Hello sweethearts,

Times are rough and I'm sorry and wishing the best to each and every one of you. I was going to write something else before this, to space apart the Twin chapters, but I figure we all need some simple and cute shit right now. Here you go, loves.


xvii: casual observers

"Thank you for everything," Antwan said.

"No problem," Will said. "I'm sure Daniel had already told you that our door's always open. Your leg should be better soon, let me know if you feel any numbness."

The son of Hermes cracked another smile before leaning back in his kitchen chair. His leg was immobilized in a homemade stilt, propped up on another chair, and slathered in a healing balm Will had mastered years ago. Nico soon had a plate full of food settled in front of him.

"I wouldn't have made it back to New York like that," Antwan said.

"That's for sure," Will said. "What were you doing so far from camp anyways?"

"Mama still lives in Jamaica," Antwan said. "She wasn't doing so well, so I went down to visit. We managed to pay for her medication in time so she should be fine, but long story short, my transfer didn't go as planned at the airport."

"Antwan?" Cata said, standing on the staircase. Antwan smiled brightly.

"Hey you," he said.

"Hey yourself," Cata said coming closer for a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Mooching off your dads," Antwan said. "This is delicious, M. di Angelo."

"Thank you," Nico said. "Cata, I'll make you a plate."

"I'm off to the library," Cata said.

"Without breakfast?" Nico asked. Cata stretched out an arm and an apple zipped from the fruit basket to her outstretched palm.

"Satisfied?"

"No magic in the house," Will said. They all knew that rule had been broken too many times to count, but Will was allowed to dream. The kiss Cata planted on his cheek served as a condolence.

"Ciao Antwan," Catalina said.

"See ya," Antwan said. "By the way, Micah sends her love, she can't wait to see you again."

That made Cata smile brightly as she bounced off the door.

"Not really, but little white lies," Antwan said. "She'd have told me to say that if she'd have known I'd be dropping by."

Daniel snickered.

"Danny, you going to want some of this?" Nico asked.

"For sure," Daniel said, getting up and coming over to grab his plate.

"I heard someone moving around upstairs, which one of your sisters was that?" Nico asked.

"No idea," Daniel said. "Maybe I have a brother up there by now."

"Can you go check?" Nico asked. "If Emmy doesn't wake up soon, she's going to be late for her dance pictures…"

"You."

"Ah. It's Tessa," Daniel said.

"How do you..?"

Nico turned around to see Teresa in the staircase, standing still and starring at Antwan with distinctly and disturbingly fiery eyes.

"Hey," Antwan said, much more peacefully.

Teresa's jaw clenched.

"I didn't know we had guests," Teresa said evenly.

"Would you have changed out of your pyjamas if you'd known?" Antwan said. "Hello Kitty. I like it."

Nico was pretty sure Teresa was going to pop a tooth out of her gums if she bit down any harder. Still, she did. She turned to Will.

"Did I hear Cata leave without me?" Teresa asked.

"You just missed her, Tessa," Will said.

Teresa groaned. "She was supposed to give me a ride to the library."

"I can drop you on my way to the dance studio," Nico said. "That'll be in about an hour."

Teresa sighed.

"I have a spare Traveler's Coin," Antwan said. "Won't be needing it once I get better, I'll be able to get myself from Boston to New York in one go. Library can't be that far, even an amateur could make the trip."

"I don't need your help," Teresa said. She turned around and went back upstairs briskly.

Nico turned to look at Daniel.

"Yeah," Daniel said, loading a few pancakes on his plate. "Umm, they don't get along."

"Really," Nico said. "Couldn't tell. I've only seen her like that with the principal. How did that happen over the course of a single summer?"

"And what a summer it was," Daniel said. He took his plate and went back to the table.


"Hey man," Antwan said, grinning when he spotted Daniel, greeting him in a friendly, no-nonsense hug. From what Will could tell, he'd shot up about six inches since he'd been at the house- which was absolutely ridiculous, but then again so had Daniel. And Franca. And Teresa. And Emilia. Argh.

"Hola M. di Angelo, M. Solace," Antwan said.

"Hello Antwan," Will said. "Taking care of that leg?"

