Pirate Jackson - A Percy Jackson AU

Chapter 5

Frank was right: five days into their voyage, there was a storm.

The days leading up to the storm had been long days of learning for the Argo II's new cabin boy, though no one was exactly jumping at the chance to teach Percy what it meant to be a crew member. He had shuffled around the different levels of the ship looking for something to do, and found himself being berated for being in the way of someone's work or otherwise being ignored by his shipmates who didn't seem interested in making new friends. He sat alone at lunch and dinner until the last person had finished their meal, then worked his way around the dining hall with his mop, cleaning up after the crew who paid him no mind. The lesson they were teaching him was clear: if he wanted to be part of this ship's crew, he would need to prove himself.

Leo, the boatswain, seemed to be the only person who took pity on Percy. Whenever they passed each other, Leo would excitedly say, "Just the person I wanted to see!" or, "Hey, I was looking for you!" and then pull Percy along to repair a torn sail, or a hole in the upper deck, or—once—to fix an issue with the toilets. Percy had groaned at that task, and Leo had sympathetically patted him on the shoulder. "Just think: when you graduate from being a cabin boy someday, you'll get to tell someone else to do this job."

The only time he felt comforted by his loneliness instead of subdued by it was in the moments when he found himself above deck alone. He liked to stand at the back of the boat, watching the waves cut away from the rudder and feeling the sun and salt spray on his face. This is where he'd longed to be for so many years: in the middle of the ocean, part of it, instead of standing next to it. He was finally following along his father's footsteps and braving the open sea. When he gazed across the sparkling blue water, he felt closer to his father than he had since his disappearance.

But it was hard not to feel the ache of leaving his mother behind. Percy was sure she would worry. When he laid in his stiff bunk at night waiting for sleep, he would imagine her clutching his letter in her hand and staring out toward the ocean . . . like she had when the Navy wrote to inform them of Mr. Jackson's missing ship.

He would rub his eyes hard to make the image go away. He was doing this for her, and when he came home, she would understand.

On the fifth day since Percy had boarded the Argo II, he awoke before sunrise from a terrible dream. In his nightmare, Piper had been holding him down on the dock in front of the fruit stand back home while Paul pelted him with bananas and plums and shouted "SET TO SAIL! MOP THE DECK!" over and over.

Unwilling to slip back into the nightmare, Percy tiptoed off his bunk and past the other sleeping crew mates. The space between bunks in the men's quarters weren't very wide, and Percy bumped past a few elbows and dangling feet on his way out of the room. Luckily the chorus of snores muffled his footsteps, and no one else seemed to stir.

He climbed above deck to take in the fresh air at his favorite spot on the back of the boat. He took in a deep breath, letting the smell of surf fill his lungs, and closed his eyes. The wind was gentle and ticked his eyelashes.

"Good morning, Percy."

Percy jumped. "Woah!" He whirled around to find himself face to face with Jason, the quartermaster. Jason was wearing his usual stern expression, though his eyebrow raised at Percy's alarm. "Geez," Percy said, "you scared me. How long were you standing there?"

"Not long. I heard you leave the sleeping quarters and thought I'd join you."

Percy was slightly weirded out by that admission—these were the first words the two had ever exchanged, and it seemed strange that Jason would want to join the new guy for a chat at sunrise. But Percy knew he was the last person that should be denying himself any company, so he merely shrugged. "Well, okay. Good morning to you too, I guess."