The Legend of Percy: Book 1 - Finding Purpose

5. The Chase (Running Around Making Sure No One Dies)

Percy was finally making progress. Granted it wasn't anywhere near huge, but it was a start. He owed it to Annabeth to give it a try. She was the one who believed in Luke. She always did, and he was the hero. No matter how much he missed her....no let's not stray down that path. At least not with Azula in the same room. That emotion should be hidden for now. I can't...can't break down now.

He sat up, still mildly surprised that Azula had let her guard down enough to fall asleep in the prison cell carriage. Maybe the guards were too scared to check on her? He didn't know. But she also could not have had much sleep recently. That was what caused him to collapse in the middle of such a heated conversation. The near constant movement made it quite difficult to get any consistent rest on the hard bench or against the cold metal walls.

Granted, he'd been through and slept under worse conditions, but he was so emotionally drained, especially without his usual....support and backbone. He was now realising just how much he took for granted the amount of comfort he took in having someone he trusted wholeheartedly. He felt extremely exposed, all the time. And underprepared, oh so desperately unprepared. Flying by the seat of his pants was great but if he wanted to survive and complete his newfound goal, he required a bit more of the Annabeth train of thought. The....actually calculating and thinking before doing.

That part was more difficult. He knew he wasn't dumb, just somewhat unobservant in some aspects. But he was truly convinced Athena, in her petty spite of his dad, yeah I said it, what are you going to do? I'm in another world, decided to curse any and all children of Poseidon to make it more difficult to think strategically. He was definitely getting better at it though.

He didn't know how important it was, but he had gotten under Azula's skin. Considering his track record with gods, it really shouldn't have been a surprise that he could get under anyone's skin. Maybe that's why she slept? Couldn't deal with me. Definitely not something to lose sleep over. I'm absolutely not worth much sleep loss. Still, food for thought, I guess.

Still, sat over on the bench, he couldn't help but be curious. She was sleeping, and she looked....well peaceful wasn't the word. She still looked like she could murder him in about two seconds if she put her mind to it. And then murder everyone else. But she had a certain ease to her posture. Not the royal façade of strict rigidity that seemed to follow her until he truly got under her skin. This was a more calm, easy posture that made her look, well, like the 16 year old that she was.

He was not unfamiliar with this. He'd seen it in Annabeth, and basically every single demigod he'd met. The difference of night and day between the soldiers that defeated Kronos and Gaia, and the campfires in the amphitheatre to name one. Well, if you excluded the Hermes cabin, mainly the Stoll's. They had an unnerving ability to make light of the darkest of times.

But this Azula seemed to be someone he could actually connect to. He just didn't know what could get her to be like this all the time, or even most of the time. That was definitely something he added to his goal. The looseness in her shoulders, her face, her fists just looked so inviting. He was almost saddened when she started to stir.

Percy looked away, figuring that someone deserved their privacy in waking up and also didn't particularly want to look creepy. He pushed away the reminders of letting Annabeth sleep in Tartarus, he just couldn't at the moment. It was a dam, hehe well that at least is a good memory, that was on the verge of breaking.

Speaking of a dam, and because he hadn't had the opportunity to do so peacefully for the past few days, he looked to find any morning stars still shining in the sky. At least he could channel some of his pent up emotion into his hello. He looked to the sky, seeing some stars peeking out behind the growing orange morning light. Whispering a quiet hello from Bob, he lay back against the bench.