Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Amphitrite’s face was slicked in sweat, but Poseidon thought that she never looked as radiant as she did now, smiling like she had just won the lottery, which Poseidon supposed she had. They all had won the lottery this time.

“He’s here.” Poseidon murmured, shifting his gaze down to the wriggly little bundle in her arms. Their son. He was a tad bit purple, as expected of babies when newly born, he had read. His eyes were closed, his little chest rising and falling as he let out the occasional little baby noises and twitched once in a while. 

“My baby. Our Triton.” Amphitrite breathed. Triton, that was his name. Amphitrite had been in charge of names, and she had told him it was a surprise.

“Triton. A handsome name for a handsome boy.” Amphitrite beamed up at him, and Poseidon pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

“Our lovely baby.”

-

Poseidon was trying really hard not to stare at Perseus. His youngest son (son!) was in the backseat of the car, sullenly staring out the window. He understood, really. Perseus had just lost his mother, and the thought sent waves of Sally and pain down his spine. But as he tried and failed not to stare, he looked at Perseus and for some obscure reason, wondered how he had looked like as a baby. Triton was a pudgy, red little thing that had brought immeasurable amounts of happiness and little baby laughs into their house. So what about Perseus, had he looked like Triton or Sally, had he made Sally laugh as he refused to eat and smeared his baby food all over his face, had he struggled in the bathtub and pooped at the wierdest times?

This was a baby, but was he Poseidon’s baby anymore?

Of course he is! One part of him argued, He’s literally my son!

Yeah, but he wasn’t raised by me, and we’re basically strangers at this point. The more rational part shot back.

Still related by blood, I tell you!

It takes more than blood to make a fucking family!

Poseidon sighed, and pretended not to notice Perseus’s subtle flinch at the noise. Note to self, don’t sigh anymore. Yeah, not happening. He sighed again.

-

Poseidon sat down at the dining table with Triton after showing Thetis off, watching as Perseus disappeared upstairs. When he left, he fixed Triton with a stern frown.

“Triton.” Triton glanced at him with a scowl.

“What.”

“Don’t take that tone with me, young man.”

“Oh, fuck tones ! Is that what’s important to you right now?”

“Triton!”

“Mom’s dead!” Triton snarled and Poseidon flinched. There was a short silence. He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath, the wound aching with dull pain.

“I know. We’re both grieving, Triton. I know.” Triton had the sense to at least look ashamed.

“I— sorry.” Poseidon stood up and walked over to his oldest, and crushed him against his chest. He felt Triton inhale sharply, then a shudder passed through his shoulders and he hugged his father back fiercely.

Poseidon lost track of how long they stayed like that. It could have been an eternity for all he cared. When they parted, Triton had stopped crying but his eyes were glassy and red and Posieden’s were slightly misty.

He cleared his throat. “Triton, I know you’re grieving, but… Perseus is too.” Triton looked up at him, confused.

“What do you mean?” Now it was Poseidon’s turn to be confused. He had told Triton about Sally on— oh— wait, OH, OH SHOOT.

“Triton, Percy recently lost his mother as well.” Triton’s eyes widened comically.

“ What?!”

After another long conversation about Perseus’s circumstances and why he was living with them, Triton let out a long sigh and plopped his head into his hands, letting out a muffled groan.

Poseidon patted his son’s back.

“There there, you didn’t know.” Triton cracked open an eye to glare at his father.

“Papa,” Something cracked in Poseidon at the address “I just implied to a twelve year old CHILD who’s mama just got KILLED that I don’t like him because he EXISTS. ” Poseidon winced.

“When you put it like that…”

“Just tell me I messed up.”

“You messed up.”

“Papa!”

“ You told me to say it!! ”

“You’re insufferable!”

“Like father, like son, son.”

-

The next morning, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Poseidon felt like shit. He contemplated calling the aquarium on a day off and just staying in bed— Triton could handle himself— until he realized he had a new child with a bucket load of trauma to take care of. He was about to drag himself out of bed when he realized he was not on his bed (he hadn’t been sleeping there since Amphitrite— well…) and on the couch instead. He sighed, stood up, headed into the kitchen, and froze as he made eye contact with Perseus at the foot of the stairs. He seemed to be about to head up.

He had to say something! Poseidon opened his mouth—

“Morning” He almost winced at his own voice, it was…very gruff. Perseus looked sheepish, like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have.

“Morning. I, um, was going back upstairs.” He looked exhausted, the dark circles under his eyes sent pangs of something through Poseidon although he couldn’t really name it. 

“Since you’re up you may as well get showered and dressed.” Poseidon really didn’t know what was going on with his mouth, he did not mean to be that…sharp. He would do better with the next one, “What do you want for breakfast?” Okay, not much better, but still, progress!

“It’s okay. I’m not hungry.” Poseidon frowned. He thought back to last night’s dinner, how Perseus had barely even touched his sushi, perhaps 6 pieces tops? He studied his youngest closely for the first time. The dark circles weren’t the end of it. Perseus seemed to be very thin too, borderline unhealthy. Well, he didn’t know how it was in Perseus’ old home, but he would not have his children starving in this house. Nope, nada, not happening.

“I’ll just get the cereal out so you can pour a bowl of whatever you like. Excuse me.”

He hummed as he pulled out some frosted flakes, hearing Perseus go back upstairs for a shower. Soon after, Triton came downstairs. He surveyed the kitchen for something, or someone, maybe.

“He’s taking a shower.” Poseidon clarified.

“How early did he wake up?” Triton frowned. As a teenager, he couldn’t relate to waking up early voluntarily, Poseidon thought wryly.

“Hmm, he seemed rather awake when I woke up, so probably around 5am or so.” Poseidon guessed. Triton’s frown grew deeper. 

“He looked tired yesterday.” Triton muttered.

“He looked tired today too,” Poseidon snorted.

“...What does he want for breakfast?”

“Said he wasn’t hungry, “ Poseidon shrugged. “I’m getting out some cereal right now.”

“He wasn’t even eating dinner yesterday.” Triton huffed worridley. Poseidon rolled his eyes. 

“I know, I know.”

There was a bit of silence while Triton shuffled to the counter to get his own bowl of cereal and Poseidon poured himself some coffee and pulled up some work documents that needed to be signed for the new dolphin rescue program.

They could both hear Perseus’ light steps pattering down the stairs, and Triton, surprised, started shoveling cereal into his face. Poseidon frowned.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Triton replied, mouth full of frosted flakes. Poseidon recoiled in disgust as a few pieces flew out and onto the table.

“Quit being disgusting.” He snapped. Triton rolled his eyes, and Poseidon felt stumped. What was the matter with him? They were having a perfectly civilized conversation not even five minutes ago!

“Yeah, well, I’m done now,” Triton grumbled, standing up to clean his bowl. Poseidon made an affronted noise, but quickly switched his attention to Perseus, who gingerly sat down and stared at him awkwardly like he was going to blow up any second.

“Help yourself to something to eat,” Poseidon offered.

“I’m okay,” Perseus repeated.

Between Triton being a little shit and it being 7am in the damn morning, he simply grabbed a random carton of cereal, poured it into a bowl (12 year olds ate that much, right?), added milk, and roughly slid it to Perseus, who looked like a deer in headlights “I said I don’t-,”

“Just eat the damn cereal, Perseus,” Oh, well, he hadn’t meant it to come out like that . Triton snorted from the sink, obviously laughing at Poseidon’s dilemma. Perseus glanced at Triton laughing and his expression soured into an ugly scowl. Poseidon’s dad senses only had time for a quick ‘watch out’ before,

“Triton should have it, I bet he’s still hungry,” Oh brother. His kids were just like him . Reckless, sarcastic, half made of spite. Triton, in a truly Poseidon type of temper, whirled on his younger brother.

“What was that?”

“Here,” Percy smiled sweetly, pushing his bowl in his brother’s direction. “Big, growing boy, huh?”

“Oh, shut your mouth, you scruffy little-,” 

“Triton!” Poseidon sighed, a migraine building out of nowhere. “Grow up, the both of you! Perseus, I won’t tell you again, eat your breakfast. Triton, you should know better. Set a good fucking example,”

“Speak for yourself, old man,” Triton snarled, stomping out of the kitchen. Poseidon would need to speak with him later.

The table settled into an awkward silence. Poseidon finished off his papers, sipping his coffee throughout. Perseus just sat there, ignoring the bowl of cereal. Irritation seeped into Poseidon, but he stamped it down and decided not to say anything. How often did he eat square meals? Poseidon’s heart ached, but he bit his tongue and held his breath. For now, anyway.

Chapter Text

Triton acknowledged the fact that the first time he met Percy would be an unforgettable core memory in his life. He remembered learning that his Papa had another son that would be coming to live with them, and he remembered cussing out the kid’s mom in his room, thinking that she was taking advantage of the fact that Mama had just died not too long ago. Who did she think she was?! He stood at the bottom of the stairs and focused an intense glare at the door that was about to open, and it did. Poseidon came in first, obviously leading the way. Behind him…that was him. Percy. Triton almost did a double take at the boy. He had Papa’s sea green eyes and his hair was a dark dirty blonde, just like Papa as well. In fact, the kid seemed to be almost a chibi duplicate of their father, although Triton could make out features that would be from the boy’s mother.

Papa cleared his throat, “Triton, this is Perseus.” Who liked to go by Percy. Auntie Hestia had told him. Triton was still studying Percy, his dislike growing at each moment. He didn’t like this strange new child that resembled their father too much, didn’t like the fact that they had different mothers.

If Mama was his mom, I could have loved him. Some voice bemoaned in his head. Triton quickly shut that down.

“Hey.” Percy’s voice was hoarse, which prompted Triton to do another examination of him. It was then that he noticed how painfully thin Percy was, the dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, his skin pale and sallow. Triton swallowed, a lump in his throat forming. Why did he look like that? Auntie had said he was twelve years old. He looked more like nine.

His eyeballing must have taken too long because Poseidon cleared his throat. “Triton, your manners.” Triton almost rolled his eyes at this. He wasn’t not being nice, although he could see why his father thought that.

“Hello.” He grumbled, wincing at his tone of voice. Percy seemed to curl even more into himself.

“Be nice.” His father muttered in Greek. “Why don’t you show your brother to his room, Triton?” 

“Why do I have to?” Triton had a Chem test tomorrow, he really needed to study. Papa scowled.

“Why do you have to complain? Just do it – and be nice,” Poseidon fixed him with a glare and Triton knew it was over. “I’ll be in the kitchen. Show him the way back down, would you?”

He stomped upstairs, slightly waiting for Percy, and as soon as he heard the boy scampering up after him, he resumed his normal pace.

“Over here,” Triton called when Percy reached the landing. Triton gestured to the room,“This is yours, apparently,” It was the room Triton had almost chosen, the one with the view. Percy’s mouth dropped open slightly as he took it in.

“Thanks,” Percy said quietly, he tried to get in. Triton didn’t move. “Um, do you mind?”

“That room is mine,” Triton told him, pointing to his room, he gave Percy a stern look. “You stay out of it, alright?”

“I wasn’t planning on going in,” Percy snapped.

“Yeah? You kinda look like the kind of kid to go through other people’s stuff,” It came out before he could think about it. General teenage comeback powers, though it wasn’t appreciated at this moment. Percy’s politely set face fell into a scowl.

“What does that even mean?” He hissed. Triton could do nothing but stare at him in what he hoped to be guilt. “Dude, c’mon. You could at least wait a day before giving me a hard time,” Ah, so definitely not conveyed as guilt, then. Triton almost flinched at Percy’s words. But he quickly put his guard back up. This boy was a stranger. A stranger with the same father, but with a strange mother that was trying to push her beloved little baby into the prestigious Olympian household, and apples didn’t fall far from the tree. He glared at Percy in response and stomped into his room, fuming. He shut the door and walked over to his dresser. He traced his fingers over the picture frames on them. Mama, he thought, I miss you so much, Mama. He stared at their family picture, with him, Mama, and Papa in it, smiling at the camera. They were happy. And now she was gone. And what, Percy was to be part of their family? No, never. Triton couldn’t allow it.

-

Achilles and Thetis came over soon after, and Triton felt relieved. At least there was someone to back him up.

“Hey Tri.”

“Achilles. Thank fucking God you’re here.” Achilles laughed, running his hand through his red blonde hair.

“Aww. You saw me yesterday. Missed me that much?” Triton flung a pillow at him. Achilles dodged it. “I saw that um, the kid came today.” Triton snorted. 

“The kid came today,” Triton mockingly repeated. “Yeah, no shit.”

“How are you holding up, man?” Achilles plopped down onto one of the comfy armchairs near where Triton was seated on the bed. 

“Uh, not that great. I just— It feels like I’m replacing mama and everything.” Achilles winced.

“I don’t think Poseidon means it that way.”

“I know Papa doesn’t. It just— It just hurts for some reason.” Triton sighed.

“That’s normal,” Achilles was quick to reassure him. Triton raised an eyebrow. “It is! You’re hurting and grieving, and this is a big change, okay? It’s normal.” 

“...Guess it is.”

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“Aw, fuck this. Let's go out and do something. I can’t stand this house today.” Triton threw his book down.

“So where is he?” 

“Somewhere.” Triton grumbled. They walked out of his room…just as Percy left his own room. Percy’s eyes widened and they quickly flicked to Achilles, lingering on him for just a moment. He was probably trying to figure out who he was. Recognition clicked in his eyes. So he’d met Thetis then.

“Oh there he is.” Triton snarked, and immediately wanted to duct tape his mouth shut. He could feel Achilles give him a surprised look, but he played along. (This was why Achilles was his favorite cousin)

“Hello, Peter, was it?” It was now Triton’s term to give Achilles a surprised look. Achilles knew Percy’s name.

“Percy.” Percy corrected.

Achilles gave him his award winning smirk. “My mistake, I’m Achilles.” Something cold gripped Triton as Percy’s expression changed from curious to annoyed, then resigned.

“Hi.” Percy offered politely. Triton could almost feel Achilles panicking next to him, although he wasn’t faring much better. What were they supposed to say?

Percy saved them from having to answer, as his face darkened and he promptly turned around and went downstairs.

“What was that?!” Triton yelped, rounding on Achilles. Achilles looked at him incredulously.

“What, me? What was with you?! You went all— like— Cinderella stepsister mode!” Achilles punched Triton in the arm. Triton glared at him without any heat, and then sighed, rubbing his arm.

“I know.” He mumbled miserably, stomping back into his room.

Achilles stared after him sadly.

Chapter Text

Thetis had heard about Sally Jackson from her sister, after Poseidon had told Amphitrite about the development. At first, Thetis was mad at her friend for having the gall to date a woman when he was still married, but then she realized that Amphitrite and Poseidon were so far into separating that they really weren’t married anymore. And Poseidon had told Amphitrite about his relationship with Sally to keep her informed about his life, and to respect her choices. So Thetis couldn’t keep being mad. She had even once followed Poseidon on one of his dates, and had spied on his dinner with Sally. It had been so long since she had seen Po smile like that, it was— it was refreshing to see. He may have been her brother in law but he had been her best friend first. So Thetis supported him. Then, Po and Amphy had gotten back together, and Po had broken up with Sally, and she forgot about the whole deal for years. 

