Chapter Text
“Hey Mister Brunner,” Percy said co*ckily, his bag over his shoulder and Riptide in his pocket as the centaur Chiron looked around abruptly, seeing Percy behind him in the doorway of the Big House. Chiron chuckled, his hooves clopping on the wooden floor as he turned about.
“Percy, how good to see you again,” Chiron said warmly, trotting over from where he’d been speaking with Mister D, who waved irreverently to Percy for the briefest of moments.
“Welcome back Patrick Johnston,” Mister D. said idly.
“You never will stop reminding me of that old alias, will you young man?” Chiron asked, and Percy laughed.
“Keeps you on your toes. Or, your hooves,” Percy replied, firmly taking the palomino white centaur’s hand. “How’ve you been sir?” he asked.
“Oh, quite well Percy. I must admit, things have been much quieter since you left, but Camp Half-Blood hasn’t been the same without you,” Chiron told him. “I’m glad you agreed to come and teach our campers a few things this summer. Why, it’s like only yesterday you arrived on our doorstep with the horn of Pasiphaë’s son in hand,” he reminisced, and Percy sniffed thoughtfully. To him, it had been virtually eons. After all, that young boy hadn’t seen anything yet. He hadn’t fought Titans, held up the sky, survived Tartarus… But, Percy supposed, to Chiron, Percy’s life had been the blink of an eye. Percy shrugged.
“Annabeth thought I needed something to do while she’s off doing architecture stuff. She sends her love by the way, says she’ll come over for a few days once she’s done,” Percy told Chiron, shrugging. “Maybe teach the kids how to make a good shelter in the woods,” he added, and Chiron nickered amusedly.
“It’ll be good to see her again too. But it’s also good to see her out in the world, she spent far too much of her youth here in Camp Half-Blood waiting for her chance,” Chiron said, his voice warm as he spoke of her. Percy nodded - he knew Chiron was in some way a second father to Annabeth. “Shall we?” Chiron offered, gesturing out into the camp, and with that he and Percy walked out into the sunny paths. Percy sighed as he breathed in the sweet smell of the strawberry fields, and smiled at the trees as well as the enormous and now fully grown dragon Peleus flying overhead above the branches and orbiting the Athena Parthenos. He also saw many more campers than he once had; it was clear that Camp Half-Blood, now that summer had well and truly begun, was filling up, and with many more demigods than it had once hosted in times of strife. And what had also increased in number was the cabins.
“How many cabins are there now?” Percy asked curiously.
“Nearly thirty. At this rate, we might have to really expand camp,” Chiron said brightly, smiling at the cluster of buildings nestled in the woods that sounded like it was rapidly becoming more of a village than a camp. “We’re hosting just as many more campers, as well. Perhaps I ought to hire you on as a permanent deputy activities director before it gets too out of hand for me!” Chiron added, making Percy laugh.
“I’d have to turn you down, sorry Chiron,” Percy replied apologetically, and Chiron nodded.
“Of course. I know you are trying to settle down in New Rome, it would do you no favors to be stuck here,” Chiron agreed, before he smiled at Percy. “And how are your family, dear boy?” he asked. Percy smiled.
“Estelle’s off to elementary school,” Percy told him, beaming at that. He’d seen so many photos of his baby sister in her new school uniform, and he couldn’t have been prouder. “Better student than I was,” he added with a chuckle.
“Well, she doesn’t have the weight of being a demigod on her back,” Chiron admitted. “Can she see through the Mist like your mother, do you think?” he asked, and Percy nodded as he got Riptide out of his pocket.
“When she was little one of the first things she started talking about was me having a big penknife,” Percy said, smiling at that adorable memory. He tried not to get Riptide out around Estelle, but it was an annoying inconvenience that if he wanted to write with the pen, he had to take the cap off even if only briefly to switch which end it was on. Chiron nodded.
“I would love to meet her, if it should ever be possible,” Chiron said warmly, before he gave Percy a curious smile. “And yourself and Annabeth? I must confess I find myself wondering if the houses of Athena and Poseidon will be joined in a child of your own in these coming years,” he asked, and Percy’s face went bright red.
“I-” Percy spluttered. “I dunno. We’re still pretty busy. But we’re thinking about it,” he admitted. Neither he nor Annabeth really knew what they wanted when it came to that part of their future, but the subject had been broached now that they were young adults. They knew any such kid would have to grow up either in or near New Rome, for a start. Chiron nodded.
“Of course. I shouldn’t pry, it isn’t my business,” Chiron said. “But I can assure you that if you should choose to have a child, I would be honored to meet them just as I would be to meet Estelle,” he said warmly.
