Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series, nor the Heroes of Olympus - those both belong to Rick Riordan. This work is not meant for generating profit, and thus does not violate copyright laws. Please don't sue me.
X_0_X
2017 CE – July 3 – 1:00 pm – Camp Half Blood – Mess Hall
Percy knew something was wrong the moment he sipped at his drink that morning in the mess hall. His senses told him that whatever laced his drink was non-toxic and magical in nature, but didn't extend into enough detail to tell him what it was.
There was no strange taste – no change in the fresh flavor of his favorite drink to signal him to the change otherwise. Giving it a sniff revealed nothing either.
Traveling down his throat, the concoction quickly dispersed in the flesh of his throat; Percy could feel it leave his drink and settle inside of him. A magical concoction then, which made this a likely prank from the Hermes cabin – they were the most prone to using potions to achieve their goals.
It had been a few years since the Giant War. He'd graduated college and, after several monster attacks and uncomfortable situations with different mortals, he'd finally decided to return to Camp Half Blood to work as a trainer. It had been an enlightening experience, being a subject of collective awe to many younger campers; an experience he didn't find himself all too comfortable with.
Naturally, as one of the camp celebrities, he was regularly pranked. Percy wasn't kind when he caught the perpetrators.
His time without his memory taught him a lot about himself. His time in Tartarus had taught him even more. Though he had hidden it for a long time from even himself under a heaping pile of self-esteem issues, Percy wasn't an idiot. He wasn't dim, or ignorant, and didn't lack his own brand of cunning. Looking back on his life, once he could remember it, he could think of several instances where he should have reached further than he had; many quests where he could have fought smarter instead of fight harder.
He'd learned. Many of his enemies – the monsters that were the bane of demigod's existences – required cunning and skill to beat. He'd left them as piles of dust behind him. For a time, he'd held onto his younger self's view of the world; wonder, safety, and a subconscious sense of invincibility that left him overconfident and too quick to rely on his prodigal swordsmanship and unparalleled skill over water.
Losing his memory, and being subject to Lupa's gruesome training, Percy learned to use what he was given, whether it was convenient or not. Chased by the Gorgon sisters on his way to Camp Jupiter, he'd lied, stolen, and caused enough chaos in his wake to be (as he'd later discovered in the mortal news) labelled as a domestic, albeit anonymous, criminal. He'd been disturbed to find how little he cared – he valued his life too highly to care about some random mortal's inconvenience.
Then he'd joined the Roman legion. he'd met Hazel: beautiful, somewhat shy, and disconnected from the world in a way that was easy for him, with his amnesia, to relate to. From their first one-on-one conversations, he'd felt her insecurity. He saw in her eyes the specter of death that had already taken her once before. Saw the steel in her heart, that allowed her to make the sacrifice of her own life and delay the awakening of the giant Alcyoneous.
Of course, he hadn't known what those traits signified in her then. He could see she was strong and struggling to adapt. They'd connected immediately. He knew the heavy weight of personal doom – later, she had confided in him what she'd seen in his eyes. Inevitable defeat was his burden; the burden of all demigods. It weighed on him constantly.
He'd also met Frank: one of the unclaimed, and wrapped up in a painful amount of insecurity and ambitions. Percy could see them boiling in him, even if the son of Mars didn't know them himself. The boy wanted to find his niche in the legion; wanted to bring honor to a grandmother that disdained him; wanted to appease his godly parent and make them proud. He was also infatuated with Hazel, though Percy didn't think the girl knew it despite her harboring a similar crush.
Percy didn't know the context, but he could see the struggle to do right in the boy. He was a leader of demigods; like Percy, but untried. He'd liked him from the onset – there was a lot of potential in Frank Zhang, just as there was in Hazel.
In his mind, absent of critical memories of himself, he'd realized then that he was good at reading people. He saw from his desperate chase across California that he could be selfish, but it was tempered by his loyalty and dedication to his loved ones. His experience in the War Games taught him that he could lead from the battlefront – after Frank had devised the plan, Percy spearheaded it, ensuring there were no mistakes; no rallying for the enemy team.
When Gwen had been stabbed in the back, he held on to the pilum after it slid from her body. He saw the markings – he knew the Romans would never take a newcomer's word of accusation against a trusted Centurion. He gave it to Reyna later that night, and warned her to watch her back.
He wasn't an idiot, and he wasn't about to let a murderer walk free; he trusted the praetor to dole out the justice the legacy of Apollo deserved. She'd looked him in the eyes then, searching for something. When hers softened, Percy knew he'd made an ally.
Politics weren't his realm. He knew when to step back and let the professionals do what they specialized in. Later – after the quest, after Tartarus, after the war – he did not mourn the death of the augur.
It wasn't until he tricked the seer Phineas into swallowing poison that he realized how cold he was. He'd felt nothing for the old man as he dissolved into nothingness.
It wasn't until he drove Riptide into the ancient ice of Hubbard Glacier, sending himself, twenty thousand tons of frozen debris, and a small army of spirits into the bay that he realized how dead to the world he was, despite his determination to live. He'd acted casual when Hazel and Frank came across him, later, but when he'd done it he fully expected to be crushed by some chunk of ice and die, fulfilling the prophecy. That he wasn't was nothing less than a miracle.
And it wasn't until he fell into Tartarus with Annabeth Chase, his closest friend for five years, that he realized just how much of a menace he was. He saw the terror in her eyes, when he controlled the death mist and poison. He felt his heart fracture as he realized that he'd let himself go too far.
