Chapter Text
It was a beautiful summer night, there were no clouds in the sky showing off the beauty of the moon and stars. Even though the sun was down the beach was warm enough where the two only occupants on the beach didn’t have to worry about wearing sweatshirts. Speaking of which, the two occupants on the beach that night were Percy Jackson and Annabeth; Percy had just got down on one knee and revealed a very pretty gray and blue ring saying “Annabeth will you marry me?”
Annabeth looked down shocked at what Percy had just done but proceeded to say “Percy… I’m sorry but I can’t.” On hearing that. Percy’s eyes welled up with tears. “There was a time where I would have said yes but that time has passed. I’ll be honest with you since that is the least you deserve but ever since the fight against Gaea ended I have felt the love I once had for you slowly die out. Again I am truly sorry and I hope we can at least stay friends.". Then, before Percy could even get back up off his knee, Annabeth turned around and walked off.
Once Annabeth left the beach and what she had said sunk into him Percy got up, threw the ring into the lake, and started crying uncontrollably. Unbeknownst to him his friends: Thalia, Grover, Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, and Nico were all watching him propose ready to jump out of the tree line to congratulate them and Thalia decided to record the proposal. But as they watched Percy throw the ring into the lake they all unanimously agreed without saying a word went up to Percy and started to console him.
They decided to bring Percy back to his cabin because they didn’t want people to disturb them and Percy. As they opened the door to his cabin they saw that it was a mess but like a controlled mess. Even though there was a lot of stuff thrown everywhere everything seemed to have a place and be there intentionally. One of the first things they noticed though was just how many pictures Percy had of him and Annabeth together, some framed, some not framed and just pinned to the wall. Even though they were all with Percy and were trying to help him Thalia seemed to be doing the most by sitting with him on his bed and holding him as he cried into her shoulder; shortly after the eight of them had brought him to his cabin Percy had stopped crying and just kept muttering “why, why, why” in between sniffles.
While all of this was going on, up on Olympus the gods were having their boring usual meeting when all of a sudden Aphrodite clutches her stomach and guts a headache, the only people in the meeting who saw this was Athena and Artemis who both gave her a weird look.
As the meeting adjourned Aphrodite spoke up and said “Athena and Poseidon I need to speak with both of you. Can you please stay?” Poseidon just nods and Athena says “Yes. Does this have something to do with how you felt earlier?” Aphrodite only looks at her but doesn’t say anything.
One by one the gods and goddess left and soon the only ones who remained were Aphrodite and Athena -who were standing next to each other- and Poseidon and Artemis, who seemed to be talking about something that had to do with her hunters. Eventually their conversation ended and Artemis flashed out as Poseidon started walking over to the other two.
Aphrodite looked at Poseidon and started off shakily saying “So you know how Percy was planning on proposing to Annabeth tonight?” Poseidon nodded his head and said “Yeah, he called me over to his moms and we helped him plan everything out.”
“Well, it seems that during our meeting Percy proposed and Annabeth rejected his proposal and broke up with him. The heartbreak and betrayal he felt during then was so strong that I felt it.”
Poseidon looked mad and scared for his son and said “I have to go see him, thanks for telling me.” and he flashed away.
Aphrodite turned to Athena and said “I just want to ask but did you have any play in this? After all, you would’ve known because he had to get your blessing.” Athena looked surprised and said “No, I know I haven’t always liked Percy but I did end up giving him my blessing to marry Annabeth. If I didn’t want him to marry her I wouldn’t have done that.” “Good” Aphrodite says “Because if you did do something Poseidon will not be happy and you know how he is about Percy.” Then they both flashed away.
Poseidon flashed outside of Cabin 3 and quietly walked inside everyone decided to leave Percy and Poseidon alone except for Thalia who was still holding him, and he onto her. He took up the rest of the bed but still sat down and started gently stroking Percy’s hair, after a little bit Percy looked up and said “dad? When did you get here?”
“Just a little while ago, your friends left when I showed up. After I heard some of what had happened I rushed over to help you. And thank you Thalia you are free to go, I would like some alone time with my son.” “Sure thing, I’ll see you later, seaweed brain. Don’t forget that myself and the others are here if you ever need anything. You aren’t alone even if you feel like it.” As she walks out of his cabin Percy replies “Thanks Pinecone face, I’ll see you later.”
After she left Percy was curious and asked “I’m glad you are here dad but how did you even know?” He responded with “At the end of our meeting on Olympus Aphrodite called me and Athena over to talk in private and told us that she rejected you. Speaking of which if you don’t want to talk about that’s ok but want to tell me what happened?”
After a couple seconds Percy sighed “After she rejected me she told me that after the war against Gaea her love for me dwindled. The war ended a little over a year ago; how could she live with faking loving me for a year and how could I have been so stupid to not see the signs dad?” As he started to cry again. They sat like that for the rest of the night Percy crying and his dad consoling him and rubbing his back gently.
Percy ended up crying himself to sleep but Poseidon couldn’t force himself to leave him in the night in case he woke back up. As the sun rose Percy woke up “Dad you’re still here? I thought you would have left after I fell asleep.” I tried but I couldn’t bring myself to do so but now that the sun is rising and you are up I should probably leave. Just know my son that I will always love you and if you ever need anything at all I will always help.” And then Poseidon flashed away causing Percy to shield his eyes so he wouldn’t get blinded by the light.
For the next two days Percy moped around in his room, he never left and he only ate a little bit of food, which was brought to him by Thalia and sometimes Artemis, and left on his door step twice a day. On the third day Thalia, who was front of the door into cabin 3 with Percy’s breakfast yelled “Ughhh fuck this, Percy I’m coming in. You better be decent.” and she kicked in the door.
Artemis rolled her eyes as Thalia kicked in the door but stood in the doorway and just looked and watched as Thalia went to kick some sense into her cousin. The first thing Thalia noticed when entering cabin 3 was it was a lot messier; most of the unframed photos of him and Annabeth had been ripped up and the ones in frames had either shattered or broken as well. Percy was still in the same clothes from the last time she saw him and most of the food she brought him sat on trays on his desk or on the floor. As Thalia took it all in a stride over to Percy, Artemis scanned the room and had to cover her mouth at the gasp she let out luckily it seemed that neither Thalia or Percy heard her gasp; she didn’t even know if Percy realized she was standing there.
“Go away Thals, I’m not in the mood for whatever you have planned.” Thalia sighed and said “Percy I understand that you're hurting but you can’t live like this, you're barely eating. So how about this, I’m not going to try to get you to leave if you don’t want to but starting today when I bring your meals I am going to sit here and make sure you eat all of your food and we will talk, maybe not at first but you need someone to talk with, to vent your feelings and if there are days when I can’t be here for you or when I leave with Artemis I am certain the others would be more than happy to take my place.”
Thalia turned around and started picking up his clothes and put them into a big pile in the corner and picked up his leftover food to take away and before she left “Thank you Thals.” She turned around and said “Of course Perce, I will be back with your lunch later today.” After she left and the door closed Percy stayed where he was but felt happy. Artemis offered to help Thalia carry some of the trays which she took her up on. They got a few weird looks from some of the campers but once they realized Artemis was there the campers quickly turned away for fear of what she would do to them.