Chapter 10
Not mine.
Percy's POV:
Percy and Annabeth were settling in the hotel room in New Rome. Technically they had dorm rooms, but they didn't share and they thought it would be hard with the babies. They also had given them up after they decided to go online from New York. Hazel had come back for a few days and then shadow travelled them to Camp Jupiter with Nico. Silena and Luke didn't like it but they were fine. Silena was still fussy from her ear infection but thanks to Will, it was getting a lot better.
They didn't have any plans for the day so far. Annabeth wasn't as big of a fan of New Rome as Percy was. He loved the place because it was like a second home to him, and the idea of New Rome seemed so bizarre at first. Annabeth enjoyed it but found the Romans to be slightly stiff and formal, and because he was taken here from Hera. She didn't hate the place, but she would be perfectly fine with just Camp Half Blood. Part of this was due to the fact that Annabeth was Greek to the core, and being a daughter of Athena in a Roman camp was always a bit controversial.
"It's pretty nice out, do you wanna walk around for a little while? We can get something to eat at a cafe or go sit in the Gardens of Bacchus," he suggested.
She seemed unsure for a minute, but nodded her head and stood up. "Yeah," she answered. "We can go do something like that."
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"What do you want for our anniversary?" Percy asked.
Annabeth set her muffin down. "I don't care, really. Just want to be with you all day."
Percy rolled his eyes, "Come on, Wise Girl. You have to give me some request."
"I'm serious, Percy! I don't need anything. I'm satisfied with our life right now and I don't need anything more," she said.
"I'm still getting you something."
She sighed and leaned into his shoulder. "Well that means I have to get you something so what do you want?"
Percy smirked, "I think you already know."
She punched his arm. "Well you aren't gonna get any because you children ripped my-"
"Do not finish that sentence," he stuttered.
She laughed, "Your fault. You got me pregnant so this is your payback."
"Dang it."
They sat in silence for a moment, enjoying the soft breeze and the warm air. Silena and Luke were asleep in their strollers. Annabeth just stared at his SPQR tattoo that was on his right forearm.
"Is there something wrong?" Percy asked.
"I never liked that tattoo. The way they burn their mark into your skin as if saying 'you belong to us, permanently,'" she whispered.
"I don't think it's that bad. They are just Roman, some of us still aren't used to their ways. Here they are just... take things a little more seriously. They wouldn't be Roman if they didn't live off the law and order," he said carefully.
Annabeth stayed quiet for a minute. Her eyebrows were scrunched up as if to be thinking hard about something, which she probably was. When she spoke, it was so soft he barely heard her.
"Whenever I'm here, I always feel like I'm abnormal, like there is no place here for a child of Athens. It's not like anyone here really hates me or something, but I always have a voice in the back of my head saying, you don't belong here."
Percy sighed and kissed her cheek. He pulled her into a hug and rested his chin on top of her head.
"If I'm being honest, Annabeth, I think part of that would be your mother. Everyone knows that Pallas Athena would never truly be Minerva, and she doesn't really like the Romans. But we live off the words that our parents don't define us, you and I are the perfect example of that. It doesn't matter anymore if you are the pivotal Greek child. While it is still a part of you, these people are our friends and family, they don't care what and where you come from. In the end, it comes down to what you make of it."
"I guess you're right..." she said.
"Well, we know I'm always right," Percy smirked.
Annabeth rolled her eyes and pulled away from his grasp. "Please, you wish. But thanks, Perce. I needed that."
"Anytime, Annabeth."
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Annabeth's POV:
It was the next day and the seven were walking through New Rome trying to kill time before they had to go to said school. Thankfully, Calypso and Reyna were watching Silena and Luke, which was a huge relief. They had all stopped to get smoothies (Piper's request) and were enjoying the sunshine.
"What school are we going to again?" Hazel asked.
"The elementary first, then the middle school," Jason answered.
Piper scrunched her nose. "Middle school kids have no mercy, I'm not excited for that one. Elementary shouldn't be too bad though. They are cute and the size is perfect."
"The size?" Leo questioned.
