Falling for You

Percy: XLII

Percy: XLII

The black waves under his feet fell dangerously still as Percy walked towards his father.

Poseidon stood facing away from him, his arms crossed, seemingly staring up at the hundreds of visible stars glittering in the night sky. Percy looked up too. He wondered if Zeus was watching.

"Above anything, I think this proves without doubt that you are definitely my son." Poseidon spoke first, and Percy came to a stop a couple feet away from him.

The locusts chirped quietly from the shore. Percy flicked a wary gaze to the inky depths beneath him.

"I mean," he gestured around him, "I'm walking on water. You might be onto something there."

"This isn't a joke, Percy." Poseidon didn't look at him. His voice was serious.

His tentative smile dropped.

"No," he agreed, "It isn't."

Silence stretched between them. Poseidon sighed.

"The sea does not like to be restrained, but I fear there has been too much free reign lately."

Anger sparked in Percy's chest. More ripples formed around them.

"Too much freedom?" he asked, unable and unwilling to keep the scathing tone from his voice.

"You do what you want, when you want, with who you want."

"Oh, I'm so sorry for living my own life-"

"Percy." Poseidon cut him off. "You act as if you are a God. You have forgotten what it means to be mortal. You don't care anymore. The kindness in you that was once there is getting harder and harder to see."

The simmering fury that had overflowed on Olympus crawled through his veins again.

"I wonder why." he spat.

"No-" Poseidon rubbed a hand over his face and turned round. His father looked tired. "Percy. I- You misunderstand me. There's a reason words do not come easily to us. I don't mean this in- I'm saying you were right."

Percy pulled a face. "What?"

"We too have forgotten what it means to be mortal, to be pushed beyond our limits and be forced to find our way back. It was- cruel of us, no matter how we voted, to have put that on you. We see that now."

Percy's mouth moved silently for a couple seconds as words evaded him.

"Oh." he said eventually.

"Yeah." Poseidon replied.

The tide flowed around the two of them without a sound. Percy suspected his father did it on purpose.

"What about Zeus?" he asked. "And Athena?"

Poseidon scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, Athena was the one who changed her mind."

"What?"

"She said that she stood by the threat you pose, but she feared history repeating. That our undoing would be our own fault."