The scrap of Fury leather burned a hole in his pocket.

Knuckles white around the knife in his lap, he came into contact with the uncomfortable heat every time the car hit a pothole in the road. While all the other 'spoils of war' that he'd earned before now were merely body temperature, the piece of Fury was just on the border between warm and hot, something Caleb had already complained about when he tried to lounge across Harvey's lap the night before during Jay's lacklustre 'Demigods 101' speech.

Sitting uncomfortably in the backseat, pinned between his snoring boyfriend on one side and the annoying incorporeal ghost on his other, Harvey tried to avoid making eye contact with either of his parents sitting in the front seat.

Last night had been tense, his father trying to make excuses about why he couldn't explain anything, while his mother fluttered around the house distracting herself with cleaning up after the fight. When he'd finally gotten an explanation, it'd been from Jay who'd cursed up a storm before 'sitting' on the couch and beginning a long and awkward conversation about how he was adopted and his parents were members of the fucked up incestuous Greek pantheon. If he hadn't known he was adopted for as long as he could remember, there probably would have been shouting involved with how tactless Jay's reveal was.

Although, there had been shouting last night.

Eventually Caleb had dragged him up to his bedroom and they'd hid, letting his father try to repair the broken door, wall, and window alone while his mother tried futilely to look up and perform an exorcism to get rid of Jay. As far as he was concerned, Caleb was a lot better at the explaining thing that his parents or Jay were, and he'd only had access to the internet. Caleb was also better at calming him down after the events of the day had come crashing down, but he'd rather nobody else tried to calm him down by sticking their tongue down his throat.

He'd known Caleb had a thing for baseball pants and jocks, but apparently a sweaty sword-wielding Harvey was also one of his boyfriend's perverted kinks. They were a match made in heaven, or whatever the Greek equivalent of heaven was.

Grunting as the car hit a sharp pothole and Caleb's head bounced off the door, Harvey grabbed his discarded jacket and slipped it under his pouting boyfriend's head. "Be careful," he warned, "If you break that, then you'll have to resort to being a brainless jock like me."

"I consider myself lucky you're smart enough to speak in more than grunting and pointing," Caleb muttered, shifting away from the door to curl against his side instead.

"Hey! You love the grunting."

Caleb snorted, "I love the possessiveness, I could do without your obssession with my- "

"NO!"

Both of them freezing and glancing up at the parents Harvey had forgotten were even there, he shrunk back slightly under his mother's furious look. "NO! I do not want to hear anything about what you two get up to in bed, it's bad enough you're shameless enough to shop for supplies in front of me. I don't need to hear about it too!"

"We walked in on you two making out on the couch," Caleb said slowly, Harvey nodding in agreement before sending Jay a death glare when the ghost opened his mouth to talk. "You're not ones to talk. Not even we're done that."

Yes. Yes, they had. But for the sake of the argument, they were both obviously developing selective memories.

"That doesn't count, you weren't supposed to be home for a while yet. And there are limits," his mother defended, "There are things we share, and things we keep to ourselves."

"And being a demigod is which one of those again?" Harvey asked bluntly, his mother flinching back violently. "Yeah… that's what I thought."

Bloody hell, he'd have thought his parents would have told him about this 'demigod' business back when he'd first developed his powers, not waiting until he'd almost died (again) and for someone else to set the ball rolling.

Oh, Christ, he was a demigod.

"Harvey," Caleb's voice cut in, "Calm down, I can feel your heartbeat speeding up."

Smiling weakly down at the blond as he slipped a hand up Caleb's shirt to rest it on warm skin, Harvey tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling, closing his eyes after a moment to focus himself.

