Chapter Text
The crash happened so quickly that it was hard to figure out what had happened at all. When Andrew regained consciousness, he could feel his body dangling in the seat belt, arms hanging over his head and brushing the crushed roof. The passenger’s seat airbag had gone off and knocked the wind out of him, but other than a few bruises and scrapes, nothing hurt too badly.
He coughed once to get any dust and dirt out of his throat, then slowly reached with one hand for the seat belt keeping him in place. Andrew couldn’t hear anything other than something dripping like water, and he was almost worried they’d landed in a river or something, but the headlights shone brightly on the forest floor. The car had rolled off the road to the bottom of the ravine, that much was obvious, but how much had they rolled?
And…who was alive?
“Aaron,” Andrew croaked out, tugging on his seatbelt once, then fumbling for the clip. “Aaron!”
“I’m okay…” Aaron said, voice slurred and quiet. Andrew finally heard some shuffling from the backseat but didn’t dare relax. “Mom…?”
There was no answer. Andrew finally unclipped his seatbelt, using his free arm to brace himself as he fell out of his seat. There was glass that pricked him and cut his bare skin, but Andrew barely felt it, too focused on crawling out of the broken window to drag his brother out.
There were marks in the dirt where the car had been rolling, finally stopping when it crashed driver’s-side into a tree. Andrew crawled towards the backseat, where his brother was laying against the crushed roof, thankfully without any visible injuries. “Here,” Andrew said, holding out a hand for his brother to take.
“Mom! Andrew - she’s not saying anything,” Aaron whispered, twisting until he could grab Andrew’s arm. “Is she okay?”
Andrew didn’t say anything because he didn’t know. He focused on pulling his brother out of the wreckage, then looking everywhere for any evidence of hurt. Aaron had a few scrapes on his cheek and one nasty one over his forehead, but other than that he must’ve just bumped his head.
“Mom,” Aaron whispered, reaching to grab onto Andrew’s shoulders. “Check, is she okay?”
Andrew wasn’t sure he wanted to, but he nodded and pushed to his feet, slowly walking around the car. He didn’t see much at first: just enough to notice how crushed the other side of the car was, and the red that stained the silver exterior. One of the wheels still spinned, which Andrew tried to stare at instead of the sight he saw when he knelt down next to the tree and glanced through the dashboard.
“Andrew?” Aaron called after some amount of time. Andrew wasn’t sure how much had passed before he finally came back to himself. “Andrew?!”
“Here,” Andrew said, straightening up and walking back to where his brother was sitting on the ground.
“Where’s Mom?” Aaron asked.
No words had to be said. Andrew reached for his brother’s arm before Aaron could do something stupid, like try to help her and see what was left in the car. Aaron barely put up a struggle, letting Andrew drag him to his feet and start to direct them away.
Everything was silent. Complete and utter silence, with not a single branch breaking as the twins walked or a cry of an animal. Andrew would’ve taken anything, even if it was just a distant hooting of an owl or wind rustling leaves, but there wasn’t a sound in the forest. Was it because of the slight ringing in Andrew’s ears or something else? Something…worse.
“Stay close,” Andrew whispered, holding even more tightly to Aaron’s arm.
“Okay,” Aaron replied.
The dawn took the memories away. Andrew blinked the last of them and sleep away, laying on his back in his bed and staring up at the golden wood of the cabin he lived in. There were familiar groans all around as campers slowly woke up, all of them sounding equally unhappy. Instead of moving, Andrew continued to lay on his back and stare at the ceiling, already dreading what was to come.
The door to his room was knocked on and opened. Andrew lifted his head to see Aaron walk inside, already dressed for the day despite the tiredness in his eyes. “Hurry up,” he said, already turning to leave. “The game starts at noon.”
Right. The game.
~*~
The worst time to play Capture the Flag had to be when it was humid out. There was a light fog that had settled throughout the woods, and the clouds that had been in the sky since yesterday made everything dark. The woods were unsettling to be in at a time like this, and it was only made worse with the hot air of summer.
