CHAPTER ONE: WE BEGIN

Grover was dying. Sure, entering the proverbial void because you happened to inhale a crate of enchiladas & went into a food induced daze wasn't ideal, but he supposes there are worse ways to go. At least this way he dies in comfort, wrapped up in his favorite blanket. Unfortunately though, the fates seem to have it out for him, because just as he is at the brink of giving into the warm, comforting embrace of the endless sleep( well not actually endless, he would if he could but so far his personal record was 3 days, he'd actually had a decent shot of challenging for the world record but he'd woken up because the cops had shown up at his door to investigate a missing person's report), he was rudely shaken out of his stupor by a relentless pounding on his embattled front door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, hold your horses" groaned Grover as he reluctantly shook off the crumbs & stumbled towards the door, still tangled up in the shadowy tendrils of sleep. As he neared the door, he wondered as to the identity of his late-night visitor, after all, only three people in the whole wide world knew where he lived, his mom( for obvious reasons) & she definitely wasn't going to fly across the country to give her poor son a heart attack in the middle of the night, it surely couldn't be Katie Gardner, his shift mate could never be so inconsiderate & besides, she only knew the address because she'd interviewed him for the job, she'd never actually been here, so it had to be-

"Hey Percy, What's- OMG!" bleated a startled Grover as he rushed to stabilize his 6ft giant (Normal! You're just short G-Man!) of a best friend before he could collapse onto him & flatten his very fragile body. Straining every fiber in his being, he struggled to prop Percy up into an upright position so that he could interrogate him, but before that could happen, Percy gripped his arm, turned towards him & spoke with a voice filled with emotion "Grover, I think I'm in Love" before promptly tumbling towards the floor & thus crushing every single bone in Grover's skeleton in the process.

Some context is probably required.

Grover had grown up in the alleys of Long Island, far from the hustle & bustle of the main city. His dad had died when Grover was barely two, so the task of inducting him into the family business had fallen to his uncle Ferdinand, who had taken his reed-like nephew under his wing & had shown him all that there was to know about the tracking & conserving of the world's flora & fauna, a task the Underwoods had undertaken for generations & had done so with such skill & grace that at a certain point in time, the family had been in charge of more than a dozen national parks across the world & several of its more academically inclined members had even headed up high level govt committees on the subject, some even at the international level.

Needless to say, Grover took to it like a fish to water, but the pressure to emulate his father who had been one of the country's foremost Eco-activists before his untimely death, a death that had caused the family to fall on hard times, was nearly overwhelming for young Grover. Uncle Ferdinand understood, that's why he encouraged Grover to focus more on the simple beauty of the wild rather than worry about the messy politics surrounding its survival. And it worked for a while. But the guilt of not being able to lead, of not being able to stand up for himself like his father did always bothered Grover, especially after Uncle Ferdinand disappeared after authoring a scathing report on a national oil company called Medusa Corp. It bothered Grover even more when he had to go out & get a job so he could support his family & had to show up late & exhausted to school, only to be beaten up & endlessly bullied because he couldn't fight back. He'd almost grown used to it, the constant humiliation, the scorn & the mockery, he almost started to believe he deserved it, almost begun to wonder if he really was worth anything, which is why he nearly fell out of his metaphorical chair when on one random Wednesday evening, in the midst of his most savage beat-down yet, Percy Jackson, the most popular kid in school, had shown up out of the blue & proceeded to pummel his assailants & then helped him into the Nurse's office. So when he spotted Percy getting chewed out by their harpy of a math teacher , for not turning in his assignment for the day, it had been an absolute no-brainer to jump into the fray & deflect the blame onto himself & his clumsiness with a can of Diet Coke, an act that seemed to simultaneously shock Percy & act as the catalyst for a trepidant bond to form between the unlikely duo, a bond that began to strengthen when the next day, Percy had shown up at Grover's lonely corner of the lunch hall & produced his mother's famous blue cookies & then repeated it the next day, and the day after that when Grover returned the favor by rustling up some of his aunt's enchiladas until by the time the duo headed off to a local summer camp run by their eccentric history teacher Mr. Brunner, that bond had been forged into an unbreakable one. For Grover, this moment signaled the beginning of the end of the bad times, sure his family were still struggling to make ends meet, he now walked with a limp, courtesy of that final beat-down , and Percy had his own demons to fight as he would discover at that camp, but all things considered, Grover could unequivocally say that as long as he had his best friend by his side, everything was going to be OK.

