Not gonna lie, this one took far longer than I thought it would. It was supposed to be a thousand words or about Sally and Athena making cookies and became this almost 9000 words long.

It also wasn't suppose to take this long, but life got in the way. I have really bad ADHD so between not having my meds for it for a month, work stuff, and FF7 Rebirth coming out, things just got in the way. I'm also not going to lie to you who read this far, I've started to drift into other stories, while I still have a lot of fun writing this one, it was the show and Chalice of the Gods that inspired me to start this story. I have plans for more, but I make no guarantees that the next chapter is going to come out anytime soon. I'm not officially putting this story on Hiatus, but I wanted to be fair to anyone who likes this story.

Now that that stuff is out of the way, I hope you enjoy this chapter of our favorite mom and goddess making cookies. Definitely nothing deep or sad here

Sally triple checked to make sure she had all her supplies to make enough cookies to feed an army. It might not be perfect for Athena's first lesson, but Sally didn't know exactly what to do with teaching a goddess about being a better mother. Normally Sally would buy nearly so much, they were in a much better financial situation than she had been with… Gabe, but that didn't mean money flowed like wine. Sally's book was selling decently but it wasn't something she would get rich off of and Paul was a teacher. A teacher at a private school, but a teacher in New York City all the same.

They had a much easier time than she had when Percy was growing up, it's incredible how that happens when you have a husband who contributes to the household income and didn't drink or gamble away everything you make. Still, Sally always felt guilty that she couldn't give Percy the life he deserved growing up. It had been necessary to marry Gabe to keep Percy alive, and Sally didn't regret it, but she wouldn't pretend like it was even close to a pleasant life.

Now she just wanted to give Percy and Estelle the best lives she could. As much as she could, being the mother of one of the most powerful demi-gods of his age, who had more enemies than she could count. But still, whatever she could do she would. Including tutoring the mother of her son's girlfriend, who was also family, in being a good mom.

Sally didn't quite understand why she was considered the 'best mother' to teach Athena. She had a lot of things she was guilty for while Percy was growing up, but she would try her best.

Paul had suggested that she start small; after the emotionally charged meeting she had sat in for between Annabeth and Athena, she wasn't against it. Still, she was a writer not a teacher so she decided to play to her strengths. Cookies were a safe bet, most kids liked cookies, they weren't the healthiest snack, but she had never had any complaints. Even Athena seemed to like them when she visited the first time.

Budo's company card had been a big help paying for all the groceries. At first Sally had been unsure if making Athena pay for the ingredients was the smart move. Gods and Goddesses could be testy when it comes to being taken for granted. But Budo assured her that as it was fine as they were being used for Athena's improvement it would be fine. She also assured Sally that as an immortal goddess, Athena had more money, mortal and divine, than many countries, which made Sally feel less guilty about.

Budo did insist that Sally get a receipt for the things she purchased. Apparently Monica, the owl in accounting, was more terrifying than Athena when angered. But Budo also talked a suspicious amount about how beautiful Monica was which seemed to imply something more than just fear on Budo's end. Sally was still getting used to having a sentient talking owl in her life, but she'd be lying if she said that the soap opera that she glimpsed through Budo wasn't intriguing.

Athena arrived a little before 11AM as the agreed upon time and Sally welcomed her into the apartment. Athena was shorter than she had before, she still towered over Sally, but she wasn't such an imposing figure in Greek armor. Sally could still see through the illusion of her slightly more casual business casual to the armor beneath, but she understood the gesture.

Athena was accompanied by an owl that Sally hadn't met yet, which was an odd thing to say since she didn't really know many owls until last week. "Good morning Sally," Athena said in her regal cold voice, "I brought you a coffee." Mortals liked coffee according to her sources. Many gods and forest spirits did as well, Athena thought to herself.

Athena recalled the time when Apollo and Hermes tried to convince Zeus to let them open their own coffee franchise on Olympus. The King of Olympus had agreed to their request for a while, but then it turned out that neither of them were good at running a coffee shop. Oh sure, both gods were smarter than they looked and Hermes had a head for business, but they were the gods with the worst cases of ADHD on the mountain. Between Hermes having to leave at odd hours due to his actual job as messenger of the gods and Apollo giving away their inventory to anyone and anything that had a nice smile, the coffee shop ended up owing more money than it made. Eventually Zeus put an end to it and commanded her and Artemis to run the shop until it turned a profit and then he would allow them to close it.

It had been insane, Athena offered to simply pay the debt with her own money, but Zeus had refused. He said that as it was an Olympian business on Olympus, they could not let the lesser gods and spirits see them fail in any way or it would hurt the pride of the council or something. It had been a dark year of working in customer service to pay off her brother's debt, but she had survived and turned a profit. Due to that experience she knew how to brew a damn good cup of coffee.

"Thank you," Sally said, taking a sip and letting out a satisfied sigh, "that is wonderful. I can't drink a lot of caffeine since I'm still breastfeeding, so I tend to do without but it's always nice to have a pick me up."

"Also before it becomes rude, this is Tamsin," Athena gestured to the new owl on her shoulder. A massive great horned owl instead of a little owl like Budo.

