Let it be known to the entire universe that Annabeth Chase was not a liar.
When she had mentally vowed never to return to the beach, she had meant every word of it. However when it came down to staying home alone when her parents were at work or heading out to catch up to her friends, who had left without her when she insisted that she was going to work on her summer essay for school instead of following them to the beach again, she changed her mind. She was not a chicken or some sort of mindless follower who needed to be chasing after people all day. She just would rather hang out with her friends than sit around and watch television—because she's read her books ten thousand times and the library is closed on Sundays.
Thalia had called her on her cellphone and explained the gameplan to her when she laced up her sneakers and started jogging to the beach. Thalia had actually planned today's activity, which had been unanimously been decided that they would tour the old historic lighthouse that none of them had ever visited before except for when they were in like the first grade and were definitely not paying attention to the teacher in the slightest. Annabeth had to admit that it sounded like a better idea than their last few get-togethers—the petting zoo where Grover got his broken legs would forever be the worst idea they had ever had—and eventually caved in to the idea of heading back to the beach. Besides, they kinda did live in a beachside city. Other teenagers would kill to have the chance to permanently enjoy the sun, surf and sand.
As the blond stopped above the path to the beach, her eyes caught the ocean's gentle waves. It had been around a month since she had saved the dolphin and only around a few weeks at most since her infamous—at least with her circle of friends—stunt in the storm. In the back of her mind, Annabeth could still see the boy with black hair, brilliant green eyes and she still couldn't believe it, a tail like a fish. She nervously scratched at her chin as she drummed her fingers on her leg. She wasn't too keen on coming back after seeing that strange boy. She was no stranger to mythology and the closest she could find was the obvious answer that such traits belonged to a siren, a creature that was known to sing men into a stupor, driving them either to the brink of insanity or the sharp claws of their cliffs. They would drown the crew before devouring them alive—not a pretty illustration in any of those encyclopedias she had read. The only problem with that idea was that sirens were exclusively a female creature that were historically bird-like in appearance, meaning her encounters were thankfully not anywhere near that. Another thing was that sirens were mythological creatures, meaning they under no uncertain circumstances existed. They were stories made up by some people in Greece that had a bit too much poisonous gases in the air from their little perch in Delphi.
She was just going try and blame it all on dehydration and perhaps those cheap pizza leftovers Luke had let them have the day of the incident. It was better trying to convince herself that she was not functioning properly than trying to find a rational explanation for the boy with a tail—even if she didn't believe her own lies.
Annabeth stumbled down the slope to reach the pier where most of the boats were docked, including the ferry that took people across the water and out to the lighthouse a good couple miles away from the shore. As she stopped in front of Thalia and caught up on what shenanigans Luke had done while she was gone—which never ceased to disappoint—a horrible feeling rose in her chest. First it was a cold chill right above her heart, as if some otherworldly spirit was clawing at it in some desperate attempt to steal it away from her body. Then, the chill abruptly became a burning fire with the suffocation that came with a lack of breath, making her feel as if she was being constricted and force-fed liquid flames. As the unfortunate blond gulped with a dry throat, she knew exactly what was going on. The only way to get to the lighthouse was on a boat, and she had terrible seasickness.
It was ironic, really. Annabeth Chase was not only laughably seasick at the shortest of ocean travel, she was also allergic to seafood. She was a bit luckier on the allergy end of the stick; she was able to touch the stuff without breaking out into hives or some horrible rash but if she ingested any of the supposed bounties of the sea, she might as well reserve a place in the nurse's office. It was yet another reason why these trips to the beach were never something people would expect her to partake in. She wasn't the strongest swimmer—Thalia was, actually—, she couldn't eat fish and the rocking of the 'saltwater cradle' that sailors adored made her want to literally vomit off the starboard bow. Still she came here because her friends came and she was more than willing to push those things aside to hang out and have a little fun.