She'd known it too. Their relationship had never been the same. Something withered in the black pit, and though they were still fierce friends to the day, any hope for the relationship that had withered in his eight months absence was well and truly dead. They never managed to rekindle the bond that had grown in the closing days of the Titan war.
Percy Jackson had seen too much; fought too many foes; lost too many friends and loved ones and faced death too many times to fit in with the average person – even the average demigod.
So, when some upstart brat of Hermes decided to prank him for a lark, he was not kind when he kicked their asses six ways from Sunday in revenge.
Somewhere in Elysium, Percy knew that Ethan Nakamura was reclining next to some shady pool with a bag of popcorn watching him as he rose to his feet, drink in hand, and walked casually towards the perpetrator's table.
Connor and Travis Stoll eyed him warily – they were among his regular pranksters, seeing it as a grand game, but they knew when Percy was annoyed and ready to send them hurtling into the middle of the lake.
"Stolls," Percy growled, setting his cup of coke on the table. The table fell silent. "Which of you spiked my drink? Don't think I've forgotten that laxative solution you tried on me last week."
The twins blinked innocently back at him. "Not us, Percy," Travis chirped, looking for all the world like he'd done nothing more than help some lonely grandmother bake cookies for his good deed of the day. "You don't think we'd try the same trick twice, do you?"
"No, siblings mine!" Connor exclaimed gesturing to his many brothers and sisters, "We ply ourselves to our trade, never ceasing in our efforts to master our craft, aye?"
The Hermes table, cottoning on to their counsellor's act, grinned back at Percy and added in their agreement. Percy's eye twitched, and he darkened his glare. The drinks around the table sloshed under his control – an act that did wonders to inspire nervousness.
"Then who," Percy asked, momentarily dropping the frightening persona and lightening his tone to match theirs, "decided to act like I'm drinking cheap punch and spiked my coke?"
The glare returned, "I like my coke, Stolls. I don't like having shit added to my coke, and you lot have a bad habit of dumping unpleasant shit into my drinks. See my problem?"
Travis's smile faltered, and Connor was no better. His intimidation tactics had been known to cow some of the weaker monsters he encountered, and under Percy's icy glare the sons of Hermes shrank back in their seats.
"Percy, man. This time we're innocent – like I said we wouldn't be so amateur as to repeat our little jokes in the same way twice-," Travis stammered.
"-At least," Connor broke in, "not twice in a row."
"Right, we wouldn't do that to you Percy." Travis coughed uncomfortably. "So, um, with you knowing what standards we hold ourselves to you can clearly see that we didn't spike your drink!"
Percy wasn't buying it, and was about to lay into the twins when another voice chimed in.
"Oh Percy!" A cheerful voice called out to his right, from the Aphrodite table. One of the newer girls – Lucy something – smiled charmingly from where she reclined in her seat. "Don't get too mad at the troublemakers. We're happy to take credit for this one!"
As he turned away, the Hermes children slumped in silent relief. Connor mouthed to Travis, abort the prank for the next week – let Aphrodite's kids take the heat this time. Travis glanced at Percy yelling at the Aphrodite kids, most of whom cowered under the force of his anger, and nodded in agreement.
"-do you think you get off in trying to drug me?!" Percy finished his tirade, taking a breath.
Lucy, seemingly unbothered by the verbal lashing, grinned shamelessly at the son of the sea. "Why Per-cy," she dragged out the syllables of his name, "we don't get off on this kind of thing; that's for Hermes's kids. We just want you to come out of your shell for a bit and play with us for a while. Us dosing you is just lubricating relations between us and you!"
Percy wouldn't have believed that Lucy knew a different use of the word lubricate if he hadn't seen her furiously arguing with one of Athena's kids weeks back. Piper – who sat back and watched the whole affair with guarded eyes – had done a lot to rehabilitate Aphrodite's wayward children. It wasn't just the cabin of dumb beauty, and hadn't been since she'd taken the lead.
Didn't stop her charges from rebelling constantly with immature – or lewd, in the case of the older campers – pranks, but they weren't a bunch of empty headed bimbos anymore.
"What was in his drink, Lucy?" Piper asked her sister cautiously. Percy didn't think the girl would have anything to do with pranking him in the first place: she'd been on the wrong end of a child of the big three's wrath once before, and it had ended a friendship.
And she'd learned sensitivity – something her siblings lacked.
"Just something from our dear old mom," Lucy giggled. "Nothing that'll hurt him."
She turned to Percy, sapphire blue eyes, deep as a clear lake looking directly into his. He didn't pay a lot of attention to looks any more – having met several literal goddesses over his life, beauty was in plentiful supply – but Percy had to admit that she was very pretty.
"She said you've been holding out on her for too long Percy – Aphrodite wants you back on the dating scene, so she told us to put that in your drink." She smiled, and he marveled at her pearly teeth, and the way her pink lips curved, leading up to adorable dimples that made him just want to-
Percy mentally shrugged off the haze suddenly appearing in his mind.
'What the fuck was that?'
