Well, well, well, look what day it is today! But because I'm the worst Valentine in the world, I calculated wrongly when I figured I'd post this story on Valentine's Day for my girlfriend because she's in another freaking time zone and it's not Valentine's Day for her anymore. Here's to hoping that late is better than never as far as presents go! Happy Valentine's Day, babe. Also the rest of you lovely readers. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the PJO characters, and the epithets all have

Dedication: To Maddi, with love

Sooner

She's my fingers when I want to feel
She's the only thing in life to me that's really real
She is love she's all the love I know
She could kiss the ground in wintertime
And make a flower grow.

Let me tell you now friend
Don't take her she's all I've got
Please don't take her love away from me
I'm beggin' you friend
Don't take her she's all I've got
She's everything in life I'll ever need.

-Don't Take Her She's All I Got, Tracy Byrd

Lacy ground her teeth as the medics reset their shoulder. She still screamed a bit when her joint popped back into its assigned place, but she told Will that she was okay and didn't cry until he was out of the room because she knew how badly some of the others needed his expertise. Lacy's shoulder was such a light injury; it was probably like a coffee break to Cabin 7.

Miranda Gardner came by, one arm in a sling, and sweetly offered a square of ambrosia and a piece of cheesecake to Lacy.

"Thanks," Lacy said.

"I'm sure they'll see your leg soon," Miranda said.

Lacy nodded, ignoring what Will had called "practically a fracture" that "must hurt like a bitch", readjusted the shock blanket around her shoulders, and ate her cake. She'd been pinned under a fallen light post for the longest time and all she'd been able to do was cover her head when other rubble rained down and hope that Drew's perfume idea would keep monsters away. It'd taken a long time for a patrol of Hunters to find her, and they'd brought her here immediately. The fighting had started again. She'd been hearing something about a drakon? But there wasn't anything she could do now except follow the doctor's orders.

She was getting drowsy –painkillers mixed with ambrosia did that, but they were so worth it. It felt like she'd slept a feverish few hours when someone shook her awake.

"Lacy," she said. "Lacy, wake up."

She forced her eyelids open and Nyssa came into focus. The usual bandana holding her hair back was gone and her hair was weaved with dirt and a few feathers (Lacy couldn't even name a monster with feathers). Her eyes looked sorrowful.

"Why the long face? Who died?" Lacy mumbled.

"Don't joke like that right now," Nyssa said.

The real world snapped back to Lacy in a hurry and she pushed herself back up. The pain came back just as sharply, coursing through her shoulder. She noticed that her leg had been immobilised in a brace- how had she slept through that?

"Oh no," Lacy said. "Seriously Nyssa, what's wrong?"

"I wanted to tell you," she said. "I wanted it to be someone you trust…"

"Who?" Lacy said. "Oh my gods where's Mitchell? Nyssa! Where's Mitchell where-"

"Mitchell's alright," Nyssa said. "They… Silena posed as Clarisse. To make the Ares cabin fight the drakon. And… she died."

Lacy's stomach sunk through her body, through the floor, through the earth and gods knew where.

"I'm sorry Lacy," Nyssa said. "They think…"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"She confessed about being the spy," Nyssa said.

Lacy thought her stomach had hit rock bottom but it sank even further.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"If this is a trick because you're trying to cope with losing Beckendorf, tell me now and I won't be mad."

"It's not a trick why the hell would I trick you?" Nyssa said.

"I'm sorry," Lacy said. "I-"

She burst into tears and Nyssa sat down on the hotel couch next to her, her shoulder at the exact height for Lacy to cry on. Which she did. Over and over.

"Funerals are rough," Nyssa said, arm wrapped snuggly around Lacy.

Lacy nodded and rested her head on Nyssa's shoulder. She was exhausted, she needed a break from the reality and the crying and the healing bones…

"I love you and I believe in you," Nyssa said soothingly. "You'll get through this."

"I don't want to go through it today," Lacy said. "Can we… can we go hang out by Zephyr Creek and skip stones and feed birds like we did? I know we aren't twelve anymore but…"

"Actually, being twelve was a hell of a lot nicer than this is," Nyssa said. "Let's go back to that okay? Temporarily and stuff, but let's do it."

Lacy stole an extra sandwich at lunch, picked off the ham and cheese and lettuce and tomato (ate the cheese, threw the rest on Mitchell's plate) and stuffed the bread in her pockets. She got to ditch her crutches since Nyssa gave her a piggy-back ride to their spot. It was a highly specific spot –Lacy couldn't explain it but somehow it was always sunny without being blinding, it was amazing. Nyssa caught tadpoles in Ziploc bags and they made trumpet sounds with blades of grass and Lacy took off her cast to dip her toes in the water despite Nyssa telling her she'd delay the healing process because fuck the healing process, Lacy wanted to go back to simpler times.

The funny thing was that Lacy did feel like she was twelve and considerably more innocent in their spot, but that was how she felt on any other day with Nyssa. It was just quieter this way, at their spot.

"Lacy, you in?" Nyssa asked.

"Yeah," she said.

She'd headed in early from archery. She couldn't stand for too long without pressuring her leg –currently held together by ambrosia, willpower and a magical brace alone- and shooting from a chair wasn't much fun. She was catching up on homework for one of the online classes she took from camp instead- the stress of last year's constant raids and whatnot had made her flunk a history class that she should've nailed. She had to make up for it before the next school year started.

"I'm glad you're taking it easy," Nyssa said examining the intricate pileup of throw cushions and quilts that Lacy's bed-nest was made of.

"Thanks," Lacy said. "It's nice to see you out of the forge, not restocking the weapon shed or whatnot."

"I'm just taking a break. I've got something for you," Nyssa said.

"I do love Christmas in July," Lacy said.

"It's August. Anyways, don't get mad at me for having this. I know that they sent her stuff back to her dad," Nyssa said rummaging in her bag, "but she left stuff in our cabin or at the workshop all the time. That's how she and Beckendorf would flirt, you know? Silena would leave a chapstick or steal a sweater, and he'd have to track her down to give or get it back. She left bobby pins everywhere too. It worked both ways: sometimes she'd make Beckendorf fix something on Cabin 10 and he'd half-ass it to come back. It was an excuse to taunt each other."

"Jesus, no wonder it took them so long to get together," Lacy said.

"No kidding," Nyssa huffed. "Anyways, that's not where I was going with this."

She tugged a scarf from her bag- turquoise with pink cherry blossoms.

"We found this by a power saw the other day," Nyssa said. "It's got to be hers, right?"

"It is," Lacy said reaching out to touch it.

"Well, we found it a few days after Mail Day," Nyssa said.

