Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The fates grumbled as they gathered the necessary threads.

It was very frustrating, they almost never lost bets but just this once they had. Now they had to actually follow through with their side.

That would tell them not to make bets with Okeanus again, stupid sea Gods being nearly as good as them at knowing what’s to come.

Now then… was there anything else they needed?

Kronos’ body: check.

Six-year-old son of Poseidon: check.

Twelve-year-old daughter of Zeus: check.

Assorted games: check.

That should cover everything…

Maybe Okeanus would forget about the bet before next Father’s Day, it would save them the effort of doing this again.

At least it would be fun to watch.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Kronos POV

The first thing I was aware of was weight.

I was strangely heavy, weighed down in a way I had not experienced in… thousands of years. I blinked slowly, stretching my arms-

I shot up.

Arms.

Legs.

A chest.

I-

I had a body again.

…

How?

The last thing I remembered was pain. I had been in the darkness and fire of Tartarus, my essence scattered as I slowly pulled myself together, and now-

I was whole once more.

I let out a slow breath, savoring the feel of air leaving me. I didn’t need to breathe but being able to after so long-

I grinned.

I slowly stretched out my power, feeling the way time flowed, the date in my mind and the heat of summer skimming over me.

The sense of a rainstorm, of the crashing waves-

Wait.

That wasn’t my power, that was-

My gaze swept around the room.

There, on the couch to the left of me, were two children.

What?

Why were there children here?

They were small, as children tended to be, though one was smaller than the other.

Both had black hair and tanned skin, though one was a boy and the other a girl.

I frowned, studying them critically, why were they here?

On that note, why was I here?

Where was here?

The girl, the elder of the two, stretched in her sleep, rolling over.

And promptly fell off the couch.

“Ow,” She groaned from the floor.

Her gaze swept around, landing on me with a confused scowl.

The younger boy shot up, woken by her fall, and flailed. He blinked in confusion when he saw the girl.

“Um… hi?”

Lovely, they had no idea what was going on either.

“Who are you? Where are we? Where’s Luke and Annabeth?”

The girl was looking between me and the boy, her eyes narrowed and her body tense. She clenched her fists.

“Answer me,” she snapped, her gaze locked on me. “Are you a God? Why did you take us?”

The boy shrunk back. “A God?”

Her gaze landed back on the boy. “I’m not mad at you,” she assured. “Just worried.”

She smiled gently at him as he nodded, biting his lip, then her gaze turned back to me.

“Well?” she asked sharply.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Where are we?”

“I haven’t the slightest clue,” I said. “But it does appear that we’re trapped.”

She blinked, then her gaze swept around. She quickly realized what I had, there were no doors. The walls were smooth, with a painted scene of a field of flowers.

“Well- who are you then?” She asked. “And why are we here.”

“I am Kronos, the Titan King, God of Time and Agriculture.”

She froze, her face paling rapidly. Her fingers closed around a canister as she watched me with wide eyes.

“You’re- you’re-“

“Um… what’s a Titan?”

My gaze switched to the young boy.

“And who are you?” he added, eyes on the girl.

“A Titan,” I started, “is an Immortal being, or force, that rules over an aspect of the world. In my case I rule Time and Agriculture, which comes from time.”

“Agriculture?”

“To put it simply… plants that you eat.”

“Oh…” he frowned. “What’s an immortal?”

My lips twitched, “A being that cannot die.”

“Why can’t you die?”

“I was born that way.”

“So, you’re born but can’t die?”

“Yes.”

The girls eyes flicked between us as we spoke, her eyes warry.

The boy furrowed his brow.

“Am I immortal?”

“No,” I laughed. “You seem very much mortal.”

“But how do you know! I haven’t died yet! I could be immortal!”

“A fair point,” I conceded with a grin. “But if one of your parents are mortal than you would be.”

He frowned again, “But I don’t know where my dad is. And my mom hasn’t died either.”

“What the hell?” the girl muttered.

“What’s your name, little one?” I asked the boy.

“I’m Percy! Percy Jackson,” he declared. “Who are you?”

I raised an eyebrow, but dutifully repeated myself.

“I am Kronos, the Titan King and God of Time and Agriculture.”

He opened his mouth.

“What’s a Titan?”

I stared for a long moment as the girl burst into laughter.

“Nevermind,” I said.

“Okay!” He chirped. He turned to the girl once more, “So who are you?”

“I’m Thalia, daughter of Zeus,” the girl said with a smirk.

“Oh. Well um… I’m Percy, uh, son of Mom!”

“No, no, you’d be son of your mom’s name, so you’d say you’re Percy, son of whatever your moms name is.”

He blinked, “But her name is mom?”

I shook my head, “That is a title.”

“My mom’s not a book!”

“A title is more than just a for books, it’s also…” How to put this for a child to understand? “It’s a second name that tells you someone’s job. So, your mom is your mom, just as my mother is. But that’s not her name. Everyone has a mom… well, most people.”

The girl, Thalia, nodded, “Yeah.”

“Oh… um… Well, Smelly Gabe calls her Hag? Is that her name?”

“No!” Thalia snapped, “That’s horrible, that’s definitely not her name.”

I scowled, “That’s most certainly not your mother’s name. You should never call anyone that.”

“Who is he?” Thalia snapped. “He shouldn’t be calling your mom that.”

“Um, he married mom? He’s mean, I don’t like him.”

“He’s your step-dad!? I’ll fight him, where do you live?”

“How disrespectful,” I muttered. “He shouldn’t treat his wife in such a manner.”

Thalia spun to me, “You ate your kids! You don’t get to talk!”

I waved my hand dismissively, “They got better.”

