Chapter Text
Song: Begin Again—Taylor Swift
If there was one mortal invention Athena thought to be quite fantastic, it was coffee. Forget the aeroplanes, the Titanic, and even the creation of Kindle Unlimited. There were very few things she preferred more than a steam-filled coffee shop after a morning out in the icy New York winter. Perhaps only winning at something or other, especially Scrabble, brought her more joy. And for once, it was nice for her to relax. The war with Kronos had been draining for all of the Olympians, but considering she'd been the one making all of the plans, instructing all the members of her idiotic family and helping the demigods, Athena was completely worn out, even three months later. And of course, her meatheaded father didn't believe in taking any breaks, hence why she was sitting in an armchair in midtown Manhattan, drawing up battle maps and doing her best to avoid the mortals around her.
To say Athena and Zeus had a complicated relationship was an understatement. Of course he loved her, probably more than any of his other children, but Zeus did not win parent of the year by any measure. It was bad enough he'd eaten her mother and left her without any feminine guidance for her entire life until she'd made friends with Aphrodite, but his continued nagging for more war plans, more reports, and more hard work was exhausting even for an immortal. Hence why she'd turned to coffee to keep her conscious whilst she worked. A shot of nectar and four shots of espresso made concentrating much easier, even if Poseidon joked that she was an addict.
Contrary to popular belief, Athena did not despise the sea god as everyone made out she did. She may dislike some of his decisions and find him mind-bogglingly annoying at times, but she didn't hate him. Because for all their spats and bickering over the years, Poseidon had never said anything truly damning to her. There was always a line that neither of them were willing to cross mid-argument, and for that, she begrudgingly respected him (accompanied by the fact he'd essentially proven her right when Zeus said they could win the war without him. Athena had told Zeus to stop being stupid. Zeus had shut up very quickly after that.) Unlike several of the other male Olympians, he'd never made her feel inadequate simply because of the fact she was a woman, which she did appreciate.
Olympus for women had never been what it was for men. Instead of a paradisical safe haven for creatures of the mythological world, it was a den of hungry wolves, and you were the lamb. Pheme and her minions were especially vitriolic. The gossip spirit's affair and subsequent rejection by Zeus had turned her bitter against his wife and, seemingly, women in general, and she made it her mission to slander anyone female who put a toe out of line. Aphrodite was labelled 'whore' on a daily basis, Artemis was called a prude, and Athena herself was made out to be some sort of obese whale. Which simply wasn't true. She wasn't sure when her issues with food had begun, just that one day she'd woken up the hospital with a concerned Aphrodite telling her she'd fainted due to a lack of nutrition. Of course, Aphrodite hadn't stayed concerned for long and started whining about Poseidon getting married to Amphitrite, which seemed ironic in Athena’s eyes now.
Their divorce had taken the mythological world by storm. Especially now given that there were rumors she was with Delphin, Poseidon's best friend, which made the whole situation exponentially worse. Zeus had not been pleased when he'd heard of this news (probably, Athena mused silently, because he was jealous Hera would never agree to divorce him), and the arguments had been so nasty that the Olympian council was on a break for a month while Zeus cooled his temper and tried to convince his brother to take another wife. Which again, was utterly moronic, as everyone on Olympus knew trying to convince Poseidon to do anything he didn't want to do was fruitless. Especially not when it came to women.
And it wasn't like there was a shortage of women around for him. There were hundreds basically lining up to become the Queen of Atlantis, as that had been one thing Amphitrite had promptly ditched along with her husband. Given that the news of the divorce had come out nearly six weeks ago by now, Aphrodite had lost three hundred drachma in her bet with Apollo that Poseidon would go through a slew of women. As far as anyone on Olympus knew, he hadn't even talked to a single one. Probably partly due to the fact it was difficult to differentiate between who wanted the titles and who wanted him (there were, of course, tons of women who'd be perfectly happy to take both). No, instead of that, he'd spent his time carrying on life as normal in Atlantis or taking Percy Jackson out on father-son days that were perfectly doable when you only had one demigod child.
Athena blinked, staring back at her battle plan and willing herself to focus. She had far better things to be doing than considering the state of Poseidon's mental health after his divorce, and if she kept it up, she'd only end up with Aphrodite pestering her with unfounded accusations. (It would not be the first time. Aphrodite had gone through several rounds of trying to convince Athena she was secretly enamored by the feckless kelp head. All had been unsuccessful.)
