The Boy On the Ground

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Disclaimer: Don't own PJO or TLA

Chapter 10

The Gaang (plus Percy) floated along in the clouds. The big white fluffy kind that make you think of a fairytail story. The clouds had gotten thicker and bigger since that morning so they weren't worried about being seen.

Appa stayed at a steady height and it was peaceful. It was around 2 pm that afternoon. They had stopped and had lunch a while ago by a lovely river. Of course the Naiads had woken up and wanted to play, so they had played for a little bit. It was hilarious watching them. When they finally waved good bye all their stomachs hurt laughing, except Zuko, he hardly smiled.

Now they flew on in the sky. Percy was leaning on the sleeping bags and tents at the back, everyone else was watching Aang at the front.

Toph had decided it would be funny to try and make Aang bend all four elements at once. He had a nicely sized rock in one hand, (they had picked it up during their lunch break,) about a cup of clear water in the other hand, a current of air flew out of one foot with a leaf dancing around in it, he was try very hard to get fire coming from the other foot.

Aang was balancing on his butt the whole time. Toph was yelling that he was only keeping the rock afloat and not doing anything while Zuko tried to encourage the fire to come out and Sokka just yelled excitedly.

Percy chuckled at them quietly, but his mind was elsewhere. He sighed softly to himself.

"Hey." Katara greeted. She flopped down next to Percy. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing." He started tapping his legs nervously. "Really, I'm fine."

"You're missing someone, aren't you?" She asked softly.

Percy looked up at her surprized. "How did you know?"

"Oh please." She told him. "I've got that look memorized. I see it all the time on myself. Plus on Aang and Sokka, even Zuko gets it from time to time, I've even seen it on Toph.."

Percy shook his head and smiled. "Yeah… I guess you guys must miss your families, huh?"

Katara nodded and touched her necklace. "It really hurts but… you know."'

Now it was Percy's turn to nod. "Yeah… I know."

"So… Who are you missing?" She asked. "Do want to talk about it?"

Percy laughed, "One thing you have to learn about guys is… they don't want to talk about it. But I'll tell you anyways. I miss my girlfriend, Annabeth."

"What?!" Aang fell over. The earth and water he had been bending fell with him.

"You never even got to bend fire." Zuko pouted.

Aang shot a small ball of fire Zuko's way then jumped/air bended his way to Percy's side. "You have a girlfriend?" He asked happily.

"Yeah…" Percy said slowly, not understanding what the big deal was.

"What's she like?" Katara asked.

Percy got a mad grin on his face. "She is the most annoying person you will ever meet in your entire life."

There was silence as everyone took that in. To say the least it was not what they were expecting.

"That's rough buddy." Zuko said.

Sokka snorted into his hand. Katara glanced at him oddly before turning back to Percy.

"Well that's…. unfortunate." She said carefully.

"Why is she so annoying?" Toph asked bluntly.

Percy laughed again. "Well she's a demigod, like me. But she's the daughter of Athena, who is the goddess of wisdom. Which makes her super smart, and a little bit of a know-it-all."

He looked around at everyone. They all blinked back.

"Ok…." Sokka said slowly.

Percy nodded. "But she's no pansy. She'll kick your butt if you say the wrong thing."

Toph snorted. "What makes her so tough?"

"She ran away from home when she was seven."

"So did I." Toph challenged.

"But you went back." Aang pointed out.

"So?"

"She didn't go back! She lived on the streets for a while before she was found by two other demi-gods. Then they lived together until my best friend, Grover the satyr, found them and brought them to camp, where one turned into a tree and the other turned evil."

Momo chirped awkwardly in the silence.

"I have so many questions." Sokka shook his head. "Ok, number one; what's a satyr?"

"A satyr, from the waist up, is a man but the waist down is goat."

He waited for that to sink in.

"EEEWWWW!"

"And you said our world was sick?!" Toph shrieked in between gags.

"That's disgusting!" Aang looked green.

Sokka held his head in his hands and moaned. "Why did I ask?"

"Are you serious?" Katara and Zuko held on to each other for support while trying not to throw up.

"No!" Percy tried to get his laughing under control. "It's not what you think! No!" He grabbed his stomach and laughed at the gaang. "They're nature spirits! They don't… no!"

They gang continued gagging at the thought of Grover and his kind.

"I can't believe this!"

"That's so gross!"

"Oh my goodness!"

"EEEWWW! Blah!"

"Oh..." Percy wiped tears from his eyes. "Grover would have a cow over this."

"He would HAVE A COW?" Toph screamed.

"It's just a figure of speech!" Percy yelled, realizing his mistake. But of course that set everyone off again while Percy laughed head off, (again, a figure of speech).

"You know what?" Sokka asked after everyone had calmed down, "I don't want to ask any more questions."

Toph punched him. "Good idea."

Appa moaned as he set his tired legs on the ground, he had put in a good day today. Although nothing really had happened to them, flying for that long was tiring for the big guy.

Aang jumped off of Appa and stood facing him. "Good flying buddy."

