Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, or any other franchise in the Riordanverse. I do not own any of the characters from the Riordanverse or Greek Mythology. All bolded text is from the book and I do not own that either. I just own my writing and some of the reactions.
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"7 - MY DINNER GOES UP IN SMOKE" Hermes read out.
"Ooh! I know this one! It's about sacrifices to the gods at dinner!" Hermes grinned. Artemis sighed.
"Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately."
Clarisse scowled.
"Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet."
"In what way?" Apollo wiggled his eyebrows. Aphrodite sat up suddenly. Past-Annabeth went tomato-red and threw her knife at the sun god. Artemis readied her bow.
"Shup up, Apollo!" Ares groaned, covering his face in his hands.
"She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords),"
Beckendorf cheered for his cabin mates. Hephaestus grinned.
"the arts-and-crafts room"
Apollo was about to whoop before Artemis shot him a look and he fell silent.
"(where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man),"
Hermes and Dionysus looked down in remembrance of Pan.
"and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough."
Ares cheered. Athena nodded conspiringly. Hestia huffed and gave Chiron a meaningful glance.
"Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.
"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly."
"Rude," Hermes huffed.
""Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."
"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."
"Whatever."
"It wasn't my fault.""
Poseidon shook his head, smiling lightly. "Sorry, son. It definitely was."
"She looked at me sceptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing."
Past-Annabeth looked at Percy, remembering what he had said earlier.
""You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.
"Who?"
"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron.""
"What do you mean 'what'?" Apollo protested.
Chiron winced. "Lord Apollo, you do know you state the oracle has become since the Great Prophecy."
"Doesn't mean she's a 'what'."
"I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once."
Luke shook his head.
"I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend."
Future-Annabeth grumbled and put her arms around Percy. "Mine," She stressed to Aphrodite, who looked torn between squealing in happiness and looking depressed that she couldn't mess with their love lives.
"I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.
"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."
"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now.""
"That's what made you want to go home? Hot chicks?" Zeus snorted before shrinking back from Hera's glare.
"Naiads," Percy repeated slowly.
"It was building in Percy all day, the fact naiads existed was the straw that broke the camel's back," Future-Annabeth argued.
"Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us.""
"Well..." Percy drawled. Chiron paled. The gods exchanged nervous glances. Future-Annabeth huffed something about spoilers.
"What do you mean 'well'?" Katie demanded.
"Camp Half-Blood is the only place for us!" Clarisse agreed.
"Sure, with that mindset," Percy mumbled.
Luke stared at him. "I mean, I know loners are a thing, but Camp Half-Blood is the only settlement for demigods."
"Why are all of you so closed-minded?" Percy muttered bitterly.
"And even if there was another camp-" Beckendorf began.
"Which there isn't," Past-Annabeth interrupted.
"How could we not know about it?" Beckendorf finished, glaring slightly at Past-Annabeth for inturrupting him.
"Because we were at war with them for generations," Percy yawned. Future-Annabeth hit him.
"At war?!" Travis yelped.
"Then how could we live with them?" Connor argued.
"A suicidal teen, a real life badass motherfucker, a daddy-goat, and one humungous statue," Percy counted off in all seriousness.
"What?" Silena choked.
Future-Annabeth clipped him over the head before turning to the demigods. "What Percy is failing to say is: desperate times, desperate measures. We needed them to help win the war," Luke and Silena looked over at her concernedly. "Not that war-ugh, it's complicated."
"There are multiple wars?" Beckendorf mouthed. Hermes looked to his favourite son, who was hiding his face in his hands. The other gods shot each other looks, as if trying to pinpoint the blame, most of them looking at Ares before Hephaestus and Aphrodite started glaring. Chiron looked like he just aged a hundred years.
"You'll find out later," Future-Annabeth sighed tiredly. "just read."
""You mean, mentally disturbed kids?""
Some snickers arose from the demigods.
""I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."
"Half-human and half-what?""
"God, Peter. Do we really have to spell it out for you, incompetent child," Dionysus snapped.
""I think you know."
I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.
"God," I said. "Half-god."
Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians.""
"Or not. I mean, we didn't know," Percy shrugged.
""That's...crazy."
"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories?"
"Punished people?" Luke guessed.
"They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?""
"Well maybe if some people could keep it in his pants," Hera mocked with a meaningful look at her husband. "we wouldn't make such a bad impression."
""But those are just-" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods-"
"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."
"Then who's your dad?""
Past-Annabeth's hands curled into fists.
"Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject."
"Yeah, no shit," Travis muttered, remembering when he had tried to ask the younger girl about her mortal family.
""My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."
"He's human.""
"No, really?" Artemis growled. Percy raised his hands defensively.
""What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?""
"In my defence, I had only heard of male gods having kids so far: Hermes, Ares, Zeus. The two female goddesses I had heard had cabins were both maidens: Artemis, Hera. Athena is also a maiden, and I didn't know she could have kids. Demeter and Aphrodite were the only ones, but we hadn't gotten onto the Trojan War in Latin so no Paris, and Demeter doesn't have any big demigod kids."
