Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)
Previously on More Than A Friend:
I held open my arms. "Why don't you come give your dear sister a hug?" I asked.
"Go to hell." She spat. "You're no sister of mine."
"But of course I am! We share a father, don't we?" I asked, dropping my arms. "And besides, hell's not so nice a place. Though, I did spend lunch today with the new embodiment of hell. He's a sweet boy, and pretty cute."
"You'll never be a part of our family." Annika spat.
"Listen here, Annika." I said, voice gone serious. "I was the first member of the family, you were the last. Don't think you can take my family away from me. No matter how hard you and your mother try, our father will never abandon Erin and I. He loves us just as much as he loves you and your mother, probably more, and nothing's going to change that."
"How dare you!" She exclaimed.
"You think it's not true?" I asked her. "Well, you hadn't been born yet, obviously, when Erin's mother was still around. Erin may not remember her because he was so young when she died, but I do, even though I was really young. Some side effect of being Athena's child, I think for me at least, perfect memory. And I remember exactly how he always looked at her. I know for a fact he's never loved anyone so much as he did her. He didn't even love Athena close to that much. Do you want to know where you got your name, Annika?"
She'd gone pale, as if realizing what I was about to tell her. "No." She whispered. "He loves my mother. He does."
My voice softened at the next part. "He loves her, Annika, very much. But he loved Erin's mother so much that he named you after her. Your mother loved the name, and she agreed the moment he suggested it. She didn't used to hate me and Erin as much as she now does."
"Why are you here?" Annika demanded.
"I'm here to see my favorite brother from camp and his family. Is that such a crime?" I asked.
Annika glanced at Jacob. "My brother happens to be his father, Christian, Annika." I said exasperatedly. "You know, my favorite brother from camp actually went to camp when I did, even if he was years older than me."
"Whatever." Annika muttered. She went back into the kitchen, where they must have been before.
"What the hell was all that?" Jacob asked.
"Annika's my youngest half sister on the mortal side." I told him. "And I'd be careful, if you haven't told her yet. She hates the godly world."
"She hasn't been here very long. She arrived just before you did. She wanted to talk to me about something." Jacob said slowly, sadly. "I think she was going to break up with me. That's what everyone else thinks, too. Rumor has it she likes the quarterback of the rival team."
"She's sweet, if she enjoys being around someone. It just depends who she's with." I told him.
"Make sure you come say bye before you leave." Jacob told me. I promised I would, gave him a hug, then went upstairs to Christian and Isaac's room.
They'd apparently seen me out the window when I'd rung the bell, so they knew I was here. I hugged my brother and his husband, and then sat down on a chair. I talked and caught up with them, same as I did with my siblings at camp, though with more a joking and teasing presence. After I talked with them for an hour or two, I told them I had to be going.
I stopped by Jacob's room as I left, and found him sitting on his bed, clutching a picture frame to his chest. His eyes were red, like he'd been crying.
I went over and sat down beside him, slipping an arm around his shoulders. I just held him quietly for awhile.
He eventually spoke. "I knew she was going to end things, but I still was surprised when she did. I thought things were going so well."
"Not everything is meant to be. But you'll find your meant to be someday, you have to believe that, Jake. And when you do, you make the most of it for as long as you have it." I told him. How the roles were reversed. He was the son of Aphrodite, not me. Though I had spent more time in her presence than he ever had. I did bring him up to see his mother when I could, though. And she always asked about him, about how he was doing and how his life was going.
"I just thought I had. I was so happy, Kayla." He said softly. "Have you ever thought you found yours?"
"No, I haven't ever come close to it." I said. "But I don't think I will. It's different for me than it is for you, Jake. I'll be sixteen forever, serving my mother for eternity. I don't have the time or energy to find love."
He turned to face me. "No. Mikayla, you can't say that. Everyone deserves to find love. Don't let yourself think you never will, or it will keep you from finding it." He told me fiercely.
"There's the Jacob I know and love." I teased. "Giving out relationship advice and advocating for love."
"Promise me, Kayla. Promise you'll let yourself love and be loved." Jacob demanded.
"I swear it on the Styx, Jake." I said softly.
"Good." He hugged me, then pulled back. "Now, you have family to be visiting. And don't worry, Annika probably doesn't want to see you more than she has to, so she probably won't be at the house."
