Athena apologised to me.
Sometimes, it's weird when I look at it from the perspective of other children. Other demigods. Hermes once told me that others are terrified of the gods, and had the strangest look in his eye when I told him I wasn't scared of him. Triton is used to having everyone bow to him, yet he once tried to kill Athena for touching me. Athena, according to my many copies of the myths, is the proudest goddess, but she's just apologised to me for hurting my feelings.
Other times, it feels natural. Why wouldn't my family love me? Why wouldn't we have movie nights and go out for ice-cream? They dote on me and say they love me, and promise to protect me.
Then I look at Olivia.
She's the only other demigod I've ever met, and she's never met Athena- never met her mother. She says she respects her, and she lights a candle for her, but her voice always has that tone, one that says she picks her words carefully. The way she mentioned the other demigods she knows, they do the same too. The demigods in my stories also were afraid of the gods, respectful. The gods only appear to demigods when they want something.
I'm not certain what they want from me. Immortality, joining them one day has already been assigned for me, though I'm not sure if it is a reward or promise. That cannot be the only thing they want from me, and sometimes I look back at the day I first met Hermes, and I wonder what he meant when he told Athena that she should 'make sure I knew what to do when it comes down to it.' Wonder why they are so insistent that nobody knows I'm the son of Poseidon, and that no other god knows who I am.
Of course, I know that they do love their children, that they want to raise them and care for them, and that they don't just care for them because they want something from them. Yet I cannot help but wonder…
I just know that whatever it is, I cannot be angry at them for it. I love them, and I know they love me.
So when Athena apologised to me, I accepted her apology and gave one back for yelling at her. We put it behind us.
Well, as far behind us as we could, because I'm still hurt that she ended up taking Sasha away from me and no amount of apologies could make that go away.
Mom contacted Sasha's mom, and we now have each other's emails, so we can message from time-to-time. Sasha complained about the all-girls school they're attending now, and told me I'm so lucky that mom has decided to homeschool me for the last two months of the school year. I don't agree, but I didn't start a fight over it.
I'm just happy that I wasn't losing them forever.
oOo
"Pater, I can't believe you've done this."
"What? I couldn't let Okeanus show me up on Nahyidi mou toki'hemeria."
"And getting her her own hippocampi is the way to go? She's 53, Pati."
"If I remember correctly, you had your own hippocampus when you were 13."
"She is a nymph! She hasn't even reached immortality yet- I was born a god."
"You were born a fusser, just like your Meter. Okeanus gave her a sea serpent, why aren't you yelling at him?"
"Last I checked, that sea serpent is a toothless, non-venomous baby that she can't ride, unlike your gift. And I do not fuss! May I remind you of the time you cursed Zagrea for bullying Rhodes? They were both 26, Pati."
"She shouldn't have insulted my daughter."
"Pati! I'm naming her Sandrine!"
"That's nice Pallas, how about you hand Sandrine over to the stable master?"
"Why?"
"Good luck with this tantrum."
"Wha- Pater get back here!"
oOo
"Percy baby, get up." Mom said, opening the door to my room. "Get dressed."
"Hmm?" I whined, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "No school."
She chuckled, "Nope, no school today."
"I'm taking you to the zoo!" Hermes called through the door. "Get dressed, kiddo, I want to steal a lion!"
"Hermes no!" Mom immediately yelled, turning to run after the god of thieves.
I peaked out the window and groaned. It's barely dawn! It must be illegal to get up this early on a Sunday.
"Quick, Percy, help me!" Hermes cried out from the direction of the kitchen, and I swung my legs out from under the blanket to see what is going on there, waving a sluggish hand hello to Apollo's chariot as I went.
Only to find a wide-eyed Hermes being told that he is grounded if he even thinks about stealing a lion from the zoo.
It's too early for this.
"Nope," I walked straight past him towards the toaster. "This is a 'you' problem."
"Percy! Betrayal!" He cried, and mom looked distinctly unimpressed with his antics.
