Sally Jackson was a smart woman.
She wasn't just normal smart, either. Percy's mother was a more dangerous breed, the kind of person that always got her way but made you think it was somehow your own idea. Athena might have had a higher IQ score, but her detached apathy made her markedly less persuasive. Poseidon might have seen more of the world, but when you had a hammer the size of his aura every problem looked like a nail even when it was a screw. No, Percy knew that his mom was a combination of two of the most sinister things.
Sally Jackson was not just smart, but smart and kind. That mix is what made her truly scary. Percy found that out less than an hour after Peitho's delivered steak lunch.
Aphrodite had been the picture of a woman scorned at the beginning of the meal, throwing almost physically dangerous levels of bedroom eyes at the sky bearer at every opportunity. Ghostly hands trailed over the sky bearer's cheeks, dragging phantom thumbs across his bottom lip so frequently Percy had taken to shoveling food into his mouth just to keep it occupied. Aphrodite even made eating sexual, running her mouth and tongue over her utensils in a way that made it impossible for Percy to wrench his eyes away.
Aphrodite didn't have to moan with each bite. She still did, and it still worked.
Each look and tease made leaving the comfort of the sheets inadvisable, since not even biting his cheek and doing math in his head fully killed Percy's erection. What he wouldn't have given to know how to summon his own clothing at that moment. That was yet another thing he needed to learn - hopefully sooner rather than later. It took remarkable control to keep his aura from rattling the paintings off the walls every few minutes.
Peitho, as usual, was quite unaffected. For anyone who didn't know the Housekeeper she would have seemed the picture of a stalwart professional. The minor goddess didn't even so much as break a sweat even when Aphrodite glared holes in the back of her head. Percy, though, could tell that she was greatly enjoying their collective suffering beneath that calm front. The woman had been obviously holding in chuckles as she smoothly took their empty plates.
Things settled down eventually. When Aphrodite wasn't trying to light fires with her stare and Percy could somehow ignore his own raging hormones, the atmosphere was far more relaxed than it had any right to be. It was more than just the beach white-noise or the bubbling of the hot tub. There was a certain comfort in the manor's master bedroom, a kind borne from millennia of familiarity. The food was good, and despite not many words being exchanged at first, the sky bearer was inclined to say the same thing about the company.
The Housekeeper and the love deity crafted a finely-tuned balance as Percy observed, where the ribbing went just enough to cause a pout but never so far as to be taken seriously. Peitho's 'You're looking a bit warm there, My Lady. Should I turn down the thermostat?' nearly had him choking on a bite of steak. Aphrodite hit back with a petulant 'Bite me', which earned her a 'You'll have to ask the young master for that.' When the love deity turned his way with a growing smirk, the sky bearer carefully pretended to be engrossed in the view of the courtyard out the windows.
Honestly, the young god could understand why his mother had fit in so well. That sort of thing was just right up her alley. Truly, the three women of the house were a terrifying trio.
Never one to stay on the back foot, Aphrodite would always hit back at her oldest friend with a snarky remark but her tone never had any real teeth. More than once, the sky bearer had to hide a laugh behind his tray as the two bantered. The defined roles made themselves clear almost immediately - Peitho always took the high road, preferring subtlety as opposed to Aphrodite's blatant vocal wit.
It was clear that the pair acted much less like, well, goddesses when around each other. They brought out a youthfulness in each other that Percy hadn't been quite expecting. It was a good look for Aphrodite. With the soft sunlight falling across her sharp features and the dash of red on her cheeks, Percy found it extremely hard to even look away.
There was a humanity hiding beneath all of his goddess' sass, a sort of relatable energy Percy had often glimpsed but never seen so blatantly in the open. It only made his musings on her unadorned fingers especially acute. When the Housekeeper eventually made to leave, Percy instantly noticed the energy diminish.
Unwilling (or perhaps too willing) to be left alone in a room with a clearly ravenous goddess, Percy had decided that marked his cue. It wasn't as if he had said much anyway, so he foolishly allowed himself to believe that his presence had been forgotten. When the man stood from the bed, however, Percy was hit with something that he had not quite expected. The sheer force of it froze any attempt to escape immediately. As the sky bearer found out, Aphrodite didn't just know bedroom eyes.
She could do puppy-dog eyes, too.
In a matter of moments, things spiraled from stammered apologies to Percy thrown across the sheets onto his back and Aphrodite's tongue down his throat. The love deity didn't leave their next kiss to chance - she pinned him down with her entire body. Hands around his wrists, thighs on his hips, chest on his chest. Percy couldn't have even bucked her off if he wanted to. The young god was swallowed up, wholly and completely in the sensation of his goddess once again. It didn't take long for her to prove that her oral gymnastics weren't just limited to practically fellating her own silverware.
Aphrodite was insatiable, Percy had dimly realized. It wasn't as if he wasn't much better, though. Percy at least attempted to give as good as he got, though he inevitably fell far short. That was especially true when his goddess bit at his lip or licked the hollow of his throat or did that thing with her tongue that had to be some sort of kissing witchcraft.
It was only when Aphrodite started practically humping his leg again did the son of Poseidon finally come back to his senses. Peitho was long gone, which meant they were rapidly approaching far too dangerous territory once again. It took a few more minutes to convince Aphrodite to let go, most of which she spent spreading butterfly kisses across his cheeks and attempting to work a hand underneath his shirt.
In the end, Percy finally managed it. His exit found Aphrodite sitting sideways across the bed, her tan skin glowing with barely restrained divine energy. It only made the love deity even more radiant than usual. The effect was only multiplied by her outfit (or, rather, the almost lack of one). The sky bearer was sure that the image of his betrothed there, half-naked with flushed cheeks and bruised lips and eyes only for him, would stick around in his brain for a long time.
