Chapter Title: The Temporary Reign Of Colton I
(A/N: There's going to be something funny in the dynamic of these two once they fall for each other, in that every time monsters and villains try to rip them apart, they are only going to either a.) become stronger or b.) have one or both of them claw their way back to each other.
Like, his feelings for her are what's making him be like he was in the last chapter.. essentially turning his fatal flaw into potentially the key to unlocking his full potential. He has no idea.
Also, he's temporary head counselor. Oh boy. Add in a snake day while Clarisse is gone, and you have definitely got some more ship teasing moments. Spread out at random over the first 7 days.
As for their obliviousness, Luke and Percy will unintentionally help them realize how they feel for each other. But I'm saving that for BOTL.
Also this chapter was fueled by listening to multiple versions of the song "Safe and Sound".
Anyways enjoy!)
Day One
Dawn
Being a head counselor was.. for Colton, something that definitely felt like he had stepped into a whole new world. Or to be more accurate, the duties of it were split between Sherman and Colton in a mutually beneficial sibling partnership. Since Colton was more of a loner who preferred to do things his own way, Sherman handled their younger siblings while Colton concentrated on Clarisse's other duties for now.
To his credit, after last night, Tantalus made sure to give Colton a very wide berth to the point of bending his own rules just to make an exception for Colton. So it was when he woke up about an hour before the butt crack of dawn the next morning - having said goodbye for now to Clarisse the night before - and gotten himself changed out of his sleep clothes, gotten himself ready, and headed out of the cabin without waking his other siblings with his gear on and rifle in hand to start a morning patrol, the Harpies simply let him do his thing.
Clarisse had left him a bag of poptarts in his knapsack for him to eat for breakfast, and for all subsequent mornings for a week until she was gone, so he ate it quietly while sitting up in one of his sniper perches, this one directly opposite Thalia's dying tree.
He was lucky that he had fitted his rifle with a homemade silencer the night before, for just as he finished eating, and daylight started to light up the Atlantic Ocean and the grounds before camp, he spotted a medium sized hellhound come out of the woods at the base of the hill to the left of the tree, apparently having also waited for sunlight to at least let it have a sense of direction as to where it was going. Once the sunlight had lit up enough of the area, it started walking up the hill towards the camp, not noticing the demigod hidden in the trees.
He slid out the barrel of the rifle over the top of the wall, peered through the sight at the approaching hellhound, then he fired.
Poof!
Thanks to the silencer, little if any noise was made as the round, a normal bullet this time around, was launched at the monster and the hellhound was killed instantly, falling on its side with a bullet hole through its head, a clean through and through headshot.
He loaded another round quickly, expecting maybe some more monsters to come, but it was evident soon enough that for now, the woods around Camp Half Blood were monster free.
Good, Colton thought to himself. So much the better.
He sat down on his butt, leaning up against the wall, yawning as he did so.
It may not be a perfect day in Camp Half Blood, thanks to Tantalus, but on this morning he could rest easy.
- — - — - — - — - — -
Day Two
Dawn
Once again, he had woken up prior to the butt crack of dawn, but before he could go up to his usual spot, a familiar scream made his blood run cold.
Kayla.
Any mystery as to why evaporates seconds later when he hears the hiss of snakes. And lots of them. He's out of the cabin in a flash, only having just changed into normal clothes with a sword in his hand before any of his siblings are out of bed, and immediately is slashing and hacking away snake after snake after snake, in the pre-dawn darkness. The snakes are in a horde today, but he still manages to fight his way through to the doorway of the Apollo Cabin by the time the sun comes up, having lost track off of how many snakes he's killed. The rest of the campers are scrambling to get up, only for Tantalus to come up and tell them to go back to sleep.
He doesn't hear the complaints of the others, because he's already deep into the Apollo Cabin.. and into what can only be described as hell. Snakes are all over the place, with the door to the bathroom shut tight. The amounts of crying and screaming coming from inside there indicate that the Apollo cabin is trapped in the bathroom, leaving it down to Colton to end their terror stricken morning.
