Work Text:
A sharp piercing noise rang through Cassandra’s ears—like the beeping of an out-of-control heart monitor—as she felt her numb body be dragged further and further away from the surface. She tried to claw her way back up, but her body had already given out from pure exhaustion.
No matter how strong she was, she couldn’t win against the currents.
Saltwater filled her lungs, and at that moment, she knew this was the end of her journey as a demigod. The last thing she saw before she blacked out from the lack of oxygen was her brother, Tim Drake, diving straight into the ocean, reaching for her hand, but was ultimately halted from being swept up by the raging waters.
Wake up, brave one.
Wake up…
WAKE UP.
Cassandra’s body shot up as soon as she realized she was still alive, which she regretted soon after because her body was still sore from her quest and nearly drowning. She let herself collapse onto the sand and groaned in pain, turning over to her side.
Her head was throbbing and ringing while her vision was blurry, but she hazily tried to make out what or who the figure was next to her. There was a person sitting just beside her—a blonde girl.
Blinking away as much of the blurriness as possible, Cassandra could conclude she was a pretty blonde at that, practically rivaling Aphrodite herself. She had braided dirty blonde hair and wore a white sleeveless Greek dress with a low circular neckline trimmed in gold.
“Oh, thank the gods. You’re awake!” The girl beamed, scooting closer to the near-unconscious demigod.
Panicked, Cassandra fought against the aching in her arm and reached for the Celestial Bronze sword that was typically strapped to her waist, but it was gone. She frowned, unsure if she was forcefully unarmed by the young woman next to her or if her sword had just been washed away from the storm.
She could only pray to the gods that this wasn’t some sort of trap.
“You’re not going to kill me, right?” Cassandra couldn’t help but ask, even if directly asking that to a potential enemy was silly.
The girl rolled her eyes and held up her hands. “I’m harmless. See?”
“Okay.”
It’s not like Cassandra had much of a choice but to trust her anyway. Cassandra was in too much pain to escape, she was too exhausted to think, and she was completely unarmed.
The blonde girl opened a small container that was sitting in her lap and scooped its contents into Cassandra’s mouth. “It’s ambrosia, so eat up.”
Cassandra sat up to not choke on the ambrosia and let its familiar warmth trickle down her throat. It tasted like the hamburgers she would get with Tim at their favorite local fast food joint back in Gotham.
She could already feel her sore limbs feeling a thousand times better than they did just a minute ago, and her headache seemed to have gone away too. Cassandra nodded at the blonde beside her. “Thank you.”
The girl’s lips curled into a bright soft smile, emanating an ethereal glow from the sun hitting her face that made Cassandra realize she might have even been more beautiful than Aphrodite.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better, brave one. It must have been quite the journey for you to have ended up here, am I right?”
“Right. Just finished a quest until the storm hit,” Cassandra glumly said. She remembered celebrating with Tim on their ship after a long week of non-stop traveling and fighting, only for disaster to strike.
“Well, you’re free to stay with me until we find a way for you to leave. I’m Stephanie and this is my island, Ogygia.”
“I’m… Cassandra. Daughter of Hades.”
Stephanie’s eyes perked up a bit from surprise. “Hades?”
Cassandra shrugged. “You probably… don’t hear that everyday.”
“I most certainly don’t, but let’s talk more in my home! I’d love to hear all about your adventures, brave one,” Stephanie happily chirped, already propping Cassandra up for them to walk together before the latter could even respond. “Are you okay to walk on your own?”
“Yes,” Cassandra said, except that it was a complete lie.
As soon as Stephanie let go of her frail body, her knees buckled and immediately gave out, but thankfully Stephanie had caught her before she fell onto the sand.
The demigod chuckled from embarrassment, “Or not.”
“No worries!” Stephanie wrapped an arm around Cassandra’s waist as the latter’s arm draped over Stephanie’s shoulder. “Is this better?”
Cassandra couldn’t help but focus only on the way Stephanie’s arm was snugly hugging her waist, or how much taller Stephanie was now that they were standing side by side. She smelled of cinnamon and juniper too.
“Yes.”