Tamsin let out a loud screech in what Sally hoped was a greeting, unlike Budo, Tamsin didn't translate their words into a language that she could understand. Still, Sally was not someone who was rude and greeted Tamsin, pretending the creature was smaller than it was. "Hello Tamsin," she said awkwardly, "I am Sally Jackson, welcome to my home." She even curtsied even though it felt weird to do so for an owl. Weird had been her life since Poseidon had entered her life and it hadn't stopped since then, why pretend things were ever going to be normal again.

"There is no reason to be so formal Mrs. Jackson," Athena said, rolling her eyes slightly. Tamsin screeched again, "because you are a drama queen Tamsin, you are going to lord my teacher curtseying to you over your brothers and sisters for years if I let you," Athena said, but Sally could tell there was a warmth hidden in the goddess' voice.

Sally also noticed a shiny red apple on her table that hadn't been there before.

"I am ready for our first lesson," Athena said, turning away from Tamsin as if there was not a massive owl on her shoulder. "This is also for you," she said, pulling out an apple and placing it in front of Sally. Then she pulled out a notebook before placing it on the table like an elementary school student ready to learn.

Sally wouldn't tell anyone this even if she was being tortured, but Athena was kind of adorable like this. Sure she was a powerful goddess who could destroy the city on a whim if she wished, but Sally could also see her resemblance to Annabeth. The young woman's eyes always lit up when she talked about something amazing that happened in school or when she created something beautiful on Olympus. Annabeth had been a godsend when Percy went missing, Sally wasn't sure if she would have survived that year without her visits. She had been so strong for her despite her own pain.

"I was actually thinking that we could start somewhere else," Sally said, officially stepping into her role as teacher. Paul had helped her with the voice all night last night. "I thought maybe we could start with something practical." She gestured to the ingredients, "Making cookies," she said excitedly. Though her excitement of her first lesson came crashing down when Athena's face fell.

Athena looked over the ingredients with an appraising eye and it didn't seem like she approved. "Making…cookies," she asked as much as said. "I already know how to bake Sally."

"I figured," Sally said, putting her hands up in surrender. "But hear me out. I'm not a teacher, I'm a writer, my husband is a teacher and he thought that, especially after the emotional conversation you had with Annabeth, that it would be good to start small. Something to familiarize me with teaching and you with me as your teacher."

"I suppose that makes sense," Athena admitted, she still did not sound happy about it, but she accepted the logic behind Sally's words.

"I thought specifically we could make my family recipe, you liked those cookies when you first got here right?" Sally asked confidently.

"They were," Athena struggled with the right word. Truly, the cookies were delicious, perhaps better than ambrosia, but was it appropriate to say that? Ambrosia was the food of the gods after all, to compare a mortal woman's confectionery was akin to blasphemy in Zeus' eyes. Nothing mortals made could ever rival the gods in the mind of the King of Olympus. "Very good," she managed to get out feeling foolish. "I suppose adding the recipe to my collection would be beneficial."

It was not what Athena was looking for, but she also knew that she needed to learn and sometimes that meant doing things not according to plan. Athena liked plans, they were comforting and even the ones that did not work were always fun to come up with. Plans as a rule never worked, even the best never worked perfectly. It is something Athena loves about strategy in whole. 'No plan survives contact with the enemy,' was a phrase she had heard mortals use and was quite fond of. Perfect plans did not win wars, but adapting when something goes wrong showed true wisdom.

Odysseus, her favorite mortal back when the gods still lived in Greece, had understood that in a way. Often though, he was too clever for his own good and wound up making things harder for himself. Diomedes, her champion, a mortal turned god by her own hand understood the need to adapt better. Part of the reason he made it home in less than a year compared to poor Odysseus. And why they were her only real friend after 4000 or so years. Diomedes also pissed off far less gods than Odysseus, despite trying to fight three in one day. Another reason they were her friend and had earned the gift of immortality.

So Athena swallowed her annoyance and put on the apron Sally held out for her to put on. Sally then relayed the instructions and the two of them went to work. It was enjoyable, though Athena would not admit that, Sally chatted through it all and Athena did her best to be approachable, answer Sally's questions without being curt and ask a few of her own. Small talk was not one of Athena's domains and not one of her strengths either.

Still, it was pleasant, other than Diomedes, Athena rarely spent time with other mortals, not even the fathers and mothers of her children. She spent more time with owls and was out of practice. But she was content to listen to Sally talk about her book, no spoilers of course, and her children. Listening was the first step to learning after all.

Eventually, the cookies were done and Sally pulled them out of the oven. "Well they look good," she said, examining them. "Let's let them cool and then tasting-, I mean testing them," she said with a giggle. They were gray and owl shaped. Sally had explained that she normally added blue food coloring, but that since gray was her color they would use it for the cookies Athena made. which Athena appreciated the consideration.

After a few minutes, they were cool enough for Sally to try, Athena knew that she could easily withstand the heat of cookies fresh from the oven, but also knew that letting them cool helped make them better. Athena knew the science behind it, even if patience was not her strong suit. Still, she waited, it would be rude to do a taste test when Sally and her mortal mouth was unable to deal with the heat like she could.

