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: Hey, y'all! Hope everybody's doing okay. Today's chapter isn't that different from the old version, but I will say I'm thinking of inserting a chapter or two before we get to the end of TLT. I don't know; we'll see.

Until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 23: There's A First Time For Everything~

When I got back to Camp Half-Blood around two and a half hours after I had returned Zeus' master lightning bolt to him and had a conversation with my father and stepmother, I was immediately greeted by...well, pretty much everyone. All of the campers – Katie, Silena, Nico, and Bianca included – had gathered at the top of the hill as soon as they realized I had returned, with Chiron, Mr. D, and even a few wood nymphs trailing after them. Most of them seemed excited I had returned, although whether or not that was because they were happy I had actually come back alive or because I had successfully averted World War III, I didn't really know.

Unfortunately, because of all of the hustle and bustle with my return, I didn't instantly get to talk to Luke like I'd wanted to. Instead, me, Silena, and Katie were pretty much instantly swarmed by campers who treated us as if we'd won some reality TV contest, as they threw laurel wreaths on our heads and incessantly asked questions about everything during our quest had went down. Nico and Bianca got the same treatment for the most part with us finding them on our quest and all, except there were no laurel wreaths for them and no big feasts prepared in their honor like one was for ours.

After the feast, the Apollo cabin led a procession down to the bonfire, most of them singing about quests and epic heroes, or stuff along those lines. Everyone got into an even more festive mood from it, and that only intensified when Katie, Silena, and I got to burn the burial shrouds our cabins had made for us in our absence. Instead of, y'know...them burning the shrouds for us.

...Or, rather, Silena got to burn the burial shroud her half-siblings had made in her honor. It was a beautiful thing, just as kaleidoscopic as her eyes, with the various symbols of her mom embroidered into it: doves, dolphins, roses, myrtle trees. You get the idea.

As for Katie and I, well. Katie's shroud had been made by the Athena campers, much to my surprise – I figured that they'd all hated me since I was a son of Poseidon, or maybe that was just an Annabeth thing. Maybe they all just liked Katie too much to care. Regardless, hers was really stunning, too. It was a shimmering, deep golden-green color, with a giant-ass cornucopia on it to honor her mother. The fruit tumbling out of it, ranging from apples to pomegranates, looked like it was almost real, as if you could pick it up and eat it yourself.

And then there was mine.

I hadn't exactly known what to expect from my shroud, since I was the only child of Poseidon at camp and had only been around for two weeks before my quest. Part of me had figured that maybe the Ares cabin would have made some shroud for me, and it would have been so awful I would've been laughing my ass off as I'd burned it. But Cabin Eleven had pulled through in the end and, μὰ θεούς, it was almost beyond words.

My shroud was a light, ocean blue which was almost the same color as the oceanid's scarf I still had from the Waterlandescapade, with a brilliant sea green trident embroidered in the middle. Around it, a school of fish the same color and silvery-blue dolphins swam – yes, actually swam, something the children of Hecate had a part in no doubt – and gentle waves seemingly lapped over them, as if the shroud was truly a piece of the sea.

Seeing it, I didn't want to burn it. It almost seemed sacrilege, to set fire to something which had been obviously put together with such care. My eyes watering with disbelief, I looked up towards where the Cabin Eleven kids were sitting, all of them wearing huge grins on their faces. Alabaster winked at me and Chris gave an awkward wave, his face flushing slightly. Ethan merely jerked his head a little, towards the direction of Luke. Luke, who had his arms crossed and was tilting his head slightly, his blue eyes lit up by both the fire and general mischievousness.

In that moment, as our eyes locked, I knew without a doubt he was the one who had come up with the entire design for my shroud. My heart sped up to what had to be a million miles per second and I almost swooned, right then and there. I almost pronounced my love for him in front of everyone.

...The key word here being "almost." Before I could do either of those things, a torch was forced into my hands by an excited son of Apollo who hurriedly encouraged me to burn my shroud. I almost decked him in response, or at the very least shouted at him, but then my common sense won out and I finally did as I was told.

After the three of us had all burned our shrouds, the Apollo cabin led the sing-along and passed out s'mores. It was then, thank the gods, that I was able to slip away from all the celebrations. Katie, Silena, Ethan, and Alabaster all watched me go, my two now-best friends with small smiles and the sons of Nemesis and Hecate with curious, but not entirely unknowing glances. The four of them quickly started to talk loudly about the quest as a distraction.

Idly, I made a note I would have to thank them for it later as I slipped into the woods, only stopping when I was about two hundred or so feet away from the bonfire.

I didn't need to wait long before I heard the soft crunches of twigs and branches from behind me. Like, maybe only a minute or two. Smiling, I turned around and locked eyes with Luke for the second time that night, just able to make out his brilliant blue eyes in the dark night. They were like glaciers, icy pools of captivating beauty.

