Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hello, everyone! Sorry for the extremely late update today – I honestly haven't felt well since Friday, so I've been marching through this chapter a few hundred words at a time (so if it feels rushed/lackluster in comparison to the others, I'm sorry about that!) over the past few days...which is weird for me, not gonna lie. Usually I don't get such small breaks in between my downward spirals, but it's whatever.

Next chapter will be posted on Friday, unless I wind up sleeping/resting more than I write, since I'm a lil behind in my writing. If that is the case, though, I'll update on Monday and repay the lost chapter back to you guys with a three-chapter update week in the near future, so don't worry about that. I'm not that cruel. ;P

So, all that being said, until the next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 25: I Make Good On My Promises Pt. 2~

As it turned out, getting Alabaster and Silena together wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be.

Part of this was because, despite their parents being married and all that, the Hermes and Aphrodite kids always had conflicting schedules...or, at least, that was what it seemed like, anyways. Because when the Hermes kids were busy sword-training with Luke in the arena, the Aphrodite kids were busy archery-training in the archery fields with Chiron. And when the Hermes kids were busy climbing the rock wall, the Aphrodite kids were busy canoe-racing with the naiads.

But, that being said, I could've dealt with conflicting schedules rather easily, if that was the only reason why I was having trouble getting them together. After all, Luke and I had conflicting schedules except for his one-on-one sword training instruction with me, and I was still able to work around that.

What I couldn't deal with, though, was Alabaster's stubbornness. Seriously. Because for a son of Hecate, the goddess of crossroads and choices and all that jazz, Alabaster was really fucking stubborn. Each time I tried to get him and Silena alone despite their schedules so that they could confess their feelings for one another, he always came up with an excuse about why he couldn't talk to her at that time – and his excuses were always lame. Likewise, each time I tried to convince him to do something nice for Silena, like getting flowers from Katie (who was more than happy to help me in my endeavors to get our two friends together), he always had a lame excuse for that, too.

And it was frustrating, his stubbornness. No, more than frustrating. Especially when, by the time that Fourth of July celebrations were about to begin in a few short hours, I still hadn't been able to get the two of them together.

"Oh, Katie, I don't know what to do!" I groaned as I looked at my reflection in the body-length mirror that Silena had loaned me for the day.

Both of us were standing in my cabin, rummaging through a pile of clothes that had come with the mirror, in order for me to "decide" on an outfit for my "secret date" with Luke later tonight. The date wasn't really anything special – just a small dessert picnic, I guess, in a spot that Luke assured me was secluded from the beach but still in an area where we could see the fireworks that the Hephaestus kids had made for the occasion. Thus, I didn't really see the point in dressing up for the "date", but when I had told Silena that she had promptly given me a horrified look before she gave me a five-minute lecture and doubled the amount of clothes that she was loaning me.

"What do you mean?" Katie asked as she looked at the outfit that I was currently wearing, which consisted of a dark blue dress shirt and black dress pants. "No, that outfit is way too formal. I don't care what Silena says. You need something more casual."

"I just can't believe how stubborn Alabaster is," I replied as I shrugged off the clothes and put on the new ones that she then promptly handed to me. "I just...he likes Silena, and he knows that Silena likes him, so I don't understand why he's refusing to ask her out. Like, not even Luke and I were that bad. Is this outfit any better?"

Katie shook her head. "No, not really...try this one on. As for Alabaster, though...I agree with you. He really does need to get his head out of his ass...or have it taken out of his ass for him."

I frowned, seeing her evil grin in the reflection of the body-length mirror, before I turned to look at her. "What do you mean?" I asked.

Katie's grin widened. "What I mean is, why have you not considered making Alabaster...oh, I don't know...jealous? I mean, if nothing else works, I'm sure that making him jealous will. Oh, and oh my gods, is that outfit great, it's just missing something in particular..."

"You want me to do what?" Charles Beckendorf, the head of Cabin 9, aka the Hephaestus Cabin, asked blankly.

"Pretend to ask Silena to go with you to the fireworks tonight," Katie replied, while I hastily nodded next to her, "so that Alabaster will get jealous and ask her out instead."

