A/N: Hello all! Thank you for your patience on the timeline for this chapter. I hope it was worth the wait!
An important note on my upload schedule - after some soul searching over the past couple of weeks (and some suggestions from some of you!) I've decided to move to bi-weekly updates. That would mean a new chapter every 14 days, which puts chapter 27 on pace for June 22. Hopefully this will allow me to keep up the quality and quantity of the writing for Bearer of the Sky, without compromising on things like my sleep schedule.
Without further ado, on to the chapter!
Hello again, little dream.
Never before had four words inspired so much dread in Percy Jackson's heart. When his eyes shot open, nothing but darkness greeted the sky bearer's vision. He barely even had time to realize he was dreaming before She was there.
Oblivion.
The name leapt from the depths of Percy's subconscious, catapulted into his mind with painful force. Her boundless features colored the void, painting the usual gray and white in swathes of deep and incomprehensible shadow. Her endlessness suffocated all. A horribly familiar, and yet somehow disturbingly fresh, feeling of complete inconsequence had Percy's entire form shaking.
Or . . . perhaps a bit less little, now, hmm?
The words seared themselves into Percy's brain. Each word pulled itself together from his very thoughts, his consciousness molded like pliable putty. How terrible a thing, to know that your mind wasn't your own.
The young god felt as if he was slowly drowning. Her presence surrounded him. Swallowed him. A million, billion eyes twinkled with the light of distant galaxies and yet they were all fixed directly on the sky bearer's face. Percy hadn't even blinked once yet and he was already standing inside the vast infinity of the universe itself.
Memories, sharp and cold like knives of ice, sliced their way out of the depths of his mind. Percy staggered under the deluge of information. A conversation somehow forgotten, entire lifetimes worth of memories seen and then erased. There was no use wondering why the recollections had been missing - it had been commanded.
There, at the center of a black hole, Percy Jackson remembered. And feared.
Ah, good. I see recognition in your eyes.
It took great effort not to start dry heaving on the spot. His vision swirled with nausea, but no matter how he turned his head the impossibility that greeted Percy's vision never changed in angle or scope. The young god knew that this was as close to seeing Her truth that his mind could currently fathom. Any more and his psyche would have folded like a stack of cards in the wind, snapped like a twig and cast aside.
Recalling Her last words from their first meeting put Percy's current situation into stark, horrible clarity. This was no chance encounter - there hadn't even been an attempt at appearing in any vaguely understandable form this time. There was no head, no body, just shadow and mouths and eyes all smashed together in a way that made looking directly at any of them a complete impossibility.
It was clear that he had not simply stumbled upon Her once again. No. This time, She Who Dreams had been waiting for him.
A correct observation, little dream.
Percy didn't even question how she had known his thoughts. To assume otherwise would have been insanity of the highest degree. The young god's teal-green chiton, once again his only real attire, itched against his skin. It felt woefully inadequate. No amount of smooth cotton layers could have kept Percy from feeling completely, wholly exposed. Even a single one of Her multitude of eyes could have seen right through him.
I realize this form is upsetting to many, but I desired a . . . closer look. I'm glad you have kept your wits about you.
Her voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. The endless void around him rotated in what could have passed for a semblance of amused pride, like a parent pinning a horrible crayon drawing to the fridge because it was cute rather than something of actual artistic value. There was no question who was the bumbling toddler in this scenario.
"Hello." Percy only just managed the word, the sound sucked from his vocal chords without generating any sound. "Thank you."
If he didn't feel his throat vibrating, he wouldn't have even known he had spoken at all. Only the burning desire to not appear rude kept the sky bearer's body upright. Sweat dripped from his forehead down his cheeks, stinging his wide and unblinking eyes.
Your thanks are unnecessary once again, little dream. The son of Poseidon could feel Her appraising him, an ant put under a magnifying glass. The feeling had all the hairs on his body standing straight up. You can rest assured that, as before, I mean you no harm.
Percy wasn't sure what to make of that sentence. It was horribly confusing - he could feel his own brain warring over the cognitive dissonance. To not believe Her would have been impossible. And yet? He couldn't ignore how every single fiber of his being was screaming the exact opposite.
The strange tone She had adopted wasn't helping. Her words had been . . . almost warm? Maybe? The foreign thoughts had been coated in some strange, twisted emotion that he couldn't possibly understand.
"I'm glad." Percy tried to ignore the fracturing cracks of his psyche in favor of responding as politely as he could manage. His teeth chattered through the words. "Thank you." He had a feeling that repeating that phrase was about as safe a bet as he was going to find.
Is it the blood of the sea or the mortal that instills such politeness, I wonder? Her musing tone was introspective, and Percy finally exhaled as the power of her focus abated just a hair. Such a curious thing, you are. A puzzle that does not even know its own pieces. The watching infinity paused, for either a moment or a thousand years. The silence was cold. What will you see when the picture is complete, little dream? Ah, I suppose I am getting ahead of myself.