I did wonder why his mother would marry such a rude man. Did he have money? Was there some benefit? Why would Percy’s father not be present? He should be the one to-

I studied the boy with a frown. He had very bright sea green eyes.

Familiar sea green eyes.

Thalia waved her hand, “Hang on-“

She was the daughter of Zeus…

Percy looked like a tiny Poseidon…

Ah…

An envelope suddenly hit me in the face.

I scowled, snatching it up, “What in the name of Khaos-“

Kronos

was written neatly on the front.

I considered it for just a moment before opening it.

Kronos,

Despite your many crimes, we have decided to offer you mercy. In honor of the holiday known as Father’s Day you will be granted a body. You will not be able to leave the room we put you in, as it is intended for this event, while holding this body.

Father’s Day is a day to spend with your children and grandchildren. As your children and you… do not get along, we have decided to allow you to spend time with your two current mortal grandchildren.

You may not harm them in this time, nor them you. The body you have now will not last after Father’s Day. Depending on how this year goes, you may be granted this kindness once more next year.

Do not announce Perseus’ heritage, the proper path of his fate requires him to learn on his own.

Try not to mess up the prophecies

With Love,

The Fates

I blinked.

“What’s that?” Percy asked.

I reread the letter once more.

“Are you gonna tell us what it says?” Thalia snapped.

“Apparently, we’ll be spending Father’s Day together today.”

She blinked, “It’s Father’s Day?”

“Apparently.”

“Oh… but you’re not my dad?” Percy asked with a frown. “So why am I here?”

“You’re not my dad either,” Thalia added.

“Yes, but I am your grandfather.”

“But not Percy’s!”

Percy nodded.

“Don’t be silly,” I chided. “His father is Poseidon, one of my traitorous children.”

Thalia’s eyes widened while Percy frowned, thinking hard.

“Wait- why are you calling them traitorous?” Thalia asked baffled. “You ate them!”

“Details,” I said airily.

“What’s traitorous?”

“Someone who left someone they were close to. My kids abandoned me after everything I did-“

“You ate them!”

“Is that all you have to say? Anyways, they left me and then attacked me and hurt me very badly. It was cruel and unnecessary.”

“What’s-“

“Don’t listen to him Percy, he’s a bad guy.”

“I just told him who his dad is.” I pointed out helpfully.

“Details,” she hissed.

“So… who’s Po-see-dun?” Percy asked.

“One of my children, the God of the Sea and Storm, and Earthshaker. He also made horses, supposedly, which is odd seeing how my other son Khiron is half-horse because I turned into one briefly, but horses didn’t exist yet when he was born.”

Percy stared in confusion, “What?”

Thalia huffed, “Your dad is Po-sei-don, God of the Seas and he can make Storms and make the Earth shake and He… maybe invented horses.” She shot me a glare at that.

I shrugged, “I was just pointing it out. It’s likely he based horses off of me. I am quite creative.”

“The point is,” Thalia said, deciding to ignore me. “We’re cousins.”

Percy frowned, “I don’t have any cousins.”

“You do now,” she said. “You have me. That means I’m like your older sister.”

“It does?”

She nodded firmly.

He perked up, “I’ve never had a sister before! What do we do?”

“Uh… I don’t know. I haven’t seen my little brother in a few years…”

“Oh… so what do we do here?”

“Apparently we celebrate Father’s Day… I am unsure how that is done.”

“But you’re not our Dad?” Percy wondered.

“No, but I’m your Grandfather.”

“Oh! So, we call you Grandfather?”

“I’m not calling you Grandfather.” Thalia muttered.

“Yes, you can call me Grandfather.”

“Okay, Grandfather.”

“I’ll tell you where you can shove yourself.”

“I’ve never celebrated Father’s Day before,” Percy said with a frown.

“Me neither,” Thalia said reluctantly. “What do we do for the next… however many hours?”

“Eighteen hours, fourteen minutes, and thirty-seven seconds,” I said helpfully.

She stared.

“Wow!” Percy said wide-eyed. “How do you know that?”

“I am the Titan of Time, telling time is as easy as breathing for me.”

“Ooh.”

Thalia groaned, “So we’re stuck here for like, eighteen hours?”

“Yes.”

She dropped back on the couch.

“Then what are we going to do?”

We sat quietly for a few minutes.

“We could play go fish?” Percy offered.

“What’s go fish?” I asked.

“It’s a card game!” he said excitedly bouncing, “Ya have to get four of the same cards and ya ask each other if they have your cards and if they don’t they say go fish and ya take a card from tha center and then the next person goes!”

I blinked, right, sounds reasonable.

“Do we even have cards?” Thalia asked.

We sat quietly for a moment, gazes sweeping around the room.

“Well, maybe one of the cabinets?”

Five minutes later we’d discovered the cabinets had quite a few things, including cards... and other games.

Mortals had changed a lot, “What’s monopoly?”

“I dunno,” Percy said, peeking around my arm.

“Oh, we’re playing that next.”

We both looked at Thalia, who has an evil grin on her face.

Oh dear.

We played go fish first though.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Okay so my grandson was definitely cheating.

There was no way he can win that many times in a row.

Especially when both Thalia and I were blatantly cheating at this point.

We gave up twelve rounds in. This was ridiculous, and Thalia looked ready to fight him.

“How!?”

He blinked innocently, “How what?”

“How are you so good at this!?”

He shrugged, “I dunno.”

She groaned.

We moved on to monopoly.

OO OO OO OO OO

Thalia’s cackling made me wary, but it didn’t seem like that complicated of a game.

