Midnight Snacking {open}

[Zephyr McCall]

Although Zephyr had his own apartment with it’s own kitchen and stock of food, Zephyr found himself in the mess hall. From time to time he would spend some of his meals with his younger siblings since Eliza and Conor didn’t always come over and he didn’t always go over to their place either. They really should consider the idea of just moving in to one of their places and reuniting their family. It had been weeks maybe even a month since Zephyr last had a roommate and he hated spending time in his apartment alone. He liked knowing there was someone in the apartment with him even if he stayed holed up in his room by himself, just the fact that there was someone there was enough for him. He just didn’t sleep as well he discovered when Eliza and/or Conor weren’t there. It reminded himself too much of the first few weeks maybe even months after his twin brother had died, he had been used to hearing the soft sound of his brother breathing in the bunkbed below him for so many years that the first night after his brother’s death he’d slept in his mom’s bed with her, something he hadn’t done since he was four or five, back when both he and his brother had to keep their closet door shut because they swore there was something in there, and thinking back on it now, since he was a demigod the chances of there actually being something there were high.

It wasn’t as if Zephyr had run out of food, he could had zipped by the strawberry field and grabbed a bushel of strawberries if he had really wanted to but he decided to venture to the mess hall. It brought back memories of when he was a teenager, and coming here at night when no one else was around also sparked the memory of when Eliza had first perked his interest.

Zephyr was dressed in a plain blue tee shirt and a pair of Red Sox pajama bottoms with a pair of old sneakers he had slipped on so his feet wouldn’t get covered in dirt from the trek through the forest and camp to the mess hall. Zephyr had decided to make himself a sandwich and easily found white bread, nutella, strawberry jam and sliced turkey. It was an interesting combo but it was pretty good.

[Levi Faollan]

Levi was hungry. his stomach rumbled as he laid in his bedroom and stared up at the ceiling. He sat up and put on a pair of his leather combat boots to go with his Captain America shirt and pants. He opened up the refrigerator, which at the moment was filled with a massive amount of bottled water and something that looked like it was growing on the ceiling. Levi would have to get some bleach and a haz mat suit to clean that out later. But now was not the time for that. He was hungry. He had missed dinner that night in the mess hall due to working on coordinating the use of some more campers for the nightime patrols around the inside of the barrier. Levi had lost a handful of campers after the capture the flag game, so he had to do everything he could to try to work with what he had and maybe get a few others to join up on the patrols. For now it was a volunteer basis, but most of the Ares cabin had made it manditory for their people to be on patrol. Levi was greatful that the cabin had taken it upon themselves to be the guardians of the camp. Truly, he was impressed.

The Mess Hall, that was Levi's meandering destination. It was strange that the camp was so quiet. It seemed a bit surreal. But luckily the Harpies didn't much mess with the adults too much. Levi remembered being chased from one end oc camp to the other by a harpy once because he had a bad case of sleep walking when he was younger. Seeing the tables, Levi thought back to the lonely times of being a son of Zeus. There wasn't many other Zeus camperrs when he was younger. Only once or twice could he remember actually sharing a room with someone before they would go off on a quest to get themselves killed. Levi didn't much put stock in savoring moments with his demi-god siblings, it just made him weak. Levi then found that he wasn't alone in his midnight munchy madness. Zephyr was there too.

"Hey man, hungry much?" Levi asked as he looked around to rummage for something to eat. Levi grabbed some wheat bread, turkey and ham, lettuice, pickels, spicy brown mustard, and swiss cheese to make himself a sandwich. He shoved it in the toaster oven till the cheese was nice and gooey before starting in on his favorite sandwich in the whole world. "That really is the best sandwich ever." Levi commented before looking at Zephyr's plate. "Don't tell me you're getting Eliza's weird cravings for strange food. Did you get her knocked up again?" Levi asked jokingly. He hunted around for a little longer and came up with a glass of milk. "You know, this must be a magic fridge cuz it has EVERYTHING." Levi took a deep sip of milk before coming back up with a milk mustache. "So, how's things been with you?" He asked.

[JinHyun Lee]

The sounds of pages being moved and passed by someone, the library was empty and the lights were off, all of them but just one light in the back of the library. Jin Hyun Lee, son of Athena, was reading some old books. He loved to read and to learn new ways to fight, to discuss, to achieve his goals or the goals of his students. Usually he spent hours of his free time in the library and he loved so much to be in there that he almost always lost track of time. "...the double blade sword is a very dangerous sword for someone that..." he was reading when the sound that could be thought to be from a beast was heard in the library.

