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***- This story is boy x boy. Don't like? You don't have to read.

ΩΩΩ

April 15th

Apollo POV

I wasn't sure exactly what I thought of this plan. Yes, I could see the obvious benefits, but I wasn't sure what I thought about the group I'd be sparing with. I looked around and I couldn't help but think about how I easily would have been the oldest even if I really was 19 like I looked. I was mostly surrounded by children around the age of 11. Even the slightly older members of the group couldn't have been more than about 13. I mentally cringed at the idea of fighting any of the kids.

I tried telling myself that Percy was just trying to help, but it didn't really make it any better. I was a god. It was a major bruise to my ego that my boyfriend would sign me up for a beginner's class so that I could learn to beat up minors.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I was just beginning to weigh the pros and cons of ditching, when the daughter of Bellona arrived with a two other warriors.

As soon as she entered the arena area, everyone stopped talking and gave her their full attention. I couldn't stop myself from shaking my head in amusement. If I hadn't already known they were Romans before, I would have laughed. The easiest way to find out if a group of soldiers were Greek or Roman was to bring in a figure of authority. If they immediately gave them their full attention, they were clearly from New Rome.

Reyna took her place at the front of our group. "Most of you have been to this class before. However, we have two new arrivals today. One who just arrived at camp, and one who is here for a refresher lesson." The amount of mocking glances I received at that made me wish I'd made a break for it while I had the chance. "Chantel, Jayson, and I will be going around and pairing you with a partner. You are going to continue practicing the basic strikes and blocks. The sooner you master the basics, the sooner you can join the legion to begin your real training."

After she had finished speaking, the daughter of the war goddess and her partners started pairing up the group for individual sparing. When she reached me, she gestured for a young boy to join us.

"Fred, you'll be sparing with Andrew. He's the one who just arrived last night. He seems to understand the basics; we just need to test his abilities properly before we can allow him to join ranks." I tried to keep a straight face as I looked at the brown haired boy. He couldn't have been more than maybe twelve. There wasn't much else I could do other than nod though. Reyna gave me an amused smile. "Don't worry; you're not going to hurt him. You have to remember, this isn't Camp Half-Blood. The demigods here have to find this place on their own. Andrew here was attacked by an Empousa on his way."

I was surprised by that. I gave the young boy beside me a second look. Judging by the proud look on his face, he was rather confident in his abilities. I mentally shrugged. If Reyna wasn't worried about him, then I wasn't going to either.

She gave us a small wave before she left to continue pairing the kids.

We had to wait for everyone to be paired before we could start so I turned back to the kid beside me and cleared my throat. "So you killed an Empousa? That's rather impressive for someone so young."

He shrugged, "It wasn't that big of deal."

I raised an eyebrow at that. He was clearly trying to make it sound like it was easy, but I knew about the children of Hecate. They may not have been the Hydra, but a fight against them would hardly be deemed as an easy victory. "Still you're only what, 12?"

He gave me an indignant look. "I'm 13!"

I raised my hands to calm him down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I'm just saying. Killing any monster on your own at the age of 13 is quite the accomplishment."

He brushed off my compliment as though it didn't matter. I wondered if he would have reacted in the same way if he knew I was a god. "My mom choreographs fights for movies. She taught me how to use a sword. Besides like I said, it's not that big of deal. There are lots of people here who have killed monsters. Some of the other people at camp were telling me about this one guy that lives here. They said that he killed his first monster when he was 12. They said he`s already saved the world twice and that the gods made him immortal."

I laughed as I realized who he was talking about. "Oh, you mean Perce?"

He frowned, "Who?"

"You're talking about Percy Jackson. Killed the Minotaur when he was twelve, beat Kronos when he was sixteen, helped defeat Gaia last summer?"

"Yes. That's the guy!" His eyes finally lost that arrogant gleam he'd had the entire time we'd been speaking and widened in admiration, "You know him? Could you introduce me?"

I frowned in confusion. "Yes I know him, but why do you want to meet him?"

He blushed, but he didn't look away. "Why wouldn't I want to meet him? Everyone I've talked to says that he's the best fighter in camp."

