West Waters Bring Answers and Adulterers
Most people pray for a swift morning, to see Eos' rosy fingers stretch over the horizon so that the darkness of night may be banished away. Truly, those people have never lain through a blissful night and risen to a lazy morning. It seemed that day, Apollo arrived late and let Eos linger for a little while longer.
As the morning light trickled through the sheer voile draperies, the warmth of my bedmates roused me from my slumber in the gentlest possible manner. Along my spine, the soft breaths and softer skin of Calypso brushed. Within my arms, the golden figure of Annabeth slept. Clasping my hand, Piper nestled herself against the warmth of Annabeth's back.
Even in my somnolence, the warmth of their bodies brought a smile to my lips. Said lips pressed themselves along the exposed shoulder of my longest love.
Of course, more was exposed, but nothing to suggest any venereal actions. Calypso lay in a long nightgown, Piper in an oversized flannel shirt, Annabeth in a tank top and shorts which covered just as little. As for myself, I lay bare chested with cotton pants on my legs. Yet, despite the insurmountable heat radiating from all the bodies, I couldn't think of myself as anything but comfortable.
It seemed I wasn't the only one to think so. Annabeth groaned, as expected, the moment my lips touched hers. Still, even she didn't pull away once her eyes fluttered open.
"Good morning," she whispered.
"Let's make it even better," I replied, my tongue racing over my lips.
"Yes," a gentle voice whispered in my ear. "Let's." The speaker pressed her soft lips along the back of my neck.
A fourth voice spoke, lilted and annoyed. "Can't we just sleep for a bit longer."
Annabeth turned to the yawning Piper. "So says the one who wouldn't sleep until after her third orgasm."
Too tired to blush, Piper stretched and let out an amused sigh. "What can I say? Percy knows how to use his hands." She playfully smirked at Annabeth. "You helped too."
Annabeth slapped her shoulder, an exasperated smile on her lips.
"Will you two stop it?" Calypso mumbled into my shoulder blades, her arms locked around my stomach. "You're making his back tense up."
Piper sat up. "You're so obsessed with his back. I'm more interested in what's in front." She none too subtly eyed my morning wood.
Calypso hummed. "Trust me, I am too. But there's so much to play with back here." She playfully bit my shoulder. "And he'll never know what I'll do next."
"Gods, both of you. How about we stop picking our favorite sides of him and start enjoying them instead?"
I groaned. "Please no. I'm not ready for that kind of exertion this early in the morning."
Calypso hugged me tighter. "And you're all leaving once breakfast is over. Can't I enjoy him for a bit longer?"
I turned my head. "Since when was I a piece of meat?"
She smiled, unashamed. "Since you made me yours." A flurry of kisses dotted my shoulder.
Piper faked a gag. "I'd say 'Get a room,' but I also want the same thing for myself. Guess we'll have to share." Her tongue rolled over her smirking lips. "Besides, didn't you say that your first group session would be lazy morning sex?"
I pouted. "So now you're using my own words against me?"
"You bet I am."
"Di immortales, you guys." Annabeth pulled herself up. "Not every morning needs sex." She shot a mischievous glance toward me. "Sometimes we can make due with a good set of hands."
I buried my head under a pillow with a groan. "You three are impossible."
Their muffled laughter reached my ears despite the pillow..
By the time Apollo's chariot bared its rays through the windows of my home, my trio of lovers and I indulged ourselves in a modest breakfast of scrambled eggs topped with tomatoes and feta cheese. I made certain to give my thanks to the nymphs, who for the first time in way too long were all awake at once. The sight of Nimba mingling with her fellow nymphs, and the elated tears Palírroia tried so hard to conceal, brought a fervent warmth to my heart and a long belated smile to my lips.
As our meal came to a close, numerous others woke and made their way to the kitchen to begin theirs, eager to enjoy the nymphs' cooking. Inexhaustible tension from the arduous days prior seemed to melt away as morning laughter echoed across the halls. Everyone was awake. Everyone was safe. Everyone was happy.
Save for one, that is.
"You wish me to sit at a table surrounded by people I attempted to kill these past few months? You're quite delirious if you think nothing will go awry."
Only when Khione made her presence known within the dining room did the joyous morning become stifled with hushed whispers.
