Indigo Eyes

Chapter 113

There was only a single landline at camp but only Chiron and Cressida knew where it was and how to use it because apparently, it wasn't your conventional landline. Cressida used it to keep in touch with her brothers on particularly unsunny days when they weren't at camp yet, Percy didn't like his odds of getting her to let him use it. Though she liked Rachel more than Annabeth did, if he asked in front of them both, Annabeth definitely wouldn't let her do it.

Cressida and Annabeth normally did their chores together, such as the cabin inspection. It felt good to be going back to her routines, even if Castor's absence weighed on her every day, even if it had already been over a year. It was not an easy year.

Today though, Annabeth was absent as she researched something for Chiron, which left Cressida to the inspection herself. However, now that Percy was back, he tended to tag along in an effort to make his own chores more bearable. So as Cressida stood in sweat shorts and a camp half-blood t-shirt, her hair in a ponytail today as she tucked a pencil into it.

It was silent between them as they started in her cabin, Pollux lounging on her bed as he had his nose in one of her books.

"Cress, I don't get why you read this rubbish. This fighting-to-the-death competition seems like cake. And what's with this old man calling all the shots in a city where the people literally dress up like clowns?" he said as he saw her walk in and wander around.

"Polly, you buy me that rubbish. And I gave you the Lightning McQueen plushie, you don't have to keep pretending you're not looking for it," she said as she peaked under his bed, just to make sure he hadn't dumped everything under there.

"I'm looking for your stash of those blue cookies. Those things are divine," he said, and she froze.

"It was you! I knew it! You lied to me!" she exclaimed as she threw a pillow at him.

"Of course, I lied to you. You lie to me about having them so of course I lie to you about stealing them."

"You're lucky I love you," she said as she walked over to kiss his temple and Percy felt strange at the sound of those words.

"Do you love me enough to give us five out of five?"

"I mean, do you see even a speck of dust in this cabin?"

"Castor trained us well," Pollux said nostalgically and the small smile on Cressida's face fell.

"Yeah. He did," she agreed. "I'll leave you to your book then."

"Keep your hands off my sister, Jackson," Pollux spat as he returned to his book and Cressida rolled her eyes as she pushed his head and headed back for the door. And Percy followed behind her as they left, Cressida pulling the pencil from her ear as she filled in the sheet for her cabin.

"How...how are you doing with...you know?" Percy asked and though she rolled her eyes, she sighed as she gave him an honest answer.

"As well as I can be, I guess. The nights I have nightmares are the worst. I don't know what I would do without Pollux. And now Papa -"

"I couldn't see him in that Iris message Chiron showed us."

"Well, Hermes doesn't exactly have time to report what's happening. Pollux and I are hoping that no news is good news."

"He'll be fine. You get your stubbornness from him. I'm sure Mr D will be back to threaten me and annoy the rest of us any day now."

She gave him a small smile as they headed off to the next cabin.

"And I'm sorry about snapping at you before," he said, and she shrugged.

"It's fine. But you have to promise me something," she said before stopping suddenly before the door of the next cabin.