jackie and wilson.
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pairing: luke castellan x unclaimed!reader
word count: 4.1k
summary: you haven’t exactly been given a quest, but you’ve made it your personal mission to get luke castellan to smile even just a little bit.
content: its the fourth of july weekend, and everyone else seems to have a date to the fireworks show but you.
notes: i am back hos. i actually cant believe its been over a year since my last sunny!verse update that is on me yall i am Sorry! but were so back and better than ever i fear. heres some cutesy fluff for you to make up for it!!! also revived the old taglist so some of the users could be wrong etc, just comment to be added/removed/readded <3
IV.II — THE FOURTH OF JULY INTERLUDE
Just under a month ago, you were picking strawberries with Henry Furstatt and muttering ironically into the opeN air, “Being a demigod is easy work.”
Oh how wrong you were.
Because as you would later learn, being a demigod is everything but easy. Being a demigod who’s father was the King of Olympus — and who had vowed to never have kids again? Even harder.
You’d been claimed only three weeks ago and already was Chiron making you do extra training — Just in case, he says, even though the prophecy explicitly states that the kid would destroy Olympus when they turn sixteen. You were well past that point, but he still made you do it.
Luke was more than happy to force you out of bed at the crack of dawn; you having moved cabins not holding him back even a little bit. You didn’t have any siblings to bunk with, so more often than not did he use his expertise in picking locks to his advantage. You hated it, but you were also getting very good at the whole demigod thing, so really you should thank him.
(You aren’t going to).
But after weeks of questioning, gruelling training days, nonstop workouts and practice, it was finally time to wind down. Because it was the fourth of July weekend!
Evie had proudly informed you earlier in the week that every year on the fourth, the Hephaestus kids create this amazing firework show that they put on over the beach. There were snacks, drinks (non alcoholic, but only if Chiron asked), and games. It was the one night a year they were allowed to stay up past curfew, and it was a pretty big deal.
“Still ignoring him, I see.” Evie’s face was full of blank amusement as she watched you wipe embers off of your front door.
You huffed. It was a daily thing, your dad striking the door to your cabin in the hopes that you’d give him a call, or a visit. It was getting annoying, “Yeah. You’d think the King of the Gods would be more busy nowadays.”
The Ares girl snorted, shaking her head and linking your arms. It was a nice day — early July was always nice, apparently. Apollo’s favourite time of the year — and you had agreed to a girly day with Evie, Clarisse, Lana and Nini the water Nymph who had caught you and Luke wading through her pond. It hadn’t taken a lot of convincing to get Luke to let you have the day off, since the boy had seemed a bit preoccupied himself this week. You hadn’t questioned his odd behaviour, because he was always odd.
The girls were gathered in the forest, set up nicely on a picnic blanket beside Nini’s pond. Clarisse was munching on a strawberry and Lana was washing the freshly cut grass (Hades knows who did that, because it wasn’t on the activity sheet) from her bare feet in the water. Nini didn’t seem to mind, smiling dreamily at the scenery. It was ripe in the summer, the rays shooting off the edge of her pond and cascading all around them — truly, a gorgeous sight.
When you and Evie caught their eyes, there was an echo of heys and sit downs that prompted you to join the three of them on the ground. Immediately Clarrise was complaining about one of her siblings and Evie was joining in with a roll of her eyes – apparently, they thought it would be very Ares Kid of them to train one of the pegasi to attack the Apollo kids. Obviously that did not work, and now the very Apollo kids they swore to prank were refusing to treat their pegasus-inflicted wounds.
“Yeah, Dean is all kinds of asshole.”
Lana frowned at the newfound information, “It was Dean?” Clarisse nodded in confirmation, “Dammit. He was gonna be my date to the fireworks show.”
“Why?” Evie snorted, “Dude’s a loser.”
But Lana just shrugged, “He asked me a couple days ago and nobody else was gonna…can’t go alone, can I?”
You leaned in, brows pulled together, “I’m sorry, we’re supposed to have dates for this thing?” The girls nodded, even Nini was looking at you like it was obvious. You were lost, “But it’s a…fireworks show.”
“And it’s the only event that gives us the opportunity to actually go on a date.” Evie clarified, pursing her lips, “It’s not like we have a camp prom.”
