Ocean Blues [Percabeth] #COMPLETED

Blue Is A Nice Colour

"Hey, Percy."

"What's up, Grover?" I asked with a smile as he passed by, galloping in his satyr form undisguised. He trotted over to the strawberry fields of where I was admiring the fauna of, and said, "Percy, do you know that Annabeth's birthday is coming?"

"Her birthday?" 

I blinked and cast a nonchalant glance at the Athena cabin across the field. The cabin was filled with deep conversations and the exchange of ideas under their little roof. Annabeth was my girlfriend, but she was also the daughter of Athena. Athena was this strict lady who constantly wore a piercing glare, kinda like an eighth grade Maths teacher, but with....you know, godly power. Athena was the goddess of war and wisdom, and I respect her a lot, though she gives me vigilant advice in life, she's still pretty scary.

"Yeah, man," Grover adjusted the orange shirt of Camp Half-Blood on himself, "July twelve. You know what? I'm going to gift her a stash of fresh apples. I'm going to meet up with Juniper later in the woods to pick them. Wanna tag along?"

I thought for a while. Grover was in love with nature, and he always gets pissed when people just don't treat animals right. He was also my best and first friend when I got into demigod trouble when I was still stupid back then. "Apples? You go ahead," I said instead, "I want to find something else. A different gift."

"Sure, Percy. But if you change your mind, we'll be back there, near the place where we usually play capture the flag," Grover gestured to the thick ambush of forests across the stream. I nodded in respond, and watched as he went on his way to find Juniper. With a sigh, I sat on a flat stone on the ground and fidgeted with the beads on my necklace, thinking hard.

"What would Annabeth like?" I mumbled. She was the daughter of a wise goddess. Maybe the presents gifted to her must have some deep meanings or philosophical gesture? I frowned. Annabeth was obsessed with architecture, so perhaps a model of a famous building would suffice?

A part of me rebelled that idea, like, "Percy! You should give her something better!"

And my mind rotated like a gear, because I agreed with that rebellious suggestion. The only birthday presents I gave out so far were things related to blue to my mom, Sally Jackson. Though, not all of the presents last long.....and that was another issue. The last thing I wanted was Annabeth receiving something from me only to find out that it broke the week after.

I wasn't exactly good at building those DIY wood architectures either. The last time I did, I put too much glue and the whole thing came clean off when a gust of wind blew. Yeah, I know. Not a definition of stellar performance. 

So I wrecked my head and think clearly. My mother always told me that the best gift came from heart, even if it wasn't much of value in reality. I counted the days I had left. By the gods, I had only two days left before her birthday! "Should have reminded me earlier, Grover," I mumbled with a nervous smile on my face, fidgeting my thumbs.

I was too exhausted to think for the day, so I went to others for help. 

X

"A nice music tape would do," Chiron, my mentor suggested with a kind grin on his face, turning at me after he shot an arrow promptly to a target, which was a hay bale. The arrow zipped through it and got caught between the stalks of yellow hay, intertwining themselves with it. 

"I, well, I don't know what's Annabeth's favorite music, honestly," I admitted with a sheepish smile, scratching the nape of my neck. "Oh," Chiron remained grinning, "Everyone has their own ideas of a perfect gift, Percy. You? You just take your time and well, relax for that idea to come."

I didn't fully understand what he meant by that, but I knew that Chiron was far wiser compared to me over the years, but if this 'perfect gift idea' would hurry up, that'll be real great. Sighing with a smile, I nodded in compliance, heading away from him.

I returned to my cabin. My cabin, in my opinion, was the coolest, literally and figuratively. Every time I opened the door, I could always feel a gentle breeze that seem to originate from the sea, bringing back the bittersweet memories of my father and the smell of his home, which was the ocean. This time was no different, I was instantly relieved by the cold winds and unmistakable smell of the beach and stalks of kelp. 

In the corner of the cabin was a small cobblestone surrounded pool of water, kind of like my personal water fountain. I crouched over it, and an idea went through my head. I took out a shiny golden drachma from my pocket and tossed it into the pool of gleaming water. 

"Oh, Iris, goddess of messages, please accept my offering and show me Nico Di Angelo," I prayed and to much luck, and my surprise, a blurry image of a very shocked Nico slowly focused into my view. He was wearing his usual clothes, and as I stared at him, he twisted the skull ring on his finger in a bored manner, "Hi, Percy. I'm running...errands right now. What do you want?"

"Okay, okay," I quickly said as I noticed I was staring into space for awhile, "If you were in a relationship and you want to give your significant other a very nice gift that will surprise her...or him, what would you give?"

"Hmmm...." Nico scanned me with his cold, dark eyes, "I suppose in your case, you're talking about Annabeth......I don't know. Raise the dead?" His voice had a hopeful tone in it, before adding, "Like, you could raise them and make them perform a song...or something."

"Oh," I tried for my best smile, "Thanks for the advice, Nico. I'm sorry for bothering your errands." With that, the Iris message faded, and so did the image of my friend. Raising the dead was definitely crossed out of my list, for sure. And well, even if I wanted to, I highly doubted, since I'm not even a child of Hades. That would have been a different matter.

I plopped down onto my bed and thought hard.