Aspasia took a deep breath, pushing her way through the crowd of relatives.
"Honey, where are you going?" Percy asked his daughter, "This is your party!"
"Sorry Dad, I'll be back in a second." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and proceeded to the door. The truth was she always got a bit uncomfortable around her parents' families.
She smiled, finding the contrast of the quiet hallway and lively den to be strangely calming. For some reason, she liked the party better when she could watch it as an outsider, catching glimpses of her father bragging to Uncle Nico about her GPA. Her mom was there too of course, catching up with Aunt Thalia as well as all of their other camp friends.
"Hello." A quiet voice said, startling her. She turned, shuddering when she noticed the intensity of the speaker's gaze. Even though her father and paternal grandfather had long since reconciled their differences, she still found herself embarrassedly nervous whenever he was around. This wasn't often mind you, but on the occurrence where he tagged along for important occasions, Aspasia found herself unable to relax.
"Hi…" Her cheeks tinged faintly and she wracked her brain desperately for something else to say. "Are you enjoying the party?" she asked politely, clasping her hands together.
"Oh yes," Poseidon answered, smiling as kindly as he could. "You're grandmother is an excellent party planner."
"Definitely," Aspasia replied. Of all of her grandparents, Sally was certainly the one she was closest to.
"I thought the New York theme was quite clever." Aspasia felt her sweat glands slow as she noticed Poseidon's own nervous expression. Perhaps she was not the only one made uneasy by their relationship.
"Thanks for the necklace," she said lamely. "It's really beautiful."
"You're welcome," he said, his smile warming with a delicate affection. "A beautiful girl deserves a gift from her grandfather."
Aspasia's glance drifted to the mahogany wood floor; he had never felt much like grandfather, not like Fredrick anyway.
"I cannot believe that you're graduating," Poseidon offered. "I remember the day you were born."
"Really?" Aspasia said, smiling in spite of herself. She had not heard the story of her birth since she was a little girl.
"Yes, there was a celebration on Olympus." Poseidon said.
Yeah, but no one bothered to come see me in the hospital, Aspasia thought. It was strange, her parents never failed to gush about how proud the gods were of her, and yet they never told her this themselves. However, Aspasia accepted this as just the nature of their position in the world, and tried not to give it too much thought.
"I heard that you were great today," Poseidon said, once again trying too hard with her.
"Oh, thank you." Aspasia replied awkwardly.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there," Poseidon said sheepishly.
"That's alright," she said, shrugging, "I understand."
"I was wondering -" He paused, surveying her expression intently, "Would you like to come to Olympus sometime?" He sounded oddly hopeful for someone so powerful, and it gave Aspasia confidence.
"I'd love that," she said softly, "Thank you." She didn't bother to mention that Athena had already promised her a weekend stay at her palace. The only thing worse than a forced conversation with Poseidon, was watching her grandparents' passive aggressive arguments over her. It wasn't even that she was that important to them, just that she was something to be won, like a piece of land or a mortal.
"Perhaps we could go sailing as well." Poseidon suggested.
Aspasia's smile widened at the sheer absurdity of the idea. "My dad and I go sailing all the time," She said, hoping it wouldn't be taken as offensive.
"Well, we'll see if we can't make arrangements," Poseidon said, "How is your mother?" Poseidon asked, finally touching on the formality.
"She's alright," she said, "A bit sentimental about me going to college, but otherwise good."
"You've picked your school definitively, then?" he asked.
"Yeah, I have," she answered. "I'm going to Yale." She smiled, hoping he would be proud of her.
"That's a wonderful school," Poseidon commented, sounding a bit more offhand than she would have liked, "Your mother went there, didn't she?"
"Yeah," Aspasia said, "I guess I'm a bit of a legacy." The words sounded strange to her, even though she'd heard her classmates talk about being legacies for months.
Poseidon smiled to fill the silence; suddenly all of the basic conversation points were used up. They were saved mercifully by a figure emerging from the party.
"Hello, you two." Athena said, her porcelain face as young as ever, "What are you doing out here?" she asked coolly.
Aspasia shrugged, feeling guilty. "Sorry, I needed a quick breather." Athena's expression changed dramatically, transforming into that of the proud grandmother. "Oh that's alright Sweetheart, it's your big day after all."
Poseidon's angry expression deepened when Athena put her arm around Aspasia. "Yes, of course it is," he said, a bit too loudly.
Athena frowned, angered with Poseidon's attempts to reclaim their granddaughter. Aspasia grimaced as well; she didn't like being such a possession.
"Why don't you come inside, Honey, your mom's been looking for you." Athena said.
"Okay…" Aspasia said, reluctantly, "Nice talking to you," she said in Poseidon's direction. She'd never decided on how to address him. She stepped back into the booming celebration, refusing to look at Poseidon's disappointed expression.
She'd heard the stories of her parents' childhoods, and knew she couldn't expect much from the gods. To them she was a toy, a pretty doll to fight over and put upon a pedestal. But, remembering the look on Poseidon's face, she wondered if this was true at all.
A: I am watching Heroes and thus have no energy to do the talking, so I'll leave it up to Savannah.
S: Okay, Abbie! First, we would like to say that we got the name "Aspasia" from our research project on the historical one.
This is the joint account of greekmythologyluver and WindowChild for our co-authored stories, because we realized we tend to write together a lot.
Please review! It really means a lot to us! =D