OH, CHÉRIE!¹ percy jackson

007

❛007❜

"FITZY," SAID A familiar voice. they were shaking her gently.

blinking away the drowsiness, ivy managed to open her eyes. "what?" she croaked. her voice raspy with sleep.

percy opened his mouth to answer when annabeth's voice carried through the air. "what's going on? i heard you calling for help!"

"me, too!" tyson said. "heard you yell, "bad things are attacking!'"

"i didn't call you guys," percy said. "i'm fine."

"and i was sleeping," ivy said bluntly. she frowned at the son of poseidon, annoyed. "why did you wake me up?"

annabeth visibly fought a smirk. "you were sleeping? outside? and... together?"

"no!" percy turned red at the insinuation. "we were just– i was– ah!"

ivy was too sleep deprived to tease him or to tell annabeth to get her head out of the horrible gutter it was in.

"if you apparently didn't scream for help then who..." ivy noticed the three yellow duffel bags, then the flask and the bottle of vitamins percy was holding. "what –"

"just listen," percy said impatiently. "we don't have much time."

he told them about his conversation with hermes. by the time he was done, ivy could hear screeching in the distance – patrol harpies picking up their scent.

"percy," annabeth said, "we have to do the quest."

percy shook his head. "we'll get expelled, you know. trust me, i'm an expert at getting expelled."

"so? if we fail, there won't be any camp to come back to," annabeth reasoned.

"we have to try," ivy insisted. "we all know tantalus set clarisse for failure, no matter how hard she tried."

"yeah, but fitzy, you promised chiron –"

"i promised him i'd keep you safe. i can't do that if we're separated! tyson can stay behind and tell them –"

"i want to go,"yson said.

"no!" annabeth's voice sounded close to panic. "i mean... come on, you know that's impossible."

ivy chuckled nervously. her throat closed in fear, she scooted away from tyson. "you – percy, you can't be thinking of bringing him."

she hasn't been open to percy about why she felt the way she did about cyclops. it was only a matter of time before she had to be honest, but that didn't mean she was opposed to delaying it.

ivy, annabeth and tyson waited for percy's answer. meanwhile, the cruise ship was getting further and further away.

even if percy was attached to tyson, she didn't see how the cyclops could be... useful. sure, he was strong, but he was a little kid on cyclops terms. they'd waste more time and energy keeping him safe than anything else.

"we can't leave him," percy decided. "tantalus will punish him for us being gone."

"percy," annabeth said, trying to keep her cool, "we're going to polyphemus's island! polyphemus is a s-i-k... a c-y-k..." she threw her arms up in frustration. as smart as she was, annabeth was dyslexic, too. they could've been there all night while she tried to spell cyclops.