Eventually after what felt like an eternity, the cookies were done. "Here," Sally said, giving Athena half of an owl for the goddess to try while popping her own half in her mouth. Sally was surprised how good the cookie tasted, but realized she shouldn't. Athena was a goddess and had told her that she knew how to bake, the recipe was a family one that had been passed down through the generations, but Athena was older than the recipe itself.

Still, Sally couldn't help but feel disappointed how Athena's cookies tasted, they might even be better than her own. It was Athena's job to be good at things, Sally knew better to voice such feelings. Athena might have promised, and for what it was worth, Sally trusted the Goddess of Wisdom. Still, Percy was proof that the gods didn't always keep their word. Still even though Athena's first batch was as good, if not better than her own, and she felt a bit hurt about it, Sally took her role as a teacher seriously and would congratulate her pupil on a job well done. At least that was her intent.

"These are great Athen-," Sally started to congratulate her, but Athena cut her off.

"You do not need to sugar coat your words Sally," Athena practically hissed. "These are awful," she spat the words out, thankfully she had swallowed all of the cookie before they did. She was angry, not inconsiderate. "I do not understand, I followed your recipe perfectly," she said rounding on the card that Sally had written all the steps meticulously going through each step and amount of ingredients. As if she had to, Athena had each line burned into her brain the moment she read the card.

No, she had done everything correctly according to Sally's recipe, and knew it. Still, her batch was inferior to the first one Sally had presented before her. Athena had dreamed of those cookies and she did not dream often.

For a moment, Athena briefly considered that Sally was playing a jape on her. That the mortal woman was intentionally misleading her for some reason Athena's prodigious mind could not fathom at the moment. But Athena immediately put that out of her head. It did not fit Sally's personality and even if she could be a master of deceit, it would earn her nothing to humiliate Athena in the privacy of her apartment. Nothing but Athena's wrath and the woman was well versed enough with her history to know that was not something she would want.

Which meant that something was wrong with her. Athena did not understand what it could be. Baking was step by step, there was no reason the cookies she made would taste worse than Sally's. "These are the same ingredients that you use every time," Athena asked, desperate to find a reason her batch was inferior to Sally's.

"Same store and everything," Sally assured her. She took a bite of another one just to see if she could understand what Athena was getting upset over. They were perfect, maybe even better than some of the batches that she had to rush to make sometimes. Athena was acting like they tasted like the batch Percy had made her last year on Mother's Day, the one before Annabeth came over to help him. Sally loved the boy more than anything, other than Estelle, but she had never been happier when he informed her that he was dating Annabeth. No one was as good at keeping her son alive than Annabeth Chase.

"I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about," Sally decided that with a goddess like Athena, honesty would be the best policy. "They taste wonderful to me, Athena, just as good as mine." She didn't feel the need to stroke the goddess' ego, not yet. Still, she was worried, Athena looked angry.

"You do not have to sugar coat my folly Sally," Athena said as she seethed. It was foolish, she knew her temper was bad, it had led her to be rash too many times before, but it bothered her to be bad at something. Especially when she did not know why.

"Why don't we make another batch," Sally suggested quickly. It wasn't wise to let a being as powerful as Athena stew in her failure. Perceived or otherwise. "That way maybe we can test what we did wrong," adding the we might infuriate Athena, or it might show her solidarity. Sally didn't know but she decided to take a gamble.

Athena was silent as she went over the recipe card that she had memorized for the dozenth time in the last minute. She was not quite ignoring Sally as much as being too absorbed in trying to figure out what she did wrong. Recognizing this all to common occurrence, Tamsin and Budo started hooting to get her attention and to get her out of her own head.

"Mrs. Sally Jackson has offered a way to find out what you did wrong. Perhaps her suggestion would be more helpful than trying to decipher a recipe already carved into your mind," Tamsin suggested.

"You are being rude to your teacher," Budo hooted more aggressively. "You asked Sally to teach you yet are ignoring her suggestions." Budo could be sweet, but rarely sugar coated anything. That is why they were one of her favorite owls.

"Yes," Athena eventually agreed, turning to Sally once more. She was focusing on her teacher like a good student, not ignoring her owls. That would be petty and beneath her. "Perhaps creating a new batch would help me figure out where I went wrong." It was a wise suggestion. There was something to be said about investigating where you went wrong, but sometimes replicating the process can help better.

"This time," Sally suggested, "why don't we make each batch separately since you think mine are better for some reason."

"That is wise," Athena admitted. She swore to herself that she would watch Sally closely, from the amount of ingredients she used to the hand movements. Anything to reveal her own weakness in baking.

The two of them started again, Athena a hair's breadth behind Sally to take in what the mortal woman was doing. To Sally, it was muscle memory, no wasted movement, but she had been making this recipe since before Percy was born, she could do it in her sleep. Athena on the other hand might not have Sally's experience in making this specific recipe; she was an immortal goddess. She had studied people, mortal and divine, for many years. She could copy a person's movements down perfectly in anything they did.

Eventually the two batches were done, two trays of identical gray lumps. When they are fully baked through, hopefully they will be shaped like little owls and spear heads. While Athena was not one to dawdle over aesthetics, she did hope the cookies would turn out to be as cute as owls and spears were in real life.

