Chapter Text
Percy Jackson was probably the weirdest person Grover had ever met. Pre getting involved in the godly world anyways.
He was tiny, almost looking more ten than the twelve year old he was, scrawny with hollows in his cheeks under the baby fat and sharp sea green eyes that never missed anything around him despite the fact that they were almost hidden behind his pitch black hair. He was the only person that the kleptos at Yancy had yet to manage to steal from despite the fact that it had been a month since winter break had ended.
He had the kind of all encompassing beauty that Aphrodite kids held and Grover probably would have thought that he was one if not for the overwhelming scent that came off him like a beacon. The last person Grover had met with that kind of scent had been Thalia, and that alone had made him contact Chiron almost immediately and pray to the gods that he was wrong and hadn’t found another one.
It was honestly astounding that no protector had ever located him before, confusing until he remembered the way the councilor had pulled him aside and told him in a hushed voice how he had a new roommate that was in the foster system.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise when less than a week after school started their pre-algebra teacher had a nervous breakdown and their long term sub was a monster. And a stupidly powerful one at that.
Grover had a panic attack the first time he had gone into the classroom with Ms.Dodds teaching. There was something terrifyingly familiar about the scent she was giving off, something that made Grover’s mind scream in full fledged panic and him cling to Percy as if he was going to disappear the second he left his arms. He had been practically sobbing and barely refraining from bleating while Percy had gently guided him to the nurses office and stayed with him for the next two periods because Grover’s panic had restarted the second he was out of his sight.
Grover desperately wished he could identify the monster, he knew the scent but it was far too muddled with mist and Percy’s overpowering scent for Grover to make head or tail of it. All he could do was call Chiron and feel relief that the development had actually pushed him to make a house call to keep an eye on Percy. Chiron would be able to protect his friend far better than he ever could.
Now all he could do was try not to bolt the second it came time for pre-algebra and desperately try to stop Percy from getting into fights on his account.
Because Grover, when he had first seen Percy, had accepted that he, at best, would be one of the more minor of the many friends Percy would have at Yancy. Because Percy was straight up beautiful in a way that was more striking than even most demigods, and the kids at Yancy were jerks and they really only judged people on that and how rich your family is. There were reasons that Grover was far from popular at this stupid godsdamned school.
That idea had gone flying out the window the second Percy had punched the jerk that had been picking on Grover all year when he had shoved Grover into the lockers when Percy was standing right there.
Percy could have had all the friends that he wanted at Yancy. But he didn’t. Because he had said that he refused to be friends with anyone who had ever picked on or treated Grover badly, which was nearly every kid in their grade.
It had taken twelve fights where Percy made the kids either lose or the kid work for their win for the other sixth grade boys to actually respect Percy and the teachers to say that Percy had “obviously earned his foster home record”. And Grover had never been more touched in his life because tiny, scrawny, painfully untrained Percy Jackson had done this all for him. And no one has ever done anything like that for Grover before.
Grover hadn’t wanted to come back to Yancy after winter break. He had been in the process of getting the school's stupidly complicated paperwork to “transfer out” and get enrolled into another school to search for demigods there. And then three days after the Winter Solstice Incident the entire Apollo Cabin had a vision about an important demigod at Yancy Academy.
So back Grover had gone.
Grover didn’t regret going back to Yancy, despite the fact that it was hands down one of the worst schools he’d ever been enrolled in, because he had met Percy there. And Percy was the best friend that Grover had ever had.
Because despite Percy being guarded and quiet he had opened up to Grover, had been kind and understanding despite Grover knowing that he’s a weirdo that Percy hasn’t known that long. Percy listens to his nature rants and grabs Grover’s crutches whenever he forgets them, he doesn’t mock Grover, even goes and steals back Grover’s stuff whenever the kleptos manage to sneak things out of his bag.
Grover could deal with Percy’s intense emotions waking him up at odd hours of the night and the way that Percy smelled like smoke that was clearly not from any cigarette or blunt half the time, how Percy would sneak food out of the cafeteria but never ate it and how sometimes his voice would just cut out mid conversation. Those were easy things to bear for the most genuine friendship Grover thinks he’s ever had with a demigod, the only thing close was the friendship he had with the nature spirits.
Grover desperately hopes that this friendship will last beyond Percy making it to camp, that it doesn’t become some weird parody of the relationship he had with Luke. Where he’s forgiven for his failures but a constant reminder of them too.
But Grover actually had to get Percy to camp to worry about that, for now all he could do was pray to Tyche that their luck would hold and the monster wouldn’t attack before Chiron got there next week.