The celestial bronze armor definitely made it worse, but that was besides the point.
So far, everything had been strangely silent. Sure, some birds were chirping and some random squirrels would run by, but that wasn’t what Andrew was listening for. He was listening for other people around and any motion of an attack coming his and his brother’s way. Judging from the look on Aaron’s face, he was equally uncomfortable.
“I don’t like this,” Aaron muttered, nodding his head towards the expanse of forest before them.
Andrew said nothing back, but he quickened his pace to get ahead of his brother. He didn’t reach for an arrow just yet, not wanting to risk dropping it as he ran, but the longer the forest was silent the more he wanted to. “Maybe your girlfriend warned everyone to stay away from you,” he said, just loudly enough for Aaron to hear him.
Predictably, Aaron almost tripped over his feet. “She did not,” he hissed back. “And she’s not my girlfriend.”
Honestly, it was just embarrassing at this point. Any other time, when they weren’t in danger of being potentially attacked at any moment, Andrew would’ve pointed that out. As it was, he just continued forward at an easy pace, looking for a bright red flag placed somewhere in the forest.
Today’s game of Capture the Flag pitted the Athena cabin against the Ares cabin. Each had time to recruit other demigods to join their teams, create a strategy, and get prepared. Andrew had made the choice for the Apollo cabin to join Athena’s side along with the Hephaestus and Hermes cabins, mostly because children of Ares rarely came up with a plan other than ‘go running in guns blazing’.
In contrast, the Athena cabin leader Dan Wilds had created the battle strategy with the help of her siblings. They would have a strong line of defense around the flag consisting of specific things the Hephaestus kids had built - all in rush order, probably because Dan’s boyfriend was the Hephaestus cabin leader - and divide everyone else in groups. The biggest group was meant to be another line of defense around the flag, led by the Hermes cabin leader Jean Moreau, while all the other small groups of two were supposed to spread out throughout the forest to search for the red flag.
Usually, the strategy of the Ares cabin had been to directly attack and push through with brute force. But this time something was different, because Andrew knew that he and Aaron weren’t that far away from the blue flag and should’ve been able to hear the distant sounds of battle. But there was nothing at all, and the fog made it hard to see.
Too busy trying to spot another demigod in the forest, Andrew didn’t realize that they’d stumbled upon the place the flag was hidden until Aaron threw an arm out to stop Andrew from moving. He looked ahead and spotted the flag, seemingly alone in a small clearing.
“Too easy,” Aaron whispered, arm still raised.
Andrew didn’t care if it was too easy. To be honest, he just wanted to take off the armor and shower for at least an hour before dinner that night. Still, he wasn’t stupid, so he drew an arrow and notched it, looking upwards for anyone hiding in the trees. There was some sort of movement in one that made him fire an arrow, though he missed whatever he’d been aiming at.
“No traps,” Aaron whispered, stepping closer to Andrew. He had his own bow raised, but didn’t look up. “Did you see - ?”
He was cut off when someone jumped from the tree Andrew had been looking at, landing with their legs spread and a fist pressed to the forest ground. It was impossible to tell who it was when they had their helmet on, but the moment they stood straight and took it off, Andrew figured he shouldn’t have been surprised. Aaron, on the other hand, was completely surprised.
“Hi, Katelyn,” he said, voice a bit higher pitched than normal.
“Hi, Aaron,” Katelyn said back, tossing her helmet to the side carelessly. It was the stupidest move someone could make when both brothers had bows raised and arrows drawn, aiming straight for her head. Killing and maiming weren’t allowed in these games, but just about anything else was fair game, and she knew that.
She also had to know that Aaron wouldn’t dare shoot at her at all. In fact, he was already lowering his bow, to Andrew’s annoyance. She didn’t take a step forward, though, not while Andrew kept his own steady.
“What’re you doing here?” Aaron asked.
“Guarding the flag?” Katelyn asked back, lips raised in a small smile that completely lost its effect when she drew two short celestial bronze swords.
