Ξ Aphrodite's P.O.V Ξ
Today I was feeling very, empowered and not just because it was Valentine's Day. I usually always feel very empowered on this particular day, it is after all a love holiday but no that wasn't why at least it wasn't totally why. Let me re-wind a few days catch you up, so you understand why.
Ξ
~ Earlier that week ~
Something weird was going on. I wasn't sure what it was but my suspicions only increased when I got a really strong feeling of familiar love and to make it weirder it was coming from Athena and Poseidon and they weren't fighting either which is just weird in itself. Percy and Annabeth I thought to myself, something's happened with my favourite demigod couple.
I checked in on my favourite pairing and found out they were expecting twins and what I also found was that they were telling their parents today. I tapped into the emotions of each parent and there was so much love present. Sally and Paul Blofis, love radiated from them proudly when they found out, Fredrick and Helen Chase were very similar. Poseidon was exhibiting strong family love, an excited kind of love that I'd not felt from him in eons, not since Pallas was born. Athena, well I'd never felt this much love from her ever not even when she 'loved' a mortal man to create her own children. Don't misunderstand me Athena loves her children in her own way but this was different the love I was feeling from her was more powerful than I thought I'd ever feel from her.
And then I checked in on Little Blofis, there was a jealous love emitting from her, she didn't want to share her brother, and I can certainly understand that. It didn't last long though as the next morning it turned into a cautious love, Percy and Annabeth had tried to involve her as much as they could at this point in the pregnancy, and it was all just too cute!
Then they told their friends and there was friendly love for the two of them and familiar love for them as well from all whom they had told.
Then later on in the week my daughter and her boyfriend, Athena's son, Malcolm went to visit. There was apprehension on the boys face as he walked to their house holding my daughters hand. At least he had the good sense to hold her hand, his plan for Piper's Valentine's Day though – needed some work, or rather some romance!
He also displayed a proud familiar love when the four of them spoke about it and I saw a longing in my daughter that I wasn't aware of before, she wanted children one day.
Percy pulled Malcolm aside and they had a conversation I wasn't too interested in, until Percy started to change Malcolm's plans for my daughter, Percy knew how a child of Athena thought and also knew my daughter pretty well, I approved of his plan.
I could tell Malcolm was nervous and that made me a little smug, I won't lie, not many suitors of my daughters feared they weren't romantic enough in recent years. Within the last century there had only been three that cared, two of which were now in Elysium (not by my hand, just to clarify) and this one Malcolm.
Ξ
Anyway now you're all caught up. Olympus today there was a strong vibe of love, Artemis as ever was absent, off somewhere with her hunter's that woman was a hopeless case for romantic love if ever I saw one. Zeus and Hera were together and not fighting for a change, Poseidon and Amphitrite weren't on Olympus but I could feel the love from here. Athena who normally avoided me on this day was here, still exhibiting strong familiar love; I wondered what she was up to that had kept that feeling so strongly within her. I decided to leave it alone I knew as soon as I interfered; the love she felt that was empowering me would change to annoyance. Hades and Persephone always spent the holiday together and their love was very strong normally not rivalled by any other godly couple on Olympus but today Poseidon's love was rivalling all. Amphitrite owed her step-son a thank you.
And then on top off that there was all the love from the demigod and mortal world. Yes today I felt very powerful indeed.
Ξ
Δ Annabeth's P.O.V Δ
Percy had already left for work when I woke this morning. I was working from home today but I was up a little later than I would have liked.
The pregnancy pillow has been a huge help, I actually can get comfortable and fall asleep, I still wake up almost every hour due to one or both babies sitting on my bladder but it's a lot better than it was.
Nightshade greeted me when I got out of bed, I had woken up exhausted still from the activities of the day before. One of the perks of working from home was that you could work in your PJs if you wanted.
Unfortunately no matter how nice that would have been; I would have never accomplished anything if I stayed in my PJs all day. So, reluctantly I got dressed and headed downstairs to make some toast and fire up my laptop in my study to start work.
I put Percy's iPod on and selected one of the audio books that he had picked out, this one was on architecture. I set it running as I got to designing the cinema for the Greek Village now Leo and I had collaborated on safe technology for demigods this was something people wanted to add to the village, well it was more of a city really but we called it a village.
