A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I really, really appreciate it!
-One Year Later-
"What are you doing?" Annabeth asked, settling next to Percy by the lake.
It had been a year. Annabeth and Luke had adjusted to camp, as best as expected.
"I'm trying to teach Nate how to do a flip dive," Percy explained.
"Teach him?" Annabeth made a face. "I don't like the water. It's too cold."
Percy ignored her, flapping his arms at Nate. "You have to jump! Jump!"
"Yeah, okay," Nate replied, spitting out a mouthful of the water. He grinned, perfectly pleased to be humoring the kid. He tried it again, splashing both Annabeth and Percy.
"Ew," Annabeth said, delicately brushing the water from her shoulders. "Have you seen Luke?"
Percy's smile fell flat. He never grew to like the older boy, even after all of the time the three of them had spent together. He seemed… rather possessive of Annabeth. Even though they were little, and were just happy to have kids their own age to hang out with.
That's why they were friends, more or less. Most of the time, they hardly got along. But they were the only two youngest demigods at camp, and so they meshed by default.
"No," Percy said. "Hey, you wanna go get lemonade?"
"Not right now," Annabeth said. She pulled out a book from her backpack and began reading.
"You read a lot," Percy commented, glumly. Having never been best friends with a girl before, he assumed that all girls until the rest of time would spend their days reading. "Don't you have trouble?"
"Huh?"
"With reading." Chiron's explanation of dyslexia and ADHD were two of the few things that had gotten through to him.
Annabeth shook her head, obnoxiously absorbed in her book.
"Hey Percy," Nate called, from down in the water. "You want me to jump again?"
"Yeah!" Percy shouted.
From a few feet away, Chiron watched them. They were happy, he observed, and it made him smile. He worried about Luke, though.
The boy always seemed sullen, as if he was thinking deeply about something. It was not necessarily obvious to the natural eye, but Chiron had learned to pick up on the half bloods who weren't handling camp well.
He had mentioned it to Dionysus, once. The god had shrugged it off, as Chiron had expected, but at least the centaur could tell himself that he tried. It didn't stop him from worrying, though.
"Percy," he called, emerging from the shade of Thalia's tree. "Do you want me to bring you two some lemonade?" He didn't say that he heard Percy asking Annabeth about it.
Percy nodded, taking a giant leap into the water.
"Alright," Chiron said. "I'll be back soon." He knew he shouldn't offer to do things for Percy; he knew that he was spoiling the boy. He couldn't help it though, he felt as if he was making up for Percy's lack of present parents.
"Why does he always do that for you?" Annabeth asked, turning her head towards him.
Percy gave a big shrug, shaking his head to the side. "I don't know. I like lemonade, though."
"Me too. Hey Percy, how come you like swimming so much?"
"I don't know," Percy said again. "I think it's fun."
"You know, maybe you're a son of Poseidon."
"The water god?" Percy asked. He beamed. "That'd be awesome!"
Annabeth smiled a little. "Well, I just figured. Cause you like swimming so much, and you don't know who your daddy is."
"Yeah," Percy said. He nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!" Even after learning a considerable amount about the gods from Annabeth, he still had not put together the pieces that Poseidon was the one who had come to his birthday party.
"You think?" Annabeth asked. "I don't know. I think he's not supposed to have kids."
"What do you mean?" Percy asked.
"Just something Luke told me. About this thing called the pact. The Big Three – that's Hades, Poseidon and Zeus – they aren't supposed to have kids. Thalia was one of them too."
"Really?" Percy asked. He paused for a moment. "Hey, if the gods break the rules too, then how come we always get in trouble for it?"
Annabeth shrugged. "I don't get in trouble for stuff."
"I do," Percy muttered, grudgingly folding his arms.
"That's cause you broke Dionysus's favorite goblet."
"It wasn't my fault!" Percy argued.
The two digressed, arguing over Percy's mischievousness, and Chiron stood where he was. Quietly, he placed the two lemonade cups on the ground. Was it really that easy? All of their hard work, down the drain, because a daughter of Athena was the tiniest bit too smart.
Maybe this wasn't so bad, though. They were just speculating, fantasizing about who Percy's mystery dad could be. Percy was a natural swimmer, he showed natural attributes of a son of Poseidon. They should have been smarter; they should have expected this. How could he not notice, after all?
Chiron realized, with a wry smile, that they had played too much on the fact that Percy was not the most observant child. With Annabeth by his side, though, that didn't matter so much.
"Hi," he said, approaching them at last. "Here's your lemonade."
"Thanks Chiron," Annabeth said cheerfully.
"Thanks!" Percy said, his words muffled by the splashing of the water. He was in the lake once again.
"I'm going to be over in the big house, with Dionysus. Okay?"
"Okay," the kids replied, in unison. They waved, contentedly sipping their lemonade by the lake. None of them bothered noticing Luke, who was standing on the far side of Thalia's tree, listening to every word that was said.
A/N: Here we go. It's going to get a bit more plotish now. And more time jumps. Yay for time jumps! Anyways, please review!
