Another Shot of Whiskey

 

Luke was really nice. Ever since he’d come to Camp Half-Blood, and since he’d gotten to the Hermes cabin, Luke had made sure he had felt at home. They’d hung out a lot, Luke was always his main source of information on just about everything, and most of all Luke had become a really close friend. Other than Grover and sort of Annabeth, Luke had been the only one to make him feel comfortable and happy in camp.

 

“Hey, Percy. Breakfast is soon. You wanna wake up early and just hang around me until then?” Luke popped up beside his sleeping bag, the only one awake beside him.

 

Percy pouted, “You don’t want to just lie down and go back to sleep?”

 

Luke snickered, “Not a morning person?”

 

“No. If I was a female, I bet I would be. But I’m not. So there.”

 

The blond rolled his eyes. “And I bet you want to stick your tongue out at me right now, don’t you?”

 

Huffing, Percy did just that. Only to be surprised when Luke leaned forward and casually took his tongue into his mouth and suckled, moving his tongue to touch Percy’s a second later. Frozen and shocked, Percy just stayed still as Luke languidly brushed his tongue against Percy’s several times, swiping gently at times and more aggressively at others. Confused though he was, he couldn’t muster up any energy or will to push Luke back or reciprocate. Instead, he just let Luke take over, pushing Percy’s back against the wall.

 

Abruptly, Luke pulled back and frowned.

 

“Hm, perhaps I shouldn’t have been so forward. Our first kiss should have been much more delicate,” Luke smiled fondly at him.

 

Percy just blinked at the other.

 

But then Luke leaned forward again, and properly pressed his lips to Percy’s, softly at first and only becoming more firmly once Percy had shyly tilted his lips in acquiescence. He didn’t open his mouth again and Percy was too shy and new at it to do so either…but it was still as pleasant and as sweet as Luke wanted for Percy.

 

That was the morning Percy received his two first kisses, right before the night Luke touched him for the first time and gave him his first blowjob.

 

Percy groggily woke up, yawning and stretching. He felt unbearably cold and like something was missing. He blinked and stared at his empty room. Bitterly, he recalled yesterday and he resolved not to talk to Hermes. The god can be as stubborn as he wanted; Percy wasn’t going to be the one who caved and apologized first. It had been Hermes’ problem in the first place, and Percy wasn’t going to allow the other to walk all over him just because he was a god.

 

Angrily storming all over his room and getting ready after a shower, he ignored the tears building up in his eyes and went to school early. No one was practically there, so Percy was confident he wasn’t going to run into anyone, especially Hermes.

 

Finding the bleachers, he headed behind them instead of going to sit on them, tossing his backpack to the floor and sitting on the ground next to it. He curled his knees up and wrapped his arms around it, putting his chin on them as he stared unhappily at the trees in front of him.

 

“Hey, stranger. Why the long face?” Maria’s voice drifted over to him.

 

Percy grimaced, “Long story.”

 

She smiled and plopped herself right next to him, stretching her legs in front of her.

 

“Come on, Perce. Tell me about it.”

 

He still winced, so she didn’t push further. Instead, she scooted closer and leaned her head on his shoulder, wrapping delicate hands around his arm. When he didn’t say anything, she leaned up slightly and brushed her lips against his neck. Looking down at her in surprise, he questioned her with his eyes and she just smiled. Then she leaned up again and kissed the corner of his lips.

 

“But I will advise you to seriously consider dating this girl you spoke of.”

 

Licking his lips, he looked down at the girl on his arm cautiously.

 

“Maria, would you…would you be my girlfriend?”

 

Her smile just widened.

 

By the time school formally started, it was official. Percy Jackson and Maria Estefan were dating, with no way to deny it as they walked hand in hand through the halls. When lunch at last strolled through, someone finally was able to release the steam that had been building since he’d found out.

 

Hermes grabbed one of the extra wooden chairs in his classroom and screamed in frustration as he threw it angrily against the wall with the full force of both hands, tie viciously swinging from the force of the throw. He collapsed into his seat, cradling his head between his hands and ignoring the shattered remains of the chair on the other side of the room.

 

“That was non-productive,” Athena’s voice said dryly.

 

“Fuck you,” he answered back crudely, not bothering to look up and face her.

 

“You were the one who suggested he date her in the first place.”

 

Hermes snarled, “And how would you know that?”

 

“Percy told me all about it yesterday,” she said calmly.

 

He laughed mockingly, “Did he? I suppose you know everything, don’t you?”

 

“I know enough,” she said steely. “What in Tartarus were you thinking, pursuing him? Never the mind Poseidon coming after you and gutting you like a fish –have you no shame? After everything Percy is going through and had already dealt with, you are going to add more to his problems? Hermes, you idiot! Percy is still in love with your son! Your dead son, may I remind you?”