Things only got worse when the ferry that the group was planning on using was filled to the brim and unable to have room for a late arrival. In other words, the boat was full and thanks to her staying home and working on her paper, she couldn't fit on the boat. Luke and the others had offered to wait for her and catch the returning boat in around five minutes, but she just smiled and insisted that they take the first boat out. They could grab some of those paper pamphlets before all of the tourists took them and they wouldn't have a clue at what anything was there. She would be fine in waiting for them. She eventually convinced them to go when the captain started yelling that if they held up his schedule any longer that the three of them could kiss their seats goodbye and the boat took off into the green and blue abyss.
Annabeth waited on the concrete with a stone in her stomach and a chest full of sea urchins. She didn't just get sick on boat rides, she feared getting sick. On the aforementioned class trip to the lighthouse, the young girl had gotten so sick that she had thrown up on the floor of the boat and the whole ride back was filled with kids shouting and squealing at her in laughter. It was hard to admit, but she might as well had a phobia of boats. It would save her the excuses when she started feeling queasy. Her grey eyes lifted up just to see the boat pulling up to the dock and the captain calling everyone in, telling them that they would have a thirty minute trip or so out there. As her stomach dropped to her shoes, Annabeth reluctantly got on the boat and took a seat on the right side's benches. The boat was much emptier than the one before, leaving her sitting alone on the side. It was better that way; if she got sick, she wouldn't have people pestering her as she fought the urge to vomit.
The motor roared and pushed the boat away from the dock, taking solid ground away as an option. Almost immediately, the boat started rocking back and forth on the waves. The blond swallowed hard as both anxiety and nausea tried to devour her insides. The boat was much faster than it had been the last time she rode—which was again, first grade—and the speed combined with the choppy waves the hull kept jumping over made her feel violently ill. Annabeth leaned her head back and held her breath, trying to keep her stomach from ejecting everything she's ever eaten in her entire life. Laughter bounced in the air and a grey eye opened to find a bunch of children jumping up and down on the ship, trying to make it sway more. She quickly closed her eyes again and tried not to feel the shifting below her body. It was safe to say that it didn't work. She held her breath even as her lungs started to ache and her mind kept reminding her that she was moving back and forth and up and down—and oh why wouldn't the boat hold still?
Abruptly, the boat jumped yet another wave. Annabeth was leaning dangerously back even further in an effort to soothe her stomach when the ship lurched to the right, flinging her off the side. She opened her eyes just in time to see herself hit the water with a rough slap to the face. All of the stale air she had been holding slipped right out her mouth and lungs and in came a flood of water. Her lungs were burning despite the water and her mind was screaming and crying out for her to get air now. Thrashing and disoriented from the sudden pain and nausea compounded, the blond scrunched up her eyes and found herself much deeper under water than she had ever been before, even when she was trying to cut through the shark net. She struggled to turn herself around and swim up towards the surface as she held her waterlogged breath, even when it offered her no air. She felt her lungs seemingly burst as black dots clotted her vision like moths flying in front of her face. Annabeth felt herself slip further under the water as the world went black.
α
"...not dead, is she," a voice slowly merged with the black world Annabeth found herself submerged in. It didn't sound familiar to her, but it might have just been because her head was pounding off her shoulders and her lungs felt like they were in blistering pain. The girl focused on breathing as whoever had talked seemed to ramble on to themselves. "Oh, please don't be dead," they whimpered. "I thought that made them better!" She inhaled the salt-stained air and tried to focus. Where was she? Her mind slowly started getting back to work, picking up the pieces of what had happened before now. She remembered getting on a boat to the lighthouse and feeling sicker than a dog before—
Crap! She fell in! Her grey eyes snapped open only to be stabbed with bright sunlight, making her hiss and turn her head away. A shocked gurgle returned her greeting before the sound of something moving reached her throbbing ears. "Okay, she's not dead. That's an improvement."
Annabeth slowly let her eyes open to see nothing but sand beside her. Her eyes shut again as they instinctively started tearing up, trying to force out the sheer amount of saltwater they had tolerated. She let out a groan of pain and tried to sit up, but her arms felt like they were made of lead. Instead she just flopped back down in the sand, lifted her head back upwards and forced her eyes open. She instantly found herself looking into a pair of green eyes. She jumped at the sight and ended up knocking their heads together, forcing whoever was leaning over her to move away and let out a long moan of pain.
