Days After

Disclaimer: I do not own anything! Seriously guys, how many times do I have to say this?!

Author's note: A big thanks to everybody who favorited and followed, I really, really appreciated them. You guys rock! A shout out to Looking4Misteria, I'm so sorry that I forgot to add this in the second chapter, I really do appreciate it. I hope you like what I am doing with the rest of the story.

Note 2: All those who read the last chapter, this is a revised version. I am sorry if you wanted a new chapter, but...I kinda didn't like the old version. Thus the reason I deleted it. Anyways, I like this better, and I hope you do too.

The days after were...hard. Annabeth and Reyna went to representative meeting, dragging him along, because apparently he was the leader of the camps. He protested, pleaded, but all those protests and pleads were heard by deaf ears. And when he entered the big hall again, full of people from all over the world, his legs froze, but by some miracle he was still able to walk and move.

This time he was dressed better. His friends had abandoned him to the Aphrodite kids, and now he was dressed smartly in a pinstriped suit(courtesy of Mitchell). They had done something to his hair, making it not have the messy 'just-got-out-of-bed' look that he usually sported. He fidgeted with his sleeves, his ADHD making it impossible for him to stand still. He decided to look at the blonde beauty that was his girlfriend. They were all in their best, and while on another day, their best might have been a camp shirt not stained with blood or torn, today was different. She was clad in a long, grey dress, the hem sweeping the ground. Her curly hair fell in waves over her back and her gaze was serious as she talked to their audience. He could not hear any of the words she spoke, however, he was too nervous for that. There was a buzz in his ears and then somebody elbowed him in the stomach. The pain he had experienced in the dark pits however made it that he was now more or less unaffected by some friendly scuffling. But the jerk served well to pull him back into the real world. He turned to see Reyna glaring at him, and man, that was a sight that would bring a lesser man to their knees, pleading for mercy.

"Pay attention," she hissed. "This is important."

"I can't!" he whispered, knowing that he was whining. "ADHD, remember?"

"Annabeth and I have it too," she said, raising a dark eyebrow.

"Yeah, but you're better at handling it," he replied. "That is why I'm bad at public-speaking," he lamented, looking at the ceiling. "Why Dad?"

Her lips twitched up in almost humor, but in the next moment, it was not there. "Well then, try to pay attention."

He tried, he did. But then again, only a few minutes had passed before he found himself zoning out and fidgeting again. Every second that passed felt like an hour, and every minute a week. He pinched himself to keep from daydreaming. Reyna stood beside him, 2 inches shorter than him, but calm, dignified and elegant, her dark hair in her usual braid. No sign that she had ADHD at all. In front of him, Annabeth looked down at her notes, and while most people would say, "Bravo for conquering your dyslexia," or even think it, he did not. For he was one of the few who knew that those notes were in Ancient Greek and Latin for Reyna's part, making it easier for them to recite their lines.

And then Annabeth said the words that were his cue, informing him of the fact that it was time to take up the mike and speak to a room full of a hundred or more people. 'It's okay," he said to himself. 'You've done this only days before. You can do this, Perseus Jackson."

And as he stepped up to the podium, looking as cool as a cucumber even though he was freaking out inside. "Hello everyone," he greeted, marvelling the fact that his voice did not shake. "My name is Percy Jackson. Today, I will be telling you a little about demigods and the camps."

And he spoke and spoke, his voice even, never once breaking due to thirst or shaking due to his nerves. It became a trance to him as the only thing he was aware of was of the notes. "I am new to the Roman side of things," he ended. "So, I will leave to my friend, Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, to inform you about it." From the corner of his eye, he could see Reyna stepping up so he left the way open for her, and with a few whispered words of encouragement, he moved to stand beside Annabeth, a sigh of relief escaping from his lips.

His girlfriend patted his arm. "You did great, Seaweed Brain," she said, and he believed her.

He survived the hall. And for that he was glad. But the challenges did not all disappear from that speech. Many things that were hidden for years, for decades, for centuries, for millennia, were visible to the mortal eye again, including Camp Half-Blood. The campers adjusted well, all things considered. They had told the mortals their location, and most of them did not come to visit. But there were exceptions, and almost every day of the week one could see a group of people standing near Thalia's Pine, slowly inching away from Peleus. And he was proud of his friends, his family. They welcomed them with open arms. Maybe this would not end in open war, after all.

There were some who protested initially, Clarisse for example, and some others. But they soon changed their minds, after seeing that the mortals would not harm them after all, like they feared. Well, he hoped they didn't. And if they were planning to, well, there was nothing he could say to that, could he? He had told the representatives that they did not mean any harm towards them, and another war that he had to fight in was not something he desired.

But the thing was, their speech had made an effect. One day, while visiting his mother, Paul told him to come quick, eyes wide. Thinking there was any danger, he rushed to the living room, and had to sit down immediately.

His eyes were fixated on the news lady, hurting because of his refusal to blink. Greece had taken to the streets, worshipping her gods of old.

And it was one of the memories he would look back on fondly and teary-eyed, because it was the first thing that made him understand how far their speech had reached. There were 195 countries in the world, and only one had done something so extreme, but still...

It was nice.

"You know, sometimes I still think that this is a dream," he confided in Annabeth as he gazed at the beauty of the camp as they sat on the branches of Thalia's Pine, after assuring Peleus that no, they were not going to harm the fleece. "That I'll wake up and see that this is all a dream, that the war has not been over yet."

She didn't say anything for a while, just stared out at the camp. The silence between them was not awkward, but golden, in some ways. "I do too," she whispered. "Peace is a thing that I've experienced only briefly."

He winced as he remembered his kidnapping by the Queen of Gods, Hera. "I'm sorry," he moved to apologize, but was cut off by a finger on his lips.

"Don't be," grey eyes filled with love and then they kissed, and maybe, just maybe, all was well.

I like this better, the ending even moreso. How do you, my dear readers, reviewers, favoriters and followers? Do tell me. Even though the chapter is short, only about 1,300 words long, I love it.

And for those concerned, yes the project did end well. Just took a squabble and a rebuke.