Aaron blinked. “I thought you’d…”
“Charge ahead to get your flag first?” Katelyn asked. “Trying something different this time.”
That much was obvious. The cabin leader of the Ares cabin before her had always rushed forward, seemingly without thinking. It had never worked against the Athena cabin, but since he’d finally left camp to try going for a college degree, they should’ve expected Katelyn wouldn’t go with the same plan. Did Dan account for that?
As if on cue, more people fell from where they’d been waiting in the trees and the two were quickly surrounded. Andrew moved so that his back was to Aaron, facing the four other demigods he had a suspicion were also children of Ares, which was just great. Each person surrounding them had at least six inches on the twins, which didn’t mean they couldn’t fight, only that it would make it more difficult to win.
“Want to surrender?” Katelyn asked, pointing one sword at the twins.
“No,” they refused at the same time, putting their bows away. Andrew thought about taking out his knives, but fighting this many enemies with a size advantage on him with them wasn’t the best plan. He instead twisted the ring around his ring finger with his thumb, twisting it until it turned into a sword in his hands, celestial bronze and glowing. Aaron did the same behind him, the both of them holding their swords with two hands, waiting for the fight to begin and hoping backup was on its way.
The people Katelyn had with her didn’t take long to rush forward. Children of Ares were difficult to fight, because they were unpredictable, strong and skilled. You couldn’t defeat them in endurance, which meant the best way to beat them was by making them sloppy in technique. Riling up a child of Ares wasn’t difficult either: all it took was dodging their moves, getting in a couple of hits and throwing in a taunt or two if you were that kind of person.
Andrew wasn’t that kind of person. He stuck with avoiding the large swings and taking them down by going for their legs. He managed to knock out one and focused on the other three approaching, trying to keep tabs on Aaron at the same time. He was currently fighting Katelyn, who clearly wasn’t trying to land a hit at all. Aaron wasn’t doing much other than blocking her blows, either.
Just grab the flag, Andrew thought as he hit another one of his opponents on the back of the head with the hilt of his sword. If they grabbed the flag and got it across the river that ran through the middle of the forest, then the game would be over.
Of course, Aaron didn’t seem in any rush to do so. Him and Katelyn continued to dance around each other rather than try to win the battle. “We really should stop meeting like this,” Katelyn said at one point when they backed away from each other.
“Why?” Aaron asked, jabbing his sword forward in a move Katelyn easily parried. “Are you not having fun?”
They were flirting on the battlefield. Andrew spun to avoid two swords from two different opponents, trying to put some more distance between them so he could fight one at a time. Fighting multiple people at once was never a fair fight no matter how skilled one was, and there was always a greater chance at being beaten down. He continued to glance Aaron’s way no matter how hard he tried to stop, because the reality was that Katelyn wasn’t going to hurt him.
“Is this what you call fun?” Katelyn continued, raising an eyebrow Aaron’s way.
He seemed to have some sort of newfound confidence only adrenaline could give him. “Certainly gets my heart pumping.”
Katelyn clearly smirked. “I do seem to have that effect on you, don’t I?”
Andrew ducked to avoid another swing of a sword, kicking one’s knee and making them fall low enough for Andrew to knock them out with a hard hit to the helmet, focusing on the two left that were rushing towards him. The flag , Aaron, he thought, but Aaron showed no signs of hearing him.
“You almost got me there,” Katelyn said, dodging one of Aaron’s swings and lightly hitting his sword with one of her’s. “Some more practice and maybe you’ll be able to stick me once.”
The comment made Aaron lunge forward recklessly. Andrew managed to knock out another opponent, quickly heading for the last of the four that had attacked him. “Maybe you should help me with that,” he said back.
“I’d love to,” Katelyn replied. “Thursday, free hour at the arena?”
“I - uh - sure!”
Finally, there was only one left for Andrew to fight, the only one in the group that hadn’t rushed him from the beginning. It was soon clear why: it was Renee Walker, daughter of Demeter, the one person Andrew had yet to beat in a sparring match.
