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LiFS Chapter 26 - The Real Treasure
🕑 Added 2024-03-01 07:50:51 +0000 UTCI think this is the latest I've been with a LiFS chapter so far, but its still February for me so its not at all late la la la la la I can't hear you. Thank god for leap years, you know what I mean? Seriously though, I'm super sorry about the late update. Editing this chapter fought me tooth and nail but I'm glad I finally got it finished. We should hopefully return to our usually scheduled updates this Sunday.
For people still waiting for WWDtS updates, all I can say is that I'm doing my best and that updates should hopefully resume soon. That story is the apple of my eye but also I'm really struggling with the next update and wasn't able to stick to my intended schedule with it. I appreciate all of you who've stuck around so far despite my sometimes rather messy update schedule and I promise that I'm trying to improve it going forward.
It uh, took some effort, but I did eventually get back to sleep. I woke up what felt like a moment later with sunlight streaming through the gap in my curtains and a growl in my stomach demanding food.
I clambered out of bed and started to get dressed, then thought better of it. There was only one other person in the house right now and they were downstairs, leaving the way clear for me to hurry over to the bathroom with my clothes bundled in my arms and my towel wrapped around my waist.
A brief shower later, the water turned up hot enough that I could really feel the heat sinking into my bones and pounding against my skin, I finally got dressed and headed down stairs. On the way, I noticed that I had a new message waiting for me on my PRT issued phone. It was from Mrs. Dallon and for a moment I wondered if I was about to get yelled at for kissing her daughter.
I worriedly checked the message and found it to be a simple update on the work she was doing for me. Apparently the PRT was moving ‘uncharacteristically quickly’––her words, not mine––and that the apartment and full documents they had promised me should be ready by the end of the week at the latest.
Though it wasn’t something I had been particularly worried about, I was glad that everything there had seemingly gone so well. Mrs. Dallon and the rest of New Wave had been really good to me and I definitely owed them a debt of gratitude.
Speaking of which, I really did want to pay Mrs. Dallon for the work she was doing for me. If there was one thing I knew about lawyers, it was that their time was very expensive and so far she hadn’t seen a single penny for all the time she’d spent helping me.
I knew the PRT was going to be giving me a small stipend along with the apartment I’d been promised, but that was just intended to help me get on my feet and pay for food and living expenses. It certainly wasn’t going to be lawyer-paying money, that was for certain.
It felt like there was one very obvious way I could quickly get the money I needed, I just wasn’t sure how best to go about not screwing something up while I did it. The others at camp had joked about it plenty of times but someone had always brought up salvaging laws and all sorts of historical regulations so I assumed I would need to follow some sort of rules if I tried to do so here or else Mrs. Dallon and I might get in trouble with the IRS. There were plenty of stories about how scary the IRS could be back in my world, and around here they had superheroes on their payroll to boot, making them even scarier.
After a moment, I texted Carol back a heartfelt thank you, then asked if she could look into marine salvage laws. Finding and dredging up some Spanish treasure ship or whatever shouldn’t take too long and those things were probably packed with enough gold and historical artifacts to pay her and leave me with some extra spending money, right?
Carol replied almost immediately, telling me that she was happy things were progressing so well and that she’d ask around about the laws. A moment later, she added a warning about not doing anything too dangerous and reminded me of the ever-present danger to this world’s shipping industry––Leviathan.
Despite my rather excellent mood from the night before, a frown appeared on my face at the mention of that particular monster. I could occasionally feel what I was nearly certain was its presence in the distant depths of the sea. Its passage left an unpleasant dark stench in the water that I could sense even from thousands of miles away, a taint on my domain that made my blood stir with anger.
I huffed and put it out of my mind for the moment. As I’d thought in the past, the beast’s days were numbered, but today was not yet its day.
Crystal was sitting in the kitchen when I finally made it down the stairs, her laptop open on the counter off to one side and her pen flying across the page of a notebook. She looked up when I entered the room and smiled at me, a pale blush dusting her cheeks with a hint of pink. “Morning Percy. Did you manage to get some more sleep?”
Feeling rather bold all of a sudden and wanting to put my dark thoughts behind me, I took a step forward and hugged her around the shoulders, then leaned down and kissed her cheek. “It was much harder without someone special there beside me.”
Crystal’s blush darkened slightly. “I don’t know,” she began teasingly, “things felt pretty damn hard while I was there.” I burst out laughing even as Crystal’s eyes widened and she slapped her hands over her mouth. “It's not that funny!” she whined, but there was no real anger in her voice.
“Yes it was, it really, really was.”
Our eyes met and we stared at each other for several seconds, then Crystal turned away, her shoulders shaking slightly as she held back her own laughter. I held her for several moments longer, then stepped away so she could get back to whatever homework she was working on.
Sarah had told me that I was welcome to anything in the fridge so I dug around and found a somewhat forgotten and rather stale half-loaf of bread. “Want some french toast?” I asked Crystal, swiftly collecting the other ingredients I needed.
Crystal glanced up from her work, “What? Oh, um, yeah. Thanks Percy.”
