I own nothing, all rights to Rick Riordan
"What's wrong with Orion?" Percy demanded as he shoved a spoonful of peas into his toddler's mouth.
"I don't know," Annabeth responded noncommittally "it's just 'eh'."
"That's not even an answer. We named our first kid after a child of Athena, you totally got to pick! Why can't we name the second one after a son of Poseidon?" Percy asked indignantly.
"I never said we couldn't! And you were totally behind naming her after Alexander the Great when I suggested it. Don't tell me you're getting second thoughts. She's over a year old, we can't change it now," Annabeth said with a smirk, gesturing to their daughter. Alexandra babbled in agreement as she banged her sippy cup on the table. A half-chewed pea dribbled out of her mouth.
"Well, what other son of Poseidon are we going to name him after?" Percy asked "We can't call him Theseus. What if we had to send our kids to camp someday? Mr. D hated Theseus. And he hated me. That's two strikes already, and with our genes there's no way he wouldn't get a third!"
"Well, obviously we're not going to name him Theseus either," Annabeth replied, rolling her eyes "there are plenty of other famous sons of Poseidon."
"Like who?"
"Are you kidding me? You've known you were a son of the Ancient Greek god of the sea for almost fifteen years and you've never bothered to figure out who your famous brothers and sisters were?"
"Well, most of them died like a thousand years ago. It's not like they're going to be inviting me to any family reunions any time soon."
"You've got to be kidding me. I can't believe I know more about your family tree than you do." Annabeth paused "Actually, I definitely can."
Relative silence fell as Percy attempted to convince Alexandra to have another bite of peas. She shook her head fervently and stuck her sippy cup in her mouth to avoid the hovering spoon. Percy sighed.
"Ok, fine. Who are my famous siblings?"
"Well, let's see. There was Anne Bonny. She was a pirate. And kind of a badass." Annabeth offered.
"Except that we're having a boy." Percy reminded her.
"Well, Alexander was a guy and we named our daughter after him!"
"Yeah, but Alexander can turn into a girl's name pretty easily. What would the boy-name version of Anne be? Ann-o?" Asked Percy. Annabeth laughed.
"Alright, fine. Other kids of Poseidon," she continued "Francis Drake was one. Famous explorer, defeated the Spanish Armada…"
"You want to name our son Francis? Seriously?" Percy smirked "I think the goal is for him to one day have friends."
"Oh, relax. I'm just throwing suggestions out there!" Annabeth chided "I'm pretty sure Francis Drake was a slave trader anyway, so it's probably better we don't…. Let me think."
There was a knock at the door.
"Pizza's here"
"Yeah, I've got it. Will you get Alex down? I don't think you're going to get her to eat any more peas."
As Annabeth rose to get the pizza, Percy lifted their daughter from her booster seat and brought her over to the living room.
"I just cleaned up all your toys, okay? So let's try not to leave them all over the floor this time." Percy suggested. Alex giggled at his naïveté and trotted over to her toy basket, throwing stuffed animals haphazardly onto the rug before finding the blocks she was looking for. Percy couldn't suppress a smile.
"Yeah, pointless request, huh?"
Annabeth returned with the box of pizza, setting it on the coffee table.
"I'm going to get some plates," she said. Percy ignored this and grabbed a slice, using his other hand to stop the melting cheese from dripping onto his pants. He took a bite.
"Agh! Hot!" He exclaimed, withdrawing the slice from his mouth as Annabeth walked back into the room. She rolled her eyes at him.
"Seaweed brain," she mumbled, handing him a plate and a roll of paper towels.
"So anyway, I was thinking. Isn't there some famous author who was a son of Poseidon? From the 40's or something?" Percy asked as he set his pizza on the plate and wiped his hands on a paper towel.
"50's," Annabeth corrected "and 60's. Jack Kerouac. He wrote 'On the Road' and 'Big Sur'."
"Yeah, that guy," said Percy, pleased with himself for having thought of him. Annabeth raised her eyebrow.
"And you didn't see anything wrong with naming our son after him?" she asked. Percy paused.
"Well… Didn't he do a ton of drugs or something? But that's not that big of a deal. The Beatles all did tons of drugs and lots of people name kids after them." Percy reasoned.
"Yeah, he did a ton of drugs. His name is also Jack. So…" she trailed off, and there was a moment of silence before Percy squeezed his eyes shut in embarrassment.
"Jack Jackson. His name would be Jack Jackson."
"What were you saying about wanting him to have friends someday?" Annabeth teased. Percy looked flustered.
"Alright, fine. But I still don't see what's wrong with Orion! That guy was awesome. He was so awesome Artemis almost fell in love with him. And he was like the only Ancient Greek hero who didn't do anything majorly douchey. Besides Perseus, obviously." Percy ranted. Alexandra exclaimed something that sounded vaguely like "yeah!" as she stacked her blocks.
"See? Alex agrees with me." Percy declared, as though this settled the matter. Annabeth sighed, smiling slightly.
"Alright, fine. Orion then" she conceded.
"Uh," Percy uttered, looking confused at his apparent victory "well… well we shouldn't name him that if you don't like it! I mean, I don't want to… we shouldn't just…"
"Percy, seriously." Annabeth cut in, stifling her laughter at his blustering "Orion's a great name. Do you really think I'd let you name our kid something I didn't like? Come on, you've known me longer than that."
"Well… but you said you didn't like Orion! You said it was 'eh'!" Percy protested.
"I lied," Annabeth shrugged, taking a bite out of her pizza crust. Percy raised his eyebrows at her, trying (and failing) to maintain a serious expression, and she grinned. "It's just way too much fun arguing with you."
