Chapter Thirteen #2
“I doubt that,” Helen said, shaking her head. Lucas was so graceful in the air. There was no way she’d ever fly the way he did.
“You’re stronger than me,” he said without any envy or judgment, just as a fact. “When you realize that, you’re going to be able to do things that I never dreamed of.”
“If I’m so strong, then why do I always need you to come and save my sorry ass?” she asked sarcastically.
“Because fighting is about much more than strength,” he said seriously. “Which is good, or Hector would still be able to beat the crap out of me in a fight.”
“I can still beat the crap out of you in a fight,” Hector shouted from inside the house. Lucas smirked at Helen and shook his head as they walked into the kitchen. They didn’t get far.
“Not on my clean floors!” Noel shouted, pointing to Lucas’s and Helen’s muddy shoes. Then she realized why they were so muddy. “What did you savages do to my new lawn?” she groaned.
“I had to, Mom. Helen needs to learn.” Lucas dutifully backed out of the house and took off his shoes, and Helen did the same.
“Helen, dear. You look hungry. Make sure you eat something before you leave,” Noel said kindly, before shifting right back into scolding mode. “About that lawn, you know the rules, Luke.”
“‘Fix what you break,’ yeah, yeah. And you know I always do,” he said with a mischievous smile as he came into the house and started chasing his poor, hassled mother out of the kitchen with the threat of a tickle. She tried to beat him off with a dish towel, but she didn’t stand a chance.
As Lucas ran upstairs to change his clothes, Helen could see he was happy.
And so was she. She knew she was still in danger and should be terrified, but watching Lucas bound up the stairs three at a time, all she could feel was giddy, bubbly happiness.
She still had no idea what the heck was going on between them, but she was happy.
Apparently, Helen wasn’t the only one. Pandora came into the kitchen with a yoga glow, humming to herself. She didn’t have on her bracelets. Instead, it was her anklets and a spangled belly chain that were jingling away cheerily with every step and sway of her hips.
“Oh my gods, I love that!” she exclaimed, reaching out and touching the charm Helen always wore around her neck. “I always say, if it isn’t plastered with diamonds it isn’t really jewelry.”
“What?” Helen asked, puzzled, looking down. Pandora was chugging from a bottle she took from the fridge and didn’t hear.
“The workout room is all yours,” she tossed back over her shoulder at Hector. Helen fingered her heart necklace and wondered why Pandora had mentioned diamonds. There were no diamonds on her charm.
“You ready for a beating, Princess?” Hector asked once his aunt had danced out of the room.
“Do you have to call me that?” Helen huffed, wondering if being a dick was part of his strategy or if it was just his personality baseline.
“Well, now I do,” he smirked, pleased with himself for hitting a nerve.
“Let’s go before I wreck Noel’s kitchen with your big, stupid face.”
“That’s the spirit,” he said encouragingly. Helen had to laugh. He really could be quite charming when he wasn’t trying to kill her.
Hector and Lucas started Helen out on the heavy bag, thinking that it was the most basic place to begin.
She didn’t get it. She tried to follow through with her hips like they told her, but she kept positioning herself strangely at the last moment and taking all of the momentum out of her swing.
She just didn’t like to punch things. It didn’t come naturally to her. Hector couldn’t even watch.
“You’ve got the killer instincts of a houseplant,” he groaned, covering his face.
“Maybe we should move on to grappling. It’d probably be more useful for her, anyway, considering all of her attacks have been close-quarter struggles,” Lucas suggested.
Helen readily agreed. She was a terrible fighter, but not even Hector could deny that she was trying.
The boys gave her a brief rundown of dojo etiquette, and then she entered the ring with a bow, as she had been taught.
She was expecting Lucas to be her teacher, but he stood back and let Hector go into the dojo with her instead.
“I thought this was your specialty,” Helen said uncertainly to Lucas.
“It is. He’s way better on the ground than I am,” Hector replied for him with a grin. “Now get down on your hands and knees. You know, like you’re a dog.”
Despite the fact that Hector was deliberately trying to get Helen’s back up, she stayed calm and focused on the instructions she was given.
Jujitsu was part physical, which was fun, but the main part of it, the real challenge, was mental.
She felt like she was trying to solve a puzzle, trying to unwind out of the human pretzel that Hector had made out of her.
