Percy Did a Boo-Boo

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I ain't gonna spoil the fic by explaining this idea in the opening AN. This is normal PJO/HoO lore except I'm thinking maybe Percy might have a twin sister cause that's pretty much a staple of all my stories now. Idk, I find it hard to write PJO characters other than Percy and Artemis. Oh, also, Percy is with Leo, Hazel and Frank when they travel to Delos. His sister can fill in for whatever he was doing in the actual book I don't remember. I think maybe I might also have it so Percy wasn't asleep for 4 months. Feels weird that he only spent 2 nights at Camp Jupiter, it makes more sense if he spent 4 months there while the Greeks were building the Argo II.

Percy Did a Boo-Boo

The group came to shore on the island of Delos. The island was quiet, likely due to the fact it had two, maybe three inhabitants. No one was there to greet them as they anchored over on nearby Mykonos and hopped out, with Percy ferrying them to the shore of an abandoned Delos on waves, managing to keep Leo, Frank and Hazel dry while doing so. Perks of having a Son of Poseidon on a Mediterranean Cruise.

That and he was also the most powerful demigod according to his simps back on Long Island, at least that was Leo's opinion.

The Greek Demigod touched sand and took in a breath, letting the wave recede back to normal tide height behind them. Feeling himself stand on a beach after all this time running around Greece, California and New Rome made him want to strip naked and dive into the water, just to feel it again, to feel natural. It felt like home, the sand.

But stripping naked on their sacred island would not have been much appreciated by the Twins.

The Twins. More specifically one in particular plagued Percy's mind. When he was in New Rome the face of a woman hovered in his mind like a mirage. When he next saw her face adorning a statue in the Pantheon, Percy almost fell to the floor tearing at his face. It was her, but not quite. Diana. Now that he knew, or rather remembered all this Greek stuff, the final piece came together. Not Diana. Artemis.

Percy knew he was taking a risk by coming here. He hadn't even seen Artemis since that night after the Titan War, let alone talked to her about it or sought more. Would she even have wanted more or would she think it a drunken mistake? Or worse. If it was the latter, Percy didn't want to know, but he had to know for clarity's sake. She had tormented his mind for months, the worst that could happen is he loses justification to keep thinking of her.

Simultaneously, he was terrified to see them. He didn't know if Apollo knew, but if he did, Percy would have been better to stay on Mykonos and go get grinded on by European men.

While the other three were busy talking about the island, and how no mortal could be born or die on it, Percy sighed in an attempt to pull himself out of his thoughts. "Do you guys think the Twins will mind if I take a leak?" He tried to lighten the mood, really for his own sake.

Hazel looked horrified, while Frank just pointed his arm to the ocean, gesturing to it. Percy cocked his head, turning and promptly heading back to the current. He stood waist height, prompting Hazel, Frank and Leo to look away in slight disgust. Percy stared intently at the horizon. He wished America looked like this. New York was Hell after the sights he'd seen. Percy briefly wondered how his fellow praetor Reyna and his cousin Nico were faring in Epirus.

If I die here, not only is it a cool view, but I die doing what I love. Pissing on their laws. Percy thought to himself as he finished up in the ocean, remembering Hazel's lesson on Delosian Law.

Leo summited a nearby hill and shouted at someone. "Don't shoot!" Falling down the hill slightly while trying to move, he seemed to have found the people they were looking for. Hazel and Frank rushed after him, and Percy followed suit, but upon reaching the edge of the hill he paused. Taking one last breath, knowing damn well it could be his last, he hopped over the top and descended down the hill.

There was a large amphitheater shape carved out into it, and near the bottom where the other three stood sat two people on rock seats. One, a blonde seventeen year old with a plaid jacket and shoulder length blond hair, rhinestones on his clothes like he was a quirky girl cosplaying as Elvis strumming a ukelele. Distant from him, but close enough for conversation was an equally aged girl, dressed in black leggings, brown hiking boots, a silver tunic, a crescent necklace and with her auburn hair in a ponytail. She was whittling a curved stick, which percy could only assume was a bow with his rare experience.

"You knew we were coming?" One of the three asked, seemingly in response to a comment he hadn't heard. Percy continued walking down, careful not to fall over but kicking rocks as he did so.

"We knew there would be someone to visit us eventually, but we did not know wh-." The auburn haired girl spoke to them sternly, like they were annoying her while she was trying to eat her lunch or something, but when one of the small rocks rolled down and made a noise as he hit a column, her attention was diverted. Upon looking at the source of the noise, her eyes widened and she paused.

