Chapter 24-You and I

To say Persephone Jackson was shocked would be the least of it. She stared at Luke for so long that he began to twitch uncomfortably.

"Yes!" She yelled, wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt him chuckle at first and she began to giggle. Soon, a full on laughing spree came upon them. It felt good to be happy.

"I was so scared you'd say no!" his eyes shone brightly, brighter than she'd ever seen them and she grinned up at him.

"I thought you'd never ask!" she wrapped her arms ask around his waist and he hugged her to him, resting his chin on her head. Several minutes passed, but Percy finally pulled away, biting her lip.

"What?" Luke asked, tilting his head like a puppy.

"The gods built me a house and they're taking me to see it today," she paused "Want to come?"

"A house?" he stood up when she did, but his face remained incredulous. His eyebrows were brought together in a slight frown.

"Yep." She grabbed his hand, skipping away from him. He had to jog to keep up. Luke rolled his eyes as they jogged side by side, Percy skipping a step every once and a while.

It didn't take long for the two demigods to make their way back to the ally between temples and out onto the streets. Percy slipped her hand from Luke's. She thought it best if it was kept between the two of them since a lot had happened in the last few hours.

Approaching the throne room was like watching a movie in slow motion. The building came slowly, then all the sudden was huge.

"Hey." Luke's voice brought her to a stop just between the two sets of stares. Turning to look at him, he grabbed her hand and pulled her closer.

"What do we tell them?" although she had subconsciously come up with her decision, she decided it best to still ask.

"Nothing. We've been told to stay separate." His eyes drilled into her, as if trying to convince her of what she already knew.

"But, we're approaching together." she tilted her head questioning to him, and he let out a short burst of laughter.

"We shouldn't push our luck. Come." He pulled her up the second flight of stairs. Hundreds of steps soon had flown by and she felt her hand slipping from Luke's once again. He dropped it gently before nodding at her. Together, they shoved the throne room doors open.

'Blackjack!" the screech took all the gods by surprise as a flash of black hair rushed by them and a petite girl enveloped the pegasus in a hug. "I've missed you." She crooned. His black ears flickered back and forth and he had an excited look in his eye. Stepping back, Percy eyed him cautiously for a moment before breaking out into a grin. "I love you, I love you, I love you!" Luke rolled his eyes as he easily approached, his father watching him reproachfully.

"Say it again, I don't think he got the message." As he said it, Percy turned to him with a glare.

"Are you jealous?" the smirk on her face said it all, luckily the gods were oblivious. Watching the conversation, but not really hearing it. Luke tilted his head, as if thinking, and smirked back.

"Nope." He watched her interact with the pegasus with an almost fascination. Even though she could not hear what Blackjack said, she still held conversations with him. Obviously, the gods were intrigued too.

"Persephone; how do understand that pegasus?" Hestia questioned, watching the girl as she hugged her friend. Percy laughed and shook her head at Blackjack before replying.

"In battle, I learned to read Blackjack's expressions. It was very helpful when the chaos of battle prevented us from speaking." She kissed Blackjack's velvet nose and turned expectantly towards the gods.

"Why would you be prevented from speaking?" Zeus asked, turning towards her.

"War is an in-just obstacle that takes a brave mind to overcome. For me to even think of overcoming it, I had to focus most of my energy on one object and talking wasn't it." She knew what she was talking about, but nobody else knew. Not even Luke. They gave her curious looks, but let it go.

'Let us be going." Zeus motioned for everyone to move and most of the gods flashed out, leaving only Luke, Persephone, and Hestia in the room. Hestia smiled kindly as Percy and gestured to the red roan pegasus standing next to her, partially asleep.

"I think I'll take this one, if you don't mind." She smiled warmly and leapt upon the small pegasus, his petite form like hers. Hestia's hair matched his color almost perfectly and Persephone watched the two take off into the afternoon light.

"Come on!" Luke called, Percy turned back with a slight smile as Luke's pegasus, a dark bay, galloped out of the window and fell several feet before flapping its wings to regain balance. From behind her, a gentle nose bumped her shoulder and she turned to see Blackjack's soft yes staring into hers.

"Shall we fly?" she paused and leapt up onto his back, leaning down to whisper into his ear "You and I?"