Percy Jackson
The next morning was surprisingly quiet considering the presence of so many demigods. Percy stood behind Annabeth, gently massaging her shoulders, as she nursed her forehead with a cold glass of lemonade.
"Why don't you have a hangover," Annabeth groaned.
"Because I drank like half of what you did," Percy replied cheerfully. "And have a lot more body mass."
Piper theatrically crashed her forehead on the table and groaned loudly.
One by one the guests left. Having fallen asleep on the couch, only Piper remained. She was happily snoring away on his couch. Annabeth had followed Piper's example and had crashed on the next couch in the lounge leaving him to clean up what remained of last night's party, knowing full well that if he didn't Silena would.
For one, it felt shitty to expect her to clean up a party she didn't even attend, servant or not. For another, he didn't want to find out what Silena's limit was at which she escalate into rage-cleaning.
When she finally did return in the later hours of the morning, mere minutes after he had finished tidying up, she looked tired but in quite good spirits.
"Hey," Silena whispered to not wake up the sleeping beauties and kissed him on the cheek. "Leave that, I will finish off after I eat something and had a shower. Follow me."
Silena lead him down to the kitchen and began to prepare herself a bowl of cereal.
"How was the party?" she asked, now at a normal volume.
"Great," Percy replied. "Had a few highlights, but I will tell you about them later. How was your dad's girlfriend."
Silena shrugged. "Nice, I guess. Had an awkward start, but warmed up after I did her makeup. It was really nice spending some more time with dad. Thanks for letting me stay at his place."
She began to eat and Percy sat down on the tabletop next to her.
Just then Khione entered the kitchen. "I thought I heard your voice, are they gone yet?" she asked, looking all in all in a rather good mood.
"Khione? Out already?" she asked.
"We decided that we can try moving her into the room next to yours," Percy explained, feeling rather pleased with himself when Silena's bright blue eyes lit up.
"Really, now that is good news. We can get you some stuff for your room once I finish a few chores," she announced. "Plus I want to take the dog for a walk:"
"Until when did you stay awake last night?" Percy asked mildly, noticing that Silena's voice was still slightly slurred.
"Haven't actually slept yet," she admitted.
"Then," Percy said brightly. "You are going straight to bed."
"No," Silena argued. "I have so much to do."
"Go to sleep," Percy ordered and then grinned. "Or do I need to start thinking of tougher consequences? Your lack of compliance is troubling."
Silena stuck her tongue and earned herself a generous slap on her rear end after which she scuffled off to her room to grab a few hours of shuteye.
"Are you about to send me off to bed too?" Khione asked drily, crossing her arms, and gazing at him.
"No," Percy replied. "Definitely not. Of all the things I need to be concerned about with you, getting enough sleep isn't one of them."
Khione snorted and was just about to say more when Juniper entered, yawning deeply. The dryad blushed slightly when she met his gaze.
"Oh, hey Percy," she greeted him awkwardly and poured herself a glass of water.
The new year began bitterly cold and surprisingly quiet. His personal highlight was dumping a generous fist full of snow down the back of the hoodie Silena had stolen from him and then restraining her the squealing girl as she tried to shake the ice, letting her enjoy the minute or two until the snow had melted without the option of granting herself any relief. He had also been tempted to catch her after the sauna and hold her down in a pile of shoveled snow. But then figured that even with being her owner in all, that would have at least earned him the silent treatment.
The only downside was that as Christmas passed, Annabeth now had a lot more work on hands and her free time was very limited indeed. He felt like he was seeing less and less of the daughter of Athena. She had her duties to attend to, while he was trying to help Apollo de-escalate the developing feud between Artemis and the Lord of the Underworld. That was even with him spending quite a lot of time at Annabeth's and Piper's apartment.
One day after coming home from Annabeth's place he found his home seemingly deserted. Silena was spending the night with Piper, and Annabeth for a "girl's night", whatever that was supposed to mean. Khione too seemed to have retired to her quarters.
