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idksmtms · 8 days

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You Are Not One Of Us (Poseidon x Norse Goddess!reader) - Part 6

Full Request P2

AN: GUYS! Firstly, I’m back!!! Here’s a surprise update!! Secondly, omfgggg I found new pictures of Toby Stephens so you KNOW I had to make a new header to incorporate them. That man is the inspiration for this series so it is a MUST.

The beginning is a bit of a filler to kind of answer some side questions about how things are changed between this world and the original Percy Jackson world and what I’m keeping the same

Most of the action is at the end so pls stick through it because it starts to get intense.

Also, they don’t call him Percy at first but like it works with the story and ideas have for later so idk, deal with it

+ my summaries are just getting worse and worse I’m so sorry

Summary: Time is running out. Sally and Poseidon meet, but there is still a big decision to make.

Word count: 6.8k

Trigger Warnings: she/her pronouns, AFAB reader, profanity, innuendo, age gap (even tho they are both thousands of years old), non-explicit depictions of giving birth, giving your child away, (please let me know if I missed any)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians characters. I do not claim to own any of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians characters. I do not own any pictures used nor do I claim to do so.

Always appreciate comments, likes, and reblogs :)

You met Sally on the beach at midnight. Poseidon had agreed to meet her but the true test was getting her to walk deep enough to submerge her head. You had spent an hour trying to tell her that everything would be alright, that both of you would be able to breathe under Poseidon’s protection, but you could see that she was still sceptical. You grabbed her hand and began toward the water. At this time of night it was at a slow crawl up the beach, and you looked forward to dipping your feet into it. You felt a shiver pass through her but you just held onto her hand tighter and continued dragging her into the water. Both of you walked until you were waist deep in the water.

“Everything alright?” You asked, but Sally just nodded. You could tell her mind was running, it was difficult for mortals to take in the knowledge of the gods, but you just continued until you were shoulder-deep, the taller waves washing over your face and hair. When you could no longer feel the sand under your feet, you submerged yourself entirely and let out a deep breath to sink to the floor. It took her a moment, but Sally followed suit and you watched the shock register on her face when she took a breath in and inhaled nothing but air.

“See? I told you,” you replied jokingly, and she just laughed, swimming around, walking on the surface, enjoying herself to her heart’s content. You watched on with a smile, almost like a proud parent, when you felt a presence behind your shoulder. Arms wrapped around you and a soft beard pressed to your cheek. You felt instantly warm, and you turned around and pressed your mouth to his. He chuckled against your lips, kissing you again and again before your laughter could no longer keep your mouths together.

“Hello, my love,” you whispered, caressing his cheek. There was something so jovial in the air, as if you were all filled with hope and happiness and everything was just… right. He pressed his forehead to yours and reached down to caress your stomach. You always marvelled at how large his hand was, but soon your stomach would be its rival!

You turned around and found Sally standing a few paces away, smiling simply like a friend who was happy to see their friend happy. It felt so… nice, that for a moment tears came to your eyes. In Asgard, in Valhalla, you had Loki as your only close friend. Even with that friendship, there had always been something behind it. You were friends simply because both of you were gods, you were friends simply because both of you happened to live among the Aesir together, that there were no better options for friendship. While you still loved Loki, and a good friendship had bloomed from those circumstances, knowing that you had a friend because both of you chose to be friends, was something entirely different.

“My love,” you held onto his hand and moved him closer to where Sally stood, “meet Sally Jackson,” you introduced, the bright smile on your face bordering on artificial with how nervous you now were.

“Nice to meet you, uh, sir?” She tilted her head and both you and Poseidon laughed. He shook his head though his shoulders eased down slightly.

“Poseidon is fine, it is nice to meet you Sally,” he reached out his hand and she shook it gingerly. You were sure she could feel his power through that simple handshake. Physical contact for a human with a god could be overwhelming if the god willed it. You beamed proudly at both of them, but especially at your husband for deigning to be so kind as to offer a mortal this much respect. “My wife has told me much about you.” Your stomach turned over and over each time he called you his wife, as if everything in the world settled into its rightful place for a moment.

“All good things, I promise, Sally,” you added with a cheeky smile, but she just laughed, digging her toes into the sand.

“I’m an innocent person, what bad things could there possibly be to tell?” She joked, but you just raised an eyebrow at her as you remembered one night from a few weeks ago when she was laying on your couch after having a bottle of pink wine all to herself, kicking her feet in the air like a child and giggling about the male anatomy.