"There'll be none of that," I announced. "Everyone here knows what went down within the dungeons. If you honestly think she hasn't earned a right to sit with us and eat like a civilized person, then you are more than welcome to leave the table and go about your business."
For a few moments, no one spoke out. No one moved. It was just as a sigh of relief began to push past my lips that they stood. But it was the person that stood first which startled me the most. Hazel, followed by Thalia, Bianca, and Drew, left the room with nary a word. Everyone else seemed to take a great deal of interest in the various details of their breakfast, spare the few who understood the severity of the unspeakable events from days prior.
Piper refused to make eye contact with Khione, nor did she speak to her, but I didn't fail to notice how she was the one to bring the snow goddess a plate of breakfast.
"Give it some time," I whispered into the snow goddess's ear. "If I managed to come around, they will too."
Before we had arrived at breakfast, my morning entourage and I discovered Khione sleeping on one of the couches within the entrance hall. Upon waking, she explained that she didn't have a room, and that the nymphs weren't keen on lending her one without my instruction. A few words to the nymphs later, she was given a room to call her own. The sole request that came with it was that she may use her power to some degree so she could chill her room to her comfort.
I was pulled back to the present when Khione finally spoke once more, grimacing as she nibbled at her breakfast. "I don't blame them. If any of them were to sit at my father's table after the events of the past few months…"
Desperate to change the subject, I pushed out my lip curiously. "So you do eat regular food?"
She halted a tomato halfway into her mouth. "You ask me this as I'm eating?"
I shrugged sheepishly. "I guess that was a dumb question."
"Perhaps," she said, putting down her fork. "To answer you, I don't necessarily eat for sustenance. Think of it like this, I can starve, but I won't die from it."
"Ah. So no ambrosia and nectar?"
She smirked. "If you have some available, I'm more than willing to take it instead of this." She gestured to her plate. "As good as this tastes, nothing can quite compare to the nourishment of my godly meals."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen. On one hand, we don't have any on this island. On the other, if we did have it, we'd use it to heal our injuries, not to gift away as food."
"I thought not."
She returned to eating, though her posture was more relaxed than only minutes before.
The remainder of breakfast continued with no further interruptions, save for Palírroia crawling on my lap and giving me a teary kiss. Breaking from her hushed sniffles and desperate plucking of my lips, she pressed her lips to my ear.
"Must Khione walk freely so soon?" she whispered. "The things she's done…"
"She's more than made up for it. I promise. If she causes any trouble, come see me. I'll straighten her out."
Though hesitant, she nodded and trailed her lips from my ear to my jaw, leaving an emphatic smack against the skin as she pulled away.
"You've gotten popular with them," Annabeth noted. "It only reinforces the praise she gave you yesterday."
"I try my best." My cheeks burned.
As breakfast drew to a close, a part of me wanted to bring up the incident with Rachel from the day before. Even she seemed to silently ask for the same thing. I shook my head at her, imploring her to wait. Not only did we have enough on our plate for the day without adding further unrest, but I wasn't quite willing to ruin the good mood quite yet.
"Are you sure you can't take me with you?"
Calypso trapped my arm within hers as she buried her cheek into my chest.
"You've already gone on a trip with me," I replied. "It wouldn't be fair for them. Plus, there's no way Rainbow can carry more than three."
The hippocampus whinnied in agreement as Annabeth and Piper climbed onto him.
Calypso languished as I massaged her scalp. "If you go with them," she mumbled, "I know what they'll do."
"And what's that?"
She turned to me, her dark eyes clouding. "The same thing you did to my sister, and to her sisters in arms, and Silena before her. Lest we forget what happened between us when we went on a trip together."
I brushed the developing tear from her eye. "So you're getting jealous? That's why you want to come with us?"
"Not the only reason." She pouted with her cheek returned firmly against my chest. "There's still so much I haven't seen. And from what they tell me, this San… Fra… Fran…"
"San Francisco."
"Yes, that. They tell me it is vastly different from New York."
"I wouldn't know. Most of the time I spent there, I was preoccupied getting attacked by monsters."
She sighed in defeat, clearly aware that she wasn't going to gain any ground in this matter.
"Hey—" I tilted her chin up to face me "—I promise I'll take you to so many more places. It just won't be today."
