Percy
Percy didn't stay in bed for long. In the few moments his eyes were shut, his father appeared in his dreams telling him to meet him upstairs. Reluctantly, he put his pants back on and went to the deck.
Either everyone was still asleep or Poseidon told them all to stay there for a while because the deck was like a ghost town. The ship was on auto pilot back towards New York and moving at a nice steady speed through the now warming air of late morning.
Percy took a look around in search of his father who wasn't hard to find. His father looked annoyingly like some model on a yacht for a magazine by sporting a blue and white striped shirt, khakis, a pair of Ray Bans, and a bronze anchor around his neck. Despite looking like a sailing model, he gave Percy an unenthusiastic wave.
"Hey, dad. What's up?" It felt weird to Percy to be speaking to a god like this but he didn't know how else to talk to his dad. He didn't seem to mind or mind.
"The sky? Why would you ask that? Anyway, how's the girlfriend doing? Took a bit of a tumble into the sea earlier."
"'A bit of a tumble' is one way of putting it," Percy grumbled. "She's doing better. Her bones are back together and stuff just her head isn't doing so well."
"What's wrong with her head other than it holds way too much information?"
"When she found us again, we were fighting a giant and of course she joined in." Poseidon laughed and nodded. " Athena gave her a blessing since Annabeth's bones were still a mess." To this, Poseidon looked momentarily shocked but quickly collected himself.
"Risky... I'm sure she had a good reason for that, Percy."
"Yeah... she did. Athena came to talk with me just before." Poseidon's face scrunched with sympathy for his son. "It was fine. She didn't threaten to kill me... too much."
"Well, my niece can be a little... intense sometimes... Understandably though. Annabeth is her daughter."
"I just wish Annabeth told me before she did any of this..."
"I'm sure she hid it from you for a reason, son." As his father said this, Percy tried to tame his feelings on the subject by looking out to the sea, squinting his eyes in the harsh light.
"The giant was after me. Annabeth was trying to protect me. He would have destroyed me if he got to me." Percy's irritation at himself for being so weak was growing more and more.
"Huh. Good riddance then." Percy shot his father a look who simply put his hands up in front of himself. "Hey, I'm not saying I'm happy she got hurt but the girl knows what she's doing. She took care of the giant, right?"
"She almost died."
"But she didn't. That's the difference."
"Yeah, I guess. Hey dad, about that... thanks. For helping her, I mean." Thanks didn't cover what Percy felt for his father at this point. Poseidon wasn't just the man who helped create him, he was now the man that was protecting him physically and mentally.
"Hm? For what?"
"For keeping Annabeth from hitting the water. She would have died from the impact. You know she would have."
"Oh. She told you then? I honestly didn't know if she'd even remember. She was really banged up there."
"Yeah, I know. I saw."
"You did?" Percy nodded in response. Poseidon thought for a moment before saying anything else.
"How horrible do you feel for not being able to protect her, Percy?" Percy gaped at his father. The question threw him off. Of course he felt terrible, the worst of the worst not worth letting stand but shouldn't parents be more compassionate? Less harsh? More... encouraging? "Well?"
The word "horrible" barely escaped Percy's throat.
"Don't. I mean, yes. Of course you should feel horrible. That's normal. Your girlfriend got punched, smashed, broken, cut, nearly defeated," Poseidon didn't noticed his son's face turning green with nausea, "trying to protect you. But you know what? You can't protect her all the time. You might want to. You might think you can or have the ability to but Percy, think about it this way; can you see Annabeth staying in a heavily fortified house all day waiting for you to protect her?"
Percy thought about it for the second time, since he had already considered forbidding her to leave camp Half-Blood with excuses that it was for her own good, but the only thing he could see in his mind was Annabeth giving him a look that said simply, "no". When he honestly and truly thought about it, he knew it would be wrong. Annabeth had more than proven herself a strong force, both in mind and body. He had no right to keep her locked up. Besides, without her with him, he'd probably fail walking out the door. Percy sighed.
"Annabeth doesn't seem like the kind of girl that would allow that. She'd go crazy. No matter how much she cares for you, Percy, she would never let herself be 'protected'. My niece is the same way."
"Why would you try to protect the Goddess of War?" Percy was brought to ask. Poseidon shrugged.
"Sometimes you feel like, as an uncle, you should be protecting your niece, no matter how strong or powerful or war-like she is. Anyway, Percy. The point I'm trying to make is that you have to let her do what she will. Maybe it would be different if she wasn't as smart or skilled, but she's Annabeth. You have to trust her. She knows what's needed. Sometimes you need to be there to have her back. Sometimes she'll fall and you'll have to help her up again but you can't wrap her up in... oh what's that fun mortal stuff they wrap packages in?"
"Bubble wrap?"
