Meeting Amphitrite

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone in this story.

There was something going on in the zoo. It was bad enough for the latter to be closed, and loud enough to be heard even outside of it, on the streets… at least to Percy and Annabeth's ears, so it was quite loud indeed.

"Seaweed Brain, what did you do - earlier?" Annabeth asked her significant other. "Cheat an elephant out of peanuts, or something?"

"No, nothing like that!" Percy protested. "I just talked to the local walrus, and their neighbour the hippo felt jealous and neglected, so I talked to them too, and promised them that I'll be back tomorrow, and now it is tomorrow, and I'm back, and I brought you, because you're my girlfriend, and I wanted to introduce you to them, and-"

"Stop," said Annabeth. So did another woman, who emerged out of thin air, identifying herself as a deity. Still, she was dressed in simply, in sweat pants and a matching hoodie; her hair was cut short and business-like, and her features were plain and handsome, rather than exquisitely beautiful, like most other goddesses, (including Hera and Athena).

"Percy, the Son of Poseidon? We meet at last," the newcomer said brightly, "and ignore the ruckus. It's just… your father, doing his usual stuff."

Percy twitched. "What did dad do this time?" he asked, instead of ignoring.

"Funny that you should say 'doing'…" the woman did not sound very amused. "The hippo is the representative of Tawaret of Egypt; the walrus – of Sedna of the Inuit. The two goddesses don't always get along, and your father is brokering peace between them… via a threesome, I should add…"

Percy looked as if his brain was imploding; then again, the words 'father' and 'threesome' usually don't fit together either…

"And his wife? The lady Amphitrite?" Annabeth had a greater presence of mind, as she usually did.

"Who? Me? I'm right here, talking to the two of you," the other woman replied brightly, as she sat down onto a bench that she summoned out of thin air, even as a pair of chairs appeared behind and underneath the two demigods, causing them to sit, while the woman – Amphitrite – shook their hands with a brisk, firm, professional grip. "Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson – I'm Amphitrite, the queen of the sea. Pleased to meet you properly at last!"

"Right back at you!" Percy squeaked back in a manly – or even a demigodly – manner. "Pleased to meet you too!"

"Don't turn us into shrimp, shellfish, or some other marine creatures!" Annabeth echoed her boyfriend, (just in case).

"Why would I do that-?" Amphitrite sounded genuinely surprised. "Oh, right, Hera. She really set the bar for stepmothers everywhere, hasn't she?"

"Mmm," the young couple nodded sagely. "So, uh, why are you here?"

"The two of you – and your friends – have saved our world at least twice on a scale that even Zeus can't dismiss, not to mention several times on a lesser scale," Amphitrite nodded sagely, "so I daresay it was about time that we met?"

"Really?" Percy raised one of his eyebrows. "And what do you want to do-?"

"Percy-!" Annabeth snapped, but Amphitrite did not appear to be offended.

"It's funny that you should say 'do'," she commented instead, as her attire shifted from casual to more professional and business-like, no longer plain grey, it was now an expensive-using pantsuit, colored turquoise, and white, and cool pink. It matched Amphitrite's now better-made hairdo, (though the hair was still short), and make-up that made her face sparkle almost literally. "Have I told you, young man, how I've met your half-brother Theseus back in the Bronze Age?"

Percy twitched. "How about you not?" Annabeth spoke with a confidence that she did not quite feel. "Recently, Mr. Blofis' sister came to visit-"

"Big, tall, blonde!" Percy wailed, making big circles with his arms and hands. "And I thought that there was something strange about her and tried to look through the Mist, and she thought that I was trying to flirt with her, and called me cute and pinched my cheek! I don't want to be called cute and pinched on cheeks by older experienced women, not like that-!"

"How about I call you adorable instead, and quite like your father," Amphitrite didn't sound too offended at all; then again, the chairs of the demigods abruptly sprouted bindings and, well, bound the pair to their seats, so what she actually felt was anyone's guess. "And Ms. Chase? Quit with the theatrics. Pride might be the primary flaw of your mother, you, and your siblings, but voyeurism is a close contender. Why, I remember – speaking of Theseus-"

"Amphitrite? This is quite enough," commented Hecate of all people, as she manifested next to the bound demigods looking mostly human… if by human one meant a set of Siamese triplets, dressed all in black.

"We know that you're hurting when Poseidon is cheating on you," agreed Athena, Annabeth's mother, dressed in her showiest regalia as a war goddess, (among other aspects), "but please lay off the youngsters-! Also, voyeurism?"

(No one was paying attention to her, or to Hecate, or to Amphitrite, so clearly, divine-level magic was involved here. Oh dear.)

"And if I do-!" Amphitrite abruptly shifted gears from cool and laid-off to clearly hurting – tearfully so. "I know that I'm no match in beauty compared to the Olympians – you, Persephone, Hera, but still-!"

"Excuse us," Athena told her daughter and Percy, and abruptly the two demigods found themselves both unbound and at their college dorm, while the three deities sorted themselves out elsewhere.

"This could've gone so much worse!" Annabeth commented faux-brightly to Percy.

"Big, tall, blonde," the latter whimpered back instead. "Not again!"

End