Danny woke up to see the rays of the sun shining through the blinds. Groggily stirring, and yawning, he turned over to see Alicia beside him facing the opposite direction, sleeping soundly.
"I could get very use to this," he thought as he saw he was naked and so was she. He also noticed their dried essence from last night on him, some parts of her, and on certain areas on the bed. In all, a pretty good night.
Getting out of bed he went to the shower down the hall and turned the shower on. He stepped into the steaming hot water and began to rinse himself off. the hot water on his skin made him sigh from the relief it gave him. Standing under the nozzle for two minutes to bask in the feeling got the soap and a wash cloth, lathering the soap onto the material. Once it was good he began to lather the soap from the wash cloth onto his body, feeling evidence of last night wash off of him. His shower was over in ten minutes. He got out of the shower and began to dry off. At that moment Alicia came in in all her glory.
"Aww, I was hoping to catch you while you were still in," said said, disappointed. Danny smiled.
"Well, even though I'm technically clean, I could get dirty again," he said, grinning. She smiled and they headed back into the bedroom.
"Mmmm, I could get use to this," said Alicia as she lay on her back, her hair a mess as she and Danny fought to regain their breaths for the two rounds they just did. Danny chuckled and kissed her.
"What time is it?" she asked him once the kiss was over. He looked over at the clock.
"11:15," he said.
Oh gods!" she yelled, jumping out of bed and heading into the bathroom. Danny hear the shower running for two minutes, and before he could get up to wonder what was going on, she burst back through the door and began to frantically put some clothes on.
"Ali, what's wrong?" said Danny.
"I had to take Danielle to school at 8 and get to my job at 9," she said hurriedly. As she fumbled with getting her shirt on a knock on the door alerted them. Putting on some boxers and pajama pants Danny opened the door to reveal his father.
"Morning you two. Don't worry Alicia, I took Danielle to school and called ahead and told them you were sick. Your boss said don't worry about it," said Danny Sr.
Alicia happily sighed. "Thank you Mr. Stone. How did you know I was running late?"
"Well I could tell from the vibrations last night and this morning that that was going to happen," said Danny Sr. Danny Jr. and Alicia both blushed heavily.
"It's alright. Had I been gone for three years me and your Mom would have been doing the same," said Danny.
"Ugh Dad!" said Danny Jr.
"You act like we're butt ugly or something," said Danny, laughing and walking off to another part of the house. Danny and her sighed and got back on the bed, Alicia's head on his chest.
"So what do you want to do today?" said Alicia.
"Anything as long as it's with you," said Danny. She smiled and lifted her head up.
"I know what we can do," she said.
(Camp Half-Blood)
"Okay campers, phalanx formation," said Gerald. The twelve campers under his tutelage hurriedly got into a phalanx formation, their shield held in front and spears out to look like the enemy was coming at a porcupine.
"Good work. Hit the showers," said Gerald. Gerald had been teaching here now for two years, taking up the idea of helping younger demigods into fighting. Maria had welcomed the idea since she could also come to the camp now that mortals could come here. In some respects the camp had come to resemble the Roman camp in ideas. There were now families of demigods present around the camp. Cabins for the kids of multiple gods, such as the Jackson's, Stone's, di Angelo's, Rodriguez's, and other families, had been set up.
As Gerald readied for his next class he saw another figure coming up to him in the arena. He smiled when he felt the seismic activity he caused just by stepping.
"Nice to see you back here little bro," said Gerald.
"Glad to be back. Percy and Annabeth nearly freaked out when I appeared right next to them," said Danny.
"I bet. It feels great to use our powers again," said Gerald.
"That is does," said Danny. "So you went from warrior to teacher?"
"I prefer the term warrior-mentor," said Gerald. Danny chuckled. Gerald had definitely changed. He seemed a lot gentler and less reckless. The brothers sat down on a stone bench near the field.
"I heard what it was like when I was gone. Was it really that bad?" said Danny.
Gerald nodded. "Once you were gone, I couldn't really even function properly. It seemed that everywhere I went, I thought you were there by me like you always were. Then I started thinking about what would happen if that happened to me instead of you, and if it wasn't for you saving me and June, it would have been us."
Danny remembered the battle, and the events that lead to his long absence.
