I am a terrible person when it comes to updating, I haven't had much inspiration, I'll try and be faster.
Here's chapter 9, hope you like it.
PJO belongs to Rick Riordan
Seeing his captain and Annabeth jump away from each other Luke winced. "Oh… Christ, I'm sorry. Percy, we need you upstairs, we're arriving to your former home. We thought you might want to visit? Or… maybe I could come back later?"
The blond smirked a bit at Annabeth's blushing.
Percy walked out of the room following his lieutenant. He'd been so close to her, it was the first time in years since he'd somehow broken down. Not cried, not really. But he had admitted to being hurt by those foul words outsiders rumoured shamelessly.
"What exactly did I interrupt?" Luke asked curiously.
Percy smirked again, he was to show a strong face, he knew his crew needed it. "None of your business, you'll imagine."
"The crew will speak," the blond warned.
"Don't they already?"
"So far they were unfounded," Luke explained.
"You're the only one who could possibly reaffirm their beliefs now," Percy stated. "I expect you to be more sensible than that."
"Someone might have seen you," the second-in-command shook his head amusedly.
"Let us hope not, Luke," the captain dared hope. "Now what is it that you need so badly?"
"We were coming near your home, some of us thought you might want to visit relatives. Some of them also want to visit their relatives."
Percy's smile became real, "Indeed," he agreed. "We'll spend a couple of days over, I think."
Luke clapped his captain on the shoulder and went back above deck.
Jason was having fun, he had met people who were far more interesting than anyone he knew before. Leo and Piper were brilliant, both funny and entertaining, if sometimes a bit sarcastic.
Leo was hispanic, the son of a pair of carriage repairers. The man's father had left when he was young and he had lost his mother on a fire, leaving him orphaned and left to rot in a local place for homeless children. It had been a mere accident when he found the ship. He had run away a moonless night, hoping for sigil; tired, he laid on the beach, unknowingly near some docks. From the horizon he saw a very small light getting bigger and then suddenly disappearing. By the time he realised there was a ship, he had already been spotted by the crew. They took him in as soon as the captain heard his story, and so he'd been sailing with them ever since he was nine.
Piper, on the other hand, left for a different reason. Her father was an actor -she refused to tell his name-, and she got tired of his unending moving around, a few months here and then leaving a town for good. She used her good willed charm to go as far as she could, and simply saw the ship in an unnamed island. She got in, and was almost stabbed by a surprised guard, but then she got in the crew instead. Her father had worried enough as to send a search party in hopes of finding his child. Piper made sure to tell her father everything was alright, when she found out. She even visited every so often.
Jason could relate more with Piper's story, of course. He knew that overwhelm to follow what your parents decided. Even if he'd spent his whole life in the same place -except for one or two visits a year to other castles-, he did what he was told to do, without complaint. But he was tired, his father was expecting too much out of a young person. Jason didn't want to marry someone like him, didn't want to follow a path already written for him. He wanted an adventure. Thus he decided he would push his luck with this crew.
He wondered how Annabeth was doing, he had seen her become quite close to Percy Jackson. He hoped nothing bad could come out of that. He didn't want to admit it to himself but there was a huge chance that they would have to go back to their former lives, and Jason didn't want his long time friend being heart-broken. Furthermore, he thought about his undeniable feelings for Piper and came to the conclusion that nothing could happen. He didn't mean to get this involved, but fate had moved its threads that way. The only thing he could allow himself to do in order to keep from hurting her was to maintain a certain distance.
Annabeth gave the two men a minute and then went out of the room herself. Above decks, she found Percy grinning wildly.
"What puts out captain in such a good mood?" She asked.
"Home," he replied simply. He pointed forward, straight ahead.
Annabeth was a bit surprised to hear the man had a home at all. But he seemed more than excited to visit the land she could fathom on the horizon, getting bigger by the minute. Maybe he had a family, or his father who he was so unwilling to speak of. A girl, perhaps? Annabeth doubted that, Percy didn't appear to be the kind of person who would play others. Or so she hoped.
She saw how Percy's face lost age while nearing the port. The hardness in his eyes lessened, she could picture a young naive boy running home after a day of training.
Once they gathered on land, the Captain's instructions were good mannered and rather vague. 'Make sure no one steals the ship, go visit whomever you want, go have fun for a while. We'll be here for two days.'
He walked towards Annabeth and held out his arm to her.
"Come on, m'lady," he said. "I want you to meet someone."
She took his arm without hesitation, and he lead her up the hill. The view became more impressive the higher they went, the whole place was a painteresque small-ish town of red roofs and wooden porticos.
Uphill they went for at least another fifteen minutes, until they reached a cabin overseeing the city. It had a decked porch with a dim lantern hanged from the ceiling. It didn't look notably big, nor impressive in anyway.
Percy knocked on the door twice. Movement could be heard inside and the door opened to reveal a middle aged woman with dark brown hair, blue-green eyes and the kindest face Annabeth had seen in her life.
"Mum," Percy greeted her. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
