Disclaimer: Can I just say, I am not Rick Riordan. I don't think a story by Rick Riordan would be on a FanFiction website, would it?

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EPILOGUE

XI

I ran up Half-Blood Hill, the distance easy after three weeks of training every day. And at that moment, I didn't care about anything except the person holding their arms open at the top of the hill. I threw myself into her arms. "Mom! You finally came!

She hugged me tight, patting my back. I smiled into her golden-blonde hair and held on tighter. Then, Inca released me and held me at arms' length. "Oh, you've grown so much in three weeks, Yvette!" I shrugged. "Did I now?"

She smiled. "Still the same, I see. And your sense of fashion hasn't changed." Her eyes wandered to the front of my lime-green tee, which read: SARCASM: Because beating the crap out of people is illegal.

"But your bow," she said, taking in the length of wood slung across my shoulder. "Yeah," I said, swinging it off and showing her the wave pattern carved into it. "Longbows exercise your muscles more." She nodded, her eyes taking in the whole of me truly for the first time. "Oh, you've come so far," she whispered. "I don't think I recognise you anymore."

"Hey, it's still me," I told her. "It's not like I got plastic surgery." She smiled and ruffled my hair, to which I responded with an annoyed grunt and over-emphasised efforts to straightened it again.

"Hey, Yvette!" I looked around and high-fived Percy, who was coming over the hill with Annabeth, Connor and some other of my good Hermes friends. "Mom, this is Percy, my sibling. Oh, and by the way, I found out my godly parent is Poseidon, earthshaker, stormbringer, god of the seas."

Inca nodded, her eyes roving about the company, taking in the armour, swords, bows and knives casually distributed over the group. "Nice to meet you," she told Percy. "I'm Inca Meyers."

"Percy Jackson," he said, smiling at her. I breathed an internal sigh of relief. "And this is Annabeth, daughter of Athena and Connor, son of Hermes." Connor bowed and lifted an imaginary hat. My mother smiled. "It's wonderful to meet you all! But, really, I need to talk to Chiron. Could you show me the way, honey?"

"Sure," I said. "You guys going to be okay without me watching your backs?"

Connor waved it off. "We're going to be fine. It's not like you're important."

I made a finger gun and squinted at him. "I am drawing an imaginary target on your face right now."

He laughed and winked at me, then ran off. I smiled and continued to chatter with my mother as we made our way to the porch.

Triton floated in front of the pearlescent, shimmering screen of mist undulating mere centimeters in front of his face. She is so… different. So different from him, and so similar to Percy Jackson, that boy.

He watched as the girl made a finger gun at the Hermes boy and laughed. The Hermes boy winked at her and turned tail as she and her mother continued up the hill...

Triton shook his head and swiped his hand violently through the mist, shredding it into thousands of magic sparkles that hung in the water around him for a while. He grunted and moodily reclined in his seaweed armchair, staring at the wall.

Why was he so obsessed with checking on his… He shook his head, disgusted. His siblings. He had no idea why he felt the compulsion to see whether they were still alive. That Percy was the most infuriating boy in the history of Olympus! Okay, so maybe Delphin had been more annoying when Poseidon tried to get him to play nursemaid for Triton, but Percy Jackson was a whole chapter by himself. Strike that, he was a whole book for himself. A library of books.

Triton sniffed when he remembered how the boy had shown up in the middle of the Titan War, drifting into the palace unconscious, and the great amount of time Poseidon had spent each day fussing over him. And then, the final offense. Triton's eyes hardened as he remembered swimming up against a wall, tilting his ear towards the door and hearing the reverberations of Poseidon's voice: "No matter...you...always...favorite son."

His favorite son. Triton's head was in the vice-like grip of his hands. What had that little runt ever done to prove himself? Triton had led Poseidon's troops into battle with nary a thought for his own safety, and then Percy somehow established a mental connection with his Lord, and they were all told to retreat and strike at a completely different location. Poseidon did not even punish him for sitting on his throne afterwards.

Then again, Triton thought reluctantly, Percy Jackson has gone through Tartarus and back. And he survived. Not even Triton could deny being worried - imagine him, worried! - about the little runt. While he didn't particularly like him, his anger was starting to fade.