The sky bearer wasn't exactly sure how to describe what happened next. His surroundings rippled and expanded, but instead of getting closer, She seemed to be drifting away. His eyes were blinded by long streaks of white as galaxies blurred and distorted past his face. Gray crept through the retreating black, slowly at first and then quicker and quicker.
Like the majesty of the universe parting before him, a thick curtain of Her endlessness peeled away. Percy couldn't tell where the seam started or where it ended, each floating wing of boundless space folding away into complete nothingness before his eyes. When the layers finished their impossible movement, the sky bearer's face was bathed in a comforting blue-green glow.
It was his fire.
Only a few steps away, revealed from the darkness, rose that now familiar burning teal flame. The one that had consumed Kampê, and nearly taken Percy along with it. The instant the floating bonfire was revealed he could sense it, feel it inside of him. The movement of the flames seemed to pulse in time with the beating of his heart inside his chest.
The sight wasn't particularly majestic - hot tendrils that had once risen a dozen feet tall or more were now nothing more than a knee-high campfire. The core, which normally burned so bright it was more blinding white than green, wasn't much hotter than a lackluster sage color.
Was this what Aphrodite had meant when she talked about feeling 'thin'? The adjective certainly matched. Compared to the vastness of She Who Dreams, his flame looked so incomprehensibly small.
Distant whispers, just now free from suffocation, tickled the edges of Percy's ears. There was no question of the point of their origin, not with the way the weakened fire danced in time with the voices. They were distant, yet, coming from a place outside his current time and space. Everything but the hardest consonants escaped the young god's perception. Even still, the voices were . . . familiar.
They are calling for you, little dream. Her presence lurked around the borders of Percy's mind, like a moving blob of tentacled static. You can hear them. His head nodded automatically. The remaining shadow twisted into something resembling a smile. So can I.
The sky bearer wasn't surprised. The whispers had always seemed to echo with something more, something deeper than he could casually explain away. He hadn't really liked to think about it, if he was honest. Too many Othrys-shaped memories in that particular knot.
Percy was finding it easier to think, now. Easier to breathe, to feel, to simply be. With the extra distance to Her voice, Percy was reminded of Aphrodite. That musical score the love goddess always seemed to be singing was like a paired down, piano only version of Oblivion's great orchestral score. Some small part of his brain wondered what his voice would eventually sound like.
Our meeting must come to a close, soon. She was almost as soft as the other voices, though of course each word was impossible to mistake. You will wake, and remember not our time together.
Another command. Percy could already feel the seams in his psyche re-opening, waiting to swallow the memories whole. The pain's familiarity didn't make it any more pleasant. The young god clenched his jaw, literally using the flesh of his cheek to keep his mouth shut. Gold spilled across his tongue as his teeth found purchase, the taste of sky and sunlight and power.
Perhaps . . . Her musing was the ultimate definition unhurried. If he hadn't known better, the sky bearer might have said She seemed hesitant to fully fade away. Would you like an engagement gift, little dream? The tendrils of infinity clinging to the edge of the void perked up with that notion. Such is the way of lesser beings, if I am not mistaken. It must seem horribly remiss of me to not welcome you to the family, heir of my son.
Percy's entire spine straightened in an instant. The sound of something other than detached, curious apathy had shivers cascading across the back of his neck. "I don't need anything." He tried to make his refusal sound civil, but the panicked pitch of his voice probably gave it away.
I shall leave you with this much.
She didn't even seem to have heard him. Or, more likely, She didn't particularly care. When She spoke, each syllable seared into his brain with a cold, cosmic brand. It was clear that there would be no forgetting what came next.
Forces are stirring, little dream. Even this, the smallest of my portions, spreads ripples across the fabric of your reality. Change is coming, and there are those who have been watching, waiting for such a moment. Until we meet again, remember this: If the king is dead, who else shall the queen turn to-
The words, Her message, carved itself line by line in harsh, painful slices. The force of them stole away all other sensation - Percy had fallen to his knees at some point, but he couldn't feel anything below his waist. His fingers scrabbled, useless against the invisible floor.
-but the prince?
Percy didn't know what that meant. He didn't want to know. He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't-
Now, little dream.
Percy knew what came next.
Open
Your
Eyes.
Percy opened his eyes . . . and immediately regretted it.
"Fuck." The curse scratched from his throat like heavy-grit sandpaper.
In that moment, Percy rediscovered an important fact: waking to a migraine was a rather unpleasant experience. Even through the back of his eyelids his surroundings seemed too bright. His entire body felt sore. Limp.
The sky bearer's first instinct was to sooth the raging headache that had so kindly bitch-slapped him without even so much as a polite 'good morning'. When he went to raise a hand to massage his pounding temples, though, Percy found his arms distressingly weak. He barely made it up to his sternum before just giving it up. That didn't make him feel pathetic at all, no sir.
