Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hello, everyone! Sorry for the late-ish update again, but I reached my goal of posting today, so I'm happy about that. :)

One thing that I would like to say for this chapter is that I made a minor change to canon outside of what has already been stated. This change concerns the backstory of Annabeth's knife, because I realized that I kind of fucked up when writing about her knife but I liked this change too much (and what it means for the storyline) to change it. So...sorry, but not sorry I guess lol.

Also, yes, the flower mentioned in this chapter is exactly what you think it is. I couldn't help but tease it, as she-who-I-will-not-name is one of the few goddesses I think Riordan did justice to in terms of characterizations (along with Hera, Athena, and Artemis). Everyone else is just kinda...meh, but I've already said that a million times before so I won't go into any rants about it. :P

Next chapter will be uploaded on Monday, as always. So, until then,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 26: My Perfect First Date~

"Uh...Luke, just where exactly are you taking me?" I asked my boyfriend – yes, my boyfriend. A part of me still couldn't believe that I could call him that – a few minutes after he had led me away from the spot where we had watched Alabaster and Silena get together.

We were walking down one of the many paths that snaked through camp, but admittedly, it wasn't the one that led down to the beach, no. Instead, we were walking down the path that led to the woods, of all places, which was...odd. Very odd. And I couldn't help but get nervous about it, as a part of me wondered whether or not Kronos had found out that I was now a champion of Demeter and had pushed Luke's August deadline up to now.

That part of me was slightly dampened (dampered? I don't think that's an actual word), though, by the look that Luke gave me after I had asked my question. There was a slight smile on his lips and his icy blue eyes – like glaciers, really, now that I got to thinking about it – were alight with amusement and mischievousness, and I couldn't help but feel like that the time for confrontations wasn't now because of it...because Luke looked so happy, so safe, instead of angry and bitter like I knew he would be when that time came.

"I told you before that the place is a surprise, Percy," he said, his amusement as clear in his voice as it was in his eyes.

I scrunched my face up at his words. "Well, what if I don't like surprises?" I couldn't help but ask.

Luke stared at me for a moment. "Do you not like surprises?" he asked, his tone suddenly concerned.

Gods, did I love that about him.

"I like them," I assured him as best as I could, not wanting him to worry about something that he didn't even have to worry about. "I'm just...antsy, that's all. I mean, don't we have to go to somewhere near the beach in order to get a good view of the fireworks?"

Luke shook his head. "No, not necessarily," he said. "I don't...I don't really know how to explain it. You'll see what I mean, though."

"...Okay," I replied. "I trust you. Lead the way, mighty steed."

Luke snorted in response, but didn't say anything as he continued leading me down the path, all the way to the edge of the forest. When we got there, though, he nervously looked into the forest, where we both knew several monsters could be waiting for us. "You have your sword on you, right?" he asked me.

"Yeah, of course," I said with a nod.

Luke gave a nod of his own. "Good," he said. "I mean, I do have this, but it's not the same as a sword..."

I watched him pull a four-inch celestial bronze dagger – well, more like a knife, really – from out of his pocket. "Oh, that's cool," I said, even if I was one-hundred-percent sure that Riptide was over a hundred times cooler than it was.

Luke flashed a grin at me. "You think?" he asked. "I was going to give it to Annabeth for her birthday...she came to camp with me, you see, along with..."

...Thalia, I silently finished for him when he trailed off, before I frowned. After all, if Annabeth had arrived at camp five years ago, when Thalia died, that meant that she was only seven-years-old, maybe eight, when she had come here? That was...well, that was so young for somebody to be forced into being what they called a "year-rounder", since I was almost ninety-percent sure that that was what she was.

...Which, now that I thought about it, explained a lot of her behavior towards me. I mean, both Katie and Silena had said that I was pretty obvious about the fact that I liked Luke in a romantic way, which definitely made Annabeth way more jealous than I had thought she had been, and I had denied her coming with me on my quest on top of that. So, that being said, I guess it was no wonder that she didn't like me, even if she had brought a lot of her dislike towards me on herself, especially with how she had all but demanded I bring her on my quest.

With those thoughts in mind, I did my best to give Luke a small smile as I said, "That's a very thoughtful gift for her, I think."

Luke's grin widened at my words. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied tightly. "Really."

"Well, I'm glad," he said as he put the knife away. "But don't think that I've forgotten about you, because I haven't. I remember you told me that your birthday is in August – "

"It's on the 18th," I quickly interjected.

" – and it's on the 18th," he corrected himself with another grin, "and I have every intention of getting you a birthday present, too. So don't freak out, okay?"

"I won't," I promised him, while inside I was all but screaming with eternal joy.

After our quick conversation at the edge of the woods, Luke led the way into them. Both of us remained alert as we walked through the forest for around five minutes, looking for any indicator that a monster was going to attack us or something like that, but we didn't really have to be that concerned because there seemingly wasn't anything around. In fact, the woods seemed to be too quiet to me, more than anything else, especially with it being almost ten o'clock at night and all that.