A few times she pissed him off by giggling and shying away from the sexually suggestive shapes he was trying to bend her into, but he gutted it out and kept working with her rather than let Lucas take over the lesson.
“Nah-uh!” Hector said when Lucas tried to enter the ring. “You. Out.”
“You’re not breaking it down step-by-step for her, Hector!” Lucas called from outside the cage. He wouldn’t come in the ring and break the rules of the dojo, but he could still yell from the sidelines. “She doesn’t know the first thing about pulling guard!”
“Well, tough,” Hector replied as he raised himself up from between her knees. “There’s no way I’m letting you in here, brother, so just forget it.” He gestured meaningfully at her prone body and open legs, and raised his eyebrows. Helen started laughing hysterically.
“You have nothing to worry about, Hector!” she managed to choke out. “Trust me!”
That got Lucas blushing. Helen heard a familiar laugh from outside the ring. “Giggles? Is that you?” She propped herself up and shoved Hector off of her.
“Yeah, it’s me. I gotta say, Len, I would have thought it would be harder to get between your legs, but Hector doesn’t seem to be having any trouble at all,” Claire teased.
“What are you doing here?” Helen said, surprised.
“I tried to stop her, but she just barged in and . . .” Jason began, his voice fraying with frustration.
“I really wanted to see you do demigod stuff!” Claire said, cutting him off. “I’ve never gotten to see you do all your tricks on purpose before.”
“Tricks? We’re not show ponies, Claire!” Jason yelled at her.
Helen looked at Hector and shrugged while Claire and Jason continued to bicker. “You know what? I think they enjoy fighting,” she commented.
“She’s your friend,” Hector said to her.
“He’s your brother,” Helen said back.
Then she heard the door slam. Lucas had left the room. Helen stood up and called after him, but she couldn’t leave the ring until Hector, her dojo master for the day, dismissed her. She turned to him and pleaded with her eyes.
“You may be safe for today, but you’re still in a lot of danger, you know. I know you don’t like this, but you need to train. And anyway, it would be better if you just let him start hating you now, Helen,” he said heavily.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, surprised that Hector could be so unfeeling.
“Then chase after him if you have to,” he said, looking away. Helen bowed to him and ran out of the practice ring. “But it will only get harder,” he warned as she turned to close the door. She slammed it behind her to make her point . . . though she didn’t exactly know what that point was.
She ran outside and heard a deep thunking noise coming from the tennis courts.
She started to run and then realized that, duh, she could fly.
Leaping into the air, she looked down to see Lucas in the tennis-courts-turned-arena, chucking spears at a target.
He saw her and took flight, meeting her in the air.
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand and looking down at a couple of people on the nearly empty beach below them. “Someone could still see us.”
They flew high, going north to Great Point, where they could be alone. They touched down on the soft sand around the lighthouse and transitioned into two normal people walking on the chilly beach, holding hands. Lucas was still silent after a few moments so Helen decided to go first.
“You know we were all joking around, right? I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings. I’m sorry if I did,” Helen told him.
“You didn’t hurt my feelings,” he said, shaking his head and clenching his fists. “It’s much simpler than that. Much more basic. I hate seeing Hector on top of you. I’m jealous, Helen.”
“Then you train me,” she said hopefully, and he stopped walking and turned away from her with a groan. “Wait, why not?” she persisted.
“I’m a demigod, not a saint,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh. “There’s only so much I can take.”
“Exactly. So, what can’t you take? Decide which of the two options is harder, and do the other. That way, no matter how hard your choice turns out to be, at least you can find comfort in knowing you’re avoiding something even worse,” Helen said logically. Lucas looked at her sidelong and smiled.
“You give good advice, you know that?”
“Maybe, maybe not. I’ve got my own agenda,” she said through a playful smirk.
“You’re betting I’m going to choose to train you, aren’t you?” he asked, a laugh bubbling up in his chest.
“Flat-out banking on it.”
They walked along for a bit, smiling at their own thoughts. She could feel him struggling to make his decision, and she let him be. Then, finally, she felt him give in to something and take a deep breath.
“The twins will still be teaching you archery and spears, and Hector will still be in charge of boxing and sword fighting, but I’m taking over for all the grappling disciplines. Just a warning, this could still be vetoed by my father and uncle, no matter what I say.”