Say You'll Remember Me (Lukercy)

Chapter 9

When Percy woke up, it was at least 30 degrees colder than when he went to sleep, the warm thickness of summer replaced with a crisp chill. He remembered falling asleep leaning against Luke, but now he was practically laying on top of the boy, the two of them gripping onto each other, searching for warmth. They seemed to be falling asleep like this more and more often; it was comfortable. It shouldn't be comfortable though, he thinks to himself, he shouldn't like this, he liked girls, he didn't have any doubts about that. It wasn't normal, friends didn't do this. Yet, he didn't want leave, he was more at peace than he had been at any point in the last several weeks. Luke always brought this feeling out in him; it was a calm, bright feeling.

Yet if he wasn't gay, why did it feel so right then?

~

They pulled into a railyard depot in Toronto at arounf7:30 that morning, and after setting Frank up with a ticket in an actual passenger train bound for Texas, The two boys set off into the city.

"Do you know where we're meeting Artemis?" Percy asks, excited about meeting an actual god in person.

Well, we're not meeting Artemis today -she doesn't like to go into big cities. She's the goddess of the hunt, and by extension, nature. When gods are out of their element, they lose their power, they begin to wane, and that makes them vulnerable." Luke explains. "We're meeting the Huntresses."

"Who are the Huntresses?"

"They're a group of girls who follow Artemis. They take a vow of celibacy, like lady Artemis herself, and in exchange, she grants them immortality. We'll need to take a bus to Downsview Park to meet them, but they won't be there until tonight, so we have some time to kill."

"Wait," Percy shouts, "you mean we get explore the city? What are we fucking waiting for!" He grabs Luke's hand -Luke definitely didn't mind- and pulled him through the crowded train station to the bus stop.

~

Luke noted that throughout the whole first half of the day, Percy barely let go of his hand. When Percy grabbed onto Luke's hand under the table at lunch, he couldn't stop himself from bringing it up, "Percy, why haven't you let go of my hand all morning?" Luke knew he shouldn't have said anything, he should have just enjoyed the attention. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was using the younger boy. Percy was vulnerable, and he clearly looked up to Luke; if the boy was just doing this--the hand holding, the falling asleep together--to please Luke, he'd never forgive himself. No, he had to know for sure.

Percy's eyes widened and his face went red, "I'm so so sorry, Luke," he muttered, retracting his hand, "it was stupid of me, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, it won't happen ag-"

Luke cut of the boy's rambling, "Percy it's fine, I didn't mind, I actually liked it quite a lot. I just thought you..." he paused, considering his options, "I thought you "didn't play for my team".

The younger boy blushed even deeper, "I...I don't know how I feel, but I'm not comfortable talking about it in front of all these people. Can we please just talk about this later? You might be able to help me figure things out." Percy looked down, embarrassed. Suddenly Luke felt terrible. The boy was young, but that didn't mean he couldn't have his own feelings. He shouldn't have put Percy on the spot like that, forcing him to answer for himself information that should only be volunteered, not demanded.

"Of course I'll help you, Perce, but I need you to remember something, ok?"

The son of the sea looked up, "what is it?"

"Remember that whatever we figure out, you have nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. Please Percy, don't ever be ashamed of yourself."

Percy wiped a tear from from his cheek, "thank you, Luke."

Percy looked reassured, but he didn't reach back out to take Luke's hand.

~

Around three in the afternoon, they took a bus to the park, deciding to spend the rest of the day there. The boys found a clearing in some trees and rolled out a blanket to sit on.

"So Perce, do you wanna talk about the thing from lunch?"

Percy turned to face Luke, "I don't even really know where to start," he stammered, "I don't think I'm gay, because I do still like girls, but I've been having these other thoughts."

"Percy, it's perfectly normal to have thoughts," Luke assures him, placing a comforting hand on Percy's back. "It's also perfectly normal to like more than one gender. Have you ever thought that you could be bisexual?"

"I'd always been told that bisexuals were just looking for attention."

"Perce, no, there's nothing wrong with being bi. Hell, half of Camp is bi." He moved his hand up, wrapping his arm around the other's shoulders. "What I'm trying to say is, you could be bi, you could be straight, you could even be pan -though I'm assuming you're not well versed about that, so we'll wait until you've figured some more stuff out to discuss it- but being any of those doesn't change who you are. I want you to remember that. No matter what letter you are in that long-ass acronym of orientations and genders, you are still Percy Jackson, and Percy Jackson fucking rocks."

Percy turned and gave Luke a giant hug, and started crying into his chest, "thank you, Luke; no one's ever said anything that nice to me before. I was always so scared when those thoughts popped up in my head, scared of what people would think."

"Well Seaweed Brain, I think you're pretty great, and screw anyone who says otherwise."

~

They were laying side by side on the blanket, staring at the clouds and waiting for the Huntresses to show up -they still had like 3 hours though.

"Luke," Percy said, still looking at the sky.

"Yeah Perce?"

"You know how I said I was having thoughts earlier?"

"Yeah, why?"

"How would you react if I said that some of them were about you?"

Luke paused, trying not to reveal his extreme excitement and scare the other boy. "I'd say that I've been thinking about you too, Perce."

"You have?" Percy asked incredulously.

"I've thought about you ever since you arrived at camp."

"Well, what do we do now, Luke?"

"I think, that since you're still figuring yourself out, that we just take it slow and play it by ear. No label or anything like that until you're ready. And you know, if you do realize that it's not your thing, then no hard feelings. How does that sound, Perce?"

The smaller boy didn't answer with words; instead, he slowly reached out and grabbed Luke's hand, smiling up at the clouds.

They stayed like that for a while, holding hands and pointing out shapes they saw in the clouds.

They were both happy. And this time, no one pulled their hand away.