In Percy Jackson's opinion, there was no place better than Montauk—even if the sea was always cold and there were always spiders in their cabin.
It was his favourite place in the whole world. It was their place, his and his mom's place, and they had been coming here as long as Percy could remember.
This visit felt the best as they were far away from his mom's new friend, Smelly Gabe. He wasn't allowed to come to Montauk, it was their place after all.
But for some reason, there were other people at their place, strangers, a father and his daughter— his mom had only laughed at him when he complained about them and reminded him that the beach was for everyone—who were staying in the cabin beside them.
Percy chewed on his bottom lip as he watched the daughter as she bent down to collect another seashell. He knew that she would look at it for a while before either dropping it back to the sand or adding it to her collect of shells in her purple bucket.
This time was different.
"Why are you following me?" she scowled at him, her bucket next to her feet as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"You're on my beach!" he exclaimed before he could really think and she shot him a look before making a show of glancing around.
"I don't see your name on it," she smirked smugly at him.
"It does!" he snapped and she raised her dark brows at him.
"Where?" she asked and he snatched up a stick from the sand and turned to write his name before he paused and bit his lip. "Do you even know how to write your name?"
"I'm not stupid!" Percy shouted, tired of hearing that from all the other kids at school.
They always picked on him, always laughed at him when the teachers corrected him, they always called him stupid and he hated it!
She stared at him, hazel eyes bright, and an almost thoughtful look on her face before she nodded to herself and marched over to him after picking up her own stick.
"So what's your name?" she asked and he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Why?"
"Don't you want your name on your beach?" she asked with a raised brow.
"Percy, I'm Percy," he answered after a moment and she smiled at him, a lopsided smile that was higher on her right and showed off a dimple in her cheek.
"I'm Cleo," she said in returned before looking back at the sand and began to write with her stick. "You write your name like this."
"Like this?" he attempted to copy before they both frowned at his shaky attempt next to hers—somehow the P was the wrong way round and all the letters were different sizes.
"Try again?" she asked and he nodded, he wouldn't stop until his looked like Cleo's. "Okay, watch closely."
Sally watched from a small distance away from the children, her book that she had been pretending to read discarded on the towel beside her, with a hint of relief.
She had been worried for a moment, worried for Percy, but it seemed she didn't have to be which was a relief. Perhaps Percy would finally have a friend?
Poseidon had told her that Percy's life would be hard, that it would even be dangerous especially considering Sally wanted to keep him close, but he had been speaking of monsters and the Gods, not about other children.
Percy was different and the other children knew it, they knew it was on a deeper level than his obvious differences—his ADHD and his dyslexia—but those were the only ones they teased him about, calling him stupid more often than not until he would get so upset he cried or something exploded—though that thankfully that had only happened the once.
He was only five—almost six, he always reminded her—and Sally already had to move him to a different school when the teasing upset him so much that the plumbing in the nearby toilets exploded. It was written off as faulty plumbing, but Sally wasn't taking any chances—what if one of the teachers was a monster? What if they figured it out it had been Percy? He already used his powers, did that mean they would be able to sense or smell him now?
Sally wasn't sure, it was that uncertainty that led her to Gabriel—surely his smell would mask Percy's? Surely she wouldn't have to send her son away? —and made her determined to make a relationship between them work.
It was for Percy, she reminded herself when Gabriel said something cruel to her or about Percy, when she thought about leaving. Sally would do anything for Percy even stay with a man that she was certain would begin hitting her sooner or later—as long as he didn't lay a hand on Percy, Sally would stay.
"It seems they've made friends," a male voice said and startled her from her thoughts.
Sally glanced up with a blush, uncertain how long he had been standing beside her, and met laughing dark green hazel eyes.
"It seems so," she agreed after glancing at where the children were busy writing in the sand.
"I'm glad," the man told her, his gaze fixed on his daughter. "Cleo doesn't get on with others often, too different I guess."
"Percy doesn't either," she added before he suddenly crouched down beside her and held out one tanned hand.
"I'm Kit," he smiled at her and she smiled back as she took his hand and replied, "I'm Sally."
Aphrodite smirked as she watched Kit and Sally talk through her mirror, her magic already drawing them together.
Poseidon may not be happy, but Sally deserved better than that disgusting mortal and Kit would love Percy as if he was his own, they also both deserved a loving relationship where they could be honest with each other. Really, Poseidon shouldn't be able to complain.
Though he probably would anyway, or at least attempt to threaten her to keep her silence on the matter of Percy.
Honestly, Aphrodite didn't know how he could fool himself into thinking that no one knew about Percy.
Aphrodite was always aware of the affairs her fellow Gods and Goddess had with mortals and she knew for a fact that Apollo was aware of all of the possible children of the Great Prophecy—all four of them even if it was harder for him to keep an eye on the Di Angelo siblings with them hidden amongst the Lotus Eaters.