“Mhm, ok,” you muttered, but a small laugh still managed to huff out of you and you pressed your cheek to Poseidon’s arm. He pulled you close right after, almost encasing you entirely in his arms so your head peaked out just over his biceps and his chin rested on top of your head.

“So, you’re like the god of all this, huh?” Sally asked, looking at Poseidon with raised eyebrows. “So if you’re real, does that mean Zeus and Hades exist?” Poseidon cleared his throat and nodded, a little frown creasing his eyebrows just slightly.

“My brothers do indeed exist as well, one is currently throwing a rather useless feast for the gods on Mount Olympus so he can force his cupbearer to prostrate the new chalice Hephaestus has made for him, while the other chooses to ignore the invitation to play fetch with Cerberus over the fields of Elysium. I’m sure you can guess which is which,” he sighed tiredly, but you giggled into his arm.

You never tired of hearing his stories of Mount Olympus, of the ways in which his brothers had not changed one bit and how your previous friends were doing now. You had been angry with all of them once, seethed with rage at even the thought of Ares or Zeus, but after an eon you’ve slowly let go of your anger. You can understand why you were the target of their suspicions, if it had happened in Valhalla, surely any of the Greek Gods would be the first suspect if they had been visiting. You only wished your father and Zeus could come to terms with their own anger and release this hellish bond they had placed on you and Poseidon. Too much time had been wasted on such petty nonsense, especially since the lightning bolt had been found so soon after. Whoever had stolen it, surely had not been serious in their thievery to leave it to be so easily found. And whoever it was, because the mystery had continued for these last millenia, had done nothing of the sort again, so what did it matter now?

“I would say to give them my well wishes but… you know,” you shrugged, and while Poseidon’s frown deepened, you only smiled and chuckled lightheartedly, moving your hand up to rub at the wrinkles on his brow until his face relaxed again. While you had begun to joke about your situation, he still was not ready to release his anger.

“I cannot stay long. It is already criminal for me to have been away from the feast this long without at least sending a gift in apology and I cannot possibly sacrifice another dolphin for Zeus’s new aquarium project on Olympus.” He sighed again, rubbing his forehead and you reached up and kissed him gently, a short but important distraction. You could feel the tension in his muscles, the worry that he seemed to carry everywhere with him, but you just pressed a kiss to his cheek and gently began rubbing his shoulders and arms.

Poseidon turned away from you and looked at Sally with a warm smile, as if a thank you for the moment she quietly allowed the both of you, and he pulled something out of thin air and held out to her.

“If you are ever in trouble, or require a godly hand, flip this coin into some water, and you shall receive whatever it is you wish for,” he dropped the coin into the palm of her hand and she gawped at it like one of the fish that swam past her.

You smiled warmly up at your husband as she examined the drachma. You caressed his bearded cheek and pressed onto the tips of your toes to guide your foreheads together. He smiled, though you felt it more than saw it, and he shifted to press a kiss to the tip of your nose.

“I already miss you,” you whispered, and he huffed a chuckle but did not refute your statement.

“Every moment away from you is one moment spent in the body of Prometheus,” he sighed, and you almost teared up, cupping his cheek and pressing your mouth to his firmly. He kissed you with a sort of reckless abandon that he lacked everywhere else in his life, and you took joy in being able to turn this poised god into a rushed mess.

Sally cleared her throat behind the two of you, a blush on her face as she thought about how far the both of you were willing to take this makeout session with another person present, but you just began giggling against his lips and he put you down.

“Goodbye, my love,” he whispered to you, stealing another peck before stepping away. “And goodbye to you, Sally Jackson, I hope you learnt whatever it is you wanted to know.” Then in his place was a flurry of bubbles and your husband was nowhere to be found.

You smiled at the sand underneath you sadly for a moment, wishing his arms were back around you, before taking a deep breath in and going over to Sally who was staring down at the drachma in her hand.

“Are you ready to go?” You asked softly, gently touching her elbow. She looked up at you and nodded, but she wasn’t smiling. Her eyes seemed somewhere else, and you just nodded in response, walking beside her as you both slowly made your way back up the beach and out of the water, completely dry.

You hadn’t seen Sally for a week after that. Usually she would be the one to come to your door with an invitation to do something or other during the day, usually something to just waste time but a fun way to just be in the company of someone else. But since the night you had taken her to meet Poseidon, she had not seeked you out. Every day you waited for the knock on your door, the jovial voice that called for you to open up because ‘surely you aren’t doing anything more important than spending time with your bestie!’ But nothing came.

