Apathy and Urgency - Chapter Three

Title: Apathy and Urgency - Chapter Three
Author: kurt_blaine . Kurt and Blaine are demigods (half mortal, half-Olympian god), and are literally fighting for their lives. This story is based on Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. Extremely AU.
Title from “Camisado” by Panic! At The Disco
Disclaimer: I do not own “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, Glee, Fox, or anything associated with these people.
           

            “Bye Kurt,” Blaine says as he walks over to the Apollo table for breakfast. Kurt waves shyly and sits down, looking very small and very alone.

            “I feel kind of sorry for him,” Blaine tells Jason as he pours syrup onto his pancakes. “I mean, it’s been two weeks since he got here. He’s almost at his breaking point about the claiming thing, and I’m not sure how I can help him. He hates Hermes cabin so much. I’m pretty sure he would hate it even more if it wasn’t for the fact that Hermes is a couture name.”

            Jason scratches his head. “Well, what does he like to do? What are his hobbies?”

            Blaine groans. “He worships Vogue and Bazaar and all those fashion magazines. He likes accessorizing and buying clothes. He loves to sing and he has a demanding nighttime skincare regime.”

            Jason rolls his eyes and says wryly, “I wonder which cabin he belongs in.”

            Blaine stuffs his mouth with hash browns. “But my point is that even though he’s the epitome of an Aphrodite boy, we can’t just throw him in there and be done with it.”

            “Well, just have him do what you did,” Jason supplies.

            “You want Kurt to sing?”

            “No. I meant have him showcase his talent, his passion. That’s the best way to get your godly parent to notice you,” Jason explains, drinking his juice.

            “Well, unless we can magically get permission from Ares cabin to hold another concert after last year’s fiasco, I don’t see how that will happen,” grumbles Blaine.

            Ares, unfortunately, was the current holder of the amphitheater. The camp always holds some kind of stupid contest to see who would win control of the amphitheater for the summer, along with all of the other buildings in camp. Ares never let anyone else use the building when they gained control of it.

When Apollo cabin had held one of their amazing concerts last year, a camper thought that it would be absolutely hilarious to bring in an intoxicated centaur and let him run around the amphitheater and then through the camp. He ended up ruining several cabins and making Chiron so mad that Blaine was pretty sure that the Underworld could feel his anger. Ares had refused the Apollo cabin many times the chance to hold another concert, something that Blaine was pretty sure Chiron secretly loved.

            Jason smirks. “I have ways.”

            “Bro, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

            “I keep telling you that I have—“

            “KEEP IT TO YOURSELF,” Blaine roars.

            “So, I need your help,” Jason says.

            Gaelen raises her eyebrow. “I thought men were supposed to be all about pride,” she says.

            “Well, yeah, but—“

            “I won’t even begin to get into how incredibly sexist that is,” Gaelen mutters and crosses her arms.

            Jason makes an exasperated noise. “I really need your help here.”

            “What could you possibly need from Aphrodite? We’re not exactly the strongest cabin around,” Gaelen snaps, obviously still smarting from the manly pride thing.

            “I need the most gorgeous girl you’ve got, besides you of course,” Jason adds hastily when Gaelen narrows her eyes, “and I need her to use her powers to get Aaron to let us use the amps for another concert.”

            Aaron was the counselor for Ares. He was disgusting, big and broad, with an IQ of probably about 80. He picked fights for no reason and put his father’s name on a pedestal for the entire camp to see.

            Gaelen taps her chin, her brown eyes calculating. “I could…well, what type of girl does Aaron like? All the Aphrodite kids are gorgeous, but they appeal to different types of people.”

            “All I know is that he’s into certain body parts more than necessary,” Jason sighs. “And he likes brunettes.”

            Gaelen smirks. “So you need a girl with a big chest and brown hair? That’s at least five Aphrodite girls, including myself.”

            Jason stammers and turns bright red. “No, absolutely not! Y-you’re staying away from Aaron!”

            She laughs and kisses his cheek. “You look so cute when you get flustered. At any rate, I know a girl who’s absolutely perfect for the job. You can meet her today after our archery class.”

            “You take archery?”

            “Just because I have to take that class doesn’t mean I’m good at it. We’re not all Apollo-level shooters.”

            “Well, guys are better than girls at sports—“

            “Get your sexist ass out of my cabin!”

            “I’m so sore,” Blaine moans.

            It’s the middle of the afternoon, the hottest time of the day, and the entire Apollo cabin is in their sword-fighting class. Blaine was just up against Eric, who is pretty damn good with a blade. He smirks when he sees Lyra drop the sword every time Jason so much as moves towards her.

            Eric however, was definitely not afraid to push Blaine. They both knew each other’s capabilities, and this left Blaine drenched with sweat and covered with marks all over his chest.

            Blaine took off his shirt and threw it off to the side, dumping water on top of his head.

            Jason laughs. “Well, don’t pair up with Eric next time if you want to live.”

            “He’s the only one who’s even remotely fun to duel,” Blaine groans, sitting down next to Jason on the grassy slope. “You always have to help the sucky kids because you’re the stupid counselor.”