You straightened, “Oh.”
“You look worried.” Lana observed.
“It’s okay.” Clarisse tried to comfort you, hand on your shoulder, “You’ll find someone.”
You weren’t worried, not really. You had just imagined relaxing back on a blanket with your friends and watching some fireworks. Maybe Luke could socialise for once – at least, that was the plan. Maybe not anymore, if everyone had dates. “Who are you guys going with?”
“Chris.”
“Well, I was supposed to be going with Dean but…”
“Sabine.”
That last one got you, and you snapped your head in Evie’s direction, “Sabine? Daughter of Nike, Sabine?”
“Yeah.” She smiled sort of whimsically, and it freaked you all out, “She asked me yesterday and well…she is hella beautiful, so.” A shrug.
“And violent.” Lana deadpanned.
“Angry at the world.” You offered, but Evie just shook her head.
“She’s amazing, isn’t she?”
You weren’t nervous before. In fact, you were more carefree than you had been since before you got claimed — no pressure to train, just a nice weekend of relaxing. But now you were stressed all over again, because you needed a date? By tomorrow? At school you always had a plan for those sorts of things – ask the nice guy who sits next to you in Chem, or the girl on the basketball team who you let use your parking spot whenever you weren’t in. At a camp with significantly less people to choose from and therefore more chance for people to notice when you go alone? A whole new ballpark. The last minute of it all didn’t help very much. Everyone else already had one, who was there for you to even ask?
“I don’t see the problem.” Nini said, all confused, “Don’t you have a boyfriend?”
An awful thing to say, really, because the girls erupted.
They didn’t think, they just went straight to the teasing. You thought they were being very dramatic about the whole thing – shaking your arms, oooing cheekily at you with smirks and overall behaving like middle school children. You just hid your growing smile at their antics and pushed them away, “Alright, calm down. I do not have a boyfriend.”
“Then who, my dear lightning summoner, is Nini talking about?” You narrowed your eyes at Evie's evil look. She just raised both brows, silently opening the question to the whole group.
“Lee?”
“Travis?”
“Evan?”
“Perchance.”
“You can’t just say perchance.”
“Guys – ” You tried to stop their rambled suspicions with a pair of raised hands. They ignored you, turning their gazes to the girl that started it all.
Nini shrunk back at the attention, looking suddenly sheepish and shrugging, “I just thought when you and Luke were here the other week that –”
Oh gods.
“Oh!”
“Castellan, you say?” Lana smirked, and you fought the urge to slap it right off.
“Cuddling up with the counsellor, Sparky?” Evie feigned scandalization, hand on chest, “How blasphemous.”
You blanked her, “I was not cuddling up with Luke, we were just looking for my baseball.”
“Nini?” Clarrise asked once more, “Can you confirm?”
The water nymph, poor girl, clearly did not enjoy all the spotlight she suddenly had. If she could blush, you were sure she would, but you didn’t need to see her cheeks tinge red to know that she was a little embarrassed about sharing such information. She just shrugged, “They were laughing and stuff…”
The girls just got giddier at that – Luke Castellan, laughing? Unheard of!
Well, that part was certainly true. And although your friends were only teasing, upping the dramatics because that’s what friends did, you started to think. Luke wasn’t your boyfriend – just the thought of it sent something new flurrying in your gut, but he was your best friend. He was the person closest to you at camp and the more you thought about spending the fireworks show with anyone else, the more you wanted to just sit and watch them with Luke like you thought you were going to. Was that so wrong?
Well, it would be if Luke had a date of his own. You hadn’t discussed the whole thing with him yet but sue you for thinking he had nobody else – you were the only person he spoke to most days. Although, he had been making some changes lately…maybe he did have a date. But the thought of that – you didn’t feel like exploring the feelings that it conjured up.
So it was decided – you would just go with Luke.
(If he was free.
No he is. He has to be.)
Screw the norm, just because these kids didn’t get dates outside of camp didn’t mean you had to get one for a silly firework show. They could do as they pleased, and so could you!
Except when you found Luke later that day, sat up against a tree and fiddling with something in his hands that you couldn’t see, you suddenly felt all nervous about your proposal. Would Luke even want to watch them with you, or would he much prefer to follow what everyone else had been doing the whole time and get a real date? Maybe you shouldn’t ask –
Too late, he was looking at you. Smiling at you with that tiny quirk of his lips that only you could catch, nodding his head and inviting you over.
