First, thank you everyone who left reviews encouraging me to continue.

Not sure how the romantic parts of this story are going to pan out, to be perfectly honest, but Luke will bring out a different side of Thalia even though she might not be as successful reaching him.

If anyone was confused with the timeline and how it's changed with Thalia not being on the road with Luke, Annabeth and Grover, just PM with your questions and I'll get right back to you. Otherwise, be patient and it'll come up naturally in-story.

Disclaimer: I don't own "Percy Jackson & the Olympians".


It took a while to get used to a new routine at Camp Halfblood, but Thalia was up for the challenge.

That was before the lightning disappeared from the sky, and then the boy arrived. Of course everything went straight to Hades after that.

Bizarrely, Thalia knew deep down that this couldn't possibly be (her Majesty, the Queen) Hera's idea. It wasn't her style, her usual fingerprint that she smacked into every scheme and ploy to further 'better' Thalia's life. Didn't stop her from suspecting that Queen Hera was taking sadistic enjoyment in all of this.

What she did enjoy though was further time with Luke. Not only did hanging out with a peer and a prominent figure around Camp Halfblood get the other kids to stop spreading rumors and/or avoiding her like she was a mythical plague beast, but he was genuinely a nice... conversationalist. Yes, her past experiences with conversation and generally just talking were limited to one drunk mother, one toddler brother, and one Spiteful Stepmother Hera Queen of Olympus but that didn't lessen the fact that Luke Castellan was an incredibly charming, charismatic, easy-to-talk to young man who even wheelchair-bound was... amazingly pleasant to look at. Well, he wasn't ugly, that was what Thalia would willing to admit under torture at least.

The first and best talk had involved some serious opening up.

"So," Thalia began, observing all the unclaimed children milling about the Hermes cabin with some trepidation, "how many do you think are your, you know, actual siblings?"

To that, Luke just chuckled. "They're all my brothers and sisters," he affected a pompous drawl, like a backwoods preacher. "Siblings united in common shared suffering of neglect and general d-baggery of Olympus."

It was crass and uncalled for and Thalia tried to hold in a laugh. What she managed was an unbecoming giggle. "Well, that answers a few follow-up questions."

"Oh?" Luke raised and waggled his solitary unscarred eyebrow. "Like what?"

"You and your dad close?" Maybe it was too early to ask something like that.

Really, Thalia was amazed at the hospitality she had been gifted with after all the rumors and the distrust everyone else at Camp had shown when her... patronage was revealed. The Stolls went right back to being collaborators, almost friends again, engaging her in witty remarks and practical jokes. The other Hermes children and the cabin-dwellers who were left unclaimed by immortal parents had only minor suspicion towards her at first, but Luke had invited her in and that was a seal of approval that all of them absolutely trusted.

Luke just laughed, not unkindly but not with good humor either. "Are you close with your dad?" He must have been more perceptive than she figured, or maybe that got her to drop her well-schooled mask enough for him to realize he hit a nerve. "Sorry, I assumed you... actually I'm not sure what I assumed."

"I'm a demigod. Halfblood," Thalia corrected. "But I'm unclaimed. And orphaned." Technically both true. In a fashion. "Queen Hera took me in and raised me. I never really knew my father and my mother died when I was young."

"Because you're ancient now." Luke dryly quipped, still with that infuriating and alarmingly handsome smile.

He also, without realizing it (Thalia assumed he didn't realize it at least), hit another nerve. "I don't know how old I am. Lady Hera didn't celebrate birthdays, remember?" Or maybe she just didn't celebrate Thalia's, that would make more sense. It was harder to imagine the Queen of Olympus refusing to celebrate her own birthday just to have the excuse to throw a lavish, cosmic party with all the most chic and reputable gods. Bitterly, Thalia imagined that Queen Hera probably kept claiming to 'only' be thirty-three thousand years old every year.

