In Fair Verona (Percabeth AU) (in progress)

Chapter 1 - Grover

The image is how I imagine the parlour. Though, maybe more spacious? And in an urban area?

So the setup is somewhat similar to Romeo and Juliet but that's about it. The plot is my own.

Context: this is a mortal AU and the characters are roughly college age, working a summer job. I hope to keep everyone in-character. Enjoy the ride :)

Percy stared dreamily at the wall. Grover looked at him and sighed. He'd been acting like this for a week now, but his best friend of ten years would not give a straight answer whenever Grover brought up the subject.

Of course, everyone who worked at the converted ice cream parlour knew what was up. The way Percy had suddenly stopped caring about anything, how he'd completely zone out with one thought, how his soul was never present anymore, drifting further from its mortal anchor.

I should become a French poet and travel the world, thought Grover.

He had a girl on his mind. Or, well, maybe a guy; Grover didn't fancy getting cancelled.

"Look, bro, you gotta open up. Tell me about your Juliet," said Grover. "This is our shift, not mine, so repay my overtime a little."

To his surprise, Percy managed to process that he was being spoken to this time.

"She's so gorgeous," said Percy, his expression still in a trance-like state. "She's blonde, and her hair's long and curly like... like..."

As he searched for a suitable comparison, some small part of his brain tried to reconnect with reality and his face flickered back to its familiar, sarcastic grin for a split second before returning. "It's blonde and curly like instant noodles."

Grover winced. Percy wasn't known for his English skills at college but 'hair like noodles' was on that Top 10 Worst Similes by Percy list, which included 'a rose that smelled like fresh flowers' and lightning that 'flashed like an TriLED™ 40" Smart TV with quadruple RGB settings for max saturation and an in-built StudSound™ system displaying an epilepsy-inducing Taylor Swift Concert'.

A.N. yes I take great pride in the fact that I am excruciatingly unfunny. cope.

Grover held Percy's shoulders and shook them with force.

"Percy, why don't you just ask for her number? If you can't get over her then you'll, well, be fired! Worst she says is no..."

That was enough to pull Percy out of his stupor.

Frowning, he replied, "G-man, being scared isn't the problem. I've only been rejected twice-"

"Giving a 0% success rate," added Grover pointedly,

"-but I just can't ask her out."

"Why not, bro?"

"Bro, she works at America Sweet!"

A silence passed.

"Ahh. Okaaay, I see now."

McLean Ice Cream and America Sweet were huge enemies. By that I don't mean Koke vs Pessi rivalries, Donald McRonald and Borgir King competitiveness. Both confectionary vendors utterly despised each others' guts. No-one was sure how it started but whole epics could probably be written about their history.

ML Ice Cream had allegedly contaminated their drinking water with radioactive waste and America Sweet had supposedly called an airstrike on them but then again, Leo is not the most reliable source around. Employees of both stores knew to steer away from each other and rumours would periodically circulate about the most recent development in their sugar war.

"Percy," he said.

"Yeah, G-man?" Percy replied tentatively.

Grover was tempted to say Forget it but managed to get the words out.

"I'll support you whatever you choose to do, always."

"Honest?"

They fist bumped.

"Honest."

Piper runs the converted parlour - it's not a coincidence that it has McLean in its name.

We'll meet the other characters very soon, I promise ;)

(Hehe - unless this says "last updated 4 years ago" but let's hope I'm not that lazy)

3 Aug '24 I'm going abroad for 3 weeks so I can't promise that I'll write new parts since I need a VPN to access websites.