AN: Hey guys! Salty here! (Or Frost, whichever you feel like calling me!) With my first Percy Jackson fanfic! I've also uploaded this over on A03!

Basically, I felt the urge to try something different, namely writing in first person as that isn't something I've ever done.
I also decided I wanted to do a polyamourous relationship and my four PJO faves became my targets, so here we are!

I hope you guys enjoy wherever this ride takes us! Let me know what you think at the end!

Chapter 1: Nico

Coffee is good. Black coffee is very good. Coffee with just the right amount of cream and sugar is excellent. A latte is all right every once in awhile and a mocha is perfect on a cool night with a good book and the radio on. Espresso is the only reason some people are able to function in the morning and cappucino...? Cappucino is the reason I get out of bed every day.

Specifically this cappucino on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings. Why this cappucino you ask? Because not only is it a perfect mix of everything I like my coffee to be (I'm something of a coffee snob. Sorry about that.), it also has a beautiful heart drawn in the foam every time I order it and the smile that brings it to me reminds me that I'm alive and that getting up on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays is important too. Even if on those days, it's a different coffee.

With the warm smell of fresh java surrounding me, I find I do some of my best work here. The people who sit here or outside are relaxed and the easiest to sketch and draw. Not just the customers either, the employees make excellent models.

"Don't you have enough drawings of me?"

Never. I could never draw your smile, your hair, your eyes, your nose, your hands enough.

"You're the only one who stands still long enough. I guess the others are just too busy working." Jason rolled his eyes at me and probably would've hit me with the cloth in his hands if there weren't other people in the cafe.

"Someone woke up on the asshole side of the bed this morning." He told me dryly, snatching my empty mug and plate from the table top. I laughed. I couldn't help it. "Poor Will must think you want me too." Jason grinned and I smirked back at him and was likely still doing so as he walked away and checked on other customers. Jason had no idea how close to the truth he actually was.

Looking down at my sketchbook, Jason's face smiles back up at me, almost leaning off the page towards me with my perfect cappucino and muffin. Beside him on the page a woman feeds her baby, above her a bowl of fruit and beside that, a man leaning against the lamp post outside smoking a cigarette. The hands down in the bottom right are also Jason's. The barely there lines on the next page also happen to be the same cheerful barista serving cake to a little girl.

My life drawing teacher could probably recognize Jason in a heartbeat from how often he graces the pages of my sketchbooks. But that's how it goes I guess, we tend to favour the things we like. Or something like that. He is right though, there's a lot of him in this one, really the only person there's more of in it is Will – my boyfriend. I really should mix it up a bit, get away from the coffee and home scene a bit more before I had to pass this one in.

I dig my wallet out of my back pack – yes it's a black one with a chain on it. So sue me. It's practically falling apart I've had it for so long, but I love the damn thing and I'm not about to throw it away cause it's not cool. Will sighs at it every time he sees it, but he's since learned to not say anything about it anymore. It's not going anywhere any time soon.

I drop some money on the table, shoulder my back pack and pick up my drawing stuff. I throw Jason a quick wave and he sends me out the with another smile.

It's nice outside. Warm, sunny, bit of a breeze, but there are dark clouds on the horizon that look like they're going to bring rain in the afternoon. Which means if I want to draw outside, I had best be doing so before class today, otherwise it'll be an indoor drawing day today.

I don't mind either way. People are fascinating to look at and watch no matter where they are. Going about their business, day in and out, most not even aware of the things happening around them. My sketchbooks are filled with so many small, private moments in strangers lives, captured with graphite, charcoal and ink.

People are my favourite things to draw. Definitely not my favourite things to interact with, but draw, yes. People let down their barriers when they don't think others are watching and it's amazing to look at. The way a father holds his daugters hand. The way a lady carefully fixes her lipstick. How children look at the world around them. People are incredible things to look at and watch and as long as most of them stay away from me, I'm happy to sit and draw them.

As I near the building with my first class of the day in it, I'm not really looking at whats right in front of me. Cars zipping past on the road aren't all that interesting, you know. I'm paying just enough attention to them so as to not get mowed over. Instead, most of my attention is on what is around me.

The shops opening for the day. The fresh smell of baking bread. Kids laughing from somewhere near by and students all starting to cluster on the sidewalk, heading in the same direction as me. All laden with their packs of supplies to hopefully help them get ahead in life.

This light is taking a damn long time to change.

Across the street from me is a girl. Probably a student too. Maybe a few years older than me. She's got warm skin, brown hair and brightly coloured feathers braided into her hair. The shock of blue standing out remarkably against the dark brown.

