Sorry this chapter took so long, and I'm kinda sad to say that the next one probably will take about the same amount of time. Finals and APs are kicking my butt, so probably expect the next chapter the weekend after this one.
Experiencing a tiny bit of burnout, so I'm gonna take the time to reorganize the plot / chapters and re-energize myself.
Enjoy the chapter, sorry if it's sort of short and slow right now.
Chapter 30: I Hate You Too
He sighed, his eyes closed yet relaxed as he spread out on his couch. Even though the sunlight from midday shone through his shut eyelids, Percy didn't feel bothered. His eyes opened slowly, and he glanced to his left to see a certain brown-haired titaness studying him with a soft smile.
"I still don't understand how you immediately knew what happened." Percy said, his voice low as he practically mumbled. Calypso smiled, shifting so she was now sitting up instead of slouching against his couch's armrest.
"Take a guess." Calypso said, causing Percy to scrunch up his nose as he searched for an answer.
"You're… a sorceress?" Percy offered. Calypso's smile grew wider and she shook her head, a look of fondness on her face.
"Piper told me." Calypso said sweetly. Percy scoffed and threw up his hands. How in the world was he supposed to guess that?
"And why'd she do that!?" Percy asked in faux disbelief. Calypso shrugged.
"I didn't ask." Calypso said with a sly smile. Percy scoffed once more. From Calypso's expression, Percy had a hunch that she didn't need Piper to explain to her why she was given the information.
"Evil witch." Percy muttered under his breath, rather half-heartedly. He closed his eyes once more and leaned back so that his head was lolling over the edge of his couch. Sighing, he resisted the urge to take another peek at Calypso.
He was thankful that Calypso had given him the relief that he needed, the release of all the shock and built-up grief. He wasn't done grieving, not by a long shot, but it was nice to know that things were starting out differently than last.
At the same time though, he was glad that the moment was over. He didn't want to dwell on it, for he knew that treacherous waters were up ahead. He needed to focus, he needed to sharpen his skills and gather his wits if he wanted to truly make a difference in the upcoming conflict. Hopefully, his "words of wisdom" to Hades wouldn't turn out to be fruitless, and the god of the dead would actually consider what he had said.
Percy opened a single eye, finally giving in to the urge to take a sneak peek at Calypso. He smirked and went back to closing his eyes, his head still tilted toward the ceiling.
"You're staring." Percy said in a high-pitched sing-song voice. Curiously, Percy took another glance at the titaness to see a light blush appear on her cheeks. Still, she kept her gaze straight on Percy.
"Alright seriously, it's getting a little creepy now." Percy said after he took yet another peek at Calypso after a few minutes of silence to see her yet again staring at his motionless form.
Calypso simply smiled as Percy sat up.
"It's going to get better, you know that right?" Calypso asked softly. Percy groaned, albeit with a hint of fondness in his noise of annoyance. He had realized that Calypso was sort of like him, in that a lot of her time was spent worrying about other people instead of herself.
"I know, mom." Percy said with a smirk. He wasn't trying to deflect with humor, or whatever some psychologists might say, he was honestly just so delirious and tired that he couldn't help but make jokes.
"Seriously, Percy." Calypso said, although she didn't look very serious with her small smile. Percy sighed, and nodded while he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Percy said sheepishly. "I'm just tired, sorry."
Calypso's smile widened, and she shook her head.
"It's alright. You should get more sleep if you're tired." Calypso said. Percy chuckled and shook his head.
"Nah, too much work to do for me to start taking naps." Percy said with a grin
"Of course." Calypso said fondly.
"I think I'm just gonna go to the bathroom and reset before I start training." Percy said. "You wanna spar sometime later?"
Calypso smirked, "I don't know, I wouldn't want to ruin your self-confidence before you go into a battle."
Percy scoffed and shook his head, resorting to throwing a small pillow at her from across the couch. Calypso promptly caught it, and tossed it behind her shoulder to rid Percy of any more ammunition.
"Like you'd beat me with that weird, crooked and broken sword of yours." Percy said, gesturing to Calypso's sheathed scimitar that lay on the coffee table beside them. He was honestly quite curious how she would use it in battle, as he hadn't really studied her fighting style since she had gotten the sword.
"Don't insult her like that!" Calypso said, putting a hand to her heart in fake offense.
"Her?" Percy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You're telling me you haven't given your sword a gender?" Calypso asked incredulously, as if it was the most important subject in the world.
Percy shrugged. He had always thought of Anaklusmos as a male, even though he didn't put much weight into his sword's gender. He just never really thought it was important.
"Well, have you named your scimitar yet?" Percy countered. Calypso recoiled in surprise at the intensity of the counter, and Percy chuckled at Calypso's red cheeks.
"Well… not yet." Calypso said. "But your sword was already named before you even received it!"
Percy shrugged and smiled.
