Timeframe: Several months after the last short. After Sea of Monsters and before Titan's curse.

Big Boy Conversations

"Kronos has been waiting thousands of years. He can wait another decade." The witch boy glowered.

"No—Camp Half-Blood now knows," said the servant of the Titan Lord. "We need to find another way to accelerate his rise."

-Overheard in the Captain's Quarters

For the first time in what felt like years, Luke had a full night's rest. These days were becoming rare: days when his thoughts were his own. No shrieks of Kronos. No passive mutterings about the bitterness of existence (other than his own bitter mutterings). No hisses about how weak Luke was—a demigod, pathetic for needing to sleep, for needing to eat, for needing to do anything other than the mission, for caring for his old friends for—

The tip of Axel's sword would have slashed across Luke's chest guard had he not pivoted backwards.

Luke tried to shake the whispers from his thoughts. Those weren't useful when sword fighting. Kronos wasn't in his head right now. The last thing Luke wanted was Kronos' internal cheerleading when the Titan wasn't around.

Especially when it meant that Luke would lose his sword.

The motion was so quick that Luke didn't have a chance to disengage. He'd gone to lunge for Axel, only to have Axel arch his blade, locking Luke's, and disarming him.

There was a pause.

Luke's sword clattered onto the deck.

For such a short moment that Luke wasn't sure if he'd imagined it, Flynn paused in drilling the younger recruits to scrutinize them.

Then she was barking orders again.

Axel froze.

The jaguar boy's tufted ears tucked low to his hairline. His golden eyes went wide, flicking—as Luke learned they often did—to figure out where his little brother was before returning to Luke. (His little brother was sparring with Mercedes.) He kept his sword in a defensive stance, the tip shuddering, like he feared Luke would blast him off the ship with some hidden Sith Lord power.

Fear, Luke realized. Kronos would have been thrilled that Axel's reaction to winning a bout was fear. Axel may have won this, but he still knew his place.

It made Luke feel sick. This soldier would fight alongside him in Kronos' honor guard. Or…. Or they would protect Luke himself, depending on how the Titan Lord chose to reform. Luke chewed his lip. Would Luke be himself anymore if that happened? If Kronos took over his body? That sense of nausea twisted his stomach tighter.

Either way, he should have been excited, if not proud, that Axel had bested him.

The sight of Axel's fear made him sick for another reason. It reminded Luke of his nightmares about Thalia's eyes, wide and brimmed with horror upon seeing him. That was the last thing he wanted from her. [footnote] Those nightmares, like Kronos' cheerfulness, were distractions while training.

Luke gave Axel a smile, hoping it didn't twitch. "Nice disarm, dude," he cheered. Sometimes, he forgot how to make his voice sound encouraging.

Several people had stopped at the sound of his sword. When Luke laughed, picked up an iced towel from a bowl filled with them, and threw it directly into Axel's face, everyone relaxed.

Pax—Axel's fluttery, excitable little brother—braced to run to Axel, probably to tackle hug him. As soon as he exposed his back, Flynn rolled her eyes. She made a hand motion and Mercedes—Pax's partner—immediately tackled the tinier boy to the deck.

Luke picked up an ice towel for himself and wrapped it around his shoulders. "You're improving fast," he said.

Axel tossed his sword onto a designated weapons mat. Sweat soaked the loose strands of his bun to the back of his neck. When he and Pax trained, they rejected dirtying shirts unnecessarily. This definitely distracted most of the girls, some of the boys, and quite a few monsters.

"Thanks," Axel said. He wiped his chest down with his towel. From what Luke had heard, Pax and Axel did a separate training regiment to maintain their skills as acrobats. It showed on their muscle tones, and Luke wondered, passively, if they'd let him join. Or if Kronos would let him. The Titan Lord might consider it a waste of time.

"Axel, what are you doing for the rest of today?" Luke asked. He glanced around the deck. Everywhere you looked, demigods were attacking dummies, practicing with monsters, playing in the pool, or shoving at each other. Jack provided background music with an acoustic guitar.