It was one of those days when, despite doing nothing differently, the very air in the world seemed to weigh extra heavily. You had woken up and instantly felt a frown pull on your face. The weather was rather muggy and a sheet of pale grey clouds stretched until the horizon, bathing everything in their muted light.

You had tottered around the cabin doing little things to keep yourself from falling further into the cloying sadness that seemed to hang at the back of your throat, but when there were no more countertops to wipe and no more floors to sweep, you sat on the couch and stared out the window and when the baby kicked again, you felt the emotion wash over you.

You pressed your hand to your mouth as you cried, biting into it to hide your sobs. The pain in your heart seemed to seep into your entire body. Your hands trembled despite how tightly you clenched them into fists. Your eyes continued to leak tears despite how you squeezed them shut.

Every time the baby kicked your heart soared then plummeted like a bird giving up mid flight. You could feel the little butterfly flutters in your stomach, the soft feeling that was the most odd yet most endearing thing you had ever felt. But you couldn’t help but think about how it would not last much longer. Soon the child would be born, and these kicks would become visible, yet you would never have the chance to see them. You would never be able to see its chubby little hands grasp for the air, its plush legs kick wildly into the air. These thoughts plagued you, never letting you sit still for long enough, because if you did, you would react the way you have just done. You would never recover from your tears, would never function again.

You had never cried this much before your pregnancy. Even when you had been forced away from Poseidon, you had cried for a week straight and then only a few times after that. Now it seemed you cried at every minor inconvenience, at every thought about your baby or your husband. You looked up to the mantle above the fireplace and gazed at the pearls arranged in their shells.

There was a knock at the door and you shot up, placing a hand on your stomach, apologising to it for the jostling. You wiped haphazardly at your face as you walked to the door, hoping to recover any semblance of normalcy before exposing yourself to whoever had deigned to visit you. You stood at the door and took a deep breath in before opening it.

Sally looked just shy of solemn and she was staring at the door, not you. You could see that she was holding the drachma, flipping it between her fingers mindlessly as if she had spent the last seven days only doing that.

“I’ll do it.” She announced simply, not daring to meet your gaze yet. Your heart began beating so hard that you were sure she could hear it too. “I will do it.” She repeated slower, and let loose a breath that seemed to take away all the weight on her shoulders. She finally turned to look at you, and her eyes were bloodshot and a little puffy. Your mouth began to quiver and your face seemed to crumple in slow motion but when the first whimper fell from your mouth and the first tear dropped from your eye, she was hugging you.

“But I have a few conditions,” she whispered, and all you could do was nod, because you didn’t care about anything else. You would do anything, you would bring stars down from the sky if it meant your baby would be with Sally, your baby would be safe and happy.

“Come inside,” you sobbed out, smiling broadly at her as you continued to shake with your tears, “come inside and we can talk.” She nodded, smiling a watery smile so similar to your own, and stepped inside.

“I want the kid to know as much as possible from the get-go. I won’t be mama, I’m Aunt Sally. They’ll know their parents love them, but cannot be with them.” You nodded vigorously, smiling brightly at Sally.

“Ofcourse, yes, I agree completely. Tell them everyday that we love them, that this situation is for the best and they will understand someday. Just… just make sure they know we love them more than anything that has ever existed.” You smiled and nodded again, as if reaffirming to yourself that this was real, and things may actually be alright in the end.

Sally smiled in return, reaching forward and patting your folded hands gently, a warm, knowing kind of smile on her face that made you feel somehow more hopeful.

“And I want you to send me some type of sign, I don’t know, like a message on a steamy window or something, whatever it is. Just a sign that you’re there, that you’re looking out for the kid, and that everything on your end is fine for the moment.” She raised an eyebrow at you with this, and you just chuckled quietly.

“Of course. Though I won’t be able to send them often, I don’t want anyone to stumble upon your location, but every so often, a little blue butterfly will appear wherever you are, and you will know that I am watching, that I am wishing to be reunited with my child.” Your head dipped slightly as you opened your palms and watched them as a beautiful butterfly began to appear in the middle of your cupped hands. Its wings shined in the light, bordered by an opaque black.

