Author's notes:

I wasn't going to post this… but VCRX asked to read it so…

Warning: Explicit sexual content and swearing ahead.

Important note: this section was experimentation on a character's back story I've changed around a lot since I wrote this. There are spoilers from Blood of a Mayan from Chapter 29: An Evening Stroll to Our Doom. (This is an alternative universe where Kally finds things out Axel's secret in a very different way.) And, I might suggest you read the chapter prior to this in When the Stone Cracks before you read this ending, so you remember where everyone is emotionally.

Also, the first two footnotes are Betanotes (as requested by VCRX) from Mel, but the next two are relevant translations.

Part II:

From what Axel described, the Mayans took their constellations very seriously. Instead of walking her through the different stories as she'd expected, Axel explained the importance of Chak Ek'-or the planet Venus-and eclipses. Some part of her wanted to sigh at her own naivety. She got the feeling Axel was the kind of guy that would take a girl to a lecture on how to break someone's neck in three seconds or less and would assume that was the perfect date.

The other part of Kally could barely keep up with his words. Axel had motioned her right beside him, so she laid down with his arm as a headrest. Pax must have also wiped him down with Wet Ones because he didn't smell like smoke anymore. He smelled like a spicier rendition of chocolate than his brother did. It reminded her of the Mayan hot chocolate they'd had at the Monster Mash.

The spot on her forehead where he kissed felt so tender. She couldn't stop thinking about how his jaw line looked when he'd leaned down. It hadn't meant anything, she scolded. This was Axel. If he liked the gods, he'd drop a compliment to Aphrodite without a thought to the consequences.

Kally took a deep breath and rolled into him, pressing her face against his chest, resting a hand on his collarbone, and hooking one leg around his. Now that they weren't moving, she was happy for his additional heat. It was weird how comfortable she felt here, exposed in the monster-infested forest. But she knew he'd keep her safe.

Axel stumbled over his words when she readjusted against him. Kally found this hard to bel—

"Oh! Your wounds!" she yelped.

"I'm fine," he said, more like an order than a reassurance.

She propped herself up on one hand and examined his shirt. Sections of it puffed out because of the bandages. She touched the edges and felt her gaze lowering. Because he had one hand behind his head, the ends of his shirt rode up, exposing enough of his midriff to see his happy trail. The temperature in her face went super nova. From a conversation she hadn't wanted to hear between her brothers, boxer briefs were the best type of underwear for workouts, so of course Axel wore them. But couldn't he have worn regular boxers and left some of his shape to the imagination?

Kally hadn't realized she'd put her free hand to her mouth until Axel took it. "I'm fine," he repeated, fortunately misunderstanding the cause for her stare. "Your face is beautiful, stop covering it up," he stated and leaned back onto the moss.

Nope. Nope, you're not allowed to do that, she internally whined.

"Damn it Axel," she hissed aloud. When she slipped a hand to the back of his neck, Axel didn't react. It wasn't until she pulled him down for a kiss that his eyes went wide with surprise.

The taste of chocolate was overwhelming.

Axel tensed under her. She waited for him to shove her away, but he froze. [footnote 1]

When Kally pulled back an inch, she found him blinking at her in confusion, like the concept of his lips+her lips=happy lips wasn't a reality. She wanted to smack him for his nonchalance, his nonreactiveness. Instead, she nipped his lower lip.

Comprehension hit him with the same result as a can of red spray paint. Axel blushed. Out of all the smooth and confident things she'd heard him say, "um" wasn't what she was expecting in this situation. He tried to speak, but faltered. When he started to wordlessly mouth, "Why?" she leaned over to kiss his ear.

She wished she could tease him—that the Great Axel Pax was at a loss of words. All she could think about was how soft his hair felt when her cheek brushed it. [footnote 2]

"Not my ear—" was the first thing he managed to choke out, dropping his chin so she'd have easier access to his mouth. So… later, your ears, Kally mentally noted.

There was a moment where she wasn't sure if he'd throw her off or yell at her.

Then, hesitantly, he met her lips. His caress was so soft and subtle, she felt like she was kissing mist. The hand that was behind his head slipped down to rest on the small of her back. The fingers of his opposite one traced her neck. When Kally shivered at the stroke, Axel murmured.

