ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕞𝕒

Percy's PoV

I wake up to someone shaking me. I groan, pulling the covers over my head and rolling over. "It's too earlyyyyy!"

"Get up lazy head," The person repeatedly throws a pillow at me, landing multiple blows in my mouth. I sputter, rolling over again in an attempt to get away, only to find that I was already at the edge of the bed. "Oof!" I land on the floor, thankful that my pillows have already been chucked down.

"C'mon, mom made blue pancakes." Néstor says. I shoot up, about to run out of the room, only to find my vision blocked by a bunch of blankets. "Hey!" I complain, ripping them off my face. Néstor is already halfway down the stairs, laughing his head off. I sprint after him, jumping down the stairs and sliding through his legs. His face is filled with surprise, and he stops and blinks in shock.

"What the hell was THAT?!" He asks in awe. "You jumped down seven stairs, slid straight under my legs and got up like it was nothing! And you're not even winded!"

I give a sheepish smile. "I did about five years of self defense at a boot camp," I lie. I didn't want him to find out about my godly side, at least not yet. I don't want to endanger him with my life.

"Okay...but I'm still getting to those pancakes first!" He runs past me, and I curse, running after him. As we make our way to the kitchen, we tumble over each other trying to get to the delicious food first. Mom stands to the side, chuckling.

"Mine!" I lunge for the blue pancakes, covering them with my hands. Néstor narrows his eyes at me, carefully approaching me.

"Give, now." He demands, inching closer. As soon as he is in a three foot radius, I chuck a pillow at him and sprint to the table. Néstor curses, ripping the pillow off of his face and running behind me. Finally, we make it to the table and I douse my pancakes in syrup.

"You're gonna drown them!" Néstor protests, and my mind goes back to one time on the Argo II.

"I can't drown, and neither can my pancakes!" The words slip out of my mouth before I can filter them. Schist. Please don't ask, please don't ask-

"What?" Néstor asks, confused. His pancakes sit forgotten, half slathered in honey.

"Inside joke, honey," Mom saves me as she walks past. "Percy's always loved swimming, and he can hold his breath for a long time. Therefore, Paul thinks that he can't drown, and boom, the joke evolved."

I give my mom my, 'Oh-my-gods-thank-you-so-much-I-owe-you-a-million-drachmas' look.

Néstor nods, going back to his pancakes. I quickly shove my pancakes into my mouth, downing juice in between the bites. "So," I ask my boyfriend, "What do you want to do today?"

He stops to think, then shrugs. "I really don't care, what do you want to do?"

"I don't care either, that's why I asked you."

"...MOOOOMMMMM!"

Mom emerges from the kitchen. "I was just in the next room, no need to shout," She says with a chuckle. "What's wrong?"

"Well," I start, exaggerating the first word, "Néstor and I don't know what to do today, and I don't care what he says, and he doesn't care what I say so..."

"Let me guess, you want me to give you some suggestions?" Sally says, leaning onto the table. "Well, I heard about this new shop that opened up, you guys could probably that Estelle there with you, it's another one of those chain shops, I think it's called Hebbie Jebbies-"

"No. Absolutely not." I interrupt immediately. Mom looks at me confused, thinks for a second, then remembers my most recent quest.

"Oh, never mind then. Um, why don't you boys go check out some cafes in the neighborhood, tell us if they're any good." She suggests, and Néstor and I have nothing against that, so once we finish cleaning up after breakfast, we catch a taxi to a block full of cafes.

"Woah, Percy, look at this!" Néstor points to a smaller cafe, off to the side. It looked like it was supposed to be an alleyway, but at the last minute, someone had thought, 'Why don't I build my cafe here?' and squeezed it in. "Why would someone build a cafe like this here?"

Something about it is odd, it seems to have a hazy sort of look to it. I look up to the sign, and unlike most of the other cafe signs on the street, the font of the writing isn't fancy, but block lettering, easy to read. Also unlike other cafe signs, it was in Greek. Ancient Greek.

