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valentine’s day falling on a friday night seemed a little too perfect. mortals, demigods, and gods loved friday nights alike. mortals for work reasons, gods—or at least Aphrodite—because it was the day of venus, and demigods for the weekly bonfires held by the Apollo cabin. there was nothing like sitting around a warm campfire with all of your friends and siblings on the beachside, especially on the most romantic day of the year.
as you walked along the path towards the beach, you were already picturing what kind of stuff everyone was going to pull. you imagined cheesy love song serenades from cabin 7—ones dedicated to their partners or sang just for fun—fires molded into heart shapes by cabin 9, and some sort of prank from cabin 11. what you didn’t imagine was seeing austin lake standing where the path and beach met, his arm stretched like he was trying to make a barrier.
“hi.” you stopped in front of him.
“hello. in honor of valentine’s day, we’ve arranged the bonfire to be a double or nothing situation. all of the log chairs are grouped into pairs.” he looked behind you. “you can try sitting alone, but i don’t think it’ll last for long.”
you blinked. “double or nothing?”
out of everything you were expecting to hear tonight, that wasn’t it. so many questions that would only pop into the mind of someone who was mad at the arrangement found themselves on the tip of your tongue. instead of letting them all out, you just swallowed. austin put his arm down.
“i’m happy to help you find someone if you’d like. in fact, i do know someone who is alone tonight.” a small smile you couldn’t tell the connotation of teased his face.
“oh, i’m honored. i just.. i’m a little ol—”
“will!” he shouted his half-brother’s name.
you raised your eyebrows. will stepped down from where he was fixing the hanging paper hearts to walk over. as he approached, two tiny hearts drawn in pink and red facepaint sat just below both of his eyes. you’d never really looked at will before, but if he always looked that cute, you were going to start doing so more.
“hi,” he said, turned to austin. “what’s up?”
austin nodded to you. “i found you someone to sit with.”
that was the nicest way one could possibly describe your situation, you thought to yourself.
“hey,” he turned to you now.
will’s eyes widened so slightly that you thought you were just seeing things. he quickly cleared his throat. “uh, follow me.”
“alright. uh, thank you,” you said to austin.
“of course.” you heard austin say as will slowly led you through the beach. past every pair sitting with a tiny fire in front of them, smiles on their firelit faces, having conversations about gods know what. you waved to some of siblings. some waved back while others deemed themselves too cool.
will stopped you both at what appeared to be the last pair of logs left. on the sand was a small sack of marshmallows and a pile of branches. sitting down, you picked one up and pierced one of the marshmallows with it.
“so, you’re hosting, right?” you asked as you placed the marshmallow in the fire.
“yeah.” will replied. he mirrored you, taking a marshmallow for himself.
“how exactly did you end up alone, then?”
will flushed. only after you asked that did you realize he may interpret it as offensive. you didn’t want to grimace to add fuel to the fire, so you just pursed your lips. you’d suddenly become very aware of the chatter around you, how all of it seemed to be flowing so well because they weren’t fucking up so badly like you just had.
“well.. i honestly thought hosting would be a lot more work than it actually is.” he finally said. “as well as the fact that this whole arrangement was a surprise, and asking someone would.. ruin that.”
he looked up at you, averting his eyes from the fire. “and you?”
“came late and saw that all of my siblings are busy.” you laughed wryly.
never did you expect to bond with a stranger over the question ‘how exactly did you end up alone, then?’ but apparently it wasn’t too bad of an icebreaker, judging by the way will had stopped bouncing his leg.
“i know the feeling.”
you both fell into quiet, polite laughter that only lasted a few seconds. something about the fire made it feel less forced and more just part of passing conversation. you finished with the typical sing-songy ‘ahh’ before falling quiet again.
by that point, your marshmallow was just starting to brown. you tried to think of anything else to say. your eyes found will’s again. the hearts were still drawn under his eyes, the pink and red elevating the blue irises.
“i really like the hearts under your eyes.” you said in a tone that came out way more romantic than you were hoping it would. you simply accepted it, the universe clearly having something against you that day.
“oh, thank you.” will’s voice was softened and hesitant. “i like your…”
his eyes searched you for something to compliment. meanwhile, two of your siblings approached the fire. you straightened your posture.
“y/n can we borrow some—” they looked over to will, then back at you. “by gods, are you two dating?”
a flush immediately flooded both of your faces. your blood pressure spiked to a level that was definitely far from healthy, despite the fact you should’ve gotten used to making mistake after mistake that day. you knew you were really in for it based on the way your siblings were looking at each other with mischievous glints in their eyes.
trying to contain the storm going on inside and outside of your body, you went with the first answer that came to mind: “no.”
will barely let the last part of the ‘o’ sound come from your mouth before adding, “no, we.. we aren’t.”
“hmm.. okay..” one of them dragged teasingly.
you reached down to hand them the entire sack of marshmallows, not even slightly in the mood to have them return and see this again. “here. just take them all.”
“thanks.” one of them said as they took it from your hands. “we’ll take that as a bribe and not tell anyone else.”
“we aren’t—”
they’d already started walking away before you could finish. you knew, based on the way they were giggling, that you were fucked and that something completely not true was going to come out of it. you pinched your forehead with your non-marshmallow-roasting hand.
“i’m so in for it,” you groaned.
“me too.”
will had his face propped in his hand when you got up from sulking. absentmindedly, he watched the marshmallow on the stick continue to roast. a minute or two of silence passed before your marshmallow finally got to the brown tint you wanted it to. you took it out, cooled it down with a breath, and raised it.
“cheers to whatever comes next.”
will suddenly raised his from the fire and didn’t even bother to cool it off. “cheers.”
you cheers’ed marshmallows. if that was your last—and first—moment of peace you’d ever have with will, you didn’t mind. sure, you’d both have dating allegations following you for the next week, but at least the experience of becoming trauma bonded was over perfectly roasted marshmallows.