━━ chapter thirty-seven
just a girl, just a boy

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    ━━After Coach Hedge's display the last time Fiona and Percy were caught together, it was a marvel they were allowed to do their chores with one another. Maybe Leo knew━she doubts he did, but she liked to think that maybe he did pay attention to things other than his machines━she wanted to talk to him. She wanted to have his arms wrap around her and to breathe in his salty scent that reminded her of the ocean and just forget the pain in her knee and Ethos's words.

    What if she'll never be able to run again? What then?

    This had to be some cruel joke by her grandmother: payback for all the mean things she's said to her. Fiona tried to push through it, doing her chores, but soon, it was too much to handle and she sat down on the edge of the infirmary's bed. She glared at the strap around her knee. Useless, she scolded it.

    Percy looked back from where he checked their stock of Ambrosia and Nectar with a frown. "Hey," he murmured, still rather tired. "You okay?"

     "No," she admitted. "Gods, no━I'm far from it ..."

    Fiona leaned forward and placed her head in her hands. Percy immediately left the cupboard and made his way over to her. She felt his lips press against her head and as he sat down, he gently pulled her up onto his lap, holding her close to his chest. Fiona let out a few tears, and she felt stupid to do so, but with the way Percy's fingers ran gently through her hair, tucking the stands behind her ears, it didn't feel so stupid anymore.

    Fiddling with the fabric of his orange shirt, she mumbled, "Do you think this is my grandmother's way of saying I'm a coward, again?"

     "This doesn't make you a coward," Percy told her strongly. "I'm telling you that now, okay? You're not a coward because you're injured."

     "Ethos said I can't fix this," Fiona said, clinging onto him tightly. "What if I can never run fast again? What if I can't fight well again? I━That's all I've worked for, Percy. I━what will that make me, then?"

     "It makes you Fiona Midgrass," said Percy, peppering a few kisses to her cheek. "The most badass, beautiful, and best girlfriend in the whole entire world. Who won't let this get her down. She will overcome it, and stand on top. Because that's what she does. She wins."

     Those words sent a spark in her stomach. She wins. Fiona looked up at Percy, her lips parted slightly. She wins ... 

     Fiona cupped his cheeks and brought him down for a strong kiss. Percy wrapped tight arms around her waist, catching her before she brought them to the floor. He was suprised by the ferocity of her actions, but it didn't take him long to reciprocate, slipping a hand up from her waist to her cheek and into her hair, gripping and tugging. Fiona made a noise she wasn't particuarly proud of against his lips. He took the chance to deepen the kiss, exploring her in ways she's never experienced before.

     "Oh, gross! This is why Coach Hedge said to keep you guys separate!"

     Percy pulled away, glaring at the boy in the doorway. "Sam!" he scolded. "Get out!"

     Fiona burst out into laughter, feeling much better. Even though she was blushing and most definitely embarassed, she let her head fall into Percy's shoulder and her own shook in her giggles.

     Sam gagged at the two of them. "Eww! Get a room!"

     "We had one━you decided to just come in!"

     "The door was unlocked!" He scoffed, shaking his head. "That's shameful. This is the infirmary!"

     "We were just kissing!"

     "Looked like more than that━Ah!" Sam ducked as Percy chucked the pillow at him. "Gods! Chill out." He poked his tongue out as a final word before dashing away. 

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    ━━Fiona woke to Leo blasting a ship's horn so loud it literally shook her out of bed. 

    "Valdez, I swear if this is another joke..." she grumbled to herself, until she realised━as the horn sounded again━it wasn't from the Argo. It was coming from somewhere else. She rushed out as quick as she ground, reaching for her dagger and stumbling up the stairs. The scene she was met with up stairs was not what she expected.

     By the time she got on deck, the others had already gathered (stupid knee!)━all hastily dressed except for Coach Hedge, who had pulled the night watch.

    Frank's Vancouver Winter Olympics shirt was inside out. Percy wore blue pyjama bottoms and a bronze breastplate━which made Fiona a little woozy to see him without a shirt. Hazel's hair was blown to one side, Leo had accidentally set himself on fire. His T-shirt was in tatters. His arms were smoking. Fiona watched, bewildered as a cruise ship glided past. Tourists waved at them from fifteen or sixteen rows of balconies. Some smiled and took pictures. The cruise ship blew its horn again, and the Argo II had a shaking fit.

     Annabeth stepped in next to Fiona, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Are you kidding me?" she muttered.

    Coach Hedge plugged his ears. "Do they have to be so loud?"

    "They're just saying hi," said Frank.

    "WHAT?" Hedge yelled back.

    Sam rolled his eyes. 

