#he didn’t even think it was weird until this moment w percy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mollymauk-teafleak · 3 years

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Blueprint

And here's my wonderful gf's present! I love you very very much @nb-fearne xxxxxx

It's a tiny ship but posting in case anyone's interested! If that's you, please consider reblogging and leaving a comment over on Ao3!

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Recently, Vax and Percy moved in with their boyfriend, Shaun Gilmore. So far, despite the chaos and the clutter of three adults in one small apartment, it's going very well.

But there are some things Percy needs to get better at.

Because it's not just three adults. It's three adults and Shaun's adopted daughter, Rosie.

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There was so much Percy de Rolo loved about his boyfriend. So much, more than he thought was possible to hold inside a chest that had been empty as long as his had. Enough that he’d gotten into the habit, in his lower moments (as less frequent as those had been becoming lately) Percy would list all the things he loved about Vax’ildan. Simply because thinking about the way his long hair would slide through Percy’s fingers like ink, the way Percy would sometimes wake up from a nightmare and find a wing draped across him that made them feel so safe, the way Vax would brighten whenever he saw him. It would just make him smile. So, so many reasons he loved about him, enough to fill a hundred notebooks.

But, by god, there were some things Percy really didn’t like. If he was going to make a list of those, top of the list would be…well, it would be the amount of hair in the shower drain.

Next would be the constant sneaking up on him.

“You know, you look even weirder just hanging around in the doorway like that.”

Percy somehow managed to swallow the shriek that leapt up into his throat along with his heart, at hearing Vax whisper uncomfortably close to his ear with absolutely no warning.

“Bloody shitting hell,” he hissed, whirling on his boyfriend angrily and pushing back with him until they were out of the kitchen and into the corridor, “I hate it when you do that!”

“Obviously,” Vax frowned, like he wasn’t sure why Percy was saying something on the level of water being wet, “Keep your voice down or you’ll be putting even more money in the swear jar.”

Percy clamped his jaw shut. Three quarters of the coins in that jar on the kitchen counter were from his pockets. The other quarter were from Vax but he’d borrowed from Percy.

“I’m not being weird,” he finally muttered, pitching his voice low so it didn’t carry back into the kitchen.

“Oh, no,” Vax hummed in quiet agreement, “You’re just awkwardly peering around the kitchen door and spying on our boyfriend’s daughter while she does her homework.”

Percy opened and closed his mouth a few times, before reddening and mumbling, “Well I wouldn’t have phrased it like that.”

He wasn’t sure how he would have phrased it, fairly certain that any way he tried to spin it would be hard to justify. Shaun had asked him to help Rosie with her schoolwork, that part was the truth. He’d mentioned, feigning a casual tone, that she had her very first science fair coming up and needed some help with her project idea. But there had been a hopeful glint in his warm, dark eyes as he’d emphasised that his little girl could really use some engineering help before he’d kissed him softly and left for work.

And Percy had promised himself that he would. He knew exactly what Shaun was doing in his gentle way, he appreciated the nudging and, even more than that, the knowledge that he’d need a little bit of nudging. So he’d promised himself that he would, as soon as Rosie had been sufficiently played with and entertained and filled with less than healthy snacks by Vax’ildan, he’d sit down with Rosie and they’d start her homework.

But apparently Shaun hadn’t nudged enough.

Vax shrugged, seemingly unconcerned about being pressed back against the wall for a conversation, it was a fairly natural state of being for him. He just played idly with the sleeves of his overlong, probably stolen sweater pulled down over his hands and gave Percy a knowing look.

“Sure. But you know the main way to make this whole thing look less creepy? Actually go in there and talk to Rosie and help her with her science project like you said you would.”

Percy flushed, folding his arms tightly, “If it was that simple that’s what I would have fuc-....flipping done.”

Vax arched his eyebrow, “Nice save. So does that mean you’re actually ready to talk about why it’s not as simple as that?”

Percy felt that itch he always got when facing down a conversation he didn’t want to have, the nervous energy that made him start down the hallway even though he had no reason to. Very familiar with this by now, Vax followed him in a kind of gentle, unobtrusive chase.

“You know why,” Percy scowled, finding himself in the living room, lifting the volume of his voice a little now they were well out of earshot of Rosie. He hoped anyway, tieflings had annoyingly long ears from his experience with their friends. Pretty similar to half elves.

“I can guess,” Vax corrected, taking a seat on the plush sofa with its colourful handmade throw rugs, folding his legs up under him. Immediately, their dog Sheriff stirred from where he was napping on the opposite end, not even really opening his eyes as he ambled over to flop down in his daddy’s lap and promptly continue snoring, “But I’d rather you told me, baby.”

Percy knew the normal thing to do would be to sit next to Vax but he still had that anxious energy buzzing through him so he decided to awkwardly fidget by the mantle, moving the little figurines and kitschy trinkets Vax had brought with him that Shaun had graciously made space for in his meticulously decorated apartment. Percy supposed he couldn’t talk, Shaun had given over an entire room to be his workshop.

The nervous energy, the churning in his stomach all told him he didn’t want to talk about this. He knew this had been building ever since they’d all moved in together a few months ago, leaving their damp, run down studio apartment for Shaun’s homey, still small but in a cosy kind of way place in a much nicer part of the city. Living with Shaun had filled more than material needs and still the two of them were astounded that their boyfriend had taken this life he’d fought so damn hard for and opened it up so they could fit in too.

But this had been coming, Percy knew it.

There was no way to say it that didn’t make him sound like a complete and total asshole. And maybe he deserved to sound like one honestly, for all Vax and Shaun’s reassurances. The long and short of it was that Percy had no idea what to do with Shaun’s daughter Rosie.

He liked her, of course he liked her. It would be impossible for anyone not to like Rosie. She was cute as a button for a start, a tiefling with white skin and pink marbling like ice cream, clouds of pink hair like cotton candy, looking every bit as sweet as her nature. Six years old and already fiercely protective of her father, she’d of course started off a little suspicious of the two men she found making breakfast in her apartment wearing her baba’s clothes. She’d actually spat fire at Vax’ildan, thinking they were rather confused, rather underdressed burglars, yelling at them in her high, musical voice to get out and leave her baba alone.

After some quick calming down and explaining from Shaun, a promise that the fact Vax had a dagger strapped to his thigh was just a thing he did and not a threat, and the more gentle, formal introductions at the ice cream shop that they’d planned, Rosie relaxed, trusting her baba and everything he promised. Since then she had been nothing but sweet, funny, chatty, interested in anything and everything around her. She’d become exactly what Shaun had talked about in that soft, misty eyed voice full of love and devotion he’d always used when they’d heard him talk about his daughter, since the day he’d adopted her.

And Percy had no idea what to do with it.

“It’s easy for you,” he sighed, not wanting to look at Vax as he admitted it, for all he suspected his boyfriends knew what he was going to say, “You took her flying once and she automatically adores you.”

It was true, Vax had only needed to shake his wings free of his back and he’d cemented his place as Rosie’s new favourite. It had been worth the minor heart attack they’d given Shaun to hear her cries of delight as Vax had flown her on a few loops around the apartment block, Percy having his fingers crushed in Shaun’s hand as they’d watched from the roof.

But it wasn’t just that. Vax was great with kids without having to even think about it, automatically relaxed and fun and easygoing. Even before they’d moved in, Vax was chief bedtime story reader, the one Rosie always begged to sit next to wherever they went, the one who would tear around the park with her in some imaginary game. You looked at the way he was with Rosie and just knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would make a wonderful father whenever she felt ready to give him the title.

Percy had no idea how he did it.

Vax rubbed Sheriff’s ears idly, “All you need to do is find your version of that then! That’s why this science project thing is perfect, she’ll crush that science fair with you on her team. You’ll work on it together, you’ll bond and she’ll love you too!”

“It isn’t as easy as that,” Percy bit his lip, leaning against the mantle, clenching and unclenching his hands restlessly, “I know what Shaun’s trying to do, I appreciate it, I told myself I’d do it but…I don’t know, it just isn’t easy.”

Vax softened a little, even Sheriff sitting up to blink worriedly at his papa, “It’s okay, Freddy. It’s just unfamiliar to you but you’ll get there…”

Percy gave a harsh, humourless bark of laughter, “Okay, maybe you don’t already know. It’s not that it’s unfamiliar, Vax. It’s too fucking familiar.”

As soon as he said the words, Percy’s instinct was to frantically reach out and snatch them back, he felt the immediate stab of fear at exposing any chink in his armour. But it was a younger, more terrified version of himself who owned that fear and now he could take a deep breath, remember how far he’d come and trust Vax. Even if he did feel slightly ill.

“Freddy?” Vax’s voice was soft and sounded further away than he actually was.

“I…I helped Oliver and Whitney with their school projects,” he stared at his feet, voice tense and drawn, “Ludwig would follow me all around the manor, he always wanted to be doing whatever I was doing, he’d throw a fit if his place wasn’t set next to mine at dinner. I made toys for them, I played hide and seek with them on rainy days, I promised Mother I’d never let anything happen to Cassandra and I’d always protect her.”

“Oh Freddy…” he heard Vax get to his feet, the jangle of Sheriff’s collar as the two of them came running over, Vax folding his arms around his boyfriend while Sheriff circled around them like he could find what was upsetting his papa and bark at it.

“I just…I don’t know,” Percy murmured shakily against Vax’s shoulder, “I used to be good at this, I did. I just worry it’s another thing I’ve lost after everything. Another thing they took from me.”

Vax’s arms were skinny but strong and they held him fiercely, “Freddy, don’t worry about it. Of course me and Shaun care more about you being comfortable, sorry if we pushed you too hard-”

“You didn’t,” Percy shook his head hard, “You never do. I would have told you, it’s just…I didn’t even know how to put it into words.”

“Of course,” Vax drew back to catch his eyes, putting a hand on his cheek, “Freddy, listen, this is going to work out. You can take as long as you need and it doesn’t make that not true.”

Percy gave him a grateful smile, trying to hold onto those words and keep them close and not lose them. He wasn’t going to ruin this. There was a place for him here.

“Thank you, darling…well…a model of the solar system can’t be that hard, right? Maybe if you were there to help?”

Vax grinned crookedly, reaching over and giving his hand a squeeze through a sweater paw, “Well, I don’t know shit about space but I get what you mean. I’m right behind you, Freddy.”

Percy nodded, keeping a hold on that hand as he turned on his heels and marched himself back to the kitchen, Vax and Sheriff following devotedly. It was a lovely space, all colourful tiles and light wood, everything constantly smelling of the spices Shaun used in his cooking. The big round table that took up much of the room had been worn smooth over years under so many family dinners, so many cups of coffee over so many mornings, under the books Shaun would bring home from the store to look over just before bed. And, more recently, Rosie had been using it just as dutifully, now she was in ‘big school’.

Right now she was scribbling away, a small army of coloured pencils fanning around her in a rainbow, her tongue poking out and tail swaying slowly in her concentration. She was so engrossed she didn’t even blink until Vax set a glass of strawberry milk in front of her.

“Take five, kiddo, there’s going to be steam coming out of your ears before too long,” he grinned, nudging the drink towards her.

She giggled, her pink tourmaline eyes shining, obediently picking up the glass in two hands, “Okay, Vax. Baba says I have to take a break. Says it's very important.”

“Baba should take his own advice,” Vax hummed wryly, sitting down in the seat across from her, Sheriff promptly plonking his head in his lap.

Percy cleared his throat, eying the chair right next to Rosie, “Um…you know, Rosie…your baba mentioned you wanted to make a Solar System for your project?”

Her eyes immediately widened and lit up with interest, “Yes! Yes, I do! I wanna make all the planets and the stars and the Sun even though the Sun is a star actually…”

Percy was smiling, he couldn’t help it, “Ah, well, you know I know how to build things? I mean, I tinker. In my workshop. So, um, if you wanted some help…after your break of course…”

“Would you?” Rosie gasped, her little fangs poking through in her sudden, hopeful smile, “Please! I so hoped you would, I even made a special blueprint, just like you make, Percival. I wanted it to be as good as your stuff!”

She proudly showed him what she’d been scribbling on as they’d walked in. She maybe hadn’t fully understood what a blueprint was, the entire thing was a picture of what she wanted to do completed in blue crayons. But Vax grinned, not missing the way Percy began blinking rapidly, the way the swallowed hard.

“That…that looks pretty perfect, Rosie,” he said, voice a little rougher but he was smiling even wider, “I’m not sure we could do everything on there, I mean, the lasers might be a little tricky though…yeah, I have some spare servos and some LEDs in different colours…I think we could do this.”

Rosie bounced in glee, kicking her legs and nearly upsetting the dregs of her milk, though Vax’s quick hands caught the glass just in time (much to Sheriff’s disappointment), “Thank you, thank you, thank you! It’s going to be the best, Percival!”

Percy chuckled, looking equal parts surprised and delighted when Rosie threw her arms around his middle, “Wow…you know you can call me Percy? Everyone does.”

She rested her chin on his chest, smiling sweetly up at him, “No. I think Percival is a very nice name. I like it.”

Percy flushed a bright red, shocking against his white hair, trying to ignore his boyfriend beaming at him knowingly, “Well. Thank you very much, Rosie.” He quickly cleared his throat, patting her head, “So, shall we go see what I’ve got in my workshop?”

She beamed like his workshop was a wonderland, nodding so hard her space buns bounced, springing down from her chair and rocketing off, still giggling. Percy scrambled up after her, not wanting to leave her alone in his room full of sharp objects and flammable liquids and torches. He was fairly sure that wasn’t what Shaun had in mind.

But before he did, he finally met Vax’s mile-wide grin, his pride and ever so slight edge of ‘I told you so’.

Still blushing, Percy shrugged, “I guess it’s like riding a bike?”

“Or you’ve come a lot further than you think?” Vax suggested, pulling a piece of blank paper towards him and starting to doodle.

“Well…that too.”

Shaun Gilmore had been doing his best to make sure he didn’t come home ridiculously late these days. It was far easier to do when he had his family to go home to, his heart pulling them back to their side, the way it had used to draw him towards the security of work. But here he was, walking home, and the sun hadn’t even sunk below the skyscrapers. It was enough to have him smiling before he’d even teleported himself from the lobby to his front door (the elevator had been broken for a week and there was no way he was climbing all those stairs).

There was a commotion as soon as he pushed back the door which wasn’t exactly unusual. Shaun was used to laughter and the pounding of running feet and, more often than not, the clatter of something being knocked over.

What was unusual, however, was the fact there were three voices rather than two.

Curious, he moved towards the kitchen, abandoning his heavy coat and bag full of designs for new products and ledger books. His parrot, Umbrasyl, hopped excitedly from the side table where he always waited for his owner to come home, chirping his name in greeting. Shaun paused to pet the top of the enormous grey bird’s head and let him climb up to his shoulder.

“What are they up to, hm?” he asked his old friend, smiling warmly when the bird’s only reply was to peck happily at one of his earrings, still happily chorusing his usual greeting, “Let’s just go see, then.”

The rest of the apartment was bathed in dusky orange but the small kitchen was bright with light and noise. When Shaun got to the doorway, his smile only widened as he took in the sight of Vax, sat on the counter and sipping coffee, also watching as Rosie and Percy worked excitedly on some contraption balanced on the kitchen table. It looked like an upturned spider of metal and wire, plastic spheres of varying size and colour on the end of every leg. It wasn’t so much the thing itself that lit Shaun’s heart from the inside. It was the twin looks of intense concentration mixed with delight, the fact that Rosie was sitting on Percy’s knee, the sheets of paper spread around them with designs half done in his neat script and half done in her babyish scrawl.

Finally, the fact that he was there broke through their bubble and Rosie turned to cry out in joy at seeing her baba, jumping down to run over and give him a flying hug.

“Baba!” she squeezed him tightly, legs dangling as he wrapped her in a safe embrace, “You’re home!”

“I am, my love,” he kissed the top of one horn, “What’s going on here?”

“Me and Percival have been engineering,” she pronounced the word with an emphasis that suggested she’d been corrected a few times and was very proud of herself for doing it right, “Come and see, come and see!”

“Well, I’m not sure some of the soldering is as secure as it could be but I think it’s ready for a test run, seeing as we have an audience,” Percy smiled, leaning in to flick some switch, “Vax?”

The half elf hit the lights, plunging the kitchen into a muted darkness that was broken a heartbeat later by each sphere on the contraption flickering to life, each one a warm, candle-like glow in a different hue. A soft whirring started up and the spheres began to dance, turning about a large centre ball that shone the brightest in a pretty good approximation of the solar system for an evening's work.

Rosie clapped her hands and giggled, “We made that! Baba, we made that, me and Percival! He’s so smart and he made me smart too!”

In the glow of their little planets, Percy blushed happily, chuckling, “You didn’t need me for that, Rosie. You’re very clever all on your own.”

Shaun had to clear his throat before he spoke, glad of the dark so he didn’t have to explain to his six year old why there were tears in his eyes, “It’s really beautiful, I can see why you’re so proud. What do we say, my dear, to Percy for giving you so much help?”

Rosie nodded and squirmed down, running back over to the table, standing on her tiptoes and beckoning Percy down. When he stooped, she kissed his cheek and beamed.

“Thank you, Percival!”

Once Percy had blinked the surprise from his face, he smiled back at her and, for once, he didn’t see the ghosts of all the people he’d loved and lost behind her. He just saw the people he loved right now.

“Any time,” he promised.

Rosie Geddmore was of the opinion that she had the best baba in the whole entire world and she would tell anyone so, if they asked. She’d thought so since she was four years old, when they’d found each other when they’d needed each other most.

And if anyone asked her when she was seven, she’d tell them that she had the world’s best papa and the world's best daddy too.

#critical role #percy de rolo #vaxildan #shaun gilmore #rosie #vex and vax

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sugarbutterbroadway · 4 years

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A New Kelly

“We need to talk,”Davey said, setting down his backpack. Jack froze, pdf on his laptop immediately forgotten. He tried to keep his face neutral but his mind was doing a frantic recap of everything he’s said and done in the past week. The worst part was that it kept coming up negative, which made him even more nervous. He forgot to pick up Luna’s poop outside yesterday but they had both laughed it off, so they were fine, right? It couldn’t have been about the poop, right? His face must have betrayed him because Davey took one look at him and winced.

“I phrased that wrong”He said, “I’m not mad at you about anything, i’m just tired and can’t speak”

“Not even about the poop?”Jack asked in a tiny voice. Davey scrunched up his face and took a seat on Jack’s lap, letting out a sigh.

“You’re the one who stepped in it, why would I be mad?”he asked. Jack shrugged and wrapped his arms around Davey’s waist pulling him closer. Davey toed off his shoes and lifted his legs onto the couch.

“What did you want to talk about, my love?”Jack asked, placing a kiss on his shoulder. Davey sighed and grabbed one of Jack’s hands. Jack took that as a sign to attempt being serious and looked at him.

“Jack”He said, squeezing Jack’s hand. “I want another baby”

Jack sputtered, “What do you mean another?”

“Well Luna’s getting older and I just think that a little sibling would teach her some responsibility-”

“Who has the new puppy?”Jack groaned, rubbing his eyes. Davey grinned and wiggled a bit trying to get his phone out of his pocket.

“Specs and he’s so cute, look!”He said, shoving the phone in Jack’s face. It was Specs instagram definitely, the bright yellow theme was indication enough. Jack gently grabbed the phone and hummed as his eyes scanned it. He let out a noise of triumph, yup that was definitely a puppy. It was a candid shot of Jojo mid laugh on the floor with the puppy curled up in his lap. Jack looked up at Davey with a raised brow, and Davey groaned reaching both hands up to cup Jack’s face.

“His name is Percy!”he continued, squeezing Jacks’s cheeks.“That’s so fucking cute babe, just look at him! His paws are too big for his body!”

Davey continued to coo but Jack’s mind was still reeling. He didn’t know why he felt so disappointed. Sure he was scared shitless at the mere thought of a human baby, but a tiny part of him was hoping that’s what Davey meant. He leaned back into the couch and let his arm go slack around Davey’s hip.

“-nd I know that we just saw them a few months ago but would it be so bad to vis--babe?”He said.

“Hmm?”Jack hummed. Davey shifted a bit in his lap so he was somewhat facing Jack and poked at his cheek.

“You’re frowning”

“Am not”Jack frowned.

“Are too”He said, poking the creases in his forehead. Jack let out a groan and opted to bury his face in Davey’s shoulder. Davey clicked his teeth and rolled off of Jack's lap--much to his disappointment--onto the couch.

“What’s the matter?”He asked.

“Nothing”Jack waved off, “My mind is just somewhere else” “Where?”he asked, leaning his head on Jack’s shoulder. “I wanna go too” “Santa Fe,”Jack said, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah right”He snorted, “You haven’t wanted to go to Santa Fe since you figured out that it was desert land”

“Not true!”Jack exclaimed, “I obviously wanted to stay for my loving boyfriend-” “And you’re scared of spiders”He said, snuggling closer into Jack’s side. “But, come on Jack. I thought we didn’t keep secrets”

“Fine”Jack sighed, “I want a divorce”

“Again, nice try”He snorted, “please Jackie, for me?”

“Davey…”

“Please”

“Alright alright!”Jack exclaimed, “Enough with the eyes. Christ you Jacobs are spoiled”

“No, we just know how to get what we want”He smirked, tucking a leg under his butt. “Now spill”

“You’re restless,”Jack pointed out.

“And you’re still avoiding the question”He said, “whatever it is can’t be that bad”

Oh but it can, he wanted to say.

“I…”Jack said and took a deep breath, “I want a baby”

Davey blinked, “I thought you didn’t want another puppy?”

“No!”Jack whined, shaking his head. “No no, Luna is enough. I...I want an uh..an actual baby...with you” god he was being so awkward.

Davey’s eyes widened slightly but he smirked. “Should we go try for one?”

“Stop teasing me!”Jack whined, “But is..is this something you want Davey? Like do you think we’re ready for a baby?”

Davey just stared at him.

“You’re making me nervous, Davey”Jack chuckled, “You’re not speaking, that’s weird”

“You’re an asshole,”He said.

Jack’s heart stuttered. “W-what?” “You’re an asshole because now me and Spot owe Race fifty dollars”He grumbled. “How could you do this to me?” “I’m not following,”Jack said after a few moments of trying to pick his jaw off the floor.

“Of course I want a baby with you”He said, grabbing Jack’s hand. “I’ve only been dropping hints since the day we got married!”

“What hints!”Jack exclaimed, “I’m so confused”

“I’m always holding the babies at any family function”He started, “I’m always offering to babysit Chanah and Anika and Damien-”

“I get it, your family is huge”Jack said, Davey gave him the side eye.

“We have a spare room that I have been guarding with my life!”he continued, “we have a literal baby name book in here-”

“You said it was so we could name Luna!”Jack sputtered.

“And that’s how she ended up with the most human name ever!”He laughed, “Our dogs name is Luna Anne Kelly-Jacobs”

“It’s a cute name!”

“Face it Jack, I’ve been dropping hints”He huffed, “And now i’m short fifty bucks so thanks a lot”

“Well why were you guys betting on me!”Jack asked, “You know better than to bet with Race on anything”

“We wanted to see who would cave first, me or you”He said, “I obviously thought it was gonna be me because you’re dense-”

“Hey!”

“But then you get all nervous and cute saying you want a baby!”he finished, chest heaving. “Which is simultaneously the most attractive and dumbest thing you’ve ever done”

“I...I don’t know what to say,”Jack said. There were a lot of things he could have said, but his brain had turned to mush.

“Just...sometimes you are very clueless”He giggled, “I thought I was going to have to spell it out for you on the fridge or something”

“So you really want a baby?”Jack said, “With me?”

“No, I want a baby with Specs”he scoffed.

“Hey”Jack warned, “Specs is an attractive man, you got somethin you want to tell me?”

