1Angelo woke up to a throbbing pain in his head, a pain that he hadn’t felt in nearly three hundred years; a feeling so unfamiliar that he couldn’t even name it at first, only knowing that it was irritating him like anything. And that he was stiff and sore, and when he opened his eyes everything around him was dark and slightly red-tinted.

“What the...” He sat up, touching his fingers to his head gingerly. They came away wet with something that he couldn’t see for lack of light, and the feeling of irritation that came with pain increased. This darkness was infuriating, he thought, and then remembered that he could indeed remedy this easily.

So with this thought in mind Angelo snapped his fingers twice in rapid succession. A familiar rush of power burst through his hand and almost immediately his thumb was ablaze with a flame that was brighter than any fire of its size should be, lighting up half of what Angelo assumed to be a room.

He wasn’t wrong: it was a room, that was for sure, cluttered with all manners of furniture and knickknacks and odd keepsakes. Angelo was situated on a mattress whose springs had been sticking him uncomfortably in the back, supported only by the floor below it. The floor, now that he reached it in his survey, was speckled with red blotches that were probably of blood from his head. It was quite a lot of blood, too, he observed, once again touching his forehead to find the source of the sticky liquid. His fingers found a thin, raw gash half an inch above his eyebrow, one that most likely wouldn’t scar over if it was properly taken care of.

“Hello?” Angelo stood tentatively, finding his legs steady enough aside from the pins and needles in his left foot, and held his thumb out in front of him. To his right was a door, hinged on black metal and barred with the same sort of material. That it would be barred from the inside struck Angelo as odd, but this whole scenario was odd enough already in his eyes; what was a little more strangeness?

His steps brought him to the door and he pushed at it hesitantly, not surprised when it didn’t open. The fact that it was still barred might have had something to do with it, he mused as he found the bolt and pulled. It screeched with a sound like nails scraping down a chalkboard, making Angelo shudder in disgust, but gave in and slid back roughly. He brushed it off in favor of pushing at the door once again, and when it didn’t budge he leaned into the wood with his shoulder.

Still there was no result, not even when he backed up and threw himself bodily at the door in an attempt to open it. But then again, he reconsidered as he backed up again and took up a sideways stance, fourth time’s the charm. And having supernatural powers was a bonus too.

Angelo’s foot went crashing against the door in what had to be a beautiful side kick and the wood gave way, the door swinging open with a rusty protest. And then he stopped, his foot still pulled into his body and balancing on one foot, and blinked. And blinked again, because maybe once wasn’t enough.

It was bright compared to his formerly dark surroundings, late afternoon sunlight streaming cheerily in through the windows of the kitchen this room opened up onto. The walls were bright blue and the sheer curtains decorating the windows were a faint yellow, and an array of flowers sat on the counter next to the table in the center of the room.

And as if the utter positivity of the room needed to be balanced out, two teenaged boys sat at and on the table, radiating negativity in its purest form. Angelo recognized one immediately: the turquoise-eyed blond who was leaking malevolence from every pore was his elder brother, Alexos. The other one he didn’t know, a pale boy with radioactive green eyes and dark hair swept back in what could barely qualify as a ponytail.

Surprise faded to something akin to seething annoyance or pale rage and Angelo lowered his foot, his hands falling to his sides in clenched fists. “What happened.” There was no questioning tone in his voice when he spoke, his gaze darting from one boy to the other.

“I was, apparently...captured.” Alexos spat the last word at the boy sitting in the chair beside him. The boy was completely nonplussed, choosing to fix his stare on Angelo.

“That you were,” he said, leaning his cheek on his hand and addressing Alexos. That was when Angelo noticed the manacles about his brother’s left wrist, and something clicked. “You aren’t though, not yet.”

“What–?” Angelo began, lifting his hands to examine them. There was a flash of silver and then something clamped down around his wrists, tightening painfully until his skin turned red. Then the pain vanished and the clamps loosened, and Angelo found himself with two thick silver cuffs around his wrists, engraved with markings that he supposed he should be able to read. Stemming from the edge near his hand were two delicate chains that intertwined after maybe two feet of slack. His eyes followed the chain to the boy’s hand, held casually between slender fingers.

“And now you are,” he stated boredly, twirling the silver length around his own wrist. “Lucky you.”