"You two are my brother and sister; I'd do anything for you," said Danny.
"And we'd do the same. How's Alicia doing with your recent comeback?" said Gerald.
"She's taking it pretty well, when we're not humping each other to death," said Danny, smiling a little.
Gerald chuckled. "Yep, definitely nothing has changed between you two."
"Gerald, I need your help," said Danny.
"Sure, what is it?"
"I want to have some father-daughter time with Danielle, but I don't know what to do," said Danny.
"Oh, well what's hard about that?" said Gerald.
"Considering the fact that I really had no time to adapt to the fact I'm suddenly three years older and have the mentality of someone still in high school, I have a lot of catching up to do," said Danny.
"True. Well just do what Dad did when me and June were born," said Gerald. Danny hadn't thought about that.
"Well Danny, just be yourself around her. No one can ask more from you," said Gerald. Danny thought about it for a minute. So far he and Danielle had clicked together since they first made contact, and she was the sweetest three year old he knew, well the only one he knew of.
"You're right. I'll go pick her up from daycare around two o'clock," said Danny.
"Nice. Just take her places, hang out, have some fun, that always works out," said Gerald. "Also, we need to work on our lightning abilities so we'll do some training workouts on Wednesday," Gerald and Danny had discovered during the war that they had the ability to control lightning. At first they were only able to use their father's ability because that was who they looked up to the most, as all sons did with their fathers, and because the powers of Zeus took on a different, less aggressive mentality than their stand-their-ground mentality adopted by them from their father.
"Okay," said Danny.
"Good, now go see your daughter," said Gerald.
Danny walked into Little Garden's Daycare Center exactly at 2:00 PM. Walking in he came up to the checkout desk.
"Hi, I'm here to pick up Danielle Stone," said Danny.
"Just one minute," said the woman, going into a room where kids were playing. Danny sat down in a chair next to a Caucasian woman with brown flowing hair and piercing green eyes in a brown dress.
"First time checking out your daughter?" said the woman.
"Yes. It's very exciting," said Danny.
"Hmm, I was like that when I held my son in my arms for the first time in my life. He was so special, and so adorable," said the woman.
"He sounds about right, but then again you almost always started your stories out like this when talking about Dad grandma," said Danny. The woman, Gaia, smiled.
"It's great to have you back again," she said, hugging him tightly. "I had feared you might have died."
"I thought so too," said Danny. "But I'm here now." Just as Gaia was letting go, she seized up and stared at him.
"Grandma? Everything okay?" said Danny.
"You've been tainted," said Gaia.
"Tainted?"
"Someone's injected dark magic into you. I haven't felt it since..." she said, but stopped.
"I must go," she said, disappearing out of nowhere.
"Daddy?" said a small little voice in front of him. Danny looked down to see Danielle looking up at him with his eyes. Her hair was still braided, she was wearing jeans and a pink shirt with a large red heart on it. And she had a smile even Hades couldn't frown at.
"Hey Dani," he said.
"Dani? My name's Danielle silly Daddy," said Danielle, her voice as soft and cute as ever.
"Well it's my nickname for you. I call your Mom Ali, but her name's Alicia," said Danny.
Danielle smiled at him. "I like it," she said happily.
"I'm glad you do. Since you don't have to be home for awhile, why don't I go and take you out for some ice cream. How does that sound?" said Danny.
"I like it!" she said excitedly, clapping her hands together. "But Mommy taking me to hair salon."
"Hmm well we can stop by there and then we can go," said Danny.
"Yay!" she said.
"She's so fricken cute!" he thought.
Juanda's hair salon was located in the heart of Harlem. As Danny held Danielle's hand as they walked towards it, he remembered places where key events happened. They even passed the corner where he and Alicia had ran away from the thugs that chased them. They came up to Juanda's in no time soon. The salon looked like a normal small business, but going inside, one would think it was run by true professionals.
The salon was having a slow day, which was fine by Danny. When he walked it, he saw there were eight stylists at work. They all looked to see the new customers who had walked in and they all smiled when they saw Danielle.
"Hi Danielle," they all said.
"Hi everybody," said Danielle, blushing a little from embarrassment.
