Heads Up: The "getting pulled over" scene ended up not being easily skippable, but if you scroll down to [2] you can avoid it. For this chapter our CWs are cops, anxiety, (pretty mild) body horror, hospitals, past child emotional abuse/neglect, and Catholicism. Yeah, you read that last one right; don't worry, it's not a major part of the story.
"What the fuck, you're not doing anything illegal!" Brenna exclaimed. "Unless…"
"He's going five under, are they even after us?" Diego asked, completely missing what she was implying.
Kieran was pretty sure he knew why they were getting pulled over and not the truck full of frat boys that passed them on the right. But maybe he was wrong; maybe it was because they were demigods. That'd honestly be the best-case scenario. Monsters, they could fight. Cops, not so much.
"Hey, Kieran, you said you had ketchup yesterday? I got a plan to get them off our backs," Brenna said. He heard some kind of impact; she must've dove for the back seat.
"You're so lucky you didn't stab yourself!" Arianna lectured.
"It would've helped, honestly, but –"
"Front pocket, go nuts," Kieran sighed as he actually started to pull over. They were so screwed. He had no idea what he was even gonna say!
Todd had told him once to "be polite, be compliant, and be absolutely sure there's a monster before you run." That would be easy…
…if he was alone in the car, or better yet, if he had his license. What the heck was he supposed to do, convince the cop that Diego had a license? He couldn't drive or lie, if he got asked any questions at all they were so screwed!
The officer walked up to their car, and Kieran forced himself to roll the window down. "Son, do your parents know you're not in school?"
…really? That was the issue?
"Uh…"
"Yeah, I know, all right," Brenna called from the back. "I'm his guardian, by the way, not his mom, I'm not that old – and is that really why you're stopping my brother from getting me to the hospital or did some old lady complain about us calling our aunt Iris?"
Well, Kieran had no time to think that through so he'd just have to roll with it. "Hey, calm down, I'm sure that's not it, sis. I'm sorry, sir, she's in a lot of pain…"
"Damn right I am, these roads are shit!" she agreed. "Why else would we go so slow?"
Judging by the cop's expression, she might've been right with her reasoning, and he was regretting some life choices. Good. "I can radio dispatch for an ambulance –"
"No thanks, we can't afford that shit. Just let us keep going… uh, sir."
"I just need to see your brother's license and registration," the officer stated. "It won't take long, I promise."
"What law was he breaking? We're all siblings," she replied. "Though… I guess I'm supposed to be up front, huh."
Okay, no, there was no way they could get away with that. Him and Brenna, sure, maybe him and Diego, maybe even all three of them if they tried really hard. But no one would believe Arianna was related to any of them.
"It's… policy…" the officer mumbled. "So your license, and his permit, then."
"Great. Arianna, can you pass the rental papers up for me? Just… don't look, okay?"
"Trust me, you don't want to," Diego muttered.
Oh gods, Kieran knew why she'd wanted ketchup then. He didn't make eye contact as he handed over his permit. "Our last names are different; most of us are adopted."
"Um. I see. I was… wondering about that."
"Here's… yeah," Arianna whispered as she gave him what he hoped was Brenna's fake ID and a few pieces of paper. He passed those over too, and the second the officer left the car devolved into chaos.
"Brenna, that thing had better work on scanners," Diego sighed. "Please tell me you know…"
"Relax, it tricked that hospital into thinking I was Rory's kid, and it's been scanned before thanks to Jess getting us pulled over, so it'll be fine. What I'm worried about is, will he believe I'm twenty-five?"
No one in their right mind would believe that if they saw her. "We just won't let him… oh gods, what if he wants to search the car?" Kieran asked.
No one said anything for a few seconds. "…maybe the Mist will hide everything?" Arianna ventured.
"Not Brenna's gun," Diego pointed out and oh no, it wouldn't, if he got a better look back by her and noticed the holster…
"Oh, shit," Brenna swore. "Uh… fuck, I'd get rid of it, but it's kinda hard to move right now…"
"WHY is your leg hanging like that?!" Arianna exclaimed.
"…see, this is why I told you not to look. It'll be fine, I can put it back in once he's gone."
"If you keep doing shit like this your joints aren't gonna work at all when you get older," Diego chided. He was looking straight ahead and it didn't seem like he was gonna stop doing that anytime soon.
When she responded with, "Not something I'll need to worry about," Kieran started to worry 'cause that sounded an awful lot like she was planning on not getting older. Though, the day before, she'd mentioned the Hunters – maybe that was it. That'd better be it.
"Okay, you do need to worry about how you got 'hurt' though," Arianna said, "because if you're right and someone called him on purpose, they saw you standing."
"No problem, I fell out of the passenger seat and I have a condition that makes my bones dislocate easy. Which, I do, so yeah. Shit, he's coming back, Diego –" [1]
"Yeah, yeah, don't say anything, I know."
"Why?" Arianna asked.
"Diego lies about as well as Brenna drives," Kieran explained.
"Ah, never mind then – guys, shush, he's almost here!"
And it really looked like they'd get to leave but of course there was something else. "I'll escort you to the hospital, since you're out of state. Wouldn't want you getting lost. Sorry for the delay."
There was no good way to refuse that so Kieran said, "Thank you, sir," started the car, and tried not to panic.
Once the officer was safely out of earshot, Diego asked, "Brenna, is the gun on you right now?"
"Uh… yeah, and we're kinda short on time, so… Arianna, can you come back here?"
"Be fast," Kieran warned as she unbuckled. "His lights just flashed, so –"
"Great, no problem, I'll just mess with a loaded gun while we move," Arianna muttered. "Holy cow, no wonder you wanted help!"
