"thank you so much, jane." jeno bowed, soon followed by all his friends.

"it was a pleasure to meet you boys." mark's mother replied with a warm smile. "i hope we'll see each other again soon."

"let's hope we do." mark replied, smiling to his mother.

jane had brought the seven boys to the airport.

they had decided it was best for her safety if they left vancouver.

the boys argued a lot on where they would be going next.

mark had claimed that paris was the best option, but renjun assured him that they needed to stay in america for the moment.

there was a vote, and jeno was quick to part for renjun, making jaemin raise his hand too. jisung and chenle both trusted renjun's mind more than anything – he was athena's son after all – and they sided with him too.

donghyuck had been silent during the whole vote.

"i'll let you book the plane for the seven of us?" mark raised a brow. "i want to have a quick word with my mother."

the boys nodded, saluting mark's mother one last time before walking towards the wooden door on top of which ancient greek letters wrote the words 'olympus airlines'.

mark approached his mother as soon as the six other boys had disappeared behind the door, and he took her in a bear hug.

"mom..." mark mumbled.

"yes, mark?" she asked, wrapping her arms around her son.

"you are right..." mark sighed, pulling out form the hug. "i did fall for donghyuck, and more than his appearance."

"i'm happy you admitted it to yourself." jane replied with a bright smile. however, this smile disappeared quickly when she saw the pained look on her son's face. "why are you frowning?"

"it's nothing..." mark replied quickly.

"are you sure?" she raised a brow. "don't be scared to tell me."

"do i look like dad?" mark asked, ignoring his mother's reply.

jane smiled, her hand lifting up to trace the outline of mark's face that was very similar to his father's.

mark's existence constantly reminded her of this one time she had fallen in love for a man. a man that had lots of other conquests, and that didn't even care about her. a man that ended up taking care of her when he knew she was carrying their kid. a man that was constantly on her mind.

hades, god of the underworld, her only love.

"you look so much like him..." she whispered, studying her son's face closely.

"am i like him?" mark then asked.

"you have a lot of common points. you have a part of him inside of you. it's normal."

mark sighed loudly, his head lowering at those words.

"what's wrong, mark?" his mother asked worriedly.

"nothing..." mark shook his head. "it's just that sometimes... i'd rather not be his son..."

jane smiled sadly.

she understood what mark meant.

hades wasn't very well-seen in the mythological world. and his children weren't seen better.

this could lead to rivalries and arguments, and they could become hard to live every day.

"mark, what the others think about you and your origins doesn't have to be a problem for you as long as some people can accept you for who you are." jane told, lifting her son's chin up. "you have six wonderful friends, one of which could become your boyfriend. you have to count on them, and be happy because they're here for you."

mark nodded slowly, his mother's words comforting him. "yeah..."

"so, now, give me one last hug and join them. you have a long road ahead, and you need to protect your loved one."

mark chuckled, hugging his mother again as both of them held each other tight.

"i love you, mom. thank you for everything."

"i love you too, mark." his mother replied. "come back home soon."

"i will."

with that said, mark walked away towards the door under his mother's loving gaze.

once on the other side of the door, mark took a deep breath chasing all negative thoughts off his mind. once his mind had calmed down, the boy lifted his head, locating his friends immediately.

"oh, mark!" chenle exclaimed, making donghyuck turn around immediately.

the tanned beauty rose to his feet, walking to mark's side. "is everything okay?" he asked, wrapping a hand around mark's elbow while looking at him with puppy eyes, making mark melt completely.

"yeah." he coughed. "i'm okay."

"great." donghyuck smiled before pulling mark towards the seat he was previously seated on.

"where are we going?" mark asked as he sat down.

"new york city, bitches!" chenle yelled.

Ω

"new york city..." jisung mumbled looking around at the dozens of gigantic buildings surrounding them.

"i thought i had seen it all in las vegas, but it turns out that the worlds has even more surprises for us..." chenle added, completely mesmerized by everything around him.

"oh, there's a disney store!" donghyuck exclaimed, catching the attention of the other boys around.

they all looked in the direction doing was pointing it, noticing the disney logo lit up above a crowd of people.

"oh, can we go there?!" chenle asked giddily.

"why would you want to go there?" mark rolled his eyes at chenle's words.

"pretty please... can we do some shopping...?"

mark turned around to look at donghyuck who was giving him the puppy eyes, silently begging him to accept his proposition.

mark bit the inside of his cheek while keeping his eyes on the beautiful boy who was pouting more and more with each second going. he eventually gave in.

"okay, let's go." he told as donghyuck and chenle both jumped in happiness.

mark looked at jeno who had his arms crossed over his chest and a brow raised.

"what?" he asked.

"hades' son losing power over a boy. that's new." jeno snorted.

mark's jaw clenched as his aura appeared around him. he was fed up of jeno's constant remarks. "mind your own business." mark spat, glaring at the boy.

"cool, mark." jeno replied with a laugh. "i was joking."

mark raised a brow, completely confused. "huh?"