My fingers itch to draw her. To bring her to life on the white pages in my sketch book. She seems to be waiting or someone. She's holding her phone in her hand and keeps looking at it and then looking around. I wonder who she's waiting for? I wonder that a lot. Sometimes, when I look over my book at the end of the day, I'll look at the faces and wonder where they went after that brief moment of being still. Where did they go, what did they do?

All I get is a brief window into their lives and all I can do is make up the story as I go along, pouring it out from my pencil.

As soon as I get across the street, I sit on the building steps and open my book, the light lines of the girl almost appearing on the page like magic next to the hard lines of Jason. I wonder what the feathers are for. Why are they blue? Is that her favourite colour?

It's not long before the person she was waiting for shows up. Another girl with vibrant blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. They hug and head off down the street. I never see the blonde girls face, but she had a backpack on and was also probably a student. It's a college town, most of us are students to some degree here.

The girls sharing their embrace started to appear on the next page, quick lines drawn across the white from memory. They looked to be good friends. Did they greet each other like that every time they saw each other? Or were they meeting again for the first time in a long time? I suppose I'll never know.

Suddenly a basketball bumps my foot, startling me from my thoughts and drawing and I'm sure I look as confused as possible when I look down at it.

"Sorry!" Slender hands suddenly settle on the ball – there are band aids on three fingers – and lift the ball from the concrete by my foot. I follow it up and this time there's no mistaken the definite deer look on my face. Well done Di Angelo.

"Uh, uh..." Nobody look at me.

"I dropped it. Sorry again!" The owner of the ball grins at me in an undeniably apologetic fashion, tucks his ball under his arm and turns away. I can only stare at his back as he heads off down the street, my mouth still hanging open from our brief (very brief) encounter.

It wasn't that I'd never seen the man before. He's actually on a few of my sketchbook pages as well. It's just that it's been a very long time since I've seen his face that close to mine. Since I've had one of his casually amazing crooked smiles directed right at me.

My heart finally catches up to the situation and starts hammering hard in my chest. Coming from a complete standstill, the feeling was a little disconcerting. And annoying. I got over Percy Jackson a long time ago.

A very long time ago.

Which of course might make you wonder why he's in my sketchbook. Simply put, he has an amazing body. One that as an artist, I'm certainly allowed to appreciate.

I have three favourite people I like to draw.

Will, when we're at home or out and about. He's soft and flowy and I could spend all day drawing him and it would never be enough to capture his radiant beauty. The curve of his tender smiles looks up at me from almost every other page of my sketchbook. He's all gentle lines and shading and everything that puts me at ease and makes me feel. His is a body that cradles and heals and brings out the sun on a cloudy day.

Jason, when he's at work or when we're just hanging out. He's strong and hard and I could draw him for hours on end. He's completely solid and as Will once pointed out in a drawing; literally shaped like a dorito. The way his muscles curve and arch beneath his clothing is absolutely mesmerizing and I know I stare sometimes. It's hard not to watch the smooth machine that is the body of Jason Grace move. His is a body that punches through the air with strength and defence and protection.

Then there's Percy Jackson.

He's in my sketchbook just as much as Will and Jason and if I'm being completely honest, I've probably drawn him more than either of them. The only difference being that unlike Will and Jason, Percy has no idea I still draw him.

I draw Percy at the pool.

He's there a lot, which makes sense. He works as a life guard there, gives swimming lessons and swims himself. Percy is all crisp, smooth, slender lines. His is a body that allows him to slice through water and remain completely unreachable by anyone.

I look at the hands drawn on the page beside the girls embracing and I wonder, where did the three band aids and scrapes come from, what did he do to his hands?

It's another one of those things I'll never know. Whatever it was probably happened while he was doing something stupid. Like attempting parkour or skateboarding down a flight of stairs or some other dumb thing that he'd be one to do. That's the kind of guy Percy always was. I'm still embarrassed by how long it took me to realize he wasn't actually my type – that I was just gripping my foolish crush like some idiot.

Still, as annoying as Percy always was, he's still a great model to draw.

Which is why I guess I've found myself once again sitting in the stands at the pool after my classes finished for the day. There are a lot of people here. Which is normal, it is Monday afterall. The pool runs an after school program for kids on Mondays, one that Percy often guards or teaches at.

"What are you drawing?"

"Huh?" There's a little girl sitting on the bench next to me, looking at me with typical childlike wonder and amazement. I guess she's immune to the usual grim-reaper, anti-social vibes I give out. I should probably work on that.

