"Is it just me or is Mrs. O'Leary getting fat?" Annabeth asked as the hellhound came trudging down the beach.
Percy gasped, way too dramatically. "Of course not! She's just getting ready for winter, you know. Hellhounds hibernate, I'm sure"
"They really don't" Nico chimed in casually.
Percy glared at him, pouting. He looked back at his dog as she chased after a bee.
She was kinda bigger, he had to admit, but that didn't mean anything, right? Granted, he didn't really know where she went to most of the time, what with her shadow-travelling all the time. But when she was around he was very careful on feeding her healthy stuff…or the healthiest part of what was left on his plate anyway.
She was not fat.
She was a lovely mass of fur and love rushing at top speed towards him.
Percy went down with a scream, but he died a good death, covered in fluff.
Percy was still alive, luckily, but the cast in his arm was covered in slobber and crumbs from the fifty pound dog biscuit Mrs. O'Leary was chewing on right next to him.
"Okay Percy, I'm gonna need you to keep this in place. No sword fighting, no climbing the wall, no picking up fights with Clarisse" Will listed on, pointing a new finger with each instruction. "I have no idea how, but apparently getting trampled by underworld creatures makes it harder for bones to mend"
"Or maybe she's just too fat and the weight was too much?" Nico said from beside him, petting the hound behind her ears.
Will shrugged. "Maybe. We don't exactly know how they work. Unless you could supply us with something…?"
"Cerberus has never done this, I wouldn't know"
"She's. Not. Fat" Percy mumbled, glancing down at the dog's expanding belly anyway. "It's just her winter coat"
Nico sighed, palming his forehead. "There is no winter in the Underworld, Percy. Besides, it's spring. If anything she should be shedding"
"Well, what do you know—"
"Ooookaaaaay" Will interrupted, pushing Percy back into his chair with a firm shove to his chest. He held Nico's hand instead, keeping him in place. "Why don't you bring me a soda, sunshine? I still have to check on Chris after that stunt in the chariot race"
Nico frowned, but nodded nonetheless. He squeezed his boyfriend's hand softly before leaving the room. Will looked back at Percy, who was staring at the floor.
"She's not fat"
When Nico opened the door to his cabin after some insistent and very bothersome knocking at what was roughly 6 AM, he was ready to send whoever it was directly to the Lethe to let them drown.
Instead, what he got was a face full of black.
"She was not fat" Percy's triumphant voice cheered from behind the black thing nearly shoved into his face. It wasn't only big and really, really black; it was also fluffy, it smelled very familiar, and it was whining.
"Percy" Nico started slowly, moving the thing slightly aside to look the older boy face to face. The thing squirmed. "What exactly is this and why are you showing me this at this hour. Not even the Apollo cabin is awake"
Percy cocked his head, eyes drifting to the side for a moment. "I think the sun's coming anyway" He shook his head. "Anyway. Mrs. O'Leary wasn't fat! I told you!" He held the thing closer to his chest, and finally Nico could get a good look at it. It was easily the size of a flour sack. "She was preggers!"
The thing barked, wagging its now visible tail frantically.
Nico stared at the thing—puppy. The puppy stared back, or it would've if its eyes were open.
"Percy, how old is this thing"
Percy looked so offended, Nico had the minutely urge to snap a picture. "He's not a thing. He's a puppy and he was born like, 20 minutes ago. And he's yours"
The son of Hades blinked and stepped fully outside, closing the door behind him. He was barefoot and in pajamas, but that didn't register just yet. "Come again"
"Yep!" The puppy whined again and wriggled in his arms. Percy simply shoved him into Nico's arms, who caught him mostly out of surprise. "I was so scared, she was just lying there next to my bunk, and the out of nowhere I hear something crying and wake up to find Mrs. O'Leary pushing black furry beans into this wonderful, wretched world—"
"Why, oh why would you say that, I love black beans, why would you ruin that—"
"AND" Percy continued, the shit. "I called Grover, right? The harpies almost caught him, but he managed to get inside, and he helped me translate and turns out she had a bit of fun with Cerberus in one of her trips to the Underworld. So one of them is officially yours, another one is going to Hazel. Congrats!"
"Cerberus doesn't do that" Nico repeated what he'd said earlier in the infirmary, fixing the pup so he laid belly-up in his arms. He was sniffing at his neck with his wet little nose.
"Cerberus doesn't do that, but he does my dog apparently" Percy had the good sense to ignore Nico's shiver of disgust at the phrasing. "There are four of them, and this is the smallest one. He reminded me of you, so" He shrugged, beaming down at Nico.
