Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Percy and Poseidon had decided to set up a father-and-son day. It had been what Percy called, “a hot minute” (by which he means almost a month), since the two properly spent some time together.

It was Poseidon who had first thought up of the idea of this, Percy simply going along with it. He liked being around his father, so why not?

Percy ended up showing him a lot of the shops that were local in his area, along with the places that were a little farther along the street. They even stopped by Hudson’s river as well which caused both of them to cringe at how polluted it was. Poseidon gave the minor god two sand dollars to help out.

Percy explained a little bit about few things about the places they visited. Not history lessons, more like a, “don’t sit on that bench, there’s a higher chance you’ll get bird poop on you”, or, “the people in this neighbourhood will try to give you free food, don’t accept any of it” or “that stray cat over there is Tabby, she bites” kind of thing.

“You wanna go buy shit?” Percy asked as they walked down a busy street.

Poseidon looked confused for a moment. “…why would you want to buy excreta?”

“What? No! I mean like, go into the first store we see and buy whatever we want just ‘cause we can.”

Poseidon nodded in understanding. “There’s an ungodly amount of gold trapped in the sea we can use.”

Percy froze for a moment. “…you think you could convert that into like, paper money?”

Poseidon shrugged. “Probably.”

They ended up going into a store called *insert interesting store name* and looking at things for a while.

“Hey, Percy?” Poseidon asked.

“Yeah?”

“I’m going over to the fourth aisle, mind waiting here for a bit?”

Percy shrugged. “Yeah, I’m fine with it.”

And it was honestly fine at first. Percy was peacefully scrolling on twitter through his monster-free phone that Leo had somehow managed to make. That was, until someone walked up to him.

“Hello young boy.” She said in a sweet tone that made Percy’s ears hurt.

“Uh, hi?” He respond, putting his phone down to look at her.”

She looked around the aisle they were in, it was empty except for them. “You’ve been standing here for quite a while now, where are your parents?”

Percy shifted, uncomfortable. “My dads in the next aisle, but either way, I’m not a—“

“He left up you here all alone? That’s so irresponsible of him! In a public place too.”

“Not really. I’m just—“

Suddenly she reached out and grabbed Percy by the arm. “Come on, I’m taking you to the front desk. Your father can pick you up there.”

Percy, startled, quickly snatched his arm back. “Don’t touch me, please. And my dad will be back soon, I don’t need to go to the front desk.”

“Don’t be so ungrateful! I’m trying to help you!” She reached to grab his arm again and he smacked it away.

“I said don’t touch me. And I don’t need your help so just please-“

She let out a loud gasp. “I am trying to HELP you, why did you hit me? You’re an awful, awful child! Your parents must be ashamed in you!”

‘I already told you not to touch me, and my parents—“

“I mean, look at you! And you look like one of those people!”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean! Gay! You look gay!”

Percy froze. “I— what? How is that a bad thing?”

“That’s it! I’m done with you, you little—“

Poseidon speed-walked into the aisle. “What is going on here?”

Percy perked up and ran towards him. “DAD! Oh thank the gods your back, please help me.”

“From what?”

The lady stomped towards them, clearly fuming. “Is that your son?”

Poseidon turned to her. “Yes, and if you don’t mind, we’ll be leaving now—“

“Not so fast!” She yelled. “How do I know you’re the real father? For all I know, your lying to me!”

Poseidon narrowed his eyes at her. “I assure you I’m not.”

She ignored him, turning to Percy. “Are you sure this is your father? You can tell me, you know.”

Percy, clearly overwhelmed, went to hide behind Poseidon. Poseidon glared at her. “I am standing right here. You’ve clearly made my child uncomfortable, so we are leaving now.”

Just as he turned, the lady grabbed him. “I will not let you kidnap that poor boy! You evil man!”

She pulled her arm out to hit him, but he grabbed it before she could. “Percy do you mind-?” But Percy was already running off to the front desk. “Great. Now, listen here lady.” As he turned to her, something dangerous flashed in his eyes. “I don’t appreciate you trying to hurt me for my son, neither do I appreciate false accusations. Mark my words, you and the rest of your bloodline will be cursed with bad luck after what you’ve done today. And you will watch as they drop like flies due to your stupidity.”

