Why am I not updating the third Toga fic, you ask?
Well, I just... wasn't liking the direction it was going in. I might end up deleting it, might not since some people enjoy reading my old fics. Regardless, this is - as you may have guessed - taking place during the movie sequel, Sea of Monsters. It'll basically be taking place after the second Toga fic, with some minor changes - one of which concerning Luke. They did encounter him on the Island, but only once. The history between him and Audrey is still there.
Physically, Audrey's appearance more resembles Apollo - hazel eyes, dirty blonde hair, etc.
And hopefully, Percy, Grover, and Annabeth's characterizations'll be more ic, so to speak.
And yes, I plan on writing up the next chapter soon - it's kinda short, I know, but it felt like a good place to cut off. Hopefully it's not too boring or hard to understand. xD
Enjoy~
"Home-a-lo-oone, home-a-lo-oone, home-a-lo-oone!"
Deep in the middle of the concrete jungle most called New York City, a teen was dancing around the house in boxers and plain white socks. Audrey Roberts was home alone, in case it weren't made obvious, and she still treated it like a gift from heaven – er- Olympus.
After the aphrodisiac supplied by good wine, the Fountain of Youth, and the presence of Aphrodite herself wore off, her mother and "Ken Adams" had realized how completely inoperable their "thing" really was; mostly due to the fact that Ken Adams wasn't Ken Adams at all, but was in fact a pretty big deal.
As in Apollo the Sun God big deal.
Audrey – and her mother – had learned to accept this, even if her mother was doing a better job of it. They both considered a break more than appropriate; Ms. Roberts lingering on the Greek island for the remainder of the summer months, and her daughter happily running things at home.
Alone.
Did she mention she was home alone?
Of course, she was having a much better time with it than some people; a certain overprotective son of Poseidon in particular.
"Alo-o-o-o-o-o-o-oooAGH."
Right on cue, her cell phone began to vibrate rather obnoxiously against the granite kitchen counter in the middle of her vocalizing. Despite her eyeroll, a small smile remained on pale pink lips as she pressed the iPhone to her cheek – popcorn in one hand and the latest Evil Dead remake in the other.
Which she obtained from a former classmate by completely legal means.
Yeah.
"Still alive, Percy."
A soft exhale was immediately heard – one of exasperation and a barely-contained chuckle as opposed to relief.
"I swear, you girls. Get all offended if we don't check up on you every day, then get more offended when we don't."
"Not true! I so very much look forward to your calls," she replied in a sarcastically sweet tone, using her socks to slide across the linoleum into the living room as she plopped her bag of popcorn on the couch with a flourish.
"Yeah, yeah. Sarcasm aside, everything's okay, right?"
"As okay as it was five hours ago."
"Maybe I'll go a whole day without calling next time," he threatened, and she was practically able to hear the smile in his voice; he could likely hear the grin in hers as she replied.
"You do that. Surely you've got some sorta... competition... relay... thing to do."
"You would too if you were here."
Audrey let out a rather dramatic, exasperated sigh, hunching one shoulder upward to cradle the phone against the side of her face as she began to remove the DVD from its case. "If I were there, no one would be here to pay the bills, keep stuff clean, watch for... uh... burglars...-"
"Eat the food."
"- And just what're you implying?" She demanded to know, one hand on her hip as she bit her lip to hide a smirk – as if he could see it.
"Absolutely nothing," he recovered quickly, a soft chuckle being exchanged between the both of them before the shouting and cheering on Percy's end began to grow louder. "Hey, look, I gotta -"
"Split."
"Split."
"Go win me something."
"Right, right."
One eyebrow couldn't help but cock upward at his tone; her girlfriend senses told her someone needed some positive reinforcement, and she made a mental note to provide that in her usual roundabout, smartass way on his next clockwork phonecall. Upon hanging up, her hand remained planted on her hip as her sharp hazel gaze swiveled toward the window.
She had wanted to return to Camp Halfblood – and Percy and Annabeth had wanted her to as well, as they insisted it was the only place truly safe for a demigod – especially when they were of age, like they all were. It was much harder to assume a normal life when the protective glamour wore off, and it was completely illogical to rely on your immortal parent's aid; there was always some crisis or spat or reality-show-drama playing out that had their attention.
Surely, though, after an uneventful summer mythology-wise, things wouldn't get too riled up any time soon...
Of course, in typical Life of a Demigod fashion, it only took twenty-four hours for her to be proven wrong.
The monotonous waves of lounge music continued to fill Audrey's ears as she kept her eyes pinned to the clock. Upon returning from Greece, she had taken up the thrilling experience of job-hunting – landing the equally-thrilling gig as a cashier at the nearest multi-level mall. There was always a huge rush in the beginning of her shift, which was great, but toward the last half-hour it was nothing but passersby with the occasional stupid question.
Then again, there wasn't much more one could expect from tourists.
The tapping of her heeled foot increased steadily the more rounds the clock's big hand made, chin resting in one scrubbed-clean palm. She always had to do a huge overhaul on her poor hands, as Audrey had a habit of writing little notes or painting half of her nails before forgetting the other half; she blamed it on her father's creative streak and lacking attention span – both in labor and love.
Speaking of the Achilles' Heel of mortal and god alike...
Her pale brows furrowed as she reached into the pocket of her blouse, checking her phone once more for any missed notifications. No missed texts, calls, Words with Friends requests, nothing.
Zilch.