For the next solid hour, even as Tantalus orders the rest of the cabins to go straight to breakfast, he's hacking at snakes, killing and clearing out the Apollo cabin of them in a methodical fashion. He knows he can easily be bitten by one of these snakes, but he doesn't give even one shit about it. He's only focused on her, and he still doesn't know why. He just feels an overwhelming desire to make sure she's happy and safe.
Slowly but surely, the live snakes in the cabin diminish as they are rooted out from every conceivable spot and killed, leaving the floor littered with dead snakes. At last when it is over, he takes a broom and proceeds to spend another fifteen minutes sweeping all the snakes out of the cabin before walking over to the door. "Lee.. you and the others can come out now.. all of the snakes are now dead.." Colton says, before there is an anxious 5 minutes of waiting and listening to sobs and crying before Lee finally works up the courage to say, "Thank you."
He unlocks the bathroom door, and allows it to open, letting the Apollo Cabin funnel out past Colton. Michael, however, seems to have recovered quicker than his siblings on this occasion because before Colton can do anything, Yew grabs him by the collar and chucks him into the bathroom before he props a chair up against the door, and just starts laughing.
"WHAT THE HADES, YEW?!" Colton shouts, before the sobs of a familiar female behind him remind him of why he even went into the cabin in the first place. He turns around and he swears, it feels like his heart splits in two.
Kayla's in the bathtub, in just a pair of fancy slippers, a white t-shirt, and her underwear, holding her teddy bear, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably again.
In an instant, he's put down the sword and hopped into the bathtub, gently pulling his terrified friend into a gentle hug. Gently patting her back, he doesn't get up out of the bathtub, he just stays in there, calmly saying as she sobs, "It's gonna be alright. Your hero is here, Kayla. You're safe now."
For a while, all the sounds outside vanish and it's just the two of them. Gradually, she calms down, going from terrified to just being happy and satisfied. He doesn't let go, and she doesn't feel like wanting to make him.
He forgets how long he stays in there with her, all he knows is that it's long enough that when Sherman eventually comes into the cabin, removes the chair, and comes across the sight of the two in the bathtub, Kayla now peacefully napping in her hero's grasp, Colton has to swear his younger sibling to secrecy and to tell no one of this or he'll come and kick his ass.
Sherman eventually breaks the oath next summer.
- — - — - — - — -
Day Two
Evening
Many of the campers have already gone back into their cabins, feeling dejected and tired after the events of the day, but Colton remains at the campfire, with what had once been a smoldering pit of embers earlier for the most part now glowing brightly for him. He doesn't know why he's still there for the most part. He just doesn't feel like sleeping with his siblings for the most part.
He thinks of Clarisse and wonders how she's doing. A letter she had written yesterday had made its way into camp in the afternoon and his siblings were all taking turns reading back in the cabin, but Colton wasn't interested. All he knows is that she must be doing what she has to.
She's not alone in that monster infested area though. Sherman had informed him when he found him and Kayla in the tub that Annabeth, Percy, and Tyson were gone from their cabins, thus forcing Tantalus to make the rules stricter, much to Colton's frustration.
Everywhere, he sees campers struggling to keep themselves optimistic and hopeful in the face of this anti-fun assault unleashed upon them.
He hates it.
It breaks his heart almost as much as seeing Kayla in the bathtub that morning. By this point, he starts to accept that their friendship is a bit closer than he first imagined. Is he okay with it? Yes.
Either way, she's what keeping him going for the most part through these trying times, which says a lot about how he much has changed in the past four days.
He's interrupted from his reverie by the sound of Lee, who's in his night clothes, coming down with a teary-eyed Kayla in tow. "What are you even still doing out here Colton?" Lee asks him.
"To be honest Fletcher, I don't know.." he says, wanting to yawn but stopping once he sees Kayla. In an instant, he's gotten off of his butt, and taken the girl in a hug. "Can't sleep?" he asked Lee.
"Nightmares. Both those hated snakes and those Stymphalian Birds. She's really been shaken up the past couple of days.. she can't even sleep without you now."
Colton just sighed. As much as he wanted this to be a joke, he knew that it wasn't. He thought of Apollo and how it must pain him to see his daughter shaken up beyond belief, scared out of her mind and thinking nowhere is safe except with her hero.