Artemis sighed begrudgingly.
""Who's your mom, then?"
"Cabin six."
"Meaning?" Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."
Okay, I thought. Why not?"
"Watch yourself, sea brat," Athena warned.
""And my dad?"
"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."
"Except my mother. She knew.""
"She did," Poseidon smiled wistfully until Hera slapped him for being a 'piss poor influence on Zeus to stop his galivanting'.
""Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities.""
"For good reason," Future-Annabeth murmured, remembering Tristian McLean and Beryl Grace.
""My dad would have. He loved her.""
"I did. I may not of been in love with her, but I did love her," Poseidon smiled. Aphrodite squealed.
"Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.
"You mean sometimes it doesn't?""
"A lot of the time it doesn't," Luke mumbled resentfully.
"Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always...Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us.""
Hermes whispered, "It's because we care too much."
Demeter nodded the affirmative, "That's why we distance."
"There's no point building something with someone who you know is going to leave," Zeus argued.
"Though we do try," Apollo sighed.
"Just because it save you from the pain, does not mean it saves us. We feel like abandoned and unwanted mistakes who are just a tool in your plans. Because that's what we are. So maybe you could get off your selfish asses, just once in a while, to ask about us," Percy ranted, glaring at the gods.
"Percy," Poseidon apologised. "I'm-"
"Oh not you," Percy assured him. "Hermes can try a bit harder. You did forget about Chris after all. Hades is also a good parent, even if you can come across as a bit harsh sometimes. Dionysus, you're actually good at this kind of thing. I think you care about us more than you want to admit. Apollo, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hephaestus are next. You guys are alright, pretty average, but you should visit way more often." Percy paused to look at the last three: Athena, Zeus, and Ares. "Not even going to comment."
The three glared at Percy sharply, while he gestured for Hermes to continue.
"I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better."
"Maybe they have bigger priorities," Hera scowled.
""So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"
"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble-about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that.""
Nobody commented. Everyone was still thinking over what Percy said.
""So monsters can't get in here?"
Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."
"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"
"Practice fights. Practical jokes.""
"'Practical jokes'?!" Hestia demanded. Chiron winced.
""Practical jokes?"
"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."
"So...you're a year-rounder?"
Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colours. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring."
Past-Annabeth looped her finger through the college ring around her neck. Athena smiled slightly, recognising it.
""I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counsellors, and they're all in college."
"Why did you come so young?""
"None of your business," Past-Annabeth snapped.
"She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business.""
Past-Annabeth galred at anyone who dared to look her way.
""Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So...I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"
"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless..."
"Unless?"
"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time...""
Luke's hand went to his scar and he forced himself not to meet his father's pleading eyes.
"Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well."
"Understatement," Travis mumbled, shooting his older half-brother an apologetic look.
""Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff-"
"Ambrosia."
"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."
Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?""
Athena sat up at the prospect of new information for this mystery, one that hopefully contradicts the web spinning in her head.
""Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"
She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal.""
"The winter solstice," Hestia muttered consideringly.
""You've been to Olympus?"
"Some of us year-rounders-Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others-we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."
"But... how did you get there?"
"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?""
"That's in the orientation film, isn't it?" Percy asked rhetorically, groaning about all the information he missed. Future-Annabeth bit her lip and nodded.
""Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.
"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping...I mean- Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something.""
"Good thing we've ended the rivalry then," Percy grinned, kissing his girlfriend softly.
"What do you mean?" Past-Annabeth frowned.
"We went to Athens on a quest once. We stood where the rivalry began and Percy kissed me, claiming this was where it started and where it ended," Future-Annabeth smiled.
"I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.
"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to her-self. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem...""
"You are too young," Luke insisted. Past-Annabeth glared at him.
"I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl."
"The whole camp did," Future-Annabeth scoffed.
"She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan."
"Capture the flag," Future-Annabeth nodded.
"Why? We're going to ruin you!" Clarisse jeered.
"Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.
The counsellor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact."
Luke grimaced slightly, but grinned.
""Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."
I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part."
"Of course not," Hermes scoffed.
"I said, "Thanks."
"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"
"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."
"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier.""
Percy hummed in agreement.
"The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easy-going guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything."
"Not anything," Luke disagreed, shaking his head.
""So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.
He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me,"
"Not yet," Percy mumbled.
"There's another one," Future-Annabeth sighed.
"but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."
"The wing-footed messenger guy.""
Hermes snorted.
""That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."
I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind."
Future-Annabeth gave her boyfriend a dubious look but joked, "Sometimes, it's good to be Nobody," Both she and Percy chuckled to themselves and did not offer any explanation for it.
""You ever meet your dad?" I asked.
"Once." I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar."
"Of course not!" Hermes objected.
"Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other.""
"Fucking hypocrite," Percy muttered. He was finding it really hard not to be mad at Luke, even though he hadn't done anything yet. Except for groom Silena.
"He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him, even if he was a counsellor, should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.