“Do you know who you’re talking to?” Angelo snarled, bristling. Though it was kind of his fault for not realizing sooner that he was in trouble; how often did he visit Earth on his own time? Embarrassingly enough, quite often. “I–”

“Yes, yes, I know,” the boy said, waving a hand impatiently. Angelo’s jaw dropped incredulously; he’d never had anyone interrupt his before, and if they did they were generally set on fire. Natural instinct made the magic in his veins flare up and in response the cuffs tightened, squeezing his wrists painfully until he let the magic dissipate. “Angelo, son of Altaeus and Athena, Wielder of Some Magic I Don’t Care to Recall Now, thanks.”

“Wha–” Angelo’s brain was working furiously to process this new development. How exactly did this human know who he was?

“You’re the only one who takes a human form shorter than six feet, for starters,” the boy explained preemptively, almost like he’d read Angelo’s mind. “And the only one to have their human form end up differently than they’d have liked.”

“What?” This, again, was new; Angelo’s human form was supposed to be below six feet, that was true, but what else had happened differently?

“There’s a mirror over there, you know,” the boy pointed out, gesturing to a full length mirror propped up against the far wall, and Angelo glared for a moment before taking a careful step in its direction. When the boy only inclined his head in its direction Angel strode the rest of the way.

“Black?” Angelo cried in dismay. No, it wasn’t the blood that had stunned him; his hair wasn’t the designated white-blond he’d picked out. Instead it was midnight black, falling in messy spikes around his face and hanging just past his jaw in some places. When he met his own eyes they were an ethereal, glowing silver, not the green he’d wanted. The only improvement was that his skin wasn’t pale like the boy’s, but tanned evenly.

“Yes, Angelo, your hair is black.” This came from just behind him, and Angelo stifled a surprised yelp and turned sharply. The boy, who he could now see was only maybe a few centimeters taller than he, was watching with the faintest amusement laid on his face.

“You think this is funny?” Angelo cried, clutching at his hair with his bound hands. Admittedly it was nice and soft, but still–black. Could this get any worse?

“It is, actually, just a little bit,” Alexos put in. There was a trace of a smile on his face, directed at Angelo.

Angelo swept past the boy to stand against the wall, glaring at both his brother and his captor and the flowers on the counter. “I hate you,” he murmured softly, his eyes on the boy. He was still by the mirror, far away enough for Angelo to be sure he hadn’t heard.

“Jace,” the boy said, and Angelo raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“His name is Jace, you idiot,” Alexos clarified as if it was obvious, which it really was. But Angelo couldn’t be expected to know that, honestly.

“I don’t care,” Angelo retorted rather childishly, crossing his arms. “But I’ll tell you what I care about: I care about going home, so I don’t have to spend any more time here than necessary.”

“If you count until I die as more time than necessary, you’re a little screwed.” The boy–Jace, now–shrugged nonchalantly.

“What are you talking about?” Angelo asked, scowling heavily. Alexos sighed, deciding to elaborate.

“He called us down here as something of bodyguards. Apparently some other demigod has taken an interest in him and sent Elistor and Evanna down to stalk him or kill him or drag him to some other end,” Alexos explained, slumping slightly. Angelo could tell he had adjusted, resigned to his fate. “So hence, us.”

‘Are you kidding me?’ crossed Angelo’s mind, but before he could open his mouth and voice his thoughts Jace cut in. Again with the interruption; Angelo got the feeling that this was going to be the norm for quite a while.

“No, I’m not kidding. And right now–” Jace got up and made for the door near the sink “–I’m going to test this out. See what happens, y’know?”

Alexos simply got up and followed, but it took several yanks of the chain to drag Angelo into the doorway after Jace. The green-eyed boy walked a few feet into the grass and turned in a circle, holding up a hand to stop the two demigods from exiting the house. Soon enough Angelo saw why; Elistor and Evanna, two redheaded demigods, appeared from the other side of the house.

“Outside all by yourself, Jacey?” Elistor hissed silkily, dark eyes narrowing as he stopped just short of Jace. Evanna took the initiative, stepping into Jace’s personal space to twine her arms around his neck.

“Your mother never told you to watch out for strangers?” she purred into his ear. Jace remained stoic, but lowered his hand slowly.

Angelo had never liked Elistor and Evanna in the first place; they were deceitful and dishonest and all too touchy, and on top of that they just rubbed him the wrong way. Literally. So depriving them of something–anything–was enjoyable.

“I see Erielle let you off your leashes, then,” Angelo remarked casually, sauntering out of the doorway. Sometime during their arrival the chains had vanished, but the cuffs still remained, which saved Angelo some dignity.