And that's how it eventually turned out, Percy's dad had pulled some strings & gotten Grover's mom a very favorable loan for her new organic supermarket venture (the first & only time Percy had ever accepted his father's money he would later find out), a business that finally got the Underwoods out of their dilapidated govt housing unit & into a shiny new apartment complex just a stone's throw away from the Jacksons. Percy & Grover had, against all odds & expectations, graduated high school & had managed to save enough money to go to college in San Francisco, where they'd suffered through a year of student housing & then finally, managed to get their own apartments( the initial plan had been to continue to room together but after a particularly horrible week of commuting to their respective colleges & other tangible factors, they had been forced to throw in the towel & separate their living spaces) , with Grover now being the proud owner tenant of a dingy, but structurally sound, shoe-box of an apartment that also happened to have a tiny balcony for his sprawling collections of plants to take over while Percy had managed to snag a studio with a couple of his mates from college. The two best friends still kept in regular contact though, with Grover almost always waking up to over 50 messages from Percy about a new dig site they'd located & Grover helping Percy to decipher the absolute gibberish that was his biology homework( he didn't understand much either but at least it kept Percy from tossing the damn thing out the window, which had happened more often than either of them would like to admit ), which almost always ended up with them going toe-to-toe on Fortnite for about 3 hours straight but he digresses.

So, when said best friend was sprawled across your couch (It had taken an effort equal to Atlas's penance by Grover to get him onto aforementioned couch & he'd definitely slipped a disk in the process & so his back was really killing him…. That's not the point here, Focus Grover!) , miles from said studio & clearly reeling from the after-effects of what appeared to be heightened insanity, it didn't matter if it annoyed the shit out of him, it didn't matter if he had changed from those early days & now, after years under Percy's tutelage, he now possessed enough levels of self-confidence & sarcasm to order his friend to hit the road so that Grover could get some shuteye( for those interested, Grover's sarcastic abilities were now rated a cool "Noice" on the Persassy scale ), he wasn't going to do that. Instead, as he dashed around his kitchen, flinging open drawers & grabbing a myriad set of ingredients needed for a poultice & tea, Grover was determined to help his friend out of this latest mess he'd gotten himself into, even if it killed him & his beloved sleep in the process.

After he'd managed to wake Percy up with a liberal use of smelling salts, forced him to gulp down his tea, which restored some life to his previously haggard features & placed the poultice over the cut on his head, Grover had plopped himself onto his trusty beanbag opposite to the sofa & raised an enquiring eyebrow at Percy.

"Percy"

"Grover"

"Spill"

"Spill what Grover, there's nothing to spill, why would there be anything to spill, pshaw!" Percy nervously chuckled as he attempted to stall Grover's inquiry.

Leaning forward, Grover's eyes narrowed & he stared at his jokester of a best friend "Percy , you show up at my apartment at 3 in the freaking morning, looking like you ran through a garbage dump, then you go on to bang my door so hard that I genuinely think you may have broken it & as if all this wasn't enough, you proceed to collapse twice, well it would have been twice if I hadn't caught you the first time , while simultaneously proclaiming your love for a complete stranger, so stop fucking with me & spill the goddamn beans !"

The force of his words appeared to have surprisingly worked, because Percy sighs & leans back into the couch.

"What's there to explain G-Man, it's pretty self-explanatory, I'm in love & since you're my bestest friend in the multiverse, I felt you had to know right away."

Clearly his lack of sleep had made him underestimate his friend's proclivity for avoiding these kinds of subjects. It was a rare slip-up on his part, Grover was usually on top of these things, he would not make it again.

"Flattery will not get you out of this Perseus. Answer the damn question".

Grover rarely invoked the Greek First Name card, that was reserved for extreme scenarios like the time Percy let all his plants wilt that weekend when he'd gone hiking and entrusted this most important of jobs to his then-roommate, but right now he was too exhausted to let this drag out & he did not want Percy bottling up his feelings like he usually did, that dunderhead had the inane belief that his problems weren't important enough to foist upon others & so he would often spend whole months overthinking & agonizing over the simplest of things, Grover had learnt a long time ago, in the cramped quarters of Camp, that whenever Percy got like this, the best thing to do was to push him till he opened up & then be there for him while he vocalized his entire thought process & help him sort it all out.

The appearance of his proper name this early in the conversation had clearly spooked Percy, he now ran his hands through his hair while staring nervously at the floor "I don't know what to tell you Grover, I met her at Hestia's (the college canteen) & she was just …. Breathtaking" crooned his smitten friend. "So, I ran over here to tell you all about her, end of story" he finished, lifting his head up to look at Grover's perplexed expression.

"Wait, wait, wait, are you telling me that you ran all the way from your campus to tell me that you liked a girl?"

"Yes"

"Percy, your campus is 15 miles from here !"

"Yes"

Stunned, Grover sunk into the beanbag, he knew that Percy possessed a crazy amount of energy & that he was liable for occasionally pushing the boundaries of human endurance but this one might just take the cake.

"No wonder you look like that, why didn't you just book a cab or here's a thought, called me with your phone?!"