This time as they waited for the cookies to bake Sally decided to get more personal with Athena. Small talk was nice, if awkward since Athena only answered, but there was more to uncover with the goddess if this teaching thing was going to work out. That meant hard questions, at least harder than before.

"So you said you already know how to bake," Sally started as the two of them stared at the glowing red oven.

"Yes," Athena said curtly as she watched the oven unblinking, with an intensity Sally had seen before when Annabeth came over for game night. The goddess knew she was being disrespectful towards her teacher, but she needed to ensure nothing went wrong at any step. Sally's were on the top rack, while Athena's were on the bottom, but the oven would make sure that both heated evenly and at the same time. "As the goddess of crafts, baking, along with the other aspects of cooking, fell in my purview."

"Was it something you were taught, or were you born with knowledge since it was your domain," Sally asked, trying to get Athena to open up more.

That actually made Athena contemplate, while she did not look away from the oven and its bounty, she thought about what Sally was asking. It was a strange question for a goddess such as her to ponder. "I suppose," Athena said, cursing herself for not knowing the answer already and looking stupid in front of her teacher, "I knew the basics when I was born, as most gods know of their domains. But I do not think I was necessarily good at it."

"But you did learn more, I'm just wondering what you did," Sally continued to try and get the goddess to open up. "I can't imagine Metis was the type of mom who made you cookies and milk when you were sad."

"No, Mother was not the type to do that," Athena agreed, she did all she could to suppress shivering at the memories of her mother's voice commanding her before she could even speak. "But yes, I did need to learn, after all it would be awful if the goddess of crafts were a terrible cook."

Athena fondly recalled one of her first nights at the training camp, the first time her stubbornness had broken and went to the mess hall. She was still being a brat for being banished from Olympus by her father and had done little to show her gratitude to Triton and his family for taking her in. He had been so kind to her when she arrived despite her bad attitude, and Pal- no, Athena stamped down the thoughts of…, Her. It was hard enough thinking about her year at the training camp without thinking about Her.

Athena recounted the story of first entering the mess hall to Sally. Her stomach growling from lack of nourishment. One of the few good things about Zeus trying to murder her, was that when she was trapped inside of his stomach Athena did not feel hunger. She never contemplated the reason, it was just one of the many inconveniences that the world outside of Zeus' bowels had.

It had been a rough hearty fair that Athena had been served that night as Triton and his followers were training for war, not feasting like they did on Olympus. Athena loved it. When she tried it was a disaster, she had been so proud walking out with her misshapen lumps of half cooked dough that could not even charitably be called bread and presented it to Triton and his family as if it was a five star banquet. Triton still ate it, he had treated Athena like his own daughter back then, despite her sour disposition. And She ate it up, not caring that Athena's first attempt belonged in the garbage instead of being consumed. She was kind like that.

It was the first kindness Athena had ever done, she realized looking back, 'though I am not positive it was kind to serve my host that wreak," Athena admitted to Sally and her owls. A small sad smile played on her lips as her eyes stayed laser focused on the sweet treats baking in the Jackson-Blofis oven. "Learning how and knowing how are two separate things," Athena explained.

"But you would get better clearly," Sally said, happy she could get the goddess to open up, even if it was a little bit. She did notice the look on Athena's face and while she didn't press her on it, it was something she mentally noted down.

"Given how the last batch compared to your own, I am not sure," Athena admitted. "But yes, I did. I wanted to please my host and his…family, as thanks for taking me in despite my bad attitude. I learned from the cooks in the mess hall when in between mastering the spear and sword. And eventually fed them food fit for a king, a humble king perhaps, but it was tasty."

There was a smile on Her face, a real smile not the fake one She put on when She swallowed Athena's half cooked lumps of dough as a kindness. Seeing Her face look like that had been enough to make Athena want to learn every recipe in the world. But Athena did not let Sally know that, that was private. "Even after I was banished and sent back to Olympus, I would watch the chef's there and copy what they did. My food might not be mouth watering, it has always been serviceable, though I am not so sure now."

"Wait, you were banished from the training camp too," Sally asked incredulously.

"Yes…," Athena said, swallowing the pain, as if being kicked out of the first home she had ever known was not a thousand times worse than her dismissal from Mount Olympus. "My early life was tempestuous to say the least. Hera was not the type of step mother who made cookies either, if you were going to ask," Athena said drily.

"You've mentioned Hera a few times before," Sally said, trying to broach the subject delicately. "You said she hated you more than any of your siblings, would you like to talk about that?" She was not a therapist by any means, but it seemed pretty clear that if Athena wanted to be a better mother, getting her to talk about her mother and step-mother was at least something they had to discuss.

"There is not much to discuss when it comes to the Queen of Olympus," Athena said roughly. "She is the queen and I am her king's daughter. It is rather obvious why she does not care for me."

"I do get that," Sally said trying to be neutral, "But Hera is famous for hating her husband's children and you said she told you to your face that she hates you most of all. There's got to be more to that."

