★ 。＼｜／。★

𝗜𝗙 𝗜 𝗖𝗔𝗡'𝗧 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗥

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖗𝖊 𝖉𝖎𝖝-𝖓𝖊𝖚𝖋:
DISASTER STRIKES

★ 。／｜＼。★

THEY STARTED BY cleaning up the kibble and chicken massacre. Although they did the best they could, hazmat suits and maybe a fire hose could've helped a lot. By the time they staggered back into the great room, there was no time for resting, or dinner of their own, though. Both Hecuba and Gale were standing by the front door with their leashes in their mouth, eagerly awaiting a walk.

"Fine," Percy said. "But we're not going all the way to Pennsylvania. Belle, Annabeth, and I have school tomorrow."

Hecuba and Gale instantly got excited. Gale chittered and ran around in circles, dragging her harness behind her. Hecuba stood up on her hind paws before bowing playfully, barking with such a force that it made the candelabra rattle.

Belle helped Percy get on Hecuba's collar, but Annabeth instantly volunteered to walk the dog. Something about Annabeth was that she adored dogs, no matter what kind or what size. Belle certainly didn't complain and held the leash out to Annabeth.

Grover spent a few minutes talking up Gale in attempt to calm her down so he could put on her harness. "That's a good polecat! So much prettier than a skunk or a vole! Such a lovely mustelid!"

Gale farted in response. After a couple more minutes, both of the animals were on their leashes. Annabeth was still holding Hecuba's, which had a bar handle on the end like a rope for waterskiing. Grover had Gale's leash, who was currently wrapping his legs up in it as she raced around his hooves in excitement.

"Good to go?" Percy asked once Grover had untangled himself.

"Good to go," Annabeth confirmed.

They weren't good to go. Not even close. As soon as Percy opened the front door, Hecuba absolutely tore down the sidewalk, dragging Annabeth along behind her. Gale tried to keep up with her, making Grover start to lightly jog. Percy went to run after them, but the door knockers yelled after him.

"Lock the door! No, leave the door open! CRÊPES SUZETTE!"

Percy turned back around. Belle, however, was already prepared. She smiled at him, holding the house keys up in the air. She locked the door and took Percy's outstretched hand, watching as Annabeth kept up with Hecuba, since the dog was a sprinter. Hecuba would race down a block, stop to smell a trash can, race down another block, glance back to see if Annabeth was still there, and sniff at another trash can.

"What would I ever do without you?" Percy questioned.

"I don't know, and I would rather not find out," Belle admitted. "Come on, let's catch up."

Belle had promised herself back in Tartarus that she would never take her walks in New York City with Percy for granted ever again. Even though this time they were literally running to catch up with Annabeth and Grover, this was no different. She decided to enjoy her day, even if it was almost over.

They eventually caught up with the others at 30th and Lex, which was about nine blocks north of the manse. Gale was taking a break now, perched on Grover's head while gnawing on his left horn. Grover was trying to coax her down, but he wasn't having much luck. Annabeth's Dutch braids had completely come undone from the wind, and she had new stains on her shirt with rips in her jeans and a skinned left knee.

"My turn?" Percy offered, gesturing to the leash.

Annabeth handed it over to him, gasping for breath. "Running shoes. Tomorrow, I bring running shoes."

"WOOOF!" Hecuba barked.

Percy just had enough time to grab the handle of her leash before Hecuba yanked him into a full-on sprint, forcing his hand out of Belle's. Belle blinked, her eyes wide, before following after them. They eventually reached East 80th, where Hecuba started to go the bathroom in the middle of the street. Percy was now sweating and out of breath, but Hecuba didn't give him a break for too long.

Belle trailed behind, letting her mind wander. Although Mrs. O'Leary was Percy's Hellhound, she had never really heard that Percy took her on walks. Sure, they played together and shadow-traveled. She wasn't sure if Hecuba could shadow-travel. But there was something kind of . . . unsettling about Hecuba. Mrs. O'Leary was one hundred percent dog, but Hecuba seemed to have a human soul. She had read, and Hazel had told them, that Gale and Hecuba had once been human back in the ancient times. Unfortunately, Belle didn't know too many details about them, but it was clear that Hecuba still had plots and schemes.