"Should've picked a better weapon then." he smirked at Calypso's annoyed expression, noticing how her nose scrunched up when she was trying to think of a counter to Percy's comment.
"I'll still beat you." Calypso muttered rather abashedly after a few minutes of silence. Percy laughed, actually laughed.
"I'll hold you to that." Percy said with a chuckle. "Alright, I think I'm gonna get ready to train. I've been holding it off for too long."
Calypso nodded and waved goodbye, remaining on the couch as he readied himself to leave.
Percy groaned, stretching his arms and upper body as he rose from the sofa and lazily made his way toward his small bathroom and consequently through his bedroom.
Percy's bathroom wasn't anything to marvel at. It was just a simple room providing all the necessities that he regularly used. One of the only oddities about the bathroom was the fact that the toiletries somehow resupplied themselves whenever needed.
Closing the door behind him, Percy twisted the cold metal knob of his sink, releasing a burst of freezing yet refreshing cold water right into his cupped hands.
He splashed the water against his face, the sensitive skin tingling under the substance as he rubbed the palms of his hands over his eyes and the prickly hairs of his now short beard.
He looked up, his tanned face staring back at him through his dirty, slightly broken mirror. Cracks lined the edges of the mirror filled with smudges and dirt marks, but that wasn't what Percy focused on.
He stared at himself, studying his face as if he feared forgetting what he looked like. Green eyes that shone just a lighter shade than the sea sparkled in the mirror, although Percy himself could tell you that his emerald orbs looked a lot brighter a few years ago.
His face was outlined with a rather sharp jawline, one that Aphrodite had informed him was "to die for". Spreading across his cheeks like freshly cut grass was his short and ungroomed beard, a result of him having foregone the act of shaving for approximately the past week. Percy palmed his chin, tilting his head side to side and inspecting the experimental facial hair. He shrugged, deciding he would simply let it grow out until it became annoying to him.
His hair had turned into a mop, not that it had ever been non-messy. Before, his hair had been wild and unkempt, but it was natural. Now, however, his hair getting longer did nothing but make it look out of place. Basically, his hair looked like a wig that didn't fit on his head.
It was then that Percy realized just how… dirty, he was. A smudge of dirt lined the bridge of his nose, and his hair was about as messy as a bird's nest. He needed a shower. Or a bath.
Percy splashed another round of water into his face, furiously rubbing at his cheeks, forehead, and nose to rid himself of any leftover dirt.
He sighed, giving up on any more grooming, and instead realizing that he should just take his first shower in over a week and not worry about how he looked. Now that he thought about it, why did he care about how he looked? There was no valid reason for him to care about his appearance.
Percy shrugged, giving up on the subject of his appearance, and opted to strip himself down to hop in the shower and hope to god he would feel better afterwards.
Swimming in the lake or even in the ocean just wasn't the same as taking a good old-fashioned shower. There was a sense of tranquility, of bliss and peace that came with the feeling of warm strings of water raining down from above.
Despite himself, Percy chuckled, the sound echoing through his shower chamber and seeming rather misplaced. It wasn't a dark chuckle, or even a genuine laugh. It was… sort of an expression of his current mental state. He himself had no idea how he should feel, and yet at the same time knew exactly what he should be feeling. He was, yet again, in limbo.
Percy finished his shower, shaking his head to make his hair more damp than wet. Walking to his bedroom with nothing but a towel on, Percy's wall of framed pictures caught his eye.
He smiled, rather wistfully, as he studied the faces of his fallen friends and traced the cheekbones of his former lover with an extended finger. His hand remained on the large photo of Annabeth for a moment before a knock at his bedroom door and a call from Calypso broke him out of his spell.
His arm slowly fell back to his side, and his smile faded to become more of a gentle expression, one of fondness rather than nostalgia. He yelled back to Calypso, telling her that he would be out in a couple minutes.
There was work to do, a conflict to prepare for, and Percy would be damned if he didn't try his hardest to fight for the people he loved.
"You're getting rusty." Percy said with a smirk, his hand outstretched to his cousin. She was panting, her chest rising as the adrenaline from their sparring match died down and her breathing began to steady.
"I let you win." Thalia grumbled, slapping Percy's hand away to push herself off the ground of her own free will. Percy chuckled and gave Thalia a little side-hug, much to her chagrin.
"I love you too." Percy said, winking at a spectating Piper as he squeezed Thalia's shoulder. Piper giggled and covered her mouth with one of her hands as Thalia shoved Percy off of her, making a noise of disgust as she did so.
"I just wanted to see if you've improved at all." Thalia said. Percy rolled his eyes, deciding to play her game.
"And?" Percy inquired.
"Eh." Thalia shrugged. She patted Percy on the shoulder and ruffled his hair. "You'll get to my level someday."
"Mmhm." Percy hummed, allowing Thalia to believe she won the argument. "So, you next Piper?"
"No thanks. I don't know if I have the willpower to let you win." Piper said, waving him off.