So when she heard from an haggard, grieving Poseidon that he had a son through Sally, she had done a spit take and had almost gone over to his house to deck him in the face. Because, what kind of moron fucks a woman and then just casually drops her? He could have at least asked???!! Instead, she went over and asked Poseidon how Sally was faring with her kid, (she knew that Sally hadn’t been very financially stable when she and Po were dating) only for Po to drop it on her that Sally was dead , and the boy’s stepfather didn’t want him. Oh, and Hestia was his social worker.

“Holy mother of messes.” She said to him back then. Poseidon groaned into his hands.

“I know. I– I have another son! What— I-I don’t even know him.” He had whispered brokenly, and Thetis had given him a hug and patted him soothingly on his shoulder because she could feel his pain. He sobbed into her shoulder.

At Amphitrite’s funeral, Poseidon had cried silent tears, stamping down his own pain to comfort an inconsolable Triton, who was bawling his eyes out. It had been a long time since she heard him cry. 

-

Thetis looked at Poseidon’s house anxiously through her window. Today was the day Percy was coming, and she could almost smell the stiffness from her house. She told Achilles to get dressed, telling him they were going to Poseidon’s. Achilles had sprinted along, leaving her way in the back (ugh, kids these days), so Thetis had taken her sweet time. 

“Hey, Po.” 

“Hello.” Thetis pressed Poseidon on with a stern glare. “What?”

“Don’t give me that, Poseidon. Where is he?”

“Perseus is outside. He wanted to go see the beach.” Poseidon supplied with a harrumph sort of gesture.

Thetis raised her eyebrow at him. “And how long has he been out there?”

Poseidon looked somewhat sheepish. “About an hour, I believe.” He sounded surprised himself. Thetis sighed, and walked out of the house, Poseidon trailing after her, but he stopped at the porch, and she kept going. She saw him then, a tiny little figure against the shoreline, standing with his feet in the water. She shielded her face against the fierce wind, and waved, shouting,

“Percy Jackson?” The figure turned then, and sea green eyes met dark blue. He looked just like Poseidon, so much so that it brought back memories of her childhood. She hurried towards him, his features becoming more clear. Indeed he was a little duplicate of Poseidon when he was younger. He also had the darkest dark circles she had ever seen, an unhealthily pale complexion, and he was most certainly too thin. He was wearing a ratty red jacket with what she assumed was a T-shirt underneath, jeans faded and ripped up more than usual, and worn out converse. Her lips pressed into a thin line, remembering Sally’s financial situation again. Poor kid.

“Hi?” His voice came out young and tired. He was obviously confused. Thetis forced a grin.

“Hey,” She finally got to him, struggling to balance well on the windy beach. “My name’s Thetis, hi.” she extended a hand for him to shake as soon as she could reach. “I’m, uh, technically Poseidon’s sister-in-law. But I’m also his very best friend, though he’d never admit it. It’s lovely to meet you,”

“Oh,” said Percy. Some unease flickered in his eyes at the word ‘sister-in-law’ and he studied her, searching for something. He seemed to have found it because he relaxed fractionally.

“Come on in, I brought some lunch with me if you’re hungry for it,” Thetis said, motioning her head towards the house. “I wanted to come by and meet you. I know you’re probably still…settling in,”

She glanced at him at that, at his sandy toes, and had to stop herself from grimacing at how red they were. He had probably been standing there for a while now. 

“I like the sea,” Percy told her suddenly. He had probably seen her looking at his feet. He had a slight red tint on his cheeks, either from the cold or embarrassment.

“I figured,” she replied easily. She lowered her voice, whispering conspiratorilly “That house is pretty big, huh? Even I still find it overwhelming,”

Percy nodded mutely, still looking slightly uncomfortable. Thetis really couldn’t blame him.

“Just wait until you see your Uncle Zeus’s house,” She tried to make more small talk. “That’s a mansion if I ever saw one,”

Percy’s shoulders slumped a little, and Thetis’ heart dropped to her stomach. Had she said something wrong?

They walked across the sand silently; Poseidon’s stare from the porch literally weighing them down.

“What’s that look for?” Thetis snapped at Poseidon when they were close enough. She didn’t like that judging look of his.

“I’m not looking at anything,” Poseidon argued. “What’s that tone for?”

“You. You look like you can smell something bad – cut it out,”

She saw Percy’s lips curl into a slight smile, which broke her heart. How cold had Poseidon been with him?! She followed Po into the house, calling back behind her, “How do you feel about sushi, Percy?”

“Never had it,” Percy replied, rubbing his feet on the doormat to unsand them.

“Never had-?” Thetis couldn’t imagine that , she was making this child try sushi tonight. Poseidon understood the look she was giving him (it was the same look she would give him before she stuffed him full of something he had never tried before too) and started ordering sushi on his phone. Thetis turned to Percy to say something but was cut off by Po.

“Hang on,” Thetis stifled a groan at his tone “Why are your pants wet?”

“I didn’t go swimming,” Percy defended immediately, something like panic shining in his eyes. “I didn’t even go knee-deep! It was just windy and the waves kept coming stronger than I thought they would!” He looked positively terrified by the end of it. Unbridled, raw anger rose in Thetis. No child should ever have to look like that. Never. Couldn’t Poseidon see that he was scaring the boy?

He didn’t, apparently, because he indifferently commanded. “Go and change into something dry before you freeze,” There was a pause, Thetis elbowed him sharply and he grimaced (good). “…I’ll plate you one of each to try, shall I?” She was going to slap that bitch.

“Oh, well done,” Thetis hissed at him sarcastically as Percy fled upstairs. “What the hell are you doing, Po?!”

“I don’t know,” Poseidon groaned, dropping his head into his arms. “Tee–” Thetis did a double take at the old nickname. He hadn’t called her that in ages. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Well don’t be so callous to the poor kid! His whole life has been uprooted in an instant! Last thing he needs is an uncaring parent.” Poseidon glared at her.

“I do care.”

“I know, Po– really, I do. But Percy doesn’t, and you need to show him that you care, that you love him.” Poseidon stilled at the L-word. 

“I know. But I don’t know how to.” 

They knew Percy was going to come down any second, so they quickly spread the sushi containers out on the island. Thetis grabbed Poseidon’s arm.

“I know it’s hard, Po. But just— try. I know you can do it, okay? You were an amazing papa to Triton.” Poseidon didn’t answer, but he nodded. Thetis knew he would try. He was too stubborn not to.

Percy came down and took a seat in between them, pulling the plate they had set up for him closer to him. He tried the Avocado roll. Thetis watched him eat.

“What do you think?” She asked.

“I mean, it’s rice,” said Percy. “Never had seaweed before. I think I like it,”

“That one had avocado in it, right? Do you like that?”

“Uh-huh,”

“Good. Hey, I don’t suppose you saw my idiot child while you were upstairs?”

“Achilles?” Percy nodded, amused like she had hoped by her calling her son an idiot.

“You may be seeing quite a lot of him from now on. Triton and Achilles have been peas in a pod since they were born. They’re always hanging out at this house or mine with their other best friend. Achilles, though, can be…well, he has a strong personality. If he tries anything stupid, let me know,” Thetis explained, Percy looked apprehensive once again. She shot a look at Poseidon, who quickly swallowed his eel and added on,

“Or me. Him and Triton egg each other on like they are little schoolboys still,” Poseidon rolled his eyes, trying to act casual and actually succeeding for once. “Do you know if they’ll be coming down?”

“They didn’t say,”

“More food for us, then,” Poseidon sat down with a huff, Thetis gave him a smile saying ‘good’ and he relaxed more. He tugged the saba towards him and Thetis almost melted when she saw Percy try the same one, then make a sour face at it.

“So, Percy. Tell me a bit about yourself,” Thetis started.

“Uh…like what?” He asked nervously, swallowing. Poseidon sat up, no doubt interested as well.

Thetis shrugged, waving her chopsticks. “Anything, I guess. Here’s what I already know: you’re twelve years old, you grew up in the city, and you seem to like the beach,” she gave him a crooked grin “What else is there?”

Percy seemed to contemplate the question.

“My favourite colour’s blue,” he offered, “And, um…my favourite animals are horses?”

Thetis gasped out loud. Finally! Finally something Poseidon could work on! “Well, isn’t that a coincidence?!”

She sent a look Poseidon’s way, and he very slightly nodded.

“Did you happen to spot a little building up the beach?” Thetis asked Percy.

Confused, Percy nodded. “Um, yeah. That way, right?” He pointed in the direction.

“Tell him what that building is, Poseidon,” Thetis was literally the best, she knew.

Poseidon lept for the chance “A stable,” he told Percy. “I own and rear horses, in my spare time. I currently have three, one of which is Triton’s,”

To their surprise, Percy winced. Thetis thought about what Po had said. He had said one was Triton’s so… oh. Percy had probably been thinking about her sister. Thetis held back a sigh.

“That’s really cool,” Percy murmured quietly. He stuffed another piece of sushi in his mouth before they could say anything else.

“Maybe you can both take a walk down there at some point,” Thetis grasped at threads.

“Maybe we can,” Poseidon replied, trying too.

Percy stayed silent.

Chapter Text

Poseidon would forever deny if asked that he was feeling nervous on the first day of school— Triton was 17, he had been doing this for a while now— but it was also his first first day of school with Perseus, and he wanted it to be perfect. Perseus came downstairs, fully dressed as usual. Poseidon didn’t understand why he was always fully dressed, Triton liked to stomp around in pajamas. In fact, when the weather got warmer, he would often walk around in nothing but boxers, moaning about the heat.

They made awkward eye contact, and Poseidon willed himself to say something.

“Dressed already?” Oh for fucks sake , why did he let his stupid mouth run? That made it sound like he was never paying attention to how Perseus dressed, since he was always out of his pajamas every day. Indeed, Perseus shot him a confused look, then pressed his lips into a thin line together. He shuffled past Poseidon, poured himself a glass of water, glanced at the clock, then went back to his room, ignoring the cereal as usual. Poseidon should have expected it, really. Perseus never ate breakfast. But it was also the first day of school and Poseidon had hoped it would be different today. He had hoped for too much, of course.

He could hear Triton’s music playing, and he rolled his eyes. Teenagers. He finished his coffee, snagged a bagel and finished that too. When the clock hit 7am, he called,

“Time to go, you two!”

They came down in complete silence. Triton had been avoiding his brother, camping out in his room mostly. In Poseidon’s understanding of it, Triton had chickened out trying to apologize to Perseus about his rudeness, and had instead stubbornly held out. As if anyone was going to say that Triton wasn’t Poseidon’s son…

“Have you both got everything?” he asked in front of the door, shrugging on a jacket.

Percy nodded, while Triton sighed and said, “Yes. If you’re not gonna lecture us then I’m out, I said I’d meet-,”

“Hold your horses. We’re driving together so you can show your brother where you’ll meet him after school,” 

“Why am I meeting him after school?” Triton demanded, and Poseidon shot him a sharp look.

“You’ll be driving there and back together after today,” Poseidon answered simply, grabbing his car keys. “There’s no point in multiple journeys towards the same place, especially since I have to go to work.  Let’s go—”

“I’m not doing that,” Triton argued, right on Poseidon’s heels. “Dad¸ I’ve got better stuff to do than wait around and play babysitter for some–”

“For your brother,” Poseidon said curtly. “I’m sure Achilles and Patroclus won’t mind him sitting in a car with you twice a day, will they? He’s travelling with you and that’s the end of it,” He watched Triton scowl at Perseus and give him a dead arm, despite the younger boy not having said anything in the argument. Frustration washed over him. What was wrong with Triton these days? They had already worked this out with civilized conversation skills!

-

In no time, Saturday morning had rolled around. Poseidon had noticed that Perseus was trying hard with his schoolwork, which filled him with a strange pride. Perhaps there was another reason Perseus’ grades were so bad from his previous school.

Much to his surprise, Perseus was awake at his usual 6:00AM. Certainly a change from Triton, who liked to sleep in sometimes till noon on weekends.

“You’re up early.” It was more a question than an observation and Perseus nodded, looking for his glass that he used for water. But he didn’t say anything. 

Poseidon thought back to the past week, thinking of times he had seen his youngest. He came up blank and felt the urge to go stand in a corner and cry. Constant communication was important for fostering parent child relationships, and even though he had literally been reading that parent book for the whole week now, he had completely disregarded the contents of it. Poseidon should try going to a bar with Thetis, maybe drink his woes out.

“It’s a weekend, you’re not sleeping in?” Perseus shook his head, but offered no explanation. Poseidon gave up trying to pry, he obviously didn’t like it.

“Are you going to work?” Perseus asked as he filled his cup with water. Poseidon’s brain short circuited for a second at the voice. Perseus had talked to him! First! Asked him a question! Poseidon ignored the confetti in his head, he needed to formulate a good answer. 

“I’m working later, yes,” he said slowly. “Would you…like to come along?” Yes! Go Poseidon! That was great!

“Huh?” Perseus cocked his head. “Um. I dunno? I…I’d get bored, wouldn’t I?” Bored? Why would he be bored? Didn’t children like aquariums?

“An aquarium isn’t interesting enough for you?” That came out…snarkier than expected. Hopefully Perseus wouldn’t take it the wrong way.

“…What aquarium?” Poseidon.exe stopped working again. What did he mean— 

oh.

oops. 

“I…own and manage an aquarium. Nereid’s Aquarium and Marine Mammal Conservation facility,” Poseidon explained awkwardly. “…I assumed someone would have told you. Triton, maybe,”

“Or you,” Perseus snapped. Guilt and irritation bloomed in Poseidon at his tone. He knew it was stupid, Perseus was right, yet…

“If you don’t want to come, you can stay here.” Oh, great job Poseidon, you just ruined your chance, he told himself grumpily.

Perseus scowled at him for a few more seconds, but the expression soon faded to glassy eyed nostalgia, which concerned Poseidon for a bit. It didn’t seem healthy for him to have such a weary look in his eyes.

“I’ll come.” Perseus finally bit out.

“Good. Go and get ready, we’ll leave within the hour.” Percy left, and Poseidon slumped in his chair.

He already had a kid, and he had done just fine with Triton. Why was he so bad at this?

-

The drive to the aquarium was uneventful and silent, just like every other car ride there had ever been between the two of them, but thankfully they were at the aquarium faster than expected. Poseidon pulled up into his parking spot in the staff parking lot.

“Thetis works here, too?” Perseus was looking at Thetis’ parking spot.

“She’s basically my second-in-command, yes. We have worked together since I founded the place,” Poseidon told him, remembering sadly how Amphitrite had helped them plan the whole thing out. “C’mon.”

They walked into the lobby and Poseidon made a beeline straight to the receptionist who balked when they saw him coming.

“Good morning, Mr Olympian! How are you?”

