Thanks for the Revs!
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO
It's been a few weeks since Percy was mind blown about the hunters' newest recruit and since Percy was attack by the licking machine called Mrs O'Leary. The hunters and especially Annabeth were shocked to see Mrs O'Leary taking a liking not only to the Ace but also to the Lieutenant. As far as they knew, Mrs O'Leary only acted like that with Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, Grover, Rachel, and Percy.
After that, Percy kind of panicked and hastily avoided Annabeth, even going as far as making Nico wear his silver cloak, just so he could avoid all of them.
The hunters have gradually accepted their presence though they have yet to acknowledge and respect the Pack.
Percy has acted awfully distant but there have been numerous of times were he or Nico slipped either with Thalia, Annabeth, or Artemis. One of the first ones was with Annabeth. A day after she had joined the hunt, they were all busy preparing to annihilate the monster den:
Percy was with Aku and they were going to go sit by the river. As they arrived, Aku went to lie on the ground. He was as lazy as his master. It was a miracle as to why Aku even let's Percy lie down on top of him. Meanwhile, Percy was about to remove his cloak when a girl emerged from the river in a distance. (She was dressed, mind you)
Percy's eyes quickly widened and he was about to scuttle out when Annabeth noticed her. "Hey!" She shouted and Percy stopped in his tracks.
"I wasn't watching! I didn't know! The Hunters didn't almost kill me with a note that said they were in the river!" Percy exclaimed. Annabeth laughed. Percy missed laughing with Annabeth.
"Almost kill you with a note?" Annabeth asked making her way towards Percy. Percy was thinking of ways to get out of there. If there was one person who knew Percy like A B C, it was Annabeth. If he wasn't careful, she'd discover who she was then and there.
"Er, your clothes are wet" Percy said not looking at her wishing she'd tell him to go away because her clothes were wet. Annabeth just shrugged. "If you try anything, the hunters would kill you, so why bother? I asked you a question" Annabeth said. Great, Percy got Annabeth curious, there was no way she was going to let him go. But first, he had to do something about the clothes. What if another member of the Pack came?
"I'll give you my cloak" Percy decided and Annabeth's eyes widened. "But I'll see your fac—" before she could continue Percy took off his cloak in one swift motion and put on a hood. Good thing he was wearing a hoodie shirt underneath a cloak.
He motioned Annabeth to take the cloak. "Seriously? A hoodie under a cloak? Can I say paranoid much?" Annabeth said and Percy couldn't help but laugh. Annabeth froze at Percy's laughter. Why did it seem familiar?
Vlackas Percy cursed himself. What was he doing laughing with a hunter? Though Percy had no idea that Annabeth seemed to be feeling familiarity with his laugh. Annabeth took the cloak and wrapped herself around it.
"So, how in the world do the hunters manage to almost kill you with a note" Annabeth asked and Percy laughed again unwillingly. Only Annabeth could do that. What were best friends for? Percy decided to use the side of Aku as a pillow. Percy gestured Annabeth to join her. "Er, if you don't mind sitting with…er, a boy. Aku won't bite"
Annabeth hesitantly sat beside Percy and leaned on Aku's soft silky fur. Percy told Annabeth about how the Hunters would always shoot them arrows that would always miss a millimetre from their ear or side with a note attached that had announcements and such.
Annabeth couldn't help notice the Ace's scent. After all, she was wrapped around his cloak lying down beside him on his wolf. The scent was….familiar.
"Why did you join the hunt?" Percy blurted out and Annabeth stiffened. "Oh, I didn't mean to ask a personal question. I mean, I've seen you only two days ago" Percy said, but she was utterly curious as to why his best friend decided to join the Hunt now of all times.
