Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Characters' Appearances:
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Percy Jackson, he/they: inky black hair, green eyes that shift depending on the nearby water source's colour, rather tanned skin, tall & swimmer's body + swordsman arms, freckles, straight nose, the most luscious eyelashes you've ever fucking seen, scars all over his body, resting bitch face

Sally Jackson, she/her: dark brown hair, eyes that shift depending on the nearby water source's colour, white w/ a little tan, mom bod (like dad bod but for moms), freckles, straight nose, the most luscious eyelashes you've ever fucking seen, resting smiling face

Max Wastaken, they/them unless stated otherwise: hair with a slight purple/magenta ombre, light brown skin, thin & short, slight freckles, button nose, resting baby face

Annabeth Chase, she/they: honey blonde hair with princess curls, grey eyes, tanned skin, tall & lean, straight nose, neutral resting face

Jason Grace, he/him: blond hair, sky blue eyes, white, tall & muscular, straight nose, a small scar on the edge of his lips, judging resting face + wolf stare

Nico di Angelo, he/him: hair so brown it's almost black, eyes as dark as the motherfuking void, pale as fucking hell, short + lean w/ swordsman arms, resting bitch face

Luke Castellan, he/him: blond, striking blue eyes, white skin that could never seem to tan for some reason, a scar on his cheek, smiling resting face

Will Solace, he/they: blond, shiny blue eyes, tanned skin, tall + lean body, straight nose, smiling resting face

Apollo, he/him: blond, shiny blue eyes, tanned skin, tall + muscular body & archer's nose, straight nose, suave resting face

Rachel Elizabeth Dare, she/they/xey: redhead, green eyes, white skin, average ny rich girl body type, lowkey rlly pretty, chill resting face

Reyna Avilo Ramirez-Arellano, she/they: black hair, black eyes, lightly tanned skin, above average height + lean, strict resting face

Calypso, she/her: caramel hair, dark-ish brown eyes, white skin, maiden's body, relaxed resting face

Leo Valdez, he/they: black and curly hair, brown eyes, brown skin, short & kinda stocky, slightly manic resting face

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characters will continue to be added until further notice <3

Chapter Text

See, nothing was going wrong that day. Percy was just heading to Central Park with Max, his "kid". The weather was nice, there weren't many people at the park today, and he managed to go on for two whole fucking months with no interruptions from anyone! Not even the gods, who normally would love to drop in on him and give him a quest where he could possibly fucking die. Nothing could go wrong, right?

It goes without saying that he fucking jinxed it. Again.

--

"Percy! Percy!" Max tugged on his hand, excitedly pointing toward an ice cream truck. "Can we get ice cream, please?"

He laughed at their antics. "Sure. What flavor?" He took out his wallet as they got in the small queue for the truck.

"Can I have the choconuts one?" they requested, bouncing on their heels.

---

After they both got their ice creams, Max looked at Percy's without trying to hide their disgust.

Percy rolled his eyes, used to their odd behaviors. "Calm down, Max. It's just mint and chocolate ice cream."

"Sorry for saying this dad, but why the fuck would you want to eat toothpaste-flavoured ice cream? Have you lost your goddamned mind??" The 15-year-old exclaimed, glaring at the ice cream as if it would grow a pair of legs and chase them.

He sighed, amused. "It's not that bad, sweetheart. You're just being dramatic."

Max huffed. "Your tastes are questionable at best, father dearest. No matter if it's about people or food." Percy made a protesting noise, which they ignored. Sighing, Max licked their ice cream. The disgust on their face immediately switched to pleasure, smiling satisfactorily as they ate it.

Percy watched as they ate their ice cream. He recoiled slightly when Max took a bite out of the ice cream. Rolling his eyes, he said, "Love you too, dickhead." he ruffled their head affectionately, laughing when Max squeaked in protest.

Max looked like they were about to shove their ice cream into Percy's face in retaliation before a soft rustle behind him stopped them. Percy froze slightly briefly before grabbing Riptide from his pocket and uncapping it.

A cackle tore through the air as he took in the monster before him. An incubus, most likely. They had longer horns and darker eyes, and in certain spots of their face, he saw some scales disguised as freckles or birthmarks of sorts. They wore the absolute minimum, just a piece of semi-translucent cloth that hung from their shoulders and secured by a belt on their waist. The cloth was positioned in such a way they're tiptoeing the line between "indecent" and "barely covering".