“Of course I want a baby with you, idiot”He rolled his eyes. “Adoption or surrogacy or fostering I...I don’t care. I think you’ve been an amazing parent to Race,Charlie and Luna, and you’ll be an amazing parent to whatever kid comes through this door. You sell yourself short Jack”

“Says you”Jack snorted, “You see the way you are with those babies? You’re like a completely different person, it makes my heart do weird shit”

“Makes your heart do weird shit”He quoted, “Now I feel like that should’ve been your vows”

“Yeah?”Jack smirked.

“Yeah, it’s completely on brand”He said.

“So this is...this is something we’re doing”Jack said, “We’re gonna have some babies?”

“Woah there buddy”He said with wide eyes, “How did a baby turn into some babies?”

Jack waved him off, “Potato tomato”

“That’s...that’s not even the saying”He said slowly, “But let’s start with one”

“Two”

“One”

“Three”

“One”

“One and a half!”

“You can’t have half a baby!”He exclaimed.

“Well you can if you try hard enough!”Jack fired back.

“Unbelievable”He said, rubbing his eyes. “You’re unbelievable, why did I marry you?”

“For Medda”Jack said, with a serious face. Davey shrugged and laid his legs over Jack’s lap.

“Medda is pretty awesome”

“We’re gonna have a baby”Jack repeated.

“Yes we are”He said, “But let’s take this one step at a time, yeah? I don’t want to overwhelm you-”

“I’m gettin the baby book!”Jack exclaimed, bolting up from the couch. Before Davey had the time to process Jack was running back into the livingroom at full speed. He skidded to a halt but ended up toppling over onto Davey’s stomach.

“Bastard”He wheezed, pushing at Jack’s shoulders. Jack stuck his tongue out and made himself comfortable flipping through the book.

“What are you-”

“Shh”Jack hushed, furrowing his brows. His eyes scanned the pages until they found what they were looking for.

“Aha!”Jack said, sitting up so Davey could get a good look. There appeared to be four names messily scrawled in red ink at the bottom of the page. Davey wanted to scold him for defacing the book but his scolding soon died in his throat when Jack spoke up.

“I-I know your peoples are important to you so I wanted to add some more...ya know, traditional names in there”Jack said fiddling with the pages, “I got a boys and a girls name and just-they’re so pretty Davey”

“Just when I thought I couldn’t love you anymore”He murmured, placing a kiss on Jack’s temple. “You picked good, baby”

Elsie and Salem were scribbled in Jack’s messy handwriting. “I really like these two, but what are these other ones?”

“I mean i’m Irish I guess”Jack mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Both of my folks were and I didn’t really get to learn anything and just-”

“You want our baby to grow up knowing what their parents are,”He said. He grabbed the hand Jack was fiddling with and intertwined them.

“Yeah”Jack said, squeezing his hand. “Exactly”

Davey leaned forward and pressed a finger against a name Jack hadn’t written. “This one, how do you say it?”

“Saoirse?”Jack said,

“Saoirse”He repeated slowly, “Saoirse...I..I really like that one”

“Yeah?”Jack said.

“Yeah”He chuckled, “Yeah I really like this one a lot”

“Saoirse Kelly-Jacobs”Jack said, with a grin. “It’s kinda growing on me”

“Saoirse Kelly-Jacobs”He said, “I’m not even mad you snuck your last name in there”

“Should we add it to the list then?”

“No, Jack I think it’s the one”He said.

“Really?”

“Really!”Davey said, “Saoirse Kelly-Jacobs”

“Saoirse Kelly-Jacobs”He whispered, squeezing Davey’s hand even tighter.

“God, we can’t wait to meet you”

A/n someone should try and count how many times Davey fidgets in this fic. Also comments do be kinda nice

#newsies #davey newsies #newsies jack kelly #javid #newsies broadway #fluff #Jack Kelly #Davey Jacobs #Luna the puppy #Paint The Sky #jack kelly x david jacobs

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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 years

Text

Pure Blood 26 (Sirius Black x F!Oc)

Warnings: Fights, blood, violence. A long chapter, :)

Words: 3,426

Masterlist

Chapter 25: Chapter 27

I move my leg up and down repeatedly and try not to panic as I wait for Remus to arrive. I’m sitting in one of the armchairs in the room of requirement, in front of a fireplace, beside me is a basket full of chocolates. I muster all my strength not to eat one.

After a few more minutes, the door opens and I get up quickly, but stop in place when I see Sirius across the room.

"Sirius?" How weird, I asked to see Remus. “What are you doing?"

"Remus told me that you’d meet today, so I spoke with him to exchange places just for tonight,” he says with a serious face as he approaches.

I walk around the couch and over to him.

"Why?" We stop at a reasonable distance.

"I think we both owe each other an explanation."

I try to ignore the anxiety his words give me.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about…”

He smirks and shakes his head.

“I'll give you a hint,” He takes another step towards me and I look at him in surprise. “One day I was ready to go to the Great Hall, serve myself food, talk to my friends and maybe, just maybe, see the girl who lately has me going crazy,” I frown, "In every sense of the word…”

“I- I don’t–" I stutter.

"But what do I find?" He continues, ignoring me. "That same girl, kissing one of my best friends."

That wasn't me.

"I had never envied any of my friends in the same way that I did then," He clenches his jaw. Instinctively, I take a step back, but Sirius's arm quickly wraps around my waist. I yelp when his chest collides with mine. "So I demand some explanation."

My eyes go from his gray eyes to his lips.

“Sirius…” I whisper.

He notices my gaze and smiles sideways.

"What do you want, Persephone?"

Brain, react!

Sirius closes his eyes and tilts his head, few inches separate our lips and-

A crash scares me. I open my eyes and realize that I am still on the couch in front of the fireplace.

"Persephone?"

I get up and this time I meet Remus.

Did I just- Did I dream about..?

"You're good?" He asks coming to my side. “You're very red, are you still sick?"

"Wait I just need- fuck…” I say, nervously moving away from him to a corner looking at the wall.

I close my eyes and take a moment to calm down. Oh brain, we'll take care of this later, damn it. When I think I'm better, I turn around and Remus looks at me concerned.

"I'm fine, it was just ... a nightmare,” I lie.

“Sure?" I nod.

We’re silent for a few seconds and I look closely at my friend, with Alice's advice in mind.

"Well, I uh-" I see the basket. "I brought you chocolates!" I let out, anxiously pointing to the basket.

He looks at me confused, but chuckles.

"Why am I not surprised?” He says mockingly and I smile. “You always try to fix everything with sweets.”

Well, he's not upset... for now.

"I just wanted to start this off right."

We both sat on the couch, facing each other.

"Percy I -uh…” he starts.

"Wait," I interrupt, reaching out for his hand. "The one who should apologize is me…” I stir uncomfortably. "Believe me I didn’t plan the kiss, I don’t know what happened to me. It sounds cliché, but it’s true. Hearing you say all those negative things about you, I wanted to tell you that you’re more than that and that any girl would be crazy to go out with you, but you kept belittling yourself and I–“

“Percy," says Remus with a light chuckle. “Breathe."

“Sorry,” I make a face.

"Do you feel something for me?" He blurts out. "Something more than just…”

I could say that my connection to Remus is very different from any I’ve ever had. That he’s an attractive, sweet, kind and loyal boy, but when I try to think of him in some other way, more than a friend… I think of someone else.

“No," I sigh. "I can only see you as a friend.”

He gazes at me, I guess he wants to make sure I'm not lying or hesitating, and then it’s his turn to sigo heavily.

"Thanks to Merlin,” He says and then leans against the back of the chair. I raise a brow and smile in amusement.

"Should I be concerned about your reaction, Wolfie?" He straightens up quickly causing me to laugh. "Just kidding!”

"Don't take it the wrong way, Percy,” He scratches the back of his neck. "I can't see you any other way either…” He says blushing a little. "The kiss was uh- I don't know.”

“Well," I cut. ”You're a good kisser, Lupin.” I wink at him and he blushes even more, laughing.

"Yes, it was a good kiss, but it didn’t feel right."

I nod making a face.

"I'm sorry that everything has gotten out of control, I didn’t believe that my words had that result…”

“Me neither, and you shouldn't apologize for that. It was not the best decision I have made - one of many - so, sorry…”

"I forgive you,” He smiles. "Come here!"

He raises his arms and I practically lunge towards him in a tight hug. I hide my face in his neck and smile at the contact.

"I missed you, Wolfie…”

"Me too,” he whispers. "You know? A lot happened in these days…”

"Tell me everything," I say, putting the chocolate basket between us.

“At first, I was thinking too much about whether I could have any feelings towards you, but no matter how hard I tried, only these memories could come, such as when I met you, when you asked me for help, when we became friends, all those jokes, the meetings, your thrill of wanting to know more than what I taught you about Muggles or anything else,” He says grabbing a chocolate. “And I didn't- uh, I couldn't see it as romantic. I know all the Trixie drama is not a good thing to tell, but I thought about how I felt when I was with her…” I grimace. "When I started liking her, I wanted to hold her hand, know about her day… always wondered what she’d be doing…”

“Ew," I complain and he laughs again.

"Yes, now I think that, but in the moment, it was something true for me,” he looks down. "With that little experience, I compared it and- I don't know, it's different with you.”

"I understand" I say biting my chocolate. Suddenly he looks up and smiles in amusement. "What?"

"There was also another very big factor. I had a pretty deep conversation with Sirius."

I raise my eyebrows and try to divert my gaze to the fireplace- remembering the dream…

Stop!

"Okay?" I say trying not to show interest, but I can't fool my best friend.

"He asked me if I had feelings for you,” that draws my attention and I turn to him. "Since he saw the kiss, he didn’t speak to me, he didn’t even look at me, but last night he confronted me. He seemed quite affected, but also lost. I've never seen him like this… I don't know exactly what's going on in Sirius' head, Percy, but of one thing I'm sure: What was once fear, hatred or annoyance towards you, is no longer in him.”

I bite my lower lip.

"I was thinking about what I felt towards you, but there was always another person…” I say with a lump in my throat. Remus hugs me.

"I don't like to see you both like that,” He whispers. "But I can't do anything and you know it.”

"I'm scared, Remus…”

"Whatever happens, I'll always be with you.”

__________

This day has been strange since I got up, everything around me has not been like the other days.

I thought that after my meeting with Remus, the rest would be quiet. It's been several days since the kiss and I haven't heard any more rumors about it.

When I went down to the Slytherin common room I got several looks, I usually ignore them, but this time, some girls were looking at me worried. Even some guys. I had breakfast with Jenna and she didn't say anything about it, I told her what happened, but she didn't know.

The only normal thing were the classes, except potions, since my seatmate didn’t bother to appear. Usually Sirius avoids me and that's it. But when we left the room, I asked Remus if he knew anything about Sirius, he told me that he didn't even see him in the morning, I even asked James.

In my room I just throw my backpack, I put on another sweater, I leave my room and go to the common room, again I receive those strange looks, but I continue on my way. Just as I get out, a boy stands in my way.

"If you forgot the password again, Rosier, I don't care," I complain and try to deviate, but he gets in my way again.

"You always know what to say, don't you Singh?"

"It's easy enough when the other person is an idiot,” I cross my arms. And he smiles tight. "What do you want?"

"I just came to collect a debt,” he says while two of his friends arrive behind his back. I frown.

"I don't have time for your games,” again I try to walk, but the boy takes my arm so hard it makes me yelp in pain. "What the fuck?"

Rosier pulls me to the end of the hall and pushes me against a wall still holding my arm.

"Is anyone coming?" The boy asks his friends and they show their heads. He turns to look at me with an evil smile. "Now we’ll play, little Persephone."

Ok, now I'm scared. Everything happens so fast that I don't have time to pick up my wand.

"Let go of me, idiot!" I scream and then feel a strong blow to my stomach, making me double over.

All the air escapes from my lungs, I close my eyes in pain, some tears escape and I cough for air, Evan forces me to turn my back against the wall.

"Listen little shit, we will give you a lesson that you’ll never forget, so that you know on which side you belong,” he says, pulling out his wand pointing at my neck. “Dirty blood, or with your dear family.”

"Son of a bitch,” I say with difficulty and he laughs.

"I suppose you know this spell, your father uses it very often…”

My eyes widen and I try to get out of his grip, but that only hurts me more.

"Get over it, Evan," says one of his friends, but Rosier ignores him.

"You don't know how much I'll enjoy this,” he whispers.

"Rosier!" yells his friend and Evan turns around, but it's too late. A fist hits his face causing him to fall.

My legs fail and I also fall to the ground, out of his grip. When I look up I see Sirius, but Rosier's friends take him by the shoulders until the leader turns to get up with blood coming from his nose.

"Here comes the traitor,” growls Rosier. "Are you such a coward as to not to use magic?"

"You deserve a face readjustment," Sirius replies.

Rosier and Black start a fight while the rest just make sure no one interrupts them, but I’m not going to sit around doing nothing.

I get up with difficulty and approach the fight. I hear things breaking, grunts and whines. From one moment to the next, Evan is above Sirius hitting his face and the best thing I can think of is climb onto Rosier's back trying to grab his arms and putting an arm around his neck.

“Let go, you prick!” He complains, which gives Sirius a chance to hit him. We both fall while I release my grip and now Sirius has the upper hand.

In the distance I see Rosier's wand, so I crawl towards it, but Rosier's friends take me by the arms and force me away from the fight.

"Leave me!" I screech, I see how Evan kicks Sirius' stomach causing him to cough up some blood. "Sirius!"

I feel that one of the accomplices lets me free and I turn to meet James, who hits him and pushes him away.

"You're good?" he asks me, but I can only look at Sirius with utter concern. James reacts and runs to help his friend. Rosier’s friend had fled the scene.

He takes Rosier away and smashes him into a wall hard. When I see that he’s at a disadvantage I run to Sirius and kneel beside him, James follows me.

"Sirius, come on mate,” he whispers giving him small slaps on the cheek. Black seems disoriented, blinking several times until he focuses his eyes on us.

“Shit,” is all he says. I touch his face with my shaking hands and I realize that I’m crying.

"What's going on here?"

James and I turn to see McGonagall horrified of the scene in front of her.

***

After an hour of yelling, scolding and prompting, I find myself in the teacher's office, sitting at her desk with my eyes downcast.

"Why did Evan Rosier start the fight with you, Persephone?" she says.

After telling her everything that happened and seeing me upset, she didn't want to hurt scare me further, so she spoke softly to me.

I have thought about Evan’s threat. The big party where great pure-blood families will be is this Saturday, and I think someone wanted to send me a message not to do anything stupid that day, create fear to be on the 'right side’. But my words are different.

“We have never gotten along, teacher. Maybe he couldn't take it anymore,” McGonagall sighs knowing I'm lying, but doesn't push me. “Sirius just helped me,” I say with a broken voice.

"Well, I'll take it upon myself to speak to Dumbledore about it when he returns from business.”

I nod.

"You can go now.”

I look up.

"Without punishment?"

She raises her eyebrows.

"Do you want one, Miss Singh?" She asks with a small smile.

I shook my head, "No, sorry.” I try to smile.

I get up from the chair, but a stabbing pain brings me back with a groan.

"Are you okay?"

The first hit Rosier gave me, right now I'm remembering it.

"May- maybe, I hit myself when I tried to separate them."

"Go to the infirmary, don't worry about the classes.”

I nod and obey orders before saying a little 'thank you’.

When I get to the infirmary, Madame Pomfrey is nowhere to be found, so I walk down the hall until I reach the end where the curtain that separates the stretchers covers all that space. I hear several groans and scolding from the nurse.

"Madame Pomfrey?"

Suddenly the curtain is drawn back and Pomfrey looks up at me raising her eyebrows.

"How can I help you?"

"Uh- it hurts here…” I say like a little girl. Pomfrey examines my… I lower my head and I find a huge purple bruise on much of my torso.

Damn Rosier.

She touches lightly and I hiss in pain.

"I've run out of the potion I need, I'll have to go with Slughorn,” She makes a face and looks over her shoulder. And that's when I can see that Sirius is sitting on the bed, shirtless. "Can you put this on the wounds on his face while I'm gone?"

I take the tiny bottle and a piece of cloth that she gives me. Without letting me answer, she leaves the infirmary. I turn back to Sirius. I wet the cloth with the liquid and look at the wounds.

"May l?" I ask shyly at his gaze. He nods and I start to clean the wounds. Every once in a while, he winces. At this distance I see cuts and bruises over his face, his eye is a bit swollen, his lip is split, his left shoulder has a huge purple bruise as well as in various parts of his torso.

"You're good?" He asks in a fine voice. I stop and look into his eyes with a frown.

"You're covered in bruises and cuts, probably a broken bone, and you ask me if I'm okay?"

She shrugs and grimaces.

"I didn’t know that you were hurt."

"I'll be fine,” I say in a sweet voice returning to my work.

"Where is James?"

"He went to tell the others, in addition, McGonagall told him to go back to class, she threatened him not to let him see you if he didn't obey," I say with a small smile. "Where is Rosier?"

Sirius snorts rolling his eyes.

"He made a fuss by not wanting Pomfrey to touch him, he's with Slughorn.” I nod.

"I uh-" After a few minutes in silence. "Thank you for helping me,” I take my hand away.

"You're welcome,” he says smiling a little, then it falls. "Why did Rosier try to hurt you?”

It was one thing to tell the teacher and another to tell Sirius. He won't stop with a lie.

"It was a message not to do anything stupid at the dance on Saturday."

"Someone from your family?"

"I don’t know. Maybe, it wouldn't be the first time…” I say without thinking and he looks at me confused.

"What?"

Uh-oh.

"Wait, is that what happened that summer?"

"Uh- No?" I say nervous.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"And who could help me, Sirius?" I tilt my head and lean back on my seat. "You? Back then we were a mess, no one else could help me, not even Dumbledore. My parents rule everything or they can buy anyone, just like yours,” I say annoyed. “You, better than anyone, know…”

Sirius opens and closes his mouth trying to say something, but in the end he just stares.

"It's complicated,” I sigh.

"It's really fucked up, huh?"

I bite my lower lip and set things on the nearby cabinet.

“Now all we need is Remus getting jealous of all this,” He snorts.

I look at him confused.

"What?"

"Well, you’re really close and I’m shirtless, some things can be misunderstood,” he says scratching his cheek.

I remember Remus's words and try not to smile.

"Why would he be jealous?"

He looks at me in disbelief.

"Come on, you know we all witnessed the kiss,” he says uncomfortably. "You don't have to lie."

"Don't you mind? About the kiss?” A silly question, his own body language tells me he does.

"I guess I have no choice, er- I'm happy for you…” he stutters, looking down at his lap.

It makes him look cute, despite the sadness. My heart is pounding in my chest and my hands are shaking a little.

I hope Alice isn’t wrong. I inhale for courage and put my hand on his chin to lift his head.

“I'm not dating Remus. I have no feelings for him, at least not that kind,” I whisper very close to him.

"Why did you kiss him?"

I roll my eyes.

"It is a long story."

“So," He looks at my lips. "I uh-"

My eyes drop a little and I don't have time to process it, he leans down and kisses me gently.

Holy shit.

My mind is clouded, my skin burns and I bring my hand towards his neck to bring him closer, while he holds my cheek. His lips are soft and when he moves them in sync with mine I almost want to scream.

We are both so immersed in the kiss that we don’t hear the footsteps in the hall and when the curtain is drawn again, we apart.

James, Remus and Peter sees us in stunned silence until Remus lets out a loud laugh.

"Look at that!” says James. "I leave them alone for a moment and they eat each other!” He jokes making me blush intensely.

“Idiot," says Sirius laughing.

"I thought I wouldn't live for this moment," says Remus. "But I must say Padfoot, you look like shit.”

"Are you okay, Padfoot?" Peter asks over out laughter.

Sirius looks at me.

"I will be, Wormtail,” He says, smiling.

Tags:

@treestarrrrrrrr @siriuslysirius1107 @thagreenmoon @madmaiden2890 @ren-ela @avipshamitra @auroraawrites @findzelda @lizlil @siriusmuch @chloe-geoghegan1 @reverse-hxlland @may-rapp @the-specific-oceans @eveft

@bloodorangemoonlight

@littledeadgirlwalking

#Pure blood #hp fanfic #Sirius Black #Sirus Black x reader #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Harry Potter #twoidiots writing

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dottie-wan-kenobi · 5 years

Note

Emotional anguish list round 4: Percy Jackson. And Annabeth Chase, because we need some girls in here

thanks!!!

Percy

1. okay we’re gonna start off with him not losing the Achilles’ Curse, which I am having 2 thoughts on: either he knows he has it BUT DOESN’T KNOW WHERE HIS SPOT IS, or he does know the spot but being in camp jupiter results in two things. 1) everyone hates his, as they see it, weird annoying disrespectful ass EVEN MORE because he’s fucking invulnerable, and 2) Percy spends every moment there itching with anticipation and hypervigilance that somehow someone will get in a lucky shot and KILL HIM.

2. I honestly think coming home to find out that Sally is either pregnant or has had a fucking baby would send him spiraling. like. imagine you literally go to hell, you’ve been fighting non-stop for months, the world is narrowly saved from ending and your camp family almost dies. all you want is to go home and have things be normal for a while. but you get there and there’s a fucking baby. Percy “only child for 14 years” Jackson would suddenly……..not get all the attention he used to. and yeah I think he’d be able to be more mature about it than he might have at 14, but he’s traumatized and hurting and he wants his mom but she’s busy breastfeeding! he has to wait until she’s done! I don’t think he’d resent Estelle at all, just that he didn’t get to be there when they found out/all thru the Big Important Moments (instead he was in hell.) and now that he’s not getting what he needs and probably doesn’t feel like he can ask for it

3. Zeus was such a dick in TLT that I wouldn’t put it past him at all to strike down the airplane while Percy was in it, kill everyone on board, and grab his bolt of lightning and fuck off somewhere. I’m including this one bc I’m imagining Percy’s last moments, holding Annabeth’s and Grover’s hands, absolutely terrified and furious and so, so, so worried about his mom :)

4. IMAGINE IF ANNABETH DIED IN TLO. IMAGINE!!!!!!! she’s the tether between him and his mortality. I honestly think he would go crazy and probably kill Luke/Kronos himself. I hate chaos fics with my whole entire being so I feel like he’d probably end up being rude/disrespectful to the gods after the battle ends, and either get turned into a god (whether it happens against his will or not idk) or he’d go home and just. fall into such a depression. he did all that shit for the gods, for the world, he’s fundamentally changed himself FOREVER and yet, he lost one of his best friends, a girl he loved. a girl he loves. how unfair and cruel can life be

5. Percy, miraculously 31 years old, being dragged into ANOTHER war by the gods:

Annabeth

1. she and her dad and step mom having some kind of miscommunication that ends with her running back to camp (or Percy, whatever) thinking that she’ll never talk to them ever again. I’m picturing her being about 15 maybe? I can’t remember all the issues she and her family had in canon but dskjfhdjshafjk if it’s bad enough, what if they don’t talk for years? what if Frederick and Step Mom never find out that she survived the end of the world? what if, when Frederick goes looking for Magnus, he goes looking for her too? he shows up at the Jackson’s door, and whether she’s there or not, hearing that her dad wants her…….that would be A Lot and she’d have to go back and reevaluate the argument that lead to her running away again and just have lots of emotions about it

2. I saw a fic recently where somehow (I didn’t read it :/) Annabeth didn’t end up falling into Tartarus, just Percy did. and I think this would ABSOLUTELY DESTROY HER. that’s her best friend, her boyfriend, her soulmate and he’s down there ALONE, for HER, because of her. who knows how he’s doing, and if he’ll make it out, and also leading a quest without him is super hard and it’s so difficult to sleep knowing he’s literally in hell, and she’s just falling apart with worry and fear

3. tbh after falling into hell, I think any kind of falling would be traumatic. so what if she falls off the lava wall? or like, Jason picks her up and flies? the first has happened a hundred times before & the second has def happened at least once, she shouldn’t be panicking so hard, but she is and she can’t stop it. the feeling of the air all around her just throws her right back into that moment, that gut wrenching agony and anticipation, waiting for the fall, waiting to land and either die or open her eyes in the worst place she will ever possibly be

4. Percy really dies when he blows up the volcano. first of all, the grief of him and what they could’ve had would be terrible and I imagine she would probably feel awful about going to Sally with her emotions, bc Sally lost her son and that has to be way worse. plus it’ll just remind her he’s dead. but even more so, suddenly the only person (that they know of) left to take on the curse is Nico...who won’t be 16 for several years, which they DON’T HAVE TIME FOR. Kronos is definitely rising sooner than that. Annabeth is a natural leader and tho it would probably take a little while for her to get back on her feet, she would take over what she had to/could, and. there are two options here: either Kronos rises and dies in basically the same way (Annabeth gets the Achilles’ Curse but her lifeline, Percy, is dead?????) and neither Annabeth or Nico is the prophecy kid, Jason is. but they don’t know that??? so Annabeth is haunted by this prophecy, wondering what the hell it means, and waiting anxiously until Nico turns 16 and NOTHING HAPPENS??? or, Kronos rises and Annabeth, furious w the gods who are barely helping or almost never saying anything, and also alone and vulnerable to Luke, switches sides :)

5. tbh... moving to New Rome. I don’t think she’d be able to live there without some issues, namely that it would feel wrong????? she’s a Greek? it’s not home? the architecture is off (she could do better, but if she says that, everyone will hate her EVEN MORE.) and there’s either no shrine to her mom, or it’s small and shitty like Neptune’s? plus she’d miss all of her friends and Chiron desperately? she’d be away from Sally and Paul, who are her and Percy’s main support system, and closer to her dad, who she’s not very trustful of? also how is she gonna be there without thinking about Leo accidentally firing on the place, which reminds her of the rest of the quest, which reminds her of falling into Tartarus. ?????????????? going there would do nothing but lead her to a small mental breakdown imo

send me a character and I’ll put them in 5 situations that’ll cause them maximum emotional anguish

#percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #pjo #asks #ask games #:)))))#calihart

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dilfbatman · 4 years

Note

Hello. Patrochilles' love child Percy anon here. I LOVED your headcanons when Percy finds out his mom is Sally! They're so sweet. Can you write some about the final battle with Cronos? How do you think Percy getting the Curse of Achilles would go? How would Patrochilles be involved in the battle? Thank you so much again for all you've written so far. And again, no pressure to write this. Lots of love!