"Yeah…, about that" answered a sheepish looking Percy before he delved into his pocket & gingerly fished out the shattered remains of his phone.

Panic started to claw up Grover's throat, this was starting to get worrying.

"What happened to your Phone?!"

"She… may have broken it."

"What!?"

"Not intentionally!" Percy rushed to reassure a rapidly spiraling Grover, who had sprung up from his cushion & was now pacing the room in alarm.

Alas, his follow-up to that initial denial only made things considerably worse.

"She just happened to kinda sorta ... throw a chair at me & well, you know, in the process, the phone broke" muttered Percy as Grover basically lost it.

"I'm sorry, WHAT?!"

"It's not what it sounds like!"

"Ohh ok, because I thought I heard "threw a chair at me" but sure, that sentence has many interpretations doesn't it?!" exclaimed an exasperated Grover. Clearly his best friend had gone off the deep end & not in the fun way like he did whenever they were too broke to satisfy their midnight cravings and he came up with schemes ("No calling legitimate plans schemes Grover!") to acquire food from the closed taco trucks outside their dorm, oh no, this was borderline cuckoo clock levels of lunacy!

"It wasn't meant for me Grover; it was an accident! Look, let me explain, when I got to the canteen, she was in the middle of an intense discussion with her friends when these two drunk assholes showed up & tried to hit on her. She clearly wasn't interested & tried to politely get them to leave but they didn't listen & just kept harassing her, to the point that she got so pissed off that she punched one of them in the throat, causing that guy to collapse to the floor wheezing & sending his friend bolting towards the exit. I tried to grab him when he passed my table, but he managed to wriggle past me & since my attention was fully on him, I didn't notice the fact that the chair that was meant to stop him was barreling towards me & I turned to find it smashing into my face & well here we are."

The tone of Percy's voice, coupled with his rapid description of the events served to slightly placate Grover's nerves, at least now he didn't have to worry about his oldest friend falling for a bloodthirsty sociopath. Collecting himself, he ceased his worried wandering of his apartment & dropped onto the couch alongside Percy.

"So, are you ok? Did you get yourself checked out by the nurse?"

Slightly wincing as he shifted his weight, Percy turned to face Grover. "I'm fine G-Man, sure I was unconscious for a while- "You were unconscious?!" screamed Grover, scrambling back onto his feet, his dread returning in full force.

"Grover it's OK, Will checked me out, he says I'm fine."

"Will's just a student, he knows nothing, also what was Will doing there, doesn't he live pretty far from campus?"

"I don't know, he said he was checking in on a friend, who that is though I have no clue."

"Oh"

"Ohhhhhhh" drawled Grover as realization dawned upon him.

"What's with the double ohs?" enquired a curious Percy, who while it seemed like he was relieved that the heat was off him, hadn't seemed to have pieced together the reason for Grover's sudden segue.

"Nothing related to you" dismissed Grover, whirling back towards Percy, he resumed his serious demeanor "Anyway, Percy, do you know who this woman is? Have you seen her around somewhere before?"

Percy shakes his head "No man, I've never seen her before, that was the first time I've ever laid eyes on her, I don't even know if she's from around her, she could be one of the cross-campus hoppers for all I know."

"Ok, so you don't know who she is & she accidentally threw a chair at you. Percy, are you sure you're in love with her or is this your concussion talking?"

Pouting, Percy glared at him " One, I don't have a concussion & Two, you wouldn't say that if you'd seen her, she was … mesmerizing, her hair, her face, the way she lit up when she was arguing with her friends, the sheer majesty with which she absolutely slaughtered those two guys, but most of all, those stormy eyes of hers that I could look into for the rest of my life. What am I gonna do Grover, I can't get her out of my head!" groaned Percy as he slumped his head onto the coffee table.

Having adopted the position of The Thinker, Grover had been pondering this exact question throughout Percy's monologue. His friend was obviously whipped beyond imagination, Grover had initially assumed that this was some sort of weird surface level attraction caused by the hallucinogenic properties of the freaky cocktail of coffee, coke, lemonade & blue food coloring that Percy tended to down on a very unhealthy basis & the effects of his blow to the head but based on what his comrade of close to a decade had just told him & his body language which currently mirrored that of a dog who'd just found out that his owner had kicked the can, Grover had come to the conclusion that while he may not be particularly adept at articulating it, the depth of feelings that Percy had for this mystery woman were beyond anything he'd seen from him in a long, long time. As he analyzed this vexing issue in front of him and was fast approaching the conclusion that he was simply too drained to figure this out tonight, suddenly, out of the clear black void of space, inspiration struck Grover like a bolt of lightning, leaping to his feet, he excitedly swiveled towards Percy.

