The Legend of Percy: Book 1 - Finding Purpose

19. Some New Clothes (I Guess They Shouldn't Have Holes in Them)

Percy woke the next morning with a whole human being rolled over the top of him.

The mat he'd been given to sleep on was somewhat comfortable, and he wasn't complaining. But waking up with an ass and feet in his face was not his definition of a good morning.

The demigod pushed the small boy off of him, appearing to wake the kid up. He realised what position he'd been in and blushed a deep red. Percy heard muffled laughter from the other side of the room and turned to see Jin sitting there, giggling. He rose an eyebrow at her and she gave him the courtesy of at least trying to contain her obvious entertainment from such a predicament.

Percy feigned annoyance and rolled off his mat, trudging out of the room.

"Wait, wait, I'm sorry. But that was really funny though." Jin followed, still laughing.

He turned to her and grinned. "Oh, I'll get you back for laughing." At his mischievous look, her face told of her absolute terror.

"Oh no." Well, that sounded entirely too sarcastic. I cannot stand by and allow this. "What are you going to do?" Only just getting her laughter to stop.

"Wouldn't you like to know. But I might ask Mr. Loverboy out for you." He walked a bit faster, avoiding a complaining Jin, to where her parents were setting up a breakfast for everyone. Meilin just had to butt into their conversation in the perfect way for Jin.

"How'd you sleep Percy?"

Jin burst out laughing. Her mom looked on confused, until Jin explained it to her. The woman only looked on endearingly, not as amused as Jin.

"It wasn't even that funny." Percy mumbled under his breath. That definitely didn't help the situation.

"Okay, moving on. Percy, do you want me to get you some other clothes?" Her mother thankfully changed the subject.

"Why would I-" Oh, I'd gotten so used to feeling air on my chest I'd forgotten there was a massive scorched hole in the middle of it. "Yes, that'd be good. But is there any place I can get this shirt fixed?"

Percy really wanted to hold onto what was left of his Camp Half-Blood t-shirt for as long as he could.

"Oh, I can do that for you, if you'd like?" Meilin said.

"That wouldn't be too much?"

"Don't worry about it." She said with a smile. Thankfully his jeans seemed only a little singed so they wouldn't take too much work. All his clothes were covered in mud and grime from weeks of travel and some imprisonment. He'd attempted washing them at the lake but that hadn't gone too well.

"Leave it all to us, you two go off to your tea shop." One of the other mothers had come over to join in. "Here are some old robes, hopefully they fit." He nodded his thanks and received the worn greyish robes.

Percy went back into the room that was now almost empty, thankfully. The many bed mats covered the floor, leaving little space to move around. Jin had followed him in to get some clothes of her own apparently.

He removed his shirt and put the robes up to his chest before he heard a gasp from behind him.

Turning, he saw Jin standing, mouth agape. She stared at his exposed upper body. A slight red tint to her face wasn't the main concern though.

"Those are so many scars." She whispered shyly. He just nodded, unsure how to continue this conversation. Usually, the t-shirt and jeans covered all but his thin ones along his forearms and hands. But his chest was most certainly decorated with white lines of varying thicknesses and lengths, stretching all the way across him. Percy didn't know how it would look in this world, but it couldn't have looked good.