Chapter Text
Percy checked the time on his watch, “Hold on,” he said just before Jason started reading. Everyone’s eyes turned to Percy making his face go a bit red. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Let’s take a bit of a break, please. It’s nearly 10 and I have a phone call that I need to take soon that I don’t want to interrupt the middle of a chapter.”
Zeus’s brow furrowed, “So, you’ve asked us to put aside everything for this, but you did not do the same?”
Percy rolled his eyes, much to the horror of his friends - though Zeus didn’t even seem to notice, ”I did not ask you to put aside everything, that’s literally impossible. I asked that a majority of your attention be left here. Unfortunately, we mere mortals can’t split our consciousness at will and be a ton of places at once. I still have a job in the mortal world and I’m under contract for my next book’s release date next month,” Percy stood along with several other demigods while Zeus stared.
“It seems that all of the children need to stretch their legs,” Hestia said to Zeus when she realized that all of the campers were standing to follow Percy.
Chiron nodded, “Yes, most of them will need to have something to help occupy their minds as they sit and listen or be given an ample number of breaks. None of them do well being forced to just sit and listen for very long and they are accustomed to very full and active schedules while here.”
Zeus pursed his lips and, although the campers were already moving around, gave a nod like he was giving permission that was obviously not needed, causing his siblings to snort a stifled laugh.
Percy stretched out his legs and arms a bit while talking to Leo, Grover and Piper about some of the schools they’d been to in the past, the rest of the campers all mingling and talking in small groups, taking advantage of the moment to stretch their legs. Annabeth stood by Thalia’s side as she caught up with Jason, Travis and Connor were being reprimanded by Katie for some prank they had played on her cabin that morning while Chris and Clarisse cackled at their expense. Nico, Will, Pollux, Hazel and Reyna all gathered together with Will and Reyna comparing Percy’s first entrances to their respective camps. Frank and Rachel sat with Gwyn and Dakota, so Rachel could pester the Romans about how Ella was doing in New Rome and the many friends she had made while staying there to help reconstruct the Sibylline Books.
When a lull in the conversation presented itself, Leo couldn’t help blurting out a stray thought, “So, Luke was tall and muscular, huh?” Percy’s face turned bright red and Leo smirked, “How tall and muscular are we talking here?”
Annabeth, who overheard Leo bring up Luke’s name and couldn’t resist the bright blush on Percy’s face piped up, “Look at Jase, but imagine more dirty blond and a bit slimmer.” Jason’s eyebrows shot up and Thalia stared at him.
“Oh, ew, Annabeth. Why would you point that out in front of me?” Thalia whined as she realized that the one guy she had ever been interested in really did look a lot like her brother now that he was grown up.
Part of Jason really didn’t like thinking that he looked like someone he knew had hurt a lot of people here at camp, especially people he cared about like Thalia, Percy and Annabeth, but another part of him couldn’t help being intrigued at the idea that Percy had obviously been attracted to Luke, and if Jason really did look a lot like him, then he was probably attracted to Jason too.
Nico, who had overheard the conversation was coming to the same conclusion as Jason and he did not like that revelation one bit. Both Jason and Nico watched Percy avoid looking at Jason as Leo teased him for his crush on Luke.
Annabeth, noticing that Percy was looking increasingly alarmed at the comparison between Luke and Jason’s appearance decided to divert the conversation and save her best friend from admitting, in a roundabout way, to his crush on the son of Zeus. Especially in front of Nico, whom she knew Percy also had a crush on. She was also well aware of their crushes on Percy and although, personally, she always felt that both of them should just ask Percy out because more people loving Percy was always a good thing in her opinion, she wasn’t sure if Jason or Nico had ever considered that. Besides, she had her own question about Luke that had been burning her up inside, and decided to take the opportunity to ask it.
“So, you knew about my stupid, embarrassing crush on Luke right away,” she started and Percy gave her a sheepish nod. “How come you never told me you liked him? We could have like, bonded over it,” she tried for a joking tone but felt it fall flat.
Truthfully, there was so much about Percy that she had learned in just these first chapters and she was hurt to find out how little she seemed to know about her best friend at this time in their lives. She knew they hadn’t started on the best of terms, reliving how rude she was to Percy during that tour kind of reminded her of that, but they had become so close by the end of Percy’s first summer and each year their friendship had grown and strengthened so she just assumed she knew everything there was to know about Percy. Learning that she had missed such big and, now looking back, obvious things, was really throwing her for a loop.
Percy stared at Annabeth with large green eyes, caught off guard by her question. Although he wasn’t entirely sure why he was surprised, she did say they’d talk about it later. Truthfully, he just had no idea how to answer her. The reason he had never said anything to her was because he was scared she’d be upset with him. He hadn’t even really realized how he felt about Luke until he watched the guy become a vessel for Kronos to use and at that point, any time Percy brought Luke up in the slightest it turned into a fight and he was just so tired of fighting with her. Not to mention the jealousy he had always felt when thinking about Annabeth and Luke and realizing that he was not only jealous of the affection Annabeth had for Luke but also of the hold that Annabeth had had over Luke in the end. All of his feelings involving the son of Hermes were so incredibly complicated and trying to talk to Annabeth about complicated feelings always seemed to end in disaster. So he kept his feelings to himself until he could talk to Grover about it and had a giant breakdown about it after the war. After that Annabeth and he had started dating but she was as sensitive as ever any time he brought up the subject of Luke Castellan and he was so worried about upsetting her and being the perfect boyfriend he let the whole conversation about his sexuality and his crush on Luke go. Then obviously there was the Giant War which was a whole other can of worms he hated thinking about, and by the time everything had calmed down enough, it just felt like a stupid thing to bring up. There was still a part of him that was worried she’d just get mad, or worse make fun of him, for this crush and it was just easier to not say anything to anyone. No one really needed to know about his crush anyway, he didn’t even want to know about it some days.
