LUNACY; percy jackson

chapter 4

    "She would tell me how much he loved me, how much he wished he could hold me at night and sing to me. To tell me about his many adventures and triumphs in life. Even his mistakes, because that's how he showed he cared. To tell you what he did wrong and how that changed him in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't make the same ones. That I wouldnt turn out like him." The girl talked as if she hadn't in years. Like Percy was the first person who had heard the words that she spoke so easily, the words that she said as if she had said them hundreds of times. He figured, however, that this was the first time she had said them. To anyone, perhaps.

    The part that surprised Percy the most was that they had only known each other a few days and every other time, she came off cold and reserved. Yet here she was, telling him about a life where she had been happy and, even if it were subconsciously, helping him feel welcome in a world that is so brutal and scary. A world that, unlike her, he is a complete stranger to. It felt warm, and part of him wondered how often that occurred in her life.

     Andromeda looked at Percy with a sad smile. He knew, right then, that her smile was the heaviest burden she had ever held. "The first time I saw my dad he backed away from me. Like he was scared." She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her lips into her mouth, looking back at the water to avoid Percy. "The second time I saw him was the next morning when he tried to apologize. I ended up punching him in the face and told him he was a jerk. I thought that was how mama would have said he was being mean. I guess now I realize that I was the one being mean." She looked over at him and smiled. It was easily the most gentle-looking she had seemed since they first met. "He wasn't scared of me. To see someone who is so like you, yet so different, it can be shocking for anyone. No matter who they are, human or not."

    Percy nodded and looked down at his newly calloused hands. His fingers, which hadn't stopped moving, rubbed at the skin. The change settled deeply in him.

    "You're not scared of me?"

    She scoffed, pulling her hair into a bun, stray curls hanging down the nape of her neck. "No. I'm not scared of you. I guess—I don't know. I don't feel the need to be, not around you anyways. And if anyone is scared of you, they shouldn't be. We haven't known each other long, but I know that you wouldn't hurt anyone willingly. Not if you didn't have reason to. Besides, I know what it's like for people to be scared of you, so if you need another pep-talk or something, I'm here."

    She stood up and placed her hand on Percy's shoulder with a small smile, one that lit his soul on fire. "You're a good person, Percy Jackson. Don't let anyone change that or take it away. It'll be your armor in this life."

    As she walked away, only one thought crossed Percy's mind.

    Maybe she's right.

    And if she had heard him say that, she would have laughed and shook her head, and said, "Damn right, new kid." Percy didn't need to be life-long friends with her to know that.

———

    The next morning, Chiron moved Percy to Cabin Three.

    Andromeda knew he would be alone in his cabin since there were no other children belonging to Poseidon at camp. He was miserable, that much she could tell. She understood it, too. She had spent her first years at camp in a cabin alone as well. Staring at the ceilings in a building that was cold in every way that mattered. But she had friends, people to talk to, to help her escape from that winter storm. But Percy was alone and stranded. He, like her, was now cold.