Chapter Text
Everybody on Olympus (and much further down) knew Percy Jackson. The son of Poseidon. They knew Percy Jackson before he really knew himself. They knew him before he stepped through the barrier that surrounded Camp Half-Blood. They knew him well before he became the Savior of Olympus.
There was, however, one god completely oblivious to Percy's existence: Zeus.
King of the Gods, Lord of the Sky, God of Weather, supposedly omniscient (though not really).
If anyone had ever worried about the last detail, they certainly stopped worrying when they realized Zeus knew absolutely nothing.
(Which may or may not have been the push that many gods needed to join that itty bitty Titan uprising. Of course, there's nothing to confirm that.)
Hestia was the first to know, of course she was. She knew about little Perseus before he was even born. Her brother came to her with a request, Poseidon asked her to watch over Percy once he was born, to ensure he was always protected by the flame of family.
The first thing Hestia did was scold him, how reckless he was breaking such a sacred oath. Once he was thoroughly ashamed of the deceit and the betrayal and the future abandonment, she agreed. Hestia spent her days nursing the hearths of both Olympus and Camp Half-Blood. Looking over one more child would hardly be an effort.
She debated telling the rest of her siblings, secrets only tore families apart after all. But she hadn't mentioned anything about little Thalia Grace, and so she wouldn't about this child either.
Hestia met Sally Jackson while she was only in her sixth month of pregnancy, a lovely woman who took her current circumstances in stride.
A few weeks in Hestia could see that the pregnancy and especially the birth would not be easy. With the best intentions in heart, Hestia went in search of her sister.
The Queen of the Gods was having a lovely day tending to her peacocks, being followed by her attendants, and definitely not questioning her husbands mysterious absence.
Hestia approached her in the form of a young girl, "Lovely day, isn't it, dear sister?"
Hera hummed, "Indeed." She needed no further observation to know that her sister needed something, and so Hera shooed away her attendants and turned away the ears of her dearest animals.
"There is a child to be born in the coming month." Hestia said warmly, "I wish for you to be present in order to aid the mother."
Suspicion gleamed in Hera's eyes, but she did not outright deny the request. "I will send Eileithyia."
"The same Eileithyia you sent to kill a boy and his mother during labor?"
Hera sneered just slightly, not enough to falter her regal composure, "Eileithyia has helped others."
"Yes, but I would like it to be you, sister." Hestia put as much earnest as she could into the request. Going to Hera was a risky gamble, the kind Hestia expected only her mischievous nephew would try. But she had hope Hera wouldn't smite the woman and child in her haste.
"Why?"
"The child in question...is our nephew." Hera's eyes flared, and Hestia quickly stampede out that fire. "Any grievances you have will be taken up with Poseidon and nobody else."
Hera scoffed. It took much wearing down, but eventually, she conceded, "I will help the woman, but the child is not my concern."
Hestia smiled and gripped Hera's hand, "Thank you, sister."
The next to be visited was Artemis. The goddess sat by a campfire looking a similar age to Hestia. The hunters danced about the camp, singing and playing tricks on one another.
Not one of them noticed Hestia as she appeared in the fire, even when she stepped out, only Zoë acknowledged her presence. Hestia took a seat beside Artemis, the younger playing a calming tune on her lyre.
"Aunt." Artemis greeted, "What brings you here tonight? This is not one of your usual stops."
"No, it is not. And I fear this is not just a friendly visit." Hestia turned her gaze to the hunters frolicking freely, "I am here to ask something of you."
"Go on."
"A child will be born in just a simple month." Hestia didn't even finish asking.
"You wish for me to help it?" Artemis frowned, "What is the reason?"
"Hera will be there, too." That certainly got a reaction out of Artemis, she muttered under her breath, practically begging that this wasn't another of her father's children. Hestia gently reassured her, "It is not your father's."
Artemis sighed, tension leaving her shoulders, "If you deem it so important, I shall be there."
What Artemis had forgotten until the new baby was resting in his crib, sea-green eyes staring up at her moon, was that her aunt could be incredibly tricky when she wanted to be.
Hestia didn't utter a word of the child's parentage, even as Artemis stared at her with knowing eyes.
Artemis only averted her gaze as her brother's sun started to peek over the horizon, knowing he'd be too curious to ignore what held her interest. Artemis could've gone straight to her father, Hestia never asked that the boy be kept a secret. But not even Hera spilled a word of it, so neither would she. Things had been beginning to bore her, lately.
Running with the theme of sisters, Demeter found out next. Her dearest Persephone had been dragged down to the Underworld once more, and Demeter went seeking solace where she usually did. With her sister.
Only Hestia was missing. Not by her hearth on Olympus and a quick glance over Long Island showed that she wasn't in the demigod camp.
It was quite disturbing, Hestia didn't often wander. Demeter scoured the city Olympus resided above, slowly causing the flora around her to go dormant.
Finally, she found her sister, Demeter let the warmth only a goddess could create guide her. Hestia stood in the bedroom of a rather ghastly apartment. A woman slept on the bed, deep in the confines of Hypnos. Before Hestia lay a baby, swaddled in blue blankets and babbling incoherently.
Demeter felt a fresh wave a grief wash over her, Persephone had been but a babe when she was stolen away.
A new emotion washed over her when she truly got a look at the child. It was something between frustration and resignation. Demeter hardly expected any of her brother's to keep their word.
"He looks so similar, doesn't he?" Hestia asked, her skin glowing faintly like a flame.
The boy did look just like Poseidon when he first landed in their father's stomach with them. Small, adorable, innocent-looking. It was almost enough to make her forget the danger this child presented. . . Almost.
"This is not wise." Demeter said.
"You sound like Athena." The woman behind them stirred, eyes blinking open, Hestia hummed a short tune, and she fell right back asleep. "This is Sally."
Demeter hummed, "And this. . . child?"
"This is Percy."
"Zeus will throw a fit. This child won't survive."
Hestia looked up with her large amber eyes, "He doesn't have to know, not yet. It isn't time."
Demeter would never do anything to endanger her children, and this child's existence did that very thing. The first few years after the great prophecy was given, she had no mortal children, just for safety's sake. But she had many now, and she would loathe for them to be taken to the realm of death like Persephone.
There was another component to that millennia old situation, of course. Zeus. He'd aided in Persephone's kidnapping, given her away like it was nothing.
"If I ever think for a second that this child poses a threat—"
"You will tell him, yes." Hestia smiled, "Hera gave me the same conditions."
That truly solidified Demeter's stance. If Hera, of all in the world, would keep this secret, so would she.