Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: Hello, everyone! I'm very sorry about the lack of updates for the last couple of months! The end of this past college semester hit me like a frying pan to the back of the head and I needed time to recuperate from that, and then for the past week or so I've had to go on hiatus because of other personal reasons. Very sorry about that! Also sorry because this might be the only chapter for a little while. Idk, we'll see.
This chapter is very fluffy to make up for the lost time. I hope you all enjoy it. :)
As always, until next chapter,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
~The Finding Home Saga~
~Finding Home~
~Chapter 51: Dancing Queen~
During the first week of December, after my mom had already gone off to one of her night classes, I got ready for yet another date with Luke. It was our first one in three weeks: he'd gotten busy in November for reasons we couldn't talk about, and truthfully I'd been pretty busy myself due to the latter half of my semester as a high school sophomore (which, side note, the name is kind of stupid: what the hell is a "wise moron," anyways?). The work had been increasing, and now that I was actually having semi-decent grades due to much effort, the teachers were beginning to impress upon me the need for college. Except for Mr. Blofis, who was lenient with me (though it was kind of weird to be around him now, since he was one of my dad's former lovers, just like my mom), I didn't know how to tell any of them that I had no idea on whether or not I was going to live that long.
But, that's depressing. Enough about that. Both of our schedules were busy, so it had been a while since I'd seen Luke, and I was anxious to see him again. So, after making sure my outfit would do, I opened up my closet and rummaged through it – I wasn't going to be going empty-handed this time. Once I found what I wanted, I made my way out the door, ensuring that the apartment was locked behind me.
It was a bit of a walk even with the subway to get where I wanted to go, but I'm a New Yorker – I'm used to that. At just half-past seven o'clock, the ice-skating rink at the Rockefeller Center was packed, full of people out and about with their lovers and kids. For a demigod like me, though, that was a good thing. If something were to happen to my ἒνδεσμα, the crowd meant that my scent would be obscured by the scents of the mortals, or so I had been told by Chiron.
Once I immersed myself into the throngs of people, it didn't take me long to find Luke. He was sitting on one of the benches with his sister Mia, who I could at least be friendly with now even if she still kind of terrified me, and another familiar face, albeit it did take me a second to put a name to her: Athana, the daughter of Thanatos from the Princess Andromeda over the summer who could kill with a touch of her hands. In one of her gloved hands, she was holding Mia's.
Suddenly, a lot of things clicked in my brain.
Huh.
Pushing that thought aside, I focused on Luke. He was wearing a brown aviator jacket, and he was holding a set of skates in his lap. When he saw me, he gave his signature crooked grin. "Percy!"
"Luke!" I returned.
He was sitting on the end of the bench, but he quickly scooted down to make room for me. In the process, he shoved Mia into Athana, making his sister squawk. At first, I was worried for her, but it seemed that Athana's deadly touch did not extend to the rest of her body. She pulled Mia into her lap, making the daughter of Hermes mirror Luke as she turned her head towards me. "Hello, Percy."
"Hi, Mia," I said. "Hey...Athana, right?" I wanted to make sure I knew her name.
"Yes," she replied. Something I haven't mentioned about Athana before, considering this is the second time I met her and you are meeting her: her voice was beautiful, heavily accented. She sounded like she was from somewhere in Eastern Africa, like Ethiopia or Eritrea. Where exactly, I couldn't say for sure. "I hope you don't mind us intruding."
"Not at all."
Luke pecked a kiss to my cheek. "How are you?"
"Much better, now that I'm here with you," I quipped. It made his grin return at full brightness. "And you?"
"Ready to try ice-skating...as much as I can be." He gestures to his skates. "I did what you said: I bought my own pair instead of trying to rent one."
"Good. It should make the learning process easier."
"If you say so." He had a look of doubt on his face.
If it had just been the two of us, I would've joked that he was the son of the god of athletes, so he should be good at this. I knew he would've laughed, too, since he knew it was my brand of humor and it didn't bother him when I made that kind of joke, but only when it was me. At the same time, I wasn't quite sure what Mia and Athana would think about it (Athana more than Mia, obviously), given what side they were on, so I kept my mouth shut.
I looked over at them curiously. They each had skates at their feet. "Are you guys going to come skating with us?"
Currently, they were more occupied with each other. "Maybe later," Mia said.
I wasn't going to press my luck. "Alright," I went, bumping Luke's shoulder with my own before getting my skates out of their shoebox – my mom had bought me a new set this year due to my growth spurts, so they weren't as worn-in as my previous one, which was both a good and a bad thing. "There's a specific way you should put on skates, and it's like this..."
