Chapter 2: Love and War

(Percy)

"So,... you ready for some monster hunting?" I asked Artemis who was standing beside me in her hunting outfit in the middle of a dense forest.

"Yup. Now, what's the competition?"

"Most number of kills within an hour. The loser has to hunt and then cook a feast!" I yelled dramatically.

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Can it, Seaweed Brain. You're gonna alert the monsters."

"Did you just call me Seaweed Brain?"

Artemis' lips curled into a small smirk, "Yes."

My eyes narrowed, "Arty."

"Kelp Head."

"Moonbeam."

"Flame Boy."

"Moony."

"Kelp Face."

"..."

"..."

"Soo, got any more?"

We burst out laughing and continued for a few minutes. Our laughter subsided and we stood up straight.

"Now, let's get this show on the road." Artemis ran off in the forest.

Meanwhile, I started jumping off trees, looking for a kill. I found several hellhounds dispersed with Empousai as well.

I was about to call it quits when a loud roar cut through the forest. It was coming from the other edge of the forest. I ran as fast as I called and what I saw scared me.

Artemis was fighting two Aethiopian Drakons, alone. And losing badly. I summoned Dracarys and fired a flaming arrow straight into the eyes of the one that was about to lash out at Artemis.

The Drakon roared in pain while Artemis looked at me with gratitude. I rotated the dial on my watch to summon Light. I then charged the Drakon I had shot in the eye.

It spat green poison towards me which I dodged by lunging towards the right. I then stabbed it in the side which made it cry out in pain. It made a lunge at me trying to sever me in half.

Well, let me tell you it did not end well for him.

I panicked and what happened next, shocked me. I turned into a wolf. A freaking wolf. And man, was I handsome. I turned into a fifteen-feet wolf. I looked down and realised that I had midnight black fur, almost like my hair.

I locked eyes with the Drakon and then lunged. I clamped down on its neck and tore his head off, turning it into golden dust.

I looked at Artemis, and she was on the ground, injured. I got up and charged at the other Drakon. I hit the Drakon with my head, sending it sprawling.

I then lunged at it trying to bite it. It responded in kind, by trying to poison and bite me. Not so easy for it.

I lunged and bit its body and tore off a piece of its flesh, which miraculously seemed to incapacitate it. In its moment of incapacitation, I bit its head off, turning it into golden dust.

I looked at Arty and saw she was injured. Very badly. A bone was sticking out of her leg at very wrong angles. She was bleeding from cuts and she was going to lose consciousness.

I changed form and knelt beside her. I touched her shoulders and willed the power of the hearth to heal her major injuries.

Slowly her cuts closed up and her one went back in position. By this time, Artemis was unconscious. I summoned some ambrosia and tried to feed it to her but her body kept rejecting it.

I let out an exasperated sigh and steeled my nerves for what I was about to do.

I crushed the ambrosia into a fine liquid and… used my powers over liquids to push it in.

After a few minutes of waiting, Arty regained consciousness. It was almost midnight by the time she woke up.

"Well, Sleeping Beauty finally awakes."

Artemis blushed with embarrassment, then she composed herself, "Those Drakons ruined everything."

"Not to worry, my lady. We will have a feast, below the stars."

Artemis looked at me with a questioning look.

I clapped my hands and in front of me appeared some wine. It was created by some demigod of Zeus. Along with that, there were some plates of salad, cooked venison and other meats and for dessert, we had some cake.

We sat down on the grass and dug in. After the meal, we laid down and looked at the stars and started talking, till we reached the topic of our love life.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

Artemis looked at me with an amused smile.

"What?"

"You're not very bright, are you?"

"Hey! What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I lived on Delos with my brother until we came here."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Hmmm." Internally, I was so happy. I couldn't explain why but I was jumping with joy.

"Do you?"

"Hm?"

"A girlfriend? Do you have a girlfriend?"

(Artemis)

"Nah. Although there is one who keeps coming after me, even after outright rejection."

I felt an unfamiliar and unpleasant feeling when he mentioned the woman but I just pushed it down.

After that conversation, we just lay there looking at the stars in comfortable silence.

I don't know when and how, but somehow, we were laying so close to each other that our hands were slightly grazing the others. On pure instinct, I tentatively intertwined my fingers with his. When he did not make any reaction to break free, a small smile graced my lips.

Somewhere deep down, I knew that this was the start of something. Something that would stretch for ages.