"Yeah… like I said, I can fix this, but it's not fast. Or pretty."
Kieran gave them as much time as he could, but he had to start moving once the cop was in front of them or it'd be super suspicious. "Please tell me you're done."
"With the scary part? Yeah. I can do the holster while we're moving. I think."
"Sorry, if I'd known we were gonna get pulled over, I would've put it in my bag," Brenna said. "Kieran's, like, a good driver, so I thought we'd be fine. This was… not the plan."
"What was the plan?" he asked, because she'd never bothered to share and that was something the rest of them probably should've known about.
"Fake an injury, most cops don't wanna see that shit, and hope he leaves," she replied.
Okay, yeah, he didn't have anything better, but maybe he could've come up with something if she hadn't jumped in right away! "And say –"
"Dude, there's no way I was the only one thinking it, but in hindsight, yeah, bad idea."
"Kieran smoothed that over real fast," Diego interjected. "And the guy actually believed… huh."
"What were you gonna say?" Kieran wondered.
"I'll tell you later, man, we're getting close. What's the game plan?"
Good question. Before he could say anything, Brenna jumped in with, "Wait, how're we gonna get out of the hospital?"
"You're an 'adult' now, sign yourself out," Diego answered. "How are we getting you in though?"
"Carry me?"
"I don't think I fit back there."
"I do," Arianna volunteered. "I'll get her out, then we switch?"
And there they went again. Kieran knew he was supposed to be in charge, but he was starting to wonder if that meant anything. It seemed like the others were just doing whatever they wanted regardless. Even if he'd had a plan right away, they would've dismissed it for someone else's idea.
The worst part was, he couldn't even really blame them for it. What had he really done for the mission… at all? When had the others even wanted his opinion?
…they hadn't. Well, that wasn't quite right, they'd wanted his opinion on one thing and it was whether Brenna could stay. It'd be a lot easier to be mad at himself for agreeing to that if she'd stop being useful. Other than that… he'd driven, and the one situation he'd tried to handle went super, super wrong. And really, his idea of "handling" that was getting Diego to handle it instead.
Oh gods, maybe the problem wasn't that the others weren't letting him do stuff. Maybe he was actually just pushing everything off on them. Arianna did like all the pre-planning and got most of the information they'd needed, he asked Diego to figure stuff out when he didn't know what to do, and Brenna just did stuff whether he asked or not. Usually not. But at least it was usually helpful!
"Kieran, he's stopping," Diego said quietly. Ah. Right, their current problem that he'd barely done anything about. "Are you –"
"Yep, I'm fine, everything's fine, let's get this over with," Kieran interrupted. They were right outside the ER entrance and the officer's reaction when they were all out of the car was definitely something.
"Sweet Jesus… how the hell did you do that?"
"Slipped getting in the car. Wasn't strong enough to pull myself up but I tried anyways and that did not help," Brenna replied easily.
Kieran added, "This isn't the first time." It probably was the first time she'd decided to purposely dislocate her shoulder and her hip on her right side so her arm and leg were just hanging where they were not meant to be, but he figured he should at least pretend that could be normal.
"Ah. Do you need help getting in?"
"No, we've got it from here, thanks," Kieran said, because they did. "Thanks for showing us the way."
"You're welcome. Guess I'll be heading out, then – good luck."
And then the cop just… left. What? That was weird. Like, they still went inside, just in case he came back or checked or something. [2]
"You can't say you've never been to a hospital anymore, Kieran," Arianna said while they were sitting in the waiting room trying not to get asked any questions by strangers. Which was harder than it sounded because they'd kinda made a scene walking in. They weren't trying to, but Diego was literally carrying Brenna so that got people's attention.
"True. Is it just me or are they taking forever?"
"It's been ten minutes. But gosh, it sure has been a day, huh? I guess… at least nothing's tried to kill us yet? Do you ever get used to having to worry about that?"
"I've never not had to worry about that. Must be nice," he responded without really thinking.
She looked confused. "How long have you known you were a… y'know…"
Oh. Monsters. Duh, of course. "A year and a half. But, uh, I didn't grow up in the best neighborhood."
"Ah. Can't say I know how that works, my neighbors are like, a quarter mile away."
"Right, right. I guess you didn't get many gunshots at night, then."
"No, we did," she corrected. "People hunt and sound carries. That's probably why we got away with last night."
"Yeah, probably. Which reminds me… you ki – uh… did the thing?"
They were still in public, they couldn't talk too openly. But she nodded. "I still can't believe it either."
"That's not why I – I mean, I just thought it was Brenna, I wasn't trying to say you couldn't… oh gods, I'm digging myself into a hole, here."
"You're fine." And she was smiling, so she probably actually meant that. "I still don't really know what happened; I sorta got a run-down last night, but…"
"…but none of us really wanted to go through it all again?" Kieran guessed.
"Exactly. I guess it's not that important, but if something like that happens again, it'd be nice to know what to do."
She definitely had a point there, and there was unfortunately a really good chance of seeing more monsters. "Got it. Well, I remember seeing a girl walking towards us and I thought it was probably a mortal, but I woke Diego up in case it wasn't, and… it wasn't."
"Did you just run out of time to wake us, or were you not gonna bother?"
"A little of both, honestly. I was planning on waking y'all up if it was a monster. But I figured out she was a monster when I came to after, so… yeah. Sorry about that whole trying to run away from you thing."
"I really don't blame you. It's scary when you realize you missed, like, a whole chunk of time."