"Not at all, I'm a bit of an idiot," Antwan smiled. "But it's holding up anyways. Cata, doing some freaky shit with your hair again, good, good… Franca, look at you. Want a hand with your luggage, Tess?"

"It's Teresa and get away from me," Teresa said. "And stay there until August."

With that she kissed her parents goodbye and dragged her trunk to Cabin 6 herself.

"I offered," Antwan shrugged. "Franca, you?"

"I'll take a hand where I can get it," Francesca smiled. "Could you carry this plant for me?"

"I'd love to," Antwan smiled.


"You know what," Will heard Teresa crack in the living room. "Stop it. Stop pestering me. Stop disrupting my calculations. Stop playing with my notes. Stop laughing at my ideas and my work. I don't have time for that, I don't need to waste my energy on you and I don't know how to be any clearer about any of these things."

"Sorry Tess, chill..."

"My name is Teresa," she said. "And no, I will not chill. I do not like being laughed at. You only know my family now, but you don't know my blood. I have a mother who constantly challenges me to prove my worth and do better, and my biological father couldn't take me seriously enough to keep his ass out of prison for a baby's sake. So you know what, I'm not taking this from you. Back off. Don't touch my things, don't talk to me if you're just going to treat me like any other of your stupid jokes because I'm not."

Will ran away before he heard more.


"I know you don't like it but the guy's mom is dead and I won't let him spend Christmas alone," Daniel said. "He is literally going to come over for dinner, eat some food, play charades or whatever lame party game we pick and then go back to Camp. It's not even Christmas, Teresa, it's Christmas Eve. Deal with it."

"A little bit of warning would have been nice," Teresa spat back.

"Why, so we could have argued about this longer?" Daniel said.

"Teresa Camille Solace," Nico shouted from the kitchen. "Are you trying to ruin this house's reputation for hospitality? Because you people don't clean, so we don't have anything else to go on."

Teresa locked her jaw.

"No, Papa," she said. She mumbled a few other things, unfortunately in Persian so nobody knew what she was talking about as she stomped her way upstairs- a very deliberate signal to the entirety of the household and possibly the skunk under the back porch.

Daniel wandered back into the kitchen, scratching the back of his head.

"That sounded fun," Francesca said as she peeled a sweet potato.

"Don't," Daniel said. "I honestly don't get her. She's so… so…"

"Say it Daniel Lee Solace, I dare you!" Teresa shouted through the floor.

Daniel dragged his hands down his face, and then mimicked shooting himself at point blank for good measure.

"Look, children of Athena are to be feared, not understood," Nico said. "What I'd like to know is what in the world made her so irritated against him. Teresa's not irrational. I've seen her be vengeful before, but not for no reason."

"Children of Athena, children of Hermes… bit like oil and water," Francesca said. "They've been having cabin wars."

"For Hades' Sake," Nico huffed. "When will you people ever learn."

"What do you mean 'you people'?" Daniel asked.

"Demigods who are social, he means," Will said wandering in. "Did Teresa hear about our guest?"

"YOU KNEW TOO DAD?"

"I'll take that for a yes," Will said. "Well, he seemed perfectly pleasant to everyone else in the world."

"Thank you," Daniel sighed in relief. He ran a hand through his hair. "Look, Antwan's lonely, mostly. He's a good guy. He likes people, people like him, but he's just so lonely all the time. I remember what that's like, from before I had you guys. He's like a brother to me. When I'm around camp, he sticks to me, you know? The fact that Tessa's so… so… It pisses me off."

"Here's to hoping she won't catapult mashed potatoes over him over dinner," Will said. "Nico, what can I chop or peel or make without ruining?"

"Carrots are your signature Christmas Eve dinner job," Nico said. The entire concept of the Christmas Eve dinner revolved around the fact that back in the days (and years) of spending millions of dollars in diapers and swimming lessons and cute little outfits that kids outgrew in days, Will could make time and a half by working on Christmas day and so he did. They celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, which was much easier to get off, instead.

And so they worked in the kitchen until later in the day, long after Emilia's girl guides came back from singing at the catholic church and Cata came back from helping her school set up decorations for a Christmas lights competition. Once all of the kids were in the house, the next doorbell meant company. And there was Antwan, wearing a button-up that was surely the cleanest thing he owned based on the desolate state of his jeans and the ratty grey hoody he wore in lieu of a real coat. He held a basket of camp strawberries onto which he'd laid some wildflowers.