"Can I see?" She inches closer to me on the bench and automatically I wince and hug my sketchbook closer to my chest. "Please?" She prompts. "I like to draw too!" She grins and looks expectantly at my book. She's not going to go away, is she?

I need a minute to think. I look over the pool for a second, just to see something other than her insistent face and instantly I'm caught by the calculating look being given to me by the lifeguard; Percy. I quickly look back at the little girl, push back a sigh and show her the page I was on.

"Wow!" She exclaims, studying it. "That's pretty good!" She chirps.

"Oh really?" I actually wasn't drawing Percy this time. I was drawing the small cluster of parents sitting in the lowest stands closest to the pool across the way from me. Their excitement and concern for their children etched onto the page in my book.

"Yeah, it's all right." I'd been downgraded from pretty good to 'all right' in the matter of seconds. This was why I didn't hang out with kids. "I'll show you mine!" And then she was taking her Frozen back pack off and unzipping it with... The cast on her arm certainly explained why she wasn't swimming.

Most surprisingly, even with my little... bench friend, I did get more drawing done. After she showed me her doodles, she grabbed her math book from her bag and set her scribbler against it and declared:

"I'm going to draw Coach Percy!" And then holding out her hands, she made a box with her forefingers and thumbs, closed one eye and stuck her tongue out and made a great show of watching Percy through the window she'd made. "You should draw him too! Then I can give you some pointers!"

"Pointers."

"Yeah! That way you can get better."

I had nothing to say to that. But having been given an open window to draw him, I wasn't going to say no. Percy wasn't actually coaching or running the kids program tonight. He was life guarding the deeper end of the pool that was still open to the general public. He wore the loose shorts and tank top that said 'lifeguard' on them. Whistle hanging around his neck, life preserver held loosely in his hand.

He looked so calm and collected, walking slowly, methodically up and down the length of the deep end of the pool. He'd pause at either end for a few moments and look around, before resuming the steady, observant walk. I know most people, when they see a lifeguard, they all tend to wonder 'Has he or she ever saved a life before?' Percy has. Right here, at this pool.

I saw it with my own two eyes. It had been a normal day and everything was fine and dandy. I was drawing a group of elderly swimmers doing the Aquasize class. There was the typical echo-y noise of a pool; kids shouting and splashing, coaches calling out encouragement. People were doing laps, some couples were goofing off and then came the piercing blast of the whistle.

Percy had moved like lightning through the water.

One moment he'd been standing on the side, talking to a guy in the water and in the next breath, his sharp eyes had seen what no one else had. He blew on the whistle and was in the water and across the pool before most people had even realized the whistle had been blown.

They said afterward that it was Percy's quick action that had saved the womans life. Apparently she usually swam in the shallow end, but having seen the Aquasize class, the kids and the couples goofing off, thought she'd try swimming her laps in the other end of the pool. She'd inhaled water instead of air and of course, the bottom of the pool wasn't right under her feet where she was used to it being.

He got her out of the pool and someone screamed when they realized the woman wasn't moving, which of course made all the kids start screaming and crying. But all of Percy's focus was on the woman, it was like he didn't even hear the noise. He just administered CPR and when he accepted the womans flowers and thank you card a few days later, he just smiled at her. Like keeping people from death by drowning was something he did every day.

I guess, it is something he does every day.

"How did you do that?"

"Huh?" My bench friend was looking at me with wide eyes and then pointed at my Percy sketches. His face, his hand curled around the life preserver, standing by the pool.

"He's moving around too much to just draw!" My bench friend puffed out her cheeks in frustration and looked at her scribbler paper. It was... Percy. We'll say it was Percy because that's who she wanted it to be. Standing by a pool with a life saver ring in his hand and a big smile on his face and a bunch of cheering... shapes with faces in the pool. I'll assume they're kids.

I'm being mean aren't I?

She does have a broken arm and my drawings probably looked the same when I was her age.

"Hey, that's pretty good!" I told her, nodding at the drawing.

"Really?" She grinned at me.

"Yeah, it's all right." I gestured to it with my pencil. "You should sign it when it's finished."

"And give it to him!?" I wasn't going to say that but, whatever. I nodded. "Do you think he'll like it?"

"Who wouldn't?"

"Are you gonna give him yours too?" I'm pretty sure the sound I made would've made anyone who wasn't this small child concerned for my health had they been able to hear it over the noise.

"No. No I am not."

"You should! It's really good!"

"Heh. I don't... I don't think it'll mean the same. Um...Coming from me as yours will."

