Stones (Lukercy)

Two

Percy always wondered what it was like above the surface. He sometimes wondered what it would be like if he just swam away. But when you have the God of the Sea as your dad, nothing in water goes unnoticed. It's like having an over protective babysitter doing everything in their power to stop the child from hurting themselves in hopes of getting paid just a little bit more. Except that babysitter is a school of fish and the payment is moving out of the lake off the land basically ran by a bunch of teenagers.

On some level, Percy wanted the too. They may not see him, but he often sees people who look about his age laughing and having fun. He has to watch as they swim around without a care in the world. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but Percy is the only merman here, so his only friends are fish. They're not bad, most of them are even funny. Just not the clown fish. Surprisingly, the clown fish aren't funny and get highly offended when you try to tell them a joke.

His best friend is a pufferfish named Joe. Well, his name used to be Spike, but then there was another Pufferfish moved here, so Spike swam around yelling that his name was officially Joe. No one ever really knew why, though. Percy had just shrugged it off, not questioning much. Despite Percy spending almost all his life with Joe, he wanted to experience a human interaction.

Recently, there's been an increase in stone skipping from above. Given, it was just one a day, but normally they never threw anything in here. As the stone from today sunk, Percy swam and caught it. He wasn't sure why, but he did. With the rock in hand, he swam around looking for Joe.

"We should go closer to the surface," Percy whispered when he found the pufferfish. Joe stopped in his trail, letting his spikes out. Percy knew this meant a scolding was coming, so he braced himself.

"Perseus Jackson," Joe scowled, swimming into the nearest cave, "you will not go near the humans. They will kill you! Do you want to be killed?"

Percy frowned. "But, Joe! I'm half human as it is," he argued. "They're not going to kill me. Dad said most don't even know mermaids exist! If anything, they'll be delighted to see me."

"But you're also half fish," Joe pointed out, swimming around Percy's tail quickly. "And if your father, Lord Poseidon, said not to go up to the surface, you will not go up to the surface."

"Okay, fine," Percy gave in.

"You're going tonight aren't you?" Joe sighed, bringing his spikes in. Percy only smiled slightly before swimming out of the cave. Joe began planning his best friend's funeral, knowing there was a small chance he would return.

---

It was around 4 in the morning. Percy had decided to go in the morning before the humans woke up. That way he can make sure the person gets his message. It was simple, but to Percy it screams HEY I'M A PERSON TOO. PLEASE NOTICE ME. Hopefully it would work.

He placed the stone that held the sloppily wrote message on the patch of sand that was within arms reach and took in the sight of the surface world.

The sun was rising slightly, casting a pink glow over the land. Buildings looked like nothing more than silhouettes. Birds were chirping lightly. There a was a fresh smell of salty air. Percy closed his eyes, imagining that he was able to walk around with other people his age. He wasn't sure how long he stayed at the surface, but when he heard the first rounds of laughter, Percy dove underwater, knowing he had overstayed his welcome.