Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Welcome back! This concludes the little arc I had here. I hope you all like it; I had a lot of fun writing these past three chapters, so much fun even I'm considering writing a spinoff for them. But, idk, we'll see. I make no promises.

Anyways, as always, hope you enjoy. Until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

Ἲθι – Come!

Μεῖνον – Remain (once)!


~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 41: We Find Unexpected Sanctuary Pt. 3~


The third day, I went back outside with Cleisthenes, dressed again in that purple cloak. The sky was still peaceful, but he frowned as he looked up while he walked to the barn. "There'll be a storm tonight," he said.

I was curious. "How can you tell?"

He gave me a look. "You're a son of Poseidon, are you not?" he asked me rhetorically. "Look at the sea. Feel and smell the wind. What do you think?"

I looked over at the ocean, past the barn. The waves were choppier than usual, and the wind was sharper. The breeze smelled like the ocean, but there was an undercurrent to it, rougher, almost earthier. "You're right," I realized.

He snorted. "See what you can do just by paying attention to your surroundings? Don't worry," this, he must've said due to my facial expression, "your friends will be fine. The Lady Despoina said they would would come tomorrow, and so they will. Κυπσέλε, ἴθι!"

Kypselos, who had been meandering further away as he'd sniffed around, presumably looking for a suitable place to pee, barked and came trotting back to us.

Like yesterday, Cleisthenes went through the motions of getting the animals to their proper places once we reached the barn. This time, however, having watched what he was doing yesterday, I helped him lead the horses to their pasture and, when we let the sheep out and settled into a place, check them. He seemed surprised by this, but he said nothing. At least, not anything about that.

"This is what you do all day, every day?" I asked him. "Sit around and watch the sheep?"

"During this time of year, yes," he replied. "My sisters take care of the garden and the vineyard. I'll help them later in the summer, when the harvest season begins. We are winemakers and sheep farmers. This is what we do."

"Is this what your father did?"

I saw his nostrils flare, and for a second, I thought I'd said the wrong thing. But, he calmed himself down quickly enough and answered my question. "No. My father would check them in the mornings, but this has been my job since I was twelve. We used to have a small field, over there." He pointed at a fenced-in section that I'd originally thought was another pasture, but now that he spoke about it, I could see was actually a field that had been laid to rest for a couple of years. "He would work there in the mornings, then oversee our education in the afternoons instead of my mother. When I was old enough, I would work on my own education in the afternoons while supervising the sheep. He would check my work during the evening."

This was fascinating to me. When I'd learned about the lives of Ancient Greek farmers in sixth grade, and then again in eighth with Chiron, it always sounded like they'd lived hard lives. Always working, never stopping. "He didn't work all day?"

Cleisthenes seemed to understand my hidden meaning. "We've never been like the other Greeks you know," he warned. "Although, my family is wealthier than most. Not as wealthy as those in the city, but still, wealthy."

I was trying to understand this. I didn't really know why. It wasn't like any of this was going to be relevant to me in the future. But it was interesting, and without anything better to do, I guessed, it was a way to pass the time. "And do those other people have slaves?"

He jerked in surprise, nearly dropping his shepherd's staff as he'd been in the process of strapping it on his back again. "What gave you that impression?"

"It was what your mother said yesterday. She compared what you wanted me to do to being a slave or a...μαλακοῦ?"

"Μαλακός," he corrected. His expression darkened. "She was just joking. You are not that, not unless you want to be. And we do not have slaves, not since the first move. It is morally wrong."

"And what's a μαλακός?" I knew the basic definition of it, thanks to my heritage: soft, weak. But there seemed to be a different meaning he and Euthymia were alluding to.

Unfortunately for me, he didn't want to talk about it. "Change the subject," he said, except there was no room left for argument.

With some reluctance, I did. Ish. "Are you going to take over what your father did?"

He nodded. "One day, not today. Perhaps next summer. Eighteen is when we become adults here. Then I will be the real man of the household. I will get married, have children." His eyes lingered on me as he said this, before he looked away from me entirely, out towards the sea. "I will grow old with my spouse, unless sickness takes them. Because of our bones, childbirth does not often take our people. Then we will die and go to Elysium, as most of our people do. Although we don't often do heroic deeds, we live good lives. That counts for something with the gods, when most mortals do not anymore."