“Nice job,” she complimented, holding two knives in her hands. “Ready?”
A sword was going to be no use against her, but before Andrew could even try to take out his knives, Renee rushed him. She was quick and ruthless, never backing down or giving Andrew a break. The most he could do was try to block her blows, focus going entirely into the fight he was currently in. Only one of her shots managed to land, cutting just underneath the armor on his shoulder to slice through his bicep. The wound immediately started to bleed, but Andrew couldn’t reach up to stop it, not with Renee still attacking.
She finally backed off, hopping a few steps back and giving him a moment to breathe. Fighting seemed to be a strange balance between a game and real life with her, impossible to guess what moves she would make. “Doing alright?” she taunted, a sweet smile on her face.
Beating her wasn’t an option right now. Andrew decided to ignore Aaron and Katelyn’s pretend fight and end this game, turning and sprinting towards the flag, well aware that Renee would be right behind him. He managed to get close, but not enough to grab it as roots from trees around them cracked up from the earth, wrapping around his ankles and pulling him to the ground. They weren’t tight enough not to fight off, which Andrew appreciated, but with every one he cut away a new one would form, keeping him down.
Footsteps approached. Andrew looked up as Renee approached. “Better luck next time,” she said, raising two fingers and saluting. The way they always ended fights.
But the game wasn’t over yet. From the battle in the forest around them, Dan Wilds and two other campers ran towards the flag, quick enough to grab it. Renee turned to them in surprise, raising a hand to catch them with roots from the trees, the same way she’d caught Andrew, but she wasn’t fast enough. The roots caught Dan, but she threw the flag to one of the others with her, who continued running with it out of the clearing. The roots holding onto Andrew weakened as Renee focused elsewhere, allowing him to cut the rest away and rush to his feet, swinging his swords towards her neck.
She turned around at the last second, blocking the blade with her knives. The smile previously on her face was gone, replaced with the look she usually wore when the two sparred. They were stuck at a stand-still, both of their blades holding strong until a horn blew loudly, ending the game. The flag must’ve gotten across the river.
Slowly, Andrew brought his sword back and let it hand by his side, not taking his eyes off of Renee as she did the same with her knives. “Better luck next time,” he told her, saluting as she had done earlier.
She let out a small huff of laughter, sheathing her blades into the holsters on her thighs. “Luck won’t save you from hoards of monsters,” she reminded him, taking off her helmet and shaking her hair. “You might want to get that looked at.”
Andrew glanced at his arm, remembering the slice she’d made earlier. The pain had faded due to the adrenaline rush of the battle, but slowly built up again as he remembered the cut in the first place. He reached for some bandages everyone brought with them to battle and hastily wrapped it around the wound, following Renee away from the clearing.
It was about to be a long day.
~*~
One of the places Andrew hated being in the most was the infirmary. He’d had his fair share of injuries throughout his life, and perhaps he shouldn’t have minded it as much due to his heritage, but there was something about the place that made him want to avoid it at all costs. Unlike his brother, Andrew didn’t inherit the power to heal others using light from his hands, so there was no need to be there in the first place.
Not to mention Aaron’s bedside manner is horrendous.
“Here,” Aaron called, walking around the wall panel that separated the bed Andrew was sitting on from the rest in the infirmary. He threw a plastic bag with a piece of ambrosia inside Andrew’s way, which he just barely managed to catch with one hand. “Eat that.”
Andrew managed to keep his aggravated sigh in, struggling to open the plastic bag as Aaron approached. He took a bite of ambrosia as Aaron sat down on the bed next to him, unraveling the tied bandage and throwing it away. Thankfully the cut had stopped bleeding, but without Aaron’s healing he’d probably have needed stitches.
“You need to be more careful,” Aaron mumbled, reaching for the small basin of water at the bedside table and starting to wash the cut.
