II
Ajax, the tinier of the two, twitched as he examined the donut box in Jack's hands. Like Jack often did, he said no one could eat until Flynn had come back over. The gesture made Flynn sigh and hope he wouldn't starve if she never came home from battle.
If she had to guess, Luke just finished selling their cause to the older boy. Axel leaned more into his seat, his eyes wide, as Luke enlisted the horrors the Greek gods had committed. A Cyclops and nymph from the next table leaned over their seats to listen. Judging by the kid's expression, Luke would be much better at recruiting the older boy, and Jack would be much better for the little one.
By the time she was within hearing range, Luke was saying, "And you already started pretty well on combating the corruption of the West. That's a pretty solid trophy you've got there."
Jack made a slicing motion across his neck to tell Luke to cut it out on the trophy.
Without Flynn around, Jack grinned down at the two boys across from him and Luke, like they really were his babies. She wanted to point out that these weren't hell hounds. They weren't Alabaster's failed "guinea pigs." These were two teenage boys, one of which must have only been a couple of years younger than Jack.
But Jack looked so happy.
While examining the excitement in his light eyes, the opera's overture came to her. Jack had painstakingly learned all of the Mandarin words and the intonations of the first act so he could give Nǎinai and Flynn a live performance. His angelic hum echoed in her memory from when Jack tried to replicate a Huangmei singer. He had failed at mimicking the trills, but he still sounded wonderful and made Nǎinai spill some happy tears.
Something in Flynn broke.
She groaned. They needed to set some ground rules on discussing major decisions and, likely, what counted as a major decision. Thank the titans that Jack didn't have access to a credit card or Ebay.[ footnote 1]
Lucille watched from the counter as Flynn approached the table.
Jack's smile fell again. He struggled to make eye contact with her, his brow furrowing in shame.
The smaller boy noticed. His hazel and brown eyes widened as he glanced from Axel, to Jack, to Flynn. His cheeks puffed up and popped in a way that made Flynn think he looked like a chipmunk.
Flynn surprised herself with a laugh.
Jack perked up.
"Everything okay with Lucille?" Luke asked, eyeing the donut box like the others.
She nodded.
Jack opened up the box and shoved them towards the center.
Despite their polite patience before, Axel and Ajax descended upon the treats like there had been a famine. She wondered if anyone had thought to feed the boys after Axel's fight.
Axel devoured one of his chocolate glazed donuts in two bites.
Ajax stacked all three of his donuts—two of his own and one from Jack—and attempted to bite all three at once, maybe to combo the flavors. Jelly seeped down his cheeks.
The older boy snapped something to the younger boy in Spanish.
The younger boy's eyes went wider and he scooted further down the chair, holding his donuts close to him, as though he feared Axel might take them.
Axel sighed, lifted his second donut, and munched on it much slower, staring out the window thoughtfully. From what Flynn had seen on their way in, they were somewhere in the bogs of Virginia and the scenery looked as muggy as the air felt.
Flynn motioned for Jack to scoot closer to Luke so she could sit down. Remembering Luke's question, Flynn said, "Lucille just wanted to talk to me about adjusting to civilian life."
Luke looked a little disappointed. He kept thinking one of the daughters of Aphrodite would take interest in him.
"You're part of Kronos' cause now," Flynn said to the boys, ignoring the way Luke gave an additional wave to Lucille. [footnote 2]
Ajax froze half-way through biting into his triple stack. He glanced at Axel.
Axel shrugged, still staring out the window. "I guess so." After a pause, he added, "I can get behind helping underprivileged monsters."
With his performance on the stage, Axel would probably be put into the Assault and Battery unit. There was no way his little brother could be in the same unit. He was too small.
She wondered what they would think when they did the creepy Pledge Your Soul ceremony or if Jack had forgotten to mention that part.
Jack watched Flynn carefully. One of his hands tugged mindlessly at the red locks.
"If you're going to be here anyway, we're going to have to keep an eye on you," Flynn said.
Jack broke into an enormous smile. He reached for Flynn's hand and hesitated.
She enlaced their fingers. This was going on the ever-increasing list of Things She and Jack Needed To Talk About.
Luke leaned back. "You've gotta be kidding," he said, looking amused at Flynn's compliance.
"Next time," she said to Jack, ignoring Luke as she often did, "Let's start with a Hell pup."
Jack's eyes widened with delight. "Next time?" he asked.
"There will be no next time," she clarified.
Jack didn't seem to mind. He beamed at the boys. His right leg started to bob up and down in his excitement. "Did you hear that boys?! Flynn is officially your Mom!"
Luke coughed back a laugh.
Flynn shot him a glare.
He shrugged. "Sorry, Momma Flynn. Just not something I would expect."
Axel grumbled something in Spanish, keeping his eyes out the window.
The tinier one elbowed him, then paused in munching. He gave them a fragile grin. "We haven't had a Mom in awhile." He tilted his head, examining her. "My little brother is half-Japanese. Are you half-Japanese?"
Flynn thought about what the Japanese soldiers had done to her grandmother and deceased aunts that had left her grandmother's health so fragile, about the things her uncle had witnessed that left him so broken in the head. The things her uncle had passed down to her, through words and action every night before bed, the way some other children got lullabies.
Keeping her tone careful, Flynn said, "I'm half-Chinese."
Ajax bobbed up and down. "That's really cool. I don't know much about China. You guys have a lot of bamboo, right?"
Without looking at his little brother, Axel reached over and swatted Ajax across the back of the head.
Ajax whined, "Ayyyyyeeeee!" again.
"Boys!" Jack said, trying to sound authoritarian. If the tiny one hadn't set her on guard, she might have thought Jack's tone adorable.
