Disclaimer:
The characters belong to Rick Riordan, as do the PJO and HoO series.

Written by:

@libraryhaunter
@AmAeRaI
@Chilea
@The__Crazy_Girl
@BrokenTimeTurner

               [☿cEciL☿]

Ever since the war with Gaea, Cecil couldn't seem to get Lou Ellen off of his mind. There was something different about that girl, something he needed to figure out. He couldn't focus on anything lately either; he had totally screwed up the other day at Capture the Flag, tripping on his own two feet when running for the flag. His siblings, who were very angry about the slip-up had been on to him ever since. He needed to learn how to deal with his thoughts and feelings before somebody figured out what was going on with him.

On the way to sword fighting, Connor noticed how uncommonly quiet his brother was. Suspicious, he nudged Cecil with his shoulder.

"Normally, I wouldn't question this, but why aren't you, ya know, talking five million miles a minute?" Connor asked. Cecil looked at his half brother with a hint of panic.

"No reason," he told Connor nervously.

Connor raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Why do you wanna know, anyway?" Cecil gave him a shove, more gently than if he was angry, harder than if he was joking. "I thought I annoyed you."

Connor rolled his eyes. "You annoy everyone all the time. I've gotten used to it. Speaking of which..."

Cecil knew what was going to come up next: the Capture the Flag slip up.

"I know that you always mess things up, but, really, Cecil? Even an Aphrodite kid could do better than that!"

Cecil felt a drop of sweat slide down his forehead. He didn't want to tell anyone about Lou Ellen, especially someone in the Hermes cabin. The word would spread like a Floridian wildfire. But his brother's words had hit a nerve. A small voice in his head said, He's right you know. You always mess up. What chance do you have with Lou Ellen?

Shut up, he told the voice.

"I was just having a hard day!" Cecil protested. "Can't you let me off the hook for once?"

Connor was about to respond, when Cecil quickly said, "Oh, look, there's Mirandaaaa!"

He smirked, knowing he'd lit a fuse. An obvious fuse actually, next to Percy and Annabeth, who were the most obvious people on camp when it came to how they felt about each other.

Connor groaned. "Why does everybody think I like her! I mean, she's so annoying and pushy and-"

Cecil held up a hand."Don't even go there, dear brother. I'm not stupid. You like her. Just admit it."

A moment of silence hung over them. Cecil knew he'd won this one. Connor was either going to fess up or change the topic quickly. Either way, the conversation would steer away from Cecil and the Capture the Flag incident.

Instead, Connor replied, "It's obvious you like somebody." Well, at least he'd changed the topic...

Cecil shook his head. "Um, no. I don't, actually."

Did he? Did Lou Ellen count? No, she doesn't, he reassured himself, I'm just curious, that's all.

Connor scoffed. "Yeah, whatever you say."

Cecil could hear shouts and screams coming from the arena as they neared it. Sword training had already started and shit was about to get real. Connor and Cecil ran inside the stadium, hoping no one would notice that they were late.

"You're late, again." Clarisse stood in the middle of the arena, spear in hand. Connor opened his mouth to make an excuse, but Clarisse shut him up.

"I don't wanna hear your lame excuses, punk. Just grab a sword and get in line."

The sons of Hermes took a sword each from the array of weapons and got in line.

"So, today we're gonna step up from those baby dummies and move on to  something more challenging-real people," Clarisse announced.

At this, some kids looked nervous, others smug, like they couldn't wait to start beating someone up. Those ones were mostly Ares kids.

Cecil glanced over at Lou Ellen and saw that she had the tiniest smirk on her face. Was she good at using a sword? Cecil couldn't remember if she had used a sword when they were battling the Romans. Instead she used this thing called a... Pigball? Yeah, she used a Pigball.

Clarisse cleared her throat and grabbed their attention again.

"I'm going to be pairing you up-"

There were loud groans, but the daughter of Ares slammed her spear into the ground, gaining silence.

"I know you punks want to choose your own partner, but in real life you don't get to choose who you fight, do you? Get used to it."

