Alabaster was grateful for the outdoor air. Despite Axel's distraction, he still felt unsettled.

They strolled along the school's sidewalk. The grounds were tastefully decorated—clearly an art school. There were bushes and rails juxtaposed with modern sculptures and painted boards. Everything was illuminated with ground lights.

Alabaster was shocked. Between the dancing and the games, Pax had pushed him through the two hours faster than he thought possible. Although he made it through the obligatory time, he didn't mind staying a little longer. He needed time to think.

While bouncing alongside him, Pax prattled about Dr. Thorn's trick shot in Pin the Sword in the Demigod. Alabaster looked at the skyline and the swirling vortex of Mount Othrys.

"Hey Alabaster, can I ask your opinion on something?"

Alabaster startled. Without intending to, he'd zoned out for the last few seconds of the conversation.

There was a waist-high concrete wall along the path, lined with bushes. Pax hopped atop, setting his plastic cup beside him. He puffed up his cheeks and popped them, kicking his boots against the rock.

Despite the warm night, Pax looked like he was shaking again. As Alabaster suspected, they needed to talk about what happened earlier.

Pax pointed to the rock beside him.

Alabaster sighed and obliged. He set his plastic cup down and quarter turned to face Pax. He didn't want to admit that he'd quoted his grandfather or that he felt socially incompetent. There must have been some excuse for why he had acted that way.

Pax turned fully towards him, pulling his legs up into a pretzel. One of his knees twitched into the bush branches. As Alabaster expected he would, Pax scooted closer, until his shins brushed against Alabaster's leg and his face was—at most—half a foot away. Normally, Alabaster brushed the invasion of space off as typical Pax behavior. But, something made Alabaster think about their dancing: how Pax's hand felt and the slight scent of chocolate that always followed him. Alabaster's discomfort intensified.

"I—um—there's—um—" Pax mumbled, looking at his boots.

Alabaster frowned. The easiest thing to do was apologize. "Ajax—"

"There's a project I'm working on! One I need help with!" Pax blurted.

Relief relaxed Alabaster's shoulders. That wasn't what he'd expected; though, maybe, Pax was derailing them.

"Painting or stitching?" Alabaster asked. Those were the two most typical ones, but Pax sometimes surprised him.

"It's a secret," he said. "But it's—it's something really fragile that I've been working on for a really long time." His shakes worsened. Alabaster could feel them against his leg. Even Pax's buoyant voice took on a weakened quiver.

"Okay. How can I help if I can't have details on it?" Alabaster asked.

Pax had kept a few projects secret before; however, he never asked for advice on those pieces.

"Well… it's…" Pax half-puffed his cheeks and inhaled. "It's… already really beautiful. It's one of my favorites, actually." The child of Eris glanced at Alabaster. His crazy hair half-concealed his smile so Alabaster could only see the glisten of his golden eye. "But it is really fragile—like a sneeze from Charlie aimed the wrong way could shatter it. And I'm really scared of breaking it. But… but recently…" Pax swallowed. "Recently, I thought of a way I could make it more beautiful. Stunning and wonderful. More beautiful than a Reese sundae."

His shy smile turned dopy. "And… and I think I would like that. But I would have to tamper with it and I'm really scared of breaking it. I don't think I can repair it if I break it. Do you think… Do you think…"

Without looking, Pax reached for Alabaster's sleeve, missed, and settled his hand atop Alabaster's instead. With how much Pax was struggling to speak, Alabaster decided to ignore the motion. He didn't want to distract him by moving away.

Pax raised his chin, eyes wide. "Do you think I should risk destroying something beautiful, and something I really like, in order to possibly make it more awesome?"

For once, Alabaster didn't need to ponder over an answer. "Yes," he said. "If there is a chance of improvement, I think progress outweighs the possibility of failu—"

Pax leaned forward, cupped Alabaster's cheek with his spare hand, and pressed their mouths together. The smell of chocolate overwhelmed his senses. Pax's lips were soft, as was the hair that tickled Alabaster's collar.

Oh… was all Alabaster could think. As he did at the beginning of the night, Alabaster felt very stupid. Alabaster didn't remember making a conscious decision about what to do next. One moment, Pax was kissing him, and the next moment, Pax was on the concrete walkway. Alabaster had pushed him hard—too hard. All he wanted was to get Pax away, to have a moment to think, but Pax didn't have time to land properly. He slammed onto his side and clutched his arm. His face contorted in shock and pain.