Around 95th Street, the animals decided to take some mercy on them. Gale chittered and squeaked, her nose pointing south. Hecuba huffed in irritation, but eventually agreed that it was probably time to go home.

"You want to take her?" Percy inquired, looking over at his girlfriend.

"Yeah, sure," Belle agreed, taking the leash from him. Annabeth was in no shape — she was barefoot, which definitely wasn't good in Manhattan, but she had gained some nasty looking blisters on her feet. "Let's give you a break — oh!"

She thought she was ready for it. Newsflash — she wasn't. Hecuba pulled her with all of her strength, and Belle stumbled, trying to keep up. Eventually, she got the hang of it, but it still wasn't easy. Hecuba practically dragged her all the way down Lexington. And, yeah, Belle totally agreed with Annabeth about the running shoes. She would definitely need those if she was going to go on a walk like this.

By the time they reached Gramercy Park, Hecuba let up on the leash a little bit, slowing down. Belle placed a hand on her side where a cramp was, breathing deeply. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked up, only to see Percy looking a little freaked out.

Belle frowned at him. "What's up with you?"

Percy stared ahead. "Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"Hecate's the Goddess of ghosts, right?"

"Yeah, why? Did you see one?"

"I'm not sure . . ."

"Guys, come on!" Grover called from up ahead. "It's finally time for our dinner!"

Percy shook his head. "It's probably nothing."

Belle looked at him in concern for a moment longer, not entirely convinced. "Sure."

She unlocked the front door, ignoring the knockers that threatened to hex them if they didn't play a guessing game. They managed to wrestle the animals out of their lashes and headed down to the basement to make their inner, which consisted of some greens and trail mix Grover had brought and their Mexican food. Percy had looked for a microwave, until he noticed Grover standing near Hecate's ice cream machine.

"Remember, no touchy," Percy warned.

"Of course not!" Grover exclaimed, sounding a bit offended, probably because he was thinking about touching it. "Not until ten A.M. tomorrow morning, with safety gloves, blah, blah, blah. I think I found the microwave. Oh,wait, it says Easy Curse Oven. Never mind."

Once their food was reheated, they camped up in the great room. The bedrolls Grover had brought were surprisingly comfortable and were only slightly nibbled by rats, smelling of pine needles and wild mint — which comforted Belle greatly. Underneath the dim candlelight, it almost felt like they were actually outside under the constellation ceiling.

Hecuba and Gale didn't go to their rooms to sleep. Instead, they sat at the edge of their little circle, watching them as if they had never seen humans have dinner before. Hecuba's eyes were following every bit of food that went into their mouths. Belle felt bad for her, but Hecate had explicitly told them no treats, so she didn't offer up any of her food.

"This is nice," Annabeth commented once she'd finished her dinner.

"I admire your positivity," Percy responded.

"Ah, c'mon, Seaweed Brain. It's not so bad. As far as quests go, this is luxury! We have heat and running water. Speaking of which, I'm going to go find a shower . . ."

She got up to do that. Meanwhile, Belle, Percy, and Grover cleaned up the remnants of their dinner and the dishes. Annabeth came back maybe twenty minutes later with her hair wrapped in a towel and wearing a pair of gray flannel owl-patterened pajamas. Her blistered feet were bandaged as well, and she looked totally relaxed.

Annabeth gave them a strange smirk. "You guys need to see the bathrooms."

They went back upstairs, trailed by Hecuba and Gale. Percy had been totally right about Hecate making bathrooms appear when he asked. Not being a plumber — or a human, for that matter — she didn't know how bath fixtures worked. Hecate had created a variety of rooms, none of which made any sense. The first bathroom they visited had a normal working shower, but the toilet was on the ceiling, the water defying gravity as it stayed in the bowl.

"What happens if you flush it?" Percy wondered.

Annabeth laughed. "Percy, I've seen what happens when you mess with plumbing. If you want to try that, wait until I'm out of the room."

She put a sticky note on the bathroom door that said SHOWER OKAY, just to mark which ones they could use. Annabeth then led them to the next bathroom, which was lined in black leather with spiky chrome fixtures all around it. Gale chittered in approval.

Grover nodded. "You're right. Metal."

The shower only produced ice-cold water, and the towels were made of chainmail.

"No thanks," percy stated. "What about the—"

"Careful," Annabeth warned.

She used a plunger and opened the toilet lid. Steam billowed out of it, and the water in the bowl bubbled.

