The Painted Boy
Chapter One || Next Chapter || AO3
+++++++++++
Percy was learning waterbending.
He knew his mom said he had to be careful, and he didn’t think she wanted him to use it much, but he had to! He was a waterbender!
It’s just like Katara, having to hide her bending to protect herself and her home. He could do the same, but he would also train.
After all, unlike Katara, he had easy access to a master. Katara herself.
He may have maybe kinda snuck money from Gabe.
But he’d been careful! He’d only taken a few bills, a little at a time, snuck a few from his gambling buddies too. He was smart, like Katara was with her gambling in that episode with Toph.
You’ve gotta be smart and distract them. He’d bring them beers and food, then sneak a few bills when they weren’t looking.
In the end he got enough money to buy the complete Avatar: The Last Airbender video set. And one of the neighbors gave him their old video player, a small one, they got a better one and didn’t need it anymore.
Now he had his teacher, which meant he could learn how to bend better.
First thing he had to do was take notes, that’s what all the teachers said.
He would figure out what he could do, everything according to Katara, then work on doing it.
Water was his new favorite drink, easy to carefully practice moving the water in the cup.
Watching the show he figured out all the little things to do, small bits of waterbending he could practice.
Lift the water, manipulate it, spin it, make shapes, see how far he can push it. He practiced freezing the water like Katara could, making ice cubes. He started to practice changing the ice cubes shapes.
He frowned watching the videos, they have to be really quick to do some of it, maybe he should practice running?
And he needs to learn how to pull water out of the air and plants like Katara learned from the creepy old lady who forced her to learn blood bending.
He wanted to learn blood bending, he knows it’s dangerous, but if he uses it like Katara, for the bad people, then it should be fine.
Of course, in the middle of all his interesting research and learning and practicing, he had to finish the summer assignments, and then… He was gonna have school again soon.
++++++++++++++++++++
The teachers just didn’t appreciate his smarts. He knows he’s smart, he’s learning from Katara really well!
He could make the water form any shape he wants now, and when he showers he practices controlling the moving water. He’s doing good!
School was just boring! How was he supposed to pay attention to geography? He could be practicing making a water whip instead!
He scowled, it’s not his fault that the words didn’t work, he couldn’t read it when it was gibberish. He kicked a rock on the playground, he hates school.
Ugh, Katara was smart though, she was amazing and smart, he wanted to be smart! He was trying. He swallowed back the tears, ignoring the burning in his eyes.
He was trying so hard.
++++++++++++++++++++
Percy huffed, glaring at the paper in front of him.
He had to really work hard to not let the numbers float around and mix everything up. Why did they have to be so close together? He carefully printed the work, and the answer in careful bold writing.
He was going to be an amazing waterbender, and to really be amazing he had to be smart too. Mom said that waterbender’s all work hard in school, and in the northern water tribe that seems true. It’s just annoying, he bet they didn’t have dyslexia like him, and they got to do stuff with their hands! That’s so much easier!
He turned in his test then sat back down to wait for the bell to ring.
He was determined to get at least a B in every subject this year. He would!
+++++++++++++++++++
Practicing his waterbending was hard. His mom always got so worried when she saw him practicing, but there was only so much he could do hiding in his room with a glass of water, or in the shower. He needed more space, a body of water where he could actually work at his bending.
He could do the little water whip, he could control the shape of the water, turn it to ice and back, coat his hands in it, pull little bits out of the air, dry himself off with a flick of his wrist, and stop the shower water in mid-air.
But he wanted to practice the big things!
He wanted to be able to make the octopus! Or make a big wave! Or those spirals of water, or the whips that cover her arms, or the shield, or stop the rain… There was so much he wanted to do, and he couldn’t cause he had to keep it hidden.
He didn’t like it, but he didn’t want to upset his mom.
He would just have to find someplace that no one would notice him waterbending.
The pool? He could make it look like splashes there, or he could try to go the rivers, but they’re dirty… Well, he could go to them and practice waterbending to clean them?
There’s an idea!
Oh, and he should totally keep a water-bottle with him at all times. Just in case of an emergency.
++++++++++++
Cleaning the river was going strangely.
He swears he saw two weird figures in the water. One had wolfish features and a seal-like body. It was kinda scary. Especially his glowing green eyes. The other wore rags and seaweed with a big beard. His appearance wasn’t as scary, but his eyes were angrier.
Neither of the two guys spoke to Percy mind you, and he’d only caught glimpses of them. But they kept reappearing,
He just focused on cleaning the water one day of bending practice at a time.