Alabaster was stunned, both by the kiss and his own ensuing panic. Now was the time for a disinterested, calculated comment to diffuse the situation. Alabaster's heartbeat was thundering in his head, preventing any such comments from entering his consciousness. When he tried, all he got was his grandfather's disgusted grimace and sneer, "Magic? An excuse to be a fag having satanic orgies in the forest. If you want to help him, train to become a doctor, not to sodomize animals. You whimsical fool."

There were few times he'd felt speechless. Once was when Luke hit him. It sent him back to the only other time Alabaster had been hit, the last time he'd been speechless: at his father's hospital bed, where his grandfather had slapped him. Alabaster often wondered if it was because, secretly, his grandfather wanted the magic to work, and Alabaster's failures to save his father's life cracked his grandfather's last hope. Like Alabaster had killed him instead of the cancer.

This isn't the time for that. Say something! His mouth had gone dry.

Pax's mouth twitched. Alabaster anticipated any possible rebuttals, like a good chess master should.

But, you danced with me?

I didn't know it meant that to you.

But, you make it seem like you care about me.

I do care about you. We're friends.

One of the few people Alabaster considered a friend.

Pax didn't speak. His mouth trembled closed. He lunged into a run, keeping his arm cradled as he disappeared around a corner.

The paralysis broke. Alabaster stumbled to his feet. "Ajax…" he muttered.

A fragile project that Pax had been working on a really long time, one he was afraid of destroying: their friendship.

"You idiot." Alabaster didn't know if he meant it for himself or the younger boy. He needed time to think, to figure this—

The bushes rustled behind him. "What is wrong with you?" A flash of red erupted. Jack shimmied his way through the bush, stood on the concrete wall, and folded his arms. "How dare you treat my boy like that! Do you have any idea how long we've been psyching him up to do that?"

Matthias's head poked out from behind the bushes. Sparks spattered near him. Lou Ellen must have cast an invisibility spell, likely to cower from Alabaster's wrath.

And did he feel wrathful. "You were spying on us?!"

"Of course I'm spying on you. You two need a chaperone after all! My little Ajax going on his first date and you think he can go unescorted with an apparent ruffian like you—you could have broken his arm!"

Alabaster was too angry to be relieved that he hadn't. Jack would have sensed a broken arm. He scowled. "Ajax's first—Oh, how typical. You drag someone into your delusional Flash fantasy land and just assume we'll all follow the script."

"The script would have been fine if you weren't such an insensitive jerk!" Jack raised his chin.

Alabaster seethed. He could eviscerate Jack off this planet with a word, knocking out one of Camp Othys' powerhouses. This wasn't the first time he'd been the temptation. Magic was so underestimated by the modern heroes. They should have paid more attention to their Homeric classics.

"You didn't even consider that—" Alabaster held a hand up to stop himself. His fingers shook with rage. One wrong curse or hand motion and he might make Jack a different kind of redhead by searing off his scalp. And over what? A child's infatuation?

Matthias cleared his throat. "I need to go put all these fireworks away," he said, hefting up a box. The Nordic boy took several calculated steps backwards. He almost tripped on the uneven ground behind the bush. Serious confrontations never were Hanson's strong point. Alabaster could only speculate why Hanson had a box of fireworks. Titans forbid if Alabaster had wanted Pax to kiss him and that oaf decided to set those off.

"Al…" Lou Ellen whimpered from her invisibility spell.

A hum purred from Jack's throat. It would have been innocuous from another, but a deadly threat from him. Alabaster wondered if Jack even knew that he was doing it. That a disgusting similarity between them: the ability to kill with ease and without intention.

"Flash, you're a loose cannon that ought to be locked up in a psyche ward, not left to haphazardly assert your reality onto others. You're like a sick Rottweiler." Alabaster sighed, rubbing his temple and reminding himself that Jack was too much a simpleton to understand. If only Luke and Flynn had disciplined him earlier instead of giving him more power.

Jack's disapproving expression melted. "Did—did you just compare me to a cute puppers?"

Alabaster clenched his fist. He could handle Jack being crazy; he couldn't handle him being an idiot.

"Jack!" Lou Ellen cried, "Someone needs to go check on Pax. He'll—he'll be crushed by this. He needs you right now."