"Ow," the voice complained in a muffled sort of way, as if they were covering their face with their hands. "That was my nose!" The voice became a bit clearer in her mind as she finally managed to sit up. As she rubbed her sore forehead, the voice started sounding more and more like a boy's voice. Abruptly, the thoughts she had been suppressing popped back up. Boy who was constantly in the water, magical healing cuts and a tail instead of legs... The girl snapped her attention over her shoulder to find a boy with black hair rubbing his nose with a frankly unintimidating scowl on his face.
Annabeth was apparently very unlucky, as it was obviously the same boy she had been running into the last two times she had came to the beach.
The boy was finally out of the water, making her realize that her earlier observations had been pretty much all she needed to know. Black hair, green eyes with odd shades of lighter green and blue in them, very slightly tanned—she stressed slightly—skin that look pretty pale despite his efforts and a deep green tail. On closer inspection though she found that the tail was smooth like a dolphin's and yet reflected the light like individual scales. The spots where the sun glimmered were a lighter shade of green, similar to his eyes. As for how he had been covered in netting the last time she saw him, he didn't bear a scratch.
He pulled away his hands just in time to see Annabeth staring at his tail, her eyes fixated on the strange way it reflected the light. He let out a small huff before moving it slightly behind him, as if he was offended by her staring, the very tip of his fin still dipped in the water. Grey eyes snapped up to meet green ones as the boy gave her a goofy looking smile.
"It's a good thing you woke up; I was starting to think that perhaps I didn't know CPR like I thought I did." Annabeth just blinked at him as he combed his wet hair with his fingers, as if trying to move it away from his eyes. "It is sorta hard to learn it without ever practicing on someone other than a dolphin," he mused.
"You," she sputtered. The boy lifted an eyebrow as the blond tried to stand up, but she simply crashed back down to her knees again. She shook it off before looking back up at him and pointing. "You're the boy who cut himself on my knife, the Seaweed Brain." He frowned at her, his cheeks becoming a little pink in the process.
"First of all," he huffed, "That was an accident. I'm not used to things actually being able to hurt me, thanks." He narrowed his eyes for a minute before letting them relax a bit. "Second thing, I have a name, and I can promise you that it's not Seaweed Brain."
"Then what is it," Annabeth chuckled in an awkward sort of way. She felt like she was going crazy; there was no possible way that she was actually talking to this...this...mermaid boy. She must have ingested more water than she thought.
The boy closed his eyes and moved his arm in front of his chest to give her a mock bow. She just blinked in confusion at his action. "I," he began as he lowered his head a little more, "am Percy." Percy waited for a moment before opening one eye and staring at Annabeth, waiting for a reaction.
"...Percy," she asked slowly, after a very long and awkward silence. The black-haired boy frowned as she just lifted an eyebrow at him and started tugging on her drenched sleeves as if trying to put them back over her arms. "Your name is Percy?"
"Yes," he sighed. He sat up straight and looked at her with mild confusion. "What? Why are you looking at me like I grew a second head or something."
The girl chuckled dryly to herself. Perhaps it's because you have a tail, she thought to herself. Instead she shrugged her shoulders and started twisting the ends of her hair, drying the blond curls as best she could. "I don't know. It's just that Percy seems like such a normal name and you're...uh," she paused as she found his eyes narrowing in challenge.
"Oh, I see how it is." Percy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to make further eye contact with her. "You think that just because I have a tail, I'm gonna have some really weird name like Bonecruncher or Silverstream or something dumb like that, huh?" He looked at the girl out of the corner of his eyes as she shook her head at him and tried to cover up her embarrassment at speaking without thinking.
"No, no, no! Percy's a great name for a...uh..." She lost her voice again for a moment before hastily coming up with something. "It's a great name for a, uh, merboy! Yeah, a merboy!" Percy's eyes flashed with something akin to frustration and his cheeks turned bright red.
"I'm a merman," he squealed. He brushed some more of his pitch black hair off of his cheeks as they burned brightly in the afternoon sunlight. "Not a merboy, a merman! Honestly, I'm not a kid anymore..."
