Disclaimer- I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus Series. (One can dream though) All rights go to the proper parties.

Note***- Will be boy x boy. (I promise, it is coming) Don't like? You don't have to read.

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March 12th

Percy POV

I was in a daze all evening. I couldn't get my revelation out of my head. There was no denying it. I had feelings for Apollo. Fortunately for me, it seemed like Apollo was overly tired from the tournament. As soon as he got Sunbeam back, he headed home. I was contemplating going back myself, but I needed a bit of time to come to grips with my emotions.

With Riptide once again in my pocket, I settled down with the other eliminated competitors to wait for the winner to be announced.

I wasn't sure if I was more shocked, or relieved, by my realization. I had time to come to grips with the fact that I might like Apollo, but that didn't mean that realizing I really did was any less surprising. I had always considered myself straight. I didn't have a problem with people loving whoever they wanted, but it was different when that person was you. I guess I was going to have to re-think my orientation, since straight no longer seemed a broad enough category. At the same time though, even with the million thoughts rushing through my mind, I couldn't help but be grateful that I had finally figured it out. If nothing else came from the tournament, at least I could stop trying to dissect my actions.

Though Apollo wasn't there to hear the results, we placed 5th and 6th respectively. In 'kills' we scored 2nd and 3rd. Apollo had beaten me by only one. No one was surprised when Reyna owned the game with 12 'kills'. She was Praetor for a reason. If we hadn't stopped to fight each-other, we probably could have won.

It was still too early to head back to the apartment, so I decided to see if any of my friends were free.

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In the end, both Jason and Piper were free. I could have asked both of them to hang out with me, but lately Piper had been giving me weird looks. Considering she was Aphrodite's daughter, I had a feeling that I now knew what they were about.

The son of Jupiter and I went to a cafe a few blocks from the house. We just hung out. We talked about the tournament, if we thought that they would host a city wide one now, how Calypso seemed to be adjusting, how the temples were going, stuff like that. I didn't even know that I was waiting for anything specific until Jason finally asked.

"Seriously Percy, what's going on with you?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You seem very on edge."

I hadn't been aware I was acting any different. It made me extra thankful that I hadn't gone back to the apartment yet. I did not want to have this conversation with Apollo. "I'm fine Sparky."

He sighed and shook his head. "No you're not. You're acting like you just stole the master bolt. What happened?"

I bit my lip. I didn't exactly want to talk to him about it. I wasn't sure I was ready for anyone else to know. Seriously, wasn't there a time limit on how soon someone could ask you that? I had just figured out what was going on a few hours ago. If I wanted to talk to someone about it, Nico would make more sense. He already knew that I might like the sun god. Plus I knew I could trust him not to tell anyone until I was ready, not that I trusted Jason any less. We may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but now he was one of my closest friends.

I sighed. "Listen, don't worry about it. I'm just figuring some things out."

"You've been acting like this for over a week."

I should have known Apollo hadn't been the only one to notice my weird behaviour. He already knew I was acting strange, so there was no point in denying it.

"I... I've just been realizing a few things. That's all."

"Please just tell me Percy. I'm your friend."

I hesitated. I didn't want to say anything, but he was right. He was my friend. "I've just learned something about myself, that's all... Now I just need to accept it."

He gave me an appraising look for a few seconds before he suddenly stiffened in realization. He jaw dropped and he practically yelled, "You have a crush on Fred!"

I blushed and threw my hand over his mouth. I looked around, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to us. "Why don't you just announce it to the whole city?"

It wasn't until his eyes doubled in size that I realized I hadn't told him he was wrong.

He pushed my hand off so he could speak, though he was quieter than before. "Holy Juno, you really do?"

"I... Um... That is..." I slapped myself in the forehead. This conversation was not going as well as it could have.

He looked far to smug. "I was just guessing. I can't believe... You really like him?"

I groaned and buried my face in my arms. Wasn't there a time limit that said I had x number of hours to accept the fact that I was bi, before anyone else was allowed to know?

He clearly took my groan as a yes. The golden boy was giving me a huge grin. "I knew it!"

My head shot up and my jaw dropped. "What in Poseidon's name are you talking about? How could you know when I just figured it out this morning?"

He laughed, "Two reasons. One, if you remember correctly I am dating a daughter of Aphrodite. Pipes is different than most of her siblings, but she still sees things. She's been telling me that she thinks there is something between the two of you since she met him."

I tried, and failed miserably, not to blush. I had no way to respond to that. "And the second thing?"

"Well maybe you haven't noticed, but you've been watching him all the time lately. Combine that with all the flirting the two of you do and it wasn't hard to guess."