5 Years Later

Garden of Hesperides

(Percy)

"You got to tell her, man." My best friend, Matt, told me for the umpteenth time. Matt, like me, was a son of Poseidon, albeit a demigod. Thus, he had the typical traits of us, sons of Poseidon. Raven-black hair, sea-green eyes and devilishly good-looking faces. He was about 18-years-old, much like the form I had grown accustomed to.

"Come on, man. You got to go for it." Another one of my best friends, and Matt's twin brother, Alex urged me. As you can guess, he was another son of Poseidon. Dad sent me to fetch them from their abusive step-father. From then on, we had become best friends. Both of them had sworn their loyalty to me and thus, they had been granted partial immortality. They were like my personal bodyguards. They wore dark red clothes with a tint of sea-green, representing my parents. As I had blessed them, they could turn into wolves and their hydrokinesis and cryokinesis had improved tons.

"I will not tell her anything. For all I know, she doesn't feel the same way."

"That's bullshit. She's head over heels for you. You can see it in her eyes."

I scoffed, "Shut up. We're reaching the place, so try to keep your trap shut."

We all successfully traversed through the Garden of Hesperides and saw our destination. On a bench, were sitting three girls, conversing about who knows what.

One of the girls had ginger hair and blood-red eyes. This was Phoebe, daughter of Ares. The other girl had luscious black hair and volcanic black eyes. This was Zoe Nightshade, daughter of Atlas. The girl in the middle was the one I was hopelessly in love with. She had long auburn hair that reached her waist with a few bangs covering her forehead. She had silver eyes like the moon. This was Artemis. The girls on either side of her wore silver clothes, signifying their friendship and honouring their patron.

We greeted them and sat down and began talking about nothing and everything. Suddenly, a look passed between Artemis and my best friend, which went unnoticed by Artemis. This was not going to be good.

"Artemis, we need to talk to Percy, and these guys need to talk to you, so, could you just go to the other corner of the garden?" Zoe asked Artemis.

Artemis looked scrutinizingly at the two mentioned pairs,... then shrugged. She was led away by my best friends.

"I'm already telling you, I am not opening my mouth unless I know Artemis reciprocates my feelings." I raised my hands in surrender before they could speak.

"You both are huge idiots. Artemis is in love with you, Percy." Phoebe hissed.

"How do you know?"

"Because she told us." Zoe crossed her arms and replied bluntly.

"You sure?"

"100 per cent." Both of them said at the same time.

"If it gets all four of you off my back, I'll do it."

Zoe and Phoebe grinned.

We waited for Artemis to return. When she returned, I could swear I saw a blush on her face. We talked for a few minutes before standing up, ready for our weekly explorations of the Greek World. But before we could depart, a huge thunderbolt cracked through the sky.

Both Artemis and I let out an annoyed sigh. An Olympian Council meeting had been called. Our friends understood and we agreed that next week, for sure. Arty and I flashed to the throne room, hoping to be done with the meeting as soon as possible.

Boy, were we wrong.

Mount Olympus

(Third)

Percy and Artemis arrived in the throne room and grew to their godly heights of thirty feet and sat on their thrones. All the gods arrived one after the other.

Ares and Aphrodite appeared together, with their hair slightly messy. Let's leave what they were doing alone. Hephaestus had a stoic expression and carried out his work on his throne. Hermes was talking to his snakes with an annoyed expression. Poseidon and Athena appeared together, which was slightly suspicious to Percy. Hestia appeared in a flash of fire, with a smile on her face as always. Apollo appeared with an annoyed expression. He was obviously after some mortal. Demeter had been sitting on her throne much before Artemis and Percy. The last to arrive were the king and queen. A bolt of lightning struck their thrones and a clap of thunder announced their arrival.

"Zeus, the god of theatre has arrived," Percy muttered. This was heard by Ares and Apollo who snickered.

"WHO CALLED THIS MEETING?" Zeus asked in a loud voice.

Muttering broke out among the Olympians, as they realised none of them had called for the meeting.

A huge rumbling alerted all the Olympians. A gravelly voice began speaking.

"Olympians, your time is up. The Gigantes have risen. We will take you down. After you have been destroyed, I, Poryphiron, King of the Gigantes, will rule Olympus with Hera as my wife." The voice laughed, "We challenge you on the base of Olympus right now." The voice receded from Olympus.

As soon as that happened, all Olympians were covered in battle armour.

Athena spoke up, "We have to create a battle plan. It was prophesied that the Gigantes can be defeated with the help of a demigod. So, we need the help of any demigods that are alive."

Percy spoke up next, "That means, we'll need the assistance of Matt, Alex, Phoebe, Heracles and Dionysus."