She pointed to an Iris guy.

"You there! You're paired with Clovis!"

Clovis opened his eyes alertly, and scanned his surroundings with clear panic.

The son of Iris sniggered. "He actually came today?"

"Shut it, princess," Clarisse told him.

"You know," one of her siblings told the son of Iris, "I'm surprised he actually got out of bed."

Once the two boys had walked off and begun their duel, Clarisse continued randomly pairing people up. A daughter of Aphrodite ended up with a son of Ares, a son of Apollo with a son of Hephaestus, and so on.

Please let me have a good partner, please, Dad, Cecil prayed. Hermes had to come through for him this one time.

"Cecil! You go with Lou Ellen!" Clarisse called out.

Cecil didn't know if he should be happy or scared, but he nodded and went to join the daughter of Hecate before Clarisse could change her mind.

Once the two of them found a good spot, Cecil stared at Lou Ellen awkwardly.

"So, uh-"

Lou Ellen interrupted Cecil with a swing of her sword.

Wow, she's better than I rememb-

Hey! Stop it.

Cecil quickly blocked the blow with his own sword, hoping he wouldn't trip or do something stupid. They kept fighting, swords clashing. Lou Ellen smirked, her green eyes glinting with mischief. The freckles on her nose danced with each facial expression change.

Why am I thinking about her face when I should be focusing?

Cecil began to feel that his balance was off, and that his sword was too heavy. Right about then Lou Ellen suddenly stopped fighting, and stood still. Cecil tilted his head.

That's strange. Why isn't she fighting me?

Then, like magic, his sword slipped out of his hands and appeared in his opponent's.

Of course, Cecil thought, groaning at his idiocy.

"Got ya!" Lou said victoriously, twirling his sword in her hand like a baton. She waved the two swords in the air, then pressed them against his throat, one to the back, one the front. "You lose. I win."

This probably counted as cheating or something but Cecil didn't mind actually. She was looking really nice at the moment, and the close proximity sped up his heart rate by about 100%.

I do like her, he realised, not knowing whether to be happy or dismayed.

At the moment, though, he didn't care. He stared at her, and, for a split second, she stared back.

"Hey! Lovebirds!" Clarisse yelled at them. "Stop acting all lovey-dovey and get on with your training!"

"What?!" Lou Ellen screamed. "We are not lovebirds, and we weren't acting lovey-dovey, you-"

Cecil covered her mouth before she could say anything stupid. Lou had a tendency to get out of hand when she lost her short temper.

"You wanna finish that sentence?" Clarisse yelled, storming over to them.

Pulling away Cecil's hand, Lou straightened up. "Oh, yes, I do, you ugly, war fighting, idiotic moron."

Several people "Oooh..."ed and started to place bets on the fight between the two girls.

Clarisse's face turned red. "Wimp. At least I know how to fight, unlike you prissy, wand twirling daughters of Hecate."

Lou Ellen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, let's see how prissy I am when I beat your ass."

The two girls looked ready to lunge at each other. Sensing the danger, Cecil scooted away, not sure how he should react to this. Probably go get Chiron? No, everybody would hate him even more for stopping the fight that way.

The tip of Clarisse's spear sparked with electricity, and Lou Ellen wrapped her sword in some incantation. Clarisse charged at her, aiming to hit her legs with the flat of her spear and knock her down. The spear went straight through Lou Ellen's legs like she was a ghost. She appeared right behind Clarisse, a beautiful smirk on her face.

"Missed me?" Lou asked.

Clarisse looked like she wanted to scream with frustration as she turned around and ran toward Lou Ellen again. At the last second, Lou Ellen disappeared, using the Mist to hide her. She reappeared in front of Cecil, who knew he should do something but was mesmerised by the sight of Lou with her hair and sword glinting in the sunlight, smiling at the furious daughter of Ares.

"You know," she called out, "You're not really such a challenging opponent."

Some people snickered, trying to hide it but failing.

Clarisse hated being laughed at.