“Although humans aren’t very high on the list of things to do, are they?” Alexos returned just as smoothly, raising a blond eyebrow.

The first hint of real expression settled in form of a small, satisfied smile on Jace’s lips as Evanna and Elistor retreated a few feet. Angelo stopped next to Jace and Alexos stood on his other side, flanking him dutifully.

“Evanna, Elistor, I’d like you to meet Angelo and Alexos...Though I’m sure you’re already acquainted,” Jace added thoughtfully, registering the disdainful expressions on the redheads faces correctly. “I think you’d like to know that they’ll be here for quite a while. So you might want to watch your back, hmm?”

“Sinking so low?” Elistor sneered tauntingly. “I would have thought you’d stand on your own, Jacey.”

Jace gave a dark chuckle that made Angelo want to ask if there was psychosis in his family history. “It was put up or shut up,” he responded, tilting his head. “And I put up.”

With that he turned and trotted back into the house, leaving the kitchen door open. Elistor turned on his heel and left, followed closely by a fuming Evanna. Angelo flashed Alexos a grin and loped back into the house, his brother coming along at a more subdued pace.

Jace was leaning against the wall, watching them contemplatively as Angelo talked.

“Do you know how much I hate them?” Angelo paced back and forth, still grinning although his eyes blazed. Alexos listened, bemused, while Angelo ranted. “I’m not doing this for you, you–” the cuffs tightened warningly and he began on a new note. “–not for you, but because I absolutely despise Evanna and her tactile disorders and Elistor’s stupid voice! It irritates me to no end, I swear, and Erielle–oh, I’m not even going to start...But Evanna! She is the bane of my existence, d’you know, and she used to follow me everywhere when we were little, like she was stalking me or something until I blew her off, and now she hates me, which is odd because not a lot of people hate me although they really do have good reason to, I know that much–and she’s devoted her life to making mine awfully miserable and suchlike but it doesn’t really work, I just end up pissed off, which isn’t so bad, I suppose–”

“You’re rambling,” Jace noted offhandedly.

“No, I’m not,” Angelo countered defensively. “I’m just listing things, that’s all.”

“You only took two breaths during that genocide of the English language,” he pointed out, tilting his head again. Angelo frowned.

“So what? That doesn’t mean I’m rambling, it just means I don’t need to breathe a lot, that’s all,” he said.

“You’re going to have to learn to breathe normally, then, unless you want the school nurse performing CPR on you your first day,” Jace told him, ambling away toward yet another door. Angelo’s jaw collided painfully with the floor once again and Jace stopped, looking back over his shoulder.

“Oh, I haven’t told you yet, have I?” An almost malicious grin crossed his face and Angelo did shudder this time. “You’re going to school with me tomorrow. What fun.”

“Wait!” Angelo found his voice again, trying to digest this information. School? Tomorrow? A million questions were lined up, but all he could come up with was “Where are you going?”

“Bed,” Jace replied, raising a hand to point around the corner. “Your room is down this hall, first door on your right. Mine is across the hall and his is next to yours.” He gestured to Alexos briefly before giving Angelo a sort-of wave and rounding the corner.

“What kind of human sleeps at..” Angelo stopped, squinting at the clock over the window. “Six in the afternoon?”

“The kind that manages to capture A-class demigods and drive off E-class ones in the same day,” Alexos answered.

Angelo sighed, slumping against the table defeatedly. “I don’t know how he did it, though,” he admitted. “You have to be pretty powerful to do that.”

“Or just clever,” Alexos offered, patting Angelo on the back as he crossed the room.

Angelo looked up, twisting around to see Alexos rounding the same corner Jace had gone around just minutes before. “Where are you going?”

“We did get captured today,” Alexos reminded him gently. “And I’m tired as it is. On top of that we have school tomorrow...I think I just want to forget about all this until tomorrow morning. Don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Angelo said quietly, absorbing these words even after Alexos had gone. He felt exhausted suddenly; the cuffs on his wrists were heavy and daunting, and every bone in his body ached for reprieve.

Sleep didn’t sound so unreasonable now.

» «

Angelo woke the next morning with no recollection of how he had gotten where he was; tangled in a green comforter in a large bed, face buried in a pillow that smelled of something vaguely familiar. Overhead a fan spun silently, blowing his dark fringe away from his face.