"It's a boilet," Percy announced with a grin, obviously pleased with myself.

Belle rolled her eyes at him. She often told him that he would make a great dad. There were so many reasons why that statement was true, but his jokes were at the top of the list. Stupid and corny.

They spent a few more minutes exploring the rest of the bathrooms. There were three working toilets and two working showers, along with a bathtub that was also a working koi pond, which Grover assured them he would use as long as the fish didn't mind.

Belle used one of the working showers before getting out. She put on one of Percy's old sweatshirts that she managed to sneak from him and a pair of plaid pajama pants before getting ready for bed. The others did so as well, and they gathered in the great room again. Hecuba and Gale cuddled next to the grand piano.

"Good first day," Grover voiced with a sigh. "Gotta get easier from here, right?"

He was snoring about three seconds later. Annabeth must've been exhausted as well, because she nestled into her bedroll and immediately slept. Belle yawned, stretching her arms out before looking over at her boyfriend, who seemed deep in thought.

"You still thinking about earlier?" Belle asked Percy as she laid down, rolling over on her side, feeling sleep overcome her body.

Percy hesitated for a second, noticing her tired state. "We can talk about it tomorrow." He brushed a piece of hair away from her forehead and planted a kiss on it. "Get some sleep. Goodnight, I love you."

She gave him a soft smile before shutting her eyes. "I love you more."

Unfortunately, Belle had no idea how much harder and weirder tomorrow would get.

⭒ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☆ ⭒

THE FOUR OF them got up extremely early due to Hecuba and Gale's growling stomachs. They fed them their breakfast, gave the eels their dead fish, and managed to coax Hecuba into swallowing all seven million of her vitamins. Belle got ready for the day in one of the bathrooms before meeting up with the others in the kitchen. She quickly ate some of her grain cereal (she might've not been into grain as much as Demeter, but it was still one of her favorites.)

Grover suggested that they should have a daily walking schedule for the pets. There should always be at least two of them with the leashes. Every morning, Belle, Percy, and Grover would escort Annabeth down to SODNYC. In the afternoon, Grover and Annabeth would come meet Belle and Percy with the pets at AHS, where they would walk to the manse together from Asteria. AHS was a bit farther than SODNYC, but Belle didn't really mind.

"But, Grover, that means you'll be doing all the walking," Belle pointed out.

"Oh, I don't mind," Grover reassured her. "Fresh air!"

They packed up their things for school and put the leashes on the pets before heading out to escort Annabeth to SODNYC. As they locked up, the door knockers told us to have a great day, that they would die in agony, and PORK BELLIES! This time, they were a lot more prepared for the walking habits of the pets. Hecuba ran ahead through traffic, and Annabeth had even found a pair of sneakers in one of Hecate's closets, which helped her a lot. Gale also had a strange affinity for drugstores, as they had come to find out. Every time they passed one, she tried to tug Grover inside.

By the time they reached SODNYC, Belle was in bright spirits. They were laughing and having fun, which was good for a Tuesday morning. It felt good — domestic, almost.

"Have a good day," Belle told Annabeth. "Stay out of trouble."

Annabeth rolled her eyes fondly. "Yes, mom." She handed the leash to Percy. "See you this afternoon."

She was off. Belle, Percy, and Grover headed back towards the manse. The only trouble they ran into was on Third Avenue, where Hecuba decided to attack a Lil Zeus Greek food cart, but Percy managed to pull her off before she killed the cook or ate anything. He wasn't too happy, but Belle couldn't exactly blame Hecuba. It seemed like good food, and she also went into attack mode when she heard Zeus.

However, when they reached Gramercy Park, Belle realized that her and Percy had only twenty minutes until school started, and it was a forty minute trip to school. Although her first period teacher was pretty lenient with attendance, especially for her since Belle always tried her best in school, she hated to be late.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Percy questioned to Grover at the front door after they had put the pets inside.

"Oh, yeah!" Grover responded. "I got a ton to do. Going to send out the party invitations for Friday, play with the animals, maybe bake a cake. We'll pick you up at AHS. Then we can have a nice walk home over the Queensboro Bridge!"

"Oka. Don't forget to put the ice cream potion stuff in the—"

"Freezer, I know! I'll be fine, 'kay? Thanks, bye!"

