#just in casethough

[fireandseaweed]

Yoga Time || Blossom and Percy

Percy and Blossom go to the beach for some yoga, but sadly not everything goes to plan.

Percy took a long breath as he stared out at the ocean in front of him. The cool sand between his bare feet was almost comfortingly familiar and for a second he felt a pang of longing to go back to Camp Half Blood, to see the beach and the lake. To hear the fountain in his room gurgling gently. It had been too long since he had practiced yoga with Blossom, almost a year at this point and he was grateful to be presented with the opportunity again. As the ocean glittered peacefully in the distance, Percy unrolled his yoga mat which was of qcourse a nice blue colour and smiled. “You’re going to have to be kind to me,” he said with a laugh, “I am far more out of practice then I would like to admit, so I’m probably incredibly rusty.” He placed his water bottle by his phone and by Riptide, you could never be too careful when it came to safety and security. Not to mention hydration. The air was chilly but somehow it wasn’t bad enough that he regretted their decision to leave Camp.

Blossom was so excited to finally have someone to do yoga with her. Percy was the last person to do yoga with her, so it had been a while to say the least. So, she was clearly excited. She walked with a bit of pep in her step and a huge smile on her face. Percy had led her to a gorgeous place to do yoga, a place of peace and serenity. It was beautiful, and before Blossom set any of her stuff down, she had to look around and take it all in. She laughed as Percy said she would have to go easy on him, “Oh come on, you of all people know that going easy makes it a little boring. But, I won’t judge you if you mess up or anything. I’ll help you of course.” She assured him, finally placing her stuff down. Her mat was a bright rainbow of colors, matching her personality quite honestly. She took her backpack off her back, tossing it to the side. It had water, her phone, the paper map of camp that Sebastian had given her, and a sword that was given to her at Camp Half Blood. It wasn’t a huge sword, small enough to fit in a bag, but sturdy enough to defend herself if need be. With being outside of camp, she knew a monster was a possibility. It wasn’t a huge possibility, but still a possibility. She took her shoes off and stood on the base of the mat, closing her eyes and starting the breathing exercises that usually got her in the yoga mode. “That’s fine if you’re rusty. Let's start off by doing what you remember, yeah?” She suggested, peeking one eye open to look over at him.

“Hey,” Percy said as he settled onto his mat and tried to breathe a few times, “there is absolutely nothing wrong with a little boring, the truth is that we could all learn a bit more from a little boring.” He smirked gently before shrugging to himself as he got ready to take the Mountain Pose, it was one of the easier poses that Blossom had taught him. Stand tall with his feet together, he allowed his shoulders to relax, distributed his weight evenly through the soles of his feet, before placing his arms at his sides. Looking over to Blossom he shrugged gently, “I know this one is super easy, but I’ve got to start somewhere?” he smirked gently before facing the ocean and taking a deep breath and then raise his hands overhead, palms facing each other with his arms straight. Finally he reach up toward the sky with his fingertips. “So how are you settling into New Rome?” he asked curiously.

Blossom chuckled as Percy defended the boring stuff. He did have a point though. “Alright, fine. I’ll give you that one, you’re right.” She admitted. Percy was a busy guy, that was just a fact. So for him, boredom was probably nice every once in awhile. She looked over at him just in time to see the pose that he remembered, Mountain Pose. It was one of the first ones she had learned as well. It was a pretty simple pose, an easy one to start off with. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath, following his lead. “Easy is fine. Starting off with easy is better. Then we can get to the hard stuff later.” She said as she straightened her posture, feeling her whole body start to relax. She raised her hands up slowly, taking another deep breath and slowly exhaling. “New Rome is fine. I like it so far. Haven’t really made any friends yet, but I’m sure that will come with time.” She said. Some people were a little mean to her, but she decided to leave that part out. Those people probably weren’t intentionally mean to her, maybe they just had a bad day. “Hey, do you remember the Triangle Pose? Want to do that one next, or do you need me to show you how to do it?” She asked.

