Percy could breathe underwater. His father, could not.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson had been saving up to go on a much deserved vacation with their son, Percy. They'd been planning to visit some friends and family in Florida and take a break from a freezing winter. And for once in their lives, it seemed like everything would be ok. Seemed.
When the long awaited plane ride to Heaven came, the youngest Jackson was overjoyed. According to a flight attendant, the boy spoke to him about the beaches and warm weather that he looked forward to every time he passed by.
After the flight and meeting up with family, it was time. Percy couldn't hide his excitement the whole ride there, practically bouncing up and down on the seats. Upon arrival and the opening of the car doors, the young boy jumped straight out and darted for the body of water that laid ahead...only to have an arm pull him back just before the water hit his ankles.
"Haha," A voice that Percy would always know laughed . "Not so fast Quicksilver, water proof sunscreen first."
"Aw c'mon dad," Percy complained, watching the water get further and further away. "I have sun-proof skin, but it doesn't work on dry land."
"Is that so?" The elder chuckled, opening a new bottle of sunscreen. "Well it's a good thing this does."
Percy accepted defeat and let his doting dad smother all his exposed skin in sun block, as his mother laughed at the "Father and Son" bonding session from under an umbrella.
"Okay, let's make a deal." Mr. Jackson said as he finished applying the cream. "If you beat me in a race, then the rest of the vacation you don't have to use sunscreen. BUT if I win the race, you have to hold my hand for the rest of the vacation. Deal?"
"But what if you go to the bathroom?"
"There'll be some exceptions." He smiled.
"Ok! You're on! Where are we racing to?" The younger beamed, eager to win his no-sun screen vacation.
"Riiiiiight there." Mr. Jackson said pointing out somewhere towards the ocean.
"Where?"
"Right there."
"Where is "right there"!" Percy exclaimed, getting frustrated.
"Riiiiiiiiight, THERE!" The father yelled, darting towards an unknown point as he said the last word.
"Hey, no fair!" Percy shouted back, racing to catch up.
Though his father was well into his 30's, he didn't challenge him to a race for nothing. Percy was more than an arms' length behind him, still struggling to catch up. Cold water hit his waist before he realized he was in the water and a wave was coming. Through eyes that burned due to lack of goggles, Percy could just barely see his father swimming much farther ahead of him now than before. Between choking on water and understanding that no matter where the "finish line" was he'd lost the race, Percy went under. But almost 1 second before he did, he could swear that he heard that same ever familiar voice shout: PERCY!
Yes, he was indeed choking on water. And yet, not exactly. He had a mixture of air and water in his lungs, but which ever decided to be dominant didn't feel too bad. Having had his eyes shut this whole time, he decided to ignore the burn and open them, seeing that he was much further from the surface than he originally thought. As was his dad. Percy's mind told him to swim up and meet his father half-way but his body felt a weird yet pleasant attraction to the water, and insisted that he stay a while.
The water around Percy began to darken, making it seem as if his father was just a silhouette with the bright surface behind him. Though he sunk lower and lower, Percy was breathing just fine. However, his father's rapid downward swimming was slowing down. Percy tore from his trance and began to swim upward. He shook his dad, trying to get him to open his eyes. When he didn't, Percy decided to bring him to the surface.
Upon arrival, Percy's ears rung to the sound of his mother calling for the two. Along with trying to cough out the water that had not so long ago filled his lungs. With the absence of water, his father's full weight kicked in. He struggled to lug him onto shore, but his mom spotted them at last and ran to help. While Mrs. Jackson laid her husband on his back and attempted CPR, Percy flagged down a life guard and pointed to the nearby situation.
When the lifeguard finally was there to help, a crowd had already formed around the situation. The guard tore though the crowd, and with Percy close behind him, found that the situation had been dealt with in the worst possible way.
Percy could breathe underwater. His father, could not.
The death took its' toll on everyone, but Percy suffered greatly at the loss. Cousins whom had been distant to him, but close to his father, had blamed him for the death. His two uncles, who'd never seemed to like him anyway, had also cursed him in more ways than one.
It didn't matter that his mother would remind him every hour that he wasn't to blame. Because he could hear her cry late at night after she thought he was asleep. He'd blamed himself, too. Maybe if he'd just swam towards him earlier, or never even wanted to go to the beach in the first place, his father would be here to tuck him into bed and kiss him goodnight. But he wasn't.
