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I hadn’t died- surprisingly. Or rather unfortunatly, anything, even death, would have been better than getting beaten by a fifteen-year-old. Especially considering I wasn’t exactly bad at swordsmanship myself and four entire years older than Percy.
“Fuck“, I shouted out as I tripped over a root, sticking out of the ground. I leaned against the wall of the labyrinth and let my body slide down in exhaustion. Considering the pain pulsing throgh my ankle it was almost certainly sprained.
Shit, what now? Could I go back? Could I ever let them see me again? After I failed so badly – failed them, our cause and most importantly him? I have to search for them. It’s my destiny, my mom promised me that my actions, that I, would make a difference – she gave me her word, I gave her my right eye. A fair trade, according to her.
Still, I dissapointed him so much… Not that I ever cared about what people think of me. But with Luke it had always been a little different. Even then I was still at Camp Half Blood I always had the feeling he cared. Now he is colder, I mean he has a lot of responsibility to carry, it’s selfexplanatory. Most importantly I let him down. Would he kill me if I went back? Maybe, but probably not. Would I face harsh punishement? Oh yeah, definitly. Maybe if I…
The decision was taken from me in less than five seconds, as three dracanae came -or rather slithered around the corner. Run? Fight? Impossible with my foot and without any weapons. So surrender it is.
“Finally we found you. The massster wantsss to sssee you, halfblood.“, the middle one adressed me first. “You better come withhhh ussss, now.“ “Or he’ll be even more angry thhhan before“, the other two added. Gods, how I hate these creatures and the damn way they talk. “I can only walk slowly, sprained ankle.“, I explained reluctantly. “Then ssstart walking ssslowly, but sssstart.“, was the only answer I got. The way back to base was pure torture – physically and mentally.
But I knew that the worst part was yet to come – looking in Luke’s disappointed eyes. And the things he would do to punish me even if I completely deserved it. I waited for him in his audience room. Standing, with my foot hurting like hell, of course, I would never dare to sit on his make-shift-throne, not even in my dreams.
The door opened with a loud bang and in came Luke with his blonde hair looking slightly dishelved and his pretty blue eyes and- Fuck I shouldn’t think about this right now, not that I should ever think about stuff like this, I mean, Luke is a handsome guy, but not pretty, at least I can‘t think he is pretty, it is simply… wrong. Entirely wrong. And even if it was okay, he wouldn’t ever like me bac-
“Ethan“, Luke’s voice stopped my thoughts abpruptly. “Luke“, I said as I hastingly kneeled down and suppressed a whimper. “Is everything alright?“, he asked concerned. What the hell was wrong with him? Why didn’t he scream at me or something? “It’s nothing really. I am so so sorry for every-“ “It’s your foot isn’t it?“ This had to be some sick kind of joke. “It is, but it doesn’t matter. I need to apologize to you. I failed then you trusted me and I ran away like a coward would.“
“Will you please just shut up, Ethan“, he finally snapped, “stand up and sit your fucking ass down, right now.“ “Where?“, I asked now completly confused. He couldn’t mean the- “We’re in a room with only one damn place to sit and you ask me ‘Where?‘. I know you always have been an idiot, Ethan, but really? Now stand up and sit down, your foot won’t get any better kneeling. Although I’ll have to admit I like the view.“
I stood up slowly and walked over to the throne and sat down paying attention to not damage anything. Luke must have lost his mind completely. And what is his last comment even supposed to mean? “I need to talk to you and I’ll take care of your foot. What is it excatly?“ “A sprained ankle, I assume at least.“, I said as I gave up on all logic. If he didn’t want to punish me, good, if this was some kind of weird trap, I couldn’t do anything against really, could I?
“I can deal with that“, he replied while grabbing some bandages from a closet. He came over and got on one knee before me, starting to untie my shoelaces. “Why are you doing all that? Aren’t you angry with me? I fucked up. Against a fifteen-year-old“, I asked my confusion growing more and more to anger “You know just as well as I do, that Percy Jackson isn’t your normal teenager“, he tenderly removed my shoe, pushed down my sock until under my ankle and began bandaging it “I still let you down even though you trusted me and I-“, now i was clenching my fists at my side, trying to stop the tears from escaping my eyes. I couldn’t cry now, not in front of Luke.
Luke, who now took my left hand, opened it and intertwinde his fingers with mine, just after finishing the bandage. “Ethan, listen to me, I don’t care about the fight. I don’t care about Percy or Antaeus. I care about you“ This could not be real, there was no sense to any of this. I pushed away Luke’s hand, it was only making the feelings in the pit of my stomach worse. He jerked away and stood up as if I hit him. I quickly wiped away a tear rolling onto my cheek and hoped Luke wouldn’t notice it.
“But why, Luke? I made every mistake possible. You should hate me.“, the confusion, the anger and a million other feelings, I couldn’t name overcame me and tears began streaming down my face. “Why don’t you hate me?“ “Because I love you, you idiot“, he laid his right hand on my wet cheek his left on the side of my neck and he did the thing I expected the least, the thing I thought in dark, shameful moments, the thing I was sure, i’d never be granted to expierience.
He kissed me. Softly and carefully at first, but after I broke free from the state of shock I found myself in, he started moving his lips more daringly against mine and a small whimper escaped me leading him to instantly pull away. “I’m so sorry, Ethan… I should have asked… I just don’t know how much time I have left… here, with you… and I needed to… before…“
This time it was Luke who broke down and started crying. I slipped out of the throne and sat down on the floor, next to Luke, ignoring the sharp pain piercing through my ankle. “Heyy, shhh, it will be alright, I’m sure. Just talk to me.“ I said as i laid my hand on his shoulder not knowing how else to comfort him. “I… can’t. I’m so sorry. Will you promise something to me?“
“Anything“, and I kissed him again, holding him in my arms only breaking the kiss to tell him the only truth I was still sure about “I love you too“