Chapter 8

Aphrodite POV

"Why am I just hearing about this now?" I demanded Athena tried to say something but the words died in her mouth.

"She didn't say anything because she couldn't do anything about it." Hestia said.

"What do you mean she couldn't do anything about it, who is he?" I asked

"I couldn't do anything because he was married and I refused to be apart of an affair and I didn't say anything because there was no point in you knowing if I couldn't do anything." Athena said finally

"Fine" I said "but who is this guy?"

"Oh don't you know?" Artemis asked with a smirk "Think Aphrodite who do we know that was previously married but is now available."

Then it dawned on me "Poseidon, really?"I said"I thought you hated him because of the contest for Athens, and the whole thing with Medusa in your temple."

"I was pissed for decades after the Medusa incident and as far as the contest goes I worked so hard to create the olive tree because I wanted to impress him." she said "Even the chariot, don't get me wrong it turned out great but when I first told him about it I didn't think it would work I was just using it as an excuse to spend time with him."

I couldn't contain it any more I ran up to Athena and hugged the life out of her. When I let her go I said "Ok first we help Artemis with her date then we work on getting you and Poseidon together." we spent the next hour looking at outfits Athena and Artemis vetoed half of them right off the bat because they claimed it showed 'too much skin' bull crap but I went along with it. We finally decided on simple faded blue jeans, a sea green long sleeve shirt, and a grey hoodie. I thought wanted we should look at underwear to but I gave up after Artemis said no and swore on Styx that they would not be getting that far on their first date.

One thing did seem a little odd to me though, as Athena and Artemis left Hestia walked up to Aphrodite in her 17 year old form and asked to borrow a dark red dress to which I agreed but after she left I couldn't help but wonder 'why would Hestia need a dress.' but I quickly pushed that thought out of my head as I went to meet my husband for a dinner date.

Artemis POV

I went back to my Palace and set my new clothes on my dresser then flashed to camp half blood and found the hunters at the archery range as usual. I walked up to Thalia and asked her to gather Percy and the hunters in cabin 8 then went to thank Chiron for letting the hunters stay there to which he said it wasn't an issue then returned to my cabin to find Percy standing in the doorway'probably in case the girls don't take the news well he can make a run for it.' I thought, my hunters were all sitting on their beds. "I have an announcement to make" I said "due to the recent rise in attacks against by monsters Zeus has decided we need a guardian."

"What! we don't need a guardian we've done just fine in the past." Phoebe said

"I agree but Zeus gave me a choice either we accept the guardian or we stay at camp half blood until further notice" I said Phoebe stood for a while then sat in defeat. "Zeus wanted to name Heracles as our guardian but after a little discussion Percy was named as guardian." I closed my eyes bracing myself for the wave of complaints and Percy got ready to run. But I was caught by surprise when instead the only thing I hear is someone yell "Yeah!" followed by a loud thud behind me.

I turned to see Percy on the floor with his back to the wall in shock after apparently being tackled by Melissa who was hugging the life out of him. Percy wasn't sure how to react but hugged her back. I looked at the hunters to see their reactions and saw that most of them had a least a small smile on their faces "You're not upset?" I asked confused

"Why would we be?" Phoebe asked "He already swore not to flirt with any of us, he respects us, he treats us like family, and when Melissa had a nightmare during the last hunt Percy was the one who stayed up with her till she fell back asleep. He is the only decent male I've seen during the 900 years I've been in the hunt, he's already friends with most of us and risked his life to protect us all. We would be more than happy to accept him as the first brother of the hunt".

As Phoebe finished her speech Percy was again tackled and hugged by several of the younger hunters, once he got over his shock he said "Thank you." and hugged them back.

"Percy can we have a moment alone besides I think Chiron could use your help with the swordsmanship lessons."

Thalia said Percy simply nodded and left, once he was gone she turned to Phoebe and asked. "Did you mean that?"

"yes" Phoebe said and Thalia hugged her "you have no idea how much that means to him" Thalia said.

-one hour later-

We were down at our respective tables at the mess hall, Hestia was tending the fire and Percy was walking back to the Poseidon table after giving his offering when I heard a small explosion. I looked up and saw a small metal ball like thing roll under his table and explode shooting his table across the room, successfully demolishing it. Everyone in the room turned to see a Hephaestus camper with a blackened face holding a screwdriver in one hand and what was left of what I think was a mechanical cat in the other.

"Will"Leo groaned"you know the rules no automatons at the table." Leo said in a deep and fatherly voice causing most of the camp to burst out laughing. Once everyone calmed Chiron offered to let Percy sit at the head table with him, Mr. D, and myself but before he could accept Thalia stood up"no Percy's got a table."she said as several of the hunters ran over and picked Percy up and dropped in a chair at the end of the hunters table"see"she said, Percy shrugged and started eating.

The entire mess hall was silent as Percy and the hunters started eating. I started laughing, I really tried not to but I couldn't help it their expressions were Priceless even Chiron who was almost always composed had his jaw on the floor."Well"I said getting everyone's attention"I guess should announce that Percy has been named guardian of the hunt."

"bBut I thought only girls were allowed to join the hunt" an Apollo camper said.

"Then Prissy should feel right at home." Clarisse said getting a few snickers but laughed harder when Percy flipped his medium length hair. After dinner and the campfire everyone was heading back to their cabins and Artemis in formed Percy and the hunters that they would be staying at camp for a 2 more days and then we went to bed.

