"How did this," Clarisse gestured towards the couch, and the three people on it, with the hand not clutching her beer, "start?"
"It started with a shark." Percy declared dramatically, wrapping one arm aroung the girl sitting on his lap and raising the other high, so his solo cup was out of danger. The mentioned girl wiggled slightly to give him an incredulous look over her shoulder.
"It didn't start with that shark. It started earlier, with that stupid gummy-worm game." Annabeth corrected. She blinked up at Percy, rolling her eyes, and running her hands through the dark hair of the boy laying on the couch with his head next to her.
"You're both wrong." Nico insisted. "It was because of the sabotage."
"Wait a second." Clarisse held up a hand and took a sip of her drink. "Can you maybe start at the beginning, wherever the hell that is?"
"Chronologically?" Annabeth pursed her lips thoughtfully. "The gummy-worm game, although that's more back-story than the true start of this."
'This' referring, of course, to the three of them curled on the couch, Annabeth sitting on Percy's lap, in Nico's shirt and Nico wearing three beaded necklaces, two of them bearing the names 'PERCY' and ANNABETH' in pastel beads. 'This' was the unusual love of three people in a beach house, where they occasionally entertained friends, like Clarisse.
.
"So..." Percy mused. "It started with the gummy worm game."
There was a bar, Kikashi Bar and Grill, where Percy went sometimes after a day spent on a board in the waves, when the adrenaline from the ride wore off and Percy was left washed up and empty-feeling, needing more than the push and pull of the sea to erase bad memories of a bad childhood that turned into a dysfunctional adulthood, where he did odd jobs for a living and surfed for the living, living out of a car.
Percy was already tipsy (buzzed, men didn't get 'tipsy') when the game was proposed.
The rules were simple, straightforward, easily understood by the drinking and drunk people people, judging by the loud, collective inhale punctuated with jeers.
"Okay." Percy set down his glass, turned to the challenger, a fair-haired water-skier Percy'd seen here and there. "How's it work?"
Percy nodded at the bottle on the table, as the man explained and a small crowd built up.
The bottle was vodka, this time, but apparently it differed sometimes. There, resting at the bottom of the bottle, was one vividly colored gummy worm, curling in on itself.
Percy's objective was pretty straightforward: Get the gummy worm as fast as you can, preferably before getting alcohol poisoning.
Of course, the task was easier said than done, Percy mused, as he tried, and tried.
By the time he figured it out, he'd drunk more of the bottle than he meant to, when he remembered that heavy things sink, so he put the bottle to his lips (again.), kept them sealed, and tipped his head back. Bitter liquid seeped in the corners of his mouth, but after a moment of not drinking, he felt the bump of the candy against his lips so he opened his mouth quick and snapped it closed, gently grabbing the end of the worm, and tipped the bottle back down, pulling the worm out, clear liquer splashing against his cheek and tickling down to his neck.
Percy sat the bottle down on the table with a satisfied 'clink' and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, feeling the taught skin that was used to being dry, thanks to a daily dose of salty water.
Percy grinned around the red gummy worm before sucking it into his mouth and chewing it up. After that long in the drink, it was shot through with vodka.
Charlie, the water-skier who challenged him, raised a drink and, as the small crowd dispersed, told the next three people that walked by that Percy'd beaten his record.
"I never figured it out." Charlie shook his head ruefully, speaking louder than he needed to, fueled by his own drink. "Drained half the bottle, before it washed right into my mouth."
"Yeah?" Percy didn't care, but between what he'd drunk before and what he drunk in the game he was feeling good, and Charlie had a nice voice, and paid for his drink because he won.
.
Percy was at the bar the night someone broke his record. The guy was tall, lithe, slim muscles like a swimmer, with dark hair and eyes and olive skin. Percy'd never seen him, but Charlie greeted him with a knowing smile and a clap on the back.
"Percy, Nico di Angelo." Charlie pointed from Percy to the dark looking man, who was practically a boy, and back again, "Nico, this is Percy Jackson. He's our resident surfer and occasional fisherman."
"Nice to meet you." Percy offered with a bright smile.
"You too." Nico said slowly, dropping into the chair across from Percy and next to Charlie.