"Sorry," Annabeth offered nervously. Percy gave her a searching glance before he sighed and nodded his head.
"Nah, it's not that big of a deal." He paused for a moment before looking back at her and giving her a lopsided, awkward smile. "It's not like you called me a mermaid or a siren, so I'll forgive you. I mean," he rambled, "Sirens aren't even aquatic, you know? They're like part vulture or something and yet people think they live in the ocean." He stopped to look back at the girl across from him, his eyes unnaturally bright, as if they were luminescent.
He took a deep breath before shaking his head and scratching the back of his neck. "Actually," he mumbled, his eyes looking away as little drops of pink rose on his cheeks. "It's Perseus." Annabeth rose an eyebrow but Percy just shook his head. "I know, really old fashioned, right? Percy's just fine, honestly. I'd much rather be called that."
Annabeth just stared at him. Her mind was slowly picking up the pieces and now factoring in what was happening in front of her. The strange boy with a tail that she's met both of the times she's visited this beach was apparently named Perseus but wanted to be called Percy, had something against being called a boy instead of man when he looked all of sixteen if he was lucky and had a weird, almost feigned sort of hostility towards her—if she could even consider calling his faint bluntness such a thing. She was literally talking to something out of a fairy tale and all she could do was stare at him and ponder where she had gone insane.
Hold the phone, did he say CPR? As in, actual CPR used on people who were drowning?!
Her mind rebounded and snapped back to his earlier words, making her scrunch her face up in confusion. "Hold on," Annabeth sputtered. Percy just tilted his head at her and brushed his hair aside again, as if irritated by it finally drying out for the first time since she's met him. "Did you say CPR?"
"Yeah." Percy just shrugged it off, as if he was completely unaware of any sort of problem with what he was saying. "You were out cold. You must have swallowed like a whole fish tank's worth of water." He seemed to hiss out the words 'fish tank', as if he was vehemently opposed to such a thing and judging by his reaction to Annabeth's mention of a marine animal rescue facility when they met, she wouldn't doubt it in the slightest. "I was lucky that I could learn it at all, to be honest. It's not like I have many sources for practicing human rescue procedures."
"CPR," she pressed, her voice cracking slightly. His green eyes narrowed as he seemed to try and understand what she was rambling on about. "You gave me CPR while I was unconscious?"
"Would you have rather drowned," he asked impatiently, as if he was taking personal offense to her confusion. "If that's the case, I can, like, ignore you next time. I don't have to pick you up out of the water and haul you up on the most deserted part of the beach I know. I can tell when my services are not wanted."
"No, no, no." Annabeth shook her head and absently pulled on her face with her hands, smelling a faint trace of salt on her hands and arms. "I mean, I'm...grateful and all," she paused, trying to find some sort of way to connect what she was thinking right now into words. "It's just that I have a..." The girl stopped, sighed and tried again, giving her rescuer a very stressed look. "I have a seafood allergy," she said at last, as if it explained everything in the world to him.
Percy remained silent for a few minutes, his green eyes void of emotion. He eventually blinked a few times and flicked his tail, as if he was trying to think. He then rubbed his arms as if they were cold and gave the blond a baffled look. "You...have a seafood allergy," he asked, his voice stating loud and clear that he had not the faintest idea of what she was saying.
Annabeth just nodded and drummed her fingers on her thighs, her shins and feet falling asleep under her weight. "A seafood allergy," she repeated. Her grey eyes lifted to his own eyes, her gaze holding tight to a pleading sort of tone that she hoped would make him understand what she was saying. "I-I can't eat fish or else my throat swells up and I could..." she stopped herself, her eyes shutting for a moment before she opened them again. "I-I don't know if merb—" she stopped herself yet again, this time picking apart her words and fixing them to avoid any problems. "I don't know if mermen fall under seafood allergies."
"You...can't eat fish," Percy asked hesitantly, as if he was nervous to ask her in the first place. Annabeth looked at his face to find his eyes shining brightly and his lips pulled back into a beaming smile. She stared at him in confusion for a moment before she slipped an awkward laugh into the empty space around them. "You can't eat any fish from the ocean, even if you wanted to?"