Jack tugged at his hair. "You're right! Oh, Ajax, my poor, broken-hearted boy! This isn't over, scoundrel!" With the last, bitter comment, Jack took off in the direction Pax had run.

The invisibility spell might catch the bush on fire if it sparked any more. Lou Ellen must have been nervous. "I know Jack is delusional and everything, but… you could have been nicer to Pax," the sparks mumbled.

Alabaster exhaled deeply. The younger boy's look of shock and pain replayed in his memory, filling in details that probably hadn't been there: the redness of Pax's eyes, a comment dying on his lips.

Jack's assumptions made Alabaster so angry, but, this was no way to act in front of his little sister. Like a raging ape. "You're correct, Lou Ellen," he said, forcing his voice as devoid of emotion as possible, "An appropriate apology is in order—only for the aggressive response, not for the rejection itself…" He examined the flittering sparks. He needed to be calm for this next question. "Have you been encouraging this behavior in Pax?"

A hiccup. Lou Ellen was sniffling. "I don't know. You always seem more at ease with him."

Alabaster frowned. "I… I am. But, I…" He traced through his interactions with others. "I'm not interested in boys in that capacity." He never got uncomfortable around the boys in the camp's thermae. [footnote 1] But, with the girls? When they went for a swim on one of California's beaches, he had crumbled with humiliation under Lucille's teasing. He was thankful Mercedes wore full-body swimsuit so he could talk to her without blushing.

Pax was a boy. That should be the end of it. Why, then, did he feel uncomfortable when he thought about Pax as Axel's little sister? The image haunted him: Pax as some flat-chested girl half-drowned in her friend's borrowed clothing.

Alabaster didn't want a relationship with anyone, right? Relationships started foolish fights that ended in childish resentment and misunderstanding. What was the point of it all? They had so much more to worry about.

Was the objective to have a reason to fight? His reason was clear: to end tyranny, something—Alabaster's stomach churned—that seemed less likely each time Kronos peeled away a layer of Luke. Alabaster had never liked Luke. The child of Hermes was weak, emotional, and illogical. However, he understood Luke's purpose in the overall plan: he was a charming, handsome mascot to their cause. Now, "he," this new hybridized Kronos-Luke, was becoming dangerous, a thug like the gods they strove to destroy.

How could Alabaster bring up this concern with anyone? He thought about Mercedes' dark gaze when she had interrogated him. Should she have been suspicious of him? Could he ethically help a monster like Kronos to a position of power..?

He wanted to talk to Axel. That's someone Alabaster felt like he could trust. Would their friendship be ruined if he rejected Axel's little brother?

This was too complicated.

He rubbed his eyes wearily. "Lelly, how long has Pax espoused these emotions?"

He must have successfully exuded a calming aura. The invisibility spell sputtered out, leaving Lou Ellen seated on the edge of the wall. Her knees were tucked up against her and she refused to make eye contact. "Around the same time I realize Axel was a hunk of feline sexiness."

The wording choked Alabaster. "And when exactly did you realize…" Alabaster sighed. "That Axel was 'a hunk of feline sexiness?'"

"When you pulled his Mist mask off." She aimed the words at the ground.

So, a superficial crush. This didn't have to make their relationship weird. It was an infatuation. Alabaster was an older, wiser person that Pax spent a lot of time with. He held access to the mystical and mysterious, two things Pax seemed to admire. If not Alabaster, it would have likely been a different child of Hecate or—Alabaster snorted. Mysterious. Why couldn't Pax have plagued Mercedes with these emotions? She was immune to Pax's annoyance and charm. [footnote 2]

All Alabaster had to do was craft an apology and get Pax comfortable around him again. Then, he could discuss potential insurrection with Axel. A sardonic smirk curled his lips. "Lelly," he said, staring at the swirl of Mount Othrys, "Bring me my library card."

"Library card?" she asked skeptically.

"If you so distinctly heard me the first time, Lelly, you needn't repeat me for clarity."

"Yea, but… library card? Not spell book? Or—"

"Now."

Author's note: Thanks for reading! I feel like this piece was a little scattered. The part up to the kiss was written, like, a year ago, and I scrambled to try pulling it together from there. I hope you enjoyed regardless! Stay tuned in two weeks for the last installment of the Delicate Dance of Chance to see how Alabaster makes it up to Pax. And, maybe, how Pax makes Alabaster question a lot of things about himself. XD he's good at doing that to people.

Footnotes:

1 Greek bathing unit

2 *giggle*