Ares was also aware of the possibility of Percy, he was always aware of the possible causes of war, and Hermes almost always knew the other Gods secrets as he flittered around as Messenger of the Gods.
And then there was Hera and Hestia, Hera would be aware of Poseidon once again breaking his vows to his wife as the Goddess of Marriage while Hestia always knew when another demigod joined the family.
All of them had their own reasons to keep their silence; Hestia to protect Percy and keep the peace amongst the family, Hera to spite Zeus who dared to sire two children with one mortal, Ares to make the fallout more explosive, Apollo because of him being a possible Prophecy child and Hermes always kept the secrets close to his chest.
And Aphrodite's reasons? Well, those were hers alone.
"Come on," Percy whined as he tugged Cleo's arm though the older girl stayed on moving. "It'll be fun."
"Until we drown," Cleo deadpanned as she glared at the gently lapping sea.
"We don't have to go far," he told her, staring up at her wide sea green eyes.
"There could be jellyfish," she pointed out. "I don't like jellyfish, they sting."
"What does a jellyfish look like?" Percy asked as he stopped tugging at her making her frown.
"Jelly like," she said after a while. "And they have loads of stringy things that sting you."
"I've never seen them," he said after glancing at the sea.
"Sometimes you don't until they sting you," she told him darkly making him glance at her.
"Did you get stung by a jellyfish?" he asked and Cleo scowled as she nodded. "Did it hurt?"
"Yes," Cleo bit out as she glared at the sea.
"I don't think Montauk has jellyfish," he offered after a moment. "We won't go far and you can find the best shells, please?"
She glanced at him before she bit her lip and glanced away.
"No higher than my ankles," she decided after a moment making Percy cheer before he pulled her along happily. "I said no higher than my ankles!"
Kit laughed as he watched Percy pull Cleo splashing into the sea, pausing in his sketching of them as he did.
"She's afraid of water?" Sally asked making him glance at her, catching her sea blue eyes with his green hazel ones.
"Kind of," he shrugged at her. "It's a new thing really, hopefully Percy will help her get over it."
"Percy loves the water," Sally told him with an almost wistful look on her face. "He gets that from his father."
"Cleo has her mother's eyes," he offered in return. "Hers could never settle on a colour either."
Sally hesitated as she glanced between Kit and Cleo. She couldn't say she wasn't curious about Cleo's mother, but she understood how other people asking could be as she had dealt with it herself.
Kit smiled at her, a smile just slightly lopsided in a way that reminded Sally of his daughter the first day that Percy had dragged her over with a proud look on his face as he claimed Cleo as his friend and she had smiled at her.
"It's okay to ask," he told her before glancing back at his daughter, watching as she grudgingly stayed in almost knee-high water as Percy pointed out shells below them. "Cleo's mum, we weren't together that long and we both knew it wasn't going to last forever anyway. It doesn't matter really, I have Cleo and I couldn't be happier."
"I was like that with me and Percy's father," Sally offered after a moment. "Percy already looks so much like him."
"I guess I'm lucky that Cleo looks more like me," Kit mused making Sally glance at him. "It would be harder to let go of our old relationship if she looked just like her."
"Yes, it is," Sally said quietly.
It was hard to forget Poseidon or at least put him in the past when Percy looked so much like him, but Sally knew she had to—their romance had been doomed from the start and they had known it.
Sally was moving on though, she just wished it wasn't with Gabriel. She could see her moving on with Kit, being happy with him, and she knew he would understand some of the hardship she went through as a single-parent even if he couldn't understand being a parent of a demigod, but she could not do that.
Not to him, not to Cleo, it would put them in danger and though she wasn't happy with Gabriel—doubted she would ever be happy with him—she knew he's scent would protect her son and that was enough for her.
It had to be.
Percy decided that Cleo was his best friend—never mind his first friend—despite the fact she was older by almost two years and was a girl.
She would race him from one end of the beach to the other, she didn't mind wrestling with him in sand and she helped him make sandcastles. She didn't wear skirts or dresses, but shorts and t-shirts which made it easier to play.
She didn't like the sea—which he didn't understand—but she still came in the water with him as long as they didn't go far, she was helping him with his writing though they almost always ended doodling in the sand after a while.
Her dad, Kit, was really cool and drew really nice pictures, and Kit got on with his mom. And he didn't smell like Smelly Gabe did or make nasty comments when his mom was busy.
Kit roasted marshmallows and sausages over the fire in the evening, and then he and his mom would tell them stories before they went to bed.
It was the best trip ever and Percy didn't want it to end, didn't want to go back and deal with Smelly Gabe coming around. He wanted to stay here, at Montauk, with his mom, Cleo and Kit.