Nearby, Lucille, a friendly daughter of Aphrodite, helped their youngest pledge pick up her first sword. Charlene, or Charlie as everyone called her, was five years old. Everyone loved her, including the monsters. While her mother, Ethel (though everyone called her Echidna), was cold and distant, Charlie was outgoing and feisty. She'd be a strong warrior one day, and—from the amount that she could already shock others—a powerful child of Zeus and granddaughter of Summanus.

Too young for the prophecy, the voice of Kronos cooed inside of him.

Luke shook his head.

He wanted to be excited that Charlie was picking up her first sword and being taught by her step-momma. He didn't want to be excited that Charlie could one day slay a sea cow to rule the cosmos. No wonder Zeus rebelled against Kronos if he wanted to give those kind of bedtime stories.

This was one of their days off. After practice, everyone would have free time. Morpheus had lulled Kronos' sarcophagus essence into a daze, claiming it was good for his regeneration and Luke's sanity. These days were becoming rare. Normally, Luke would take Jack to the Monster Mash club to throw back a few beers, but they were on the wrong coast for that. Feeling the warmth of the breeze, he realized they were probably along the wrong continent.

Axel looked uncertain. He picked up one of the water jugs that Ethel and Charlie had set out for the training troops. He nodded his thanks to Ethel. She leaned stiffly against the pool railing and scowled at the ground by Axel's feet. Axel had, gently, been encouraging her to make eye contact with men without electrocuting them.

"Um, we'd have to ask Jack," Axel said. Luke shook his head. You asked Axel if he had free time.

Jack scrambled over alongside them, playing a short, mysterious tune like a theme for his arrival. Whenever Flynn was busy, Jack hovered around Axel and Pax to scold them or give them encouragement, like "a proper father." Luke had originally assumed Jack would forget this whole parenting thing within a few months, lost to another one of his crazy ideas. With the continuous doting, Luke now wondered if Jack and Lucille would start an Adopt-a-Demigod club. Most of the demigods aboard had such fucked up histories; a Big Brother and Sister program to mentor tiny demigods would actually be a good idea. He shuddered to think of Jack enacting it. Jack would add Adopt-a-Demigod family hour before the morning Demigod-Monster meditation sessions.

"Yes?" Jack sang. He almost his balance as he leaned backwards with his acoustic guitar as though it were electric.

Luke balanced him, smirking.

"Do we have music practice today?" Axel asked.

"Band practice," Jack corrected, his broad smile exuding excitement. He set his guitar to the side. "We're another month, a keyboardist, and band name away from our first concert, Mr. Guitarist."

He went to ruffle Axel between his tufted ears, but Axel swatted his hand away. The boy tried to look annoyed. Those ears gave him away, perked up and alert. "You're not my dad. And, if you were, you couldn't be both my dad and the lead singer of our rock band."

"I can and I will," Jack said, "I'll be the coolest dad in history."

His incessant cheeriness and attention had been wearing Axel's moopiness down over the last few months. Jack's attitude also helped Luke when doom and gloom of everything got to him.

Maybe this was why Axel and Pax worked so well with Jack. It gave him two toys that had to follow through on all of his crazed ideas. Sometimes, they were even excited about the odd plans. It definitely made Luke and Flynn's lives easier.

"Yes to band practice. You won't become the best guitarist in mythological history without practice!" Jack said.

In his peripheral vision, Luke could see Lou Ellen steal Mercedes' nose. Well, he guessed Lou Ellen was trying to steal Mercedes' nose. The young witch came away with Mercedes' chin instead. Alabaster was still working on her precision.

In this chaos, Pax managed to crawl out and scurry over. He tackle-hugged Jack. Although Jack towered over him in height, the younger boy almost plowed him over. "Do I get to play the drums again?"

"Yep," Jack said. He struggled to lift Pax. Axel sighed, reached subtly for his little brother's foot, and helped lift Pax into the air. The motion was so slight that Jack probably thought he'd managed on his own.

