Chapter 13 - The Maple Tree

Percy blinked as the sunlight hit his eyes and a stared warily at a disappointed mother.

Sally planted her hands on her hips, glaring down at the two of them. "I said not on the bed."

"I'm not," Kronos easily said, "I'm in the bed."

Percy sat up, brushing Kronos' hand away from his back. As he did so, there was a faint warmth around his body, and then Kronos was smiling crookedly at Sally as he swept the covers back to reveal both of them suddenly clothed.

The demigod tried not to let his surprise show, because honestly he'd been pressed up against bare skin a second before.

"Besides," Kronos added coolly. "You're making assumptions." He cocked his head to the side. "Perhaps I merely wished to spent time with my alpha." So saying, Percy felt him lowering his head onto Percy's.

Sally's eyes flicked between the two, knowing that Kronos had somehow managed to magic himself and Percy clothes, but not sure how to catch him out on the lie. Finally, she sighed and left. "There are pancakes prepared downstairs."

Percy lifted his head, shrugging Kronos off him. "Blue?"

"Of course."

Once down in the kitchen, Kronos eyed the blue pancakes with no small amount of suspicion. "Blue cookies yesterday," he said. "Blue pancakes today. Will it be blue waffles tomorrow?" It would be considered an innocent question, if not for his dry and yet mischievous tone.

Percy gaped at the omega in utter horror. "Ew. No. How do you even know about that?" His nose crinkled. "What was Luke looking up for you to know about that?"

Kronos smiled to himself as he prodded the blue pancake some before finally snatching up some strawberries. "That will remain our little secret," he said with a crooked grin.

The alpha frowned, slightly annoyed by his omega sharing a secret with the alpha trying to steal him away, before he shrugged and grabbed the bowl of blueberries. "The blue food is a running tradition," he said finally. "My ex-stepfather, Smelly Gabe, he said that it didn't exist. So mom made sure to get it whenever she could just to prove him wrong."

Kronos quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? And this… Smelly Gabe, I'm assuming that he was smelly enough to mask your own smell."

Percy lifted his eyes, twisting slightly in surprise to meet Kronos'. "How…?"

"You'd be surprised how hard it was to find you initially," Kronos said. "What happened to him?"

The demigod shrugged. "Mom turned him into a statue," Percy said, busying himself with placing blueberries onto his plate. "With Medusa's head."

That seemed to give Kronos reason to reconsider Percy. The demigod felt his eyes on the side of his head. "Interesting."

"He deserved it," Percy said firmly, eyes hardening. "For what he did, he deserved far worse."

The omega smiled, stealing one of his blueberries and promptly getting slapped on the hand for his troubles. "I don't doubt it," he said. "Far be it from me to say it was a terrible thing when I've done worse." He frowned down at his third blue pancake in as many minutes. "My father was a bastard too," he said easily. "I suppose they both got what they deserved."

Percy froze at that, realising that he had done the same thing that Kronos had – killing or assisting in the murder of the man who'd raised him, even if Gabe could hardly be considered a father, he was all that Percy had known for years.

The alpha returned his gaze to his pancake. "So," Percy said to change the subject, "I think it's a good idea to get you out of the house today. And every other day. Figured we'll go out and explore New York or something," he offered.

"I did march through here with an army not long ago."

"Yeah, but you didn't stop to eat in a restaurant or take a tour around the statue of Liberty, did you?"

Kronos shrugged. "Perhaps I did."

Percy stared at him, the omega's expression cool and emotionless. He couldn't tell if the Titan was joking or not. Kronos' lips gave the faintest of twitches and Percy sighed heavily. "You'd be brilliant at poker."

The Titan inclined his head. "I know. I think you'll find I'm good at hustling pool too."

The demigod frowned. "Is that one a lie too or…?"

"Actually no," Kronos relented. "That's the truth."

Percy shook his head. "You're incorrigible."

Kronos' smirked, even as his eyes darkened slightly. "Oh, I know." He leant on the table top to snatch up yet another pancake. "Will we be visiting the Empire State?"

"Now that one I know you've already visited," Percy said dryly. "Intimately."

"Vaguely," Kronos mused.

"Right," Percy said with a dry smile. "You were in chains at the time. You had an intimate visit with the dungeons."

Kronos kicked him under the table. Percy just laughed and watched as the Titan had the final pancake, polishing off the platter of a dozen or so.

"You eat a lot," Percy said.

The omega brushed some crumbs onto the floor. "With no immortal food, I have to substitute another way."

Percy hummed as he rose to his feet. "Well are you done?" Kronos inclined his head. "Good. Now, I've got to have a shower before we leave." His lips twitched up slightly. "You're very welcome to join me."

The omega smiled faintly. "Now that's a very tempting offer, Jackson," Kronos mused, "but I'm afraid we won't leave the shower for hours if that's the case."

Percy grinned down at him. "Just offering," he murmured. Kronos grudgingly allowed himself to be drawn into a fond kiss, initially resisting but soon relented and ended up almost melting into the alpha. "I won't be long," Percy promised. "Try not to destroy anything," he added.

Kronos hummed noncommittedly after the disappearing alpha, staring after him as he left. His expression turned thoughtful as he heard footsteps on the stairs – the demigod trudging up to his room – and tilted his head to the side.

