Confluent (1)

➵ Bonus Chapter: Girl Talk

▸ Girls Talk Boys - 5 Seconds of Summer

"Come on Nev! I know you're better than this." Percy challenged. He sent me a smirk while he twirled his sword around. We were both drenched in sweat from practicing our swordsmanship near the stream for the past hour. I rolled my eyes and pointed the tip of my sword at my brother's chest that was currently dressed in leather armor.

"Of course I am. I'm just not feeling it right now, Perce." I shrugged, slightly bouncing on my tip toes. Sending him a cheeky smile, I twirled around and slashed the celestial bronze sword at him. Percy easily parried it away. He swiftly raised the butt of his sword, Riptide, and swung it down towards me. I quickly jumped to the side.

"Not feeling it, my ass." Percy chuckled out. I shot him a wink. Spinning behind him, I used the flat off my blade to smack his rear. He shrieked and turned to face me. Percy narrowed his eyes at me playfully. "Hey! Watch it missy."

"I have no clue what you're talking about." I giggled and innocently shrugged. Percy scoffed at my reply. "Now stop whining and fight Seaweed Brain."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He mumbled, jumping back into action. Our swords clashed loudly. I brought up my foot out of instinct and kicked Percy in the chest. Percy let out a small groan. He clutched at his chest as he stumbled backwards. "I thought we said no kicking!"

"You said that, not me." I pointed out with a grin. "Besides, this is practice. Practice involves me kicking. You should know that by now. Use your common sense Perce."

Percy grumbled incoherent words under his breath. Rolling his shoulders back, he tightened his grip on Riptide. Smirking mischievously, he suddenly raised his hand and willed the water to shoot towards me. I didn't react fast enough. Water soon poured all over me, knocking me to the ground. I huffed and glared up at Percy.

"This is practice. Practice involves me using water. You should know that by now. Use your common sense Nev." Percy mocked. I mumbled curses in Ancient Greek. Percy beamed at my reaction, tapping the point of his sword. The sword shrunk back into its pen form. He shoved it into his pocket and walked over towards me. "Need help?"

"Yeah." I grumbled. Percy held out a hand and I raised mine. Smirking, the water from the ground levitated and formed into a huge ball. Before Percy could even react, the water flew towards him. The force knocked him onto his back. Grinning, I stood up and walked over to him. Percy narrowed his sea green eyes at me. "Well, I'll say that I won that round."

"Cheater." Percy whined, pushing himself up. I waved him off. Standing up next to me, Percy's famous mischievous smirk played on his lips. "Race you to the cabin?"

"You're on." I nodded. Percy grinned and broke into a sprint. My eyes widened. "We never said go! Percy! You're the freaking cheater!"

I ran after him, knowing very well that it was going to be hard to catch up to him. I have short legs while he had long ones. This isn't fair. I huffed and pushed myself harder. Percy dodged the trees, his laugh echoing throughout the woods. A sudden thought entered my mind and I grinned. I can totally do this. Going off course, I took the shortcut that I usually took when I would run away from Grover and Percy.

I stopped in my tracks, only a few feet away from our cabin. Licking my lips, I saw a flash of orange come closer to the edge of the woods. Crouching a bit, I waited a few seconds before I jumped next to Percy. He swore and almost tripped. I cackled and ran past him, wiggling my fingers at him. I finished with a jump, turning around and beaming at my brother. Percy jogged up to me, crossing his arms.

"How did you do that? I didn't even see you." Percy said.

"Leather armor is the best for sneaking." I shrugged, pointing at the armor I was wearing. Percy perked an eyebrow. "Because it's literally made of hide."