Ataraxia [BTS au | Heroes of Olympus]

30

The sun was just about down.

"Jungkook," Jin said, "your power with precious metal— Can you just detect it, or can you actually summon it to you?"

He frowned. "Sometimes I can summon it. I've never tried with a piece of Celestial bronze that big before. I might be able to draw it to me through the earth, but I'd have to be fairly close. It would take a lot of concentration, and it wouldn't be fast."

"Be fast," Echo warned. 

Jin cursed. "All right," He said. "We'll have to try something risky. Jungkook, how about you try to summon the bronze from right here? Make it sink through the sand and tunnel over to you, then grab it and run for the ship."

"But Narcissus is looking at it all the time," he said.

"All the time," Echo echoed.

"That'll be my job," Jin said, "Echo and I will cause a distraction."

"Distraction?" Echo asked.

"I'll explain," Jin promised. 

"Are youwilling?"

"Willing," Echo said.

"Great," Jin said. "Now, let's hope we don't die." Jin rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. Opened up a few top buttons. He fixed his hair and maybe used some kind of Aphrodite magic making him glow.

"What in the world are you thinking?" Hosoek asked.

"I try not to think," Jin admitted. "Just concentrate on moving that Celestial bronze. Echo, you ready?"

"Ready," she said.

 He watched Jin take a deep breath. He strutted back toward the pond. "Jin is the coolest!" he shouted.

"Jin is the coolest!" Echo shouted back.

"Yeah, baby, check me out!"

"Check me out!" Echo said.

"Make way for the king!"

"The king!"

"Narcissus is weak!"

"Weak!"The crowd of nymphs scattered in surprise. Jin shooed them away as if they were bothering him. 

"No autographs, girls. I know you want some Jin time, but I'm way too cool. You better just hang around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He's lame!"

"Lame!" Echo said with enthusiasm.

The nymphs muttered angrily."What are you talking about?" one demanded."You're lame," said another. 

Jin adjusted his collar and smiled. He flexed his biceps, he did have enough to flex. He had the nymphs' attention, because they were stunned; but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection."You know how ugly Narcissus is?" Jin asked the crowd."He's so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur—with a horse butt for a face."

Some of the nymphs gasped. Narcissus frowned, as though he was vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his head. "You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Jin continued. "He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can't find one!" One of the nymphs laughed. The others quickly elbowed her into silence. 

Narcissus turned and scowled at Jin. "Who are you?"

"I'm World Wide Hansome." Jin said running a had through him hair."I'm Soekjin Kim, bad boy supreme! And the ladies love a bad boy."

"Love a bad boy!" Echo said, with aconvincing squeal. 

Jin took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. "Narcissus is a loser! He's so weak, he can't bench- press a Kleenex. He's so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it's got a picture of Narcissus—only the picture's so ugly, no one ever checks it out." Maybe it was Jin's charm speak working because they seemed to buy it momentarily.  Narcissus knit his handsome eyebrows.