"you proved that you truly cared about donghyuck. and this means i can trust you, my friend."

mark blinked as he watched jeno being dragged towards the disney store by jaemin.

the same word was repeating inside his head.

friend

had he really reached this level of trust?

Ω

"do you know what happened to jaemin?" renjun whispered, pulling on jeno's sleeve as zeus' son bent down a bit for renjun to talk in his ear.

"isn't he acting normal?" jeno's brows furrowed.

"not at all."

jeno lifted his head, only to find jaemin giggling next to donghyuck while the beautiful boy was trying on a furry hat.

jeno had even deciphered on his lips the sentence 'i bet it would look amazing on renjun'.

"he's all giggly, and he hasn't even tried to argue with me since this morning." renjun continued speaking, his eyes fixed on jaemin too.

ares' son felt jeno and renjun's stares on him, making him turn his head and wave happily when he saw the two boys looking at him. renjun blushed at this sweet gesture.

"you're red." jeno pointed out.

"yeah, i know."

"do you like jaemin?" jeno asked with a smile.

renjun coughed. "it's complicated."

"but you do?"

"look, we were talking about jaemin, not me." renjun grabbed jeno's arm and pulled him towards the clothes section.

"sure, sure." jeno chuckled.

renjun fiddled with the many shirts and sweaters hanging on the clothing racks.

he searched for one in particular, pulling it out before placing it in front of his body for jeno to see it.

"do you think jaemin would like it?" renjun asked.

"for him?" jeno asked, raising a brow at the idea renjun could think jaemin would like the pink details of the shirt.

"no. on me." renjun rolled his eyes.

jeno used his brain to imagine renjun wearing this shirt.

honestly, this was fitting with renjun's persona better than with jaemin's.

jeno could actually totally see renjun wearing it. he could already imagine him wearing it with nothing else, the oversize effect making his collarbones visible as well as his milky thighs.

it could be even better actually if jaemin was there too, wearing the matching sweatpants dangerously low on his hips.

"jeno?" renjun called, waking the boy of his trance.

"huh... yeah." he told, scolind himself for having such thoughts about the two boys.

"i'm taking it then." renjun smiled brightly, folding the shirt in his amrs.

"why would you even want jaemin to like it?" jeno asked after a while. "is it because you like him?"

renjun sighed. "and what if i like him?" he raised a brow. "sure, he acted like a bitch towards me, but he's handsome, has a body sculpted by the gods, and these days, he has been more sympathetic towards me."

jeno smirked at renjun's words. however, a frown appeared on his face after a few seconds of thinking. "i remember being handsome, having a body sculpted by the gods, and being more than sympathetic with you too." he told, making renjun turn around again.

"and i don't remember saying that i only liked jaemin."

Ω

"look, i bought this simba plushie!" donghyuck showed jeno his purchase. "isn't it the cutest?"

"it is, it is." jeno replied, his eyes concentrated on renjun rather than his best friend.

"oh, and i also bought..."

after exiting the disney store, the seven boys had decided to have a drink in one of the nearby bars before finding somewhere to spend the night.

so, they were all sat around a large table in a bar, multiple screens playing football games surrounding them, and glasses of nectar in front of them – they weren't in a bar called 'olympus' for nothing, they knew they would find people like them there.

"i really need to use the toilets, i'm coming back!" chenle told before standing up. "make sure no one takes my stuff, okay?" he added, talking to jisung before disappearing behind the bar where the toilets were supposed to be.

the six remaining boys continued speaking, the conversation consisting of jaemin commenting the football match with jisung and jeno, renjun and donghyuck talking about how amazing the disney store was.

after a while, mark stood up. "i need to go to the toilets."

no one questioned mark's words as the demigod walked behind the bar like chenle and headed towards the toilets.

"oh, you use your bow as a belt?" jeno noticed, pointing at the golden sun placed on donghyuck's belt.

"oh, yeah." donghyuck pulled it out, showing the object around. "this way i have it close, and it's easy to use it. i never used it, though."

"i hope you'll need to use it not soon..." renjun stated, looking at the precious object.

"i'd like to know what happens when i shoot, actually." donghyuck told. "for the moment, i don't know if the arrows are efficient and everything."

"oh, if it was made at the half-blood camp, then i assure you that it's the best it could be." renjun said with a chuckle.

"how so?" donghyuck furrowed his brows.

"well..."

the three boys talked about the family-like life of the half-blood camp, renjun talking much more than the two others because he had been living there for very long.

they were immersed in their conversation when chenle ran towards their table, screaming loudly.

"guys! guys!" he exclaimed. "guys, you won't believe it!"

"chenle, what's happening?"

before the boy could think about answering, mark appeared as well, taking the bow from donghyuck's hand and activating it immediately, taking an arrow between his fingers and shooting it.

"a griffin!" he yelled, as the arrow flew towards the door where a creature half eagle, half lion appeared. however, the arrow didn't hit the griffin, but instead, touched chenle's shoulder, making the boy fall to the floor.