Work Text:
Percy sat in his classroom early Monday morning trying to finish the previous week’s grading after running around town all weekend preparing for his youngest’s birthday on the upcoming Spring Equinox (Persephone was thrilled to see that birth announcement) Friday because of course when else would his children have been born but on mythologically significant days (Annaliese’s birthday was Summer Solstice, that year’s council meeting was exciting).
The door opened and closed, “Busy grading! Text me if you would like to make an appointment for chit-chat later!” he announced without looking up, assuming that his most likely guests at this point in the morning were Paul, Estelle, or Elena who would easily accept his bluntness and come back later; however, his assumption was…incorrect this morning.
“Excuse me? That is no way to speak to a goddess! I came asking for a favor!” called an, unfortunately, familiar voice.
“Apologies, good morning Grandma! What do you need and how can I tell you no?” Percy’s patience for godly requests had only gotten thinner with age.
Aphrodite looked shocked. “I resent that name!” squealed the love goddess.
“I’m sorry, would you prefer Grandmother, Grandmama, Granny? I could go on…” retorted the teacher.
The blonde haired and gray eyed appearance Aphrodite typically donned around Percy began to slip, her eyes turning redder and redder. “That’s IT! I was going to ask you for this favor nicely, but I will not be disrespected like this! I am issuing you a quest!” she yelled.
“Nice try, I’m retired from quests and if you didn’t want the attitude maybe you shouldn’t have kept the fact that not only was my maternal grandmother a demigod, but she was YOUR demigod, that you left unclaimed, her entire life which was, coincidentally, cut short by a plane crash leaving my mother orphaned. AND WHO frequently causes plane crashes because he has a temper more volatile than my toddler who was born from a daughter of
Athena and a son of Posiedon? None other than YOUR father-in-law! And rarely is anything in my life purely coincidental so I STRUGGLE to believe that with this recent development it could simply be a tragic ‘accident!’ Now if you would please LEAVE my classroom, I have work to do!” roared a now very frustrated Percy.
Aphrodite took a step back, realizing that continuing to escalate with the man would likely not bode well for her with the son of Posiedon or his father. She instead chose to employ a different technique…”Pleaseeeeeee, I was reviewing my notebooks from around the most recent Titanomachy and found a few discrepancies in couplings, obviously you and your wife are exempt as I personally took hold of controlling the story of your relationship, however, the same cannot be said about many other demigods and I need assistance in reuniting a ‘should-have-been’ as my assistants would classify it. Normally I would have them handle it but I felt you may have a better chance at influencing these individuals than my assistants. AND I think you’ll have a personal investment in this love story as this person is very close to you…BUT you CANNOT tell them that this is my assignment or else it’s very well likely to fail. I have to tow a very sensitive line when setting up demigods as it’s still my responsibility to write your love stories however I am not exempt from the interference laws. You were barely an exception because your fate was so volatile when I first wrote your love story with Annabeth that I was able to jump in before the fates tightened it up and had to deal with a lot more red tape in controlling where it went…”
Percy finally decided to interrupt her begging and rambling, “Aphrodite, if you don’t mind, I still have work to get to so if you could tell me who you supposedly need me to help, that would be appreciated.”
A frantic Aphrodite gathered herself and responded, “it was recorded in my notebooks that Apollo’s daughter Elena Beausoleil and Demeter’s girl Hyacinth Laconia were supposed to have been together…and they were on track to be but then starting around the end of the war they…weren’t anymore. These things can happen and they usually resolve themselves but it appears that these two will need much more influence to get them to that point. That is where I need you! If you can simply get them started and in the same proximity again then the magic will work itself.”
Percy scoffed, “You want me to try and play matchmaker for Elena?”
“She respects you and from my research, she’s the one who requires more convincing than Hyacinth. All I need you to do is float the idea, quell her fears, and get them in the same space together. It should be easy, I swear.” pleaded the goddess.
He raised an eyebrow, “If it’s so easy why do you need me? Why don’t you have someone else do it?”
Aphrodite looked on the verge of ripping her perfect hair out, “Because! Perseus! Because! I have tried but the girl is stubborn! Elena won’t listen to my assistants’ reasoning trying to suggest she even be near the other girl! But she respects you! So she may listen to you! I am just trying to help her!”
