They couldn't deny the attraction that they both felt. The connection sparked at an instant, the moment that they made eye contact, they knew that they could love no other like now. They were both at each other's mercy. She couldn't deny how she drowned in his sea green eyes and the god couldn't deny being reeled in by the warmth of her soul and smile.
They both were caught up in each other. For days, they have been soaking one another up. The God didn't want it to end, but each time he walked past the docks he couldn't help but hear his folk shout out for him, asking for their ruler. He'd squeeze Sally's hand and close his eyes, ignoring the pleas of the sea.
May the Fates bless her soul, each time they pass the dock. The mortal would ask if Poseidon felt ill. Each time, he'd smile and kiss her cheek with his prickly stubble. "Just fine, love." He'd say.
Poseidon didn't say it the last day that they were together. Coincidentally the same time Sally had to leave to go back home. The God looked at her, "Why not stay in New York?" He asked.
"New York isn't home." She replied.
New York is home. It is home of the Gods, it is where the Olympian fire burns. Damn the fates for letting Sally leave to where home is not present. He took her soft hands in his calloused ones. "Let this be the night we set apart." He said, sadness laced his voice.
He knew love like this wouldn't last forever. Especially with a mortal, mortals don't last forever. Poseidon would know, he had fallen in love with countless mortal women. Only for them to perish. He soaked in the energy that the women radiated, it was exotic to him.
Never had he felt this energy before. It intoxicated him.
Sally raised their hands up to his cheek, "Let this be the night." She whispered before kissing him. That night, they whispered sweet nothings. That is all it was, just a sweet nothing.
——
It was a year full of mourning. A young adult decided to spend another week in America without consulting her parents, who had dropped everything the moment they didn't hear from her, out of fear that she had been kidnapped or killed.
All it took was a single plane ride to America. For them to be blown out of the sky, turbulence. They told her. But everyone on Olympus knew better, that night over a certain patch of sea, a storm had been brewing and the clouds were bulking up, merging and turning grey. Thunderstorms and waterspouts. It had been a freak of nature.
All of these things happened in just under a few hours. Hours that Sally was spending feeling happy about her summer romance, those hours Sally had spent feeling inspiration and the urge to pursue her writing career that she so badly wanted.
It was a year of mourning. She had spent hours sobbing into her uncle's shoulder. Sally Jackson is alone. Weeks after being caged in her old house, trying to sort everything out and having her parents' close friends come over to clear the house out. Something that happened very swiftly, thanks to them. She had spent that morning just spewing out her gut and into the toilet.
Not minding any of her parents' friends talking about using another loo to get home. No, what she did mind was the moodswings, the morning sickness and the hormones just going crazy. The sudden realisation kicked in like a truck and tears streamed down her eyes.
Sally Jackson was all alone. She might not have her parents, but she has something else. Growing down in her stomach. She felt gutted, silent tears streamed down her face, this was something that her parents wanted to be there for.
Her parents were already talking about grandchildren, while Sally would just laugh and roll her eyes at them. Now, she couldn't ever do that again. Now, she wouldn't hear her parents rave about the thought of having a grandchild. She wants to feel annoyed again, annoyed at how her parents wanted to be grandparents, about how they want to spoil their future grandchild. All she wanted was to be pestered again.
The thought of raising a child made her feel insecure. Especially without having any way to communicate with her summer fling. Little did she know, upon returning from her grocery shopping. There he stood in her living room.
"How did you get in here?" She asked, immediately. Not hesitating to fire the question at him. "How did you even find me?"
The man with the charming jet black hair looked at her, guilt written all over his face. "I'm so sorry." He whispered, "I haven't been completely honest with you."
When he finished his sentence, a shiver went down Sally's spine. "What do you mean?" She asked. What he meant was that he is a God. Sally Jackson had slept with a man who was around for everything, hell, the man even fought in the Trojan War.
"I can't be here for long." Poseidon said after he had explained himself.
With a quivering voice, "What now?"