Said demigod was too busy staring at the puppy, who had fallen asleep in his arms. Nico carefully handed him back to Percy. "He's too young, take him back. If he's the smallest one he's gonna need to eat well" He then stepped back into his cabin and closed the door.
Percy stood there until he heard a long howl coming from cabin 3. Perhaps Mrs. O'Leary agreed that the pup needed to stay with her a bit longer.
"A hound puppy? Really?" Will laughed and fell back on the bed, holding his sides.
Nico kicked his shin. "Don't laugh! You know how Percy is, he's not going to back down until I have that dog on a leash with a tag"
"A skull shaped tag"
"Oh, that would be sweet-NO!" Will started laughing again and this time not even Nico's kicks could stop him. "I swear, I will sick that dog on you when he's older"
When Will stopped laughing long enough to start breathing again, he had to wipe tears off his eyes. "Oh please, you wouldn't make a puppy attack Drew if she dyed all your shirts pink"
"No, I would lock her in the showers with Attila the Hun" Nico sighed, sitting down next to Will. "I'm going to kill Cerberus"
"Maybe you could ask your dad to neuter him?"
Nico shook his head. "Percy said he would give one of the puppies to my stepmother. Apparently she liked the idea so there's no neutering the dog"
"Trust him to give something to a god" Will snorted, pulling Nico down to lie beside him. "It's still too early. My dad just passed by and I still can hear Cure somewhere down the beach. Snuggle time"
He got a slap in the arm holding Nico, but other than that there was no further movement until both of them fell asleep.
Mrs. O'Leary looked around at the various campers, proudly showing off her little—or at least relatively so—fluffy jelly beans to whoever wanted to.
The puppies, now 5 weeks old, where running around the makeshift corral cabin 9 had made for them, sticking their squishy faces through the bars to lap at the youngest campers' faces and hands. Even Mr. D had walked down from the Big House to check out the puppies.
Nico had slowly warmed up to the idea of having a pet. The little runt hadn't stopped following him around since he opened his eyes and managed to wobble around after the son of Hades that smelled nice. That Will was usually around him and carrying treats in his bag didn't hurt, either.
Said demigods were currently laying against the proud new mother's flank, playing with Nico's hound.
"It's gonna be time to take him with you soon, you know. Any ideas for names?" Will asked, dangling a piece of rope in front of the puppy's face.
Nico held the dog firmly on his lap as he tugged at the rope with his tiny, barely there fangs. "I was thinking Nero"
Will scrunched up his nose. "Like the roman nutjob? Why would you do that to the poor thing?"
"No, you idiot. It means black in Italian" The hound dropped the rope to nuzzle his owner's chin, slobbering all over his neck. "Eww, don't do that"
"Yeah, only I can put my tongue there"
"Oh my gods, Will"
"I never really thought you would actually get the skull one, you know"
Nico scoffed, fixing up the tag in the black spiked collar. Nero wagged his tail, already hulking over Nico when the boy was kneeling in front of him.
"The collar is nice, though. Nice touch. No one would believe he's such a giant muffin with that, oh wait! They already know!"
"Shut up. He likes it" Nico said, frowning at his boyfriend until a huge tongue licked it away. He laughed and pushed the dog aside. "No! You're dirty!"
Nero barked happily and jumped around, proudly showing off his new tag to everyone who would pay attention to him. He was the only hound of the litter left in camp; the only female had been given to Hazel and was now undergoing training under Reyna's strict regimen along with Aurum and Argentum. Another one had gone back to the Underworld and was probably living with the other hounds with a flower crown on its head or something, whatever Persephone would do with a dog. And the fourth one had been sent to the Hunters of Artemis to join the pack of hunting wolves.
The 6 months old puppy—for he would forever and ever be Nico's little puppy—already acted as backup for the camp's defenses and had proven to be remarkably good at tracking, so he proved to be a great advantage at capture the flag.
Percy walked by, his own dog straying to go play with her son. Those who were with them in the dining pavilion where watching them fondly, throwing scraps every time one of them got close.
"Aren't you glad I'm such a bugger?" Percy asked, throwing an arm around his cousin's shoulders.
Nico snorted, but let him keep his arm where it was. "Yeah, right. This was an isolated occasion"
Will hummed, wrapping his own arm around Nico's waist, as to not get one-upped by his boyfriend's ex-crush. "Hey Percy"
"Yeah?"
"Is it me or is Mrs. O'Leary getting fat?"