─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆
❛ Here we are at the end of the world, waiting for the sky to break into flames─but we are together, as if the stars had aligned. ❜
Percy Jackson never thought he would fall in love with a traitor.
[completed - editing]
[p...
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✩━━━ bonus chapter, the ballad of unrequited love.
HE DIDN'T WANT TO BE CORNY, OR CHEESY, OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, BUT THE SIMPLE SIGHT OF HER SET OFF A CASCADE OF OLD LOVE MELODIES IN HIS HEAD, A CHOIR OF ETTA JAMES AND FRANK SINATRA SERENADING HIS HEART.Love is All Around and I Only Have Eyes for You clashed in his thoughts, each note and every tune ringing in his ears like church bells. Salut d'Amour rang true in his heart more and more, Fauré was becoming his favorite, and Naoki Matsuoka was so sick with love that the only thing he could do was think of her.
The day he fell in love with Silena was the day his world transformed into a symphony of emotions, where every beat of his heart was synchronized with the rhythm of her laughter and every breath he took was in harmony with the melody of her voice. The music of their love filled every corner of his being, bringing him a sense of joy and fulfillment he had never known before.
Alright, he had had his fill of metaphors.
Truthfully, loving Silena proved to be the second-most agonizing thing Naoki had ever experienced. The ache in his chest worsened each passing day; he didn't even know her last name, and Naoki was wasting away like a wilting flower, petals torn off like a childish game of she loves me, she loves me not—and it was gruesome, because so far, in his twenty-three years of existence, he has never won that game. He would never win.
If his brother's destiny was to become a legendary hero and join the gods, then Naoki's destiny proved to be an eternity of unrequited love and heartache. He would be forever pining for someone who would never return his affections—be it Silena, Hiroki, his own mother, or a stranger passing by on the street.
Naoki Matsuoka is cursed.
In Japan, he had been lonely. His father passed away before Naoki could engrave his face into memory, leaving him with only fragmented recollections and a lingering sense of loss. His mother had thrown out all of his pictures; she worked multiple jobs to provide for them, or to run from the ghost of his father. leaving Naoki on his own for hours. He dreamt of companionship—someone to alleviate his loneliness, someone small whom Naoki could cradle in his arms and hold in his heart until they couldn't leave him the way his parents did. Someone irreplaceable, who would see Naoki for all his imperfections and the phantoms of his father's smile in him and still love him unconditionally. Anyone who wouldn't leave him with a cheap phone for emergencies. Someone who would stay with him to fend off any monsters lurking in the darkness.
Naoki couldn't picture his father's face, but he still remembered that Hiroki was born weighing 7 lbs, 6 oz. He'd been born wailing and choleric, screaming for the sake of making noise—and Naoki had relished each one because it meant his home would never be silent again. They were born with matching black hair and dark brown eyes; his mother stayed home, recovering from childbirth, but she was with him, and Hypnos had followed, claiming his son with a voice as soothing as a lullaby and an offer to be family.