Finally, after our five minutes or so of walking was up, Luke came to a halt in front of a strange, ivy-covered rock that was maybe two hundred yards or so away from the part of the forest where our capture the flag game was held in. This was the farthest I had ever been inside the woods, which many campers said seemingly went on for forever, but I wasn't too concerned – not when I had Luke right by my side, anyways, and Riptide just inside my pants' pocket.

"Are you ready for this?" my boyfriend asked me with a grin that I could just barely see through the darkness.

"Ready for what?" I asked in response, sounding like a total idiot all the while.

Luke's grin widened. "This," he said as he reached out and slapped a hand against the ivy-covered rock.

Immediately, the rock began to a glow a soft, shimmering blue where his hand touched it, much to my surprise. In fact, I was so surprised that my jaw literally dropped open, especially when I saw his hand go into the rock instead of just resting on it like it should've.

"Oh my gods," I breathed. "Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods. What is that? What's going on? I – "

"Relax," Luke said gently while his grin turned into a gentle smile. "I'm not exactly as well-versed in magic as Alabaster and Lou Ellen are, but this is a...ah...secret place, of the sorts. I'm not sure how long it's been here, but it's been here for a long time...at least a few decades. I mean, when I found it, the place wasn't exactly in good condition, but now..."

"...It is?" I finished.

He nodded.

"O – okay then," I said after a moment, while I shakily ran a hand through my hair. "Okay. Secret places in camp. Why didn't I realize that these probably existed sooner?"

Luke shrugged. "Because demigods don't explore this place like they used to," he said. "Too many kids died in the woods, I guess...or something like that, anyways. But enough about that. Let me show you around this place."

With that being said, my boyfriend promptly grabbed me by the wrist again and pulled me through the rock – a process which I had to clamp my hand around my mouth for, because even if I had watched the Harry Potter movies, watching fake people go through a wall and actually walking through a rock are two very different things. Especially when a cold, damp feeling washed over me as Luke and I walked through the rock, as if I was back on the banks of the river Styx all over again.

That feeling, though, was oh-so-worth-it when I saw what was waiting for us on the other side of the rock. A small cove with a perfect view of the beach and the barge where the Hephaestus kids were going to light the fireworks from – which seemed kind of impossible, considering that I was relatively certain we were quite a bit of a ways' away from either of those things, but I wasn't going to question what was obviously the work of several children of Hecate – greeted us, but it was unlike any cove that I had ever seen (in pictures, of course).

I mean, whereas normal coves are beautiful, but still kind of blend in to their surroundings, this cove did not. In fact, if anything it stood out, because it was glowing. Literally. Everything from the pool of water in the cove to the ivy that grew all over the rocks that surrounded the cove and to this strange, silvery flower glowed. Only the sand and the rocks seemed to be untouched by the strange, ethereal light that had everything else in its grasp, along with the simple blanket and picnic basket that were laid out on the sand a few feet in front of us.

"...Oh my gods," I breathed again, too shocked to realize what an utter idiot I sounded like. "This place is..."

"Amazing?" Luke finished for me. When I nodded wordlessly response, he chuckled and said, "Yeah...yeah, it is. Now, do you just want to stand there and take it all in, or do you want to come sit down with me? The fireworks are about to start."

Numbly, I nodded again before I took the hand that he was offering out to me. Slowly – and with more gentleness than he had had before – Luke led me to the blanket and the picnic basket, before we both sat down. Then, he opened up the picnic basket and pulled out a variety of sweets – two slices of blueberry cheesecake, brownies, M&M cookies, etc. He also pulled out a water bottle filled with a blue liquid that I easily recognized as the blue Cherry Coke that I usually requested with the meals that were served at camp, much to my surprise, along with two plastic blue cups.

"What – what's with all the blue?" I asked him as I shifted nervously in my seat.

Luke gave me a soft smile. "Well...it's your favorite color, right?"

My eyes widened. "How – how did you – "

"In all of my years as a camp counselor here, no one has consistently asked for a blue Cherry Coke with all of their meals. No one," he told me with a wink. "Plus, I may or may not have asked Silena about it earlier, when she was picking possible clothes out for you for tonight."

He then gave a nod towards the outfit that I was currently wearing, causing me to flush ever-so-slightly. I mean, I wasn't really wearing anything special – just a dark blue v-neck shirt with a pair of black pants and the Oceanid scarf that I had nicked during my side-quest for Ares, which Katie had picked out and was the only "special" thing about my outfit – but still, Luke obviously appreciated it. And I appreciated what he was wearing, too, even if it was just one of his camp shirts and a pair of shorts.

...But then again, I wouldn't really have it any other way, because he looked absolutely amazing as-is.

