This chapter is rated T (Bad language)
Yo! I tried to update this story on it's proper time. TUESDAY! But Fanfiction had other ideas and decided to give me an Error message…grrr…
Anyways, here ya go! Sorry for the wait, hope it was worth it. ; )
All future updates will be made on Tuesdays….hopefully.
= )
Ink…
Chapter 4: I Meet Luke Again
Jungle Pool in Percy's Villa – POV Change
Apollo stretched on the rocky pavement and gazed at the sketch he had done. It was of Percy laughing when they were throwing the Frisbee. There was only one alteration. Percy was nude, not in swimming trunks. Apollo sighed. He felt positively like a high school girl.
"What have you got there?"
Apollo cursed and flipped the sketch over. "Leave off, Hermes!"
Hermes gave a fake pout. "We're brothers. Don't we share everything?"
Apollo gave a scornful laugh. "November 1973, I needed cash and you refused to give me any."
Hermes rolled his eyes. "Your sister had an arrow at my throat! Besides you were fooling around with drugs."
Apollo hissed out his breath. "That doesn't matter. March 1854, I was in love with your daughter and you caused me to miss my date with her by locking me up in a closet! Hera's closet!"
Hermes snickered. "I'm protective of my kids!"
Apollo glared at him. "January 1773, I did you a favor, and you repaid me by giving me lies about the American armies! My son's men were nearly destroyed!"
Hermes raised a finger. "All's fair in war, brother…"
Apollo smacked the finger away. "August 18th, 1996, Percy Jackson is born, you knew, but you didn't tell me the juicy gossip of Poseidon's latest fling!"
Hermes sighed. Apollo raised an eyebrow. "What, no response to that?!"
"Sally Jackson begged me not to tell anyone. She knew Zeus would try to kill her son. She begged me to find a way to keep him a secret. I told her about demigods being tracked by their scent. She got the idea into her head to hide Percy's scent. A brilliant but costly move. She begged me to keep an eye on her son. I vowed that I would."
Apollo sat back in shock. "You've been protecting him…all this time?"
Hermes nodded. "Poseidon doesn't know. He was protecting Percy too. I had to be extra careful not to tip him off."
Apollo shook his head. "Holy Hera…" He smirked suddenly. "So…when did you feel this desire to get into his pants?"
Hermes flushed. "When I saw him mourning over my son's corpse."
That shut Apollo up. Hermes raised an eyebrow. "You?"
Apollo waved a careless hand. "When I saw him at that school Artemis called me to. I was shocked at his attractiveness, even as an adolescent kid, I knew he would be one hot guy. I finally realized my attraction was more serious when Zeus gave him the option of becoming a god. I was mentally chanting, 'Choose immortality. Choose immortality.'" Hermes smiled sadly.
"Me too."
Apollo smiled self-deprecatingly.
"How amusing…" They turned to see a smirking Eros. His red eyes were hidden behind a glamour of blue.
"Eros…" Hermes growled. Apollo summoned his bow and quiver, the ones filled with poison.
Eros raised his hands up in mock surrender. "Still holding grudges I see. Come Hermes, that was a complete misunderstanding. And Apollo, that little issue with Daphne was millennia ago!"
Hermes cursed him in Greek. "Misunderstanding my ass! You caused me to fall in love with Ares!" Eros chuckled.
"You did call me a brat."
"And you probably are." All three gods turned around to see an amused Percy lounging against the doorframe. He chuckled. "Just a tip, if you want to have a private conversation, don't choose a public pool." He motioned for someone to join him. Artemis came in with a silver swimsuit on. Percy laughed at the other three gods' slack jaws.
Apollo spluttered. "ARTEMIS, DAUGHTER OF LETO, YOU PUT SOMETHING DECENT ON RIGHT NOW!"
Percy snickered. "Arty, you owe me twenty drachmas. He said it within five minutes."
She glared at her brother. "Do you have to be so protective?" She waved her hand and a bag of drachmas appeared in Percy's hands. He laughed and teleported it to his room. He then proceeded to do a shallow dive and glide through the water like an eel.
Artemis noticed that all three gods were ogling Percy. She smirked. She, Percy, and Poseidon all made bets on who would be the first to flirt with Percy. Poseidon was planning on making that person into Swiss cheese later.
