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myrandomfandomramblings · 7 months ago

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In which Percy simply has a happy 20th birthday party - A Percy Jackson fanfic

“Close your eyes,” Grover told Percy as he turned onto the road to the Jackson’s cabin in Montauk.

“Haven’t I had enough surprises in my life?” Percy asked, “at this point I’d be more surprised if things just went as expected.”

Grover shrugged, “Annabeth’s orders.”

Percy sighed and closed his eyes. One thing that never failed to surprise him was Annabeth. Smart, beautiful, badass and by some miracle completely in love with him. It was hard to complain about his bad luck when he was lucky enough to call her his girlfriend.

Percy kept his eyes shut while Grover parked and helped him out of the car. Even without his sight the location was unmistakable with its salt air, ocean breeze and chorus of seagulls. This was his favourite place in the world.

“OK open your eyes,” Grover said.

Percy did and was greeted with a chorus of “surprise” and a sight that made this favourite place even better. Their little cabin was decked out in party decorations: balloons, streamers, and a number of others that he didn’t know the names of, all blue. A large banner read “Happy 20th Birthday Percy”. Or that’s what he assumed it said anyway. He was having a hard time focusing on any one thing and the letters wouldn’t stay still. In front of the cabin stood Annabeth; his mom, Sally and his step-dad Paul who was holding his 2 year-old half-sister, Estelle. They all wore blue party hats and big smiles. Annabeth was the first to break away from the group and come give Percy a hug. She was quickly followed by Sally and little Estelle who broke away from her dad in favour of grabbing her big brother’s legs.

“This is amazing,” Percy said , “but you didn’t have to go to this much trouble.”

“Of course we did,” Sally rebuted, “you’ve survived two decades as a powerful demigod, that’s worth celebrating.”

Her tone was teasing but Percy knew that there had been many times over the last 20 years that she worried he’d never see this milestone.

“There’s more to see,” Annabeth interjected, “do you want to show him?” she asked Estelle, who nodded excitedly and grabbed Percy’s hand, leading him around the side of the cabin to the beach.

On the beach stood long tables draped in blue tablecloths and topped with all kinds of blue foods. Hamburgers and hotdogs sizzled on a nearby grill, now manned by Paul. Nearby all sorts of backyard games were set up: horseshoes, corn hole, spike ball and paddle ball. Down the beach was a chest filled to the brim with beach toys: skim and boogie boards, goggles and snorkels, sand shovels and buckets, pool noodles and water guns.

“Wow! I don’t even know where to start,” Percy mused.

“Well you can think about it while we wait for all the guests,” Annabeth teased.

“Who’s all coming?”

Annabeth shrugged, “You’ll see.”

“Never making things easy,” Percy mumbled unable to suppress a smile.

“How many people are we expecting?” Paul asked, “will we have enough room in the drive way. Should we move our cars?”

Annabeth laughed, “I don’t think that will be an issue.”

“What do you me-“ Paul was cut off by a large shadow appearing just in front of them.

Out of it stepped three familiar faces. Before he could even say a word in the way of greeting, Percy was picked up off the ground and enveloped in a bear hug.

“Happy birthday brother,” Tyson sang squeezing Percy harder. Mrs. O’Leary added to the celebration by slathering Percy with big, wet, hellhound kisses. Ella fluttered nearby watching the commotion,

“Tyson missed Percy,” she supplied, “Ella too. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Sextus Propertius (c 54 b.c. - a.d. 2).”

“Thanks guys,” Percy said when Tyson finally let him go, “and it’s good to see you all,” he continued rubbing Mrs. O’Leary’s ears.

“Have fun,” Sally added, “we have lots of food, and games. Help yourselves to anything.”

All three immediately headed towards the food table, quickly followed by Grover, who it appeared was just waiting for the OK to dig in. Percy briefly wondered what Paul saw as a six and a half foot cyclops, a mastiff the size of a tank, a satyr with horns sprouting on either side of his party hat and goat legs protruding from his Bermuda shorts and a harpy with bird legs and bright red wings made their way towards his station. However, his attention was quickly drawn to the sky as a group of pegasi with riders began to descend. Although they were still far away, Percy could already recognize the pair in the lead as the sun glinted off black wings and bright red-hair.

“Hey boss,” Blackjack greeted Percy as his hooves hit the sand.

“Happy birthday,” Rachel added slipping off his back.

“Thanks,” Percy replied stroking blackjack’s nose and giving Rachel an awkward hug, acutely aware of Annabeth standing behind him, who appeared to be holding back a laugh at his uneasiness.

