the next morning, a knock on the door caught both mark and jeno's attention, making them exchange a glance.

"go, i'll watch your back." mark said, making jeno nod.

zeus' son pulled his electric whip out as he approached the door.

he placed his hand on the handle and opened it in one go, ready to attack whatever monster which would have found them.

"oh? what are you doing here?" jeno raised a brow, putting his whip back.

"i wanted to know what we do now." chenle replied, looking inside their room.

"donghyuck is still sleeping. we're staying there until he wakes up." jeno explained.

"oh." chenle nodded. "so, jisung and i can go play at the casino?"

"you guys are underage." mark stated, opening the door wide to see chenle as well.

"my father created false id for me." chenle told, taking out a few id cards. "there's one for each of us. i asked him to make us all legal to play in casinos."

jeno took the id cards that chenle was handing him, inspecting them carefully.

"are you sure they will work?" he asked skeptically.

"my father is literally a god. of course, this will work." chenle rolled his eyes. "oh, and one last thing."

mark and jeno looked as chenle shuffled around, pulling out of his pocket a small carboard box on which was written 'olympus express'.

"there's something for donghyuck." chenle handed it to jeno and mark. "it says it's from the half-blood camp."

"okay, thanks." jeno nodded, eying the package.

"perfect, now, jisung and i are off to the casino!" chenle exclaimed before hopping away.

"do you even have money?!" mark asked loudly.

"i'll steal some!" chenle replied with a giggle, making both mark and jeno sigh.

the two boys closed their bedroom's door before inspecting the package carefully.

"do you think it could be a trick?" mark asked, pointing at the small box.

"from chenle?" jeno lifted a brow.

"from the half-blood camp." mark told.

"we're supposed to be a family, mark. no one should try harming other members of the half-blood camp. i know hades' descendants are a bit particular, but- "

"yeah, yeah. i get it." mark rolled his eyes.

"we can still open it to see." jeno shrugged. "we never know."

"okay." mark nodded. "you can open it."

jeno faced mark, handing him the package.

"why not you?" he asked.

"you're his best friend." mark said quickly.

"and you're always the one wanting to do everything for him and stay close to him." jeno argued back.

"but i don't have the protector status." mark pointed out.

jeno sighed loudly before him and mark laughed together for a while.

"look, we're both ridiculous." jeno shook his head.

"the package isn't even tricked." mark added.

"i'll open it." jeno said, making mark nod.

jeno carefully unwrapped the scotch that was shutting the box and opened it to peek inside.

he pulled out a piece of parchment as well as a metallic object of the seize of his palm representing a sun.

"what the hell is that?" mark asked, eying the golden object strangely.

"i don't know..."

jeno unfolded the parchment paper, reading the words that were written there. "enjoy using your new bow and arrows, forged by xiaojun under my commands. grip the handle behind the sun to make the two branches of the bow appear. also, behind each ray of the sun is located a small stick. they're your arrows. they take a normal seize when you take them out of the ray. there are different arrows: the pink ones are love arrows, which make the person you hit fall helplessly in love with the first person they see for 2 hours. also, they will instantly forget what happened the minutes before they were shot, meaning they won't know who shot them. the yellow ones are flash arrows, they emit a blinding light for a few seconds after hitting their target. the grey ones are simple arrows. there are three arrows of each category only, but don't worry, because once shot, they reappear instantly behind each ray of the sun. make a good use of it! with love, yangyang."

mark raised a brow, glancing at the small object.

"so, this is a bow?" he asked.

"apparently." jeno shrugged, inspecting the golden sun. "and these are the arrows." he added, pointing at small coloured sticks resting behind the rays of the sun.

"mmh..."

jeno and mark turned around, glancing at donghyuck who was stretching inside his bed after waking up.

"hello..." he mumbled, looking at the two boys.

"hello, hyuck." jeno smiled. "we received something for you."

"really? what is it?" donghyuck asked.

"this." mark told, handing him the object.

donghyuck sat on his bed, taking the golden object in his hand and looking at it with a bow raised.

"who is it from?" he asked curiously.

"yangyang." jeno said. "it's your bow."

"my bow?!" donghyuck exclaimed, a smile appearing on his face.

"yeah, huh... it says that you have to grip the handle behind the sun to open the branches."

donghyuck did as he was told, two golden branches spurting out of the small sun he was holding to create a long bow.

"woah..." odnghyuck exclaimed, looking at the object in amazement as he played with the string.

"and you have the arrows there." mark specified, showing the little sticks behind the sun rays.

donghyuck carefully picked one, the small stick immediately getting longer in donghyuck's hand, until it formed a beautiful arrow.

"this is amazing..." he let out.

"welcome to our world." mark chuckled, giving donghyuck a bright smile.

Ω

"renjun."

"renjun!"

"RENJUN!"

"mmh...?" the boy hummed, turning around in the bed.

"someone is there for you."

renjun opened his eyes slowly, seeing a shirtless jaemin first thing in the morning.

the boy blushed, hiding his face under the covers as jaemin groaned and pulled the covers away immediately.

"did you hear what i told you?" jaemin asked irritated.

"who is it?" renjun questioned, trying his best to look away from jaemin's body.

he knew ares' sons were well built because of the amount of fighting they did, but jaemin was another lever of built. renjun could imagine himself tracing his fingers across the outline of his abdominals. the expression 'his body was sculpted by the gods' took all its sense now.

"your pigeon." jaemin told, knocking on the window, where a white owl was looking inside.

"it's an owl." renjun rolled his eyes. "and her name is sofia."

"whatever." jaemin huffed before locking himself in the bathroom.

renjun opened the window, allowing his bird to come inside.

"hello, sofia. is everything alright?" he asked, caressing her beak.

he earned a few whistles from the bird.

"are you sure?" renjun gasped.

sofia whistled again.

"okay, i'm telling the others. don't hesitate to warn me if anything else is happening."

with that said, he pecked the bird's head and allowed her to fly away by the open window.

"what's the matter?" jaemin asked, catching renjun's attention.

renjun turned around, getting mesmerized for a few seconds by the sight of jaemin leaning against the bathroom's door brushing his teeth, wearing only black sweatpants and with his hair completely messy.

"h-huh..."

"you seemed to be worried about something." jaemin spoke again. "why?"

renjun pushed all his thoughts away, trying not to focus too much on jaemin – which was hard.

had he always been that hot, or was it just because him and renjun had shared a bed for the night? or was he just super mega hot in the morning after waking up?

and how come was he speaking normally to renjun, without trying to diss him or anything? this was so unexpected.

"s-she told me they knew where we were." renjun explained. "there are a few monsters roaming around las vegas at the moment."

"fuck." jaemin let out, looking even hotter in renjun's eyes. "we need to tell the others. pack your things quickly, and we're going."