Rise (Percy Jackson x Reader)

twenty-two

She pushes herself upwards, closing her eyes and exhaling again as she hits the cool air. Shaking her head a bit, she opens her eyes, gently moving her limbs to stay afloat. After she blinks to clear her vision, she looks back to the beach, seeing Grover and Percy chasing each other on the sand while Annabeth reads her book, still sitting on her towel. Noticing that she hasn't actually swum out that far, (Y/N) takes another deep breath before submerging again.

She keeps her eyes open this time, looking around at the increasing amount of vegetation the deeper she goes. She pushes herself upward when the water gets a shade darker, and she uses the lessening amount of light under the surface as her stopping point. Looking back to the beach, she sees that her friends are now much tinier due to her increased distance, and she smiles, heating up her body just slightly to compensate for the cooler water.

(Y/N) feels something small brush against her leg, and she looks down, seeing a streak of silver and yellow through the ripples.

Taking another breath, she puts her head under the water, sinking a bit as she opens her eyes. A chuckle escapes her lips when she sees the small perch looking at her with confusion. It swims around her, passing through the thinner rays of light and making its scales glimmer. (Y/N) holds out a finger in front of her, and the fish hesitantly approaches it after emerging from behind her back. It pokes her finger with its mouth before swimming in front of it, and (Y/N) extends the rest of her fingers to run her hand gently along its scales.

It swims up to her face as if to say, 'Nice to meet you!' and turns around, the movement of its tail creating small bubbles that tickle (Y/N)'s cheeks. Slowly running out of air, she kicks herself up to the surface again before swimming back to the beach. As she moves through the water, a small flash of bright green catches her attention, and she turns her head to look at it. Frustration fills her, and she reaches out to grab the piece of plastic.

She takes it back to the beach, stepping onto the shore and jogging over to her towel, jumping over a sand-covered satyr as she does so. Her friends turn to her, Annabeth from her towel and Grover and Percy from the ground. "How was it?" Percy asks as he walks over to her, leaving his best friend in the prison of sand, struggling to get out.

"It was okay. I made a friend and an enemy."

Percy pauses, confused, before answering, "That's good, I guess."

(Y/N) tosses the plastic shopping bag onto the towel square, muttering, "Stupid humans."

"So that's the enemy, then," Percy says, referring to whoever chose to litter in the ocean. (Y/N) wrings out her hair onto the sand, humming in affirmation before she grabs her folded towel from the pile on top of the three spread out and covering the ground.

"Who was the friend?" Annabeth asks, not looking up from her book, and Grover walks up to them, sand stuck all over his torso and joggers.

"What's this about a friend?" he inquires, slapping Percy's arm in annoyance before grabbing his own towel and dusting himself off.

"(Y/N) made a friend when she was in the ocean," Percy explains, rubbing his bicep gently.

"Really?" Grover raises his eyebrows in surprise, turning to the girl in question, "Who?"

She finishes rubbing her hair with her towel, the now-wavier locks appearing darker in color because of the water. "A fish."

"A fish?" Grover repeats, and (Y/N) smiles, chuckling.

"Yep. A perch decided to swim up and say hello."

"Damn."

She grabs the shopping bag from the towel on the sand, "And when I was coming back, I realized that my hatred for humanity's idiocy is much stronger than I thought."