I got about halfway through the entrance design before I started to find the audio book very distracting so I decided to change it to a different one. I put on a fictional book instead and it helped to relax me. I continued with my design I had to get the outbuilding design to the contractors but the end of the week so they could start construction. It was one of the great things about having the village it meant we could live and work safely without fears of monster attacks and the firms that we had in the village were branches of those in the mortal world so the work came in from all over the place for all businesses.
Δ
Percy came home for lunch to check on me and found me in the study with the audio book on sketching, with Nightshade by my feet. The first sign I knew he was home was the smell coming from the kitchen, I put my pencil down and decided to go and see what he was cooking.
"Ah there you are, I thought the smell of food might inspire a break" He said and I we both knew I hadn't had a break this morning like I should have.
"You thought correctly, what are you making?" I asked as he came around and kissed me in greeting, before I sat down.
"Nothing fancy" He said "just a tomato based mixed vegetable soup and then I was going to melt some mozzarella through it when I served it with some toast. Sound good?" He asked.
"Sounds great" I answered and we continued to converse about our mornings while he cooked and we ate.
"Thank you Seaweed Brain that was exactly what I needed" I said as he cleared the table, he was still not letting me do anything.
"You're welcome Wise Girl" He said "I shouldn't be late tonight, I have three tours this afternoon and then I'll be home. Do you want me to pick anything up before I return?" He asked.
"No I don't think so but if I think of anything I'll message you" I said smiling he was so thoughtful.
Since we found out we were expecting Percy had gone out of his way to make sure that I was well looked after, more so than usual. He made sure I ate a minimum of three meals a day, I used to skip lunch a lot when I got caught up in a project, but now I was pregnant it felt like all I did was eat! He also made sure all those meals were healthy and balanced, so when I ate all the snack food in the house during the day I didn't feel as bad. Will had told me that the babies would tell me what they needed and that would in turn cause my cravings. So far one seemed to want hot chocolate all the time and the other wanted ice cream, or at least that's how it felt. So Percy would make sure we had enough ice cream and hot chocolate in so if I was working from home I could do the bare minimum of serving duties. Like I said the man was thoughtful!
Δ
About halfway through the afternoon I decided to start the printing the model for the cinema so that I could see how it was potentially going to look. I set it all up ready with the printer Percy had given me for Christmas and set it going.
It was going to take the about an hour and a half to print all the pieces I would need to start constructing my miniature model.
While I was waiting I pulled out the sketches for the nursery – we really needed to crack on with that, we were already a third of the way into the pregnancy and I didn't want to get to the end of my second trimester and still not have the nursery ready. I keyed in the information to load the 3D model of the nursery on my laptop and decided to queue it in the printing line so I could make that model up later.
I cleared space on the other table I had in here and as I started moving things Nightshade started nudging my leg. It was as if Percy had told her not to let me lift anything. I was only moving papers but still she wasn't happy about something.
"What's wrong girl? Do you want to go out?" I asked and I had left the study door open so she could wander the house and wasn't trapped in here with me but she didn't follow me when I went to open the back door for her.
"Nightshade what is it? I can move papers you know, I'm pregnant not incompetent." I said and scratched her behind the ear fondly. "Did daddy ask you to keep an eye on me?" I asked her, she didn't respond of course but she did nuzzle away at my hand as I fussed her. I had a feeling Percy had been teaching Nightshade new tricks.
Once I had my clear space, and a slightly less grumpy Nightshade, I set about laying out all the parts to construct my model. I started by constructing the columns for the front of the building followed by the entrance archway. It was becoming a real labour of love in a completely new way, and I was so grateful that Percy had given me the laser printer for Christmas.
Δ
Ψ Percy's P.O.V Ψ
Work was going really well, the tours of the aquarium were putting my knowledge of all sea creatures to use. I really wanted to expand and open up a mortal aquarium in Manhattan so I could take Estelle, mom and Paul and see how proud they'd be of me.
I was on track with the finances to do it out of the Aquariums profit margin but it wasn't just my decision, I needed to speak to Annabeth about it all first. I wanted to do this, but at the same time, it could wait until after the babies were born, I didn't want to stretch myself too thin, both physically and financially.
I'd put my thoughts down in a proposal from Annabeth to look over and I felt a little bit like I was presenting to a board of investors but I knew that Annabeth would appreciate the effort and probably be able to help me improve it in some areas.
