A New Discovery

Chapter 9

It's been two days since the trio of Chiron, Percy, and Annabeth had returned back to camp from Dr. Solace's house. The drive back had been a good opportunity for them to get caught up on what was happening back at camp. Annabeth would be exempted from her camp duties for a week once she got back so that she didn't have to deal with the campers for a bit. Annabeth had been fully aware of how hard going back to camp and getting back to normal was going to be, but she was fully prepared for the challenge.
    When they had first arrived and walked up the hill to camp together people had been very surprised to see percy and her talking together being completely friendly. In truth they were both trying to distract the other from the stares of the campers and their muttering. They both didn't want the attention at the moment and wished they could have come into camp some other way.
    After they got past the crowd of campers they made their way to the Athena Cabin where Annabeth's siblings were waiting for her.
    "Annabeth!" Malcolm welcomed her warmly. It seemed that they were all keeping their space while also being excited about her return. Obviously a mental breakdown wasn't going to keep them from being excited to see their sister after she recovered. They rushed her inside and Percy didn't want to interrupt their reunion so he left to find Nico and the others.
    It took him about an hour of random walking around but eventually he found them in the bunker. "Hey, look who's back!" Leo said excitedly when he caught sight of Percy.
    "Percy!'' Nico shouted and got up running to him. He had really missed Percy a lot and they hadn't been able to talk much during Percy's trip. Percy just laughed at his boyfriend's happiness and picked him up in a hug.
    "Hey Neeks!" Percy said happily before setting him back down and looking over at the other two boys who had gotten up and walked over to them while they were having their moment.
    "Hey Perce." Jason greeted him calmly, but still made sure to get a hug in before stepping back and watching as Leo tackled Percy happily.
    "PERCY!" Leo yelled in his face happily while they were on the floor. All the boys were laughing hard now, practically cackling and joining them on the floor laughing.
    "I was only gone for one week!'' Percy laughed out surprised by all of their excitement.
    "Yeah! And it felt like forever." Nico told him with a playful angriness in his voice.
    "True, never leave again." Jason told him seriously.
    "Ok, ok, I'm sorry." Percy apologized almost as seriously.
    They took a minute to calm down and once they finally had they fell into a comfortable silence. Though it was weird to Jason that Leo was so excited, even exhibiting more excitement than Nico had when he saw Percy, he wasn't bothered by it. It was very confusing to him, but he also knew that he was deeply in love with the other three boys and if they loved each other as well as him then he couldn't be disappointed.
    Nico had also been confused by both of the boys' excitement, but from what he had been told by Aphrodite it was somewhat expected now so he didn't mind very much. He was very excited to see Percy though. He wanted to ask him a ton of questions but didn't want to overwhelm him so he just left it alone. But, Leo seemed to have different ideas.
    "So? How did it go?" He asked, causing Nico to glare at him.
     "Leo! He's probably tired and doesn't want to answer questions. You can't overwhelm him." He scolded him causing Leo to deflate. He felt a bit bad about making Leo upset, and he definitely saw the look that Jason was giving him for doing it, but Percy was his boyfriend and he wanted to make him comfortable.
    "It-its fine! You can ask me stuff! Just treat me how you normally would, I don't mind! I'm still just Percy, Nico." He told him sadly. Percy was still the same as he always was and had not changed at all since his diagnoses, if anything it had helped him understand some things about himself that he didn't before!
    "You don't know that Percy, it's okay though. We don't need to know, Leo was just being insensitive to your condition!" Nico told him gently in a sickly kind voice that made him even more upset than his actual words. He teared up and looked away from his boyfriend not fully believing what he was hearing. It was almost worse than annabeth.
"There isn't anything wrong with me though! I'm still the same as I was! Don't treat me differently, please." He practically begged his boyfriend who immediately felt bad. While Percy was gone he thought about Percy a lot and he also thought about his condition. While thinking he decided to do some research and learn more about modern autism. He couldn't find much on adult autism though but he still wanted to enforce some of the things he had learned with Percy thinking it would help him, but all it did was cause him to cry.