If my friend could figure out that I liked Apollo within the course of one conversation, then I had no chance of hiding my feelings from the sun god.

I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. "This is a nightmare."

"Oh come on, it's not so bad. I'm sure you guys wanted to tell us together but..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you talking about, telling you together?"

Jason rolled his eyes, but he still had a huge, happy, grin on his face. "That you guys are a thing."

I looked at him in bewilderment. "What are you even talking about right now, we are not going out."

His grin fell a bit. "Really? I just thought... Why not?"

"There are so many reasons. Including the fact that you did hear me say I just figured out I like him a few hours ago, right?"

"Oh, right. So when are you going to ask him then?"

I shook my head in disbelief. "I'm not."

He looked at me like I had lost my mind. "Why not?"

This was so not a conversation I wanted to have. "Well, first off, I just figured out that I liked guys this morning. I don't think I'm ready to date one."

He just rolled his eyes. "That's a weak excuse. It clearly doesn't actually bother you, or you'd be freaking out."

"I did that earlier."

"The fact that you stopped and can talk about it without trying to deny it at all means that you've already mostly accepted it. Trust me; I know what it looks like when someone is fighting an attraction. I saw it in Croatia."

I knew he was right. Out of everything, Apollo's gender bothered me the least. I bit my lip. I didn't really want to say it but, he was my friend. He deserved to hear the full truth.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for another relationship yet. What if... it ends the same? I don't want to run the risk of losing another good friend."

Jason winced. He was quiet for a few minutes before he spoke again. "There's not much I can say to that. I know you loved Annabeth and I'm sure you miss her, but you broke up. Couples do that. That shouldn't stop you from loving again. If you like him and he likes you, are you really going to risk missing your chance?"

"I... I don't know." He made it sound a lot easier than it was. "Besides... he doesn't like me like that."

He raised one eyebrow, "Now that, I don't believe."

"Believe whatever you want to believe but it won't change the fact that Fred has never once given any sort of sign to suggest he wants more than my friendship."

"If you actually think that, then you really are a Sea-weed brain."

I frowned. "No, I'm just honest. I spend more time with him than anyone else. I would know if he liked me."

"That might have been true if you were anyone else, but you're the most oblivious person in the universe. You spent a lot of time with both Annabeth and Rachael, yet they both told me that you didn't even know they liked you until they made their move."

I couldn't stop myself from blushing. "That doesn't prove anything."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes it does, but I'll drop it for now."

I hesitated to see if he would say more, but when he didn't, I nodded. "Thanks."

"Seriously though, promise me that you'll at least think about telling him?"

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Fine... I'll think about it, but I make no promises."

The golden boy smiled. "That's all I wanted to hear." Before I was forced to respond, the son of Jupiter changed the topic. "So, did you hear that Calypso wants to kill Leo? Apparently he nearly burnt down her apartment building..."

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Apollo POV

Today had definitely not gone as planned. The tournament had been fun, right up until I decided to fight the son of Poseidon. He was getting even better than he use to be. I wasn't sure that he could notice a difference in his speed, but I could. After all, not many mortals can cover more than 10 feet of ground in less than half of one second.

Either way, that was neither here nor there. My issue was having Percy straddling my waist. We may have been fighting, but the instant that he pinned me, it clued in that the son of the sea god was the one who was on top of me. The fight instantly went out of me. I felt my hand go to his hip, but I couldn't stop it. I had never seen him looked so surprised before. I couldn't believe that I had really just done that. Over two months of burying my affections, and one hand to hand combat session breaks my resolve.

I could only hope that Percy wouldn't say anything and didn't try asking me about my behaviour, because I had no excuse.

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Authors Note

I apologize profusely for not updating like I had hoped. I've had a less than ideal week. My husband hit the ditch on Tuesday. He's fine, but our new truck had around $15,000 worth of damage as he slid right into two trees. Our insurance is going to fix it and they gave us a rental car but when we went to my dad's on Christmas Eve, we had just sat down when there was a knock on the door asking if any of us owned a black truck because they had just hit it. So we had to deal with that too. Blah, it was a good Christmas but I was WAY too busy. I have only gotten between 4-6 hours of sleep a night since last week. I'm not used to that.

However on a happy note, thank you to whoever it was that went online as a guest just to wish me a Merry Christmas and all of the other Christmas wishes. :-) That was super nice to see.

Since I missed my self imposed kiss by Christmas goal, I'll aim for New Years Day. Once again, you have my sincere apologies. But... 1 more chapter!

Next update will be January 1st

Next Chapter:

I couldn't stop myself from laughing. I turned towards him, only to suddenly feel his lips against mine...