Chapter Text
8:24 pm
"GET AWAY FROM ME"
A door was slammed onto Percy's face by the blond teenager. And from the force he felt? Percy wonders if he got a broken nose.
Weary from the response, Percy stepped down from the porch while rubbing his tender nose.
'Why did I agree to this?'
34 hours ago:
"Lord Hephaestus." He stated. More annoyed than surprised.
"Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase. Heroes twice over."
"My lord, with all due respect, why the fuck are you next to my car?"
Chuckling at Percy's response, Hephaestus answered. "Blunt as always, Percy Jackson. Good to see that two wars have not erased your sense of humour."
"What can I say. What doesn't kill you makes you funnier." Taking a defensive stance, Percy stared into his eyes, one hand by his pocket, ready to uncap Riptide at a moment's notice. Hephaestus too stared back. Silently. Amused. Unmoved by Percy's wolf stare.
"My lord," interrupting the little staring competition the two had, Annabeth went on to ask: "What brings you here?"
Breaking away from Percy's stare, Hephaestus turned his gaze to Annabeth. "Long story short, I need you," he pointed towards Percy. "To retrieve one of my sons. From there, he'll live either with you at this little getaway of yours or at camp."
"One of your sons?" Percy asked. "I thought we had an agreement."
Weirdly enough, Hephaestus' presence had a similar effect as Are's effect on Percy. He felt as if the fires from the forges were irking him on, ready to hammer him down at any opening.
"We do, you ungrateful demigod. Which is why I'm here. Asking you, to retrieve my son." Hephaestus shrugged, "Unless you want him to travel from Tennessee unprotected and free to all monster attacks."
Guilted by his implications, Percy relaxed his stance, and if anything, seemed more defeated than before.
"Right. Reminder to self, the next time you get offered a wish, make sure you word it as specifically as you can." He sighed, ruffed his hair, and stared back into Hephaestus' burning eyes after getting a little notebook out. "Give me the address, name, and rough description. I'll leave first thing in the morning tomorrow."
"Wilson Bailey Lane. Atchley's Mechanical Services, Rose Hill Tennessee. A-t-c-h-l-e-y, Atchley. The kid's 16, blond, blue eyes, probably around 5'9 by now." Hephaestus paused for a moment, brows slighted scrunched as if contemplating whether to give a piece of information or not.
"Right, and to you, just a warning, he's a bit on the flirty side." After seeing Percy's raised eyebrow, he added. "Takes after his mother."
"Right. Name?"
"Harley. Harley Keener. K-e-e-n-e-r."
"N, e, r. Got it." After jotting down the last of the kid's name, Percy walked up closer to the blacksmith. "So, the kid's sixteen. Why didn't you send someone to get him earlier? Surely he would've been in danger from all the monsters and rebels over the years."
The blacksmith stood in silence, looking down into the cracks of the pavement.
"I-" he stopped mid syllable, seemingly at a loss of words. "I guess I was being selfish."
Taken back at his answer, Percy took a step back. His brows, furrowed up from the confusion.
"Selfish?"
"Selfish." Seeing that the young demigod wanted an answer out of him, he took a long breath and continued. "His scent is weak. Not because he's weak, but because of the curse his bloodline carried. I was tempted to move him to camp when his mother died a few years back. But with Kronos and Gaea? I figured the kid would have a higher surviving rate if he stayed"
Knowing that he sounded apathetic to his other children, he quickly added. "Don't get me wrong. I love all of my creations. But for my children, their scent was no longer disguisable after a certain age and I there was no choice but to send them to camp."
"What about Leo?" Annabeth demanded from beside Percy. Her voice, a little shaky from her emotions. "What about Leo? You didn't have to send him to camp. He could've stayed hidden from the mythological world for a few more years. Why let Hera go through with her plan?"
Had you been near any of the coastlines, you would've felt a small tremble within the sea. For Percy too, was angry at the god.
"I never wished for Leo to be in warfare." He stated. Perhaps he did mean it rather sincerely, but there was no conviction after the amount of deaths Cabin 9 had to go through these past years. "Fate is Fate, and cannot be avoided. Harley had a chance of escaping, I merely made the chance more probable."
And with that, he left. Just like Athena did. No poof. No true form. The blacksmith just disappeared from the porch of the safe house.
25 minutes ago, 7:59 pm:
After a long, gruelling day of driving on and off freeways, Percy finally reached Rose Hill, Tennessee. It took him a while, but after a couple of minutes of driving along Maynardville Highway, he finally found the small, rundown mechanics place.
Upon seeing the lights coming from the windows, he went over to try his luck.
*Knock, knock, knock*
"Comin'!!" A young, chirpy male voice came from inside the shop. "Just a minute here, doncha worry."
After the sounds of clanking metal, and one yelp of 'ouch' later, the door opened up to show a boy who matched Hephaestus' description. Dressed all in black and with oil grease on his face, the boy bore many resemblances to his siblings.
"Well hey ya there handsome, haven't seen you around." The boy's accent was softer than some of the other locals Percy met while trying to find Rose Hill, but you can still hear the boy's southern drawl. "Say, you're not from around here are ya?"
"Would be a surprise if I was."
"A newcomer, huh? We don't get many of you lot down here." Shifting slightly to get into a more comfortable position against the doorframe, the boy continued: "So? What brings you down to Atchley's, hmm?"
"Funny story, actually. I uh, took up favour." Percy was pretty sure that the young man in front of him was the Harley he was looking for, but he just needed to be sure. "I'm looking for a Harley Keener. You wouldn't happen to know him would you?"
The boy smiled. So radiant and joyous that if it weren't for Hephaestus' claim over him, Percy would've definitely guessed for Apollo than Hephaestus. "Well, you're looking right at him. Whatcha need? Did ol Tones sencha down?"
