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[indent][indent] [color=#ffffff]After revealing her divine parentage, Wes's face lit up like someone had flipped a switch inside him, his grin stretching wide enough to show teeth.[/color]

[color=#667c0c]“Ah, shit!”[/color][color=#ffffff] he crowed. [/color][color=#667c0c]“You’ll like your brother. Duke’s a pretty chill dude.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rae felt the word hit her like a physical blow to the chest. [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“Brother?” [/color][color=#ffffff]she muttered, the syllable coming out flat and foreign on her tongue. After all, she'd grown up in a house where silence filled the spaces where a father should have been.  Where family photos stopped at two people, and where holidays were quiet affairs with just her mom falling asleep on the couch by 8 PM. No mystery cousins ever dropped by, and she had no stories about uncles or aunts. It was always just the two of them moving through life like a self-contained unit. The Kowalewski girls against the world, with their mismatched coffee mugs and work schedules taped to the fridge. Solitude had been her normal, her safe space, predictable as all of the wiring diagrams she'd memorized by age twelve.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]But she had a [/color][i][color=#ffffff]brother [/color][/i][color=#ffffff]now? Some stranger who shared her blood and maybe her fire, but none of her history?[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Her mind raced through alternate versions of her life, one where she'd grown up with a sibling to split the chores with and to roll their eyes at their mom's terrible jokes together. Would she be different? Less prone to disappearing into projects for days? Less likely to startle when someone touched her shoulder unexpectedly?[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rae shook the thoughts away like water from her hair. This wasn't some childhood fantasy. This was real, and "Duke" was probably just some guy who happened to share a deadbeat god for a father. She forced a small smile just as Wes launched into explaining his and Trinity's divine lineage.[/color]

[color=#667c0c]“‘Divine sponsor’? That’s a new one,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Wes snorted, his nose wrinkling in that way it always did when he was amused. [/color][color=#667c0c]“Only demigods here… At least I think? I suppose there could be sponsors now? Whatever the hell that would be.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rae's eyes dropped to the ground as she muttered, [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“…Right. Not sponsored, then.”[/color][color=#ffffff] She'd read so many Reddit threads trying to prep for this camp, and apparently, half of them were full of shit. But the moment Wes said [/color][color=#ffffff][i]Ares[/i][/color][color=#ffffff], her head snapped up, and her gaze found Trinity automatically. 

Oh. That actually… made a lot of sense. 

Rae nodded slowly, eyes trailing briefly over the other girl’s posture, the clean muscle lines, the don’t-mess-with-me aura.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Then Wes dropped [/color][i][color=#ffffff]Aphrodite[/color][/i][color=#ffffff], and Rae's eyebrows shot up so fast they nearly disappeared into her hairline.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“Wait, seriously?” [/color][color=#ffffff]The words tumbled out before her brain could catch them. She floundered, hands fluttering in the air like startled birds.  [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“I mean—not in a bad way! You’re just—” [/color][color=#ffffff]She gestured vaguely at him, at the camp, at everything. [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“I thought she’d be more… y’know. Not…”[/color][color=#ffffff] The sentence died mid-air. There was no way to finish it that wouldn’t sound rude, and to be honest, she wasn’t even sure what she was trying to say.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Because yeah, Wes had always been ridiculously good-looking. That part wasn’t news. She’d spent half of high school trying not to stare too long when he smiled. But the idea of him being the literal son of a love goddess felt… off-kilter. Like trying to convince someone (i.e her) that Crocs were suddenly now super fashionable to wear and not at all hideous. Wes had been charming, sure, but in a chaotic, snack-stealing, fire-alarm-pulling kind of way.  He was neither seductive nor polished to her. He was just… Wes. The same idiot who once tied two rubber bands around a classroom chair leg and called it “engineering.” [/color]

[color=#ffffff]Nonetheless, standing this close to him now, Rae became acutely aware of the way her skin prickled with that static charge she'd always associated with Wes's presence. Even after all these years, her body seemed to remember him, the warmth of his one-armed hug still lingering where he'd touched her, and her stomach kept doing these ridiculous little flips she couldn't seem to stop. It was infuriating. And confusing. Because the Wes before her was both exactly the same and completely different (the man had a missing limb for crying out loud!). [/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rae blinked hard, suddenly hyperaware of the heat creeping up her neck.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“I just…” [/color][color=#ffffff]she muttered finally, trying to recover with a crooked half-smile. [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“I don’t know what I thought. I guess it’s still weird wrapping my head around the whole ‘gods are real’ thing, let alone them making kids.” [/color][color=#ffffff]Especially kids like Wes. Especially when standing next to his gorgeous, Ares-born girlfriend with steel in her eyes.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Then Rae’s expression softened when she caught that tight-lipped smile of his and Trinity’s comforting him, and her voice lowered a fraction. [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“Pretty or not, Wes, you’ve always had more going for you than that.”[/color][color=#ffffff] It came out before she could stop it, quiet, honest, and maybe a little too revealing, but she didn’t take it back. [/color]