"No kidding. And when you –"
Arianna interrupted, "No one's fault, remember?"
"Still. I knew those things existed, I should've just got everyone up in the first place." Like a competent leader would've. "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"How've I been doing?"
"At…?"
Oh gods, she had to ask, he was totally right – he was doing a bad job. "Y'know, the whole 'being in charge' thing."
"I'm not the person you should be asking."
"Well, maybe not," he admitted, "but you're…"
"Here?"
"Yeah."
She sighed. "Well, you're honest, anyways. So here goes: I have no frame of reference for this. Like, we had a section leader in band, but this isn't a class – this is real life. The stakes are way higher, and I dunno what I'm supposed to let slide, or what you guys think is normal, or what I'm even doing here."
"Okay, you have a point."
"Mmhm. Why not just wait 'til we're all together? The others would have a real answer for you."
He wasn't sure he wanted a real answer. "I don't wanna look weak in front of them," he blurted.
"Oh."
They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Arianna spoke again. "So you think asking for feedback makes you look weak? Why's that?"
"Because I shouldn't need to. If I have to ask, it means I don't know."
"What's wrong with that?"
"They'll think I'm dumb."
"Well gosh, you guys must think I'm a complete idiot if that's true," she responded.
Kieran shook his head. "That's different."
"How?"
"I'm supposed to know what I'm doing."
"And I'm not?"
"You're new to this. I've been at Camp for over a year."
She rolled her eyes. "Right, 'cause that's enough time to know everything. Let's try something else: why are you in charge?"
"If it wasn't me it'd be you, remember? I told you people wanted you to lead one of the missions."
"Yeah, I know… so why'd you volunteer? You barely know me, and no offense, but it doesn't really seem like you wanna be here."
"Everyone was yelling, and I wanted them to stop. So I stopped them. And you deserved to have a choice, and… and I thought maybe, if we figured out where Mr. D. was… I'd finally accomplish something. I could do something useful for once and stop being such a burden."
"You're not a burden! And you've been useful!"
She had to just be saying that. He'd always been a burden. His mom never wanted him, he'd held Todd back from so much stuff just by existing, and he didn't do anything for Camp except waste resources. "Name one thing I've done that isn't driving."
"You say that like driving isn't useful, but okay. I've seen you helping Sean reach stuff, you showed me how to ride a pegasus, and we warned Chiron about a freaking dragon together."
"Y'know, Sean actually mentioned that before we left – like, I'd better make it back 'cause no one else would put up with his… how'd he put it… 'height-challengedness'. And shenanigans." And he'd been acting really nervous, and he'd pretty much sprinted to the Hermes Cabin after, which was weird, but he'd probably had to cram for the exams Kieran was skipping to go on the mission.
"See, there ya go."
"I guess, uh… how good are you with secrets?"
Arianna grinned. "That's a great question. No one's really told me any."
"All right, guess we'll find out. So part of why I wanted to ask Diego to come with us is, he's literally always doing something to help Camp, and he's saved my butt… a lot of times, and I don't want him to think I'm useless. I know I've done like, nothing compared to him, and especially not compared to Percy, but…"
"Stand up."
"Huh?" Well, she was standing up, so he did too. "Why?"
"You need a hug."
Kieran wasn't so sure about that, but he let it happen anyways and holy crap, she was right. "Please, please never tell him I said all that." He was so glad she'd cut him off before he started talking about Percy, because gods would it have taken forever for him to explain stuff. Like, he'd had monsters confuse him with Percy before that literally apologized and left – how was he supposed to feel about that?
"I won't. Have you guys ever… I dunno, talked about this?"
"Sort of, but… I'm scared. I don't want him to be mad at me."
"You think he'd get mad at you."
"Okay, maybe not mad mad, but yeah? People get annoyed when you just say stuff like that."
Arianna sighed. "I guess I'll hafta take your word for it. Also, people are staring, so…"
Ah. They were still hugging. Kieran let go probably way too fast for it to look natural but for once he didn't really care. "Thanks, 'sis.'"
"Any time."
They were saved from having to try and think of anything else to say by the others coming back, which completely changed the topic. "Let's get out of here and never, ever go to Maine again," Diego said. "Where did we park?"
"Dude. It was not that bad," Brenna responded, actually walking on her own. "But like, agreed, we'll explain in the car, let's go."
Kieran decided not to press, because they were definitely gonna talk about it. When they finally got back on the road again, Diego asked, "How old do I look?"
"Oh my gods, okay, just ignore the fact that you fought off a fucking plague ghost or whatever," she sighed. "That's not important."
"I'm sorry, what?!" Arianna exclaimed.
"It was a ker, first up, not a nosos. They're completely different. Nosoi can't be hurt by any weaponry and keres can apparently be killed pretty easily if you get their claws stuck in something and you're decently strong. And they're demons, not ghosts."
"Dude, I gotta go with Brenna on this one, that's something you lead with," Kieran said. "Those are the ones that feed on death, right?"
Diego nodded. "Yeah. They like battlefields, hospitals, and ruining my life. But back to my question…"
"I dunno, college age?" Arianna replied. "What, did they think you guys were married or something?"
"See, there was something worse they could've guessed," Brenna said smugly. "Told you."
"No, that's just grosser, not worse. The nurse thought I was her dad, guys! We don't even look alike!"
Kieran needed a minute to process that. "…how? Did they buy the fake age thing?"
"Yeah, and it wasn't even hard. Y'know what was hard? Convincing the nurse that he was actually 'younger' than me," she replied.
"I had to pull out my passport to convince them I was under thirty. I know I'm old in demigod years but come on!"
