Family Matters

Cynder2013

Magnus Chase was sure that the world was ending. His was on a plane heading to San Francisco, California to visit the part of his family that he'd only met once before. And his dad had agreed to it.

That last bit was the part that made him pinch himself over and over again. His dad hated, er, extremely disliked his Uncle Frederick. Extremely. The fact that when the invitation for the family reunion had come and not ended up pitched straight into the trash was the first big surprise. When his dad had said that they would both be going Magnus was tempted to check if he had been replaced by a non-grudge-holding robot. When he had RSVP'd and not slammed down the phone at the end of the conversation Magnus had to go to his room and will himself not to pass out.

"Who's going to be there again?" Magnus asked his dad, who was sitting beside him in the aisle seat of their row. They hardly kept in contact with the rest of his dad's family and Magnus was pretty sure that his mother had been an only child.

"It's at your Uncle Frederick's house." his dad told him for the umpteenth time. "And your Aunt Margret and her family will be coming as well. You were supposed to memorize your cousins' names." Magnus ran over the list in his head before saying the names out loud.

"Uncle Frederick is married to Aunt Helen. Their kids are Bobby and Mathew, who are twins, and Annabeth, who's the oldest. Aunt Margret's husband is Uncle Rick and their kids are Melissa, who's younger than Annabeth but older than the twins, and Ryan, who's younger than me by three months." His dad nodded. The intercom dinged and the message was relayed that the plane would begin landing shortly. Magnus buckled up and pinched himself one more time.

Bobby, Mathew, Annabeth…

-0-0-0-0-0—0—0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0—0—0—0—0-0-0-0-0-0—0—0—0—0—0-

Magnus looked down at the map as their rented car went over another bump. "Are you sure we're going the right way, dad?" His dad spoke without taking his eyes off the road. "Of course we are Magnus, you mapped out the route, didn't you?" Magnus was a lot better with directions than his dad was, but that didn't mean that he never made mistakes.

"The house should be…"

"On the left." his dad interrupted. "I see it."

Magnus looked up from the map and quickly figured out that it would have been pretty hard to miss Uncle Frederick's house even if they had been flying over in Santa's sleigh in the middle of a snowstorm. Which wouldn't have happened since a) Santa didn't exist and b) the reunion was in the middle of August.

Across the front of the house there was a giant red banner that said 'Welcome Chase Family' in gold letters. The driveway somehow managed to hold a biplane, though Magnus was sure that the plane was big enough to stun an elephant. The flowers in the front yard were blooming brightly and the trees had been draped in chains of neon paper. The walls of the house had been painted with swirling designs that made Magnus' head spin.

He wondered if the house was like that all the time. If so there was no wonder that his dad hadn't talked to Uncle Frederick in years.

His dad parallel parked the car in the street behind a black pickup truck and Magnus stowed the map in the glove compartment. "Well, too late to back out now." his dad said cheerfully. They got out of the car and walked to the front door.

The door was opened by a blond teenage girl wearing jeans and a gray tank top. She studied the two of them and for a split second Magnus was sure she was going to shut the door in their faces. Then she broke into a smile.

"Magnus! Uncle Albert! It's great to see you, come in." She opened the door wider and they entered the house.

"Annabeth." Magnus' dad greeted when the girl had closed the door behind them. "How are you?" Here smile wavered for a split second. "I'm OK. Everyone is in the backyard."

Annabeth led them through the house, which was much more normal than its outside would lead you to believe, and they went into the backyard. There was an overfilled table on the porch and three boys were kicking a soccer ball around on the grass.

"Albert! Magnus!" Magnus was smothered in a hug from his Aunt Margret. "So good to see you!" She drew back and then captured her brother in a headlock. "Why don't you call more often you little knucklehead?" she asked as she ruffled his hair. Magnus' dad escaped from his sister's clutches only to be jumped on by his three nephews.

"You're-

-our-

-uncle?!" said the two black-haired boys who were clinging to his back. Magnus wasn't sure who was Bobby and who was Mathew. Ryan was mimicking his mother and giving his Uncle Albert a noogie. Annabeth laughed. "Leave your uncle alone, you little demons!" She and Magnus pulled the three boys back to the ground.

Melissa, who was sitting as far away from everyone as possible, gave a sound of annoyance as she was dragged towards the group by her father. "Hi." she said, snapping her gum.

"Magnus!" His Uncle Frederick emerged from the house carrying a plate of hotdogs, which he quickly put down by the barbeque so that he could shake his nephew's hand. His glasses almost fell off the end of his nose. "Good, good. Everyone's here now!"

A polite cough came from behind Magnus and he moved over to let his Aunt Helen through. "Thank you dear." She put the large salad she was carrying down on the table. "Frederick, not everyone is here yet."

Magnus was confused at that statement. He mentally counted everyone he saw in the yard, everyone was there. He saw that his dad was also confused. Uncle Frederick, however, nodded in agreement with his wife.

"Yes, yes. Of course." The he seemed to see that Magnus, his dad, and everyone else except for Annabeth and her brothers were looking at him and Aunt Helen in confusion.

