Percy Jackson - Returned Affection

Chapter 3

Percy awoke to find he was tied to a tree. He sighed, he should've known going to sleep at one in the morning would make it impossible for him to wake up on time. He looked around and saw three huntresses staring and laughing at him. These three always joined in on pranking him for oversleeping. Percy knew it was because they wanted to humiliate him, but after so many times he was kind of over the embarrassment of waking up like this.

"Can you let me out?" Percy said with a yawn. The girls stopped laughing, upset that he wasn't freaking out like he would in the past. No, he had long ago grown used to this prank. Grumbling, one of the three came up and untied the ropes holding him. Percy admittedly did gasp a little as he was let go, but it was mainly just because of the pressure being off his lungs.

The demigod quickly moved back to his tent and got ready for the day. He didn't know exactly what time it was, but he knew that Thalia and Artemis, if she was even back, wouldn't approve of hin being any later than he already was.

As he made his way into camp, Percy quickly found Thalia helping a few huntresses practice their knife skills. "Thalia!" He called out as he jogged up to her.

Thalia turned and gave Percy a strange face. "You overslept again." She flatly remarked.

"I know, I'm sorry. Anyways, is Artemis back?" He asked.

With a sigh, Thalia shook her head. "No, well yes. She arrived this morning, but left like an hour later saying she had something important to do." Percy frowned deeply. He was confused as to what was happening. Artemis had never acted this strange. First she changed the rules just so he could sit with her, now she's disappearing without much explanation. It worried Percy, and in his anxious mind he even entertained the idea that she might be cheating on him.

That idea was almost immediately scrapped however, after all it was a stupid idea that Artemis the Man Hater, the Eternal Maiden, the Slayer of Adulterers and Abusers, would ever have an affair herself. Nevertheless, he was scared that Artemis might have stopped liking him, or that she wanted a way out of this relationship. He knew it was irrational, but he couldn't help himself.

"Well, thanks anyways Thals. Is there anything I'm supposed to do today? Normally I'm not strung up in a tree if not." Percy asked, doing his best to hide any hint of anxiety.

"I think Artemis wanted you to help gather water for us, and afterwards help in washing the clothes."

Percy grumbled to himself. "I'm always the one who washes the clothes." He hated the chore, mainly because it involved the incredibly uncomfortable task of having to mess with the huntresses' undergarments. On top of that, any slip up that made the hunt think he was stealing their panties would almost certainly mean death.

"I'm sorry Perce, but you know that you're the best at it. And the girls trust you enough to not do anything weird either."

Now it was Percy's turn to sigh. "I guess that's fair. How much water do I need to get?" He knew the drill. His chores were always phrased as "helping" the girls with something, as if they were doing it too. Percy had long since recognized that whether it be because Artemis ordered it so or because of sheer refusal by the huntresses, he was always alone in doing the task. There was no "helping," there was only "doing it for them."

"Last I checked it was only 4 buckets, so that shouldn't be too hard."

Percy said his byes to Thalia before going and finding the buckets. Well, buckets might be a lie. They were more like small pools. Each one could hold somewhere around 100 gallons and was big enough to sit in comfortably. Percy, always happy to not have to move so much water, instead found a lake, one that the huntresses thankfully weren't bathing in. It was a few miles away, but after all the work he'd done over the past several years he could not only sense the lake, but also move some of the water towards him.