Okay, Pheonix the Shade goddess gave me these awesome reviews, and it really warms my heart. I just wanted to say thanks!

Thanks to all those people who didn't give up on me by reviewing/favoring/following! Keep it going!

In my mind, this is more of a filler chapter that explains why Percy could go into Zeus's domain. A more action-y chapter should follow this.

Yay for explanations!

I DO NOT OWN.

Rain in the Sky

Katie Gardner's POV

Katie was positive, that after Percy found out that he was achild of Poseidonand was therefore banned from the sky, he would lose his obsession.

She was an idiot for thinking so.

She was sitting in the Jackson's kitchen, Ms. Jackson baking a batch of her famous blue cookies. There was a storm outside, lightning and thunder arriving every minute or so. Rain was pounding the windows and the lights had flickered once or twice already.

But there was no Percy Jackson in sight, which was strange, because again, his mother was baking her fabulous blue cookies. Nobody could resist those cookies—especially not Percy.

Ms. Jackson didn't seem in the least bit worried, humming to herself and swaying to the music in her mind. After covering the counter in flour, she began rolling out more dough, even though she had a freshly baked batch right next to her and another in the oven. More thunder shook the sky, and Katie felt the urge to yell at the swirling clouds near the Empire State Building to calm down!

"Katie, honey, could you get Percy?" asked Ms. Jackson. "He's probably in his room doing something with that brain of his." Ms. Jackson rolled her eyes to the roof, and Katie could tell that she was wondering why her son didn't use that brain in school.

"Okay, Ms. Jackson. I'll go get him right now." Her voice was high and pappy, so she could hide her own thoughts on the situation. Grabbing a blue cookie, she skipped down to Percy's new room, for he no longer live in that old ratty building with Smelly Gabe. Standing in front of the door, moving her pursed lips from side-to-side, Katie dwelled on her opinion on where her best friend was.

Truthfully, she had no doubt in her mind that he wasn't in his room. She thought this for mainly three reasons.

1. Percy wasn't this quiet. Only when he was aware of his every movement and thinking long and hard on every action was he ever silent. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but he definitely wasn't this quiet when he felt safe and secure.

2. Percy would hear everything going on in the kitchen. Katie could think of several moments when Percy was mentioned, and, knowing him, he would object nearly every single word spoken about him with a yell. Plus, he would hear the beeping of the oven when it went off, and then he would rush out of his room to grab a plate of cookies as soon as he could.

3. Percy would want supplies from the around his home. Not everything was in his room, and sometimes he would have to leave his hibernation to snatch some materials here and there. Or maybe even a toaster. Percy had taken and used a toaster before.

Katie barged into the room without knocking, and was not surprised at all at the emptiness of it. Percy's laptop whirred on his messy bed, blinking every few seconds. She flicked on the light, because it wasn't even on, and made her way around the room. She tapped her fingers along the top of a canvas that had a painting of a flower on it; Katie knew it was in memory of *her.

She then headed over to his bed, where his laptop sat untouched; ever since Percy learned he was a demigod, he had left his electronics alone more, but he still couldn't live without them. The screen flashed again, and she realized that it wasn't the computer lighting up but the sky. Lightning cracked across the sky, filling the room with a blue hue. Katie turned to watch it out the window, but was distracted by the smallest of things.

A crack. The window was cracked open. Barely, but just enough to where someone could slip back inside.

She sighed and opened the window all the way before rushing out into the downpour. Climbing her way to the roof, where she suspected Percy was, she could not help but think how crazy someone had to be in order to willingly go outside.

I guess Percy's insanity rubbed off, she thought, stepping onto the puddle-filled roof. Through the water in her eyes, Katie saw a body curled up not too far in front of her along the edge of the roof. A male, she saw, wearing a gray beanie and mumbling to himself.

"Percy," she groaned, plopping down beside him, looking away from the dizzying height. He wasn't even wearing a jacket or anything! Just his worn out jeans and ratty T-shirt with broken down tennis shoes. "You're gonna catch a cold or somthin'. C'mon, let's go inside." He didn't move; didn't even acknowledge her. Katie bumped his knee. "Hey, you know you're not supposed to be talkin' to them."

That got him to finally realize someone was beside him. "You mean my shadow friends? Yeah, I know, but it's something that's the same. Something actually somewhat good from my past."

She blinked water out of her eyes, then, after failing miserably, wiped it away with her shirt. She would bother with the shadow friends later. "So what's botherin' you?" she asked, knowing fully well what was wrong, even if she didn't want to believe it.

"You know, before I went on my quest, I mentioned flying, but Chiron told me it was a bad idea. Because I would be in Zeus's domain." He had a wistful look in his eyes, and she could tell he was remembering all the good times he had in the sky. Then his eyes hardened. "Said I'd get blasted from the sky, Zeus did."

This confused Katie, because, as she thought about it, she realized that Zeus obviously never had a problem with Percy going into the sky before. So why does it matter now? Percy turned to her, as if he could read her thoughts, and said, "He didn't know I existed."

"What?" she asked.

"Zeus. The only reason he never blasted me to smithereens is because he never knew there was a child of Poseidon, and if he did, he didn't know it was me." He shrugged, tilting his head back, letting water soak through every inch of his being.

A silence spread between them—not an awkward one, because those ended years before—that allowed for deep thoughts.

She had to ask. "If you're a child of Poseidon, then why do you like the sky in the first place? Isn't it, like, a natural born instinct to hate it?" Katie spit out a spurt of water as more thunder shook the world.

