ℝ𝔸𝕀𝕊𝔼 ℍ𝔼𝕃𝕃

"oh, he'll fit into the family just fine and dandy!"

will was quick to force a square of ambrosia down her throat when she showed him the alien gun wound. some of the other campers still there gasped at the blackened, purple, oozing mess it was, and one person even got off their cot to go outside and puke. smiling wearily at the blond boy, alek tries to bring up the conversation she was very much dreading.

"stop badgering around it," he cuts off her thoughts, still looking over the wound as it slowly heals.

"huh?"

"i know you want to ask me, so just do it, already. the quicker you ask, the quicker you get the answer we both already know," he states, glancing up at her with a pointed look.

glancing at hazel for help, all she receives is a shrug before sighing and leaning back on her hands, making the son of apollo glare at her for the jostling of her healing wound.

"how mad do you think neeks is gonna be when he sees me?" it was momentarily silent before someone decided to speak up.

"oh, he's definitely gonna kill you," kayla comments from where she was with her own patient, having taken a break from singing softly to heal them. she gives the older girl a grin, making alek roll her eyes and stick her tongue out at her.

"she's right, you know. you almost made him have a heart attack," hazel pipes in, and alek groans at her words.

she really should've contacted him sooner, because she was definitely in for it with her little brother.

"and if nico isn't going to kill you, you best believe that drew is."

all people in the room freeze at the words, not really noticing who they came from, but everyone knew what they meant. not a lot of people liked drew tanaka — that was well known by the campers at camp half-blood. but what was also well known, was that alek volkov was one of the only people that drew was nice to without having any ulterior motive, and alek was nice to drew as well. she knew drew was a bitch to pretty much everyone, but she was also a bitch, so who was she to judge?

the others went back to what they were doing, will lowering his voice so that others wouldn't continue to pitch into their conversation.

"both of them will kill you, let's just leave it at that, alright?"

"got it, sunny. where is my little brother, by the way? i would've thought that he'd be here by now, considering everyone's most likely been talking about me being back since they saw me with hazel," the russian demigod questions, and both her sister and the son of apollo let out sighs.

"you're going to jinx it, you idiot."

"well, i'm dying either way, so who am i to care? anyways, how's it look, doc?"

he lets out another exasperated sigh, but she picks up on the amused glint in his eyes. "it's a lot different from what i'm used to, that's for sure. nobody else has really got any wounds like this, considering your hounds were the ones mostly taking out the aliens while everyone else focused on helping civilians. it looks like the ambrosia is helping, but it's really slow, so i'll give you a little more to see what that does, but nothing else. i want hourly check-ups if mr. dark lord doesn't send you to an early grave, got it? and don't be late."

nodding, alek watches the boy get up to get some more ambrosia, and he cuts it into a much smaller square before walking back over and hands it over to her. smiling up at him gratefully, she tosses the little square into her mouth and savors the nostalgic taste of her mother's famous banana bread.

"thanks for all this, will. i know you most likely want to kill my ass because i was being a reckless little shit, but thank you for showing restraint and holding yourself back from killing me."