𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞 (Annabeth X Malereader)

[23] Bad blood

(No song here. Just make sure to tell your mom that you love her. Moms don't get enough credit.)

"Good for Grover, I guess." Y/N mumbled, making his way to his cabin. It was midnight at least, and the moon shone brightly in the sky. Artemis doing her job as usual. It was dead quiet, except for the crackling of sticks and foliage under Y/N's feet. Snow fell gently around the camp, covering everything in a white blanket.

The hearth was still burning... sort of. The usual bright orange flames were still visible. But the fire was small and pale, and sitting next to the hearth was a familiar face.

"Hestia." Y/N said. The goddess looked up. She was dressed in an orange shawl, with her hair tied up in a bun. She smiled at him, but her eyes were bloodshot and shiny.

"Y/N." She said in a hollow voice. Hestia smiled, taking a step closer to him.

Y/N decided to cut directly to the chase. "You lied to me." He said.

Hestia winced. She took a deep breath. "It was for your own good. If you knew-"

"What would have happened if I knew?" Y/N interrupted. "If I had known who my father really was?" He clenched his fists.

"I was only trying to protect you."

"But that's not the only thing you lied to me about." Y/N continued. "You said to me, right after you claimed me, that you always wanted love. That you always wanted kids. That all those stories about you being a maiden forever were wrong. And you know what hurts now that I look back on that?" Y/N swallowed.

"You never wanted me." He said. "The only reason I'm even alive is because of Aphrodite, funnily enough."

"Well... that moment is in the past." The goddess' eyes began to water. "Now that I have you, I know that I was wrong."

"Really?" Y/N said. "Or were you just trying to protect your reputation?" He narrowed his eyes. "You could have left me to die. You could have never claimed me. You could have never built a cabin for me."

"And yet, you still did all those things for me. Only because if you didn't, you would be labelled a hypocrite. The goddess of family not even looking out for her own child? Unbelievable."

"What do you want?" A tear fell down the goddess' cheek. "What do you want from me? I gave you everything. A cabin, a weapon, a home. After all these things I have given you, you still call me unloving?"

"I'm a laughingstock!" Y/N yelled. "I know what everyone's saying about me. About how I'm an 'accident'. About how I'm a forbidden child."

"What could I possibly have done?" Hestia said. "I know not how to fight. Why do you care so much about what people think?"

"Because I do!" Y/N voice cracked, and the fire seemed to grow a little hotter. "I want them to love me. I want people to be able to talk to me when they're sad. Talk to me when they need a friend. I don't want them to talk behind my back about how weird and scandalous my heritage is."

"I can't change other's perception of you!" Hestia took a step closer, and the fire burned a little brighter.

"You could at least stand up for me!" Y/N yelled back. "Even now, Aphrodite sits on her throne, happy and content without a care in the world. You could have called her out! Told the whole world what a piece of shit she was for doing that. But no! You disappeared from the meeting. You weren't even at the celebration!"

Y/N took a step closer to Hestia, mirroring her movements. The fire was roaring at this point, but instead of the flames simply rising, they tossed and turned, rolling over and over. Like the fire was at war with itself.

"And you know what?" Y/N gritted his teeth. "I wasn't sure if I felt sorry for you, or if I was angry at you. It took me a while to unpack those emotions." Y/N leaned in closer. "But now I know how I really feel."

The fire seemed to glow brighter in anticipation.

"I feel disappointed."

"It's not my fault!" Hestia roared. The hearth blazed a deep red, and the flames rose 60 feet into the air. Immediately, the snow and grass in a 20 feet radius burned away, charring the ground. Both the demigod and goddess stood, unharmed, eyes blazing brightly.

Y/N opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. All around them, the cabins of campers seemed to be waking up. Doors opened, and Y/N could see the confused and scared faces of his friends.

He looked up at Hestia, who seemed to have gotten rather tall. She towered over him, and was almost at tall as the gods in the Olympian council meeting. Her eyes were no longer a soft amber colour. Both eyes were replaced with small pockets of raging fires that trailed across her temples like fiery sunglasses. But a small tear fell on her cheek, instantly evaporating. She was crying.

'I went too far.' Y/N thought. He took a deep breath, wiped his eyes, and powerwalked past the goddess, making his way to the cabin. Behind him, the fire glowed, and the noise of a small sob was heard, before Hestia eventually disappeared.

In his cabin, Y/N immediately fell to the nearest sheets, faceplanting into them. The smelt like Hestia.

Instantly, he burst into tears, the warm sheets soaking up his pain. He stayed like that for a while, letting him empty the emotions he had kept from the quest for so long.

A/N: Bonus chapter! Once again, not too sure what I was really going for. Obviously, I highly doubt that Hestia or any god would really act like this, but I wanted to build some tension between Y/N and his mom. Make sure to read the notes at the next chapter, as there is an important question for you guys that will determine a key plot point of the next book.