The cool air made his mind open up, made him realize again what kind of situation he was in. Captured, on earth...by a human, no less, and forget the fact that he could hardly be older than Angelo’s human form. It was embarrassing, but...Already Angelo found himself adjusting, coming to terms with the fact that it wasn’t so bad. Like home, but actually with more commodities. More room for mischief, more fun options. Less of semigods ordering you around, less scheduling and less being expected to live up to your rank.

It wouldn’t be that bad.

With that thought line processed, he sat up slowly, groggily, wondering exactly why he’d woken up. There was no one in the room with him, the window was shut. So it must have been something outside the room, then, something that Angelo was now listening for.

The source of noise came in the form of a thud and a pained expletive from across the hall, where he remembered Jace’s room to be. Still half-asleep, Angelo extracted himself from the covers and padded across the hall, the carpet warm underneath his bare feet.

He pushed the door open a crack and was blinded by fluorescent light; Jace was obviously awake. So it was him who’d been making noise; Angelo had been expected to be woken by Alexos insisting that he would be late for school at seven, not by Jace cursing at six-thirty.

A brief flash of anger flared up in his subconscious, a resentment at having his freedom so easily discarded. But when he reconsidered, Angelo couldn’t bring himself to be truly angry, just mildly irritated.

Angelo opened the door fully and stepped inside, squinting at the floor to avoid the bright light from the ceiling, and found Jace to be in his range of vision. Pushing himself off the floor, Jace stood and jumped when he finally noticed Angelo in the doorway, looking amused.

“I was going to come wake you up in a minute, but...” he shrugged, instead offering a lopsided smile, and Angelo decided that Jace was probably one of those crazy morning people.

“S’okay,” Angelo yawned, and this seemed to remind Jace of something because he gave a little hop and darted to his closet.

“I just remembered that you need something to wear,” he said by way of explanation, balancing precariously on one foot as he rummaged through the closet. “We can go...ah, shopping...later in the day, but for now this is what you’re going to wear.”

He pulled several items of clothing out and tossed them at Angelo, who caught them surprisingly well for having just woken up.

“What?”

“Go get dressed,” Jace commanded distractedly, back in the closet again. “And if Alexos isn’t up by the time you’re done, wake him up too, will you?”

“Mmph.”

Angelo retreated back across the hall, kicking the door shut with his heel. He laid the clothes out on what was most likely his bed, wondering exactly how and why Jace had clothes in his size available, and examined them. There was a form-fitting black shirt with elbow-length sleeves and another shirt, this one white with long sleeves that probably went under it. Then was a pair of dark jeans, followed by a pair of shoes of a brand that Angelo couldn’t place.

All in all, Angelo mused as he dressed himself, Jace’s sense of fashion was alright. Not good, or nice, but not nonexistant. And, he remembered as he bent to tie the laces on his shoes, Alexos would probably appreciate that. His brother had always been picky about what he wore, no matter where it came from or who picked it out.

When he was finished he left his room, going to the door next to his and knocking. Alexos’ voice came from inside, sounding fully awake and ready.

“I’m coming!” Alexos called. “You take so long to get ready, Angel. It’s seven o’clock now, you know.” He flung the door open, greeting Angelo with a grin, and stepped past him into the kitchen.

“It’s been a while since you called me that,” Angelo remarked, not even bothering to go the distance to the table and instead sitting down on the floor, reclining against the wall. The sun wasn’t up yet and the world outside the window was silvery-gray and cool, a layer of fine mist coating the windowpane.

“Called you what?” Alexos asked absently, his own gaze directed out the window.

“Angel.”

Alexos was silent for a moment. Then he gave a half-smile, turning to Angelo. “I guess it was since you always told me not to call you that. And then when you said you didn’t care about it anymore, I guess it just kind of skipped my mind.”

“It’s fine,” Angelo assured him, returning the smile. “As long as Jace doesn’t get it in his head to give me some stupid nickname, it’s fine.”

Alexos nodded and returned to his window-watching. Angelo had always envied the way his brother seemed to be able to just shut out the world at a moment’s notice; to retreat back into the depths of himself to look out of the world from a different point of view.

“Actually, I wasn’t thinking about that.” Jace appeared in the kitchen, attired in loose blue jeans and a dark hoodie, and strode to the fridge. “But now that you mention it, I suppose I can’t just call you ‘you’ all the time.”

“Are you serious?” Angelo groaned, letting his head fall back against the wall. “It’s too early for annoying nicknames. Or for me to get pissed off at annoying nicknames. That’s why I haven’t attempted to take your head off yet.” He wasn’t serious, of course, but Jace didn’t have to know that.