Mrs. O'Leary woke up where she was sleeping in the lounge and only agreed to settle down again when Percy dutifully scratched her ears. When he looked around he noticed Juniper peaking at him around the corner. In the darkness her luscious green skin looked a lot darker than it did at day, only her eyes were bright and green in the firelight. Noticing that she had been spotted she stepped out into open. He was once again reminded of how petite the dryad was.
"Juniper," Percy greeted her.
"Do you need anything?" Juniper asked, her high voice sounding almost timid.
She really was awfully pretty, Percy thought to himself and remembered his recent indulgence involving the woman. He hadn't planned on it, Percy told himself, imagining Groover's face with a stab of guilt.
"Your company tonight," Percy suggested. "I was under the impression that gods don't just keep nymphs around because they are pretty."
"They don't," Juniper confirmed awkwardly. "And I am yours. Whatever Silena can do for you, I can do too," she promised him and from the sound of her voice, Percy thought she was probably trying to hide a blush. Then, he thought to himself, Juniper was proving to be remarkably inconsistent when it came to what she was embarrassed by and what she was comfortable with.
It was fairly obvious that she understood what he wanted from her and all things considered, he would have been surprised if she had turned him down.
She slowly came over to join him in the soft glow and warmth of the almost burnt-out fire bowl.
He sat down in the lounge. The fire bowl had burned down to a glimmer that still radiated enough warmth to allow for comfortable sitting and some dim light.
In the dim glow of the coals, it was hard to make out more than her outline.
He could see her outline reaching up and brushing the straps of her dress down her shoulders and letting the garment fall away entirely and brushed her open hair behind her shoulders.
Grinning to himself he held out his hand to her, and once Juniper had accepted it he pulled the dryad down into his lap, one arm snaked around her slender waist. "Do you want me to please you with my mouth like she does?" Juniper asked, a surprising note of eagerness now in her voice.
"If I wanted it like with Silena," Percy announced. "It would be her on my lap right now." Truth be told he had not really thought about what to do with Juniper.
In the end, it was Juniper who started off the night when her lips touched his. He promptly returned the kiss, his hand sliding up from her stomach to cover both of her breasts while his other came to rest on her thigh.
"You know," Juniper pressed forward between kisses. "When I became yours," she announced once she had briefly surfaced from their first exchange. "I imagined you'd have me outside or something."
"I see," Percy mused, remembering how she had come onto him in the beginning.
He glanced over at the snow-covered inner courtyard, the pool hidden away in a thick cloud of most, lit bright blue by the pool's lamps.
"Let's go outside," Percy suggested. "The water is warm."
"O-Okay," Juniper almost whispered and extracted herself from his hands and then walked towards the screen door and fully undressed. It was in the middle of January and the snow still stacked up around the sides of the courtyard, half the deckchairs being hidden away under a white blanket while the warm water had melted the snow closer to the water.
Cold, was Percy's main impression. It bit into his bare feet and that odd blend of winter air and humid steam struggling for dominance as he walked up to the water, the humidity and warmth increasing with every step until he and Juniper were hurrying towards the whirlpool and hastily sat down in the waters very warm embrace and turned on the bubbles. The towels he had grabbed from the stand next to the door he put down next to the pool.
He sat down with a sigh and stretched his arms out on the pool's edge. Juniper scooted closer to him and rested her head on his chest, allowing him to pull her closer.
"Happy the guests are gone?" Percy guessed.
She smiled up at him sheepishly. "It's not that I don't like them, I just feel like some flower on display," she complained.
"Not that anyone thinks that, but aren't you supposed to be my little flower on display?" he asked innocently, earning a deep blush.
"Well, yes," she argued, smoothly sliding into his lap and turning her torso to face him and press her chest against his and resting her hands on his shoulders. Though he suspected that this probably has more to do with the winter chill than anything than providing her small breasts for his benefit. "And I thought you'd have other nymphs by now so no one would pay attention to me!"
She was sitting facing his right and he let his right hand fall down into the water and come to rest on her thigh. With his hand one thumb, he eased her slender legs apart, a finger slipping into the entrance of her womanhood.