"STOP BEING SUCH A WIMP AND COME AND FIGHT ME WITHOUT YOUR SMART TRICKS!"

Lou tsked. "Well, well, looks like somebody's lost their temper."

Cecil could've sworn he saw a bit of fire in Clarisse's eyes, but that could've been a trick of the light. He decided that he should probably get Chris, the only one who could calm her down. He ran out of the arena as fast as he could, which was actually pretty fast, being a son of Hermes and all.

He found Chris in front of the Big House talking to an ambassador from Camp Jupiter.

"Chris!" Cecil yelled at him, gaining their attention. "It's Clarisse! She got into a fight with Lou Ellen and she looks really, really mad-"

Chris sighed. "I'll talk to you later, Gwen."

Gwen nodded, giving the son of Hermes a quick, nervous smile, and Cecil grabbed Chris' wrist before he could react. The two brothers rushed toward the arena, where Lou Ellen had just appeared behind Clarisse, poking her on the shoulder. Chris dashed to Clarisse, almost having his stomach impaled by his girlfriend as she swung her spear around.

"It's me," he said reproachfully.

Clarisse looked at Chris and her gaze lost some of its intensity.  She shifted uncomfortably and muttered something like an apology.

Chris took her spear away and handed it to Cecil. Then he pulled her gently toward him, shaking his head slightly at Lou Ellen, who rolled her eyes but looked sheepish.

"You have to stop getting into these fights, you know."

Cecil thought it was probably the wrong time to point out that she was a daughter of Ares, and no way in Hades could she be stopped. Then again, before Chris, no one had been able to get her to calm down in the middle of a fight.

Then he remembered Lou. Hurrying over to her, he was greeted by a satisfied smile.

"Should we continue the session or what?" she asked.

"You're alright?" Cecil had almost thought she would have been dead and buried by then, considering Clarisse's anger.

"Ha! I've fought worse," she stated cockily, waving him away. "But hey, thanks for looking out for me."

She went to put their swords back  and began to leave.

"I'll see you around! Maybe we can duel sometime again or something!" She called as she went, leaving Cecil with a huge smile on his face.

"Are you going to leave it at that?" Chris smirked, who knew that he had a crush on Lou and wasn't going to let it go.

"Maybe," Cecil answered, his thoughts still on her.

.oOo.

Later that night after the campfire, Cecil was greeted by Connor in their cabin.

"Wasn't that fight epic, Cec?"

Cecil walked right past Connor, ignoring him.

"Cecil?"

He climbed into his bunk bed, his thoughts swimming around his head like minnows on steroids. The fight with Lou Ellen had definitely changed his thoughts on the daughter of Hecate. He couldn't get her face out of his head-the way her freckles looked like stars in the night sky, exactly how her hair curled slightly at the ends, the cute dimple that made her smile look a little lopsided. Cecil didn't want to admit it, but it was official: he liked Lou Ellen.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

.oOo.

"Hey," Cecil heard a voice which sounded suspiciously like Lou Ellen's whisper.. But he was probably still sleeping.

He felt someone shake him. "Wake up!"

Cecil opened his eyes to see Lou staring down at him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, amused.

"I want to train with you," she announced.

"Now?"

"No. Tomorrow. I just wanted to wake you up to remind you." Her tone dripped sarcasm. "Of course it's now!"

Cecil was suddenly aware that he probably had bed-hair and morning breath.

"Okay, just let me get ready."

He climbed out of bed and literally tip-toed to the bathroom, praying to the gods that his siblings wouldn't wake up.

If somebody woke up and saw that he was awake with Lou Ellen by his bed, it wouldn't be long until they put two and two together.

Oh gods, they might think the situation is way more..intense than it is.

Once Cecil got to the bathroom, he figured Lou would be extremely annoyed if he took a shower, so instead he just brushed his teeth while changing his clothes (when you're in an overflowing cabin, you gain some impressive skills). After he was dressed, he attempted to do something with his hair until he realized he was acting like an Aphrodite kid and left the bathroom.

