Champion of Love

[Persassy Jackson Has Entered The Chat]

Nobody mentioned the hellhound to him, but Percy got the feeling they were all talking about it behind his back. The attack had scared everybody. It sent a message: that monsters would stop at nothing to kill him. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe, apparently. Spies were nasty business, but they were unavoidable in whatever was coming if they were already making themselves known.

The other campers steered clear of Percy as much as possible, but at least it wasn't because he was revealed as an Oopsie Baby to the whole camp. That would be much worse. He wondered if he'd be cast out if they knew who his father was....

Cabin ten(aside from Alison)was too nervous to talk to him since they'd learned he'd been personally trained by Ares himself. He hadn't bragged about it, they'd asked who trained him since Aphrodite wasn't one for fighting the way they'd seen him do in the arena. He'd answered because he didn't want them to think he was a liar or keeping things from them. 

He shouldn't have answered, because Aphrodite kids didn't know how to keep their mouths shut even with information on their own siblings and word spread quickly. He'd gotten so used to having his siblings around him and treating him like they were family that he wanted to be honest so they'd trust him again(It was something Percy cursed himself for. He should have found somewhere else to stay, not this stupid camp full of people who could and would hurt him when he was vulnerable).

After that got out, his sword training with Luke became one-on-one. Luke pushed the Champion harder than ever and wasn't afraid to bruise him up in the process after learning about Ares' brutal training.

"I'm no war god, but you'll need all the training you can get. If you've been sent here and Aphrodite's unable to interact with you right now, something huge is going on." He'd promised when Percy had asked if Luke was angry at him and taking it out on him during their training. "Now, let's try that viper-beheading strike again. You've almost got it down and I've got plenty more much less flashy and obnoxious moves to teach you that Ares totally skipped out on. The shit he taught you in swordfighting is all Heracles-level flashy stuff and not likely to actually help you much in a fight with a monster."

Percy's heart warmed when Luke explained his reasoning. Someone in the Camp wanted him to be as prepared as he could so he could survive whatever was coming. Someone in this Camp cared enough to be honest with him and ask him how he was doing and make sure he ate actual meals instead of pushing food around on his plate(Luke was way too good at catching people not doing what they should, and he used it to mother hen his siblings, the unclaimed in his cabin, and friends outside of his own cabin too). Percy thought Aphrodite would like Luke a lot.

Annabeth seemed distracted whenever they hung out(distracted in a different way than when Luke dropped by). Every time Percy said something, she'd scowl at him, like he was a puzzle she couldn't figure out no matter what way she looked at it. After they hung out, she'd walk away muttering irritatedly to herself, which didn't make Percy feel any better about having his title exposed.

It drove his new siblings and most of his friends away. Somehow, though, he knew being known to be Poseidon's son would do that way more than holding the title of Aphrodite's Champion, so things could be worse.

Silena took a while to come around, but Alison and Adrean had cornered her at one point and given her a very thorough speech about Love. His adoptive siblings still loved him the same way they did before, but Percy could still see how hard it was for them to accept him and his title. A lot of them were jealous, because he wasn't even Aphrodite's kid and she'd raised him, but he couldn't do anything about that.

"Hey, don't worry about it! Maybe you can find a way to go back in time and ruin your own life so bad that a god finds you and decides to raise you to kill monsters in their name for a living." He'd snapped at one of his sisters with a sarcastic smile. She hadn't been able to look him in the eye since.