Mail Day had been horrible. Not only was it the day after the way, but twenty one boxes had been packed off and shipped along with forty two letters. Each box had been filled with the possessions of a dead demigod and accompanied by a letter from Chiron, as well as a personalised letter written by that camper's cabin. Five children of Aphrodite had died during the Battle of Manhattan –dropping like flies once Silena had passed. Lacy had never cried more.

"You can keep it," Nyssa said. "I think she'd have wanted you to."

Lacy cradled the scarf in her hands and smiled. There was still a whiff of perfume left on it.

"Thanks," Lacy said.

"No worries," Nyssa said. "Anyways, gotta get back to the forges. We've got a dragon to work on. Later."

"Bye," Lacy said.

Nyssa dropped her bandana on her way out.

"You shouldn't be out here with a broken leg, are you crazy?" Nyssa asked, pulling aside from her sub-team for Capture-the-Flag.

"I'm not here to play," Lacy said just as her crutches snagged on a root. "I just came here to give you this."

The truth was that Lacy was unimpressed with having nearly died out in Manhattan and now being away from everyone she loved and cared about while she healed. She wanted them close to her, and it didn't make sense that if some of those people were dead (take Silena), anybody else would be far.

Nyssa was a rather big chunk out of that demographic- they went way back. When Lacy had arrived at Camp two years ago she'd somehow been shyer than she was now, but Nyssa had protected her and covered for her and given Lacy the time and shelter she needed to become strong. Her own personal best-friend turned guardian angel turned math and physics tutor turned… well, there was an extra step that Lacy wouldn't mind taking.

Anyways, she handed Nyssa her bandana. Lacy could tell it was old because her full name –Nyssa Mary Nnamani- was inscribed on the inside in her mother's penmanship. Parents were pretty protective the first time they sent their kids to camp.

"What?" Nyssa frowned.

"I thought it'd make a good excuse to see you," Lacy asked.

Nyssa looked stunned for a second, but not for long. She took off her helmet and tied her bandana back on.

"Thanks," Nyssa said. "I'll come see you after the game. But stay away from the forest until then, you hear me? I know for a fact that shit's going to get ugly long-distance, fiery-projectile style. But you didn't hear that from me."

"Of course not," Lacy said, turning around to head back to the cabins.

Her flip-flop slid off her foot and she left it there.

"Jake was quiet, but Solace told me all about it," Nyssa said. "Apparently it was the most vicious counselor meeting in years- and that's saying something. It all started with talking about finding the dragon again and whether or not my cabin really is cursed and it just escalated from there... Drew started charmspeaking without meaning to and she had the Stoll brothers pretending to be goats without even noticing them because Clarisse was holding her back and it took Percy Jackson and Will Solace to hold back Jake and they were yelling at each other about starting curses and don't you dare blame this on her motherfucker and all kinds of stuff. Chiron couldn't get anyone to shut up and Nico di Angelo shadow-traveled out and no one's seen him since so Will is pissed off and ignoring both of them and Miranda Gardener got so upset that all the window boxes of the Big House are dead now."

"You gave me the scarf the other day because your cabin would've gotten rid of it, didn't you?" Lacy asked.

Nyssa scratched the back of her neck. "Look, you've been healing. But out there, tensions are…"

"That meeting wasn't the first time that Jake and Drew fight, was it?" Lacy said.

"Jake and Drew?" Nyssa scoffed. "It's more than that. The entire cabins are at each other's throats."

It was the start of September and most people were leaving to go home tomorrow.

"It's about Silena, isn't it?" Lacy asked.

Nyssa licked her lips- a nervous tick, the first to manifest itself if her stress took over her Tourette's.

"The stance of… well, most of my siblings… they think that she manipulated Beckendorf. Used some kind of voodoo love spell- I don't even know. They think that she made him fall in love with her to use him."

"A girl who wasn't in love wouldn't have died like Silena did!" Lacy fumed, absolutely outraged.

"I stopped trying to argue," Nyssa said. "Mourners don't think right. But I think that whatever Silena did wrong in her life, it wasn't that."

"I'm glad that you believe us," Lacy said quiely.

"No problem," Nyssa said. "I mean, it's not like you needed to cast anything on me, right?"

Lacy pretended not to hear that but she beamed so brightly, Nyssa may have seen her smile from the inside.

"Can I have my sweater back?" Nyssa asked Lacy, stopping by Cabin 10 after getting seconds at supper.

"What sweater?"

"Sure, play innocent," Nyssa scoffed. "You know, the one you stole last time you came to the forge."

Lacy was grinning.

"You're wearing it right now, too," Nyssa pointed out helpfully.

"I can't take it off now because I'll freeze to death," Lacy said.

"Wouldn't want that," Nyssa said.

Lacy blushed from her cheeks to her chest and smiled, pleased.

"Follow me to my cabin after supper and I can switch them," Lacy offered.

"Hey, Ten," Emmett called from the place where he sat with his third cheeseburger. "Get away from our table."

Nyssa turned her head to meet his eyes and signal to him that he was going to die young. Nyssa didn't like being told where to be and what to do and who with.

"Leave," Sorrell –Lacy's eldest sister at nineteen- added.

The dining room rush seemed to come to a halt as the focus turned to the tension.

"Don't talk to my sister that way," Jake called from his table.

"Then take her back and keep her away," Drew said, standing up to.

"All you brats return to your tables before I return you to your parents as house plants," Mr D said.

Nyssa picked a carrot stick from her plate and flung it at Drew before turning around. Drew's eyes slanted in anger- the way she got when she was being defensive, like she always was since Silena had died and the Cabin was getting beaten up by everyone.

"Bark," Drew said.

Nyssa did without even thinking and she flipped Drew off before returning to her seat.

Lacy's heart was racing. They'd been lucky that one time. "Bark" wasn't as much of an insult as it was of a reminder to stay the hell away from Drew and her cabin, and Nyssa could have done a lot worse than throw produce.

Lacy smashed her potato salad with the back of her fork, throat knotted and stomach tied.

"You don't need to talk to them if they're bothering you," Emmet said.

"Nyssa wasn't bothering me, she's my best friend," Lacy snapped.

They all nodded and muttered yes and noes, but all of her siblings – all these older, cuter, wiser kids that is- looked doubtful.

She peeked over her shoulder, and it looked like Nyssa had gotten in shit with her brothers too.

This wasn't good.

At the campfire, Lacy was bored with the ballads and songs. She was tired and moody and her painkillers were wearing off. She resorted to people-watching.