Of course it had to be Annika's mother who answered the door when I reached my old home. "Hello, Lindsey." I said chirpily.
"Mikayla." She said disgustedly. "How... Nice to see you." I had a feeling she wanted to say something far worse.
"Well, today is one of my days off, so, naturally, I decided to visit family. I've been both to camp and a few blocks away to visit the godly family, but I wanted to spend the rest of the day with the mortal." I told her.
"Your father and Erin aren't home." She told me, closing the door in my face.
I appeared behind her as she turned around, and she stiffened. "Both of their vehicles are right there in the driveway. I'm not a fool." I told her. I turned around and marched into the house.
I eventually found the both of them tossing a football back and forth in the backyard. My brother was seventeen, now, and on the football team at highschool. He and Jacob both were on the team. While Jacob was linebacker, Erin was quarterback.
"Kayla!" Erin exclaimed, forgetting about the football spinning towards him. It hit him in the chest, and he blinked at it, surprised. I burst out laughing.
"How have you been, sweetheart?" My father asked, coming over to give me a hug. Erin did the same.
"I've been good." I said. "But I've missed you guys."
"We've missed you, too." Erin told me. "Don't be a stranger. Even if you can't visit, call us, text us."
I laughed. "I'll do my best not to be a stranger." I promised.
We moved over to the patio chairs to sit. We ended up in a mini triangle.
"So, what's new with you?" My father asked.
"Well, nothing much. Though I did meet the two boys who saved my life." I said.
"What?" Erin asked.
"I crashed my car when I went on that quest for mom. They saved me." I explained. "They're demigods. Well, they're actually legacies. But they and some of their cousins were visiting Olympus, visiting another cousin. He's the new embodiment of Tartarus."
"That's... Interesting." My father didn't really know what to make of the whole thing.
I laughed. "I went to lunch with the boy, Sage. He's my age. He's nice. Then I went to camp, and then I went to Christian's." I told them.
"Christian Smith? The only Christian in town?" Erin asked. "As in, one of Jacob Smith's dads?"
"Yeah." I said.
"Annika's dating Jacob." Erin said, thinking out loud. Then he looked to me. "Why'd you go over there?"
"Annika's not dating Jake anymore." I said, shaking my head. "And I've half a mind to slap her for hurting him like that." My father gave me a stern look. But Erin spoke before he could reprimand me.
"Jake?" Erin asked. "He only lets close friends call him that. I'm one of the few people who can. How exactly do you know them?"
I smiled. "Christian is my half brother on the godly side. He's always been years older than me, but he always was my favorite person at camp." I explained.
"One of Jacob's dad's is a demigod? Does he know about all that? Does he know about you?" Erin asked.
"Oh, yeah, of course he knows. Christian's a son of Athena, yeah, but Isaac's a son of Hermes. And Jacob's a son of Aphrodite. He's met her a few times, and she's always asking me about him." I said.
"So what did you mean by Annika hurting him?" Erin asked.
"She broke up with him. I don't know what exactly was said, but when I came back downstairs after talking to Christian and Isaac for a couple hours, he was crying, clutching a photo to his chest. He told me he knew she'd come to break up with him, that she'd arrived just before I did, but that he was still surprised. He'd been really happy with her." I said softly.
Erin muttered a curse under his breath, and our father gave him a look. "Why don't we talk about something else?" He asked.
"Why don't you guys tell me what's new with you?" I suggested.
The next six years passed exceptionally normally. I visited all my family members on holidays and when I could. I made sure I was front and center in the audience for both Erin's and Jake's graduations. I also spent most of my days working with Sage, happy to have a friend that could accompany me while I worked. We became close friends, probably because we were kind of each other's only friends on Olympus.
"C'mon, Mikayla it can't be that horrible!" Aliya teased, trying to get me to exit the fitting room.
"Are you kidding?" I asked. "I look like... Not good in this." I still stepped out of the fitting room in the short and tight dress. She studied me for a moment.
"You're right, the color's not for you. But the dress itself is fine. Stay here and hold still." She turned and ran off.
When she finally returned, she shoved another dress into my arms and pushed me back into the fitting room. I suppose that's what I got for going shopping with one of Aphrodite's handmaidens. Aliya was a sweet girl and all, but she went crazy when she shopped.