"No," she chuckled. For some reason, the look on his face made her feel a little less confused and a little more amused. "I can't eat any of the fish out there."
"I knew you were a good one from the minute I saw you," he blurted. He froze for a moment as both teenagers's faces lit up with a healthy amount of color. Percy shook it off relatively quickly and started talking again. "When you helped me free Rainbow from that little cranny over there and return him to the water, I could kinda tell that you were different than most of the people that come here." He took a deep breath and suddenly he was rubbing his left shoulder as if it were in pain. "I mean, I kinda wasn't supposed to and I kinda didn't want to, but I did."
"Rainbow?" Annabeth found herself smirking as her mind connected the name to the dolphin that they had rescued together. "His name is Rainbow?"
Percy's cheeks lit up again, but he shook off his embarrassment with dignity. "Yeah, it is. They all have names, you know. It's my job to remember them all; they're kinda like my friends and all." His green eyes churned with warmth for a moment before he looked back to the blond across from him. "They take messages from me, to my father and all over, no matter where it needs to be."
"Your father," Annabeth muttered in confusion. Her eyes clouded over for a moment before she lifted her chin and looked Percy in the eye. "Is he a merman like you, then?" The black-haired boy noticeably stiffened at her words and took in a sharp breath through his teeth. The blond narrowed her eyes in questioning before continuing, "I mean, I would assume that you would get a tail like that from somewhere."
The boy looked at the ocean over his shoulder for a moment, as if he was contemplating something. His eyes flickered with a bit of hesitation before he closed them with a sigh and shook his head. He turned back to the girl with a flame of determination in his eyes, showing clearly that he had made up his mind. "I've never really told this to anyone," he began, "Because I'm not really supposed to." His mouth curved up into a half-smile and Annabeth caught herself thinking that this boy smiled more than she's ever seen anyone smile before—and she's met some really airheaded people before, believe her. "But you seem a lot different than the other people that come here," he admitted.
"Look," he started, his left hand lifting to his face so he could push his hair away as it curled slightly and puffed up from finally drying out. "The truth is, my father is Poseidon." He held his breath as Annabeth sort of just blinked at him, her mind slowly whirling and confirming to her shocked ears that yes, he had really just said that.
Normally, she would have counted him as crazy and just walked away with her hands in the air, giving up on trying to make sense of the person's insanity. However judging by his tail and the fact that she was literally talking to a merbo—excuse her, merman—at the moment, she was going to take that as fact. Or she was dead after drowning in the ocean just to go and see some dumb lighthouse. It was still a very faint possibility in her mind right now.
"So," she paused, trying to find a way to speak without being utterly disrespectful. "You're telling me that you're father is Poseidon, the Greek god of the oceans?" Percy nodded and suddenly the name Perseus made a bit more sense, if only for the Greek mythology connection. "Right..." She looked at the water behind him and admired the deep green tint it was claiming today before looking back at his eyes, which were looking more and more like the ocean with every glance she took. "So you live under the water right? Or do you live in some sort of temple?"
"No, I live under there," Percy explained. "He's the god of the ocean and I help him out." He smiled a bit brighter at this, as if he was proud of that fact. "I take care of the animals and fish that call the ocean home, I make sure that no one's polluting the water with their trash or lost lunch and make sure that everything is how its supposed to be." Annabeth blushed a bit at the mention of lost lunch, as it suddenly dawned on her that he might have been following her—probably to make sure she didn't puke in his front yard, as he was saying.
"Are there other Greek gods around that I should know about, or is your father a special case?" Percy gave her an odd look before sadly shaking his head and dipping his chin.
"Only my uncles," he muttered. "There used to be so many more, from what my father told me. Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and so many others," he stopped and took a deep breath, his green eyes slowly growing stormy as the ocean had a few weeks prior. "Then people stopped believing in them and thinking about them. Knocked them all down as stories. The only reason my father and his brothers are still around is because that people remember them, though not entirely as gods. Some day," he sighed with a sorrowful tone, "Some day they might disappear too."
