𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨 ─── keeping secrets and its trials

[ Kamea ]

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"𝔊ood afternoon, Katie." Kamea didn't even need to look up from her seat to know that her younger sister had stomped into the cabin. She continued to regrow the withering plants around the outer flower beds of her cabin. "What's got you all ruffled up? You seem stressed?"

The younger girl stomped over, slumping down beside Kamea, content to watch her sister help the area around her regrow. It had come under fire from a poisonous arrow that an Apollo kid had shot at them by accident.

"You're troubled. What's gone wrong?"

"I'm not. Nothing." Kamea stopped what she was doing, raising an eyebrow. The plants withered around Katie, as Kamea turned to look at the younger girl.

"You very clearly are, Bumble." Katie huffed again at the nickname, as Kamea brushed her jeans off and lead the smaller girl into the cabin. "You can tell me anything. I won't tell anyone else."

"It's stupid." Kamea threw her gardening gloves into her trunk, before starting to water the remainder of the plants around the room.

"It's not stupid if it makes you so upset." Katie sighed again, before faceplanting onto her bed as Kamea ran a hand through her hair and waited for the girl to speak.

"Damien was flirting with Annabeth. It was right in front of me. Again." Kamea nodded her head, sighing slightly as she turned to her sister. The poor girl had a crush on Damien Lebedev, the son of Aphrodite, but he didn't reciprocate it in the slightest, head over heels for Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena.

Katie was trying to work out how to get over her first crush, and unfortunately that meant also having to learn how to deal with jealousy. It was a long, long process, but one that was desperately needed for every teen to go through.

"How could he?"

"Bumble..." Kamea patted the seat next to her. "Remember what we talked about, Darling. He's not dating you, as unfortunate as it is and I know that hurts."

"I know. I just..."

"If you talk to Damien, I'm sure he wouldn't do that in front of you until you feel more comfortable." Kamea pointed out. "Damien's a nice guy, but he doesn't have telepathy. He doesn't know that you like him, and so he can't know what he's doing wrong until you tell him."

Katie huffed, before her shoulders slumped.

"I don't want to tell him."

"Then you can't expect him not to flirt with Annabeth in front of you."

"I hate you."

"Love you too, Bumble." The door to the cabin was flung open as the rest of their siblings came strolling back in, bows on their back from archery. "How was archery?"

"Painful." Katie's younger sister, Miranda, replied with a roll of her eyes. "Chiron was too focused on the upcoming excursion to pay much mind to us. Apparently it could be horrific!"

"That's annoying." Kamea sighed, rubbing her forehead as she put another thing on the list for her to talk to Chiron about. She plastered a smile on her face. "But, the good news is that I've sort out the list of jobs for the next few days and it seems that the only one we have is checking on the strawberry plants with Castor and Pollux, just to make sure they're safe from the frost."

There was an audible sigh of relief, as Kamea grinned at them all.

"Have showers, clean up, and then you have free time until dinner." She caught Miranda's arm before the girl could walk past her, nodding over to Katie. "Your sister's having a bit of heart troubles because of a certain someone. Maybe take her mind off of it with something, if that's alright with you, Tulip?"

"Sure thing, Kamea!" The older teenager grinned, ruffling Miranda's hair, before heading out of the cabin and down towards the Hermes cabin at the other end of the row. She had things to do now.

"Afternoon!" Kamea called as she entered the cabin, smiling at the others around her before walking through the centre of their cabin. The other demigods knew better than to prank her now, having far too much respect for one of their eldest demigods. "Where's Ethan? I have more poultice for his wound."

"Outside." Connor sat up from his bed, pointing to the back door. "Also, you know anything about the excursion?"

"No more than you do, Connor. Talk to Damien, or maybe Annabeth? One of them will know something." Kamea prompted. "I'll let you know if I here anything, alright darling?"