“Yes, good morning. This is Perseus Jackson,” Poseidon gestured at Perseus. “Will you add him into the system and get him staff clearance, the same as Triton’s?”

“Yes, sir, of course,” the lady said quickly, tapping into her computer. “I’ll have his card delivered to your office as soon as it’s ready,” Buisness complete, Poseidon walked through the gates, swiping his lanyard. Perseus waited until the receptionist cleared him to get through.

He led Perseus to the stingray room, feeling a strange sort of warmth in his gut as he watched his son’s mouth drop open, letting out noises of awe at the scene. For the first time since Poseidon had taken guardianship of Perseus, he watched his youngest son’s face split into a bright, genuine smile. Yes, yes. This was a good idea.

“Thetis!” He called, spotting her on the other side of the room, talking to some other employees. She saw him, frowned, then started to make her way over. He turned back to Perseus.

“Stay close to me, it’ll be a nightmare if you fall in.”

“I can swim.” Perseus pointed out petulantly.

“That isn’t the issue, it’s the paperwork I’d have to fill out. And the shit the public would say if they saw a kid swimming with the stingrays,” said Poseidon, feeling the urge to chuckle at the childishness that Perseus was displaying right now.

“They’re de-stinged, though, aren’t they?” Perseus guessed correctly. Poseidon watched him lean over the railings to look at them, watching as he laughed again. He had…never seen him laugh before.

“No, you can’t touch them,”

Perseus huffed, but turned to greet Thetis “Hi, Thetis.”

“Oh! Hey, Percy – I wasn’t expecting to see you here today,” Thetis said as she turned around, giving Poseidon a look. “Or you. I thought I told you to take a day off?”

“I told you that that wasn’t necessary,” Poseidon retorted. “And I thought…well, you like giving tours…,”

There was a pregnant pause. 

“I do like giving tours,” she said slowly before she looked at Perseus. “What do you say?”

“I mean…aren’t you busy?” Perseus asked nervously. Poseidon really wanted to ruffle his hair.

“No, no, your father can take over my workload this morning, since he keeps rejecting my offers to take his. Besides, you’ll be spending quite a lot of time here in the future, huh?” Thetis wrapped an arm around his shoulders, steering him away from Poseidon. “Best to get a lay of the land sooner rather than later. I’ll get you one of the maps that we give to our interns, actually, in case you get lost on your own,”

Poseidon watched Perseus gape at Thetis, and turned towards his office, laughing.

Chapter Text

Thetis found it adorable that Percy knew so much about marine life. He was an avid asker as well, which she happily indulged, going into full teacher mode. She was glad that there was something that Poseidon could talk about with Percy, although whether or not he would was up to him. She watched sadly as Percy pressed his hands against the glass of the seahorse tank, eyes darting rapidly to watch all of them. She hadn’t ever seen him this excited before.

“You’re passionate about marine life, then?” She teased at his open mouth awe.

“I mean, yeah, I’ve always liked sea stuff,” Percy nodded enthusiastically  “Mom used to-,” he cut himself short, and Thetis could see the exact moment that the happiness bled out of him. It physically stung to watch, seeing a twelve year old close himself off. She didn’t pry. She didn’t have the right to ask about it yet. And she’d gotten the gist of it from Po. Instead, she smiled ruefully and ruffled his hair. She watched Percy take a deep breath.

“She used to take me to the beach every year on vacation. There weren’t very many fish, but I’d pretend there were. And I’d go and look in the rock pools to find crabs and stuff…” He trailed off. Thetis could work with that.

“We have a station that’s set up like a rock pool simulator,” She told him, gesturing for him to follow. “We’re big on those kinds of exhibits, ones that are fun but educational. Fancy a go?” Percy didn’t seem too keen on the idea.

“Can we go upstairs?” 

“Of course.” She led him back upstairs, and instead explained the numerous jobs of the employees here, the behind the scenes of the tanks, and just cool things that the backstages hosted.

“Poseidon spends most of his time in the rehabilitation center,” Thetis explained to Percy, leading him to the door entering said center. “Which is right here.” She opened the door and Percy stepped inside.

If Percy was excited from the tanks and sealife from before, he was vibrating from the dolphins, penguins, and walruses. Thetis quickly handed him a container of sardines and directed him towards the two dolphins, Abra and Cadabra, watching him take off towards them with a fond smile. She stayed behind and dialed her best friend.

“Is Perseus alright?” Poseidon’s gruff voice immediately answered. Thetis rolled her eyes. God, this idiot.

“Well, hello to you too.” She quipped back, and she could almost see him pinching the bridge of his nose on the other side.

“I assume Perseus is fine?” He muttered. 

“Of course, do you think I would let anything happen to him?”

“No, no. I was just—”

“Po, I’m teasing.” There was silence on the other end. “I was just calling to ask if you're okay with me and Percy heading to your office soon.”

“What? Of course, what kind of question is that?”

“Oh, forgive me, Mr. I-Can’t-Handle-Children, I assumed that since you threw Percy at me for a tour and got your ass out of the room in a second, you didn’t want to see him.” Bitterness creeped into her voice. Throughout Triton’s childhood, Poseidon had never been like this. He loved Triton to the ends of the world, and everyone knew it, most of all Triton. The little brat had been pretty spoiled. She knew that Po probably loved Percy just as much, but the fact that nobody except her and maybe Hestia could tell was not promising.

“Oh— no, Thetis. I— I just…wanted to make him smile a bit. And uh— he wouldn’t do that if I was the one touring him.” Oh. Shame pooled in Thetis at his dejected tone.

“Oh.”

“I-Is that what he thought too?”

“I-I don’t know. But uh…It seemed like that to me, so… yes probably.” Poseidon let out another long sigh at her words.

“I see. Well, you and Perseus will always be welcome in my office.”

“Okay. We’ll see you there in a few. Bye.”

“Goodbye.”

Thetis glanced over at Percy, watching him squeal as Abra snapped up another sardine. Oh Poseidon, what are we going to do with you?

-

“Is there more? Can I please feed them more?” Percy jumped up and down in front of her, hands clasped together in a ‘please’ motion.

“So you can spoil them rotten? I’d be out of a job,” Thetis winked. “Sorry, buddy, but that’s enough for the dolphins. How about you say goodbye to them so we can go find your dad?”

“I’d really rather stay here,” Percy said quickly. Thetis winced. Oooh, ouchie Poseidon. Look what you’ve done.  

“Nonsense. C’mon buddy.” She decided to just…forcefully convince him. She steered Percy away from the dolphins and towards Poseidon’s office. Please don’t let this go wrong.

She strutted into Poseidon’s office, Percy trailing uncertainly behind her. She made eye contact with Po, hoping he got her mental message; Please don’t fuck this up and dramatically gestured at Percy.

“Here’s your child back.” Too late, she realized Po was on his phone. He waved them in, which was sort of unnecessary seeing that she had already plopped onto the couch.

“Yes, yes, do that, then,” he said to whoever he was talking to. “Alright. Alright. Yes, just get it done by the 15th, I said, I don’t care how you do it. I’ve got to go – be sure to forward your moronic questions to Thetis in the future.”

Thetis scoffed as Poseidon threw his phone down. “Oh, I see. That’s what I get as a thanks for all my hard work?”

“Your thanks are in your incredibly generous paycheck, and you have always told me I am too coarse to deal with these sorts of 'diplomatic' matters,” Poseidon replied tersely, eyes focused on the computer in front of him as he typed away – he hadn’t once looked at Percy since he’d walked in, and yet he asked, “How was your tour?”

Percy was silent, glancing over at Thetis. She stayed silent, and raised an eyebrow at him in a ‘go on’ look.

“It was good,” Percy shuffled his feet back and forth. Poseidon still didn’t look at him, making Thetis want to facepalm. “I…I got to meet the dolphins. They were really cool. Thetis let me feed them, too.”

“You never mentioned that Percy here’s pretty passionate about marine life,” Thetis tried to salvage the situation. “I didn’t even have to explain things half the time, he seemed to already know it all,”

Percy gave her a shy smile— which melted her heart.

“Did you wash your hands?” Poseidon suddenly asked. Thetis clicked her teeth together to stop her jaw from dropping. OH. MY. GOD. POSEIDON. I SWEAR—

“Huh?” Percy cocked his head. Please please please please, POOOOO don’t you dare—

“After you fed the dolphins,” Poseidon said slowly, and Thetis’ heart dropped. “Did you wash your hands?”

Percy’s face fell, and something cold and bitter took its place. “Um, no…”

“There’s a bathroom out the door and to the right, at the end of the corridor,” said Poseidon. Thetis had half a mind to slap him.

Percy sniffed his hands, making a face as he did, then trudged out of the room.

“ What was that?!” Thetis rounded on Poseidon, fuming. Poseidon flinched, but didn’t look up.

“His hands were dirty.” 

“I am having none of that nonsense, Po. You hear me? None of it! ” Thetis let out a frustrated sigh. “Why can’t you just… I dunno, be nice to him? Try to compliment him or— or spend more time with him— get to know your son a bit?” Tears pooled in her eyes, anger at her friend and sympathy for his child with a dead mother and a cold father mixing into a melting pot of emotions. Poseidon didn’t say anything, but Thetis could see his eyes, stormy and conflicted.

“Everything you do, everything you say. It’s so…cold, Poseidon. It’s hard to watch.” She told him.

He didn’t respond.

Percy came back a few moments later, sad and resigned like he had been the day before, none of the happy excited child she had seen who’s eyes had almost popped out of his head when he saw the beluga whale.

Thetis took a deep breath.

“Why don’t we have Percy shadow us for the rest of the day?”

Chapter Text

“Dude Triton! You need to get over here, man.” Achilles’ panicked voice rang through as soon as Triton picked up the phone call.

“What’s wrong? And where is ‘here’?” Triton frowned. Achilles wasn’t the easily agitated type.

“Uh, cafeteria. Your bro— Percy. He’s fighting some other middle school boy.” At that, Triton’s eyes widened. He hadn’t seen much of Percy these days with the younger boy always disappearing into the stables as soon as they got home, and following their father to the aquarium on weekends. Apparently he was a big marine animal fan. Anyhow, the Percy he’d met and had observed for the past two weeks wasn’t a violent kid. If anything, he seemed pretty passive in most things, not responding much to Triton’s taunts or jabs (which always made Triton feel bad, but he was never going to acknowledge that).

“On my way.” Triton promised his friend, and hung up, hurriedly making his way through the halls to the cafeteria. There was a large crowd on one side, and he pushed aside middle schoolers, trying to get to the center– 

He got to the center just as Percy punched the other boy straight in the face, causing blood to fly. Offhandedly, Triton felt kind of proud, but the moment didn’t last. The other boy was larger, meaner looking. He pushed Percy off of him and got on top, hitting and punching Percy back. Triton’s brother struggled from the floor, flailing and scratching but never quite getting anything done. Triton could only stare, watching his brother get beaten up with a shocked sort of stiffness. He saw Percy’s face, and the expression made him freeze up even more. Percy didn’t look angry or vindictive, didn’t look cruel or violent. The wild look in his eyes looked like a desperate animal backed into a corner, lashing out in fear. He looked like a hurt kid who was trying to cover his wounds up with anger. But he was also smiling, grinning like he was relishing the fight, like he was thrilled by the turn of events. Triton watched numbly as teachers pulled the two boys apart, but quickly startled back into sense as one (it was Mrs. Dodds. Great, just great.) started to march Percy towards the office.

“What happened?!” He hissed at Percy, who was staring off into nothingness. He glared at Triton venomously. 

“None of your business,” Mrs. Dodds replied haughtily, nose wrinkled like she had smelled something rotten. “Move along!”

Triton had half a mind to throw the finger at her, but decided that Papa didn’t need another kid in trouble. He shot Percy a ‘hold on’ look and ran back into the halls, dialing his father. Poseidon picked up on the second ring.

“Triton? What’s wrong?” A sort of warmth spread in Triton’s chest at the concern in his father’s voice. It bled out when he thought about Percy.

“Papa, you’re uh— you’re going to get a call from the school soon. It’s Percy—” 

“Perseus? What happened?”

“He’s okay! Well, he’s fine for the most part. He got into a fight. One on one, the whole deal, y’know.”

“A fight?” Papa echoed.

“Yeah. I think he was the one who started it. But he looked…scared. And deperate— maybe the other guy said something really mean to him?” Triton didn’t know why he was defending Percy, but the words spilled out of his lips like a flood.

“Alright. I will handle it.” His father’s voice was gruff and firm. Triton couldn’t tell what he was thinking. But then… “Thank you for telling me, Triton.”

“Y-Yeah.”

His father hung up, and Triton just stood there for a bit, phone still pressed to his ear, thoughts swirling in his head.

-

His papa sent him a text saying that he had taken Percy out of school, so Triton only had two passengers in the car. Even though Percy never really said anything in the car, there was something empty about that car ride. He didn’t want to think about what had happened, the way Percy had looked. Achilles and Patroclus had no such reservation though. 

“So why did Percy get into that fight? What started it?” Achilles asked as soon as they got out of the campus.

“Bruh, I saw him tackle that boy to the floor and just start…y’know pow pow.” Patroclus shrugged. Triton’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. But he kept his voice light.

“Dunno, honestly. He just glared at me when I asked. Did you know he has my dad’s glare?”

“Wow, must have been hella intimidating.”

“When he’s that short and beat up like that? Nah, looked half-hearted at best.” He drummed his fingers against the wheel to the beat of the music playing. Some random shit from Achilles’ playlist.

“Okay, but when he gets older.” Achilles waggled his eyebrows.

“That’s a problem for Future me.”

“Wow. Look at you, such a procrastinator.” Patroclus snarked.

“I’m a senior with straight A’s. I have the right to procrastinate a little bit.”

“You don’t see me doing that.”

“That’s because you’re a freak.”

“Achilles! Did you hear that? Triton just called me a freeeakkk.”

“I mean…”

“Oh c’mon!” Patroclus gave Achilles his puppy eyes.

“I-I meant it with LOVE.” Achilles spat out, blushing a violent red. Triton rolled his eyes. He was third wheeling in his own car. They pulled up in front of Triton’s house.

“Alright, alright. Out, lovebirds, you two.” They both spluttered indignantly.

-

Triton headed up the stairs, thinking about his brother (when did he start calling Percy that?) the whole way. He simply couldn’t get Percy’s expression out of his head. Maybe I should get him to start counseling like Papa wants.

But Papa also wants me to start counseling, and I refused. Sooo…I’m being hypocritical.

Shhhh, we don’t talk about that.

Triton let himself and Achilles into the house. Thetis and his father were waiting for them.

“Hey there, my idiot child.” Thetis snickered. Achilles rolled his eyes and pecked her on the cheek.

“Hello, my hilarious mother.” Thetis grinned. She waved Triton over.

“Triton, tell Percy to come down, will you? I wanna take a look at him.”

“Sure.” He quickly headed upstairs. He barged into Percy’s room before he could chicken out. 

Percy seemed to have fallen asleep, only half awake and staring blearily at Triton. Triton winced at the visible bruises on Percy’s face.