"Yes the size!" The younger ones are small and they are the perfect size to hold! Not too small, not too big," she explained.
Percy laughed, "I didn't think there was a 'perfect size' but I like the size mine are now."
"Same," Annabeth agreed.
"I think all kids can be cute, doesn't matter the size," Frank said.
"That's coming from you, who is a giant next to them. If they are up to my height, we got a problem," Leo stated.
"True," Hazel giggled.
Not long after they had finished their smoothies and were standing outside the school.
"What time is it?" Percy asked.
"11:00. We should be good to go in now," Jason said.
Piper shrugged, "Okay, then let's go."
Percy and Jason held the doors open for them. Annabeth smirked at him. "Well thank you very much."
He smiled back and kissed her cheek. "Of course."
"You know you won't be able to do that in here," Annabeth said.
"Do what?"
"Kiss me! No PDA inside schools, that's common sense."
"To you, not to me."
They went to the office where they were told to go down to the auditorium, and wait behind a stage. Jason led the way.
"You seem like you know your way around, superman," Leo noticed.
"No shit, I went here," he explained. "Will warn you guys in advance, they care a lot about Roman rule and law. They practically preach it here."
"You went here, the whole time?" Percy remarked.
"...yeah why wouldn't I?" Jason asked.
"Oh nothing. I just can't believe that some people last that long. I went through 6 schools in 6 years, got kicked out of all of them," he shrugged.
"You what?!" Piper and Hazel gasped.
"Well yeah, something new always went wrong. Plus having dyslexia and ADHD didn't help anything," Percy explained.
"I never went to a real school till I went to Goode with Percy. Before that, I was taught everything at camp. They never had a set school like this, but being a daughter of Athena it was easy to teach myself things," Annabeth said.
"Anyways," Jason continued, "here we are."
They were led backstage where they sat back down and talked in hushed tones. Annabeth could hear the children being seated down from behind the curtain. It still felt so weird to her. Percy had made a good point yesterday, but she didn't like people staring at her as if she was a celebrity or something. She was also worried that she would have to bring back things she didn't want to think about...
"You okay?" Percy asked her. "You have that thinking face on again."
Annabeth smiled and stared up into his sea green eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine."
He pulled her close by her waist and sat her down on his lap. Annabeth just let him and she shifted around to be more comfortable. They sat like that for a little while longer, talking to their friends, before someone came back and told them to be ready. They all stood up and waited for further instruction. Annabeth could hear the principal talking to the kids.
"...Now we have been given the honor to have them here with us today. In addition to saving the world, we have the leaders of Camp Half Blood, two former Praetors and one of the current Praetors with us."
Annabeth found the other titles to be extra, but stayed quiet. After all, there were more they could have said.
"Now please welcome, the seven Heroes of Olympus!"
They took that as their queue to walk out. All of the students were shouting and clapping. Annabeth just smiled and waved, as did the rest of her friends. Three little girls walked up to her, Piper, and Hazel and each gave them each a small bouquet of white roses, the flower symbolizing thanks. Annabeth knelt next to the girl.
"What's your name?" Annabeth asked timidly.
"Celia," she peeped.
Annabeth smiled at her, and pulled her in a small hug. "Well, thank you very much Celia."
Celia smiled and skipped back to where she was supposed to be. Percy offered Annabeth a hand and helped her stand up. As she looked over, she saw Hazel doing the same as she did, but Piper had the guts to kiss her flower child on both of her cheeks. Annabeth chuckled and the seven of them sat down on the couches that were on the stage. Jason, Piper, and Leo sat on one with Percy, Annabeth, Frank, and Hazel on the other.
"So," Jason started. "I guess we can just go off questions."
"Fine with me," Percy said.
A bunch of kids raised their hands and Jason pointed to a girl in the front. Piper looked over at Annabeth and mouthed 'the size!' She tried to hide her laugh as best as she could. The little girl spoke up.
"What was your favorite part on the Argo going to Greece?" she asked.
The rest of the seven turned and stared at Percy and Annabeth.
Annabeth covered her mic and whisper-shouted, "Don't even think about it!"
