Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. Additionally, I am not trans, so I deeply apologize if anyone is offended. Please feel free to leave a review or PM me if you feel I have misrepresented anything. I have trans friends and I am going off of what I know from them. However, I am aro/ace, and the experiences Thalia will describe are very similar to mine.

That being said, I will not tolerate any sort of transphobia in the reviews. Don't be an asshole, let people be people.

Also, I will not be updating any of my other stories. This is a one-shot I thought of and couldn't get out of my head. I focus on my original work and do not plan to return to fanfiction.

Persephone Jackson didn't like being called Persephone. Percy—a nickname from Sally Jackson, the best mother in the world—fit much better. Percy didn't like being referred to as "she" either.

He was male, no matter what his birth certificate said. Dysphoria had haunted his childhood, memories of childhood bullies calling him "gay" just because he dressed in boy's clothes.

It hurt. It still hurt when people slipped up, or when teachers called him by his dead name. A part of him knew it always would, but he tried to brush it off. Top surgery would fix everything, even the back pain from constantly wearing a binder, right?

But nestled in the corner of cabin three, everything was fine. Peachy.

He was a hero: successfully returning Zeus' Master Bolt and Hades' Helm of Darkness, recovering the Golden Fleece, and reviving Thalia Grace.

He would get through it, he told himself. Like all the other heroes.

When he first heard about what Camp Half Blood was, he hoped there were more people like him. Maybe there were trans kids and they hadn't told him. Not many people at camp knew about him, anyway.

He hadn't realized he was crying until tears were slipping off his face and onto his faded orange shirt. Weak, he thought, he was weak.

Percy just wished—

Someone knocked on the door.

He hastily brushed the tears from his eyes. "Who is it?" he called, attempting to keep the distress out of his voice. He wasn't sure if it worked.

"It's Thalia," she yelled through the door. "Annabeth wants to go over strategies and we're waiting on you."

Ah yes, the capture the flag game. It was Athena versus Ares again, Athena having Poseidon and Zeus along with the Hermes kids. Ares had everyone else, because there was little chance they'd win with two of the Big Three demigods against them.

"Uh," he floundered, searching for an excuse. "I'm busy?" he replied, but it came out as more of a question.

He could hear Thalia grunt through the door. "Sure you are," she bit back. "Come on, we're waiting."

His fingers scratched the back of his hand absently. Hurriedly, he brushed the remaining tears away with his shirt and rushed to the door. He opened it up, revealing the daughter of Zeus, glaring daggers at him before her face softened.

Oh gods, she knew.

"You okay?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

A fake smile dazzled his face. He'd gotten good at them, too good. "Yeah, 'course."

The demigoddess frowned and pushed her way into his cabin.

"What are you—"

"Sit," she instructed, taking a seat on his bed.

He didn't. Thalia had taken over his "position" as leader of the camp—not that he'd wanted it, anyway—but he wouldn't bow down to her every whim like the rest of camp.

Except then she glared at him, and he could swear a spark crackled off of her.

He sat down.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "And don't give me that bullshit, okay? I'm your cousin."

Cousins. They were, in fact, but it had never seemed that way. Annabeth had said they'd either be best friends or enemies, but instead they were a practical balance: frenemies.

"I'm trans," he blurted, words pouring out of his mouth. "And sometimes I just sit here and realize that I'll never have enough money for top surgery, let alone a sex change. Because, I'm a demigod. A gods damn demigod, who's probably going to die before 19. Hades, nobody's like me. I'm screwed up." His eyes were trained on the wall. He didn't want to see Thalia's reaction.

"You're not," she replied. "Screwed up, I mean. You're who you are, no matter what your body says. And there are a lot of trans people out there; you just haven't met them yet."

He gulped, but said nothing.

"I'm aro/ace," she said after the long pause, feeling his discomfort in oversharing. "It means aromantic asexual, you don't need to pretend to know what it is," she continued without even looking to his face for confirmation of his confusion. "Aromantic means I don't feel romantic attraction, and asexual means I don't feel sexual attraction either. The first time I told anyone they said I was weird. That feeling romantic attraction was necessary." She sighed, looking to her hands. "I don't pretend to know what it's like to be trans, but I know what it's like to feel alone."

Percy gulped, trying to repress any tears threatening to spill. It didn't work. He pulled Thalia into a hug and cried as she rubbed circles on his back in comfort.

He couldn't believe he was doing this, crying on the shoulder of a girl he was meant to hate. But a part of him knew that in some ways, she knew. Knew the erasure, knew the pain of being overlooked, even if they were different.

After a few minutes he pulled away, finally able to quell the tears. "Sorry," he muttered.

The daughter of Zeus huffed. "Don't be sorry," she replied. "You didn't do anything."

He tried to believe that, that he wasn't a burden, but the feeling wouldn't go away. "Thank you."

"'Course," she replied. "Come to me anytime, okay?"

The son of Poseidon nodded. "Same goes for you."

The two smiled at each other—any animosity left in the past, in the days where they were pulled apart by their lineage. They stayed like that for a while, leaning on each other, until the dinner bell rang.

"Where were you guys?" Annabeth asked when they arrived. "I was about to go looking but we had to start the meeting."

They looked at each other. "Sorry, we lost track of time," Thalia spoke up. "Won't happen again."

Annabeth's calculating gray eyes scanned the two, sensing the lie, but didn't push. She had her suspicions. "Alright," she said, turning away to grab dinner.

That night, Thalia moved to sit at Percy's table, Poseidon be damned.

The party at Olympus raged on, gods and nymphs alike sipping wine and enjoying the night. Thalia's sky blue eyes scanned the area without thought—one of the perks of being a hunter in action, she realized—until she found the young auburn haired goddess.

"Milady," she greeted, interrupting what looked to be a heated argument between the goddess and her brother.

The goddess flicked away her brother, turning her attention to her new lieutenant. "Yes, Thalia?"

She gulped. "When I swore off the company of men, does that mean platonically too?" she asked, eyes trained on Artemis' silver eyes.

The goddess raised a brow. "Why do you ask?"

"I have a friend," she began, eyes darting around the room to search for the black-haired demigod to no avail. "And I promised him that I would always be there for him." Her eyes met the goddess' again. "I won't break that promise."

A small smile graced the moon goddess' lips. "Percy Jackson, I presume?"

Thalia tried to hide her confusion when the goddess used his nickname; none of the other gods had bothered to do so. Something that irked her to no end.

"Peace, sister," she continued. "I am not as ignorant as my father and much of the council may be. I understand Percy is not a female."

The new huntress found herself confused by this. Artemis was known for her hatred of men, she assumed the goddess would be unsympathetic. "You're not," she searched for the word. "Upset? That he is a male when he could be a female?"

She chuckled softly, like bells twinkling. "I am not," she explained. "Percy has proved himself to have the heart of a warrior; it does not bother me that he is male. He was born a true hero, and has earned my respect not because of his sex at birth, but because he saved me, and soon will save Olympus. I would never disrespect someone who is struggling to find their identity, despite my dislike of the male gender."

Thalia smiled. She hadn't known Artemis very long, but could already discern she liked her. "So it would be alright if I took a few days off sometimes? Just to help, not to—"

"Yes, Thalia. Many of my hunters take leave to visit their mortal families while they are still alive. As far as I am concerned, he is a member of that family."

She grinned from ear to ear, ignoring the "while they are still alive" of that statement. It was too early in her partial-immortality to think about the loss of her friends.

She knew the hunt had been the right decision, and she would never go back on that.