Say You'll Remember Me (Lukercy)

Chapter 6

Luke woke up first the next morning. The sun was just beginning to rise, the first few rays of morning slipping through the open window. They'd been up late, he doubted that Percy would wake up for a while, and for that he was certainly grateful. He was deeply embarrassed about last night; Luke never lost control like that, never broke down, and definitely not in front of others. Yet, Percy had worn him down, slipped right past the guards and barbed wire that Luke kept around his past. Percy had pried open Luke's façade--the best version of himself that he's been using to impress Percy and his fellow campers alike--and found the broken kid that actually lives inside himself. The gay thing didn't have an effect on Percy, but Luke didn't doubt that his show of weakness last night would turn the boy away. Of course, Percy was kind to a fault, he wouldn't outright reject Luke, he would watch as the younger boy, his best friend now, slowly distanced himself. After all, who wants to be around an emotional disaster. 

Gods he hated people being concerned for him (though in Luke's mind, concern always appeared as pity). It's not their fault, he should be grateful that they care, but he hated feeling weak. Weak was what his mother had called him; weak, pathetic, a worthless faggot, those were her favorites when it came to tearing him down. He hated her so much.

Luke hadn't even done anything wrong, he was 9 for fuck's sake. All he said to her was that he liked this boy on the bus. She had hit him right on the face; she didn't finish hitting him until almost 3:00 a.m.

Luke had tried to act different so that she'd be nicer to him, even if he liked boys, he was determined to not be what she called "a fairy". He had tried to be tougher, to be a good little boy; Luke threw away any toy he had that his mom would call girly, he even got rid of Ripley from his Aliens toy set. It worked a little bit. She stopped hitting him.

Eventually Luke got tired of it, of his mother's rejection. She wouldn't hug him, talk to him, she would barely look at him. That's when he left. He left that part out of his story to Percy, it made him too weak, too vulnerable. His mother's scars ran too deep.

Somehow, in the night they had almost changed positions; while Luke had once been clinging to Percy's chest, it was the younger boy who was now nuzzled into Luke's chest, though his arms were still wrapped tightly around Luke, protecting him even in sleep. If this was the last bit of normal that he was going to have with Percy, he supposed it could be much much worse. The boy was peaceful in his sleep; the lines of grief, omnipresent since his tragic arrival, were absent, leaving behind a Percy from a different universe. This Percy, was free to walk the streets of New York City, enjoying his life, enjoying his friends, coming back home to his mother every night. This happy, carefree Percy would grow up, graduate, meet a girl, build a family. He was everything that the real Percy wouldn't get, all because of the magical blood flowing through his veins. Luke stayed there, holding Percy, giving feelings he knows the boy will never reciprocate, enjoying the time before his inevitable rejection. After Percy leaves him, he'll be back to square one.

~

An hour later the son of the sea began to wake up. Fearing an awkward conversation following Percy's discovery of Luke watching him sleep, Luke pretended to not be awake. The younger boy yawned. He seemed to pull his arms tighter -almost as if he was giving Luke a hug- before carefully unwinding his arms, trying not to wake the older. Unfortunately, he slipped, and came crashing down on Luke's chest.

"Luke let out a pained cough before opening his eyes. The stunning Percy Jackson was a mere few inches from his face. "Well Percy, this is a nice way to wake up," he teases the younger boy whose face was beet red from embarrassment, "but I'm afraid that you might have drooled on me." He lets out a small laugh, internally thankful that he didn't have bad morning breath.

Percy, flustered, managed to get out, "Luke, I'm so sorry for waking you, and the drool, I just was trying to let you sleep. Are you ok? Do you need a towel? Are still hurt about last night? I'm so sorry, I should've moved you to your bunk, but yo-" he was cut off by Luke pressing his hand over his mouth.

"Perce, it's fine, I'm fine, you're good. Yes I do need a towel, you drool quite a bit, but I can get it." He added the last part to lighten the mood. With said mood lightened, Percy licked the older blonde's hand in attempt to get Luke to move it away; needless to say, it worked. "Bro, that's disgusting, if it wasn't enough that I had to wipe your slobber off my shirt, now I have to clean it off my hands." He wipes his hand down Percy's head, effectively cleaning it. They collapse beside each other, laughing.

This didn't feel as bad as Luke anticipated, maybe Percy didn't care about what happened last night. If he did care, he was certainly doing a good job of hiding it. The immediate anxiety abated, but Luke was still on edge, waiting for the ball to drop and for Percy to find an excuse for Luke to have to go. They sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before someone bursts through the door.

"Hey homos," Clarisse shouts, "Chiron needs to see you two, there's a quest."