"Truthfully, I don't know. I've been stuck in Camp for a long time. I'm one of those councillors the gods made immortal after the second giant war. Have you heard of it?" Percy nodded. "Yeah, so I felt like I was wasting my time. I just wanted to have a purpose. I hate being stuck with Drew and his buddies. You've met him when you went to camp, right? So I prayed to my mother who told me a location, and grabbed Mrs O'Leary and poof, here I am"
"Mrs O'Leary…" Percy said missing his pet.
"Yeah…she's my hellhound. The one who started licking you and your lieutenant when we met" Annabeth said carefully.
"Your hellhound, huh" Percy said. Annabeth hesitated. "Yeah….she originally belonged to someone else….until he gave her to me before he…uhm…left" Annabeth said. Percy didn't make her elaborate. Too risky. And besides, he knew already. Percy gave Mrs O'Leary to Annabeth as a thank you for everything, an I love you you're my bestfirend, and lastly a no-matter-what-happens-if-i-die-or-live-this-is-go odbye.
"It was funny really…that Mrs O'Leary liked you…." Annabeth said suspiciously, trying to get a look at Percy under his cloak. Too bad all she saw was a cloth over his mouth and goggles. "….she only liked a few people…."
Percy was getting uncomfortable with this and lied that the Pack was sending a secret signal to him and he had to go.
Annabeth reluctantly agreed. Of course, when Percy told Thalia and Nico about this, Thalia went ballistic.
"How can you be so careless?!" "I know you miss her, Percy but that's not allowed!" and "Nico's not even trying to defend you because he knows what you did was risky!" were thrown at Percy soon afterwards.
Then there was the Thalia-Nico accident.
Nico wanted to talk to Thalia and forced Thalia to sneak into camp on a risky night. It really was risky, but Thalia complied.
True to prediction, Thalia and Nix were caught by Artemis herself sneaking in the nearby woods. What's worse that when Artemis investigated, she also found Nico loitering around.
When Artemis demanded why Thalia was sneaking around, Thalia answered, "Er," She said. "I don't know how to explain this mistress, but Nix was nudging me" Thalia said. True Nix was nudging her. "I always trust Nix—" True "—and she was leading me to the woods as if she wanted to lead me somewhere—" again true, because it was Nix sniffing out Nico's scent and where he was "—and everyone was asleep and Nix was moving fast" also true "and when I followed, well you found me"
And when Artemis asked the boy what he was doing away from his camp, he had said "I was getting some air. Looking around the woods trying to find a branch to climb" which was also true because Nico wanted some air—with Thalia, and was Looking around the woods—waiting for Thalia, and was going to climb a branch—when he and Thalia met up.
Accepting this, Artemis exited.
And then there was the Percy-Artemis thing that started numerous Percy-Artemis meetings….
Artemis was very confused. She hadn't had any more dreams about the Ace recently. So she was doubting her doubts. And then she felt a bit guilty that she doubting Thalia. Seriously, she was trying to help a bleeding to death boy.
Artemis tried to recall all the things that made her doubt besides the fact that she knows nothing about the Ace's identity. When she tries to remember why she doubted the boy, the only thing that came up was the dream and the incident where her newest recruit, Annabeth, showed up with the Ace's silver cloak.
She chided Annabeth a bit for talking to him with wet clothes but she told her that the Ace immediately covered her with his clothes as soon as she got out of the water.
And there was the dream….in the world of gods and goddesses, dreams are pretty stupid to ignore. But besides that? She saw no fault with the Ace and his pack.
Artemis was walking under the moonlight in the woods as she was thinking.
The Ace was obviously distancing himself. The Pack had never even given an inappropriate glance to her Hunters. In fact, if you count out the times the Pack have been polite and a gentleman, they pretended that the Hunt didn't exist.
The Hunters were still wary though. But their first hunt together helped. They were fighting off the monster den, but true to the Ace's word, the Pack did nothing to get in the way of the hunters. They barely even fought. The only times they got involve was if some monster was able to sneak behind a hunter.