He let her go, just as Percy came back with a security guard and a cashier worker. The security guard dragged her away, kicking and screaming, while the worker walked up to them. “I’m so sorry about her. We’ve been getting complaints about her for a few days now, but nothing serious enough to get her kicked out. Verbal and physical assault, however? That’s definitely a good reason.”

Poseidon smiled at them, putting a hand on Percy’s shoulder protectively. “You had no control over her actions, don’t apologize the imbecile.”

The worker shrugged. “Still feel like it needed to be said. I hope you and your little brother weren’t inconvenienced too much.”

Poseidon froze and Percy burst out laughing. The worker looked at them in confusion. “Is… everything alright?”

Percy wheezed. “You’re good. But this isn’t my brother, he’s my dad.”

The worker stared in shock and embarrassment. “O-oh! I am so sorry! It’s just, you two look so alike I assumed…”

Poseidon sighed. “It’s quite alright. Anywho, I believe we should take our leave now.”

The worker smiled at them. “Alright then, hope you have a good day.”

“You too!” Percy yelled out as they left the building.

“That surely was… eventful.” Poseidon said to Percy as they reached the crosswalk.

Percy laughed a bit uneasily. “Understatement, that was a total nightmare. I hate Karens.”

The sign changed and told them they could walk, and just as they were about to, Percy reached his hand out to catch Poseidons. Poseidon froze for a moment, looking down at where his hand was currently being held by a tinier one, until Percy starting dragging him along. Poseidon couldn’t help noticing how small it was. It makes him smile, this was the current highlight of the month.

“C’mon, you can’t just stand there all day.” Percy stared at Poseidon questioningly. Why had he gone so quiet? He looked down at their hands and it clicked for him.

Oh.

Oh.

Percy pulled his hand back, feeling red. Did he actually just hold a freaking Gods hand? Did he disrespect him or something? Hopefully not…

Poseidon turned to Percy with a serious look on his face, and Percy feared the worse until he heard him say, “Give it back.”

Percy blinked at them for a moment before taking Poseidons hand again and continuing on their walk.

(And if Percy was smiling like an idiot the whole time— well, I guess we’ll never know.)

Chapter Text

Triton was angry.

And in all honesty, that seemed to be a trend with him these days.

Especially after Poseidon had thought it’d be a brilliant idea to bring Perseus to Atlantis.

It wasn’t like this demigod was annoying enough simply by existing, but now he was in his home.

Triton was not having a delightful time, to say the least.

And as if the universe hated him, Perseus had decided to bring some of his more… mortal habits with him. The holding hands one was especially annoying him. Their father is both a feared and respected god, he can’t just… hold his hand! Who did this demigod think he was, being so blatantly disrespectful without even acknowledging his rude behaviour. Triton wanted nothing more then to show the pathetic little demigod the true power of a god and—

Suddenly, there was the sound of a knock on his door that interrupted his train of thought. Poseidon coming in a second after. “Triton, we must talk now.” Triton nodded, allowing him to come in.

Poseidon swam into the room and stood in front of him. “My son, do you… not like Perseus?” He asked blatantly.

Triton resisted the urge to snort. “In all honesty? No. And I do not want him here.”

Poseidon sighed. “I thought so as much. May I ask why?”

Triton gave his father a look of bewilderment and exasperation. “He is the living evidence of your disloyalty to my mother, what do you mean-“

“Yes, but you do realize he had no say nor control in that, right?”

Triton stayed silent, not knowing how to respond to that. Admittedly, this… hadn’t been something Triton had actually considered, too focused on his anger with Perseus to properly think of why he was angry.

Poseidon sighed. “I may have a solution. How about you two have a bonding day?”

Triton was sure he felt a little piece of himself die on the inside, and that’s saying something since he’s immortal. “You want me to what?”

“I want you to bond with Perseus for a day.” Poseidon repeated.

“Father, I’m sorry, but isn’t it enough that I deal with him being here almost everyday? Why do you ask more of me?”

Poseidon put a hand on Tritons shoulder. “I just think that if you spent some good time with him, you’d get to like him better and realize he isn’t as bad as your convincing yourself to be.”