    "I'm too tired for this," Fiona dropped her head against Annabeth's shoulder, resting her eyes. She chuckled, patting her head. 

     "What, did you have an eventful night?" suggested Sam innocently.

     Fiona's eyes snapped open. She turned to the smaller child of Athena, eyes blazing and her cheeks red. Injured knee or not, she'll get back at him for saying those words. She started forward and Sam realised. His eyes widened and he ran for it. Fiona went to race afterwards but Percy was there to keep her back with a simple arm around her waist. She struggled a little, still bright red, but settled, glaring after Sam who grinned at her, proud of his joke. 

    Hazel rubbed her eyes and looked across the glittering green water. "Where are━oh ... Wow..."

    She was distracted from Sam, and instead fixed on the sight before them. Without the cruise ship blocking their view, she could see a mountain jutting from the sea less than a half a mile to the north. Percy's grip faltered around her, he too, mesmerised by the sight. On one side, the limestone cliffs were almost completely sheer, dropping into the sea over a thousand feet below. One the other side, the mountain sloped in tiers, covered in green forest, so that the whole thing seemed like a colossa sphinx. A sphinx standing there, but after a millennia, has worn down. But still held a massive white head and chest, and a green cloak over its back. 

    "The Rock of Gibraltar," Annabeth breathed out in awe. "At the tip of Spain. And over there━" she pointed south, to a more distance stretch of red and ochre hills. "That must be Africa. We're at the mouth of the Mediterranean."

    Fiona felt a little weak on her knees. Africa? Spain? She's only ever been on one country her entire life. Well, technically two. But still, this was hard to believe that right here, she was in the mouth of the Meditteranean, and there was Africa, and there was Spain, and they were getting closer to Rome where ...

     Where Nico was dying.

    (Her awe fell away). 

    "What now?" asked Piper. "Do we just sail in?"

    "Why not?" said Leo. "It's a big shipping channel. Boats go in and out all the time."

    "Depends..." murmured Fiona. "Do we have to go through the Pillars of Hercules? This was what this was in the old days. The Rock was supposed to be one pillar. The other was one of the African mountains. Nobody is sure which one."

     "Hercules, huh?" Percy frowned. She glanced up at him. "That guy is like the Starbucks of Ancient Greece. Everywhere you turn━there he is."

    "Well, Hercules is the Roman name," Fiona corrected him. "Greek is Heracles."

     Percy faltered. He looked as though he had just been lied to his entire life. "Wait, what?"

    There was a thunderous boom that shook the Argo II, like Jupiter was sending thunder from the ocean instead of the sky. 

    Piper turned to Fiona, looking suddenly very worried. "So ... these Pillars of Hercules. Are they dangerous?"

    "For Greeks," murmured Fiona, frowning at them in front of the ship, "the Pillars marked the end of the known world. For Romans, we know the pillars are inscribed with a Latin warning━"

    "Non plus ultra," said Percy.

    "Yeah. Nothing further beyond━wait," Fiona backtracked. Her boyfriend was smart, she knew that, but she knew he wouldn't know that off the top of his head. "How do you know?"

    Percy pointed. "Because I'm looking at it."

    She followed his gaze. Directly ahead of them, in the middle of the straits, an island had shimmered into existence. There hadn't been one there before; it just shimmered in front of them. It wasn't as impressive cimpared to the Gibralter, covered in forests and ringed with white beaches, but in front of the island, about a hundred yards off shore, stood two white Grecian columns as tall as the Argo's masts. Between the columns, huge silver words glittered underwater━NON PLUS ULTRA.

    Fiona nodded. "Yep ... that'll━that'll do it."

    "Guys, do I turn around?" Leo asked nervously, jittering back and forth on his feet. "Or..."

    No one answered. Maybe because they were all entranced by the figure standing on the beach. A dark-haired man in purple robes, his arms crossed, stared intently at their ship in between the columns. He didn't look happy.

    Frank inhaled sharply. "Could that be━?"

    "Hercules," Jason answered. "The most powerful demigod of all time..."

    The Argo II was now only a few hundred yards from the columns now. 

    "Uh, need an answer," Leo said urgently. "I can turn, or we can take off. The stabilisers are working again. But I need to go quick━"

    "We have to keep going," stated Annabeth. "I think he's guarding these straits. Like Fiona said, I think we're meant to go through. If that's really Hercules, sailing or flying away wouldn't do any good. He'll want to talk to us."

    "He doesn't look like the nice talking type," murmured Sam in a helpful tone. "But━like━won't Hercules be on our side?" he then asked hopefully. "I mean ... he's one of us, right?"

    Jason grunted. "He's a son of Zeus, but when he died he became a god. You can never be sure with gods."