"What makes you think no one would notice you around other nymphs?" Percy asked genuinely curious and slid the finger deeper into the dryad.
"Oh gods," Juniper moaned softly, her thighs clenched together slightly, and kissed her on the lips.
It seemed he had said the right thing because Juniper kissed him on the lips with a surprising amount of forcefulness for someone or her small stature.
For a moment he was undecided between playing with her a bit more and finding out what his dick inside her felt like in a more expedient manner and then decided he had the entire night to make Juniper beg and chose the latter. He had all night to get her to make funny noises.
It seemed Juniper was thinking somewhere down the same line as he was because she chose that moment to swing a leg around and straddle him, or more stand on her knees, his by now rock-hard manhood brushing against her flesh as she shifted position with one of his arms hooked around her body right under her ass, keeping her propped up as her lips eagerly moved against his.
Suddenly he felt her hand tentatively grabbing hold of his shaft though she didn't slow down her efforts to explore his mouth with her tongue. If that wasn't a declaration of intent Percy didn't know what was.
On a freak impulse Percy grabbed Juniper by the throat and supporting her weight with a hand under her rear he hauled her over to the whirlpool's outer wall. His grip was no were close enough to actually choke Juniper, and the moment he knew it could very much ruin the mood. Once he had her half bent over the edge he smoothly slid behind ber pulled her up against him by her throat, his free hand coming to rest on her smooth abdomen.
Juniper gasped in surprise. The entire manuvers had taken no more than a second or two. "I want you," he whispered in her ear to smooth over the moment of shock.
She twisted around and the look she gave him,... His free hand slid up from her abdomen to cover her breasts before pushing her hair over her right shoulder. He only released her throat to press his lips against the side of her thin neck and kissed it hard. With his arms around her, he slipped one hand down between her legs, while the other found her small breasts again.
"Oh," was all she said, her voice coming in a faint gasp Percy began to suck on her smooth flesh.
If she were a virgin, he would have never dared such a maneuver. A virgin would be too nervous to appreciate that sort of assertiveness. Juniper wasn't one, and when she seemed to melt away in his hands he knew that following his instincts was going to pay off.
"Do you want to be mine?" he growled into her ear between kisses, just to keep the mental stimulation up. "Do you really want to be my dryad?"
"Uhm, y...yeah!" Juniper stuttered.
"That is what I wanted to hear," Percy mused, and with gentle force and pushed her daintily form down over the whirlpool's edge until she lay prone on the tiled floor with her ass presented over the edge and her legs still in the water.
"You okay, my little flower?" he asked.
"Yes," Juniper gasped breathlessly and pulled one of the towels under her chin when she felt his fingers in her entrance again. Now she was out of the water, she was quickly getting properly wet. Goosebumps appeared all over her back as he knelt next to her on the underwater bunch, his two fingers slowly pumping in and out of her while keeping her pelvis pinned down with his free hand. Though whether it was from his touch or the winter chill kissing her wet skin was hard to tell. For good measure, he used his powers to discreetly dry her torso off.
Her breath came in soft rattling moans and judging by that look of timid desire she gave him he doubted Grover had ever handled the dryad in this manner.
Deciding he had prepared her enough Percy got behind her and lined up, letting his hard length brush against her rear.
"You ready?" he asked. He knew she was. She had gifted herself to him, and her actions and body language said so but not asking just felt wrong with a girl that might be too timid to give voice to any misgivings she might have.
Juniper only glanced back at him and nodded. Without breaking eye contact he eased himself into her. She was as tight as he had imagined as he pushed deeper the dryad scrunched up her face in discomfort. She then went back into a prone position, resting her chin on her folded
arms, and hugged the towel to her chest.
Holding Juniper's hip with one hand, and his manhood with the other, Percy pushed deeper into the dryad with slow, measured thrusts, until he was as deep inside her as was probably anatomically advisable.
Even then Percy took it slowly. He knew he was almost certainly the largest Juniper had been with and there would be plenty of opportunities in the future to take things at a faster pace.