"But I don't even like Silena like that!" he protested.

Katie rolled her eyes. "We know, Beck," she said. "You aren't exactly subtle in showing how much you like Drew – " here, the son of Hephaestus spluttered even more " – but this isn't about Drew. This is about Silena, her half-sister, and giving Silena the proper date that she deserves for tonight. After all, hasn't Silena been helping you with trying to woo Drew or something like that?"

Beckendorf spluttered again.

Personally, I was just as surprised as he was. I mean, while I knew that he didn't like Silena like that, I hadn't known that Beckendorf had liked anyone like that – most of all Drew. I tried to picture how that relationship would work, but all that I could picture was Drew constantly speaking in that bored tone of hers, even when they were on dates or when Beckendorf gave her flowers or something like that.

I tried my best not to snicker at that.

Apparently, Beckendorf must have gotten over his spluttering while I was busy entertaining myself the mental imagery of him and Drew dating, because suddenly he was saying, "...Fine. Alright. I'll do it. But you owe me, Katie."

Katie smiled sweetly at him in response. "Of course," she said. "How could I not?"

Two hours later, just when everybody was about to go down to the beach to watch the fireworks, Katie and I carefully hid ourselves in the brush just behind Cabin Ten, allowing us to have a good view of all of the insanity that was about to ensue.

After the two of us had convinced Beckendorf to fake-ask-out Silena, we had also roped Ethan into our plans. At any moment now, the son of Nemesis in question was going to walk with Alabaster just in front of Cabin Ten, where Beckendorf was going to pretend to ask Silena out. Hopefully, this would make Alabaster jealous enough to butt-in and ask Silena out instead, because otherwise, I didn't know what other tricks I could from out of my sleeve in an attempt to get the two of them together.

"Oh, gods, I hope this will work," I couldn't help but mutter under my breath, as thoughts about what would happen if it didn't kept on swirling through my mind.

Next to me, Katie rolled her eyes. "It will, Percy," she said. "I have no doubt about it. And if, for some reason, it doesn't, I swear to gods I will use my vines to tie Alabaster and Silena up until they confess their feelings for one another..."

"Alabaster and Silena like each other?"

Clamping a hand over my mouth so I didn't shriek and ruin our plans right then and there, I quickly turned around and gave Luke the best glare that I could manage.

Luke gave me a humorous grin in response.

What a bastard, I couldn't help but think.

"Really, Luke?" I asked once I had calmed down enough to take my hand away from my mouth. "Did you have to go and scare me like that?"

"No, not really," he admitted. "But, when I went to go pick you up from your cabin, you weren't there, so I decided to see where you were. I didn't think you'd be here, though...speaking of which, why are you here?"

"We're trying to get Alabaster and Silena together," Katie said before I could say anything myself. Annoyed, I turned to glare at her, but she ignored me and added, "Because Percy made a promise to Silena while we were on our quest to get her and Al together, but Alabaster has proven himself to be more...stubborn than Percy was expecting."

"That's one way to put it," I muttered under my breath.

"Sounds fun," Luke said as he crouched down next to us. "Mind if I stay and watch?"

"No," I replied quickly.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Only if you guys don't get disgusting and make out in these bushes," she said. "Seriously. Don't. The bushes don't deserve that."

Luke snickered at that, but I glared at Katie not-so-subtly. I mean, I knew that she was only joking, but a part of me also wanted to get some payback at her like I was going to get at Alabaster once he and Silena got together...of course, the only problem to that, though, was that, like Ethan, I didn't really know who Katie liked in that way at camp...provided that she liked anyone like that.

"Oh, here he comes!" Katie whispered. "No, here they both come! Luke, get down! You're still too tall! They'll see you!"

"I'm not that tall," Luke grumbled, but he nevertheless complied to her wishes and crouched down even further, to the point where he was pretty much all but sitting on the ground.