He risked another glance up and swallowed as he met Piper's kaleidoscopic eyes, swirling in a maelstrom of color. Time seemed to slow; Percy realized they had shifted into deep blue, with swirling motes of green and red and black and silver that reminded him of the sea on a moonlit night and new growth in the forest and ruby lips and-
He forced himself to blink, feeling out of control of his own thoughts. His gaze was drawn to other parts of her face – flawless caramel skin, long, dark lashes that caressed her cheekbones in slow motion as she looked back at it. Percy had always acknowledged Piper's beauty – it was undeniable, and the more potent for the person behind the face - but for a moment he stood captivated.
'Whatever Aphrodite gave me was strong,' Percy thought faintly, struggling to look away once more. It took supreme force of will not to look at any of the curious faces of the Aphrodite kids – even from his peripheral vision, he could see Lucy and some of her sisters high fiving each other.
Ignoring the concerned look that Piper sent him – she'd undoubtedly confront him later - Percy turned on his heel and marched out of the mess hall, hearing assorted whispers and giggles behind him as he made his way toward the lake.
X_0_X
CE 2017 – July 3 – 7:43 pm – Camp Half Blood – The Lake
Coming to the lake had been a mistake.
Whatever Aphrodite had given him, Percy had determined, apparently broke down a lot of the inhibitions he'd built up over the years. The evidence? He'd spent a full minute making out with one of the naiads before he'd broken out of the fine haze that shrouded his reason.
The naiad in question – "Marilla, it means 'Shining Sea!'" – had quickly dashed away to gossip with her friends after she'd blinked off the dreamily pleased look on her face. They were terrible flirts, but seldom found their advances returned, and certainly not by the son of Poseidon.
He didn't like his mind betraying him as it was. His entire life, since he'd turned twelve and was whisked into the world of the divine, relied on his ability to adapt and trust his body and reactions. One missed step, or one misjudgment of a strike, could mean death or serious injury.
And Percy was at the top of his game – the best of the best, as he'd been told time and again.
Unfortunately, whether it was staying in the lake, or leaving for camp again, Percy didn't like his prospects. Staying meant that Marilla was probably going to either convince her friends to take a pass at him (a few were eyeing him hungrily, he noted with anticipation, before he shook it off). She probably wouldn't settle for just a kiss either the second time.
Going back into camp held its own problems.
He'd been hiding in the lake all day, and confronting the Hermes kids – and then yelling at Aphrodite's – had certainly spread around the camp. He didn't know what he could say to the large group of gossipy demigods. He also didn't know whether he could control himself if any of the girls decided to try their luck, if Lucy had revealed what she'd done.
Naiads, or demigods. It really should have been a simpler decision that it was.
'I need to talk to Piper. She might know how to fix whatever's wrong with me,' he admitted to himself. More than most people in camp, he trusted her. Even as Annabeth had drifted away from him following their awkward breakup at Camp Jupiter and their journey to Europe, Piper had become one of his closest friends.
They understood each other. Percy had been forced to grow up much earlier than someone his age had any right to. Piper had too, though to a much lesser extent. He'd been forced to lead a war, while she'd been forced to take care of a father traumatized by his captivity on Mt. Diablo – taking away his memory weighed on her mind to the day, and she hadn't accepted her role as one of the minors on the quest afterwards.
He trusted her to listen and understand, and he also knew that she would kick his ass if he got out of control. It was comforting, he realized. He'd spent hours in the lake, initially merely anxious, which almost grew into a full-blown panic before he'd managed to talk himself back down to anxiety. Aphrodite managed to upset the delicate sense of security he'd built up over the years, but he knew that her daughter would probably be able to set him right again.
Mind set, he swam back to the shore.
A hand on his ankle stopped him from leaving the water, though. He turned around to see Marilla – a dark look in her eyes he'd not seen in one of the water spirits before.
"Leaving so soon?" she asked carefully, the sound travelling easily through the water for the son of Poseidon.
"I need to find out what's happening to me," Percy answered, easing his ankle out of her grip. "I need to figure out how to fix it, too."
She drifted closer – just inside his personal space, he noted with discomfort. Her eyes were beautiful – like clear blue springs, promising refreshment and –
'Damnit.'
"But Percy," she said, casting her eyes downwards, "don't you like what it's done for you? I thought you were a really good kisser, you know."
Part of him was flattered. He'd been complimented on his ability before – Annabeth had been very appreciative while they dated (he'd thought she was better than he was, himself) – but it was nice to hear that it hadn't diminished in the years without practice. He still didn't want to stay, though.
"I thought you were amazing yourself," he returned, "but I really want to figure out what's going on."
The naiad flushed a pretty pink, overlaid by the play of light over her face through the water. Her eyes sparkled. "You don't think you could stay? We could do more than kissing you know…"
A ball of…he didn't know. Anticipation? Dread? Hunger? Pooled in his stomach. The girl wasn't kidding – her eyes betrayed the shy act she was putting on. They were dark with arousal – seeing the opportunity to make good on her crush on the son of the sea god (most of the naiads had one, he knew from Grover's girlfriend Juniper). He wasn't naïve to the activities they sometimes got up to with some of the older campers.
Chiron turned a blind eye to their carnal activities – so long as they stayed out of the eyes of the younger campers. Most of them barely lived to see their mid-thirties; the forty-times centenarian wasn't about to deny them their lives.
And, being able to sink into the lake on a whim, Percy had been beholden to the naiads 'playing' with each other out of sight of the rest of camp plenty of times. He was certain that they did it where he could see on purpose.
