Praetor's legacy

Chapter 28

Percy was playing catch with his son in the park. Aidan was finally getting used to the feel of the mitt and he kept smiling in delight every time he was able to catch the ball his dad threw to him. When he dropped his second baseball in a row, he pouted and sat down in the grass. Percy walked over with a small smile on his face and sat down next to his pouting son.

"Everything okay, Aid?" Percy asked the seven-year-old with a grin threatening to break his "concerned father" facade.

Aidan threw his head back in exasperation and stared at his dad as if he knew absolutely nothing. He pouted again, his bottom lip protruding and his nose crinkling just the slightest. "I'm not getting the hang of this like you promised."

Percy rolled his eyes at his son. "That's ridiculous. You just started learning. You're getting really good at it! You only dropped two in a row, it's not the end of the world." Percy could say this since he's really been faced with the end of the world and this definitely wasn't it.

Aidan threw himself back onto the soft grass and groaned. "But that's two in a row that I dropped. I won't be able to impress Elly if I keep dropping them! She's taking me to a baseball game tomorrow, remember? I have to impress her!"

Percy laughed, trying not to think about his son already being girl-crazy. "Elly is your babysitter. She's almost fifteen. She is a daughter of Themis who is too old for you." Percy thought back to the first time he met Elly, a little seven-year-old girl who was brought into camp from her foster home. He remembers how she wouldn't let go of his hand and how she reminded him so much of a younger Annabeth.

"But Dad, she's my soul mate! Age doesn't matter when you're meant to be!" Aidan fisted his little hands into the grass in anger.

Percy looked on in amusement. "I'm sure there'll be other soul mates for you, kid. You're too young to be thinking about that stuff anyway. Now get up! It's time to go to the birthday party!"

Aidan pouted again at his father, his nose crinkling in distaste. "But I don't wanna go to Caroline's birthday party. She'll just make me play dollies with her, and you know how much I hate dollies."

Percy smiled and shook his head in amusement. He lifted his protesting son up into his arms and began to walk towards New Rome. Caroline was one of Aidan's classmates in New Rome, a rambunctious six-year-old who wasn't afraid of bossing people around to get what she wants. She reminded Percy so much of Reyna that sometimes he subconsciously pushed Aidan towards her. Reyna thought it was cute that Aidan could never say no to her, even though he always insisted that she had forced him into it.

Aidan finally gave up his squirming and began his grumbling. Percy shook his head at the nonsense coming out of his child's mouth. Who had taught him those words? In Latin no less! He fought a grin as Aidan kept up his mumbled insults towards Caroline.

When they finally reached the celebration, Aidan closed his eyes and counted to 10 as if he was getting up the courage to go through with this. Percy smiled down at his son. "Just think of it as a quest that you're being sent on, buddy. A highly-dangerous quest where the only person you can trust is yourself. Your mission?: To make sure that Caroline has the best sixth-birthday ever. Understood?"

Aidan saluted his father. "Loud and clear, sir." And then he ran into the room and began playing with Caroline as if he had wanted to be there all along. Percy smiled at the two kids and made his way over to the gift table to set the bag down with Caroline's present in it. Two arms snaked around him suddenly and Percy knew who it was just by looking at the left ring finger.