Percy Jackson
For some reason, Percy was not surprised when Thalia suddenly turned up at his place, already aware of what was going on. With her usual sense of discretion, his cousin came barging in through the front door, clearly hyped up for a fight. Even when it became clear that Annabeth was fine it took a while for the temperamental daughter of Zeus to finally calm down. Admittedly the drink Silena offered her probably helped a lot more than his attempts had. Once everyone had settled down they could actually start discussing the matter. Long story short they knew very little, had nothing to go on, but were probably in for some trouble.
Just to be safe Percy had told Juniper she was not to leave the house until the dust settled. She had accepted the order with her usual blend of quiet submissiveness though he doubted she was happy about it.
"So," Thalia finally summarized. "We are just sitting down and doing nothing?"
"Not much we can do," Annabeth replied tiredly. "What are you suggesting? We run around in circles and wave around our swords?"
Thalia shrugged. "I don't know, you are the daughter of Athena here!"
"I am," Annabeth confirmed. "And nothing good has ever come from bind actionism."
"Fine," Thalia said and glared back and forth between them before focusing on someone behind them. "And what do you want?"
Percy looked around to find Khione standing a bit away, clearly listening in on the conversation. She was as usual in her simple white chiton and quite barefoot. Then, being the goddess of snow she probably wasn't too bothered with cold feet. "I live here," the goddess replied, somewhat indignantly.
"Mind your manners," Percy warned his cousin.
"Yes," Silena cut in. "Khione isn't bothering anyone."
It was fairly obvious that Thalia was quite bothered by the goddess's presence. "Have you considered she might be spying?"
"Spying for whom?" Percy replied sarcastically. "Besides, she hasn't left this house in months, and Iris or Hermes would not be caught dead delivering messages for her."
Realizing he was being rude he looked back at his unwilling bonds-woman. "Do you need something Khione?" e
"No, I shall take my leave," the goddess announced, clearly not in the mood for an argument.
Thalia and Piper glared after the goddess with open distaste. "Fucking bitch," Piper muttered under her breath.
"You two are unbelievable," Silena finally snapped, a rare sharpness entering her voice. For a moment Percy thought she was upset at him as well, but then noticed she was glaring back and forth between her half-sister and Thalia. "Leave Khione alone."
With a huff, Silena rose to her feet and hurried after the goddess. "I mean it," Percy said. "Mind your manners with Khione. It isn't like she has anywhere to go."
Thalia only snorted but fortunately, Piper at least had the good sense to stay silent.
"We have more important things to worry about anyway," Annabeth cut into the argument. "So you two better get over your problems with Khione fast because I don't see her going anywhere. Also, no one tells Circe about any of this."
Neither of the women argued. Perhaps neither of them was eager to hack off the occasionally psychotic daughter of a war goddess mere hours after she sent two people to the forever sleep. Not that he could blame them.
"Thanks, Wise Girl," Percy said.
"No problem, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth replied, the genuinely affectionate smile she favored him with suddenly in sharp contrast to her otherwise fierce appearance.
Thalia rose and crossed her arms. She tried to look grim, but by now Percy could tell how anxious the daughter of Zeus was. "Well, I'll be crashing here tonight. Safety in numbers and stuff. What about Sally and Estelle?"
"Huh?" Percy asked.
"Sally and Estelle, Kelphead!" Thalia repeated slowly as if he were dense. "Come on Kelphead. You really think they wouldn't go after your family! Sally is a lot softer mark than Annie here."
For once Annabeth seemed to have the good sense not to argue about the abbreviation of her name. "We got to bring them here to Olympus," Annabeth said softly. "Until things quiet down at the very least."
Percy exhaled. Not that he didn't enjoy seeing his mother and little sister, but he wasn't sure he was thrilled by having them living in his little freak show of a harem. Immediately feeling guilty, he pushed the thoughts aside and nodded. "That is probably a good idea."
Annabeth bounced to her foot only to have Percy pull her back down. "I'll get them. It's the weekend so they should be home."
"No," Thalia said firmly. "I'll get them. Amberly is in Olympus right now so I'll grab her. You stay here. With Annabeth out of action -"
"I am not out of ac-" Annabeth tried to cut in indignantly.
"Yes you are," Percy said firmly, partly because he was actually concerned about his woman's health, and partly because he knew how much it would annoy her. "Okay, sounds like a plan."
True to her nature Thalia lost no time in getting going, leaving him only to help Piper settle in while Annabeth took a shower. Once she had Percy guided her back to the lounge where he took the liberty of tucking her in. Though admittedly he had very few illusions about her actually catching any sleep. Even if she were tired, she would stay awake just to spite him.
"So, can you get me a coke?" Annabeth asked, shamelessly trying her best to look cute now that she had submitted to taking the rest.
"Sure," Percy said and brought her a glass from the bar. Once certain that Annabeth was entertained and not up to any immediate mischief he hurried downstairs, passing Piper who was on her way back up on the way.
