Impossible Year

Peter’s parent’s would probably have a fit if they found out that he had been spending a lot of time outside of the boundaries of New Rome. Although the temples we’re apart of the Camp Jupiter, it was such a distance away that it made them uncomfortable. This was exactly why he was insistent on coming to places like this, because he was a man now and he could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.

His feet felt cold against the temple flooring, and it would probably be an odd sight to some to see a man walking bare-feet around the temple area but that was because they didn’t need their feets like he needed his own. He move with the grace and movement of any normal person with two pair of working eyes. Yet with Peter’s eyes, despite being a brilliant set of green, would always have an unfocused and faraway look to them because he was blind and couldn’t see in the conventional way.

If one looked closely, they would see that his gaze was never ahead, but always towards the ground, staring below as if there was something particularly interesting down there.Yet he still walked without any hindrances, without any lapses, he was completely in control.

Yet completely lost at the same time. He had meant to find the statue of Ceres, but had somehow ended up at the statue of Pluto, which was rather unfortunate because that meant that Ceres was a couple of paces away. Stopping briefly a few feet away, hands in his pocket, Peter’s ears perked up at the sound of a voice. “ Is there a reason you're praying to Pluto?” He inquired rather brashly. “What? Asking for redemption for something you did?”

“Actually no, I can’t” The brown skinned male revealed, turning around so that his body fully faced the other man. His gaze remained rooted towards the flooring. “You see, there’s this thing called blindness, kinda hinders me from knowing exactly what you're doing.”  He prodded sarcastically.  "And to be fair, most people here only come to the temple when they want something."

When the stranger revealed that he was a legacy of Pluto, Peter was rather unreactive to the news and simply filled the knowledge away. “ Uh huh interesting,” he said, but his tone clearly portrayed his disinterest in the lineage of the other man. Some might. But he didn’t.  “Do you know where the shrine for Ceres is? Or better yet Neptune? “  He inquired, effectively changing the topic.

“No need to apologize dude,” Peter reassured as he cracked his knuckles. “It’s better when people don’t notice anyway, they don’t try to coddle me and treat me as if i’m incapable.” He really hated that, he wasn’t incapable, he could do anything a person with sight could. At least he tried to, he was aware that there we’re limits but that didn’t mean he needed to be treated like a piece of fine china.

Peter sense movement as the other man spoke, giving him directions to the temple of Neptune and Ceres, and he frowned in response. When the man offered his aide, Peter’s nose wrinkled in response. “ I’m not helpless, I can find it on my own” He proclaimed, taking a step back and away from from the other man.

Maybe the other guy was simply being nice, but he couldn’t help but feel as though he was only trying to direct him because of his ‘disability’ , which didn’t sit well with him. Huffing slightly, he tried to be less defensive against the other. “Sorry, but you obvious have better things to do than to be helping a complete stranger find his grandparent’s statues.” Truthfully he hadn’t ever been to the temples before, his parents were afraid that an accident would happened, he wouldn’t have found it either if it he hadn’t gotten directions out of his brother. Speaking of which, he really hoped he hadn't told their parents where he had went, although given that neither of his parents had rushed frantically inside the temple area yet meant that he hadn’t let it slipped. Yet at least.

He turned his head towards the direction the other man had said his grandparent’s statues we’re and her furrowed his brow. “How far away are they exactly?”

The other guy had a point.  “True,” He said lamely as he pocketed his hands and shuffled his feet against the floor of the temple. “But that’s because I've never been out here before ya know? Parent would freak out if they found out that I came here alone.”  

When the Legacy of Pluto explained why he didn’t have anything better to do, Peter snorted in response. “Your life sounds thrilling bro,” he said, hoping the other caught onto the sarcasm. Sarcasm seemed to be lost on most people nowadays. “Blacksmithing?” He wrinkled his nose once more. “I thought you said you were a legacy of Pluto? Not Hephaestus…” Thinking more on the man’s words he realized another thing that was odd about his statement. “And who Blacksmiths in their backyard?”  

“If you say so big guy,” Peter sniffed, taking out a hand in favour of rubbing his nose with his thumb and walking in tow behind the older demigod. To any bystander It would look as though Peter was walking unfocused as his gaze remained towards the ground, but he followed Gem without much effort. “Please, I walked all the way here mostly by myself,” He snorted confidently. “I think I keep up long enough to get to reach the shrines.”

