I'll get down to business quick. I'm sorry this came very, very later than I expected! (Understatement). I won't exactly explain why as that would just delay you from reading chapter 3. Thank you so much to those who reviewed, favorited (if that's a word), and followed. I have every intention of finishing this story, no matter how slow I am. And Elements1999, I am so sorry. I have failed you (Drama, much?).

I will reply to all those who reviewed. Thank you so much!

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO nor do I own Free!. If I did, it would probably turnout to be a very gay disaster.

I was distracted afterwards, and I was kind of grateful for that. I mean, seeing (figuratively, though I think we're all pretty sure of what happened with Haru and his friend back in the locker room) someone you met and considered a friend because he totally loved the sea and was pretty laid-back even though he doesn't really understand English or nor do you understand Japanese do well, probably the hanky-panky or the frickle-frackle or the birds and the bees business or the- wait, I'm getting distracted here. Where was I? Oh yeah. You get what I mean there. - in the locker room wasn't something you would ever want to see (Figuratively. Heck let's just say 'hear'.) . Those sounds bring so much, heck so, so, so, so, so, so much imagination in high definition 3D and super-clear images that will plague your mind and ears. I support gay and all. Heck one my awesome friends are! But come on. Let's be pragmatic (If Annabeth wouldn't be proud of me for all the thinking I've done a while ago, now she'd totally be proud.), sometimes the greatest conquests of love should not happen in public.

Reminds of one time I was visiting Camp Half-Blood after one year away in New Rome. It was a restless night and my mind wouldn't calm itself over the excitement of being back that I decided to take a walk (Everyone remembers that the last time I did this, a magical pine tree was dying and a the god Hermes came to me, looking like a midnight jogger, as I sat on the beach. Everything that happened afterwards was…Moving on!). I knew the consequences but, hey, I'm Percy Jackson. What could go wrong? Well, possibly everything, but I'll survive. I toured around the cabins a bit, the whole thing bringing some sort of nostalgia upon me as I reminisced my happy days. Soon, I reached the around the much more recent cabins. One of them was the Hades cabin. I guess you can say that what happened today in Japan wasn't the only time that such thing happened in my life. Only that it was in a different place and a different time with completely different people. (Let's keep this between us and move on.)

I hurried into one of the indoor pools after using a shower room and began warm-ups. After a few more stretches and what-not, I went for the diving platform. Oh, how I wanted to swim and be in the water so badly. Deprivation of the sea was bad enough in New Rome since college was sort of like a living hell. But I would not go that far, since I've literally been through hell (with my dearest Annabeth), and back.

I want to swim seriously, in laps. Of course, my time would run a bit short since I had no swimming cap of a sort and only second-hand goggles. But, that shall hinder me no further. With the forgotten swimming cap at the back of my love-of-water-and-Annabeth-and-Mom-and-everyone-else-I-couldn't-mention-for-now filled mind, I took the starting position, opting for a little one hundred meters freestyle. I might do butterfly stroke afterwards. Anyway, I guess I was like the epitome of focus since some of the people staying by my lane went to the other side to make way. In a whisper, I counted.

"Three. Two. One."

And just like that I was soaring! Flying! There's not a star in heaven that we can't reach! Okay. My High School Musical debut ends there. But seriously, I was soaring through the air. And then came the glorious feeling of entering the water.

In some levels, that sounded wrong.

But who cares! Well, now that I think about it, plunging would've been a better word. Anyway, back to swimming. The water was cool as I slid through it, gracefully I daresay. I took Biology for a course, about marine life of course. But the swimming team called out to me like my ideal kind of prophecy without death and monster-grappling involved. And just like that. I was, well, soaring literally and figuratively whenever I swam.

But right now. Oh my gods, right now. I felt alive. Strength surged within me as I entered familiar territory (again, that sounded wrong, on some levels). I moved through the water, my arms moving powerfully in full strokes, yet done with the complete grace of pro, because I totally am one. It's natural talent. Of course, I had to breathe after a few strokes. My ability to breath underwater was an advantage (and quite the cheat), but chlorine is not something you want to go up your nose, trust me. After the first fifty meters was the turn which I did without missing a single beat. I was practically slicing the water, with my speed and all.

And just like that, my hands touched the wall.

My head resurfaced and my body stood in an upright position. I had to calm myself down for a moment. One hundred meters had sent my heart pounding against my chest. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins and my breathing was erratic with excitement. What can four hundred meters do to me? And then, I didn't exactly notice at first but there was a small crowd that had gathered who we're gawking at my little swim. Some stayed put where they are in the pool, but we're rendered slack-jawed and speechless, some shouting praises and compliments. I actually caught some of the words. One of them was 'sugoi'.

