Okay, first things first, this is my first fan fiction, so please be considerate. Tell me if and how I can improve and I would be ever grateful. Secondly, I never liked authors who make their Author Notes using bold font. Is it more important to the reader than the story itself?! Thirdly, this fan fiction may update a little slowly, so I apologise in advance.

Also note that the version of mythology I am using is neither Riordan-verse nor the kind you'll find on research sites. It is, at best, a mixture of both and none.

1. How To Lose Ninety Pounds In Two Days.

Helios must have been rather happy that day, 'beaming' at the Earth from his chariot, banishing away all chances of overcast. Waves lapped at an island and halfheartedly tried to yank chunks off the beach: perhaps their master Poseidon was too occupied in other matters to enjoy or rage at the son of more of his younger sibling's children.

"Tartarus!" cursed a beautiful and highly pregnant woman in a flowing fresh green chiton under a white himation, as she sensed her water breaking, and rushed to her meagre shelter here, on the island of Delos.

As soon as that vocalisation of panic broke the non-silence of periodic waves' crashing, a flash split the air a little away and two similarly beautiful females were revealed to have arrived. They set off, trying to find the woman oblivious to their arrival.

Her home was crude and Erebus-like, at least to a Titaness or a goddess. But to a tired lady who finally found a place to settle to give birth, it was as good as Elysium, or Othrys or Olympus, take your pick. It was a large shack made of branches that the neighbours (dryads) shed for her in pity. On the inside, it looked similar to your everyday house, except that it contained about as many (basic and half made) traps and weapons as a troubled conqueror-emperor's chambers should.

Who could blame her though: she was troubled and greater than an emperor. She had no experience in this field, for the Titan of Motherhood and Womanly Demure did not have any offspring, nor did she take much interest in the practicality of her Domain. Therefore she just laid on a crude cot and prayed to Chaos to help her in this predicament, where she could not even summon experienced helpers, seeing as her powers were stolen and her only psuedo-attendent Peach was a dryad, and dryads bore seeds, not pain-causing bundles of flesh and blood and (hopefully) brains.

"Niece!" One of the ladies who had flashed in called for her. She had no problems in recognising the voice, for it was her (and everybody's) favorite Titan, the mother of the man who had sired the squirming being(s) inside her.

"In the hut Rhea," She called back.

"Thank Gaia," Rhea cried as she entered the house and gazed upon her niece, "that I'm not late!" The helpless woman's eyes immediately darted to the female Rhea brought with her.

Her hand went to one of the daggers under the bed, "I did not expect this of you Rhea! Why would you bring her here? What have I ever done to wrong you?!" She yelled at Rhea, though her mind was already thinking of how to escape her death, who was currently looking at her apparently apologetically.

"Leto," her death spoke, "I am not here to harm you or your kids. I swear on the Styx."

Even as thunder accompanying such an oath rumbled overhead, Rhea's niece, Leto, steadily disbelieved her tormentor, for she knew immortals escape punishment from the nymph of the river of oaths.

This was when Rhea jumped in, "She is not her to harm you, Leto. She brought me here and informed me of your condition. You must believe me. I am your blood for Othrys' sake." But Leto refused to let go of her hatred and fear and weapon.

"If it eases you, I swear on the Fates."

Both Leto and her aunt were shocked that the goddess would choose such a dangerous way to make Leto believe herself. The ground shook a bit to signify that the oath was in effect.

But Leto quickly shook it off, "Then why are you here, Hera? To lead your dogs to tear me apart?"

"Leto," Rhea cut in, "Hera here wishes to make a confession."

"Leto, I am sorry if my past actions made you feel discomforted, but believe me, they were aimed at Zeus. I planned to make him worry for his kids. I hoped that a murderous Olympian behind any and all of his ill-conceived children would show him the danger of his ways... and I was wrong. I meant you no actual harm then and now. Again, I swear this on the Fates."

Leto was amazed. Rhea's daughter and daughter-in-law had risked her immortality twice to make her believe her tale. Then Leto realized they'd been having this not-quite-pleasant conversation, while her water had already broken. This signified a godly offspring, easier and longer to get through; a pure Titan offspring would be more painful and quicker to come out than mortal ones (She knew this to be correct from her conversations with Rhea and their Domains).

