Only family can heal hatred

[ Luke pov ]

Every time Luke looked at them, his anger towards the gods grew bigger. The two blondes became so important to him that he couldn't remember what it was like not having them in his life, the same went for Thalia... no, that's a lie, he remember perfectly. Everything was grey, the only coloured was the green on her mother's glowing eyes whenever she had an episode and the red colour of his blood when mounters wounded him. Everything without these three girls was... dull, filled with nothing but pain and solitude.

He could feel a smile blossom on his face watching Christina hug Thalia to sleep. They woke him up a few minutes ago to change guard and they were already asleep, as if they hadn't rested in days. He noticed their braided hair, which always happened whenever Thalia took watch duty, regardless of wether it was Christina or Annabeth.

They had agreed to take watch duty on pairs, one pair including Thalia and the other Luke. To be honest Luke wold have enjoyed staying up at night with Thalia, watching the stars like they used to, but he wouldn't change what he had right now for anything. If Thalia was a best friend, then Christina and Annabeth were little sisters, and he would never abandon his little sisters. He was not a god after all.

Looking at Annabeth, who was awake and looking at the images of an old book he found in a trash can, he couldn't help but feel both proud and terribly angry. He loved seeing her with such a smile while viewing simple photos, but it hurt him so much having nothing to give her but the old, used book. He couldn't help but hate the gods even more for not taking care of her, for not taking care of any of them.

He thought family was a curse when he was at home with his mother or when he remembered his father, but having this family with Thalia, Annabeth and Christina, he couldn't help but be glad at how wrong he was. He had never felt so happy as when they were together, laughing around a bonfire. He wanted to keep things like this forever, however he also wanted to give them better... he wanted them to have everything they could dream of.

"Look at this!" said Annabeth while showing him a picture of the book she was 'reading' with an excited expression. "It shows the greek pantheon! It's so beautiful..." continued Annabeth while pointing at a dirty image of the greek pantheon.

"Yes, it is beautiful." said Luke while looking at the image. "I am sure we will one day be able to watch it ourselves!" continued Luke.

He never expected to make such a promise, telling someone that he will take them to Greece... a small smile formed on his face. Normally he wouldn't have wanted to go there, to the place where the ones who abandoned them were so important, yet that hatred he felt was melted away when he saw Annabeth's excitement. It seemed... family can truly cure hatred.

"So... you have never told me about your knife." said Luke, trying to distract Annabeth from her book for a while so that it could last her more than a day, unlike all the other ones he got her so far.

"My knife?" asked Annabeth while getting her eyes away from the book. For a moment she was confused, her mind still thinking about the beautiful buildings she saw on the pictures. "Ah! My knife!" she said while getting it out and showing it to Luke.

"Christina made it for me." she said with a huge smile. "We found broken spear when we entered the lair of a gryphon, we also found there the shield Chris showed you." started explaining Annabeth, while narrating a bit about how they followed the monster to it's lair and waited for it to leave before going in and taking some stuff. "She used the tip of the spear and made a handle around it, it was awesome!"

"I see..." said Luke while smiling. "It is indeed pretty cool. The weight is well balanced and the handle itself is quite comfortable, it was pretty much tailor made for you."

"Yes..." said Annabeth while playing with her knife, moving it around while stabbing imaginary monsters.

Luke felt a bit weird about the two girls entering a monster's lair on their own and out of their own will... it felt like the three girls that conformed his family were each a bit crazy.

As Annabeth went back to reading her book, Luke started packing their supplies. He knew they would leave tomorrow and Thalia and Christina didn't pack anything, most likely they forgot and stayed the entire time talking... sigh.

While putting the few things they had, he grabbed the broken shield Christina gave him to carry. The shield was heavy... too heavy for a seven year old to carry around while fighting or running from monsters, then again a seven year old shouldn't be fighting monsters at all... if only she hadn't been abandoned it wouldn't have happened, if none of them were abandoned they wouldn't have suffered like they had.

Thinking about it, anger started resurfacing, his thoughts kept getting filled with rage while staring at his reflection on the bronze shield.

Moving on from the shield, Luke grabbed the diary Halcyon Green gave him the day before they met Christina and Annabeth. Opening once again, Luke kept thinking about Halcyon's story. A demigod, son of Apollo, who was cursed for using his gift of prophecy to save a girl form death. His voice was taken away by the gods and he was imprisoned in his house, forced to act as bait for other demigods to die.

Everything about Halcyon's story enraged Luke. The gods punished a demigod by forcing him to lure other demigods to their deaths... weren't demigods their own children?! They would curse one of their children to cause the death of the rest?! Then there was the actual reason for the curse, saving the life of a girl from a death she was supposed to have.

What if Thalia, Christina or Annabeth were meant to die? Should he just give them up in order to not get cursed by the gods? What if he was the one meant to die and his family saved him, would one of the three be cursed by the gods as well? The more he thought about it the more the hatred in his heart grew. He realised now that family wasn't what healed hatred... family is what caused it, after all, hate comes from love, and he loved his family more than anything else, which meant his hatred for those who hurt them was greater than anything else as well.

*

*

*

Author note:

Halcyon is a pretty important character in Luke's life. They knew each other for a very very very short amount of time, but it was their meeting that kind of made Luke understand how terrible the gods are.