Fingers tapped against the table as Kronos thought, before he shook his head slightly and snapped his fingers to vanish the plates.

No point thinking about it yet.

True to his word, Percy didn't take long. Kronos had migrated to the sofa and flopped down by the time the demigod emerged from his room, having showered and dug clean clothes out of his drawers. The annoyingly-comforting smell of safe alpha wafted ahead of Percy and the Titan allowed himself a tentative sniff.

Percy pulled a hoodie on over his shirt before frowning at the table. "What happened to the plates?"

"I cleaned."

"Huh, really?"

"Yes." In actuality, Kronos had snapped them elsewhere. For all he knew, they'd landed in the middle of the Atlantic, on top of the Eiffel Tower, or across the world somewhere in Asia. Either way, he'd cleaned.

Percy beamed before nodding. "Good." He held a hand out to the omega, his grin widening even further as Kronos took his hand and allowed Percy to pull him to his feet. "So," Percy said, "I was thinking we go to Central Park?"

Kronos stared at him. "What – to remind me of the place where you mated me? It was only a few weeks ago."

The demigod huffed. "No, actually. It's just I figure you'd prefer Central Park to somewhere crowded." He opened the front door and all but pushed Kronos outside. "Bye, mum!" He yelled over his shoulder into the house.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Sally yelled back at Percy from elsewhere in the house. "And tell Kronos to keep his paws off of you else he'll find himself lacking an appendage, and he will be sleeping elsewhere."

Kronos looked mildly horrified. Whether it was the threat of being castrated or of not being able to be near Percy, the alpha wasn't entirely certain.

Percy was silent for several long minutes, merely walking in silence with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He only spoke up when they entered Central Park. "So I was thinking…" he trailed off briefly as Kronos shoved past him, making his way towards the reservoir. "Okay. We'll go that way," he said.

It didn't take long before Percy realised where Kronos was heading. He swallowed. "Hey – Kronos – maybe there's some better places to…" he trailed off as the maple tree came into view.

The same tree that encased Kronos' alpha brother, Hyperion.

Kronos strolled right up to it before settling down amongst the roots, pressing back against the bark to keep to the shade cast by the tree. Percy pressed his lips together before joining him. "If it helps," Percy quietly said, feeling rather awkward, "I'm sorry."

The omega sighed heavily. "It was my own fault," he mused. He patted the roots by his side. "Besides, when you encase a being made almost entirely of fire in wood… well, it's not a good idea. Here, feel the roots."

Percy reached over and carefully touched the roots. Sure enough, they were warmer than even the sun despite being in the shade. Hyperion's power must run through the entire tree.

"He'll kill it eventually," Kronos mused. His hands fisted slightly. "Then he'll be back in Tartarus. Again."

Percy stared out across the reservoir, pressing his lips together. Eventually he held his arm out, expression slightly worried that the omega would refuse him, but when Kronos offered no complaint he drew the Titan closer.

With the branches of Hyperion's maple tree spread over them to shelter them from the sun, Percy watched the mortals sprawled out at the banks of the reservoir. Kronos finally sighed and muttered something in another language that Percy couldn't hope to understand – so didn't even bother asking – and the omega pressed his nose against the demigod's neck.

It was odd considering that the Titan was an inch or two taller than Percy, but somehow they made it work.

Percy assumed that Kronos had put a miniscule layer of Mist over them to shield them from prying eyes, because everyone's eyes passed over them as if they weren't there. Percy smiled and shifted, nudging the lazy omega up slightly until he could reach his jaw, and pressed a few kisses against the bared skin. Kronos made a sound not unlike the purr of his jaguar form, a low rumble that made the alpha grin.

But the demigod wasn't interested in anything else, despite Kronos baring his throat further to him. After the chaos of Camp and the judgemental glares from his fellow half-bloods, Percy simply wanted to enjoy the time without having to look over his shoulder. Kronos seemed completely content to watch the mortals scurry about beneath them, and Percy was content with his omega pressed so close.

Faintly, Percy wondered if this meant that the omega was starting to warm up to him slightly. He hoped it did. The thought of being fooled to this degree sent shivers racing down his spine to settle in the small of his back – his Achilles Heel. If Kronos decided to stop playing along, Percy wasn't sure he'd be able to fight him.

And that utterly terrified him.


That Weirdo Writer: Thanks :)

Guest: Yes. Yes, he did. Uh huh, be very cautious around Kronos - very. Well Paul's a teacher right, I figured he'd be naturally curious about the truth behind the myths. Ye,s but mentioning that would have made Sally realise that her son has properly mated for life with a Titan who won't die - and she can't realise that, not yet. Kronos' new looks are more of the golden-eyes-aren't-natural thing. It's so he doesn't stand out like a sore thumb in Manhattan. The gods will have a bigger involvement later on. As for Rhea... mwahahahaah - not saying anything about that. Past Changes still has HOO left to come, I'm just still figuring out the plot details for that. Rehab... I will see. Not that I'm aware of - I'll have to check that song out.

ShadowsClaw: Eh, I bumped that into the next chapter. This bit turned out longer than I expected. TBH she just doesn't want him in her house without supervision.

Guest: He would, if not for Percy's Achilles Curse. Kronos can't claim him...