Lacy had a photographic memory and the eye for detail that made her good at finding things, putting together outfits, and spotting monsters. It was part of why she wanted to solve murders, study criminology one day. It didn't take long for her eyes to land on Nyssa –not necessarily because she spent a lot of time watching Nyssa, but… well that second she was.

They made eye contact soon, and Nyssa looked just as bored. They stuck their tongues out at each other for a few minutes before Nyssa stood up, said something to Jake and walked out of the amphitheater.

Lacy got up too and said something to Drew about wanting to ice her leg. Drew said "whatever", and Lacy walked out, repeating her excuse to Mitchell. Drew wasn't the most caring leader. Lacy always thought that she was a bit resentful about how she and Jake were always at each other's throats, how she was always on the offense and defense for all of them. She even spoke bitterly of Silena recently. It was as if Silena was an itch at the back of Drew's throat that she couldn't get rid of and didn't have the time to pay full attention to.

Lacy had a feeling that all of camp was having somekind of mourner's indisgestion about those two. Beckendorf was widely recognised as the first of the Battle of Manhattan, and Silena...

It did make Lacy sick.

It didn't take too long to find Nyssa; she was sitting by the central hearth warming her hands, wearing a stained and tattered jacket and a yellow scarf tied in her hair.

Lacy sat down next to her.

"Hiya stranger," she said brightly.

"After this week, that's basically true," Nyssa said.

Lacy chewed on her cheek. Yeah, it was.

"I tried going to you, but during activities and stuff it was impossible. My cabin's going crazy and they're super-gluing me to my bed, I swear. Drew and Jake talked their way into putting our cabins on two different Capture-the-flag teams," Lacy said. "Drew gave up shower time and Jake picked up the Ares cabins' chores for a month."

Nyssa's eyes went glassy and shocked.

"That's childish. It doesn't mean anything."

"You're right, you're right. I haven't been thinking straight."

Her head sunk down in her hands and she sat up once Nyssa's tired eye came back up.

"You're my best friend," Lacy said. "This week's been hard without you."

"Is your knee still hurting?" Nyssa asked.

"No," Lacy said. "I just missed you. What's going on? What's up with that dragon, I figured I should hear the real story from you if-"

"It's just the goddamn central circuit!" Nyssa burst. She launched into her rant as if projected by a catapult and Lacy smiled to herself and lied down on the rock pit, looking at the stars and listening to Nyssa's voice.

"Oh look, your clothes are spread out all over your bed again," Nyssa said. "You do realise that Argus leaves in ten minutes right?"

"I know, I know, I'm just freaking the Hades out," Lacy said chewing on her thumb. She'd been packing and unpacking for ages.

"Okay," Nyssa said taking Lacy's hands and bringing them back down. She didn't let go. "What are you freaking the Hades out about?"

Lacy bit her lip.

"I hate visiting my dad in jail," Lacy said.

Lacy's dad was a convicted murderer since Lacy was five. The details were blurry to her, nobody said anything and Lacy was afraid of what would happen if she googled 'Michael Moore murderer' since he was convicted to life. Not exactly a pleasant memory.

"And it's so weird being back at my grandparents' house because I have to act as if they prayed the gay out of me, and dress as if I could go to church at any second, and ask Jesus to save my soul before I have dinner, and everybody in town comes out to see me at luncheons and crap… It's weird, Nyssa, I feel like I'm five years old again every time but I'm not. I mean, I've done stuff, I've seen stuff…"

"You have," Nyssa said.

"And they're so volatile- one second they love me and dot over me and the next they remember that my father lost his mind when my mom left him and they start getting cold. But I'm not her I'm me. I should be a real person to them," Lacy said. "Not a doll to bring to church or pass off as cute or a mindless drone or a prodigy with a scholarship or a motherless bastard or…"

"You should," Nyssa said squeezing her hands, interrupting her rambling. "For what it's worth I think you're a real person. A real good one too. I'll sacrifice to Aphrodite for you and keep up with camp's drama to fill you in when you get back."

"You're the best."

"I am. I'll still miss you when you're gone."

"I'll miss you too," Lacy said. "You make me better."

"I don't think that's possible at all," Nyssa said.

Lacy bit her lip and smiled anyways.

"You always know what to say and what to do," she said.

"We'll spent a shit-ton of time together when you get back, just you and me, and I'll bring lunch and you can rant to me and I'll just remind you how awesome you are," Nyssa said.

"Like a date?" Lacy asked.

Nyssa kind of looked shocked for a second.

"I was going to ask you that when you came back, but I'm okay with that too," Nyssa admitted, scratching the back of her head.

Lacy had been on exactly three dates in her life. None of them had gone well, so she had the bar low for today despite the creepy-crawlies making their way across her stomach. She'd even taken the time to dress up in a flimsy summer dress and sneak a locket around her neck. It wasn't much but by camp standards, Lacy was so suspiciously well-dressed that Mitchell investigated.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"I'm on my period," Lacy said. "I'm compensating."

The scared him so much, that she didn't think he noticed when she ate virtually nothing at lunch and slipped away during arts and craft to go to the woods (it wasn't

Lacy navigated through the woods in her sneakers and well-armed to get to their spot by Zephyr Creek. Except it was all dressed up. Nyssa had spread a picnic blanket on the grass, complete with a little bouquet of wildflowers, and she'd used old newspaper to make a WELCOME BACK LACY banner that hung between two trees. Nyssa herself was standing in Zephyr Creek, scrubbing an oil stain off of her arm,but Lacy noticed that there were zero oil stains on her clothes. A miracle.

"You weren't kidding when you said you'd take care of it," Lacy said.

"Of course not," Nyssa said. "I even made sure the food I stole from the harpies was vegan for you."

This was already better than any date ever.

So good, that she was a bit afraid when she said she'd cover the second one- but that was the fair thing to do…

Mythology class was a pain in the ass; a necessary evil that only Annabeth Chase could make interesting. She told love stories and epics to keep Cabin 10 hooked. It sounded superficial, but it was hard to care about stories when the brother next to you could tell you first-hand how things went down when a manticorn was involved. Mitchell, who sat behind Lacy and braided her hair as Annabeth talked, was particularly guilty- but luckily their teacher was on a role.

"If you look at the gods and the heroes…" Annabeth said. She paused, as if figuring out what she wanted to say and how, picking at a rubber band around her wrist. "Penelope wove and unwove a tapestry for years and years to wait for her husband to come home from a war she wasn't sure he'd survived. Paris risked the wrath of two major goddesses for his lover. Ariadne was exiled from Crete for helping Theseus, Heamon talked his father's ego into releasing Antigone, Psyche searched years for Eros, Achilles tied a prince's body to his chariot when Patroclus was killed…"

"That's a bit more gross than romantic," Mitchell whispered to Lacy. "Blood and sand isn't so much a turn-on."