Apollo, strumming his ukelele, heard her cease another brooding comment and turned to look at her. Upon seeing his sister's gaze pointed somewhere else, Apollo followed it, seeing a familiar figure finish walking down the hillside. With the afternoon sun in the west, it meant his front side was a shadow, and only once he got close could Apollo pin down who it was.

Percy smirked that same stupid smirk, the one where it was technically a grin but also a smirk at the same time. With his left hand awkwardly in his pocket as four godly eyes lay on him, he raised his right hand in the salute that his months of Praetorship required him to utilize. It used to be a more radical salute apparently, but after the 1940s Camp Jupiter implemented a more PC policy and phased out the old Roman salute for a less offensive newer one. Now it was like a lazy military salute. He just raised his right arm up, his hand slightly tilted to the left to point vaguely towards his head. "Hi, Lady Artemis. L-uh, Apollo." He fumbled his words.

Apollo turned his head back to face Artemis. His little sister was stunned into silence, an emotion he hadn't witnessed in her for years. The three demigods who'd shown up first all looked confused as the Twins all looked at each other, and Apollo nodded to her. His gaze returned to Percy and his eyes narrowed at the Hero of Olympus.

Artemis stood up, dropping the bow she was whittling carelessly onto the dirt. "Perseus, I require your audience." She turned to face the other three. "Consult freely with my brother. I know of what you seek, and I am irrelevant in the matter." She said matter of factly and plain old rudely.

The Goddess spun on her heel and marched off towards the treeline, and after a moment's hesitation Percy quickly followed, trying to avoid Apollo's hateful gaze. Percy looked apologetically towards his fellow Demigods, silently promising to be back ASAP.

The Demigod and Goddess walked in silence for a few minutes. Percy had no idea how big the island was in feet, but he doubted it was even a mile long. He wanted so desperately to talk to her, whether it be asking her what she wanted, or to ask her how she felt about that night on Olympus, or even just to ask how she was doing in general.

He felt like a simp, no better than Beryl Grace or Reyna's father. It could have been self-consciousness, but he felt like he was drifting on that path towards obsession. She plagued his mind every day, even when his memory was erased he couldn't forget her, he just didn't remember who she was. He could tell her that, but he didn't want to be executed for Romeo-ism.

He suddenly realized that the Goddess was no longer next to him, and Percy had no recollection on when she had fallen behind. He heard the rustling of something being lifted off of the leaf-covered ground behind him, like a giant animal was about to take a step, and so he turned to see.

KR~UNCH

Percy must have flown back about two feet onto the ground from that blow. His eyes being half lidded allowed him to view the blood that he had spat out onto the ground on impact. He couldn't tell if his nose was broken. It felt like his whole damn face was broken.

He could see Artemis holding a branch half the size of herself, and instinctively Percy reached for his watch, but Artemis dropped the branch back onto the floor, hurting his ear a bit from the impact. "Get up." She demanded, and not one to disobey a Goddess who had just beat the shit out of him in one blow, Percy obeyed.

Artemis held the facial expression of an annoyed husky as she looked over his wounds. "Barely even damaged." She told both him and herself, sounding impressed through her pissed off sigh.

Percy groaned as he stood fully, popping his back. "Feels like you threw a train at me." He complained, trying not to freak out at this goddess for assaulting him with a log since she was, well, a Goddess.

Artemis kept walking down the small trail, basically a path where greenery had been cut out of the way so travel was easier. "Good. You deserve it for going missing on us." She told him. Percy opened his mouth to retort, but Artemis interrupted. "I know, it was all Hera's doing. Just... she really picked a bad time. Come, I have something to show you."

Percy was surprised he had made it this far and was still human, let alone had unbroken kneecaps. Still, he was curious what she meant by that, so he continued to follow. Still, he wanted terribly to talk about that night. They were both virgins, it was extremely awkward but yet it felt like that made it better. They were both inexperienced, socially inept killers who just knew you were supposed to press repeatedly against each other. It felt more... human that way. Better than if it was Aphrodite or someone of that sort.

Still, Percy decided to wait until she brought it up herself, and if Artemis hadn't done so by the end of their little walk together, Percy would do so for her. For now though, he was merely awaiting what she had to show him.

They entered a small clearing where sunlight was scarce through the dense treeline and the foliage overhead. The ground was now flat, and instead of yellowish rock or forest soil it was plain-style grass. The entry they had come through seemed to be the only path into this clearing, though if one wanted to they could go trudging through the woods in any direction.