As they walked, Cassandra realized she hadn’t taken the chance to take in where exactly she was because everything had happened so fast, but when she did, she was in awe at the gorgeous blue canvas that painted the sky and how relaxing the sound of the soft breeze was. There were palm trees and hills decorating the surprisingly large island, along with a campsite that wasn’t too far from a cave just up ahead that was presumably Stephanie’s home.
Just outside of the cave was a grove of cedar trees and the flower garden that accompanied it on the right. The entire island looked like a paradise now that Cassandra thought about it.
They sat down on Stephanie’s couch, which was relieving because Cassandra wasn’t sure if caves had chairs or not. She wasn’t sure if she could stand up for much longer. Whether it was because her legs were still too weak or because she didn’t want Stephanie touching her again was unclear.
In fact, she wasn’t sure if her heart pounding was from the adrenaline of nearly dying and finding herself on a random island, or that Stephanie was the most gorgeous girl Cassandra had ever seen in her entire life and she had just been holding her by the waist.
“You have a… modern couch, but live in a cave?”
Stephanie shrugged. “Hermes likes to send things over, but lots of things naturally get washed up here too.”
“Like me.”
Stephanie burst out laughing from such a simple reply and it filled Cassandra’s stomach with butterflies. The sound of enjoyment and happiness in her voice was just so perfect. You’re not a goddess, right?” Cassandra asked. She had to be sure.
Stephanie shook her head. She seemed to hesitate before answering, “No, but I am an immortal titaness.”
“A titaness of an island that I happened to wash up on,” Cassandra reiterated. Maybe she had hit her head too hard while she was unconscious and half-dead, but the realization of who exactly Stephanie had finally caught up. “Daughter of Atlas, banished by the gods… to this remote island. Powerful sorceress too.”
Stephanie’s eyes looked sadder, like Cassandra had said something wrong. “That’s all correct, brave one, but you seemed to have skipped over the most important part of my tale. Was that on purpose?”
Cassandra felt her face grow hot. Of course, she knew, but she wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to bring up or not. “You… fall in love with the heroes that come here. Then, they leave. Tim told me… about you once.”
Then, Cassandra’s stomach let out a low growl.
“Oh, my! I haven’t had a visitor in so long, I had completely forgotten to ask if you wanted dinner. Come.”
Stephanie gave Cassandra her hand, to which the demigod reluctantly took. She couldn’t seem to settle the thumping in her chest no matter how hard she tried and holding hands with the titaness certainly did not help.
Stephanie’s eating hall was outside, underneath the setting sun, and beside the waves that crashed against the rocks.
“Don’t be startled now, brave one, but I do have invisible servants.” With that, Stephanie clapped and like she just said, her invisible servants began to set up the table with beef stew and apple cider.
It was like a scene straight out of the movie Beauty and the Beast .
Sitting together, they both ate away. Cassandra hadn’t really realized just how hungry she was until the stew hit her lips, and she naturally had a large appetite, even if she weren’t all that hungry.
Despite being busy with her neverending stomach, she couldn’t help but gawk at the way Stephanie looked in the candlelight. She was gorgeous.
Stephanie seemed to have noticed Cassandra’s eyes and averted her gaze.
Stephanie cleared her throat. “Um, you mentioned someone named Tim. Who is that? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Cute , Cassandra thought. She didn’t take Stephanie to be the type to be flustered easily.
“Brother.”
“On your mother’s side, I presume? The Big Three gods are not supposed to have children at this time, as I recall.”
“Adoptive brother. I have three more too.”
“What about your mortal mother?” Stephanie’s eyes had so much curiosity and interest in them, as if she hadn’t had a good conversation in centuries.
It was like they were always meant to talk like this. For once, Cassandra was grateful for the Fates. She felt like she could genuinely trust Stephanie, even if they had only just met.
“Birth mother and step-father… They hurt me. I don’t speak well… because of them,” Cassandra winced as if she were reliving her memories. “I was homeless before… Bruce Wayne. Met new brothers, Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian.”
