𝜗𝜚 mari

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ Life has ways of leaving those days behind

She had been far too young to understand it was love at the time, for her it was simply Percy: her neighbor that indulged her every time she wanted to play.

She knew back then it was a crush, but it seemed like just a simply silly crush. Nothing else. Just children things.

Of course, she would crush on him when he was the only boy in the neighbourhood that was so eager to take part in her improvised theatre displays where he often played a prince rescuing the damsel in distress, obviously played by her.

Nothing else but a childish crush, really.

Then it happened.

Percy changed schools. She didn't exactly know why, there were still a few years left before they had to worry about high school.

But that was the moment everything changed.

Percy was always naturally charismatic, but she had grown so used to being under his sun that when the rays pointed other ways, it felt cold and empty in the shadows. That's exactly how it felt everytime she had to sit on her room, looking out the window as Percy shared his warmth with his new friends, leaving her forgotten as time passed.

He, of course, was always as friendly as ever when they crossed paths. But he didn't have any more time to play prince, and it's not like she even asked; it was like they had simply grown out of each other.

And that's how she ended up getting over her crush— or so she thought.

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ But seeing you tonight

She was proved wrong the moment she had to move school. Starting high school in a whole new place was as terrifying as she thought it would be, until Percy was there.

Her neighbor, as charming as ever, had immediately given himself the role of her school guide. And he had not changed at all, maybe he had gotten a little... Well— a lot taller and very popular among his peers, but he was just as kind and funny as she remembered him.

And that was a huge problem for her.

Every conversation with Percy reminder her a little too much of being ten years old.

He still laughed with his whole chest.

Still made silly jokes to whoever was sitting beside him in class when he got bored.

Still managed to make everyone feel like they belonged.

She kept telling herself it was just nostalgia.

It had to be.

She couldn't just carry a childhood crush into high school. That was simply ridiculous.

Right?

Well, the universe apparently wanted to prove her wrong.

The auditorium buzzed with chatter around her as she got up from her seat and made her way to the stage, her whole body rigid and her heart pounding so loudly against her chest that she was sure everybody could hear it. Somehow, this felt like the most important day of her life.

Her old school was small enough that it didn't have a theatre department, not like anybody but her would be interested in joining anyway.

So, when she first got to this new school and heard about the spring play, she knew she had to at least audition.

"Alright," Mr Dionysus called. "Which role were you auditioning for again?"

The man was too terrifying to be a theater teacher, or maybe she was simply far too nervous. "The princess." She breathed out weakly.

He looked at her doubtfully, but ended up simply nodding, "I'll just need someone to read the prince opposite, maybe..."

The auditorium doors burst open.

Every head turned.

She felt like it had to be some cruel joke.

"Sorry! I'm late!"

Percy ran into the auditorium, backpack hanging off one shoulder, hair sticking out in different directions like a tornado had ran through it.

Dionysus pinched the bridge of his nose without even turning to look. "Jackson. You're late. Again."

"I know." Percy shifted on his feet nervously. "I would say it won't happen again but... yeah."

People giggled, and he smiled bashfully while the teacher simply sighed.

"Since you're here, congratulations. You just won yourself the prince."

Percy blinked. "I... did?"

"For the next five minutes, yes." He pointed to the stage. "Get up there and help her with the scene."

That's when Percy finally looked toward the stage

Toward her.

For a split second, it felt like it was just the two of them.

Then he smiled and dropped his bag to make his way to her.

"The universe loves making us royalty, huh?"

She laughed before she could stop herself.

Just like when they were kids.

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ But love has ways of bringing things back to life

As it turns out, it wasn't only her seeing things.

"Honestly, I saw it coming." Piper, her new friend, smiled at the cast list. "You guys had like— out of this world chemistry."

She was inclined to deny it, but only seeing the paper displayed on the school's bulletin board had her completely breathless.

Because she had done it, she had gotten the main role, she was the princess.

But—

Percy's name was below hers, listed as her romantic counterpart, the knight in shining armor that she had always dreamed he'd be.

“That’s great!” Percy peeked over her to see the list, his smile bright. “We’re scene partners again.”

