Chapter Text
Percy Jackson has never really had a good life, not that she would ever open up about that, but to put it into perspective Percy is a demigod, the ever so loved daughter of Poseidon to be specific. That came with a numerous amount of beings who despised her for just existing, at this point she had genuinely lost count on how many people hated her.
She fought in two wars, one where a vast majority of the friends she did have were killed, while also having to watch the person she considered an older brother figure kill himself to save the world, the other where she lost her memories, lost more friends and was quite literally sent to hell.
Then there was the self internalized homophobia she had gained thanks to her former step father now statue, Gabe Ugliano, honestly his rants about condemning the LGBTQ+ community stuck with her more than his actual physical abuse towards her, or maybe that was just the trauma blending together who knows at this point.
And when she was actually rewarded her efforts, she had to use them to make things better for everyone else, sure maybe she might have been a little selfish in that thought, but for the vast majority of her life she could never be selfish, especially with being a hero of two great prophecies, and sure she doesn't regret her decisions, well most of them, it still feels like she got the short end of the proverbial stick.
Hell, she had to go on quests to ‘earn’ the ability to go to college, simply because she was born. Then the second time she was rewarded, and she tried to make things better she couldn't, because ‘you can' t ask for the same reward twice’. So instead, the gods thought it appropriate to do her another favor by forcibly turning her into a woman, sure she was already trans, but she didn't know that at the time for sure, much less ready to be out about it!
This in turn caused her and Annabeth to break up because she wasn't into girls, which was understandable Percy would never force her into a relationship she didn't want to be in, and she did genuinely love her new body, because this was the real her, but it the principle of the matter.
Then after that, one of her best friends Jason died on a quest with apollo, and the worst part about that situation, is because Percy knows that if she had been there she could have saved him, and that wasn't evening mentioning the fact she put her mom, her actually nice step dad, and baby sister in danger just by being near them. She put everyone she was near in danger; she was like a magnet for shitty luck.
So one day Percy made the tough call of moving away to keep them safe, after she finished up college she moved out here to Hawaii, where she was now the head of a marine biology research lab here, hell she’s even making a pretty decent living, and a lot of her work is published and the backbone of numerous scientists around the globe. Turns out she can be good at science when she actually has a connection to the subject.
Her home was nice, it reminded her of Montauk, and it was only a few miles from her work so that was convenient, she lived with only her hellhound Ms.o’leary and her Pegasus Blackjack to keep her company. It's much more peaceful out here, a lot less monsters that target her due to the pantheon difference, but her dad still had plenty of jurisdiction which kept her safe from the other pantheons at work here, and when she found a half blood here, she sent them to camp halfblood or sent word to a satyr. Not to mention after she turned 20 monsters became a lot more afraid of her.
She lost contact with a lot of her friends, she's not particularly proud of that, the only ones she keeps up with regularly is Grover, Nico and her mom,and of course her dad, even then that's mostly via phone after Leo perfected anti-monster phones. She stayed single after Annabeth left. Even if monsters were much less attracted to her now, she couldn't imagine putting someone else in danger by just being close to her. She had the occasional one night stand from the local queer bars, but that was pretty much it.
So here she was, in her kitchen making her morning cup of tea, on her day off of work, single and alone. She knew this was the best for everyone, but that didn't mean it hurt any less. She was still dressed in the clothes she was dressed in the night before. A purple tank top which perfectly showed off her arms, tattoos, and scars. Scars that when anyone asked the story behind, she dodged the question. A pair of grey sweat pants and some sandals, she had already fed Blackjack and O’leary. She had some noodles in the fridge that she would heat up later when she got hungry.
Here she was, 23, single, and alone. Knowing her, that sounded about right. She knew she wasn't ok. She was perfectly aware of how not ok she is, but that doesn't matter, at least she had a calm peaceful life. “Just one more day.” she said aloud, she's been telling herself this phrase for years, one of the few things that motivates her nowadays outside of basic necessity.
She wanted to be a bit more selfish, to let someone love her again, but her being well her, she was much too selfless to do that, no one deserved her baggage. This was her life, her grave, it was her job to live in it. She brushed her hair out of her face as she took a sip of her tea, the skunk stripe of grey hair that she gained when she held up the sky, seemingly grew with her, she doesn't know whether its stress or something with the god’s magic when they transformed her, but she doesn't care, just another detail that didn't matter.
She debated with herself on what to do today, these days off were always forced on her due to her habit of over working herself, she did this to just do something, she enjoyed her work, she really did. So much so that it tended to become a problem, so her coworkers started forcing her to take days off. She appreciated the thought, she really did, but it honestly wasn't necessary. They didn't need to worry about her.
As she continued to debate what she wanted to do with the day, she heard the doorbell ring. Which was strange, almost nobody bothered her on her days off, especially since she lived all the way out here, she readied Riptide in her pocket, just in case this turned out to be a monster. She slowly approached the door and opened it to see who had rung the door bell. “Piper?”