Percy was growing tired of this conversation, “Fine! I’ll do it! But this will not become a regular thing!” he agreed, realizing he’d simply continue to go in circles if he kept arguing.
“I promise to you this should only be a one time thing…unless you find you want to do moreeeeee…” she replied hopefully.
Percy gave her a deadpan stare, “don’t push your luck.”
Aphrodite nodded, “it was worth a shot.”
—
“So she interrupted your field trip and made you come all the way to Olympus to tell you that your grandmother, who died when Sally was a little kid, was actually her unclaimed child?” Elena looked at him incredulously.
“YES! She did! Nearly blew up the entire water system of the Empire State Building! I was fuming!” Percy exclaimed as he nearly spilled his blueberry chicken feta salad in Elena’s small back office of the Willow Creek Middle School Library.
Elena laughed a little, “oh my gods! Sorry for laughing but that’s so fucked! I think that might be up there on the worst godly announcements list with ‘I lost this thing can you go get it in like 3 days so the world doesn’t end and also it’s across the fucking country’”
Percy stared at her, “You’re laughing, I’m telling you how my grandma was a fucking demigod and I didn’t even know, and you’re laughing.” he accused as he began to crack a smile himself.
Elena sighed and they both began eating their lunches again just as Paul walked in, “Hey guys, not to interrupt your lunch but I have a non-work related question.”
“Is it going to be dangerous?” Elena asked.
“I already told Aphrodite, I’m retired from quests so you better not have lost something.” Percy quipped.
Paul chuckled, “nothing like that, Sally just mentioned that she ran into a Hyacinth at the book store, the name doesn’t really ring a bell for me but Sally said you’d know her.”
Elena froze.
“Yeahhhh” Percy answered awkwardly, “She used to go to camp, daughter of Demeter, she and Elena kinda had a thing.”
“We did not have a thing!” Elena snapped.
“And the sky is green.” Percy snapped back.
Paul looked confused, “That doesn’t make sense.”
“I thought we were saying things that weren’t true.” Percy responded.
“We were friends, I hit her in the thigh and burned her with a light arrow at Manhattan, we stopped talking much, and then shortly after she moved south.” Elena answered.
Percy rolled his eyes, “You accidentally got her, you’ve got bad eyesight and there were monsters everywhere and her pteruges were shifted from battle, you avoided her like KP or bathroom duty on chili day for weeks, made someone else apologize to her on your behalf because you couldn’t bear to approach her, she healed just fine with some burn scarring on her leg, and then she aged out of camp like you but chose not to stay and instead move back to her mortal parents in Mississippi by the gulf before going to New Mexico for school. I bet if you simply talked to her, you’d find she’s forgiven you and you just haven’t forgiven yourself.”
Elena looked guilty but stayed silent. Percy stared at her pointedly.
Paul looked between them awkwardly, “Well, Sally said they chatted for a bit and it turns out she recently moved back to the city and is actually getting a job as a preschool teacher at Nori’s daycare. Apparently tomorrow’s her first day!”
“Tomorrow’s Annabeth’s dropoff day so I’ll have to ask her to tell Hyacinth hello for the both of us.” Percy responded, “Was there anything else you wanted to chat about? You’re welcome to join us for the rest of lunch if you want.”
Paul declined the offer, “I’d love to but I offered to take Mrs. Hanover’s lunch duty this week so she could set up for the Spring Student Art Show on Friday.”
“Alright! Have fun with that! Make sure to keep Estelle in line!” Percy called as Paul walked away.
He then immediately turned to Elena who still looked guilty.
“Don’t give me that look! I hurt her! She would’ve been angry at me and she didn’t need the extra stress while healing!” Elena defended.
“You were a soldier, she was a soldier, we were all soldiers Sunshine. Getting hurt was kind of a given. It was either that or we all fucking died from fucking Kronos, we were kids in a terrible situation simply doing our best with limited numbers and power. It’s not your fault she was accidentally in the line of fire.” Percy countered.
Elena sighed, “But I got her right through the armor! That shouldn’t have been able to happen! I wore godsdamn shorts and I didn’t get an injury as bad as that.”
