A/N: Shameless fluff of Percy growing up deep beneath the sea…with plot sprinkled in. Like, tiny rainbow sprinkles but hey the sprinkles are there so just roll with it.
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Also, Tumblr has ruined my life.
That is all.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, y'all.
/
Chapter Seven
Snapshots
Poseidon shook his head and muttered under his breath as he materialized outside Atlantis after a long day of talks with the mermen. He was glad that the solstice had gone by so quickly and he was able to leave when he had, allowing him to deal with more pressing matters beneath the waves.
He rubbed a tired hand through his hair, thankful that the ruse had worked. Zeus would focus his anger on him now instead of the child, and would have no reason to believe that he had not in fact killed the child as he believed. It meant that Percy would be safe, at least for the time being.
And that was all he cared about.
Amphitrite and Triton were in the throne room, discussing undersea issues with Delphin and two mermen captains, who listened intently to his wife's every word. Amphitrite may have appeared to be small and delicate, but she could gut enemies like the best of them if the occasion called for it.
The two mermen captains – Carthos and Ethos – noticed him first and immediately bowed in respect.
"Your Majesty," they greeted him in perfect unison, their mouths stretching into smiles over pointed, shark-like teeth.
Poseidon inclined his head in turn and moved to be beside Amphitrite. "Where is Percy?" he murmured to her.
Amphitrite nodded to the corner, where Percy was sitting in a onesie banging wooden blocks together and babbling to himself under the watchful eye of Triton. Poseidon smiled in his direction before returning his attention to the two mermen.
"The sand sharks had a minor revolt over the death of their young prince this morning," Delphin informed him solemnly. "My kin managed to talk them out of doing something foolish."
"I am glad to hear it," said Poseidon gravely. "Who killed the shark child, then?"
"A fisherman's boat," Delphin responded gravely. "Caught the little fellow up in a net, they did."
"Surface people," Triton muttered ominously from the corner, casting a dark scowl upwards. "They never heed the creatures of the deep, do they?"
"Rarely," agreed Poseidon.
"My lord," Carthos addressed him, turning his yellow eyes to Percy. "What is to become of the child?"
Poseidon stared at him as if he had just grown a second head. "To become of him?" he repeated in astonishment.
"Yes," the merman nodded. "What power is he to have?"
"Did Aphros put you up to this?" asked Poseidon.
Carthos blinked but did not respond.
With a sigh, Poseidon bent to scoop Percy up in his arms. The baby squealed in surprise and giggled as soon as he realized who it was. He turned Percy to face the merman, and the baby stared up at him with wide eyes, gnawing on the edge of the block.
"He is my son, Carthos," said Poseidon with utter seriousness. "And as my son, he is a prince. The kingdom will treat him as such, and he will have the same responsibilities as Triton."
This did not seem to overly faze Carthos.
"Amphitrite wishes for him to have a teacher," Poseidon continued, giving the little baby a tiny bounce that made him grin, drool sliding down his chin. "Will you accept the task, Carthos son of Bythos?"
"I will," Carthos said formally and with a bow. Ethos bowed as well, and in unison, the two mermen said gravely, "Hail Perseus, son of Poseidon, Prince of Atlantis."
/
Poseidon slammed the end of his trident onto the ground, and immediate silence fell in the throne room. His subjects fell silent and looked up at the dais where he stood with Amphitrite and Triton seated on either side of him.
Today, however, the scene was different, for in Amphitrite's lap sat his infant demigod son.
"Subjects, I bid thee welcome on this fine morning," he adressed them, lifting a hand in greeting. Formality was necessary but annoying, he much preferred modern speech patterns—much less tedious.
"And thee," the crowd responded quietly and with a unanimous bow of respect. Many of the mermen present bowed as well, not because they had to but because they respected him enough that they wanted to.
"I have called this meeting to announce the newest member of the royal family," he continued, sweeping his hand regally to where Amphitrite sat with Percy in her lap, idly gnawing on his fist and watching all the people and swirling colors with fascination.