JinHyun stopped reading and put his hand on his stomach, then the growl was heard again. JinHyun sighed and shook his head. He looked at the window and noticed tyhat the sunlight had left that part of the world long time ago. "great... I missed dinner again..." he stretched out and looked back at the book, then at his watch and shrugged. "I'll finish this chapter later..." he said and got up.

He turned off the light and walked out. He looked around and noticed that the camp was completely deserted, campers should be sleeping, harpies should be out there checking if any camper tried to escape from their cabains. He walked without worrying, harpies almost never bothered adults in the camp, only those that were really young adults. His stomach growled again and looked at the Mess Hall. He decided to go there and eat something.

He had his own apartment and had no roommate, but he didn't have anything in the fridge, he had forgotten to give the last raider his list of stuff, so he had to eat in the mess hall for another week at least. He walked in and heard some voices. He frowned and recognized the voices, he walked a bit more and then he saw the owners of the voices. Zephyr and Levi. "Good evening" he said smiling at them.

"I see that tonight I wasn't the only one hungry." he said walking to the fridge and opened it. He smiled when he saw that there it was some of the Korean dishes that he had asked the Mess Hall coordinator to have for him. He grabbed the plate with the dish and closed the fridge. "Chajjangmyeong..." he smiled and looked at Levi and Zephyr. "so... how have you guys been?" he asked because even when Zephyr was one of his best friends, and Levi was his good friend too, JinHyun went out on missions a lot and tend to lose some information in the camp.

[Zephyr McCall]

When Zephyr turned around he found himself face to face with Levi. “Just a little midnight snack that’s all.” Zephyr said with a smile. Zephyr looked at Levi’s plate and then looked at his own and chuckled. “Oh god no. Not yet at least, as far as I know, I’m sure she would have told me by now if she was. But no, still just have the one kid. And don’t judge the sandwich until you try it. It’s frelling delicious.” Zephyr said taking a bite of his sandwich. Zephyr chewed his food when another person walked in. It was JinHyun, Zephyr’s good friend. Zephyr chuckled lightly as JinHyun spoke in Korean which only JinHyun and Zephyr through his magical powered means could understand.

Taking another bite before Zephyr spoke up answering both of his friend’s questions about what was going on and how he had been. “I’ve been better, honestly.” Zephyr said. He wasn’t about to go into how he had been having trouble sleeping and sometimes ended up cat-napping in the library where it was the quietest during the day while Eliza was around. It was just the matter of having someone around that helped him sleep sometimes. There was nothing that his two friends could do about it though.

“Thinking about asking Liza if we should move in together. I mean we do have a kid after all and it’s not like either of us has a roommate to worry about upsetting about the move, you know. Besides it’d be good for Conor to have both his parents under one roof instead of always having sleepovers, right?“ Zephyr said as he quickly polished off his sandwich. Having such a fast metabolism sucked sometimes but it also meant that he could eat a lot more and still look good even if he didn’t exercise everyday, which he did anyways. “What about you two?” Zephyr asked.

[Levi Faollan]

“If you say so Zippo. I’m just saying that’s a monstrosity of a sandwich.” Levi stated as he took another bite of his sandwich. Soon the two old friends were joined by someone new. It was Jin the son of Athena. Levi didn’t have anything against the Korean born man, but he was always speaking Korean. Once again there was nothing wrong with that. But Levi thought he would learn Korean one of these days. “Hey Jin. Few more people and we’d have ourselves a little party.” Levi gave a small laugh. He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment as the milk gave him a bit of a brain freeze. It was good to have a nice, cold glass of milk. He missed hanging out with his squad buddies. They were a special breed of demi-god, which was for sure.

“Yeah, being better is kind of a strange thing for this place.” Levi snorted as he took another bite of his sandwich before going to rummage for some chips. He was glad that he could really find nearly anything he wanted in the refrigerator. Yay for magical items. “Dr. Phil would have a field day with this place and its problems.” Levi stated before coming up with a couple of cans of pringles. “Don’t even get me started about the overly hormonal teenagers here. Some of them are enough to make you want to pull your hair out. Though to be quite honest I don’t think that we were much better back in the day” Levi thought back to the argument he had with an Ares camper two nights ago that he had a date with some girl from the Athena cabin and that Levi could go screw himself. “If it wasn’t for us dying out and being hunted, I wouldn’t be so lenient about all of the crap going on here.” Levi shook his head darkly.