Leaving his pouting goddess there in that bed was one of the hardest things Percy had ever done. The whole world seemed to dim as the young god moved to leave, a piece of his soul left there on the sheets with Aphrodite. Each step was harder than the last, that chain connecting their cores growing taught and painful with the distance.
That connection's call was enough to pull Percy back to the room, even after he had already opened the door and stepped halfway out. Aphrodite's eyes had widened at his hasty approach, her torso even shifting back a little bit as he power walked back to the bed. Clouds exploded underfoot high enough to lick his waist with each thundering step. A bit of teal-fire infused courage found the sky bearer grabbing his goddess' cheeks and looking her dead in the eyes before pressing her into one last, burning kiss.
"I love you."
Percy left the words on Aphrodite's tongue, whispered them into her full, delicious lips. It was the first time he had said it out loud. The first time he had admitted it, without any excuses or half-measures. That didn't make it less true.
Percy used a few fingers of wind to snag his belongings from her end table while his goddess was distracted. She glowed like a magenta lantern, sparkling like her skin was infused with glitter. The young god knew he was doing the same, a matching teal for her rose. Aphrodite's reply had been dazed, delayed several seconds after their kiss had finished.
"I love you too."
The love deity's entire form was burning brighter than a pink star, her lap covered by Percy's glowing fog. Aphrodite's hair had begun floating again, literally wrapping around the young god's neck in tiny, grabbing tendrils when he pulled away. Her ghostly hands were much more insistent, a pair each for both arms. Before she could fully reel him back in, Percy had escaped the room with a goofy smile, a painful hard-on, and still no pants.
The sky bearer all but sprinted back to his familiar guest suite, wondering if this was the last time he would be inside. That prospect didn't frighten Percy as much as it probably should have. The air behind his dashing form turned each manor hallway into a miniature wind tunnel, dragging the drapes and any loose decorations in the young god's direction each time he passed a window. It looked almost like a movie scene, the way each footfall spawned low-lying fog across the carpets.
The half-clothed Jackson encountered a few staff members along his route, none of whom gave an outward reaction to his lack of clothing. They had seen much worse, obviously. Just because their Lady was a bit more mellow now didn't mean she had been for the past several thousand years. There was a reason the bedrooms were all soundproofed.
In fact, most of the staff seemed rather chipper as Percy dashed past. A few sported knowing grins, and one of the younger maids had almost clapped in excitement as he breezed past. There was no faster animal on earth than the gossip mill on Olympus, after all. Aphrodite's memories made that much clear, especially because she had run the thing for basically forever.
Within the hour, every major house in the city would know that Percy and his betrothed had spent the night together for the first time - and that was if his goddess decided to actively try and slow the spread by banning her staff from speaking about it. To Percy, that didn't seem like the choice Aphrodite would make. The young god wasn't sure he would have preferred her to do it anyway. The son of Poseidon was so far above cloud nine he didn't even care who knew. Let them talk. If it ruined Ares' morning, all the better.
Percy took that cold shower he had been thinking about.
It was long, and yet somehow not nearly cold enough. The only thing that kept the wound-up sky bearer from relieving himself onto the bathroom tile was the sudden notion that Aphrodite would probably know. She was the goddess of those things, right? And really, wouldn't she ask to do it for him instead? With the way she had been using that fork . . . oh, who was he kidding. It's not like he would have had the will to say no.
Percy had added an extra ten minutes under the freezing spray just for those thoughts alone. It still wasn't enough.
Whether it was merely paranoia or just nerves born from Percy's vocal declaration of love made little difference. The idea of using his hand, instead of just sprinting back to the master suite, lost all appeal. Rather than indulging in either option, the sky bearer decided to make haste to the training grounds to work off the rest of his pent-up energy. For an Olympian, that was certainly a good amount. Enough to have his fingers jittering at a near-constant pace and the floor rattling beneath his feet.
The son of Poseidon quickly retrieved a suitably athletic outfit from his now puny-looking wardrobe and re-donned his locket. Percy had faith that Riptide would appear back in his pocket as he hustled from the suit, down a couple sets of stairs, and out in the sunny courtyard air. He considered it a victory that he had the self control not to just catapult out of the bedroom window. This time, the young god let himself enjoy the pleasant walk without worrying about whether it was his memories or Aphrodite's that made it so.
When Percy got to the lawn, Sally was waiting.
"Oh, Percy!" Her voice almost caused the sky bearer to jump out of his shoes, whipping his head around. "Good morning!"
Percy dropped his hand off the handle to the great double-doors of the training building, turning to find his mother's smaller form rounding the corner of the outdoor track that looped the entire facility. It took her only a minute to run up to him, jogging a bit in place and looking his form up and down.
Their outfits were matching, no doubt due to Aphrodite's influence. A pale pink top with black shorts, though Percy's legs were long enough that they would have been capris on his mother. Although, with how much larger his quads were, they may have been more appropriate as a sort of strange two-pronged dress.
"How are you doing?" Sally's voice knocked Percy out of that odd train of thought. "It's good to see you out, hun." The elder Jackson was smiling and sweaty with her hair tied back again. There was a glint in her gaze that made her son decidedly nervous. His heart warred between being glad to see her and fearful of the eventual teasing he knew was coming.
"Good." The not-so-distant memory of a soft pair of lips on his own had Percy's neck flushing red against his will. "Really good, mom." Was he still smiling like a complete fool? Probably. Maybe that's why she was looking at him that way. Either that or the way the blades of grass around his shoes were bending into tight, coalescing spirals from the localized wind.
