Percy Figures It Out
Percy's phone vibrates, buried deep in his pocket. He's currently in his room staring blankly at the old TV in the corner. Earlier in the day, Leo loudly proclaimed that they would be having a "Smash Day" so logically they've been digitally demolishing each other all morning. Percy is sitting off to the side across from Jason, with Frank and Leo sitting on the ground in the middle of the room. Between them is Frank's girlfriend, Hazel, who is currently trying to avoid any flying elbows while mashing her own controller. They only started dating a few weeks ago, a fact which makes Percy prouder than maybe he should be.
Having been destroyed already in their most recent match, Percy gladly fishes out his phone to have something else to do besides listen to Frank and Leo scream at each other. On his screen, the name 'Annabeth' flashes up at him. His breath hitches as he quickly swipes to open the notification, fumbling and nearly dropping it in the process. He freezes for a second and looks up, but everyone else is so engrossed in the game that nobody notices. Percy sighs quietly in relief and leans back in his chair.
Looking at the screen, he sees it open to a message from Annabeth.
I swear to god the tutoring staff here are the worst
Percy's mouth starts to quirk up into a smile. Over the past week he and Annabeth have been texting more and more, and to Percy's delight they've officially moved past the phase of awkardly sending greeting texts and instead just diving into the meat of whatever shit they're going to shoot.
He looks up again before responding, just to make sure no one has noticed anything. He may or may not be trying to hide that he's texting Annabeth from his roommates just a little, but knowing them he feels like that probably isn't a weird thing to do. Totally just a rational adult decision.
yeah i know what you mean
the tutor i have is really on my ass all the time
The sound of an explosion comes blasting out of the TV as Leo groans and Hazel whoops. Jason, apparently eliminated, sighs and drops his controller as Leo leans forward into the signature Gamer Position while muttering promises of vengeance. Percy's phone jumps in his hand again and he looks away from the action.
You're welcome for that by the way
How many classes would you have failed by now?
pfff only like
two maybe
three tops for sure
You're an inspiration to us all
Percy huffs out a laugh before he can stop himself, then quickly looks up to see if the jig is up. Across the room, Jason looks over from the TV, eyes squinted suspiciously. Quickly breaking off eye contact, Percy raises his eyebrows in a totally-not-exaggerated expression of innocence. Jason tilts his head curiously, but after a second turns back to the TV. Sighing quietly in relief, he starts typing again. He's amazing at getting away with things.
i try my best
anyways what did your boss do this time
Annabeth's typing bubble starts popping up, and after ten seconds Percy realizes he's in for a solid paragraph in the near future. He looks up just in time to Jason stand up and stretch his back before he ambles over to the door. Hand on the doorknob, Jason calls out, "I'm going to go get a drink, anyone else want one?"
Another explosion echoes through the room as Frank falls backwards, clutching his chest like he's been shot. Next to him, Leo starts laughing maniacally as Hazel hunches forward, brow furrowed and the tip of her tongue poking out of the side of her mouth.
Jason and Percy lock eyes as Jason raises a brow exasperatedly. Percy shrugs and replies, "I'll take a Dr Pepper if you're getting something."
Jason nods tiredly to himself and walks out of the room as Frank starts chanting, "Kick his ass! Kick his ass!" Somehow Hazel and Leo have both started sweating and in the glow of the TV are starting to approach 'glistening' territory. Percy frowns in disgust and scoots his chair backwards as his phone vibrates again. Deciding he's solidly out of the splash zone, he kicks his feet up onto a nearby chair desk and opens his phone.
I mean most other people come in for a specific class, right? But we
were getting pretty full in one of the classes that I help tutor for, so
they decided that we should open up a few more sections, but instead
of giving me any more to teach they gave it to some other guy even
though I've been tutoring for longer and I can definitely teach better
than he can. It's ridiculous! He's literally stealing my students!