The last time his head had hurt anywhere close to this badly had been the morning after consuming an amount of divinely-blessed alcohol that would probably have been fatal to most. Even that experience paled in comparison to his current situation - it was as if the angel and the devil on his shoulders had teamed up to wail on either side of his skull with sledgehammers.
Gods, is this what Dionysus felt like every time he woke up? Percy had never actually pitied an Olympian before.
A quick mental check of his aura didn't reveal anything much more positive. The sky bearer almost missed the fire in his core at first glance, so dormant were the embers. The buzzing under Percy's skin was little more than simmering coals, the low-lying heat far removed from the boundless majesty that had carried him along before he collapsed. The lack of energy left him almost anemic, as if the each beat of his heart pumped nothing but sluggish, off-yellow blood instead of shining gold ichor.
"Fuck." For some reason, childishly repeating the expletive made Percy feel a little bit better.
A second attempt to open his eyes went more positively. Unfamiliar surroundings blurred under Percy's unfocused gaze. He wasn't sure exactly what he expected to find, but his mornings on Olympus (despite his best attempts) had trained him to expect cleanliness and luxury.
What greeted him instead were peeling, blue-painted panel walls. Overhead, a plain wood ceiling gave host to a few round electric bulbs. The cheap overhead lights turned into refracting stars as his swimming vision fought to stabilize. Their flimsy filaments buzzed incessantly, like a microwave shoved into his brain and turned on the max setting. The room was, otherwise, sparse on decoration. There was only a single landscape photo in a crooked frame, paired with impressively fluffy dust bunnies clinging to the high corners.
Really, the upside at the moment was a soothing sensation running gently along his scalp and teasing the ends of his hair.
"Ah. Good morning mon coeur."
A puff of hot air washed across Percy's forehead, close enough to spawn goosebumps down all four of his limbs. Despite the high-pitched ringing inside his skull, the young god could feel his lips twitching up into a smile. That low, sultry whisper was certainly a sound for sore ears.
"Or should I say good evening?" Aphrodite's teasing hum had every bone in his body turning to happy mush. Her fingers made another pass through his curls, nails scratching just firmly enough. "I feared you would be out a good while yet, my love. How foolish of me. It seemed that a quick nap was the perfect remedy." She giggled, a chiming and sonorous noise. "Should I start calling you mon chat instead, my silver fox?"
There were other hands, ghostly ones, tracing affectionate lines up the sides of his arms. The firm pressure was massage-esque, finding and soothing away knots in the thick muscle with effortless ease. It was more than Percy's physical form that felt absolutely swaddled. Even his aura was warm. Comfortable. The sensation of his presence molding with his goddess was a sort of perfect intimacy, casual and yet deeply meaningful.
"Hey, Aphy." His third attempt at speaking didn't come out much better than the first two, but at least he no longer sounded like a croaking toad. "Glad I didn't keep you waiting." When in doubt, turn to humor.
When Percy craned his neck backward a bit, he found Aphrodite's perfectly proportioned face shaking back and forth in near-exasperation. The fond smirk on her face gave away the game, though, even if it was currently upside down. Percy had to wonder when, if ever, his heart would manage to keep beating normally through such a sight. Compared to the drab background she shone like the sun.
"Water?" The love deity asked gently, instead of teasing any further.
"Please."
Percy might have been tempted to cry a little bit when a cool glass flickered into existence in Aphrodite's other hand. The sky bearer had never thought that having a cup lifted to your lips would be something to swoon over, but could anyone blame him? He was thirsty.
The content of the glass, ice cubes and all, didn't last more than a few seconds once the first trickle made it past the parched god's chapped lips. The liquid flowed right from Percy's stomach and into the rest of his body, filling his muscles with increased strength and clearing the fog over his mind. It felt like he was waking up for a second time. Once the first glass was empty, another flick of Aphrodite's wrist summoned another. Percy attacked it with the same extreme prejudice.
"What happened?" He managed to get the words out in between drinks, thankful he didn't end up sputtering the water all over his prone chest like an infant.
"Backlash." The love deity's answer was quick and to the point. "You accessed your true form before your mind and body were fully ready." When Percy went to retort, she shut him up by tilting the cool cup back to his lips. Aphrodite's little smile grew, which told him the move had been on purpose. "We shall work on it, hmm?" It was hard to be particularly mad, not when the refreshing liquid tasted so good and she was making such a pretty face.
Instead, the son of Poseidon set about finishing the drink. Percy smacked his lips a couple times when he was done, signaling his contentment. The sound earned him a cute little nose scrunch from Aphrodite, though she didn't do anything other than dismiss the cup she had summoned.
"That explains the headache." He mused aloud, still squinting a little against the glare of the overhead lights.
