Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
• • • • •
Kindaichi was mostly silent in class today.
Today was his practice match with Karasuno, after all. He would finally see how the tyrant he hates so much is dictating Karasuno's team.
I managed to think of Kageyama without my cheeks flushing. His team didn't seem to really fear him when I was over there. Sure, he called Hinata some mean names but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
Maybe it's different on the court, I said to myself. I looked out the window.
I hated how jumbled up my feelings were. I really did hope I was catching a fever. It wasn't like me to get flustered over some boy. Even ones I thought were cute. I learned my lesson the first time.
Could it be that mom was messing with my emotions just for kicks? She's done it sometimes before in the past. Actually a lot of times before in the past. I remembered Aphrodite's assistants, the erotes (think: cupids) and their pesky leader and my half-brother, Eros. Mom's lead hit man. Could it be that she had him shoot me with shoot-one-twice-the-damage arrows?
Then I remembered one of my mother's favorite games to play was causing someone to fall in love with someone who didn't love them back. I stressed even more. First there was Iwaizumi-san then Kageyama. Who else was next?
No, I told myself firmly, there will be no next.
A shake of my shoulder snapped me out of my worries. I turned to see Kindaichi looming over me, his face filled with concern.
"Jeez Kindaichi," I said, "I was having a main character moment."
Annabeth poked her head from behind him.
"Woah, she didn't reflexively punch you."
"What?!" exclaimed Kindaichi.
"Nothing," she smiled at him then turned to me, "We don't give two hydra heads about your main character moment. C'mon I'm hungry!"
Guess I didn't realize the lunch bell ringing. I sighed and got up. We made our way towards the cafeteria.
• • • • •
Annabeth and I sat at the table, waiting for Kindaichi who lined up to get food. The bentos Percy made weren't half bad. He even took the extra effort of writing cheesy jokes in each of our boxes.
(Annabeth: let me cut to the CHASE: hope you enjoy the food! Me: CHARMING of me to pack you lunch ain't it?)
I was smiling at Percy's note when Annabeth spoke.
"Okay, you've been really off. What's up?" she asked, taking a bite of her katsu.
"Nothing?" I lied. I was a good liar. I lived with mostly fake people in the Aphrodite cabin so I had good people to study. Annabeth still raised her eyebrows. If anyone could read me it was her. It was annoying.
"No," she said plainly. Curse her and her amazing being-able-to-read-y/n-because-we've-spent-years-together skills.
I opened my mouth to speak but Kindaichi sat down with a bowl of ramen. Bless my vegetable-headed friend. Annabeth decided to save this conversation for later and took another bite of her food. I rested my head on my palm. Man I wish I had dessert. I heard a chair scooting and looked up. Kunimi sat down next to Kindaichi. He acknowledged me and Annabeth with a friendly nod and began eating. Kindaichi took this lack of conversation as an invitation for more Kageyama slander. Kunimi, who also went to the same middle school as Kindaichi and Kageyama, joined in occasionally. (Wow that's a lot of K names)
I began talking with Annabeth about ways she should style her hair (c'mon you guys, she wears the same two hairstyles: tied in ponytail or just plain down. She's got some seriously gorgeous locks I can't let her waste that.) when I heard a conversation from people passing our table.
"C'mon Iwaizumi, do you even like that flavor?" asked a boys voice.
As I looked up, Iwaizumi swiftly placed a tub of ice cream in front of me as he walked past with three other third years. I looked at him and he walked on, an inkling of a smirk on his lips. I noticed the brunette with him. The volleyball captain. He was limping but I didn't really care why. He looked at Iwaizumi with a sneer which the hitter either did not seem to notice or chose to ignore.
I stared blankly at the tub.
"Oh," said Annabeth with her mouth full, "You definitely charmed him."
"Did not!" I yelled giving her a there's-another-mortal-thats-not-Kindaichi-here-can-we-please-not-use-demigod-terms look.
Kindaichi and Kunimi looked too shocked to notice Annabeth's remark, thank the gods.
"He knew your favorite flavor, too," she said as she observed the tub of triple chocolate ice cream, "Weird."
At first, I didn't pay attention to that. Most people knew I liked chocolate upon just meeting me. Most children of Aphrodite were drawn to our mothers sacred foods. The main three being chocolate, apples, and cabbages. Do I know where this selection came from? Of course not! They made for strange cravings, though. One day, Cabin 10 would be on a balanced diet of apple slices and salad. The next, we'd be raiding the Camp Store and kitchens of anything with even a trace of cocoa.
Then I remembered. Iwaizumi did not know I was a demigod. At least he wasn't supposed to. I was on the brink of hyperventilating when Kindaichi let out a quiet oh as if he had something to do with this.
We looked at him.
"Oh?" I asked.
"So that's what it was for—" he said, stupefied.
"Kindaichi," I pressed, "What do you mean?"
Kindaichi looked like he had swallowed a frog.
"Kindaichi," Annabeth said. She fixed her eyes on him.
"Fine," he sighed. I didn't blame him for cracking. Those grey eyes could get reeeeeeally stormy, "Iwaizumi asked what desserts you preferred. I told him because, well...he's my upperclassman and I didn't really think much of it. I thought it was for, like, a school survey or something—"
"A school survey?" Kunimi asked with a teasing tone.
"I don't know!" Kindaichi shot back, "The third years get up to weird things! Do you know how many underground businesses Hanamaki and Matsukawa-san run—?"
Kunimi said something else and Annabeth joined in but I spaced out. At first, I was relieved because that meant Iwaizumi wasn't in on the demigod secret. Then confused as to why he bought me dessert. Then flustered when I realized he went out of his way to ask Kindaichi about me.
It's nothing, one side of my mind assured me, probably him just being a good upperclassman to the foreign first year.
But he's good-looking, the other side of me said, maybe he—
SHUT UP, I told both sides.
Catching feelings only lead to pain. I should know this.
"Are you gonna eat that?" Kindaichi asked. I snapped out of my daze for like the 80th time today. Jeez I had to stop going into those.
I nodded yes but offered him a bite. Naturally, Annabeth and Kunimi expected a bite as well. We finished up lunch and went back to class. Well physically, anyways. My mind was still stuck on the tub of chocolate ice cream left behind in the cafeteria. Sure, this was a vacation off from monster attacks but I doubted it stopped my mom from tampering with it even a little.