The person waiting back the platform had a lot to say, especially because it was Rin gawking in the flesh. I think he said that 'sugoi' thing as well but I'm not so sure. The roar of adrenaline was still burning through me.

"Wow. Just, wow," he said, holding a hand out for me. His eyes we're wide, both in surprise and excitement. I took his hand and he helped me out of the pool.

"I know you love the sea. I assumed you swim as well. But, WOW," he said, as I stood up, the words rolling around in his Japanese accent.

"Wow," he repeated. Time to talk. The wows can get him a long way.

"I swim in a team back home. I also play basketball, but more swimming," I explained with a shrug. I have to leave out the part where water was my preferred domain and that I am the son of the sea god himself, because 1) he wouldn't believe me and 2) aside from the fact that he won't believe me, he'll actually have a reason to say wow again and call me crazy afterwards in Japanese. Though I'm half curious to hear what calling me crazy in Japanese would sound like, I thought, nah.

"What other strokes do you do?" he said. He was grinning from ear to ear, a look of curiosity and challenge in his eyes.

"Butterfly. And everything else, but mostly butterfly and freestyle," I said, stretching a bit to calm down my body, and to control my breathing too.

"Sugoi-" I actually caught that one word "-Let's race."

Wait, what?

Race? With Rin? With that very excited and determined face that conveys a secret message which probably means, "I'm going to crush you and leave you behind in my trail of bubbles,"?

What could go wrong, really?

"You're on, Rin," I said grinning at one of the guys I met just today as if we'd been friends since we we're toddlers being told to approach each other by our mothers. It was so natural to just smile and laugh with him, like a long lost best friend. But, let's get something straight before someone tells on me, he will not replace Grover. So do not tell on me (cue the internal winks).

Rin grinned, and we we're off to separate diving platforms. I did another round of stretching, both a pre-sparring habit and pre-swimming habit. Rin was doing the same, putting on his swimming cap and goggles afterward, the rubber snapping against his head. From here, I could tell this his pre-swimming habit, a natural move.

"One hundred meters butterfly on your count," he said, the grin still on his face as he got into diving position. I got into position too, calm and collected, like the calm before the storm. Only the storm doesn't have a stupid excited grin on its face.

"One, two, three, GO!"

And for the second time that day, I was soaring through the air (not like the majestic soaring of blonde Superman, Jason, but eh) and then, I hit the water, the coldness of it bringing me to life all over again. I was off like a jet, but so was Rin. Oh boy, was he fast. Very fast. I can see him pulling up ahead, his back moving as if he grew a pair of butterfly wings. I have to swim faster. Go, Percy, go! I thought in my head. Win it! For your mother! For Grover! For Annabeth! For your father! For the gods! For the universe! For yourself! For- Okay, totally getting out of hand over there. I flew through the water, feral and dangerous but serene and embracing, like it was a part of me (because it totally is. Hello, son of Poseidon?) enjoying the feel of the water once again as I slid through it. I felt like a butterfly

I'm taking this moment to praise Rin, and his splashless (I know it isn't a word. Someone make this a word. It's an amazing word) style of swimming. You can tell, he loves swimming, but then he loves winning too. We hit the turn in sync, practically neck to neck in the race now. Even I don't know who's going to win (Of course it's going to me... right?). The wall was getting closer. I'm coming, and I'm coming fast. We are not even going to discuss about how wrong that sounds. Only a few meters away, and we're not giving up. Closer, and closer.

And just like that, our hands we're plastered on the wall. Stalemate.

We stood there in the pool, catching our breaths, exhausted but tense and ready for more. "Good race-" I began to say. Then a blonde guy bending to look down at Rin beat me to it. Well, at least I think he was praising the race.

"Rinrin, sugoi-" was all I heard. He was like an overly energetic... ball of energy. He was probably younger than Rin, who was obviously younger than me, and quite suddenly, I feel old.

"Oi, Nagisa-kun-" I got nothing. But it came from the guy beside him, who had astonishing blue violet hair and red eyeglasses which gives a nice contrast. Everything is possible in this world. And then they we're squabbling and I'm getting that it's some sort of natural occurrence between the friends here, since Rin was shaking his head in both annoyance and fondness.

