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Percy couldn’t decide if tonight was going to be a gift or the worst decision he and Annabeth had ever made in their lives (which was really saying something, all things considered).
He really wanted to sit next to Annabeth, so he could take a hold of her hand and calm himself down during this seriously trying time, but all he could do instead was hold her gaze and hope she was reading the panic in his eyes. It seemed to work because she winced slightly, and he wanted to do something, but instead he caught Athena’s gaze and flinched. He immediately glanced down at his bowl of pasta, picking at it with his fork.
“So,” Percy’s mother began, “Frederick, how is that book coming along?”
At first, Percy’s silent instinct was to thank the gods for his mother’s instinct to make anyone feel welcome that it was possible to diffuse the insane amount of awkward tension that was in the room, but he immediately realized that two of the gods were currently sitting with him at a dinner table in a San Francisco restaurant, and he suddenly wished he could just jump off a cliff.
That seemed like more fun than this.
It was supposed to just be Sally, Paul, Frederick, Helen, Percy and Annabeth at dinner, a few days before Christmas. The Jackson-Blofis family had decided that for winter break this year, they’d come down a week early to visit Percy and Annabeth at New Rome, and Annabeth jumped at the chance to let her parents meet his parents. It would allow the two families to connect for Christmas, and it was quite funny for them to realize that over the seven and half years, Annabeth’s parents had never met Percy’s.
Percy had been completely on board with the plan, and one night in the New Rome college’s cafeteria, while giving offerings to the gods, he had jokingly said that it would’ve been a proper “meet-the-parents” dinner if Poseidon and Athena showed up as well. Annabeth, obviously, knew that it was a joke, and she agreed as well.
Who would’ve known that their godly parents weren’t in on the joke?
As the six of them were walking into the restaurant they made reservations at, the atmosphere light and cheerful thanks to the bright lights, Christmas decor, and the excitement of seeing their family after so long, they were suddenly joined by a man in a plain blue button down shirt with jeans and sea-green eyes that Percy was all too familiar with and a woman in a royal purple professional dress with stormy gray eyes that looked eerily like his girlfriend’s.
It was Percy who saw them first, looking up at the street outside the restaurant after texting Hazel back who was baby-sitting Estelle, Matt, and Bobby about Estelle’s bed time as the others were deep in conversation about one of his mom’s books.
He stopped in his steps; his heart stuttering in his chest. Percy’s brain stopped working for a moment, and he swore that he was hallucinating because there was no way, just none at all, that Poseidon and Athena were at a restaurant. Together .
It had to be a joke. Why else would they be there all of a sudden without any warning?
Sure enough, they were glaring at each other, but as soon as Poseidon noticed Percy’s gaze on him, he smiled. Athena simply turned the glare from his father to him, but it wasn’t as strong as the glare that she had given him a few years back at Olympus. In fact, Percy could’ve sworn that there was a bit of fondness in her eyes that made the entire situation that much weirder, but he took a small amount of solace in the fact that she still disliked him.
At least there was one normal thing about the entire situation.
Percy blinked at the gods standing in front of him, — once, then twice just to make sure that he wasn’t actually hallucinating — and he had been frozen long enough that his mom had noticed he wasn’t following. She turned to look at him, but her back was still to Poseidon and Athena, so she paid them no attention as she called out to her son.
“Percy?” she asked, breaking him out of his stupor.
Ignoring his mom, he ended up stuttering out, “Uh. Dad. Athena. Hi?”
At his words, he heard a commotion near the door, and he turned to look at Fredrick steadying Annabeth, an arm on her bicep as she clutched the door frame with her free hand.
Annabeth let out a gasp as she exclaimed, “Mom?!”
“You kids asked for us to be at your dinner, so here we are,” Poseidon explained, a small smile on his face, clearly happy at surprising Percy and Annabeth.
Percy was definitely surprised, but the jury was still out on the happy bit.
“You both wished for it, so I agreed to join you for the night,” Athena added, folding her hands in front of her. Her eyes wandered between Annabeth and Frederick for a moment before landing on her daughter.
“You did?” Frederick asked Annabeth before turning to look at Percy. Percy looked at Annabeth in a panic. He couldn’t remember asking them to come, and his brain worked overtime until the dinner from a few weeks ago came to mind, and he could tell the exact moment that Annabeth also remembered exactly what had gone down that night.
His brain scrambled to come up with something to say that wouldn’t offend his parents — godly or otherwise — but he was blanking. A quick glance at Annabeth’s panicked face as she came to stand next to him said the same thing, and Percy immediately blurted whatever came to mind.
“Yes, kind of? It was mostly a joke because we didn’t think you guys would show up, but you’re here! And that’s great! We should go in!”
Annabeth swatted him in the arm, glaring at him, and he just shrugged helplessly.
“You really have a special talent for ticking off gods,” Annabeth muttered, and he honestly couldn’t even pretend to deny it this time.