HELLO & THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! i appreciate you requesting this stuff bc it’s so fun to write and i’m beyond happy that you enjoy them AHH i love you! and sure lemme think of something! :’) - i’m so sorry for how late i’m doing this - i couldn’t think of anything for SO long so i’m just gonna do this now! (this will suck SO much just letting you know in advance omfg so sorry legend)

—

- i think percy has carried the weight of the prophecy for so long again, he’s spoken to achilles about this with iris messages bc he knows how it is being a demigod w a weighty prophecy on your mind & how it affects not only you, but others - achilles & pat always contact percy when he’s out on quests just to make sure he’s okay and safe

- it isn’t until they’re nearing the war w kronos that things get even MORE heavy and dark. (they don’t know how that’s possible) achilles & patroclus go to chb to talk w chiron about everything and get advice and they see nico there - a son of hades and achilles goes to him to speak about everything

- nico shadow travels & takes both achilles & patroclus down into the underworld - they pass hades and achilles & patroclus have their eyes focused and are in protective dad battle mode - they’ve known for a while about the nightmares percy has had and it isn’t until nico tells them what percy has to do that they stop in their tracks - he has to do what has been done to achilles - bathe in the river styx

- and achilles is horrified and so is patroclus so they run towards the styx and they see percy and he’s so tired and he’s terrified and he sees his dads and he knows what he has to do and they run over and hug him and they try and ask nico if there’s any other way to go through w this and there isn’t.

- they ask for a moment alone and achilles closes his eyes and puts his hand on perseus’ head, the same way chiron did for him. he puts his blessing upon perseus, aristos achaion- best of the greeks, named now for his son perseus. patroclus puts his blessings upon his son too and perseus opens his eyes and has tears flowing down his cheeks and achilles tells him what he has to do - mirror both his worlds together (that of a mortal - patroclus side & that of a god - achilles’ side) and perseus is the mesh between them both. he dips himself into the styx and every memory comes crawling back to him - smiling and laughing with his friends, all the fun outings w his dads, and perseus focuses on the small of his back where his friends and his dad always put their hands on in a sense of comfort

- he steps at the ledge with his hand out and patrochilles take him. he’s now invulnerable and there’s a godly glow to him - strong & powerful. the new aristos achaion

—

- during the battle, perseus & achilles are clearly the most lethal, patroclus and the campers are fighting alongside them - fighting w a vigor and both are taking turns hiding percy’s weakspot

- achilles is dangerous and lethal and perseus is in complete shock bc yes he’s seen achilles fight but he hasn’t seen achilles FIGHT - with his whole entire being and decimating monsters - he has a wild look in his eyes that mimics perseus when he fights (that’s something both rachel & pat noticed) and you can barely see the spear whiz by as achilles throws it and perseus swordsmanship is second to none - his usage of water in battle is frightening and powerful and he’s a force to be reckoned with

- patrochilles promised themselves that their goal is to save perseus and he’s their number 1 priority - they save a few demigods along the way and they see kronos the bastard and see that he’s taken the form of luke and while they go and try to stop them - percy stops patrochilles letting them know that this is HIS prophecy and they’ve taken care of him long enough and he has to fight now

- achilles & patroclus yell saying they won’t leave percy but he knows he HAS to do this himself. he tells them to keep fighting while he goes take care of what needs to be done and patrochilles both know that he needs to do what he needs to do, they give him the biggest bone crushing hug and kiss and let their baby boy save the world

—

- it’s the aftermath and what’s done has been done. kronos has been defeated, nico, hades, & fellow campers are holding vigils for the lost demigods, people are hugging and crying and patrochilles find perseus in the aftermath and cry in his arms and are so happy to see he’s safe and well and they hug all of his friends and go into soft sappy dad mode :’) they’re proud of their boy - he turned down immortality and just wants to live a simple life and his one eternal wish is that the gods claimed their kids and patrochilles are so PROUD of him. his goodness is innate

- and in the sidelines is sally and... poseidon??? percy sees his dad and gives him a warm smile and poseidon gives him a wink and comes over and gives achilles & patroclus his thanks and sally hugs both of them and kisses percy on the cheek and holds him so tight

- the following weeks are a weird blur - they all help out at camp and eventually they all go home and patrochilles are holding percy in their arms and he still has the blessing/curse of achilles and they just try to live a domestic life together and as per usual, they go on a long midnight drive and stop by the ocean and overlook it while talking about life, love, the weird and dangerous life of being a demigod and again, pat & achilles always want perseus to know that they’re there for him and they love him. percy is quiet for a while and says he loves them and wants them to know he’s there for them to. the adoration and genuineness is palpable and they all say i love you & hug :’)

sorry this one SUCKS! i’m not v happy w how it is but hehe i didn’t wanna keep you waiting so long! i hope you somewhat enjoy and i love you for sending in HC’s lemme know if you want me to do more! :’) love you sm

#patrochilles!lovechild anon #patrochilles!lovechild #asks #AHHH i hope you enjoy it sorry it ain’t the best i couldn’t think of much :-(#pjo #tsoa #i love doing the patrochilles!lovechild & modern!patrochilles college au sm

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oneshotstomyheart · 5 years

Text

The Switch

So I have been on a Weasley Twin high, inspiring this lovely one-shot. Hope you enjoy!

Fred Weasley x OC One Shot

Warnings: semi-smutty, not too bad.

As smart as everyone knew she was, Ellie could be a real idiot. No matter how many pranks he pulled on those poor first years, no matter how loud he was, and no matter how touchy he was, third-year Ellie Holland had no idea Fred Weasley even existed. This was the year he finally summed up enough courage to talk to her, yet Fred couldn’t even get her to look at him to initiate a conversation. He was running out of ideas, and George was running out of patience.

George couldn’t understand why Fred wouldn’t just walk up and talk to the girl. For some brilliant reason, Fred thought if he pulled the funniest pranks, told the best jokes, and grazed her back a few times when pushing by that she would automatically fall in love with him. Therefore there was no need to start a conversation. “Ridiculous”, George thought. But it seemed his twin was truly smitten, therefore the ridiculous schemes went on.

Day after day, Fred dragged his brother into stunts in front of the oblivious doe-eyed girl. Yet always failing to grab her attention.

Finally, George had enough and decided to take things into his own hands. Grabbing his twin’s sweater with the big F sewn in, he threw it on. Leaving behind a snoring Fred in their room, he made his way down to the dining hall.

He had everything planned out in his head, and success was the only outcome. He was sure of it. He knew from Fred’s rambling that she was an early bird, so surely it wouldn’t be too hard to find her. However, it seemed more people than usual were awake and it took him a minute until he finally spotted her hunched over a book at the end of the table. Not understanding how Fred could so easily spot her all the time with how well she blended in, George made his way over to the girl.

“Hello, Ellie!” George spoke, I mean Fred, as he sat down across from her. Startled, Ellie’s head shot up to the person intruding in on her reading time. “Oh, hello there.” she smiled softly, seeming to glance around as if to look for someone. Quickly understanding he was alone, her eyes shone with a hint of disappointment. “Is there something you need?” She questioned, marking her place before closing her book.

“Yes actually, I need you, Ellie, to go on a date with me, Fred,” George spoke firmly, leaving no room for questions. Ellie's eyes widened, shock filling her eyes as she stuttered out, “w-what?”

Feeling his initial confidence start to lessen at her reaction, George quickly decided that it was best to just get out before anything else is said. “It’s settled! I’ll meet you at Hogsmeade this weekend then!” George blurted out before jumping up and running out of the dining hall, leaving a very shocked and confused Ellie behind.

Much to George’s dismay, Fred was already awake when he slipped back into their room. “Hey, where have you been? And why do you have my sweater on?” Fred questioned, eyebrows furrowing when George hesitated before pulling the said sweater over his head and tossing it to his twin.

“No reason, just quickly threw it on when I went down to the common room to grab the potions book I left.”

“Where is it, then?” Fred questioned, motioning to an empty-handed George.

“Oh, bullocks! Left if there again!” George shouted out nervously, throwing on his own sweater this time before sprinting out of the room.

+++++++

The rest of the day got even stranger for Fred, normally he’d see Ellie in the hallways between lessons. However, today she was nowhere to be found. ‘I hope she’s alright.’ Fred thought to himself, thinking to himself if he should check the hospital wing just in case something happened.

He never got the chance though, since at the end of the day he was intercepted by the very girl herself.

It was when he was walking to the quidditch field for practice, and Fred was pondering over why George seemed to be acting so weird that day. First, it was the lie from this morning, then George didn’t speak to him much all day, and now he was coming late to quidditch practice because he had to study! ‘Since when did he study?’

All thoughts left his head however when he saw Ellie from the corner of his eye walking toward his direction. Coming to a halt, Fred stood in shock as the girl of his dreams came to a stop in front of him.

“Hi” Ellie spoke softly, a light blush gracing her features as she stared up at the tall handsome ginger. Fred, like an idiot, just stood there. Completely frozen and completely forgetting every word in the dictionary. Scrambling to not look as dumbfounded as he felt, he muttered a quick hello while struggling to maintain eye contact. ‘Beautiful’ he thought to himself, unable to hold her gaze for too long, feeling intimidated by her beauty.

“My name is-”

“Ellie. I know.” Fred blurted out, eyes widening in embarrassment.

Ellie smiled, looking down for a second to seemingly gather courage. Twiddling her fingers, and switching from foot to foot, Ellie finally lifted her head to speak.

“So, something happened this morning that struck me as quite strange. And I tried to rack my brain all day for a reason, yet I cannot come up with one. I was hoping you could help me.” Ellie brushed her hair back, missing a piece that fell back in front of her face. Fighting the urge to push it back himself, Fred tore himself away from his inner monologue once he realized what she said.

“Of course. I’m here anytime. Always. Whenever you need me!” Fred rambled on, forcing his mouth shut when Ellie let out a small giggle. Enamored by the sound, Fred couldn’t do anything but smile at her.

“Was George serious when he asked me out this morning?”

Fred was so caught up in her smile that it took him a good 10 seconds to realize what came out of her mouth. Fred’s face turned as red as his hair, and if it wasn’t for his crush standing right in front of him he would have most likely used some choice words that his mother would frown upon.

“He..did..what?” Fred gritted out between his teeth, losing all shyness.

Ellie’s eyes widened for a fracture of a second, one hand going up to nervously twirl a piece of her hair. “Uhm well, he sort of came up to me out of nowhere at breakfast and told me to meet him at Hogsmeade, quite aggressive about it he was if I must say. Left abruptly as well, after claiming to be you.” Chewing on her lip, Ellie risked a glance at Fred’s face.

Fuming from his very core, Fred immediately realized what his brother did. Letting out a big sigh, Fred put his face in his hands and wished the universe would just swallow him whole.

“I can’t believe he did that” Fred muttered into his hands, connected the dots between his sweater and George’s weirdness.

“Yes, it was sort of unbelievable. I was just hoping you could let him down gently for me.” Ellie pleaded, looking up at Fred. Fred felt his heart sink, if she was turning down his twin then she would have certainly turned him down.

“You see, I’m afraid I’m in love with his brother.” Fred’s head shot up, convinced his ears betrayed him.

“Which one? Is it Percy? He’s got a right stick up his arse I’ll tell you!” Fred fumed, jealously consuming him as he thought about which possible brother captured her attention.

Ellie started to giggle before it turned into a full-blown laugh. Grabbing Fred’s arm for support while her other went to hold her stomach. After a minute or two, she managed to compose herself enough to stand up straight and look at Fred. Realizing how hurt he looked, Ellie stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to Fred’s cheek.

Fred stood there for a few more moments just staring at her in shock before a big grin broke out on his face. “Me? A-Are you sure?” Fred stuttered out, secretly reaching down to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t in a dream.

“Are you trying to change my mind, Fred Weasley?” Ellie smirked, before turning around to head to the quidditch field. Stumbling to catch up, Fred ran up beside her with a shit-eating grin. Grabbing her hand and intertwining their fingers, Fred asked, “Wait a minute. How did you know it was actually George and not me who asked you out this morning?”

Ellie pulled them to a stop, grabbing Fred’s tie and pulling his face down to her. “Now, if I told you all my secrets before we even have our first date, what will we ever talk about?” She smiled secretively, before laying a passionate kiss on him. Fred immediately reacted, kissing back fiercely while wrapping his hands around her waist and lifting her up. Spinning her around, Ellie broke the kiss laughing.

“Let me go!” she laughed, tightening her arms around his neck. Slowly coming to a stop and putting her back down on her feet, Fred looked deeply into her eyes. ”Never”, he said, the most serious he’s ever been.

Ellie stared back, happiness and love in her eyes, “Good.”

Fred grinned, grabbing her hand once more and led them away from the quidditch field.

“Hey! What are you doing, you have practice!” Ellie laughed at his playfulness.

“I just got the girl of my dreams. Practice is the last thing I care about.” Fred spoke while sending a sweet smile over his shoulder. Ellie blushed, tightening her hold on his hand.

Sneaking up to the Astronomy Tower, they spent the rest of the day up there talking. From their families to their interests, to finally something that bugged Fred all day.

“Ellie,” he started, “I’m just confused.” Pausing from where she was running her fingers through his hair, she looked down at his head laying on her lap. “What about, love?” Hearing the new nickname she seemed to assign to him, he grinned and sat up to face her completely.

He looked down nervously, for the first time since they got up to the tower, causing Ellie to furrow her eyebrows in concern. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes of course. Never better in my whole life actually.” he grinned, gathering her hands in his and pressing a kiss to them. “I just want to know, why you never seemed to notice me before. No matter what I did, I felt like I never had your attention. It’s why I tried so hard this year, I pranked more than ever, all so I could get you to look at me. You never did though.”

Ellie blushed feverishly, letting out a laugh at the red-headed wizard. “Fred, I actually think I stared at you way too much. So much so that my friend told me I was being creepy and to knock it off. I’ve loved you ever since you dyed that Slytherins hair pink for bullying that first year Ravenclaw. Or maybe I fell for you when I saw how kind you were to the kitchen elves. It also could have been when you tried to give a sixth year a canary cream, only you ate it yourself because you saw me going for it. Of course I saw you, Fred, you're the only one I have ever seen. I will admit this year I sort of gave up, I never assumed you’d go for someone like me so I did my best to avoid you.” Ellie finished shamefully, gazing down at their intertwined hands.

“What made you change your mind? I mean, you seemed awfully confident before. Not that it wasn’t a complete turn on, believe me, it was.” Fred wiggled his eyebrows, all the worry lines leaving his face, leaving complete trust and utter happiness.

“Believe it or not, George did. I sort of connected the dots when he asked me out, claiming to be you. Your reaction only confirmed what I already suspected, and while I must admit seeing you angry was a huge turn on itself, I just wanted to kiss you. It was all I could think about.” Ellie licked her lips as if reimaging the moment. Fred’s eyes darted down to her lips, a sudden new hunger coming over him.

Pouncing on top of her, he attacked her lips with a burning desire. Hands-on her waist, he let out a noise of surprise when she flipped them over. Laying her hands flat on his chest, Ellie broke the kiss for air.

“Speaking of this afternoon, we aren’t just going to let George get away with his meddling, right?” Ellie spoke in a surprisingly semi-evil tone, kissing her way down Fred’s neck. Moaning from her tone and actions, Fred sat them both up and grabbed a fistful of her hair. Pulling her head back with it, he placed open mouth hot kisses down her neck in return. Finally finding her sweet spot, he bit down and swore he never heard a sexier sound than what came out of her mouth.

Muttering a few curse words, Ellie ground herself down onto him, relishing in the moan she elicited from him that mixed with her own. Fred could barely get the words out, and Ellie truthfully forgot she had even asked a question.

“Oh, we will be getting him back, alright. He’ll never see it coming.” Fred grinned at her, pulling her down for an unforgettable kiss to go with their soon unforgettable night.

++++++

Should I do a part 2??? I have some ideas on what they could do to get George back, but I felt like I wanted at least this first part to be about them getting together.

Let me know what you think! :)

#fred weasley #harry potter #harry potter fanfic #fred weasley fanfic #fred weasley imagine #george weasley #one shot #fred weasley one shot

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flightfoot · 6 years

Text

Memories of Godly Selfishness Ch. 3

So this took awhile, what with the carpal tunnel (which I still have. It sucks. But I couldn’t resist writing this any longer).

It got pretty crazy long, (13000+ words) so I am actually using a Read More this time. At least if something happens to my blog at any point, it’s still on AO3 and FFN.

Hope you guys like this! I worked hard on it!

When the world cleared, we were in the center of a large room, with giant thrones circling us. I recognized the place immediately, even with my failing memory. The Olympian throne room. I glanced at my golden throne. I wanted to stare at it for longer and wallow in self-pity at what I used to have, but something tore my attention away from the gleaming golden seat.

Kronos has a way of doing that.

“Finally!” he bellowed. I heard Annabeth breathe in sharply. She stared at him, looking confused and shocked. Meg was decidedly less surprised, looking somewhat bored as she looked over at the Titan. I really shouldn’t be surprised. Unless she’s already familiar with a threat, Meg’s rarely intimidated by them.

The titan continued. I wished he had been nice enough to pause so that people in the future rewatching a memory of the event could talk and look around more. “The Olympian Council - so proud and mighty. Which seat of power shall I destroy first?”

“This is a flashback, isn’t it?” Annabeth asked quietly, refusing to tear her gaze from the body of the young man Kronos was inhabiting. I felt like I should know why she looked like she’d been sucker-punched, but as usual, the memories refused to surface. “Percy told me about the one he and you two went into.”

I frowned. Percy had stepped out of our tent to go eat, but he’d be back soon. I hoped he didn’t panic when he found the three of us in this weird trance. I marshalled my thoughts. Worrying about Percy’s reactions wouldn’t change anything. I needed to stick with the here and now. Or there and then, I supposed.

“It looks that w-” I cut off, as a young man stepped forward from beside Kronos. My eyes had been drawn so thoroughly to the Titan, that I had somehow overlooked him. “My lord,” he said warningly. I looked around, trying to find who he was warning Kronos of. I spotted younger versions of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, looking scared, but determined.

Ah. This must be when the final battle with Kronos had taken place. I recalled now how we gods had raced here after defeating Typhon, determined to defend our thrones, hoping that we weren’t too late... only to find a satyr, two injured demigods, and one dead child of Hermes instead. We never were able to find out the details. Zeus didn’t care much for a full report. I’d love to attribute that to him recognizing how much Percy, Annabeth, and Grover needed to grieve quietly and not wanting to press them, but I knew the truth. He didn’t want to dwell on how mortals had had to defend our thrones, our very existence. Even worse, they had defeated an enemy that we had struggled with. Sometimes it seemed like every decision that my father made either tied back to his inability to stop himself from chasing every pretty girl that crossed his path, or his desire to avoid looking weak.

I was curious on how exactly those three had managed to defeat Kronos, but even as I looked forwards to seeing exactly what happened, a knot formed in my stomach. My last two ventures into memories - first my own, then Percy’s - had resulted in me learning some uncomfortable truths, or in some cases, accepting some uncomfortable truths I had always known, but had tried to push down. I did not regret learning those truths - I REFUSED to ignore other’s pain anymore - but it made me wary of what I’d be forced to face this time. I doubted that whatever force decided when and what flashbacks to present would give me a break. I only hoped that my companions were spared any more pain. The first flashback into my memories had shaken Meg deeply. I wished to be the only one negatively affected by these experiences.

Looking over at our Annabeth, still staring at Kronos, barely breathing, I doubted that the universe would fulfill my wish.

“Shall I destroy you first, Jackson?” Kronos asked. He sounded mocking, almost bored. “Is that the choice you will make - to fight me and die instead of bowing down? Prophecies never end well, you know.”

“Hey!” I interjected. I knew how painful prophecies could be, but I couldn’t let this stand. I was the god of prophecy, after all. “A lot of prophecies sound worse than they-”

“Shh!” Meg exclaimed, clapping a hand over my mouth while glaring at me fiercely. Percy was talking. I’d missed the first part due to my interruption. “-you don’t have his skill.”

I may have missed the first portion of that statement, but I knew a challenge when I heard it. Kronos sneered, morphing his scythe into a sword. Ah. Percy had been clever. Get Kronos to use a weapon that Percy had more experience with, rather than one where he didn’t have a clue what fighting style to expect.

past!Annabeth gasped. “Percy, the blade!” she called. “The hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap.” I wasn’t sure what she had figured out about the prophecy. I liked to pretend that I understood more about what prophecies meant than I actually did. This had the unfortunate side effect of meaning that I couldn’t just ask around about how a prophecy was fulfilled exactly, for fear of looking dumb. I’d never found out what exactly every part of the Great Prophecy referred to, nor the Prophecy of Seven. I made a mental note to ask about the Prophecy of Seven later. I had a guess as to how it was fulfilled, but it would be nice to have confirmation.

“Wait!” past!Annabeth yelled as Kronos raised his new sword. I had no idea why she thought Kronos would obey her, but considering all that she had accomplished, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had had a trick up her sleeve. Alas, she didn’t. Kronos whirled, a maelstrom of steel and Celestial bronze. Percy managed to fend him off, though I didn’t know for how long he could keep that up. Meanwhile, the young man who accompanied Kronos engaged Annabeth. I wished I could remember his name, but as much as I wracked my brain, nothing came up.