Soon her discomfort seemed to lessen as she got used to him. With Juniper more comfortable, Percy sped up a bit until he was taking her at a relaxed pace. Her soft moans, Percy mused, were his reward for his patience. That and his dick disappearing in her slender form because even now he wasn't exactly sure how he fit in her, only that he did fit in her. With the dryad more at ease now Percy grabbed a fist full of her amber hair and playfully tugged, yanking her head back. As it turned out, Percy thought to himself, it didn't matter if it was Annabeth, Silena, or Juniper, pulling pretty girl's hair was fun, especially when you had your dick inside of them.
Noticing that despite her moans, Juniper was beginning to shiver, he pulled out of her tight form. Someone winded, Juniper let herself slide back into the warm bubbling water, and into his arms.
Percy slid backward to the opposing side of the pool, pulling the dryad with him. It seemed she enjoyed having his hands on her slender form. Then, if she didn't, that would pull the entirety of the last few minutes into question. At the very least, she seemed perfectly happy to let him go back to kissing her on the neck from behind and continue to kiss her neck. For a few minutes, they exchanged a few slow kisses until she twisted around to look up into his eyes. "Are you finished with me or should we take this downstairs," she asked, leaning against him heavily. "I think the bed will be more comfortable."
They almost didn't make it to the bedroom, and it was entirely his fault. Well, almost entirely his fault. Having her hurry after him reminded him very much of how short she was, barely even reaching his lower sternum in hight, and made him want to get back inside her all the more. After hurrying downstairs, forgetting their clothes in the process, the intrusive thoughts almost won and sidetracked him. Only the thought that Silena would probably be annoyed if she found out he railed someone on her kitchen counter, well someone aside from her at the very least.
So without any incidents, he managed to reach the bedroom with the dryad in tow. Juniper climbed onto his lap the moment he sat down on the bed to kiss him as hard as she could, her slender form pushing up against him. It took him a long moment to realize what Juniper was trying to do and then let her push him down onto his back. As they exchanged kisses, he slid his back down her back to cup her rear end and pull her up an inch or two higher.
Finally, Juniper broke lip contact long enough to grin down at him, her cheeks flushed an unusually dark shade of green. "Not the good girl I thought you were?" she challenged.
Percy privately thought to himself that she was, she had just been very stupid to gift away her freedom for what? Regardless of what she said, her reasons in his opinion were stupid. You had Silena, who in his honest opinion did not really have another choice in the end. Then you had Juniper...
Then, considering he had her bare breasts pressing against her chest and her ass in his hands,...his gain her loss?
On that thought, Percy spun them around and pinned her slender form under his. "I guess not," he said, humoring her and kissed her on the lips hard, while careful not to rest too much of his weight on top of her. Once her hands got hold of his hair, for some reason girls seemed to love doing that, Percy began to move down Juniper's body. His lips first moved down her neck, leaving his mark behind in the process. Yes, Percy knew it was childish, but he enjoyed seeing girls run around with his hickeys on their bodies, probably some weird power fantasy Percy thought to himself.
Then he moved further down, his lips teasing her nipples for a few sweet minutes until they were both hard, sensitive pebbles between his finger and thumb before finally sliding a bit further down and sliding off the bed, landing on his knees rather hard.
"You okay," Juniper squeaked, looking up.
To smooth over the situation Percy quickly grinned and grabbed Juniper by the ankles and yanked her down to the bed's edge until her pelvis rested just on the edge.
"Percy," Juniper yelped, spreading her legs apart and offering admittedly what was a very nice view up her body. Cosplayers could fuck themselves, he was actually getting to live every fantasy nerd's wet dream, fucking the girl with the pointy years. That expression she gave him told Percy all he needed to know, the assertive approach was still the way to go with Juniper.
Still holding her by the ankles Percy parted Juniper's legs as far as she could comfortably spread them and slid one hand down to hold her waist, and the other to position himself in front of the entrance he had vacated upstairs and cautiously pushed past the wett lips, his erect length smoothly disappearing into her. She was still what felt like a very tight fit, but getting in felt a lot easier this time. Soon he was merrily thrusting into her, this time with a good view of her face. There was a reason why he enjoyed seeing his partner's face when he shoved a dick into them, it was their expressions. One looked like a supermodel, that would be Silena. The other looked rather comical, that would be Annabeth. Juniper was somewhere in between.