Thalia was not cackling twenty minutes later when Percy somehow owned half the board, Thalia and I splitting the rest between us.

My grandson has ungodly luck.

And that was saying something because I was a Titan God.

It only took another ten minutes for my six-year-old grandson to drive us both to bankruptcy.

“How much longer are we going to be here?” Thalia asked, sulking.

“We’ve only been here for two hours, twelve minutes and five seconds now. We still have sixteen hours, two minutes, and thirty-two seconds left.”

Thalia groaned and dropped back on the couch.

“We could color?” Percy offered.

We both stared at him. Why would we color?

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Percy was very good at drawing blue fish.

Only blue fish.

He had pages filled with them. And my hand had several drawn on them because he wanted to add color.

Thalia was insisting I was making animals up with my artwork. Brat. They were extinct, not fake.

Besides, my art was much better than her knife drawings.

I rolled my eyes when she tried to make a paper airplane.

“You’re not doing that right.”

“Paper airplanes didn’t even exist when you were last out,” she grumbled.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to make them,” I said loftily. “Here, let me show you.”

I showed her how to fold the paper to make a better paper airplane and Percy leaned over.

“Wow, could you make one of her knives out of paper?”

I plucked up another piece of paper and began to demonstrate making a knife.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

“And as the queen of the couch-“

“What am I?”

“You’re the jester of the couch.”

“He’s the prince of the better couch,” I corrected. “I am the king of it. We shall be taking over your couch.”

“Is a prince better than a jester?”

“Yes.”

“But you’d be my jester, and I’m your cousin.”

“I’m your grandfather.”

“Uhhhh… can I be the jester prince of the chair?”

We both paused.

“I guess,” she said grudgingly.

He beamed, climbing to stand on the chair with his paper sword.

“I am the jester prince of the green chair!”

I snorted, this wasn’t too bad.”

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

“You’ve never made pancakes before?” Percy asked in horror.

“No?” I frowned. “I have made cakes though. Honey cakes are quite good.”

Thalia frowned, “What’s honey cake.”

I stared at her in disbelief, “What are mortals making these days??”

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

The Fates didn’t want the kitchen to stay clean… did they?

I was sure it fine. If they wanted it to be clean they wouldn’t have provided it.

Percy was covered in flour though. I should probably fix that.

Thalia shoved chocolate chips into her mouth, “We should make cake!”

I rolled my eyes, “We are.”

“Not honey cake, chocolate cake!”

Percy gasped, his eyes wide, “Chocolate cake?”

“Chocolate cake.”

Their eyes turned to me pleadingly.

Why did they inherit Rhea’s pleading eyes?

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I frowned at the chocolate cake, “I’m not sure we made this right… why is it purple?”

“I added blue food dye!”

“I added green food dye!”

“That does not equal purple?” I said, baffled.

“Let’s taste it,” Percy declared.

He reached out, but I caught his hand.

“I’ll cut a slice,” I chided.

Five minutes later Thalia and he had declared it delicious and were happily eating it.

I made them sandwiches to make sure they had something decently healthy.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

“Wow! You can summon lightning?”

“It’s not that hard,” I said.

Thalia glared, “Yeah I can summon lightning. Can you control water?”

“I’ve never tried.”

“You should,” I said. “Water should come easily to you.”

“Is that why the fish at the aquarium follow me around?”

“Most likely.”

“Cool,” he whispered.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

“Hey, Grandad?” Thalia said.

“Hmm?”

“Why do you think the Fates dropped us here?”

I hummed, relaxing on the couch. Percy was asleep, laying on my leg.

“Who knows why the Fates do anything. They are nearly all knowing. Perhaps they decided they needed to interfere in our lives here.”

She frowned, “Maybe…”

She studied me critically.

“You’re not nearly as horrible as I thought an evil guy that ate his kids would be.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Thank you?”

“Why did you eat your kids?”

“Because…” I paused. “Well… it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

She blinked slowly, “You’re dumb.”

“That’s not very nice to say on Father’s Day.”

“Well it’s true.”

I rolled my eyes. “You couldn’t begin to imagine the stress of a prophecy, pray you never have to.”

She made a face, “If I was part of a prophecy I would simply quit, thanks.”

OO OO OO OO OO OO

We were nibbling on cookies (blue of course) when a tingle went through me.

I frowned, what was-

The world went dark.

Chapter Text

The Fates grumbled once more as they set up the special room for Father’s Day. 

It turned out that not only had Okeanos not forgotten about the bet, but he’d spread rumors of it to other sea Gods so now they had multiple Gods on their back about the bet. Rude!

Not to mention they had to make two bodies now. One for Kronos like last time and one for Thalia since she got turned into a tree. 

They couldn’t just remove the tree for the day, though that would be funny. 

As such, two bodies had to be made, which really was quite annoying.

But, the bodies were made, the games set up, the kitchen fully stocked, and a comfortable space for the day arranged.

Really the biggest annoyance of all of this was the need to rewinds the threads of Fate. Kronos just couldn’t keep his mouth shut about Perseus’ heritage, could he?

Ugh, so much work to do.

OO OO OO OO

Kronos POV

I opened my eyes, blinking at the ceiling.

I had eyes again.

I slowly lifted my arms, stretching them out and feeling the comfortable stretch of muscles I hadn’t had in a year.

A slow smile curled over my lips.

I’d regained my body once more, like the year prior.

The Fates had said if it went well they might do this again, apparently it had gone well.

I swung my legs off the couch, peering around the room. Things looked much the same as they had the year prior.

Several couches, my grandchildren each claiming one, and a chair sat around a table. There were cabinets, likely filled with games if last year was to go by, and a kitchen that the children would undoubtedly turn into a mess again.