"Nico's going to try to beat your record!" Charlie declared gleefully. Judging from that and the way Charlie was eying Nico, Percy, and the waitress that walked by, Percy guessed Charlie was already was already a couple sheets to the wind.
"I am?" Nico said it skeptically.
"Yep." Charlie clapped Nico on the back and waved down the waitress, telling her in far too many words that Nico needed a vodka-and-gummy-worm bottle. Charlie explained the game, and told Nico about how many people had ended up on the floor after an attempt to drain the bottle for the prize at the bottom, like a toy in a cereal box, except less socially acceptable.
"No." Nico said shortly, when the bottle hit the table in front of him and the candy was dropped in.
"C'mon." Charlie whined. "Give it a shot. The worst thing that happens is you get a free drink!"
"No."
"Maybe he shouldn't." Percy eyed Nico. "Is he even old enough?"
Charlie waved a hand, like he didn't know, and providing alcohol to a minor wasn't a problem.
"Are you even old enough?" Percy questioned Nico, guessing his blonde friend wasn't going to be very helpful.
"Yes." Nico scowled at the bottle. "I'm still not interested."
"C'mon." Charlie pushed some more. "I'll let you stay at mine, I know you don't have anywhere to stay!"
That was kind of low, Percy thought, and Charlie had an ulterior motive if there ever was one, but it seemed to work for Nico. He leveled his eyes at the bottle while Charlie motioned for a stopwatch to start, and a couple people walked (or tripped) over to watch, and Nico's eyes glittered as he snagged a couple of glasses off the other tables, unscrewed the cap again, and turned the bottle over, messily pouring the drink into the cups, sloshing burning liquid, until the gummy worm (green this time) swept into a cup. Nico grabbed that cup and drained it, screwing up his eyes at the flavor, and prodding the worm out of his mouth slightly as if to prove he had, indeed, got it.
Charlie sat back with a thunk, eying the mostly-empty bottle, the glasses, the wet surface of the table from where Nico had been careless pouring. "Dang." Charlie said appreciativly, and Percy couldn't agree more as someone called out 'thirty seconds!' and Nico grinned, low, feral, and chewed on the gummy worm.
"I guess that means I've been beaten." Percy wondered if Nico's methods were against the rules, if there were rules, but it didn't really matter to Percy, because Nico's creepy smile sent a shiver down his spine, in a good way, like a wave that's too tall and you know it, but you're going to ride it anyway.
"You have." Nico said, like a promise, and Percy threw back his head and laughed fully like he hadn't had a reason to for a while, because it seemed he really was beaten.
.
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"Wait, I thought you and Annabeth dated first?" Clarisse interrupted rudely, in a very 'Clarisse-ish' manner.
"We did." Annabeth ran a hand over Nico's forehead. "After that night, Nico went back east again, before Percy could catch his number." She smiled, knowing she could laugh about it because she had them now and time wasted didn't matter.
"How'd you two meet, then?"
"Sharks." Annabeth said simply, turning to look at Percy.
.
Percy rolled in off a wave, feeling the familiar and welcome burn in his arms from all the paddling, chest on a surfboard. He padded up to the high-tide mark, feet squishing into the sand, the ankles of his wet-suit grabbing the tiny grains and holding them.
He'd barely set the board down gently and collapsed into the sand himself before the sun was obstructed by a tall shadow with a girl's figure. Percy squinted and made out a t-shirt, curly blonde hair, and a clip-board.
"Hello, I'm Annabeth Chase." The shadow that was blocking his light announced.
"Percy. Percy Jackson." Percy responded in kind.
"I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions?"
"That's fine." Percy let the amusing nature of the situation roll over him, too tired to do anything else.
"I heard a local discussing you're run-in with a shark. Can you expound on that?"
"On what, exactly?"
"The shark." Annabeth responded patiently. He couldn't make out her face, because of the light being behind her, but she sounded slightly patronizing.
Percy hesitated, learned nature making him cautious. "Why do you ask?"
