Encounters

A/N So if you've read The Answer To All Things Interesting (one of my other stories), this is a companion piece. You don't need to read that to read this, but I would be eternally grateful if you did. Anyway, this particular one-shot takes place a few months after Paul finds out, AKA the December before TLO. I don't know how far this'll go, I'll probably just write when inspiration hits. So if chapters don't go in natural order (for example, I could go from just before the Battle of Manhattan to Percy's disappearance, or maybe even after that), I'll be sure to let you know when each chapter is set.

PM me or leave a review to give me characters that you think Paul should meet in later chapters. I'll probably update this story weekly, but the more reviews I get, the faster I'll write (nudge nudge).

And please, if you want to leave character ideas for me, make them plausible. I mean really, why would Paul end up meeting Chiron? Come, now.

Chapter One: Shadow Travel

Ever since Paul had learned the truth about his step-son's godly parentage, life had gotten progressively stranger.

For instance, if a boy a few years younger than Percy wearing all black and a skull ring walked into Sally's living room from the shadows a few months ago, Paul might have stood up, left the apartment, and taken a cab to the nearest hospital to get his brain scanned. Luckily, this was a few months after he had been let in on the secret, so he didn't freak out. Much, anyway.

Paul had just gotten home from school on a Friday. Sally was still at a writing seminar across town for a few more hours, and Percy was in his room doing his homework. Paul sat in his regular recliner near the corner of the room and got out some papers to grade.

He had been at it for about an hour when he heard a swish, someone stumbling, and a thump behind his chair. Paul shot out of his seat and turned to see what the sound had come from, only to find a boy in a black army jacket with a dark mop of hair and a silver skull ring slumped against the wall. He had definitely not been there a moment ago.

This was probably a Percy problem.

"Percy!" Paul called, and he heard his step-son get up from his seat on his bed and open his door, then walk to the living room.

"Yea—Nico?" Percy ran to the barely-conscious boy's side and kneeled. "What in Hades are you doing here?"

Nico sighed and closed his eyes. "I told you to quit using my dad's name as an expletive."

"Yeah, and I told you fat chance. What are you doing here?"

Nico's eyes were still closed. "Accidentally shadow-traveled to Indonesia, I was trying for Indianapolis. Then I came back here, 'cuz I knew I'd be exhausted and… you'd know what to do, I guess? I don't really know, it made sense before."

"Indianapolis? Why there?"

"A lead."

Percy nodded, so he must know what this 'lead' meant.

"So if you don't mind, can I just… nap here? For a bit? I can just lay here, don't even need a… couch." Nico had yawned twice by time he was done talking.

Percy looked amused and exasperated. He put his arm under Nico's shoulder and started to lift him. "Ok, Mr. Prince-Of-Darkness, you're in the middle of the floor. You want the couch or my bed?"

Nico sighed. "Why do you keep talking to me? I'm sleeping."

Percy rolled his eyes. "My bed it is."

Percy half walked, half carried Nico down the hall to his room, deposited him on his bed, and left him to go back to the living room. He slumped on the couch. "He weighs more than he looks."

Paul cleared his throat. "Um… what exactly… happened there?"

Percy took a deep breath and let it out. "Well. That's Nico di Angelo. He's the son of Hades. We have a… complicated relationship."

"How so? You must be pretty close, if he thought he could come to you while he was exhausted after, well, showing up out of thin air."

"He showed up literally out of the shadows. That's something he can do. He can also talk to spirits and read people's life aura."

Paul raised his eyebrows. "That's… a little creepy, to be honest."

"You're telling me."

"So why is your relationship complicated?"

"Well… Do you want the long story or the short story?"

"Whichever one explains it best, I suppose."

Percy sighed and put his hands behind his head. "Two years ago, Annabeth, Thalia and I all went to this school called Westover Hall up north to help Grover retrieve these two extremely powerful demi-gods. Their names were Bianca and Nico di Angelo.

"When we got there, there was this manticore trying to kill them, so we were trying to get out of there fast. Long story short, the manticore chased us out, we tried to fight back, and Annabeth ended up getting kidnapped. Remember the 'holding up the sky' story?" Percy waited for Paul to nod. "That's how it started. But before she got taken, the Hunters of Artemis showed up to try to take the manticore down, since that's what they do. Take down monsters.

"Anyway, Lady Artemis ended up recruiting Bianca into her Hunt." Percy looked pained as he said the next part. "Remember, while Hunters don't age, they can die in combat." He sighed.

"So, the Hunters and Thalia, Nico, and I all went back to camp, where a prophecy was given for a quest to find the goddess and Annabeth. Since it was Zoë's—Artemis' lead huntress—quest, she wouldn't let me come because I was a guy. So I ended up sneaking along with them.

"Nico caught me leaving and knew I was sneaking out, so he made me promise to keep his sister safe." Percy sighed. "And I promised."

Percy moved his hands from behind his head to his lap. "So eventually the people on the quest and I got together so they knew I was there, and we started heading west. One line of the prophecy was "One shall be lost in the land with no rain", or something like that. And we were stupid to try our luck by walking through a desert."

Paul was listening with rapt attention, and he could hear the sadness in Percy's voice get more and more pronounced as the story went on. Percy looked at his hands in his lap as he said the next part.

"We came across Hephaestus' junk yard, and Bianca found this little figurine that she knew Nico would like. She picked it up, and this giant automaton woke up and started attacking us for trying to steal something from Hephaestus. I had this idea to jump inside the automaton and turn it off from the inside, and I told Bianca what I was about to do. She told me she should do it since it was her fault the giant woke up. I let her go. She didn't make it." Percy took a deep breath and let out a shuddering sigh.

"I brought the figurine with me back to camp when the quest was over to give to Nico, since she had died for it. I gave it to him and told him what happened, and…" Percy shook his head. "Well, that's when I found out his godly parentage."

"You hadn't known before?" Paul asked.

"No. You really only know your parentage if you get claimed, and Nico hadn't gotten claimed yet."

"How did you find out, then?"

"He opened the ground to swallow up some skeletons that had been chasing me for most of the quest. Only one god could have given him that power."

Paul nodded and was quiet for a moment. "So if you lost his trust, how did you gain it back?"

Percy shrugged. "Series of unfortunate events. Nico left camp and tried to go it alone, and met a ghost that convinced him that he could bring Bianca back to life. It wasn't true. Death is permanent. But anyway, I felt like I owed him, so even though he hated me I saved his life several times. Eventually he came around."

Paul nodded slowly. "I see. Is that the boy that came to your birthday?"

"Yeah."

"So did he… shadow-travel into your room then? Is that how he got here without using the door?"

Percy nodded. "Sometimes his destinations get a little messed up though. He's still working on it."

Paul nodded once more. Percy stood up and stretched. "Well, I still have homework, and Ghost Prince is currently laying on it. I'll have to go figure out how to get it out without him attacking me."

With that, Percy left the living room, leaving Paul slightly dazed and far too distracted to continue grading papers.