Lacy smacked his arm and he grinned.

"We come from a line of fierce lovers, of daring romantics and uncompromising affairs," Annabeth said. "We always say that our parents can't keep it in their pants and whatnot, but we come from clans of resourceful admirers and sweethearts and spouses whether we like it or not. It's the one thing that unites every myth and it's the one thing everyone at this camp has in common. Chiron said it himself; demigods tend to fall in love deeply and permanently. We love fiercely and extraordinarily, without consideration or apologies."

Lacy was thinking about last night, how she and Nyssa had snuck into the Big House during Capture-the-Flag and she'd popped a video tape recording of Dateline that she'd brought back from home into the VCR. Nyssa hated television and didn't care much for all the detective work involved, but she stomached the two together, spread out on the rec room's couch with Lacy curled up against her, pointing at the screen and pointing out blood splatter patterns and alibi inconsistencies, dutifully replying 'uh-huh' at each uninteresting point. Then they'd made out- that was nice too.

"Why are you smiling?" Mitchell asked poking Lacy in the ribs.

"I want one like that," Lacy said.

Mitchell rolled his eyes at her and went back to braiding hair.

Viola was in tears and Lacy wasn't too surprised because everyone was weepy recently. There were the regular reasons of course, but today was –or would have been- Silena and Beckendorf's second anniversary.

But this was slightly dramatic. Like, a full out bursting into tears like a movie.

"It's just not meant to be, I think," Viola said, sniffling and brushing a corkscrew curl behind her ear.

"What isn't meant to be?" Drew asked.

"Aphrodite and Hephaestus," Viola said. The cabin looked on, confused and waiting for an answer. Viola went on: "Remember when I got caught alone with Pollux? And Chiron made me clean out the attic as a punishment? I kind of found these diaries…"

"Who's diaries?"

"Chiron's?"

"I don't know," Viola said. "Some Athena kid I think, who was writing about patterns in demigod history."

"Patterns?" Mitchell asked.

"You know," Viola said, "which month does an Apollo kid have to be born in to be good at healing or archery or poetry, do Demeter's kids all get affected by the weather the same way… and there was one section on children of Aphrodite and children of Hephaestus dating… you know. There were hetero and homosexual couples, non-binary couples, asexual couples- all kinds of relationships. But so many of them crashed and burned… There's this couple –in 1940 something- and he was Japanese and away from camp when the war started, and they put him in a concentration camp where he died of measles…"

"What?" Drew asked. "Get it together, Viola."

Lacy agreed quietly, she didn't want to hear this. She tried to focus on the magazine she was reading, but it was hard.

"It's true!" Viola insisted. "And not just at camp. Even historically. Like- Aeneas? You know, son of Aphrodite? When Troy was falling and he carried his son and father out of Troy, his wife Creusa was behind him but she couldn't keep up. She was a daughter of Hephaestus and that's why she couldn't keep up: she was lame! Aeneas dropped his father and son off at the temple of Demeter outside Troy and went back in, looking for her through the flames and the rubble. He searched and searched and searched but he never found her. Only her ghost appeared to him, telling him that she could never leave the city with him now. He tried holding her three times before her spirit vanished forever."

"Those have to be flukes," Lacy said, cheeks flushing.

"No they can't," Viola said, so ruffled up and distraught that Lacy could sense her impending hyperventilation. "How can you say that after what happened to Silena and Beckendorf?"

Nobody argued.

Viola's conspiracy theories circulated around camp quickly and somehow, Nyssa had heard it before Lacy got to her.

"I don't believe it," Nyssa said taking her hands.

However, they were having this conversation behind Cabin 2 while everyone else was at the campfire for secrecy's sake.

"I know but that doesn't matter," Lacy said. "Other people do."

"This is about us," Nyssa said.

Lacy shook her head violently and swallowed hard. "Nyssa, I've been in relationships like that before."

"Relationships like what?" Nyssa asked.

"Ones where you think that you can deal with the way people are going to look at you and judge you… where you think you can live with the constant disapproval because someone else is in it too. I'm from the middle of nowhere, central Mississippi, remember? I dated a girl from school. I mean, I think we were both so excited not to be the only lesbians around that we threw ourselves into the relationship and it would have collapsed anyways, but it was hell, Nyssa, hell. She dumped me after the three worst months of my life because we'd gotten kicked out of every club, every friend group, every restaurant we tried to go to..."

That was when her mother had claimed her, Lacy remembered with a chill. Lacy had been shoved into a locker room door after a girl accused her of watching her change. Lacy had said that she was a lesbian, not a monster. She'd told the girl that the fact that she couldn't see love was disgusting. Poof, the scene had frozen and the world's most beautiful woman had glided into the changing room wearing a long blue dress.

"I don't think people are that paranoid," Nyssa said giving Lacy's hands a squeeze. She could feel the callouses on her hands and the places where the skin got dry and cracked from so much work, and even the little cuts that Nyssa's army of robot automaton spies gave her. She could feel the familiarity of Nyssa, and she wished that Nyssa's smooth, deliberate voice would calm her down as per usual. But it didn't.

"I don't want them to take you from me," Lacy said.

"Who's 'they'?"

"My cabin. Your cabin. Camp as a whole," she said. "They'd pin the stupid Curse of Cabin 9 on us and you know it."

"How do you know they wouldn't take you away from me?"

"Because I'd be kicking and screaming," Lacy said.

"I would too," Nyssa said. "I don't want to lose you. I mean, I haven't had you for long, but I don't."

"Maybe the best way to keep people from pulling us apart is to keep them from knowing," Lacy said quietly.

"I don't want to be ashamed," Nyssa said.

"It's not shame, it's preservation," Lacy said.

Neither of them had a better or bolder idea, and it was brave enough to risk the kind of pain they'd seen imprinted on their siblings' faces and shrouds.

And so it started.

Lacy burst into the forge –not her best idea- panting and panicking.

All the children of Hephaestus turned to look at her critically with deep, upset eyes.

"Sorry," Lacy said. "Wrong… umm… place…"

"It really is beauty over brains, there," Shane said disdainfully.

Nyssa detached herself from the pack, telling her siblings that she'd make sure Lacy didn't get lost again, grabbing her by the shoulder and guiding her out the door much more gently than she'd spoken.

As soon as they were out, Lacy tackled Nyssa around the waist and they whammed against the side of the forge.

"I heard about the dragon!" Lacy said, her voice panicky and high. "Except nobody in my cabin knew who he'd hurt and nobody cared but I did and I was so, so scared it was you..."

