to watch you don’t get burnt.”  

The son of Apollo hummed, then made his mind up and skipped back inside the forge. Jake laughed and followed him, smirking when he noticed Michael had hopped up to perch cross-legged on the corner of his bench. Hannah, the Hephaestus head counsellor, spotted him and grinned, waving. Michael looked at her in confusion, since he didn’t know her very well, but waved back, wincing when a sudden loud bang echoed through the forge. Jake’s older sister smiled, then grabbed a box from a drawer in her bench and a piece of paper, writing something on it, slipping the note inside, and throwing the box at Jake. Jake caught it and opened the box, peering at the contents in confusion, then read the note and grinned, nodding. He gave the box and note to Michael, who frowned, but took it and peered at the note. He had to read it a few times for his dyslexia to stop mixing up the words, but eventually, he got it.   

Apollo kids have sensitive ears. I give Alice a pair of these whenever she visits.  

The box contained a pair of ear defenders, and Michael smiled, quickly putting them on and relaxing when the noises in the forge dulled. Jake grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up, and Michael returned the action back, then smiled at Hannah. She grinned and nodded, then turned back to her project, and Michael hummed happily, sitting and watching Jake work on creating an axe out of a clump of celestial bronze. It was surprisingly interesting, and he soon found that he’d accidentally spent the entire afternoon in the forge when Alice came rushing in worriedly at one point, instantly relaxing when she spotted him, then pointed at him accusingly. Michael quickly raised his hands in surrender, assuming they’d been looking for him, and Alice rolled her eyes, calmly walking through the chaos towards him. She stopped at Hannah’s bench, pressing a quick kiss to the daughter of Hephaestus’ cheek, which made Michael pause, and Hannah laughed, saying something to the daughter of Apollo that he didn’t catch.   

Alice walked over to Michael next, stopping in front of Jake’s bench and placing her hands on her hips, looking at him expectantly. He could see Jake snickering out of the corner of his eye, and he slapped the son of Hephaestus lightly, then shrugged as his sister glared at him. She sighed, gesturing for him to get down and come with her.  Michael took his ear defenders off and put them back in their box, but crossed his arms stubbornly and stayed sat on the desk. Alice pointed at him, her expression saying ‘ get down right now, you little shit’ and he smirked, shaking his head. Alice huffed, then gently grabbed the back of his collar and carefully pulled him off the bench. Michael just sat on the floor, grinning up at his sister, and she sighed, grabbing the back of his collar again and gently tugging him out. He’d become used to being dragged around like this, since he didn’t make too much of a fuss because it was funny and they weren’t actually touching him, just his shirt, so he smiled cheerfully and waved at Jake as he was dragged backwards through the forge. Jake was in fits of laughter watching him, and he winked, then smiled when they passed Hannah, giving the older girl a thumbs up. She smirked, yelling at him.  

“You’re welcome anytime! Bring your sister!”  

Alice rolled her eyes and dragged him out, much to the rest of the forges’ amusement as Michael smiled and cheerfully waved at them all when he passed, grinning as he spotted Jake laughing uncontrollably by his workbench. He’d have to visit the forge more often.  

Chapter Text

Michael had resorted to spending much more time with Jake than he’d ever thought he would. The other boy was pretty funny at times, and always nice to him, so they’d bonded quite fast, and whenever he needed an escape from whatever was rolling through his mind, he’d walk to the forge and come in through the fire exit, right by Jake’s workbench. Apparently, he had the bench closest to the exit because he was the youngest, and therefore Hannah wanted him to be the first out in case of a dangerous fire, and Michael wasn’t complaining because it meant he didn’t have to dodge exploding inventions and burning metal to get to the son of Hephaestus. Jake had also given him his own pair of ear defenders, so he didn’t have to worry about the noise either, and it had become his safe space, since no one could talk to him even if they wanted to, and none of the Hephaestus children minded him being there. He and Jake had started communicating through expressions and hand gestures, too, which was fun.  

Today, he had dragged the son of Hephaestus out to walk with him through the trees, just because, and Jake was in the middle of rambling on about how two of his siblings had been having a sibling scrap in the middle of their cabin earlier, when Michael suddenly spotted a group of familiar faces through the trees up ahead. Lee, Alice and Cleo, plus Hannah and Beckendorf from Jake’s cabin were all gathered around something nearby, and both boys looked at each other in confusion, then ran over to see what was happening. Michael stopped when he noticed what they were all looking at, his mood switching from confused to ecstatic in a split second.  

“Oh my gods, is that a cat?!” He squeaked, beaming, and Jake stared at him as he bounced up and down on the spot, grinning and looking at the tiny tabby cat growling at them in front of the group. Lee looked at him in confusion, whereas Cleo and Alice just gaped at him.  

“Uh, yeah, it is. We’re not sure how it got through, but he’s been biting and- Michael, what are you doing?”   

Michael had walked over and flopped down next to the cat, holding a hand out for the animal to sniff. Hannah stared at him in horror. “Michael, that cat just scratched lines up and down Cleo’s arms, don’t touch it!”  

Michael ignored them, and grinned when the cat sniffed his hand sceptically, then purred and rubbed its head against his hand. The rest of the group gaped at him as he carefully picked up the cat, placing it in his lap, stroking along its body and smiling when it purred loudly as he scratched gently behind its ear. “Hello. What are you doing here?” He asked softly, and he beamed as the cat meowed and nuzzled into his arms happily. “ Aww, you’re adorable.” He looked up at Alice and Lee, who were staring at him in complete confusion, and smiled. “Can we keep it?”  

“I- uh-” Alice just looked at him, and Beckendorf stared at the son of Apollo incredulously.   

“How are you doing that? It tried to kill Cleo and Han when they attempted to pick it up.”  

Michael just shrugged, grinning when the cat rolled over in his arms so he could stroke its tummy. Definitely a girl. “I like cats, and they like me.” He smiled and stroked under the cat’s chin, grinning when she purred happily. “You’re so cute! Lee, can we keep her?”  

His older brother frowned. “Uh, not really. She shouldn’t even be here really; I have no idea how she got through the border. Does the border stop cats?”   

“Eh.” He didn’t offer an answer and stood, the cat purring happily in his arms, then skipped over to stand beside Alice, offering her the cat. “Cat?”  

She looked at him, then slowly backed away. “Uh, I’m good, thanks.”  

“Okay.” He smiled, stroking the cat and humming happily. Cleo shook her head in disbelief.   

“I have never seen you so soft with another living thing in my life. You fucking squealed when you saw it.”  

“She’s so cute though!” He grinned, then snickered as the cat growled at Cleo when he stood next to his sister. “Oh, you don’t like Cleo? That’s fair.”  

“Michael!” Cleo gasped in mock outrage, and Beck laughed, shaking his head.  

“And today, folks, we realised we have a cat whisperer among us. What the heck?”  

Michael grinned, then looked up and saw Jake staring at him. He smiled. “You good?”  

Jake snapped out of it, then blushed, quickly looking away. “Uh, yeah, just zoned out.”  

Michael didn’t question it, just nodded happily and offered him the cat. Jake raised an eyebrow, then reached to stroke the cat and was immediately scratched. He winced and recoiled, and Michael frowned at the cat, tapping her on the head gently. “Don’t scratch people. It’s not nice.”  

She mewed, nuzzling into his chest, and Lee grinned at him. “Wow. I didn’t expect that, I’ll be honest.”  

They watched as the cat crawled up Michael’s arm and then his neck, perching on top of the son of Apollo’s head. He giggled, and Cleo stared at him. “Did you just- Nevermind.”  

Michael grinned and played with the cat for a little while, until Lee broke the news that they had to let the cat go now, and he pouted. “Do we have to?”  

Lee smiled. “Unfortunately. Sorry, bud. Maybe it’ll come back some time.”  

Michael nodded, carefully placing the cat on the ground, and snickered when she attached to his leg, meowing. “Silly kitty. Come on, you’ve got to go.” He waddled over to the edge of the forest, the cat still clinging to his leg, and she looked at him for a minute, then rubbed her head against his leg and shot off into the trees. He smiled and waved. “Bye!”  

When he turned around, his siblings were all smirking at him, while Beckendorf laughed, Hannah shook her head, grinning, and Jake smirked, still staring at him. He shrugged, and Lee snickered, ruffling the younger boy’s hair teasingly. “Come on, you need to wash your hands.”  

“Ugh.” He huffed. “Seriously?”  

“You have no idea how many germs were on that thing.”   

“I’m sure she’s very hygienic.”  

He washed his hands anyway, and when he walked back to the group, he found Jake seemingly being intensely interrogated by Alice, Cleo and Lee. Beckendorf was in fits of laughter watching them and Hannah had her head in her hands, also laughing, while Jake was blushing so badly, he looked like a tomato. Michael frowned, wandering over to stand beside his friend and raised an eyebrow at his siblings.   

“What’s going on?”   

Jake immediately blushed further and Beck and Hannah’s laughing doubled as Cleo started snickering, Lee smirked, and Alice grinned, ruffling his hair gently. “Nothing bud, don’t worry.”  

He scowled at them suspiciously, which only seemed to make Beckendorf laugh harder, and he looked at the son of Hephaestus in exasperation. “Oh my days, are you okay?”  

Beck eventually calmed, snickering when Jake slapped him, and Alice smirked, then grabbed Hannah’s hand and led the daughter of Hephaestus away from the group. “Yep! He’s fine. Now, I believe me and Han have a date to finish. Bye!”   

Cleo smirked, then looked at her arm, which Michael could now see was covered in long scratches. She looked at Lee hopefully, and her brother smiled, then turned to Michael. “Do you want to heal Cleo’s scratches?”  

He scowled. “No thanks.”  

“Why not? You should practise.”  

Cleo nodded. “The only way to get better is to practise.”  

He glared at them. “Can’t Lee just do it?”  

“I can, but you need to practise.”  

“I don’t want to.”  

“Why not?”  

He scowled at them for a moment, then Cleo apparently remembered something and grinned. “ Oh, he doesn’t want to sing. Come on dude, none of us mind.”  

Michael blushed, which seemed to attract Jake’s attention for whatever reason, as the other boy stared at him. He glared at him sister, shaking his head. “No.”  

“My arm could fall off!” She said dramatically, ignoring Beckendorf’s snort of amusement and Lee’s exaggerated eye roll, and Michael huffed.  

“No.”  

“Why?”  

“You know why.”  

“Michael, none of us mind.” Lee smiled. “It’s just singing. You’re making a bigger deal out of it than it is, really.”  

“No.”  

Cleo sighed heavily. “But you’re really good! I’m sure Jake would love to hear you sing, for one.”  

For whatever reason, that made Jake’s cheeks instantly flush scarlet and Beck snicker, but Michael just glared at her. “No. We’re going. Lee won’t let your arm fall off.”  

“I might.”  

Michael rolled his eyes, then grabbed Jake’s hand and pulled his friend away, through the trees. This randomly made Lee and Beck start snickering, while Cleo huffed dramatically and held her arm out to Lee, who sighed and started humming a healing hymn. Jake looked at him, but Michael just dragged him through the trees, back onto their original path, then let go of the son of Hephaestus’ hand. Jake stared at him for a minute, and Michael sighed in frustration. “What is it? Do I have dirt on my face or something?”  

Jake quickly looked away, coughing awkwardly into his hand. “No, sorry. Thought you’d got a scratch.”  

He frowned. “I’ll live.”  

“Uh- yeah.”  

They walked in comfortable silence for a while, occasionally stopping when Michael got distracted and tried to touch different types of tree fungus, and Jake would give him a look that said are you seriously touching that? It could be poisonous.  

Michael just shrugged, smirking, and kept walking, until Jake spoke again, a slightly nervous lilt to his words. “That was really cute earlier, by the way.”  

Michael instantly grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “The cat? I know, she was so freaking adorable!”  

Jake just smiled, sighing in fond exasperation. “I actually meant- nevermind, yeah, the cat was really cute. You said you like them?”  

“I used to feed the stray ones around my house scraps off the dinner table.”  

“When you say scraps...”  

“Whatever I didn’t eat. Don’t worry, nothing that would hurt them.”  

“No, I was more worried as to whether you ate a lot, or just gave the cats your food. Like, I saw you don’t eat a lot at mealtimes.”  

Michael paused at that. Jake noticed how much he ate? He shrugged. “Don’t need to. Plus, eating too much is bad for you.”  

“Michael, I don’t think you’re eating too much, I think you’re eating too little. You’re like, stick-thin.” He gestured to the son of Apollo, and Michael scowled.  

“I’m fine.”  

Thankfully, Jake just sighed and changed the topic after that, but it had got Michael thinking. The other boy cared about his health? That was new. But then again, it was very Jakelike to think about that. The son of Hephaestus was far too nice for his own good.  

Chapter Text

Michael got a letter back from Jasper a week later, and the moment Lee had given it to him he’d excitedly grabbed it and ran off to the lake to sit on the dock and read it. His cabin was full of his siblings right now, and they would ask a bunch of questions he couldn’t be asked to answer.   

He quickly ripped open the letter, smiling when he saw that Jasper had replied also in code, despite not really needing to because he didn’t have the risk of Mom finding it here. The son of Apollo smiled as he read, finding the symbols and shapes much easier to read than English.  

Michael.  

Hi, I’m good, happy to hear you’re okay. Mom has been fine, but she was a bit angry when she found out you’d ran, but she didn’t get angry at me so I’m good.   

Camp sounds awesome! Have you made any friends? I hope they’re nicer than the ones at school. And your cabinmates sound awesome, maybe I can meet them some day?   

Thanks for the bracelet, I’m keeping it in my box, and you’d better keep mine too. I can't believe you’re ten now, it’s weird.   

Also, I found a picture you took. I think you should have it.  

Love you too.  

Jasp :)  

Michael smiled. Jasper had always been really smart for his age, able to read and write full, grammatically correct sentences at only seven years old, and he was so proud of his little brother for his accomplishments. His school had even moved him up a grade, he was that good.   

Michael didn’t realise someone was walking up behind him until Jake flopped down beside him on the dock, and he jumped, startled, then relaxed when he realised it was the son of Hephaestus. Jake grinned. “Hi.”  

“Hey.” He nodded back. Jake was covered in machine oil, as usual, and he smiled at Michael, then paused when he noticed the letter in his hands.   

“What’s that?”  

He shrugged, smiling as he read his brother’s only slightly messy handwriting again. “Letter from my brother.”  

“Your brother?”  

“Mhm. Lee knows how to send letters, apparently, so I sent one to him, and he sent one back.”  

Jake nodded, looking at the letter curiously. “Can I see?”  

Michael smirked, passing it over. “Sure, but I don’t think you’ll get it.”  

He raised an eyebrow, skimming over the message. “My dyslexia’s not that ba- oh. It’s shapes.”  

The son of Apollo snickered. “Secret code. Good luck cracking it.”  

“Why do you write in code?”  

“Easier to read. My dyslexia’s really shitty.”   

Not quite the truth, but close enough.  

“Oh. Fair enough.” Jake hummed, examining the symbols, and Michael rooted through the envelope, smiling when he found a beaded bracelet and a photograph. The photo was of him and Jasper, taken about four months ago, in the park near their house. They were lying on the grass together, shoulder to shoulder, and Michael was laughing as he held the camera, while Jasper grinned, seemingly in the middle of talking about something or other. His brother was wearing three bracelets on his wrist, matching with Michael’s three on his own wrist, and the younger boy smiled as Michael ruffled his hair teasingly. Jake spotted him holding the photo and grinning at it, and looked at it, smiling. “Is that him?” 

Michael smiled. “Yep.”  

“What’s his name?”  

“Jasper. He’s seven now.”  

“You guys look so alike.”  

That made him grin, and he shrugged, flopping backwards so he was lying on the dock, smiling at the photo, before slipping the bracelet on his wrist with his other one, and he just smiled at the sky for a bit. Jake grinned at him, lying next to him, and continued to ask questions about Jasper for the next ten minutes or so, which Michael answered happily. He told the other boy all about how Jasper had given himself a scar by falling on a windowsill, how he’d got his first spelling certificate and rubbed it in Michael’s face for not being able to spell, and how he’d been the top of his class since he entered school, something Michael was immensely proud of him for. Jake listened happily, smiling and commenting on how brightly the son of Apollo smiled when his brother was mentioned, and Michael shrugged, watching the clouds waft past, grinning. “He’s my little brother, and I love him.”   

Jake grinned at that, then something seemingly occurred to him, and he dragged a Polaroid camera out of his pocket. “Do you want to send a photo back?”  

Michael stared at him. “Where did you get that?”  

“It’s Hannah’s. Alice got it for her last year, and she told me to take some photos to stick on the wall by my bunk. Do you want to take a couple and send one to your brother?”  

“What, of us?”  

He shrugged. “Why not?”  

Michael grinned, and Jake held the camera up above them, taking a few pictures of them lying on the dock together, grinning and laughing. It almost mirrored the one Jasper had sent him, of the two of them. Jake handed him a couple of photos, and Michael smiled at them, tucking them into his pocket with the one from Jasper. “Thanks.”  

Jake smiled. “Anytime.”   

He turned to look at his friend curiously. “What about you? Any mortal siblings?”  

Jake shook his head. “Nope. Just me and my mom.”  

“Do you talk to her at all?”  

Jake grimaced at that, and Michael frowned. The expression really didn’t suit the other boy at all. His smile was better. “Can’t, really, unless I fancy talking to a grave.”  

Michael was silent for a moment after that, then sat up, looking at the son of Hephaestus in concern. “Your mom’s dead?”  

Jake shrugged, still staring at the sky, his hands still for once, laid on his stomach. “Car accident. The other driver was drunk. Neither of them made it.”  

Michael gaped at the other boy. He hadn’t expected that. He wasn’t sure what to say either, and Jake remained expressionless, staring at the sky for a moment longer, before looking to Michael and shrugging again.   

“Don’t worry if you don’t know what to say. As long as it’s not ‘ I’m sorry ’, we’re good. I’m sick of hearing people say that. I don’t need their pity. I've made peace with it.”  

Michael understood that; he’d feel the same way if someone he loved died. But he couldn’t resist the urge to comfort the other in some way. Eventually, he decided upon comforting him physically.  

He carefully flopped down next to his friend, pushing himself up next to the other boy and wrapping his arms around Jake’s neck in a sort of hug, pressing his face into the other’s shoulder. Jake seemed surprised, but quickly hugged him back, curling his arms around Michael’s waist and gently holding the smaller boy, resting his chin on Michael’s shoulder and sighing softly. Michael was surprised when he found the urge to not let go and just stay there for a while, rather content with the son of Hephaestus’ arms around him, and he was even more surprised when he indulged in that. He didn’t pull away, didn’t make an excuse or reason to go, didn’t make the situation awkward, or uncomfortable, or weird.  

He just lay there with the other boy and let Jake hold him, humming happily when the scent of smoke filled his senses.   

Eventually, Jake pulled away first, not looking at Michael as he wiped away the unshed tears in his eyes. “Sorry.” He mumbled. “You don’t like being touched.”  

Michael smirked and rolled away, flopping next to his friend on the wooden dock and rolling his eyes. “Need I remind you; I was the one who gave you a hug? Plus, you don't know that.”  

Jake raised an eyebrow. “You flinch away from most forms of physical touch, you had a panic attack when a guy grabbed you and flung you around, and you never initiate physical touch of any kind unless you’re really, really happy.”  

Michael gaped at him. “You notice that?” Jake snorted.  

“It’s hard not to. And the rubbing thing? When someone touches you, you rub circles on the area to soothe yourself.”  

“I- yeah, I do.” He stared at the other boy, then frowned. “But no one ever notices that.”  

“I did. And I’d love to know why some day.” Jake hummed, still watching the clouds. Michael scowled.  

“It’s not a very nice story, I’ll be honest.”  

“Not expecting it to be with the way you shriek when someone pokes you.”  

He huffed. “Still. You don’t want to know.”  

“You sure about that?” Jake turned his head to look at him, eyes full of worry, and Michael paused, then shrugged.  

“My mom.” Was the only explanation he offered, and he returned to staring at the sky. He heard Jake shuffle beside him.   

“She... hit you?”  

“Uh... sometimes.” He hummed. “Or she threw stuff. But that’s normal, so.”  

“She threw stuff at you?”  

“Mhm.” He hummed. “Chairs.”  

“ Your mother threw a chair at you?! ”  

He nodded casually. “Yup. Threw a glass once I think. And...” He frowned, listing them off, not noticing Jake staring in horror beside him. “Uh, shoes, buckets, plates, threw a hammer once, but she’s not very strong and has bad aim so it missed.”  

“I’m sorry, what ?”  

He turned to look at the other boy, noting Jake’s look of absolute shock, and frowned. “Yeah. But like, that’s normal.”  

Jake gaped at him. “I don’t know what city you’re from where it’s okay to throw hammers at your children, but that absolutely is not normal. Michael, parents shouldn’t throw stuff at their kids. At all.”  

“But what if they’ve been bad?”  

“Unless you were murdering innocent people on the street at seven years old, there is absolutely no reason to throw stuff at a kid. Or hit them either.”  

“Then...” He furrowed his brow in confusion. “How do you discipline them?”  

“Uh, normal ways of punishment? Like, getting grounded, or no dessert or something? Provided you’re not, like, a terrorist, there is no need to resort to anything much worse than that. There is definitely no reason to physically punish a kid, either. Ever.”  

“Oh.” Michael paused at that. “But what if that doesn’t work? Then what do you do?”  

“I think you’re going into the what-ifs here, but you’d go to a counsellor. Or a therapist. Like, get the kid mental help, not hit the kid. Gods, she hit you?”  

He shrugged, unconsciously tracing a long scar down his arm. “She was stressed.”  

Jake groaned. “Stop making excuses for someone that hurt you! In case you haven’t noticed, that is not a loving motherly relationship, and she should not have been doing it. Did you never report it?”  

“No?”  

“Gods, is your brother okay there? Did she hit him too?”  

He frowned. “No. I’m the problem.”  

“No, she’s the problem. You are not a problem. And by the sounds of it, she favoured your brother and took her anger out on you, which is not healthy. Gods Michael, how long has this been going on? How long have you been hiding this?”  

He shrugged, returning to looking at the sky. That cloud looked like a horse. “A while.”  

“How long? Since you were seven?”  

“Since I can remember.”  

Jake stared at him. “Michael, that’s not good.”  

“I’m fine.”  

“Gods- What- Oh my days.” He sighed heavily. “Can I give you a hug?”  

He tilted his head to look at his friend. Jake was looking at him pleadingly. He shrugged. “If you want.”  

Jake gently wrapped his arms around Michael’s waist, pulling the son of Apollo close and sighing. Michael turned to wrap his arms around Jake’s neck, the same way he had earlier, and he hummed quietly as he buried his face in his friend’s shoulder. They stayed there for a long time, just lying there in comfortable silence, until Michael felt his eyes drooping, and he slowly slipped into a dreamless sleep, his arms still around Jake’s neck.   

Chapter Text

It was the bead ceremony, and Michael had never been so confused. He got the whole idea, Lee had explained it to him, with the ‘get a bead and put it on your necklace’ thing, but he didn’t understand why they needed a bead, or what it was for. In search of understanding, he went to his sister, which involved walking into the archery range during her lesson with some Demeter kids and tapping her insistently until she turned around in a huff. 

“What?” Cleo asked. “Buddy, I’ve got a lesson going on right now.” 

He pouted. “I don’t get the bead thingy.” 

She sighed, smiling despite herself, and placed the end of her bow on the floor, leaning on it and waving to her class, who had stopped to look at them in confusion. “Carry on guys, I’ve just got a classic case of bead confusion. Alright bud, here’s what’s up. You go into the ceremony, we have a little communal meeting thing where everyone wanders around and chats, then the beads are handed out and we have a sort of party thing hosted by Lux and Cas. You won’t be there for long, because you have to sleep, but most of us will be out for a while.” 

He processed this, then frowned. “But what’s so special about a bead?” 

Cleo’s eyes cleared in understanding, and she hummed. “Oh, that’s what you’re confused about. Right, so the beads are like a memorial of the year, basically.” She reached under her neckline and tugged out a leather necklace with two beads on it. “You get one at the end of every summer, and they show something memorable that happened during the summer term. Everyone has a necklace, and the people with the most beads have been here longest. For example, dearest Lee.” She pointed to their brother, who was currently walking past the range with Castor, and waved when he saw them. Cleo beckoned them over and Lee raised an eyebrow, but walked over anyway, dragging Castor with him. 

“What’s up?” 

“Can you guys show Michael your beads? He doesn’t get why we get beads so I’m tryna explain but I have a class.” She gestured to the Demeter group behind them, most of whom were more interested in growing vines around their bows than shooting them, much to Michael’s amusement, and Lee hummed, gently ruffling his brother’s hair with a smile. 

“Alright buddy, come here.” He shooed Michael out of the range, then flopped down on the grass just outside it with Castor, both grinning at him. Michael hummed and sat next to them, watching in interest as his brother tugged out his own necklace with six beads on it. “Okay, so here’s how it works. Cleo explained how you get one every year? Yeah, so me, Cas and Lux have six each because we’ve been here six years. And they all represent different events and occasions from each year, which is why they’re so special. Everyone that comes to camp gets a necklace and a bead, and tonight, you get your first one, yeah? No one knows what’s gonna be on them unless their cabin is in charge of making them, and its normally Athena or Hephaestus so they’re pretty cool. I’m not sure who made them this year, but we’ll find out tonight.” 

He smiled at Michael, and Castor smirked and leaned forwards, waving at the younger boy. “Hey. Wanna see a bead that Lee was responsible for?” 

Lee groaned, and at the noise Michael instantly perked up, copying Castor’s smirk. “Yeah?” 

Castor grinned, pulling his own necklace out from under his t-shirt, and Michael paused when he noticed a delicate golden ring perched on it next to his line of beads, also six. Castor however, pointed to something else, and Michael peered at the indicated bead curiously, just about able to make out an elegant golden curve that looked like a wisp of gold smoke, on a white bead. Lee rolled his eyes when he saw Castor animatedly telling Michael the tale of the bead, and Michael took great amusement in seeing his brother’s cheeks flush pink as the son of Dionysus talked. 

“So basically, have you heard about quests yet? So, a quest is when someone leaves camp to accomplish a mission or complete a prophecy, et cetera, but they’re really big deals, and the reason this one is a wisp of healing smoke is because during our... fourth? Yeah, fourth year at camp, so the year before Thalia and stuff, three demigods went on a quest, and one of them, a son of Ares, almost died. Well, technically, he did die, because when they approached the border on their way home the trio were attacked by a hydra, and the son of Ares took it on alone because his little brother, who was also on the quest, was injured, and the only other quest mate was a daughter of Aphrodite who disliked fighting. So, he took on the hydra while the other two fled for safety, and the hydra got a good shot on him with its poison and whatnot, and he was practically dead by the time some campers had noticed and ran to help him. Now Lee-” He pointed to the son of Apollo, grinning. “Lee ran after them once he saw the rescue team heading out-” 

“Much to your disapproval, I might add-” 

“Shh. He ran straight out there, completely ignored the hydra and bolted for the Ares kid, who, I would like to confirm had stopped breathing, so everyone knew he was dead and were telling Lee not to try and to get out, but he just started singing this new healing hymn- which was beautiful, might I add-” He winked at Michael, not noticing Lee blushing crimson next to him. “And freaking brought the guy back to life! There was glowing and Lee was shining like the damn sun, and the Ares kid’s heart started beating and he sat up and burst into a coughing fit, but he was alive! It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, swear to gods.” 

Lee, who now resembled a tomato, coughed into his arm awkwardly. “I passed out afterwards.” 

Castor rolled his eyes, turning on his friend in exasperation. “Yes, but you literally brought someone back to life! Don’t play that down, dummy. You didn’t save his life; you gave him another one! It was absolutely crazy, I’m telling you Michael, your brother might be a complete moron sometimes, but gods, is he good at what he does. Absolutely insane, I’ve never seen anything like it. Even if I did have to basically force you into bed for a week afterwards.” 

“I would have been fine.” Lee protested, but Castor huffed. 

“Don’t start this again. Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine! No you’re fucking not, you’re a workaholic with no sense of self-preservation. I love you for it, but seriously, get a grip.”  

He rolled his eyes, smirking at Michael as he got up to standing, whacking Lee on the head lightly as he passed, then waved as he walked off.  

“I better see you in the fields in ten, Sunny! Bring your guitar!” 

The son of Dionysus walked off, grinning, and Michael burst into laughter when he turned around and saw Lee had gone bright red, staring at Castor dopily at the mention of ‘I love you for it’. He swatted at his brother, snickering in amusement, and smirked at the older son of Apollo when Lee snapped out of his trace to look at him. “Gods, you’re hopeless.” 

Lee rolled his eyes. “Shut up. I am not.” 

“So are.” 

“Shh. I’m not getting talked down by my little brother.” 

“Oh, I’ll get you for that one-” 

The bead ceremony itself wasn’t very formal, more of a ‘wander around and get a bead’. Michael and Jake were pretty much the only people that needed a necklace for their first bead, and Jake was quick to find the son of Apollo once his cabin arrived, bouncing over to Michael excitedly.  

“You ready?” He grinned, and Michael snorted, shrugging. 

“It’s just a bead.” He hummed, but in truth Castor’s story about Lee bringing someone back to life had stuck with him, along with the other stories he’d got from his siblings over the course of the day. Jake looked a bit down after that, and Michael, who really didn’t think that expression suited the other boy at all, quickly corrected himself. “But it is pretty cool. Cas told me a story about Lee bringing someone back to life.” 

Jake was instantly excited again, much to Michael’s amusement, nodding and smiling. “Yeah! Beck told me about the one last year, where a girl got turned into a pine tree and stuff, and it’s sad, but really cool. Apparently, Hannah was put in charge of the beads this year, but she won’t tell me what’s on it.” 

Hannah, who was walking past with Alice, both girls grinning and giggling to themselves, ruffled Jake’s hair teasingly. “Wait and see, Jakey. Patience is a virtue-” 

“That I do not possess, I’m aware.” He grumbled, and Michael snickered, earning himself a light swat on the head from the son of Hephaestus. He only flinched slightly, proud of himself for not reacting to it too much, but Jake still picked up on it, instantly switching to apologetic and worried, hands fluttering around anxiously. “Oh gods, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that, are you okay, did- ow!” 

Michael smacked him on the arm, scowling, and Jake winced, hand going to his arm in pain. 

“What was that for?” 

Michael raised an eyebrow at him. “Apologising. I’m not glass, you know.” 

Jake scrambled for a reply, much to Michael’s amusement, but the son of Apollo kept a straight face, hiding his smile. “Well, you don’t like being touched, and I don’t want to hurt you but I don’t know how high your pain tolerance is but it doesn’t really matter because you don’t like any contact aside from hair ruffling, but I don’t know how to balance that because it’s hard because I don’t want to-” 

Michael poked him, rolling his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, stop rambling. I’m not glass, you can touch me.” 

“But you don’t like being touched.” 

“Oh my lord.” He huffed, grabbing Jake’s hand and placing it palm up on his own forehead, which probably looked really weird to an outsider, but he didn’t particularly care. “I’m. Not. Fragile.”  

“I don’t think you are-” Jake looked nervous, as if afraid Michael might bite him. The son of Apollo groaned, letting go of Jake’s hand and waving his arms at himself. 

“Apollo almighty, just touch me, gods.” 

Jake paused, looking at the other boy cautiously, then raised his hands in surrender when Michael glared at him, reaching out to gently place his hand on the smaller’s shoulder. “Sorry, sorry.” 

Michael let the other boy touch him, and crossed his arms once Jake had a hand on his shoulder, glaring at the son of Hephaestus with an ‘I told you so’ look on his face. “See? Surprisingly, I am not dead, nor broken, nor about to rip your arm off. I might slap you if you keep on with this ‘oh I don’t want to hurt you!’ shit, though.” 

Jake raised an eyebrow, then smirked. “Does that mean I’m allowed to give you more hugs?” 

The son of Apollo rolled his eyes. “If it matters that much to you, yeah, but I don’t think-” 

He was cut off by Jake grinning and giving him a quick hug, Michael sighing happily at the physical contact. He should really start asking for more hugs if he got this snappy without them. Jake pulled away after a second, smiling and tapping Michael on the head once, much to the other boy’s amusement as Jake hummed happily and returned to rambling about beads, apparently now satisfied that he’d got a hug.  

It wasn’t long before the beads began to get handed out, and Michael and Jake were ushered along by their siblings to get a necklace and a bead, which Michael examined closely before putting on the leather cord. It was a small bead, but intricately painted with an image of a horse in a dress, which Michael was quite amused to hear the story of. He slung it on happily, getting Cleo to tie it around his neck like hers, and proceeded to bounce around the area with Jake for a while, until they were exiled back to their cabins with a promise that their siblings wouldn’t be far behind. Michael took this as a cue to drag Jake into cabin seven, where they proceeded to play cards for half an hour, comparing beads and laughing between themselves until Lee appeared and apologetically kicked Jake out, telling Michael to go to bed because it was late. Naturally, this instantly caused a small child bouncing off the walls for the next ten minutes, the younger son of Apollo trying his best to avoid Lee and cackling as his brother walked into several bedframes before eventually giving up and calling Dan for help. None of them got to sleep before eleven, and Michael took proud ownership of that fact.  

Chapter Text

Michael felt like shit.  

He woke slowly, sitting up in his bed and feeling ridiculously dizzy, his head pounding and vision blurred. He groaned and collapsed back into bed, listening to his siblings wandering around the cabin and rummaging through drawers. Eventually, someone walked over, and he recognised the voice as Alice’s. 

“Hey, bud, you’ve gotta get up no- Oh. Shit. Dan!” 

Michael groaned and rolled over, burying his face in his hands. Dan soon wandered over, and he heard his brother suck in a breath through his teeth. “Ouch. Hey, Michael, are you okay?” 

He groaned again. “No. Feel like shit.” 

“Yeah, looks it.” Dan hummed. “Can I do a scan?” He asked, and Michael just stuck his hand out at the older boy, needing this feeling to go away soon. He felt Dan gently take his hand, followed by the sound of humming and a wave of warmth washing over him, momentarily easing the pain as he sighed. Dan let go soon after, and he could almost hear his brother wincing. “Yeah, that’s not great, bud. You’ve got the flu. Pretty badly.” 

He groaned. “I feel like my brain’s being deep-fried.” 

Alice hummed, gently brushing away the hair on his forehead. “Mhm. Never had it before?” 

“Not like this.” 

“Alright. Doctor Dan, must we prescribe bedrest?” 

Dan sighed. “Yup. Sorry buddy, but you’re gonna have to stick it in the cabin for a bit. Gonna be like this for a while; you’ve gotta wait it out.” 

Michael whined, curling up in his blanket and shoving his head in his pillow. He heard footsteps, and Alex’s voice. “What's going on?” 

Michael’s got the flu.” Dan answered. “Alice, would you get some ibuprofen?” 

“Do we have a kid version?” 

“Uh... should do?” 

“Yeah, we do.” Lee answered. “Here, come with me.” 

They walked away, and Dan sat at the foot of Michael’s bed. Michael turned his head to look at the older son of Apollo. Dan smiled. “You alright, bud?” 

“No.” He grumbled. “My head hurts and my eyes burn and I can’t breathe through my nose.” 