"Uhh… no." Fidgeting with his hands, Percy was trying to find his words. Finally, Percy just sighed. "So, my name is Percy."
"Well, Percy. I'm Harley." Looking up while tilting his chin down a little, Harley waited for Percy to say more.
"Oh man, you're gonna hate me for this. I'm a demigod and your father, Lord Hephaestus, sent me to 'retrieve you'." Emphasizing with the air quotations. As a second thought, Percy added: "I'm not kidding with you, I promise."
The confusion in the kid's face was so evident that Percy felt sorry for all the previous demigods, including himself. And for all the satyrs who had to break the news to them.
'Save more tin cans for Grover.' He thought. 'And something for Annabeth too. I don't know how they managed to deal with me and my dumbass.'
Scratching at his neck, Percy continued: "He wants you to go to school and live in New York in a safe house with us. By us, we mean some of the other demigods."
Harley's eyes continued to widen and his mouth trembled a little. But that surprise soon became anger.
The kid somehow managed to fish a blowtorch out of nowhere and pointed it in Percy's direction. "You listen to me, Yankee. I don't know why he's sending you here now, and I don't know if I want to know. But he left me and my ma, and never, ever bothered to visit. Not when I was a kid, not when my ma died, and not when I nearly died. So you tell him. Tell him that I'm not a dog he can dump at the shelter only forced to collect when the pound's empty. And I'll say this once, and only once. GET AWAY FROM ME."
And with that, the door was smashed into Percy's nose.
8:24 pm (Present)
'Good job, Jackson. You fucked it up with the kid. Now you're stuck on some random highway in the South with no backup whatsoever.'
Rubbing his still sore nose, Percy began to walk towards his Prius.
'Ah, great. Just... wonderful.'
Additionally, with his brilliant Jackson luck, the force of the door was just enough to give Percy a bloody nose.
Percy watched as the blood seeps through his fingers.
And all at once, Annabeth was next to him while the laughter of a woman surrounds him.
A ringing sound begins to muff Percy's hearings.
He watches the blood fall, in slow motion, into the dirt ground.
That, was before someone attempted to shove a tissue up his nose. Keyword, attempted, because Percy pulled Riptide out and nearly cut the poor woman in half.
"Woah," The lady backs away with both of her hands up in the air, holding a tissue stained with a few droplets of blood. The red a startling contrast against the stark white. "Easy there sweetie, here."
Gesturing to the tissue, the lady extended her hand to Percy. "Kid, you have the Niagra Falls comin' outcha nose. Take the dang tissue."
Snapping out of his trance, Percy quickly uttered an apology and took the tissue, capping Riptide along the way.
"Oh," The lady mumbled, now seeing the 3 feet long bronze sword shrink back to a simple pen. Percy panicked, of course, but before he could use the mist to cover up, the lady kept on mumbling. "You're one of them, aren't you?"
"Excuse me?" One of them could mean a load of things for Percy. A half-blood, a Greek, a Northerner, a troublemaker. These days, he thought the term 'a mistake' might also fit. Perhaps his father wasn't that wrong all those years ago.
"You've come to pick up my nephew, haven't you? He is, after all, a half-blood, no matter how much he denies it."
Percy blinked back a little. After all, it was rare for demigods to know their identity before being introduced by a satyr or a fellow half-blood. Thus, their families often knew less. Internally, Percy was eternally grateful that he didn't have to explain the mythological world to the family since he already screwed it up with the kid.
"Yeah," was his simple reply. "His father sent me to ensure safe travels."
She sighed, heavily, and Percy can't help but remember the helpless look on his mother's face every summer when he leaves for Camp Half-Blood. The lady straightened next to Percy as if a decision has been made.
"Well, what are you waiting for? A sign from God? Come on, we better be home in time for dinner."
After the many mistakes he already made this trip, Percy decided it was best to just follow the lady, and do whatever's needed to bring Harley to camp safely. But before Percy had the chance to ask anything the lady turned in the direction of the house and yelled:
"HARLS!" Startled by the booming voice that came out of a lady so petite, Percy jerked back a little. Keep in mind, this lady is 5'4" tops while Percy had settled into 6'1" this summer.
"WE GOTTA GO BUD. ABBY'S WAITIN AND YOU DON'T WANNA ANGER HER."
'Gods,' he thought. 'She's like Katie.'
"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT." Was the response that travelled through the doors. Traces of anger unable to lift themselves from a few minutes ago. "I'M COMIN!"
"By the way," Turning back to face Percy, the lady stuck out a hand. "I'm Melissa, Harley's aunt. You can call me Lisa."
"Nice to meet you, Lisa, I'm Percy."
"Well Percy, hope you like catfish. We stocked up on too much of it when it was on sale and now we're desperately tryin' to finish it." She smiled sheepishly, before craning her neck to look over to Percy's Prius. "I see you've got your car, yeah, just leave it here. Hop on with us. No need for two cars when it'll just be the three of us."
"Gotcha."
And then, Harley came out. And, my oh my, he sure wasn't pleased to find his aunt talking to the dude that just pissed him off.
"What are you still doing here?" Harley stomped towards the two and placed himself between Harley and Lisa. "I told you to get away from me. Did I not make that clear? Or do I need to get the blowtorch again?"
"Harley!" Lisa scolded, mockingly reaching up to smack Harley in the head. "Be nice, he's only here to do what he needed to do."
"Uh uh, fuck that. If He wants me to go to this, this stupid camp of theirs, He needs to 'retrieve me' Himself." Rightfully angry at Hephaestus, Harley too, mocked the phrase with air quotation marks.
Despite the clearly awkward situation between the two, Lisa somehow managed to coax the two of them into the car.
"Come on, we'll talk on the way."
And with that, Percy, once again, got himself into an awkward car ride.