 

“Will you shut up already?!” Hermes roared, standing up from his seat angrily. “I know that! I know, and Fates do I love my son and I’m still grieving for him –but I need Percy! I need him…” he trailed off weakly, fire dying out of him as he went back to slumping in his chair.

 

“Why do you need him?” Athena narrowed her eyes at him.

 

Hermes chuckled bitterly, “Zeus if I know. I just…need him. I feel like I have nothing left and Percy is the only reason why I care anymore. I’d probably pass on like Pan if it weren’t for Percy.”

 

The messenger god was shocked when the palm of Athena’s hand smacked hard against his cheek and his head snapped to the side.

 

“Don’t pin all your troubles on Percy when he has enough on his plate,” she hissed.

 

“Percy, huh? And the last time we talked…when you kept accusing and arguing with me then…you forgot to call him Perseus,” Hermes smirked cynically in a lazy manner.

 

Athena sighed, exasperated. “Percy said I should call him by his name last we talked, and so I shall.”

 

“And that time, when with our confrontation?”

 

Her hand snatched his tie, pulling him off of his chair and dangling him slightly off of it, and he just let himself uncaringly hang there.

 

She had become a little more than frustrated.

 

“That was a mistake –”

 

“So the Goddess of Wisdom does make mistakes,” Hermes drawled.

 

She shook him, “Now you shut up! For gods’ sakes, out of all the others, you were the one I got along with the most. What the hell happened?”

 

“My son died,” Hermes said blankly. “And now no one else matters but Percy.”

 

She threw him back violently into his chair.

 

“Then stop treating him like crap and like your past amours,” she sneered.

 

Hermes blinked slowly at that, staring at her with his mouth slightly ajar.

 

“Oh, and listen to this,” she tossed him one of his Olympus-made iPods called oPods, and put on a song. He laughed hysterically as she left.

 

“I didn’t think you were girly enough to do something like this, Athena!”

 

Crazy Possessive by Kaci Battaglia blasted out of the speakers on the oPod.

 

“Crazy possessive, huh?” Hermes leaned back in his chair, staring up at the cracked ceiling. “I suppose I am rather crazy possessive over Percy.”

 

He hmmed. There was an idea he had been toying over since Percy had stormed out on him yesterday, but he had gone back and forth on it because he didn’t want to upset Percy any further. He had to admit that yesterday had been most, if not all, his fault. He had overreacted. He had started it. And most of all, he had directed it all at Percy and didn’t hold back on anything. He knew he hadn’t imagined the hurt look on Percy’s face after he’d said he didn’t care, no matter how hard the other tried to hide it. And now he had pushed Percy to date that dumb bitch.

 

Feeling a sneer curl on his lips, he didn’t regret at all the snap decision he just made to go through with his idea. There was no way in Tartarus he was just going to lie there and take this, and no way he was going to lose Percy to her.

 

He put on a charming smile and straightened out his suit, walking calmly out of his classroom. He took a detour and waited for a couple minutes. And then he found his prey sitting behind the bleachers in boredom, picking at her food.

 

“Miss Estefan, how lovely it is to see you,” Hermes purred, slipping in beside her.

 

“O-oh, Mr. Castellan!” the telltale blush made him almost grin in triumph, but he held back. It was too early. “How can I help you?”

 

“Oh, I just needed a quiet place to eat lunch. I’m hiding from someone, so I can’t eat in my room. Everywhere else was noisy and too rowdy for me. Do you mind?” he smiled at her mischievously, and her blush deepened.

 

“No, not all,” she began to quietly eat at her food, focusing on it to avoid looking at him or paying him any special attention.

 

They didn’t talk, but just ate together in silence. He had made sure Percy had been held back by his future stepdad, so as to have these precious moments with Maria. They were absolutely crucial.

 

The bell rang and he waved behind him in goodbye, leaving Maria behind and successfully setting up the first stages to his plan. First, befriending the girl. And then it was on to the seduction of Maria Estefan, and exposing her as a whore to Percy.

 

There was no way Hermes could fail at this. He couldn’t.

 

In class, he ignored the couple, forcing himself not to glare at them and instead inwardly ranted to himself. Angrily keeping his thoughts inside, he kept up a pleasant façade outside and smiled brightly every once and a while to keep it up. After school, he managed to get Paul to stay behind and encouraged him to keep Percy at lunch for extra tutoring outside of their time at home, the added knowledge he’d let slipped about Percy’s aspiration to go to NYU a big aspect in Paul agreeing.