Kronos backed Percy up against Hephaestus’s throne. As Kronos slashed at Percy, determined to cut him in two, Percy leaped upwards onto the seat. “Get off there!” I yelled, forgetting for a moment that this was a memory. I heard the tell-tale whirring and clicking of the throne’s defenses being engaged. Luckily, Percy heard them too. He leaped off of the throne and over Kronos’s head, clearing the seat just before it let out a blast of electricity. Kronos wasn’t so lucky. One hit him in the face, causing him to fall to his knees and drop his sword.

I didn’t cheer. No way it was this easy.

past!Annabeth kicked her own opponent out of the way and ran towards Kronos. “Luke, listen!”

Luke. That was the name of the man whose body Kronos had stolen. I remembered now. He had helped start up the Second Titan War, recruiting demigods and lowering the Camp’s defenses by poisoning Thalia’s tree. More importantly, he was the one who had dragged my sister over to Annabeth as she struggled under the weight of the sky, forcing her to either take up the burden, or leave a maiden to die. I waited for the surge of anger that usually accompanied that memory. It never came. I was still unhappy with him for all the pain he had put my sister and the demigods through, but I appreciated his reasons better now.

But Luke was gone. Only Kronos remained. He flicked his hand, sending past!Annabeth flying across the room. She hit her mother’s throne and crumpled to the ground.

“Annabeth!” Percy screamed.

Annabeth’s former opponent got to his feet, standing in Percy’s path. Percy would have to go through him to get to Annabeth. I almost felt sorry for his opponent.

Grover played his music for all it was worth. Grass sprang up in the throne room, roots creeping up the marble. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to accomplish, but I hope he’d finish it soon. I doubted that he would get much time.

Kronos got up off the floor, though he still couldn’t stand. Instead he kneeled, attempting to call his sword to him. It didn’t move.

“Nakamura!” he groaned (ah, so THAT’S what his ally’s name was! ... I still didn’t remember him.) “Time to prove yourself. You know Jackson’s secret weakness. Kill him, and you will have rewards beyond measure.”

His secret weakness? I was about to ask, though I felt like I SHOULD know what it was, when Meg beat me to it. “What secret weakness?”

Annabeth dropped her gaze to Meg, looking relieved to think about something besides whatever had been bothering her for the last few minutes. “Percy had the Achilles’ curse. He was invulnerable everywhere except for one spot, but a strike at that spot would kill him.”

She finished speaking just in time. Percy started reasoning with Nakamura. If I’d been a god, I would’ve said it was a lost cause, that he was wasting his breath trying to talk out the situation with someone who had already sided with the baby-god-swallower Kronos. Since I’d been human, though, I’d tried that approach myself. Sometimes it had even worked. I hoped that Percy had the same luck.

“Look around you, Ethan. The end of the world. Is this the reward you want? DO you really want everything destroyed - the good with the bad? Everything?”

That wasn’t ENTIRELY accurate. Kronos wanted to destroy Western civilization as we know it, putting himself as ruler. But he didn’t want to destroy the world, or even humanity. In that respect, he was better than Gaea. Barely. But I didn’t think that Percy cared for semantics. It would be the end of the world as HE knew it at least. Especially since he, his friends, and most especially, Annabeth and his mother would almost certainly not live to see the sun rise on Kronos’s world.

While Percy was talking, Grover had inched his way to Annabeth, the roots growing thicker, until they were nearly a foot tall. Ethan seemed distracted, mulling over what Percy had said.

“There is not throne to Nemesis,” Ethan muttered. “No throne to my mother.”

“That’s right!” Kronos called, attempting to stoke the flames of Ethan’s vengeance. “Strike them down! They deserve to suffer.”

Not that Percy was giving up that easily. “You said your mom is the goddess of balance. The minor gods deserve better, Ethan, but total destruction isn’t balance. Kronos doesn’t build. He only destroys.”

Ethan looked around, taking in the destruction that had ALREADY been wrought. I held my breath. The next minute would determine where this conflict went. Ethan swayed a little to Grover’s song, and then blinked.

He charged... but not at Percy. He charged at Kronos, swinging his sword at Kronos’s neck. I wanted to cheer, but I knew it couldn’t be THAT easy. Sure enough, his sword broke, a shard of it piercing his own armor.

Kronos stood up, his face a mask of fury. “Treason,” he snarled.

Grover kept right on playing, covering Ethan with grass. I presumed that he was either trying to hide Ethan, or trying to give him some protection. There was no way it would work - ultimately it was just grass, and Kronos was a Titan - but I knew he had to try. I knew a thing or two about trying to save people, even though it was hopeless. Even though I had already failed.

“Deserve better,” Ethan gasped, trying to impart a last message to Percy. I went very, very still, reminded of another demigod who had tried to drill in a message in his last moments. ““If they just... had thrones-”

Kronos stomped his foot down beside Ethan, shattering the floor. I watched numbly as the son of Nemesis tumbled through the open air down to Olympus. My mind replayed his last message. He wanted thrones for the minor gods. Recognition. Respect. That was all. We could have done that earlier, way, WAY earlier. But we chose not to. While some of us had campaigned for certain gods to be given thrones - especially our own children, or ones we’d imbued with divinity in the first place - few of us cared about giving recognition beyond our own chosen ones. We were proud and selfish like that. It had taken Percy strong-arming the gods to agree to even that small a concession, that small a recognition that they were gods too, and deserved to be treated as such.

Kronos smiled while looking at the hole he had created, amused by Ethan’s impending death. “So much for him.” He raised his head, resting his gaze on Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. His smile widened. “And now for the rest of you.”

Grover had made his way over to Annabeth while Kronos was busy disposing of Ethan, and was currently feeding her ambrosia. It was helping, but she was clearly not going to be back to full fighting shape for several more hours at least.

The roots Grover had summoned wrapped around Kronos’s feet, but he ignored them. They would have to be a lot stronger to even inconvenience Kronos to a notable degree.

Kronos and Percy fought through Hestia’s hearth, kicking up coals. Only small sparks remained in the Hearth, not enough to hurt either Kronos or Percy. We came so, SO close to disappearing, to the flame of Olympus being snuffed out forever. Kronos lopped off the armrest of Ares’ throne (I cringed slightly at that, imagining my own glorious throne being abused that way) and backed Percy up against his dad’s throne. “Oh, yes,” Kronos cried, savoring his impending victory. “This one will make fine kindling for my new hearth!”

They fought, blades clashing wildly. Percy got in one good hit, cutting a gash through Kronos’s armor, but not piercing his skin. Percy was a truly EXCELLENT fighter. I feared that it wouldn’t be enough.

Kronos stamped his foot, slowing time to a crawl. Percy moved in slow motion, vulnerable. Kronos could have killed him right then, but luckily for Percy, he was the type to brag and monologue. If he had been Caligula or Nero, the fight would already have been over. The more powerful someone is, the stronger their power over their opponent, the more stupid and careless they tended to be. They refused to take their weaker opponents seriously. Gods, Titans, Giants, Monsters - we were just as susceptible to arrogance and hubris as any mortal. And when it catches up to us, we fall just as hard.

“It’s too late, Percy Jackson. Behold.”

He pointed towards the hearth, the coals glowing at his command. I hated to see my aunt’s, HIS DAUGHTER’S hearth under his control. It was a violation of who she is, of what is. This was her home, the home of all us Olympians. He had no right to control the flame.

Nevertheless, white smoke erupted from the coals, forming into images. Nico, Sally Jackson, and a man I didn’t recognize fought off enemies together, though from their numbers, I doubted they could keep it up much longer. Hades fought behind them, summoning zombies, fighting Kronos’s army with his own. Even with his efforts, Kronos’s army kept pressing forwards, inch by inch. Manhattan fared badly, mortals running in a panic, cars smashing into one another. While no one was specifically targeting them, Kronos’s forces weren’t trying to avoid them either. I heard many humans screaming in pain and fear. Some were too far gone for that, simply laying limply on the ground as they were tread over by dozens of feet. If they weren’t dead before, they were now.

Such sights were not new to me. I’d watched scenes like this, and many scenes even bloodier, from this very hearth. But after all I’d witnessed and experienced, it made my stomach churn. How could I have once ENJOYED this carnage, this suffering?

The scene shifted, showing a different scene of destruction. This one more familiar. After all, I had been part of it.

A pillar of storm approached Hudson Bay. Gleaming chariots encircled it, tiny figures letting loose flashes of light. I spotted the tell-tale streaks of my golden arrows and my sister’s silver arrows, firing into the vortex and exploding. Slowly the cloud parted. Panic coursed through me as I looked into Typhon’s hideous face, his horrible visage morphing constantly. Once I caught a glimpse of amber snake eyes flecked with gold.

“The Olympians are giving their final effort,” Kronos laughed derisively, sneering at the image. “How pathetic.”

Zeus threw a thunderbolt at Typhon, sending a blinding light throughout the world. I shuddered. When he had thrown that bolt during the fight, I had panicked and thought it was meant for me, for just a moment. I had known that Zeus wouldn’t be so stupid as to punish me during such a fight, not while so much was at stake, but fear isn’t always rational. Even now I flinched at the sight, fearing a shock I knew in my head wouldn’t come. That didn’t stop my heart from hammering.

Meg seemed to notice my distress. She took my hand and squeezed slightly. I took several shaky breaths. Everything was fine. Or would be fine. This had already happened. Zeus was fighting an enemy, not searing my essence.

The smoke cleared. Typhon staggered slightly, but remained standing. That had been Zeus’s strongest attack, the strongest of any of us. We were doomed.

Yet we had survived. How?

Someone had come. Someone had helped. I squinted at image, trying to discern each of the combatants. Someone was missing. Someone who came later...

Typhon stepped into the Hudson River, the water not even coming up to his knees.

A conch horn blew. Not my favorite instrument, but now it was music to my ears.

The Hudson River erupted around Typhon, churning out massive waves. Poseidon burst out of the water on his chariot, his aura glowing a brilliant blue. He swung his trident, ordering the water to form into a massive funnel around Typhon.

“No, NO!” Kronos yelled in shock and horror. I savored his expression.

“NOW, MY BRETHREN! STRIKE FOR OLYMPUS!” Poseidon bellowed, his sea-green eyes gleaming, his raven hair shimmering with water droplets. I looked back at Percy’s own, oh-so-similar features. Seeing Percy’s relieved and proud expression, a suspicion niggled at the back of my mind. He had been hoping for this.

“Annabeth,” I asked slowly, a smirk spreading across my face. “What convinced Poseidon to finally help?”

“Percy climbed onto his father’s throne a few hours before this in the hope that he could talk to his father that way and ask him to help fight Typhon. The Seaweed Brain had started smoking by the time he got down.

I was surprised that Poseidon hadn’t instinctively incinerated Percy the instant his butt touched the seat. If Thalia had tried that trick, I doubted that Zeus would have shown the same restraint.

Percy had been partially responsible for even our victory over Typhon. Of course he’d helped out by doing something that could easily have gotten him killed, and then argued with a god, an act that could ALSO have gotten him killed if his father had been touchier. He was just as suicidally brave as Jason had been, for daring to argue with Zeus.

Poseidon’s army burst out of the water, surrounding Typhon. Leading the charge was a large Cyclops that looked vaguely familiar. “Tyson!” Percy yelled. I blinked. Percy’s younger brother? He was about five times taller than he normally was and covered in battle armor. I may normally have hated Cyclopes, but I was glad to see Tyson and his brethren.

The Cyclopes ensnared Typhon with the long black chains they wielded. He roared and struggled, but eventually he fell. Poseidon threw his trident, impaling him in the throat. Ichor spewed from his neck, a geyser of gold.

All us gods struck at Typhon while he was down. This had been the first real opening we’d had. We had doubted that we’d get another. I grinned like a loon as I stared at Artemis. She shot him in the eye with a dozen silver arrows, blinding him. I was just happy to get a good view of my sister again.

Meg let out a loud guffaw. I followed her gaze to where she was looking. I began laughing too. I’d forgotten that I’d managed to set Typhon’s loincloth on fire.

Finally, Poseidon opened up a portal to Tartarus, sending Typhon down into the depths of the abyss.

“BAH!” Kronos screamed. He slashed his sword through the smoke, dismissing the image.

“They’re on their way,” Percy taunted. “You’ve lost.”

“I haven’t even started,” Kronos replied, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

He ran at Percy. Grover threw himself into his path in an effort to protect Percy, but Kronos simply tossed him to the side. Grover was a GREAT protector. I silently promised myself to give him something nice when all this was over, if I became a god again.

Kronos and Percy continued dueling. Less than a minute in, and Kronos disarmed Percy, sending Riptide clattering across the floor and into one of the fissures of the floor.

I knew that Riptide would reappear in Percy’s pocket in a minute or so. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like he HAD a minute. Not for the first time, I wondered how Percy had survived this.

“STOP!” past!Annabeth yelled again. I hoped that she had a better plan this time. I certainly had no ideas on what those three could’ve done to even survive the next few minutes, much less defeat Kronos.

Wait... those three defeat Kronos? That didn’t sound quite right. Someone else had intervened.

Kronos whirled around, slashing at Annabeth with his sword. Annabeth caught the strike on her dagger hilt. I whistled in admiration. That was a TRICKY move to pull off.

She stepped closer to the Titan, blades locked together. “Luke. I understand now. You have to trust me.” She said through gritted teeth.

Was she really relying on Luke breaking free from Kronos’s control? That seemed like a shaky proposition. Even if he did, what if he decided not to help them? He’d tried to kill them before.

Kronos roared back at her. “Luke Castellan is dead! His body will burn away as I assume my true form!” I thought I detected an undercurrent of fear in his voice. And his expression... he was lying.

HE WAS LYING

Annabeth’s plan might work!

Kronos pushed back on their locked blades. Inch by inch, his blade came closer to Annabeth’s neck.

“Your mother,” Annabeth grunted, straining to hold him back. “She saw your fate.”

“Service to Kronos! This is my fate.”

I caught the change immediately. This is MY fate. This wasn’t Kronos talking, not entirely. Luke was there! She was reaching him!

“No!” Annabeth’s past self cried, tears filling her eyes. I heard a quiet sob from beside me. I looked at our Annabeth. Tear tracks stained her cheeks as she stared at the scene, not daring to miss a moment. I wanted to comfort her, but I had a feeling that this scene would have to finish first.

past!Annabeth continued talking to Luke, trying to draw him out. “That’s not the end, Luke. The prophecy: she saw what you would do. It applies to you!”

What was she talking about? I turned the Great Prophecy over in my head.

A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

And see the world in endless sleep

The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

A single choice shall end his days

Olympus to preserve or raze

I nearly smacked myself over the head. The prophecy didn’t SAY that the half-blood of the eldest gods was the hero! It could be anyone! Though Annabeth seemed convinced it was Luke.

I frowned. it definitely LOOKED like Luke had chosen to raze Olympus. Yet it still stood.

Then again, it said that ‘a single choice shall end his days’. Perhaps his choice would come just before he was set to die?

And a third question... what was the cursed blade?

“I will crush you, child!” Kronos roared.

“You won’t,” Annabeth replied, resolving sounding through her voice. “You promised. You’re holding back Kronos even now.”

Promised what? I glanced at our Annabeth again. She barely seemed to be stopping herself from sinking to the floor. I resolved to ask her later, delicately. I had a feeling that she would NEED to talk about all this, even if she didn’t WANT to.

“LIES!” Kronos screamed, pushing her harder. Annabeth lost her balance. Seizing the opening, Kronos struck her across the face, sending her skidding backwards. Images of Piper being struck by Incinatus’s hoof flooded my mind. I rushed over to past!Annabeth, checking her for breathing. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found it, and then felt very silly. Annabeth had obviously survived, because she was in here with us. Somehow, I couldn’t make myself quite believe that.

Kronos loomed over Annabeth, sword raised. As blood trickled out of her mouth, she found the strength to croak, “Family, Luke. You promised.”

Kronos staggered, staring at the knife Annabeth was holding, then at the blood dripping from her face. “Promise,” he murmured. It wasn’t Kronos’s voice.

He started gasping for air, as if he had just surfaced from a long stint underwater. “Annabeth...” Luke continued, stumbling forwards, as if he didn’t quite have control over his own limbs. “You’re bleeding...”

“My knife,” Annabeth attempted to raise her dagger, though I wasn’t sure why. She was in no shape to take on the Titan. The knife clattered out of her hand and onto the floor. She looked over at Percy imploringly. “Percy, please...”

Per y rushed forwards, picking up the knife as he went. He knocked Luke’s sword out his hands. He barely seemed to notice, much less care. He stepped closer to Annabeth, but Percy intervened.

“Don’t touch her.”

Kronos’s voice growled. “Jackson...” Then he gasped, and his voice turned back to Luke’s. “He’s changing. Help. He’s... he’s almost ready. He won’t need my body anymore. Please-”

“NO!” Kronos bellowed. He looked around for his sword, spotting it in the hearth. Percy tried to stop him, but Kronos knocked him roughly to the side, causing his head to clang against Athena’s throne. I winced. He’d probably have a concussion after that, and with both him AND Annabeth in such bad shape, I didn’t know how they could possibly defeat him, unless Grover pulled off a miracle.

“The knife, Percy,” Annabeth muttered, barely clinging to consciousness. “Hero... cursed blade...”

Then it clicked. Luke was the hero. The cursed blade was Annabeth’s knife, though I didn’t know HOW it was cursed. And as for the choice...

Suddenly I heard a scream of pain. Looking at Kronos, I saw that he had attempted to pull his sword from the hearth. I say ‘attempted’ because somehow the barely-lit flame in the hearth had started burning vigorously, heating up the sword and the coals until they glowed red. Judging by his burnt and blistered hands, he had foolishly attempted to pick it up.

An image of Hestia flickered in the ashes, frowning at Kronos disapprovingly. I grinned. Just because Hestia wasn’t a fighter, didn’t mean she couldn’t help out.

Luke turned away from the hearth and collapsed to floor. “Please, Percy...” he begged.

Percy struggled to his feet, still carrying Annabeth’s knife. He advanced towards Luke, killing intent filling his eyes.

Luke read his expression. “You can’t... can’t do it yourself. He’ll break my control. He’ll defend himself. Only my hand. I know where. I can... can keep him controlled.

Luke glowed, similarly to how I tended to whenever I was getting emotional. There wasn’t much time. Kronos would assume his divine form soon. Whatever decision Percy made, he’d have to make it quickly.

Percy raised the knife, ignoring Luke’s words. Then he glanced over at Annabeth, realization stealing over his face.

“Please,” Luke groaned. “No time.”

Percy hesitated, then turned the knife around, presenting the hilt to Luke. He took it carefully.

Grover yelped. “Percy? Are you... um...”

I filled in the rest myself. Are you really listening to this guy? If he betrays you again, the world’s doomed.

Luke unstrapped the armor on his side, exposing his left armpit.

His hand shaking as he did his best to maintain control, Luke stabbed himself. He howled in pain, his eyes glowing, his skin shining brighter and brighter. For a heartbeat I thought it was too late. Then the light died down. Luke remained on the floor, dying, but fully himself.

A loud sob echoed from behind me. Our Annabeth furiously wiped her tears, but they just kept pouring down. I gingerly put my arm around her, wanting to offer some degree of comfort, but unsure how she’d take the gesture. She didn’t acknowledge my existence, continuing to watch Luke with bloodshot, puffy eyes. These were his last moments. As painful as they were, I could understand why she didn’t want to miss any of them.

Luke’s eyes cracked open, revealing a brilliant blue. For an instant I was catapulted back to Caligula’s ships, seeing another blond-haired, blue eyed young man dying in front of me.

“Good... blade,” he croaked.

Luke stared at Annabeth. “You knew. I almost killed you, but you knew...

“Shh. You were a hero at the end, Luke. You’ll go to Elysium.”

He did. Normally he probably wouldn’t have made it that far - heroic last deeds are great and all, but they DO judge the rest of the person’s life - but Hermes insisted, and Hades was in a good enough mood to agree to his request.

Hermes... something niggled at me. A lump of guilt swelled in my chest, though I didn’t know why. There was something I’d overlooked, something I’d ignored. I couldn’t quite place it though. No matter. If it made me feel this bad, then it would almost certainly come up later in this flashback.

Luke shook his head at Annabeth. “Think... rebirth. Try for three times. Isles of the Blest.”

He wasn’t being greedy. He wanted to prove that he was a good person and right the mistakes of his past. I could empathize with that.

Annabeth sniffled. “You always pushed yourself too hard.”

“Did you... did you love me?”

“There was a time I thought... well I thought...”

She looked around, as if realizing that she was still here, still alive. “You were like a brother to me, Luke,” she said softly. “But I didn’t love you.”

He nodded, looking unsurprised, then winced in pain.

“We can get ambrosia,” Grover chimed in. “We can-”

I knew the truth, as did Luke. “Grover. You’re the bravest satyr I ever knew. But no. There’s no healing...”

He coughed again. I could sense his life coming to a close. He only had a couple minutes left.

He gripped Percy’s sleeve, desperate. “Ethan. Me. All the unclaimed. Don’t let it... don’t let it happen again.”

Percy looked down at Luke, sad, but resolved. “I won’t. I promise.”

I promise.

Another promise made to a dying man, a plea to the living to try and make the world a better place, to continue the work that they could not. This was why Percy had made his wish - no, his demands. He was trying to fulfill Luke’s dying wish, to keep his promise. Luke and Jason... they may have been different in many ways, but both of them had attempted to change how demigods and gods acted for the better. Both had passed the torch on to someone else to complete what they had started. Percy had fulfilled his promise to the best of his ability. I would have to fulfill mine.

Luke nodded. His face went slack. He died quietly, the air punctuated with quiet sobs.

Minutes later, all of us Olympians came bursting into the throne room, ready for a fight. Instead we found three grieving teenagers and one dead demigod, sprawled out on the ground.

Poseidon was the first to speak. “Percy... What... what is this?”

Percy stood up, turning to face all the gods. “We need a shroud,” he declared, his voice cracking. “A shroud for the son of Hermes.”

I remembered how I had felt the first time bursting into the room. I’d been afraid it was too late, and I had almost imagined that I could feel myself weakening. Then we had actually arrived. I watched myself take in the scene, relief breaking across my godly self’s face. I didn’t know what had happened, and frankly, at that moment, I didn’t care. The conflict was over, the threat dealt with. It was in the past now, so there was no need to worry about it.

Others were more affected. As the Three Fates gathered up Luke’s body, summoning a shroud to cover him in, Hermes stepped forwards. “Wait,” he called. I heard George and Martha quietly murmuring, “Luke, poor Luke.”

Hermes slowly approached his fallen son, the hero who had made many, many bad choices, but who had chosen to save Olympus, to save his family, in the end. I was under no illusion that he cared for us gods, but the way he and Annabeth had looked at each other... they had chosen to be family. Almost killing her had been the final straw. As much as Luke hated us gods, his love for Annabeth, his desire to protect her, had overridden even Kronos’s control. As a god, when I’d first found out about Luke siding with Kronos and recruiting demigods to his cause, I had dismissed them as simply being bad people. Now I could see more nuance. There were reasons behind the rebellion, reasons I had refused to acknowledge for fear of upsetting my worldview. Now I was more open to listening. I also wished to uphold the promise Percy had made. This would NOT happen again.

Hermes knelt by Luke’s side, gently unwrapping his face and kissing his forehead, murmuring a final blessing to his beloved fallen son.

“Farewell,” he whispered. He stepped back, allowing the Three Fates to take Luke’s body to its final resting place.

past!Annabeth’s knees finally gave out, the stress, exhaustion, and pain of the day catching up with her. Percy caught her before she could hit the ground. Unfortunately, he’d grabbed her by her broken arm, causing her to scream in pain.

“Oh gods,” he said, his eyes wide. “Annabeth, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right,” she replied. Then she passed out. It reminded me of how I had passed out after the prophecy had been extracted from Meg back in Indiana. She could afford to pass out now, so her body had promptly done so.

“She needs help!” Percy cried, panicked.

“I got this,” I heard a familiar (and oh-so-handsome-sounding) voice replied. I watched my godly self step forwards, smiling brilliantly.