I frowned. I had a gut feeling that I was only hearing part of the story. "I would have to agree with them. He's a hero... but that's not the real reason you want to meet him, is it?"

He looked guilty and bit his lip. "I..."

Before he could go any further, Reyna interrupted. "Alright, you're all partnered up, so get to it."

I would have preferred to continue our conversation. I was curious about Andrew's apparent interest in the son of Poseidon. Judging by the way that the brown haired boy immediately drew his sword though, he didn't feel the same way. I regretfully swallowed my questions and drew my own blade before taking my stance.

I had no sooner set my feet, when Andrew rushed me. I barely got my blade up in time to stop the swing. Before I could do much more than block it, the brown eyed boy was already swinging again at my legs. I blocked the shot again and tossed his blade back.

I was a little surprised to see him stumble back. The move shouldn't have been strong enough to make him stagger like that. However before I could question it further, he was already attacking again. This time he thrust his blade at my stomach. I blocked the blade and counter attacked. Andrew was able to stop my attack, but he nearly fell while doing so.

The pattern repeated itself a few more times. He would attack all out and I would do my best to defend, but as soon as I made a counter move, he would become off balanced, both figuratively and literally.

I tried to watch his footwork while also protecting myself. It took me a few tried before I realized what he was doing wrong.

The next time I threw his blade off, I put enough power in it to push him back a few feet. "You shouldn't be having to turn your shoulders like that."

He paused for a moment to give me a baffled look. "What?"

I could practically hear Percy in my mind telling me to turn my whole body, not just my torso. "When you're circling an opponent, don't just turn your body. Not only does it limit the movement of your arms, it puts you off balance as well. Try to keep whichever leg you have leading your stance aligned with your hips and facing forward towards your opponent. Your back foot should be at an angle to the front one. You'll have better balance that way."

He paused for an additional second, before he pressed forward with his attack again. His footing wasn't much different than before, but I could see that he was trying to do what I had suggested. Judging by the increased movement in his arms, he had at least gotten part of it.

ΩΩΩ

We continued to spar. His foot work was marginally better than before. I knew it wasn't something that he would get immediately, but at least he was listening to what I'd said. However the footwork wasn't the only problem I'd found with his fighting style.

I frowned as I blocked a powerful overhand swing, and put all my weight into pushing him backwards. He stumbled back a few feet, but I didn't push my advantage. Instead I took the moment to analyze him. We had only been fighting for about ten minutes, but he was already panting from doing everything as fast and as hard as he could. I also noticed for the first time, when he brought his blade up to face me again, he added a flourish.

"You're tired."

I hadn't meant to say anything, but it didn't stop the boy from glaring at me. "I'm fine." He launched himself towards me to attack again.

I winced as I blocked the blade. He was already starting to slow down a lot from wasting too much energy. I blocked another downward slash and tossed off his blade. This time I was paying attention when his swung his sword in a complete, and unnecessary, circle before coming towards me again. "I don't understand why you are doing that."

He gritted his teeth in annoyance as I once again stopped his blade. "Doing what?"

I frowned, once again hearing Percy's voice. This time the advice was about wasting energy. "Adding all of those flourishes to your attacks. They are not doing anything useful; they're just sapping your energy faster."

He launched himself at me again, but it was getting easier and easier to block his blade. "They are intimidating."

I thought about his explanation. I could see why he thought that, but I also remembered having a similar conversation with the son of the sea god. "Not really. The only people that would be intimidated by it are people who don't know how to use a sword. Those who do, know that using flourishes like that not only use up energy, they also leave you vulnerable to an attack because it takes longer to get your blade back into a position to defend yourself."

I could tell that he was getting annoyed at my attempts to be helpful when he attacked with renewed vigor. The burst of energy though, only lasted another minute before he started to crash. When he made the mistake of thrusting at my gut again, I used the move Percy had shown me a couple weeks ago to disarm him.

As Andrews's blade hit the ground, I stepped forward and placed the tip of my sword at his throat. The brown haired boy's face was streaked with sweat. I was surprised when I realized that, though I was breathing faster than I normally would, I wasn't so exhausted that I felt like collapsing into the dirt.