"Oui." Aphrodite chuffed a short laugh. "I imagine it would."
Now that his thoughts were no longer megaphone loud, the sky bearer was able to truly take in the sight of his love's upside-down face. Percy's stabilized view of the room made their positioning somewhat obvious, even if a quick check with one hand made it clear he wasn't laying on her lap like some kind of cliche. He wasn't upset about that at all, obviously.
Rather, a cursory feeling around revealed a mattress serving as his bed. The mortal-woven sheets beneath his back only made it clear that he was already horribly spoiled by his Olympic-level bedding back at home. The padding beneath made the word 'firm' seem tame - the rock-hard thing was maybe older than he was.
Considering the dated brass fixtures hanging from the ceiling, which looked something like shaped flowers if he squinted the right way, Percy mentally upgraded that to 'probably'. A second examination of the faded coat of baby blue over the wood-panel walls tipped it towards a 'definitely.'
"Where are we?" In hindsight, it was a bit strange he wasn't waking up somewhere more . . . Aphrodite themed. Or, on second thought, just somewhere cleaner in general. Her cabin in camp at least, or even back at home.
"The Big House." The love deity hummed, still playing passively with his hair. "There aren't many private rooms around, je suppose. Chiron recommended it, insisting that as many of the injured as could fit were cared for inside." Her eyes held an affectionate amusement. "Apparently not even gods are an exception."
"Oh." A subtle warmth grew to life in Percy's stomach.
"Besides," Aphrodite added, fingers still teasing his scalp. "I didn't have it in me to worry your poor mother." Her smirk wavered for a second.
"Good call." Percy groaned, closing his eyes and sinking back into the unyielding mattress.
He could imagine how that would have gone down. Not well. It wasn't as if their status as Olympians would have saved them from the elder Jackson. That wasn't even mentioning Peitho either, who had her own brand of dry, sarcastic worrying. Better leave such worries to future-Percy, one who theoretically wasn't dealing with a splitting headache. For another few moments the sky bearer allowed himself to just sit and enjoy the pampering.
"Before we move on I must insist on something, my love."
Aphrodite's voice shook him from the sky bearer examination. Her tone was softer than before. When Percy turned his eyes back upwards he found it accompanied by a much smaller - and much more vulnerable - smile. The speed of that rainbow swirl in her eyes was subdued.
"You have never kept me waiting." She seemed to take a steadying breath before speaking again. "Instead, I fear, it has often been quite the opposite." The grip of her phantom hands tightened for a moment. Perhaps the memories of what had just occurred hadn't only rattled him.
Instead of dwelling on decapitated heads or endless skies or forms under shrouds, Percy distracted himself by inspecting his fiancé. She was still dressed in her same outfit as far as he could tell, that silky pastel blouse with the strange flowy sleeves. The love deity's fox-tail hair remained pulled all to one side - it draped in smooth sheets across her tan cheek before cascading down to pool across the sky bearer's left collarbone. Those diamond cloud earrings sparkled even in the mediocre lighting.
"How long has it been?" Percy asked, instead of prying further. Aphrodite's version of a grateful expression was little more than a softening of her normally flawless mask, but he caught it anyway. "What time is it? Is everyone okay?" The sky bearer's internal clock was all sorts of screwed, spinning in a circle like time itself had gone haywire. "What about Drew?" His voice gained strength with each word.
The questions, once they started, didn't seem to stop. Percy's mind went from empty to far too loud in a single instant. The smell of blood and sweat and scorched flesh invaded his nostrils. He knew none of it was his own, but it didn't seem to help. Sounds of a town on the recovery battered his ears - shouting, crying, the glancing of metal and creaking of wood.
The sensory cacophony swirled together with some deep-seated sense of dread down in the base of his gut. Something was wrong, but for the life of him Percy didn't remember what. Suddenly, lying around didn't seem that attractive anymore.
Aphrodite didn't make any real effort to stop Percy when he went to sit up. Her fingers instead trailed down the back of his head, lingering a beat or two longer than necessary in the tiny curls at the base of his neck. The young god's muscles protested the sudden action, the first time they had done that in a while, but since when had that stopped him? At least the headache had abated enough to where the motion didn't make him feel sick to his stomach.
The view that greeted Percy's new and upright position wasn't exactly awe inspiring. In fact, the rest of the room was pretty on par with the dented light fixtures overhead. It almost felt more like a nursery turned bedroom, with a rickety frame holding a mattress where a crib might have originally gone. In all, there was about as much floor-space as one of Aphrodite's closets.
The room smelled of dust and wood and age. It was off-kilter with the timeline Percy had pegged for the Big House's construction, but who knew? The building might have looked like it was from the 1970's, but that could have as easily been the 1870's, or even the 1770's. Sometimes things were weird like that - he would have to ask Chiron to find out, especially now that Dionysus was gone.