“Mmhmm,” Jace said unattentively, still looking through the fridge. “Toast?”

“Well, what I’d really like is your head on a platter, but since I can’t have that, toast sounds fine,”Alexos said, foaming sarcasm at the mouth. Angelo rolled his eyes, but Jace didn’t seem to notice or care.

“I think you do need a nickname,” Jace said, changing the subject in an offhand way.

“Nickname is a weird word,” Alexos observed absently, putting in his two bits, and then proceeded to zone out.

“I don’t suppose I could choose my own nickname, now?” Angelo asked dryly. Jace pretended to consider this, popping slices of bread into the toaster before replying.

“No,” was the answer, as predicted. “But I’m thinking of something.”

“Oh, hurray,” he replied, closing his eyes.

For the next ten minutes the kitchen was voiceless, the only sounds being Jace making countless amounts of toast in a somewhat robotic way. Angelo lost count of how many times he heard the cabinets open and close, settling to think that Jace must really like toast. Or have a dog that really liked toast, but either way that was still a lot.

“Nope,” Jace said suddenly, breaking the silence. Angelo’s eyes opened and he saw that Jace was addressing the toast as he buttered it. This was quite an odd way to become familiar with your food, he thought, but then Jace spoke again.

“Because I can’t think of anything right now,” he added, glancing briefly out the window before returning to his task. Outside it was still dark, this time not because of the position of the sun but because of the dark rain clouds looming overhead, threatening the world with a downpour.

“...Right.” Angelo nodded dubiously, looking away and making a face. This guy was definitely weird. Not just because he couldn’t think of a nickname, or because he’d been talking to his toast, but just because–well, he seemed weird.

“Now, really, what I’m thinking is that since you both share all my classes you shouldn’t get into all that much trouble, right?” Jace switched subjects so fast that Angelo was slightly stunned, tilting his head in confusion. “But I need to lay down a few ground rules, mmkay?”

“‘Kay?...” Angelo frowned; did Jace think he was an idiot? He could take care of himself perfectly well, thank you very much (although the nasty voice in his head was hissing ‘How did you get captured, then?’) and it was degrading that he thought otherwise. He was an A-rank demigod! You can’t expect someone of that calibur to just bow down to a set of rules, imposed by a human no less.

Jace rapped his knuckles against the countertop in a way that had to be painful, dragging Angelo away from his indignant thoughts. “Pay attention. Number one: you are not to say a word about demigods, semigods, regular gods, supernatural powers, abilities, and–” here he stopped to consider this past statement “–or mythology of any kind unless asked by a teacher. Number two: no use of said supernatural abilities in the hallways, because firstly you’ll be setting yourself on fire in front of a million-and-one-plus student body, and then the bonds will reappear and I’ll be screwed over for enslaving people.”

“That’s illegal?” Angelo asked, interrupting. Jace sighed, tilted his head back and rolled his eyes, all synonymously in a way that had quite the effect on Angelo (who thought that just looked awkward.)

“Yes, Angelo, almost everywhere on earth and if you say ‘where’ I will kill you,” Jace added, interpreting Angelo’s intentions. The demigod gaped mock-innocently, gazing at Jace with wide eyes. He sighed again, still speaking to the ceiling, and continued. “So don’t do anything stupid.”

“Maybe they’d just think you were into whips and chains and that sort of human thing,” Angelo suggested with a shrug, raising an eyebrow at Jace in an ‘I dare you to say something to that’ fashion.

“No thanks,” Jace returned, pointing a finger in Angelo’s direction. How he knew where this was, Angelo had no idea. “Although if you really wanted...” his head bobbed slightly, black hair swinging loosely, and Angelo could tell he was smirking. “I’m sure I can find a whip somewhere...”

“I’d rather not,” Angelo replied, shaking his head firmly.

“And I’d rather not hear your flirting, but I’m still subjected to it, am I not?” Alexos sighed, suddenly returning to the world of the living. “And I’m out of half of your classes, Jace, so that’s a problem.”

“How did you even find that out?” Jace sighed, realizing that it was true. He decided to ignore the flirting comment. “That means you’ll have to have Luke take you around, I suppose.”

“Does he know?” Alexos asked, lifting his bound hand demonstratively.