Attempting to concentrate on her shield wall diagram, she found herself unable to when she sensed another godly presence in the room beside herself, like a bird sensing another in its tree. And unfortunately he'd spotted her too. The one person she wasn't in the mood to see, yet had found herself unable to stop thinking about all day. Because deep down, Athena realized, she did care about him. The idea of Poseidon being unhappy did sting in some way, purely because she'd never known him to be anything other than joyful. Sure, he could be moody and irritating, but most Olympians could agree he was the one people went to when they needed cheering up quickly. The sea god approached her table with a smile far too wide for her liking, taking the fact that she didn't immediately throw something at him as an invitation to sit down. Athena rolled her eyes.
"Kelp Head. What are you doing here apart from bothering me?"
He simply scoffed, folding his arms. "Don't act like my presence isn't more interesting than whatever that nonsense is."
"This nonsense is the stuff that keeps us all safe when Olympus gets attacked." Athena hissed, swiping her plans off the table and cramming them into the bag beside her armchair. "Now, why exactly are you in a mortal café on a random Wednesday morning?"
"I was with Percy. Dropped him off at school." Poseidon shrugged nonplussed. "And I needed coffee."
"Ahh, was the seeing Percy merely an excuse to flirt with his mother?" Athena sniped, sipping the coffee he'd placed on the table in front of her. She'd been so lost in thought she hadn't even noticed her mug had been empty for nearly half an hour. Poseidon scoffed. "She's married, bird brain. I do have some respect."
"Could've fooled me. Besides, you're Olympus' most sought-after bachelor. I'm sure many a wife would be leaving their husbands for a chance."
"Was that a compliment I heard there?"
"In your dreams, water weed," Athena bristled. "All I'm saying is everyone is expecting you to have found a new wife by now. I don't get why you haven't."
"Maybe because I don't see the point of marrying someone I'm not in love with. I've done it once; I won't do it again."
The wisdom goddess blinked at that. "You were never in love with her? At all?"
Poseidon bit his lip and shook his head slowly. "No, I don't think I ever was. Obviously, I love her as a friend. And I'm happy for her. But I was never in love with her."
"What about Sally?" Maybe that was a sore spot. Athena couldn't fathom a solid reason she was interrogating the man about his love life, but it was a multitude more interesting than those war plans.
Poseidon snorted. "Athena. You know as well as anyone a god cannot truly be in love with a mortal."
"Dionysus did."
"But he turned Ariadne immortal. You can't understand one another otherwise because our worlds and life experiences are so different. Besides, Dionysus cheats on Ariadne constantly."
"Hades cheated on Persephone, and I'd say he loves her. Aphrodite does love Ares, yet they both have affairs." She did enjoy being petty and coming up with scenarios to object to his arguments. "Touché. I don't think either of those couples are particularly happy, though."
"Persephone says Hades gets tetchy whenever he steps out of their marriage."
"And I understand it. For Gaia's sake, I've spent the last four thousand years feeling like an imposter every time I stood next to Amphitrite with a constant sinking feeling of 'This isn't right; it should be someone else.' And however much I prayed it'd go away with time, it never did."
Athena simply smiled sadly and stared around the cafe, the mug warming her frigid hands slightly. "So, anyway, feather brain." He smiled at her, one of those irritatingly mischievous ones that she just knew was going to bring her trouble. "Enough about my miserable love life. Tell me about yours."
Athena’s face twisted into one of abject disgust. "What love life? There's nothing to tell. I have never been in love with anyone, and I sincerely doubt I ever will." Not true, a tiny voice in some long-abandoned corner of her brain cried through the rest, but she ignored it. "Pessimist. I was hoping for some inside scoop."
"Well, you're in the wrong place. Go bother Aphrodite for that."
Poseidon looked horrified. "Absolutely not. She keeps trying to set me up on blind dates. I think I'd rather spend a week in Tartarus."
"You certainly have the horrifying face to fit right in there."
Poseidon rolled his eyes, smiling slightly. He knew she didn't really mean it. "I think this is the first time you and I have had a prolonged conversation without you yelling at me."
"That's because you haven't said anything to make me deem you a complete cretin yet."
"Wow, rude. Anyway, I quite enjoy this."