"I'm fine, I'm fine, cut it off," Nyssa said unwrapping Lacy's arms from around her. Right. They were in public, only a dozen steps from all of Nyssa's siblings.

Lacy was still on the edge of hyperventilation but Nyssa kept talking to calm her down.

"It was Jake who got hurt," Nyssa said. "Idiot's trying too hard to replace Beckendorf, but the dragon didn't want to have anything to do with it. When push comes to shove, dragons win."

Lacy giggled a bit and that's when she realised that she'd been crying too. There was nothing more distressing than caring about someone so profoundly and having no way to act out on it, to learn anything, to make sure that they were alright. It was like being handcuffed to your own reality.

"Camp says it's the curse," Nyssa said. "Except I don't know who cursed us- our dad, Beckendorf, fate…"

"You think you're cursed, Nys?" Lacy asked.

"Nah," Nyssa said. She pecked Lacy on the cheek. "I'm living the good life. My shit's not falling apart."

"I can't believe they lost their dragon," Emmett said, shaking his head with a mouthful of bacon over breakfast. Chiron had just announced that capture-the-flag would be canceled because the bronze dragon was somewhere in the forest.

"I'm not surprised," Drew said, casually mixing granola into her yogurt. Lacy could tell she was angry and worried. "They get so obsessed with what they do, they lose track of stuff all the time."

"And now this dragon is just going to come around and roast everyone it sees," Amelia said, stabbing at her eggs. "Super."

"This is just irresponsibility," Mitchell shrugged. "Nothing more, nothing less."

Not all of them, a tiny part of Lacy wanted to say. Nyssa always listens to me and pays attention to me even if she's building something while we talk or reading or training. She remembers my birthday every year. She notices when I'm upset or when I change my lipstick. Nyssa's the centered one who makes the good decisions between the two of us.

She didn't have the courage to say those things out loud because she couldn't use I love you to back it up. She could only sit tight and endure the trashing.

All of camp was freaking out and buzzing around at the latest drama, which made Lacy sick.

Someone had locked Harley –the eight year old in Cabin 9- in an outhouse in the forest. It'd taken three hours until the satyrs found him shaking and banging on the walls hysterically.

Drew had been summoned to the Big House by a nervous and twitchy Will Solace. She got up listened to what he whispered to her and turned around.

"When I find out which one of you did this, you're dead," she swore before turning around and marching to the Big House where the counselors were milling around.

Lacy had trouble believing that anybody in her cabin would do that, but it had to. This had cabin rivalry gone bad written all over it and Harley himself could describe the person who took him. Nobody knew who it was, but Chiron confirmed it was a child of Aphrodite. Lacy knew it wasn't her, and it couldn't be Mitchell because they'd spent the afternoon helping the children of Demeter salvage the last strawberries that they could before the frost settled in. Who was it, then? Clearly not Drew considering how surprised and angry she'd been. Could it be Rhianon, whose mortal little sister was Harley's age? Christian, who'd been unpredictable and aggressive since the war? Sorrel and Tim, the twins, who held a grudge like nobody else? Whoever it was, Lacy felt immensely uncomfortable.

The counselors were in meeting through supper and the entire camp's energy was unbalanced and weird. A kind of quiet, uneasy anarchy had installed itself as people wandered on their own, dreading the outcome.

Lacy met Nyssa as she went to the bathroom to take an early shower, beating the rush.

"Hey," she said smiling as they passed.

Nyssa didn't hear her.

"Hey," she repeated.

"Leave me alone," Nyssa said sharply. Lacy nearly dropped her toiletry kit.

"What the hell are you snapping at me for?" Lacy snapped right back.

"What the hell do you think?" Nyssa said. "Your people locked my little brother up! I don't care who did it or why, that's off line!"

"My people?" Lacy said. "My people?" Every time she repeated it was like another punch to the stomach. "Okay for the record I was picking strawberries when that happened and since when am I just part of my people? What happened to… all the things you…What the hell Nyssa?"

"That's exactly what I've spent my afternoon thinking!" Nyssa spat.

"Well I'm sorry that you've been busy generalizing and being an ass," Lacy said. "That's a goddamn tragedy."

She walked off before Nyssa could even reply, but she knew that a few people had stopped and starred at the fight.

Lacy was quick to turn on the shower to drown the sound of her ugly crying.

The only downside to bunking with her sisters as far as Lacy –who loved hearing gossip without participating, trading clothes, getting her hair done, and pillow talk- was concerned was how creepy it was to be the only one not sleeping. The lights had to stay off, she still couldn't make any noise, and the shadows looked twice as threatening when you were sad and tired and afraid. But as if Lacy was getting any shut eye after that fight?

She was planning on laying in her bunk feeling like a disgusting worm until dawn, but she saw something move outside the window. Harpies didn't reach…

Lacy's entire stomach crawled up her throat, launching her heart into a tap-dance routine when she saw that it was Nyssa peering through the window of her cabin.

They were a secret. Or at least they'd been a secret. This was unfanthomably risky and daring.

Lacy still crept out of her bunk and climbed out the bathroom window to meet up with Nyssa and hiss a what are you doing here?

"I said I wasn't cursed," Nyssa said. "I'm not going to let my shit fall apart now, especially not because I've been an idiot."

Lacy pinned her against the cabin wall right there and then.

The advantage to the new counselors were numerous, particularly for Lacy. Well, all of Cabin 10, but being Lacy had its perks right now.

Leo and Piper's friendship was largely ignored but soothing to Cabins 9 and 10, but it defused the tension between them. For most of camp, the constant aggressiveness between the two was now tamed. Now Nyssa and Lacy could hang out and hide from their cabins, not the entire population of camp. That was nothing romantic- but it was nice to feel like your best friend was back.

Of course, the fact that the line between how they could act together versus how they could act alone had just moved- and that made Lacy feel unbalanced and awkward around Nyssa. What if she messed up- said I love you, took her hand, leaned her head against Nyssa's shoulder..? She loved her too much, these things were slowly creeping their way into the list of Lacy's reflexes that included breathing and blinking. She didn't even think about it sometimes, but she knew how catastrophic this would be to camp. She could hear Viola read passages of her diary about damned couples in the cabin's spare times, could remember Drew coming back from counselor meetings sighing and rubbing her temples before snapping at someone, felt the electricity in the air whenever they had to interact… What if the gentle peace between Hephaestus and Aphrodite was foiled again?

She couldn't do that. She couldn't risk it. She had to take what she could get.

It burned a bit, actually, this entire fight. Not just because she was so far from Nyssa and because she had to be such a secretive lover.

