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Percy knew he and Annabeth weren’t a good fit.
He knew it.
They wanted to make it work, they tried to make it work, to the seething of Athena, Percy still had nightmares of Athena sending her other kids after him for some sort of experiment for a new torture device. Goodness knows the Athena kids were creative enough.
But they simply couldn’t fit, not truly.
They had tried.
They cut pieces of their hearts and tried to make it fit together and tried to work together.
Annabeth and Percy were a good team. In battle. In strategy meetings. In friendship.
But moving beyond friendship and into romance? Percy was willing to try, he was willing to plunge into the new waters of romance and was ready to help Annabeth float and swim in the new feelings. Because what could sink a son of Poseidon?
But Annabeth had said it before.
Her fatal flaw was hubris.
And because of her hubris, because of her pride, because of her refusal to bend a knee and let someone else lead in something other than a battle, she couldn’t let Percy lead. She couldn’t let Percy help her float, because how could someone with so much pride allow another to lead in such a personal area?
Percy allowed the waves that were lapping at the shore to lap at his feet, feeling comfort from the water.
His dad had already sent a message, asking if he needed to smite Annabeth for dumping him, or if Percy needed someone to forget her.
Percy did appreciate his dad, but he didn’t need the man to cause another war between him and Athena again. The world didn’t need another coastal change.
Tapping footsteps alerted him of someone approaching, and Percy glanced over his shoulder, his hand drifting towards his pocket for Riptide. So sue him, he’s always been antsy since Luke tried to kill him that once. Even among friends, he was on edge.
To his surprise, Leo Valdez was walking forward, toolbelt still secured around his waist and picking his way across the landscape.
“Are you doing alright, Aqua-man?”
The nickname that had irked Percy quite a bit was actually something that calmed him down now. He and Leo had talked, after Hazel had avoided the boy so much that Leo went straight to Percy for answers.
In turn, Leo had explained that the nickname was only a joke, and that he would stop if Percy truly didn’t like it.
Percy. . . . honestly hadn’t known who Aqua-man was beyond the glimpses of covers of the comics, but as he read, he could understand the similarities that Leo had drawn. The breathing underwater, the talking to certain animals, the control of some things.
So no. He didn’t mind the nickname now. It was comfort.
A rock that Percy could lean on in the storm that was life, he supposed.
“I’m. . . . . I’m surviving, I suppose.” Percy sighed, turning back to the water, and the water lapped higher, reacting to his feelings that swirled around his chest like a tsunami that he could create if he wanted.
He wouldn’t do that.
He didn’t want to hurt anyone, not really.
He wanted to hurt himself, for believing that he could have a nicety like a romantic relationship. Demigods didn’t deserve things like those, and definitely not a demigod like Percy. Not a demigod of the Big Three.
“Surviving ain’t living.” Leo tsked, sitting beside Percy, his own feet out of the water’s reach.
“It isn’t.” Percy nodded.
“You tired of just surviving?” Leo asked, pulling a wrench out of the toolbelt. “Want me to knock you out for a bit?”
It was a joke, they both knew it was, and Percy could only chuckle. Leo had become a good friend.
“No thanks, I’ll be okay.”
Leo hummed, pulling a contraption out of his toolbelt, and started using the wrench on it.
“You know you’re loved, right man?”
Percy choked. His arms tightened around his legs. “Yeah. I know.”
“Mhmm. And you know you’re awesome and that you’re enough, right? You’re more than enough.”
“Why are you saying these things?” Percy whispered. He knew these things. Intellectually, he knew them. He was Poseidon’s son. He would be amazing. He would be awesome. His father would expect nothing less. And of course, his father and his mother loved him. He knew that. Intellectually.
“Because everyone needs to hear these words every now and again.” Leo shrugged. “And, y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever told you my fatal flaw. It’s refusing to see any worth in myself. So I can recognize that you need to be pumped full of some self-worth right now.”
Leo.
Dependable Leo.
Leo, who Percy could always lean on for help, especially because Leo saw Percy as Percy. Not a child of the Big Three. Not a child of Poseidon.
Percy was Percy, and Leo was Leo.
Percy brought his legs up higher, cradling his knees in his arms, and pillowing his head atop them. “Can you– can you keep going?”
Percy wasn’t always like this. Wasn’t always so melancholy about this.
But his fatal flaw was loyalty. Personal loyalty. He and Annabeth, they had been together for so long, the next step had obviously been to be in a romantic relationship. But Annabeth hadn’t been ready, so Percy had let her go.
The personal loyalty to her? The personal loyalty to the feelings for her?
They could not be let go so easily, how could they? They were so important to him, she had been so important to him.
“Sure.” Leo said quietly.
More words of affirmation spilled from Leo’s lips, and with them, Percy’s feelings, the wounds, the aching wounds that screamed and wailed and wept finally started to close.
They did not close completely, no.
That was not Leo’s job.
That would be Percy’s, when he was ready for it. That would be Percy’s job and his feelings, when he was alright enough to finally face the wounds that he had felt from a friend and that had been inflected on his soul. Annabeth was not at fault, he knew that.
So for now, he would just let the words wash over him, as comforting as the waves lapping at his feet and his legs, and he listened to the words that came from a rock in a storm that he could always lean on.
And he as he breathed, he fancied that he breathed in sea water, and breathed out bubbles.
Bubbles of anxiety, pain, and growth.
Growth for a new Percy.
Growth for a new beginning.
Growth for a new life, beyond the one that he had boxed himself into.
He uncurled himself, putting more of his legs into the water, and Leo closed his mouth.
Percy wondered if he should visit Poseidon sometime soon.
It might be fun, to see his father again, and just breath the bubbles.