And so, he ends up sleeping with her in his arms, teddy bear pressed between them, a smile on her lips, and possessive thoughts slowly creeping into his head, because he knows from the sounds of murmurs in the cabin that his male siblings, except Sherman, are jealous as hell.
(A/N: This is another fanfic shout out to Az56796743 who is doing a fanfic on Luke Castellan. In their fanfic, Luke and the girl he eventually falls for, the Demi-primordial daughter of Gaea, sleep in the same bed as friends at one point. Given how Kayla basically is shaken up, which let's be honest, only underscores how difficult things must have been at Camp Half Blood at this point, is a far-cry from the archer we most often see her as.)
- — - — - — - — -
Day 3
Morning
He ends up taking her with him on patrol, not minding carrying a sleeping daughter of Apollo with a teddy bear in her arms in his own up to his sniper's perch. It's only 25 minutes after the sun is up that she awakens, and nearly panics for a moment. He's there instantly, calming her down, and she relaxes and smiles.
He gives her a piggyback ride on the way back to her cabin so she can change her clothes, and to Lee, it's honestly one of the cutest things he has ever seen. The sight of Kayla on his back, happy as one could ever be, lifts the campers' spirits at a time when they need it.
- — - — - — - — -
Day 4
Noon
He's out on patrol along the barrier when one of his youngest siblings, Claude who is only just eight, runs up with tears in his eyes. It's unusual for Ares kids to be crying, but no matter who it is, since Sherman isn't around, he acts like a big brother. In an instant, he has Claude in a hug and gently pets his head, trying to get his little brother to calm down.
"Hey buddy.. it's okay.. I'm here.. what's wrong?" He asks. It takes a few minutes of calming him down before he states what the problem is.
"Hector called me a bad word.." he says, trying not to burst back into tears. Fortunately, with the help of his older brother, he succeeds.
His sibling, meanwhile, is made to run 50 laps around the arena before he can join his siblings at the campfire that evening as punishment.
- — - — - — - — -
Day 5
Breakfast
It's now that Sherman has to take over caring for his siblings after Colton's couple of days of acting like a good sibling, because Tantalus was being an absolute asshole to.. everyone.
It was really pissing Colton off.. and the only one who could even keep him under control most of the time was.. Kayla.
Even Sherman noticed by now, that he devoted enough time to being with her as a friend that just her being around him kept his anger in check. How long that would last, he wasn't all that sure.
What was true that since the third night, Colton had commandeered Clarisse's queen sized bed for him and Kayla, having used some of his time to write up a note for Clarisse explaining his actions. As cute as it was to some, the fact that his brother and her still viewed themselves as friends was definitely frustrating.
Having Percy and Annabeth being clueless as heck about their feelings for each other was bad enough, having two potential couples oblivious.. it made Sherman want to rip his hair out sometimes. (A/N: Yeah, he definitely can't stand it. Lol.)
Right now at Breakfast, was a perfect example of Kayla keeping Colton in check. Travis had said to the kids of the Hermes Cabin that they would fly on actual pegasi this morning, and one of the youngest, Avery, had accidentally bumped straight into Tantalus while walking to breakfast, who proceeded to berate the girl and then punish the whole cabin.
Colton tried to get up from his seat, but a gentle tug on him by Kayla had him sitting back down, content to glare in bitter hatred at Tantalus. It was weird to say the least, it was like Kayla was basically acting as a way to keep his fatal flaw in check.
Even so, Sherman knew full well that the pressure was building inside of Colton, and it was only a matter of time before his brother full on snapped. He only hoped he wasn't in the crossfire when that happened.
- — - — - — - — -
Day 6
11 am
"God, he's such a bitch!" Travis complained to Colton, who simply nodded.
It was no secret that the older of the two head counselors of the Hermes Cabin wanted to wring Tantalus' neck out of pure fury and send him back to the Fields Of Punishment at this point.
Colton couldn't blame him.
He had cracked down hard on the Hermes Cabin throughout these complex and difficult days, banning pranks on Day Two after a whoopee cushion incident in the afternoon. It didn't necessarily help that the girl Tantalus berated yesterday, Avery, was by now a nervous sobbing wreck, and only had managed to be calmed down last night by Silena's intervention.