The children in question were both tucked under blankets, their black hair messy from sleep and their breathing soft.

I hummed, this was really working out well for me all things considered. I had time to spend with my grandchildren, maybe even getting them on my side before the war that I knew was starting to stir. And I got a day out of excruciating pain and suffering!

Now then, how much had my grandkids grown up? Mortals aging was always so strange to me.

Percy looked several inches taller based on the form beneath the blanket. Thalia- she didn’t look much taller. How were mortals supposed to age again? I was pretty sure they aged quicker the younger they were.

I needed a book on the aging process of mortal children.

Unfortunately, the Fates did not provide.

A yawn drew my attention from checking the cabinets for books (there were a variety of children’s books but nothing on how children aged).

I glanced back at the couches (twenty seven minutes and thirty three seconds after I woke) and found Thalia slowly pushing up.

There was a beat of silence as she stared at her hands.

And then she screamed.

I jolted up, getting a step closer as Percy rolled off his couch with a shout of surprise. Thalia was clutching the blanket, eyes wide and panicked.

“What- where- huh- Percy?” her eyes landed on Percy at last, who was pushing himself up.

“Thalia?”

Thalia turned around, her eyes landing on me.

“Kronos?”

“Good morning,” I said lightly, pretending screaming was the normal way to wake up. “I suppose it’s Father’s Day again.”

“It is,” Percy said. “My school was hosting an event for it.”

“Oh,” Thalia said. “Then- that’s how I’m here- I’m- I’m alive-“

She stared back down at her hands wide eyed.

“Hmm,” I considered her. “Yes, you are quite alive.”

“But I died! Or well- I thought I did- I made my last stand and- all I remember after being attacked is… warmth, and cold, and warmth again- Whispers?”

“That doesn’t sound like the Underworld,” I noted. “But a lot has changed since I ruled so perhaps that did too?”

Percy walked over to Thalia and took her hand, brow furrowed as he put his fingers on her wrist. It took several minutes before he seemed satisfied.

“Tell me when it’s been a minute,” he said grandly to me.

I quirked an eyebrow but kept track.

There was a long minute of silence while Thalia and I stared at my grandson. His eyebrows were furrowed and his lips pressed tight. He was staring at her wrist as if it held the secrets of the universe.

“It’s been a minute,” I said finally.

“You have a pulse,” he announced. “That means you’re alive.”

“Oh, what’s my pulse?”

“Thirty-two!”

“I’m sorry for your impending death,” I said dryly to Thalia, who snorted.

“She’s not dying!”

“If her heartrate is thirty-two she is, far too slow.”

Thalia giggled, “Okay, okay. So I’m alive. You don’t think they’d bring me if I were dead?”

“Maybe you were sleeping,” Percy suggested. “Like in one of Gabe’s soap operas. One of the ladies hit her head and slept a whole five years.”

“A coma,” I informed him.

“Yeah, a comma.”

“Coma.”

“That’s what I said!”

Thalia shook her head, “A coma is possible I guess, and the Fates would just have to wake me up…”

“Don’t worry!” Percy cried, hugging her tight. “We’re cousins, remember? That’s like siblings! So I’ll find you and wake you up. Like in the soap operas.”

“Do they use true love’s kiss?” I wondered, lightly teasing.

“Oh no, I have to find a prince?”

Thalia laughed and I grinned, “Well, as you’re my grandson technically you’re a prince.”

“Oh, then I can just kiss her and that’ll fix everything.”

Percy nodded seriously while Thalia continued to giggle.

“Okay,” Thalia said. “When we see each other in person I’m expecting a kiss on the cheek, got it?”

Percy grinned, “Yep! I’ll wake you up and then give you a big hug.”

“What an easy solution,” I drawled, watching in amusement as my grandkids turned their eyes on me.

“And you’ll help, right?”

Percy had the most adorable baby seal eyes pulled out, his green eyes melting into pools of sadness and pleading.

Thalia somehow managed to nearly match him in pitiful pleading, considering she was also grinning evilly this was quite impressive.

“Ah- well if I’m around then. In case you’ve forgotten I don’t have a body at all.”

My grandkids pouted.

“Surely there are other things to discuss,” I pointed out. “Like your year, Percy. We know Thalia had a grand last stand and fell into a coma but what about you?”

“Well, mine isn’t as interesting I guess. I did get expelled again though.”

“Expelled?” I asked.

“Again?” Thalia demanded.

And thus, my grandson began regaling us with a fascinating tale of some civil war museum the class had gone to (regarding the “American civil war” (I then had them explain what “America” was because it sounded rather like a strange dessert)).

This museum was very proud of its cannon collection and had gone to great pains to show them off.

Now, none of this would’ve been relevant if not for the fact that the class had gotten to look up close and personal at one of the cannons. It had apparently once been on a steamboat or something similar.

I was fairly certain some of this information wasn’t entirely right, but it was a seven-year-old telling the story so I didn’t think he was doing a terrible job.

Now, this steamboat cannon couldn’t fire anymore, as in it had something wrong with it. But! It was an early design and very rare and valuable due to this.

Naturally, Percy had been very excited to look closer at it. Ever since he’d learned he was Poseidon’s kid he “loved loved loved! Looking at water stuff!”. As such Percy had poked and prodded the cannon and even when they’d been told to move along had lingered.

He wanted to see the canon work, he’d explained, even though it wasn’t supposed to work anymore. But really, couldn’t he just poke it a little bit more?

And then- whoops, his stomach had felt bad for a second and the cannon had gone off. The cannonball arcing up and up and up and- doooooowwwwwwwwnnnnnnn into the school bus.