“It won’t do anything, in fact, I’ll most definitely end up hating him even more. I know what type of demigod he is. He’s the cocky kind who thinks he can do whatever he want simply because he is your half son. You’ll see, once we start this so-called ‘bonding activity’, he’ll think he can order me around.”

Poseidon sighed once more. “Just by that I can tell you know nothing about how he truly is. Just, give it a chance, alright?”

Triton weighed his options. He could either continue with the argument and inevitably be forced to go out, or he could accept defeat and do it now. Triton sighed. “Fine, but I make no promises that I will truly ‘bond’ with him.”

Poseidon nods and heads for the door but then pauses. “Oh, and one last thing, you’re going on land.”

“What?!”

**~**

“So… anywhere in particular you want to go to?” Percy asked awkwardly as he and Triton walked through the city, going nowhere specifically.

Triton rolled his eyes at him. “Do I look like I know where I’m doing?”

“Fair enough,” Percy shrugged. They walked beside each other in a bit of an awkward silence, until Percy spoke up again. “Let’s go get ice cream.”

Triton gave him a confused look. “What?”

“Ice cream?” Percy repeated. When Triton didn’t answer, Percy’s eyes widened and he gasped dramatically. “You’ve never had ice cream?! That- I feel so bad for you, we must get you ice cream immediately!”

Percy eyes shone with determination, which made Triton groan. He may not know much about the demigod, but he did know that once the demigod had his sights set on something, he wouldn’t look away easily, which made Triton come to a simple conclusion.

This was going to be a very long day.

**~**

“What flavour do you want?”

Percy and Triton had been in the local ice cream shop for a while now. Percy has immediately went for a mint chocolate chip ice cream the moment they walked in, but Triton has seemed to insist on taking forever to chose something.

“I don’t know, I don’t even know what these flavours are, or how they taste!”

“Do you guys… need some more time or…?” The poor worker who was behind the desk witnessing this chaos with confusion asked hesitantly.

“Just go with whatever sounds or looks the best.” Percy said impatiently, accidentally ignoring the worker. “Or buy with what I bought instead!”

Triton sighed at looked over the variety of ice creams one last time. “I want…” something caught his eye suddenly, he pointed at it. “This. I want this one.”

“Finally—“ Percy said, going over to where Triton was to see what he chose and paused. Percy slowly looked up at Triton in horror. “Please tell me your joking.”

“No, I want this one.”

“I—“ Percy stammered in disbelief. “Why?! This is your first time eating ice cream, and you want fucking rum raisins?!”

Triton raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes, is there a problem with that?”

Percy stammered again. “Yes, yes there is a problem with that! Raisins in ice cream is absolutely disgusting. Scratch that, raisins are disgusting in everything! Why would you willingly eat that?!”

Triton rolled his eyes. “Stop being so over dramatic.”

The person behind the desk got them their ice creams. Percy took a look at the receipt as they walked outside. “What the- why is rum raisin ice cream so expensive?!”

Triton looked over his shoulder to see the receipt too. “It’s not that bad, only about 6 dollars.”

Percy shot him a look. “For a single scoop of ice cream, that’s too much!” Percy sighed, folded the paper and put it away to sulk about later.

“Yeah well that’s-“ Triton started saying before pausing mid sentence. He frowned, turning to Percy. “Do… do you hear that?”

Percy stopped, trying to hear what Triton was talking about. He responded after a few seconds. “I… yeah, I do. I think it’s… music?”

They both stared at each other, not knowing what to do, before Triton grabbed Percy by the wrist and dragged him towards the sound of the music.

Percy shrieked in surprise, struggling to get Triton to let go of him. “Hey! What the Hades are you doing?! Let go of me!” Percy’s ice cream fell out of his grasp and he muttered in disappointment, “My ice cream…”

Triton continued to drag Percy, ignoring his sounds of protest. “Maybe this will be more interesting than whatever your trying to do.”

The closer they got to where the sound of the music was coming from, the louder it got. They soon could hear the sounds of many people talking as well, all seemingly having fun. There were stands everywhere, all for different things. One was giving out water and juice, another seemed to be a library sponsorship.

