a/n: freaky deaky this is a filler chap sorry maybe i'll add an epilogue or yea
2 of 3 - Of Middles
(Sunday) September 20, 2009 – 7:12 PM
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The moment he stepped out of the marquee, Percy could sense the presence of a monster. To be more accurate, he could hear it. Annabeth wasn't as slow as he was, and was already tapping away on her heels towards the source.
He wasn't going to lie, the past few days had been a great anniversary weekend, starting with Friday's find-a-cacadeus-and-go-to-Paris activity. It was totally awesome, but it wasn't exactly Percy's style either.
They both decided to keep the rest of the weekend together and just do whatever they felt like doing—today was especially no different. Neither of them had been to a marquee before, and they just happened to pass by after their dinner. Most of what they did recently was always on a whim nowadays, so this wasn't too much of a surprise.
To make a short story even shorter—and partly because what had happened prior was too insignificant to mention—Percy and Annabeth safely defeated the mythical lizard creature Annabeth identified correctly and it burst into the familiar sparks Percy had come to know over the years. Oddly enough, it was calming.
Annabeth, after defeating it, made sure the Mist was working properly and even tinkered with it herself. Percy hoped the gathered crowd didn't see two teenage kids join in and sing with the street performer, though. He had enough of that nonsense.
Then the two kids with the British accents stepped in. They talked about the Empire State Building and uncles and magic, which didn't make Percy perturbed.
At their request, Percy and Annabeth agreed to take them to the Empire State—they've dealt with harder quests. Once you've toppled the Titan of all Titans, a little thing like directing two lost kids didn't' even compare.
Percy didn't mind the kids at all, though. They were a real riot. While they guided them, Percy took it upon himself to point at passing by restaurants and hotspots that they might as well know about. It was clear they weren't native to his city. Once or twice, the two would pick a fight with each other, saying that they knew more about a certain place. Percy tried not to laugh.
Annabeth, he could tell, seemed normal, but was on guard. She was quiet during their walk—calculating. Maybe part of it was because she was just embarrassed to realize the kids' arguing sounded a lot familiar to them than anything.
The kids, Percy and Annabeth discovered, had wasted all their money on train rides and hotdogs (Percy could empathize—the hotdog vendors sold heavenly ones), so they didn't have enough for cabs. They had come with their uncle, who they said they had ditched the moment he had gone into a meeting for work related business. Asking directions were a no-no because talking to strangers were weirdly a strict teaching for them. They had only asked them because they knew Percy and Annabeth had "magic".
Since they had previous knowledge about demigod stuff, Percy wondered about their backgrounds. No way could two demigod kids run around the city for a whole day without running into a couple monsters and surviving without a scratch.
"So," started Percy. "who's this uncle of yours?"
The boy who introduced himself as Teddy lit up like a Christmas tree, and for a second Percy could swear he saw his eyes flash red, then back to brown. Okay, sure.
"Harry?" Teddy repeated. "He's my godfather! He's the Harry P―"
Victoire, the younger girl, flicked him in the head before he continued. She whispered something into his ear that made Teddy's eyes widen.
"Oh," he amended. "Sorry, never mind."
Annabeth tensed, but Percy tried to dismiss it. He had to lessen his girlfriend's tension somehow.
"Harry Puh? Sounds foreign." said Percy. "You two aren't from New York, are you?"
"Gee," Victoire drawled, "What makes you think that?"
The little girl wasn't cute―at least, Percy wouldn't call her cute. He didn't want to sound creepy, but the truth was, Victoire was pretty—like, "I'm a little girl but I'm also nicer looking than a model" pretty. It was a weird concept, but who was he to complain about weird?
Percy chuckled in reply. "Wild guess?"
Victoire glanced at Annabeth before looking at back at him. "Is there a school for you lot here, too?"
Percy blinked. Demigods? That's what she meant, right?
Is she implying there's a school for demigods where she's from? Now that he thought about it, there was no way there could even be demigods in Britain—guessing that was where they were from. Though he couldn't circle the theory in red yet; they could have been from Oregon for all he knew. But if they really were from Europe, how could they even be demigods? The gods can't even stand Alaska, let alone a whole other continent.
