Chapter Text
Three days into Percy’s stay at camp and he was willing to admit that hiding his relationship with Lee from everyone was…harder than either of them had thought it would be.
All Percy really wanted to do was be with Lee all the time—and maybe share a few kisses and cuddles as well, but…okay, look, now that Percy knew he wanted to kiss Lee and also knew he could kiss Lee…nobody could blame him for wanting to do it as often as he could.
Percy was a tactile person. He liked physical touch—casual hugs and hands running through his hair and holding hands and laying his head on shoulders and leaning up against someone—he just liked it. It grounded him, kept him warm—he was just a tactile person who’d grown up with a mother that gave physical affection as easy as breathing and so now sought it like most people sought oxygen.
Thankfully, Lee didn’t seem to have any complaints with Percy seeking him out as often as possible over the last several days so they could sneak away and just—just be.
Somehow, they’d managed to make it without slipping up, but Percy was beginning to have his doubts about how much longer they could keep it up.
As fun as it was to sneak around camp, holding hands in secret and hiding around corners to trade quick kisses, a part of Percy wanted to just give up on the subterfuge and kiss Lee straight on the lips at dinner one night so they could watch every other camper implode.
The rest of Percy knew that as soon as camp found out, the two of them would lose any modicum of peace they had in figuring things out on their own—their every movement would be dogged, watchful eyes following them on every walk through camp, cataloguing every kiss and laugh and held hands.
So, they kept up with it. They snuck around during every free time, dodging other campers and escaping to somewhere they didn’t have to hide—the stables were a common place, since the pegasi would give Percy a warning if anyone was approaching, and Percy’s own cabin was another, though they mostly just chilled in the seating area on the couches because the concept of hanging out on the bed together made them both blush so hard they couldn’t even look at each other for five minutes.
They’d agreed to meet at cabin three again for free time before dinner—Percy, as a summer only camper, didn’t technically have a schedule for this week and so had just been going with the Aphrodite cabin for most things and splitting off to hang with Lee every time the Apollo cabin had a scheduled free time—and Percy was counting down the minutes as he patiently adjusted Nico’s form one more time.
The son of Hades had bounced up to Percy the night before and all but begged Percy for some pointers on sword fighting.
Percy, face to face with Nico’s pleading eyes, had crumbled—and now he knew how his dad felt every time Percy used the begging face on him.
“So,” Percy started casually. “How’d the conversation with your dad go at the winter solstice?”
Nico shifted on his feet awkwardly, dropping his guard just the slightest. Percy nudged it back up without a word as he waited for a response.
“It was good,” Nico said eventually. “He explained why he hadn’t claimed me yet—how I’d be treated at camp, the danger I’d be in from…from his youngest brother—said I was better off as an unclaimed demigod in the Hermes cabin than a known son of Hades. I guess it doesn’t matter much anyways, even if he had claimed me, I’d still be sleeping on the floor of the Hermes cabin like I am now.”
Percy hummed, walking Nico through a few more drills silently as an idea formed in his mind.
“Do you…Nico, do you like it here?” Percy asked several minutes later, “I mean, do you want to stay at camp year-round?”
“Not like I have much choice,” Nico muttered bitterly, executing a near perfect thrust on the dummy in front of him.
“But if you did,” Percy continued. “If you had another option—another place to stay—would you…”
“What—like, go to another boarding school?” Nico tilted his head to the side.
“No,” Percy told him. “I just—you could, if you wanted, you could…stay with my mom and I?”
Was it, perhaps, a bad idea to offer for Nico to stay with the two of them without even consulting his mom?
Maybe.
Did he think for a second that Mom would say no?
Not a chance.
If Percy’d adopted Nico within five seconds, he’d bet everything he owned that his mom would do it in half that time.
Nico dropped his practice sword in shock, blinking up at Percy for so long that he was beginning to think he’d made a mistake.
“Are you…you’re not messing with me, right? You’re serious?” Nico’s voice trembled.
“Completely serious,” Percy said. “I—we’re cousins, yeah? And we don’t really have…us Big Three kids have to stick together cause there’s—well, there’s not exactly a lot of us. We look out for each other.”
Nico bit his lip, looking down at his feet. “I’d really like to not sleep on the floor anymore,” was all he said.
Percy grinned, tugging the kid into a quick hug and ruffling his hair—a move that had Nico squawking in protest.
Lee was waiting for him on the porch of cabin three, and he raised a single eyebrow at Percy’s sheepish grin.
“What did you do?” He asked suspiciously as he followed Percy quickly into the cabin.
“One sec,” Percy said, digging in his bag for a drachma. “Need to I-M my mom real quick.”
Percy set up the I-M in seconds, ignoring Lee’s questioning noise.
Sally Jackson was sitting at the kitchen table, her head thrown back in laughter, when the image appeared in the mist.
Percy blinked, caught off guard by the unfamiliar man sitting next to her. He looked around her age, mid length salt-and-pepper hair tucked behind his ears as he joined Percy’s mother in uproarious laughter.
Sally noticed the mist hovering about the table only seconds later, shooting upright in her seat with wide eyes.
“Sally?” The man asked, his own laughter tapering off.
“It’s nothing, Paul,” she assured him, not taking her eyes off of Percy in the mist. “I just…need to go to the bathroom real quick.”
She was out of her seat before Paul could do anything more than blink, speeding down the hallway and locking herself in the bathroom. The I-M, thankfully, fuzzed out briefly before reforming in the bathroom.
“Percy,” his mom said quietly, “I wasn’t—wasn’t expecting your call. Has something happened?”
“Um…I just needed to—to ask you something, but…who—who was that?”
Percy’s mom looked away tellingly, her cheeks pinking slightly. “That’s just Paul—Mr. Blofis. He’s in my writing seminar. We’re working on homework together.”
“Oh, that’s—that’s nice.” Percy shifted on his feet, the wind taken out of his sails at the sight of his mom laughing with some guy in their apartment.
“You said you wanted to ask me something?” Sally prompted.
“Right, yes,” Percy floundered for another moment before biting the bullet—it’s not like his mom would say no. “How would you feel about another child?”