That was somewhat worrisome – not the Words with Friends, but the lack of Percy calls throughout the day. Had he really meant it when he had brought up not checking in on her? As much as she hated to admit it, she was slightly offended.
But the more she thought about it, the more worried she became; Audrey could just feel in the pit of her stomach that something was very, very wrong.
Those remaining ten minutes felt like hours, even more so now that she was anxious – her poor nails began to suffer, much to the chagrin of her manager as he passed by before shift's end. Apparently chewing on your nails made you look like you had nothing better to do, go figure.
Once the clock struck 10:45, Audrey was practically airborne – and after barely managing to stay upright as her heels slid and clattered across the marble floor, was a bit less airborne and moreso awkwardly shuffling at a somewhat-fast pace.
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow... Dammit, I was getting the hang of these, too..."
Once on the familiar streets, she dialed Percy's number as rapidly as her thumb would allow, the other hand poised to flag down a taxi.
No answer.
After three more attempts, the teen slowly lowered her hand, phone still tightly gripped in the opposite palm as she tried to think of a plan of action. Past experience, woman's intuition, and a bit of well-placed paranoia told her that home would have to wait.
"Quick visit. … Just a quick visit," she reassured herself as she took a sharp turn in the opposite direction, earning quite a few shoves by the elbows of passersby as she fought the New York current, ducking and weaving her way toward the nearest subway. If she was right, there was no time to return home and change clothes or pack. And if she was wrong, well...
She'd look nice, at least.
"Under the concrete and through the tunnels, to Camp Halfblood we go."
Her heels bounced off the walls of the station, "dyslexia" finally coming to play once again as she searched for the right subway. Although it was fairly late, the nightlife of New York City was only just getting started; she kept one arm folded against her upper stomach and the other elbow out, successfully navigating the ever-thickening crowd as the right station came into sight. On the wall was some noticeable, seemingly unintelligible graffiti – under the eyes of a demigod, it formed the clearly-visible phrase "Camp Halfblood".
"Finally," she groaned upon entering the subway, taking a seat in the very back; she hated not having a full view of all her surroundings, as the whole ordeal with Ben was still very fresh in her mind. Lack of visibility meant full vulnerability in her mind.
A quick look around told her that, much to her surprise, she was the only one on the subway. Audrey relaxed somewhat, brows knitting together in worry as she tucked some dirty-blonde tresses behind her ear; as her mother had predicted, her hair had reverted to its natural blonde color – likely due to the full awakening of her demigod abilities.
Or, you know, genetics.
It seemed science as full-humans knew it never applied to her life anymore. Which, in a way, was sort of a comfort since she barely passed her science classes. Especially when it began to include math; theories and dyslexia weren't friends.
Her thoughts continued to wander further and further, and she had somehow reached the mental topic of whether or not to add cottage cheese to her cream cheese when fixing bagels in the morning when she finally reached her stop.
"Oh- ah- thanks," Audrey mumbled distractedly, picking up her over-the-shoulder bag and exiting the subway car; it promptly disappeared at seemingly the speed of light, entering a vacuum of sorts and leaving nothing behind. With a soft exhale, her heels crunched softly against the earth with each step, slowly making her way toward the Camp's entrance.
It was only after she had leaned against a pole to take off said heels that she realized a strange feeling - or lack thereof:
The barrier was weak, if not nonexistent.
That familiar sensation one felt upon entering the camp, that feeling of safety that enveloped you... It was gone. Her suspicions confirmed, Audrey made a stealthy beeline for the "cabin" reserved for Poseidon's children – one that held a solitary occupant, as far as she knew. She cringed with each and every noise her bare feet made, be it a snapping of a twig or sifting of dirt. It was quite late at night, and the last thing she wanted to do was sound the alarm; judging by the looks of things, they had already had a good scare.
There were occasional charred buildings or plant life, and several stray blocks of rubble were still strewn about. She sincerely hoped no one had been hurt too badly by... whatever person or thing had wreaked havoc at the demigod haven.
If she knew one thing, she knew exactly where to find Percy – the waterfront behind his cabin. There was a light on in one of the rooms of said cabin, but she avoided the building itself for now, fairly certain he wouldn't be there. Sure enough, his figure was hunched over in thought on the natural incline of roots that led to the water's edge, and her pace slowed to a stop.
One look told Audrey it was serious.
She intended to approach him quietly, but that plan was shot to hell once she tripped on a poorly-placed log and dove headlong for the ground. Her tumble was all the more audible in the stiff silence of the Camp, and Percy shot up from his spot to get a good look at the "intruder".
"Who-"
"As if the graceful entrance couldn't tip you off?" she grumbled, propping herself up on her elbows as she blew sunkissed hair out of her face; she was pretty sure her skirt had ridden up to the extreme.
Percy's expression changed drastically in a matter of moments, from confusion to amusement and... back to confusion again.
"Wait... Audrey? What the- What're you doing here?" he managed to get out, dark eyebrows practically skyward in surprise as he offered her a hand.
She gladly took it, brushing herself off once she regained her footing – and inching forward to retrieve one of her heels from the shallow shore of the lake. "I had a bad feeling... Judging by all the debris, my feeling was right. What the hell, I can't leave this place once without something dire happening?"
He stayed silent for a moment, and the small smile faded from her lips. Audrey dangled her heel above the ground for a few minutes, letting it drip cool water onto her bare foot as she studied his face.
"... Something tells me the world's in a load of shit again."
"Let's... just say you might wanna sit down."