Say You'll Remember Me (Lukercy)

Chapter 5

A month had flown by at camp before either boy had even realized it. Percy still received the occasional stare and murmur when he walked into a room, but for the most part, the excitement from his arrival had abated. Being the son of Poseidon, he spent a large portion of his time at the canoe lake, but he had also begun sword training with Luke. Percy had taken to swordsmanship like a fish to water, going toe-to-toe with some of the camp's best after only a few weeks of training. The  boy was good, but he was at his best when he was sparring with Luke. They could fight for hours, going back and forth, one never truly getting best of the other--much to the delight of Percy and the chagrin of the more experienced Luke. Often these matches would get intense, with curses being thrown from both parties till they were red in the face and the crowd that had gathered to watch became afraid that the boys would leave the swords behind and resort to fists. Yet as soon as the match ended (usually in a draw) the boys were the best of friends, any slights immediately forgotten on the walk to dinner.

The two boys had kind of a schedule built up: morning duties, training every afternoon, and then dinner. Chiron graciously allowed Percy to continue dining with the members of Cabin 11; Luke and Percy assumed the immortal just felt sorry about making Percy eat all alone at the table for Poseidon, but if you asked the old centaur, he would say that they reminded him of a duo of heroes from long ago, and he didn't want to meet the same fate as the man who had tried to separate them. Neither of the boys seemed to notice the presumptive glances Chiron threw in their direction, nor did they seem to catch the whispers of some of the older campers during dinner when Luke would make space among the more senior members so that Percy could sit right beside him. When the two were together, it was almost like they were in a world of their own, the whispers were unnecessary, the campers could voice their suspicions at a shout and it would be unlikely to break the attention of Luke and Percy. 

The weeknights were the loneliest part for Percy, after spending all day with friends or with Luke, he would have to return to his cabin, all alone, the joy of the earlier hours fleeing as soon as he walked through the door. Luke couldn't afford to come over during the week, his duties at Cabin 11 kept him busy, but every Friday and Saturday night, Luke would bring his stuff and spend the weekend in cabin 3. This was Percy's favorite part of camp. jumping from school to school, he had never been able to develop close friends, much less friends that he could invite over. With less duties and activities to attend to during the weekend, he was free to spend the time being a normal kid, with a normal friend, having a normal time--or as normal as you can be with a giant statue of Poseidon looming over your bunk bed. But tonight -Wednesday- was a pleasant surprise, Luke had a rare weeknight free (Percy thought it was a lucky coincidence, blissfully unaware that Luke had made deal with some of the older campers to cover his duties tonight in exchange for him volunteering to clean the bathrooms solo. A sacrifice he was all too willing to make for Percy), so he and Percy were playing some cheap boxing game he got the twins to steal for him. Video games weren't really Percy's strong point, but he enjoyed spending time with Luke, and it wasn't like there was much else to do this late anyway.

Luke, during "courting" (is it courting if the guy is straight? It was a question he found himself asking more and more often) would normally let the other person win, but not in this case. As much as we wanted to give Percy the satisfaction of getting the win, every time the younger boy lost, he would dramatically lay his forehead on Luke shoulder and groan in defeat, and that seemed like a much better tradeoff to Luke. Of course, he was also aided by the fact that Percy was quite possibly the worst gamer Luke had ever encountered. Luke would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the contact. Contact was one of the reasons he couldn't quite get past his feelings towards the younger boy, the guy was just so physical. The black-haired boy was always going in for hugs, chest bumps, and just casually resting his arm around people's shoulders. Even now, while just sitting on Percy's bunk playing the game, he seemed to be leaning into Luke, their shoulders brushing.