May I have this dance?
“Ugh, I hate Portkey traveling.” Duke says somewhere to my right. Lou Ellen and Amara are on my left bickering about who fell on who.
“It probably gets better over time.” Lila grits out, not believing the words herself but still succumbing to her need of optimism. Kaleb pulls himself out from underneath both Lou Ellen and Amara and dusts off his clothes like this happens every day.
“I would agree but then I would be lying.” Derek finishes stretching out near one of the bigger trees, picks up his bag and swings his pointer fingers to the left. Although I don’t know the sign I can guess the meaning, my theory is soon proven correct when everyone begins to pick themselves up and move out of the forest and towards their respective cabins. Our group walks together through the camp until we reach the campfire where Mateo, Lexi and Duke spilt off to the right towards their cabins while the rest of us keep going straight to Cabin 17. It’s around 3:30 pm and camp wide dinner starts at 6 pm so the others still have time before dinner. Our cabin flips between eating with everyone else or by ourselves. If both Aura and Luna are home at the same time we normally eat in the Cabin around 5 pm because that’s the latest that they can go before needing to eat, for them it’s around 8 pm. *1*
Before I know it, I’m walking up the Cabin steps and through the portal. I’m the last one through, Lou Ellen is bickering in sign language with Derek while trying to simultaneously pull off her Aparation Ring, *2* she’s failing spectacularly which tilts the corner of my mouth up. Eyes rolling, Kaleb shoulders past them and drops his keys into the turquoise bowl by the fake flowers. I took this as my cue to put away my shoes and move on. On my side Lila suddenly stops and turns to the coat rack. The regular cream fleece and lime rain jacket hang on either side of a new object. It’s a cloak, knee length or longer, with a rich purple color. A golden shimmering makes itself known when I tug Lila away and out of the emptied hall. I ignore it.
Entering the blue living room I can hear a slow song playing from the kitchen. Most of the time the only songs are upbeat, from Country to Pop to Jazz, the kitchen always alive. Now the kitchen is soothing, from the window’s pink curtains swinging slightly to false window’s light that illuminates two figures. I patter over to the kitchen counter as Lila skips ahead. Luna and Kaleb are seated there, to no surprise, Lou Ellen is sitting on the counter kicking her legs into Kaleb’s shoulder every couple minutes and Amara is sitting two stools down looking over warily. Lila takes the seat by Lou Ellen while I stand by the doorway observing. Derek is shuffling around by the fridge collecting ingredients with a confidence I’ve never seen on him before. Across the kitchen there’s a woman I’ve never seen before standing at the active stove, some kind of Mexican immigrant, I guess, by her coffee bean skin. *3* She’s wearing a white sleeveless top that twists into an ‘x’ across her shoulder blades, blue jeans and white high tops. Her hair is black and braided over her shoulder. Aura is by the window picking some herbs as she turns and walks by the stove the unknown woman grabs the hand that had been fidgeting with Aura’s hair clip, and uses it to spin her. A surprised but delighted laugh bubbles out of Aura and she goes along with it, letting the woman twirl her around for a minute before she lets go. Her blue sky themed dress *4* twists for a few seconds even after she stills. Aura rights her dress and gives the woman a playful glare before walking off. The stranger watches her go, lips and eyebrows curved up, and her head tilted slightly. It’s an emotion that I can’t pin point, soft and intimate. *5*
“Is that Reyna?” Lila asks pointing at the new woman who has gone back to the stove now.
“Yep! That’s Reyna Avila Ramerozi Arello, Praetor of Camp Jupiter and Aura’s girlfriend.” I freeze. ‘girlfriend’?! Lila doesn’t seem to notice. She pushes on, unsurprisingly conjuring up a question.
“What’s a Praetor?”
“A leader. Think of Percy and Annabeth, except Reyna actually has official political power and not just a whole bunch of achievements and respect under her belt. It’s a big deal, there’s only 2.” Luna speaks, sounding proud although it’s hard to tell from her airy speech. I can barely hear her; my mind is in another place. We’ve been living with a twink. Distantly, Lila is giggling at Amara’s stage whisper that Reyna is also Luna’s boss. Glancing back at them it seems obvious. As the music changes, Aura moves next to Reyna at the stove and leans on the counter while Reyna starts to season whatever she’s cooking. Once she finishes Reyna takes Aura’s hand and starts to pull her off the counter. Aura simply laughs and allows herself to be pulled close.
“May I have this dance?” Reyna asks, her accent to strong and drags on the word “this”, her voice is low enough that I can barely hear it. Aura smiles gently and nods, they sway around the kitchen, humming. Reyna twirls Aura and her dress flares out. I’m almost uncomfortable, not just by their unholy love but I feel the need to look away; like I shouldn’t be allowed to watch this. The song finally ends and they go back to cooking like nothing happened.
A couple minutes later and we’re sitting down for dinner. Aura has tried to introduce Lila and I to Reyna multiple times now but I’ve made myself a promise. I won’t let my sister be ruined by those homos. *6*
*1* Please ignore all time difference mistakes.
*2* OK! So, Apparation Rings! Wix (witches or wizards but gender neutral) naturally have very concentrated magic. Once they go to school that strengths, their magic cannot preform multiple spells without struggling. Demigods, on the other hand have an abundance of magic. This causes their magic to be less concentrated which easily allows them to preform more spells. Apparation, requires a being to quite literally dissolve themselves then recollect their cells back, in a completely different spot. Children of Hecate struggle to fully contain all the parts of their bodies when traveling and hence often get splinched much more than a regular Wix. In order to prevent this, Aura created Apparition Rings that help concentrate their energy when appariting, Aura regularly wears hers and Luna doesn’t need one, Lou tends to forget or lose hers a lot.
*3* this line cracks me up because for once Casey’s judgmental comments are actually correct. Technically Reyna is an illegal immigrant. She ran away from Puerto Rico and stowed away on a boat (I think) and from there she just goes from godly place to godly turf and actually never once interacts with Mortals, or at least never gets herself the citizenship.
*4* I freaking love coming up with Auras dresses.
*5* That’s called utter love and adoration Casey, cuz Reyna is 100% gone for Aura.
*6* this hurt me to write 😭 but also cracked me up because Casey is a closeted Bisexual.