A/N Hi, hope you enjoy.
Percy likes to consider himself a veteran in hair. Specifically plaiting hair. He's raising three daughters mostly on his own and two of them have an obsession with french-plaits. He's honestly not sure where it comes from, but he's not complaining. Once he'd gotten good at it, it had turned out to be the easiest, most painless way of doing hair. A french-plait is good for as many as three days. They can sleep in them and come out looking unruffled.
At this point in his life, he can do nearly any hairstyle his daughters demand in under fifteen minutes. Rachel is still a saving grace though, she's five and content with just a regular plait every day. Sarah, age eight, started the french-plait trend and Mika, age seven, followed quickly in her older sisters footsteps. And honestly, he prefers it to the fish plaits. And it's definitely better than the buns.
So yes, Percy is a hair veteran and he does not appreciate how sceptical Annabeth looks when he says he can plait hair. At all. He did not watch two hours of hair tutorials for this slander.
"You?" Piper raises an eyebrow, yet another sceptic, "You can plait hair? Mr Percy Jackson, whose hair sticks up in all directions and possibly doesn't even own a comb."
"And might not understand what regular haircut means," Jason adds under his breath, which has the whole room in giggles.
Percy rolls his eyes. Maybe his hair is getting a bit long, but Jason rocks what is nearly a buzzcut so really he shouldn't be one to lecture. He has too many haircuts. And it may be true, most mornings he doesn't have time to do much more than quickly pull a comb through his hair. The perks of the single parent life.
"I have three daughters," he shrugs, "I'd like to see you raise three girls without doing at least one plait. It's an obsession at the moment. Rach at least seems to have been spared the intense desire for anything more complicated than a normal one, thank the gods."
Dead silence fills the room, all giggling dying instantly. The only person who doesn't look totally gobsmacked is Hazel. Percy racks his brain. Had he really not told anyone besides her about his girls?
"You have three daughters?" Jason asks finally, his eyes wide with shock.
"Yes?" It comes out sounding like a question, it's not that weird for an unmarried twenty-five-year-old man to have three daughters, right?
"No way," Piper says, sitting up straighter than he's ever seen her, "That is not possible. Are you married?"
And there it is, the real reason he doesn't tell people about his children. Rachel. Not the five-year-old, but his dead wife. Five years is long enough to have semi moved on, but he hates talking about it. Because with Rachel comes the tragedy and the memory of the day he lost his wife and his newborn baby. Rachel, the baby, survived. Her twin brother, Sammy, did not.
Percy clears his throat awkwardly, "She died, um, she died in childbirth. So I guess I'm a widower then."
"Oh, shit," Piper looks guilty, "I'm sorry, Perce."
"It was a long time ago," he tries to reassure her, and he doesn't mind. Not really.
"They are the cutest," Hazel breaks in, and he shoots her a grateful smile, "Rachel is five, and oh my god. She's so small. And Sarah and Mika are just adorable, though they like to think they're all grown up now."
"Do you have pictures?" Annabeth asks, at the same time as Frank exclaims, "You knew!?"
Hazel smiles delightedly, "Of course I knew, they are my favourite children. They even call me Auntie Hazel!"
Percy tilts his phone towards Annabeth so she can see his lock screen. It's a picture of Mika's sixth birthday with all three of his girls sitting on a bench together covered in cake. Piper leans around to look too and her eyes widen.
"They look just like you," she smiles, "I can't believe we didn't know you had three daughters."
Frank tugs the phone out of Percy's hand and practically melts. They're three adorable little girls, he knows that but it's nice to see that everyone else seems to agree. It's one of his favourite pictures, Rachel is nearly asleep on Sarah who's grinning and Mika is reaching towards the camera with cake smashed all over her hands. Cleaning the cake off of them was a nightmare but at least the picture was cute.
Annabeth smiles softly, "They're really cute, Perce."
"Hey!" Frank grins, "You should bring them to work on Tuesday! It's dad and daughter day, right?"
"We have one of those?" Jason raises an eyebrow.
"Yes," Piper rolls her eyes, "It's usually just the people on the ground floor who participate though. You should totally bring them, Percy."
Percy hesitates, "I'm not sure, they do all have school. And they're pretty rowdy."
"It'll be fine," Hazel puts a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, "I promise. They're allowed to take a day off school for a dad and daughter day, and they're really sweet. Everyone will love them. And they'll love everyone."
Hazel has a point. His girls will love everyone at the office and they're always on about wanting to see what he does all day. Or at least Sarah is, Mika just wants to be like her big sister and Rachel doesn't really care. They'll all enjoy it, and he has been meaning to spend more time with them. It just makes him a bit nervous, to bring his daughters into an unfamiliar environment with so little warning. Rachel hates meeting new people, and Mika only pretends not to mind. It will be fine, but he's a paranoid dad sometimes.
"Okay," Percy nods, "But don't be surprised when they run around screaming and disrupt your work."
? ﾐﾑﾣ? ﾐﾑﾣ? ﾐﾑﾣ? ﾐﾑﾣ
Sarah is overjoyed when he tells her they get to come to work with him. Mika just seems happy at the prospect of getting a day off school. Rachel couldn't care less. She wraps herself around his legs and watches silently as he explains the ground rules for his work with her older sisters. Sarah rolls her eyes when he tells them no running, no screaming and no fighting. Mika imitates her older sister, right down to the huff of annoyance.
"Sarah," he warns, in the hopes that she'll actually listen for once.
She huffs, "I know, dad! It's the same rules as at school. You don't need to be so boring."
"Yeah, boring," Mika echoes.
"Boring," Rachel mumbles.
Percy sighs, and scoops her into his arms. She nuzzles into his shoulder, letting out a happy sigh. Sarah's taken to calling him boring in the last few months, and uncool, and annoying. He worries about his daughters often, almost constantly. It's just a parent thing. He worries that Sarah's been told she's different for only having a dad and that's why she's started pushing away from him in a way she never used to. So far as he can tell, it's just a growing up thing. So he's trying not to make a big deal out of it. She's just a kid.
He smiles and reaches out to ruffles his oldest daughter's hair, "Okay, Sarah, I just want you to have fun when you're at work with me. And it isn't fun when you get in trouble or hurt yourself."
She ducks away from him, batting at his hands, "I know dad. We'll be good, I promise."