"You had your passport on you? You have a passport?" Kieran wondered.
"You… oh wait, you have the most Irish name ever," Diego responded. "Never mind."
He was probably right, Murphy was a super Irish last name, but what'd that have to do with anything? "…anyways, we've still got stuff to do," Brenna stated. "And I don't remember what any of it was."
"Literally we're finding a gas station that'll let us borrow their phone and either going to Diego's house or back to Camp," Kieran explained. "So yeah. Hopefully we can get more information."
They did get more information at the gas station. And snacks, because none of them trusted the food that wasn't prepackaged. Well, none of the others did and Kieran figured it'd be easier to just agree with them.
"Okay guys, good news: she's there. Bad news: Mamá said she had info she couldn't give over the phone and judging by her tone we're probably not gonna like it. So do we go for it?" Diego asked as he got back in the car.
"I think we've gotta, right?" Kieran responded. "It's not like we have to go to the Capitol."
"That's true," Arianna agreed. "We can just head back if it sounds too dangerous."
"Right on," Diego said. "What do you think, Brenna?"
She smirked. "I think you're biased."
"Yeah," he admitted. "But it sounds like we've got a majority anyways."
"We do… and I'm for it too, I guess, but if Maya thinks it's a bad idea…"
"Then worst-case scenario, we lost a bit of time when there's no deadline anyways," he replied. "Probably she just wants to make sure I was actually asking about Enyo."
"Which makes sense," Kieran said. "Oh thank the gods, we're finally back on the highway."
The rest of the drive went pretty smoothly… until Diego took over giving directions. It wasn't really his fault, 'cause he went off of landmarks and it was dark and snowy out, but Kieran doubted it would've been easy to find "the big tree" or "the mailbox with flowers on it" to turn at even in the summer. "If it helps, we're almost there," Brenna commented.
"I know… oh! Kieran, take the next right, and it's… keep going… there! The house on the corner, with the lights on."
Thank the gods, they were finally done driving for the day. If they had to go anywhere but back to Camp, Kieran would definitely have to tap out at some point. "Where do I park?"
"Driveway's fine, there's weird street parking rules in winter," Diego replied. "Mamá said she's got food for us, but we'll have to be quiet because it's past my sister's bedtime so –"
The front door burst open and a little girl wearing bunny pajamas ran out onto the porch. "Dee-dee!" she exclaimed loud enough that it was easy to hear even though the car doors were closed.
"…she should be asleep," he sighed as he got out of the car. "I'll be right back, guys."
"He won't," Brenna said matter-of-factly. "We might as well bring his stuff in with us."
"Shouldn't we wait?" Kieran asked.
"Nah, Maya knows we're coming and I dunno about you guys but I really need to get out of this car."
Well, when she put it that way… "Okay, let's go for it. We're gonna have to make two trips, though."
"Oh, yeah," she agreed. "Unless either of you thinks you can lift his backpack."
"I'll try," Arianna volunteered.
Kieran made eye contact with Brenna, who was clearly trying to keep a straight face. "Are you sure?"
"Is it heavier than a person?"
"…possibly," Brenna replied. "With the way he packs, I wouldn't be surprised."
"Okay, it's heavier than you," Arianna said. That had to be some kind of joke, or how was she carrying it normally?
"I guess you'd know. Kieran, if you get her backpack, we're good to go. Let's get inside, it's freezing out here."
Kieran didn't even care that he should probably be trying harder to lead, he was not ready to see Diego's mom. She seemed nice and all, but so did his mom when other people were around.
And of course, she opened the door before they got there. The last time Kieran had seen her, she'd looked a lot less stressed, which didn't bode well for later. "¡Bienvenido!" she greeted. "Come in, come in! It's good to see you all. Here, take your shoes off, we have a rack for weapons by the door; you can put your other things by it for now. Once you've set those down, Diego's in the kitchen, it's right through that door. Brenna, you brought your gun?"
"Yep."
"Okay, come with me and we'll get it put away."
Hm… maybe she was actually nice, if Brenna was going off alone with her. She trusted grown-ups even less than he did. "Watch out, Kieran, I gotta lay these down," Arianna warned as she – how was she carrying her and Diego's weapons?
"How are you that strong?" Kieran asked, putting his trident somewhere it hopefully wouldn't fall down. There were other polearms in the rack already, which really wasn't a surprise when it seemed like Diego was working on a new one every week.
"Farm work. Well, that and I'm too stubborn to make more'n one trip if I don't hafta. Thanks for getting my bag, by the way."
"No prob. I didn't wanna go back out there either." Well, it was kind of a prob, but he was already getting majorly shown up so he couldn't just say that. "Let's go see what Diego's up to."
"That's more important than coming back for us, right?" she teased. "Though, I totally get it. I don't think I've ever spent more than a couple days away from home before. I… really miss my dad."
If Kieran opened his mouth, he knew he'd end up saying something like "At least you can go visit without getting him in trouble." So he just nodded and started walking. She followed, so she probably wasn't mad at him? Hopefully she wasn't mad at him.
"Y si te cuente una historia, ¿dormirías?" he heard Diego ask. Clearly, he hadn't noticed them entering the kitchen. "Son las diez, debes estar en cama." [3]
"¡No quiero dormirme!" his sister protested. "¡Oh! Tus amigos están aquí. ¿Cómo se llaman?" [4]
"Huh? Oh! Sorry, guys, I was gonna come back pero Mamá me dijo que I should watch the stove porque no sé qué the code es y ella – sorry, okay, introductions. Right. Alicita, these are my friends, Kieran and Arianna. Guys, this is my sister, Alicia. Brenna's with Mamá, ¿verdad?" [5]
"Yeah," Kieran confirmed. "I think they'll be here soon. We brought your stuff in, so that's all taken care of."