You went, grinning like usual at him and sitting just before him, sun beating on your back and casting a glow around you that you couldn’t see. But Luke could, from his spot in the shade. He found it very telling. You softened your grin into a smile, “Hey. Haven’t seen you today, what’ve you been up to?”
He shook his head, “Nothing, really.”
He was lying. You tilted your head, gestured to where his hands were hidden in his lap, “What’s that, then?”
He dropped his gaze, tightened his jaw because you had caught him. To an onlooker, he was irritated, angry like usual. But you saw the crinkles in his cheek, around his eyes – the smile lines that were barely there but there nonetheless. He looked back at you, brown eyes piercing your soul, and lifted his hands. In his grip was a beanie, knitted in soft yarn in your favourite shade. He handed it to you, “Here.”
You took it gently, almost disbelieving, as if it would disappear the moment you held it too tight, “You…did you knit this?”
“Yes.” He squinted, cheeks a light shade of pink.
You glanced at him, mouth parting, “You knit?”
It was his turn to chuckle, a light sound you only heard on good days, shaking his head at himself like he should’ve known that you’d be more interested in the fact that he could knit rather than the gift he’d made for you, “Yeah. Self-taught.”
That last bit was spoken with an air of arrogance you only saw in him whenever he was training you. You dropped your hands, beanie still between them, and focused all your attention on his amused look, “You can knit and you never told me?!”
“I don’t…” He shrugged, careless, and you wanted to punch him for keeping such a thing from you, but you saw his growing grin and decided against it. He was too pretty to punch.
You ended up just shaking your head in faux-disappointment, tucking the beanie to your chest and squinting at him, “Well, thank you. It’s very soft.” Then, a little quieter, “Maybe I could wear it to the firework show on the beach.”
Luke perked up a little then, but it was so unnoticable that you could’ve been imagining it. He looked at you, thinking, then said, “It won’t be cold enough for that.”
“Oh.” You looked down, then up, then down. Up one more time, “Are you going to that?”
Luke took a deep breath in, eyes drifting everywhere but you, “Well…I wasn’t going to, but now I think I might.”
“Oh.” You said again. You felt stupid. “Apparently we’re supposed to have dates or something.” You followed your attempt at diverting the conversation with a weak chuckle and suddenly the conversation felt like how it was when you first met. It unnerved you, but Luke just nodded.
“Yeah.” He said, “The year-rounders don’t get real dates and everyone else usually skips their proms and stuff…’cause of monsters.”
“That’s fair.” You muttered. Oh, gods, what was wrong with you? Why did you feel all nervous like you were trying to ask him out? Just say it, he’ll understand. “I might just go with you.”
His head snapped up, “What?”
“That is if you – if you aren’t already going with someone else.” You stammered out, twisting the beanie in your hands to distract them, “Because that totally makes sense, obviously –”
“No, I’ll go with you,” He interrupted, sort of smiling, “Better than being all awkward with a date you don’t know.”
“Yeah.” You were glad he agreed. The relief was immediate, and any loud beatings of your heart were silenced when he leant back against the bark and started talking about the shitshow that was Travis and Conor trying to ask some Demeter girls out earlier that day.
Everything was fine, you thought as you said your goodbyes so he could go teach a beginners sword lesson. Everything was fine, you exuded through your easy smile at Evan when he made himself known just as Luke was walking away.
“Secured a date with Castellan.” He nodded, impressed, “I was gonna ask you, but…fair play. No hard feelings.”
“What?” You laughed, shaking your head a little too hard, “No, we’re just going as friends. We’re not even really going together like that, y’know? We just…will happen to be hanging out there. That's all.”
“Uh,” He too seemed to chuckle, although it felt like he was laughing at you, rather than with, “Not what it sounded like.”
“What?”
“I’m just..I mean, I could be reading it wrong.” He shrugged, looking down at you, “But to me that sounded like you were asking him to be your date.”
Did it? You didn’t feel like it did, but the more you thought back on it, the less sure you became.
