Well this is my 3rd Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus fanfiction! It's less fluffy but I think quite cute, slightly humourous and even has a god v demigod fight scene which I've never written before so let's hope I did it okay! It's not too long, but definitely written quite close to the books, so I'm really proud of it. Enjoy!

~Charlotte~


It all started as a regular demigod day – except it's never really been normal, the hint with that is the word demigod. We were in our twenties and still gods and monsters were after us. I guess that's because it's so rare that we should have lived this long, but to be honest everything seemed less threatening than the fight against Gaea. Oh how seven years goes so fast.

The only ordinary bit of the day was the fact that I got out of bed safe and sound. But that façade of a 'normal' day was broken by a shocking little announcement Annabeth had for me.

We lived together in New Rome, we fell in love with it when we went to college here. It's not every day we get to live, and here it wasn't just a camp like back in Long Island, it was a home, it had shops and other houses and families. It was safe and we were happy.

'Good morning,' I said entering the kitchen and kissing Annabeth on the cheek. I went to the cupboard to get some cereal – I may be twenty-four but, man, you can never grow out of Cookie Crisp.

'Morning. Urm, Percy, I think I better tell you something,' Annabeth said nervously. Annabeth was never nervous which kind of scared me. What kept me from panicking was the look in her storm grey eyes was soft and almost hopeful. Gods she was cute in the mornings.

'Yeah?' I said pouring milk into the bowl.

'Well it's just…urm…Percy, I'm pregnant,' she said, closing her eyes.

I literally dropped the milk. 'You're…what?'

I looked up at her and she gave me a shy little smile, 'We're pregnant.'

I stared at her for a second, blinking quite a few times, processing the information. And then I beamed. If I was a god I would have been in my divine form. I smiled wide and it took all of two steps to reach her.

I took her in my arms and said excitedly, 'You're really pregnant?!' She nodded. 'Oh man this is amazing!'

'You really think so?' she smiled back at me and I smiled wider if that was even possible.

'Yes! I always wanted this, I always thought someday. It's such a surprise, but Annabeth we're going to have a baby!' I bent down and kissed her, our shared happiness flowing between our lips.

'We'll finally get everything we wanted,' Annabeth sighed contently, looking up at me, 'but I don't think we should tell anyone yet – we both know our friends will get over excited and it's still early days.'

Oh Annabeth, always the reasonable one. As much as I wanted to shout it from the rooftops, I nodded in agreement. 'Yeah, yeah of course.'

'What time is it? We're meeting up with Argo II crew soon,' she said.

'Oh gods, yeah!' We kissed one last time before we got ready to meet our friends.

'Hey guys!' Frank called, sitting at a little café, looking just as tall, Chinese and wonderfully awkward as always. He and Hazel, who was sitting next to him, had been living here along with us; New Rome was where they belonged. Hazel had matured a lot in seven years, she was taller but still looked miniature in comparison to Frank, but carried the exact same brown gooey-eyed expression when she would catch sight of Frank.

On Hazel's other side sat Piper, and next to him my bro Jason. We didn't get to see them too much since they decided to stay in New York, they even lived close to where my mom and Paul lived. We always tried to meet up as much as we could, we had monthly Argo II catch-ups.

This was all of the group for the day, Leo and Nico couldn't make it but they were arriving in New Rome the following day, so we would see them soon.

'Hey!' Annabeth and I said together. We held hands up until we reached the outdoor café table the others were seated at. We said our hello's with a bunch of hugs and one of those bro-handshake-hug things between myself and Jason.

'How have you guys been? Anything new?' Piper asked as we sat down.

Annabeth and I looked at each other. There was something very new we wanted to share, but of course, like the good boyfriend I was, I kept my mouth shut so I wouldn't get maimed.

Annabeth answered on behalf of us, 'Oh nothing much, same old, what about you guys?'

Together we all chatted and caught up with everyone's lives. Long story short: all were doing great; Jason got contact lenses; Piper's movie star dad came to visit them; and Hazel and Frank got a puppy.

All was going great, until, of course, a god had to come along and ruin it.

A loud roar came from outside the New Rome boarder.

'What was that?' Jason said, standing up. We followed his lead and went to investigate.

Then, in true godly fashion, our question was explained in one short sentence. 'WHERE IS PIPER MCLEAN?! I HAVE COME TO CLAIM BACK WHAT IS MINE!'

'That doesn't sound good,' Piper stated.

'Who is it?' asked Frank.

'Why does this always happen when we're all together? Can we not have one nice reunion?' I sighed, standing up and clicking Riptide into action.

We walked outside of the boarder to fight whatever god was angry at us. Go ahead and ask me 'what's new?' Definitely not this.

Rising from the River Tiber a familiar, heavy bearded, bull-bodied, blue eyed river god was staring at us. On his head were two stumps where horns should have been.

'Oh not you again,' Jason whined.

The god laughed. 'It is I! Achelous, I have returned to claim Piper as my wife and take back my horn!'

Years ago, Piper and Jason had had a little encounter with the river god when they had to do good ol' Hercules a favour by cutting off his other horn. The horn then became a cornucopia, a magical horn that basically gives away free food and lots of it.