"Mhm." Sally gave up her little stationary jog to start stretching her arms across the front of her torso. The streaks of gray in her hair shone in Apollo's sun, but not more so than her discerning blue eyes. "I was worried, you know?" Uh oh. "You had quite a bit to drink last night from what I heard." Heard from who?! Peitho?
"Oh, yeah." Percy winced, reflexively running a hand through his ashy curls as he avoided his mother's piercing gaze before dropping his arm to fiddle with his engagement band. "Sorry. For ignoring you." He gave the shorter woman what he hoped was a sincere and suitably apologetic expression, even tilting his head down a couple of extra degrees for good measure. That was probably more effective back when he wasn't a foot taller than her.
"You don't sound too sorry." The younger Jackson stiffened. "In fact, you seem rather happy to have ignored your mother." Sally's voice was that dangerous false calm again. She was holding her left ankle behind her hips to stretch, balancing perfectly on one leg and skewering her son with an even stare. "I know you're an adult now, but that doesn't mean you should be reckless with those sorts of things." She wagged a finger in Percy's direction. "I went to my fair share of parties, hun. Having Dionysus' wine for your first drink is the equivalent of my friend Martha doing six tequila shots and passing out in her own vomit near the end of our junior year in high school."
"What?" Percy couldn't help but sputter. "Is that true?" His eyes were almost spinning as he tried to imagine his sweet mother at some alcohol-filled rager. The pale silhouettes of birds far above echoed the circular motion. He could feel their massive wing beats like little ants walking across the top of his brain.
Sally just calmly switched legs. "Sure is."
"Wow. Glad that didn't happen to me." Percy cursed his loose lips a moment later when his mother slowly raised one eyebrow. "I mean, um-" The personification of wind felt like a small child for a brief moment. "I really am sorry. It wasn't the wine that made me happy, promise." Percy shook his head ruefully, before raising his hand again to tug on the nearby door handle. "You were definitely right about that part, anyway." The large barn-style portal whispered open on oiled hinges, the large shaded space opening up in front of the two Jacksons.
"Oh?" When his mother's eyebrow didn't drop, Percy realized he had walked right into her trap. "What has you so happy, then?" The elder Jackson led the two into the building, apparently abandoning her workout to continue their conversation. The sky bearer swallowed as he followed suit, noting that various straw dummies that were already placed and waiting inside the large dirt-floored space. "Did something happen between you and Aphrodite? Peitho said she checked your room this morning, but . . ." The look she shot him had Percy nearly uncapping Riptide for his own protection. "You weren't there." He knew it.
For a single moment, the young god contemplated turning to the weapons rack against the left wall and ignoring the question. He barely stopped himself by grabbing and twisting at his ring with heavy tugs. He was an adult now, like she had said. A god, no less! Percy had the right to his own business, mother or not.
That wouldn't earn him any points with Sally, though. Plus, he did love her. A lot. Damn. Percy mulled over what to say while dropping his jittery hands to take out his sword.
"Yeah, actually." Riptide's blade let out a joyful ringing sound as it practically exploded from its plastic pen form. The leather handle was humming in his palm, though that was probably just from Percy's own restless energy. "Something did happen." The younger Jackson admitted, coming to terms with the fact that his blush probably wasn't going away anytime soon. "Something good." He twirled the celestial bronze sword in his hand leisurely, careful to stand far enough away from his mother. The motion was relaxing to a strange degree.
"Uh huh." Her voice made it clear she had gathered that much.
"Nothing crazy!" Percy deflected, watching from the side of his vision as his mother folded her arms. The closest dummy was one a bit above human-sized, with a few plates attached to it like hog-podge armor. "Just, you know." Riptide punctured the metal like wet tissue paper as the sky bearer went through a few basic forms on instinct. "Good." Percy finished lamely, face still hot. He couldn't even use exercise as an excuse to not speak, since being winded seemed out of the realms of possibility for the 'paragon of endurance'.
"You can talk to me, Percy." Sally found a bit of pity for her blushing son, completely aware of his attempt to use his sword as a way to not look in her direction. "I'm not actually mad, even if . . . you know." She uncrossed her arms, taking a more leisurely stance.
"No, I get it." Percy shifted his right leg backward, making sure his weight distribution was correct before lunging and throwing his shoulder forward fast enough to ripple the surrounding air. "I would have talked to you about it anyway." The words seemed to flow with his movement, free and easy. Riptide punched out the back of the dummy with explosive force, the divine-backed strike enough to cleave even a tough-skinned monster in two. "Eventually. You kinda already guessed it, anyway." Straw cascaded to the floor as Percy pirouetted on the ball of his planted left foot, using the spin to pull the xiphos through the dummy's ribcage and out its shoulder in a surely deadly motion.
That much was true. Admitting you loved someone was a big deal, especially for a man as emotionally stunted as Percy often found himself. That was still the case even when everyone apparently knew before you did and you were already engaged to said someone. He still couldn't quite believe that he had the guts to say it.
Love was just such a big, bubbly emotion that sometimes Percy didn't know what to do with all of the sheer feeling. It was so different to Othrys, so far removed from the times when he had gone months, maybe years without experiencing anything at all. This new existence was a tapestry of saturated color to a brain used to nothing but black and white, shades of endless gray. Waking up in the same bed as his goddess had nearly paralyzed him, mind completely blank and overwhelmed. Kissing Aphrodite hadn't helped, not with that part at least. That had only made it worse.