“How was your first fight?” Triton asked.

Percy rubbed his eyes, groaning. “Not my first fight,” he said, his words slurred with sleep. Oh, that made sense. He didn’t seem too inexperienced in brawling.

“What was it over?” He prodded. Percy glared at him through half lidded eyes.

“Get out of my room.” The answer was immediate. Angry, defensive. Scared.

“When you tell me what it was about. Dad had the ‘only fight outside of school with friends to back you up’ talk with you, right?” Triton persisted, leaning further into the room. He remembered when his father had had that same conversation with him. He’d taken the advice to heart, and had never lost a fight since.

“Yes,” Percy sighed, cracking his neck and wincing. 

“So?” pushed Triton. “What. Was it. About?”

“Just some other kids being jerks.” Screw Dad’s stubborness genes. Probably was an Olympian thing. But Percy is a Jackson—

“Alright, fine, I’ll find it all out tomorrow. Oh, and Thetis wants you to go downstairs,” He jerked his thumb towards the door.

That woke Percy up a bit. “Huh? She what?”

“Yeah, she got here just as I did. Go on, don’t keep her waiting,” Percy rushed out, clearly excited to see her, which hurt a bit. But Triton couldn’t really blame the kid. They weren’t brothers or anything.

Chapter Text

It was a few days later when Triton lay in bed, tired but unable to fall asleep. Usually, his teenage horomones would be all over the place trying to get more sleep, and yet this time, he was staring at the ceiling listening to his dad snore from the guest room. His chest tightened at the thought. Papa hadn’t slept in the master bedroom since— well, Mama.

Triton got up and went downstairs, getting some water from the kitchen and downing the glass. Feeling sort of lost, he went back upstairs, pausing by Percy’s room. He thought back to all the times he had seen Percy in the mornings with dark circles. Yeah, he really couldn’t think of a time when that had not happened. He wondered if he was sleeping properly.

On a whim, he rapped his knuckles against Percy’s door.

⚠️ Trigger Warning ⚠️ - Mentions of Panic attacks. If this triggers you, do not read the next part. I will have a line with warning emojis to show you when it ends.

“Hey. Mind if I come in?” No answer. He frowned. Maybe Percy fell asleep? He pressed his ear against the door, trying to hear if Percy was doing anything. There was some weird whooshing noise, but that couldn’t be— oh? Percy— was Percy wheezing? Triton knocked the door more urgently.

“Percy? Percy, are you okay?” No answer again. Triton couldn’t stand it. He burst into Percy’s room, searching wildly. He saw his brother immediately. He was on the floor hyperventilating, clutching his hair. His fingers were digging into his scalp, pulling at his hair hard enough to make Triton feel the pain. He rushed to help.

“Percy, Percy! Hey, look— it’s okay! Percy—” Triton tried to remember the days when Achilles had just lost his leg. The days in the hospital when his friend and cousin would wake up screaming and flailing from phantom pains and memories of red, his heart monitor screaming at Triton and Thetis. He tried to remember what he had done back then, and yet when he thought about it, he had really done nothing. He cried with Achilles, held onto his hand as Mama and Thetis tried to calm him down. Just repeated “it’s okay” over and over and over again to deaf ears. He thought about Mama. Unwaverable strength when her sister was breaking down watching Achilles struggle. A pillar that had just managed to keep the floor stable.

Mama was the warm hand that patted him, brushed hair from his face when he was sick, or hugged him close when he cried. Papa was the strong and firm one, that in young Triton’s eyes, could lift mountains and part seas.

Triton wasn’t Mama. Nor was he Papa. He was him. Young and flawed, too headstrong and stubborn, who held grudges too easily and refused to listen to others. 

He didn’t know how to help. But he tried.

He gripped Percy’s wrists tightly, preventing him from tearing at his hair any more. Said boy was still struggling to breath, dragging in labored, hiccupy inhales that made his body shake.

“Percy, you need to breathe. C’mon shitface, you need to breathe, okay?” He watched Percy try to take a breath, choking on the air instead.

“C-c-can’t.” He bit out. Triton started taking large, exaggerated breaths.

“Yes you can. Like this, Percy. Breathe with me, okay?” It felt like forever, but Percy managed to start breathing properly again. He was panting at this point, trying to catch his breath. When Triton deemed it safe to leave him alone, he moved to stand up.

⚠️End of Trigger Warning ⚠️

“I’m gonna get Dad—”

“No! ” Percy’s hands shot out, latching onto Triton’s sleeves so hard that his knuckles turned white.

“Wha—”

“You can’t tell Poseidon. N-no telling P-po—” Triton didn’t know what to do. He had to tell his father. Percy couldn’t just stay like this. But Triton thought about what Papa would do if he found out. He would sit Percy down, stare at him in his intense way, and try to talk about it. He would try to ‘fix’ the problem. Percy didn’t need a ‘now’ fix. He needed something that would fish out the root of the problem. Help that Poseidon couldn’t give him. And what would Triton even accomplish by telling his father? Make Percy close off even more? 

Percy needed someone he could trust, Triton decided. That way, the next time something like this happened, Percy could reach out to him for help. The fastest way to gain trust was… Triton closed his eyes. Sorry Papa. It’s for good, I promise.

“Okay.” Percy was still staring at him with wide, frantic eyes, pupils dilated, white as a sheet. His breathing was picking up again.

“Okay. I-I won’t tell him.” Triton repeated dumbly. He saw the moment the words registered in Percy’s head. He relaxed slightly, letting go of Triton and curling into a ball, hugging his knees to his chest. He rocked back and forth on the floor, eyes focused on a patch of blank floor. Triton scooted next to him and put an arm around him. Percy flinched, startled, but after some hesitation, sagged against Triton with his full weight, like every atom in his body was pulling him down, and he was too exhausted to care anymore.

Triton took his chances, channeling his inner Poseidon.

“Has this happened before?” Percy’s eyes remained glassy and unfocused. He didn’t answer. Triton gave him a little jostle.

“Huh?” His voice was faint.

“Has this happened before?” Triton repeated. Percy’s dead eyes slid over to meet Tritons.

“Maybe.”

“Percy—”

“It’s none of your buisness.”

“You couldn’t breathe. ”

“I would have been fine.”

“You could have passed out!”

“Then my breathing would have gone back to normal.”

“Oh my god. Has that happened before?!”

“None of your business.”

“Like the hell it isn’t!”

“Why would it be?”

“You’re my brother!”

There was silence.

-

“Can I ask you something?” Percy asked, petting Carmenta. Triton looked over from Hipponoe, studying his brother. 

Something had changed after that fateful night when Triton had blurted out what he thought about Percy. They were still awkward, very prone to bickering, and yet…There was something different about how Percy looked at him. Less resigned, more…anxious. Triton didn’t know why that was the reaction caused, but Percy had also been sticking to him more, and if the brotherly bonding attempt had worked (however disastrous it was), then he was good.

“As long as it’s nothing stupid,”

Percy pursed his lips, hesitating before continuing, “You haven’t, um, mentioned to anyone about my mom, have you?” Triton frowned at him. His mom? His dead mom? 

Anger suddenly flared up in him as he thought of Mama. Did he think Triton would taunt him for that? When Triton’s own mama was dead?

“Why-,” Triton said, through gritted teeth. “-would you think I’d do that?”

“Because those kids last time knew about it,” said Percy, shrugging, still petting Carmenta. Triton had a brief moment of ‘what kids’ before he realized Percy was talking about the bullies he fought. “Even though I haven’t told anyone about it. I’m not accusing you of doing it, I’m literally just asking-,”

“No, no I haven’t mentioned it to anyone,” Triton hissed. “Considering I’ve got a dead mom too I’m pretty sure I know not to gossip about it. Jesus. You really fucking think I’d do that?”

Percy’s jaw set in anger as well. “Well, we’re not exactly best buddies,” he snapped. “How am I supposed to know?”

A loud neigh from Astakos interrupted whatever Triton was about to say. Triton’s mouth closed with a click and he sighed through his nose. He supposed it made sense to Percy, but the thought still vexed him.

“The only person I’ve told is Patroclus, to give him…context about why you’re suddenly living with us. Thetis explained it to Achilles, I’m pretty sure. Neither of them would talk about it, though,” He continued, “The only thing I can think of is that someone’s eavesdropped on someone. Have you asked Dad to find out?”

“Who is he, Sherlock Holmes?” Percy countered, fidgeting nervously. Something else Triton noticed, Percy disliked doing anything with Poseidon. Talking to him, asking him for help, anything. “No, it’s fine, just forget about it. It doesn’t matter now, anyways. Everyone’s going to know from talking about it, plus it’s probably in those videos that people recorded…” He trailed off

“Okay. If you say so.” Triton shrugged, opening Hipponoe’s stall. It had been a while since he rode her last.

Chapter Text

The last Halloween before Mom had died, Percy dressed up as a Blue M&M. His mother had even gone as far to get him the chunky gloves, much to Gabe’s irritation. Percy remembered how Smelly Gabe had preached about saving money and ‘unecessary’ trinkets. Percy had fired back that he was dressing for two since Gabe wouldn’t need a costume— he was already a walrus. For that, he had gotten a plethora of bruises on his torso, a twisted ankle, and a crying session from Mom, who had tried to stop Gabe (unsuccessfully). He didn’t care. He limped proudly down the streets and thrust his cheap Walmart bag out at all the houses with the overly nice women who cooed and squealed at the younger children. Honestly, Percy was so short the ladies thought he was a child. Better for him, he got extra candy. By the time he and Mom returned home, candy was overflowing from the bag, and Percy woke with a stomach ache the next morning from all the chocolates he ate.

That was when he was eleven.

He was twelve this year.

There were fake spiders everywhere in the house (much to Triton’s chagrin) and fake cobwebs littered the corners. Courtesy of Thetis and Achilles’ decorating spree. Percy didn’t think he was ever going to get the image of them furiously decorating with the murderous(?) gleam in their eyes out of his head. Really, the house was extravagantly decorated, it looked amazing.

Pity that Percy was trying not to think about Halloween.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world did not grieve along with Percy because they had never known and would never know Sally Jackson. So as Percy tried to bury himself away from the beloved holiday, he would catch sights of the Pumpkin Dance posters, or school spirit week flyers and the walls he so carefully constructed around him would disintegrate into the wind and Percy could do nothing but bite back his tears so that he wouldn’t randomly burst out crying in the middle of class. Now that would be an interesting conversation with Poseidon. Percy sighed and let his head fall onto the cafeteria table. Grover startled next to him, looking at him worridley.

“Percy? You good?” Percy gave him a thumbs up, not looking at him.

“Peachy.”

He could feel Grover’s concerned stare for the rest of the day. He was a really good friend but…such a worrywart.

-

Hestia visited and left with a whirlwind of ‘bonding moments’ and ‘family times’. Percy once had to sit down and carve pumpkins with Triton! He was mortified the entire time and was too busy trying to get it over with to actually pay any attention to details. The same couldn’t be said for Triton, his pumpkin looked amazing.

Percy knew he was slowly warming up to Triton. He’d long since accepted that his older brother was always a sarcastic shit, not just to him, which made it infinitely better. He hadn’t had much chance to properly search the house yet, but there wasn’t any alcohol in the fridge. So if Poseidon was a secret drinker, he drank his beer warm, like a monster. Although Percy would totally believe it if someone told him that Poseidon had a secret fridge too. The whole Olympian family was filthy rich.

Anyhow, Hestia. Percy understood that she had good intentions, and she was trying to get them more…familial with each other. Yet, she was trying to force it, and that exhausted Percy.

She left each of them a message too:

To Percy, “Make sure you eat all of your dinner, sweetheart, you’re looking peckish,”

To Triton, “Let me know how those college applications are going, hm?”

To Poseidon, “You take care of your boys, Po. I’m a call away if you ever need anything,”

Percy pretended not to notice how Triton stiffened at the mention of College applications. It was none of his business anyways.

-

It was the next morning when everything went to shit. Poseidon was drinking his coffee (again. Percy had tried it once to see if he was secretly mixing in beer with his coffee, because man, Poseidon never left that coffee pot. He probably saw that thing more than he saw his own sons), Triton had toast, and Percy got himself a glass of water, getting squeamish at the sight of food (as usual).

“How are college applications going? Hestia reminded me of them last night,”

Triton didn’t look up. “They’re going,” he waved his toast in the air vaguely.

“Are you still hoping to get into Boston?” Poseidon pressed. Percy watched from the corner of his eyes. At least Poseidon was interested in someone .

“I dunno,” Triton shrugged. “In a few years, I guess.” 

A pause. Percy felt the instant the mood shifted from curious to something darker.

“‘A few years?’” Poseidon repeated stiffly.

Goodbye, oh such rare peace. Percy sighed to himself.

Percy zoned in and out, but he pieced things together from the bits he heard. Apparently, Triton wanted to take a gap year or two just relaxing and hanging out with his friends, go back to Greece or something. Poseidon was 100% against it, making feeble arguments about how ‘fucking dumb’ it was and ‘utterly ridiculous’ it was.

 (A/N: Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!)

Their voices made Percy’s ears ring, his mind flashing back to days in the dim living room, trying to escape Gabe’s bottles and his chubby fists and his nauseating smell that just everywhere—

Percy stood up abruptly. Nobody noticed. There were hot tears running down his face. Nobody noticed. Good. He didn’t want them to notice. He bit down on his tongue to silence the sobs that were ready to erupt, and they started building up more and more— he ran upstairs, the shouting continued. He gently closed his bedroom door and let out a choked half gasp-sob, sliding down to the floor and rocking himself back and forth. He glanced at the clock. It would be over by the time they left for school, he told himself.

It actually seemed to get worse.

⚠️Trigger warning ⚠️ - Panic attack + accidental self harm. Proceed with discretion.

Percy’s hands were in fists, his left hand trembling violently. They covered his ears, trying to block out the fighting. Unfortunately as Poseidon and Triton’s voices faded, Gabe’s voice sneaked in. His heart thundered wildly, blood rushing in his ears.

Useless brat! 

Thump.

C’mere boy…get’m a drink. 

Thump.

Son’ova bitch. Get’ere ya little shit!

Thump.

Stop it. Stop it! Percy pleaded to nobody in particular. His fists lashed out, trying to push away the imaginary offender—

Ow. Percy’s eyes snapped open, the voices quieted, and there was a blissful silence. But all Percy could see was the broken water glass. A shard he was gripping in his palm. Red dripping from his arm. Had he—

Had he just accidentally stabbed himself?

Percy jerkily dropped the shard, left hand shaking even more violently than before. He studied the wound. Bleeding moderately, but not too deep. No broken pieces as far as he could tell. He yanked his shirt off, ripped it into shreds, and wrapped it tightly around his upper arm. He hoped it was the correct way to do it, his knowledge was limited to movies.

He pulled on a black long sleeve shirt. Steeled his nerves. He could still hear the fighting happening downstairs. As he opened the door and headed down, he couldn’t help but wonder:

Why had the pain grounded him?