Alex nodded, flopping down beside Dan. “Mhm. Flu sucks.” 

“Yeah.” He sat up and cuddled himself up in his blanket, shuffling along the bed and leaning against his brother’s side. “Sucks ass.” 

Dan chuckled, gently wrapping an arm around him. “I’m letting that slide because you’re sick.” 

Michael nodded, and Cleo suddenly bounced out of the bathroom, spotting him and walking over, frowning. “Oh, bud, are you sick?” She hummed, and Michael nodded miserably. Cleo smiled, hopping up to sit on his other side and snuggling up next to him. He hummed happily and melted into his sister’s side, and she laughed, ruffling his hair gently. “Are you clingy when you’re sick?” 

“No.” He mumbled, but when Dan grinned and tugged him slightly closer, he sank into the contact, making a small happy hum. Cleo laughed.  

“That’s so cute.” 

“Shut up.” 

Alex snickered, then laughed when Alice and Lee walked back inside the cabin, and Alice stopped in her tracks, placing her hands on her hips and gasping in mock outrage. “Are you having a group hug without us ?” 

Lee also gasped, and Cleo and Michael snickered as the son of Apollo put a hand on his chest dramatically. “The betrayal .” 

Michael grinned, holding his hands up to Alice for a hug, and his sister smiled, picking him up and hugging him, then grinned, walking to the door. “I’m kidnapping Michael!” 

Michael snickered and Cleo laughed as Lee smirked, waving a box of tablets at them. “Good luck. I have the painkillers.” 

Alice pouted, but turned around and put Michael back down, where he cuddled up into his blanket again. She winked at him. “Maybe another time, yeah?” 

He grinned and nodded, then suddenly burst into a coughing fit, coughing into his arm and groaning. Cleo frowned and rubbed his back soothingly, and he sighed heavily, sitting back and leaning his head on his sister’s shoulder. “Flu sucks ass.” 

“Yup. Do you want anything from breakfast when we go out?” 

He shook his head. “I think I’d throw up.” 

“Okay. Have some painkillers.” 

“Ugh.” He huffed, but took the painkillers when Lee smiled and gave him a couple, and Dan smiled, nudging him gently. 

“Alright. Come on buddy, lie down and get some rest. You might feel better later.” 

He sighed unhappily, but laid down and curled up in his blanket. His siblings walked out to breakfast, with a threat from Cleo to sleep, and a promise from Lee that he’d come check on him later. Michael groaned and curled up further in his sheets, his eyes drooping as he slowly dropped off.  

He woke a while later to a hand on his forehead, and hissed, shrinking away from the contact. He heard Lee chuckle, and quickly relaxed when he realised it was his brother. Michael opened his eyes, squinting at the older son of Apollo, and Lee smiled softly, waving. “Hi. How are you feeling?” 

Michael took a moment to process his words, then sighed, shoving his face in his pillow again and mumbling. “Shit.” 

Lee snickered. “Shit. Fair enough. I brought someone to see you.” He turned, seemingly looking at someone, then grinned, apparently amused by an expression they’d just pulled. “Yeah, you’re right, I didn’t have much choice in the matter. Michael, I was threatened into dragging him in, don’t blame me.” 

Michael raised an eyebrow, slowly sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, groaning into his hands when his vertigo returned momentarily. “Who?” 

“Hey.” Jake flopped down on his bed next to him, and Michael looked at him for a moment, attempting to process why the other boy was here, then paused. 

“Hi? You shouldn’t be here, you’ll get sick.” 

“Questionable. I have a strong immune system.” 

“You, however, don’t.” Lee hummed nodding to Michael. “A really bad one, actually. Have you had all your vaccines?” 

Michael looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language. “Vaccines? Are those the like, needles?” 

Lee shrugged, rocking his hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. “Kinda, yeah.” 

He shuddered. “No idea.” 

“Reassuring. Dan might be checking that later.” 

“Yippee.” He said sarcastically, and Jake snorted, then smiled at him. 

“How are you feeling? Have you eaten?” 

“Nope and nope.” 

The son of Hephaestus snickered. “’How are you feeling?’ ‘Nope.’ ” 

Michael slapped him lightly. “Shut up. I feel like I’ve fallen off a bridge. Is that better?” 

“Not really.” 

“You’re insufferable.” 

“You’re snappy when you’re sick.” 

Jake didn’t seem too put off by his snappy attitude, however, and it seemed to amuse him more than anything. Michael rolled his eyes and Lee snickered. “He was really clingy earlier. It was quite cute, actually.” 

“Fuck off.” 

They both smirked at him, and he rolled his eyes, pulling his blanket around his shoulders and shuddering. His brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool, and his nose felt the same, but his headache had faded. Lee smiled at him, offering him a glass of water he’d produced from somewhere. “Have some water.” 

Michael frowned, but had some water, and once he was done, Jake pulled a pack of cards out of his pocket. “I brought Uno. Not sure how up for it you’re feeling, but I’m making Lee skip infirmary duty to play with us.” 

Lee rolled his eyes. “Alice knows what she’s doing, provided Hannah doesn’t come in and distract her.” 

Michael snickered, then shrugged. “I’m cool with Uno. Get ready to get your ass kicked.” 

Jake raised an eyebrow at that, but shuffled and dealt the cards anyway. They gathered on the floor with some beanbags Dan stored in the corner of the cabin, and Michael huffed when he realised he was cold again. His blanket was too bulky, so he got up and walked to his drawers, digging a red hoodie out and wriggling into it, before flopping back on his beanbag with a contented sigh. Jake stared at him, and he raised an eyebrow at the other boy. 

“You good?” 

Jake blushed suddenly, quickly looking away. “Uh, yeah. Is that my hoodie?” 

Michael paused, then looked down at the hoodie in surprise, realising it was the one Jake had given him the night he was claimed. “Oh. Yeah. Forgot about that, sorry.” He started to pull it off, but Jake quickly stopped him. 

“It’s fine, keep it. You’re always cold anyway.” He smiled, and Michael shrugged, pulling it back on again and cuddling into the warmth. Lee was shaking his head and grinning, and Michael looked at him in confusion, but he just smirked and pointed to the cards.  

“Are we starting?” 

“Oh, right.” Jake hummed, quickly organising his cards and putting one down. Michael also shuffled his cards around, smirking when he noticed he had a pretty good selection. They played for a few minutes, and Jake looked at him in utter confusion when he changed the direction three turns in a row. “How many do you have??” 

He shrugged, and Lee hummed, playing his next card. They continued to play, until Michael grinned and put down his second last card. “Uno.” 

Lee stared at him. “I swear you had like, four, when I last looked at you.” 

Michael just shrugged again. He was well accustomed to getting rid of his cards fast, and Jake had severely underestimated how much he liked this game. He and Jasper played it all the time at home, and his brother hadn’t won a round since he was five, not that he cared all that much, because he got to tease Michael when his brother won yet again.  

The round wrapped up quickly, Michael winning and smirking as Jake huffed and put the cards back in the case. Lee smiled and excused himself, saying he had to go help Alice, but made Michael promise he’d drink some more water before he left. Michael huffed, but drank some water, and rolled his eyes when Jake smirked at him, flipping the other boy off. Jake chuckled, tucking the pack of cards away, and Michael looked at him curiously. “Aren’t you meant to be in the forge right now?” 

Jake shrugged, leaning back in his beanbag slightly. “I got kicked out for overworking. Apparently, I’m not meant to do as many hours as the rest of them, because I’m younger and will wear myself out quicker or something. And then I went to the archery range but Alex said you were sick, so I went to the infirmary and convinced Lee to let me come say hi.” 

Michael looked at him, unimpressed. “Again, you could get sick from being in here. Trust me, it’s not fun.” 

“Again, my immune system is apparently much stronger than yours. I don’t get sick easily.” 

Michael huffed, and the son of Hephaestus smirked. He rolled his eyes. “Still. Don’t want you to get sick.” 

“I won’t. And if I do, you can say I told you so. I’ll live.”  

He rolled his eyes, but let it slide, then groaned as he started another random coughing fit. Jake winced, and Michael groaned again, leaning back against the beanbag and burying his face in his hands. “Flu sucks ass.” 

“Is that your motto now?” 

“Mhm. Gods, I feel like my insides are being tortured out of me. Help.” 

Jake chuckled, gently ruffling his hair as the son of Apollo scowled. “I think you’ve gotta battle that one on your own. Sorry.” 

Michael huffed, crossing his arms and pouting, then coughed again and sighed. Jake smiled at him. 

“You should get some sleep.” 

Michael glared at him. “I don’t need sleep.” 

“It helps.” 

“Don’t care. Don’t wanna sleep.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because I won’t do anything all day.” 

“You won’t either way.” 

He scowled at the son of Hephaestus, annoyed that he was right. “Fuck off. Plus, I won’t be able to sleep if there’s no one else here. I only managed this morning because I was that sick I couldn’t think.” 

Jake shrugged. “I’m happy to hang around if you want?” 

He paused, then shook his head. “You have stuff to do.” 

“I really don’t.” 

Michael snorted. “I severely doubt that.” 

“Well, it’s true. I can’t go in the forge, remember? And my siblings are expecting me to hang out with you the whole afternoon anyway.” 

“Reason?” 

“Because they are under the impression that I need social interaction to function, and when they’re not there I go to you.” Jake rolled his eyes, and Michael snickered.  

“They’re not wrong.” 

“Shut up.” 

“Make me.” 

Jake raised an eyebrow. “You are sick, and therefore weaker than usual as well as small. I could literally just gag you if I wanted.” 

“You won’t, though.” 

“No, but that’s beside the point.” He frowned, and Michael smirked. Jake huffed, ignoring the other boy’s teasing glance, and instead gestured to his bed. “Seriously, get some sleep. I’m happy to stick around if it helps.” 

Michael snorted. “And what, you’ll watch me sleep?”  

Jake looked at him. “I could also sleep? Or I could build something? My pockets are full of spare stuff, I could make a mini helicopter if I wanted.” 

“You’ve been banned from making things.” 

“I’ve been banned from the forge, technically, but if it worries you that much I can just sleep too. I don’t sleep a lot anyway, and Beck’s been bugging me to take a nap.” 

Michael snickered at him. “A nap?” 

Jake rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, like a toddler. Although, I did sleep barely three hours last night so I guess he’s right.” 

“The fuck were you doing?” 

He shrugged. “Existing. Too many thoughts, not enough sleep.” 

“Hm. Bad ADHD?”  

“Terrible. My head’s constantly full.” 

“Then surely you wouldn’t be able to sleep now either.” 

“I can try? If not I’ll just fiddle with stuff.” 

Michael glared at him. “No powers.” 

“Yes, sir.” Jake smirked, and Michael rolled his eyes, then grudgingly pulled himself to his feet and flopped down on his bed, shuffling over and gesturing for Jake to lie down next to him. Jake smiled and slipped in next to him, careful not to touch the son of Apollo, which Michael appreciated. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into a peaceful sleep, the only noise being Jake’s soft breathing beside him.  

Chapter Text

“Alice! What’s going on?” Michael ran after his sister, who was striding towards the big house with a grin on her face. He’d been woken early by Cleo ushering him out of the cabin with a big grin and instructions to follow Alice, and Michael had only had time to grab his hoodie before getting kicked out, so he was quite confused. 

“I’m making cupcakes.” She said simply, and Michael raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Why?” 

“Because it’s Lee’s birthday, and he has a weird obsession with red velvet cupcakes, so I’m baking him cupcakes. Want to help?” 

Michael frowned. “I’ve never made a cupcake before. Don’t you just...”  

He waved his hands, attempting to convey cupcake making, and Alice smirked, gesturing for him to follow her. 

“Come on bud, I’ll teach you. Let’s make some weird-ass cupcakes.” 

“Why the fuck is it red?” 

“That’s what I’m saying! How does he like this?” 

“My opinions of Lee have changed drastically.” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m with you there buddy. We still have to frost these, though.” 

“...Alice. Why are you making frosting with cheese?” 

An hour and a half of confusion later, Michael was convinced that red velvet cake was an abomination to humanity, no matter how much Lee might like it. Why on earth would you combine chocolate cake with red food colouring and cream cheese?? The cakes themselves were pretty enough, he supposed, but red was a disturbing colour for a cake. Cakes should be brown, or creamy coloured.  

He voiced this opinion to Alice as they carried the tray of cakes over to the dining pavilion, where breakfast was finishing up. Michael’s breakfast had consisted of one of the cupcakes that he’d accidentally squished when he was moving the mixing bowl, and he couldn’t be much happier about this, since although they looked weird, the cake itself tasted okay. Alice laughed when she heard his objection to the redness, and ruffled his hair with one hand, the other balancing the tray of cakes. 

“What about a blue cake, hm? Some people love coloured cakes.” 

Michael considered this. A blue cake might be kinda cool, in hindsight. Or a green one. Maybe red wasn’t that bad. He looked back at the cakes and frowned. “But with white, cheesy frosting?” 

“Yeah, no, that bit is just wrong.”  

He nodded, satisfied that they had reached the same conclusion, and smiled as they approached the dining pavilion, then suddenly stopped, realising something. Alice paused and raised an eyebrow at him. 

“You okay?” 

Michael frowned. “I didn’t get Lee anything.” 

Alice smiled and tilted her head. “You didn’t know it was his birthday today. He won’t mind.” 

“But-” Michael pouted. “But he got me something, so I have to get him something.” 

“Seriously buddy, you don’t. He’ll be happy you thought about it, but he won’t mind at all. Promise.” 

He scowled. It felt like cheating. “But I want to get him something.” 

Alice hummed for a minute, then smirked and nudged his hip as they started walking again. “Why don’t you make him a bracelet like the ones you have? He’d love that.” 

Michael considered it for a minute, then looked at his arm, noting that, sure enough, he was wearing one of the bracelets he’d made. Making them was therapeutic, in a way, and reminded him of Jasper, so he’d made a habit of sitting and threading bracelets whenever he was bored or stressed. He’d even got a box of beads from Cleo, when she noticed that he liked them a few weeks prior.  

“But I don’t have enough time.” 

That was definitely a problem. He could make one fast, yes, but he’d have to go back to cabin seven and find his box and materials. Alice smirked as they slipped in the back of the dining hall, creeping up unnoticed behind Lee, and she leaned down to whisper to Michael as they approached the table.  

“We give Lee presents after campfire normally, because he and Castor have a tradition of doing presents at night. You’ve got plenty of time.” 

Michael grinned at that, happily joining in with scaring Lee by slapping down the cupcakes in front of him and yelling ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’. Lee looked like he was on the edge of a panic attack and Michael didn’t stop laughing at him for the next ten minutes. 

“What are you doing?” 

Michael looked down from his spot in the tree. He’d taken his bracelet materials and scurried away to a part of the forest where Cleo had said didn’t have monsters on the most part, since it was too close to camp, and he’d found the tallest tree possible to climb up and sit in. The branch he’d chosen was fairly wide and stable, and it made a nice platform to sit on and watch the trees while he threaded beads, but apparently he was still visible from the forest floor below. He leant over the edge and peered down at Jake, the son of Hephaestus looking up at him in confusion. 

“Hi.” He waved, and Jake raised an eyebrow. 

“Why are you in a tree?” He asked, and Michael grinned, shuffling along and hooking his legs over the branch, before falling backwards and dangling upside down in front of his friend, his shirt almost covering his eyes as it flopped downwards into his face.  

“It’s my natural habitat.” He said with a smile, and Jake smirked, tilting his head in an attempt to also be upside down. He only managed about halfway, and Michael snickered at him, poking the other boy in the forehead before pulling himself back onto the branch. “Come up.” 

He heard Jake rustle amongst the leaves below, before the son of Hephaestus cleared his throat awkwardly. “Uh, how?” 

Michael peered over again and saw that Jake was stood at the base of the tree, examining it nervously. Michael rolled his eyes.  

“You grab a branch and pull yourself up. It should be easy for you; you’re tall.” 

“I’m not as flexible as you, though.” He pointed out, but sighed and pulled himself up anyway, smiling as he sat next to Michael, who had returned his attention to his bracelet making. “What are you doing?” 

Michael shrugged. “Making Lee a bracelet. It’s his birthday and I didn’t know.” 

“I see.” Jake nodded, watching as Michael picked his way through the pot of beads. He was going with a golden theme, since that seemed to be Lee’s favourite colour, and the charms were just whatever he thought fit with Lee’s personality. He hummed over a pair of beads for a minute, then held them up for Jake to see.  

“Which one?” 

Jake looked at them carefully, then at the pot they’d come from. They were a pair of similar looking beads, both with a golden centre and coloured stripes down the sides, but Michael couldn’t decide between green stripes or silver stripes. Jake smiled and picked one with purple stripes out of the pot instead, offering it to the son of Apollo with a grin. “Purple.” 

Michael snickered as he took it, well aware that the purple would signify Castor, and slipped it onto the bracelet before bursting into a rant about how Castor and Lee still hadn’t got together yet, and that it was driving everyone insane. Jake laughed and asked questions about specific events, and by the time Michael had finished the bracelet and made two more, just to pass the time, it was almost dinnertime. They quickly packed up and ran off to the dining hall, and Alice grinned at him when she saw him slipping something shiny into his pocket. Mission success. 

Chapter Text

“Michael! Michael, wake up!”  

Michael groaned quietly, slowly sitting up on his bed and rubbing at his eyes, scowling at the person who had woken him. Cleo grinned back, and he glanced at the alarm clock on Lee’s bedside table, noting that it was ten minutes past midnight. He glared at his sister sleepily. “What?”  

“Get up.”  

“Why?” He snapped, and Cleo smirked.  

“Because I’ve got something to show you. Come on.”  

Michael scowled, but that had caught his attention, and he grumpily climbed out of bed, grabbing Jake’s hoodie from his drawer and following Cleo as his sister tiptoed across the cabin floor. Somehow, they made it out without waking Dan or Alice, and they slipped out a window by Cleo’s bunk, Michael instantly shivering when the cool night air hit him, and slipping on Jake’s hoodie, cuddling into the warmth. Cleo smirked, then gestured for him to follow her as she crept around the side of the cabin. He looked at her, then at the sky, expecting to see harpies coming to eat them for sneaking out. “Where are we going?”  

She grinned. “You’ll see.”  

“The harpies could eat us.”  

“They won’t. I’ve been doing this for ages.”  

“Doing what?”  

“Stop asking questions and follow me.” She teased, then disappeared. Michael jumped, looking around and trying to figure out where she’d gone, then saw her waving at him from the roof. “Up here! Climb the drainage pipe.”  

Michael frowned, but climbed the pipe, swatting Cleo’s hand away when she offered him help, and he scrambled across the tiles with her, until they reached a flat platform atop the roof. The daughter of Apollo flopped down cross-legged on the platform and gestured for Michael to join her, while he looked at her suspiciously.   

“What are we doing?”  

“Stargazing.” Cleo hummed, and Michael looked up at the sky, sucking in a breath when he spotted the cloud of glittering stars across the night sky. Cleo grinned, shrugging. “The Artemis cabin is the best place to see them from, or sometimes the beach, but this is pretty close. Have you ever heard of the constellations?”  

Michael frowned, peering at the glittering lights in amazement. They were so pretty. “Sorta. Big Bear, Little Bear and stuff. Something to do with the zodiacs?”   

Cleo smiled. “Kinda. Zodiacs are a sort of belt across the sky, and your zodiac sign is based off the month you were born in, and which zodiac is most prominent in the sky at the time of your birth. Constellations are patterns of stars across the sky, which are more visible at different times of the year, but you can normally see a few of them. For example.” She pointed to a collection of stars, outlining a shape. “You mentioned Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Or, big dipper, little dipper. Or, big bear and little bear. There’re a few names for them. That’s Ursa Major, and that one,” She pointed again. “Ursa Minor.”   

Michael nodded, following her line of sight, then gestured to the rest of the stars. “And the others?”  

“There’s a lot. Orion. Cassiopeia.” She pointed them out, then smiled at Michael. “Your birthday is August twelfth, right?”  

He nodded, still staring at the constellations. “Yeah. Why?”  

Cleo hummed. “Leo. Natural born leader, action-orientated, enthusiastic. Also stubborn, hot-tempered, dramatic and can be very flirtatious.” She snickered. “Not sure about a few of those, but a lot sound like you.”  

Michael rolled his eyes. “I’m not dramatic. Or enthusiastic. Or flirtatious.”  

“Questionable. I’d love to see you flirt with a certain someone.”  

He raised an eyebrow at her, turning away from the stars to look at his sister in confusion. “Who?”  

Cleo mimed zipping her lips shut, smirking at him. “Don’t worry bout it.” She grinned, and Michael huffed, poking her.  

“Who?”  

“Nope. Just messing with you.”  

He glared at her. “Fuck off.”  

They sat there in silence for a bit, until Michael spoke again.  

“What’s your zodiac?”  

His sister smirked. “Aquarius. Generous, trustworthy, independent. Rebellious, unpredictable, at times emotionally detached.”  

Michael hummed. “Not sure about that last one.”  

Cleo snickered, then flopped onto her back and stared back at the sky. “You know, I was thinking. If you ever want somewhere to cool off, this place isn’t visible from the ground. And I come up here most nights, because I have trouble sleeping. Ever heard of insomnia?”  

Michael laid down beside her, making sure to keep an inch or so of space between them. He’d been a bit twitchy recently. “No?”  

“Hm. It’s a condition where I have trouble sleeping, and I sometimes try taking sleep meds or herbal teas, but there isn’t really a method that’s cured it yet for me. Sometimes I cuddle with Lee and it helps, but I often have problems falling asleep, so I come up here. It’s peaceful, and the fresh air tires me out a bit more. If you ever want to chat or just chill, you’ll probably find me up here.” She turned her head and smiled at him, and Michael smiled slightly back.  

They lay there for a long while, until Cleo beckoned him back inside and Michael followed her back in, happily curling into bed and grinning at Cleo the next day, much to Dan’s confusion.   

They went up there a lot over the next few weeks, just to chat and chill, and Michael slowly became much more comfortable with Cleo, letting her hold his hand or give him the occasional hug every now and then, and although he didn’t share too much in the way of personal stuff, they did talk a lot about every day stuff, like archery and infirmary duty and Jake. With a specific focus on Jake for Cleo.  

He was often asked by his sister whether he liked Jake, to which he’d reply, “He’s my best friend, dumbass. I wouldn’t hang out with him if I didn’t like him.”  

Cleo often responded to that by slapping herself on the forehead, much to Michael’s confusion.  

He also learnt (much to his sister’s distress) that Cleo had quite the crush on a son of Demeter named Max, and Michael took great pleasure in giving her teasing looks and suggestive comments whenever he spotted them near each other. On one particular night, Cleo was freaking out over an encounter they’d had in the archery range earlier that day, narrating the scene like Michael hadn’t been ten feet away from her the entire time.   

“And then, he walked up to me and asked for lessons!” She said excitedly, and Michael snickered.   

“You’re so hopeless.”  

“I’m seeing him twice a week for an hour to teach him archery! And the only slots that he’s free are the ones where there’s no one else in the range! Oh god, there’s going to be no one else in the range.” She paled. “What do I do if I fuck up?”  

He snorted. “You’ll be fine. If the way he was looking at you on Wednesday is any indication, I don’t think it matters if you fuck up or not.”  

She looked at him. “Explanation?”   

Michael rolled his eyes. “You wore a fucking sports bra to practise in. I don’t think his eyes left you the entire session. Not to mention you tied your hair up too. You looked about fifteen.”  

Cleo blushed. “It was hot!”  

“I don’t think the weather was the only thing he thought was hot. He was pining after you so hard it was sad.”   

“Oh gods.” She groaned. “What do I do?”  

“Nothing? You’re doing fine?”  

“But, with the lessons? Oh gods, what if it’s awkward? What do I wear?”  

Michael smirked. “Tie your hair up in a ponytail, wear those shorts you wore last week, and stick it with a loose crop top. Maybe Alice’s sunglasses if she’ll let you. You’ll be fine.”  

“I can’t believe I’m taking fashion advice from my little brother.”  

“You’re taking relationship advice from your little brother; I think fashion is the least of your problems.” 

Sure enough, Cleo wore the outfit to her next lesson with Max, and Michael dragged Jake along to spy on them from outside the range, the son of Hephaestus seemingly greatly amused by the situation. They arrived before Cleo, so it was just Max nervously waiting, and Michael took the opportunity to take a look at the other boy. After all, he might be the younger sibling, but that didn’t stop him from checking out his sister’s dating prospects.    

Max was a tall, well-built guy with floppy brown hair that was constantly full of leaves and twigs, and emerald green eyes that suited his heritage. He was about thirteen, and Michael could see why Cleo liked him, because he had a very chilled back sort of vibe to him, the kind of guy who wouldn’t get mad over little things or make a scene often. Considering Cleo was about as dramatic as you could get at times, Michael found this quite funny.  

What he didn’t miss, however, was the way the son of Demeter’s eyes widened when Cleo walked in, one hand frantically running up to comb some of the leaves from his hair, his eyes glued to the daughter of Apollo as she walked in with a smile to combat the sun itself. Michael snorted and Jake snickered, nodding to Cleo’s outfit. “I see your point.”  

Michael smirked. “Mhm. She looks, like, fifteen.”  

“Max is drooling over her.”  

“Fuck yeah. If they’re not together within the month then I’ll be damned.”  

Jake grinned at him. “Having fun playing matchmaker?”  

Michael rolled his eyes. “I had to do something; she spends hours rambling over the guy. Oh, he talked to me this morning! He smiled at me during campfire! He gave me a pen during mythology! Do you think he loves me?” He snorted. “She’s absolutely hopeless and it’s driving me insane.”  

Jake laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. Although, speaking of your sisters and their love lives, I swear to gods if Alice does not stop making out with Hannah while I’m in the forge, I might kill her.”  

He snickered, watching Cleo cheerfully help Max find a bow that was the right size for him. The son of Demeter looked like he was having trouble computing. “Like, bad making out, or just...?”  

“As in, I’m pretty sure Hannah was one step away from having Alice’s tongue down her throat.”  

Michael groaned quietly. “My siblings are so embarrassing.” Jake snickered and he flipped the other boy off, rolling his eyes. Their attention was suddenly caught by Cleo helping Max sort out his posture, stepping up inside his guard and putting her hands on his arms, guiding him into holding the bow properly. Max looked like he was having to physically restrain himself from stopping holding the bow and holding Cleo instead, and he blushed brightly, even more so when Cleo sorted him out, said some words of guidance, and stepped away, winking at the son of Demeter. Michael sighed heavily, and Jake snickered. “And she says I’m the flirt. Bitch.”  

Jake coughed suddenly. “Sorry?”  

Michael rolled his eyes, making quotation marks with his fingers. “I’m a Leo, and therefore flirtatious and dramatic.” He huffed, and Jake smirked, then looked away quickly.  

“I’d love to see you flirt.”  

“Why?”  

“I don’t know, just think it’d be funny. Can’t imagine you flirting.”  

Michael scowled. “Is that a challenge?”  

Jake grinned. “Maybe. Try it. Bet you can’t.”  

He frowned, trying to think of something decent to say, then quickly looked at the son of Hephaestus, deciding on something simple, and smirked as he crossed his arms and leaned forwards so he was in the other’s face. “Your eyes are the most stunning shade of bronze I’ve ever seen. Matches your hair.” He hummed softly, casually reaching out and twirling a strand of the other boy’s hair around his finger, and grinned as Jake blushed a deep shade of red, staring at him for a moment, then quickly looking away and clearing his throat.  

“Yeah, I take it back.” He said, voice strained. “You can definitely flirt. Gods, Michael.”  

Michael snickered, winking and leaning back, looking back towards Cleo, who had successfully got Max to fire a few shots close to the middle, which was impressive considering he was pretty sure the older boy couldn’t think straight right now. “Shame we’re just friends, then, if you’re that easy to fluster.” He teased, and Jake coughed again, voice still a bit tight.  

“Yeah, shame.”  

“Hm. Oh, go on Cleo.” He grinned as his sister started showing off, shooting double bullseyes with the excuse of ‘demonstrating technique’. Max looked like he was having trouble picking his jaw up off the floor.   

Eventually, the lesson ended, and Michael snickered as Cleo teasingly blew the son of Demeter a kiss as she walked out, bow in hand and quiver over her shoulder. Once she’d gone, Max stared at where she’d left for a moment, then groaned and buried his face in his hands, blushing brightly. Jake laughed and Michael smirked as the older boy quickly righted himself, grinning like an idiot, then grabbed his stuff and left, almost skipping back to cabin four. Jake and Michael grinned, quickly packing up their picnic blanket, and separated, Michael waving as he wandered off to take the piss out of Cleo. She was so dead for that show.  

Chapter Text

“Lee, you’re banned from the infirmary.” 

Michael perked up as he walked in through the front door of cabin seven and spotted Dan glaring at Lee, who was flopped on his bed miserably, his face pale. He quickly wandered closer to look at his brother in confusion, as Lee’s eyes were bloodshot, his normally tan skin was pale and pasty, and he looked absolutely fed up. Dan pointed an accusing finger at him. 

“You step one foot in the door of the big house and I’ll have Castor on your ass ASAP, you hear me? No more medic duty for a week, and one day of bed rest, minimum. Do you understand me?” 

Lee groaned, but nodded, throwing an arm over his face. Dan sighed and turned away, smiling when he spotted Michael, who was looking at his brothers in confusion. 

“Oh, hey bud. Didn’t see you over there. What are you doing today?” 

Michael frowned. “Alice said I can’t do archery because my hands are getting tired.” He looked at his hands in distaste, but knew that the red rawness of them probably wasn’t good. “And I don’t wanna do infirmary duty, so probably chilling with Jake later.” 

Dan smiled at that. “Well, do you wanna stick with Lee for a bit this morning? He’s been overworking in the infirmary, so he’s not allowed to leave the cabin unless Castor’s with him. Maybe you can invite Jake round this afternoon and you two can play cards or something with Lee and Cas?” 

Michael shrugged, wandering over to Lee’s bed. “Sure.” 

His brother sighed and sat up as Dan gathered his things to head to the infirmary, the Head Counsellor still studying the younger suspiciously. Lee took one look at Michael and immediately noticed the grazes on his hands, smiling and reaching for them. “Oh, here, let me help with that-” 

“Lee Felix Fletcher, if you are trying to heal something I am actually going to sedate you.” Dan popped back up, scowling, and held out his hands to Michael. “Here, bud, let me deal with that.” 

Michael shook his head. “It’s fine.” 

Dan raised an eyebrow at him. “I can see that it’s not. Give me your hands.” 

Michael sighed and reluctantly offered his hands to his brother, watching as the marks faded away. Dan nodded once he was done, giving Lee a pointed look and Michael a smile, then walked out the door, shutting it behind him. Lee huffed, flopping back on his bed, and gave Michael a weak smile. 

“Hey.” 

Michael raised an eyebrow at him. “Hi. You’ve been overworking?” 

He shrugged. “Not really, Dan just worries. I’m fine, see.” He raised his hands, but Michael narrowed his eyes at him. 

“Your hands are burnt.” 

“Oh.” Lee quickly put his hands down. “Forgot about that. Don’t worry.” 

Michael raised an eyebrow. “I feel like I should worry about that.” 

“Well, the only way you’d be able to help is by healing it.” Lee smirked, either expecting Michael to back off, or hoping he’d actually use his powers and practise. Michael glared at him for a minute, but it was the smug smile that got to him and he huffed, snatching his brother’s hands. 

“Fine. What do I do?” 

Lee grinned, holding out his hands happily. “You sing, and concentrate on imagining the skin healing over.” 

Michael looked at him, unimpressed. “I don’t want to sing.” 

“Then it looks like you can’t do it.” Lee smiled, retracting his hands, but Michael grabbed him and scowled, holding him put. 

“Shut up. I can do it.” 

“Go on then.” 

He sighed. “Do I have to sing?” 

“Yes. Or hum, but singing is much easier and I don’t think humming will work for you if you haven’t done it before.” 

 Michael groaned, but stubbornly held onto Lee’s hands, glaring at the peeling burns. Heal, heal, heal.  

He started to sing quietly under his breath, hoping Lee wouldn’t be able to hear him if it was quiet, because singing was embarrassing, and he felt a slight tug in his gut, before a flood of gold flew from his hands over Lee’s, mending the skin and healing the burns. His jaw dropped and he watched in slight awe, because that was really cool, before a sudden wave of exhaustion slapped him in the face, and he quickly passed out. 

When Michael woke, he was lying on his bed in cabin seven, and he could hear voices nearby. He groaned and sat up, rubbing at his eyes, and was met by three faces, all smiling at him. He scowled, confused, and Lee grinned, waving at him. “Hey sleepyhead! You passed out.” 

He frowned. “I what?” 

“You passed out, probably because you haven’t healed before, and it will be quite tiring for a while. You also won’t be able to- woah!” 

Michael attempted to stand off his bed, then his legs abruptly buckled under him and he faceplanted the floor, groaning. He heard a familiar laugh, and rolled over to see Jake grinning at him. “Hi. Want a hand?”  

Michael huffed, pulling himself up to sit. “No.” He paused, looking at the son of Hephaestus. “Wait, why are you here?” 

Castor, who he’d just noticed was sat next to Lee, smiled and waved cheerfully. “Hey! We’re gate-crashing.” 

Michael looked at him, brain whirring a bit slower than normal because he was sleepy. “You’re what?” 

“I invited them round to play cards.” Lee explained, placing a Queen of Hearts on a line of cards between the three other boys. “Cas was worried and Jake was bored, so I told him you’d be up soon, and you are! Good job by the way, you did it perfectly.” 

Michael pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have a headache.” 

Castor nodded. “Lee was the same when he started. Not fun, but it gets better.” 

“Ugh.” He slumped against Jake, who snickered and nudged him gently. 

“Cards?” 

“Maybe next round. I can’t think right now, and I have no idea what you’re playing.” 

“Seven of Diamonds. You need a full row of every suit, and the last person to put down a card loses.” 

Michael processed this. “Uh, in a bit. Shit, why does my head feel like it’s exploding?” 

Lee frowned. “Is it that bad?” 

He huffed. “Kinda. My vision’s funny too. Blurry. Is that normal?” 

“Uh... ish?” His brother tilted his head. “Are you hungry?” 

“Thirsty.” He sighed. “Did Cleo refill the water canister?” He stood to get a cup of water, forgetting he couldn’t walk, and almost faceplanted the floor again, but Jake caught him, gently pulling him back to seated by his shirt. The son of Hephaestus raised an eyebrow at him, then looked at Lee. 

“Is that meant to happen?” 

Lee shrugged. “I don’t think so.” 

Castor paused, looking at Michael, then snapped his fingers loudly. Michael flinched, and the son of Dionysus frowned, nudging Lee. “What were his test results?” 

Michael scowled. “Test?” 

Lee paused. “Uh, I don’t know.” 

“What test?” 

“A medical test, bud. Did Dan or anyone get you to sit down and they did a medical check on you?” 

“Uh...” He thought back. “No?” 

“Oh. Tim was meant to take you to get one.” Lee frowned. “I’ll mention it to Dan later. Come here bud, let’s do it now, just in case. We need a record of your medical history.” 

“We do?” Michael mumbled, shuffling over to lean against his brother instead. Lee looked at him in concern, then smiled at Jake.  