Percy still knew he was definitely going to do it again many, many times. He ignored his blush by completing his spin, turning to the next dummy. This one was minotaur-sized, over ten feet tall and equally as thick in the middle. Riptide flashed like a striking snake, the demigod-turned-Olympian focusing on hitting important ligaments and tendons. Achilles, hamstring, the common extensor in each elbow.
"So?" Sally sat down, folding cross-legged. "Let's talk, then." She was apparently unconcerned about both the soil dirtying her shorts and by way Percy's restless wind kept a galaxy's worth of tiny pebbles floating a quarter-inch off the barren floor. "What happened?" The sky bearer got the distinct feeling he was still being led by the nose to somewhere, like his mother could see a certain end to the conversation that he couldn't. "You did spend the night with her."
"I slept, mostly." Percy answered. His mother snorted. "Really!" The younger Jackson insisted, before letting out a bit of a laugh. It was so easy to be happy with Riptide in hand, even as his arms used it to mechanically disassemble the massive training dummy. "We, uh." His face warmed again. "We did kiss, though. A bunch." He decided not to mention the grinding and humping and near-climax part.
"Oh, Percy!" Sally clapped a couple of times. Her voice was joyful, as if she was trying to catch up on the years of her son's teenage shenanigans that they had both had robbed from them. "That's wonderful. I knew you had it in you." Her words warmed his heart a thousand times more than Poseidon's praise the previous night had ever come close to. "Ready to admit, yet? The big 'L' word?"
The woman leaned forward from her seat, a motion Percy's aura could sense even with his back turned. His mother really was his biggest cheerleader, teasing aside. She had definitely been poking and prodding him along since that conversation in the guest bedroom. It seems the elder Jackson was taking particular pride in how things were working out, which was good.
She deserved it.
A perfectly executed rising strike, one that had Percy jumping several feet in the air, caught the underside of the dummy's chin. The force ripped the thing's head from its neck with spectacular velocity. The sky bearer landed casually, unaffected by the superhuman leap. Percy turned to his next target, this one long and flexible like a sized-up snake with a human's upper body.
"I did, actually." He felt proud of himself. That was a new and very welcome feeling. "Last night, mostly. When we met her kids." The image of the darling Eloise on Aphrodite's hip had him smiling, even as a blurring dash buried his blade into the dummy's chest. "It went a lot better than I thought." He admitted freely. Talking like this was infinitely better than in some bright, boring, empty corridor. Riptide sang as he pulled it free for several more experimental jabs.
"Did you tell her?" There was weight to that question. A couple pebbles fell from Percy's aura's orbit as his mother poked at them absently. "It's not real until you tell her." Sally said, tiring of her idle experimentation and leaning back on her palms again. "Not that you had to worry about being turned down." Percy's mother chuckled a bit, watching as her son tore a third straw-filled body to shreds as casually as taking a morning stroll. "That woman's got it worse than you, you know."
"Yeah, this morning." Percy paused his casual and borderline horrific disassembly of the various dummies to smile at his mother. "She said it back."
He could still almost hear it. I love you too. Those four words and the energy they had inspired made it so clear why the goddess of love held so much power. At that moment Percy had been willing to fight another war for Aphrodite, and she hadn't even been influencing him! Well, not in the normal Olympian way.
He knew it was long in the past, but Percy could understand how mortals had literally fought themselves to death over his goddess' favor. Percy already got jealous of other men looking her way, and he actually was the sole focus of Aphrodite's attention. Her domains were scary, and that was coming from the 'saint of duels and swordplay'. The sky bearer was glad she was on his side, in more ways than one.
During his musings, another couple dummies fell. The sky bearer was so distracted that he ended up tearing the four arms off of one with nothing but his wind control alone. Now that Percy had been given time to digest it, the events of the morning had the young god feeling light. Free. Happy, really. It was a new normal he could get used to.
The story of Aphrodite and Venus and New Rome ate at him, obviously. The teal flame in Percy's chest burned hotly at the thought of so many dead demigods, fiery enough he could almost feel it glowing from underneath his skin. Even still, it didn't weigh on him that much more than the memories of The Burden already did.
Percy was always planning to kill Atlas. That hadn't changed.
Oblivious to her son's dark thoughts, Sally looked equal parts pleased and vindicated. "I knew you could do it." She said it so honestly that Percy felt a bit silly for ever doubting himself. "I guess you'll be sleeping in her bedroom from now on, Percy?" Her amused tone tipped her son a bit off balance, each word building to an impending tease. "I don't think Aphrodite will have a shortage of condoms, but if you really need some there's a store down the street that sells them in fifty packs."
Percy nearly stumbled at the number, his next strike going a bit wide. Instead of precisely slashing across a dummy's femoral artery, Riptide warbled and ended up ripping the thing's leg straight off. For a moment he stood, frozen, as the straw-filled enemy teetered before toppling to the ground with a dry puff. Sally was barely trying to conceal her laughter.
"Fifty?" Percy blinked, staring into space with a slack jaw. There were only so many ways you could go through fifty condoms and his brain was valiantly trying to think of them all at the same time. The sky bearer shook his head fiercely to clear it. "That's- I mean-" He sputtered. "Why so many?!"
His mother had to swallow some of her barely-contained joy to speak through her giggles. "I dated your father, Percy. I know what an Olympian's stamina is like." Percy's entire face exploded in red, as he squawked something like 'I didn't need to know that!'. Sally was unphased, shameless. "Plus, you married the goddess of love." She snorted. "All I'm doing is making sure I'm not a grandma too early." Her expression morphed into something more thoughtful. "Honestly, it'll be a miracle if she doesn't end up jumping you in a hallway one of these days. I know the staff have all seen that, but I'd rather not. Maybe Peitho could warn me."