"There's really not," Athena said with a shrug. "You are correct, Hera is famous for her hatred of my father's bastards." She noticed Sally wince at the word, "I apologize, it is just the word that fits most of the children of Olympus." Her own were no different, as she had never even considered marrying the father or mother of her children. Even if it was the appropriate word, perhaps she should avoid it from now on.

"What I mean to say is that the wrath she takes against my father's demi-gods and their parents, or any of his lovers is legendary. Most stories she takes part in are about her torturing those perceived slights," it was not as if they had done anything wrong. Hera knew that, but she did not care, not when Zeus was Zeus so Hera took her revenge against who she could.

"But even more than my father's illegitimate children, she hates me, since I am not," Athena said with a sigh. "Hera hates the idea of the 'other woman' obviously, something she is forced to deal with since my father cannot be bothered to keep it in his pants." There were less polite ways to describe Zeus' proclivities, but Athena did not wish to say such things in front of Sally. "It bothers her however, that she is the other woman, that she is Zeus' second wife. She hates it," Athena could not help it when she smiled cruelly. She could only imagine how tough life was being married to a husband who was literally famous for his infidelity, but Hera was Hera. While Athena could be sympathetic to her plight, her step-mother's actions did little to endear her towards the rest of the family.

"She might hate my father's other children because they are a result of his infidelity, she hates me because I am not," Athena said simply. It was just the truth with them. "Despite being 'born' from my father's skull, I am still the only child of his first wife. Technically, his first born child, a living embodiment that she was not his first choice. The fact that I earned Zeus' favor above her own children only serves to deepen her hatred of me." It was not fair, but even amongst the gods, life never was.

"That's horrible," Sally said, she wanted to be shocked but she couldn't. Hera had done horrible things to her personally, being petty to Annabeth would have been enough to put the goddess on her shit list, something only Gabe, Kronos, and Gaia were on. But when she kidnapped her son for months, stole his memory, and used him like a pawn in the Giants war made her actually hate the goddess. "The times I've met Amphitrite make me glad I caught Posiedon's eye instead of Zeus."

"You've met Amphitrite before," Athena asked, it was enough to finally make her turn from the oven.

"Oh once or twice," Sally said, cursing herself. "Nothing important," she said, though her face turning red betrayed her.

Tamsin and Budo were clearly curious over Sally's slip of the tongue, but Athena decided to have mercy on her teacher. Olympus was full of gossip, while she was curious, the goddess of wisdom dealt with it enough. "I suppose in dealing with their wives, my uncle is the better choice than my father, at least Poseidon. Persephone is not always harsh with Hades' mortal mistresses, but she is still queen of the dead and I have seen what she did to nymphs who thought they could seduce her husband away from her."

Poseidon and Amphitrite had an open relationship, one that actually worked, which meant the queen of the seas rarely bothered to meet with the mothers of her husband's children. Unlike Hera.

"I'm just glad Amphitrite is friendlier than Hera," Sally said, her face still red, and all too happy to let the matter drop.

Luckily for Sally, the oven timer dinged and she was saved from this conversation. She all but pushed Athena out of the way to get to the oven to take out the cookies. The goddess of course let her, Sally knew even if Athena wasn't a goddess, she still had at least a foot and a half on her and a hundred pounds of muscle. The cookies cooled in silence this time, Sally was grateful for Athena's tact and preferred to let the matter drop.

Then came the testing phase, "how should we start," Sally asked.

"With one of yours," Athena said, trying to keep the nerves out of her voice. "I want to remember what they should taste like before trying mine."

Sally still didn't know what Athena was talking about but agreed, giving the goddess half of one from her batch. They tasted good to Sally, like always, Percy and his friends always ranted and raved about her cooking, she was happy to get compliments, but they were good cookies, but she never understood how obsessed they were over them.

"Wonderful," Athena managed to get out, as she stifled a moan. They were better than ambrosia, just like she remembered, maybe even better. For a moment the goddess was happy, before remembering they still had her own to try. Silently she prayed to Hestia, the only member of her father's siblings that Athena was sure cared for her.

Yet despite copying everything Sally did, from the ingredients to the mortal woman's movements, Athena still found that the cookies she made were lacking.

Then there was a crack and Tamsin and Budo's hoots in her ear. "What is wrong," Athena shouted ready to engage in battle. But the owls were not alerting her to a foe attempting to surprise her.

"Your hand my lady," Tamsin squawked with Budo following right behind.

Athena looked down and saw that she had torn off a chunk of Sally's counter absentmindedly. "I am sorry Sally," she apologized quickly, "I will fix it at once." It did not take much, she was a goddess after all. She could easily repair whatever she broke in Sally's apartment, even if she could not replicate her cookies. Though she intended to keep her anger in check in the future. With a wave of her hand the broken piece of counter merged back into the whole, as if Athena never touched it. "There, if you are not satisfied, I can arrange to have the whole thing replaced," Athena told her teacher and host. When Athena felt guilty she did everything in her phenomenal power to alleviate her guilt.

"It's fine," Sally said, managing to keep her voice under control. Pretending that seeing a goddess snap her granite counter apart like it was a twig wasn't terrifying. In her head, Sally knew how dangerous Athena was, she had been seeing monsters and gods since she was a kid. And there was no one you needed to be more wary of when raising a child of Poseidon than Athena except for maybe Zeus.

