Apollo smirked smugly, closing his piercing blue eyes as he allowed his fingers to absentmindedly pluck the hard steel strings of the obnoxiously flaming red guitar. The sun god lounged in his rolling chair lazily as he thought of what he could possibly to do entertain himself; it had been so goddamn boring lately he even (barely) considered going to the library. The library! If that didn't show the extent of his desperation, nothing would. Luckily for him and perhaps unluckily for the poor, unfortunate souls of the demigod children, Apollo was about to make things much more interesting.
"Apollo!" The blond opened his eyes to the sight of a mischievous yet impatient love goddess.
Apollo quirked a small grin, winking at her flirtatiously, "Well, hellooo Aphrodite. Come to keep me company?"
Aphrodite rolled her eyes, smoothing her lustrous hair for what probably was the hundredth time. "Mmm, not like that. Today, I need a favour. It's for a really good cause! Pretty please, for me?"
She batted her eyelashes sweetly, biting her lip to keep up the (somewhat) innocent facade. Apollo raised an eyebrow, "What can the god of awesomeness do for you?"
Aphrodite grinned, "Is that a 'yes, Aph, I'll help you with whatever you want, no questions asked?'"
Apollo shrugged, deciding against taking a few moments to think it through. It was Apollo, after all, and honestly, when was the last time he had ever thought things through?
He flashed his almost blindingly bright smile before dramatically setting his beloved guitar down in order to literally jump up from the chair.
"Sure, Aph, I mean-what could go wrong?"
"Ugh! What else could go wrong?!" Leo Valdez groaned, smacking himself lightly on the forehead as he realized his blunder. Nyssa smiled kindly, gazing at him with uttermost sincere sympathy as he waved his hands in an attempt to clear the smoke coming out of yet again, another broken test machine.
"Leo, maybe you should take a break. No offence, but you look like you're going to combust along with that machine." The concern was evident in the girl's tone as she had come to the realization that her half-brother was steadily getting grumpier and closed off, something she inferred had nothing to do with the machines.
Leo frowned, a rare sight for someone so ordinarily cheerful and optimistic.
"I don't know, Nyssa..."
She shook her head firmly, "Leo. Break. Now."
Leo smiled slightly, "Nyssa. Zombie. Brains."
Nyssa laughed, shoving him off playfully. "Go! Have fun with Piper and Jason!"
That was, of course, the worst thing to say. The quirks of his mouth quickly shifted downward at her words, though he was tactful enough (barely; he wasn't exactly known for being subtle) to hide it before she got too worried.
Sighing, he ran a hand through his curly hair as he aimlessly walked around and gazed at the happy couples, laughing, cuddling, shoving their tongues down each other's throats...Leo grimaced as he saw a particularly 'affectionate' Micheal with some random model from the Aphrodite cabin though he could've sworn he had been dating another just yesterday...
'Gross. This is camp, not The Bachelor. At least keep it PG for my virgin eyes!' Leo lamented, a touch of bitterness tainting his inner monologue. Now, it wasn't like he was some love hater or like he had all of a sudden turned into a male hunter (did those even exist? Some Apollo kids had expressed an interest but Leo sincerely doubted Artemis would ever let that happen. He was more likely to date Drew than that) but the never ending cycle of drama with Jason, Piper and Reyna coupled with (no pun intended) the fact that seemingly everyone had paired off leaving him the eternally lonely wheel of everything had left him irritated, sad, and quite honestly, a touch terrified of being forever alone.
So, he wallowed. For about five minutes until Annabeth decided to walk alongside him.
"You feeling okay, Leo?" The blond blew away a stray curl, a small but genuine smile relaxing onto her pretty features.
Leo smiled back wryly, "Did Nyssa send you over for a pep talk?"
Annabeth laughed softly, a bright look in her sharp grey eyes. "Can't I talk to one of my favourite campers without ulterior motive?"
Leo snorted, giving her 'the look' before fully comprehending what she had said.
"Wait a sec., 'one of'? You mean, I'm not you're favourite?" He asked, morphing his expression into one of mock hurt.
Annabeth's grin widened, "Not even in my top ten, to be honest," she paused, bumping shoulders with him lightly.