Oh, she was in so much trouble.

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ All you said was, "Hi"

She had forgotten just how bad Percy was at dancing, but only one rehearsal was enough to prove that was another thing that hadn't changed.

"Percy."

"I'm trying!"

"No, you're stepping on my toes." She couldn't help but laugh.

He looked down at his feet as if they had personally betrayed him. "I don't understand how people make this look so easy."

"Just stop overthinking." She tapped his shoulder softly. "Just look at me."

His eyes lifted immediately.

"Now follow the count."

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three.."

His steps were careful as he followed her lead, clearly resisting the urge to look down and see if he was getting it right, he instead focused on her expression.

"Four?"

"Percy, there's no four." She smiled.

"There should be, no?"

She almost lost the rhythm herself by laughing.

"Okay, you're getting it." She hummed satisfied. "Now, let's fix that posture."

His body was rigid as she stopped to correct his posture, fix coaching him on the slumped shoulders and then guided his hands to her waist.

"So, your hands go here and mine..." She placed her own hands on his shoulders, her cheeks feeling warm at the proximity. "here."

Percy's body relaxed under her touch without neither of them even noticing, and he simply nodded.

The music kept playing through the nearly empty auditorium, and they got carried away by it.

One step.

Two.

Three.

This time he didn't step in her toes, his eyes fixed on hers with determination to get it right.

He refused to fail her.

"Now the spin." She instructed him.

He spun her, a little too fast, but caught her before she stumbled.

"Oops?" He laughed lightly, his hand remaining on the small of her back.

"You'll get there." She rolled her eyes with affection.

When the auditorium doors creaked open, neither of them looked, fully caught in each other's gazes to notice Dionysus standing in the doorway.

They only separated once Dionysus cleared his throat loudly, raising his eyebrows at them.

"Um— We were just practicing." Percy rubbed the back of his neck.

"I can see that."

Silence.

Dionysus looked between them and sighed, he did not have any energy to deal with two teenagers in love.

"I've seen couples with less chemistry than you two. " He picked up his forgotten binder, the reason he came here. "So you better use that for the play."

Then he walked out as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb in the middle of the auditorium, leaving the two blushed teenagers standing there in awkward silence.

"So, where were we?" Percy turned to her again, gulping down nervously.

"The spin."

And they both went with it as if nothing had happened.

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ And I remembered I loved you

“How come you always find a way to win?" Percy put down the controller with a huff, his eyes shining playfully.

"Not my fault you still suck at Mario Kart." She laughed.

They were sitting on the floor of his room, she had come to supposedly rehearse together, but the scripts had ended discarded as they distracted themselves with Mario Kart.

"At least i'm not a cheater!"

"Throwing you red shells is not cheating."

"Did you have to look me right in the eyes before doing it?" He questioned, pointing funnily at the tv.

"Yes, I wanted you to know it was personal" She shrugged.

Percy gasped comically. "Is that how it's gonna be?"

She had no time to react before he lunged for the controller in her hands.

"What are you—"

"You've lost your controller privileges" He declared

He tried to snatch it away as she twisted away, laughing.

"I've never heard of such a thing!" She squealed between laughs.

"That's because I just invented it."

She caught the moment his strategy changed, a smirk spreading through his face and his eyes twinkling mischievously as he reached to tickle her sides.

"Percy!" She gasped, laughing breathlessly.

"Do you surrender?" He asked, laughing along.

"Never!" She shook her head.

"Then you have sealed your fate." Percy shrugged.

They collapsed onto the carpet in a tangled mess of limbs, Percy pinning her beneath him as he continued tickling her.

She was still laughing when he suddenly came to a halt, his hands freezing on her waist and she was about to ask what had happened when realization came to her—

They both froze, looking at each other like deer caught in the headlights.

He was so close that she was suddenly aware of every little detail: his curls falling messily over his forehead from all the wrestling, a small freckle on the corner of his mouth she had never noticed before, his fingers resting on her waist carefully.

And his eyes flickering down to her mouth.

Neither of them moved.

For the first time in the whole afternoon, the room was completely silent.

His eyes went back to hers, and his expression softened once he recognized the acceptance on her gaze.

