Disclaimer: I do not own any works credited to the names Rick Riordan, Uncle Rick, Cassandra Clare, or Cassie Clare. I am not that man, and I am not that woman. I am me, Writing Desk's Raven.
After everything had been settled, the wounded had been taken care of, the dead burned or buried, and everyone returned to their homes, I finally had a chance to just stop and not do anything, not worry about anything. It was a hard few weeks, cleaning up the aftermath of the battle. There was still a ton of damage, but it was the kind that would need longer term repairs. Buildings and such on Olympus, mostly.
I was lying on a couch in my cabin, and my friends were all with me. That being Herondale, Andrea, Lizzy, Aeric, Flint, and, surprisingly, Anita. Andrea had made up with her after everything happened, and had told her the real story. Anita felt horrible after learning the truth, and she kept trying to get Andrea's forgiveness, even though Andrea kept telling her she'd already gotten it. I hadn't wanted to forgive her, too, but I did because Andrea had wanted me to, and because she really hadn't ever done anything much to me, not as bad as she was to Andrea. She hadn't even outed me to camp, which I was grateful for. And we weren't exactly friends with her, but peace had been made.
"So, plans for the day?" Andrea asked. She was perched on the arm of the couch by my feet, and Herondale was on the arm by my head. Flint was on the chair closest to Andrea, and Lizzy and Aeric sat on the other couch. Anita was in a second chair.
"Lay around all day because I finally get the chance." I said. That got a couple laughs. "I've had so much to do. After all the wounded and the funerals, my family had to bury Dakota, up at the farm, and then my parents went back to the Underworld, and then we had to worry about Sage because he keeps freaking out about everything and dissolving things into puddles of darkness."
"Is there anyone who can help him learn about his new powers?" Anita asked.
"Hades can help a tiny bit, he's got a couple powers in common, as well as the normal higher being powers, but then he's got all these other powers no one can help him with because he's so damn powerful." I stated. "At least he's doing pretty good with learning to fight, something he's always wanted us to teach him to do, after we always got a weapon or something like that for gifts and he was always jealous. He does well with the dagger, and I gave him the imperial gold one I got for my birthday. I told him it was his sixteenth birthday gift."
"At least there's not a war going on anymore." Lizzy offered.
"Yeah, that's good. I wonder what we'll be calling this. We've got the Titan War and the Giant War that happened in the older times, and then the Second Titan War and the Second Giant War that happened like the generation above us, but I don't know if anything like this has ever happened." I said.
"I've heard people calling it Hell's War." Andrea replied. "I think it's catching on."
"Yeah, well, let's just hope there never has to be a Second Hell's War." Herondale said.
"Sage wouldn't let that happen. He's too kind-hearted. And if he did, I'd kick his ass into next year, him being immortal or not, me being dead by that point or not." I said. "Besides, he's totally crushing on this one minor goddess, she's pretty young for a goddess, but I forget her name, she was a demigod gifted with immortality for doing one task or another for her godly parent. Either way, she'd never reciprocate his feelings if he started another war."
Anita had to leave soon, having promised to spend some time with a couple of her siblings, and Lizzy, Aeric, and Flint eventually went, too, to get back to the Institute. Flint was actually moving there, and I teased Andrea about it being to be closer to her, but she told me it was probably because he wanted to be closer to his cousin and to all of his friends up here.
Eventually, Andrea left, too, to make it back to her cabin before lights out.
"Aren't you going to go so you can make it back for lights out?" I asked Herondale.
"I'll be fine. I can just use a silence rune and a stealth rune to get back unnoticed." He said, waving a hand. I moved over on the couch and he moved from his seat on the arm of the couch to sit next to me. "How are you holding up?"
"Pretty good, actually. I expected things to be harder than this. They're still hard, but it's not as bad as I thought it'd be." I said. "I mean, I miss Dakota a whole hell of a lot. I miss my parents, and I barely got to meet them. I didn't really know many others that died, but we did lose alot of people. On both sides, the gods and the angels."
"I'm just glad that I didn't lose any of you guys." He said. "Especially you."
"Especially me?" I asked, turning to look at him. "Why especially me?"
"Because I love you, Whit." He said. My breath caught. "Both of me did, and I do, now."
"I guess it's a good thing I love you, too, Herondale." I told him. He smiled mischievously.
"Using last names, now, are we, Ashton?" He asked, leaning forward. I could feel his breath on my face, and it sent nervous butterflies tumbling around in my stomach.
"I don't know what to call you. I feel odd calling you one name or the other, so I've resolved to calling you Herondale." I said quietly, staring into his eyes.
"You could call me yours. And one day, maybe I'll be able to call you Herondale instead of Ashton." He suggested. I felt my cheeks heat and my heart skip a beat.
"I could live with that." I murmured, glancing down at his lips and then back to his eyes. He seemed to share my sentiments, because he finally closed the distance between us and pressed his lips to mine.
That's it. That's the end. Yay for happy-ish endings, right? Even if some people do die, endings can still be happy-ish, right?
Epilogue next.
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