“He knows, which reminds me that he’ll be here soon because he knew that your schedule was different from mine, and we can’t really get it changed since we’re already into the year.” Jace sighed again, and Angelo began to wonder if he had some sort of breathing disorder. “But you’ll be fine with him. He’s okay.”

“I don’t even know him. How am I supposed to believe you?” Alexos tilted his head skyward as if pleading to the upper gods for some form of sanity. “For all I know he’s been sent to kill me.”

“He was the one who originally told me how to summon you,” Jace told him, finally directing his gaze at the blond boy. “And he’s got a demigod of his own, because he had to summon an example for me. Her name’s Terseia, I think. You might know her.”

Alexos had paled and buried his face in his hands, groaning loudly. “Please tell me she’s not coming here,” he implored.

“She’s not coming here,” Jace repeated mildly. “Why?”

“Don’t even ask...” Alexos sighed.

“Why...” Jace started, but Alexos’ head snapped up abruptly and his eyes narrowed.

“Who’s at the door?” he snapped, sliding off of the table and striding past Jace. “If it’s Evanna this early in the morning I’ll kick her–”

“Language, Alexos!” Angelo called lightly, speaking over Alexos’ curses.

“Whatever,” he called back, and Angelo pulled himself up off the floor and ambled after Jace, who was standing just behind Alexos as he opened the door.

Standing there, looking vaguely irritated but awake, was a lanky redhead even taller than Jace, blue-eyed and freckled and scowling. Alexos did have to look up to him by just a bit, but held his own with an equally heavy scowl.

“Who’re you?” Alexos demanded, narrowing his eyes at the teen.

“Who needs to know?” he snapped back, glaring.

Angelo could practically see the violence coagulating in the air and moved to jab Alexos in the arm, giving his brother a ‘calm down, you idiot’ look. Alexos just scrunched up his nose, complying.

“Guys!” Jace stepped between the two, holding his hands out placatingly. Alexos glanced at Jace and crossed his arms, holding the redhead’s gaze unblinkingly. “Luke, this is Alexos. Alexos, Luke.”

“I have a feeling today won’t be the best day ever,” Angelo spoke up. Luke tilted his head, looking down at him.

“This is the other one, then?” Luke looked mildly proud as he turned his eyes to Jace. “So you actually did summon two. I thought you were just kidding.”

“Yeah...but they’re a handful, if you’d believe it,” Jace replied dryly, rolling his eyes.

“I have a name, y’know,” Angelo added, annoyed at being spoken of like he wasn’t there.

“Angelo, right?” Luke asked. “Well, you’ll have a better day than I will, most likely. Jace had your schedule, so you’re not going to be stuck with some kid who, so far, looks like a complete pansy-ass.”

Alexos snarled and tackled Luke out of the doorway, both landing in a flurry of punches. Angelo looked at Jace, his concern increasing a tad as someone yelped.

“If you loosen the magic binding the cuffs I can get them apart,” he offered, shrugging and spreading his arms. Jace debated this for a moment, but soon enough the chains soon appeared again and the magic laced into the cuffs receded enough for Angelo’s own magic to seep through without being stopped completely.

Angelo grinned, feeling some of his strength return to his arms, and bounced cheerily to where Luke had Alexos pinned and Alexos was doing his best to bite Luke’s fingers off, and arrangement that so far had them at a standoff. This Angelo quickly remedied by seizing both teens by their collars and hauling them upright (The effect was slightly ruined by the fact that he was shorter than both of them, so Angelo was simply pulling them to their feet). Luke was glaring and Alexos was looking mortified at being held back by his little brother.

“Nice job,” Jace commented, taking Luke from Angelo and holding him firmly by an arm. He turned to face the redhead and the blonde, speaking to both. “Both of you are acting like two-year-olds,” here Jace’s tone turned menacing, “ And if you don’t behave I’ll kill you both. Understand?”

Alexos’ response was a typical “Whatever”. Luke just rolled his eyes and deadpanned, “Yes, mother dear.”

Jace sighed for the fourth time yet and Angelo was beginning to think that maybe the lung disease theory was valid. “Look, you two, I don’t want to end up with you suspended and me one demigod short at the end of the day. Just...stay in line, will you?”

“So are we taking the bus?” Angelo put in, tilting his head inquisitively.

“Why?” Jace raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

“One just pulled up there,” he said, gesturing, and Jace darted back inside the house.

“What was that?” Angelo asked, staring through the doorway to see where he’d gone. That question was soon answered as Jace came jogging back, a worn blue backpack slung over his shoulder and two newer red ones in his hand. Those were both empty in comparison to Jace’s.

