prompt: gasp

pairing: percy/grover

Dressed in threadbare shorts and nothing else, Grover stared at the bane of his afternoon. The lake was calm and placidly pretty, and should have set his body singing at the beauty of the scene or something instead of making his heart pound like it was trying to get out of his chest.

Percy, who had been watching Grover watch the lake for the past five minutes, succumbed to his ADHD and sighed.

"Well? Go in already."

"There are naiads in there," Grover blurted out. The lake was, as mentioned before, calm and pretty and clear, so he could clearly see the girls at the bottom, staring at him and occasionally giggling at each other.

"Yeah," Percy pointed out, "They kinda live there."

Grover decided he'd use any available excuse, "I'm shy."

"What?" Percy said, nonplussed.

"I can't swim when they're in there," Grover said, starting to walk back to the Big House, "We can come back later."

Percy, who had been hearing all sorts of excuses in the past week ("Juniper said she needed to pick berries!" "Chiron wants and update on the Pan situation!" "Of course the Demeter kids need me to help them grow plants- bye, Percy!") reached out a hand and grabbed him by the waistband.

"Hey!" Grover yelped.

"Gimme a minute," Percy said, not letting go of him, and stuck his head in the water.

Grover stared. Percy and his underwater thing was not news, but it was always weird to see him like that- entire head stuck in and breathing water-

Oh god. Breathing water. Or, to be more accurate, drowning via breathing water. He hated water- water was very removed from earth and plants and other things that made sense.

"Okay, done," Percy said, pulling his head out of the lake (looking very not-wet) and releasing him, "They said they'd go away to the other end for a couple of hours. We can go ahead with your swimming lesson."

Why had he agreed to this again?

"Uh, Percy," Grover said, "Is this really necessary?"

Percy eyed his waistband again.

"I mean," Grover forged ahead, "It's not like I don't know how to swim. I can, you know- it just-"

"You told me you almost drowned in Lake Michigan on your last trip."

"Well yeah," Grover admitted (that had not been one of his proudest moments), "But I managed. And I swear to stay away from water I can't wade through from now on. So can we not do this?"

Percy gave him a long look and said, "No."

"But-"

"You wouldn't have gone into the water in the first place if you didn't absolutely have to," Percy stated, "And none of my friends are drowning on my watch. That would be embarrassing."

"But I hate swimming!" Grover wailed, "I keep going under!"

"Then you're not doing it right," Percy said, "And I can probably help you with that."

Grover sighed, recognizing the Annabeth-like stubbornness in his tone. Really, those two were spending too much time together.

"I won't let you drown," Percy said, stepping into the water and holding out a hand, "Promise."

Grover sighed again (he really couldn't help it), but took Percy's hand. After all, if he had to swallow water, he supposed it would be best to do it somewhere with a built-in lifeguard.

Notes: This should take sometime between TC and BotL. Wherein Grover's taking a week-long break in between searches, and Percy comes to Camp after school everyday to meet him because he's Percy.