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Jeno hates waking up early, which is a little out of character for a son of Apollo.
“You’re the son of the sun god and you can’t even get up when the sun rises? Think about how your dad has to drive the sun chariot every morning!” Jaemin always teases, skipping into the Apollo cabin like it’s his own home to fetch Jeno for breakfast. Other times, he’ll shadow travel straight into the cabin, right next to Jeno’s bed, scaring the living shit out of him.
For a “child of death and darkness”, Jaemin is disconcertingly peppy at all times. He’s embraced some vampire-like traits to match the gothic design of the Hades cabin, preferring the lights to be low or dim at all times (and since he is the only, and therefore head counselor, he decides the rules) and preferring to wear black above all else, but that’s about all the stereotypes he matches.
“13 isn’t an unlucky number,” He boasts to anyone who will listen, “Since it’s part of my birthday! Therefore, Cabin 13 is the best place for me to be.”
Jeno kind of doesn’t understand how Jaemin functions, but how can he complain when he doesn’t fit the ideals of an Apollo kid himself? The only Apollo-like ability that he resonates with is vitakinesis, so much so that he’s already started researching med schools to apply to after undergraduate. The archery, eloquent speech, and the musical stuff - his brother Donghyuck’s gotten that all taken care of, as long as Jeno mans the infirmary. Thankfully, Jeno hasn’t had to lead a single sing-a-long or conduct a cabin inspection in months since Hyuck volunteered to replace Jeno as head counselor.
All that aside, though, today is the one day that Jeno doesn’t mind getting up early. For once, he’s up earlier than Jaemin, and he barges into the Hades cabin to prove it.
"Good gods Jen, you almost made me spill all the nectar into my coffee!" The other boy exclaims. Jaemin has clearly just woken up from the state of his hair, but that doesn't deter Jeno's excitement.
"You know what day it is," Jeno sing-songs happily, "Adoption day!"
Jaemin shoves Jeno out of his cabin so he can supposedly prepare for their departure, but Jeno knows he just wants to finish his coffee in peace before doing anything else. Jeno, having already packed a bag the night before in anticipation, has no choice but to go bother other campers while waiting for Jaemin to get ready.
He decides on his first victim easily, since Renjun is strolling over to the big house to collect cabin inspection papers for the day.
"Why are you awake so early? Did Hyuck put another lizard in your bed this week?" Renjun asks.
Jeno shakes his head in response. "No, Jaem and I finally got permission from Chiron to adopt a kitten! After, like, a week of us asking him every night at the bonfire. So we're gonna go to a shelter today and find the perfect one for camp!"
Renjun furrows his eyebrows. "Wait, we fight all these crazy monsters and animal combinations and you want another one to deal with? You gotta be kidding me. Don’t you remember the Chimera down in Virginia?"
"Well… I would assume we're picking up a normal, mortal kitten. It’ll be the perfect camp pet!"
"You should make sure Jaemin is on the same page, because I have definitely seen him playing around with some skeleton cats before." Renjun warns. He continues walking to the Big House but turns after a few seconds to call out. "Hey, you could've just gotten me to ask Chiron. My pretty privilege would've gotten us immediate approval. But you and Jaemin, hm?"
Jeno rolls his eyes. Yes, Renjun's pretty privilege and charmspeaking has helped in the past, but one thing he hadn't mentioned is that he wanted to adopt a pet for Jaemin. Even though Jeno is the resident cat person out of everyone at Camp Half-Blood, he wants Jaemin specifically to have company in the Hades cabin. Jaemin’s never mentioned that he’s lonely, but Jeno still feels like it’s gotta be lonely to be the only one living among twelve bunk beds.
As Jeno steps back into the Apollo cabin, stopping for a brief second to pick up a stray hyacinth blossom that’s fallen in the threshold, he bumps into Donghyuck.
“Oh dude, what the fuck. You’re glowing again,” Hyuck notes. Ironic, coming from their resident sunshine boy. It’s a less-known trait of Apollo children, especially if you aren’t in the dark with one, but they tend to glow based on emotions. “You must be so excited to get this cat. Don’t forget to bring extra ambrosia for Jaem, you know how he gets after he shadow travels.”
Jeno nods, but Donghyuck’s already distracted. “Renjun! wait up!” He runs off to chase after the Aphrodite boy.
