Banished

5

Percy PoV

About a month had passed since my friends and I had become gods.

Annabeth had become very busy with her various projects, now no longer limited with her mortal requirements of eating and sleeping often.

We were meeting at a small coffee shop in a few minutes because she wanted to talk to me about something, and I had a bad feeling about it.

I stepped into the shop and found her sitting at a secluded table in the corner.

"Hey, wise girl," I greeted.

"Hey, seaweed brain," she reciprocated.

"What was it you wanted to tell me?" I asked.

My girlfriend cleared her throat. "Percy, you know you've been an amazing boyfriend, right?"

I shrugged. "I have a great girlfriend."

Annabeth sighed. "I love my work, Percy, and I just become completely absorbed by my projects. Even in these past few weeks, I've had less and less time to spend with you. You're a great man, and you deserve someone who puts you first the way you do for them."

I nodded. "Is there anything I could have done differently that we wouldn't have ended up like this?"

My now ex-girlfriend shook her head. "I'm sorry, Percy."

"Just make sure the next person you date makes you happy," I reminded before standing up and exiting the coffee shop.

To blow off some steam, I decided to go to the sparring arena.

I tugged on my keychain and it turned into my silver trident.

I only sparred with a few other gods. Everything was a blur throughout the sparring, but it wore me out enough so I had a clear head and not enough energy to be angry.

The trident shrunk back down to be a keychain and decided to take a walk around the more scenic parts of Olympus to further calm myself.

Word of my breakup had apparently spread fast. Several goddesses approached me with lustful intent.

Eventually, I ended up taking refuge by one of Hestia's more secluded hearths to relax.

The goddess appeared next to me. "Hello, Percy."

"Hello, Hestia," I greeted. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well," she replied. "I've finally convinced Hera that her marriage is a lost cause. How are you? Don't say you're fine, because you wouldn't be at this hearth if you were fine."

I sighed. "My girlfriend broke up with me, and it sucks. I loved her, and she used a cliche to break up with me. It's not you, it's me. It stung when she ended things, and now I have to figure out some other way to ward off goddesses whose names I don't even know."

The Olympian laughed dryly. "They were still trying to get your attention when you were in a relationship, Percy. Some people will never stop, and you just have to learn to ignore them."

I nodded. "Thank you, Hestia."

She smiled and disappeared.

Feeling slightly better about my situation, I thought about other things I could do.

As a minor god who had been born a demigod, I was in a rare position where I could hunt down and capture or kill monsters, so long as I didn't use my powers during the actual battle.

Being such an important loophole, I would be tasked with hunting monsters for possibly valuable loot they could drop or to eliminate a growing threat.

Sometimes, these tasks would even take me out to different countries where it would be too dangerous or long of a journey for a demigod to make.

There were no important tasks for me to complete for the time being, so I decided I would go check on the mortalized Olympian and see how she was faring.