“Thanks Chiron,” Percy said, before he half-scoffed, reminded of it by the sight of a middling-teens girl sitting on a bench near two siblings who looked just like her, knitting. “Looks like Arachne’s put me on her sh*t list too now. We’ve gotta have like, three cans of fly spray in every room of our apartment in New Rome,” he said ruefully with half an amused smile. It had always been that Annabeth had been the partner to hide from spiders and he’d been the one to smash them, but it had gotten a little worse every year since Tartarus.
“Oh dear…” Chiron murmured. “These things happen when one angers a figure like Arachne,” he said softly, before he smiled at the triplets, one of whom Percy noticed was missing an arm. He wondered if she’d had some sort of horrible accident on the way to camp, or gods forbid at camp. It was that girl Chiron nodded to. “Good afternoon, Laura,” he said.
“Hi Uncle Chiron!” Laura, the one-armed one who was drawing, replied as she looked up. Percy almost laughed - how many people called Chiron that? It was certainly not something he’d heard before. They’d been about to move on before Laura jumped at the sight of Percy. “Oh my gods! Are you Percy Jackson?!” she exclaimed incredulously. Percy stopped.
“Um. Yeah,” Percy replied, waving awkwardly. “Nice to meet you Laura. You’re triplets, right? Apollo kids, with the knitting, maybe?” he asked curiously, and the one with the knitting shook her head.
“We’re Hestia kids. If I don’t have something to knit like a little old grandma in a teenager’s body I’ll go mad,” the knitter replied. Percy’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Hearing what he just had, he wasn’t sure that he hadn’t gone mad. “When we were on our way here, I took to straight-up shearing sheep to get yarn,” she admitted.
“Sorry, Hestia?!” Percy asked in disbelief. He looked around, wondering if he might see the little goddess as he often did at camp. “I thought Hestia didn’t have children?” he asked. It was why Hestia didn’t have a cabin… or had she been built one?
“The relationship is a little more indirect,” Chiron told him pointedly. “My elder half-sister swore off motherhood, knowing the pain it could bring. Sophie, Laura, and Jenna here are not her direct children, but they were born of her indirectly,” he told Percy, identifying Sophie as the knitting one. “They insist upon calling me their Uncle, I suppose it is in their nature,” he supposed.
“Huh,” Percy mumbled. “So, how come Hestia’s got kids?” he asked.
“We’re kinda like Athena kids, it’s complicated,” Sophie told him.
“Tell me about it,” Percy said ruefully. Annabeth had once given him a little more detail on how she’d been born, it was a lot.
“We’re not really Hestia’s kids, it’s a bit weird,” Laura told him. “You know how people say pregnant people have a bun in the oven?” she asked. Percy nodded. “In our case, that was literal. We’re basically what happens when Hestia likes some homely couple enough and some of her essence leaks into their house. Us three were gingerbread people,” she explained, and Percy couldn’t stop the unbidden burst of breath that was halfway to laughter that escaped his mouth. Laura made a face. “My dough had a crack in the arm, so I’ve only got one,” she said, holding up her stub shoulder.
“I think Mom put too much butter in our recipe, that’s why we sweat so much,” Jenna said. Percy assumed she meant their mortal Mom.
“That’s just puberty,” Sophie pointed out.
“None of us are perfect,” Laura said, stopping them. “Hestia says that’s the point - nothing homemade is perfect, that’s its charm,” she said, seemingly quoting the goddess. Percy nodded, glad that Hestia was spending time with her indirect descendants - she wouldn’t have been a very good goddess of the hearth if she hadn’t, he supposed.
“Yeah. We’re not cookies you buy all the same in a factory, we’re the cookies your Mom brings to a potluck and they could do with a little more flour, but they’re good anyway,” Sophie agreed, and Percy smiled at that. He was almost imagining Hestia taking a liking to his own Mom and Paul and giving them twenty blue cookie children.
“That’s actually why we call our cabin the Potluck,” Jenna laughed, pointing down the way to a rustic sort of cabin nestled near the dining pavilion.
“The Potluck, I like it,” Percy said amusedly, smiling. “So, you all get baked?” he asked.
“Not all of us,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “The last Hestia kid to get here before us, he was a stew. We’re products of the home,” she said.
“See Joseph over there?” Laura asked, pointing with her drawing pad at a boy working in the strawberry fields, who Percy would have picked as an Ares kid for his bulky build. “He was a cabinet, it’s why he’s built like a brick sh*thouse and smells of wood varnish.” Then she pointed at a girl near him. “No points for guessing that Rose over there was a bed of roses.”
“It’s why she’s so prickly,” Jenna piped up.
“Yeah. Us three don’t really go on quests, monsters can smell us a state away,” Laura told him, shrugging. “I mean, if you smell like takeout, imagine how we smell,” she said wryly, and Percy’s mouth fell open.