He found Silena and Khione hanging out on Silena's bed. Lounging on the bed, he was once again struck by how normal Khione seemed. Beautiful, sure. Still normal. Well apart from the ever so gentle silvery glow.
The somewhat odd duo looked up at him as he entered. "You guys okay?" he asked.
"Peachy!" Silena replied. Percy did not claim to be an expert in reading the fairer gender, but he was getting the distinct suspicion she was still annoyed.
"Don't worry, Piper and Thalia are going to learn to get over you being here Khione," Percy said, relatively sure. Piper was not the best at holding grudges in the first place. And while Thalia was, she did occasionally decide to be the bigger person about it.
Khione shrugged and offered him one of those cool smiles of hers. It didn't mean much, the only one she had shown any degree of warmth for being Silena so far. "I couldn't care less if they don't."
"You are not helping," Silena snapped at her unlikely friend.
Khione smile grew to something that one could almost describe as humorous. "I am not trying to."
Silena rolled her eyes theatrically. "I want a harmonious atmosphere in my home, so you better play nice too."
"I have been nothing but cordial," Khione argued indignantly.
"All I ask is that you stay so," Percy said. "They'll get over it soon enough. Well, Piper probably. Thalia is perfectly capable of holding a grudge indefinitely."
Khione chuckled at this, her soft laugh cool and melodious. "That at least is not hard to imagine."
Well, it did not take the vaunted daughter of Zeus to appear with his mother, soon-to-be stepfather, and little sister at his doorstep. From somewhere she had also managed to conjure up half a dozen perpetually ill-tempered-looking eternal maidens both as escort and to drag along the luggage.
He should not have been surprised that the moment the doorbell rang the Annabeth burrito exploded forth from the lounge and rushed to the door, nearly knocking Juniper aside like some skinny bowling pin in the process screaming "Sally!"
"She doesn't greet you like that, does she" Silena mused, appearing next to him.
"Nah, with me she just looks like she is sexually objectifying me," Percy replied in mock indignation.
"Pretty sure she is," Piper agreed, appearing at his other side.
They hurried after Annabeth to welcome their new guests. For once, Estelle was sleeping.
"By the gods, you are alright. I saw in the news that your apartment burned out. They said they found bodies..."
"I'm fine," Annabeth assured her brightly before also giving Paul a surprisingly warm hug.
"So, let me guess," Sally began turning her attention to Percy once handing little Estelle off to Annabeth. It was one of those times when he marveled at how flawed his mental image of Annabeth had been. She had never struck him as the king of girl that would be fawning over babies, more her career first. Yet here they were. "This has something to do with the fire."
"It does," Thalia conformed. "You remember how Percy is keeping this sorceress locked in a cage in his basement?"
"Vaguely," Sally replied, and Percy could tell that his mother did not like the trajectory the conversation was taking.
Annabeth was too focused on Estelle to salvage the situation but fortunately, Silena was on track. "It is nothing like that," Silena said in her usual soothing tone. "I fear some of Circe's followers attacked the flat. It is safe to assume they are trying to free her. Maybe they tried to abduct Annabeth as a hostage or something."
"They did try," Annabeth muttered sardonically before going back to gently bouncing little Estelle.
"Forgive me if I speak out of turn," a cool voice announced and they turned around to find Khione leaning against the wall, her pail arms crossed. "Not that the daughter of Athena's perseverance isn't to be admired, but the entire attack does not make much sense."
"For the record, I think Annabeth getting through this attack unscathed is the most important part," Paul offered helpfully, clearly not entirely comfortable with the idea of teenagers engaging in mortal combat.
Piper bristled at the goddess's sudden appearance, but the point made seemed to catch Thalia off guard enough to get her to pause for a long moment without drawing a scowl.
Annabeth cocked her head slightly, that far-away look appearing on her face. She only said one word. "Elaborate."
Khione looked back and forth between himself and Annabeth for a moment and then shrugged. "Well, they just lost the element of surprise. And for what? To have a go at the hardest target they could find aside of course from you, Perseus?"
Annabeth, Percy noted, did not mind being referred to as a hard target at all. She had that self-satisfied grin on her face again that motivated him to rail her extra hard. She would make a good goddess one day, he decided. Flattery worked with her as well as it did with anyone on Olympus, so perhaps she was suited to godhood as they got.
"You're right," Annabeth decided. "They blew it. Though to play the devil's advocate, they probably weren't eager to try something on Olympus."
"We'll talk about it more later," Percy finally announced. "Let's make sure our guests are comfortable."
Well, as it turned out that wasn't too hard after all. Because when he came back late in the afternoon from his godly training after another impressively unproductive training session with Apollo and Artemis. Especially with recent events, Percy was actually somewhat motivated to now learn a thing or two. Unfortunately though, despite his ambitions and increased efforts, he seemed to be about as good at Godding as Annabeth was at spelling in English.
