Hey so this is a Percy/Eris one shot with a bit of Percy/Annabeth.
This was requested by XMistressChaosX
Hope you all enjoy
I in no way own PJatO or HoO
Percy sat dejectedly in the middle of his apartment, there was barley any furniture and the floor was covered in rubbish, food scraps and clothes.
In his hands a bottle lingered and he stared deeply at it, as if wishing that he could sprout more of the alcoholic beverage into the bottle, just so he could drink it down again. So he could forget.
He rubbed his hands over his bloodshot eyes and looked around the room, a sharp intake of breath when he looked at the window and at the light that shone through the room, almost blinding him. He didn't remember ever opening the blinds, but then again he was usually too drunk to remember things like that, he shielded his eyes and looked towards the other side of the room and frowned in disgust.
He picked up the bottle and tried to aim it at the far wall. But he misses the object and the glass shatters at the wall completely missing the small object on the floor, it really shouldn't have surprised him, because he could see at least five of the objects and three walls, as if it had some kind of force field protecting it, then again it probably did.
He growled in frustration and he could have sworn he heard laughter a soft malicious laughter that made his blood run cold, so cold he almost shivered.
Instead he stood, swaying on his feet he moved towards the bathroom he steps in between the different sets of clutter and frowns and curses when he steps on things that either brake of hurt his foot.
He hadn't always been like this.
In fact he had been almost perfect before this all happened, before he was cursed.
He looks over at the tree and smiles Annabeth is sitting in his lap and he can't see how life can get any better than this.
His hands run through her hair as she reads about the importance of a structural wall, he just smiles at how engrossed she is in the book, but he can see the smile when his hands trace along her head.
"Do we have to go to this thing?" he asks, Annabeth turns and faces him with a frown.
"Yes of course you do. It is a party for me." she brings her hand to her chest dramatically with a smile and the two laugh uncontrollably. Percy leans closer and kisses her flat on the lips.
"Then we have to." She smiles up at him and closes the book before leaping on top of her boyfriend.
Yeah, life could never get any better.
He steps in the shower and his hangover is completely gone as soon as the water hits him, he smiles into it and raises his head so that the water can completely refresh his face, the stubble on his chin disappears and his hair loses the large knots that have broken numerous combs.
He lets out a sweet sigh before getting out, his appearance completely different, his eyes a richer green and his hair perfectly neat with only few stray hairs leaping up into the air like a spring. He gets dressed quickly and brushes his teeth.
He walks out towards the front door and he sees the object again and he frowns at it while cussing out a few words he looks around the room, it is her calling card.
Before walking out the door and slamming it shut behind him.
He stands awkwardly by a statue as everyone mingles around them, he is once again dressed in a suit that feels too tight despite the fact it rolls of him, Annabeth stands in the middle talking to her mother, she is dressed in an elegant ball gown that has Percy stutter whenever she talks to him.
She just replies with something like. "You know so many words sea weed brain."
Then he usually just smiles and says something about how beautiful she looks and that ends up with the two of them kissing and people to 'whoop' and cheer behind them, which gets embarrassing after a while.
His hands are in his pocket and he looks around the room at all the gods. He doesn't realise one of them is missing until he hears the screech and the large commotion and before he knows it everyone is crowding around the entrance.
He can hear Zeus over the crowd trying to resolve the matter and Hermes in the background making the situation worse.
His eyes meet Annabeth's and they both shrug and before he knows it he is moving towards her, his feet having a mind of their own. Athena is now lost somewhere in the crowd.
"What is going on?" Percy asks frowning in the direction.
Annabeth stands next to him and follows suit. "I have no idea." She replies contemplative.
Percy smiles and looks down at Annabeth. "Wanna check it out?" he asks, she smiles and wraps her arm around him with a smile.
"I thought you would never ask."
Thinking back on it Percy wishes they never went to check it out.
Percy stands on the bus on arm clutched to the railing and the other holding onto his briefcase. He is quiet on the bus and refuses to talk or look at anyone, not that it stops others from trying.
He gets off the bus and walks towards the large building, he groans when he sees it, but he walks in any way. The first floor is marbled and polished and people dressed in suits similar to his walk around.
This doesn't stop him from feeling isolated and alone.
He walks towards the elevator and watches as others cram in behind him, he isn't scared of monsters showing up because they only show up when a demigod is there.
He doesn't know how he ended up in the middle of the fray, it was probably when the goddess pointed a finger at his girlfriend and demand her to tell the goddess, why she wasn't invited.
This reminded Percy of the wedding of Thetis and Peleus. He knew immediately who this was then.
"Tell your girlfriend that I didn't want to be invited to her party anyway." She huffs folding her arms over her chest and snubbing her nose upwards.
Percy growls and tries to hold back his tongue but he can't he looks at the goddess with a snarl and everyone is quiet.
"If you didn't want to come why are you acting like a child." He spits, Eris looks at him shocked, for a moment before it changes and she is snarling at him with a vicious smile.
"I like this one." She says leering and Percy suddenly feels naked under her gaze, but Athena steps in and glares at the goddess.
"You know why you weren't invited, now move along, Eris." Eris' eyes look over at the other goddess with a snarl.
"Fine." She says before leaving the room in a huff.
Percy gets the feeling he will be seeing more of her.
He steps outside of the elevator and is met with the sound of keypads typing and printers and photocopiers.