Boredom was great when you compared it to fighting for your life or doing all of the other things that he had been known to do. More to the point, boredom wasn’t life threatening and that was something that Percy could greatly appreciate. He held the mountain pose for ten seconds and glanced at Blossom, nodding, he smiled. “Sure, I think I remember it but it can never hurt to have some guidance. Percy smirked gently and shrugged. “What are you doing to keep yourself busy? Are you at college or have you joined the legion?” he allowed the sea breeze to filter into his lungs before nodding. “You’ll make friends, you’re the kindest person I’ve ever met and it is difficult not to like someone who is always nice to you on matter what.”

Blossom chuckled at Percy’s comment. Of course he wanted her to show him how to do the pose. Even back at Camp Half Blood, he always wanted to have her do the pose first. Which, she didn’t really mind. It showed he wanted to learn, and in this instance he didn’t want to be wrong. “Right, guidance is key.” She joked opening her eyes to look over at him and show him the pose. She spread her legs shoulder width apart, then moved her right foot further away, stretching it out almost as far as she could go while standing. Then, she reached her right arm to meet her foot, stretching her left arm up towards the sky. “I joined the legion, I got sorted into the fourth cohort. I figured joining the legion might be good for me, although I’ve already gotten a bunch of stares. Lots of people are confused as to why the daughter of peace would join the legion.” She explained, staying in the pose as she talked. At the compliment, she smiled over at Percy. “Aw, thank you. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, it’s just a little lonely right now. But, that’s okay! I need to figure out my way around first anyway. Plus, I have you!”

Many people didn’t get it, but Percy was only good at a few things. Swordsmanship, swimming, horses, the list wasn’t huge. Everything else that did he really had to work at. To get into  college it had felt like he had had to work ten times harder than anyone else. So with yoga, a way that he used to relax and calm down, he didn’t want to have to worry about doing something wrong, it was much easier to just follow Blossom’s instructions, especially when she was so good at it. Raising an eyebrow gently, he smiled peacefully and nodded. “You’re starting to get it,” he retorted playfully before following suit. “Well, I don’t really know what to tell you, the fifth cohort is of course the best cohort that there is, but it isn’t your fault that you weren’t placed there, I’ve met the centurions of the fourth though. Adriana and Lina seem to be good people who know what they are doing.” He shrugged gently and nodded. “When I joined they were all confused as to why a son of Neptune would join the legion, apparently being confused is a very Roman trait.” He was joking of course. “Well, you’ll have to come and visit me in the city, and you’ll make friends soon enough, it is hard not to be friends with people that you spend your entire life with.”

The fact that Percy was always so supportive of yoga always made Blossom happy. Of course, any kind of yoga made her happy, but she always loved introducing people to it. It was a great way to relax, and it was honestly easy to learn. The hardest part about it was learning how to stay relaxed and balance. Then, with the different poses and practice, muscles start to build up and poses that used to be challenging become easy. Plus, doing yoga with someone else was always a little bit more fun, but Blossom would never say that out loud. “Just like you’re starting to get yoga. Which I really appreciate by the way. Not a lot of people are willing to try it.” She told him. After holding the pose for a bit, she switched to the left side of her body. “Yeah sorry, I’m not in the fifth. But, I have heard that the Centurions in my cohort are nice. I haven’t properly met either of them yet, but I’m sure I will soon!” She explained. She hadn’t really talked to anyone in her cohort either, only really quick conversations. “I would love to come visit! And I know, I’ll make friends. I just have to give it time. I’ve only been here for a few days.”