Ah, right - I’d forgotten that I had helped. I tensed. Last time I had remembered helping, I had forgotten what a jerk, what an utterly STUPID asshole I had been. I expected more of the same.

I was pleasantly surprised. “God of medicine, at your service.” My godly self passed his hand over Annabeth’s face, instantly healing both her smaller injuries, such as cuts and bruises, and her larger ones, such as the broken arm. Annabeth adjusted in her sleep, looking far more comfortable.

My past self grinned. “She’ll be fine in a few minutes. Just enough time for me to compose a poem about our victory. ‘Apollo and his friends save Olympus’. Good eh?”

I couldn’t help it. I snorted. Beside me, Meg started giggling.

“Thanks, Apollo,” Percy replied, clearly bemused. “I’ll, um, let you handle the poetry.”

At that, our quiet chortling grew into full-blown laughter. Even our Annabeth joined in the laughter, her eyes still watering with grief at what she had relived. It was just SUCH a mood whiplash, my future self cheerfully healing Annabeth, pretending that he had largely been responsible for saving Olympus, and declaring that he would write a victory poem. It was so silly, so far removed from the somber atmosphere of the room. It was exactly what we had needed after witnessing Kronos’s defeat and the deaths of Ethan and Luke.

For the first time in a while, I saw some value in the silly arrogant facade I had displayed to the world. Perhaps I didn’t need to throw away that side of myself entirely in order to be a good person and keep my promises to my fallen friends. Lightening spirits helps people cope with even the most miserable tragedies. I thought back to how Leo coped with stress by acting sillier than usual and cracking jokes, breaking people out of their misery and redirecting them from their worries. He had had the right idea.

But there was time for humor, and there was time for serious talk. Now, while the gods were milling about and Percy was looking after the unconscious past!Annabeth, was the best time to finally talk with her.

I looked at her carefully, trying to find the best way to broach the subject of what we had just witnessed. I didn’t wish to upset her, both because she’d been through enough, and because she could easily drop-kick me into next week if she so chose. There’s a reason why I referred to her as “the blond scary one.”

Turns out I didn’t need to. Perhaps Annabeth had sensed my questions, or simply needed to get things off her chest, because she started explaining.

“When I was seven, I ran away from home. My stepmother never liked me that much, and she never believed me about spiders crawling into my bed at night. I had only been on the run for a few days when I ran across Luke and Thalia.” She smiled fondly at the memory, chuckling. “I’d run across lots of monsters, but had managed to evade them. When I heard people moving around in the warehouse I was hiding in, I thought they were monsters. I hid until they got close and then leaped out, trying to bang whatever creature it was with the hammer I had found. I nearly took Luke’s head off. They said they were monster hunters. Luke gave me that dagger, saying that I could be a part of his and Thalia’s family, that they wouldn’t fail me like our families had failed us. That’s what cursed the knife. Luke broke that promise.”

I swallowed thickly, keenly aware of all the gods - myself and my brethren - milling about the room. We had failed Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth. We had failed our children as a whole. Annabeth didn’t even sound upset or judgmental. It was simply a statement of fact.

I steeled my resolve. I had to know.

“Why did Luke turn against the gods? Why did so many join him? Tell me how we failed. Tell me what we refused to see. Please.”

Annabeth was quiet for a moment, searching for words. Hesitantly she said, “I’m not sure of all the details on how and why Luke turned, and all the demigods had their own reasons. But they boiled down to this, as far as I know:

Luke blamed Hermes for not trying to help cure his mom’s insanity, for not helping to protect and comfort her when she flew into her insane fits. In short, for never BEING there. I’m not sure what caused him to shift his view of the gods from being negligent, to being flat-out evil. Maybe it was just seeing all of his friends and family at Camp being ignored. Luke was at Camp Half-Blood for five YEARS before he turned, Apollo, and he was camp counselor of the largest cabin for most of that. So many kids arrived who never got claimed. They arrived, hoping to have a parent, to at least be ACKNOWLEDGED. But most of them didn’t get that. Their divine parents didn’t CARE enough about them to even acknowledge their existence. That’s why so many half-bloods wanted to go on quests, even though it was dangerous. It wasn’t for ‘glory’ - well, not for most of them, at least. It was in the hope of finally having their divine parent acknowledge them and say they’re proud of them. The children of minor gods had it even worse. Very few of their parents even bothered to claim them, since they’d have to stay in the Hermes cabin anyway. For them, it wasn’t only THEMSELVES who were ignored, but their parents too. That’s why so many minor gods and demigods rebelled - they thought it was the only way to stop being ignored, to be treated like they MATTER, even if only as an enemy.”

So that was it. I couldn’t even pretend to be surprised. I’d been told this before, I KNEW this. It was part of why I was always prompt on claiming my kids (so long as I remembered that I’d had them), why I rarely gave them quests that were too terribly dangerous, and why I showed them I was there and that I cared about them, even if just by visiting in their dreams.

But it wasn’t enough. I had taken care of my own children, but had turned my eyes from all the other demigods’ plights. It took the demigods standing up for themselves and demanding better in order for change to be enacted.

I glanced over at Meg, who suddenly found her shoes utterly fascinating. I remembered her questions about her mother, asking why Demeter had never shown up, had never tried to help her or father. At the time I was only thinking of her case. But she wasn’t the only demigod who had lost their mortal parent, or had run away from them, had discovered that they had a godly parent, and yet that parent didn’t even care enough to claim them as their offspring. I thought back to when I had first met the small garbage waif, thinking that she might be a feral demigod, with no training, no parents, no friends, no family, no support network to speak of. At the time I pondered the idea in a detached kind of way. Now it seemed utterly horrifying. Had I really been so callous, not seeing how messed up it was that a twelve-year-old had no parents and no support, even while monsters hunted her due to who one of her parents was?

How many other ways had I closed my eyes to the world?

“I’m sorry,” I said at last. “I should have pushed for all the demigods’ parents to claim them sooner. I should have made sure that cabins were available for all the children of the gods, not just us Olympians. I should have taken a more proactive role in guiding all demigods to safety, instead of just concentrating on my own children. I know this isn’t worth much now, since Percy already took care of it pretty well, but I’ll try to hold the other gods to their promise, along with keeping it myself, of course. There will be no more Ethans or Lukes.”

Annabeth looked up at me and gave a small nod.

Meg broke the silence. “What promise?”

Ah yes. Meg wouldn’t know, would she? “Well you see-”

The world blurred around us, fast-forwarding. When it resolved, we were still in the throne room, but all the gods were sitting down, thrones fully repaired.

“It seems that you’ll get to see for yourself,” I told my young protector.

past!Annabeth was back to full health. She strode over to where Percy was standing. She leaned in close so she could whisper to him. Being the busybody I was, scooted over towards them so i could overhear.”Miss much?” she whispered into his ear.

“Nobody’s planning to kill us, so far,” he whispered back.

Why would he think we might plan to kill them? Why would we kill heroes who had helped save... oh. Right.

Several years ago, after sis was kidnapped and then rescued, we had the winter solstice summit. We debated killing Percy and Thalia to prevent the Great Prophecy from coming true. None of us actually voted FOR killing them thankfully, but it was still a serious consideration. I voted against killing them, but thought that Artemis was freaking out a bit too much when she yelled at the council for considering killing the demigods and saying that she would reward them. Now I saw why she reacted that way.

My eyes wandered over to my sister, sitting majesticly in her silver throne. I held back a sob. I’d seen her earlier when the gods first came bursting in, but had focused on the issues at hand. Now though I kept on staring at her. My wonderful, brilliant sister - she’d seen what I had refused to, understood what I had only started learning as a mortal. She understood the value in mortals, understood them AS PEOPLE, and not only as subjects.

As Zeus droned on, Meg approached me. She didn’t say anything, but her expression looked sad, and kind of nervous. Once she noticed me watching her, she turned her gaze towards the thrones, searching. It finally rested on a throne made of apple-tree branches, and the goddess in it. She looked over at me. I answered her unspoken question.

“That’s your mother, Demeter.”

She stared at her mother quietly while Zeus declared the rewards that the various mortals and monsters would receive for their service in the Second Titan War.

After a couple minutes, she spoke, though I wasn’t sure whether it was intentional. She murmured to herself, “Mom... why didn’t you come for me? Dad loved you so much, but you didn’t help him. You didn’t help me. Everyone says you love me, but if you love me so much, why won’t you see me?”

Seeing her so downcast, my heart clenched. I wanted to give her some measure of comfort, so I did the only thing I could think of. Slowly, giving her plenty of room and time to pull away if she wished to, I wrapped her in a hug. She stiffened for a moment then relaxed. I thought I felt a small droplet of water on my side, where Meg was pressing her head. I didn’t comment, only pressing her more tightly to me. We stayed like that for several minutes, me offering what small amount of comfort I could.

At last she pulled away, surreptitiously wiping her face. I pretended not to notice, only giving her a small smile.

“PERCY JACKSON!” Poseidon bellowed. All of us jumped at that, directing our attention back to the Olympian Council.

Percy walked over to his father, kneeling at his feet.

“Rise, my son,” Poseidon declared. Looking around at the assembled council, he asked, “A great hero must be rewarded. Is there anyone who would deny that my son is deserving?”

Of course there were no dissenters.

“The council agrees,” Zeus confirmed. “Percy Jackson, you will have one gift from the gods.”

“Any gift?” he asked.

At the time when this had first happened, I didn’t scrutinize his expression closely. I thought I knew what he was going to ask for, so why bother?

This time I looked more closely. He seemed slightly confused, not understanding what was going on.

Zeus, naturally, made the same assumption that the rest of us did. "I know what you will ask. The greatest gift of all. Yes, if you want it, it shall be yours. The gods have not bestowed this gift on a mortal hero in many centuries, but, Perseus Jackson—if you wish it—you shall be made a god. Immortal. Undying. You shall serve as your father's lieutenant for all time."

Percy just stared at him, uncomprehending. "Um . . . a god?"

Zeus rolled his eyes. "A dimwitted god, apparently. But yes. With the consensus of the entire Council, I can make you immortal. Then I will have to put up with you forever."

Ares seemed rather happy at that. "Hmm," he mused. "That means I can smash him to a pulp as often as I want, and he'll just keep coming back for more. I like this idea."

I snorted. Of COURSE that was the first thing he’d think of. Though I thought he was being overly optimistic. Percy bested him as a child with only a few weeks training. He was more likely to get smashed than Percy.

"I approve as well," Athena added. I noticed that she was looking at Annabeth while she spoke, not Percy. I snorted. I had a distinct feeling that her agreement had less to do with her feeling that Percy was deserving, and more from her wanting to keep him away from her daughter. Well THAT had been successful.

Our Annabeth walked towards Percy, taking in his expression. He glanced back at past!Annabeth. Only then did I notice how devastated she looked. I could read that expression well enough, the expression of knowing you were about to lose someone close to you. I had worn it many times.

She’d really thought there was a chance she would lose him, that he would become a god and leave her forever. Power, immortality, eternal youth - who could deny an offer like that?

But I understood now. I still wanted to become a god, don’t get me wrong. But it was a RESPONSIBILITY now, rather than simply wishing to rid myself of the discomforts and terrors of mortality. I understood why Percy had made his choice.

I smirked slightly, knowing what was coming. This would be EPIC.

Percy looked Zeus right in the eyes. “No.”

Everyone fell silent, unable to believe what they were hearing. At last Zeus spoke, a dangerous edge to his voice. "No? You are . . . turning down our generous gift?"

I flinched at his tone. It usually meant pain for whoever it was directed at. But Percy didn’t seem overly intimidated.

"I'm honored and everything," he said. "Don't get me wrong. It's just . . . I've got a lot of life left to live. I'd hate to peak in my sophomore year. I do want a gift, though. Do you promise to grant my wish?"

Zeus pondered for a moment. I don’t know what he THOUGHT Percy was going to ask for, but he certainly didn’t anticipate the truth. "If it is within our power," he replied.

"It is," Percy said. "And it's not even difficult. But I need your promise on the River Styx."

I was still AMAZED that Zeus agreed to Percy’s wish BEFORE finding out what it was.

"What?" Dionysus cried. "You don't trust us?" He sounded indignant. I laughed at that. Like MOST of us trusted each other. I could reasonably count on Hestia, Artemis, and Hermes when it counted. The rest of the Olympians? Not so much.

"Someone once told me," Percy said, looking at Hades, "you should always get a solemn oath."

“Guilty,” he replied, shrugging. I had a feeling that there was a story behind that one. Maybe I’d get that later, but for now I focused on the scene in front of me.

"Very well!" Zeus growled. "In the name of the Council, we swear by the River Styx to grant your reasonable request as long as it is within our power."

At least he put in that stipulation. Though I had to wonder who decided what was reasonable.

Thunder boomed, sealing the oath.

Percy finally asked for his reward, now that it was guaranteed that the council would have to grant it, so long as it was not unreasonable. "From now on, I want to you properly recognize the children of the gods," he said. "All the children . . . of all the gods."

All the Olympians shifted uncomfortably at that, including my own godly self. We didn’t like being confronted with how much we had messed up, and it looked like Percy was doing just that.

"Percy," Poseidon asked, "what exactly do you mean?"

"Kronos couldn't have risen if it hadn't been for a lot of demigods who felt abandoned by their parents," Percy replied. "They felt angry, resentful, and unloved, and they had a good reason."

Zeus grew angry, his nostrils flaring. I was still amazed Percy got through this without some sort of punishment for his insolence. "You dare accuse—"

Percy cut him off. I had thought that Jason defending me to Father was the most insane defiance a demigod had shown to Father in the past several millennia, but rewatching this, I was quickly reassessing that opinion. "No more undetermined children. I want you to promise to claim your children—all your demigod children—by the time they turn thirteen. They won't be left out in the world on their own at the mercy of monsters. I want them claimed and brought to camp so they can be trained right, and survive."

"Now, wait just a moment," my godly self interjected. I felt a brief stab of shame. I had objected to Percy telling us what to do. The fact that he was RIGHT only made things worse. Even then, I’d known that Percy’s request was a good one. I just didn’t want to acknowledge how BADLY we’d messed up for the past several thousand years, and that one of our children knew better than we did, and was braver than we were. Than I was. Privately I agreed with him, but I would never have had the courage to do what Percy was doing.

Percy ignored my past self. A wise decision on his part. "And the minor gods," he said. "Nemesis, Hecate, Morpheus, Janus, Hebe-—they all deserve a general amnesty and a place at Camp Half-Blood. Their children shouldn't be ignored. Calypso and the other peaceful Titan-kind should be pardoned too. And Hades—"

"Are you calling me a minor god?" Hades bellowed. Honestly, he was SUCH a drama queen. Wouldn’t even wait for Percy to finish his sentence.

"No, my lord," he said hurriedly. "But your children should not be left out. They should have a cabin at camp. Nico has proven that. No unclaimed demigods will be crammed into the Hermes cabin anymore, wondering who their parents are. They'll have their own cabins, for all the gods. And no more pact of the Big Three. That didn't work anyway. You've got to stop trying to get rid of powerful demigods. We're going to train them and accept them instead. All children of the gods will be welcome and treated with respect. That is my wish."

It was a good request, one that should never have had to be made, and one which we STILL didn’t entirely follow through on. Calypso was never pardoned. None of us had pushed for it. It was on the bottom of the agenda, since her staying on her island was unlikely to cause us problems. I had a feeling that Artemis would have pushed for her release, but by the time we’d dealt with everything else Percy had asked for, Zeus was getting spooked by Gaea stirring, and Artemis didn’t want to upset him more than she had to. Watching over her Hunters was a higher priority than pushing for Calypso’s freedom.

Zeus snorted. "Is that all?"

"Percy," Poseidon warned, "you ask much. You presume much."

If he thought THAT would deter Percy, he CLEARLY hadn’t spent enough time watching his son.

"I hold you to your oath," he said. "All of you."

The world suddenly distorted. For a moment I thought we were going to be pushed forwards in time again. Then the world resolved itself. I looked around, puzzled. Nothing appeared to have changed... and then I came face-to-face with Percy. Not younger Percy, OUR Percy. I calmly took stock of the situation and greeted him with a calm nod. Anyone who says that I yelled and jumped a foot in the air is CLEARLY lying and is attempting to slander my good name.

“Wha-?” He looked around, confused. “What is- ANNABETH?” He yelled, rushing towards her. “PERCY!” she cried. He gave her a fierce hug, separating from her a few moments later.

“This is a flashback, isn’t it?” He asked her. “When I walked in, I saw you, Apollo, and Meg sitting next to each other. When I called your name and you didn’t respond, I panicked and ran over to check on you. I must’ve gotten sucked in when I touched you.”

She nodded, “Yes, it is. It started when... when we faced down Kronos in the throne room.” Her voice cracked. Percy looked at her, understanding spreading across his face. “Annabeth...”

Suddenly all of us were jerked towards the front of the throne room. It soon became apparent why. Annabeth, Percy, and all the other mortals were filing out of the throne room. We were forced to keep within a certain radius of the memory-holder it seemed. We followed them out of the palace.

Hermes stood in a sideyard, a melancholy expression on his face as he examined an iris message. past!Percy looked over at past!Annabeth. "I'll meet you at the elevator."

A wave of disappointment washed over me. I’d wanted to see more of my little brother, but it seemed that we would be forced to go the other way.

past!Annabeth studied his expression. "You sure?" she studied his face. "Yeah, you're sure."

As Annabeth walked off, I followed her, sighing. Then I was jerked to a stop by an invisible leash. Confused, I looked back towards my brother and past!Percy. They had stayed put, along with Meg and the present Percy and Annabeth.

Ah. When Percy entered the memory, control must have transferred over to him. I walked back over to Percy and Hermes, curious about what Percy would talk to him about. ‘Sorry I gave your son the means to commit suicide,’ is always an awkward conversation starter.

For a moment, I didn’t think Hermes had noticed Percy. Then he started talking.

"Amazing," my brother said, turning towards Percy. "Three thousand years, and I will never get over the power of the Mist . . . and mortal ignorance."

"Thanks, I guess,” Percy replied, not seeming to know how to feel about that.

"Oh, not you. Although, I suppose I should wonder, turning down immortality."

"It was the right choice."

For him, it HAD been the right choice. He wanted to stay a part of the mortal world, to be with his friends and family... and his girlfriend, of course. As a god, there were so many rules and limits on what you could and could not do with mortals, so many expectations, that it would be difficult for him to be part of his loved ones’ lives the way he wanted to be, to BE there for them.

But it didn’t have to be. The only rules that prevented us from mingling with mortals, becoming part of their world, becoming close friends instead of simply having short affairs with mortals, were expectations from other gods, and rules handed down by Zeus. He didn’t like it when we became too close to mortals, ESPECIALLY if we treated them like equals. I always suspected that he didn’t want mortals to begin seeing us as equals, and by extension, seeing himself as being just a person, rather than a divine ruler who must be unquestioningly obeyed. Now I thought there was an additional angle. Keeping us from becoming too close to mortals, from becoming great friends with them, also limited our support networks to other gods, keeping it restricted mostly to our family. Zeus was able to keep a closer eye on us that way, than if we all had our own circles of mortal friends.

Maybe I was getting conspiratorial. Still, anything that increased Zeus’s level of control over us and his power overall had to be considered.

My brother looked over at Percy questioningly, but not unbelievingly. I was getting the feeling that he actually understood what Percy was talking about. I should have paid more attention to my little brother in recent decades. It seemed like he had started figuring things out that I had only begun to learn after being sent down as a mortal. "Look at them. They've already decided Typhon was a freak series of storms. Don't I wish. They haven't figured out how all the statues in Lower Manhattan got removed from their pedestals and hacked to pieces. They keep showing a shot of Susan B. Anthony strangling Frederick Douglass. But I imagine they'll even come up with a logical explanation for that."

"How bad is the city?"

Hermes shrugged. "Surprisingly, not too bad. The mortals are shaken, of course. But this is New York. I've never seen such a resilient bunch of humans. I imagine they'll be back to normal in a few weeks; and of course I'll be helping."

I had always been amazed at mortals’ ability to carry on with daily activities even something catastrophic had occurred, or was about to happen. As I lived as a mortal, however, I was beginning to understand. Those things were still worrying, but most mortals couldn’t afford to simply run off and mope and wail about how horrible and terrifying everything was. So instead they coped as best they could, continuing to act like normal. It made a weird amount of sense. Daily life carried on regardless.

Hermes WAS helpful in helping mortals make sense of the divine sorts of catastrophies though.

“You?” Percy asked. I suppose no one had informed him of Hermes role in this sort of thing.

"I'm the messenger of the gods. It's my job to monitor what the mortals are saying, and if necessary, help them make sense of what's happened. I'll reassure them. Trust me, they'll put this down to a freak earthquake or a solar flare. Anything but the truth."

I was startled by the bitterness in his voice. I hadn’t really paid much attention to how Hermes handled this aspect of his duties. Now I wished I had. I wanted to understand why he sounded like this. I had a sinking feeling that I had let down another brother, my most beloved little brother.

Percy had more to say. "I owe you an apology."

An apology? I didn’t even know that Hermes and Percy had talked before.

Hermes seemed to know what Percy was talking about, but didn’t trust his apology. He gave Percy a cautious look. "And why is that?"

"I thought you were a bad father. I thought you abandoned Luke because you knew his future and didn't do anything to stop it."

Knew his future? How did he...?

Then I remembered. A woman Hermes had a fling with had attempted to become the Oracle. I had been happy that someone else had attempted it, hoping to finally have a new host. My old Oracle had already been dead for twenty years at that point. I had been disappointed when it did not take properly, but was not overly concerned beyond that.

I should have paid attention. I should have gone to him, comforted him. I knew how much it hurt to have someone you love be broken, be killed.

But I hadn’t.

I’d failed him too.

May would have still gotten glimpses of the future. I surmised that Hermes had put together the pieces based on the pieces of her insane ramblings. He’d known what would befall his beloved child, and had kept the burden to himself. Who would he share it with? Who could he trust that much?

We really were one screwed-up family.

"I did know his future," Hermes said miserably.

I knew that tone of voice, that look on his face. It was the same one I wore whenever I thought of my role in Daphne’s and Hyacinthus’ deaths.

"But you knew more than just the bad stuff—that he'd turn evil. You understood what he would do in the end. You knew he'd make the right choice. But you couldn't tell him, could you?"

Hermes stared at the fountain. "No one can tamper with fate, Percy, not even a god. If I had warned him what was to come, or tried to influence his choices, I would've made things even worse. Staying silent, staying away from him . . . that was the hardest thing I've ever done."

I knew better than anyone that you can’t change fate, that trying was folly. I’d had to watch horrible things happen to people I cared about. Even if you did somehow succeed, the consequences would be...

Some sort of mental block slammed down. A cold trickle of dread and guilt filled my stomach. There was something there. Something I didn’t want to remember. I knew I should try to break through it, try to break through the barrier, but I couldn’t bring myself to try. If even as a god I had blocked this out, how bad WAS it?

“Apollo?” Meg asked, her, Percy, and Annabeth giving me worried looks. I suddenly became aware of the sweat dripping down my face, of my ragged breathing. I composed myself, giving them a shaky smile. No point in worrying them. Besides, I needed to focus on Hermes. I needed to understand what my little brother had gone through.

"You had to let him find his own path and play his part in saving Olympus."

Hermes sighed. "I should not have gotten mad at Annabeth. When Luke visited her in San Francisco . . . well, I knew she would have a part to play in his fate. I foresaw that much. I thought perhaps she could do what I could not and save him. When she refused to go with him, I could barely contain my rage. I should have known better. I was really angry with myself."

I knew that feeling. It was easy to lash out when angry and scared. I had contemplated murdering the Seven when they came to visit me and Artemis on Delos, even though they weren’t at fault for the situation and were actively trying to fix it. Lashing out at others felt better in the moment than accepting that you are powerless to change the situation, to give up hope of someone being able to create a better ending.