“It’s called a giant blue morpho,” you told her, nudging your hand up so the butterfly could flap into the air and make its way to Sally, resting just on the tip of her finger. “They are found in what you call Peru today. They are my favourite species of butterfly,” you smiled dazedly, eyes transfixed on the little creature that gently flapped its wings every so often to stay on Sally’s finger. Sally reached out with her other hand and touched the tip of her index finger to the very edge of the butterfly’s wing, barely even a hint of a touch, but it burst into tiny little pieces like it was made of the most fragile glass and dispersed into the air like glitter on the wind. She stared at her empty hands, eyes wide and mouth tipped slightly open, but you only sighed with a tired smile. “The ones I create are not real, more like images of the real thing.” Sally nodded but you could tell she was still a little freaked out, unused to seeing you use your powers so freely, so obviously. Your smile became sympathetic and you cleared your throat, hoping to move the conversation on. “Any other conditions?”

“Uh, yes, um, yeah, sorry, yes, I want a coin for the kid too. I want them to have that lifeline as well, if anything ever goes too far and they don’t know what else to do. It’s a connection to their father. I want that for them.” Her tone was firmer this time, as if this was one of the more non-negotiable topics, and you nodded in response.

Sally had mentioned some stories about her own father, a strained relationship from what you had pieced together, a certain lack of trust, and you could see that she wanted better for this child. You almost hugged her in that moment, promised her that Poseidon would not be like that, that he would do what he could for the child in whichever capacity he was capable under such difficult and complex circumstances, but you stayed silent and simply nodded. A promise that things would be better.

“And… I don’t think they should be told about all this stuff until it’s time for them to go to this camp. If they’re going to grow up in the human world, they don't need to be confused about what they’re seeing versus all this magic stuff I might be telling them. If it’s going to be a secret, then it needs to be a secret from them too, for their own safety. And that way they can go to school as well, a normal school for normal kids, for as long as possible. I know they won’t be normal, but if you’re posing them as even half human, then I want them to have that experience, to know what it’s like to just be a child and go to school, and not worry about anything else.” Sally paused for a second, taking in a deep breath and releasing it before looking you straight in the eyes.

“You said this child will unite worlds. You said this child will be capable of great things, of-of breaking down everything all the gods once knew, but I think they have potential for more than that. I think they can make things better for humans as well, or at least the human children of these gods. If this child knows what it’s like to be mortal, if they know how to appreciate life and the fragility of everything, the sacredness of the time we have all been given…. Y/n, I think this child could change everything.”

You held your breath as she spoke, at the fire in her eyes and the way she leaned forward as if this was the most important thing to ever have been said, and maybe… maybe it was. The room was quiet for a few moments as you both sat in the words she had just spoken, at the many possibilities that had opened up before the two of you. At least five minutes had passed when Sally spoke up again.

“Ok, so tell me about this ‘camp half-blood’? What is it? Where-”

“I could not have asked for a better person to look after my child,” you interrupted. A watery smile overtook your face as you watched Sally. She could see how happy you were, at the sparkle in your eye she had only ever seen when you looked at your husband. “You will be a great mother, Sally Jackson.”

The remaining months of your pregnancy were rather blissful. You did not have to deal with any of the symptoms the poor mortals go through. Sally explained morning sickness and swollen ankles to you and you truly believed that if you had been mortal in that moment you would have begun praying to the Aesir and making sacrifices to Frigg and Freya for relief. Though you were not completely immune either, and occasionally a slight twinge in your back would force you to sit down and rest before continuing about your day like normal.

Nothing particularly eventful occurred, and Poseidon’s visits were more often concerned with laying on the ocean floor and discussing a hopeful future (because neither of you would entertain a possibility of anything else).

As the days passed by and the time of the birth neared, a feeling of something building began to permeate the air. A heaviness settled on your shoulders, as if you were a character in a story that didn’t know something big was about to occur, but the reader was yelling at the book, unable to change anything. You began watching out of your windows day and night as if someone would arrive unexpectedly, as if everything were about to explode, but you simply didn’t know when. And so you waited, waited for anything to happen, for someone to pop the balloon. And then your water broke.

On the day your son was born, a storm began. Grey clouds began to gather over the beach, and with every hour that ticked by, the winds began to rush faster and faster. Thunder crackled, and lightning flashed bright white in the depths of the thick grey clouds. There was something in the air, a certain heaviness that could only be felt by the gods, and you knew your time was up. Someone on Olympus knew that you were here, that there was to be a child with the blood of the Greek Gods in its veins, and they were getting close to finding you despite all yours and Poseidon’s magic working to hide your sanctuary. Zeus knew you were here.