“Percy?” Annabeth’s voice brought Percy back to himself and he realized he had drifted off in his head a bit and now all his friends had gathered around him and were staring.
Percy’s face burned in embarrassment, “Sorry,” he muttered. He met Annabeth’s gaze again and knew that if he said all of that, she’d probably just end up angry or hurt, feeling like he was blaming her for choosing not to say anything. “ I don’t know. At the time I didn’t realize it was a crush and by the time I did there was other more important stuff going on. It didn’t feel all that important to announce to anyone,” Percy shrugged, not necessarily lying, but not telling the whole truth.
Annabeth’s mouth dipped into a small frown, “So you’ve known you were into guys for that long then?”
Percy’s brow furrowed in thought, “Not necessarily? I mean, yes obviously I was attracted to him and you know now that I thought you were really pretty at that point, but I didn’t think much about being attracted to people or dating until I was older. There was just a lot of other stuff going on and it wasn’t a priority when I wasn’t even sure I’d live past 16.” Poseidon, Apollo, Hermes, and Zeus, who were all eavesdropping, flinched internally at the casual way Percy spoke about facing a possible death sentence at such a young age while the campers simply nodded in acknowledgment. "Attraction just kind of existed without being acknowledged much in my head."
“So when did you figure it out?” Annabeth pressed. She knew it was kind of rude to keep pushing, especially in front of everyone, but there was so much she was learning she didn’t know about her best friend and it was disturbing. She wanted answers. Besides, all of the campers they had chosen to do this with truly cared for and loved Percy, he shouldn’t mind speaking in front of them.
Percy’s face grew hotter as his eyes flicked around at all of his friends in front of him, eyes trained on him, and to the gods at the other end of their pit, most of which weren’t even trying to be subtle about eavesdropping and blatantly had their heads tilted toward him to listen. If he had known asking to take a break and wait for his agent to call him would result in an in-depth questionnaire about his sexual awakening, he would have run off to stand in the middle of the ocean nearby to wait for the call in the presence of his beloved sea creatures. At least the only thing they did that embarrassed him was call him little lord and fight over who got to be pet by him next and nobody except Grover could usually understand what they were saying anyway.
Percy shrugged, “When I was around 14 or 15 I guess.” He doesn’t tell her that seeing Kronos’ gold eyes in place of Luke’s blue ones on Mount Othrys and feeling his heart break just a little was what clued him in.
“But…” Annabeth’s voice trailed off as her gaze flicked around to their friends, Percy could tell whatever her next question was, she was embarrassed to be asking in front of everyone. “You didn’t tell me you liked guys until… well, you know.”
Percy nodded, he did know. The whole reason they had decided to break up was because Annabeth went through a big Gay Crisis about a year after the Giant War during their end-of-summer session bonfire and Piper had leaned a little too close after a few too many cups of wine and Annabeth was seemingly captivated by her eyes in the firelight as the child of Aphrodite laughed. Annabeth had realized she was practically drooling over the pretty girl and had immediately realized she might not have been entirely straight and she may have more than just platonic feelings for her best girl friend. After spending a few days mulling that information over she had asked Percy if they could speak and the couple wandered down to the beach, their usual place to walk and talk together.
Annabeth, ever the pragmatist, had gotten right to the point and told Percy her realizations as gently as she could, hoping he’d be able to read between the lines and tell that she was asking to talk about it all, including her newfound feelings for Piper. As usual, Percy proved to be an amazing best friend to her and they spent hours on the beach talking through how Annabeth felt and at one point Percy very casually admitted he was also attracted to guys and girls, although he phrased it more as he was attracted to anybody and didn’t really care about gender, and it had been quite a shock to Annabeth. However, she hadn’t thought to ask any questions. She had witnessed how close Percy was growing to Jason and Nico since the end of the war and began to wonder if maybe Percy had feelings for either of them and like her had just spent a bit of time thinking over what it all meant before talking to her.
In the time since then, she had come to realize that Percy did indeed seem to have feelings for Nico and Jason both, but it also seemed like there may or may not be something going on between him and Apollo and Hermes if their quips and jibes were to be believed. She was also realizing this was something she had deduced based on observations, not something Percy had explicitly told her and she idly wondered if Percy had told Grover or if he’d tell her if she asked.
“It just wasn’t something I felt needed announcing I guess? By the time I figured it out we were in the middle of a war I wasn’t even entirely sure I’d live through and we started dating immediately after and I didn’t really think it mattered since I wasn’t looking beyond what I already had. You were more than enough for me so it felt like a moot point,” Percy shrugged. He didn’t add that she had been a kind of jealous person and thought if he told her she’d just get annoyed with him.
Annabeth frowned again, her face and Percy’s growing steadily hotter as all of their friends watched them interact. She wanted to know more, to demand to know everything about him that he had never told her. She was afraid to find out how much she didn’t know about her best friend. It hurt to think she had told Percy all of her deepest darkest secrets but he had never done so in return, especially when it seemed he did share those parts of himself with others, like Leo and Grover. There were probably even things Jason knew that she didn’t since they pretty much lived together. Percy was her best friend and the fact that so many other people knew more about him than her was making her crazy. The tension rose in the group as Annabeth’s piercing gray stare bored into the side of Percy’s head and as she opened her mouth to speak again, Percy’s ring tone blasted into the air.
Percy let out a huge breath he didn’t realize he had been holding, his shoulders drooping in relief as he fished his phone out of his back pocket and tapped the screen to accept the call.
“Hey, Jax,” he answered the phone as he hopped out of the fire pit and wandered away from his friend and family to talk to his agent in relative peace.
