hephaestus.

“Not really because I’m promoting you right now,” she said. “Perfect. I just need you to watch Bleu while I train. You can even write music while watching him, he’ll be good, I promise.” 

“Of course I do,” she said. “I’m just only nice to those who deserve it.” Or whenever she wanted to make use of someone like, like Nick for example. “To the forge, I had to restock on some things and buy a new jumpsuit.” 

“The chance to hang out with me where I’m actually nice to you.” Who knows how long that will last. “Carry my bags for me. Please. I don’t have Bleu with me today so I had to carry them myself, which was a mistake. My arms hurt so much now.” 

“Angel, my favorite twin--” He wasn’t her favorite but she’ll act like he was right now. “What are you doing for the next, I don’t know, hour?” 

“Hey, pretty boy, I need you,” Alphonsine said, lowering her sunglasses a bit to look at him. “Need your help with something got a bit?” 

“I really don’t want to.” She absolutely did not want to see him hanging out with her mother, absolutely not, never. “Well, she’s lying to you. She’s too busy with her work to even fly out here for some random demigod.” 

“No you couldn’t,” she said, her fingers digging into the other’s clothes. The tears were flowing and landing perfectly on her sister’s shoulder, Alphonsine didn’t care to stop the tears or to apologize. “You would’ve gotten hurt too.” Her mind was going straight to death which was bad. It made her cry even more. Alphonsine did pull away, just enough to look around them, hoping to find their brothers. “W-well, I’m fine and so are you. But what about--” The other Hephaestus kids, their other siblings. Alphonsine walked around as if she didn’t care about them, that she was too good for the bunch, but she did care deep down. And the idea of seeing any of them dead... well, let’s just say whatever she ate during the party was threatening to come back up. “We need to get out of here. Or hide. Or-- or something!” 

“No, why would they?” Her voice was strained, as if it difficult for her to get out. Ridiculous, she thought to herself, clearing her throat in the process. “Interesting.” Alphonsine didn’t give two shits about this Rosey person, she was sure that the two of them will never meet. “You seem to know her well. She’s your friend?” 

She didn’t answer them, only rolling her eyes as if that gesture alone would suffice. But really Alphonsine didn’t know what to say, or how to react to what was said. Neither of them really talked about... whatever they were-- which was nothing! They were nothing, not even friends, or maybe Alphonsine was the only one who believed that. Embarrassing really, to think, no, realize that Al had thought otherwise. She hoped that the embarrassment didn’t show on her face and that it was instead her usual disinterest. “Of course,” she said. “Bleu has been my dance partner the entire night.” She doesn’t bring up Ricki, not here, not with Al, which was stupid. There was nothing between her and Al the same way there was nothing between her and Ricki. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to mention that she tried to dance with the other. “Hey now, Bleu thinks that I’m an amazing dance partner! And you know that he doesn’t lie.” 

She stood there stiffly as Eloise hugged her, unsure of how to handle everything she was feeling in this moment. It was overwhelming, Alphonsine didn’t have a moment to rest or think, as if any of them could. “It’s okay,” she said, arms finally wrapping around the other, pulling and holding her close. “I’m glad that you weren’t there.” What if in that moment she lost both Bleu and Eloise? She couldn’t have that. A beat, Alphonsine pulled away, head twisting and turning to find two familiar faces. “H-have you seen Elliot or Marshal?” 

“Are you sure about that?” She asked, poking at the duo’s bond. “Perhaps they didn’t want to tell you this for a reason.” She didn’t know the reason nor did she care, it wasn’t her job to do so. “Just because they’re drunk doesn’t mean anything. It just means that they wanted to do it sober.” Well, more like she heard that being said on TV and online but she wouldn’t tell him that. “Do you at least know who he’s kissing? Because I don’t.” Nor did she care, she lied like her fucking name was Kashia Ellis- Taylor. 

“I guess love is in the air, huh?” She gestured towards Al and some random demigod she wasn’t familiar with. She unfortunately caught the pair kissing and it pissed her off. Of course it was, Alphonsine was always anti-romance, so seeing something like that would obviously piss her off. Nothing more than that “Or maybe it’s in the air for your twin.” 

Her racing heart had slowed just a bit once finally finding Eloise, though she was still shaking and crying. She had just watched the beast crash the ball and murder several demigods, alongside her robot Bleu. She couldn’t shake away the image of the robot being crashed by the monster in attempts to save Alphonsine-- nor was she able to forget the way her heart split in half. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here now.” Her voice was soft and hushed, vastly different from usual. There was no life or weight to what she said, only because it wasn’t okay. She was here, alive, but the situation itself wasn’t okay and it made her sick. “I’m fine,” Alphonsine lied, finally gaining some volume to her voice. “But he’s-- Bleu-- he’s not. He’s--” Dead. 

“No I don’t.” She wanted to sound hurt or show any sort of emotion, to show Ricki that he was wrong. But it was her lips kept in a tight line and never changing tone that only proved the other to be right. She truly hated it here. She inhaled and slowly exhaled, giving herself time to decide on what to say. An internal battle of admitting that she was wrong and that she didn’t mean it, that she was s*rry for hurting his feelings in that moment, in general honestly. But there was her other side, the part of her that always won and it was the side that ruined everything between the two. It was the part of her that screamed fuck you and not my problem, the part of her that erased the word s*rry from her dictionary, and the part of that caused her to shut down on Ricki when they were getting too close. And it was the part of her that almost won in this very moment, but Alphonsine, being the absolute angel she was(n’t) went down another route. “It was a joke, obviously,” she said, letting out a puff of laughter. It was awkward, though, she was just like that when it came to jokes. “Like I said, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just... playing around.” She furrowed her eyebrows and scrunched her nose, disgusted at her own awkwardness at trying to play something off. It wasn’t an apology but she wasn’t pushing away. Not really. “So... are you going to dance or just stand there all night?” 

“No. Why would I text my mom about you of all people?” The two weren’t even half siblings, there was no connection between them that required for her mom to be involved. Especially if it involved the older woman to hang out with another demigod who wasn’t Alphonsine. “My mom isn’t coming, why would she fly out to America to hang out with you? And even if she was, I would be with her. Because I’m her daughter.”