2: Give Prism His Cupcake. Or Else.

‘How have you two been keeping?’

‘Fine,’ Perseus shrugged, ‘We just came back from a mission two days ago.’

‘It wasn’t too hard?’

‘Nope,’ Rosalind took a cupcake with purple icing, topped with a rose.

‘What about you?’ He asked quickly, ‘I heard that you’ve been doing all this work a lot more recently.’ True. He could see that she hadn’t gotten much proper sleep.

Reyna stiffened, then sighed. She leaned forward and placed her chin in her fist.

‘Let me guess? Okumura?’ she muttered, distaste tingling his name.

He bit back a smirk and nodded.

Ash Okumura had a huge interest in Reyna. And she found that quite annoying. The guy obviously had something for her. He would talk about her a lot.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, ‘That boy, I swear...’

‘Reyna, you’re getting off topic again,’ he wagged his finger at her.

‘Right, sorry,’ she straightened, then said, ‘However infuriating he is, Okumura’s right. I have been going on a lot of missions lately.’

‘And not even getting enough sleep,’ Nico mumbled, and he nearly jumped out of his chair. He had forgotten that the boy was sitting there. It was like he was invisible at times.

‘That’s not tr-‘

‘He’s right, Reyna,’ Rosa cut her off.

‘Well what do you know, it’s Everyone Scold Reyna Day.’

‘Reyna Avantika La Rue,’ Percy started sternly, ‘Don’t you dare get off topic, young lady.’

‘You sound like my father. Which is saying a lot.’ She said through gritted teeth.

This time, he sighed, pressing his index finger and thumb together. Gods, she was the most difficult person ever. And she thought Okumura was infuriating.

‘And it’s not like everything’s gonna be easy for me.’ She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms.

‘Drop it, she won’t listen,’ Nico said to him.

The atmosphere was tense by now. Then Prism spoke.

‘Prism wants a cupcake!’

‘You do, boy?’ Reyna asked him softly, ‘which one?’ She picked up one with mint frosting from the the rack.

‘No!’ he cried.

She placed it back down and picked another one.

‘No!’

‘Then which one?’

He pointed with his wing towards the one Nico was bringing up to his mouth. A chocolate one.

‘That one is exactly the same as this one,’ she gestured to a similar chocolate cupcake.

‘No!’ he flapped his wings indignantly, ‘That one!’ He kept pointing at Nico’s one.

Nico glared at the parrot for a moment, then handed his cupcake over. Perseus could tell he and Prism didn’t get along very well.

Prism snatched it from his hands and started nibbling into it, the chocolate icing getting on his beak.

‘How have you been keeping, Rosa?’ Reyna asked, ‘Percy hasn’t been giving you too much trouble, has he?’

Rosalind chuckled, ‘Oh no. No more trouble than usual.’

Percy huffed and crossed his arms, ‘I do not give people trouble.’

‘You do,’ Prism said, pointing his half eaten cupcake at him, ‘You give everyone trouble.’

Well what do you know, he thought, I’m getting trash talked by a parrot.

Reyna snorted, and Rosa giggled. The ghost of a smile flickered across Nico’s face before it was gone.

Well they certainly seemed to find it amusing.

‘Oh fine,’ he muttered to himself.

‘By the way, did you read the new spin-off to the Royally Wicked series?’ Reyna asked, and Rosa immediately nodded with a little squeal of happiness.

‘I’ve read it!’

‘You have!? That’s great! Isn’t it just awesome?’

‘I know right!? And especially when Arianna and Sebastian reunited!’

Both girls let out dreamy sighs, as if they were going to melt.

‘All right, you two,’ Perseus smiled, ‘Don’t start fangirling and leave us two out of it.’

‘And that chapter where Rebel fought Julius and totally kicked his ass,’ Nico added quietly.

This time Perseus frowned, ‘Now you people are just gonna leave me out.’

‘Okay, guys, not now, Percy feels left out,’ Reyna smirked.

He groaned.

‘Percy is feeling lonely!’ Prism taunted.

‘Shut up, bird!’