Chapter Text
Look.
Percy was man enough to admit that maybe he messed up a bit.
He was also man enough to admit that this revelation could have come at a better time than when he was standing in front of all-powerful, omnipotent beings that could literally get away with murdering him if he annoyed them too much.
And considering he had already annoyed them to the point of him being invited up to Olympus for a full on trial, his odds were not looking too good. So thank the gods (or … not the gods considering they got him into this mess in the first place) that his beautiful and brilliant and kind and smart girlfriend -- who was wearing an honest-to-god suit -- was ready to defend him, even if it came at the cost of opposing her mother. And it did come at the cost of opposing her mother because apparently saving Olympus twice and defeating almost every single monster ever, wasn’t enough for Athena.
She’d probably only accept him as Annabeth’s boyfriend if he got 1650 on the SAT (and yes , he knows that isn’t possible), or something academic like that; which basically meant there was no way she would ever accept him as Annabeth’s boyfriend.
At that moment, as if she could hear his train of thoughts -- which, by the way, is a huge invasion of privacy, Athena, if you’re listening -- Athena turned to him and interrupted her daughter by saying, “Are you just going to sit there and let my daughter defend you, or are you actually going to stand up for yourself, sea spawn?”
Percy shrugged from his place sitting cross-legged on the floor by Poseidon’s throne and spoke, “Honestly, I’m fine with letting Annabeth defend me, she’s doing a great job at it. Love you!” He directed that last bit at his girlfriend (not Athena), held up his two thumbs and grinned broadly.
“Thanks, babe,” Annabeth mouthed back, before clearing her throat and shuffling the papers in front of her to regain the attention of the council, “As I was saying, this is Percy we’re talking about. He has yet to ask me out to Disney despite getting the tickets gifted to him almost a week ago. Do you really think he could organise a rebellion against the gods?”
Damn, Percy thought, I knew I forgot to do something. And also--
“Hey!” he complained, “I could definitely stage a rebellion if I wanted to.”
Immediately sensing he had done something wrong with the way everyone present turned to look at him and the fact Annabeth shook her head at him and mouthed ‘ Not helping Percy ’, he quickly added, “Not that I want to. Staging a rebellion is the last thing on my to-do list.” He yelped at the look that came across Zeus’ face and continued hurriedly, “It’s not even on my to-do list! I don’t even have a to-do list! Ask Annabeth.”
The demigod in question nodded, “It’s true. He is the least organised person I have ever met. If he were to rebel against you guys -- which he wouldn’t, don’t look at me like that, mother -- it would fall apart within a week. At most .”
Percy frowned, not knowing whether to be offended or not. With a shrug of his shoulders, he decided on the latter and settled with looking around at the gods and attempting to discern their thoughts.
It seemed that it was the usual amount of gods against him, the gods that had decided to hate him based on their own preconceived misconceptions about him. Something he couldn’t help but feel a little bit mad about, he saved their asses at least twice and this is the thanks he gets?
Some of his thoughts must have shown on his face because James Silver (the son of Hermes had given his account of what happened that day, shying away from his father’s eyes when he admitted he was too scared to request something) nudged him from where he was sitting next to him and gave him a questioning look, to which Percy shook his head at, “I’m fine,” he whispered, “It’s nothing.”
Once again, Athena pounced on his distraction like an owl (and yeah, ok, he knows the saying is meant to be like a hawk, but Athena’s sacred animal is an owl so it's funny! Right?) and questioned why he wasn’t paying attention at his own trial.
“...With all due respect, Athena, I’m thinking about what I’ve done to make half of this council hate me. And, I’ll be honest with you here, I’m coming up blank.”
Poseidon chose this point to finally make his voice heard, “My son has got a point, Athena. He has saved us many times over his lifetime, we are indebted to him and everyone here knows it.”
Ares sniffed pompously, “Be indebted to the brat? I would rather fall on my own sword.”
“That could be arranged,” Percy’s eyes flashed dangerously as he continued, “You looking for a rematch, Ares?”
“Why you little--”
“Ares, sit down . And Perseus, stop antagonising gods that wish to see you dead by their own hands,” Artemis snapped, wanting this meeting to be over 10 minutes ago so she could get back to her Huntresses, they were in the middle of hunting the Nemean Lion who had respawned over the Giant War. There was no convenient space food nearby this time nor, as much as she hated to admit it, any convenient sons of Poseidon who conveniently knew how to wield the convenient space food.
Percy raised his hands in surrender and sighed, “Okay, I’m sorry, I guess. I’m just not entirely sure what the problem is. I raised a few kids’ -- your kids’ -- self esteems and you guys are accusing me of rebelling against you? I just don’t get it.”
Annabeth looked shocked for a moment before getting over it just as quickly, “He’s right. Oh, don’t look at me like that, Seaweed Brain, it happens occasionally. Percy has done nothing to make you guys assume that he is going against the gods.”
“I- We... That is to say…” Zeus spluttered, much to the delight of his brothers, “That is not the point!”
“Actually, brother,” Poseidon said, cheerfully, “I think it rather is the point of all this. What has my son done to rebel against us?”
Zeus mumbled something incoherently.
“What was that?” Poseidon asked, his smug smile clearly showing he heard exactly what Zeus said.
“...Nothing. Your brat--”
“ --I’m right here-- ”
“--has done nothing to rebel against us. But it’s the potential--”
This time Aphrodite interrupted, “Well. Technically, we all have the potential to rebel against us. Just like we all have the potential to have nice hands. If you’d just pushed back your cuticles, Ares-- ”
“We’re getting off-topic again,” Poseidon frowned, “But, uh, I have nice hands, Aphrodite, if you wanted too--” Percy coughed, “--erm, right. Nevermind. Maybe later. The point is , Percy’s done nothing wrong.”
Zeus grumbled for while under his breath before finally looking up and saying, “All in favour of prosecution?”
Percy noted with not a small amount of delight, that only Athena, Hera, Zeus and Ares raised their hands. Zeus noticed this as well, except with a much smaller amount of delight as he sighed and continued, “...All in favour of being cleared of all charges?”
The overwhelming majority raised their hands, causing Percy to whoop in delight, he was a free man!
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After the demigods had returned back to Camp Half-Blood to share the brilliant news with the rest of the campers, Zeus straightened on his throne at the centre of the Olympian council self-importantly and cleared his throat before smugly speaking, “I would like to point out how my children were not naive enough to--”
“ HEY DAD, JUST STARTING THIS OFF BY LETTING YOU KNOW THAT PERCY DID NOT TELL ME TO DO THIS, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST THE NEW ‘GREEN DAY’ MERCH. PLEASE. THANKS AND I HOPE YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFERING … OR DON’T. WHATEVER. OH! JASON SAYS H-”
“...JACKSON!”