But he wasn't about to indulge the pretty little thing while doped up on whatever Aphrodite had given him. When he was himself…maybe, he promised himself. It was alright to have some irresponsible fun sometimes, right?
"Maybe another time," he told the naiad. "I don't want to do it because I can't think straight," he added honestly. It wasn't as if he was being unreasonable.
Marilla frowned with disappointment. "Promise?"
Percy bit his cheek, indecisive…no. 'Fortune to the bold,' he thought.
"I promise," he told her, smiling to try and cheer her up. It seemed to work, as the naiad blushed furiously and smiled back.
"Okay," she said shyly – this time genuine. "I'll just…"
Percy blinked as she darted forward, kissing him furiously, arms wrapping around his neck. He grabbed her waist out of instinct, holding her close. It took only a moment before he returned the kiss, letting a bit of the haze take over so that the girl would have something to remember him by while she waited.
Her hand tangled in his hair – he'd let it grow a bit longer over the years, as it became a little more manageable with length – and he squeezed her closer as she deepened the kiss.
Her lips tasted sweet, like some of the flavored waters he'd tried before. He thought he tasted just a hint of strawberries – likely from the fields at camp – before he pulled away.
He realized he was panting lightly. The haze in his mind retreated sluggishly. It was difficult not to pull the naiad close again and lose himself in her.
Marilla was worse off, though. Openly flushed with arousal, she licked her lips as she stared at him hungrily. Percy let his eyes slide over her body, taking on the slender limbs, form fitting tee-shirt and jeans, and her long, dark hair. He could see why water spirits were known for their seductiveness in ancient times – if he'd seen one in a stream while collecting water, he wouldn't have believed his luck. All it would take would be one little kiss, and without his water abilities he'd be gone.
They were dangerous, he knew. Mellowed by age and cut off from most of the knowledge of the world, naiads weren't the kidnappers and femme fatales they were in ancient times. Percy could see that Marilla wanted nothing more than to drag him off to whatever underwater den she and her friends had made and have her way with him. He'd probably enjoy it too – the water would keep rejuvenating him, and that kind of pleasure could continue for as long as they wanted.
The goodbye was taking a lot longer than he'd expected.
"Well," he started, "I'll see you, then."
She hesitated. Old instincts warred with reason – he could easily escape if she tried to make off with him. He'd promised to return, though, which seemed to decide her.
"Bye Percy," she whispered, and darted away and out of sight in the water.
He stared after her.
"Damn," he muttered, "I really need to talk with Piper about this."
X_0_X
2017 CE – July 3 – 8:17 pm – Camp Half Blood – Fire Pit
He found her as the sky darkened overhead with the sunset.
Piper looked tired, her eyes looking with longing toward her cabin while her charges made their way from the sing-along to bed. Percy noted that Lucy gave her head-counsellor a cowed look before she scurried back to her sibling clique.
Piper worked quickly, he noted with satisfaction. It would take any other counsellor at least a few days to achieve similar effect with their siblings. With the Hermes cabin, if the Stolls ever tried to discipline anyone anyways, it probably never happened at all.
He caught her eye just as she finished talking to a few of the other counsellors – Malcolm and Katie, he noted. Probably for the next capture the flag alliance.
Her multicolored eyes widened, and then narrowed. He motioned toward the Poseidon cabin, and started walking.
The daughter of Aphrodite quickly caught up. "How are you doing, Percy?"
He thought about it. Drugged by the love goddess? Check. Two make-out sessions with a naiad? Also a check. Seemed to even out somewhat. Not knowing what exactly was happening sucked, though. "Not too bad, considering. Do you know what your mom gave me?"
He opened the door to his cabin for her, smelling sea salt and fresh air as he followed her inside.
"Okay first, I'm sorry," Piper admitted as she sat down on one of the spare beds. "I knew that Lucy was planning something this morning. I didn't think it was going to affect you, but I still should have asked before letting it go."
He blinked at her, before shrugging. "Can't blame you for not getting involved with everything your siblings get into. I certainly wouldn't."
She smiled ruefully, "Yeah, but it's also partially my fault because my mom told me she was going to be trying to get you back on the dating scene. I didn't connect the two events together, and I should have."
Percy frowned. "Your mom wants me to what?" he asked, bewildered.
"She wants you dating again, Percy," Piper rolled her eyes. "To her, you're probably one of the most eligible bachelors out there right now. Since you haven't done anything by yourself, I guess she wanted to kick start the process."
He put his head in his hands, groaning. "Another immortal interfering with my personal life. What else is new?"
"That potion is what's new," Piper told him. "Or old, I guess, depending on how you look at it. It's some old mixture made to let people see others how my mom does. It makes the mind a lot more open to attraction and lust and stuff like that."
"See like Aphrodite? You mean I'm going to become some slavering man-whore?"
The sky rumbled. Piper scoffed at the sound. "I don't know how she can get mad at that – I know she has a lot more sex than the number of kids shows," she complained. "But no, not that bad. You're probably noticing how pretty some girls are more than usual, right?"
He thought about how he'd seen Lucy, and Marilla, and even Piper herself. Pretty, beautiful, captivating – it didn't even go into how poetic his thoughts would turn if he let them. "Something like that."
"And you're more inclined to act on the urges you get, right?"
'Considering I almost let myself get drawn into an orgy with the naiads, I think that's also a check.'
"Pretty much," he admitted. "It's worse the longer I look at someone."
