Chapter 14

Enough was enough. Piper's head was spinning with all the information she had gathered about the prince in the nearly two weeks. There were just to many things that didn't add up. It was driving her insane and she wanted answers.

It wasn't until she was about to reach the hall to Percy's room that she started to doubt what she was doing. What if there was a reasonable explanation and she went barging in demanding answers? But if so, then why wouldn't he have said something? Besides, he could always just refuse to tell her, right? The only real fear was addressing it could make him pull away. Not that they were really getting close, at least romantically, but she thought they were at least becoming friends. She needed more friends, and it would be nice to have the person she was supposed to marry not completely closed off to her.

In the end though, not knowing was going to eat away at her. She wanted answers, and she didn't want to just leave her imagination to come up with the worst options possible.

Taking a deep breath, Piper turned the last corner and saw Jason standing outside Percy's room. It was incredible how he could manage to not appear bored. Almost every other guard she had ever seen on duty had looked bored out of their minds.

"Jason," Piper smiled at him as she approached, trying to hide how nervous she was "Since you're here I take it the prince is as well. I would like to speak with him."

Jason smiled as she approached, but hesitated at the request "I'm afraid he is a bit busy at the moment. Can it wait?"

Piper hesitated. Could it wait? After a moment she shook her head "It isn't life or death, but it is rather important."

If she didn't do this now Piper was scared she would lose her nerve and never do it. For a moment Jason hesitated again, before nodding. He turned, knocking on the door, waiting for an answer before opening it and slipping inside. For about a minute Piper was left alone, and then the door opened. A blonde haired girl exited, followed by Jason.

The girl looked at Piper for a moment, eyes full of curiosity, before she quickly fell into a curtsy. "My lady."

Before Piper could really respond, the girl was moving down the hall, away from her. Shaking her head, Piper looked back at Jason, who merely opened the door for her to enter the room. Taking a deep breath, she walked forward, seeing Percy sitting at his desk as she entered the room, the door closing behind her.

"Busy?" Piper asked, raising an eyebrow a bit and crossing her arms as she looked over at Percy. The question had came out before she really had time to think about it. Maybe she was trying to stall. Either way she found herself adding "She was beautiful. Can't really say I blame you."

"What?" Percy looked over at her in confusion for a moment. She saw the exact moment it dawned on him what she was implying. A second later he was laughing "It's not what you think. Annabeth has been helping me with my studies. I'm rather bad at history and she's the daughter of the court historian."

"Right," Piper nodded a bit, really not all that concerned about it. "I need to talk to you."

"I figured as much," Percy shrugged a bit, pushing himself up and motioning towards the sitting area near the side of the room. It was only once they were both sitting, facing each other, that he raised an eyebrow at her "So, what is it you would like to talk about?"

For a moment she just looked over at Percy, debating again if this was the best option, before speaking "You've been keeping something from me. I would like to know what it is."

Percy just nodded a bit. He didn't seem surprised and it wasn't the immediate denaile she had been expecting. Instead he seemed content with the statement. After a moment he asked "Have you figured out what it is, or just that I'm keeping something from you? Just so I know how elaborate my lie needs to be."

The last part was said in a teasing way, and Piper knew it was meant as a joke. Despite herself she smiled slightly at it, before growing serious again as she looked back at him "I have an idea, but I would rather not guess."

She tilted her head for a moment, just looking at him curiously when he didn't immediately respond, before adding "You're not freaking out about this."

"I knew it would only be a matter of time before you realized something was going on. I thought it would be a bit longer, but I'm not exactly disappointed," Percy replied, shrugging "But, my father ordered me specifically not to tell you, so I'm afraid you're going to have to guess. Or at least back me into a corner where I have to explain."

If Piper wasn't mistaken she saw the flicker of a smile on Percy's face. He seemed to be enjoying this, but Piper didn't think it was because he liked knowing something she didn't. It felt more like he really did want her to figure this out. That made Piper smile a bit as well, though she wasn't completely sure why.

"You speak with a commoner's accent. Mess up traditions you should have done all your life. Claim you have never really traveled, and you were clearly lying about hunting which are both things you should have done for political reasons if nothing else, and you know the name of every person in town but struggle with those of the nobles at court," Piper listed off, watching as Percy merely nodded at each point. For a moment she just looked at him, meeting his eyes as she continued "And you talk about the queen and your mother like they are two different people. On the beach when you were telling me about your mother you seemed so caring, it was obvious how much you loved her. When I mentioned her death though, you didn't get sad. You became detached, started calling her "the queen" instead of mother like you had before."

"Wow, I knew I wasn't great at hiding it, but I thought I was doing better than this," Percy said, laughing slightly when Piper paused "Though to be fair I was hoping you'd figure it out, I didn't want to try and fool you at all. I would have rather told you the truth from the start."

"And what exactly is the truth?" Piper asked, looking over at him for a long moment before speaking again "If I didn't know any better I'd think this was some fairy story where you are a commoner that decided to switch places with the prince."

"Wrong story, but I think it's close enough," Percy replied, smiling a bit, though he grew more serious when he started to talk again, leaning forward slightly as he looked over at her. "I have only been a prince for about six months. The king is my father, but you are right, the queen was not my mother. My mother is alive and well, living in a small house at the edge of town."