“I don’t know,” Percy replied with a shrug, “I don’t feel like I’m really that much better but I guess like anything it is all about practice and repetition, the more that I do it the better that I’ll get at it, something like that right?” He shrugged gently at her comment. “When you live in a world where minotaurs and chimeras exist, I don’t think that trying yoga is the most adventurous thing that I have ever done in my life, but it is nice to have my teacher back.” Blossom was patient and attentive, she never put you down and he had never met anyone who could show you the same thing nine times in a row without frowning. As he followed suit and shifted his position to follow hers, he tried not to nod, worried that it would knock his balance. “It’s okay, you can’t get everything that you do right…” he smirked and laughed before nodding. “You’ll get there,” he said as he brought his leg down and returned to a standing position. He was about to suggest that they move into a new pose when he heard a shuffling from behind a sand dune. “Did you hear that?” he asked, his body tensing up slightly.

“Exactly! Practice makes perfect.” Blossom agreed with a smile. She knew that all too well, between yoga and training. Yoga was easy for her to learn, it didn’t take too much practice for her to understand. Using a sword, however, that took a long time. Numerous hours and days of practicing the same thing over and over again, and eventually she was able to get it. “Well, thank you. It’s nice to have my student back. I haven’t really taught anyone else, no one else wanted to learn.” She explained with a shrug. She knew it was their loss, not hers, that no one wanted to learn. But still, it would have been nice to have a few students. She laughed with Percy, knowing he was right about not being able to do everything right. Nobody’s perfect. But, her laughter quickly stopped when she heard someone, or most likely something, moving behind a sand dune.”Yeah…..I heard that.” She said, slowly standing back upright and looking at both of their swords that were on the ground not too far from them. “You jinxed it by saying minotaurs and chimeras..” She tried to joke, but knew that this wasn’t a time to really joke. She grabbed her sword and looked over at him. “Should we go check it out?”

“Exactly as you said.” Percy smirked gently. “I think that I’ll actually have to start doing it more than once a year before I can really say that I am back to practicing, but this is a good excuse for doing the easier stuff.” Percy couldn’t help but feel at peace as they practiced yoga together. “You’re more than welcome,” Percy replied with a smile, “that is a good thing, I get to monopolise your attention!” He laughed, he wasn’t entirely joking, he just couldn’t help but smirk.. Percy bent over and quickly scooped up his sword, it glinted gently in the morning sun. “Yeah, we should definitely check it out,” he sighed gently and moved over to the sand dune, slowly and cautiously. He slipped over the dune and frowned gently as he decided that he couldn’t actually see anything. “I’m confused,” he admitted, “I was sure there was something.” He looked around him and frowned, the noise had disappeared. “I think we must have been imagining it …”

Blossom followed Percy’s lead as he said they should check what made the noise they both heard. If it was a monster, she knew he was way more experienced than she was. Ironically, their roles had quickly flopped. She went from being the experienced one, to not being experienced at all. Of course at camp she trained and everything, but she had never actually dealt with a real life monster. She knew that mentioning that right at this moment really wouldn’t be a good thing though. Blossom followed Percy’s to the other side of the dune, also looking a bit confused. There was nothing there, but they both definitely heard something. “Could it have possibly like...went into the sand?” She asked, looking down at the sand underneath her, as well as the huge sand dune they were standing next to. “It couldn’t have, right?” She asked nervously.

Percy’s mind went into overload trying to work out if there was something that could’ve burrowed into the sand, he was sure that there was a monster like that, knowing their luck it would be what they were up against now, but at the same time Percy wondered if there was something else. “I guess,” he said apprehensively, Riptide hung loosely in his grasp, “but I can’t think of anything that can do that, Annabeth would definitely know, but she isn’t here right now.” There was a reason that he tended to stick to New Rome, it wasn’t safe for him to go wandering through the world, he alone attracted too many monsters and he was sure that a daughter of Eirene would seem like a nice snack to whatever bloodthirsty creature was lurking here. “Either way, lets not wait and find out, we can finish our yoga session by the lake, but right now we need to get out of here as soon as possible.” Turning, he hurried back to his yoga stuff and collected it up. “Come on,” he said watching the water, knowing it would be useful when the time came … if the time came.