He'd avoided staring at his friend since she'd entered the cabin for that exact reason. She was very, very easy to stare at.
"Yes, well," Piper looked uncomfortable. "Mom's very free with her love and lust, so that's how she sees the world. If it's pretty, then she'll have a go at it most of the time."
He felt ill. "So, man-whore then."
Piper shook her head. "No, you get some say in the matter. If you constantly fight it you're going to have trouble keeping it all in. It's more a matter of accepting what you're thinking and choosing when to act on it. None of the thoughts that the potion brings out are false or manufactured – you think them, and probably would have noticed everything even without the potion in the first place – what it does is brings them to the front of your mind so you actually pay them attention and don't just shut them away."
Piper looked away, and Percy took the moment to look at her. She still seemed uncomfortable, but the familiar furrow to her brow told him that she knew what she was talking about, and thought it was important, but was having a difficult time explaining it to him in a way that he would accept.
"You're hard to get through to, Percy," Piper told him, staring him dead in the eyes. Her own had shifted to a mixture of steely grey and shocking violet. "You lock away most of the emotions you feel because they've hurt you a lot before – and that's not a bad thing. You've had your reasons."
She frowned. "But my mom doesn't do that – she rides her emotions and urges, letting them guide her actions, and that seems to work out for her just fine. Most of those emotions and urges are love and lust, but that's neither here nor there."
"You, on the other hand, don't let them move you. You're like a rock on the beach, letting all of your emotions and urges roll over you while you stand unmoving. Aphrodite doesn't work like that – living like that just leaves you alone and hard. So, the potion makes them stronger – instead of rolling over you, they'll start wearing you down until you either accept them or crack up."
Percy scowled. He understood what she was saying, and didn't like it. "So, it's either let them in or what? Break down?"
Piper shook her head. "It's kind of like that, but not. Emotions are a part of you – you can't just let them in; they're already there. It's more letting them affect your actions and decisions. Not just acting with logic and reason. Not even Athena's kids do that all the time – it's bad for your health. Letting them bottle up wherever you suppress them just means they'll have to explode eventually."
She tilted her head. Percy idly thought the gesture was undeniably cute. "It's more like the potion relieves tension, I guess. Instead of wearing down the rock, it softens it," she frowned again. "I don't know. I think that's a bad analogy now. Anyways, the potion isn't going to turn you into a man-whore, unless that's what you've been suppressing all this time. It's just going to force you to confront what you're feeling, and hopefully once you accept that you'll be a lot more open to relationships."
'Well I guess that's a relief,' he thought.
"So, does that make me a bad person for constantly thinking about how attractive women are?" He asked, curious.
Piper smiled. "You're human, Percy. We're always thinking about how good this person looks or how bad that person smells. Contrary to popular belief," the daughter of the love goddess smirked knowingly, "it's not a sin to be attracted to multiple people at the same time. Love, lust, or even just relationships in general don't work that way. Sure, some people find their 'soul mate' and live happily ever after, but most aren't that lucky and have to muddle through to find someone that works for them."
"And," she continued, a playful glint in her eyes, "you're a good-looking guy, Percy. You're not an asshole like a lot of good-looking guys are either. Plenty of girls wouldn't mind getting some attention now that you aren't just going to ignore them."
He couldn't resist the smile that formed on his face. This was the Piper he'd grown to enjoy having as a friend – intelligent but not afraid to indulge her emotions.
'Oh, wait. That's what she meant…' he realized suddenly.
It made sense. Since plummeting into Tartarus, he'd shut himself away from his emotions. Actually, it was since he'd lost his memories, and the despair he'd felt when he'd woken up with Lupa had threatened to overwhelm him. The she-wolf had urged him to put away the emotions for later and focus on present priorities, and he'd never gotten around to unpacking what he'd bottled up.
They had first exploded fighting the ghouls on Hubbard Glacier – the desperate fight that saw him pull a personal hurricane from thin air and then create an earthquake, sending a massive chunk of the glacier into the bay. Neither feats were anything he could do on a whim, but the pent-up emotions of a week of amnesia and stress that he only later realized were left over from the Titan war (ended only two months prior from his perspective) made it easy to just let go and break things.
In Tartarus, he'd felt overwhelming despair. He'd lost his girlfriend to the machinations of Hera, still suffered from losing eight full months of his life, and was trapped in the literal incarnation of Greek Hell. It was so very easy to let those emotions out to crush Akhlys with her own poison – they had erupted with all of the brutal force of a typhoon.
He'd never wondered why Annabeth had been terrified of him, then. He'd felt the ugliness of those emotions, crushed within him for so long. She'd only seen a tiny portion of everything he'd unleashed.
And then at the Doors of Death…
He'd learned later, what happened at the doors after he'd forced Annabeth into the elevator. He'd remembered the prophecy – 'Foes bear arms at the Doors of Death' – and wasn't willing to risk defying it by leaving prematurely. He'd stood with Iapetus and Damasen against Tartarus, the three Titans of the North, East, and South, as well as the army of monsters all waiting for their turn at an easy rebirth.
Percy remembered diving into the writhing mass of enemies, but after that it became a blur of bloodlust and agony.
Gaea had shown his friends and the Olympians what happened later, while they fought on Olympus – but Percy didn't like thinking about those moments. He shut them away like his emotions, to be forgotten.
'That took a turn for the dark,' he thought sourly. 'So, I need to roll with my emotions for once? I can do that.'
