The Kid
Percy was excited to see his son again. No one knew about him. Not even the father knew about the boy. Percy, Sally, and Paul were the only ones that knew about the boy. Percy wanted to keep it that way, but of course, the fates hated him. Nothing ever went his way.
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Percy watched fondly as all the younger kids talked to their godly parents and, when asked, answered who their other parent was, so the god could talk about them.
“And who’s your parent?” The ravenette heard Ares ask.
“Percy,” the boy responded, causing all the gods and their friends to look over, having paid enough attention to hear that. He gestured for the boy to join him at his side. The five-year-old practically skipped over to his dubbed mother and hugged him tightly. Percy couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he held his son close, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead.
“And what are you doing here?” he asked. “You’re supposed to be with Grandma and Grandpa.” He shrugged.
“Grandma said if I could manage my powers, I could come find you.” The boy was very smart for his age. They hadn’t put him in daycare, teaching him at home instead. Percy was twenty now-he was fifteen when he’d had the boy-and he’d been able to watch the boy fully when he’d finished school, so he’d been fully attentive of the boy for two years now.
“Well, I’m glad to see you, Ben.” The others got back to what they were doing and Percy sat down with the boy on the floor, waiting as all the kids talked to their parents and slowly left. It was probably about an hour later when it was just them left with no more kids.
“Alright,” Aphrodite spoke up. “I want to know what’s up. There was a time I remember that you liked Ares, but it had not been serious for very long.”
“Well, that was kind of because of Ben,” he replied, standing with the boy in his arms. He had brown hair and blue eyes like his father, but the tan skin of his mother. He looked like a mix between the two and it made sense, but the others wanted to know what had occurred for this to happen.
“Okay, well, can you elaborate on that more?” Annabeth asked, eyebrow raised questioningly. “You had a kid with Ares and he even seemed surprised.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t intentional, anyway.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s impossible,” Artemis spoke up. He gestured back towards Hera with his head.
“Well, Hephaestus wasn’t intentional, so it’s not completely impossible. Anyway, it was right after the first war. Ares was injured and had shown up in our backyard, for some reason, which I still think was weird, but I decided I should help. My parents were away on their honeymoon at that time, so it wasn’t a big deal or anything. I just had to make sure our neighbor didn’t see him when she checked on me the next day.
“Anyway, we went back up to my room and I helped heal him, though there was some sort of magic, so he mostly had to heal on his own. I decided to let him stay for a few days to help heal. And we mostly just watched some movies. We didn’t sleep anywhere near each other the whole time, so I didn’t think anything of it until, a few weeks after he left, I found out I was pregnant, which is possible because I have both reproductive organs, which is sometimes a result from being a son of Poseidon.
“We were really confused though, and I had to do a lot of convincing to my parents that I didn’t do anything, but really nothing happened, and so it took me a long time to figure out that it could’ve just been because Ares was fertile then and I guess, I was too. But Ben was a result of that.”
“So, wait,” Leo spoke up. “You had a kid and then you got amnesia and got put on the streets right after?” He nodded.
“Yeah, but it’s not like I remembered, anyway.”
“Yeah, but you missed, like, the first year of your kid’s life,” Piper argued, glaring at Hera. “You’re the goddess of family. How could you tear it apart?”
“Well, it’s not like I knew about the kid either. I don’t think anyone did,” she argued.
“Mamma?” Ben inquired. Percy hummed in acknowledgement, looking back at the boy. “M’tired.” He rubbed his eyes sleepily. He really was adorable and a few of the girls held back their ‘aw’s’ as he yawned and rested his head on the ravenette’s shoulder. The man rubbed his back soothingly and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.
“Well, we’re not doing anything tomorrow,” Zeus stated. “You might as well come again to sort this out.” Percy wasn’t sure what they wanted to sort out. He’d raised his kid alone for years already and didn’t see anything else that would matter, but he agreed and then left with Ben.
Once home, Percy rocked with Ben in his arms for a few minutes before the child fell asleep and he laid the boy down in his bed, pulling the blanket up to his chest. He pressed a kiss to his son’s forehead, murmured an ‘I love you,’ and then left.
Things would work out, he could tell. It would just take time.