Your labour was the most painful thing you had ever physically experienced. You had been imprisoned, stabbed, fallen so close to the brink of death in many a battle, but nothing could have prepared you for the sheer pain and exhaustion that came with having a child. It was as if the lack of any other symptoms during your pregnancy came back to make the experience ten times harder. It seemed to bloom from your core and spread outward until you wanted to writhe in pain and kick and scream and even cease to exist. Your skin burned, your insides clenched and released and clenched and released. Even your ribs began to feel like they were poking into your flesh and moving in and out of it with your every breath.

You lay back on the bed, eyes shut tight so all you could see was the reds and oranges of light passing over your eyelids. Your hands began to steam as you lost control of your powers before Sally pressed them into bowls of ice water she had brought up to your room. Every few minutes you screamed at the top of your lungs, releasing this guttural urge that seemed to push out of you.

In a small moment of clarity, when it seemed the baby needed a rest from pushing itself out of you, you looked toward Sally who stood by the end-table in your room and watched her. Her hands shook as she prepared towels and cold cloths for your forehead. Her face was pale, but stern, and she clenched her hands every few seconds to try and stifle any fear she was so clearly feeling. You began laughing, a breathless huffing where the sound was mostly just air pushing from your lungs. Your head was thrown back on the pillows and your chest glistened with sweat, cooling in the breeze that blew in from the open window before being bathed in sweat once more.

Sally turned to look at you, bewildered. You were such an odd sight, lying prostrate on the bed, arms spread slightly, hands immersed in bowls of water that were once full of ice, legs akimbo from your most recent bout of screaming and writhing, but here you were, laughing like someone had told you the funniest joke you had ever heard. She began to laugh with you, began to laugh at the incredulity of it all, at the fact that here she was in her early twenties, helping a goddess give birth before taking responsibility for a child that would change worlds. She laughed so much she began to cry.

“It’s ok Sally,” you whispered, trying to hurry the words out as you felt the pain begin to increase again. “It’s alright. I am so proud to call you my friend, and so glad to know my child will be raised by you.” Tears streamed from your eyes, and when the pain began again, you couldn’t tell why you had begun crying in the first place.

You didn’t know how long it took you to give birth to your son, but you were lost in a haze of pain, ebbing and flowing with it until it crescendoed to a new height you didn’t even know was possible, before releasing like popping the cork from a champagne bottle. You felt paralysed, your entire body throbbing, eyes sparking and patched with black. You were numb all over but so sensitive at the same time that you would have cried if even a fly had landed on you.

Slowly, you began to move your fingers, splashing them slightly in the bowls of water. Then your toes, a more painful task that shot tingles up your legs. You began blinking your eyes, hoping to clear your vision, and as the world came back into focus, there he was, standing above you with a little bundle wrapped in his arms. You stared up at Poseidon, stared up at your husband, as he cradled your baby.

His hair was dishevelled, as if he had walked through a hurricane. His cheeks were pale, as if he had lost as much blood as you had, but his ears were bright pink. His eyes were bright red and shedding tears, pouring them out like the waterfalls he controlled. He had not looked at you yet, had not noticed that you had returned to the world. He was enraptured with the child, swaying with it in his arms, whispering words you couldn’t hear over the rushing of your blood, touching its cheek with the tip of his index finger.

A noise came out of your lips, a gurgle and a yearning, keening, sound all in one. His eyes snapped to you, bright and brimming with a thousand words he couldn’t say. Tentatively, with the gentleness of a hummingbird, he sat down on the edge of the bed, as close to you as possible without touching you. He leaned forward and gently placed the bundle against your chest. You forced one of your arms up to wrap around it, to secure the fluffy pile of blankets to your chest, before looking down.

Thick, gurgling, sobs began to fall from your lips as you looked at the most beautiful child you had ever seen. A red, wriggly thing that would not win any awards for looking particularly beautiful, but he was the most precious thing you had ever seen. He had little wisps of blond hair, soft tufts against his scalp that began rising up as they dried and lightly tickled your chin. His hands and feet were so small. They were so small, and you weren’t sure if you had actually begun to burble about them to Poseidon.

The blanket he was wrapped in was baby blue, and he kept pushing his hands out of it to try and grab at the air, shifting his little body as much as he could. Poseidon reached over and adjusted it to cover his arms, stroking the top of the baby’s head. Your baby’s head.

