Chapter Text
There’s a certain calm to the tides on sunny days like these.
The waters stretch lazily under the sun, waves playing with the sand and rocks, rolling back before starting their relentless motion again. The heat gives a certain viscousness to the air that seems to weight lightly on the sea, not restraining nor smothering, but blanketing the sparkling liquid. A calming pressure.
Under the waves, the water is like a breath of fresh air, cool and light. It twists and turns mischievously around reefs and corals. It plays with the fishes’s fins and gently pushes them with its currents. It invites long strands of algae to slow rocking dances, arms up and stretching towards the sun. There are sturdy rocks behind which fishes and crabs hide or seek food, and upon which corals and a few anemones rest. Right at home in this small ecosystem, stretched across the sea floor almost in the shade of the rock at the center of the alcove, lays a rare sea dweller. His head rests tilted on his crossed arms, half-opened eyes follow the course of life as his tail gently rocks side to side, sending grains of sand through the water.
The merman himself adds to the beauty of the picture. His tail and scales reflect the shine of the sun into thousands of little specks of light. Of course, blue is the star of the show, but tiny splashes of other colors chase it around, following its every movement: yellows, oranges, reds, purples, and pinks. They all create a vibrant kaleidoscope on the reef and the inhabitants of the haven that houses the sea Prince.
There’s a poetic dichotomy between these life-filled rocks and the algae if you’re willing to think about it. While the rocks are nearly unmovable, the sea-life thrives and bustles thanks to them in a flurry of movement not unlike the way this hand is waving in the water, sharp motions contrasting with the lazy roll of life underneath the waves.
Wait.
Hand?
The hand is quickly followed by a face, peering over the life-filled rocks straight down at the resting merman. Or what would be a face, had it not be covered by large googles and distorted by a snorkel.
With a half smirk softened by the day’s heat, Percy waves back to his friend, the tarsier of the Hawaiian seas.
The end of her red hair sway behind her as she approaches, half caught under the strap of her camera. He watches as shes approaches and settles next to him on the seafloor, careful not to disturb any corals, small fish or crab. She then shoves her left foot on his scales-covered side and barely waits until she has made full contact and received the an air bubble to remove the snorkeling equipment that covers her face. Prairie green meets sea-green.
Percy grins, “Rachel. Bothering the sea life, I see?”
The woman rolls her eyes, patting the sand under to her, “Please, the sea life doesn’t mind. They’re very happy to be here with us, look.” She means to point at a small group of curious black and white fish that followed her in her descend and now flit around her feet, but instead shoves her index right at an undulated moray’s unimpressed face. With a shriek, she tucks all her limbs close to her body, and tries to twitch as far away from the moray as she can.
After getting over the shock of seeing his friend’s wild recoil, the sea prince starts to chortle. It soon develops into full belly laughter when Rachel motions incoherently at him, then the moray, then the surface, still trying and falling to twitch away from the perceived threat. In fact, beyond the first jumpstart she had thanks to the seafloor, she doesn’t have anything to push on to go upwards: she’s slowly sinking towards the sand instead of going back up to the surface. With the air bubble that surrounds her head, she makes for a very convincing jellyfish.
If possible, the moray looks even less impressed. It grumpily gets halfway out of its house, seemingly wary of the sunlit and open sands. Still snickering, Percy moves for the first times in hours to get closer to the moray so it doesn’t have to completely leave the safety of the porites lobata. Once the sea Prince is parallel to the reef wall, as close as he can without bumping into any fragile corals, he settles on the sea floor with his upper body held up by his lower arms. The moray quickly slithers out of its house and under the cover of the merman’s body. Part of its body is still in its house, but its jaw pokes out from under Percy’s arm. It’s yellow and spotted head directly faces Rachel.
The woman calmed down after realizing that she was the only one panicking and settled cross-legged across from the sea creature duo. Her fear gone, she brandished her camera and took a few pictures of the charming scene, “Enjoying your fairytale life, princess?”
Percy directs a slightly mocking smile at her, “You’re just jealous you can’t do that.”