They were just there as if watching the hunters. And not to mention when a monster pushed off a bunvh of hunters from the cliff, the Pack saved them, and placed them on top of the cliff without having their touch lingering long as if everything they did was only done because it was 'necessary' And they never asked for a thank you.
As Artemis was walking near a river, she can't help but think that 'not getting the Pack involve in fights' backfired on her, because then, she knew nothing about the extent or anything specific about the Pack's abilities. Suddenly, she was brought out of her thoughts by the voice that said, "Urgh!"
Artemis discretely followed the voice and saw the Ace and his wolf.
"It's fine, Aku. Just absorb the excess energy. I'll be fine. Don't you dare get Pisto" Artemis hears him say.
Artemis moved a little closer to get a good look, and she saw the Ace bleeding again but this time only in the front. At this point, Artemis didn't care about him seeing her so she just went over deciding to help the boy. He's helped the Hunters so far, so why not give him the benefit of the doubt….at least for this case, right?
To say Percy was surprise was an understatement. He mentally cursed himself when he felt the moon goddess presence. Everything was fine. He just made a little….slip up with his Barrier. It wasn't as out of control as last time. In fact, this happened in several occasions and he could bring himself in control right away. The only problem now is closing the wound once he gets control of his Energy Barrier. That wouldn't be a problem usually, since he could just jump into a river, but with Lady Artemis here? That's out of the question. Percy groaned.
"Lady Artemis" Percy said.
"Do not move, I shall help stop the bleeding"
Percy thought about it. He could wave off the goddess's offer and go back to his campsite but then Nico would see his bloody shirt and he wouldn't get enough of him saying he was careless. He could jump into a river but then Artemis would surely notice the water healing him….so he can take the goddess's offer right?
Seriously, it's just Lady Artemis, right? The goddess who gave Bianca a home, the goddess who gave Thalia a home, the goddess who he rescued when he was fourteen and again a hundred or so years later….although she knew nothing about the second time. But seriously, could he at least trust her to heal him, right?
Artemis thought the Ace was going to deny her offer and she would have understand since it was her who wanted to stay clear of the Pack's way, right? But instead, the Ace said, "I'd be very thankful for your help, my lady"
Again, the Ace did something Artemis did not expect. For all the while, he's been turning her expectations upside down. He was a paradox.
Percy cautiously opened his cloak, but kept his hood on, and unbuttoned his shirt open. Here goes, Percy said. He bets Artemis would find his upper body repulsive.
Artemis was shocked at the sight of the large bleeding scar that occupied half of the boy's upper body in the middle and the scar seemed to be stretched out creeping up to his back…so that's why his back was bleeding too before. But now, it seemed that only the scar on the front body opened.
Artemis slowly healed Percy and as the wound closes up and the blood seemed to clear out she gasps.
"I know, it looks horrible, doesn't it?" Percy groaned though he had no idea why he was being open enough to the goddess that he made side comments. Usually, when dealing with strangers, he just kept his thoughts to himself.
Artemis registered the Ace's words. It wasn't horrible. The scar looked like it was carved purposely into his body…purposely and painfully. And somehow, the scar flowed as if it was in an elegant dance forming some sort of…..crest. The scar was shaped like a crescent moon!
Percy was shocked after Artemis gasped she seemed to be tracing his scar. Should a maiden goddess really be doing that to a shirtless guy? Percy decided not to ask her that in fear that he might be turned into a jackelope, but he could help notice that Artemis's touch was soft and at the start and some point there was this shock he felt.
"Your scar….why is it shaped like the moon?" Artemis said taking her hand back. Her touch's absence seemed to crash into Percy's face and then he process what she said.
Oh shoot! He forgot why he got that huge scar in the first place! Oh gods….how can he explain it too her now?...wait...why the hell did he even consider explaining to her in the first place? This is the second time he allowed said goddess to know personal info!
Being the complete Percy he was, he just said, "Er" but he was pretty sure the goddess of the Moon would not settle for 'er' as an answer