“Jake, would you pass me one of those clipboards to your left?” 

Jake turned right, then apparently realised his mistake and turned left. Michael snickered at him, and Jake rolled his eyes, passing over the clipboard. Michael attempted to read it over his brother’s shoulder, but his blurry vision did not help his dyslexia, and it was near-illegible. He huffed, and Lee hummed, nudging him gently. 

“Name?” 

“You know my name.” 

“Full name?” 

“Michael Yew.” 

“Do you have a middle name?” 

Michael scowled. “Do I have to give you it?” 

“Yes.” Lee ruffled his hair and Michael sighed reluctantly. 

“Fine. Jacob. Use it and we’ll have problems.” 

Jake hummed. “Michael Jacob Yew?”  

Michael glared at him, and Jake raised his hands in surrender. Castor snickered and Lee smiled, then continued. 

“Date of birth?” 

“August twelfth.” 

“Allergies?” 

“Don’t think so.” 

“Medical conditions?” 

“Does dyslexia count?” 

“Dyslexia times two for you.” Lee scribbled it down, his handwriting even more illegible than the form itself. “Parent’s name?” 

He scowled. “No.” 

“No? Your mom’s name, you have a mom.” 

“Why do you need it?” 

Lee hummed. “Someone to contact in case of emergency, or if you are severely injured.” 

Michael huffed. “Don’t bother. She won’t care.” 

“I still need a name, Michael.” 

“Ugh.” He groaned. “Do I have to?” 

“Yes. What’s your mom’s name?” 

“Fine.” He grumbled. “Natasha Yew.” 

Lee nodded, writing it down. “Phone number?” 

“Not a fucking clue.” 

“Lovely. Alright, give me your hand so I can fill in the last bit.” 

Castor glared at the son of Apollo. “Lee.” 

“Cas, a check uses so little energy, I won’t even feel it. And if I do, you can say I told you so and keep me on bed rest for three days. How’s that?” 

The two traded looks for a moment, much to Jake and Michael’s amusement, until Castor sighed heavily. “Fine.” 

“Thank you.” Lee smiled and returned his attention to Michael, holding out his hand. “Would you hold my hand, bud?” 

Michael sighed and took his hand, watching as a quick yellowish flash flew up his arm, over his body. The blur in his head didn’t clear, and Lee hummed for a moment, then abruptly stopped, his head snapping to look at Michael. Michael frowned. “What?” 

Lee stared at him, then coughed. “Uh, you know, mentioning that you have type one diabetes is usually useful.” 

Castor almost choked, and Jake looked at Lee in confusion as Michael frowned. “He has what now?” 

“What’s diabetes?” 

Lee paled. “Right. Reassuring.” The glow flashed over Michael again, and he paused. “Ah. Recently developed, that makes sense.” He looked at Michael. “So, bud! Things are about to get a little bit weird from now on, alright?” 

Chapter Text

A little bit was an understatement. 

As soon as Lee had figured out Michael had type one diabetes, he quickly rushed his brother to the infirmary, slamming the door open and staring down Dan when his brother glared at him. 

“Kill me later, but Michael has diabetes. Type one.” 

Chaos had pretty much ensued from there. 

Michael had never been good with needles, so he wasn’t thrilled to hear that he had to take insulin injections, and he’d not been massively happy when he heard about the condition itself. Cleo had sat down with him while Dan, Alice and Lee had conversed nearby, discussing the problem. 

“Alrighty bud, here’s what’s going on. Basically, have you ever heard of glucose?” 

Michael frowned at her in confusion. “No?” 

“Okay, so the simple version is basically that glucose is the sugar in your blood that gives you energy, right? And diabetes is a condition where your blood sugar gets too high or too low, and with type one that is because you don’t have enough insulin in your blood. Insulin controls the glucose levels, and your body just doesn’t produce enough of it, so it can make you feel bad, or pass out, and it can sometimes be life threatening. Alright, here’s the fun part: what you’re gonna have to do is inject insulin into your muscle to combat glucose levels, but you’re gonna have to do it every day.” 

Michael stared at her. “Every day?!” 

She winced. “Yup. Not fun, but it’s better than dying, so you’re gonna have to do it. Most mortals use a little pad on their arm that monitors their glucose levels, and tells them when they need to do something about it, so we’re gonna see if Chiron knows how to get one that demigods can use, because that would be really useful for you, yeah? Now, there’s a whole load of other bits and bobs you need to know, but the basics are...” 

The basics were that he had to watch out for hyper or hypo glycaemic emergencies, and he had to keep his sugar levels steady by eating the right sort of stuff. He also had to keep some form of sugary snack on him at all times, in case of a hypo glycaemic emergency, when his blood sugar level would drop and he’d need more sugar, like jelly babies.  

“But I didn’t have to do this before!” He’d complained to Cleo when his sister had explained everything, but Cleo just shrugged, ruffling his hair. 

“Sorry bud, but it’s a genetic condition that can develop at any time, normally when you’re young.” 

“I can still do stuff right? Like climb and shoot.” 

“I mean...” She hummed. “Yeah, I think so. You just have to be careful about your levels and take insulin a suitable amount of time beforehand. So you won’t be able to until we get some proper insulin injections and stuff you can use to measure your levels, but once we get all that, I think so.” 

“Oh. How long will that take?” 

Dan, who had been listening in, flopped down on the end of his infirmary bed, humming. “Not sure, bud. Might be a week, maybe a bit shorter.” 

Michael groaned. “A week?” 

“Mhm. Sorry dude, but that’s what we’re dealing with.” 

“On the plus side!” Alice sat next to Dan. “Lee said you did some good healing, even if that was what sped up your symptoms. Dan, do we have to guess when he needs insulin for now, or is there a time limit?” 

Lee shrugged, in process of flicking through a large book. “There's a general schedule, but we can adapt as needs be. Fast-acting insulin before meals to match carbohydrate intake and fix high blood sugar, and long-acting insulin once or twice daily for background coverage. Other than that, we could hook him up to something, but...” 

Michael grimaced. “No thanks.” 

“Alright.” Dan sighed, ruffling Michael’s hair. “Sorry buddy, but you’re gonna have to take it steady for a bit. You’re going to be up and down for a while.” 

He huffed. “Fine. I’m going for a walk then.” 

He stood, walking to the door, ignoring his head hurting a bit, then almost fell over and attempted to head-butt the floor. Lee caught him, book in one hand, and Michael groaned, his vision swimming as his brother gently pulled him back over to his bed. He was really thirsty, but he also felt like he needed to go bathroom at the same time, which wasn't reassuring.

Lee pressed his fingers to Michael's wrist, a quick flash of gold spreading along his wrist as he apparently checked the reaction. “Hyperglycemia. Hey Alice? I think it’s time for that insulin. His healing really sped up the symptoms.”  

Just at that point in time, the door of the infirmary flew open and Alex ran in, clearly having just worked out, with a towel around his neck and bow in one hand. “What’s going on? Chiron asked me if we’d figured out the insulin problem, and I had to tell him I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.” 

Dan sighed. “Good timing, actually. Can you grab an insulin injection from the tray to your right?” 

Alex looked at him. “That doesn’t answer my question.” 

“Just do it.” 

He sighed and grabbed a needle, wandering over, eyebrow raised. “Explanation?” 

“Michael’s diabetic.” Cleo hummed. “And Lee found out when Castor asked about his medical results, and apparently no one tested him.” 

Dan whipped up to look at his sister, in the process of sanitizing his hands. “Wait, what?” He looked at Michael. “You never got tested?” 

Michael frowned, shrugging as Lee sat him down on the bed again, which he appreciated. Hus muscles felt wobbly. “Don’t think so.” 

Lee hummed. “I had to fill out the form, and I checked and we don’t have one from before. Tim didn’t take him to get checked.” 

Alex scowled. “Seriously?” He handed the needle to Dan, then flopped down on Michael’s other side. Michael eyed the device warily. 

“Are you putting that in me?” 

Dan nodded, examining the contents. “Yup. This is your insulin.” 

He paled slightly, not liking the look of the needle. “Do I have to?” 

Alice smiled at him. “Not a fan of needles?” 

“It’s creepy.” 

Alex tilted his head, looking at it. “It kinda is, yeah. It’ll be quick, though.” 

Dan moved the needle towards Michael, and he hurriedly shuffled back, slightly freaked out. “What exactly does it do?” 

Lee smiled. “The needle is like a little tube, and Dan will poke it into your thigh, into the muscle, and inject the insulin into you subcutaneously.” 

He felt a bit queasy. “No.” 

“Sorry bud, but you kind of have to.” Cleo mused, and Dan smiled at him. 

“It’s quick, I promise.” 

He shook his head. “No.” 

Alex nudged him. “Come on buddy. It will make you feel better.” 

“Yeah, and it’s not as gross as Lee made it sound.” Alice hummed, ignoring Lee’s hurt look. “Dan just puts it against your leg for a second, and then it’s done.” 

“But Lee said it goes in me.” 

“It does, but it’s really quick and it doesn’t hurt.” Dan nodded, waving the needle slightly closer to Michael’s leg. Michael shuddered and shuffled back again, only to bump into Alex, who smiled and stretched his arms out to the smaller boy.  

“Do you want a hug? It doesn’t hurt, I promise.” 

Michael shook his head, tears in the corner of his eyes as the needle got closer, and he rapidly shuffled back, until he was quickly sat on his brother’s lap. He flushed in embarrassment, about to move, but Alex just smiled and lightly wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, giving him enough space to move and get out if he wanted to, but still a form of comfort. Michael looked up at him, a bit terrified, and Alex smirked, ruffling his hair.  

“I got you. Or Cleo, if you’d rather. And if Dan fucks up, I’ll make sure he never sees the light of day.” 

Michael smirked slightly, and Dan rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to screw up. Honestly, I have done thousands of injections, many on you from all the stupid diseases and injuries you get.” 

“Harsh.” Alex grinned and Cleo laughed, nudging Michael gently.  

“He’s good, don’t worry. I rate him a ten out of ten.”  

“Thanks.” Dan sighed, then smiled at Michael. “Alright. Good to go?” 

Michael scowled. “Do I have to?” 

“Mhm.” Alice nodded. “We can’t technically force you, but you will have to take it a lot, so it’s easier if you just get it over and done with. I promise you’ll be fine.” 

“Swear it on the Styx.” Lee nodded, ignoring Dan’s scowl at the curse, and walked over to stand next to Michael’s bed, smiling at the younger son of Apollo. He paused, seemingly noticing something in Michael’s expression, which made Michael scowl. He didn’t like when people knew what he was thinking. “I can do it instead if you’d prefer?” 

Michael hesitated, knowing he wanted to say yes but not wanting to upset Dan. His head counsellor just grinned and nodded. “Yup. Whatever you’d prefer, bud.” 

Michael sighed and nodded slightly. “Yes please.” He mumbled, and Dan chuckled, standing and passing Lee the needle once he’d sanitised his hands.  

“Knew you’d be a better counsellor than me one day.” 

Lee grinned, flopping down next to Michael, and smiled at his little brother warmly. “Alrighty. Shall we try this again?” 

Michael looked at the needle, then Alex’s arms around him, and took a deep breath. “’Kay.” 

“Alright. Want me to say when?” 

“Just do it.” 

“Okay.”  

He felt Lee’s hand on his leg and he flinched, tensing slightly. Lee chuckled, and Cleo smiled at him, offering her hand. “You’ve gotta relax, bud, or it will hurt later. Squeeze my hand instead.” 

He did so, only flinching slightly when he felt a quick prick against his leg, then Lee moved away. “Done.” 

Michael paused, confused. “Wait, that was it?” 

Alice laughed from where she and Dan were organising a tray of some sorts. “Yep! Better than you thought?” 

“I thought it would hurt a lot.” 

Cleo rolled her eyes teasingly. “We told you it wouldn’t, dummy.” 

“Good job.” Alex grinned, ruffling his hair, then gently squeezed his brother, humming happily. “Do I get more hugs when you need an injection? This is nice.” 

“Yes, because you’re completely deprived of hugs.” Lee rolled his eyes. “Cleo literally slept next to you last night.” 

“I’m deprived of Michael hugs. There’s not many times I get to hug someone smaller than me, since you and Cleo are both giants.” 

Michael scowled. “Nope, hug privileges lost.” He shuffled off his brother’s lap, and Alex sighed, pouting. Michael stuck his tongue out at him. “No hugs for sizeists. Cleo’s nice to me.” He moved over to his sister instead, who grinned and happily gave him a hug, letting Michael cling to her, finding himself feeling surprisingly clingy. Cleo was someone he’d got very close to in terms of physical touch, and be was pretty happy to let his sister poke him or hold him. It was nice, like how it was with Jasp.  

Lee chuckled, and Alex huffed, getting up and dramatically sulking over to Dan and Alice, who were watching the exchange in fits of laughter. Michael snickered, humming and happily clinging onto Cleo, playing with his sister’s long hair while Cleo stood and sat on the bed where Alex had been previously. He suddenly checked the clock and poked her. “It’s one. You have tree climbing practise.” 

Cleo froze. Tree climbing practise was what they’d used to describe her lessons with Max, just for the sake of a codename, and she was about to miss it. The daughter of Apollo quickly looked at Dan. “Dan! I’ve gotta go!” 

Dan frowned. “What for?” 

“Tree climbing practise!” She didn’t let him protest, and instead quickly stood, plopping Michael on the bed with a wink and racing out the door. “See ya!” 

“Braid!” Michael yelled after her, smirking as he recalled how absolutely obsessed Max had been with Cleo when she’d rocked up with her long golden hair in a braid the week before, and grinned as he watched his sister race back to cabin seven to quickly change. The second she was gone, Alice whirled on Michael. 

“Spill. Who’s she meeting?” 

Alex, Lee and Dan all simultaneously whipped around to look at her, and Lee coughed. “Sorry? Meeting?” 

Dan frowned. “She said tree climbing practise.” 

“Yeah.” Alex nodded. “Is she in a club or something?” 

Alice sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. “No, you morons, she’s meeting a boy, obviously. Michael, who is it?” 

Michael grinned, shrugging. “Confidential.” 

“Woah now, hold up.” Dan waved his hands. “Cleo’s meeting a boy? And you figured that out from tree climbing?”  

The daughter of Apollo huffed. “It’s an obvious code word. Demeter boy, clearly. Oh my gods.” She beamed, looking at Michael. “Is it who I think it is?” 

Michael smirked, tilting his head. Alice squealed, and Alex looked at them in confusion. “Wait, is this girl gossip? And Michael’s involved??” 

“Mhm. Ohh, of course.” Alice nodded, grinning at Michael. “That’s why she keeps stealing my sunglasses and jewellery.” 

“Yup.” Michael snickered. “She took fashion advice from me of all people. And he was drooling over her, so.” He raised his hands, grinning. “Call me the matchmaker, because if he doesn’t ask her out by next week I’ll be fucked.” 

“Oh my gods, I should have seen that. He’s so obvious, though.” 

Lee groaned. “Care to enlighten those of us who don’t speak girl talk? Who is Cleo seeing?” 

Alice rolled her eyes. “It’s obvious.” 

“It’s really not.” Alex huffed. “Speak fucking English.” 

“Language. But he’s right, talk us through it, Lizzy.” 

Alice groaned. “Fine, but follow along.” 

“We’re not that stupid.” 

“Sure, Alex. So, the easy part is that he’s clearly brunette.” 

Dan looked at her. “Naturally. Explanation?” 

Michael groaned. “By gods you’re all hopeless. Cleo’s type is clearly brunette, and the fact that she wears green shirts and eyeliner contributes to that.” 

Alice grinned. “Smart.” 

“It’s simple when you think about it. Colour coordination.” 

Lee looked like he was slowly gaining a migraine. “Sure. Let’s go back to that, but continue.” 

Alice snickered. “Next is that’s it’s a Demeter. Hence the tree climbing.” 

“Of course.”  

“And lastly is the name. So, you’re looking at Demeter boys, brunette, calm, level headed, smart but dumb around her, and good sense of humour.” 

Alex’s eye twitched. “I’m gonna need you to go back to that. You know this how?” 

Michael huffed, gesturing with his hands. “If Cleo’s type is a brunette, then her type is the opposite of her! Cleo’s dramatic, loud, quick on her feet and funny, but likes almost the opposite in a guy. It has to be someone that makes her laugh, but isn’t as bouncy or annoying, because then they’d clash.” 

“Max.” Lee said confidently, and Alice gave him a round of applause.  

“He gets it! You two will just have to live in confusion.” She waved at Dan and Alex, who looked absolutely bewildered. Alex shook his head, looking at Michael in amusement.  

“I’m hoping you’re straight, buddy, because you’d know just how to get a girlfriend if you get all that. Apollo almighty, girls are weird.” 

“I have faith. You’ll find one.” Dan patted him on the back. “I, however, will stick to the aro-ace tree, thanks. Good luck with all that!” 

“Bitch.” 

“Language.” 

Alice snickered, winking at Michael. “Wanna try that walk now? Maybe you can go find Jake.” 

Michael grinned, nodding. “Yup.” He got to his feet, carefully this time, and walked to the door, smirking when he made it to the exit without falling over. “Suck on that, diabetes.” 

Lee laughed, walking over to him and grinning. “Come on, let’s go before Dan accuses me of overworking again.” 

Dan rolled his eyes, waving them out. “Be careful! Michael, no proper exercise please!” 

“Boring!” He complained, but walked out with Lee anyway. Lee laughed. 

“Come on, take it steady. Let’s see how far we can get before you fall over again.” 

Chapter Text

His insulin and blood sugar monitor were there by the end of the week. Apparently, Chiron had found a monitor that didn’t use as much mortal technology and was better suited for demigods, so they’d got one of those for him, and while most of his siblings were at archery practise, Lee had Michael sit on an infirmary bed so he could explain it to him. They’d got as far as Lee explaining how the monitor worked (it used a mixture of magic and mortal science to sense the level of glucose in his blood under the skin where it was placed), before there was a knock at the infirmary door, and a familiar face poked their head in. Lee turned and smiled when he spotted him. 

“Beck! Hey dude, what’s up?” 

Beckendorf smiled back, then rolled his eyes. “Oh, nothing, just an idiotic brother burning himself in the forge.” 

“Hey!” Jake appeared next, holding his arm. “It’s not my fault the fire jumped at me!” 

“Fire doesn’t jump, Jake.” 

“Well, it did.” 

Lee chuckled, gesturing for Jake to take a seat on the cot next to Michael’s. “Come on in, let me sort it.” 

Beck dragged his brother inside, Jake protesting that he was fine the whole way, and shoved him onto the bed, then sat on the chair between Jake and Michael’s beds, smiling at the younger son of Apollo. “Hi Michael. What are you doing here?” 

Michael shrugged, watching as Lee explained to Jake that they were low on ambrosia and nectar for the time being, so he would have to clean and wrap the burn the mortal way. “Getting my monitor and stuff.” He pointed to the monitor, which was a small white disk that looked almost identical to mortal ones. Lee said that was to help it blend in if he ever went out in the mortal world. Beckendorf smiled. 

“Oh yeah, Jake told me about that. Type one diabetic, right?” 

Michael nodded. “Mhm. Not fun.” 

“No, probably not. Can I look at the monitor?” 

He shrugged again, and Beckendorf took this as a yes, carefully picking up the device and examining it, muttering to himself for a while. Lee finished up with Jake’s arm and turned back to Michael, rolling his eyes in fond exasperation when he spotted Beckendorf with the monitor.  

“Beck, let me actually explain it all to Michael before you start poking about. The kid’s been deprived of exercise and stuff all week, he wants to get out.” 

Michael scowled. “You didn’t let me train.” 

“I didn’t want you to have a hypo. Sue me.” 

He rolled his eyes, and Lee plucked the monitor out of Beckendorf’s hand, flopping down next to Michael on his bed and waving it at his brother. “Arm or stomach?” 

Michael thought about it. “Arm.” 

“Alrighty. I’m gonna put it just by your sleeve, okay?” He shuffled, gently placing the monitor on Michael’s arm, then showed Michael a small wristwatch that was sat on the table. “Right, that’s done. Now, the magic bit. This watch is gonna tell you how your blood sugar levels are.” 

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that just mortal tech?” 

“A little bit, but we’re hoping it’s too small to attract much monstrous attention. Certainly won’t attract anything while we’re in camp, but outside... we’ll see. Now, it’s a pretty simple one, okay? This watch.” He pointed at the watch, and Michael peered at it curiously. “It will beep when your sugar levels get too high or too low, and an arrow will flash up on the screen, either pointing up or down in indication of which way your levels are going. Now, you can also check the level itself, by tapping on the screen. The average blood sugar level is seventy to one hundred, so if it’s somewhere between that you’re alright. Any higher or lower, you have to keep an eye on it.” 

Michael looked at him for a moment, processing this. “Right. Does this mean I can train now?” 

He heard Beck snort beside him, chuckling, and Jake snickered. Lee rolled his eyes. “Did you listen to a thing I just said?” 

He frowned. “Yeah? Flashy arrows are bad, between seventy and one hundred is good. Can I go train?” 

Lee sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose, and Beckendorf laughed, casually taking the watch from Lee and waving at Michael. “C’mere, I’ll do it. Lee’s being a party pooper.” 

“Beck!” Lee complained as Michael grinned and swivelled around on his bed, holding out his arm to the older boy happily. “He needs to know how it works and what to do!” 

“He’s smart, he’ll figure it out.” Beck grinned, ruffling Michael’s hair teasingly. “Right buddy?” 

Michael smirked, nodding as he got off the bed and moved to grab his bow. “Yup! See ya later Lee!” 

“Hold up now.” Lee grabbed him when he ran past and Michael shrieked unconsciously, quickly pulling himself away. Lee winced. “Sorry bud. Forgot.” 

“It’s okay.” Michael grumbled, rubbing his arm and rolling his eyes. “What?” 

“You need insulin before you go exercise. We agreed that we'd try it because of your weirdly high glucose levels, and you didn't have a dose before lunch.” 

He groaned. “Really?” 

“Yes, go sit down.” 

Michael sulked back to his bed, attempting to hop back up onto the bed, but the step he’d been using was gone. He searched around for a while, coming up empty-handed, and sighed heavily, attempting to pull himself up, but it was difficult when the bed was higher than his chest. He failed, miserably, and Beck chuckled, offering him a lift up while Lee rummaged through something nearby. “Want a hand?” 

Michael scowled. “No thanks.” 

“Alright dude, but I don’t think you’re getting up there.” 

He rolled his eyes, attempting to pull himself up again, groaning in frustration when he failed for a second time. “Fucking thing. Why are the beds so tall?” He grumbled to himself, and Jake chuckled, waving at him cheerfully.  

“There’s a chair by my bed if you wanna sit with me?” 

Michael looked over, realising that the other boy was right, and wandered over, pulling himself onto the chair, then the bed next to Jake. He huffed, crossing his arms, and Jake smiled.  

“Better?” 

“Yeah.” He mumbled. “Thanks.” 

“Anytime.” 

Lee wandered over just then, smirking when he sat them sat together, and stood in front of Michael, holding a needle. “Alright bud. When was your last dose?” He asked, summoning a clipboard out of nowhere. Michael rolled his eyes. 

“You don’t have to record every time I have it.” 

“Well, I’m going to. Deal with it.” 

He huffed. “Fine. This morning.” 

Lee nodded, scribbling it down. “Okay. Who gave you the injection?” 

“Do you really need that?” 

“Yes. Go.” 

“Ugh. Cleo.” 

Lee nodded again, and Beck rolled his eyes, swiftly snatching the clipboard from his friend’s hands and peering at it. “Lee, what is this junk? Do you actually need his full name and date of birth every time you give him insulin?” 

Lee glared at the son of Hephaestus. “It’s useful.” 

“Gods, just make a chart or something. Tick it off if you inject him and let the kid play.” 

“That defeats the purpose! He needs to know all his medical information.” 

Beck rolled his eyes again, turning to Michael. “What’s your full name?” 

Michael snickered. “Michael Jacob Yew.” 

“Date of birth?” 

“August twelfth.” 

“Blood type?” 

“B positive.” 

Beck clapped his hands, snapping the clipboard shut. “Done! That’s basically all he needs. If he knows his blood type, he’ll be fine. I don’t even know mine.” 

Lee rolled his eyes. “Fine. Michael, insulin, before you jump off that bed and bolt out the door, because I’m pretty sure I won’t be fast enough to catch you.” 

Michael pouted, but sat still and let his brother inject him with insulin. He’d had quite a few injections over the last week, so he was more used to it now, but he still panicked slightly when the needle got close to his leg, instinctively grabbing onto the closest thing he could find. He didn’t realise until after the injection that this had been Jake’s hand, the other boy smiling and gripping back, his thumb rubbing comfortingly over the back of Michael’s hand. Michael smiled at him in thanks, humming as he kicked his leg about a bit to loosen off the weirdness of being injected. Lee smiled, ruffling his hair as he walked away with the needle, and Michael sat there for a moment more, before jumping off the bed and grabbing his bow, racing to the door. 

“Bye!” 

“Be careful!” Lee called after him. “Watch your levels!” 

“Yeah, yeah!” 

He ran out of the infirmary, unbelievably happy to be able to run again after his siblings had made him take this last week slow, and darted into the archery range, grinning as he grabbed his quiver and skipped over to a line of targets. Cleo laughed when she saw him, wandering over while Michael started shooting, very happy to have a bow in his hands again. 

“Did Doctor Lee suit you up?” 

“Yep!” He smirked, firing another arrow, then turned and showed his sister his monitor and watch. “Flashy arrows are bad, between seventy and one hundred is good.” 

Dan, who had been listening in from a few rows down, chucked. “That’s the one, bud. Cleo’s got some other stuff for you too.” 

Michael looked at his sister curiously, and Cleo smirked, producing a satchel from nowhere. “Ta da!” 

He raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “What is it?” 

“It’s your bag of goodies.” She nodded, opening the bag and showing him the contents. “Two needles in protective cases, six fast-acting insulin capsules for the needles, some sanitary wipes for cleaning the needles and a bag of skittles. Some mortals have an automatic insulin pump, but we don’t have that, so if you need insulin you’ll have to use a needle. Find one of us and we can do it for you until you get the hang of it.” 

Dan smiled, wandering over and pointing at the insulin capsules, which were neatly packaged in bubble wrap. “If you get low on insulin, bud, you go straight to the cabin and get more, okay? Doesn’t matter what you’re doing, doesn’t matter how well you might feel, if you’re down to your last one, you go get more. We’ll store them next to your bed or something, yeah?” 

Michael tilted his head, looking at it. “What are the skittles for?” 

“If your blood sugar drops and you have a hypo.” Cleo hummed. “No eating them otherwise. If you don’t like the satchel we can find something else to store it all in, but you need to keep it on you, okay?” 

Michael sighed, but took the satchel anyway. “Okay. Can I shoot now?” 

Dan chuckled and Cleo smiled. “Go ahead.”  

That was all the encouragement he needed. 

Chapter Text

It was a few weeks later when something properly exciting happened.  

Michael had been getting used to his condition, with only a few almost-hypos and minor emergencies, but he hadn’t quite got to the point where he could do his own injections yet, so he was still reliant on his siblings being nearby to help, which was annoying. At that point in time, he was sat (reluctantly) doing some science work with Alice, which was much easier to read now that he’d been given Greek textbooks instead, but they were interrupted when Cleo burst in through the front door of the cabin, beaming, and ran to flop on her bed, giggling as she buried her face in the pillow. Michael and Alice looked at each other in confusion, and Michael was about to wander over and poke at his sister until she gave up her secrets, but Lee beat him to it, his older brother swinging down from his bunk where he’d been sat with Castor, listening to music together through some wired headphones and playing chess. Lee sat next to Cleo, nudging her gently and raising an eyebrow when she looked up at him, grinning.  

“What is it? What happened?”  

Cleo didn’t offer anything in reply, she just smiled and giggled, looking over at Michael and grinning. Michael caught her gaze and squeaked, instantly bolting to his feet and running over. “Seriously?”  

Cleo laughed, burying her face back in her pillow, hands flitting around happily, and Michael grinned, bouncing around the cabin.   

“You’re kidding me!”  

“Nope!” She squeaked, laughing, and Michael flopped onto the bed next to her, throwing his arms around his sister best he could in a hug. Cleo giggled and sat up, hugging him and grinning, and Michael smirked, swatting her on the head lightly.  

“I told you, I fucking told you!”  

“Shut up! Oh gods, I didn’t actually think-”  

Lee cleared his throat, Alice now standing next the bed with him, and Michael could see Castor poking his head down in interest. “Care to inform the rest of the class of what’s going on?”  

Alice, who had been looking at them in confusion, suddenly caught on and grinned. “No way.”  

“Yes way!” Cleo beamed, gently squeezing Michael happily. Alice laughed, ruffling her sister’s hair and smiling.  

“Good job. Apollo almighty, good job.”  

Lee groaned, and Castor looked at them in confusion. “What are you on about?”  

Lee sighed heavily, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. “I don’t know! It’s some sort of girl gossip, and somehow Michael’s in on it, but I don’t get it! They just look at each other and boom!” He gestured to them. “They’ve discussed world politics or something!”  

“It’s like what you two do.” Alice hummed, smirking as Cleo bounced up and down on the bed, Michael sliding off her lap and grinning at her. “Not that hard to understand.”  

Castor snickered, patting Lee on the head comfortingly. “Good luck. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what girl talk is if you slapped me in the face with it, and Lux is no help.”  

“Cas, that’s not useful.”  

“I’m aware.” He grinned, then looked at Cleo in amusement. “What happened?”  

Cleo opened her mouth, then closed it again, took a deep breath, and a flood of words spilled out of her mouth, so fast Michael could barely keep up.  

“So basically, you know how I had lessons with Max today? Well I got there and he was waiting and he’d got out all the gear and everything which was so sweet of him and I walked over and was about to start and he grinned at me and asked if he could try something and he started shooting and-” She looked at Michael excitedly. “He practised, he fucking practised because he wanted to get better and he was actually pretty good and he’s been hiding it from me and he did like three bullseyes in a row and oh my gods, my jaw dropped and he smirked at me and then walked over and asked if we could skip practise today because he had an idea and he took me on a fucking date down to the lake and we went on a walk and chatted and then he looked at me with this really weird expression and I thought he was going to pull a dick move and mess with me or something but it was really unlike him so I was just confused and then-” She paused, gasping for breath as she grinned. “And then he kissed me and I was almost screaming and he asked me out and oh my days we have a date on Friday.”  

She sighed, letting it all out, then flopped back on her bed, giggling and covering her face with her hands. Michael beamed, offering Alice a high five as his sister laughed, and Lee looked at them in complete and total confusion, then gestured at Cleo with one hand.  

“You got all that from a look?! What the hell?!” 

Castor burst into laughter, and Cleo giggled, getting up and hugging Lee happily. “Yep! I have a date oh my gods.”  

Michael laughed, and his sister grinned, smiling as she gently picked him up and spun him around the room happily. He grinned at her, clinging on and laughing. “You’ve got a date!”  

“I’ve got a date! Apollo almighty, what just happened?”  

Dan, who had suddenly appeared in the entrance to the cabin, paused, looking at Cleo in confusion. “Sorry?”  

She put Michael down and twirled over to him, grinning. “I’ve got a date!”  

Dan smiled, ruffling her hair, then paused, his gaze darkening slightly. “With who?”  

“Max!” She smiled, then noticed her brother’s expression and stopped in her tracks. “No.”  

Dan’s eyes narrowed, and he looked to Alice, who nodded her head and smirked, grabbing her knives off her beside table. Lee, who was apparently aware of what was going on, grinned and unslung his bow, walking out the door. “I’ll get Alex, y’all find him.”  

Michael, who was extremely confused, looked at them all. Cleo was glaring Dan and Alice down, Alice smirking and Dan scowling. “What’s going on?”  

Castor swung upside down from Lee’s bed, waving Michael up. “Come up here and I’ll tell you. Get out of the line of fire.” He winked, pulling himself back up, and Michael frowned, but climbed up after him, settling next to the son of Dionysus and watching the scene unfold as Lee returned with Alex, both looking almost maniacal as they started plotting with Dan and Alice while Cleo complained, and Castor narrated the whole thing as if it was a nature documentary. “So, as you can see here, since Cleo is second youngest, everyone older than her has to give Max a shovel talk.”  

Michael frowned. “What’s a shovel talk?”  

“They scare the life out of him and threaten him into treating her right.”  

He processed this, then smirked. “Seriously?”  

Castor nodded gravely, grinning. “Lee’s been waiting for his turn at it for ages, since he saw Hannah get one from Dan a few years back. It’s really funny, and an Apollo child tradition.”  

“Can I do one?”  

“Unfortunately, no.” He hummed, and Michael pouted. Castor smirked, leaning slightly closer to whisper to him. “However, if you were to accidentally fire an arrow two inches away from his head with a scowl on your face, I don’t think that’s breaking the rules.”  

Michael grinned, looking at him. “Seriously? You’d permit that?”  

The son of Dionysus shrugged, raising his hands and grinning. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no influence over the rule, and I most definitely do not know that the Demeter cabin has arts and crafts right now.”  

Michael smirked, saluting the other boy, then slipped off the bed and jumped out the nearest window, the rest of his siblings occupied as they discussed the best way to scare the shit out of Max. He heard Castor laugh quietly behind him, and he grinned, running to the arts and crafts pavilion, bow slung over his shoulder.   

As soon as he’d spotted Max and was in range, he nocked two arrows in his bow and fired, scoring one either side of the son of Demeter’s head. Max shrieked, and his siblings instantly went into panic mode, running around and trying to figure out where they’d come from, but Michael just glowered and stared at the older boy until Max looked his way, paling when he spotted Michael stood with his arms crossed, bow in hand. He raised an eyebrow, smirking as the son of Demeter blushed, and glared at the other boy, pointing an accusing finger at him before turning on his heel and marching away, grinning once he was out of sight and darting back to cabin seven, slipping back inside and retaking his place next to Castor, the son of Dionysus snickering when he noticed Michael’s shit-eating grin, just in time for his siblings to turn around and Dan to point at them seriously.  

“Michael, stay put. Cas, make sure he doesn’t move. We’ll be back in ten minutes.”   

It was safe to say, when they eventually did return, Michael was named the official assassin of cabin seven. Cleo even made him a badge, laughing.   

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.  

Chapter Text

Christmas was officially one of the best things ever, in Michael’s opinion. They hadn’t even reached Christmas day yet, and he was already completely on board with the idea. Dan had told him the religious Christian story behind it, despite Cleo protesting that he didn’t actually need to know, and once the history aspect was covered, Cleo and Alex had completely taken over, chatting to Michael about all the cool traditions and fun things they were going to do, and he had to admit; it sounded awesome. Presents, decorations, lights, funky dishes; it all seemed fun and new. This theory was further reinforced when Lee dragged him inside the cabin after lunch one day, closely followed by Cleo, and convinced him to flop down by a large pile of paper, glue, glitter, stickers, paint and who knew what else. Michael raised an eyebrow at them and Cleo smirked, pointing to the pile. “We’re making decorations.” 

“We are?” 

“Yep.” Lee grinned at him, then picked up a piece of paper and some scissors, followed by a glue stick. “Ever made a paper chain before?” 