Then he leaned in.

Not much.

Just enough for her to forget how to breathe.

Then—

"I made you two some cookies." The door swung open, and Percy's mother stepped in. "I figured if you're rehearsing you would-"

Sally stopped.

They sprung apart so quickly that Percy fell backwards into his desk.

"We were playing Mario Kart" They blurted out at the same time.

Sally looked between the two teenagers, both of them looking suspiciously red in the face.

"Right." She smiled knowingly, setting the plate on Percy's desk. "I'll leave you to it, then."

The door clicked shut behind her.

The silence left in the room was almost suffocating.

"Do you... want a cookie?" Percy offered hesitantly, almost as if he was giving her an out, a way to avoid an uncomfortable conversation.

"Yeah—yes, that'd be great." She nodded.

They sat stiffly beside each other on the floor, Sally's famous chocolate chip cookies helping to ease the tension, just not enough to erase what had almost happened.

Because as she stole a quick glance towards him and found him looking back, she realized something that terrified her—

She hadn't left her childhood crush behind.

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ Came back when it mattered, I saw you

They never spoke about it again.

It simply settled somewhere between them, invisible but impossible to ignore.

It was there in stolen glances, in nervous laughs every time one of them forgot something in the script and Dionysus acted like it was the end of the world, in the accidental brushes of their hands every time they were stage blocking.

And when the script reached the final page, it definitely was there as they avoided each other eyes, looking away with blushed cheeks and uncomfortable expressions.

Dionysus approached the last scene with the enthusiasm of someone that didn't know how to read context clues, or simply wanted to ignore them. Knowing him, it was more likely to be the later.

"You'll kiss here." He said, tapping the last page with a pencil. "We won't rehearse it, i trust you know how to kiss."

He spoke so simply about it, as if a three seconds kiss wouldn't be enough to ruin her life.

She pretended it wasn't that big of a deal.

And went on with rehearsing like the idea of Percy kissing her wasn't on her mind through every single moment of it.

Costume fittings.

Rehearsing with props.

Running lines late after school.

Everything blurred together.

And before she knew it, opening day came.

"I don't know what you're so nervous about." Leo, the props guy, told her as he handed her a fake sword. "You guys are like halfway through it, and you've killed it."

"Opening night nerves." She lied.

She knew it wasn't it.

It wasn't the audience or even the thought of forgetting her lines. Not at all. She had prepared for this her whole life, from playing princess for her parents to actually being onstage with at least a hundred eyes watching from the darkness beyond the stage lights.

It was the final scene.

With every costume change, every scene that came and went, every hydration break backstage, she found herself mentally counting down.

Three scenes left.

Two.

One.

Until there was nothing left between her and that kiss.

Somewhere backstage, between nervous rumble and people running around looking for missing headpieces and scripts, Dionysus yelled, "Final scene! Everyone should be ready by yesterday!"

Percy appeared out of nowhere, standing in front of her in full costume, his fake armor slightly crooked with one of the straps loose.

"Are you ready?" He asked softly, not even a hint of tension in him.

She avoided answering that question, instead pointing at his strap. "Your armor is crooked."

"Seriously?"

She stepped forward before she could stop herself, fixing the leather strap carefully. "There."

When she looked up, he was standing far too close, towering over her as he looked at her with something undecipherable on his eyes. "Thanks."

Neither of them moved until Dionysus yelled again, "Everyone! Places. Now."

They jumped apart as if they had been caught doing something wrong.

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ But I knew it, I knew you

They sat with their feet dangling from the edge, looking down on the cast party currently happening on Percy's house, everyone having so much fun that no one had noticed their absence.

"I can't believe we haven't been up here in years." He sounded nostalgic as he looked around the old tree house.

The tree house had been built when they were around six by Percy's step-father Paul, and they had spent years going out there to play, forgetting the world outside as they indulged into their fantasy world.

Now that they had grown, they could barely fit inside without hitting their heads against the ceiling.

"Do you remember how much you cried when you thought you had lost princess sparkles?" Percy lifted the doll she had loved so much through her childhood.

