𝓪𝓻𝓬𝓪𝓷𝓮 - 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒸𝓎 𝒿𝒶𝒸𝓀𝓈𝑜𝓃

1.11

Percy's eyes fluttered open after having a nightmare. He lay silently on the bed that had been set up in their cabin. He could hear the light clicking of the train tracks and the slight shake of the compartment. After taking a moment to collect himself after his dream Percy called out hoping someone would respond.

"Hey, you asleep?" He asked the silent night.

After a moment of silence Percy thought that maybe no one was awake and just as he was about to turn over, he got a response.

"Yes" Amaya answered from where she laid not to far away from him, also being on the floor. Taking a deep breath Percy spoke again.

"You and Thalia were really close, right?" The blonde asked.

"Yeah." The dark-hared girl responded.

"What was she like?" Percy asked turning to look at the daughter of Hades, Amaya didn't move, her head still facing the ceiling.

"Why?" The girl asked.

"She was the last forbidden kid before me, right? Apart from you of course. She must have dealt with the same kind of stuff."

"She was tough. I mean, she knew she was a forbidden kid, she just didn't care." Amaya spoke, a small smile coming across her face as she remembered her friend. "When Luke, Thaila and Annabeth found me and my older brother Sam, Luke cared for me right away, and he befriended Sam pretty quickly as well. But Thalia... she made us earn it."

"Is that why Annabeth gives me a hard time?" The boy asked softly. "I gotta earn it with her too?"

"Yeah. Maybe. Annabeth hasn't had an easy life. She was seven when she left her home and was alone. From what I know it didn't take Thaila and Luke long to find her, but still. That's not an experience anyone wants to go through." Amaya said, finally turning to face the blonde-haired boy. For the first time Amaya realized how perfect Percy looked. The rising sun lit up his eyes and defined his curls. Amaya could see how his nose curved and the way his lips were molded. For the first time Amaya Winters thought Percy Jackson looked pretty.

"I gotta say, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me." The son of Poseidon spoke breaking Amaya out of her state.

"What doesn't make sense to you?" The daughter of Hades asked.

"The way you guys all talk." Percy explained. "The way the gods want us to think. Gotta burn an offering to get a parent's attention. Gotta beat up on Clarisse just to get my father to admit he's, my father. It isn't supposed to work that way." The boy stopped for a second before continuing. "People who are close to you aren't supposed to treat you that way."

Amaya sighed; she too had thought the same thing once. "You wanna know how I ended up with my older brother alone on the streets in the first place?"

"When I was first born my mother treated me like a miracle. She loved and cared for me, she was always there if I needed help or was hurt." Amaya closed her eyes a pained look coming across her face as she remembered the worst times of her childhood. "Then she met a man. He was horrible. He convinced my mother that I was nothing but a hindrance, that one day I would be the end to their life's. He started abusing me and my brother. Emotionally and physically." Tears welled in Amaya's eyes as she talked. "So, Sam and I left. I was seven. Sam was twelve. We met Luke, Thalia and Annabeth not long after." Taking in a deep shaky breath Amaya spoke again. "It isn't the gods that think that way. It's everyone. But at least with the gods, you know the rules. Show them respect and they'll be in your corner, no matter what."

Percy didn't know what to say, so he just settled with saying nothing. The silence that rested itself among them wasn't awkward. It was more of a comfortable silence. That was until Grover groaned.