Demigod. As much as the term terrified him, it felt like a puzzle piece being pressed into place. Like he should have known it already, like the word just was just hanging out of reach, on the tip of his tongue. His birth mother, on the rare occasion that she'd sent a letter, had never given him hint nor suggestion that she was anything more than someone who had experience fighting hellhounds and other baddies. And as mad as he wanted to be that she hadn't said anything (because she was the goddess that made him a demigod), he couldn't really comment when his own parents hadn't said anything either, both of them perfectly happy to keep him in the dark. On one hand, if they'd told him then he would have had to leave for this 'Camp' a lot earlier, leaving Caleb behind. On the other hand, armour was apparently one of his boyfriend's many 'interests', and Harvey would still be allowed to come back during the school year so they could be together.

Right now, though, he wasn't sure. It could apparently take all year for him to be considered trained enough to be allowed to leave the Camp for home, one of the reasons his parents hadn't wanted for him to leave just yet. And with the school year just beginning the very next day, Harvey would have to be pulled out at the last minute for a 'finishing school' or something, if this Camp even had normal subjects being taught there so he could get his qualifications to get into college next year. If Caleb hadn't told him to go, then he probably would have refused. In Caleb's eyes, being apart for a year and coming back trained, was better than staying together and being killed by the next thing that shows up.

He didn't want to admit that Caleb was right.

"We're getting close," came the warning from the driver's seat, his father not having turned around during their earlier argument. "Are you sure this is what you want?"

No, not in the slightest.

Looking down at Caleb, whose eyes were closed in peaceful yet fake slumber, Harvey nodded. He could deal with being away from Caleb for a year. (He couldn't). He wasn't that whipped. (He was). He could survive sleeping in a strange bed presumably surrounded by strange people without Caleb snuggled up beside him. (Definitely not). And not everything in his life revolved around Caleb, he was just panicking and trying to focus on the guy he loved. (Bit of both, really.)

"Yeah, it is."

His mother made a sad noise in the passenger's seat but didn't comment, his father remaining as silent as he'd fallen after Harvey's anger-filled reaction to the truth. The only real reaction to his decision was Caleb's, hand reaching up to link tightly with the one Harvey had hidden beneath his shirt.

They drove for a couple more minutes before pulling into a long driveway, a faded sign declaring 'Delphi Strawberry Service' on the side of the gravel path. Beyond that Harvey could see row upon row of fields, all of them covered in neat green bushes with carefully placed nets above them to keep the birds away. Looking past the fields, to the forest he could see behind it, he helped Caleb sit up so they could both peer out the window curiously, Harvey frowning slightly as he turned back to the front of the car.

This was Camp Half-Blood? There was nothing here but strawberry fields and a big blue farmhouse at the end of the driveway. From what Jay had told him, Harvey had been led to expect legions of Greek demigods fighting each other with swords and bows, to expect giant temples to the Olympian gods he'd had a crash course on last night. As the car pulled up into one of the parking spaces, Harvey couldn't see even a sword-shaped object, let alone an actual sword.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" he couldn't help but ask as Caleb flung open the door and climbed out of the car, leaving Harvey to follow as his parents did the same.

"I don't know," Dad confessed, pulling his bag from the trunk and throwing it to him, "I've never been before, we were only told where to find it. And this is the right address," he added, pointing to the sign on the building identifying this correctly as the strawberry service.

"But… but there's nothing here," he dismissed, dropping the bag to the gravel and taking a couple of steps closer to a sign he could see on the fence near th- thunk.

"Harvey?"

Blinking the tears away from his eyes as he felt the ground beneath his feet lurching, he shook his head with an exhaled "Son of a bitch. I just… hit something?"

Ignoring Caleb's confused call, Harvey reached out a hand and stepped forward again cautiously, expecting it this time when his hand pressed up against an invisible warm wall that shifted beneath his fingers. Pushing a little harder, and feeling the ground shifting again, he hit the ground with a yelp as the wall jerked back like a rubber band and sent him flying.

"There's a wall there, an invisible one, I can't get past it."

Caleb walked past him, dodging out of the way of Harvey's grab, stepping right through where the barrier had been without issue. "I don't see any wall, invisible or otherwise. There's just strawberries."

