Elysium, a Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Chapter 17

Percy

Tick.

Tock.

Tick .

Tock.

The clock was mocking him, Percy decided. As he sat on the arm of Thalia's couch, he watched the seconds slowly tick away as the hands slowly inched towards six o'clock. It was only four-thirty. He hummed under his breath, drumming his fingers across his thigh in some unknown pattern. As he tapped, his fingers landed on his pocket, slightly crushing the forgotten, folded piece of paper from earlier that day. Confused, Percy reached into his pocket and unfolded the paper, examining the crudely drawn face.

"Hey Death Breath! Get in here!" Percy shouted to the house, hoping Nico would hear. Sure enough, a few moments later, the shorter of the two black-clad teenagers came noisily down the stair.

"What do you want Perce?" Nico asked, walking over to the couch where Percy sat.

"Whatca think?" He asked, turning the sketch so that Nico could see the comical face. "As a name for the band, I mean." he elaborated, cutting off Nico's response.

"Hm." Nico said, staring at the paper in his hands. "I like it. Elysium." He said after a contemplative moment, trying the foreign word for the first time. "It's vague. Mysterious. How'd you come up with this?"

"Dunno. It just kinda...came to me I guess." Percy lied, without a tell or stutter. "We should show Jason." Percy said, pushing himself off the arm of the couch.

"Yeah. So what do you want to do with this? T-Shirts? Posters?"

"Easy there. All in good time." Percy replied with a chuckle. "I was thinking maybe we make a sign to hang on the garage before a show."

"We could see if Thalia has a sheet we could use?" Nico offered.

"Yeah. And if not, we could always do it the fun way..." Percy trailed off, sending Nico a conspiritrory glance. Nico smiled, but before could speak, they found Jason, and Nico promptly shut up.

"Hey Jase. I think Percy finally figured out a name for the band." Nico said, and Percy held out the creased paper with the deceased smiley face. Jason stared at it for much longer than Nico did, brow furrowed in concentration.

"So what are we doing with this?" Jason asked after another moment, nodding his head in approval.

"We." Percy said, gesturing to himself and Nico. "Are going to "borrow" one of Thalia's sheets and spray paint it onto there". He said quickly, grabbing Nico and spinning the younger boy around.

"Okay." Jason called as they left. "Just don't take one of the nice ones..." He said, raising his voice so that Percy could hear him. He got no response. "Fine. See if I care when she murders both of you." Jason grumbled to himself, before returning to his homework.

"I'll get the sheet. You find me some duct tape and spray paint." Percy said, clapping Nico on the shoulder, and pushing him towards the garage where they'd be preforming in a few short hours. Percy walked to the cabinet where Thalia stored her towels and things. After two years under a bridge, it was still hard to get used to the fact that he had a bed, let alone towels and sheets. After a few moments of rifling through the cabinet, Percy found his intended target; a somewhat ratty black sheet, with absolutely nothing else going for it.

"You found anything yet?" Nico called, his voice echoing through the house.

"Yeah! Just don't start without me!" Percy shouted back to Nico. "Besides, you'd probably fuck it up anyways." He mumbled to himself, dusting off his jeans and climbing to his feet. Once he made his way outside, he found the other boy standing in the driveway, tapping his foot excitedly.