[3] 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐒 ― p.jackson, l.valdez

005.

「005. midget bastards are pricks 」

KENJI ITO considered himself somebody who had like... a lot of emotional baggage. and not even just emotional baggage. just... baggage. his life was- to put it in very simple terms- a fucking mess set on fire. he wasn't the conventional living person- though he'd argue literally no demigod was. but he was just a bit more of a mess then others. his life started a mess and hopefully wouldn't end like one. but man he hated the situation he was in. he wasn't a good person, in his opinion. well, of course he wasn't. he'd joined kronos' army.

at the time, he'd been one of the very few claimed people in the hermes cabin that weren't hermes kids. his mother (hecate) had claimed him when he was barely around at camp. but for some reason, that made him hate it even more. all the major gods had gotten spaces at camp. they'd gotten all the big cabins, the siblings of their own- the feeling of family. whilst all he'd gotten was a few sympathy glances from the hermes kids.

so when his naive and fucking dumb younger self had met luke and heard of him... he took the chance. he did things that now as a sixteen-year-old mess of a person he regretted. he'd cracked his friendship in half with cherry (not just by killing her, but by leaving camp in the first place) and had almost lost sight of himself. they had come to term with themselves early on in the whole process, and it wasn't like he would get any prejudice.

the problem wasn't with anything to do with his sexuality (not like most teens who found that to be their biggest struggle. the struggle to find themselves) nor had it been his weird gender-crisis he'd had during his time in kronos' army (somehow the evil bastards didn't stoop so low as to be complete assholes). his problem was his mindset, and the constant paranoia and fear that if somebody just like luke came along again... that he'd follow blindly all over again.

the fears weren't new to him, and they'd plagued him ever since he'd joined camp after the war. though people had now accepted him, he was scared he'd have to regain that trust again. his time at luke's side had just shown them just how easily they could be manipulated. and gods, he hated that.

"hey, kenji? get your ass out of bed!" called val, pounding down on his door, "we have a meeting!"

sighing, he got out of bed and pushed his fears aside. he had no time for that now. they had to focus on getting barbie, annabeth and percy back. after the war, kenji and barbie had bonded a lot together. they were pretty close friends- and generally had forgiven each other. there was still the awkward moment here and there, but they were friends. and hearing her fall into tartarus was not something he liked to know.

"dude i'm serious! piper's gonna beat my ass if you don't get out!" hollered val, "c'mon you anaemic-"

"alright! alright!"

who would've known just how much his life would change in just a few months?

kenji admired the way the mess hall had been made. but it did make him terribly homesick. flashes of camp half-blood played back and forth all day. and because of the time difference, it was almost even more painful. during the night at times (if coach hedge wasn't prowling around), he'd walk into the mess hall and look at the windows. it would be early morning or afternoon when he came, and he'd sometimes even spot his siblings there. it was nice, in a bittersweet way.

sort of like now. back at camp half-blood it was the middle of the night. torches sputtered at the cabin doorways. moonlight glittered on the waves of long island sound.