"He's right, Harvey," his mother mumbled, sniffing the air, "It even smells like strawberries."

Strawberries had a smell?

Shaking it off, Harvey tried to move forward again, the ground instantly shaking as he hit the wall. "Do you feel that? The ground is shaking whenever I touch the wall."

A hand landed on his back and shoved him forward, smacking his face into the wall as he immediately bounced off again. "Huh, there is a wall," his Dad mused thoughtfully, ignoring Harvey's glare. "Hey, that proves that this is the right place. An invisible wall that only you can touch? That sounds like magic to me, don't you think?"

He guessed.

"I'll admit, I've never seen this reaction before," Jay muttered behind him, "Demigods can just walk straight through the barrier, it's monsters that get held back by it."

"So? How do I get in?"

The ghost shrugged, "Maybe the war shields have been activated? I don't know, it's been years since I've been here, things were a lot more peaceful back then."

Shoving at the wall again, Harvey paused for a moment to gauge where it was before drawing his fist back and punching it, feeling the warm field bending beneath his hand but not breaking.

"Harvey? Maybe that isn't the best idea, we should just head inside and ask for help."

"And how am I going to do that?" Harvey countered, gesturing at the wall in front of him, "I can't exactly get to the building, can I?"

His father muttering under his breath about moody teenagers, the man strode past them all and started towards the big building, Harvey's mother hurrying after as Caleb lingered near Harvey himself.

"You're being a dick again, it's not a good look on you."

"Well, is 'demigod' a good look on me? Because that's apparently what I am," Harvey snapped, grimacing immediately and reaching for Caleb's hand.

"You know that doesn't matter to me," Caleb reminded, pulling away in silent punishment. "You're the only person here who seems to care that much. Your parents didn't send you back to the agency when they found out, did they? And I certainly didn't even think about dumping you on that beach three years ago. Why do you care about this so much? I would have figured you'd be glad to finally figure out what you can do is normal."

"But it's not, is it? I'm only like, one quarter human, and because of that I'm going to be in danger for the rest of my life!" Harvey exclaimed, "I'm part-human, Caleb! I was expecting some kind of great conspiracy about psychics being real and hidden from the government! I was not expecting some bullshit announcement by my parents around five years too late telling me that 'Hey, btws, you're part-god'!"

"Okay first," Caleb began, holding up a finger, "Did you really just say 'btws' as an actual word? And second," he added as Harvey opened his mouth, "How is this any different? Psychics, magic, the Greek gods, whatever. It's still some kind of big conspiracy, and can you honestly tell me you wouldn't be in danger anyway if it were just psychics and hellhounds?"

No, he couldn't. But that didn't mean he was just going to let this slide. Harvey was certain he deserved some righteous indignation to the idea most of his life had been a lie. Turning away from an annoyingly smug Caleb, he cracked his knuckles and drew his hands back to gather some energy behind his fist. "I really do love you Caleb, but sometimes you can be-"

"A real pain in the ass? I know babe, you've told me that before."

Punching the wall in response, Harvey heard the sound of Caleb's gasp as the invisible wall became visible suddenly, a fraction of the weakly glowing white-blue wall shattering into thousands of pieces and leaving a hole large enough for the two of them to walk through side by side.

Oops… he didn't think he'd hit it that hard.

"Did you just break the magical force field they most likely set up to protect themselves?" Caleb deadpanned behind him.

"Caleb… look."

Staring through the hole as his boyfriend came up beside him, Harvey's eyes shifted between the illusion of strawberry fields on either side of the forest visible through the tear in the force field. Slowly moving forward as Caleb grabbed at the back of his shirt, he ended up dragging the smaller male behind him as he stepped through the gap into the unnaturally dark forest. To his left the forest seemed to end in around fifty feet to show a glimpse of real strawberry fields, and to his right it only became denser at the same distance.