When I came out again, Aliya decided it was the one and had me change so she could pay for it, tossing all the other things she'd decided I'd be wearing into the basket. We'd gone to a mall in the city, after I somewhat foolishly asked her to help me pick an outfit for Friday's party. Athena had given me the weekend off, and I was determined to have some fun time. I always visited family when I had time off, basically. So when Sage invited me to go hang out with him and his cousins and some friends, I readily agreed.
Aliya and I were sort of friends, that's why I'd asked her, but going today made me remember why I never went shopping with girls.
When it finally came time for the party, which was really more a gathering than a party, Aliya decided to get me ready. It took her four hours to do my hair alone, curling it and straightening it and figuring out how it would look best.
When everything was finally ready, she let me look in the mirror. My hair was all up in a braid that wrapped around my head like a crown, and my makeup was just some clear lip gloss.
My dress was strapless, and was a dark, mossy green color that slid through my hands like water, the silk cool to the touch. The top half clung to my body, accentuating the smallish curves I had, but turned more flowy at the bottom, reaching down to my knees. She also handed me four inch tall leather boots that reached my calves. I almost broke my neck just trying to at first stand up.
Done with getting ready, Aliya shoved me out into the hall, telling me Sage was ready to go and waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I had invited Sage to move in with me, in my big, empty house on Olympus, because he hadn't really been inclined to live in a palace in the pits of hell.
Sage was indeed waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. When I was halfway down, the stair creaked, and he glanced up. His jaw dropped, but he quickly closed his mouth and cleared his throat. "You look really pretty, Mick." He told me. I blushed a little.
"Thanks. You don't clean up too bad, yourself." I told him. He was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans, a light blue button down shirt, and black sneakers.
"So, you ready to go? Have everything you didn't put in your bag?" Sage asked.
"Yeah. I don't need anything else." I confirmed. We would actually be staying overnight at his family's farm, sleeping in one of their many campers. Tomorrow was a family day for them, excluding the parents, who were all having a separate family day in Spruce Creek; but everyone had readily agreed to my coming, saying I was already practically family with Sage. Six years made you close to a person.
Sage flashed us there, making no accidental stops or trips elsewhere, which had used to happen often when he tried to use the power, before I'd helped him to learn to master it.
I think that we were probably the last to arrive of everyone. All of Sage's cousins were there, as well as his older sister, and so were some others.
Sage brought me over to everyone, sitting around a big bonfire, and introductions were made. He pointed out his sister, Orianne; his cousins, Mason, Whit who was a girl today, Bailey, Hayden, and Brady; Whit's husband, Dustin David Herondale; and a couple of people who were basically or technically family, but who would be leaving tomorrow morning, Andrea, Flint, Lizzy, Aeric, and Anita.
After those introductions were made, we took seats. They were short a couple chairs, as evidenced by there being only one seat left, even with Whit sitting in her husband's lap, so I just sat myself down in Sage's lap. He didn't care. He just slipped an arm around my waist, pulled me closer to him, and asked me to hand him one of the two bottles that Whit had tossed to me.
We all talked and we laughed and we drank and played games for however long. Somehow, at some point, Sage and I ended up in the camper we were staying in, because that's where I woke up, curled into Sage's chest on the tiny bed.
That actually happened often - me waking curled into Sage's chest. I'd wake up in the middle of the night to a nightmare, or I wouldn't be able to fall asleep in the first place, and Sage would give me his shirt and hold me until I did fall asleep. Something about his clothing made me feel safe and comfortable. Things went the same when I used to live with my mortal family, I would go to my brother or my father and they would hold me.
I woke to an odd sensation, one I soon realized to be Sage stroking my hair with one hand, the other hand tracing circle on my back under the shirt. I opened my eyes to see him watching me, a concerned look in his eyes. "Did you sleep okay?" He asked softly.
"Yeah." I replied. "Thank you. For every time."
"It's no problem. You ever need anything, and I'll be there. Doesn't matter what it is." He told me.
I thanked him again, then asked what time it was. He glanced past me at the alarm clock on the little nightstand. "It's around eleven in the morning, but the family day's been called off until tomorrow. Everyone's too hungover to want to do anything." He told me. "So you can get a little more sleep."
"That sounds nice." I murmured. I was already nodding off again. Sage's answering chuckle was low and soft, and his breath tickled my face. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead before settling back to sleep again.
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