Max stood beside Percy, a displeased look on their face. Usually, they prefer to stay as human as possible, but right now he can see small white horns sticking out of the mess of hair, claws shifting to replace their hands, and the tail swishing behind Max in fury. The normally light brown eyes changed into a glowing orange, surrounded by a sea of black sclera.

Apparently, they must've known one another, because the incubus looked manically delighted by this. "Oh, Nybbas! Such a delight to see you again, dearest sister."

Max twisted their face into a snarl, "You made me drink acid when I was 5, bitch. Do not call me your fucking sister." they spat, baring their fangs.

"Details, details," She grinned.

"I take it you know each other?" He raised an eyebrow, guessing the answer already.

"Unfortunately." Max sighed. With an offhanded wave towards the incubus, they said "Percy, meet Abyzou, the bitchy whiny ass stepsister I told you about once,"

"Delightful as ever, I see." Abyzou rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. Her annoyance changed into something like manic (He had a feeling that that's what her normal facial expression looked like.) "Father would finally be proud of you!"

To her credit, they looked bewildered by that. Max looked at her like she's grown another head. "What, on God's holy green earth, are you talking about?"

"Don't you see? If you bring this handsome hero back to our home, our father will give you the title you've always wanted: his greatest achievement." She smirked, stating it with a tone so sure he almost believed it himself.

Max processed the statement. They shook their head slowly as they admitted, "... I have heard many stupid things my entire life, you and the bastard's names included, but this has got to be number one."

Abyzou rolled her eyes. "Har dee har har, sister. Don't you want father's pride-"

"I already have my dad's pride," Max interrupted. "I don't need that bitch's pride, nor do I want it."

That stunned her, apparently. "What?" she asked, confused.

They pointed at Percy. "This handsome hero over here has declared me his child, and he's proud of it." Max sounded happy and smug announcing this bit of information. "Proud of being my father, proud of what I've already done, proud of me. That's more than what you lot could ever do."

Abyzou snapped out of her trance, growling. "So you're a traitor now, eh? Seems like Father made the correct choice when he decided to sell you to those scientists."

"Dickhead made the right choice to divorce your mom, motherfucker." they retorted.

"You-" she sputtered, her face contorting into rage.

"Yes, me. Besides, she was a much better demon than what y'all could be, and she deserves better."

Abyzou lunged at Max, her claws reaching for their throat. They dodged. Percy swung Riptide to her arm. It scratched her, making her yelp. "Oh, you're getting it now, pretty boy!"

She ran towards him. He blocked her punches blow for blow with Riptide, but her tail managed to puncture a hole into his leg. He hissed in pain, almost dropping his sword. Max ran up and kicked her in her stomach. With a bit of concentration, Percy felt the wound close up just enough that no blood would be trickling out.

"Thanks," he said. Then, "You believe in God?"

They shrugged. "Not really. But let's be real, He's definitely better than what you got." Dodging Abyzou's kick to their head, they tried scratching her. They missed.

"You're not wrong," he laughed, before refocusing on Abyzou to swing Riptide to her torso. It hit its target, making her fall with a gasp.

Max stood over her now bleeding body, smiling. As they raised their claws, they whispered, "Goodbye, motherfucker. I'll see you if I ever decide to visit the Fields of Punishment."

Raising an eyebrow, she deadpanned, "No, you won't."

"No, I won't," they admitted, the smile never leaving their face. "But I thought I should at least be nice to you in your final moments."

"As if I'm going to die by your hands out of everyone," she grinned. Before Max could cut her head off, Percy fell.

The last thing he remembered before he passed out was Max's panicked face jumping after him, yelling.

----

Percy woke up in a cold sweat. He looked around, surprised to see that he was still in his bedroom. When he looked at his alarm clock, it showed him that it was only eight in the morning.

'Huh,' he thought. 'Must be a weird dream or something,' Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was definitely off.

A knock on his door brought him out of his mind. "Percy?"

"Yeah, mom?"

His mom peeked in, a smile on her face as she looked at him. "Oh good, you're up!" 

He smiled. "Yeah, I am now," he got up from his bed, stretching as he did so. "What's up, mom?"

"Could you go to the market down the street and buy me some milk, please? We're almost out of it."