"Hey," I said softly.

"Hey, yourself," he replied. His tone was casual, though, voice light. I could tell he didn't mean anything by it.

At first, neither of us said anything, because, well...what was there to say? Sure, we liked each other, but we hadn't really addressed that yet, what with me going on my quest and all. And even if we'd had, I now knew that he was the person who had stolen Hades and Zeus' symbols of powers. And about Alan and...yeah, I kinda-kinda knew about that, too...

"So," Luke said awkwardly, stirring me out of my train of thought. "About that talk we agreed to have as soon as you got back..."

Suddenly, I felt breathless. "Yeah?"

"I – " Luke began, only to shake his head. "Look, I'm not exactly...good when it comes to this sort of stuff, not anymore. But I...I really like you, Percy. I know we've only known each other for a month or so, but you're just...amazing. You're smart, you're kind, you're caring...just everything I'm not, really."

I frowned. "Luke – "

"No let me finish," he continued, cutting me off. "I've been giving this a lot of thought. You're brave, and pretty fucking selfless. Just look at Nico and Bianca: you rescued them from the Lotus Hotel when you didn't even have to. And you're pretty good at sneaking around and fitting in with us Cabin Eleven kids, even if you're not a child of Hermes or any of the minor deities. Oh, and you're beautiful, too, before I forget. I don't think you even realize it, either, which absolutely blows my mind. And...and..." He paused, then scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Sorry, I'm rambling now, aren't I?"

"Yeah," I agreed, laughing slightly. "But, that's okay. And don't sell yourself short, you're those things, too."

If I concentrated, I could see his lips quirk in the darkness. "I'm really not, but agree to disagree, I guess." Gently, he reached out to clasp my hands; I let him. "Look, Percy, like I said, I'm not good at this. I really want to date you, but I have baggage. A lot of it."

I thought back to my mom's apartment in Manhattan, and Gabe. A chill went down my spine.

"So do I," I murmured.

"No, I don't think you understand." He let out a sigh. "And I want you to, but I'm not...ready for that. I wish I was. I wish I could make this easy."

I reached up to flick him on the nose. "Easy is overrated," I said at the same time he let out a squawk. "And I'm not exactly ready to tell you the shit going on with me, either. Most of the time, I like to pretend it just didn't happen."

"'Most of the time?'" he repeated. I felt, rather than saw, him stiffen.

I sucked in a deep breath. "Yeah, most of the time. I'll tell you whenever that's not the case, though, I promise.

"But, that's not the point. The point is, whenever you're ready to tell me about your baggage, I'll be here. We don't have to do things all at once. We don't have to do things at all, if you don't want to." The last part, I said in a small voice.

Luke laughed gently. "Trust me, Percy. I want to." He leaned in a bit closer, getting all up in my personal space. "But you do know what some of the other campers might say about us, right? I'm what, two, three years older than you?"

"My fifteenth birthday's in August."

"Almost two and a half, then," he corrected himself. "I know in the eyes of our – in the eyes of the gods, it isn't that much, but it still would be a lot to some campers here. And Percy, I – "

Shrugging, I let go of one of his hands to put my finger to his lips. "So we just don't tell anyone," I suggested. "Not anyone who doesn't need to know, anyways. Katie and Silena already want us to get together and I think Ethan, Alabaster, and Chris have kind of deduced that that's what happening right now, but. No one else needs to know, do they?"

Wordlessly, he gave another shake of his head.

"So that's that, then."

Taking my hand away from his face, he asked incredulously, "Do you always have an answer for everything?"

"Not all the time, no." Smirking, I stood up on my tiptoes and let myself fall towards him slightly, just so that our lips were almost touching. "Can I kiss you now?"

He nodded.

Now, unfortunately, this wasn't the first kiss I had ever had. But, for all intents and purposes, I'm going to treat it like it was, because oh my gods, it was amazing. I mean, I had never been one to believe in true love's first kiss and all that, but something magnetic happened between us as my lips moved against his. It was like a tidal wave crashed over me and submerged me beneath love's waves, like an electric shock jolted through my lips and all the way through the rest of my body. It was like my very center of gravity shifted, leaving me stumbling. Thankfully, Luke caught me just in the nick of time, his arms wrapping around my torso, preventing me from awkwardly toppling us to the forest floor beneath us.

It was like nothing I had ever experienced before, but it felt so right, so true, especially as Luke started to reciprocate the intricate movements I was performing, a strangled noise coming from his mouth.

It was like heaven.

("Ooh, baby, do you know what that's – ")

...On second thought, scratch that.