He looked down at the both of you, his face flushed, eyes red and teary, hands shaking and chest tight with barely held sobs. He had never felt joy like this. He had been alive since the birth of Ancient Greece. He had seen cities built, empires fall, people rise to a greatness unheard of before, but nothing would ever compare to this joy. To see his wife and son together like this, something he would most likely never see again, made a sob choke itself from his throat.

You stared at your son, your little Perseus, with his eyes scrunched up and his tiny lips opening and shutting to let out soft grunts, and you began to sob again. Painful, heart wrenching sobs, like the wails of a banshee. Thunder cracked so loud outside that the entire cabin shook. Lightning flashed, so hot that it glowed blue, and Poseidon hovered himself over you and Perseus, just shy of laying on top of you. Perseus began to cry with you, the high-pitched wailing of a baby piercing the air. He began shushing you, soft sounds and affirmations slipping from his lips directed both at you and his son, trying to keep calm despite the desperation for your pain to cease. He had never heard such painful sounds.

“Please,” he whispered, “please do not cry. I am here, we are all here, together.” But you only shook your head, clutching Perseus tighter to your chest and staring up at Poseidon with wide, child-like eyes filled with pain and desperation and denial.

“I don’t want him to go! I don’t want to let him go!” You cried out, over and over and over. You kept repeating the words, stabbing him in the heart over and over as he sniffed and nodded, trying anything to get you to calm down. “Please, please, I don’t want to let him go.” Your voice cracked, and you began chewing on your lip, looking between Perseus and Poseidon like a lost child. He reached out and cupped your cheek, cradling your head in his hand, fingers splayed behind your ear. He stroked your cheek just under your eye, smearing your tears on your face, and began hushing louder. You gulped, once, twice, then breathed in and out shakily. Slowly, as the thunder quieted to a rumble outside, your breaths quieted, and you blinked less, just staring into Poseidon’s eyes. He smiled sadly, eyes wet with tears and bloodshot, and he nodded. “But he has to go,” you whispered, as if affirming between the both of you that this was the right decision. Again, Poseidon nodded, but this time you nodded in return.

Slowly, with one shaky arm, you pushed yourself up to sit straight on the bed, swinging your legs to the side as your body began to heal and dulled the pain and exhaustion in your limbs. You still felt shaky, and you knew this recovery would be slower than any others, but you continued moving, pushing yourself to stand so you could look out of the window with Perseus cradled in your arms.

The waves were crashing onto the beach furiously, cresting at even the farthest point your eyes could see, white capped and frothing as they attacked the shore. The dry sand higher up the beach moved in waves in the wind, and you could almost hear the little grains striking the front of the cabin. The wind howled, like Fenrir had been released to hunt you down and was announcing his presence. The clouds in the sky were almost black, and the lightning seemed to flash constantly. The thunder either crackled or rumbled but never ceased, not quieting for a moment, and you knew your time with Poseidon and Perseus had ended. Zeus knew something, or at least sensed something was off in this place, and he would soon come to find out himself if you all did not separate quickly. You turned to Poseidon, absentmindedly nuzzling your chin against the top of Perseus’s head.

“I will go to delay him, buy you some more time with Perseus.” You stared at him, face stoic, and he could not even begin to fathom what you were thinking. You took slow, shaky steps to reach him. He leaned forward and took a hold of your hips to steady you as you walked, allowing you the space to choose how close you wanted to be to him. You walked until the baby was pressed to both his chest and yours. You did not push further, fearing to hurt your Perseus in any way. You looked up at Poseidon, and pressed onto the tips of your toes so you could kiss him. It was gentle, your mouths just pressed together so you felt the plushness of each other’s lips but did nothing more. Neither of you tried to deepen the kiss, tried to take things any further. You stayed like that for a few moments, had another similar kiss, and when you pulled away, both of you had your eyes closed.

“Goodbye,” you whispered, so soft that not even the baby pressed to your chest would hear you, and when you opened your eyes, there was only an empty space in front of you.

You knew you did not have long. Zeus was closing in and you had to get Sally and Perseus out of here before they were discovered. You swayed with Perseus in your arms for a few moments, allowing yourself only that. You watched him yawn and smack his lips, scrunching his eyes shut and settling into your arms. You hummed a tune you remembered Frigg singing from your own childhood. You couldn’t quite remember the words, but the music was imprinted on your brain, and you hummed it to Perseus over and over until you knew too much time had passed for you to dilly-dally any longer.

