WORLDS BEYOND ( pjo )

𝐱: perseus jackson

Kia was never a huge fan of surprises.

She hated when she didn't know things. When things were obviously kept from her, it drove her a little crazy. Growing up, she was never a fan of surprise parties, whether it be hers or someone else's. Kia was never one to want anything hidden from her or hide anything from anyone else.

So while standing in front of Percy Jackson's house, unbeknownst to him, Kia didn't feel her best. In fact, she felt a little green; perhaps even feeling a bit sick. Not that she didn't like Percy, but she wasn't exactly sure about where they stood. Were they friends? Were they kids who had the misfortune of being packed on to a quest and set of and coincidentally ending up on the same road? Were they those ever elusive 'camp-friends' all kids at her middle school used to talk about?

She wasn't exactly sure where to hold Percy on this scale. Kia was sure that they behaved and acted like people who had been friends for ages, but that was natural; it had just come to them with no special effort of their own, but then again, the circumstances did, admittedly see to it that everyone on that quest ended up bonding one way or the other. In conclusion, Kia was in this weird superposition where she was both best friends with Percy (gods, it was even embarrassing admitting she may have considered him a best friend when she didn't know how he felt) and absolute strangers with each other.

The two had exchanged many Iris-messages over the the rest of winter and through mid-spring, and Kia had had to make a conscious effort to not tell Percy about the visit she had planned with Sally Jackson.

Ah, how could Kia forget: Sally Jackson, possibly the most warm, friendly, loving, motherly woman Kia had ever met in her entire life. During one of their scheduled Iris-messages, Sally Jackson had stumbled within the sphere of view and had quickly grown a fondness for Kia (So Percy claimed. "She won't stop talking about how polite you were!" — "I was polite, Barnacle Face." — "Pfft. You're never that nice to me—") and had insisted that Kia jot down their landline. Kia had no idea how Ms. Jackson expected her to contact them from camp, a place with barely any reception or even phones, but she was sure it was all within good will (mostly because Sally Jackson seemed like the type of person incapable of doing anything morally black).

Soon enough, however, Chiron had approached Kia, his tail swishing back and forth as it did when he was nervous about something, calling her into the Big House, and Kia quickly found out how Sally Jackson would contact her.

Despite Kia's insistence that she didn't want to intrude on any of Percy's normal days (one of the very few he got as a demigod kid of the Lord of the Seas), Ms. Jackson had insisted persistently until Kia eventually gave in, barely any remnants of her remaining that would deny such a sweet lady.

So here she was. Regretting every single life decision she had made up till date. She had already rung the door bell.

Why would I do that? was the only coherent thought in her head. The rest were just jumbles of poorly timed screeches and screams.

Before Kia could turn around and pretend she stopped existing (after praying to the gods for forgiving her for how much it would pain Sally Jackson), the door swung open, revealing... Percy.

His ever-windswept hair was messy as always, raven locks spraying over his forehead as if he had just taken a shower, skin as tan as ever—maybe even a bit more, considering the sun came out much more often now than last winter. He was taller now—Kia just realised. She hadn't ever been properly able to tell through Iris-messaging, but now she could see it for herself. He was now a good maybe inch or two taller than her (which did little to reduce her earlier annoyance about how he could look good despite also looking like he was run over by a truck) and had to tip his head downwards to see her.