Lou Ellen was waiting for him as he tiptoed out of the bathroom. They slipped outside.  An almost full moon peeked out from behind the clouds and Cecil struggled to concentrate on something besides the fact that the harpies might suddenly swoop down and eat them.

"Won't the harpies-"

"Hey," Lou whispered. "They won't, I altered the Mist so they can't see us." She grabbed his wrist. "C'mon."

"Okay..." Cecil tried not to concentrate on his wrist, where Lou was holding his hand, because he might blush and gods....that would be embarrassing.

They both tiptoed across camp to the arena and Cecil marveled at the silent night, only to start hearing forest noises of giant scorpions and other monsters as they walked past it. Lou, however, didn't notice seem to notice and continued to walk to the arena. She held herself with such certainty that he realized something: she had done this before.

It was dark too, but Lou concentrated, squeezing his hand hard as she did so, and a small flame appeared, glowing like a small ember.

"Cecil?" Lou Ellen asked, a serious look on her face.

Cecil felt his heart beat faster. "Yeah?"

"Can you not breathe so loudly?" Lou whispered.

He tried to steady his breathing, feeling himself blush. Great. I'm a walking mistake.

"Thanks."

Lou stepped inside the arena, Cecil in tow, trying not to look around, wondering where the harpies might be.

It was actually bigger than he thought it was, but then again, Cecil rarely went and only went when he had too-but it was crowded when he did. Lou let go of his wrist (sadly) and raised the small flame up in the air. The glow spread through the place.

"So, are you ready to fight me?" She asked him.

No, he wanted to say.

"Yes." He took the hilt of a sword and clutched the handle tightly.

"Don't grip it so tightly," Lou hissed, her grip on her own sword not tight, but loose.

"Why not?"

"You need to have a flexible grip so you move the sword more quickly. When you hold it like that, it's easy to disarm you." She made a movement, and the sword fell out of his hand.

He picked it up, this time holding the sword loosely. Lou laughed. "Not too loosely, or you'll drop it."

Cecil blushed again.

"Oh." He grabbed the sword a little bit tighter.

"Perfect. Now relax."

It was hard when he was near Lou, but Cecil took a deep breath and forced himself to relax.

"Now remember it's all in the wrist."

Connor had told Cecil that a million times, but it just seemed to sink in more when Lou told him.

"Okay, now attack me," she said.

Cecil tried an awkward slash, not wanting to hurt her. She deflected it with an annoyed expression.

"Come on! Don't be scared of hurting me."

This time Cecil gave his all. Their swords met in a glimpse of steel, their clashing sounding clearly in the night. Normally Cecil hated swordfighting, but for once he was actually enjoying it.

And in the blink of an eye, Lou ended it with a slash at his stomach.

"You're dead," she informed him.

Cerci rubbed his stomach. "I felt that."

Lou smiled at him. "Good work. You did a lot better than you did earlier today. You're not as clumsy as when there are people around you."

"Well, then, I must have an amazing teacher," he said, half sarcastically, half meaning it.

"I know."

He rolled his eyes. "One more time?"

Then the two demigods heard a nearby screech. They dropped their weapons and ducked.

"Harpies," Cecil said, looking at his companion.

Lou Ellen smiled guiltily. "Guess the Mist isn't feeling too flexible tonight. I must've been distracted while altering it.

He wondered what she'd been distracted by as she scanned the area, looking for somewhere to hide. "It's an open space! No place to hide!"

"Well, then. We have only one option: run." Cecil stood up.

"Okay." Lou held his hand and started to run with him.

The two of them ran out of the arena. There wasn't enough time to run to a cabin, so instead Lou found the perfect hiding spot: bushes. She nudged Cecil, and ran into the bushes, ignoring the pricks of the sharp leaves.

Cecil said, "You're good at finding hiding places."

"Well," Lou noted, "We would have been dead if it hadn't been for you."

Cecil couldn't help feeling happy no matter the circumstances. "Thanks. I liked to play tag as child."

Lou laughed silently. "Well, then the game saved our lives."