"Not," she said, "that I am uninterested in our arguments of morality in endangering me, but I need to get out of this immobility as soon as possible."

"Of course. Hera, would you confirm the godling is healthy and ready to burst out? We don't want another Hephaestus, do we?"

Hera huffed and stared intently at the swollen abdomen and gasped, "There are three gods in there!"

"No wonder her size is so large. Anyway, are they ready?"

"Not quiet. The first is ready, the others will need five hours and a day respectively."

"So bring the first one out of me. Quick!"

And they did. A lightly tanned male child was released from within his mother. He had dark cobalt eyes with specks of sparkling white, resembling what the sky passes as between the blue of day and the obsidian of night. His tiny fingers seemed to want to toy with every visible object and so Hera let him play with her fingers, which he proceeded to try to eat after getting bored of using his fingers. He grinned toothlessly on achieving a smile on every female's lips.

He was quick to grow and till the time they had clothed and fed him, he had matured to about the age where all healthy gods were supposed to walk and communicate. He grew a mop of deep black hair that, when looked at from different directions, looked either purple or a fiery orange. In a show of godly strength, he picked up his mother from the uncomfortable bed and laid her on the ground. He turned to his step mom/aunt and pleaded for her to pray to Gaia.

She did and Gaia answered by first, 'grounding' the island and then conjured for her a most comfortable earthen bed, which for reasons unknown, the un'grounded'ness of the island prohibited any of those present from doing.

Then the godling climbed in beside his mother and asked her if she needed anything else to which there was a positive reply.

"What is it that you require, mother?"

"A names for you and your siblings."

"Fairly simple. Let's each nominate names, and you decide which one is the most apt for us."

Hera piped in, "Two males and one female."

So, they each took a minute then revealed their suggestions. They polled for the chosen three and it was decided that the first born would be called Perseus and his sister and brother would be named Apollo and Artemis, anti-respectively. Perseus was extremely happy with his name, given to him by his grandaunt.

Since there was still time for the next big event and Leto was asleep, Rhea, truly a daughter of the Great Mother, began to teach young Perseus the morals and noble ideals of the mortals (for she did not trust the 'morals' the of gods). Hera had left for Olympus, because her work on Delos was mostly done, now that Leto was comforted and their bad blood was settled.

Perseus, who imbibed Rhea's teachings quiet easily, since his conscience was plastic enough, was then told by Rhea to find food for his mother and himself.

"But Rhea," he whined, for he was still the equivalent of a six year old, and god or not, kids love to whine, "I am too young to hunt or climb those tall trees. And I don't think dryads would appreciate being hit by stones meant to hit fruits."

"Then ask for help." Rhea started sternly, but then smirked, "I am sure Peach would love to help a cute three year old in distress."

The toddler god tried to ignore the jab about his age but failed epically and yelled, "I am six!"

"Your mini-tantrum would suggest otherwise." Her smirk won't fade, "Now off you go" she shooed him away, "We have some private matters to discuss. Find Peach and ask her what to do."

And so he left. The island wasn't too large, just a ten tree wide ring about a central clearing which had Leto's shack, surrounded by about thirty yards of beach. It was roughly elliptical. While walking the periphery, Perseus counted 42 steps of his small, chubby legs before he lost track.

He found Peach after asking about seven quadrillion dryads for directions; dryads were not one for travelling far, which, for the record, also applied to a six year old. Thankfully though, Peach understood his request without him speaking and first fed him peaches and then introduced and accompanied him to the other dryads.

Then loaded with fruits and nuts and even firewood for to roast them, and overloaded with expressions of his cuteness, Perseus arrived home and immediately face-planted (or rather face-stupidly-and-insanely-hard-ground-ed) due to exhaustion.

When he was woken up, his sister was about to be born. Rhea quickly fed him roasted cashews dipped in the nectar of the immortals, which he finished quickly, and led him to his mom's side.

He held Leto's right hand in his and caressed her head with his left one as Rhea began to apply pressure on top of the swollen midsection. Perseus remarked that Titans, even helpless and in excruciating pain, never looked disheveled. His mother was as beautiful as ever and even in such a moment of a mortal's non-elegance, never lost grace.