...I was almost jealous. He made it sound so easy: living, dying. He made it sound as easy as breathing. My life could never be as easy as that. I was a demigod, the son of Poseidon, and I had the Great Prophecy hanging over my head, because I wouldn't let myself die and Callie, Nico, or Bianca become the person it was actually meant for. I refused it. I was the child of the Great Prophecy, end of the story.

Suddenly, Kypselos barked. Both of us looked up and saw that one of the lambs, having been startled by him, the wind, or something else, was running away from the herd. For a lamb, it was going pretty damn fast, too.

Kypselos started to go after him, but Cleisthenes shook his head. "Κυπέλε, μεῖνον!" he shouted. Kypselos stopped and looked at him, his tail wagging in confusion.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"That lamb is terrified of him," Cleisthenes responded, jerking his head towards it. He pulled his staff off of his back, and with force, thrusted it into the earth, so the rest of the sheep would stay where they currently were. "I have to go get him myself."

He started to run, and I followed after him. "I'll help you."

"Someone must stay with the sheep!" he hissed back.

But I was keeping pace with him, and I had no intentions of stopping. "Kypselos can." I waved over at the dog as we passed him. "Κυπέλε, μεῖνον!"

Kypselos barked back, as if in agreement.

Cleisthenes snarled, but said nothing to this. So the two of us went after the lamb together. This must've been another thing that set the sheep of the Heliades apart from their counterparts in every other corner (that I knew) of the world: their speed. The lamb just seemed able to keep on going and going, just too fast for either of us to catch it, no matter the fact that we were both sprinting.

As we ran, the wind raced past us, through my hair. It had that earthier scent to it that signified the storm, and the overall salty taste of the sea, but there was something...else to it. Something that, even as it exhilarated me and filled every part of my body with adrenaline, I tried to replace. It was subtle, but...it reminded me of how Cabin Three had smelled all those nights ago, when I'd become Demeter's champion. It reminded me of my mother's apartment, of the smell of her hair when we cuddled with each other on the couch, and her perfume.

It reminded me of home.

The realization almost made me stumble, but it didn't.

No, what made me stumble was Cleisthenes. Finally, the lamb began to slow down, and it gave him all the advantage he needed as a well-experienced sheep-wrangler. He dove after it and caught it in his arms, steadying himself from falling at the last second by bending his knees slightly. But I was distracted, so when I saw that I was about to collide with him, I was too late to do anything about it. With the force of a freight train, I smacked into him, and we all fell onto the ground: Cleisthenes, lamb, and me. The lamb was able to get out from us quickly, Cleisthenes letting him go as he squawked indignantly, but me and him weren't so lucky.

We rolled around in the grass, connected by a force of gravity between us. When at last we stopped, I was the one laying on the ground, he was on top of me. And jeesh, he was heavy. And tall. His limbs splayed out on either side of me.

With a groan, he tried to get himself up. "Βάρβαρος, are you an..." he began to ask. But then he trailed off.

Our eyes locked, my green meeting his gold. With the backdrop of the sky, his eyes were like twin suns. His head obscured the actual one, but its golden tendrils of light branched out all around him, forming a halo of sorts.

Instinctively, I looked at his lips. At the same time he did mine.

I can't tell you which one of us started it. All I know is, in an instant, we were kissing. He didn't kiss me like Luke had, or how I had been kissed before him. There was a difference to his gentleness, which I wasn't expecting. I let out a noise of surprise when he took my bottom lip between his teeth, nibbling at it. For a guy I knew this had to be the first kiss for he was, for all intents and purposes, a pro.

I didn't stop the kiss. I knew I should've, but I didn't. Not until we had to come up for air.

"I thought," I panted then, staring up at him with wide eyes. "I thought you hated my race."

Cleisthenes smirked in a such a way it would've made my knees weak, had I been standing. "I do," he said. He ghosted a finger along my lips. "But there's not much difference between love and hate, you know?"

...Yeah, my mind whispered for me, although I didn't say anything out loud. I know something like that.

"You know I leave tomorrow," I tried to protest, my face going up in flames.

This only made him smile sadly. "I know."

And then he was kissing me again.

I broke it off early this second time, although not for the right reasons. When panic began to seep in, I pushed him off, backing myself away. "Stop!" I cried. As soon as it occurred me to what I was doing, I stiffened. "I mean...please."

He wasn't upset by this in the slightest. "Okay," he agreed, leaning against his hands. The lamb came over to him, baa'ing softly as it sniffed him, as if it was doing the same thing he did for it and the others every morning: making sure he was okay. Smiling, he petted it a couple of times.

