WORLDS BEYOND ( pjo )

𝐱: nature's gifts

After a confusing dream concerning one of his quest-mates, Percy could confidently say that he was appropriately disoriented. The cold from standing outside in the blistering cold didn't make it any easier, either.

He paid a glance to his right, where Kia stood.

He couldn't get it out of his mind, the image of Kia jolting up from the driver's seat, eyes wide with terror. He'd asked if anything were wrong and she'd profusely denied it, even though her sweating forehead and palpitating chest said otherwise. Percy let it go and settled for keeping a close eye on her.

It was so odd, as soon as the others had come up in front of her, it was like she just wore a whole new costume. She was back to normal entirely, except for the odd sense of distance she'd emanated after her sleep.

Thalia had brought up her concerns to Percy earlier, "Is Kia okay?"

"I don't know," Percy had answered truthfully.

They left it at that.

Percy could sense the others could feel the odd coldness Kia had suddenly started to give off, but wisely kept quiet about it. Truthfully, Percy was somewhat disappointed. It wasn't like they'd been friends since forever, but there was a feeling like he'd suddenly backtracked on all the recent progress they'd made. He could admit he felt a bit silly for feeling that way, but Percy was a kid, okay?

Either way, he elected within his internal debate to give her the space she seemed to carve out for herself.

Currently, he was beating himself up over that decision, because the awkwardness that hung in the air was quite literally suffocating him. Awkwardness had always been something Percy detested, barely being able to stand even a moment of its unwanted company; and here, it was being employed in heaps.

Percy and Bianca stood next to each other, both clearly feeling the uncomfortable tension in the air. He paid a glance to Kia's direction, who was standing a little ways away from them. He'd never noticed before just how much of a delinquent she looked like; her black jacket was wrapped snuggly around her and her legs fearlessly took in the cold that pricked her skin from the torn material of her jeans. Her arms her crossed in front of her while she leaned her back against the railing, her hair draping over the left side of her face, not enough to hide her wrinkled eyebrows and almost frustrated expression. She looked so pensive, yet so angry, that Percy couldn't muster up the courage to ask her if anything was up.

The only other option was to talk to Bianca, which was a whole other obstacle altogether. Percy had always been bad at conversing with the girl species one-on-one (unless you counted that one guinea pig he petted in one of his school's classrooms, but that memory was ruined by the time he got turned into one at a psycho goddesses' island), and adding to the fact was that this particular girl wasn't one he had the best trail off with.

Finally, she relented, "Nice rat."

Percy arrogantly set it on the porch railing, half-expecting people to flock to the store at the fabulous promotion he enacted.

"So... how do you like being a Hunter?" he asked, feeling inclined to.

She pursed her lips. "You're not still mad at me for joining, are you?"

Salty, sure; mad, not really.

They had a well-needed conversation and cleared the air between themselves about certain topics: Nico, Percy's worth as Annabeth's friend, him knocking her down in capture the flag—all of it. Even if they hadn't, it was nice to feel the recede of the unwanted tension just by talking—Percy had the suspicion that even if they hadn't ventured into such topics, just talking it out and making sure they were both good was enough.