The Future of Percabeth

Family Get Togethers

Family get together at the Jackson house were fun, a little hectic, and very competitive. This was especially true during the Christmas season and at birthday parties. It wasn't because Percy and Annabeth wanted it to be this way, it was because Poseidon and Athena made it this way. You see, after the war with Gaea, the gods realized that it was important for them to spend some time with their demigod offspring. It wasn't like they could visit them everyday but they were aloud to attend events like holiday get togethers and birthday parties. When Percy and Annabeth first got married Athena and Poseidon were able to put their differences to the side and act kind to each other at the family holidays. But everything changed when the couple started having kids.
It started out pretty subtly; Athena surprised them with having brought all the furniture for the nursery for them and Poseidon countered by purchasing toys, car seats, strollers, and painting the room. Percy and Annabeth both shook it off and marked it as their parents just trying to help them out; after all they were having their first child. But then as their kid started to grow older and older the gifts from Poseidon and Athena became more and more extravagant. For their child's third birthday Athena got him a massive construction block kit that had enough pieces for him to build a miniature fort, Poseidon got him a child size drivable toy truck. For Christmas the following year Athena came with candy and a tablet, Poseidon gave him a scuba kit and promised he would personally teach him how to swim.
When they had their second child, a little girl, they saw the same pattern begin. Soon it got to the point where Athena and Poseidon would have to take multiple trips out to their cars in order to bring in all their gifts. When Athena gave their daughter a brand new wardrobe that consisted of princess ball gowns, Poseidon gave her a pony. When their son got really into baseball, his favorite team was the Yankees, Poseidon gave him signed memorabilia of every Yankee hall of fame player. Athena brought him season tickets to the games, managed to get him locker room passes to meet the players, and talked the team into letting him throw the first pitch one game.
Percy and Annabeth started to get suspicious of their parents intentions. If the gods were giving fancy gifts that were totally unrelated then it would have been one thing; they still would have told them to stop so the kids didn't get spoiled but they wouldn't have been as worried about their aims. They stayed quiet about it until one Christmas when the god completely went overboard. This Christmas Athena gifted their nine year old son with an x-box and five different games to go with it and Poseidon proceeded to give him a new plasma screen TV (which he claimed would be something the whole family could enjoy) Then Poseidon proceeded to give their five year old daughter an expandable princess palace, 2 ginormous stuffed animal dogs, and a pink princess scooter. Athena then gave her a 10 day overnight pass to Disneyland, for the whole family, she had also already cleared it with Zeus for them to fly there and back, and she got them plane tickets. When Percy and Annabeth saw the expensive gifts that their parents had given their kids, even though they knew money was not an issue for them, they knew that had to put an end to this gift giving madness.
"Hey dad and Athena, why don't we go talk in the other room while the kids play with their gifts." Percy said while his wife beckoned for them to follow her. The gods looked confused as to why they had to leave the room to talk, but they followed their children anyways.
"Is something wrong?" Athena asked once they were all seated around the kitchen table. Percy and Annabeth exchanged looks.
"We don't want you guys to think we aren't appreciative of everything you have given our children, because we are extremely thankful." Percy began.
"It's just, we can't help but notice just how extravagant most of the gifts are and your gifts are almost always relating to the same interest," Annabeth said cautiously.
"Like when Luke was going through his baseball phase and dad you gave him all that signed Yankee memorabilia and Athena you got him the season tickets." Percy reminded them of one of the many examples.
"So we like to give similar gifts, it's just our way of both getting to give them gifts that relate to their favorite topic at the time," Poseidon said causally.
"Exactly," Athena added. "And yes I will admit we might go a little over the normal budget for their gifts but it's just because we love them so much and want to make sure they have everything they could ever want." Athena's tone of voice was so persuasive that Percy was almost ready to drop the topic but Annabeth nudged him back to reality.
"Again, we are so grateful for everything you've given them and for all you've given us. And they are also extremely grateful to have such amazing grandparents, it's just" it was clear that Annabeth was reluctant to say what they were thinking so Percy cut her off.
"What we are trying to ask, and this is with all do respect, but do you think there's even the slightest bit of a chance that you two are treating gift giving to your grandkids the same way you did over the city of Athens?" Everyone stared at him. Poseidon and Athena were both in shock over his question. His wife was in shock over the blunt fashion he decided to use to ask it.
"How dare you," before Athena could finish her sentence, Annabeth interrupted her.
"While the manner he just asked that in was completely inappropriate mom, the question is still valid. Ever since Luke was born, no actually ever since we told the two of you that we were going to have a child, the gifts you've given us have become more excessive and expensive. We are not even asking if you made a bet or something like that about who could win over our children by giving the best gifts. We just want to know if maybe, subconsciously, when it comes to gift giving you feel the same competitive urge you did when you were competing for Athens." The more Annabeth said the faster she started to speak. She by no means wanted to anger her mom or Poseidon but this was a question that had to be asked; an issue that had to be stopped. Once she finished talking she looked at both the gods and said, "any of that ring a bell." The two gods looked at each other, clearly deep in thought. At exactly the same moment a look that clearly said oh crap appeared on both their faces.
"How did we manage," Poseidon began.
"I don't even know. It wasn't my intention to try and one-up you, that's just what comes naturally when we are both doing the same thing. Oh gosh, I can't believe what we've been doing," Athena was beyond shock. Not only had she apparently been treating her grandchildren like a competition from a very long time ago, but she hadn't even realized it. It had taken her daughter and her son in law to make her realize it.
"These are our grandchildren, not some city to be won over." Poseidon stated, the way his voice shook was a dead giveaway of the guilt he felt. Both of them looked at their kids and started apologizing. "Wait, but how should we pick out their gifts now? I know I still want to make sure they get everything they could possible want, and I know the same goes for Athena." Poseidon said; Athena nodded. Luckily for the gods, Annabeth and Percy had already decided on the best solution to this problem.
"You see what we recommend is that when you want to buy something extravagant for the kid, you team up and buy it together. That way you can make sure they get everything they want but you do it as a team." Percy said; Athena and Poseidon each cast a skeptical glance at the other.
"We know working together would be a little...different then what you guys are used to but think about why you would be doing it. It would be because you love us, your kids, and your grandchildren so much." Annabeth interjected. The two gods started to look less disgusted by the idea of working as a team.
"And you can still by them individual gifts as long as they're different from what the other one gives them and not to expensive." Percy added. The room fell silent, the two gods who had been opponents for as long as they could remember considered what it would be like to work as a team. Finally, Athena spoke.
"If Poseidon will agree to your terms then so will I; it might actually do us some good to learn to work together." Annabeth smiled at her mother.
"For once I agree with Athena, it would do us well to learn to work together. Not to mention if there's any cause that's worthy of us working as a team, it's your family." Percy smiled at his father. The married couple had planned to make the gods swear on the River Styx that they would keep this promise, but they both heard the genuine honesty in their parents voices and decided just to take their word.
Luckily for them, their parents kept it. From then on, the kids would get amazing but simpler gifts from each of their grandparents and then an incredibly expensive gift from both of them. One example is how each child, on their 16th birthday, got a brand new Mercedes from their grandparents.