Stephanie gasped, instinctively reaching for Cassandra’s hand across the table, “That’s awful. I’m sorry that happened to you. You don’t deserve that, brave one—especially not as a child.”
Cassandra felt like she was going to melt under Stephanie’s comforting touch, but Stephanie had already retracted her hand.
“You keep calling me ‘brave one,’ but you can just call me… Cassandra, or Cass. Everyone calls me Cass,” she said, trying her best to keep her poise. She wished Stephanie would hold her hand again.
“Cassandra—Cass.”
“Yes.”
“Then in that case, you may call me Steph.” Stephanie giggled, “You have a pretty name. I’ll be sure to use it more often.”
Cassandra swore the oxygen in her lungs had just vanished into thin air right then and there.
“Are your brothers demigods too?”
“I… Um.” Cassandra had still not processed Stephanie’s heavenly laugher or the fact that she called her name pretty . She was not prepared to answer a question on the spot, no matter how simple it was.
Stephanie teased, letting out chuckles in between her words, “Or I guess you could take your time staring at me.”
“What?” The color of beat red was the only thing on Cassandra’s face now. “No, I was—Nevermind.”
Stephanie fondly locked eyes with Cassandra and waited.
Cassandra forgot she was still supposed to answer the question. “Yes, they are… except for Damian. Dick is the son of Apollo, Jason is the son of Ares, and Tim is the son of Athena.”
Stephanie’s mouth was held agape. “Do monsters not sense four demigods descended from the twelve Olympians living under one roof? Especially with you being the daughter of Hades. You have a powerful scent that any monster could sense from miles away.”
Cassandra shrugged, trying to fight off the urge to sniff herself. She wondered if demigods actually stunk. “We’re in and out of the house… a lot. Jason, Tim, and I are usually at… Camp Half-Blood. It’s safe. Dick is okay by himself living with mortals. He has a scary girlfriend.”
“Scary? Is she a powerful demigod too?”
“Mortal. Her name is Barbara. She could beat me up… if she tried.”
Stephanie found herself to be amused, bursting into laughter at Cassandra’s fear of some mere mortal, but her face quickly dropped. Her eyes were sadder. “You like talking about your family, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do,” was all Cassandra could say.
Was she supposed to comfort Stephanie? Ask her what was wrong? Cassandra didn’t know.
“I’m glad you were able to escape your original family. Even though I'm now strapped to this island for an eternity, at least I don’t have to see Father.” Stephanie raised her glass of apple cider and offered. “Toast to our new alliance of traumatized children?”
“Of course,” Cassandra chuckled as she tapped her glass with Stephanie’s.
Stephanie’s invisible servants began to clean up after the two girls once they had finished dinner, and Cassandra found herself following Stephanie into the garden that was outside of the latter’s cave.
Stephanie literally glowed so much under the moonlight that the large garden of unfamiliar yet pretty plants that stood behind her paled in comparison.
Cassandra could feel her breath hitch with every elegant move made by Stephanie. It was unbelievable how mesmerizing the titaness in front of her was.
“Would you like to help me plant these?” Stephanie asked when she noticed Cassandra’s gawking. “They’re moonlace—nocturnal plants. I like to stay up just to tend to them.”
She was holding a bioluminescent blue flower that had a silver light to it that flickered under the night sky.
“You have a beautiful…” Cassandra paused. “Garden.”
She almost said face . The demigod mentally slapped herself. Just what on Olympus was she thinking?
Cassandra wasn’t lying though. Stephanie had arbors decorating the garden in six different colors of roses, lattices filled with honeysuckle, rows of grapevines bursting with red and purple grapes that made even Dionysus, the god of wine, seem like a novice.
“Thank you, Cass.” Stephanie let out a gentle laugh that made Cassandra almost certain she was on Cloud Nine.
Cassandra’s knees sat on the soil of Stephanie’s garden. “Teach me?”
“Gladly!”
As Stephanie explained the directions on how to properly plant moonlace flowers, her hands briefly brushed by Cassandra’s. They both flinched and quickly turned their heads to one another, unable to contain their smiles and small giggles until Stephanie would complain about moonlace flowers being a time-sensitive plant.
