A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
Waiting patiently on the road above the beach, Percy's knights were not expecting to see their master bring another person.
As their master approached, the knights were shocked to see the duke holding a female in his arms. For years, the duke had denied all women, including the Princess Ceto, to the point that they feared their master would never find the one by his side. After the scene of the duke personally carrying the female into his carriage, the rumors that the duke had fallen in love with a strange woman would soon begin to spread.
This was exactly what Percy wanted. That sly old Phorcys was always inserting other women besides his sister in order to entrap him on the basis that Percy needed a life long partner to take care of him. The chance that Phorcys might just succeed was higher than Percy expected.
Phorcys had once gifted three female bedservants on Percy's 18th birthday to teach him the matters of the bed. Percy had promptly kicked all three women out of his bed and banished them to become scullery maids where their good looks would fade under the harsh work of being the lowest ranked servant. Still, the women did not stop, attracted by the duke's good looks, wealth or power.
Now a true pearl from the sea had fallen into his hands. Percy studied the mermaid who was sitting in the carriage opposite him, her sharp gray eyes staring curiously at everything in the carriage. The legends had spoken of mermaids as sirens, ethereally beautiful in outside appearance and alluring voice. The legends were not wrong, Percy judged. The mermaid's blonde curls framed a heart shaped face with a straight nose and delicate eyebrows perched above hauntingly gray eyes. She could easily rival the supposedly beautiful Princess Ceto.
But to Percy, the mermaid was like a newborn at this stage, slightly naive but with hints of stubbornness and courage from the way she interacted with him. She would have surely landed herself in trouble had he not come along.
Percy felt only the slightest twinge of guilt. This mermaid was his savior, and yet he was planning on using her again as a shield. My apologies young lady, Percy thought. He was going to have to use her to save his life again. At that thought, Percy realized he didn't know her name and hadn't introduced himself.
"I'm Duke Percy Jackson. May I know the lady's name?" He said politely.
He watched as the mermaid's lips silently formed his name. An-na-beth, she mouthed back.
"Annabeth?" Percy confirmed.
Annabeth smiled, pleased that he had gotten her name correctly. Duke Percy Jackson, what is this? She pointed to a small bag in the carriage.
"This? It's just biscuits."
Annabeth cocked her head to one side. What is this biscuits, Duke Percy Jackson?
She must have thought that the whole title was his name, Percy realized. Mermaids didn't seem to have last names, did they?
"You can just call me…" His voice faltered. Everyone else called him Duke Percy or Your Grace. But both titles seemed a bit inappropriate for this situation.
Annabeth didn't notice him, only concentrating on opening the tin. Her eyes lit in wonder at the biscuits and picked one up to study it.
"You can eat it if you want," Percy offered.
The little mermaid did as he said, making a slight face. Percy's lips twitched in amusement. The biscuit was too dry, it seemed.
He gave her a drink of water from his leather water pouch. As Annabeth reached out for the pouch, his cloak shifted from her shoulders, exposing her chest. Merpeople obviously did not care for nudity as Annabeth didn't bother picking the cloak back up, leaving the soft rounded globes of her breasts exposed.
Percy's breath caught in his throat before he could look away out of reflex. A surge of blood seemed to course towards his lower region and he could feel himself getting hard, just like from one of his dreams of his savior. Never had he felt this way about any woman, and now the first time he had met his savior face to face and he was the hardest he had ever been.
Annabeth's hands were preoccupied with the water pouch. Not able to stand it any further, Percy reached over and covered her back up with his cloak. How naive was she to be so unaware? It seemed he had much to learn about merpeople.
"Don't let anyone see you without clothing," Percy tried saying sternly.
Oh, I forgot you humans like to wear clothes, Annabeth mouthed. She shifted in her seat, her bare legs falling out of the cloak, revealing long and slender legs that ended in dainty feet.
Percy could feel his blood pressure rising as he rose to wrap her legs in the cloak as well. What was this mermaid doing to him?
The carriage ride felt both longer and shorter than usual. Longer, because it took some time for his erection to calm down, and shorter because he used the distraction of teaching the mermaid a few things.
In return for showing her human life, she would pretend to be his partner, Percy impressed on her. Because the mermaid refused to speak, Percy was sure that this deal would be secret. Of course, he left out the fact that there may be assassination attempts that may come along with this partnership. Any sane human would run away at such a partnership. But he was sure he could protect his savior.
"We shake hands to seal the deal. So how about it?" Percy offered his hand.
Sure. Annabeth put the palm of her hand on his curiously. Then she boldly grabbed his hand to study it, comparing his calloused hands to her much smaller and softer hands. It was as if she was seeing how a human's hands were the same as that of a mermaid.
Percy laughed at and adjusted her hand before shaking.
