Percy had always hated dreams. Usually it was because they normally came with bad news; it comes with the whole being a demigod thing. Some of his dreams are terrifying, some are prophetic, while others, well, they are just downright insanity. This, however. This just takes the proverbial cake. As if his day hadn't been bad enough, what with the whole self deprecating internal monologue thing he had going on at the beach, his subconscious wouldn't let him rest either. Percy dreamt that he was sat at a table in a Parisian cafe, overlooking the River Seine. How he knew that was a mystery to him but that wasn't the problem. The problem was the woman sitting in front of him, dressed in a red satin dress with her hair curled to frame her face perfectly. The last time Percy has seen this particular Goddess, she had claimed that he was on a quest to rescue his true love. She wasn't necessarily wrong – at the time – but you could see how well that turned out. As if knowing what Percy was thinking, Aphrodite's expression pinched slightly, yet she had a wide smile on her face that was both alluring and alarming. Percy didn't even want to know what she had planned for him.

'Percy, Percy, Percy,' she tutted, 'Don't look at me like that. I had nothing to do with the breakdown of your relationship with dear Annabeth.' Percy just stared at her for a moment, wondering what on earth he could say to that. Aphrodite took pity on the demigod so she continued, 'Besides, I think you will find, my dear, that there is someone else that is much more worthy of your affections than that child of Athena.' Percy internally groaned. There was no one he knew at the moment who he was even remotely close enough to with whom he could form a relationship with. None of the girls at camp had ever caught his eye, bar Annabeth, and he's pretty sure none of them had ever taken an interest in him. Who could Aphrodite be talking about?

'At the risk of sounding...impertinent, may I ask who you are talking about?' Aphrodite's deep blue eyes just twinkled and she brushed her blonde bangs to the side of her face.

'Remember how I said that it's been ages since we've had a good tragic love story on our hands?' she asked. Percy just looked at her warily and nodded his head. 'Well then, what's more tragic than the love between two people who are separated by death, but are then reunited once again?' Percy's jaw dropped at that. There was only one person that Percy could think off that Aphrodite could be talking about but surely, as the Goddess of Love, she would have known that-

'Are you- are you talking about Silena? Because I'm pretty sure she was with Becken-'

'No, I am not talking about my daughter!' Aphrodite said, waving her hand irritably. 'Dear Zeus, how a child of Athena managed to put up with you is beyond me.'

'Well then...' Percy thought. Annabeth was right, she was temperamental.

'Who is it then?' Percy asked. Aphrodite just looked at him, studying him.

'Has there really been no one else on your thoughts? No one else that may have caught your eye? They don't necessarily have to be... feminine.' Percy just stared blankly at her. Aphrodite sighed, raising a well manicured hand to massage her temples. 'I absolutely hate being blunt about these sorts of things; I prefer the angst and the drama but I'm dying to see how this plays out so I'm going to hand this over to my son Eros. Don't disappoint me Perseus,' the Goddess said. Then she smiled and gave Percy some parting words, 'Remember, don't forget to follow your heart.'

The dream shifted and Percy was suddenly dreaming he was back at the ocean. The sun was shining down upon the white sand while the cool spray of the ocean showered droplets of water on him. Percy wondered what Aphrodite meant by leaving it to her son Eros to sort it out. Percy turned around to see if he could find out were he was but he stopped dead in his tracks; behind him was Luke Castellan. However, it didn't just stop there. The son of Hermes stood before him, bare chested and sopping wet, as if he had just come out of the water. His usually blonde hair was darker, sopping wet and matted down. Rivulets of water trailed down his torso, glistening in the sunlight. The older demigod just gave Percy a grin as he sat down on the sand, patting the space beside him for the stunned son of Poseidon. Percy's didn't register his movements until he was next to the blonde, about to sit down. His head was in turmoil.

'Why this? Why now? Is this what Aphrodite meant by someone less feminine? Is she trying to turn my life upside down? Annabeth and I have just recently broke up and Aphrodite is trying to get me to bat for the other team. Great.' Percy couldn't deny that Luke had caught his attention that first day at camp, but he'd never thought of something like this. 'Is it actually that bad an idea though?' he thought to himself, and then reality caught up to him. Luke was dead. There's no way in Hades that the King of the Underworld would revive the son of Hermes, not after everything that's happened. Sure, in the end, Luke turned out to be the hero, but Hades isn't going to like what happened to his Kingdom after the war. The amount of deaths would likely have caused severe congestion, and Hades hates commuting. 'Why make me think about this now? What point is there to this, are you just trying to torture me?' Percy internally screamed.

Percy was cut off from his thoughts by the son of Hermes as he places his arm around his shoulders and pulled him in so Percy could rest his head on the older demigod's chest.

'Luke...' Percy said, looking up into the blonde boy's face. There wasn't nothing menacing about it anymore, nothing like how it was when his body was possessed by Kronos. It was the first time Percy had seen Luke's face relaxed. Luke just looked down at Percy, giving him a small smile but not saying anything. He lifted his head to look out at the ocean, the sounds of which were calming Percy down. He decided just to go with it. It was just a dream, after all.

Neither said another word.