Lee, off to the side, looked at Percy like he’d lost his mind.
“What?” Percy’s mom blinked.
“His name’s Nico,” Percy said. Lee’s face flashed with understanding, and he shook his head incredulously. “He’s—he’s my cousin, but he doesn’t want to stay at camp year-round cause he’ll be all by himself and his dad doesn’t have a cabin so he’s sleeping on the floor of the Hermes cabin and he’s just a kid and he doesn’t have any siblings to look after him anymore since his sister just died and—”
“Perseus.”
Percy stopped, shutting his mouth with an audible clack and peering up at his mom pleadingly.
Sally looked at him, blue eyes unreadable, for several long moments before sighing. “I’ll set up the guest room. How old is he?”
Percy’s shoulders lost some of their tension. “Ten.”
She shook her head with a rueful grin. “I shouldn’t even be surprised. For all of your similarities to your father, you truly are my son.”
“And proud of it,” Percy grinned. “Just wait—I bet you’ll adopt him even quicker than I did.”
Percy’s mom hummed, something like worry flashing in her eyes, and Percy knew she was thinking of the cost of caring for another child.
“Oh, and don’t worry about the money part of it,” Percy said brightly, “I intend to bully his father into paying child support.”
Sally leveled him with a look, like she couldn’t decide between telling him she was proud or telling him to be careful.
“We’ll be home Saturday morning. I’ll let you get back to your…homework,” Percy winked, swiping his hand through the mist before she could do more than narrow her eyes at the insinuation. It may make him a little uncomfortable to know that his mom had a guy over, a guy she seemed to like, but…she’d looked happy with him.
Percy would never not want his mom to do something that made her happy.
“How exactly are you planning on bullying Nico’s father into paying child support?” Lee asked tiredly.
Percy grinned sharply and that seemed to be answer enough for Lee, who rolled his eyes good-naturedly and pulled Percy over to one of the couches, grumbling about boyfriends with death wishes and how he would very much like it if said boyfriend didn’t get himself killed within a week of them getting together.
Percy huffed out a laugh as he settled against Lee’s side, curling into his space heater boyfriend gladly.
“Have you thought about how many monsters you’ll attract?” Lee asked him quietly. “Two children of the Big Three in one place?”
Percy winced, turning sheepish eyes on Lee. “Will you be mad if I tell you it honestly hadn’t occurred to me?”
Lee let out a breath, “I can’t be mad at you when you look like that.”
“Like what?”
Lee tilted Percy’s chin up with a warm hand, placing a soft kiss to the tip of his nose. “So earnest. You’re a good person, Percy, even though sometimes you make me want to bang something against the wall.”
Lee realized what he’d said right as a smirk stretched across Percy’s face.
“Don’t—”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing—”
“Don’t—”
“You can bang me against the wall anytime,” Percy teased.
Lee gave him a distinctly unimpressed look, though the red on his cheeks betrayed him—and he couldn’t even be mad, honestly, he’d walked right into that one. Percy couldn’t be blamed for taking a golden opportunity.
Lee narrowed his eyes, blatant heat flashing through them. He leaned forward, dragging Percy into a kiss with a hand on the back of his neck.
“Don’t tempt me,” Lee breathed against his lips, and Percy would deny the noise he made for the rest of his life.
Percy felt more than saw the satisfied grin on Lee’s lips as he was drawn into another heated kiss, Lee’s nails digging into his scalp just enough to send a shiver down his spine.
Percy was more than a little breathless by the time Lee drew back, thoughtlessly chasing his boyfriend’s lips.
Look, Percy couldn’t be blamed for wanting to kiss his boyfriend all the time. He was a fourteen-year-old boy.
He was a weak fourteen-year-old boy with a very attractive boyfriend—his first ever boyfriend that he liked very much and had known for quite a while before dating.
Lee huffed in amusement, gladly giving Percy one last slow kiss before slumping back on the couch.
“How am I ever supposed to do anything else when you do things like that?” Lee murmured breathlessly, shifting to pull Percy back into his side.
Percy hummed, laying his head on Lee’s shoulder and reaching to lace their fingers together. “I’m not exactly complaining here. You could kiss me every five seconds and I’d probably still think it’s not enough.”
Lee’s fingers tightened their grip momentarily. “You can’t just say things like that,” he muttered.
“Mmmm, and why not?” Percy’s head was perfectly positioned to watch Lee’s throat bob as he swallowed roughly. “I like kissing you and holding your hand and sitting with you like this, and I’d do it every minute of every day if I could.”
A moment of silence, just long enough that Percy began to fear he’d gone too far too fast. His muscles stiffened and he started to raise his head off Lee’s shoulder.
“I just mean—”
“Glad to see we’re on the same page,” Lee said, his arm tightening around Percy’s shoulder and keeping him in place—keeping him from freaking out. “Frankly, I was a little worried that I was being too touchy and you just didn’t want to tell me.”
Percy snorted lightly, “I’m sorry—what about any of my responses to your touches have given you the barest impression that I wasn’t more than happy with it?”
Percy watched the blush form on Lee’s cheeks with satisfaction.
“Nothing,” he said, “I just—I didn’t want to cross a line, and you not say anything because you were worried about ruining things or making them awkward—and don’t tell me that’s not something you’d do.”
Lee gave Percy a look when he tried to protest that had him slumping back down and admitting defeat.
“You have a point there,” he conceded. “But I’m telling you now that you’ve crossed no lines and I’m—I’m more than happy with how things have been going.”
“And you’ll tell me if I ever do cross a line—physical or otherwise?” Lee pressed.
“As long as you do the same,” Percy promised.
Lee gave the promise easily, and Percy grinned lightly.
“Look at us—communicating maturely and checking in with each other. Silena’d be proud. She always says how important it is to establish boundaries in relationships.”
Lee gave a low hum in agreement, thumb rubbing where their hands were joined, slowly and gently and thoughtlessly.
“In the interest of making my boundaries clear,” Lee said eventually. “I am supremely comfortable with what we’ve done so far, the hand holding and the kissing and the casual touches and stuff like we’re doing right now.”
