Fandom: Percy Jackson
Rating: Teen
Characters: Lee Fletcher; Caz (Castor)
Summary: Lee must be gone by morning light.
AN: This takes place about February, they're both 19
It had rained overnight. Lee could still hear the echo of it when he woke, the emergence out of silence, birdsong soft and sleepy, the pitter of drops from wet leaves, the trill of water in the metal drainpipes. And the smell, fresh in his lungs, of green and woody things: soil and grass and bark. It was early enough to still be dark, there in the countryside, only a thin sickle moon to look in on them through the open curtains.
The curtains and windows were always open in Caz's room, anything for them to feel less inside. And Lee didn't mind, not when it meant he could lie like this, warm and cozy against them, safe against the wide world outside.
Lee could get used to this, he wanted to get used to this, more than almost anything. His spine pressed to Caz's front, their nose nuzzled into the back of his neck, one of their arms wrapped around Lee's middle and the other stretched out under his pillow so that their fingers could hold his even in sleep.
They wouldn't be up for hours yet, child of the dark and raving midnight, so Lee wasn't afraid of waking them as he snuggled backwards and pressed himself even closer to them. Even still, they pulled him tighter with a mumble and a sleepful kiss to the short hairs of his nape. It was a delirious pleasure to get them like this, Caz -- so full of life and energy, always moving, or singing or dancing or laughing -- soft and floppy in Lee's arms.
They were pushing their luck already, Lee knew it well, but still he wished it could always be like this. The two of them, Caz's room, their double bed. Instead, they had to steal occasional nights, once a week perhaps, sometimes two, and Lee always up before dawn, sneaking back to his cabin before his siblings woke. But one day. One Day. They'd go to bed every night together, would brush their teeth in the same sink, and he'd get to watch them take their makeup off, and they'd pull each other under the covers and not have to worry about the time or the hours or the rules. Weekends would be their own, slow waking, Caz reading in the morning light while Lee made coffee and fed the rabbits Caz had always wanted.
He can almost taste it. He wasn't sure he'd wanted anything more strongly in his life.
It was wings in the end, the herd of pegasi stretching and waking in the fields beyond, that broke him out of his thoughts. It was early, yes, but his father would soon be rising and he needed to get up.
Caz whined sleepily as he moved and wrapped their arm tighter around him. Lee laughed gently and tried again, even as they folded a leg over his and twined them together.
'Darling,' Lee whispered fondly, with only a small snigger, and kissed the crook of their arms: he's had practice at this by now. Their traps won't keep him. No, he wiggled his way out of their arms and legs, offering kisses as reparation at every protest and obstruction, until he finally slipped free. Caz's brow furrowed in confusion and complaint, a sleepy pout as they burrowed into Lee's pillow and they were cute enough to nearly tempt him back into bed.
But no. He had practice with this too. So he willed himself away with only a featherlight kiss dropped to their hair, out the bedroom with a soft click of the door, tiptoed across the main room of the cabin, the little trickle of their river, under the sleeping ivy, brushed away the curious grapevines with well-versed ease. Out, out he went, onto the front porch of Cabin 12, stretched deep until his ankles clicked, and breathed in the stars above, the still-young birdsong, the sun just starting to bleed like a yolk across the sky.
[Epilogue]
Caz woke alone. They always woke like this, eyes still closed, breathing in the greenwood, already missing Lee. Caz thought they were born missing him.
They were wrapped around his pillow and the smell of his hair, the bright spring smell of his aftershave. If they concentrated hard enough, surely, they could still feel his warmth in their sheets, and their heart clenched painfully because what they would give for him to be there still, just once, curled up with them. And even as a cool, cold rainbreeze blew the at the curtains, snagged at the fabric, still Caz lay there, snuggled up, soaking the ghost of Lee.
In through the windows, Caz could hear camp waking, or already woken. The champing of the horses, the morning song of the nymphs, the murmur of voices at breakfast. They turned over finally, to paw at the clock and see if they could skive a few more minutes before they have to get ready. But there. On their little cobbled bedside table, the smell of soil and wet leaves still on them, a bowl of strawberries. A note.
Okay. Please be with gentle with me cause I haven't slept and im tired but I've been struggling for months over this fic where Lee comes out to Caz as ace. And they're dating and Lee is nervous and anxious because he's just discovered this term that describes so much of how he's always felt and he knows now, he knows, that it's okay! He's not alone. But he loves Caz so much and he's worried about how they'll take it (and of course they're super supportive, loving Lee is the most wonderful thing in the world and they want to be with him whatever that looks like and they're just excited Lee's learning about himself). And the two of them kiss and snuggle. And everything is good in the world. Right. That's the fic.
But but. It has just occurred to me. After the fic ?? After the angst??? After the fluffy reassurance????