“Oh gods,” Percy hissed. “You’re… literally a home cooked meal,” he groaned. The girls nodded.
“More of us have been getting here safely in the last few years, and Hestia tries to keep us safe but it’s not always easy. Lucy got lucky, she was a scarf, but her mortal parents used too much yarn, it’s why she’s so tall and colorful,” Sophie said, nodding down the way at a girl with bright red hair going up the climbing wall who Percy thought could probably reach Olympus itself if she stood on her toes.
“She was like that scarf Doctor Who had!” Jenna laughed.
“She’s pretty great for quests though, monsters don’t bother her because as long as she takes a bath and doesn’t dry off fully, she just smells like damp wool,” Laura told Percy, who nodded with a smile. Finally, a demigod who didn’t draw attention unless the monster in question was an avid crocheter. “She also gives great hugs, scarf. Plus she can strangle monsters pretty good, and she always remembers things like snacks, ambrosia squares, painkillers, deodorant, you name it. We’re the designated Mom friends!” Laura continued, and Sophie nodded with a bit of a rueful look.
“It was a bit annoying as a feminist to find out we’re demigods of the home,” Sophie said, and Percy grimaced. Yeah, he hadn’t realized that. “Other demigods get cool stuff, you all wake up at three in the morning with ideas for quests and prophecies and strategies,” she said.
“And buildings,” Percy added, thinking of how Annabeth had once woken him up at one in the morning flinging herself out of bed and muttering about a building she’d dreamt up and how she had to get it written down before she forgot.
“Hm. We wake up at three in the morning with an ungodly need to start on breakfast and tidy up the cabin,” Sophie said grumpily.
“They have very strong opinions. The cleaning harpies do too, the amount of arguments…” Chiron whispered to Percy, making a long-suffering sort of face.
“Annabeth probably wishes I was like that,” Percy mused, making them snort. Unfortunately, the disorganized nature of being a demigod meant that their apartment was usually very messy. It worked for them, since they both could always find everything and their stuff had very specific places even if that place was on the floor, but their parents always disapproved.
“Yeah. But it’s all right, Hestia reminded me that just because something’s homely doesn’t mean it has to be un-feminist. Remember what I said about shearing sheep?” Sophie said, grinning, as she rolled up her sleeves to reveal some serious guns. Sophie flexed as Percy stared at her arms. “I keep telling Chiron we should get some.”
“They make a mess and they have no brains,” Chiron disagreed, shaking his head. “Truly a disappointment to the clade Euungulata,” he muttered.
“You take care of the Pegasi?” Percy guessed, and Sophie nodded. Percy decided not to make a horse girl joke.
“We’re usually a bit overlooked by the other campers,” Jenna said, shrugging. Laura snorted.
“I think some of the Ares kids think we’re staff,” Laura snickered.
“Yeah, we can be a bit boring,” Sophie supposed. “I mean, other demigods like you, you get to control water and stuff. We get gut feelings about how much rosemary something needs,” she grumbled.
“Well someone’s gotta make sure all these kids are eating right,” Percy said brightly, hoping to brighten that aspect. And indeed, the three girls smiled at that.
“Of course, we’re all from different places so our ideas of the right seasonings are all different,” Laura pointed out, before she looked around and pointed at a girl practicing her swordplay. “Maruti over there, her mortal parents are Indian. I swear she hates us for making things bland,” she said, and Percy wheezed with laughter. He could imagine, having tried the Middle-Eastern food made by a friend of one of Annabeth’s cousins in Boston. If Samirah had been a daughter of Hestia instead of Loki…
“She always burns our mouths off but to be fair, her laal maas is to die for,” Sophie chuckled.
“I’ll remember that,” Percy assured them brightly, grinning. “If you want good food, stop by the Potluck,” he said.
“And a haircut,” Sophie added with a dark sort of chuckle. Percy returned her expression.
“Challenge accepted, I’ll be teaching some swordwork this summer,” Percy replied co*ckily. “If you can give me a haircut by the end of summer, I’ll give you a gold star,” he chuckled, and Sophie punched the air.
“Just don’t cut off his ears, please,” Chiron chided them.
“Yeah, or you’ll have Annabeth after you,” Percy agreed, before he grinned at them. “She does like gingerbread,” he added sarcastically.
“sh*t run away!” Laura joked, and Chiron laughed in his horse belly as the triplets sprinted off, giggling and laughing.
“I’m sure you’ll make quite a good teacher this summer, Percy,” Chiron said proudly. “A good rapport with your students is key, you’re already building one,” he pointed out.
“Thanks Mister Brunner,” Percy quipped.
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