Mission Spandex
Being back at Camp Half-blood was... Hard, to say the least. I mean, Percy and I had visited so many times since Gaea (obviously, since we helped rebuild the damn thing), but this time it was just so different.
Passing by the line of trees that hid the entrance, I could almost feel something pressing on me, a suffocating mist that threatened to choke me. I knew what it was: grief. The war had affected all of us, and loss hung like a blanket over the whole camp.
I walked through the cabins, and kids ran up to me, bombarding me with questions and showing me their new battle scars and rummaging through my pockets for candy. I couldn't help but be struck by the number of them.
It was a school semester, so even back when I was an all-rounder there weren't as many campers as during the summer, but now... I could count them on my fingers. I'll admit it broke my heart a little.
Nico and Will walked over, hand in hand, and pulled the kids off me, shooing them away.
"It's good to see you," Will said, drawing me into a hug, "How've you been?"
"And what are you doing here?"
From anyone else, this might have seemed rude - but from Nico I knew it was simply caution; we older demigods usually didn't arrive unannounced at camp unless something was wrong.
I could hear the tiredness in his voice, the anxiety, waiting for me to say there was a monster attack, or evil ghosts or another world-ending prophecy to disrupt the shaky peace he'd been holding. Nico had been through so much; he'd been through Tartarus on his own for gods' sakes. And he was barely beginning to recover from it. You can't imagine how happy I'd been a couple of weeks prior when he'd told us he and Will had finally made it official. It was good to see him happy, and I wasn't about to disturb it.
"Everything's fine, guys, don't worry," I reassured them, "I'm only here to say hi and get some help for a present I'm making Percy."
Nico raised an eyebrow, "A present? What kind?"
"The secret kind."
"Mm, how mysterious," Will exclaimed, "As long as it's not inappropriate."
I told him it wasn't, and whacked him on the head for asking me in the first place. We made comfortable small talk for another couple of minutes before a camper set a small fire outside the Hermes cabin that Nico and Will ran over to attend to.
After I was alone, I set off to find a Hephaestus kid called Caleb, and his girlfriend - an Aphrodite kid called Lila - to help me with my 'present'. The two of them had been so much help during the rebuilding so I trusted that they could keep my project secret.
I found them beneath a large swaying tree near the Aphrodite cabin, passing a battered guitar back and forth and laughing. Caleb was tall, muscular and scruffy looking, with dark skin and long hair braided with crystals, and he was wearing a plain grey shirt and worn-out jeans. Lila seemed like the complete opposite; she had blonde hair stylishly cropped into a wolf-cut, and she was rocking a hot pink miniskirt.
They were completely different people, so by romance logic they shouldn't have worked; but anyone could see they were hopelessly in love. They were the spitting image of... another couple I knew. Whenever I saw them together like this I felt the ache of grief in my chest for what... that other couple could have been.
"Annie!" Caleb exclaimed when he saw me, jumping up for a rib-cracking hug, "How are you?"
(Trust me, I tried to tell him that wasn't my name, but he never listened.)
"I'm hanging in there, Caleb, thanks."
"Do you need help with something?" Lila asked curiously, sitting up against the tree.
I reached into my bag to pull out the sketches, "Well... This is going to be hard to explain but..."
I hadn't wanted to reveal too much about our 'plan', but I found that anything but the whole story sounded incredibly weird, so I spilled everything whilst they thumbed through the sheets of paper. It also gave me the chance to show off a little on all the design choices I'd made that I was proud of.
"So," I asked after I finished rambling and they'd looked up from the pages, "What... Do you think? Can you do it?"
They shared a look between them (there was that ache again), and seemed to exchange silent words before turning to me. Caleb smirked and nodded.
"Easy."
Apparently 'easy' meant several hours of hard labour, because it was the next day before the pair finally called me over to the Hephaestus cabin. I followed them to a secluded underground workshop, and stood in front of a shabby metal closet. Caleb grabbed the handle and threw it open.
I can honestly say my jaw dropped. The shapes, the colours, the.... Everything was just the way I imagined.
"Will this do?" Lila asked me, looking a little anxious for my reply."
"They're perfect."