"Sure," he agreed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Let me just wash my face and then I'll go,"

She smiled gratefully. "Thank you so much, sweetheart. The money's on the dining table, by the way."

"Okay-" the sound of a baby crying cut him off.

His mom looked exasperated, running a hand over her brown hair. "Oh no, did Estelle poop her diapers again?"

He chuckled, amusement and exasperation somehow mixing into his face. "Sorry that I can't help you this time, Mom."

She waved him off. "It's fine. Now go take a shower or something and buy us the milk, okay?"

"Okay," he smiled, stepping into his bathroom.

---

When he arrived at the dairy section, Percy contemplated whether he should get the milk they've always used, or the one with a buy one free one sale. He decided to go with the one on the sale. 

He paid for the milk and bought himself two sandwiches with some pocket money his mom had given him earlier this week. 

As he traveled back to his mom's apartment, he thought about the weird... memory? he had that morning. It felt too real to be a dream, in his opinion, but he didn't really know what else to call it.

Someone bumped into him, startling him out of his thoughts. They cursed under their breath, then looked up at him. They both froze when they made eye contact.

The person(?) in front of him had the same orange eye color as Max did in his dream, and the same skin color as well. The only major differences that he could see were that the hair was slightly longer, its color a dark brown that hid the small white horns on their head, no tail in sight, and no scales were disguising themselves to be freckles.

"Da- Percy?" they asked, voice full of disbelief.

"Are you... Max?" he countered, feeling a sense of familiarity and protectiveness washing over him.

Now that he knew who he was talking to, he took in their appearances. And if hewas going to be honest, they looked much worse than he did when he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Their t-shirt was worn out, dirty, and ripped in some places. Max's face had dirt and a few scars on it.  Their hair had knots and tangled ends and was caked with grime.

"What happened to you?" He asked tentatively, inching closer to try and comb the knots out of their hair.

Max didn't answer. They looked at him like he just announced that they won the lottery.

"Max?"

"Oh," they shook their head, snapping themself out of whatever that was, "Sorry. It's just... is that really you, dad?"

He smiled, cupping their face with one hand. "Yeah, it is."

They froze at the contact, and Percy worried that he might've pushed his luck.

To his horror, they started sobbing.

---

"So you're saying," he started. "That you've been in this world for days, and never saw me? Not even once?"

"No," Max sniffled. "Even if I did see you, you never saw me. It's like Hera took away your memories again, I was so scared."

Percy wrapped his arms around them. The poor thing explained -- with slight difficulty, they were crying still -- that after they jumped after him into the hole, they had to travel this strange world alone, scared and confused. They thought they'd accidentally killed him because if it weren't for them taking their time on killing the incubus, this would've never happened.

Percy assured Max that even if they were at fault, he never blamed them even for a second. That made them cry more.

"You're too nice," they sobbed, to which Percy personally disagreed with, but he didn't point it out. In the back of his head, he remembered them having this exact argument many times, and that somehow, Max almost always won.

He made Max get up to their feet. "You need a bath," he declared. "As well as something else to wear and some food. We have to go back to my mom's apartment to do that."

Max grumbled, but obeyed. They grabbed the milk he set down earlier so that he can comfort them and gave it to him, who smiled gratefully in return.

---

Out of everything he expected his mom to do when she saw the succubus, making them food was definitely not one of them. He really shouldn't have been surprised, honestly.

Despite Max's protests, she insisted on making more dinner than usual.

"You are way too skinny, my dear." She explained with a smile. "You need to eat just a bit more. Do you have any allergies?"

They looked at Percy pleadingly. He smiled. "Just accept your fate, buddy. There's nothing that can change mom's mind when she sets it." He added, "You also need a bath. Come on, to the bathroom you go."

Hell, even Paul wasn't too surprised when Max showed up at their table for dinner. "It was bound to happen," he said, grinning. "I knew you were going to adopt any monster if they looked young enough." Estelle giggled from her baby seat as Paul sat her in it.

Just because he was right didn't mean Percy had to like it. Even his own child was laughing at him! Truly, a family betrayal.

---

After dinner, Max fidgeted, clearly nervous.

"Max?" his mother frowned, concern showing on her face. "Is everything alright?"

Max jumped slightly at her concern. They nodded hesitantly before saying, "Can we sit on the couch? I- uh- me and Dad, we have something to tell you guys." They made eye contact with him.

Ah. So it was about that.

