Gone With The Tides - (Percy Jackson/Avengers Story) [boyxboy]

Chapter 9

My mom makes a sound of approval and steps forward a little towards the desk. She puts on a nervous but friendly smile.

"I'm Sally, and this is my son Percy. We were told that you give self defense lessons here by a friend." When she introduces me she shoves me up next to her and puts her arm around my shoulder.

Luke perks up a little, "Yeah! We give lessons here. What kind of lessons were you thinking of? Group? Or private?"

"Private, please. I think we have our first lesson today, actually. I signed him up online," my mom says pleasantly. He looks over to me and leans over the desk and looks me over. He seems to nod to himself before looking over to my mom.

"Great! So you did the payment online as well?"

"Yes we did."

"Awesome! So you could stay here to watch for today from the observation room or you could just hang out around here for the next hour. There's a really great coffee shop near here that lets you sit for as long as you want as long as you have something in front of you." My mom smiles pleasantly before ruffling my hair.

"Hm. Well, I have some errands to run now but maybe I'll be back later. Work him out hard!" She transfers the large backpack full of stuff to me and I nearly fall with the amount of weight it carries. She kisses my head one last time before bouncing out contently.

"Hi, I'm Percy," I chirp. Maybe he'd be less inclined to make me work out if he thought I was cute. He laughs a little and plays along.

"Hello, Percy, I'm Luke. Let me help you with that," he grabs the bag out of my hands easily and slings it around his back. "I'll show you around today and maybe work on a bit of self defense, ok?" He takes me to the back where he and Reyna had entered initially and I'm met with the sight of a large gym maybe ten times my apartment size. A few people mill around, taking advantage of the facilities. In the room is ropes, a foam pit, a few punching bags, tires, a tricked out rock climbing wall, and a gigantic track for anyone who actually wants to run. But who actually wants to run? He turns around to face me.

"This is the main area that holds group classes and boot camps so we won't spend much time here."

He goes further back into the gym and goes through a narrow hallway that leads to another gym, this one smaller than the last. It has a punching bag in the back and a few weights and stuff spread out through the room. "And this, is where you'll be spending most of your time." He makes a grand gesture. He points to his left, "That way is the bathroom and showers along with the water fountain and the lockers, so if you ever need to keep anything in there, well, they're complimentary—just remember your lock."

"Ok, that's cool." I can't help but gawk at all the cool things everywhere.

He seems to think of something before asking, "Say, how old are you, kid?"

"I'm seventeen," I state, still staring around at everything.

"Psh. Yeah, right. For serious, how old are you?"

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-two. And when I was your age I was at least five foot eleven. So stop joking around how old are you?"

"No, I'm actually seventeen, man." He holds out his arm straight and finds that I barely come up to his arm.

"Nah, no way," he shakes his head, close to laughing. "You're too tiny!" He full out laughs and pats me on the head.

"Shut up," I groan covering my face. He continues to laugh, almost in hysterics. He seems to realize he's making me feel bad before sobering up.

"I'm sorry, dude. It's just— you're older than I thought you were." He puts his fist to his mouth, clearly stifling any remaining laughter.