 

Then that week, Hermes kept dangling the bait. With Percy always with Paul, Maria was left alone behind bleachers. Hermes took advantage of that, always appearing and sitting with her. He slowly started up the metaphorical ladder, going from comfortable silence to making small talk. He took it a step further the next week, asking about school life before venturing into home life. He listened with half an ear, but he made sure to keep the information in mind if she ever brought it up. Just because he was uninterested didn’t mean he could slack off and ignore information that could potentially be important later on.

 

On the third, he let himself go just a little bit, only allowing casual touches to the shoulder or something of the like. Even little “accidental” brushes. Her heated face made him almost crow in content. Soon, of course. Soon.

 

The fourth week of his little plan, he decided that that was it. He didn’t want to keep going, and he felt that things had gone onin  long enough. He had gotten to the point he wanted perfectly. He just needed the little end that was going to explode off fireworks.

 

On Friday, he invited Maria to stay after class and Percy reluctantly left them with a suspicious look to Hermes.

 

“Mr. Castellan, is there something wrong?” she smiled at him.

 

‘Oh yeah, something’s wrong. Get your hands off my boy, and I won’t go ape shit on you.’

 

He was done playing best friend. He was done watching her touch and be all over Percy. Percy was his and there was no way he was going to let her touch what belonged to him.

 

“Am I possessive just because I’m claiming what’s mine?”

 

Best. Line. Ever.

 

“Wrong? Not at all,” and then he went in for the kill.

 

Tugging her closer, he kissed her soundly, hoping to get this over with quickly. Tartarus if he got her pregnant. Ruin her life just like she’d ruined his, a life he was supposed to start sharing with Percy. Even if he got found out and fired, it would be worth it. It had to be.

 

The other hand not holding onto her wrists snaked up her back and firmly planted itself at her head. Then he aligned his body to hers, pressing up against her and allowing their bodies to mold together. It wasn’t as great a fit as he and Percy, but it would do. Instead of mocha skin, he pictured snowy marble beneath him. Instead of brown doe eyes, he saw sea-green oceans. Chocolate-colored hair was replaced with the inky black locks he had grown used to brushing his hands through.

 

He wanted Percy, not her.

 

Hermes was about to go a little further when he actually found himself stumbling back, realizing in shock that she had just pushed him away and was staring at him just in much shock and some confusion.

 

“I, uh, I’m really sorry, Mr. Castellan,” she gasped, turning reluctant. “You’re really handsome, but…I have a boyfriend and he’s sweet and kind and he really wouldn’t deserve this…I’m so sorry!”

 

She ran, but Hermes just sighed and sat on one of the student desks in frustration. She was completely right about Percy; he was all that and more. But why did it have to be her that had the right to say such things about Percy, to be able to defend him without suspicion?

 

And the funny thing is, the only time he’s ever been rejected (Percy doesn’t count; no, not really), it was because of Percy. There was just something about him, and he just makes the exception to nearly everything.

 

“Always Percy,” he murmured, laying his head on the desktop in defeat.

 

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“He what?” Percy hissed, narrowing his eyes at her and his jaw clenching sporadically in anger.

 

She tried to place a calming hand on his arm, but it did nothing to calm him down.

 

“It really was nothing, Percy,” she murmured. “He kissed me, but it didn’t mean anything. Not to me…and I have a feeling it meant even less to him. In fact, I’m pretty sure for some reason, that it meant absolutely nothing to him.”

 

Percy frowned, grunting a grudging acceptance.

 

“Did you like it?” he muttered.

 

The blush blossoming on her face was very telling.

 

“It was very nice,” she understated, but was honest in how she felt.

 

Damn it, he needed to calm down. She was being honest with him, and she was telling him about it in the first place because she had been worried he would have found out later and freaked out. He just didn’t know who he was more upset over –Maria or Hermes. Or if he was more upset over what Hermes had done. Or that he was there listening to Maria talk about it. Or –

 

Stop, stop, stop!

 

“We’ve been dating awhile now, Percy, but why haven’t you kissed me yet?” she asked him shyly.

 

He flushed red and gave her an uneasy smile, inwardly confused about himself as well.

 

“Well, I guess I’m a little modest. I’m sorry, I think I’m just waiting for the right moment,” he said without confidence.

 

She didn’t notice, instead smiling in reassurance and hugging his arm, cuddling up to him.

 

“That’s okay. I’ll wait,” she answered, pecking his cheek quickly.

 

They started watching the movie, but while she was busy watching he was off thinking and scowling to himself about Hermes’ behavior and of his recent actions.

