Sally and Poseidon
Objectively it was wrong.
Then again, these types of situations can never be viewed through so normal a lens. This impossible, improbable and unsustainable love couldn't be viewed through the same lens one might use to view the average relationship.
Sally felt salty lips kiss her temple and the solid figure dissolved and blew away with the rest of the mist that covered the sea like a blanket. She heard that warm, deep voice she knew so well leave an 'I love you' burned into her memory.
Poseidon and Sally always lasted, they were inconsistent, they were never truly in a relationship, but their souls were soldered to one another as though by Hephaestus himself and beneath the dust, beneath the trivial nature of everyday life, the complications of every other relationship, they lay underneath. A burning, eternal footnote. An unspoken agreement. He was always there for her, she was always there for him. A friend, a confidante, a lover.
Zeus eventually turned a blind eye, after all it's not as though there was any true commitment there, just two soulmates unable to truly forget one another. Once Zeus truly examined the tangled threads that were Sally and Poseidon, woven round each other, more tangled and knotted than any other work by the fates, he truly believed Poseidon was as uninvolved as he could be.
Sally lay reflecting on the moment she had told Poseidon about Paul.
'Poseidon' she had said in a small but strong voice to the man she lay with on the beach 'I'm engaged' She heard the intake of breath, she could imagine his eyelids squeezing tight over their sea green inhabitants.
'So I guess this is finally over, then.' He stated, in a calm but broken voice.
'Yeah. I think it does.'
And that was it. That should have been it. They should have ended whatever it was that burned bright like a bonfire between them.
They didn't see each other for a whole month.
The next time was Percy's birthday and Poseidon had arrived to give him a gift; a trident charm that became full size when the moment arrived. Percy had spent the whole afternoon running around with it, fighting his camp friends and doing various other tricks.
Sally went into the kitchen to breathe; the second her eyes met those sea green marvels she felt herself begin to unravel. Time slowed, she was at once moved to tears and desperately aroused. She'd clung to Paul's hand in an attempt to ground herself, remind herself that he was the man she loved. Paul. With his salt and pepper hair and impossibly kind eyes, his woodsy cologne and soft, warm hands.
It did not work.
Sally stood in the kitchen, inhaling and exhaling deeply between gulps of rose. 'No, no, no, no' she chanted over and over, forcing her mind's eye to linger only on Paul. Her mind's eye didn't give a fuck and instead showed her images of the man she just couldn't shake from her soul.
'Sally' a voice came from behind her, salty sea air rushed into her nostrils and she found herself breathing more deeply than usual. A large, calloused palm rested on her shoulder. 'Are you alright?' Sally made the mistake of turning around.
A split second later Sally and Poseidon barely had a millimetre between their bodies as his mouth connected to hers and electricity buzzed between them. Sally's eyes rolled backward into her head and she felt the way one feels after a good stretch in the morning, or when sinking into a hot bath after a long day. A deep, relieved contentment thrummed through her body, soothing aches she didn't realise she had.
'Fuck' she breathed once they'd broken apart. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck' she said more forcefully when reality hit her.
'You feel guilty' Poseidon deduced, rubbing a palm against his furrowed brow.
'Of course I feel guilty! What about Paul? Why can't I just love Paul and not feel this way toward you?' Sally replied, exasperated and confused.
'Because I'm your soulmate and Paul isn't' Poseidon replied, in a tone that suggested this were a simple, black and white matter and not a moral dilemma that would make even the greatest minds struggle to unravel.
'Soulmates? Those aren't even real. God, I'm just a bad person with no self control.' Sally replied, brushing the simple answer off as though it were utterly trivial.
'Of course they do. You have a soul, ergo it has a mate. That mate, unfortunately for you, is me.' Poseidon had responded.
And that had been it, there was no going back. Sally and Poseidon had continued their torrid affair, ultimately realising that desperately willing the need for each other to leave their souls was as useless as willing oneself not to desire water when thirsty or air when breathing.
Occasionally Sally feels guilty, a distant thought telling her that Paul deserves better breezes through her content mind, but soulmates cannot be changed. Even now as Sally and Poseidon lay intertwined in their beach hut they can't force themselves to feel guilty, as much as Sally loves Paul, their need for each other is as wide and wild as the ocean itself.