That got everyone's attention, as murmuring rose, everyone turning to whisper at their neighbors.
With patience borne of long practice, Poseidon lifted his hand into the air yet again and waited calmly for silence to fall.
"I am well aware of the curiosity of my subjects since the day I entered the palace with a human-looking baby," Poseidon assured them in the voice he reserved for addressing crowds—deep but soft, with no edge to his tone, the voice that Amphitrite had jokingly nicknamed his "Patience of the Sea" voice.
"Is he human, my lord?" someone in the crowd asked.
"He would have drowned long ago if he were," a second voice responded dryly. Poseidon glanced down to see a trainer from Camp Fish-Blood, Aphros, idly knitting. The bluish-skinned Ichthyocentaur had hardly glanced upwards through the entire presentation, present only to speak on behalf of Camp Fish-Blood and the other trainers of Mer-Heroes.
"The child is a demigod," announced Poseidon, reaching down to trade Amphitrite the trident for his son, lifting Percy into his arms and shifting him so that Percy was facing out towards the crowd, held in place by one of his father's arms under his bottom and the other across his chest.
Everyone stared at the baby with curiosity, some with caution, and others with tenderness in their gazes. Babies were a rare sight in Atlantis and each and every infant of any species was protected fiercely. There was a smile present on most faces as they studied the child who was, Poseidon admitted silently, adorable.
"I give you Perseus Jackson, Prince of Atlantis."
This time, there were no murmurs, merely a quiet moment where everyone studied the infant. As one, the crowd bowed silently, and just like that the ceremony was over and Percy was a part of the royal family.
From the hearth, Hestia watched all of this and smiled tenderly.
Not for many years had she seen her brother this happy.
/
Percy's first word was no.
Poseidon found this fact vastly amusing, as for the past four months, Amphitrite had been repeating mama so many times it was nearly every other word in her sentences, and Triton had been attempting to coach the baby to say his name for the same amount of time. He, too, often tried to get his son to call him papa or daddy, but in a typical bout of Sally-style stubbornness, the baby outdid them all.
"Percy, finish your breakfast," Amphitrite was coaxing, holding the spoon of oatmeal up to the baby's mouth. Percy's lips were clamped tightly shut as he shook his head in denial.
He only opened his mouth long enough to shout, "NO!" before closing it again.
"Amphitrite, I do not believe he enjoys this form of sustenance," he suggested as Triton and several of their servants looked on in interest. Their amusement was palpable — the king and queen of the sea being outsmarted by an infant demigod was certainly not something they got to see every day.
"He must eat, my lord, and too much ambrosia and nectar is dangerous," she returned without looking at him, moving the spoon in a circular motion that the baby followed with wary sea green eyes. "Just a bite, little prince? For mama?"
"No!"
"Will you do it for me, sweet one?"
"No!" Percy wailed just as insistently, and she took her opportunity to shove the spoon in his mouth. He snapped his mouth shut abruptly and swallowed on reflex, glaring up at her indignantly and looking so much like Poseidon that she couldn't help but smile.
Triton was snickering into his own breakfast, winking at his little brother. Percy beamed over his victory and immediately started squirming when Amphitrite came up with a new spoonful of the vile food.
Amphitrite sighed. The baby was just as stubborn as his father.
"He gets this from you," she informed her husband dryly, raising an eyebrow at him as she stared across the table.
Unabashed, Poseidon only grinned and shrugged in an unapologetic fashion.
/
Peace and quiet became distant memories in Atlantis as Percy grew into a toddler.
It seemed to Poseidon that Percy had crawled for half a second before he was up and walking, and moments after that, running. The boy was a terror, a ball of uncontrollable energy. That combined with his constant non-stop baby chatter drove most of the palace to distraction constantly.
Poseidon mused about how different his life had been before bringing Percy to Atlantis as he chased his wayward toddler down the hallway.
Percy got into everything. Every loud crash was followed by a sigh, because the baby had naturally gotten into something else he should not have been in. In fact, it had start to become a normality for the baby to smash things, especially when he was frightened or throwing a temper tantrum.