Cecil felt himself getting closer to Lou. Their faces only few inches apart. He wanted to kiss her so badly... but he was probably just going to mess that up too. Before he could even get a chance to do anything though, the two demigods heard a branch snap- a few feet away. Lou Ellen swiveled her head in that direction.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered.

Cecil nodded slowly and tried to control his ADHD. Don't move, don't move, don't move, FOR HADES' SAKE, DO NOT MOVE!

Lou was holding his hand too tightly but he probably wouldn't mind if she broke his circulation. I am so losing it.

Cecil noticed that for once, Lou Ellen actually looked worried. The skin between her eyebrows crinkled a bit, and she was nervously biting the nails on her free hand. Cecil though the habit was kinda cute.

"Hey," He whispered, trying to comfort her, "We're gonna leave this alive. Don't worry. Okay?"

"It's not the harmless harpies I'm worried about, it's getting caught!" Lou Ellen whispered. "I don't wanna do the dishes!"

He had to admit, she was right about that. And the dishes...so many dishes from dinner were floating through his mind.

Clean us up! they seemed to say.

"Listen, we need a plan to get out of here." Lou said.

Cecil shrugged. "Okay, then, let's just have me as bait and you run to the cabin."

"Are you kidding? Leave you as bait? As if!"

Cecil wished he was, but sadly, he wasn't. "No."

"That's a really un-Hermesy thing to do," Lou noted.

"Un-Hermesy?" He whispered, doing his best not to laugh.

"Yeah, un-Hermesy, you know..." Her voice drifted off, maybe from embarrassment at the lame insult. "Anyway, that's ridiculous, you are not gonna do that. You'll probably screw it up. Understood?"

Ouch. That hurt. He tried his best to ignore what she'd said.

"Do you have a better plan? C'mon, I'm waiting," Cecil hissed.

"Sure, I'll bend the Mist a little bit, to make us look like harpies, "she said."It won't last long so we'll have to be quick."

Quick?! That was, like, his middle name."Oh, yeah, I can definitely be quick. Quick is my middle name."

Lou Ellen scoffed. "Psh, Cecil Quick Markowitz? That's unfortunate."

"Well, what's yours, then?" he challenged.

"I don't have one because I have two names. Not everybody has a middle name, you know."

They heard another screech. Cecil almost jumped out of the bushes and started running like a lunatic.

Lou Ellen held up a finger. "Okay, then, on the count of one, two, three...go!"

Then they leaped out of the bushes and ran off toward the ring of cabins, fueled by adrenaline. Halfway there, Lou Ellen turned to look at the harpy, ran right into a pillar and crumpled to the ground. Cecil looked back and saw her unconscious on the ground. He silently prayed to his father, Please don't let us be spotted by harpies!

Hermes must've been out gambling or something because right at the moment one of the harpies turned around. She bared her fangs, which were dripping with blood. I hope that was a bunny, Cecil thought.

The harpy lunged at the two demigods, her screech piercing his ears. Lou Ellen's eyes fluttered open, but then they closed again. Cecil panicked. Here he was, no weapon and no protection, with an unconscious girl at his side, about to be eaten by a harpy. He could see his grave already: Here lies Cecil Markowitz, who was eaten by a crazy bird woman because he was stupid enough to break the rules. How lovely.

Cecil was about to give up on life when he saw a large branch lying on the ground. That must've been the branch we heard breaking earlier, he thought. He dashed for it, lifting the heavy thing up. It was no baseball bat like he was used to hitting with, but it was better than nothing. Cecil was extremely glad that his mom had pushed him to be in the Little League when he was nine. He had hated it then, but he was grateful now.

Who knew baseball could save your life?

Cecil held up the branch and got into a batter's position. He wasn't amazing at baseball, but he was pretty decent. But that didn't matter, he only had one shot at this. If he missed, then he was as good as a happy meal at McDonald's.

One strike and you're dead.

As soon as the harpy came dangerously close, Cecil swung the branch, praying to every god he knew; Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, even the Big-G God, that he would make this one shot. His and Lou Ellen's lives depended on it.