Dragging his mental state out of the mire of dark memories, he forced himself to focus on Piper. His friend. His beautiful, wonderful friend who knew what to say to help him make sense out of this infuriating situation.
She'd given him a perfect opening to try working out a new attitude, too.
"A lot of girls, huh? Are you part of that group?" he teased, letting a sly smile creep over his lips.
A faint blush dusted her cheeks. Piper reciprocated the smile, cocking her head to the side in coy regard. "What if I am, Jackson? Think you could handle me?"
He took a moment to search his emotions to see what they were telling him to do. It wasn't difficult to discern it.
They'd been sitting directly across from each other, knees touching. The beds lined one side of the cabin – there were only two of them (king-sized; his father was kind enough to have few enough kids to make it possible) – but they were close by Percy's design, to make enough space for other creature comforts. In this case, it made it very easy to lean forward toward Piper, whose eyebrows shot up in surprise.
They soon lowered back down, her eyes darkening to a pleasant chocolate-and-caramel as she leaned forward.
Percy hadn't thought about dating Piper before. They were friends – very close friends at that – but when they'd met he was still dealing with his awkward breakup with Annabeth, and she was still infatuated with Jason.
Needless to say, he and Annabeth hadn't worked out. Piper and Jason's breakup had been much more abrupt, and much more explosive.
In short, Piper's expressive attitude toward life continually grated on Jason, and Jason's far stricter approach grated on Piper. It escalated into minor barbs soothed in the short term, but soon devolved into arguments and screaming before their final and irreparable breakup, wherein the two came to blows. Piper left with mild to severe electrical burns and Jason had several thin scars where Katropis had delivered Piper's ire.
They'd since repaired a simple friendship, but it was strained and uncomfortable. Neither could forget the tension between them that came from having two radically different worldviews, nor the other's hostility.
By the time Piper was feeling at all up to dating – a surprisingly short amount of time, given the staunch emotional support of her siblings and other friends, including Percy himself – he had more or less shut himself away from romantic pursuits.
Examining his emotions, Percy realized that he'd been holding back a lot of attraction to Piper. He admired her strength, deeply appreciated the support she'd given him when he was hurting on the Argo II, and simply enjoyed having a solid, uncomplicated friendship with her.
So, when their lips met and her arms wrapped around his neck, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he well and truly enjoyed it. It wasn't like with Marilla, which was simple attraction as well as not a little lust. It was more akin to the bond he'd had with Annabeth, before Hera's meddling – the product of a long friendship and genuine.
He felt the haze settle over his mind as before, but ignored it. It wasn't important.
Piper's lips were soft and delicious, moving over his own. Their eyes had closed on their first meeting, so all of his senses focused on the feel of her, her taste, her scent and the little sounds she made as they deepened the kiss.
They separated, and looked into each other's eyes. He felt tension between them; some string of emotion that had bound them together in those precious moments. It was dark and hungry, egging him on. He saw cautious attraction in her eyes, and some deeper emotion he had yet to identify.
She moved first, but he pulled her into his lap where her legs wrapped around his waist, her hips and ass grinding into his pelvis as they met in a searing kiss once again.
One of his hands wound up into her hair. The choppy locks felt luscious to his questing fingers, and Piper groaned her approval as he began to massage the nape of her neck. She had quickly found her way underneath his shirt, running her hands across his back and abdomen, tracing the numerous scars he'd collected over the years.
They separated, and Percy attacked her neck with his lips, letting his warm breath run over her skin. Piper shivered at the sensation, goosebumps rising along her arms and neck under his touch.
His lips quested upwards, gently pulling her head back by her hair so that he could access the smooth, caramel skin. He was searching for the sensitive spots he knew she would have somewhere; maybe they would be on her neck, or behind her knees, or somewhere else. He would find them for her and ensure they were given the right amount of attention she deserved.
Her breathy gasp told him he'd located the first, right behind her ear. He kissed it lightly, one hand tilting her head to the side. She shivered, arms suddenly clutching his neck as her body became more and more tense with desire.
"Percy," she whined as he gently nibbled the sweet spot, quickly soothing it with his warm tongue.
He let go of her head, letting her lean back to look him in the eyes again. They had changed again, becoming something darker than chocolate brown – they were more akin to sapphires, of the deepest midnight blue he'd ever seen on a person. He leaned in and kissed her again, broken momentarily by her hands grabbing the hem of his shirt and pulling it over his head.
She placed her hands on his chest and pushed, and he let himself fall back on the bed while she laid on him. She tasted like cherries, tongue snaking into his mouth as he ran his hands up and down her ribs, settling on her toned belly. Lean muscles flexed as he tightened and relaxed his fingers.
He drew them further downwards, and she whined slightly as he met warm, smooth skin beneath the hem of her shirt.
Piper drew up on top of him as he started pulling it upwards, revealing first her sculpted navel, then her midsection, and finally her covered breasts. She finished the job for him, letting his hands rest just below the twin treasures as she discarded her shirt in a forgotten corner.
She guided his hands to the clasp of her bra, and with deft movements the garment fell loose and she was bared to his hungry eyes for the first time.
Unlike many of her siblings, Piper was not endowed with large breasts – they weren't small, certainly, but were only larger than a handful. As he cupped them, to Piper's hiss of pleasure, he reflected that what they lacked in size they made up for in all other respects.