Diego gave them a thumbs-up. "Awesome, thanks! Hey Arianna, do you know anything about cooking? I need a second opinion on this pasta and, uh…"
"I'm hopeless," Kieran finished. Not because he couldn't cook, but his standards were way lower for what qualified as "done" or "safe to eat" than Diego's were. At least he hadn't gotten himself banned from home economics like Brenna. Yet.
"Don't say that, Mamá says there's always time to learn!" Alicia chided.
"She's right," Arianna said. "Also, I do know how to cook. What are you making?"
"Spaghetti. Tía Carmen heard we were coming so she sent over meatballs and sauce – which I've got warmed up already. And Mamá made garlic bread, and salad… I told her she didn't have to, but you know, parents. I just want to make sure these noodles are actually done and I don't just think they're done because I'm hungry."
Okay, that much Kieran probably could've handled… maybe. Probably not, since he'd been known to eat dry pasta by the handful and according to Sean that was "a crime against the gods" or whatever.
"No, yeah, you're right, probably another minute. Need help with anything else?"
"No thanks, there's not much to do, really. Why don't you all – yeah, I said all, Alicita – go sit down? The table's all set and everything."
Instead of doing that, Alicia launched herself at Brenna, who'd literally just walked in. "Hey, take it easy! I've already been to the ER today."
"Oh, you have, now?" Maya asked, and okay, listening to Diego was definitely safer than getting involved in that conversation. Though, the table wasn't exactly far away. "What happened?"
"Uh… I plead the fifth?" Brenna responded.
"Hey, look, food's ready, we can get ourselves in trouble while we eat," Diego said. "Right, Mamá?"
"No one's in trouble… unless you chose whatever happened to get you there." She kinda had, but Kieran wasn't about to say that out loud. "Now, what are everyone's names?"
They went through introductions again and he learned that Maya really did just have everyone call her by her first name. Except her kids. "So how much can we say in front of…?" Kieran trailed off, because he didn't want Alicia to figure out he was talking about her, which didn't work at all.
"Everything. I can help!" Alicia chimed in.
"You know what would be a really big help? If you show the girls where the guest room is after we finish eating," Maya responded. "Érgon ýstera."
Uh. That was Ancient Greek. "Business later." Wasn't she a mortal? Why did she know Ancient Greek? Why did no one else think that was weird? Maybe they hadn't noticed. All demigods could understand Ancient Greek, so sometimes it didn't even register as a different language. "Yeah, you know I always forget," Brenna agreed.
And they just… kept talking, okay. Kieran wasn't sure if he should bring it up just in case… well, gods and monsters spoke Ancient Greek too. He didn't wanna get taken by surprise again, but he also didn't wanna upset anyone or let on that he thought something might be up, in case something was up…
Wait, there was an easy solution. If the girls were sharing a room, he was probably sharing with Diego, so he could just ask him about it later. Problem solved.
"…I can't believe I'm getting ganged up on like this," Brenna sighed. "I know we've sent you other pictures."
"I embarrass all my children equally," Maya replied, smiling.
"That's not true," Diego grumbled.
"I've just had the most time with you, mijo, the others will catch up."
"Not Jess," Brenna put in. "Nothing embarrasses her. I gave up trying after the first month."
Of what, being bunkmates? Her and Diego dating? It'd be a lot easier to focus on the conversation if Kieran wasn't so on edge. Something about the way they were all interacting just didn't sit right with him.
"Hey, Kieran? You okay?" Arianna whispered from his left. "You've barely eaten anything."
He crammed an entire piece of garlic bread in his mouth and nodded. He was fine. He could act normal.
Apparently, that wasn't normal enough. She looked really concerned. "Uh… got enough bread, there?"
"Yeah," he mumbled, after swallowing. "It's… really good!"
Well, it would've been, if everything didn't feel like dust in his mouth. Downing the glass of water in front of him didn't help with that.
He slowly worked his way through the rest of his food. All he really caught from what everyone else was talking about was that Brenna made excuses for him not talking much (which, he shouldn't've needed, but it was nice) and that Maya's sweater apparently said "Camp Half-Blood Mom". Was that more or less suspicious?
"Hm. I think falling asleep at the table means it's bedtime," Diego said, gesturing to his sister. "I'll be right back."
Finally. It was almost all of their bedtime, though Kieran had a feeling that they'd be staying up late. "I only let her stay up because she never gets to see him," Maya explained once he'd left. "Since the war, have there been less monsters?"
"You'd think there'd be less, but they come back too fast," Brenna answered. "I'm actually kinda worried about tonight. If something shows up because of us…"
"Nothing will show up," Maya stated. "And if something does? Ares can't fight his kids' battles, but I can."
Kieran believed her. She sounded pretty darn confident about that, like she'd done it before or something. He sure didn't wanna fight her. "Okay," he began, "how much do you know about why we're here?"
"I know something terrible must have happened if you're looking for Ares' sister," Maya replied. "We shouldn't say her name. She'll hear us, and she is not welcome here."
"But it's fine if Ares hears?" Arianna wondered.
"Yes. I know they don't like him at Camp, but he's better than people say he is."
Like his kids? Kieran almost asked that out loud but decided against it. Instead, he went with, "Why is E- uh, his sister, so much worse?"
"We should wait to discuss her more until Diego gets back. Can you tell me what's going on at Camp?"