By dinnertime, Michael had made seven, all in varying shades of gold, green, white and red, and happily helped his siblings string them around the cabin with Lee and Cleo’s pile as well, loving how cheerful they made everything look, particularly when Alex added lights too. He also wanted to help put up the lights, but soon discovered that he most definitely was not tall enough to help bluetack the light strings to the ceiling, and after much pouting and banter he had been convinced by Alex to let himself be picked up in order to stick the lights down. He wasn’t happy about it, and Alex had teased him relentlessly for the rest of the day, but he didn’t care all that much by the time campfire rolled around, since he was able to squirrel off to sit by Jake when his siblings went onstage for singalong. Jake burst into laughter the second he saw the son of Apollo, and Michael raised an eyebrow, confused. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yep.” Jake grinned at him, smirking as the other boy flopped down next to him while Dan started singing a campfire song onstage, and Michael scowled at the son of Hephaestus when Jake continued to snicker at him. 

“What? Did Alex draw on my face?” 

Jake grinned, shaking his head, and leaned over to gently swipe his finger over the tip of Michael’s nose, his finger coming away coated in silver and gold. “You’ve got a bit of glitter, just there. And... everywhere else.” 

Michael groaned, quickly rubbing his face, dismayed when his hands turned sparkly as a result, and scowled at the glitter, ignoring Jake’s laughter. “No one told me!” 

“What have you been doing? It’s even in your hair!” 

He huffed, swiping a hand through his hair, which probably didn’t help, judging by Jake’s expression, and rolled his eyes at the son of Hephaestus, crossing his arm indignantly. “I was making paper chains. Lee and Cleo forced me to make decorations with them.” 

“You say that like you didn’t enjoy it.”  

“Shut up.” Michael slapped him lightly, then sighed and leant against his friend’s side, glaring at Alex, who winked at him from the stage. Jake snickered, nudging him gently. 

“Don’t get it on me!” 

“Oh, I will.” He grinned and reached a hand up to swipe along Jake’s arm, covering the other in glitter, and Jake squeaked, batting him away as Michael laughed and began to cover the other boy in as much glitter as physically possible. Jake had to pin his arms to stop the attack, both of them laughing, and Michael wriggled around, trying to escape his friend’s grip, but Jake was too strong and held him steady, arms wrapped around the son of Apollo securely. He glared at the other boy, Jake grinning victoriously. “I hate you.” 

“No, you don’t.” Jake smirked, but let him go anyway, then squeaked as Michael instantly swiped a trail of glitter across his face in retaliation. “Hey! I just let go!” 

Michael just smirked, gesturing between them with a smug expression. “Who’s glittery now?” 

“Still you. It’s on the back of your shirt as well.” 

He groaned, ignoring Jake’s laugh, then paused as Beck turned towards them from where he was sat on the row above, closely followed by Ally, and burst into laughter when he saw the boys. “What the heck are you doing?” 

Ally started snickering at them and Jake pointed to Michael, grinning. “It’s his fault! He started it!” 

“I did not!” 

“You so did! You’re the one who brought the glitter here.” 

“No one told me I was sparkly!” He complained, and Ally grinned, winking at Michael as she gestured to the top of Jake’s head. 

“I think you missed a spot, dude.” 

“Ally!” Jake huffed, batting Michael away as the son of Apollo instantly grinned and tried to get glitter in his hair. “Get off!” 

“Stop being tall!” Michael complained back, scowling as he tried to reach up to his friend’s head, Jake rather effectively stopping him by putting his hands on the smaller’s shoulders, eyebrow raised. Michael scowled at him. “This is sizeist.” 

“You’re literally trying to get glitter in my hair. This is not my fault.” 

“Yes it is! You need to shrink.” 

“Maybe you need to grow.” 

He glared at the son of Hephaestus, stabbing a finger at the other boy as Jake smirked. “You’re on thin fucking ice. I’m not short.” 

“You’re like, four foot.”  

“Shhh.” He smacked the other, glowering. “I am not. I refuse.” 

“I don’t think that’s how it works.” 

“Shut up, shut up, shut up.” He batted Jake away, huffing, and Jake grinned as he rolled his eyes, flipping the son of Hephaestus the middle finger. “I’m not short.” 

“Mhm.”  

The next Christmas tradition he was introduced to consisted of Alice dragging him to the Big House kitchens with Hannah and Jake a few days later, where Michael was quickly confronted by a mixing bowl full of curved white and red sticks. He raised an eyebrow at his sister, confused, and showed her the bowl. “What am I doing with these?” 

“Smashing them.” Hannah grinned, offering him a rolling pin, and gestured slamming the end of the pin into the sticks. “Just into chunks, not dust.” 

“Why?” He looked at the sticks in confusion, and Alice smirked, pointing to a bag of chocolate chips on the counter as she pulled a set of scales from somewhere while Jake peered at the contents of Michael’s bowl curiously.  

“We’re gonna put them in some brownies to make them Christmassy, of course.” 

Michael looked back at the sticks sceptically. They looked sort of like plastic. “Are they even edible?” 

Jake stared at him for a second in confusion, then pointed to the sticks. “They’re candy canes?” 

“Right.” He raised an eyebrow. “Am I supposed to know what that means?” Michael picked one up curiously, then frowned at it, baffled. “Why is it sticky? And wonky.” 

He received three identical shocked gazes, until Hannah slowly pointed to the stick. “You know what a candy cane is, right?”  

Michael looked at her, then the stick. “No? What do I do with it?”  

“You like, lick it.” Jake stared at him. “Or chew it if you’re impatient. You’ve never seen a candy cane before?” 

“No? Am I supposed to? What even is it?” He studied the stick, still confused. 

“Michael.” Alice slowly pointed to the sticks, expression slightly heartbroken. Michael didn’t get why. It was just a stick. “Those are like, the most common non-chocolate sweet ever at Christmas time. You literally can’t walk into a shop during December and not see one. You’ve seriously never had one?” 

“Oh.” Michael looked back at the sticks, understanding, and smiled slightly. “They’re sweets. Makes sense, my mom hates sugar.” He smiled, then hummed and put the bowl on the counter, stepping onto the small step he’d brought with him, and started to crush up the sticks, only stopping when he realised the other three were still looking at him. “What?” 

“Let’s go back to that while the brownies are cooking.” Hannah decided eventually, flashing Michael a weak smile as she ruffled his hair and moved to grab a bag of sugar, Alice slowly following afterwards, still looking at Michael in concern. Michael didn’t quite get why, since his mother had always hated anything sugar-related entering the house because it was ‘unhealthy’, and therefore he wasn’t massively surprised by not having seen a candy cane. It had happened before, usually when someone at school had showed him some sort of sweet thing he’d never seen.  

After a minute, Jake slowly walked over to stand beside him, seemingly in the process of heating a bowl of chocolate and butter in the microwave in front of where Michael had begun to smash the sticks, and looked at the son of Apollo curiously as Michael frowned at the bowl, trying to figure out whether the chunks were the right size now, or needed more smashing.  

“Are you going to try one?” 

“Huh?” Michael looked up at him, and Jake gestured to the sticks, most of which definitely needed more smashing. 

“Do you want to try one? They’re fun.” He pulled a larger chunk out of the bowl and offered it to Michael, before grabbing one for himself too. Michael took it carefully, still confused by the stickiness. 

“What’s in it?” 

“Uh...” Jake looked at it for a minute, then shrugged. “Just sugar, I think. And mint.” 

“Mint?” Michael peered at the stick. “Isn’t mint green?” 

“Maybe?” 

They looked at each other for a second, then Michael shrugged and carefully put it in his mouth, confused when his tastebuds were immediately taken over by mint. It tasted sort of like toothpaste, if toothpaste was sweet, and he raised an eyebrow at Jake, who smirked back, having put his own candy cane chunk in his mouth too.  

“Nice?” 

Michael tilted his head, perplexed by the mintiness, then shrugged, mumbling around the chunk, which had not dissolved, and seemed too solid to bite. “Minty.” 

Jake grinned. “Pretty much. I know a guy who used to eat these before bed if he hadn’t brushed his teeth, because they make your breath smell minty.”  

Michael snickered at that one, then went back to smashing candy canes, taking a certain satisfaction in the way they crunched as he sucked on the one in his mouth, which seemed to be slowly shrinking. Eventually, it was gone, and he sneakily stole another when he passed the bowl to Alice to put in the brownies, secretly rather liking them. What he soon realised after that one had gone, however, was that they left a weird sensation in his mouth, and he frowned, confused. “My teeth are squeaky.” 

Hannah laughed, ruffling his hair. “Did you try a candy cane?” 

“Yeah.” He tilted his head at the older girl, perplexed. “Why are my teeth squeaky?” 

“Not sure. It just happens sometimes. Maybe something to do with it being ninety percent sugar?” 

Michael frowned, humming over the sensation for a bit, not sure what to think of it, until Alice grinned and handed him a glass of water, which soon got rid of the squeakiness, much to his appreciation. That had been a bit weird. Jake just snickered at him, teasing, until Michael started to chase the other boy around the kitchen with a spatula, both grinning as Hannah and Alice laughed at them. Maybe candy canes weren’t that bad after all.  

Chapter Text

It was still snowing in camp on the twentieth of December, and Michael shivered as he reached a gloved hand up to knock on the Hephaestus cabin door. It was just after lunchtime, and he was pretty sure his nose was going to freeze off if he didn’t get inside sometime soon, so he was relieved when Beckendorf opened the door a moment later, one eyebrow raised at the son of Apollo. “Hello?”  

“Hi.” He grumbled, leaning to the side to see if his friend was in the cabin. “Is Jake here?”  

Jake’s head popped out behind Beck, and the son of Hephaestus waved cautiously. “Hey?”  

“Oh, thank fuck.” Michael sighed in relief, lifting the thick textbook he’d been carrying under his arm since he’d left cabin seven, and thrust it in Jake’s direction. “Do you have any idea how to solve algebra problems?”  

Both sons of Hephaestus blinked at him, and Beck scratched his head, a small smirk slipping over his face. “That’s why you’re knocking on the door in so many coats you look like am eskimo?”   

He glared at the older boy. “Its cold.”  

“You must be drowning in that many layers.”  

“Then let me in so I can take one off!” He snapped, ducking past Beck and darting inside, refusing to spend a single second longer in the freezing temperatures as he elbowed Jake until his friend shut the door. The heat was immediate, and he sighed happily as he shucked off his large winter coat and jacket, rubbing his arms to return circulation to them. “Thank fuck.”  

Jake raised an eyebrow at him. “Why algebra?”  

“Because,” He walked over to Jake’s bunk, tossing the book onto the bed with a huff and pointing at it. “Dan set me homework. And it doesn’t make sense.”   

Beckendorf chuckled, patting Jake on the head as he walked away into the cabin. “Call if you need help, dude. Good luck.”  

Michael just huffed, then shivered again and clambered over the bed towards Jake’s drawers, rummaging through for a minute before coming up unsuccessful and glaring at his friend. “Where are your hoodies?”  

Jake blinked, then grinned. “Are you robbing me?”  

“Yes. Stand and deliver; it’s fucking cold.”  

The son of Hephaestus snickered, but tugged an orange hoodie out of somewhere and handed it over anyway, smirking as Michael immediately burrowed into it in search of warmth. Once he was satisfied, he flopped onto Jake’s bed and pointed at his friend accusingly.   

“Do you know how to do algebra problems?”  

Jake grinned, sitting beside him and picking up Michael’s textbook, flicking through it casually. “Depends what sort.”  

“There’s different types of algebra??”  

“Yup.”  

“Kill me now.”  

Jake laughed, casually ruffling Michael’s hair with one hand as the son of Apollo flopped onto his stomach and wriggled over, head on his hands as he watched Jake flip through the textbook. “Not a fan?”  

“I hate math.”  

“I can tell.” He grinned, then frowned and looked at Michael. “Couldn’t you ask one of your siblings about this? Not that I don’t want to teach you algebra, but-”  

 Michael huffed, cutting him off with a wave. “Lee’s flirting with Cas, Cleo is with Max, Alice and Dan are in the infirmary and it is way too cold in there so Alex is the only one in the cabin. And he’d bully me.”  

Jake snickered, but found the correct page and opened the book up fully, joining Michael in lying on his stomach and pulling a pencil from his pocket. The page was covered in numbers, letters and blank spaces with badly rubbed out pencil marks from Michael’s previous failed attempts to complete them. There was also a large scribble mark in the corner of the page that he’d tried to rub out after he’d got angry and attacked the book, but it was still rather visible, and Michael sighed as Jake raised an eyebrow at the rage mark. “I was frustrated.”  

“I can tell.” Jake smirked, then tapped the first equation with his pencil. “Right. x+4=9. Find x. Which bit doesn’t make sense?”  

Michael huffed, crossing his arms in front of him and leaning on them as he nodded the page. “All of it. Why is there a letter in it? Math is numbers!”  

Jake chuckled, nodding along. “Yeah, I see your point. But, think of it like this.” He pointed to the page, then scribbled an equation next to the original one, reading ?+4=9. “x is just a question mark. It’s like saying ‘what plus four equals seven?’. They just use x as a placeholder.”  

Michael frowned. “But why x? Why not t or o or m?”   

Jake shrugged. “x is just the most common one, because you can’t really mistake it for a numbers. O looks like a zero, and s could be a five. T might look like a plus sign if your handwriting is bad, but a curved, lowercase x is unmistakable.”  

“Right.” He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “But why a letter? You could use a colour, or a symbol or something.”  

“For simplicity, I think. Everyone can use the alphabet, but not everyone has coloured pencils or can draw an & sign. It’s just how it is.” Jake smiled, the pointed to the page. “So, just picture the x as a question mark and work it out like a normal question.”  

Michael nodded, then frowned at the question. He’d never understood math; it just looked like a bunch of numbers to him. None the less, he was determined to prove to Jake that he could do something mathy, so he squinted at the question for a while, imagining a question mark instead of an x. Eventually, it made sense, and he grinned as he sat up slightly. “Five!”  

Jake grinned and gave him a small round of applause, and Michael blushed slightly, not meaning to outburst like that. Jake seemed thrilled, however, and he smiled at his friend gratefully.   

“Thanks.”  

“No problem.” Jake grinned, then nodded to the book again. “Wanna keep going?”  

“Yes please.” He nodded, flopping back down against Jake’s side as they hummed over it together.   

“-which means that’s eight minus five, which-”  

“Two!”  

“Eight minus five is three, Mike.”  

“Oh. Right. Then what’s that?”  

“That’s a seven.”  

“Why is there a line through it?”  

“Because that’s how I write a seven?”  

“The fuck? Why’d you give it a necklace??”  

“I- Okay, you cannot talk with your handwriting.”  

“Uncalled for!”  

“Totally not. Anyway, math.”  

“Ugh.”  

Half an hour later, they had finished the two pages Michael needed to do, and he smiled as he hugged Jake, his friend grinning. “Thank you so much.”  

Jake smiled. “Makes sense now?”  

“Yep.”  

“Good.” The son of Hephaestus nodded, then looked at Michael book, flipping through the pages curiously. “How long is this thing?”  

Michael groaned, flopping back on the bed. “Too long.”  

“Are you going to do all of these?”  

“Thankfully, no.” He leaned over as flicked to the back of the book, pointing to a certain section. “I get to skip this, amongst other bits.”  

“Right.” Jake peered at it, and Michael was confused to note a cautious blush rising in his friend’s cheeks as the other pointed to the book carefully. “Do you mind if I complete it? Like, the questions you won’t do?”  

Michael blinked. “Um. Sure...? Why would you want to?”  

Jake blushed further, the pink tint slowly turning reddish as he chewed his lip, looking at the pencil in his hand. “Because I like it...? You don’t mind, right?”  

Michael looked at him for a minute, then burst out laughing. Jake looked at him in surprise, then smiled embarrassedly as the son of Apollo snickered. “You are such a nerd.”  

“Hey! I am not.”  

“You just asked to do my math problems. And blushed about it.”  

“I did not!” Jake huffed, and Michael smirked, gesturing to the book.  

“Go ahead.”  

“You’re sure?”  

He rolled his eyes, shoving the book towards his friend with a grin. “Yes, be a nerd. Go on.”  

Jake grinned, taking the book happily and flopped onto his stomach again as he thumbed through the outlined pages, chewing on the pencil. Since it was towards the end of the book, it was much harder than what Michael had been doing, but Jake seemed to have no problem, smiling as he neatly pencilled in the answers. Michael stared, since while he knew Jake was smart from all the nonsense ramblings about measurements in the forge, he hadn’t expected him to be that smart. The page was meant to be completed with a calculator, but Jake was breezing through it easily, brown eyes alight with- was that joy? Excitement? Michael couldn’t tell, but if he was that excited about math, then he really needed to tease the other about his nerdiness. What a weirdo.   

None the less, he smiled as he watched Jake fill in the answers, then realised that he’d gone almost forty minutes without being a little shit, and this wouldn’t do. He smirked and rolled over to where Jake’s beside drawers were situated in the wall beside his bunk, which Jake was currently lying in front of, and casually crawled up to sit on his friend’s back as he rummaged through the son of Hephaestus’ drawers nosily. Jake squeaked at first, then laughed when he realised what Michael was doing and swatted at the archer, smiling. “You won’t find anything interesting, I promise you. Just shirts and underwear.”  

Michael ignored him and continued to shuffle through the contents of the drawers, coming up with, sure enough, just shirts. The sleeves on his (stolen) hoodie got in the way, and he huffed as he flopped off Jake and held his arms out to his friend in exasperation. “Roll my sleeves up, it doesn’t work when I do it.”  

Jake raised an eyebrow, but smirked and did as asked, rolling the sleeves up to just above Michael’s wrists to free his hands, tucking the ends in to secure them in a move Michael hadn’t seen before. He took notes. “Is this so you can poke about more effectively, your Highness?”  

“Yup.” He popped the p, smiling when his hands were finally free, wiggling his fingers happily. “Thanks.”  

“No problem.”  

Jake went back to his math, and Michael resumed his position of perching on the son of Hephaestus’ lower back, humming as he rooted around. At one point  he came across a folded pile of blue denim, and he gasped victoriously. “So you do own jeans!”  

Jake raised an eyebrow, looking over his shoulder. “Did you think I didn’t?”  

“Well, all you ever wear is joggers or other things.” He huffed, moving the jeans aside and continuing his search. “I didn’t think you had anything else.”  

Jake hummed, nodding as he turned back to his math. “Do you own jeans?”  

He snorted. “Obviously.”  

“Well, you never wear them either!”  

“That’s because jeans are restrictive!”  

“Only if they’re skin-tight.”  

“Well, maybe mine are- ooh.” He pulled a box, brightly wrapped in silver paper, out of the drawer and peered at it curiously. “What’s this?”  

“Huh?” Jake tried to look over his shoulder again, but apparently did not have that flexible a neck, and had to shove Michael off. “Let me roll over.”  

“I will just sit on your stomach instead.”  

“Why-? Oh, whatever. What are you- ugh.” Jake huffed as he rolled over and Michael promptly sat on his stomach, still studying the silver box. Jake sighed, then frowned and looked at Michael worriedly. “Why are you so light?”  

Michael raised an eyebrow at him. “You literally just said ow.”  

“Because I wasn’t expecting it, but gods, Mike.” Jake sat up, gaze concerned as his hands fitted around the son of Apollo. “I knew you were small, but I didn’t think you were that small.”   

“I’m not small.” He glared at the other, offended. “I’m perfectly average.”  

Jake just arched an eyebrow at him, then frowned and shuffled to the edge of the bed, Michael still sat on him, and gently placed his hands on the smaller’s hips. “Can I...?”  

Michael frowned, but shrugged, not quite sure what Jake was intending on doing. The son of Hephaestus hummed and carefully lifted off the bed, holding Michael by his waist in front of him. Michael yelped, quickly wrapping his arms around Jake’s neck and legs around his waist for balance, caught off-guard, and Jake’s arms moved to hook under his legs, holding him up as the other stared at him worriedly.   

“Mike...”  

“What?” He huffed, batting away Jake’s hands. “Put me down.”  

He did so, but the son of Hephaestus stood back and chewed his lip afterwards, looking worried. “You’re ridiculously light. Like, unhealthily light. How much do you weigh??”   

Michael blushed. “I don’t know. I’m fine, though.”  

They looked at each other for minute, then Jake huffed and gently grabbed his hand, tugging the son of Apollo through the cabin. Michael frowned, looking at him in confusion.   

“What are you doing?”  

“Stand there.” Jake ushered him over to the wall, where a black sharpie line with a tape measure stuck beside it ran up the wall, a pen blue-tacked to the other side. Jake manoeuvred Michael into standing at the foot of the line, and grabbed the pen, his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth as he carefully drew a line above Michael’s head, smirking slightly. “You’re four foot. Congrats.”  

Michael huffed, shoving him away with an eye roll. “Fuck off. Besides, you’re not that much taller than me.”  

Jake raised an eyebrow and pointed to a line higher than Michael’s, with ‘ J.M, 10’ written next to it. “I have seven inches on you.”  

“Fuck off.”  

His friend just smirked, neatly writing ‘ M.Y, C7, 10’, next to Michael’s mark on the line. There were several lines like it along the wall, all close to the same tape measure and neatly annotated, and Michael squinted as he read some of the initials, recognising a few from over recent years  

C.B, 12  

H.K, 15  

A.J, 12  

L.F, C7, 10  

He raised an eyebrow at that last one, pointing to it. “Is that Lee?”  

“Yep.” Jake shrugged, pointing to another one. “And that’s Castor.”  

C.N, C12, 10  

Michael hummed, nodding. “So it’s an account of all the people that have been in cabin nine over the years?”  

“Pretty much. Sometimes you get people from other cabin, like Lee and Cas. And you, now.”   

Michael grinned. “Awesome.”  

There were many initials along the lines, ranging from recent years to what Michael guessed must be almost thirty years old, the marks faded but still visible. Presumably it was a tradition of the cabin, upholded by the younger members, and he spent a while studying the letters and ages, before Jake tugged him over to the side of the wall, pulling a set of scales out of a slot near the bottom of the tape measure. He set it on the floor and pointed at it expectedly, sighing when Michael raised an eyebrow. “Stand on the scales.”  

He frowned. “Why?”  

“So I can find your body mass index and prove you’re underweight, because you never believe me. We usually use the scales for smaller projects to get the mass, but it works for people too.”  

Michael looked at the scales for a minute, then shook his head. “Nope. I am not standing on that.”  

“Why?” Jake frowned, looking to the scales. “I know it’s electrical so we’re not really meant to have it, but Beck said it doesn’t attract attention so it’s fine because it’s useful. Look, I can stand on it first if you’re scared it’s gonna explode.”  

“I’m not scared it’s gonna explode.” Michael rolled his eyes. “Just... don’t want to.”  

Jake looked at him in confusion. “Why? It’s just body mass index.”  

“I’m good.”  

“Michael. It’s scales.”  

“I know.” He huffed, glancing at them cautiously. “I just don’t want to.”  

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Why not? What are you afraid of?”  

“I’m not afraid.”  

“Then what’s wrong?”  

Michael groaned, blushing as put his head in his hands, avoiding Jake’s eyes. “WhatifI’moverweight?”  

It came out in a bit of a blurt, the words merging into each other, and when Michael peeked through his fingers at Jake’s face, the other was staring at him, jaw dropped. “Did you actually just say that?”  

He frowned, hands dropping as he kicked the floor. “Yes?”  

“Michael.” Jake looked at him, expression managing to contain both concern and disbelief. “How in the ever-loving fuck would you be overweight?”  

Michael blushed further. He’d always hated scales; his mother had made it a point to dump him on them every month or so and point out how heavy he was getting, and the whole ordeal had always rather freaked him out, to be honest.   

He and Jake stared at each other for a minute, then Jake huffed and pointed to the scales. “Right. The average weight for someone our age is about seventy pounds. I am...” He stepped onto the scales for a minute, then got off, shrugging. “Seventy-two. I would be honestly surprised if you hit the fifty mark, but either way you are most definitely lighter than I am, and if I’m average, then there is not physical way that you are overweight.”  

“Oh.” Michael frowned at the scales. “But we’re different sizes. You might be average for your height , but I might not be average for mine.”  

Jake stared at him, unimpressed, then walked over to his bed and shuffled through his top drawer, returning with a thick book and flicking through it, gesturing to it with one hand. “Fine. This book contains the average weights of pretty much any inanimate object, plus humans, for comparison, since I was interested in BMI and comparing weights, and asked Beck for it.” He flicked to the back of the book, then turned it around for Michael to see. “There. Average weight for a four-foot ten-year-old is about fifty-five pounds. Unfortunately, I can almost guarantee that you are considerably less than that, and therefore underweight, not over.”  

Michael blinked. “You don’t know that.”  

“Well, get on the scales and we will.” He pointed out, then sighed as Michael scowled. “You’re not going to be overweight. Nowhere near it. I can quite safely promise that.”  

“I don’t want to.”  

“And you don’t have to.” Jake shrugged. “I’m not going to make you. I can’t. But the idea of you being overweight is ridiculous, and if you would weigh yourself, we can prove you’re definitely not and then you’ll feel better.”  

Michael looked at him for a minute, then the scales, then back at Jake. “...Fine.”  

He stepped up to the scales, but paused at the last minute, chewing his lip as he stared at them. He really didn’t want to face that step up to it, but if Jake was right then maybe he’d feel better. Jake hummed from beside him, eyebrow raised. “Want me to put you on it?”  

Michael rolled his eyes. “Yes, because clearly I can’t step up onto a set of scales on my own.”  

Jake smirked. “Just saying. I can if you want.”  

He looked at the scales for a second, then sighed, mumbling under his breath. “Yes please.”  

Jake grinned and gently picked him up by his waist, plopping him on the scales with a flourish and snickering when Michael rolled his eyes, blushing slightly. The electric display flickered for a minute, then a number popped up, and Michael stared at it in slight disbelief.  

46lbs.  

Oh.   

“See?” Jake smiled, then frowned. “Wait, that’s really concerning. You’re almost ten pounds underweight, Mike. That’s bad.”  

Michael didn’t really hear him, just stepped off the scales, still looking at the display. He couldn’t quite believe that she-   

“You okay?” Jake tapped him gently, and Michael shook himself out of it, nodding slowly as Jake slid the scales back into their slot in the wall.  

“Yeah.” He mumbled. “Just, always thought I was over.”  

“Still not sure how you figured that, but okay.” Jake hummed, then apparently decided they needed a topic change and nudged the son of Apollo gently. “What was it you were trying to show me?”  

“Huh?” Michael looked at him in confusion, and Jake pointed across the room to his bunk.  

“The thing you found in my drawer.”  

“Oh.” He nodded, dragging Jake back over to the bunk and picking the silver box up again, thrusting it at his friend with a small smile. “What’s this for?”  

Jake blinked, then grinned. “It’s for Beck. For Christmas.”  

Michael looked at it for a minute, nodding, then suddenly froze. “Wait, do I need to get people presents?!”  

“Oh.” Jake looked at him for a second, brain clearly whirring. “I forgot you never had Christmas before. Yeah, normally people get other people presents, but you don’t have to because I’m sure your siblings won’t mind-”  

Michael cursed. “Damn it. How long until Christmas?”  

“Five days? Michael, I’m sure they won’t care if you don’t get them-”   

“Nope!” He grabbed his jacket from beside the door, hurriedly putting it on as he looked at his friend. “Are you doing anything today?”  

“I-” Jake paused, then shook his head. “No? Where are you going?”  

“To find some presents?” He shoved the door open, shivering at the cold, then pointed to Jake. “I’ll be back in a bit. Teach me how to wrap presents?”  

Jake grinned, grabbing his own coat. “I think you mean ‘help me find presents’. I’m coming too, dummy. Move over.”  

Chapter Text

“Merry Christmas!!”  

Michael almost jumped out of his skin when Alice leaned over his bed at about half six on the morning of Christmas Day, interrupting his morning routine of staring at Alex’s bunk above and considering the meaning of life before forcing himself out of bed. His sister was smiling far too brightly for this early in the morning, and he groaned quietly as he rolled away from her, not really processing her words. They’d been up late last night thanks to a very late campfire and a fair bit of storytelling back in the cabin as Cleo and Alex animatedly told him the tale of Santa Claus, Lee joining in every now and then while Alice and Dan chuckled and watched, and he was certainly feeling the lack of sleep since he hadn’t slept for a long while after that thanks to the excitement. His brain was working slowly, so it took him a minute to remember what day it was, but when he did he sat straight up in bed, almost head-butting Alice, who was still grinning at him, and beamed at his sister excitedly. “It’s Christmas!”  

“Yep!” Alex swung upside down from the top bunk, narrowly missing smacking Alice with his head, his darkish brown hair levitating as he wiggled his eyebrows. “Merry Christmas, buddy!”  

Michael excitedly rolled out of bed, ignoring the fact that his blanket got caught between his legs and he hit the floor as a blanket burrito, and was then tickled into submission by an excitable Cleo, who refused to let him go until he stopped breathing, Dan doing the same to Lee on the other side of the cabin. He eventually wriggled free of the dreaded older sister and escaped to hide with Alex on the top bunk, kicking his legs excitedly as Lee fought to free himself from both Dan and Alice. Alex nudged him gently, and Michael looked at his brother curiously, grinning when Lee squealed on the other side of the cabin as Cleo joined the cause. “Hi?”  

Alex grinned, casually sliding over a small package, wrapped in bright green wrapping paper. “Merry Christmas.”  

Michael’s jaw dropped, and he beamed at his brother. “Is that for me?!”  

“Nooo, it’s for Cleo.” He said sarcastically, eyes rolling. “Of course it’s for you, dumbass. Open it.”  

Michael grinned, reaching for the package, then paused and pointed at the older boy as he climbed off the bunk excitedly. “Hold on.”  

“Holding.” Alex said automatically, smirking as Michael rolled his eyes, then raised an eyebrow when the smaller pulled a (rather messily) wrapped object from under his bed, stretching to hand it to Alex before climbing back onto the top bunk. “Is this for me?”  

“Yup.” Michael plopped down next to him, wincing at the state of the paper. “Sorry. I’m apparently a horrible wrapper.”   

“Are you kidding?” Alex grinned, ruffling his hair. “Buddy, I don’t care how well it’s wrapped, I’m just excited you got me something! I mean, hell, I can’t wrap either.” He pointed to Michael’s present, which was rather box-shaped, and sort of knobbly. “That was all Alice’s work, not mine. If I’d wrapped it, it would have looked like a bird had used it for a nest.”  

He snickered at that, then excitedly ripped the paper open when Alex gestured for him to. Inside was a brightly coloured box, easily recognisable as a rubix cube, and he squeaked in excitement. “I always wanted one of these!”  

Alex grinned and nudged him with a smile. “I have like, six. Come find me if you can’t figure it out.”  

Michael nodded, turning one of the sides experimentally and grinning, then shoved at his brother until he opened his own present. “Open it.”  

“Yes sir.” Alex saluted him, ripping open the wrapping with a smile and snickering when he got stuck. “How much tape did you use in this thing?”  

“It wasn’t sticking.” He blushed, and Alex smirked, eventually managing to unwrap it. Inside was a smallish clay sculpture of a 3D sun symbol, painted pale yellow with delicate golden detailing decorating the rays and a bow and arrow insignia on the front. The detail was as fine as Michael had been able to get it, and he was quite proud of how neat he’d been with the careful Greek lettering around the rim to cover up the untidy line where he’d stuck the two sides together before firing the clay in a kiln. Jake had introduced him to Maddi, an Athena girl who liked firing clay sculptures and had special equipment that helped her do it on a whim (magic was fun like that), and Michael had made five suns with her and Jake, then took the fired clay to the arts and crafts pavilion two days later and painted them. Maddi had said the whole process was supposed to take two weeks, but the kiln and clay being enchanted helped speed it up, and Michael had only had to pay her five drachma to use it (said drachma definitely not stolen from Luke and Tim in his spare time. He was still salty.).   

“Buddy, this is awesome.” Alex grinned, turning the sun carefully in his hands to study the gold details, grinning as he spotted the Greek. “Did you make this?”  

“Maybe.”  

“It’s amazing.” He smiled, carefully putting the sun aside, then tugged Michael into his arms, ruffling his hair as the younger squirmed and laughed. “Love you.”  

“Get off!” He laughed as he tried to wriggle free, then resigned to having the life squeezed out of him via hug and sighed. “Love you too. Now let go, I have to go give them to everyone else.”  

“What are we giving to everyone else?” Cleo popped up, peering over the end of the bed, then gasped when she spotted the sun. “What is that?”  

Alex grinned, carefully shuffling it behind him as he stuck his tongue out at his sister. “None of your business.”  

Cleo gasped again, offended, and Michael snickered as he slid off Alex’s bed, placing the rubix cube on his own and crawling under the bed again to fish out the other four suns. He happily handed Cleo hers, also messily wrapped, and his sister’s jaw dropped as she took it. “For me?!”  

“Nooo.” He rolled his eyes, scooping up the other three and walking over to where Lee, Dan and Alice were trading presents. He put them down and got as far as apologising for his horrific wrapping before being tackled by Lee in a hug, closely followed by Cleo, and he laughed as they rolled around together, Alex joining the pile on and successfully forcing the other three to submit by squishing them under him until they all surrendered. Alice dragged them apart, laughing, and Michael happily bundled up in his stolen red hoodie as they all flopped in a pile of beanbags and blankets, passing presents back and forth and laughing. Michael received a lava lamp from Dan, a weighted blanket from Lee (very warm, he would soon be using that) and then Cleo unceremoniously shoved something onto his head, giggling. He rolled his eyes at his sister, nose scrunched up as he pulled it off his head, and raised an eyebrow when he saw what it was. “A bucket hat?”  

He waved the forest green hat at her in confusion, and Cleo grinned, nodding cheerfully. “It’s so cute!”  

“I am not wearing this.”  

“Yes, you are.”   

Lee wrestled it onto his head, grinning, and Michael huffed as the hat was replaced, the rim dangling low enough to shield his eyes form the cabin’s main light, but not enough to hide the small smile at the present. If he was being honest, he actually rather liked bucket hats since they kept the sun off his face, and his old blue one at home had been possibly his favourite item of clothing ever. Jasper had constantly teased him for it, but he just liked the way they sat on his head, and he looked young enough that he could get away with them without looking too nerdy and getting bullied. He smiled and swivelled the hat on his head to sit properly, and Alice giggled at him, head cocked downwards to meet his eyes under the rim. “You like that?”  

“No.” He said cheerfully, rolling his eyes as Alex snickered at the blatant lie, then threw himself at Cleo in a hug. “I hate it very much.”  

“Love you too, bud.” Cleo grinned, kissing the top of his head through the hat, then plopped him back down as Michael hummed happily. Dan chuckled, leaning over to tilt the hat jauntily to one side and grinning when Michael huffed and put it back, then Alice swatted her older brother away and produced her presents from somewhere, handing Michael his first with a flourish.  

“For the best sibling of the lot.” She said poshly, her statement followed with outraged pokes and dramatic gasps from the rest of their siblings. Michael smirked smugly, picking it up and kissing Alice on the cheek in the name of chivalry, and grinned when she wrestled him onto her lap for a hug instead as she peppered his head with kisses and tickled him. Cleo whined about being replaced and Lee complained that he’d never got head kisses while Alex pouted, and Alice grinned and set Michael down, presenting the rest of her gifts with a smirk. “And for the rest of the gremlins.”  

