→ 001; you kiss me and it stops time
˚₊‧꒰cა ☁︎ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚.
If Daphne had to pick a motto it would probably be no fucks. Or maybe it would be trust no one. But either way, Daphne Taylor took no shit. Especially from a certain Perseus Jackson.
The minute he showed up things went to shit. He showed up at her camp and boom- all her siblings were dead . He shows up at her school and suddenly her best friend is infected with green mist and becomes absolutely boring. So in her eyes, it wasn't irrational to hate the son of Poseidon's guts.
And to top it all off, here she was at Camp Half blood on halloween of all days, hammering away at what (hopefully) was the beginnings of the new Nike cabin. Stupid, stupid, Stupid, stupid Percy jackson. He just had to go and do the noble thing didn't he? "oh i wish for the gods to stop ignoring their kids" If he had just taken the damn immortality it would've solved so many problems, but noooooo. Stupid, stupid, stupid-
"Hey Sunshine, you 'bout ready to finish up?" At that moment, Daphne came to the conclusion that the phrase "speak of the devil and he shall appear" was one constructed specifically for Percy Jackson.
"God Jackson, i've been waiting to hear you say that for hours." with little regard for her surroundings, Daphne threw down her hammer- and hit Jackson right in the foot.
"Fuck! Are you always this reckless around dangerous equipment?"
"Only when arrogant pricks are around"
"Well there goes my invitation." Percy muttered. Daphne spun around like lightning.
"What invitation?"
"I said never mind!"
" Tell me about the goddamn invitation prissy."
"Oooo using Clarisse's nickname real creative TayTay." Percy smirked his infuriating smirk, the one that made his eyes twinkle and eyebrows quirk up twords his hairline. Gods she hated him and his stupid, stupid face.
"Well," Percy started, twirling his pen-sword-thing in between his fingers, " I was going to invite you to hang out at this halloween thing me and a couple of my friends and their girlfriends are doing at the skatepark as a thank you for helping me finish up here today." He gave the hammer buy his feet a glance. "but never mind."
The daughter of Apollo smirked. "Too bad so sad. I cancelled all my other plans to build this fucking cabin. I'm going. Meet me at the top of the hill in an hour."
As the son of Poseidon watched the blonde walk away, he couldn't help but curse himself. He couldn't keep his mouth shut, and now he was stuck going to a party with Daphne motherfucking Taylor. Gods how he hated his life.
˚₊‧꒰cა ☁︎ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚.
"Again- you decied to cosplay as the queen of ridiculousness...........why?" Daphne had been refusing to look at the son of Poseidon ever since she had first gotten into his car and he burst out laughing at the sight of her costume, but now she was very tempted to smack the boy.
"for the last time i'm Daphne Brigteron. Like from the show?"
"Whatever you say-say TayTay"
It was at this that Daphne finally snapped. "Don't call me TayTay. My same is Daphne. Taylor. Not Taytay. Not Sunshine. Daphne. Taylor. Got that prissy?"
For what was probably the first time in his life, Percy Jackson fell silent. The daughter of Apollo felt guilty for a second, but on the bright side, his cheese grater of a voice was no longer scratching at her eardrums.
Unlike the Jackson boy, silence was where Daphne thrived. It gave her time to be alone with her thoughts, to give her crazy complex ADHD brain time to settle down and make sense of the world around her. She liked to think of it as surfing on land- exept when Daphne was on land the silence would eventually end. Reality would seep back in. But when she was in the water-well, nothing could touch her there. Not even reality. She was weightless, emotionless. The only thoughts that coupled her brain were those of catching the next wave, keeping her balance, timing everything just right. Water was the only place she felt free. It was sort of ironic-her worst enemy was the son of Poseidon, but the ocean was her safe space.
"My step dad used to call me prissy."
"hm?" Daphne humed, startled out of her thoughts.
"Jackass was a favorite of his too. When he was feeling real creative he would put the two together and act like it was my real name. 'Prissy Jackass go get me a bud light' 'Hey prissy Jackass go wash my camaro.' My mom turned him to stone useing Medusa's severed head but-" He let out a harsh laugh, "- god how I hated him"
Was Percy............. opening up to her? Briefly, the blonde wondered if he was possessed. The Jackson she knew was a heroic asshole, not an emotionally vulnerable one.
"I feel you," Daphne said letting out a deep sigh. Percy rised his eye brows
"You-your mom turned your evil stepdad to stone with the head of a monster you killed in new jersey?" He said it with such a tone of seriousness and confusion that the blonde sitting next to him burst out giggling.
"No! I ment that I feel the whole asshole-replacement-dad thing. When my mom was working on Broadway she dated the biggest freeloading assholes. Now of course she still dates assholes, but only the rich ones." Daphne's tone had turned resentful the minute she mentioned broadway.
