It had been decided the night before that it'd be best to get Kia's social skills up and running again and to ensure that—

"Hey, you don't have anything steal-worthy, by any chance, do you?"

Ah, here she was, standing in front of the infamous Hermes Cabin. The boy standing in front of her had tousled brown hair and a conventionally attractive smile, if not for the impish impression it left. His eyes glinted with mischievousness like he would rummage through her things anyway, pickpocket her regardless of her answer. Kia's grip on her backpack straps tightened.

She smiled friendlily. "Nothing that you would be able to, anyway."

The boy looked taken aback for the moment, as if he wasn't used to getting people to humour his banter. A grin broke out on his face and he clapped her on the shoulder.

"I like you," he said. He opened the door further, giving her passage to enter. "Come on in! I'm Travis Stoll, head counsellor along with Connor, my brother, he's probably out wreaking havoc somewhere. What's your name?"

Right, she totally ignored the casual mention of havoc wreaking.

"Kia Mitsuho."

The cabin was... chaotic, to say the least. Kids, aged seven to nineteen, were running around like rampant wild animals and mini coloured smoke bombs lit up every other corner of the place. It looked like the type of place that took in just about everyone, but that's what made it feel warm and light, Kia supposed.

Travis spun around, walking backwards while expertly stepping over all the laid out sleeping bags and belongings sprawled our messily over the floor. "Regular or Undetermined?"

Kia was glad Chiron had prepared her for this, or else she'd have no idea what to say. "Neither. Daughter of Morpheus."

Travis raised an eyebrow interestedly and hummed. "Morpheus, huh? I don't think we're stocked up on any half-siblings for you, but that's pretty cool."

"You think so?"

"Morpheus is pretty awesome," Travis said thoughtfully. "If you inherit any of his powers, you could probably manipulate reality itself. Wouldn't count on it, though. Children of minor gods rarely ever inherit that many of their godly parent's powers."

Kia thought about taking offence, seeing where it would lead her, seeing as how he seemed to be the type who would easily apologise for something like this (pranks were a different matter altogether), the possibility amusing her slightly. She decided not to, though, wanting to ask more questions about staying here.

"You'll be sleeping here," he said, before she got the chance to ask. She must've looked surprised, since he laughed light-heartedly and waved it off. "I could tell you were curious."

His tone turned sincere. "You can ask whenever there's anything you need. Just keep your stuff close. But not too close," he winked.

Travis seemed to put on this personality of mischievous and uncaring of repercussions, but he truly did care about all of his cabin-mates, related by blood or not. Kia could respect that.

"Thank you," she said sincerely.

With one more impish grin, he bounded off, probably going off to help Connor with whatever chaos-ensuing joke he was playing.

Kia realised she hadn't even seen where she was sleeping, looking down at her feet to see a green sleeping bag. It had a small note resting neatly on top of it, which shocked Kia seeing as how this seemed to be the type of place where everything got misplaced.

Picking it up gently and unfolding it, her eyes scanned the paper.

'Welcome home

— Connor Stoll

(Supreme Lord of Hermes Cabin)'

A genuine smile crept up on her face, her heart warming at the thought. It wasn't a grand gesture, but the fact that he'd thought to go an extra mile to make her feel welcome was a nice feeling.

The feeling lasted for all about five seconds, considering the next moment, the wind was completely knocked out of her.

"Sorry!" a voice squeaked.

A little boy, who looked around ten years old, with messy dark hair, soft brown doe eyes and olive skin had bumped into her. Well, it was less 'bumping' than it was ramming into her full force, but Kia couldn't find it within herself to be mad at this adorable little child.

She smiled, "No problem, just be careful."

Nodding brightly, the kid trotted off to wherever he was going. Kia had to breathe for a moment; that kid was cute but wow, talking with literal sunshine and having human interactions really takes a toll on your mental strength.

It had taken her a few minutes to get settled in and before long, Travis and Connor declared lights out.

You see, there was one little problem with this: Kia couldn't sleep.

She didn't know if it was because she had actually been asleep for five years, or jittery being in a foreign setting, or if it was just her being restless.

After tossing and turning around again and again, she sat up with a silent huff and a frown on her face. Running a hand down her face, she looked around the cabin. She thought she saw an empty sleeping bag and squinted her eyes, trying to see through the heavy veil of darkness, she jolted in place when she heard a quiet grumble com from beside her. She turned around, meeting a boy's onyx gaze.

"Why are you awake?" he rasped, shifting.

Kia raised an eyebrow. "You're awake, too."

He groaned, looking up like he would rather be stabbing himself over a hot blade. Kia took the time to look him over. He was an Asian guy with wavy black hair and a pair of eyes as black as nothingness. He seemed pretty uncompromising on continuing the all black thing he had going on, going as far as to wear a black muscle t-shirt and a pair of black sweats. He had a slim build and was overall very pretty looking even if he did sound like a kindergarten kid whose nap got interrupted.

In spite of him acting all sour and pretending he had just woken up due to Kia shifting around, she could tell he probably could sleep either because firstly, he had light bags surrounding his eyes and secondly—

Kia wasn't an amateur, she knew how to be quiet about her late night escapades.

Oh, you bet that's exactly what she's going to do.