But despite her fear, Athena's desperation and earnest desire to be a better mother had endeared her to Sally. The moments of weakness and vulnerability made the mortal woman see the goddess as more humanlike than she would have assumed. Now though, despite her shame, Sally could tell with that one action that Athena was a goddess of war to her core. Athena might have given her word, but one wrong move and she could hurt Sally by accident, or worse. Seeing Athena snap her counter like that…, it made her think of the story of Heracles accidentally murdering his music teacher because he didn't know his own strength.

Still, they would have to move on. Sally knew it might be dangerous, but she had made a promise to help this goddess and she would keep her side of the bargain. "Let's try it one more time," she suggested. She knew from raising Percy that it was important to distract people when they started stewing on the things they did wrong.

Part of Athena wanted to refuse and shout 'what is the point,' at Sally, but the part of her that always wanted to be right and the best at everything was far louder. "Very well," and the two of them started on their work.

Unlike last time though where Sally was doing most of the talking, she started to ask Athena questions. At first they were about life, to see if there was something that she could find how Athena ticked, but then moved on to something more personal.

"You know if you really want baking lessons you should ask Annabeth for some," Sally said. "She took some classes because she had nothing left to take, but whenever she came over for family dinner she would always be so sweet and bring over some of the cupcakes or whatever for dessert and they always tasted good."

"Yes, I had a word with the staff at the School of Design when they wanted to deny her the ability to continue taking classes," Athena said, she smiled a bit at the memory. The principal and guidance counselor had not wanted to allow Annabeth all the extracurriculars that she had wanted to take. They were surprised when she strode into the office and demanded that they let her daughter take more classes like she wished.

They argued that it was not good for a student, even one with Annabeth's thirst for knowledge, to take more than the recommended course load. Athena disagreed. She insisted and they relented. Given the amount of money her 'family' had donated to the school over the years it was not surprising. And the fact that all she was asking was for her daughter to be allowed to take more classes than she needed instead of something truly extravagant meant they did not argue hard.

"Did Annabeth know you went to the faculty on her behalf," Sally asked as they were stirring the ingredients together.

"No," Athena admitted, "but she prayed to me for help so I did," she said with a shrug.

"I think Annabeth would like to know that you did that for her," Sally told her. It wasn't her place to tell a goddess what to do, but she knew Annabeth would appreciate it if she knew her mother did that for her.

Athena paused, "would she?" Athena was no stranger to bragging about her accomplishments and deeds, she has too many to name in a day. She did not think her children would be interested in her boasting, no matter how great their mother is.

"You don't have to brag about it," Sally assured her, "but it wouldn't be the worst thing for Annabeth to know that you cared about what she had to say to do something about it."

Athena kept kneading dough in silence for a moment before taking a moment to ask, "do…, do children like it when their parents speak up for them?"

"I'm not sure," Sally admitted, "sometimes it seems like Percy appreciated it when I spoke up for him when his teachers…called him difficult." she said diplomatically. "Other times I think I only made it worse and gave him more bullies. I think you'd have more pull than I ever did."

"Most of my children arrive at camp earlier than most demigods," Athena admitted, "Annabeth and her siblings would get in normal trouble with schools, but academically they tended to excel so they were treated more leniently . Normally," she corrected herself. "Malcolm made a volcano with real fire and received a weeks worth of detention when he should have won a blue ribbon." Despite what she said, the goddess had a small smile on her face remembering the look on her son's face when he pressed the button and made the massive volcano erupt.

No one was hurt and Malcolm's project had been a marvel of engineering, mathematics, and earth science seeing as it was made of rock far beyond anything a 10 year old would be taught in public school. It deserved to win in Athena's eyes. She had given him a pin that would turn into a celestial bronze breastplate with the tap of a finger that night to show how proud of him she was. It was lighter to the wearer than normal armor forged from celestial bronze and even grew with the wearer. It had even been enchanted to resist fire to remind him of the volcano he had made.

Neither his mortal mother nor her wife had approved of the gift, but it had saved the life of Athena's son multiple times so the goddess knew she had been right to do so. Margret might not have liked her arming their son, but Athena knew more about the world Malcolm would grow up in and acted accordingly.

"So you were there that day," Sally asked her.

"Of course," Athena told, "science fairs, spelling bees, graduations, weddings, arraignments, I go when I can."

"Do your kids know that?"

"When I am invited I let them know," Athena admitted. "If not, then I stay disguised, invisible, or in the form of an animal, usually an owl," she nodded towards Tamsin and Budo who seemed to be playing a game of cards that can be played with wings and talons.

"It might be a good idea to RSVP or let them know you're coming," Sally suggested. "It's kind of the polite thing to do and they'll probably be happy to know you are coming."

"I will keep that in mind," Athena said, despite her focus on making cookies. She was sincere when she said she would keep what Sally said in mind. But Athena was not sure if her children would actually be happy if she agreed to come ahead of time. Part of her wondered if they only invited her to appease her, to avoid a Sleeping Beauty situation. But she had asked Sally to be her teacher, it would be foolish to ignore her advice.