"Mom." Percy had to take two large, calming breaths before speaking again. "Please." His sword hung still at his thigh. "Stop." A swirling wind rushed through the training ground, rattling the weapons in their racks and sending freed straw pieces across the floor in small, active tornadoes. The sky bearer ignored the liquid fog dripping from his fingers and down Riptides' pommel.
Percy didn't want to have sex in a hallway. Really! Mostly. Hypothetically.
Okay, maybe he did.
But only with Aphrodite! And it was really the sex part and not the hallway part and Percy was going to stop thinking about it now. He hated hallways, was the point. The young god really hoped that his goddess couldn't hear his thoughts, lest he find her waiting at the manor entrance wearing nothing but that thin sleeping dress and a hungry smile.
Actually? That didn't sound so bad.
"You're drooling, son."
Percy yelped as his mother broke into laughter again, furiously wiping at his chin. There was nothing there when he pulled his hand away, which made him glower and Sally giggle even harder. The young god could feel his eyes glowing, that internal storm summoned by his heated emotions. His mother, as usual, didn't even flinch. After a moment trying to stare her down, the younger Jackson realized he had already lost the battle.
"Screw you, mom." Percy definitely wasn't pouting, and when he stomped his foot he most assuredly did not put an inch-deep indent into the soil and rattle the whole building. Anyone who claimed otherwise was a liar and a thief. The sky bearer was still just training and not sulking like a preteen.
To prove it Percy tossed Riptide into the air and flipped his sword hand, grabbing the grip with his thumb, pointer finger, and ring finger. With no more effort than throwing a dart, the blade erupted from his fingertips, blurring across the space the cleave straight through another dummy's face tip first. Before his chosen weapon could hit the ground, the sky bearer clenched his jaw and furrowed his eyebrows while keeping his arm raised.
Riptide hung in the air for a moment, before seeming to perfectly reverse the motion. The end of the pommel went right back through the hole the blade had just created before flying across the space and meeting Percy's outstretched hand. The young god let go with his wind once Riptide was back in his grasp, huffing out in a mixture of released effort and embarrassment.
"Wow!" Sally had stopped laughing. "That was impressive, Percy!" She leaned forward to clap a couple of times.
"Thanks, mom." He shot her a smile over his shoulder. "I've been practicing." He got a wide grin in return. His mother looked loose and relaxed in a way she hadn't since his return. It was good to see her returning to the person Percy remembered. What a difference a few days could make.
It was still a dumb name, 'personification practice', but it was an apt one. Percy hadn't even had the time to move on to any of his other domains yet - being the wind itself was just so versatile that the young god kept coming up with new ways to use his extended sense of self. Percy was no longer bound by his wingspan or physical speed. Anything in sight was within reach.
It was good for more than just fighting, too. Seeing, hearing, moving, even flying eventually seemed possible. Every time he tapped into that teal flame there was another tiny part of his brain that finally accepted that he was the wind and that the wind was him. The connection came easier, burned stronger. Percy had already started using it for everyday things almost without realizing it.
Rather than feel like he was losing his humanity, it often felt like the son of Poseidon was finally growing into his own divine skin. He was only a week in, for Hades' sake! Add in clouds, and then his water powers, and then throw on being the king of rivers and the lord of a few animals and it was simply overwhelming. Hades had said Percy would need a couple hundred years of practice before catching up. That certainly seemed to be true.
"So, what's your plan now?" His mother's next question was posed more carefully. Percy was, once again, struck by the feeling that she had subtly taken back control of the conversation. "I don't think you'd be happy, just sitting up here all the time."
Sally had switched her legs to put her feet flat on the floor, resting her arms and then her chin on her knees. She observed her son with a subtle yet no less impressive level of perception. The wrinkles around her eyes returned from where the woman's mirth had smoothed them out.
"You don't know?" Percy looked for his next target, and was momentarily stumped when he found that his new trick had destroyed the last standing dummy in the whole arena. The sky bearer tipped his head to one side, a touch unsatisfied, but ended up capping his pen and turning to his mother. "I thought Peitho would have told you." It only took him a few strides to reach Sally's spot on the floor, where he dropped his rear to the hard ground and matched the woman's posture. "We're going to Camp Half Blood tomorrow."
Percy's voice echoed a bit in the huge room, something he hadn't really noticed before. His green snaked across the floor before wrapping around his mother's ankles, the motion a sort of unconscious protectiveness. To a mortal, the sensation of being surrounded by a god's aura must have been at least a bit disconcerting. Sally, however, had never given any indication that her son's new power phased her one bit. It was just one more thing Percy loved about her.
Down here on the ground, despite the hundred-foot ceiling and the towering marble walls, things felt rather intimate. Just a boy and his mother sitting so close their shoes almost touched. The nearness allowed the elder Jackson to reach each of the hundred warring emotions contained within her son's last sentence.
"You met them, then? Your old friends?" Percy gave a shaky nod, caught somewhere between being excited and petrified. Sally reached out to tap his knee with a hand. "That's good, Percy." She smiled at him, her expression the comforting kind that only a mother could make. "You and Grover were inseparable before . . . you know. And Annabeth was such a nice girl when I met her." There was something a bit wistful in the elder Jackson's eyes.
Percy didn't remember any of that. That actually made him feel a bit worse. The ashen-haired man shuffled his feet a bit, tapping the ends of his shoes against his mother's sneakers. In lieu of holding Riptide, his fingers had started twisting his ring again. Back and forth.