+++++++++++
Percy learned that the fish could talk. Or maybe he could just understand him?
There wasn’t much in the rivers, not many fish or other animals. But there were some. And the one’s there talked to each other, and when he commented on one of their conversations, they started talking to him.
He learned a lot about what happened nearby.
They also made him more determined to clean the river, the fish were thankful.
+++++++++++
It only took Percy three weeks to get the octopus technique down… roughly. It wasn’t perfect, but he was getting it.
The wave tricks were harder, more water to manipulate.
But at least he was getting better at… fine control?
That’s what that wolf-seal guy had mumbled before disappearing again.
Percy guesses that’s good, so he tried to practice it more.
Cleaning the river was hard though. He was starting to try to lift the water and filter all the bad stuff out onto the shore.
He didn’t quite get it to work right, too much bad stuff was going back into the river, but he was slowly figuring it out.
The more he worked, the easier it seemed to be too!
Like how Katara went from a little bit of rain stopping to making a huge dome!
He could do this!
Plus, he thinks that the weird scary guys in the water were happy, they didn’t glare so much anymore.
++++++++++++
Percy was only able to go to the rivers so much because mom worked late.
He tended to find bits of money in the trash and told Gabe he was working to ‘earn his keep’. It made Gabe happy, and he would give little bits of the money to Gabe. So Gabe didn’t tell mom.
He felt bad for lying, but he needed to get better! Waterbending was a part of him!
He wanted to do his best, to do as good as Katara.
++++++++++++++
It was getting colder now. Winter was coming.
Percy was determined to not be bothered by it. Katara wasn’t, she could control the ice and snow.
Though she did wear a jacket…
Percy used the money he found in the river (after cleaning it with his super cool waterbender powers) to buy a waterproof warm jacket.
There, that fixes that problem.
++++++++++++++
There was a new figure in the river.
It didn’t approach him, but also didn’t disappear when he looked at it, not like the scary ones.
This one was green. As in, his skin was green. His hair was black. He looked a lot neater than the scary ones, like clean neater. With pearls and cool armor. And you know, two fish tails. He was a mermaid, or merman, Percy guessed, but with two tails.
Did all mermaids have two tails and humans just got it wrong? Percy would have to ask Elli the Eel (he still couldn’t believe that was actually the Eel’s name).
But the fancy merman stayed while Percy was there, too far out for Percy to approach (he hadn’t managed to figure how to move on water like in avatar, his ice wasn’t thick enough yet). Percy decided to ignore him for now, maybe he wouldn’t come back?
Percy cleaned the river more, he also managed to get the rising wave trick (he’d named it himself!) down at last. He was happy.
+++++++++++++++
The merman came back.
It was about a good three months of irregular appearances (he was learning big words! He’d got an audio tape of some cool stories to listen too while cleaning the river. Audio tapes were easier then reading.) from the merman before he was approached.
It was also February, and very much cold now.
He’d managed to get his ice float down now, it was thick enough to sit on, and he was starting to get good at maneuvering it. Hopefully he’d still be able to make it when it was warm.
The merman approached him when he was trying to pull up a partly buried piece of trash.
Percy’s little ice float dipped suddenly.
“What are you doing?”
Percy blinked, turning to the voice, and the cause of the dip.
The merman had come up to him, was leaning on the ice float.
“Um, I’m trying to clean the river?”
The merman studied him.
“Why?”
Percy frowned, thinking.
“I just wanted to practice waterbending, but the river’s really dirty and it’s not nice so… I just thought… I just thought I’d try to clean it?”
The merman studied him. Percy felt like he was being judged.
“Waterbending?”
Percy faltered, he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about it. But this is a merman, that’s not the same is it? Of course, he probably just calls it something different. This wouldn’t be disobeying mom, right?
“You know, controlling the water… It’s called waterbending in the…” Well now he felt like it was childish but, “In the TV show avatar. And it’s basically what I do so…”
The merman hummed, “In the winter?”
“Well, it’s not gonna get cleaner just because the weather is colder. If I want to clean it then I’ll have to work even when it’s cold!”
The merman hummed again, “What’s your name?”
Percy shifted on his ice floe, “Percy, Percy Jackson.”
The merman nodded.
“What’s yours?”
He blinked, studying Percy again.
“…Triton.”
Percy smiled brilliantly, “Nice to meet you Triton!”
The merman nodded, still studying Percy intently.
“Nice to meet you as well… Percy.”
