Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The wars were over. The world was rebuilding itself, slowly and steadily, and while Olympus was worse for wear, it still stood too. But most importantly, while Atlantis was rebuilding herself, she was rejoicing in her victory. Victory deserved celebration, and if there was one thing the sea gods did well (besides destruction), it was throwing huge celebrations.

Poseidon had pulled out all the stops for this one. Nothing was too expensive, too great, too hard to make for this. Multicolored banners glistened down the throne room of the palace, the Heroes of Atlantis embroidered upon them so everyone knew who they were. Deep sea-green trimmed with blinding gold boasted the Crown Prince, Triton, holding his trident triumphantly over his head in a victory pose, eyes practically glowing. When the banner moved in the water, it gave the image of his two tails slowly swishing back and forth.

On the other side of the room was another banner, this one lighter in its shade of sea-green. This one presented the youngest prince, Perseus, his name woven in Ancient Greek along the bottom. Like his brother’s, his banner was trimmed with gold. His image gave the viewer a fierce, proud smile, Riptide balanced on his shoulder and his other hand was propped on his hip.

“I still think mine looks better,” the subject of said banner spoke. “Dad clearly wanted mine to be cooler.”

His older brother rolled his eyes. “Or are you just jealous of my cool pose?”

“Cool pose? You look like a K-Pop idol, big bro,” Percy snickered. “I look suave.” He’d learned that word from Annabeth. He was very proud of that.

“What is a K-Pop?” Triton looked over at him, rather bewildered. “Is this some important position in your world?”

Percy was about to answer truthfully but the sudden confusion in his brother’s expression gave him another idea. So he stifled his amusement, adopting a very serious expression. He nodded somberly. “Extremely important. The world would not function without them.”

Triton considered this new information, tucking it away for later. He stood a little taller. “So it is a high honor, then.” Even if he thought mortals were below him, he definitely preened at the thought he looked like one of their most important leaders.

Percy choked back a laugh, managing to keep his serious demeanor. “The highest honor.” Oh, he was so going to make Triton dress up like one.

But the question was... which one?

Chapter Text

Poseidon was a busy god. Extremely. Even so, he always felt his son’s presence, whether he was at his camp or in the waters or in New York with his mother. Percy was always present. And, like the sea, he was exceedingly mischievous. So when the god heard his name being spoken in a rather casual way, by someone certainly not Percy, he took a quick glance and noticed the demigod was accompanying his son. His grip on his trident, which had tightened in annoyance the casualness, now loosened in confusion. What was his son doing?

Percy was buried up to his neck in the sand of Montauk, and from the corner of his eye, Poseidon saw the flash of a phone screen. “Do it again!” The girl behind it called. “More passion this time!”

Percy took in a deep breath. “I AM THE SAND GUARDIAN, GUARDIAN OF THE SAND!” He shouted at the waves. Poseidon’s lips twitched upwards in amusement.

“Poseidon quivers before him!” The boy kneeling beside him shouted. Ah, so that was what he had felt.

“FUCK OFF!” Percy yelled at the wave.

Poseidon’s lips turned up more. He held back a very ungodly-like snort as his son cursed at his domain. He had to suppress his laugh as Percy dug his hand out of the sand and showed his middle finger, which Poseidon knew from Percy himself was typically an insult. He was glad his son was back to his mischievous, playful self. So the god rose one brow and a wave splashed his son in the face. Percy gasped at the water, offended. “Dad!”

The demigod beside him began cracking up. Percy stuck his tongue out at the water. But then he was distracted by the girl filming, who cheered. “We got it!”

A fond, yet amused, smile on his face, the god severed the connection and returned to his work.

Chapter Text

It was Annabeth’s idea. Percy just went along with— Okay, so maybe he was rather eager to try it out. It was a great idea, and he was sure nothing could go wrong. At least, if he could try it out, because Chiron was currently raising an eyebrow at him. Inwardly, Chiron sighed. Of course Percy was always up to something. It must be a son of Poseidon thing, he thought. But he held firm. “No, you are not allowed to bring an army of crabs to your dueling matches,” he informed the demigod.

Percy’s brow scrunched together. “Says who? Clarisse has a literal electric spear!”

“That is a weapon, therefore she is allowed to use it. And only on experienced partners, not any of our newest campers.”

“Okay, well, my weapon are these crabs.”

“That is against the rules.”

“Actually,” Annabeth piped up helpfully, “it isn’t. There’s rules about scorpions, lightning strikes and, according to Rule 15, Subsection 3, red capes are not to be used to bait Ares campers into a war rage, but nothing about an army of crabs. So technically, he is well within his rights as a child of the sea to use whatever the sea has as a weapon. Crabs are part of the sea and therefore fall under the category of ‘weapons from the sea’.”

“See?” Percy pointed at her. “Annabeth says yes, and Annabeth is always right.” He smiled innocently at Chiron. “No rule, no problem.”

Chiron was tempted to face palm. He managed (thank the gods) to remain composed and calm. “…Fine. Because you are dueling with Clarisse. And I am most certainly updating the rules.”

“Not if I have any say,” Mr. D said. He nodded to Percy. “Perry. Well, this should promise to be more entertaining than rewatching Glee for the thousandth time.”

“Glee is a work of art,” Chiron huffed.

“It’s an abomination, and if I have to see one more overly dramatic scene—“

“Enough!” Chiron shook his head, and walked over to the seating area. Mr. D followed, still arguing over why the actors could have been given more to work with. “Percy, please start the match.”

Percy grinned widely, and he walked into the arena. A long line of bright red and ghostly white crabs followed him sideways, scuttling and snapping their claws at empty air. They formed a circle around him, raising the claws, like they were worshipping him.

Jason was beside Annabeth, looking quite mischievous himself. He had relaxed after settling down at Camp Half-Blood, even if he was inherently Roman. Besides, Romans knew how to have fun, and well, he was feeling rebellious. “All hail Percy Jackson, Lord of the Crabs!”

The crustaceans hissed and scuttled around.

Clarisse rolled her eyes. “Crabs won’t save your ass, Jackson.”

Percy shrugged, twirling Riptide. “No, but they make for a great distraction.” The crabs scuttled towards the daughter of Ares, hissing at her with renewed ferocity. Clarisse yelped as it snapped at her ankle, making her jump back. As soon as she did, Percy lunged with his sword to knock her spear out of her hands. “Hey! That's not fair! Your fucking crab got me!”

Percy shrugged, grinning. ”You snooze, you lose."

Two hours later, a new rule banning crustaceans as sparring weapons was announced.

Three hours later, the rule was updated to include octopi.