Favorite : Change for the both of us

Chapter 1

Poseidon's POV:

It starts off as a perfectly regular day.

I wake up, a little later than usual, and head downstairs to the kitchen for my morning cup of milky coffee (two sugars) whilst I text my sister, Hestia, who's just returned from a business trip to Australia (she's a social worker). For some reason, she wanted to meet me as soon as possible – at work, actually. I own an aquarium just twenty minutes away from my home; it's one of the biggest in New York. It's a little strange that Hestia wants to meet me so soon after her business trip, going as far as meeting me at work. I know that it has to be important. So I agree, get dressed, and leave the house. The roads are horrendous. Being the middle of the summer holidays, parents are taking their children on daytrips. A popular place to visit is obviously my aquarium, so it takes me an extra ten minutes to reach it.

Nereid is waiting for me as I enter through the back door, away from all the tourists. "Good morning, Poseidon," she says.

I smile; Nereid is a close friend of mine. She and her father are in charge of the care for all the animals here. "Good morning, Nereid,"

"Your sister called. She said she'll drop by at about noon,"

I check my watch – its 8am.

"Alright. Do me a favour and tell me when she arrives,"

"Sure,"

And with that we split up – Nereid heads off the tropical exhibit, probably to prepare for a tour she'll be doing later, whilst I go to the arctic exhibit. We have a new arrival; a baby sea lion. She was found off the coast of California last week, abandoned by her parents. My aquarium specialises in nursing injured sea creatures back to health. She arrived yesterday.

"How's Glimmer doing?" I ask Nereus as I come to the baby's tank. Half of the aquarium is devoted to showing off fish in tanks for people to see, but a majority of it is closed off to employees only.

"Think she's rather happy," Nereus comments. He's Nereid's father – however he's very bitter. "Lonely, though,"

I dip my hand into the tank and Glimmer curiously comes to prod it. I bite back a smile. "Any health problems?"

"Grazed flipper, malnutrition. Nothing we ain't seen before,"

"Good. That means once she's old enough, we can release her into the wild," I say.

I sit next to Glimmer's tank for a while, seeing how she reacts to things like my hand being in the water and being stroked. She quite likes it, though she still seems bored. Eventually, I have to leave to sort out other things around the aquarium.

Nereid texts me a few hours later; Hestia has arrived. I change out of my wetsuit (I was feeding the dolphins) and head over to my office.

"Sister," I greet, grinning.

Hestia, my beautiful older sister, beams and strides over to hug me. Out of everyone in my family – my brothers, sister, nieces, nephews, parents, etc. – Hestia is the only one who I see at least once a week. You see, my family is extremely...dysfunctional. We don't like each other. We stay to ourselves. Hell if I can tell you the last time we were all together and didn't end up fighting with one of them after five minutes.

"Oh, it's wonderful to see you again, Poseidon," Hestia says, pulling away.

I kiss her cheek and smile. "It's been a week, Hestia,"

"I don't care. Even a week is a long time,"

I sit down and motion for her to take a seat opposite my desk. "So, what's so important?" I ask.