She nodded sadly and stood on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my lips. It lasted far longer than it needed to, but I wasn't complaining. The exquisite softness of her lips never failed to amaze me, nor did the way she plucked at my lip with her teeth fail to amuse me. When she did finally pull away, she squeezed me in a final embrace before returning inside.
"You finally done?" Annabeth teased as I climbed aboard.
"Cut him some slack," Piper said. "Calypso is all heart. She needs her time with him."
Annabeth poked her flank. "Sounds like someone else I know."
"Enough, you two." I said with a smile. "Or I'll make sure your hair stays wet for the rest of the day."
"Kinky," Piper said.
I rolled my eyes, but nonetheless situated myself between them both. Annabeth's arms wrapped around me from behind, her head resting securely on my shoulder while Piper leaned back against my chest, making herself more than comfortable.
"Alright Rainbow, take us to San Francisco."
Some would say chance meetings are the result of a pre-woven fate, the fastidious offspring of the reticent Moirai, who I had unfortunately had the displeasure of meeting. Others would argue that there's no such things as chance meetings, and that they were all orchestrated as a part of a primordial plan called destiny that was laid into motion so many eons ago. As for myself, I'd say it was bad weather.
During my sporadic trips through San Francisco, I never truly took the time to take in the views of the city. More often than not, I was running from monsters or running to fight them. A great deal of running seemed to be involved. Regardless, I never had many opportunities to take in the sights. Of course, that means I would still have to wait.
Shrouded in a thick fog, the few towers stabbing into the sky looked nothing like skyscrapers or office buildings, rather they cast looming shadows over the ground like the giants that challenged our world less than two weeks prior.. Despite our victory, their shadows still seemed to sap away at the splotches of scattered color, melding the zestful vibrance with the muted hoary concrete jungle. . Most of it was already gone, whisked away by the pale fog.
Piper and Annabeth pressed against me, their radiated heat gently calming my nerves. Bar the occasional splash of water parting in Rainbow's wake, the bay lay silent. San Francisco's trademark fog thickly blanketed the frigid Pacific waters.
"I can hardly see anything," I said. "I'm pretty sure we passed the Golden Gate bridge a while back."
Annabeth grumbled. "We should probably pull up to one of the piers. Once I know where we are, I can walk us to my… house."
Even after her attempts to mend the bridge with her father, the way she often described her visits were less than pleasant. It didn't help that the whole "brain child" aspect of her meant she wasn't even technically related to her father. She was simply modeled as if she were.
"Well," I said, "we could always stop…" I trailed off when a very familiar homeless man passed by us. The grubby fish Santa of a god, Nereus, took one look at me and transformed into a bonito, rocketing off into the depths. A rapidly fading trail of bubbles was the only sign the ancient god had ever been there.
"Percy?" Annabeth said. "Did you… know him?"
"Nereus." I glanced backwards. "I wrestled him when we were looking for you."
She frowned in confusion, but a light of understanding shone in her eyes a moment later.
Assuming Nereus kept to the same dock, I had a general sense of where Annabeth's house was, or rather I would had the fog's obscuration not prevented me from being able to use that knowledge. Per Annabeth's demand, we pulled up to the pier. Rainbow let us dismount and waved us goodbye with his tailfin as he began his trip for food within the bay.
It only took a moment of walking along the wooden pier for us to sense something was wrong. The sound of metal boots clanking on wood echoed through the fog. The boards trembled beneath our feet. All of us drew our weapons, though neither Annabeth nor Piper wielded their original knives. Piper let out a choked gasp as the armoured soldiers emerged from the fog. We expected monsters or enemies of some sort. What we got was arguably worse.
"Jason?"
Many moments passed in tense silence before either party uttered a word. Both Annabeth and Piper tightened their grip on their daggers. As for me, I couldn't focus on anything except for the silence that was permeated only by the choppy water lapping at the legs of the dock, eager to answer my call and sweep away the cheating son of Jupiter.
"Stand down," Jason said.
The three of us took our turns processing his words, not that it mattered.. None of us had any intention of listening.
"Excuse me!?" Piper fumed.
"Not you guys." He turned to the legionnaires. "If they really wanted to hurt us, you wouldn't stand a chance. At ease."
Though reluctant, the armored troops sheathed their weapons, wary eyes fliting back and forth between the trio and their former Praetor.