Triton pointed to a tower of wooden blocks stacked on top of each other. “What is that?”

Percy looked to where he pointed and smiled. “Jenga! You have to try and remove as many as those wooden blocks without tipping over the entire thing, wanna play?”

They spent 10 minutes playing Jenga.

The longer they played, the more Triton was reluctantly realizing that maybe this demigod wasn’t all that bad after all. Maybe he judged too quick, maybe—

All the blocks suddenly fell.

Directly on Percy.

Triton burst out laughing.

Percy groaned. “Ow… that wasn’t funny, it hurt!”

“Which is what made it funny.” Triton said with a smile. Percy rolled his eyes but smiled back, before it suddenly hit him.

Did Triton just smile at him?!

Triton must have noticed his expression and turned away

Before either of them could say anything else, the music turned off. Just as quickly as it turned off though, it turned on again but even louder. Everyone stopped what they were doing and swarmed to a stage Percy hadn’t even noticed was there, like moths drawn to a flame.

And, unfortunately, Percy and Triton were in their way.

They got shoved around by people who were desperately trying to get to the front, and even cussed at. When the stampede of people finally stopped, Percy and Triton were stuck in the middle of a swarm of people with a little to no chance of escape.

Triton scowled. “Why these insolent little-“ he paused at the sudden feeling of someone holding his hand… wait a second… Triton turned his head to look at Percy, who was breathing heavily and looked a bit pale.

He was also holding his hand.

Oh.

When Triton had witnessed Percy grabbed his- no, their fathers hand, he had assumed it was an unpleasant feeling, something he’d want to avoid.

But this… actually felt nice.

A whimper brought him out of his train of thought as he remembered Perseus was still suffering. Triton gripped his hand tightly and found a way to lead them both out of the swarm of people. They got to some bench and sat down. Triton sat a bit awkwardly, not knowing what to do with his currently panicking half-brother.

Fortunately for him, Percy was able to level his breathing on his own. He looked up at Triton. “Thanks.” He said weakly with a tiny smile, looking shaken.

Triton nodded. “Of course. What was that, anyway?”

Percy shifted in his seat. “You mean my-“

Triton shook his head, cutting him off. “No, I mean the swarm of people.”

“Oh. I, uh, think that was a concert of some sort maybe? I don’t know what the occasion is though… didn’t recognize the singer either.” Triton hummed. Percy looked down as realized something.

Was Triton holding his hand???

Percy instinctively tried pulling away, hoping Triton wasn’t too angry with him, but ultimately failed when Triton didn’t let him. Neither said anything else as they went home.

**~**

“So, how’d it go?” Poseidon asked when he saw Triton. Percy, without responding, went to his room, shutting the door behind him. When Triton hadn’t responded either, Poseidon smirked. “I was right, wasn’t I?”

Triton sighed. “Yes, I suppose he isn’t that bad.”

Poseidon’s smirk grew wider. “Anything else I should know?”

Triton hesitated for a moment, thinking back to when Percy held his hand. “No, nothing at all.”

Chapter Text

“No.” Amphitrite said without hesitation and as blatantly as possible when she heard her husbands proposition.

“At least take it into consideration-” Poseidon tried.

“My Lord, while I am not Hera and do not despise him nor do I wish harm upon him, that doesn’t mean I want to be around him much.”

“Yes, but I believe you it would be better for the both of you if you just spent one day together. That’s all I ask of you, a single day. Triton of all people is now fond of him! If it ends up being that bed, I’ll never bring up again.”

Amphitrite hesitated before nodding. “Alright then. I’ll spend one day with him. I suppose there are some places in the palace I wish to show him-”

“Oh, no.” Poseidon said with a sheepish smile. “You're going to be above ground with him.”

Amphitrite stood shocked for a moment. “My Lord-?”

“The only compromise I’ll accept is you spend at the very least half a day above ground. Good bye now, have fun!” And with that, he was off. Amphitrite wondered what in the name of Khaos she had just gotten herself into now.

**~**

“So... is there anything in particular you’d like to do?” Perseus asked nervously. Why was he nervous? Amphitrite frowned. She didn’t believe he had much of a reason to.

“Are there any important monuments and such around here?” Amphitrite asked.