The sea was strong in him; Poseidon knew that long years of training would be necessary to help his son control his powers. He had no doubt that if he had been raised as a normal demigod, he would develop the control himself through trial and error or need (as in battle, when his powers would aid him without his conscious effort), but being able to actually teach his demigod child how to control the sea was something he had never been able to do before.
He found himself quite looking forward to being able to teach his son.
"Percy," he called, increasing his pace as his son rounded the corner on still wobbly toddler legs. He came around the corner just in time to see Percy bump into a servant who promptly jumped from surprise, the tray unbalancing and everything scattering, some of it sinking to the floor with a dull thunk while the lighter items floated aimlessly.
Judging by the items, Poseidon knew that the items on the tray had been intended for his wife's enjoyment. The servant looked furious, opening his mouth to yell at the child, having not noticed his king still hurrying down the hallway. Before the servant could utter a word, however, Percy toddled over to the lidded container near him, picked it up, and offered it to the disgruntled man with an apologetic expression.
"Sowwy," said Percy sorrowfully, eyes wide and earnest.
Realization dawned, and the servant dropped the tray altogether and bowed at the child, accepting the container without comment. The poor fellow paled still further upon seeing Poseidon hurrying forward to pluck Percy off the floor and into his arms.
"Your Majesty," the servant squeaked, with a hurried bow that nearly unsettled the remnants of his tray.
Poseidon waved his hand idly, the currents depositing everything back on the tray with ease. "My apologies," he said calmly. "I am not yet used to having a child such as him, and he often gets away from me."
"Yes sire." The servant hesitated, as if wondering whether to voice his question. Clearly he decided his king was in a good mood, because he asked, "Sire, does he always walk everywhere? Can he not . . . swim?"
"Sim?" Percy repeated, tilting his head to the side and looking curiously between the servant and his father.
"Yes, swim," Poseidon said affectionately, pressing a kiss to the baby's temple.
Privately, Poseidon wondered if children were adorable simply because it made it nearly impossible to have angry feelings towards them. He should be irritated that he had been chasing the baby around for nearly an hour, but instead, he found himself wanting to smile at his son's openly curious expression.
Tilting his head to one side, unknowingly in the exact same fashion as he son had just demonstrated and nearly making the servant grin at the likeness, Poseidon studied his subject for a moment and considered his question. Honestly, he had never considered that before, Percy was simply Percy and did what he wanted to do for the most part. It had never occurred to him that Percy could have technically been swimming around this entire time, instead of walking (or as was more common, running) down the halls.
"I assume," he said thoughtfully, "that because Percy is half-human, walking is just as normal to him as swimming is. To be honest, I had never considered it in that fashion before."
Bobbing his head, the servant bowed deeply and requested to continue his duties.
"I apologize for his interruption," Poseidon said formally and with a head-tilt of apology. The servant nodded with a second bow, retrieved his tray, and hurried back down the corridor towards the throne room where Amphitrite was holding a council of some kind or another (he rarely made an effort to keep track of which one, seeing as there were so many she oversaw).
Percy had watched the exchange quietly and beamed at him as soon as Poseidon looked down.
"And you," Poseidon said darkly, poking him gently in the stomach, "will you ever listen at me when I tell you to stop this minute and refrain from pulling the tablecloth off the dining room table again?"
Giggling now, Percy squirmed in an attempt to evade the tickling, to no avail. By the time he made it back to the throne room, Percy was out of breath and bright red from giggling so much, but his smile was wide and earnest and Poseidon found himself wishing Percy could stay this age forever.
Still slightly breathless, Percy planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek. "Lub you, dada," he proclaimed cheerfully.
Throat suddenly tight, Poseidon kissed his son on the forehead and then rubbed his cheek against his because the feel of his beard always made Percy laugh.
With a wealth of tenderness, he brushed Percy's dark hair off his forehead and smiled, quietly saying, "I love you too, son."
/
E/N: *squeeeeeeee* Guys, I can't help it really. Cute baby Percy is too hard to resist. Seriously. xD
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