"I'm sorry Perce, don't cry." Nico said to Percy gently.
"I-im not." Percy protested weekly but there were tears on his face that were completely contradicting his words.
Nico smiled at that softly. "Yeah you are, Perce, but it's okay, I'm an A SS. I shouldn't have said all that, I was just reading up on your condition while you were gone and wanted to implement some of it into our daily lives to help out a bit. I'm sorry." He told him and held his arms out to him. Percy walked into his arms fast and hugged him back.
"It's okay. I'm sorry I'm crying, I don't know why."
"It's alright, you don't have to apologize." Nico looked over Percy's shoulder at Leo sadly. "Sorry Leo, I shouldn't have said that. I can't control you anyway. You should ask whatever you want whenever you want."
Leo seemed to think deeply before responding. "I'll only forgive you if I can join the hug too!" He said cheekily, causing them all to laugh. Nico did lift his arm though and Leo ran into them while Jason, who didn't want to feel left out came over to them and wrapped his arms around them too. Being the giant he is, his arms managed to wrap around all three of them easily which made them all laugh.
"I, uh, I have to tell you guys something." Percy said nervously after a few minutes of their group hug. While Percy had been away from camp he had had a lot of time to think about what Aphrodite had told him and he had decided that he wanted to tell the boys. It felt wrong to him that they don't know something so important to their own lives.
"Alright then, let's sit down first at least." Jason said while taking his arms off of them and moving towards the small sitting area that was in the bunker.
"Okey–dokey!" Leo said walking over after Jason and sitting so close to him that he was practically sitting on his lap.
Nico followed over silently after them and sat next to Percy. He was pretty nervous that this was gonna be Percy breaking up with him to get back with Annabeth.
"So, you remember when Annabeth had her whole breakdown and then I had my breakdown and I had to go with Dionysus after to Olympus right?" He told them nervously, receiving nods. "Well, I told you guys what happened while I was there, but not all of it."
"What do you mean?" Jason asked him, wearing the same confused face as the two other boys.
"While I was there, and they were having my trial, Aphrodite told me about the gods' rewards to us. We all know that they gave us our material things, like weapons and shrines and what-not, but they also gave us some more personal gifts. For instance, we went through a very bad war, therefore we had to go see Dr.Solace and get help. Well the gods decided to figure out what kind of help we needed and give it to us without telling us on their own." Nico's eyes widened in realization.
"I didn't get anything." Leo said, confused.
"Yes, you did, you just didn't notice yet. It's not something material Leo, it's emotional." Percy said, confusing Leo even more.
"Emotional?" Jason asked him, slightly starting to understand.
"Haven't you guys noticed how close we've been getting since our diagnosis? It because she's pushed us together." Percy said out loud for the first time, and truly understood the importance of those words.
"What?" Leo asked him, seeming heartbroken by his words. "You mean that all of 'this'" he gestured to them quickly, "was just a set up?"
"No, hold on, let me tell you what else she said first before you overthink too much, okay?"
"I don't know if I should. What if it's just a lie? What if I'm just being influenced to make a decision?" Leo asked him, getting more upset as he spoke.
"That's what I was talking about! Let me tell you the rest! Your not being influenced, okay?" Percy answered with equal amounts of frustration. Leo just glared and Jason sat looking confused, but still curious as to what he had to say. Leo wasn't on his lap anymore, he had moved off when Percy had dropped the bomb on them.
"I think it is in all of our best interest to listen to him, Leo." Nico said quietly, gaining the attention of the others.
"Why? Out of all of us you should be even more upset that your boyfriend was keeping this from you." Leo questioned him angrily.
"Just listen first before you go berserk."
"...okay.'' Leo said, nodding at Percy to continue his story.
