The Lightning Thief || Percy Jackson x Reader

04 | new york city

Percy, the asshole, left Grover and Y/N.

Grover had dashed off to the bathroom as soon as the bus let out, again making Percy promise to wait for him. Y/N got distracted by the bustling of people and got a bit lost in the waves of people. And Percy, ever the gentleman, neither kept his word to Grover nor stuck with Y/N.

Y/N was a bit irritated at that, but she was going to need to lose them eventually anyways, so it wasn't that much of a loss.  The location of Camp Half-Blood written on the business card had been committed to memory, but for now, she was going to find out what was going on. She at last found a map of New York City on some sort of tourist stand and stuck it in her backpack after finding her desired location.

Funny, she was supposed to be avoiding from the wrath of the gods and all that fun stuff, but there she was, standing in the lobby of the Empire State Building— after waiting in a huge line of tourists to get some fast food.

She walked up to the guard at the front desk. "Hello, sir. I need to go to the six hundredth floor."

"That's not a thing, kid," he said, not looking up from his book.

"Sir, I am centuries years old," she said extremely calmly. "I'm Y/N, and I request an audience with the Olympians."

He looked a bit scared, but it turned apologetic. "Olympus is closed right now. Strict orders."

She eyed the keycard on the desk. It looked almost ethereal in itself, shimmering and glowing like a golden ticket. It'd be so easy to steal... but Athena would likely be disappointed in her, and kick her out again if she were there.

"Well, thank you," she said, shortly before exiting the building.

Now that she was back on the streets, she didn't know where to go next. It seemed to just dawned on her where she was. The cars were loud, honking angrily and people were bustling around. Olympus was never this way, she remembered. There was always soft singing and the sound of nature, and the beings were always gracious.

Suddenly, Y/N was reminded about how little she knew about the world, but she picked a direction and began walking. If you look like you know what you're doing, nobody will question you, she remembered. This was the first time she was truly alone. Y/N felt colder now than when she'd visited the Underworld.

She was homesick to say the least, and the people here didn't look keen on helping her find her way around. Panic rose in her chest, scratching up her throat, crushing her lungs.

An older woman stopped her brisk walk to help the random child. "Sweetheart, are you lost?"

"Are you lost?"

Y/N looked up glaring and flushed, embarrassed. "No."

The boy in front of her was short and yet taller than her with sparkling dark oak eyes but light, sun-washed hair. He raised an eyebrow. "Well you seem lost."

She was, but there was no way she was going to admit it to this rude boy. Mimicking him, she responded, "Well I'm not."

She had wandered away from Aphrodite as they'd gone on a little field trip into the country of Greece and found herself in a secluded part of the city.

"What are you doing anyways?" He crossed his arms and tossed a pebble into the stone fountain depicting Poseidon with several oceanic animals.

"Merely visiting," she said shortly, admiring a little dragonfly sitting on Poseidon's foot. She wondered if they knew that their magnificent statue of the old sea god was terribly inaccurate.