Annabeth’s face was set in a frown as she watched Percy walk away and Piper put an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. “Are you alright?” she asked.
Annabeth met Piper’s earnest gaze and automatically smiled, her body instinctively losing some of its tense posture. “I’m alright. It’s just weird realizing how much I didn’t know about him…” Her smile faded a bit.
Piper’s eyebrows furrowed, she didn’t want to be mad at Percy, but seeing her girlfriend in any kind of pain didn’t sit well and at the moment, Percy was the cause of that pain. “I’m sure it’s just this book. You said you guys were thick as thieves by the end of this book. I doubt there will be much that you don’t know now that you’re a part of the story.”
Annabeth’s eyes found Grover and Leo who had drifted to the side, heads bent together as they spoke, throwing glances in the direction Percy had walked off. She selfishly hoped that Piper was right because she wasn’t sure how she’d feel if there was even more that she had been blind to about her best friend.
———
As the campers slowly made their way over, the gods brought themselves back from the small side conversations they had started. None of the gods were particularly comfortable mingling with their children quite yet so they had mainly stayed to themselves during their break.
Hades looked like he was 3 seconds away from bashing his head in while Demeter talked on and on next to him and Persephone while Persephone sat with a pretty but empty smile, simply humoring her mother's talks of grains and cereal and sending Nico to work on a farm.
Zeus and Hera scowled as they cut off their argument about her staying in his cabin with him. She felt as though she had no obligation to stay in any cabin but her own and her cabin was empty while Zeus felt the best way to do as Percy and the other demigods had asked to simply try would be for her to stay with him and at least get to know his kids, the argument wasn’t moving anywhere and none of the other gods felt like stepping in to referee on yet another argument between the two.
Apollo and Hermes had crowded Dionysus because they wanted to help discuss different elements for the newest wine he was concocting to celebrate the lift on his powers.
Hephaestus was setting up a work table for himself and when he caught Leo’s longing glance started setting one up for his son that was smaller and portable so he could move and sit with his friends and still work if he wanted.
Aphrodite had sent a piece of herself to go over Sally Jackson’s existing wardrobe and was planning out a shopping spree for the mortal woman while Ares dozed off next to her.
Athena and Artemis sat together discussing Artemis’s newest plan for training her Hunters while they stayed at camp. Artemis was taking note from the two camps and hoping to get her Hunters better trained to work within a larger structure of an army as well as have them teach campers some of the field knowledge they knew for survival to help on quests should they end up somewhere in the wilderness. The problem they kept coming up against was the Hunters’ inability to truly work with men and Artemis figured she may need to coordinate with Chiron to find a solution to keep her Hunters safe. Athena’s gaze wandered to her daughter while Annabeth talked and laughed with her friends
Poseidon, Triton and Amphitrite were at the water’s edge, Triton ranting to his father and mother about the friends Percy had surrounded himself with and his lack of judgment with romantic partners (he really couldn’t believe their father had allowed Percy to be involved so intimately with a child of Athena), and Hestia and Chiron sat on the sidelines simply watching all of the conversations shift and move around them.
By the time Percy walked back towards the pit to finish up his conversation with his agent, all of the gods were mostly back in their seats while the campers were still kind of hanging back, most of them were still highly uncomfortable around all of the gods and waiting to see where Percy would sit.
“Yeah, sure, whatever, Jax. I’ll see you then.” A pause and then a face full of distaste. “Don’t give me that ‘kisses’ sh*t, dude, come on. I thought we discussed this. Any other New Yorker will never take you seriously as an agent with that Cali agent bullsh*t.” Another pause and a smirk, “Yeah but Christmas in New York beats beaches literally anywhere, especially California beaches. Besides, there are beaches around here, you just gotta know where to look.” An eye roll, “No, that was not me offering to show you a good beach. If I ever ask you out, you’ll know dude. Now, seriously, I gotta go… Yeah, bye.”
Percy shoved his phone into his pocket, muttering under his breath about stupid West Coast agents. When he lifted his gaze he was once again met with the sight of far too many people staring at him and his face flushed again.
“Uh, hey,” he muttered. He slowly walked toward where his father sat with Amphitrite and Triton, a small pool of water slowly growing at Poseidon’s feet that Percy quickly stepped into and sat down and Poseidon immediately put a hand on his sons head to bring him closer, his friends slowly making their wait to sit around the fire. Grover, Jason, and Nico sat around the pool of water Percy was lounging in and put their legs in the water with him. Thalia sat down with Artemis; Annabeth, Reyna, Gwyn and Piper followed to sit with them. Leo decided to sit with his workbench near his father, Hazel and Frank sitting on either side behind him, watching the fire user begin to sketch out an idea to work on. Clarisse sat with Chris and his brothers on the ground in front of the couch Hermes, Apollo and Dionysus were occupying, Dakota and Pollux sat by their father, while Katie, Rachel and Will claimed an empty sectional.
“So who was reading next?” Rachel asked.
Jason held the book up, “That would be me.”
“My Dinner Goes Up In Smoke”
“It’s definitely strange when you first come to camp and watch people dump part of their food into a fire,” Dakota muttered to himself, the Romans didn't participate in the tradition of burning offerings at each meal.
“Word of the bathroom incident spread… who was still pretty much dripping wet.”
“Nah, dude, we were totally staring at you,” Will snorts.
“She showed me a few more places… if you didn’t get to the top fast enough.”
“Well when you describe it like that it sounds dangerous,” Travis snarked.
“That’s because it is dangerous, Trav,” Katie chuckled.
Clarisse shrugged, “Can’t really expect to learn to live in our world in a completely safe environment.”
“That’s true, doesn’t make the description any less weird,” Piper said.
