Percy Jackson
When Percy woke up, his leg was killing him. It felt like a hellhound was biting down on it as an impromptu chew toy. He let out a low groan of pain, it wasn't bad enough for him to start screaming his head off.
He pulled the comforter off himself and looked down at his leg. It was still wrapped in the same splint that Annabeth had used from that med kit earlier. He wished he had something to null the pain but when he looked around the crew quarters, he knew there was nothing he could do.
He could still hear the sub moving through the deep dark depths of the ocean. The lights in the crew quarters buzzed overhead. Other than the sound of his breathing, there were no signs that there was anyone else near him. He wondered what Annabeth had gone off to do.
His answer came in the form of Annabeth walking out of the bathroom. He noticed she had changed out of her clothes and into a blue bra and blue panties. Normally, he'd be getting horny over seeing her with barely any clothes on, but his leg hurt too much for him to even try to entertain the thought of sex.
She walked over to him, "Good, you're awake. I have the ice bath ready for you. That should get your leg healed in no time."
"Why aren't you wearing clothes?" He blurted out.
"I put them in the wash, I'm not going to wear my other clothes since we're literally the only two people on this entire ship." She said, "It's not like you haven't seen me wearing less."
She had a point there, Percy had quite literally fucked her before, it wasn't like her naked body was anything new to him.
"Now come on." She tried getting him out of bed, "You need to get in the bath before the ice melts."
"Fuck my life!" Percy shouted as soon as he put just a tiny bit of pressure on his broken leg. Pain shot up his leg like someone had shot him. If he hadn't lost his grip on the ladder, this wouldn't have happened in the first place.
"Don't worry, it won't be hurting for long." Annabeth promised.
She helped him limp his way to the bathroom. He nearly fell a few times just because he was literally using only one leg to move. Annabeth did most of the moving for him, if she wasn't there, he dreaded to imagine how hard this walk would've been.
Annabeth pushed the door open to the bathroom and guided him in. The bathroom was huge and actually a lot better-looking than what Percy had expected. The floor was made of blue tile as were the walls. They weren't steel or anything else like Percy had expected. There were four large bathtubs lined up along a wall, opposite of a set of fours showers. The showers were divided by walls with stall doors insuring privacy. Of course, there were toilet stalls and sinks too, that was pretty much expected.
One of the bathtubs was filled with water, bits of ice floated on the top.
"Hurry up, the ice is melting." She said.
Percy took far longer getting undressed than he normally did. He had a broken leg, of course he'd take longer, it wasn't like he was the Usain Bolt of getting undressed. When he climbed in, he didn't flinch or jump out because of the cold, instead, the water seemed to be working its magic on his leg.
The pain in his leg transformed into a cold feeling that started to feel better by the second. Percy let out a relieved sigh. Any other demigod would be crying out because of the cold water but not him, he was enjoying himself.
Annabeth started stripping out of her underwear next to him. He'd be lying if he said he didn't check her out even a little. She caught him looking and rolled her eyes while smiling.
"Pervert." She muttered before walking into one of the showers.
Percy smiled, he really liked how he and Annabeth were so comfortable around each other to the point that being naked around one another wasn't anything to be embarrassed about. Years ago, he would've died of embarrassment but now he could care less.
He tested his broken leg and sure enough, it felt fine and moved exactly how it did before his fall. He didn't get out of the bath though, he was going to spend a few more minutes so he could enjoy the water. It seemed like a waste to not enjoy the water after Annabeth had gone out of her way to even do this for him, she didn't have to, yet she did.
A few minutes later, Annabeth emerged from the shower, her body wet and dripping with water. She didn't bother covering her body as she walked over to one of the cupboards, opening it and finding a towel to dry herself off with.
"Hey, Annabeth, what'd you set our heading too?" He asked.
"I don't know where we're heading but I just picked the next preset on the coordinates chart." She said, "I don't know why the crew had the first preset set to Circe's Island."
Percy wondered that too, he'd never heard of anyone willingly visiting Circe, well maybe Odysseus but no one he personally knew. He wondered what the crew was looking for. Then he remembered his dream.
He'd told Annabeth about his dream during one of their lunches, so she knew about the crazed son of Poseidon captain that was looking for him a few decades too early.
"Well, their captain was looking for a half-blood and Circe used to have half-bloods under her, I mean, look at Reyna." He said.
"True." Annabeth said as she finished drying herself off.
"I wonder how Reyna's doing these days." He said.
"Probably just hunting with Thalia, I mean, we saw her when you got stung by the Manticore." She said, throwing the wet towel into a laundry chute.
