Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter thirty-two

Dazai POV

When my head broke the surface of the waters of the ocean that Camp Half-Blood has a beach on, I heard a tumbling sound and the rustle of trees as someone fell down from said tree. I swam over to the shore, willing my clothes to dry as I got out from the water, watching as the unlucky camper on lookout stumbled slightly at the base of his tree while trying to regain his bearings. The camper had curly brown hair and a crooked smile that I could see in detail as I got closer to the teen.

One of the Stoll brothers from the Hermes cabin.

The older teen blew the conch horn in his hand to signal the camp of my arrival before making something of a mad dash at me, all but leaping away from the tree as if he hadn't just fallen from it only moments before.

"Percy!" The teen exclaimed, stopping just short of knocking us both over, something that I would not have been happy with had he done it. "Your back, like back back!" He glanced around wildly, looking for someone that wasn't there. "...Where's Beckendorf?" The demigod's voice was drenched with uncertainty, like someone that's something but is sure that it was just right there where he left it.

I didn't know how to respond to the other teen in a way that he would perceive as normal for the situation at hand. In the mafia we just report any deaths as a casualty of the mission, something factual and closer to numbers than anything personal. Something told me that this approach wouldn't work here. But I didn't have to do anything in the end as the seemingly conflicted look on my face told the son of Hermes everything that he needed to know.

The other demigod's expression finally broke, falling into something that I guessed normal, human grief was supposed to look like. "Oh, no. Poor Selina. Holy Zeus... when she finds out."

We started walking together, climbing the sand dunes to the other side of the beach to where the rest of the camp was already starting to gather, waiting for us, a small frenzied feeling in the air. I scanned the crowd, searching it for one person in particular. A small smirk curved itself on my lips when I saw the figure of the older teen walking angrily towards us from the lava wall. The boy's hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his pants as he walked quickly to join us, going around the crowd instead of through it.

Chiron made it to the pair of us first, galloping to the front of the crowd. "Percy," the centaur said, his voice holding relief instead of anger unlike the last time that we met. "Thank the gods. But where..."

Chase ran up right behind the centaur, reaching me just as Hatrack did. The girl made a move to grab my arm, panic lacing the demigod's eyes, but Chuuya made it there first, slapping the teen's hand away as it came too close, a movement that the blonde girl barely seemed to notice in her state of panic.

"What happened?" Chase asked, anxiety lacing the teen's voice as the girl looked at me for some answer that she didn't seem to really want to hear. "Luke, is he-"

Ah, so that's what this is about.

I'd hoped that the daughter of Athena would've outgrown her obsession, her faith in the traitor son of Hermes in the time that I'd been gone, but apparently some bonds run deeper than time and foolish decisions can erase.

"The ship blew up," I told them factually, not really caring enough to play the part of the grieving friend when facial expressions alone can apparently reveal all that you need to, "but he wasn't killed, if that's what you're asking."

I felt a slender elbow dig into the side of my ribs as I spoke, the owner of which clearly did not share my sentiments on being as blunt as I currently was. I looked down to the side at the other ability user, but the other teen's image was blurry as he was still keeping to my blind side. Before I had a chance to move and get a better look at the other boy, someone was pushing their way through the crowd, drawing all attention to them.