The clouds inside swirled slowly, just like the thin fog that crawled down his shoulders. It was strange, how just sitting down and capping his sword made Percy feel years younger and half as confident. His mother had a way of bringing out the vulnerable side of him that the sky bearer usually tried to ignore. Maybe that's where Aphrodite had learned it from.
"I think Grover is going to put on a party." Percy let his eyes roam a bit, taking in the way the sun sent shafts of bright light through the row of clear windows just beneath the vaulted ceiling. "It was his idea." The sky bearer shrugged one shoulder. "I think . . ." Percy bit at his bottom lip. "I think things at the camp aren't great right now. He wanted to give everyone something to be excited about, I guess." The young god swayed in his seat, using a few fingers of air to arrange the surrounding loose straw into small, orderly piles. "It'll be more fun than last night. I hope."
"Well, as long as you enjoy it." Sally had been watching Percy's absent use of his wind powers as he talked. She turned to make eye contact again. "You're good at making people happy, Percy. I think you'll have a good time." The sky bearer wasn't so sure. It only registered to the younger Jackson that his mother was speaking as if she wouldn't be attending a few seconds later.
"Mom?" Percy tilted his head. "You're coming, right?" Asking the question out loud made him feel silly. "I told Peitho you were coming." That didn't stop a tiny black-hole of anxiety from spawning in the young god's gut.
"I don't think so." Sally stated it nonchalantly, as if she hadn't noticed the way Percy's breath hitched. "I'm not as caught up on my writing as I'd like. I thought I'd stay here and let you and Aphrodite go." Somehow, she was still pretending to miss the way her son's eyes had widened to saucers.
"What?" It shouldn't have been a big deal. "You're not coming?" It shouldn't. But the idea of going a whole day without seeing his mother had Percy's left hand shaking and his wind tearing apart the straw piles and his lungs constricted in his chest.
"Okay, Percy. Take a deep breath." Sally's fingers were warm on his knee when she reached over. The sky bearer did as she asked, and then took a second for good measure. His mother only continued when his hand had stopped trembling. "I think it'll be good for you to go without me."
"Why?" Percy didn't understand. "I want you there." His ring twisted harshly against his knuckle, the fingertips of his right hand white with the pressure.
"And I'm very flattered, son. I love you." His mother was speaking, moving slowly as if approaching a wounded animal. "But I think it's time for you to strike out on your own, just a bit." She held up both hands to stall the slew of word vomit that was crawling up Percy's throat. "You'll have Aphrodite there with you, right? And your friends, too. I'll still be here when you get back." Her smile was trying to be gentle and reassuring but Percy just really wasn't feeling it.
"Yeah, but I want you-"
"I can't be with you all the time, Percy." Sally's interruption was stern, so much so that Percy's jaw snapped shut with an audible 'click'. Her expression softened at his panicked gaze. "You've been doing really good. This is part of getting even better, hun." She patted his knee again, the clouds around their spot on the floor thick enough to obscure the soil beneath. "Lean on your fiancé, Percy. You know I had some . . . doubts-" the word sounded shaky coming from her mouth. "-and I still do, but Aphrodite makes you happy and that makes me happy. Let her help you. Just for a few hours." Her face was tender in a way that made her son's heart hurt.
Percy opened his mouth, then closed it. He could feel his features twisting up, knotting his eyebrows together tighter than a live wire. The young god wanted to argue, to stand and shout and maybe cry a bit. But he couldn't, because she was right. His mother seemed to always be right.
"You don't even want to come down?" Percy's last attempt was as pitiful as allowing the words to escape made him feel. "Not even to visit family or something?" Surely, whatever plan Peitho had cooked up could be adjusted.
Sally shook her head. "There's nothing left down there for me, hun." The woman's voice was as soft as her loving expression.
The sky bearer's chest ached something terribly. His mother sounded so nonchalant but the idea made Percy feel so horribly sad. Sad and angry. The Burden hadn't been satisfied with just robbing the younger Jackson of his previous life. No, it had gone on to do the same to the elder by proxy.
A flash of a thought came and went, quicker than Percy could pin it down - could Aphrodite help? Another twist of the ring around his finger and the idea was gone.
Percy shut his eyes and took a few more breaths, forcibly reducing the death-grip his fingers had found on the sparkling engagement band. His swirling air bat a few ashy curls across his forehead as the sky bearer tried to calm. The tickling sensation was just enough to work as a grounding force. The process required more than two inhales this time. Sally waited patiently as her son took five, and then a sixth, before opening his eyes and speaking again.
"Okay." Percy's voice came out small. Hoarse. "Okay." His favorite word, back again. The young god met his mother's deep blue gaze.
"Think of it this way." Even without his vision, Percy could have still caught her growing smile. "It could be like your first date!" The woman's grin was wide and blinding. She seemed unreasonably excited about that idea.
Percy can only look at his mother, incredulous. "Her kids are going to be there, mom."
"So?" The elder Jackson shrugged. "Aren't they going to be your kids, too?"
"Some of them are older than me!" Percy threw his arms in the air, the wind around him following suit fast enough to nearly take his shirt off.
"You're marrying a woman with children. That's the way things go. Maybe not the age part, but Olympus is weird like that." Sally remained casual, swirling a hand through the floor-hugging fog. The end of her short ponytail was tugged about by Percy's agitation. "It's not all that strange, really. Things like this happen among us mortals all the time."
The young god didn't quite like the way he was excluded from her categorization of 'us mortals'. He also didn't appreciate how his mother used it to describe herself, as if there was something wrong with that fact. Percy narrowed his eyes but decided against speaking up, brushing a few bits of previously flung straw out of his hair.