A fond smile starts creeping across Percy's face. Honestly though, it's practically habit at this point, which is a fact that Percy is stubbornly not thinking about.
im pretty sure youre the only person ive ever met who gets
upset because they have less work to do
Percy locks his phone starts to look up, but looks back down as his phone buzzes an eyebrow, he shrugs and unlocks his phone again. In the background Hazel and Leo are just screaming at each other at this point and he's pretty sure Frank is still on the ground.
Yeah I'm mad because it's so unfair!
I'm literally twice the teacher he is but they give him the classes
that I deserve to have
Percy rolls his eyes and starts to type a snarky reply before he stops, fingers hovering over the keyboard. He scrolls up and rereads Annabeth's messages, before dropping his phone to his lap and sighing. Even Percy can tell that Annabeth is legitimately upset and he won awards at his high school for Most Oblivious Dude On The Planet.
Quickly deleting his aborted sentence, Percy stares at his screen and bites his lip for a second before he begins to type out a new one.
hey in all seriousness your bosses are just missing out
like i can say from experience that you could tutor circles
around this chump and i havent even met the dude
if the tutoring staff cant see that then thats their problem
because youre gonna kick ass in any section you teach
Caught up in the momentum of his motivational speech, Percy slams the send button with a soaring feeling of righteousness. A second later Percy blinks, then frantically rereads what he sent. A cold horror starts seeping down his spine as he realizes what an overly attached freak he sounds like. He's known Annabeth for less than two months, he can't go around sounding like a life coach on PCP.
He frantically starts tapping at the screen, hoping maybe he can delete the messages before she reads them when a can of soda slams into his stomach, punching out of him a pained oof. Looking up, he sees Jason standing above him with a soda can of his own in hand. Raising the soda up weakly, he starts to thank him when suddenly Jason swipes the phone out of his other hand, causing the sentence to instead come out as, "Thanks broooh shit wait!"
He lunges for his phone, but Jason dances backwards out of his reach. "Oh what's this, texting the tutor hm?" Percy drops his soda to the ground and runs at Jason with his hands out but Jason just plants a palm on Percy's face and keeps him at bay. Percy starts swiping with his hands to try to club Jason's stupid head as he says, "Dang these conversations go back weeks!" Looking back at Percy, he smirks and raises an eyebrow. "Have you been holding out on us?"
Percy punches Jason in the crook of his elbow, causing his arm to buckle. Lunging forward, he snatches his phone back out of Jason's hand and then punches him in the shoulder for good measure. Pocketing his phone, Percy attempts to aloofly walk away from Jason while giving him the most cutting stink eye possible. He's pretty sure the two cancel each other out a little bit, but he does his best.
Retreating back to his seat, Percy sits down with a huff and crosses his arms. Still glaring at Jason, he watches as his dumb idiot roommate drags his seat across the room to be next to his. Jason sits and claps his hand on Percy's shoulder, smirk still solidly in place. "You know, some of those texts were surprisingly wholesome."
Percy sniffs derisively and looks back towards the TV. "I don't know what you're talking about my man." He can feel a blush building and threatening to spread across his cheeks, but maybe if he just doesn't look at Jason it will go away.
From the edge of his vision Percy sees Jason continue to stare at him for a couple seconds before rolling his eyes and pulling out his own phone. Sighing in relief, Percy looks back towards the TV where now Hazel and Leo are both standing, Leo hopping from foot to foot and Hazel looking like she could pass out at any second. On the ground, Frank is face down and clutching Hazel's foot, still yelling a muffled "Kick his ass!" into the floor. Percy nods to himself. This seems about right.
Suddenly, the sound of guitars and heavy drum set start blasting in the room. Looking over, Percy sees Jason staring right at him as he points his phone speaker towards him. A sadistic grin starts to spread across Jason's face as a voice starts to sing, "I've got it bad, got it bad, got it bad, I'm hot for teacher!"