Didn't anybody else remember how Silena and Beckendorf would always sign up their two cabins for joint activities, joint lessons, join everything? If they were going to fight and cry out and hurt about how they'd died, why were they condemning any kind of love?

It made Lacy feel sick and lonely, even if Nyssa was sitting right next to her.

But that was better than being herded away from her girlfriend constantly, so Lacy stomached it.

"Would you ever tell your grandparents about me?" Nyssa asked one day, when they were watching the sun set on the beach instead of playing Capture-the-flag.

"Yes," Lacy said. Of course, they wouldn't like to hear that I'm dating a black girl but they're deeply unhappy people so whatever. "Would you ever tell your mom about me?"

"After we go public at camp yes," Nyssa said.

Lacy nodded and watched the shades or orange and yellow and red dance through the sky.

"Why do you ask?" Lacy asked.

"Because I wanted to make sure that we're not a secret because we're ashamed," Nyssa said.

"Do you honestly think that our cabins would treat us the same if they knew we were dating the enemy or whatever it is they think?" Lacy asked.

Nyssa shook her head. "No, they'd throw me out."

"Amen," Lacy agreed. "It feels like I'm wearing a choker two times too small."

"And whenever you open your mouth to say something, it zaps you," Nyssa added. "And you just sit back down and act innocent."

"Yes," Lacy agreed. "Yes, definitely."

They watched the sun set some more.

"It's like a tease, now that Leo and Piper are here," Nyssa said. "I always feel like I could get away with it. But then one of your brothers cuts one of my sisters in line at dinner, and suddenly camp is a battlefield all over again."

"An uphill battlefield."

"Where it's raining," Nyssa nodded.

Christmas at Camp could go either way, really.

Some kids were so upset about being far from their parents during the holidays that they spent the entire day curled up within themselves and cranky, and others embraced the fact that there was little to no adult restriction to their holiday glee.

This year was even more special.

Not only were people using Christmas as an excuse to forget about Percy Jackson going missing and the terrifying Roman camp in California, but with Mr D being gone, Chiron allowed more snow than usual to fall on the property. Ensuing shenanigans included: snowball fights, skating on the canoe lake as curious naiads swam under the water, snow angels, sliding down Half-Blood hill on make-shift toboggans (the most creative of which was a child of Hermes that a child of Ares sat on)… Katie Gardner broke into the Big House and made hot chocolate for everyone and more campers than ever noticed Hestia stroking the Central Hearth.

Lacy had woken up with new clothes at the end of her bed –Aphrodite usually did that on Christmas for her claimed children. This year's present was a big hoody, and a matching set of hat, scarf and woolly mittens. She took it as her cue to bundle up and spend the day outside, even if Mitchell shoved snow down the back of her shirt as frequently as possible.

It was such a festive occasion that most children of Hephaestus had gotten out of the forge for today, leaving the Argo II's skeleton alone for the day. Lacy noticed the new kid, Leo, running around but he got so excited that the snow around his feet would melt.

Nyssa told Lacy that she looked cute, all bundled up, and she blushed furiously. It made her so happy that she didn't think about how they were in public.

Later that night, Piper brought blankets from a closet in the Big House to the camp fire. Most of camp was there, except for Will and Nico di Angelo who were keeping Jake company in Cabin 10 and Mitchell who had pink eye and was isolated in the Big House. Lacy sat in a crowd of Apollo and Demeter kids as they sang Christmas carols and watched impro. Nyssa came to sit by her.

"Hey," Nyssa said.

"Hi," Lacy said, snapping out of the carol and smiling at Nyssa. She was wearing her forge clothing- cargo pants with a hole at the knee, a camp shirt with ripped sleeves and oil stains here and there, blocking out the 'ood' in 'Camp Half-Blood'.

"Oh my gods, how aren't you freezing?" Lacy asked.

"I was sitting by Leo," Nyssa said. "You know, the-"

"Fire power kid," Lacy said. "I know. But you're going to freeze now- here."

She unwrapped the blanket from herself and spread it around Nyssa's shoulders.

"Here?" Nyssa asked.

"You're going to freeze," Lacy said.

"You will too," Nyssa said.

"Fine," Lacy said.

Now they were both wrapped in the blanket.

Nyssa swallowed but nodded and settled into her spot. She leaned on her left hand in a relaxed position, but it crept to the other side of Lacy's waist for a while. Nyssa's hand was nestled against her hip next. Nyssa's fingers tapped against Lacy's hipbone- one of her tics. At first Lacy didn't realise it- this was as much part of her autopilot as it was of Nyssa's- but once the songs were done and everyone came back to life, Lacy got kicked in the shins.

"Owe!" she cried surprised.

"Stay away from my sister!" Harley cried.

"Harley, don't kick people!" Nyssa said.

People were looking now. It was pretty clear that they'd been sharing a blanket and Nyssa had moved away from Lacy just a bit too quickly for it to look natural.

"Lacy," Drew called sharply. She followed Piper to them and was a bit harsher, a bit more worried, than Piper was as she pried her away from Nyssa.

"Harley, umm… apologise?" Leo said, holding his little brother by the shoulders.

"I don't gotta apologise to no Aphrodite kid," Harley said. That shut up everyone around the campfire.

"She doesn't want an apology from you," Drew said, her grip on Lacy tightening protectively.

"Drew that's not your call to make," Piper said.

"You're still fresh meat, McLean," Drew said. "This is bigger than you."

Piper looked like she was about to protest, but Shane –the son of Hephaestus with the long hair- called out: "Why were you two even sitting together?"

Aside from Piper and Leo, too new to be hurt and to have heard all the stories of claw and tooth, everybody else from their cabins had remained separated. It was actually eerie.

"We-" Lacy stuttered. "We just…"

"You just what, Lacy?" Drew said suspiciously. Lacy was instantly terrified that Drew would charmspeak the answer out of her when Piper cut the conversation.

"It doesn't matter," Piper said. "It's late, everybody's exhausted, and nobody's making any sense. Let's call it a night."

The offer was tempting and relaxing –a sweeter charmspeak- and the crowd untensed and started filing out. Shane took Nyssa's wrist and pulled her away. Piper picked up the blanket and gently pushed on Lacy's back until they joined the greater mob of Aphrodite kids.

"Seriously," Drew said. "You're asking for it Lacy. People are going to talk now."

Lacy swallowed hard.

"She was just cold," she said.

"Boo-hoo, she should've worn a sweater it's Decemeber," Drew said.

Lacy blushed. "It's not my fault that her little brother-"

"Is a psychopath," Rhiannon filled in.

A little boy who can't think through things enough to tell that this cabin feud is stupid.