'Dude it's been like seven years, get over it!' Jason said. I stood at the ready with Riptide; Annabeth pulled out her dagger. Jason was ready too, slashing at the god with his sword.

With a flick of his hand Achelous knocked Jason over, sending his sword a few feet away.

'Hey, bull-head! Over here!' shouted Annabeth, she launched her dagger at the god, but he deflected the blade easily. Luckily it fell within close reach, but Achelous was too quick. He sent a powerful wave towards Annabeth and she fell down with the force of the wave crashing into her.

'HEY, WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING, SHE'S PREGNANT HERE!' I shouted in anger and desperation.

All of our friends gasped around us – Piper, Frank, and Jason all squealed in excitement.

'Oops,' I said as Annabeth gave me a death glare with her grey eyes.

'Annabeth, you're pregnant?!' Frank gasped and also blushed. It just reminded me of the time he caught Annabeth and I sleeping in the Argo II.

'Thanks for that Percy. Yes I am but can we please focus on the huge horn-less god attacking us?!' Annabeth shouted over the sound of an almighty roar.

'Right – yeah, sorry,' Jason said, and everyone sobered up and put themselves into attack positions. Jason and I held up our swords. Frank stood at the ready, preparing to turn into an animal on command; Hazel ready to conjure up magic; and Piper held onto her magic cornucopia.

The river monster came towards us again, but we created mass diversions by splitting up. Usually I could summon water but it was difficult with a river god swimming in it – he may be more bull than man but he was definitely more powerful than me when it came to water control. The most I could do was summon a sprite of water that squirted in his face – hardly deadly, more annoying.

'I have been humiliated by both you puny demigods and that show-off Hercules – but no longer! I will defeat you all and reclaim my horn!' Achelous laughed loudly.

'Oh I don't think you want to do that,' Piper cooed using her charmspeak, 'remember the last time you tried to fight us? I think you'd rather go back to your own river and read a nice book.' For a moment that's what I wanted to do too, but I kept my focus on the god.

'Yes, maybe I…' Achelous trailed off and then shook his head, his eyes glaring at us with pure anger, 'Wait a minute! I know your tricks daughter of Aphrodite, they will not work on me! I am too smart, I have learnt your ways!'

Suddenly he reached out his arm and made a jerk of his hand. A huge wave erupted from the river, gaining speed in a whirlwind, making it almost impossible to see. It sped towards us, almost knocking each of us over. Frank turned into a fish out of panic and got sucked into the whirlpool; Jason tried his best to control the wind but, like me, he struggled. Piper clung onto him whilst Hazel tried to create her own magical protection.

It was Annabeth I was worried about the most – she was almost defenceless with just her dagger against a strong whirlpool of water and air. This was usually mine and Jason's expertise but the river god was not letting us have any power. I felt useless. I forced myself through the wind and got to Annabeth's side, holding onto her.

'I'm going to try and call to my dad!' I yelled to her. She nodded, her hand went to her stomach and I closed my eyes.

Hey Dad, little help, please? Your unborn grandchild would really appreciate it!

For a moment nothing happened and I thought it didn't work. Then, Dad pulled through by the whirlpool weakening slightly. I felt a slight tugging sensation in my stomach, letting me know some power had returned to me. It seemed like Poseidon could control at least a little bit of the river gods. Water was a good territory to have considering it was worth eighty percent of the planet.

I reached my hand out in a similar way as Achelous had done, feeling the will of the water bend under my control. The whirlpool began to shrink as I forced it down. It was more difficult than it usually was to control water but I was thankful it was working. Breaking a sweat I peeked over at Jason whose eyes were shut, I guessed he had the same idea as me. His eyes opened and there was a glint in his eye. Looking over at me Jason gave me a nod and thrust his hand out to give me some help.

Together we controlled the whirlpool until it was nothing but still and Achelous let out a loud, 'Noooooooo!'

On the side of the river bank Frank was still a fish, but he managed to realise there was no water and he was slowly struggling to breath, for only a moment later he was a full sized Frank again.

'Sorry Achelous, but I think your humiliation is here to stay. It suits you!' I said, 'Now go back to your own river, I think my dad would prefer it if you went back to your own territory.'

The river god looked terrified for a moment, and then he said, 'You haven't seen the end of me! I will get my horn back, vengeance will be mine!'

'I doubt that, now go!' Piper said, with the last word full of charmspeak. Achelous, weakened by his defeat and his humiliation, was unable to tackle the command so left with a splash.

'Well that was unexpected,' Annabeth said ironically.

With that said, the attention all went back onto Annabeth: 'Pregnant!'

'I can't believe it!'

'So will it be a quarter-god?'

'Wait until I tell Nico!'

'How did this happen?! Oh wait don't answer that.'

Being a demigod was tiring and pretty repetitive, but with friends that can all battle together and then go straight into pretending it never happened just kinda made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable.

I put my arm around Annabeth and kissed her on the cheek. She leaned into me as our friends crowded us expressing their congratulations.


Reviews are welcome! Thanks for reading!