"That sucks." Luke nodded, looking out from the window of the Hermes cabin. They didn't have curtains and the glass was cracked at the edges from an argument that got out of hand with a boy who turned out to be a child of Aeolus (though unclaimed, of course, and without a cabin of his own to go to anyways). "Well my dad never gave me a birthday present either, not unless you count the magic flying shoes."

That sounded interesting, and Thalia couldn't help but ask. "Do you still have them?"

Luke snorted, patted the spokes of his chair's wheels. "Would do me much good to have them now, right?"

"I didn't... I guess not," Thalia struggled successfully not to fidget. "I'm sorry to bring it up."

"What, that I can't walk?" Luke smirked. "Not like I forget when people don't point it out. Don't sweat about it, really."

"How did it happen?" She heard rumors, but only rumors, and hoped to hear the whole thing eventually.

"Not just my story to tell," Luke shrugged apologetically, "but maybe sometime."

"Oh, alright."

And then it was silence for a while, the two of them glancing at each other between watching arguments in the Hermes cabin go back and forth.

Companionable silence... Thalia never knew how much she'd enjoy it.

It was one thing to have a friend, or know how to talk to someone like they were your friend, but it was another thing to actually not need words.

At least, she thought that was the case. Luke might have thought the same way, and right now Thalia had no issue assuming he did. It made her a great deal more content about her predicament to think that way. Not something she was used to, but it turned out that she was quickly enjoying it's novelty.

Surprisingly though, Lady Hera didn't immediately find a way to take it away from her so Thalia was a little on edge. That usually meant that the Queen was setting her up for a 'harsh lesson'.

Eventually she tried to talk to him again, after getting over her paralyzing fear of having this new bit of happiness taken away, and feeling curious enough to ask about some more personal matters. Those questions were liberally peppered with gossip from around Camp though.

"Annabeth and you... so, friends for a long time?" Thalia felt foolish, and added "BBF's maybe?"

Luke laughed, once, but nothing mean-spirited. "I guess, yeah, we're 'BFFs', but she'd never let me get away with calling us that. She'd probably kick my butt first."

"That does sound like something she'd do," Thalia muttered, remembering the latest death-glare she received from the scarred girl. "How long have you known each other?"

"I met her when I was on the run, and so was she. We stuck by each other until our satyr, Grover Underwood, found us." Luke paused, like he was considering telling more of the shared story. "We had some fun, and it was good to be... well to be free. Neither of us had the best home-life. My mom, she's not really alright," he tapped his temples, "up here. Not her fault or anything, but..." Luke snorted bitterly. "And Annabeth had a case of the serious wicked-stepmom, the way she tells it. It was good for a while."

"Sounds like you were both very happy," Thalia admitted, but she felt creeping doubt. "Weren't there monsters?"

"Of course," Luke shrugged, leaning back in his chair as best he could to project mass-amount of nonchalance. "But we could handle ourselves pretty well. Child of Hermes, a satyr, and a daughter of Athena? Well we weren't exactly big fish, right? We kept low and coasted alright. Grover was the one who kept telling us we needed to try to get to Camp, said it be safer, but I... well me and Annabeth both were kind of, well, we didn't really want anything more to do with the gods. Why start getting involved in their business after we were doing so well, you know?"

She really didn't, that level of autonomy was incredibly foreign to Thalia, and thinking about it paralyzed her like she was looking down into a bottomless ravine. However much she was afraid of, or resented, or dreaded Her Majesty the Queen, an idea of life without Lady Hera was too big and strange to grasp. And it was her only tie to possibly finding Jason again. She made the choice long ago; freedom for her brother (or even just hope for her brother), and when she thought about it, really it was a small price.

"Well, that didn't last long," Luke sighed. "Grover kept insisting and after Annabeth got strep-throat that we nearly didn't get medicine for, crawling back to the gods for protection didn't seem like such a bad idea. Problem was we didn't consider monsters waiting for us on the way there... they just kept lurking outside of Camp, looking for easy targets, tired kids and satyrs. Grover managed to get us help, and Chiron led a team to clear them out, but..." Reflexively his fingers tapped against the spokes of his wheelchair again, and he didn't quite meet Thalia's eye. From what she did see though, there was a glint of angry embarrassment. The silence that followed wasn't at all comfortable or friendly.

