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When Mitchell woke up, his wrists were bound together with rope.
He was curled up small, a cloth over his eyes, and he wasn’t even surprised. Or scared.
Mostly, he was just disappointed.
Mitchell sighed and began tugging at his wrists with a half-hope of slipping away.
“Oh, you’re awake,” A familiar voice told him, just as the cloth covering his eyes was tucked away. “Rise n’ shine, fuckface.”
“Of course,” Mitchell muttered. “Sebastian… what the hell are you doing?”
“Kidnapping you,” He answered from the front seat, grinning at him from the rearview. Drew, who had taken the cloth off his face, only rolled her eyes at him before tucking it away. He was in a large van by the looks of it, and from the sound drifting up from behind him most, if not all, of his siblings were stuffed in there as well.
“Why...” Mitchell had to struggle to keep his composure. “Why the hell are you doing that?”
“Oh, so when Connor kidnaps you, it’s ‘romantic’, but when we do it it’s a ‘crime’?” Sebastian scoffed. “That’s biphobic.”
Mitchell didn’t want to know. But still, that couldn’t save him from Piper’s slight curious tilt of her head as she asked, “How’s that biphobic?”
“Because I’m bi and I don’t like it,” Sebastian answered smoothly as if he had been waiting for one of them to question him. He peeked outside--at least Sebastian wasn’t speeding like the heathen Mitchell knew he was. Small miracles.
Mitchell heaved a sigh and realized something as he glanced over at his sister in exasperation.
“How come she isn’t bound?” He was almost offended at the sight of her bare wrists, her untied legs. He was definitely envious.
Piper shrugged from her space on the other side of Drew. “I thought it sounded fun. If they got caught, I had nothing to do with it, but I didn’t feel like stopping them.”
If he could, Mitchell would be rubbing his temples. “Just - back to what’s important. Kidnapping. Why.”
“Family trip,” Lacey, from the seat behind, spoke up and poked her head in between Drew and his. “Isn’t that cool!”
“Very cool,” he answered absentmindedly, his mind already racing. “But -- uh, what?”
Scarlett, from the front passenger, turned around to roll her eyes. “Keep up, Mitch. We stole a van for a family trip. We kidnapped you because we knew you wouldn’t be on board. What’s there not to understand?”
His eyes went wide. “This is gonna be so dangerous --”
“We gave Fiona a few Colourpop palettes in exchange for a few charms to help us out,” Scarlett interrupted, looking bored. “Some protection, mostly just a few mist bombs to hide us if we need them.”
Hm. Sounded smart. It was probably Drew’s idea.
He thought it over, a few of the minor details catching up to him. Still, he thought he was adjusting well enough considering his track record with kidnapping. Except -- “Did you tell the rest of the camp we were leaving?”
“Of course not,” Seb answered without taking his eyes off the road. “Chiron never would have agreed and we didn’t wanna have to deal with any interlopers wanting to get in on this.”
“Oh,” Mitchell took it all in. He rubbed his bound wrists against his thigh, the metal of his watch digging a bit into his skin. “Okay.” He clicked his tongue, suddenly at peace with the whole event. “So where’re we going?”
Scarlett was giving him a suspicious look, but thankfully Valentina was quick to answer from her seat in the back.
“Niagara Falls!” She answered happily. “The Canada side as well!”
“Do we have our -”
“We’ve forged some,” Drew answered without looking up from her phone, just as Scarlett tossed a ziplock bag into his lap. He gave his still-bound wrists a significant look and held them up, only for Drew to sigh.
“Lift,” Drew said, reaching down into her boot to pull free a small knife. With a quick flick of her blade, Mitchell’s wrists were free.
“They look real,” He commented, still rubbing at his wrists. “Who?”
“Phoebe,” Scarlett answered, looking back to her phone. “Expensive, but worth it. I had to trade nearly a third of our designer selection.”
Mitchell couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “Phoebe? From Hermes?”
“We bought her silence as well,” Drew looked nearly insulted by the thought. “Like we wouldn’t think of that. We’re rocking this trip.”
Mitchell gave them a careful, considering look. He looked over their supplies.
He shook his head sadly and met Drew’s gaze. “But you didn’t plan for everything.”
Drew’s eyebrows pinched together slightly--not all the way, she’d never risk the wrinkles--but her face twitched. “What are you talking about?”
Mitchell raised his eyebrows. “Did you pack any food?”
There was a brief moment of silence before Asher spoke up.
“We have Jell-O cups?”