Percy POV The next day

I woke up in my bed and for the first in months I didn't feel a sense dread for the day in fact I was excited I had been accepted by the hunters as their brother and I couldn't be happier. What most people don't know about me is that I always wanted a lot of siblings like the other campers, yes I had Tyson and I thought of Nico and Thalia as my brother and sister but now I had like 30 sisters and I couldn't be happier. I got up, and went to the sword arena to practice for an hour before taking a shower going to breakfast where I again sat with the hunters because my table was still busted.

After that the hunters convinced me to practice archery with them and we soon found out that even though I was part of the hunt I still couldn't shoot. I went to my other classes but elected to skip my ancient greek class because Annabeth always taught it. Lunch eventually rolled around but we all noticed that Thalia and Nico weren't there. Some Aphrodite campers started joking that they had gone to to woods to make out but were silenced by a death glare from Artemis. Nico and Thalia were eventually found an hour later walking out of the woods, when we questioned them they said they were just talking and lost track of time. I was sure that they were leaving something out but I let it go.

At 6 I found myself sitting at a table in Virges waiting for Diana to show up. Despite the fact that Piper had to basically bribed me to go on this date I was actually looking forward to it. A girl with brown hair wearing a grey hoodie walked in, she seemed nervous and looked around before seeing and walking up to me "Are you Percy?" she asked shyly I nodded looking at her and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked in her grey hoodie and green shirt "I'm Diana." she said looking me in the eye and for a moment I couldn't find my voice I was just lost in her blue eyes as I looked in them I swear I saw something familiar.

I realized I was staring and quickly stood up and offered her a seat. We both ordered cheeseburgers and talked about our lives I don't really know why, but talking to Diana just made me feel at home. I told her about growing before I went to camp half blood, living with smelly Gabe, getting kicked out of school after school, then finally going to camp (leaving out the mythological stuff because I didn't want her to think I was crazy), going on trips around the country and even my 'vacation' as I called it to Italy and Greece. And she told me about her life, she had a way to overprotective father who lost his temper often and her mother who always took her hunting while she was little.

Diana also had a twin brother who although was younger than her told everyone he was older, the guy also loved to sing and write poetry both of which he had absolutely no skill or talent with. 'Sounds like Apollo' I thought we finished dinner and I paid but not after having a small argument with her in which I convinced her to let me pay for her. As we walked out she said "Why did you want to pay for me so bad?" I looked at her to see if she was joking and if she was she had a perfect poker face because she seem completely serious "Well there's a few reasons people will give but for me it mostly breaks down to one. It's a sign that the guy has respect for the girl and one of the most important thing my mother taught me was to always respect girls." I said as we walked down the street

"Oh" she said with a smile on her face. We past one of those small town movie theaters that only have one or two movies "so what time do you need to be home" I asked " she shrugged "around ten" I looked at my watch and it said 7:30 "You wanna catch a movie?" I asked nodding towards the theater.

"Sure its been like a hundred years since I've been to the movies." Diana said I stopped and looked at her "Just kidding" she said noticing the look on my face "didn't think you'd take it so seriously, but it has been awhile since I've been to one."

Artemis POV

'Whoa that was to close.'I thought to myself 'A hundred years since I've been to the movies I might as well have had a sign that said goddess in disguise right here!'thankfully he accepted that it was an attempt at a joke and let it go. The theater was having a classic horror film special so we decided to see an old zombie movie.

Percy again paid for me and to be honest I wasn't sure whether I should be happy or mad because I felt like I was just leach living of him and yes I remember that it was meant as a sign of respect but I was used to being an independent girl who didn't need help from anyone. As we watched the movie which I didn't really think was that scary I thought about an unforeseen problem that I realized during dinner, I couldn't use anything I already knew about Percy since I was pretending that we just met today and it was killing me.

On the other hand he told me things about his life that I don't know if he would have told me as Artemis such as how hard he tried to deal his old step father so that his mother would be left alone right up until the day he realized he had been hitting her. 'after I get back I'm going to find this guy and give him a piece of my mind'I thought. She heard someone take a deep breath and looked down to see a girl holding her boyfriends arm and leaning against his shoulder then I got an idea, the next time a zombie came out of nowhere I grabbed Percy's arm like my life depended on it, I could feel him turn his head to see what I was doing but he didn't say anything. Instead he just pulled his arm out of my grip making me sad at first but then he put it around my shoulder and let me lean against his chest'thank goodness this place has no arm rests'I thought.

After the movie Percy walked my home with his arm still around her. Well he didn't really walk me home because that would be to my palace on Olympus, he walked me to a house that Aphrodite had and I was pretending that was my home"Thanks for the fun night Percy."I said

"No problem." he said "To be honest its been a rough couple of months and I enjoyed this more than I thought I would."

"Well call me."I said sticking a piece of paper with my phone number in his hand one that had been set up by Hephaestus to go straight to a telepathic link to me so I didn't really need to talk and giving him a peck on the cheek and walked inside.

As soon as I closed the door Aphrodite started bombarding me with questions but the only one I replied to was'how was the date' to which I said"perfect"as I slide down the door with a smile on my face. Aphrodite saw that was all she was going to get out of my for now so she just flashed me home to my bed"Still had you back by ten."Aphrodite said to herself but I heard and it made me smile again before going to sleep.