****One week later****

Lexi POV:

Connor's fist flies at me but I dodge it and slap him upside the head. Literally.

"Oh come on Lexi!" He says, exasperated.

"You were the one who wanted to spar with me." I smirk.

"Yeah I thought I was going to be sparring with you, not freaking Black Widow!" He says panting, resting his hands on his knees.

"I did learn from the best." I smile and tackle him, pinning him to the ground. "Rule 1, never let your guard down."

"Ha ha, now let me up." Connor says, his voice vibrating my knee against his chest.

"Fine, you are really sweaty anyway." I say and get off of him.

"Really? Lexi come here I want a hug," He says, his voice sparkling with mischief.

"Oh no you don't!!" I yell as he chases me around the training arena, his arms wide open trying to embrace me in his sweaty mess. He eventually catches me and spins me around, the two of us laughing our hearts away.

"Ewwww! You're all nasty!" I exclaim, still laughing. "Now I need a shower."

"Under one condition Lexi." He teases, kissing my forehead. "You finally show me how you shoot so well."

"Fine." I smirk, kissing his cheek. "But just so you know, I'm awful at archery and you know it."

And then he gives me the "seriously" face and lets me go. "You know you almost out shot Barton during training. You would have at least tied him if he didn't distract you!"

I laugh and start setting up targets. "Yeah, that was a fun day." I sigh. "I'm surprised you were still around to notice. I thought you were with Owen and his gang by then."

Connor tenses beside me as I secure the last target.

"I really am sorry about that. I never realized I was pushing you away." He says, looking down.

I sadly smile. "It's not your fault. You were just trying to fit into SHIELD. It's a natural human instinct. Plus, I've forgiven you for that." He smiles and wraps his arms around me. I hang my hands around his neck and realize how much the two of us have changed since we were last in Camp. Scratch that, how much he's changed since we were last here. I'm still unattractive me. He's much more muscular than he used to be and we both grew a little too. He's a little tan from the last week under the sun, making his gray eyes pop.

"I don't deserve you." He says looking down. My head snaps up toward him in shock.

"Don't you dare say that again." I tell him sternly. "Don't you dare do that to yourself. I'm probably the one who doesn't deserve you. I'm not pretty, I'm small, I'm w-" I say, but he silences me with a kiss, effectively shutting me up. Our lips move in sync and we pull away too soon. Our foreheads and noses touching.

"Fine, you aren't pretty." He says. "You're beautiful, smart, funny, caring, and can kick ass when you need to. And I would bet my life on you, because I love you."

I blush, the heat rising to my cheeks. I reach up and kiss him again, quicker this time but with the same intensity. "I love you too."

"What is this a makeout session or training?" Some annoying voice says.

We look toward to the voice only to find Aaron, the camper that yelled in my face when we arrived in camp. He's a son of Hermes so I always feel bad for my friends in cabin eleven who have to deal with him.

"Why is it when we are having a moment, someone always has to come interrupt it?" Connor mumbles, shaking his head.

"What do you want Aaron." I groan, reluctantly pulling myself off of Connor and taking his hand to the shooting line.

"Well I was you know, going to lift some heavy weights." He says flexing his arms that don't even have an muscle. I roll my eyes. "And I was wondering if you wanted to watch Alexis."

"Yeah, I'm good." I say. I summon my bow and quiver, pulling an arrow out of it and aiming at the target all while showing Connor my stance. I try to ignore Aaron and I let the arrow fly, hitting dead center.

"Come on Alexis. You're such a babe! Why do you even hang out with this guy when you could get all of this?" Aaron says gesturing to himself.

Now he got me mad. With a flick of my wrist I send a spear of ice that whistles right by Aaron's face, embedding itself into the wall behind him. His eyes go wide and he gapes at the spear as I melt it.

I stand up straighter and glare at him. "You can insult me but don't you dare insult anyone I care about." I say my voice dripping with fury. "How dare you treat me like a trophy to put on the wall. Call me babe one more time and I won't miss."

His eyes are wide and he nods so quickly I thought his head would fall off and sprints away.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side." Connor says, trying to hold in laughter. We look at each other and burst out laughing. I clutch my sides and lean on one of the columns for support.

"No promises." I smirk and pick myself up. "Come on Aegis, let's finish up our training session."

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"Campers attention here!" Chiron calls out banging his hoof against something metal. His voice carrying throughout the entire body of demigods. "Capture the flag will begin in an hour! The teams are Cabins 3, 6, 10, 11, 13 and 14 versus Cabins 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, and 15. Standard rules apply! Dismissed."

The crowd slowly disperses as people go to get ready.

I turn to Percy he throws a celestial bronze chest-plate at me to put on. "So we are with the Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades and Iris cabins?"

"Yup, I think the Athena cabin has a plan." He responds.

I slip the chest-plate on and secure it. "When do they not have a plan?"

Percy snorts. "When spiders."

I laugh. "Great grammar there. I'm gonna go find Connor."

"So I'll see Lennor later then?" He asks.

"Excuse me?" I ask utterly confused.

"Please Lexi, you haven't noticed yet? Almost half the camp ships the two of you." I laugh and walk away.

"Never took you as the fanboy type." I say laughing.

"We became like that after we got the word." Percy says sadly. I stop walking as my heart clenches up, my smile fades and I turn around. Percy had stopped what he was doing and stared intensely at the ground.

"Percy..."I say. I had avoided this topic for the last week and was honestly hoping he wouldn't bring it up.

"Everyone though you were goners, we lit a shrine for the two for you two and everything. Do you know how hard that was for m-, for all of us?!" Percy says.

"You didn't deserve to do through all of that." I say, trying to stay strong as I start to walk back to Percy. "I completely understand why you are upset. But just know that it was hard for me too. I wanted to hold onto this place for as long as I could. But when Connor  and my supervising officer had just been compromised, I made it my sole mission to make sure they came back safely. No matter what the costs. Sending the death note to camp was one of those costs. The fact that I couldn't go to you guys for help, the fact that you had to think that I was dead hurt. It hurt a lot more than I thought it would to be honest. But it would hurt even more if one of you came looking for me and got caught in SHIELD business. I wouldn't be able to live with myself!" I hug Percy tightly and he does the same. "There are terrible people out there who are ten times worse than any monster we have ever faced."I whisper. " I can't let any of you get caught up with them."

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize how much it hurt you as well." He says as he pulls away. "Just next time let me know before you die."

I smile. "No promises Coral Face. Now let's go regroup and see what the Athena kids have as a plan."

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