Percy rolled his eyes, “You fought long range Elena, you were shooting arrows from the tops of cars and buildings. We couldn’t all wear short shorts and a t-shirt to battle and come out somewhat physically unharmed. We all knew the risks of injury, Hades, I thought I was destined to die going in. I don’t think she’s actually ever been as upset about the arrow as you have been. Maybe you could reach out, I could have Annabeth grab her number tomorrow.”
Elena hummed, “...I’ll think about it.”
“And they say Annabeth and I were impossible…” Percy muttered.
“What was that? Could you repeat that a little louder? I’m not sure I understood what you said.” Elena asked, her tone giving way she definitely understood what he said.
“Nothing! Nothing!” Percy responded.
Elena stared at him, “That’s what I thought.”
Percy cleared off the desk of crumbs and put all his containers back in his lunch bag. “I better get back to my room before the kids start plotting some new prank. I’m still finding tiny ducks everywhere.”
“I saw them printing like 50 small pictures of you yesterday!’ Elena warned as he began walking.
“As long as it’s not the fanfiction Cabin 10 wrote when I was 14!” He called back just before exiting the small library office.
—
That night Percy and Annabeth put the kids to bed as usual. Annaliese needed her ocean night light projector, Eugene liked to listen to wind noises on his sound machine, and Eleanor, because kids are weird, held Percy hostage until he finished reading her favorite tragedies: Orpheus and Eurydice, Electra, Helen, The Bacchae…That’s when Percy put his foot down that it was time for sleep.
Finally once all the kids were down Percy and Annabeth returned to their living room to snack, watch tv, and most importantly, gossip about their days.
“She interrupted your morning grading?! That’s so rude!” Annabeth exclaimed, grabbing a stuffed olive from the jar on their coffee table. Percy had just been telling her about the “favor” the goddess of love and coincidentally his newly-revealed great grandmother, Aphrodite, had been asking of him.
Percy dipped a blue corn chip in the spinach and artichoke dip sitting in a little white bowl on top of their blue bubble pattern table runner. “I nearly flooded the hallway again. She was pissing me off so bad” he said before taking a bite, “I finally just agreed to it before we argued until the students started walking in and asking about the strange woman I was fighting who looked 17 different girls to them for some reason.”
Annabeth sighed, grabbing a blue chocolate chip cookie from the fish plate in front of them. “And she wants you to get Elena and Hyacinth back together…” She said with caution in her voice.
“If you ask Elena, there was never a together in the first place.” Percy groaned, shifting to lay his head in Annabeth’s lap.
Annabeth threaded her fingers through his hair and laughed, all air left Percy’s lungs at that moment. “Uh huh, just like we were never together before we actually started dating?”
“I’m never gonna live that down am I?” Percy laughed as well.
Annabeth leaned down, stopping just short of his face, “Not in a million years” she replied just before kissing him.
“Well with that response I guess I can accept it!” He cheerfully responded. “I forgot to mention, Hyacinth is actually starting at Nori’s daycare tomorrow as a preschool teacher.”
“Really? That’ll be fun.” She began twirling his hair absentmindedly, “Maybe we should invite her to Nori’s party this weekend. It’s been a while, but it’d be good for her to meet some more people in the city.”
“That’s a great idea, there’s more invitations…” Percy could hardly remember a thing with Annabeth playing in his hair, “I think I put the extra invites…Oh I know I put them somewhere!” he finally figured it out again, “the extra invites are in the drawer next to the kitchen inkjet!”
Annabeth laughed again, “A little distracted are we?” Percy blushed like he was 14 again, “it’s okay, but we better get to bed, it’s still a work night. I’ll grab an invitation out on our way up to the room.” And they both made their way to bed.
—
Annabeth woke up feeling a bit nauseous the next morning. “Do you want me to take drop off duty today and you can just work from home?” Percy asked.
She reassured him, “No, I’m fine. I just need a shower and I’ll be good…if you want…” She trailed off.
“It’s a school morning and someone has to feed the kids before school. I’m gonna have to take a rain check on what I know you’re suggesting.” Percy stopped her.
“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. When did you get the right to be right?” His wife demanded.
Percy laughed, “I don’t know, maybe something rubbed off after 9 years of marriage.”
