After Curfew
The castle slept. Candles guttered low in their sconces, staircases ground to a halt, and portraits yawned themselves into silence.
But in one quiet corner of the fourth-floor corridor, time stilled.
Percy leaned against the cold stone wall, Artemis pressed close to his side, Athena resting against his other shoulder. His arm wrapped securely around Artemis's waist, his fingers tangled in Athena's hair. To anyone else, they would have seemed like three students stealing a moment. To themselves, they were home.
"You slowed the clocks again," Artemis whispered, her lips brushing his ear. "Someone will notice eventually."
Percy smirked. "Not if I want them not to."
Athena chuckled softly, lifting her head to kiss the line of his jaw. "You're reckless, Percy Jackson."
"And you love me for it," he teased, tugging her closer until she sighed into his shoulder.
Artemis's silver gaze softened. "Let them whisper. Let them envy. They'll never understand what binds us." She tilted her face up, and Percy met her halfway, their kiss unhurried, lingering, as though the world had stopped just for them.
Athena smiled faintly and pulled him back toward her. "Don't forget me," she murmured. Percy laughed into her lips, kissing her with equal devotion. His hands moved easily between them, as though the three of them had always been one whole, never pieces.
For a long while, they simply held each other, the stone corridor around them frozen in time. Outside, an owl swooped past in perfect stillness, wings arrested mid-flap. Within that stolen pocket of eternity, they needed no disguises, no Houses, no cover stories.
Only when Percy released the thread of time did the owl flap onward, the torches gutter again, and the castle breathe as if nothing had happened.
The trio separated reluctantly, Artemis brushing her lips against Percy's one last time before vanishing back toward the Slytherin dungeons. Athena lingered a moment longer, fingers entwined with his.
"Remember," she whispered. "We walk this school for him. But we live it—for us."
And then she too was gone, leaving Percy alone in the shadows, smiling quietly to himself.