Chapter 17 - Hera
Kronos was gone when Percy woke the next morning.
The demigod wasn't concerned. The night before, Kronos had praised the spaghetti bolognaise to be its own immortal food and had then heavily critiqued Scar's methods at taking over Pride Rock. Since Percy had taken to calling Kronos Simba, the Titan had wanted to know where the name had come from. Hence the movie night. After Kronos had moved on from critiquing Scar to the general film and pointing out all the plot holes in both the first and second film, Percy had to bring their little movie night to an end.
"It's supposed to be a children's story, Simba," Percy grumbled. "Children don't care about the plot holes, only what happens in the story."
"They should," Kronos grumbled. "That wildebeest herd would have had to be nine-thousand strong to have been stampeding for three minutes."
"No, shut up," Percy said, covering his ears. "You're ruining it."
"And why didn't Scar just kill Simba there and then? Save everyone all the trouble."
Percy had thrown a cushion at the omega, managing to get him in the face and causing him to splutter as he swatted it aside.
At that point, Sally and Paul were already asleep, so Percy and Kronos had preceded to not get very much.
Percy took his time showering, getting dressed and then packing his clothes and various demigod essentials for Camp. By the time he had it all together in the hall, Kronos was eating all the breakfast as he tried to assure Sally that they had slept last night.
"We did sleep," Percy assured his mother. "A little."
Both Sally and Kronos shot him scathing glares.
Percy smiled crookedly. "You ready to go?"
"With what? I have nothing to pack," Kronos drawled.
Percy just shrugged. "Great!" He said cheerfully as he snatched up some homemade goodbye-pancakes.
"Have you got everything, Percy?" Sally questioned.
Percy nodded. "Yes. I even remembered my underwear this time." Kronos' nose crinkled, and Percy grinned.
"Of all the alphas out there," Kronos said with a heavy sigh. "I have to have one whom forgets his underwear."
Paul grinned into his coffee.
Percy wiggled his eyebrows. "That's just better for you, isn't it?"
Paul choked on his coffee and Sally gasped in horror. "Percy!"
"What?"
Kronos shook his head in mock despair. "Terrible. Just terrible."
Sally shot Percy a sharp glare. "We need to talk about your manners, young man."
Percy nodded. "Sure. Ok. But we've kind of got to get going to Camp. I want to see how everything's coming along."
"Painfully well, I'd imagine," Kronos mused. "You demigods are like cockroaches. No matter what I do, you come creeping back."
Percy shrugged before grabbing Kronos' arm. "Come on."
"I'm eating, Jackson. Never get between a Titan and food."
Percy stuck his tongue out at Kronos. "Come on. Annabeth's gonna be there earlier too."
"Wait, we're going to Camp early?" Kronos looked horrified. "Why?"
Percy huffed, putting his hands on his hips. "Because I want a nice, relaxing winter at Camp away from any maniac trying to take over Olympus, okay? That means we go early. So get up."
Kronos let out a weary sigh before grabbing the remainders on his plate and zapping his plate away.
"Stop," Sally said sharply before he could snap it away. "No – absolutely not. There are probably enough of our plates in the Atlantic or wherever you're sending them. You don't need to add another."
Kronos just smiled faintly before slinking out the door after Percy. "You can wash up then. Jackson! You have twenty seconds to get yourself down here, else I'm leaving without you!"
"What?" Percy shrieked. "That's unfair!"
Kronos cocked his head to the side as he heard lots of thumping from upstairs. "Twenty. Nineteen, eighteen…"
"Kronos!"
"Fifteen!" Kronos busied himself with finishing off the remainder of his breakfast, and then he brushed his hands off, scattering crumbs over the hall floor. "Five, four-" he cut himself off as Percy pounded down the stairs and promptly tossed a pack at the Titan. He snatched it out of the air, frowned over it at the alpha, and then peered inside.
Kronos quirked an eyebrow at the demigod, but Percy only smiled faintly back at him. "One?"
The omega huffed and moved to grab his shoulder, but Percy intercepted and intertwined their hands. "Bye, mom!" He yelled into the kitchen as Kronos began to glow.
"Have fun," Sally said, her eyes lingering briefly on Kronos as she stepped through into the hall. "Stay safe, Percy."
"I will," Percy promised as his vision exploded into a golden light.
Halfway through the landing, Percy suddenly felt as if he'd landed on a trampoline. He was bounced off a barrier and propelled, screaming, into the sky. Kronos' grip on his hand tightened and the Titan reversed their ascent, this time landing solidly on the ground.
Percy staggered away. "The Tartarus?" He demanded. "Kronos, what was that?"
Kronos looked incredibly miffed as prodded the barrier around Camp Half-Blood. He cursed under his breath and then turned to face Percy. For a moment Percy was distracted by the pouting Titan.
"The barriers have been updated," Kronos grumbled at him. "Now uninvited immortals can't phase through it."
The demigod snorted in amusement. "Right," he said, "well let's not do that again," he said as he tested that everything was working as it should. He'd jarred a knee on the landing, but other than that he was still alive.