Annabeth felt a pang of sympathy in her chest. Worrying about such a thing as how long your own family would survive sounded like a horrible thing to have on your mind. She slowly gave Percy a sad smile before the boy shook his head and looked back at her.
"What about your family," he asked. "I mean, now that you know about my father and all..." He stopped and nervously flicked his tail, sending a few droplets of water flying behind him from his tail. "I bet your family has some sort of connection to the ocean, right?" His eyes suddenly brightened again, as if he was excited. "You didn't hesitate to help Rainbow when he was stuck. Most humans would have either ignored him and thought someone else would have helped him or just called some people to come and get him."
The girl shook her head. "Sorry, my family's very happy on dry land." His eyes narrowed in slight disappointment, but he listened anyway. "My mother Athena used to be the mayor and—" Abruptly Percy's eyes widened and he slammed his tail on the surface of the water as if he was startled.
"Wait," he shouted. "Your mother's Athena?" His eyes looked wild with both confusion and hope, making Annabeth feel slightly guilty about what she had just said. Of course he would have gotten excited by that. He just said that the Greek gods were mostly dead. Why wouldn't he jump to such a conclusion? "Then you're a demigod too, right?"
"Sorry," she sighed as he froze in place. "Her name is Athena. She not actually..." The blond hesitated before giving Percy an apologetic glance. "She's not actually the Greek goddess Athena." The black-haired boy dipped his head before slowly nodding in response, as if sadly accepting what she had said. Annabeth then narrowed her eyes and gave the boy a questioning glance. "But, demigods? What did you mean by—" She stopped herself as she quickly remembered what exactly demigods were. They were the offspring of gods and mortals in all of those ancient tales. If that were the case, that would imply that Percy was a—
"I'm a demigod," he admitted just as her brain was coming to the same conclusion. His gaze dropped to his hands as he absently wove his fingers together and pulled them apart one by one. "My mother is a human, like you." His eyes gained a sort of fog to them, but it was warm with happy memories. "She visits during the summer from Manhattan. She used to live around here a while ago, but then she got a really great job in the city and she's been visiting every since."
"She...sounds very nice," Annabeth offered awkwardly, her head suddenly hurting from her trip underwater. As her clothes stuck to her skin and itched with the remains of salt, her mind stalled and tried to find something to say. She had a nagging feeling that she was forgetting something and she wanted to figure out the cause of it as soon as possible. Her brain offered her a hazy picture of the day they had rescued Rainbow the dolphin and suddenly she was picking at the lingering scab of an unanswered question.
"You cut your hand on my knife," she blurted. The boy looked up from his own thoughts to find the blond rubbing her cheek with her right hand, her complexion paler than usual. "When we first met, you tried to take my pocket knife by the blade and you cut yourself on it." She lifted her grey eyes to meet his and narrowed them slightly in thought. "Are you always a Seaweed Brain like that, or was that an accident?"
Percy bit his lip to hold back a bitter retort before exhaling and rubbing his nose on his hand absently. "No," he responded a bit sharply, "I am not a Seaweed Brain, as I have mentioned earlier." He took another breath before smiling a bit. "I'm really not used to being hurt by things. All the sharp things I own can't hurt me and I usually don't even have to worry about a wound because I heal so fast."
"Heal," Annabeth echoed, confusion lingering in the air.
The black-haired demigod nodded. "Heal," he repeated. "Since I'm Poseidon's son, the water heals any injuries I have for the most part. Unless I'm freaking out and panicking, the water just wraps around the open wound and gives it a good squeeze before it's suddenly gone and not a trace is left." He looked at his tail for a moment before looking back at the girl in front of him. "I kinda forgot about it in the heat of the moment and I ended up healing without really wanting to." He chuckled at the memory before shaking his head. "I was kinda shocked that you noticed it at the time, actually. People don't normally see me bleed, like, at all. Or just don't see me."
