starshine- luke castellan x oc

percy reaches out

A few days had passed since Luke and I had our conversation in the woods. I tried to push it as far away as I could, I even pushed Luke away for a while. But I couldn't keep away from him for long. 

The conversation scared me, mostly because I was so open to the idea of betraying the gods. Maybe I still held some foolish loyalty to Artemis, or maybe I was still in awe of my mother. 

"Penny for your thoughts." Luke put his arm around me. We were sitting on a swing on the porch of the Hermes cabin, watching the sunrise before breakfast. 

"Just thinking. Did I ever tell you the story of how I found out my fatal flaw?" 

"No, you've lived a million lives. I wanna hear about all of them." Luke told me. 

I rolled my eyes with a smile, "We were on a quest of sorts for Posiden, sailing on the Sea of Monsters. One of the girls wanted to listen to the sirens, she had heard that if you listen to their song you end up wiser or something. Sounded pretty dumb to me." 

"I've heard of that."

"Well, anyway, we tied her to the side of the boat so she would be safe to listen and we all plugged our ears up. She went so crazy hearing it that she chewed through the rope and dove into the sea. She wasn't a great swimmer and the sirens didn't help. I dove in after her and when I got her up on the boat my ears were free and I could hear the siren's song."

"You see a vision, right? What was that like?" Luke sat up a bit, eager to hear about my expierence. 

"Yeah. It was me and Abby, but we weren't hunters, we were just girls. We were sitting on the grass at this park we had seen on our last quest, I was braiding her hair. I couldn't get the braid right, I was never good braiding hair when I was at camp and it always bothered me. We sat for hours until I finally got it right, she was getting sick of me I could tell. Finally she left and instead of going after her, I started to braid my own hair. That's my fatal flaw, ambition." 

"How do you get that from that?" 

I sighed, "I was always trying to be the best at everything, to prove myself to everyone. That was why I joined the hunt, to show people I was strong and worthy. I'm too ambitious for my own good." 

"Well, I think you're the best at everything you need to be the best at, I like you how you are." Luke stood up, offering his hand to me. 

I smiled, taking his hand. 

"What do you think of the war, with Percy's quest and everything?" Luke asked as we walked to breakfast. 

"I don't know, I think it's just about time for a war. The girls in my cabin are all saying they'd be on Posiden's side if there was a war. I just hope if it comes down to it, the gods leave us out of the fight." I answered. 

"Not likely." Luke scoffed, kissing me on the cheek and heading to his table. 

I sat and ate in silence, thinking about Luke's question some more. It was weird just being an average camper when thinking about a war. Usually, Aretmis had us drawing out battle plans and sent us to the heart of the fight. I wonder who's side Aretmis is on, anyway. 

Actually, I didn't care. 

***

It seemed that Luke wasn't the only one wondering about the brewing war. All the kids were whispering about the idea of our parents fighting each other. Sides were being formed, at it was becoming increasingly clear. 

Chiron was stressing himself out trying to keep camp together, and the campers from killing each other. We trained for countless hours to sharpen our battle skills, and for many, namely Ares's kids, were itching to show off their skills. 

It got so bad that Artemis pulled the hunters from camp, probably sending them to prepare for the war on Olympus. 

I didn't even get to say goodbye. 

Luke and I were in the Big House, trying to work out a new schedule for the activities, needing to seperate kids that wanted to kill each other. It was hard, most everyone wanted to get their hands dirty. 

"Gabrielle?" Percy's voice called to me. 

I turned, met with Percy and Annabeth's faces shimmering through an iris message. 

"Hey!" I answered, gesturing to Luke to come closer. 

"How's it going?" Luke asked the pair. 

They recounted their journey, saying they had fought furies and even met Medusa. I felt my blood slightly boil the more they told me. Percy told the story of meeting Ares, and being sent on a wild goose chase of a side quest to get his shield in exchange for a ride. 

I rolled my eyes at the behavior of the god. 

"I think that Grover got something out of him though, we know who stole the bolt." Percy told Luke. 

"How do you know?" Luke answered. 

I give him a look. Luke was very intentional with his words, he never misspoke. It was one of my favorite things about him. It was an odd way of phrasing that question, but I shook it off when Percy said that the thief had to be Clarisse. I hadn't met this girl, so I had no opinion on the matter. 

"We're actually headed to Vegas right now, we're supposed to be meeting up with your dad so-" I cut Percy short by running my hand through the iris message, ending the call. 

Luke didn't talk much about his past, but I knew he didn't like to talk about his dad, and I needed him to be in a good mood for what I was about to ask. 

"What do we do now? About this Clarisse girl?" I asked. 

He shrugged, "I don't think we do anything, there's no proof. If we acuse her now without the bolt in hand she'd go crazy, this place is one accuasation away from world war three breaking out." 

He was lying, or at least hiding something. I was very good at reading emotions, and lying was the loudest one. 

"What's going on? Don't lie to me, I'll know." I take a step back.

Luke shakes his head, "I don't know what you mean. Nothing's going on." 

"Okay." I turned to leave the Big House. 

I walked to my cabin, wanting to be as far away from Luke as possible. Why would he lie to me? I hadn't picked a side in the war, I hadn't really given it much thought. It wasn't like Clarisse stealing the bolt would drive some sort of wedge between us. 

Something else had to be going on, something bigger. Something Luke knew would break us apart. 

Selfishly I let the matter go, not wanting anything to break us up. 

Ironically, that thought process would be my demise.