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Out of the corner of his eye, Percy noticed a small boy approach him cautiously. He turned away from Blackjack (who was still incessantly begging for doughnuts) and grinned at the boy, silently inviting him to talk.
Looking directly at him, Percy recognised the blonde hair and grey eyes that identified a child of Athena and vaguely remembered watching his claiming the previous night. His name was something like Harry? Henry? Oh, Harrison . That’s it.
He also recognised the nervousness Harrison was showing and decided to help him a bit, “Is everything ok?”
Harrison bit his lip slightly and appeared to have a mental war within himself before coming to a conclusion, “May I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” Percy smiled good-naturedly, “It’s what I’m here for.”
Harrison took a deep breath and rushed out a question that Percy almost didn’t get, “Do you have gills?”
Percy’s grin slid from his face, “...What?”
Harrison blushed slightly but repeated his question with growing confidence, “Do you have gills? It’s only Malcolm was saying how you can breathe underwater but that wouldn’t be possible with human lungs as the--”
“Woah, calm down, buddy,” Percy chuckled nervously, his eyes furiously searching for an escape from the conversation, “I don’t exactly know how I can do it, I just can.”
The deadpan look he received told him what Harrison thought of that answer, “You mean you figured out you can breathe underwater and didn’t want to know why?”
“I’m a son of Poseidon, that’s why.” He missed the days that sentence could inspire a greater reaction than the rolling of eyes. Wait, no he didn’t.
“Yes, but did that change your anatomy? Does it impact your ability to breathe oxygen? Do you think it’s possible you could--”
“Annabeth!” Percy interrupted, knowing that if he let a child of Athena start asking questions they wouldn’t stop, “She probably knows the answer to those questions, and she’s a lot smarter than me. Why don’t you go ask her?”
Harrison frowned, “I did. She told me to ask you.”
“Oh.”
Well, shit.
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Percy takes back every single mean thing he’s ever said about Nico asking too many questions when he was younger. He would take that over Harrison in a heartbeat.
Add Harrison with Malcolm and Annabeth? You better bring a book or a video game because you’ll be there a while.
Maybe this was the three Fates’ revenge for still living a happy life after all the crap they had thrown at him.
“--suffer from secondary or dry drowning, but then that would mean that water entered your lungs and how would the alveoli complete the gas exchange so that oxygen can enter your bloodstream--”
…Mostly happy life.
Not to mention all of the questions had got him questioning everything as well! How did the alveo… whatever turn his O 2 into CO 2 ? See, he knows biology.
“--the process in which air moves in and out of the lungs. Then it’s diffusion and perfusion which involves the cardiovascular system. You are so completely and utterly wrong that it’s embarrassing to even be related--"
Ok, maybe he doesn’t know biology. So what? At least he’s man enough to admit it.
“- -no, you’re a fish gill! ”
Maybe he should start paying attention again, “Wait, what’s going on?”
Good news: the Athena siblings weren’t fighting anymore and were once again united on their merciless takedown of any fool unfortunate enough to interrupt them.
Bad news: he was that fool unfortunate enough to interrupt them.
Shit .
“Why does it even matter if I have fish gills or not? I mean, I don’t think I do? Unless you’re into that, Wise Girl, in which case--”
One glare was enough to stop that train of thought.
“...Fair enough. So maybe my ravioli--”
“--your alveoli--”
“--doesn’t function normally. So what?”
The silence that followed his speech was broken 10 seconds later when Malcolm was hit by a train of inspiration, “Chiron! He’ll know the answer!”
... Maybe if he asked nicely, Mr D. would turn him into a dolphin.
I’d make a nice dolphin.
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“Do I have fish gills?”
Admittedly, there were better ways to start this conversation (and by the way Annabeth was looking at him, she knew it too), but Percy had come to the realisation that no, he didn’t want to get turned into a dolphin and Mr D was looking at him with a glint in his eye that he really didn’t want to think about.
“Dare I ask where this train of thought began?” Chiron sighed, putting down his playing cards, much to Dionysus’ growing ire.
“I mean, I’ve got lungs, right? That work normally because I can breathe oxygen and they’ve got stuff in the lungs that turn oxygen into carbon dioxide …”
He looked to Harrison for support who was more than happy to give it as he nodded enthusiastically and bounced up and down on the balls of his feet in excitement.
“Uh, so Harrison was wondering if I have other biological, er, functions that help me breathe underwater. And we didn’t know, so now I’m asking you.” Percy finished, albeit a bit awkwardly. He really didn’t like that look in Mr D’s eyes.
Chiron looked at him and, for a moment, Percy was uncomfortably reminded of when he was 12 and Chiron was Mr Brunner: his favourite teacher at Yancy Academy he only wanted to make proud.
Then he opened his mouth, “Percy. If I have taught you anything, it is that nothing in Greek mythology makes sense. You have a pen that can turn into a sword. You have a cyclops for a half-brother. I doubt that you being able to breathe underwater is the strangest thing that has happened to you.”
Oh. Yeah.
Maybe that explanation wouldn’t be enough for the children of Athena, but it was good enough for him.