"Well come on and take a seat. And who is this?" said one of the women who looked like the owner of the store. She had black hair that was graying tied into thick dreads like she was from the West Indies tied into a scarf with the Jamaican flag on it and wearing what appeared to be traditional African clothes. Her name was Ms. Shirley
"I'm Danny, her father," said Danny, somewhat shyly unsure of how the women were going to react.
"Her father? But I thought Alicia said you were dead?" one of the stylists asked.
"I thought I was too, but I made it out of the...jungle," he said, hoping that that was what Alicia had told them and that he didn't have to explain to anymore mortals that he was a demigod.
"Wow, how'd you do it?" one of the employees asked. Danny now had all the employees around him.
"Well I went in for a...summer study group there since I was in dual-enrollment for NYU, and while we were in the Congo Basin, I got kidnapped," said Danny. "I was held for three years by a rebel group with no contact to the outside world whatsoever." He was silently, and wordlessly, bending the Mist to make them believe his story. Thankfully, they paid off because they were all looking at him with wonder and amazement.
"How did you get out?"
"I broke out and ran just about everywhere for weeks, making sure I remained hidden from them, and then I found a U.N. embassy station. I told them to keep my story quiet because I didn't want every news station in the world to harass me for years on end. They got me back to the states and I got back here, where I found out that I had a daughter after all this time," said Danny.
"Awww!" they said.
"Come Danielle, I'll start re-braiding your hair," said the manager, whose name was Ms. Shirley.
"So Danny, you and Alicia are...?"
"Still together, which I was surprised about since I was gone and everyone thought I was dead," said Danny, as he took a seat at the front of the salon.
"How have you been adjusting since you got back?" asked Ms. Shirley.
"Pretty fine actually, just trying to adjust back to life," said Danny.
"I know that must be hard to do," she said. After nearly an hour in the shop talking to the attendants, Danielle's hair was done and she was ready to go.
"It was nice talking to you all," said Danny.
"Bye Danny," said all the attendants as he and Danielle left the salon.
"Danielle, you want some ice cream?" Danny asked.
"Yes!" Danielle said excitedly. Stopping by an ice cream vendor, he got two vanilla cones, a second scoop on Danielle's. He paid the man and the father and daughter continued down the street.
"Thank you Daddy," said Danielle, smiling up at her father.
"Anytime Dani," said Danny, smiling down at her daughter. They ate their ice cream in silence, savoring the nice rich taste. When Danielle got down to the ice cream in the cone she had to dive in with her tongue to get it out. When she came back up after eating the ice cream, she had a ice cream mustache. Danny laughed at her appearance, thinking how cute it made her look.
"Daddy! Not funny!" said Danielle, her face in a smile though she seemed embarrassed.
"Yes it is," said Danny, laughing harder as his daughter pouted in mock embarrassment. Then he picked her up and began to tickle her. She laughed and laughed, squirming to get out of her father's grasp.
"Daddy, stop!" she said loudly.
"Not until you say I'm the best," said Danny, continuing to tickle her.
"You're the best! You're the best!" she yelled frantically. Danny decided that was satisfactory enough and let her go.
"Not fair!" she said, still laughing. Danny laughed and picked her up again, kissing her cheek.
"I love you Danielle," said Danny.
"I love you too Daddy," said Danielle.
Alicia was at home with Maria. At first she had freaked out when she went to the daycare center and they said someone had already gotten her, but when they told her who it was and showed her the signature, she felt relieved and went back to the house. Maria had came by to check on them and immediately she and Alicia began chatting up a storm.
"So how'd it go last night with lover boy?" said Maria, smirking a little. Alicia blushed and smiled.
"Better than I could've imagined," said Alicia, remembering every detail of the night before. As she started to get into detail of what happened, Danny Sr. and Katie came in.
"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Stone," said Alicia and Maria
"Alicia and Maria, for the millionth time just call us Danny and Katie," said Katie, smiling a little.
"I can't help it, it's fixed in my brain," said Alicia.
"Same here," said Maria.
"Don't worry, I know how you feel. I still have trouble calling Katie's mother Sarah," said Danny. "Had a nice day at work?"
"Yes, it was nice sir," said Maria. "Although the chica over here almost freaked out when she got off."
"Freaked out?" said Katie and Danny.
"I thought Danielle might have been taken away by someone, but it turned out to be Danny," said Alicia.