I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth...twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"
Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies.""
"Same," Percy joked. He paused at the thought of how similar him and Luke are now and then. He had made the connection when he was...down there, but never really stopped to think about it.
""What do you mean?"
His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp.""
"Annabeth," Athena sighed.
"Read on," Percy told Hermes before Athena could make a scene with Past-Annabeth.
""Somebody special?"
"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for."
"Calling him a nobody twice," Connor noted.
"Now, come on, it's dinnertime."
The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before."
"Perks of being a son of Poseidon," Percy remarked.
"Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"
The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last."
Ares snickered.
"Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down."
Artemis smiled.
"We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods- and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.
In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.
At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off."
Hermes and Luke winced but the Stolls cheered.
"I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D."
Dionysus smirked.
"Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur."
Chiron chuckled.
"Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her grey eyes and honey-blonde hair."
Athena smiled.
"Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends."
Ares cheered.
"Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"
Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"
Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want, non-alcoholic, of course."
I said, "Cherry Coke.""
Connor made a face. "Gross."
"HOW DARE YOU?!" Katie yelled.
"The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.
Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke.""
Hermes shook his head. "Of course."
"The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.
I took a cautious sip. Perfect.
I drank a toast to my mother.
She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday..."
"No," Hades and Poseidon groaned.
""Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.
I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the centre of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.
"Come on," Luke told me. As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest straw-berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.
Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell.""
Artemis huffed. "It's not just that."
""You're kidding."
His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food."
"Honestly," Demeter muttered.
"Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."
I was next.
I wished I knew what god's name to say.
Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please."
"I will," Poseidon urged. "Just wait."
"I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.
When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.
It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke."
"It's not the smoke, it's the sacrifice. It's how we supply our strength. Through sacrifice, recognition, and our realm," Athena explained. "You need all three to survive. That's why Pan is dying with his realm in ruins. That's why Selene and Helios passed, with the Romans not giving them sacrifice and recognition. Recognition has a bigger part than it used to, because everyone sacrificed live cattle. This is why gods are weaker now without the temples. Our realm plays a bigger part than before, that is why we all wish to strengthen it. I, through the passing of my intelligence to create children, Ares, through war, Aphrodite, through her little love stories."
"When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.
Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats."
"Dionysus, I did not give you my position for you to behave like a child. Be kinder to the demigods," Hestia admonished.
Dionysus paled slightly and nodded quickly.
"Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels.""
Ares whooped. Clarisse flushed under the attention of her father but fixed herself a self-assured smirk.
"A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.
"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."
Chiron murmured something.
"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on.""
"Is my fire 'silly'?" Hestia questioned quietly. Dionysus shook his head. "That's what I thought. Now that you've had you're wine, I hope you will not be as crass with the children. I shouldn't have to remind you, nephew."
"Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheatre, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home."
"Camp does that to everyone," Silena grinned. Luke smiled dreamily despite himself.
"Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag."
"The first day is always exhausting," Katie chuckled, remembering her first night.
"My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.
When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.
That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood. I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home."
Hermes closed the book with a snap.
Poseidon frowned. "That's ominous."
"I'm going to warn you, dad," Percy told him. "my life ain't pretty. But it means something because I've lived it myself." Poseidon winced, remembering what Sally told him all those years ago, when he offered her a place under the sea.
"I can't promise that I won't worry," Poseidon confessed. "but I'll support you, no matter what you do."
"Even if I fall in love with a daughter of Athena and we go to the ends of the earth for each other?" Percy asked, eyes shining slightly.
"Even if," Poseidon promised amusedly.
Percy relaxed into his father and his Annabeth. "Good, 'coz I don't think I could take leaving any part of my family."
Athena paused to study them and their relationship, before she made her move.
Shrinking down to human form, Athena walked briskly across the throne room and extended the sofa so she could sit on her future daughter's other side. She let her fingers entangle with Future-Annabeth's and squeezed softly. Future-Annabeth's mouth fell open.
"I'm not saying I approve," Athena warned softly. "you absolutely can and should do better. But I'm willing to come along with this story to see why."
Future-Annabeth nodded quickly, bumping her head against her mother's. Percy visibly relaxed with the reassurance. Poseidon shot Athena a surprised look but didn't comment, not wanting to hurt their children who formed this union. Past-Annabeth watched the exchange with barely concealed awe, quickly morphing into shock when her mother beckoned her and Luke, the couch extending again. Once the two got up (rather hesitantly), that side of the couch shrank down to Poseidon, then Percy, then Future-Annabeth, then Athena, before Past-Annabeth sat down next to her mother and Luke sat down next to his sister. Athena pulled her child closer to her and squeezed slightly. Luke smiled for his family, letting Athena mother her daughter but not moving his hand from where it was resting on Past-Annabeth's.
Hermes cleared his throat after a moment of staring after his son mournfully, holding up the book. Hestia passive-aggressively picked the book and passed it to Dionysus with a stern look.
Dionysus gulped before reading out:
"8 - WE CAPTURE A FLAG"
