Seaweed and Wise - Never letting go

I'll tell you when you're older.

Here's a little cheesy story for Annabeth's birthday that I wrote ages ago but touched up today. Happy 29th birthday Annabeth. The happiest of all 💙

The books still mean the absolute most to me and so the characters that lured me in and stole my heart, shattering it a couple times in the process. Like I've stated before, Annabeth is a big part of what I am and loving her, flaws and everything, definitely helped me love myself as I am right this moment and was before. You could imagine how thrilled I am about the show coming to life. It's about to bring so many new demigods into the mix and I'm proud of how far we've come (song reference fully intended). I hope you're having a great time this summer.

***

Victoria marched into the kitchen, obviously heavily set on achieving something she wasn't about to let go.
Annabeth sipped her coffee slowly and Percy braced himself. Where were the days when all the kids were tiny babies that didn't argue with him about the smallest of details?
Honestly he knew they were never there, with the stubbornness all five possessed, but he still liked to think it.

Victoria wasn't mad at all this time, it appeared. She knew she was asking something that meant a great deal to her parents, something that described them more than anything else could.
"Mom, dad... I know they've got the Half Blood memoirs and school will get there eventually but I really think it's time you told the twins about your superhero days. They know nothing of the people you saved and everything you tore to pieces, monster or volcano, islands-" she took a slight pause, snickering at her father's past highs and lows. "Honestly the twins really think that grandma is making all the stories about you guys getting in trouble up. They're 10, they can handle it. I wouldn't want to find out in school in two years, they don't even understand why you're that famous."
"We're famous?" Percy butted in. "I should call Jason."
The girl looked him dead in the eye, a look of pure boredom at the incoming dad jokes, knowing full well he knew about the buzz that still echoed wherever they went, her parents or her uncles and aunts. "You told me the less censored version when I was their age." And she was buzzing to talk to her brothers and sisters about everything one day, to show them the places in New York and to finally explain the importance of knowing how to yeet someone over your shoulder and slam them to the ground or why looking at the stars was a privilege to be thankful for.
Annabeth smiled, thinking about it for a while. "I hear you... How about we do it someplace neutral then? I'm calling a weekend in Montauk, can we agree on that?" Both pairs of green eyes lit up at the mention of their favorite vacation place. "Oh and sweetie you weren't even nine when you interrogated us the first time. You were so much more mature. And you didn't try putting slime into the power sockets. Or explain it tastes better fried."
Annabeth got up and took the teenager's hands into hers. "I'll even look around for the musical version of us."
"Please- mom don't, I'm begging to be excused from that."
"I think it's good." Percy jumped in. "I especially loved the part where they blew toilet paper everywhere, and how punk it is. Apollo's kids really did something there..."
"It'll be fun-" Annabeth caressed her daughter's braided hair. Braids... One of the things she learned from anyone she could observe once Victoria stated she'd never cut her hair short for Rapunzel lost her magic because of it. "Besides,you've got that Riordan guy to thank to, I'm still amazed that no one's caught on to just how true his stories are."
Percy picked up his phone to check whether his mom and Paul weren't staying there at the moment. They had bought it a couple years back so they all had a place to rest and regroup, somewhere nice and nostalgic. A place where almost all of it started out as fast as lightning.
You could hear mutters of "Children of Hermes... They'd steal your engraved urn and still manage to sell it thanks to their charms. My life story... Oh how Annabeth chewed him up after the first book got published..." from Percy all the way to the next room where he dialed his mom.

The mother and daughter held it in before barking out a laugh. They went to the musical once it came out and it was definitely a ride. The books got so famous they ended up in the camp libraries too and there was a show to be filmed next year. They heard about a movie but neither liked hearing about themselves, or whatever versions the former senior counselor wrote up.

They sat down that evening to write a list, wanting their thoughts to be less chaotic. Of course they told their kids of the funny and adventurous times when they ran out of storytime ideas, but they never went "hey yeah, we're the half-bloods that saved the whole world a couple times, yes your father almost died in a mountain that turned to a volcano, and oh sure, your mommy here jumped a knife for me when we were 16... Tartarus? Been there, done that, gave them a bad review."
It was hard.
But Annabeth and Percy accepted it by now, felt more peaceful. It wasn't painless, it was real. It was a reality they fought hard to protect their kids from, allowing Victoria her first mission when she was 15 and going with the Grace twins and Tyson, retrieving unwanted cyclops kids from the nearest cities with reported sightings. They didn't shield her fully but they made sure the resident half bloods and other powerful allies were looking out for them too.

Percy and Annabeth were far from broken. They were fighters, stronger than ever, happy.