“...Go make breakfast and stop being cute or I’ll need to take an ice bath at this rate.” Annabeth dismissed with a smile and a flip of her hair before giving him a quick kiss.
Percy went downstairs to the kitchen and began making a simple breakfast of blueberry pancake bites and scrambled eggs for the kids and some plain toast with a banana for Annabeth to help with her nausea.
The elder two came down just as he was plating their food. Both had gotten themselves dressed: Annaliese in a blue knit sweater of an owl wearing a pink tutu and bows and a pink “twirly” skirt and her pink purple and blue sneakers, Annabeth had made an agreement with Eugene that if her adoptive son of Hermes left his mysterious fur coat in his closet for the week he could wear it for Eleanor’s party (which he would probably forget on Saturday after not wearing it all week with his demigod ADHD and that, Percy believed, was one of his wife’s greatest feats of strategy) so he was just in a vintage Ducktales t-shirt gifted to him by his aunts Piper and Shel and some jeans.
As the older two ate their breakfast, Percy went and got Nori dressed in a The Little Mermaid themed knit dress and some green leggings before bringing her down and fastening her into her toddler seat at the dining table for breakfast. Annabeth walked down in a large sweater tucked into a pair of wide leg slacks, she put her hair in a low ponytail. She acted like she hadn’t spent the past few hours in the bathroom, giving each kid a kiss on the head but to Percy who had learned her tells long before they were even dating, she still looked a bit green.
She gratefully accepted the plain toast and banana from Percy as well as her water bottle he had filled as she greeted the kids. The smell of the eggs started to make her feel sick again, but in an attempt to not worry her husband she tried to excuse herself to have her breakfast in her office rather than the kitchen under the guise of needing to check her emails. He raised an eyebrow at her but let her go in anyway. That would be a conversation for later.
As the kids finished breakfast Percy threw a lavender lemonade scented candle on the candle warmer and set the timer on it for 30 minutes, 10 to dissipate the egg smell and 20 to get everything else together and out of the house before the smell went away without having to remember to put it out (they had learned long before becoming parents not to trust two ADHD demigods to put out a candle, thank the gods for Percy’s water powers). He freed Nori from her spot at the dining table after both older kids had gone to get their backpacks ready and sat her on the kitchen island where he began to put her hair into two buns with little purple seashell bows. When Annabeth stepped back into the kitchen they called down Liese and Eugene so she and Percy could inspect their backpacks for anything out of the ordinary a habit they had established back when Annaliese was around Nori’s age, after an incident where she brought Percy’s Atlantean crown to daycare talking all about how her Daddy was a prince and he wore the crown whenever they went to “Grampa ‘Seidon’s” palace and Daddy would sneak off to “play swords with Uncle Tri” and the teachers were concerned about damaging what looked like a very expensive–looking “gladiator helmet,” thankfully they just assumed that Percy and Annabeth were very into the Renaissance Faire and Live Action Role Play scene. After that close call they made sure to check for any…unordinary items in their children’s backpacks that would be too embarrassing or revealing of their extraordinary identities for their children’s very ordinary teachers to find.
With all the kids finally ready, Percy pulled everyone’s lunch boxes from the crisper drawer in the fridge they had designated as the family “lunchbox drawer” and handed them all to the appropriate family member and loaded all the kids in Annabeth’s car for her to drop off on her way to work.
—
After getting the big kids to their schools, Annabeth pulled into the parking lot of Rainbow Grove Daycare Center. Knowing she already wasn’t feeling well, she parked in the closest spot to the doors so she wouldn’t have to explain to concerned teachers (or deal with a knowing look from Hyacinth) why she was out of breath from a simple walk across the lot with her daughter. She gave Nori her keys so the toddler could scan the key fob and they walked in the doors towards Nori’s classroom, running into Ada the owner and director finishing up a tour of the center with the new preschool teacher, Hyacinth. Her dark brown hair was cut to her shoulders and a red bandana tied to hold half of her hair back, her face was framed by curtain bangs dyed candy apple red; she wore light green overalls with a strap undone to reveal a white short sleeve t-shirt with The Very Hungry Caterpillar appliqued in a quilted style on the front and red and white New Balance sneakers on her feet. She gained a few tattoos since she’d left camp, behind her ear was a vine full of strawberries and blossoms with a little cat hanging off one of the strawberries, circling her right bicep was the green spring blossom pattern Annabeth remembered seeing on the bowls Hyacinth would always use for her baking and serving whenever she brought treats to the dining pavilion, and when the daughter of Demeter ran up to hug her Annabeth noticed a little pegasus tattoo on her wrist reminiscent of the classic Camp Half-Blood t-shirts.