“Finally, we returned to the canoeing lake… ‘It wasn’t my fault.’”
Before any of the people he can see wanting to make a comment can speak up, Percy waves a dismissive hand, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn’t know that at the time,” and everyone snickered.
“She looked at me skeptically… become one with the plumbing.”
Apollo and Hermes snorted laughing while Poseidon glared at them and Triton and Amphitrite rolled their eyes.
Percy certainly had a way with words.
“’You need to talk to the Oracle… somebody would give me a straight answer for once.”
“That really seems to be a theme for you so far,” Piper said.
“That’s just the theme of my life, honestly,” Percy replied.
Piper moved to sit next to Jason with her legs in Percy’s pool of water and reached a hand out to pet Percy’s hair, “Poor Percy. I think all of us know what that’s like to some extent babe.”
Piper turned her body back a bit to face her girlfriend, “Why did you think he needed to see the Oracle so quickly anyway? He hadn’t even been awake at camp for a full day.”
“I just knew he needed to see The Oracle, it was just a feeling I had,” Annabeth replied.
Conner rolled his eyes, “Yeah, right. Annabeth thought every new person needed to see The Oracle.”
“Why?” Reyna asked.
“You’ll find out soon,” Percy interrupted before Annabeth could reply.
“I wasn’t expecting anybody to be looking… smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.”
“Many of them have watched over you throughout your life,” Poseidon said. “So you were an old friend to them long before you met them. Anyone from the water would be able to feel your connection to the sea.”
“I didn’t know what else to do… ‘Naiads are terrible flirts,’”
Triton’s face screwed up and Amphitrite’s eyes narrowed, she had not liked the tone the young demigod had used the entire time she spoke to Percy and now it felt as though she was dismissing things she simply didn't understand, as she addressed Annabeth, “Why, exactly, do you say that daughter of Athena?”
Athena shifted her position from standing behind Artemis to standing behind Annabeth, scowling at the Sea deities who refused to even acknowledge the goddess. Annabeth did her best to stand her ground, she was the Architect of Olympus and had spent countless hours in the presence of a plethora of different celestial beings since she was 16, but she had admittedly never spent much time around any of the sea gods.
When Annabeth made a formal request for an audience with Lord Poseidon and his court to build their monuments and statues and temples on Olympus, the god of the sea sent one of the Nereids for a single meeting that basically told her none of the sea folk would be meeting with her and she was free to do whatever she felt would fit into the aesthetic of Olympus. By the time she had left that meeting, she was under the distinct impression that the sea gods didn’t much care for her plans and preferred the style and materials from their home in the water. She had actually gotten into a fight with Percy when he didn’t seem surprised at her assumption and then couldn’t explain what the big difference was between the structures under the sea compared to her work on Olympus. He spent the better part of three months working to get her to forgive him for insinuating that the work underwater was preferable to her work on Olympus and also promised to talk to his father on her behalf, though nothing ever came of it.
After all of the time she spent on Olympus, Annabeth had come to the conclusion that the gods from the sea just plain preferred to stay underwater. They seemed to have an entirely separate culture and set of customs layered on top of the regular ones for the Greek pantheon. They were decidedly other and they seemed to preferred to keep it that way. So having three of the most powerful gods from that court, one that was so powerful and wild and strange to her, their otherness crawling under her skin, Annabeth could just barely keep her back straight, but her head was bowed in deference and she couldn’t move her eyes up from the floor.
“I meant no offense my Lady, it was just an observation at the time since no one except other nature spirits and satyrs had ever truly spoken to a naiad before Percy so all we had seen them do is giggle and wave at campers,” Annabeth said as respectfully as she could. “They still really don’t talk to anyone who isn’t Percy.”
“So, because they do not wish to speak to you and they are friendly from afar, you assumed them to be “flirts” and attempted to warn someone away from them? Even if they were, where is the harm in that?” Poseidon questioned.
Athena watched her daughter and wanted to step in, she had wanted to add her input multiple times since they had all been brought to camp the day before. There were two reasons she hadn’t said much. The first being her flagging relationship with Annabeth. There was a time when Annabeth had been her most favored child and Annabeth her most devout worshiper. However, Athena’s actions during the Giant War had understandably driven a large wedge between them. Then her long-held grudge and hatred for the Romans forced her to act despicably towards Annabeth when her daughter announced she’d be attending college in New Rome and effectively living there for the foreseeable future. It felt like her most devout daughter was turning her back on her Greek heritage and the more powerful of her mother’s visages and Athena had lashed out. Only in the last year had the goddess come to her senses and began to realize how big of a mistake she had made in turning her back on Annabeth and had begun trying to reconcile, and the only reason Annabeth was open to it was that Athena had eventually lowered herself enough to go through Percy Jackson, a son of Poseidon of all people, to send the message asking to for a chance to speak when all other avenues had failed. Annabeth had made it clear in her prayers during the solstice that this entire project and truly sitting and listening to Percy’s story as well as the story of the Argo II was “make-it-or-break-it” as she put it.
The second reason, which was arguably even more important, was the fact that not only was Poseidon in attendance, and he was practically feral in protecting his spawn, but so were Amphitrite, and Triton. Someone she had not seen in so long that she almost didn’t recognize his aura. Triton had made a point over the millenia to keep himself as separate from Olympus as possible and even as a messenger of his father’s realm, he did well to delegate or deal directly with Hermes when the need arose for him to work with gods that weren’t from the sea. Triton, who was once like a father to her, whom she had spurned and betrayed to get into the good graces of Lord Zeus, her real father. Triton, the father of Pallas; sweet, brave, unflinching Pallas, once Athena’s closest friend. The one Athena had slain in a fit of prideful rage, wanting to gain her father’s favor.