Lee is mortified to discover that some people actually really want sex (and sometimes with people they've just met?????) Like people actually think about sex? They have fantasies??? And in the movies???? In books ??? When they're described as hot and flustered. That's not just. Like. A metaphor? Hungry? Is not a metaphor???? What do they mean they want to lick someone?? That's a tongue. On the human body. Caz. Stop laughinggg. What do you mean???????
It was comforting, the grinding of pestle and mortar, the slow repetition, the scrape of stone, the handsore ache of his bones.
Lee hummed as he worked, the air bitter with crushed herbs and cut leaves.
Yarrow, alehoof, bay-laurel, borage.
He didn’t know why the old ways worked so well on demigods, maybe it was the god-gold blood in their veins, but it was the thing they learned first, his father’s children, of honey for burns and meadowsweet for pain.
Although he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, it was one of his favourite tasks, the preparation of poultices, the gathering of stock, the careful sorting and measuring. Just him alone with his tinctures and elixirs and glass bottles. Calm in the way camp never was.
Perhaps when Will was older, when the threat of war was over, when the kids didn’t need him, he could do this for good. He let the thought of it carry him, the dream of beeswax and quiet backrooms.
Six years he’d been there, he knew the place like his own scarred hand. Knew from the thud-fall of feet on grass that someone was coming, knew the door would squeak first, then the little bell jingle, then the murmur of voices next door in the infirmary as Will, more capable than Lee wanted to admit, went through the standard questions, knew he had four more minutes before he should poke his head round the corner and —
‘Lee. LEE.’
You weren’t supposed to run in hospitals but he was a big brother not a doctor and Will’s voice had cracked on the syllable of his name.
His heart thudded to a deadbeat halt as he realised it was Caz who'd made Will scream, Caz standing there drenched scarlet with blood. It took him a few more seconds to realise that the thing in their arms, the bundle of bloodrags was Theo, limp and deadweight.
‘Her feet, she’s – her feet. Please.’
It hurt to hear silver-tongued Caz trip over their words.
‘Please.’
Lee was a medic, head-medic, he’d help anyone who needed it, but he knew then that he’d walk Asclepius’ line if Caz begged him.
He led them to the private room at the end of the Infirmary with the widesky windows because Cabin 12 kids always did better with sunlight and he politely pretended not to notice when the old grapevine outside raised its head with interest, when it prodded the glass with a curled curious tendril, when Caz, having laid Theo oh-so-tenderly on the bed, flung open the latch and clutched the wooden trunk with bloodied nails and hissed into the leaves, ‘Pollux. Infirmary. Now.’
Against the stark white sheets of the stretcher, away from the protection of Caz’s chest, Theo looked a mad thing. The smear of red on her cheek, her mouth, her hands, the stickiness of beepollen on her fingers, the ragged ivy crown slipped sideways on her head. She was wearing Caz’s leather jacket, Lee realised, it was just about large enough to hide that her clothes were shredded to the bone.
Caz’s shirt was dark with blood, wet enough that it pressed to them like skin and drip drip dripped to the floor.
They didn’t seem to notice, didn’t seem to care, just clambered onto the bed beside their sister and tucked her into them, buried their nose and mouth into her hair.
Lee wanted to reach out and hold Caz’s hands as they shook but Theo was bleeding and Lee was made for help not love confessions so he swallowed down the ache of his heart in search of bandages and tweezers.
In the Utility Room he found Will stirring antiseptic into a bucket of warm water. His back was turned and he was stone quiet, like he was thinking or praying. But he couldn’t hide the quick rise and fall of his shoulders. Not from Lee.
‘Oh, Will.’
Will resisted the hug at first but when Lee made no move to let go, he caved, head falling into his brother’s chest with wet hot tears. Lee rubbed his back like he thought his mother did when she was flesh and bone and alive.
‘You got a read?’ He asked sympathetically.
Will nodded dully, head not lifting an inch. ‘Her feet. Toes broken.’
Lee was careful to keep rubbing gently as he angled his next question. He didn’t want him to feel pressured, and he’d check himself of course, but Will’s abilities were stronger than his. ‘Nowhere else huh?’
‘Nu-uh.’ He sniffed, ‘It’s just. The blood. when she – when Caz. I thought she was dead.’ His words dissolved into a soup of sobs and snot and tears.
Lee crooked him under his arms, rested his chin on his head and tried not to think that Caz was doing the exact same thing to a too-still Theo.
‘Hey, hey now. Shhh, it’s okay.’ They both knew he could not say truthfully that she was definitely going to be fine.
Will pulled away and ran a hand under his nose. ‘I know. You’re looking after her.’
His tone was serious and trusting and he looked at Lee like he was the next best thing to a promise of recovery.
Lee swallowed with the weight of it and ruffled his hair and sent him away to Molly in the Arts Room because kids shouldn’t have to be healers in the first place and Lee would have to die before he let Will stitch up his own friends.
He'd barely sat on the stool, barely dressed himself in blue powdered gloves, barely started to wash the wine-dark mud from Theo’s feet when the front door squeaked and the bell jingled like a stupid laughing jester.
