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Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.
Playing with fire
She had always been afraid of fire. So why was she not afraid of her half-brother?
She trusted him. From the very first day, from his first joke, to now, when he was training. Jake Mason didn't want any head counselor stuff. So she had stepped in. of course she had. Who else would have?
No one. It was always up to her.
The atmosphere in the room was always dark. Then he came . . . and sunshine. In some ways, she was infuriated. How dare he, the joker boy, come and overtake everything she had worked to accomplish? But she was over it just as quickly.
He was her little brother. In age, height, and status. No matter that he was head counselor, Nyssa had been here first. But they would always hold a special place in each others hearts, as their siblings that were the opposites of themselves.
She was the calm, collected one, the one who was serious.
He was the hot-headed one, the one who was always joking around.
So why did they agree?
Why did they agree? The others always speculated that it was about being able to understand. Others thought that they had once been twins. Something tugged at her. She was sharpening a sword blade. The forge was quiet this morning. Sometimes, she looked at him, her half-brother, eyebrows furrowed and pulled together as he concentrated on the fires. The first time he had heard of greek fire, he had scoffed. Then he had seen them use it.
It made her sick to the stomach. She knew he was sick too. But he had insisted.
He was experimenting with it . . . to see if he could reproduce greek fire.
They had made a fire-proof room for him, there was no telling he would do to the rest of the camp. Every hour or so, he would come out of the room to grab a snack—a cold coke perhaps, or some ambrosia.
She looked up. Sure enough, there he was, half of his hair burnt off and reaching for the mini-fridge in the corner. She grinned. "No luck?"
He shook his head. "No. Back to the fireproof room."
That was the first time she thought she had it. That she was a fire-user. She had asked the other cabin members, if they ever felt a special connection to the fire. No, not for them. She had mentioned it to him, her brother. He had frowned and said, "Are you sure you're not a fire user?"
So she had begun to experiment. Sometimes, while she was working on sharpening, or sorting scrap metal, the easy things, she would glance at the fire, willing it to go up. Sometimes it did. And she never got cold. But that was something most children of Hephaestus had.
She liked heat. More than most of the others. She would lean against the wall—her ADHD made it difficult to sit still—by the fireplace, absentmindedly drawing blueprints for a new invention. Her back would become toasty warm, and a shiver of heat would run up her spine.
He would join her sometimes, of course. He was the only one who could stand it. The heat of the fireplace. Once, he had even joked that the fireplace was taking the heat from him.
But she was alone when it happened, when it happened at first.
She was only glaring at the fire, pumping the bellows as fast as she could. She let go with one hand and adjusted her bandanna, glaring at the windows. He usually lit the fires, but the day before, he had left to go see Camp Jupiter. Finally, she let go of the bellows and turned her glare to the coals. It burst into flames.
She stepped back. There was a whistle by the door. "Are you sure you're not a fire user? You seem to enjoy playing with fire."
What did you think?
It's Nyssa and Leo, by the way. Thought you'd might want to know.
Review, and give me some more suggestions, I really appreciate it.