Before I could think on it too much, I heard someone clapping. I lowered my sword and turned towards the source of the noise, only to see the daughter of Bellona standing beside my sea prince. The son of Poseidon winked at me as he stopped clapping and lowered his hands.

The brown haired boy leaned down to retrieve his weapon as the two came over to us. The daughter of the war goddess nodded at us. "Good job, both of you. You're fairly good Andrew."

The boy looked surprised that someone would compliment him after a loss, but he quickly tried to cover his surprise with the fake arrogance he'd worn earlier.

The young god nodded in agreement and smiled at the boy. "Let me guess, son of Mars?"

He re-sheathed his sword, "Son of Ares, actually."

Percy smiled, "Really? It's nice to meet another Greek here, but why'd you come to Camp Jupiter rather than going to Camp Half-Blood?"

Andrew shrugged. "My mom lives here in California. I didn't want to be all the way across the country from her."

The young god winced. "Ya, it sucks. My mom's back in New York, but we talk every Saturday so it's not quite as bad. And as for you," The son of the sea god finally turned his attention to me. He gave me one of his thousand watt smiles as he stepped close enough to wrap his arms around my waist. He stole a quick kiss before pulling back to give me a wink. "Good job."

I smiled as I too wrapped my arms around him. "Thanks."

"Do you see what I meant now though, about how you're not a beginner?"

I took the time to look around at the other kids who were sparring, if it could be called that. It was quite easy to see that the fight between Andrew and I was by far the most intense. I nodded and looked back at my boyfriend, "Ya. I think I'm beginning to get it."

"Good." He smiled and stole one more kiss before pulling back so that we were standing in a way far more appropriate for public, with just one arm around each other.

When we turned back to our audience, I realized that we were being closely watched by the brown haired boy. At first I figured that he was watching us because he was uncomfortable with seeing two guys kissing, but then I realized that he was watching us slightly wistfully.

Suddenly the interest he'd expressed about Percy earlier made a lot more sense. For a second I felt a wave of jealousy rising, but then I realized that it was stupid to feel that way. Andrew was only 13. There was no call for my jealousy. Besides, he was young. Chances are he was only just beginning to realize that he liked guys. He had probably heard about Percy and became interested in his story, not Percy himself. Either way, the simplest way to end any crush that the young boy might develop on the son of the sea God, was just to give him the introduction he'd asked for.

"I suppose I forgot to introduce the two of you. Andrew, this is my boyfriend, Percy Jackson."

The son of Ares looked at me in surprise before he turned to the young god beside me. It seemed that he didn't know what to say for a minute, but eventually he settled for a simple, "It's nice to meet you."

Percy smiled at the son of Ares. "Nice to meet you too."

The son of Poseidon had clearly missed the way Andrew looked at him, but the daughter of Bellona hadn't. She cleared her throat. "I've seen enough Andrew. You're ready to join the legion, go report to Dakota. She'll give you the tour." The son of Ares smiled. Regardless of the arrogance he tried to hide behind, he clearly wasn't positive that loosing would still get him in. He soluted her and turned around to go find the girl in question. Reyna smiled as he walked away before turning back to us. "As for you Fred, I think it's safe to say that you really don't need any further instructions from this class. Just keep practicing with Percy and you'll be fine."

I nodded and the young god beside me smiled. "Thanks for letting him sit in Reyna."

The daughter of Bellona shrugged. "No problem. If he needs any more help, bring him by and I'll teach him myself." With that she walked away to help her fellow warriors teach the young ones.

Once she was out of earshot Percy laughed. "If you think I'm a tough teacher, something tells me she would be worse."

All I could do was wince. I had a feeling that he was right.

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Authors Note

So, I promise I'm not dead. I lost access to my computer for a while. Sorry about that. I would have written it on my phone, but have you ever tried to write 2000+ words on a phone? I've done it before and it sucks. I need to buy my own computer one day, but they're just so dang expensive.

Next update will be April 18th

Next Chapter:

The son of the smith god smiled at me. "I think it would be a good chance to get to know you a bit better..."