High Stakes
"This is... You can't be serious." Percy stood on the edge of camp half blood at the waters having the first conversation with his father since before the war with Gaea. Standing with his arms crossed over his chest, the eighteen year old demigod tapped his foot. In any other moment it might have crossed his mind that he seemed like the fatherly figure in that moment! tone grave and scolding. "Did you even stop for a second to think about... No. No I don't want to know."
"Percy, my son, it's not permanent. It was just a little wager..."
The demigod held up a hand and rather than being turned into something tiny and less defiant like an eel or a cuddle fish or plankton, the Earthshaker himself quieted. There was an agreed date for the exchange so each god could get his ducks in a row as it were. But Percy just stood baffled by the choices that godly parents made whether it be harbor ring children with inanimate objects (as, fortunately, wasn't frequently the case) or playing winner takes all in high stakes poker matches. All being a request by Hades for a limited time domain swap. Zeus had apparently seen this coming and rather than risk it had folded and left the game early on. Poseidon, in the other hand had played arrogantly like the sea often did.
Percy left the convention with only a quick glance over his shoulder. They had until the sun set two days from then. That's when the handover would happen. But as his father said, there was only a slight, teensy weensy problem. There was no agreed upon expiration. The expiry was more an in-the-event-that-this-happens-then-you-can-have-your-kingdom-back.
Percy didnt have any idea where Nico was or if he knew. Chances were he'd known sooner. Clenching his fists together, he sighed. He had a shorter fuse since the second war but this was just silly. Inside his cabin, he grabbed a drachma and tossed it into the spray of his salt water fountain. "Nico." Pushing dark hair out if his face, he hoped the other picked up. As soon as the dark figure appeared the older demigod couldn't help himself. "What's wrong with them?"