When I got home, the house was quite, except for the sound of a male talking, which I thought was odd until I recognised the story and realised it was one of the audio books I'd bought for Annabeth and the babies. I put down my things and went in search of Annabeth.
I found my wife sleeping in her study, resting her head on her arms in front of three miniature models which looked fresh.
The idea of discussing the aquarium expansion left my mind completely as I picked up my pregnant wife and carried her up to bed. It wasn't too late, so I set to work in making a simple dinner and feeding Nightshade before waking her for food.
"Annabeth," I shook her gently as I tried to bring her around from her sleep. "Wise Girl, come on you need to eat something." I said.
"Percy? What time is it? When did I come to bed?" She asked.
"Its seven thirty and I carried you up at five because you'd fallen asleep in your study."
"You didn't have to do that" She told me.
"I know," I chuckled, "but if I can't take care of my wife who can I take care of?" I teased; she rolled her eyes and kissed me before getting up.
"How was your day?" Annabeth asked as we sat down to eat and her question brought back to mind my plans for expansion of the aquarium business, so I told her all about my idea and fetched the binder that held the proposal for the new mortal aquarium for her to look at.
"What do you think?" I asked as she finished looking over everything.
"The timing obviously isn't ideal, but I think if we put it off you'll never do it and it looks like you've really thought about it Percy, the plan looks great, I really think you should do it." She told me.
"You do? Because, if you think financially with the twins it's not the right time I understand – I've been debating not putting in the planning applications because of the babies." I said.
"I do. Once the aquarium is up and running, the return for that will be more than what you're making here in the village and I know your mom, Paul and Estelle would be just as proud as me to visit it when it's ready. Just promise me, you won't do what I do and over extend yourself, you're better at balancing yourself than me, don't lose that just because the timing isn't ideal." She told me and I promised, I knew the timing wasn't ideal, but she was right if I put it off now, I'd reassign the funds to something else and I'd never actually expand.
I suddenly felt like I was five years old again, on Christmas Eve, I was so excited. I kissed Annabeth and smiled as we broke apart.
"Thanks Wise Girl, you always back me up, I really appreciate it." I said.
"Of course Seaweed Brain" She said smiling back at me.
After dinner we were sitting on the sofa in the lounge.
"Your mommy is the best person in the world, you're both already so lucky" I said to my wife's stomach.
"Percy!" Annabeth exclaimed and she was blushing, I hadn't seen her blush that strongly since well, probably since my mom caught us making out in my bedroom back when we were first dating.
"What?" I asked chuckling "They have to know how amazing their mom is, and Will said talking to them will help them recognise us when they're born. Besides, you can't argue with truth."
Annabeth rolled her eyes at me, but she was smiling.
"How long do you think it'll be until they start to move?" I asked.
"They move all the time, it's why I constantly have to use the bathroom" She replied, good-naturedly.
"That's not what I meant" I said, and I didn't know how to phrase what I want to say but I so wanted to feel them move, kick or anything, I just wanted to interact with them.
"I know what you meant," She smiled "in the next couple of weeks they should start kicking, I can't wait for that fun!" She said with a hint of sarcasm, but I could tell she was also excited about that development too.
"I saw your model for the nursery, it looks amazing I'd like to start it this weekend" I said thinking back to the models I'd seen in the study. My thoughts were so scattered she probably thought I was going crazy.
"Percy you're not doing all the work on your own – I'm going to help" She told me.
"I know you want to help Annabeth, but won't the paint fumes be dangerous for the babies?" I asked, I had read that somewhere.
"If it makes you feel better I'll get Will's approval before I help you paint. Besides things need drawing out first."
"Thank you. And I know I've got a plan!" I said – and she raised an eyebrow at me questioningly. "Just trust me, I won't pain anything without your seal of approval, I promise."
All that did is raise her eyebrow further and I knew why. I'd never mentioned it I suppose but part of my job was to design the habitats from the creatures that were to live in them and to do that I had to draw them. I was nowhere near as good a designer or drawer as Annabeth, but I'd been practising these sketches since we decided on what we wanted for the nursery. I'd also taken Friday off to start pulling it all together.
