Join Us - A Pirate's Life is Best

Chapter 9 : And on that Bombshell...

Percy's POV

Percy had to force himself not to laugh at Jason's dumbfounded expression when Thalia told them her real name.

He knew it wasn't appropriate and rude, but he couldn't help himself. He looked so incredibly hilarious, Percy wished they could keep a memoir of his expression.

His only solace was that he could tell some of the others were trying their best not to laugh as well.

The last time Percy had seen Nico try not to laugh as hard as he was currently was, was the last time they were on dry land and a baby had fallen over on the street.

In fact, the only person who didn't look like they were holding in a laugh, other than Jason, of course, was Piper.

Percy knew why. He'd seen the way she looked at him every time he was around, and she'd been staring at him quite a lot when they'd seen them the first time in the bar.

He looked to Thalia and nodded towards Piper, signalling that the sympathetic expression Piper wore was going to be some great teasing material.

Thalia gave him a slight nod in response, and Percy knew it was because she didn't want to say something just after she'd dropped a bombshell like the one she just had.

Finally, someone broke the silence, and it was exactly who Percy expected to talk.

"Jason... isn't Grace your last name? The last name and the name of the Royal Family?" Leo asked, the caution in his voice was evident.

"Yes, but that's impossible." Jason growled. "Because Thalia Grace is the name of my sister, and she was kidnapped when I was very, very, young. You're lying. What is your real name?"

His expression may have been funny, but the way he spoke was most definitely not.

The problem was, he'd done something no one should ever do. He'd questioned Thalia's words, questioned whether she'd told the truth. To other pirates, and even members of their crew, that was pretty much a death sentence.

As expected, Thalia's nostrils flared and thunder rumbled nearby.

Percy half expected lightning to strike the ship again, but with how angry Thalia was, chances were that she'd have destroyed the ship and killed them all.

"I'm not particularly fond of my last name, so saying it once is bad enough. You questioning my telling the truth gets you this much closer to getting thrown into the ocean, my little brother or not." Thalia snarled.

"Yeah, you shouldn't have done that." Piper muttered.

"You expect me to believe that my sister got kidnapped and then became a pirate captain?" Jason asked.

"Your sister was never kidnapped. She ran away because her family didn't accept her." Thalia shot back.

"Bullshit!" Jason looked like he was going to continue, but Thalia cut him off.

"Really? So the arranged marriage I was supposed to have, the one that fell on to you after I ran away, to a person both of us hate, is that family caring for us."

It didn't go unnoticed that Thalia hadn't called them her family, but called them "that" family.

"There's no point lying if you can't even call them your own family." Jason snarked.

Thalia laughed dryly. "That's because this is my family now." Thalia explained, gesturing to the crew. "Tell me, if they're such a great family, why are you hiding out on the oceans?"

"Who says I'm hiding?" Jason challenged.

"You mean other than the fact you're hundreds of miles away from home and no one other than Reyna knew who you actually are?" Thalia replied.