Heyo! Sorry it's taken so long for this chapter, as I said, I'm really busy with stuff in real life. I also just realized that in the first chapter, I mentioned something about Leo, and when this takes place they think he's dead, so whoopsie! Just pretend it's another camper or something idk lol.

McDonalds Dude: Hey, what can I get you?

Oh, didn't realize I was in McDonalds. Can I have one disclaimer please?

McDonalds Dude: *Rolls eyes* Jinglebells852 doesn't own Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, or Heroes of Olympus because she's not Rick Riordan or Brandon Mull. She only owns the plot she writes.

I also don't own McDonalds. On with the story!

McDonalds Dude: Are you gonna actually order something or-

~~~~~~~1st Person Seth~~~~~~~

I snorted and doubled over with laughter. "Alright," I wheezed, "you're telling me that Bracken, the super old guy - not in a bad way, by the way, - who's magical and powerful and stuff is just gonna fall on his butt and praise Percy as his lord and savior? God, this is too good!"

"Gods," Percy corrected without further comment, but from his grin, he thought my statement was funny as well.

Kendra hid her face in her hands. "That, ladies and gentlemen, is my brother for you," she grumbled.

Piper nodded solemnly. "I feel you," she said, although her smile was almost as bad as Percy's.

Bracken was currently blushing a furious red, and stood up, brushing himself off. "Yeah, whatever," he mumbled, looking down at the floor awkwardly.

Percy looked to Bracken. "Hey, dude it's okay, just don't start calling me 'boss', I have enough horses doing that already," he said seriously.

"Wait, you can talk to horses?!" I exclaimed.

"Well, duh!" Percy said with a mischievous grin.

"So," Doren interrupted, "are we going to McDonalds or..."

"I'm all for it," Nico said. "If you guys aren't coming, I'll be going with them. I mean, unless you're gonna make us stay on the property with that magical boundary thing," he added.

"If you would so kindly release Vanessa, we'd be happy to," Grandpa Sorenson said.

"Oh, yeah sure," Annabeth said, as if only now realizing she had still been holding a magic sword to someone's throat. Vanessa just shrugged it off as Annabeth handed the sword back to Percy.

"Do you have the cap?" he asked.

Annabeth shrugged. "I probably threw it somewhere earlier. Just throw the sword out of the window and you'll get it back in a few minutes." Percy proceeded to throw his sword out of the open window.

"Why did you do that?" I exclaimed at the same time as Warren yelled, "THAT WAS A PERFECTLY GOOD SWORD!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "It's magical, it comes back to my pocket in pen form when it's away from me too long." There was a collective 'oh' and a few sighs of relief.

~~~~~~~Let'sDoTheTimeWarpAgainnnnnn!!!(Lol lmk if you get the reference)~~~~~~~

Once the register had been changed to allow the demigods to leave, Nico had 'shadow-traveled' everyone to a McDonalds in a nearby town. Everyone else had later described it to me as an extremely disorienting and unpleasant experience, but it didn't seem like that to me. It just felt like... teleporting. Not that I would know what teleporting felt like, but it was like what you'd imagine it to feel like. Probably a shadow-charmer thing.

Nico's face brightened slightly as we walked inside, as if remembering some good memory from long ago.

"Woah," I said, blocking the satyrs from the entrance, "you guys can't come in, you'll look like goats."

Percy frowned at this. "My friend Grover, a satyr, always looked human to everyone. He came to protect me when I was in 6th grade, before I knew I was a demigod. It also helped that he wore pants and hadn't developed horns yet, but still."

Kendra laughed. "I don't think any satyrs I've met would ever willingly go to help someone if it risked themselves." Said satyrs frowned at this.

"Oh, then the ones you've met were probably fauns, the Roman version," Percy said. Annabeth and Piper looked slightly confused while Nico just shrugged and nodded.

"It's true," Nico said.

"That could be why Newel and Doren look like goats to mortals. Fauns could look like goats, and satyrs like humans," Annabeth said. Everyone seemed to agree with her logic.

So, it was decided, the satyrs, or fauns, or goats, whatever you felt like calling them, were staying outside, behind a bush or something like that. Newel and Doren had assured us they had it under control.

As we walked into the restaurant, we received a few glances thanks to the large size of our group. It was silently decided that Nico would be ordering, as he confidently walked up to join the line and the rest of our group crammed into a booth.

"Okay, I'm curious, who are each of your godly parents?" Kendra asked, obviously trying to break the ice.

"Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy," Annabeth said. That made sense, the girl had always seemed very smart and was always figuring out everything.