What am I thinking? Triton shook his head. Percy Jackson should not have survived his trip through Tartarus, and yet he did. All the more reason to hate him. And yet, Triton found that he couldn't. He could not hate this boy, who, without doing anything, it seemed, had won his father's heart, and who had won the Titan War, the Giant War and the battle through Tartarus.

Triton angrily stood up, calling for his servants. He would go and spar for a while. All this sitting around provided much too much time to think.

But maybe, just maybe, the next time a child of Poseidon turned up on their doorstep, Triton wouldn't greet them with a sneer and a growl and a sarcastic comment.

He would greet them with a frown.

I smiled in the darkness of the tree. The moon was thin overhead, casting only a sparing glow into the forest. I was positioned as a border guard for the first time since coming to Camp Half-Blood. I had forgotten how peaceful and relaxing it was…

Below me, the grass swished. I rolled my eyes. You were saying, Yvette?

I took two arrows from the now extensive quiver hanging on the branch next to me and nocked one of them, placing the other in my lap. The bushes rustled and murmured as two figures stumbled into the moonlight, both wearing the blue helmets of the offending team.

"You have got to tell her!" Travis Stoll insisted, while his younger brother shook his head, no. "What if she laughs at me? What if I ruin our friendship?" I relaxed my hold on my bow slightly. This was interesting stuff. Stuff I can tease Connor about for months.

"Look," Travis said. "You know how Yvette told me to just tell Katie and kiss her? I tried it, and it worked!"

"I want proof," Connor argued. I frowned. He must be serious about this girl. For some reason, I felt an unexpected twinge in my gut. Was I… No.

Travis exploded. "Proof! Proof! Katie and I are a couple now! That proof enough for you?" He was getting dangerously close to the border. I decided to take him out.

Hasta la Vista, Travis, I thought and released the arrow. It struck Travis, who was in the middle of spreading his arms grandly, in the forehead and took him down in the less a second. Connor yelped and raised his sword. I looked at him and spontaneously decided to take him out with Moonlight.

"Hey," I said, dropping down from my perch, my sword in my right hand. "Surprise!" My best friend squealed like a little girl. I snickered.

"Oh, gods, it's you, Yvette," Connor sighed in relief. I swung at him, and he shrieked and scurried out of the way. "What was that for?"

"I'm on the other team, you vlacas. I need to take you out before you cross the border." I swung again, but Connor blocked. I tried to twist his blade so he might drop it. "So, who's that girl you're so worried about?"

Connor disentangled his blade from mine and took a step back. "You heard that?" For some reason, he sounded anxious.

I struck, he blocked. He dealt a blow, I guarded. "I heard all of it, except the mystery girl's name. And you better tell me," I warned, "or the story will be all over camp tomorrow."

He blanched and looked over at his brother, as if thinking. "Take all the time you need," I taunted. "At least, until in ten minutes, or I'll run out of here screaming: Connor has a girlfriend!"

Connor was sweating now, looking insecure. "I… I can't tell you."

"And why not?" I struck at the same time as he did and our swords crossed. A standoff in which only the strongest could persevere. I gritted my teeth and pushed downwards. Connor did the same. "I- I…"

He groaned and pushed harder. "It's a secret."

I was getting angry now. My best friend wouldn't trust me with his secret crush. Why? Wasn't I trustworthy enough? I pushed harder. "You better tell me."

He warded the pressure off, his breath started to stutter. "You said the best chat-up line is to just tell her…"

I was getting annoyed. "Just tell me! I'm your friend! I won't tell anybody, I swear! Aren't I trustworthy enough?"

He looked at me as the pressure increased on our blades. I was breathing hard. "Of course you're trustworthy enough. I just… Tell her, don't tell her… The best chat-up line is to tell her…"

I scoffed. "You know what? We're evenly matched. Somebody has to make the first move to get out of this standoff. Is it gonna be you or me?"

"Yvette…" He sounded almost desperate now. I ignored it. "I think I'll do it, okay?"

"Yvette."

I pulled out of the standoff and swung, but he struck at the same time, our blades crossing once again. "Oh, you are impossible!"

Yvette!"

"What?" I screamed.

Connor was close now, our blades crossing a few centimeters in front of our faces. He looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "You remember when you told Travis that the best chat-up line was to either kiss the girl or tell her?"