⚠️Trigger warning ends here ⚠️

-

“You don’t just get to decide shit about my life anymore!” Triton snarled. “If I don’t want-,”

“I’m not trying to decide anything for you, I’m trying to make you realise how fucking stupid-,”

“Um,” said Percy. “Hi? Are we leaving?”

They ignored him.

“The only reason I’d want to go to any college is to get away from you!”

“Then do it! Go! I don’t see anything stopping you-,”

“Hey!” he managed to raise his voice at just the right time before Poseidon could reply. “Can you, I dunno, finish this later?”

“Sure,” Triton gritted out, slamming open the door and storming towards his car. Percy moved by Poseidon, watching him carefully—

A man towering over him, fists raised, lips twisted into a cruel sneer—

Poseidon probably won’t hit us, Percy tried to remind himself, but his body didn’t listen. Staggered to Triton’s car, he got in, and buckled up. Triton pressed the gas, and the car jolted out. Percy eyed the speedometer critically, but didn’t say anything.

A few minutes later, Triton let out a breath, and spoke up.

“Sorry about that.” Percy stared up at him, uncomprehending. Sorry for what?

“For fighting like that in front of you,” Oh had he said that out loud? “I just…needed to get it out, y’know.”

“Yeah.” His voice sounded flat, even to him. 

Triton didn’t talk to him for the rest of the ride.

-

Percy breezed through school, blanking in and out. He felt sorry for Grover, who had repeatedly tried to cheer him up, only for Percy to zone out on him and not answer his questions. 

He found himself staring at the empty space where Triton’s car was supposed to be. His brain was processing things rather slowly, so it took him a few seconds to actually react. He turned around slowly, searching the senior parking lot for signs of Triton’s car. Nope, his brother had bailed on him.

Percy’s arm hurt.

Chapter Text

November’s icy grip made Percy tremble as he wandered through the streets, trying to remember how Triton had drived to school. Unfortunately, most of the routes Triton used were accessible to only cars. Which led to Percy’s current predicament.

He stared at the road, cars coming from every direction. He looked past it at the bridge he needed to get to. There was no sidewalk for him to get to… which meant he would have to jaywalk…across the busy street. He stared and sighed. He waited for an opening, and when he saw one, he quickly darted across. Car horns honked aggressively at him, and he suddenly remembered how Mom had died. He got to the other side, digging his nails into his palms at the memory. His left hand was shaking again. Percy was sick of this. Sick of feeling bad and hurt and alone, sick of wanting to cry every time he thought of mom. Sick of everything.

Stop it, stop it, stop it!

Pop. The noise seemed to resound in Percy’s head, and he wondered why until he felt a warm liquid trickling out of his nose, down his face. Belatedly, he realized he had a nosebleed. 

“Aww, fuck.” His shirt was new! (Good thing it was black) Oh but his pants— he stared down at his jeans— a bad idea, because the movement caused blood to fly and get all over them. He yelped, pinched his nose, and feeling stupid about standing on a random bridge having a nosebleed, he continued the trek home.

Percy’s nosebleed stopped a few minutes later, but his shirt, face, hands, and pants were thoroughly soaked with blood, something that Percy decided not to think about since it sounded (and probably was) morbid. It was almost 5pm when he got home, covered in dried blood, tired, and cold. He didn’t have the keys to the door, so he stashed his backpack behind a pot on the porch and headed to the stables. At least the horses liked to see him. He watched the clock hit 6pm and miserably stumbled back to the house. Spotting Poseidon’s car but not Poseidon, he sighed and knocked on the door. Poseidon always locked it behind him.

The door opened to a confused Poseidon, who’s expression quickly turned to shock and alarm as he took in Percy’s appearance.

“Hi.” Percy muttered sullenly.

“Perseus?! What happened ?” Percy suddenly didn’t walk to talk anymore, his mouth feeling like sandpaper. He shrugged.

“Do not shrug at me, Perseus. Talk. What. Happened.” Poseidon knelt down to Percy’s height, large hands rubbing at Percy’s face, trying to get at the dried blood. Percy had done his best to wipe it off but some of it had just smeared. He searched Poseidon’s face, hand trembling. He searched for anger, disgust, anything— anything like Smelly Gabe.

There was none.

“N-nosebleed.” He croaked. Poseidon cursed.

“Why were you outside? Did you forget the keys to the back door?” Poseidon felt Percy’s shirt, stiff with dried blood, and cursed in Greek.

“Nope, Triton bailed.” Poseidon’s face snapped up.

“He what? When?”

“He wasn’t there after school.” Poseidon blanched.

“How the hell did you get home?” Percy frowned up at him through suddenly drooping eyes. Stupid question, he couldn’t fly or anything.

“I walked. Duh.” Poseidon seemed to ignore his snark, ushering him into the house. 

Poseidon sighed heavily. “That’s not – ugh, you don’t have a phone yet, do you? Skatá,” He felt Percy’s face again, and recoiled. “You’re freezing, fuck.”

“I don’t need a phone,” Percy said quickly. “…A key for the house might be handy, though,”

“You need a phone. You shouldn’t have had to make that walk,” Poseidon grumbled. He led Percy up the stairs. “Do you have any idea where Triton is right now?”

“Nope. Not spoke to him since this morning,”

“Alright,” Poseidon grunted. “Go take a warm shower, throw those clothes away. Do you feel sick?” If Percy didn’t know better, he would have said it was concern in Poseidon’s voice.

“No. I feel fine.” In reality, he was feeling woozy, but he felt woozy a lot these days and nothing had really happened, so…

Thankfully, Poseidon bought it and left Percy alone, thundering back downstairs. Percy rushed into the shower, letting the steam curling reassure him that he was no longer freezing. It didn’t work. No matter how much he turned the hot water knob, he was still cold. He shivered violently in and out of the shower, his injured arm aching ominously, but felt refreshed all the same as he felt his soft new clothes…he was usually against throwing against clothes, but he couldn’t care less about the bloodstained ones he had just had on. Nope, nuh-uh.

He went downstairs, finding Poseidon frowning at his phone, no doubt trying to call Triton. His frown deepened when he saw Percy.

“I’m trying to call Triton.” He explained in lieu of a greeting.

“Oh,” Percy’s mouth twisted. “He, uh, probably just wants some time alone,”

“He’s been alone since, when? 3pm? Earlier?” Percy didn’t have a response to that.

“You’re still shaking.” Percy shifted uncomfortably, trying to stop shivering.

“Yeah.”

“Are you cold?”

“Uh— yeah. Maybe.” Poseidon sighed, got up and got a comforter from the couch. Percy watched numbly, still not processing things right. Poseidon wrapped the comforter around him. Percy blinked, surprised. Wow, he hadn’t expected that. Poseidon frowned down at him again. 

“Are you sure you’re okay? You look a bit pale.” 

Silence.

“Perseus?” Percy started.

“Huh? Uh, yeah. I’m good.” Poseidon raised a sceptical eyebrow.

“No, I don’t think you are,” Poseidon put a hand on Percy’s forehead. Percy leaned into the warm touch. “What the— Perseus—!” Percy could feel himself swaying. Poseidon, panicked, dragged him over and sat him down on the couch. Percy sank into the cushions, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

“Are you alright? Where does it hurt?” 

“Nowhere.” He mumbled.

“Nonsense, you were about to faint . Now, where does it hurt?”

“N-no. Doesn’t…hurt. Just…tired. And cold.” Percy’s sentences were clipped, but he got his point across. Poseidon stared at him for a few good seconds. 

“Very well, I will turn the heater higher. Would you like to go to your room?” Percy shook his head. Poseidon left him on the couch, swaddled in blankets. 

Percy tried to go to sleep.

-

Percy drifted in and out of sleep, fidgeting uncomfortably most of the time. When he did ‘wake up’ it was dark, and from how Poseidon seemed to be still brooding at the kitchen table, Triton wasn’t back yet. Percy winced as his neck audibly cracked, and Poseidon looked over.

“You are awake.” Percy nodded. Poseidon pointed at some boxes on the table. “I ordered pizza. One is for Triton, the other is for you. Is Hawaiian okay?” Percy nodded again. He wasn’t too cold anymore, and his headache was gone. But he really wasn’t hungry. He got up and got himself a glass of water instead of the pizza. Poseidon watched him return to the couch with his water, frowning at something.

“You’re not going to eat?”

“I’m not hungry.” 

“You never are.”

Silence.

“Are you going to call the police?” Percy tried to change the subject. It worked.

“His curfew is at 10:30 on a weekday. So if he’s not back by…say, midnight, I will put a report in,” Poseidon answered flatly. He sounded like he had thought this out. “I don’t think he’s in any sort of…danger. They’ll be able to flag his car on CCTV so we can figure out where he is exactly,”

“But don’t you have an idea of where he might be?” Percy found himself pressing. Like, he thought, his own ‘hiding spots’ around where he used to live; the fire escape outside his old bedroom window, the roof of the apartment building, the riverside path with the bench where he and Mom would have ice cream in summer and winter, even the entirety of Montauk’s beaches. Special places where he could think a little clearer, to hide from the swinging of fists and shouting and rancid scents of beer and BO, or just to feel a little less alone…

Percy shook the thoughts out of his head. Nope, not going there now.

“I’ve…a few ideas,” Poseidon hedged after a couple of seconds, scrubbing his beard again. “But-,”

“We could go look right now,” said Percy.

Poseidon gave him a side eye. “It’s almost 10pm and you are twelve years old. I can’t just leave you on your own this late, and I can’t take you with me, you should be in bed to be rested for school tomorrow,”

“Oh, please,” Percy rolled his eyes. “You’ve literally never cared about me having a bedtime. And, y’know, I was left alone all the time at night when Mom worked the nightshift and Gabe went out to play poker, so I think I’ll be pretty fine for an hour…,”

Percy trailed off somewhat uncertainly, not expecting to find himself pinned by the look Poseidon was giving him. Disapproval, again, but deeper and darker. “While I’d never criticise your mother’s parenting,” he started, and anger started to rise in Percy “No child should be left unsupervised at this time of night,” Oh is this how he wanted to do it?

“But most of the afternoon, every afternoon, in a really isolated house with no neighbours next to the unpredictable ocean is fine?” Percy retorted.

A shadow of something passed over Poseidon’s face. He did not answer. Good, Percy thought vindictively.

“I’m gonna get my shoes and coat,” said Percy.

They spent two hours driving around various long, long beach roads and forested areas that Percy couldn’t see properly, not in the deep dark of the evening. They didn’t talk to each other. They remained tense, like they were two strangers who had been forced to ride in the same car. It seemed fitting, actually. In a way, that was what they were. They didn’t see Triton.

It was past midnight by the time they trudged back inside. Percy shrugged off Poseidon’s hand when it nudged his shoulder and attempted to steer him towards the stairs. He had no plans to go to bed and fall soundly asleep while his stupid, idiot brother was still MIA.

He went to the sofa instead, drawing a comforter over himself to replace the car’s pleasant warmth, and listened to Poseidon finally make the call to the local police about Triton’s absence. Percy didn’t know what the cops were saying on their end of the phone, but the conversation seemed to go a lot smoother and quicker once Poseidon spelled out his full name and said, “Yes, as in Zeus Olympian,”

The night was a blur after that. Percy was so tired. And yet his heart drummed in his chest, some prickling annoyance at Triton and worry swirling in his gut. Where was Triton? Was he safe, someplace he liked? Or was he alone and hurt and wanting to come back? What if he was like mom and— Percy abruptly pressed the spiraling thoughts down. He was in front of Poseidon. He could not afford to show anything.

Poseidon had made another coffee. He sipped at it in-between his endless texting and regular attempts at calling Triton’s phone. A little less regularly, he said to Percy, “Go up to bed, boy,”

Percy pretended not to hear him. He just stared out the wide living room windows, even though the only thing he could see was the reflection of his father’s face slowly morphing into something like worry.

Percy had no idea what hour of the morning it was anymore, or how he’d managed to stay sitting on the sofa doing nothing for so long – but there were lights outside the house. Cold white beams of it moved through the half-closed curtains, burning Percy’s tired eyes and illuminating the tired lines on Poseidon’s face. Percy didn’t dare move.

When Poseidon didn’t move from his seat either (though every muscle had tensed), Percy held his breath. They waited.

The front door clicked as a key opened it up, closing softly again before familiar, tentative footsteps came towards them. Triton rounded the corner of the wall which separated the hallway from the living room, looking just as exhausted as Percy felt.

Triton visibly startled at the sight of his father and brother waiting for him, staring at him, in the living room’s dim lighting. None of them spoke for a few seconds. Percy held his breath some more, drawing the comforter tighter around his shoulders, waiting for one of them to blow up, for the screaming and shouting and punching to begin.

Poseidon started first, “There’s a pizza on the side, for your dinner.” Percy’s brain short circuited. No fighting? No yelling? No beer bottles? That was stupid, Poseidon hadn’t been drinking beer. But he was. He always was. 

Go away!

Triton cocked his head a little. “What kind?”

“Meat feast,”

“Nice,” Triton hummed, pulling the pizza box towards him. “I’m starving,”

“I’m sure,” Poseidon said irritably. “It must’ve been hard work, ignoring all of my calls,”

Triton turned back to face them with a slice of pizza in hand, taking a bite and chewing it before he replied. “Guess so,” he shrugged. But despite the dismissiveness of his tone, there was a shadow of guilt across his face.

“Where did you go?” Poseidon sighed, worry fading into indifference. But Percy also caught the little sliver of emotion between: relief. Poseidon was glad that Triton was back. Percy wondered if he would worry for Percy if he disappeared too. Because he wasn’t like Triton. Percy wasn’t… well…he wasn’t Amphitrite’s.

“Everywhere,” Triton replied vaguely. His eyes moved to Percy. “Why’re you up?”

Percy frowned, migraine slowly growing. “Couldn’t sleep.”

There it was again, the guilty look. Triton chewed his pizza in thought. “Sorry I left you at school,” he said suddenly.

The frown vanished from Percy’s face at the unexpectedness of the apology. “It’s fine,”

“It is not ‘fine’,” Poseidon butted in. “Your brother had to walk all the way home in this weather. I’ll get him a phone and a house key of his own tomorrow, but in the future I’ll ask that you at least drop him off before you pull anymore vanishing acts,”

Startled by the…gentleness of the reprimand, Triton nodded. “Noted. I…wasn’t thinking,”

“I know.”

“Aren’t you…mad?” Triton asked, only just coming to the question that Percy had been asking over and over since he’d walked through the door. Poseidon’s attitude was completely opposite to what it was a few hours ago, never mind this morning. It was like the aftermath of Percy’s fight at school all over again.

“I’m sure I will be when I have had some sleep,” said Poseidon, pinching the bridge of his nose “Just…finish your pizza and get to bed. You can consider still having to go to school in a few hours, your punishment for now, then…then we will talk in the afternoon. Okay?”

“Okay,” Triton said simply, looking mildly uncomfortable “…Can I take this upstairs?” he waved the pizza box.

“Sure. Go,” Poseidon jabbed a thumb at the stairs. Triton went, murmuring a quiet ‘goodnight’ as he passed.