"YES! Bubble wrap! Love that stuff. So calming to pop. Anyway, you can't roll her in the stuff, give her a helmet, and put her in a corner-less room. She's a tough one. Trust her. Alright?" Poseidon broke out a wide smile that was so warm feeling that Percy couldn't help but smile back and nod slightly. Getting fatherly advice was still strange to Percy, but he was enjoying it. It was nice to have another man to get advice from.
"So! When should I expect grandkids?" Percy nearly fell over. He stopped breathing. He wanted to run or vomit or cry or stand perfectly still and hope to disappear. Percy seemed to be accomplishing half of that last idea.
"Not... not for a while? Not anytime soon? Why? Do you know something I don't?" Percy was suddenly very nervous and overwhelmed by the need to run to Annabeth, wake her up and ask. He still seemed to be stuck in "stand perfectly still mode" however.
"Ohhh so you have slept together! Thought so!" All the blood left Percy's face. Did he melt into a puddle? He couldn't tell. He couldn't check. He couldn't convince his own arms to check for his own existence. If he hadn't melted into a bloodless puddle on the deck floor, he was hoping Athena would come down and finally make him catch fire.
Oh gods.
Athena.
Now Percy's mind went into a fight or flight mode. Surely death was coming. Death was near. Did he have time to make a last wish? Maybe a call to his mother? A blue cookie? Anything?
This flood of panicked thoughts happened within a millisecond but seemed to Percy to take years.
"Hope you took the proper protection measures!"
"DAD."
"What? I could sense it the second I got here! You smell like you mixed with some Athenian now. It happens, Percy. Demigods and mortals can't tell. Seriously though, did you use protection? Your mom is going to kill me if you didn't and you slept with her before I could have 'the talk' with you."
Percy was getting dizzy but managed a nod.
"Good! Now, I better be getting off. You go back and prepare for the rest of your mission and what not. Tell Annabeth I said 'hello'." Percy was nodding. Why was he still talking? He didn't want to be on this deck stewing in his own embarrassment anymore. "Oh and Percy, about your mission, you have a few more giants left. At least... 3 or 4? You'll figure it out." With that the god of the sea was gone.
Percy
Percy quickly opened and closed Annabeth's bedroom door behind him and sunk to the floor in horror and relief. At least it was over it. He could finally breath. His body was still there. He wasn't on fire.
"Percy? What happened?!" Annabeth said from her bed, worried at his sudden and speedy entrance.
"Dad and I talked." Percy's eyes were wide and zoned out as if he has seen something horrible.
"And? What happened?"
"He uh... he says 'hello'." Neither of them moved. Annabeth only began to nod very slowly once she realized that was the end of his story for the moment.
"O...kay? Anything else? Because hello isn't horrifying usually." Percy's eyes still started at the floor near Annabeth's bed, far away from him.
"The talk was going... well," he said slowly. "He gave me advise about you..."
"Wait- what?" Annabeth interrupted him flatly but Percy either didn't want to stop or didn't notice her interjection.
"And then he-"
"Advise about me. What does that mean?"
"-mentioned that-"
"PERCY." She nearly yelled. Percy jumped and look at her quickly. "What advice about me? Does he not like me?"
"No! He said I shouldn't feel too guilty about what you did against the giant. That it wasn't my fault and that you're strong enough to take care of yourself. Stuff like that."
"Oh." Annabeth said in a small, pleasantly surprised voice. "So why do you look like you fought Medusa?" Percy looked at her for a few long seconds before looking at the floor again.
"He asked me questions about us sleeping together." At first, Annabeth didn't see a huge problem with this. In fact, she almost laughed. Yes, it was embarrassing but not horrible unless Percy said-
The blood left Annabeth's face.
"Did you say yes?!"
"No! Well, kind of! He guessed! Then he kept asking me about us using protection and augh..." Percy slid over to his side on the floor.
"How did he know?"
"He said he could sense it or smell it or something. Said demigods and mortals can't tell but everyone else can." Annabeth's mind was going a million miles per second which was threatening to summon a monster headache again.
"The giant I fought said the same thing..." Annabeth stopped breathing and moving all together that her sudden and complete stillness caused Percy to become alarmed. "Oh no."
"What? What is it?" Percy couldn't handle more bad news. He saw Annabeth gulp. She didn't looked scared, just horrified which, knowing the topic of the conversation, was probably worse at this point. She spoke slowly once she had the ability to speak again.
"Percy... that means my mom could probably sense it too. My mom probably knows we slept together."
Maybe it was a defense mechanism or something of the sort, but Percy's mind didn't take that in right away. Her words were just noises. Slowly, ever so slowly, his brain processed every word individually then connected them to form the proper sentence.
The noise that escaped Percy could probably be best described as his body trying to escape itself to run and hide and never return to see light or air or anything. authors note:
It's all fixed. Take a breather angry readers on the net.
Thanks for letting me know!