"Well, with that taken care of, why don't we catch up a bit?"
He shouldn't have turned his back, because before anyone could react, Piper closed the distance between them and slammed her fist into the side of his head. He toppled over the edge of the dock,disappearing beneath the waves. Half of the legionnaires redrew their gladii while the others dove in after their downed leader, forming a chain of warriors with one anchoring themselves to the pier. Piper dispatched two with ease, clubbing their throats with the pommel of her dagger.
Annabeth and I stepped in before she could hurt any others. We met every slash with a parry, every thrust with a twist. By the time Jason resurfaced, every legionnaire before us stood disarmed.
"Stop!" Jason cried out, pressing his hand over his ear. Supported by a larger soldier, he climbed onto the dock and swayed. A few others held him up as he regained his bearings and wiped his glasses. "I deserved that… and much more."
"You're damn right, you do," Piper growled.
"This isn't the time," he said with a wince. "There are bigger issues than you and me."
"Your issues," Piper spat. "Not ours."
Wrapping my arms around her, I prevented her from going any further with any harmful intent.
"Let's just go," I whispered into her ear.
The waves seemed to swell around us, eager to drag Jason beneath their surface once more. Beads of perspiration dotted my forehead as I strained to not let them carry him away.
Her struggling lessened, tears of fury streaming down her face. Even when she stopped tugging me forward, I held my hands on her hips, lest she try and attack him again.
"So what is this issue?" Annabeth stepped forward, locking a careful eye on the surrounding legionnaires.
Jason let out a breath. "Residual forces from the war. A fair few tried to rally at mount Othrys. We've been scouting the area for any stragglers."
I tightened my grip on Piper's hips, drawing a short breath from her. "Have you contacted the gods about this?"
He shook his head. "No. Why would they care?"
A smirk formed on my lips. "I'm pretty sure Arte… Um…" I glanced around at the frowning soldiers. "Diana could use some distractions."
Understanding, he nodded. "I can imagine." He turned to his soldiers. "Get the wounded back to camp. Prepare some sacrifices at Lady Diana's temple."
Though they didn't look happy to leave, about half of the soldiers picked up their two unconscious brethren and hauled them away.
Jason looked to those who remained. "You too. I'll catch up." He turned to us once they left. "So…"
Piper tensed in my grip, so I did the only logical thing. I let her go.
Once free, she turned her attention to the dagger in her hands, the beautiful steel blade reflecting her livid glare.
"I owe you an apology."
Annabeth stepped between him and Piper, who spat into the water. "You owe a hell of a lot more than that." She twirled her dagger in hand. "I'm almost tempted to go for castration, but I can only think of one man's dick I'd like to see at this point."
Annabeth choked on her own laughter as Jason and I gaped. Piper offered no indication of realizing the brashness of her words. Or caring, for that matter.
"Seriously?" Annabeth covered her mouth with her hand.
"What?" Piper said indifferently. "It's true."
My ears burned as a spark of electricity webbed across Jason's fingers, the nervous tell crackling raucously through the air.
"Besides," she continued, "it's not like he'll ever know what goes on in detail." Her eyes flared a dangerous shade of green. "Would you like to know? Do you want to know how Percy made me his personal slut?"
Jason backed away a few steps, small bolts running along the rims of his glasses. "Piper…"
"What, Sparky?" she snapped. "Upset that I'll drop to my knees on a moment's notice? Are you angry that I happily spread my legs for someone else? Your own friend at that?"
He balled his fists. "You know what, forget this. I wanted to apologize, not get berated. I screwed up, I know that. But this is ridiculous." He turned to leave. "Do what you will, but some of us have real work to get to."
"Real work!?" Annabeth fumed."So stopping some power hungry gods with a penchant for mind control doesn't qualify as 'real work?'"
He snorted. "We call that a typical Tuesday."
"Well this is what we call a typical Tuesday," Piper snapped.
Before anyone had the time to stop her, she whipped around, wove her fingers through my hair, and yanked me in for a passionate kiss. An involuntary moan left my throat, followed by several inordinately exaggerated ones from her. Too dumbstruck to fight back or pull away, I found myself pulling at her lips, mirroring her enthusiasm. Further selling the image, she jumped against me, wrapping her legs around my waist and grinding her pelvis against mine.