Thalia gaped at him for a long moment. “Do you think I could make plane guns work?”

I had the most amusing grandchildren for sure.

“How did that get you expelled?” I asked, rather than focusing on his ability to make ship based artillery work. “You said it wasn’t supposed to work.”

Percy shrugged, “The school blamed me, but the workers there were split between being really excited and asking me how I did that and crying and asking me how I did that.”

That was amazing.

“Anything else happen?” Thalia asked. “Monsters? Parties? Gabe’s death?”

Percy shook his head, “No, but mom did make me a blue birthday cake.”

“Very nice,” she said with a grin. “Blue rocks.”

“Yeah!”

I chuckled, “Well, we have a whole day to kill once more. If story time is over shall we start with cards?”

“But you didn’t tell us about your year,” Percy said, eyes wide.

“I suffered, floated around as a disembodied spirit, and then showed up here,” I said simply. “Cards?”

I’d seen an interesting looking card game called Cards Against Humanity when looking for a book, that seemed fun.

OO OO OO OO

Barely a minute into the game Percy was squinting at one of his cards, “what does fuck mean?”

Thalia grinned, “it’s-“

“Let’s play a different game,” I said quickly. I doubted my grandson’s mom would appreciate him learning that kind of language.

Thalia pouted but dutifully dug through the cabinets, “What about clue?”

“What’s that?” Percy asked, poking his head over her shoulder.

“It’s a mystery game!”

The kids set it up and we all claimed seats once more.

This looked like a very enjoyable game to play indeed.

OO OO OO OO

“You’re cheating!” Thalia cried, glaring at me.

“I am not!”

“You’ve won three of the eight rounds!”

“And Percy has won five of the eight, I don’t see how I’m the cheater!”

“He’s great at games,” Thalia snapped, throwing her hand in his vague direction. “He always wins these things. But you! You only beat him cause you cheated!”

“I’m fairly certain you made a deal with him on those rounds to let you win, it’s hardly my fault you failed to take advantage of the openings he gave you.”

Thalia’s eyes narrowed, “I’ll kick your ass.”

“Try it.”

OO OO OO OO

Two rounds of thumb wrestling (with excessive cheating from Thalia and Percy) later and she admitted defeat. I was just stronger.

“Ugh, I’m bored of these games. Let’s do something else. Like baking!”

Percy gasped, “Mom started teaching me to cook! I’ll cook lunch!”

“I can help!” Thalia insisted.

As I had never cooked in my entire existence, I had no real idea what to do beyond following the recipe as I had when baking the previous year.

I shrugged, how hard could it be?”

OO OO OO OO

“Okay so if you face a hellhound you’ll need to climb someplace high. They’re not good at climbing usually, and since you can’t kill one you need to get out of reach. A tall tree is best.

“Is that supposed to be smoking?” I asked, studying the oven.

Thalia opened it and peered inside.

“Not done yet.” She closed it once more. “So anyways, if you’re facing a one of a kind monster you’d be best served reading the myths ahead of time. There’s lots of tips about those monsters written down. I recommend the big popular ones first, but a lot of the uh- what’s the right term for a big group of monsters…”

“Mob?” Percy asked, shoving icing in his mouth. “That’s what the kids at school call them.”

“Sure, why not, so the mob monsters are usually less common ones. Like hellhounds. Those aren’t even in the Greek myths, not sure why they target us…”

“Mix of beliefs and blood,” I explained. “They probably got with the odd Greek monster, leading to the new beast that you have to face.”

“Ugh, how annoying,” Thalia grumbled. “Why can’t they just stick with the classics?”

“Love,” I offered. “Or perhaps just-“ I glanced at Percy who was looking at me with wide curious eyes “-uh… biological imperative.”

“Biological what-“

“Anyways,” I said, “How’s the food coming?”

OO OO OO OO

The food Percy made turned out decent, especially considering he’d only made it by helping his mom before. The child was a fairly good cook.

The sides Thalia made… were a touch burnt.

Just a little bit.

A smidgen.

They only cracked from the blackened skin a tiny amount.

She seemed to enjoy them horrifically burnt though, so that was nice.

The cakes and other treats were wonderful, if once more oddly colored.

“How did you make it hot pink?”

“I put in red!”

“I put in purple!”

“That doesn’t make hot pink!”

Nonetheless, it was tasty.

The food and treats were brought back to the table and I started going through the cabinets once more to find a better game for us to play. We still had several hours to kill after all.

Hmm, this one was based on the myths, that seemed interesting.

OO OO OO OO

“Mythomagic,” Percy read off the collection of boxes. “How do you play?”

I examined the rule book.

“It looks like we build a deck first,” I motioned to the boxes that probably had the decks. “We need… God Cards, Monster Cards, and Artifact Cards for our deck.”

“What’s this card?” Thalia wondered.

She held up a card with a gold star in the corner.

“The Gold stars are God Cards, the red stars are Monster Cards, and the blue stars are Artifact Cards.”

“What about the black stars?” Percy asked.

I flipped through the directions, “Those are- ah, sacrifice cards, they can strengthen your God card temporarily but sometimes have consequences.”

“What’s the silver star?”

I glanced at the card then back at the directions, “Hero cards, they’re the weakest of the cards it looks like, you need to boost your Hero card with the corresponding God card or an artifact card for it to really hurt anything. And they don’t look like they can do much damage to a God card usually, just to the monster Cards.”

“Can you boost a God card?” Percy wondered.

“Yeah, you can use-“ I flipped to the God cards section of the rules, “Sacrifices, Hero Cards, or Artifact Cards.”