Triton looked at Perseus Jackson and Athena could see that try as he might, the prince of the seas cared deeply for the demigod, and Athena was so racked with guilt she couldn’t bring herself to bring much attention to herself for any reason. Triton had done his level best to keep his gaze from being anywhere near Athena and although it hurt, she also knew that the moment that gaze was leveled on her, that pain would be worse.
So though she wanted to protest and protect her daughter, especially from Poseidon of all beings, she was caught up in her head, unable to make the decision to simply open her mouth and protest. Luckily, Annabeth had more allies than just her mother, and this one was arguably more influential with nearly every god present for one reason or another.
“C’mon dad, she didn’t know who I was,” Percy protested, and Athena felt a swell of appreciation for the young demigod.
Immediately all three sea gods shifted their attention to Percy, Poseidon running a possessive hand through the boy’s hair, who didn’t bat an eye at having that much godly energy focused on him, and Athena and Annabeth both let out a sigh of relief.
“That is not the point,” Triton sighed. “In fact, it makes it worse. She is warning people who are new to this world away from pieces she dislikes just because she doesn’t understand.”
Percy considered that and shrugged, “That may have been true at the time, I’m not saying it is but just to humor you let’s say it was, that’s definitely not true anymore. I haven’t heard anyone warn people away from the water or the naiads other than the one comment in the years I’ve been here. They’re just as much a part of the camp as the rest of us, even if they choose not to speak to most people.”
Triton and his parents could tell that Percy truly meant that, but they also didn’t miss the small looks between some of the other campers, specifically the child of Athena. It was a well known fact in the mythological world that all beings from the water tended to separate themselves more from the mortal world, including demigods. The only exceptions to that were those with a connection to the water, but there weren’t as many mortals who caught the attention of the sea in these modern times and so, there were no demigods other than Percy. So it wasn’t entirely on the campers for the distance, but the judgment was uncalled for when the water spirits in camp had never done the campers any harm beyond a fun prank, things that they should have all been used to. Their court had always felt slightly off from the rest of Olympus, Poseidon knew that Hades felt the same way about he and his court and was glad that his children had seemed to find such good friends the same as he was glad Percy had found friends, but he wished it wasn’t something he or his brother needed to worry about. That their courts felt just the same as the rest of Olympus and therefore the rest of the gods and demigod children.
However, they could see that Percy wasn’t going to let them say any more on the topic because he truly believed there was no issue. Triton sighed and mentally told his parents he wanted the four of them to speak later and get Percy to see the issue behind the comment from his friend, even if it seemed small and insignificant. He was sure there were other things his brother didn’t even notice that showed his friends had once thought him different and that they may think that way again about someone who isn’t Percy. So the three sea gods nodded at Percy and let the reading continue.
“’Naiads,’ I repeated… I want to go home now.”
“Naiads are what did it for you? Really?” Leo laughed.
Percy mock scowled at his friend, “Yes, really! I seriously was not believing or taking in any of what was going on until I saw people just living it up underwater like it was nothing.”
“And look at you now,” Thalia snickered, “living it up underwater right along with them, Kelp Head.”
“You’re just jealous there’s a part of the world and wild animals I can see and you can’t Pinecone Face.”
Zeus and Poseidon both made faces at the nicknames their children hurled at each other, but also couldn’t help thinking how nice it was to see their children getting along so well.
Thalia laughed, “You’re not entirely wrong.” And Percy beamed.
“Annabeth frowned. ‘Don’t you get it, Percy?… ‘You mean, mentally disturbed kids?’”
“Yes,” the campers all replied in a very serious tone causing their parents to smirk.
“’I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway… He’s one of the Olympians.’”
“Dun-dun-DUUUNNN” Connor and Travis exclaimed, making the other campers laugh.
Apollo turned toward Percy, “You used to feel a tingling when your mother talked about your father?”
Percy nodded, “Yeah. It wasn’t super obvious so I didn’t notice really until Annabeth was talking about it at this time, but it was the kind of buzzing under my skin. I feel it sometimes after my dreams or just when I have a feeling about something. I’ve gotten better at recognizing it over the years.
Apollo nodded his head and shared a look with Hermes before catching his uncle’s eye and letting the god of the sea know he was keeping an eye out for more things like this in the books.
“’That’s… crazy.’… since I was very small. He teaches American history.’”
Piper rolled her eyes, “You knew he meant to ask about your godly parent.” Annabeth shrugged.
“’He’s human.’… How sexist is that?’”
Thalia scoffed, “Percy? Sexist? With Sally Jackson as his mom?”
“Well I didn’t know that at the time,” Annabeth huffed. “Besides why should he assume my father was the godly parent?”
“Well first of all, your mom is a maiden goddess so even if he did pick a goddess, he wouldn’t have picked her,” Nico pointed out. “And second, most of the demigods that are more known and talked about are almost exclusively children of male gods, not so much female. So it isn’t crazy to assume that the dudes couldn’t keep it in their pants.”
The male gods scoffed in indignation while the campers and female goddesses snickered.
Annabeth didn’t want to admit that Nico had a point so she simply crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
“’Who’s your mom then?’ ‘Cabin six.’”
Hazel huffed out an irritated breath, “Annabeth,” she complained, “You know he doesn’t have the cabins all memorized like that. He’s only walked through them one time.” She couldn’t understand why Annabeth was being so mean to Percy on their first meeting.
“This was a long time ago now,” Annabeth grumbled. She felt bad listening to how rude she had been to Percy but what could she do now?
“’Meaning?’… She didn’t want to burst my bubble.”
