Goodnight Moon ↣ P. Jackson + A. Chase

interlude i. at dawn

When you have the inability to tell a lie, a curse of truthfulness sat upon your tongue, it leads you to do something stupid. Kassandra set a standard of always upkeeping her promises in the end because she was truthfully afraid of what would happen if she didn't.

And when it came to things promised to the gods, she took extra care to ensure that she always came through. Getting on the bad side of Poseidon seemed like more than a terrible idea when she was likely already on the bad side of her father.

(More than that, it was a matter of pride that she always stuck to her word because she was the daughter of the god of truths and while she didn't like him she still had certain standards that had to be kept to.)

(Kassandra had learnt and studied the art of cursing the gods, had perfected the art of cutting herself away from them as if the connection was so flimsy and paltry as wet paper might be. She had worked hard and harder to complete what was needed, but angering the gods to the point that they would seek her out to strike her down was not something that was to be down intentionally. Kassandra wasn't an idiot.)

So that's what led her one day that summer to seek out Percy when the day was nice and the sun was nearly covered by thin white clouds. He had been with Annabeth, that much she had already suspected, the pair blowing off her cabin's scheduled activities (just as she was currently doing, so she had no room to call them out even if she had wanted to), stuck together by the amphitheatre while Annabeth displayed a neat trick with her knife that she had tougher herself.

She had stood observing them for a moment, settling her weight onto one foot as she watched them interact with a sort of detached aloofness, a distant gaze that was far away and only seeing on the surface (because she didn't want to see all the private smiles and stolen glances that were so innocent that the pair hadn't even realized that they were doing).

Eventually, though, Kassandra calls out a greeting to them when it seems like they won't notice her -- easily catching their attention and bringing them to send matching smiles her way as they made their way to meet her.

"Kassie, hey, aren't you supposed to be grounded by your siblings, or something?" Percy teases, running a hand through his hair.

She pulls a face, laughing sarcastically. "That's great. Laugh at my misery. I'll have you know that I've been freed. Do you honestly think that Will would let me out of his sight if I wasn't?"

The boy shivers dramatically. "God, that boy can be so intense when he wants to be."

Annabeth snorts. "Right, just because he didn't want you hanging around and baiting Kass into sneaking off, doesn't mean that he's intense."

"No, Will can be intense sometimes, but he's generally very mellow and compassionate," she tells him honestly. "But I didn't run off to talk about my siblings."

"Oh?"

"I believe I made a promise to Poseidon, and I've finally come to make good on it," she announces, looping her arm through Percy's easily and begins to drag him away. He doesn't protest being man-handled in the slightest. "Coming for a swim, Annabeth? Percy's going to find a way to turn it into an extreme sport for us."

The blonde laughs, skipping up a few steps so that she was walking beside her, linking her arm through Kassandra's free one.

"You already know how to swim, you know."

"Not nearly good enough, I learned," she counters. "I'd rather figure out all the best ways not to drown even if it requires Percy almost drowning me." 

"You have a lot of trust in Seaweed Brain," Annabeth notes playfully, nudging her with their interlocked arms. 

(And yeah, she supposed that was true, but she had faith in her friends, no matter how new they were. Nearly dying with someone tends to do that to you, give you that sense that you could trust them.)