Percy feels the simmering warmth in his cheeks erupt into a raging blush as his face feels lit it's on fire. Jason just cackles as Percy stares at him, too mortified to move. Desperate to escape this situation, Percy starts looking around for something to distract Jason. Right now he's pretty sure that murder is a justifiable solution, but as he starts to lean forward to throttle Jason to death like he deserves all chaos breaks loose.
Leo yells "Shit!" so loud that Percy's pretty sure that tinnitus is starting to set in while Hazel screams in victory and leaps in the air. Unfortunately, Frank's hands are still attached to Hazel, causing her to land off-balance and teeter precariously backwards. Leo lunges forwards to help, but as Hazel grabs his arm to right herself she accidentally flings Leo behind her, effectively turning Leo into a human-sized projectile aimed right at Jason.
Percy watches as Leo hits Jason with a tackle that would have made the NFL proud. Jason is carried right out of his seat and hits the ground with a thud, gasping for the air that was rudely knocked out of him. Leo rolls off of him and busts up laughing as Hazel resumes her victory dance. Looking down at Jason's now incredibly red face, Percy feels not a single shred of pity. The man earned his fate.
Smug grin firmly in place, Percy idly checks his phone and blinks in surprise to see two notifications already waiting for him. Figuring he missed them while being unfairly harassed, he shrugs and opens the messages.
You're damn right I could tutor circles around him
Percy sighs and rolls his eyes. He figures if she's still this annoyingly confident then she'll be fine. He looks down to read the next message, sent over a minute after the first one.
Thanks for the support though. Glad to know someone's on my team
Percy's fingers fly over the keyboard, all thoughts of the human dogpile in front of him vanishing.
oh thats a great idea actually
next tutoring session ill show up with a big jersey with your
face on it
Something bumps his leg as he hears shuffling around him. It probably was Jason trying to peel himself off of the floor, but Percy isn't really paying attention to anything else right now except the typing bubble that just appeared on his screen.
And that officially ruins that sentiment
That might be a new record for the fastest dumb thing you've said
Percy's face stretches into a dopey grin that he really just can't help. It isn't his fault anymore, he swears. However, he's not about to give up on getting the last word in on Annabeth every once in a while.
no its too late youre welcome
He locks his phone and pockets it just as Leo throws a remote at him for the next round, looking murderous as he does so. Percy figures he's probably gonna get steamrolled in Leo's quest for vengeance but picks a character anyways.
Looking over, he locks eyes with Jason again, who smirks but thankfully says nothing as he selects his own fighter. Percy glares at him for a second, before deciding that he's still definitely justified to slap him in the back of the head if he doesn't do it too hard.
Percy strolls into the grocery store later that night on his weekly quest to make sure he has something to eat. Next to him, Grover is looking at his shopping list and muttering the names of several meat substitutes that he's pretty sure he's never heard of.
Percy turns towards the milk aisle first, rehearsing his well-worn route through the store. Generally he only buys snacks and some cereal for whenever he's too lazy to go to the on-campus dining hall. Now that he thinks about it, Percy is grateful he swims all the time so he can eat just whatever garbage he wants and it usually turns out okay.
Walking up to the freezer section of the store, Percy looks down the rows of various brands of milk, basking in the frigid air radiating off of the transparent doors. On the other side of the glass, a wall of nearly identical cartons of milk sit, all with different labels and brands. Percy's brow furrows and he bites his lip in thought as he starts scanning the different labels. Why are there so many different kinds of milk? If it's only two percent milk then what's the rest of it made out of? Percy sighs and drags a hand across his face. Milk is ridiculous.
As he examines the wall of milk, one carton with a surprisingly low price tag catches his eye. Raising his eyebrows in surprise, he opens the door and pulls it out, letting the door thud shut on its own. Turning it in his hand, Percy examines the carton for an expiration date, but after a couple seconds realizes the carton just doesn't have one.