“Life is kindda blah right now. Since the Lamia not much has really been happening.” Levi yawned and stretched. “Man I’ve been looking to maybe ask Lori the same thing. But mostly cuz she’s always so low in the winter. I want to help her and Elysia as much as I can. I have my suspicions about Elysia, you know that zeph,” Levi took in a deep breath. He knew that these guys could keep things on the down low. Levi raised a hand to prove defense. “Don’t get me wrong. My kid or not, I love her. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me, but I have a feeling that my dick of a dad has something to do with it if you get my drift.” Levi darkly turned back to his sandwich. This was stupid, it took a special kind of jerk to get with your sons girl while he was away serving for a country that didn’t want his kind.

[JinHyun Lee]

--> Chajjangmyeon <--

---

JinHyun waved at Levi too as he was taking the plate with Chajjangmyeon off the fridge. It was his favorite dish from Korea and he could it it all day long everyday of every week. So then he sat on a counter and looked at the men as they talked. Zephyr was well know for his high methabolism, so it wasn't weird to see him around with something in his mouth and in Mess Hall he always had the biggest snacks. Then it was Levi, son of Zeus, he was an amazing soldier, Jinhyun really admired him, although he almost never let him know that.

About Levi's comment and Zephyr's refusal, jinHyun smiled and shook his head. "I don't think this camp can handle another little Zephyr coming and going" He smiled and then grabbed with the chopsticks some pasts from his plate and put it in his mouth. then he looked at him when he said he had been being better, then Levi commented about a Dr.Phil and jinHyun frowned, he felt like someone that had listened a word in a foreign language and couldn't have understood it even f his life had depended on that. He knew then how others felt when he spoke korean, which he did when he was upset or excited. "Dr. Phil?"

But then he smiled at Levi's comment about the hormon problems in the camp. "Well, we definetely were like that, I can still remember Zephyr in an endless love-hate relationship with Eliza, and you and Lerelei... well " He shrugged and smiled, then drank a glass of aloe juice. He remembered that he was always in the library, always like a book worm, he hardly ever dated someone back in the days. Maybe only that Tychte's daughter that was so sweet with him, she even helped him with the DCA's chip when he came back. 6 years from that now, and she died a month after that in the hands of a chimera. He still blamed himself for that.

Then he ate another amount of the pasta with black beans sauce on it. Zephyr started telling them that he wanted to ask Eliza if she wanted them to move together. JinHyun almost chocked with the pasta. He coughed a couple of times and then drank from the aloe juice. He knew Zephyr almost since his first days in the camp and those words were like a miracle, maybe not even the seer could have seen that coming!

"Well that would be a surprise, but I think is time for you two to do it, as you said Connor needs his parents under the same roof, besides he will understand his gifts much better if he has the ones who can explain them to him right on the room next to his." he said and then looked at Levi he also was thinking on asking the same thing to Lorelei. He smiled and wasn't as shocked as with Zephyr's announcement.

but then he told them about Elysia's origin. JinHyun frowned and thought for a moment, "Father or mother aren't those who give birth or help conception, but the ones that live day by day with the kid in question." he said and looked at Levi. That was something he had read once. "I don't know how upset could you be at the thought of your own father doing that to you and Lorelei, but Elysia already knows you as a father and you have been a true father for her, if you want to do the right thing for her, move in with them."

JinHyun didn't have those problems, but he knew what it was to be loved by a woman that wasn't really his mother, He respected Athena, but for him his mother was the nurse who took care of him since he was a baby. and even when he lived with his father too, he never loved him, so... he was sure Connor and Elysia would be happier if those who loved them took care of them.

[Zephyr McCall]

Zephyr chuckled as Levi spoke about Dr. Phil having a field day with this place and all the problems that came with it and how JinHyun didn’t quite understand who the guy was. “Don’t fret over it Jin, Dr. Phil’s just some TV personality it’s okay if you don’t know who he is.” Zephyr said patting the son of Athena on the shoulder. “You never know Jin, you never know. Besides my son may have taken a lot after me but we’ll just wait and see if he’s taken that aspect after me.” Zephyr said. “But also you never know what fate has in store for us”.

