Percabeth: As We Grow

🎂First birthdays1️⃣

Hi guys! This is gonna be a special long chapter because I feel like it! And I mean reaaaaaaaaaally long. 😉

Percy's POV

"Zoë, you come back here, you little hurricane!" I screamed as I chased a naked, giggling Zoë around the kitchen. "Come on! This lovely blue dress is waiting for you!"

Zoë squealed and ran even faster. I facepalmed.

"Guess that wasn't the right thing to say." I muttered.

Let me just tell you, time flies.

Before long, the two little babies were now running, screaming toddlers (mostly Zoë, anyway). Now they were about to be one! Annabeth and I had planned a birthday bash for them, but it was impossible to even get them dressed, the little runts.

"Get in this tuxedo, Luke!" came a shout from upstairs. Annabeth was trying to wrestle a wriggling, squirming Luke into a light gray tuxedo while he was reading. Luke obviously took after my wife, as nothing you did would get him away from a book.

"Bookie." Luke said stubbornly.

Yes, you guessed it. Luke's first word was indeed "bookie". Not "mama" or "dada". "Bookie".

Still, Annabeth got the better end of the deal. Zoë was so rambunctious (which means active), she couldn't sit still for five minutes.

Finally, Luke and Annabeth worked out a deal: to let Luke read while Annabeth changed him, and I got Zoë to try juggling oranges while I slipped her dress on. It was still painful as oranges kept landing on my nose.

Soon Zoë and Luke were dressed and ready in their new outfits. Of course, knowing Zoë, the dress would probably be torn to shreds by the end of the birthday bash.

DING DONG! The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" I called to Annabeth and opened the door.

Standing there were Jason and Piper with Jasper holding two presents wrapped in blue paper. Happy birthday, Luke and Zoë! was hastily scrawled in Piper's handwriting on a note taped to one of the presents.

"Hey." Jason greeted me and stepped in with Piper and Jasper. "Nice house."

"Thanks." I said, high-fiving him. Behind me, Annabeth rolled her eyes at Piper. "Boys." she said.

Piper laughed. Just as I closed the door, there came a second ring. This time it was Frank and Hazel. Frank held two presents in gray and white striped paper. Hazel carried a sleeping baby in her arms.

"Is that...Sammy?" Annabeth smiled.

"Yeah." Frank replied, kissing Sammy's forehead. Baby Sammy had a tuft of cinnamon brown hair, though it was straight like Frank's. As he opened his eyes sleepily, I saw they were Frank's dark brown eyes with tiny flecks of Hazel's gold eyes.

"He's beautiful." Annabeth whispered.

The last guests to arrive were Calypso who was clutching a big gift wrapped in silver paper with blue stars, Esperanza, and a very flustered Leo covered in machine oil. "Am I late? I hope I'm not." he kept saying. "I had to fix the car!"

"We know, Leo." Piper said as she and Calypso rolled her eyes.

Five gifts were laid on the coffee table. Zoë looked at them longingly, which made me laugh.

"Remember, Zoë, two of those are for Luke and you have to share one." Annabeth told her. Zoë pouted.

The birthday bash soon turned into a chaotic mess of toys. Every child wanted to see Sammy, so they lined up and took turns patting his head, even Luke. Zoë glared at them accusingly. Clearly she wanted the attention on herself.

After all the excitement about Sammy died down, Annabeth brought out a large blue cake covered in chocolate icing and blue sprinkles, with a blue and white striped candle on top. All the kids' mouths watered and they stared at it hungrily. Jasper's mouth was actually watering.

"Alright, where's the birthday siblings?" Annabeth called.

Zoë jostled Luke out of the way and stepped up to the cake, her eyes shining brightly. Luke looked at her, annoyed, then stepped up to the cake and jostled her himself.

"That's enough, you two." I said. "It's both of your birthdays, so you have to share this cake, okay?"

They nodded grudgingly. Zoë took a deep breath and was about to blow out the candles when I stopped her.

"No, Zoë, not yet! Birthday song, remember?"

"Hmph." Zoë groaned. She couldn't quite talk yet, but she had learned to groan. It was quite annoying.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to Zoë and Luke, happy birthday to you!"

"Cwake!" Esperanza lisped.

All the children leapt for the cake except Luke, who looked pretty glad the ordeal was over and continued to read. I laughed. Oh, those two kids.

Soon most of the cake was gone, leaving a heaping chocolatey mess and quite a number of dirty plastic forks scattered on the ground and table. I sighed. The clean-up would probably take about a 1000 hours. Great.

"Now it's unwrapping time!" Annabeth called to Zoë and Luke. Zoë's eyes shone and she leapt from the sofa to the coffee table straight into the pile of gifts. Luke sighed and carefully put down his book, walking to the coffee table.

"Zoë, not that one!" Annabeth snatched away one of Frank and Hazel's gifts. "That's for Luke! Come here, Luke!"

"Hmph." Zoë said again and continued ripping apart the gift wrapping paper with gusto.

When all the gifts were unwrapped, Annabeth and I laid them out in a pile. Frank and Hazel's gifts were two teddy bears, one blue and one gray. Luke took a liking to the gray one and snatched him up, then started lisping the words from his book to it. Zoë did not really like the teddy. She took one look at it and threw it aside.

"Zoë!" Annabeth said, shocked. Luckily, Frank and Hazel just laughed.

Jason and Piper had gotten Zoë a doll. I laughed because I knew Zoë only used dolls for karate matches. She'd seen a random episode of The Karate Kid when I was watching it before and was immediately hooked. Since Annabeth did not allow her to do it in real life (it's too dangerous, Zoë!), she used her dolls instead. As for Luke, they must have knew he liked books, because they got a book for him, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, which I knew was pretty famous. Of course, I would have to endure the next week of Luke lisping random lines from the book.

The last gifts were Leo and Calypso's. They had gotten them a mini mechanic kit to share. Zoë loved this the most of all, as she really loved experimenting. Once she had gotten hold of my shaver and...well, it's a long story. Luke didn't really like the mechanic kit, so I told Zoë she could have it. She was thrilled and Luke didn't mind anyway.

After the guests finally left, I looked at the mess the kids had made. Chocolate and toys everywhere. I sighed.

"Oh great." I said.