"My heritage is not up for discussion," she said. "I'm American. That's all you need to know."
That's all anyone ever needed to know. It was bad enough moving to Jack's tiny Baptist town where she stuck out like an obsidian chip in a cup of clear glass. At least here, the demigod and monster population was diverse. There was more than one daughter of Aphrodite walking around to be whistled at, though all the boys here knew better. Flynn almost missed hearing people choke up when she turned and they saw her disfigured face.
The tiny one blushed and stared at the center of the table. "I'm sorry," he whispered. After a pause, he added, "I like your hair sticks."
Flynn forced herself not to adjust the blades she kept tucked into her hair. She didn't realize she'd been digging her nails into Jack's hand.
This kid didn't know better. She shouldn't get mad if she wasn't willing to teach him.
"The boys were about to tell us what they like to do in their free time, that way we can get them settled in properly," Jack said, winking at the tiny one.
"We were?!" Ajax yipped. He took another massive bite of his donut stack.
"They were?" Luke asked. His amusement wore out. He looked like he wanted an escape and didn't have one on the inside of the bench. She wondered if there were any important meetings happening right now or if Luke's dislike for tiny children (other than his beloved Annabeth) was showing.
Flynn held up a hand, silencing Jack and making him look nervous. There was something both she and Luke needed to know before they broke up this bullshit.
"You," she pointed to Axel, narrowing her gaze to examine his jaw. It looked human. She needed to get something straightened out before Jack became too attached to these two, if he wasn't already. "How did you have the strength to bite through the praetor's skull? Not even demigods can do that."
Axel surprised her with his response. "There are two kids and a Cyclops hanging out along the tree line, watching us," he said, pointing through the window.
Luke and Flynn flinched.
They both followed his gaze outside.
Flynn couldn't believe no one had noticed the bright orange Camp Half-Blood shirts that poked out of the underbrush and the baby Cyclops stuffing his face with a box of donuts.
A scowl tugged her lips. "I wonder who that could be," she said.
Jack sat up, mouth dropping open. "Oh! Oh! Is that Annabeth? I—I never got to meet her when everyone else saw her onboard—I was getting the games ready for the Roman—"
Flynn didn't care about the daughter of Athena. She rose to her feet, touching the blades in her hair.
Luke looked pleased. "Flynn, chill. I told you that I let them go on purpose."
Flynn took a step towards the door. "I heard about your talk with Annabeth and Percy. I heard it went poorly." Something she refused to look at as a "calculated setback."
Luke glowered. "Watch your tongue, daughter of Aphrodite."
Axel glanced from Flynn, to the spies, to Luke. He seemed queasy. "Are we about to fight again?"
Ajax stuffed the rest of his three donuts into his mouth.
Jack shrank back into his seat, like he often did when Luke and Flynn disagreed.
"No," Luke said, "Those demigods are going to do a quest for us, so we don't have to."
"A quest that new recruits could do to prove their loyalty instead of fighting a death match?" Axel asked. His tone was innocent.
Maybe Flynn could get behind "mothering" this kid.
"No," Luke snapped. "Polyphemus is too dangerous and won't barter. We tried. It ended poorly. I need every soul I can have here."
"I could easily lead a task force to kill that Cyclops, just like someone who stole the Zeus' Master Bolt and Hades' Helm of Darkness should be able to easily take the Golden Fleece from under his nose," Flynn said. Phil, their friendly satyr with a criminal record, warned her not to push Luke too far. Phil wasn't here to stop her.
This wasn't the first time Luke had given her that look, one that said he wished Phil hadn't tracked her down as a recruit. He knew she didn't care about his promise of a new world. She just wanted to see this one burn. But, Luke needed her until they got his precious Atlas out from under the sky. Once again, she wondered if he would try to distance her and Jack once Atlas came into the picture.
Flynn sighed and withdrew a blade from her hair. Her locks stayed tight. The blades' hilts were for show and certainly would have cut her hair if she used them as actual hair sticks.
"Where do you think you're going?" Luke demanded. He stood up and slammed a fist on the table.
"To tie up loose ends," Flynn said.
Everyone in the donut shop went quiet.
Jack jumped and clutched at his hair. When he saw Axel and Ajax looking at him, Jack did something he hadn't before. He slowly released his red locks, swallowed, stood, and put one hand on Luke's trembling shoulder while beckoning Flynn with his other. "Hey… hey guys, not in front of the ki—new recruits." The words switched when Jack saw the glint in Luke's blue eyes.
A loud crack sounded outside. Flynn glanced to see an elm tree collapse away from the building.
Then, Monster Donuts shook like it had been hit with an earthquake. The lights flickered. Monsters and nature spirits freaked. The Cyclops that had been seated behind them stood and began to run in circles, clocking his head repeatedly into a sign celebrating the shop's opening.
Luke, Jack, and Flynn were thrown to the ground.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed :D Were you guys thinking these stories wouldn't take direct scenes from Camp Half-Blood's version of events? Stay tuned next week for the final section of Flynn's short to see what happens to the insides of a Monster Donut shop when the hydra fueling gets—oh, right, Clarisse BLOWS IT UP with a freaking canon. Huh. Not Percy, for once. Anyway, stay tuned! And Happy Saturnalia and Solstice to all you pagan lovers out there!
Footnotes:
1 Melbetanote, " 'But, they're for the children, Flynn!' 'THEY DON'T NEED TEN NERF GUNS!'" Author Jack's response, "Flynn's would be lucky that he didn't hire professional actors to reenact all of the Disney movies for them throughout their day."
2 Mel betacomment, "I have to say, BOY A BIT PATHETIC!" Author Jack, "I like to think Selena is the only daughter of Aphrodite who fell for his shit XD"