Thyrsus of Dionysus

Chapter 2

For a moment there was just darkness. Then he saw a school. It looked just like one of his schools. Actually it was his old school. In the middle of New York, one of the shittiest shitholes he had the doubtful pleasure of attending to. It was lunch time and every student was in the cafeteria eating, talking and laughing. He saw two boys sitting alone at the table. He didn't recognise them, so he assumed they were younger than him and sign up for this school after he was kicked out of it. Both were laughing and messing with each other, eating some pizza and doing some lastminute homework. One of the boys had thick, black glasses, that he kept pushing up his nose, as he looked through his notebook. The other boy had glasses as well, but much more delicate-looking. The boy with thick glasses was quite cute to be honest. No, scratch that, he was completely gorgeous. "Wonder why they sit all by themselves...". Both boys were too focused to notice couple of other guys approaching their table. Newcomers had plastic cups full of red slushy and dumped the whole thing on the boys heads, their trays, books and other stuff they had on the table. Slushers just laughed, when the two boys were soaking with the cold drink. Then that beautiful boy lifted his head up and looked straight into the eyes of the observer.

In that moment Yoongi's dream ended. He woke up, in the middle of the night (that was very unusual of him; he has very deep sleep) in his lonely cabin. And there he was, laying in his bed, thinking about some boy, that may not even exist, but damn, he had the most pretty eyes Yoongi saw in his entire seventeen year old life. Dark brown and perfectly shaped, warm like hot chocolate, but with unbearable sadness deep inside. Demigod children often had some weird dreams, that might be prophetic; seeing past, present and the future. But Yoongi wasn't sure if that was that kind of dream. He was still tired from his travel and still quite sleepy to be honest. That would explain why he (as self-proclaimed not gay) was still obsessing about that dream boy. He wasn't thinking straight at this particular moment, so he turned over in his bed, hugged a pillow and fell back into slumber, whole night dreaming only about those beautiful, warm eyes, that was filled with too much sadness.

***

Jin also wasn't getting his much needed beauty sleep (it was needed because he was tired, not because he was going to get any prettier than already). He was turning over and over again in his blankets, trying to find comfortable position to finally fall asleep. And when he did finally succeeded, his sleep was disturbed constantly with his dreams. That was just some non-threatening, past-relying dreams. First one was about that time, when he first discovered that he was a demigod. He was eleven years old and actually his dad told him. He was just a kid then, not even showing his powers, but that thing just ruined that couple years of childhood, that he had left. He already felt like an outcast, but this was just the last straw. He didn't want to listen to his father. He was also mad at his mother. In the child's eyes she just left him, unhappy and bullied in school. He was to small to understand, but he also had to know, because the older he was, the more danger he was in; just like any other demigod kid, he could get attacked and killed by some mythical creature. So there he was, as an eleven year old kid, that his father signed up for every single martial arts class available, so he can defend himself in case of danger. That took away all the childhood he had left. But one good thing; he was now trained in kicking asses, so he was no longer bullied in school, because he could fight now. But still, that wasn't compensating enough.

The second dream was about the time when he was claimed as Aphrodite's son. That particular memory was bitter-sweet for him. It was his second Half-blood camp. He was 15 then. And he kinda loved it there. Fresh air, clear sky, the beach, that later on was going to be his favourite place on earth, strawberry fields. He loved that place. It was his place on earth. And then he met Yoongi, so that magical place became perfect. He found a best friend and a place he was finally happy in. Only thing, that kept bugging him was his half-brothers and half-sisters. Any stereotype he could think of about them would be true. Unbelievably shallow? Check. Self-centred? Check. Too focused on their looks? That is going to be the biggest check. He was not going to bond with them like the rest of half-siblings at the camp. The most bitter thing about them would be the event when he was actually claimed as demigod. He was just sitting at the beach, talking to Yoongi, when Aphrodite's sign appeared above his head.

Now, usually when Aphrodite claims her child there is something like Aphrodite's charm spell that will be visible on the said child. The person would look better than normal (kind of the best version of her/himself) and the charm can stay with claimed child for a day or even a week. But that was not the case with Jin. The charm didn't work with him. He still looked exactly the same, but he was glowing for at least a week, like his mother was Eos and not Aphrodite. This never happened before and his sibling was quite jealous to be honest. So to say he didn't bond with them, would be an understatement. They didn't want to and he didn't want to either. He didn't want to be recognised as one of them. Other than that, he was his happiest self at the camp. And now it would be perfect. All of his half-sibling was older than him and had travelled to roman camp to attend local college for demigods. So this summer he was all alone. But he didn't mind that. Actually he was ready for it. And his first move would be paint the walls inside his cabin, because the pink was everywhere on everything. Now, don't get me wrong; he loved pink, but this cabin was a little to much, even for him.

He didn't even noticed when he was slowly falling asleep. And even this time he had a dream. It was just that kind of a night, when he wouldn't get much sleep. But that dream was the most pleasant of them all. He dreamed about the first time he met Yoongi. This pale boy, who was just as unhappy as Jin was in his house. He and Yoongi were on their first camp, so scared about this, scared about their future, that was so unsure with being demigods. But with help from each other they were able to find home, right there at that beach, at the Half-blood camp.