Bewildered and staggering, I grabbed her toned buttocks and shuffled my feet in a desperate attempt to steady us both. Smacks of flesh filled the air as Jason stared, petrified by the image before him. Annabeth watched with interest, her fingers taking a none too subtle trip south.
As Piper sucked on my tongue, ferocious tears streaming down her cheeks. Biting. Nibbling. Her hands trailed through my hair, yanking along the thick locks until she was satisfied with my groans. The heat of her grinding pelvis increased, sending small flames of lust flickering into my growing erection.
She pulled away, unwrapping her legs from my waist.
Wild ferocity in her eyes, she whirled on her heel and glared at Jason. "Well, while you're off doing work, he's going to be working me!" She latched her hand around my wrist and hauled me past him. "We're going to fuck each other's brains out and you can jerk off to that image for all I care!"
Jason didn't seem to notice when we passed him, nor when Piper shoved past his shoulder with her own. Rather, he stared at the spot we were standing seconds prior, unable to process what just happened. Honestly, I couldn't help but wonder the same thing.
Annabeth quirked an eyebrow and followed, shooting a pitied glance to him. "I hope she was worth it."
No more needed to be said. She took her leave and followed the two of us as Piper dragged me along in her furious determination to fuck my brains out.
If and when he left his spot, I couldn't be sure. By the time I started to register what happened, Piper hauled me around a corner and into an empty alleyway, and pinned me against the wall.
I gulped, unsure of what to say or do. My hands yearned to take her lean ass cheeks into their grip once more. A blazing heat fueled my erection, desperate for relief. All the while, Piper stared at me like a lioness in a feeding frenzy.
With my expectation of her acting on her promise to Jason, imagine my surprise when she didn't start shoving her hand down my pants or her tongue down my throat. Rather, she buried her face into my chest and sobbed, kneading her long fingers into the fabric of my shirt.
"Yep, I thought so."
Annabeth stood a few feet away, watching with her arms crossed and an expression of concern on her face.
As the situation pieced itself together in my head, I wrapped my arms around my weeping future wife and hugged her more tightly against my chest. Oblivious to all other things, only her tears, sobs, and sniffles mattered to me. Not the public setting nor the garbage tossed along our feet. No. Only the tears. Only the sobs.
What may have been a few minutes or an hour passed. The heaving cries of Piper turned to mute sniffles as she rubbed her eyes into my tee shirt. I stroked her hair and rubbed her back, unsure of the right thing to say.
"So… I guess you didn't bring me back here to fuck my brains out?"
Annabeth slapped her palm against her face, and I could only assume that her unamused frown hid behind her hand..
Piper let out a teary giggle. "No, I didn't. But Jason doesn't know that."
With an impressed smirk on her lips, Annabeth stepped forward and joined the hug session. A series of trembles passed though Piper as she attempted to hold herself together. For a solid twenty seconds, she managed. However, when Annabeth let out a content sigh, the waterworks started up once more.
"I love you guys," she sobbed, pressing a firm kiss to my lips.
The calm smile on Annabeth's face turned to an expression of shock the moment Piper redirected her attention for her lips following mine. However, despite her wide eyes and rigid stance, she never pulled away. Rather, after a few seconds, she relaxed into the kiss and let Piper take the lead for a few seconds.
When she pulled away, Piper wiped her eyes and smiled. "I think we've delayed long enough."
"Are you sure?" Annabeth asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
Fine… Frustrated, insecure, neurotic, emotional… Yeah, that sounds about right…
Annabeth grimaced. "Alright. I read the sign on the way over." She pointed towards an adjacent alley. "We need to go four blocks that way."
"Four blocks it is then," Piper said, an obvious mask of careless joy concealing her true emotions. "Let's get going."
She turned and began her way down the alley.
As I moved to follow, Annabeth latched her hand onto my arm and yanked me back.
"Talk to her," she said, her eyes piercing into my soul. "While I'm searching, talk to her. She needs you right now."
I stared blankly for a moment, but nodded right after. "Of course."
She squeezed my hand for a few seconds before pulling me in for a kiss of her own. Choppy breaths passed through her nose as she lazily pressed her lips to mine, only to be calmed the second I wrapped my arms around her.
