A/N Hello! Welcome to chapter two! I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it! Please feel free to let me know anything that comes to mind! There are some references here that tie into my VESTA fic (including somethings that haven't happened yet in Vesta, but to anyone reading that, no major spoilers(this idea has just been bouncing around in my head and refused to wait till VESTA was completed)). Point is, if you aren't reading that and are confused, just let me know! I tried to do a quick explanation... :-/ hopefully it will prevent any confusion. Ok, I'm rambling and I have a glass or wine then bed calling my name so I'll stop wasting my time and yours! To the fic!
Miette
**Disclaimer** PJO, HOO, and all plots and characters therein are the intellectual property of Rick Riordan and are borrowed with all due respect**
Annabeth stretched languidly as the remnants of sleep left her. She rolled over in her boyfriend's bed, disappointed to find herself alone. Vaguely, Annabeth remembered Percy waking up earlier, kissing her cheek and leaving the room, most likely to go to the couch in the living room where his mom and stepdad thought he was spending the entire night. Annabeth was pretty sure they knew exactly what actually happened when she stayed over for the weekend, but as long as they heard no strange sounds and Annabeth didn't begin to inexplicably put on weight, they were willing to stick with a 'don't ask don't tell policy'.
Sitting up, she looked around Percy's familiar room. The bed across the room, Nico's, was empty. The son of Hades had begun staying at the Blofis home for most of the school year in order to attend school and receive a traditional education to compliment his Camp Half-Blood education after things in the demi-god world began to settle down and he grew out of his lone wolf faze. He, however, was not the person who had spent the night in his bed. Last night's occupant of Nico's bed was his friend, Bia. She was a Roman daughter of Vesta, one of two known, who along with several very young Roman demi-gods had come to stay at Camp Half-Blood instead of the Roman Scholla. After the war with Gaia had ended about a year ago there was a great deal of exchange of demi-gods and information between the two demi-god strongholds. So far the relationship was going well.
A tiny twinge of guilt arose in Annabeth's stomach at thought that she and Percy should be setting a better example for the 15 yearold 'non'-couple, but at 18 and after everything she and Percy had been through, if nothing else, she deserved to fall asleep in the comfort of the arms of the guy she loved, as often as possible. With that thought in mind, Annabeth slid her feet into her slippers as protection against the winter cold wood floors of the home, and exited the bedroom.
"Annabeth!" Two small forms catapulted themselves at the blonde as soon as she entered the kitchen.
"Hey girls," Annabeth leaned down to hug the two girls, three and four years old respectively, who had so enthusiastically greeted her in defiance of the early hour.
"Klary! Merga!" Sally Blofis admonished with a smile, "take it down a few, if you please. The menfolk are all still asleep."
Both girls smiled sheepishly, returning to their coloring on the kitchen table. The three year old, Klarissa, was the blue eyed, brown haired daughter of Sally and Paul, who was already showing signs of having inherited her mother's clear sight along with her blue eyes. The four year old Merga was a black haired, green eyed daughter of Neptune.
Merga's mother had been a cruise director sailing out of California. The young woman died before Merga was a year old, leaving her to live most of her short life unclaimed at the Schola. Once Percy appeared at the Schola, and what with the Prophecy being fulfilled and the Titan War being over, Neptune decided it a safe time to claim the girl. Merga was among the nati who came to stay at Camp Half-Blood after the war with Gaia, after Chiron and, his Roman equivalent, Lupa decided it was a better environment for the youngest demi-gods.
When both Bia and Percy decided to return to the mortal world for the school year, neither wanted to leave the girl at camp. After much careful consideration, AKA Percy just assumed his mother and stepfather would agree, Percy asked Sally and Paul to adopt the girl, which they'd done without hesitation.
"'Men' includes Nico and Percy?" Bia asked incredulously, glancing up from the bowl of waffle batter she was whisking to smile at Sally and Annabeth.
"Well, I use that term loosely," Sally said after considering.
"It's," Percy yawned, "too early for you girls," he rubbed the sleepy from his eyes, trying to contain another yawn, "to be making fun of us."
"I concur!" Nico agreed in a sleepy voice, walking over to Bia, trying to steal a finger full of the waffle batter in her hands.
"Stop that!" she smacked his hand away with her whisk.
"I don't know, for that SAT word so early in the morning, I think he may deserve at least a little taste," Annabeth laughed, before accepting a kiss from Percy.
Bia sighed, but allowed the son of Hades to scoop up some batter with a finger tip, "that's all, though!"
With a smirk Nico reached for another bite of the waffle batter, however, he ended up on the floor for his trouble instead.
Bia calmly walked to the other side of the kitchen as though she hadn't just swept Nico's feet out from under him with one of her own, "one taste, Nico!"
The pair stood, glaring at each other across the kitchen. As the silence stretched, it seemed that one of the pair's infamous clashes was imminent.
"Can I has a taste?" Klary looked from her mother to Bia to Nico, her purple crayon laying forgotten.
"Me, too!" Merga jumped to her knees so she could sit up higher.
The young girls were completely unaware of the trivial fight they'd prevented as the tension ebbed from the air and their request was fulfilled.
"Uh-oh…" Pearl sat up, murmuring quietly; sleepily taking in her surroundings, including her older brother slumped over in sleep beside her.