In the center of the clearing stood a reindeer, majestic and strong. Antlers that looked almost wooden stood proudly above its head, though said head was bent over looking towards the ground. Upon seeing the caribou, Artemis halted. "Prancer! Vamonos!" She ordered, surprising the reindeer and sending him bounding off through the treeline. Percy at first hadn't questioned that this abandoned Greek island had a reindeer population, but he figured Artemis must have also been storing her chariot, and therefore the reindeer, on Delos too.

Upon the stage right exit of Prancer, his absence revealed a small piece of furniture sitting in the center of the clearing, seemingly what the caribou had been peeking into. It looked like a small cabinet or table, roughly three feet high and standing on four legs. It was made of palm wood very recognizable to Percy and looked somewhat homemade, yet also very polished.

There were a few slits in all four sides about an inch thick each, totalling fourteen slits in all with three on each end and four on each side. Through them Percy could see a color, but in their continued movement couldn't deduce the identity of what was contained within this box.

"Here, this is what I needed to show you." Artemis told him, walking over to the wooden container. As she reached it, Percy heard a small noise from inside, and once he came up alongside her and took a look inside he froze. His heart felt like it was going to explode as he stared at the small being. His mind raced, deducing everything in an instant, no matter if his brain was running logic tests to counter reason. A choked sigh escaped his throat as he stood there next to Artemis staring down into the cot.

A small, very young infant lay in the crib, dressed in a silver onesie with her left hand up against her mouth. Her legs kicked slightly as her gaze switched to look at Percy, studying him silently and intently.

Percy stood with his jaw hanging open as Artemis reached down and picked up the infant underneath the arms, resting her on her hip and letting her momentarily continue staring at Percy. The two stared at each other silently while Artemis picked up a small pacifier from a tree stump sitting next to the crib. Percy noticed it was also silver and had a small seemingly printed picture of a bow and arrow on it. "Binkie." Artemis said quietly to the baby, holding the pacifier up, and like a trained dog the infant opened her mouth so Artemis could stick the pacifier in.

The Goddess rested the baby's head against her chest and now Percy found four eyes set on him from that direction. Artemis sighed, uncharacteristically nervous. "Well, Percy... this is Selena." She introduced quietly, shyly even.

Percy didn't need to ask a question he knew the answer to. Why else would she be showing him this, letting a mere demigod in on such a revolutionary secret. He briefly wondered if any other gods knew about this? Surely, Apollo, at least. Besides, what was the point in asking? It's not like there were any other candidates. That, and this baby looked like a smaller, cuter, less menacing version of his twin sister.

He swallowed, but found little to no saliva still present in his body. "C- Can I hold her?" He stuttered, weakly lifting his arms towards the baby kept in Artemis' grasp.

Artemis nodded, bringing the baby - Selena - away from her chest and rearranging her holding position. With Selena leaning back against her now, Percy was able to grab the baby by placing his hands under both arms, and in a fashion similar to Artemis' technique he pulled her from her mother's grasp and held her close against him.

Once pressed against Percy, Selena stabilized herself before looking upwards and continuing her trend of silently staring at the Son of Poseidon. Almost like there was some base level instinct that let them recognize each other, Percy and Selena stared into the other's eyes curiously. A hunch on both minds despite neither being expressly told the truth and one being almost newborn. Like two monkeys playing with puzzle blocks, Selena and Percy had figured it out.

Percy smiled as he wrapped both arms around the snuggly-dressed baby, like a bear keeping its cub safe in the warmth of a secure embrace. Her eyes enchanted him, just as Artemis' had done when he had looked into them before bearing the burden of the sky for her. Selena's were sea-green just like his own, but they held a glow he'd only ever seen in the eyes of spirits and deities. A glow she most certainly received from her mother.

"Wow." He whispered softly, stunned by the sight below him. "Aren't you something..." He looked back at Artemis for a brief second, then back at the baby. "Selena." Her name rolled off the tongue well. He definitely couldn't say he was disappointed with Artemis' choice. Selena smiled around the binkie at her name being said, like him saying that confirmed her base instinctual suspicion.

Percy looked back up at Artemis. "So... how old is she? Sorry, I've just lost track of time, that's all." He admitted. It was true, he didn't even really know the date to be honest, just that G-Day was 48 hours away.

Artemis folded her arms as her boot kicked against the grass, not doing any damage since she merely skimmed the blades with the toe. "Two months?" She looked back up at him, a mixture of uneasiness and apologeticness. "It's okay. Time flies by here, it's uncountable with all that's going on. The... thing was August, and it's August again in 2 days if I'm not wrong, so two and a half months." She explained, doing the math in her head.

Percy wasn't even gonna attempt math right now, not when he was holding a baby. Last thing he wanted was for the brain to overload and motor functions that kept Selena held in place to break down. That seemed right.