'HESTIA'S CAFE'

"Hey, can you read the sign?" Néstor asks, squinting and trying to decipher the unknown language.

"Nope," I lie, as I figure that it would be quite surprising if I started speaking a lost language. "You know what, we should probably just-"

Néstor had already gone inside. I sigh, walking in after him

The inside set me off. There's no way a full cafe like this one could fit inside that small alleyway.

It's a huge room, red velvet covering the walls with a golden chandelier, fancy, yet simple hanging down from a high roof. Tables are spread out everywhere, with gold painted chairs that look as if they are actually comfortable .The dark brown floorboards were warm, and there were brown couches off to another section of the cafe, set up so that they were all facing each other.

There were stairs with a railing running beside it going up to a second level, where doors were shut off. In the middle of the bottom floor, underneath the chandelier, is a fire, a small hearth which seems warm and inviting, like it's pulling me towards it, relaxing me. I felt safe here, but I force myself to stay alert. This is no mortal cafe. This is from my world.

"It's so cozy in here..." Néstor mutters, as if in a daze. His eyes are glazed over, and panic rushes over me.

"Néstor," I block his path so that he can't go any further into the shop. "Look at me." My voice is commanding, but desperation can still be heard. "Snap out of this. Please."

"Percy...?" He slurs, trying to look at me. "Everything is fuzzy...have you always had pretty eyes? Pretty eyes...that's cute...you're cute." I blush despite the situation. He hums a distinct tune, trying to get a pin on where I am.

"Hello?"

I whip around, my hand digging into my pocket to find Riptide. A girl, brunette with red eyes, ever so slightly glowing, filled with power. My panic seeps away as she comes closer. She seems familiar, and I finally piece together the puzzle.

"Lady Hestia!" I quickly bow, Hestia being one of the only gods I really had respect for.

"No need for that Percy." She says, and then I quickly remember the other problem at hand.

I grab Néstor, pulling him over to the goddess. "My boyfriend...he can't think straight, ever since he came into here, he's been in some sort of trance."

Hestia nods, going over to one of the tables and sitting down. "His mortal mind is clouded by all of the Mist covering up this place, it usually happens. Once you go outside, he'll be fine."

I sigh in relief, then glance around at the room. "What is this place?"

"A haven, a safe place for demigods." Hestia states, smoothing out her brown dress. "They come from time to time, for a place to stay for a while. Everyone is welcome, as long as the peace is keepen. No monster can get in, this is my temple."

Néstor pokes me repeatedly in the arm, and I quickly thank Hestia, not wanting to see Néstor like this anymore. It pains me to see him not in control of himself.

As we exit the building, Néstor shudders like electricity is running up his spine. "What the...? What was that?" Néstor asks, looking around, then at me.

I smile, relief flooding in. I kiss him, a short, sweet kiss, having to go on my toes because of his annoyingly tall 5"11 figure, just beating me by one inch.

"Um, why?" He asks as I pull away. "Not that I'm complaining, but I can barely recall what just happened..."

I shrug, "Just felt like it. As for your memory loss...what do you remember?"

"We went into the cafe...and then nothing." Néstor's face is scrunched up in concentration. "All I remember is a red room...a girl?"

I laugh, steering him away from the demigod haven. "That's funny, it was just an alleyway."

As we walk up and down the road, I recall back to what I said. Should I have told him? Would it have been better like that? 'Nah,' I think, 'Néstor doesn't need to know about the mythological world. I'm going to try my best to keep it that way.'

Um...hi? I have not abandoned this story...even though this is the first time I've published it in about 9 months...whoops? I have major procrastination problem...I'm just gonna blame it on that.

Anyway, I have nothing to say, but hopefully next time I publish a chapter, it will not be next year!

Also, it's Walker Scobell's birthday! Happy birthday and thank you for trying your hardest to play Percy Jackson!

Alright, Laurel OUT!