A cool feeling enveloped the blond as she finally had an answer to something she had dubbed impossible. She finally had an answer that made at least a shred of sense in context of what happened the past month of her summer vacation. A weight lifted from her shoulders at the thought. Taking this as a good sign, her mind reminded her of another inconsistency and prompted her to find the cause behind it as well. "I also noticed that you had legs then," Annabeth pointed out. Percy gave his tail a quick glance that almost seemed accusatory before looking back at her and nodding reluctantly.
"That was the mist," he chuckled. When Annabeth just stared at him as she tried to figure out what he was talking about, he filled her in with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "It's this thing that hides magical and unusual things from people like you," he explained. "It takes the extraordinary and makes their eyes see it as something ordinary, something that they can understand and explain." He paused before adding with an amused smile, "You'd be surprised what great lengths people will go through to avoid finding something that doesn't make sense. I once popped out of the water on the back of a very confused shark who had hurt himself on a passing cargo ship and all the beachgoers saw was a breaching whale." He laughed at his and shook his head in disapproval. "Whales don't even like coming this close to the shore. It's too crowded and noisy to focus."
Annabeth found herself laughing at the mental image of Percy clinging to a very distressed shark while the people on the shoreline started taking out their phones and tried to take pictures of what they thought was a whale close to shore. Despite how crazy everything sounded, it was better than having nothing to explain it. Besides, she highly doubted that he would lie to her even though they had only met a total of three times including today. There was just something about the way he was talking to her and the things he said that made it seem like it would be pointless for him to lie. She smiled at the demigod before slowly rising to her feet and stretching her arms over her head.
"I should try and catch up to my friends," she explained as her arms fell back down to her sides. Percy's face quickly fell into disappointment as he watched her carefully fix her half-dry shirt and brush off the sand from the knees of her jeans. "They're probably worried about me since I never managed to catch up with them at the lighthouse like I said I would."
As if her words were a cue, someone started calling out her name. Annabeth looked over her shoulder to see a familiar face running mindlessly in her direction, hands cupped over her mouth and yelling her name in a frantic sort of manner. It would make sense that they would send Thalia to try and find her; the girl wasn't just the best swimmer, but she was also the fastest runner out of their whole group. The blond looked back to the boy only to find him gone with a ripple right were his tail was seconds ago. A drop of disappointment fell to her stomach before she dashed out of the small corner of the beach and started heading towards Thalia.
Thalia lowered her hands just in time to find Annabeth Chase wandering out from a very small path on the edge of the sand, her clothes crinkled and shriveled from drying out awkwardly in the open air. The girl's bright blue eyes widened considerably before she ran full speed for the missing individual.
"Annabeth," she nearly sobbed, her eyes wild with panic. Thalia grabbed the girl's shoulders as soon as Annabeth stopped in front of her and abruptly her worried face caught a slight flame of indignation. "Where in the world were you," she asked in a frenzy. "We were waiting for you at the lighthouse and when your boat got there, you weren't even on it! Luke and Grover are still looking for you on the other side of the beach and we were this close to contacting the police and reporting you as missing!"
Annabeth's cheeks brightened as shame flashed through her. She should have spent less time talking and more times trying to find them. She could only imagine the chaos that her disappearance had caused. She was just about to open her mouth and try and come up with sort explanation that would not make her sound crazy when someone else came running up behind them.
"Annabeth," the voice called, prompting the two girls to turn around and try to find the source of the sound. To the surprise of both girls, a boy with wet black hair and green eyes in a simple blue tee-shirt and jeans was running up to them with a ballcap in his hands. The blond nearly felt her heart burst as she realized that she hadn't even noticed it was gone. Turns out that she was reckless a little too much today. The boy stopped right beside Annabeth with a smile on his face, his bright eyes shining with humor.
"You forgot your hat," Percy chuckled. Thalia let go of Annabeth's shoulders and the blond girl took her hat and nervously thanked him, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the situation. Her eyes caught a quick glance of him smiling at her, but it was gone almost instantly. He looked to the confused Thalia before nodding slowly, as if he was just now figuring things out.