"Hermes, leave him alone." Mom said.
"Fine," he groaned, but stole a bite of my toast anyways. Rude.
oOo
"Shouldn't we buy tickets?" I asked, looking back at the queue we had just walked straight past.
"Nah," Hermes waved me off. "Mortals can't demand payment from a god."
"The price of those tickets mean they get paid and that they can buy food for the animals," I pointed out.
"...I left $300 on the workers desk." Hermes quickly rectified, snapping his fingers.
Mom hid her laughter behind her hand, and I rolled my eyes.
"Where first?" I asked him. "Tropic Zone or Sea Lions?"
"Let's leave the water animals last, we'll head to the Tropic Zone first." He answered, then offered me a hand.
I hesitated. I'm nearly twelve, and twelve year olds don't need to hold hands with adults, the kids at school laughed at me because I got walked to school sometimes. But it's Uncle Hermes…
"I'm not a baby anymore, I don't have to hold your hand." I told him seriously.
His eyes flashed with sadness, but then he gave an exaggerated pout, pretending to be cartoonishly hurt by me. "But what if I want to hold your hand? I might get lost without you to guide me!"
"You're the god of travellers," I told him, but accepted to hold his hand. He did look upset when I said no, and there is nobody here who could recognise me.
He beamed, then offered mom his elbow which she took.
We began walking down the path towards the Tropic Zone of Central Park Zoo.
oOo
"Did you know that the Romans believed that Lemurs were the restless spirits of the undead?"
"Hermes, what the fuck." I said, baffled at the random comment from the god's mouth.
"Perseus!" Mom chastised, and I quickly said "Sorry!"
Uncle Hermes was doubled over laughing, "Can't believe that's how I got you to swear!"
My face grew warm, "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Why?"
He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, "Tell me those things don't look like a traumatised ghost."
I looked at the lemur in the tree and back at him, "They do look pretty cursed."
He grinned, "Yep! That's cause they are, sorta, kind of."
Mom stared, "What?"
"Charon got drunk with Bacchus and Mercury, and we thought it would be funny to put a few ghosts in monkeys to make zombies. Well, they turned out like that and started to reproduce… there's no more spirits in them though." Hermes reassured.
"That's not reassuring," I told him, horrified. "Please tell me you weren't involved with any other cursed animals."
"I wasn't involved with any other cursed animals," he repeated, a smirk on his face.
"Hermes!" I hissed, "Not funny!"
"It's a little bit funny."
Annoyed, I conceded. "Only a little bit."
"Ha!" He crowed, victorious. "Wait til you hear about my hares!"
"Wait, no."
oOo
"Red pandas are adorable," Mom cooed, taking a few photos.
Uncle opened his mouth, but I stepped on his foot. "No more weird stories."
"I wasn't about to!" He protested. Mom and I gave him similar looks of Doubt. "I wasn't! They're not even my pantheon!"
"Suuure," I drawled. "So in your three thousand years you've never gotten into an incident with a panda?"
"Of course not, that was 'Pol and Dion." Uncle said.
Mom and I broke into snickers. Uncle joined us after a pause, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.
"That lady over there is selling red panda plushies, how about I get you one for your room?" Uncle asked, pointing at the stand.
"Sure," I agreed. "But don't pull a Triton, I don't have enough room on my bed left."
Hermes snorted, but only got me one small plushie. "Look, he's got your eyes." He joked, waving the green button eyes at me.
I let my eyes turn gold like his nectar drink bottle, and he quickly put the plushie in my hands. "Kiddo, you're going to terrify someone with your eyes one day."
"I know!" I chirped, and hugged the toy, looking like the picture of innocence if innocence's eyes glow gold.
"Boys." Mom muttered, amused.
oOo
The sea animals… didn't go very well.
They were so loud, so many at once, that I had clapped my hands over my ears and my fangs came out from the stress. Uncle quickly whisked us away to the Garden.