“Enough goofing around and let’s get back to work!” Stephanie said, albeit a bit reluctantly. Even she wanted a break from gardening once in a while to ‘goof around.’
After several moments of more hushed gardening, Cassandra finally broke the silence. “Have you left Ogygia before? Has anyone tried to help you?”
Stephanie faltered for a bit until she let out a wry laugh. “I could only dream of leaving this island. Before I was banished, I enjoyed venturing in the mortal realm. I’d like to see it again.”
“Mortal realm is not much… but I can show you,” Cassandra replied hopefully. “I might leave soon, but I can find you again.”
“No one ever finds Ogygia twice.”
“I can introduce you… to my family and friends.”
“No one ever finds Ogygia twice, Cassandra,” Stephanie repeated in a harsher tone than before.
“The Wayne Manor. I live there. You could stay there too.”
“ No .”
Still, Cassandra insisted on saving her. “I’ll talk to the gods—I’ll get in the middle of a storm again, I—”
Stephanie couldn’t take it anymore. Her voice broke as she pleaded, “Cassandra, stop it. Please .”
The demigod fell silent—the most silent she’s ever been since before she met Stephanie.
“I—I’m sorry.” Stephanie was quick to apologize and stood up from the garden. Her face was red and her eyes looked like they were going to spill over with tears. “I should go. Goodnight, Cass.”
Before Cassandra could even reply, Stephanie had already run off towards the beach.
—
A couple of days had already passed and the two girls were hardly speaking. They only spoke during mealtimes, and even then, it was very brief and awkward. Cassandra had no idea how to apologize either. In fact, she didn’t even know what was wrong.
She just wanted to save her. Was that bad?
Then again, she never was good with people anyway. She was sure she’d made countless mistakes in the past few days already without even realizing it. This time, she was just finally facing the consequences.
She watched Stephanie tending to her garden from the cave as she usually would in the last few days. Cassandra tried to distract herself with Ogygia’s scenery, but time and time again, she would only find her eyes falling onto Stephanie.
Cassandra’s heart would race whenever Stephanie brushed her hair over her shoulder or when a small strand of hair would fall onto her face. She couldn’t help but smile fondly whenever Stephanie held out her arm for birds to settle on. She was exactly like a Disney princess.
Stephanie seemed to have developed an understanding with birds from being on the island for so long because it even seemed like she could have conversations with them. The way she smiled when she would finish up speaking with the doves and the way her sky blue eyes gleamed in awe of her animal friends was all so enchanting.
Cassandra wanted to talk to her again so desperately. She wanted to know all about Stephanie’s troubles and worries. She wanted to get on her knees and beg for forgiveness.
They hadn’t even known each other for a week yet, but still, she found herself falling . She couldn’t bear to be apart from Stephanie for longer than she should be.
That was funny—ironic, actually
Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Why was it that Cassandra was the one that found her heart skipping a beat every time Stephanie did as much as smile, yet the titaness that was cursed to fall in love with every hero that lands on her island was completely avoiding her.
Cassandra huffed, knowing she had just enough of this silent treatment. She found herself stomping over to Stephanie’s garden before she could even think about what to say or what Stephanie might say.
“Can we talk?”
Stephanie avoided Cassandra’s upset gaze, but silently nodded.
“Did I… say something wrong, Steph? I don’t like being avoided like this without knowing… what I did wrong.”
“It’s not you, hero. It never was and never will be your fault. This is all part of my punishment given to me by the gods.” Stephanie let out a soft sigh, shaking her head. “This is all for the best. It will hurt me less.”
“What about me? I thought… that we were friends.” Cassandra could feel tears threatening to spill.
She never really had friends before—or rather she never really had a connection in the same way she felt with Stephanie. Her brothers never really counted as friends because she was adopted into the family, so she didn’t really have to make friends with them. They were just a packaged deal that happened to come with having a home.
Although what she felt with Stephanie was far from platonic, Cassandra didn’t care about what their ‘label’ was. She just wanted Stephanie to be by her side, even once this chapter of her life was done.