He looked back down at Selena, who was now looking back at her mother since Artemis had spoken. "Shit. Two months. I'm sorry I wasn't there. Hera put me to sleep, and then two months ago I was with Lupa and I had amnesia and..." He sighed. "It's been... a lot. I'm sorry." He apologized profusely.

Artemis' eyebrows furrowed sadly. "Why are you apologizing? You didn't even know. I planned to tell you, but it took me about 6 months to decide that and by then you were already gone. Not long after that Olympus went into lockdown and me and my brother fled here. She was born on this island, as I was." The Goddess explained to her only consort.

Percy looked down at Selena and frowned. "Still, I'm sorry I couldn't be here." He slowly began to sit down, ending up cross legged on the grass next to Selena's cot. As she found herself a new pen in his lap, Selena began to move a bit, looking around at the grass and leaning on him for support.

Artemis smiled and sat down not too far from them, leaning on the wooden structure and looking at her consort and daughter. "She seems to like you." She noted, watching as Selena basically used the front of Percy as a jungle gym.

Percy chuckled lightly. "She'd better. I think I like her too." He gave a lop-sided grin to the infant, who was making little noises as she let go of him and climbed over his leg.

Both Percy and Artemis sat watching Selena as she crawled around on the grass on her belly, meeting daisies and bugs. "She's a lot like you." Artemis again spoke out of the blue, sounding tired.

Percy looked at her, his forearms resting on his knees. She was sitting with her back and head against the cot, her knees drawn up just below her chin. "How so?" He asked, wondering what she meant by that.

The side or Artemis' mouth twitched. "Well, she obviously looks like you. Same hair, eyes, skin tone, nose, everything. But... I don't know, it could be just that she's a baby, but she's very happy. She only cries when she can't find me or Apollo, never when she wakes up or gets hungry. She's always exploring, crawling off when we're not looking to try and pet the reindeer, stuff like that." She paused for a moment, before flicking her hand dismissively. "Nevermind, it's dumb. I guess I always sorta thought you were... carefree. I kinda liked that about you." She explained hurriedly, her cheeks rapidly turning redder by the second.

Percy smiled, picking the grass in front of him as he looked at her. "Like a baby. Thanks." He joked, and upon seeing her genuinely embarrassed he waved the Goddess off. "But I get what you mean. It's nice seeing someone's having a good time these past few months." He joked, snatching a laugh out of Artemis.

As the two sat staring at the baby in the field a couple yards ahead of them, a thought suddenly washed over Percy's mind. "Gods, what's Cali gonna think? What's Mom gonna think? I'm not even 18 yet." He put a hand to his head, gaining stress like a League of Legends player gains weight.

Artemis was silent, watching as his foot tapped impatiently while he watched Selena lay down on her stomach and play with grass. "Does she have toys?" He asked, watching as the baby played with nature instead of a man-made object. Artemis shook her head, gesturing to the world around them. Not satisfied with a child in today's world not having their own teddy, Percy vowed to make a change. "When... if I make it back, I'll bring her something." He promised.

Artemis frowned. "Don't say that. Don't say if, jackass. You're gonna come back. You have to." She told him sternly, yet pleadingly. Percy was silent, now thinking about all that lay ahead of him. They had to get this Physicians Cure because... well, one of them was gonna die.

Might not work, dipshit.

Shut up. It's Greek magic. This shit always works.

He and Cali still hadn't properly talked about it all yet. She wasn't present when Nike told Leo, Hazel, Frank and he that one of them was gonna die. Therefore, Percy had a 25% chance of dying. It could have been hubris, but just hadn't even considered that it was talking about him. Now, for whatever reason, he was certain that it was him.

These stupid prophecies are always about you. You thought Thalia was the chosen one but then she joined the Hunt, you really just gonna assume it's about one of your friends again?

Percy lay his head back, resigned. He was gonna die, and if all went well this Physicians Cure would revive him. But then again, could he really trust any of his teammates to do this correctly? Annabeth, maybe, but if Leo was the one administering first aid on Percy's pile of ashes, he may as well hop on Charon's boat right away.

"I'm probably gonna die. Nike said so." He told her, making Artemis frown. Her silent questioning of what he meant was met with an answer. "The reason we're her is to get that stupid Physician's Cure. Nike told us a while back that either me, Frank, Hazel or Leo was gonna die, that it was prophecized, and... well, you know all the fucked up prophecies love to be talking about me. Hazel's already died once before, so it probably would've mentioned that if it was talking about her. Leo's slippery enough to get himself out of any situation. Franks got this thing with a stick and his life force or something so if it was him then that'd be like three prophecies stacked on one another. So yeah, I guess that leaves me. Nothing remarkable was said about my death to counter it, and I dunno, I'm just not too confident about this fight." He explained.

