“Hey there.” Percy was skipping over to Philly with a brown pouch strapped around his waste. 

Philly was standing at the front entrance of the campus, waving at Percy as he approached. In a nice change of pace, he was wearing a tropical shirt, unbuttoned slightly revealing his chest. Despite the minor change in his top he still sported blue jeans. 

In his hand, he held a kite that resembled a squid, the triangular tip was the second largest portion of the kite only being dwarfed by the thin streams on the opposite end. The tip was being held by a set of metal frames, the same metal frame that formed the cylindrical body of the kite.

“Ready?” Philly asked.

“Are you kidding!?” Percy smiled. “Do you know how much I needed this?”

Philly and Percy began walking to Philly’s car.

“Goodness, I haven’t been to the beach in, like, ages.” Percy sighed

“I haven’t been there in a few days,” Philly said. 

“Since when do you go to the beach?” Percy asked.

“I go there sometimes to meditate,” Philly said. “Either that or I go just clear my head and chill out a bit.”

Philly opened the door on the passenger's side and gently threw the kite on the back seat before closing the door and opening the door on the driver's side and entering. 

“I usually go in super early in the morning because it’s empty.” Percy continued. “All though some people pop up here and there. I came across my ex one time.”

“Which one?” Percy asked as Philly started the car. 

“Cindy,” Philly started back out of the driveway.

“The Mermaid who cheated on you?” Percy respond. “Or that Sphinx…”

“The mermaid, your thinking about Kacey,” Philly said. “But yeah, it was a little awkward.”

“I could imagine.” Percy looked out the window.

“She was nice about it though” Philly shrugged. “We caught up for a bit, smoked a bit, then we split”

“Oh… “ Percy grew silent. “Why would you wanna talk to her?”

“I guess I just like to stay connected with people.” Philly continued. “Also I don’t really have any ill will towards her. I mean, not that I really blame her…”

“Blame her?” Percy quickly turned his head towards Philly. “Philly, didn’t she cheat on you?”

“Yeah, I mean she lost feelings for me a while back,” Philly said. “I wish I'd known that sooner.”

“How could you?” Percy said defensively. “You wouldn’t have known…”

“Usually, I’m pretty good at reading people.” Philly shrugged.

“But that doesn’t really change the fact that she cheated.” Percy looked out the window with an angry expression. 

Philly didn’t respond sitting silently along with Percy. Percy was unable to really respond let alone understand Philly’s line of thinking so he gave up and resorted to staring out the window. Philly was driving a bit more cautiously much to Percy’s relief. He’d been slowly progressing since the day they met however he was still fast and loose in some aspects but at the moment, Percy was more focused on the view as he thought of another icebreaker.

…

Percy found himself sitting on a mostly crowded beach towel while being engrossed in a book that he hadn’t read in a while. It was hard to understand the plot at first but as soon he caught up thoroughly he was able to read through the book comfortably. 

He wore his glasses and leaned in forward so he could get a better view but Percy couldn’t really help but think about Philly every few minutes or so. When that happened he’d look up, make eye contact with him and look back down. Philly was also occupied, closer to the shore. Philly turned around instinctively and looked at Percy. He squinted his eyes causing Percy to smile back. 

“You wear glasses?” Philly asked.

“Sometimes” Percy responded. “Usually when I’m reading.”

“Huh…” Philly paused for a while. “You look cuter with glasses.”

“Really?” Percy laughed. 

“Yeah,” Philly smiled. “You look like a true nerd…”

“And you look like a dad,” Percy smirked. 

“A dad?” Philly screamed.  “How do I…”

Suddenly, Philly quickly turned around and looked at his kite. Percy followed his gaze to see a large brown bird biting down on Philly’s kite. 

Percy quickly recognized it as a thunderbird, he was pretty confused why it would be on a beach at this hour but the more unusual part was the fact that he was trying to eat a kite.

“No!” Philly began to real his kite back, engaging in a tug of war with the bird. 

The frame of the body was being pulled by the bird’s beak and Philly reeling the kite. The bird's beak snagged onto the sheet on the frame slowly losing a grip of the frame until the sheet exposed the body and the front end.

The thin metal frame began to spiral down until it reached the coast. Philly began to reel his kite back to shore while walking over the water to intercept it. Percy took off his glasses and galloped after Philly.

With the aid of the tides, Percy was able to reel it in close enough to the shore so that he could grab the skeleton of the kite. He picked it up and began walking back to shore holding the frame in his right hand.

“Oh no,” Percy said. “How…”

“I forgot to mask it.” Philly walked over to the beach towel. He threw down the frame next to the towel before turning around and dropping himself on the towel, landing on his butt.

“I literally had the repellent spray in my hand this morning,” Philly mumbled. “And I put it down because I had to follow up on an email. I’m such a moron.”

“Philly, please don't say that.” Percy raised his voice slightly as he walked up next to him. “You just forgot. We all forget sometimes.”