She seemed taken aback, like she didn't think he'd be suspicious of someone who walked up to him and started asking about his shark run-ins. They weren't all that uncommon, because the sharks didn't bite people very often at all (little known surfer fact: sharks don't actually like surfers. or any humans. go figure.), but surfers and swimmers saw them, every know and again.
"I'm collecting data. I volunteer at an environmental group, and we've been collecting information about the shark species around here." Annabeth pointed over Percy's shoulder at a van parked up the beach a ways, and a man on crutches who was leaning against the side of the van, obscuring the emblem, while he typed on a phone.
"Okay." Percy shrugged. Suspicious by nature, but it didn't seem like this woman would be able to hurt him in any way by asking about his incidents with wildlife.
"I was out there," Percy pointed far up the beach, past a craggy outlook, where the more talented surfers sometimes went but swimmers hardly ever dared. "floating, waiting for a wave. There was a school of fish, a big one, about a dozen yards away from me—"
"If you could just describe the shark, for me." Annabeth cut him off cautiously, like she thought he might snap at her for interrupting his monologue, but she didn't really care enough not to.
"Big." Percy said simply. "About twice my board length."
Annabeth eyed his board, sitting in the sand near him. Percy wished the underside that was now facing up wasn't covered in flowers, because that was kind of embarrassing.
Percy described the large fish in more detail, everything he could remember, while Annabeth wrote it down and made tiny pleased noises.
"Thanks." She said happily, staring down at the clipboard and then Percy, still reclined on the beach.
"Can I have your number?" Percy asked, as she turned to walk away.
She opened her mouth to say something, and closed it again, looking like a fish herself.
Percy smiled winningly. She was a pretty woman, and smart, and she liked sharks, and okay, Percy was a bit lonely, with no one but himself, his board, Charlie and the occasional ten-foot fish visitor.
"Yes." She finally answered, and looked surprised at herself, like she hadn't meant to say that. But she scribbled down the digits anyway, ripped off the bottom of the paper, and smiled at him.
.
.
"What about Nico?" Clarisse wrinkled up her nose, like it'd just occurred to her that there was a missing element.
"Wait for it." Nico advised, tilting his head back.
"You said something about sabotage." Clarisse sounded the word out.
Percy growled, still angry.
.
It was a month later, at the local surfing competition, when it happened. Nico was in town for the month, staying with Charlie, again, and Annabeth laughed when Charlie came in to work every morning with a cranky look on his face. Charlie and Annabeth had grown kind of close, bonding over times when she came to pick up a tipsy (buzzed, not tipsy!) Percy from the bar and grill, when Percy felt the empty-feeling which came less often, but never really went away. Annabeth could relate: everybody had a secret, a bad spot, and she wasn't going to begrudge her free-spirited boyfriend his.
So on that Saturday morning Charlie and Nico walked out on the shifting sand to the beach, towels in tow, where they sprawled out next to Annabeth and the man-in-crutches, whose name was Grover and whom Percy had grown fond of. Grover was protective of Annabeth: if Percy had trouble convincing her his intentions were good, even if his personality left something to be desired, it was doubly-hard to convince Grover.
Percy jogged out of the nearby building, in the process of working an arm into his wet-suit, and made a beeline for the four spectators who showed up to watch him.
"Hey." He greeted them all, as he (at long last) managed to zip up his suit.
"Good luck." Annabeth wished him, pressing a wet kiss to his mouth. Percy pulled away to see Nico quickly looking away, Grover glaring fiercely while blushing, and Charlie sighing and looking down at his water bottle that probably wasn't actually filled with water. Percy made a note to talk about maybe getting something other than alcohol and fries into his friend.
"I'll need it." Percy joked as he walked away.
.
It was Grover, oddly enough, that first spotted something was wrong. Percy was surfing a little worse than usual, about on-par with the others, not as far ahead as he usually was.
"Something's wrong." Grover absently started gnawing on the edge of his cup, leaving little teeth-grooves in the plastic.
'What?" Nico latched onto Grover's words speedily, concerned.
"He's not holding himself well." Charlie spoke up, from on Annabeth's other side. "He looks like he's sick."
It was true, and Annabeth's stomach rolled as she saw Percy stumble, losing his balance on the board he spent hours on most days, unbelieving.
