Magnus

I never thought I would say this.

But, my cousin is a bad *beep*

We were sitting in the falafel place, both trading stories. Mostly it was just about our childhoods apart, but it started changing quickly.

"Magnus, who's son are you?" Annabeth asked, folding her arms over her chest and analyzing my reaction. I tried to act calm, not wanting anyone to know about my demigodishness. I hoped she was just kidding.

"Uh, you know who my mom is." I replied, but my voice had dropped an octave and I could see her lips press into a thin line as she watched my expression.

"Who is your dad?" She said in a 'duh' tone, leaning back on her chair. I fidgeted nervously, then thought of what Frey said. He told me that she could help, what did he mean by that? Should I tell her about my being a demigod? She'd probably freak, so I had to break it to her slowly.

I looked around the room, making sure there weren't any rogue giants, then took a deep breath, staring her in the eyes.

"Annabeth, this may seem crazy, but... My dad is a... god." I whispered the last part, leaning forward. Then I braced myself. Annabeth blinked, then surprisingly smiled.

"I know that, stupid." She chided, shaking her head, "Who is your dad? Greek, Roman, Egyptian..." She trailed off.

"Norse." I replied in shock, leaning back, "How do you know about demigods?" Annabeth looked at me, disappointed.

"My gods... Magnus, could you be any more stupid?" She asked, crossing her arms again and sighing, "You were saying?"

"You didn't answer my question..." I responded, suspicious. She wasn't, like, a monster right? What if she was about to turn around and kill me right here? Then I stopped myself, this was Annabeth, she probably saw demigods on a documentary or something and figured the rest out herself.

Annabeth shook her head again, muttering under here breath. I couldn't catch what she said, but it sounded weird. Like another language. I wondered if she knew Spanish or something.

"I'm a demigod as well." Annabeth said calmly, "Who's your dad?"

I stopped right there. Annabeth couldn't be a demigod. It's not that I couldn't imagine her in battle or anything, it was just that she seemed so... I don't know, less fidgety than me. She was calmer than I felt.

"What?" The words were out of my mouth before I could even think out my response. Annabeth shook her head in exasperation once more, "What do you mean? Who is your mom? Freya?" I named the first female goddess to come to mind. Annabeth looked at me like I was going insane.

"No? Who..." She trailed off, her eyes lighting up, "Oh... No, I'm Greek." She corrected me. I paused.

"What? Then, you can't be a demigod because the only gods there are are..."

"Magnus, don't get ahead of yourself. There is more out there than you think." She started, giving me a few more seconds to compute it.

"So... You're Greek? Like, the Greek gods?" I said quietly, listing in my head all of the different religions with different gods there were.

Annabeth nodded, looking relieved that I'd finally figured it out, "And you're Norse right? I don't know much about them... Who is your father?" She asked, now leaning on the table.

"Who is your mother?" I shot back. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Still stubborn, I see."

"Hey! You can not say that!" I laughed, thinking of all the times Annabeth's pride had gotten us into sticky situations. She frowned.

"My mom is Athena. Greek goddess of wisdom and battle strategy." She said. Well, at least that made a little sense. Even though I barely knew any of the gods besides Zeus and Hercules. Hercules became a god, right? I took a second to try to debate that, but Annabeth was clearly getting impatient.

"Cool. My dad is Frey. God of Summer and stuff." I replied, nodding. Annabeth seemed to mull over that before shrugging.

"Okay, so, how did you find out?" She asked, "Was it because of... Y'know, your death?"

I took a deep breath and started my story, beginning to end. I told her about Loki and Thor, about Sam and Hearth and Blitz, even about Gunnila. I told her mostly about Valhalla, because she seemed interested in it, and then I finally told her about the battle. She seemed surprised when I ended the story.

"That's it?" She asked, her eyebrows scrunching together. I figured she'd be in awe of what I've done, not questioning me about how short the battle was, so I was taken aback.

"Uh, yeah." I said. Annabeth looked out the window, as she'd been doing for the last ten minutes.

"Oh, you won't believe my story then." She laughed. I glanced out the window, trying to see what she'd been looking for, but saw nothing.

"You expecting someone?" I gestured to the window with my thumb. Annabeth nodded.

"Yeah, Percy. He's supposed to pick me up." She replied. I scoured our family history, or at least what I could remember of it, but couldn't remember anyone named Percy. We were related to a dude named Pete, but that's the closest it came to a Percy in the family.

"Who?" I asked. She waved her hand.

"Not important. Tell me more about the Norse gods."

I did, recounting every single detail to her and answering her, many, questions. She was a surprisingly good listener, and it helped to get everything off of my chest. When I finished, I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, we'd been sitting there for forty-five minutes now, just talking about me. I took a long drink of my root beer, throat dry.

"Now, tell me about the Greeks." I suggested. Annabeth clearly wanted me to tell her more about the Norse gods, but I'd run out of things I knew about them.

"Fine." She agreed, starting her story. She told me about how she ran away when she was seven, and that was probably why she never saw me again. She told me about the spiders that would attack her every night, because she was a daughter of Athena, and that led to her explaining why spiders hate all Athena kids, and why Athena kids hate spiders.

