Heated Encounters (Percy Jackson x Reader)
Summary: Y/N takes a much-needed walk outside of Camp Half-blood, only to have her therapy session interrupted by not one, but two unwanted visitors.
Warnings: Fighting & Inflated Egos (The scariest of all)
Requested By: @hermionesenchantment
A/U: If I’m being honest here, I’ve only read the first series in the Percy Jackson books (because I’m too lazy to continue reading them whoopsies) but I feel like I can handle this request. I hope you enjoy! :) (Oof just realized that this is a LOT of words! I hope that’s okay!)
It felt amazing to finally be alone. After all of this constant training, fighting, and just straight up arguing with people, you finally felt free. You felt alone with your thoughts and alone with nature. You were able to say whatever you wanted with the assurance of privacy –a thing that not many people respected within those camp borders.
You never wanted any of this. You didn’t ask to be hunted by various mythical monsters, you didn’t ask to be stuck at a camp for who knows how long, and you surely don’t remember asking for your father to be the god of the sun and whatever else he was. The only thing you could remember asking for was a normal life.
All the other kids seemed so happy and carefree. No one seemed to care that they were stuck in some prolonged summer camp. They all fit in with their cabins. They all loved it there, or at least they all pretended to. It seemed like you were the only one that didn’t enjoy being there. It seemed like everyone had their purpose in being there, and you just didn’t.
You missed home. You missed your mom, your friends, even the subway stations (regardless of how terrible they smelt). Instead of the big city, you found yourself on the outskirts of the camp, walking along the sands of the long-island sound.
At night you’d often find it hard to shut your eyes, so you’d take frequent walks along the beach. The ocean was quite calming to you, and it felt like you had some sort of fascination for the beauty of the seas. Occasionally you would watch your feet as you walked, distracted by the sight of the sand running between your bare toes. In fact it was so distracting that sometimes, you would wander beyond the protection of the camp’s borders.
You were provoked from your thoughts by the sound of growling. You quickly whipped your head up to find two huge, black, and ugly dogs. They were not very friendly-looking, and were approaching you slowly. Their big black paws scorched the sand with every step they took, and their eyes were red with flames.
You didn’t waste any time to panic, only to think. You only really had two options: You could either run back to camp and hope that you didn’t walk too far away from the protective border, or you can stay and fight—trusting the fact that you believed that you were somewhat good at combat. Either way, both options were risks. Every second you wasted on thinking about what option you would pick was another step towards you that the hounds took.
“Screw it.” You mumbled, making your decision and removing your silver dagger out of the sheath that rested upon your belt. You pressed firmly on a familiar star that resided on the cross-guard of the weapon, which transformed the small blade into a much larger one. You grabbed the sword with both hands, adrenaline beginning to rush through your body.
There was no running away from this.
The beasts took up your challenge, advancing closer to you more rapidly now. You were obviously outnumbered, so you didn’t allow yourself to dive into this headfirst. You needed to make their movements predictable. They began to circle you like buzzards waiting to go in for the kill. You positioned your body in a defensive manner, wanting the hounds to make the first move.
They did just that. One hound shot towards you, jumping at you with outreached claws. You slashed your sword at the monstrous canine before diving to your right. You managed to slice into the side of the dog, earning a terrible whimper from the creature.
The other hound bounded towards you and clawed at your figure. You were able to dodge the first advance, but the second dodge was a little too late. The monster’s sharp claws raked down your left arm, adrenaline blocking the pain out for now. Blood began to seep through your grey sweater.
Turning you attention back towards the hounds, you began to back away from the dogs. You tried to set your mind on a specific movement pattern, but your mind was racing too fast to focus.
In a spilt second, both dogs leaped towards you. You attempted to move out of the way but were caught off-guard once again. This time the hellhound’s claws scraped down your side, causing you to gasp in pain. Your adrenaline had run out.
You dropped down to your knee briefly before standing back up, determined to defeat these beasts.
The wound you had given to one of the hounds earlier was more effective than what you had originally thought. The dog was weakening each second, and you decided to use this to your advantage.
The next dog to make a move was the uninjured one. You swiftly rolled to the side and launched yourself towards the other hound. Your movements appeared to surprise the creature because it jumped when it saw you advancing towards it. You cut into the hound’s torso and pushed your sword through its body which caused it to bellow out an ear-piercing howl before dropping to the ground.
Relieved, you spun back to the other dog, only to find it already bounding towards you. Your eyes widened as the dog hurled itself at you, mouth agape, as if it were ready to swallow you whole. You froze in shock and found yourself unable to move.
Surely, this wasn’t the end?