“Annabeth! I heard from Sally that your youngest went here! It’s so great to see you again! How are you doing? Genuinely, you look a little winded.” Hyacinth began to ramble.
Annabeth smiled, “I’m glad to see you too. I’m doing good, I’m sure you know Percy and I got married a while back and now we’ve got three kids. This is our littlest, Eleanor, we call her Nori. Percy works at Willow Creek Middle School, coincidentally with Elena actually. Don’t mind my shortness of breath, Percy and I developed late-onset asthma after…everything…and I’m a little under the weather today so it’s worse than usual.”
Hyacinth made a face, “Right. Sorry! I heard from some of my siblings about that. I’m glad to see you doing mostly okay now though. Sally did mention that they both worked for Paul! Now! Did both girls get your eyes or just little Miss Nori right here?”
“Just Nori. Liese, Annaliese, got Percy’s eyes, however she did get my blonde curls while Nori got Percy’s black waves so both girls got a good mix of us.” Annabeth explained.
“That’s so nice! I’m also curious, I’m in Preschool-3 and I’ve seen my current class list but I’d love to know when I’ll be expecting this princess” she gestured to the toddler, “if she’s anything like her parents I better beware!”
Annabeth laughed, “She turns 2 this weekend so you’ve still got a little while…that reminds me though!” she reached into her purse to pull out the party invitation, “Perce and I were talking last night and thought you’d like to get acquainted–or reacquainted–with some people in the city so we wanted to invite you to Nori’s birthday party this Saturday. It’ll be a small affair: Percy’s family, one of my little brothers might stop by, Elena, I think Connor and Malcolm are going to try to make an appearance, and possibly some work friends. I don’t know if you have any weekend plans so don’t feel obligated to come but you are more than welcome, Percy and Sally both make plenty of food to go around. If you have any preferred beverages you’re more than welcome to bring them, we’ll have sodas, lemonade, water, etcetera, but if there’s something else you like feel free…we just request no alcohol, Percy has an aversion so we try to avoid having it in the house.”
Hyacinth beamed, “I would be more than happy to join y’all, it’ll be great to see everyone again…” she paused, “you said Elena will be there?” Her face looked both hopeful and apprehensive.
“Yes she will. We’re very good friends and the kids are especially close with her.” Annabeth confirmed.
“Good.” Hyacinth smiled again, smaller this time, but genuinely.
“I better get this one to her classroom before I’m late for any of my meetings and my dramamine wears off. I’ll see you on Saturday!” Annabeth said as she walked away.
—
“Who let me have a wife Elena? I swear to the gods! Last night Annabeth and I were on the couch having couple’s gossip time as we do and all she had to do was put her fingers in my hair and it was like my brain just stopped working, I couldn’t even form a full sentence.” Percy lamented.
Elena rolled her eyes, “First of all, I’m far too single for this. Second, like you’d have let anyone stop you from marrying Annabeth. Third, your brain actually works?!”
Percy shot her a glare with no real bite, “Ha Ha you’re soooo funny. Also I thought you said a couple weeks ago things were going well with that daughter of Erato.”
Elena frowned, “They were fine but we seemed to be looking for two different kinds of relationship dynamics.”
Percy nodded, “I see, well maybe you’ll find someone soon who fits the dynamic you’re looking for better…by the way, I hope you’re okay that we did invite Hyacinth to the party, maybe it’d be a good time to talk and become friends again.”
Elena sighed, “It’s okay. I- I’ve been thinking of taking your advice and trying to just apologize and talk to her, maybe it’ll be worth it.”
“Finally! Someone takes my advice!” Percy jumped up from his seat in victory.
Elena scowled at him before laughing, “get to your classroom, lunch period ends in like 5 minutes.”