As the two of them finished up their batch, Sally kept asking Athena questions about her children. Athena did the best to answer the best she could. The goddess spoke about her Jay's accomplishments in track and field. Emilia has no less than 5 ivy league schools chomping at the bit to get her to attend their schools and she is only a sophomore. Rowan landed the lead role in Macbeth.

"I'm surprised you are excited about your child being an actor," Sally admitted, "since acting isn't one of your domains."

"While that is true, theater is a noble art while not on the same level as weaving or spearplay," Athena said. "Back in Greece it was a profession even the gods blessed. Besides, Rowan loves the idea that they can both be Macbeth and kill the man if he ever shows up again," she smiled, thinking of her child. She had been to a few of their rehearsals, most of the actors were good for a high school production, it was a performing arts school after all. None were as good as Rowan, her beloved child outshines them all, but they were good enough to back them up.

"Whatever makes them happy," Athena said solemnly.

"That's not what I expected to hear from you," Sally admitted, feeling guilty.

"I am not surprised," Athena told her, "I am a rather strict mother, demanding my children to excel in everything they do. I want them to survive and be great heroes. But the demigods of this generation have suffered more than any other I have known. Many of my children have fought in three wars. While I encourage vigilance, I also think that for now, perhaps they have earned the right to follow their dreams."

Both mothers silently prayed that there would not be a fourth this millenia. Kronos, Gaia, the Triumvirate, their children had been through enough.

"I think that's everything," Sally said as they finished up the dough.

"Oh," Athena was a bit shocked, she had not been paying attention to what they were doing while they chatted. "I suppose we can put these in the oven then." She had little faith these would be any better than her previous attempts, since she had not even paid attention to the dough. The cookies looked alright and Sally put them in the oven all the same. Maybe Tyche would smile on her, she did smile at her a lot whenever they met on Olympus. Still, it seemed poor planning to count on luck.

While the cookies baked, Sally did not stop asking Athena about her kids. Athena did her best to answer, though she was frustrated she tried not to let it show as they waited. It was dangerous to let your guard down when you were part of her world. Athena knew she had ADHD as bad as any demigod, in most cases worse actually. However, she had trained herself to stay in the moment or have fail safes to catch her when she slipped.

Part of Athena was surprised that Tamsin and Budo would let her drift like that. They would alert her to any danger that approached she was sure, but they should have interrupted when it was clear she was starting to lose focus on her task.

After fifteen minutes and twenty three seconds, the timer went off and Athena watched Sally pull the cookies out with trepidation. She knew in her head that, even for her, skills took time to learn. It could take days, even months to make cookies as well as Sally, even if she did not understand what she was doing wrong. But her heart had a mind of its own and as much as Athena tried to lock it away so it would stop hurting her, she was a living being as much as anyone else. She wanted to get this right even if she knew it was going to end up another failure.

By the time the cookies were ready for consumption, Athena felt like she was under the sword of Damocles. It would be horrible to fail her first lesson. Perhaps it would mean she was prophesied to be a bad mother like the rest of her family for the rest of her immortal life.

When Sally broke off a piece of her creation for Athena to try, the goddess almost bolted out of the Jackson-Blofis apartment. Due to the state she was in, Athena was unsure if she would have the mental faculty to use the door to do so.

But Athena was many, many, things, but she was no coward. She took her half of the cookie, despite her heart pounding like it was going to tear through her armor, and bit into it.

It was different than the other two batches, for a moment Athena wondered if she added something to the mixture when she was focused on Sally's questions. But there was something else, something Athena could not place, but something more to this batch than the failures. It did not taste the same as Sally's, similar for sure, but still different and still delicious.

Warmth spread throughout Athena's body as her heart nearly exploded with happiness. "This is it," Athena all but jumped for joy in excitement, but swiftly remembering where she was she forced herself to calm down. "I mean," she coughed, "these are what I was looking for."

Sally took a bite herself not sure the difference between this one and the two batches. She still didn't understand Athena's issue with the other two, they all tasted the same to her. Still, maybe it was because Athena's excitement was infectious, despite the goddess' attempt to pretend otherwise, maybe this batch did taste a little better than the other two.

Athena went to work trying to find out what was different between this batch and the two failures. Budo and Tamsin assured her they were watching closely and Athena from muscle memory did everything the same all three times. Making the goddess grow angry again.

Athena was about to blow an ichor vessel trying to understand the difference between the batches when Sally spoke up. "Maybe it's love," she said, cutting into Athena and her owls' discussion. The three of them tilted their heads as if trying to understand what she was saying, making Sally feel put on the spot.

"Maybe it's a bit cheesy," Sally went on to say, "but they always say that the most important ingredient in cooking and baking is love. The first two times you were so focused on me and what I was doing, you weren't thinking about anything else other than doing it right. This last time, you talked about your kids," Sally trailed off but Athena's mind was revving at full throttle.

What Sally said made sense. While she might have sworn off romantic and sexual love, Athena was not foolish enough to pretend love was not one of the most powerful forces in the world. Rhea's love for her children led her to betray her husband, the first seed in the bloom of rebellion against the Titans. It was Odysseus' love for his wife and son that gave him the strength to fight at Troy for ten long years and endure ten more just to get home. While she loathed to admit it, and there was more to it than just love, it was Perseus and Annabeth's love that helped them survive Tartarus against all odds.