“Any sugar cubes at that buffet?” Blackjack asked looking towards the food laden tables.

“I’m not sure but you’re more than welcome to check.”

As he cantered away Percy began welcoming the other pegasi and his friends from camp half-blood. When he finished welcoming the last pair Percy looked around and realized it was starting to really look like a party: Estelle sat on Tyson’s shoulders and clapped as Mrs. O’Leary ran down the beach retrieving a tree trunk Tyson had thrown. Annabeth and Rachel were playing spike ball against the Stoll Brothers. Ella, Grover and many of his camp friends were milling around, chatting and enjoying the food. Paul and Percy’s mom stood to the side in conversation, he could hear Paul asking if they should have bought hay and water troughs. Percy was just about to join them when he was hit by a large gust of wind and a tan-horse appeared beside him. Percy knew who the rider was before he even looked up.

“Hey Hazel, how’s the Legion?” he asked as she slipped off the horses back.

“Much better without active world-ending wars. Thanks for asking,” She joked then proceeded to summon a pile of gold from the ground, which the horse proceeded to eat, “Happy Birthday.”

“Thanks, where’s Frank?”

“He’s on his way.”

“Baby man is slow as-,” Arion, the horse whined, but Percy cut him off,

“That’s not necessary.”

Arion finished his gold and Percy expected him to run off like usual, disappearing over the horizon in 0.5 seconds flat but to his surprise he trotted over towards the group playing fetch. There he was greeted by excited squeals of “horsie” from both Tyson and Estelle, and even more surprising to Percy he let both of them stroke his nose.

“Since when does he let anyone but you touch him?” Percy asked Hazel.

She just shrugged, “he’s an immortal horse, born to two gods in human form, there’s no use trying to understand him.”

That was fair, Percy thought, but before he could verbalize that an eagle flew down from the sky, landed beside Hazel then transformed into a young man.

“Frank,” Percy said grasping his hand and pulling him into a quick hug.

“Happy Birthday.”

“Thanks, did you fly the whole way here from New Rome?”

“No, just from the airport. I took a commercial flight most of the way, we can’t all have a godly horse or metal dragon.”

“Yeah, poor Frank can only shape-shift,” Hazel joked, “but let the record show I did offer for him to ride on Arion with me.”

“Yeah, no offence but I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t buck me off half way across the country and leave me stranded in the middle of Kansas or Colorado.”

Further conversation was cut off by another shadow appearing beside them. Out of it emerged two teens and over a dozen small, shadow creatures.

“Happy Birthday Percy,” Nico greeted him.

“Yeah, Happy Birthday,” Will added.

“Thanks, and thanks for coming,” Percy replied.

“Are you going to say hello to your own sister?” Hazel teased pulling Nico into a hug.

Nico rolled his eyes but immediately hugged her back.

“And how are all my nieces and nephews?” Hazel asked looking at the shadow creatures.

“The Cocoa Puffs are good,” Nico smiled a hint of adoration in his voice.

“They’ve become super popular at camp,” Will shared, “and enjoyed their summer vacation to the underworld.”

“You went on vacation to the underworld?” Frank asked.

“Just for a week,” Will supplied, “It grows on you, once you get to know it,” he finished addressing their questioning looks and shooting a coy smile at his boyfriend.

“Am I late to the party?,” a familiar voice called capturing the groups attention. “My flight was cancelled after I made a big deal of not wanting to use my Dad’s private jet. Luckily, a friend offered me a ride.”

Percy turned to see Piper alongside Tempest, the equine storm-spirit. He was happy to see her but the scene conjured up an ache in his heart as he was reminded that one of his friends wouldn’t be joining them: Jason. Jason was Piper’s ex-boyfriend and the one who had tamed and made Tempest a part of their group. He died over a year ago now and Percy still found it hard to believe. Part of him wanted to think he was with them in spirit but he knew better. Jason deserved better than being stuck between the land of the living and the dead and he had gotten it: Elysium or rebirth. Either way he wouldn’t be here, but his memory still would.

“Hi Piper, how have you been?” Percy asked

“Good, living with my Dad in California has been great,” she replied giving him a hug, “happy birthday.”

“Thanks.”

Piper began greeting the others, giving them hugs and asking them about their lives, while Tempest made his way down the beach to where Arion and Blackjack seemed to be in deep conversation.

Looking around, Percy noted Tyson and Grover were now playing horse shoes, cheered on by Ella and Annabeth. Rachel was playing corn hole against Estelle and Sally. Paul was still at the grill, serving up food to a line of campers with Mrs. O’Leary laying at his feet creating a puddle of drool the size of a kiddie pool.

