AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone! I'm back!
A few warnings before the story itself starts:
- I wrote this after reading Poker Scars, by bluelightningbug (you should check out that story, it's really good). If you see some similarities, that's why. Because even if I do try my best to make it different and original, it will always have some similarities.
- This is rated T BUT there will be mentions of child abuse. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
- This is a One-Shot. There will be no continuation to this story.
- Last but not least, all rights belong to Rick Riordan; and, again, a huge shout out to bluelightningbug form whom I drew my inspiration for this one.

It was a year after the Giant War was over. Both Camps were gathering to celebrate the defeat of Gaia. Each year they would alternate between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood. This year was Camp Half-Blood's turn. Next year would be Camp Jupiter's.

The Seven of the Great Prophecy had made arrangements to spend the day hanging out with each other and some of their oldest friends. Jason had invited Reyna; Annabeth invited Thalia; Leo obviously brought Calypso along; Percy invited his best friend Grover and the last brought his girlfriend Juniper along; Frank invited his half-sister Clarisse who brought her boyfriend Chris; Hazel invited her brother Nico and Will tagged along with his boyfriend; Piper incited one of her best friends from Camp, Katie, and the Stoll Brothers somehow managed to sneak themselves in.

They were all hanging out at the beach. Despite Percy's assurance that his father wouldn't hurt them, both the descendants of Hades/ Pluto and Zeus/ Jupiter were reluctant to get in the water and have fun.
The girls had all come together and made a picnic basket so they wouldn't have to be bothered until dinner.

After a morning of running around in the sand, the crew was all exhausted and made quick work of all the food in the basket – even though Grover seemed more interested in the aluminum cans, which contained their beverages, and in the napkins.

After a big lunch, they all just sat there enjoying each other's company and taking sun baths.

They were all so distracted that when Connor asked if they knew here was a Poker table in the Big House, Annabeth and Percy jumped a couple inches into the air, poor Frank turned himself into a lizard, a diamond popped up next to Hazel, Leo ignited his nose one fire and some (*cough* *cough* Clarisse *cough* *cough*) even pulled out their weapons.

After negatively answering to Connor's sudden question (which earned him a slap to the back of the head from Katie), they sat quietly for a couple more seconds until Travis came up with an ingenious idea:
- We should totally play a couple rounds of Poker.

Most of them were so excited with the idea that only Calypso noticed when the features of four people became dark; those four people being Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Juniper.

When they all turned to ask them what their answers were, they saw their dark semblances. But the most intimidating was Percy's: his eyes were dark, swirling with whirlwinds of power; his hands were clenched into fists; but most importantly, pure anger was all his features showed, so strong they could practically fell it radiating form him in crushing waves.

Looking at him, Thalia and Nico gained a look on their face that said they had just remembered something incredibly important and their features instantly became sad and sorrowful.

Briskly getting up, Percy said in a cold tone:
-I don't do Poker.
Having said that, he stormed away in the direction of the Amphitheatre.
Annabeth got up, glared at them with such ferocity that even the scariest of monsters would've flinched, and ran after her boyfriend.

Most of the group – bar Thalia, Nico, Grover and Juniper – was dumbfounded at his reaction.
-Was it something I said? – asked Travis.
Grover gave a melancholic bleat.
-It's not your fault… not really at least. You couldn't have known. – assured him the satyr – It's just that Percy doesn't … really like Poker. He… hates it, one could say. With a passion.
-Why does he hate Poker? – inquires Chris – It's a great game!
The Lord of the Wild let out a sigh at this point and Juniper answered for him:
-It's not our secret to tell. We can just say his first stepfather was addicted to the game. But no more will you hear from us.

The group was silent for a few moments. Everyone was thinking what could've happened between the two to cause such a reaction from the jovial Son of the Sea they all knew and loved.
Gathering her courage, Calypso asked:
-Does it have something to do with his scars?
Thalia gave her an incredulous look and questioned her:
-How do you know about those?
-When he fell in Ogygia, I nursed him back to health and noticed them.
-Wait, wait, wait… Go back a second. – interrupted Clarisse – Percy was in Ogygia?! And what about the scars? Every demigod has some.

Nico answered in Calypso's turn:
- Percy was sent to Ogygia after he blew up Mount Saint Helen. As for the scars, that's a different story.
-Because he is the Son of Poseidon, Percy can heal almost any wound if he gets in the water fast enough and stays there long enough. – continued Thalia. In a lower voice, she added more to herself than anything else – I was always a little jealous of that. – back to normal – Because of that power, any injurie he suffers can hardly leave a scar. But, there are exceptions. For example, if the weapon is poisoned, or it was searing hot, or even if the wound was cauterized first, with alcohol for example…
-But then… how did he get those scars if it wasn't fighting monsters? – asked Jason – It surely wasn't in the mortal world… Percy had the best life in there out of all of us.

A cold laugh was heard. The demigods were surprised to see it came from a young girl dressed in brown robes, with fiery orange eyes and warm light brown hair. Hestia, the Goddess of Hope and the Hearth.
The demigods bowed their heads in acknowledgement.
-Lady Hestia. – greeted Will – How long have you been here?
-Long enough. Tell me, young heroes… Of everyone in here at this moment, who do you think had the hardest life out in the mortal world?

The group was silent for a moment. Reyna was the one who answered:
-I'd say it was Thalia, Lady Vesta. And Hazel too.
Thalia sighed and, turning to Reyna, said:
-If only Percy had a life as mine out in the mortal world… Trust me when I say this, Reyna: my life beyond these borders was a walk in the park compared to Percy's.

Everyone was shocked by this. Thalia had had a rough life out there.
If that was just a walk in the park… What in Hades had Percy been through.