Not wishing to neglect his partner's upper body half he slid a hand up her abdomen to grope her breasts.
Juniper's moans quickly picked up in volume, and she met his gaze when his hand progressed up from her breasts to hold her throat again, something he was enjoying doing to a surprising degree.
He pumped his dick into her delicate frame for a few more minutes, taking great satisfaction at hearing her high-pitched moans grow louder with every single thrust. She held onto her mattress for dear life, and her body was coated in sweat within bare minutes.
Fortunately for his ego, Juniper did not take long to climax. When he noticed the indicators, Percy grabbed both of Juniper's wrists and pinned them above her head. He leaned down and kissed her hard on the lips, without slowing down in any way or form.
For a few more minutes he kept up a pace until Juniper finally received her second climax at his hands. True to his role, Percy kept up the pace, even as the orgasm rolled through her body. Her hand clawed at the blanket under as her legs tried to hook behind his back. With her wrists pinned, her body arced up, even as he continued to plow straight through Juniper's orgasm until her body finally went limp.
Her moans grew faint and exhausted now. Her sweaty body glistened in the dim golden light of the bedside lamp. For the rest of the round, Percy firmly held Jumper by her hips, keeping up a steady pace, despite his legs aching by now. He kept his gaze on the beautiful girl lying in front of him, at her bare breasts, and her pretty face until finally he too was finished.
Suddenly not entirely certain Silena had Juniper on birth control, and really not wanting to ask, Percy lost his nerve on what felt like the last pump and rested his manhood on her lower abdomen and splattered his full load onto her stomach in three satisfying bursts. "Fuck," he grunted and sat down next to Juniper who looked over to him winded, realizing it was over, and then down onto her stomach and grimaced. "Forgot about that part," she mumbled, prodding the thick fluid with a tentative finger.
She sat up and winced. He knew she felt sore. "You okay?" he asked.
She nodded. "Everything hurts," she explained. "But I haven't had one of those in a..." she fell silent, clearly unwilling to finish that sentence. "You want me to go."
Percy laughed and pulled her closer. "Hell no, what if I want another round later?" he asked, though having no intention of doing so. She had had enough for their first round, and he wasn't in the mood for much more. Just kicking the girl out after sex and not inviting her to stay felt cheap.
She looked over at him. "Is it okay if I clean up," she asked, glancing down at his cum. "I see now why Silena swallows," she added as if disappointed by how mundane this realization was.
At this Percy actually burst and couldn't help but laugh and kiss her on the top of the head. "Of course, you can go clean up."
Annabeth Chase, The Daughter Of Athena
Her specialty was Architecture, but too often Annabeth found herself playing the role of Construction Engineer, especially with the Cycloses who merrily started stacking up pillars with zero regards for things like safety margins. But that wasn't today's issue.
"Hey Percy," she asked, cornering her boyfriend at the lounge. Juniper did not meet her eye, she hadn't since she found her naked in Percy's bed a few days ago which too be honest amused her.
"Huh?" he asked, holding a cup of hot chocolate with both hands.
"I got a contractor visiting Olympus, you know a major supplier who I have been having supply chain issues with. Don't actually have an office so I could I use this place?" she asked innocently.
"This place, huh," Percy said, looking at her with an undue amount of suspicion. "Is there going to be some crazy fight, or are you gonna burn it down?"
"I've never done that," Annabeth defended herself, fully aware that this was Percy Jackson, the bane of American landmarks, who was being suspicious of her.
"Hey, we've got Silena and Juniper here too and they are a lot more breakable than you are," he quickly elaborated, smiling apologetically.
"I am not that bad!" Silena yelled over indignantly.
"Look at your shins Silena, you get bruised without leaving the house," Percy yelled back.
"Annabeth has bruises all the time," Silena complained indignantly.