“I believe this would be called cuddling,” Percy smiled softly.
“And cuddling,” Lee amended. “I like all that, and I am definitely okay with doing it more often—as often as we can, preferably.”
“Ditto,” Percy said. Lee rolled his eyes, flicking him lightly on the cheek.
“Gonna need more than that, Hammerhead.”
Percy hmmphed but obliged, his eyebrows furrowing as he thought carefully.
“I’m good—more than good—with everything we’ve done so far. I’m a pretty tactile person—Mom’s always given physical affection pretty easily so I just…I’m pretty open to most kinds of physical contact, especially with you. I can’t—I mean, I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t be comfortable with.”
Lee’s lips twitched and Percy smacked him in the chest with their joined hands.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” he huffed. “You know what I meant.”
“Mmmm, do I, though?” Lee teased.
“Oh, fuck you,” Percy grumbled.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Percy groaned, burying his face in Lee’s shoulder as his boyfriend tried to hold back his laughter.
“Quit being mean to me,” he complained into Lee’s shirt.
“Alright, alright,” Lee took pity on him. “Jokes aside, that is something we should talk about while we’re on the subject.”
Percy felt a blush creep back up his face. It was one thing to joke about it—an actual serious discussion about it was another, entirely different, matter.
“Right,” Lee said in the uncomfortable silence. “I’ll go first then, yeah? I, ah, would be interested in—in going farther physically someday, but…but maybe not for a while.”
Percy’s muscles lost their tension, “I—yeah, that’s…I agree with that. Someday.”
“We’ll just go with the flow,” Lee said. “Communicate with each other and do whatever we’re both comfortable with.”
“I like that,” Percy squeezed Lee’s hand softly. Lee chuckled, using their joined hands to tilt Percy’s chin up and giving him a slow, sweet kiss.
The conch signaled dinner soon after that, and they reluctantly rejoined the rest of camp, keeping a respectable distance between each other as they entered the pavilion.
“See you after dinner,” Percy said, unable to hide his lack of enthusiasm—it’d been better when Thalia had been at camp, because they’d been able to yell at each other from their respective lonely tables and nobody had cared. The Demeter cabin, Percy’s only other neighboring table, was nice to talk to on occasion, but it wasn’t the same.
Lee’s eyes narrowed as a contemplative look flashed over his face. “How would you feel about restarting the custody battle between our dads by sitting at my table?”
Percy paused, tilting his head as he thought the idea over. He couldn’t deny it appealed to him—it wasn’t like Apollo would have any issue with it. If anything, the sun god would be undeniably smug about it and take the opportunity to gloat about it to Poseidon. Percy’s father, on the other hand, would almost certainly be ridiculously jealous about the whole thing—Percy could almost see the grumpy pout.
And, most importantly, Percy wouldn’t have to sit alone.
Lee caught the way Percy’s lips twitched up and grinned, interlocking their arms and dragging him over to table seven.
Lee’s siblings were already there, and Will barely glanced up from his plate when Percy and Lee settled across the table from him.
“Hey, Lee, Percy.”
The rest of the Apollo children gave quick greetings as though nothing was out of the ordinary.
Percy could see the moment it clicked for them, all of their heads shooting up at once.
“…Percy?” Kayla asked.
“Hey, Kayla,” Percy said easily, reaching for the brisket and steadfastly ignoring the stunned children of Apollo. Next to him, Lee’s shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.
Austin made several efforts to speak, his mouth opening and closing over and over again.
“Hope you don’t mind me joining you,” Percy said, taking pity on his friends. “Gets awfully lonely at my table. Figured your dad wouldn’t mind if his prophet sat at his table, yeah?”
Silence. And then…
“Fair enough,” Michael sighed. “Pass me the rolls, then.”
Percy grinned, handing the bowl to Michael and picking up his now full dinner plate. Lee followed him, still snickering intermittently at his siblings’ faces.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so speechless before,” he wheezed as the two of them approached the brazier.
Percy chuckled, tossing a cluster of grapes into the fire.
“Hey, Dad, hope you don’t mind me sitting at the Apollo table,” he said casually, ignoring Lee’s choked wheeze from behind him. “It’s just that it’s awfully lonely at table three and I knew Apollo wouldn’t mind.”
Percy never knew a sea breeze could feel grumpy, and yet his father had managed to perfectly convey his emotions regarding the matter.
He slid a roll in next. “Thanks for being chill about me sitting at your table, Apollo, hope my dad doesn’t give you too much grief about it.”
Sunlight danced on the inside of Percy’s eyelids, the heat of the sun blazing along his limbs for a moment. Oh, Apollo was so smug, Percy could tell.
“You’re an instigating little shit, you know that?” Lee muttered, sidling up next to him and tossing two slices of brisket into the flames with a quiet thanks, Dad.
“It was your idea,” Percy retorted, tossing another roll in for Hestia with a silent prayer and then picking up a couple slices of brisket.
“How many sacrifices are you making, dude?” Lee raised an eyebrow.
“Just one more,” Percy grinned, dropping the brisket in the fire. “Uncle Hades, I’ve adopted your child and would like to request child support. I’ll look after him regardless, but I will make sure to complain about you to my father if you don’t and I’m sure you know he can be just as persistently annoying as I can, so…”
Invisible shadows slipped up his legs, sending a chill crawling up his spine in a distinctly annoyed manner.
Hmmm.
Well, Percy hadn’t been smote on the spot, so he was considering that a success.
Lee was still shaking his head when they returned to their seats. “Only you, Perce.”
Percy grinned, and the sight was seemingly enough for the other Apollo kids to decide they didn’t want to know.
They made it all the way to announcements—apparently, they had enough campers at camp for winter break that they could play Capture the Flag on Friday instead of the usual year-round Friday games—before Chiron noticed.
“The laurels are held by Athena and Ares, so please—” A pause. A nearly imperceptible sigh. “Percy Jackson.”
Nearly every camper turned to table three, and he could see the double takes when they saw the empty table.