The bedroom's other furnishings were equally sparse, yet somehow also completely eclectic. A single end table with a shadeless lamp, a standing dresser a whole different color of wood than everything else, two drapes that may have come from completely different decades, etc. The wooden shades over the single window were about half-closed, which was probably their permanent status considering the lack of any strings or other adjustment mechanisms.
A thin, circular rug covered up most of the dusty floor. The thing didn't even belong in the same conversation as most other carpet-analogues. In fact, it seemed particularly thread-bare. Despite the colors being faded to Hades and back, Percy could tell that it once depicted a shining mountain scene beheld from far below the peak.
That seemed like some sort of twisted, Olympus-style joke.
Calling the place a step down from Aphrodite's manor would be accurate, if the step was at least a hundred feet tall. With how much the mortal world seemed to disgust her at times, the fact that Aphrodite was actually still in the room at all was a testament to her desire to stay near his unconscious form. Gods, he loved her.
Speaking of the goddess . . . a quick spin of Percy's torso had him facing the love deity head on. He knew his face was pinched. Pale.
"How long?" He didn't know why he chose that particular question to repeat.
"It's been only a few hours." Aphrodite was quick to speak, hands held up placatingly. She was indeed perched sideways over the edge of the bed, long legs crossed in those sinfully tight jeans. "The sun has yet to set, though Apollo may be dragging his feet a bit." Her sandals were still on, which might have been the only reason her feet actually touched the ground. The love deity's rainbow-swirl eyes flicked back and forth between his own. "Three hours, twenty seven minutes, and four seconds pour être exact."
If Percy could feel his face relaxing, then his goddess certainly could notice. The fact that his white-knuckle grip refrained from ripping the entire mattress in half was a pretty good clue. He didn't know why knowing the exact time difference calmed him so significantly, but it did. The clock in the back of his brain rapidly flicked to the correct time, just past six in the evening, before beginning its endless tally of additional seconds. The return of that monotonous, unconscious repetition actually had a physically stabilizing effect.
"Thank you."
Aphrodite only smiled gently in response. "Of course, mon cher." Her raised hand hesitated in the air for a moment.
There was something searching in the love deity's gaze, in the way her slim eyebrows scrunched together just a hair. When Aphrodite lifted her fingers back up to caress Percy's cheek her touch was light as a butterfly's wings. The touch was as worried as it was affectionate.
Percy leaned into his goddess' palm, taking a few deep breaths of his own. He hadn't quite realized how much his heart was pounding, how hard he was breathing. There was a reason for that, some part of him knew, but right now he didn't want to think about it. Aphrodite must have seen it, because she waited patiently and let him speak next.
"How is Drew?" Percy eventually asked. He should have chosen that question to repeat in the first place - the fate of the demigod was much more important than whatever internal shit he was resolutely not dealing with.
"Recovering." Aphrodite's face did that thing it always seemed to do when talking about her children, a full-scale softening that had her looking the spitting image of a loving mother. The spring of tension in Percy's chest did something very much similar. "Resting downstairs, at the moment, but recovering." She smirked a bit, the twist of her painted upper lip alluring. "A small part of me watches over her même maintenant- even now. I fear I've made some of the half-blood healers a tad uncomfortable."
"Good." The sky bearer sighed, before letting out a weak chuckle. "Try not to scare them too much. They're sort of my responsibility, now." It was fortunate his tone came out joking, because otherwise anyone could have heard how absolutely terrified Percy was by that particular prospect.
"Of course." Like the angel she was, the love deity chose not to mention it.
A long moment passed. That kissable half-smile fell, degree by single degree. Before Percy's eyes Aphrodite's face became something infinitely more human, exposed like a raw nerve. Her hand slipped down to gently cup his chin, fingertips trailing through his stubble in a way that had the sky bearer almost purring deep in his chest.
"Merci, mon amour. Thank you."
The words came out barely above a whisper. Percy had rarely heard his goddess so choked up. Her throat visibly worked with each syllable, the cracks in her mask so wide and so deep it might as well have not existed at all. The pressure of her presence against his skin was all-encompassing for a brief instant.
Percy could feel his face pinching in sympathy. "You don't have to-"
"I cannot say the words enough." Aphrodite's interruption was soft. Her tone was so genuine it left Percy powerless for several seconds. "You will not dissuade me." The love deity's mouth was set firm, despite her trembling lips.
"I had to." The rolling in his gut compelled Percy to speak. "I wasn't about to let her die, Aphy." The sentence he eventually got out, despite being the complete truth, still somehow left so many things unsaid. Now it was his turn to struggle through his thoughts. "I- I'm not- Gods." The sky bearer had to physically resist the urge to run a hand through his hair, lest he upset the one still touching his jaw. "I know I'm not her dad or anything but . . ."
"You feel responsible." Aphrodite turned the word back around on him with pointed effect.