“So who wants to come swimming?” Piper asked.

“I will,” said Hazel.

“Not me,” Nico offered, “Will made me put on like five layers of sunscreen before we came and I’m not about to just wash it off. Plus, shadow travel still takes it out of me I think I need a bit of a break first.”

“I hear you, the flight from the airport was longer than I thought, I’m wiped,” Frank offered, “would you be up for a low-key card game on the porch?”

“Ah-ya-sure” Nico stuttered.

“I’ll grab some food for all of us, then meet you there,” Will offered.

With that they all went their separate ways leaving Percy standing alone. He was just debating who he wanted to join when a large group came from the front of the house. In the lead were two teenaged girls accompanied by two metallic greyhounds: one gold, the other silver. Behind them came two white horses and at least half a pack of wolves. Percy wondered why the wolves had come with Thalia and Reyna instead of staying with the rest of the Hunters: maybe they had vacation days they needed to use up before they expired, maybe they didn’t trust boys around their lieutenant and felt she required an escort or maybe they just liked to party. It really didn’t matter to Percy, as long as they didn’t eat anyone they were welcome.

Percy greeted the girls excitedly. Out of all his friends they were the ones he saw the least and he was glad they were able to make it. As they gave Percy an update on their hunt for the Teumessian Fox, Mrs. O’Leary bounded up to Reyna’s greyhounds, bowed and wagged her tail ready to play. To Percy’s surprise instead of their eyes glowing or barring their teeth they both began to wag their tails and looked to Reyna.

“Ok, go play,” she told them, and they took off with Mrs. O’Leary in hot pursuit.

Percy blinked, “They play?”

“Their dogs,” Reyna stated.

“I’ve always thought of them more as highly trained, lie-detecting, flesh-ripping, killing machines.”

At that Reyna actually laughed. She seemed lighter now as a Hunter of Artemis, instead of a Praetor of the Twelfth Legion. It suited her. Percy chatted with them for another twenty minutes before Annabeth came to recruit them for a game of beach paddleball. He was about to follow them when a commotion in the water caught his attention.

“RAINBOW!” Tyson yelled as he splashed and clapped as the Hippocampus swam up and nuzzled him, oblivious to Piper, Hazel and the others in the ocean around them.

Percy went down to the water and greeted Rainbow, the whole time wondering if his friends and family had somehow managed to send him an invitation to the party or if he just sensed they were there and wanted to say hi. They tried to get Percy to stay for a game of Marco Polo but his stomach was growling and the food smelled too good to resist.

He had just finished filling his plate when a bronze dragon descended from the sky, carrying a small shipping container in his claws. When the dragon landed he looked right at Percy, made some creaking noises then shot fire straight into the air.

“Festus says ‘Happy Birthday’,” Leo supplied slipping off the dragon’s back, then helping Calypso down after him.

“Thanks Festus. Good to see you all.”

“You too, man,” Leo said approaching Percy, “sorry we’re late, it took longer than I thought to load everything up.”

“What exactly did you bring?,” Percy asked, “should I be worried about explosions?”

“No explosives this time,” Leo laughed, “just some good old-fashion automatonic pegasus wings.”

Before Percy could ask what he meant, Reyna came over followed by the two white horses.

“One-eye, short-ear, this is Leo, the demigod I told you about. Leo this is one-eye and short-ear.”

Now that the horses were closer Percy could see they weren’t horses at all but the pegasi that had been abused and de-winged by the Triumvirate before being rescued and taken in by Reyna and the hunter’s. Percy had been told the story but this was the first time he was meeting the creatures. Although they now looked healthy he could still see the scars on their backs where their wings were removed and on their flanks where they were whipped.

“Can he really build us functional wings,” one-eye neighed, “should we trust him?”

“Leo can build anything,” Percy replied to the pegasus, “and you can trust him, right Reyna?”

“You can,” she agreed, “even if he once open fired on my city, igniting a war.”

“I was possessed by an eidolon demon,” Leo groaned and Festus whirred his teeth in support of his friend.

If this worried the pegasi they didn’t let on. Leo opened the shipping container and started to unload equipment. Percy ate his food as he watched Leo and Calypso set up a make shift work-shop and get to work, measuring and fitting the pegasi with their new wings. Half an hour, and a full stomach later, they were taking their first test flights. With the sun reflecting off the bronze feathers they looked amazing and they seemed to work just as well as the pegasi took off and began to do loops in the sky. It wasn’t long before they were joined by the pegasi from camp-half blood, Tempest and Festus, all circling in the sky like a flock of very large, very equine birds. This apparently frustrated Arion who was swearing under his breath about the lack of tall buildings or topography to run up in Montauk. As if just to spite him for calling him a baby man Frank turned into an eagle and joined the fun.