Finally, Stephanie turned to face Cassandra and locked eyes with the other. Her eyes were just as glossy from tears.
“I fell in love with you before I knew it,” Stephanie confessed. The tears were now falling. “I thought that if I avoided you, then I would not have to deal with the heartbreak—but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I knew it was inevitable for me to fall in love with you, but I wanted to at least soften the blow.”
Stephanie stood up from the soil of her garden and took slow steps towards Cassandra. She held out a hand to Cassandra’s cheek, to which the latter leaned into. Her hand was so soft and warm. All of Cassandra’s worries felt like they had just melted away right there and then.
Stephanie continued, “I could tell just from looking at you that you are the strongest, kindest, and most beautiful soul, and the more time I spent with you, the more that came to be true. I fell so hard that I didn’t know what to do with myself.”
Cassandra felt her chest grow warm and her ears felt like they were on fire. She wanted nothing more but to embrace the titaness in front of her, but she instead sighed contently. “There’s nowhere I would rather be than here with you.”
Stephanie argued, “But you talk of your family so fondly. I can’t be selfish and keep you all to myself. I wouldn’t be able to live with that on my conscience.”
“I could stay here. With you,” Cassandra countered. She took Stephanie’s hand that was resting on her cheek and kissed it. “Serious.”
”Don’t make this any harder for me, Cass.” Heat creeped up to Stephanie’s cheeks, but she shook her head in disapproval anyway. “You have the entire world to save. You have an entire family to grow old with and take care of. You can’t spend your whole life with me. I know you wouldn’t want to anyway. You’re just caught up in your feelings right now.”
Cassandra fell silent. Deep down, she knew Stephanie was right. Demigods can’t stay in place for very long for a reason. They were meant to fight , not frolic in the garden while linking arms with a girl.
This was all so stupid. She wished she could just steal Stephanie away from Ogygia right under the gods’ noses.
“Then…” Cassandra took in a deep breath, realizing this was it. She couldn’t stay nor could she leave with Stephanie. She had to come to terms that she was going to leave alone soon. “Let’s make the best out of our last moments together.”
“Cassandra,” Stephanie said in a low and soft voice, almost like a whisper.
Cassandra’s heart fluttered at the way Stephanie called her name. “Yes?”
Suddenly, before Cassandra could even react, her lips were met with Stephanie’s. The soles of Cassandra’s feet were just slightly lifting up from the ground and the butterflies in her stomach felt like they were going to burst right out.
“It’s almost dinner time,” Stephanie then said nonchalantly, taking Cassandra’s hand to drag her to the dining table outside of the cave.
Cassandra just brainlessly nodded with her mouth still slightly agape.
It was hard to believe the conversation opened with them both crying their hearts out to them readying for dinner.
The invisible servants that did their usual routinely Disney-esque dance to set up the dinner table still weren’t a norm in Cassandra’s everyday life, but she was slowly starting to get used to them as she’s seen them do their thing for four days now. Though, she did wonder if Zeus’ idea of a punishment was seriously sending Stephanie to a paradise island with invisible servants that did everything for her without complaining.
Cassandra chuckled to herself, wondering if Alfred would’ve liked hearing about this. He’d surely be appalled.
As the servants finished, Stephanie clapped her hands. “I hope you’re hungry because today’s menu is going to be a huge feast!”
“What’s the special occasion?” Cassandra raised an eyebrow.
She eyed the food laid out in front of her. Lots and lots of meat. It was a complete tone change from the last few days. While Stephanie was still upset, the servants put out the same kind of meals Dick would cook. Not bad, but not exactly great either.
Stephanie shrugged. “I’m not sitting here to be interrogated, I’m here to eat. I’m starving!”
Earning a giggle from Cassandra, she nodded in agreement. “Me too.”
After dinner, it was now well past midnight, but the two young women refused to sleep. Instead, they were talking about anything and everything on Stephanie’s bed in the cave. They wanted to make up for lost time and spend as much time together as possible.
Although, that meant that Stephanie would be interrogating Cassandra about every bit of her life. That was unfortunately the price of falling in love with someone that hasn’t seen humanity in centuries and mostly only had birds to talk to.