"It wasn't intentional," Kronos muttered.
"I know. But let's keep our feet firmly on the ground now, okay?" Percy glanced up at the sky. "Zeus doesn't need another reason to kill me."
The disgruntled Titan marched past him into the Camp boundaries.
Percy grinned and limped after him, pausing briefly to pat Peleus on the head as he passed, before drawing level with the omega psychopath. "Kronos," Percy carefully said, "whenever…" he paused and took a deep breath. "I don't want to stop you from coming and going as you please. I don't care what the gods say – if they even bother to break their silence – so if you want to… just go."
For some unknown reason, that seemed to genuinely unnerve the omega.
Kronos frowned at the demigod. "I don't understand you," the Titan mused, looking completely baffled with his alpha's odd behaviour. He seemed disturbed with the mere idea of himself not knowing something.
Percy grinned and nudged his shoulder, pausing briefly to check that Kronos wasn't going to spin around and deck him for the touch, and then he shrugged. "I don't want an omega to keep them next to me all day and night, Kronos. Besides," he drawled, smiling slyly, "both of us know that you're a wild beast at heart and keeping you cooped up inside won't be good for the furniture."
Kronos snorted.
"I feel like I have to remind you of this like weekly," Percy complained. "Considering how much your intelligence is praised, I'd have thought you would've understood by now."
The Titan growled, knowing that the demigod was purposefully trying to get him annoyed. Of course he understood. He just didn't believe it. Kronos' gaze flicked between two Hermes campers messing about near them, and Percy stopped them walking. He grimaced slightly as he put weight onto his slightly-pained knee, but ignored the pain as he glared at Kronos.
"I'm serious," Percy said firmly. "I trust you, Kronos." Pointedly, the demigod kissed him there. Mostly because Percy felt like it, but also as Connor and Travis Stoll were trying to pretend they weren't watching them and listening in. Percy cracked a smile as Connor wolf whistled and Kronos pulled back with a murderous look in his eyes, starting to turn to face the insolent mongrel as blackened fury crossed his expression, and the alpha rolled his eyes in amusement and tugged at Kronos' arm.
"Come on," Percy laughed. "Let's go put our bags in my cabin."
Kronos sighed, shooting a last glare at Connor Stoll's fleeing back as the demigod cackled over his shoulder, but he followed after his alpha and snatched Percy's elbow. "Here," he said, shoving his bag at Percy, "you can put mine away. I have some brothers to check on."
Percy pouted. "But you saw them this morning!"
The Titan shrugged. "It's been at least three hours. Who knows how many columns Perses has shattered in that time?"
The demigod sighed, lowering his eyes to the ground. "Right," he mumbled, watching as Kronos turned away and his body blurred into that of a jaguar. His elusive animal form. Percy sighed, his eyes tracking the Titan as he raced out of the boundary – making a point to snap at Connor on the way – and then turned his gaze away as the Titan disappeared in a brilliant flash.
Not even five minutes in Camp, and Kronos had ran off again. Percy squirmed as he shouldered the pack that he'd initially given Kronos. Something told him that Kronos wasn't going to be around Camp much.
Percy continued the rest of the day with a sullenness that concerned Annabeth. Luke seemed more worried over Kronos' absence than anything else. Percy's eyes flicked between the beta and alpha, noting how their hands were intertwined. He couldn't smell any evidence of them having mated, but he was pleased that Luke at least looked like he wasn't going to keep trying to mate with Kronos. The son of Poseidon figured that he'd never be really close with Luke, not after everything that had happened, but as long as he stayed away from Percy's omega he'd put up with him.
"So where is he?" Luke finally asked during the sing-along at the campfire. He had no interest in joining in with the songs.
Percy shrugged. "He mentioned making sure that no columns were destroyed or something." A lousy reason for his absence, and Kronos obviously knew it.
Luke hummed. "Ah," he mused, looking as doubtful as Percy felt.
The son of Poseidon sighed. "I'm going to go," he murmured. "See you tomorrow, Annabeth, Luke."
Annabeth smiled faintly at him. "Of course," she said. "Don't worry, Percy. He'll come around eventually." She flushed slightly. "You're a great alpha."
Luke looked rather irritated at her comment, but nevertheless he was stiffly polite as he too said his goodbyes to Percy.
Percy prepared himself for bed in a daze, staring at the mirror for several moments before shaking his head slightly. For some odd reason, he had a horrible suspicion that something was about to go wrong. He jerked in surprise when he saw the lump on his bed after he came out of the bathroom, and then he smiled.
"Hey," he greeted the lump. Golden eyes flashed at him as Kronos lifted his head, and then promptly dropped it back down.
The omega mumbled something unintelligible as he rolled over so there was space next to him for a mortal-sized demigod. Percy slid under the covers, and then struggled to convince Kronos to move so he could lift them over the omega too. He was startled to find the Titan's naked body pressing against his own and glanced over his shoulder at the water fountain gurgling away in the corner – Poseidon's eyes and ears in the cabin. Percy remembered his father's cock-blocking actions rather well, but there were no water spikes flying at the two in the darkness, and neither was there a puddle forming overhead and ready to splash over the two if they started to touch. Percy's father was suspiciously absent.