I was thankfully saved from this mortifying conversation by one of the employees giving three quick whistle blows. The after school program was over, kids were getting out of the pool and -

"I think nows your chance." Another lifeguard had just walked over to Percy and taken the life preserver from him. They were switching up.

"Coach Percy!" Shit. I'd meant for her to go to him. Not for her to call him over here. But there she was standing and waving him over and calling his name and... He was coming. Oh God he was coming over.

"Hey Bianca!" My heart froze and I looked at my bench friend in shock. The name of this laughing, smiling, drawing girl with the broken arm was Bianca. Why did it have to be Bianca and Percy?

"Look! Look!" The girl – Bianca quickly scrawled her name on her drawing and tore it from her scribbler and jumped up, hurrying down to Percy and holding the paper out to him.

"What's this?" He took it from her in his slender hands. "Is this me? Aw, Bianca!" Percy always had an odd way of quirking his lips when he smiled, giving it the appearance of being crooked. The grin lit up his face and he draped an arm around Bianca, hugging her close. Her smile was from ear to ear as she hugged him tight, the side of her face pressed against his hip.

Percy crouched down to her level. The adoration on her face was almost palpable. It was an expression I recognized very well, it was one I used to wear for the same person a long, long time ago. I wonder if Percy even remembers my name, let alone the way I used to look at him.

"I love it Bianca!" He looked back at the drawing. "Gonna put this right on my fridge when I get home." The fridge. A high place of honour among child artists. Bianca squealed with delight and then... Oh no. Oh no!

I felt like everything was moving in slow motion. The way she lifted her broken arm, forefinger pointing up, straight at me. I could see the words on her mouth just as well as I could hear them.

"He drew you too! Look!"

And then Percy's gaze rose up to me sitting on the bench and I could only stare in growing horror as Binaca took Percy's freehand and tugged him over to the stand stairs and up the few to -

"Uh, uh..." The same brilliant statement from this morning.

"Show him!" Bianca ordered me cheerfully. Percy for his part, looked both genuinely amused and curious.

I sigh dramatically. Outwardly, I'm sure I look just as dark and broody as ever. On the inside I'm frantically gathering my thoughts. Percy wasn't supposed to ever actually see a drawing of him I'd done.

"It's um... Not as good as yours though." Maybe that'll get her off my case.

"Yes it is!" She insisted. I just stared down at my book. My face feeling hot.

"Bianca, if he doesn't wanna show me..."

Then came the sound of ripping paper. It was like my hands had just come alive on their own and one was tearing the page from my book and holding it out to him, my other was clutching my very hot and likely red face. Oh god.

I felt him take the paper from me. Oh god. Oh god.

I jumped to my feet and threw my backpack over my shoulder.

"There's a – I have to – I'll be going now!" Yeah. I know. Smooth right? I jumped the stand benches like they were really far apart stairs and moved as quickly out of the pool area as I could without breaking the 'no running' rule.

I don't think I stopped moving until I was halfway home whereupon I just leaned against the chain link fence surrounding the park and hugged my sketchbook and tried to remember how to breathe. It was like when my hands just started doing things without me, the rest of me followed suit. Every nerve in my body had just started shouting for me to get out of there. To get away from Bianca and Percy. I didn't want to see him look at the drawing. I didn't want to see his face when he saw himself on that white page.

I took a deep breath and tilted my head back, exhaling slowly. One of my hands carefully went down to my side, curling into a fist. I fought back against my anxiety. I held my breath for a count of seven and let it out to the count of seven. I kept doing that until I was able to feel my knees again and uncurl my hand.

Shit.

I think I stayed there for a few minutes, just enough to get myself totally under control again and then I continued home.

When I walked into my apartment, the first thing to hit me was the fresh smell of Irish Springs. The second was the balled up towel.

"Would you turn on your phone, just for once?"

And there was Will, obviously just having gotten out of shower. His wavy blonde hair was still a bit wet, his white t-shirt was clinging to his damp skin and he was wearing those hideously ugly grey sweat pants he wears when he's 'comfy'.

"What?" I blinked.

"I've been texting you about what you wanted for supper. You didn't answer, so you'll just have to put up with canned soup."

I didn't need supper. I was busy feasting my eyes on Will. I let my back pack fall off my shoulder and set my sketchbook down beside it. I shrugged out of my jacket and slipped my shoes off.

Will had his hands on his hips and that grumpy look he gets on his face when he's had enough of my shit. I ignored it and wrapped my arms around him instead.

"I think I'll just have you."