Artemis was quiet, and when he looked at her he saw tears in the Goddess' silver eyes. She shook her head slowly. "You're not gonna die Percy. Selena needs you now, you're gonna have to come back." The two of them were silent for a few seconds, Percy looking like he was waiting for her to continue. Finding words she still had yet to say, Artemis relented. "I need you, Percy. Please." She begged, the first time Artemis had begged a man for anything since she had first sat on Zeus' knee as a little girl.

Percy smiled softly, looking back at Selena out in the field playing with flowers. "I guess I don't have a choice now." He feigned witty confidence, feigned being the key word.

The Goddess and Demigod sat in silence for a little while longer watching the girl, their daughter, live life happily in blissful ignorance. She had no idea of the situation or the world right now. She didn't even know there was a world outside of Delos. All she knew were her cot, mother, uncle, the animals and now the father she'd never before met.

Artemis suddenly felt a twinge in the back of her skull. Sis? You done? Cause his friends are. Her brother Apollo mind-messaged her, sounding apologetic. She understood. This wasn't a friendly visit, Percy was only here for a quest, and it was a quest he needed to get back to, no matter her thoughts on the matter. "Your friends are done." She said quietly, not sounding enthused at all.

Percy knew that was coming. How long would it have taken for Leo to charm Apollo into giving up the Curse of Delos? It was funny. When he first arrived he was kinda anxious to get it over with, as it would give Artemis less time to behead him if she had come to regret that night and decided no one was allowed to see her naked. But now, after all that had come to light and the realizations that had dawned on him, he definitely did not want to leave. He wanted to forget about the war, stay here with Selena in his lap playing with animals and just never grow old, like an alternate version of Ogygia. Nevertheless, he nodded and sat up.

"Selena!" Artemis called, and a few yards away the baby's head snapped up like a deer hearing a twig crack. Artemis held out her hands in a come here motion and the baby complied, crawling with exaggerated arm swings like she didn't know how to crawl. Selena crawled all the way back to her mother and let herself be picked up by the Goddess. Percy also stood up, and the two girls walked over closer to him. "Say bye now. Dad's gotta go for a bit." She told her daughter, and that was the first time Percy was openly acknowledged as a father. It was weird to hear, being called Dad.

He almost started crying, grabbing onto Selena's little hand and holding it with both of his. "I promise I'll come back, mkay?" He vowed, not sure if that was a promise he could keep. Selena, not able to speak English since she was a baby and had a binkie in, just stared at him with those sea-green doe eyes.

She didn't even have to say anything to almost convince him to stay. Just looking at his daughter made Percy's knees weak. He looked up at Artemis, wanting desperately to ask what they were now. Were they a couple, temporary or permanent? Was she just his baby mama? Was she only tolerating him for the baby. Was she just waiting to dump Selena on him so she could go back to being divine? Percy didn't want an answer right now, so he didn't ask. He considered kissing her again, but held off. He shouldn't make any more promises he couldn't keep. "I..." He began, and Artemis teetered in his words as though waiting for something specific to be said. Percy couldn't bring himself to take that leap. If he was dying he wanted to die with hope. "Keep her safe. For me." He pleaded, and after looking a bit disappointed, Artemis nodded.

Knowing she couldn't bring Selena out in full view of the other heroes, Artemis merely stood by the crib watching as Percy left. He walked slowly, continuously turning his head to look at them one last time. Selena laid her head in the crook of her Mom's neck, watching her Dad walk away with those ever curious and innocent eyes. She didn't know where he was going, for how long, or when he was coming back. It was like being with a dog as it got euthanized. You couldn't tell it what was happening, you couldn't tell him it would be alright. He was just scared, and all you could do was hug him.

Percy needed to leave, fast, before he broke down right there on the forest floor.

So here's a little surprise for ya. This shit's not actually done yet. This is just the first part. I decided to post only this first part today because I'm going away for the weekend tomorrow and I promised to put something out this week. I'm currently working on finishing the last scene which should hopefully be out (along with the other 5 or so scenes of this story) next week. This one scene was 10 pages out of the 27 page document and I've only just started the last scene so yeah it's shaping up to be a decent size. For now, enjoy this because I haven't posted on my ffnet account (I'm posting the full oneshot as a single chapter over there cause wattpad and ffnet run their traffic differently. People tend to read ffnet ones with large word counts, people read wattpad ones with a lot of chapters so I'm maximizing the chapter count here. Anyway, you're welcome for finally updating, expect more soon.

Word Count: 4931