"Oh, so you're both comedians." Percy scoffed. Thalia and Piper high fived, Percy rolled his eyes.
"No, but seriously, it's getting late, and I think you guys should probably freshen up before you stink up the whole dinner table." Piper said.
"I don't see the problem." Thalia said, lifting the front of her shirt to sniff the salty sweat the Percy could smell from five feet away from her. He himself raised his arm to smell himself and almost recoiled upon first contact.
"Well, I can smell the problem, and you two need to go take a shower or something." Piper said, pinching the bridge of her nose in disgust. Thalia glanced over to Percy, who raised an eyebrow and shrugged.
"I'm not gonna use his shower!" Thalia said, exasperated.
"Why not?" Piper asked. Thalia stuttered out an answer, making wild gestures that didn't make all that much sense to Percy.
"He's my cousin!" Thalia finally said after many attempts of finding an answer. Piper raised an eyebrow, as if asking for the girl to elaborate for why it was so bad to use his shower. Percy was honestly curious himself about where this was going.
"It's just… just ew!" Thalia cried. Percy tilted his head, his eyebrows now slightly raised, and he covertly flicked his wrist and held his hand slightly outstretched at his waist.
While Piper and Thalia continued to argue about gods know what with their backs turned to the glistening lake in the light of the falling sun, a slinky streak of water separated itself from the larger lake and started to fly over to the trio of demigods.
The wave of blue transformed from a tendril of water to a ball of liquid as it got closer, and it became increasingly clear that it was aiming for a particular daughter of Zeus.
A smirk formed on Percy's formerly impassive expression.
"Thaliaaaa." Percy sang.
"What, Percy!?" Thalia asked, turning away from her rather childish argument with Piper. Percy said nothing, did nothing.
But he didn't have to. His smirk was enough for Thalia's eyes to narrow in suspicion before she was swallowed whole by the ball of water, it's only indication of arriving being a looming shadow and a high-pitched whistle.
A muted shriek could be heard before Thalia was absorbed into the ball of water, but nothing could be done as the daughter of Zeus began to spin and churn around the gyrating ball of liquid. Muffled protests and squawks of indignation could be heard from the ball, but Percy having too much fun spinning her around and Piper was laughing too hard to hear the screams.
After maybe 30 seconds of Thalia spinning around like a hamster in her own giant hamster ball, Percy decided she had suffered enough and was generous enough to release his control on the water.
At this point, Piper was on her hands and knees practically bawling her eyes out in fits of laughter. Percy managed to compose himself much better and by the time Thalia was soaking wet, spluttering and laying down on the soft sand of the beach, he had somehow controlled himself to a wide smile. Okay, maybe some snorts of laughter escaped his mask of composure, but sue him, it was funny.
Thalia laid on the sand, eyes wide open as she stared straight up into the sky, her clothes and hair still soaking wet as she attempted to process what the absolute fuck had just happened.
"I hate you." Thalia settled on, stating it dryly as she continued to lay motionless in the sand.
"I love you too." Percy said, his smile growing wider.
Piper continued to roll on the floor, laughing her ass off with no sign of stopping.
"Can't you… dry me off… or something?" Thalia asked, seemingly desperate as she waved an arm hopelessly.
Percy chuckled as he waved an arm to release the moisture from Thalia, causing her clothes to dry with a large sigh of relief. Thalia practically moaned in ecstasy as she began to do snow angels (sand angels?), which caused the other demigods to burst out into even more laughter.
After partly recovering from his coughs and snorts of hysteria, Percy summoned yet another tendril of water for himself and instead of putting him in his own large hamster ball, simply dropped the water on top of him to make him sopping wet.
After a few seconds of standing still, the wind blowing his moist clothes, Percy willed himself to dry.
"Why couldn't you just do that to me?" Thalia asked, head tilted up as she watched Percy wash himself in a much easier fashion than Thalia.
Percy shrugged, a smile plastered onto his face. Thalia's head thumped back to the sand, her gaze returning to the sky above her.
"I hate you." Thalia said yet again.
Percy smiled wider.
In a weird state for the chapters and overall story right now, but it'll pick up, I promise. Next chapter will finally have what you've all been waiting for. Percy and Artemis finally talk about what happened.
Hope you enjoyed it, I'll be back in a bit while I recharge, and here are the review responses in the meantime:
parallaxyt: I'm not as mean as you're making me out to me. Promise, not making fun of you. Seriously, trust me.
Warped12: Yeah, Percy is pretty vulnerable with Calypso. The trick is making him comfortable with Artemis too, and trust me, we'll get there.
PercyJacksonfan: Crying's good, emotion's good. Glad you loved it.
NBAChampion2005: Yeah, I like this version of Hades too.
Tex450: Glad it's one of your favorites, hope I'll sneak my way into the best fanfic you've ever read by the end of it lol. (Kidding, I'm not a good enough writer for that)