She shuffled up, stretching her hands over her head before cautiously glancing around and holding a hand out to the boy with onyx eyes.

He stared at it, wide-eyed. "I am not leaving the cabin!" he whisper-yelled frantically. "The harpies might eat us!"

"Only if you let them," Kia joked. The boy shot her a deadpanned expression. "Oh, come on! Live a little!"

Tentatively, he reached out for her hand before seemingly realising how stupid it looked.

"I can get up myself," he grouched, picking himself up and looking more like a pouty child than a big bad demigod. "And what might your name be, Little Miss Adventurous?"

"Kia Mitsuho. You?"

" ...Ethan Nakamura," he ground out.

"Great!" she said, linking arms with him. She added sarcastically, "Now we're besties! Up for a very close call to death?"

Ethan sighed. "I don't have a choice do I?"

"Nope!" Kia said brightly, quietly opening the door of the cabin. It let out an audible creak and Kia cursed the old stature of the cabin.

Miraculously, however, no one woke up, even going as far as to curl even closer back into their sleeping devices. The two went outside and Kia was heartened by the beautiful place. Camp Half-Blood was truly a sight to see.

Kia started walking down some old shrouded path that had undergrowth and moss slowly engulfing, taking each step carefully. She didn't really know where she was going, all that she was going somewhere nice. Looking back on it, she should have probably questioned where these impulses came from; how did she know that this place was safe?

She was so concentrated on not stepping in any gross mulch, that she hadn't even noticed Ethan running behind. Catching up to her, her glared at her slightly.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" he whispered harshly.

"No," she whispered back, continuing to take confident yet careful steps toward her destination.

Like a buzz coming from a distance, the sharp crackle of the harpies approached the two and Kia turned back to see minor panic settle on Ethan's features. Her eyes darted to the grey wings of the harpies coming into sight and she pulled Ethan next to her in a crouching position, her eyes not being taken off of them.

Ethan looked like he'd seen a ghost. "What are you doing?"

She was making sure he wouldn't die, by rubbing dirt and mud on him, of course.

She splattered some on herself, too, just so he wouldn't complain about having to be the one who was dirty. She clamped a hand over his mouth, holding a finger to her lips, signalling him to be quiet.

Ethan looked downright murderous, but stayed quiet nonetheless.

The harpies passed by. "Smell demigods!"

"They're in cabins! Scent is too weak!" another screeched.

Arguing with each other, the group of harpies passed by without sparing the sight where the two demigod's laid hidden a glance. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Kia withdrew her hand and looked back to see Ethan staring at her. As their eyes met, Kia expected him to look away or at least even flinch a little; she wasn't stupid, she knew how dreadful her eyes were when she wasn't focused on making them look normal, and she could feel the moonlight illuminating her features so she expected that sort of reaction, but he didn't. Ethan's gaze seemed to dart from one eye to another, as if studying all the shades of brown they were.

Kia didn't want to interrupt the peaceful moment, so she resisted the urge to blurt out 'what?' Instead, she started inspecting his eyes. They were completely black, swirls of ebony, charcoal and onyx coming together to form the most complex compilation of black she'd ever seen. Black had always been a very mundane colour to her; she'd never found it very interesting, but for a second, she wholly believed she could have drowned in the colour.

"Your eyes are beautiful," she murmured dazedly.

Even though it was dark, Kia thought he might've blushed, seeing the slightest bit of red crawling up on his cheeks. He said nothing in response, silently getting up and dusting himself off and tapping his foot impatiently.

"Well?" he huffed.

Kia blinked, realising he was waiting for her to lead the way. She nodded wordlessly, following his movements and going somewhere her internal compass pointed west.

She continued for a few, until she stepped down a gathering of particularly slippery rocks, Ethan following suit. Heading further in, her breath caught in her throat.

Ethan stumbled, probably not expecting her to stop so unexpectedly. "What are you doing?"

She said nothing but continued to stare at the scene before her. Ethan grumbled profanities under his breath, moving around to stand beside her before freezing.

"Wow," he breathed.

It was a sparkling lake, with beautiful moonlit branches and bushes surrounding it, flowers and other beautiful plants Kia didn't think grew in America decorating the breathtaking view. The moon's spectacular visage reflected on the perfectly still lake, the stars painting the most heavenly sight Kia had ever seen; tiny pink and white flowers Kia didn't know the name of were spread out unevenly through the body of water as total silence enveloped them.

Ethan started shifting beside her, so she tore her eyes off the scenery before looking down to see what he was doing.

He sat down, his hands supporting his body. "Well, we didn't come out here and almost get killed for nothing."

Kia nodded, squatting down and sitting beside him; they were already dirty, so it didn't matter. As they both stared out at the moonlit lake, occasionally taking peeks at the celestial orb itself, Kia felt her eyes getting heavy, unknowingly resting her head on his shoulder. She could feel him tense up, not expecting the action, but if he minded, he didn't say anything about it.

Even though she tried her hardest not to close her eyes, darkness overcame her and this time, it was the good type.

I hope you like the way Kia is turning out and I hope you think I've portrayed Ethan's personality well. Also, if you're okay to, please comment what you think of Kia's personality so that I can define it more and not make it too Mary-Sue-ish. Thanks for reading!