I nodded, my face immobile. Here it comes. I didn't know why, but I suddenly felt a protective urge to Connor. Whoever this girl was, I would make sure she never hurt my best friend.

"Well… I've been thinking a lot about that, and that's what Travis and I were arguing about, because I didn't want to kiss her because it might ruin our friendship." He looked at me, an emotion in his eyes that I couldn't read. "But now… Well, since we're standing here, I might as well tell you. The girl I like… It's… It's…"

Then, suddenly, he gently pushed the blades between our faces down and kissed me. I was so surprised, I couldn't move. It's me? ME! And I kissed him back, our blades falling to our sides as we moved closer.

Suddenly, the conch horn blew in the distance, signalling a win for one of the teams. Travis sat up groggily in the dirt. We broke apart.

He grinned. "Wassup?" He fell back again. I looked back at Connor. He looked awkwardly to the side. "So…?"

I smiled a pulled him into another kiss, short and sweet. For a moment, we just stood there, until I paddled back, brandishing his sword and pointing Moonlight at his throat. He stumbled back, taken off guard. I grinned. "I win."

Connor looked thoroughly confused now. "So, do you like me or don't you?"

I grinned and threw his sword back to him, sheathing Moonlight at my waist. "We, mister, are going to the fireworks together."

Connor smiled and together, we ran to wake up Travis.

"...and, as all heroes do, you must have a fatal flaw."

I looked at Annabeth like she was crazy. "I consider myself fairly not disfigured, thank you very much."

The daughter of Athena shook her head. "No, no. That is not what I meant. A fatal flaw… Every hero, every half-blood has one. Percy is too loyal to his friends, for example." I snorted "What's wrong with being loyal? You can't be too loyal. That isn't a thing."

Annabeth nodded. "You sound so much like Percy when he found out. But it is a thing. My mother once told him that he would sacrifice the world to save his friends. And I think he would still do so."

I shifted uncomfortably, because finding out somebody would rather let the world end than let his friends die? That is some serious mental stuff. I didn't want to be weighed down by this. Heck, it was the fireworks tomorrow, and I still had stuff to plan! "So… If every hero has one, what's yours?"

Annabeth looked around to the side, her face going pink. "I'd rather not say…."

"Come on," I urged her. "I won't tell anybody!"

For a moment, it seemed like she would give in, but then her face hardened. "No, I only share my fatal flaw with people whom I trust wholly. Also, we came to discuss your fatal flaw, not mine." I looked at her curiously, but refrained from saying something. Annabeth studied me like someone studies a science experiment, with detached curiosity. "So, what don't you like?"

"What do you mean, what don't I like?" I asked, puzzled.

"Anything. Anything that annoys you, that makes you angry," she replied, steepling her fingers. I had no idea how Percy liker her, but then, I hadn't been at Camp long.

"Bullies, Brussels sprouts, the color pink..." I answered, thinking hard. "Oh, yes, and failing."

"Failing?" Annabeth's grey eyes seemed to bore into mine.

"Yes," I replied carefully, "Failing. I don't like to be at the bottom of the class. I don't like going around and saying, I can't do this. It just… People would make fun of me. I have my dignity."

"Dignity…" Annabeth's gaze stared right through through me, into the distance, like she was thinking deep, Athena-like thoughts. "One might also call it pride."

"Uh, what?" I had no idea where she was going. "You lost me at 'One might'."

Annabeth stared at me, her face smooth and satisfied, as if I was a mathematical equation she had just solved. "You fatal flaw. It's pride."

"How do you… wait." I stared at the ground, thinking. Pride… The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fit. How I avoided doing things I wasn't good at… And how I always had a quick response handy… How I never went out without checking I was presentable… How I felt the need to be good at everything, to never let my weakness show, to be the one who came out on top.

I knew what my fatal flaw was. And Annabeth knew. I looked up and found her smiling at me. I smiled back. "My fatal flaw is pride. Got it. Now, can we get on with this? I have some stuff to prepare for the fireworks."

The cabins all mixed on the 4th of July. Picnic blankets were spread higgledy-piggledy over the beach, a sprawling mass of colour. I nervously tightened my hold on the basket of sweets I had sneaked from the dining pavillion. Tonight was the first time Connor and I would be seen in public together. So far, only Percy and Travis knew.