‘Caz? Got yer message are y —’
Pollux’s voice died as he reached the threshold.
Lee waited for the interrogation. The questions. He did not expect the soft, tremulous intake of breath.
‘Feck.’
Silence.
‘She’s eleven. She’s too young. She - she still sleeps with a stuffed animal for God’s sake.’
Caz’s mouth twisted painfully as Pollux spoke and they buried their face back in her curls. Their eyes were rimmed red.
‘Feck.’ Said Pollux. And then because it clearly wasn’t enough, ‘Mhac na galla.’
He dragged the chair from next to Lee and shoved it as close to Theo’s bed as he physically could and took her bloody, nailbroken hand in his. Like that, wedged between the two giants of the twins, she looked utterly, painfully small.
Lee continued working. Her feet were like filth itself, like she’d been trekking through Eris’ bog with no shoes and it was hard to tell mud from blood from flapped, flayed skin. But Will was already right about one thing. At least three of her toes were broken, stuck out like glass at the wrong angle.
‘How did ye know where she was?’
Caz shifted, ‘She didnae turn up for Greek, A thought mibbe she was with Will. A was comin here but…’
Lee heard them swallow.
‘The music was loud.’
Pollux breathed out. ‘Ah heard it too.’
‘She tried to tell us.’ Caz’s voice was small, ‘Pol, she tried and we didnae listen.’
‘What?’ Then, ‘Feck. The feckin – A thought –’
‘ – Aye –’
‘ – Like –’
‘- A know. Me too –’
Pollux breathed in deeply.
Out of the corner of his eye Lee saw him lift Theo’s hand, press it like a medieval relic to his mouth.
‘A’m sorry sweetheart, A’m sorry A wasnae there.’ His words were whispered like a prayer and when he dropped their hands back to the bed he didn’t let go.
‘They thought A was Pentheus.’ Caz murmured, lowly. ‘A’ve never seen them like that Pol. If A’d been anyone other than ye or me A’d have been ripped to shreds.’
And suddenly a horrible number of things made sense to Lee. Greenfoot ivy, bloodwine fingers, barefeet .
‘Maenads.’ Lee breathed out. ‘Bacchae, wild women.’ He knew the two of them went out sometimes into the black night. They never invited him, he never asked. They came back smelling of myrrh and honey and fennel, weary and crazed and grinning like the wide smile of the moon. But never like this.
The twins exchanged a significant look. Long and dark and furtive. And he remembered, like a bruise, they belonged to Zagreus and the Mysteries too.
‘Sorry.’ He ducked his head, suddenly ashamed, ‘It’s none of my business.’
There was a beat. A silence.
‘It’s an initiation rite.’
When Lee looked up Caz was watching him carefully, like they were wanting him to hear what they weren’t saying. Their words curdled in his stomach. He wet his lips. ‘You – You did this too?’
‘We were thirteen.’
Lee felt slightly ill. ‘You were just kids – you –’ How had he not noticed? How had he not noticed?
Caz shrugged, ‘It happens to aye da’s kids. We knew what was happenin.’
‘And we were together.’ Said Pollux firmly ‘And we werenae feckin eleven.’
Maybe it was the snarl in his tone or the chill that seemed to Lee to fill the air or the threat of sacred Mysteries being revealed. But Theo woke all at once. A shout, a gasp, a shriek. She kicked her legs out of Lee’s hands and caught him, a glancing blow on his cheek. His head reeled and when he blinked the universe blinked back.
Theo trembled all over, the whites of her eyes were wide and when Pollux squeezed her hands she threw herself at him, gripped him nailtight.
‘Ye’re safe.’ He cooed. ‘Ye’re safe. Ye’re hame.’
She sobbed. She sobbed and sobbed and shook and Pollux just rocked her. ‘A’ve got ye, ye’re safe. Ye’re safe.’
Lee sent Caz a look. They were pale, their eyes trained on Theo.
It’s then that he realised she was crying words, actual words, over and over and over again like they were keeping her alive. I’msorryI’msorryI’msorry.
‘It’s aright. Ye’re safe. Ye’re safe and A love you.’
She shook her head, ‘You can’t. You can’t love me.’
‘Why not, ae?’ Pollux brushed back her hair.
‘Because Caz,’ She sobbed.
They flinched. Clear as day. And Lee wanted to stretch out his hands and hold them.
‘Caz was there. The dancers wanted to – they wanted me to – they were going to – going to eat Caz.’
Eat them? Lee wanted to laugh, it had to be a joke. A very little and scared child's imagination.
But Caz very purposefully did not look at him as they spoke. ‘A’m here Aggie. A’m alright. A’ve got tough auld bones, no very tasty.’
Theo sobbed louder and Caz’s face grew thin.
‘Look at me m’eudail.’
She shook her head, buried herself into Pollux.