They (mostly Brenna) summarized the situation as best as they could. By the time they'd finished, Diego had returned. "And she said she didn't want to sleep… what'd I miss?"
"Nothing, mijo, they were just getting me up to speed," Maya responded. "And unfortunately, it sounds like it might be worth dealing with your… aunt… if she could have information."
"Oh, so she's Tía Magdalena bad, huh? That's… not great," he said. "Eos said she might not try to kill us on sight, though, so that's something."
"She'd rather see you kill each other. She is the absolute worst being that I've ever met and if the gods weren't cutting off supplies I'd say you should just avoid her at all costs."
"…can she make us do that?" Kieran asked.
Because if she could, it might be a good idea to go back to Camp after all. "Not directly. She owes me a favor, and I will be cashing it in. But if you decide to go see her tomorrow, don't come armed. If anyone has conflicts, resolve them or stay behind."
"I don't think we have any, do we, guys?" Of course Diego would say that. He always told people directly when he had issues and expected everyone else to do that too.
"Not anymore," Brenna replied. "Right, Kieran?"
Was she calling him out, or did she actually think they were fine? It was so hard to tell with her sometimes. "Right," he agreed before he could stop himself. They were like, ninety-nine percentfine, and bringing up old issues she'd clearly gotten over (or never had?) would only make things worse.
"Good," Maya said, "because she will use whatever she can. When you're around her, you'll want to fight. And I doubt she'll give information away for free, because she hates me, so you'll have to decide if her price is worth it. She'll probably put it to a vote. Whatever you do, do not let her force any kind of tie."
"If it's okay with everyone else, I can just not vote if that's something we've gotta worry about," Arianna volunteered.
"Are you sure?" Kieran asked. Please say no…
Because if they did have to make some kind of decision, and she wasn't gonna vote, and he happened to disagree with Brenna's opinion… they'd just end up doing whatever Brenna wanted to do anyways.
And she wanted to go back to Camp with the info they already had, she'd said as much earlier. He kinda wanted to do that, too, but if he said she was right, people would think he was slacking off. Or they'd think he couldn't make his own decisions, which he needed to figure out how to do, but it was hard when everyone else was faster at that than him.
"Yeah. It just makes sense. You guys have more experience dealing with gods and stuff."
"If you hadn't offered, I would've," Diego commented. "If she has something against Mamá, I'm probably not gonna have a fun time tomorrow. I'm guessing we can't just fight her."
"You could, but it would be a mistake to fight her at her full power, and after last time she'll be on guard against tricks," Maya responded. "I won't tell you to stay home, mijo, but please, be careful. Don't let that puta get to you."
"Okay, no one else is gonna say it, so I will; what'd she do to you?" Brenna wondered. Yeah, for her to use that word it had to be something pretty bad. [6]
Maya smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. Kieran was suddenly very aware of the fact that none of them were armed. "What did she try to do," she corrected. "I was working security and noticed her in a restricted area. No one else saw her so I knew she had to be a goddess or a monster, and either way, I had to make her leave. I tried asking her politely and she told me she knew who I was and that if I didn't… I'm sorry, I need to remember her wording."
"She threatened you?" Diego asked incredulously. "Amá, did she hurt you?"
"…maybe you should stay home. If this is how you react to implications, she'll kill you!"
"Because I'd fight her? That wouldn't be enough, she's immortal. I'll major in classical studies, make it to the top of the field, promote Homer's version of events over Hesoid's, and erase her name from history."
Uh. Kieran had no idea what he was talking about, but he sounded way too calm, so he was pissed. "Dude, you came up with that just now? This is why Travis thought you were an Athena kid," Brenna said casually.
"Ah, I forgot about that! Should I tell him he was kinda right?"
"And make his ego even bigger? No way."
"I feel like I'm missing something here," Kieran said, trying to ignore the sudden pang of bitterness in his gut. "You said your mom wasn't a demigod."
"I'm not," Maya confirmed. "My grandparents were. But that's not important right now." [7]
Uh… no, that seemed kinda important. Maybe not to the mission, though. "My bad," Diego apologized. "If it's easier, I can go upstairs…"
"No, you need to hear what actually happened before she twists it. She wanted me to prove to her that I was worthy of her brother's… I'll say 'affection'… so she could choose 'what kind of battlefield my children will die on'. You do know what she's the goddess of?"
"Carnage and battlefield chaos. If you didn't pass her test or whatever she was gonna curse us, yeah?"
"Yeah, pretty much. She's… creative. I managed to talk her down from her idea to trial by combat. When she complained that it wouldn't be fun because I was 'just a pathetic mortal', I suggested that her victory would be more satisfying if she challenged me as a mortal – which is how I wound up fighting myself in a hallway. Naturally, I won."
It sounded like she was making a joke, but Kieran couldn't be sure. "When you said 'her idea', you didn't mean…?" Brenna trailed off, almost too quietly to hear.
Maya put a hand on her arm. "It's not wise to refuse a goddess. It's even less wise to humiliate one. Our terms were too vague; I could've taken a dive, but I was afraid of what she would do."
"Yeah… I think you made the right choice," Diego said. "But you mentioned that she owes you a favor…"
"Which is why I'm so sure she'll agree to meet with you in the first place, yes. And as long as you do not fight, you'll be okay."
"Will you be okay? What's gonna stop her from hurting you?"
"Don't worry about me. As long as she doesn't switch forms, I'll be fine."
As long as she didn't what? "She… has another form?" Brenna asked.
Maya hesitated before responding. "Yes. Mijo, why don't you explain why you brought up Homer."