Perky and firm, her hardened nipples dragged against his palm as he lightly massaged them. Piper's eyes fell shut and her head dropped forward slightly as he ministered to her. "Percy," she gasped as he carefully teased her nipples with his thumbs. "Please, no teasing!"
She opened her eyes, and he saw that they were black. Not darkened blue – not deepest chocolate: they were black and as lust-struck as the husky voice she'd just used. He let go of her breasts and drew her down to him, letting his hands explore her body and smooth, hot skin.
Her hands weren't idle, either. He felt her hands hungrily tracing the muscles of his abdomen, sending shivers along his spine as she explored the dips and turns of his body. In retaliation, he dragged his nails up her spine and felt her go rigid, quivering. She pulled away to stare at him wide-eyed, mouthing soundlessly.
He grabbed her along her ribcage and reversed their position, rolling so that he was on top while she rested on the bed below him. Having regain her composure, Piper smiled coyly at him. "What's next, Per-cy?" she purred.
He grinned back at her mischievously. His new vantage point had one particular perk she hadn't noticed. She did, however, when he pressed his legs against her sensitive inner thighs, making her gasp. Her eyes darted downwards, immediately noticing her vulnerability as his knee drifted ominously close to her center, now damp through her jeans.
He made contact only a second later, leaning down to capture her lips once more as he ground his knee into her, Piper's hips twitching at the sensation as she mewled into his mouth.
"Oh gods, Percy!" she gasped as he pressed further against her, her hips beginning to gyrate on their own against him.
"Feeling needy, are we?" He murmured huskily. He leaned further to lick the shell of her ear and Piper shivered. "Feeling my knee against you, feeling your wetness slide all along it."
Her hips rolled against him, her arms tight around his neck as he wound her up into a tight knot of need and desire. His fingers massaged the sensitive skin of her underarms, slowly moving to her ribs where he could tease the very edges of her breasts. Absent his lips to silence her, Piper's voice began to ring throughout the cabin; mewling cries of need.
Every once in a while, his knee would press against her clit and her hips would jerk against him, her voice rising in harsh shouts until it grew hoarse.
When she tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder, quivering in his arms as her hips rolled against him unconsciously, he knew he had her on a hair-trigger. Accustomed to where he needed to move to elicit the best reactions now, he suddenly ground his knee into her clit, biting hard into the crook of her neck simultaneously.
Ecstasy and sudden pain rocked Piper's body, the sensation throwing her roughly over the edge of release. She howled her orgasm to the world, nails sinking painfully into Percy's skin while her hips harshly ground into his knee and thigh. She muffled herself by biting into his shoulder, breaking skin and drawing blood.
He pulled away from her neck and started soothing his bite mark – now a rapidly darkening bruise – with lips and tongue through a smile as she rode her high below him, the noises she made intoxicating to his ears.
As she regained control of her body, Piper's breathing settled slowly into a languorous rhythm. Her arms slid away from his neck to flop limply against the bed. Her eyes were lidded and dazed as he regarded the puddle of endorphins he'd turned the daughter of Aphrodite into.
While she recuperated, he slid off the bed and pulled off his shoes, jeans and boxers, internally sighing with relief as his hardened rod gained a measure of freedom from its restricting confines. His socks joined them seconds later, and he busied himself by doing the same for the unresisting Piper.
When he bared her feet, he smirked at her wiggling toes as they felt the fresh, cool air of the cabin. His fingers danced along the soles, making her entire body wiggle deliciously as she complained at him to stop.
Percy did so, but switched to a new activity. He pressed his thumbs into her soles, searching for the pressure points that would let all of the tension drain from her limbs. Piper's approving moan told him he'd found them and he continued massaging her feet slowly, cracking her toes and pressing down on the sensitive ligaments between them for extra affect. The sounds he elicited for his ministrations were nearly as erotic as when he'd drawn her into furious orgasm, so he regarded his efforts as a success.
Soon enough, though, Piper caught her second wind and her jeans and panties joined the growing pile of clothes. Percy took a moment to admire the body she so generously put on display for him. Piper had hips and legs to die for – curves and smooth, luscious skin that went on for miles. At her feet, he let his eyes follow their sprawl until they met her pelvis, where her puffy lower lips greeted him.
He met her eyes; she'd reclined against the headboard of the bed, hands at her breasts lightly teasing her nipples while she stared at him with her dark, dark eyes. They were pools of inky blackness; hungry voids that drew him in and captivated him with their intensity.
They needed no words. He crawled over her, her legs spreading wide as he took her in his arms and devoured her succulent lips. She wrapped herself around him, only briefly crying out when he prodded her with his blazing hardness. Her tight, wet heat clung to him as he slid inside, dragging along his sensitive rod until he had reached the depths of her core and held himself there.
She panted against his lips and he buried his face into her shoulder as he drew himself out, feeling her lower lips cling to him in a futile effort to hold him inside of her.
He drove himself back inside of her, and her nails dug into his skin again. When he repeated the motion, her breath left her in a soft exhale against his throat. He set the pace, steady and rhythmic as she mewled against his throat, desperately seeking something solid for relief as pleasure overrode her senses. Her hands scrabbled at his back before gripping the sheets above her head desperately.
