Shorter chapter, sorry y'all. If you don't mind answering the question I have at the end that would be great! Anyways read on.
Zeus paced the lengths of the throne room, an angry look plastered on his face. He was pissed. Artemis had gone out of her way to disobey him. Even if it was indirectly she had still gone to see her hunters. The Olympians just watched the king pace boredly. Honestly, who cares that she saw her hunters? Apparently Zeus.
"How dare she. How dare she purposefully disobey my ONE rule. All I asked was that she stay away from her hunters for a short few months. For thousands of years she had listened. Everything I said she listened to, no matter how much she didn't like it." Zeus suddenly turned around, a snarl on his face. He lifted his bolt to point it at Poseidon who immediately matched his brother's expression. "It's your damn son's fault! Within two weeks he has turned my daughter into some.. Some rebellious teenager!"
Poseidon stood up, not one to be talked down on. "Who cares that your daughter is doing something she enjoys? Did you not seem to think that she would disobey you when you rip everything she has ever cared about from right under her, brother?"
Zeus faltered for a second before returning back to his icy stare. "Your son is a bastard who is poisoning my daughter."
Poseidon roared in anger and went to lash out with words when Hestia stood up, suddenly a 30 year old woman. Her eyes were ablaze and she looked pissed. Both brother's immediately stepped closer to one another out of instinct and fear. Hestia glared down at them both who had suddenly started to cower.
"You two are supposed to be Olympians! Not scrabbling mortals over some stupid affair. I will not accept this behavior! Is that understood? You two are better than this. Artemis didn't know where she was going, Zeus. Poseidon stop being so quick to anger, we already know half the things Zeus does he hasn't thought through fully."
Zeus suddenly glared back at his sister in defiance. "Yeah, My daughter didn't know where she was going because SOMEONE'S SON had taken her there. There's no other possibility that she would have disobeyed me otherwise. Do not make excuses for the boy's incompetence."
The three were at a stand still as Zeus glared at Hestia and Poseidon. The rest of the olympians tried their best to pretend that they weren't there. They didn't want to make the situation worse. Of course there was a certain goddess that definitely was enjoying this drama.
"Hi! If I may?"
Multiple heads snapped to stare at the Love Goddess, confusion on their faces. Usually it was a mutual thing to not bring attention to the outsiders of the fights. Hermes let out a loud groan and banged his head back against his throne. Athena had sighed and rested her face in her hands while the other gods tried to shrink themselves down even smaller.
"Go on." Zeus commanded, curious to see what she could possibly say to help the situation.
"Percy and Artemis have mutual feelings for one another." Aphrodite cried out cheerfully, a giant smile on her face. Then all Hades broke loose.
Apollo sneezed loudly causing Jason, Annabeth, Mike and Eren to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You okay, Sunny D?" Eren asked curiously, using the new name she had deemed him as.
Apollo furrowed his eyebrows and tried to think about what could be going on. Now who would want to be talking about him right now? He shrugged and went back to "studying" with the group. It was mostly Eren and Annabeth doing their homework while the rest of the guys goofed off.
Meanwhile on Olympus Zeus had completely blown a fuse. His face was redder than a white mom at the beach named Stacy.
Many of the gods were wearing different faces. Hermes had originally been one full of shock before it turned into amusement as he burst out laughing.
Athena was sitting there in horror, wondering what witchcraft Percy had when it came to his romantic life. First her daughter had completely fallen for him and ignored the fact he was a Son of Poseidon and now he had somehow won over THE virgin goddesses heart? This just couldn't be. There was something more at play here and she WOULD figure it out.
Dionysus had let out an extra long snore, unsurprisingly.
Ares was nodding his head, "Boy has guts, I'll give him that."
Demeter was scarfing down a bowl of cereal, "They both eat Cheerios. They're good for each other."
Hades was sitting there eating a thing of popcorn watching all of this go down. He had let out a groan when Demeter mentioned cereal but otherwise he was watching the horror that crossed Poseidon and Zeus. It was quite amusing to watch his brothers break down.
Hera was sitting there pondering the relationship, curious as to what could happen.
Hephaestus had put on some headphones and was now continuing to tinker with some metal in his hands while Aphrodite squealed with glee, clapping her hands.