Meanwhile, I was trying to make sense of what the hell was happening. "Why – why do you like me?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Do I need a reason to like you?"

Oh. "You're gay."

His eyebrows knitted together. "What?"

...Of course he had no idea what that meant. He knew his English, but apparently, not this. "A homosexual," I defined. "Someone who loves the same sex as themselves."

Understanding blossomed on his face. "Ah. Yes." The lamb walked away from him. It remained close to us, however, sensing that we were the only people around. "But I do have reasons for liking you as well. You and your companion are...nice. You are not like the rest of your race. You are smart, and skilled, and handsome. And your eyes...they are beautiful."

I chuckled weakly. "Like the sea. That's what my mom always says."

He beamed. His smile was as radiant as the object these islands were named after. "Indeed."

But that didn't make me feel any better.

If anything, it made me feel worse.

"So, what are you expecting to get out of this?" I snarked. "I'm leaving tomorrow. Nothing's going to result from this!"

His eyes didn't leave my form. "Maybe," he allowed. "But, you could always come back."

I felt the breath leave my body. "Huh?"

He crawled back over to me, and settled himself over my body so that he was straddling my waist. I was still feeling raw, so I flinched at this, but he seemed to understand it was not a flinch that meant I wanted him to stop what he was doing. "You have to leave for your quest, and save your friend," he stated. "But, when all of that is complete, you could come back. You would be safe here, no monsters come. They know better than to. And, you could be my..."

...Oh gods, he was proposing to me, wasn't he?

Sure enough, as his cheeks flushed: "You could be my spouse."

This couldn't be happening. Things They Didn't Prepare You To Experience On Your Quest, 101.

"Like a...μαλακός?" I whispered.

The mention of it didn't bother him as much this time, whatever the term meant. Still, he frowned. "If you wanted to, once you understand fully what it means. In our culture, that would make you my wife," he said. "But if not, you could be my husband. I would not mind either way."

From how he was talking about this entire thing, I inferred the people of the Heliades were not as...accepting of gay people as modern, Western culture was. Which was not saying a lot in the grand old year of 2007, but still. "And you're not worried about how people would talk about you because of that?"

He huffed. "It is better than my alternative, which is to marry a woman who I will never be attracted to."

For some reason, this struck a chord with me. I pushed him away, and pulled my legs underneath myself. "Y – you don't want me as a spouse, Cleisthenes," I told him, my voice cracking. "I'm not – I'm not a virgin. I have...baggage."

"That is alright with me," he murmured.

I turned my head from side to side. "No," I spoke. "I wouldn't be...I wouldn't be good for you."

He gazed at me sharply. "And you are to be the sole judge of that?"

I wanted to say "yes." I wanted to keep my courage right then and there and tell him that it wouldn't work, because it wouldn't. I had no doubts about that. But...

...Fuck, I couldn't believe it, but I was considering what he was saying. He made it sound so tempting. Life here was peaceful. As I'd said, it sounded as easy as breathing. Somehow, I knew, I could come back here. I felt the presence of Demeter right next to me, my patron, letting me know I had a choice as her champion. I could come back here after my quest was over, stay here. I could live out the rest of my days with him. We would marry, and Euthymia would be entirely approving of it, because she liked me. And somehow, I wasn't sure how...we would be able to have children. They would be like Cleisthenes and the rest of the Heliades: with slightly larger ears, bendy bones, brown hair and gold eyes, although they might inherit my black and green instead.

Unlike almost every other demigod in history, here, I would die of old age. I would walk with Cleisthenes to Elysium when we died right after each other, hand-in-hand, grey-haired and with many wrinkles but happy. We would spend our days in the afterlife in paradise, until the end of time.

"The choice is up to you, Percy," Demeter whispered in my ear.

...But, no.

No.

There was no choice for me.

If I came back, I wouldn't be the child of the Great Prophecy anymore. And like I'd said, I refused to let that happen.

What was more, what Cleisthenes had said was right. There wasn't much difference between love and hate. And I knew now my response to Hermes, with his remark about whether or not I intended to keep my promise from the previous summer. I knew my answer to Luke's proposition from when we'd talked on the Princess Andromeda. I knew what I had thought last summer when I'd decided to become Demeter's champion, reborn once more. Fuck, in that second, I felt like I knew everything. Every secret of the universe, from the smallest blade of grass to the largest star, all compacted into the size of my brain.

The necklace Luke had given me, which was and had been hanging from my neck, mostly-forgotten this entire time, suddenly became heavy.

