Chapter Text
Percy was running. He didn’t know where he was going but he knew he had to get away. Away from his stepfather and away from whatever just killed his mom and now was trying to kill him. Unfortunately for him not knowing where he was going led him to running straight into a dead end. The thing chasing him cornered him and was closing in fast, Percy collapsed on the floor and prepared for his imminent demise when suddenly and without warning it exploded into a pile of dust.
There was a kid, no older than him, with golden blonde hair like the sun standing behind the now pile of dust shakingly holding a bow with a quiver of arrows strung across his back. The kid stepped around the dust, lowered his bow and held out his hand, “Hey, I’m Lee, Lee Fletcher. Sorry about that but we have to run now.”
“W-what?” Percy was too in shock to say anything else. Just a minute ago he was running for his life and now this weird kid that he met not five seconds ago was telling him he had to run.
Lee, apparently, was insistent though. He grabbed Percy’s hand, hauled him to his feet and started running out of the alleyway. Somewhere along the way he gained a backpack but lost his bow and quiver. Percy still didn’t know what was happening but it seemed like Lee did so he decided to trust him for now. Eventually they came to a stop in what seemed like Manhattan.
“Okay,” Percy panted, “Do you want to explain what’s going on now.”
“Sure,” Lee sat down on a nearby bench and gestured for Percy to join him. “Look, I’m sorry about all that back there but I had to get us away from the monster. I know it’s a lot to take in but I assume you're on your own like me?”
“Yeah I am, you called that thing a monster, what do you mean by that?”
“This is where things get weird, I don’t even fully understand it myself, But the stories of Greek Gods, heroes and monsters? They’re all real. I know it sounds impossible, I didn’t believe it when I first heard it either but I can’t find any other explanation for the things I’ve witnessed, Can you?”
“I guess not.” Percy answered, “How’d you find out about this? And how does nobody else know?”
Lee sighed, “It’s a long story, but basically I ran away from home, my mom was an asshole and I ran into a monster, I almost died but my dad sent me this necklace and backpack that turn into the bow and quiver you saw me with earlier, that was a couple months ago now and I’ve been on my own till now. As for why nobody knows about this stuff, from what I can tell only people who are connected to this world can see it.”
“What do you mean connected?”
Lee explained about demigods and all that stuff and why monsters come after them. At first Percy didn’t believe it but then he considered all the things his mom told him about his dad and all the weird stuff that happens to him and it started making more sense. Lee started saying how his dad was Apollo and how because of that he knew he would meet somebody important today.
“How do you know that’s me? I’m not that special, I can’t be.”
“You are. I can’t really explain it but I just have this feeling around you, you seem important.” Percy still didn’t believe it but he dropped the subject. More interested in Lee’s plan. Lee told him that his dad had said there’s a place where all demigods are safe. Apparently it was a camp in Long Island which Percy had no idea how they would do it. It was a long drive and seeing as they were two kids not even ten years old and they had no money they would have to walk. That doesn’t even count the difficulties of having actual real life monsters chasing after them everywhere they go. Percy expressed these worries and Lee just told him to calm down. They started walking around randomly while talking, at around six they stopped and Lee pulled out a tiny Lyre and started playing, asking for money. Apparently Lee had been doing this for awhile or he was just really good, two entirely possible things, because people did something Percy never saw anyone in New York do, they donated. They made enough actually to get dinner for the both of them. They ended up getting hot dogs from a nearby stand because it was cheap and saved the rest of the money for tomorrow. They found a nice place to settle down for the night and after talking for a bit more they fell asleep. When Percy woke up it was to find a mysterious pen in his pocket that, upon further examination turned into a sword called Riptide. Lee see’s this and gets excited, his theories about who Percy’s dad is being confirmed, now he just has to help his new friend hide it. The good news is Percy seems to be a natural at sword fighting. Together they were an unbeatable team, fighting together perfectly in sync and getting to Camp Half Blood with ease. Monsters were all scared of the duo even if one of them was a child of the Big Three. When they got to camp it was obvious to everyone they were inseparable. Even though Lee was claimed and Percy technically wasn’t they continued being best friends and spent all their free time together. Percy helped Lee out with his prophetic dreams. Lee didn’t have the gift of prophecy but like all children of Apollo their demigod dreams were worse because of their dad being the god of prophecy. One night it was particularly bad, nobody knew why, but every person in the Apollo cabin woke up screaming. Percy, who was a light sleeper thanks to Gabe, immediately ran to cabin 7. He didn’t care about curfew or rules he just knew his best friend had a nightmare and he was going to help him through it. It was obvious Lee was pretty shaken by it. They didn’t know what it was but They knew they would figure it out together. Percy climbed into Lee’s bed in order to comfort him and almost immediately Lee calmed down at the scent of salt water. The two always managed to calm each other down, no matter what. It was obvious to Chiron that these two would play an important role in the great prophecy. He could tell Percy was a child of the big three by his aura of power, he just couldn’t say anything. But he knew that those boys would be important.
Meanwhile, in Virginia a son of Hermes made what could potentially be a world ending promise to a daughter of Athena, a promise of protection but most importantly family. A daughter of Zeus is watching over this grieving over a brother she doesn’t know is alive.