“I don’t just forget things, Percy,” Philly replied. “That one was like my favorite too.”

Percy wanted to respond, he wanted to assure Philidelphia so badly. His indecisiveness merely had him standing in front of him in utter silence. He only watched helplessly as Philly looked down at the broken kite. 

Not knowing what to do, he hesitantly leaned on him. Philly looked out on the shore frustrated at himself. He resorted to breaking down the situation piece by piece. 

Philly looked down at Percy, he was in a bit of a sour mood but Percy was here. And he couldn’t help but look down at him and feel just a little better. He wrapped his arm around Percy pulling him closer. Percy closed his eyes while Philly looked forwards reflecting.

“You smell like cinnamon” Percy softly noted.

“I do?” Philly sighed. “Thats odd.”

They both just sat there.

…

The sun was slowly beginning to set, the crowded beaches were now scattered with a remaining few. The air had gotten cooler. Percy and Philly were now just standing silently as they let the waves crash against their legs.

Philly looked down, staring at the waves hitting his feet before slowly leaning down and sitting on the soft wet sand. The wave quickly raced up the shore and soaked Philly’s shorts immediately.

“Why?” Percy finally broke the silence. He squinted his eyes in confusion.

“Because I can.” Philly rebutted.

“Your messing up your shorts,” Percy said, “You have to drive back to campus for an hour, isn’t that gonna be uncomfortable?”

“No.” Philly scoffed, he paused for a second. “Maybe…”

“I don’t need you shifting around while you drive,” Percy rolled his eyes and smiled “ It’ll probably make it worse than it already is.”

“Than it already is?” Philly repeated.  

“Your driving sucks,” Percy remarked.

Suddenly a sprinkle of water landed on Percy’s face causing him to flinch.

“Hey, don’t splash me because I’m right” Percy swung his left leg causing water to land on Philly.

“Crap you got it on my shirt” Philly splashed him back with one swing of his arm

“Well, you messed up my mane.” Percy used both of his legs to splash Philly. Once he let the water land on him, he jolted up and started flapping his wings.

“You can’t get me from up hear!”

“Percy, you seriously forgot I could gly too!” Philly scooped up some seawater and fluttered his wings up in the air before outstretching his arms and releasing it on Percy, managing to soak him.

“Okay. Maybe you can.” Percy paused before swinging down once again,  he flew back up and splashed Philly in mid-air. Philly started to sway around, seemingly disoriented while closing his eyes. He slowly lowered himself back down to the ground attempting to land but he ended up misstepping and landed butt-first on the sand. 

Percy was now descending towards the ground too. He landed before Philly and puffed up his chest pridefully. 

“I totally won that one.” Percy proclaimed.

“What no fair!” Philly screamed. “Water got into my eye.”

“Oh…oh my gosh, I’m sorry” Percy raced over to Philly. “Let me see.”

Philly managed to catch Percy off guard and splashed him.

“Hey!” Percy screamed. “No fair.”

“Thats for the watery eyes.” Philly bragged. 

“Not my fault that you lost.” Percy smiled. “You fell…” 

“Because of the water,” Philly said as he got close to Percy’s face. “I got you last and since you're not going to do anything back. That means I won.”

“Really, if won means lost then yeah..” Percy looked into his eye. “You lost and I… succeeded.”

“Oh did you,” Philly said calmly.

“Yeah…”

Percy and Philly locked eyes for a second, and they both stared each other off for a few seconds as the waves began to crash on both of them.

“Your eyes are beautiful,” Philly said. 

“Philly…” Percy laughed, “Stop trying to flatter me, it's not going to work.”

But in a very contradictory act, Percy quickly pecked Philly on the cheek, emboldened by some force beyond his comprehension. He looked at Philly who seemed rather shocked. A mutual silence once again resumed, however it was a very unnerving silence. 

“Oh…Oh my God.” Percy jolted back and looked down. “I’m so sorry. God, what was I thinking.”

Percy felt Philly softly caressing Percy’s face and leaned in. Percy’s snout went behind the array of Tentacles that covered Philly’s mouth. They kissed each other, practically nullifying the relevance of time itself. The space around them seemingly disappeared, the waves, the people, and even the skies, and the shore, were all gone. At that moment, the only thing Percy knew was that he wanted this moment to last forever.

But it didn’t. 

They backed away from each other both staring into each other's eyes. Percy was now the one shocked by what Philly had done. 

“Heh, I didn’t even know you had a mouth,” Percy responded nervously.

Philly burst out in laughter. Unable to control his laugh his body curled. 

“I tend to forget that too.” Philly gathered this breath 

They paused again looking down at the flowing waters crawling up to the sand.

“ I have a weird question…” Percy asked. “Does this… does this make us a thing?”

“Do you want us to be a thing?” Philly questioned in return.

“Totally,” Percy answered.