MarieTaylor was never the the most caring of mothers, always shiping Daphne off to her Uncle's
in florida to avoid taking care of her own child. But after she sighed a couple big contracts for Disney and Pixar to compose for children's movies she'd gotten a whole lot worse. She's was almost never home, either out in New York attending her "prestigious social events" or out in California for work. Daphne let out a bitter laugh, "I guess I got the demigod two for one special- daddy and mommy issues."
Percy looked her up and down and smirked. "Well that explains a lot." Daphne rolled her eyes. So Jackson's back to being an asshole. She had wondered how long it would last.
˚₊‧꒰ა ☁︎ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚.
Daphne Taylor would never ever admit to the fact Perseus Jackson was right about something that she was wrong about.
Out loud at least.
Internally however, she had accepted that her wearing a Bridgerton costume to-what was essentially shaping up to be a bunch of drunk boys doing stupid shit in a skatepark while their girlfriends sat and laughed at them-wasn't the best idea. Though to be fair, this wasn't what that Taylor girl had anticipated when Jackson had said the word "party".
So far all Daphne had done was stand awakardly at the end of a ramp and pretend to drink out of a can of Bud Light (because let's be honest here-that stuff tastes like shit) when a pretty girl with long black hair approached her.
"Hey your Daphne right? Taylor? We're in Mr.Berns biology class together? I'm Oliva." The girl smiled a reassuring smile. A fash of recognition and relief passed through Daphnes eyes.
"Wait Olivia? Flores? Where you on the JV volleyball team?" When the girl opposite her nodded, Daphne actually squelled. "You played so well last season! The best player on your team for sure. Coach would be crazy if he didn't bump you up to varsity next year, you'd fit so well with us!" Suddenly, Daphne found herself talking and laughing with this girl she'd barely even spoken to before and it was...nice.
The daughter of Apollo had been friends with Rachel for so long, it was hard to branch out when she'd left for finishing school. But now she felt just as much at ease as she did around her siblings at camp, all thoughts of silly costumes aside.
"It's nice to finally get to talk to you! I feel like we hang out in two totally different groups at school." Oliva took a swig from a bottle of whisky as she talked, swallowing it in one gulp. In the ten minutes they'd been talking, Daphne had seen the girl down almost half the bottel. "You wanna come join the party? You know how to skate right?" She let out a huge burp- and then proceeded to take another swig out of the bottle. For somone who was only 5'1 olivia sure could hold a lot of alcohol. Daphne smiled a sad smile.
"I'd love too but-" she gestured to her dress "that would be kind of hard."
"Oh! I have an extra pair of spanex in the car. You'd just need a shirt-maybe you could ask Percy for his sweatshirt? You guys are dating right?" Olivia asked.
Luckily for her, Daphne hadn't actually been drinking out of her bud light-because if she had been it would've needed up all over Oliva she was laughing so hard
"Jackson!?!?Oh hell no," The daughter of Apollo managed to get out between giggles. But now that Olivia had menteioned it......The more Daphne thought about it, the proposition made a lot of sense. She'd been regretting wearing this stupid, stupid dress from the moment she stepped out of the car, and this would make her alot more comfortable. Without a second thought, the blonde shouted, "Hey Kelp Head!!! Give me your sweatshirt I want to go change!"
Percy, who had been at the top of the ramp with his friends, grabbed his skateboard and started twords the two girls, doing a flip as he want. Show of
"And why would I do that?" He asked with a smirk, once he had reached where they were standing.
"Because asshole, I can't do anything fun in this stupid dress. Let me changeeeeeeee." She whined. Percy rolled his eyes at her antics.
"I told you so" He sang, voice filled with satisfaction at the prospect of hearing Daphne admit that he was right.
"Jesus, Just give it to me asshole! I don't want to be a waking glitter bomb all night." She resisted the urge to deck Jackson straight in the face, honestly how hard was it to take off a hoodie?!
"Fine." He practically the sweatshirt off his body, leaving not only Daphne, but also to the entire skatepark trying to process the glaringly obvious fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt. In an even more surprising turn of events, Jackson had abs. They weren't the perfectly toned ones that you see in movies, but, well to be honest the only word that came to mind when Daphne tried to describe them was hot.
Which of course was utterly ridiculous since Perseus Jackson was not hot. At all. What so ever.
"What," Percy smirked, "like what you see Taylor?"
Daphne scoffed. I mean really, how desperate did he think she was?! "Not on your life Fish Face." She hissed at him.
"Whatever you say Sunshine." And with one infuriating wink, Jackson turned and skated back twords his friends. The blond merely sighed and rolled her eyes before asking Olivia if she could change in her car.
About an hour later, the party was in full swing, Somebody had bought a shit ton of Vodka, and Daphne had downed a couple of (actually good) cans of beer.
"Yo blondie! You know how to skate?" A burly brunette boy (who Daphne only vaguely remembered Olivia introducing her too) yelled.