"She does like MMA and shit!" Percy yelled back over his shoulder and Silena, who was currently restocking the bar. Annabeth bit back a grin.
"I promise I will make sure no one burns the house down. Just growing tired of inviting people to Starbucks," she explained. "I don't actually have an office," she explained and Percy remembered the mountain of paperwork in her flat.
"Fine," Percy said, though he hadn't actually planned on turning her away. She glanced over at the daughter of Aphrodite. "You up to helping?"
Silena shrugged. "Sure, not much else going on I guess."
"Good, because I need your mysterious barkeeper sketch thing," Annabeth explained. "Hey, an excuse to put some makeup on."
For a moment Percy asked himself if he should be happy about Silena interacting with alcohol this soon, then decided on the sop that she was an adult and unless it got out of hand again he would not butt into it.
"Fine," Silena said and then glanced over at Annabeth. "If I..."
"Yes," Annabeth agreed without looking over, clearly knowing what was going to be asked for in return.
Percy Jackson
"Anyway," Percy announced, rising to his feet. "Things to do, places to be."
He kissed Annabeth on the lips, waved at Silena, and left the house.
Percy found the twins at Apollo's place. Perhaps for his sister's benefit, Apollo's usual gang of scantly clad women, and men, was for once absent.
While Apollo seemed to be his usual sunny self, Artemis struck him as being in a foul mood. "Perseus," she greeted him and they began their lessons.
As they progressed, Artemis's usually unwavering patience seemed absent.
"Pay attention," Artemis snapped when he once again failed to teleport the ten feet from one chalk circle to the next, instead almost stumbling over his own hands.
"Stop thinking about moving, just be in the circle," she repeated for what felt like the dozenth time that day.
"Trying," Percy replied, earnestly doing his best to be in said circle. "Doesn't look like I am good at godding," he then joked.
"Less chatting, more being in the circle," Artemis promptly replied promptly.
"What has your panties in a knot," Apollo asked brightly, winking at Percy.
"My what have a what?" Artemis asked very softly. Percy know Annabeth long enough that this really was not a good sign and swiftly retreated out of the crossfire.
"Oh, you know," Apollo continued lightly. "Normally you are so patient with our newest god here."
"Your followers aren't being treated unfairly in the Underworld," Artemis explained. "Hades announced he is reviewing the judgments of my Huntresses. He claims to be concerned that they received a more generous treatment due to their association with me. How low the Lord of the Underworld has stooped!"
Remembering the pending job offer Percy bit his lip. Hades had proven to be perfectly willing to overturn the underworlds judgment on a political whim, be it please his wife, fast-track the hunt to Elysium some time back, or much more recently bring Silena back from the back to serve him, not that he was complaining about that last part.
What mischief he could do with a bunch of huntresses? Truly he did not want to find out.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't suggested that Hade's servants would be prosecuted just like every other monster, Baby Sis ...," Apollo explained, raising a surprisingly measured and reasonable point. By now Percy had learned that angry girls generally were not interested in things like a balanced point of view. He doubted goddesses were a departure from that general rule.
To no one's surprise from perhaps Apollo's, this comment did not appease the maiden goddess.
"They are, though!" Artemis argued angrily. "They are monsters!"
"And the avatars of his will," Apollo concluded, "While some of your dead huntresses on the other hand are chilling in the Underworld. While I might not Athena, I do see wisdom in maintaining at least a cordial relationship."
Even this further elaboration of his point seemed to do only very little to improve Artemis's mood.
"Are you saying I should just roll over and take such insults!" Artemis demanded.
"Kinda," Apollo agreed. "Unless you are willing to face the heat, which it looks are you aren't."
"Says the god who keeps hiding from dad," Artemis switched tune.
"Now now," Apollo chided, his best sunny grin on display. "Don't deflect the topic from your bad choices to my awesome conquests."
"Fuck you," Artemis snapped back.
"Not my type, I am sure though Perseus might be able to accommodate you," Apollo suggested helpfully.
When Artemis shifted her glare to him, Percy realized he had just been needlessly drawn into the fight.