And yet, here they were, thirty minutes later into their dinner, and all he could feel were Athena’s occasional glares towards him.
He wanted to die.
Percy was sitting between Poseidon and Sally, with Paul next to Sally while across from him was Annabeth. She was stuck between Frederick and her mother with her step-mother sitting next to her father.
Safe to say, both of them were definitely struggling.
Thankfully, after about ten minutes of stifling awkward silence during which they had ordered their dinner and had begun eating, Sally had finally spoken up to start the conversation.
Percy tried to pay attention to the conversation so he had something to distract himself with the numerous ways the dinner could go wrong that his brain had come up with (monster attack, another godly attack, Athena attacks Poseidon, Poseidon attacks Athena—), but it wasn’t working out very well for him.
He was almost half-way through planning a route of escape and looking at the small aquarium in the back of the restaurant, trying to figure out if he could use the water from that to fight when Helen spoke up, jolting Percy out of his thoughts.
“Percy, how’s the swimming going at New Rome?” Helen asked.
“Oh, it’s going good. I never really learned the proper techniques, so there’s a bit of a learning curve, though. I’m not officially competing, but it’s just nice to be in the water.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw his father grin, and he couldn’t help but be proud that he was making his father happy.
“Good thing that everyone knows that he’s the son of a sea god,” Sally teased, “otherwise I would’ve said he was cheating.”
“Mom!”
“She’s not wrong, Perce,” Annabeth laughed.
“Says the girl who wanted to compete in the Trivia Bowl,” he responded, narrowing his eyes at his girlfriend.
“That’s not the same thing, and you know it.”
“Okay, okay,” Paul laughed. “We get it. Not everyone has godly powers,” he teased. Percy rolled his eyes, but he was smiling anyways as he ate some more of his pasta.
“How is Estelle?” Poseidon asked. Percy jumped slightly, not expecting him to ask about his baby sister. Or to speak up at all.
“She’s doing wonderfully,” Sally responded.
“She’s not here?” his father asked.
“No,” Percy responded. “She’s with Annabeth’s brother with Hazel.”
“Hades’ daughter?” Athena asked.
Annabeth clarified, “Pluto’s, but yes.”
“It would be nice to meet her,” Poseidon offered, and Sally was quick to promise that he could drop by whenever to meet Estelle, and Percy let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. Things seemed to be looking up despite the slight awkwardness still lingering, but he supposed there was nothing they could do about that when a bunch of mortals and demi-gods were sitting and having a normal dinner with gods.
His father continued speaking, “How is it going to college?”
“I never thought I’d say this, but it’s the most relaxing yet chaotic thing I’ve ever experienced,” Annabeth responded. Percy laughed, understanding exactly what she meant.
“I don’t know what they’ve done to change the college experience since I went, but it definitely wasn’t relaxing,” Paul responded.
“It’s relaxing in the sense that we don’t have to worry about monsters attacking us every two seconds, but we’re running around trying to study more often than not,” Annabeth explained, and Percy nodded along.
“So, are you two living together?” Athena asked, casually forking up some pasta.
He shared a glance with Annabeth before she responded, her hand coming up to play with the heart and owl necklace he had gifted her the previous Christmas.
“No. We both dorm with different roommates.” Athena nodded, clearly very happy with the answer, and Percy watched as her attention dropped down to the necklace that was in Annabeth’s fingers.
“Is that an owl on your necklace, Annabeth?”
“Huh?” Annabeth looked down. “Oh, yes. Percy gifted it to me for Christmas last year.”
“Is that so? It’s beautiful, Percy,” Athena complimented, and Percy tried his hardest not to flinch at her strong gaze. There wasn’t any maliciousness in that gaze, and he was surprised that she wasn’t seconds from striking him down.
“Thank you,” he responded. “Annabeth actually got me something similar.” He pulled out the ring necklace from underneath his button up shirt, letting it dangle in front of his chest for them to see.
“Are those waves?” Poseidon asked, a hint of awe in his voice. Annabeth shyly nodded. “Thank you for giving that to him, Annabeth.”
“Of course,” she breathed out, looking at Percy with wonder in her eyes. Percy smiled back, and the two of them shared a silent look of happiness.
Annabeth immediately took a hold of Percy’s arm and wrapped hers around his as they were walking out of the restaurant once they were done.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” she whispered to him. They stood a few steps back and away from their parents as they chatted.
“Me neither. I still think I’m dreaming.”
“I don’t think your brain could even come up with this, Percy.”
“Can you go one day without insulting me?”
“It would take a Christmas miracle.”
“Oh, so you mean something like what just happened here? Don’t think I’m letting the fact that it’s literally Christmas in three days go.”
“That doesn’t count.”
“How?! Athena and Poseidon made it through an hour without arguing!” Percy responded, looking at his girlfriend incredulously. Annabeth snorted as she still watched their parents.
“You sure about that?” she asked, pointing forward. He followed where her finger was pointing, only to find his father and her mother arguing about the chariot.
Again.