“Let’s see- it takes two to five turns to summon a God card, depending on the card, but you can use sacrifice cards to cut that time down. Artifact cards vary in time they take effect, some immediately- or only immediately with certain heroes or Gods, and some take several turns. Hero cards and monster cards can be summoned immediately and have different purposes…”

This game was actually quite interesting, it would be fun to play.

“Okay, so let’s build our decks and see how we do.”

OO OO OO OO

Percy had built a sea based deck, with several sea monsters and of course Poseidon as his main God card.

The Poseidon God card took five turns to fully summon, and the Triton God card (the other God card of Percy’s we’d seen so far) took three turns. He’d started with Triton, along with two sea serpents (they took two turns to summon but had already reached that requirement by now) and Bellerophon.

Bellerophon wasn’t a terribly powerful Hero card on its own, but if Percy drew a Pegasus card it would be hard to hit as that tripled its defense and if he managed to snag the staff of molten lead artifact then his attack would quadruple.

I had Ouranos being summoned in one more turn, with the Stymphalin birds monster card defending my turn. They had to be killed five times to be removed from the field (or in one turn if attacked by an enemy with one of the noise making artifact cards equipped).

Thalia was holding her line with a Fury card and the Perseus hero card, along with an equipped Helm of Darkness that made Perseus’ targets have half defense. Her God card looked like Gaia, an interesting deck that wasn’t as themed as my own or Percy’s.

The game was fun though.

OO OO OO OO

“Ha! Now face Gaia as I equip the artifact card Earth’s Blessing!”

Percy grinned as he waited for her turn to end and she paused to squint at him.

“I don’t like that smile.”

I let out a dramatic sigh, “You’ll just have to wait then, are you done?”

“Yes, I end my turn. Next round you’re both doomed, Gaia with Earth’s Blessing crushes your Gods!”

“Yes, yes, well, I use the sacrifice of Iphigenia, allowing the both of you to summon two heroes each, and attack Gaia with Ouranos boosted by his Master Bolt card.”

“What! But that took two more turns to get- Iphigenia gives two turns??”

“Three actually, but it’s oh so satisfying to crush your Gaia.”

She growled, glaring as she took the defeated cards off the field and flipped through her deck for two hero cards to put against me.

“That’s the end of my turn,” I added smugly.

“Okay, so I equip Triton with his Conch Shell and Poseidon with his trident-“

“What!?” Thalia and I demanded.

“And I attack Ouranos with Poseidon and his mighty trident-“

Which gave Poseidon double attack- on top of the double attack from the chariot that Percy had long since equipped-

“And destroy him. And then I use Triton with his conch shell and Hippocampi to destroy the last of your life points.”

I gaped.

He just demolished me.

OO OO OO OO

Thalia sulked as she read a book out loud to the both of us. It hadn’t taken Percy much longer to finish her cards off after demolishing mine. I’d destroyed her strongest God card which left her with little able to block the forces Percy brought forth.

I hid a grin as she continued to read the book aloud, some mystery novel based in Ancient Greece. Percy seemed hooked as they read about the main character whose name I hadn’t caught trying to figure out who stole the peplos from the Athenian Palladium.

It was a fun little story, with many different ancient Greek references. It would be a good series for Percy to get into to prepare himself for the future.

Easier to read than the myths at least.

OO OO OO OO

We had only a few minutes left at this point.

I swept Percy up, motioning Thalia over.

“We don’t know for sure if we’ll meet again next year,” I started, settling my grandson in my lap. “But if we do, I expect presents.”

Thalia stuck her tongue out, “No way.”

“How rude. Here I am spending time with you-“

“The Fates are making you-“

“And I don’t even get a father’s day present.”

Percy wiggled and peered up at me, “Isn’t our presence a gift?”

… he took after Rhea.

Thalia laughed, “Yeah, our presence is a gift. Besides, you haven’t given us birthday presents.”

Hmm, true.

“Nonetheless, do try to avoid dying in the next year. I’m uncertain if the Fates will supply bodies for the dead as they have for me.”

“No dying,” Percy confirmed. “And I’ll find you, Thalia! I’ll give you a kiss to wake you up and then we’ll have a big hug and then find Grandpa and make him get us birthday presents.”

Thalia grinned as I rolled my eyes, “Sounds like a plan. Stay out of trouble though… and bring us some cool stories next year, kay?”

He nodded, launching over to hug her tight, “You too!”

I smiled. This wasn’t bad, I could enjoy this time with my grandkids. I could especially enjoy the break from the pain that this day offered.

Perhaps next year I could even try to coax my grandkids to siding with me. Even if it was due to the Fates, I was still here for them even when their parents weren’t.

The world darkened and I sighed.

It was time to return to the darkness and pain once more.

The world went dark.

Chapter Text

The Fates grumbled once more as they built the two bodies, maybe they could just store them someplace? That would surely be easier than rebuilding them every year. Bodies took a lot of work to make!

But once more they had to make them so that they could uphold their end of the bet.

Okeanos was gleefully ensuring they did so, apparently delighted to inconvenience them. They would need to keep an eye on him to find something to inconvenience him with.

Fair was fair.

OO OO OO OO

I woke all at once, eyes opening as they had twice before in recent memory. I smiled before even sitting up, stretching my hands out and letting out a pleased sigh.

I’d missed having working limbs. How lovely.

The torment of having no body was almost worse these days, having experienced a body so recently and been freed of the pain. I wondered if the Fates were actually trying to make my punishment worse.

I let my gaze sweep over the room, finding it to be the same as the previous years, right down to the children curled up on the couch.