"Hello M. Solace," he said. "Sorry I'm late, I accidentally landed three blocks away."

"No problem," Will said. "These are nice, thanks Antwan. Let me take your jacket."

Teresa was lurking in the living room.

"I talked Chiron into sparing some strawberries," Antwan said. He was looking at Teresa now. "Thought they'd do some good here. Remembered how much you liked them, Tess."

"Teresa," she said.

"Figured they'd do good here. The year-rounders, well we're getting kind of sick of eating so many of them, what with the massive crop we've had this year… The children of Demeter are running out of space to store jam, it's crazy"

"The climatic conditions which made Delphi Farm's harvest so favorable also occurred in Mexico, Spain, South Korea and Japan- the other four top strawberry producing countries in the world, of which Mexico is the biggest supplier of produce to the Eastern Coast of the United States during Winter months," Teresa said coldly.

Daniel sighed.

"I'll bring you something Mexican next time then," Antwan said. "Where do they grow avocadoes?"

"Strawberries help to prevent cancer," Teresa said. But she sounded a little off balance.

"And avocados don't?" Antwan said. "That's disappointing, why the hell do vegans eat them all the time then?"

"Avocados are delicious," Teresa said. "And they contain more potassium than the average-sized banana. Daniel, take his coat and show him your room or something before he asks what the average size of the banana is."

"Sorry man," Antwan said. "I don't live with her. I don't know these things. Guess I'll do more research next time."

Teresa's nostrils flared when he said 'next time'.

Danny led Antwan away to show him a new hole in stairwell wall where a dracanae's tail had dented the drywall (not so fun).

"That was a pleasant exchange to watch," Lucia said brightly.

Teresa hissed something nasty-sounding in Persian to which Lucia only replied with a laugh.

"Whatever," she said brightly. "I want to hear about the Capture-the-Flag rankings, suck on your own."


"Morning sunshines," Antwan said.

"Good morning," Lucia smiled. "Had a safe trip from Camp?"

"Safe as always," Antwan said. "Only nearly died twice, but it's irie. Wouldn't miss Dan's graduation party for the world."

Lucia grinned and turned to the kitchen.

"And you Tess?" Antwan asked. "Did you sleep alright?"

"Fine," Teresa said. Lucia circled back with two cups of coffee and they muttered in Persian as they went up.

"I think I'll take you up on using your shower," Antwan said.

"You know where everything is," Will said. Antwan brought his dirty plate back to the kitchen before disappearing upstairs.

"Was that just me or did Tessa sound less frigid?" Nico asked.

"She had the prospect of caffeine to warm up to," Will said. He looked up from the newspaper, which they still had delivered because eight demigods reading up news online was just too much of a scent generator. "Wait a minute. You don't think…"

"No," Nico said. "That would be… crazy."

Francesca, good old happy and peaceful and informed Francesca, brought her dishes back from the living room where she and Emilia had been watching cartoons. She had tanned darker after her months of travel.

"Hey, Franca?" Will asked. "Notice anything strange about Antwan lately?"

Francesca shrugged. "He's gotten his hair cut and it's a lot less crazy now. He looks a lot more grown-up."

As if that wasn't scary enough for a son of Hermes.

"And he's been extra nice with Tessa" Francesca said. "Or maybe it's Lucia. I don't know, but they were friends at camp."

"Teresa and Antwan?" Will asked.

"Of course not," Francesca said. "Antwan and Luce. He's the one who introduced the twins to each other. Didn't you know? Antwan braced Tessa before she even met Lucia last summer that there was a girl at camp who looked exactly like her. He brought Lucia to camp after finding her in the city, thinking she was Tessa. He helped to convince Lucia to come live here. He told her that family came to you and family was taken to you as quickly as any other love; you had to try your best to grab what came your way."

Will and Nico exchanged glances. Aha.

But this did not mean peace just yet, did it?


Will and Nico only agreed to let Daniel drive up to Camp for march break if he had another licensed driver in the car with him. Cata refusing to go up so soon after losing Micah, the responsibility fell on… Antwan. Who used one of his coins to teleport to Boston and spend a night before driving up with Daniel, Teresa and Francesca.