‘Aggie. Aggie, A’m alive. A’m no hurt.’ They bit their lip, grimacing, and reached forward to run a finger around one of her curls.
Pollux kissed her forehead, ‘Go on,’ he said softly, ‘A’m sure Caz wants a snuggle too. They’ve been worried about ye. Not left yer side, ae?’
Theo didn’t seem sure. Her gaze slunk to Lee who tried for an encouraging smile. Then slowly, so slowly, she turned to Caz.
From his seat at the bottom of the bed, Lee was in perfect position to see her wary assessment of them, her mouth as it started to downturn.
‘S’no ma blood.’ Caz said quickly, holding their hands up in peace.
Her big eyes search them for any trace of a lie. ‘I wanted to hurt you.’
‘But ye didnae.’
It didn’t stop another sob from breaking from her. And another. She hid her face in her hands. ‘I love you and I wanted to hurt you.’.
Caz’s face fell further. ‘Hey, hey,’ They reached up for her hands but she pulled away. Lee could see the pain flash a second across their face before they hid it.
‘Agatha. Do ye remember what happened?’
She spoke into her hands. ‘We were playing, and there was an intruder. And they wanted to kill them – but but I didn’t know it was you.’
‘Mmm, and after?’
‘They went hunting. We all went hunting and then we found you.’
It took every degree of Lee’s composure not to suck in a breath. What the hell. What the actual hell. His every nerve was fixed on Caz because he’d trusted that they were okay, that it was Theo who was injured. That they would have told him they’d been hunted down like an animal. The blood still dripped from their shirt. And Lee could not do anything about it.
‘Aye, and do ye remember what happened when ye found me? What did they call me ae?’
‘They found you. They found you, and they were going to kill you and then the music stopped.' she sniffed,' They said you were – hieroph-s.’ Her tongue struggled around the Greek.
Caz’s mouth curved into a smile. ‘Aye. Hierophantes. Revealer of the holy. How do ye think they know that?’
She wiped her face with her hand, cracked blood, ‘You - they’ve met you before? You’ve been there ?’ There was understanding in her tone, revelation, and more than a desperate bit of hope.
‘Aye. Exactly.’ Caz leaned in, Their face gentle, ‘A’ve been before. An’ Ah’m one of Da’s. Ye think he’d let his followers eat me?’
Theo shook her head.
‘Aye. Clever girl.’ Caz bopped her nose. ‘Ye think Ah can have that cuddle the now?’
And this time when they reached for her, she didn’t push away.
Agatha arrives in the 21st century and immediately latches onto the non-binary bisexual and their queer ace boyfriend. Her bestfriend is trans and pan. She will befriend the tiny gay Italian the second he arrives. Does she have any idea that straight people exist in the modern world?? Jury is out
If you did write a ballet dancer!Lee and trapeze artist!Caz fic, what kind of plot or other kind of stuff would you do with it??
Sorry if the question makes no sense I just think that you’re cooking with that idea and I wanna hear more
Ahhhhg I'm so glad you asked because I was kinda spitballing last night but honestly I've been thinking about it ALL DAY and I'm buzzing (This is so long, I'm so sorry. You've unleashed a monster)
It'd be a mortal au set in modern-day London (because I don't know how NYC works), but with a sneaky invented Cirque du Soleil show, and honestly, I was thinking about bigger arching plots but I also have a tendency to overcomplicate everything so if I was to write it (which... tempting) I think I'd just focus on the love story .
They're in their early twenties and it'd be like a meet-cute fluffy thing. Of them getting to know each other and falling in love over cute dates and making each other's lives better. Because they deserve happiness and good endings and no pain.
Lee's a first soloist for the Royal Ballet Company
Caz is circus performer for a new Cirque du Soleil resident show
With cameos from florist!Pollux and teenage Theo.
Lee moved to London about a year or so earlier, from NZ where he was in the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Backstory: After his mum died, he moved in with her parents, and then later with his dad (a single parent doctor), and discovered he actually had two half-brothers. He started ballet when he was ten, and fell in love with it: the control, the artistry, the music, the costumes. I think his delirious people-pleasing really works for this ahah
Caz has recently moved back to London after a period of time in Montreal at the CdS headquarters where they've been training for the new show opening up in London
Backstory: I haven't fully fleshed it out yet, like why they left Scotland. I think both twins probably both got itchy feet and wanted to get out of their small town. Neither of them finished traditional high school.
At some point, the two of them find out they have a half-sister Agatha and start meeting up with her- they're so excited to have family. Her mother, an actress, dies in a car accident and their dad is a no-show (sorry Dio), and as Theo doesn't have any other family, the twins decide they'll become her guardians. Which means settling down, which they do, in London.
Plot:??
Lee loves what he does, but the intensity of it, the 6 day weeks, and being in a new country means he feels really lonely. He misses Will and Michael a lot.
