Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

XXI. Reunions (And I Get The Girl Of My Dreams)

Alternative Chapter Title: I May Or May Not Consider Percy A Genius Now

(A/N: You all have been waiting for this. I aim to deliver. That is all for this author's note.)

"..THEY'RE RIGHT THERE!"

Everyone turned to look at us, shocked as well. There was a long, awkward silence that hung over the area for a while. I had to admit, it definitely was awkward.

I mean, I've basically been gone from camp for gods know how long alongside the guy who's gone on more quests in two years than literally the rest of the camp probably will go on in their lifetimes, and here they are, about to burn funeral shrouds to honor both of us. Talk about one heck of a reunion, but that was reality right now. We had simply walked in on it.. and everyone is just looking at us like we had come back from the dead.

As to the reactions of the campers, they really varied. Sherman was blinking constantly, seemingly unsure if he could believe what he was seeing. Clarisse had tears coming out of her eyes, which hurt. Some of my other siblings had tears of joy. And Kayla..

Kayla's eyes had looked up the minute Annabeth had shouted that we were here, and my heart broke at the sight of her. Like, it was one of the most heartbreaking sights I have ever been witness to honestly. It just hurt to look at her the way she was right now.

She had been crying.. hard. Tear streaks ran down her face, lots of them. Parts of her clothing, I now noticed, were stained from her tears. She looked at me, eyes pleading.. hoping that I wasn't a figment of her imagination.

Words could not describe how much I wanted to rip apart Kronos with my bare hands for being the fucking reason she was like this - the main reason we were even in this situation in the first place. Like, I really wanted to do that to him so bad right now. That bastard had caused her enough pain already. But enough of that. Enough of thinking about that asshole. I have other plans right now.

I, her hero, had returned to claim her as mine once and for all. No more beating around the bush about my feelings for her. I put up with Jackson on the way back just for this.. and only this. Nothing except this.

I did think back to him being oblivious for his feelings for Annabeth for a moment, and wondered if in an alternate universe, this could have been them, not me and Kayla about to do what we were probably about to do. If only you weren't so fucking dense about your feelings for Annabeth, dumbass..

Like the other thought before, I cast it to the side. No time to think about it really, because it was now or never. Time to tell her how I really felt.

But first, just to confirm to her that I'm back.. I simply point at Jackson. "If you're wondering which of us decided to cause this predicament of the two of us getting stranded on a damn island with Calypso, who helped us out before we sailed back here.. blame this idiot" I say, flashing Kayla a smile. It felt good to give some payback to him for getting us in that mess. "HEY!" Percy shouts in response, but I'm already moving, towards Kayla.

Kayla's moving too. She's got a smile on her face as bright as the sun despite having tears in her eyes. Her eyes twinkle like stars, and she glows brightly. Really bright. Even in that black dress, stockings, and heels, she glows brighter than ever before.

My heart burned like an inferno for her. It really did. She was the one who lit it aflame and as far as I was concerned, as long as I was with her, it was going to burn like that forever. No matter what, my heart is always going to be her.

As we get closer to each other, I can hear the words of some of the other campers.

"Holy shit, dude.." I hear Travis say. "..I think they're finally going to do it.."