Thalia had grown a little, supporting the coma theory over death.

Percy had grown as well, starting to sprout like a weed. His hair was a little longer than the prior visit too, I thought, perhaps he needed a trim?

I hummed softly and decided to leave the children to their sleep as I explored the room once more. Not much had changed, though I noted the books in the room had adjusted. Some stayed the same, but others- particularly the younger books, had moved to slightly more advanced material. There were also some new fantasy books and sequels to old ones. There was also, pleasingly, a book on the growth process of mortal children.

I wandered to the kitchen once I was done with all that, bringing the book on mortal children with me as I tried to figure out how to make pancakes again.

OO OO OO OO

The children actually slept a little longer this year than the prior years and I was able to flip through the book he had pretty quickly. I had breakfast done as well (no one needed to know how many pancakes I'd burned in the process) and had managed to make some blue.

I wasn’t sure how some had turned green and purple and even hot pink too, I hadn’t added dyes of any of those colors but… well, I was sure they kids would find them fun.

“Thalia!” cheered Percy’s voice from the couches.

I could hear Thalia greeting the excited eight year old back as he moved over there with the plates and food.

“Hello, grandchildren.”

“Grandfather!” chirped Percy, turning bright green eyes on me. “We’re back!”

“Ooh,” Thalia said, “breakfast!”

“Indeed, made just for you,” I said dryly, putting the food down on the table.

“Aren’t we supposed to make you breakfast?” Percy wondered.

“I’m not making him breakfast,” Thalia countered. “Well, if he wants charcoal-”

I chuckled.

“Have you woken from your coma yet?” I asked the girl.

She made a face, “No, I remember much the same as before, warmth and then cold, and then warmth with whispers all through it.”

“Maybe the seasons?” Percy wondered, shoving a blue pancake in his mouth. “It was warm, then cold, and now it’s warm again.”

Thalia shrugged, eating pancakes as well.

I pointedly shoved the bowl of fruits towards them and ate some eggs.

“What about you, Percy? Anything exciting in your year?”

“I got expelled again,” he said, happily snatching up the fruit juice I'd had put on the table. “This time for dumping my class in a shark tank.”

Thalia cackled so hard she fell off the couch and I nearly choked on my food trying not to laugh.

“Oh?” I choked out, after sipping some of the juice.

“The sharks said to push the one lever and well… oops? But it was fun! I got to swim with the sharks and they gave great cuddles- I learned how to move the water too like you said to!”

“Oooh,” Thalia said. “What can you do?”

“I can make shapes! An- and when I’m underwater like at the pool I can move it like currents!”

“Very nice,” I said, putting some eggs onto the children’s plates. “You should practice making weapons with it, see if you can control them. Perhaps with a hilt?”

“YOU COULD MAKE A SWORD-” Thalia jumped to her feet. “You just need a sword hilt and you could make a water sword and have a sword- that would be so cool!”

“Or a whip, or a knife, or any number of weapons,” I said. “A spear would be harder-”

“That would be so cool, Percy try it and tell us next year okay?”

“Okay!” the child looked very excited as well at the idea. “Maybe you’ll be awake then!”

She offered him a smile, a rather fake one in my opinion, “Maybe!”

“In the meantime,” I said with a proper smile, “did anything else interesting happen?”

“Oh! I read the myths! Did you know they say your kids forgave you?”

I blinked, “Did they?”

“Yeah, they say you rule Elysium- the uh- Orfik?”

“Ophic,” Thalia said in recognition. “Annabeth would have a fit at that, she hates the Orphic mythos. Complains endlessly about how it shouldn’t count.”

I laughed, “Well, I recognize the term but it’s not one I’m informed on. Probably a different belief system.”

“Oh,” he pouted, slumping in his seat.

“But very good of you to study up,” I added, encouragingly.

The book said children needed positive reinforcement.

“It is?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Thalia said. “I didn’t study up nearly enough before I ran away and had to learn a lot on the run.”

His eyes widened, “I don’t wanna run away!”

“You don’t need to,” I soothed. “But it’s good to have this information just in case.”

“Yeah,” Thalia said. “Oh- and you should research stuff like plants and stuff that are safe to eat. Just in case.”

“First aid,” I suggested, remembering the words for medicine in the book. “In case you or another gets injured.”

“Definitely,” Thalia agreed.

“That’s a lot!” Percy said.

“Focus on first aid, I think,” I suggested. “You can pick a new thing to research each year.”

“First aid is a good start,” Thalia agreed.

“Okay!” Percy said. “I’ll get super good- maybe good enough to fix your coma if a kiss doesn’t!”

“A good plan,” I said. “I did start asking some questions to my siblings about fixing the coma, but no one is quite sure yet. We’re waiting for some monsters with updated information on you to arrive in Tartarus and reform so we can question them.”

Thalia perked up, “That would be helpful.”

“And in the meantime, we have today to play and make sure you, and I, know what’s going on in the world.”

She grinned, “Definitely. So, Percy, what’s been going on?”

OO OO OO OO

Getting news from a nine-year old certainly had interesting priorities.

For example, there was a new pair of cool shoes out that Percy desperately wanted but they couldn’t hope to afford so he was sad about it. But his mom DID get him a new backpack from Finding Nemo that was “super cool”. Additionally, a new movie called “Lord of the Rings” came out and he had a classmate named Zoya who was obsessed with it. It was “really hot” in Europe, apparently. And in New York. And of course, most importantly, the aquarium had some new fish.

In other less important news Percy “was pretty sure a war started or something”.