He also struggles with depression. And I think that's hard for him, like this is everything he wants, he's living the life he dreamed of, but he still feels low.
On one of his days off, he's really in his head, and just it's been a bad day, he's mulling over a mistake he made in the last show and yeah, it's not great. So he decides to head to the gym. Just needs to keep his hands busy.
So yeah, he's all in his head, and feeling awful, and when he gets there, at some crazy hour early in the morning, his favourite weights are gone (or something. I don't know how gyms work either).
And he's just staring at the racks, trying to decide whether this is really worth spiralling over, whether he should just go home, when there's a soft
'Sorry, are ye lookin fer these?'
'It's okay I --'
Turns, and the most gorgeous person he's ever seen in his life is standing there, holding the weights out to him. And Lee trips over his tongue and tries not to drop the weights and he's certain he's blushing. Stammering out a thankyou. And they smile, and their face crinkles in a way that shows they smile a lot, and the sight of it Lee's convinced has stopped his heart.
He barely concentrates on his workout routine and he misses his tube stop and even when he gets to his apartment block he tries to unlock the wrong front door. Still feels all tied up and fluttery, and all he can think about is Scottish accents and pink hair and nose piercings and grey eyes that almost look purple in the light.
Anyway, he manages to pull himself together a bit, but by the time the next day off comes around, he goes to the gym again (feeling a bit guilty and a bit hopeful and sternly telling himself off).
And the weights are missing.
'Me again. Sorry.'
Lee's already smiling before he turns. 'Using shared gym equipment in the shared gym? What is this world coming to?' It isn't his best line, but at least he actually finished a sentence this time.
'A know. A truly reckless crime. Next week A'll be more considerate.'
Next week. That shouldn't make Lee's heart race, but it does.
'A'm Caz by the way.'
'Lee.'
'Lee.' Caz repeats it and it's like Lee's hearing his name for the first time.
The next week the weights are on the wall when Lee arrives and he swallows down the disappointment
Except, when he turns, there on the other side of the room is Caz, doing a handstand on... dumbbells?
And Lee has a moment, because that's some serious balance right there, and he would know. It's being held for so long and Caz's form is enviable, leg lines and toes and core. Wonders whether Caz has any background in dancing. And then realises he's staring. Goes scarlet. Ducks off to do weight training elsewhere.
It's a little bit into his set, feels a shadow -- it's Caz. Apologising cause they didn't want to distract him. Lee's trying hard not to stare at Caz's biceps, because they're so pretty and lovely and is that weird???
'A made sure to be finished in time fer ye today. Put an end to ma criminal ways.' Caz is actually bouncing on their toes and it's joyful. It also makes Lee feel all warm inside.
He makes some comment about Caz's handstand and they shrug, good naturedly, 'A think better upside down', admits with a grin that they'd prefer it if they could walk on their hands everywhere.
And then, like breaking a spell, their watch beeps and Caz is super apologetic, but they're getting lunch with their sister, and sorry, bye, see you next week.
Except next week, Caz isn't there. And Lee eyes up the weights, feeling flat, and decides to do cardio instead. (Telling himself off, because he'd only met Caz three times, and they'd barely spoken, and he had no right to be so disappointed).
He's been there maybe twenty minutes, when a guy comes up to him: Like crazy tall, and broad, and sure he looks chubby but Lee saw much how he was bench-pressing earlier. And alright. It's a bit intimidating, Lee's ready to grovel and hand over his exercise bike. Except the guy just eyes him and goes,
'Are ye Lee?'
'Yeah?' It comes out like a question, and Lee winces.
The guy raises an eyebrow. 'A'm Caz's brother, they had tae go into work today but they wanted me tae give ye this.'
Holds up an envelope.
'They?'
The guy (Caz's brother!!) frowns. 'Aye. They. Caz is nonbinary. Got a problem with that?'
'No.' Lee raises his hands, 'I just didn't know. Thank you.'
He can see the way their brother is eyeing him, feels like he's being weighed up.
'Caz told me tae find the "hot blonde, curly hair, dead lifting.'
Tips his head at Lee's bike, and Lee wishes he hadn't sulked at the weights. But, he seems to pass some sort of test because he gets handed the envelope with a 'see ye round Lee.'
The letter burns a hole in his pocket all through his workout, all through his tube ride, all the way up to his front door, and by this point Lee's giddy smile is hurting his cheeks and he's blushing and sue him if he's running the words hot blonde on repeat. He doesn't even make it further into his flat. Like as soon as he closes the door, he just slides down onto the nasty lino floor and opens it straight away.
Says something like: 'Hi Lee :)) Pollux probably gave ye the rundown but A had work unexpectedly, sorry fer missin ye. A liked our wee routine.' (Which sets off a whole lot more butterflies because he wasn't the only one.). 'If this is too forward or ye're no interested just ignore it, but, A'd love to get coffee sometime?' And then their number.