Once we were ready to go, we walked the short distance to the rink. "This is weird," Luke muttered, making a face.
"Well, they're not made for walking on. They're made for skating."
"I know, I know..."
I went first onto the ice. Ice-skating has always been something I've enjoyed. My first time doing it was when I was four or so, as my mom had always wanted to make sure I was good at it – and I am. Maybe because I'm the son of a sea god, maybe because I have Scandinavian ancestry, or maybe because I just have good balance; who knows? All I know is that, despite receiving no official instruction, ever since I was around eight, I've received comments from time to time, asking if I'm an official figure skater or something, and they've continued to this day. Although, I haven't gone skating recently because...well. That's for me to know and you to find out.
But whereas I'm a good skater, it was clear from the start that Luke was...not. I first had high hopes, watching him get on the ice. His hands were out in front of him in a way that wouldn't really work and his legs were a little too far apart, but as I said, he was the son of the god of athletes. That had to count for something, right?
Nope.
"Luke, oh my go – !" I began to say as I watched him flail.
I wasn't able to get to him in time, not that I would've been able to do anything but fall down with him.
Luke laughed good-naturedly as I hovered over him. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he assured me. "Just let me get to my feet."
We earned some looks as he did that, because he'd fallen down almost literally the second he'd started skating. I led him gently over to the rail. "Here, use this as some support until you get used to it," I instructed. "Luke, I'm so sorry!"
"Again, it's fine." He smiled. "No broken bones, right?"
"Right."
I hoped that he would eventually get the hang of it, like I'd said, except that wasn't the case. Even with gripping the rail, he kept on slipping and almost falling, and it wasn't because he was getting to the point he didn't need it anymore. Quite the opposite.
It didn't bother him, however, so I suppose that had to count for something. "I can't be good at everything, Perce," he teased me at one point.
"Really? Because sometimes, it feels like you are," I wanted to say.
Alas, I did not.
I kept my pace slow to stay with him, even as everything in my body wanted to go faster. This was supposed to be a romantic night. Was I a little disappointed that it wasn't turning out like I'd expected it to? Yeah. But this time was meant to be spent with Luke, and I was going to suck up every minute I could get with him like I was a sponge.
He had other ideas. After we did a few laps around the rink, he headed back over to where the benches were. "Alright, I think we've answered that question," he said. "I'm going to go sit down."
"Okay," I said, moving to follow after him.
Luke wouldn't let me. "No, you keep on skating," he replied, pushing me back towards the ice. When I opened my mouth to protest, he continued over me, "I can tell you really like skating, and I want to see you skate. So, please, do it for me?"
One look at his glacier eyes and I couldn't refuse him. "Okay, fine," I grumbled. I got back on the ice and started to skate again.
My anger didn't last for long. There were a lot of people on the rink, but it wasn't as crowded as it usually was. I began to get ideas.
As I went around the rink for my next lap, I began to pick up my pace. I heard a few remarks of exclamation as I passed by the people – nothing bad, just surprise. It wasn't a bad group to do this with.
When I was approaching the point where I knew Luke would be able to see, I turned around and started skating backwards. I kept my pace, making sure to look behind me so I didn't run into anyone. I earned some weird looks.
...Okay, so maybe this wasn't a good group to do this with. Whatever.
I didn't do anything too elaborate or stressful. After righting myself, I did a small jump and twirl. The looks changed from weird to glares, but I didn't care. The second I saw Luke's shit-eating grin among all of the people, his reaction was the only one that I cared about – would ever care about.
The little show I'd wanted to do over, I resumed being a respectful citizen and practicing good etiquette at the ice-skating rink. Admittedly, I got a little caught up in what I was doing: skating was just like walking for me, the cold air felt goodagainst my face while my torso was warm from my jacket, and the snow on the ground that had fallen in the past couple of days was beautiful. Plus, with my mom's work and college schedule, I wasn't sure when I would be getting around to doing this again unless Silena or Callie wanted to go skating with me, because now that we'd found out Luke could notskate I didn't want to endure him to another night of –
"Boo."
I nearly jumped out of my skin and toppled to the ground. "Mia!"
The daughter of Hermes beamed at me wickedly. "Hello, Percy."
She didn't seem to be having any of the problems that Luke did. In fact, like me, she glided on the ice seamlessly.
"You were doing a very good job earlier," she informed me. Then her nose wrinkled. "Sorry, I didn't mean for that to come out as disrespectful. I was born in Montréal and lived there until my mother died. I'm really big on skating."
