Mia's POV
I woke up with a smile that morning, as I remembered last night. I got dressed in record time and did my hair. Normally I wear it in a low ponytail but today I let it hang down. My hair reaches my waist so I rarely do this because it gets caught in everything. I put on my sneakers and headed to the dining pavilion. I got a blueberry muffin and apple juice and sat at the Hades table. I started humming softly.
Singing is like breathing for me, I don't think I could live without it. No matter how bad things get as soon as I put my headphones in, turn my favorite songs on and start singing, everything else melts away and it's ok, but I never sing in front of anyone else- I'm too scared of getting made fun of.
I was so engrossed in the song that I didn't hear someone come up behind me.
"Is this seat taken?" I jumped and turned to see Joey. Everyone was looking at us because no one other than my siblings ever sits with me- they're too scared. I moved over and shook my head. He sat down and the pavilion broke out into a chorus of whispers. Joey just rolled his eyes.
"Oh, shut up!" He exclaimed to the whispering crowd, effectively silencing them. I just sat there and blushed. No one has ever talked to me, let alone stood up for me.
"You didn't need to do that..." I murmured. He shrugged.
"Why do you let people push you around?" I looked at him, confused.
"What are you talking about? I don't let people push me around." He sighed.
"Yes, you do. You let them talk about you, let them tease you, you let them be scared. Why?"
"I... I never thought about it like that."
"You should stand up for yourself." We ate in silence for a while, which I then broke saying
"So what should we do today?" He looked at me, with his head cocked to the side.
"What do you mean? We have training." My face fell.
"Oh. I've never done any training." He thought for a moment and then he turned to me, the same look in his eye that Annabeth gets when she has an idea.
"I've got it- meet me at the first clearing in the forest in 30 minutes." He told me his instructions, jumped up, and ran off. I sat there, confused, then finished my muffin, and followed his directions. After walking in the shade of the trees for about 5 minutes I reached the clearing, and the sight that greeted me took my breath away.
Joey's POV
I knew Mia was inexperienced and fairly clueless when it came to training, but I didn't want her to be alone while I had to train. I know that the kids at this camp can be jerks to people who don't fit in, even for demigod and legacy standards. My parents had talked about her once after dinner, saying that they were sorry for her, with what her fate held, and a bunch of other grown-up stuff like that; but what really affected me was hearing about how she was treated like her papà- Nico- was when he was her age. It made me sick to hear that he was teased, outcast and feared just because he was the son of Hades. Things aren't like that anymore, but, again, kids are jerks to anyone not like themselves. I don't know why, but after hearing that, I felt drawn to her, like I needed to protect her, but she was never here because she got sent to school for "protection" which is a bunch of BS. After all, it is more dangerous out in the real world for demigods and legacies. Everyone is always saying she's in danger and needs protection. But they never tell me (or her for that matter) why. So if she needs protection, I will watch her. It's like there's this magnetic pull attracting me to her (not that kind of attraction). I also want to be her friend now. After talking to her last night, she's really nice and just misunderstood and has been stereotyped due to her family connections. Anyway, after hearing how people treat her, I want her to fit in so I had this idea. I ran to my dad since he's the one who controls what I need, which is helpful because he's my dad.
"Dad, Dad!" He turned around hearing me call him and smiled.
"What can I do for you, son?" He replied, ruffling my already unruly hair.
"My friend has no experience training but they're starting today and I'm their only friend so I don't want them to be alone." I rushed out in one breath.
"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" I whispered my solution in his ear, just in case Mia could hear us. As my suggestion resonated in his brain, his lips slowly curved up into a smile.
"I think that's a great idea. Bring the key back when you're done." He handed me a small silver key. I beamed.
"Thanks, Dad!" I took off again to collect my supplies. As I sprinted to the woods, I mentally recognized how lucky Mia is to be able to shadow travel. I set everything up and stepped back to look at my work. I thought it was perfect; I just hoped she liked it. I checked my watch and saw that she should be here any minute. As if right on cue, I heard a gasp behind me, telling me it was showtime.
Mia's POV
I couldn't suppress the gasp at the sight that greeted me. In half an hour, he had managed to build me my own training course! I was too shocked to speak so I just stood there with my mouth open. After a moment he spoke, breaking me out of my trance.
"Do... do you like it? I figured if you trained in the basics every day this week, by next Saturday you could be all caught up..." he kept shuffling around like he was nervous. I've never had anything remotely like this happen before so I didn't know how to react.
"You... you did this... for me?" He nodded.
"But... why?"
"You don't deserve to be alone. No one does. So I'm not going to let you be. I promise." He had crossed the distance between us and grabbed my hand, to which I immediately tensed up. He let go quickly.
"Thanks, just know that I'm like my papà in that I don't like physical affection."
"Got it, sorry." He rocked back and forth on his heels a bit, looking awkward, which
I blamed myself for- I haven't had many social interactions and I'm out of practice.
"So... who's going to train me?" He looked at me, cocking his head to the side again, which I thought was pretty cute. Stop it, Mia, I mentally scolded myself. You just made a friend - don't ruin it. He brought me back to the present saying
"Umm... me." Now it was my turn to be confused.
"But... you have your own training, you can't do mine too!" He shrugged.
"Well, by training you, I'm technically training. So ready to start?" I wanted to say Nope! Absolutely not! But I nodded my head yes anyway. After explaining literally everything to me, teaching me what everything was, how to use it, etc, we found out that I'm pretty good at archery (which is probably because I'm a legacy of Apollo), and I'm not bad with a dagger. No swords, though- they make me feel so unbalanced and I can't control them. We trained all day, stopping only for lunch, and bathroom and water breaks. The sun was setting when we were finished. I was sitting on a log, drinking my water, breathing heavily- I had never worked so hard before and never felt so exhausted! I felt ready to pass out when Joey sat down next to me.
"So," I panted, breathless, "how'd I do?"
"Not bad for your first day." He laughed to which I joined in. It felt so natural being with him. It felt... right. I replied
"You're not so bad yourself." I didn't know it was possible to become this close to someone in less than 24 hours, but I did. All of a sudden, thunder boomed, lightning flashed, and rain came down in sheets. Which, considering it can't rain here, makes absolutely no sense.
"What the-"Joey started
"No time!" I shouted- the rain was so loud I needed to raise my voice. "Grab my hand, quick!" He did as he was told, so stunned to argue with me. I had shadow traveled a couple of times with my dad, not by myself for a while, but desperate times call for desperate measures! I shadow traveled us to my cabin, collapsing on the ground. Joey bent down.
"Mia! Are you ok?" His face was riddled with concern, which I thought was sweet. "Yeah... I'm fine... I just haven't... shadow traveled by... myself in a while...I'll be fine... it wasn't that far." After the room stopped spinning, I stood up. I realized we were soaked and he had no clean clothes. I looked at him.
"I'll be right back- stay here" I left him there, baffled, while I went to talk to my papà and Dad.
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The Next Generation: The Beginning
FanficPJO Next-generation AU Will and Nico have been married for 16 years and have five kids- Bianca, Carlos, Audrey, Ben, and Mia. Bianca, Carlos, Audrey, and Ben look like Nico and are healers like Will, and stay in the Apollo cabin. But Mia is differen...