After that, they decided to never mention Poker again in front of Percy.
After a while, the Sea Prince himself came back with Annabeth, as if nothing had happened.
_

Percy headed towards the Amphitheatre. There he sat in front of the Campfire, enjoying its warmth, trying to push back the memories. A couple seconds later, Annabeth sat by his side and hugged him. He hugged her back fiercely.

They just stat her for a few minutes. Percy felt a hand in his shoulder and lifted his head from Annabeth's neck crock to see Lady Hestia, giving him an encouraging smile that filled Percy with hope.

He gave her a nod of appreciation and relaxed a little.
-Of all the games in the world, it had to be Poker… – he said.
-It's okay now, Percy. He's long gone.
-I know, Annabeth. It's just… the memories are still there. The pain is still there. The scars are still there…
-And they'll always be, Percy. But I've got your back now. He won't hurt you again. No one will hurt you again. Only over my dead body.
-Thanks, Wise Girl. I'm lucky to have you.
Annabeth gave him a soft kiss on the lips.
-Yes, you are. But I'm even more lucky to have you.

They sat, holding hands, for a few more moments before getting up and going back to their friends like nothing had ever happened.

A week later, the group – minus Grover (who had his duties to attend to) and Juniper – was at the base of Half-Blood hill, climbing to the top, when they heard a scream and saw a little girl, no older than seven, stumbling through the barrier.

Immediately they ran to the top and Percy caught the little girl.
She flinched when he touched her and got away. Percy didn't fail to notice this. Now that they were up close, they could see she had bruises on her arms and face, as well as a swollen eye. They could also see a man, a mortal man, pounding at the barrier, screaming to give her back to them.

Percy moved a little closer to the girl, but not much. Raising his hand a little bit, he asked her if she was okay, but she was sobbing uncontrollably and looking at his raised hand.
Percy also noticed this and, connecting the dots, he gasped:
-Oh Gods, please no…

Percy put down his hand, his eyes growing dark, and asked the little girl:
-Did he hit you?
She simply nodded, giving him confirmation.

If possible, Percy's eyes grew darker. Th the girl, he said in the kindest tone:
-Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back. It's okay now, you're safe. He'll never hurt you again, I promise.

Having said that, Percy walked out of the barrier and, with no warning, started to beat the man senseless. The others made a move to stop him but were prevented from doing so by Annabeth, Thalia and Nico.

Punch, kick, elbow, knee…
No long after, the man was bleeding and nearly unconscious. Percy grabbed him by the neck and whispered something in his ear.
After which, Percy dropped him on the ground and kicked him in the head, rendering the mortal unconscious.

Percy made a move to approach the little girl but, once again, she went back a couple of steps.
-Hey, it's okay, I won't hurt you. No one ever will. Not anymore. – assure Percy.
The little girl had black hair like raven feathers and, when she looked at him, Percy could see her brown eyes like tree bark.
-H-how do I know I can tr-trust you? – she asked, stumbling over her words.
Percy gave her a sympathetic look.
-Because I know how you feel. I know it all too well.
-And how do I feel?

Percy sighed, and his eyes gained a faraway look, like he was reliving some memories.
-You fell many things. But there are four that you fell most of the times: pain, sadness, anger and shame. You feel painful; everything hurts at all times, and even just breathing pains you. You feel sad; sad because you don't know why he hits you when you've done nothing wrong or anything at all to deserve the punishment. You feel angry; angry at him for beating you, and angry at yourself because you can do nothing about it. And you feel shameful; shameful because you can only think on how to end it one way or another, because you did nothing to prevent it, because you couldn't step up to him, and even because sometimes you think that maybe you deserved it, even if you didn't… especially when you didn't.

The little girl was astonished that he knew exactly how she felt. Percy came closer to her and she allowed him to hug her. She felt warm in his arms, like she belonged here. This is what she had always wanted, a big brother to help her and protect her.
-I'm Blake. Blake Harvison.
-I'm Percy, Percy Jackson.
Blake was softly crying while hugging Percy and he made soft circles on her back with his hand. After she was calmer, she asked him, oblivious to all the demigods surrounding them:
-How could you know how I felt?

The group of demigods listening to the conversation had seen many things, and most of them involved Percy. At all times he was jovial, always smiling, carefree and just generally happy. So, when they heard his next words, almost all of them were shocked beyond belief.
-Because, my stepfather used to beat me too.

And all of a sudden, it all made sense; Percy's hate of Poker, the scars he had that weren't from monster fighting. It all clicked.
_

Later that night, little Blake was claimed as a daughter of Morpheus.

The group was all under Thalia's tree, enjoying the nightly air and watching the stars. Piper, after a little bit of silence, asked:
-Hey, Percy… Why didn't you tell us?
Percy sighed and answered:
-It's all in the past now. Gabe is long gone form my life. Paul is a decent guy and he truly loves my mom and treats both of us very nicely. Grover knew because he's my best friend and he would obviously tell Juniper. Annabeth is my girlfriend and one of my best friend before that, along with Grover. Thalia and Nico were the brother and sister I always wanted but never had. On top of that, they too had had terrible lives. What difference would it have made if more people knew?

They sat quietly for a couple more moments, before Hazel asked:
-For how long?
Percy gave another sigh.
-My mom married Gabe Ugliano a little bit after I was four. The beatings started probably one or two months after that. They lasted until he was turned into a statue, courtesy of Medusa's head.

Once more the group was flabbergasted. Who knew that happy-go-lucky Percy Jackson had been through so much. They finally understood Thalia's comparison; her mom gave her an occasional slap and generally ignored her, but never had she abused her to such level.

But they knew Percy wouldn't want their pity. Perseus Jackson was what he was because of his past. It shaped him into a great hero and an even better man.

It was then that they first saw how truly strong the Son of Poseidon was.