—
The morning of Nori’s party, Percy and Annabeth tried to keep things as routine as possible while trying to set everything up and decorate. Having planned many a birthday party for their kids before they found that riling up 3 kids with ADHD before they were even dressed was a recipe for disaster. Annabeth organized and cleaned the counters and table while Percy brought out the crockpot and threw in the cheese, sausage, tomatoes, chilis, and blue food coloring for blue nachos. Annabeth set out the yellow bowls of lemon dill hummus, classic hummus, and kalamata olive hummus on a serving platter, arranging yellow and orange peppers around them with green pepper stems to look like daffodil flowers while dumping various other breads, veggies, and crackers for dipping around the rest of the plate.
Percy took on breakfast duty with blue jellyfish-shaped pancakes and sausage egg bites while Annabeth went and picked up the yellow daffodil balloons decor for the party. She was glad Percy wasn’t there to see her nearly cry when she saw how cute they turned out.
By the time Annabeth got home the kids were finished with breakfast and watching Ponyo for the hundredth time on the couch as Percy cleaned up the remnants of breakfast and began laying out the sky blue table clothes and arranging the daffodil bouquets on the counter and table along with little paper daffodils scattered over both surfaces. When he saw Annabeth he gave her a kiss and took the balloons to arrange around the kitchen and living room while she sent the big kids to get dressed and took little Nori to change into her party outfit. Annabeth braided the now 2 year old’s hair into two high pigtails that she then made into little space buns that she put yellow daffodil theme hair bows into and applied some glitter hair gel near the braids to make it extra special for her baby’s big day. She then put the sparkly yellow dress Percy remembered the set out the night before for her on the little girl and put a pair of yellow sandals on her chunky little feet.
Once she was finished with the birthday girl her older two kids were ready in their own yellow themed outfits, Annaliese in a similar dress to Nori’s, her blonde hair in ponytail held up by a yellow flower claw clip and Eugene a white and yellow floral short sleeve button up dress shirt and jeans (and no giant fur coats, Annabeth had to hide a smirk when she noticed he’d forgotten it today). The big kids excitedly informed Annabeth that their aunt Rachel had arrived with the banner she painted for the party.
They went down the stairs again to greet Rachel, Percy noted but didn’t comment on Annabeth very subtly making a face of discomfort when hugging Rachel. Annabeth had been off the past few days with random nausea, food aversions, and now looking almost pained as she hugged one of their best friends of many years; he had an idea of what it meant but didn’t want to push it until things were a little less busy, especially if his suspicions were correct they’d be nothing they hadn’t dealt with before.
Sally and Paul arrived next with Sally’s famous blue chocolate chip cookies which Percy gladly took from her (definitely without stealing a cookie or three before placing the yellow floral plate on the counter) before the kids nearly knocked them over for hugs. The kids adored their Grandma Sally just as much as she adored them, she’d been busy visiting book stories in and around the city all week so they were absolutely thrilled to tell her everything after not seeing her much.
Behind them was Estelle with Margot and Cassie in tow, all three girls had gotten very close over the past months since she’d been claimed and visited camp with them. Estelle carried a little pink toy Target cart filled with her favorite snacks, some new clothes, and a baby version of the Odyssey (mostly to soothe her own feelings knowing her granddaughter has probably listened to the real Odyssey as a bedtime story many, many times), all with a little bow and a baby blue tag that read Nori’s name in English and Ancient Greek. Margot had a small pink bag with a new princess dress and a little tiara from her dad’s jewelry shop and Cassie brought some little sketchbooks and coloring books with fun shaped crayons; Percy could’ve cried at how proud he was of his students’ thoughtfulness.
Annabeth’s little brother Matthew, who’d moved to Cambridge Massachusetts to study civil engineering at MIT also made an appearance with a teddy bear he definitely didn’t buy last minute from the gift shop at the train station before heading up to New York. He and Annabeth had, in recent years, become closer than they’d ever been before with him being in a much nearer proximity and further from her step-mom and dad who, while apologetic for their behavior in her early childhood, still had a somewhat strained relationship with Annabeth. He was in his final year of grad school with an ongoing “unpaid” internship (on top of a promised position as her main engineer when he graduated) with Annabeth’s architecture studio, while he wasn’t paid in cash just yet she did compensate him with train fare, lodging, and food whenever he was in the city as well as a cooler packed by Percy, his mother’s son through and through, with plenty of meals for him and his roommates and occasionally a $20 for pizza if he was ever alone with the kids even for an errand. As a college boy he introduced the Jackson kids to drinking games (any alcohol was replaced with water or juice for obvious reasons) which they highly enjoyed, thus the kids were thrilled to see him visit and begging to play “juice pong” or “never-have-i-ever” gaining some raised eyebrows from the grandparents in the room. Percy and Annabeth just shrugged it off knowing the activities they’d gotten up to at camp could easily cause more than a few mortified gasps and concerned calls to Chiron, what was that phrase about glass houses again?