Luke woke up the next morning to find himself still wrapped up in Percy's arms. The son of Poseidon was clinging to him like an octopus which, Luke figured, seemed appropriate enough. Luke looked out of the window and saw the sun was just slightly before dawn; the sun slowly rising in the horizon. Once again, he looked at the boy laying next to him and smiled. He couldn't help it, the boy just looked so adorable. His mouth was slightly open and he was drooling just a tiny bit. Luke didn't want tis moment to end but he knew that Percy was going to wake up soon and it would be best for everyone involved if he got out of there as soon as possible. He didn't want to know what would happen if the demigod found his arch nemesis next to him in is bed. Luke tried to suppress a shudder at the thought. Just as he was about to move, he heard Percy softly murmur next to him.

'Luke...'

Luke stiffened, his heart skipping a beat. 'Crap,' he thought, 'I'm gonna have to talk to him now after all.' However, when he looked over at the boy next to him, he saw that Percy's eyes were still closed. His heart skipped another beat, this time in elation as he realised that Percy was dreaming about him. Luke tried his best not to dwell on that fact but the son of Poseidon kept murmuring in his sleep. Luke couldn't make out any more words but he found that he didn't care as Percy's arms had tightened around him and a head full of black hair was snuggling into his neck. 'Yup, I'm definitely going to die again when Percy wakes up,' Luke thought grimly to himself. However, Percy's head felt perfect, fitting into the crook of his neck. The raven haired boy was smiling gently as he continued to use Luke as a teddy bear. A tear rolled down Luke's cheek at the thought that he knew he was never going to be able to have this. Before he knew it, the floodgates ha dopened and tears were falling freely down his face. There was nothing he could do. The memories of everything he had ever done to harm the boy laying beside him assaulted his consciousness, bringing with them an overwhelming sense of guilt. He couldn't believe that he had ever tried to kill the beautiful son of Poseidon.

He buried his face into Percy's hair, inhaling the scent of the ocean, not caring anymore about what was going to happen once Percy woke up. He didn't care that Percy was probably going to reject him, not that Percy didn't have good reason to. He didn't care that it would probably kill him again when it finally happened. Luke just wanted to stay in this moment forever; the boy he fell for, yet could never be with, in his arms. Ever since his first step into Elysium, he had spent most of his time alone. He couldn't stand being in the same place as all the other Half-bloods who had died int the war. He knew no-one would ever forgive him. Luke was just setting himself up for heartache when Percy woke up. He admits it. He fell in love with Percy Jackson, somewhere between welcoming the boy to cabin nine and the moment when Luke stabbed himself with the dagger. He doesn't know exactly when it happened, nor how, but he knew it to be true. Curse Aphrodite, this was a worse punishment than anything in the fields of Punishment. Luke could take physical torture, but emotional, that's another story. The fact that Percy would never love him back, that he would never accept him made Luke's heart ache. He never wanted to come back to the land of the living, but he did anyway. Call him masochistic but he had to try, even if it led to his own heartbreak. At least he would get the chance to apologise for what he's done. Wet tears continued to fall on black hair as Luke held tightly to the son of the Sea God.

Percy woke as the rays from the sun shone onto his eyes. His eyes slowly cracked open and he was amazed at the feeling of complete relaxation that he felt. The last thing he remembered was the beach but he could tell he was no longer there. 'How did I get back to my bed?' He tried to replay the memories from the day before but nothing came to mind. Percy finally took notice of his surroundings and realised that his head was slowly moving up and down. He was lying next to something that was comfortably warm. He didn't want to get up, much too comfortable to try and do anything, but he wanted to see what he was laying on. He slowly rose, stretching his arms and yawning widely. He looked down at his bed to see what was there and froze in shock. His eyes grew wide as he took in the frame of Luke Castellan, his lithe, yet muscular, body curled around his own. Percy's eyes found Luke's face and Luke would have smirked at the adorably clueless look on Percy's face if he didn't know that the son of Poseidon was going to kick his butt any minute now. As it was, Percy saw that Luke's eyes were rimmed red, as if he had been crying, and his expression tugged at Percy's heartstrings. Luke looked like he had completely given up. Percy knew that he should have uncapped Riptide by now but the expression on Luke's face kept him at bay. Percy felt anger rise as he continued to stare at the son of Hermes. That dream was still fresh in his mind and it made him all confused. What was he supposed to feel for the older demigod?

'How in Tartarus are you here?' Percy demanded, the fact that Luke was supposed to be dead only just coming to him. Luke gave a weak chuckle as he raised an eyebrow.

'Ah Percy, still as slow as you ever were. I was expecting that question the instant you opened your eyes. I was also expecting Riptide to be at my throat by now as well. What's wrong?' Percy's anger flared.

'Just answer the gods damned question Luke, before I have to hurt myself to make sure this isn't a bloody nightmare!' Percy doesn't know why he hasn't drawn his sword, and he does't know either why he felt a pang of guilt and a look of hurt flashed across Luke's face.

'Would it really be that bad to see me Perce?' Luke asked.

'Just answer the question!' Luke nodded dejectedly. He was right. E knew the son of Poseidon was never going to accept him. He might as well prepare himself now so that he could leave with some of his dignity still intact.

'It's a long story,' he said.

'We've got time,' Percy growled. He really wanted answers. Everything was so confusing. He knew that if he had woken up, alone, he would have been able to accept what that dream was telling him; that he had fallen for Luke Castellan. But that was only when Luke was dead. Now that the boy was in front of him, everything just go a whole lot more complicated for the seventeen year old.

Luke took a deep breath and dully began his story, bracing himself for the rejection he was sure was going to come.