Perfect
919 Words
AN: Set before Last Olympian.
Silena was in a bad mood. A very bad mood, as a matter of fact.
It was February 14th – Valentine's Day. It would have been impossible to miss that fact, even if her mother wasn't the goddess of love. The problem was, she hadn't gotten even a glimpse of her boyfriend the entire day.
She was the daughter of Aphrodite, and she wasn't spending the most inescapably romantic day of the year with her boyfriend. It virtually defied the laws of physics, it was so wrong.
Silena wasn't expecting grand presents or anything of the sort, unlike many of her sisters, but to not get to see Charles at all had irritated her all day long; the fact that she ran into a happy couple – as well as the occasional unhappy one – at every turn was doing nothing but annoying her further.
Naturally, she sought comfort where she always did – in the stables with the Pegasi.
Unlikely as it might have been for a child of Aphrodite such as herself, Silena loved the winged horses more than virtually anyone else in camp. She didn't particularly like cleaning up after them, of course, but the feeling she got when she was up in the clouds more than made up for that. When she flew with a Pegasus, all her worries disappeared. She could forget the fact that she was a demigod, forget the war, and forget the daily squabbles over stolen makeup that she had to deal with in her cabin.
She liked to fly by herself when she wasn't teaching lessons to the younger demigods. She'd let the Pegasus take over, hold her arms out in the air, and pretend that she was just a normal teenager whose only fight was understanding their homework.
The stables was her thinking place, so it was to be expected that she went there when she was sour about how the day had turned out.
What she wasn't expecting, however, was to be sought out by the last person she wanted to see right at that moment – her boyfriend.
Had she been in a better mood, she might have laughed at his appearance.
Charles Beckendorf was wearing his standard uniform of camp necklace, sleeveless camp shirt, frayed cargo pants, and sneakers that were once white but had long ago turned a dismal shade of gray. His shirt had far too many stains to count, and there was a hole torn on the left side of his shorts. The most amusing factor, however, was his face – the bridge of his nose was smeared with an oily black substance, and goggles of a variety unknown to the girl sat atop his head. A thick pair of work gloves stuck out of a pocket, leading her to assume he had come straight from the forge.
Silena scowled, studiously ignoring the boy as she gave her favorite Pegasus a sugar cube.
"Hey," His voice was sheepish; out of the corner of her eye, she saw his hand rubbing the back of his neck in an awkward motion.
The smell of grease and smoke filled her nose as he quietly crossed the aisle to stand next to her, leaning his back against the wall next to her.
"Silena?"
"What, Charlie?" She sighed.
"Look, I know you're probably mad at me, but at least hear me out, okay?" She didn't respond, but he kept talking anyway. "I never paid any attention to Valentine's Day or anything like that before, but… I didn't realize that you might be expecting something until a few days ago, and I didn't want to give you something stupid," He said, his eyes seeking hers as he trailed off.
One of his hands closed around hers gently, turning the hand over so that her palm was upwards. Something small and cold fell out of his hand and into hers, making her frown in confusion. Her fingers uncurled slowly.
It was a necklace – a locket, strung on a fine golden chain, with her initials engraved delicately on the top.
The tips of her fingers pried it open carefully, revealing two pictures inside the oval structure. The one on the left she recognized as a picture of herself as a little girl. Her hair was braided in pigtails, and her father was kneeling behind her, smiling. A daisy was tucked behind one of her ears.
The picture on the right was much more recent – taken only a few weeks ago, in fact. Charles had his arm around her shoulder, and she had both of hers wrapped around his waist in a hug. Both of them were smiling at the camera.
"It took me until today to finish the chain… The little links take forever to shape correctly," Charles said. "I had to bribe one of your sisters to get the pictures."
Without waiting for him to finish, Silena had launched herself at him in a tight hug. He seemed surprised, but his arms closed around her back in a warm embrace.
"So you like it, then?" He asked, smiling down at her.
"Of course I like it, silly," She said, smiling happily. "I love it, but the only reason I was upset was because I didn't get to see you. You didn't need to make anything."
"Well, I can always melt it back down, if you want," He said, grinning at her as she rolled her eyes and swatted his arm.
No, Silena Beauregard had not had a good Valentine's Day.
She had had a perfect one.
Tell me what you think! I've never written these two before, but I'm quite fond of them. :)