Salle; Thursday Afternoon

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke had been putting in extra effort to spend more time in the salle since his cousins had showed up, and so far he was doing a pretty good job of it. He was still not training as hard as he had at Camp Half Blood, but most of that had been due to boredom more than anything else. He felt spending a couple times a week here was still pretty good. He could still beat Percy, which was really all that mattered at the moment.

He was allowed to be petty, dammit.

He had no specific training goal while he was in the salle today, other than alleviating boredom and restlessness. Luke was just randomly slashing at dummies without much skill, doing nothing more than working up a sweat and tiring himself out.

[The salle is open, of course]

Comments

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Percy wasn't staring. That was Luke's imagination, there. Besides, it wasn't like Percy was used to seeing Luke like he was now, without being all cloaked in evil and terror. Maybe Percy was just trying to pick up a tip or two.

"No training arena in this place," he replied, shrugging and giving Riptide a twirl. "Gotta practice somewhere, don't I? I don't think my roommate would appreciate me swinging a sword around in our room either."

Though, Percy though it might be funny to do that and see Kon's reaction once.

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Not much space in the dorm rooms to practice anyway," he said. "Not that I'm complaining much; it's still more room than the Hermes cabin back in camp."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Well, you've got about fifty fewer roommates too," Percy pointed out, shrugging. "Nico more tolerable than the Stoll brothers?"

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Definitely," he said with a smirk. "I can get into bed here without checking the sheets first to see if Nico put anything gross in there."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"You're gonna underestimate Nico and find something dead in there one day," Percy decided. Or maybe Percy would do that and try and frame Nico. It was what cousins did, right? Or something.

"What're you training so hard for?" Percy asked, switching topics. "Something on your mind?"

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke shrugged and pushed himself off the dummy to stand straight. "Just getting in a work out. Get restless otherwise."

He really was not meant to stay in one place for too long.

"What are you doing here? Aside from the obvious, I mean," he said. "Just training?"

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, nothing else to do," he said and shrugged too. "Today was my last class so I've got the rest of the week free. Figured I'd get the work out in today so I could have tomorrow free for me."

Not that he had any plans but he had ideas of plans. Whatever that meant. Really, he just didn't want to seem completely boring to Luke. It was such a stupid thing, to want approval like that but he kept finding himself falling into that trap.

"Surprised you're not off flying somewhere."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Luke was fairly sure Percy wasn't going to do anything with his free time tomorrow.

"Where do you think I would go?" he asked curiously. Sure, he could go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, but it wasn't especially fun to do if you were alone.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Percy was pretty sure Luke wasn't gonna do anything with his free time either besides bum around the island and try to catch Percy in the middle of a workout while he was sweating or something.

"You been everywhere in the country?" Percy asked dubiously. "I hope that's not boredom I'm hearing in your voice."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke would leave the stalking to Percy, thank you. He was much better at it.

"I haven't been everywhere. I wasn't even allowed to leave camp much for the past two years." Not that it stopped him from leaving if he really wanted something, but still. "And before that...well, I'm not a son of Poseidon, but I'm still a monster magnet."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I try to forget about the whole monster magnet thing," Percy said, twisting his lips in disdain. It was kind of annoying when you wanted to go somewhere and just be with your family. "My mom and I couldn't even go to Montauk without me ruining it because of my blood."

That was the only thing Gabe had been good for. He was a bastard for everything else.

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke nodded. "You have it worse than me. When I teamed up with Thalia, well, it was good, since I wasn't alone anymore and she could fight. But the monsters got a lot worse because of who she was."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Daughter of Zeus, right." He tried to make it seem like he didn't know Thalia and definitely didn't know more than Luke did. "She a good fighter? Annabeth doesn't talk about her too much."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Thalia was amazing. Seriously, the best fighter I've ever seen. I haven't seen anything like it since," Luke said, smiling a little. "Only person that's managed to beat me."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"She beat you? Yeah?" It was actually kind of nice to see Luke get excited about Thalia like that when he knew how it turned out for those two. "With swords?"

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh. We used to spar against each other all the time," he said, happy to talk about the few happy times of his life. "Annabeth was too small to really spar against us, so she sat aside and cheered one of us on. Usually me, even if I lost every time."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Annabeth's a fan club of one," Percy said, snickering. "You were okay with getting your butt handed to you by a girl?"

He was smiling so Percy felt comfortable teasing a bit.

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"I don't mind getting beaten by people who've earned it," he said. Luke didn't add that he felt Percy didn't deserve to beat him, but he didn't think he really had to.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Luke didn't need to add that because Percy could read the implication in that. He didn't immediately start arguing though even if he did think he deserved to beat Luke.

And he planned on beating Luke too. Whether it be this Luke or not, one of them was going to get beat.

"You miss her? Thalia, I mean."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Sure, Percy. Keep telling yourself that.

"Of course I do. She and Annabeth were the only family I had." Only family that wasn't crazy, anyway. "She shouldn't have died."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"From what I heard, she's not really dead. Not technically," Percy said, shrugging a shoulder. For all intents and purposes, Luke thought Thalia was gone but Percy knew she wasn't all the way dead.

She was just...a tree.

"Stranger things have happened than someone coming back from being a tree."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, it was just so generous of Zeus to turn her into a tree. Because, you know, helping her before it was too late was too much of an effort..."

Yes, he loved taking advantage of the gods being blind here.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"He saved her from dying," Percy said weakly, shrugging. "At least he didn't let her die?"

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"He could have done more than that," Luke said, any trace of a good mood long gone. Good work, Percy. "You shouldn't defend him. It's not like he'll reward you for it."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I'm not defending him, he doesn't like me anyway," Percy told him, shaking his head. He hadn't meant to piss Luke off again but it happened and he wasn't going to apologize. "I don't think Zeus likes anyone."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"None of the gods like anybody," he said. "We're just toys to them."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"My dad likes me," Percy said, shaking his head. He knew that. He knew that and he'd argue with Luke endlessly about it. "He told me so. And I think Apollo might like me."

Percy knew Apollo didn't hate him, at least. He almost mentioned that Luke's own father didn't seem to hate him either but wisely kept his mouth closed.

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Well isn't that just great for you," Luke said, fixing a glare on Percy. "I haven't had the same wonderful experience."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"You know, you can stop blaming me for being the cause of all your problems any day," Percy said, glaring back since it was so easy to do that. "I can't help what's happened to me, Luke."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Well I was in a perfectly good mood until you came in here," Luke pointed out. "Somehow I think if it were anyone else talking to me I'd still be okay."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, forgive me for asking you about Thalia, someone I don't know," he snapped, lying again but not caring about it. "Annabeth doesn't talk about her so I was curious."

Percy shook his head and shoved Riptide into his pocket before he even realized it was a pen again.

"And that's easy enough to solve," he added, still glaring. "See you later, Luke."

He didn't wait before turning around and stalking out of the salle, questioning his decision of even trying to act normal about Luke again.