"It's okay baby," Mom cooed. "You're okay, they're not here anymore."
I shook my head, pressing my eyes closed even more, squeezing my head like it could make all the sounds stop.
It wasn't like that in the sea, where the animals respect me, even in the Hudson, the catfish didn't swarm and yell for my attention. Here at the zoo, it was like I was being attacked at once by a hundred animals wanting my attention, all wanting more food, more space, freedom, recognition. It's too much.
Mom slowly pulled my hands away, and I whimpered. Uncle had me covered, putting headphones over my ears and then a scarf, tucking me away from light and sound. I leant into mom's hug, burying my face in her neck.
Stupid powers being too much. Why can't I be a normal mortal? They don't have to deal with this.
A few minutes passed, and I finally took my head off of Mom's shoulder, slowly pulling the scarf and headphones off like the overstimulation could return at any moment.
"You better now, Perce?" Uncle whispered, looking concerned.
I gave a non committal hum, rubbing my face.
Mom just sat in silence, rubbing her thumb against my cheek.
"Can we never do that again?" I croaked.
Uncle smiled and ruffled my hair, "Of course, kiddo."
"Hm," I said. "Can we visit the gift shop now?"
"Sure." Mom kissed my cheek and stood up. "Do you want to get postcards to send to Olivia and Sasha?"
"Yes please."
oOo
"Why did we go to the Zoo?" I asked, licking my Blue Moon ice cream.
"Do we need a reason?" Mom asked. "Sometimes it's just nice to do something for fun."
"Oh."
"Also I'm supposed to be distracting you while Triton and Athena plan your birthday."
"Hermes!" Mom hissed, wacking the god on the shoulder.
"Ow! What? Those two will get so worked up trying to get him the best birthday, then what will happen is a fight or them having to ask Percy in their terribly not subtle way. He was going to know eventually!" Hermes defended himself, chocolate cone nearly going flying as he gesticulated.
"My birthday is nearly three months away." I pointed out.
"Exactly! See, they're overthinking it." Hermes pointed at me, "Percy, what do you want for your birthday? I'll sneakily manipulate them into thinking it was their idea."
Mom sighed heavily and bit her strawberry ice cream.
"Can we go to Montauk?"
Hermes winced, "Sorry kiddo, your dad monitors that beach pretty heavily because of you, only Sally and you would be able to go."
"Oh," I sighed. "Could we go to Crete then?"
"Sure, you wanna see the original entrance of the Labyrinth?"
I frowned, "What do you mean original?"
He paused. "If I don't tell you you're going to be curious, aren't you?"
"Yep."
"Right, we're not telling Athena or Triton I told you about the deadly underground maze that spans the entire world, nor that you can get into it."
I gaped, "There's still a Labyrinth? Did it grow?"
"It's alive and it's everywhere. It also kills everyone that enters it, so don't be getting any ideas." He warned.
"I won't!" I promised, already wondering if I could recreate Ariadne's thread myself.
"Percy, no." Mom said.
Dammit. "Fine." Guess that'll have to wait a few years.
Lore/Translations
Pater= Father
Okeanus= Oceanus
Nahyidi mou= my grandaughter
Toki'hemeria= birthday
Meter= mother
Lemur= Yeah, lemurs are thought to be ghosts by romans, that's why lemures are called that
A/N
Hey! I'm still on holiday without access to my laptop, so I can't really respond comments, but I will as soon as I get back to my laptop. Well,,, I actually do have my laptop but only today cause I'm home while we take a break from travelling from the South Island to the North Island. There's only 2 chapter left until canon starts, and the first canon chapter has a scene that I absolutely cannot wait to post I wrote it a while ago it's my favorite scene to write so far!
Percy in this chapter shows some of the downsides to his powers, and he also shows that maturity and shift to (pre)teen thought processes. Also, yeah, Percy realises something is up with how the gods treat him, but he is also aware that they love him and they don't just want something from him.
If you want to join the discord server, feel free to ask for the link!