“Uh,” Sophia said from the back, “No we don’t.”
Drew’s eyes fluttered shut. She let out a breath of frustration. “We had Jell-O cups.”
“To be fair,” Sophia started, “we had four Jell-O cups altogether.”
“Yeah,” Mitchell nodded, suppressing his grin. “Sebastian, maybe find us some food?”
Sebastian ended up stopping at some trashy fast-food joint, the first they found considering right after Mitchell’s suggestion, slowly but surely each of their siblings began complaining of their empty stomachs. He pulled up to the drive-through to the soundtrack of most of their siblings loudly complaining about the choice yet already having a specific and complex order to pass on. Mitchell took each of the paper bags with a grimace--the grease was already starting to soak through the bags--and as soon as they parked, herded his siblings toward a collection of picnic tables under a tree.
He passed out of their orders and groaned as he bit into his own burger--gods, it was absolute trash, but consistently one of his favorite guilty pleasures.
Sebastian picked the pickles off his burger and passed them to Mitchell without a word, while Piper happily added the extra picked-off onions to her own veggie burger.
“So, Niagara Falls,” Mitchell took a sip of his water. “Why there?”
“It’s so cool!” Lacey exclaimed, “And beautiful! And iconic! And so romantic!”
“And did you know they have boat rides where you can get close to the falls?” Sophia said, bouncing in her seat. “Asher got us some tickets online!”
“And, it’s close,” Piper added shooting the girls a small smile. “Close enough that we could be back after a weekend without a problem, at least.”
“We left a note for Chiron but,” Stefan made a so-so gesture with his hand. “We’ll see what he does.”
“We did write we were going to Florida, though.” Valentina added, “Just in case he did go looking.”
Mitchell looked to the sky for strength, “You’re going to send him into his grave.”
His siblings shrugged, looking unconcerned.
“We’ll covertly bless some marriages while we’re there, say we’re practicing our magic,” Scarlett waved off Mitchell’s frown. “It’ll be fine. Stop worrying! This is supposed to be fun!”
“It’s been a joyride so far,” Michell said, dry. He sighed, visibly giving in. “ Fine. But we’re practicing our French while we’re there too. I want you all sounding like natives.”
Scarlett flipped her hair, “Whatever you say, mom.”
Mitchell ignored her and popped the last of his burger into his mouth. Gods, he’d die for that burger.
Sebastian leaned a bit into Mitchell’s side as Mitchell rolled up his wrapper. Sebastian rubbed at his face, “Gods, I’m exhausted. Kidnapping and grand theft auto really take it out of you. I wanna take a nap.”
Mitchell paused and looked them all over. A thought popped into his head. “Wait. Other than Seb and I, who here has their license?”
“What even is a license?” Asher asked loudly as he stuffed a handful of french fries in his mouth. “I mean, do I really need permission to drive?”
“Yes,” Mitchell dryly answered, turning back the rest of them in expectation.
“I refuse to have my photo taken in that horrible DMV lighting,” Scarlett only commented, examining her nails.
“I’ve lived in the city my whole life,” Valentina gave him an apologetic look.
Piper made a face when he looked at her. “I’ve stolen enough cars to know the basics?”
“Boarding school,” Drew half-explained, looking away. “Never seemed worth it.”
Stefan shrugged, “I’m gay, so.”
Micah, his last hope, only shook his head without explanation.
“Yeah, I’m driving.” He held out his hand and huffed when the keys weren’t immediately passed over. “Sebastian can’t drive the whole way and I’m not letting an unlicensed teen cart us around.”
Still nothing. Mitchell made a show of rolling his eyes. “I’m not going back to camp,” he promised, “one of you can sit passenger to make sure.”
“That’ll be me,” Drew called out before anyone else had the chance, earning herself a few annoyed glares.
“We should get going,” Mitchell told them, checking his watch. It’ll be soon, then. “Let’s finish on the road.”
They all seemed agreeable enough as they all stood with whatever leftovers they had, still talking excitedly about their plans for the trip--Lacey and Sophia were excitedly talking about some selfies they wanted while Asher, in complete seriousness, was arguing over the semantics of a demigod surviving a swim over the falls.
Mitchell narrowed his eyes at him--Asher seemed much, much into the idea. His new phone case, in his hand as he waved his arms around trying to convince a skeptical looking Valentina, was waterproof. Gods, Mitchell was going to have to keep an eye on him.
Mitchell sighed and gathered up all the trash, gesturing to Sebastian to help.
