"And this is my room" Percy said, nodding towards an ajar door. Artemis looked at it with interest. She had never seen a boy's room
"You want to go in, don't you?" Percy asked with a small chuckle.
"If it's ok with you" Artemis answered. She didn't know why she was being so nice to this male. She just felt the strange need to.
"Alright" Percy tugged the door open and Artemis peered inside.
It was a simple room. There was a bed pushed against one wall with a side table next to it. On the wall opposite was a desk and a couple of shelves filled with small knick knacks and the occasional book or two. The final rays of the sun were streaming through a window on one of the unoccupied walls and there was wardrobe against the last wall. The entire room was painted a pastel shade of blue. There was a carpet on the floor, soft and fluffy. That too was a bright shade of blue. The thing that really caught her eye though, was the picture board hanging above the bed. It almost took up the whole wall. Every inch was covered with pictures. Artemis impulsively took a step forward, wanting to see the photos closely.
Percy noticed what she was looking at. "Go ahead"
That was all the encouragement she needed. She bounded towards the bed and climbed onto it. It was surprisingly soft. She got to her feet so that she was standing on the bed, enabling her to see the photos better. Percy copied her, standing next to her.
"What are all of these photos of?" Artemis asked.
"These" Percy gestured to a big cluster of photos "are the annual camp half blood photos"
Artemis studied them closely. Some people were different ages in different photos while some were in one photo but weren't in another. Some of the scenes in the photos made her want to burst out laughing. In one, two siblings, sons of Hermes she guessed, were being yelled at by a muscular girl covered in pink paint. In another, someone was sitting on Chiron, a feat she didn't know was possible. In yet another, Thalia, her lieutnent, was having lights strung over her and ornaments hung from her shirt curtesy of Percy and another elfish looking boy, Leo was her guess.
"You took these every year?" Artemis questioned.
Percy nodded. "Once or twice a year all the campers would gather round and take a photo on the last day of camp. We did something different for each of them. We didn't even bother getting properly dressed and stuff, we just came as we were and made the silliest poses. It was so much fun and everyone left camp laughing"
"That sounds amazing" Artemis smiled. She wondered if she should do something similar with her hunters. Then she remembered that she might not even have the hunters anymore.
"Why are some people missing?" Artemis asked, wanting to take her mind off that grim thought.
"They didn't survive 'till next year. That was one reason we did it. So we could remember the fallen" Percy said sadly, looking down. Artemis mentally cursed herself for not realizing that.
"Hey" Artemis said softly, noticing that he was about to break down. "That's a great way to remember them. This way they will never truly be lost. They will always live on. In your memories, and in here" Artemis touched his chest, where his heart was. She could feel her face heating up at the contact.
"Thank you" Percy was still fighting off the tears welling in his eyes.
Artemis brushed them away. "Don't cry. Their life may have ended, they may not have been able to be saved, but they were happy. That's all that matters. Not how long there life was, but how they lived it"
"But they should have lived. They-they-they should have been able to fully experience their life" Percy cried.
"Come here" Artemis pulled Percy into a hug. "They did experience life. They lived, they had fun. They may have fallen, but that doesn't mean it's the end of their life. It just means it's the start of the next part of their life"
Percy burried his head in her shoulder and cried. "I know. I know. It just hurts so much."
Artemis held him tighter, rubbing soothing circles on his back. She stayed silent, just holding him and calming him. It hurt her to see him in such pain. Great, another thing she didn't know why she was feeling. Nevertheless, she put the thoughts aside and concentrated on being there. She could feel her shirt getting wet but she didn't really care. That wasn't important right now.
"Gods, why am I breaking down? I should be the one comforting you, you just lost you hunters, not the other way around" Percy said a few minutes of silence later.
"No, Percy. You are just as important. You lost people too" artemis said sternly. "Promise me that you won't put your feelings aside to help me with mine"
Percy stayed silent. That annoyed her greatly.
"Promise me!" Artemis demanded.
"But-" any excuse Percy would have made was cut off by Artemis.
"No Percy. I don't care what you have to say. I can deal with myself just fine. You will not neglect yourself to help me. Something tells me that you have been doing that for far too long" Artemis' entire demeanor changed. She was now furious. He did not need to put himself down and ignore what he was feeling. He had been doing that too much. She would not let that happen anymore.
"I-i promise" Percy stammered.
Artemis softened. "Good. Now tell me about these other photos."
Percy immediately brightened. "This one is one of the seven." He pointed to one of the bigger photos.
In the photo they were all piled up on top of each other. It looked as if it was taken on the deck of the ship, the argo 2. Everyone was smiling widely, all in the middle of trying to untangle themselves from the pile of limbs. They were all making various funny faces, sticking out there tongues or making peace signs. In the background was a satyr waving around a baseball bat.