A soft giggle from the other side of the tent drew Pearl's eyes toward Ness, Vanessa Moyers, "he's mostly resigned to the fact that you guys are here." Ness's words were as soft as her initial giggle, not wanting to wake either of the still sleeping boys occupying the tent with the two girls.
"Jonathan?"
Ness shook her head, "Neal and LB said he got away, sorry, honey."
"Neal and Charlie?"
"Got into it a little bit, but both still have all of their limbs, no blood drawn."
It was Pearl's turn to shake her head. She couldn't understand why her brother and best friend got along so poorly.
"Come on, time to get up," Nessa stood, stretching her body which was not thrilled with another night of sleeping on the ground. "I have high hopes for breakfast what with LB being here."
"I'm sure she won't disappoint you. Then again, just about anything is probably better than what you three have had going on."
"True. How, how could you possibly allow me to be stuck on a quest with just Grant and Charlie? Don't you care for me at all?" Nessa asked as she followed Pearl out of the tent.
"It wasn't our choice, trust me." LB said looking up from the pot she was stirring over the fire, "besides! You left us with all of the crazies," LB mock shuddered thinking of those they left behind in order to follow Charlie, Nessa and Grant.
"I'm half expecting them to show up. If not Danny and the twins, then Freddy and," Neal paused considering as he walked from the tent he'd just exited to the girls now sitting around the small campfire, "well, honestly, if any of the others show up I wouldn't exactly be shocked."
LB began to dish out the oatmeal she'd been making, "it won't be the flowers and/or Danny. They wouldn't go without each other and they know that at least a few of us needed to stay behind to manage things back home."
"Maybe Rod and-"
"Nah," Nessa cut off Pearl after blowing on her oatmeal to cool it, "unless something major happens, I don't see any of the others sneaking after you guys and us. They may want to, but they'll follow orders. It would be more dangerous than helpful. I'm glad you guys came though, I knew you would."
"Not that my brother would believe you, though," Pearl said with a small laugh.
"No, of course not," Nessa took a bite of her oatmeal, "oh gods, one of us better wake Charlie and Grant up before I eat their share in addition to mine."
"I'll do it!" LB quickly responded rising to her feet before anyone else could speak. She didn't notice the strange looks being passed around her as she ducked into the occupied tent.
"Am I missing something?" Nessa asked Neal and Pearl, who were smirking and giggling respectively into their bowls.
Before the pair could respond, LB was back with a sleepy Charlie and Grant in tow, quietly laughing about something Grant had said.
Nessa glanced from the pair to LB's friends, her lips forming a silent 'Oh!' to which Neal and Pearl simply smiled and shrugged.
"So," Pearl began once her brother and Grant were settled with their own breakfasts and LB had finally taken her own seat, "what's the working plan?"
"You mean after we get you three home safe and sound?" Charlie looked around at the five glares he was receiving, "Ok, gods, I had to give it one last try. Anyway, we think we've located each of the…" Charlie searched for an appropriate term, "people in question."
"But at this time of year, they're not all at camp." Grant put in through a mouth full of oatmeal.
"Of course not," Pearl shot her brother's best friend a disgusted look before raising an eyebrow at LB, "that would make our lives a little simpler. We can't possibly have that."
"So, what, though?" Neal looked at Charlie, "your plan is to just keep an eye on them, and hope they stay ok? That would be what we call a plan not worthy of Athena."
"Yea?" Charlie started to stand angrily before Nessa reflexively pulled him back to his seat without even looking at him. "Do you have a better idea, Neal?" Charlie spit at the younger boy.
Tapping a beat on the side of his empty bowl, Neal gave the sarcastic question serious consideration. "What…what if we do something to cause your pa-I mean," here he glanced quickly at LB, Pearl, then back at Charlie, "the people in question, to go to camp early? Then we know that everyone we're concerned with is about as safe as is possible. All in one place, and we can go on the offensive. We can go after Jonathan and his crew instead of waiting for them to make their next move. I'm tired of being on the defensive with that…"
"Mean, awful person," LB cut Neal off with a meaningful look.
"None of the natie are around, L."
Her only response was to wave her hand dismissively.
Charlie for his part, after his initial reaction to dismiss any suggestion of Neal's, gave the son of Apollo's suggestion serious consideration. "That's not a bad idea." Charlie stated begrudgingly, "Whatever we do, though, we need to avoid contact with them."
Everyone nodded in agreement as they rose to begin packing up the camp. In the midst of the activity, Grant slid up beside LB, "why do I have a feeling that this 'no contact' thing isn't going to go as planned?"
"Because it won't. What is it that Rod's mom is always saying?"
"'No battle plan survives contact with the enemy'," Grant quoted having heard the line many times.
"Besides," LB, added as an afterthought, "look at the people involved. Do things ever go as planned when they're involved?"
A/N - There you be! Chapter two! Next, I REALLY need to finish editing my next chap for Vesta because that has been a lifetime and a half coming. Bia and any references that make you scratch your head are tied into my VESTA story, so if your confused and don't feel like reading that, ask away. Questions, comments, opinions, gratuitous compliments, and constructive criticism and insights are more welcome then you could know!
Thanks!
Miette