Gods, that was gonna be relevant? "Why I… oh, right – sorry, guys, I guess that's not exactly something they teach you in your first couple years at Camp, huh."
"It really isn't," Brenna agreed. "You're just a huge nerd."
"Literally, I know. Anyways, Homer and Hesoid were poets. A lot of what mortals know about Greek Mythology comes from their writings. The thing is, they didn't always agree on stuff; Hesoid said… oh no, I can't use her name, can I… uh… he said that the goddess we're talking about is not the same as the goddess of discord. Homer said they are the same and used the other goddess's name to refer to both. Which I guess is what Eos was getting at yesterday. Make sense so far?"
"Yeah," Arianna replied. Kieran did not think it made sense, but he was sure it would eventually so he didn't say anything.
"Okay, cool. The way mortals view the gods affects them a lot. They're kept alive by belief and once they're not remembered anymore, they fade; it's kind of like what happens with the dead. The goddess of discord started the Trojan War because she wasn't invited to a wedding. The goddess of carnage is most known for being my father's sister and liking carnage."
Maya nodded. "It's not a good combination. Both of them feed off of conflict. Personality-wise, they're very similar, but the chaos goddess is a lot more recognized, and therefore more powerful. If she introduces herself that way, leave."
"So you've seen her in that form, too?" Kieran asked, trying to decide if chaos was actually worse than carnage. It didn't sound worse.
"…yes. Please, please be careful tomorrow. I have the day off, so whenever you all are ready to leave will work for me. Get as much rest as you can."
"We will, Mamá. It's gonna be okay. Thanks for all the help!" Diego was definitely forcing that optimism. There were so many ways everything could go wrong, but after that whole conversation (where he'd once again been useless), Kieran knew they had to at least try. If the Olympians didn't wanna talk to them, fine – that was nothing new. But Camp desperately needed supplies, especially nectar and ambrosia. Especially when there was still a bronze dragon running around somewhere.
Maybe the other groups had been luckier. Percy might've even fixed everything already. No quest he'd led had ever failed.
"Hey, Kieran? My room's upstairs, and we're definitely gonna need sleep…"
Diego couldn't be more right about that. "Huh? Oh, yeah, coming."
"Long day, huh? You'd better take the bed, then."
"I – what? Dude, I'm not kicking you out of your bed!" Kieran whispered, because they were passing by closed doors and he didn't know which one was Alicia's room.
"You're a guest, I insist."
"Well, what if we –"
Diego turned around to raise an eyebrow at him. "Were you gonna say what I think you were gonna say?"
"…maybe…"
"I love you, bro, but no. I barely fit in that thing alone. I've slept in worse places than a clean floor in a warm house, I'll be fine. Besides, I can't break my nose again if there's nowhere to fall from."
"Wait, that's how you did that?" Kieran asked, forgetting to keep his voice down. He'd assumed that'd happened in a fight.
"Yeah. I think I was ten or something. Anyways, here we are."
Uh. "You have your own bathroom?" Kieran had never had one room to himself, let alone two. He'd always shared with his mom and Todd, and after the break-up he'd slept on the living room couch. Diego's bedroom was probably bigger than their whole apartment – which, sure, was tiny, but still!
"Yup. It's easier to hide the blood and monster dust and stuff that way. Which, I wasn't supposed to do, but sometimes I just didn't feel like trying to explain it, you know?"
Kieran did not know, but he nodded, still looking around, until he saw something he was not expecting. "…wow."
"Eh, it's not that… oh. That's, uh, St. Raphael the Archangel. Abuela is very Catholic, and I was very ironically born on his feast day, so she put the painting up while I was in the hospital one time. She thinks he'll help me figure out how to heal… hasn't worked so far, but he's supposed to be kind of a prankster, and if there's one thing I've learned at Camp it's don't piss off anyone who can pull pranks, so he gets to stay." [8]
"Huh. Why's he standing on a fish?"
"He healed a guy's blindness with like, fish guts one time. So do you want the bathroom first, or…?"
"Sure, thanks." That'd almost sounded like something they'd talk about in Greek Mythology. Kieran resolved not to ask any more follow-up questions, because he'd never thought about if angels were real and it wasn't a good time to start.
Once they were both actually ready to sleep (though really Kieran's nerves were the only thing keeping him awake), Diego turned out the lights and asked, "Are you okay, man?"
"…yeah?"
"You sure?"
"…no."
"Wanna talk about it?"
Gods, no. "Not really. But…" Kieran took a deep breath. "Has your mom always known Greek?"
"Just a bit. So you noticed earlier, huh."
"Yeah. Sorry, just… wanted to make sure that was…"
"Normal? I get it. Don't worry, we both knew the password and super embarrassing security questions, she's her."
That actually was a huge relief. "Y'all have security questions?"
"Oh yeah. It's kind of a hassle, but it just shows how much she cares."
"What's that like?" Kieran blurted. "Having a mom who cares, I mean."
"I could ask you the same question about dads," Diego pointed out. "Well… okay, that's not entirely fair, my dad does care – he's just really, really bad at showing it. Did I ever tell you the first thing he said to me?"
"No, don't think so."
There was a pause. "You can't tell Jess."
"Not a problem." She scared Kieran a lot – just because they were the two newest people at one point, they'd been paired together in training. Not a mistake Chiron had ever made again.
"Okay, and I quote: 'Go ahead and tap that, I'm not claiming her.'"
"What?"
"Shh, everyone else is probably sleeping! They'd better be sleeping. We should be sleeping."