Each touch was uncertain and cautious. Kally remembered all the times Pax had mocked Axel, You'd be a great hunter of Artemis. He'd been serious. Axel hadn't done this before. He probably hadn't known he was flirting earlier.

She wondered if this is how Pax felt the first time they'd shared a prolonged kiss: agonized over the tenderness of each touch, adoring the innocence and shyness—Axel's insecurity of where to place his hands, how long he should hold each embrace, whether he should or shouldn't grip, how he followed her lead and mimicked what he could—and, lastly, how desperately Kally ached to find his barrier and break it.

When she brushed her tongue across his lips, he parted them obediently with a soft mumble. She couldn't believe how timid he was, like he was testing a burner with his mouth. As she slid higher on him, pressing one hand against his hip and another to stroke the scars across his temple, she realized how much rougher his tongue was than Pax's. Scars, she thought, how does he have scars there too?

Something sharp nicked her tongue. Kally gasped, reflexively jerking back—

—but Axel sat up with her, his hand tightening on her back to lock their bodies. His other tugged Kally's hair to tilt her head away. "Bin in tz'uutz' a chi—" he exhaled. The wet warmth of his tongue tingled against her skin as he rolled it from her collarbone to her chin. "Ko'oh ts'u'uts et k'aah k'i'ik, hats'uts nikte'." [footnote 3]

He shifted onto his knees, lifting her.

"Axel!" Kally squeaked in surprise. Although she knew Axel wouldn't drop her, she clutched at his shoulders. She was too short to kneel beside him—

Axel released her hair and pulled her leg around his waist. Kally mimicked the motion with her other leg, hooking her ankles behind his back. Her skirt rode up and Kally could feel the cold metal of Axel's belt buckle press into her underwear.

Her face felt hot and the rest of her skin became hypersensitive. With her weight around his torso, he could slide the rough calluses of his palm up her thigh, pushing the skirt to her hips. Kally could feel the stretched fabric of her leggings rip.

The smell of chocolate was overwhelming. That taste mixed with the blood from her cut tongue, reminding Kally of Lamia's cellar. The image of Axel pouncing off the wall with a sledgehammer flickered in her memory, but only until he bit her shoulder.

She could feel her bra strap snap under his teeth. Although he'd only nipped, she whined in pain. That—that shouldn't have hurt so—

His mouth mashed back onto hers. Kally gasped. "I want your sweat," he breathed before murmuring, "Y an y an a u ahal—Hooch wi'ih k'iinam, et chukik ch'a'ik, chan nikte." [footnote 4]

The hand on her thigh rolled over her hip and dipped to clench her panties. She could feel the material tug at the front and Kally started to pant.

"Axel…."

She was supposed to be the experienced one. She was supposed to leave him flustered.

His other hand pushed under the back of her shirt, groping with her bra clasp. The material ripped under his nails.

Kally clenched her legs. She dropped a hand to fumble with his belt buckle. She thought about how nice the lining of his boxer briefs looked when she had stitched his wounds. The belt clicked open. As Axel's tongue flicked along her jaw to her ear, she unzipped his jeans and tugged, frustrated she couldn't get more leverage to pull them off.

She grasped at his stomach. The hair on his abdomen was soft and thickened as she massaged her fingers downward.

Axel made a whine that rumbled into a purr. He dropped forward, catching them just before they hit the moss with the hand that had been tugging at her underwear. Then his chest crushed down onto her breasts, his hips gyrating against hers. If her face could get hotter, it would have; an embarrassing moan escaped her throat before she could stop it. "Axel—Axel—your underwear—" she gasped.

He caught one of her hands and forced it above her head, enlacing their fingers.

Kally struggled to squeeze her other hand between them. She grasped the edge of his boxer briefs and pushed down, groping—

Axel tore his face from hers. He scrambled backwards.

The motion was so fast, Kally stared at the constellations for a few seconds before she understood why the air suddenly felt cold. She sat up in confusion, her heartbeat thundering, sweat sticking the remains of her shirt to her chest. Had there been a monster—

Axel's eyes blazed a reflective gold in the moonlight that trickled through the pine trees. He'd flopped back on his ass, legs partially curled towards him with his jeans and boxers down to his thighs. He propped his elbows on his knees as he clutched the side of his shaking head. "Too fast—too fast," he whispered between pants.