Ψ
Δ Annabeth's P.O.V Δ
The week past fairly uneventfully apart from the fact I was starting to look majorly fat! I mean I knew I would grow through the pregnancy but I didn't expect to grow this much! I felt so fat and unattractive and I'm only 13 weeks, well almost. I don't remember Hazel looking this big when she was 13 weeks pregnant, how is this even fair?! I felt so down I couldn't concentrate on my work that was in front of me. I pushed my chair out from my desk and went to find Percy.
Percy was doing something upstairs, he wouldn't tell me what it was, he just said to trust him and I did so I didn't open the door to the room I knew he was in I knocked and waited. It was hard for me, I hate surprises and here he was doing something to surprise me.
"Just a minute!" His voice called.
I started pacing the landing as I waited, how long had it been? What was taking him so long? Was he not coming because he also thought I was fat and unattractive?
By the time Percy found me, I was sitting on our bed and I was crying.
"Hey Annabeth where'd you g-?" His voice faltered, "Annabeth, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Concern radiated from him.
"I'm f-fat an-and una-a-attractive and y-y-you don't wa-want to sp-spend time with m-me" I choked out, tears streaming down my face.
Percy took my hands in his and brushed my hair back behind my ear resting his other hand on my cheek. "Annabeth, I love you more than anything else in the world, you're not fat, you look incredible right now and I want nothing more than to spend all the time I can with you." He said wiping away my tears. "I think maybe those hormones that Will was talking about the other day have kicked in, why don't you take the rest of the afternoon off, I'll stop what I'm doing as well, we'll go back down stairs to the theatre room, we'll put in a film of your choice, I'll get the ice-cream and we'll snuggle up under a blanket and we'll chill out? How does that sound?" He asked.
"Good" I managed, looking into his beautiful sea green eyes. He was right of course the hormones were affecting me, worse than I ever thought they would do. I felt so stupid for feeling this way and I hated to feel stupid.
"Don't do that" Percy said softly, as he helped me up from the bed "Don't feel like feeling like this is silly or stupid, it's normal Annabeth and there's absolutely nothing stupid about you. You are perfect just how you are, we're going to ride out this influx of hormones together with the plan we've just made." He said as we made our way down stairs.
I've always known I was the lucky one in our relationship to have someone as caring and loving as Percy, but I have never felt more grateful for that than I did right now. Percy tucked me under a blanket on a sofa and went to get the ice-cream.
When he came back he'd also brought cookies and drinks. Nightshade followed in behind him and came to curl up on my left side. Percy set everything down on a tray beside him, after placing Love Actually in the player and settling down next to me under the blanket.
He passed me the carton of ice cream and a spoon and allowed me to snuggle into him while I ate it.
I've known for a while now that Percy would do absolutely anything for me, but I've never felt like that was truer than in this exact moment.
Here I was going off the deep end of the hormone pool and he just completely knew what to do, he made me feel appreciated and loved and comforted without doing anything other than just being him. Gods, I was so incredibly lucky! And that's what I thought about as I drifted off to sleep.
Δ
Percy woke me up for food, it seemed like he was doing that a lot since we found out I was pregnant. And it's not like I wasn't eating, I think I was probably eating more than I have ever eaten in my entire life, I constantly snacked throughout the day, I had two breakfasts and two lunches almost every day and I had dinner. Percy had even taken to putting granola bars on my bedside table when we went to bed in case I was hungry in the middle of the night. What really ended up happening was that I was having a pre-breakfast snack every day. It was like I couldn't feed the babies enough food.
I had joked about it with Sally over the phone the other day and she had told me that they must take after Percy. I was starting to think she was right.
Percy had surprised me by inviting Piper and Malcolm over for dinner. He also told me before I walked into the kitchen with bed hair and an ice cream covered blouse, thank the Gods.
"Hey" I greeted my brother and Piper in the kitchen.
"Hey" Piper said "how are you feeling?" she asked and I got the impression that she knew my hormones were a little all over the place, must be a daughter of Aphrodite thing, I thought as I hugged my brother hello.
"I'm okay, tired and always eating and apparently my hormones have decided to fill a load of insecurities but otherwise okay." I said because if I can't tell them who could I tell?
Malcolm frowned. "What do you mean insecurities?" he asked.
"It doesn't matter now" I said looking at Percy and smiling, which he returned.