Artemis came out fairly easily, and Perseus was there to catch the incoming (outcoming?) package.

Artemis, unlike her elder brother, was born five years for mortals, hence her sibling was shocked and a bit sad that he didn't receive the tiny being he was promised. But that was made up for by a person capable of talk of about his own age. When, after moving her lush, auburn curls out of her face, Perseus looked into her eyes, he found them to have glittering silver irises that looked as if they challenged you to look into her soul, but also warned that it would be a quest that would consume your soul.

Once she was clothed and inspected for any ailments by her mother, Perseus was assigned the task of telling her all about their world and the co-existing one. She picked it up pretty quickly, for she, like her brother, was a hyper dry sponge for information. In particular, one subject grossed out both the siblings: the immortals' inbreeding. Which shouldn't have affected them, since they too were immortals, but Rhea's teaching was very mortal.

Artemis scowled as her bare feet sank in the matching pale dry sand, "So, Gaia basically married her son?"

"Yes."

"And Hera and Grandma Rhea, their brothers?"

He wiggled his toes in the first light of dawn: they had stayed up all night, for immortals' sleep is a non-necessity, "True."

"And Persephone, her uncle?"

"Correct."

"That's," she made a face, "disgusting."

"Right you are," he said patiently, as a father would, "but Rhea says it comes as a part of the package, since all life originates from Lady Chaos."

She did not reply, her far-more-than-active mind taking to a new subject, and instead pondered silently, 'If Perseus believes and implements even half the things he taught me, he is going to be the best man there is going to be.'

'Why thank you, lil' sis.'

"Perseus?" She inquired tentatively, then spotted his smirk and yelled, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

'Not going to get rid of me so easily, Artemis.'

'GET OUT!'

'No can do. I'm comfy! Thanks for accommodating me. Kinda stuffed with useless...stuff. Too much hay and low on brain.'

"Why you...you fat, smelly maggot!" She shrieked.

"Makes you one too, doesn't it, sister?"

Artemis just yelled soundlessly, frustrated, and made to leave. But before she could, her brother, in a burst of speed, tackled her and rolled them into the water, causing the female to scream, "Percy!"

Perseus, now Percy, paused the rolling just as every part of them was soaked in the salty waters, "That's a nice one, Arty..."

"Shut up!" She was not going to admit she liked the nickname.

"Now, if you," he rolled them over so he was above her, caging and pinning her to the shallow ocean floor using his limbs, "would kindly not complain to mother about me, I promise I will teach you how to do a lot of such cool things I rediscovered when bored."

"Let me go!" She thrashed against his grip on her and successfully got up and turned to run.

Perseus leaped to his feet and snaked his arms around her waist, grabbing her firmly, crouched a little, and jumped backwards (an inhuman distance, may I add) into deeper waters, completely disregarding the well known fact that Poseidon may try to kill Zeus' children on sight, and instead focussing on dissuading his sister from getting him punished.

As soon as their bodies were engulfed by water, Artemis' struggle stopped and fear rose in her. She thought, darkly, whether Percy's Domains were insanity and sibling murder.

'Not quiet, sis.'

'ARE YOU CRAZY?!'

'I assume that is rhetoric. And choose to ignore it. And implore you to trust me.'

'Trust you? I'd rather take my chance with Poseidon!'

'Artemis, I swear on the Fates to never let you down. But you must think of me how you expect me to be.' He projected, seriously, 'And inform me, too.' he added, as an afterthought, completing the oath his immortality would be bound to. The ocean floor, far below, though fast approaching, rumbled and cracked.

She calmly thought, 'Okay, I expect you to get me out of this, alive, follow up on the promise you made and not mess with me so badly ever.'

'Well then, Arty, let's get out of here.'

'And how are you going to do that?'

In reply, Percy simply started swimming upwards without much technique and tightened his grip on Artemis. In another demonstration of his strength, he quickly swam out of the water and they surfaced.

Artemis figured that due to Perseus' nonexistent techniques, they ended up... far enough that Delos was out of eyeshot. When she informed this to him, he said, "Now, I will launch my secret weapon."

"Pray tell me, what is that?"

"You!" He replied, cheerfully. Noticing her confused look, he elaborated, "You do know mom's and Rhea's Domains are children related. I am simply going to have you cry out as if I hit you and they would sense a child's distress."