"I said we're calling it a night," Piper said. "Let's get some sleep."

But Lacy heard her asking Viola what the intensity between 9 and 10 was about as they walked back to the cabin in worried whispers.

She heard Viola launching into her rant on Aeneas and Creusa , Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin and other unrequired or otherwise damned historical lovers.

Lacy grinded her teeth, ignored the throbbing in her shin, and walked faster.

Nyssa didn't sneak out of Cabin 9 for a while after that, and Lacy made less efforts to catch her eye at meals. She wore less make up, became smaller and smaller whenever there were other people around.

Camp routine was all same-old, same-old. Piper was a lot of fun and she really did make the cabin more energetic when they were training, and even during capture-the-flag (it was the first time that Lacy played capture-the-flag instead of escaping with Nyssa since the war, basically). But Lacy felt grumpy, as if only half of her woke up in the morning and went through the day. Mitchell had heard about the incident and seen the bruise that Harley had left (the kid wore steel-toed boots around the forge, apparently) and was being extremely protective of her. More than the usual amount of big-brother she'd learned to work around.

However there was one time when he wouldn't be able to hover over her, and that was during the New Year's Party.

Seriously, this was the best party of the year. The kids who went back home for the school year didn't know what they were missing out: the children of Dionysus turned Cabin 12 (bigger on the inside) into this giant dance floor with music and lights everywhere and food all over the place. It was sweet.

Chiron and Mr D thought they were letting the kids have their own fun, but that was because they had no idea what was really going on since the cabin was soundproof. Still, the fact that kids under 13 were told to stay in their cabins shouldn't been more than enough of a hint…

It was always a cross between a classy cocktail hour and a messy house party. Cabin 12 hoarded alcohol for this party all year, and everyone found some way to dress up whether it was asking Mom or Dad at home to send a dress from a school dance, borrowing a dress shirt, or to go up in camp's attic and find togas and crap. It was just a lot of fun and Lacy was bouncing on the spot.

She curled her hair –huge pain in the ass but worth it- and painted her lips the bright, crazy red that drove Nyssa nuts. Her dress was from a junior prom she'd been invited to and that she'd brought back from home last time she'd visited her grandparents. The top part was black, including the sheer fabric from her collarbone up, and it snapped into a clean white skirt at the waistline. She felt prim and unstoppable.

Even though Pollux has made the party happen with only three newbies at his assistant, Cabin 12 looked better than ever. The bunks had all been put away in special wall-compartments to clear enough room for a dance floor, as well as a U of black couches tucked away in a corner. Lights in the cabin's ceilings changed colours, the music was played by children of Apollo or self-operating instruments. Fire crackers were being pulled open left and right, and the children of Dionysus had hidden three confetti canons across the room to explode at random times.

Tables overloaded with food wandered across the room on their own accord, making it rather common to get pulled aside by someone and asked 'did you see the spring rolls?' Other hits included shrimp, Dorito chips, chocolate-covered strawberries, and popcorn. Red plastic cups which turned transparent if anything other than booze were another convenient, stress-reducing feature. The crowd was already thick when Lacy came in- and she'd tried to get there early…

It took Lacy a while to track down Nyssa in the flood of people- some of which were already heading towards drunkenness.

She hadn't been expecting Nyssa to dress up much, so the white blouse and the pencil skirt was a miracle all in itself. She looked good, and Lacy was excited and fearless when she grabbed her hand.

"You clean up pretty well," Lacy said with a smile.

Her girlfriend looked as if she'd been clubbed over the head in shock.

"What?" Lacy said. "I don't love you just for your brains."

Nyssa blushed and Lacy realised that maybe the beer she'd drank had loosened her up a bit too much. Such was the life of a featherweight. She took Nyssa's hand and they went outside.

Snow crunched under Lacy's heels. Nyssa brushed it off the railing of the cabin's porch and they sat down. The air was mellow enough to just sit down, relax, and enjoy each other's company.

It would have been easy to say 'I miss you', but judging by the way Nyssa's hand had found hers and was squeezing her fingers, she had too. It would have been easy to say that the last few weeks were hard, but Nyssa had to know.

It was too easy to be upset when things were hard. It was too easy to waste precious private seconds on telling each other life was hard and people were dumb, but it was pointless. It was a waste, and it wasn't that they didn't already know or were ready and strong enough to change.

"So how's the boat going?" Lacy asked.

Nyssa launched into a rant about Corinthian designs versus Athenian ships and how Christopher had messed up by wrongly converting feet to the metric system.

Lacy didn't know what the metric system really was, but she nodded and commiserated.

That was a better way to say 'I love you'.

"I've got news," Piper said, easing the sun door of the cabin closed after coming back from the weekly counselor meetings.

Children of Aphrodite in various stages of the clothes-to-pajama transition and crashed in their sleeping bags or on the floor areas between the bunks all turned to look at her. Braids were half-finished, games of poker were paused and magazines were put down while Piper talked.

She had some new guidelines for coming in and out of camp based on problems with Gaia, and there was a new penalty for skipping training now, with the next war approaching and so many newbies on the territory.

"Of- last thing. There's going to be a day trip to the city next weekend to run some errands for camp," she said. "Also to assess monster population increases in the city. Chiron needs about two volunteers from each cabin, aside counselors to…"

Lacy's hand shot up in the air and she prayed to the gods that Nyssa had a similar thought process.

Nyssa did. And by some miracle they didn't even have to half-ass or rush a job to meet up during the day. Chiron assigned them as a team to walk around New York and count monsters. Lacy tried to keep a straight face and looked pissed off and concerned to match the whispers that his announcement triggered, but really she was about to hug the old centaur.

They spent the day wandering Times Square. Lacy was window shopping the entire time, and Nyssa was just in awe of the buildings (she wanted to become a structural engineer) and their domes. They followed a tour group for a while before the tour guide spotted them and one of the older tourists wacked Nyssa with her purse. Then they took the subway to Central Park.

Lacy had already seen New York before and Nyssa was from Jersey, but there was something incredible about this visit. Lacy put her finger on it when they saw a pair of middle-aged women sharing a coffee in Central Park.

They could be open here. They could hold hands as they pulled each other through crowds or hold hands just for the sake of it. They could argue over who paid for lunch when they stopped at a bagel shop and Nyssa could say that she hadn't ever taken Lacy out on a lunch date and "don't ruin this for me I stole money from Jake for this", and Lacy could kiss Nyssa's cheeks or fuss about how she wore her coat untied in this kind of weather…

They were sitting on an icy bench in Central Park, watching joggers and playful couples and even a crazy wedding party taking pictures. Lacy had a cup of creamy hot chocolate in one hand, and Nyssa's in the other. It was a relaxing feeling and Lacy liked it. She knew she'd miss it.