The other campers are starting to wake up, and Jeno reminds some of his brothers and sisters to tidy up before Donghyuck and Renjun come around for cabin inspection. The Apollo cabin has a good reputation for having, as Donghyuck puts it, “lo-fi chill vibes with the plants and the music and everything”, but Renjun is notoriously strict about stray petals and leaves. Usually, Jeno would love to stay and watch Renjun and Donghyuck bicker over cabin inspection, but today he’s got more important things to do.
After he makes his own bed, Jeno double checks his bag to make sure he’s got everything. A plastic baggie of ambrosia, an extra canteen of nectar, a bottle of powerade, a wad of cash, and snacks. It’s not a real quest, so he hasn’t packed much - if everything goes right, they should be back before dinner time. But when you’re a demigod, things tend to go wrong a lot. With some reluctance, Jeno throws in an extra quiver of arrows.
“Hey, you ready?” Jaemin asks, stepping out of a shadow next to Jeno’s bed. He’s so startled that he drops his bow and slaps Jaemin on the arm, hard.
“Stop that! We’re about to shadow travel, you should be conserving your energy,” Jeno scolds. “And yes, I am ready.”
Jaemin holds out his hand expectantly, and Jeno grabs it.
ᓚᘏᗢ
Jeno’s shadow traveled with Jaemin enough times to know that Jaemin will stumble as they emerge from the shadows, so he’s already ready to catch Jaemin. Step one, look around and take in the surroundings. He’s learned to do that since the one time Jaemin had accidentally landed them twenty feet above the ground somewhere in Seattle, free-falling until they hit the ground. That was the time they realized that cross-country shadow traveling was not a move. This time, it seems like they’re on a very normal street, right next to a McDonald’s and a Bank of America.
Step two, check on Jaemin. He’s standing upright in Jeno’s grip, but his face is definitely paler than normal. Jeno unzips his backpack and digs out the bottle of Powerade and a granola bar. Sustenance helps cleanse the fatigue a little bit, even for short trips such as this one.
“Seriously, Jen? I told you Gatorade has more electrolytes.”
“And i’ve told you that Gatorade is too expensive! Suck it up, death boy. At least it isn’t strawberry flavored.”
Jaemin gulps down half of the Powerade, and hands it back to Jeno as he opens the granola bar. “Thanks.” He points to a plain looking, silver colored building behind the McDonald’s. “That’s one of the local Long Island SPCAs, we can just walk in.”
They approach the building carefully, because when you’re a demigod, you just have to always be careful. Fortunately, Jeno’s bow is usually covered by The Mist when they’re in public so he doesn’t have to worry about putting it away. Jeno notices that Jaemin’s fidgeting with his leather necklace, moving the beads around.
“I actually came in a couple days ago just to make sure there weren’t any monsters working here,” Jaemin whispers as they step into the SPCA. “I didn’t really have a clear reason for why I was visiting so I just told them that me and my significant other were thinking of adopting and would come back later.”
A lady at the front desk smiles as soon as she spots them. “Hey, Jaemin. Is this the boyfriend you were talking about? Good news, the kitten you were playing with last time is still here!”
Jeno side eyes Jaemin. Not only had he visited the location on his own and played with the cats, but he’d also told the worker that they’re dating. They’ve definitely been tiptoeing around defining their relationship for a while, to the point that Hyuck and Renjun have made some very pointed comments about them, but this is very, very interesting. They will definitely talk about this later.
“Sorry,” Jaemin whispers, nudging him with his arm. “You were taking care of Jisung’s leg that day so I decided to let you stay back in the infirmary.”
Jaemin walks up to the front to talk to the lady, and Jeno grabs a brochure titled Welcoming Your Furry Friend Home! and starts skimming through. Give your cat some toys for entertainment? They could definitely repurpose some weapons to be cat toys. Well, Jeno supposes, maybe they should invest in some real cat toys.
“Alright, boys, you can come and see her now.” The worker opens up a door on the side and ushers them to a room, where they sit on the floor. She steps out but returns rather quickly with a cat carrier. “Don’t let her out of the room, just play around with her a bit, and you can call for me when you’re ready.”
She sets the carrier down and leaves the room. Jaemin reaches over to open the door to the carrier, and a flash of fur promptly runs out and butts its head against Jeno’s thigh. It’s a tiny white kitten with electric blue eyes and the silkiest fur Jeno’s ever seen, and he gasps. For a second, he’s reminded of his three cats back at home with his mom, and he feels a little nostalgic. Then, he sneezes.
Jaemin laughs. “Okay, well this is Cream. I chose her because she seems super feisty and I think she’d fit in with the campers. Also, are you allergic to cats?”