"I want to go too," Emilia said.

"Do you?" Antwan said. "Oh, don't worry girl, you're not missing much. They make us do homework there and put our pants on one leg at a time just like you do out here."

Emilia giggled. "And how do you put on a skirt then?"

"Fashionably," Antwan said, "with a cute pair of pumps or wedges."

Emilia laughed some more. Teresa sighed, but took Emilia's hands.

"See Emi? No need to be sad."

"That's right. Antwan knows things," he grinned.

Teresa shot him a look. Antwan held her gaze, usually intimidating and destructive, with a smile on his face. It drove her crazy.


"So Dad," Cata said. She cleared her throat on the phone. "Papa… I'm on speaker right?"

"What's going on?" Will said.

"I have news about… Teresa. And Lucia…"

"Oh crap," Nico said. "They only send you in with news if it's bad."

"What happened?" Will said. "Is everyone alright?"

"Daniel's missing a leg," Cata said.

"Another or still the right one?"

"Yes, I just thought I'd prep you with some bad news you already know. See, the twins are actually on a quest."

"What?" Will said.

"Chiron said that you would consider this a minor one," Cata said.

"Oh the things I'm considering telling Chiron…" Nico said under his breath. "Where are they and why?"

"They're with a party of ten demigods, bringing an artefact back to the legion," Cata said. "The rest of us O So Common Folks don't know what it is, just that we're not supposed to have it and tensions are high and the Legion may or may not be preparing to march to us and get it back."

"Right, and why do they need both of our twins to do this?" Nico asked.

"If I knew I would be on the quest too," Cata said.

"Why can't your sisters tell us themselves?" Will said. "It's uncool for demigods to have actual parents to contact now?"

"They left in a hurry, I don't know," Cata said. "Don't shoot the messenger."

"Right," Will said. "Sorry Cata. Okay, so who else is with them? Anybody we know?"

"No," Cata said. "A son of Zeus to lead the whole pow-wow, a child of Aphrodite to negotiate with the Romans once they get there… Oh, Antwan."

"Antwan is there?" Nico asked. He snickered. "And Teresa went anyways?"

"Don't laugh," Will said. "People learn to get along on quests."

"And they fall in love during wars," Nico said.

"Stop making bedroom eyes, I'm right here," Cata said. "I'll tell the twins to call you when they get back. Gotta go, Maggie Jackson wants the phone too."

Cata cut the connection.

Will turned to Nico. "Ten dollars says that Antwan doesn't get murdered cross-country."

"Ten dollars says he will," Nico said. "But he'll like it."

"You're twisted," Will said.

"You've known this for ages, it's too late to ride on that excuse," Nico said. "And in case you hadn't noticed, our daughter's a bit of a hard ass."

Will snickered. "Understatement."

"Fine," Nico said. "Twenty?"

"Twenty it is," Will said.


They didn't hear much about the quest after that. Lucia did indeed call home to tell them it had gone well. 'Gone well' was a stupid thing to say. Lucia was actually calling from the infirmary, but since she'd been carried back to Camp before bleeding out to death and had only run into pre-calculated risks, she was fine. When asked about her sister she maintained her answer and when asked about Antwan, her demeanor was absolutely stoic.

"Twenty dollars, then," Nico said.

They were still rather anxious to pick up the kids at the end of August. Antwan was helping Emilia with her suitcase. It made Nico panic a little that she was now armed with a bow and a quiver full of glittering arrows, like any other demigod.

"Bye Emmi," Antwan said. "Keep practicing that shot, right? We'll show those Apollo kids all about hard work next summer when we hand them their pretty little asses- no offence Mr So. Stay sharp, Luce. Don't overdo it and blow up your stitches, it's like Chiron said, you can't do that an infinite amount of times."

"I'll be fine," Lucia smiled, giving Antwan a hug.

"I mean it," Antwan said. "I did not carry you past those damn safety borders to have you die of an infection or something absolutely mortal."

Nico and Will caught each other's eyes. Ah. This was new information.

"I'm not dying anytime soon," Lucia promised.

Antwan smiled one more time, said 'we'll see, we'll see' when Nico invited him over for Thanksgiving in advance, and headed down Half-Blood Hill.

