Ice Cold Beer

Done for th Challenge on PJFC

Prompts: Winter/ Percy and Dionysus/ Sighing, listening, creating/ teddy bear, scenery, gold, wine

Dionysus leaned back in his chair, mixing together his favorite drink. He always made sure to slip in just enough Coke to change the color. This way, he could claim he was drinking soda. It was better if the demigods didn't know there was alcohol in the camp, particularly his own children.

Setting down the ingredients on the table next to him, the god lifted the cup to his lips. A fierce frenzy of wine, whiskey, and vodka was just enough to overwhelm the insipid taste of the carbonated sugar-water. Dionysus chugged it all down and sighed, just a little more content than he'd been a second ago.

He'd needed that drink. Ever since that Peter boy disappeared last August, the campers had done nothing but pester him.

Has anyone heard from Peter Johnson?

Hello, this is Peter's mom. Have you seen my son?

Can we go on a quest to rescue Peter?

And so on and so on. It was enough to give anyone a headache.

Chiron had been the one to listen to all their yapping. Dionysus just directed them to the centaur. No way was he getting involved in another volume of the Paul Blackson saga. That boy was good as dead. He'd even told all the demigods so.

Sure, it was hard seeing their faces fall at his words. One girl even took to crying like an opened barrel when her newest endeavor failed. Dionysus liked dead demigods as much as the next guy, but he wasn't the one to offer false hope. Of all the foolish optimists in the world, it always seemed to fall to him to be a calm voice of reason.

Sure, Paul was a hero. He'd gotten a big quest or two, a whole prophecy written around him, and a big role in fighting Kronos. But being a hero didn't make him better than anyone else. If he got up and disappeared one day, he was going to fare better than any other demigod or mortal. Being gone for four months didn't make you a first priority. It made you dead. Just another mortal having their string cut.

And on the off chance he was still alive? He probably left demigods for good. Went somewhere he couldn't be scented, or to his father's kingdom. The gods were getting more and more reserved these days, but Poseidon was too soft to turn away his only son since the last huge war.

Dionysus thought about taking a nap, but decided it was a bad time. Instead, he pulled open the curtains, letting the golden sun shine on the snowy landscape. Winter had come early this year.

As he watched, he saw a small child, no older than six, racing around the camp with a teddy bear in his hands. It must have been Nick (Nathan, Nathaniel?), the earliest claimed demigod at the camp. He'd come in last month, eyes wide and scared. Now he was happy and confident, running around with a gift from his cabin-mates. Dionysus smiled despite himself.

It was an enjoyable moment, up until the moment when he slipped and fell on the ice. One of his brothers grabbed him and pulled him inside. The boy was biting his lip, trying hard not to show suffering.

Just as the few demigods cleared the scene, the door to the Great House burst open.

"Dionysus! This just in from Mount Olympus: your sentence at Camp Half Blood has ended, and you are to return home imediately."

A/Ns: Hello everyone! Felt like a little while since I'd written for Percy Jackson, so I decided to drop in and work on a long standing challenge I'd taken. Don't feel like I did so well, but at least it's out of the way.

I didn't use all the prompts equally as much (some are barely mentioned), but they were all included in some way. I guess that's what happens when one receives ten prompts and decides to do it as a drabble.

Even so, Dionysus was an interesting character to try out, and well as see his views on demigods. This may be slightly AU, since I think he left Camp Half Blood awhile before this fic took place. Can you just go with it for the sake of plot convienience? Of course, now that I think about it, I could've done something set during The Titan's Curse... oh well.

Sooooo... how's everyone's winter break? Did you get any cool gifts? Looking forward to New Year's? I'm being lazy most days, but I finally convinced myself to throw something together fbefore the month (and 2014!) was done with.

Hope everyone enjoyed, please review, and I'll see you on the far side!