"It may work." She commended, "I never knew you had brains."

"Guess we know now where your share of intelligence goes." He smirked, only to get smacked on the back of his head, "Ow! This is my favorite head!"

"Okay, now, Arty, would you do the honors?"

"MOM!" She yelled like her hair was on fire, "PERSEUS HIT ME!"

Percy's ploy worked. In a second, Rhea was hovering three feet above the glassy surface in front of them, "PERSEUS!"

"Grandmother, if you would teleport us out of our uncle's realm first," Artemis said.

They were flashed onto dry land, with Perseus still gripping Artemis, who wiggled out of his grip and ran away into the shadow of a tree, barely within earshot, not even helping her brother clear his name.

"I expected you to be better than this!" Rhea continued as soon as they reached Delos, not noticing the pained expression on the boy at the sight of his sister leaving him to face her wrath, "What did I teach you?! How would your mother feel about this?! Hitting your younger sister! Go punish yourself. And don't think I won't know if you don't!"

Perseus nodded, hanging his head in unnecessary, though very real shame, just as his sibling ran off and Rhea flashed off Delos to cool down.

The young god accepted his punishment. After all, it was him who endangered their immortal lives, and getting his sister into Tartarus at such a young age, or at any age for that matter, was something he would never want to do.

He lumbered to a small clearing near the beach and asked some dryads to provide him with firewood, which they did. He looked so sad that no dryad commented or objected. He piled the wood along with some dry twigs and took to creating fire out of two stones. Neither was sharp enough for a powerful spark so her searched for a piece of obsidian to sharpen them.

The flakes from the obsidian cut his skin more times than he would care to count, but he persisted. Soon, a fire was created. The young god then used a pair of wet branches as tongs to heat up one of the sharpened stones as much as he could before the wood dried, and he pressed the sizzling rock onto his right side, just under the fifth rib, where it would hurt the most.

He screamed as his skin hissed and was stained with a dark brown patch of burnt flesh, but held it there. The dryads and other nature spirits tried to tell him (or scream at him or plead with him) to stop doing that but he tuned their protests out. Since the side was now lukewarm, he flipped it over to press the other, still scaldingly hot side into himself. He planned to keep it there till it was cool but he sensed a momentary blunt stress on the base of his cranium before blacking out.

Leto and Rhea both heard the scream, both acoustically and through their Domains. Leto quickly tried to get out of her bed, but Peach, who had joined her after Rhea went to gather herbs and roam the island, pushed her back down and assured her the dryads would take care of him. Rhea was shocked that her grandnephew would choose and go through a punishment brutal enough to elicit such a scream from him. She decided to go to his position, but first went to get a bunch of healing potions from Hecate, just in case.

When she had completed her shopping, she rushed to Perseus' position to see that he was asleep or unconscious in Leto's earthen bed, with his head on her lap. His state of semi undress did not miss her, neither did the grotesque burnt skin on his side nor the crowd of nature spirits gathered around the wounded god.

"Rhea!" Leto called, unnecessarily, since the female in question was already rushing towards her.

Rhea took the potions and applied a paste of ambrosia, nectar and Hecate's solutions to the wound. The wound was healed and disinfected, leaving behind a scar in the shape of a filled delta, with two sides extending away from their angle. The godling would have to be conscious to make the the scar fade, but it was the least of their worries.

"What happened?" The two Titans turned to Peach at the same time, "What was he doing?"

"W-We f-found him in f-front of a raging fire of wood from the dryads, burning a hot stone into himself. We tried to make him stop but he won't listen." A dryad from the crowd, Berry, stuttered, "I knocked him out a-and we carried h-him here. H-He was using a obsidian rock to sharp st-stones to start the fire, and thus his injuries."

"What injuries?"

It was then that Leto's attention was drawn to his hands. She pried open his clenched fist and her light supper threatened to spill out of her mouth. She forced herself to swallow it, while most of the crowd of spirits were not so able and ran off into the forest to vomit.

His palms were coated with the golden ichor that should have kept to his immortal blood vessels, the skin was torn off completely in several places. The fingertips were still poked by fragments of obsidian which had probably broke off while handling the pitch black rock.

