Sun & Moon

~7~

After a few hours, we had to get up. I had trouble sleeping again because Adelaida insisted on sleeping beside me. I get up from the bed, stretching my arms above my head before walking over to Noah and Amber.

"Hey guys, time to get up. We need to eat and finish getting stuff together before we head out." I say, patting the end of the bed as I walk by, heading for the stairs.

Once I get downstairs, I see Declan sitting on one of the tables with his head down. "Dec, you alright?" I ask, slowly moving towards him.

"Just fine, Madds." He replies, sounding like he's in pain.

"Well you don't sound alright."

"It's probably just from shadow traveling yesterday, I'll be good." He lifts his head and shoots me a small smile.

 "Oh. My. God. Did I just witness Declan Sinclair, son of Hades, smile?!" I joke. He laughs and lightly punches my arm. "Yeah, yeah, whatever smart kid."

"That was the lamest nickname I've ever had someone give me, Dec." I laugh.

"Is it just me or is it hot in here?" Declan asks, lifting his hair off of his neck. "I mean, it is a metal working shop, but it's also summer so, yes, it is a bit warm in here." I answer.

"Gods, I wish I didn't have such long hair." He says, fanning himself.

"Did you want me to pull it back for you? It'll help." I offer, watching Declan for an answer. "I'm gonna look stupid." He says.

"You won't, a lot of guys with long hair do it, plus, it's better than getting heat stroke or something." I grab a hair elastic off of my wrist and walk behind Declan, using my fingers to brush back his hair. I pull back the top half of his hair and tie it messily, but making sure it'll stay in place. "There."

"Thanks, Madds." He gives me a quick hug, and I can feel him tense up.

I pull away from the hug to look at him, when I see he's focused on something behind me, so I turn around to see Adelaida leaning against the wall, smirking at us.

"Oh damn, that sucks, I never realized Madeleine was off limits. I guess I missed my chance." She starts walking towards us before sitting on the table beside Declan.

"Missed your chance?" I question, leaning on the table as well.

"Well yeah, I'm surprised you hadn't noticed I was trying to yknow, get you to be mine, but I can see that Declan's already claimed you." She shrugs.

"Claim me?! Excuse me, I'm not an object, I'm a human. Plus, Declan isn't-" I stop as Declan pinches my hand and looks at me, and then to Adelaida.

"What Madds means to say is that I'm not gonna give her up. Nope. She's mine. You can't have her." Declan keeps looking between the two of us as he's talking, and that's when I get the hint.

I'm about to answer, when I hear Amber, Holly, and Noah come down the stairs. "What are you guys fighting about so early in the morning?" Holly asks, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"It's nothing. Okay so we need to finish getting stuff together so that we can head out soon. You guys go pack your stuff, Dec, come help me pack up some food. Adelaida, just uh, I dunno. Stay there?" I quickly grab Declan's hand and pull him to the other side of the workshop where we have our food supply, and I look back to see the others talking with Adelaida.

"Just go along with my plan for a little bit about the dating thing. She won't stop until she gets you, I hope you know that." Declan explains while looking for some wraps to put food in.

"I'm surprised she just didn't use her charmspeak, isn't that the main thing for Aphrodite's kids?" I ask while grabbing food from him and placing it into a backpack.

"Oh, she did. I guess it just doesn't work on you. Holly's used charmspeak before and I never noticed it affecting you." 

We finish packing some food into the small bags, and we walk back over to everyone to see them with their bags and weapons ready. "We won't have much time to eat here so we can just eat while we travel, does that sound good?" I say, and I get a chorus of 'yeah's'.

I see Adelaida staring at me, and then I jump when I feel an arm sling around my shoulder, looking over to see it's just Declan. I look over to my friends and smile. "Hey guys, can I talk to you outside for a moment? Dec, make sure she stays in here with you, please."

Holly, Noah and Amber follow me outside and we stand under a tree that's a little bit away from the building.

"What's with you and Declan? And what was Adelaida talking about back there?" Holly asks, and the rest agreeing with her.

"Okay well, she tried coming onto me last night, considering she insisted on sleeping in the same bed as me. But anyway, this morning, I did something for Dec and she saw us hug, and thought we were dating, and she started saying how she missed her chance. So Declan has a little plan for the next little bit to seem like him and I are actually dating because I feel like somethings up with her. Oh, and her charmspeak doesn't work on me. Apparently she was using it earlier before you guys came downstairs but I didn't even notice." I explain. Everyone nods and we walk back inside.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's head out."