I got out of the pool, just as he did, still basking in the aftermath of the race. I can here people talking, in Japanese, which I'll never understand. I'll only ever catch the word 'sugoi', yet I still don't know what it means.

"Percy-san, this is Nagisa and Rei. They're part of Haru's team," Rin said, gesturing first to the blond, then to the sorta-bluenette. I was going to say, "Good to meet both of you," when the blond beat me to it, again.

"Yurosh-" I didn't get the rest of the Japanaese- "Percy-chan! The race was so cool! Where are you from? How'd you met Rinrin ("Nagisa, don't call me that!")? Is it pretty where you live? Let's race too!"

He said all of that in under, what seemed to be, one breath. He spoke with a thicker accent, the 'l' of the words bending into 'r's, but his English is good.

"Nagisa, don't let him feel uncomfortable. I apologize for his overactive behaviour. He is always like that," Rei said, pushing up his glasses, as he squinted at the blond who was grumbling about how being overactive all the time was actually a compliment.

"It's good to meet both of you," I began. "And, it's okay Rei. I don't mind it."

"I told you, Rei-chan, everyone loves my happiness!" Nagisa began poking at Rei's side, smirking.

I chuckled as they began to squabble again in Japanese (This dyslexic has decided to learn the language!). They look like Nico and Jason on a good day, Jason being a little bit mellower than Nagisa and Nico as serious as Rei. And you just wonder how they are not comedians when they are this amusing.

"They do this all the time," Rin, who was still standing beside me, said. "They're like an old married couple sometimes, I swear."

And my thoughts suddenly drift back to the locker room... Nu-uh, Percy. You fought what has to be gazillion monsters in your lifetime; you can fight off the locker room memory. Come on, Percy, shake it off! Shake it off! You're just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it off! Just do it! Shia said so! JUST DO IT! SHAKE IT-

"Percy-san, are you okay? Did you hear me?" Rin said, squinting his eyes a little bit.

"Huh? Oh I'm sorry. I spaced out for a moment. What did you say, again?" I said, finally stopping my train of thoughts about the locker room.

Rin chuckled. "I was talking about the race."

"What race?" Someone said, all of a sudden. I'm being prevented of saying a word about the race for some reason.

"Haru-chan!-" Nagisa said to Haru and Makoto, the newcomers. The rest was in Japanese. You get my point.

I tried not to stare too much at them as Nagisa was talking so animatedly with Rei yelling something in the background.

"Where we're you guys?" Rin said, in English for my sake. Bless his swimming pool-loving soul.

"Shower room," Makoto answered, looking anywhere but Haru and our eyes. Rin narrowed his eyes at them suspiciously, as if he was accusing them of doing something prohibited in the shower room. Like what happened in the locker room. PERSEUS JACKSON, SHAKE IT OFF. And then Rin smirked, not saying anything, but now, narrowing of his eyes seems more of an, "I know what you did. It makes me LOL internally."

"I'm going to swim," Haru calmly said, as he calmly made his way to the pool.

"Oh, oh, Rei-chan. Show us your backstroke again!" Nagisa said, giggling at what seemed to be a private joke. Rei went pink, but nodded anyway because he obviously can't resist googly eyes and incessant pleading from the Nagisa.

That was our cue to get into the pool. For the next few hours, it was training for Haru and his team mates, while Rin swam with me, explaining when I asked about his team mates, that he gave them the rest of the day off because tomorrow was competition day.

"It's going to be the upper-class men's final swim on the team. They will want to take the time off, do things, and have fun for a bit. After tomorrow, it's the real world," he had said.

He had that sad, wistful look on his face which made me think of my decision when I decided to have college in New Rome. And by the gods, I sound like an old person. It's been a handful of years since the Titan War in New York and the Battle against Gaea. Sometimes, I feel as if I could just grab a folding chair, sit by the beach and wistfully say to Annabeth, whose hand I was holding, and myself, "Oh, those we're the good, old days." And we would recollect, the memories seeming so far away.

After feeling so, I would also usually shake my head and say that I'm way too young to do that, especially since I'm still struggling to grow my own fill of chest hair. Yes, my life is an honest-to-goodness irony.

Right now, looking at these youngsters made me think back to, well, the good, old days and some of my decisions. I don't blame them, especially Rin. College is a total Hera in the arse. My first 1.3 made me feel like a son of Athena, and then I realized it was merely a mock test, and that there would be more to come. It makes you really think if you made the right decision.

