Ode to my love

Flamenco

Artemis POV

"Nope. No way. I'll do anything but that" Percy shook his head

"Then I guess I won't do a single with you"

Poseidon Kalivas glared intensively at Percy, not even letting Percy a chance to say something before he told him sternly.

"Percy you are eating the sushi, end of discussion. It's about time you learn to eat different types of food, not only your mother's blue cookies"

"Look who's talking! You won't eat anything that has ever lived on water. NOT EVEN FROGS"

"That is not of the matter at hand. It is not me who needs to eat the sushi" Poseidon said in a really Starfire from Teen Titans way

"I hate you" Percy muttered, not being heard by anybody else.

Quickly enough the food arrived. As I was the only one who HATED Chinese food, I got the salmon roll sushi and Unagi. I had twelve rolls, so I just ate ten and left the other two for my best friend.

Apollo had gotten Chao Mein I think, I'm not really sure about Chinese food names. What I do know is that the smell gave me nausea. Soon after everyone had finished their food, Poseidon was about to pay the bill and leave, but I reminded everyone of a really important detail.

"Perseus, eat your food. You know that there are children in Africa who are starving right now"

"Me eating your leftovers is not going to magically give little Ubvwivwuwe freaking McDonalds"

"Just eat the sushi" I pushed the plate so it was in front of him.

He inspected the rolls with great detail, smelling them and looking at them as if they had little parasites that he needed to detect. He grabbed one with his chopsticks and attempted to eat it, but it fell out of his grasp.

"Instead Of culturally appropriating Japanese people, you could accept your whiteness and eat it with your hands, or a fork" I told him trying not to laugh

"I will use chopsticks like the Chinese do." When Apollo heard this, he intervened in our conversation

"Actually sushi isn't from China, or even Japan for that matter. It comes from Southeast Asia, so we can assume somewhere like Vietnam or Laos. Also, the best way to experience the full flavors of sushi is by putting the fish in your tongue first and then put the whole roll in your mouth. That way the fish is what you'll savor the most."

"I hate this" Percy muttered as he put an entire roll on his mouth. He gagged, cried, and did a whole show like a little four year old would do. It didn't get better with the second roll, in fact, that time he went to the bathroom to puke.

Ten minutes had passed and Percy had yet to return from his trip to pukeland. We were all getting frustrated, so I volunteered (more like they volunteered me) to check on Percy.

I walked outside of our private room and into the bathroom. The men's where vacant (don't ask me how I knew) and he wasn't in the women's bathroom...and this place did not have an all-gender bathroom. Growing preoccupied, I ran outside of the building in search of him.

It was easy to find him, as he was sitting outside of the restaurant with a pale face and a slouched position. Feeling bad for him, I went ahead and sat next to him.

"Hey are you ok?" I asked him with concern

"Why would you care?"

"I care about you. No matter what happens, I always will." Sincerity followed my every word "I'm sorry about doing that to you. I didn't know it would have this effect."

"Don't worry. You don't have to care for me" He said looking at me in the eyes.

"But I can and I will. I hate that you hurt me, and trust me that it will take a long while to forgive you. But at the same time, I cannot let you get hurt." I looked at him in the eyes. "Why does a fake relationship breakup hurt so much?"

"Maybe at some point it stopped being fake" he muttered, inching closer to myself. I turned my head away, not daring to meet his eyes.

The sense of soft lips on mines corner was felt, and I instinctively turned my head towards Percy. He began to kiss me, and I would be lying if I said I didn't kiss back. Like if my body had no control over its own movements.

I pulled away from the kiss, disappointing Percy and, in some degree, me.

"Arty-"

"No Percy, we can't do this. Not anymore. You hurt me more than you can imagine, and I'm not here to get hurt again. I think it's best if we pretend it never happened. You tell the girl you like you like her and I'll go back to being the popular girl with the shitty life."

"But Artemis, you're the one I like. No, you're the one I love" Percy confessed. I sat shocked at the revelation, no sure what to do with that information.

"It'll pass"

"No it won't, I have never felt this way for anybody before" the way he said it made it very clear that it was a lie

"Percy, you hurt me and then lied to me. You made me believe that life could be so much more and then you took it away from me. You broke my heart and then literally fought someone because I was trying to move on-"

"You were drunk"

"Point is Percy, we're just not meant to be. You may care about me and I may care about you, but this between us will only hurt one of us. And we both know who the person who ends up getting hurt is. You're just too late. Now come inside, the rest of the crew is waiting" I told him as I got up and entered the restaurant.

Once at the car, I sat in the back seat with Apollo and Leto, while Percy sat in the front and Poseidon drove. Each and every one of us exchanged phone numbers so we could keep in communication, and soon enough we were dropped off at our home.

"Ahhh sweet home Alabama" Apollo said when we entered the house

"That country accent really doesn't suit you"

"Don't mock me" he glared. I went up the stairs, but before I reached the third step, Apollo called me.

"Wait Artemis, can you come down a second?" I went and sat down next to him at the sofa, Lifetime playing on the tv. "You know that whatever you need I'm here for you, right?"

"Yeah I know"

"If you ever need me to beat someone up you just tell me, just a couple of questions asked" he laughed, but I didn't. I had been uneasy since my talk with Percy.

"Do you think I'll ever find someone?" The question left my lips without even thinking about it.

"Of course you will. You're my sister, one of the Galanis twins! Not even the prince of Greece is enough for you. Trust me, when you love someone, you feel it in your stomach. It is something more than caring, it's something else." He slung an arm around me "I know that you care about him, but you should really think about everything. How he makes you feel, what he does for you, everything. If he's right for you, it'll happen. If it doesn't, then he wasn't the one for you"

Such wise words weren't common for someone like Apollo, so I just hugged him tightly. It had been a while since we had our sibling moment. Without any drama or insecurity, just love between twins.