Disclaimer: i dont own pjo

HoHo-hal, thanks!

TakeYoCookie hope you also had a good holiday, mine was ight.

AlmightyChaos, I considered posting on other places, but I feel like I would forget to post chapters. I also feel insecure about the beginning chapters since I don't like the way I wrote them.

I originally started writing this fanfic from an idea I had years ago for the first chapter. It's been over four(?) years since then. It feels like I'm in a slump because I don't really know how to progress the story. The idea of the storyline in my head is very rudimentary. I kind of know what direction I want to go in, but it feels like navigating a dark forest.

I wanted to write at least sixty chapters for this fanfic, but that might take actually forever to finish. We'll see where it goes.

Believe it or not but I used to write chapters a week in advance, I wonder what happened to those... *cough* laziness

I appreciate the love, Cy@ - lob

T-T

Today, they were going to spend the entire day in the city.

Almost all of them were gathered there, a giddy excitement could be seen on their faces like a group of teenage girls getting ready to see a Beyoncé concert. There were large clusters of voices that happily clamored without a single care in the world.

Percy was short distance away from the front of the camp, swinging his sword with his eyes closed which was strange for the girls that noticed, considering that he usually practiced elsewhere. But, they didn't voice their opinion, instead deciding to converse quietly as they had nothing else better to do.

Of the entire Hunt, they was only a handful, who began talking to Percy. Only about five and six of them from the dozens of girls, not that it mattered to Percy. He didn't care if they ignored him for the rest of his life, but it was nice to know that they were opening up to him, slowly but surely.

One of them was Eviane, who was trying to mimic his movements with the wooden sword he gave her as a present.

There was also Sofia, who was holding a book as per usual, but she failed to realize that it was upside down. Her eyes could barely be seen sneaking glances, flickering up and down at random intervals, particularly the motion of the sword. Whenever the sword went up, her grey eyes went up, and whenever the sword went down her eyes followed it downwards.

"Eviane, put a little more strength in your swings." He said without looking her. His strikes seemed effortless and perfect as if he could do them in his sleep.

Eviane couldn't put into words how beautiful his swings were. She never knew that a swing could look that- perfect.

His sword rose gracefully, stopped at the apex, then brought downwards at the "correct" distance.

Each strike looked the exact same as the last and continued to repeat in front of her eyes.

"You're distracted. Try again."

She swung with more intensity than her last.

"Again."

"Again."

"You can do better."

"Again."

"More strength. You're letting up."

Her sword went down.

"Good."

"Don't stop."

"Giving up already?"

Eviane was breathing heavily with sweat trailing down her neck and forehead.

"Maintaining your breathing."

"Keep going."

"More."

"You can do another one."

"One more."

Percy could see that she was reaching her limit. By now, he stopped his own practice, fully focused on Eviane.

"You have one more in you."

"Last one."

Her arms were trembling holding on to the sword, but she managed to complete the last one. Her body began to moving to the ground. Eviane looked like she was going to collapse at any moment.

Good thing, Percy was prepared to catch her body when she showed the subtlest sign of falling because she was about to do just that.

He firmly grabbed her shoulders, helping her onto a tree.

"You did great," he said.

Her chest rose up and down, taking many deep breaths. "How many?" She managed to gasp between her gulps of air.

Percy snorted in amusement. "Thirty."

"Only thirty?" Eviane felt like she did a lot more than thirty strikes. "Damn." She voiced her disappointment, clearly expecting the number to be much larger.

"Don't feel too bad. That thirty were the only ones I counted."

"What is that supposed to-"

Eviane's stomach growled loudly, a visible red blush on her face told everyone all of the embarrassment she was feeling.

Percy smiled in a way that made her feel comfortable. "Here. Drink this." He pulled out a vial of Moonwater and fed her a drop.

His mistress gave him a vial for personal use and for emergencies. She warned him that he should never take more than a few drops, any more drops would be dangerous for the one consuming it.

What exactly would happen, he didn't know, but the seriousness in her eyes told him that this was something he had to pay attention to. Not that Percy would ever ignore her words. Whatever she said was law, like a king's decree that he had to follow.