And Lee is so damn fluttery and smiley and also stressed because is it too keen to text straight away? What does he do? What does he say? Is he misreading this? Is he leading them on????
So he calls Silena, who's like his only friend in London, and is all like. 'If someone gives me their number. How soon is too soon to message them?' And thankfully she sets him straight. (Because, babes, they gave you a letter via their brother. They're clearly very into you.)
Anyway. The two of them start messaging. And it starts off slow, but they're talking more and more. And it's really hard for them to find time they're both free (they both work nights which isn't that strange but also, Caz seems to be as busy as Lee). So they have to wait a whole week before they meet up.
And arghh that's all I've got. Which I realise is a lot. But it's so clear in my mind.
Like this first date. Lee's so nervous. Admits that he doesn't really have much experience with them. And Caz is shocked, but also endeared, and they're also stumbling over their words, which makes Lee feel better. And they go to this little coffee shop, and Caz is now determined to make this date super special if Lee hasn't really had one before.
And yeah. I dunno what happens next. Like just more dates??? More texting??? I'm not sure.
Other random things in my brain:
It's sooooo weird imagining a world where Caz, Lee and Pollux haven't been friends forever because I feel that's such a key part of who they are?? And like, how would they be different without knowing each other? I think they'd all struggle more.
But also it's fun, imagining what it would be like for them to meet as adults and how their romance would go. I think it would be a faster thing, because they don't have all the hang-ups of 'could this end our friendship'. It's also fun getting to see what Pollux looks like to other people, like I imagine he's pretty intimidating ahah.
[CW]
Tossing up the idea that in this world, Caz (a young queer teen in a super rural place) gets hospitalised after an Attempt when they're about 14/15. In hospital, they're making their way through a whole bunch of National Theatre and other show performances on dvd, and one of them includes acrobats and trapeze artists and Caz is enamoured. Like it just looks so beautiful, and they think if they could learn to fly they might be able to survive.
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Rating: Teen
Characters: Lee Fletcher, Caz (Castor), OC daughter of Dionysus
Summary: ‘I vow on the Styx to protect Will, whatever,’ Caz's voice cracked, ‘whatever happens to you.'
The words settled like pebbles in their throat. Lee could not die. They wouldn't let it happen. This was their third oath tonight; one to the River, one to the beloved, one to themself. The Greeks had always loved a triad. (And a tragedy.)
OR: Lee's upset and Caz wants to understand (and maybe kiss him a little bit too)
A/N: Agatha (Theo) is a daughter of Dionysus, about 11/12. Caz and Pollux are Scottish (Highlands), 19 here
Caz knelt in the strawberry fields picking fruit for the following day’s delivery and soaking up the final swell of evening golden hour.
Spring was starting the other side of the border. Most campers didn’t notice or care, not when they lived in perpetual summer but those with plants in their blood and dirt under their nails could feel it, like labour pains, the earth beginning to wake and find that it was strong. Caz breathed in and held the air in their lungs, it felt of wet stones and crisp breeze and new, green leaves. It felt like home.
They were humming when Agatha found them, plopping down on her knees with a huff and an empty basket. Caz noticed her furrowed face straight away. It was adorable, two little lines creasing her brows, eyes large and round in concentration. They pulled her gently in for a forehead kiss but she didn’t melt into it as usual, slithering out of their grasp the second they began to lift away. Caz looked round for a familiar mop of blonde hair.
‘Will no here?’
‘He has an infirmary shift.’
Despite her little shrug as she said it, Theo’s frown deepened and she chewed at the corner of her lip. Caz turned back to the plants but kept her in sideview, she was clearly thinking very hard about something.
‘Ye want help fer summat a m' eudail?’
She shot them a suspicious look, ‘How do you always do that?’
Caz deposited a handful of fat strawberries in her lap, ‘Do what?’
‘This,’ she gestured at the two of them with her still slightly chubby, childish hand, and when Caz didn’t immediately comprehend, huffed again, ‘how do you always know?’
Caz looked down at her, at the red splotches on her cheeks, her big doe eyes blinking at them, the way she sucked the inside of her cheek, and they grinned crookedly.
‘It’s one of ma magic powers,’ they waggled their fingers for extra effect.
And their gorgeous, perfect, wonderful little sister who had no idea how obviously she wore her heart on her sleeve, tilted her head.
‘Like your visions?’
Theo was right to be skeptical, she may only have been at camp for a year but Caz knew she’d noticed the gifts the three of them had inherited were rarely as pleasant as other campers’.
Maybe that’s why they played along with it now.
‘Aye,’ they winked, ‘but a hunnert times better because it’s about ye.’
Theo preened and Caz couldn't stop themself from ruffling her hair.
‘Ye wanna tell me what’s on yer mind?’
She picked one of the strawberries from her lap and nibbled it carefully.
‘What if it is something I promised not to tell anyone?’
