Work Text:
Percy couldn’t remember a lot from Elementary but he did remember an occurrence. It was the middle of the school year and he was being sent home yet again. He was frustrated and he just sat in the office, he knew it was going to take a while for his mom to come get him.
He looked up when someone entered the office. A young man, black hair and wisps of white tangled in the black. Sunglasses on the crown of his head, a backpack hanging off one arm. Black pants and a Jean jacket with a trident painted on the sleeve. Nereids painted in bold text over ocean waves on the bottom back of the jacket and a chariot with raging horses took up the center of the back.
The man talked to the office lady, a lady Percy knew by name as Ms Wrinkle. Suddenly the man looks at him, “hey, Percy. Grab your bag, your mom called me to come get ya.” The man looked kind and his eyes were that of sea foam.
Percy didn’t know who he was but he wanted to get out of that school. He grabbed his bag and walked with this man out of the building. That’s when he started the questions, “who are you?” Percy asked following the man.
“I’m Nerites, your mom said you like to be called Percy,” the man, Nerites, gave him a lopsided smile.
“Yeah, how do you know my mom?” Percy asked as they walked to the parking lot.
“I used to hang out on the beach a lot, met her there.” Nerites dig threw his bag.
“What do you do? Like for work?” Percy rocked back and forth in front of a nice looking car. It was a deep blue convertible with a little horse statue with a mermaid tail on the front.
“I do horse training and drive my boss and big sister around” Nerites laughed.
“Why your sister?” Percy asked confused as he clambered into the back seat.
“My sister is married to my boss”
“No far, my mom is married to smelly gabe!” Percy huffed as the car started up.
The drive was long, Percy asked questions and Nerites would give answers. Eventually Sally got off of work. Nerites pulled up beside her on the sidewalk.
“Hey,” Sally almost laughed, at the look of Nerites dark sunglasses on Percy’s chubby cheeked face.
“Evening, need a ride?” Nerites jokes. Sally sighed and got into the back seat.
The ride back was nice, Percy told Sally about his day, how he got suspended, how Nerites got him ice cream, an overall lovely day.
They get back to their apartment building, “if ya need me just call” Nerites gave a lopsided smile and drove off.
Percy could remember seeing Nerites at the back of his school events as well as a woman who gave him a warm smile every time. Sometimes there was a teenager with Nerites, black hair with white wisps, sea green and a soft smile, maybe he was Nerites’ son.
“You do know Nerites is the name of your dad’s charioteer, right?” Annebeth asked after Percy’s recount of the story. Slowly Percy came to the realization in the back of the stinky truck as they sat on hey.
“Do you think… Nerites knows my mom?” Percy asked quietly.
“It’s possible, you said that he told you he and your mom met at the beach.” Annebeth shrugged in the dark.
“go to bed,” Grover groaned, half asleep.
Both turned and tried to get comfortable and eventually fell asleep.