“So what brought this on?” He asked Seb once they were in semi-privacy. “This whole trip? I have to admit, I’m kind of impressed you guys managed to plan this whole thing without tipping me off.”
“It was a team effort,” Seb allowed, walking with him even as he rubbed at his eyes in exhaustion. “And it was Drew’s idea, actually.”
“Really?” That was a surprise.
Sebastian shrugged. “She and Piper are going off to university soon. Guess she wanted one last memory of us all together.” He paused, shooting him a considering look, “Don’t tell her I let you know. I don’t feel like knife sparring with her.”
Mitchell made a face, “Agreed.”
Sebastian gave him a small wave and set off in the opposite direction. He was probably going to sneak a cigarette, but Mitchell wasn’t in the mood to lecture him at the moment. He turned back to where his siblings were dragging their feet to get going--part of what surprised him the most about this whole trip was the mere fact they were all able to coordinate enough to exist in the same space long enough to get a plan formed. Nowadays, it seemed one of them was always on the go, or working, or making runs out of camp. Mitchell leaned against the wall and allowed himself a small curled moment of time where he could just take them all in.
Micah and Valentina were, of course, the only ones actually collecting leftover napkins and trash as requested while the rest of them lingered at the picnic tables. Sophia was very obviously stealing a handful of french fries from Scarlett’s pile, who only huffed and pushed the pile closer to her. Sophia cheered loudly--Mitchell winced even from where he was standing--and immediately handed half of them over to Lacey.
Sabrina was sitting in Drew’s lap, smiling and gushing about the candy store she wanted to visit. She was nearly eleven now--no longer wearing her hair in braided pigtails or donning rainbow sneakers every morning. She didn’t even beg them to do her makeup anymore. On the rare days she did look over their overflowing vanity, she just sat on the carpet and applied it messy herself.
Drew adjusted Sabrina in her lap--she was definitely getting too heavy for it to be comfortable--but instead of sliding her to the grass, Drew only moved her slightly forward so she could run her hands through Sabrina’s blonde bangs. Sabrina, still talking animatedly to Piper about chocolate, leaned into Drew’s arms.
Stefan, seemingly in mid-argument with Scarlett, stood with the rest of their siblings as they began to drift back toward the car. Sebastian was already leaning against it, most definitely smelling too much like strong body spray.
Stefan glanced back at him as he was waving his arms around and cut himself off. He rolled his eyes and grinned. “Hey, nerd!” He yelled at Mitchell, laughing. “You staying behind, or what?”
Mitchell heaved out a sigh and shook his head, exasperated.
Children of love, he thought, somewhat randomly. He pushed himself off the wall and followed.
Mitchell had only been driving for an hour when it happened.
He was going the speed limit--unsurprising--and the camp vans were charmed to perfect constant conditions. And what the charms couldn’t cover, Argus took pride in taking care of.
The vans were also charmed, coincidentally, to fly under most radars.
So when the tell-tale siren zipped through the air, and a familiar uniform black and white car followed at his rear, each of them froze and faced the car.
Most radars.
Suspicious and surprised, they stared as flashing lights lit up their mirror, the screeching police siren still blaring.
“It’s okay,” he instantly said, pulling over, mostly just to calm his younger sibling’s nerves. “We’re fine.”
In the rearview mirror, he could see how Sebastian narrowed his eyes at that. It made sense, of course, considering Mitchell’s past reactions for the numerous tickets Sebastian had gotten himself during the school year with Mitchell buckled into the passenger seat. Sebastian leaned slightly forward to stare him down, the police car forgotten to him.
This time, with their siblings surrounding him, Mitchell only popped his gum and waited patiently, even as the rest of them muttered between themselves.
He glanced at the side mirror.
He loved when he was right.
“Is that…?” Drew squinted out of the window right before a fierce scowl came over her face. “Oh, Jesus Christ.”
Mitchell rolled down the driver’s side window and kept his expression perfectly clear, “Problem, officer?”
The high chatter from the backseat dwindled off at Mitchell’s words, especially as the officer answered. “I believe you’ve stolen something, sir.”
Mitchell bit back the grin that wanted to emerge. “Oh?”
“My heart,” Connor clenched at his chest dramatically, even as Mitchell’s siblings erupted in a wave of groans.
“Where did you even get an officer’s uniform on such short notice? It looks real.” Mitchell asked, even as a wave of dread came over him. “Did you steal it?”
“Of course,” Connor only answered cheerfully, laying his head on his arms folded over the rolled-down window. “Where else would I get one? I’m not gonna wear a costume, Mitchell.”