Caz hummed, ‘Well it depends see. If somebody’s told ye summat private then they trust ye and ye shuid keep it a secret, but,’ they looked at her importantly, ‘if it’s summat that worries ye then ye shuid tell someone older who can help.’
‘I see,’ Theo put her hand under her chin, looking for all the world like Rodin’s Thinker contemplating the gates of hell. That was in Paris right? Caz wondered if she’d ever seen it, they were pretty sure it was before her time —
‘What if I am worried about someone else?’
‘How about ye tell me and A’ll help ye decide?’
Theo hummed, considering, then, ‘Lee’s really sad.’
Oh. Oh. Their hand faltered on a plant. ‘Ma Lee?’
‘He does not want anyone to know,’ her voice had dropped conspiratorially, ‘he was crying last night.’
Caz frowned. That, that was not a good thing.
Lee didn’t care in the slightest who saw him crying over a Disney film or a piece of music but if he thought even for a second that his feelings might upset or worry or distress/hurt/antagonise or otherwise inconvenience his siblings… well… Phoebus was a god of the arts, if not theatre exactly, and Lee was a deliriously self-sacrificing bastart.
They pushed aside the impulse to search him out right now and fixed Theo with a serious look. ‘How do ye know?’
Theo blushed, ‘It is a secret.’
Right, so Will told her.
They drew in a deep breath. ‘Thankye for tellin me Aggie, ye did the right thing,’ they leant down to her eye level, ‘but dinnae mention this to anyone else, ae? Ye’re right that he disnae want people to know.’
Theo nodded, then, ‘But you’re different, no?’
Caz laughed. ‘Aye. A’m different.’
‘Will you. Fix him?’
She dragged a finger through the soil but couldn’t stop the hopeful look on her face. It was no secret that all the younger kids adored him, especially Theo and Will, gods, it was like he had wee ducklings following everywhere he went. If Lee was sad, then they were sad, which is exactly why he went to such lengths to hide it all and why it was Caz’s job to provide a place where wee ears and eyes (and, as almost everyone in camp relied on him, not so wee ears and eyes) wouldn’t see him come undone.
‘A’ll talk to him,’ they nudged her shoulder, ‘A’ll look after him, ae?’
This finally seemed to settle the spring coil in her and she flung her arms around them and burrowed in. ‘Thank you.’
Caz chuckled and pressed their cheek to the top of her head, ‘Ay a m’ eudail.’
Lee was waiting in their usual spot that evening, the smell of woodsmoke thick on his hoodie even though he hadn’t been wearing it at the campfire. Everyone knew sunshine was kind to the Cabin 7 kids, softening their features, making their skin glow, brightening their eyes, but their aunt was a goddess of light too, and that evening the moon cut shadows on Lee’s jawline and dipped his hair to the colour of caramalised honey.
Caz exhaled. They wouldn’t do him the injustice of comparing him to a god, they’d met too many and Lee surpassed them all. And yet, there was something divine to the tilt of his face, the curve of his eyes, the dark curl of his lashes; he was, Caz thought, the reason the Greeks wrote poetry.
They took the softest of steps forward and Lee’s head snapped up, gaze meeting theirs instantly.
Caz laughed softly, ‘Jist once, a ghaol, could ye let me catch ye by surprise?’
The dark couldn’t quite hide Lee’s bashful smile, ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to spoil it.’
‘Mhmm,’ Caz closed the distance between them and brought one of Lee’s hands up to their mouth, ‘son of the One of Entrapment, unable to be hunted?’ They kissed the soft skin between his nails and first knuckles, lips curving into a grin as Lee shivered. ‘Ye do surprise me.’
Lee’s laugh was self-effacing, ‘Perhaps I’m just lucky, or,’ his face dimpled, ‘maybe you’re not as sneaky as you think, Mac an tSagairt.’
Caz sucked air through their teeth and their eyes dropped to his lips. Perhaps they could let Lee’s diffidence slide this one time, (he knew what he was doing, drawling their surname, in that manner, with that dimple and that mouth, sneaky bastart).
Lee pulled his hand away and stepped close enough that Caz had to tilt their head slightly to look up at him. ‘I love you,’
He’d said it reverently, but there was something sad in it too and it made Caz frown. They stroked a thumb over his cheekbone, up to the corner of his eye and enjoyed the way his lashes fluttered closed.
‘What’s up with ye, ae?’
Lee laughed and tried to kiss them.
Caz swerved, ‘Lee…’
He leant in for another kiss, then frowned as Caz dodged him again, ‘Oi, what have I done?’
‘Ye’ll get kisses when ye tell me why ye’re sad.
The briefest flash of something crossed Lee’s eyes, ‘Why do you think I’m sad?’
‘Why are ye answerin ma question with another, ae? Unless, ye’re tryin to avoid lyin…?’ Their eyes bored into Lee’s.
‘You’re the one trying to avoid kisses, but acting all tempting and hot.’