There was no way in Tartarus that the girls were asleep yet. "Sorry. I did kinda want an answer, though…"
"Oh, sorry. Um… let's see. I know I can count on Mamá to do what's best for me and Alicia. There's literally nothing I can't talk with her about, and if I have a problem she always does her best to help. Hell, she helps everyone she can, and I love that about her. Someday, I wanna be like that too."
"You're doing pretty good so far, I think. Remember when the invasion happened, through the Labyrinth?"
Diego took a few seconds to respond. "Mostly. The early part. I got sort of messed up during that."
That was not how Kieran would describe it. Anything that a full canteen of nectar couldn't fix was bad. "Yeah… warning us about the fire arrows. If we hadn't known to get down from the trees..."
"Anyone would've done that."
"Then why didn't someone closer do it?"
"Because they didn't see, probably. Being this tall has some perks."
Okay, that made sense. "Must be nice."
"Sometimes."
"And what you said about your mom… that's kinda how I feel about Todd. Like, he can't see monsters or anything but he's always like… believed me, y'know?"
"Mhm. Sounds like a cool guy. Have you been back to visit him?"
"No… we write every week, but I can't… even when I get my license and stuff, he'd get in trouble."
Kieran was hoping that'd be enough of an explanation, but right, Brenna was good at secrets, so he really shouldn't've been surprised when Diego asked, "Why?"
Because that's what Mom always said – Todd didn't get custody, so if I went with him it was kidnapping and he'd go to jail forever. It hadn't been enough to make him not leave her, but it was scary enough that he'd left Todd's place in case she was right. Well, the monsters had helped with that decision too, but still. "If Mom found out, she'd take me back, and I'd honestly rather die."
"Oh. Uh… how would she find out, though? You don't look the same, right? You have facial hair now. And it's been so long, is she even looking?"
"Probably not on purpose. She didn't even report me missing, according to Todd. So… maybe a visit could be safe. Maybe. After all this junk's done."
"It'd be good for you, I think. And I'm sure he misses you."
Kieran flopped back against the pillow. "He… misses me?"
"You told me he offered to fly up here after… this summer… and his letters are like, five pages long, of course he misses you!"
"Oh. I didn't think…" Kieran trailed off because really, what else would that mean? "Is it weird that that's kinda… nice? Being missed?"
"No, but man, do you need a hug or something?" According to Arianna, yes. Seriously, twice in the same day… "Because like, you know if you left, I'd miss you, right?"
He would? "Wait, really? But you have –"
"– other friends? Yeah. They aren't you, though. People can't be replaced, Kieran, and they don't come back like monsters do. So when they leave, or… you know… it doesn't really matter that there's other people; you still miss them, right?"
"Uh… so it's like, even though I've got friends up here, I still miss Todd?"
"Exactly."
They were quiet for a while, until Diego spoke up again. "Hey, remember what I was gonna tell you earlier, that I didn't tell you?"
"Vaguely?"
"Are you sure breathing underwater is your only demigod thing?"
"I can talk to fish, too."
"Right. But is there… anything else you've noticed?"
It was a really weird time for him to care about that, but also who knew when they'd be alone together again. That didn't happen a lot. "No. You noticed something though, right?"
"Maybe. I'm not sure. How much do you know about Triton?"
"Honestly? Only what I got out of that time we watched The Little Mermaid with Brenna."
"Oh. So, not much, then. They didn't get a lot right. He had a conch shell that he'd use to calm storms or raise them. It was so loud that it made Giants panic. I was just thinking… you kinda do that sometimes."
"I've never made a storm."
"Not literally, but… gods, can we talk about this again when I'm not exhausted?"
Kieran smiled to himself. "Yeah. And thanks."
"For what?"
"…never mind. Good night."
Footnotes:
[1] - Brenna has a form of joint hypermobility syndrome, which allows her to move her joints past their normal range of motion. This usually doesn't cause her pain, but that's mostly because she does her PT like she's supposed to. Also, some people can just... pop their joints out of place and hold them there. Source: my sister and her weird shoulders (here's your real call-out post, fam).
[2] - TL,DR; surely the fastest way out of this interaction is to fake an injury. Which Brenna does. The only reason they need to go to the hospital is to keep up their cover story. Kieran defuses tension but still thinks he isn't helping.
As an aside, people really will call the cops for the dumbest stuff, especially if they think it looks cult-y. It's happened to me once for *checks notes* ...playing a board game with friends.
[3] - "If I tell you a story, will you go to sleep? It's ten o'clock, you should be in bed."
[4] - "I don't wanna sleep!" ... "Oh! Your friends are here. What are their names?"
[5] - "But Mamá told me I should watch the stove because I don't know what the code is and she -"
[6] - Depending on where you are, puta is the worst thing you can call a woman. I was tempted to not use the word at all and just say "bitch", but half the cast says "bitch" regularly so I didn't think it'd hit the same.
[7] - For those of you who read Redacted, it is important in chapter 9 :)
[8] - Why is it ironic? Raphael is the patron saint of doctors, nurses, travelers, the blind, and bodily ills. He's often called the Angel of Healing. Now what was that thing that Diego doesn't like to be involved with again?
Author's Note: Seven months later, here we are! This is the longest chapter yet. Remember when I was able to keep a consistent monthly schedule? Me neither. Everything's just gonna get posted when I finish it from this point on, just like this chapter did. Out of curiosity, does anyone even use the CWs? Have I been hitting everything I should be with those? I've never used those outside this fic so I'm not quite sure how they work.
As always, thank you for reading. I'll see you again in hopefully less than six months!