Since that day, Percy hadn't gone swimming or even near any body of water. When he did, the water practically called him forth and he would just barely get away. He made an immediate switch from baths to showers, and even had to force himself to drink water.
He devolved what his therapist called, hydrophobia.
It wasn't necessarily a problem…..until a group of school bullies gave him a swirlie. The actual experience was bad, but it was worse when Percy had a damn near heart attack from believing that he was drowning. Then he made each sink and toilet (minus his own) have its own personal geyser experience. The jerks freaked out and reported him to the principal, earning him a 2 week suspension + extra homework. Along with a new nickname in school: Toilet boy.
That nickname followed him all the way to the middle of next school year. 7th grade had been going pretty well, excluding the whispers of "Toilet boy" and "Freak-a-zoid." A's, B's, and the occasional C showed a lot of improvement from last year. He stopped therapy and could now drink a whole glass of water without a second thought, though swimming was still a no-go. He didn't forget his past, but he put it behind him. Hell, sometimes he'd even practice water-bending, as he began to call it after watch ATLA.
He'd been relaxing after school one day, and waiting for his mother to return from her errands when he heard the front door unlock. He went to greet her and instead saw a Latino boy with…luggage?
Oh, no. Had been his first thought. He figured that some random cousin who probably still held a grudge against him had come to stay a week or 2. Until his mother introduced him as his new brother.
An awkward moment passed by and his/their mother went to show his new brother, Leo, his room.
What the fuck, what the FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK? What did his mom just say? His brother? Whose brother? Hers? His?
Percy went to his mother's room, only to find her sitting on her bed and taking off her shoes.
"Um, what was that out there?" He questioned.
"What was what? Do you mean your brother? Don't address him as a "what." His name is Leo, and he's your slightly younger brother." Ms. Jackson sternly replied.
"I," Pointing to himself. "Don't have any siblings. Much less ones I haven't even heard of!" Percy stated, frustrated at his mother's answers.
"I adopted him, and now you do have a sibling. You should be happy! Not upset!" The woman said, not understanding Percy's response to a brother.
"You didn't even want to tell me about this! Just pop it on me like a birthday surprise?!" Percy argued, not caring that Leo may or may be able to hear him from next door.
"Shh, he might hear you! And did you consider my feelings?!" Ms. Jackson asked, now standing up and getting closer to her first son.
"Did you consider, mine?!" Percy stormed out of the room and went into his own, locking the door. He put headphones on and turned the music up as loud as it could go, and resorted to blogging about it.
He surfed the web for a good hour before taking a nap, and going at it again. At some point of the night he felt his stomach growl and risked going out of his room again, in hopes that his mother wasn't still up and angry.
Even before his fathers' death, he'd known that his parents wanted another son. Tyson was the name they picked, and before he was even born they'd already had the Christmas ornament. Why they never did the deed? He'd never know.
He removed his headphones but his midnight snacking trip was cut short. Leo stood with his back facing Percy and a flame in hand. Before he could stop his excellent display of the English language he said: "Um, dude?"
Leo quickly turned around and the new brothers were face to face. One of them, unnaturally holding something that was beginning to spread around the kitchen.
"EMERGENCY!" Percy's brain screamed at him as he jumped into action. Obviously water was needed and if anyone could help in that department, it was Percy. He ran towards the sink and called forth a suitable amount of water. Leo still appeared to be shocked so he shouted "Help me out, man!" and that kicked him into action.
Before anymore of the kitchen could be burned, Percy made the water around him into a circle as he thought "Thanks Katara." Leo was doing his firebending thing and managed to compress the flames it a ball, giving Percy the opportunity to put it out.
Once done, the two boys sat on the kitchen floor with minimal smoke slowly rising. The mother of the two came rushing into the kitchen, wearing her favorite robe with a less than favorable expression.
Of course, she began throwing them questions like crazy. Causing Percy to pull some story straight out of his ass, but she didn't buy it anyway. Percy had expected a gigantic lecture and punishment for messing up the kitchen (Though it wasn't technically his fault) but instead, his mother sighed. She said how she wanted the kitchen clean and then went to bed. But before that, his adopted family member called her mom, and he didn't need to see her face to know how happy she was.
"I don't believe we've formally met. I'm Leo Valdez." Leo said, outstretching his hand.
Percy shook his hand saying, "I'm Percy. Percy Jackson. Welcome to the family."