For a long moment Piper just looked at him, everything clicking into place. It made sense, a lot of sense, but somehow she hadn't been expecting her suspicion to be right. She had been expecting some other obvious answer that she just hadn't thought of. After a moment she looked back at Percy, who was looking away from her, clearly just giving her time to process

the information and come to a conclusion. Taking a deep breath she simply said "You're the king's bastard."

Percy nodded "The king's only bastard, at least according to him. I'm not sure I believe that, but if it is the truth, then I am also his only child."

"The queen died without having an children," Piper's brain was spinning, filling in the rest of the pieces "So, desperate for an heir, the king found and legitimized you."

"Pretty much," Percy agreed, giving her a small smile, before growing serious again "I'm sorry for lying to you. I'm not ashamed of my past- I love my mother more than anything. If I'd had it my way you would have known the whole time, but my father insisted. He didn't think your mother would agree to this is she knew the truth. You have my word that I was planning to tell you, and soon."

"I believe you," Piper assured, giving him a small smile "And honestly, my mother probably will throw a fit when she finally finds out."

"You mean, you're not going to tell her?" Percy seemed legitimately surprised as he looked over at her "You're not about to call this whole thing off?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure if I want to marry you or not Percy. I don't love you, you don't love me, but to be fair it's only been two weeks. I do like you though, as a friend if nothing else, more than any of the other suitors my mother has set me up with," Piper smiled at him as she looked over and to her relief, he smiled back "So for now, no I'm not going to call it off. And if you agree to answer the few questions I still have truthfully I will wait to tell my mother and father until a time we both agree on. Deal?"

"Deal," Percy agreed, a grin spreading across his face. It was the first genuine grin Piper had seen from him. Maybe now she would get to see it more.

"How did your parents meet?" The question came out before Piper could even think about it, and honestly she wasn't sure why. It really didn't matter, but for some reason she wanted to know what had driven the king to have a child with a commoner, even if it did end up simply being the result of one night together.

"I don't know a lot of the details. My mom never talked about it until the king showed up, and he has refused to fill in most of the blanks," Percy shrugged a bit "They met on the beach. It was before my father was king. For some reason he was alone and dressed plainly, my mom didn't even know he was the prince. They talked, and agreed to meet again. After a few 'meet again's my mom was in love, and I assume he was too. After a few months though my grandfather died. My dad had to tell my mom the truth about everything then and as far as I know that's the last time they saw each other till after the queen's death. My mom didn't know she was pregnant yet, but obviously at some point he found out, I'm not sure how though."

Slowly Piper nodded a bit. There were a lot of holes in the story, but from the sound of it they were holes for Percy too, so she didn't think he was keeping things from her. Besides, they weren't really needed. "She must be a remarkable woman to have caught the eye of the king, and to raise a son on her own. I would like to meet her someday.

"I'd like that, and so would she," Percy assured, giving her a small smile "She's already bugging me with questions about you."

"I can imagine," Piper laughed a bit. After a moment though she grew slightly more serious as she asked "Hazel saw you stealing food from the kitchen the first night we were here. I take it you were bringing it to her?"

"No actually. When the king first showed up at my door telling me he was my father and he was going to make me a prince, I basically told him to fuck off. I didn't want to be a prince, so he made a deal with me. I came to live with him, become the prince, and in exchange he makes sure my mother never wants for anything," Percy explained, shrugging a bit "Usually I give the food to one of my friends, or if I meet someone along the way who looks like they need it."

Piper had to admit she was slightly impressed. Most people she knew would have jumped at the opportunity Percy was given, so it both surprised and impressed her that he had seen it wouldn't all just be fun and games, that he had initially turned down the offer. It was a level of wisdom she hadn't been expecting from him. "And I take it the boy you talked to when we went into town, Grover, he's one of those friends?"

"Yeah, my best friend actually," Percy replied, nodding at that "Along with Annabeth. The three of us used to get into a lot of trouble when we were younger."

"Annabeth?" Piper raised an eyebrow at him "The girl that was helping you study when I arrived?"

Percy nodded "Her family lives near my mom. Her father really is the court historian, and most days she comes in to help him. I used to hate it because it meant there was very limited time we could spend together. Now it's nice to have at least one part of that life here."

Piper watched him closely as he talked about the other girl, eyes taking in his body langue. The slight smile on his lips.

After a moment she shook herself out of it, glancing at the time "I should go get ready for dinner- I'm sure Hazel is already waiting."

"Of course," Percy nodded, pushing himself up and offering her his hand. Piper took it, and to her surprise Percy didn't drop it as soon as she was standing. Instead he squeezed it a bit as he smiled at her "Thank you for understanding."

"Of course," Piper smiled in return, before dropping his hand to start towards the door. Upon reaching it though, she stopped and looked back at him "And Percy, I know you aren't ashamed of your past, and I honestly don't care, but a lot of people will. Your father wanting to keep it hidden likely has as much to do with your own safety as it does his reputation."

"I know," Percy sighed, reaching up to run a hand through his hair "I just, don't really like lying, especially about myself."

"I understand, it's just something to think about," Piper assured, smiling at him for a moment "I'll see you at dinner."

Then she turned to step out into the hall, head still spinning a bit from all the information she had just learned.