More guests filtered through until Elena and Hyacinth coincidentally arrived at the exact same time holding boxes that were also suspiciously the exact same size. Percy internally grimaced at Elena trying to avoid eye contact with Hyacinth. He was prepared to escape his conversation with Katie and Malcolm when, to his surprise, Elena actually made the first move.
“I see someone else bought the 300 pack of magnet tiles.” She joked.
Hyacinth laughed, and if you looked closely Elena’s face began to flush as her eyes widened, “How could you tell? I don’t know the kids very well yet but my years working in preschool tells me that these are always a hit.”
“And they’re totally appropriate for a daughter of Annabeth Jackson. I was actually worried I was gonna have to tell Annabeth to leave some for the kids, but looks like there’ll be enough to go around. Percy was telling me you’re at Nori’s daycare now? Have you gotten to spend any time with the gremlin yet?” Elena actually looked…comfortable…in conversation with Hyacinth.
“In my experience it still might have to be a concern. I’ve gotten to see her in passing but I haven’t gotten any classroom time with her. I’ve only spent a little bit of time in my new room at the center, and I have to get through all the New York early childhood training requirements before I get to start doing the full-fledged teacher things.” Hyacinth cleared.
“Ah yes, because kids in New Mexico are vastly different from the ones in New York, therefore, you must be fully retrained again.” Elena snarked.
“First of all, the licensing requirements are different between states,” the daughter of Demeter clarified, “Second, New Mexico didn’t have Jackson children.”
Elena laughed, “I take back what I said, you definitely need all the help you can get.”
“If they’re anything like their parents, I buy it.” Hyacinth smiled.
The daughter of Apollo groaned, “You have no idea. I’ve babysat them before and they keep me on my toes.”
Hyacinth laughed once again.
“By the way…” Elena started, softer now, “I-I’m sorry about the arrow thing at Manhattan.”
Hyacinth softened as well, “Thank you. You don’t need to apologize though, we were all everywhere, it’s not your fault I wound up being in your line of fire, I actually got the scar covered up with this sunflower tattoo.” She subtly pulled the hem of her green silk tea-length skirt up a little to show a tattoo of the bright yellow flower with leaves surrounding it, Elena’s eyes locked onto the woman’s thigh for a moment before quickly looking back up to make eye contact with Hyacinth once again which, if you watched closely (and Percy did), they held just a little too long to be purely platonic.
By this point Percy and Annabeth were both watching the display between the two elder demigods. Looking at one another they had a silent conversation ending in Percy deciding to jump in to “welcome” Elena and Hyacinth at last.
“Elena! Hyacinth! I’m so glad you could make it, Nori will be thrilled to see you!” He then looked between the two women who snapped out of their less than platonic staring contest, “did you two coordinate to get the same thing and come together? Or was it just a coincidence? Either way, I’m just glad to see the two of you talking again!”
Elena chuckled, “no actually, it was just a…”
“A happy accident!” Hyacinth completed, “it’s so good to see you! I hear you work with Elena now! How is that going?”
“It’s great, I get to have my little sister on my mom’s side, Estelle, she’s here somewhere with a few of her friends, they’re demigods and she’s clearsigh…well I haven’t told many people but I was recently informed my maternal grandmother, Estelle’s namesake actually, was a child of Aphrodite so I guess she could actually be classified as a legacy now. Elena’s library is right by my classroom so I get to visit her constantly.” Percy responded.
Elena rolled her eyes humorously, “You get to come and annoy me constantly, especially with your lovey-dovey husband of the fuh–freaking century bull…crap!”