This isn't safe, she thought. With the thunder and lightning, someone could get hurt—probably Percy with his luck and (yay!) uncle that seemed to have a grudge against him. Thank goodness (or the gods) that Demeter wasn't on Zeus's bad side, so she could still use a plane on those rare occasions where it would be more efficient than a car,

Percy answered her question: "I doubt it's a 'natural born instinct,' as you put it, but… I used to get this tingling sensation whenever I got up high. Remember that first time we flew in your Pop's plane? Really, I mainly jumped because my body told me to—told me I wasn't in the right place. That's probably also why I ended up landing in the lake, because it's water and all."

He paused, sucking in a breath of air and relishing in the feel of water. "Don't get me wrong though. I don't hate the sky. It's just… It's more like water than people think. The sky is all over the place, like water—both have water—and it's something humans have always wanted to explore."

"It's dangerous," Katie put in; she gave him a look. "And you simply adore anything that's dangerous or life-threatening."

"I do not!" he argued. "Danger and trouble just follow me."

"Well ain't that the truth."

He laughed—one of those real laughs that became more and more common with each passing year. "Hey, wanna know what's dangerous?"

Wary as she was, Katie had to figure out what devious thing was going through her best friend's mind. "What's dangerous?"

Percy suddenly stood up, water rushing down his clothes. He stuck out his hand. *"Asking you to dance in the rain with me."

She grinned and laughed, jumping up to her own feet. "That is dangerous," she mocked, punching his arm. He didn't react to her punch; Percy simply took her hand and dragged her to the middle of the roof. "There's no music!" she complained.

Percy pointed at the jagged lightning. "I think Zeus'll keep a steady beat for us."

"But no slow dancing, buddy. I don't dance slowly."

"I don't dance at all!" he threw his hands up to the sky.

"You're weird!"

"You must be slow if ya just figured that out!"

They continued to stand out in the rain—laughing and shouting but not really dancing—while the rain drops fell from the sky, the cold seeping to their bones. Katie splashed into a puddle, water rising up and landing on Percy's head; this then turned into a splashing war.

Splash! Splash! "Ugh! I'm freezing!" Katie chattered after a while, rubbing her arms for friction. "I'm goin' inside for some cookies."

Percy leapt to her, landing in one last puddle. "Really? I could stay up here forever!"

"Well I can't." She started making her way down to Percy's window.

"Okay, okay. I'm comin' with you," said Percy as he followed her.

Katie popped her head into his room, water dripping from her clothes onto the floor, and Percy flung himself in, landing on the floor. "Klutz," she snorted.

"No, the floor just hates me. So does gravity," he countered.

"You of all people should know that you just gave two inanimate things human qualities." She rolled her eyes as she started ringing out her hair. "I hope your mom won't mind all this water… Hey! Can you use your epic Son of the Sea God powers on us?"

"Maybe. And it's called personification, Katie." Percy lowered his eyelids and focused on the water on her. Holding out his hand, she saw the look on his face when he felt that tugging sensation in his gut, and then the water floated off of Katie. "Can you open the door so I can drop this into the bathtub?"

She nodded and opened first his door then the bathroom door. He released the fist he was holding and dumped the water into the tub; he silently cheered after his success. "What about yourself, Oh Wise One?" Katie asked, eyeing his soaked clothes. He would always be an oblivious smart person to her. (Not genius; she didn't want his ego to explode.)

Percy stopped cheering. "Hmmm…" The water fell off him in an instant. "Remember, I can keep myself dry." He gave a lop-sided grin as he held up his index finger.

"How can I forget when you remind me of your abilities every single day?" she sighed, snatching a small towel and whipping her friend with it.

"Ow! That hurt!" She wacked him again. "No, seriously! Ow! Cut it out!" He pulled out a towel as well, and then they began battling, smacking each other in the legs with their fake whips.

Ms. Jackson decided at that moment to walk into the bathroom. "What are you two doing?" she asked, obviously exasperated.

Katie hit Percy one last time. "We were battling till the end with our mini weapons." She held out her hand that was holding the towel. "En garde!"

"Okay… Then where were you before? Because I couldn't find either of you." Ms. Jackson crossed her arms, raising her eye brows.

"Outside." Leave it to Percy to be blunt.

"Outside? But you aren't even wet!" It was difficult to tell if she was more worried about the outside part or the not wet part.

"And we are alive!" Percy shouted, holding his arms out to the side.

"Then where did all the water go to?" Ms. Jackson asked, as if she knew all the water was ruining her carpets at the very second. An unreadable expression overcame his face, and he made a movement with his hand; the sink turned on. "Right. Forgot about that." She paused. "I'm going to finish the cookies," she said, rushing off.

Katie turned to Percy. "I think she'd rather have the rain in the sky."

Percy chuckled, swinging an arm around her shoulder. "We are in the sky, Butterfly."

They began making their way to the kitchen for fresh blue chocolate chip cookies.

"Now, about those cookies…"

"I'm not giving you any of mine."

"Styx!"

"No cussing!"

Oh, that was weird.

*She has been mentioned before, but it's more in my story "Apples". I say/write she because the name is sort of forbidden to people because it brings bad memories. She was/is obsessed with flowers and painting, which is why Percy painted a flower.

*Some people wanted some Percy/Katie romance, so this is it! And it's about all you get, unless I make a separate story!

Peace and all that other stuff.

~XxxXGreek GeekXxxX