"Seriously, are you alright?"
Leo managed to conjure up a convincing enough grin though it lacked his usual gusto. "Just a little lonely I guess. But I'll get over it, it's all good!"
Annabeth frowned slightly, "Lonely? Leo, there's so many of us!" She stated, feigning ignorance as she patiently waited for what she recognized to be a bubbling rant.
Leo shook his head, kicking some rubble absentmindedly, "Not like that! I mean-it's like-everyone has someone except me, you know? Like, you have Percy, Jason has Piper and apparently Reyna, Katie has Travis even though she won't admit it, and me- all I have Festus!"
Annabeth looked at him fondly, "Leo, I can't believe I'm about to say something so cliche and Aphrodite-like but...you'll find the right person eventually, and when it happens, you'll just know. Ugh, I can't believe I just said that!"
Leo only bit his lip before letting out a small, forced laugh.
"When...Yeah, you officially have more faith than I do! I think I'm going to need some serious divine intervention!" He joked.
Just as the words left his mouth, thunder rolled above, followed by a swift flash of blinding sunlight.
Leo gulped, wringing his hands worriedly. "Oops? I didn't mean it, I'm sorry!"
He nearly tripped over himself apologizing before realizing what he was doing. "Wait a second, why am I apologizing?"
He looked to the sky, as if waiting for the answer to be written in the clouds. He felt a strange sensation tingling through his throat but thought nothing of it, blaming it on what would probably be an annoying cold. Oh, if he only knew how wrong he was.
He glanced at Annabeth who had a thoughtful expression on her face. She cleared her throat with a hint of uncharacteristic awkwardness before shaking herself out of her reverie.
"That was...strange."
Leo nodded, a strange sensation filling his brain. He couldn't understand why he felt a sudden swooping sensation in his stomach, as if the knots of pent up anger were unravelling in a path that gave him the desire to-quoting a song involving a once troubled pop star-'scream and shout and let it all out'.
"Are you okay, Leo? And don't give me the usual 'chill out' response." Annabeth asked again, though a small corner in her mind wondered why she felt like she was repeating an earlier dialogue.
"No, I'm not okay! It kinda sucks being the seventh wheel of everything but you know what sucks more? When your best friends don't give a drachma about how crappy you feel all the freakin' time!" Leo exclaimed, an outpouring of passion and irritation flowing out of his mouth in a tumble of words.
Annabeth blinked back at him, stunned. "Leo-wow, I had no idea you felt this way..."
Leo exhaled shakily, ironically thinking the exact same thoughts as the girl beside him; what the Hades just happened?
Hermes raised an eyebrow, whistling lowly in surprise. "Damn, I didn't know the kid had that in him!"
Apollo nodded in agreement, though it was more out of excitement at having entertainment than deep, thoughtful concern.
Aphrodite just cooed. "Aw, poor little guy! That's so cute!"
The two men's heads swivelled back at her, away from the enchanted tablet that allowed them access into camp half-blood's mania.
"Say what now?" "Are you a sadist?"
Aphrodite ignored both of their intermingling voices as she ran through possible matches in her head. "Don't worry, I'm totally going to fix you up!"
Hermes side eyed her carefully, "Aph, you do know you're talking to a tablet, right?"
The blond simply giggled with an almost scarily maniac glee. "Oh my gods this is going to be so much fun!"
"What is going to be so much fun?" Zeus boomed dramatically, as he and the other gods filed in of their own accord.
Hades scowled, putting on his best 'I'd rather be anywhere else but here' face (which, let's face it, wasn't difficult) before grumbling about his little brother's over the top theatrics.
Zeus glared back, as if mentally jamming his masterbolt through the death god's brain.
"I am not dramatic!"
"He says dramatically," Poseidon commented wryly, smirking ever so slightly.
"Face it dad, you're totes dramatic!" Apollo proclaimed with a cheesy grin as he placed a hand over his chest.
Artemis rolled her eyes as if one cue, "Your heart is on the left side, dumbo."
Apollo huffed, "I refuse to be compared to that little elephant with unnaturally large ears!"
