Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any of Rick Riordan's characters. I do, however, own Leon. First FanFic, so rate and review. Constructive criticism is more than welcome. Enjoy!
"Got you again, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth exclaimed as she held Percy at knife's point. He had been sparring with her for about half an hour and she honestly kept winning. Not because she was better than Percy, but because she was distracting. Multiple times, he just found himself staring at her stormy eyes. However, being the daughter of Athena, she wouldn't give up the opportunity to put Percy at her mercy.
"Yeah, right, like I would actually go hard on you," Percy replied, as he tried to back away. Suddenly, though, the word turned upside down as Annabeth flipped him over her shoulder and pressed the knife to his throat harder.
"Take that back," She hissed, her intense gray eyes boring into Percy's. Percy laughed.
"Or what?" he asked, to which his girlfriend smiled.
"Guess who's on inspection next? And guess who might be cleaning the bathrooms for the next week?"
Percy gulped. As easy as it was for him to clean the bathroom with his water powers, the "fragrance" of the johns was unfortunately not something that had improved since he had arrived at camp. "Alright, sorry…" He grumbled. "Let me up already."
"Guess what?" Annabeth asked as she helped Percy up. "I'm not actually on inspection next."
"Wha-, you- aaargh!" was Percy's immensely intellectual reply.
"But Clarisse is."
Percy sighed, "…Just my luck…" Annabeth laughed and took his hand, and then decided against it. "You reek, Seaweed Br-"
"-Percy! You up for a fight?" interrupted a familiar voice. A tall girl jogged into the arena. She had electric blue eyes, short black hair, and despite her goth-looking clothes, she seemed to have a silvery glow around her.
"Hey Thalia!" Annabeth greeted
Thalia smiled in response. "It's been a while, guys!"
"Yeah, where have you been?!" Percy inquired.
"Oh, around. You know how it is with the Hunters."
"Umm…no I don't."
"Oh yeah, I guess not. So again, you up for a fight?" She repeated, glancing at Annabeth. Percy couldn't say no with her watching. Annabeth seemed to recognize this and simply smirked.
"Well, did you bring any tissues with you?" Percy said with a smile as he uncapped Riptide.
Thalia frowned. "Uh, no…why?"
"You're gonna be crying," Percy jeered
Thalia narrowed her eyes. "You are dead, Kelp Head. Dead."
Thalia however, was incorrect. Percy was still the greatest warrior at Camp. And although Thalia was better with a sword than most demigods, it still wasn't her primary weapon. In addition to that, Percy was infinitely more focused on this fight than he was against his girlfriend, so it only lasted about thirty seconds. With the fusion of his combative genius to his already fine-tuned textbook Greek style, Percy's movements had become extremely unpredictable, even to Annabeth. She stood nearby trying to analyze his style and failed miserably. He didn't advance when he was supposed to, and he didn't defend when he was supposed to, which put Thalia in awkward situations, which Percy would then take advantage of.
"Again." Thalia demanded as Percy lowered Riptide from her throat.
Percy smirked. "Are you that anxious to get your butt handed to you again? Maybe some other time."
Thalia glared at Percy. "You're the one who's gonna need tissues tomorrow when we cream you in Capture the Flag, Kelp Head. "
He smirked. "Thals, maybe if you could fight half as good as you could trash talk, you might stand a chance."
At this point Annabeth had walked over to them from where she was standing. She frowned, and from her expression, Percy could see that she had her thinking cap on. "Wait a minute…if you're here…and we're playing Capture the Flag tomorrow…"
"…That means that we're gonna have another Hunters versus Campers match aren't we?" Percy finished with a groan. Thalia grinned and nodded in reply. "Another groan couldn't hurt," Percy thought as he proceeded to groan again.
"Whatever, let's go freshen up for dinner," Annabeth said. The trio started walking out of the arena towards the cabins. Every single time Percy saw those twelve cabins with the numerous other cabins surrounding them, he had to smile. He took in the scenery of his favorite place in the world for the millionth time, but he still felt the thrill and wonder of when he saw it the first time. "This is my home," He thought nostalgically. He glanced over at Thalia and wrenched himself back to the present as Annabeth's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"So, Thalia, you never really answered Percy's question. What have you been up to lately?"
"Well, I'm a Hunter. And what do hunters usually do, Annie?" Thalia said in a tone that one would usually use with a preschooler.
"I figured that much out myself amusingly enough," Annabeth replied with a glare. "You're impossible."
"Come on, Annabeth! It's like when you come home from school and your parents are like 'How was school, honey?' Nobody actually tells them what you did at school, you just say 'Oh, not much,' or 'nothing special.' Know what I mean?" Thalia complained.
Percy grinned, thinking of all those times that he had come home to his caring mother and she had asked that question. Those conversations had gone almost exactly as Thalia had described, except in his world, "nothing," meant that he hadn't made any new immortal enemies. It didn't account for attempts on his life by mythological monsters.
Meanwhile, Annabeth had opened her mouth to continue their verbal sparring when a familiar voice called out, "Annabeth! Percy! Wait up!" Annabeth and Percy turned to see Will Solace, the head counselor of the Apollo cabin. He had taken over after Michael Yew had died in the Titan War the previous summer. The Apollo cabin did not have the luckiest counselors, to say the least. The one before Michael was a guy named Lee Fletcher, who hadn't survived the Battle of the Labyrinth.
"Sup, Will," Percy greeted.