    "This quest also has a big link to Juno ..." added Fiona, eyeing Hercules warily. "He doesn't have a good history with the wife of Jupiter. She made him kill his wife and family."

    "Great," said Percy. "Nine of us against Hercules."

    Sam looked very pleased he was included.

    "And a satyr!" Hedge added. "We can take him."

    "I've got a better idea," said Annabeth. "We send ambassadors ashore. A small group━one or two at most. Try to talk to him."

    "I'll go," Jason offered. "He's a son of Zeus. I'm the son of Jupiter. Maybe he'll be friendly to me."

    "Or maybe he'll hate you," Percy suggested. "Half brothers don't always get along." 

    Jason scowled at him. "Thank you, Mr. Optimism."

    "You're welcome."

     "It's worth a short," Annabeth said. "At least Jason and Hercules have something in common. And we need our best diplomat. Somebody who's good with words."

    Fiona and the others all settled their eyes on Piper. She tensed, not particularly liking the idea. But with a deep breath, she pushed past her fear and bravely said, "Fine. Just let me change my clothes."

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    ━━Piper and Jason returned back with a big horn and an angry Hercules (or is he Heracles? Honestly, Percy doesn't know at this point). They set sail and got out of there as quick as they could, heading straight towards Rome. Percy knew they were going the right way. The Mediterranean was old, and it felt far from his turf, but he could still feel the turn of the ship and its speed. It made him feel strange though; like he was stepping on something far older than his father could even control. Which was strange, and concerning.

    He also was not feeling the love, which didn't help that either. 

   First, he had been run out of Atlanta by evil sea gods. Second, he failed to stop a giant shrimp attack on the Argo II and almost lost Fiona (that had almost sent him over the edge). Then the ichthyocentaurs, Chiron's brothers, didn't even want to meet him. And of course, after all of that, they arrived at the Pillars of Hercules and Percy had to stay aboard ship while Jason the Big Shot visited his half brother, Hercules, the most famous demigod of all time, and Percy didn't get to meet him either.

    (Okay, sure, of course, Hercules hadn't been exactly nice━he had been a jerk, in fact━but still ... Percy was getting tired of staying aboard ship and pacing the deck).

    The open sea was supposed to be his territory. Percy Jackson, son of the sea god. He was supposed to step up, take charge and keep everybody safe. Instead, all the way across the Atlantic, he had failed to keep Fiona safe, and have done nothing except make small talks with sharks and listen to Coach Hedge sing TV theme songs.

     Some Hero of Manhattan, he thought. 

    To make things worse. One, Annabeth had been distant ever since they had left Charleston, spending most of her time alone in her cabin studying the bronze map she retreived from Fort Sumter. Whenever Percy stopped by to see her, she was so lost in thought that the conversations always went along the lines of this:

    "Hey, how's it going?" Percy would ask.

    Annabeth would reply, "Uh, no thanks."

    "Okay ..." he'd arch a brow, "... have you eaten anything today?"

   "I think Leo is on duty. Ask him."

    "So, my hair is on fire."

    "Okay. In a while."

     She got like that sometimes. It was what happened when you're friends with a daughter of Athena. Still, Percy was worried about her━especially after what had happened at Charleston. He tried to express this to Fiona, but she was distant as well. Not in the way Annabeth was, where she wouldn't even talk to him, but in the way that while Fiona hugged him, and chatted with him, and smiled at his jokes, she was not in the mood for anything. Her mind was constanty on her knee, and her grandmother, and Nico. 

     Percy didn't want to be selfish, but sometimes he really wished he could take a minute and express how he feels; how hopeless he's been feeling recently. Back in Alaska and on the quest to find the Roman Standard, she had been great at that. But now, it felt like all he was doing was giving, and she wasn't giving in return. Not like she used to. He knew he should probably tell her this, but if she wasn't paying much attention to their conversations before, would she pay attention to this one?

    And where even was the time? Several times an hour, something attacked the ship. A flock of flesh-eating Stymphalian birds, or storm spirits, or pegasi just randomly stomping on Coach's enchilcada's and flying off again (which made Percy miss Blackjack and Grover, which didn't help his mood at all). Sometimes he found himself searching for Grover in his empathy link, just for someone to talk to, but came up with little bits of: Baaaaa. and FOOOD. (Which was very Grover). Percy had his memories back, and Annabeth, and he had Fiona, and Frank, and Hazel━and yet he still felt just as alone as he did when he didn't have any of them, just a wandering soul not knowing even who he was. 

