Wolf Meets Nightshade

Chapter 15

When night replaced day, the hunters and Percy gathered around the table, eating dinner. Percy sat opposite of Artemis, at the head of the table, Bianca on his right and Jade on his left. Zoe was on the right-hand side of Artemis, since she was the lieutenant, and on the left side was Phoebe, Artemis's third-in-command. Percy and she started rocky, and Phoebe even started fights with him, making him leave for no reason at all, and one time she went as far as nearly killing him, firing a dented silver arrow at Bianca, knowing that Percy would push her away, which he did, and the arrow stuck itself in his chest. Luckily there were some hunters that tolerated him near by and helped him get the medical attention needed for his wound to heal. Artemis, when she heard that Phoebe put a fellow hunter in danger on purpose, and for her own gain, and nearly killed the only man that she respected, gave Phoebe a slap across the face and shouted at her for nearly an hour before calming down and making her go apologize to Percy.

Till this day no one knows what happened in the infirmary tant but as soon as Percy was deemed health, the became best friends faster than anyone would've thought, even Artemis was surprized but decided not to question it, wanting their friendship to become stronger and that it did. Every time that Percy comes to visit the hunt Phoebe, Zoe and Bianca would all pounce on him, giving him a bear hug, with him squashed underneath.

While eating the dinner that was provided by Hestia, the hunters and Artemis kept glancing at Percy then Zoe then back again, making Zoe blush and keep her head down, looking at the plate with great interest. After the millionth time Percy had gotten extremely curious so he decided to bite it and ask, "What is with all the glancing?" he asked the hunters and their patron. "Did Zoe come into your tent a few hours ago?" Phoebe randomly asked. Percy was taken back by this question, but responded with a small nod, still not understanding all of this. "What did you talk about?" she continued, looking at him intensely, making him very cautious about what he was going to say next. "Well, she came in my tent, startling me, when she asked that she was meant to tell me something but that was as far as she got, before running out of the tent, looking as if someone splashed bright red paint all over her face." He finished, still not understanding the concept.

All the hunters and Artemis sighed simultaneously and stared at Zoe, which creeped her out but still stayed silent. "Well, if Zoe won't say it, I could do it for her." her patron said, smiling smugly, knowing that one way or another Percy will know about Zoe's huge, no enormous, crush on him. When Percy's not at camp, dealing with some werewolf stuff, she would talk about him constantly, how handsome he is, how strong and powerful his body felt when she hugged him, how kind and polite he was towards her and how he always had that scent of a calm beach, always calming her down and wanting to smell it all day long. The hunters, of course, laughed at her brightly lit face when she said those things, but they couldn't argue with her reasoning.

"W-what?" Zoe asked, stammering her words. "You heard Lady Artemis." Phoebe said, having the same look as Artemis, now that she looked around the table everyone had that look, except Percy who was looking at her extremely confused. There's no way out of this so might as well get this over with, she thought and gestured for Percy to follow her back to her tent. The hunters were cheering for her in the background, but she ignored it concentrating on the task ahead of her. She knew that there was a possibility that he would say no, but she didn't need to dwell on that, instead she thought on the positive side, that if he'll say yes, they could be together, could be married and maybe have kids, but that is still far, far away.

Her train of thoughts stopped when she was inside her tent, both of them sitting on the side edge of the bed, Percy looking at her expectantly. "You know that nothing could ruin our friendship, right? And promise me that whatever I say that you won't laugh at me or mock me? I just want a straight answer, ok?" she asked in a rapid session, but luckily Percy caught it all and nodded and said, "I promise." Staring directly in her eyes to show her that he was serious.

Zoe sighed in relief. At least I'll still have my best friend, she thought before voicing the thing she wanted to say to him for nearly a decade. " I love you."