"Do I get to practice rap-screaming?!" Pax asked.

"Only if you take the proper precautions to protect your vocal cords. We need a screamer, and I don't have the right set of vocal cords for—"

A spear lodged into the deck between Jack's feet. He shrieked, dropping Pax. Pax and Axel found their footing easily. Jack almost fell over.

A tall boy with black armor and grey underclothing walked over, jerking the spear from the ground casually. "Sorry," Alabaster said, "Someone had a bad throw."

For a split second, his glittering green eyes narrowed at Luke. Luke would bet that one of Hecate's brats had been aiming directly at him, likely under Alabaster's orders.

"Work on your family's aim, Torrington. I expect perfection with all of your boasting," Luke growled.

A new recruit nearby giggled, "Draco should learn some honing spells."

Alabaster was already walking back towards his siblings, like he hadn't heard.

"Witch Boy gives me the creeps sometimes," Jack said, dusting himself off.

Luke would never admit to it, since he knew Alabaster would enjoy any show of weakness or fear from him, but Luke often worried Alabaster had little voodoo dolls of everyone aboard the ship. He understood Jack's feelings.

"He's not bad once you spend some time with him," Axel said.

"Or maybe he's just had time to bewitch you two," Jack said. The grin returned to his face.

At some point during the altercation, Pax dove behind Axel. He poked his head past one of Axel's arms, intently watching Alabaster return the spear to an empousa. The lovely girl with the donkey foot winked at Luke. She giggled to Lou Ellen, who was now limping. Mercedes must have taken her chin back from the little witch and given her a warning of what would happen next time she took it.

Lout Ellen stuck her tongue out at them.

Jack reached around to pinch Pax's ear. "The Witch Boy has definitely bewitched one of you. Or was it Lou Ellen that did that?"

Luke was so intent on keeping his troops trained, setting up everything for the rise of the Titans, and keeping up with the goings in New Rome and Camp Half-Blood, he often forgot how much drama and gossip happened on the ship. With the thought of Thalia turning back from a tree, he couldn't get himself to talk to anyone about their crushes. Jack just… prattled about Flynn. But, it was nice to hear Jack talk. Maybe he should have paid more attention to the politics aboard the ship, if it meant the Witch Boy was gaining more loyalty.

Pax went bright red. "No!" he cried too fast. "I just—I think he and Lou Ellen are cool." When Pax noticed Luke's gaze, he tucked completely behind his brother's back, mumbling an apology in what sounded like Spanish.

There was that fear again. Luke's gut twisted to realize that Pax hid when Luke raised his voice against Alabaster.

That's not what Luke wanted right now.

Luke gave them a calming smile. "Hey, Jack and I were going to dock and hang out on the cliffs later tonight. Wanna come?"

"I would need to find a babysitter for Ajax," Axel said, reaching behind his shoulder to pinch Pax's ear.

"I can't come?" Pax's question sounded disembodied. He'd completely vanished behind Axel's torso. Luke had to wonder if one of their acrobatic practices was pretending to move as one person since Pax could vanish whenever he wanted.

"Nope. We'll bring you when you're older. We need to have big boy conversations," Jack said.

That brought Pax from around Axel's back. "Could I play Mortal Kombat with Matthias?! Or watch TV?! Or—or—" His voice dropped to a hopeful whisper, his cheeks rouging again. "Do you think Alabaster would let me help in the lab?"

Jack raised a mischievous eyebrow. "We can make Alabaster let you in the lab."

As they decided Pax's fate for the night, Luke thought over Jack's understatement: "big boy conversations." What Luke needed was a set of people he could trust, ones that wouldn't gossip and would do anything for him, even if that meant killing him for his own good.

Yea. Big boy conversation.

Sorry for the delay! I hope you enjoyed regardless, and as always, thank you for reading! :D I should have part two/the final part of this short out next week!

Footnote:

1 Mel Betanote, "You reap what you sow, a little bit literally considering your god weapon."