Mitchell’s eyes flickered to the rearview window, and the dread only increased. “Please don’t tell me you stole a police cruiser,” Mitchell had to know. “Please.”
“Oh, no, definitely not,” Connor flashed him a sharp grin. “Katie did. You know she’s better at nicking cars.”
His head fell forward to rest on the steering wheel, even as his siblings laughed.
Mitchell pinched his nose, a headache already entertaining the thought of forming. “And where’s Katie?”
“Sweet-talking her way out of an arrest, I’d imagine.” Connor hummed and flicked at the visor resting crooked atop his curls. “So where are we headed?” Connor gave him a bright grin, “Somewhere with sun and lots of bathing suit time?”
Stefan yelled from the back, “It can always be bathing suit time when you’re around, Connor!”
Mitchell sighed and glanced into the backseat. “Sophia?”
“Got it.” She said, following up with the sound of a slap. Stefan groaned and clutched his arm.
Mitchell shook his head, “Anyway. No, we’re not going to the beach.”
“No!” Sebastian interrupted before Mitchell could go on, groaning. “You’re not getting in this van.”
“There’s room!”
“It’s a 12-person van,” Seb told him with a dull look.
“Great! That means there’s room for Katie. Travis’ll try and squeeze in too.” He checked his watch, “They’ll catch up soon.”
“We already have eleven people in here,” Seb argued, desperate. “There’s no room!”
“I’ll sit in Mitchell’s lap,” Connor offered.
“He’s driving.”
Connor shrugged like this in no way bothered him or changed his plan. Mitchell couldn’t help the snort that came out through his hands.
Sebastian turned his glare on Mitchell at the noise. “This is your fault.”
“You shouldn’t have made him jealous by kidnapping me,” Mitchell gestured towards his boyfriend, who was nodding along, “that’s his thing.”
“It is,” Connor agreed. “Is anyone gonna tell me where we’re going? If anything, I’ve got to send Tratie an update text.”
“Niagara Falls!” Lacey yelled from the back seat, and with her words, the entire van groaned.
Mitchell grinned just as the stars in Connor’s eyes emerged.
“That was a secret,” Drew told her through clenched teeth, “ now he’s definitely gonna wanna come! The most romantic place ever? Of course, he’s coming now!”
“Mitchell,” Connor grabbed onto his hand with a desperation not unlike a man close to death, “please, I’m begging you, let’s get married right now and have our honeymoon in Niagara Falls. Please.”
“I prohibit it!” Scarlett screamed, and it was a rare occasion she and Sebastian agreed on something. Even Piper and Valentina, always calmed faced in chaos, looked troubled by the idea. He was half-tempted to just go along with it to spite them all.
But alas, Mitchell only graced Connor a small, warm smile and pulled away his hand. “We’re not getting married on a road trip with my entire family.”
The happy shine in his eyes didn’t fade at all, and Mitchell only sighed.
“Get in the car,” Mitchell told him with a small smile, just as Sebastian groaned in annoyance.
Connor beamed and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before rounding the van’s other side. Before he could get any farther, Drew held out her arm.
“But you’ve got to sit in the back,” Drew challenged, “with the kids.”
“It’s where I belong,” Connor only agreed, already throwing open the door and crawling in. “Yo, Sabrina, move your glitter kit, I’m coming in.”
“Glitter kit?” Mitchell had to ask. God, it was going to be everywhere.
Drew already looked uninterested and went back to tapping at her phone, “We have to keep her entertained somehow.”
“A book,” he offered weakly, “a movie. Someone’s phone, even. Anything but glitter.”
“Too late,” Scarlett was still scowling, her arms crossed. “I hope Connor makes the mess even worse and you’re covered in it all for days.”
Wow. That was… quite the insult.
“Well,” Mitchell sighed, checking his mirrors before starting the car back up and returning to the road. “Guess we’re gonna see how long it takes Travis and Katie to find us.”
“This is a family road trip,” Sebastian muttered, looking stormy. “Only family.”
“Unfortunately,” Drew said, her voice grave. “It seems the Stolls have somehow become a part of ours. Now, with the grace that makes us children of Aphrodite, we have to accept that.” She opened her magazine and began looking it over, bored. “At least we get Katie in the deal.”
Mitchell stared ahead at the open ride and shifted the car into drive. He took a deep breath about his tight throat.
Gods, he loved his family.
“Mitchell, are you fucking crying?”
“Shut up!”