“Hey big guy,” he suddenly called, quickening his pace so that he was standing at his side. “What’s your name anyway, unless you like being referred to as Big guy?”

"Oh, I see. You have over protective parents." He didn't need to be a therapist to know that. "That tends to happen when someone's child is left at a disadvantage." He shrugged his shoulders nonchlantaly. "I just shrugged my shoulders." Gem teased with a grin. "And I'm grinning too."

Gem rolled his eyes, unfolding his arms. "I am a legacy of Pluto. I'm also a legacy of Vulcan." He corrected. "And I blacksmith in my backyard. Is that a problem for you? No? Good." Gem had decided that he would be his normal self with this guy instead of trying to be polite.

"If you say so." Gem smirked, folding his arms over his chest.

"Well, my name is Jawahar Al-Addid, but my friends call me 'Gem'." He turned his head to look at the blind man. "You can call me Jawahar. What's your name?"

“ Well i’m an adult now, so I would appreciate if they gave me some space,” His mother wasn’t so bad, at least she didn’t try to feed him like his dad. Don’t get him wrong, he loved his old man to death, but he couldn’t do anything as long as he had a say.

“I really don’t need you telling me these things,” He said, shoving the other man playfully as the two walked, using a little more force than necessary. “ What’s next, you're going tell me you're eyeing some chick coming our way?” He was well aware that the area around was rather sparsely populated and that there was no one coming in their direction, he was just making a point.

“I know so big guy,” Peter shot back with a confident look on his face.

“Uh… how about no,” He asserted, wrinkling his nose in response. “I’ll stick with Big guy thank you very much, least I can pronounce that.” When this Gem guy asked him for his name, Peter turned his head slightly towards where he calculated to be the man’s shoulder blade. “ Peter, nothing special, but it’s my name so I can’t complain.”

“Considerate?” Peter mused, raising his hand to rub his nose. “ If by consider you mean annoying then sure, i’m sorry for not accepting it,”  He hummed in respond at the man’s statement that he wasn’t checking out any chicks. “If you say so, though you might want to keep your attention focused ahead, you might end up tripping if you're not careful.” Scratching his chin as he feet  roamed along the ground.“

Peter snorted at the other man’s comment, little did he know, and shrugged. “ You’re taller than me aren’t you? Therefore you are a Big guy.”  He explained slowly. “It’s really not that difficult to understand,”

“What’s wrong with big guy anyway? I don’t know what else to call you,” He claimed. “And no I will not call you by your first name. I can't even spell that." He paused as he thought of the nickname the man said his friends referred to him as "Gem sounds pretty lame…. How about Gemini?” He thought about it more and nodded his head in confirmation. “Yeah Gemini sounds pretty good.”

“Ok bro, cool story,” Peter surmised dismissively with a small smirk on his face. “Your a legacy of Pluto and Vulcan, can’t imagine your life being very boring but ok,” Actually, his forehead creased and he found himself concentration hard on the various activities the man said he often did in his free time. “Well I can, but I prefer to think your life is more thrilling than most others.”

The smirked widened into a sly grin and he nodded, rubbing his nose with his hand, as he moved in sync with the man at his side. “Not going to question how I know that?” He poked curiously. “ Smart.”

“Ugh I rather not,” He said when the other man offered for him to call him by his first name. “ That’s just way too formal.” When Gem said he was actually a Gemini, Peter quirked his brow his expressionless eyes dilating somewhat. “You are? Interesting, even more reason to refer to you as Gemini, big guy,”

“So are we getting any closer to the temple or what?” The legacy of Neptune inquired more wondering than impatient.

“Yeah, so do a million other people big guy,” Peter scoffed, rubbing his nose with his right hand. “I meant that, I expected your life to be more thrilling, less domesticated.” Even if he was only a legacy he was still a direct descendent of Pluto therefore, in Peter’s mind, he shouldn’t have just any normal mundane life.

“Oh, so now you’re curious?” He laughed, his lips twisting into a half-smile, as he shrugged a shoulder. “It’s an ability of mine, a gift from my granddad I guess,” He explained all the while shaking his head. “Seismic sense, I can “see” most things from vibrations in the ground. Still colour blind and illiterate so don’t really know how helpful the skill is, what have been better if he just blessed me with good eyesight or something.”