So, instead, Thalia just nodded in sympathy, fighting down the urge (successfully) to make physical contact. A hand on the shoulder, a hug, a kiss- something like that, it wouldn't be appreciated. She didn't think at least. Looking back, she felt she made the right choice.

(though she still sometimes thought about that missed chance for a kiss)

Then the other boy arrived.

It felt like the beginning of everything falling apart, and Thalia felt like she was the only other person to realize this.

Naturally (because it felt natural to do after a week of small talks) she shared her concerns with Luke.

"The Minotaur right outside of Camp Halfblood..." Thalia shook her head (her hair would need to be cut soon, it brushed her brow and earlobes distractingly). "You'd think people would be more concerned."

"Kid could handle himself." Luke mused, fingers folded in front of him, staring intently at the Big House.

Thalia brushed her hair back, raised an eyebrow. "You don't think it was luck."

"Do you?" Luke asked sardonically, smiling in a mysterious way that made it clear that he thought she was smarter than to think that.

Not willing to disappoint, Thalia shrugged. "It doesn't seem likely. But the satyr he came with said he never was trained before."

"Yeah well," Luke smirked, "'Coach' Hodge never seemed the sharpest or shiniest tool in the shed. Makes Grover look good."

The conversation was taking a turn for the accusatory and bitter, and Thalia instinctively made effort to steer it in a more agreeable direction. "How is Grover now? I've never seen him around... or any pictures, or anything."

"He got his Searcher's Licence for going beyond the call of duty 'rescuing' me and Annabeth," scratching his chin, Luke's scowl turned pensive. "Maybe he'll have better luck than the other satyrs who went looking for Pan."

"But probably not?" Thalia guessed.

"Probably not." Luke grimly confirmed.

Now Thalia couldn't tell if he was sad or not about that, but she went the safe route and made another sympathetic hum and nod. "Annabeth is hanging around the Big House a whole lot now." Arts and Crafts wasn't quite the same without the scarred blonde girl giving Thalia the stink-eye every project. "She smitten or something with the new boy?"

To that, Luke just snickered. "I'm sorry, 'smitten'? Did you really just say that?"

"Maybe." Thalia smiled, less coy than she would've liked and a blush growing uncontrollable. She flipped her hair absently again, definitely needing to cut it soon.

"Annabeth... she thinks that someone could come that would help her get her first Quest," Luke explained. "A Child of the Big Three... there's this Prophecy and everything, but... well, she's been waiting for a while."

Thalia stayed still, just nodded.

"Anyway though, this kid could be something like that," Luke surmised. "No training, no weapons, and he defeated the Minotaur with his bare hands? That's... well I've heard of demigods of legend who did that, but guess how many of them were sons of Hermes? Zilch. No, this kid has power. He's someone to keep an eye on. Who knows? Annabeth might learn something before all of us do. She's one of the smartest people I've ever met."

"Glad you admit it." A Yankee baseball hat came off, revealing Annabeth leaning against the wall of the cabin.

It only freaked Thalia out a bit, most of what she felt was disappointment in being caught off-guard to begin with. All that training, and this younger(?) girl with a trick-hat managed to sneak up on her. Only her too, judging by Luke's amused/knowing smirk. Lady Hera would be ashamed, more so than usual.

"Learn anything new about the new boy?" Luke teased.

For a moment, as Annabeth tapped fingers aggressively on the hilt of her ever-present knife, grey eyes clouded over with deep thought, Thalia was certain that something had been discovered. She had assumed that Annabeth Chase just didn't like her because she was perpetually hostile, which was a safe bet, but now she was thinking that... well. What did she know?

All that Annabeth did say though was, "He drools in his sleep."

Things would be very, very different when the boy woke up.

His name was Perseus Jackson.


Another chapter done!

Hope you all have liked this new addition, appreciate any review.

Can't thank all the guest reviews, but one stands out, Lena, so thank you very much for your support and persistence!