            “What?” Jason mocks, putting his hand next to his ear. “Is that– why Blaine, is that jealousy I hear in your little hobbit voice?”

            Blaine kicks Jason, and they both laugh. “By the way, I’ve enlisted help,” Jason says, gulping down some water. “We should be able to get the amphitheater by tonight. And then you can ask Kurt if he wants to perform.”

            “I’ve been thinking about that,” Blaine says. “And well, isn’t music like, an Apollo skill? I mean, don’t get me wrong, he loves to sing, and he’s damn good at it too. But he’s a lot more into fashion and stuff like that, and I don’t think the camp would be really willing to attend a fashion show put on by the Aphrodite kids.”

            “Well, have him dress up for it,” Jason proposes, setting his water bottle aside. “If he wants to do the concert, ask him to go all out with the costumes. Have him design his own outfit. That’s very Aphrodite-like, you know.”

            “I just hope this all turns out okay,” Blaine says.

            “Here she is,” Gaelen announces, pulling forward a girl with light brown hair and, well, a rather large appendage. She’s wearing a little more than nothing, and Jason tries his best not to stare, as Gaelen would hit him again.

            Jason grins and hugs Gaelen. “Thank you so much for doing this. And thank you, too,” he adds to the girl.

            She smiles sweetly. “Gaelen, would you like me to do a test run?”

            Gaelen thinks about it for a moment, and nods. “Go ahead. He wouldn’t be expecting it anyway, which gives it a bigger boost.”

            Jason looks at both of them. “Wait, what–”

            The girl closes her eyes and a pink glow starts to emit from her skin. When she opens her eyes again, they’re fixed straight at Jason.

            He gasps and images run through his mind, the dirty ones that he usually pushes to the back of his brain. But hey, he’s a seventeen-year-old teenage boy.

            The girl sways forward, her hips moving, her lips red and plump, and her eyes half-closed. “Jason,” she whispers, tugging on his jacket.

            “Guh,” is all he can say.

            “I think that does the trick,” the girl says happily, and when the pink glow goes away, Jason stops gaping.

            Gaelen sighs. “Boys will be boys. Camilla, go work your magic. Aaron never goes to his Ancient Greek class. He’s all yours for the hour.”

            Camilla gives Jason and Gaelen a wink and saunters over to the Ares cabin. Jason takes a deep breath.

            “The things I do for Blaine.”

            Blaine has offered to teach Kurt to read and write Greek and Greek mythology, since most of the campers are already paired up with the new kids. So every day at three o’ clock, Kurt visits Apollo cabin and they study together for the hour. Kurt is surprisingly good at reading Ancient Greek. Blaine’s surprised at how smart he is despite his dyslexia and ADHD.

            “I think that’s all I can do for today,” Kurt says faintly as he closes the book. “My head’s starting to hurt.”

            Blaine doesn’t blame him. It’s only his second week at camp, and he’s already read through five books written in Greek.

            “Let’s take a break then,” Blaine offers. He pulls Kurt up from the bed and they walk out of the cabin slowly, down the swell of the hill and towards the lake.

            They sit down, to the side of the water, and Kurt holds a twig in his hand, swirling the water around. The sun is sparkling on the water, the light reflecting on Kurt’s face. Blaine’s lying down on his back, his eyes closed and taking deep, soothing breathes.

            “Oh, I forgot to tell you!” Blaine pipes up excitedly, sitting up. “Jason’s getting permission to hold another concert. Do you want to be a part of it?”

            Kurt looks at him. “A concert?”

            Blaine nods and smiles. “I think that it would be really good for you to try and explore what you’re good at. It could help with the claiming thing. I know that music is kind of an Apollo thing, but you’re great at singing. And you can make your own outfit and everything! It’s really fun. I think that you’ll really love it.”

            Kurt smiles happily, and Blaine is pretty sure that this is the first genuine smile Kurt has shown him since he got here. “I’d love that,” Kurt says, and he gives Blaine a quick hug.

            Kurt isn’t exactly the same afterwards. He’s always humming something, gives Blaine big random smiles for no reason whatsoever, and when they walk back up to the cabins, Kurt’s almost skipping. Blaine smiles to himself, glad that he’s made Kurt so much happier.

            For the rest of the day, things go along perfectly. Jason returns that night to tell the entire cabin that they’re holding another camp-wide concert in three days, and asks all of the Apollo kids to spread the news and prepare songs and the stage.

Immediately upon hearing the news, Blaine runs to tell Kurt, who squeals and starts ranting about designers and fabrics, and Blaine just smiles even though he doesn’t understand a single word. But who cares? He’d do anything to get Kurt to smile so brightly again.

            But being a camper for three years now, Blaine should have known that nothing really goes according to plan at camp.

A/N: This chapter is a bit shorter than normal (3 pages shorter actually) and I’m really sorry about that.

And the reviews! I’m so glad that so many people love this story so much. It’s really flattering, actually :D

Coming up next: the big concert!