Every single Apollo kid ducked their head to hide their amusement while Percy blinked innocently up at Chiron.
“Yes, Chiron?”
No less than four kids at the Athena table alone choked on their drinks when Percy’s voice came from the Apollo table, and every single head in the pavilion whipped around to stare at him.
Well, at least he was used to being stared at.
“Have you considered, perhaps, that you may be at the wrong table?”
“Not really, no.” Percy kept up a truly impressive poker face. Up at the head table, Mr. D was smirking into his can of Diet Coke, likely remembering the events of the winter solstice and seeing how this was going to end.
“Perseus,” Chiron sounded impossibly tired of dealing with children.
“I got tired of sitting by myself,” Percy said. “Figured Apollo wouldn’t mind if I sat at his table.”
“You are aware that sitting at a table other than your own parent’s is against the rules?”
“It’s not like Apollo’s gonna smite me for it,” Percy protested. “In fact, I’m positive he’s ridiculously smug about it and he’d likely be offended if you made me move.”
Mr. D snorted so hard he inhaled soda and Chiron sighed in a way Percy knew meant he’d won.
“As I was saying, Athena and Ares hold the laurels, so other cabins make sure to…”
Lee buried his face in Percy’s shoulder to muffle his laughter, and Percy had to press his lips tightly together to keep from losing his straight face.
Next morning found Percy ducking into the pavilion and stopping short at the sight of a familiar face at the Poseidon table.
“Rhode?”
Percy’s sister turned in her seat, smiling warmly at him. “Little brother, heard you were lonely at meals.”
Percy was silent for a total of ten seconds before breaking out into peals of laughter.
“Oh, this is brilliant,” he gasped, collapsing into the seat across from Rhode. “Never could I have ever expected this response, but—ha!—good gods, I can’t even—how jealous was he?”
“Immensely,” Rhode told him wryly, her eyes glimmering with poorly hidden amusement. “The rest of us found it quite hilarious—Triton almost cried he laughed so hard at Father’s face when he first got your prayer. I believe, little brother, that you may be well on your way to overtaking Kym in terms of gray hairs you’ll give him. Don’t tell her I said that though, or she’ll just take it as a challenge.”
Percy grinned, plucking up a pastry.
Benthesikyme showed up for lunch, and Herophile for dinner—a mistake Poseidon only made once, since Percy was quick to convince the oracle to join him in sitting at Apollo’s table.
For the rest of the week Percy’s immortal siblings joined him for meals at the Poseidon table. Chiron did little more than sigh with each new appearance, Mr. D seemed to find the whole ordeal amusing, and the rest of camp adjusted eventually to the deities casually keeping Percy company.
Lee found the whole thing uproariously hilarious, though he made a point of pouting after every meal Percy didn’t join him for.
Clarisse slunk into camp Friday morning and Silena was quick to steal her away under the guise of fixing her choppy haircut. Percy slipped into the Aphrodite cabin after them.
“You look like shit,” was the first thing he said.
Clarisse scowled at him. “You don’t look so hot yourself, Sleeping Beauty. Heard you went through it while I was gone.”
“That makes two of us,” Percy snorted, flopping onto the couch opposite the daughter of Ares. Silena rolled her eyes as she snipped at Clarisse’s hair, but didn’t bother telling them to be nice to each other. It was how they showed their care.
“Suppose you know where I’ve been?”
“The Labyrinth,” Percy said.
Clarisse grunted. “Stumbled upon an entrance near my house when I was visiting my mom, told Chiron about it, he wanted me to investigate and see if there was a way to navigate it. Said he was worried about the Titans using it to sneak into camp.”
“He’s right to be worried,” Percy said quietly. “Luke’s already sent scouts. None have made it back yet, but…”
“But?” Silena prompted when Percy trailed off.
He bit his lip, running a finger along the dark lines spreading out from the starburst scar on his palm—the only physical remnant of Luke’s attempt on Percy’s life his first summer.
“Luke won’t stop trying. I haven’t—haven’t seen how it all plays out yet, but he’ll keep sending people, no matter how many get killed. He already…Chris is in there.”
Silena gasped, blue eyes wide with horror. Clarisse stiffened like she’d been stuck with a cattle prod.
“He’s alive,” Percy assured them. “He won’t—it’s not his fate to die down there. He’ll make it out.”
Though he might wish he didn’t.
“That’s good then, right?” Silena smiled shakily.
“Depends on your point of view,” Clarisse said darkly. “The things I saw down there…”
Percy turned away when his two friends looked at him questioningly, unable to hold their gazes. It would give them no comfort to know the state Chris would be in when he emerged from the maze.
The memory of Chris’s screams as he was driven mad had haunted Percy’s dreams all week, and likely would continue to do so.
“Annabeth and I aren’t on speaking terms,” he said eventually. “Don’t suppose Ares wants another ally tonight?”
Clarisse narrowed her eyes at the abrupt subject change. Percy met her gaze evenly, refusing to budge on his decision to keep Chris’s state to himself.
The daughter of Ares was clearly unhappy about it, but she relented, accepting Percy’s alliance in the game that night with a grunt.
“Great, see you two later.”
Percy ducked out of cabin ten, intent on finding Lee so his boyfriend could improve his mood. Halfway to the archery range Annabeth appeared directly in front of him, Yankees cap clutched in one hand.
Percy blinked, taken aback by her seeking him out after a week of stone-cold silence—no, really, she hadn’t so much as looked at him since their conversation at the dock.
“I suppose you’ve already allied with the Ares cabin, then?” She asked icily.
“As a matter of fact—”
Annabeth scoffed. “Why am I not surprised?”
“You really shouldn’t be,” Percy said, in too much of a bad mood to try and be nice. “I mean, you can’t have seriously expected me to ally with you when you haven’t talked to me all week?”
“I’m talking to you now,” Annabeth snapped.
“No, you’re yelling at me now,” Percy said shortly. “Look, I get you’re still mad about me not telling you I was a prophet, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to treat me like shit and expect me to just be okay with it.”
“Gods, you’re such a hypocrite.” Annabeth threw up her hands.
