Chapter Text
Pollux is drunk. Very drunk. Definitely enough that he probably won’t remember tomorrow. Miranda Gardiner, who had spotted Pollux near the Strawberry Fields, personally left to grab Clovis and dragged him to the unconscious body of his friend to do what he usually did with him. Clovis wonders if this is how Pollux feels whenever he finds him after falling asleep in a place he should have.
“I’ll tell Will to check up on Pollux”, Miranda muttered as she left. Clovis nodded. He doubted that Will will remember or even find the time to do so but he appreciated Miranda’s concern.
People finding a blackout drunk Pollux only for Clovis to come and pick him up had become a sort of routine. It was pretty much the only regular thing admits the chaos of the post war days. Ever since it ended, ever since they fucking won, things just kind of melted together. Too much was happening all at once.
Bunch of good things happened of course, like Cabin 6 throwing almost all their members at planning the new cabins - with input of the people who would live there of course - or the increase of campers. But those don’t really change the fact that they’re all war veterans now. They lost people, a lot of people. And not all of them were to death.
Carefully, just as he has done before, Clovis picks up Pollux. He’s out cold and the son of Hypnos ignores how much this reminds him of the dead bodies that they had carried to camp mere weeks ago. Pollux is…
Pollux isn’t fine. No one is. Clovis isn’t either. He can count on one hand the amount of times that both he and Pollux were actually aware at the same time in the last few weeks. They both know it’s unhealthy, it doesn’t take a child of Athena to figure out that sleeping and drinking the whole time to avoid the world isn’t healthy.
But Clovis doesn’t care. They’re alive. They’re fucking alive and it’s just so so easy to wallow, to hide, to down.
Pollux doesn’t have any other camper to take care of and his dad’s been stuck at Olympus. He’s pretty sure that Mr. D would never allow the borderline deadly amounts of alcohol Pollux is consuming other wise. Clovis meanwhile does have to take care of his new cabin now. But his only cabin mate is Hayal, a child of Morpheus. She’s both self sufficient and old enough to not really need him considering she’s only a few months younger.
So Clovis spends most of his time letting himself get lost in sleep and Pollux spends more time drunk than sober. And sometimes, when Clovis and Pollux are both awake and aware, they will just sit together.
Sometimes they’re talking. It could be about things around camp. What their cabins’ schedule is, how the new cabins are going, the new campers.
Sometimes they aren’t talking, instead just sitting in silence. They don’t say anything, even when they’re checking each others’ pulse or checking for injuries.
Other times they’re somewhere, delirious out of their minds from a lack of real rest or alcohol. Those moments are unreal yet real. Just confusing enough that the rest of the world doesn’t matter. They laugh and cry and talk and-
Sometimes Pollux will talk to the air the same way he talked to Castor. Sometimes Clovis will be tired and delirious enough that he can pretend that Castor hasn’t died.
He decides to drag the son of Dionysus into Cabin 15 - dedicated to both Hypnos and Morpheus due to the small number of campers and overlap - instead of 12. Pollux shouldn’t be alone in that cabin. Clovis’ is also closer to where he was found.
Not to mention that the last time he had seen the inside of the Dionysus cabin it had looked like a disaster. There had been at least one broken mirror and far too many empty bottles laying around.
The magic over Cabin 15 should help Pollux get the rest he actually needs. Alcohol induced unconsciousness doesn’t exactly result in feeling rested after all. It should also prevent Pollux from waking up from a nightmare. Although he isn’t the only one suffering from those. Pretty much anyone that hasn’t literally just arrived at camp within the last few weeks has had some problems sleeping.
Not that it’s very surprising. Nightmares aren’t a rarity among demigods. But Clovis thinks that the Battle of Manhattan was particularly hard on all of them. It’s one thing to fight for your life against monsters after all. Fighting against other demigods? Killing other demigods? That’s a different story.
Clovis puts Pollux in his bunk before looking around the cabin. While Hypnos and Morpheus don’t have an acceptance policy like Hermes, Hayal and Clovis had gotten their fathers’ permission to let campers who are having a hard time stay in their cabin to get some rest. Looking around he isn’t surprised to see that his cabin mate had managed to bully Cecil and Robin from Cabin 11 into taking a nap in her bed. He can also see an Ares camper and what was probably Austin from Apollo on one of the empty bunks.
Huh. Maybe we won’t have to bother Will to take a look at Pollux again.
For a few moments Clovis just kind of stands there. Looking at the sleeping forms of the other campers, listening to the ambient music that Morpheus added.
He isn’t sure where the thought came from. But looking at all the campers crashing in his cabin he can’t help but be reminded of the fact that they’re all really just kids.
Are they war veterans now? Yes. Are they still painfully young? Also yes. Cecil, Robin and Austin barely count as teenagers. Clovis himself is barely 15. Heck the very person who was forced to lead them all into battle had turned 16 during said battle!
15 and the veteran of a war with the world at stake. Clovis can’t help but laugh a little. It sounds ridiculous.
He pushes Pollux closer to the wall to make space for himself on his bunk as a traitorous part of his mind sees it fit to remind him of every time Castor and Pollux sneaked him into their cabin. Sometimes it still doesn’t feel real. The fact that it’s just Pollux in Cabin 12.
They’re separated. Torn apart in a way that only death will allow for the two to be united again. It’s just like Castor and Pollux from the myths, Clovis realises with a grimace.
Looking at Pollux’s sleeping body he can’t help but wonder if that’s what his friend is trying to do. He can see it happen, Pollux drinking himself into an early grave while Clovis falls asleep and just doesn’t wake up again. It’s a morbid thought, especially considering how hard they have been fighting for a chance to live.
But he doesn’t mind it, Clovis realises as he let himself be claimed by his father’s realm. Clovis isn’t bothered by it even though he should be.