"When was this taken?" Artemis asked, holding back a fit of laughter.
"Ummm, I think when we first took sail as the Seven" Percy replied.
"You all look so happy" Artemis commented.
"Well, we figured that if we were going on a quest that would most likely result in our deaths then we were allowed to have some fun. Besides, for a few days we were sailing the sea with nothing to do but handle a couple of monster attacks" he said 'most likely to result in our deaths' so casually like he was saying ' i'm going to go to Target or Starbucks or something'. To be honest, it worried Artemis a little bit.
"What about this one?" Artemis questioned, gesturing to a different photo.
"Oh, this was when mine and Jason's otp finally got together" Percy grinned. At Artemis' blank look he elaborated. "When Will and Nico got together. Nico doesn't know that I have this photo. If he did, then I would probably be dead by now"
The photo was of two boys, literally looking like polar opposites. One boy was dressed in all black, Nico, while the other was in the orange camp t shirt with blonde hair, Will. Will had an arm over Nico's shoulders and was kissing his cheek, causing Nico to become flustered and blush furiously.
"They look cute" Artemis smiled.
"Wait, what?" Percy looked dumbfounded.
"What? can I not think couples are cute?" Artemis demanded.
"You can, but I thought with the whole eternal maiden thing..." Percy trailed off.
"I may be a maiden, but that doesn't mean I can't think couples are cute" Artemis rolled her eyes.
"Moving on" Percy said hastily. "This one is of Reyna and Octavian"
The photo showed Reyna standing proudly over a boy with blonde hair, Octavian presumably, that looked like his shoulder was dislocated.
"Did she... judo flip him?" Artemis asked, squinting at the photo.
"Yup. That day was amazing. She took a page out of Annabeth's book. This was a few days before the argo 2 came to Rome. Octavian was nagging Reyna all day about letting greeks into camp and she finally snapped. He shut up after that" Percy explained proudly.
"You seem happy about that" Artemis noticed.
"Of course I was. He was making things much harder than it needed to be. Plus, he killed my panda pillow pet!" Percy exclaimed.
"Do I want to ask?" Artemis inquired.
"Probably not" Percy admitted. Artemis face palmed.
"Is that Thalia?" Artemis noticed another picture.
"Yea. Oh my gods, I remember that day" Percy burst out laughing.
"Explanation?" Artemis asked. She didn't get the photo at all. In it, Thalia was standing in front of Jason with a stapler in one hand and a brick in another, the laughter showing on her face. Behind them stood the seven and Nico who were holding onto each other to stay upright, they were laughing so much.
"Well, the brick and the stapler are his two love interests of course!" Percy said through his laughter. When Artemis looked at him weirdly he burst into a fresh fit of laughter. "Yea, we're weird. You should probably get use to it"
"Oh, believe me, I know weird" Artemis shuddered.
"Oh? Anything you care to share?" Percy asked, amused.
"Well, there was this one time that Hermes walked up to me and said the stupidest thing ever. He said that 'he had a dream that a gummy bear was eating him so when he woke up, he ate some in revenge' then he walked away. As he was leaving the room, a bag of gummy bears materialised and he took it, threw it at the wall, yelled 'die gummy bear scum!' and walked away like nothing happened"
"Oh my gods!" Percy broke down laughing, closely followed by Artemis. "He really did that?"
"Oh, that's nothing compared to some of the things he's done with Apollo" Artemis said, shivering as though it was actually terrifying. Which, considering some of the pranks and stupid things they have done, it probably was.
"Percy! Dinner will be ready in 5 minutes!" both Percy and Artemis heard Sally yell.
"I didn't even get to show you your room yet" Percy frowned.
"It's ok. You can show me after dinner." Artemis shrugged. "Besides, we have time for one more story"
"Well, this one was pretty funny to see" Percy said pointing at a photo.
Artemis studied it. Nico was standing in front of some sort of stand with Leo. There was a long line in front of them, and Nico had a sack with him.
"what's going on here?" Artemis asked, confused.
"Well, we all thought Leo died, so when he came back Nico made this stand. Basically, if you paid one drachma, you got to punch Leo" Percy smirked.
"You all must have been pretty mad"
"Well, we all thought he died and had grieved then he shows up and it turns out that little schist is still alive!" Percy exclaimed indignantly.
Artemis stifled a laugh. "How much money did Nico make?"
"I swear, he had so much it filled 5 huge jars. That kid bought McDonalds every day for at least 2 years" Percy complained.
"I thought he got drachmas?" Artemis was once again confused.
"Yea, but if we go to Chiron he can get it exchanged to mortal money" Percy explained. "Anyway, we should go to my mom before she gets annoyed and I don't get any food"
"Boys" Artemis snorted, but followed him as he left for dinner.