Percy Jackson: Genderbent

Chapter 17

Leo's POV:

"Aaaand, Sleeping Beauty awakens!" I announced gradually as Perci woke up. She rolled over and stood up lazily, and stretched once she finished. "Shut up, Valdez." She muttered, and scowled at me. I find it rather hard to take her seriously, though, as she started yawning in the middle of it. I cracked up, and Perci narrowed her eyes. She managed to give a threatening look while she yawned. Wow. 

"You done yet, princess?" I said innocently while she yawned. "Shut up, Valdez." She said again. "Someone's grouchy this morning. I assume you're not a morning person?" I asked with a grin I didn't bother hiding. "And someone's in an overenthusiastic mood this morning. Shut up." She said as she plopped down by the campfire. "Now you sound like Nico!" I cheered. The said person sharply turned their head to glare at me. Nobody could give a death glare like the son of Hades. Then again, Hades was in charge of death. So I guess that makes sense in a weird way. 

"What's for breakfast?" Perci asked on a completely unrelated topic. Jason looked up from where he was making the food. "Bacon and eggs. They're ready now, so feel free to have some." He said, and my mouth started to water as the smell wafted towards me. But through the heavenly smell, I noticed something was off. Something was different about Jason this morning...

"Well, we need to pack up quickly and move in that," she pointed a direction with her fork, "direction." She said, her mouth full of bacon and eggs. "Whose idea was bacon and eggs anyway? Pancakes are a million times better." She said, stuffing her face with more bacon. I tried to keep my face impassive. "Right. You way that while stuffing your face with even more bacon." I said, then started chuckling. Jason's face heated up in embarrassment in the meanwhile. "We can do that tomorrow, if you'd like." He said, blushing furiously. Perci quirked an eyebrow. "Um... okay." 

"Hey! I wanted to do omelettes tomorrow!" I protested, and Jason shrugged. "You didn't say that." He said. I sighed. "Fine." I mumbled. After we finished the breakfast (with no leftovers, it was just that good. Plus, we could always get something from the magical refreshment cooler), we packed up the tents. Well... if you wanted to. The guys fumbled with the tent straps, trying to bring it down. You could tell none of us had ever used a tent before. Jason was the worst. He kept undoing something, and the roof would fall on top of him. Finally, we managed to take apart the tent. 

We turned to the sound of laughing and looked over to see Perci ready to go, doubled over in laughter. "All you needed to do was press the button!" She laughed. We all blushed, and even I was uncharacteristically quiet after that. 

I walked with Perci, and we talked about random stuff. She was cool, just like her brother. After Calypso and Percy made up (both of them refused to tell me what happened with that), Percy became really protective of her. Since I was her boyfriend, I was too. Plus, I couldn't let Captain Salt Water outdo me. Hey, she was my girlfriend! Anyway, we became very protective of her (Calypso wasn't very appreciative of that) and started hanging out more. We'd never been best friends on the Argo II. Sure, we'd battled Queen Dirt Face together, but... still. We'd never been close. So Calypso had kind of become common ground between us, and we'd started hanging out a bit more. From there, we became friends. 

Though Percy and Perci were exactly alike, they were sort of different as well. Main difference, and pretty much only difference: Perci was more... feminine. I know, that's stupid. Calling the girl more feminine than the boy. But it's true! "Hello? Earth to Leo! Earth to Leo! Do you read me?" Perci said, waving her hand in front of my eyes, effectively jerking me out of my thoughts. "What the Hades!" I exclaimed. She smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that. You kind of zoned out." She said. I flicked my hand dismissively. "Whatever." Then we continued talking.