“Little shit.” Alex grumbled, grinning when Michael batted at him for his unkind words, and pointed at Alice. “You stole my sister!”  

“No I didn’t!” He flapped his hands at the older boy, groaning as he was tugged onto his brother’s lap instead. “Let mee gooo.”  

“Nope.” The older son of Apollo smirked, tucking Michael under his chin and grinning as the smaller looked up at him grumpily, bopping him on the nose. “You repent for your sins via hugs. No exceptions.”   

Michael huffed, crossing his arms indignantly as he stuck his nose in the air, then glared at Dan when his brother leaned over to flick it teasingly while Cleo and Lee opened their presents excitedly nearby. After a few minutes of silent standoff while Alex snickered at him and Alice complained about him not opening his present, he relented and reached for the package, humming as Alex’s arms tightened comfortably around his waist. He felt like a large teddy bear, but he didn’t mind it and happily opened his present instead, raising an eyebrow when he was met with a long, blank and fairly thin cardboard box. He raised an eyebrow at his sister in confusion, but Alice just grinned, gesturing to the box. “Open it, open it!”  

He frowned, but found the part on the side where he opened it, and when he spotted what was inside, he looked to Alice in shock, eyes wide. “Is that...?”  

She grinned, nodding to the box as Alex leaned over to inspect the contents. “You mentioned you hadn’t seen a candy cane before, and well, I thought you might like to try some other common brands, since I figured you wouldn’t have tried most of them. It’s all the basics, and a bunch of them are English because I ordered them through my mom-”   

“Alice is an immigrant.” Alex whispered conspiritually, grinning when his sister rolled her eyes.  

“I’m not an immigrant, I’m English. There’s a difference.”  

“You’re from another country!”  

“But I don’t live there, do I?” She arched an eyebrow at him. “I’ve spent the last five years running around after your ass, so I’m basically an American citizen by now.”  

Michael looked at her curiously. “You’re British?”  

“Born and bred. My mom’s from Birmingham.” She smirked, leaning forwards and grinning like she was sharing a secret. “So normally, I have a proper Brummy accent.”  

He blinked. “What’s a Brummy?”  

Dan snorted, quickly waving a hand between them as Alex burst into laughter. “Do not ask. You won’t escape for hours.”  

“I’m not that bad.”  

“Ooh.” Cleo flopped down in front of Michael, ignoring Lee’s complaint of ‘Hey, I was talking to you!’ and grinned at Michael’s box, looking to Alice. “Oh my gods! You got him British chocolate?!”  

Alice smirked smugly as Alex groaned. “It’s British, by Apollo. It’s not like it’s gold.”   

“Yeah, but British chocolate is good.” Cleo grinned, rolling her eyes as Dan huffed.  

“Hershey’s.”  

“I included Hershey’s, thank you very much.” Alice sniffed. “It’s all the big chocolate brands from both countries, so no one is allowed to get their tails in a twist. Plus, it’s Michael’s present, so you lot can stop arguing over chocolate brands and let him form his own opinion. Pack it in.”  

Michael snickered as they all shushed, Alex grumbling good-naturedly about ‘stinking Cad-bur-ees’ and getting scolded by Alice on his pronunciation, and then Lee flopped down between Alex and Dan, leaning over Michael’s shoulder to inspect the box. “Do the Twix first.”  

“By Apollo.” Dan scrunched his nose up, giving Lee a look of disgust. “You’re officially a social reject.”  

“What?!” Lee looked aghast. “You save the Reece’s til last!”  

“Yeah, but you don’t eat the crappiest one in the box first.” Cleo stared at him, then looked at Michael with a grin. “Try the Bounty first.”  

“Oh my gods, you animal.” Lee gaped, and Alex stared at his sister in disgust. 

“What is wrong with you?”   

“On Zeus, Clee, what the hell?” Dan arched an eyebrow. “That’s easily the worst one in there.”  

“Excuse you!”  

Michael smirked, intrigued by the bright wrapper and coconut symbol, and picked the Bounty out of the box first. Alex’s jaw dropped. “There’s no way you’re trying the actual dog food first.”  

Lee sucked a breath in through his teeth. “You’re going to regret that.”  

“Oh my lord, is that the dark chocolate version?!” Dan gaped at Alice. “What would ever possess you to get him that?”  

“Excuse you, both versions are in there. And can you lot stop disgracing the name of good chocolate and let him figure it out himself?” Alice shook her head, then smiled at Michael as he studied the rest of the bars. There were about twenty, all different sizes and colours, and he wasn’t sure what to try first. Eventually, he replaced the Bounty and decided on a bright red wrapper with the word Kit-Kat written across in bright white letters, opening it curiously. This one wasn’t met with much disagreement, which boded well, and when he opened it up he raised an eyebrow at the two identical sticks, looking to Alice curiously. She grinned and shuffled over, nudging Alex along as Dan and Cleo shuffled around so they could make a little circle, still bickering over chocolate. “Right. There is only one correct way to eat a Kit-Kat, but if you get it wrong you won’t be judged, since it’s your first time.”   

He looked at her, then the bar, thinking carefully for a moment, and gently put pressure on both sides of the bars and snapped them apart, creating two individual bars. Alice nodded in satisfaction and Alex snickered as Lee grinned and patted him on the head. “Good job.”  

“Do people just eat them together?” Michael frowned at the bars. “I assumed they were meant to be broke.”  

“They are.” Alex nodded, chin now on Michael’s head. “But some freaks just chomp on them together, and that’s what we call terrorists.”   

Dan almost choked nearby, quickly waving to Michael as Cleo and Lee burst into laughter, Alex smirking, and Michael looked at the bar slightly fearfully. “He’s joking, he’s joking- holy gods Alex.”   

Alice snorted in amusement and Michael grinned, reassured as he took a bite. It was crunchy and chocolatey, and he peered at the insides curiously, noting the waffle layers. Cool.   

Soon, Dan ushered them all out of the cabin to breakfast, which involved much confetti and Christmas lights around the pavilion as everyone got pancakes for breakfast, and then Michael, Alex and Cleo were instructed to return to the cabin and put on some Christmas jumpers, in the name of the Christmas spirit. Michael did not have a Christmas jumper, but stole one from Cleo instead, grateful that it was cropped so he wasn’t tripping on it. Alex snickered at him about it, but other than the cropped aspect it was a perfectly decent Christmas jumper (green fuzzy background with red glittery zigzags all over it) and Michael just flipped him the middle finger, before rummaging through his chocolate box again and pulling out a Bounty, this time the milk chocolate version. Alex groaned when he saw it, shaking his head, and Michael grinned at him. “What? I’m interested!”  

“That,” Alex stabbed a finger at the bar. “Is a disgrace to the name of chocolate. Cleo has poisoned your mind.”  

“I have not!”  

“You so have!”  

A knock at the door interrupted the bickering and Michael went to open it, surprised and delighted to find Jake on the other side, his friend wearing a red jumper with green zigzags on the sleeves and a matching beanie, his copper curls escaping out the front in a way that was more cute than dorky. Michael smirked, leaning against the door and studying the son of Hephaestus in amusement. “Hi. Love the outfit.”  

Jake snorted, gesturing to Michael’s bucket-hat-and-cropped-jumper selection. “I could say the same to you.”  

“Shh.” He waved him off, turning inside and beckoning the other in. “Come in, come in. You’ll freeze us all to death.”  

“It’s not that cold-”  

“Jake!” Alex waved cheerfully, pointing finger guns at the son of Hephaestus with a grin. “Love the hat.”  

“Thanks.” He smirked, then raised an eyebrow at the older boy. “Where’s your jumper?”  

“Currently non-existent!” Cleo huffed, walking out of the wardrobe (yes she was stood inside the wardrobe) grumpily. “Where the hell did you put it?”  

“I don’t know!” Alex raised his hands in defence, then pointed to Dan’s set of drawers, beside Alice’s. “Maybe with Dan’s stuff?”  

“Ugh. Come on, help me find it.”  

They scurried off to poke through Dan’s drawer, giggling together at something while Michael rolled his eyes and turned to Jake. “What’s up?”  

“Huh?” Jake looked at him, and he rolled his eyes.  

“You’re knocking on the door? What’s up?”  

“Oh.” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, a small smile playing over his features as he slipped a small, flat square wrapped in gold paper out of his pocket, offering it to Michael with a smile. “This is for you. Merry Christmas.”  

Michael blinked, not expecting it, then grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly. “Really?”  

“Mhm.” Jake smiled, passing him the present carefully. “It’s small, but-”  

“Don’t care.” Michael said happily, about to rip open the paper, then thought and stabbed a finger at his friend excitedly. “Stay there.”  

Jake raised an eyebrow, but stayed put and watched as Michael carefully put the present on his pillow and wriggled back under the bed again, his small size and ability to reach the crawl space for once a useful skill. He returned with a messily wrapped package, thrusting it at Jake with a smile. “Merry Christmas.”   

Jake blinked, looking at the gift for a minute, then smiled brightly at Michael, clearly ecstatic. “You got me something?”  

“Of course.” He snorted. “You think I was just gonna let it slide after I missed your birthday? Absolutely not.”  

“I told you that didn’t matter.”   

“And I told you I don’t care. Take the fucking present.” He shoved it at the other, and Jake rolled his eyes once, before taking it with a smile. Michael grinned and went to fetch his one from Jake while his friend tried to find a spot of paper not covered in tape (rather difficult) and gestured for Jake to sit next to him on his bed while he unwrapped it. “You’ll drop it if you keep going like that.”  

“Shh.” Jake hushed him, sitting next to Michael and bumping his shoulder gently as he unwrapped the present, and Michael grinned, excitedly ripping open his own present. What awaited him was a square piece of foam, holding a bracelet; a delicate gold chain with a matching bow pendant dangling from it, the detailed Greek letters for protection and strength, to name a few, lining every chain loop in Jake’s neat script. He stared at the bracelet, noting Jake pausing to watch him open it with a smile, and gaped at his friend in disbelief.   

“Did you make this?”   

“Maybe.” He smirked, gaze softening as he watched Michael carefully run his finger along the chain, unable to believe Jake had made it. “It’s, uh, slightly enchanted. Protection spells and stuff, for like, morale and whatnot.”  

Michael smiled, tracing the bow charm gently. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”  

“Oh.” Jake blushed, rubbing his fingers together embarrassedly. “You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it, even if it’s a bit small.”  

“It’s gorgeous and I love it.” He grinned, gently pulling the bracelet free of the foam and smiling at it, then offered it to Jake hopefully, along with his left arm. “Help?”  

Jake raised an eyebrow. “You usually put your bracelets on your right arm.”  

“I know.” He nodded, and Jake’s eyebrow rose higher, but he attached it anyway, smiling as Michael beamed and bounced on the bed slightly, liking the gold on his tan skin. Maybe gold was his colour for jewellery. He then realised that Jake hadn’t opened his present yet and elbowed his friend impatiently. “Open it.”  

“If I can get past all this tape, I will.” Jake snipped, smirking, then finally managed to open the present, and his jaw dropped once he realised what was inside. “How the hell? I was with you the whole time!”  

Michael snickered, shrugging as Jake carefully lifted the sculpture out of the wrapping, the red clay dragon as carefully detailed as the suns, but slightly larger and more realistic. Michael had tried to make the bronze detailing as accurate as possible, decorating each individual scale and claw as delicately as he could manage, and he smiled as Jake looked it over, rather proud of it. “I went back that afternoon.”   

“You sly fucker.” He mumbled, smirking as Michael laughed, and leaned over to give the son of Apollo a hug. “It’s gorgeous. Thank you, I love it.”   

Michael hummed happily, accepting the hug, then sighed when he spotted Cleo and Alex still sticking their heads in Dan’s drawers. “Have you not found it yet?”   

“Nope!” Alex said cheerfully, and Cleo groaned, removing herself from the drawers and returning to the wardrobe.  

“It must be here somewhere.”  

“I could always go without.” Alex offered, then flinched when he received a total of three disapproving looks and raised his hands in the air in surrender. “I’ll keep looking.”  

Michael sighed, shaking his head as he grabbed the Bounty from his pocket, opening the chocolate bar curiously. Cleo grinned when she saw him studying it, leaning over and stage-whispering to him. “Try it before Alex sees.”  

“Before I see what?” Alex turned around, then groaned when he saw Michael with the open bar. “You are so going to regret that. Cleo has tricked you into trying it, I promise you it’s not good.”  

Jake arched an eyebrow, looking at the chocolate bar. “Is that a Bounty?”   

“Yup.” Michael smirked. “Alice got me a bunch of chocolate brands for me to try, and Alex is swearing that it’s gonna poison me.”  

“He’s not wrong.” Jake shuddered, looking at the bar with distaste. “That stuff sucks.”  

“Thank you!”  

“Shut up!” Cleo smacked them both, smiling at Michael. “Make your own opinion, buddy.”  

“She’s lying to you!” Alex called, then was abruptly tackled down by Cleo in her quest for equal rights for chocolate bars, and Michael snorted in amusement, taking a cautious bite. It tasted, surprisingly enough, like chocolate and coconut, and he raised an eyebrow at Alex in confusion.  

“What’s wrong with it?”  

Alex gasped, and Jake grimaced as Cleo cheered victoriously. “Yes! Join the dark side!”  

“This is your fault.” Alex pointed at Cleo accusingly, and Michael smirked, looking between the bar and his brother amusedly.  

“What don’t you like?” He asked, genuinely confused. “It's coconutty.”  

“Exactly.” Alex said seriously, eyes wide. “Coconut does not belong in chocolate. Least of all with dark chocolate, I don’t know what Alice was thinking getting you that.”  

Jake gaped at him. “She got him the dark chocolate version? What the hell?”  

“Precisely my point! Finally, someone with taste.” The older son of Apollo nodded in satisfaction, then grimaced when Michael smirked and happily took another bite of the Bounty, nose scrunched up in second-hand disgust. “There’s something wrong with you.”  

“I know.” He said cheerfully, then smiled and finished the bar as he helped them search for Alex’s still missing jumper. They found it eventually, hidden in the cupboard that contained the CPR kit (Michael still didn’t know why and Alex had just shrugged), and then they regrouped with the rest of the cabin at the arts and crafts pavilion, where most of the camp was gathered for mixed Christmas tradition partaking and present giving. A Secret Santa seemed to have gone on between the Head Counsellors, most of whom received some sort of prank or inside joke and chased down the perpetrator laughing, swords in hand for the effect. Strange white berries had been hung everywhere; dangling from the columns and bunched around the levitating candles that floated around the pavilion, and Michael raised an eyebrow when he spotted Max grinning and dragging Cleo under every bunch he could find, proceeding to dip the daughter of Apollo down into a dramatic kiss every time, Cleo giggling constantly as they were catcalled. He nudged Jake, who had appeared beside him and offered him some Christmas fudge (very delicious) and looked at the son of Hephaestus in confusion. “What’re the white berries?”  

“Oh.” Jake blushed slightly, his hat now sitting wayward on his curls. Michael reached up to straighten it, smirking when Jake instinctively leaned down to let him do so. “It’s mistletoe.”  

He switched eyebrows, raising the other one instead. “That didn’t clear anything up. What’s mistletoe, and why is my sister getting snogged beneath it?”  

Jake snorted, pointing to the other side of the pavilion. “I think you mean sisters.”  

Michael looked over and groaned when he spotted Alice and Hannah kissing beneath another cluster of berries. “Fucking hell.”  

His friend snickered, then stood on his tiptoes, grabbing one of the berry clumps from where it was floating above them, and offered it to Michael with a smirk. The archer took it, peering at the white fruit curiously as Jake talked. “Mistletoe is symbolic. Some old Christmas tradition says that if you stand beneath it you have to kiss the nearest person, so a bunch of couples use it to kiss their partner as much as physically possible over the Christmas period.”  

“Ah,” He nodded, glancing at Cleo and Max and then immediately looked away when he noticed them making out against a column that was drenched in mistletoe. “Makes sense.”   

“Mhm. My mom liked to use it to make out with my stepmom during Christmas and I kept walking in on them kissing on the sofa.” Jake smirked, and Michael raised an eyebrow at the other boy.   

“I didn’t know you had a stepmom.”  

He shrugged. “Natalie. She’s lovely, and Kate is really cute.”  

“Kate?”  

“My stepsister. She’s five.”  

“Oh.” He looked at his friend curiously. “They’re still...?”  

“Alive?” Jake smiled, nodding slightly. “Yeah. I call them once or twice a month, just to catch up. Known Nat since she was pregnant with Kate, so she’s been around a while.”   

“Hm.” Michael nodded, still looking around at the rest of the hall. “Are you gonna call and tell them Merry Christmas?”  

Jake smiled. “Already have. You should come say hi some time. Nat wants to meet you.”  

“She does?”  

“Yup.” His friend smirked. “She might not be my actual mom, but she’s as good as, and she gets all the gossip about camp. Apparently, I talk about you a lot.”  

Michael snickered. “I’d love to.”  

“Awesome.” Jake grinned, plucking the cluster of mistletoe berries from Michael’s hand and lifting it back into the air, snickering when it immediately positioned itself right above the son of Apollo’s head. “You have to kiss someone now.”  

Michael scrunched his nose up in disgust, batting the mistletoe away and flipping Jake the middle finger when his friend laughed as it followed him. “No thank you. Oh my gods, fuck off!”   

He flapped his hands at the berries until they moved on, floating over Jake instead. The son of Hephaestus smirked, raising a teasing eyebrow at Michael when the archer snickered. “Guess I need to go find someone to kiss.”  

Michael grinned and quickly held his hands up, positioning his index fingers to make a cross as he warded the other off. “Stay back.”   

Jake laughed, then was gone a second later and well, Michael made a mental note to ask him whether he got that kiss later. He certainly deserved it.   

Chapter Text

New Years Eve was a much bigger deal than Michael had been expecting.   

He knew what it was, gods, of course he did. He wasn’t that out of the loop, and he knew about the big Times Square Apple drop thing, with the countdown and all, but he hadn’t expected camp to have a party for it, let alone be allowed to attend. Normally, all the younger campers had to sit out the late-night parties and celebrations, so he was quite surprised to hear that he too would be allowed to stay up until midnight to see in the New Year, and when Cleo pounced on him during free time before dinner that night, he was even more surprised to hear her talk about outfits.  

“What are you wearing?” His sister demanded, unceremoniously flopping down on the end of Michael’s bed and studying him critically, and Michael raised an eyebrow at her, halting in his bracelet making.   

“For what?”  

“The party, of course.” She arched a blonde eyebrow. “What are you going to wear tonight?”  

He frowned, gesturing to his normal attire of orange camp shirt and black combat trousers. “This?”  

Cleo hummed, eyebrows furrowing as she looked him over. “No you’re not.”  

“I’m not?”  

“Nope. Get up, we have work to do.”   

“Sorry?”  

Cleo bullied him off the bed, ushering him into standing in front of the cabin wardrobe, and started shuffling through his drawers, muttering to herself. Michael raised an eyebrow as she pulled a red shirt out of his drawer and held it up to him, then frowned and put it down again, repeating the action with several different pieces of clothing. “Nope. No. Definitely not.”  

He looked at her in confusion. “What are you doing?”  

“Finding you an outfit, obviously. Gods, do you own any clothes?”  

“I have jeans?” He tried carefully, and Cleo snapped her fingers, resuming her drawer shuffling.  

“Skinny?”  

“Yes...?”  

“Great. Which drawer?”  

He pointed her in the right direction, and Cleo grinned, tossing them to him and pointing to the bathroom. “Go put those on.”  

“Yes ma’am.” He saluted her, deciding he did not want to get in the way of the violent drawer shuffling, and scurried off to the bathroom to change his combats for the jeans. When he came back out, Cleo was rummaging through her drawers, victoriously yanking out something green and chucking it at him with a smirk.  

“That. Put that on.”  

He looked at the top, then her, eyebrow raised. “It’s cropped.”  

“I know. Go put it on.”  

Michael sighed and did as asked, and Cleo whistled to herself as he walked out of the bathroom again, grinning brightly. “Damn, I’m good. Alice, look!”  

Alice, who had been sat on her top bunk above Dan’s with a book and ignoring them for the last ten minutes, peered over the side at Michael, one dirty-blonde eyebrow quirking approvingly. “Nice. Looking good, bud.”  

He looked at the pair of them, then at himself curiously. He wasn’t sure how to feel about the crop top, but it was almost the right length on him, only a strip of tanned skin showing when he moved, so it wasn’t too bad, he supposed. The jeans were fairly comfortable too, and when he peered over at the floor-length mirror beside Cleo’s bunk curiously-  

Oh. Yeah, he could get on board with this.   

For once, he didn’t have the urge to throw up at his own image, and he smiled slightly when Cleo walked over to ruffle his hair, one arm slipping around him as they looked at their reflections. “Not bad at all. Right, now you’ve gotta help me.”  

Michael grinned and ran after her to the wardrobe, and by the time dinner rolled around, they were both dressed and ready for the party, Michael grinning as he stole a golden necklace from Cleo’s jewellery box of wonders (he loved the stuff in that box) and put his bracelet from Jake on his left wrist, along with two others on his right. He felt pretty good, having also borrowed a black jacket from Cleo while she wore her usual green one (he never saw her without that jacket, to the point where he suspected she slept in it) so he wasn’t too cold, and when they got to the pavilion, he was surprised by how casual it was. Campers were everywhere; perched on benches or tables along the sides, dancing in the middle or chatting with their friends by the food and drink tables, and with the fairy lights and flowering plants surrounding each and every column to create a glowing, leafy wall that made it feel more enclosed, it was quite fantastical. Everyone was still sacrificing their food before they ate, but people were free to roam with plates and cups as they wished, and the atmosphere was very lively, with about a hundred campers in one spot. It was loud; cheerful music playing from somewhere and lots of laughter and shouting, but Michael blocked most of it out as he walked in next to Lee, more focused on the easiest way to trip Alex up as they walked. Most of the cabins were there already, and Michael grinned when he spotted Jake staring at him from across the pavilion, quickly darting away from Lee and ducking through the crowd to his friend. Jake was wearing jeans and a red shirt, clearly not cold despite the fact that it was well past sunset by now, and Michael raised an eyebrow at the son of Hephaestus suspiciously. “Why aren’t you wearing a hoodie?”  

Jake jumped, clearly not have having heard him walk up and lost sight of him in the crowd, and blushed as he quickly turned to look at the archer, bronze eyes glowing softly in the light of one of the columns of fairy lights. “Because I don’t want to?”  

Michael frowned. “What if you freeze?”  

“I won’t.”  

“If I hear complaints about being cold at midnight because you didn’t put on a hoodie Mason, then you’re getting no sympathy from me.” He sniffed, and Jake rolled his eyes, leaning back against the column he’d been previously up against. The son of Hephaestus looked at him for a second, taking in Michael’s appearance, then raised an eyebrow and nodded to his shirt.   

“Is that a crop top?”  

He shrugged, pointing across the room to Cleo. “Clee made me wear it.”  

“Is it yours?”  

Michael snorted, shaking his head. “Nah, hers. I don’t own any.”  

Jake hummed, nodding as he turned back to look at the rest of the pavilion, dragging his eyes away from Alice and Hannah kissing in the corner with a grimace. “Well, maybe you should.”  

Michael raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question it and instead looked up when Alex waved to him from the other side of the pavilion, Dan shaking his head nearby. He raised an eyebrow and dragged Jake over when Alex gestured to the son of Hephaestus with a grin, and he frowned at his brother as they shoved through the crowd to get to him. “What?”  

“Ignore him.” Dan sighed, and Alex snorted, elbowing the older boy teasingly.  

“You say that like you’re not playing too.”  

“Excuse you-”  

“Oh.” Jake grinned. “Is this the truth or dare game?”  

Alex clapped him on the shoulder. “Damn right! Chiron and Mr D have retreated to the Big House and told us not to blow anything up, and the dryads are all legging it now they’re gone, so it’s T or D time!”  

“Oh, joy.” Michael said sarcastically, and Dan snorted, patting him on the shoulder lightly.   

“You don’t have to play if you don’t want to.”  

Michael hummed, then flashed a look at Jake. “Are you gonna play?”  

Jake shrugged. “Why not?”  

“Okay. Let’s play.”  

They were quarrelled into a large group, mostly of older campers, gathered on the far side of the pavilion, sat in a circle around a bottle with a large, lit candlestick stuck in the neck. More and more campers were hurrying over to play, most abandoning the dance floor and food to do so, and Michael looked around curiously as he sat next to Cleo, dragging Jake down beside him. His sister grinned, Max on her other side, and Beck and Lee sat on Jake’s right side, Castor unsurprisingly making his way over the second he spotted Lee. Pollux was also in tow, and while Michael had interacted with Castor much more than Pollux in general, the other boy had started hanging around a bit more often, and he was able to comfortably return the son of Dionysus’ thumbs up with a smirk. He still couldn’t really tell the twins apart by themselves, but he knew Castor was the one glued to Lee’s hip currently, and therefore the one with the green sweater, as opposed to Pollux’s red sweater.   

“Alright, alright!”   

A loud voice called over the chattering campers, and Michael sighed when he recognised Luke’s blonde hair and too-positive smile. The son of Hermes didn’t seem to have grasped the fact that Michael had not-so-fond memories of cabin twelve, and by association him, and kept trying to talk to him at inconvenient times. Usually on his way to archery practise, or after lunch, often starting by asking where Lee was to make conversation and stop Michael from immediately shutting him down. How his brother tolerated Luke, Michael would never know, but Lee seemed to have enough patience for a small army, and always smiled whenever Michael grudgingly led the son of Hermes to his older brother for whatever small injury he had now, Luke chatting his ear off all the way about sword positioning and fighting stances. Michael couldn’t care less about the correct way to hold a sword, and never intended to, so he’d become well used to blocking out Luke’s voice, and had to concentrate to listen to the older boy as he grinned at the crowd.   

“Listen up! I’m sure no one has forgotten, but here’s your reminder of the rules anyway! For truths, there are no rules!” Cue the encouraging cheers. “For dares, nothing illegal, nothing life-threateningly dangerous, and campers under the age of twelve can turn down a dare for a tame truth as opposed to a forfeit.” Cure the unimpressed boos. Michael and Jake snickered, and Luke rolled his eyes as he kept talking. “Everyone older than twelve is on their own, and the only rules for forfeits are that they must be worse than the dare! Any volunteers to start?”  

Several people stuck their hands in the air, but a Demeter boy was chosen first, and the questions moved around the circle. Both Jake and Michael managed to avoid getting one for quite some time by laying low and snickering together, but finally Michael was picked on, and he scowled when he recognised the perpetrator as Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares. She grinned at him, eyes bright with something Michael didn’t recognise, but he didn’t like it. “Short fry! Truth or dare?”  

There were a few snickers, but Michael just glared at her. “Dare.”   

Cleo grinned beside him, muttering something to Max as Jake snickered. Clarisse hummed, eyes locked on him like he was some sort of fidgety bird that would fly away if she didn’t look.  

“Cartwheel off the big house roof at midnight.”  

There was a quiet ooh from the crowd, but Clarisse’s older brother (Michael thought his name was Aster) snorted and elbowed his sister. “Lame.”  

She just shrugged in reply, and Michael hummed, thinking for a second and ignoring Lee’s not-so-subtle whisper of ‘take the truth!’ from nearby as he nodded. “’Kay.”   

Lee groaned, and Jake raised an eyebrow, leaning in to whisper to Michael once the other had asked Alex a truth (‘Is it true that you ghosted that Hermes girl for a month?’ ‘Yes, you little shit.’ ‘Just checking.’)  

“Can you do a cartwheel?”  

Michael arched an eyebrow back. “Obviously.”  

“Really?”  

He rolled his eyes and stood, everyone else’s attention on Alex daring Max to chug one of the smuggled bottles of wine, much to Cleo’s amusement and Dan’s exasperation, and Michael shuffled over to somewhere not crowded with bodies. He casually performed a cartwheel – a damn good one if he did say so himself – and Jake blinked at him when he sat back down, head tilted curiously as Michael looked at him. “That okay?”  

The son of Hephaestus shrugged. “Looked cool.”  

“I’ll take it. Can you cartwheel?”  

Jake grimaced, and Michael grinned. Oh, this could be fun. “Not really.”  

“It’s not a trick question.” He poked his friend, smirking. “You can, or you can’t.”  

“I’ve never tried?”  

“Why not?”  

Jake just looked at him, then gestured to himself. “Do I look like I cartwheel in my spare time?”  

Michael studied him. Tall, fairly broad, the casual jeans and red shirt making him look a lot older than he was. Jake could probably pass for thirteen or fourteen if he wanted to. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He certainly didn’t look thirteen. “I guess not. Doesn’t mean you can’t, though.”  

“Mike, I have never cartwheeled in my life.”  

The nickname distracted Michael for a second. Jake had started calling him that recently, like it was nothing out of the ordinary, and Michael wasn’t sure whether to say anything or not. He never usually let people make nicknames for him. He’d got used to his siblings saying ‘buddy’ or ‘bud’ because Alex had insisted that being the baby of the cabin came with its curses and he needed a cute nickname to match his ‘ferrety persona’, but ‘Mike’ was different. That was a play on his name, and despite the fact that he hated people calling him Mike, or even worse, ‘Mikey’, he didn’t mind it coming from Jake. It was casual, just a slip of the tongue, and he didn’t have the heart to correct the son of Hephaestus when it sounded so natural on his lips. Even if Cleo did keep shooting him weird looks whenever she heard it.  

“That doesn’t mean it’s too late to learn.” Michael frowned, and Jake smirked.  

“Are you volunteering to teach me how to cartwheel?”  

“Yes.” He nodded, then stood and tried to drag Jake up with him. “Come on.”   

“Mike-”  

Michael bullied the other to his feet and dragged Jake just outside the pavilion. Alice had given him a thumbs up as he left, so with any luck he wouldn’t be hunted down within minutes, but it was cold outside the warmish atmosphere inside, despite the open roof. The wall provided a bit of shelter, and so many bodies in the same place kept it almost room temperature in there, but outside it was chilly. Jake shivered slightly and Michael rolled his eyes. “I told you you’d be cold.”  

“Shh.” Jake hushed him, rubbing his arms gently, then arched a brown eyebrow at the archer. “What are we doing?”  

“Teaching you to cartwheel.” Michael placed his hands on his hips, studying the son of Hephaestus critically. “It’s a life skill.”  

Jake’s eyebrow flew higher. “I severely doubt that.”  

“Shut up. It’s totally a life skill. Plus,” He gestured to the floor with his arms. “It’s not even that hard.”  

“You’re small.” Jake pointed at him. “And light. And flexible. And bouncy. I am none of those things.”  

“You don’t need to be bouncy to do a cartwheel.”  

“You need to be flexible!”  

Michael scrunched his nose up, shrugging his jacket off and ignoring the way the cold air bit at the bare skin of his arms. The jacket was too restrictive for cartwheeling, but it was also cold.  “Not really.”   

He dumped the jacket on Jake’s head, (read; shoulder. He couldn’t reach Jake’s head), and the proceeded to cartwheel as slowly as physically possible, trying to walk his friend through the process. He was going so slowly that he spent a good few seconds just stood on his hands like a starfish, his legs almost far enough apart to be in the splits, which was quite a good balancing exercise. He carefully touched down again, then looked at Jake, who was blinking owlishly. “Got it?”  

“No...?” Jake blushed, gesturing to the shorter boy with one hand, the other fiddling with his shirt hem. “You did it really gracefully. I’ll just fall and smack my head.”  

Michael scrunched his nose up. “No you won’t.”   

“Yes I will. I’m not strong enough to hold myself on my hands like that, I’ll fall.”  

“You literally bend metal for a living.” Michael pointed at him. “You’re probably twice as strong as I am.”  

“And almost twice as heavy.”  

“That’s,” He frowned. “I don’t think that’s right. Maybe. My math isn’t good.”  

Jake just smirked, then pointed to the floor again. “Doesn’t matter. I still won’t be able to support my bodyweight.”  

“You don’t know that!” Michael threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “Just try it.”  

They looked at each other for a minute, Michael narrowing his eyes until his gaze was closer to a glare, and Jake finally relented, throwing his hands in the air as he frowned at the ground and attempted the cartwheel. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t anywhere near good either, and Michael snickered as his friend narrowly avoided falling over in the dismount. Jake stood, cheeks red, and gestured to the floor. “See?”  

“It wasn’t horrendous.” He mused. Jake just glared at him, and Michael smirked, waving his hands at the grassy ground. “Can you handstand?”  

“If I can’t cartwheel, what on Earth makes you think I can handstand?” Jake stared at the son of Apollo, clearly unimpressed. Michael shrugged.  

“I could handstand before I could cartwheel.”  

“You can handstand?”  

Michael rolled his eyes and demonstrated. The only clubs he’d ever participated in at school were the lunchtime ones you didn’t have to pay for, since his mom would never have paid for anything and he needed to be home immediately after school to start cooking and cleaning, and one of said clubs was the gymnastics club. It was mostly girls in it, but he didn’t mind that, and after a few years of participating every Tuesday and Thursday, he’d been quite good. Good enough that they’d asked him to compete in inter-school events and the like, but he’d always turned them down. He’d never be able to find the entry money, nor get transport to the event, and afterschool and weekends were no-go times.   

His handstand was perfect, in his opinion, and he smirked at Jake as he stood back up and yanked his crop top back down after it had fallen the wrong way. Jake looked mildly amused, and cocked a head at the smaller boy. “How did you learn that?”  

He shrugged. “The teacher at school helped me. Used to hold my legs up so I wouldn’t fall over and break something.”  

“That was nice of them.”  

“Mhm.”  

“Michael! Jake!”  

Michael whipped his head around to see Alice waving at them from the pavilion, smiling brightly. He waved back. “What?”  

“Truth or dare is finishing up and the dessert is out! Get in here before it’s gone!”  

Both boys willingly walked back to the pavilion, bantering good naturedly, and when Michael rubbed his arms to try and return some heat to them, Jake gently placed Cleo’s jacket over the son of Apollo’s shoulders, which was nice, as Michael had forgot he had that. He smiled gratefully and wriggled into it again, then poked Jake smugly. “Wishing you had a hoodie?”  

“Nope.” Jake smirked back, gesturing to himself. “I have internal heating. Unlike you.”  

Michael frowned and reached up to put one hand on the son of Hephaestus’ chest, scowling when he realised that Jake was actually still very warm, even through his t-shirt. “That’s unfair.”   

Jake smirked and shrugged. “You’re like sunshine; I’m like fire. The sun is hot, but because of its distance from the Earth, we don’t feel the effect of its warmth as strongly at first. Fire gives off more immediate warmth.”   

“That-” He frowned again, glaring at the other boy. “That’s also not fair. I thought I was the son of the god of poetry?”  

Jake just grinned, shrugging. “All I did was lay out the facts. You’re the one who interpreted it poetically.”   

“What are you two yapping about now?” Alice huffed as they walked up beside her, smile teasing. “Get inside and get some cake!”  