“Uh, yeah. There’s quite a lot happening around here now, actually. I feel like we should have probably done this day underwater, actually...”

“Why’s that?” She asked curiously.

“Ah well... America’s kind of on the verge of a civil war at the moment.”

Amphitrite's eyes widened at that. “What? Why?”

Percy sighed. “It’s... a bit of a long story. You should probably sit down for it.” Percy explained to her pretty much everything that had been happening in the last few weeks, with the new anti-abortion law and everything the Supreme Court was working towards. Amphitrite sat there in shock.

“So... you're telling me that they’re forcing those who have a uterus to give birth? Even if they don’t want to?”

“Yeah, not to long ago a 10-year-old was forced to give birth.” Percy spat bitterly.

Amphitrite looked horrified. “What? How was she pregnant to begin with?”

Percy looked up at her. “Huh. Almost forgot you guys have actual morals when it comes to children. Yeah, well, child rape happens here. And no one can do anything about it.”

“Oh Khaos...” Amphitrite felt sick. How could someone be so cruel as to touch a child in any way that isn’t kindness? She couldn’t wrap her head around it.

Percy felt a bit guilty for bringing it up. “Hey, there’s a protest happening today, wanna go check it out?” Amphitrite gives a nod and they head out.

As they walk, Amphitrite asks, “Tell me, has anything else been happening to make change other then the protest?”

Percy nodded, giving her a small smile. “Yes, actually. Within the first few days of this law, the Supreme Court got doxxed. People gave out their address, credit card information, and recently someone found their nudes. Shits hilarious. Oh! People are also finding herbs that can make it look like you miscarried. Pretty sure the Canadians are going to burn down the White House again. Not to mention the person who had no more fucks to give and mailed an actual uterus to the Supreme Court.”

Amphitrite laughed at that last one. “Good for them!”

Suddenly, shouts could be heard. They both walked towards the sound and there stood a crowd of people, all holding signs up.

After walking around a bit, Percy finally had the courage to properly ask, “So... in Atlantis, they don’t have anything like this going on? You know, discrimination and whatnot.”

Amphitrite thought over that for a moment. “Not really. However, there are some merpeople who... dislike the Cyclopes.”

Percy frowned at that. “Huh.”

A whistle interrupted them. They both turned towards the direction of the sound. Percy feared the worst for what this was. Standing before them was a disgusting man who had an ugly smile on his face. “Hey there-”

“Nope.” Percy interrupted, grabbing Amphitrite by the wrist as softly as he could and pulled her along, not wanting to commit murder in front of his stepmom.

Once they got a far enough distance from him, Percy stopped and sent an apologetic look towards Amphitrite. “Sorry about that, I just don’t have the patience to deal with that thing.”

Amphitrite frowned. “What was he even doing?”

Percy grimaced. “Sexually harassing us.”

Amphitrite's eyes went wide. “The upper land is much... crueler than I thought. Our books don’t mention any of this. How do you feel about talking with one of our journalists to update some things?”

Percy nodded, giving her a small smile. “Sounds great!”

Before they knew it though, the protest had suddenly begun to move, parading down the street, with Percy and Amphitrite stuck right in the middle of it all. As the wave of people started pushing forward, Percy’s hand shot out to grab Amphitrite's hand in a panic.

She jolted, not expecting it. Amphitrite looked down at where their hands met, confused. She then realized that they were in the middle of a swarm of people. Maybe he did it so he wouldn’t get lost? Like how otters hold on to each other. She felt herself smiling at the gesture.

That was, until she realized how panicked the demigod looked. She glanced around, surely no one would notice if she just...

She teleported them out of the swarm.

Amphitrite didn’t know where they were, only that it was another street they had passed while on their walk earlier. Percy sat down on the side of the sidewalk, still holding her hand. “Thanks.” He said shakily.

She nodded, giving him a warm smile. “Of course, don’t mention it.”

**~**

“So, how was it?” Poseidon asked with a wide smile after she guided the tired demigod to his room in the palace.

“You were right.” She said softly. “However, do not expect me to give you the child back. He’s mine now. I’m keeping him.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” He replied with little to no concern in his voice.