Their arrival at the mansion caused quite a buzz that was bound to stir the noble society. The duke who abstained from women had actually brought a strange but beautiful woman to his home. Percy fanned the waves with buying Annabeth plenty of beautiful jewelry and clothing, fueling the rumors that he was madly in love with this strange woman. He needed the society to be distracted while he and the Grand Prince formulated plans to overthrow the king.
It had been nearly three weeks since Annabeth had come to live in the duke's mansion. There was so much to learn that Annabeth felt sad when sleep intruded on her desire for knowledge. For example, she had learned that there were such things as titles, and Duke Percy Jackson's name was Percy Jackson. How delightful that humans had more than one word for a name.
Like merpeople, there were a set of people who could bear children and another set who could help in the process. Annabeth thought it was pitiful that humans could not choose what they could be, unlike the adolescent merpeople.
The Duke was a he, and he seemed to be quite busy at times, always working on some papers in his office or running about outside the mansion.
And there was the concept of paper, which was much more useful than seaweed scrolls to collect information on. Annabeth was saddened that paper could not be brought back to the seas, as the duke informed her, for paper would become soggy in water. Annabeth had confirmed this sad truth when she experimented by bringing a book with her into something called a bath. Thankfully, the duke had not been mad at her for ruining his property, only laughing at her and calling her "silly" with a fond smile.
Annabeth was in the library now, hungrily devouring a book about the history of this country. Humans had divisions of land like countries. Merpeople did not. How could anyone divide up the vast ocean and its depths? This was all fascinating to her.
"Lady Annabeth, these cookies are for you." A maid set a plate down nearby.
Annabeth beamed a smile of thanks towards the maid. She had never seen this maid before but Annabeth thought nothing of it. The duke's mansion was large and it was not out of the ordinary to see someone she had never met before.
At first, the mansion's servants were full of curiosity towards the woman the duke had brought. Many wanted to catch a glimpse of the beauty, so quite a few servants would make up an excuse to meet the beautiful woman, such as bringing snacks or flowers from the garden to the duke's lover.
Some of the maids who had harbored thoughts to their handsome master cried bitterly in their hearts, especially when they learned the duke's woman was mute. They thought they could bully the woman since she could not speak, but nothing came to fruition.
One had set a rat loose in Annabeth's bedroom but her screams were never heard. Instead, Annabeth curiously caught the rat and then fed it to a cat. The maid who had "accidentally" let the rat loose shuddered as she saw the rat's tail dangling from the cat's smug mouth.
Another tried to serve Annabeth raw fish as a prank, but raw fish was Annabeth's favorite food so Annabeth happily scarfed it down. The duke liked seeing Annabeth's happy face and for dinner ever since, there was a small dish of thinly sliced fresh fish by Annabeth's plate.
Madwoman, some thought. But the duke didn't seem to mind his woman's eccentricities, and only quietly punished the people responsible harshly with whipping or expulsion from the mansion. No one dared to bully the duke's woman now.
Annabeth bit down on the cookie brought by the maid and frowned. The taste was slightly different than before. Her tongue was more sensitive than a human's. She couldn't describe it, but Annabeth felt that it was just…off. Perhaps it wasn't baked properly? She spat out the eaten cookie and pushed the plate to the side.
"You don't like the cookies?"
Annabeth looked up and saw the duke smiling over her. She wiggled her fingers in a greeting as Percy sat down next to her. She shook her head at Percy's question.
"Then there's no need to eat them." Percy pushed the plate of cookies to the side and settled down next to her.
Were you really busy tonight? Annabeth questioned. Usually he would join her for dinner and breakfast, but today the duke had left the mansion before dawn and came back after dinner.
"Somewhat. But everything that needs to be done is done."
Percy's eyes flickered to the plate of cookies. Annabeth usually enjoyed eating human food, but this time he had arrived in time to catch her expression of eating the cookie.
What's that on your face? Annabeth's finger gently touched Percy's chin, bringing his attention back to her.
Percy wrapped his hand around that delicate finger before rubbing his chin. A little smear of red came off on his hand.
Percy frowned slightly. It looked like he hadn't cleaned up as well as he thought he had.
"Just came into contact with something dirty." He said, smoothly kissing her fingers. It was a move that would make many women swoon, but Annabeth only showed a slightly curious expression.
Percy smiled gently at the mermaid. "Since I missed dinner with you, why don't we go for a walk tonight?"
Word soon came from the duke's mansion that the mysterious woman was still alive and well. In the confines of a study elsewhere, the person screamed and tossed a lamp to the floor. How could that bitch not die from poisoning this time? She had even escaped disease from the tick infested rat or food poisoning from eating raw food. That wench's fortune was larger than most.
The person stormed, kicking over a chair. The latest person sent over had a batch of arsenic, but how long would that bitch's death take?
It was best to just send over a group of assassins outright.
As the duke and the young lady strolled in the garden dimly lit by lanterns, shadowy figures descended.
A/N: Percy's probably a little more of a dark tsundere in this one.
Only a month and a half until the last summer break of my life...thank you all for your patience while I try to survive the next month or so...