“Yes ma’am.” Jake saluted her, dragging a still frowning Michael along with him, and Michael huffed as he was tugged inside, over to where the dessert had been placed. They both stole a plate of cake each and some forks, and Michael was quite frankly astounded to see a plate of nian gao sat on the table, the classic Chinese dessert looking almost identical to the ones his mother had always made on Chinese New Year. He stared at it for a second, then snuck some onto his plate and followed Jake over to the remains of the truth or dare game, occasionally glancing at his plate in shock. What was that doing here? He’d never seen nian gao, or any form of authentic Chinese food that wasn’t shitty takeaway anywhere other than his own house. There certainly hadn’t been any at his school, where the majority of the students had been white, and he and Jasper had often been teased for their packed lunches, which were always whatever Michael could whip up out of the previous night’s leftovers before he went to bed. He hadn’t expected camp to be any different, despite the fact that he’d seen several people of different ethnicities, Beckendorf being one of them, and seeing nian gao at the table was certainly a shock to the system. Not an unwelcome one, and Michael sighed happily as he tried a bit while he watched the remaining ten or fifteen older campers play truth or dare. That was one thing he did miss from home that wasn’t Jasper. The food.   

Jake leaned over, peering at Michael’s plate curiously. They’d both grabbed a selection of different things, with Jake going down more of the chocolate and cookie route, while Michael had taken to the more fruity and plain cakes. He had a nice-looking slice of vanilla sponge cake beside his nian gao, and after a glance at Jake’s plate- hmm. Would he be willing to share dessert? That chocolate tart thing looked good. Perhaps he could trade for some Jell-O.   

“What’s that?” Jake pointed to Michael’s nian gao, and the son of Apollo shrugged, slicing a bit up with his fork and offering it to the other boy.  

“Nian gao. You want some?”  

Jake blinked at it for a second, head tilted. “What is it?”  

“Chinese New Year Cake.” He prodded it gently. “Made from glutinous rice flour, and like sugar and stuff. It’s nice.”  

“Huh.” Jake stole a small bit, and hummed lightly as he tried it. “Weird. In a good way.”  

“Mhm.”   

“How’d you know what it was?”   

Michael blinked, looking up at the other boy in confusion. “Because I’m Chinese?”  

“You are?” Jake’s jaw dropped, then his lips curved up into a smile, and instantly he was bouncing slightly when he sat. “That’s so cool!”  

“I-” Michael paused. “It is?”  

Jake grinned. “Yeah! I didn’t know that before.” He smiled at Michael brightly, head tilted curiously. “So, your mom’s Chinese?”  

“Uh- yeah.” He stared at the other boy, slightly amused. No one was ever that interested when he mentioned he was mixed-race, let alone excited. “She’s from Lizhuang, Yibin, in Sichuan Province. I’ve never been, but I saw the photos.”  

Jake nodded, but before he could say anything, a new voice appeared behind Michael, female. “Did I hear someone say they’re from Sichuan?”  

Michael whipped around to see an older girl he’d never seen before stood behind him. She was tallish, with dark hair and sun-kissed skin, her eyes a startling green colour, and was wearing some pretty awesome knee-high boots. On second glance, her hair also had some blue dyed streaks in it, and her entire outfit was a mix of dark colours, chains, and silver spikes, with matching dark makeup. To put it simply, she was dressed in a classic punk style, and damn, it was cool. Jake cleared his throat, waving weakly to the older girl. “Hi Lizzie.”  

“Hey kiddo.” She smirked at him, then stabbed a thumb at Michael. “Who’s your buddy here? From Sichuan, if my hearing don’t deceive me.”  

“The phrase is ‘if my ears don’t deceive me’.”  

“Tomayto, tomahto.”  

Michael studied her for a second, then shrugged. “My Ma’s from Sichuan.”  

“Oh!” Lizzie grinned and flopped down beside them, sticking a hand out to Michael happily. “Another mixy! I’m Lizzie, my dad’s from Yunnan. Call me anything you want, just not Li Mei.”  

He blinked at her, then slowly accepted the handshake. “Okay... I’m Michael. Just Michael.”  

“Ooh, someone has a shit parent, huh?” Lizzie arched an eyebrow. “What sort of crappy name did you get ditched with at birth?”  

“I-” He paused, then shrugged. “Mikaela. It’s not even of Chinese origin.”  

 Lizzie’s eyebrow rose higher. “And it’s also feminine. I have no idea if you just outed yourself or what, but buddy-”  

Michael felt his face go scarlet as he quickly waved his hands at the older girl. He’d completely forgotten no one knew the reasoning behind that name. “No! No, no, my Ma just wanted a daughter as her firstborn. I’m not- no. She just wanted a girl.”  

Lizzie blinked. “So, she named her son a girl’s name.”  

“Yeah.”  

“That is so many levels of fucked up, but I’m not paid enough to unravel that, so I won’t. Plus,” She studied Michael curiously. “I’m sure the guys in your cabin have got it handled. Apollo?”  

Jake smiled, bumping Michael’s shoulder teasingly. “Best archer in the cabin.”  

“That is so exaggerated.” Michael rolled his eyes. “I’m better than Alice, but that’s not exactly a challenge.”  

“And Cleo.”  

Lizzie whistled. “Better than Cleo? Damn, how long have you been kicking around?”  

He shrugged. “Since August.”  

“Wow. Clearly, I don’t get out enough. So, hold on,” She flicked a glance at Jake, smirking. “Is he..?”  

Jake suddenly turned about two shades paler and smacked her, much to Michael’s confusion. “Don’t you dare.”  

“Oh, kiddo. You are never living this down.”  

“I’m confused.”  

“Don’t worry about it.” Jake huffed, glaring at Lizzie as she grinned. “Lizzie’s a pain in the butt.”  

“Most fashionable pain in the butt on the block, thank you. Anyway, I see someone found the nian gao. Thoughts?”  

She nudged Michael gently, and he smiled, poking the remains of the cake. “Really good. Reminds me of my Ma’s recipe.”  

“Well thanks. I’m glad someone appreciates my cooking skills.” Lizzie grinned, then stood and brushed her black skirt off, smirking down at the two boys. “Anywho, I should be going. And you,” She nudged Michael with the tip of her boot, smiling. “Pop in cabin ten sometime, yeah? I need someone to talk shit with, and Jakey’s too innocent for that.”  

“Hey!”  

She was gone a second later, and Michael raised an eyebrow as he turned back to Jake, the son of Hephaestus grumbling under his breath. He snorted in amusement. “She’s not wrong.”  

“Shut up.” Jake huffed, leaning over to stab a piece of vanilla cake in penance, and Michael squawked as the other boy squirrelled it back to his plate, grinning. He huffed and leaned over to steal some chocolate tart in revenge, and then suddenly they both had a bit of everything on their plates, giggling as they batted each other away.  

“Hands off, Mason.”  

“Nuh-uh.”  

“Yuh-huh. That’s mine.”  

“Well, now it’s mine too- hey! Give that back!”  

“Hypocrite!”  

“Thief!”  

“Gremlin! Hey!”  

Michael cackled as he hid his plate from his best friend, turning his back on Jake as he quickly ate the majority of what was on his plate. He heard Jake huff behind him and follow suit, then suddenly Jake’s hands were on him and he was being dragged backwards across the floor. He squeaked and smacked his friend, laughing as Jake pulled him up to standing. “What are you doing?”  

“It’s almost midnight.” Jake grinned. “You have to cartwheel.”  

“Nope.” He abruptly flopped boneless in Jake’s arms, legs dangling uselessly as Jake held him up. The son of Hephaestus looked at him, unimpressed, then scooped him up in a bridal carry and walked him over to where their siblings were gathered on the other side of the pavilion. Michael shrieked and tried to kick him, before abruptly dissolving into laughter as Jake shifted the hold to a fireman’s carry, grinning victoriously while Michael tried to knee him in the stomach, his arms dangling uselessly over Jake’s shoulder. He felt tall. Was this what it would be like to be Jake’s height?  

Jake dumped him next to Lee, smirking as Michael disintegrated into giggles again, his face flushed. “I believe this is yours. Would you like it back?”  

Cleo grinned, leaning around Lee to tilt her head at Michael. “Nah. You can return that one; it’s a pain in the ass.”  

“Hey! Excuse me.”  

“You’re excused.”  

Michael huffed, and so began the chase. Lee didn’t stop laughing as he and Cleo ran in circles around the pavilion, and Jake grinned that bright smile that made Michael’s stomach twist and twirl.  

Maybe it would be a happy New Year, for once.  

Chapter Text

“Leave me alone!”  

Lee raced through the front door of cabin seven, gasping as he sprinted for the bathroom, eyes set on the lock on the door, Dan hot on his tail just behind, and Michael and Jake watched incredulously from Michael’s bunk as the younger son of Apollo made a wild leap for the door handle, hand outstretched-   

And tripped over a medical book, faceplanting the cabin floor.    

Instantly, Michael burst into cackling laughter while Lee groaned and Dan unceremoniously sat on his back, also breathing hard as he glared at the younger boy when Lee covered his ears. “I just want to check they’re not infected!”  

“They’re not!” Lee all but screeched into the yellow sun rug covering the hard wooden floor, and Dan rolled his eyes, trying to prise Lee’s hands away from his ears. Cleo, who was dangling down from the bunk above Michael’s and had been watching Michael and Jake’s intense Uno match for the last ten minutes, suddenly began to laugh uncontrollably, her cackling giggles echoing through the cabin.  

She leapt off her perch, rolling as she hit the floor to come up standing, and immediately rushed over to grin at the scrabbling brothers. “No way. No fucking way.”  

“Language!”  

“It’s none of your business, Cleo!”  

Cleo cackled again and doubled over, her hands on her knees. “Oh my gods. The golden boy, the pride of the cabin-”  

“Shut up!”  

“I’m not angry! Just let me check!” Dan huffed, and Michael, who had been watching the scene go down from the relative safety of his bunk with Jake, cleared his throat loudly.  

“What the fuck is going on?”  

“Oh my fucking gods.”  

“Oh, fuck off!”  

“Language, all three of you!” Dan threw his hands in the air, momentarily abandoning his quest to free Lee’s ears, and glared at Lee as the younger boy attempted to wriggle free. “Just let me check them for infection!”  

“They’re fine!”  

Dan rolled his eyes. “And I trust you on that. But I would still like to check.”  

“No!” Lee pressed his hands tighter to his head. “They’re fine! I promise!”  

“Then let me check. I’m not angry, Lee. I’m not going to shout at you.”  

Cleo was still wheezing, crouching down to get a better look at Lee’s head, and Michael groaned and pulled himself off his bed to walk over and kick Lee in the spleen. He didn’t need a spleen, did he? Was that even where the spleen was situated? “What did you do?”  

“Nothing!”  

Michael turned to Dan in search of answers, and the Head Counsellor rolled his eyes, smiling at Jake as the son of Hephaestus cautiously walked over to the scene of the crime. “He pierced his ears, and he thinks I’ll be mad.”  

“No I don’t! And I didn’t pierce them!” Lee squeaked into the rug, and Cleo cackled loudly.   

“Then who did?”  

“An Aphrodite girl! Look, just let me go tape them up so I can go train-”  

Dan coughed, still sat on Lee’s back. “If you weren’t the one piercing them, then I’m definitely checking them. Who was the girl?”  

Lee groaned. “A new girl. Silena. She’s lovely and Lizzie watched her, so it’s fine! Lemme go.”  

“Nope.” Dan mused, popping the p. “If it’s fine, I’m allowed to look and make sure they’re not going to get infected.”  

Jake raised an eyebrow at Lee, seemingly confused. “Why can’t we see? Is it really bad?”  

“No!”  

“Woah, woah, woah.” Alex whistled as he walked in, inspecting the scene. “Golden boy got himself in trouble?”  

“I hate you.”  

“I’m still a walking truth detector, sunlight.” Alex flopped down on the cabin floor, poking Lee’s skull curiously. “What’d ya do? And why are you- oh my gods. You didn’t.”  

Cleo cackled again. “Oh, he did.”  

“Wait,” Michael, whose brain had been running at about seventy miles an hour for the last two minutes, blinked at Cleo. “Boys can get their ears pierced?”  

She smiled at him. “They sure can! Have you never seen Dan’s piercing?”  

Dan blushed lightly when Michael turned to him incredulously, then tilted his head to the side and brushed a couple of golden-blonde strands to the side to reveal a single, discreet bronze stud in the lobe of his right ear. Michael gaped, since he’d had no idea that was there, and Dan smirked as he placed the hair back again, his dark roots starting to show now that it was winter and he couldn’t get natural bleaching from the sun. Jake whistled. “That’s cool.”  

“Thanks.” Dan smiled, then nudged Lee. “Which is why, I’m not going to be angry that you got your ears pierced behind my back. Just let me see them.”  

Lee groaned into the floor for a long, drawn out moment, then mumbled something Michael didn’t catch. Alex clearly didn’t get it either, and poked Lee in the head again. “What now?”  

“I said,” Lee grumbled. “Don’t make fun of me.”  

Cleo snorted. “What, for getting your ears pierced? You’d have to do more than that to get a proper good tease.”  

“No, as in- Nevermind.” Lee sighed, reluctantly releasing his ears as he shoved at Dan. “Get off, you’re heavy.”  

“Ooh, gold?” Cleo grinned as she leaned in for a better look, and Michael flopped down beside his brother as Dan got up and Lee grumpily sat upright. Jake sat beside him, also peering at Lee’s ears, which now each held a single golden stud earring, with-   

Was that-?  

“Oh. My. Gods.” Alex breathed, his lips curving up into a devious smile that Michael was very glad wasn’t aimed at him. “Is that from Castor?”  

“No!” Lee said quickly, face bright red. “No, I just liked the shape.”  

“You got golden studs shaped like grapes with purple diamonds in them, because you liked the shape?”   

Cleo cackled, long and loud. “Oh, Lee. You’re down bad.”  

“Fine!” Lee crossed his arms, sitting up and puffing his chest out indignantly. “Cas got them for me when he heard I wanted the pierced. But that doesn’t mean-”  

Alex was doubled over in laughter, Cleo now wheezing as she slapped him on the back, and Dan snorted in amusement. Michael’s brain was still reeling from the discovery that his older brothers had earrings, but had enough brain cells left to realise that this was really fucking funny and Lee was never living it down, and joined Jake in laughing uncontrollably next to him. Lee was bright red; scarlet from the tips of his ears to his collarbone, and glared at them all unwaveringly.   

“I hate you all.”  

“He got you earrings.” Cleo gasped, still laughing as she nudged Michael. “You seeing this shit?”  

“He is never living this down.”  

Jake snorted, grinning at Lee. “Was he there for the piercing?”  

Lee, who seemed to be counting his minutes, stared at Jake with open betrayal as his cheeks darkened even further. “No!”  

“Oh gods,” Dan grinned, ruffling Lee’s hair affectionately. “Down bad, huh?”  

“Shut up. All of you!” Lee abruptly stood and walked to the door, flipping Alex the middle finger when the older son of Apollo pointed out how the earrings sparkled in the sunlight, still cackling. Cleo was lying on her back, slowly calming from her fit of giggles, and Dan had somehow managed to retain a straight face by biting the inside of his cheek and grinning. “I’m going to the infirmary! At least Alice will be nice to me.”  

He was gone a second later, and as soon as he was out of hearing range Dan burst into laughter while Cleo tried not to choke and Michael feared he’d laugh his voice box out. Jake, who was patting him on the back and grinning, smirked at the siblings. “Alice isn’t going to be nice, is she?”  

“Oh hell no.” Alex grinned, and Michael snorted.  

“She’ll bully him. Relentlessly.”   

“Let us all say a word for Lee’s current state of sanity. “Dan raised his hands to his chest in prayer, eyes closed as Alex chortled some more. “We are gathered here today-”  

It was safe to say that they didn’t stop laughing for a long time.  

A week later, and Michael was still surprised every time he saw Lee’s purple and gold studs. He couldn’t get over the fact that boys could have earrings, and after paying a lot more attention to ears than he’d very thought he would, he’d spotted several guys around camp with earrings. Beckendorf had a single helix cuff in his left ear, and Luke had one in his right lobe, and almost every person in the Aphrodite cabin had at least three; whether male or female or something in between. He’d pointed this out to Jake, who just shrugged.  

“It’s more common these days.” He’d said, large hands kneading clay in the arts and crafts pavilion while Michael attempted to paint a canvas of the ocean beside him. “A lot of guys have them. It’s cool.”  

That, at least, Michael could agree with. It was very cool, and as he spotted more and more metal ear decorations around camp (and a few nose piercings too, which were funky) he started to wonder how exactly people got their ears pierced. Assumedly using a needle, probably through the softest part of the ear you could find, then stick an earring in it and wait for it to heal. Did the earring have to be sanitised, like with his insulin injections? Did it matter if it didn’t go directly into a vein?  

Naturally, he went to the infirmary and climbed the cupboards until he was able to reach the medical books about the head. There was frustratingly little in them about how to pierce an ear, but he learnt a lot about the structure of the ear, which was kinda cool.   

Jake had walked in on him during one of such study sessions. Michael was sat on his bed, shuffling through five different books at the same time, and barely looked up when Jake leaned on the bedframe above him, peering down at the books with a raised eyebrow. “What are you doing?”  

Michael pointed to a diagram of the anatomy of the ear. “Researching the structure of the ear.”  

“...Why?”  

He huffed, showing the small section on ear piercing in book no.3 to the son of Hephaestus. “Because I want to know how people pierce their ears! Do you pick any old spot, or is it specialised? Is it painful? Do the nerves in your ear make it feel the same as being stabbed? Are you technically just being stabbed? Is it done by hand with a needle? Are there machines that do it? What sort of metals do you first put in? Do you have to sanitise the area around it in case of infection? I have so many questions, and this answers none of them!”  

He slapped the book back down with a loud huff, flopping backwards on his bed like a starfish. Jake switched eyebrows, raising the other one jauntily. Was eyebrow raising genetic? Could Michael raise both individually too? He almost tried, but stopped lest he look stupid.   

“I get the feeling you’re becoming a medical freak.” Jake said helpfully, patting Michael’s head. Michael glared at him.  

“No, I’m not.”  

“You kinda are.”  

“I just want to know how it works!” He groaned, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. Jake smirked, sitting beside him and flicking through book no.5 curiously. Michael mentally marked his previous page number. That had been an interesting page.   

“Is this because Lee got his ears pierced?”  

Michael shrugged. “I dunno. But they’re cool, and I wanna know how it works. Surely if he wasn’t sanitising it, the area would be infected by now. But how do you keep it sanitised?”  

“Salt water.”   

“What?”  

Jake smirked as Michael turned to look at the other boy, and pointed to the diagram of the ear. “You spray it with salt water every day. Lee probably has a bottle in the bathroom.”  

They stared at each other for a minute, then Michael slid off the bed and walked to the bathroom. Sure enough, he found a bottle of salt water in Lee’s section of the cupboard, neatly labelled in his brother’s swirling handwriting. He returned to Jake, who was studying a description of how the nervous system operated, and flopped down beside him curiously. “How’d you know it was salt water?”  

Jake shrugged. “My mom kept leaving her earrings out too long and they’d close up, so she was constantly getting them repierced. I was there when she got them done once, actually. It was kinda cool.”  

Michael blinked. “How quickly do they heal?”  

“Depends how long you’ve had them pierced, I think.” Jake smirked at him. “You’re not thinking of doing yours, are you?”  

The son of Apollo huffed, crossing his arms indignantly. “I don’t see why I can’t.”  

“Because you don’t know how to pierce ears?”  

“Well,” Michael frowned, propping his chin on his palm as he studied Jake curiously. “You said you watched your mom do hers.”  

Jake arched an eyebrow. “I said I saw her get them done. She didn’t do them, someone else did. But hey,” He shrugged and stabbed a thumb at the cabin door behind him. “You could always go to Lizzie. You know her, and she does a lot of piercing for people.”  

Michael frowned further. “I’ve talked to her once.”  

“That doesn’t mean she’ll be any less happy to help. If you want your ears pierced, just ask her. She’s nice.”  

“She’s also gonna shove a needle in my ear.”  

His best friend shrugged. “Only if you ask her to. Plus, that’s exactly what you were gonna do, just she’s a an actual professional.”  

“I highly doubt she’s a trained professional.”  

“She has experience.”  

“She’d be shoving metal in my ear!”  

“Then don’t get them done.” Jake rolled his eyes. “Duh. You don’t have to get them done if you don’t want to. But if you’re going to, go see someone who’s done it before.”  

They stared at each other for a moment, and Michael internally sighed. Was it worth the risk?  

Yes, apparently, as two days later he found himself knocking on the Aphrodite cabin door, Jake looking far too smug next to him. He elbowed the other boy, but Jake just kept grinning, especially as the door opened on a girl of about Lee’s age, with dark hair and pretty eyes. Michael hadn’t seen her before, but Jake clearly had an idea of who she was, and smiled at her politely. “Hi Silena. Is Lizzie in?”  

The girl that Michael assumed was Silena smiled brightly and beckoned them in. “Jake! Lizzie’s in the back, come in, come in! Who’s this?”  

Jake grinned, tugging a reluctant Michael in behind him. “Michael. He wants his ear pierced.”  

“Ooh.” Silena smiled at the son of Apollo, who was currently trying to figure out why the entire Aphrodite cabin was bright pink inside and out. He couldn’t imagine Lizzie, with her black goth clothing style that he’d seen around camp a fair bit recently, sat in here. Too bright. “Lee’s little brother, right?”  

He blinked at her. “Did he talk about me?”  

“Just a bit.” She giggled, then smoothly whisked over to a door at the back of the cabin that Michael assumed was the bathroom. “Liz!”  

Jake smiled, and Michael leaned over slightly, dropping his tone to a whisper. “Why do you know everyone?”  

“I don’t know everyone.”  

“Well, you seem to know her,” He nodded to Silena, who was knocking on the door cheerfully. “And I thought she was new.”  

“She is.” Jake nodded. “But Beck was her tour guide, and they got on like a house on fire. She keeps randomly popping in the cabin or the forge to say hi.”  

Michael’s eyebrow rose sceptically. “An Aphrodite girl in the forge?”  

“Exactly what I said!” The other boy grinned at him, then shrugged. “I don’t know. She always turns her nose up at the grime and comments on how sleeping in the cabin must be a safety risk, but she keeps coming back. Beck really likes her.”  

“Huh.”  

“Hallelujah!” Silena crowed, smirking teasingly at Lizzie as the older girl finally emerged from the bathroom, one eyebrow raised. Her dyed streaks were green today, and she was sporting a black leather jacket studded with spikes over her usual black crop top and studded skirt, with an appropriate number of shiny belts and black boots to top it all off. The Aphrodite cabin members seemed to be the ones who wore their orange camp shirts the least, and the ones who did wear them seemed to find some way of embellishing or chopping them in order to make them fashionable. Michael found it quite amusing, and he couldn’t deny that they all looked pretty cool as they walked around camp, particularly Lizzie.  

“Hi Lizzie.” Jake smiled, and Lizzie arched an eyebrow at the son of Hephaestus in return, before abruptly switching to a wide grin when she spotted Michael.

“You dragged him in! Hey dude, what’s up?”  

Jake smirked smugly, and Michael huffed as he elbowed his friend, then sighed when Lizzie looked at him curiously. “I’d like to know how you pierce someone’s ears.”  

“He means he wants his ear pierced.”  

“No, I want to know how it’s done.” He rolled his eyes, smacking Jake lightly as the other boy snickered. “I’m interested.”  

Lizzie hummed, leaning against the nearest bedframe, and looked him over suspiciously. “Are you going to try and pierce your own if I show you? Because I’d rather not have Dan or someone knocking down the cabin door, and Kai will not save me.”  

Silena huffed. “Yes they would! They’re the Head Counsellor!”  

“Yeah, but save me from Dan?”  

Michael rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t tell Dan. And it’d be fine.”  

“Heard that one before.” Lizzie drawled, still studying him. “One of my brothers tried it. Didn’t go well. Plus,” She gestured to herself, a small smile flicking over her lips. “Why do it yourself when I can do it?”  

The archer scowled, and Jake hummed, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. He’d been fidgety recently, Michael had noticed, and not just his usual sort of fidgety. Did ADHD get worse as you grew up? “We discussed that.”  

“I’m good.” Michael scowled, and when Lizzie tilted her head at him curiously, he sighed and shuffled his feet. For whatever reason, she was rather hard to avoid talking to. Annoyingly hard. Plus, Lee had been getting on his ass about ‘setting boundaries’ and other shit for ages, and it was starting to get to him. “I don’t really like being touched.”  

“Oh.” The older girl breathed, then smiled lightly. “Okay. That’s fine, but I can’t let you wander off and stab yourself. Dan would actually kill me.”  

“No, he would not.”  

“ Yes, he would, Sil. Also,” She leaned over to whisper to her sister, then smiled at the younger girl. “Would you go get that for me?”  

Silena’s eyes lit up, and she grinned and quickly skipped off towards the front door, calling bye to everyone as she left. Michael didn’t question it, but Jake raised an eyebrow at Lizzie. “Did you just send her to the forge?”  

Lizzie winked back. “Damn right. Okay!” She flopped down on a nearby bunk that Michael assumed was her based off the black bedspread, and beckoned the two boys over. “Sit, sit. Let’s chat.”  

Michael looked at her hopefully. “Are you going to tell me how it works?”  

“Depends.” Lizzie kicked back, legs dangling off the edge of the bed and hands supporting herself from behind as Michael and Jake both sat cross legged on the other end of the bunk. “I’ve got a few options for ya. Either you let me pierce whichever ear you want doing, and we talk it over beforehand, or we talk about it, and you leave and come back some other time, or,” She paused, then sighed. “Or, I teach you how to do it safely, and you do it right here right now on this bed, and if something goes wrong then I’m allowed to interfere. Ideally, I’d prefer if you let me do it since I know what I’m doing and it’s really, super quick, but if you don’t want me touching you then I get that. Thoughts?”  

Michael huffed. He didn’t want to be supervised, he was responsible! There was no way he could mess up putting a hole in his ear that badly.  

But at the same time, was it just easier to let Lizzie do it? She seemed nice, and she hadn’t told him he couldn’t have it done, and he really, really wanted it done. Plus, if it was quick...  

“How quick?” He asked, and Lizzie grinned.  

“Very quick. Barely more than a second each. Doesn’t hurt much, either.”  

“I don’t care about the pain.” He grumbled, then sighed and reluctantly nodded. “Fine. You can do it.”  

“Yes!” Jake grinned beside him, ignoring Michael’s eye roll, and leaned over to ruffle the archer’s hair with a smile. Michael batted him away in exasperation, but as Lizzie smiled and stood to fetch her stuff, Jake made another attack, and well, that wouldn’t stand.  

Pretty soon, they were both rolling around on the bed, trying to mess up each other’s hair while avoiding attacks, and Michael was pretty sure his chest was going to explode with how much he was laughing. Lizzie was back a moment later, perching on the end of the bunk and grinning at them, then managed to quarrel Michael into sitting upright so they could chat. “Okay. Which ear?”  

“Right.” He said confidently. He and Jake had discussed it the day before while lying on the dock together, Michael trying to do his science work while Jake studied him. They’d eventually decided on the right, because according to Jake it would match better. Michael hadn’t questioned it, and it seemed Lizzie agreed as she nodded approvingly.  

“Nice choice. Oh, are you diabetic?” She gestured to the glucose monitor on his right arm, and Michael nodded.  

“Mhm. Type one.”  

“Hadn’t guessed.” She said dryly, then whipped a largish white box out of somewhere and opened it, placing it in front of Michael and Jake, the latter of whom seeming to just be happily watching. Michael had no issue with him being there, and Lizzie seemed to find it amusing, so he didn’t question it. “Right. Pick a stud, any stud. Take your time.”  

She smiled at him, and Michael studied the box curiously. There were hundreds of the things, all sorts of shapes and colours and metal types, and he looked back at the older girl cautiously. “They’re all sanitised, right?”  

Lizzie snorted so hard Michael was convinced she was going to choke, and Jake snickered beside him, nudging the son of Apollo. “Yep.”  

“Man,” Lizzie wheezed. “Definitely a ‘pollo. Gods.”  

Michael just rolled his eyes, going back to humming over the box. Eventually, he found one, pulling the small, golden starburst-shaped earring out of the box and offering it to Lizzie, who nodded in approval. Jake continued to muse over the box curiously, much to his amusement, and Lizzie smiled and got them set up, explaining the process to him as she wiped her equipment clean. The whole process was quick, and Lizzie’s fingers on his chin weren’t too unbearable, so Michale let it slide and instead smiled when she let go to study his face. “Done?”  

“Yup.” She grinned at him, patting him lightly on the shoulder as she stood to pack away her stuff, and smirked at Jake teasingly as she took away the stud box, stabbing a finger at Michael with a grin. “Heartbreaker, much?”  

“What?” Michael blinked, and Lizzie snickered as she gestured to the son of Apollo with one hand.  

“You, buddy. Gonna be a real catch when you’re grown, can’t lie. I reckon Jake agrees, right dude?”  

Jake had gone weirdly red as Lizzie walked away, and Michael was slightly concerned his friend was coming down with something. He frowned and almost reached out to check his temperature, but Jake cleared his throat and looked away before he could, apparently much to Lizzie’s amusement as the older girl laughed. “Sure.”  

“Oh, sure, huh?”  

“Lizzie-”  

“Come on buddy.” Lizzie beckoned Michael up and tugged him into the cabin ten bathroom, where she gave him a bottle of salt water and told him how to keep the area sanitised. Michael, satisfied that he’d accomplished what he came for, thanked her and dragged Jake out, already mentally preparing for Dan’s possible lecture as he listened to Jake ramble beside him, the stud in his ear a comforting slight weight.  

Maybe Lizzie could show him how to do his helix, too.  

Chapter Text

Michael knocked on the door and crossed his arms, hip stuck out to one side as he waited for someone to respond from the other side. He was stood outside the Hephaestus cabin, and hopefully the person answering would be Jake so he could cuss his friend out immediately, rather than having to play nice in front of Hannah and Beck. That wasn’t on his agenda today. 

The large door was eventually opened by- oh thank Zeus. Ally wouldn’t care if he was rude. The daughter of Hephaestus arched an eyebrow at him sceptically. “What’dya want?” 

“Where’s Jake?” He snapped, and Ally smirked, placing her hands on her hips as she studied the younger boy. 

“What’d he do now?” 

Michael sniffed. “None of your beeswax, Jepson. Where is the fucker?” 

She snorted at the beeswax comment, muttering something about Aristaeus under her breath (was he the god of bees Lee mentioned??) and opened the door, beckoning him inside. Michael followed, instantly locking onto Jake with a glare as Ally called out to her brother. “Jakey! Got a visitor!” 

Jake turned, grinning when he spotted Michael. “Mike!” 

His expression quickly morphed into more of a wince when he saw Michael’s face. 

“I’m sorry?” 

Michael threw himself at the other boy instantly, ignoring Ally’s obnoxious whistling behind him to cover up the noise of their scuffle (he assumed Hannah was nearby) and seconds later was cussing violently as the two rolled around of Jake’s bed, trying to pin the other boy down as he yelled. Jake was screeching something he couldn’t understand as Michael rolled on top and grabbed his hands, glaring down at the son of Hephaestus and smacking his head with his own. “Bái chī!” (Idiot!)  

“I- Am I meant to know what that means? Ally! Save me! Beck!” 

Ally snorted and kept whistling, a book now in hand as she kicked back on her bed. Beck, who had just entered the cabin, took one look at the boys and immediately turned around and left again, Jake squawking indignantly at the betrayal behind him. Michael growled, leaning down so he could get in the other boy’s face as he hissed. “You’re a goddamn fucking asshole.”  

Jake rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t want you to collapse and die.”  

“You tattled!” 

“For the greater good!” 

“What greater good?” 

“Your good!” Jake stuck a tongue out at him. “You had literally just had a hypo!”  

Michael threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “I was fine! But then you snitched, and Lee made me sit in bed the whole day yesterday, and you didn’t even visit!” 

Jake arched an eyebrow at him. “Surprisingly enough, I thought I might be shot in the head for getting within three feet of you.” 

“That’s just ridiculous.” Michael placed one hand on his hip, still sat on Jake’s stomach as he pointed to the son of Hephaestus with his free hand. “Firstly, I could shoot you in the head from twenty yards, not three-”  

“I said three feet!”  

“-and secondly, Lee confiscated my bow! So I wouldn’t have been able to shoot you even if I wanted to!” 

Jake just smirked. “You might have bitten my ankles. You’re short enough to.” 

Seconds later, he received an elbow to the stomach and several insults in several different languages. Alex had been teaching Michael Latin recently with the help of Alice and occasionally Dan, and both Alex and Cleo had taken it upon themselves to teach Michael every Greek swearword in the book, along with any from other languages they knew/had been told. Along with Michael’s Chinese heritage providing him with the ability to insult in Mandarin and the afternoons he’d spent by himself on the streets in the evenings in his home city listening to the cursing drunkards leaving the bars, he had quite a repertoire of foul language, and was unleashing a fair chunk of it on Jake, very offended. Jake just grinned, mouth opening to say something, but he was cut off by a feminine voice to their right. 

“Jake sweetheart, do you want to call back later?” 

Michael’s head snapped to the right so fast he thought he’d get whiplash, and squeaked when he caught sight of a bright, glowing apparition of a woman with red hair, grinning through what seemed to be a chunk of rainbow. He instinctively dived straight off the bed, incredibly jumpscared by the sudden voice and bright light (how had he not noticed it before???) and Jake immediately burst into laughter at his quick exit, Michael’s heart pounding way too fast for being scared by a rainbow. The son of Hephaestus said something that sounded somewhere along the lines of ‘hold on a sec Nat, you scared him’, then leaned off the end of the bed to grin at Michael, who was currently sheltering below the bunk, trying to calm his embarrassingly fast heartrate. “Hey.” 

Michael blinked at him, unimpressed. “That wasn’t funny.” 

“That was totally funny. Come on, get out, she’s not gonna bite you via iris message dummy.”  

He sighed, slowly wriggling out from under the bed and climbing back onto the bed, glaring at Ally on the other side of the cabin, who had been shamelessly cackling since he’d made his quick exit. “That never happened. You tell Alex and I’ll shoot you.” 

Ally just smirked, still snickering. “Sure buddy. Whatever you say.” 

Jake grinned, tugging him further onto the bed, then pointed to the glowing rainbow, which Michael could now see was clearly an iris message; one of those video things Lee had told him about. He’d never seen one in person, but it was, in effect, just a massive misty rainbow chunk with a screen in the middle. Jake had some sort of mist humidifier on his bedside table that was spraying water into the air, with a flashlight that had a prism-ball-thingy attached to the end (Michael had no idea how he’d made that) and a stack of gold drachma beside it, presumably for paying the goddess Iris to use the rainbow line, or something. It was clearly a well-used setup, and Michael peered curiously at the rainbow again, trying to focus on the person it was showing.  

A woman, blue-eyed, with dyed red hair and about four piercings in each ear, smiled back at him through the message. She was pretty, with a kind smile and soft features, and her eyes lit up as she studied Michael, her grin widening. “Hi there. You must be Michael.” 

Michael blushed, looking to Jake for an explanation. His friend smiled and pointed to the woman, then Michael. “This is Natalie, my mom. Nat, this is Michael.” 