"Yeah." Percy muttered, moving his gaze away. It didn't make sense to be embarrassed, and yet here he was.
The motion of his eyes did little to hide the view of his goddess' raptured expression. That was partially Percy's fault, admittedly, since he liked having her touching his face too much to actually turn his head to any meaningful degree. The five points of skin-on-skin contact felt like some had taped electric nodes to his chin.
"You are a good man, Percy. Un homme bon." Aphrodite spoke with complete, unwavering, almost devout conviction. Her beautiful eyes pulled Percy's own back over, the gravity between them impossible to ignore. "This place, these people, are lucky to have you. I am lucky." One side of her mouth quirked up in a familiar half-smirk. "But you are, frankly, quite terrible at taking compliments."
"Sorry?" Percy sputtered, cheeks heating.
"Non, my love." Aphrodite mock-sighed, her eyes half-lidded. "It is 'thank you'." She tapped her thumb against the corner of his bottom lip with the last two words, as if they were coming from his mouth instead.
The sky bearer had to actually clear his throat to speak again. "Thank you." There was a tension mounting in the air, one reflecting in the growing strength of his teal aura. A deep, thick saturation of pink glowed across every nearby surface. Aphrodite's next words, tone low and seductive, only added to it.
"Good boy." Percy's face exploded in blush, even as his stomach spawned a full hurricane of butterflies. Aphrodite's smile only continued to grow. "To go so far, to do this thing for me, well . . ."
The son of Poseidon stiffened when his goddess' free hand floated over to perch dangerously high up on one of his thighs. Percy became instantly, and very acutely, aware of where all the ichor in his body was currently flowing. His neck suddenly felt ten degrees hotter, as did the skin underneath her palm. Aphrodite's expression was downright predatory, now.
"It has been millennia since a man has stumped me, mon fiancé." The touch across his chin became something much more dangerous with a simple tilt of his goddess' hand, enough to just barely prick the skin of Percy's jawline with those painted nails. "Rest assured I will show my appreciation in . . . other ways." The love deity's eyes flashed a neon pink.
Percy wasn't sure what fueled his next actions.
Perhaps the young god was still half-possessed by that fierce, battle-hungry version of himself from before his collapse. Maybe his half-numb aura was suppressing his better instincts, or the leftover adrenalin was doing the same. It could be that the son of Poseidon was still riding high on the ego boost of having saved Drew, or surfing the tsunami wave of confidence from Aphrodite's heart-stopping compliments.
No matter the case, Percy couldn't say he particularly cared. Rather than flinching away, the sky bearer leaned forward instead, until all he could see were his love's rainbow irises and all he could feel was her hot breath on his lips. The grip around his jaw faded as he leaned in, until Aphrodite's fingertips were barely hanging on.
"I need to thank you too, Aphy." Percy's voice came out low, rumbling in his chest in a way that had the whole bed vibrating. "You saved my life." He watched in real time as Aphrodite's pupils expanded with his nearing proximity, the circles quickly wide enough he could see his own red-cheeked reflection. "Tonight, then?"
Percy could see the love deity's ears flushing dark, a delicious red-velvet undertone to her normal chocolate skin. Her next exhale was shaky, warm across his chin. The son of Poseidon kept his fingers from trembling through sheer force of will as he mirrored Aphrodite's pose, carefully placing his left hand in the exact same spot on her opposite thigh. Tight, powerful muscles jumped underneath a layer of pillow flesh, all wrapped in those delectable skinny jeans.
"You play a dangerous game, mon amour." When the love deity licked her bottom lip, Percy was close enough he could have reached out to nip at it. "Are you not worried about your mother? I can be rather . . . vocal."
The sky bearer could feel his heartbeat pounding in every inch of his skin. "Are you?" Gods, what was he even saying? Percy couldn't stop his mouth from moving at this point even if he wanted to, not with all the hormones currently flooding his brain. "It's a big house."
The love deity saw right through his bumbling flirting, obviously. Aphrodite didn't giggle, then - no, the low chuckle that emerged from her chest was perhaps the most enticingly sinister thing anyone had ever heard. The sound went directly across the inch between their lips and right down Percy's throat and directly to a growing bulge in between his thighs.
"I had contemplated mentioning that it may have been fortunate that you were already on the cusp of exhaustion when you appeared on that field, you know." The burning neon ring around her blown-out pupils held Percy completely captive. "The only half-blood in any true danger from your true form would have been the praetor, were she to have touched you." Aphrodite purred her next words, seductive French sinking like little hooks into the sky bearer's brain. "Comme c'est désagréable- how unpleasant, her disintegration would have been. But now?"
The hand on Percy's thigh slid up and up and up and Gods, she just kept fucking going. The young god's breath hitched in his chest as delicate, soft fingertips alighted against him. It was as if his own clothing was no barrier, not when Aphrodite surrounded his body so completely. Even still, no matter how her touch sent lightning up his spine, he couldn't look away.