As soon as the branch made contact with the harpy, he heard a loud SNAP. The harpy screamed as dust flew everywhere, including Cecil's face, unfortunately. The crazy bird woman flew a few feet away, hitting the ground with a crash. Her wing was bent at an odd angle, of course, but she didn't look like she was dead. As she lay on the ground disoriented, Cecil took his chance to grab Lou Ellen and ran.

Cecil put Lou Ellen's arm around his shoulder and began to run to Cabin 20. Her weight against him slowed him down a bit, but he was still faster than the average human. As soon as he arrived at the cabin door, he carefully put her down.

Lou Ellen opened her eyes, just barely.

"Hades, is that you?" she asked.

Cecil chuckled quietly."Why, thank you! I get that all the time."

Once Lou Ellen realized that it wasn't Hades she was talking to, but Cecil, she rolled her eyes.

"Of course it's just you, I'm not that lucky."

Lou Ellen sat up carefully, her eyes alive with a sparkle again. Then she cursed in Ancient Greek and put her hand to her head, her eyebrows creasing with pain.

"Are you alright?" Cecil asked.

"Of course I'm alright, I just have this killer headache from using the Mist too long, and then passing out, probably hitting my head."

Lou Ellen said sarcastically. Then she sighed, realizing what she just said.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be treating you like this, especially since you went all hero back there and saved my life."

Cecil scratched the back of his head, "Well, I was a little bit more worried about saving my own butt, but I'll take the compliment!"

Then Lou Ellen did something Cecil had thought was genetically impossible: she genuinely smiled. Not a smirk or a smug smile, and I-just-got-tickets-to-Disney-World smile.

"Hey, thanks for hanging out with me tonight. You definitely know how to show a girl a good time."

Cecil tried to hold it back, but he knew what was coming. He felt his face flaming, a blush that was so obvious it could probably be seen from the moon. Lou Ellen, surprisingly, didn't note it. Instead, she asked, "How did you get sand all over you?"

She went to pick one of the grains of dust off of Cecil's face.

"That's not sand," Cecil informed her. "That's Vaporized Harpy."

Lou quickly wiped her hands off on her jeans in disgust.

"That's lovely," she said when she was done.

There was a moment of silence. The two of them stared into each other's eyes, not knowing what to say next. Finally, Cecil spoke up.

"We should do this some other time, you know, without the man-eating harpies."

Lou Ellen stood up, and even with her apparent migraine, she didn't show any sign of pain, just enjoyment.

"Don't be sexist. Say 'person-eating.'"

Cecil rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"

He hoped she wasn't stalling because she didn't know how to refuse. Then he dismissed the thought. Lou Ellen would know how to refuse anyone.

"Cecil Markowitz, are you asking me on a date?" She asked suspiciously.

If Cecil's face got any warmer, it would probably catch fire.

"No, uh, I mean, not unless you want it to-"

Lou Ellen hushed him by putting a finger on his mouth.

"Now don't get your panties in a twist, Markowitz"

She went back to her signature smirk. She turned back around and opened her cabin door, revealing a room littered with scrolls and vials. She gave him one last glance.

"I'll see you later, Cecil."

With that, she winked and closed the door, leaving Cecil alone to process what just happened.

.oOo.

Once Cecil ran into his cabin, he didn't bother to be quiet and slammed the door closed.

Connor looked up, a tired look on his face. "You've been out with Lou, haven't you?"

Even in dazed state Connor was damn quick. You had to be that if you were counsellor for the Hermes cabin.

"No. I was just in the bathroom," Cecil lied.

Conor send him a skeptical look, and went back to sleep, soon snoring.

That was a close one, Cecil thought, even though he didn't regret it at all.

He climbed up back into bed for the second time that night, sleep overcoming his adrenaline. Before he closed his eyes, he could've sworn he saw Lou Ellen at the window. But then she was gone.

It must just have been my hormones acting up.

Then he fell asleep, all thoughts floating away.