"You must be one of Annabeth's friends then," he said calmly. The baffled girl just nodded very slowly, looking him up and down. It was very clear from her gaze that she was seriously confused as to not only who he was, but how he knew her best friend. "I'm Percy," he announced, holding out a hand for her to shake as if he's done this every day of his life—which he hadn't. "Percy Jackson." Annabeth raised her eyebrow for a moment before just shaking it off with a sigh. She was starting to think that questioning this boy was only going to give her more and more questions, not answers.
"Thalia Grace," she offered, cautiously taking his hand and giving it a shake. She then turned her eyes back to Annabeth and raised an eyebrow. "You mind telling me how you two know each other," she asked. "I'm gonna be honest and say I have no idea what's going on here." The blond opened her mouth to speak but Percy cut her off, the flicker of humor in his eyes now a bright flame.
"Annabeth was on that boat you were talking about when she fell off. I was swimming nearby and I brought her back to shore. She passed out when she was underwater." He smiled as Thalia's eyes widened. "She's alright now, though. I gave her some CPR and she woke up after she coughed up a bit of saltwater." Thalia looked to Annabeth only to be met with a confirming nod. Percy's alibi was all they could offer her; a story about him being a tailed son of Poseidon wouldn't go over well.
"We should get going back to the others. I told them to hold off on calling in until I got back." Annabeth nodded at her before Thalia turned around and started leading the way back to their group. Annabeth started to slowly follow her before looking back over her shoulder and giving Percy a thankful smile.
"Thanks," she whispered. The black-haired boy just nodded happily and gave her a curt wave goodbye before slowly stepping backwards and returning the way he came. He was just about to disappear out of sight when Thalia spun around and suddenly called him back over.
"Percy," she shouted. The boy stood still and gave them both a very shocked expression. The girl blinked her blue eyes in thought before shaking off her hesitation and giving him a smile. "Why don't you come with us? I think you'd do a better job at explaining what happened than I could." Percy paused for a few minuted before eagerly nodding his head and trotting back up to them, only slowing down when he was in step with Annabeth.
The girl gave him a confused look as they walked behind Thalia, trying to look past the obvious signs that he thought that the whole thing was kinda funny in some way, shape or form. "I thought you have a tail," she hissed under her breath. "How exactly are you walking right now?"
"It's only a tail when its wet," he explained. His green eyes narrowed with a smirk as he cast a quick glance to the ocean. "My father had to meet my mother somehow, after all." Annabeth tried not to laugh at the way he was raising his eyebrows at his comment, even when Thalia gave them a few baffled looks over her shoulder.
α
The next time the group rode a boat out to the lighthouse, they made sure that everyone was on the same boat and seated right next to each other. When another rough wave gave the motorboat enough momentum to launch out of the water with a sharp buck to the right, everyone, including Percy Jackson, made sure that Annabeth Chase didn't go sailing off the side again.
Author's Note: And this is the last chapter. I really thank each and every one of you for reading my first Percy Jackson and the Olympians fiction! I know it's kinda silly, but what's the harm in a little fluff every once in a while? :D After I read more of the series, you can be sure to see me around here again. Who knows? I might just show up a bit earlier with another fluffy fic or a silly oneshot! I'm kinda known for my fluff.
I decided to keep Percy as a demigod for this to kinda swap how things were in the first book. He had to go through a few crash courses at Camp Half-Blood to find out about being a demigod, so I'll cut the kid a break for once. I'm also guilty of joking around and saying Percy was a mermaid, which is actually how this fic came to be. Although, he is most certainly not a mermaid, as he would tell you. He is a merman! (Blame the fish for his childish insistence. They never go to Percy for help even when he's way less busy than his father is. Poor kid just wants some recognition!)
Also I put little alpha symbols instead of linebreaks because it looked really cluttered for some reason with the lines. :U
I chose it because it's a cute little a that's all fancy! At least, that's what I always think when I see it. Also I'm a huge Pokemon nerd and Alpha Sapphire is the game that deals with the oceans rather than the land. (But I swear it's not the main or only reason behind it, promise!)
If this receives enough support, I'll either make a few more chapters or some sequel oneshots. I will also have a poll on my page where you can cast your vote for either wanting more chapters or some oneshots that follow this story, so be sure to check that out. Let me know if you guys are interested in more!
Thank you all so much for reading!