Chapter Text
The end of year party was a haze of delirious joy. It was like people were doing everything they could to celebrate, to forget the funerals that had happened a month previous. The karaoke machine was back, now powered by magic, Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse had been drafted into making cookies, as the only three who knew the recipe from Sally, and the air was hot and sticky in the early August climate. It was easy to get swept up in the energy.
Which is probably why it was so easy for Percy to spot Drew just sitting off to the side.
He plopped down next to her and ignored her startle. “Howdy. Enjoying the view?”
She sniffed and looked away from him to keep looking at the frankly pretty terrible dancing from Fern that Soraya was trying to fix. She wasn’t trying very hard, laughing more than anything at her boyfriend’s attempts. He seemed to get frustrated, and stalked off, leaving Soraya to sigh, but keep dancing by herself. Much better, what with her mom and everything.
Drew grimaced. “No.”
He hummed. “You seem bored.”
“Oh my gods, Percy, what do you want?”
He sniffed daintily, turning his nose up. “Lacy told me you were being a grump and asked me to check on you.”
She scoffed. “Lacy needs to keep her opinions to herself. She’s twelve until February, what does she know?”
He shrugged. “She already has a song, you know.”
Drew eyed him. “Yeah? Your little sniffy thing told you she’s in love with someone?”
After the reveal after the battle, he’d been pretty upfront with the Love cabin about his ability, and his encounter with their mom. Lacy and Kirrah had been the biggest enthusiasts about the idea of having their own love songs, which of course meant Jack was pulled in by his twin. It wasn’t something that happened instantly, but with some time, he’d been able to figure out that Lacy and Jack had songs. Kirrah had been a little peeved by it, but since Silena’s song was also still out of reach despite her clearly having a raging crush on Beckendorf, he didn’t exactly know what the criteria was. And, by Kirrah’s own admission, it wasn’t like she was looking for anyone.
“Walking On Sunshine,” he said with relish, “a song I’ve actually heard about.”
Drew snorted. “It’s that Austin boy, isn’t it?”
“That or Will, but she should know by now that’s a lost cause. He’s way too focused on medical stuff, and he’s only thirteen.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So is Austin. And Lacy’s younger.”
He waved her off. “Details. I noticed you avoided me for it?”
She was back to grimacing. “Maybe I just don’t want your schnozz poking into my business.”
“Come on,” he nudged her, “you’re clearly not interested in this party. Besides, it’s not like it happens instantly, for the most part. I didn’t even know Jack’s song, so I had to just sing little bits of it for us to get an idea!”
“No thanks,” she snorted, “I’m perfectly content with my love life right now. I’m just waiting for an actually cute boy to come along, and then I’ll snatch him up, just like that,” she snapped her fingers.
He sighed. “Fine, fine.”
He did definitely breathe in through his nose though.
Before he could get more than her usual lavender and orange, she smacked him. “Cut that shit out.”
He pouted. “It’s like we’re not even friends!”
“I tolerate you at best.”
“Aw, I like you too, Drewsky.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not.”
“Drewber Awesome!”
“What, like Uber Awesome? Fuck right off, Water Boy.”
“You smell like-”
“YOU BITCH!”
“-orange and lavender, what did you think I was going to say?”
She shoved him with a scowl, but it wasn’t as hard as he knew she could shove, so he wasn’t worried yet. “You’re a dickhead. Fine! Fine, whatever, take a good fucking sniff, ugh, why I even put up with you is beyond me.”
“We bonded over tiny children in our care,” he said cheerfully, leaning a bit closer into her space.
The citrus was much stronger at this distance, the sharpness of the lavender cutting through pleasantly, but there was definitely something there, tickling his brain. He settled himself and let the noise of the party fade into the background to focus…
He closed his eyes to hear it better (no it wasn’t ridiculous, shut up) and just listened, humming it to himself a bit, just some of the notes while he processed the words. It sounded nice, but another song he didn’t recognize. He got to the chorus and frowned, sniffing again.
“Wait, Drew… you like girls?”
She shoved him away and stood up, hands clenched into fists as she shook. “Shut up, no I don’t!”
He blinked. “You have a crush on Soraya?”
“NO I DON’T! Oh my gods, this is why I didn’t want you sticking your literal nose into my godsdamn business, I never should have agreed to this shit-”
“I don’t care if you like girls or my cabinmate, if that’s what you're worried about,” he said, flabbergasted, “I just didn’t see that coming, I guess. Sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that. If you don’t like Soraya, which, again, fine, why were you staring earlier? And why is your song about being a better boyfriend…?”
She looked at him for a moment before throwing up her hands and throwing herself back into the seat beside him in defeat. “Fern’s a fucking loser and she can do better. Whether it’s me or someone else, she’s a fucking delight and he’s not worthy. There, happy?”
He shrugged. “Sure. I think she’s planning on breaking up with him soon, if the gossip I overheard a few nights ago at the Sky Sleepover, patent pending, was right.”
She huffed and crossed her arms, eyes tracking the only good dancer in the crowd as she laughed with some of her cabinmates. “Good.”
She tapped a finger and sniffed, looking away a little. “…Did the song really say that?”
He grinned. “If you’ve got some time, I bet we could decipher it. It sounded exactly like you.”
“Powerful and hot as fuck?”
“Arrogant and snooty. Also powerful and hot as fuck, yeah.”
She scowled, but leaned a bit more against him. “Sure, Water Boy.”
He crooned it into her ear bits and pieces at a time, letting her argue with him about how it should be going since he was hearing snatches here and there, and she dragged Lucia, a Sun camper of the music domain, over to help them write it down as Percy hummed and sang the parts, tapping out the beats.
By lunch the next day, Drew was the only love camper to have her song fully written out, one no one had ever heard, until Kirrah dragged Jack over and demanded he get his done too. Soon, both cabins were fully invested in the musical scent decoding. Of course, when Soraya loudly and publicly broke up with Fern at dinner, Drew had a new song, undoing all of Percy’s hard work (not that it stopped people from liking or singing the song, of course).
She left for school (her last year, she declared, despite only being fifteen herself) mouthing the words and fingerspelling with the chorus, all smirks.
Percy hummed the song to himself too, spelling it out on his fingers and knowing it would be stuck in his head for at least the rest of the day.
It was a good song, sue him!