"I can't believe I have to say this, but that was kind of awesome," Harvey murmured, glancing over at the sky-blue building to find it completely gone as Caleb and Jay stepped in after him.

"Give it time, I'm sure they'll make you say that a lot mo-"

"They're coming."

Grabbing Caleb and slapping his hand over his mouth to shut him up, Harvey pulled them together and behind a tree near the wall, thankful they were both wearing dark colours that blended in. Making a quiet shushing sound as he felt Caleb going stiff against his body, he carefully peered out to watch the direction he'd seen movement in.

That, that was what he was expecting from a place claiming to train demigods, three young men dressed in what was clearly Greek armour with swords drawn appearing from between the trees. The two of them wearing helmets had matching red plumes, while the one with a bow had a crude spear slung across his back, all three of them moving with care as they kept an eye on the coloured tassels Harvey now noticed hanging from some of the trees.

"There! The barrier!" one of the swordsmen exclaimed suddenly, pointing with his sword past Harvey and Caleb's tree at the still glowing hole they'd left behind them. "Something's gotten through."

"You sure? It could just be leftovers from when that cyclops got in?"

"What? Jackson's brother?" the archer cut in, shaking his head at his 'friends'. "Nah, he was found wandering around near the shoreline, followed the beach in from what I heard. This is something else."

"We need to warn Chiron," the first said slowly.

"We need to check outside, in case it's waiting for us to leave first," the second swordsman argued.

"Don't look at me, I don't know what to do," said the archer when they both turned to look at him. Both swordsmen scattering, one running further into the forest as the other moved towards the hole, the guy with the bow just let out a slow sigh and looked around. "I'll just wait here then."

The second swordsmen passing close enough to Harvey that they nearly touched, he and Caleb shuffled around the tree and watched as the boy peered out of the hole cautiously, sword and shield raised defensively. "There's a car there, and I can see two people in the store talking to some of the Mistforms."

"Could they have triggered the barrier alarms?"

"And then made a hole in the barrier?" the swordsman asked sceptically. "Nah, this was a monster, mere mortals can't do this much damage to the barrier."

"Maybe they couldn't," the archer pressed, moving closer as well. "But it's dying, ain't it? Ever since Castellan poisoned the tree. S'why Chiron's got us on patrol in the first place, since the barrier's weak enough that this can happen."

Both boys looked terrified that that was even a possibility, and if Harvey couldn't feel Caleb's heartbeat rabbiting against his chest, he would have felt guilty enough to reveal himself to assure them everything was fine. But as far as he was concerned, if there was the slightest possibility that they might react badly to having his 'mere mortal' of a boyfriend within the barrier, then he'd leave them to suffer in a heartbeat. Caleb was his top priority, always and forever.

"Do not let yourself be seen."

"Should we have gone after Rick? What if he runs straight into the monster?"

The swordsmen looked worried. "Didn't think of that," he admitted, glancing between the broken barrier and the forest. "Shit... let's go. We can bring back reinforcements if he's safe."

Pinning Caleb against him for a minute or so longer, Harvey waited until he was sure the demigods were gone before he stepped away, feeling his legs quiver for a moment before he was being dragged back toward the hole.

"Wait!" he hissed, digging his heels in at the entrance, "I can't go back out there."

"What?"

"I might not be able to get back in," Harvey explained softly, making eye contact with Caleb who looked just as afraid as he had last night. "This is my only chance. I need to get into the Camp before the reinforcements show up and assume I'm this 'monster' that made a hole in their barrier."

Jay snorted in the background. "You are the monster that made a hole in their barrier."

"It was your idea for me to come here, remember?" he accused, glancing over his shoulder towards the forest. "Well, now I'm here. And… and now that I'm here, something's telling me I need to do this my way."

"Harvey. Your way is to make them regret they were ever born," Caleb reminded slowly, not even twitching as Harvey raised his hand to pull his sports bag to him telekinetically. "You're not a diplomat, you're a secret weapon… and my boyfriend."