"So, after she told me that little bit of information I had the same kind of reaction that you did. I mean, I'm bi, I always have been, but i've never liked Nico like that before and i've known him for a long time, so dating him like, the day after Annabeth and I broke up was kinda sudden and weird, but also perfect at the same time." He explained to them and Leo and Jason both nodded in understanding. That was what they both had been feeling since they had gotten together. "She explained to me that she didn't just make the feelings poof out of nowhere, and that feelings where already there before and she just strengthened them. I didn't say anything at first because I didn't know how to bring it up, but I thought you guys should know." Percy told them sadly.
The four boys sat in silence and absorbed the information before finally, Jason broke the silence. "I mean, is that really a bad thing?" He asked, shocking them with the question. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's kinda weird too, but it's also really, sweet? In a way, I guess." He hastily explained himself a bit after seeing their faces.
"How so?" Nico asked him curiously.
"Well, were their kids for olympus sake! They gave these feelings to us, not cursed us with them. And think about it, Aphrodite, who is the goddess of love and beauty, favors us all quite a bit from what I've heard and seen. So do you really think she would be doing something that would be harmful to us?" Jason said passionately.
"I agree, is the gift of love, which we have been given, truly so terrible? I surely don't think so. I have always found your presence quite nice and enjoyable. I would be happy with a forever like this one should it be offered to me as freely as this." Nico stated.
"But should we stand for the partially forced feeling, or just let them overcome us? What of the potential loves we could have known in our futures if we accept this double-sided gift?" Leo questioned them thoroughly.
"I would take it up on a heart beat notice. I have long since fallen for the three of you and would have the rest of my life be led no other way." Jason admitted passionately, and Percy sat shocked where he was. Was he truly gifted with such amazing people to spend his life with?
"I would have to agree with Jason. I cherish each of you, and hold you all dear to my heart. This is a gift I could never have asked for, and one I simply cannot turn down. Please say you can accept this Leo! I don't think we would be able to feel complete without you here, even with no god's assistance I would have fallen madly in love, and if I could gather the courage, I would have sought you out on my own." Percy said with tears in his eyes. His words were full of honesty and as he looked into Leo's eyes he could see the dam of emotions breaking and leaving him to the mercy of the pure love that he truly felt for them all, gods be damned.
And so they all cried their tears and let themselves be engulfed by each other's love. It was a strange thing at first, and for a while, the rest of the half-blood community had no idea what was actually going on with the four boys, just that they had grown closer, and that they were barely separable. When the camps had found out it had been very chaotic, they were bombarded with questions and could barely keep up with all of them. The had a hard time with their duties to the camp as well when they weren't able to see eachother often, one going off on a mission or being stuck at a different camp than the rest.
Eventually though they all became true adults, with actual mortal money, and bought their own townhouse in Manhattan near percy's mother and step-father, as well as his little sister Estelle. They lived happily like that for many years, fulfilling the same everyday tasks, finishing up their college classes, getting jobs, and finally, getting married.
When they told the gods of their marriage it was very chaotic. Each god wanted a part in the wedding, mostly wanting to be the center of attention at the ceremony, but only Apollo and Aphrodite had big parts in it. Apollo had been given control of music and decoracions and Aphrodite had been given the job of clothes and the actual marriage part.
Since they had gotten together the demigod quartet had had massive soft spots for the goddess, and wanted to repay her how they could. So when she had come and begged them to be a part of their wedding they couldn't refuse.
Their parents of course played their parts too, walking them down the aisle and offering their hands. It was all Percy could have asked for to have his mother at his wedding one day, crying tears of joy with a complete family of her own.
It had been a good day that day, and when they left for their honeymoon after they were seen off by all of their friends and family. It was like they were finally being rewarded for their hard work and sacrifices. They had each other, a new family, and peace.
~On Olympus~
    Aphrodite sat with her boyfriend, Aries, and watched the four boys happily. She looked at him and smiled cheekily. "See? All they needed was a little push!"
~The End~
Hey guys!!!!!! It's the end! Finally!!!!! This story has taken me forever to write and I'm so glad it's over now haha. It was definitely a fun journey though and I'm glad y'all stuck through it with me! Bye~~~~
Word count: 2704
Final word count: 18650