Apollo slipped into the water, after teleporting his drawing to his room. He swam and then dunked Percy and swam away laughing.
Percy rose to the surface spluttering. He smirked at Apollo. "I cannot believe you just dunked a son of Poseidon!" With a laugh he tore after Apollo. Hermes was laughing along with Artemis. Eros was curiously still far away from the water. He looked glum. His wings drooped. Hermes soon jumped in with a canon ball, drenching Artemis. She screamed at him in Greek, something about turning him into a gerbil.
Percy looked at her horrified. "No! Not that! That's worse than a jackalope!" Artemis snickered.
Soon, she joined too. They started playing a weird game of Marco Polo and freeze tag. However, Eros still didn't join them. Percy was kicked out of the game when they realized that he could sense vibrations through the water like a shark.
He lounged against the water's edge heckling Hermes. "He's right behind you! No sorry, I meant in front of you!" Hermes flipped him the bird. Percy started laughing even more. He turned to grab a towel when he noticed that Eros was as far from the water as he could get.
"What's up, Eros? You can join us if you want."
Eros shook his head fast. "Nope. Nope. Perfectly fine right where I am. Perfectly fine. Yep, I'm fine."
Percy cocked his head like a puppy. It made Eros' heart clench. I swore to leave him alone. I swore to leave him alone. I swore to…not interfere with Annabeth… Eros smothered a growing smile. If Chase didn't become a goddess, and if she eventually died of old age, then he could still keep his promise, but also move in on him again. Eros felt like cheering. He had to keep Annabeth Chase mortal. Percy could love her just as well. Nothing would interfere with their love… His mind was snapped back to the present when Percy called his name.
"I'm sorry, what?"
The young god smiled. "I asked you, why?"
Eros gulped. Please don't hate me. "I can't…swim."
Percy's jaw dropped. His eyes bugged. "I'll have to amend this issue right now!" He jumped up and dragged Eros away from the pool and into the other, larger, pool. He pointed to the shallow end.
"If you stand, it only gets up to your chest."
Eros nodded nervously. He was about slip into the water when Percy shook his head. "Can't you do anything about those wings?"
Eros gave him an affronted look. "Why?" He asked belligerently.
Percy rolled his eyes. "Those things will weigh you down. You'll drown."
Eros opened his mouth and then closed it. With a sigh, he absorbed his wings into his back. Percy blinked. "Without the fluffy feathers, you look different."
Eros glared at him. "They. Are. Not. Fluffy!"
Percy shrugged. "Fine, fine…" He sent Eros a trouble maker smile. It cause Eros' heart to flip flop. Eros shook his head. I can't believe how bad I've got it. I owe Nico di'Angelo an apology. Percy Jackson is like a drug! He was brought back to the present when Percy grabbed his arm.
"Come on. The first thing you need to do is trust the water. By that, I mean you need to learn how to float. So, get on your back. Don't worry, I'll hold you up."
Percy gently lifted Eros onto his back. He put his hands under Eros' knees and at the small of his back. "Relax. The water's not going to bite you." Percy started telling Eros about some of his first learning experiences with water, just to calm him down.
"I was five when Mom first brought me to Montauk. It's a cabin, my dad owns. That's where they first met. She taught me how to swim in the ocean. The water was always glassy calm. Not a single wave, not even a ripple." Percy chuckled as Eros relaxed more and started floating on his own. "Little did I know that my father was keeping everything as calm as possible so his son wasn't hurt. I think it was then that Triton and Amphitrite first found out about my birth."
Percy frowned but shook his head. He gradually let go of Eros. The god didn't even notice his hands were gone. Percy smiled. "I think you've got floating down pat. Now, I'll need to you just move your arms like your doing an elaborate crawl. I'll hold your hips." Percy didn't even think about how this would affect Eros. The love god's legs almost turned to jelly.
They worked on the Australian crawl, the backstroke, and treading water. By the time dinner rolled around everyone was looking for them. Eros was swimming like a fish and had a painful hard on. He thanked his lucky stars that Percy was so oblivious.
Poseidon walked in and rolled his eyes. "Do you two realize that we've been looking for you for two hours?!"
Percy rubbed the back of his neck and stare sheepishly at his father. "Uh…sorry…"
Eros smiled lightly. "Percy taught me how to swim." Poseidon stared at him.