"I guess you're right." Imagine that. Percy lowered his hand to place it over his mother's on his knee, using her warmth as a way to push down that growing black pit of fear in his gut. "I'm just . . ." Petrified? Going to be sick? "Scared."
"It's okay to be scared." Percy's mother seems to be channeling her inner Hestia. "Everyone gets scared sometimes." She shook his knee side to side a few inches, her expression light-hearted.
"Even gods?" Percy asks, managing to dredge up a smiley so watery his father would be proud.
"Even gods." Sally laughed.
The elder Jackson allowed the lightened atmosphere to stew for a few moments before pulling her hand away and going to stand up. Percy rose with her, patting down his legs as he did so. The sky bearer found himself grateful that his knees held his weight even after having another near-freakout. It had been a close thing, but it seemed that Percy's streak of 'days without a climactic breakdown' would remain unbroken for the time being.
Yippee.
"So, are you going to dress up?" Percy was knocked out of his own thoughts once again, looking up to find his mother already near the exit and waiting for him. The young god hurried to her side, crossing the distance in only two long strides.
"What?" Percy tried not to feel bad about the absolute dummy decimation he left behind for Aphrodite's staff as they left the building. "Dress up? It's not really a date, mom." His mother had just rolled her eyes, muttering something about 'stubborn boys'. Percy resisted the childish urge to stick out his tongue at her.
She did bring up a good point though. About dating in general, not this specific instance. Percy had never been on a date. Sure, Aphrodite had been on probably more than anyone else in the history of the universe, but the memories she had chosen to impart during his imprisonment tended to steer clear of her previous romances. That was probably due to some combination of shame and a general desire to move on. At least, that's what Percy thought.
When the younger Jackson tugged open the massive double doors, Apollo's sun overhead had crested well past its peak. The green expanse of the manor grounds was as picturesque as ever, a scene so effortlessly peaceful that Percy felt his spine unwind a tad. Being out in the open air always seemed to help, like the gentle breeze was fanning the core of that green-blue flame in his stomach. The distant whispers, which during his almost-breakdown had been louder than his own thoughts, had quieted down to a passive murmur.
As they started across the lawn back to the main building, Sally must have been able to tell that her son was lost in his own thoughts again. It was probably made clear by the way his hands kept fidgeting towards his mouth, as if his body remembered the distant past where a young Percy had habitually bit down his fingernails to smooth nubs. Instead, the woman decided to look forward, enjoy the sunlight, and leave her child to his worried ruminations.
And what was the subject of Percy's thoughts? Dating, obviously, and everything that he didn't know about it.
The sky bearer didn't just not know how to date. He didn't even know where to begin. How was he supposed to ask? What were they supposed to do? Where would he get the money?
Aphrodite would probably like it if he brought flowers, but that meant at some point going out into the city and buying some without her knowing. That was basically impossible, since Percy could have said with absolute certainty that his goddess was still in her bedroom based on the pull of her vows next to his heart. Plus, he hadn't exactly . . . gone out, yet. Anywhere.
Gods. Wasn't he supposed to be twenty or something? Right now the sky bearer felt every inch the nervous, sweaty fourteen year old he used to be.
A day ago, the question of dating probably wouldn't have worried Percy that much. A day ago, however, he hadn't admitted that he loved Aphrodite and said it to her face. A day ago Percy hadn't slept in her bed and then made out in said bed and almost climaxed in his boxers on the. same. bed.
That changed things. Big time.
"Welcome back young master, miss Jackson."
Peitho's voice knocked Percy out of his thoughts with the subtlety of a freight train. When the sky bearer jerked his head up and looked around, his eyes finally took in the fact that he had passed the entire walk back to the manor in complete silence. That was, what, the fourth or fifth time he had spaced out today? At his side, his mother seemed to be holding back amusement after shooting a quick glance up at her son's stricken expression.
"Hello, Peitho," Sally greeted warmly. "Having a good afternoon?"
"Well enough, miss." The Housekeeper's expression stretched into a practiced smile. "Thank you for asking."
Peitho was standing at the top of one of the staircases that led back up into the house, clad in her same outfit from lunch. The spectacle of the massive stairway and great marble columns on either side made her seem disproportionately large. Despite the breeze, that tight bun remained perfectly in place.
With her hands behind her back, the older-appearing minor god watched as the two Jacksons ascended up the stairway. It wasn't until Percy reached the top step that he felt that the tan woman wasn't looming over him anymore. It was obvious she had seen and noted his nervousness.
"Hi, Peitho." Percy greeted, a bit lamely. The tan Housekeeper inclined her head, opening the intricately carved door behind her and curtsying with one smooth motion. Percy let his mother enter first, dragging his feet a bit as he walked past Peitho. "Thanks for the save during lunch." He tried to speak the words low enough that his mother wouldn't hear.
"Of course, My Lord." Peitho's eyes flashed in humor as he crossed by her, the fancy portal whispering shut behind her back. "No need to be hasty." Percy bit back a groan. He just knew that she would be ribbing him subtly about that for the foreseeable future. He had been naïve to think Aphrodite would be the only object of her teasing.
"Oh!" Sally had stopped only a few feet into one of the secondary foyers. Her head was quickly moving from wall to wall. "Did you change the art, Peitho?" Percy wasn't quite sure what she was talking about until he did a double take.
About a third the size of the main foyer right off the front entrance to the manor, the magnificent side-entrance was still decorated enough to easily slip the per-square budget into a space with far too many zeroes. The double-wide portal was flanked on the inside by two masterwork statues, each a life-size pose of a faceless and naked woman that was probably supposed to be Aphrodite if Percy was being honest. The foyer had a double or maybe tripe-high ceiling, which didn't have a living mural at the top but was still painted with a gorgeous forested scene.