"What I am done with you, Perseus Jackson-"
When the goddess leaned forward, her borderline-overflowing chest skimmed against the fabric of his shirt. Her breath was hot against his lips. Aphrodite's next whisper threatened to unravel him completely.
"-There won't be a single drop of power left inside your entire body."
He could tell she was smiling. The love deity's head tilted a single degree, her eyes half-closing suggestively as she cupped him firmly. A sudden flash of memory cracked across Percy's brain, something about mortals spontaneously climaxing from Aphrodite's presence. He swallowed thickly.
"Comprendre?"
He believed it.
"Ahem."
The entire room froze - sheets of pink and wisps of teal crumpled to the floor under the weight, the sheer bulk of the awkward disappointment of that single sound. It wasn't Sally Jackson who made the noise, thank Olympus, though you could have fooled Percy for a half-second. When the sky bearer managed to get his completely overheated head around, what he saw was almost arguably worse.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Aphrodite's memories made it clear that Athena's progeny had never been . . . especially gifted at expressing complex emotions. There was nothing complex about the face one Annabeth Chase was currently making. Percy didn't know when she had appeared, leaning against one side of the sagging wooden doorway.
There was a dull and haunted air about Annabeth's perfectly even expression. The blond woman's mouth was so straight you could have cut diamonds on its edge. Her gray eyes were a step above stormy, the colors within settling somewhere closer to polished steel. Her distinct lack of cheer contrasted harshly against the brightness of her hair and the orange camp shirt she wore.
As opposed to Percy's nuclear blush, Aphrodite only lifted one sculpted eyebrow. "Yes."
"Aphy!" Percy hissed, taking back his hands so fast he didn't know what to do with them for several seconds. The young settled for gripping them together in his lap, knowing all too well that his knuckles wouldn't hide what was going on beneath. "H- hey, Annabeth." His greeting did not help.
Why does this keep happening?! Percy could only wonder at his comical misfortune. One would think the goddess of love herself would make sure such things went uninterrupted.
"Hey." Annabeth straightened from her lean, arms folded as if both holding herself back and holding herself together. "Dinner's ready. Some of the camper's already started. I don't know if you can hear them, or whatever." Her hair bounced as the demigod jerked her head. The motion was sharp, like a butcher's knife. "We're burning shrouds after that." Her even gaze cut Percy straight to the core. "I won't presume to assume whether or not you'll choose to stay."
"We'll stay."
The words rushed from Percy's mouth before he could stop them. Aphrodite, to her credit, didn't give any indication of disappointment. The goddess only nodded, her own hands back on her side of the bed. How she managed to look so composed so quickly was a mystery.
"Good." Annabeth relaxed, but only for an instant. "That's nice of you." The little bit of warmth seeping into the woman's tone made it clear the sentiment was genuine, even buried under whatever other storm was going on inside the half-blood at the moment.
In the following pause, Percy was able to pick out some details of Annabeth's appearance that he had missed before. There were bags under her eyes - thick things, purple and bruising. Various scrapes and nicks dotted across her face, all freshly scabbed over. Her shoulders were hunched, the bend unconscious. It all reminded the son of Poseidon of that war-torn version of her he had seen out near Zeus' Fist. Here was the general, rather than the woman.
When Annabeth spun on her heel to go, Percy couldn't help but open his mouth one last time. "Wait, why would I be able to hear what was going on at dinner?"
The demigod paused, looking over her shoulder. "Why wouldn't you?" Annabeth shrugged one shoulder. "It's tradition." That heavy veil clouded over her face again, and she completed her stiff spin away. "I guess you can let me know if the gods were ever listening at all."
Not even sparing Aphrodite a second glance, and without even a single hint of remorse at her borderline blasphemous words, the burdened woman stepped away and was gone. She left behind her the heaviness of a strongly-delivered reality check. For another long second, the room was still.
"Wow." Percy groaned the word into his hands, placing both palms over his face. "That couldn't have gone any worse." Any semblance of romance had fled the room faster than the daughter of Athena. "She was already avoiding me at the party."
"Oui." Aphrodite, to her credit, looked like she was hiding a wince of her own.
"Mom is going to chew me out so bad." Percy knew his whine sounded a bit . . . immature for his physical age, but he couldn't help it. The mortified sky bearer didn't even try to pretend that his mother wasn't going to find out. She would. That woman had a way of drawing everything out of him, willing or not.
Future-Percy's life wasn't looking so hot, at the moment.
"What's done is done, mon cher." Aphrodite had recomposed her veil, now nonplussed and flawless on the surface. The way she was fidgeting with her fingers, though, hinted that there was more going on underneath. "It seems my lack of patience has returned to do us harm once again." Her next little smile was a touch self deprecating.
"It's my fault too." That was certainly the truth. Percy let his arms drop, grimacing. "I don't know what got into me." And there was the lie.