Now, if I hadn't been so focused on the forms of both Becknendorf and Ethan and Alabaster walking by Cabin Ten, I would've laughed at the hilarious image at that was. As it was, though, I was too absorbed by the way that Beckendorf nervously walked towards Cabin Ten, and by the way that he threw a non-discrete glance our way, as if he knew that we were there, watching him.

...Well, watching Alabaster more like it, but I figure that's like saying tomayto-tomahto in a situation like this.

Apprehensively, Beckendorf knocked on the door of Cabin Ten, as Silena and all of her half-siblings hadn't come out of the cabin yet. At first, there was no visible reaction from inside the cabin, but there definitely was one from Alabaster. Subtly – or, at least, what he probably presumed to be subtly, because it was really obvious to Luke, Katie, and I – the son of Hecate turned to look at Cabin Ten as his walking slowed to the point where he was barely even moving. Next to him, Ethan slowed down, too, although not before casting a careful, one-eyed glance towards where we were hiding – probably because he had seen Beckendorf throw a glance our way just a few minutes before.

Suddenly, the door to Cabin Ten opened. Due to the door itself, though, the three of us couldn't see who had answered the door, although we all heard the voice of Silena exclaim, "Charlie! What are you doing here? The fireworks are just about to start!"

Although it was pretty dark outside, I could just make out the flush on Beckendorf's cheeks that appeared when Silena called him "Charlie" – no one except for her called him that. In fact, everybody else usually called him Beckendorf or Beck, like Katie had earlier.

"H – hey, Silena," Beckendorf greeted her nervously. "I was just wondering if you..."

Beckendorf suddenly lowered his voice, making all of us unable to hear what he was saying.

"What's he saying?" I asked Luke, hoping that he would be at least somewhat-skilled in reading lips. I mean, not to be stereotypical or anything, but that's a pretty important skill for a child of Hermes to have...right?

"...I don't know," Luke said after a moment with a grimace. "I'm not as good at lip-reading as the Stolls are, unfortunately. If only they were here..."

He trailed off then, both because he presumably didn't have much else to say, and because the door to Cabin Ten suddenly came to a close, revealing Silena in all of her glory. The daughter of Aphrodite's face was rather flushed, and she was looking at Beckendorf with wide, disbelieving eyes. After a moment, though, I saw her look over towards us just like Beckendorf and Ethan had, and I knew in that moment that Beckendorf had let her in on our plans.

...Which I wasn't going to complain about. I mean, although it had never crossed my mind or Katie's mind to get Beckendorf to tell her, we hadn't been actively trying to keep all of this a secret from her, either. And, now that I thought about it, it was probably going to be easier to make Alabaster butt in as well if Silena knew, especially if she...

"Oh, how sweet of you, Charlie!" Silena suddenly exclaimed as she gave him a wide smile, just as the flush instantly vanished from her face. "Of course I'd like to watch the fireworks with you!"

Quickly, I turned to look at Alabaster, and promptly grinned when I saw his reaction. The son of Hecate, who had long-since stopped in his place, was looking at Beckendorf and Silena with wide, misty green eyes. A horrible blush was on his face, too, making his face look tomato-red, and his hands were clenched into fists at his side.

For a moment, I kind of felt bad for him. I mean, this plan of ours was kind of cruel. But then, I remembered how much hell he had been giving me for the past few days through all of the excuses he had made in order to not confess his feelings for Silena to her, and all of my guilt vanished. Sorry, Alabaster, I silently thought. But you kind of deserved this.

"...me a moment to get my cabin in to order," Silena continued rather loudly, causing me to blink and turn back to look at her. "And then I'll be ready...okay?"

"Okay," Beckendorf agreed rather easily.

Silena then opened up the door to her cabin and walked back inside. Because of this, none of us could see what she was doing, but we could see what Alabaster was doing. The son of Hecate was slowly walking towards Cabin Ten, with an expression that looked to be halfway through casual and scowling, with Ethan slowly trailing behind him. I thought I saw the son of Nemesis in question mouth Alabaster's name, but I wasn't sure, since that wasn't exactly in my field of expertise.

"Hey, Beckendorf!" Alabaster called out.

