Struck by Lightning

XVII

Given all of the turmoil of the past week, Percy supposed that this brief respite was the silver lining at the end of it. As Zoë had promised him, she had gotten both Thalia and him shore leave for the day. Along with another group of guards, they had free reign to do what they chose to do in town until dark. After Zoë had given him her assurance that she would watch over the affairs of the ship and alert them should anything happen, Percy felt considerably more at ease about the thought of spending the day with Thalia and relaxing. That and the fact that so many of the guards onboard the Princess Andromeda leaving for the day indicating that the ship itself was going nowhere for now meant that this affair was fairly safe.

While they were both tired from the laborious schedule kept aboard the Princess Andromeda, Percy was grateful for the break that he and Thalia could take for once. Over the past week, they had seen each other awake perhaps a handful of times, and generally one or both of them were too tired to do much other than want to sleep when they were conscious anyway.

This was how Percy found himself sitting beside Thalia on a bench at the edge of the Marina, sipping on wonderfully cold iced coffees as they enjoyed the summer sun and breeze. For one, they had needed the caffeine badly, but just as importantly, the icy cold drink was a refreshing taste compared to the hot and foul ship that they had spent so much time on now, and it seemed like just a little bit of freedom and peace compared to the anxiety of their current mission. Disregarding the fact that they could see the Princess Andromeda from where they were sitting, it was almost like a return to normalcy – what life should've been like for the two young demigods, rather than how it really was. It was also a godsend – perhaps literally – that he could wear shorts again, after being stuffed into hot, sweaty armor for a week. Thalia's flowing summer dress and sandals seemed to indicate that she felt the same.

"This is nice," Percy murmured, as he leaned back on the white wooden bench. There were a series of stone steps that led to the waterline, and as Percy leaned back, the waves gently flowed onto and off of them. Around them, families and couples walked by, voice and laughter equally audible.

"Yeah. Really peaceful. I'm glad we had this chance to rest, especially here," Thalia agreed, sipping on her own iced coffee as she closed her eyes to rest them. An amicable silence fell over them, Thalia with her eyes closed and her head leaned back but not quite asleep, and Percy just staring out to the Gulf, in tune with the water as he always was. Still, even as Percy felt the calmness of the waves close by him, a tiny prickling, a small nugget of uncertainty and confusion crept up from what he had buried the day before.

"Thalia," Percy suddenly blurted out. She opened her blue eyes with a start, blinking a few times as she turned to face Percy, her back still fully relaxed on the bench. "When did you start, uh, talking with your dad again?"

From what he knew about Thalia over the past year and some, he had never seen her on good terms with Zeus. For them to be Iris messaging meant that something fundamental had shifted in their dynamic.

Thalia shifted upwards, clasping onto her cold drink with both hands as she looked slightly downwards at the concrete steps.

"Well, you know that he and I never really... got along. I guess it changed around the beginning of summer, right around when we were about to leave for this. He called me kind of out of the blue, and, well, I listened to what he had to say to me, after not saying anything for the first decade of my life." Thalia gave a deep sigh, before looking up at Percy. "And for once, it felt... genuine. Like he actually loved me. Like he really wanted to be an actual dad. And I thought, 'why not give him a chance'? I mean, I know that he wasn't there when he should've been, but I've never given him a second chance. So I guess we're just working our way back up."