Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter twenty-seven

Dazai POV

The Gray Sisters drop us off at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill, the cab stopping just as suddenly as it had started only a few minutes before in what should've been an over an hour trip had we taken a normal commute.

A jingling comes from my side as the shorter teen all but tears off his chain belt from where it'd been strapping him in only moments before. The red headed boy is out of the vehicle, flinging the door open before I'd even gotten the chance to grab the book bag laying at my feet.

I can't really say that I blame the other teen, my thirteen year old self had blocked out most of the ride that Annabeth, Tyson and I had taken back then. I followed the other out of the car, going through the door that the teen had left open, not wanting to risk walking in front of or behind the Gray Sisters' car when they decided to take off. The taxi disappeared into the distance just as fast as it had come before I even had the chance to close the older teen's door behind us.

I glanced around, looking for where the shorter teen had wandered off to, catching sight of Thalia's tree in the distance, ignoring the memories that threatened to surface as the scent of strawberries and pine drifted down from the hill.

A flash of a fiery orange caught my attention as I looked to the side, finding the smaller teen laying on the ground, taking the appearance of a normal teen during their summer break lazing around beneath the early morning sun. The older boy had his arms sprawled out on either side of him in a relaxed motion that did nothing to hide the anxiety clouding the other's face. If I hadn't seen the slow rise and fall of the other's chest, I would've thought that the teen was a corpse. The image was unsettling, bringing back too many of the memories that alcohol tends to help you to forget.

I considered just kicking the small redheaded teen in the stomach, but in the end I just layed down next to the other teen instead, positioning myself below the other's arm, careful not to touch the boy's bare hands. Our fight last week was still playing on loop in the back of my mind, reminding me to know better than to get too comfortable with the shorter teen. Chuuya seemed to have all but forgotten it, but I know that the other's care is a temporary thing. The tender way that he seemed to be dealing with me right now is temporary, driven by whatever lasting emotions he had from finding me the way that he did only hours ago.

Finding me close to how we're each laying now.

"Dazai," the other teen started, his voice a little rough as he spoke, like someone that's been screaming silently for a long time, "I think I'm ready now."

My thoughts flooded with a dozen dirty jokes and responses that I could give to the other teen, tens of different ways to get out of the conversation, child-like acts that would anger the other enough to forget, but I decided to follow the older teen's earlier example and bite my tongue. Even if it meant doing so until I felt it bleed.

I let myself be quiet for a moment, forcing my restless mind to still just enough to allow me to think about just what to say. Being a demigod, I was naturally born with ADHD, my body always in a state of relentless motion, my mind no different. I could think at speeds that allowed me to analyze the situation faster than those around me, to come up with convoluted plans that others couldn't keep up with. But for the first time, that skill wasn't helping. I could think of a million different things to tell the other boy, and all of them be the wrong course of action as the information tripped over each other, because this wasn't a lie that I was fabricating, or a partial truth that I was giving up to vindicate my actions. It was an absolute truth that couldn't be watered down when spoken, one I knew would only taste bitter and wrong on my tongue if I tried to.

"I don't know where to start," I admitted to the boy above me.

I didn't know where to start that would let me give up only enough to keep the other teen safe in the world of monsters and gods that the boy clearly only knew so little about, too obsessed with his own predicament to dive into what else could be out there.