"I thought Crichton and Tor got married in Waterdeep before we all descended into the Underdark?" he questioned, earning an annoyed look. "This isn't D&D, I know Caleb, and I'll be careful. Now go, find Mum and Dad, tell them I'll see them soon," he instructed. Hearing the sound of clanging metal in the distance, Harvey pulled Caleb closer for a quick kiss, smiling at him before darting away as Caleb reached forward to pull him back.

"I really hate it when you do that," his boyfriend muttered, adding in an "I love you," before he was turning and jogging towards the non-existent blue house.

Watching him go for a moment, Harvey didn't hesitate to use the cup of a whistling Jay's hands to boost himself into a tree, the ghost stretching lazily as Harvey climbed a little further into the branches. Waiting for the reinforcements to arrive, he clenched his jaw as a – son of a bitch – centaur led a group of teenagers towards the gap. These ones looked a lot more prepared for a fight than the earlier three did, if only because there were around a dozen of them this time, most of them a lot more heavily armoured than the first lot who were still among them.

"Spread out and search," the centaur ordered, a huge bow held in his right hand. "I want to be sure nothing came through before we seal it."

Out of all of them, the two that happened to head in Harvey's direction were a lightly-armoured girl without any weapons and a blond boy with a spear in one hand and a pillow in the other. As they passed him, something urged Harvey to keep out of sight of the girl, instinctively knowing that if anyone could see him it would be her.

The boy reached out to swat the girl on the arm, muffling a yawn into his elbow and almost stabbing himself with his spear. "Maeve. What do your elf eyes see?"

"Fuck off, Clovis," she replied, frowning as she waved her hand in the air and muttered something under her breath, a low thrumming feeling burning through Harvey's veins as she did so. "Chiron! Only demigods have passed through here," she called, "I can seal the breach."

The centaur neared them, staring at 'Maeve' for a moment before nodding. "Do it, we will keep up the search. With Luke and the others' defections, we must be sure this is no ambush."

"Can I go back to bed, though?" Clovis asked, "Chiron?"

The centaur just ignored him, turning back to join another group as Maeve turned her attention to the barrier and stretched her arms out to touch both sides of the hole. Nothing happened for a moment, and then her hands shone the same colour as the barrier, the light spreading out as both sides of the hole stretched out to seal it over. The longer she stood there concentrating, the brighter the light of the barrier got until there was no telling its glow from the rest of the wall. It still looked weak, though, something telling Harvey that this was a side effect of the 'tree being poisoned'.

Dropping her hands to her knees and gasping for air, she waved away Clovis as he reached for her. "I'm fine," she muttered, "That just took a lot out of me."

"Follow."

"It's still weak," Maeve called to Chiron when she eventually straightened up and headed in his direction, Harvey carefully moving around the tree trunk after her. "But it'll do for now. There's only so much the three of us can do, maybe if there were more of us it might be easier, but right now it's looking like we don't have any other options."

"Your mother?"

Maeve sagged, shaking her head. "Tim says he had a weird dream, about a Christmas he had before coming here. He kept asking his father when they could open the presents, but his dad kept saying 'Soon, he'll be here soon'. Lee thinks it might be prophetic, Tim just says he had too much from the Stoll's stash," she explained with a shrug.

"Personally, I shall hold the hope that Mr Fletcher is right," Chiron murmured.

"Tim has dreams about salsa dancing teacups, so I don't know," Maeve countered as Harvey blinked in shock.

"And did Tim not proceed to turn all of my tea salsa flavoured the very next day?" Chiron asked, tail flicking in annoyance as Maeve hid a snigger. "I'm still not convinced that this 'dream' of his was not a cover story for a prank gone wrong."

"A prank gone right, you mean Chiron," the dark-haired girl replied, before lowering her voice enough that Harvey could barely hear her. "Tim's dream? Could his father be telling him that the cure for the barrier was getting here soon? Or that maybe we've got another one of us coming here?"