"Goodbye Antwan," Teresa said abruptly.

Antwan looked around, shocked. He smiled for a second at Teresa.

"Goodbye, Tess."

A heartbeat passed.

"Teresa," she said. She added quickly. "You're closer."

"I know," Antwan said, turning away again.


He came by the house when Daniel flew in from London for a visit. It wasn't out of the ordinary, but the kids all stayed up too late, roasting marshmallows and sausages over the stove top and drowning cups of hot cocoa while playing cards and yelling at each other about building houses and roads and exchanging five sheep for a piece of lumber. Will insisted that he should spend the night and set up blankets and pillows in the living room.

"This is comfy," Antwan said unzipping his hoody and wiggling in between the sheets. "Thanks, M. So."

"No problem, Antwan," Will said. "Don't be shy if you need anything, we're just upstairs. Danny should be coming down to take the other couch in a second."

As he turned around to go upstairs and hit the hay inside, he spotted Teresa leaning against the hallway wall and chewing on the knuckler of her pinkie finger which was, as far as he'd ever noticed, Teresa's only nervous habit. She was wearing her sleep shorts and a thick black cardigan.

"You okay baby girl?" Will asked. Teresa nodded, not taking her pinkie out of her mouth.

"What are you downstairs for?" Will asked.

Teresa looked up. "Yes."

Teresa had high standards for lying, she never messed up like this.

"Pardon?"

"I want a glass of water," Teresa said.

"Are you sure?" Will asked.

"Of course I'm sure," Tessa said. "Goodnight Dad."

She went to the kitchen, mechanically took a glass down from the cupboards, filled it and took a few sips. Will paused at the top of the staircase and heard her dump the water in the sink and drop the glass in with. He thought he heard voices downstairs once he was in bed, but nothing interesting enough to keep him up.

The next morning was more than interesting. Tessa was up remarkably early, and way before Lucia- which was unusual. She even came downstairs dressed- jean shorts, black sweater, hair swiped out of her face.

"Good morning," she said.

"Hey, you're up early," Will said. "It's not every day I get to see you before work, Tessie."

Daniel grunted a hello, shoveling cereal into his mouth and Francesca held out her hand for Teresa to squeeze. Antwan stepped out of the kitchen, having brought his dishes back, and froze.

"Good morning," he said politely.

"Hello," she said just as courteously. "Did… Did we show you the swing we put in the backyard yet?"

"No," Antwan said. "It starts getting dark pretty early in the fall, I guess."

Teresa nodded. "Come."

She held out her hand. Antwan took it and Teresa pulled him outside without letting go, not even to close the screen door behind them.

When Teresa had been young, she'd been tossed from doctor to doctor. Her teachers were sure she was on the Asperger spectrum. That wasn't quite the case; what they had discovered was that Teresa was prone to sensory overload. It came with ADHD as a whole, but Annabeth had later told them it was quite common for children of Athena, who spent so much time doing so many things in their heads that extra loud sounds, extra bright lights, obnoxious fabrics or pungent smells were too much. If Teresa was irritable, it was because she was juggling too many sensations or stimulants. If she didn't like to be touched, it was because she was feeling too much too strongly on her own. If Teresa complained about others being noisy, it was because every decibel got under her skin and tugged. So when Teresa took a hand, when she shared her space and offered up her skin and pulled someone and their noise closer, it meant something.

Francesca squealed so hard, she covered her own mouth self-consciously.

"Oh my gods," she said. "Oh my gods, oh my gods this actually happened. This actually happened this actually happened. Wait until Cabin 10 hears!"

"So how…" Will cocked his head. "How did he do it? How did he finally get to her?"

"God knows," Daniel said, tipping the coffee pot into his mug.

"And we never will," Nico said bringing his mug to his lips.

Lucia came downstairs, wearing jeans and a peasant blouse. She looked outside quickly and then poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Oh, so you... you've got no comments?" Daniel asked.

Lucia shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. "Just because she needed to make him work for it before she was sure didn't mean she ever doubted him."

"I don't get her either, FYI," Daniel said nodding towards Lucia. "And we're going to have to make more coffee, cause it's gonna be hell of a day if this is what we wake up to."