"If this was our everyday…" Nyssa said to herself.

"If this was our everyday," Lacy echoed.

Nyssa kissed her and it tasted like hot chocolate.

"One day things will get better, right?" Nyssa said. "Our cabins will get a hold of themselves. People will stop hurting."

"We have another war coming..." Lacy offered.

"Not like that," Nyssa said. "They'll be ready to love each other."

"One day," Lacy nodded.

Drew had tried being patient. Honestly, she had. She had so much more energy for these things since she wasn't a counselor anymore, but maybe it hadn't been a good idea to put 'arts and crafts' back on the Aphrodite cabin's schedule- especially since the children of Hephaestus leading the activity were always miserable, wanting to be working on the Argo II so much more…

Bottom line: Christopher and Shane did not stop asking her to speak Chinese for them.

Drew wasn't Chinese. Her dad was Japanese. She'd never even left the country.

She kept working on her craft –a necklace, today- and taking deep breaths to ignore them, shooting her murderous glances at the table instead. Emmett, Viola, Lacy and Mitchell –all at her table- wanted to intervene, or at least Lacy did, but Drew liked to fight her own battles. She wouldn't want them to.

Christopher said something in her ear that Lacy didn't hear but Drew spun around, bitch slapped him. The slap was nearly legendary. It made a crisp, meaty sound and Christopher shrunk back.

"As a matter of fact I am fucking good at math you piece of shit," Drew said. She kneed him in the balls- also legendary based on the sound Christopher make. "But that might just be because I pull my head out of my ass every now and then. I hope you never fucking procrate."

"Drew," Piper said, springing up to life from another table.

"McLean this piece of crap is shitting on me and my culture," Drew said. "Don't you dare tell me to cool it."

Piper's face went from concerned to piss off.

"I was just going to congratulate you on bitch-slapping and scratching him in one go," Piper said. "Cabin 10, we're leaving."

Lacy too kind of admired how Drew had bitch-slapped and scratched Christopher all at once, but she bit her lip because she realised that animosity was going to spring back to life… again.

She sighed. Nyssa's "one day" was starting to slip away more and more as the vicious circle got itself comfortable in their lives.

One day, one day- it always looked like one day until it wasn't.

"Hey," Lacy said softly, putting a hand on Nyssa's back when she found her girlfriend sitting outside the forge alone.

"Hi," Nyssa said. "I needed to take a breather."

"Is there still a lot of smoke in there?" Lacy asked.

Nyssa nodded and tugged at her hair. There was more of it than Lacy had ever seen. Nyssa was slipping, she wasn't taking care of herself.

"I can't believe the entire mast collapsed," Nyssa said. "That makes no sense. That's such a big set back..."

"Hey, hey, hey," Lacy said. "You've had set backs before. You'll be okay."

Nyssa's tics were noticeable now. She was twisting her head to the side, her ear nearly touching her shoulder, and she was blinking a lot.

"Maybe we are cursed, Lacy," Nyssa said. "Maybe this is a message from... from... I don't know, but it has to mean something that everything I touch collapses, right?"

"Nyssa, that's not true," Lacy said.

"I've even ruined you," Nyssa said. Her head jerked to the side. "I've made you scared and small again, I've trapped you in something you don't want to be in."

"What are you talking about?" Lacy said. "I want to be with you."

"But you don't want to be living a lie," Nyssa said. "And that's what hurts the most."

Ironically enough, there were four Cabin-Ten birthdays on Valentine's Day (three if you counted Tim and Sorrell's as one). It was usually a pretty festive day in the cabin even for the single demigods, but today Lacy felt miserable.

Since the war, couples had come as clingy as possible at camp. Lacy understood why- it was because now they all knew how easy it would be to lose each other. She understood. But it made her miserable to see them all walking around, glued at the hip, or exchanging little gifts or making out in totally inappropriate places as if Valentine's Day meant that everyone wanted to see just how far your tongue could go... She felt like some kind of demonic Cupid Grinch, and when Nico di Angelo appeared in the mess hall, realised it was Valentine's Day and shadow-traveled out of camp, Lacy understood. Part of her wished he'd taken her with him, because the mess hall was worst.

People were usually ultra strict on the seating arrangements during meals, but since Annabeth and Percy had started sitting together a few years ago, it had become a widely acceptable risk for couples to take. As a result, Lacy was squashed between Jason, her sister Piper's boyfriend, and her sister Rhiannon, who was chatting up a storm with her latest conquest Marc from Cabin 4. She wanted to scream, but everybody else was excited about these impromptu guests here and there.

Lacy felt like a swarm of bees was buzzing under her skin, each cheesy, smushy smile a new flutter and each easy, fearless kiss a new sting. The couples around her were overwhelming until...

Until she realised that this was all jealousy and loneliness in a crowded room.

Until she digested the fact that nobody could always make everybody happy.

Until she realised that this was a curse they were bringing onto themselves.

Until she decided that secrecy was too closely knit with shame for it to be anywhere near her relationship.

Until she realised that this was tightrope-crossing and eggshell-cracking for everyone's sake but hers.

Until she remembered how Saint Valentine was famous for marrying roman soldiers before they reached the legal rank, proclaiming that love knew no law and order and that lovers should know each other.

Until she realised that this fight was dumb, that Silena and Beckendorf would've wanted a fight for love not righteousness, and that she was only part of the problem now.

Until Lacy got up.

If these people had the liberty to rub their love in her face, then damn right she got to pick where hers went.

"Fuck it!" Lacy said, more loudly than she'd expected. But Lacy didn't notice that or the accompanying stares. She dropped her fork and spun around to look at Nyssa.

"I don't care," Lacy said. "I don't care what people think, I don't care what people want and I don't care what they believe to make themselves feel better. I care about you and I always have adn that should have been enough for me from the start. I'm an idiot and I hope that's your type!"

Lacy crossed the distance between their tables. Nyssa got up uneasily and when they met, Lacy threw her arms around her neck and burried her face in Nyssa's hair. Nyssa hugged her back awkwardly, but when Lacy pulled away, the kiss... the kiss was anything but.

The resulting round of applause and cheer was rather unanimously positive.

"At least we know we have a place to sleep if our cabins kick us out," Nyssa said once they pulled away.

"We'll make them keep us," Lacy said quietly, nestling against her shoulder.

"If not, I've got you," Nyssa said kissing Lacy's hair.

My lover's got humour

She's the giggle at a funeral

Knows everybody's disapproval

I should've worshipped her sooner.

-Take me To Church, Hozier