“Backpacks,” Jace explained, handing one off to both demigods. “We are taking the bus, thanks for reminding me, and we don’t want to be late so let’s go.”

“Late?” Angelo’s one-word response was hurried as he dashed after Jace, who’d taken off to the bus with Luke and Alexos following at a fast trot.

Once on the bus Jace led them past the rest of the inquisitive students to the back bench, passing one face that Angelo knew all too well. Immediately, since Alexos hadn’t seemed to notice, he reached forwards and clapped his hands over his brother’s ears. Alexos jerked, but Angelo simply twitched his elbow at the slender, blue-eyed strawberry-blonde girl sitting in the seat in front of the one Luke had chosen for himself and Alexos.

Alexos paled then, response identical to the one he’d had when Jace first mentioned Luke’s demigod. He tended to avoid Terseia when he could, and to leave as quickly as possible when he couldn’t. This stemmed from a rather large problem that kept him as far away from her as possible.

“Alexos,” Terseia said warmly as he stepped past her, and the blonde clapped his own hands over his ears, releasing Angelo’s hands, and began talking under his breath. “Guess who it is now? It’s–”

“Terseia!” Angelo exclaimed loudly, sliding into his seat beside Jace, across the aisle and one seat back. Her eyes narrowed into a displeased glare before softening, a parody of a happy smile coming across her face. “It hasn’t been long enough, has it?”

“Angelo,” she replied, nodding her head in acknowledgment. “No, it hasn’t. So how’s Alexos been doing? Still...” Her smile was malicious now in a way that made Angelo worry for his brother. “...single?”

Angelo couldn’t lie about that, to his disappointment. He knew Alexos couldn’t fake a relationship to save his life. “Unfortunately so.”

Jace’s voice came from beside him, and Angelo raised his eyebrow but stared, unblinkingly, at Terseia. “What, Jace?”

“What’s wrong?” he asked. Angelo shook his head minutely.

“Later,” he said, and Terseia caught the obedience in his tone.

“Tamed now, Angelo?” she asked, sounding satisfied. “I thought you’d be above that.”

“If you haven’t forgotten, so are you,” Angelo said dryly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at her slip-up. “I thought you’d be above memory loss.”

Terseia’s cheeks flushed a faint pink, but she held her head high. “But Alexos’ memory is fine, is it not?” Her voice lowered and she leaned closer conspiratorially, in such a way that Angelo was forced to move closer to hear her. “Today might be a rough day for him, I think.”

Both of their eyes flicked to the blonde boy simultaneously. He was unusually emotional; his feeling written plainly across his face in a way they never were unless he was being affected by his curse.

Terseia was proud of this curse, Angelo could tell; she knew Alexos’ major weakness was his feelings, and in cursing him with this emotional amplification she’d nearly crushed him at first. But when Terseia had been restrained by a radius of one hundred feet (the range she needed to be within for the curse to work) Alexos had slowly gotten over his plight and, instead of returning to his normal self, he’d withdrawn almost all emotion except the basest feelings.

“Leave him alone, Terseia,” Angelo growled. “You’re killing him already, can’t you see that?”

“He’s in all my classes,” she said, almost casually. “And he broke my heart; I was tortured for nearly two centuries. Don’t you think eight hours at a time is fair retribution?”

Angelo could see her reasoning; Alexos had told her when they were younger, barely a century past maturity, that he loved her like a sister and nothing else. And for all those hundred years that was all Terseia had wanted; she followed him like a lovesick puppy, and when he rejected her she subjected him to the way she felt. Now that the distance between them was hardly a foot the turmoil Alexos was experiencing was increased tenfold.

“He can’t choose who he loves,” Angelo returned quietly, and at once they both broke eye contact for the last time and went about acting normal.

“Angelo.”

The aforementioned snapped his head sideways to give his attention to Jace, who was looking down at him inquisitively.

“Are you going to tell me what problem you two are going to have?” he asked, leaving no room for a negative answer. Angelo sighed, pressing his head against the blue pleather of the seat in front of him.

“Alexos,” he said, glancing at Jace out of the corner of his eye. When the human didn’t seem to comprehend Angelo elaborated. “She cursed him. See how he’s acting?”

Jace sat up, looking over Angelo’s hunched back to see Alexos turning pink, scowling at something Luke had said. He frowned, remembering that he hadn’t been anything like this earlier. “Yeah. She made him overly emotional?”

