Percy

Percy never really liked lying.

It always felt wrong to him. Especially when it was to his friends. But this was a piece of information they didn't need to know.

He stood against the railing, watching out for any monster. Jason stood a bit apart from him, which made Percy know he was about to ask. He really didn't want to tell him. He really didn't have to tell him. It wasn't like it affected anyone else—no one except himself.

He was about to say something reasonable, like, "I'm not going to tell you anything," when Jason spoke.

"So, what's up?" Percy glanced up, regarding him warily. He searched Jason's face, but it was hard to tell what the dude was thinking. His expressions mostly consisted of grinning and just staring, and that wasn't a lot to work with.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked with his I'm-innocent-don't-hurt-me look he had perfected over the years. Jason sighed. Percy had the urge to sigh too, but he decided against it. He'd been given the sentimental talk multiple times since he came back from Tartarus, and he was tired of it. It was always, "it's okay if you have dreams, Percy." Or, "It's okay if your scared, Percy." Or even worse, "It's okay if you're useless Percy." Yeah. Very good motivators. Did they give Annabeth the same brilliant pep talks? He didn't know, but he doubted against it. If she were having bad dreams she'd tell him. Maybe. It wasn't like he was telling her anything.

"Percy?" Jason asked.

"Huh? Sorry. What?" Percy asked. He realized he'd been staring at Jason for five minutes.

"Never mind." Jason said sheepishly. "I think you know?" He said it like a question, and Percy tried his best to look clueless.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Now it was Jason's turn to stare at Percy. Percy would've preferred grinning.

"Well, you seemed sort of…stressed I guess when I mentioned the dreams."

"And?" Percy asked.

"I don't know. That's what I'm asking you." Jason replied. Percy didn't know what to think. Jason was a pretty good interrogator.

"What's the question?" Percy replied smoothly. Or at least as smoothly as he could get it to be. Which wasn't really that smoothly.

"What's bothering you?" Jason asked.

"What do you mean? I'm not bothered. I'm fine." Percy half-grinned. Jason didn't return it. His stare reminded him of what Mrs. Dodds used to look at him like.

"All right, Percy." Jason said tiredly. "You don't have to tell me. But we might have to know. What if it's important?"

"It has nothing to do with any of the other Seven." Blurted Percy. He cursed himself. Why did he say anything?

"What do you mean?" Jason asked, curiously.

"Nothing. I mean—" Percy sighed. "It's just about me. It won't affect you guys." Jason looked at him for such a long time, Percy started to feel uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry, Percy." Jason said quietly. Percy blinked. Out of everything he thought Jason was going to say, that was definitely not one of them.

"For what?"

"It's none of my business." Jason shrugged.

"You're just trying to be careful." Percy replied.

"I guess." Jason said, and he left. Percy turned back to the ocean, and he swore he saw something—something shimmering. The water moving. When Percy blinked, the movement stopped.

Percy shivered, remembering his dream. If what he saw in his dream was right, Percy wouldn't be on the ship for much longer. He rubbed his eyes, sighing.

He pictured the Fates spinning their silk and knitting socks. Percy wondered how big his sock was now. The three old ladies were pretty creepy, in Percy's opinion. The last time he saw them, the middle lady had cut the string. Grover had freaked out, but Percy hadn't known about the Greeks.

He was kind of glad he had at least a few years of peace. Now his worries had a lot to do with dying.

"Hey, uh, Percy?" He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned. Leo looked at him questioningly. "Do you mind figuring out how long we've got until we get to Greece? The giant crab dude killed my map."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Replied Percy. "So do you want to know where we are, or…?"

"How long it takes." Leo corrected, raising an eyebrow. "You know, you're less scarier than Jason. When I first met you and stuff? You were like, Hades or something. I thought you would—"

"Thanks." Percy interrupted. "It should take, probably, six days. If there aren't any stops."

"Great." Leo groaned. "We'll never make it to Athens."

"Don't worry about it—I'm sure we'll have enough time to beat Gaea." Percy said. "They didn't make us the Seven for nothing."

"You know, I haven't had a bad dream in such a long time, now I'm starting to get suspicious. Like some god or monster or what ever'll blast us out of the water or something."

"You're the most optimistic person I've met on this ship, Leo." Percy deadpanned. Leo laughed.

"I'm the optimistic one? That's a little sad." Percy grinned, but his heart wasn't in it. He couldn't let the dream happen. He just couldn't.