“Maybe you should focus on the battle when it’s happening,” Andrew retorted. The ambrosia tasted like fudgy brownies, taking away any soreness or pain Andrew was feeling following the game of capture the flag. “The only reason - “
“I know,” Aaron snapped. “I’ll train harder. Happy?”
“No.” Though he wanted to be a healer, Aaron still had to know how to defend himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how, it was that he spent more time studying medicine than training in the arena. If a battle happened, Aaron would still be there, in as much danger as the people he would be trying to heal.
And it wasn’t that Aaron didn’t know, it was that he was more skilled in one area versus the other. If he went to college and faced a monster attack, Andrew didn’t know if he’d be able to take care of himself. He’d always had someone there to fight with him.
Huffing, Aaron grabbed an actual bandage and placed it over the cut that had already begun to close thanks to the ambrosia. Andrew finished the piece he was eating as Aaron took the basin of water back to the table by the bed, standing still as Andrew got up and rolled his shoulder. There was a twinge of pain, but it wasn’t unbearable, and it would likely be healed completely by the following morning. He was about to turn around and leave to clean up when Aaron spoke again.
“So,” Aaron said, and judging by his tone, it wasn’t a good start. It was like the word had clawed itself out of his throat, like he could barely say it, and whatever was going to follow was going to piss Andrew off. “November.”
“What about it?” Andrew asked, straightening up.
Aaron still wasn’t looking at him. He kept wiping his hands on the towel despite them being dried for a while now. “We’re turning eighteen.”
“Congratulations,” Andrew said. “We can legally smoke. Now I don’t have to worry about having a fake ID.”
“Come on, Andrew,” Aaron huffed, finally turning around. He threw the towel onto the bed and crossed his arms, but Andrew wasn’t sure what was supposed to be pointed out to him. “Are we really going to stay here for the rest of our lives?”
Andrew didn’t say anything. Most campers left for college, but those were the ones that didn’t live at camp year-round, who had people to live with over the school year. Andrew and Aaron were enrolled for school during the school year thanks to Chiron, but they were dropped off and picked up by Argus, always returning to camp. They just…didn’t have anywhere else to be. The only family they had left was each other.
But did Andrew want to stay in camp for the rest of his life? Ideally no, but demigods rarely seemed to live longer than their twenties, so the fact that Aaron could see a lasting future at all was interesting. “What do you mean?”
Aaron scoffed. “I want to go to college,” he said. “I want to become a doctor and - and use these powers to heal people.”
“Okay.”
The response seemed to surprise Aaron. He blinked and took a step back. “What?”
Andrew almost rolled his eyes. “Why do you need my permission?”
“I - “ Aaron cut himself off, shoulders drooping. “We’ve never been away from each other. I didn’t know if you’d…”
“Do what you want,” Andrew said, grabbing his armor from the ground and holding it under his arm. “I don’t control you.”
“Don’t get pissy with me because I want to do something with my life,” Aaron snapped.
“If you want to get yourself killed, then by all means.”
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you!” Aaron threw his hands in the air, and though Andrew wanted to leave, his feet wouldn’t move. “Do you really expect me to be comfortable staying here the rest of my life? I’m not like you.”
“And what am I like, Aaron?” Andrew asked, turning to fully face his twin with a challenging look.
Andrew had never understood the whole ‘identical twins are just like each other!’ thing. He and Aaron were close - they were brothers, after all - but they were completely different. Aaron had a possible future, had a direction he wanted to go in life. Andrew had nothing to look forward to.
Just when Aaron opened his mouth to reply, someone walked by the wall panel. They were holding two paper bags, had large eye bags and a flushed face. “Is this a bad time?” they asked.
“It’s fine,” Aaron said, walking by Andrew to get to the person. “Got everything?”
“Yeah,” they responded, sniffing.
“Okay, let’s do inventory,” Aaron said, mostly to himself. “And get you some nectar.” The sniffling kid started walking off, and Aaron went to follow, but he hesitated for a second. Andrew waited to see if he’d continue their argument, but instead he stomped off, leaving Andrew alone in the infirmary.