The son of Poseidon knew exactly what 'got into him'. Aphrodite had. His goddess hadn't exactly forced him to reciprocate - and certainly not so eagerly. Still, Percy should have known better, especially with his aura still weak. He hadn't even sensed a glimpse of the approaching demigod, nor had he heard her opening the door.
"I take it as a compliment, dearest." Aphrodite's subtle tease at least got a small smile back on his face, despite the mortification. "But yes. Perhaps one for a different time." Her voice came out contrite at the end.
"Yeah."
After double checking to make sure the doorway was actually clear this time, Percy leaned in and gave his goddess a very, very chaste peck on the lips. No matter the brevity, the touch had sunlight shining on his soul. For once, however, it was relatively easy to squash the desire to do more.
"Tonight?" The young god couldn't resist the parting inquiry, though.
"Tonight." Aphrodite rolled her eyes, but the motion was fond. Even the love deity was hard pressed to play off everything that had just happened with nonchalance. As she leaned back, she eyed him again. "I do admit to being curious, my love. Fais-moi plaisir- would you indulge me?"
Percy perked up at the shift in tone. "Sure?"
"My niece brought up an interesting point, especially with how fast you have progressed." Aphrodite hummed thoughtfully. "You are new to your divinity, yes, but . . . can you hear them, then? The young ones at dinner." Her pupils flicked between his own. "From the way you have described it, it seems your senses may be particularly tuned to such things."
Percy opened his mouth to reply, paused, and then closed it. He tilted his head, perking both ears. Very carefully, he extracted a bit of the teal flame inside his core. Now that she mentioned it . . .
"Can't you?" The young god decided to ask, rather than answering straight away. His fingers restlessly played with his engagement ring, or the threads of the sheet below his seat. "Normally, I mean?"
"Typiquement, immortals only give attention to sacrifices in their name or by their progeny." Aphrodite waved a hand in a little 'so-so' motion. "Sometimes it may take both criteria." The goddess went to stand, smoothing over some non-existent wrinkles in her attire as she did so. Her eyes never strayed far from Percy's face. "I listen to my children each night. Past that?" The goddess shrugged, not quite apologetic. More factual than anything. "Only particularly . . . savory sacrifices catch my attention."
"Oh." Percy frowned. He slowly rose from the bed, grateful that his feet held his weight as he straightened. The room seemed to shrink to half of its already small size. His answer, though, was obvious. "Yeah. I can hear them."
This is for my sister. She was hurt pretty bad. Please help her, Percy.
It would have been impossible not to.
Brandon is dead. Can you help him find a good place in the Underworld, Percy?
They kept saying his name, over and over and over again.
The older kids told me they pray to you, Percy, but I don't know who you are. I guess . . . I guess I just wanted to fit in. Whatever. Take it.
Some were young. Some were old. All of their whispers were so achingly clear, now that he was listening.
Thanks for saving us, Percy. Thank you for saving our home.
Already, compared to even thirty seconds ago, the sky bearer's aura was slowly recovering. The change was obvious once he started paying attention - like little bits of kindling, the voices fed the flame one packet of stomach warming sacrifice at a time. The sensation of his stomach being filled from the bottom up would normally have been off-putting, but instead it was only empowering. Dinner must have just started in earnest, because the pace was doing anything but slowing down.
"Would you like to go see them?"
Aphrodite's voice broke Percy's introspection. When he turned, the young god was greeted by Aphrodite's softest, most human smile. His goddess stood, picturesque in every sense of the word, with eyes only for him. She was holding out her hand, palm facing up. An invitation.
Percy took it. "Yeah." The feeling of their fingers threading together was just so right.
"Well, then." Aphrodite smiled wide. Her aura surrounded them both. "Let us go."
The goddess wasted no time in starting to pull him to the exit. Her faster gait was almost skipping rather than walking, which was as cute as it was unexpectedly silly. As they neared the bedroom door, hand in hand, something compelled Percy to open his mouth again.
"Hey Aphy?"
"Oui?" She spared him a glance, still smiling.
"If-" Percy paused, then restarted. "If the king is dead, who else shall the queen turn to?" The words didn't quite feel his own, pulled from somewhere in the back of his mind and tinted with a veil of deep cold. Despite the warmth of the room, the sky bearer fought back a shiver.
Aphrodite's expression took on a wholly bewildered air. "Pardonne?"
Percy searched her gaze. Nothing but authentic confusion greeted him. Despite not knowing what he was looking for, the sky bearer found himself frustrated. He shook his head, casting aside an illogical rush of frustration.
"Never mind."
P.S. I won't keep teasing you all for much longer - NSFW in one of the next two chapters at the latest. If you want to read them you'll have to head on over to A03 (the story is listed under the same name and with my same author name, if you need to find it). Of course, I'll mark the sections where appropriate ;)