‘Cute,’ Caz thumbed down the line of his jaw, ‘but ye need to try harder than that, Leander.’
‘I’m not trying to do anything,' he insisted, then sneezed immediately.
A fond grin twitched on Caz’s lips, ‘Got ye.’
Lee scowled. He rarely scowled however, and was endearingly out of practice so it appeared more as a soulful, cow-eyed look that reminded Caz somewhat of their sister.
‘Theo was worried about ye,’ they admitted, then hesitated, ‘A think Will heard summat last night.’
As expected, Lee looked utterly pained. ‘He wasn’t – nobody was supposed to –’ he took a deep breath in, ‘-- I need to talk to him - it wasn’t what he thought – I – gods, he told Theo?’
Caz clucked their tongue, ‘He didnae mean harm, a ghràidh. He was worried about his big brother and told someone who’d care.’ They kissed his lips, just a press, a question, nudging him to open up, ‘So tell me?’
‘I can’t.’ Lee shook his head, ‘It’s - I – it’s –’
‘A ghaol,’ Caz lifted their hands to cradle his face.
Lee swallowed. ‘It isn’t nice.’
‘We’re demigods darlin, nothin’s nice.’
His look was searching, eyes flitting round their face as if trying to spot some crack, some reason he shouldn’t continue. An exhale. Then.
‘I’m going to die.’
Time stopped. Caz’s heart stopped. The moon and the stars and every fecking thing stopped. A cold, clammy thing stole through their body, and settled, like a creature of the deep, in their stomach.
Caz let out a breathy laugh. ‘A’d hope so one day. When we’re grey and auld, cannae have ye turned immortal leavin me alone in the Underworld.’
Lee did not smile. A horrible, heavy air filled Caz’s lungs. They did not look away from each other and Caz could see it all in his eyes, pain, fear, acceptance. It was this that chilled them more than anything.
‘A prophecy?’
They didn’t need an answer, really, Lee’s slow breath out said everything.
‘Yes.’ He swallowed, ‘A prophecy.’
Caz knew the weight of divine knowledge better than anyone but at least it was never the future, it was never about themself. Their fingers tangled loosely with Lee’s.
‘What did ye see?’
Lee looked away from them for the first time, at the trees, the stars, the infirmary. It was a long while before he spoke.
‘Will. Alone in the cabin, crying. He was wearing the Head Medic shirt.’
‘That cuid mean anythin. He’s gunna be it one day, he’s the best healer we've had, mibbe ever, you - ye cuid be at uni, ye cuid –’
‘Don’t do that Caz, don’t pretend.’
The weariness in Lee’s voice dried up their protests better than any words could. Still, they gave a quiet, ‘Ye cannae know fer sure.’
‘Will was young, too young.’ Lee’s shoulders dropped, ‘We both know I’m not going to uni. There’s a war coming, I’m needed here.’
Something ugly bulged in Caz’s throat as they looked at him, in profile in the moonlight, he was so beautiful, so alive, so brilliant and gleaming and so godsdamned important to them.
Lee shook his hair, curls tumbling in his eyes and turned back to face them, suddenly, desperately. ‘Promise me, promise me you’ll look after him? He’s gonna lose so many of us – I — fuck — Fuck.’
And Caz knew then that Lee had never been crying for himself, for his own death.
They wet their lips with their tongue. ‘A promise.’
It wasn’t enough. Lee’s face was still lined with grief and tension and fear and far more knowledge than any nineteen year old should have. So Caz stepped closer, pressed their foreheads together, ‘A vow on the Styx to protect Will, whatever,’ their voice cracked, ‘whatever happens to ye.’
Thunder cracked and the air filled with the sharp tang of petrichor. Lee smiled, but Caz wasn’t done, they pressed closer so their noses almost touched, their voice dropped, ‘And A vow to ye, Leander Thomas Fletcher, that A'll love ye until that day and foraye.’
It wasn’t a supernatural oath but Lee flinched as if he was hearing King Minos’s judgement.
‘Caz, no. Take it back. You can’t do that.’
Caz cocked their head and took in Lee, his curls golden round his ears, his grey-green eyes, nose, long and flat, the agonised turn of his mouth, took in the eight clay beads on his necklace, his broad shoulders, his overworn hoodie, his fingers burnt from healing. He was so beautiful, so alive, so important, so, so so loved. They moved, just enough that they could smell the rosemary oil Lee used in his shampoo.
‘A cannae do what, hm?’
‘It’s not fair on you. To stay with me. I could die any day, it could be tomorrow.’
The words settled like pebbles in their throat. Lee would not die. They wouldn't let it happen. This was their third oath tonight; one to the River, one to the beloved, one to themself. The Greeks had always loved a triad. And a tragedy.
But, for now, Lee needed reassurance, and safety, and to get it through his thick head that Caz wasn't going anywhere without him.
They let a smirk tug at their mouth, teeth grazing his ear, voice nothing more than a hum.