He shut the door.

"He'll do well!" one of the door knockers said.

"He'll ruin everything!" another added.

"RAINFOREST CAFÉ!" the third shouted.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Belle stated, taking Percy's hand. However, she couldn't get rid of the slight uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. "Grover's smart. We have to get to school."

Percy sighed. "You're probably right."

They took the subway to school. The secretary only gave them a disappointed sigh for being late, but it wasn't a full scolding, which was a win. On the way to class, they saw Percy's counselor, Eudora. She was tip-toeing down the hallway, and froze like a deer in headlights when she spotted them.

"Is she gone?" she whispered, but way too loud.

"Um . . . you mean Hecate?" Percy replied.

"She can't see me!"

Eudora dove into the nearest room and locked the door behind her. Belle and Percy shared a glance and waited for a moment, because she had just shut herself in the janitor's closet, but she didn't come back out. Plus, they were already late. Belle squeezed Percy's hand and gave him a quick kiss before heading off to class.

Her classes went all right, as usual. She handed in all of her homework (she was much more punctual and on top of things than Percy, but that was already obvious.) School ended, and Belle attended Percy's swim practice as always as she sat on the bleachers with a book in her hand. After practice, the two of them waited in front of AHS. They sat on the steps, Belle's arms wrapped around Percy's arm. She was looking forward to seeing her friends and the pets, believe it or not.

Twenty minutes passed by, which made Belle start to get a little worried. She wasn't incredibly ADHD, but Percy was, so twenty minutes was translated a lot differently for him. Maybe they had gotten stuck somewhere, or maybe the pets pulled them off course to Pennsylvania. Whatever it was, surely they were fine.

It was times like these when Belle wished she had a cell phone. She had gotten used to not having one, but sometimes she wished she could call her friends in situations. It wasn't really worth the risk, though, because she would probably get eaten by monsters. And after all Belle had been through, she didn't want to die from something stupid like using a cell phone. Long story short, there was no way of knowing where Grover and Annabeth were. And Iris-messages only worked in certain situations, and they wouldn't really connect if someone was moving — like being dragged by a Hellhound.

So, they waited. After an hour, Belle had gone into total panic mode. Something could've happened to Annabeth and Grover, and here she was, just sitting on some steps.

Percy took out Riptide, and with the tip of the blade, he etched Went to Gramercy on the sidewalk. It was a new trick that they had learned recently. One day, Percy had been sitting bored on the sidewalk while Belle helped Sally pick out clothes for her first author signing, when he discovered that Riptide could sketch glowing lines on the asphalt that no mortals could see. They lasted about three hours before fading away, less if it was raining.

And no, Sunflower couldn't do it. Their swords were practically the same, but Percy's was disguised as a pen. Sunflower was a keychain, so it didn't have that magic. Totally unfair.

They started walking back to Manhattan, taking the route that they figured Annabeth and Grover would take, in hopes that they would intercept them. However, they still hadn't met them when they got to the Upper East Side. By the time they reached East 60th, their concern had grown greater. Belle and Percy shared a worried look with each other before breaking out into a jog.

It was still quite a way to Gramercy Park, filled with crosswalk lights and cars and pedestrians. However, Percy was a native New Yorker, leading Belle around. Despite the honks, curses, scowls, and delivery bikes, they didn't slow down. They spotted Annabeth a block out, running to the manse from the opposite direction. Belle's stomach twisted, dread settling in her chest. Apparently Grover hadn't come to pick her up either. They met in the front of the house.

"You two okay?" Annabeth instantly questioned.

"Fine, you?" Percy replied.

"Yeah, but . . . I guess I lost track of time studying. Grover never showed.I thought maybe he fell asleep, or . . ." Her voice faltered when she looked at the mansion. "Oh, Gods."

Belle looked through the Mist, her heart sunk all the way to her stomach, and her eyes widened. She couldn't reallu believe what she was seeing. The front windows were shattered, their glass strewn across the garden as if the panes had been busted from within. Several of the tombstone tiles had fallen off of the walls. Blue smoke billowed into the air from the front porch, where the three-paneled door had exploded outward.

"Grover," the three of them chorused.

Without a second of doubt, they ran into the disaster zone.

— [ ♡ ] —

I miss jason grace. that's all

gifs by -wintxrwidow- !