Leaving was the best option, Blossom knew that. She understood that. But, for some reason she was trapped. She watched as Percy turned to go pack up his stuff, but she couldn’t move. It was like her feet were glued to the sand. She knew something was wrong. She didn’t want to be taken by surprise. She was gripping her sword so tight that her knuckles were white. Something was wrong, something was there with them, she could feel it. She reached her arm out, using her sword to move around the sand in front of her and the sand that actually made up the huge sand dune in front of her. Nothing. She sighed and decided to join Percy in packing up. As she rounded the sand dune to get back to the side of it that Percy was on, she stopped. A Minotaur was sneaking up behind Percy as he tried to pack. Blossom could see him staring at the water, clearly distracted. “Percy!” She yelled, which maybe wasn’t her best plan because then the Minotaur redirected its attention onto her.

As Percy heard Blossom’s cry, he was all but too late to do anything to stop the Minotaur from charging. As it scraped its hooves against the sand and flew into a headlong pelt with Blossom as its target he only had time to do one thing. Summoning a heavy wave, he willed it to wrap its way around Blossom and form into a solid barrier in front of her. Over the years, Percy had had some very memorable encounters with the minotaur. Although now he was unsure if there was more than one minotaur, either way, they didn’t get along well. The minotaur slammed into the wall of water, causing it to spray everywhere, but Percy was already on the move. The good news was that he was working in his home territory and he wouldn’t take long before he’d be able to overpower the monster. The bad news was that the monster in question was already recovering from the shock of slamming into a solid wall of water, he looked about ready to eat them for breakfast. “Blossom,” he shouted praying that she’d listened to the drills they’d ran back at Camp, “we’re going to go for an omega style attack,” pincer movement, he’d draw the monster left and Blossom would go right.

Blossom was on her heels from the second she saw the minotaur. She knew this was her moment, this was her time to shine. This was her time to finally apply the skills she had spent countless hours learning. She had her sword ready to go, ready to move left or right depending on what direction the minotaur went. She was ready to attack, but then a wall of water formed in front of her. For a second she was in shock, amazed at what Percy could do. She knew he had these powers, but had never really seen them in full swing. Then, the water wall was smashed and she got soaked. Honestly, she didn’t mind it. Then, she heard Percy. Omega style, she remembered what that meant. “Got it! Ready when you are!” She called, assuming he would want to start as soon as the monster started to get back up. So, she started to move towards the right.

Summoning water around him in a thick chain, Percy fired off lances of water in a volley that would smash into the minotaur. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would hurt him a lot, enough to get him to focus on Percy. Once upon a time he would’ve gone toe to toe with the minotaur, he probably still could’ve and he might well have won, but Blossom was here and she was an asset, an asset that Percy planned on using. “Hey, over here beef burger!” he shouted as he sprayed the minotaur with another blast of water, depleting his supply and leaving him with nothing more than Riptide, but that was fine, that was all that he needed. “Follow me,” springing off, he set off at his top speed. He was fast, it was part of his technique, part of his innate fighting style but he knew that the minotaur would be faster when it charged, and as it snorted and hurtled at him, Percy barely managed to dive out of the way. The Minotaur hurtled past, screeching to a halt and rounding on Percy once more, but Blossom was in position, which was perfect. “Get his back!” he shouted to her.

Blossom followed Percy’s lead and did as she was told. Just like Percy, she was able to move fast. Honestly though, she was happy that the minotaur’s attention wasn’t on her anymore. Percy had probably faced plenty of minotaurs, this was Blossom’s first time and she didn’t want to die today. As she moved, she finally was in the perfect position as the minotaur missed Percy and turned. She heard Percy’s command and went for it. His back meant a lot of things, but she tried to do what she could in the short amount of time she had before the minotaur noticed she was there. With all her strength and a flick of the wrist she was able to make two deep slashes at the back of the minotaur’s legs. She figured if the minotaur couldn’t move it’s legs, then it was less of a threat. Then, she quickly pulled her sword up over her head and literally stabbed it in the back, twisting her sword while it was still lodged in it’s back. She then took her sword out of it’s back and took a few steps backward, waiting to see how much damage she really had done before she moved forward.