Eventually, a few minutes later, the two of us came up with breathless gasps. My face felt like it was on fire from the exhilarating lack of oxygen, and I'm sure for him it was much of the same. He pulled me closer with his arms, as close as he dared, almost knocking our foreheads together in the process.

"...Wow," I breathed after a few moments. "That was..."

"Amazing?" Luke finished for me. When I agreed, he replied, "Yeah, it was."

A beat of silence passed.

"Want to do it again?" Luke asked.

I grinned. "Oh, fuck yes."

Later that night – so late, in fact, I was pretty sure the clock had already slipped into the early hours of the next day – I sat crisscross on the driftwood floor of Cabin Three, staring up at the waning crescent of the moon that I could just barely see through one of the cabin windows. Artemis must be happy now that Dad and our uncles aren't going to war now, I thought idly, in a desperate attempt to calm my nerves in order to prepare for what was about to happen, what I was about to do.

I wasn't kidding when I had told Luke I was fine with (almost, there were some limits – like siding with Kronos, for instance) whatever he wanted us to do, or that nobody else needed to find out about us. As far as I was concerned, both of those things, especially the latter, were true. I mean, I still wasn't ready to come out to my mom yet. Just the very thought made me nervous.

...Okay, kidding, kidding, I'm kidding. The real reason was, I was willing to do these things because as far as I was concerned, this was my way to save Luke, from Kronos, from himself. And I needed to do that.

I needed to do this.

Inhaling deeply, I clasped my hands together in a way that most might've assumed was a form of prayer, still looking up at the night sky. "Erm...Demeter?" I said. Her name didn't quite sound right in my mouth with all of this. It sounded too...informal. I tried again. "Milady? I...uhm...well, I've made my decision already. I'm accepting your offer. So if you could come down here, that would be great."

At first, nothing happened.

Then, even though the door and all of the windows to the cabin were closed, a sudden gust of wind blew through it. The scent of it was of flowers, autumn, and my mom's chocolate-chip cookies. It smelled like home, in that motherly kind of way, not quite like the hearth smell you'd expect with Hestia or the one of a mother's perfume with Hera. It made me feel like I was sitting in a kitchen in a house that was all the way out in the country, with the windows open and a nice breeze billowing the smell of the autumn air all of the way through the house. I could even imagine holding a glass of cider in my hands, hot, spiked with cinnamon and –

In the back of a my mind, a voice that was distinctly not my own said, "Close your eyes, Perseus."

I did as I was told.

Although I didn't see her, I knew the exact instance she arrived. The hairs on the back of my arms and neck stood on end as she entered the cabin, a slight electricity that was nevertheless potent. I flinched back at the sensation, and at how I felt a hand suddenly run through my hair.

"You can open your eyes now, Perseus," Demeter told me.

When I did, I saw that she was standing in front of me. Once again, she was human-sized, but that was pretty much the only similarity there was with what she'd looked like earlier that day. She was wearing a completely different outfit now, a dark green chiton with a golden girdle and sandals of the same rich, latter color. A golden armlet was on her upper right arm, a golden anklet on her left anklet, and her hair was kinda done-up like Hera's had been. It wasn't nearly as elaborate, though, and there was a distinctive gold netting keeping it in place, which made her hair shimmer with something like highlights of wheat, making her status as the goddess of harvest clear.

All in all, she looked like the picture-perfect woman from Ancient Greece, like the goddess I knew her to be. And despite the fact that I was one-hundred-percent gay, I couldn't help but tremble in my place, due to how awed I was by her presence.

Smiling, Demeter lowered her hand from my hair and to my chin, lifting it upwards. "So, you have decided to become my champion?" she questioned.

"Yes."

"And you know what it means? You know that it cannot be undone?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any questions?"

"One, mi – Lady Demeter, if that's alright with you."

The goddess tilted her head. I understood this for the implicit question it was.

"Can you call me Percy?" I blurted out, only for my face to flush. "Please? I know Perseus is the name my mom gave me, but if you call me it for the entire time I'm your champion or...the rest of my life, I think I might just die."

Chuckling, Demeter withdrew her hand. "Yes, I can do that," she said. "Alright, Percy. Let us begin."

...And that, my dear readers, is how I became Luke's boyfriend and Demeter's champion, all in one night.

Because just like how there is a first time for riding your bike or eating a certain food, I figure there's a first time for getting a boyfriend and pledging your allegiance to a goddess in order to save said boyfriend from himself as well. And yes, I know that's a mouthful, but it's still nevertheless true, right?

Besides, little did I know it, but this night wasn't the last time I would be doing either of those things.

If I did – had, well...let's just say, what happens after this might have gone a little differently.

Word Count: 3,020

Next Chapter Title: I Make Good On My Promises Pt. 1