"Annabeth did save him. Luke died a hero. He sacrificed himself to kill Kronos." Percy was doing more to try to help Hermes, to support him than I had in the past several decades.

"I appreciate your words, Percy. But Kronos isn't dead. You can't kill a Titan."

"Then—"

"I don't know," Hermes grumbled. "None of us do. Blown to dust. Scattered to the wind. With luck, he's spread so thin that he'll never be able to form a consciousness again, much less a body. But don't mistake him for dead, Percy."

I hoped that he, Gaea, and the Giants stayed gone for a REALLY long time. These kids had already lived through two wars, and were living through a thrid one. Please, let them have a break.

"What about the other Titans?"

"In hiding," Hermes said. "Prometheus sent Zeus a message with a bunch of excuses for supporting Kronos. 'I was just trying to minimize the damage,' blah, blah. He'll keep his head low for a few centuries if he's smart. Krios has fled, and Mount Othrys has crumbled into ruins. Oceanus slipped back into the deep ocean when it was clear Kronos had lost. Meanwhile, my son Luke is dead. He died believing I didn't care about him. I will never forgive myself."

Self-loathing coated his every word.

We were the same, and I had refused to see it. I had thought I was the only one suffering from such guilt and heartbreak, the only one who hated himself for his failures. I thought there was something fundamentally wrong with me. Something broken.

But it wasn’t just me. Hermes was going through the same thing, and I hadn’t seen it. Hadn’t known. I hardly saw him in recent centuries, and when I did, it had barely even occurred to me that Hermes could be going through similar problems.

Both of us his the true depths of our pain, our shame, our guilt. Neither of us opening up to each other, sharing the burden. He at least seemed to be facing his guilt and sadness, rather than just pretending it wasn’t there. I had hidden behind a facade my whole life, trying to fool everyone into thinking I was fine... including myself.

How many of us had hidden our pain from each other, from ourselves?

At least Percy was still trying to help. "A long time ago," he said, "you told me the hardest thing about being a god was not being able to help your children. You also told me that you couldn't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they made it."

I smiled. We really were alike. Both of us had learned that lesson.

"And now you know I'm a hypocrite?"

"No, you were right, Luke loved you. At the end, he realized his fate. I think he realized why you couldn't help him. He remembered what was important."

I wasn’t entirely sure where Percy got that from. As far as I could tell, Luke didn’t mention his father at all. I guess he was trying to make Hermes feel better.

"Too late for him and me."

"You have other children. Honor Luke by recognizing them. All the gods can do that."

That I agreed with. It was his dying wish, his dying plea. To make things better for his siblings, for all the children of the gods.

Hermes's shoulders sagged. "They'll try, Percy. Oh, we'll all try to keep our promise. And maybe for a while things will get better. But we gods have never been good at keeping oaths. You were born because of a broken promise, eh? Eventually we'll become forgetful. We always do."

He sounded so defeated. I couldn’t blame him. Sometimes it seemed like things never changed.

Yet I knew that Hermes was wrong. We didn’t always forget. I had never forgotten Daphne or Hyacinthus, forgotten my roles in their deaths. I had never wanted to, despite the pain it caused me. I refused to forget my great loves.

That was it. We immortals were not so inherently different from mortals. We could learn, change, grow. We just rarely saw the need to. We convinced ourselves that we were perfect and infallible, knowing in our hearts that it was untrue, but thinking that we were the only ones who were like that, who were broken. We told ourselves and each other that we couldn’t change, that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Until someone disrupts the status quo.

Someone like Percy Jackson.

Someone like Jason Grace.

Someone like myself.

The demigods had taken their turn. It was time a god tried to change things, to make things better.

"You can change."

Hermes laughed. "After three thousand years, you think the gods can change their nature?"

"Yeah," Percy said. "I do."

So he’d been doing this for awhile. It wasn’t just me he believed could change, HAD changed. He believed in all the gods’ ability to change. He believed in us more than we believed in ourselves.

I wondered where he got such faith, considering everything he’d been through at the hands of the gods.

Hermes seemed surprised by that. "You think . . . Luke actually loved me? After all that happened?"

"I'm sure of it."

Hermes stared at the fountain. "I'll give you a list of my children. There's a boy in Wisconsin. Two girls in Los Angeles. A few others. Will you see that they get to camp?"

I smiled. It was a long road to make things better, but Hermes had taken the first step. He was willing to try. He wanted to try.

"I promise," Percy said. "And I won't forget."

"Percy Jackson," Hermes said thoughtfully, "you might just teach us a thing or two."

“You already have,” I whispered.

The world blurred again. I blinked, and we were back in the tent at Camp Jupiter. Percy, Annabeth, and Meg had also started stirring, getting up from where they had been sitting.

Percy pulled Annabeth into a hug.

A minute later, they separated. I asked the question that had started burning in my mind during Percy and Hermes conversation. “Percy... why did you believe that gods could change. WE didn’t believe that, so why did you?”

“Because you’re people. Mortal or immortal, god or human, you’re still a person. And people can change, even if you don’t believe you can.”

He paused for a moment, sadness flickering in his expression. “I knew another immortal once. He didn’t think that he could change either.”

Percy let out a laugh. It sounded almost like a choked sob. “He was a Titan. We called him Bob, but you’d know him as Iapetus.”

“Iapetus?” I asked, searching for the name. “Wait... one of Kronos’s brothers. You BEFRIENDED him?!”

“Not at first. First time I met him he’d just broken out of Tartarus. We were in the Underworld when we met. I was badly injured and couldn’t defeat him. So I dragged both of us into the River Lethe. I kept myself dry, but Iapetus’s mind was wiped clean. When we straggled onshore, He asked me who he was. I told him he was my friend Bob. He was nice and friendly. He even noticed I had a wound and healed it. We left him in Hades palace, to do what he wanted with him.” Percy’s voice sounded like Hermes’ now, bitter and self-loathing. “I’d told him we were friends. But I didn’t think about him after that. I never asked how he was doing. Turns out, Hades’ made him a janitor. As far as I know, the only one who looked after him, who cared about him, was Nico.”

Percy drew a shaky breath, steeling himself for the rest of his story. “Nico asked him to help me, if he could. When Annabeth and I fell into Tartarus.”

My jaw dropped. “Wait, WHAT?!” I screamed. “I had to have heard you wrong. Did you say you and Annabeth were in TARTARUS?! As in, the prison for evil immortals? The place monsters spawn from? The place where GODS fear to tread? THAT Tartarus?”

“Yep,” Percy sighed, looking very, very tired. “That’s the one.”

“HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!”

“Because of Bob,” he said simply. “I mentioned Bob to Annabeth as we were walking through Tartarus. He heard me say his name, and jumped into Tartarus without a second thought. He wanted to help us, because he thought we were friends.”

“I used him,” Percy continued, his voice taking on a guilty tone. “I said we were friends, and used that to manipulate him into helping us. I even convinced him to kill his own brother, just by asking him if we were friends, and then telling him that he was a good titan, but that Krios was a bad one. I asked him to decide what to do. He killed Krios, so he wouldn’t hurt his friends. So he wouldn’t hurt us.”

Percy’s voice grew lower, shame dripping from every word. “We met up with arai. They told Bob what I did. That I destroyed his memory. That I had stolen his life, left him to scrub floors. I couldn’t deny that. I still tried to say I was his friend. But I knew I was lying. I’d only convinced myself we were friends, just because I needed him. I only cared about him when I could use him to get what I wanted. Just like Hercules. Just like the gods.”

He inhaled a shaky breath, exhaled, and continued. “He left us. He didn’t attack us for tricking him. He just left. I fought off the arai as best I could, but it wasn’t enough. As I was dying, I begged Bob for his forgiveness, and to help Annabeth at least. I didn’t expect him to help. I didn’t deserve it. But I needed to say it at least.”

“And he came back.”

“He remembered the truth, but he still helped us, KNOWING that I had lied. Because he wanted to keep his promise to Nico. He guided us through Tartarus, to a good giant. Damasen. Damasen healed Percy, but was too afraid to try to leave. He thought it was a fool’s errand. Still, he helped us with supplies, gave us shelter for the night, and only asked for stories and company in return.

“He took us all the way to the Doors of Death. He ran into some of his brothers there. They thought he was on their side still. They would have welcomed him with open arms if he had turned us over to them. Instead he bluffed and got us safely past them. We talked afterwards. He said that he had remembered what his brother was talking about, when he talked about Bob’s past. But he wasn’t sure whether he wanted the memory. I told him that he could choose what to keep of Iapetus, and what he wanted to maintain as Bob. That his future was what mattered. He told me that “the future” was a mortal concept, that he wasn’t meant to change, even as he called me his friend. But if he had been the same, then we would never have become friends. Annabeth and I would have died already.”

He closed his eyes for a moment. I sensed that whatever came next would be especially painful. He opened them and continued the story. “We had to ascend the elevator through the Doors of Death. In order to do that, someone had to press the button for the elevator down for twelve minutes, all while fighting off Tartarus and his forces.”

“Wait...” I interjected, hoping that he misspoke, even as the sinking feeling in my gut said that he hadn’t. “You meant Tartarus’s forces, right?”

Percy let out a wild, hopeless laugh. “Nope. Tartarus made himself a physical body and tried to kill us personally.”

WHAT.

“HOW ARE YOU STILL HERE,” I screamed. I thought being stranded in Tartarus was bad, but facing down Tartarus himself while WITHIN Tartarus? That was a new level of suck.

He gave me that bitter, self-loathing look again. “Because of Bob and Damasen. Oh, and a skeleton kitten Bob found and named Small Bob.”

At this point, I didn’t have the energy to be surprised at them finding a skele-kitten. It was the least weird part of this story.

“I wanted to press down the button to let Annabeth, Bob, Damasen, and Small Bob escape. But he insisted on pressing the button. Those three sacrificed themselves so that we would escape, knowing that they’d be absorbed by Tartarus in the end. He asked me to tell the suns and stars hello.”

Tears shone in Percy’s eyes. “I guess I didn’t know for sure whether immortals could change, back when I told Hermes I believed they could. But I do now. If a Titan like Bob could change, then other immortals can too. Even ones you never thought were capable of it. Ones who thought that THEY weren’t capable of it.”

I stared at him and slowly nodded. If even Titans could change, then we gods had no excuse. And if any of the gods protested that change was impossible, I’d tell them Bob’s story, along with my own.

We would be better.

We had to be.

#trials of apollo #the trials of apollo #lester papadopoulos #percy jackson #annabeth chase #meg mccaffrey #toa #the last olympian #fanfiction #apollo

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purplesurveys · 5 years

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If someone's laughing, do you instantly think they're laughing at you? Egh no, not really. I’ve had people laugh at me but I do know about it; I’ve never felt paranoid like this. What is the strangest thing you've been asked? My mom’s masseuse asked me if I was pregnant after taking a good look at me and deciding I looked familiar. It felt weird and eerie until I told my parents about it the next day and they said “Oh yeah, she’s the one with the third eye.” Didn’t feel as strange after that, but at the time when she looked me dead in the eye and asked me that question it was definitely so weird lmao. What’s the weirdest thing about life that people just accept as normal? Sometimes I wonder how people from the far past got to decide how certain animals were safe to eat even though they a) clearly scream danger, b) have such a complex way of being consumed (like crabs), or c) ARE STRAIGHT UP POISONOUS (like the pufferfish in Japan). But hey, we’re all eating them right now.

What was your favorite game as a child? I liked local games. We had langit-lupa (heaven and earth), piko (hopscotch), ice-ice water (freeze tag), Chinese garter, 10-20, and patintero. What’s the stupidest thing you've ever heard? Anything that comes out of conservative Catholics’ mouths.

What's the most random thing you've done out of boredom? It would have to be that time that I got really depressed last December and I spent all my Christmas savings meant for friends and family on a bunch of coloring books and my own set of coloring pencils. All for myself. It’s a little morbid, but whaever. What show did your parents not let you watch as a kid? My parents were pretty liberal and weren’t too strict about shows. My mom absolutely hated Mr. Bean though because she was convinced he was the reason my brother didn’t start talking until he was like 6. She would change the channel if it was on, but she didn’t outright ban us or anything. What is your personal catchphrase? I don’t have one. What is the most pleasurable feeling that doesn't involve anything sexual? Biting into your favorite food after a whole day of not eating. What was your 'Oops, wrong person' moment? I don’t think I have one. I’d die of embarrassment. What do you find attractive that isn't considered 'normal' attraction? I really can’t bring myself to be into the muscular/buff look and don’t mind if someone is on the bigger side, is skinny, or is generelly not a gym person. What’s the dumbest thing you’ve done drunk? Fell asleep in the pool. What's your proudest moment in the bathroom? ?????? What’s something you own that gets you lots of compliments? Technically not mine, but Gabie would lend me a windbreaker-type of jacket that was very colorful. It was green, yellow, pink, basically a very bright and gay jacket. I got complimented on it EVERY SINGLE TIME I wore it by nearly every single person who passed by me in school – and I wish I was kidding lmao. She got it in Baguio for 50 pesos ($1), it’s insane. I think it was lost by another person she lent it to. A damn shame. If money was no object, where would you want to live? Canada. Who is your favourite mythological character? In the brief moment I was into mythology, I really liked the way Rick Riordan wrote Apollo to be in his Percy Jackson series. Big ol’goofball. What's something that's happened which couldn't happen at a worse time? [continued from this afternoon] > Had the sign for my gas start blinking while I was stuck in standstill traffic > Get into a car accident while finally making a turn to the gas station > Get pulled over by an officer for changing a lane and nearly hitting a car, because unbeknownst to me, the accident had closed my right side mirror, making me not see my entire right side and I almost hit the car to my right All happened within ten minutes. I was a freshman in high school and couldn’t be more terrified. Police let me go when I started having a panic attack. What is the best pickup line you've ever heard? I don’t like pickup lines. What did aging ruin for you? Dreams. What is the most hilarious thing you’ve ever heard? Idk, I’ve found a lot of things hilarious. What is the darkest thing you have seen on the internet? It would be either Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared or Too Many Cooks. What's something you really enjoy, but can't have? A regularly luxurious life. What Wikipedia article have you recently read? OMG hahaha so there were times in internship where nothing was tasked to me FOR HOURS and I would get super bored. Then I remember hearing from somewhere that Wikipedia has a whole article that’s just a list of unusual deaths that’s happened from modern history until the present, and I gobbled that shit up until I was given a responsibility. I found out more listicles they apparently had – list of last words, list of people who disappeared mysteriously, etc; read all of those too. What's a book you were made to read in school that you really liked? My #1 would have to be Without Seeing the Dawn by Steven Javellana. It’s the most honest narration of the Philippines’ Japanese occupation I’ve ever read. It’s painful to read, but it’s the beauty of it. What objective did you fail to complete this week? I told myself I was gonna start externals work for my org, but I’ve just been so burned out in the last month that I haven’t gotten around to starting yet. I definitely have to this week, though so it’s not like I’ll completely fail it. What could have gotten worse for you but it didn't? Tbh the desire to end my life? I threw in the towel by the time I was 12, but I’m still here so I guess life is doing something right.

What subject should be taught at schools, but isn't? Adulting. Like being taught about taxes, social security, insurance, documents they ask when you apply for a job, etc. I’m 21 and I know nothing about these. I didn’t even know what insurance meant until I was 20. What is the best thing about having a Significant Other? The idea of having a go-to person for everything is very comforting for me. What makes you unusually uncomfortable? Distorted sound effects. It’s probably not unusual though. What is an upcoming purchase you're excited about? It’s no longer future tense because I was finally able to find Pop-Tarts at the nearby mall! I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE in the last couple of years and I’ve been craving it for the same period of time. Then Gab convinced me to try the supermarket at the mall we went to today and we found a box of Chocolate Fudge gloriously sitting on one of the shelves. It was way more expensive than I remember it being, but I waited for so long that I just grabbed it and didn’t care about my budget anymore. What is the worst game you've ever played? The Hannah Montana game for the Wii that I had was so bad it was good. What’s the oddest thing you like to do? I don’t think I have particularly odd habits. What's the funniest news story you've seen in the past few weeks? There’s a satirical article I came across a week ago that was about how dinosaurs got extinct because they ate pineapples on pizza. It was made even more hilarious by the fact that it included a graphic of dinosaurs and there were slices of pizza with pineapples on them photoshopped into the graphic. Definitely pissed off a number of pineapple enthusiasts that day lmaaaaao. What do you really really want right now? I’m so excited to eat my Pop-Tarts but I think I should save them for tomorrow. What do you hide from people? Suicidal thoughts, because I never wanna bother anyone. What was the first sign you knew you had a crush on someone? When I actively avoided her because it hurt to see her. HAHAHAH yuck drama What's the best lemonade you've made from the lemons life gave you? Lasting long enough to create a family in the form of my orgmates. Who was your cartoon crush while growing up? Sam from Totally Spies. What's the best way to deal with religious door knockers? We don’t have that culture here but I most likely would just never open the door. What’s the most hypocritical thing you’ve ever seen or heard? A large chunk of Catholics. Who’s the most interesting person you’ve ever met? When I was still interning at my PR firm, I shadowed my supervisor in an interview that one of our clients had for that day. Our client’s representative is the biggest badass I’ve met. He’s from South Africa and was born and raised at a time when apartheid was still around. He’s white, so he was brainwashed in school to think that they were superior and for a time, he really thought his race was. Then he got to work under Nelson Mandela’s party when he was much older and that was the only time he realized how backwards that mindset was. Anyway he had Mandela’s spies stalk his ass every single day because of his background and he ultimately got shot twice. There’s loads more stories to tell but I don’t want to give him away.

When I was watching him get interviewed he proved to have a lot of knowledge on history and current events too so that’s another plus. He was just super cool and it was a breath of fresh air to talk to a foreigner that was more aware of social situations than the average Filipino. What just doesn't impress you? Carly Rae Jepsen. What’s the worst possible way to introduce yourself? There’s no worst way; just don’t try too hard because the bullshit can be detected so easily. What makes you wish that you were born in the past or the future? How easy it was to make a living and score a job decades ago. What tragic event was coincidentally beneficial to you? My breakup. What's something people are proud of, but it doesn't impress you? ‘Miracles.’ What's the worst possible moment to go and play on a bouncy castle? Doing it with a bunch of sweaty, rowdy kids. Who is the greatest ever comedian? Not really into comedians so my recommendations might suck for some. What’s your irrational fear? Commercials at night. What's your oldest memory? Playing in a Winnie the Pooh tent when I was 3. What can you not wake up without? Checking the time. What did you think was cool when you were younger that you now think isn’t? Wristbands. What are your favourite or most memorable lines from any movie/show? “How do you like them apples?” from Good Will Hunting. What's something people love to hate? The Kardashians. What’s something that is underrated but extremely useful? Being polite.

#survey #surveys

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sonicrainicorn · 6 years

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Made of Love, Chapter 12

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Table of Contents

Ship(s): Logicality, (platonic) Prinxiety

All Characters: Thomas, Virgil, Roman, Logan, Patton, Dr. Picani, Joan, Talyn, and Deceit

Synopsis: Humans Roman and Virgil get wrapped up in some serious magic business without meaning to. Their other companions aren’t exactly as they seem, either. Together they all must defeat a great threat for the safety of humanity.

Chapter Desc.: After an interesting training session; Thomas, Roman, and Virgil discover an old photo in a bookshelf.

TW: Cursing

Prefer to read it on Ao3? Click here!

Despite their better judgment, both Roman and Virgil continued to keep their promise to Logan. It was stupid and careless, but they could never bring it up. They each tried to find a way to tell Patton with each time ending in failure. Anytime they worked up the courage, he just gave them his usual bright smile and then suddenly they couldn’t do it anymore. Maybe Logan had a point. Breaking that joy would have been cruel.

But it wasn’t fair to either of them. Patton had a right to know and Logan needed the help. Who knew what would happen the longer this went unchecked.

Then Virgil found out that Thomas had no idea, either. He didn’t even know it was going on at all until Virgil accidentally mentioned it in front of him. And boy, oh boy, did it make him feel terrible denying to explain it. It's Logan’s story to tell, he insisted, go bother him about it.

All in all, it was a rather rough few days.

Patton and Logan started to teach Roman and Virgil the basics of weapon fighting. How to hold said weapon(s) and the general way to use them. For the most part, Logan and Roman were together and Virgil and Patton were together. Rarely were all four of them in one place. Thomas would drop by either of their sessions every once in a while, but even his presence became scarce.

After two days, Patton had Virgil’s daggers enchanted. The day Patton came out holding two pens is the day Virgil became terrified of a writing utensil.

As promised, they worked very much like Percy Jackson’s Riptide. Well, the film version. But no one wanted to say it out loud. All Virgil had to do was click the pens and then they shifted into his daggers. To get them back to pens, he had to tap the end of the handles. It felt weird to be able to do it. This was something legitimately out of a fantasy novel happening in real life. Now Virgil understood what Roman meant.

He carried them in his pockets -- one on each side -- and made it his habit to have them there before leaving the house. Part of him was still cautious to have them so close to him. Weapons were meant to hurt and do damage -- why should they be anywhere near him? But there was something about them that he couldn’t quite place. Something that made him stick with them despite every other instinct telling him otherwise.

Many times Virgil found himself staring down at the pens as if they held the world’s secrets.

“Hello? Earth to Virgil?” Thomas waved a hand in front of Virgil’s face. “Come in, Virgil.”

Virgil pocketed the pens and looked up. “What?” He didn’t know how long he had been spacing out. Something about staring at magical pens made him lose track of time.

“I was gonna go watch Roman get his butt handed to him --”

“Thanks for the motivation,” Roman grumbled as he walked out the back door.

“-- and I wanted to know if you were gonna join.” He ended with a smile.

Virgil considered his options for a moment; stay inside and do nothing, or watch Logan totally school Roman the second he gets too cocky. “Yeah, alright.”

The two walked outside together.

Their relationship hadn’t mended all the way or anything, but Thomas still felt comfortable around Virgil. Neither of them liked to think about the incident, so they never brought it up again. Virgil continued to feel guilty about it, though. He could tell how much it still affected Thomas. Imagine if someone demanded you, a child, to spill your life’s secrets. You probably wouldn’t look at that person the same way again. Virgil wouldn’t.

But they were working around that. As long as Virgil didn’t fuck up more than he already had, then maybe they could return to how they once were. He was kind of getting tired of Thomas hesitantly telling him things.

Once the two reached the training grounds, they spotted Patton standing off to the side while Logan and Roman talked. Interesting. Patton didn’t show up to watch Roman get his butt kicked as often as Virgil and Thomas did. Why would he show up now?

“Patton?” Thomas decided to speak up Virgil’s questions. “What are you doing here?”

“Well jeez, if you don’t want to see me you can just say so.” He crossed his arms and smirked. “I’m here as a first-aid kit. And also to kinda do some magic stuff.”

“First-aid kit?” Virgil questioned.

“Magic stuff?” Thomas’s excitement overshadowed Virgil’s concern.

Patton smiled at Thomas’s enthusiasm. “It’s not as exciting as it sounds. Once Logan’s done then you’ll see.”

Thomas and Virgil sat on the usual log to wait. Eventually, Logan stopped talking to Roman and turned to Patton with a soft smile. Virgil wanted to vomit at the amount of love they looked at each other with. Even in short little glances, the two always looked like they were gazing at the stars. It was sickening.

“Are you ready?” Logan asked.

Patton shrugged. “As I'll ever be.” He patted Logan's head as he moved past him to the center of the clearing. After slight visible hesitation, he placed his knees on the ground and put his hands over the dying grass. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a rustle of leaves and grass, nearby twigs began to move. They tumbled and rolled together until they started to stack up. Twigs wove themselves around each other in a similar manner to how Patton formed a staff many days ago. Instead of braids, they formed a thicker more intricate system. Twigs, branches, and other leftover vegetation continued to add and grow until two solid forms could be made out. Two humanoid forms, that is.