Even if she said it in passing, he would've taken it as serious as a life-or-death situation.

"Ugh, I'm all sweaty now," complained Eviane. She glared at Percy, blatantly blaming him for her sweaty clothes.

Percy gave her an innocent look. "Me? I could never!" He put both his hands up in a defensive gesture and summoned a small string of water.

Although it was a small amount of water, incomparable to the naiad he had met a while ago, he was confident he could do the same thing she could.

He made some hand gestures like he was the conductor for a symphony as the water danced around her body cleaning her up.

A few "eeks" and yelps were uttered, but by the end of it Eviane looked brand new as if she hadn't practiced until her legs gave out.

In a quiet whisper, she said, "You perv," looking extremely ashamed and vulnerable. The position she was sitting in was that of a defenseless girl with her hands covering her chest.

Percy knew that she was feigning being defenseless and proceeded to ignore it.

Why she was acting in that manner, it didn't matter to him at all.

But he soon found out why, as a cold voice came from behind him. He instantly recognized it as his mistress.

"What's going on?" She asked in her usual sounding voice. There was a tinge of suspicion attached to it.

He spun around to greet her.

"Good morning, mistress."

There was a suffocating atmosphere around Artemis that warned all of the girls to keep their mouths shut, but Percy for some strange reason wasn't affected by it. Either Artemis was excluding him or he was resistant to it.

The most probable case was that he was resistant, but how was a question for a different time.

"Perseus." Her tone was heavier than the densest metals in the world, but Percy seemed obvious to it all. He seemed as innocent as ever as he gave his mistress a smile, evidently happy to see her.

The onlooking girls shared a knowing look and scattered, they understood something that was never said. Artemis's gaze alternated between him and Eviane on the ground.

Eviane slowly got up, making sure to make as little noise as possible. She intended to give the two some alone time like the other girls did, but she was noticed by Artemis.

She mouthed, "You got this," and gave her a small thumbs up, which confused her.

Artemis was about to say something but ultimately decided not to.

"Is there something wrong?" Percy asked. The concern he showed dissolved any desire for her to press about what happened with him and Eviane, and why she was on the ground.

It was impossible for Percy to do anything against her girls. He never showed an inking of romantic interest towards her girls or anybody in the last two years. She knew that she didn't have to worry about Perseus making a move, especially with Eviane giving her that teasing smile for no reason.

In fact, he never even showed her a speck of interest. She felt a faint bitterness in her mouth as she thought about that.

Sometimes Artemis questioned if she was attractive or not. She asked her mother one day, and Artemis would never forget the look on Leto's face when she did.

Her mother looked as though she didn't know whether to laugh or cry or both at the same time.

Artemis got frustrated at her mother and decided to ignore her for a week. (She ended up not following through with it.)

...

Maybe, she overacted seeing Eviane on the ground like that because there was nothing that she had to worry about with Percy around.

She shook her head and called the rest of the girls to gather. It was almost time to get going. They would only be burning daylight if they stalled for any longer.

Percy was inwardly excited but didn't show it on his face.

It would be unprofessional of him. He had never been to the city, only hearing in passing. Although it sounded intriguing with tall buildings and masses of people, he never asked his mistress about it since it didn't seem to be relevant in their lives.

His mistress clapped twice and a long metal beast appeared, comparable to the drakon that he and his mistress killed. Except that this one was triple its height and unnatural looking. It was made completely out of metal and dark glass that he could see through.

Inside its organs he could see something that looked like chairs. He didn't know if they were real or something that looked like chairs because he had never seen such a material like that before.

Even though Percy saw his mistress summon it, it still surprised him.

All of the girls flooded inside the beast like it was no big deal.

He questioningly looked at his mistress, who just realized that Percy had never seen a bus before.

This one was a lavish bus and had compartments like how a high-class train would.

"Mistress!" An impatient call from inside the bus, reminded her that they should go soon, the girls have been waiting for this day for a long time.