"Your son can not date Artemis, Poseidon! He isn't enough. He isn't even a god for that matter! He doesn't deserve to be with my daughter."
"Who cares that he isn't a god! He was offered the chance twice and he denied it. No! Percy is more than enough for your daughter!"
"He will die and break her heart! They can not be together!"
Hera chose this moment to speak up, "You do know that if Percy asks for Artemis's hand he will be made immortal, right? At that rate just make him a god and gain ourselves a protector."
Zeus let out an angry shout and tossed his Master Bolt at the floor. He turned around and sat on his throne heavily and placed his head in his hands. He wanted to be angry but really his pride was just hurt at this point.
Hestia had purposefully been silent the whole time. She didn't have much to do so she often watched Percy live his life. He was after all her favorite demigod. She had known about their feelings for each other before Percy even realized he probably liked the goddess back.
"Percy makes Artemis happy, Brother. That's why he brought her to the hunters because he knew how much Artemis missed them. That boy was willing to face your wrath just to see her happy. Is that not something you would want for your daughter? He makes her happy, he makes sure she is comfortable."
Zeus had sighed in defeat and slumped his shoulders. He didn't necessarily like the situation but if Artemis was that happy then he was going to let it go. He wasn't going to go out of his way to give Percy his permission. Percy would need to seek him out but when he did come then he would approve of it.
The other gods seemed to relax from the nuclear war that had almost occured in the throne room.
Poseidon turned to his brother, "Listen. I don't really like this situation but for my son I will put it behind me and accept your daughter into my immediate family."
Hermes called out helpfully, "She's already in your family!"
The rest of the gods immediately groaned as Hermes let out a loud laugh.
While all of this was going down, Artemis was awake staring at the roof of her tent. She didn't know why but she felt like her whole life had just been at stake and she wasn't necessarily enjoying that thought. She frowned wondering what could have possibly gone down that has caused such a strong reaction in her survival instincts. She shrugged it off and got off her bed. She could hear all her other hunters starting to get up so she figured she would join them.
With a swift but gentle kick to Percy's ribs he sat up with a shout. Artemis laughed loudly as she watched him scramble around, grumbling.
"Damn you, Artemis." He whined out as he rubbed his side.
"It was time to get up. Now out I need to change." She pushed him towards the entrance of the tent while he complained that he was going.
He stumbled outside the tent and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Tiredly he started to stretch his body. His body let out a series of pops and cracks. Sleeping on the floor had sucked, he would not be doing that again. He'd walk back to the truck and sleep in that if he had too.
Percy looked around to realize a lot of the hunters were staring at him and he realized they had probably watched him being shoved out of Artemis's tent.
"Wow Percy, you're really laying it on our lady hard." One hunter called out and he immediately started to blush and splutter.
"No! I mean- We- I- OH COME ON" He cried out.
The hunters burst out laughing at his expense as he buried his face in his hands blushing. One of the younger girls walked up to him. She could only be about 12 but Percy knew that appearances could be deceiving when you're in a group of immortal girls who were most likely older than his bloodline.
He squatted down so the younger girl wasn't looking up at him. She was staring at him as if she had something to say but didn't know how to say it. "Hi! I'm Percy!"
She shyly took his extended hand and shook it, "I'm Isabelle. I just wanted to say thank you for bringing our lady back to us."
Percy's heart almost leapt out of his chest as she said that and he had the intense urge to hug the girl. "Can I hug you?"
The younger girl nodded and Percy scooped her up in his arms. She was just too cute and Percy couldn't contain himself. He wanted to hug her to death. She let out a loud giggle as she hugged him back just as tight.
Setting her down he messed up her hair and smiled at her, "Well Isabelle, thank you for the hug. If you need anything just ask for it and I'll do whatever I can to help you out!"
She nodded and took off to a group of hunters who immediately started to chat with the girl.
Turning back around he was face to face with Artemis who was leaning against the pole of the tent, arms crossed and her own smile spread across her face. "You're good with kids, Who would have thought?"
He shook his head and playfully shoved her, "I'm great with kids I'll have you know."