Percy had already seen Annabeth's naked body before, hell, he'd seen it before he even got kidnapped. Yet despite that, he still admired her form, mainly how she put some mortal models to shame, a lot of half-bloods did. Even the Hephaestus guys could pass off as advertisements for rugged workwear, and their dad was supposed to be the ugliest god on Olympus.
Once again, Annabeth caught him looking. "Even with a broken leg, you're still a complete pervert." She said, "Is it like a Big Three thing to be horny all the time?"
"Nah, it's just me." He said with a grin.
The truth was, he didn't know. Nico barely talked about his love life, let alone his sex life. Thalia was quite literally a sworn virgin. Hazel was a complete mystery, if she had done anything with Frank, he didn't know. Then there was Jason, who was somewhat inconsistent, some days he'd be bragging about scoring with Piper, then the next day he'd be panicking his ass off at the idea that he wasn't good enough in bed, even though Percy told him he was probably just fine.
Percy didn't really struggle with insecurity when it came to sex, even during his and Annabeth's first time. If anything, he was more nervous about the possibility of accidentally hurting Annabeth, not sexually satisfying her. Any doubts that he did have were pretty much Thanos-snapped out of existence when she quite literally screamed for him.
Annabeth left the bathroom, leaving Percy a little disappointed, he was enjoying the eye candy. Before anyone called him a perverted dog, Annabeth was just as bad. She liked to keep up her modest daughter of Athena I-have-no-sex-for-knowledge-is-my-lover appearance, but Percy knew her deep down, if she got hot and bothered enough, his dick wasn't safe.
She walked back into the bathroom, a pair of shorts and a camp shirt on, her hair was still pretty wet, which was to be expected, she hadn't used a hair dryer and combing over her hair with a towel could only do so much.
"Is your leg healed yet?" She asked.
"Yeah." He said, standing up on his own.
Annabeth smiled, "Great because we're getting close to our next stop.
Ω
Percy stared at the screen in front of him with a look of pure disappointment. The submarine had a camera attached to the periscope, which Annabeth was currently using. She had the bright idea to look around before they themselves left the sub.
So of course, that led to Percy seeing on the bright screen in front of him, the Sirens in plain view. The ugly vulture-like ladies were still perched on their rocks, surrounded by numerous smaller jagged rocks, such rocks made it impossible for the sub to get any closer.
Percy looked over at Annabeth, who was still looking through the periscope. He was slightly concerned, he remembered the last time he had encountered the sirens with her, hopefully she didn't want to listen to them again. He remembered her vision with Luke, her mom and dad, the whole rebuilt New York behind her. He knew her vision would be different now, but he wondered how much it changed.
Thinking about Annabeth's vision made him start thinking of his own vision. What would he see? A grown-up version of him and Annabeth together, their kids by their side as they stared happily at their new home, or maybe he'd see him and Annabeth back at camp amongst their friends.
Yet Percy wasn't disappointed to see the Sirens, he could care less. The reason he was disappointed was because of the golden lyre laying in between the two monsters. He had a feeling that was Apollo's lyre, which meant they couldn't just sail on by.
"You know, we could use some of those cotton balls in the bathroom to plug our ears." Annabeth suggested.
"Sure, that could work." He said.
"I'll go got some then we'll go above." She said, walking out of the control room.
Percy sighed, this was going to be difficult, there was no guarantee that the Sirens wouldn't attack him or Annabeth if they got close enough. The Sirens had pretty sharp talons, he had to be very careful if he got into a fight with them, a single laceration could very well lead to some horrible blood loss.
He gripped Riptide in his pocket, he could try to kill them. If other monsters died because of his sword, certainly the Sirens wouldn't be any different. Their wings would make them far harder to hit but not impossible, even some of the most agile he'd faced had the possibilities of making a mistake.
Annabeth walked back into the control room with four cotton balls, he wasn't sure how well they'd work but he figured they'd try anything they could. He grabbed a couple from Annabeth and started fitting them into his ears.
"Make sure they're in tight enough." Her voice was muffled.
Once he was certain he couldn't get them in any further, he gave her a thumbs up. She did the same, motioning for them to go up.
As they made their way to one of the exit ladders, he ran through his plan in his head. They were going to go to the island, grab the lyre, and run like hell. He didn't want to fight them, but he was willing to if they forced him into a fight.
Once Annabeth opened the hatch, the winds from the outside came blowing in. Her blonde hair was flying messily around her. The wind roared in his face, it felt like his face was going to fall off.
Once they were out of the sub, Percy realized the screen on the sub didn't show everything. There was a huge storm following them and the wind seemed to be coming from it. It looked like the storm from earlier, when they were on Circe's Island but much bigger, it was probably a hurricane now that Percy thought about it.
The water around them was a dark blue, almost grayish color. The wind was choppy and cold. On the complete opposite side of the storm was the sun. It gave the sea an almost conflicting picture. He could almost see where the sun's reflection on the sea gave it an almost golden appearance, far different from the dark waters they were in.