“Okay.” Patton stood up from the ground with a sigh. Virgil noticed that the patch of grass that had once been dead now flourished. “It's not mimicry or anything, but it's the best I can do.” He smiled at his two plant people. They were both of average height with no discernible features; a head, a body, two arms, and two legs. Test dummies. “They'll respond to commands so just say ‘startup’ if you want them to activate and ‘objective complete’ when you're done.” They crumbled back to a pile of sticks. Patton chuckled nervously. “They're a little sensitive.”

“It’s perfect, Patton, thank you.” Logan gave him a swift peck on the lips.

Virgil and Thomas gagged in response.

“You two need to learn about love,” Roman sighed at them.

Shortly after, the training session had begun. This would be the first time Roman used his katana against something. Before, he had been learning with a wooden sword (and then getting his ass handed to him by a more skilled Logan) so this might have been considered a step up. In addition to that, this would be his first time sword fighting against someone that wasn’t Logan. Or, in this case, something.

One of the dummies created its own sword. It extended out more like an extension of its arm rather than an object it would hold in its hand. Its movements were slow enough for Roman to block and follow. If it got hit, it would crumple for a few seconds then regain its form. Level one, basically.

“Roman, are you scared of it?” Logan asked with a slight smirk. He had been walking around to examine how Roman did.

“W-what? No.” Roman laughed a bit to play it off. “I would never.” Despite his words, his actions were timid. He had a clear shot and gently took it, the sword sticking into the wood a little bit. The dummy fell into a pile of sticks.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Roman,” Patton said from beside Thomas on the log. “It’ll only go as hard as you do.”

Roman pouted. “I’m not afraid --” He squealed when the pile sprung to life and fell back on his butt.

“That’s believable,” Virgil scoffed.

“Why don't you show him how to do it, Logan?” Thomas suggested with a smile. “You're really good at this stuff.”

“Yeah, show him up.” Virgil smirked at Roman's glare.

Logan hesitated. “I don't know. I'm not really --”

“You can do it, Lo.” Patton beamed. “You set your own difficulty.”

With a sigh, Logan relented. He brought out the pommel which the rest of the sword appeared out of.

Roman pushed his bracelet down and his katana disappeared from his hand. He sent Virgil an annoyed scowl before sitting down in the grass. Virgil flicked the back of his head in retaliation. If he didn’t want to get hit, he shouldn’t have sat so close.

After taking a deep breath, Logan swung his sword. Right off the bat, the dummy blocked it. It matched Logan’s speed and skill almost instantly. Every parry, every swing had a reaction from both parties. Unlike Roman, Logan knew what he was doing. He could handle woven sticks. And he could handle them a lot better than Roman. As if to add insult to injury, once the opportunity arose, Logan sliced clean through the dummy’s torso -- splitting it in half. Whereas Roman only dared to poke it a little bit.

It fell into a pile and Logan twisted the pommel to retract his sword. Thomas cheered to celebrate the victory, making Virgil smile a bit.

“You went easy on it,” Patton commented, almost as if he were suspicious of something.

Logan rubbed his wrist. “Yes, well, I didn’t want to further damage Roman’s pride.” He gave a small smile that immediately felt off to Virgil.

Patton frowned as he eyed Logan’s wrist. Virgil had to physically restrain himself from saying anything. In fact, he ended up squeezing Roman’s shoulder with how badly he wanted to speak up. Why did he insist on keeping his promise to Logan?

Regardless, the session continued as normal. Logan made sure that Roman put a little more effort into his fighting and further emphasized that there was nothing to worry about. The dummy wouldn’t kill him or anything. His sword wasn’t anything to fear, either. He had control over it. It couldn’t do anything that he didn’t want it to.

Things went a lot better after that.

Unlike Logan, Roman ended up with a few injuries by the end of it. Minor cuts from where the dummy managed to hit him. No big deal. They were easily fixed by Patton, anyway.

“You did so well, Roman,” Patton cheered and Thomas agreed.

“Yeah, you didn’t get totally creamed today,” Virgil added with his usual sarcasm lacing every word.

“I always appreciate your input, Virgil,” Roman muttered.

Virgil responded with a silent thumbs up.

“For your first try, it wasn’t a complete failure.” Logan had similar styles of wording as Virgil did; if he meant something positive he usually didn’t make it sound that way. “You still have a lot to work on, but nothing that can’t be fixed.”

Roman gasped and put a hand to his chest. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

The rest of the day went by without much incident. Though, perhaps Virgil missed a good portion of the day due to a four-hour nap. In his defense, no loud noises woke him up. He depended on those so as to not oversleep. Most of the time they were yells from Roman and Thomas because some form of “betrayal” took place. Other times they were Logan and Roman getting into an argument. A few times Roman barged in and demanded something. Alright, so most of them were Roman. The dude was dramatic.

Once Virgil stepped out of his room, however, he got dragged into the beginning of an argument. Not one he wanted to take part in, but one he had to be involved with since Logan and Patton weren’t going to deal with it.

Thomas insisted that creatures like dragons and unicorns had gone extinct centuries ago. Roman, being the stubborn fantasy nerd that he is, refused to acknowledge the possibility of that ever happening. Why he wouldn’t take the word of someone who grew up with magic since the day he was born was beyond Virgil. Denial, possibly. Maybe he couldn’t handle learning that magic is real only to find out he’d never get to see some of the most cliche magical creatures.

Virgil didn’t care. Logan and Patton acted like they didn’t know the argument was even going on at all. They were trying to torture him, weren’t they? Ugh, if he knew they were going to be petty he would have second-guessed ever getting mad at Thomas.

Eventually, Thomas had enough of the bullshit and dragged both Virgil and Roman downstairs. The whole way down, the three continued to speak over one another. With Thomas and Roman arguing their main points and Virgil trying to get them to see reason (and maybe shut up).

The room Thomas led them into wasn’t bare like the weapons’ room. This one had bookcases along the walls. Posters and maps rolled up in a safe place or displayed on available walls. There was a desk in between two small bookcases with several scraps of papers and a notebook resting on it. An office space -- or even a research room.

Virgil decided to ignore the two in favor of looking around. There were a few pictures hanging up. Some black and white polaroids with a tiny grinning Thomas, a frame with washed out colors of Thomas and a girl, and then one that made Virgil stop. A grainy-looking photo in an old frame. Black and white like many of the others, but this one appeared much older. It depicted three people standing in front of a background of flowers. The one in the middle took Virgil a minute to recognize. Picani. He looked to be around Thomas’s physical age but still just as tall. He seemed happy. A man and a woman stood on either side of him. The woman had long hair that must have been falling out of its updo with the way she was handling it. The man seemed as if he was in the middle of holding back a laugh. All three of them kind of looked like that, actually.

Wait a minute… Virgil recognized that facial expression. It’s something he had seen many times since first moving into this house. Something that happened whenever Roman tried to start a fight or Virgil made a snarky remark he probably shouldn’t have. Whenever Logan gave a sardonic retort that Patton didn’t approve of. Because that was a face Thomas made for all of those. When he wanted to laugh but shouldn’t.

Were these Thomas’s parents?

“Here it is. Roman, stop moving your mouth, I’m about to prove you wrong.” Thomas reached up to the top of one of the bookcases. He had just enough height to grab a specific book. As he brought it down, something ended up fluttering to the floor. “I -- what is this?”

Virgil spared one last glance at the picture before walking over to the other two. Maybe he should hold onto that observation for another time.

Thomas picked up the object to reveal it as a polaroid -- like the ones on the wall. Instead of a young Thomas, this one had two people. One of them was Picani, once again looking to be around Thomas’s physical age. In this one, he seemed more shy, giving an almost bashful smile. Perhaps it had to do with the more eccentric person next to him. A teenage boy with aviator sunglasses and a wide grin.

“Who’s that?” Roman asked, pointing to the unknown boy.

“I…” Thomas furrowed his brows. “I don’t know.”

Virgil noted how close the two in the picture were sitting. It almost looked like they weren't expecting to get photographed. Picani had a book in his lap, his round frames sliding down his nose. The other boy had his legs crossed and an arm slung over the bench behind Picani's shoulders.

“We could ask Patton and Logan,” Roman suggested.

“I just -- why don’t I know him?” Thomas almost looked distressed at this.

“It’s fine, Thomas,” Virgil tried to sooth. “You don’t have to know.”

Thomas didn’t take his eyes off the picture. “But -- but this is the fifties. I was with him. I was almost always with him. How can there be someone I haven’t met from this time period?”

“Let’s just go up and ask Patton and Logan. They’ll tell us who he is and you can ask why you never met him.”

“I guess.” Thomas still didn’t take his eyes off the picture.

Virgil frowned. He tried to take it, but Thomas yanked his arm back and held it to his chest. Like a wild animal that had been cornered. Virgil held his hands up in defense. “Alright. Keep it.”

“It’s okay, Thomas. I’m sure there’s an easy explanation for this,” Roman said. “Maybe you were just never properly introduced -- there were times when you weren’t with Picani, right?”

“Yeah. When he’d go to school or work.”

“So that’s at least two times a day you wouldn’t have seen him. They must have met during one of those times and you just never had an opportunity to see him.”

“But I --” Thomas shook his head. “That makes sense, I guess. Let’s just go ask them.” He shoved the book back on the top shelf.

The whole way up, Thomas didn’t take his eyes off the picture. It made Roman and Virgil share a concerned glance. They didn’t know why this was such a big deal to him. It shouldn't have mattered so much. He didn’t need to know everything about Picani.

Once they got back up to the second floor, Thomas hurried down the hall to the living room. “Patton. Logan.”

There was a squeak and a thump as Patton fell off the couch. Logan sat up, face flushed. “What? Nothing was happening.”

“I’m gonna pretend I believe you for a second because I have a question to ask about this photo.” He pointed at it.

Patton’s head peeked up over the coffee table. “What photo?”

Thomas turned it around.

Immediately, both Patton and Logan tensed up. They stared at it with wide eyes -- as if they never expected to see it again. Patton stood up and gently took it from Thomas’s hand. Logan came around to look at it as well. They didn’t say anything as they studied it. A piece of their history captured in one tiny square.

“Where did you find this?” Patton asked softly.

“It was in one of the bookshelves.” Thomas shared a glimpse of uncertainty with Roman and Virgil. “Who is he?”

“No one.”

“A friend.”

Patton and Logan stopped to give each other a look. For the first time ever, they didn’t say the same thing when they spoke at the same time. It caused uneasiness to settle about the room. “We can’t just ignore that he ever existed,” Patton continued.

“It’s not like we haven’t tried,” Logan muttered, bitter.

Patton frowned. “That doesn’t make it okay to. It isn’t fair. Not for us -- and definitely not for him.”

“What happened to him?” Thomas interrupted tentatively.

“He was human.” Logan snatched the photo from Patton’s hands. Virgil felt his heart drop. “I’m going to put this somewhere safe. We’ll discuss this later, Patton.” He gave Patton one final look before walking away.

Patton watched him go with an indescribable emotion on his features.

“Patton,” Thomas said and wiped a stray tear that left his eye. It made Virgil aware of his own tears streaming down his face.

“Oh!” Patton snapped out of his daze. “Sorry. I’m not used to controlling that anymore.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Virgil felt the tightness in his chest ease up. He could breathe again.

“Why does that happen?” Roman asked as he rubbed the last of the tears out of his eyes.

“I guess you can call me an empath.” Patton shrugged. “I can know what others feel, but more often than not I end up sending out my own emotions. Whether or not that’s apart of my healing abilities is up for debate.” He looked down at his hands. “I’m not really aware of it half the time. And Picani doesn’t have that ability so I’m kind of getting used to having them again.”

Virgil wiped his face. “Maybe don’t send out such harsh vibes next time.”

Patton gave a half smile. “It’s not always that simple. I can keep all my normal emotions in check, but I kind of lose control over the big ones. If I get too worked up over something then I project those feelings without meaning to. Usually, they’re low enough to not be detected, but you two are humans. There’s no magic protecting you.”

“Ugh, you’re like Blue Diamond.” Roman ran his hands down his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever cried so many tears in such a short amount of time.”

“Sorry. I’ll work on that.”

Thomas frowned a bit. “If he was so important to you -- important enough to cause this --” he motioned to Roman and Virgil, whose eyes were still glossy with tears -- “why don’t I know anything about him?”

Patton paused -- as if he needed to process the words -- before letting out a sad smile. “You never wanted to.”

Thomas froze, surprise and disbelief all over his features. “What?” The word came out so quiet -- like a silent breath rolling over his lips.

Though Patton didn’t acknowledge this. His gaze was trained out toward the hall. “I should probably talk to Logan before he starts going over the ‘what ifs’ in his head again.” He silently excused himself.

No one decided to ask any further questions.

(Next)

#sanders sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #thomas sanders #roman sanders #coinverse #logicality #platonic prinxiety

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otdderamin · 6 years

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Fiction: Pandemonium, CR C1 Ep115

CONTENT WARNING: Mental health crisis

SPOILERS: End of Campaign 1

I've been thinking about this since the end of campaign 1. There were an awful lot of lose threads for Percy's mental health between the last scenes of the campaign and the epilogue. Descriptions of Pandemonium sounded like a terrible place to put someone in Percy's state. I am going off my existing theory about Percy's mental health.

Story

Vex and Percy camped in the woods the night Vax died. The day Sylas got away, and she'd helped kill Cassandra, and they'd battled Vecna the ascended, and he'd tried to fight The Raven Queen. They got drunk and cried themselves exhausted. She fell asleep being held by him. She woke up alone in the hours between late and early.

Hers was the panic of finding him, the day before, alone on the steps on the verge of throwing his life away for a shot at hurting Death. She found him sitting outside in the damp cold. He said he couldn't sleep and didn't want to wake her. He'd been sleeping badly since they’d found the Briarwoods alive. She managed to coax him back in the tent. She tried not to mind how fitfully he slept.

They slept late. It wasn't the respite they were hoping for, and they packed up their gear disheartened. They had to go back to the grim reality of everyday life eventually.

Instead, they found Keyleth waiting anxiously by their door. She told them Grog had pulled a card and gone catatonic in the night. Pike, JB, and Scanlan were researching what had happened. Vex took Percy's hand. He was staring off at nothing looking crushed. She said she'd join the research. Percy said he had to resupply in the workshop. There was a note of panic in his voice. He brushed off their concern. He was fine. He had to be.

He looked exhausted at dinner in the castle. He'd already been drinking. He picked at his food and ate little. He was quiet while they talked about their findings. All of them were drinking heavily that evening. Two missing seats haunted the room. Percy passed out at the table, never making it to bed.

Vex found him in the workshop early the next morning, hard at work. She brought him a mug of coffee. He hadn’t changed and looked disheveled. His energy was off, frenetic but dragging. He'd been hit hard by the last few days and it was showing. He didn't leave the workshop all day.

At dinner they reported they knew what had happened to Grog and where he was. Tomorrow they'd figure out how to get there. Percy tried to be cheered by that glimmer of hope. His appetite was better.

He broke down crying in their room. Even if they got Grog back, he'd lost so many people. Cassandra's death was eating at him. She gently joked they were even now. He laughed grimly, but it turned back to tears. Everyone was at risk because of them. She held him and said, "We’ll save them, then. We’ll build better defenses and wards." But he was right to worry, and she knew it. It hung between them. She cried for her own losses and he tried feebly to console her. He finally fell into an uneasy sleep, overwhelmed by exhaustion, and woke late.

They made a plan the next day. They briefed everyone for what was known about Pandemonium, then split to prepare. Percy packed all four hip flasks and two bottles of whiskey. He rebraided Vex's hair tightly, and added the black feather left on their windowsill. They saw a similar feather newly tied to Keyleth's antlers, taken as a sign from Vax. Cassandra saw them off from the castle foyer, looking worried.

Pandemonium was more intense than they imagined. The yawning caverns were pitch black. Even with their lights they could barely make out the far side. The bewildering gravity pulled to the walls instead of towards one ground. Winds howled through the tunnels. They had to yell even over the earpieces.

They located the Styx and followed it for a while. Vex found flying low, while tricky, was less disorienting than walking. The gnomes rode Keyleth as a bronze dragon while Percy and Vex rode the broom. He lost his lunch after they went through a corkscrew of weird gravity. When they stopped to orient themselves, he chased a long drink of water with his flask. He struggled with the roar. He picked at his food. He slept badly, waking up twice from nightmares, screaming.

Day two was nearly a repeat of the first, but longer and more grueling. They fought a group of bugbears whose souls were locked there. He floundered in the battle. His aim was off. Animus jammed three times before breaking. He took hard hits from the psychic damage. The crack of Bad News was magnified in the caverns. His ears rang so badly, he could barely hear them. The healing spells helped, but not completely. He was moody and out of it by the time they stopped. He slunk off to the workshop to fix his gun. He ate little with great effort. He turned in early but tossed and turned anxiously before slinking off to read.

Keyleth found him in the library early in the morning, hunched in a chair spaced out. His eyes were red, and there were tear streaks on his face. Half the whiskey bottle was gone. She asked if he was alright and needed to talk. He said he'd be fine. They just had to get through this. He sounded distant. He tried to be subtle about adding whiskey to his coffee at breakfast. Vex and Pike caught it, and shared a glance, but said nothing. He looked tired but moved with an inattentive, hasty energy. She helped him fix the buttoning on his vest. Pike kept up on the healing spells.

Two more days passed as they tried to pick their way through the caverns. The constant gale was getting to all of them. Scanlan’s singing and verbal spells barely carried. Percy seemed more affected than the rest. He was badly stressed, distracted, making mistakes, and taking stupid risks. When he broke his silence, he was rushed and rambley. His jokes were cutting and harsh. The punchline was still being alive.

He did his best to force himself to eat. He seemed more and more fey. He held Vex when she broke down crying for her brother. He stroked her hair, but all he found to say was, "I'm so sorry." He didn't cry with her. He sounded numb and hazy.

They were getting close on the sixth day. The tunnel became narrow. The weird gravity made it too hard to fly. Vex took the lead as their best scout. When the terrain ahead got treacherous, they stopped for lunch. Vex watched Percy stop short, look around confused, and sit where he was with his elbows on his knees, apart from the others.

She knelt beside him and asked, "Darling, can I get you something?" He didn’t respond, just stared blankly ahead. She gently laid her hand against his cheek, and called louder, "Darling, are you okay?" He didn't melt into her touch. He didn't react at all. He seemed oblivious to everything around him, and she was suddenly terrified.

She felt the weight of the others looking on with concern. She cast Cure Wounds, praying some injury had brought this on. She wasn't surprised when it found nothing to heal.

"I didn't see any spell or trap," offered Keyleth. "I was behind him all day. I have Greater Restoration prepared."

"Do it," said Vex, her voice breaking. "Maybe it will help." She didn't sound convinced. She sat back to let Keyleth work, taking his hand.

Keyleth placed her palms on either side of his face. She concentrated until a light like spring growth and autumn leaves washed over him. There was a flicker of relief, and then pain. As Keyleth took her hands away, he started crying, shuttering, and panicked. He pulled his hand away and curled further into a ball of misery. He was nearly incoherent except to faintly repeat, "I can't..."

Keyleth was shocked. "Percy?"

"Get the mansion up! He can't stay out here," called Vex, stress and concern flooding her voice. She laid a hand gently on his shoulder, and said soothingly, "Darling it's alright. You're going to be alright. We're going to get you inside." The minute to cast the spell felt like an eternity.

He resisted when they tried to help him up, recoiling wretchedly. Finally Vex popped Trinket out and asked Percy if she could use it on him. He made no reply but disappeared when she tried. She carried him to their room, bare of decor at her request, and released him towards the bed. He sat down hard. A strange high-pitched noise filled the room. It took her a moment to realize it was a sound of deep distress from Percy.

"Darling it's alright. You're going to be alright."

The others milled about the hall, too worried to go far. Eventually Vex motioned Keyleth back in to help her. Percy sat in a quiet daze on the edge of the bed. They got off his outer layers, his armor, and his boots. Keyleth started to see the grim practice in what Vex was doing. She let the silence hang between them until Vex said she'd get the rest.

They sat awkwardly outside a long time taking off their own gear, before Keyleth said, "Why didn't we do anything? We all knew he wasn't alright."

"Have any of us been okay with all this?" asked Scanlan.

The silence spoke for them.

Vex looked worried and worn when she eventually came out.

"How is he?" asked Pike.

"He's resting. I don't want to leave him alone for long, but there's nothing I can do and I'm starving."

"Vex…" Keyleth struggled for words. "I saw in there… This isn't the first time."

Vex stared guiltily at the floor before leaning into Keyleth's offered hug. "It was bad after the dragons. Never this bad. We pushed ourselves hard because we had to. We all knew the cost of failure. I kept telling myself I was worrying too much, but I should have done more.

"His depression crashed, but he was also manic. Like he's been since we found Delilah. He shut himself away in his workshop for days but made little progress. He couldn't focus or think clearly. He got frustrated, upset, and careless. He got hurt a couple times. Sometimes I'd find him just drinking alone and crying. He pushed me away. Said he couldn't do it anymore. That was that for a couple months. There were a few nights I was afraid…"

"Eventually it seemed to lift. He was calmer, more productive. Clearer and sharper. He went back to work improving Whitestone. We started over again. Maybe a little impulsively, but we didn't want to waste more time.

"We felt like there was something left to do. We were waiting for another mission, but not this. The Briarwoods threw him. He's been struggling since. I don't think he let any of us see how much. It was all so fast.

"I think Cassandra… even though we brought her back, then Vax…" her voice broke, "then Grog getting trapped was too much. Like it would never just be over or safe. Like the last year of getting better didn't happen." She was crying. "I don't want to lose him, too."

Pike gently took her hand. "I'll go sit with him. You get something to eat. Take off your armor." She left before Vex could protest. Vex did her best to take care of herself before worry overtook her and she went back to do what little she could for him.

The others tried to make a plan for the next day. Worry won out over the mission. They'd take another day here. Grog wasn't going anywhere as best they could tell. Pike observed the Restoration spell had some effect. He was doing so badly it was worth trying again.

Percy slept fitfully and late. The time to renew the mansion was getting near when Pike tried Greater Restoration. The wave of peace lasted longer. He seemed more aware of his surroundings. He put himself together enough to go outside. But even the minute back in Pandemonium was overwhelming and draining. He collapsed back into bed and curled up crying.

They debated what to do. It was too risky to send him back alone with Planeshift, and too risky to be down two people. If they had to, they’d cast fly on Trinket and put Percy in the necklace. He was still far too fragile to set out tomorrow. They'd wait another day. Pike would try Greater Restoration again before dinner. It was expensive and incremental, but it was working.

He started coming back to himself after the next round of spells. He said, "Thank you. Both of you. I'm sorry I haven't been myself. I'm sorry I've been a burden. I…" Vex hugged him and reassured him. However hesitantly, he relaxed into her arms and tried to believe her. He ate well. For the first time in many days he got a good night's rest.

After the morning spells he was brighter, more lucid. He spent the day reading with Vex and Keyleth in the library. He made light conversation. It was clear he was still far from alright, but the very worst of it had passed.

He continued to improve with the evening and morning spells. His appetite was better. His nightmares were milder, though he'd flipped to sleeping very long. He didn't look so pale or so exhausted. After checking in with him, they decided to continue their journey.

The rest of the quest was uneventful, if slower. Percy was still struggling. They could only stay out a few hours before he began to glaze over and dissociate. Keeping up with Greater Restoration helped, but it could only fix so much so fast, it was expensive, and they had to start rationing the supplies quickly. He was still drinking more heavily than the rest of them. But by the time they released Grog, he was back to his usual cutting wit. He teased Grog about losing an arm. Vex wondered how much of himself felt missing.

When they Plane Shifted back to the center of Whitestone, he hugged the Suntree and said, "Never again. I'm never going back to that horrible place for any reason. I'd rather go back to Hell."