"Understandable," I said. I made no mention of her mother being dead. Again, with demigods, you never knew whether or not that would be a good topic for them. "So, how are you? And where's Athana?"
She answered my second question first. "Sitting with Luke. And I'm good, thanks. How's Silena?"
I sighed lightly, having basically expected her ask. Every time I met Mia, she asked me that. I wasn't quite sure what the reason for it was: she seemed to be in a committed relationship (or maybe she and Athana were poly, I didn't know), but even if she wasn't, Silena was one of the few demigods who was one-hundred-percent straight. Most demigods seemed to be bisexual; it was actually much more uncommon than it was for mortals for our sexualities to be like mine or hers. I digress, though.
"She says her hair's finally grown out to an acceptable length now." Mia snickered. "She's fine."
My boyfriend's half-sister hummed. "And is she taking you getting back together with Luke better now?"
Oh. Luke must've told her about that. I didn't blame him for it.
"...She still doesn't really approve of it," I responded, choosing my words carefully. "I mean, she knows I'm going to do this regardless of what she thinks and she isn't going to rat us out or anything, she can sense how much we love each other, but she doesn't like us being together."
"That must hurt," Mia said after a moment.
Unexpectedly, I had to blink back tears.
"Yeah," I rasped. "It does."
Look, I hadn't been – wasn't – expecting Silena to full-heartedly accept my relationship with Luke after Halloween. She wasn't commenting on it so much now, but I could tell by the look on her face whenever I gave her and Alabaster details, since they were the only two that knew and now that they knew I had to tell somebody, that she didn't like it. And yeah, it hurt. She was one of my best friends, the one that was my sister in every way which counted besides blood and and marriage.
I respected her disapproval, don't get me wrong. I didn't stop understanding where she was coming from.
But this was my choice, and I was happy. Couldn't she be happy for me?
Mia skirted closer to me as somebody else came by, causing our shoulders to be nudged together. By this point, I knew it was an intentional action. She wouldn't have done it if she hadn't wanted to. "I know we didn't get off to the best start and that you've known him longer than I have, but Luke is my brother, and you make him happy," she stated. "And I appreciate that. But more than that, you're a good person, Percy." She paused. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you need to talk to somebody about it besides Luke, I'm here when I can be. Which might not be often, but – "
"It's enough," I finished for her. Warmth filled my heart. My first impression had been wrong. She was pretty fucking nice. "Thanks, Mia."
"You're welcome." Abruptly, she let out a groan. "What is my brother doing?"
Looking ahead, I saw that Luke was trying to get back out on the rink, and I nearly groaned myself. That was an accident waiting to happen.
"Luke!" I shouted, hurrying to skate over. "Luke, you're going to get yourself hurt!"
"I won't," he said obstinately. "I have an idea."
With him right now, I wasn't sure that was a good thing. "You're going to break your ankle, or your entire leg, or – something."
"Practice makes perfect," he insisted. "'Sides, do you hear what song is playing?"
Now that he mentioned it, I strained my ears to listen. Since it was December, almost all of the radio stations had switched over to Christmas music. Actually, they'd done that since shortly after Halloween, which was ridiculous, Christmas wasn't even for another two months basically then – but, anyways. I was expecting Christmas music because of this.
That wasn't what I got. It took a few seconds for me to place the song, yet once I did –
"Dancing Queen," I scoffed.
The song had just begun, so even as I spoke, I heard the lyrics, "Friday night and the lights are low, looking out for a place to go..."
Luke beamed. "Yep. Although, you're more of an Ice-Skating Queen."
Mia snorted, darting behind him. "Alright, I'm leaving you two on your own. Good luck."
I knew I probably should've been bothered by Luke calling me a "Queen," at least from a toxic masculinity perspective, but I wasn't. Like with Cleisthenes proposing that I be his wife, I was fine with it. In fact, I kind of got a little of a...thrill.
Huh. More thought on that later.
"Take my hand," I told Luke. I hadn't really tried this with him earlier, but if he was going to demand another attempt at ice-skating, I wanted to make sure as much as I could that the only person who he took down with him was me.
He was wearing gloves, but even so, he was warm to the touch. It felt kind of weird, having his weight depend on mine a little so he didn't face-plant into the ice again. Weird, but not unwelcome.
I wanted him to depend on me if or when he wanted/needed it. I wanted to be somebody who he could count on. That was what relationships were all about, when you really got down to it.
We did a lap around the rink slowly, but steadily. "Holy shit," I breathed when we got back to where we'd started. "You did it!"