"Okay, so as I see it , we have two options, the first of which I'm not telling you because you're anyway gonna end you doing it sooner or later & I don't want to speed up that process if I can help it, so we're going with option two which involves me using the fact that I work in the most popular food & beverage joint for stressed out college kids this side of the Bay Area, where I see tens of people every day from campuses all over the place, meaning that I am ideally placed to help you find this mystery girl!"

Instantly brightening up, Percy practically flew out of the couch in joy & began to vibrate with barely contained elation as he bounced around the room "Seriously Grover! Are you sure about this?" his voice indicating that he couldn't quite believe what Grover was suggesting.

Grover rolled his eyes " Percy, as much as I would love to tell you to forget about this woman & move on because it's highly unlikely that you're ever going to see her again, not only is that not healthy but I know you're not going to do that because once your heart's set on something, you fixate on it until you achieve it or fail spectacularly while trying so rather than let you & primarily me suffer through you going through weeks of obsessive anguish, overthinking & crippling self-doubt,I'm going to bypass that entire process & cut straight to the chase & help you out from the get go rather than get called in at the last minute when you're falling apart because you can't keep it to yourself any longer ."

Eyes softening, Percy grabbed Grover into a tight bear hug that nearly squeezed the life out of him, he honestly didn't mind, Percy's hugs had gotten him through some pretty tough times, even if they always left him struggling to stand upright afterwards. "Aw thanks G-Man, you're a lifesaver." Allowing a small smile to adorn his face, Grover wordlessly patted his friend on his back & proceeded to pull out from the embrace & started tidying up the crumbs & empty mugs that had accumulated during their conversation.

"Now that that's sorted, you realize that you have a seminar to get to in like 2 hours & you haven't slept a wink all night, right?" teased Grover as he headed into the kitchen & unceremoniously dunked the mugs into the sink to soak.

"Fuck! I completely forgot about that, there's no way I can make it in time even if I leave right now, this is not good" cried a suddenly terrified Percy as he hastily halted his devouring of Grover's stash of uncooked ramen.

"Relax, I know you did, which is why while you were busy trying to sniff out my food pile, good job by the way, you're getting scary good at it, I texted Nico to let him know that you're not showing up & that he's going to have to cover for you because you're also cashing in the favor of 2015."

Wiping away mock tears, Percy adopted a dramatized position of awe & reverence.

"This, this is why you're my best friend."

Grover responded with an equally dramatic look of gratitude.

"Aw thanks Percy, now, since we've established that you can head off to college secure in the knowledge that you won't be missing anything & that I am on top of this whole woman situation, I take it that I can finally go prep the bed for you to sleep in tonight, no don't argue with me on this one, we both know that you can't fit in that couch, you try to every single time you're here and you always wake up with a crick in your neck & cause significant structural damage to that poor thing, I am genuinely surprised it has held up this long because at this point, it's practically made off duct tape & glue."

"Fine, I'll take the stupid bed" mumbled a defeated Percy, frustrated that his objections had been forestalled.

"Brilliant!"

After a surprisingly calm & erudite conversation about the state of the superhero genre ("Grover, The Boys is clearly the most significant riposte to the idealistic superhero cliché in cinematic & comic book history, how can you not see that?!" "Oh please, The Boys may be a brilliant enterprise, but the fact remains that the Watchmen did it before anyone else & did it perfectly!" "I can't even talk to you when you're like this, this is Edgar Wright vs James Gunn all over again, then again what else was I supposed to expect from the guy who hasn't even seen 2001: A Space Odyssey!" "You take that back; I have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey!" "Lies! Deceit! If you really had seen it, why didn't you recognize the scene then?!" "Because that scene wasn't from 2001! IT WAS FROM SOLARIS, WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS 20 TIMES!), the duo decided to turn in for the night.

"Night G-Man"

"Night Perce"

As he headed towards the couch after powering down the apartment, all of Grover's fatigue & exhaustion came roaring back & he found himself totally & utterly spent. It had been a surprisingly eventful few hours & as he slumped onto a pillar in exhaustion, he was struck by the sheer absurdity of it all & muttered to himself as he rose back up "By the gods humans are weird", only he mustn't have been as quiet as he thought he was because almost instantaneously, Percy's muffled & groggy reply carried to him "Grover, you're human."

"Unfortunately, so Perce, unfortunately so" he replied as he collapsed onto the couch & finally, finally, allowed the sirens of sleep to lead him into the peaceful darkness.

Hey everyone, so this is my first ever fanfic, so go easy on me. That being said, any feedback or suggestions that you may have are always appreciated, do share this story amongst your friends as well, I'm really excited to tell it & I hope you're all excited to go on that journey with me. The next chapter should be up in a week or so, till then, fare thee well! [ Cross-posted on Wattpad & Ao3]