"I can't believe i left here forgotten here!" She exclaimed, taking the old doll in her hands.

Silence settled between them as they looked through old toys, all left behind to be forgotten and now being found years later again.

"We have left behind so much." Percy muttered softly.

When she looked up in surprise, he was already looking at her.

"Percy..." She sighed. "I— We—"

"No, don't get me wrong, I know it was my fault." He interrupted her. "I should have never distanced myself from you just because i got a new school and new friends. You mattered- You matter more to me than that."

She looked down again, at the doll she had left behind. "That's okay, it was bound to happen, we forget and leave behind a lot of things when we grow up."

"You're not something i'd ever want to leave behind."

The words hung between them, heavy and full of meaning.

"Neither are you." She confessed quietly.

Percy smiled, a little too relieved.

"There was something else I wanted to talk about." He fidgeted with his own fingers.

She knew just by the way he breathed that he was nervous, and she also knew the reason.

"The kiss..." He began carefully.

She laughed nervously, shaking her head in embarrassment before he could continue.

"I'm sorry, okay? I know it was awkward." She looked away, she couldn't look at him.

He frowned. "What? That's not—"

"It was my first kiss." The words spilled out faster than she intended. "I know it was probably bad, but if you're going to tease me about it, just... maybe not tonight?"

Percy blinked, confused. "That was your first kiss?"

"Percy, please don't make it worse." She winced. "I know it wasn't real. Acting. I get it."

When shee finally looked at him, Percy was already staring at her, his eyes full of confusion and... hurt?

"I don't think it was."

Now it was her feeling confused, she raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"I've kissed other people onstage before, but this—" He rubbed the back of his neck, looking far less confident than the Percy she was used to. "I don't think it was just acting."

She couldn't bring herself to say anything, scared he might notice how hard it was to breathe.

"I've spent every rehearsal trying to convince myself that everything i felt was just because we were playing characters. Just acting." His voice dropped down, barely above a whisper. "I know now that it wasn't."

She could see him growing even more nervous every time his words were met with silence from her.

"It's— it's okay if you feel different about it, we can just forget i said anything." He gulped down. "And I swear, we'll still be friends if— that's what you want."

"I don't." The words slipped from her lips before she could think.

She saw the moment his heart dropped, and she rushed to correct herself.

"I mean—not like that! it's just— I don't—" She stammered. "I don't want us to be just friends."

His eyes found hers immediately. "You... don't?"

She laughed despite herself. "Percy, I have been trying to convince myself it was just a silly childhood crush. Just nostalgia."

She looked around the tiny tree house.

The old toys.

The drawings scattered across the floor.

The faded cardboard crowns they'd once pretended were real gold.

"But then we came here tonight..." Her eyes wandered across the place. "And I realized, it's not just a silly crush."

Their eyes met again, his eyes reflecting the same hope she felt growing in her heart.

"Because we met again this year." She breathed out. "And everything felt familiar. Your smile, the way you could make everyone laugh, how you still looked at me the same way when we were rehearsing. I kept thinking I was remembering my childhood."

She shook her head.

"But I wasn't." She smiled to herself. "I was remembering why I fell in love with you."

Percy laughed in disbelief.

"You were my first kiss too, you know." .

She raised her eyebrows, giggling. "Percy, you just said you had other onstage kisses."

"Those don't count." He smiled knowingly. "I wasn't in love with them."

"Are you saying you're in love with me?" She teased, like her heart wasn't about to burst out of her chest in any moment.

Percy smirked. "You're the last person to find out."

Yes, that was fair actually, everyone else around them had already pointed it out. She had insisted everyone was seeing things that were not there, but looking back, they were definitely right.

There were a lot of things to talk about, feelings hidden for too long that they had to discuss. But right at that moment, she knew there was only one thing she wanted— "Can you just kiss me already?"

That playful glint was back in Percy's eyes as he leaned in. "Your wish is my command, princess."

And when he closed the distance between them, it felt different.

This kiss wasn't for an audience.

There were no stage lights.

No script telling them where to stand or when to pull away.

It was simply her and Percy.

Percy who had once worn crooked carboard crowns just because she had asked him to.

Her Percy.