Marble floors, occasionally covered with thick plush rugs, stretched for several yards until they hit the base of one of two spiraling stairways that led up the the third floor balcony. Between the two staircases, a brightly lit hallway led further into the depths of the house. On either wall, square floor-to-ceiling windows had the gaps in between filled out by meticulously placed and framed paintings. All in all, it was suitably impressive and mind-bogglingly expensive of a room.
When Percy had exited, the various art pieces had been an eclectic and yet still very impressive mix of landscapes, portraiture, and still-life. Aphrodite loved the arts - maybe not as much as Apollo, but a goddess of beauty had enough stake in such things for it to make sense.
Now, however?
Percy's eyes found nothing but romantic, often work inappropriate, scenes of men and women engaged in the various throes of passion. Clothing had become optional, it seemed, if not highly discouraged. The man resisted the urge to do a quick spin, but it would have only confirmed what he already knew. Not a single piece of artwork had been spared. A particularly spicy scene of a familiar-looking woman with her ankles crossed behind a silver-haired gentleman's neck on the right wall had Percy's blush returning with force.
"That was My Lady, miss." Peitho words were light, yet undeniably amused. "Her aura swept through the manor this morning. A few hours ago, I would say." Percy swallowed. He knew exactly what time period that had been. "The interior is a reflection of her mood, you see." The Housekeeper shot the sky bearer a mischievous glance. "I suppose My Lady is feeling rather . . . romantic, this morning."
Sally hummed, turning to give her son an equally critical eye. He tried his best to not shuffle in place and look entirely guilty. "You don't say?" He was pretty sure he failed, if the way his mother's lips quirked up. Her tone was still amused, though, now that it was clear all three of them were in on the same joke.
Percy decided against saying anything, lest he implicate himself further. He could just be grateful the large statues behind his back hadn't shifted to sex scenes as well. The paintings were one thing - those could be ignored, for the most part. A one-to-one recreation in the third dimension of such a private moment would have taken things to a whole new level. Thankfully, Peitho decided to move on rather than put Percy out of his misery.
"Can I offer any assistance this afternoon?" The question was spoken in the direction of Percy's mother, but he had no doubt the words were intended for him. The way the Housekeeper's eyes never strayed away for too long gave it away.
"I'm alright, thank you." Sally smiled.
The mortal woman went to walk to the right staircase, before pausing and turning back to give Percy a quick hug. The feeling of his mother's arms wrapping around his torso had a great burst of affection erupting in the young god's gut. He was quick to return the embrace.
"I'm proud of you." She whispered into his chest, knowing that Percy would still hear. Those words meant more to him than he could express.
"Thanks, mom." Percy dropped his face to her scalp for a long second. "Love you."
"Love you too."
With that, Sally pulled away and moved to the stairs with a little wave of her hand. Percy and Peitho watched as she ascended, pulling her hair out of its ponytail and talking to herself about taking a long shower. The sky bearer could feel the Housekeeper's gaze on the side of his face. Sure enough, when he turned around he was met by the tan woman's dark eyes.
"Can I offer any assistance this afternoon?" Peitho repeated, this time allowing some of her hidden mirth to seep into her tone and expression. Even with her hands clasped behind her back and her spine ramrod-straight, the minor god was still a good foot shorter than Percy. The height difference mattered little at that moment.
Percy went to say no, before thinking better of it and closing his mouth. For a long moment Peitho merely watched him passively as the wheels in the young god's head churned to life. She never even twitched, even as the son of Poseidon started to twist at his ring with the opposite hand. Scenes of sex and romance looked down on them from every side as Percy finally made up his mind.
"Actually?" The sky bearer let out a great, heaving breath. "I could use some help." The Housekeeper nodded, attentive. The fact that he was actually doing this was not lost on Percy, not in the slightest. "Do you . . . do you know how to plan a date?" He couldn't help how awkward he sounded.
"For My Lady, I assume?" Peitho managed to disguise only about half of the snark in her reply.
"Yes, Peitho." Percy huffed, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. He couldn't be rude when asking for help, after all. "For Aphrodite." The young god kept his face carefully smooth. He didn't doubt that the Housekeeper could see right through it, but he could hope that it was the effort that counted.
Peitho wasn't the kind of person to sabotage whatever plans she helped him come up with for some kind of petty retribution, but it was still a good practice. Eventually he might have to ask other Olympians for assistance, and that was the sort of thing that they definitely would do if he wasn't careful. Percy could think of a dozen instances of that exact phenomenon off the top of his head. After another few breaths where Peitho scrutinized the sky bearer to the point where a mortal would have been sweating, she smiled.
"I have a few ideas, young master." Her voice was suspiciously cheerful, not surprised even in the slightest. Had her and Sally been commiserating on this? That seemed right up their alley.
"Thank the gods." Percy couldn't help his relieved slump.
"A bit redundant, My Lord." Peitho's voice hid a chuckle. "You'd be thanking yourself."
A huff of humor escaped before Percy could swallow it back down, and the Housekeeper's eyes gleamed. Still, he would put up with the jokes. This was all for the greater good. Peitho was more than a friend - she was also a hypervigilant servant and also a savant of all things 'Aphrodite'. She was an invaluable resource, one that Percy would need in the coming weeks and months. Still, if the first date went well enough, he'd be sure to put a 'do not disturb' sign on the doorknob.
Percy wasn't sure he'd survive if Aphrodite got interrupted a second time.