Beckendorf turned around. "Oh, hey, Alabaster," he greeted the other guy nervously – after all, everyone knew that the children of Hecate weren't fun to be around when they were angry, what with their freaky magic powers and all that. "What are you doing here?"

"Just walking down to the beach," the son of Hecate replied with a shrug. "You?"

"Oh," Beckendorf said as he nervously reached a hand up to scratch the back of his neck. "I was just asking Silena if she would like to watch the fireworks with me...as friends, of course!"

"'As friends'," Alabaster repeated with a scrunched up face.

Beckendorf nodded – although, if I'm being perfectly honest, his nodding was probably a bit too enthusiastic to be believable.

Just before Alabaster could say anything else, though, the cabin door opened again, and out came Silena and all of her half-siblings. Drew looked just as bored as she usually did, while Laurel was smiling ever-so-slightly and Mitchell and Lacey looked outright ecstatic. Obviously, she had let them in on the plans.

"Alright, I'm ready," Silena told Beckendorf, before she blinked and turned to look at Alabaster. "Ally, what are you doing here?"

At the mention of his nickname, Alabaster flushed brilliantly. "I – uhm – Silena – " he stuttered out.

"He was just wondering about what I was doing, that's all," Beckendorf supplied rather smoothly, his amber-gold eyes alight with amusement. "I told him that I had asked for you to watch the fireworks with me, as friends."

"Oh," Silena said, before her eyebrows furrowed. "Why, Ally?"

"Okay," Katie whispered from right next to me with a snort. "Now she's just being mean."

Luke snorted. "You got that right."

"Shut up!" I hissed at both of them. "We're getting to the best part!"

Alabaster shifted uncomfortably. "I – I just – "

Suddenly, he leaned in close to Silena, and lowered his voice to the point where none of us could hear him.

"Oh, come on!" I couldn't help but whisper furiously. "You can talk louder than that!"

Luke snickered at my heated words.

A few minutes passed by, in which Alabaster and Silena were talking to each other quietly, but fervently. Neither of them noticed how Beckendorf slowly backed away from them, a small smile on his face, before he threw a glance our way once again. "You owe me!" he mouthed, before he walked up to Ethan. The two of them grinned at each other, obviously finding the whole situation rather hilarious, before they started walking towards the beach, where the fireworks were going to be.

"Note to self," Katie muttered as we half-watched them leave. "Do something nice for Beck. Like making him some flowers to give to Drew or something like that."

Silently, I nodded to myself in agreement at her words. I was going to have to do something nice for the son of Hephaestus, too, even if the idea of him and Drew being romantically involved was still too hilarious to seriously comprehend.

I didn't dwell on that thought too much, though, because a minute or so later two things happened at once. The first thing that happened was that Alabaster and Silena were starting to lean in towards one another, their faces flushed and their eyes wide, which meant that they were going to kiss. Finally, after days of trying to get the two of them together (which wasn't as long as Silena had supposedly spent rooting for me and Luke to get together, but still, it felt like forever), they were going to kiss. My goal had been reached, my promise to Silena had been fulfilled. And it seemed like I was going to be able to get to see the fruit of my labors.

...The key word here being "seemed". Because, just as Alabaster and Silena were about to kiss, I felt Luke pull me up from where I was sitting next to Katie. "Hey!" I quietly squawked. "What are you doing? They're about to kiss!"

"They are," Luke agreed humorously. "But the fireworks are about to begin at any moment, and I'm not going to let you miss out on seeing them. Bye, Katie."

Katie momentarily turned to look at his, her green eyes swirling with amusement. "Bye, Luke, bye, Percy," she said in response.

And, just like that, Luke began to fully lead me away from the scene, even though I was still protesting quietly (but only because I knew that, if I protested any louder, the moment between Alabaster and Silena would be ruined). However, that being said, even as Luke led me away and even as I protested against his doing so, I still craned my next back to look at Alabaster and Silena, and just caught the moment that the two of them locked lips. And that was a very beautiful sight.

Finally, I thought with a sigh of relief. They're together. My work is done...and just in time for my date, too!

Word Count: 3,246

Next Chapter Title: TBD