Seaweed and Wise - Never letting go

28. The last day of summer

Percy's POV

We arrived very early in the morning, good thing most were up  to welcome us back anyway.
Annabeth bowed her head slightly at the goddess. "Thank you lady Aphrodite," she said with a somewhat honest smile on her face.
"Thank you for taking us there."
Deep inside I laughed so much that I almost forgot to breathe. She was the strangest representation of love I could have ever pictured. You love each other? Cute! Now let's let you fall into Tartarus! That was not exactly my definition of the perfect going of a relationship, but once you were a demigod, you dealt with it too.
Aphrodite smiled at us shortly and concentrated on her daughter again.
"I am really proud of you, Victoria. You found love and actually understood what it is. Not all my children do know that, what's even stranger, some are afraid of it like the devil's afraid of a little bit of holy water, or however you say it these days. Some consider love the most fragile thing in this world when it's only ever making you so strong. Look at you two couples, you're my favorites, kids."
I looked at Annabeth, we were both grinning from ear to ear. I never imagined Aphrodite as the sentimental mother... Annabeth's lips pressed closer together, she was trying not to laugh out loud.
"Have fun, love each other," Aphrodite turned to this matchmaker slash squeaky monster again. "And give my greetings to Piper and Jason. Oh, and Tratie and Frazel of course. Frazel, that's gonna be soo complicated with that girl."
Frazel?
Tratie?
I had no idea what that meant but she seemed like plotting the greatest party ever. Just like when the harpies leave and you invite everyone to your cabin... Then the goddess of love finally stopped freaking out. She kissed Danny and Sophie a goodbye and left in a puff of gold (and a little bit of pink) light.
Victoria resembled the definition of confusion.
"Phew!" Miles laughed.
"I know," I scoffed, "but at least your mother in law isn't threatening you with infinite torture."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I'll go and find the girls. I have so much to tell them." She let go of my hand and kissed me on the cheek. Annabeth was so quick that I just stood there, watching her run away from me and towards the cabins.
"Uhm, I expect that you want to see Piper too Vicky..."
She nodded and picked up Sophie who was tugging on her dress. "I get that we're all ADHD and all that, but your Annabeth is- like super hyper."
"You should see me when it comes to blue cooki-"
"Miles?" a familiar voice said. "Shit it is you," the girl's voice that I'd hated to hear just a few months ago cheered. Clarisse ran to us in a millisecond. Miles just stood there, dumbstruck.
"Clarisse?" He seemed pretty surprised... No wonder, a few years back she looked completely different, now she looked more like a human being. Miles and Vicky must have left shortly before I got here.
Clarisse did the unexpected once again. First of all, she didn't hit me, second, she hit Miles.
"I'm glad to see you too sis?" He laughed and reached for a hug.
"That's for leaving me here and not even Iris Messaging, you idiot. I didn't know whether you were alive or not and who is that little cutie pie you're holding Vicky?"
Clarisse's voice changed to full on baby mode for like a second.
That had me cracking up.
"Shut up Percy or I'm gonna beat that laugh off of your face." She spat out the words and I chuckled.
"Sorry but you should have seen yourself."
She sighed. "The fact that I hate you doesn't mean that I don't like kids. It's not like I bite."
"Ugh-" I looked at her, willing the truth.
"Okay so I did bite a kid once. Or more times... Shut up-"
"We're sorry Clarisse but we were staying low to live as normally as we could. It actually turned out quite boring... Not a monster. Aphrodite protected us. We had the kid, this is Sophie. And our son Danny," Miles said.
When we finally got to the cabin area I've already heard so many stories from Clarisse's earlier childhood years that I could laugh all week long. She totally grew up, a little, and became somewhat cooler... She grew on me. I knew because suddenly I haven't had the strong urge to fight her and bathe her in the toilet water for the most of the time. But still, there was some of that healthy spite left. Put us against each other and we'll probably fight like our life was depending on it. She's like my Jerry and I'm Tom, or I'm Spike and she's Tom, I refuse to be the smaller one in the equation.
"Can I pvay with aunty Clarisse?" Danny said.
"Of course, but a little later. You've got another aunts and uncles to meet Lil fighter," Miles patted his son's hair.
I really, really wanted that with Annabeth once. A son and a daughter, of course whatever they were, to teach them and protect them every single moment of mine and Annabeth's life.
I knocked on cabin number 10 and Lacy opened the door. "Are Annabeth and Piper in here?"
Lacy nodded, smiling as she opened the door for us.
Annabeth was sitting on the carpet with Piper, Hazel, a few Aphrodite's daughters and Mitchel... and she was so gorgeous. I walked straight to the group and kissed her cheek when she turned back cause I hugged her from behind. "You left me behind, Wise girl." I whispered to her ear.
"I know," she winked at me.
"Ookay," Piper started laughing. "Just let me stop you right here."
"Where's Jason?" I asked to end the awkward silence and chuckles.
"He's already at our house. We came yesterday because Leo forgot all his school supplies. I meant: left it here on a purpose for he thought that he could stay home tomorrow. Huh, he thought wrong, your mom sent us here when Calypso figured it out and me and Hazel volunteered to go with him, mainly make him come back." Y poor mother... 5 teenage boys, 4 teenage girls, one barely 3 months old baby and her own on the way. Oh poor teachers too.
Sophie started crying which brought all attention to her. "Shhh baby," Vicky soothed her daughter as she swayed her in her arms gently. "Mommy's here, shh." Everyone turned to the loud whiny noise and Vicky smiled.
"Hey there." Miles waved to the small crowd.
"I completely forgot!" Annabeth shot up. "This is Miles, son of Ares, and Vicky, daughter of Aphrodite and their kids. They'll stay in Poseidon's cabin until... the house is ready in 2 weeks, he doesn't mind it." I talked to Poseidon and he really didn't mind, maybe because we took in Victory, but that was an obvious thing to do. She's my sister.
"Annabeth breathe," I laughed. She moved her head in Piper's direction and smirked.
Piper stood up. "Hi," she said, almost dreamily, "it's really nice to meet you," she muttered. They were so alike with Vicky that noone could question whether they're sisters or not. Maybe that left Piper so confused.
"I think that we're gonna leave you Aphrodite's kids to talk."
Annabeth nudged me and I nudged Hazel. She grumbled "fine" and got up too.
"We have to leave in like two hours tops anyway," Hazel said. "Sally said we should be back by lunch and I want to be on time."
"So coach Hedge was looking for you two," Leo said, jabbing my ribs, making me jump.
"Really bro? You do that once more and I'm gonna put down every fire you gonna make. Every single one. Just so you know," I smirked at him and we all left the cabin. Even Miles. But the kids stayed in cabin 10 cause everyone wanted to play with them. Clarisse sat there a little longer, pushing away everyone who crossed the line between crazy and completely out of mind, but then she left the children of Aphrodite alone.