Tell Me You Love Me

Visits(Ninety)

Shoutout to AutumnRainbow5 for giving me the idea for this chapter!

With the twins both one year old and walking, Ariana being quite the little genius, and Luke discovering his powers, my life has been a little hectic.

We were currently staying in the Poseidon cabin again until we could find another place.  The keyboard was still there so Ari and I played around with that, but all Luke wanted to do was train around at Camp with the campers, who all loved it, considering him a celebrity.

I found myself in the sword arena more and more. Chiron asked me to teach a few sword fighting lessons while I was here and this generation's campers treated me like I was royalty.

The twins were pretty satisfied to watch me maneuver a sword as long as they got a stuffed Medusa or Minotaur to play with in the corner.

After I was done with the class I was teaching, Luke came to find me. "Dad, can you teach me?" He asked. I considered it for a moment. He was only seven, but then again, Annabeth got her first knife when she was seven so I decided I could at least teach him with a blunt training sword.

"Sure," I said, going to the wall to choose one of the smaller swords. He jumped up and down, clapping excitedly, and ran over. I took one off the wall and handed it to him. The tip found the ground and he struggled to lift it.

"Maybe not," and I gave him a lighter one. This one he kept aloft, but when he swung it around he just about tipped right over. Ariana giggled from the corner where she was entertaining the twins. Luke stuck his tongue out at her.

Luke sighed and dropped the sword. I went back to the wall to see if I could get him fitted to a better one, but he went right past me for the daggers. He took one from the wall and I instantly knew that that was his weapon. Maybe not this particular one, but he was definitely a dagger kinda guy.

I cocked an eyebrow and took Riptide out of my pocked and spun the transformed sword in my hand. He got into a stance, an actual one at that, and faced off against me.

I took a tentative swing and he parried instinctively. I had to admit, he was a natural. But at the next strike, the dagger slipped through his fingers. The grip wasn't quite right.

An idea struck me then. "Hold on a sec," I said, making sure he was gonna stay put and not touch any of the weapons. Then I ran out of the sword arena, sprinting back to the Poseidon cabin. Once inside, I pushed aside my bed and grabbed the handle for the secret panel in the floor.

I grabbed the shoebox that was hidden there and opened it, pushing aside the velvet blanket to reveal a dagger. It was Celestial Bronze, but in that light it looked golden. It was intricately engraved with Greek symbols and it felt so familiar in my hands, it hurt.

I took a breath to steady myself and walked back to the arena. I handed the dagger to him and he wrapped his hand around the hilt. "How does it feel?" I asked, my voice sounding choked.

"It feels right. Like perfect," he said. I smiled. At least it can be used again, inherited by her son. Realization dawned on his face and he held the knife away from him. "Is this..?"

"Yeah it is," I said. "It's mom's." He nodded and took a deep breath and squared off with me again. This time, though he kept the dagger in his hand and blocked all my strikes.

"Maybe I can beat you one day," he said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Maybe," I answered. "There was only one person who could beat me, though, but maybe you'll get there. She was wielding that knife after all."