Michael’s eyes widened at the term ‘mom’, well aware that Jake’s mom had died in a car crash with a drunk driver, so this clearly was not Jake’s biological mom. Natalie smirked, tilting her head in Michael’s direction, seemingly sensing the confusion. “Stepmom, technically. I married Caroline when Jake was about five.” 

Ah. Jake did mention that.  

“Sorry, I forgot.” He smiled politely, tilting his head in recognition. “Hi. Nice to meet you. I’m Michael.” 

“I know.” She smirked, stabbing a thumb in Jake’s direction and grinning when the son of Hephaestus squawked indignantly. “This one talks about you a lot.” 

“No I don’t!” 

“Yes you do. Son of Apollo, amazing archer, type one diabetic, loves gymnastics, has an attitude, I’ve heard it all. Katie’s been dying to meet him.” She grinned at Michael as he blushed and Jake groaned. “How old are you again, sweetheart?” 

“Um,” Michael blinked. “Ten since August, ma’am.” 

Jake abruptly turned to look at him at the use of the honorific, clearly confused by the respectful term. Michael just smiled, as polite as possible. He knew the routine. His mother had drilled it into him to respect his elders.  

Quiet, calm and composed, Michail. Children are to be seen and not heard. None of that yelling.  

Natalie chuckled. “Nat, sunshine. No ma’am. No miss.” 

Michael winced. Damn it. Messed up again.  

Jake arched an eyebrow at him, but was slowly pulled back to the call by loud rustling and a quiet “Mommy?”  

Natalie quickly turned away from the call, and when she moved back, there was a small girl with long, straight brown hair and blue eyes sat on her lap. She looked sleepy, as if she’d just woken up, but grinned widely when she saw Jake, sleepy eyes widening. “Jake!” 

“Hey Kate!” Jake grinned back, waving happily, and Kate smiled, then frowned when she caught sight of Michael, head tilted curiously. 

“Who dat?” She asked sluggishly, and Natalie smiled, bouncing her daughter on her lap. 

“Michael, sweetie. You remember Jake talking about him?” 

Kate squinted at the iris message for a minute, then slowly grinned, the large gap between her two front teeth showing. “Mickel.” 

Michael smirked, cocking his own head to match the angle of hers. Kids were simpler. Kids he could deal with. “Not quite.” 

“Yup.” She grinned wider. “Mickel.” 

“Well then I guess you’re Kat, aren’t you?” 

She frowned. “Kate. Not Kat.” 

“Well, if I’m Mickel, you’re clearly Kat.” 

The young girl hummed over this for a minute, then bounced happily, nodding. “Mickel ‘n Kat. ‘N Jake.” 

Michael grinned back, and Jake arched an eyebrow, pointing to the son of Apollo. “How come he’s Mickel and you’re Kat, but I’m just Jake?” 

“We’re just special.” 

“Yup!” Kate nodded, grinning, then narrowed her eyes and Jake and flashed Michael a smirk. “Jay.” 

Michael nodded. “Mickel and Kat and Jay.” 

“Mm.” 

Jake looked between them for a second, then shook his head and sighed, smiling back at Natalie. “How’s stuff at home?” 

She waved him off, smiling. “Oh, fine, pretty normal. Kat has a dance show next week for the lilun’s,” She kissed the top of Kat’s head, grinning when the little girl squealed and Jake smiled his encouragement through the call. “But other than that, not a lot. I think we’re more interested in what you’ve been up to recently, right Kit-Kat?”  

Natalie bounced Kate on her lap once, smirking as the little girl giggled, and Jake smiled, shrugging lightly.  

“I helped Beck fix some of the plumbing in the Hermes cabin on Tuesday. And me and Ally made this awesome sword a yesterday, it was so cool.” He grinned at Ally across the cabin, who smirked and gave him a thumbs up back. “Oh, and me and Mike absolutely obliterated Lee, Cas, Lux and Beck in a canoe race a few days ago.” 

Michael smirked, and Natalie arched an eyebrow sceptically. “In the middle of Winter.” 

“Hey, February is almost the end of Winter! Plus, I don’t get cold! Michael, however-” 

“I was fine!”  

“You almost got hypothermia. Then proceeded to have freaking hypoglycaemia and pass out. And then later tried to escape the infirmary despite having woken up less than ten minutes ago, still unsteady on your feet.” 

Michael scowled. “And you tattled on me to Lee!” 

“Oh, how very sorry I am that I stopped my best friend from possibly dying by informing his big brother he was about to go running out of the infirmary, barefoot mind you, with no insulin equipment and a headache.” Jake rolled his eyes, and Michael flipped Ally the middle finger when she snickered at him from her bunk. Natalie was smirking, while Kate had clearly lost interest in the conversation and was poking something out of view, and the son of Apollo huffed when Jake eyed him suspiciously. 

“I was fine.”  

“I’m gonna have to ban you from using that word.”  

Michael just stuck his tongue out in return.  

“I dare you.”  

Jake’s replying smirk did not bode well for him. 

“Challenge accepted.” 

Chapter Text

“Can I ask you something?” 

Cleo arched an eyebrow at Michael from where she was laid beside him on the roof of cabin seven, arms folded behind her head as they looked up at the clear night’s sky. They’d been stargazing, neither of them able to sleep, and Michael had previously been pointing to the constellations and reciting their stories to his sister; trying to recall what he’d been learning in the ancient mythology classes they all took near the arts and crafts pavilion. That had stopped about ten minutes ago, and they’d been staring upwards in peaceful silence since. 

Well, peaceful for Cleo. Michael had personally had a question eating at him the entire time, and it was driving him mad. Even the cool sea breeze and sparkling lights in the sky hadn’t been enough to relax him.  

“Obviously.” Cleo smirked and pointed a finger gun in his direction. “Shoot.” 

Michael rolled his eyes, swallowing lightly before he spoke. He wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it. “It’s... It’s a bit of a weird question.” 

The daughter of Apollo’s eyebrow flew higher. “And I’m a weird person. Ask away, bud. I’m not gonna judge.” 

“Right.” He ran his tongue over his bottom lip carefully. “What- Uh, what does-” He paused, frowning, then sighed and spat it out. “What does love feel like?” 

Cleo paused for a moment, then slowly rolled over onto her stomach, pillowing her head on her arms so she could look at Michael easily. “...Not gonna lie, that wasn’t what I thought you were going to say.” 

He shrugged and she smiled, propping her head up on one hand while she thought. Thought hard apparently, as she hummed quietly for a minute before answering. Michael had asked her this for that exact reason; when it came to the important stuff, Cleo always thought before she spoke. As did Lee, and Alice, but Cleo was just easier to talk to.  

“Well,” She mused, flicking her blue eyes back to Michael’s brown ones. “There are different types of love. According to the Greeks, there were three.” 

Michael frowned, copying her position of laying on his stomach. “What were they?” 

Cleo smirked, ticking them off on her fingers as she said them. “Philia, Agape and Eros. Familial love, selfless love, and romantic love.” 

He squinted at her. “That sounds complicated.” 

“It sort of is.” She laughed quietly, head cocked as she spoke. “Philia is the easiest sort of love. It’s love between family and friend. The way I love you and Lee and Alex and Alice and Dan. The way Lee loves Beck. The way you love Jake. People who are your family, by blood or not.” 

Michael nodded carefully. “The good sort of love.” 

“All love should be good, bud. If it doesn’t feel good, it’s not proper love.”  

He looked at her, curious, and gestured for her to keep going. “What about Agape?”   

“Agape is like, unconditional love. It’s the love everyone has for everyone else, the sort of love that makes strangers hold open doors and little kids smile at you. Love that doesn’t need to be earned, and isn’t based of emotion or experience. In Christianity, it’s seen as the love God has for everyone, whether they believe in him or not, and it’s basically just a moral code. Agape shows us that everyone is capable of love, whether they choose to act on it or not.” 

“Right.” He said slowly, processing. “And Eros?”  

Cleo grinned. “Romantic love. It’s different from both Philia and Agape, because it’s a lot more unpredictable. Eros is uncontrollable, much like the god it’s named after. You can’t choose to love someone through Eros. Whether it hurts you or heals you, you have no choice but to feel it.” 

Michael hummed. “So Eros can be dangerous.” 

His sister tilted her head the other way, nose scrunched. “Honestly? Yes. Eros is the most dangerous type of love. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t feel it.” She bopped him on the nose gently, smiling that bright smile that was so good at making Michael feel like everything was going to be okay. “Eros can be dangerous, but it’s a necessary evil. No one is able to go their whole lives without heartbreak. It’s what helps us grow.” 

“Mm.” 

He considered this for a minute. It made sense, in a way.  

“So, the love you and Max have is Eros?”  

She shrugged. “Technically, yes. But in many ways, Philia and Eros can cross. Max is my boyfriend, but also my best friend. He’s both.” 

“Right.” Michael said again, frowning. “But what does it feel like? Eros?”   

Cleo chuckled, soft and light. “It has many feelings for many different people. For some people, it feels like flying. Like you’re on top of the world and nothing can bring you down. Like there’s been a massive hole in your heart your entire life, and suddenly it’s full when they smile at you.” She smirked. “For others, it’s like being hit by a truck, and then the truck comes back and rolls over you again, and then a pigeon shits on your flattened head.” 

Michael scrunched his nose up. “That doesn’t sound fun.” 

“Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes you don’t want to love the person you do. But we have no choice, and every step is a learning curve.” She smiled at him, then grinned and rolled over to trap him in a hug, snickering as Michael yelped. “And when you find someone you love, and they love you back, we are all going to bully you so damn hard-”  

Michael squeaked, laughing as she started to tickle him lightly. “That’s not fair!” 

“Totally fair! I got bullied; so will you!” 

“No!” 

“Yes!” 

“No!” 

She trapped him, grinning as Michael wriggled under her.  “Absolutely yes. But we’re also going to love you, and support you, and scare the shit out of whoever is lucky enough to-” 

“Fine!” He groaned, throwing his hands in the air and shoving her off. “Whatever, weirdo.” 

“Uh-uh, watch your tongue young man.” Cleo tapped his nose, smirking. “Or I’ll tell Jake you used the forbidden word.”  

Michael groaned again. Jake had been insufferable about the word recently. Every time he said, ‘I’m fine’ or ‘fine’ or any variation of the word in any context, Jake would grin victoriously and say, 'you owe me one more now’. The problem was, Michael had no idea exactly what he owed the other boy, since Jake refused to tell him, just grinned and told the son of Apollo one day he’d be paying it back, and it was driving Michael nuts.   

Whatever he owed the other boy, it was adding up to a lot, as Jake had a tally chart in one of his beside drawers, and after two weeks alone it was already over fifty tallies long. Michael was slightly terrified of what he now owed Jake, and he knew that part of the punishment for using the word was not knowing what his punishment was, but it was really, really getting to him. Jake seemed to be finding it hilarious, as Michael had begged and threatened and stormed and sulked and everything in between in order to be told what his payment was, but the other boy just grinned and kept his silence. He’d held a bow to the son of Hephaestus’ head and hissed, and whined and pouted when he didn’t get his answer, but nothing worked. Jake, infuriatingly, seemed immune to it all.  

“Don’t you dare.” He grumbled. “He’s annoying enough as it is.”  

“You still put up with him buddy. No point in complaining when we all know you won’t do anything about it.” 

He threw his hands in the air again. “It’s not that I won’t, it’s that I can’t! He doesn’t bend! He won’t tell me no matter what I do!”  

Cleo just grinned. “Sounds like a bit of a you problem, buddy, not gonna lie. Good luck with that.” 

Michael huffed and rolled over, going for her eyes. Cleo shrieked and grabbed him back, both of them laughing as they cursed and yelled at each other.

Somewhere in the distance, a harpy shrieked. One of the Big House lights flickered on.  

Both children of Apollo swore as they threw themselves off the roof and back inside. It was safe to say Dan was not pleased.  

Chapter Text

“Are you sure we’re not done yet?” 

“Nope.” Alex sighed heavily, leaning past Michael to stack another box of bandages in the cart as he peered at the list in his hand. “Still got... a crap tonne of infirmary stuff to get, some seeds the Demeter HC requested, a bunch of stuff the Hermes cabin want that I’m not even going to begin to look into for the sake of my own health, and....” He grinned suddenly, nudging Michael with his hip as he cast a look towards where Alice was stalking the aisle in front of them, searching for some sort of disinfectant. “Present for Al. Her birthday next week. You wanna do a joint?” 

Michael arched an eyebrow. “A joint present?” 

“Ya.” His brother nodded. “I’m assuming you also forgot and haven’t got her anything.” 

“I didn’t even know when her birthday was in the first place, how could I have forgot?” 

Alex rolled his eyes, nudging Michael again so the younger boy would push the cart further. The Apollo cabin had been chosen for the camp supply run, and Chiron had sent the whole cabin out in a van for the day, with lunch money included since it was a big order. They’d split into two threes, and Alice, Alex and Michael had drawn the short end of the stick and ended up in a supermarket searching for the boring stuff like meds and seeds, and then had to drive to the mall Dan, Lee and Cleo were currently in for midday to get lunch. Lee, Cleo and Alex had done a fair amount of begging (including bouncing up and down on the spot, hands clasped while puppy-eyed and smiling) in order to convince Dan to let them get mall food instead of going to a sandwich shop on the main street or something. Chiron had watched in amusement and handed over the money and van keys, and Dan had driven them away from camp while Alice sat in the passenger with an honest to gods map and the other four scrapped in the back. Michael had actually found the ride sort of fun, but was not enjoying walking around Walmart or wherever the hell they were right now and shoving stuff in the cart. Boring.  

“We should really get like, a calendar for the cabin.” Alex mused. “Cuz’ you know like next to nothing about events. Gotta fix that.” 

Michael frowned. “Can’t you just buy one in here?” 

“Oh, good shout.” Alex momentarily took control of the cart and wheeled it up to Alice, gently patting his sister on the shoulder as he placed it beside her. “Me and Michael are gonna go find a calendar for the cabin. Be right back.” 

Alice just nodded, absorbed in her list as she scribbled on it with a pen and frowned, and Alex grinned and tugged Michael down the aisle and into another, peering around at the miscellaneous objects on sale. Michael suspected there was absolutely no order to which the items were placed. There couldn’t be; selling oranges next to printing paper? It made no sense. 

For whatever reason, Alex had no issues navigating the seemingly endless aisles, and soon they were faced with a stack of calendars; all different styles and colours. Michael stood on his tiptoes to peer at some, and Alex smirked beside him, rubbing his hands together like an evil villain. “Right.” 

Michael arched an eyebrow at him. “Right?” 

“What’s the crappiest one you can see? Anything that’ll piss Dan off, anything that’s completely out of season- oh my gods.” He cackled and plucked one off the top of the pile, showing Michael a calendar with a picture of what appeared to be a selection of cartoon- were those pigs? Wearing clothes? Outside a yellow house on a massive hill? 

“What the fuck is that?” He asked, studying it, and Alex gasped.  

“You never watched Peppa Pig?”   

“The fuck is Peppa Pig?”  

“Oh my god, you haven’t lived.” Alex shook his head disapprovingly, putting the calendar back with a smirk. “It’s a kids cartoon show about a pig girl who runs around with her friends. I babysat one of my neighbour’s kids a year or so ago and she made me watch it with her. Comedy gold, I’m telling you.” 

Michael snorted and kept searching. “I’ll take your word for it. What about this?” 

He pulled out a large calendar shaped like a cartoon sun, with an obnoxiously drawn smiley face on the front, teeth and all. The longer Michael looked at it, the less happy it looked and the more evil it became. Alex grinned, taking the calendar with as much care as he’d take a thousand-dollar diamond. “Oh, it’s definitely a contender. Cleo would kill us; she can’t sleep at night as it is without this thing running loose in the cabin.” 

“Oh, she would actually shoot us.” 

“Hell yeah.” Alex tucked it under his arm, grinning as he ushered Michael back to where Alice was walking the shopping cart down the medication aisle. Alex shoved the sun in the cart with no hesitation, and calmly snatched his list back off Alice, who looked up in confusion.  

“What did you- Jesus Alex.” She gaped at the sun for a moment, and Alex grinned proudly, patting Michael on the shoulder. 

“I know right. Michael found it. Isn’t it fabulous?” 

Alice snorted, grinning as she turned back to her list. “Gods, Cleo is going to murder you. Bloody hell.”   

The boys high-fived, ignoring Alice’s snort at the action, and returned to grabbing medication. Alex soon decided just walking down the aisle and picking things was much too mundane and ineffective, and instead sent Michael off to get the seeds, since apparently, he needed to ‘get a feel for the layout of your average American supermarket’. Michael was not entirely convinced in that logic, nor that this classed as an average American supermarket, but he let it slide and instead set off on his quest to find seeds, which Alex had helpfully declared were about three rows that way, maybe.  

It took ten minutes and three trips to the soup aisle, but eventually Michael found a few shelves of gardening seeds, frowning as he peered up at the packages.  

Tomato, cucumber, raspberries. Was that all?  

He reached for the packages, studying each one to make sure he had the right set (what sort of tomatoes did they want? What was the difference?) but found himself stuck when he realised the cucumber packet was on the very top shelf, which was a good foot above his head.  

Damn it.   

Jumping would be inefficient. Climbing might bring the shelf down. He could try and smack it down with the end of his bow, but that would involve taking it out of the backpack he was currently wearing (pros of having a small bow; it fit in a backpack), and if a mortal were to turn down the aisle and see him waving a bow at the top shelf, he might have security called on him. Also, he might just knock the entire contents of the top shelf off.  

Michael huffed, turning around to go back and summon Alice to help him. If he could just remember while aisle he’d come from-  

“Oh, sorry kiddo!”  

Michael reeled back from the man he’d just walked straight into, blinking up at the guy in confusion. He could have sworn that guy wasn’t there a minute ago.  

“Sorry, sir.” He said on reflex, still confused, and the man, who seemed to be in his early twenties with platinum blonde hair and dark eyes, smiled at him. 

“Aren’t you a polite one.” The man mused, and Michael frowned. Something about that smile was off-putting. The guy looked at the seed packets in Michael’s hands, then the shelf he’d previously been looking at. “Are you missing one, sunshine? Want me to grab it?” 

Michael shook his head. “It’s fine, thank you. Have a nice day.” 

He started to walk away, but the man just chuckled and reached up to the top shelf, easily plucking the packet of cucumber seeds off the top and offering it to him with a smile. One of the shelves shifted as he did so, almost like the man had brushed it, but Michael was pretty certain he hadn’t. 

“Nonsense, here ya go. Are you a gardener, pipsqueak?”  

Michael frowned, cautiously taking the packet from the man’s large hand. “Not really.” 

The man chuckled. “I wouldn’t have thought so, at your age. How old are you, kid? Seven?” 

“Um,” Michael blinked, partially offended, partially confused. One of those leaflets his school used to hand out flashed in his mind. 

Stranger danger! Be wary of people you don’t know!  

“I’m afraid I need to go now.” He said stiffly, despite the small corner of his mind that was used to engaging adults in conversation protesting about his ignorance of an innocent question. “My father is waiting for me.” 

The lie slipped off his tongue easily. That’s what he always told the strange men that walked the streets at night when they asked where he was going. The idea of a nearby father figure tended to people back off rather easily. The man just grinned at him, leaning closer, and Michael suddenly had an excellent view of those swirling dark eyes. Like the centre of a storm.  

“It’s not nice to lie to people, pip.” The man said with a smile, but it was turning into more of a leer. Michael froze. 

“Sorry?” 

The stranger grinned, leaning back slightly, and suddenly Michael was pretty sure he could see something behind the man. Was that a cart? He hadn’t had a cart when he walked down the aisle. Thinking of it, had Michael even  seen  him walk down the aisle? He must have, the seeds were in the middle, and it wasn’t exactly a short aisle.  

“We both know your father ain’t waiting on you, kiddo. I’d be surprised if you’ve even  met  your father, I mean,” He laughed, slow and low and dry. “Gods don’t exactly make time for their kids, do they?” 

Run.  

Michael’s knives were in his hands before he could think, seeds forgotten on the floor, and he was pelting it down the aisle in seconds. The thing that most definitely  not  a man started to laugh behind him, a deep, crackling laugh that straightened the hairs on Michael’s arms, and something shot down the aisle after him, colliding with a stack of toilet rolls to his left and- 

Was that lightning?  

“Run, godling.”  The thing hissed, and a quick glance back revealed- were those wings?  

Nope, nope, nope. No thank you.  

“It’s always more fun when they run.”  

Sadistic. Good to know. 

Michael ran. 

“Michael!”  

He almost sprinted straight into his brother, Alex just turning the corner of the aisle, and while he’d originally been wearing a sly smirk, his expression quickly switched when he spotted the creature chasing Michael down the aisle. “What the fuck-”  

“Move!” He grabbed Alex by the arm, dragging the older boy along with him, and Alex swore rapidly as they turned the corner and raced down the middle of the supermarket, monster in tow. Alex had his bow in hand in seconds, but Michael’s was still in his backpack, so he could only watch as his brother shot behind them, eyes bright. “Where’s Alice?!” 

“Check out!” Alex swore as he ducked another lightning bolt. “Where the hell did you find that thing?!” 

“I didn’t find it, it found me! What is it?!” 

“An anemos thúella!”  

“A what now?” Michael cursed as he almost tripped, Alex grabbing his elbow to keep him upright as they continued running, the monster cackling behind them. 

“A storm spirit! More commonly known as a ventus, but that’s Latin! Children of the wind gods! Probably one of Boreas’, by the looks of it!”  

“Great! Can we keep the pop quiz until after we’ve killed it?” He snapped, and Alex rolled his eyes, but turned around to shoot again. The air around the ventus swirled as the arrow flew, and the weapon missed entirely, blown away by the winds. Alex grimaced. 

“Easier said than done.” 

“Fantastic. Duck!” 

They sprinted past the aisles, ignoring one poor unfortunate worker who yelled at them as they passed, and bolted out the front door of the supermarket, towards where Alice was just closing the doors of their van, shopping packed neatly inside. Her eyes widened when she spotted them, and she quickly slammed the doors shut as she drew her hunting knives. Fortunately, the parking lot was practically deserted. No mortals in sight. 

Unfortunately, the ventus seemed to like that.  

It cackled louder, the winds picking up as the sky grew dark overhead, and Alex swore as they stopped beside Alice, both breathing hard. Racing through the supermarket would do that, it seemed. Alice stared at them, then stabbed a thumb at the monster. “Really?” 

Michael groaned. “I was looking for cucumber seeds and it found me!” 

“We already have cucumber seeds!” 

“My bad.” Alex gasped, quickly straightening as he pointed to the ventus, which was currently standing out front of the store and laughing loudly as it dragged clouds down from the sky. That would certainly scare off the customers if the rotting fruit by the door didn’t. “Minor issue; I did not come prepared to fight a ventus, and it blows off arrows. Dan’s the only one with a sword on him.” 

Alice sighed, flicking her wrists to loosen her grip on her blades as she studied the spirit. “Knives it is, then. Alex, you distract it while me and Michael attack. Bud, you try injure it, I’ll go for the kill.” 

Both boys nodded, Michael gripping his blades tighter as he watched his sister’s long knives flash. Alice stalked towards the left and he took the cue, dodging right. Alex whistled loudly, bow in hand as he started shooting at the ventus, who was still absorbed in its cloud-hoarding. That didn’t last long as one of Alex’s arrows barely missed its eye, and Michael ducked behind a parked car as the spirit roared, dark eyes fixing on Alex. Alice had disappeared somewhere on the left, and Michael slowly started to work his way down the line of vehicles as he listened to his brother mock the monster. Finally, his annoying qualities were becoming useful.  

“Do you always stand like that, or are you that desperate for blood that you forgot to go toilet first?” 

The creature hissed, and Michael bit down on a snicker. Not the time. 

“Venti do not go toilet, child.” 

“Really?” Alex asked as another arrow flew past the spirit. Michael grinned and kept moving. “That sounds painful. Do venti even have dicks?” 

The ventus paused for a moment, winds slowing slightly as Alex continued to shoot, and Michael peered over the hood of his most recent hiding spot, smirking at the perplexed expression the spirit now had. He spotted a flash of bronze from the other side of the parking lot and took that as his cue to keep moving. Alice is almost there.  

“That’s... not important.” 

Alex snorted. “Dude, really? How do you make baby venti if you don’t have a dick?” 

“...Venti are sired by the gods of the wind. I do not need to 'make baby venti’.”  

“Have you ever tried?” 

Before the ventus could answer that definitely relevant and not at all prying question, Alice threw herself over the hood of a Fiat and slashed a hunting knife through its body.  

Or,  tried to  would probably be more accurate. The ventus whisked itself away before the blade made contact with anything (not that Michael was convinced there was anything to make contact with) and cackled again, grinning at Alice in delight. Alice did not look delighted. “Foolish godling!” 

“God, you really do talk like you’re from the Middle Ages, don’t you?” 

“Silence!” The ventus waved its hand, and suddenly Alex went flying, slamming straight into the side of their van with a not very excellent sounding clunk. Michael probably would have screamed were he not so surprised by the sudden wind, and the fact that the ventus had come to rest just on the other side of the car he was sheltering behind. Was it baiting him? Did it know he was there? 

Alex groaned, which was great since it meant he was alive and likely conscious, and Michael’s heartrate slowly declined from ‘on the edge of cardiac arrest’ to ‘mild panic attack’. Fantastic.  

“You think you can sneak up on me?” The ventus laughed, leering at Alice, whose eyes were flicking between Alex and the spirit. Michael didn’t dare breathe, let alone move. “I could smell you from a mile away. Your hair shines like your blade, demigod.” 

Alice scowled, and in seconds the elder daughter of Apollo had thrown herself at the monster, the ventus turning away from Michael’s hiding spot to defend, and as he did, Michael pulled himself onto the roof of the car and lobbed his knife straight through the middle of the storm. Alice sliced its head at the same time, and the spirit, disturbingly, made a noise like a boiling kettle as it dissipated; gusts of wind blowing outwards from it strong enough to knock Michael straight off the car and into the one behind, the son of Apollo narrowly missing slamming his head on the tarmac.  

There was a sudden silence once it had gone, and Michael slowly pulled himself up to peer over the hood of his hiding spot. “Did we kill it?” 

Alice huffed, sheathing her knives as she tucked her hair back behind her ears, and quickly moved to Michael, cupping his chin as she checked him for injuries. “Are you okay?!” 

“I’m fine.” He said quickly, and his sister sighed in relief as she grabbed his hand, turning back to Alex, who was still lying by the van, staring up at the sky. 

“Alex, if you’ve died within the last twenty seconds, I swear to Zeus I will march down to the underworld-” 

“All good, Ali.” Alex’s hand slowly rose in a thumbs up, the older boy still looking to the sky. “Just a bit fuzzy in the head. He was fun, wasn’t he?” 

Alice sighed heavily and Michael grinned as he skipped over to his brother. His first monster. That had to count for something, right? 

“So, you’re telling me-” Cleo mumbled through a mouthful of fries, ignoring Dan’s glare at her atrocious table manners. “That Michael killed a ventus? After it chased you two through Walmart?”  

Alex frowned. “It wasn’t a Walmart.” 

“Alice killed it too!”  

“Pretty much.” Alice nodded, taking a sip from Lee’s lemonade and ignoring her brother’s squawk of indignance at the theft. “And it lobbed Alex into the van. Which is why he’s possibly concussed.”  

Michael hummed in agreement, taking a cautious bite of his gyro. They’d bought food from a Greek takeaway place in the mall, and he’d got a chicken gyro, which was basically a massive pitta bread-wrap thing with chicken and onions and some funky sauce in it. Cleo had sworn by it, and it was actually quite nice. Hm. 

“Great.” Dan said dryly. “And how did you find this ventus?”  

Alex pointed to Michael, who rolled his eyes. “It found me in the gardening aisle and got me cucumber seeds.” 

“Which we already had.” Alice said, flashing a glare at Alex, who threw his hands in the air in exasperation. 

“I already said I’m sorry!” 

Lee snorted. “Sorry, we were looking for lipstick while you guys sprinted through a supermarket and got thrown into vans?” 

“I did neither of those, actually.” Alice drawled as Dan passed her the fries. “That was all those two.” 

“Boys.” Cleo said sympathetically, ignoring Michael’s squawk of betrayal, and Alex rolled his eyes, snatching a ketchup packet from Dan’s pile.  

“So, where next?” He asked, gesturing around them with a wooden fork. “If we’ve got time, can we go check out the mall properly?” 

Dan shrugged, pulling a list out of his pocket and swiping Alice’s pen from off the table as he scribbled out certain things. Lee tried to steal one of Michael’s fries and was almost stabbed through the hand with a plastic knife, hands raised in surrender as the older boy backed away. Hah. He remained undefeated. 

“I mean, me and Alice could theoretically get the rest of this stuff by ourselves if you guys want to wander.” Dan glanced at Alice, who shrugged, currently in the process of playing tic-tac-toe on a napkin with Cleo for Lee’s lemonade. Lee just looked resigned, and Alex grinned, flashing their head counsellor two thumbs up encouragingly. Dan sighed. “Sure. Stay in twos; maybe it will be harder for things to find us that way.” 

“Great!” Alex clapped his hands together happily. “I bagsy Michael.”  

“What?” Cleo looked up from the napkin, aghast, and stabbed a thumb at Lee. “You’re leaving me with him?”  

“Hey!” 

Alice just snickered, sliding the lemonade to Cleo as she and Dan stood. “Good luck kiddos. No murder sprees please.” 

Michael grinned at Alex as he packed up the last of his gyro and watched Lee and Cleo walk off, grumbling and sharing sips of lemonade. Alice and Dan followed soon after, and as soon as they’d gone, Alex nudged Michael’s hip and pointed towards a large, brightly coloured store that seemed to contain a bunch of light, summery clothes and accessories. The one beside it seemed to contain every type of flower possible, and the one opposite that had a large array of art kits and painting sets displayed in the front window. His brother grinned. “I believe we are in prime Alice-present territory. Let’s scoot.” 

Michael snorted. “Let’s scoot?”  

“Shut it, shorty.” 

“Oh, you didn’t. Get back here!” 

“Catch me if you can, short fry!” 

Chapter Text

For the third time in the last half an hour, Michael considered throwing his guitar at the nearest tree trunk. He’d been up in his and Jake’s tree, strumming for what felt like  years,  trying to replicate a few chords he’d seen Dan play at campfires before, and he just. Couldn’t. Get. It.   

Breathe. Try again.  

He repeated the motion he’d seen Dan do, focusing on the strings and the vibrations of the guitar in his hands, and quietly hummed along to himself as he did so. 

One, Two.  

One, Two, Three.  

Two, Three, Four-  

The string made a unpleasant twang and Michael stifled a screech, raising the guitar to throw it into the foliage in front of him. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that he knew the dryads would be judging him for weeks if he damaged anything, but by Zeus-   

“I don’t think throwing it at the trees is going to make it play better.” 

Michael shrieked, almost falling straight off the branch, and instantly changed his grip on the guitar to hold it threateningly by the neck like a baton, pointing it down at the source of the voice below. Jake grinned up at him, his curly hair soot-dusted. 

“Are you going to throw it at me instead?” He asked teasingly, and Michael slowly willed himself to relax, eyes narrowing as he refused to lower the guitar-baton.  

“No.” He said, one hundred percent calm. “I’ll hit you with it like a civilised person.” 

Jake snorted, then grabbed onto one of the lower branches to pull himself up. Michael huffed and shuffled along to make room, and made sure to smack the other boy in the head with his guitar before putting it down, still pissed off. Jake grinned. “What was that for?” 

“Asshole.” He mumbled, shoving the guitar away down the branch as he glared at the son of Hephaestus. “What are you doing here?” 

Jake shrugged, pulling a tangle of wires out of his pocket to fiddle with. He was wearing his usual grimy overalls, undone so that the top half hung around his waist the way Beckendorf often wore them when not in the forge, with his orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt on show. He had a streak of oil on his left cheek, and Michael resisted the urge to lean over and wipe it off. “Looking for you. Hannah kicked me out the forge cuz’ apparently I was overworking again.” 

Michael snorted. “She’s probably right.” 

“Shh. What are you doing, other than screaming at the trees?” 

He rolled his eyes, but pointed to the guitar anyway. “Trying to play that thing.” 

One of Jake’s eyebrows rose. “Trying?” 

“Yes!” Michael threw his hands in the air in exasperation, thoroughly fed up. “Alex and Lee have been teaching me chords and shit, and Dan does this really nice set of chords in one of the campfire songs, but I can’t replicate it!” 

Jake grinned. “And that means you have to scream at the trees?” 

“Shut up.” He grumbled, poking the son of Hephaestus in the stomach. “It’s driving me nuts.”  

“Which campfire song?” 

“This Land Is Minos’s Land.” Michael sighed. “The chords are meant to be really easy! It’s like a beginner song!” 

“It’s also really freaking old.” Jake studied him curiously. “Has anyone actually shown you the chords, or are you just winging it?” 

“Winging it, but I’m so close, look-” He snatched the guitar up again, humming as he strummed the tune. Yet again, the eighth note took him out, and he groaned, flopping against Jake’s shoulder. “It’s the eighth one. Every time. I’m going to shoot myself.” 

“No you absolutely are not, where did you learn suicide jokes?” Jake muttered, taking the guitar and peering at it in interest. It was the one Alex had got him for Christmas, and a week or two ago Michael had been really super bored and yanked it out from under his bunk, before hunting down Lee and convincing the older boy to teach him. Lee was a fantastic guitarist, often found playing his own guitar in cabin twelve while Castor sat at the piano and Pollux read in the corner, and Alex was also pretty good, so Michael had managed to drag the pair into lessons a few times a week, whenever they were in the amphitheatre for music practice. He was getting pretty good, if he did say so himself, but this specific set of chords was driving him mad.  

“Where did you?” He countered, and Jake huffed. 

“Ally.” 

Michael snorted, shifting to place his chin on Jake’s shoulder and watch as the other boy turned his guitar over curiously. “Alex.” 

“Sounds ‘bout right.” Jake sighed, then nudged him gently, pointing to the guitar. “How are you planning on getting it if no one’s actually taught you the chords?” 

“Well,” The archer snatched his guitar back, gesturing to the strings. “I can like, improvise. There’s a word for it, I think, but I can pick up which note is which and replicate them on the guitar, like with this one.” He strummed again, plucking a few of the entry notes to another popular campfire song he’d be watching his siblings rehearse a few days ago. “That’s from Down by The Agean. And I didn’t need someone to show me that, I just did it. But I can’t with this one, and I don’t get why.” 

“Perfect pitch.” Jake hummed, and Michael snapped his fingers. 

“That! Absolute pitch, or perfect pitch. But I can’t do it anymore.” 

His best friend shrugged. “Maybe you just need someone to show you. You could ask Dan. Or Lee.” 

“They’d tell me off.” 

“What, for asking a question?” Jake frowned. “You know they won’t mind-” 

“No, Metal Head.” Michael smacked him lightly on the forehead. He could actually do that when they were sitting down, which was a relief. If Jake grew any more, he’d start to have issues. “Lee banned me from playing for a bit because my fingers were starting to bleed.” 

