Camp Halfblood AU

3

Roman was humming without even realizing. As he did realize, he stopped immediately. Mainly because someone could hear him, and as his goal was to pass without being noticed, that would suck. Also because Popular from Wicked wasn't quite the song for the moment.

Someone passed besides Roman's hiding spot. Remy Freud. Not much of a threat. Really nice, and threw the best parties, but not much of a fighter. What a shame he won't be throwing a party tonight Roman thought, with a smirk.

As Remy walked away, Roman got up and crawled in direction of Zeus' Fist. The rock formation. Not actual Zeus. Ok, moving on.

No one near. That was odd. Maybe they put a small kid from the Hypnos cabin and he fell asleep. Or needed to take a piss. He was probably safe. Amateurs. Roman huffed. This was going to be easy.

"Nice posture" A voice made Roman jump from his post, where he was hunched over in a bush. Roman groaned as he recognized the voice, and turned over looking for the owner.

"So they put you in charge, Gunn? That's new. Usually you hide in the shadows the whole game. Where are you?" He said annoyed, after spinning in circles three times, trying to spot the boy.

"Up on the tree, dumbass."

Roman looked at the nearby tree. Indeed, there was a shadowy figure, blending in the dark. Not even the orange shirt made him stand out that much. If he didn't knew Virgil Gunn was a son of Hecate, he could swear the boy was a son of Hades.

"What are you even doing in a tree?"

"It was more comfortable to sit than the ground."

"What???? Okay, I'm going to ignore that. Now, if you don't mind, Sunshine, I'm going to take the flag and leave."

Roman walked over to the pile of rocks and grabbed the flag. He had taken three steps when he heard Virgil's voice from up the tree.

"You know, I actually mind."

A wall made out of purple flames erupted in Roman's way. And behind him. And on the sides. He was cornered.

"This is just an illusion of yours. There's nothing for me to be afraid of."

"Well, try it out" Virgil Gunn said, sarcastically "I wouldn't recommend, though. I've once seen a Wicked Fire burn, and it wasn't pretty. Of course, you couldn't have seen it, being stuck in this camp."

Roman gritted his teeth. Gunn was always talking about stuff like that. Once he lost his shyness enough to talk, that is. How he had seen the world, and how he fought a lot of monsters. Roman envied. He'd been in that camp for seven years, and only gone out seven times. On his birthday.

Virgil got down from the tree, and walked calmly to Roman. Great. Now I'm cornered with Sunshine.

"Want to win, Prince? You got to pass through me" The annoyingly emo boy took out his sword, and held it in position "Don't worry, I'm not a cheater, I won't use magic against you"

Roman scoffed. Like that depressing figure thought he could beat him. Roman never lost.

Roman attacked.

Gunn defended. Pretty good Roman thought, but he was never going to admit that.

Their swords clashed. Time passed. It could be seconds or half an hour, Roman couldn't tell. They fought, both attacking and defending, an equal match. Well, almost equal. The struggle to keep the Wicked Fire going on was draining Gunn. Drops of sweat were rolling down his face. The fire was weaker now, less of a wall ready to burn you down and more of a curtain, lazy but still deadly.

Roman pressed harder. Opposite to Gunn, he wasn't tired. He was thrilling. If he could keep it up, Gunn would get tired enough to be defeated, which meant going away and winning the game. If I can pass the border Roman thought, but quickly shut that side of his mind Think about that later. For now, focus on winning this fight.

Roman hit Gunn's sword harder, and the boy slides a couple of steps back, actually hissing in anger. The fire curtain disappeared.

Gunn was tired, and slow. Now that the fight was nearly over, Roman realized he was tired as well. As Gunn walked slowly back to him, he stood straight, guard up, but allowing himself to look around.

That's when he spotted Deceit.

That cocky idiot! He's going to get the Flag and leave me here! Not even going to mention that I helped him by taking care of Virgil Gunn!

Gunn attacked, and Roman turned all his focus back to the fight. Virgil hadn't realized Deceit Lawyer coming behind him. What is he even doing? That was Roman's mistake. As his gaze shifted to Deceit, so did his attention. Gunn used that to his advantage.

Roman's sword flew away.

"Looks like you're not invincible after all, right?"

Besides having no sword, and now having one pointed at his throat, Roman couldn't help but be shocked.

"Wait, you thought I couldn't lose?"

Virgil's face got red, as the boy realized how ridiculous his sentence was.

"Well... you're a son of Nike, so... I don't know, shut up"

Roman laughed. All the tension is his body went loose. When Virgil looked embarrassed, he wasn't as threatening and annoyingly gloom as he usually was.

Virgil looked even more embarrassed by Roman's laugh, what made Roman laugh even more.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" Roman said, trying to breathe "It's not even that funny, I don't know why I'm laughing so much. You're so red, though. Do you wear pale foundation?"

Virgil let out a laugh, and it felt so good. So normal. Like he was an old friend.

Then Virgil's hair went up, looking like a cat that's cornered, but it wasn't fear. It was static. Gunn fell back, hitting his head in the hard soil. A dry noise followed, and probably not a good one. Roman looked at Deceit, far away enough to not hear the conversation or see that they were laughing.

"What?" Lawyer shrugged "You looked like you needed help. If you're worried about him, stay. It doesn't matter to me." As he saw Roman's terrified look, he added, not looking much worried "He'll be fine, let's go. He just got hit by a little lighting and fell, and it's not a high fall, he's very short. Chiron will get him once the game ends. I didn't kill him."

Deceit grabbed the flag from Roman's hand and walked away, tying it as a belt around his waist.

With a sigh, Roman looked back at the fallen boy and followed the son of Zeus into the woods.