Percy’s shoulders tensed. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Annabeth’s eyes were hard and flinty—her aura lashing out at him in a way it never had before: a cold spear tip against his sternum, rotten olives sour on his tongue, talons digging into his shoulders.
“I mean you were so quick to hate Luke for doing what he did and yet you’ve been lying to all of us the entire time we’ve known you. How are we supposed to trust you anymore? You’re just like him,” she snarled.
Percy reared back like she’d physically struck him.
He stared at Annabeth—Annabeth, who only a week ago had called him her best friend and yet now spat vitriol at him in a way only Gabe had ever done—like he’d never seen her before.
Then, without a word, he stepped around the girl he’d once called a friend and continued up the path.
“That’s right, run away,” Annabeth yelled after him. “Too scared to face me—to admit that I’m right!”
Percy was still trembling when he made it to the archery range, chest tight with rage and pain and grief.
Lee sensed him as he approached, whipping around with concerned eyes.
Percy had no idea what he looked like, but it must’ve been quite bad if how quickly Lee dropped his bow, nocked arrow and all, and rushed over to him were any indication.
“Percy?”
Percy opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it. Closed it.
With every aborted attempt to speak, Lee grew more and more visibly concerned. Slowly, telegraphing his intent clearly and giving Percy every opportunity to move away, Lee placed a cautious hand on Percy’s shoulder, as though fearing he’d crumble under the touch.
Percy let out a choked noise, a sob that got caught in his throat, and then he was collapsing forward into Lee’s chest.
“Oh, hey, hey, you’re alright. You’re alright, just—just—” Lee’s arms were warm as he drew Percy into a tight hug. “Come here, it’s gonna be okay.”
Percy was shaking, fingers twisted in the back of Lee’s shirt.
“I got you,” Lee soothed, taking them down to the ground and settling Percy more firmly against his chest.
Lee ran a hand through his hair, scratching lightly at his scalp and murmuring soft reassurances until the worst of Percy’s trembles subsided.
“Talk to me,” Lee whispered. “Tell me what’s happened, Percy, tell me what’s got you like this.”
Percy shook his head from where it was buried in his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Please,” Lee pleaded softly, “I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Percy’s fingers twitched from where they were still curled tightly in Lee’s shirt.
“Annabeth,” was all he could get out.
Lee’s muscles tensed as if a bolt of lightning had shot through his muscles. “What did she do?” Every word was steeped in fury.
“Percy,” Lee pressed, pulling Percy’s face out of his shoulder so Lee could look at him. “Tell me what she did.”
“She—she said I was a hypocrite,” Percy whispered. “Because I di—didn’t tell anyone about…said I couldn’t be trusted, that I—that I was just like him.”
Lee’s eyes blazed with rage, “I’ll kill her.”
He moved to get up, as though he intended to hunt Annabeth down then and there.
“Don’t—” Percy gripped Lee’s wrists, keeping him from making it to his feet. “It’s not worth it.”
“It is,” Lee hissed. “It is worth it—you are worth it, Percy. She can’t just—to compare you to him as though—she had no right.”
Lee was madder than Percy’d ever seen him, every inch of him vibrating with fury, and yet his hands on Percy’s face were achingly gentle. “She’s wrong, Percy.” Lee’s voice was firm. “You are nothing like Luke. Nothing. The fact that she—she fucking—oh, I could just…”
Lee shifted, clearly meaning to get up again, and Percy tightened his grip.
“Don’t,” he begged.
“Percy—”
“Don’t—not right now. Later—you can deal with her later. Just—just stay. Stay with me, please.”
Lee softened immediately at the quiet plea, pulling Percy back into his chest. Percy rested his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder, burying his face in a warm neck.
Lee rubbed his back soothingly, whispering quiet assurances in his ear to drown out the echo of Annabeth’s snarl.
Percy melted into Lee’s touch and let his boyfriend’s calm words erase the sting of Annabeth’s vitriol.
The sound of footsteps crunching through the snow prompted Percy to lift his head. Will stopped in his approach as though hesitant to come any closer, a plate piled high with food in one hand and two of the enchanted pavilion cups in the other.
“Will?” Lee asked, tilting his head questioningly.
“It’s, uh, lunch,” Will said. “We didn’t think you’d want to eat in the pavilion with what happened earlier, so…” He held up the plate and cups.
Percy blinked, only then realizing that all of Lee’s siblings had been at the archery range. Oh, fuck, had they overheard—
“We didn’t eavesdrop,” Will blurted when Percy’s shoulders curled in on themselves in mortification. “We just, ah, the Stolls kind of overheard the whole argument with Annabeth—they were super furious about it—and caught us when we left the archery range to make sure you were good. We told them to keep it to themselves, though, cause we weren’t sure if you wanted it getting spread around. And we won’t tell anyone either.”
Percy relaxed, a thread of warmth running through his chest at the earnestness in Will’s voice.
“Thanks, Will.”
Will beamed, stepping forward and laying down the plate and cups. “It’s nothing, dude. We’ve got your back.” The son of Apollo waved, heading back to the pavilion and leaving Percy and Lee to their lunch.
Percy didn’t feel the slightest bit hungry, but Lee shot him a look that had him choking down a single slice of pizza and a cluster of grapes.
He did not want another of Lee’s lectures about not eating enough food.
“You know,” Percy said, peeling the skin off one of the leftover grapes. “If it weren’t for how horrible this day’s been so far, I’d almost say this was kinda nice. A little romantic picnic with no one else around to bother us.”
Lee hummed around his cup, setting it down and turning to face Percy. “You’re right. This whole thing would be very romantic if it weren’t for how shitty the day’s been.”
Percy cocked his head to the side as he looked around them. If he was remembering correctly, no other cabin had archery for the rest of the day. And it wasn’t likely that Lee’s siblings would come back since they knew Percy and Lee were still there.
Hmmmm.
“Hey, Lee,” Percy waited for his boyfriend to look back over at him, “I think I’ve got an idea for how we can improve our day.”
Lee’s lips twitched up as he caught Percy’s meaning, glancing around to make sure the coast was clear. “I think that can be arranged,” he murmured, leaning in to capture Percy’s lips in a slow kiss.