Luke looked like he wanted to say something else, but the sound of something like a missile cut him off. Turning, both of us looked out towards the beach and the barge, just in time to see the first of some of the largest and most impressive fireworks I had ever seen go off. For a second, no firework immediately followed it, but I figured that was so that everyone – especially the children of Hephaestus – could hear the cheering from the beach as our fellow campers prepared for what had to be the most jaw-dropping performance of fireworks that I had ever seen.

I mean, seriously. I'd always thought, having been raised in New York City for all of my life, that the NYC fireworks were the best fireworks that there could possibly be. But boy, was I wrong.

After the pause between the first and second fireworks, the fireworks that followed the second one went off so fast that they looked like frames of animation across the sky instead of individual blasts. Scenes from all of the highlights in American history played out, with George Washington (who was a son of Athena), Thomas Jefferson (also a son of Athena), Abraham Lincoln (yet another son of Athena, as if two presidents being children of Athena weren't enough), Theodore Roosevelt (a son of Demeter), and FDR (a son of Zeus) all making appearances in their respective time periods. The Revolutionary War segment was something of particular interest as well, because at one point there was a picture of a woman – yes, a woman – on the battlefield, all dressed up like was typical at the time, with arms outstretched as she seemingly controlled the tendrils of water going after the English soldiers in front of her.

Note to self, I thought again at the sight, practice water-controlling techniques in the near future.

But the highlights of American history were only one of three segments in the entire show, it seemed. Because after FDR, vanished from the sky, he was replaced by a very familiar fourteen-year-old boy...aka, me. I tried not to cringe as I watched the Hephaestus kids' rendition of my quest, but it was hard not to, as they took a lot of liberties with it...like showing me chopping Medusa's head off without that cool sphere of water I had formed over her head, and showing Hades as this gaunt, Severus Snape-type-of-guy instead of the Moses-from-Prince of Egypt guy that he actually was.

On the bright side of the cringe-fest, though, I was able to help myself to some of the desserts that Luke had packed because I wasn't too busy being awe-struck to eat. Plus, I was also able to crack some jokes with Luke about how horrible the Hephaestus kids' recreation of my quest was, which was great, especially when he laughed so hard at one of my jokes that he almost snorted Cherry Coke out of his nose.

After the painful second segment, though, the third segment basically culminated into the grand finale. Several hundred-foot-tall Spartan warriors crackled to life just above the ocean, and proceeded to fight a battle against what looked to be some Athenian soldiers. Each time one of the warriors and soldiers was fatally wounded, they exploded into a million colors, which bedazzled both the sky and my eyes whenever I blinked.

By the end of the show, it was almost eleven and I was pretty tired, since my routine schedule at camp was pretty exhausting. Still, not wanting Luke to feel unappreciated about his efforts for our wonderful date, I sleepily turned to look at him and said, "Thank you. Thank you so, so much. Really. I – "

The sudden feeling of Luke's lips on mine prevented me from saying anything else.

After a moment, my boyfriend pulled away, a light smile on his lips. "There's no need to thank me, Percy," he said softly, gently. "Seriously. If anything, I...well, I should be thanking you."

I blinked. "For what?" I asked, confused.

"For being you," he replied simply. "For being so kind, and patient, and thoughtful, and just...so inexplicably you. It really means a lot. It does."

I hummed in response to him saying that, not really sure what else to do or say. But then, an idea struck me, and with a smile of my own, I asked him, "Does this mean I get to thank you for being you as well?"

Luke instantly flushed at my words – gods, did he need more of a confidence boost than what I could probably give him. "I – I'm not really sure what there is to thank me for," he answered honestly, but also so quietly that I could barely hear him, especially when my ears were still a little rattled from all of the fireworks.

Still, I heard what he said, and couldn't help but gape at him in disbelief as soon as he had spoken. "Are you kidding me?" I asked him. When he didn't immediately reply, I pushed onward, saying, "I – uh – Luke, you're amazing. I know...I know you don't think so, but you are. I mean, look at what you do for the kids in Cabin Eleven. You help out all of them and make them all feel appreciated, even when...even when they don't feel that way themselves, 'cause of their parents, both their godly ones and their mortal ones. And you're nice, so nice, and thoughtful, considering all the effort you put into this 'date'. So don't...don't beat up on yourself. You're great, just the way you are, regardless of what anyone else thinks."

Luke looked at me. "Really?" he asked softly.

I nodded. "Yeah, really," I said. "Now, as much as I want to sit here and keep chatting with you all night, we really should be going. Don't want the harpies to catch us, right?"

Luke grinned at me in response, before he stood up and offered me a hand. "Right," he echoed thoughtfully.

I took his hand with a grin of my own, even though all the while I couldn't help but think, What am I missing here? What happened to Luke to make him as – as self-conscious as he is? And, yet again, why did he decide to join Kronos?

Word Count: 3,071

Next Chapter Title: The August Deadline Arrives