#idk if the plastic cover will break if i try to pry it apart | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ruyi-li · 3 months

Text

chapter four - childhood's end

pairing - luke castellan x unclaimed afab!reader warnings - a little depressing, deals with my interpritation of luke's mum, angst :( fan cast of younger! luke idk his name but creds! masterlist - found here note - sorry, senior year started and its a pain in my ass :( will try to upload as regularly as possible! :D (also unrevised)

A mid-autumn sprinkling of frost adorned the undergrowth of camp half blood, covering the ground in a shimmering veil of crystal-cut diamonds glimmering softly in the first rays of breaking dawn. The early morning had been peaceful.

Until, again, you slipped.

You had been dozing off peacefully, lulled to sleep by the faint smell of charcoal and the melodic notes from panpipes of satyrs that wake with the first light. As per usual, throughout the night you had been restless; tossing and turning and wiggling and squirming because not a single spot on your bunk seemed comfortable enough. And your tired sleep-deprived body had given in, the second the sun – driven by Apollo’s chariot – cracked over the horizon. You had shut your eyes and expected comforting darkness, but the situation that you found yourself in, left a bitter taste on your tongue.

You stood in a dilapidated house. The wallpaper was peeling off in stripes and the sharp stench of mould struck you all at once. You looked around, observing the setting. You stood in what appears to be the living room with a bright red couch, it’s foam showing through multiple tares on the surface, moth bitten and falling apart. A few toys were strewn across the floor – a wooden elephant, a toy car and two miniatures of plastic snakes. A mantel sat opposite towards it above an old school box television set, projecting static into the room. You walked closer to the pictures, its frames dented and chipped. There were perhaps only two – or three and within each one of them was a brown-eyed boy with dark curls. Even Though he was significantly younger, you still recognised his face. You took a step back.

Glass broke and hysterical cries echoed throughout the house. Your heart skipped a beat.

“LUKE! LUKE! WHERE ARE YOU! LUKE!”

The voice was frail and it cracked briefly multiple times throughout it’s demands. ‘Where am I?’ Almost instantly, after the screams, you heard a thump and the padding of two small feet on wooden floorboards, a voice crying, “coming mother!” and a mop of brown curls whizzing past you. Curious, you fell into step and followed after him. Watching a young pyjama-clad Luke rushing to his mother’s side, embracing her briefly and dashing to the bathroom, climbing a stool to fish out a cylinder teal and white capsules. Returning to the hysteric cries from his mother’s bed. He gave her the pill and an offering of chlorinated tap water to wash it all down.

The curly haired boy stayed with his mother until the crying had subsided and she had nodded off to sleep before getting up, moving to the moth-bitten couch. He brought his knees to his chest, hugged himself and began to cry.

It fractured your heart. You took one step towards the small child, intending to wrap him up in your arms. But, you couldn’t move anymore. You tried to take another step, but hit face-first into a wall of nothingness. Desperately, you paced around the room, prying, probing, but nothing would let you through. You were stuck. ‘I can’t move from where my roots are.’ You paused your kicking and prying and clawing at the barrier, and instead remained still, closing your eyes.

You will yourself to imagine, to pick up pieces from your own memories and turn them substantial. Weaving spools of vividly kaleidoscopic memories into a sprawling tapestry of amber sands and turquoise waters. The uncanny scent of cinnamon danced across the sea shore, carried by the winds towards the ocean. You let your body reminisce the senses, lulled into languidness by the familiarly foreign scents of your childhood home. The young boy, Luke, looks around him as well.

He looks at the sky and marvels at the sand, ‘His tears are gone,’ you exhaled, letting your body relax in nostalgia.

A bright smile shone on young Luke’s face as he darted about the stretch of beach. Running from the lush coastal plains to the surf. There was a spark in his eyes. Though, in all honesty, you couldn’t place what it was. But the corners of his eyes were creased and his smile was bright and that was all that mattered to you.

You let yourself smile as he ran to a wave. Running, jumping and skipping, fading. Fading. No, why was he fading? Why? Why was the entire scene fading? The crashing of the waves gave way to the chirping of cicadas and raindrops falling on rooftops of metal and marble and ceramic all alike.

You woke up. Gasping for breath, ‘Luke.’

It must have been five, or six in the morning, but the sky was still streaked with hues of blue and purple and pink. As not to awaken those who were not already up, you gingerly placed your bare feet one step at a time. From haphazardly woven linen Rugs rugs to the cold of lacquered oak floorboards, you mapped out a route to the cabin head’s bedroom.

When you arrived, look at already gotten dressed, And was sheathing his celestial bronze sword. You softly knocked at the doorway. “Luke..?” you ventured out. “Oh, y/n!” The stern, seriousness of Luke’s face was replaced by a softer look; eyes crinkling slightly and the edges of his smile turning upwards as he approached you. Opening his arms.

You gave in, looping your arms around his chest, tucking your nose to the crook of his neck, you breathed in notes of pine and ozone and another scent you couldn’t quite place, but was definitely his. Luke kissed the top of your head. “Hey starlight,” he leaned back, smoothing down your frazzled hair

“I’m gonna go out and train for a bit, wanna join?”

“Sure,” you replied, then, you glanced at your pyjamas, sheepishly. “Just let me put something else on.” Slipping away tentatively from Luke’s embrace, you went to quickly get changed out of your nightclothes.

#luke castellan x reader #luke castellan x you #two threads of yarn #luke castellan #pjo luke #pjo series #pjo tv show #percy jackson #cloudy-li writes

52 notes · View notes