By the time dinner rolled around, Percy was in a significantly better mood, and both he and Lee were more than ready for Capture the Flag.
Originally, Ares had allied with Apollo, Poseidon, and Hephaestus, with the other cabins—Aphrodite, Dionysus, Demeter, and Hermes—allying with Athena. However, the Stolls, after overhearing what Annabeth had said to Percy, had dropped the Athena cabin and joined the Ares side—they hadn’t even asked for a chore switch or activity trade like they usually did, offering an alliance to Clarisse with no catch or cost.
None of the other cabins understood, but Percy and the Apollo kids caught the meaning loud and clear.
Annabeth was still benched, which Percy knew was the only thing keeping her from a sucker punch to the face courtesy of Lee’s wrath, but she was still devising the strategy for the Athena side. That meant that everyone aware of the confrontation that morning—the entire Apollo cabin, the Stolls, and Percy—was practically chomping at the bit to demolish the other side.
Percy knew nobody on Athena’s side, save for Annabeth herself, was to blame for what had happened, but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference to his friends. They were enraged on his behalf, looking to knock Annabeth down a peg even if it meant bulldozing over a couple of their friends and knocking out a few others in the process.
He couldn’t bring himself to say anything to calm them down.
They were looking out for him—throwing their support behind Percy without a second thought even though most of them, Lee and the Stolls in particular, had known Annabeth for over five years.
“Alright,” Clarisse grunted when the counselors converged on their side of the woods. “We’ve got the advantage in numbers now, thanks to the Hermes cabin switching sides, and Chase’ll have had to rework her entire strategy to account for that. Hopefully, the late change means her new plan won’t be up to her usual standard.”
“If it helps,” Connor piped up. “Her plan before was to spread most of the team out in the area around the flag and then send Trav and I each with a team of her siblings to flank around the edges and nick the flag from the back. I don’t know if she’ll keep that, though, since she knows we know it and she has less people now.”
A defense-oriented strategy, one that expected the other side to take an aggressive offensive stance with little accounting for potential sneak attacks.
In all fairness, it had been a decent strategy against the Ares cabin in the past, but Clarisse was no slouch when it came to strategy these days, especially since Annabeth had gained a reputation for underhanded tricks.
“She also seemed to expect Clarisse and Percy to lead separate frontal attacks since they’re the heavy hitters on the team,” Travis added.
Clarisse pursed her lips angrily. “She was right about that—that was my plan.”
“And it’s still a good one,” Percy said.
“But she’s expecting it,” Beckendorf said, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Exactly,” Lee grinned sharply when he caught on. “I say we do exactly what she expects us to do.”
“It doesn’t matter if she sees it coming or not,” Percy said. “She doesn’t have the numbers to counter it anymore.”
“Especially not if she pulls one of her usual tricks and divides her forces even more to slip around us,” Travis pointed out.
Clarisse narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “We leave enough campers here to defend the flag and take everyone else in two groups to converge on the flag…”
“We could overwhelm them,” Lee finished. “Her own strategy wouldn’t matter because we’d have the brute force.”
Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes, Annabeth’s words from their quest to retrieve the master bolt echoed in his ear.
Maybe, Percy told himself, but that doesn’t mean wisdom always beats strength.
It wasn’t like a game of rock, paper, scissors. Wisdom didn’t overcome strength every time.
Sometimes, pure overwhelming force was enough to take down even the most cunning strategist.
And wouldn’t that just drive Annabeth mad? To know that no matter how well she anticipated and planned for their moves, they won anyway.
Percy shot his boyfriend a glance, catching the knowing look in Lee’s eyes.
“Oh,” Travis breathed, his eyes lighting up as he put it together too. “Imagine how mad she’ll be once it’s all over, knowing that she predicted our moves, and it still didn’t make a difference.”
“You say that like it’s a good thing,” Beckendorf said, confusion clear in his tone. “Why would you ever want to make Annabeth mad on purpose?”
“This have anything to do with why you switched sides last minute without even asking for anything in return?” Clarisse asked, squinting at the two brothers.
Travis and Connor exchanged an awkward glance before looking away wordlessly. Lee fingered his bow with a scowl while Percy looked down at his feet.
Clarisse and Beckendorf had clearly caught on to the fact that something had gone down that all four of them knew about, if their faces when Percy risked a glance up were any indication.
He sighed, rolling his shoulders back in an effort to loosen them up and work out some of the tension.
“Annabeth and I had a conversation this morning,” Percy told them quietly. “It…didn’t go well.”
Beckendorf frowned, taking in Lee’s deep glare and furious eyes. “That bad?”
“Worse,” Lee’s voice was practically a snarl.
“We overheard it,” Connor said. “She crossed a line.”
“She said I couldn’t be trusted,” Percy explained tightly. “Called me a hypocrite for hating Luke when I spent years lying to everybody, then said I was—that I was just like—like him.”
Beckendorf took an actual step back in shock. Clarisse grew stiff as a board.
“Well, then,” the daughter of Ares growled, “I say we teach the bitch a lesson she won’t forget, yeah?”
Percy cleared his throat roughly, sending her a shaky smile. Lee reached over, intertwining their fingers for a few seconds before letting go.
“We’ll split the Ares and Apollo cabins, half of each going with Jackson and I respectively,” Clarisse decided. “That way we have frontline and distance fighters. Beckendorf, you’ll lead defense here with your siblings and half of the Hermes cabin. Stolls, you two can take the rest and fan out to either side of the flag, just in case she tries one of her sneaky tricks.”
The rest of them nodded, splitting off to tell their cabin members the plan. Percy stuck to Lee’s side, knowing there was no way either of them would agree to being in separate groups.
The conch horn blew several minutes later, and they were off.
The plan went off without a hitch.
Annabeth had tried to pull another one of her clever, complicated strategies, but the move had left her with too few people to stand up against Percy and Clarisse’s combined forces—her intention had likely been to rely on the speed of her strategy, hoping that the defense would hold them off just long enough to eek out a win.