As soon as he was gone, Percy couldn’t help but ask, “That’s it?”

“I told you I wouldn’t shout,” Poseidon replied, pushing himself up from the armchair. “And I think I do need to sleep before we can have the conversation that needs to be had. Now go to bed, Perseus,”

Poseidon returned to the kitchen for some reason, and as soon as he was out of his sight, Percy’s pent up exhaustion hit him full force, and the strength left his body. He collapsed onto the couch in slow motion, like a tower slowly toppling over. It was a very uncomfortable position. Percy wanted to move, but his body said otherwise.

Sleep. It begged him. Sleep.

Percy slept.

Chapter Text

Triton sure regretted running away yesterday when his father came to wake him up in the ‘morning’, as if they hadn’t basically pulled an all-nighter. He came to his father gently shaking him awake, just as he had done when Triton was younger. It made him kind of emotional, and he gave a fake yawn to cover up his glassy eyes. 

He headed downstairs, where Percy was already up, drinking his usual cup of water (did the boy eat anything? ). They eyed each other warily. Triton searched Percy’s face for a clue about what he felt about Triton after…well, yesterday. Percy seemed to be doing the same. Wincing at his younger brother’s dark circles and pallor, Triton looked away and pushed past to get cereal.

“Come and get something to eat.” Poseidon told Percy. Percy shook his head.

“I gotta go change.” He dashed up the stairs. Triton watched him go sadly. Indeed, Percy never ate breakfast.

Their father decided to drive them to and from school today, which was more than fair, seeing what happened yesterday, but also was pretty embarrassing. Yeah, he would most definitely not be running away anymore.

Triton and Percy both sat in the back, with Poseidon in the front. Neither had really wanted to sit with him. Triton peeked at Percy from the corner of his eyes, watching him rest his forehead tiredly against the window, staring out at nothingness as he did rather often. Triton’s nerves prickled uncomfortably, remembering the first time Percy had that expression on his face when he had had a…panic attack. Triton still hadn’t told Poseidon about it, keeping his promise to Percy, but he knew he would have to break it someday. But for now… Triton watched Percy’s eyes lose their light, and shivered. Something about it felt worse today.

-

The ominous feeling lasted until lunch, when Triton was sitting with Achilles and Patroclus, eating. They were talking about sports and games when the PA system crackled. 

“Please pardon this interruption. Triton Dorisa, please make your way to the office. I repeat, Triton Dorisa, please make your way to the office. Thank you.” Triton was very confused.

“Dude, what did you do?” Achilles snickered.

“Nothing! Well– I’m pretty sure I didn’t—” Triton spluttered, wondering what it could be about.

Achilles shoved him towards the hallways. “Just go, man. Tell us what it was later.” Triton made his way to the office, and walked in. There was his father, standing in all his exhausted, sleep deprived glory, glaring sullenly at the woman at the main desk.

“Dad?” Poseidon turned to see him.

“Ah, Triton. Hello.” Triton furrowed his eyebrows in utter bewilderment.

“Hi? Uh— nice to see you and all but why are you here?” At the question, his father’s face darkened again.

“Percy had a nosebleed.” 

“O…kay?” Nosebleeds were fairly common, there was no need for him to come here. Poseidon seemed to read Triton’s mind.

“He had one yesterday too, while walking home. The nurse contacted me because it wouldn’t stop for some time.” Oh? Guilt and concern bloomed in Triton like a beautiful, thorny flower. He had left Percy alone yesterday, causing him to have to walk home, when he had a nosebleed, and should have been staying still. But also, why was Percy having nosebleeds?

The nurse’s door opened at that exact moment, and Percy walked out. To put it short, Percy looked like shit. He was pale, dark circles even more prominent, and his shirt was covered in blood. He stopped short when he saw Poseidon and Triton.

“Oh…hi.” Poseidon nodded towards him.

“Hello Perseus. How are you feeling.” Percy shrugged. 

“Fine,” He looked at Triton. “Why are you here?”

Triton shrugged, “Dunno, they called me here.”

“It’s because,” Poseidon interjected “It seems that we are all exhausted from…last night, and I suggest we all go back and get some rest.”

“Even me?” Triton blurted out.

“Even you.” Poseidon’s expression softened. He stood up and headed out towards the parking lot, beckoning for Triton and Percy to follow.

Both boys hurried after him. 

“Hey, shitface,” Triton whispered to Percy. Percy looked up at him questioningly. “You actually good?” He took in Percy’s state again, wincing.

“Yeah. Fine.” Percy said. Liar, Triton’s inner voice hissed. Liar.

Triton stayed silent, though. 

-

Poseidon sent Percy up to change as soon as they got home. He turned to Triton.

“Get some sleep, son.” It was then that Triton studied his father closely for the first time since yesterday. Poseidon’s wrinkles were more prominent. Dark, puffy bags were under his eyes, and he was constantly his forehead with his hand, massaging his temple like he was having a migraine.

“Okay.” Triton headed up to his room. Right as he was going to enter, Percy exited from the bathroom in clean clothes. They stared at each other for a few seconds. Triton moved to go into his room,

“He was worried.” Percy’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“What?”

“Your dad. He was worried,” Percy looked mildly uncomfortable. “I could see it.” Triton could feel tears prickling at his eyes. He knew his father would have been worried… yet to hear it from someone else…

“I know. Thanks,” Triton rubbed the back of his head, Then he frowned, looking up at Percy. “He’s your father too, y’know.” Percy looked away.

“...yeah.” Percy said skeptically. He darted into his room. Triton stared at the empty spot he had been in the moment before. He too went into his room, and decided to sleep his thoughts off. 

He fell asleep staring at Mama’s smiling face from the frame next to his bed.

-

He woke up sometime late in the afternoon, and he walked into the kitchen trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. To his immense surprise, he found Percy there, munching on an apple. 

“Woah.” Percy shot him a dirty glare, swallowing his bite.

“I was hungry.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m not saying anything.”

“...”

“You just…I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat on your own.”

“I didn’t have dinner yesterday.” Oh. Yeah, that…made sense.

“Oh.” Triton paused. “Do… you want something other than the apple?”

Percy shook his head. “No. I’m good.”

“Cuz that’s a really small apple—”

“I’m good.”

“...okay.”

Triton walked away, not noticing the way Percy’s hand shook, even worse than before.

Chapter Text

Perseus sidled up to him nervously, and Poseidon was already on guard.

“Hey, Poseidon?” Perseus said.

“Hey, Perseus?” Poseidon returned in the same tone, lifting his head from the newspaper he was reading.

Perseus pursed his lips. “Um, so. I was wondering – I left some things back at my old apartment in Manhattan. Some of…um, my Mom’s things. I kinda want to go get them,” Oh.

Poseidon leant forwards on his elbows, giving Perseus his full attention. “I think we can arrange that,” he said after a moment, nodding. It made sense, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought about that. But since he was asking now, did that mean he was opening up to Posedion?

“Can we?” Perseus’s face lit up, warming Poseidon’s heart, but also making it ache. He didn’t want Percy to be so anxious about asking such an obvious question. “Okay, okay, good. Um, when?”

“It’ll have to be organised through Hestia, so it’ll depend on her,” Poseidon told him. “Do you need them very soon?”

“Uh…no,” said Perseus. “It’ll probably be okay if it takes a bit of time,”

“Very well, then. Leave it with me,”

“Don’t you know your mom’s boyfriend’s number? Why don’t you just call him to ask if you can come over?” Triton asked from where he was sitting sipping a protein shake (despite it being early by his standards), trying to be helpful. Poseidon was proud of him.

Perseus barked out a laugh. “No. He’s a jerk who hates me,”

Poseidon studied his youngest, startled at the change in demeanor, from meek to bitter. He’d heard things about Gabriel Ugliano from Hestia. He hadn’t wanted Perseus, and was a generally filthy man. A tendril of dread snuck into him. What if….

No. That’s a baseless accusation. We don’t know anything for certain.

“What?” Perseus asked self-consciously, wiping his cheeks and mouth as if there was something on them. Oh he had been staring for too long.

“What is it?” Triton added, just as confused as Perseus.

“I just remembered something,” Poseidon replied vaguely. “I…hm. You’ve never mentioned your stepfather before,” He had to do this very carefully.

“Why would I?” Perseus looked offended at the idea.

“Well, how long was he your stepfather?”

“I dunno, since I was, like, five,” said Perseus, flustered. “But he married Mom when I was seven, so, uh, it became official then, I guess? Why?”

Triton whistled, standing up to wash out his empty bottle. “Must’ve been a real jerk if you don’t talk to him after knowing him for half of your life,” he said. Poseidon’s dread grew.

“Well, yeah. He liked my Mom but hated me,” Perseus said nonchalantly, as if that was something he should be calm about. “The reason I met Hestia was because he ‘surrendered his rights’ to take care of me when...a few months after it ended up being just the two of us, y’know?” 

“Oh, yeah, I totally forgot that was how you met Hestia. Didn’t she, like, fall over when she saw you?” said Triton, snorting over the sink. Poseidon watched their back-and-forth quietly, still trying to figure out the complicated relationship with Ugliano.

“She was a tiny bit creepy,” admitted Perseus, smiling a little. “She kept staring at me after she picked me up, like, oh my god, and I thought there was something wrong with my face or something. But she was also nice about it-,”

“Yeah, that sounds likeTheía-,”

“Alright, alright,” Poseidon cut them off. “That’s enough chattering. Go and get changed, the both of you, I’ve got a busy day ahead today and I don’t want to be late. Perseus, I will call Hestia about it when I can,” He needed to think about this.

As they both headed upstairs, Poseidon dialed Hestia.

“What’s wrong?” She picked up on the second ring.

“Nothing. Do you really have so little trust in me?” Poseidon scoffed.

“...”

“Okay, fine. I was wondering about Perseus’s stepfather.”

“Oh, him? What about him?”

“How…was he? I hope you know what I mean—”

“Yes, yes. Of course. He was uh— well, he was a lot of things but for starters… he was filthy, disgusting, reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke, didn’t seem to care about Percy at all… I would honestly be surprised if he liked Sally at all too.” Hestia ranted. Poseidon blinked. Thoughts raced through his head. The dread settled.

“...Alright. Thank you.” Poseidon hung up as his sons came down. He looked at Perseus again. His youngest son with too much pain and not enough love. Poseidon didn’t know what to do with pain. But he had always loved Triton. He just needed to remember how to do it for Perseus.

-

<Triton’s POV>

Halloween was supposed to be a time of fun and costumes and eating candy until one got sick and had to hunch over the toilet vomiting.

Instead, Triton stood next to his father staring into Percy’s room as they tried to get him to come down for dinner. His younger brother was facing away from them, doing a pretty good job of convincing them that they were asleep if not for the slight shaking of his shoulders that gave it away that he was crying. They tried, they really did. If he would at least get up , they could try to help. But there he was lying, dead to the world, ignoring Triton’s and Poseidon’s calls and olive branches.

“Let him sleep.” Poseidon said out loud eventually, even though Triton knew that he knew Percy was awake too.

They headed downstairs and ate their dinner. Poseidon spoke up when Triton was about half done.

“How are you doing these days, Triton?” Triton looked up in surprise.

“Uh, fine? Why?” 

“I just feel like I haven’t spoken to you in a while.” Triton thought back, and realized he was right. With…Percy and everything that had happened, they had rarely been able to talk alone.

“Yeah, I guess. How are you?”

“I’m doing fine too. Thank you.”

Awkward silence followed. Triton worked up his courage, remembering when it had been so easy to talk to his father.

“So…” Poseidon’s head snapped up, the hope in his eyes almost making Triton tear up. “I have this really shitty halloween movie… do you… want to watch?”

Papa smiled. “Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”

Chapter Text

(Poseidon POV)

Poseidon fixed his shirt, glancing at the clock. 10pm, perfect. 

“Boys, get down here!” He called, and once they were down, he gestured to the wide array of snacks and the movie he had prepared. Percy’s eyebrows were up to his hairline, confused, and Triton also looked perplexed. Poseidon shrugged on a long coat, waiting for them to say something.

“What’re you doing?” asked Triton.

“I am going out,” Poseidon replied, not quite meeting either of their eyes as he fiddled with his coat cuffs, those darn buttons.

“Going out where? With who?” Triton prodded.

“With Thetis, to a bar, to drink alcohol and laugh at strangers for a few hours,” Poseidon delivered this declaration with a pointed look at Triton to remind him of the talk they had had a few days earlier. “I’m told I ‘need’ to get out of this house for reasons beyond working or ferrying one of you two around. We have had a conversation about this, Triton,”

Triton grumbled, shrugging at the floor. Percy’s head swivelled between him and Poseidon, and Poseidon could almost see his son trying to communicate with his eyes from the intense stare he was giving his older brother.

“I trust you two will be okay while I’m gone?” said Poseidon after a brief pause.

“Yeah. We’re not babies,” answered Triton. He poked Percy in the back so Percy would nod along in agreement. Poseidon almost laughed at their antics.

“I will set up the overnight alarm system as I go, so do not go outside unless it is an emergency. Do not fight or harass each other. Share the snacks and do not argue over the remote. Do not wait up for me, I will let myself in when-,”

“You’ll text me if you’re going to be later than, like, 1am, right?” Triton interrupted.

“If you would like, though I doubt I still have the energy to stay out for that long,” Poseidon said wryly. He shared a look with Triton, trying to tell him I promised you, remember? I promised you I would try better.

Triton gave him a miniscule nod, and Posedion knew he’d understood. He left the house with a slightly lighter heart.

-

He sipped his drink, sighing heavily. Thetis, dressed in her usual overalls, thumped him on the back, leaning back with her drink.

“What’s wrong, Po?” She asked teasingly. Poseidon glared at her. She laughed. “Oh, my mistake, I forgot that your whole life is in shambles right now.”

“Not my whole life.” Poseidon grumbled, feeling pettily insulted. Thetis snorted.

“Fine, fine. Not your whole life. Just…about 90% of it.” She pressed. Poseidon groaned into his hands.

“I shouldn’t have come here.” 

“Nuh uh, none of that, Po. We both know you’ve been too tight recently— with everything, not just the boys. You need some time to unwind. And hey,” She swirled her glass. “What better than to drink it off if you won’t go see a counsellor like a hypocrite.” Poseidon glared at her. She didn’t even flinch (of course she didn’t, she’d been his friend for eternity ).

“Right.” 

“So,” Thetis took another sip of her drink, “what do you want to talk about?” Poseidon sighed. Straight to the point as always.

“...Perseus. I would like to talk about Perseus.” He muttered.

“Alright. Sure. Go ahead.” Thetis leaned back in her chair. Poseidon took a deep breath.

“I always feel like I’m not doing enough for him, Thetis. I— I rarely talk to him unless he asks me something, he avoids me like the plague most of the time. And…even without that, he seems…off,” Poseidon paused. Thetis’ gaze softened. She had a ‘go on’ expression. Poseidon chugged back his drink. Better to knock it all back and let the words flow. Perhaps Thetis had been onto something, getting him drunk. “He rarely eats, gets a fuckton of nosebleeds, and I don’t think he’s sleeping well either. There are these moments when…I see him just staring off into nothingness, and he looks so…” Poseidon met Thetis’ eyes. Amphitrite’s eyes. His heart burned. “Empty.”