"Sure, guys; let's just pretend I don't exist!" Thalia said.
"Um, hey Thalia," Will replied. He and Thalia had become good friends during the battle for Olympus and trusted each other, but they still maintained a certain degree of rivalry since Thalia was a Hunter of Artemis and he was also an archer, being Apollo's son. "Anyway," He continued. "Chiron told me to get you two. Apparently there's some new guy that needs orientation. Though why he needs you guys specifically, I don't know."
Annabeth frowned. "I'm sure he has his reasons. He always does."
"Well I guess we'll head over to the Big House, then. See you guys at dinner," Percy said as he took Annabeth's hand. He led her away, leaving Will and Thalia glancing at each other awkwardly.
After a few seconds of trudging through the magically grown strawberry fields, Percy saw Annabeth's eyebrows scrunched up. He gently nudged her. "Have I told you how cute you look when you're trying to figure something out?" He said with a grin. "What's on your mind this time?"
"Well," she started. "I'm used to doing the orientation process. Chiron has me do it all the time. But I don't know why he sent for you."
"I know, right? Who sends for a useless waste of oxygen like me?" Percy joked.
Annabeth laughed. "No, I mean, I don't mind – it's actually kind of nice, but seriously…" Percy grinned and then shrugged.
"Who knows? Maybe he really only needs you for the orientation and he sent for me because Hermes lost his staff again or something."
"That would pretty much suck…" Annabeth replied. "…Unless if we end up on a date at the Eiffel Tower again," she said with a grin. Percy smiled at the memory. It was last September – on their one-month anniversary. Long story short, he had forgotten that it was their one month. Then, Hermes asked them to retrieve his staff from a mini giant that specialized in fraud, and when they did, the messenger god had transported them to the Eiffel Tower for a date as thanks. All in a day's work for Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.
"Here we are," Percy said when they arrived at the porch of the Big House. Usually Chiron would be playing Pinochle with Dionysus, but he knew Chiron was inside, and he hoped Mr. D was on vacation or something. Percy stepped inside heard voices coming from the rec room, where the Ping-Pong table was.
He opened the door for Annabeth and followed her in. "Ah Percy, my boy! And Annabeth, too," Chiron the centaur greeted them.
"Oh jolly," a bored voice droned. "It's Peter Johnson and Anniebell." At this point, Percy and Annabeth would not have even bothered to correct the wine god if it wasn't for the guy that stood next to him. He was tall, tan, and his skin rippled with lean muscle under his white tee-shirt and dark blue jeans. However, his most distinguishing features were his eyes. The irises were bright gold and almost seemed to glow. They contrasted well with his jet black hair. He looked somewhere between seventeen and twenty – way too old to be a new camper.
"Uh, Percy Jackson, actually," Percy said as he shook the newcomers hand. "This is my girlfriend, Annabeth Chase." The stranger smiled and nodded in Annabeth's direction.
"The name's Leonidas Aurelio. Call me Leon," he replied with a strong yet gentle voice. It sounded like the voice of someone that had been through hardships and struggled, but there was compassion in there. His eyes told the same story, but they also betrayed a sense of humor.
"Hold on…you're the new camper?" Annabeth asked.
"That seems to be the case." Leon replied.
"But…you're too old. Have you been claimed yet?"
"Not that I know of."
Percy's mind raced. "How come?" He wondered. "There's no way he's under thirteen."
"How old are you?" Percy said. Leon seemed to think about it for a second before he gave his answer, which Percy thought was odd.
"Eighteen."
Annabeth and Percy both turned to face Chiron and Dionysus. "Why wasn't he brought to camp earlier?! Why hasn't he been claimed yet?!" Annabeth shrieked.
"I thought we had a deal, Mr. D. The Olympians were supposed to claim their children by the time they were thirteen. You guys swore on the Styx!" Percy demanded.
"Calm yourselves, you insolent fools," Dionysus said in a carefully controlled voice with purple fire raging in his eyes. "Don't ask me about this. I assure you, he isn't mine."
Meanwhile, Annabeth's intimidating eyes moved from Leon, to Dionysus, to Chiron, and back again. She had a calculating expression on her face as she muttered, "They must have found some sort of loophole or something. And it's probably one of the minor gods. If it was one of the major ones, he would have been killed years ago. There's no way a child of one of the major gods could last so long without joining Camp Half Blood."
Percy looked at Leon. "You must have no idea what's going on," he stated.
Leon grinned at him. "Well, actually Chiron has been filling me in for the past hour or so. I already know about the gods and the Pact of the Big Three and the Titan war last summer, as well as the saviors of the camp; a certain Son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena.
"Damn, I'm famous. He just got to camp like an hour ago and he already knows about me," Percy thought with a chuckle.
Chiron cleared his throat. "Enough of this. Percy, go with Annabeth and show him around. Make him feel welcome." He said with emphasis on 'welcome.'
Percy looked over at Annabeth as she narrowed her eyes and simply said, "fine." However, she stayed rooted to her spot and kept looking at Chiron. Leon, like Percy kept looking back and forth at Chiron and Annabeth, except he had a look of understanding on his face. Percy realized that Annabeth must be having one of those silent conversations with Chiron, the ones that he never understood. Did he mention that he hated them?
Finally, Annabeth turned and walked out. "Let's go guys," She called. Percy shrugged at Leon and followed her out with the newcomer close behind. There was something about Leon…Percy couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he knew one thing. Leonidas Aurelio was not a normal demigod.