His recovery was slow. He took another week off his duties as Sophist of Native Ingenuity. When he tried to get back to work, he couldn't focus. He overslept. He zoned out in meetings. He couldn't understand plans through the brain fog. He took another week off, then two, then a leave of absence. He was gone nearly a year. He hated it. He hated feeling useless. He hated feeling like a burden. But Vex was right that he wasn't in fit shape to do it.

And so it went over the next two years of slowly piecing himself together after years of breaking. Keyleth made the trip back to Whitestone for Greater Restoration once a week, or any time he had a crisis. The magic helped a lot, but even magic couldn't undo everything at once. With need and resources, Whitestone was the first to start developing psychotherapy separate from temple work. Cassandra and many of Vox Machina were happy to participate.

Keenly aware of the privilege and community that allowed them help, Percy and Vex drew up a plan to lower barriers for all. When the final plan was put forward, the Chamber of Whitestone voted unanimously for socialized medicine out of taxes on timber and Whitestone production.

A lot was done with more careful study of plants and minerals. The discovery of a lithia spring in the mountains was a boon for Percy's health. Keyleth's regular visits could be cut back to once a month.

However slowly, the pain of the past started staying there. The future, with family, friends, and a prospering home, had begun to flourish.

If you’d like earlier access to my work, follow my blog at deramin.net.

If you like this transcript, consider buying me a coffee (ko-fi.com/otdderamin). I’ve been working on these while struggling to adjust to disability. Donating helps me justify spending time on these projects.

#critical role #Critical Role Campaign 1 #Critical Role fanfiction #Percy de Rolo #Percival de Rolo #fanfiction

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littlerose13writes · 7 years

Text

The First Five Years: 2001

31st December, 2001

Pain.

That was all Ginny could register as she felt herself come to, presumably somewhere on the pitch after her fall. For a Chaser who had once continued playing with a broken wrist, using just her good hand to expertly catch and aim the quaffle (and the Harpies had still won), pain was nothing new to Ginny. She prided herself on her ability to push through injuries; it drove Gwenog insane.

But this was something new, this was pain on a level Ginny couldn’t remember experiencing since her awful, painful sixth year of Hogwarts. She felt as if she’d been given a round or two of the Cruciatus curse.

Ginny went to lift her head from the surprisingly soft pitch, but it was so heavy she could barely manage it. She blinked against the horrid sensation.

“Gin? Ginny? Ginny?!” a familiar voice sounded anxious and steadily louder as its owner got closer from somewhere behind Ginny’s head. Harry was here, of course he was, he was in the stands watching the game. One of those rare but glorious times his day off had coincided with her match.

Since Ginny had been promoted from the smaller International League to the British League and they’d moved back to their flat in Holyhead, Harry was rarely able to watch her games the way he had done when they were travelling together. But once in a while, a match came up that he could attend.

Ginny adored these moments, when she could feel sheer pride radiating from her boyfriend as he watched her fly. They’d never made it through an entire season as team mates but this was even better. She loved seeing Harry there for her, the Holyhead Harpies logo shining brightly on everything he wore, and cheering for her ferociously.

“She’s awake!” Harry entered her vision and it was only then that Ginny realised she couldn’t have been lying directly on the pitch, as Harry’s concerned face was only a few feet above her and he was standing over her.

“Where’s the Healer? Quickly, I’ll find him! George, get mum!” Ginny recognised her brother’s voice from somewhere nearby as Harry gently and softly placed a hand on her cheek.

That was weird. Ron hadn’t been at the game. It was then that Ginny recognised that there was no sight of the sky above her, in fact she was most definitely indoors.

“Harry?” she asked, surprised at how faint her own voice sounded. “What’s going on?”

He continued to gently stroke her face and smooth her hair as he spoke. “You don’t remember, they said you might not.” Ginny could feel herself starting to come to, she was increasingly aware of her surroundings, realising there was a pillow beneath her head. “You’re in St Mungo’s, Ginny.”

“St Mungo’s? I can’t be! The game!” Ginny tried to push herself up but Harry stopped her.

“No, Gin, you fell from your broom and you’ve been here all night. It’s New Year’s Eve.” Ginny stared into her boyfriend’s face, trying to read his expression. This wasn’t Harry’s idea of a joke. She noticed he was pale and his eyes home to deep, dark hollows, their edges rimmed with red.

“Let me sit up!” Ginny felt a surge of panic, a feeling of disorientation masking all common sense. She pushed past the heavy feeling in her limbs and head and forced herself upwards from the bed. This time, Harry didn’t try to stop her and instead helped her position herself back against her pillow. A dull ache in the back of her head thumped. “Why does my head feel so-?”

“You’re fine, they said you’ll be fine. You’re okay.” he breathed, spotting the note of panic in her voice and gently wrapping his arms around her, kissing her forehead softly. “It was a nasty fall but you’ll make a full recovery.”

“I fell?” She echoed his words in a small voice and Harry’s grip tightened around her.

“You held on longer than most could have, with that Sweetwater idiot ramming into you constantly. I hate this time of the season, everyone is just that bit too reckless.” He muttered darkly into her hair. A pause, as he pulled away and looked into her eyes, his arms still around her shoulders. “You scared me, Gin. Last night, you really scared me.”

It was a significant admittance, one which Harry would never say unless he truly meant it. The natural reaction would be to apologise for scaring him, but Ginny knew Harry would never hear it from her.

“Was I out all night?” She had no memory of any time having passed between the match and now.

“Completely out, you didn’t move. I kept leaning in to check you were still breathing, even though the Healers insisted you were and told me to sleep.” He gave a light shrug and a lock of his dark hair fell from his dishevelled, usually-neat knot.

Ginny was unbelievably touched that he had stayed awake all night for her; it was another of those moments when she was almost taken aback by how much she loved him. She reached out to tuck the loose hair behind his ear. “I love you, Harry.”

Harry beamed, like he had the first time she’d told him she loved him. Generally, as a couple, they preferred to demonstrate how in love they were, finding the words by themselves inadequate. But this time, it felt enough to cover how she was feeling. “I love you too.” He responded, not as if automatically but with genuine meaning, as he pulled her to him again with a quick kiss.

At that moment, a Healer came rushing in and Harry unwrapped Ginny, staying close to her side with his hand in hers.

“When did she wake up? How long has she been awake? How is she feeling?” the Healer asked hurriedly and Ginny bristled as he addressed Harry, acting as if Ginny wasn’t even in the room.

“I’m feeling great thanks, just relaxing here in this nice, comfy bed.” she bit sarcastically and Harry smirked as the Healer looked taken aback.

“So sorry Miss Weasley.” the Healer backtracked swiftly and Ginny noticed from his name badge he was a junior Healer. This comforted Ginny to know they hadn’t thought her injuries serious enough for a more experienced Healer. “Have you been awake long? How’s the pain?”

Ginny considered her question, assessing where she could and couldn’t feel pain in her body. Her head still thumped away like a cannon being fired into the back of her skull from a great distance. Her limbs felt as if they had been filled with lead.

“I’ve had worse.” Ginny replied and Harry scoffed, although she was being serious. “What actually happened to me?”

“She’s been awake around five minutes now.” Harry informed the Healer. “You fell off your broom, that’s really all there is to it, Gin. Probably didn’t help that you were travelling at around fifty miles an hour when you came off. It was that Beater. I barely got my wand out in time, else I could have cast a more effective cushioning charm.” Harry wore a dark expression.

“Your boyfriend here was the quickest thinker there. I’ve got half a mind to suggest a trained Auror at every match as standard procedure, I dread to think how much worse off you’d be if that charm hadn’t been cast. No broken bones, you’ve been blessed.”

“You saved me?” Ginny turned to Harry. Harry shrugged modestly, moving closer and wrapping an arm around her again.

“Do you have pain anywhere specific?” the Healer asked.

“My head kills but I’m sure I can sleep it off.” Ginny murmured, leaning into Harry’s touch.

“Your head?” the Healer looked worried and picked up his wand, casting a spell over Ginny which caused a number of complicated charts to appear in the air before them. “You can have more pain potion if you want,” he eventually said and Ginny nodded reluctantly.

The Healer went to fetch the potion as the door opened again, bringing with it a strong ray of morning December sunshine. Ginny’s mother entered the room, a warm but worried smile gracing her features.

“Ginny dear! Thank goodness!” she bustled over, taking Ginny’s face gently in both hands and looking over her. Harry dropped her hand to allow Mrs Weasley to greet her daughter but he stayed beside her, sinking into a chair not far from the head of the bed, which might have been there all night. “This Quidditch, really! It’s getting more and more dangerous every season, I’m sure of it. To think, if we hadn’t been here at St Mungo’s anyway, well who knows what might have happened?”

Ginny interrupted her mother’s dramatic speech. “Why were you already at St Mungo’s? Have I really been here since yesterday? Have you been here all this time?”

Mrs Weasley nodded her head vigorously. “Of course! Your father’s upstairs too, with Bill, and Ron and George are outside, waiting to come in. Percy is planning to drop by again after work and Hermione should be arriving back any minute. Speaking of which, we must let Charlie know you’re okay too before he sets off.”

Ginny processed all of this information. “Ron and George can come in, the Healer’s gone to get me more pain potion.”

As if waiting for their cue, her two youngest older brothers came bundling into the room, both making a beeline straight for her then stopping short just before the bed, preventing themselves from no doubt grabbing her in a bone crushing Weasley brother hug.

“That was a bit scary, sis!” George exclaimed.

“Just a bit.” Ron agreed.

“You’ve woken up just in time.” George continued.

“In time for what? Where’s dad, and Bill?” Ginny felt she was missing something.

“Maternity ward.” Harry supplied the information nobody else was. “Fleur went into labour.”

“It’s been quite an eventful twenty four hours.” Ron added.

“That’s sooner than we thought! Has she had the baby yet? Have I missed it?” The Healer returned with her pain potion and Ginny immediately quizzed her. “Can I go upstairs to see my brother and sister-in-law?”

The Healer exchanged an uneasy look with Mrs Weasley. “Not just yet, we still need to monitor you. I’m sure they can bring the baby down here later. I’m afraid I can’t let you leave until we’re sure you’re okay. You were out for quite some time.”

“When will you be sure I’m okay? I feel okay!” Ginny would have been frustrated enough at having to stay put in a bed for the foreseeable future without the extra incentive of a new Weasley baby.

“It’s up to the Senior Healer on the ward. Let’s just hope you won’t have to ring in the new year here with us.”

Ginny’s eyebrows shot up and she looked straight at Harry to see his reaction to this. They had plans to see The Sex Pixies for New Year’s Eve and she knew how disappointed he would be if, instead, she was stuck in a hospital bed.

Harry, however, was not looking at her and was exchanging a panicked glance with Ron. Ginny presumed they were worried about how she would react to this imprisonment.

“Is that likely?” Harry asked, after what looked like a wordless conversation with Ron.

“I really couldn’t say. I’ll have Senior Healer Fairchild come by as soon as she’s out of theatre.” The hidden meaning behind his words was clear. The Healer left with this bombshell hanging in the air.

Harry looked utterly crestfallen; Ginny knew he’d been really looking forward to the concert.

“It’s alright, you can go without me! We can see them together another time.” she pushed aside her own feelings of frustration to comfort him. Harry looked up from his reverie and gave her a forced grin.

“I’m not going without you.” he said after a pause. “There’ll be other concerts.”

Ron was mouthing silently at George, who looked up and noticed Ginny gazing at him curiously.

“No, Ron.” George said pointedly. “You can’t go instead, you don’t even like them.” Ron turned crimson and glared at George as Mrs Weasley gave him a judgemental look.

“Ron!” Her mother began but he interrupted her, guiding her by the shoulder away from Ginny’s bed.

“I’m going to see if Hermione’s here yet, and then let’s check on Fleur.” He looked sulky and stalked off out of the ward with their mother.

Harry stood up again and returned to Ginny’s side to hold her hand. George took this as his cue to leave and did so, throwing Harry a hugely unsubtle wink as he left.

“Are you disappointed about the concert? I’m sorry.” Ginny spoke immediately.

“No, no, of course not! The important thing is that you’re alright.” He kissed her forehead again.

Senior Healer Fairchild turned out to be rather formidable, unaware of Ginny’s infamous pain threshold and unaffected by her boyfriend’s pleas to release her. She examined the results emitting from her wand with a studious expression.

“I’m sorry Miss Weasley, Mr Potter, but I just don’t want to take any risks. You were out cold for several hours, anyone would need recovery time. We can reassess again tomorrow but in the meantime you’re stuck here.”

Ginny glowered at her. “Can’t I at least visit the maternity ward? My sister-in-law is about to have a baby.”

“I’m sure that’s true, I’ll see how you do. Get some rest, try and sleep that headache off.” She turned to leave then glanced back at Harry. “Oh and Potter, you’ll need this tonight if you’re going to refuse to leave again.” She waved her wand and conjured an extra bed alongside Ginny’s.

“Healer’s orders, you heard her. Get some sleep.” Harry instructed her, helping Ginny settle herself back down so she was lying flat. He kept a hold of her hand and stroked her hair with the other.

Ginny didn’t think she’d be at all tired after her time out cold, but as soon as Harry began rhythmically stroking her hair, she felt exhaustion overcome her. The pain potion she’d been given must have been pretty strong because it seemed to only take a minute or two for her Healer’s suggestion to become a reality.

Ginny awoke, momentarily forgetting where she was and what had happened, before the memory washed over her. She hadn’t a clue what time it was, but judging by the lack of sunlight streaming in, she guessed she had been asleep for several hours. Looking around her, she spotted Harry’s bed untouched and empty and the space around her own bed unoccupied.

Ginny pushed herself up in the bed, her head hurting far less than it had before. In fact, she felt almost completely normal as she propped herself up on her elbows and scanned the empty room. She realised what had awoken her when she spotted the jug of water to her right and reached for it, registering just how thirsty she was. Ginny guessed it was the evening now and she’d barely drank anything for hours.

She drummed her fingers back and forth across the bed spread, wondering if she was allowed to leave this room yet or if Fleur had had her baby. There weren’t any Healers in sight and Ginny felt fine.

Experimentally, she gave one aching leg a kick out, removing it from the bed and planting it on the floor. It felt steady enough as she joined it with the other. She stood, a lightheaded feeling present but not overpowering, holding onto the bed post in case she fell. The window opposite was pitch black, as it was the dead of winter, but the night was clear and the stars shone brightly.

Before Ginny could try a few steps towards the beautiful view, the door opened almost silently and Ginny turned, expecting a Healer.

It was Harry.

He looked much healthier than he had earlier, as if he’d had a few hours’ sleep. His hair was swept back in its usual knot and he’d changed out of his day-old Harpies stuff into a dark grey t-shirt with long sleeves.

“You’re up.” He said, coming to her side at once and taking her hand.

Ginny shrugged. “Just looking at the stars. Can’t see them all that well from here though.”

“Here.” Harry placed his arm around her waist and guided her over to the window, allowing her to lean against him. She breathed against his chest. “And even better.” A flick of his wand caused the window to magically expand, until it took over the entire side of the room, allowing them to look out across the constellations.

“Sorry again about the concert.” She murmured and he kissed the top of her head.

“I’ve thought of that.” He grinned, flicking his wand towards the magical speaker Ginny hadn’t noticed in the corner of the room. Music immediately came from the device, softly playing The Sex Pixies’ most recent hit. “It’s like they’re here in the room with us.”

Ginny smiled into him and he rubbed small circles over her back, the stars twinkling overhead. His eyes lit up as his favourite song began to play.

“I bet you were looking forward to hearing this tonight.” Ginny sighed wistfully, still feeling bad that it was because of her they were missing the concert.

Harry looked at her for a long time before speaking. “That wasn’t what I was looking forward to most about tonight.”

“It wasn’t?”

“No.” he said in a small voice, facing the ground. “Ask me what was.”

“What were you most looking forward to then?” she asked him bemusedly, thinking her boyfriend was acting rather strangely.

He took both her hands in his, hesitating for a second to check she was able to stand without his support. She was perfectly able, she just liked leaning into him.

“Ginny, I’m so incredibly in love with you. You mean everything to me.”

“Aw.” She smiled at him. “I’m gonna fall off my broom and scare you more often, I like ‘overly-romantic-Harry’ from time to time.”

His smile grew and his green eyes twinkled behind his glasses as he dropped one hand.

“I mean it, Ginny. I love you so much, and last night just made me even more sure about this, but I was going to anyway… tonight, at the concert.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew something Ginny couldn’t see in the low light. Her heart froze as a million and one thoughts rushed through her mind, each of them landing on the conclusion that ‘no… he wasn’t going to-’

“Ginny Weasley,” he sank away from her, dropping to one knee, her left hand still in his, “will you marry me?”

The hand that wasn’t holding onto hers flipped open a small box and held it up for her to see. Inside was a thin silver band, housing a sparkling diamond of perfect size. Ginny stared at in shock, her gaze flicking back to Harry’s expectant, nervous expression.

“Please say something.” He finally whispered, after what Ginny realised had been too long of a pause.

“Yes! Of course yes! Yes, yes, yes!” she practically fell down on top of him and he swept her up into his arms, picking her completely off the ground and spinning her around. She felt lightheaded again but this time she knew it had nothing at all to do with her accident. He placed her back down gently and pulled back, taking her left hand in his.

“I wasn’t supposed to do that, I forgot to put the ring on, I even remembered to keep hold of your left hand.” He was speaking without thought, his face split in half with a huge grin which mirrored Ginny’s own smile. She immediately gave him her left hand again, and he carefully removed the ring and slid it onto her fourth finger.

“I’m going to be a Potter.” She said, watching it fit snugly into place. Harry intertwined his fingers with hers, both of them staring at the ring now firmly on her finger. He kissed her softly, his arm finding the small of her back, her own hand tangled in the back of his hair.

“I’m not going to be the only Potter anymore.” He said between kisses, looking overjoyed at the prospect.

“And you were going to do this at the concert?” Ginny asked him breathlessly, the two still in a tight embrace.

“Yeah. This is embarrassing, I doubt you even remember but the first time we ever kissed, in the common room after that game?” he was looking at her questioningly as if worried she might have forgotten that particular detail of their relationship. “Well, as that happened-”

“The Sex Pixies were playing at the Quidditch party.” Ginny finished for him.

“You do remember?”

“Of course I bloody remember, Harry!” she smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

“Sorry.” He chuckled and circled his arms around her tighter.

“I sort of like that it was just the two of us though.” She kissed the end of his nose.“How many of my family members knew you were about to do this?” she questioned.

“I asked your parents for permission a few weeks back.” Harry grinned.

“I expect Mum told you you’ve always had their permission.” Ginny smirked.

Harry nodded. “But only Ron knew I was planning to propose at the concert, until this happened,” he gestured to her hospital gown, “then George figured it out and Ron had to tell your mum when she was getting suspicious. She’s thrilled by the way.”

“Of course she is, she loves you more than I do.” Ginny said with a wink. “And Fleur, has she-”

“An hour or so ago, another girl.” Harry responded.

“Oh Teddy will be so disappointed!”

“He is, he started poking my stomach and asking me when I was going to have a baby so that it would be a boy baby. He was complaining Fleur only has girl babies because she’s a girl.”

“A few mixed messages there.” Ginny grinned. “I think that’s Godfather’s job to have the talk.”

Harry blanched. “He’s only three! I can most definitely bribe somebody else to do it in time.”

“Don’t look at me.” Ginny nudged him with her newly bedazzled hand.

“The Healer said you’d be allowed to leave the ward when you woke up to visit upstairs. I had to promise to bring you back though.” Ginny gave him a grateful smile, fully appreciating for a second that he was going to be her husband.

“Ready to swap big news then? Everyone’s up there.” He nodded his head to the ceiling. “They looked in on you but you were sleeping.”

“How shall we tell them?” Ginny suddenly felt apprehensive.

“Make a fuss of the baby, wait for somebody to spot the ring.” Harry grinned.

“It’s a plan.” Ginny accepted the hand he offered and leaned on his side as they walked out of the room and down the corridor towards the lift, pressing the button for the maternity ward.

The room Fleur was in became clear in a second due to the vast amount of her family gathered around the doorway. Charlie had arrived from Romania while Ginny had been sleeping and he immediately pulled her into a one-armed hug.

“Hey sis, still throwing yourself off broomsticks I see.”

“Still throwing yourself at dragons I see.” Ginny teased, pointing to a new, shiny burn present on Charlie’s collar bone.

Hermione came over from a grinning Ron and looked straight at Ginny’s left hand, indicating that Ron had told her. “I expect you’re feeling much better now.” She whispered as she too gave Ginny a hug. “Congratulations.”

Arthur spotted Ginny next, coming to place an arm around her, while Percy gave her a somber, disapproving look from across the room, as if it was all her fault she’d been injured. Molly hurried over to bring Ginny into the room and she gave in, allowing her mother to guide her inside.

“Gee-Gee.” Baby Victoire reached for her auntie upon seeing her and George handed her over, giving Ginny a knowing look and glancing at her left hand. Ginny pretended not to notice and smoothed the little girl’s white-blonde hair down from where George had presumably been tickling her.

“You’re a big sister, Vic!” she grinned at the little girl, who giggled and squirmed to be put down and walk. Ginny obliged and watched her toddle over to a cupboard and begin attempting to open it.

“No, Vic, you not allowed!” little Teddy marched over and stood in the way of the cupboard door. He attempted to haul the younger girl away from the cupboard and back to the adults and she gave him a sulky look, waddling from him and straight to her Aunt Gabrielle who picked her up.

Teddy watched jealously as the teenager bounced Victoire around to delighted squeals until Harry noticed and went to pick Teddy up too. His hair was jet-black today, just like his godfather’s.

“Where’s this baby then?” Ginny asked impatiently, moving further into the room to reveal Bill and Fleur, who was on a bed looking exhausted. Bill was carrying a bundle of blankets.

Bill chuckled as she crossed the room to him. “How you feeling?”

“Better than ever.” Ginny’s eyes shone. “Let’s see what you’ve made.” She grinned and Bill handed over the bundle of blankets.

“This is Dominique.” Ginny peered into the blankets to see a tiny face with a button nose. “Cute, isn’t she?” Bill smirked proudly.

“Adorable. Congratulations.” Ginny said, gazing at the baby and sharing a glance with Harry who had come to her side, Teddy still balanced on his hip.

“What’s dat?!” Teddy asked loudly, pointing fiercely at where Ginny was holding baby Dominique.

“That’s baby Dominique, Teddy. Vic’s sister.” Harry watched his confused face.

“Not a baby.” Teddy replied in a matter of fact voice. “Dat fing.” He leaned out of Harry’s arms and Ginny felt his hand brush hers under the baby, landing on the new addition to her left hand. “What ‘sit?”

“No concept of when to let go in a hug but this he notices.” Ginny laughed with Harry and Bill watched their exchange, his gaze drifting to the object of Teddy’s question.

“Ginny, is that-” he was staring at her hand holding baby Dominique; a second later, Bill whipped his head round to Harry in surprise. Harry smirked.

“Oh, yeah it is.” Ginny withdrew her hand from underneath the baby and held it out to show Bill her ring.

Harry shifted Teddy over to his other hip and placed an arm around Ginny’s waist, smiling round at the now silent room. There was a short pause which was then broken by an outburst of celebration.

Ginny and Harry found themselves in the middle of a mass hug, baby Dominique and Teddy were sandwiched somewhere in the middle and he was squealing in delight, picking up on the mood of the room.

“Only my little sister could manage to upstage my second daughter being born.” Bill chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye as the newly engaged couple were released. Ginny handed his daughter back to him and took Harry’s hand.

Their intertwined fingers found the ring, the still unfamiliar feel of it an exciting reminder of the decision they’d made that evening. Ginny looked into Harry’s eyes and shared a smile with him.

The room they stood in was so overflowing with joy and love and family; in that moment, Ginny felt like she was finally healed.

<<< Read 2000

>>> Read 2002

#the First Five Years #hinny #harry x ginny #fanfiction #harry potter #ginny weasley #F5Y #F5Y2001

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