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Michael wasn’t exactly surprised when a satyr found him and told him he was a demigod. He was a bit of a mythology nerd and he new he had something to do with all of the jewels appearing around him. What really shocked him was that at his first day at camp during dinner a hologram like pomegranate appeared above his head disappearing only a few moments later. He was kind of excited about Hades being his father whereas everyone else looked more scared than happy. He didn’t figure out why everyone was looking at him like he was about to kill them all. Even the kids of Hermes who he was sitting with refused to tell him let alone look at him.
So by the time dinner was over Michael’s excitement started to where off and a feeling of homesickness started to settle in. He went back to the Hermes cabin to get his things from the little area on the floor next to all other sleeping bags and felt a bit distraught when he couldn’t find the Hades cabin. He wounded up back at the Hermes cabin knocking on the door. A curly haired boy with seemingly permanent dimples greeted him. “Hey buddy, back so soon?” the boy said. “Uh, I um can’t find the Hades cabin?” Michael said. “Oh,” the boys face darkened, “ I can take you there if you want?” he said seeming less than eager. Michael nodded. “My names Ashton by the way,” he said holding out a hand. “Michael,” Michael said while taking his hand and barely shaking it.
As Ashton lead him to the cabin Michael found the courage to ask him, “why is everyone so… weird about me being a son of Hades?” Ashton was silent for a while before answering, “Well Hades is sort of a spooky god, and he doesn’t usually claim his kids like he claimed you so I guess maybe they think you’re special or something,” he said while looking at anywhere but Michael. “So Hades has never claimed his kids?” Michael asked, not realizing that Ashton was getting uncomfortable. “No but some of them had figured it out. That’s the cabin right over there,” Ashton said pointing over to one of the cabins. “Thanks man,” Michael said as Ashton walked away.
Michael walked into the cabin and was greeted by a boy with olive colored skin and dark black hair. “Um I think I’m supposed to be in this cabin?” Michael said feeling oddly shy. “Yeah Michael right?” Michael nodded, “I’m Nico,” he said shaking Michael’s hand. “You can put your stuff down here and you can sleep in this bunk,” Nico said pointing over to one of the bunks. “Lights out is in a few minutes so you should get settled in,” Nico said getting back into his bunk. Michael didn’t bother changing out of his clothes and settled straight under the blanket. “What do you guys normally do around here?” Michael asked. “We train,” Nico said. Michael didn’t really understand what he meant but he was too tired too care.
The next morning Michael was awoken by Nico. Disgruntled, Michael sat up rubbing his eyes. “You need to get up or you’ll miss breakfast,” Nico said. Michael grumbled something incoherently and got out of bed taking the only pair of jeans and T-shirt he had time to grab before leaving home out of his backpack. He followed the boy to the restrooms and took a quick shower and upon realizing he forgot his tooth brush, rinsed out his mouth several times and rubbed his finger furiously against his teeth until they were as clean as he could get them. He ruffled up his still wet black hair [lets pretend Michael has black hair for the sake of being the son of Hades] and walked out of the bathroom to where Nico was standing. “We’ve got to hurry or we’ll miss breakfast and then I’m supposed to show you around,” Nico said.
So after a rushed breakfast of delicious pancakes and hot chocolate at the Hades table with Nico they were walking around the camp. “Do you have any other siblings?” Nico asked as they passed by the stables. “Yeah. Step-siblings. They live with my Step-dad though.” Michael’s parents had gone through a messy split up a few years ago all because Michael was ‘a bit too weird’ and ‘the kids aren’t safe around him.’ It wasn’t really Michael’s fault that the things that happened did. For example when Michael got upset he noticed that the ground opened up, the kids who were chasing him around getting their feet stuck in the cracks and breaking them horribly. Michael shook all thoughts of home out of his head because the feeling was coming back.
“Do you have any siblings?” Michael asked. “Yeah, a sister. She left me to become a huntress though,” Nico said sadly. “Well don’t worry buddy you’ve got me now,” Michael said trying to cheer Nico up. Nico was a very cheery and happy kid but at the mention of his sister he kinda just drooped. Nico continued showing him around explaining what they did in each of the parts of training. Michael liked the look of archery and seeing as his next activity was archery he was very excited. Since there were only two of them in the Hades cabin they got put in most of their activities with the Apollo cabin.