He miserably drank his whole cup again (it had been refilled sometime during his rant) and leaned back, the alcohol making him woozy. Thetis hummed distractedly.

“What about Triton?” She asked. Poseidon perked up a bit

“I tried bonding with him a bit on Halloween…I, ah, we watched a movie together and he…fell asleep on me.” He smiled at the memory. Thetis did too.

“Good, you both deserve it,” She stared at her glass for a few seconds. “But Po, I’m sure you know that you’ve majorly fucked up in general.” Poseidon sighed again.

“Yes, I do know that.”

“You need to apologize. They need to hear that you care, they need to understand that you’re trying.” Thetis layed a hand on his arm encouragingly.

“I– I don’t know how…the words simply won’t come out in front of them, ‘Tee.” His voice cracked, the alcohol was finally getting to him, he realized as tears stung in his eyes.

“Write it down, then,” Thetis slid a napkin over to him. Poseidon stared at it for a bit, then emptied his glass again. He needed to get more drunk for that.

-

An hour or two later, Poseion had two napkins in his hand, all messily scrawled on.

Perseus, I am sorry for neglecting you. I am sorry for being cold and seeming uncaring. I promise I care. I am sorry for not comforting you in your time of need. I am sorry for not being a father to you. I am sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. Please forgive me. I am so, so sorry…

Triton, I am sorry for neglecting you. I know you are grieving, and I know Perseus’ appearance initially hurt you. I am sorry for not acknowledging that. I am sorry for closing myself off because of Amphitrite when we were both hurting. I am sorry for being so rough and callous. Triton, I love you. I’m sorry for making you think I don’t care. I do care. I am so, so sorry…

He was leaning heavily on Thetis, who was cursing trying to keep him on his feet. She dragged him to the parking lot and waved over a taxi. She shoved him into the backseat of the car. 

“Tell me how it goes, Po.” She said earnestly, giving him a firm, kind squeeze on his shoulder. He blinked up blearily at her. 

“Thanks, ‘Tee.” He slurred, giving her a thumbs up.

The taxi started home, and in no time, he was at his front door. He unlocked the door and staggered in, barely remembering to lock it behind him. He shuffled into the living room and came face to face with Perseus, who was on the couch, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. They both froze.

Apologize! Thetis’ voice rung from his head. Say that you’re sorry, Po! Show him you care! Show him you lo—

“Hello.” He said blandly. Perseus stiffened, every muscle in his body tensing. Then he tilted to the side— oh, nope. That was just Poseidon’s world spinning. He frowned at the floor, and then shifted his gaze back to Perseus… he had never seen him this anxious before. His son got up stiffly, body still locked so much it looked like it hurt.

“I’m going to bed.” His voice was tight too, but with underlying anxiety mixed in. Poseidon was confused. Why was he being like this? Had something gone wrong with Triton?

Perseus headed towards the stairs. Poseidon reached out.

“Wait— wait a minute.” He paused to collect himself. Perseus was looking back at him now, eyes wide. He needed to collect himself, needed to sound nice. “Did you – did you and Triton have a good evening?” 

Bingo!

“Yep.” Perseus said flatly. Poseidon studied him. Body tense, eyes darting, breathing through his mouth. Okay, he could talk about that later.

“Good. …You okay?” He tried.

“Yeah.” Perseus looked down, fidgeting with his hands. Poseidon frowned again.

“You don’t…look it.”

“I’m tired. …I’m trying to go to bed,” Ah, yes, that would make sense. However, something deep within Poseidon told him that something was wrong. Something was very wrong. There was something Perseus wasn’t telling him. He raked a hand through his hair, not missing how Perseus’ eyes darted to the staircase again, like he wanted to flee— wait.

Was he…scared? Of Poseidon? Poseidon wanted to cry again. He wanted to get down on his knees and scream and wail and throw a fucking fit telling Perseus that he had messed up. He wanted to take his youngest in his arms and beg him for forgiveness. Would that be enough? 

No. He thought. I’ll just scare him more. He had to be calm. He had to apologize just like he had brainstormed at the bar.

“I’m sorry,” He started. “I have been thinking about saying ‘sorry’. Thetis has told me I should say it, multiple times. I know I should say it everyday – so I am saying it now. I’m sorry. Perseus,”

He reached out, then, and Perseus took an instinctive step back, sending a tendrils of cruel hurt stabbing through Poseidon’s heart. 

“Sorry for what?” His voice was so small, so young. Poseidon thought back to Perseus’ age. He was 12, gods, he was twelve, with a dead mother and too much pain, and a father that didn’t seem to care in a whole new strange house with strange siblings and strange people— 

“Neglecting you,” answered Poseidon, patting down his pockets. He couldn’t find the napkins, he must have left them in the taxi.  Skata. “Not – not knowing what to say to you. Or to Triton, for that matter. For…for many other things. I wrote them down on a napkin so I wouldn’t forget, but I think I have managed to lose the napkin. Skatá,”

“Okay,” Perseus breathed out. 

“Okay?” Poseidon repeated, his eyes searching Perseus’ face. It wasn’t working. Perseus was still scared, and he wanted to leave— he was nervous. Poseidon didn’t know what to do.

“…I don’t think you even mean it.” Percy sighed. Poseidon wanted to yell at him,

I do mean it! I do mean it, I do care, and I love you so much son—

“I do mean it-,” he began to insist.

Perseus stepped around him with a scoff, so irritated he snapped, “If you’ve got to drink to say it, you don’t mean it.” Poseidon’s mouth snapped shut. He had a point there.

He hurried towards the stairs again. Poseidon reached out to touch his shoulder to make him look at him again so they could make this right, so Poseidon could tell him how much he cared. But as soon as his hand made contact with his son’s shoulder, Perseus knocked him away with an audible whack and shouted, “Get off, asshole!”

He was breathing heavily, eyes wide and alarmed, lashing out like a cornered animal. Poseidon watched in shock as he sprinted up the stairs into his room, the door slamming shut with finality.

Poseidon stood there for a few moments, numb and cold. What had just happened? He headed up the stairs slowly, trying to think where did it all go wrong? And he got his answer when he remembered Gabriel Ugliano.

Perseus’ stepfather. Also an alcoholic.

He’d heard stories about alcoholic parents. None of them were ever good. The dread in his stomach turned to ice. Had Ugliano also been like them? Was he the one that had made Perseus so scared of alcohol, of drunk men? Was he the one that made Poseidon’s son so painfully reserved and cold and unwilling to open his heart? Had he made Perseus scared of loving others? Poseidon paused by Perseus’ door. He could hear muffled sobs from inside. He didn’t try to go in. Perseus would need space after this, it was the least Poseidon could do.

“Papa?” 

Chapter Text

“Papa?” Triton blinked at his father from his doorway. He’d fallen asleep after the movie ended and had only woken up because of the slam of Percy’s door.

Poseidon was blinking owlishly at him as well, looking rather lost.

“Triton.” His voice was weary. Triton bristled, glancing at Percy’s shut door and the little whimpers coming from behind it.

“What’s wrong with Percy?” 

“I…made a mistake.” His father’s words were slightly slurred, and Triton realized belatedly that he was probably drunk. 

“Yeah no shit!” Triton snapped. “What happened?!” The image of Percy, hunched over, unable to breathe flashed into his head. 

“I— I tried to apologize,” Poseidon looked downtrodden, almost like a child. 

“Apologize?”

“Y-yes. Triton, I’m sorry. I was talking about it with Thetis… I’m so sorry, Triton. I’m sorry for neglecting you and making you think I don’t care and—”

“Stop. Just…stop,” Triton’s eyes burned. He didn’t want to hear an apology from this drunk man in front of him. He wanted a real apology from a sober father who knew what he was talking about and would remember what he said the next day. Secretly, it still warmed him to hear.

Poseidon stopped as he had asked. He studied Triton for a bit, then ran his hand through his hair. 

“Alright, I won’t say anything. Just…get some sleep, Triton.” He patted Triton on the arm dejectedly and walke away towards the guest room to sleep. Triton took his advice to heart and stumbled back to bed. 

-

Next morning, Triton mulled over the events of the night before in his head. The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got. It hurt, it really did. He could see his father was trying, and he was struggling too. But how could he just waltz into the house drunk and apologize and pretend that was fine? It sent waves of pain down him, as he remebered when Mama and Papa came home drunk together, singing nonsense songs and whipping mushy pickup lines at each other that made Triton laugh.

He listened to his father approach Percy again and ask him to come down to breakfast, nodding in approval as he heard him apologize for the night before. Not wanting to eat breakfast with him, and he doubted Percy wanted to as well, Triton went to Percy’s room, where his brother was staring blankly out the window, looking absolutely miserable. He knocked on the already opened door. Percy jumped, and turned to look at him.

“Hey, wanna go out for breakfast?” Percy looked confused.

“Why?”

 “There’s a place nearby that makes good pancakes.” Triton told him, not wanting to actually answer.

“Poseidon said he’d cooked something.” Triton scowled at this. Of course he wouldn’t just let him off.

“You really want to sit down there and eat with him?”

“...Not really,” Percy admitted, after regarding him for a second. “Pancakes sound good,”

“Cool. Get ready, then.” They were pulling out of the driveway not 10 minutes later.

Of course, Percy didn’t finish his pancakes, but Triton didn’t mind. He liked the company.

Chapter Text

If Poseidon had not called Thetis in fucking tears talking about he had screwed up the one thing that Theti had thought un-screwable…a fucking apology (how hard could sorry be— wait no that was a lie an apology was plenty hard) she wouldn’t be organizing a Thanksgiving dinner and rushing around the house trying to make sure everything was fine, instead probably sitting on the couch, snuggling in with Achilles and watching some cringy movie. Unfortunately Poseidon needed guidance in parenting…and he was her best friend before he was her brother in law. So she ushered the three boys in, giving Percy and Triton each a squeeze, and sending Poseidon a sharp look. Thankfully, years of being close had mainly solidified their telepathy.

You good?

Poseidon let out a mini snort. Don’t be ridiculous, he glanced back at his sons. Look at how they're looking at me!

Indeed both boys looked at Posiedon with thinly veiled annoyance. Though, Thetis noted that Percy’s glare was less venomous and more stale frustration. 

“There you are, finally. I was beginning to think you’d stood us up,” she said, reaching up to pat her tall nephew’s cheek fondly in greeting.

“Never, Theía,” said Triton, leaning down to kiss her cheek in turn. “…Is Achilles through there?”

Thetis jerked her head back towards the direction she’d come from. “Yes, but he’s been helping me cook. Do not let him convince you to sneak off anywhere until it’s all done, understood?”

Triton nodded and disappeared, store-bought pie still in his hands. Thetis then turned her attention to Percy, ruffling his hair with a friendly smile. “Hey, you. How’s school been this week?”

“Oh, uh, good,”

“Yeah, how good?”

“I mean, just ‘good’. We’re going on a field trip to the Met next week-” said Percy, flushing slightly as Thetis draped an arm over his shoulder and led him inside. Awww she inwardly cooed.

“Oh, yeah? What did you say to them about that, Po?” Thetis glanced back at Poseidon as he followed them in. Thankfully, he took the hint.

“I phoned his principal and…made some assurances,” Poseidon said flatly. Thetis cringed at his bored tone. Bitch was so emotionally oblivious sometimes.

“Good, their idea to ban him from going on any of their trips was ridiculous,” She tried to keep the conversation going. It didn’t work.

She led them into the living room, never more grateful for the stained glass window, which distracted Percy for long enough that she was able to pinch Poseidon in the arm. Hard. He flinched slightly and looked at her in betrayal. She raised an eyebrow judgmentally.

 “Can I do anything to help set up?” She mentally facepalmed

“What, to help cook? No, Po, everything’s in hand and nearly done,” said Thetis, dropping down next to Percy. “Come sit. You’ve no choice but to relax while you’re in my house,”

She sent Poseidon a meaningful look, but apparently, it was mispercived because instead of choosing a seat next to his son, he chose the seat furthest from his son. He leaned back, huffed a bit, and just looked generally stupid. Thetis glared at him for a few moments before smiling reassuringly at a mostly unbothered Percy.

“It feels weird to be talking to you two not surrounded by octopi and crabs,” she changed the subject. “I almost don’t know what to say. How’s, um, how’s Hestia?”

“Busy,” answered Poseidon. “Typical of this time of year,”

“How come?” Percy piped up. Thetis hesitated to answer.

Thetis made a small sound in her throat before saying, “Well, ah, you could say…parents struggle more during this time of year, financially and otherwise. Sometimes it can be too much, so Hestia and her coworkers spend more time at work trying to support them,” She could see Percy contemplating the answer, and by the faraway look in his eyes, she could tell that whatever he was thinking, it was not pretty. He glanced subtly at Poseidon, who pretended not see it but definitely did. 

Ah. Thetis knew. A pang of dismay ran through her. Poseidon really needed to stop screwing things up.

She quickly turned to Poseidon.

“I got a phone call a few hours about the sea turtle exhibit setup in the Florida rescue center. I’ll be going to check it our next week.” She changed the topic again. Poseidon’s head snapped up, visibly relieved to be talking about something he could actually work with.

“I see. I’ll get Morris and Baker to subtitute for your work at the aquarium. Let me know how it goes.”

Achilles came in not long after.

“Mom, the timer’s going off.” Thetis got up, heading towards the kitchen, absently noting that Percy was following her. It reminded her of the aquarium, where Percy liked to stick to her and watch her work rather than stay with his father in the office. She shooed him away.

She ordered the boys to set the table instead. Triton bossed his younger brother around, but Percy uncharacteristically followed all the directions without a word of complaint. Thetis frowned to herself. Was there something wrong? Maybe he wasn’t feeling well, God, if Poseidon had brought a sick boy to her house, she was going to beat him up with a ladle.

“I’m bringing the food in!”  The boys filed out to wash their hands, and the two adults started moving the various dishes to the table.

“Poseidon…” Thetis warned lowly. He sighed noisily.

“Yes, yes. I know.” She rolled her eyes, but left it at that.

The boys came back and they took their seats. Percy’s eyes traveled over the contents of the table. Thetis looked for any reaction, but found none rather than open curiosity. Triton apparently noticed too.

“You ever had stifado before?” Triton asked as Thetis went around the table spooning the stew into each of their bowls.

“Nope,” Percy answered, peering at the cooked meat and onion set in front of him. “Greek, right?”

“Yes,” said Thetis. “My side of the family is Greek, as yours is, though my generation has spent far less time there than you Olympians have. Your Aunt Hestia was actually the one to lend me this recipe, though I doubt I did it much justice. If you don’t like it, Percy, let me know and I’ll throw you something else together,” She completely meant it, even if she knew he wouldn’t do it, she could already see it in his slightly panicked frown. He shook his head firmly, blonde curls bouncing.