Peter gave Gem a wry grin and frantically began to wave his hand in front of his face, in particular his eyes which remained motionless despite the movement of the legacy of Neptune hands. “ Forgetting something?” The blind demi-god pointed out. “ I can’t see, which is why I was asking you if we we’re there yet”

Peter stuffed his hands into the folds of his pockets. “Because I don’t settle for the mundane,” He snorted humorlessly. He raised his head upwards “No offense,” he added as an afterthought. “I can like to test my limits rather than sit around and pretend that to be something i’m not.” He gave Gem a wry grin. “That would be a regular human being, if you didn’t quite catch on yet.”

“Well… I can’t see the details, so far all I know you could be a cow,” He mused with a half-shrug, before he furrowed his brow. “ I don’t even know how to respond to that suggestion, Sure it would be nice to see but…” He hesitated, his blindness had become a defining aspect of his life and something that he couldn’t really see not being apart of himself as much as he would love to be free of it. “Besides I’m not going to be your little guinea pig for you to use your voodoo magic on,”

Peter stuck out his tongue at the taller man. “ And accomplish what exactly? It’s harder for me to see stationary objects, even when a human isn’t actively moving they're still giving off some seismic energy,” He huffed. “ Which is why i’m follow you dude, keep up with the program.”

Peter shrugged. “It’s because you choose to live in a Roman utopia, rather than go questing or adventuring is why your live is regular,” He explained. “Dude, you are a legacy of one of the big three, you’re kind of special…” He snorted. “Well, you would’ve been special.”

“Yes I did, got a problem with it, no? Good.” He jeered. “Yeah, I think this ball of sunshine would rather stay blind,  you might not understand but my blindness kind of defines who I am”

“Yeah thanks,” He said, rubbing his hair with his hand. “Seeing as i’m here in one piece, I suppose you we’re as bad of a guide as I thought you we’re”

Peter was slightly startled when Gem grabbed onto his arm. Luckily enough, his expressionless eyes managed to concealed this entirely, and the only reaction that could be seen was the frown on his face. “First of all, let’s keep the man-handling to a minimum,” He snarked pulling away completely from the other man. “Second of all, yeah you're right they do think i’m incapable of handling myself, which is why I go out of my way to prove myself.” He nipped bitingly. “I train, I fight, I do whatever it takes because I’m not mundane.” He hated going behind his parents back, but he also hated feeling inadequate.

“What the hell do you know?” He snarled, his nose wrinkling in response. Pointing towards Gem with an accusing finger, he continue to frown at the tall demi-god. “ Look big guy, when you’ve lived all your life blind to the way and having that as your one and only motivation to be something bigger, you can come talk sh*t. Until then I think i’m justified in not wanting something that I never had”

His eyebrow twitched, but that was the only response he gave to the man’s comment. “Hmm, I would have found my way eventually, if not some chivalrous person would have noticed and gave me directions anyway.” He didn’t hide the irritation at the thought, because he really hated when people did that just because he was blind rather than because they wanted. “They’re my grandparents so you know, might as well show them some respect.”

“Pete huh?” Peter focused in amusingly, completely ignoring the rest of the man’s comment. “ So you can call me Pete but i’m not allowed to call you Gem or Gemini or whatever weird nickname you came up with, seems legit.”  He wondered if the other was trying to make a point or something but giving him that nickname, didn’t really matter to him though, he kinda liked the nickname. As bland and unoriginal as it was. “For a legacy of Pluto your pretty fr*cking sassy”

Peter grunted in response to Gem’s comment and rubbed his hand against the fabric of his shirt. “So what if I am huh? That’s none your damn business you prick,” He huffed and pointed focused his head toward the ground once more. His forehead creased in irritation. “Besides what I said was facts, whether you like it or not.”

“You’re right, I don’t know her” Peter drawled. Nor did he care too either, just because she was a fellow legacy of Neptune didn’t mean he needed to give a damn about her existence. “ My father is a son of Neptune and my mother is a daughter of Ceres, I got all my earth based powers from my dad… i’m good with plants but I don’t have any control over them like my older brothers do.”