Poseidon glared at the ground and continued to run his fingers through Percy’s hair. He knew that she was cautious for a reason, that for years it was the norm for children to go unclaimed and gods to keep their true nature to themselves, even with their children’s mortal parent. He had never done so and had always taken great pride in making those of his line known, but he knew it was not the norm at this point in time.
“’Maybe you’re right. Maybe he’ll… ‘You mean sometimes it doesn’t?’”
“What do you mean? We all get claimed within like a day usually,” Leo asked.
Percy sighed, “We didn’t used to.”
“Annabeth ran her palm along the rail… don’t care about us, Percy. They ignore us.’”
Hermes and Apollo both can’t help the grimaces that cross their faces. They always did their best to claim their children, but there were always some that fell through the cracks. Hermes’ eyes flick over to Chris and he saw the uncomfortable way the boy shifted and guilt flooded through the god. Ares scoffed as though he didn’t care but quickly shut his mouth when Aphrodite glared at him and he saw the disappointed shake of Clarisse’s head. The other gods didn’t allow any kind of visual reaction in front of their children, but most felt a burning shame deep in their stomachs.
“I thought about some of the kids I’d seen… But gods should behave better.”
The campers all nodded their heads, the ones who had been around for years and watched how the gods ignored their children had a hard look on their faces, remembering how many of their friends and siblings had to die in the Titan War, how easily it could have been prevented if the children at camp only felt like they mattered.
Zeus took offense that he and all of the gods he ruled over could ever be compared to mortals. They were gods and they had a long and busy existence. One would assume that as immortal beings maybe time seems to slip by, and in a way it does, but there is so much that changes in the world day-to-day that none of the gods, particularly those in the Olympian Council, felt like they simply lost time. The Flame of the West was a constant and ever-changing thing and so to did Olympus change with it. The gods may not be involved parents, but for most of them, it truly felt like they didn’t have the time.
Poseidon could feel the way his brother’s thoughts were going and rolled his eyes and pointed out how not only were they immortal, but nearly all-powerful. They had the ability to split themselves in an infinite number of ways to get their work done. Would it truly be asking too much for one of those splits to come to visit their camp every couple of weeks, brother? Wouldn’t you like to see Jason more often?
Zeus shared a look with his brother and then let his gaze drift to his son. Thalia was lost to him. Even if he did successfully cultivate a relationship with her during their time here, she would always belong to the Hunt first, as is right for any who choose to join. And Thalia seemed truly happy with her sisters-in-arms in a way she never had been before. But Jason, Jason was still his. Jason had been a devout and faithful son of Rome and even if Zeus acted like he didn’t care, he obviously did. However, up until now, he needed to be an example and tried his best to stay out of his children’s affairs. Now he was being given the opportunity to change the rules and actually be a part of his son’s life.
“’So I’m stuck here,’ I said… you’re probably not a real powerful force.”
“While I would gladly claim Percy’s pretty face for my own brood, I take offense to my children being seen as a lesser force,” Aphrodite said calmly. “Surely, though, this was just an errant thought of a naive child.
Annabeth’s eyes widened and looked to her girlfriend for assistance, but the daughter of Aphrodite had her arms crossed and one eyebrow lifted in a questioning glance at her girlfriend.
“Yes,” Demeter chimed in, her tone icy. “I would also hope that this was a fleeting thought.” Katie took up a stance similar to Piper, arms crossed and eyes boring into Annabeth.
“Hey, whoa!” Percy exclaims, once again bringing the attention to himself and off of Annabeth. “Hey, remember one of the rules was no hard feelings. All of us are going to say unfavorable things about you guys before this is done. Me, probably most of all.”
Demeter crossed her arms with a harrumph in displeasure and Aphrodite winked at Percy, “We’ll behave Perseus, dear. Don’t you worry your pretty little head,” the goddess said.
“ The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by… demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off.”
“Wait, so how exactly do you all make it to camp?” Gwyn asked. Reyna, Frank, Hazel and Dakota were also curious. As long as they’d all been friends, none of them had been around camp long enough to actually see a new camper come in or a claiming.
“It was a bit of a different process at this time,” Grover replied as he gestured toward the book. “We sent satyrs to as many schools as we could and if the satyr’s found a child, they’d make contact with the mortal parent and watch over the child, finding a way into their life, usually as a peer mentor of some sort, and then that summer they’d lead the child to camp for their introduction. Sometimes, if a kid was in immediate danger, they’d pull the kid immediately and begin the trek to camp. How everyone got to camp kind of depends. Some people had mortal parents that accompanied their child and the protector to camp. Most of those parents would explain the truth as well as they could on the way. Some parents preferred to simply send their kid with their satyr and let them make their way alone, though not very many parents really chose that option.”
“Once at camp,” Percy picked up the explanation, “a kid would sort of go through what I went through, an introduction to Chiron and a tour of camp, but with the addition of the video that explained everything before meeting Chiron as a pony.” Chiron snorted in indignation at being called a pony but chuckled all the same. “And then they would be left in Cabin 11 to settle. If a kid was claimed and they were one of the 12 Olympians kids, then they moved to that cabin, but if you were undetermined or your godly parent wasn’t one of the Olympians, you just stayed in Hermes cabin.” Percy finished with a shrug.
The Romans just looked at their Greek counterparts with jaws dropped. They couldn’t imagine having such a biased and, frankly, inefficient way of bringing kids to camp and then housing them.
“You said that was the process then?” Hazel asked and Annabeth nodded. “So what’s it like now?”