He smiles in greeting to a few people who smile and wave back.
He hates it here.
He places his suitcase down inside his office after closing the door firmly behind him; there are no personal items on his desk, except for a few pictures.
There is one hanging on the wall, a picture of him and his father, both smiling and laughing at something, there are waves crashing in the background and he feels safe with it.
There is another that sits on his desk; it is of his mother and Paul both on their wedding day. He smiles when he sees their smiling faces and he pulls out some of his paperwork.
But he doesn't have a picture of Annabeth, because when he puts them up they disappear, and he usually finds a certain object in his office.
He looks over his paperwork and reads it with ease.
Because Dyslexia is for demigods.
He wakes up panting, his body sweating and he sees it, casting a golden glow over the room, and he frowns and gets out of the bed.
Slowly he walks over towards it and picks it up.
It feels light and yet heavy at the same time and the smell makes him smile, and he wants to eat it. To enjoy the taste of this fruit on his lips. But after a while demigods learn not to eat random glowing fruit that is placed in their cabins.
He looks underneath it and sees a roll of parchment. He puts the fruit down resisting the temptation to eat it and picks up the note.
It is written in ancient Greek making it easy for him to read and he smiles softly before reading it, then his smile fades and his memory searches to find information and when he finds it he almost collapses to the ground.
'To the fairest.'
Percy panics and looks around the room before dropping the note on the ground.
His fingers feel like ice and his feet and legs like lead.
Slowly he moves back to his bed.
And he knows that this is only the beginning.
Percy packs the paper work away and casts one more look at the two photos' the only photos he has of his parents, he keeps them here to cheer him up and they are the only reason he goes to work.
He waves goodbye to those who are still there and he spends a few minutes talking to one of the interns who just smiles sheeply and answers questions and asks his own.
Percy smiles and tells him all he wants to know before disappearing in the elevator.
It is silent except for the music which pangs him, as he descends the giant building.
He steps out after the ding and almost runs out the door his hands reach the bars to the swivelling doors and he pushes his way out with a smile.
Her hands are on his face and he tries to push her away, but she has a way that makes him crave her touch and he hates himself for it.
"You should leave her." She says her voice like silk and Percy is wrapping himself in it.
"But I love her." He says inching further away from her, but she follows him, she always follows him.
"If you love her, why are you here?" he is confused at her and as if to prove her wrong he steps off the bed and pulls on his shirt, ignoring her complaints.
"I changed my mind." Percy says softly, he looks at the goddess and frowns. "I can't keep doing this."
She growls and he regrets starting this and finishing it. He doesn't know what she will do.
She steps off the bed with a flourish and glares at him. "If I can't have you no one can." He expects her to curse him but she just smiles and leaves the room in a puff of smoke that has Percy cough loudly.
Percy steps inside his apartment and drops his key inside the small bowl and cracks his neck and loosens his tie before checking the answering machine.
He has five missed calls all from other women. Women who ask to meet up again, but he just shrugs his shoulders, he feels nothing for them. He can't feel anything for anyone.
They are all just one night stands that he has had trying to prove that he can love someone else. But he can't.
He pulls out another bottle and thinks of the amount of children he has sired and he feels guilty, if he ever met them what would he tell them.
"I didn't love your mother and I never will, I just wanted to see if I could love." he could imagine all the new little Luke's running around Camp and he frowns.
He doesn't know if he is angry at himself or the one that caused this.
Her hands linger on his throat as she tries to relax it.
But he is struggling under her grip, his hands turning white from the pressure as he fists his sheets.
'This is it,' he thinks. 'This is how I am going to die.'
He doesn't know how long he is struggling for, but he feels the fruit slide down in throat and he wants to cry.
He didn't want this.
He doesn't want this.
"This is your curse to bear." She whispers in his ear. "You will live for an eternity, and you will love no one."
Percy blinks back the tears, he doesn't know how she has the power to do this to him, but then again she is a goddess.
He can feel her smile on his cheek and suddenly he throws up in shock and he looks at her with a frown, one that could be deadly if he wanted it to be.
"What have you done?" he asks removing himself from her, as he stares down at his fingers in shock and anger.
She just smiles as if it is a joke and he wants to wring her neck. "I told you, if I can't have you no one can."
And she is gone.
Percy wants to cry and collapse to the ground, he can't feel anything he is numb.
He looks at a picture of his girlfriend and he doesn't feel the butterflies or the warm feeling he gets when he is around her.
No.
He can't feel anything and he breaks down in tears.
He is broken.
His eyes search the room and he sees the basket of golden apples and he cries out in pain and betrayal.
Percy looks down at the object that distracted him earlier in the morning.
He frowns at it before picking it up, he has half a mind to travel to Olympus and demand to see the goddess, to make her shut down the curse.
But she doesn't, she never does.
No matter how much he begs, how much he cries, she just asks the same question over and over again.
"Do you love me?" and there is always that sick smile on her lips. That sick and infuriating smile.
Because that is his curse he can't love and he can't die.
All because of a stupid Golden fucking apple.
But he can't do anything and he has been stuck like this for seventeen years, stuck and trapped forever as an 18 year old.
An 18 year old god.
Percy looks at the apple closely and throws it across the room.
"I never did like apples." He says before pulling out another drink, prepared to drown his sorrows.
Okay Longer than I expected.
I hope you enjoyed this one; I had fun writing it haha.
So please review and tell me what you thought.