𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞 (Annabeth X Malereader)

[6] A quick game of Capture The Flag

IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, Y/N settled into a normal routine. Of course, the fact that he was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur wasn't normal, but he could look past that.

Each morning, it was Ancient Greek lessons with Annabeth and Percy. Percy surprisingly knew quite a lot about the legends and myths, so he had a bit of an advantage. Y/N discovered Annabeth was right about dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for him to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, he could stumble through a few lines without too much headache. The rest of the day, he'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something he was good at.

Chiron tried to teach Y/N archery, but they found out pretty quick he wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. Chiron didn't complain, even when he had to remove a stray arrow out of his tail. Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left Y/N in the dust. They told him not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree. And wrestling? Forget it. Every time Y/N got on the mat, one of the Ares kids would pulverize him. The only thing he really enjoyed was cooking, which was weird. It wasn't really a skill that was required, but whenever Y/N had time, he helped the Nymphs and dryads with dinner.

Y/N knew the senior campers and counsellors were watching him, trying to decide who his parents were, but they weren't having an easy time of it. Y/N wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. He did have some skill with metalwork, but according to the Aphrodite kids, 'it's impossible to be Hephaestus's son while looking like that.' Which was a bit of an insult to the kids working away in the forges.

Others compared Y/N to the Aphrodite kids, saying that he had the face for it. Which he thought was a... compliment? He'd rather not spend his time smelling perfume and gossiping. Luke told him he might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But Y/N got the feeling he was just trying to make him feel better. He really didn't know what to make of him either. Or Percy for that matter.

Percy seemed to be one of his only friends at camp. Luckily, he seemed almost as bad as Y/N was, and they were able to laugh about their lack of skills together.

Despite all that, Y/N liked camp. He got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of the strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. Y/N would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of his meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to his real parents. Nothing came. Just a comforting, warm feeling.

Y/N also hung out with Lucy a lot. It seemed that she only really appeared at dinner, so he sat with her most of the time. Despite her being younger than him, she often seemed like an older sister. Almost like... a mother. Which Y/N was 100% ok with.

Despite his requests to be claimed, he started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something?

Thursday afternoon, three days after he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, Y/N had his first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be their instructor. They started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek Armor. Y/N guessed he did okay. But it was clear that a sword was NOT his style. At least, he understood what he was supposed to do, and his reflexes were good.