"Thanks Kam." She winked at the boy, before stepping out onto the back porch. It was empty, apart from a figure in the corner of the porch. Ethan Nakamura had his back to the girl, sharpening his sword methodically in the light of the fast setting sun. Kamea grinned, carefully sitting beside him.

"You alright?" He looked up, before a half smile invaded his normally passive face. She smiled almost immediately in response, leaning closer to steal his body heat.

"The wonderful Kamea Iona. To what do I owe this pleasure?" He asked, his voice so soft that the breeze seemed to take it straight from his lips.

"Well, I wanted to see you, for one, and I also needed to give you some more of this. A little birdy told me you were running out and needed more." Kamea placed a small jar into Ethan's hand, as the man nodded. His dark hair flopped into his face, though it was brushed away quickly. "Can I check it?"

"Of course." Kamea smiled, before carefully, brushing Ethan's hair back and pulling the eye patch away from the skin. 

"It looks a little swollen, have you been scratching it?"

"Not consciously. Perhaps in my sleep, I don't like to wear the eye patch at night. It's gets hot." Kamea nodded, motioning for Ethan to unscrew the jar in his hand so that she could smooth some of the cold ointment onto the angry looking scar around his eye. How Ethan had come to lose it was still a mystery, even to Kamea, who knew him far better than most.

"There we go." She placed the eye patch into her lap, settling beside the man as she waited for the ointment to dry. "I also came to say thank you for helping me get that shot the other day to win the bet."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ethan replied, his dark eye twinkling in the sun as Kamea grinned. 

"Sure, of course you didn't help to change the likelihood of me hitting that target in the slightest."

"Nope. I'm not to use my powers for such things." He sent her a small smirk as Kamea laughed aloud. She had a bet going with a couple of Apollo campers, which included dessert and shower privileges, the only thing she had to do was to hit a near impossible target and by some miracle, she had. 

It was only when Kamea had spotted Ethan lurking in the back of the crowd, that she'd thought of the possibility that he'd helped her out. She knew he was a Son of Nemesis, a secret that he didn't publicize to many others, and knew that meant Ethan had some control over the likelihood of good or bad things happening to a person.

"Well, it's a shame really," She murmured, as Ethan narrowed his eye. "I was going to offer you some of my desserts for helping out, but alas, since you didn't help, I can't."

"What a shame." Ethan shook his head, before dropping the grin on his face. "Even if it was me, and I could take it, you know I couldn't accept it. I don't want people to get the wrong idea."

"And what idea is that, Ethan?" Kamea asked, looking out across the lake and the snow covered hills far beyond that. She turned, looking up at the man with furrowed eyebrows. "What could be so wrong about telling other people?"

"Kam, you know why." Ethan sighed, placing his sword down onto the wooden decking of the Hermes cabin as he took the eye patch back from her.

"Yes, because you believe that everyone is going to shun me for dating you. Which they won't!" She shook her head, before feeling a lone finger on her chin. Turning around, Kamea sent Ethan a disbelieving look. "Ethan, they wouldn't. I don't know why you don't trust that they won't."

"I don't want to risk it, Kam." Ethan replied, his lips mere millimetres from hers. "I don't want to lose you."

"You could never." Kamea closed the distance, pressing her lips to Ethan's as his arm finally found her waist to tug her closer. Kissing Ethan was always dangerous. The man was always on edge, waiting for something bad to happen to him, whilst Kamea held no such problems.

The sound of footsteps caused the pair to pull apart quickly, smoothing their clothes and hair out in the process. 

"I should go."

"Thank you, Kam." Ethan leant up, pressing one final kiss to her lips, before the daughter of Demeter finally turned away, almost running back to her cabin as she allowed the sadness to settle in her heart.

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Hiya,

So, Kamea is the sweetest bean and she and Ethan are dating secretly, because of some reasons. Also, I love her relationship with literally everyone and they are so cute as a pairing, and Kam is just adorable in general. Speaking of cute realtionships (ish), next chapter is the first Jasmine one and I'm super hyped for it.

Let me know what you think and see you in the next one,

Love Li xx