Rhea fumbled with her supplies and healed his hands. Then she force fed him the same paste she created, for good measure.

"I didn't know he would take it so harshly." Rhea murmured to herself. But Leto heard it.

"What did you do to my son?!", she accused, coldly.

The other female's head drooped, "I told him to punish himself for hitting his sister, but I did not realise that it would be so much for him."

What she didn't know was that the godling required a Tarik to his Rollan or an Atticus to his Jem beyond a simple, though Titan, grandmother to ease him out of his guilt.

"Perseus hit his sister? That is not possible!"

"Artemis herself told me. Her shriek was what called me to their location. Wait, why were they- By Othrys! That must have been why he made her scream!"

Leto was utterly confused, "He made her scream?"

"When I reached them, they were about a mile off this island, helpless in Poseidon's Domain. He must have used her scream as a distress signal to contact us through our Domains!"

"But why didn't he explain that!"

"I must have lost it upon hearing that the values he seemingly adopted were not actually adopted. I never gave him the time to explain. And Artemis ran off to Chaos knows where."

"But why didn't he try to find and tell me or you later?"

A small voice from the periphery of the crowd said, "I know why..."

The crowd cleared for the satyr to come to the front, and he explained, "I read his thoughts when he started his... punishment." He gulped, "He thought he was truly in the wrong for having brought his sister into his father's arch-enemy's territory and thus endangering her life." Taking a look around, to see the glistening eyes of everyone conscious, he continued, "He felt that he was the worst brother there is because he could've sent his sister to Tartarus to reform at such a young age, and that what he was doing was rightly deserved, if not less than what he did deserve.

"He felt extremely sad and angry at himself for making his sister, his own blood, hate him so much so as to let him face Lady Rhea's wrath. That coupled with Lady Rhea raging on him for something he wished never to even come close to doing, lead to a torrent of emotions surging within him, which all found one form: guilt."

By this time, both Rhea and the godling eavesdropping from behind a nearby tree had been consumed by the same emotion that was the cause of Percy's current state. Rhea wished she would have heard what he had to say. She knew that even if the scream wasn't a way to communicate with the Titans of Motherhood and Womenhood, Perseus would have a reason for ever hitting his sister, and one that involved saving her neck one way or the other.

Guilt was threatening to rip Artemis apart. She had thought it would be a simple prank, having her grandmother reprimand Percy and punish him and then she would taunt him, he would reply with a jab of his own, maybe sticking his tongue out at her and then they would all be back to their own tasks. But it all went horribly wrong when she saw him hurt himself. She never even dreamt that he would be so hurt by her leaving him to face Rhea alone. A microscopic, selfish part of her was happy that he was so affected by it and that he cared and she couldn't make it go away, not through lack of trying. It was all her fault that he was wounded and emotional broken.

Both females wanted nothing more than to be left alone in their griefs, but Apollo chose that very time to come out.

Perseus was given to Peach, who took him away from the clearing, to near her tree, and shed some leaves to create a soft mattress for the god. She heard someone approaching from behind her after laying him down, and turned around to see Artemis approaching her brother's form timidly.

Peach could see that the godling was weighed down by grief and so beckoned her to her sibling.

As soon as she sensed that she had been (at least partially) forgiven by the tree nymph, Artemis flung herself onto Perseus and began to cry uncontrollably. She didn't care if he was unconscious or if she was hurting his wound, she had to apologise. She kept muttering that she was sorry and squeezing his body with her arms, as if to prevent him from going ahead and doing such a stupid thing again. Peach took this chance to leave the godlings alone in their co-grief.

Suddenly, after an eternity of mulling over her guilt and sobbing into Percy's now wet tunic, his body tensed and Artemis heard a hiss escaping from his lips. She looked up to see Percy's face in a grimace. Fast as a panther, she leapt away from him to stop pressing herself into his hurt tissue.

"S-Sorry." They stuttered simultaneously, each with a head bowed in shame. Upon hearing the other say what they did too, each stared at the other incredulously.

"But it's my fault!" Artemis said, "Why would you apologize?"

"Why shouldn't I? I was the one who brought you into danger just to save my skin. I was such a bad brother!"