"You mean to tell me, boy, that you were never taught how to swim?" He looked outraged. "Aphrodite is a failure as a mother! Sally taught Percy when he was five!" He smiled proudly at his son. "Congratulation on teaching Eros, Percy! I'm proud of you!"
Eros stared at him in confusion. Percy whispered to the god of love. "Dad is fanatical about people learning to swim. He thinks that if a person doesn't know how to swim then their lives aren't complete, just like Demeter and cereal." Eros snickered. Percy rolled his eyes. They jumped out of the pool. Eros touched Percy's shoulder lightly.
"Percy?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you." He gave Percy a quick hug and walked out of the room quickly. Percy could tell that he was blushing. For the god of love, Eros was certainly acting like a virgin…Percy shrugged it off.
Dining Room – POV Change
I stared at all the gods. They were laughing and smiling and teasing each other. Hades was arguing with Poseidon about who had more undead in their territories. I shook my head. How idiotic...
The door chimed. I went to see who it was. The dead heroes were here. I allowed them entry.
They filed in and stared at their surroundings. Achilles looked at me sharply. "We have met. Where?"
I bristle. "Speak to a god with a more civil tongue, Achilles. We met at the River Styx."
His eyes widened, and he bowed. "Forgive me, m'lord. You were mortal then."
I sighed. "I know..." I shrugged. "Follow me." I led them to the dining room. "I understand that you can eat?"
They nodded. "Lord Hades has blessed us with mortal bodies during this war. We still cannot die, but we can do anything else that mortals can do." Jason the Argonaut replied. I nodded and opened the double doors. Hermes stood and stared at the group. He was obviously looking for his son. I motioned for the heroes to sit. "Eros, make room." Eros moved closer to me. Poseidon eyed him shrewdly, not forgetting that altercation in the Throne Room. It seemed like ages ago.
"Luke, show yourself." Hades decided to take pity on Hermes.
A man with black hair and brown eyes stepped forward. "My lord." He didn't look at Hermes or me.
I waved him to the only available seat, next to Hermes. He glared at me, and I smiled. "You love it." He hissed at me and moved to sit beside his father.
I could tell that Hermes was on egg shells with his son. Apollo was staring at Eros sullenly. I cocked my head at Apollo. "What's gotten into you, Apollo? You really happy earlier."
Artemis snickered. "That was before Eros swept you away, and you gave him private swimming lessons."
Apollo glared at her. "Blabber mouth."
She bristled. "Flying sow!"
"Minotaur's Bride!" Double insult to the goddess of virginity and maidens.
Her eyes widened. "Overgrown baby!"
I just sighed and continued eating my food. The other gods were calmly eating their food too. This has happened at every dinner since the Twins had moved into my villa. The heroes, however, were staring at the Twins in surprise.
Artemis was all but screaming. "Quack Doctor!"
Apollo jumped up. "Old Hag!"
"Failure!"
All the gods stilled. Artemis went too far. Athena shook her head and muttered something about no wisdom with words. I sighed.
"Apollo, don't even think about leaving this room. Artemis apologize to your twin." Honestly, I wasn't even twenty, and I was more mature at times than seven thousand year old gods. Artemis was pale. Apollo was livid.
Artemis still hadn't spoken. I looked up from my wine. "Achilles, what did commanders do to warriors with insubordinate behavior?"
Achilles frowned. "Killed them on sight most of the time. Why?"
I nodded. "Artemis, apologize."
"A-Apollo…I'm sorry."
Apollo stared at the floor. His fists were clenched. I sighed. Poseidon looked at her sadly. "Artemis, the moon is about to rise." She nodded and turned to leave. Apollo spoke as she left.
"I forgive you. Don't do it again." He bowed to his uncles and left for his room.
I know, I know. I named the chapter after Luke and I didn't give him enough 'screen time'. Don't worry. In future chapters, he'll show up more. ; )
By the way! For those of you who are pushing for Percy and Eros, I'm currently writing a DarkEros/FemPercy story. (I know, FemPercy is silly blah, blah, blah. I just wanted to see if I could do it and still retain the original characteristics.) I'm only into a few chapters of it, so don't expect it to hit Fanfiction for a while. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up. ; )
Ink…