The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

26. Stop Messing Around!

The next few days were . . . weird.

For Y/N, not much had changed, but with Percy, it was something else.

Then again, with a Cyclops for brother, he wasn't anymore the cool guy who'd retrieved Zeus's lightning bolt last summer. Now he was Percy Jackson, the poor schmuck with the ugly monster for a brother.

Of course, Y/N didn't share that opinion, but Percy looked at everyone with a lethal glare.

"He's not my real brother!" he protested as Tyson wasn't around. "He's more like a half-brother on the monstrous side of the family. Like . . . a half-brother twice removed, or something."

Y/N rolled his eyes. "Yes, Percy." It was the fifth time today.

A girl from Aphrodite's cabin walked by and asked Percy if he needed to borrow some eyeliner for his eye. . . . "Oh sorry, eyes."

As she walked away laughing, Y/N said, "Ignore her."

"It isn't your fault you have a monster for a brother," Annabeth added.

"He's not my brother!" Percy snapped. "And he's not a monster, either!"

"Hey, don't get mad at us," Y/N retorted.

"And technically, he is a monster," Annabeth said. "Cyclopes are the most deceitful, treacherous—"

"Tyson is not!" Percy told her. "What have you got against Cyclopes, anyway?"

Annabeth's ears turned pink. Y/N felt like there was something she wasn't telling them—something bad. But it would have to be for later.

"Percy," he said, "if Tyson isn't a monster, and if he is not deceitful and treacherous, then why do you deny he's your brother?"

"He's just not my real brother," Percy grumbled. "We don't have the same mother. . . ."

"Oh really?" Y/N retorted. "Is that really why? Because you don't have the same mother? I'll tell you what I think. You don't want Tyson to be your brother because that would be admitting your father fooled around with someone else than your mother. And, I think that, deep down, you do see him as a monster. Since yesterday, every time he's around, you're ashamed, and you try to avoid being seen near him. Why? Because you do see him as a monster and he is your brother!"

"You think so?" Percy said.

"Yes."

"Well, you're wrong!"

And, without saying one more word, Percy stormed off.

The only person at camp who had no problem with Tyson was Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin. The blacksmith god had always worked with Cyclopes in his forges, so Beckendorf took Tyson down to the armory to teach him metalworking. He said he'd have Tyson crafting magic items like a master in no time.

As for Y/N, he took his first riding lesson on a pegasus with Silena Beauregard, one of the nicer girls from Aphrodite's cabin. He wasn't very good at it, and he fell several times. Just as well he could transform into an eagle, otherwise you could have scraped him off the ground.

He worked out in the arena with Athena's cabin. He wouldn't have said no to testing himself against the Ares, but it seemed they wouldn't stop their blade from cutting his head off if it ever came close to his throat.

In the evenings, he did border patrol. Even though Tantalus had insisted they forget trying to protect the camp, some of the campers had quietly kept it up, working out a schedule during their free times.