I perused the patchwork of blankets spread out on the beach. Suddenly, something moved behind me and I turned around, smiling. "Connor!"

"Hey," he said. "Come on, I'll show you where we're sitting." He pointed to a blue-and-yellow blanket at the upper right corner of the beach. I smiled. It was behind all of the others, and we would have a nice view. "You choose good spots."

He grinned. "And you choose nice shirts." I looked down, realizing a had on a dark blue tee with the words: I'm nice. Until you give me a reason not to be. I smiled at him. "Hey, are sassy shirts illegal? I would wear them anyway, but are they?"

Connor laughed and sat down, just as the first rocket sparked and screamed into the sky, exploding in a shower of blue sparks. Red and white quickly joined them and then came the pictures: Hercules (twelve times, doing various useless things); Apollo with a bow; Athena with an owl; Zeus with his lightning bolt; Hera wearing what looked like an explosion of peacock feathers and looking horrible (there was a lot of laughter at this one); Poseidon with a trident; and so on and so on.

There were, of course, hearts and arrows scattered throughout the display (it wasn't called the biggest dating event of the summer for nothing!) and the figure of Eros showed up frequently.

We also saw black outlines of various couples. Once, there was a blue-and-grey heart with two black figures, one with a sword and one with a knife. Percy and Annabeth, I thought, even though they laughed it off.

Then, there was a blue-and-pink one with two people flying through little heart-shaped clouds. The campers muttered and turned to a blanket where a girl with choppy brown hair and an ice-blond boy were sitting. The girl rolled her eyes and yelled: "The fireworks are more interesting than we are!"

She's right, I thought and looked back up in time to see a red-and-yellow heart with one figure holding a monkey wrench while the other was dressed in a Greek chiton in dazzling colors. I watched as a boy with curly black hair laughed and kissed his caramel-haired girlfriend, who glared at the stars.

Next, there was an orange-and-green heart with a figure holding a rose and one trying to steal it from her while they were kissing. Laughter penetrated the crowd and Connor whispered: "I requested that one explicitly for Travis. I thought he'd like it."

I giggled as Travis turned around and glared at us, Katie Gardener next to him. "I don't think they did."

"Oh, well," he shrugged. Then, his brow furrowed and her pointed up at the sky. "What is that?"

I looked up and gasped.

It was a blue-and-orange heart, with two figures standing there, swords crossed. One of them held a floating drop of water in her palm while the other was hiding a bomb behind his back as they kissed over their crossed swords.

I growled. "Connor… If this is supposed to be funny, guess what: It isn't." Connor growled right with me. "It wasn't me, but I can guess who it was…"

We both glared at Travis, who was laughing his ass off a few meters away from me. Connor growled again and started to sit up, but I put my hand on his arm. "We can always kill him later. Right now, we've got other problems…"

Connor looked down and saw the eyes of most of the population at Camp Half-Blood pointed at us. I shook my head. "No, it's not us! Carry on watching the fireworks!"

Muttering and rustling ensued, though none of them listened. I sighed. "Great. We'll be the topic of the evening now."

Connor sighed. "We might as well give them something to look at," he said, pulling me into a kiss. I smiled and kissed him back, before leaning away. "By the way, I hope you got me something."

"What?" He looked confused.

"It's our one-week anniversary," I told him. "Usually, couples give each other gifts." I held up my basket of goodies.

Connor blanched and started to stutter. "Um… well… I…"

I laughed. "Connor…"

"No," he protested. "I'm sorry! I didn't know!"

"Connor!"

"I really didn't, believe me, I've never had a relationship before."

"CONNOR!"

"What?" he asked. I rolled my eyes. "I was being sarcastic."

He turned red. "Oh." Then his eyes wandered to my basket. "Hey, where did you get those from?"

I cleared my throat. "Uh…"

He laughed. "Oh, don't tell me…"

"I didn't steal them! I… okay, I stole them," I admitted.

He smiled. "You, Yvette, are getting as bad as me."

I leaned against him and we kissed just as the grand finale exploded in the sky: A heart that burst into a million dazzling colors.

The end. No kidding. That was disgustingly mushy. I just realized how crappy the plot is. Oh well! Hope you liked it!

I don't have anything to say to you anymore, so bye!

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