like a pilot.

kiran was surprised to see his sister turn up. he’d gone to the kitchens to make sure he wouldn’t wake mae up - and because they had more snacks - but by the looks of it she hadn’t been asleep at all. she was wearing what kiran could only describe as her painting outfit. kiran himself was actually in his pyjamas, which meant blacks sweatpants and a loose white shirt which he had thrown a dark red flannel over against the cold.

“yeah. zeke decided my face was to be his.. pillow. basically.” he explained, yawning and trying to wipe the sleep out of his eyes. “i couldn’t fall asleep after that so… here i am. you okay though?” he asked, giving her a side glance to try and check up on her. she’d seemed a bit down lately, but he wasn’t sure if he wasn’t just reading things wrong.

luckily it was mae who opened the door, and not her older brother. avi was always a bit awkward around him. he just seemed so… brooding. she never knew what to say. a problem she never had around mae. not even when she got this reaction at her beautiful cake. “it’s an anniversary cake!” she exclaimed. “we’ve been friends for about a year! not…exactly a year. but close enough. and i just wanted to bake a cake to cheer you up or something.” of course she’d noticed mae had been a bit down lately. she’d do whatever she could to help, naturally.

with halloween approaching, it was almost one year since kiran had returned to camp. and also almost two since he’d first left it. it was a weird date. it also marked the fact that it had been six months since sebastian’s death date. halloween already was all about remembering the dead, and then with this added weight.. kiran used to love halloween - pulling pranks, drinking too much, partying with his friends at his side - but like many things, that had changed quite a bit.

it wasn’t all bad. kiran wouldn’t have had ezekiel if all this tragedy hadn’t happened. he wouldn’t trade his new, very unable to die, best friend for the world. except… well except when it was 3am and the ghost animal suddenly decided to materialize on his face. and now that kiran was awake, he wasn’t able to fall asleep again.

that was how he’d ended up where he was now, shadowtravelling into the kitchens to get some tea and a snack. he startled when he heard a noise behind him, assuming that his efforts to not be noticed by the harpies had been for nothing. but then he turned around it was just another camper. with a relieved sigh he scratched ezekiel - propped up on ki’s shoulder - behind his ears. “couldn’t sleep?” he simply asked the camper, going back to making his tea.

when she had shadow traveled from her room to the kitchens, she didn’t expect to find her brother there, making her jump a little just as he did. mae sighed in relief when she realized it wasn’t one of the harpies instead. that would’ve been trouble some at 3 am. 

baking was admittedly not something avi was very good at. so yeah, this cake maybe looked a bit mess. or.. well not even a bit. it was a straight up mess. kind of like something a 4 year old would make. there were at least ten different kinds of sprinkles on it. but avi still felt proud, and it was the thought that counted right? the thought being that last year around this time, avi and mae had become friends and that was something to be celebrated. avi knew it probably wasn’t as much of a big deal as she was making it out to be. it just meant a lot to her, and mae meant a lot to her. besides, avi would use any excuse to eat cake and spend extra time with her best friend. 

she had to walk carefully from the kitchens to the hades cabin. her creation was pretty tall, and if the cake would topple over all her work would’ve been for nothing. but she arrived safely at mae’s front door, kicking the door knock with an even brighter smile than usual.

@maekwn

zara, getting bored, had teleported herself to the beach. which consequently led to her being the one to randomly appear beside mae for once. “sure looked like it.” she chuckled, looking down at her. “scoot up, i want to sit down.”

“Didn’t want to make a claim about it being uncomfortable if it wasn’t.” Turning his head back towards the sky he threw his arms under his head. “Are you trying to tell me Hades doesn’t go all out for his kids? I mean come on he’s one of the big three.”

avi simply shrugged. she hadn’t meant to apologise, but she had no other way of putting her feelings into words. “that’s bullshit.” she scoffed. “i mean, not bullshit.. what you’re saying is valid of course. but you could’ve told me. you wouldn’t have sounded like a sad poor girl. you would’ve just.. told me something about your past.” she spoke, becoming a little more animated and passionate with each word. “you know me, i wouldn’t think of you like that.”

while mae told her about the inner workings of the foster system, avi was overcome with the realisation of how naive she still was about a lot of stuff, how protected she had grown up. she knew next to nothing about any of this, yet mae had lived it all. she wasn’t sure if which one of the two was worse. “well damn, we’ll have to stay inside the camp borders then. she won’t be able to reach you there.” she said determined. she wasn’t just going to let anyone take her best friend away like that. “you’re better off at camp anyways. we’re your family now. you’re… you’re practically like my sister.”

mae sighed once again, shaking her head. “it’s not about what you’d think, it’s... i don’t know what it is. i guess i liked hearing you talk about your own family, i didn’t want to dampen that down with my own sob story, if that makes sense?” she was sure that definitely didn’t make any sense. 

“So that means you’ve been asleep for a while then?” He raised an eyebrow at her as he laid on the sand. “This place is nice and all but… It’s a little uncomfortable like… do Hades kids just like being uncomfortable or is it just you?”

avi realised her reaction has been a bit out of proportion, so she gently put a hand on mae’s arm, “it’s okay. just.. tell me what you want me to know. no more no less.” she tried to sound encouraging, like her mom doing a reading for a shy customer. she wasn’t sure if it was working, but she hoped so. 

“i mean you could argue that hades is… not dead but with the dead.” avi mumbled, not trying to talk over mae but just trying to lighten the mood. she felt bad for mae, seeing her like this. it wasn’t something avi was used to. mae had always been the more… not necessarily more mature but then also avi couldn’t think of a more fitting word. and now hearing her best friend talk about all that had happened to her.. avi wished she could just engulf her into a big hug. and on any other occasion she would have. but right now she felt like maybe she needed to let mae talk.

“that’s a pretty horrific way to live.” avi spoke softly. she’d grown up in what was probably the opposite of the environment that mae grew up in. she could hardly imagine what that was like. after mae was seemingly done talking, avi thought for a few moments again. however, it wasn’t the shocked realisation kind of thinking. she was trying to come up with something useful to say. something that didn’t make it seem like she was just some naive kid. she bit her lip, then looked up at mae’s face, who’s gaze was focused on the street opposite of them. it was like she was seeing a new person, but also it was just her best friend still. “i’m sorry that that happened to you.” she finally said. “i think you deserved better than that. and i hope camp has given you a real home.” she sighed deeply, fidgeting with one of the three mood rings she was currently wearing (they were all different shades, one black, one olive green, one something between yellow and orange). “what will happen when she reports you? you won’t have to leave, right?”

mae was quiet and calm when she had first arrived at the camp, and she’s still the same, only slightly different lately as she made more friends and was more open. but in this moment, it felt like she was back to being herself from ten months ago. it felt like her closed off self had just given up a big part of herself and gave away a very treasured secret, which wasn’t a very big secret to begin with. she just never liked to mention it. 

“why’re you apologizing? nothing is your fault.” she chuckled humorlessly, shaking her head as she wrapped her arms around her knees tightly, his chin rested on them. “it has, i just... never saw the point of mentioning any of that depressing shit, you know? especially not when you were telling me about your family and things like that. i didn’t want to sound like sad poor girl.” she shrugged, looking at the ground.