"That's a relief," said Katie.
"I remember that happened to Gerald and June once when they were at elementary school and a monster tried to get them. Luckily we got there in time," said Danny.
"Which monster was it?"
"Thorn," said Danny and Katie, remembering the manticore from their quest in Paris. He had a personal bloodlust against their family and the Jacksons and had attacked the two families over the years.
At that moment, Danny and Danielle walked in, Danny carrying Danielle because she had fallen asleep.
"Hi Mom, Dad, Maria, and Ali," said Danny as he moved towards Danielle's room to put her in bed. "She's asleep right now so best not to wake her just yet,"
said Danny. The four of them made silent 'awww' noises as he took her in. He carefully laid Danielle on the bed, kissing her forehead softly as she rolled onto her side, sleeping peacefully. Danny took one last look at her and smiled before he came out of the room.
"So what did you do today lover boy?" said Maria as Danny got back into the living room.
"I went to camp to see Chiron, Percy, and Annabeth, and then I went to pick Danielle up and took her to the salon," said Danny.
"You took her? Oh my gods almost half of the girls have a crush on you there," said Alicia, blushing slightly.
"What?" said Danny, utterly shocked at this revelation.
"You didn't notice Ashley or Tangie hitting on you?" said Alicia, "they like you the most."
"No, didn't notice," said Danny.
"Still so clueless," said Alicia, coming up and hugging him as he returned it.
"Well, now that we're all situated, I'll start making dinner. How does lobster bisque sound?" said Danny as he moved into the kitchen, Katie following him.
"Sounds great, I'll go call Gerald," said Maria as she moved into a quieter part of the house, leaving Danny and Alicia alone.
"So how was work?" Danny asked as they went into his room, Danny locking the door just in case.
"It was nice, not as hectic as it usually is. You sound like you had a nice day," said Alicia as she stretched out on the bed. Her work clothes consisted of a white button down shirt and black form-fitting dress pants with heels. Her black hair was straightened and she had on lip gloss to bring out the shine.
"That's good, miss me today?" he said, lying on the bed next to her.
"More than you realize," she said, straddling him and hovering her face over his. He leaned up slowly and kissed her softly, which she returned just as softly. The feel of their lips on the other was insatiable, and very addicting. When he pulled back, he could taste the lip gloss.
Peaches.
"My favorite," he whispered deeply, causing her to suppress back a moan as the tone shook her to the core. She kissed him again, going in deeply this time to taste his lips and have him indulge in hers. It was very intoxicating. When the kiss ended, their foreheads touched, brown eyes staring into green ones.
"We should see if Mom and Dad need help before we do anything..heated," said Danny, his hands tracing her sides. She smiled seductively, kissing him again and getting off the bed, pulling him up by his hands.
They went to the kitchen and saw Katie and Danny, well, kissing each other, very slowly and passionately. The married couple didn't see them, and if they did they didn't care. Danny Sr. pulled away from her, them doing the same thing Alicia and Danny Jr. had done in the bedroom.
"I love you Katie," said Danny Sr. smiling.
"I love you too," said Katie. They both looked to see Danny Jr. and Alicia smiling at them. Danny and Katie both laughed before they went back to what they were doing.
"We came to help if you don't mind," said Danny Jr.
"Not at all," said Danny Sr. as they went to making dinner together. Gerald showed up five minutes later, kissing his fiancé and coming with her into the kitchen to set things up too.
"Nice to see you in here little bro, and little freak," said Gerald, talking to Danny Jr. and Alicia. Alicia blushed hearing her nickname. He'd been calling her that ever since she and Danny lost their virginities to each other three years ago.
"Quit messing with them Gerald," said Maria, laughing a little.
"It's my favorite pastime," said Gerald, chuckling a little.
For once, normalcy had returned to the Stone household
Or at least they thought so, for none saw the shadowy figure outside with glowing red eyes
"Peri maa' wa'ew i," it said, a flurry of darker shadows separating from it. It hissed, its long tongue seeming to curl to the house before it went back into what appeared to be its mouth and disappeared.
Sorry, it has been WAY too long and I deeply apologize. The next chapter will be out soon. P.S. I hope I did the Ancient Egyptian sentence right. It says, Go out my loyal soldiers.