Cabin Three
A Heroes of Olympus fanfic by Aisling Yinyr Ngaio
Pairing: Percy x Annabeth

He could feel it again. Someone was entering his cabin. Someone who was no child of his, and thus shouldn't be here. Entering willfully, in the middle of the night, into the empty cabin, and laying on the bed that should be his son's.

Percy…

He knew who she was, just as he'd known how she had furtively slipped in every night for the past week now, snuggling into his son's sheets, looking at the various keepsakes Percy had left behind, and, occasionally, sobbing quietly into his pillow before falling into a restless sleep, dreaming of their time together.

Would that he had the same choice. But as a god, Poseidon did not sleep. As gods, their gift, and their curse, was that they could never truly rest; there was always daylight somewhere where his influence stretched, even as America slept, and therefore, the troubles and disputes in his kingdom never truly stopped. Even as he wanted to mourn together with the girl on the disappearance of his favourite child, he forced himself to stay on his throne, coolly detached, mediating between yet another pointless argument between Pacific and Atlantic, and listened with half an ear the prayers from the people around the world who still believed in the Olympians, all while wishing that just once, he could return to the mortal world once again, to be where he wanted to be most.

Too bad his position with Zeus had already been fragile at best from five millennia of quarreling. He highly doubted that helping save Olympus four months ago allowed him enough leniency to break one of Zeus' intractable orders, the silly one about closing themselves off from their children, even just once.

Gods weren't supposed to show favours after all, especially not to their own children, what more towards a child of their rival. Still...

In the morning, she would rise before Apollo arrived, he knew. She would sink in disappointment that Percy had still not returned, that this wasn't just a horrible dream she could wake up from, and stare at the ceiling hippocampi decorations (or perhaps it was Olympus she always glared at?) for some moments. Then she would rise reluctantly, make Percy's bed lovingly, and just as quietly as she came, she would leave his cabin to return to her mother's on the other side of the campfire before any of her siblings awoke, and pretended that Percy's disappearance was affecting her less than she really felt so that the rest of the camp would share in her morale and keep on searching, despite the interference of his meddlesome sister.

But in the dead of night, when the girl entered his cabin, when her defences lowered where no one could hear her cry, he would allow this intrusion, give her rest, watch over her and protect her for the love they both bore his son. He would send an ocean breeze to the daughter of Athena every night to help comfort her, and whisper encouragingly into her ear, "He will return to us."

- Finis -