Of Fire & Steel --- A Percy Jackson x Reader Fanfic

Chapter 6

(Y/n) POV

I was driving the truck down a wooden bridge. Percy was sitting next to me, Annabeth was on the passenger side, and Grover was in the bed. Annie held the pearls in her palm, saying, "Would have been nice if Luke had warned us about Medusa." Annie snarled. "Maybe he just didn't know." Percy sighed tiredly. Then Grover popped his head in and said, "GPS from the gods, where to next?" Grover asked. 

Percy grabbed the map from his bag. "Let's see." Percy said, unfolding the map. "The Parthenon in Nashville." Sure enough, the map read: Nashville, Tennessee—Parthenon. Grover then shouted, "Nashville?! Aw, great. Home of my least favorite music. Yee-haw!" "Hey! You have a Texan in the car! Country music is life!" I retorted. This made Annabeth giggle. It made me happy to see my best friend smiling and laughing. 'I could get used to this.' 

|Later|

Percy POV

After a few hours of driving, (Y/n) pulled over and switched with Grover. Annabeth hopped in the back of the truck, Grover got in the driver's seat, (Y/n) was in the middle, and I was now sitting where Annabeth was. I have to hand it to (Y/n) for thinking of this system; it meant that each of us got to stretch our legs for a bit and not feel cramped. Grover pulled back onto the road and continued to drive. 30 minutes in, Annabeth fell asleep. 

A couple of more hours later, it was nighttime. I felt a weight on my shoulder and saw it was (Y/n). Soon, I ended up falling asleep, dreaming about (Y/n). She is perfect in my eyes, despite what she revealed to me about her mental health issues. It makes her all the more beautiful. To me, she is so strong that for all of her problems, she still managed to smile, laugh, crack cringe-worthy jokes, and be full of life and love.

She's got quite a temper, though. But she's still kind, compassionate, caring, sassy (like me), funny, witty, intelligent, and overall attractive. And when she speaks, it's like listening to gentle waves crashing against a rocky shoreline. I think I might have a crush on this girl. But I don't think she feels the same. 

I mean, look how she reacted to Luke. Who's to say she won't react to me that way if I mention that I want to be more than friends with her? What could have happened to her that caused her to be like that? Then we heard a semi-truck horn blaring, waking us all from our peaceful sleep. Instinctively, I wrap my arms around (Y/n) to protect her. I would've blushed because of how close we were, but now wasn't the time.

"Whoa!" Grover yelled and swerved into another lane. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Move!" I screamed at Grover. All of us were screaming as Grover swerved in and out of traffic. "Let's stop for the night! Let's stop for the night!" "Yeah. Yeah. Good idea." Grover said. "Oh, my Gods." I said, still holding (Y/n) tightly in my arms. (Y/n) looks up at me, clears her throat, and says, "Uh...Percy? You can let go of me now." 

"O-oh! Sorry. I just thought..." I start to say, but (Y/n) cut me off.

"It's okay. You don't have anything to apologize for; I trust you enough to know that you won't do anything to hurt me." She said, smiling and making my heart drop and shatter into a million pieces. 'Do anything to hurt her? Why would she think I'll hurt her? What happened in her past that makes her say something like that?' I think to myself, the next few minutes are filled with silence. Then, we find a nearby motel with a pool. We pull into the parking lot and check in at the front desk. The receptionist asked us for our IDs, to which (Y/n) pulled out her driver's license. 'What do you know, she really does have a driver's license. And it's from Texas.'