As Kally watched, he rubbed his face. With each motion, his eyes darkened and became matte, his teeth—

His fangs shrank to normal teeth.

She felt herself tremble. What had just happened?

"That was dumb," he hissed to himself.

"Kissing me was dumb?" she repeated numbly, too perplexed, flustered, and disappointed to feel offended.

"No—" he said definitely. With as much assurance, he corrected, "Yes." Once he looked more like… Axel, he took another shaky breath and glanced at her.

His jaw clenched and his eyes widened. Axel leaned towards her, reached a hand towards her chin, but hesitated. "Oh—Kally," he whispered, "I hurt you."

What is he talking about?

"I'm fine," she stated, touching her mouth. When she withdrew her hand, there was blood on her finger tips. She hadn't realized her tongue was bleeding so much. Self-consciously, she pressed her shirt and the remains of her bra against her chest, only to notice a red stain on her shoulder. That was where he'd snapped her bra strap with his teeth. With the adrenaline fading, tingles of pain spread across her back, where she knew Axel had been groping her and broke her bra clasp with his nails.

"I—I'm fine," she repeated, curling her legs up. She used her other hand to push her skirt down, finding small traces of cuts along her thighs. Her leggings were in tatters on the ground. By now, her trembles had become violent.

What if we had? A voice whispered internally, if you opened your eyes and saw the yellow of those eyes and fangs, would you scream?

She swallowed, trying not to ask the question pounding the inside of her lips, What the fuck?

That was what he was scared she'd say. That's why he'd been hiding.

"I'm fine," she said with more conviction, scrambling for something to put him at ease, to hide how freaked out she was. "You didn't have to stop," she squeaked. As the words came out, she felt the heat return to her cheeks, her gaze slipping to his exposed—um—

Axel blushed. Like he hadn't been acting as virile as Zeus, he stood and fumbled to tuck himself back into his boxers and pants.

Giggles broke out in the forest around them. Axel jumped, taking a protective step closer to Kally. In the dim lighting, Kally could make out the green outline of wood nymphs in the trees. One—Olive?—was fanning her face. "You really didn't have to stop," she called.

Axel looked positively mortified. His mouth hung open in shock. "Wha—when—"

Kally could tell he was caught between feeling ashamed, rude—for having not handled Kally in a properly private place—and violated for the intrusion.

Kally stood up in front of him. "I'm sure Chiron would approve of this type of voyeurism on campers."

"What?" Olive laughed, "Like you'd tell him you were out roughhousing."

She thought about how proudly Axel had placed his arm around her shoulder at The Horizontal Monster Mash. "Yea. Yea, I would," she said. "Though I don't think I need to be specific for Merry to pass on to her dad that a few nymphs were acting out of line."

Olive stopped laughing. The nymphs vanished into the trees.

The forest felt too quiet. After a moment, Kally gave Axel a small smile. "I liked that—getting to save you for once," she tried to joke.

The horror hadn't left his expression. His shoulders were tense and militaristic.

Could the nymphs not see through Axel's mist? Maybe he'd looked like a normal guy and her clothing just looked torn from…. Axel's roughousing. Every time she thought she could stop feeling embarrassed, she failed.

Gently, she took his hand. "Hey, it's okay—"

His paralysis broke. Axel cleared his throat and pulled his hand away. Seeming very aware how easily someone could be watching them, his eyes drifted back towards the cabins. To the Hermes cabin. To where he'd knocked Pax out with a sleep dart.

"We can't," Axel whispered.

"I'm not dating Pax," Kally snapped. She could handle Axel freaking out over his whole perfect-for-rave eyes thing, but not his little brother.

Axel shook his head, frowning. "That's not the only reason."

Kally sighed. She was getting sick of the vague-and-mysterious attitude. It was hot to read about, not to experience. "You're not actually a vampire are you?" she asked, exacerbated.

"What—?" he laughed, "No—no. Nothing that simple." He puffed up his cheeks and popped them, relaxing as much as he ever did. "I'm sorry I lost control," he muttered.

"I'm not," she said. Although she knew she was blushing, Kally kept her gaze firmly on his.

Axel coughed. He put a hand to the back of his head and looked down. "Um—I'll walk you back to the Apollo cabin."

They didn't talk as they walked. Axel wouldn't touch her and appeared to have fallen in love with the ground with how closely he examined it.