"I missed you," she said into the kiss. "With everything that's happened-"
"Shhh. Just enjoy it."
And she did. As did I. For a few seconds longer, we simply enjoyed the embrace of one another as our lips pressed and plucked at one another.
We pulled away, a slight mirth glowing between us and pushing back the grim mood that our dockside encounter had put us in. Without another word, she took my hand and led the way behind to follow Piper, who was tapping her foot on the ground with her arms crossed at the end of the alley.
"Let's save the kissing and body rubbing for another time," Piper said when we reached her. "For right now, we have a house to find."
Of all the things that stood out to me as we approached Annabeth's house, it was the architecture. Row upon row of pastel Victorian houses lined the hills like Easter themed dominoes.
Since when was I the one drawn to architecture?
Annabeth's house looked no different than the last time I saw it, save for the scattered military themed toys on the porch. The baby blue paint was faded to a near gray, blending it quite well with the fog.
When I first met Mr. Chase, I expected some demonic figure with horns and fangs. And then I met him. During this visit, I expected to be greeted with aviator goggles and a flight cap. And then the door opened.
"Annabeth?"
Though muffled through the World War era gas mask, the voice indisputably belonged to Annabeth's father, Frederick Chase.
"Hey, dad," she mumbled. "It's been a while."
For all of the times Annabeth recounted her more recent visits, she always described their interactions as awkward at best. If the greeting was anything to go by, awkward was an understatement. Mr. Chase shuffled forward, his arms reaching out. Every step he took resulted in him retracting his arms only to reach out once more, as if he couldn't decide if he wanted to hug his daughter or run back into the house.
"Just hug your dad already," Piper said.
Annabeth grimaced, but leaned forward and gave her father an awkward side hug.
When their three second reunion came to an end, Mr. Chase pulled his gas mask free from his head, leaving his blonde hair in a rat's nest.
"I'm going to guess this isn't a social visit?"
"When you're right, you're right," Annabeth replied.
His shoulders sagged. "I see. Well, come on in. Anyone hungry?"
Despite the uncomfortable reintroductions and introduction of Piper, the Chase family seemed no different than the last time I visited. Her half brothers were quite a bit bigger than before, and swapped out their love of LEGO robots for a Wii gaming system. We didn't see much of them. Mrs. Chase was a fair bit reserved, spending more time trying to talk with Piper than Annabeth.
Once all of the pleasantries were exchanged and the brief small talk came to a close, Mr. Chase led us upstairs and into Annabeth's room.
"We haven't changed anything since your last… visit. Only did some mild cleaning, except for the closet. We know how you are about—"
"Thanks, dad. We won't be too long."
He frowned, but said nothing further. All the energy drained from his shoulders as he nodded and returned downstairs.
"I know I haven't seen enough to be the judge," Piper said, "but he's really trying to reach out." She turned to Annabeth, who made a beeline for her makeshift desk. "Why the cold shoulder?"
"It's always like this," Annabeth replied. "The first few days are fine. Then, after my stay has expired, everything always goes downhill. My brothers get pushy and my stepmom always takes their side. My dad is hardly around, so he can only go off of what everyone says. It's their word against mine."
"Hm." Piper frowned. "Well, I could see your stepmom wasn't your biggest fan, but…" She shook her head, letting the sentence die before it left her mouth. "Anyways, what is it you're looking for?"
"A tome," she replied, turning her attention to her closet. "Chiron gave it to me a few years back. It covers all of the lesser known aspects of ancient heroes and monsters. The gods as well."
I cocked an eyebrow. "Such as?"
"Well, you remember Pandora?"
I nodded.
"After the incident with the pithos, she and Epimetheus had a daughter. That daughter and her eventual husband repopulated the world using Gaia's bones after the gods wiped out mankind with a massive flood. This was way before they were widely worshipped. Like, before Prometheus brought fire to mankind."
I glanced towards the ceiling with an uneasy pit in my stomach.
"Anyways," she continued, shuffling through the contents in her closet, "the tome has stuff like that. The parts of the myths that the gods really don't want you to know."
"Alright," Piper said. "How can we help?"
"For the moment? You can sit down on my bed and explain why you went off on Jason the way you did."
The finality in her tone resulted in us both straightening our necks and sharing an uneasy glance with one another.