[color=#ffffff]Something that she would [/color][color=#ffffff][i]quickly [/i][/color][color=#ffffff]come to regret. [/color]

[color=#667c0c]“Probably why you had a crush on me in the first place. The whole allure thing is… weird. I can’t really control it. So you could very well hate me, once you get used to it,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Wes teased, with Trinity automatically speaking up for what felt like the first time in a while with a question of her own: [/color]

[color=#66356a]“And do you still have a crush on him?” [/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rae's eyes immediately did that thing they sometimes did when her brain went into emergency shutdown: they [/color][color=#ffffff][i]bugged[/i][/color][color=#ffffff]. Wide, startled, deer-in-headlights bugged. Trinity’s question had landed like a brick to the back of her skull, and for a moment, she could only blink.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“I, uh, what?” [/color][color=#ffffff]she squeaked, voice jumping an entire octave. Heat flooded her face so intensely she half-expected steam to start rising from her ears. [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“I—no? I mean, I don’t think so. I [/color][color=#3b9ae1][i]don’t[/i][/color][color=#3b9ae1], it’s just—” [/color][color=#ffffff]She turned helplessly toward Wes then, but his earlier comment about her potentially hating him still hung in the air between them, making everything ten times worse. Rae dragged a hand down her face, trying desperately to collect her scattered thoughts. This was too much. Too fast. She'd been at camp for what, twenty minutes? And already she was being interrogated about ancient feelings she'd never properly examined in the first place.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]She tried to string her thoughts together, but they kept tripping over each other like shoes on the wrong feet. [/color][color=#ffffff][i]Did[/i][/color][color=#ffffff] she still have a crush on him? It had been so long. And now that she knew about this allure thing, how could she even trust her past feelings were real, let alone her current ones? Was she attracted to him back then because of him, or because of magic hormones? And if it was the latter, did that make her pathetic? Or just… as human as everyone else?[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rae swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. [/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“People change,” [/color][color=#ffffff]she finally managed, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes shifted to the space where Wes's arm used to be. They'd both changed. Grown. Moved on. [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“High school was... a long time ago.” [/color]

[color=#ffffff]So, why did the words taste like a lie even as she said them? [/color]

[color=#ffffff]Maybe that was the problem. Unlike her mind, her heart hadn’t quite gotten the memo.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Perhaps desperate to change topics or still in shock about her arrival, Wes finally spoke. [/color][color=#667c0c]“I can’t believe you’re here. Small world.” [/color][color=#ffffff]The genuine surprise in his tone made something in Rae's chest loosen slightly because at least this part of him hadn't changed. That easy, unguarded happiness that had always drawn people to him.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]An awkward pause stretched between them, filled only by the distant sounds of campers talking and the occasional pop from the bonfire. Then Wes's gaze dropped to the suitcase still wedged against Rae's hip, its wheels caked with snow from the trek through the woods. [/color][color=#667c0c]“Here,” [/color][color=#ffffff]he offered suddenly, already reaching for the handle with his remaining arm. [/color][color=#667c0c]“Let me help you with that.” [/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rae opened her mouth to protest (old habits dying hard), but Wes had already taken the bag with that same effortless confidence he'd always carried himself with, missing limb or not. The sight of him maneuvering the suitcase with ease sent another pang through her chest. How long had it been since he'd lost it? How many other things had changed that she didn't know about?[/color]

[color=#667c0c]“Did you need help finding a cabin? Or anything?”[/color][color=#ffffff] Wes asked, tilting his head toward the rows of buildings visible beyond the firelight.  Yet, before Rae could respond, Trinity clapped her hands together with a loud sound that made Rae jump slightly. [/color]

[color=#66356a]“Yes. You two probably have a lot of catching up to do. Lots of things to address.” [/color][color=#ffffff]She gestured to Wes’s missing arm. [/color][color=#66356a]“You should give her the full tour and really fill her in on camp.” [/color][color=#ffffff]There was no venom or sarcasm in her words that Rae could pick up on, thankfully, though the gesture to Wes’s missing arm made her frown a little. Was this truly the best time to get into that story? At a New Year's Eve party? She felt otherwise but held her tongue. [/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“Yeah, no, I haven’t picked a cabin yet, so some help would be nice,” [/color][color=#ffffff]she said instead, offering Trinity a small, polite smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.[/color][color=#ffffff]She looked back at Wes, forcing a breath through her lungs and finally managing a more genuine smile to match his. [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“I’ve got a lot to learn, apparently.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A hell of a lot.[/color]

[/indent][/indent][hr]Location: Party outskirts
Interactions: Wes ([@Mjolnir]) and Trinity ([@xNocturnax])
Mentions: Duke