"Elephant hater!" Ares spouted randomly, much to everyone's confusion.
And in that moment, Athena voiced everyone's thoughts; "Ares, do you hear yourself when you speak or is there some sort of siren in your ears?"
Ares just shrugged, "Hey, I'm just trying to make things interesting! Which you would know nothing about because all you do is be smart and read books! So ha! Who's stupid now?"
Artemis snickered, "Still you, Ares, still you."
Athena just barely resisted the temptation to snort. "I'm not even going to dignify that completely pathetic excuse of a sentence with a response."
Hermes laughed, whistling "Ooh, kill em!"
"Hey! I have something interesting! Me, Aphrodite and Hermes started-"
Apollo was quickly cut off by a Hermes who was quickly getting the message from Aphrodite's death glare.
"Started what?" Hera prodded suspiciously, with Zeus nodding sternly beside her, bracing himself for the worst.
"Um...a book club! We started a book club!" Hermes blurted out nervously.
Cue the confused stares.
Athena raised an eyebrow, "Really? And what exactly are you reading?"
Hermes gulped as he got a glimpse of her sharp, all knowing grey eyes. "Ahh...well...we're reading uh... mockingjay!"His jaw slackened with relief as he vaguely remembered seeing the buzz about the book to movie adaptation.
"And what exactly is it about?" Dionysus drawled, a glint of mischief in his normally bored to death expression.
"Dionysus! Aren't you the one always wanting these stupid meetings to be over?" Apollo protested pleadingly.
Dionysus chuckled, smirking darkly "Are you kidding? This is the most interesting thing that's happened in weeks!"
"It's about a mockingjay?" Aphrodite guessed weakly before giving up. "Can we just skip to the part where Athena explains everything and move on?"
Zeus shook his head firmly, "Apollo, what did you three do?"
Apollo fidgeted, cursing the fact that he could never lie. "We sort of hit the camp with one of my special arrows that forces everyone to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Poseidon chuckled lightly over the court reference causing Ares to look over at him with confused, knitted eyebrows.
"What's so funny?"
Athena gave in and rolled her eyes witheringly, "How are we even related?"
Ares smirked, "Well, when two people love each other-"
"Hello! Can we please focus on the bigger problem here?" Artemis snapped, directing their attention back to the matter at hand.
"But if it forces the kids to be truthful isn't that a good thing?" Demeter inquired, much to the trios uttermost thanks.
"Thank you, Demeter! At least someone understands that what we were doing was for the good of humanity!" Hermes exclaimed theatrically.
Zeus glanced at Hera with what one can only describe as a 'wtf expression' as he wondered what he had ever done to be saddled with such an insane group of people-gods, technically but the sentiment was the same.
Hera only shrugged calmly, "Don't look at me, they're your children!"
Zeus shook his head helplessly, "They're so melodramatic!"
"Gee, I wonder where they get that from." Hera remarked back smoothly, putting on a small amused smirk.
Athena, who was examining a sample arrow managed to read the ridiculously small letters engraved along the side.
"It also says that the arrow makes one reveal their deepest, darkest secrets and forces them to speak anything and everything-which is in italics by the way-that is on their mind, especially when speaking to someone they have a strong connection to."
Demeter looked horrified, swiftly sympathizing with her children and the others that would be essentially forced against their will to be at their most vulnerable.
So she did what any mother would have done at that moment. She threw a cereal box at Hermes head.
"I take it back-Hermes, you idiot!"
Hermes yelped groaning as he rubbed the back of his head. "Why are you only blaming me! Apollo and Aph dragged me into this! It was their idea!"
Aphrodite gasped, "Selling us out? Ho-ow rude!"
Demeter conjured up another box intended for Apollo's head, but Hades stopped her.
"Now, now, Demeter. Violence is not the answer," He said patronizingly, causing her to glower back at him.
"You do realize that this is probably going to affect your son the most, right? He's one of the most guarded people I know and I know you!" Hades ignored the disgust in the last three words she said as he contemplated what she meant.
Conjuring up a box, he readily aimed for the sun god's face before Zeus slammed his masterbolt down.