"Also," she continued, "if you're going to start making out or fucking on my bed, can you be sure to keep the volume down? The walls aren't the greatest."
While we both took our share of embarrassment, Piper eyed the bed and myself with an almost… amorous expression. After shaking her head and returning a frown to her face, she straightened her posture and took a seat on the bed. I followed.
"What's there to discuss?" She wrung her hands, staring at the floor.
I clasped both of her hands with my own. She faltered. A few seconds later, she tilted her head up to meet my gaze.
"On the first night, you told me you saw everything coming a mile away. Later, you told me you already had plans outside of him. So what happened? What changed?"
She tightened her grip around my finger. "Nothing, I…" She turned away. "I thought I was in control, but… seeing him. And the way he talked down to us, to you." Small droplets rolled down my chest as she leaned against me, nuzzling the crook of my neck.
I hugged her close, resting my hand on her hip. Her breath hitched, but I continued rubbing along her flank, bringing my hand to a rest on the small of her back.
"I'm tired of playing on both sides," she continued. "First because my father was a hostage, then because my… boyfriend was a Roman. Now-" she raised her eyes to mine, nothing but raw love shining in them "-I have no questions about what side I'm on."
I wasn't quite sure when she pushed her lips to mine, but by the time she pulled away, I was laying back on the bed with her straddling my waist. Her hair hung from her head in loose braids and wild locks. Despite the red trails staining her cheeks, she smiled down at me and brushed her fingers through my hair.
My fingers squeezed her hips against my will, to which she let out a soft moan. Her lips parted, her gaze shifting from love to lust. She ground her hips, rubbing the warmth between her legs on the rapidly developing erection between mine.
Ever present desire in her eyes, she took both of my hands in her own. Each one was sent to a different destination: one to her mouth, the other to her waistline. Her lips took one finger between, trapping it as she sucked on it with a relaxed moan. The other hand inched closer to her burning core, pressing against the taut skin of her lean belly as she pushed the tips of my fingers beneath her panties.
"Got it!"
Startled, Piper fell to my side, eyes wide and chest heaving. I wasn't much better. My face was flushed and my hands were shaky.
Annabeth walked in from her closet with a book the size of four textbooks in her arms. She scanned over a page towards the beginning before raising her eyes to us.
"Oh, was I interrupting?"
We both took our share of embarrassment, but made no comment.
"You'll have plenty of time for that later, but this is important."
She dropped the book in front of us. Even at such a small height, the weight of the time nearly capsized the bed the moment it hit the mattress. The spring squealed in their strain to hold it.
"Didn't you say this was the information the gods wanted to keep secret?"
She smirked. "Says a lot, huh? Some of the stuff in here is still known, such as how Ares loses just about every fight he has against Athena and how Artemis is very infamous for slaying women and not just men."
I frowned. "I didn't know that."
She quirked her eyebrow. "If you want to give this a read, be my guest."
My stomach turned at the idea. "No thanks."
"Didn't think so. Anyways, I found what I was looking for. And I'm pretty sure I found the god who gave me the wine."
"You seriously don't remember?"
She frowned. "If I did, I wouldn't have put myself through visiting my family."
Point taken.
"Let me guess, Dionysus? Giving you wine, inflicting us with madness, it fits the bill. That's not to mention he doesn't exactly like either of us."
"He does seem the type, doesn't he? But no. You remember the story of Heracles?"
Piper scowled. "The stories are a lot better than the man."
Annabeth cocked a brow and curled her lip. "I'll take your word for it. Anyways, everyone knows about the labors. However, most people don't know why he had to do them in the first place."
"Wasn't it some sort of atonement? He killed someone, right?"
She nodded in affirmation. "His wife and children. But it was because someone inflicted him with madness, the same way you described what happened with Khione. He didn't have any control."
Piper and I shared an uncomfortable gaze. She scooted closer to me, grasping my hand with her own.
"Are we sure it wasn't Dionysus? Heck, maybe Ares. He doesn't like us and I doubt he liked the idea of another rival god."
"While you're not wrong about Ares, he's not the one who inflicted Heracles with madness. And I highly doubt he's the one who did it to you."
I squeezed Piper's hand. "Who then?"
She grimaced. "The royal pain in the ass we all know and hate, Hera."