"Don't you ever think so! You are the one who saved us!" She cried, "You took the punishment thinking it was your fault. I was stupid enough to think you would taunt me." Her tears won't stop, "I was the one who got you in trouble with Rhea! It's all my fault!"

Perseus still thought he was the one who should take the blame and wished to proclaim so and ease her guilt, but a more rational part of him realised that his sister wouldn't have him take the guilt. So he grinned at her, "Okay! Take all the blame for yourself! Don't share! You big meanie!"

That elicited a small watery smile from her. He spread his arms out, an invitation. She jumped unto the hug and somehow, his injury did not hurt as much, knowing she did not hate him.

Apollo was born even older, though only a half-year, than Artemis' birth-age. With hair that resembled hay in texture and color and light azure eyes, he was destined to be a beauty. Since, according to him, he was old enough to detest any person dotting on him like a child, everyone left him alone. Seeing no one to chat with, as Rhea and a now mobile Leto, had both left him in the care of the dryads to find his siblings, he ran off into the forest.

The forests were full of talks of how his brother was rewarded for caring for their sister by being shouted at and punished. His rage at the mistreatement of his brother caused him to promptly ignore the part where he chose the brutal punishment himself. He was shocked and furious at the reward of love and thus vowed to never love and never be like his brother, at least not publically. In his young anger, he even swore on the Fates to do so!

Through all this, he wasn't angry at his sister, for it was a perfectly good prank that she planned. It wasn't her fault that things went south. No, he was furious at the things love made you do, and hence the oath.

When the two Titans finally found Perseus and Artemis, they were both asleep after tiring out emotionally. Artemis lay on top of Perseus, her head resting on his chest and his arms around her protectively as he leaned against a tree trunk. On seeing that they were safe, both the adults sighed softly.

But to a young god in a fitful sleep, that sound was loud enough. He quickly woke, but not too suddenly, for he knew Artemis was with him, and noticed that one, they had both grown to teenage, two, that she looked extremely beautiful, and three that he shouldn't think of her like that, since she hated the godly tradition of inbreeding. He also realised that his mom and grand aunt were standing in front of them.

His felt his face heat up to about the temperature of Helios' vehicle. He removed his arms from around his sister and let them fall to his sides. He greeted them both.

"Hello Percy," smirked his mother.

"How-", he paused, "It was the sea nymph, wasn't it?"

She nodded in affirmation, "It's a fine enough nickname."

He continued, "Look, I'm sorry for what I did with her and I know she is also sorry for what she did, so can we please forget this incident?"

Rhea replied, "You did nothing wrong Percy." She gasped in false shock, "Unless you two-"

"No! We did not do that! Why would you think that Rhea!" He knew what she were talking about, all gods his age knew about that, and he felt deeply offended that Rhea would think so about him, "I remember your preachings Rhea. And besides, she hates siblings doing it even more than me."

He had muttered the last part, but both of the ladies heard it.

'Will they...?'

'Yes, given enough time, they will turn out like my kids. She just needs to be exposed to Olympus for the immortality to settle in.'

'And also to see that he is the best one out there for her.'

'True.'

"-her up?" Percy requested, then noticed they were conversing telepathically, "Hey! Why won't you listen?!" They turned to him, "I said seeing as Artemis is sleeping soundly, can you get her off me, 'cause me doing so would wake her up?"

Rhea nodded and got Artemis to levitate and Percy slipped out from underneath her. Fortunately she did not cling to him as tightly as when she first saw his limp form, or Rhea, the ever taunting, would never let them live it down.

Just as he properly stood in front of the Titans, a tiny boy of age seven ran into the clearing. He said, in a fake baritone, "Hey brother,"

Please review. I would like to know how my writing feels like at the reading end. Also inform me of any language errors. I swear on the Fates I will correct them before the next update.

Summary:

The birth of the triplets.

Hera brings Rhea with herself onto Delos to clear bad blood with Leto. Rhea helps Leto birth triplets: Perseus, Artemis and Apollo. Due to a misunderstanding, Perseus, or Percy, is punished by Rhea. Through a satyr, Perseus' caring and loving nature is revealed and Artemis sees her mistake. She makes up with Perseus and cries asleep on him. The chapter ends with Rhea and Leto meeting them and revealing that Perseus may have feelings for Artemis.