To Percy’s surprise the rest of the party went off without a hitch. He expected so many demigods in one place to attract every monster in a 100 mile radius but none showed up, so he just enjoyed himself.

He watched Nico and Reyna cream Frank and Leo at spike ball. He and Piper taught Grover and Will how to skim board. He teamed up with Thalia for a corn-hole doubles tournament and came second only to his mom and step-dad (the only mortals there). He watched all the Cocoa Puffs listen intently as Ella read them a book and what appeared to be an equine vs. canine soccer/handball/water polo game, with a ball being thrown between pegasi, wind-spirits, hippocampi and godly horses on one side and wolves, hellhounds and automatonic greyhounds on the other. He swam with Rainbow and Tyson. He was excited when Coach Hedge stopped by with Mellie and baby Chuck. He laughed with Chuck and Estelle as they followed Coach Hedge’s example excitedly destroying the sandcastles Percy and Annabeth had helped them make. He joined everyone dancing as Grover, Piper, and Austin from the Apollo cabin as well as some of his siblings put on a show. He made crafts with rocks and driftwood with Rachel, Calypso and Hazel. When Chiron stopped by, he had a heart-felt conversation with him over a game of checkers and watched his mom hold back tears as they talked, clearly about Percy as they kept glancing his way. He skipped rocks with Nico and Frank and went all out in a water fight, becoming unstoppable by teaming up with blackjack. As the sun set he was chatting with Leo as they prepared a campfire, when he noticed a large silhouette approaching in a small boat. As the boat hit land a silver haired titan stepped out.

“Bob,” Annabeth yelled tackling him in a hug. Percy and Annabeth had only seen the Titan once since he was rescued from Tartarus by Nico and Will after having sacrificed himself so they could survive and escape Tartarus and being trapped in a permanent regeneration cycle by Nyx as a result. Although Bob forgave them for leaving him behind to save the world they still struggled to forgive themselves. Nico and Will were the next to greet the Titan, followed by the Cocoa Puffs, then Percy himself. The other’s weren’t sure what to make of him having never met him before but once Tyson broke the ice introducing himself and inviting Bob to join their card game, he fit right in. After a few minutes small Bob popped his head out of Bob’s overalls and padded over to greet Percy, Annabeth, Will and Nico before deciding to entertain himself by swatting at Mrs. O’Leary’s tail that wagged in her sleep. One of the young wolf pups saw the ghost cat and tried to chase him but small Bob went skeletal then grew into a full-grown sabre-toothed tiger which put a stop to that pretty fast.

Once the sun set they roasted marshmallows, made smores and had a sing-along around the fire. They tried ghost stories but as they had all lived through multiple wars none of them scared easily so they ended up just listening to Ella recite the classics. Mrs. O’Leary, small bob and the Cocoa Puffs fell asleep in a pile and Percy had never seen a cuter pile of monsters.

As it got later guests began to leave in groups. His friends from camp, including Rachel and the pegasi left first; followed by Nico, Will and the cocoa puffs; then Reyna, Thalia and their pack; Leo, Calypso, and Piper (who was going to spend sometime at camp) on Festus, left next; then Hazel on Arion and Frank on Tempest; Rainbow swam back into the ocean, followed by Bob and small bob in their enchanted canoe; Tyson, Ella and Mrs. O’Leary were the last to leave with lots of hugs and promises to see each other soon. Percy’s parents and sister had already turned in for the night leaving just him, Annabeth and Grover. They stayed up playing games, talking, laughing and reminiscing about old times. Grover was the first to fall asleep just after 1 am. Percy and Annabeth left him on the patio couch and headed for a walk down the beach hand-in-hand, looking at the stars.

“Hard to believe it’s been four years since the end of the Titan war,” Percy finally said breaking their comfortable silence.

“Sure is, a lot has happened since then,” Annabeth sighed.

“Too much,” Percy laughed.

They fell into another comfortable silence just enjoying being together.

“Happy birthday seaweed brain,” Annabeth finally broke the silence, “and happy four year anniversary.”

She smiled before pulling him into a kiss. And that- that moment. That kiss. That day. - was exactly why Percy turned down immortality on that date, four years earlier: because things could always get better, and if things got better than that, that would really be something to see, and he couldn’t wait.

#percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #annabeth chase #piper mclean #leo valdez #hazel levesque #frank zhang #nico de angelo #will solace #rachel elizabeth dare #percy jackson

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