Zephyr laughed. “Tell me about it, Levi. But in all honesty…I think a whole lot of people are glad that I’m past that stage in life. And I know for a fact I wasn’t much better back in the day.” He said. Zephyr smiled as Jin commented about the way things were in the past with his relationship with Eliza. It really had been a love-hate rocky relationship but he couldn’t help but wonder if they hadn’t been forced to lose communication with each other once they left camp if they would have still had that kind of relationship or if they’d have what they do now. A slightly healthier budding relationship. Zeph thought it was because of Conor that they we together again, and he was probably right. Conor was also probably the reason why Eliza had calmed down a lot since the last time Zeph was with her all those years ago.

“Easy there JinHyun.” Zephyr said patting his friend slightly on the back when he started choking. “Yeah who’d have ever thought that I would settle down with a girl and move in with them? I definitely didn’t see it coming anytime soon. But I mean it makes sense and just between you guys. I’m still crazy about that girl as I ever was. It’s just not as hazardous to my health as it was back in the day” he said with a chuckle.

Zephyr raised his eyebrow as Levi spoke about his suspicion of his own kid. “You know Levi, as much of a…well I’m not going to repeat what you said since you can get away with it. I don’t think I could, but I doubt your dad would do that to you. I mean you’d think sure they can do whatever they want but I doubt he’d do that…but then again…I..nevermind. “ Zeph said deciding not to finish that thought.

Zeph nodded with JinHyun’s comment, “He’s right you know. Both of our dads Levi weren’t exactly father figures in our lives growing up for the most part. Heck, my two uncles were more fathers to me then my real dad ever was.” Zephyr said

“You know I missed just hanging out with you guys. We should do this more often. You know have guys night.” Zephyr said.

[Levi Faollan]

“Jin, Dr. Phil is a big name psychologist who has a day time TV show. Dude, I’ve done some research, Dr. Phil is actually a son of Dionysus. He takes more into the mind aspect of Mr.D than the alcohol side if you get my drift.” Levi blinked and tried to choke back some laughter as Jin nearly choked on his food. “Careful there dude, I’d really hate to do the paperwork on your choking to death during a fridge raid. The paperwork is bad when someone skins their knee on patrol.” Levi could just imagine the paperwork when one of the Aphrodite brats broke a nail. To hear them tell it, the world was over and ending right there and now. In his opinion, there was no room for perfectly manicured nails in this place.

“I don’t think any of us were right in the head at that stage.” Levi said with a wink of his eye. “Gods know I wasn’t exactly keeping it in the pants if you know what I mean.” Aphrodite only knew how many times him and Lori had a fling. Or how many times Zeph and Eliza got caught in the stables or the fields hanging out. “What about you Jin? Any ladies you were after when we were younger?” Levi gave Jin a grin. Sure he was teasing a little bit, but you could never tell with the Athena kids. They were the quiet crushers. Zeph mentioned the weirdness about him settling down. “Don’t feel bad man, I never thought I would end up with a cute little girl. I swear though Connor better not take after you and go after her or I swear….” Levi wagged his finger in a fatherly fashion at Zephyr. It was all in good humor of course. Levi liked Connor and he was such a great little kid.

“You don’t know how vindictive and evil my dad can be. I mean really….” Levi shook his head as he thought about the things his dad had done. “My dad can be such a horndog. I mean how many sons and daughters of Zeus did we see come and go through camp before Queen Hera knocked them off on a quest. With her constantly trying to kill me, I doubt I’ll make it to a wedding with Lori. And if I do manage to marry the woman I can guarantee that Queen Hera would try to make my marriage a living hell.” Levi frowned as he then took another swig of milk from his glass.

Levi nodded in response to his friends comments about being a real dad. It was true, but Levi couldn’t exactly say that he was going to be a good role model. “I dunno if I know how to be a good dad. My dad was pretty much nonexistent and only came down once in a while to tell me I wasn’t doing a good enough job at being a son of Zeus. My step-dad wasn’t much better. Walked out on me and my mom and my brothers and sisters on Christmas Eve. Said he was going to the store and never came back. With that kind of track record I don’t think I’ll be a good dad. No matter how much I want to be.” Levi stared into his milk as if it was going to tell him that he was wrong.

