My story | PJO x male reader

Chapter 35: Warm up stretching

I watched Percy as he uncapped his sword. Most of the boys had the correct reaction: Backing away. But their leader decided, "oh, yeah. I'll go attack the kid with a double-handed sword."

I watched the gang leader slowly edge his way forward with a switchblade. With every step the kid took I became more and more anxious.
"Μετέωρο." The sword appeared. I felt a weighted touch my right forearm but I didn't want to look down out of fear that he would attack as soon as I did so. Percy and I didn't know what to do so when he got a little bit too close for comfort he swung. The kid yelled but the blade harmlessly passed straight through him. Great.

"What the-"
I felt the weight on my forearm turn to a grip.
"Run!" Percy yelled but the thing that was, now, pulling me down the street thought of it first.
"Ανατολή ηλίου," I said, thinking that running with a sword in my hand was not a good idea.

We kept running and quickly turned the corner.
"There!" Annabeth yelled. I looked down the street and only saw one shop that seemed open. That was enough for me. We quickly raced down the street. As we were about to enter I looked at the sign-out front.

Cstyur's waret deb lepace. What?

"Crusty's water bed palace?" Grover deciphered

I didn't really want to go in but seeing as we basically had a gang chasing us I think it's justified. We burst through the door, ran behind a water bed, and ducked. Just a moment later, the boys ran by the store.

"I think we lost them." Grover panted.

"Lost who?" A voice boomed behind us. I turned around and saw a gigantic man. He had to have been 7 feet tall. The man wore a purple leisure suit which was only half buttoned up, exposing numerous golden chains that cascaded over his hairless chest. His face looked like a zombie coming to life. He was pale white with teeth that looked like someone knocked out three between each one. He moved slowly towards us but his eyes seemed to drift on me the longest.

"I'm crusty." He smiled fully exposing his yellow smile.
I really wanted to say, "Yeah, so are your teeth." But I just chose to let Percy do the talking.

"Sorry, to barge in. We were just... browsing."

"You mean hiding from those no-good kids?" He grumbled. "They hang out there every night. I get a lot of people in here, thanks to them. Say, you want to look at a water bed?" No, I would rather not, was the immediate thought in my mind and I could tell it was Percy's thought as well. That is until Crusty put his hand on his shoulder gripping him tightly.

Speaking of grips, oh my gods! My right arm was burning. I looked down and saw Annabeth's hand latched onto me. As if I was the only thing keeping her from running out of here.

"Hey," I whispered. "We'll be alright." My words alone seemed to do the trick as her grip loosened.

I looked up and saw that Crusty was ahead of us navigating Percy and Grover.

The deeper we got into the store the more fashionable and lavish the beds got. They were all the same size but you could tell that some of them were expensive.

"This is my most popular model." Crusty spread his hands over a bed covered with black, satin sheets with built-in lava lamps on the headboard. The mattress vibrated making it look like jello.

"Million hand massage," Crusty told us. "Go on, try it out. Shoot, take a nap, no business today anyways."

Percy and I immediately protested. "Well, I thi-"

"Million hand massage?" Grover cried as he dove onto the bed. "Oh, guys, this is cool."

I looked back at Crusty and saw him stroking his chin. "Hmm. Yes. Almost, almost."

"Almost what?" Percy and I quickly asked.

He disregarded the question as he looked at Annabeth. "Do me a favor and try this one over here, honey. It might fit." Oh, I swear on my mother that if something happens...

Annabeth said. "But what?" He quickly patted her on the shoulder reassuringly and navigated her to one of the water beds. The bed had lions carved into the frame and a leopard pattern comforter.

Annabeth seemed skeptical, which was 1000% justified, and didn't want to get on the bed. When she refused, Crusty shoved her onto the bed.
"Hey!"

I'm killing you, today.

As soon as Annabeth was on the bed crusty snapped his fingers "Ergo."Ropes appeared out of the sides of the bed and tied her to the bed. Grover tried to get out of his bed but was quickly tied by ropes from his bed as well.

"N-not c-cool!" Grover's voice vibrated from the massage. "Not c-cool at all!"

He looked away from Annabeth and turned towards Percy and me. "Almost. Darn it!" He grinned.

I quickly went to step away but his arm stretched out and clamped around the back of my neck. Same for Percy.

"Woah, kids, don't worry. We'll find you one in a sec."

"Let them go!" I yelled.

"Oh, I will." He said. "But first I have to make them fit."

"What do you mean make them fit?" Percy asked.

"All the beds are exactly six feet, your friends are too short. Gotta make them fit." Grover and Annabeth kept struggling. What sick, twisted person is this?

"Can't stand imperfect measurements," Crusty muttered before snapping his fingers. "Ergo." As he did this more rope sprang out from the top and bottom of Grover and Annabeth's bed, wrapping around their ankles, then their armpits. The ropes then tightened slowly stretching them.

"Don't worry," Crusty told us. "These are stretching jobs. Makes three inches on their spine. They may even live. Now, why don't we find a bed for you two."

"Y/N, Percy." I heard Annabeth's voice yell behind us.

What, realistically, could I do? His hand was held tight around my neck, waiting for me to pull a move. Maybe I could try transforming? No, even if I did, I have no idea what animal I'd be.

"Your name's not Crusty, is it?" Percy asked.

"Legally, it's Procrustes." He admitted.

"The stretcher," Percy added.