Artemis could still remember the chaos from last time. There was a big fight between a gang and her girls that resulted in a little bit of mind tampering to avoid getting in mortal trouble.

One reason that trips to the city weren't frequent events was that a large group of almost all females attracted a large amount of attention. Mainly from indecent males that wanted to hook up with her.

Inwardly apologizing, she grabbed his hand and pulled him in the bus without any explanation. The inside of the bus looked like how one would expect the inside of a train with a long corridor of rooms. They began to the most secluded area of the bus, which was naturally the back of the bus.

As they neared the very back, the bus lurched forwards, beginning to move to the city, catching him off guard.

He instinctually grabbed the nearest thing, which was naturally Artemis. As he stumbled, he noticed that he was about to grab a particular body part, so he tried to avoid it the best he could. The trajectory of his hand caused him to slam his fist against the wall with his other hand grabbed her waist, intending protect her from the collision by holding her away. He didn't want his mistress to get hurt in any way.

Momentum was not on his side as the moving bus threatened to fling them elsewhere.

It was difficult for him to maneuver the two of them away from colliding from everything in such a short amount of time, but Percy tried to the best of his ability. He twirled her to be on top of him when they inevitably fell. With the hand that wasn't on her waist, he flung open the door to one of the rooms and swung them inside.

They crashed to the floor.

Thankfully, his mistress supported the fall with one hand while the other was tightly gripping the collar of his shirt, preventing his head from hitting the ground.

The only thing he could see was his mistress's face as her auburn hair fell around him like a curtain, creating an intimate atmosphere where there was only the two of them. Her hair separated them from the rest of the world at that moment.

Long lashes enchanting the silver spectacles that were her eyes.

Fair-colored lips added to the vague rosy blush of her cheeks.

He didn't know that a nose could look so nice until now.

His mistress was always beautiful, but it was the first time that Percy had ever been able to see her features so closely before. It was rather embarrassing to say the least.

Here he was, ogling at his mistress, while she was merely looking passively without an iota of emotion.

She blinked several times before letting go. His head gently dropped on the floor.

His mistress nonchalantly took a seat at the window like acted nothing happened at all. She didn't say anything about what happened and stared outside.

Percy got up still mesmerized and was reluctant to sit down, not knowing if it was alright.

He eventually settled down in the window seat directly across from her.

He couldn't tell what she was thinking. It didn't seem like she minded, but at the same time she could definitely be angry in her heart. Either way, it something that he found to be admirable.

His mistress always seemed to be level headed, whatever the situation.

In his opinion, if he was always level headed, he would probably be the best guardian in existence. Of course, it was all wishful thinking, but if he did.

Between them, there was a silence, but it wasn't one of those awkward silences that made him want to be somewhere else entirely.

In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was a silence of mutual understanding and acceptance. He understood that she didn't wish to speak of the matter and didn't want to as well.

Percy knew that he was the reason why they ended up in that situation in the first place, and it was that his mistress was understanding enough not to mention it.

...

After a long few minutes, Artemis was first to speak.

She tried to explain what a bus was and what to expect in a city.

The explanation was rather lengthy as she didn't know to explain in a manner that even someone from another dimension could understand. Artemis didn't know if he could understand what she was saying. She didn't know how a person, who had never heard of a city, could comprehend the complexity of the "modern" world.

Not to say that his birthplace was inferior, she understood that he wasn't accustomed to skyscrapers or even concrete buildings, much less digital technology.

Offending Perseus was the least she wanted. The words that came out of her mouth were slow but carefully crafted. He was silent, not uttering a single word.

His gaze never wandered away, unhesitatingly meeting her eyes with an attractive confidence unlike the men that fought for her attention like she was a mere object meant to be taken by the highest bidder. Instead, he was rapt in her words, listening to every detail as if they were the most precious words in the world.

This was something she liked about Perseus that other men lacked.

Besides never lusting over her, he was always so attentive. He always made sure that she was comfortable and that he always made eye contact while they were talking. So whenever they talked, she felt that he was always interested.

She usually did the same, however today an invisible force prevented her from looking into his eyes.