If he thought this now, he was certain Annabeth thought this before him and was figuring out a way to squeeze answers. Not literally, hopefully.
"No," Surprisingly, it was Annabeth who answered. "We don't have a school. We have a camp."
"Camp?" asked Teddy. "Like, muggle camp?"
Percy felt all words die at the tip of his tongue. Muggle. He didn't know what that meant—maybe it was some slang from where they were from. Percy missed out that part of childhood—where he used codenames for everything. But, this time, he had a feeling it wasn't a simple codename.
"What's muggle?" Annabeth asked for him. Victoire looked alarmed, like she'd just asked Why's the sky blue?
"Maybe they don't use that word in America?" Teddy whispered to Victoire, confused. It was loud enough for all of them to hear.
Victoire shrugged, and Percy had to give her props for keeping cool. He was strongly reminded of Aphrodite's children. "Whatever. And this camp? Is it…near?"
"Yeah," replied Percy. "It's in Long Island." A cough. "I mean, it's a ten minute cab ride away from where we are."
"Wicked!" She exclaimed. "Can we take a look?"
Before Percy could make up a lame excuse, Annabeth tapped his shoulder and took over talking. This wasn't tag-boxing, but she still managed to make it feel like that. "Sure," she said. "You can take a look."
Annabeth definitely had something planned. She had that look in her eyes that Percy thought looked pretty hot on her, but had to stay five feet away before she knocked him down with a crazy idea.
The little blonde girl turned to look at her older companion with puppy dog eyes. "Let's go! Please, it'll only be for a while? We'll find Uncle Harry before 8 o'clock!"
Percy almost felt sorry for the boy, whose eyebrows furrowed in concentration before letting in to the girl. Boy wasn't even in high school yet, and he's got priorities higher than his big kid ones.
"Fine, but only for a few minutes. I don't want Harry to miss us."
The deal was sealed. They would, apparently, just stop by camp, give them a quick tour, and go right back on track to the Empire State Building. Percy didn't really know what to think of it, since they could probably be serving monsters a free ticket to an all-you-can-eat buffet, but something felt really genuine about them.
They stopped by an ice cream vendor, seeing as the kids looked pretty wiped. Interestingly enough, Victoire managed to charm the vendor enough to give her two for free, which took care of the money problem.
Annabeth received this moment in order to take Percy aside as the kids ate their snack. She wasn't really much of an ice cream person, anyway.
"Two theories," Annabeth started, her voice low. "One is that the two are demigods. The girl could obviously be an Aphrodite child—maybe with charmspeak. The boy is, I don't know, probably a Hecate?"
"He talks about magic all the time," offered Percy.
Annabeth nodded a little. "Maybe. Since we can rule out the gods are having secret rendezvous all around the United Kingdom, they've got to be from somewhere around the US. Also, this 'Uncle Harry' they keep chanting about? Their guardian, right? Suppose he's an older demigod. Maybe he's teaching them to fight monsters on their own."
An older demigod. The idea wasn't insane: an older demigod, showing other little demigods how to survive on their own, without Camp Half Blood. It was unorthodox, sure, but not totally impossible.
"And?" Percy asked. "What's the other theory?"
"I don't love this idea, but—" Annabeth grew still, her voice tighter. "Percy, what if they're not demigods? What if they're something else entirely?"
He didn't know the answer to that, and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to. Looking back at the kids' expectant looks, he couldn't imagine them being revenging gods or blood-thirsty monsters. They were just kids; lost kids that wanted to go back to their uncle right after doing a little sightseeing.
"If they're monsters, Annabeth," Percy began, "I won't hesitate to take them out with Riptide."
Percy noticed the two were done with their ice cream and were holding hands now, ready to go. Teddy looked a little red and glanced down at their intertwined hands. The kid had a crush, no doubt.
"But if they are just kids," Percy swore, "I'll guide them all the way to Timbuktu, if I have to, in order for them to stay safe."
Annabeth grinned and moved stray bangs from his face. "I knew you'd say that."