Athena was not trying to do something grand as those deeds, she was just trying to make cookies because Sally told her too. But it did not change that what Sally said made sense to her.

"Perhaps we could try again to see if I can replicate a good batch like this," Athena did her best to sound neutral, but failed to keep the hope out of her voice.

"Of course," Sally said with a smile, "we have enough ingredients to keep trying." She had brought up Athena's kids to take her mind off of failing. Maybe she was good at this teaching thing.

The two of them tried and tried again, Athena telling Sally about her children while also asking about Perseus and Estella. They made a dozen batches by the time they ran out of ingredients and every surface of Sally's kitchen was covered in completed batches of cookies. Dozens of them were a success compared to the first two. Sally collapsed into a nearby chair from exhaustion. She didn't do this much baking when she worked at the sweet shop, but it was the good kind of tired.

Athena felt similar, though her godly constitution would not let her tire out easily, it still felt good to spend an afternoon telling stories about her children and making delicious cookies. Sally had been right, it turns out love is key to good baking, something Athena would keep in mind for the future.

"I am unsure of what to do with all of these," Athena admitted. She surveyed the room and there were little gray owl cookies everywhere. "Perhaps we should have thought about that before we made so many."

"You can take them," Sally told her, "give them to your kids and other people in your life," she suggested. "They're the reason we were able to succeed after all."

Sally's words made sense. "Budo, Tamsin," Athena called out to her owls who were currently lounging in the Jackson-Blofis living room playing with Estella.

Paul and Estella had come home in the middle of their baking bonanza. With little room for two owls in the kitchen, Athena's helpers decided that playing with the newborn baby was more interesting than babysitting their mistress. Paul hadn't been too keen on two magical massive birds being anywhere close to his baby girl, but relented when Athena gave him her word that no harm would come to Estella.

Besides, Estella loved her two winged playmates with the joy only a child could. Still duty called and the two owls zipped into the kitchen at their mistress' command.

"Box up the bounty," Athena told them, and the two owls went to work that only birds under Athena's employ could manage. It took less than a minute for the dozens upon dozens of cookies to be wrapped up neatly and evenly in the boxes Athena summoned to carry them. While they did that, Athena collected all the plates, pans, and baking sheets once they were confection free and with a wave of her hand they were clean, not a crumb left.

"Thank you for your help today," Athena told Sally sincerely. "I do not get many days where I can do something enjoyable like bake all day."

"I am happy to help," Sally said, especially now that her kitchen was clean. She expected to spend the rest of the night cleaning what couldn't fit in the dishwasher so this was a pleasant surprise.

Athena took a box off the mountain of boxes and put it in front of Sally, "I hate to ask for more favors, but since you are more likely to see Annabeth before I do, could you please give this to her?" When Sally accepted, Athena picked up another box and offered it to her, "and if you would be willing, would you accept this from me, as a thank you for teaching me today."

Sally was going to tell Athena there was no need, but she saw that the goddess couldn't meet her eyes and was blushing, clearly embarrassed so Sally accepted, "of course, thank you Athena."

Athena gave her a smile, a real warm smile and a nod, "come Tamsin, we must be going, we have taken up too much of Sally's time already. Budo, good work today, treat Sally and her family, dine out order in, whatever they wish." And before Sally could say another word Athena was gone from her apartment. Only the two boxes of cookies left behind were any evidence that there had been a goddess in her apartment at all.

So I hope you all liked it. I will admit, I kind of ended it abruptly because I had too, otherwise I probably could have wasted another week writing another thousand words rambling because I couldn't end it. I still hope you guys liked it And some notes because I cannot stop talking about my work
* I think love being the most important thing in cooking/baking is kind of cheesy, but I also love it. My headcanon is that while Sally is a great cook, she is also someone who is so full of love and it's always in her food. In my story gods and demigods can actually taste the love she puts into her food so it tastes even better to them than it normally would.
* I might have made some choices because it is my story to write. Somethings that aren't super important to the plot but make sense to me so I added. I am a trans lesbian, I like to see people like me in writing, even if I have to do it myself so everyone is going to be queer unless stated otherwise.
* that's why I gave Malcolm two moms, (technically three with Athena) why I hinted at Sally maybe having a quick thing with Amphitrite when she was younger, why Budo is a nonbinary lesbian owl. If you don't like it I suggest you ignore it or find a new story to read. It's not going to be super important (except for one instance) but it's going to be her throughout my story because I like to populate my world with other queer people.
*anyway, if you have any ideas for any future lessons I would love to hear about them and maybe use. Also if you have any names for owls or Athena kids I would love to hear them because I am bad at names and don't want to use the same ones over and over again. In the books despite having a dozen kids at CHB, we only learn the name of 2 of them including Annabeth, there is also Zane who I guess is a new character in shorts stories, but I never read them and don't know why they take place so he probably wont' be used.
I'm gonna shut up now so I can work on the next chapter while I still have the drive. If you liked this leave a comment and kudos, I try to respond to comments whenever I post the lastest chapters