Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Percy… Happy birthday to youuuuuu…
(A/N Guess what day it is? It's August 18th. I'm freaked as hell because I'm getting my school schedule today. Oh, yeah, and it's Percy's birthday, too. And also, in case you couldn't tell, this is set in the same universe as The Only Place You Want to be, but about three years before.)
He stood on Olympus as it began to crumble.
"You've lost, Percy Jackson." The voice snarled. "In the end, you always lose."
He tried to scream that he hadn't lost anything, but he couldn't speak.
"All your friends died for you. Died for nothing."
Silena. Beckendorf. Ethan. Luke.
"Waste of lives."
Before that, Lee. Castor. Bianca. Zoë. So many others.
"You've failed, Perseus. You've failed once agai-"
Something caused him to snap awake.
"Happy birthday, Daddy!" Cassidy yelled again.
"Huh, yeah, happy birthday."
"No, silly, it's your birthday."
"Oh, right." Percy rubbed his eyes. "Wonderful. How old am I this year?"
Cassidy thought for a second. "Mommy?" She yelled after a minute. "How old is Daddy?"
"Thirty-six, sweetheart." Annabeth called from the kitchen.
"Thirty-six." Cassidy repeated.
"Oh, gods, I'm old, huh?"
She nodded.
"You're supposed to say no!" He smiled and climbed out of bed.
She ran out and into the kitchen. "Come on, Daddy! Mommy made pancakes!"
"Annabeth cooked and the house hasn't burned down yet?" He walked into the kitchen.
"Oh, shut up." She snapped.
Alex sat in his high chair already nibbling at tiny pieces of blue pancakes.
He smiled and sat down, accepting a plate of pancakes. "And they're blue, too. Thank you."
"Happy birthday." Annabeth sat down next to him. "Cassidy, sit down."
"Daddy, I got you a present." Cassidy sat down, pushing a crudely wrapped box across the table.
"She wrapped it herself." Annabeth smiled.
"Oh, wow." Percy looked at the box. "I wonder what it is."
"Open it!"
"Hmmm, I wonder."
"Just open it, Daddy!"
He smiled and unwrapped it.
It was a picture frame, painted blue and orange.
"Did you paint this?"
"Yes." Cassidy nodded.
Alex finally looked up from his pancakes and smiled. "I helped."
"Did not."
"Did too." The three year old said.
"Did not."
"Did…"
"That's enough." Annabeth said. "What did we say about the arguing?"
The two went back to their pancakes.
Annabeth and Percy drove Cassidy to her summer camp and dropped Alex off for a visit with his parents.
"I had a dream last night." Percy said. "I dreamed that I failed and Olympus was crumbling and…"
"Percy. It has been twenty years since they died."
"But I didn't even say anything about that."
"You were going to."
Percy nodded. "I can't get it out of my head."
"Percy," Annabeth pulled into the driveway. "We saved the world. Twice. And yes, some people died. But they're gone."
"I think about them less and less all the time, Annabeth. I just…"
"Percy, yes, they're gone, but they were never forgotten."
Later, that night, he found an old photo, from when he was fourteen or fifteen. A group photo of the camp.
He put it in his picture frame.
And for years later, the picture sat beside his bed.
They were gone.
And they were never forgotten.
(A/N I wrote a thing! And got my schedule! I'm calmer now! I'm still alive! Oh, yeah, and please review.)