“You never told me you could dance, Cass!” Stephanie’s eyes widened as she learned this new information, clearly unable to even imagine it.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow. “Nothing surprising.”
“You just seem more…” Stephanie paused. She gestured towards Cassandra’s biceps that were underneath her tattered orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. “You know.”
Cassandra huffed in defense. “Warriors can dance too. The best warriors would… know how to dance. Exactly like fighting, but less blood.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes.”
A smirk grew on Stephanie’s face. “Show me just how great of a warrior you are then.”
“What?” Cassandra felt the heat rise to her cheeks for the nth time that night, except this time, it was from pure embarrassment , not Stephanie being a smooth talker.
“I’m sure you heard exactly what I said, brave one ,” Stephanie taunted.
“Tired. Let’s sleep.”
Stephanie narrowed her eyes. “Seriously?”
“Yep.”
Clearly not buying it, Stephanie gave a light shove to Cassandra, which made the latter reluctantly finally stand up.
Stephanie grinned, putting up two thumbs.
“Hate you,” Cassandra groaned in dismay.
After a moment of contemplating, Cassandra finally got into position. She didn’t want to sleep sloppy in front of Stephanie, so she made sure her posture and even breathing was perfect.
She envisioned the ballerinas from the Aphrodite and Dionysus cabins that she liked to watch from afar to be right in front of her, demonstrating every part of the choreography in perfect detail.
She put her hands on her hips and began turning and brushing her feet against the ground, making a full turn with her shoulders at every three steps. After completing her waltz, she transitioned into a pirouette with her arms en bas and moved into a pilé to prepare for a lunge with her back leg, to which she was now in an arabesque.
And then…
Cassandra was brought back to reality when she heard a squeal from right in front of her. She was so concentrated on dancing she forgot who she was dancing for .
“Oh gods, I’m so sorry,” Stephanie apologized, quickly putting a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t mean to break your concentration.”
The way Stephanie’s ears were a light shade of pink and her big blue eyes were still looking straight at her in amazement made Cassandra just burst into laughter. “It’s okay. Glad you liked it.”
“But now,” Cassandra started as she jumped back into bed with Stephanie. She wrapped her arms around Stephanie’s waist and rested her head in the crook of Stephanie’s neck. “Sleep.”
“I didn’t take you to be the cuddly type, daughter of Hades,” Stephanie teased, but she wasn’t complaining. She wrapped her arms right around Cassandra just the same.
“I’m not. I just like you… in particular,” Cassandra mumbled tiredly. She was just about ready to pass out.
“I like you too, Cass.” Her embrace around Cassandra tightened. “I like you more than I’ve ever felt about anybody in centuries .”
Cassandra was being held so close to Stephanie, she could even hear the way the latter’s heart beat. “You mean it?”
“I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Cassandra lifted her head up to give Stephanie a peck on the lips as a response.
Although a little surprised, Stephanie giggled. “Seriously, it’s a bit hard to believe someone who can raise the undead straight from the ground is in my arms giving me kisses right now. You are nothing like I expected.”
“I didn’t expect myself… to be here either. It’s funny.”
“Guess we should give our thanks to the Fates, huh?” Stephanie joked, but before Cassandra could even respond, she had already fallen fast asleep.
It was hard to fight against both her physical fatigue and the warmth of Stephanie’s body.
—
Cassandra awoke with a startle as she heard yelling right outside of the cave. It was probably her brothers—
Oh. Right. She wasn’t at the manor.
Instead, she was in Stephanie’s bed with… Stephanie herself nowhere to be found.
She had slept so well that she didn’t even realize how out of place everything was, but she had no time to be sulking over how she missed her family or how she wished she had woken up in Stephanie’s arms. She needed to investigate the source of the noise outside.
She couldn’t really make out who was making that noise as she hadn’t even come to her fully conscious senses yet after waking up from one of the best nights of her life, but there was only one other person occupying the island anyway. That was a no-brainer.
“I hate that you always do this to me!” Cassandra heard Stephanie yell from outside again.