Jake made a noise of distress and grabbed the hand that had just tapped him on the forehead, studying Michael’s slim fingers worriedly. Sure enough, his fingertips were bloody from pressing the strings, and Jake frowned, gently pulling the guitar from Michael’s hands and tugging the son of Apollo down the branch. “C'mon.” 

Michael blinked. “Where are we going?” 

“To wash your hands?” Jake looked at him like this was obvious, and Michael glanced back at his fingers, perplexed. 

“Why? They’re literally fine-” 

“That’s one for the pot and also, no they’re not.” Jake hummed, ignoring Michael’s groan as he dragged the other down the tree. He needed to stop slipping on the fines. “Gods Mike, you’re literally the son of the god of healing, how can you  not  see an issue with leaving bleeding fingers untreated?” 

“They’re just fingers!” 

“You need fingers, dummy! How are you going to shoot without fingers?” 

Michael grumbled unhappily, but let Jake tug him along to the public toilets anyway. The son of Hephaestus plonked him in front of a sink and turned the tap on, running the water warm. He looked at Michael expectantly, and when Michael blinked back at him, confused, Jake sighed and moved to stand behind the smaller boy, gently grabbing Michael’s hands in his own and holding them under the water. Jake’s thumbs brushed carefully over the cut fingertips, gently scrubbing away the crusted blood as the warm water flowed, and Michael felt heat rise to his face as his head hit the bottom of Jake’s collarbone, the other boy’s warmth seeping through his t-shirt as his chest pressed to Michael’s back.  

Warm.

Michael had always been a cold person; his brother was too, and he’d never received much physical affection from his mother, but he assumed she was too by the number of layers she used to pile on before leaving the house in the mornings. He was constantly freezing, always bundled up in at least three layers when the sun wasn’t out if he wasn’t doing exercise, and during the winter months he was miserable. Winter was meant to be especially hard for Apollo children without the constant presence of the sun, and Michael had seen a fair few sunlamps and artificial forms of warmth dotted around the cabin these last few months, but he in particular really struggled to get warm. Piles of blankets and multiple hoodies only worked so well when he felt cold  inside  as well as outside. There was a reason his mother had insisted on keeping fires roaring in every room during the winter months, and it wasn’t because she liked the smell of smoke, because she certainly didn’t.   

His siblings all regulated temperatures rather well and were warm, but not excessively so. Receiving a hug from someone like Lee or Cleo was nice the way putting on an extra cardigan was nice, or sitting near the radiator in class on a cool day was nice.  

Receiving a hug from Jake was like sitting in the middle of a blazing fire. He radiated warmth; the sort of heat that seeped into your core and wrapped around your bones, and Michael loved it. He didn’t know if it was because he was the son of the god of fire or if Jake was just naturally that warm, but he’d never met someone this warm in his entire life, and taking advantage of that warmth was something Michael was 100% down for. Any chance he got, he’d drag himself into Jake’s arms or plonk his feet on his lap, leaning on the other boy at every opportunity, physically tugging him places just to get that contact, and while Alex often teased him about it, he didn’t care. Jake was a very physically affectionate person, often hugging people for no reason other than the fact that he was happy to see them, and he was particularly so with Michael. Hannah had once joked that they were attached at the hip, and really, she wasn’t far off. Less than five minutes spent in the same area and they were already in each other’s space, usually perched on a chair or table where possible, intertwined.  

Michael’s personal favourite was sleepovers. Gods, sleepovers. He was convinced there was nothing better in the world than a sleepover with Jake. First, he got to spend hours with the other boy, not that they didn’t do that already, but it was hours of just lying with each other and talking, or existing in the same place. Silences weren’t awkward with Jake, and he could talk as much or little as he wanted and Jake wouldn’t judge in the slightest.  

Second, there was nothing better than waking up early, Jake undoubtedly curled around him (clingy sleeper. Michael would neither confirm nor deny that he loved it) and lying there peacefully, no need to get up for at least another hour or two, so warm. Best feeling in the world, and possibly the only time Michael had ever felt completely warm. Not hot, not cold, just warm. Fantastic. He couldn’t enough. 

“What’s this from?” Jake asked, breaking Michael out of his inner monologue, and the son of Apollo looked down to see what Jake was indicating. When he didn’t spot anything, he looked back up at the other boy in confusion, and Jake hummed, eyes flicking from Michael’s to just below the archer’s ear as he reached one hand up to point. “On your neck.”  

Michael was about to tilt his head to look, then realised he was not in fact able to see his own neck, and simply shrugged. “Dunno. Didn’t notice.” 

“Huh.” Jake cupped his chin, gently tilting the smaller boy’s head to the side to look. For some reason, Michael felt his cheeks grow hot. Maybe Jake was too warm. He’d thought that was impossible. “Stay still.” 

The other boy grabbed a paper towel and wet it, before gently pressing it somewhere near the base of Michael’s neck. The son of Apollo shuddered, and Jake mumbled an apology, but didn’t stop, his fingers gentle as he wiped at whatever cut or injury was there. Michael felt his  ears  start to heat up and started to genuinely consider whether or not he was coming down with something. This wasn’t normal, right? Maybe Jake was so hot and Michael so cold that being in close proximity was making him burn up? 

That couldn’t be it, he decided as Jake turned away once he was satisfied, and returned to cleaning Michael’s fingertips, which he was pretty sure were clean now. Perhaps Jake was being extra sure. It sounded like him, and Michael couldn’t really complain when the warm feeling returned as Jake stood behind him again. Eventually, the son of Hephaestus seemed satisfied, Michael resisting the urge to pout when the other boy moved away, Michael’s guitar in one hand as he tugged the smaller boy outside again, muttering something about ‘stubborn little shit’ while he did so. Michael, very maturely, stuck his tongue out in reply, and they bantered good-naturedly as they started the walk back to their tree.  

Roughly halfway back, they encountered a large group of older campers, all gathered around something and muttering. Alice was there, as was Ally and Hannah from Jake’s cabin, and the two boys wandered over curiously, Michael poking his sister’s thigh once he was close enough. “Al?” 

Alice looked down at him, frowning, and blinked when she spotted the pair, her face quickly switching into something like concern. “Michael! What are you doing here?” 

He shrugged. “We were going to the tree. What’s going on?” 

“On the edge of the woods?” Hannah leaned over, grimacing as she spotted Jake as well. “Don’t. You two head back to the cabins, yeah? Go play chess or something.” 

“Why?” 

“What’s going on?” Jake stood on his tiptoes, trying to see over the head of the people in front of him, and was just about tall enough, much to Michael’s annoyance. The other boy sucked in a breath as he looked, eyes wide. “What is that?”  

“What is it?” Michael tried to see, but he was nowhere beat tall enough. He looked to Alice, hoping for a pick up, but his sister shook her head, chewing her bottom lip gently as the people in front of them muttered. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear horseshoes clacking as Chiron presumably made his way over. What the hell was going on?   

“Trust me buddy, you don’t want to see. It’s a monster; half-dead.” 

“By Hephaestus, what is it?” Jake asked, still looking over the people in front, and Ally huffed, arms crossed.  

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Some sort of hydra-hellhound hybrid, I reckon.” 

“Oh my gods, can someone help me up?” Michael snapped, scowling as he tried to jump and see. Unsuccessfully. “I can't see!” 

Ally and Hannah both looked at him, then spotted Alice’s disapproving look and quickly turned away, Ally whistling casually while Hannah refocused on the monster. Alice blatantly ignored him, and Michael sighed as he looked to Jake, who shrugged. 

“You could try get on my shoulders?” 

Alice immediately groaned and muttered something about safety issues, but that was good enough for Michael, and when Jake crouched down he quickly scrambled his way onto the son of Hephaestus’ shoulders; using his friend like a jungle gym. Jake just snickered and stood upright again, and suddenly, Michael could see. 

Wow,  he was high up. 

Was this what it was like to be Jake’s height? Did the other boy see like this all the time? He could see all the way to the cabins!  

He could also see the monster, and woah-  

What in Hades was that? 

The monster was, as Ally had described, a sort of hydra-hellhound hybrid. It had a body like a hellhound, multiple heads like a hydra (four? Maybe six) and was black and furry all over. Even the heads were fur-covered. The strangest part was that the creature didn’t have long necks like a hydra, but rather thick, stumpy necks, which meant the top half of the monster just looked like a flower bouquet, if all the blooms were monster heads; all lumped together awkwardly. It looked like something from his mother’s old tales about monsters and demons, out to devour the souls of the unworthy. He’d never really liked those tales, and he didn’t like this monster much either. 

“Huh.” He said eloquently, and Jake hummed under him. Michael’s hands had found a home on the son of Hephaestus’ head, fiddling with the other boy’s copper curls as he studied the monster, and Jake hadn’t complained yet, so he took that as a win. His friend looked up at him, and Michael was suddenly distracted by how different it was to see those bronze swirls in Jake’s irises from above rather than below. They sparkled slightly in the sunlight.  

“Can you see?” Jake asked after a second, and Michael nodded, looking back at the monster. Chiron was approaching, face drawn as the young Athena girl he’d come to know as Annabeth (right know-it-all, by the way) and Luke ran beside him, Luke talking as he pointed to the group of campers.  

“Yup.” He looked down at Jake again, head tilted. “You can let me down if you want.” 

Jake tried to shrug, then apparently realised Michael was sat on his shoulders, and tilted his head back instead. “Nah. It’s fine.” 

“Are you not tired?” 

“Nope.” Jake shook his head, looking back over at the creature. “You’re light as a feather.” 

“I highly doubt that.” 

“I don’t. Plus,” He grinned up at Michael. “Might as well let you enjoy being tall while you can. You’ll have to go back to the dwarf life when you get down.” 

Michael slapped him on the forehead, and Jake snickered, looking back over at Alice when the older girl cleared her throat, gaze fixed to Chiron as the centaur trotted over. “Hey boys? You two might wanna head back to the cabins. I’ll fill you in later.” 

Michael groaned. “But I want to know what’s happened!” 

“And I’ll tell you, once we find out what’s happened. Until then, you’re gonna head back to the cabin and send Dan out, ‘cuz whatever Chiron has to say is not meant for you guys to worry about.” She said neutrally, ignoring Michael glaring at her. “Look, Chiron’s even sending Annabeth away.” 

Both boys looked in the direction of her pointing hand, and sure enough, Michael could see a grumpy-looking Annabeth trudging away, one of her siblings beside her. Chiron turned to look over the head of the campers and him and Jake next, one eyebrow raised, and Michael huffed, arms crossed as Jake sighed. 

“Fine.” 

“How come you’re allowed to say it?” 

“Because I make the rules. Come on, let’s go play Uno.” 

Jake turned away, Michael still on his shoulders, and the son of Apollo groaned as they left, quickly grabbing his friends head again to stop himself from falling. Jake snickered, and he sighed. “Whatever. I’m gonna beat your ass.” 

“Mhm.” 

“You’re gonna regret ever challenging me.” 

“Okay.” 

“This is the worst mistake you’ve ever made.” 

Michael couldn’t see it, but he knew Jake was grinning. The thought made him smile. “Sure, Mike. Prove it.” 

“Fine.”  

“One for the pot.” 

“Damn you!” 

Jake laughed, and suddenly Michael didn’t care about not being able to play This Land is Minos’s Land, or the funky hellhound hybrid monster. He could hear laughter and exasperated groaning from where they’d just left anyway, and when Jake looked up at him and grinned, bronze eyes sparkling, he forgot all about it.  

They’d figure it out, after all.  

Chapter Text

Michael was going to have a heart attack.   

He was ninety percent convinced of this. His heart was racing at an abnormally high speed, and his right eye was twitching, and his hands were shaking, and he thought he might be sick.   

Fantastic. 

“Lee!” He called, running out of the bathroom and almost tripping straight into his brother’s bunk, quickly looking at Lee, who peered up at him in concern. “What are the symptoms of a heart attack?”  

Lee blinked at him, and Alex snorted from the bunk above, the older boy leaning down to look at Michael. “You alright, buddy?”  

“Yep.” He nodded, ignoring the click of Alex’s tongue that told him his brother knew he was lying, and bounced on the balls of his feet as he looked at Lee. “Lee?”  

“Well,” Lee said slowly, carefully putting down the book he’d been reading. “Symptoms of a heart attack include a painful pressure on your chest, pain around your arms, back, neck, jaw, or stomach, shortness of breath, cold sweats, nausea, lightheadedness, and an overwhelming sense of anxiety.” He recited, eyeing Michael cautiously. “Are you... feeling any of those?”   

Michael frowned. “Maybe?”  

“Right.” His brother said, casting a look up to Alex, who rather helpfully shrugged and disappeared again. Lee reached up to flip him the middle finger, then smiled at Michael and gestured for the younger son of Apollo to come closer. “C’mere, buddy. Let’s have a look.”  

He sat on the end of Lee’s bunk obediently as the older boy started the interrogation on him. “Okay, Doctor Lee is in the house. What exactly are you feeling?”  

Michael rolled his eyes. “My heart’s beating really fast and my palms are sweaty and my right eye keeps twitching.” He muttered. “And, I feel like I’m gonna throw up.”  

“Sounds serious.” Lee nodded, leaning in to cup Michael’s chin, doing a quick vitakinesis scan. Michael waited patiently, but when he was done, Lee just shrugged, sitting back. “Nothing. Healthy as can be.”  

“I can’t be!” He protested, frowning. “My heart’s racing and my hands are shaking. That’s not normal.”   

“Mhm.” Lee nodded, leaning against the wall. “It’s not. Have you felt like this before?”  

The archer paused, considering. Had he?  

He didn’t think so.  

“No.” He said confidently, and Lee hummed, a small smile gracing his lips as he studied the younger boy.  

“Have you considered it might be an... emotional response?” 

Michael blinked. “A what now?” 

His brother just smiled, gesturing with one hand as he talked. “Well, quite often when we experience extreme or negative emotions, our bodies tend to react for us. In happy situations, or when you are excited, you can be bouncy and full of energy and positive hormones. When in a scary situation, a similar thing happens, but this time it’s negative hormones, activating your flight or fight response which is what makes you jittery and full of adrenaline. Your mental and emotional states can have a lot of impact on your physical state, which is why stress is a large risk factor of heart disease.”  

“You sound like you ate a textbook for breakfast.” Alex helpfully added from above them, and Lee glared upwards as Michael snickered, watching the older boy stretch up to punch the underside of the mattress. Alex yelped and leaned down to throw a dagger but missed, much to Lee’s delight as he picked it up to throw it back, and Alice lobbed a pillow at them from across the room.  

“Clam it!”  

“Yes ma’am!” They chorused, and Lee huffed as he resettled and turned back to Michael, the trademark golden smile slowly retaking his face as he looked at the younger boy. “Right. Where were we?”  

“Textbook dumping.” Michael said casually, pointing at the other boy with Alex’s dagger. “And I don’t get it.”  

“Right.” Lee said again. “Which bit didn’t you get?”  

“The bit about how stress leading to heart disease relates to me undergoing cardiac arrest.”   

His brother arched an eyebrow. “I thought it was a heart attack?”  

“Same difference.”  

“Sorry, in what world-” 

“Lee thinks you’re going to die tomorrow from heart failure.” Alex said, hanging upside down and peering under the bunk, deadpan. “I’m personally betting on the cancer.”  

“That was not-” 

“I have cancer?” 

“Terminal.” His brother nodded gravely. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. You have eleven hours to live.”   

“What-?” 

“You should go. Say your goodbyes before it’s too late.” He clapped Michael on the shoulder, now hanging by one arm, and gave the younger boy a sad smile. “I’ll miss ya, buddy. You were the best of us.”  

“I-”  

Alex was suddenly knocked straight off his bunk by a large pillow, collapsing below with a groan as Alice glared at them from across the room. “He’s talking shit, you have stage fright.”  

Michael just stared at her, quite frankly horrified by what he’d just been told and also concerned by the fact that Alex was now physically vibrating on the floor at the base of the ladder, and Lee was staring at the older boy in horror. “What sort of god-awful disease is that?” 

Alex wheezed, his shoulders shaking violently as he rolled over to face the ceiling, and- was he laughing?  

Michael gaped at his brother, and Lee watched in an equal level of horror as Alex laughed so hard he began to struggle to breathe, before Lee abruptly threw himself off the bed at the older boy and started smacking him over the head with Alice’s Pillow Projectile. “What is wrong with you?!” 

Alex gasped, struggling for air, and began to crack up again as he looked at Michael. “Oh gods- did you see his face?” 

“What the fuck Alex? Wha-” Lee stared down at him, pillow forgotten. “What is wrong with you?” 

“I’m so confused.” Michael whispered, horrified. Alice groaned and stood, walking across the cabin towards her and kicking Alex in the stomach, hard, as she did so, before flopping in the end of Lee’s bunk and reaching out to ruffle Michael’s hair. 

“Relax buddy. He was joking.”  

“I- He was joking?” 

Alex wheezed, actively fighting for oxygen, and Lee leaned down to slap him. “That was diabolical! What the hell?” 

“Oh, man, I’m sorry buddy.” Alex grinned, looking up at Michael with a bright smile. “My bad kiddo. Didn’t think you’d take it so seriously.”  

“He’s ten, you asshole!” Lee smacked him again, and Alice rolled her eyes, turning to face Michael as Lee continued to beat up Alex. 

“Right.” She sighed, steepling her fingers as she looked at Michael. “Since those two couldn’t find a way to say it, I will. You’re not dying, and you’re not having a heart attack or whatever crazy shit’s going through your little bow brain, okay?” She tapped him on the nose once, smirking as Michael blinked. “You’ve got stage fright, that’s why you feel weird. And stage fright isn’t a disease, it just means you're scared about campfire tonight. Okay?” 

Michael looked at her for a minute, ignoring the sound of Alex screeching as Lee hit him with his bow, and the following shriek from Lee when he received an arrow to the shoulder in reply. “I’m not scared.”  

Alice arched an eyebrow at him. “Buddy, it’s your first campfire performance, and you’ve been avoiding it all year until you picked up that guitar. Now that you have something you want to do, you want to do it well, since there’s people watching. That’s normal. Hey, in Alex’s first campfire-” She stabbed a thumb at Alex, who was currently fighting Lee in what seemed to be some sort of sword fight, but the swords were bows, and both boys were making whoosh noises as they swung. Freaks. “He was terrified. Literally pissed himself while waiting to go onstage. He had to run back to the cabin and change.” 

“Alice!” Alex gaped at her, betrayal written all over his face. “I told you that in confidence!” 

Lee aimed his bow at Alex’s knees with a dramatic whoomph, and Alex swiftly went sprawling, tackling Lee down with him and growling at the younger boy. Lee hissed in reply, and they started rolling around on the floor together. Alice didn’t spare them a single glance and kept talking. “So, basically, what I’m saying is you’re gonna do great! You know those strings off by heart, I’ve watched you practice, and you’re going to be fine. No worries. Let’s go chill and eat some barbecue, dinner’s soon.” 

He looked at her, studying the older girl, then narrowed his eyes and nodded. “Fine. But I’m not scared.”  

“Whatever you say buddy.” She nodded, and Michael huffed, turning back to where-   

“Sorry, but why are Lee and Alex scrapping on the floor like fucking cats?”

Cleo and Dan were both stood in the doorway to the cabin, staring unblinkingly at the scene before them, and Alex and Lee both froze, currently laid flat on the floor, Alex pinning Lee down by his shoulders. Alex had a concerningly vicious-looking set of scratch marks down the side of his neck, bleeding lightly, while Lee had a black eye forming, and both their bows had been lobbed unto the corner of the cabin. Michael and Alice were still perched on Lee’s bunk, both cross-legged with their heads turned to face the door like a pair of owls, and several pillows were strewn in varying states of wreckage over the cabin floor.    

All six cabin members stared at each other, still as statues, and Cleo arched a blonde eyebrow.  

“Hello??” 

Michael had three minutes until they went onstage. He’d deduced this since Chiron was still trying to calm the campers down in order to give his mandatory evening speech, which was going to take at least another minute and a half, maybe two, and then the speech was unlikely to be more than forty five seconds, and it wouldn’t take more than thirty for them to get down there and onstage. 

So, three minutes. Approximately. Which was great, because he’d figured that out all by himself, no assistance needed.  

Take that, Metal Head. 

The only problem with this was, well.   

He had three minutes until they went onstage.   

Fine, it’s fine. Three minutes. That was ages! Although, really it would be more like two minutes now that he was thinking about it, but still! Two minutes! That was plenty of time! Just breathe. 

It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine. All fine. Everything’s fine.  

That’s... seven for the pot, Mike.  

“Shut up.” He grumbled. Dan blinked at him from above, and before he could reassure his brother that he was totally not going mad and talking to the voices in his head, the older boy had put his fingers to his mouth and sent a god-awful sonic whistle through the chattering crowd.  

“SHUT IT!” He yelled, and Michael went bright red when he realised Dan had just told them all to shut up for his sake.  

Chiron nodded to the elder son of Apollo gratefully, and started talking. Michael mentally shot himself in the head.  

One minute. Fabulous. He’d lost a whole fifty seconds.  

Stupid mental Jake. 

He resigned himself to his fate and listened to Chiron’s speech. Short, snappy and informative. Classic. Thirty-two seconds long. Everything was fine. His guitar was tuned and under his arm, his siblings were all relaxed and waiting to go, and holy shit they were going-  

Jake flashed him a thumbs up from his seat between Beck and Ally, the former of whom smiled encouragingly and the latter smirking, and Michael took a deep breath as he shuffled down the amphitheatre steps towards the stage.  

He had so got this. It was just a campfire song! There was no way he could mess that up.  

Hopefully.  

“That was awesome!”  

Michael squeaked as a warm weight slammed into him, and he blinked, cheeks going red as he looked up at Jake, who was grinning at the son of Apollo brightly. After the campfire songs they’d returned to their seats, which were next to the Hephaestus cabin today, much to Michael’s delight. Lee managed to wriggle his way in next to Beckendorf, Alice had gone and flopped straight on her girlfriend’s lap with a grin while Hannah rolled her eyes fondly, Dan sitting beside them with a sigh, and Alex had dropped in beside Ally, offering his friend a high five. Jake smiled, squeezing Michael in beside him, and started rambling about how good the performance was, much to Michael’s surprise. His ears started heating up, and he knew he was blushing by the sly looks Ally and Alex were giving them. Assholes.  

“It was just chords.” He mumbled when Jake said something about him absolutely smashing it!, and the son of Hephaestus scoffed, rolling his eyes. 

“And? That was still your first performance!”  

“So what?”  

“So I’m proud of you!” Jake smiled, pointing to the stage. “I would never have gone anywhere near that thing. You went right up, sat down, and started playing! Do you know how cool that is?” 

He blinked at the stage for a minute. Now that he’d done it, it didn’t seem as threatening anymore. He still didn’t want to sing on it, and he doubted he ever would, but that was okay. Lee said he didn’t have to if he didn’t want to, and Michael intended on holding him to that promise; guitar was as far as he intended to stretch for now.  

“He ain’t wrong, dude.” Ally pointed to the stage. “That’s a goddamn feat. You wouldn’t get me on there if my life fucking depended on it.” 

Alex snorted beside her. “Dramatic, much?”  

“You pissed yourself five minutes before you went on.” She said dryly. Alex’s jaw dropped.  

“I was twelve!” 

“And he’s ten.” She pointed to Michael with a smirk. “You have no shit to stand on.” 

Alex huffed, crossing his arms and glaring at them all as Michael and Jake snickered. “Stop bringing it up. I was stressed, okay?” 

Ally rolled her eyes, the pair of them starting to bicker, and Jake snorted, stabbing a thumb in his sister’s direction. “See?”  

“Whatever.” Michael rolled his eyes. “It’s not a big deal.”  

“So I can get a guitar concert whenever, then?”  

“No.”  

Jake smirked at him, and Michael huffed, raising his guitar to hit the other boy. Jake raised his hands in defence, and Beck had to lunge across the bench to grab Michael before he threw himself at the son of Hephaestus, the archer swearing rapidly as Jake continued to taunt him. He could hear Lee groaning somewhere behind him and Dan cursing nearby, but Jake pulled a rude gesture, grinning, and Michael yelled, wrenching free of Beckendorf’s grip to smack his friend.  

Ten minutes later, both boys were sat in the infirmary with ice packs on their heads. Dan was not pleased.  

Chapter Text

The day Michael’s world got flipped upside down started quite normally. 

He woke at dawn, pottered around his cabin for a bit, played some cards with Cleo while they waited for everyone else to get up, and then went to breakfast with the rest of his cabin. All the normal stuff. After breakfast was archery, then lunch, and then infirmary duty, which called for Michael to ditch and run off to the forge in search of Jake instead. Infirmary duty was boring, and Alice let him get away with it if he gave her hugs as payment. 

He arrived at the forge on time and slipped inside, instantly wandering over to Jake’s bench, ignoring the random fiery chunks of metal flying all over the place. An average day at the forge, really. His intention was to stick around for a bit, then drag Jake out of the forge so he didn’t overwork and burn himself, and convince the other boy to climb the climbing wall with him. Simple, but a fun afternoon plan.  

Unfortunately, that went out the window as soon as he walked over to Jake’s workbench and encountered a sight that left him quite literally stuck to the spot.  

Jake was working on a chunk of metal, as per usual, hands twisting and folding the celestial bronze expertly, but it seemed that he’d gotten really warm while working and had switched his usual overalls for a loose tank top, his curly hair soot-dusted and tanned shoulders shiny as he was sweating slightly from the heat. It was probably a safety issue, having his shoulders and arms uncovered, considering the number of open flames and sharp objects in the room, but Michael really couldn’t focus on that right now, a bit too distracted by the fact that ohgodsJake’swearingatanktop. 

He wasn’t quite sure why this was such a surprise; he’d seen Jake wearing less; they went swimming at least twice a week, and he was shirtless then. However, his brain seemed to be quite caught up by how fucking hot Jake looked while working in that tank top, the muscles in his arms flexing as he bent back a sheet of metal, and Michael was suddenly hyperaware of how much taller and stronger Jake was than him and fuck, was his mind going places it wasn’t meant to right now.  

He just stood there for a minute, staring at the other boy while his brain internally short-circuited, a hundred tiny Michaels running around and panicking, until Jake looked up at him and oh shit, when had his eyes got so pretty? Why were the soft shades of bronze making Michael’s heart do back handsprings? The son of Hephaestus raised an eyebrow at him, moving his hand to make a signal to Michael.  

You okay? 

Michael blushed, properly blushed, all the way to the tips of his ears, and internally he started freaking out. What’s happening? 

He didn’t respond to Jake’s signal and the son of Hephaestus frowned, quickly standing to gently tug Michael out of the way of a flying spanner, and ushering him out of the fire exit where they could talk. Michael couldn’t think, suddenly very aware of how large and warm Jake’s hands were, and soon they were outside, Jake leaning down in front of him and frowning worriedly.  

“Hey, Mike, what’s up?” 

Mike.  

Shit, that caught him off-guard. He was blushing all over again.  

Shut up, shut up, shut up! 

His brain didn’t listen, and continued to execute Plan 36: Panic and Ignore Everything. Jake raised an eyebrow at him, frowning as he moved to cup Michael’s chin with one hand, worriedly examining him for any signs of illness. 

“Are you sick? You’ve gone really red, are you okay? Michael?” 

Michael snapped himself out of it, a third wave of red flowing over his face, and he quickly shook Jake off, bolting for the infirmary as fast as physically possible. 

“Yep, just remembered something, gotta go!” He yelled, not hearing Jake’s response as he turned and ran, flying through camp and inside the doors of the infirmary, flopping down on an abandoned cot next to Cleo, head shoved in the pillow. He heard Cleo slowly put down the clipboard she’d been holding, before turning to him and placing a hand on his head.  

“Bud? What’s up?” 

Michael mumbled something into the pillow, and he could almost hear her rolling her eyes.  

“I don’t speak pillow face, buddy. Come on, turn over.” 

He huffed and rolled over, throwing his arms over his face as he faced the ceiling.  

“I think I’m dying.” He proclaimed, and heard Cleo snort in amusement, causing him to lift his arm off his eyes and glare at her. “I’m serious! I’m dying!” 

Lee looked up worriedly from the other side of the room, where he was organising the storage closet, but Cleo waved him off with a grin. Michael scowled at her and she toned it down a bit, still smiling as she sat by his feet. Michael hadn’t noticed before, but Max was sat on the bed next to his, arm bandaged thoroughly, which explained why Cleo was hovering here, but he didn’t care particularly that the son of Demeter was in earshot, choosing to just pout at his sister pleadingly. Cleo smirked and nudged his foot. 

“Alright buddy. Why do you think you’re dying?” 

He scowled. “Because when I went to the forge earlier my heart started beating really fast and my face felt like it was going to explode!” 

“And here we thought you skipped the dramatic genes.” Lee mused, grinning as he walked past with a box of painkillers. Michael glared at him and sat up, pointing an accusing finger at his brother.  

“I’m not being dramatic! I’m dying! Clee, you can have my bow.” 

Max had started snickering, and Cleo was biting her lip to keep from laughing while Lee grinned and walked off. Michael frowned, very confused.  

“Why are you laughing? I’m serious!” 

Cleo smirked, shuffling up so she could play with his hair while Michael leant against the wall behind the bed miserably. “I know, but I think you’re a bit confused, buddy. You’re not dying.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Pretty sure. Need me to do a scan to check?” 

He stuck his arm out obediently, frowning as Cleo snickered and took his hand to do a scan. She grinned even wider as she let go, shaking her head.  

“Nope. Nothing.” 

Michael threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “Then what’s happening?!” 

“Well.” Max interjected, shuffling along on his bed to face Michael with a smirk. “You said it happened in the forge, right?” 

Michael raised a suspicious eyebrow at him. “Yes?” 

Cleo grinned, nudging him. “And Jake’s in the forge, right?” 

He scowled. “I wouldn’t go there if he wasn’t. No point.” He grumbled, then paused and considered this. “Did the forge make me sick? Maybe the heat? Or smoke?” 

Cleo shook her head, smirking as Max grinned. “You’re not sick, bud.” 

“Maybe lovesick, though.” Max mused casually, and Michael frowned.  

“Lovesick? What’s love got to do with me dying?” 

Cleo snorted. “Buddy, you’re not dying. And you’re also not the sharpest tool in the box, apparently. Maybe you’re lovesick because you’re in love, hm?” 

“What?!” Michael quickly waved them off, shaking his head vigorously. “No, no, no, no, no. I’m not in love.” 

“How do you know?” Max smiled. “Maybe you are. You don’t know what love feels like.” 

“Well Cleo said that it’s a good thing! Like flying or something!” 

“I also said that it can feel like being hit by a truck.” His sister pointed a pen at him. “Which would be you. Damn you fell hard, hm? Although, I’m not surprised.” 

“Neither.” Max grinned. “It’s been coming a while now. “ 

Michael stared at them. Love? Dying isn’t love! “You’re both insane.” 

“You’re the one with a crush on your best friend.” Cleo hummed, then tilted her head and pointed her pen at Lee thoughtfully, the son of Apollo now wearing his headphones as he rummaged through a large box of needles. “Although, you’re not alone there.” 

Best friend? 

He’s not got a crush on his- 

“Oh.” Michael stared at them, cheeks flushing red as he quickly scrambled off the bed, pointing an accusing finger at the couple as he walked backwards towards the door. “No, no, no. You’re wrong. You’re really- I don’t- no.” 

Max snickered as Cleo smiled and got up, following after him as Michael frantically backtracked towards the door. “No what?” 

He stopped, glaring at her, ignoring his cheeks blushing. 

Blushing- 

“I don’t have a crush on Jake. You’re nuts.” 

“Well, at least he said it.” Max mused. “Took a while.” 

“Just a bit.” Cleo grinned, hand on her hip as she looked at Michael.  “Think about it, hm? The guy you spend all your time with, the guy you trust more than anyone else here, the guy you let pick you up and hug you without warning, the guy-” 

“He’s my best friend! That’s a best friend thing!” 

“Let me guess.” Cleo gently tugged him back over to the bed, smirking as she ran a teasing hand through his hair while Michael sat and scowled. He didn’t- “You went to the forge to hang out with Jake, and you got there, and you looked at him, and suddenly all your thoughts were flying out your head and all over the place and you couldn’t think straight.” 

“Literally.” 

“Thanks, Max.” 

“Anytime, Sundrop.” He smirked, grinning as Cleo rolled her eyes and blew him a kiss. Michael would have gagged or made a comment on their disgustingness, but he was a bit occupied by his thoughts getting chucked into a blender with ice and gravel for that right now. Cleo seemed to notice and grinned, nudging him gently.  

“Am I right?” 

“He was wearing a tank top. Looked good on him.” Michael mumbled, distressed to realise that he was actually considering that Cleo might be right. 

But she’s not. 

But she could be. 

But she’s not. 

But maybe- 

Max whistled. “That would do it, Hephaestus kids can be pretty hot while they’re working. Even if I do think Apollos are prettier.” He smirked and pressed a kiss to Cleo’s temple sweetly as the daughter of Apollo smiled and sat next to him, holding hands as they both grinned at Michael. It was so cute Michael thought he’d throw up.  

“I think Jake would agree with you on that one.” She mused, tilting her head as she studied Michael with a grin. “He is pretty.” 

Michael shook his head, only registering half their words. “I don’t have a crush on Jake. That’s ridiculous!” 

“Which bit is ridiculous?” Max smiled. Michael scowled.  

“Either bit! The bit about me having a crush, which doesn’t happen, and even if it did, I would never have a crush on Jake!” 

“Alright, going back to Jake in a minute, what’s wrong with having a crush? Have you never had one?” 

“No.” He frowned. “I don’t get crushes.” 

“Not at all?” Cleo raised an eyebrow. “What about being attracted to someone?” 

He crossed his arms. “No.”  

“Hm.” She thought for a moment, then smiled at him again. “Perhaps you’re demisexual.” 

“Perhaps I’m what now?” Michael looked at her, confused. “A demigod? I know that.” 

“No, demisexual. A bit different.” 

Max nodded thoughtfully. “I didn’t think about that, actually. Would make sense, though.” 

“What’s a demisexual?” 

“It’s...” Cleo waved her hand absently. “How do I explain this? It’s like when you only develop a crush on someone if you have a strong bond with them. Doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl, but you have to know them really well. For example... your best friend.” She waggled her eyebrows at Michael, who groaned. 

“I don’t have a crush on Jake!” 

“Oh, boy, it’s happening.” Alex suddenly stuck his head in through the door of the infirmary’s office, eyes wide in mischievous delight. “He’s realising.” 

“Realising what?” 

“Your fucking head-over-heels crush on Jake.” 

Alice yelled something from inside the office and Alex was dragged back in, grinning maniacally. Michael stared at the older boy for a minute, then slowly turned back to Max and Cleo. “How did he-?” 

Max snorted, and Cleo winced. “...I hate to say it buddy, but you’re not subtle. You’ve been doing a lot of blushing around Jake these last few weeks.” 

“But- but-” Michael waved his hands frantically. “That’s because it’s warm! It’s almost July, the sun’s up all day! We keep going to the lake in free time ‘cuz it’s hot!” 

“Yeah, and you keep staring every time Jake takes his shirt off to swim with you.” Max arched an eyebrow. “And I’m saying that as someone who’s in an entirely different cabin from you guys. I barely see you once a week unless you're with Clee, and even I know there’s something going on.”