you make my life shine brighter than the sun

|2|

It had been two years since Ariadnê gave birth to her little angel. Silena was perfect mixture of both her parents. And even more of a terror following the footsteps of her godfather.

Her best friend turned out to be Charlie Fletcher Mason. Jasmine and Hermês' little boy who reminded her of the Stolls so much.

Ariadnê could spend all her time chasing after them if she had the time.

She had moved on from working at the fish market and ranch. She worked part time for Hermês' store. He claimed that it made his deliveries move faster and smoother. It was easy to balance out a schedule where she was timidly dipping her feet back into the demigod world while maintaining a good social life with her mortal friends. Jasmine was actually a big help for that.

The mortal was the one who convinced her to send something to her father to let him know that she was still very much alive. [Even though he could've just asked Uncle Hades.]

In hindsight, Ariadnê should've just left it alone.

It would've been better for her.

Because it's been two years since she seen her family, yet her brother and friends were standing at her door. The worst thing of it all? She couldn't even run.

—

When Ariadnê heard something crash in her living room, she turned to glare at her clock. It read 3:35 a.m.

Ariadnê rolled back over.

It couldn't have even been five minutes later when she heard another sound. Growling softly, she was internally grateful that Jasmine offered to host a slumber party for the kids within the community.

She didn't want her daughter seeing this.

Grabbing her sword and her mortal knife from under her pillow, Ariadnê made her way downstairs.

"You have exactly five seconds to get the fuck out of my house, or I can't be held responsible by how you leave."

The lights flickered on, and Ariadnê felt her heart stop.

—

Standing by the door awkwardly, Ariadnê took in the sight of her past. Her brother of course looked exactly like a male version of her. His hair was longer and instead of being curly like her own, it was wavier. He looked like he picked up some weight with the shadows of his time in Tartarus fading away.

Chase was beside him with her hair cut short in a bob. If Ariadnê was still the same girl, she was years ago, she would be screaming and demanding the girl to get out of her house. Now, she was just tired and bitter.

Clarisse stood slightly in front of them with her arms crossed tightly across her chest. She looked defensive [vulnerable]. She grew her hair out and it framed her face. She seemed even more comfortable in her skin. [Beautiful. Just like she and Silena always said.] It hurt to see her, so she turned away.

She almost wished she didn't. Travis' brown eyes were watery. He had an undercut with his curls twisting fluffily on top of his head. He wasn't the same lanky boy from camp that hid a tone body under his shirt. He wasn't the older brother that was willing to sneak across camp borders to get her the chocolate that she like whenever her cycle came on. It hurt to look at him too.

And she knew if it hurt to look at those two, she definitely didn't want to look at the last person. Connor Stoll stood before her. Still just a few inches shy of Travis' height. He grew his curls out to make manbun. It was hard to read him which broke Ariadnê's heart. Out of her entire group of friends, Connor had always been the easiest to read.