Chapter 12

Herry lay on his back staring up at his ceiling as he pressed the replay on his PMR's audio file. He nibbled at the inside of his lip as he thought, he had already been apprehensive about his relationship with Opal. It wasn't necessarily the idea of her finding out about his ridiculously unbelievable life fighting a god that made him wary, it was the thought of Cronus finding out about her. Now that he knew she was like him, shared the blood of Olympians, it only made that concern worse. It just made her a larger target for Cronus. The god would use her as a tool if he ever found out about her and he couldn't stand the thought of dragging her into that terror.

A light knock sounded at his door and Herry startled, knocking his phone off his stomach to the floor with a clatter. He cursed under his breath as he reached to the floor to scoop up the device still playing the file. Jay cracked open the door and slipped inside.

"I was wondering what that was," he smirked, "I didn't see you bring a piano into your room anytime recently."

Herry sent him an irritated glare and cut off the sound to his PMR.

"That is good thought, who was playing?" Jay asked looking at Herry's PMR now on his bedside table.

"My English partner," he said, hesitating as he considered telling Jay more. He did want the man's opinion on her and her possible lineage, but he didn't want to reveal his suspicions and end up being ordered to stop talking to her. Jay might see her as a liability to have around the team. He almost wanted Jay to think that so he would have a reason to stop talking to her, but he was terrified at the thought of Jay coming to that conclusion. It was all so backwards. He hummed and sighed, he couldn't hide things like this from Jay, "She had an old book with Orpheus' name on it."

Jay's eyes widened with surprise, quietly he asked, "You think she's his descendent?"

"What do you think?" Herry asked.

"I mean yeah, she had a book with Orpheus' name on it and she plays like that," Jay gestured to the device, "we can't be the only descendants of Greek Heroes right? Remember Medelia?"

Herry nodded and dropped onto his back again. He bit the inside of his lip and sucked in a deep breath through his nose, drawing up the confidence to ask through his anxiety he said, "So, what do you want to do about it?"

"I say just leave it," Jay said with a shrug, "it would be better if she didn't know Cronus existed."

"Yeah, kay," Herry nodded, scooping up his PMR to tuck away in his pocket as he rolled out of his bed and onto his feet. Brushing past Jay he took in a deep breath and made his way to Odie's room.

"Hey man, what's up?" Odie spared his friend a quick glace from the game on his computer screen when he walked in.

"Nothing," he plopped down on the rumpled comforter covering Odie's twin bed, "Still stuck on Sarcraft eh?"

"Yeah, almost finished this game, after want to play?"

"You always kick my ass at that game."

"You know it," Odie laughed, fingers blaring over his keyboard, an accustom sound to be found in the boy's room. Herry stuck his hand in his pocket and began fiddling with his PMR, snapping the battery cover off and then back on.

"Hey Odie," he asked the boy's bed covers, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure buddy, ask away," he said.

"My English partner has an old notebook with Orpheus' name on it and it's full of music," he took his PMR from his pocket, "She played my Gran's piano for a bit and shit she was good, take a listen." Odie froze as the song came flowing out of the phone's speakers, he swiveled his computer chair around, face agape.

"She has to be his descendent," he said.

"Yeah, Jay thinks so too."

"What did he say about it?"

"Just let her keep believing she's like anyone else."

"Fare enough," Odie nodded and leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, "Ignorance is bliss."

"Yeah," Herry scoffed, picking at a loose thread on the comforter he was laying on, "Your base is under attack, by the way."

"Shit," Odie yelled, turning back to his computer he initiated a counter strike, but in a few moments the game faded and 'You Lost' appeared on the screen, "Damn it Herry, I was winning before you came in."

"You're welcome," Herry gave him a smirk and cleared his throat, "But, about my English partner, don't you think it's risky for me to be around her? I mean with Cronus always around."

"I suppose," Odie shrugged, "But what are you going to do man? Tell her, 'I'm sorry I can't work with you on this project anymore because I'm afraid my arch nemesis is going to kidnap you and make you giant food.' Although, that would solve your problem, she probably wouldn't want to work with a crazy person."

He breathed out a laugh and shook his head.

"Now are you ready to get your ass owned?" Odie opened up his laptop to whip up a game of starcraft and waved his friend over.

"Don't be so full of it," he jumped off the bed and pulled up a chair. Maybe he was just being over cautious about this whole thing, neither Jay or Odie seemed to have his concern about her and Cronus finding out about one another.

Archie sat with back straight as a board, watching Atlanta closely through focused eyes. They were sitting on her bed cross legged and facing one another, his hands on top of hers, their palms together as their hands hovered in the space between them. She had a mischievous smirk on her face, but he wouldn't be distracted. Her hands jerked out from under his and smacked down hard on his fingers. He hadn't been quite fast enough to escape.

