𝐂œ𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬é𝐬 [Percy Jackson]

167

"I would shun the light, share in evening's cool and quiet" His voice was shaky as he started, his cheeks burned but he continued. It was the first song he could think of, Sunlight "Who would trade that hum of night, For sunlight..."

Kekrops stared at him in wonder. He began to sway.

At first Hadrian was self-conscious, singing in front of all his friends and a snake guy.

"Whose heart would not take flight? Betray the moon as acolyte" He continued, Percy's hand on his shoulder felt warm. Hadrian looked at him and pretended no one else existed, "On first and fierce affirming sight, Of sunlight, sunlight, sunlight"

Percy had always told him he had a good voice, but he usually didn't like to sing in front of others. He would participate in camp-fire singalongs, making his voice bad on purpose to make as many people laugh as he could. Now his words filled the mess hall. Everyone listened, transfixed.

"I had been lost to you, sunlight" He sang, "And flew like a moth to you, sunlight"

Percy stared at him like he had hung the stars in the sky, his mouth slightly open in shock. Hadrian didn't want to do this, share this part. This part of him belonged to Percy- just their secret- singing Wasteland, baby in Tartarus.

Music was theirs.

Kira had introduced him to music and now it was a natural part of him, a part of him and Percy.

"Oh sunlight, your love is sunlight" Hadrian faltered a little, choosing to look away at the first person he could see which happened to be Leo, "Oh your love is sunlight, But it is sunlight"

He stopped. No one spoke for a count of five.

"Hads," Jason said, "I had no idea."

"That was beautiful," Leo agreed. "Maybe not... you know, Calypso beautiful, but still..."

Hadrian kept the snake king's gaze. "What's going on in that pretty head of yours? What are your real intentions?"

"Do you have to flirt?" Frank buried his head in his hands.

"To deceive you," The snake dude answered Hadrian in a trance, still swaying. "We hope to lead you into the tunnels and destroy you."

Hadrian resisted the urge to cry out: Called it!

"Why?" he asked instead.

"The Earth Mother has promised us great rewards. If we spill your blood under the Parthenon, that will be sufficient to complete her awakening."

"But you serve Athena," Hadrian said. "You founded her city."

Kekrops made a low hiss. "And in return the goddess abandoned me. Athena replaced me with a two-legged human king. She drove my daughters mad. They leaped to their deaths from the cliffs of the Acropolis. The original Athenians, the gemini, were driven underground and forgotten. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, turned her back on us, but wisdom comes from the earth as well. We are, first and last, the children of Gaia. The Earth Mother has promised us a place in the sun of the upper world."

"Gaia is lying," Hadrian said. "She wants to destroy the upper world, not give it to anyone."

Kekrops bared his fangs. "Then we will be no worse off than we were under the treacherous gods!"

He raised his staff, but Hadrian launched into another verse of 'sunlight'.

"Oh, the tale is the same, Told before and told again" He sang, "A soul that's born in cold and rain, Knows sunlight, sunlight, sunlight"