Agape - J.Grace + P.Jackson

AGAPE

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In which all she wants is to love

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Joy Love had always felt everything to the extreme. Every feeling was expressed like it was the most important message she had ever shared, no more than love.

The girl had always loved to the fullest. Because there wasn't any problem that love couldn't fix for her. Love was the universal cure to all strife, all sadness, all conflict. It made the world a little brighter.

Who could blame the girl? She had grown up with Parker Love as her father and from the moment he had set eyes on her, in awe at the small bundle that was his, he had vowed that she would no nothing but love.

And boy did Joy love her father. The duo were more best friends, partners in crime, than father and daughter. She was his 'mini-me', mimicking every action of his. He was the first person to steal her heart and for the first seven years of her life he held into completely and entirely.

Parker Love was also the first person to teach Joy that love wasn't always enough. Love couldn't overcome every challenge, every problem the world threw at you. Love couldn't stop him from disappearing in the night without a trace. Love did nothing in helping her on the first few months on the run, alone and scared.

But still Joy refused to stop loving. Because maybe love wasn't the problem, maybe she just wasn't loving enough. Every night for months all she longed for was someone to love her, someone she could love back.

On her eight birthday, she discovered that rabid hell hounds who thought you were chew toys were not the right place for her affection. But the rustic camp that she stumbled on may have been, and the blond haired, blue eyed boy that carried her to the infirmary definitely was.

Luke Castellan was the second person that Joy ever loved completely. He was her saviour, her literal knight-in-ugly-orange-camp-shirt. The moment he saw the child trying to fend of the monster with her one good arm, the other now a mess of blood and bone in the dogs mouth, he knew he had to protect her. It wasn't a conscious decision of anything, it was the way that even after the attack, even after losing her arm, losing her father, losing her normal life, she still held the biggest grin he had ever seen. Because to Joy Love, this wasn't a sign that the gods didn't love her, that the world was unfair, but more a sign that it hadn't had a chance to learn to love her yet. And she would be damned if she didn't try to make it. She loved Luke with her whole soul, and in return he loved her back

Joy brought a clear shift to camp. A very clear before-joy and after-joy period. The girl knew everyone, loved everyone, and in turn they all loved her back. She was the self-appointed welcome committee, the first point of call on a bad day and was by far the best hugger on site.

Everyone had been convinced for months that she was a child of Aphrodite, because why else would she love so fully, so completely. But she thought charm speak was not nice; couldn't tell a Louisvoutton from a Chanel and despite her love-all nature, she didn't actually care for the love that most people were interested. Why dedicate yourself to one person, close your heart of to so many others? Why not just love everyone?

So Aphrodite was ruled out.

Next came Apollo. Sure, she had a father but that wasn't the most unheard of thing for the God of Sun, and the girls ability to literally glow as she walked through camp, her ability to make everyone smile like she was the sun itself, well, it was no wonder people thought she belonged in cabin 7.

But whenApollo claimed three campers after her arrivals, it was decided that even the arrogant sun god wasn't that much of an arse (well decided by everyone but Luke).

So Joy stayed in cabin eleven. And no matter how much the world tried to mold her into their boxes, to take away her unwavering love, if anything it grew.

Percy Jackson arrived and while most campers saw him as the sign that everything was about to go to shit, Joy forced him into her new friend. Joy learnt that even when the world was trying to destroy everything that made her smile, she could still find place for more love. And boy did she love seaweed brain. Loved their late night talks, their arguments about aquatic movies and their ability to share everything they were feeling in the world with one look.

When Luke was declared a traitor, everyone lost their love for the boy. Joy's only grew, hoping to fill whatever gap had led him to turn away from the people he had grown up for, the people he loved. And no matter what the boy did, no matter how he used her and hurt her, she never responded with anger, never responded with hate: only love.

That's not to say it didn't cost her. The war broke Joy in two. Mortals weren't meant to love two people so wholly, love two people more than they loved anything else. How could she love and protect them when each was a cause of pain.

That was how Joy learnt her second lesson in love. Not everyone was going to love her as much as she loved them. And standing in the shadow of Zeus' throne, her heart already split in a million pieces, she learnt that no matter how much she loved the son of Hermes, it wouldn't change him. It wasn't enough to make him stop hurting everyone else who held her heart, wouldn't bring back Lee and Silena and Charlie.

But no matter how much she knew in her heart that loving him wasn't as good as she once believed, love was stubborn., Love couldn't just be turned of at a whim. Nothing could truly make Joy stop loving Luke.

But it was Percy, the second half of her heart, that forced her into her third lesson about love. Until that day, Joy was proud to wear her heart on her sleeve. Was proud to fight tooth and nail for those she loved, to protect them at any cost, because that was what love meant.

But how could something so good, something so wholesome and innate, cause so much damage? Hurt her so much?

It was Joy's love of Luke that caused her to step infront of him.

It was Joy's love of Percy that caused her to stop him anyway she could.

But the problem with wearing your heart so visible is that it didn't take much to hurt fatally.

"I have no notion of loving people by halves."