Looking over his shoulder, he sees Grover farther down the aisle with an already half-full cart. He calls out, "Hey if a carton of milk doesn't have an expiration date that means it doesn't go bad, right?"
Without looking at him, Grover yells back, "Put it back, dude." He then opens up a door and grabs a carton of rice milk or something, Percy doesn't know.
Huffing petulantly, Percy pouts to himself and looks back down at the milk in his hands. He quirks his mouth into a resigned expression and goes to open the door again before he stops as an idea pops into his head.
He reaches into his pocket and whips out his phone, unlocking it with one hand while still holding the questionable milk in the other. His hand is in fact starting to hurt from the cold but he's too determined to put it down now.
Opening up his messages with Annabeth, he manages to slowly type out a message with one hand.
hey so if a carton of milk doesnt have an expiration date
it that means it doesnt expire right
Only a second later, Percy sees the typing bubble appear. He bites his lip in anticipation while switching which hand holds the phone and which hand holds the milk because it was starting to get really cold and he's only human, give him a break. Readjustment completed, he looks back at his phone just as it buzzes in his hands.
Put it back Percy
Percy's pout comes back full force as he stares down at her response.
aw come on its half off and everything
I'm just saying it really isn't the wise thing to do
Like you will for sure get food poisoning
Percy rolls his eyes. He's had food poisoning twice and it's not like it killed him either time.
fine whatever wise girl
ill just throw away this discount
Don't call me Wise Girl
Smirking, Percy starts to type out another message definitely containing another 'Wise Girl' when from over his shoulder he hears, "Oh I like her already."
Percy yelps and spins around to see Grover looking down at his phone with a smug expression. Looking up to meet his eyes, Grover continues, "I mean first she's pretty but now she's smarter than you too? She's perfectly your type!"
Percy makes a disgusted sound in the back of his throat and rolls his eyes. Locking his phone, he turns away and slides open the milk door again. Halfway through setting the carton back onto the shelf, he pauses and frowns. "Wait, what do you mean she's perfectly my type? I don't have a type."
Grover moves up next to him and claps a hand down onto his shoulder. "Percy, every single girl you've had a crush on since middle school has been way smarter than you and if you haven't realized that by now that just kinda proves my point."
Percy tilts his head and his eyes glaze over as he mentally runs through the list of people he's liked since he met Grover. Slowly, his face morphs into an expression of terror as Grover's splits into a smile of pure glee. Percy grabs his head with his hands and lets out a strangled, "Oh god you're right."
Grover pats him on the arm again, before saying, "If it makes you feel any better, you're pretty much the last person to figure it out." He then cheerfully makes his way farther down the aisle.
Percy groans and lowers his head onto the glass door in front of him with a thud. The cool surface currently feels amazing against the searing heat of his blush. Maybe if he jumped into the freezer his face wouldn't always feel like it was melting. Looking through the glass, he sees another two percent milk carton on the other side of the glass. Percy groans and whines, "I still don't know what that means," before peeling himself off the door and following Grover deeper into the store.
A/N: Woah hey gang it's been a minute huh. Sorry for that longer than usual delay, I got struck with a case of "Oh god I'm really writing a whole-ass story oh god oh shit" but the good news is I've worked past that mostly and I'm back to writing again! Plus writing in my free time is actually fun and reading all of the reviews you guys leave actually helps me out a lot with motivation! Thanks for those again! Plus I've discovered that writing for fun is more fun (ironically) than forcing myself into a schedule, but I'm gonna try to have relatively normal updates anyways. Anyways in case anyone was worried I'm still fully committed to writing this thing to the end, and I've even started coming up with another AU which is gonna be a whole 'nother commitment to do, but if you guys like this one I'll probably maybe do it. On a different note, who do you guys think the halfblood gang mains in smash? Leo's gotta be an Incineroar main right? Jason is probably like Chrom or something who knows. Anyways see you guys next time!