I HAVE A GIRL TALK
The feeling of being ran over by a truck was beginning to be a constant in my mornings.
My blond cousin and best friend, Jason, often commented that at breakfast I usually looked even less lively than our uncle Hades, sometimes getting a tired chuckle out of me, other times earning himself a long, jaw-dislocating yawn right in the face.
Oh, but where are my manners? My name is Percy Jackson, only son of Poseidon/Neptune, god of the sea and a lot of other stuff. I'm not kidding, as much as I wish this was a joke. For us demigods, having horrible nightmares and near-death situations is a common occurrence, but I probably set a record that nobody wishes to break.
Ever since Annabeth and I had come back from Greece with the others and defeated Gaea, nearly an year ago, memories of Tartarus and what we had become and seen down there had started to haunt our dreams, making it impossible for us to sleep.
At least the Seven knew about and kind of understood my problem, unlike the other campers who just stared at me from afar and whispered, making up rumors about what could have happened in that place.
The newcomers were the worst: they couldn't believe two wars were fought under their noses without them noticing, so they got the elder campers to recount every single detail about the conflicts. Said campers (thanks,Will) apparently thought it was a good idea to picture us as 'the greatest heroes of this age' or something like that.
The result? Well, Jason now had a bunch of fangirls that followed him around both Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood, freaking him out and annoying Piper to no end.
Hazel was now extremely respected, especially at the Roman Camp, and both Nico and she were considered the ambassadors of respectively Pluto and Trivia.
Annabeth and Reyna were the less affected ones (probably because they could be downright terrifying when they wanted to) and as for me...well, there WAS a reason why I was currently trying to keep my cabin's door from collapsing under the weight of a dozen girls.
Apparently, as if the lack of sleep wasn't enough, ever since news spread that I wasn't taken anymore a lot of the new girls at Camp thought that I was waiting for them to make the first move and began to pester me when all I wanted was to be left alone. So now, on my second day back at Camp, I was already being assaulted by crazy nimphs and Aphrodite kids.
I should probably explain the 'not taken anymore' part first.
Last year, right after the Giant War ended, Annabeth and I had started to sleep together to avoid nightmares or at least to calm each other down when we woke up, throats still sore from screaming and horrible images stuck in our minds. After a month, the visions were only getting worse, to the point where Annabeth looking at me only saw the monster that had nearly drowned Akhlys in her own tears and poison.
One night I had been startled awake by her cries of fear and when I had tried to hug her she had screamed again and shoved me away before realizing that I wasn't going to hurt her.
She had called it off two days later, hoping that maybe distance and time would cure our wounds, and the day after she had left, gone to San Francisco with her mortal family for the school year.
I didn't blame her. I mean, yeah, it would have been easier for me if she had stayed by my side, but I could see what our dreams were doing to her and I only wanted for her to be happy.
I was brought out of my musings by a light chuckle and a movement in the darkest corner of my cabin.
"Is it a bad moment, Perce? Maybe I should just come back later..." Gabriel's grass green eyes gazed innocently at me from the other side of the room, where his body was slowly becoming visible.
"Don't even think about it. Now that you're here you have to help me escape. Unless you want to have my death on your conscience" I dramatically raised a hand over my heart, only to put it back quickly against the door as the pressure increased and the banging got louder.
The son of Hecate laughed and strode over to me with a mischievous grin. He grabbed my left bicep and I felt my head spinning for a moment while he worked one of his magic tricks with the Mist on my body.
I was kinda expecting to become invisible, so you can imagine my shock when, opening my eyes,I was greeted with the sight of hair.
Long,straight, dark brown locks of hair were hanging around my face and when I slowly raised my hand to touch them I realized that YES, they were attached to my head.
And that wasn't the worst thing. My hands, my beautiful, manly, calloused hands, were now long and delicate, with polished nails and creamy white skin.
I screamed, and the sound was so high that I shattered my own eardrums.
I turned around so fast that I nearly got a whiplash, but that son of a...goddess had already run away, leaving me to 'admire' my new feminine features.
With a sigh, I chose to ignore the awkwardness of the situation and deal with the problem at hand: my stalkers.
I threw open the door and enjoyed the look of confusion on the girls' faces for a moment before shrieking "He isn't here! Girls, we have to find him, let's split up!"
They looked dejected for a moment, then they huffed, turned around and walked away chatting between themselves.
As I smirked in victory I remembered that I had someone to kill.
I found him leaning against his cabin's door frame with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry Per-"
"Shh!Someone could hear you, idiot! Now do your abracadabra thing and get me out of this!"
He rolled his eyes and led me inside his cabin, muttering something about ungrateful, faithless ignorant people.
Gabriel Anton Astor had arrived at Camp shortly after the battle against Octavian's legions and in less than a year had proved himself as the most talented son of the Goddess of Magic, obtaining the position of cabin leader, but he was still really touchy about his abilities. Go figure.
After changing me back to my original body he took off running towards the Arena, with me hot on his heels.
An hour and seven defeats later, Gab decided that he'd had enough of getting beaten and left me to train alone. I was enjoying myself, not thinking about anything but slash, roll, stab, dodge, repeat. Then she arrived.