Athena nodded and the demigods were called to Olympus. The situation was explained to them.

"First, we need to take out the Gigantes meant for us Olympians. The other minor Gigantes will be taken down easily." Athena told the Council.

"That means," Artemis began, " We need to first scour the Gigantes on the battlefield."

We waited for a few minutes when the information arrived, via a quick scouring by the hands of Apollo.

"So, for us Olympians, the Gigantes on the field are, Poryphiron, Polybotes, Alcyoneus, Leon, Gration, Hippolytus, Enceladus, Periboia, Thoon, Mimas and Clytius."

Athena began, "All Gigantes will die when fatally hit with the attacks of both the god and demigod. Except for Alcyoneus and Clytius. Alcyoneus can only be killed when taken out of his homeland. Clytius has to die at the hands of fire."

"But he was born in Greece!" Hermes wailed.

"Very true. But Alcyoneus can be killed here." Athena pointed at the map at a place that was about 136 kilometres from Mount Olympus, "Apollo can incapacitate him using one of his silly plague arrows, then one of our heroes, preferably Heracles can drag him across the mainland. While, Perseus, as our resident fire-user along with Hestia and Hephaestus can take on Clytius."

"Do you think it will work?" Percy asked.

"It's a 75-25 chance."

"Those are good odds. Now, Olympians, WE GO TO WAR!" Zeus bellowed.

Base Of Olympus

(Third)

The Olympians arrived in brilliant flashes of light. Hestia and Hera chose to remain on Olympus, while the others went to battle.

The reaction from the Gigantes was almost instantaneous. They stood up, ready for war.

Apollo engaged Alcyoneus, while Artemis battled Gration. Ares took on Gration, Poseidon and Zeus charged at their own banes. Aphrodite took on her, as she said, ugly bane, Hermes took on Hippolytus, Demeter charged Thoon with her scythe, Athena took on Enceladus, Hephaestus took on Mimas with his hammer and Perseus took on Clytius.

Matt charged Enceladus along with Athena, Alex went ahead to help his father, Heracles went towards Apollo, Dionysus helped his father and Phoebe charged Gration along with her father.

Percy brought out Storm and Shadow and slashed at Clytius. Clytius blocked the strike with his sword and pushed back. Percy slashed at Clytius's neck with Storm, which Clytius blocked just as he planned. Percy then slashed at CLytius's leg with Shadow which was pushed back with an invisible force.

Clytius laughed, "I am the bane of Hecate, godling. I can use and destroy magic. Besides, only fire can kill me. I cannot see either Hecate or Hestia here. How do you plan to kill me?"

Perseus smirked, "Perhaps, you don't know who I am. The name's Perseus, son of Hestia."

Clytius's eyes widened as he heard the introduction. Percy took this opening and launched a huge fireball at Clytius. He was hit straight in the chest, which was singed, after the impact. Clytius roared in pain. Percy dashed forwards and stabbed his swords in the thighs of the giant, rendering him immobile. Then I created the biggest fireball ever.

"Congratulations, ya burnt." I then launched the fireball at the gaping giant who burst into golden dust. I dusted myself and looked at the battlefield. Aphrodite was playing with Periboia, Hermes had an intense clash with Hippolytus. Athena was standing against her spear, looking at the battle, which meant that Enceladus was dead meat. Ares was gaining the upper hand against Gration. The others were the same, thus, I didn't have to help the others much. The busiest were the demigods. They were being called by all the gods to assist in the killing.

The battle raged on for a few hours. Athena and I called upon Matt and took out the other giants. It was easy, considering that we had just taken out the giants meant for the Olympus.

Slowly, the battle died down and the last blow was struck by Zeus and Dionysus, who killed Poryphiron, the king of Giants.

After the battle was over, Hermes shouted, "Let's party!" The minor gods cheered along with the other male gods, except Perseus who frankly hated Olympian parties.

For the rewards, Heracles was given new weapons, as well as Phoebe, Matt and Alex. Dionysus, however, as a reward for striking down Poryphiron was awarded, not only immortality but a place on the Olympian Council as well. The Council now had 14 seats. Heracles was not awarded immortality because Hera still hated him and he still had his labours to do.

The party was in full swing when Percy decided to sneak out. He was about to do so when he was caught by Hermes and Apollo. They had a plan that would get Percy to lose his virginity. While Hermes talked to Percy, Apollo snuck up to Aphrodite.

"Hey, Aphrodite," Aphrodite turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "I need your strongest lust potion. No questions asked, remember that favour." Apollo added the last part as Aphrodite opened her mouth to question him. Aphrodite grumbled under her breath but summoned a potion out of thin air. She gave it to Apollo and went back to what she was doing (cough *seducing others* cough).