Annabeth tapped him. He looked over. She drew a question mark with her hands, shrugging while pointing at the island.
Percy smirked. "Wait here." He mouthed. He turned and dove into the water.
The water was far colder than he expected but he didn't care. He willed the water around him to fling his body forward like a torpedo. He passed old naval mines, rocks, schools of fish, even a 20-foot great white shark. Oh yeah, this place was true vacation material.
Soon, the island was quickly approaching him, if he didn't want to actually become a human torpedo, he'd best lose some speed before he got to it.
The water around him formed more resistance, acting more like a net to catch him. Soon, his speed started dropping dramatically, eventually bringing him to a complete stop. He was just under the water's surface, but he could see the distorted vulture women above him.
Okay, just go up there and get the lyre, easy peasy! Percy thought.
The water shot him upwards, sending him a few feet in the air. He looked down and realized he was heading towards one of the Sirens, who was looking at him with wide eyes. He sailed into her, sending her squawking and shrieking as he tried to get up. He may have been able to ignore the cold water, but he certainly couldn't ignore the feeling of crashing into a rock.
The other Siren shrieked and flew towards him, her sirens ready to slice him to bits. He rolled out of the way, barely dodging her.
He caught a glimpse of Annabeth watching from the sub, she looked anxious, like she really wanted to help him, but he knew that she wouldn't join unless she needed to, if he told her to stay, there had to be a reason.
Percy drew Riptide and made his way towards Apollo's lyre, which sat against a chipped and cracked rock. The golden lyre glinted like a trophy for the taking. Each step he took, he blocked the Siren's strike.
The force of her strikes was far stronger than he had expected, he thought it'd be easy to block her attacks but despite her physical weakness, she was ferocious. The other Siren, the one he crashed into, was starting to regain her senses.
Percy slashed and hacked at the Siren that was attacking him, he managed to keep her at bay but he knew he couldn't keep it up for long, his arms were getting tired. He also knew it would be pretty difficult to try to hold off two angry bird ladies but at the same time, he planned to be in the water before that could happen.
Just as he got within arm's length of the lyre, his defense slipped. The Siren attacking him slashed at him, her talons raking across his forearm. Luckily, she had failed to do any serious damage but it still hurt. Blood oozed out of his wounds and a hot throbbing pain surrounded the clawed wound.
Percy gritted his teeth and kept pushing, eventually wrapping his hand around the lyre. Once he got it, ran backwards and sprinted to the right, making a run for the water. The Sirens shrieked behind him, he could hear their wings flapping as they started chasing after him.
He was just about to jump into the water when he felt not one but two talons slash him across his back. This time, they must've gotten their claws deeper into him because he felt a ton of searing pain shoot up his back, if he had to describe it, it was more akin to the feeling being drenched in boiling hot water.
Before the Sirens could finish him off, he jumped into the water. The ocean quickly brought him deeper before the Sirens could sink their claws into him again. He went deeper, eventually coming above a large school of colorful fish. The school broke apart thanks to a large black shadow of a giant shark swimming underneath them.
The black round body of the submarine came into view. He doubted the Sirens were fast enough to catch him, not when he was in the water. He looked up but he didn't see their shadows.
When he came to the sub, the water threw him onto the top, landing right next to a startled Annabeth.
"Percy!" She exclaimed. She ran over to him and helped him up.
"Grab this." He handed the lyre to her, "Where are the Sirens?!"
"They're over there." She pointed towards the rocks and sure enough, the Sirens were back at their spot. He wondered why they hadn't given chase. A bunch of birds dove in and out of the water so it wasn't like the water was toxic or something.
Just as Percy started to ask what was on his mind, the ocean exploded in a geyser of white and blue. A huge shark, one that Percy had never seen before, had burst through the water's surface. The color scheme was similar to a great white's but the top part wasn't gray, it was jet black. The tail was long, far longer than normal.
"Holy shit." Annabeth muttered. She turned to him, "You were swimming with that?!"
"I didn't know!" Percy defended himself, if had known there was a giant shark like that, he would've been far more careful. He knew normal sharks didn't bother him, but he wasn't sure about monster ones, maybe those sharks had a taste for half-bloods.
Annabeth shook her head and started climbing down the ladder. He followed her, making sure he didn't slip this time. If he broke his leg again, he'd be done with this shit. He closed the hatch and carefully climbed down.
When he met Annabeth at the bottom, he said, "I'll go set up our next coordinates."
As he made his way to the control room, he wondered why the coordinates led him to one of the few things he was looking for.
Percy wasn't sure what was going on, but he had a feeling one of the gods were up to their fuckery.