OO OO OO OO

On the bright side, Thalia and I held our own in mythomagic slightly better this time and only got crushed a little by Percy’s Herakles, Zeus, Lightning Bolt, Nemean Lion Armor, Aegis and Aquila combo attack.

I thought my Poseidon, Trident, Conch Shell, and Bellerophon combo should’ve done better though.

Thalia was complaining that she wanted the Zeus cards, he was her dad dang it.

Percy stuck out his tongue and said she should’ve done better with Demeter.

OO OO OO OO

I wondered if I could instruct a monster to get Percy some mythomagic cards as the child admitted he knew how to play from watching classmates but he’d never been able to get his own. He didn’t want his mom to feel like she had to get him them and getting decent cards could be expensive if you didn’t get lucky quick.

Thalia certainly did not suggest stealing to him, nor explain the best ways to steal, nor have him practice while they were there.

She would never encourage crime.

“Be gay, do crime,” she yelled, showing him how to screw up a camera with electricity.

“I can’t summon lightning though?”

“Your dad does storms too! Lightning for us both!”

I wondered if I was supposed to stop them from doing that.

I considered the matter carefully for a minute, then I noticed she was teaching lightning wrong so took over the explanation.

“Remember,” Thalia said later. “Only steal from big companies like Walmart. Don’t hit Target though, they’ve got insane security. But small businesses need every cent so unless you’re desperate leave them alone.”

The child nodded solemnly, “Right.”

OO OO OO OO

I mentioned the different books in the cabinets, which led to Thalia gleefully telling Percy about her favorite book series and the three sitting on the couch while I read aloud for them. It was a charming series about a teenaged criminal named Artemis Fowl stealing from fairies.

I suspected this would not help with the budding criminal masterminds goals but oh well, as long as they had fun.

Percy was enchanted by the thought of flying and I wondered if I could send a Pegasus there.

The child wouldn’t be allowed in the sky on any other condition after all.

I did end up teaching the children how to make origami (as it was apparently called) fairies and Pegasi.

OO OO OO OO

The origami dolls did lead to Percy and Thalia dragging me into a game of “dolls” where the “dolls” ended up going to war to save the poor fairy. It seemed rather violent for children, but I supposed their lives were a touch violent.

They were delighted when I used my power to move the dolls without hands and insisted I teach them, so I did end up explaining how controlling the wind worked.

Thalia got it quicker than Percy, but he got it too once we focused a little bit more on the moisture in the air.

I wondered how much the children could expand their abilities with me teaching them, already they were outdoing a number of demigods.

But, they got bored before I could decide to teach them to summon skeletons and so we moved to the kitchen to make food.

Oops, forgot to feed them lunch. They seemed fine so it was probably fine. I’d just make extra dinner.

I studied the pig meat critically, it was probably an adult pig. The Fates wouldn’t supply miasmic piglets.

Bacon was made, because Percy was very excited for it, along with some burgers which were delicious and I needed thirty of them immediately.

“Americans mastered the burger,” Thalia said solemnly.

I agreed, this was great. The children always had fascinating things to introduce to me.

“Cake time!” Percy cheered.

“Cake!” Thalia agreed gleefully.

We went to get the cake out of the fridge so we could start icing it except-

“Where’s the icing?” I asked, squinting at the sneaky children.

Both radiated innocence as if their mouths weren’t stained purple, green, and orange from the icing (I’d given up on the colors).

We made more icing.

OO OO OO OO

“We need like- six thousand pillows,” Thalia said.

“Ten thousand!” Percy challenged. “And music!”

“Movies too- Why didn’t the Fates give us a TV?”

“What’s a TV I wondered?”

The children seemed properly horrified at my question.

“We need a TV!”

“Star Wars movies!”

“And Barbie movies,” Thalia said. “And Disney movies and-”

“Pixar!”

“Yes, Pixar and Interstellar,-

“Swiss Family Robinsons and Land Before Time-”

“Clue!” Thalia cried.

“Jurassic Park and Dinotopia and We’re Back: A Dinosaurs Story!” Percy added.

“Troy and Gladiator and Spirited Away-:

“All of Studio Ghibli!”

“Yes! All of Studio Ghibli!”

“And Shrek and Atlantis the Lost Empire-”

“Alright,” I interrupted, blatantly amused. “Why don’t you write down a list and we’ll leave it for the Fates. I’m sure they’d appreciate the suggestions.”

I didn’t actually care if they did, but hopefully the kids got the TV for next year.

“Okay!” the children grabbed a piece of paper and started writing.

OO OO OO OO

At a certain point, as it started getting late, the children were laying on the couch, heads resting on my legs and blankets wrapped around them, listening to me tell stories of ancient times.

Not the boring historical kind, children never were terribly interested in those, but the fun silly ones. The ones about his family.

The time Hyperion lost his kids and freaked out until Theia came back, having taken them to see her sisters.

The time Rhea had lectured someone trying to flirt with me for three hours before banning them from the castle.

The time Atlas tried to help some humans out but accidentally started a war instead, then tried to stop the war and accidentally made them allies against a third nation and started a new war. Iapetus had been laughing so hard he’d almost been unable to sort things out.

Or the time Koios and Krios had teamed up to rearrange some constellations but lost some stars and had to hide it from Phoebe.

The children listened and giggled and oohed and awed.

They were stories mortals had long since lost, if they had ever had any of them. It was nice, fun even. I enjoyed sharing the stories of my family.

I avoided anything about my kids, though I did include my mother and aunts and uncles some too.

Such as the time Nyx was charmed by Selene and stole her until I’d gone to retrieve her. Hyperion had had such a fit.

When my vision went black this time, my body fading from my senses, I was still smiling.

Father’s day was a nice holiday.