Will and Annabeth beamed at Percy whose face turned pink at their attention, “Well we can’t tell you why a change happened,” Will started,” it’s part of the story and Percy seems pretty set on no spoilers, but there was a change that was made to the rules in Olympus a few years ago that made it mandatory for all campers to get escorted to camp and also claimed by the age of 13 and that all gods would be represented in the cabins. So now we get specific areas and schools to send our satyrs with exact names and ages for the demigods we’re aiming to pick up, direct from the gods. And when kids come, they’re generally claimed within the first day of arriving so they move immediately into their cabin and introduced to their siblings. If their godly parent doesn’t have a cabin yet, we put in a request through Chiron and within hours we’ll have magical workers fixing up a new cabin that only takes a couple weeks to finish. It’s great!”
The Romans still seemed slightly confused by the entire premise, which Percy understood having witnessed their sorting process, so he decided to keep the story going. He could see Annabeth’s curiosity face brewing and he just knew if they got into comparing how the camps did things as simple as bringing their campers in or sorting housing, they’d be here debating the merits or both ways for hours, if not days. Besides, they’d get a glimpse of the Roman way in the second set of books. “Jase, you wanna continue now?”
Jason nodded his head and began reading again.
“A Few manage to survive in the outside… ‘Practical jokes?’”
“Nobody does that anymore,” Katie said quickly at the horrified looks on Piper and Leo’s faces. “Not since…” she trailed off as her gaze fell to Percy.
“Anyway,” Percy cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s not a thing anymore. No need to worry.”
“’The point is, the borders are sealed… and they’re all in college?’”
“Why did you come to camp so young?” Jason asked. “I haven’t really seen campers that young here, especially year-rounders.”
Annabeth’s eyes darkened and her lips flattened, “That isn’t anyone’s business,” she replied stiffly.
Percy cleared his throat awkwardly “It’ll get talked about later, so, y’know. Just be patient.” He rubbed the back of his neck and avoided Annabeth’s gaze. Part of Annabeth was incensed to realize that everyone, including the gods (including her mother) were going to learn things about her she’d rather keep to herself. She hadn’t even told Piper about the relationship she and her father had had for so long. The rest of her was resigned. She had agreed to this and Percy had made it perfectly clear that these were very personal books for more than just him.
“’Why did you come so young?’… I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?’”
Nico snorted, “I love that that is what you took away from the conversation.”
“I didn’t want to be here,” Percy shrugged with a smile.
“’It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D’s or Chiron’s permission.”
“You can definitely leave without permission,” Percy said far too quickly for most of those present to be comfortable.
“And you know this, how?” Poseidon asked his son.
“Ah, so… Spoilers?” Percy chuckled awkwardly.
“But they wouldn’t give permission until the end… ‘You are a New Yorker, right?’”
Annabeth snorts, “Knowing Percy now, it’s hilarious that I ever questioned that.”
“’Oh, sure.’ As far as I knew… but I decided not to point that out.”
“You just know that off the top of your head?” Chris asked.
Percy arched an eyebrow, “You don’t?”
“No, why would I know how many floors there are of the Empire State Building?”
“…Because Olympus is housed above it?”
“Well, yeah, but I know what floor Olympus is on, and it isn’t floors 1-102,” Chris laughed.
“’Right after we visited,” Annabeth continued,… And of course she’s got that rivalry with Poseidon.’”
Poseidon rolled his eyes and scoffed while Triton and Amphitrite narrowed their eyes at Athena who glared right back at Poseidon and Amphitrite, but continued to avoid Triton’s gaze.
“But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could… If they would just tell me the problem…’”
Thalia put a hand on Annabeth’s knee, “Babe, I hope you realize at this point, 12 is far too young.”
Annabeth rolled her eyes but smiled and patted Thalia on the knee. Maybe it was too young, but she had still done what needed to be done as all demigods before her had done.
“I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere… upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles.”
The campers all turned to look at Chris, Travis and Connor as they sat in front of their father, all four of them sporting the same troublemaker face mask.
“How did I not notice that before,” Piper asked as she tilted her head in concentration.
Rachel rubbed a hand over her chin, “I could always tell that all of the Hermes kids looked similar, but I could never really put my finger on what made them all look the same, but different.”
Hermes’ smile softened a bit, “Most people don’t see the resemblance unless it’s literally shoved in their face.” He turned to Percy with a wink, “Of course you would notice that.”
Apollo silently pouted next to his brother.
“They were the kind of kids that teachers… car on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.”
“Aw, Percy. Did you like his smile?” Piper cooed at him.
Percy’s cheeks pinked but he smiled with a shrug, “He had a nice smile.”
“’Found you a sleeping bag,’ he said… I couldn’t tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.”
Hermes laughed loudly, “I bet you figured that out pretty quickly.”
“I said, “Thanks.”… It doesn’t get any easier.’”
Will sighed, “Well he was right about that…”
“The bitterness in his voice surprised me… He looked like he could handle just about anything.”
“Oh he did, did he?” Grover teased.
Percy’s face flamed red again, “Shut up, Grover,” he muttered. “Why did I write these books…”
“’So your dad is Hermes?’ I asked… ‘The wing-footed messenger guy?’”
Hermes scoffed, offended, “Is that all I am to you? Just some messenger dude?”
“Yup, pretty much,” Percy grinned and Hermes’ jaw dropped.
“’That’s him. Messengers. Medicine… Hermes isn’t picky about who he sponsors.’”
Hermes’ usual jovial expression fell and Apollo scowled.
“I figured Luke didn’t mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.”
Annabeth sighed, “Luke was actually such a sweet guy. He could be a bit sarcastic and intense, but at the end of the day he was a sweet guy.”
All of the demigods who had spent time with Luke nodded in agreement at that statement.
“’You ever meet your dad?’ I asked. ‘Once.’”
Hermes winced, remembering that meeting.
“I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me,… had anything to do with how he got his scar.”
“I’m surprised Luke didn’t spill his guts to you,” Thalia said.
Percy arched an eyebrow at her, “Why is that?”