Michael failed miserably at archery. Nico got along well but they were shit compared to the Apollo cabin, with good reason too. Apollo was the got of archery. Apollo was sort of the god of everything. Michael became more and more frustrated and even more when he saw a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, flawlessly shooting arrows. By the time their time in archery was over Michael was sure he hated the pretty boy that was an ace at archery.
Nico dragged Michael off too the armory to get Michael fitted for his armor. The Hephaestus kids were nice and Michael had found some armor that fitted him nicely even if it was a little worn out. Nico helped Michael pick out a sword since with no training in anything else and him failing archery, a sword was his best bet. Nico then showed Michael the way to the woods where everyone was gathering for the Friday night game of capture the flag.
Thirty minutes into the game Michael was very lost and very scared since it was dark and he was in the woods and there were monsters out here. Michael heard leaves crunching behind him so he jumped behind a tree and pulled out his sword. Michael’s heart was beating very strongly and he almost died when a figure stepped out of the shadows into the little beam of moonlight peaking out of the trees. Michael had a sudden splurge of adrenaline and he charged forward with his sword drawn out but due to his lack of training the boy was able to block his move and pull him behind a pile of rocks.
It was pretty boy from archery and Michael was confused. “What the hell are you doing?” Michael whisper yelled pulling away from the boy. The boy pulled him back behind the rocks and covered his mouth with his hand. Michael was still to stunned to do anything. A few moments passed and a group of Ares kids ran past them, not even noticing them. The boy pulled his hand away from Michael’s mouth and Michael wiped it roughly with the back his hand. “I don’t really like participating in this and you’re new so what do you say we stay hidden for the rest of the game?” the boy said. Michael grumbled a reluctant yes because he was tired and emotionally drained even though he had hardly done anything today.
The two sat in silence before the boy spoke up, “My name’s Luke. Son of Apollo,” he said sticking out his hand for Michael to shake. Michael took his hand lightly, “Michael, Hades.” They sat there for a little while longer before Luke spoke up again, “Did I do something to you?” he asked turning to face Michael. Michael looked at him for a while before responding, “No I’m just a bit of an asshole. Don’t mind me.” Luke’s face broke out into a smile. “I’m sure you’re not an asshole. It’s your first day here right?” Michael nodded and turned his body so he was facing Luke. “I remember my first day here. I was so homesick I actually got sick,” Luke said making a face as if the memory actually made him sick. Luke told him all about his first day. “You shouldn’t be worried about making friends either. You’ve been here for less than two days and you’ve already made a friend,” Luke said pointing to himself. Michael smiled at the thought of him being friends with Luke. Both the boys told the other stories of home and the more they talked, the more Michael became aware of how both of their knees were touching and the more Michael wanted to reach out and tuck the strand of hair sticking out of his helmet.
They both lost track of time talking so they were a bit startled when they heard the cheers coming from the stream where the border between both the territories. They ran over and eventually lost each other in the crowd of people. The Blue team won meaning Apollo, Hades, Athena, Poseidon, and Hephaestus had won. All throughout dinner Michael was in a haze as he ate his cheeseburger. Nico was giddy from their recent win and was explain his favorite game, Mythomagic, to Michael. After dinner Michael hung around outside in the common area for a bit, hoping to see Luke. He found him with a group of his friends (brothers ???) And waved to him. Luke pardoned him self and jogged over to Michael.
“Hey”
“Hey”
“You wanna do they same thing next Friday? It usually gets lonely hiding out all by myself.”
“Sure,” Michael said. “Goodnight then,” Michael suddenly got the same splurge of energy he had gotten out in the woods when he saw Luke. He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to Luke’s cheek, turned around and started walking as fast as he could without making it seem like he was in a hurry. He heard Luke call “Goodnight!” behind him and Michael could swear he heard a smile in his voice.