Chiron seemed to pause at that, humming thoughtfully as he rubbed his beard. "We will not know until this person arrives, but I hope so."

"He's already here, dumbass," Jay called out, rolling his eyes and looking up the tree at Harvey, "Women, am I right?"

Maeve's gasp had Harvey partially ducking back behind the tree, Chiron looking around startled with his bow ready to fire. "There's someone here!" she blurted, raising her hands to catch the bronze sword that appeared in a familiar swirl of smoke, "I heard them talk."

"Maeve?"

"'He's already here'," she recited as Jay cowered and kept the tree between the two of them, "They said 'He's already here'."

Chiron's bow lowered slowly. "I would take that to mean, that the help you asked for is here. And is most likely the cause of the breach."

"No Son of Hecate would tear a hole in the barrier," Maeve argued, snorting as she brushed her hair back over her shoulder, "All we have to do is tell it to 'Open' and it would, don't you think spirit?"

Well… he didn't know that now did he? There hadn't been a sign anywhere telling him to tell the barrier to open for him, and he hadn't been hearing voices like Maeve had been, nor had the scroll he'd gotten contained any instructions beyond the address and calling his parents out. Besides, he didn't even know if he was a son of Hecate (nor did he know what Hecate was the god of). And anyway, he'd knocked and nothing had happened. Okay, he'd punched the barrier and the ground had jolted like an earthquake, but that was close enough for him.

And spirit? Could she see ghosts too? That was an affirmative if the way she was circling the tree trying to catch out Jay was any indication. Shit, or not shit? He wasn't the only one, but also, he wasn't the only one.

"Misters Solace and Murry," the centaur called, "Return to Camp and bring the rest of Maeve's siblings here. Oh… and take Clovis with you please, he seems to have fallen asleep again," Chiron added, glancing over at the blond boy who was snoring where he was standing.

"There's no need, Chiron," Maeve declared with a smug smirk, straightening her back and sticking out her chest. "He's only using the Mist, I know how to control that better than anyone, that's my thing."

He had no idea what the Mist was, but Harvey strangely felt a lot like his manhood had just been called into question.

Maeve struck a pose, raising her hand into the air as he tensed up in preparation. "REVEAL YOURSELF!"

And… nothing happened, Harvey glancing down at himself to make sure he wasn't glowing or anything before looking around suspiciously.

"I said, 'REVEAL YOURSELF!'" Maeve repeated as Chiron sighed slowly.

"Perhaps you should wait for Lou Ellen to arrive?" the centaur suggested gently, "You have only been here for six months if I recall correctly."

"No," said Maeve stubbornly, "I've got this."

Well, that sounded familiar. If Caleb was here, he'd no doubt be staring at Harvey until he got the point.

"REVEAL YOURSELF!"

This time Harvey could actually see the ripple that exploded from Maeve's raised hand, immediately clinging closer to the tree trunk as it reached him. "Huh… I could have sworn that worked," Maeve pouted.

"It did," Chiron praised, "Your brother may just have not been within range."

The sound of Jay face-palming was enough to make even Chiron twitch. "He's above you, idiot, in the tree."

Head snapping up, Maeve stared at the wrong tree for several seconds before switching her gaze to the exact position he was hiding, the black of his leather jacket and jeans not as useful against a brown tree trunk.

"Hello, young man," Chiron's voice greeted as the centaur stepped around the tree to take in his hiding place with a glance. "If you'd like to follow me back to the Big House, I can prepare the orientation video for you, I'm sure you have many questions."

AN/ I'm sure we all have questions, don't we? But if I spent time actually answering those questions in story, we'd have five or so chapters full of just questions alone, so I'm going to skip it like I did the 'Demigod Reveal' from the end of last chapter. Next chapter though, Harvey meets some of his blood family! Exciting! (Or is it?)