She can’t help but shudder, “I think I’ll be happy to just sit here and watch.” She tilts her head, “Well, not all day. I actually came here for a reason.”
“My doubtless charms?”
She ignores him, “Annabeth sent me out to get you, you’re on dinner duty today. Jason’s doing… something at the grill and we need someone to help him and also take care of the vegetarian options for Grover and Piper.”
“Grover’s coming today? He managed to convince Nico?” said Percy, excitedly.
“Yeah, they IMed earlier but you were already underwater. They should be here by dinner with Will.”
Percy smirked, “He’s bringing his boyfriend?”
Rachel rolled her eyes, “More like his boyfriend is bringing him. There’s no way he would have agreed to come to Hawaii on his own, he’s too allergic to sunlight for it.”
“How long is he staying?”
“I don’t know, how long until the sun outweighs Will’s puppy eyes?”
“So like, tomorrow midday?”
“I think you underestimate how whipped Nico is.”
“Fair,” Percy stroked the moray lightly on the head when it pocked out further from his underarm, “Are you hosting the betting pool?”
“No, Hazel is.”
The demigod rose his eyebrows, “Hazel? As in, ‘my brother can do no wrong’, Hazel? ‘Nico is a well adjusted young man’, Hazel? The one who also struggled to convince him? Hazel Levesque?”
“Well, she knows him best. Will’s optimistic, he bet 25 on 5 days.”
“Will is blinded by love.”
The seer grinned impishly, “No, Nico is blinded by Will.”
Percy narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her, “Was that a sun pun? You need to stop. Don’t copy Apollo’s… just stop listening to him.”
Rachel waved her hand dismissively at him,“A-ny-ways, enough about that,” she leaned towards him, eyes boring into his soul, “Move it, you need to feed us.”
He let out an amused string of bubbles through his nose, dramatically rolled his eyes, and gently herded the moray back into its home. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there, boss.”
“You better. I’m escorting you anyways, I have to fulfill my duty as the designated photograph. Can’t be missing out on the fine piece of art in front of me.”
The merman paused, “Aren’t you supposed to stay loyal to the Sun god?”
She deadpanned, “Somehow, I don’t think he’ll mind. He gets it. But I’m not joking you know, your scales-”
“Wait, roll that back, what do you mean-,” he looked slightly taken aback.
“-YOUR SCALES,” she interrupted him, “are an interes-”
“Wait not that, hold on-”
“-TRULY FASCINATING,” she continued like nothing had happened, “light study.”
Percy went to speak again, but Rachel reached out to secure her hand around his mouth. She brought her raised index to her lips, “Shhhhhh…”
For a moment, the merman’s furrowed brows made him look like he was going to argue more, but something in Rachel’s eye must have told him to drop it. He settled back onto the sand.
The seer pat his head, “Good.”
He tapped her hand away from his hair, “Hey!”
“Fooooooood,” she said obnoxiously.
“Gods, you’re so impatient,” he shook his head fondly, “Let’s go.”
“Great! I’m gonna need you to stay in the middle for a sec while I’ll take a few pictures,” she swam up one of the walls of the reef so she could get a high-angle shot of the scene if front of her, “Summon the fish! We need background actors for this.”
He grumbled (“I never said yes to a photoshoot.” “Boohoo, fame is sooo difficult, tell me aaaaaall about it.”) but did as told.
“Don’t look at the camera, act natural!”
“Boop one of the fish around you with a finger. Smile softly!” (“That’s weird Hazel, she’s a pregnant lady you know?” “Oh shut up, interact with them. Look alive! Look princely! Look otherworldly!”)
(“Why are you doing this to me.” “You like it, don’t even joke.” “I don’t!” “You would have already left if you truly disliked it.”)
“Tell the moray to get out of the shot.” (“She’s offended, you know?” “Deserved. She scared the shit out of me earlier.”)
The woman’s face finally appeared in full from behind the camera lens for the first time in what felt like an eternity to Percy, “Alright! I think this is it!” She called out, grinning, “You can come up now!”
As he swam towards her, a small school of colorful fish followed him. Rachel jumped on the opportunity to take one last picture.