"Damn it," he hunched his shoulders and shook off the sting before he held his hands out again, this time palm up. Atlanta placed hers on his and stared him in the eye. He faked her out, pulling back slightly. She snatched back her hands to her chest and he gave a disappointed shake of his head. She huffed and placed her hands back on his. He tried to fake her out again and then on the third time brought his hands up in an attempt to smack hers, but they harmlessly fell through the empty air.

Atlanta sent him a smug grin as she held her hands out palm up, he resisted the urge to kiss that smirk off her face and placed his throbbing and red hands back on hers. He took in a deep breath and she took the second he was taking to prepare himself to whack his hands with her palms.

"Hey, not fare," he scowled.

"Sure it is," she laughed, "If you're not ready don't put down your hands."

"Redo," he held out his hands palm down and narrowed his eyes at her. She placed her palms up against his and smiled.

"Has Jay seemed tense to you too?" she asked, jerking her hands back in a fake. He gasped and twitched them back.

"Yeah, of course, he's in one of those moods," Archie replied, placing his hands back.

"Okay yeah, but do you think maybe he's going over the top?"

"Think he's about as usual as he ever is."

"Well do you think maybe you could talk to him, He really upset Theresa the other day," she said.

"Atlanta," he whined and slouched his shoulders. She took the opportunity to slap the top of his hands. He cursed and shook them out, holding them in front of his face to inspect the cherry colour there.

"Baby's hands hurting?" she taunted and sent him a mocking pout. He couldn't resist kissing that. Ignoring her comment he leaned forward, pressing his knuckles into the mattress on either side of her. He stopped his advance when he felt the pressure on his chest, looking down he saw Atlanta's tiny hand sprawled there. He glanced into her eyes, laced with sudden panic.

"What are you doing?" she asked harshly.

"I, ah…" he cleared his throat and sat back, "Atlanta, don't you think we should act on our feelings? I mean with Cronus and everything. I just want to make sure you know."

"I don't know," she shifted off her mattress and wrapped her arms around herself, turning her back to him. He glared at her, every time he tried this, every time she would block him out. Today it was not going to happen again. He got to his feet spun her around, he was just about to press his lips to hers when… bang, bang, bang.

Gasping in panic Archie turned his gaze over towards the door, but it stayed firmly in its frame. From the other side he could hear Jay in the hallway, calling them to come downstairs. Breathing hard Archie looked over to Atlanta, and flinched under her glare.

"I guess we should get down there," she stated and stomped over to the door.

"Yeah, best not keep Jay waiting when he's PMSing," he nodded, trying a joking attempt to alleviate the tension. Atlanta didn't make any hints she appreciated it. With a heavy sigh he followed behind in her angry wake.

Whenever Cronus attacked it always meant two things. First, there was some rampaging monster that needed to be dealt with and second, there was a mess to clean up that said monster had left. Nothing could be done about the uprooted trees, but they could at least be moved off of the road. Jay sent Herry a pleading look and the larger man groaned as he obliged.

"You know it's not fare that I always get stuck with all the heavy lifting," he said as he unlocked his truck for the team to pile in.

"But there's no one better for the job," Jay said with a smile, reaching up to slap his shoulder before he climbed inside. A cloud of dust rose up from the green fabric. Herry gave a small huff and hopped in himself. The muscle in the back of his right leg ceased, he hummed in irritated consideration as he ran his fingers over his muscles. He knew he shouldn't have taken that jump at that beast without stretching, he would probably feel that more in the morning. With a heavy breath he turned his attention back to his truck, turning the key in the ignition before he could start off down the road.

"Okay," Jay stated, turning to look at Archie and Atlanta, one in the front and the second in the back of the truck, both had their arms crossed, "What was up with you two today? You know we have to work smoothly, like a team. If you guys are having a fight that's okay, you just need to forget about it when we're relying on you two to work together." Atlanta shot Jay a cold stare from across the bench of the back seat, locking eyes with him for a moment before she turned her gaze back out the window.

"Hey Herry, do you think you could drop me off at the mall on the way home?" Theresa asked after the silence had dragged on for a while.

"Sure," he said.

"Me too," Neil whined, like a puppy that had just learned he was being left behind for a walk.

"I think I'll come too," Atlanta said, keeping her sight out the window, "I don't want to get back to the brownstone just yet."

"Kay, whatever," Herry said as he navigated the city roads to the mall. He pulled up to one of the building's double doors for the three to hop out. The relief that washed over Archie was instant, his shoulders hunched and his crossed arms dropped to his lap.

"You really did get in a fight didn't you," Herry said, laughing as he reached over a hand to smack Archie's arm.

"We did not," he shot back with narrowed eyes under eyebrows mashed together. Herry only laughed harder.

"Archie," Odie piped from the back, "that's not exactly the most convincing of denials."

"We didn't get in a fight though," he exclaimed, twisting around to face the Jay and Odie in the back, "It's just… Atlanta, she's so infuriating sometimes."

"Well, what happened?" Jay asked. Archie turned red all the way up to his hairline. Snapping his mouth shut he turned back around in his seat and stared out the front window. His company erupted into laughter.