"Something's wrong." She echoed Grover, just as Percy started to fall, limp, into the water.
It was Charlie who tossed down his drink and dove in, heading out for the dark head that bobbed and started to sink, swimming as hard as he'd ever done, and that was a lot considering he worked in the water for a living.
It was Annabeth who dialed ran for help, furiously yelling for someone to come because Percy was unresponsive on the shore, feet still in the water.
It was Nico who checked Percy's vitals, brushing off Grover's concern with a brisk "I'm a med student, back off and get help".
The ambulance wasn't far away, just down the shore a bit, because they were always on hand at competitions like these.
Nico passed off the care and keeping of Percy's pulse to the EMT's and stood, in the sand, as Percy was rushed away, and wished he had some claim on Percy's life like Percy had on his, so he could go to the hospital and make absolutely sure. Annabeth wanted to ride in the ambulance but also didn't want to; she should've needed to take care of him but she would only get in the way and she needed to be taken care of, too, because she had been terrified.
Grover put an arm around Annabeth and pulled her in, and Nico wrapped tucked a jacket around her in an out-of-character protective move that didn't make a lot of sense but he hoped was appreciated, because it was all Nico could offer. "He's fine, just out of it. You heard Nico: he had a strong pulse and was breathing."
"Yes." Annabeth said gratefully, turning to Nico. "Thanks for checking, and thank you," she turned to a dripping wet Charlie, standing there in all his soaked clothes. "for pulling him out."
"Of course!" Charlie waved a hand dismissively. "We all love Percy!"
It was a sharp pull in everyone's heart when he said that. Charlie, who never had a friend, and Grover, who trusted Percy with the girl he loved like a sister he never had, and Nico, who hadn't known anything bordering on love or affection in a long time before he topped Percy's record at the Kikashi.
Annabeth and Charlie distracted themselves with grabbing all of Percy's stuff from around and stuffing it into Percy's car, while Nico watched passively, distracted.
The hospital called Annabeth and reported he was fine, that he'd be fine, that the problem was poisoning, drugging, someone's nasty way of taking Percy out of the running by way of tablet dropped into his water bottle.
Sabotage.
.
It was Nico who figured out who did it, who bribed a waitress into saying who it was who openly, blatantly, dropped something into Percy's drink and dropped a wink in her direction, comfortable in his idea that she wouldn't tell anyone. Nico pointed to him, a scrawny man who was friends with another competitor, and said "him".
The cops weren't going to do anything, he reasoned, and Annabeth knew that would be true. They had no evidence other than the waitress's word and the way the thin, blonde man smirked at them, cocky, when his friend won the competition.
Annabeth distracted him, talking to him quietly, while Nico and Charlie slashed the guy's tires and cut a couple of cords under the hood, because while it may have been shallow and petty, their friend was sick and they were feeling pretty shallow and petty and bent on some revenge, okay?
When Nico looked the cop in the eye and shrugged, and gave that same wicked-feral-grin, Annabeth felt the jolt down her spine like Percy had, and felt a bit of the rush, the dangerous feeling, and felt the safety slip out from under her like sand.
So she grabbed Nico's hand and didn't think about it as she tugged him into the backseat of Charlie's car, as Charlie started it up to take them to the local hospital, because people were getting drugged around here and she deserved a little out-of-character action.
It was awkward, at first, but they made it work. Nico still spent a lot of time out of town, going to medical school and using his knowledge for the potential destruction of the world, neither Percy or Annabeth knew. Percy still rode the waves until his muscles shook, and occasionally drank until the ground pitched under him like the ocean. Annabeth went through times when she hated the both of them, when she turned up on Grover's door and later Grover and Juniper's door, and she'd stay there and gather data for them while she calmed down.
They were only human, and it was a human relationship, and that's what made it wonderful.
.
.
"Great." Clarisse snarled, finishing off the last swallow of her beer. "That's a lame story. That's all there is?"
"We have a lot of sex." Nico added, making Clarisse nearly spit the drink out in a spray.
"TMI, di Angelo." She groaned.
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A/N: I love Percabethico, and reviews. Make my day?
Tobi.