"Now, we see how it goes." Poseidon said, honestly. "I'll send gifts, but I can't do more than that. I cannot be a presence around him."
"Why not?"
"He is a forbidden child, Sally." The sea God said, "I've broken the pact that I made with my brothers." It was a year of mourning. The sea god was a family man, to see one of his children being pulled away by him by force. It saddens him and he mourns for the first things he'll miss;
Sally could just cry from the frustration at what was happening.
"If you ever hear a voice? It's me. Do not tell our child of their bloodline before he can defend himself. Knowing his lineage might attract monsters." Poseidon said before evaporating into a mist. The room smelled like the sea, it's what Sally always associated him with. Now that she knows the truth, it is because he ruled over those seas.
It was a year of mourning. She had lost her job as an intern, her boss said that a pregnant woman is unreliable and a liability. If he actually knew Sally, he'd know that the British woman is anything but unreliable.
While she still had her uncle. He wasn't around as much, something about a Phoenix. He is a nice man, always sending her money and paying for her to keep the house that she and her parents had lived in. While he wasn't a constant presence, he was someone she could rely on. That was the moment she stopped mourning and started to be fond of the memories. She didn't hold any sadness towards Poseidon, nor did she feel anger. She accepted that her parents weren't around, she learned to function alone and learned how to remember them.
Especially when she had the baby. Oh, did he look like his father. A little tuft of hair on his head said that he had jet black hair, just as dark as his fathers. The sea green eyes stared at her in adoration whenever she'd pick him up. A tan color graced his little body and she can recognize the Moody smile that runs in the family.
Her uncle was suddenly around more, she didn't mind. Something about working at a candy store and keeping care of a small baby. Some days he'd show up, and she won't have to call a local babysitter.
Those days she'd come back home to find her uncle hugging the child, laying back in a comfortable chair. Drool coming out of the corner of both of their mouths. A small laugh and she picked up the special camera that uncle Alaster bought her.
The morning after, her uncle left with a grin on his face and a moving picture in his breast pocket.
The two finally bonded after being estranged from one another for years. They had formed a bond over the crawling little boy called Perseus Jackson. They shared laughs over the doe-eyed boy.
There were days where Moody brought spoils from work. The little demigod looked cute lying on a werewolf pelt. The auror definitely took the pictures with him to the Order, just to show off to Albus. he always brought pictures with him to boast about his little nephew.
Years passed and hairs turned grey. Perseus has turned into a small troublemaker. Something Alastor laughs at while Sally huffs whenever she has to pick the little boy up from school.
From the times that Poseidon had told her things, something will always happen around demigods. And she surely believes it, but with the amount of times that little Perseus gets into trouble. She is sure that it can't just be his demigod blood.
Alastor Moody knew more than he showed. While he didn't have a single clue about the Greek world, he did have a clue about the magical world where he lives in. As a pureblood auror, he is bound to notice magical things.
His favourite magical thing is his nephew. The mischievous boys let things disappear, not that uncommon for little magicians. But rare for those who come from squibs. At a playground where Perseus ran around smiling and giggling, a boy took his toy and the sky darkened. The toy disappeared along with some playground equipment.
With a swift swing of his wand, Moody smiled and picked up Perseus. The boy clung to his hip, the wizard looked at him with a cheeky smile, "Oh you're quite the powerful one." He whispered and turned around to go on his way home.
The boy squealed and smiled as he looked around him. "Quite the intelligent one as well." Moody looked at the smile, "Dare say that you could be a gryffindor, but with that cute smile." He tickled the boy, "You're definitely a hufflepuff."
He set the boy down in front of their home. "As soon as you learn to share." Moody laughed and Perseus moved his attention to the mother who fondly looked at the two boys in her life.
"Didn't cause too much trouble?" she asked.
Perseus blew raspberries in the air and Moody smiled, "We never cause any trouble, right Perseus?"
The boy squealed as he walked into the arms of his mother.
For the first time in years. The future is bright.