“In the worst way,” Angelo said dully, frowning. “It’s like having everything you feel amplified a hundred times over in the first place, and since he’s so close to her right now it’s probably like being completely overwhelmed by any little thing.”

Jace made a face, looking back at Alexos. “So that explains why he’s all red in the face?”

Angelo turned too, and to his mild surprise, Alexos was bright red. Luke was looking triumphant next to him, saying something lowly so that Angelo couldn’t hear.

“Uh...yeah, that probably does. Maybe Luke just said something weird,” Angelo suggested, but he had no real way of knowing. But the overwhelming evidence was there; his brother was blushing like an idiot while talking to someone, acting shy and quiet. Classic symptoms of a crush, no matter how amplified the emotion was. That was the only rule; those emotions had to exist in the first place to be amplified, so that meant...

But Alexos was talking with Luke. Who was a guy. And Alexos was also a guy. Angelo had no problem with that part; if his brother batted for the other team, he’d support him all the way; but he didn’t know if their mother would. She’d never been very supportive of anything her sons did, and something like this would only alienate them from her even further.

“‘Lexos!” Angelo hissed across the aisle, leaning out of his seat. Alexos glanced his way, face still a red that faded a tad as he turned his attention to his brother, and scowled.

“What?”

“Are you alright?” Angelo asked. Alexos looked confused for a moment before his scowl deepened and he shook his head emphatically.

“Yes!” he hissed right back. “I’m fine!”

“You sure don’t look fine,” Angelo prodded, this time more teasing than interrogating. If Alexos was okay enough to debate his okayness, he was fine. So that meant Angelo could fulfill his role as a brother and do what brothers did. “You look kind of..flushed.”

“Which means absolutely nothing,” Alexos said vehemently. “Luke just said something odd–”

“So he’s Luke now?” Angelo interjected, purposely pressing buttons now. He knew Alexos could keep himself somewhat under the bit of control he had left, and if he did explode it would be at Angelo.

“Yes! And I reacted in kind. Now be quiet, Angelo, or I will hurt you,” Alexos snapped, turquoise eyes burning bright. Angelo held his hands up and sat back in his seat, leaving Alexos to talk with Luke again. But when he deemed it safe to look again he did; and Alexos was blushing once again. When his brother caught his eye Alexos glared and made a tiny spinning motion with his finger to tell Angelo to turn around. Which Angelo did, snickering.

“Luke has quite the effect on him, hmm?” Jace observed casually, raising his eyebrows. Angelo nodded, shrugging.

“I suppose so,” he responded, tipping his head side to side. “I don’t think he’s had much experience with humans and their personalities in general, so being able to feel anything much while talking with them is new for him.”

“And you?” Jace queried. Angelo shrugged.

“I’ve come down here often,” he explained. “Enough to pass as one myself.”

Jace gave Angelo a once-over and shook his head. “Humans aren’t as perfectly built as you,” he said, “not without plastic surgery. You’re too flawless to be human.”

“I don’t know whether I should be flattered or offended,” Angelo remarked dryly, rolling his eyes. “What was I supposed to do, voluntarily give myself some sort of odd defect like crooked teeth or...or,” he fished around for something worse than crooked teeth, “freckles? How crazy do you think I am?”

Jace raised an eyebrow. Freckles weren’t that bad, and crooked teeth could be fixed. Not that Jace knew, because he had neither (his ‘odd defect’ was a bit of a speech impediment; he couldn’t pronounce the words ‘orange juice’ and ‘sixth’ correctly, and any sentence containing a word that ended in a ‘–sh’ and had a word beginning with an ‘–s’ right after it was definitely a problem.), but he’d rather have fixable, bad teeth than, say, short legs. Definitely unattractive.

“Very much so. But how crazy will everyone else think you are by the end of the day?” Jace asked, changing the topic subtly. Angelo sunk back into his seat, slightly irritated and daunted by the prospect of school.

“Crazy enough that I’ll get kicked out, hopefully,” he replied, crossing his arms.

Jace rolled his eyes. “You are such a child,” he said. Angelo snorted.

“A child who’s quite a bit older than you, might I remind you.”

“...Like I said, you are such a child.”

---

I absolutely had to have a fantasy story. I couldn’t help it.

These chapters will most likely be longer, unless they’re short (I promise nothing), so that means they’ll take longer to crank out. But I’m working.