He never was like Percy, Grover reflected. He never had the courage to do things like that. He had other good qualities, of course, but he had never been as brave (stupid, Annabeth called it, but there was no denying the fact that the boy was daring) as Percy.
Grover had nearly abandoned the quest before it had even begun, suggesting Maine (where had he come up with that?) as an alternative to the realm of Hades. Percy, who was just as unprepared, if not less prepared, for this dangerous quest. Percy had stood up to a god. He stood up to Ares, the god of war. Idiotic, maybe, but the bold act stood out. Grover had stayed back; praying to every god he could think of that his best friend in the world would live. His tin can…as if that would mean much. It was important to Grover, of course, but, quite frankly, he was half goat, and obviously didn't value the same things a human (or half-blood) did. That was just in a single summer, those two incidents, and there were a million more from that year…and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that, et cetera.
Percy left camp without permission, something no one had dared do before. ("Extremely stupid, brave, heroic, but very stupid," Annabeth told the boys.) Once it had been for him, another time for the daughter of Athena he seemed to be getting closer to (not that this piece of information had anything at all to do with him). Grover supposed he would have done it for Pan, if he hadn't found him, but returned to camp. He, of course, would never find out now. He might do it if Juniper were in danger, which was unlikely. Plus, seeing as he was a member of the Council now, he wouldn't have to worry as much about getting permission to leave. Percy had faced countless monsters on the way to rescuing his friends. Sometimes single handedly (complete disaster, apparently), sometimes with friends. Once, while the other members of the quest were fighting off the skeleton-but-not-just-bones monsters, Grover was unconscious. How helpful he was.
He stayed there, at Mount St. Helens, awaiting death. He let Annabeth go. (It was yet another idiotic move according to the girl.) Percy Jackson had risked his life. He had stayed there, telekhines ready to destroy him, ready to tear the hero to shreds. But he fought bravely and managed to come out alive.
The River Styx showed another part of the boy's courage. Actually, everything he did, everywhere he went, some sign of the Sea God's son and his fearlessness. He dared to dive into the deadly black waves of the threatening river inside the Underworld. He survived. Despite the odds, Percy lived through it. Grover couldn't imagine it. The entire war, the teenager stayed bold. (Except, of course, the times when he honestly had no idea that he needed to be courageous. However, not much could be done about his friend's foolishness.) The black-haired boy was a fantastic leader for the campers.
Grover could never believe how absolutely daring his best friend was. He had always been ready to stand up for himself and others, as Grover noticed the first day he met the boy he was meant to protect. But, the satyr never imagined he would keep this attitude he had toward school bullies as he fought monsters so horrible his dreams would be haunted forever with their images. No matter how many horrifying, bloody, scaly creatures the half-blood was faced with, he never lost his strength. In fact, the boy was even known to say some fairly interesting things to the monsters he fought. (Grover remembered his friend's request to the Fury—"Eat my pants!" in Latin.) As the monsters got more terrible, Percy seemed more prepared to fight than ever. Grover seemed more prepared to faint than ever. It was a very noticeable difference—clenched jaw and eyes burning with hate for the thing threatening his friends and a very pale face, wide eyes, and a silent scream coming from the mouth of a very scared-looking goat boy. Even so, however, Grover was set on being the bravest satyr there ever was. (He knew what his friends would say: "You find Pan, go on a million quests, fight a war, become a member of the Council of Cloven Elders, and so many other things, and you think you're not brave enough. You think you haven't accomplished enough. I'd like to know what part of this is slacking off.")
And now, after the war, Percy had performed yet another heroic feat. He had gotten a girlfriend. Brave beyond brave, Grover thought. It had taken him ages to talk to or even look at Juniper. He had know for years that he was in love with her (obsessed with her some said), yet it had taken him ages to tell her. And Percy, Grover knew, had only just recently discovered how he felt about the girl he'd known for so long, for Percy's emotions were always somewhat unreadable—confusion most of the time, with thousands of other feelings stirred into his head, contradicting one another, but working in harmony—his head was a total train wreck. It had hardly been a long time before he spoke to the girl, telling her this. It had hardly been a long time before they kissed. Grover was also aware of the fact that it was a million times harder to do tell one of your best friends about this than to tell a wood nymph, especially if you happened to have known this friend for about four years, and gone through pretty much everything with the person. Somehow, Percy managed. Not only had he been courageous enough to accept the feeling, he'd done something. ("It took him long enough.") He'd done several seemingly impossible things.
Ever time Grover would think about the brave deeds of his best friend, he would smile. Each time the idea of his friend's nerve would cross his mind; Grover would grin, no matter how he was feeling. When thoughts of Percy's courage decided to pass by, Grover would allow his lips to curve upward, and let himself make a promise, a wish—to be as brave as his friend if he ever got the chance. Because that fearlessness was something to behold.
Grover didn't know it, but he mirrored that same bravery he admired in his friend.
AN: This is probably the only one that will be set after the Titan war. I felt the need to include some more, because I wanted to keep the scenes shorter, but have about the same amount of writing. I felt like things would just be way too repetitive (as it already slightly is) if I wrote detailed accounts of Percy's heroic feats. I also hate my word repetition. I mean, practically every other word is "brave." It annoys me. Sorry for the choppiness. You can probably see where my documents program on my phone decided to delete everything I'd written from a certain point. I like the last line, though. I think Grover doesn't get enough credit from people, especially me, so I thought I'd give him that line.
-Lexi