Percy followed Katara and Sokka's lead when getting down, out of everyone, except Aang, they were the most comfortable around the bison.

"Zuko, would you mind starting a fire?" Katara asked.

"No problem." Zuko jumped off where he was throwing stuff down to Sokka.

Toph crawled over to the rest of the stuff and picked up a bag. "Sokka?" She called.

"Here!" He answered. She threw the bag towards his voice and that's how they unpacked the rest of the stuff.

While they unpacked Aang and Katara set up and Zuko made a fire pit and fire. They way that they moved showed how comfortable they were together and how much they trusted one another. Percy stood watching. The unity between the five was amazing.

They all traded jobs now. Toph and Katara put up little defences around the camp while Zuko and Sokka finished setting up. Aang went and took the heavy saddle off of Appa's tired back with his airbending.

"There!" He said, "We're all done now!" He looked around, he was the only one done. He then spotted Percy standing off to the side.

"Hey!" Aang said cheerfully as he landed on the ground by Percy. "What did you think of Appa today?"

"Uhhh… He was fine..?" Percy replied awkwardly. "I've never ridden a flying bison before so I wouldn't know."

"Well I'll tell you now he's the best of the best!" Aangs eyes shone with pride.

"I'll take your word for it." Percy nodded and smiled.

They stood quietly together for a moment.

"I have a confession to make." Aang blushed and said after a pause.

Percy raised his eye brows and folded his arm across his chest. "Shoot."

"What?"

"No, it just means you… Never mind. Just tell me."

"I saw you walking out of camp last night when I couldn't sleep. I followed you and saw what you did, even though I didn't understand what it was." He hung his head. "I feel like it was something private and-and I'm sorry."

Aang stared at the ground. Percy didn't say anything for a long time so finally Aang peaked at him. Instead of looking angry he looked sad, worn out, and just plain exhausted. Aang had been planning on bringing up the vision he had seen about him too but decided against it.

"Are you ok?" He asked Percy softly.

"Just fine." Percy said bitterly. "Don't worry about it Aang, you did nothing wrong."

"But what were you doing?" Aang blurted out.

"It… it was stupid." Percy blushed.

"It didn't seem stupid last night." Aang noticed.

Percy shuffled his feet. "Trust me. It was."

Aang wasn't buying it, but he decided to let it go because he could tell Percy needed space.

Aang was awoken is the middle of the night by a sharp cry.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Toph yelled accusingly.

"No no no! Shhhh!" He could hear Percy trying to calm her down.

Aang landed next to Toph. "What's going on?" He looked at Percy, his feet were enclosed in earth, trapping him while his face held the guiltiest expression Aang had ever seen.

"Aang?" Katara ran up beside Aang. "Where were you going?" She asked suspiciously looking Percy up and down.

"It's nothing." Percy said quickly. He was flushed bright red but something told Aang it was an angry red, not an embarrassed red.

With a quick movement he had released Percy of his earth trap.

"Hey! That was there for a reason Twinkle Toes!" Toph cried indigently.

Zuko appeared next to Toph. "What happened?"

Katara scoffed and flipped her hair. "Took you long enough." She mumbled.

All of the sudden Sokka burst out of his tent, swinging his sword and wielding his boomerang wildly. "WHO'S BUTT NEEDS TO BE KICKED?!" He yelled. He blindly threw his boomerang at the dark figures standing by.

"Watch it!" Zuko grabbed Toph just as the boomerang flew where her head had been moments before, and put her safely on his shoulders. "You almost killed Toph!"

"Put me down!" Toph yelled.

Sokka was splashed in the face with cold water. "Would you CALM DOWN ALREADY?!" Katara yelled at him.

Complete chaos.

"That's it!" Aang grabbed his staff and, using a little earthbending, smacked the ground making a large sound.

"Everybody be quiet!" Two voices yelled at the same time, they both held authority and a tone of leadership. Percy and Aang looked at each other surprised as everyone calmed down.

"How did this start?" Aang asked evenly.

"I caught Percy sneaking away." Toph explained.

"I wasn't sneaking away!" Percy defended himself.

"Then what were you doing?" Toph challenged, crossing her arms.

"That's my personal business." Percy countered, matching her stance.

"Percy." Katara started uncertainly. "You've only just joined our group. You can't be mad at us for being sceptical, all we know about you is that you're a child of a god and that you're really powerful. We've all been betrayed before and we don't want it to happen again."

Percy sighed and dropped his arms. He pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking it over. How could he argue with that kind of logic?

"Kay, fine. You win, I'll show you guys what I was doing."

Kay, it's not very long but its decent and I thought it was good! I'm kind of stalling putting Annabeth back in since nobody liked my last chapter with her in it. But I will put her in next chapter!

Guess. What.

I was reading a Percy Jackson/Harry Potter fic and in every single one Percy is put in Gryffindor. I honestly don't know where I would put him since he fits in so well with Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor, and that is when I realized… If Percy went to Hogwarts, he'd be Divergent.

Mind=blown.

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