So, like the awesome upperclassman stranger from another country I am, I patted Rin on the back and said, "Live now. Not tomorrow." And Rin just looked at me, understanding flashing through his eyes, then he looked at my hand on his back, to which he what flashed in his eyes wasn't understanding but was actually a warning. So I immediately let go, and chuckled lightly to myself. I am living the dream (then again, probably not.)

Dad hadn't arrived when I came back. There was merely a magic note left on the floor just right by the door about me getting dinner alone. Wonderful. Father-son vacation and I'm eating dinner alone. Well, he has a palace to attend to anyway, and what kind of demigod is not used to this (although that question sounds terribly sad)? I sighed and shook my head as if this was something I was fond of, but nah, not really fond of. Just used to it.

I placed the note on a nearby desk and moved into the most of the room, before realizing I was stepping on something. Whoop-dee-doo, looks like he left me his wallet. The part of the wallet where you placed your picture in was left with another note: KNOCK YOURSELF OUT, SON. And then he placed some sort of magical moving wave that was emoji-sized.

Gods damn. As much as the wallet looked thin on the outside, I couldn't even count the number of bills there are in this wallet. It seemed endless. GODS DAMN.

I dumped my bag with the soaked stuff on my bed and pocketed the wallet right beside my dear old friend, Riptide, the celestial bronze sword that could cut my enemies in half. After making one last quick check of the room (because demigod senses, duh), I tumbled out of the room and into the relatively silent, large-enough-to-fit-a-party hallway, making my way for the elevator, which was at the end of the hall. I mean, I could totally use the stairs which was right beside our room, but I'm in Japan. In a hotel, picked by Hermes himself. Gotta enjoy the accommodations while the week still hasn't ended.

I pressed the button with the arrow going downwards, because I want to go down, if that isn't obvious enough. I wondered what I was getting tonight. Maybe ramen? Some of that sushi thing? Or like, a large bento fit for a manly hunk like me (I feel like Annabeth just hit me in the head and called me a dork)? My stomach was giving me the Growl again. Japanese food sounds so mouth-watering.

Finally, the elevator doors opened with a 'ding'.

For the second time that day, I have the pleasure of running into Haru and Makoto. Makoto didn't miss a beat, that polite boy.

"Hello, Percy-san. Are you getting dinner as well?" He asked, giving me a polite smile as I entered the elevator.

I smiled in return. "Ah yes, I am. My dad went MIA on me, saying he had to go downtown or something. He won't be back until late so I'm getting dinner myself."

I hit the button for the ground floor. The sound resonated around the at least pretty comfortable silence in the elevator.

"Pardon me, but MIA means 'Missing In Action', right?" Makoto says, looking at me with scrunched eyebrows as he tried to digest my English (I'm just that good. Nope.)

I just had to chuckle. Man, Japanese people are so kind, it's refreshing. "Yes, it does mean that," I said, giving him a little smile. He smiled in return, and damn did it look like looking at the sun with amazing green eyes. This guy gives Apollo a run for his money. Don't tell him I told you that.

"Eat with us," was the first thing Haru said. His face was also scrunched up as he carefully picked his English words. Makoto nodded enthusiastically.

"That's a great idea! Rei and Nagisa are tagging along as well. They're waiting for us at the lobby," Makoto said, beaming at Haru as if he just gave the most brilliant idea of the century in those three words.

"I don't mean to intrude…" I tried to argue, although it was a weak argument. They we're probably going to drag me along with them.

"Oh, we insist!" There's also the fact that I may or may not get lost around here because of my amazing sense of direction (feel the sarcasm).

"Fine," I agreed, lightly chuckling at Makoto who gave me another happy smile, which did not prevent the smile forming on my mouth. His happiness is infectious, he's like my bro Jason. His smiles can hit you like a flash of lightning, literally.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the elevator doors opened with a 'ding' and we we're out into the lobby. Makoto politely excused himself (take note of that, America) to leave his and Haru's, and my room key at the front desk. Haru and I made our way to Nagisa and Rei, who we're standing next to a table with a vase and we're arguing (shocker) about something in Japanese. Nagise took notice of use first and launched himself to Haru, enveloping him in a hug which Haru didn't really react to.

"Haru-chan!" Nagisa said.

"Haruka-senpai, Percy-san," Rei said suite in recognition of both of us.

"Hello, Percy-san!" Nagisa said as he let go of Haru.