Jeno, sniffling, lifts a hand to stroke the kitten. “Yes, but it’s fine because I was thinking she could just stay in your cabin.”
He's inexplicably drawn to Cream. Jaemin reaches out to pet her head, and the kitten’s purrs rumble louder than they should for a small cat. Cream looks up at Jeno, and her eyes flash a bright yellow for a split second before returning back to their original blue color. She climbs up his arm and makes herself at home on his shoulder, lightly digging her claws into his skin.
Jeno blinks. “Uh, did you see that?”
Jaemin shakes his head, more interested in scratching under the kitten’s chin. Cream mews in satisfaction and Jeno feels a little static shock run through his arm starting from where the kitten is perched. Well, Jeno has seen stranger things in his life as a demigod.
ᓚᘏᗢ
After playing with the cat and a few others for a while, they decide to go ahead and head back to the lobby.
Jaemin’s filling out the adoption papers, and they’ve already gotten Cream into a cat carrier. While he’s doing that, Jeno ends up awkwardly talking to the front desk lady, who has a name tag that reads “D. ART”.
“So,” Jeno starts out. “I guess we need to buy some cat toys. Do you recommend any specific types?”
“Y’all have chosen a pretty interesting one to adopt today,” she tells him, winking. “No toys needed for her. Make sure you let her fight some monsters with you guys sometime. Nice bow, by the way.”
Jeno nervously laughs. She shouldn’t be able to see his bow. “Uh, is fighting monsters normal for pet cats?”
She tilts her head. “You think this is a cat?”
Before Jeno can ask for elaboration, Jaemin taps on his shoulder and he’s momentarily distracted from the conversation. “Wait, does Camp Half-Blood have an address? Also, how much cash do you have on you? There’s an adoption fee that I completely forgot about.”
Once they’ve finished the paperwork, they’re ready to go back home. Jaemin’s assured Jeno that shadow travelling won’t affect the kitten, since she’s so young.
Jeno turns back to the lady. “Excuse me, but what’s your first name? In case we need to come back and ask for you again.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she says, smiling. “But it’s diona. You may not recognize it at first, but we have a lot in common.”
ᓚᘏᗢ
It isn’t until the boys have shadow travelled all the way back to the Apollo cabin and let Cream out of the carrier that Jeno realizes. They’re alone, the other campers probably out and about training across the camp. He slaps Jaemin’s arm while he’s finishing up the rest of the powerade, nearly making Jaemin spill it all over his shirt.
“Holy Hera. Pull out the fucking adoption papers.”
The top of the paper reads: SPCA (Society for all Pets, Coined by Artemis). Yep, Jeno’s pretty sure that’s not what the normal SPCA acronym means. Further down on the paper, he sees Breed: Abilities: electro-manipulation and rumbling.
“Jaem, I told Renjun we were gonna bring back a normal, mortal cat!” Jeno complains, throwing his hands in the air. Cream meows at them from the ground. “Did you not read any of the stuff on the adoption papers before signing? Or notice that you talked to the literal goddess of wild animals twice?”
“I’m literally dyslexic,” Jaemin retorts. “But look! Cream is gonna be perfect at Camp Half-Blood if she has her own powers. Chiron was actually the one who recommended that I go to this SPCA location, so it’s gotta be on purpose. Also, now we know your aunt is pretty cool.”
Honestly, Jeno is very satisfied. They’ve completed their mission - they went to the adoption shelter, brought home a cute electric cat (?), and Jaemin is still standing. But he decides to tease Jaemin a little more.
“Yes, and she also knows that we are in a relationship,” he says and raises an eyebrow at Jaemin, who immediately blushes. Jaemin’s face is always very expressive, which is why he can never lie to Jeno successfully.
“Um,” Jaemin stutters. “That was an excuse. If you want it to be, I mean. I don’t. But like, I didn’t mean to just force that on you-”
Before he can offer up more defenses, Jeno throws his arms around Jaemin’s neck and presses his lips to Jaemin’s, pulling away after a couple of seconds. “You idiot, I’ve been waiting for you to say that for months!”
He pulls away, laughing at Jaemin’s stunned expression. In all the time he’s gotten to know Jaemin, this is the first time he’s seen the other boy so lost for words. Thankfully, Cream brushes up against Jaemin’s legs and meows insistently, so he snaps out of it and reaches down to scratch between her ears.
“Lee Jeno, you never fail to surprise me. Now let’s go tell everyone that we’re home.”