When he came back shortly after sunset Paul and Sally seemed to have settled in just fine. He found Sally and Annabeth gossiping away in the lounge while both seemed to have thought it was a good idea to leave his little sister in Mrs. O'Leary's care. While The hell-hound was asleep on the job, the infant was happily snoring away in the gap between his hound's front leg and neck.
Not that he was overly concerned over Mrs. O'Leary getting aggressive, but a hell-hound the size of an M1A2 being affectionate was already potentially hazardous for an infant. But neither Annabeth, or even more surprisingly his own mother seemed to see any issue with it.
"Good evening ladies," he greeted them.
"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth greeted him, her face lighting up as she grinned up at him, making his heart do a little backflip.
"Hey Percy," his mother greeted him aswell in return. "Sweetie, can you check on Paul? Thalia dragged him off earlier to somewhere."
"Sure," Percy finally conceded.
He found Paul soon enough, though all he had to do was follow the unmistakable sounds of metal striking metal. He found his stepfather to be in the workout/gym area, holding a sword with an unmistakable sound of glee plastered on his face as he held a sword in both hands and fended off blows and jabs from Thalia while Juniper watched, looking more bored than anything else. Then, she would usually be out and about at this time. "Keep your defense up!" Thalia warned. "Not that high," she then added after tapping his hips.
"What are you guys doing? Percy asked after watching for a few minutes, though admittedly is was fairly obvious.
"Fencing, duh!" Thalia replied accurately enough.
"Hope I am not doing too badly," Paul replied sheepishly.
"Just fine, Paul. Just fine," Thalia assured him. "So Kelp head, how far is Silena with dinner?"
"How should I know, I just got back. By the way, Artemis says to stay out of trouble and be nice to me."
He probably did deserve the middle finger sent his way from Thalia.
He thought it best to leave them at it.
As it turned out, Silena was quite a bit down range with the lasagna she was making for everyone. And by the time he got there, Sally had already joined Silena to help her, with Annabeth standing back holding Percy's little sister with her with her usual uselessness when it came to anything cooking-related. Khione was sitting on one of the counters, not being helpful at all aside from gracing Silena her dubious company.
"Still letting Silena do all the cooking ?" his mother chided him and Annabeth.
"Yes," Percy said, trying to sound unapologetic. "Why else would I have her around."
The comment earned him a number two glare from his mother. For some reason feeling personally attacked Annabeth scowled. "She tells me to not touch anything every time I try," Annabeth defended herself indignantly.
"Because sweetie, you would manage to burn a pot full of water," Silena replied after favoring the daughter of Athena with an affectionate smile. "Next time I have a bar brawl though, I will be forever grateful for your aid."
Annabeth grinned at this, seemingly appeased, and bounced the sleeping infant in her arms.
Before dinner though, Annabeth Iris Messaged Chiron to update him on what had happened. The old centaur looked at Annabeth with unconcealed concern. "What were you expecting?" he asked as if this turn of events was perfectly obvious. "Circe and her followers are dangerous people. They were bound to strike back. Especially with Circe being a prisoner rather than dead."
"Well, yes," Annabeth said sheepishly. "I just thought that after giving them a solid pasting on two separate occasions they would get the message."
"They hardly did. The world knows she is your prisoner, Percy," Chiron said, looking over to where he was hovering over Annabeth's shoulder. "-and now since you've been raised to godhood, you have gained a considerable profile. You too, simply by association Annabeth. Additionally to the renown you have won on your own. You two need to be more careful."
The old centaur sighed. "How about this? You two come to Camp tomorrow and we can talk this through in depth. There is also a little something I could use your help with when you are here. Drew is back to her usual games, maybe you two can help sort it out."
Annabeth sighed deeply. "Do you have any plans, Seaweed Brain?"
"Nope," he said. "We'll be there."
Once again, the reality of having a harem was a lot less sexy than teenage fantasies promised. It was all fun and games until you sat at the dinner table with them and your mother, and worst of all, they got along just fine. That Piper and Thalia were also present did not help much. Only Khione had chosen to withdraw to her room. Nor did the fact that he had screwed Piper help. Not that the three-way with her and Annabeth hadn't been an enjoyable experience even if she didn't seem able to quite meet his eye since.
So there he sat there somewhat awkwardly at his own table with Paul while the women got along just dandy.
This ordeal passed painfully slowly but finally, Estelle saved him by having the good sense to start crying. Sally declared that Estelle, and more importantly herself were tired and wished to turn in for the night which served Percy just fine. He was having quite enough of that day as it was and there was at least some hope that the evening could be salvaged.
So, here is a quick update. I hope you enjoy yourself. While I toil on the next chapter, feel free to check out "Of Roses and Empires" or "The Dauntless Few."
With regards,
HJL over and out.