Work Text:
He keeps the promise he made to her all those decades ago. When Thanatos arrives in the night to take her from his arms, the god is kind enough to reshuffle his list a bit for the demigod who once saved him. In all his millennia, he can count the number of souls who asked to go sooner than their time on a single hand, and soon Percy is ushered away into the night.
He wakes with a start from the darkness, and as his eyes adjust he's surprised to find himself not in a dingy lounge facing a man in a far too expensive suit, but in a garden. Panic rises in his chest before his hand finds hers and he relaxes enough to look around. Upon examination, he realises that the garden is one she designed on Olympus. Their favourite place on Olympus in fact, for how isolated it is while still providing a view of the city below. He steps forward to the bubbling fountain in its centre, only to be struck by his appearance. He's young again, face unwrinkled and the grey in his hair confined to it's single streak. Upon turning to Annabeth, he finds her similarly transformed. She however, is staring straight ahead with a mix of horror and bemusement. Looking back to his right, he can't say he blames her. Poseidon and Athena, despite their sworn rivalry, are standing at the edge of the garden speaking softly to one another. Athena notices them first, quickly jumping apart from Poseidon, while he moves towards them in large bounds. He places his hands on Percy's shoulders and stares into his eyes intensely before letting out a chuckle and saying
"Zeus is going to lose his mind over this."
The King of Olympus, does indeed lose his mind over it. After calling the Olympians to council and minutes spent shooting withering glances at Athena, Poseidon and their children he mutters:
"How did this happen?"
The answer comes from the girl tending to the fire in the centre of the room:
"We are what the mortals believe us to be. Your children believed in the stories of Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Clearly they believed in them as much as they do in you, brother."
"Well then," says Dionysus, stepping down from his throne and kneeling.
"We had best start this right and honour the little brats."
"Saviours of Olympus, Protectors of Demigods, Guardians of the Unclaimed. All hail Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase, Gods of Loyalty and Architecture."
Staying on Olympus, grand as it was, was not for them. With their titles and Camp Half-Blood absent a director after Mr D's century long punishment ran its course, there could only be one place for them. They appeared in camp with the dawn, quiet aside from lights in the windows of the Big House. Stepping across the porch, they could hear the sound of Chiron's voice echoing down the hall.
"We'll begin with a procession from their home in New Athens before carrying the shrouds to the - yes Alex?"
He had been addressing a group of older campers sat around the ping pong table. Alex, the newest Athena head counsellor who had raised his hand, simply pointed to the door where Percy and Annabeth were now standing. Chiron turned, his red ringed eyes widening in shock before his face settles into a smile.
"Di immortales" he murmurs "welcome home."
At Chiron's insistence, the funeral procession is quickly transformed into a celebration to mark their dual new camp directors. It begins with the burning of their shimmering blue and storm grey shrouds, progresses into a wild party and ends with the breaking of soil. Annabeth had long since finished her design work for the dozens of cabins that fill the valley, but now there is need for one more. Percy and Annabeth protest, they have no intention of having any demigod children of their own but Chiron insists.
"It's tradition"
And so the cabin is built, a perfect fusion of cabins 3 and 6 (the designer was a goddess, after all.) Time passes and they settle into their role ensuring the camp runs smoothly, and new demigods survive long enough to make it to camp. The Hunters of Artemis visit more often, as the lieutenant and her second no longer have to worry about the heartbreak of outliving another pair of friends. They are the ones who bring the demigod that changes it all. She is claimed by a minor goddess, one yet to receive a cabin at the camp. Almost by instinct, Percy directs her to their empty cabin. It serves as her home until one is built for her, and by that point two more campers have occupied the cabin, waiting for their thirteenth birthday. Soon the tradition of new demigods joining the Hermes campers is all but forgotten as fresh arrivals ensure that the cabin of the newest gods is never empty. Surely nowhere else is more fitting as the home of the unclaimed?
As the years pass Percy comes to understand: They may not be parents, but they have plenty of children.