Suddenly Nagisa and Rei launched into full on Japanese at Haru, who for a moment looked startled but eventually shook it away as he listened to the distressed talking of the boys. I caught a few words this time like: Ama-sensei, Gou-chan, ramen, sushi, and bento. With my amazing sense of deduction, I concluded that Ama-sensei and Gou-chan we're people. And that the rest of the conversation was about food. Haru was listening intently. Then he motioned for them to stop.

And he said one word to all their complaints.

"Saba," he said, looking so serious and intense like what he said was the answer to everything. Now there's one Japanese word I recognized! You see, Paul Blowfis (don't you just love that name?), my step-dad, has this closet-love for sardines. He made some of that saba stuff for dinner once, which in the language we all know is called, Mackerel. Then, Haru looked at me as if he wanted my support.

"Let's eat sabe, Percy," he said, with a very intense look of concentration on his face. Boy did I feel so inclined to nod.

That made Rei and Nagisa freeze and say, "Ehhhh?" and "Nani?!" at the same time, respectively.

Suddenly, the saviour of the universe, Makoto, who shone brightly like the sun, stepped in.

"Why don't we eat all of that? Ama-sensei gave us enough yen, so it can fit within the budget," Makoto said. Bless this boy, who was using English for my sake. Gee, if I brought him back to camp with me, all those girls (maybe even the boys, no?) in the Aphrodite cabin would freak, except for Piper. Or not.

I realized just then how Makoto acted like a pacifier to the boys. He was calm and level-headed, and he made decisions which met the majority. He was like some sort of older brother. Okay, maybe not that much of an older brother towards Haru? I don't know. I totally forgot about all of that. Totally.

Anyway, everyone looked happy with what Makoto said. Heck, I was happy about what Makoto said. On that extremely happy note, we left the hotel and made are way to the local downtown area on foot, which was practically like some sort of by-the-port-which-is-by-the-sea shopping way. After deciding in which stores we were all going, we had dinner. Actually, multiple dinners since we all wanted bento, ramen, and sushi. Plus Haru wanted a saba dish.

It was a pleasant blur, full of laughter and some stories here and there (You know that feeling where you want talk about ALL your adventures, but you're a demigod whose world is supposed to be kept a secret from mortals so you can't really talk about it? Yeah, I'm getting that feeling.) . All these pleasant boys were speaking in English for my sake, bless their souls. Somewhere along the night, Nagisa started begging for ice cream. Rei scolded him about stomach problems and their swimming meet tomorrow. Nagisa pouted and begged even more. He even pulled out the puppy dog eyes. In the end, everyone got ice cream. And I am slowly turning into the stereotypical American who eats a lot.

We were all close to calling it a night. They had their meet tomorrow, and I'm still slightly jet lagged, although as a demigod who experienced multiple quests, you don't get the luxury of resting after going to some place far from camp so I was fairly okay. But an amazing, fluffy bed awaits me at the hotel. We resolved to finish our ice cream as we walked back to the hotel, exchanging a few more stories, otherwise we were in comfortable silence.

Now, people often tell me that I have the tact of a seaweed. I tried to reason out that seaweeds don't actually have brains therefore they don't have the luxury of ever having a tact, but the people just chuckled and said, "Exactly." Good game well played. But I do have tact! At this moment, I can tell that all the boys were thinking about tomorrow. I gathered that tomorrow was something pretty big for them. I could try and think of advice that I could offer, but I know enough that they have already tried very hard, and that they won't stop where they end up at tomorrow. I also gathered that it was probably time for me to leave them, since I was basically fifth wheeling here. Besides, I could see the hotel from where we were. It was only a few yards away.

I said my good byes, before my thoughts could turn completely sappy over these high-schoolers (if that isn't a word, I declare it to be a word). I left after a chorus of good nights and good byes were said. When I was like, five meters away from the hotel, I turned back, and I saw them looking up. Their arms were around each others shoulders like The Squad they were. I looked up myself to see a wonderful array of stars in the Japanese sky I was under in.

At this point, I can't even think of something funny to ruin all the sappy stuff I'm getting in my head. Gee, Percy. Talk as if you're an old, wise man. That's Annabeth's department. Not saying she's an old, wise man though…

I just ruined the moment didn't I?

I chuckled to myself and made my way to the hotel, thinking about sleep, and whatever may happen tomorrow, and the half-brother I'm still looking for, and that seriously delicious ice cream I had after dinner. Gods damn do I literally need sleep.

Just a reminder, this isn't a three-shot anymore, so this story obviously hasn't ended yet. I will do my best to get chapter 4 up as soon as I can. Also, if I have you see any mistakes, please point them out. Thank you.