Malcolm looked like I'd just thrown a book or something "okay?" Piper squeezed his hand and he relaxed a little, a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by me or Percy.
Piper gave me a 'tell me later' look and we settled down for dinner.
Δ
Ξ Piper's P.O.V Ξ
Dinner last night at Percy and Annabeth's was lovely, but odd. We had a an amazing time just catching up in general and chatting about life but every few minutes I was getting really odd, let's call them vibes, from Annabeth. I had never felt so many out of place 'vibes' from her and now as I sat in cabin 10 waiting for her I was beginning to wander if it was the hormones I could sense.
I know what you're thinking 'Gee Piper how inconsiderate, making a pregnant woman walk to you.' Well what you don't know is last night Annabeth had insisted, I think she wanted to get out of the house, she'd been working at home all week because of how tired she'd been getting, it sounded like she just wanted a change of scenery for a bit. I had fought her on it saying I could pick her up and we could go for a drive or even head into the village but she'd declined and said she'd meet me in cabin 10. So here I was waiting for Annabeth on my bunk. There was a knock at the door and I answered it, it was Annabeth she looked completely out of breath.
"Annabeth, come sit down, let me get you a glass of water or something" I said running around to get the water as fast as I could. I wish she'd let me come to her. "You should have let me pick you up"
"I'm fine; I just forgot how far it was and that I'm three month pregnant with twins who are taking all of my energy before I start exercising." She told me.
"Here, drink this" I said handing her the water, she gratefully took a sip.
"Thanks Piper" She smiled and I returned it.
"So, are we going to talk about your insecurities from last night?" I asked.
"We can, but I don't need to right now, it was mostly hormone induced and Percy really helped." She said propping a pillow behind her back for comfort.
"Okay?" I said dragging out the word and raising an eyebrow.
She smiled and shook her head and told me all about her hormone outburst and how she felt like she was fat and stupid. She told me that Percy had reassured her that she wasn't fat or stupid and set her up with her favourite comforts to make her feel better and even though she'd spilt ice cream everywhere he hadn't minded cleaning it up because she ultimately had felt better. I could practically hear my mom squealing with joy at how romantic Percy was. I knew she, and probably Athena and Poseidon too, would approve of Percy's reaction to Annabeth's hormone induced meltdown.
"He just knew exactly what to do Piper, it was amazing like it didn't even faze him at all he just took control of the situation and did exactly what I needed him to. It was really incredibly attractive." She told me.
"Attractive huh?!" I teased because, there wasn't many times Annabeth spoke about Percy in such a romantic way, but when she did it, she knew I'd tease a little, not so much that she wouldn't do it again but just enough to make her blush like she was now.
"Yes, attractive" she responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world, I just smiled knowing how happy she was.
We talked for a lot of the morning before Percy came in around lunch time to make sure Annabeth had eaten. I had snacks but I hadn't had enough for a pregnant Annabeth fortunately he'd brought snacks with him and driven the car the long way around to fetch her, like he knew she'd been exhausted when she'd arrived here. I had to admit I was seeing a mature side to Percy I hadn't seen before and I could see why Annabeth found it so attractive.
Ξ
~Author's Note~
Hi All! Sorry for the update taking so long, work has really been kicking my butt with this major launch I have coming up! I'm hoping once it has landed that I have more time or at least am not as beat after the week in order to update a little more regularly! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter please let me know!
AndrewisGOAT - Thank you for your review, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed this one too! Thank you for reading both stories, I'm so glad you like both considering how different they are! Let me know if there is a specific even you'd like to see and I'll see how feasible it is for me to fit it into the story!
Sahanya ganegoda - Thank you for your reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed this one too! Some of it is drawing directly from my personal life and I'll always read posts that are sent to me, I love to respond to my readers!
IamWizard5210 - Thank you for your review, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed this one too! I hope the start of this chapter satisfied the other God's POV? Please let me know! Don't worry about when you read it I'm just glad you are reading it!
MasterRiley24 - Thank you for your review, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed this one too! I'm sorry for the delay in update, I'm glad you're enjoying and are looking forward to the part with the children, is there any other event you'd like to see? Let me know!
SarcasmRocks Thank you for your review, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed this one too! Hope the exams went well! Let me know when you've have a chance to read!
Happy reading All!