"My mother is Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty," Piper said, less proudly than Annabeth. In fact, she practically rolled her eyes at the fact. Nico came back to the booth as she was telling us this.

"My father is Hades," Nico said simply, sitting down and not looking anyone in the eye. Percy nudged him. Nico glared at him. I was sure if I received that glare, I would melt into a puddle, shadow-charmer or not.

"He's the god of the underworld, I'm sure you've heard of him before," Nico finally said.

"Sorry about him," Percy said, "He's a little... sensitive." Percy received another death glare, but this time he grinned and gave a glare right back. It was less shadowy, though.

"Your wolf glare is useless on me, water boy," Nico gloated. Percy's chipper mood suddenly became somber.

"D-Don't use Leo's nicknames like that, okay?"

Nico looked like he felt quite guilty. "Well, I mean, he's not dead-"

"How do you know for sure?!" Percy shouted, standing up slightly, his hands balling into fists.

"I know, okay?! You wouldn't know, your father isn't the Lord of the Underworld! He was dead, then he wasn't! Got it?" Nico said, shouting back.

There was an awkward silence as everyone sat uncomfortably, and the tension in the room increased as the two demigods argued. By now, every set of eyes in the room was on them, or nervously trying to look anywhere else.

"Okayy then," Piper said, getting up, "let's all calm down. We wouldn't want a World War Three, would we?" She joked. I suddenly felt like calming down as well. It must have been that charm-talk or whatever she had told us about.

Piper received glares from all of the demigods. "Bad comparison, got it," she said, sheepishly sitting down. Everyone else seemed confused, myself included.

"Long story," Annabeth said, "but basically World War II was led by kids of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and some children of Hades on the other." We all nodded in understanding.

Annabeth's head suddenly shot to look at the doorway of the McDonalds. I moved my gaze as well as a teenager with a bow and arrows on his back walked in.

He seemed about the same age as most of the demigods. His shaggy hair was a golden blonde and his blue eyes shimmered in the light. Nobody in the McDonalds seemed to notice or care about the weaponry. I figured it was whatever magic made it so normal humans couldn't see the magical world.

"Will!" Percy exclaimed, walking up to the other teen, Nico following - nervously? - behind him. Will smiled, although it looked forced. They exchanged words, although I couldn't quite hear what they were saying. Will looked stressed as they talked about something. Whatever it was, I had no idea.

~~~~~~~1st Person Nico~~~~~~~

As Will walked into the McDonalds, I instantly knew I was screwed. Gods dam it, I thought, I'm never gonna hear the end of this.

"Will!" Percy exclaimed, walking up to my boyfriend. I gulped and followed him. Will smiled, but I could see his glare aimed straight at me below the facade.

Will turned slightly away from the rest of our group to talk to us in a hushed tone. "You guys good? Are these guy friends or do we need to..." Will said, trailing off, the rest of the sentence silently understood.

Percy laughed sheepishly. "Well, it's a long story, but we're not enemies with these guys anymore, so that's a plus!" he said, gesturing to the booth we had been seated at before our little argument.

Will glanced at the others. "Alright. What's their deal then?"

"It's another long story. How'd you find us?" I asked.

Will sighed, failing to conceal his grin. "I may or may not have had some Hephaestus kids set up trackers in all the McDonalds we could get to so I could scold you every time you shadow-traveled to one."

"That's how you always knew!" I exclaimed, trying to look angry, but my smile showed through anyway. My boyfriend could always make me smile when he wanted to. It was one of his many talents.

Percy rolled his eyes at our antics. "Alright, let's introduce you to the group." We all turned around and walked back to the table.

Piper sighed. "Glad that world-ending spat is over," she mumbled. Will gave me a questioning glance, and I tried to look away from his penetrating gaze. I did actually feel bad for calling Percy water-boy; I knew Leo was a sensitive topic. The guy seemed pretty cool in the fairly short time I knew him on the Argo II, and it was hard to not know where he was, with the Underworld being a solid possibility.

"Who's this?" Bracken asked carefully.

"I'm Will Solace," said person replied, with a sunny but measured smile. "Nico, would you like to further introduce me?" he asked, with a playful grin towards me.

I blushed and looked at the ground. "Uh, yeah, he's my boyfriend," I mumbled, although it sounded more like 'He's my bufhsn'.

"What's you say, Nico?" Will asked, still smiling mischievously.

I took a deep breath. "WILL SOLACE IS MY BOYFRIEND!" I shouted quickly, then resumed my stare at the floor.

Chapter word count: 1603

Date published: 8/14/20