I stopped distracting her and got to work on making the two of us breakfast. Though I rarely used them in such a way, demigod powers really could come in handy in the kitchen sometimes. Eggs and milk were both basically just water with stuff in them after all, and as long as I kept a mental eye on things I didn’t need to dirty a bowl, whisk, or my fingers trying to soak the bread.
The first batch was sizzling away on the stove, filling the air with the sweet smell of bread and cinnamon, when Crystal sighed heavily, pushed her notebook aside, and snapped her laptop shut. She looked me dead in the eyes and mimed slitting her throat, “Dr. Schmidt is a great lecturer, but I swear to god I think he just hates us students.” She slapped her notebook. “He grades us on our notes! Notes! What sort of college professor grades notes?”
I shrugged. “I guess that one does? I never went to college so I can’t really say one way or another.”
She huffed loudly. “No idea how mum conned me into majoring in finance. I should switch to psych or uh, communications! Those guys never have to do any work.”
I turned around to flip the french toast before it burned. “To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what you can do with either of those degrees. What does it even mean to major in communications?”
I felt Crystal shrug. “Fuck it if I know. The only communications majors I know are some idiots I met at a party and some of the football players.” She paused for a moment. “Please don’t mention that first bit to my mom?”
“My lips are sealed,” I reassured her. “Speaking of which, did everything work out alright earlier?” I had been far too distracted burning the memory of Crystal’s swaying hips into my brain to follow her with my water sense.
“Mostly? I ran into Eric, but he promised he wouldn’t say anything.”
“Your brother seems like a good guy. He really cares about you a lot.”
“He is pretty great. I know Eric always has my back, whether it's in a fight or at home.”
I felt a pang of longing. I missed Tyson. He was a bit of an idiot, but he was a great guy and even before I’d somehow gotten here it had been too long since I’d last seen him. I missed…a lot of people, really. Hopefully…hopefully I’d be able to find a way back to them soon. The PRT had promised to look into things, but something, my demigod instincts, told me they wouldn’t find anything. With every passing day I felt like I was further and further from getting home.
This time it was Crystal’s turn to wrap her arms around me, though my shoulders were too high up for her so she settled for my waist instead. “You alright Percy?” she asked softly, her voice slightly muffled by my sweatshirt. “You look sad.”
“I will be. Just…a little homesick.”
I could only barely feel the pressure, but I still noticed when Crystal’s arms around my waist tightened. “You left a lot of people behind, didn’t you?”
I nodded slowly. “A lot of people,” I whispered, and I could feel a tear slowly starting to form in the corner of my eye.
“Do you want to tell me about them? I can’t say I’ve ever gone through anything like what you’re going through, but everyone always tells me that talking about things can help.”
“Maybe. Not right now though.”
“Okay. Just let me know and I’ll be there for you when you’re ready.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep, shaky breath.
Annabeth…Annabeth probably would have pried. She always wanted, needed, to know everything. I probably would have told her too, she had a way of making big problems feel very small and manageable. Even when I’d been resigned to my own death, she’d done everything she possibly could to help me and make sure I came home alive.
Right now though, I appreciated Crystal’s quiet support. I didn’t really want to talk about it, any of it, but I would have probably buckled if she’d tried to push. “Thanks Crystal. I appreciate it. I really do.”
She held me for a few moments longer and then I heard her take a big sniff. “Percy?”
“Yeah?”
“I think the french toast is burning.”
I opened my eyes and she was totally right. I hurriedly snatched the spatula up off the counter and transferred the three slightly blackened pieces onto a plate I’d covered in paper towels. Three new pieces of bread floated down from where they’d been soaking in my egg mixture, the water soaking them carrying them smoothly through the air and into my pan.
I looked at the three pieces of toast, examining the one golden-brown side and the one…slightly not brown anymore side. “Probably still edible.” I decided.
Crystal reached past me, blindly groping for the plate. “Gimme! Gimme!”
I picked the least burnt piece and transferred it to Crystal’s plate, then sprinkled it with powdered sugar and handed the plate to Crystal. “Enjoy!”
She grabbed the plate, squeezed my butt, then snatched the maple syrup off the table beside me and ran back to her spot at the counter. I served myself but stayed by the stove as I began to eat, keeping an eye on the pan to make sure I didn’t burn this batch.
I felt Crystal’s eyes boring into my back and turned back towards her. “The next batch will be ready in just a minute.”
Crystal waved her hand, “It's not that. I just realized that you’ve been wearing basically all the same clothing this entire time. I totally need to take you shopping, and not just to buy you some tighter shirts.”
I definitely remembered something about how going shopping with girls was a terrible fate, but she was absolutely right. My current clothes were some of the few things I still had left from home, especially my camp t-shirt, and at this rate I was going to wear it all out pretty quickly. “You’re probably right,” I agreed easily, “but I hope you remember our deal about that.”
Crystal blushed again. She was very cute when she blushed and I just wanted to go over and kiss her again, but if I did that I would absolutely burn the second batch of toast too. “Yup, tight shirts for everyone. I remember. Um, how about tomorrow afternoon? I’ve got to head to class soon, but I should have some time then.”
“Uh…I don’t really have any money right now, but I’d be happy to go as soon as the PRT comes through for me. Well, that or I can find some sunken treasure, whichever one happens first.”