 

The next day, he blew off his future stepdad so that he could have lunch with Maria, careful to keep an eye out for Hermes and make sure he didn’t come anywhere near. Then in class, he sent heated looks (of the angry variety, thank you very much) at Hermes throughout the entire time, clearly expressing his displeasure with the god, who merely twitched and gave tired glances occasionally back. When class ended, he stayed behind and he knew his messages had gone through when Hermes knowingly close the door behind everyone else and let it close with a decisive click that bore down omens on them both.

 

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” Percy insulted Hermes, slamming his bag onto a desk nearby him furiously.

 

“Really?” Hermes drawled, leaning against his own desk casually. “That’s real nice coming from you. You’re not exactly known for your intelligence either.”

 

The younger of the two bristled, glaring at the god and ignoring his mental flinch and flash of hurt.

 

“What were you thinking, coming onto Maria like that?” Percy nearly let himself yell out, but refrained in the end.

 

Hermes shrugged, looking stoic. “She looked like she could be fun, if you know what I mean.”

 

Percy lunged at the messenger god, tackling him to the floor before Hermes easily took back control and flipped them both over. He straddled Percy’s waist, taking both of the boy’s wrists in one hand and forcing them above his head.

 

“Get off of me!” Percy thrashed around, trying to buck Hermes off.

 

“No,” Hermes said unflinchingly.

 

“Stupid god! Stupid, selfish god! Just butt out of my life already!” Percy struggled even more.

 

Hermes frowned, finally showing some emotion. Indifferently, he grabbed a handful of Percy’s hair and yanked it roughly up, forcing Percy towards him. He slammed his lips onto the other’s and Percy froze up in shock, unknowingly almost similar to his girlfriend’s reaction to Hermes’ assault. But Hermes’ kiss turned less angry, though not yet to being gentle. He was firm and unyielding against Percy’s mouth, eventually coaxing it open and managing a moan to slip out from Percy.

 

“N-no, you can’t just kiss me,” Percy weakly shoved Hermes off, who surprisingly let himself be pushed away.

 

He stared at the god in a disarray of emotions, before fleeing and not looking back. Hermes sighed and thumped his head against the side of his desk, still sprawled on the floor and feeling miserable. Exhausted and worn out mentally and physically, he just put his face in his hands and sat there a while. His emotions were a mess too, and he doesn’t remember the last time they were so out of control, exempting after Luke’s death.

 

For the first time in a long while, he didn’t know what to do.

 

In the meanwhile, after Percy had fled, the son of the sea god had taken to trying to blank out his mind in the parking lot, trying to compose himself before meeting up with Maria again.

 

‘Gods, what if she found out? I can’t just tell her about Hermes kissing me like she was able to tell me. Is there anything about me that can tell her something had happened?’  He began worrying that he looked like he had just been making out with their teacher, or that there was something in the look on his face that would be telling. He was so busy panicking, he missed Maria sneaking up on him.

 

“Hey, you!”

 

He flinched and turned around, giving her a weak smile.

 

“Maria, are you ready?”’

 

She squinted at him, studying him closely.

 

“Hey, hey. Is something wrong?”

 

‘Oh gods, she knows! She knows!’

 

“No, nothing’s wrong,” he tried his best to be convincing.

 

She didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t push further so he kissed his lucky stars.

 

“Maria…I’m sorry about H –Luke. Mr. Castellan, I mean,” he berated himself at the double slips.

 

She frowned at him, “Do you know him? I mean, you seemed like you were used to saying his first name.”

 

Percy swallowed harshly, “Sort of. It’s a long story.”

 

She sighed, “I thought you were over it anyway.”

 

He paused, thinking. “No, not really. It’s just…what he did to you was sort of because of me,” he reluctantly revealed.

 

She looked at him in confusion.

 

“I guess you can say he did it because he has a kind of personal vendetta against me.”

 

Maria scowled, “Are you kidding me? Teachers shouldn’t be taking out grudges against students! He should be reported!”

 

He winced. That was not what he was intending.

 

“No, it’s okay. Really,” he gave her a more confident smile.

 

She kept scowling, inwardly stewing. But then she turned her attention back on him.

 

“So…you do know him? Outside of school? Not just sort of or whatever?”

 

He exhaled, “Yeah…yeah. I do know Mr. Castellan. I guess we have some history with each other.”

 

She looked like she was on the verge of exploding with questions, so he tried to head that off quickly.

 

“But you know. It’s old news, all in the past and whatnot,” he waved a hand dismissively.

 

She pouted a little, nodding a reluctant acceptance. He gulped, but made a choice.

 

Leaning over, he tilted her head up and kissed her, letting her melt into him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist.

 

Gods, he wanted to cry.

 

Percy felt absolutely nothing.