“Steph? Stephanie? Are you okay?” Cassandra quickly ran outside of the cave, panicking.
“Cass…” Stephanie was fine, but a little red in the face. with tears welled up in her eyes.
And right next to her was none other than Hermes, god of messengers and other various things that Cassandra could never keep track of. Hermes probably had the same amount of kids in his cabin back at camp as the number of titles he had.
He took the mortal form of a guy in his mid-twenties with shaggy brown hair. He was wearing a ridiculous floral pink button-up shirt and brown khaki pants like some college frat boy. He would probably get along with Conner Kent.
Wait, if Hermes was here, then…
Cassandra’s heart dropped.
Hermes smiled at Cassandra with a shy wave as if he wasn’t about to deliver the worst news ever. “Hey, Cassandra. It’s Hermes.”
“I know,” Cassandra coldly replied. She crossed her arms and eyed the god with her best ‘shut up’ face. It worked on Jason a lot.
“Hey, I know, I know.” Hermes put his arms up defensively. “I’m sorry to cut your vacation short, but it seriously wasn’t my fault. It’s time to go anyway. You’ve stayed here long enough.”
Cassandra stomped over to Stephanie and tightly held her hand. “Not leaving. Not without her.”
“Cass—” Stephanie was cut off.
“Look, Cassandra, she’s already set up your boat.” Hermes jabbed a thumb behind him to the beach, and surely enough, there was a boat tied down to the shore with bags of supplies in it. “It’s time to go.”
“Stephanie?” Cassandra felt tears readying to spill. She realized Stephanie already knew this was coming and prepared well.
Cassandra felt stupid for thinking things would end differently. She felt stupid for not realizing just what was happening last night. The big feast and long talk last night was all just Stephanie’s way of saying goodbye. Stephanie was already beginning to let go. This wasn’t her first time after all.
“Hermes, can you leave us alone for a moment? You owe us at least that,” Stephanie pleaded at the god.
Hermes just shrugged and nodded. “Just don’t take too long. I’ve got a busy schedule, you know.”
As he walked away, Stephanie muttered, “I always wished a different god were assigned to Ogygia.”
“Is this really goodbye?” Cassandra’s voice cracked.
Stephanie looked down at the shorter girl's dark brown eyes that were glossy with tears and just silently nodded. She wrapped her arms around Cassandra’s neck and held her tightly. “I’m sorry. This is just how it always goes.”
Cassandra reciprocated the embrace around Stephanie’s waist. “You don’t want me to go, right?”
“Of course not.” Stephanie planted a kiss on the top of Cassandra’s head.
“There’s so many more things… I want to learn about you. I want to keep talking to you and holding your hand.” Cassandra just continued to plead like there was an alternative way. She felt like a dog begging for food. It was ridiculous how much she needed Stephanie.
“I know, darling. I wished things didn’t have to end like this.”
“You’ve done this… hundreds of times. Aren’t you used to it by now?”
Stephanie hummed in contemplation, wondering what would be the right words to say. “Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn’t. Gods, I mean, most times they don’t even love me back , and that makes it hurt a whole lot less.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Cassandra managed to chuckle.
“Although I’m cursed to fall in love with every hero I meet that is only temporarily passing by, they all had different personalities and life stories,” Stephanie began, lifting an arm up to stroke the top of Cassandra’s head. “It’s been a lot easier to let go as time passes. The last guy that came here was—nevermind—but you are someone that I fear I’ll never be able to forget, and I hope you won’t forget me either.”
“I swear on the River Styx,” Cassandra quickly promised, with no hesitation whatsoever.
A promise under the River Styx could absolutely never be broken under any circumstances, and this included both mortals and immortals. If unable to comply, the oath breaker went through a severe punishment. Yet, here Cassandra Cain was, swearing an oath to the River Styx that she would never forget Stephanie.
Stephanie gasped, “You’re seriously crazy.”
“You have to promise too.” Cassandra slyly smirked.
“Then… I swear on the River Styx that I won’t forget you either.”
Cassandra couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear and inched closer to press her lips against Stephanie’s. “I love you, Stephanie.”