"Nope! Not a lot of skateparks where I'm from." She downed another shot. "But mabye pretty boy Jackson could teach me a thing or two!" Daphne flipped her hair over one shoulder and winked, turning Percy a deep red. Untill now, the daughter of Apollo wasnt even sure that he had human emotions, but she was beginning to like watching him fluster because of the little things she said and did.
"Jacoson! Jackson! Jackson!" The brunett boy started chanting. The others around him joined in and soon the night air was filled with a chours of male voices chanting the son of Posidens name. Percy patted one of them on the back before yelling out "Challange accepted Taylor!"
In a flash he was right in front of her. Daphne hadn't relized just how fast a person could go when on a skateboard. In all honestly it was kind of impressive.
Not that she would ever admit it.
"Okay so," he hoped off the skateboard and placed it infront Daphne. "Your gonna want to evenly distribute your weight. Put your right foot here," he pointed at the front of the bored, "and your left foot here."
The blonde tried to copy what Percy told her, but she didn't expect the board to, you know, move when she put weight on it, and, in what was probably the most spectacular flailing about of arms ever, barely managed to catch herself on the arm of one Perseus Jackson.
The bare, surprisingly-mussily-for-how-skinny-it -was, arm of one Perseus Jackson.
Daphne was so close to him she could hear his slow, steady breathing. And he was shirtless.
No.
No, Daphne would not allow herself to think that way. She was drunk, he was drunk. Nothing good could come of that.
Besides was teaching her how to skateboard because she had challenged him too. There was no other reason. None at all, Daphne thought as she determinedly pulled away from the son of Poseidon.
This time when she stepped onto the skateboard she didn't lose her balance. Instead she put one foot in the middle of the bored and pushed off with the other. Truth be told it was a lot like surfing. The balancing act was the same, the steering was the same, the same mussels were used. And the same feeling of freedom ensued when she took off at lightning fast speed.
She navigated herself around the more extreme obstacles of the park, ones that she knew she wasn't skilled enough to go over, the wind rushing past her, her foot rhythmically alternating between pushing off the cement and resting on the skateboard.
She was going faster and faster and faster. Wind was blowing her hair in all directions, the beating of her heart was sinking up with the thump thump of wheels passing over concrete-and then she came to a stop in front of an awe-struck Jackson.
"What?" she smirked and looked him up and down-though she defiantly didn't do that because she wanted another look at his abs. "Jelous of my natural tallent pretty boy?"
If Percy was indeed any form of jelous or impressed he didn't show it. Instead he stepped in close to Daphne-so close that she could hear the shallow sound of his breathing. So close that the gap between them could barely be qualified as a gap. "Oh so it's pretty boy now?" he placed a hand on her waist, "What happed to Jackass?"
Daphne had to fight to breath normally, fight to resist the urge to pull him closer. She had to fight not to kiss him.
We're both drunk she reminded herself, Nothing good ever comes of two drunk hot people.
The daughter of Apollo made a show of checking her phone."We should probably head back to camp it's like 12:30."
Percy wordlessly nodded, and started walking towards the parking lot, without even saying good bye too his friends or telling anyone where he was going. Daphne rolled her eyes before thanking and saying goodbye to Oliva. Honestly what was up his ass? He had no right to be so pissed about Daphne trying to make sure they both didn't get eaten by cleaning harpys.
"Finaly." Percy muttered when the daughter of Apallo got into the car. Then he did somthing that Daphne Taylor could never have imagined in a million years.
He leaned in and kissed her.
It was surprising. unexpected. startling. Fucking amazing.
The kiss itself was passionate, filled with moans and shirts and hands and hair. She wondered if it was Percy's first-it wasn't for her though she couldn't say she was exactly experienced on the subject either. His lips felt-well like lips. They were wet, a bit chaped and tasted faintly of vodka-and boy did Daphne love vodka.
She was so enveloped in the kiss, in her own emotions, in the blissful heat of the moment, that she didn't even realize that she had shifted onto Percy's lap untill she came up for air.
"Why?" her question was sudden, even to herself. She was loving this-well this whatever that was happening but why now? If Percy had wanted to kiss her why hadn't he done it in the skatepark when they both had been so close to each other? Percy quirked his eyebrow.
"Well that's why you suggested to come in here isn't it? For-," he gestured to the whole her-sitting-on-his-lap-thing, "this."
"oh"
"Do you....do you want to stop?" He asked.
Daphne blinked. Then she blinked again. It wasn't too late to stop to pretend this never happened and drive away. Jackson had offered her an out, and she knew deep down in her gut she should take it. There was only one way this could end-badly.
Everything she could make sense of at the moment told her that drunk making out with Perseus Jackson was a bad idea. And yet she shook her head before retiring to that state of bliss, that blur of hands and hair and lips and limbs.
After all- Daphne Taylor had never been able to resist the call of the sea.
˚₊‧꒰cა ☁︎ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚.
Notes from C!
went back and edited this like almost a year after i originally posted it oops
word count - 3,013