Disclaimer: I do not own Yuri on Ice and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 2
Percy's POV
The drive to Manhattan was silent. It gave me a lot of time to think, so I was kind of out of it for a bit. I was brought out of my thoughts when I realised that that Argus didn't turn at the intersection that leads to my Mom's apartment. I wanted to ask Argus where we were heading but it was unlikely that he would reply so I had no choice but to sit tight and wait for us to arrive at our new destination.
We pulled up in front of a large building just beside the Hudson River. I thanked Argus for taking me back to Manhattan, got out of the van and looked around. I spotted my mom almost immediately. As I walked towards her, she decided to meet me halfway and proceeded to give me gave me a hug.
"Hey, mom." I greeted her as I hugged back.
"How are you doing sweetheart? And don't you dare lie to me by saying your fine, I know your not."
"How do you know that?"
"I'm your mother, of course, I know when somethings wrong with you." She replied. "Plus Chiron called about your condition, so there's that."
"You got me there," I replied good-naturedly. "But, what are we doing here?"
She released me from the hug and for the first time in a while, I see clearly just how worried she is. "You know...I hadn't notice it before, but I haven't seen you truly happy in quite some time. Sure you're happy when you talk about camp or the time you spent with Annabeth and the rest of your friends but you're never completely happy. There always seemed to be something missing. The last time I probably truly saw you happy was the last time you skated when you were 14."
"Wow...I-I never realised..." I was absolutely speechless by my mom's observation.
"So I thought...why not take you the place that always made you smile and made you utterly happy. It was the best idea I had that could help you so...I believe you should give it a try."
"O-okay." I want to try. I want my life back and for that, I'll try anything and everything if I have to.
And with that, we headed inside. Hopefully, mom is right and that skating will help me go back to how I used to be before.
It's been two month since I went home and I have to say, mom was right. Skating is helping me. I've been having fewer flashbacks and I'm starting to remember what it's like to be normal again. Nightmares are a different matter, though. It's a work-in-progress, but I'll get there.
On the day I started skating again, I didn't do anything fancy, just skating normally around the ice over and over again. It was like... meeting a friend you haven't talked to in a long time. Awkward at first but you gradually grow closer again until it was like you never stopped communicating at all.
I came back the next day and the day after until it became a habit to go skating daily. I would arrive early in the morning go out for a bit to eat lunch and then skate again until around four in the afternoon. Soon enough, I knew the names of the majority of the staff and have formed tentative friendships with them. After ten days of the same routine, I decided I wanted my own pair of skates again so mom went with me to buy my skates.
My skates are custom made to my own preferences. They cost a pretty penny but mom was really supportive of my rekindled obsession for ice skating and told me to not mind the price. The boots are made of Black Mellowtan leather while the tongues of the boots are made of Ultra Blue leather with black laces. The hooks of the boots are gold in colour along with the small metal design on the tongues of the boots. The heels and the soles are made of water-repellent fibreboard that are black as well. The blades we took are beautiful dance blades that are made of High Carbon Steel (Mom wanted them to be gold coloured ones but I managed to dissuade her...for now). For an even more personalised touch, I asked for a trident and the Greek Omega to be embroidered using gold threads on the outer side of the boots on the right and left boots respectively. I picked up my skates two weeks ago. It takes a couple of months to break in the skates but I'm working on it.
Now I know what your thinking, why am I not in school taking my last year of high school when the school year started quite some time ago? Well, the answer to that question is quite simple. I've decided to be home-schooled instead. I only need to report to school when it's time to take my major exams. 'How am I studying without a hitch' you ask. Well, Dad managed to turn my textbooks into Ancient Greek, so my dyslexia won't be a problem. Turns out I'm actually good in a few subjects, like History and Biology, when I don't have the letters floating out of the page or merging together. For exams, I managed to get Lau Ellen to enchant some reading glasses for me that help me to read English normally.
And with that, I'm able to spend the majority of my time skating. I never did stop my physical conditioning for skating so I'm ready to go. I just need to re-learn how to move like I used to on the ice so I started small with skating backwards, a few spins and basic sequences. This, this if fun. I can't believe I ever stopped skating. It's just that amazing. I haven't felt this carefree in forever.
Mom signed me up for lessons and is thinking of getting me to compete in regional competitions. I'm honestly looking forward to those actually. I recently started reading about what's happened in the figure skating world since I stopped skating and I'm equally shocked and impressed with what I saw. Yuri Katsuki's performance of Viktor Nikiforov's gold medal routine was awe inspiring. It's frankly not that much of a shock that he won the gold in the Grand Prix after that performance. Yuri Plisetcky on the other hand, I have mixed feelings. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely happy for him. He has been doing well and is lined up to win gold this coming season with Yuri Katsuki, Viktor Nikiforov, and Christophe Giacometti having retired already. His only obstacle will probably be Jean-Jacques 'JJ' Leroy who has been a major candidate for the gold medal for the past few years. On the other hand, I feel extremely guilty that I broke my promise with him.
I met Yuri seven years ago at Yakov's training camp. The coaches from my skating school arranged for the junior skaters to be able to join in. Out the eighteen students in my class, only ten, including myself, went to Russia. I was in the same group as Yuri and I am proud to tell you that I was able to keep up with him. I met Otabek Altin there too, he was one cool guy. I bet you he's disappointed in me too, he knows I broke my promise to Yuri.
To sum it up, my life is picking up again and I'm slowly re-joining the figure skating community. If the Gods would bless me, hopefully, I can win my next competition. Wish me luck!
Roughly eight months later.
Unknown POV
I was checking the newsfeed for the latest headlines and what I saw was shocking, irritating, exciting and angering all at the same time.
"Perseus Jackson, a rising star in the American figure skating front!", "Is Leo de la Iglesia in danger of losing his place as the top American skater?!", "A new gold medallist in the making for America?!" and more of the like.
"So you finally decide to show your ugly mug you bastard. I am so going to kill you the next time we meet each other."
Hi you all! Thank you to everyone who has followed/favourite this story. A big thank you is also in order for TheSilverHunt3r, NocturnalCreature998 and, Sea and Chaos for their wonderful reviews. This is the longest chapter I have written so far and I've got to tell you all the research is the most troublesome to do. The link for the colours and material to make sense to you is down belong along with a link for the name of the parts of an ice skate. Sadly I have to tell you that I will not be having anyone to beta read my work for quite some time as my good friend and beta reader, Goldest Shimaya, has recently moved to another country so she'll be very busy for a while and won't be able to look through my work. So, any guesses as to who the unknown person is? Please keep up the reviews! Until next time, mata ne!
~Ren-chan