Hyacinth laughed once more making Elena blush, “gods you two are exactly the same as when I left! Although that is crazy to hear about your grandmother! Did you have any idea? She died before you were born right? Because I don’t remember you having any mortal family outside of your mom and her now husband. I definitely see it the way the girls and boys were falling all over you at camp, that and your emotional perception have always been insane!”
Percy blinked at her statement for a moment, “...I only remember having a thing with Annabeth, and kiiiinda Rachel I guess…And yes grandma Estelle and Grandpa died in a plane crash when mom was only 5.”
Hyacinth turned to Elena, “Oh so he’s still as clueless as he was back then…”
Elena made a face, “Unfortunately, which is funny because when I tell you just last week little Estelle came into my office complaining that she saw some demigod on tiktok make a thirst trap edit of some pictures of him when he was a teen.”
Percy blinked, “A what what?”
Hyacinth cackled, “OH MY GODS!” she then turned to Percy, “You really don’t want to know.”
“Well before I can somehow traumatize myself by accidentally finding out, let me just point you towards the gift table over there so you can drop off those boxes and then the food is in the kitchen, Elena can show you. I better go check on the kiddos and keep an eye out for any godly grandparent visits.” Percy interjected and sent them off.
The rest of the party went off without a hitch…well, mostly, Poseidon with Amphitrite and Athena both flashed in and out of the party at separate times to wish the birthday girl well and drop off presents that Percy and Annabeth were like 89% sure were not age appropriate for a mortal 2 year old. As the guests mingled Percy definitely did not notice Elena and Hyacinth nearly attached at the hip, chatting away, and at one point, exchanging phone numbers. Nori was ecstatic to rip the paper off dozens of presents, probably even more than she was about playing with her new presents. Sally and Paul took about a million pictures of the toddler enjoying herself with toys, games, snacks, and so many people to talk to. By the end the little girl was half-asleep, covered head to toe in baby blue frosting, and clutching a brand new fish bath toy like it was her lifeline.
Sally and Paul volunteered to take on bath and party clean up duty so Percy and Annabeth could bid their guests farewell.
—
After having all the kids settled into bed, Matthew doing homework in his guest room, and Sally, Paul, and Estelle returned home. Percy and Annabeth had their debrief of the day.
“So where are we hiding the very much not age appropriate gifts from our non-mortal parents.” Annabeth started.
Percy contemplated for a moment then answered, “aren’t we planning on going to camp next-ish weekend? We can keep them in our room for the week and then store them in the chest under Tyson’s bunk in Poseidon cabin. Anyway, did you see Elena and Hyacinth? Did I actually do it? That was kinda fun, I’m not gonna lie.”
Annabeth sighed, “Yes I saw Elena and Hyacinth, you succeeded in getting them in the same room the rest of the way is up to them and the fates, and slooooooow down Mr Legacy, remember that we’re not making the matchmaking thing a habit. This was a ONE time thing, Aphrodite or her assistants can do their own work next time.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” Percy settled, “sorry, been a while since I felt anything like a post-quest high….OH! I just remembered, I had something for you!”
Annabeth raised an eyebrow, “You have something for me? Since when do I get gifts on our children' s birthdays?”
“Since I need to confirm a suspicion I have sooner rather than later.” Percy answered fishing a small box out of the drawer.
“Percy! This is a…” Annabeth exclaimed.
Percy nodded, “I know, but you’ve been unusually nauseous this week, I saw you flinch like it hurt your chest when hugging mom this morning and that’s unusual for you, and then I’ve noticed you’ve been especially sensitive to certain smells that I’ve only ever seen bother you when you were pregnant. We did have that weekend getaway a couple weeks ago so I think it’s appropriate you go take a test.”
Annabeth flushed, raised an eyebrow, and stared him down…but she couldn’t find any flaws in his logic so she grabbed the test from him and marched to the bathroom.
They both waited with bated breath for three whole minutes til the test was ready. Annabeth elected Percy to turn it over as it was his idea for her to take the test in the first place.
When he saw the results he couldn’t help but blurt “Oh My Gods.”
Annabeth immediately to see in the little results window || two lines. The test was positive. She immediately let out her own “Oh My Gods” before the couple hugged tearfully and eventually went to bed already scheduling OB appointments for a new addition to their little family.