Ok. This was fine, you were fine. Who cared what Evan thought? You knew what you were trying to say, Luke knew too.
Right?
Right.
Right?
“Ok, don’t hate on it just yet because it needs the jacket but…” Evie did a spin, “What do we think? No? Yes?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Lana grinned, leaning back on Zeus’ pedestal without a care in the world. As an unclaimed kid, she was one of the first of your friends to really accept that you didn’t care who your dad was — she didn’t either.
The other girls were more than ready to accept your cabin as the getting ready spot for the fireworks show, since it was pretty much empty all of the time. You had been more than accepting; the more teenage girl stuff strewn around the place, the less it reminded you of the fact that you’d been forgotten and abandoned.
“Chris asked me to incorporate yellow into my outfit.” Clarisse twisted her expression, “I hate yellow.”
“Says the girl currently putting yellow laces into her shoes.”
“Shut up.”
And the girls. They also helped you forget about your deadbeat father. And Luke, he did too.
Luke, who was not your date to the show. Just a companion. Someone to sit with when the girls were off with their dates. Alone. But as friends.
“Hey, guys?” Your gaze was firmly on the hem of your white dress when you spoke, sitting up on the pedestal of that stupid statue you wished you could get rid of. Maybe you’d ask a couple of Hephaestus kids to help haul it into the trash.
“What’s up?” Evie responded gently, Lana and Clarisse giving you their undivided attention when they caught your words.
“Say hypothetically, I asked Luke to hang out with me at the fireworks show.” You looked up at them then — them and their sick grins and evil eyes, “And hypothetically, he’d said yes. Would that mean that he’s my date…or that we’re just going as friends?”
The three girls shared a look. Then Lana took a breath in, “Hypothetically, did you ask him as a friend or as a date?”
“Hypothetically, I never specified.” You winced, “But my intention was to ask him as a friend! Hypothetically.”
“Well…hypothetically, you’re going on a date with Luke Castellan.”
“What? Clarisse!”
She shrugged, “I don’t know what to tell you. Everyone knows you get a date to the fireworks show. Intention or not, you’ve got a date.”
“But…” You stammered, rubbing your arms to relieve yourself of the goosebumps.
“Do you not want to go on a date with Luke?” Evie asked, “I mean, I know we tease you but…you guys are pretty close.”
“And hella cute.” Lana finished, looking up from where she was doing her mascara, “Plus, you’re the first person he really spoke to after his whole funk, so there’s gotta be a connection there.”
You didn’t reply, unsure of what to say, so Evie clicked her tongue, “If you’re that worried about it, ask him. He’ll be understanding, this is Luke we’re talking about here.”
She was right. Who were you to be scared to talk to Luke? It was only a few months ago that he was too scared to talk to anybody, until of course you swooped in to save the day. If anything, he should be the one scared. Not you. You could talk to him. Easy peasy.
“You haven’t talked to him, have you?”
Okay. Evie was right — in your defence, when the four of you had reached the beach and scattered off to find your respective dates (or not dates. That was still to be confirmed), it took you a minute to actually find Luke. And when you did, he was standing with Conor and Travis on one side of the beach, and you didn’t exactly want an audience when you popped your question.
So you waited until you were alone, sat comfortably against an old overturned boat a little ways away from the crowd of campers but close enough that you guys didn’t look like you were having some alone time. But then Luke started talking about what he’d done since you’d last seen each other before you could get a word in, and then he told you there was a snack table somewhere and you couldn’t say no to that.
“And now I’m here. So no, I haven’t asked him.” You explained before promptly stuffing your mouth with a mini sausage roll. Your eyes deceived you, however, the panic in them was evident even when you were chewing.
“You don’t have to ask him.” She said then, looking at you in slight concern, “Obviously. If you’re cool with never knowing whether this was a date or not. And I know that you’re not, so…”
You swallowed your roll, “I have to ask him.”
“So why haven’t you?” She said, “I mean when you first met Luke, you straight up told him to quit his emo act, so I know you’re not shy. You’re a badass, you're the daughter of Zeus. You’re not afraid to ask Luke a silly little question. Are you?”