From there and on, it was Percy and Leo vs The world. They became the trouble makers throughout the school, much to Sally's disliking. Detention and extra homework were constant with the two, although they insisted that trouble found them. Neither Percy nor Leo talked much with others within the school. Well, there was one goth-ish kid who seemed to like Percy a little too much, but he moved away after a "family problem" occurred.
"Man, this sucks." Leo breathed, earning a 'shush' from the teacher who watched over Friday detention.
"Well, we wouldn't be here if a certain someone hadn't set their paper on fire in class." Percy whispered back but not quietly enough.
"Jacksons!" Mr. D said standing up and walking their way now. "You will have plenty of time to converse over the weekend….is what I'm happy to not say. Thank you for earning yourself an extra math packet."
"Cut me some slack, teach." Leo dared say.
"Yeah, he's been really out of it lately." Percy joined in.
"Ah, good then. Nothing another extra packet can't cure. For the both of you." Mr. D finished, sitting back at his desk.
"Damn," Percy said, sighing as he left the classroom and went out into the hallway. "I never even listen in class! How am I supposed to do a packet?"
"Well how about it "mysteriously" gets burnt?" Leo laughed, tossing his packets in a nearby trashcan.
"Or my brainy brother does it for me." He smiled, pulling out the puppy eyes.
"I'm selectively smart, meaning I use my brains when I choose. And I don't choose to use them on your homework." Leo pointed at the packets and fired a small flame at them.
"Hey! Cut it out!" Percy moved his papers out of the line of fire. Literally. He pulled out a mini water bottle and splashed it into Leo's face, then proceeded to pull it all back off and hold it in a sort of orb.
"Do you really want to do this now? Here?" Leo asked, lighting his hand.
"I'd rather not, but if we must…"
Then the two duked it out, fire and water bender style. Completely forgetting about the existence of school security cameras…
That next Monday, Percy and Leo walked towards Mr. D's classroom. One with two packets in hand, and the other with his hands in his pockets.
Instead of completing their journey, the boys were cut off when a girl with blonde hair stepped in front of them.
"Gentlemen," She began, and by the look on her face Percy thought that would be last time someone called him that. "Follow me, please."
The brothers looked at each other, shrugged, then followed after the girl.
"Holy shit," Leo whispered "I just realized that's Annabeth Chase! The student council president. Girl rules with an iron fist…"
"Yeah, she's.." Percy agreed, watching the girl in front of them while slightly blushing "..cool."
"Your face tells me that you think a little more than that about her." Leo stated, and before Percy could respond, raced to catch up to the blonde who'd picked up her pace.
The three stood inside of a security closet and in front of them were about 14 monitors, all of them obviously showing what a camera somewhere was seeing,
"Now, being the student council president, it's also a part of my job to replay these tapes at the end of every week and report suspicious activities to the principal or vice."
"Aaaand I'm assuming that you caught us doing something "suspicious?" Leo guessed.
"No, I know exactly what you were doing. But I don't condone where you were doing it."
With that, Annabeth went to one of the monitors and played back a familiar scene for the two.
"That was a cheap shot!" Leo heard his own voice say and watched himself from the past shoot another stream of fire at his brother.
"Cheap shots are all I know!" Percy laughed, dodging his brother's attack.
The video played the entire scene, including when Leo slipped and fell from some of Percy's water. When it ended, Annabeth cleared her throat and said
"Not exactly the wisest place to play, don't you think?"
"We can explain! It was just umm, umm.." Leo stuttered and then looked to Percy, the expert liar.
"It was…magic?" Percy asked instead of stating.
"Yeah, not buying it." Annabeth said with an all too serious face. "Here's my advice to you: Don't use your powers in public. And this is a public school, by the way."
She turned to leave but was stopped by Leo asking,
"You're not gonna rat us out? Or give us to the government?"
She smiled and before she continued walking said:
"Ratting you out draws too much attention to myself, I'll delete the tapes so long as you never expose yourselves like that again."
"To yours-" But before Leo could finish his question, he watched the girl walk through the closed door without any trouble at all.
Leaving one boy to say "Whoa," at the sight of an amazing power.
And the other to say "Whoa," at the coming and going of a beauty.
AN: Wow, that took forever! Never fear, this is the final "back-story" chapter. The actual plot will begin in Chapter 4! SORT OF SPOILER WARNING COMING: The next chapter will more than likely be in Nico's P.O.V. I hope you enjoyed~ Until next time :3