Apollo walked to the bar and slipped the potion in a glass of the new stuff, wine as it was called. Percy liked it as he remembered. He got three glasses and walked to Hermes and Percy.

"Here Perce. Have a drink." Percy thanked him and took the glass. Before he could drink it, he saw Artemis sneaking out.

Percy smirked and turned to Hermes and Apollo, "Well, it was nice talking to you. Now, I have someplace to be." Percy departed and followed Artemis into her garden.

He saw Artemis sit down on a bench and gaze at the stars.

Percy slid on the bench beside her, "Beautiful night, isn't it?"

Artemis whipped her head around with her hand on her knife. She relaxed when she saw who it was, "Don't do that again."

Percy smiled cheekily, "Of course, milady."

Artemis's gaze flitted to the untouched wine glass in his hands, "May I?"

Percy shrugged. It was quite common for both of them to share a glass of a drink in their friendship.

Artemis took a sip of the drink. Tastes funny, she thought but she shrugged it off. Percy took back the glass and took a sip of the drink. Percy shifted a bit as he felt a foreign emotion in his body. They sat there for quite a while, when Artemis spoke up, "Walk back to my palace?"

Percy smiled, "Sure."

They walked back to Artemis's palace in silence, their hands grazing each other. Finally, they reached their destination.

Artemis turned back to say goodbye, but when she looked into Percy's eyes something snapped.

Next thing they know, they are kissing each other. They began a battle of tongues and went inside Artemis's palace and Percy kicked the door to close it.

They entered her room and the next thing you know, clothes were flying everywhere.

Let's leave it at that.

Next Morning

(Percy)

I slowly opened my eyes and adjusted to the brightness. The first thing I noticed was that I was very naked. The other thing I noticed was a mess of auburn hair sprawled over my chest. Ok, something really bad happened last night.

I don't remember much, but the last thing I clearly remember was walking with Artemis to her palace. I looked around the room and noticed that everything was silver.

It was silver. Oh crap. I just had sex with Artemis. There goes any chance I had with her.

While I was mentally panicking, Artemis began to awake. I froze. Artemis slowly got up and our eyes met.

Artemis screamed and pushed me out of bed, which exposed me, big time. I could see Artemis's eyes wandering but she steeled herself and looked at me with anger flashing in her eyes. She then snapped her fingers, covering herself and me with clothes.

Artemis shrieked, "You took advantage of me! My best friend took advantage of me?"

I grew angry as well. I didn't take lightly to being accused of such horrendous actions, "Artemis, I swear on the River Styx that I had nothing to do with what happened last night."

Thunder boomed in the distance. Artemis waited for me to be struck down but nothing happened. Artemis softened her gaze and I saw a slight blush on her cheeks.

"I-I'm sorry, Percy. I was just angry when I saw you in my bed. Plus, both of us were naked and you know how I hate men who take advantage of women. Besides…" Artemis didn't continue as she decided to shut her mouth.

I, however, was curious, "Besides what?"

Artemis's face now resembled a tomato, "If I were, to be honest, I've fallen for you Percy. Ever since the day we met, I felt something for you, and, over the years I've fallen in love with you."

As I heard her words, I slowly grinned. I was practically giddy.

"What are you grinning at?"

I shrugged nonchalantly, "Oh, nothing. Just that the person who I love with all my heart confessed her love to me."

Artemis's eyes widened and then she grinned. She practically threw herself at me and gave me a soft kiss on my lips. She then pulled apart, with a serious expression.

"Percy, I need you to promise me that you will never cheat on me."

I kissed her again, "I promise."

Those two words did everything. Those two words completed the parts of us we were missing and were in desperate need of.

Author's Notes

So, there you are with the beginnings of Pertemis. Hope you enjoyed it. Now, I have some things to ask all of you.

First, in the next chapter, you will see Percy and Artemis form their respective group of hunters, after 'the incident'. So, I need all of you to leave suggestions in the reviews section, of the places in history where the different groups would collaborate with each other. I have one in my mind. I need at least three more. So, please give me suggestions.

Second, leave your suggestions for general novels and PJO fanfiction I can read because staying in your house gets very boring. I don't know all of the stories and if you have encountered some good ones, feel free to leave their names in the reviews section.

Also, a change has been made to the last chapter. Percy has been granted the domain of the hearth as well.

Don't forget to hit the favourite and follow button. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Published: 27 April 2020

MasterChaos1