Percy barely held himself in check, wanting – needing – to burn through the torrid emotions burning through him, but resisting with all his mental fortitude. The dark hunger in his stomach, constantly encroaching into his mind, urged him onwards; told him to thrust harder, faster, and possess the panting, desperate goddess below him. He felt his thrusts become erratic and wild, at times tender and soft; drawing sweet moans from Piper's lips, at times hard and brutal; eliciting pleasured-pained yelps from somewhere deep in her throat.
Piper's hoarse voice urged him too – pleading for him to speed up, to thrust harder. The twin voices, egging him on to the same actions, maddened him, and soon the woman below him could do little more than croak her moans as orgasm swept over her, doing little to slow his manic thrusting.
He looked into her eyes again – the portals into her mind and soul, and saw dazed, inky pools stare back at him with mixed desire and adoration. Something in him recoiled while somewhere else he felt vicious satisfaction.
Percy drew another release from her before he came undone, hips jerking as he filled her spasming insides with torrid, sticky heat. She murmured deliriously into his neck as he panted harshly against her skin, tasting salty moisture on his lips.
He rolled so that they spooned each other, Piper too exhausted to do more than weakly wrap her arms around him and tuck her head beneath his chin. Her held her trembling body against his, delighting in the nearly inaudible sounds of satisfaction she made as she fell into a deep slumber.
As his breathing settled and his heartrate slowed, Percy wished he could do the same.
Chaotic emotions kept him awake despite his fatigue. He didn't understand them; didn't understand himself. It had felt good – unbelievably good – to vent the pent-up desires he'd built up over the years. Even after, he could feel them slink back to the dark corner in his mind he'd forced them to languish in. Not gone. Still there. Waiting.
Was the darkness that goaded him into aggression a remnant of Tartarus, or merely the manifestation of frustration he'd suppressed? It felt alien to him; he'd spent his life dedicating himself to fighting true darkness. Discovering it within himself was disturbing. Terrifying.
And yet it was oh-so good to let it loose and ride the electrifying, instinctual urges. Just…letting go had been one of the single most satisfying moments of his young life. Better than when they'd vanquished Kronos. Better than finishing Gaea. Better than fighting – than every victory he'd bled for.
He didn't understand it.
'Alright, Jackson. Think about this. You're not some monster on the inside – at least not any more than you were before. Why was this time different?'
Defeating Kronos and Gaea had been satisfying because they were the sources of so much pain and misery in his life. Putting them back in Tartarus or deep in slumber was essentially a very large middle finger to the entities responsible for fucking up his life.
He loved fighting for the rush. Victory was earned, not given. Fighting for his life, bleeding for his mistakes, made survival and victory satisfying.
'What did Piper say? I suppress a lot of my emotions?'
Maybe the difference was there. He had never suppressed the satisfaction of victory; he'd never needed to. It drove him to new heights, pushed him to improve where emotions tended to hold him back and make him clumsy.
He'd never suppressed the satisfaction of killing his two nemeses either. Without it he would have quickly grown despondent. Similar to his fighting victories, they drove him to improve. To never let events like the rise of Kronos or Gaea happen again.
Letting the darkness in his soul out for a ride was novel for him. He didn't do it – wouldn't have, if not for Aphrodite's interference. While the others were regularly sated, his darkness had been starved for a long time.
'It's a part of me,' he thought with trepidation. A flaw, similar but not quite the same as his loyalty complex. He'd known for a long time that there was something dark in him; he'd tried to make sure it never surfaced; never put his friends and loved ones in danger.
'Piper was right. I've been an idiot,' Percy bitterly reflected.
Suffocating that part of him made it, and him by extension, more volatile. He'd damned up the problem, and it had been spilling over continually until it broke and flooded the rest of him. It had shattered in Tartarus – had shattered at the glacier. And now he'd come perilously close to venting all of those dark emotions on one of his closest friends.
He thanked the gods that he'd had such an effective means to channel that aggressiveness, and that Piper was okay with the treatment. Had she been less so it could have been disastrous.
'I can't keep doing this.'
Affection for the woman tucked in beside him rolled through his body. Piper was right – wiser than he was, she had seen the problems brewing within him long before he even acknowledged its existence. Her mother had forced her hand, but Piper was the one to make sure he channeled her mother's efforts correctly and didn't just fight himself until he snapped.
He realized that he couldn't stay at camp any more. Things had become too lax for him; too predictable. If he stayed he would fall into old habits quickly. He needed to grow. Face new obstacles and find himself.
Something in his chest eased; some tension he hadn't known was there.
Feeling more content than he had in years, Percy smiled, pulled Piper closer, letting himself drift off into an exhausted slumber.
X_0_X
Well, this was originally supposed to be a longer story. I wanted Percy to go around the US helping out demigods, finding himself, hooking up with lovely ladies along the way. I wanted to introduce characters like Callisto and try and justify the Greek gods in the larger context of mythological clashing between pantheons, and how gods of the same realm could coexist without everything fouling itself up.
I had big plans. Then I lost my drive to write this story and it's kind of stonewalled. Happily, what I had already, what is posted just above, is fairly readable in its current format, has some fun stuff, some fun concepts, and works as a one shot. Perhaps one day I'll get the inspiration for this story and continue it, but for now I hope you all enjoyed this little chapter with Piper - and I hope for the writers out there who love PJO as a fandom and want to inject a bit of sophistication and gravity to the story, this gives you some ideas with which to do so.
Please leave a review if you enjoyed - and if you'd like I'm always happy to read PMs for anyone who'd like a chat.
-Valasania the Pale