"Everyone is here." Melissa stated with annoyance. "Right?"

Aunt Helen sighed. "I suppose he forgot to tell you?"

"Tell us what?" Uncle Rick asked.

"Well, Annabeth was the one to arrange this reunion and she asked if she could invite some friends from her mother's side of the family. I think she wanted you to meet them. We said yes and Frederick was supposed to tell you that they'd be coming."

Friends from her mother's side? That would mean that Aunt Helen wasn't Annabeth's mother…

"I could tell them not to come." Annabeth said. "Percy would be disappointed though…" If the twins had been dogs their ears would have perked straight up.

"Percy-

-is-

-coming-

-here?!" they shouted in excitement. "He was…" The twins jumped on their mother.

"Please-

-can Annabeth's–

-friends still-

-come?"

Aunt Margret laughed at their enthusiasm. "If the boys like your friends so much, I think I'd like to meet them." she said to Annabeth.

Magnus' dad shrugged. "What do you think Magnus?"

"Can they come?" Magnus asked Aunt Helen. She laughed. "If everyone is so excited to meet them…" The twins shouted in celebration and ran to the grass so they could jump about in excitement without bumping into anyone. Magnus and Ryan followed them.

"Who is this Percy?" Ryan asked.

"Only the greatest person ever!" said, was that Bobby?

"Outside of our family." added the other twin.

The bell rang inside the house. Annabeth went inside and returned after a few minutes with a black-haired teenage boy with green eyes that could be seen from across the yard. Within seconds he had been mobbed by the twins.

"Hi Percy!" they shouted in unison. "Hey guys." he replied, unfazed by their enthusiastic welcome. He was greeted by the rest of the Chase family, not as enthusiastically, and was eventually shaking hands with Magnus.

"Nice to meet you." he said, studying Magnus with his sea-green eyes. "You're the cousin from Boston, right?" Magnus nodded. "Good."

Percy let go of Magnus' hand and held out a container that he'd been holding the entire time. "My mum made cookies." he told Annabeth's mum. She took the container and peeked inside.

"So these are the famous Sally Jackson blue cookies." she commented.

"Sally Blofis now." Percy corrected. "Doesn't change the cookies though." Aunt Helen took the container into the kitchen.

"Nico gave me a ride." Percy told Annabeth. "And you can guess who insisted on coming with…"

Annabeth shook her head. "You did that on purpose, didn't you? You're as bad as Piper's siblings!"

Percy shrugged. "The kid deserves to be happy. After this summer…" The two of them shivered. Magnus thought that they had forgotten that he was standing near them and slowly inched away. Something in their eyes told him that it was not a good idea to be too close to them at that moment.

A crash came from inside the house and everyone looked in the direction of the sound.

"Sorry Mrs. Chase." a boy said. "If this idiot didn't want a glass of water, he could have just said so."

"Stop hovering, Will. I'm fine." said a different boy. Two boys appeared in the door with Aunt Helen behind them.

"We can clean it up Mrs. Chase." said the blond boy.

Aunt Helen shook her head. "Go have fun." She practically pushed them out of the house.

Everyone stared at this appearance of who were probably two more of Annabeth's friends. The two boys couldn't have been more different. The first was blond- haired and blue-eyed with a relaxed posture. Magnus had a feeling that if he smiled the sun would look three times brighter. The second was dark-haired and pale skinned with his eyes darting around the yard as if he was looking for threats. His arms were crossed with scars that had obviously had to be stitched closed but still left thick ridges in his biceps. He looked like if he smiled he would send gangsters running away in terror.

Annabeth shook herself and spoke to her silent family members. "This is my cousin Will and Percy's cousin Nico." The dark-haired boy stepped forwards and shook Magnus' hand. He looked at Magnus the same way Annabeth and Percy had. "I'm Nico. Pleased to meet you." he said.

"I'm Magnus." Magnus replied, shaking his ice-cold hand. Nico tilted his head and nodded.

"Yes, yes you are." Magnus didn't have time to figure out if he was freaked out by this statement because the blond, Will, broke out into a grin that did in fact make the sun look as if it were shining more brightly.

"Well, what's everyone standing around for? I thought this was a celebration!"

The twins whooped and broke the spell of silence over the yard. After that all fourteen people talked and laughed together until it was time for dinner, even Nico. Once they had finished Annabeth stood up to make a toast.

"Normally, I'd give a huge speech." she said. "But I think that this should be kept simple." She raised her glass of apple juice.

"To family!" she shouted.

"To family!" everyone shouted back. Magnus sat back and smiled. His dad's family wasn't at all bad; he wasn't sure why they'd never visited before.

After they'd finished desert, Magnus went to wash his hands before the guys started playing video games without him. Annabeth, Percy, Will and Nico cornered him in the basement washroom.

"What are you?" Nico asked, with his dark eyes flashing dangerously.

Maybe he'd judged too soon.

The End

A/N: I have no clue where this was going, I just sat down and started writing. Please tell me if you see any mistakes that I missed, I'm not the greatest at editing.

-Cynder2013