"Enjoy what?"
"Talking to you. Without arguing."
Athena stared at her mug balanced precariously in her lap. "I don't argue with you because I enjoy it. It's probably one of the only constant things in my life, you know."
Poseidon's eyes softened as he looked at her, and Athena had to remind herself that crying was not an option. That was only an option when she was alone, in a dark room. And it wasn't necessary that often. The small number of times she'd cried silently to herself were when Annabeth had been taken by that manticore, and before that it was when she'd been holding Pallas' dead body. The girl who'd been like her little sister, her blood running down Athena’s spear. Prior to that, there'd been the time Hermes had had to console her at Odysseus' deathbed, and then she'd come bursting into Aphrodite's room after fleeing the forges that day. Oh, and there'd been the time in the hospital after her two-week coma, when she felt nauseous from the sense of something being wrong, yet she couldn't put her finger on it. Once again, Aphrodite had had to hold her whilst she bawled. But crying in front of Poseidon—that was a new low she would not stoop to.
"Have you ever been to therapy?" The sea god suggested lightly, and Athena resisted the urge to stop on his foot with her heel. "That's rich coming from you."
"I think everyone on Olympus needs to go. Some more than others," he said, entirely serious.
"Oh, my father should be the first through the door. Followed swiftly by Hera."
"Hey, cut Hera some slack. Imagine being married to that."
"That's what everyone said to Amphitrite for four thousand years; I hope you're aware."
"Gods, Thee, there was no need for that." He blinked profusely, realizing what he'd said. "Shit, sorry. I didn't mean to call you that."
Athena didn't say anything for a few moments, her mind reeling like a ship crashing against the waves of a storm. Okay, maybe that metaphor was a tad too on point. "Language." She breathed, "And it's fine. I suppose you may use that term to address me."
"But you only let your friends call you that?" He looked entirely confused, like some sort of baby duck that had become separated from the rest of its pack and had nowhere else to go. And Athena herself felt just as confused. Did she consider Poseidon her friend? He did know more about her than the average person. After all, knowing parts of someone's private life was great cannon fodder for bickering. And he did make her laugh more often than most people. And he was dependable when she needed him to be, like in the middle of a war. Troy, for example. Or even three months ago. The wisdom goddess sighed. "And against what is probably my better judgement, I do consider you a friend."
Poseidon raised his eyebrows. "So does that mean no more fighting?"
"I'm going to get annoyed if you say something idiotic. I've spent too many years doing so to stop now."
"Point taken. Hey, did you know the sun is a planet? I'm kidding; there's no need to look so angry."
Athena shook her head, taking a long sip of coffee. "You truly infuriate me at times. But thank you for this. How did you know my coffee order anyway?" She gestured to the empty mug, and he waved her off. "You get it delivered to the council chamber like four times a day. Everyone knows it."
"No, they don't." She laughed. "I asked Ares to make me a coffee, and he came back with some kind of mocha. Even though I hate chocolate."
"Well, I guess I know more about you than you thought, Thee." He smiled at her, standing up to leave, and something in Athena’s chest lurched slightly. "When are we next back in session?"
"When my father has calmed down about the terrible fact you aren't married anymore."
"Tragic, I know." Poseidon's smirk was filled with joy for once, not malice. "I'll see you soon, feather brain. Enjoy your war plans."
"I will, don't you worry."
The bell on the door jingled as he left, and Athena sighed, drawing out the next line of defense on a fresh sheet of parchment. Whatever that confusing conversation had been, she thought, she enjoyed it. She enjoyed talking to Poseidon when he wasn't doing his best to be annoying. And as much as she hated to admit it, that irritatingly handsome smile was probably the reason that he had women lining up by the dozen to date him (she would rather be shot than admit that to anyone, least of all Aphrodite).
"Excuse me, ma'am." The appearance of a mortal server snapped her out of her daze. His eyes were wide with fear when she turned around so suddenly, almost jolting the mug he was clutching out of his grip. "This is for you."
"Oh thank you." Athena took the mug and then stopped suddenly, turning back to the server. "Wait, I didn't order this?"
"The gentleman with dark hair ordered it for you before he left. Your husband?" The server blinked, confused, and Athena decided it was best not to press him. She took a sip of the beverage and smiled despite herself. Poseidon did know exactly how she liked her coffee.