Surprised, Stephanie couldn’t help but stammer, “I-I love you too.”
They shared another kiss before Hermes was towering over them with his arms crossed.
“Ladies.” Hermes cleared his throat.
“I’ll… miss you so much.” Cassandra felt tears forcing their way out again, but she didn’t want them to spill for Stephanie’s sake. She embraced Stephanie one last time.
Stephanie loved their height difference whenever they hugged. Cassandra was at the perfect height for head kisses, which is exactly what Stephanie did. “I’ll miss you too. Stay safe and live a long life for me, okay?”
Cassandra just nodded and finally, began moving towards the small boat docked at the shore. She made slow steps, making sure to take in the view of Ogygia, and also looked back to most importantly see Stephanie before everything became nothing but just a distant memory.
Hermes trailed behind Cassandra, but far enough for Cassandra to not physically assault him. “The boat is enchanted, so you’ll have a guaranteed safe trip to the camp, and before you start thinking about anything weird, it’s impossible to wash up here again.”
“Of course. Always magic .”
“You’re a college student that raises the dead and travels faster than a plane through shadows.”
“Ok.”
Cassandra climbed into the boat that had numerous neatly tied up bags prepared by Stephanie. She took one more loving glance at the blonde who looked like she was going to combust from holding in her tears.
“Goodbye, Stephanie.” Cassandra waved at Stephanie, to which the latter waved back with tears now streaming down her face.
Stephanie ran as close to the shore as possible without going deep into the water after Hermes released Cassandra into the water. Stephanie shouted after her, “I will never forget you, Cassandra Cain!”
And that was the end. All Cassandra could do now was drift asleep until her arrival at Camp Half-Blood and hope to dream of Stephanie.
—
“Cass? Cass?!” A voice that definitely didn’t belong to Stephanie frantically called her name.
“I was sleeping.” Cassandra’s head was pounding from opening her eyes to the sun beaming in her face, but she was physically okay for the most part. She could also at least tell she was at the beach just outside of camp.
“Okay, well, I just saw your body washed up on the shore and thought you were dead , but my bad, I guess.” That was definitely her brother, Tim Drake.
With no further bickering, Tim helped her up and took the bags out of the boat that Cassandra came in, leading her back to camp.
“I missed taking this path… to camp.” Cassandra sighed contently.
“Where have you been anyway?” Tim raised an eyebrow.
“Ogygia.”
Tim almost dropped a bag from shock. “You met Stephanie?”
Cassandra glumly nodded. “Yeah. I remembered you telling me… about her. She’s described… accurately in her tales.”
Her brother grimaced. “I was really just telling her tale from my perspective.”
Cassandra stopped in her tracks and glared at Tim. “ You met Stephanie too? Why did you leave that out? Why did she leave that out?”
This time, Tim actually dropped Cassandra’s bags to hold his hands up in defense. “Hey! I stayed there for only one day and you didn’t even notice I was gone, so I never bothered telling you. As for Stephanie, it’s probably because I used the alias Alvin. I didn’t want to get attached.”
“Attached?” Cassandra mumbled, “Did you fall in love with her?”
“No. I was already starting to see Bernard at the time. Why?”
Cassandra fell silent. She wasn’t used to crying in front of any of her brothers except for Damian, but this time felt like an exception. She was freshly wounded and desperately needed comfort from one of the people she had missed the most.
“Oh gods… I didn’t think you–” Tim clicked his tongue and just hugged Cassandra instead of going on a tangent. “I’m so sorry, Cass.”
“I miss her so much, Tim,” Cassandra sobbed into Tim’s orange t-shirt.
“Shh, I know, I know. It’s okay.” His arms wrapped tighter around Cassandra’s small trembling body.
For once, Cassandra felt so weak and defeated. Her departure from Stephanie was nothing like she had ever experienced before. She wouldn’t even wish this kind of heartbreak on her worst enemies.
Cassandra couldn’t help but wonder what life would be like if she had been able to stay or take Stephanie with her. The titaness that would remain in Cassandra’s mind for the rest of her days would always be her biggest “what if.”