---

Percy put Estelle in her crib before he entered the living room. His parents were sitting on the couch while Max said on the floor so that they faced them. Max fiddled with their thumb, needing something to distract them as they tried to gather their thoughts and string their words better. He sat down next to them, hoping to offer them some comfort. Judging by their grateful looks, it worked.

Eventually, they said, "I think I need you all to know this." They hesitated before continuing with, "Me and Dad... we're not from your universe."

"What do you mean?" Paul looked confused.

"Well, maybe Dad is. Maybe he's not. but all we- I mean, I know is that we're definitely not from this universe." Max explained.

That shocked them. A few moments passed before "How... how do you know?" His mom asked finally.

"I've been traveling universes and dimensions for as long as I've had my powers," they replied. "I know the.. texture, I think it's called? Yeah, the texture of our original universe, and it's not this."

Both of his parents perked up at the answer. "Texture? Wait, the universe has a texture?" Paul asked, excitement evident in his tone.

"Sorry Paul, but forget about the texture! What do you mean you can travel universes?" his mom's eyes lit up as her curiosity was piqued.

Max giggled quietly. "In a way, yes. Only the travelers know what the feeling of the universe is. And yeah, I can travel universes and dimensions. It's a lot of fun."

"What does our universe feel like, actually?" she asked. "how different is it from your universe?"

"Well... for this universe, the texture is like if TV static was a texture, but in a subtle way. Our universe has a book-ish feeling, like the pages of a book."

They both looked stunned. "Oh. that's... woah." Paul said elegantly.

Max laughed, a bit louder. "Yeah. there are also a few major differences, but i can't really name them."

"Why's that?"

"Our existence would imply that the multiverse exists, right? That would mean alternate universes exist as well. More experienced travelers can tell the difference in not only the texture but also what else has changed from their universe to the one they're in. Sadly, I am not that experienced yet."

"Well... if you tell us what's the basics in your universe, maybe we can tell ours?" His mom offered.

Max bit their lip. They looked at him. "Dad?"

He smiled, taking their hand into his and squeezed it. "Don't worry, I'll tell them." he assured them before turning to his parents.

"In our universe, the pantheons exist." he began. "Like the Greek gods, the Roman ones, the Norse ones- any mythology you can think of, it exists."

They nodded. "Sounds similar enough to ours, though I'm only sure about the Greek and Roman mythologies based on what Sally told me. The rest, I'm unsure of." Paul said.

He nodded. "Okay. Olympus is placed on the Empire State Building, on the six hundredth floor."

"Yep, that's the same." his mom stated. Percy thought he heard Paul whisper "I still can't believe that, actually." but chose to continue on.

"Demigods are placed into camps depending on if they have Greek or Roman roots. The Greek camp is called Camp Half-Blood, CHB for short, and the Roman camp is called Camp Jupiter, CJ for short."

They nodded along. They looked at him probably expecting him to say anything else.

After an uncomfortable pause, he said hesitantly. "That's all of it."

His mom blinked in surprise. "Wait, really? There's no school for demigods in your universe?"

Max stared at her in disbelief. He had no doubt that his face mirrored theirs as they both asked at the same time, "There's a what for who now????????"

---

His mom explained that the gods decided to unite both camps after the Second Titan War. The school covers education levels ranging from primary school to university. It's a relatively new addition, a few months after the war. She also told him that he decided to enroll in the school since it had demigod-friendly studying equipment and such.

When Max laughed at him for his "unfortunate luck" as they put it, she sternly informed them that she was also enrolling them in the same school since it's compatible enough with regular mortals.

"But I'm a succubus! Won't I get killed on sight?" they whined, crossing their arms over their chest as they did so.

She shrugged, a smile tugging on her lips. "You look mortal enough, you can just lie to them."

Max looked at her, then at Paul. "... Paul, there's no way you're supporting her idea this time, right?"

"I think we all know the answer to that. I'm a teacher that's all for students being able to learn no matter what."

They were silent for a while. Then, "Pardon my language," they stated, "But fucking hell no-"

"What grade would you even enroll in?" Percy asked.

They shrugged. "Humanly, I'm 15. What grade is that?"

"Oh shit," he covered his mouth with his hand trying to muffle his laughter. "Sorry, mom, but I'm right. That's fucking 10th grade. You know, the second year of when you're learning algebra, Max."

"Oh fuck."