“No. You’re right, I’m not.” As if suddenly remembering who the Hades you were, you gave Evie a firm nod and turned swiftly back to where you were sitting. Storming over as effectively as you could — meaning not at all, since it’s almost impossible to get a good stomp going when you’re walking on sand, but the intention was there — and levelling Luke with a stare.
He looked up at you, “Hey. Sit down, the fireworks are gonna start.”
“Is this a date?” You said then.
Luke froze slightly, brows furrowing. His cheeks tinged slightly red, “Uh. What?”
“Don’t play with me, Castellan. You know this camp better than I do. Everyone brings a date to this thing.” You cocked your hip, “So when I asked you earlier, did you assume we were going as dates?”
“That’s a…” He pushed himself up to stand, “Complicated question.”
“Is it?”
“Well, did you ask me as a date?”
You huffed, “Not originally, no.”
“Originally?” He squinted. You hated that his ego was coming back. Why couldn’t he go back to the quiet emo kid he was when you met? Then you’d have some form of power over him. Curse your bubbly personality bringing him out of his shell!
“Well, yeah.” You dropped your crossed arms with a sigh, “But then Evan told me that it sounded different and the girls said I basically did ask you out so I got confused. Now I’m asking you.”
“You’re asking me…” He started, “…to tell you what you meant when you asked me to go to this with you?”
“I….Yes.” You nodded firmly.
Luke chuckled, and you fought back a smile with your tongue. You always liked hearing him laugh, even when you were trying to be tough. It was just so pretty to look at, even when he was laughing at you.
He stepped closer to you, “You’re stressing yourself out over nothing, Sunny. I mean, does it matter if we’re on a date or not?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because dates mean something.” You said quietly, “Don’t they?”
“Not with these guys.” He nodded to the rest of the campers, all of them sitting with their own dates. As you looked at them, you realised that none of them were having those first-date-awkward-conversations that most people had at dances and proms. None of them were fumbling to throw an arm around each other, or red in the face trying to move closer. Now that you were really looking, they just seemed…comfortable. Relaxed. Chilling with a friend, if anything. It started to make a little bit of sense to you then. “These people just date so they can say they’ve dated. It doesn’t really mean anything unless they make it mean something.”
“Oh. Yeah.” You looked back at him.. “Still. It’s a little different with us, right?”
“How d’you mean?” He asked. He knew what you meant, but he guessed he wanted to hear you say it. Get that confirmation that you thought it too.
“I guess…I mean, it’s me and you. It’s us. I don’t wanna sound conceited but, we’re a lot different than, say, Travis and Laura.” You laughed then, gesturing to him. “I think that if we went on a date, no matter what, that would mean something. Don’t you?”
“I do.” He nodded firmly, eyes set on you with a look that was too serious for Luke.
You swallowed, “So…are we on a date?”
He took a breath in, thinking, “Well, do you wanna be?”
You laughed, “Do you wanna be?”
“Yes.”
You stopped laughing, “Oh.”
“But if you don’t then, we won’t.” He shrugged, sitting back down on the sand, “Whatever you say.”
“W—Well…” You put your hands on your hips, attempting to regain your composure, “Uh, I do too.”
“Cool.” He smiled up at you, “So we’re on a date.”
“I guess we are.”
He kept smiling, “You gonna sit down?”
“I am.” You nodded firmly and seriously, but your attempts at a tough composure melted away the second your eyes were level with his once more. He chuckled a little bit before turning back to the shoreline, just in time for the fireworks to start.
The show was gorgeous. You were in awe at the beauty of it all — the combined efforts of the Apollo and Hephaestus kids really was an underrated force. You watched the explosion of colours, leaned into Luke and wondered how you had ever been stressed about speaking to him.
All in all, it was a good night. You just hoped it could be this way all the time.
🏷️ @katherines-imagines @lovingjasontoddmakemewanttocry @jennapancake @cobaltskiez @loveryoushouldcomeoverr @m00ng4z3r @mischiefmoons @woodlandwrites @ma1dita @tsireyasgf @theo-notts-doll @iammightsadyall @svnny-days @fennecswife @csifandom @evilwrongdoer @blueberryjune @dancing-inasnowglobe @acidaciruela @solshaven @rosieandthethorns @sofiacblair @obxstiles @lukecastellanirl (this tag list is over a year old so pls comment if you need re-adding or removing!! love u)