He raised a snarky eyebrow at her, “Didn’t you say you were done?”
She scoffed, “I’m never done,” and took a look at her camera roll. “We’ve got some really good pictures going, dam. Look at me go, mastering photography.”
The sea prince leaned over her shoulder to look at the shots too, skeptical. His eyebrows shot up, “Oh.”
Rachel grinned, flipping through the pictures, “Impressive, huh? Art is in my veins.”
“It’s…,” he trailed off.
“Amazing? Yes,” she bumped his shoulder, “Now, get a move on or we’re going to be late. You need to feed us.”
Offense overtook whatever feelings he had about the picture, “You wanted to take your pictures! And you took your dam time too!”
“Well if someone didn’t try to dip out of our every shot-”
“I don’t ‘dip out of every shot’, don’t even lie-”
As they bickered and swam away from the reef, the flurry of sea-life that had floated idly around him chanted a stream of ‘goodbye Little Lord!’.
When they both got out of the water, after Percy had dried them both, Rachel turned to him and smirked, “By the way, I sent all the pictures I took of you in the group chat.”
Percy stared at her, deadpan, “Are you serious.”
She cackled.
Percy sighed and took out his – Leo approved, water/fire/pressure/whatever you want-proof, demi-god allowed – phone out of the bag he had left on the beach.
“You know,” started Rachel, “there’s no point in you having a phone if you never have it on you and nobody can reach you in less than 48 hours.”
He shrugged, “I have better things to do with my time, and I see you guys almost every week, who would I even call with a phone? My mom? Paul? I see them at least every three days. Besides, we can IM.”
“Well, IM is practical, but sometimes you just want a private conversation with someone, without having a goddess who can potentially eavesdrop on you holding the line. Also, not all of us can make rainbows appear out of nowhere!”
“Fair enough,” the sea prince sighed and refocused on his open phone.
jesus take the wheel
.
.
.
3:04pm
need a hairbrush?
your fav artist strikes again
[‘need a hairbrush?’ sent 12+ images.]
need a hairbrush?
don’t thank me, t’was a pleasure
Sparks between us
YOOOOOOOO PERCY!!!!!!
i nver knwe u were like this!!!!!
u’ve been hiding ur game form us!!!!!
smpking hot if u catch my drift
hanging on by a stick
those are very nice!
need a hairbrush?
i know, i know, i’m a professional
+1 neuron is more than you
using the camera for the greater good I see
3:05pm
Ursula’s goldfish
wise girl
please
don’t encourage her
nepotism brought us to Hawaii
Rachelllll, gimme those shots
I need
Ursula’s goldfish
et tu piper?
Souperman
Looking good, bro
Please come back soon, I need your help with the food
Ursula’s goldfish
we’re on our way
dw bro i got u
Souperman
bro
Ursula’s goldfish
bro
nepotism brought us to Hawaii
ignoring that
percyyyyy
can i
Ursula’s goldfish
what
nepotism brought us to Hawaii
post
one of the pics of you on my Instagram?
for the trip recap
Ursula’s goldfish
u have instagram??
and the answer is no
3:06pm
nepotism brought us to Hawaii
T-T
pleaseee
i’ll do you good on them, promise
Ursula’s goldfish
Piper
I AM A LITERAL MERMAN ON THESE
I HAVE A TAIL
u cant post that where mortals can see
be so fr
wise girl tell her
+1 neuron is more than you
She could
Ursula’s goldfish
ANNABETH?!
+1 neuron is more than you
It’s not like they’ll believe it’s real
It’s social media
And people love to dress up as mermaids and put on those fake tails
Ursula’s goldfish
i can’t belive you
i thought you were on my side
+1 neuron is more than you
I am!
But
nepotism brought us to Hawaii
everyone wants a piece of this fish Percy
Ursula’s goldfish
hwat
+1 neuron is more than you
...
nepotism brought us to Hawaii
see percyyy
this is fiinneeee
o.o
please
Ursula’s goldfish
wise girl
this is on you if something bad happens
nepotism brought us to Hawaii
yessss
3:07pm
+1 neuron is more than you
Nothing will happen