Kronos' hand mysteriously found its way to Percy's genitals.
Percy grinned. "Are you looking for something, Simba?"
The Titan shifted closer, not being particularly subtle. "Yes," he grumbled. "The gods – Poseidon included – are suspiciously silent. If Poseidon hasn't spoken to you in a month, I doubt he'll break his silence now to scold you for having sex in the cabin."
The demigod alpha groaned as Kronos easily coaxed him awake. "You drive a hard bargain," he murmured, causing Kronos to scowl at him.
Percy huffed out a quiet laugh. "Sorry," he said as he slid a finger into Kronos' ass. "Bad joke." The Titan stiffened slightly, instinctively pressing himself against his alpha. While Percy busied himself with preparing the omega, he found Kronos almost curling into him. Much to his horror, Kronos seemed to be dozing off – concerning for the demigod since he was pretty certain that the Titan had mentioned that it was physically impossible for immortals to sleep. Yet, here Kronos was starting to fell asleep just as they were starting.
The demigod groaned, pausing his movements and withdrawing his fingers. Despite apparently falling asleep, Kronos was still managing to steadily keep him hard and as nice as it was, Percy needed to figure out what was going on here. He pried Kronos' nearly-slack fingers away from his penis.
Kronos stirred slightly, blearily peering up at Percy. "Why did you stop?"
"Are you alright?" Percy asked in bewilderment. "You're… sleepy."
The Titan buried his nose against Percy's neck, at this point practically cuddling the stunned demigod, and hummed. "I'm fine, just…" the rest of his answer was silenced by a heavy yawn, one which had the omega baring his canines. "… Maybe not," Kronos said, before his eyes flickered shut. Just like that, the Titan started to snore.
Now really concerned, Percy found himself pinned down to the bed. He considered asking Poseidon for a little help, before remember that they were both naked and his father wasn't likely to answer his call anyway.
So Percy wasn't expecting a bright flash that lit the cabin. He blinked the spots out of his eyes and squinted at the goddess before him. Immediately wary, he tried to sit up, but Kronos' weight effectively held him down.
"Ah, Lady Hera!" Percy carefully greeted. He didn't miss the slight crinkle of the Queen of Olympus' nose as she beheld the two on the bed. Kronos stirred slightly in his apparent sleep, no doubt able to sense the goddess appearing before them. Percy's gaze flicked from the omega to the small smirk on Hera's lips, and he let out a furious growl. "What did you do to him?" He seethed angrily.
Hera frowned down at him. "Watch your tone," she warned. "I don't have much time-"
"I don't care. Wake him up," Percy snapped, trying to figure out how Hera could have possibly put Kronos asleep. His arms tightened around Kronos. "You're not having him. He's mine." A god stepped forwards from behind Hera, eyes fixed on Kronos. Just looking at the god made Percy's eyes start to droop. He shook his head. "You!"
He didn't know who the god was exactly, but he wasn't Morpheus. He reminded Percy of Clovis. "Hypnos – you're doing this to him."
The god didn't answer, apparently fixated on keeping Kronos asleep. Percy figured that it took a lot of energy to keep the King of the Titans under, and it definitely looked like it.
Hera smiled coldly at Percy. "I'm not here for him, Perseus. I'm here for you."
Percy hesitated. "What?"
The Queen merely smiled. "You're needed," she said simply, her gaze wandering to the knocked-out Titan. "He's an unfortunate complication that we can do without, but-"
"You won't touch him!"
"- But," Hera stressed, "he's not the one I'm here for. In fact… I'd say his reaction to seeing you having disappeared will be rather telling for his real intentions. Say goodbye, Percy Jackson."
Percy's jaw tightened. His eyes flicked from Hypnos to the water fountain, but he knew he couldn't stop them. "Goodbye, Percy Jackson," Percy said. His tone was mocking and furious all at once, but he was sad as he hugged Kronos closer and pressed his lips to the Titan's.
Then Percy saw Hera reaching out towards them and everything fell silent as he abruptly passed out.
So. Updates. Life is a mess - again - and my mum's mental health has taken a nosedive once again as the deadline for university approaches (in a month). Uh... I got bitten by a dog two days ago... which is great. A little terrier thing gave me a beautiful bite mark - fortunately my trousers took most of the bite, so it only got through the first layer of skin - right on the back of my left knee (right in the joint), which is kinda painful, and a little one on my right calf... both have bruised a lot.
Onto the fanfic - we are moving into HoO territory, and Kronos will change a lot of the plot. Oh, Hera... You screwed up! So, I don't think I'll be spoiling it all that much by saying that Kronos will be on a warpath.
That Weirdo Writer: ha, great :)
ghostfall: :)
Mistress1296: Eh, they're not together for long. But yes, Camp HB better say goodbye to it's peace now.