“Sally!” You called through the closed door, hoping she was close enough to hear your raw voice. She was in the room in an instant, checking both you and the baby over, but you just smiled and shook your head. “There is no time, you and Perseus must leave. Zeus is suspicious, he has felt too much power here, has noticed a shift in the world, and he will begin investigating if this power does not dissipate.” You looked about the room for a moment before hobbling out and slowly making your way down the stairs.

“I know you’re a goddess and all but shouldn't you be taking it easy? You just gave birth, you should be laying down and letting yourself heal. You should be… you should be spending time with him before… you know.” But you only shook your head in reply, pursing your lips as pain shot through your legs with every step down the stairs.

“You need to go Sally. I hope all your things are gathered because there is simply no time to lose. You have your car parked nearby, start loading everything into it while I put some final defences in place for Perseus.” Your voice left no room for argument, so Sally just nodded and ran back up the stairs to grab the baby bag.

You stood in the living room with Perseus, making sure that any power he may possess was suppressed to that of a strong demigod. He slept so peacefully, so softly, and you couldn’t help but smile down at him. You pressed a finger to his forehead, closing your eyes and focusing only on what you could feel of him. There were flashes in your mind, of battles to come and parts he would need to play, of a great love, of families and friendships, and you began to cry, knowing you would not see any of it. And then it was over, gone in a moment as he became like any demigod child of the big three would be.

Sally came back from the car, hair tousled and chest heaving, and stood by the door, watching you. You looked over to her, at the way she stood so still, and you knew your time was up. You looked back down at Perseus, at this beautiful little boy who had done so much just by existing, and you leant down to press a soft kiss to his downy little head. A small smile, the most a baby could conjure perked onto his lips in his sleep, and a teardrop fell from your eye and splashed onto his cheek.

Slowly, you walked over to Sally. You stood in front of her, not saying a word. The world seemed to go quiet for a minute, as if even the powers of Zeus died at the moment a mother gave up her child.

“Don’t… don’t tell him about me.” You sniffled, blinking rapidly to stop the tears that refused to cease. “Tell him about his father, tell him about all the Greek heroes that came before him, about Olympus and the pantheon of aunts and uncles. Don’t tell him about me,” you whispered, stroking his cheek. “I don’t… I don’t want him to miss any part of me.” You smiled, nodding to yourself, but Sally frowned.

“He will miss you regardless,” she replied, “he will ask about you, and miss you, and want to know everything I can tell him.”

“Yes, I know, I’m sure he will be a very curious boy,” you chuckled breathily, leaning down to kiss his head once more. “But it will be easier if he feels he doesn't know me.”

“Easier for who?” She whispered, watching you with concern turning her eyes down and contorting her lips. But you just closed your eyes, gulped, and offered the baby to Sally Jackson, praying she would take him from your arms quickly.

You felt her fingers slip under your arms, felt her grip him, lift him so your arms were light as air and… empty. Your entire body felt empty. Your chest was hollow, your stomach was empty, your limbs were simple outlines. You could still feel Sally and Perseus’ presence, like the warmth of a heater just a little too far away, a brush in the air in front of you. You knew Sally was about to say something, to try and comfort you, but you began shaking your head and pointing to the door.

“Please go. Please. There is no more time. Take him and go.” You almost wanted to scream, to yell at her and tell her to get the hell away from you before you decided to throw everything to the wind and keep Perseus with you. “Please,” you whimpered. And then the door was opening, the wind howling around you, a whisper from Sally lost to it. And then it was shut again, and you were still, and the room was quiet, and there was nothing but the wind outside, the creaking of the house, and the thunder above.

You stayed in that house for a few more hours. You lay on the floor, allowing your body to heal and thinking back on the precious moments you had with Perseus. You walked through each room like a ghost, thinking of the first time you felt the little flutter of a heartbeat in your stomach, the first kick he ever pressed against your stomach, the last…

You weren’t sure how long you stayed, but by the time you had gathered your sword and your pearls, had changed into one of the dresses you had stopped wearing after the banishment from Olympus, the thunder had become distant. You gave one last look to the cabin, a fleeting glance back, then made your way back to Asgard and the Aesir you had not seen in years, back to the rest of your life…

Taglist: @thicficbich1, @pasta-warlord, @turtleshavesoulmates, @wolfgirl294, @stanswifties

(If you are in bold, I couldn't tag you for some reason)

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