Clarisse had slammed through the entire defensive line with her siblings behind her as Percy converged on the other side of Zeus’s Fist with his own group, crashing through the final defensive line and snatching the flag while Lee and his siblings laid down brutal cover fire.
It was one of the fastest Capture the Flag games in camp history, and one in which the losing team had been nowhere close to victory.
Everyone who knew the events of the morning had a vicious sort of satisfaction gleaming in their eyes, giving Percy silent nods and even the occasional congratulatory slap on the back.
Annabeth was irate, raging at the campers she’d assigned to grab the flag for not moving quick enough. Halfway through her rant, another thought seemed to occur to her, and she whipped around.
Her furious gaze landed on Percy, and apprehension rose in his chest.
This wouldn’t be good.
Annabeth limped forward, and Lee stepped up behind him as she closed the distance.
“You—you—” The daughter of Athena seemed furious beyond words.
Clarisse appeared on Percy’s other side in silent support, and Percy could see the other campers nearby—the other counselors on the Ares team—keeping a close eye on the confrontation.
“You cheater,” Annabeth snarled loudly, stone gray eyes alight with fiery rage.
“Watch it, Chase,” Clarisse warned.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Annabeth turned on Clarisse, who straightened up and clenched her fists.
“Children,” Chiron clopped forward, having noticed the building argument. “That’s enough. The game is over.”
“No,” Annabeth whirled around, pointing accusingly at Percy. “He’s a filthy, lying cheater, Chiron.”
“How do you even cheat at this game?” Percy whispered to Clarisse.
Chiron turned serious eyes on Percy. “That is a serious accusation, Annabeth. How can you be sure?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Annabeth scoffed. “He used his freakish abilities to spy on my plan!”
The entire clearing fell deathly silent.
One moment passed.
Two.
Three.
And then Lee was lunging forward with a furious yell, stopped barely a few feet away from Annabeth by an extremely reluctant looking Beckendorf catching him around the middle and dragging him back.
The clearing dissolved into chaos.
Almost all of Annabeth’s own team had turned against her—the Aphrodite cabin in particular—with only a few of her siblings arguing in her defense, mostly saying that Annabeth had a right to be concerned about how easily Percy could’ve looked into the future and used what he saw to his team’s advantage.
Clarisse took great offense to the insinuation that she needed Percy’s prophetic abilities to devise a winning strategy while the Stoll brothers shouted about how there was no reason to assume Percy would so blatantly break the rules just to win a Capture the Flag game.
Through it all, Percy stood still, staring silently at the girl who’d once promised him that if the gods went to war with each other she’d side with him over her own mother, who’d saved his life more times than he could count, who’d been willing to die in the Underworld so that Percy could save his mom, who’d picked up Percy’s abandoned earring in the snow in the vain hope that she’d be able to return it to him.
Who’d once been his friend.
Freakish.
Freakish.
Freakish.
Annabeth’s voice warped in his ears, twisting into Gabe’s, and suddenly Percy was nine years old again, crumpled report card clutched in trembling hands and cheek still smarting from a stinging backhand, a looming figure above him spitting insults that would seep into his bones and linger for years.
Freakish.
Freak.
Freak freak freak freak.
Freak.
It all ended when a small blur ducked around the arguing campers and whacked Annabeth in the shins with a harsh smack!
Annabeth stumbled back as Nico di Angelo glared up at her, his sword still clutched tightly in his hands from where he’d used the flat of his blade to hit her.
“Quit being mean!”
Annabeth’s knuckles whitened around her cane, and then Percy was there, shoving Nico behind him.
“You touch him and that knee’ll be the least of your problems,” he growled, voice dark in a way that had Annabeth taking a visible step back.
“Enough!” Chiron stomped his hoof on the ground firmly. “Everyone will return to their cabins at once!”
“But—”
“Enough, child.” Chiron had never sounded so stern when addressing Annabeth before, but there was a look in his eyes like even he knew she’d crossed a line. “I will hear no more of these accusations. Everybody return to your cabins.”
Percy’s hands were trembling as he pushed Nico in the direction of the Stolls, grinning shakily as he thanked the kid for defending him and promised to see him in the morning.
The walk back to cabin three was little more than a blur, and Percy hardly had time to change into his pajamas before he heard the faint knock at his door.
Percy didn’t even pretend to be surprised at the sight of his boyfriend standing on the porch, wordlessly swinging the door open enough that Lee could slip inside.
As soon as the door shut, Lee engulfed him in a warm hug that Percy melted into gladly.
“Are you okay?” He asked, running a comforting hand down Percy’s back.
“Better now that you’re here,” Percy murmured, his fingers trembling from where they were clutching Lee’s shirt. “Stay?”
“I shouldn’t,” Lee said reluctantly. “My siblings’ll notice if I don’t come back.”
Percy wilted, not wanting to push but also very much not wanting to be alone in his cabin.
Lee’s arms tightened around him at Percy’s clear disappointment, and he pursed his lips.
“I’ll stay,” Lee said softly.
“You don’t have to,” he whispered.
“I want to. I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing I left you alone after the day we’ve had.”
Percy couldn’t hide his relief, pulling Lee into a short and sweet kiss. “Thank you.”
Lee’s lips twitched up. “Is this gonna become a thing? You kissing me as a thank you? Cause if so...”
Percy rolled his eyes, dragging his boyfriend over to his bed without another word.
“Less than a week into our relationship and we’re already climbing into bed together,” Lee’s joke was halfhearted at best, but it was still enough to make Percy blush and smack his boyfriend with a pillow.
“Keep making those jokes and you won’t be climbing into my bed again anytime soon,” he threatened.
“I don’t believe you,” Lee smirked, throwing back the covers and making himself comfortable. “You can’t resist me.”
“Mhmm,” Percy climbed onto the bed, hovering over Lee just long enough to make the son of Apollo’s breath hitch before shifting to curl up against his boyfriend’s side.
“That was just rude,” Lee muttered, cheeks dark as he tilted Percy’s head up to pull him into a heated kiss.