She looked nothing like the traumatized, shaken girl that I had seen twelve months ago. She was stronger, healthier, even more beautiful and she was laughing...and holding hands with someone that wasn't me.
I stared at their intertwined hands for what felt like an eternity. I couldn't help it: by looking at them I felt a pressure on my chest, as if my heart and lungs were being squeezed from the inside, but at the same time I just couldn't tear my eyes away.
Jealousy was a lot worse than any other monster I had faced, because it was living within me, feeding off my love and slowly crushing me.
I felt someone putting a hand on my shoulder and, finally turning around, I found a pair of midnight black eyes staring concernedly at me.
"Hey Nico. What's up?" Pathetic attempt to start a conversation,I know, but I wasn't really in the mood to talk.
"Percy, I... Don't you want to rest for a bit? We could sit down,uh... maybe eat something and,um... talk about... things" He finished lamely. I smiled at my younger cousin, who in these past months had been like a brother to me.
"I'd love to, Death Breath. After all, you're the best when it comes to chatting."
"Shut up and walk."
We sat down in silence for a few moments, enough for my traitorous eyes to find again the object of my displeasure, then Nico sighed.
"Come on. Talk to me about it. I may not be a brilliant orator, but I'm a good listener."
I felt like a horrible person. Here was my younger cousin, whose crush on me had contributed to make him feel bad about himself for years, telling me to let it all out.
The sudden rush of affection towards him warmed my heart and made me surge forward to wrap his thin body in a quick hug that had him blushing like crazy.
"Thanks, Nico. I...I just wasn't expecting it. I mean... she just comes back with that guy and doesn't even spare me a glance. Who is he, anyway? Isn't he a son of Athena? He looks like one of her siblings with those blond hair and gray eyes. It's weird seeing them like this!"
"He is a son of Aphrodite, actually. Perce... I don't know what to say. I suppose he's alright, but I don't know him that well. His name is Sebastian B-something, I think.
Where did you get the idea that he was a son of Athena anyway? His eyes are clear blue, almost like Will's but a little darker"
He realized his mistake a second too late and his eyes widened.
"Oh, of course you would know which shade of blue Will's eyes are." I grinned.
"After all, spending so much time on a infirmary bed with him has given you plenty of occasions to admire them."
Nico scowled, but his tomato-red face ruined the death glare he was giving me.
"Shut up Jackson, we were talking about you!"
"Sorry, ADHD." I replied with my most innocent face. "But you can't blame me for being happy for my second OTP getting together. Just tell me when you two kiss and I'll be happy."
Now he was downright mortified. "Who said anything about getting together? And I do NOT have a crush on him. Gods, you are worse than Reyna and Piper sometimes."
"Why are you talking about me?" The tanned face of my Cherokee best friend popped between ours, making us jump back a little. Piper and I had gotten close on the Argo II, between a night watch shift and another, discovering that we were really alike in some ways, for example in our trust in istinct and emotions rather than just logic and strategy, unlike some of our friends coughAnnabethandJasecough. We should have founded a club, the "I'm Dating a Blond Control-Freak Who Probably Loves Giving Orders More Than Me Club".
Unfortunately I couldn't be a club member anymore, I remembered sadly as I greeted the daughter of Aphrodite.
"Are you ok, Percy? You look a bit...oh" Her gaze fell on the couple at the other end of the Arena.
"Listen...I'm sorry to say this, I really am, but...Annabeth is like a sister to me, you are my best friend and Sebastian is my brother. He's a good guy, really. He only wants to find love, just like all of my siblings. I'm not saying that I don't want you two to get back together, the gods know how perfect you were for each other, but you should move on. I only want to see you three happy, I don't care about who you end up with as long as they give you what you deserve. She's trying to forget and heal. You have to keep living and building your future, only then you will get over the past. And remember, if it's meant to be, it will happen."
"She's right, Percy. I can't stand seeing you like this. You are Perseus Jackson, you're optimistic, funny and sassy, not this sulking, pessimistic kid I'm seeing right now."
I stood up abruptly and they jumped up from their seats too, their battle reflexes automatically kicking in. I hugged both of them tightly, with Piper's choppy dark brown hair getting in my mouth and face.
"Thank you guys, you're the best."
I whistled loudly as I stepped out of the embrace and a third of the people in the Arena cringed at the high-pitched, unexpected sound that came out of my mouth.
As my shadow wavered, wriggled and contorted under me, changing in shape and dimension until it looked like a lake of darkness far larger than normal, the realization of what was about to happen downed on Nico's face and he half-smiled.
The large hellhound that came out from under my feet elicited more than a few screams from the campers in the Arena as she trapped my cousin under her paws and happily licked him to death. When he shakily got back up on his feet, I leaned against my dog.
"You know what? You're both right. I'll live my life with or without Annabeth. I'm going to graduate and start building my future at Camp Jupiter. I'm going to create my new home. Say goodbye to the others for me, will you?"
I hopped on Mrs O'Leary and shadow-travelled away.
Okie-dokie...so. There it is. Reviews would be really appreciated, just don't ask me to change the pairing (all canon guys, I'm sorry). After all, "Writer picks the ships, reader shuts his cakehole." ;)
Please, understand that half-reference.