Honestly, Percy was pretty sure that no monster could survive the combination of attacks that Blossom had given to the minotaur. It was impressive to see a daughter of the goddess of Peace who could still handle herself. As the minotaur roared in pain, grunting as it tried to stand from the wounds that Blossom had given it, Percy stepped forward, grabbed one of its horns and slashed through its neck. Black ichor poured from the crescent shaped cut in its throat. It was almost tar like, thick and goey it matted into the minotaur’s fur before the monster dissolved into a pile of golden dust, leaving Percy holding nothing more than a horn in his hand. “Wow,” he said, his breathing still heavy as the black ichor dripped off of Riptide and into the sand, “good job.” He slumped backwards and sat down on the sand, wiping sweat from his brow. “Remind me to take you with me on every trip I take,” he said with a laugh before holding up the horn for Blossom. “This is yours, you’ve definitely earned it,” he said tossing her the spoil of war. “If that doesn’t impress your centurion then I really don’t know what will…” he laughed gently and sighed. “I don’t think I’m going to get much more yoga done, not after that.”

Once she saw the minotaur turn to dust, Blossom finally felt like she could breathe. They were both safe, and luckily not injured. That itself was a blessing. “I would love to go with you! Just let me know when and where. I’m always up for an adventure.” She said with a smile, finally being able to walking over to Percy. As he handed her the horn, she hesitated. “But, I don't think that’s fair. I couldn't of done it without you! You saved me. I would have died without your help, I wouldn't have known what to do. The second I saw that...that thing, everything I learned flew right out of my head. That was my first time facing a monster.” She explained, staring at the horn. “We can share it. That sounds better. Oh! Or maybe we can reuse it for something. I’m against animal products, but I guess that wasn't really an animal. But, it was still a living thing….” She rambled, trying to figure out what to do. This went against all of her morals. “We can repurpose it, together. Yeah? I’m sure we can figure something out. Why don’t we head back? You look like you're going to collapse, which I don't blame you. I’m sure doing all of that with the water is like running a marathon.” She joked, offering him her hand to help him stand up. “I’ll carry our bags.”

Laughing gently, Percy shook his head gently and smiled. “I was kind of joking, but the next adventure that I take I will of course take you on, especially now that I know you’re a natural monster killer.” He hoped she took the joke as a joke and didn’t get too serious with something that was nothing more than a throwaway comment. Smiling he took her hand and dusted himself off. “Don’t worry, I’ve got one at home in Camp Half Blood, it is still on the wall there, the Minotaur was my first monster too, you know not as many people are able to do that as you’d think, you really did do a good job and that was why I thought you should have it. It is your first monster and you did everything right, you deserve something to remember this by because I doubt very much that this will be your last.” Guilt rose within him as he said that, Blossom had never encountered a monster before, which meant that the Minotaur had tracked him down, which wasn’t surprising, he knew that most monsters hated him now, he liked to think that he was their stuff of nightmares. Dusting the sand off of his shorts he strode over to his stuff and grabbed it. “Don’t worry, I’ll live, it just takes me a moment to get back to normal…” not to mention the fact that he so often lost control when he fought monsters.

Blossom laughed, shaking her head. “I know you were joking, but I mean if you ever need company, just let me know!” She offered with a smile. Blossom still was in shock that she had gone face to face with a monster only minutes ago. Reading about them and then actually seeing them were two completely different things. But, she couldn’t have done it without Percy’s help. Hopefully next time she would be able to handle it herself. “Thank you, I really appreciate it. But like I said, I couldn’t of done it without out you. So, thank you for helping me. Maybe next time I can handle it all by myself.” She said with a hopeful smile. She followed Percy to grab her stuff, watching him to make sure he was okay. “Of course. We can take it slow back to camp. There’s no rush.”