"Is this the part where you say order in the court?" Hermes joked meekly, knowing full well that they were about to get a punishment worse than eating Demeter's whole wheat cereal.
Apollo cowered slightly in his chair after catching Hades' murderous expression.
"It's not my fault I never read the fine print! Besides, Aphrodite started it!"
At everyone's glares, Aphrodite flushed slightly.
"I did it for a good cause, okay!"
Athena looked skeptical. "Like what?"
"Love!" She explained dreamily causing an outpour of groans.
"Is that supposed to justify all of the inevitable problems that will occur?"
Zeus asked tiredly, inwardly groaning as he mentally envisioned some future chaos happening. Goddamn teenagers.
"Yes...?" Aphrodite squeaked hesitantly.
"It's just-most of the teenagers are so blinded by their fear of rejection that I thought maybe if they could just loosen up a little, they would declare their love for each other and be together forever!"
"She's actually not wrong-the urchins run away as soon as they hear anything remotely close to feelings..." Dionysus mused, carefully fixating his tone into one of boredom-he couldn't slip up and show emotion for the brats, after all, he had a reputation!
Aphrodite beamed.
"That may be, but does the end really justify the means?" Athena questioned reasonably causing her to grimace.
"Can't you just not be right for once?" Aphrodite whined, ignoring Ares' loud 'yes!'.
Hephaestus who had been largely silent for the most part, spoke up at Ares' exclamation. "Bringing back what Athena said earlier-how are we related?"
Before Ares could utter yet another meaningless remark, they were all interrupted by the noises being emitted from the tablet.
"You see it all on a magical tablet?" Poseidon stated incredulously.
Hermes nodded enthusiastically, "It's the twenty first century, uncle, get with the program!"
"Okay, I'm like 90% sure that 0% people say that anymore." Aphrodite remarked before shuddering slightly.
"Are you cold?" Apollo questioned, confused.
She shook her head, "Nope! I don't think my beautiful body is used to me doing m-math!"
Athena could do nothing but facepalm. It was just so freaking hard being surrounded by stupid people.
"Out of curiosity, not that I care at all-what's happened so far?" Dionysus asked innocently.
"Hephaestus' kid, Leo, totally poured his soul out to an unsuspecting Annabeth Chase." Apollo announced cheerfully, while Hephaestus' head shot up swiftly at the mention of his son.
"Is he alright?"
"He's actually pretty les miserable, Hephaestus. He feels like the seventh wheel, like his friends-and quote, 'don't give a drachma about him'" Hermes was less cavalier about the kid's current depressing situation but used the classic air bunnies to make it slightly comical.
"Awww!" Demeter and Hera cooed sympathetically, much to Aphrodite's approval (she couldn't help but throw a smug smirk in Apollo and Hermes' direction) and even Athena and Artemis, arguably the two most level-headed, wore equally pitying expressions.
"See? Now I can totally set him up!" Aphrodite said triumphantly.
Hades shook his head irritably, "How do you reverse it?"
Athena peered at the arrow carefully once more, wincing as she mentally prepared herself for a roar of anger.
"It says, 'wears off after a week.'"
Hades scowled impatiently.
"Don't you have some cure arrow?"
"Yes, Hades, because the god of truth would have arrows that allow people to lie." Demeter cut in sarcastically, smiling sweetly as a form of payback for his earlier comment.
"So...can we watch-er-monitor what's happening? Just to be safe, ya know, cause I'm all about that stuff..."
Zeus sighed, glancing at Apollo's pleading puppy dog face and ignoring Artemis' scoffs before turning to Hera.
She tilted her head slightly, her eyes showing hesitant approval.
"Very well. But we must not-"
"Interfere, yeah, yeah, yeah. We get it, Dad." Hermes mumbled impatiently, tapping his foot in anticipation.
"She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah." Apollo sang under his breath, similarly excited as Hephaestus connected the tablet to a much larger screen.
"3...2...1...let the madness begin!"
AN: Hope you guys liked it! Since it was the introductory chapter it wasn't full of excitement, but I promise the next one will be filled with interesting and goofy shenanigans. Please review and tell me what you thought of it! Constructive criticism welcome :)