She recounted her adventures with a boy named Luke and a girl named Thalia, and how she'd stayed with them for months before a satyr found them. She told me of losing Thalia, and that in it, she had lost Luke too. I wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, but I knew what that would mean for a seven year old. She was alone, without her family, in a camp with people she didn't know, for years on end and never leaving. Except for once, and that ended awfully.

Then she says that she had found out that a Big Three kid would eventually lead to her getting a quest and finally getting out of camp, and the kid came. She said it was a scrawny son of Poseidon that annoyed the 'Hades' out of her named Percy Jackson. At this point, I'd figured out that she and Percy were either really close, or dating. It was shifting between the two.

They went on a quest, as the prophecy said, and saved Olympus. In doing this, they came back to camp just to have Luke attempt to murder Percy. He'd been the Lightning Thief all along, not Percy. Her eyes went glossy at that part, and I could tell she was thinking about her friend, so I let her be for a moment. She carried on, talking about how Luke had run off and left her alone once more. Now, all she had was Percy and Grover.

Around this time she also made up with her dad, forgiving him for ignoring her all those years. It surprised me. Sure, Annabeth had always been kind. Once, when she was around six or seven, during a family reunion we'd found a bunny in the yard that was limping. She went up to it and started to order me around, get it water, get some bandages, and she'd nursed it back to health. We didn't stay long to know whether it would survive or not, but she'd made Uncle Randolf promise he'd take care of it. I don't think he did, the rabbit probably ended up dead anyway, but our little brains couldn't comprehend death yet. Well, mine couldn't.

But still, I was surprised that she'd forgiven him. Apparently, he was pretty awful at times, especially her step-mom. It wasn't that they hurt her, just ignored her and made her feel like everything was her fault. I didn't blame her for running away.

She said that a year later, Percy came back to camp and all 'Hades' broke loose again. Luke poisoned Thalia's tree and organized an attack on camp with these bull things. Tyson, Percy's brother, had been helpful. She paused after saying that, but continued.

They ended up hunting for the Golden Fleece, a bunch of other crazy things happening. She said that at one point, Percy got himself turned into a rodent. They'd found the fleece, after a small mishap after Annabeth was dropped by a Cyclopes dude and almost killed, and they went back to camp. Of course, Luke tried to kill Percy again, but luckily nothing too bad happened.

Another twenty minutes had passed now, and Annabeth was continually glancing out the window. As she concluded the story about Thalia being revived, there was a thump from outside the shop and Annabeth stood.

"That'll be him," She looked out of the window, "Late, as usual." I looked outside just to see what looked like the end of a horse turn into the alley. Then she looked over at me, "Hey, you want to come to camp?" She asked, "Percy can bring you back."

"Sure, where is it?" I asked, standing up.

"New York." Annabeth replied. I paused, looking at her.

"New York? It's already one, won't it be late when we get back?" I asked. She shook her head.

"We're going via Pegasus." She explained, "You'd be surprised how fast they travel." I had been on a Pegasus type creature, but I had a feeling we weren't thinking the same thing.

We walked out of the falafel place, and Annabeth turned straight into the alley where the horse butt had disappeared and we came face to face with a black haired boy. He was slightly muscular, tall, green eyes, and wore an orange shirt much like Annabeth's. He also wore jeans, and had a bead necklace tied around his throat, sporting six beads. The last one was purple, a SPQR sprawled over the surface over what looked like a ship. It was incredibly detailed, which surprised Magnus.

He immediately knew it was Percy, the boy's eyes lit up as soon as Annabeth rounded the corner and he started grinning. A cut glistened on his cheek.

"Wise Girl!" He exclaimed, holding his arms out like he expected a hug. Annabeth, however, frowned at him.

"What did you do this time?" She asked, pointing to his cheek. Percy rubbed his neck nervously, his cheeks coloring.

"Ah, about that-" The horse started to neigh behind him and he spun around, "Stop being a tattle-tale! She can't even understand you!" He exclaimed. The horse rolled it's eyes, which was strange enough, but apparently Percy could talk to horses. Magnus decided that his life couldn't get any stranger.

"Run in with a gorgon, I handled it." Percy shrugged, clearly meaning to look cool. Then he noticed me and his expression turned suspicious immediately, "Who is this, Annabeth?" He didn't take his eyes off me and I started to feel just a little nervous. This guy could probably crush me, einherjar strength or no. Annabeth had told me what a good sword fighter he was.

"Oh, this is Magnus. My cousin." She added the last part and Percy relaxed, smiling at me and reaching his hand out.

"Percy Jackson, nice to meet you." I shook his hand, "You coming to camp?" Percy asked. Annabeth nodded, finally reaching over and giving Percy a hug. Even I could tell they liked each other, or at least that he liked her, by how Percy seemed content in hugging her, and by how red sparked up his cheeks. My enhanced hearing could hear him mutter, "Missed you, Wise Girl."

They pulled away and Annabeth waved at me to walk over. I did, somewhat awkwardly, and both of them sat on the horse, clearly waiting for me. I gulped.

"It's not going to, like, do any aerial maneuvers, right?" I asked. Percy laughed, but shook his head.

I sat behind Annabeth, and suddenly, the horse neither, shooting into the sky, towards New York.