She rolled her eyes and gestured to the breakfast hall, "Cmon we got to eat and then we're going to see if we can master this bow."
After a breakfast of some oatmeal, fruit and venison he found himself standing at the range. Artemis had practically hounded out at him to eat faster. He practically inhaled the food. The other hunters were slowly coming out of the hall until the last group was out.
Thalia had immediately zoned in on the bow in Percy's hand and dropped to the floor shouting, "DUCK AND COVER! PERCY HAS A BOW!"
All the hunters dropped down and after a few seconds looked up in confusion.
"Thalia, he hasn't even shot it yet?" A hunter called out in confusion.
"Once he hit a target behind him over 300 yards away. Percy has been banned from using the bow at Camp Halfblood for a reason."
The hunters let out loud laughter as they realized the Hero of Olympus was truly that bad at archery.
Artemis stood there with a smile on her face. She was glad to see that her hunters liked Percy. "Well? Get into position, boy."
He groaned but turned to face the target that was 6 feet away. He took his stance and immediately heard Artemis scoff. She stepped forward and delivered a swift kick to his knee causing him to cry out.
"What was that for?"
"Your posture is terrible, that's what."
Artemis quickly repositioned his body and nodded thoughtfully. Percy was staring down at the target nervously. There was no way he was going to get this and if he accidentally shot one of the hunters he was as good as dead.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Shoot the bow Percy."
Percy took a deep breath and released the arrow. He watched as it immediately shot out too high and disappeared into the forest. After a second he heard a loud shout and he felt horror overtake him.
Artemis looked back behind him and then looked forward into the forest and watched as Hermes walked into the clearing with an arrow in his shoulder. Percy slapped the bow on Artemis's chest and turned around, breaking into a sprint.
Artemis watched him run off in confusion and looked back at her half brother who frowned as he watched the boy run off.
"Did he really just shoot me? Why?"
"He was aiming for the target, now why are you here?"
Hermes grinned brightly at Artemis's defense. She was completely unaware of the fact that Hermes already knew she was with the hunters.
"I have a package for Percy but seeing as he's ditched us do you mind signing here?" Without another word, Hermes had summoned a clipboard and was holding it out in her direction.
Artemis frowned down at the clipboard but nonetheless signed it, "Why are you letting me sign for his things?"
"You guys are together, aren't you?"
Artemis choked on her spit while her hunters immediately started to laugh at her reaction. "We're what?"
Hermes frowned at her, "Well Aphrodite said you guys had mutual feelings for one another so I just figured that you guys were together. Oh well you already signed for it."
Hermes shoved a large package into her hands and went to flash away before his attention was brought back to the group of girls, "Wait! What do you mean Aphrodite said?"
"Oh! She said you guys liked each other and almost started world war three between Old Dad and Uncle P."
"She what?" Cried out Phoebe.
"Oh I'll kill her the next time I see her."' Growled out Atlanta.
The hunters had a personal vendetta against the love goddess for the amount of Hunters she had taken advantage of. Of course it was kind of awkward to explain to the group that Artemis herself had fallen into that trap but the hunters didn't seem to mind him too much.
Hermes took this as his sign to go before he himself was attacked, being the messenger god sure was time consuming. "I'll be off then! Tell Perce the package is from his dad!"
Artemis grumbled and turned to her tent to put it down. She did not have time to carry this thing around so she simply dropped it into the corner with his things. She walked forward to her journal and promptly crossed off teach Percy archery. He was completely useless and she was not going to endanger her hunters again here. Maybe when they were traveling again.
Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that she had thought about leaving the hunt to travel with Percy. She wouldn't do that… would she? She was finally back with her hunters but she had just unintentionally realized that she was willing to leave with Percy to Camp. She sighed and shook her head, she didn't have time to think about all of this.
Walking back out of her tent she saw Percy helping some of the girls who were holding daggers and smiled gently at that. She was happy to see him interacting with the girls. Heading off towards him she decided that she would worry about everything later and just live in the moment right now.
So I had planned to make Artemis become mortal at the end of the book, hence the name yknow Accepting Mortality. So what do you guys want. Mortal Artemis, Immortal Percy or a double ending that y'all can read both chapters?