Kally wanted to hit her head into a tree—preferably one with a wood nymph to kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully, the entire Apollo cabin was composed of heavy sleepers; she did not want to explain what happened to her wardrobe. Attacked by a monster?

She thought about Axel's eyes. Maybe that wasn't much of a lie.

As the cabins appeared out of the trees, Axel cleared his throat. He stopped walking, hesitated, and swallowed. "Blood activates my magic," he said. "At least, it's the first step."

Kally stopped beside him. This couldn't be real: a Pax boy being blunt? Was Hephaestus about to win a beauty contest too?

"I—um…" he sighed. "If I… am active—with someone… someone I like," saying it looked like it physically hurt him, "I might… I might not be able to use my magic anymore."

She stared. "You… can't… um..."

Axel coughed. "I—warrior priests have been known to weaken after breaking their celibacy. It… I don't know any in person to know for sure, but there are stories in ancient texts..." He jammed his hands further into his pockets, glancing up at the constellations. "I can't unless I'm ready to settle down and have a family," he spat out.

Warrior priests that couldn't have sex? All of his flirting, his compliments, his being—being him.

Maybe it was the exhaustion setting in, but Kally almost laughed. "You," she stated, "Are a huge cocktease."

The blush conquered his cheeks again. "You're spending way too much time with Ajax and Merry!" he protested.

She shrugged. "Maybe so, but…" she tried to remember what the boys in her Youth Group would say. "You're worse than most Catholic girls—I'm only joking," she added, seeing how miserable she'd made him. "Hey—"

Kally pulled one of his hands out of his pockets. He frowned. "Just—just tell us things like that. I wouldn't have—um... " She still definitely would have kissed him. "I wouldn't have kept kissing you if I'd have known…" Did that mean they couldn't… it shouldn't— "A kiss isn't sex though," she squeaked.

"No…" he admitted. "Kisses are okay but—I told you, it's complicated—"

Kally kissed him. Axel tensed up. She withdrew and smiled. "Goodnight Axel."

Although she tried not to focus on it, his expression was crushed, like she'd ripped out his heart and walked off with it. Merry would possibly have been proud. Guilt made Kally waver as she walked, but she kept reminding herself, he needs someone to love him, someone to help share his burdens.

It was too late to think about it much. Axel, Pax, Lamia, Alabaster… should they not have done that? Kally bit her lip. There was no point in worrying about it tonight. Too much had happened tonight.

From the few nights she'd stayed in the Apollo cabin, she remembered her half-siblings losing total awareness when the sun was down. She hoped it was still like that. But as she approached, she was horrified to see someone standing on the porch to greet her.

Austin, her half-brother, gave her a huge grin.

Kally pushed her shirt tighter against her body. Oh gods no.

"Hey Kally," he cheered.

"Why are you up?" she demanded, unable to fake a cool.

"A group of nymphs made a large ruckus in the woods, so I woke up to shoo them off." He glanced her over, then glanced to the form of Axel, retreating towards the Hermes' Cabin. "So… I see your talk with Axel went well."

Her mouth went dry. "Fine," she said.

"It wasn't much of a talk was it?"

"Shut up and help me find some PJs."

And now you know where When the Stone Cracks gets its name. And might have lost all respect for me as a writer… *ehem* But I hope you enjoyed! :D

Footnotes:

1 B/N: Mel, "I just… I don't know how to handle what I secretly shipped but was okay with nothing happening… I just… I'm seriously in some sort of fan shock. There are so many thoughts (cruelly: Pax lost… is one) (mostly: this is happening.)"

2 B/N: Mel, "MY CONFLICTION IS STRONG AS THE LINES HERE ARE. In a more joking note: THE BOULDER FEELS CONFLICTED ABOUT FIGHTING A TINY BLIND GIRL *Toph insults him* THE BOULDER IS OVER HIS CONFLICTION! "

3 Axel is reciting Mayan poetry from The Songs of Dzitbalche to Kally with the line, "I will kiss your mouth," but interrupts the poem with his own poetry, continuing with a much more ominous, "-a costly kiss with bitter blood, [you] lovely flower."

4 Axel is reciting the last line of the same poem, "You have to hurry," and again, interrupts with his own deviation, "harvest [my] hungry ache, with captured breath, little flower."