Thalia narrowed her eyes at her cousin, “Because you have freaky truth-telling powers.”
Percy groaned and threw himself back into the water, “We are not going through this again. I have no such powers!”
“I don’t know, Percy,” Annabeth chimed in, a smile on her face, “You got me to spill my guts pretty quickly too.”
“You somehow got Zoe to tell you about her past, and give you her seal of approval to continue carrying Anaklusmos,” Artemis stated.
“I’m sorry, what’s going on?” Apollo asked in confusion.
“Thalia is under the impression that Perseus has some kind of power that persuades his comrades to tell him their secrets,” Artemis replied.
“I am not ‘under the impression’, I know,” Thalia insisted.
“You know nothing Pinecone Face!” Percy exclaimed.
“…does he actually have those kind of powers?” Hermes asked.
Poseidon chuckled at his nephew, “No, that is not an actual power he can have.”
“See!” Percy exclaimed and everyone laughed at his pouting.
“Luke looked up and managed a smile… We take care of each other.’”
Percy sighed, hating how Luke’s story ended.
“He seemed to understand how lost I felt… which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.”
Annabeth frowned and wanted to protest, but then remembered how rude and dismissive she had been to Percy and let it go.
“I decided to ask him my last big question… Luke folded his knife, ‘I hate prophecies.’”
“Me too, dude. Me too,” Percy said and Nico gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder.
“’What do you mean?’… Now, come on, it’s dinnertime.’”
“He’s not wrong,” Connor said.
“I did not act like that,” Annabeth replied indignantly.
Travis rolled his eyes, “You did, Annabeth. Every new person got the third degree from you.”
“Yeah, you kinda scared me when I first came to camp,” Will told her.
Annabeth scowled but didn’t argue anymore. She hadn’t meant to be so intense, she had just wanted to be able to prove herself.
“The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance… but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.”
Artemis and Thalia smirked while Apollo scoffed at his sister.
“We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion… and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.”
“Whoa, that is no where near as many as you have now,” Gwyn remarked.
“This was actually quite a bit for this point in time,” Clarisse replied quietly.
Percy nodded, a haunted look crossing his face, “We had far less by the end of the war.”
“At the pavilion, torches blazed around… the edge of the bench with half my butt hanging off.”
Poseidon cringed while Amphitrite and Triton scowled at him. They felt he could have claimed Percy immediately and then he wouldn’t have had to sleep on the floor or sit at a crowded table with no real room for him.
“Was it really that crowded?” Leo asked.
Chris nodded, “Yeah, our table was pretty much always like that. Luke and a few of the other older kids would even offer to stand and let someone else take their seat when it got that crowded.”
“I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D”
Pollux smiled wistfully at the thought of his twin brother and Dakota slung an arm around his shoulders.
“Chiron stood to one side… Whatever you want-nonalcoholic, of course.’”
“Do kids ever try to use them for alcohol?” Hermes asked Dionysus.
Dionysus shrugged, “Yes, but I cursed them all to give nothing but ginger ale for an hour after an alcoholic beverage is attempted at being summoned.”
Apollo and Hermes snickered.
“I said, ‘Cherry co*ke.’… I drank a toast to my mother”
“I truly admire the love you have for your mother,” Reyna said. She had met Sally a number of times now and she had come to truly appreciate the woman, just as any other camper who met her, but hearing Percy’s thoughts made her realize just how deep the love he had for his mother ran.
“She’s not gone, I told myself… And if that’s a real place, then someday…”
“Ambitious, aren’t you?” Hades asked.
“No, more like heartbroken and determined,” Percy replied casually.
“’Here you go, Percy,’ Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.”
“Aw, Percy’s crush served him food!” Leo squealed and the campers chuckled.
Percy sighed but smiled at the good-natured ribbing, “I hate you all.”
Nico snorted, “You’re such a liar, Jackson.”
“I loaded my plate and was about to take a big… They like the smell.’”
Piper leaned in close to Percy and whispered in his ear, “Like this?”
Percy’s face flamed bright red and he pulled her into his small pool of water that was suddenly big enough to dunk her entire body into.
Piper popped out of the water laughing so hard she hiccuped.
“Sorry, Pipes, you seemed like you needed to cool off a bit,” Percy smiled innocently.
“’You’re kidding.’… all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.”
“Again, it sounds so much weirder when you say it like that,” Annabeth chuckled.
“How else am I supposed to say it? Our entire world is one giant ball of weird,” Percy stated.
“Luke approached the fire, bowed his head… When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn’t gag.”
“Were you really expecting to?” Apollo asked.
Percy shrugged, “I wasn’t actively expecting anything at this point, but all past experience says when you throw something into a fire, it burns, and usually burning stuff doesn’t smell all that great. So it was weird.”
“It smelled nothing like burning food… ‘Yes, I suppose I’d better say hello to all you brats. Well, Hello.’”
Before any of the gods could say anything about his attitude Dionysus raised a finger to silence them all, “Say nothing. At least I am here.”
“Our activities director, Chiron, says the next… Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on.’”
The campers chuckled at the usual dismissive attitude they were used to from Mr. D and the other gods seemed confused that the children found amusem*nt in Dionysus’ treatment.
“Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the… I felt that I was home.”
The campers smiled, remembering the moment when camp began to feel like that for each of them. And the gods smiled, knowing their children had a place they could be safe and happy.
“Later in the evening, when the sparks from… I wish I’d known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.”
“Oh,” Jason said, surprised at the ending tone. Everyone’s smiles dropped. Jason looked up, “That’s the end of the chapter.”
“Annabeth should read the next chapter,” Percy said.
Annabeth narrowed her eyes but took the book from Jason and read the chapter title, “I see we still aren’t over this…” she muttered and Percy grinned at her.