As if the gods of Olympus themselves were answering your private question, a figure dashed between you and the hellhound. The character moved sharply as it hacked and sliced at the dog, killing it quickly.
You blinked hard, trying to comprehend what had just happened in front of you. Your body hastily snatched you out of your trance as it reminded you of your wounds. Grabbing at your side, you fell to your knees. You winced as you touched the open wound. Blood had already coated half of your sweater, and it was now covering your hands.
The figure that had saved you turned to face you. You finally recognized the boy who had jumped between you and the hound. This boy was also the same kid who had supposedly saved the whole world himself; the golden boy of the camp—everyone’s hero.
Percy Jackson himself stood before you. You met his worried gaze with fiery (but yet at the same time, watery) eyes. Anyone else could’ve come to save you, but it just had to be the one kid who did nothing else but save people.
Every time you’d find yourself practicing sword fighting or on the climbing wall, he was always there watching. He was always pointing out your flaws and telling you to focus harder, climb faster, and move more gracefully. He reminded you of some strict boarding school teacher.
He made you feel like a toddler that wondered out of daycare. He even made you feel useless sometimes. He could never be satisfied, and it seemed like you were the only person he paid any attention to. This kid was always pushing you, and you hated him for that.
“Why are you here?” He said, moving closer to you.
You glared at him, wishing to burn holes into his stupid blue eyes. Why was he always there?
“Why are you here?” You spat, annoyed at the whole situation.
“You shouldn’t wander outside of camp like that.” He ignored your question.
“And you shouldn’t follow me everywhere I go! Are you ever going to give me a break?” You yelled, wincing in pain as your side began to hurt even more.
“Let me help you.” He once again ignored your statements, moving towards you with an outstretched hand.
“Haven’t you done enough already?” You moved back as he moved forward.
“I saved your life.” He stated, as if you should react differently.
“What do you want from me? Do you want me to fall into your arms like my very own prince charming? I think I’d rather die in battle than be rescued by the golden boy himself.” You hissed, slowly getting angrier at the entire situation.
“Oh I don’t know, maybe a thank you? Now can you just put your ego aside for once and let me help you? You’re going to bleed out sooner or later.” He said, glancing at the blood at your waist.
“My ego? You do realize that I’m not an idiot right? I heal people for a living! Vitakinesis ring a bell?!” You said, remembering that your healing powers only work when the sun was present.
Well, the sun definitely wasn’t present, for this was taking place in the middle of the night. Percy seemed to realize that, because he shifted his weight to his side as he glanced at you. He was right, you were an idiot.
“Forget it.” You mumbled, dragging yourself in defeat towards the ocean.
The Son of Poseidon snickered as he made his way towards you. He clicked his sword and returned it to its pen version, stowing it away in his pocket. He was smirking the whole time as he strolled over towards you, which didn’t make you feel any better.
He had won this round, but you weren’t going to let it go that easily.
The two of you walked back to camp in silence for the most part. Percy would break that silence occasionally to inform you of how bad your battle stance was. You didn’t dodge, slash, or roll fast enough. It seemed like nothing was good enough for him, no matter how hard you tried.
What Percy didn’t know was that by telling you everything that you supposedly messed up, he was giving away the fact that he’d been watching you the entire time.
Silence fell for a while before he piped up again.
“You know I do it to help you, right?” He said quietly, glancing at you as you walked.
“The only thing that you’re doing is being annoying and distracting me.” You said, keeping your gaze forward.
“You think I’m distracting, eh?” He said with a sly tone.
You sighed, annoyed even more. You waited until you were just a few feet from the Apollo cabin before you spoke again.
“How long were you following me?” You shot out, turning your body towards him completely and walked backwards.
His cheeks immediately flushed red as he looked down at his feet. You finally got him. You marched up the cabin steps as you waited for an answer.
“And you talk about me choking up! I thought you knew everything about keeping yourself together, Son of Poseidon.” You mocked, enjoying every bit of this interaction.
You didn’t wait for a response this time. You opened the door to your cabin and took a step in, looking back at the boy. You had to get one more punch in before you called it a night.
“You should probably take a lesson in camouflaging yourself. Maybe talk to Grover? He’s pretty good at that. Maybe one day you can actually stalk me efficiently!” You smirked, rendering the teen speechless as he stared up at you from the bottom of the cabin steps, mouth agape.
“Goodnight, Percy.” You finally said, turning around and walking into your cabin.
You shut the door behind you before the boy could even respond, a good recover for you. He was foolish to think that he had the upper hand, that he was the one embarrassing you.
Maybe one day he’ll learn.