"With help," he said. He winked at me. "It was easy to do it when my primary objective was to not bring you crashing down with me."
I laughed and tugged on his hand, leading him back over to the benches. "Come on, let's change back into our regular shoes. I want to get some hot chocolate. Although," I added, pausing, "I'll have you know, I'm not a Dancing Queen or Ice-Skating Queen or whatever."
Turning my head, I watched his eyebrows furrow as he gave a confused smile. "You're not?"
I shook my head. "No. I mean, you can call me a queen all you want – " judging by the look on his face, he was definitelygoing to be doing that in the future " – but I'm not a Dancing Queen. For one, I'm not seventeen."
"Yet."
"Yet," I agreed, before squeezing his hand. "And for two, nobody could be that guy 'cept for you."
He brought our clasped hands up to his face so he could kiss mine. I wasn't wearing gloves, which meant that the brush of his lips was like fire against my skin. "Same here."
We said all of this before we got to our bench, sparing Mia and Athana from the nonsense. They were back to cuddling on the bench, albeit Mia was not sitting in Athana's lap this time. "Can you watch our skates for us while we go get hot chocolate?" I asked them.
Athana gave me a smile full of teeth. "Of course."
The hot chocolate stand I'd been eyeing wasn't too far away from the collection of benches Luke and the other two had chosen. Once we were out of their earshot, I inquired, "How long have they been dating?"
Luke shrugged. "Couple months, I think?"
"And they make it work okay?" I don't think I'm too much of a nosy person, but the idea of a relationship with somebody who couldn't touch you with their bare hands was...fascinating, for lack of a better term to me.
"Just like the rest of us," he said. His eyes were glinting in the night lights. He pressed a kiss to my cheek, which made me smile. "But, don't change the subject."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
We reached the line for the hot chocolate stand and joined it. If my sense of smell was to be believed (I couldn't make out the sign yet, we were too far away), this was one of the ones where you could get cinnamon and other spices in your hot chocolate. It costed a little extra to do that, but I didn't care. I wanted it, and if Luke for some unfathomable and depressing reason hadn't had cinnamon in his hot chocolate before, I was going to make sure he got to try it. This is my treat tonight, I thought, pulling out my wallet to get out some bills.
Luke liked to pay for everything, like we've been over before, however he knew now at the sight of my wallet this was something I wanted to pay for and not to fight me on the matter. "You say you're not a Dancing Queen – "
I barely looked up at him as I pulled out a crumpled twenty-dollar bill, wanting to see if I had a ten or something just to be safe. "Yep, I'm not."
"But if you had to pick one ABBA song, which one would you be?"
...Now I did look up at him, my eyes squinting. "What kind of question is that?"
He smirked. "Just answer the question, Percy."
"Seriously, are you high?" I was kind of joking, kind of not. It would explain why he was so bad at ice-skating despite being a son of Hermes. Realistically, though, I knew he wouldn't be – not when around me. He knew it was something that made me uncomfortable, even if not the reason why. "That's such an icebreaker question."
"Please, φώκη?"
The name sent a flush to my face, neck, and collarbone. "That's not fair," I protested.
He waited patiently.
I had to think about my answer, and not only because this was a question I had never expected to be asked before. Staring down at the ground, I nudged a rock through the snow with my boot. The mood between us turned pensive in spite of the usual upbeat nature of the songs of the band we were talking about.
Finally, I decided. "Have you listened to Waterloo before?"
Abashed, he shook his head. Understandable. "I've listened to most of their hits because of..." he started to say, reoriented himself, and continued, "because of Alan, but somehow I think he never got around to showing that one to me."
I interlocked our arms together. "That's okay," I spoke gently. "I'd sing the entire song to you now, but I have already been enough of a public nuisance today – "
He cracked up. "Percy."
" – So I'll just give you the important bit," I continued on. Under my breath, I sang, "Waterloo, promise to love you forevermore. Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to. Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you..."
There are no words for the expression of pure joy, pure love that caused. "Really?"
"Really, really," I said.
We mutually leaned in close, like we were two stars in a binary system. "I already said it, but I'm going to say it again: I feel the same way," he murmured. "I love you."
That phrase would never get old for me. "Love you, too. But, now you gotta give me your answer. It's only fair."
Predictably, he cringed. "But the line – "
"Still has a way's to go," I defended, the evidence clearly being in my favor. I pulled my arm out from his so I could playfully shove his shoulder. "Now, come on, Luke. Spill."
Word Count: 3,897
Next Chapter Title: My Winter Break Gets Ruined