"Dude, I am going to sit this one out," Percy announced, physically and metaphorically stepping back from the situation.
"Good choice, Perseus," Artemis replied.
"Now, do not let my airhead of a twin of mine distract you. You are yet to teleport yourself even once," she snapped and crossed her arms.
Percy shot Apollo a reproachful look and instead crossed his arms. "I am trying."
"Try better!" Artemis replied.
Silena Beauregard
Silena had chosen to use the peace and quiet in her home at the private gym. Mainly because Annabeth wasn't there for some excessive workout session that left her whimpering in bed with muscle aches afterward.
After finishing three sets of hip thrusts she continued with Bulgarian squats. She enjoyed her leg day and also knew that Percy preferred athletic girls. Keeping your body in the shape for the guy you relied on for both survival and sexual gratification seemed like a reasonable thing to do. That, and it did make the sad voices quiet for a bit,...which she was sure was a major reason why Annabeth worked out so obsessively. Thinking of the blond she cursed herself for a moment for just stepping aside when it came to Percy, she knew she could have had him. Then, knowing she would have beaten herself up over it if she had, she pushed the thoughts aside. Annabeth Chase had issued most professionals couldn't handle, mainly due to threats of physical violence.
"You are staring?" she announced to the ceiling.
"I am?" Juniper replied.
"Yes, you are," Silena replied without looking around.
Juniper had mostly spent the past few months with her own crowd. For some reason, since also very recently spreading her legs for Percy, Juniper seemed to be trying to spend more time with Annabeth and herself as if now feeling she was the member of some dysfunctional yet exclusive club of girls that had for whatever reason ended up in Percy Jackson's bed.
"Do you want to try?" Silena asked, figuring that Percy would approve of her trying to include Juniper deeper in the family. Or at the very least try a first step in that direction.
Juniper looked at Silena skeptically. "Not as muscly as you,..."
"I am not muscly, you are a pointy-eared asparagus," Silena replied indignantly.
"Fine, what do I need to do?" Juniper asked.
Silena sighed, deciding that considering Bulgarian squats, considering they took away your will to live in the first place, were not the right place, took the dryad over to the chest press. It was also a good excuse to stop doing the squats. "So, for starts here," she began.
"I heard you had problems at Camp," Juniper said panting, after her second set.
"Huh?" Silena asked, her arms crossed.
Juniper looked over at her with a surprising amount of sympathy. "You know, some of the males there misbehaving...?"
Silena shrugged. "It got taken care of, besides, I didn't even know them. They weren't any old-timers. They were just going of second and third-hand accounts..."
"Oh, so not that bad then?" Juniper asked.
"No," she said. "They are just stupid little boys and I think I handed it well."
Suddenly Annabeth appeared in the doorway. "Nice pump," she commented.
"Can you get ready?" she asked.
"Cocktail dress? Makeup?" Silena asked.
Annabeth grinned. "I wouldn't know," Annabeth replied, which Silena knew was a lie. She had spent enough time during her earlier years pouring over fashion magazines with Annabeth to know that Annabeth was very in touch with her feminine side, and liked things pretty just as much as everyone else. It was thickheadedness that made the daughter of Athena not live those things out.
"We will pick this up later," Silena told Juniper and quickly got ready.
A quick shower, a dress, and some light face paint. Altogether she took less than twenty minutes before she was standing behind the bar counter and quickly double-checked what she actually had left and could make if asked to.
"Ready?" Annabeth asked, appearing on the other side of the counter.
"Yeah," Silena said, looking Annabeth over once. The daughter of Athena had gone for a knee-long tight skirt, a white blouse, and white sneakers which clashed with the rest of the business attire.
"How long do we have?" she asked.
Annabeth checked her watch. "Ten minutes, something like that," Annabeth explained and plopped a briefcase onto the counter.
She spent the next few minutes checking and making sure the house was presentable. Ten minutes passed quickly and someone rang the doorbell.
"Juniper, be decorative or something," she yelled at Juniper as she hurried to the door and opened it.
