Maybe the fact you were upset caused something to twang from beneath his ribs, but at least he could go knowing no one else would get between you this Valentine's Day.

Of course you were just friends — you knew that, he knew that — but Luke couldn't help getting protective at times. A guy like him with a friend like you? Everything he could ever ask for and more. He wouldn't want someone getting in the way of your friendship.

"I'm sure tons of people like you," Luke insisted once you'd expressed how irked you felt that no one had asked you anything about Valentine's; not the Aphrodite kid who flirted with you in sword training, and not even the Hephaestus guy who'd cast you an iron ring for your birthday. "They're probably just too scared to admit it."

But what he wasn't telling you, was that he was the one who was preventing anyone from doing so.