They all smirked but Jason answered, trying not to laugh, "One time Percy and Annabeth went scouting in a small town and they all brought back gelato for all of us, except for Frank who got an apple."
Annabeth thought he was about to say something else, but was thankful that he didn't.
"We had a lot of interesting conversations over dinner more than once too, and those were always something to remember," Piper said. She pointed to a boy towards the middle who looked kind of like a mini Jason.
"What was the hardest part of the quest?" he asked.
Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand and held it tightly. This is what she was afraid of. She didn't want to haunt these kids with scary thoughts, so she decided to work around it.
"For me, it would be retrieving the Athena Parthenos and I know Reyna and Nico di Angelo would agree with me that getting it back to New York was hard too," Annabeth answered.
Hazel was the next to speak. "I think closing the doors of death was also difficult for all of us."
You could say that again, Annabeth thought. Hazel picked a girl in the back.
"For Percy and Annabeth, how many quests have you been on and what was your favorite?"
Percy chuckled and leaned back into the couch. "We've lost count but we will go somewhere around 15."
"I don't think we ever really have thought of a favorite, but if I had to pick, it would be returning Hermes' Cadius. Not because of the actual quest, that was awful, but afterwards we got to go to Paris for dinner and stayed there till midnight," Annabeth recalled.
"When did you go to Paris?!" Piper marveled.
"Long time ago. What was that, 5 years ago?" Percy said.
"Yeah it was," Annabeth shrugged.
Piper still looked shocked but stayed quiet.
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Piper's POV:
They had finished at the elementary and were on the way to the middle school. Piper kept running her fingers over the soft rose petals. Roman children were sweet, but smart too. Aside from the kids, she still couldn't believe that Percy and Annabeth went to Paris when they were 16.
"So why might I ask did you never tell us you went to Paris?!" she shouted.
Annabeth laughed next to her. "It never came up."
"There's a lot you still don't know about us, Pipes," Percy said.
She scoffed. "Well I just think it's cool that Hermes took you guys to Paris."
"He better have because he interrupted our initial date," Percy explained.
"Huh?" Hazel asked.
"It was our 1 month anniversary and we were in Central Park when he said he lost his Cadius. We weren't supposed to tell anyone but it was a while ago so it's fine now. Long story short we had to go through the sewers to retrieve it and face some redhead giant and as a thank you, Paris," Annabeth stated. "Oh look we're here."
The same thing went down as the first school and before she knew it, Piper was holding another bouquet of flowers and was sitting on another couch. Piper picked the first kid to ask, a girl with medium dark skin and curly hair.
"What was the best part about the whole quest?" she asked.
"The end." Percy.
"When I first met my dad." Jason.
"The end." Annabeth.
"When the Greeks first landed and we got to meet them." Hazel.
"When I met Calypso, she hated me but I still liked it." Leo.
"The end." Frank.
"Enjoying a picnic with my cornucopia." Piper.
Frank pointed to a boy in the front. "Who is stronger, Percy or Jason?"
The two of them smirked and went to stand up, but were quickly pulled back down by Piper and Annabeth.
"This happened once before and it didn't end well so it's a draw," Piper said quickly. The two boys just laughed remembering it. Percy picked a new kid from the crowd.
"Leo, can you show us your fire skills?"
Leo stood up and cracked his knuckles. He spread his arms and set his whole self on fire. Everyone cheered and whistled at him. After a little while he stopped posing and sat back down. He picked a girl with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Piper figured she was a daughter of Apollo or Venus.
"For Annabeth, is it true you have a baby?"
Annabeth and Percy both smiled. "Yes, it is," she answered. "We have twins, boy and girl."
Annabeth called on another kid. "For Jason and Piper, is it true you are engaged?"
Piper blushed. They hadn't really told that many people but yet she wasn't surprised that rumors got out across the country. "Yes it is," she said.
"We're getting married on the summer solstice," Jason explained.
The day carried on like that for a little while longer before they left. Piper didn't know why, but she was exhausted. She had also had one to many Roman pastries throughout their excursion, which may have contributed to the cause. Before she knew it, Jason was carrying her back to his apartment and then she was out.
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