Three women awaited her on the other side. One strangely familiar regal Latina, one athletic-looking girl with an even darker complexion and dark makeup in a pantsuit and coms-beed in her ear like some spy, and a third woman in a normal business suit.
"Hello," Silena greeted them brightly, grateful that she had chosen shoes with high heels so she didn't feel too short in comparison.
"Dark hair, beautiful. You can only be Silena Beauregard," the first of the women announced.
Silena stared at them for a few moments, and then it clicked. "You are Reyna's sister, Queen Hylla," Silena greeted her, trying to stand a bit straighter and more respectful.
The woman smiled. "I have an appointment with Ms. Chase scheduled on these premises, may we enter?"
Silena stood aside, inviting them in with a wave of her arm. "Of course, follow me."
Annabeth awaited them still sitting at the bar.
When the visitors entered Annabeth rose to her feet. "Hylla, I did not expect you to come here."
Hylla smiled. "When a major partner is threatening to cut us off, I think it is something I should weigh in on."
The two women shook hands. "You know Kinzie, my chief of Staff. And of course, you already know Elenore Nimitz, my chief of the Sales Department."
The last woman and Annabeth exchanged steely gazes. "So ladies, shall we sit down and talk business? Anyone wants any drinks?"
In the end, Annabeth and Hylla ended up ordering a Mojito, the third lady took something stronger, though now that she thought of it Ms Nimitz looked very uncomfortable, while Kinzie only took a virgin coke, her gaze sweeping the floor and locking eyes with Juniper who was peeking around a corner.
Silena began to cut lemons and prepare the drinks while the girls began talking.
"I thank you for coming out in person," Annabeth began. "But I won't sugarcoat it. Some of the hardware I asked you to procure for me is more than three months overdue. I can't make my milestones and get paid, which means I am having problems paying my work gangs. Now I have Cyclopses trying to Unionize on my ass."
Annabeth pulled out what looked like a printed excel sheet from her briefcase and handed it to Hylla. "I already paid for this stuff, two thousand drachmae worth of hardware."
At the U-word Elenore flinched as if Annabeth had tossed around a particularly nasty slur.
"Yes, the tools for Ares's private residence, I heard," Hylla agreed, looking the sheet over. "And for the record, I can empathize with your Union problem. The mortal side of our business has been acting up lately too."
"That is only the home entertainment room there. I am short on everything from screws to helmets on half of my construction sites. I have the Amazon Kingdom under contract to source those materials for me. If this doesn't work, I might aswell cut you out as the middleman entirely and order from the suppliers directly."
Hylla sighed. "It seems we aren't compliant with the contract, I do apologize for that. The aftershock of the war is still interfering with our supply chains, especially because some of them fought on the other side."
"I empathize," Annabeth said. "I really do. But I have the Olympian council along with half the minor gods breathing down my neck, wanting to know when their little projects are finally finished. If I need to I can squash those Union notions, but then I can forget relying on a sympathetic labor force." She then handed Hylla another spreadsheet.
Hylla glanced over at her underling, who was now looking seriously uncomfortable. "I did not know it was that bad."
The queen of the Amazons sighed deeply and pulled out a pair of reading glasses. "So, I know a good chunk of stuff for Ares home is being held up at Customs in Rotterdam. We,.." with that she glanced at her underling and Kinzie who also was glaring at Elenore. "let us see what we can do about the other problems," she announced and pulled out a datapad. "I believe it is high time that upper management takes over the rains here."
Silena sighed to herself, already guessing that this negotiation was going to need more than one round of drinks. The dress, she noted, was too tight over her chest, and the girls were already getting rather uncomfortable. There was no changing though, now that she had already slipped into more formal ware. Should she spill something on herself to get an excuse to change?
So, here we go. Another chapter is out, and more is to come. I am pushing ahead with the plot, in multiple areas, got Juniper under the hood, and can now push ahead even more.
Editing will begin tomorrow.
Feel free to pop by on discord and hang out. The Invite code is still: 9kT6Qbn.
Henry James Locker over and out.