I was in love with Luke. Irredeemably, irrevocably. No matter what he had done, no matter what he was still to do, I was always going to be in love with him. I couldn't side with Kronos for him, but I would kill for him. I would die for him. I would agree to be in a relationship with him again when all of this was over, because I would do literally almost anything and everything for him, short of joining Kronos and killing other people.

He was it for me. He was the love of my life. I would never love another person besides him, never be able to be in a relationship with somebody else once he died. We were soulmates, in all definitions of the word.

And, as much as I knew Cleisthenes would want me to anyways, I couldn't let him compare to that.

"I'm sorry, but I have to be," I told him. The way I watched his face crumple cut at my very soul. "Cleisthenes, you don't understand. You're a nice guy. But, like you, I have a duty to my people. And, more than that – "

"You're in love with somebody else," he interjected.

I wasn't going to hide the truth from him. "Yes." When he moved to stand up, I grasped his cheeks in my hands, forcing him to look at me. "I'm denying you, Cleisthenes, because you deserve to have somebody love you the same way I love the person I do. You deserve to be happy."

Tears came to his eyes. "I won't be," he whispered. "Never."

"You will," I insisted, with total and complete confidence. "Even if I have to pray Aphrodite every single day until you do, you will find somebody who will give you everything you want and need, I promise you."

His breath hitched. "I don't believe you."

"Then don't believe in me," I replied. "Believe in the gods."

I kissed him for the third and last time, I'm ashamed to admit. I knew it wasn't the wisest of choices. He was still crying as our lips met, the salt of his tears intermixing with the bittersweetness as a whole.

He wasn't the only one who was.

"Percy, what happened?" Bianca asked me when we came back into the kitchen for lunch.

I wiped at my eyes. "It's nothing."

She obviously didn't believe me. "Percy..."

"It's nothing!" I repeated, my tone coming out harsher than I'd meant it to. I sucked in a deep breath and patted Bianca on the shoulder. "Seriously, Bianca, it's nothing. I'm fine."

But I wasn't.

I could never be what people wanted me to be.


The next morning, I knew before I even looked out my guest bedroom's window and saw the ship on the horizon that Clarisse, Silena, Alabaster, and Annabeth were coming to get us.

I changed into my regular clothes, washed once again, as quickly as I could, before I ran down the hall to Bianca's door. I knocked at it hurriedly. "Bianca! Bianca!" I hissed. "They're here!"

I heard a thunk from the other side of the door, followed by a, "I'm coming!"

We collected our things, which wasn't really saying much, because everything we'd had had either been on the yacht we'd stolen or spirited away by the sea. Still, our actions were noticeable. When we went downstairs, Euthymia, who was finishing up her breakfast preparations for her children, came out of the kitchen. Her face was sad. "Your friends are here?"

I ignored how her sadness sent knots into my stomach. I'd only known her for three days, and yet somehow she'd wormed her way into my heart as another mother figure, like my mom and Demeter. "Yes."

Wiping her hands on the rag in her hands, she cupped my cheeks like I had her son the previous day. "I'm sorry to see you go," she said. "It has been nice having you here. But, I know Necessity calls you elsewhere, doesn't she? We must let you fulfill your destiny."

"Yeah." I cleared my throat. "Goodbye, Euthymia."

She kissed my forehead. "Goodbye, young Percy."

As she said her goodbyes to Bianca, hugging her, Cleisthenes came down the stairs. His face was purposefully blank. "You're leaving."

I nodded. "This is it, Cleis."

His face made an interesting contortion at the nickname. Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms, trying – and failing – to pretend to act like he didn't care.

I went over to him and hugged him as well. He seemed surprised by the action, but didn't say anything as I reached up to whisper in his ear. "Don't worry, Cleis," I murmured. "You'll find the person you're looking for."

He shook his head minutely. "I already have."

"You think you have, but just you wait." I patted his cheek, pulling away. "Goodbye, Cleisthenes."

His expression was solemn. "Goodbye, Percy."

Bianca was giving me another weird look as I turned back around. I pretended not to notice, holding out my hand. "Ready?" I asked.

She accepted the gesture. "Ready."

Thus we walked out of the courtyard, and once outside we began to run towards the beach together, towards the sea.

I didn't look back once, too afraid that if I did, I would wind up taking Cleisthenes on his offer.


Word Count: 3,733

Next Chapter Title: We Meet The Sheep Of Doom