It was cruel, it was horrible, it was disgusting. It was all three of those things.
With every time he saw him, Colton couldn't help but be reminded of just how much Tantalus proved that on a basic thought level, Luke had been correct. The Gods had, for the most part, grown cold and uncaring about their children, and Tantalus exemplified this. It was bad enough that Travis had been able to convince him to be on board with his plan - that he had managed to convince the other cabins of - of revolting on Tantalus through pranks.
Those stupid rules of Zeus prevented the good ones from intervening on behalf of their kids, which at this point, Colton had to believe that probably most of the Olympians fell into this category of those who wanted to intervene but couldn't.
He would later receive a message from Apollo later on that day indicating how correct Colton was in that assessment.
But the bottom line, Colton could feel something stirring inside of him. Something that wanted to fight.
For better or worse, the final confrontation was drawing close.
- — - — - — - — -
Day Seven
Afternoon
He was sharpening his sword - the one he used for Capture The Flag, which had a longer than average blade stained with both monster blood and blood from other campers that in a rare instance of his Ares' side showing, he had refused to allow anyone to clean the blood off - when the final straw arrives.
He was by himself in the armory - Sherman was managing their siblings - when Travis bursts in, face full of horror and out of breath. Colton takes one look at him and his blood runs cold when he realizes.
"How bad is it?" Colton simply asks, and Travis takes a few moments to gather his breath before he can respond. The sound of crying rises through the silence, making the point more clear to him.
"Very bad.." Travis responds, and in an instant, Colton is on his feet, the two boys racing back towards the source. He's left the sword in the armory, probably requiring some more sharpening since he dropped it, but he doesn't care.
When he arrives at the scene at the arts and crafts area, his anger level goes through the damn roof and then some. Kayla's crying and so is Will too. Lee and Michael are watching Tantalus walk off, fury on their faces. Nearby, a destroyed painting of some of the campers having fun lays on the floor, in pieces and smudged. The other campers, including Colton's own siblings, are horrified.
Colton turns to Travis, and Travis goes from horrified to terrified. Colton's eyes have somehow gone from brown to blood red now, and he has a glare of fury so intense it looks like that he could kill Kronos without a second thought.
"What. Happened?" Colton says, anger seeping like crazy through his words, and Travis doesn't waste a second before responding.
"Apollo Cabin was making stuff, and Kayla and Will collaborated on a really beautiful painting of many campers, including you, having a good time like in the past" Travis explained. "They invited everyone over to see it, and they were planning on showing you. When Tantalus came in, he berated the entire Apollo Cabin, said he could do better. Then he broke the painting.. and spent the next five minutes insulting both Will and Kayla before leaving."
Colton simply nodded, and then his eyes turned back to brown in front of Travis, though the intensity of his glare still remained. Then, he set to work calming down both sobbing Apollo kids, but Travis now knew something that the rest of the camp didn't.
Colton was far more different than other Ares' kids than even Clarisse had realized.
He had an omen then that it wouldn't be long before whatever was lurking inside the boy would make its presence felt. Because for him to have his eyes go blood red, that was not normal. Not even for Colton.
Travis only hoped that Clarisse would come back soon, since it was likely that it was only a matter of days or even hours now before Colton finally lost it, and so completely that not even Kayla could stop him from going at Tantalus.
Travis felt worried and sick. On the one hand, they might succeed in driving Tantalus away from camp. But on the other hand, they might have to find out just how deep the dark side of one of their own goes in the process. He certainly didn't want to find out the latter, because Colton was one of the more calmest Ares kids he had ever known. Surely, he couldn't be worse than Clarisse when he got completely pissed off.
Could he?
(A/N: Things have reached a tipping point, it seems. Tantalus has seemingly poked the bear and it will only be a matter of time before he finds out how wrong that move was. As for Colton's eye color change, that's just a sneak preview of what's inside him. Since the quest for the Golden Fleece apparently takes 8 days in the book, it only seemed natural that I set it up so that the collision between Colton and Tantalus becomes completely unavoidable by the end of the seventh day. Hope you also enjoyed the ship tease moments between Colton and Kayla, and how close the two are becoming.)