“No idea what you mean,” Percy said breathlessly as soon as Lee drew back. “All I did was get into the bed.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Lee murmured, his hand leaving trails of blazing heat from where he ran it up and down the line of Percy’s spine.
Percy couldn’t suppress the shiver, and Lee’s satisfied grin told him it’d been noticed.
They shared one last kiss, long and drawn out and deep, before settling down.
Percy’s sleep was peaceful, no dreams of any type—prophetic or nightmarish or otherwise—plaguing him.
He woke to the rhythmic rise and fall of Lee’s chest under him, the steady beating of his heart beneath Percy’s cheek.
Lee was already awake, if the warm hand trailing up and down his back was any indication.
“I know you’re awake,” Lee said quietly, voice still rough with sleep.
What…Percy hadn’t even moved—
“Your heartbeat gave you away,” Lee explained, fingertips pausing on Percy’s lower back before beginning their journey back up, the slightest hint of nails scratching along his spine. “Oh, look at that—it just skipped a beat right there. Wonder what that means,” Lee sounded ridiculously smug.
Percy groaned into Lee’s shirt, giving up on any pretense of sleeping and shifting to rest his chin on Lee’s chest so he could glare sleepily at his boyfriend.
Lee was grinning, thumb pressed lightly to the pearl in his locket. “Well, good morning to you, too.”
“Shut up,” Percy huffed. “‘s too early for you to be teasing me.”
Lee was still chuckling when Percy pulled him into a kiss. The son of Apollo was breathless by the time Percy pulled back, sitting up with a pleased smirk.
Gone was the steady rhythm of Lee’s heart, replaced with a racing war drum that pulsed under Percy’s palms, stuttering at the sight of his quirked lips.
“Oh, would you look at that,” he drawled. “Your heart’s all over the place. Wonder what that means.”
Lee narrowed his eyes, but his flushed cheeks and the way his gaze flicked down to Percy’s lips betrayed him.
Lee sat up, hand already reaching to reel Percy back in when a loud knock on the door nearly startled the both of them out of their skin. Lee jerked so hard he slipped right off the edge of the bed and hit the floor with a thud, cursing as he got tangled in the covers still wrapped around his legs.
Percy, recovered from his own shock, was doubled over on the mattress, wheezing from the force of his laughter.
The knock came again, sharp and crisp and echoing through the entire cabin.
“Fuck you,” Lee grumbled. “Just—stop laughing at me—just answer the door.”
Percy had to pause to suppress the last of his giggles before cracking the door open and blinking at the teen standing on his porch.
“Michael?”
Percy heard a barely audible oh, shit from behind him and he cleared his throat loudly. “What are you—uh, why are—”
“Lee never came back to the cabin last night,” Michael Yew rushed out. “He said he was going to go check on you and then he never came back and we have no idea where he is and we’re honestly a little concerned that he snuck into the Athena cabin to murder Annabeth and got taken out by her siblings and—”
“Calm down, Mikey,” Lee came up behind Percy and he moved out of the way so the two brothers could see each other, “I’m here.”
Michael’s eyes flooded with relief. “You’re here, oh, that’s—that’s good, cause we were almost positive you’d committed homicide last night and then gotten murked by the owlheads. But you just—just stayed…”
“I asked him to stay,” Percy cut in, leaning against the door frame. “Didn’t, ah, didn’t really wanna be by myself last night after…everything.”
“Oh,” Michael nodded. “I—yeah, that’s fair. Don’t think I’d want to be alone after…after…”
His eyes narrowed at something over their shoulders before widening comically.
Fuck.
They’d opened the door wide enough that Michael caught a glimpse of the singular unmade bed in the cabin, the two pairs of shoes abandoned at the foot, the covers still crumpled on the ground.
Their simultaneous red faces gave them away, and Michael’s resulting smile was absolutely devious. “You two are—”
Percy cursed as Lee lunged forward, dragging his brother unceremoniously into the cabin and slamming the door shut behind him.
“Not a word,” Lee threatened, “I mean it, Mikey. You tell another soul and I’ll turn your bow into kindling.”
Michael’s face paled at the threat, but he still protested. “Oh, come on, you can’t tell me that you two finally got together and then tell me I can’t even tell anyone.”
“We didn’t tell you,” Percy said dryly. “You peeked into my cabin and figured it out on your own.”
“We don’t want anyone to know yet,” Lee said. “We just—you know how everyone is when two campers get together, and with how competitive the betting pool is…”
“You’d never get a moment’s peace,” Michael finished with a sigh. “Fucking—fine. I won’t tell anyone.”
“The Aphrodite cabin knows if you want to gossip about it that badly,” Percy told him. “They’re sworn to secrecy about it, too.”
Lee let go of his brother’s shirt. “Thanks, Mike. It means a lot, seriously.”
“Whatever,” Michael rolled his eyes. “A word of advice, though, try to avoid sleeping in the same bed if you don’t want people to figure out you’re together.”
He slipped out the door before the two of them could do more than sputter.
“He’s such a little shit,” Lee snorted. “We’re never gonna live that down.”
“Not a chance,” Percy agreed. “You might wanna slip out before we get caught by anyone else.”
Lee sighed but didn’t argue, grabbing his shoes. Their parting kiss turned into two, and then three, and then…
Lee ducked out of cabin three barely five minutes before the conch horn, with red cheeks and messy hair and wrinkled clothes.
Nico appeared at his side as soon as breakfast was over, looking uncharacteristically nervous with his packed bag slung over his shoulder.
Percy said his goodbyes quickly, and it was a good thing he’d kissed Lee goodbye in the cabin because they had to settle for a tight hug out in the pavilion, and then laid a hand on Nico’s shoulder.
“Ready to go, kid?”
Nico bit his lip. “And you’re sure it's okay?”
“I’m sure,” Percy said warmly. “My mom loves you already, promise.”
Percy looked back only once when they reached the crest of Half-Blood Hill, reminding himself that he’d be back before he knew it.
Then he turned back around, spotting the car pulling up to the base of the hill.
Percy smiled, squeezing Nico’s shoulder. “C’mon, let’s go home, kid.”