Back to Percy's POV. Back to the story.

"Luke." I said.

I stood at the guardrail, shaking. Luke Castellan was back; and worse, he was in my house!

Without letting my daughter or my old enemy see me, I snuck through the hallway and into my wife's office.

Annabeth looked up to see my face. I must have looked really pale, leaning against the doorway on one arm.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I pointed my thumb in the direction of the living room, by which Annabeth got up from her desk and walked toward the doorway.

I blocked her exit with my arm. "No noise." I said, "Just look."

She gave me a confused look, but nodded.

I followed her toward the guardrail of the upper story floor. Annabeth looked down and her eyes went wide; it seemed like either she recognized Luke, or she was peeved that her daughter brought someone into the house. Personally, I didn't care if she brought someone home; it was a good thing, but in this case . . . not so much.

Annabeth looked toward me, and mouthed, "Luke?"

I nodded, so did she, like she understood.

As casual as we possibly could, Annabeth and I walked downstairs. The couch's back was facing the first few steps of the stairs before they veered off at a ninety degree angle, leaving a blind spot for those two sitting on the sofa.

Annabeth and I split around either side of the sofa and appeared in front of an intent conversation that I didn't understand a word of.

When they saw us, the conversation fell like a ton of bricks. Both Sophia and Luke were left staring at us. I got a better glimpse at Luke, but he hadn't changed a bit, except the long white scar he had on his eye was gone completely.

All this time, all the time since I'd seen his die on Mount Olympus so long ago, I'd figured Hades wouldn't let him out, even though he said he's try for rebirth. I wasn't sure whether Luke would come back as Luke, or someone else, like Elvis, son of Apollo. But here he was, just plain old Luke, but eh didn't look angry; he was just looking at me.

His staring made me feel somewhat guilty for what happened to him, but I realized that he was trying to recognize me. He was staring me up and down, with wide eyes and a shocked expression. Then he did the same to Annabeth.

Sophia threw out an excusing coughed, "I'll just be in my room." She got up from the couch and went upstairs, leaving me, Annabeth, and Luke alone together . . . again.

Luke paled, once he registered something in his brain, "Um . . . it's not what you guys think—"

"I know that." I interrupted, "You're not in any trouble."

Luke breathed a sigh of relief. "Good."

"So," I asked, just as a precaution, "What's your name?"

"L-Luke." He said.

"Got a last name Luke?" Annabeth asked, though out of all the people in the world, she was the one to know it.

"Castellan." Luke said.

I narrowed my vision on him, squinting. "Is it really you?"

Luke sat on the couch, motionless for a full minute before answering. "Yeah. It is." Luke turned his attention towards Annabeth, "Is it really you?" he asked, "Annabeth?"

She nodded, almost coming to tears, "Yeah. It is."

I sat down slowly on the couch next to him. It wasn't that I didn't trust him. I did. It's just that it was really weird being older than him. The day Luke sacrificed himself; he had been seven years older than me; now the tables were turned.

"Percy?" Luke asked.

I flashed him a grin, and nodded.

"You two—" he said, confused, flipping his finger back between Annabeth and me.

We both nodded.

"And, Sophia?" he asked.

"You sound surprised." Annabeth said.

Luke blushed.

"So does your father know that you're back?"

Luke looked down. "Hermes is the herald of roads. He brings the dead to the Underworld, and takes them back if need be. But I came back by myself, without him."

"And your mom?" I asked.

Luke raised his head to the ceiling when I said the word mom. "She has no idea. I hope Hermes told her."

"I'm sorry." Annabeth said.

Luke only shrugged, "She'll find out."

There was a silence.

"So about Sophia . . ." Luke started.

"No." Annabeth said, as if reading his mind.

Luke shook his head, "No, not that." He said, "I mean, does she know?"

I figured he was talking about the gods, "Not much, but yes, she does."

Luke nodded.

The conversation basically ended there, and it was early in the evening, the sky was already turning orange and yellow. We offered Luke a place to sleep in the guest room. He accepted and left to go find it.

Annabeth sighed. "I can't believe he's back." She said.

"Me neither." I said. And with that, we went off to our bedroom for the night.

So? How was it? I know it may have been too short, I'm trying to work on that, but hopefully, it will get better. I want reviews at this chapter, telling me all the goods and bads to I can fix/improve on it. Thanks

~Ares Burn