Percy Jackson: The Cursed Hunter

A/N: I got literally 3 hours of sleep yesterday, apologies if the chapters are kinda cooked, but I couldn't hold em back anymore.

Also, for the OG readers, I've added the tags for slice of life and romance 😭. You can probably see why. I swear there'll be action soon, I need like 5 more chapters to fully flesh out the romance.

[Beta: Money_Miwny, ez]

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Sometime During Their Third Year of Cohabitation:

We had gotten into board games recently.

Monopoly, Catan, Risk, all the classics.

Surprisingly, or well, unsurprisingly if you actually took your time to think about it, Aphrodite was really good at these games.

It wasn't like she had participated in all the real life activities these games were trying to emulate an uncountable amount of times, right?

Unfortunately for me, this resulted in me losing extremely quickly in basically every single one of these board games except for Risk.

What can I say, surviving for a good 30 years of your life toiling in the literally largest war ever meant that you had a pretty good grasp on war strategies (yes, yes, or you could just be lucky; but I digress).

Still though, I was THE top agent/soldier in the world, and yet, I could barely hold up a candle to Aphrodite's skill.

It was honestly sobering, as it made me remember that, although it felt so natural to treat her as a friend after all this time we had spent together, she was still leagues above me in almost every single aspect.

At times, I was left wondering if she was dumbing herself down for my sake, as I witnessed her brilliance (at least compared to us mortals) on the board.

Like, if I was to try and point out one sector that I could be considered "smarter" than her in, it would probably be cursed energy, because she couldn't even sense it.

There was also the issue of pure-love romances, wherein I narrowly inched her out as my knowledge only extended further than her due to the fact that I had witnessed such romances whilst watching couples before assassinating them.

You see, the old her, upon seeing such a romance, would stomp on it immediately because, how could you share your love if you were only loyal to one person?

This was the age-old debate between scope and magnitude, and she had been on the side of scope for the longest time until she had met me.

I mean, what can I say, I am the most perfect specimen in all of m-

Okay okay, I'll stop glazing myself.

Thinking back on our moments together that eventually led us to the relationship we had now, I would say that my existence was able to change her mind because she was curious/interested in this new type of romance?

I wasn't that stupid after all. The cold glare that she had given me when I had pretended to give into my desires the other day had been proof enough that I was worthless to her...

...if I had been the same as every other man she had ever met.

I had seen it that day.

Apart from the deathly glint, there also existed another emotion in those eyes of hers.

Fear.

Fear that our relationship had been a lie constructed by me, fear of the idea that I was trash, the same as every single goddamn male in the Percy Jackson universe.

"It's your move."

Her voice quickly snapped me out of my reverie.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that." I replied, scratching the back of my head whilst giving her a sheepish smile.

We were currently playing Catan, our 40th match since they day we both got hooked on playing board games together (please don't judge, it wasn't like there was much else to do when you were stuck in a house in 1999).

And, surprisingly, I was currently winning.

This, combined with my lack of attention to the game, was starting to really piss her off.

"Hey, what can I say, I'm just that good." I said smugly, having read what was on her mind.

"Says the guy who has a win rate of 0 to 39."

"Oh fuck off."

Waving her comment away, I built another road before rolling the dice.

I was about to win, there was no stopping it, and she knew this as I saw her beginning to twirl her hair around her finger, an action I found... oddly endearing.

"Just give up, there ain't any shot you're winning this game."

Egging her on, I watched in mock horror as she decided not to roll her dice, instead opting to grab the jigsaw like pieces that made up the board and flinging it into the air.

'Welp, that's that.'

A flicker of sadness did flash through me, the pain of a good game being destroyed, but it was quickly replaced by a wide smirk.

"Oh, what a sore loser the Goddess of Love is."

Needless to say, she was irked beyond measure.

"Piss off Shalom..."

My smirk started falling though, as I noticed a smirk of her own appearing on her face.

"Wasn't it you who told me that healthy lovers are sore losers to each other?"

"Th-That was in the context of trying to outdo each other's gifts and such, not being sore losers over a stinking board game!"

I was blushing and stuttering not because of what she had said, but because she had sidled up next to me and had nudged me with her shoulder as she had said that.

My god was I making it too easy for her to win, but I really couldn't do anything about this body of mine.

And apparently, the sentiment above had been reflected on my face as her smirk quickly morphed into a victorious smile.

"I hate you so much..."

"And I love you too." She casually responded, whilst winking at me and nudging me in the shoulder once more, yet this time, it had been a lot more... gentle.

The atmosphere around us soon lost most of its energy, as a... soothing tension soon filled the empty space.

My heart betrayed me, as it quietly leapt, my head being rushed by the blood in my veins.

'Damn this body of mine...'

And then, she asked it, being completely straightforward with me.

This singular question seemed completely random, yet as she uttered those words, I knew that we both knew that it was about time.

Unlike how romantic relationships in the future would be formed, Aphrodite skipped all the bullshit like the "talking" stage and such, and for some reason, confessed to me in that moment.

"It's been three years Shalom. You told me to wait until we were old enough, don't we meet that criteria now? You're my best friend, yet we both know that we consider the other more than that. We're both biologically 16, our hearts flutter at the sight of the other, so can we start dating?"

It was forthright, blunt, lacking any real beauty, grace, or idyllic romantic undertone to it, yet it was oh so like Aphrodite.

And I wouldn't be myself if I didn't respond in kind.

Pulling out my Nokia brick phone, I dialed exactly three numbers.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Ah, yes, I have a pedophi-"

My call was unfortunately rudely interrupted when she threw herself at me to grab the phone before literally de-atomizing it from existence.

Looking down at her glaring eyes, her figure in my lap, I found that, for the first time in a while, my body wasn't really reacting to such close contact between the two of us.

"Fuck you! You assho-"

The rest of her words would never come out of her mouth, as I leaned down, bring my face to her own as I gently sealed her lips with mine.

A short, sweet kiss, lasting less than a few seconds long (I'd like to note that she immediately tried to incorporate tongue, probably from muscle memory, but I had been prepared for this and had cupped her chin with my hand, applying just the right amount of force to prevent her tongue from snaking its way out).

Breaking it off, I slowly released my hold on her chin, allowing her head to fall slightly.

"Would that be enough of an answer, Milady?" I asked her jokingly, simultaneously snapping her out of her daze due to the sudden change in atmosphere around us.

"Oh fuck off."

I ended up having to withstand a couple punches to the chest from a god after the fact.