    Oh, and another thing, he had this terrible dream about those twin giants again, except there was something else. Someone else. A 'Your Ladyship', with a voice like a hiss garbled in multiple tones; like a swarm of African killer bees had learned to speak English in unison. And those coins he had seen in Ephialtes's hair? Some of them were coins like the one Annabeth had gotten from her mother. This Ladyship had to be waiting for Annabeth down there, and in addition to that? Once again, mention of sacrifice of him and Fiona.

    He was just going great. 

    He told Annabeth about this dream when they had a moment alone on the ship during his patrol. His best friend looked sickly pale at what he described, which made his worries worse. 

    "Percy," she had said, "you have to promise me something. Don't tell the others about this dream."

    "Don't what?" he had argued. "Annabeth━"

    "What you saw was about the Mark of Athena. It won't help the others to know. It'll only make them worry and it'll make it harder for me to go off on my own."

    "You know what's in that cavern," Percy guessed. "Does it have to do with spiders?"

    "Yes," she had answered in a small voice. 

    She left after that, leaving him alone on the deck, watching the tide wash past them. He couldn't really see anything around them, but he had perfect bearings at sea. Still, being blind was unsettling. 

    He didn't know how long he had been there, gazing out into the fog when a voice called out. 

    "Percy?"

    He glanced back, and saw Fiona walking up to him. He frowned at her, his grip tightening on the sides of the ship. "What are you doing up? You should be sleeping?"

    "I came to check up on you," she murmured. She reached the edge of the ship, so close that their arms brushed. She leant against the wood, putting the weight off her knee. 

    "I'm fine," he said softly, not sure how he felt her being up here. Part of him wanted to grab her and take her back down himself, but he knew Fiona would hate that. He'd receieve a great good whack for it, in fact. 

    "No, you're not," she replied. "I━I know I'm not good with people, a━and relationships, and just talking," Percy arched a brow at her words, watching how her hair brushed past her features gently in the wind. "But ... But I can tell when there's something on your mind."

     Maybe Percy can take back what he said. Maybe she just needed some time, too. Percy found himself tilting towards her and leaning down to settle his head on her shoulder. Fiona wrapped her arms around him, slipping a hand into his hair and gently brushing them through. 

    He felt stupid. He didn't know how to tell her how useless he's felt recently, just like she has. He didn't know how to tell her how he keeps dreaming about drowning, and fearing it. Or how he was so worried for Annabeth, or how he hates himself how he coudn't be there to stop Octavian hurting her knee. Or how he felt like a fraud.

    So, he just took this moment to breathe her in. And for a second, none of that mattered, and they were just a girl, and just a boy. 

     "I've missed you," Percy mumbled into her shoulder.

     Fiona frowned. "I'm ... I've been right here the entire time."

     "No ... no ... I missed this," he said. "I miss your hugs. I miss being able to talk to you about stuff. There's been no time."

     He felt her tense in the hold, and he suddenly grew scared that she was angry, but instead, he heard her sigh, ashamed. "I'm sorry," she murmured, just holding him tighter. "I'm sorry━I━I━" she understood. Gods, she understood. And she wasn't angry, she wasn't going to argue. She just held him tighter. He buried his head into her shoulder more. "I'm here now," she promised. "I'm here to pick you up from the wall you've run head into, Percy. We'll pick up each other. We'll win together."

     She kissed him on the side of his temple. "When you're off, we're gonna sit down, and you're gonna talk to me. I'll listen. I promise."

     Percy's shoulders fell. He didn't know how to express how relieved he was. But he pressed a soft peck to her skin, hoping that said it all.

     That was when his skin felt washed with ice. He immediately pulled away, holding Fiona tight as his gaze shot to the fog. "We have to stop," he said. "We need to stop."

     Fiona's eyes widened. "Why?"

     "Leo!" he yelled to the boy manning the directions. "STOP━!"

    But he was too late. The other boat appeared out of the fog.

    And they were rammed head-on. 

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    a/n: and that's a second filler chapter. go me. 

    i've been trying to give development to percy and fiona through having an argument, getting over it, learning about themselves, but i never could really find a place to put it because of everything that happens chapter after chapter in the mark of athena. there is almost literally no time to put one in and make it last for a while, because they all go through so much that you try to add a disagreement and it's like, well what's the point because they'll realise that an argument is so little in comparison to everything happening around them.

   and in addition, percy and fiona's relationship is actually quite mature for their age. its fast, obviously, but you've got two mature characters together, it's going to come out quite 'adulty' in the way they handle things. Percy's also alot more mature than this fandom gives him credit for after everything he's been through. It made sense for them to talk something out rather than to have a huge spat over it. 

    so go them, chatting it out like adults before being rammed by another ship lol. 

    i hope you like it. we're getting closer to full on like battle stuff in rome soon. which means ... well ... i guess you'll find out.