“A guys night? Sounds like a blast. I’m sure I could get a bunch of awesome movies and we can hang out. I got the hook up on some good drinks if you know what I mean.” Levi said with a huge grin.

[JinHyun Lee]

Both Zephyr and Levi explained to Jin who was Dr.Phil. Levi even gave them the info about him being also a demigod, which was fine with JinHyun, the only problem was that he didn't know him, in fact he had never seen him on TV. "I see... I got it" he nodded, but then looked at them. "before coming to camp I spent my life in Muay Thai, kick boxing and other kinds of fights, so I didn't have the chance to watch TV back then." she said and ate anoth mouthful of chajjangmyeon.

Zephyr and Levi talked about how they were back in the days, while he swallowed his pasta, then Levi asked him if he has had any girl back then. "you know me, I'm the classic bookworm and arenaworm, so I almost never had chance to date, besides your two, special Zeph was the lucky ones with girls" he winked. He remembered then the name of the Tyche girl that helped him and that he once thought could be his first love. "I only dated Pamela..." he didn't go deeper there. he didn't even know if they remembered sweet Pamela and how she died 6 years ago.

He looked at Levi just after he stopped coughing and smiled shaking his head. "Don't worry about paperwork Levi, if the DCA didn't kill me a stripe of pasta won't do the dirty job!" He said and drank another sip of aloe juice. Then continued listening at Zeph and Levi, he nodded and shook his head depending on what they said. "If you love her so much, ask for Lady Hestia for her blessing and marry her!" he drank another sip of juice. "and Levi, don't be such a party pooper, I know Queen Hera is a very tough lady, but Hestia would protect your home, because well, she always protects family."

Then he looked at both men and smiled. "Levi is right, we don't know what would Lady Tyche or the Fates will have prepared for us in the future, so don't let this pass, get a hold of yourselves and be brave, tell those women what your really feel for them." Maybe he was talking because of his mother, maybe because he would never know if he would have been happy with Pamela or not, he just knew that Zeph and Levi had with them the women they loved and they should be with them and their kids.

Then Levi spoke about how his father was and that he feared to be a bad father. JinHyun remembered his father and then he listened about Zeph's uncles. He smiled and nodded. "Look, my real father never believed I was his, he asked for a parental test. Then he only cared about me because I was good at fighting, I was his meal ticket. I never got from him a hug, a good advice in life... nothing. Yet My step mom, she was both father and mother to me. She was who saved my life as a baby and then as a teen and now... it's my only contact with the mortal world." he said and then smiled.

"you're a great man, both of you are, so be brave in your most important mission, to be fathers!" he said and then opened wide his mouth for another mouthful of pasta. Then Zeph talked about a guys night and Levi about movies and drinks. "I'm up for that! I really need to get my mind off those books and camper's fights. sometimes they really get on my nerves!" which wasn't difficult, but he didn't want to kill a camper in a moment of rage. "I can cook the snacks, I swear to stick to american snacks!"

[Zephyr McCall]

Zephyr chuckled as Levi mentioned Conor taking after him and going after Elysia. “Can’t make any promises he already takes after me a lot as it is, so no promises but he’ll learn if he does.” Zephyr said. He chuckled more at Jin’s comment about him being lucky with the girls but it quickly faded when Jin brought up Pamela. He had remembered setting sights on her at one time but then Eliza and him got a little more physical with their jealousy of looking at others and Jin started dating the girl and he wasn’t about to mess with that and ruin a friendship.

“Well, Levi, just don’t do what your dad did and you’ll be a great father. At least you have a learning curve. I didn’t get the chance to bond with my kid before he had an idea of what I was like except for stories that Liza told him. I somewhat wish I could have been there for all his firsts though you know. But with your kid you can. I somewhat envy you.” Zephyr said. “Unlike the two of you, the only father figures I had were my uncles and they weren’t perfect but they did a damn good job with what they had.” Zephyr said.

“Okay Jin. As long as they’re American snacks I don’t feel like experimenting with any of your weird snacks” he said with a chuckle. “We could have it at my place. It’s just me for now until they find me a replacement…or I decide to move in with Liza, which I think I might. So just let me know when you two are coming over and I’ll clean up a bit.” He said.