“It smells really good.” She still watched him take a piece of bread, looking at Triton for a lead, and proceeding to top it with the usual meat, onions, and sauce before taking a bite. He chewed, contemplated, then smiled at Thetis. It wasn’t a forced smile, and relief bloomed in Thetis. The last thing she wanted was for Percy to force himself through the meal.

After a bit of awkward silence, Thetis kicked Poseidon under the table. He spoke up.

“I heard you’ve some competitions coming up in the new year, Achilles,” he said.

“Yessir,” her son nodded, already halfway through his bowl of stifado, eating with a teenaged gusto, Thetis noted fondly. “My coach says I’ve got a pretty good shot at going far if I-,”

“If you manage not to fuck up your foot, again,” said Triton, waving his fork. Thetis suppressed a wince at a sudden memory flash. Screaming, her baby. Screaming so loudly.

“Language,” Poseidon snapped irritably. She could tell he was thinking along similar lines, but oh Po. Would it kill him to be nice to his children?!

Triton shrugged, unaffected, and went back to his food. Thetis pursed her lips slightly before smiling, trying to act like everything was normal and not a little bit off. “Have you thought about going back to comps, Tri?” she asked.

Triton’s blank expression turned into a small frown. “A little,” he admitted. “It’s a bit late for this season now, though,”

“Well, if you went back to the club, you could always start training and looking ahead at some adult comps, right?”

“I suppose so, yeah,” he didn’t seem too fond of the idea though.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Achilles whispering to Percy, “He was on a swim team.”

“Oh, thanks,” 

Achilles leant back again, smirking for a moment before asking him loudly, “You any good at swimming, Perce?”

“Um…” Percy looked nervous “I mean, I haven’t been in years. I could, um, hold my breath for a really long time when I did go, though?”

“You live on a beach and you haven’t been swimming in years?” Achilles asked, disbelieving. Thetis sent a sharp look at Poseidon, who guiltily looked away.

“Perhaps your brother could take you to a pool someday,” Poseidon said, kind of obviously evasive. “Who knows, he could coach you for comps-,”

“Yeah, no, not happening,” interrupted Triton.

“You should get him fitted for a wetsuit, Po,” Thetis coined in. “So if he does want to go into the sea without catching his death from cold, he can. What do you say, Percy?”

Percy blinked and nodded, though he didn’t miss how Poseidon looked distinctly displeased for a moment before masking his expression.

“And hey, just think,” Thetis continued. “You three could take a vacation somewhere during the holidays. I’m assuming you’ve never learned to surf, Percy? I think you’d enjoy surfing,”

“Vacation?” echoed Poseidon. Thetis was going to smack him later.

“Why not? You could all do with a break. I can inquire about it in Florida?”

A small pause, strangely tense. Thetis watch Percy stuff his mouth with more food instead of saying anything.

“Wait, try this,” Triton took some bread from the plate in the middle, drizzled it with what looked like olive oil and some sort of dark vinegar, and tore it in half to pass some to Percy. Percy tried it. He seemed pleased with it because he grabbed another piece. Thetis smiled to herself. At least the two were getting along. From there, the conversation restarted again about the most trivial, casual things Thetis could think of.

When dinner ended, Percy’s plate was still not empty, Thetis noted worryingly. Percy must have seen her gaze because he suddenly told her,

“Sorry. I promise I really liked it, I was just full.” He seemed bashful. Thetis shook her head firmly.

“Oh, don’t apologize, you did well. I can clean these up, don’t worry,” She would have to talk to Po about this.

“No,” said Poseidon, appearing over Thetis’s shoulder as she gathered their dishes. “You cooked, the boys and I will clean. It’s only fair. Go sit down.” At least he had manners, if he didn’t have emotions.

“No, no it’s fine—”

“Please. I insist.” Thetis hesitated, watching how awkward Triton and Percy were around Poseidon. She eventually nodded and headed to the living room.

“You think they’ll be okay?” Achilles murmured lowly. She ruffled his hair.

“They’ll have to talk to each other someday,” She sighed. “How was Percy doing today?” Achilles shrugged.

“Eh, it seemed pretty normal for him. Guess Triton didn’t tell him about my leg, he was pretty surprised when he saw the prosthetic, but didn’t say anything,” Thetis hummed, that made sense.

“Uh, also, Mom.” She tensed. Achilles usually only sounded like that when something was wrong.

“Yeah?” She tugged him close on the couch.

“Triton told me… Percy had a panic attack?” She inhaled sharply.

“What?!” Achilles quickly shushed her.

“Shhh! It’s supposed to be a secret!” He hissed. 

“I’m sorry, he had a panic attack?” Achilles nodded. “Does Poseidon know?”

“Nah, apparently Percy literally begged Triton not to tell him, so Triton didn’t.” Thetis could see this being problematic, but Triton had done the right thing. If he had told Poseidon, the stupid man would have only made the situation worse.

“Okay…a panic attack, how?”

“Triton said he…couldn’t breathe and was scratching and pulling at his hair…he said it might have happened before because Percy didn’t seem fazed at it —like at all.”

She leaned back. Perhaps she should have gotten some alcohol.

Chapter Text

After a disastrous round of Monopoly, (ugh men. So egotistical), Thetis met Poseidon’s eyes with a warning.

“Why don’t you two boys show Percy the long walk?” They headed out and as the door clicked shut, Thetis let out a loud sigh and leaned back. Poseidon dragged a hand down his face.

“Poseidon…”

“Yes Thetis.” He groaned.

“I feel like I’ve said this multiple times already, but what are you doing? ”

Poseidon didn’t answer. Thetis took a deep breath trying to visibly squash her anger. She decided to get right to the point

“Did you know Percy had a panic attack?” At this, Poseidon snapped his head towards Thetis so fast he was almost a blur.

“What?!”

—----------

(Poseidon POV)

“What?!” Poseidon felt sick, he must have looked sick too because Thetis’ gaze softened and she shook her head sadly.

“Achilles told me. He said Triton said that he found Percy having a panic attack in his room once. Apparently he…couldn’t breathe or something like that.” His head was spinning. Perseus? Perseus…a panic attack. Perseus. His son. His son had a panic attack. And he hand’t even known.

“I– I didn’t know—”

“I know, Po,” Thetis scooted over next to him on the couch and patted his back comfortingly as he took his head in his hands. “I know you didn’t know. Percy asked Triton to keep it a secret from you.” Poseidon barely registered the words. But once he did…

“Why? Was I— that…bad?” He breathed, sharp guilt making him nauseous. How could he? One of his boys had been hurting, probably still was hurting and he— and he had done nothing. Had not even noticed, treated him coldly. 

“Po.” Thetis’ voice brought him back to clarity. He looked at her, realizing the sting of tears in his eyes. Her face was sympathetic, but firm as she always was. Just like Amphitrite was. “You couldn’t have known. Percy didn’t show anything different. This wasn’t your fault.”

“But if I’d been paying more attention—”

“No. Don’t blame yourself. What Percy needs now is support. You need to be strong for him.” She was right, as always. He took a breath, steeling himself.”

“Of course.”

“Okay, but we still need to talk about what the fuck’s going on.” 

“That’s none of your buisness.” Poseidon snapped back before he could actually think about it. He knew he had messed up when Thetis’ face pinched tightly.

“Do you mean Percy isn’t my business? He may not be my sister’s son, Po, but he is yours, and you know you were a brother to me long before you married Amphitrite. That, to me, makes that kid my nephew. That indeed makes this ‘my business’,”

“You are mistaken,” He didn’t know why he was arguing, he knew she was right. 

Thetis, again, heavy with sarcasm: “Oh, I am, am I? Very well, then why don’t we talk about Triton as well – he is my blood-nephew and just as involved in all the things I have been noticing,”

Poseidon sighed.

“God, how many times are you going to ignore me when I say these things? You must start finding some…some…normalcy for those boys, Po. I know you have your issues-,”

“Thetis-,”

“But everyone has issues! And there are a lot more widows out there than I think you realise, a lot of people who understand what you are going through. I know, I know, it’s a tricky situation, finding yourself with two sons who have lost two different mothers, but you can’t go on like this. You have been acting in this defensive way for months, now, and you – honestly, I think that is why you seem so unwell sometimes,” said Thetis, all in a rush. “It’s like you want to hurt yourself,” 

“Yes, well, my friend is accusing me of being unable to care for my children just because I do not smother them in constant affection,” Poseidon grumbled irritably.

Thetis made a frustrated sound. “Don’t twist my words! I am not accusing you of that – though now that you mention it, I will point out the way you have stopped showing affection at all. I remember a time when Triton was your darling boy and everyone knew it, him especially. Have you even told him you love him these last few months? Has Percy heard it at all?” No. He hasn’t. Poseidon shoved that voice away, for now.

“Be careful, Thetis, you are crossing a line-,”

“Anything could happen to either one of them at any time,” by this point, Thetis was almost shouting. “Your car could come off the road on the way home from here. Someone dangerous could walk into their school tomorrow. They might go off on a trip and never return. I know it fucked you up when Achilles sent that video of Percy fighting at school-,”

Ah, yes. The video. Poseidon didn’t remember how many times he had watched the fight scene watch Perseus and the other boy wrangle each other on the floor, watching the strange desperation in his son’s eyes. He wouldn’t lie, it had fucking hurt.

“You think you can carry on acting like you feel nothing? You love those boys, Po, I can tell you do, but they are still much too young to understand why loving them hurts you. They’ll only think you don’t at all,” Thetis snapped. There was a pause, then, as she seemed to take a deep breath. “So…so that’s all I’ve got to say about it, anyway. I’m sorry if I’ve come across as…as having no faith in you. I do have faith. This is just one of those things where if I don’t give you a kick up the ass, something else will and it will hurt way more,” She’s always right.

Poseidon pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned back, staring at the ceiling.

“The boys will be back any minute now,” Poseidon said, quiet, almost inaudible. As if on cue, the door slammed open and Achilles marched in, shaking the dirt off his boots on the welcome mat.

“Where are Percy and Triton?” Thetis asked. Achilles jerked his head towards the door.

“Catching up.” Thetis stood up to usher them in, and Poseidon quickly schooled his expression back into neutral disinterest. It would not do the boys any good for them to know what they had talked about.

“Guilt-Trip who?” Thetis’ voice was heard, probably asking about something Perseus and Triton had been talking about.

“Achilles. He tripped me.” Perseus responded confidently. Poseidon rolled his eyes at their antics. They walked into the living room. Poseidon abruptly stood up.

“Time to go home, boys. It’s getting rather late.”

And that was that.

Chapter Text

Percy woke up on the day of the field trip feeling like all the light in his soul had been sucked out and he was carrying the sky on his shoulders. He stood in front of the mirror, wanting to do nothing but collapse back into bed. Then he heard Poseidon’s voice downstairs and decided against it. A glint caught his eye.

⚠️Trigger Warning⚠️ - Self harm

It was the glass shard from the broken glass of water that had sliced his arm two weeks earlier. Some part of him prickled uncomfortably at the sight, wanting to get rid of it. But yet another part of him…

He remembered the lightness he’d felt after the accidental cut caused by the glass. The grounding pain. It he could just replicate that— He picked the glass shard up, and before he could think about it too much, he sliced downwards.

Pain burst in his arm, and Percy watched detachedly as blood trickled out. But there was something about it, like drinking a cold cup of water on a hot summer day. He sliced again.

And again.

And again,

Oops.

His arm was bleeding profusely at this point, but from Percy’s limited medical knowledge, none of them would require stitches. He wrapped them in some bandages (thank goodness that Gabe had set that practice in him) and pulled on a long baggy hoodie to hide everything.

He stashed the glass piece in his drawer.

⚠️Trigger Warning over⚠️

-

When Nancy Bobfit ruined Grover’s lunch, Percy’s first instinct— in his woozy, sensitive state— was to punch her teeth out. He didn’t care what people said about not hitting girls, if they could be bitches like boys, then they could get beaten up like boys.

Then, Grover told him not to and man he was too nice for his own good and the girls got off scot-free. Percy didn’t want to see Grover just…starve today! He pressed down furiously with a stack of paper towels, trying to clean up the watery mess the girls had made.

“Listen,” he said to Grover once he sat back down. “Cover for me for, like, ten minutes. There’s a food truck not too far from here that Mom and I used to go to – they sell enchiladas, and those are your favourite, right? I’m going to go and grab you some,”

“What?! No,” spluttered Grover, trying to stop Percy from putting on his coat. “No, no, you don’t have to do that! I’m fine, Percy, I’m not going to die over one missed meal-,”

“No, but you shouldn’t miss any meals, especially not because of some stupid girls who think they’re funny,” said Percy fiercely. He checked his pocket for the couple of dollars Poseidon had given him, pressing it into his hands even when Percy reminded him that the school was providing lunch at the museum. Now Percy was grateful that he’d accepted it. “I’m gonna get some for myself too anyways, because that sandwich kinda sucked. If anyone asks, I went to the toilet, and I’ll be back as quick as I can. I’ll send you a signal when I’m back,”

Grover pursed his lips, looking unsure. Percy patted him on the arm and got up anyways, checking that Mrs Dodds, the other teachers and museum staff weren’t looking before slipping out of the door from the cafeteria into the main part of the museum. His familiarity with its floors came in handy as he led himself towards the nearest exit, stepped out onto the cold street beyond, quickly found his bearings and began to hurry towards the last place he remembered the food truck sitting.

It was only three minutes away, much to Percy’s relief; he was worried it might’ve moved after over a year. He joined the back of the line of customers with a groan of impatience, wishing for an opening to duck closer to the front.

As Percy lined up, he was consciously thinking of how much trouble he’d be in if he was caught. Sneaking away from a field trip was exactly the sort of thing the principal had warned him not to do or else his place at school would be seriously reconsidered. Not to mention what Poseidon would say and do. Percy didn’t let himself get as far as imagining it. Whatever, anyways, because Poseidon wouldn’t even know Percy had done this. Was it really wrong of him to be buying lunch?

The line was moving fairly quick and Percy happily figured he’d be back in the museum, enchiladas hidden under his jacket so he and Grover could find an opportunity to eat them in secret, within just a few minutes. He highly doubted without any of the adults would notice he was gone until lunch was over, but if they did, he trusted Grover to cover for him. This was easy, really. Easy-peasy. Not a problem.

…Until, naturally, a problem occurred.

Percy gave his order to the guy running the truck once he reached him, then stepped to the side to wait for his food to be made. As he stepped aside, a guy behind him forced his way to the front of the line and placed his own order, loud and obnoxious and rude about it. Percy didn’t realise that he was pulling a face until the guy glanced across and gave him a glare, demanding, “What’re you lookin’ at?”

“Nothing,” said Percy quickly.

The guy spat on the ground and turned away from Percy, disinterested. Percy also turned away, feeling vaguely put-at-ease by how little the city had changed since he’d last been here. He watched the street, the people around him and the cars on the road and the sizzling of food on the food truck and the squeaks of rats in nearby gutters and the blaring, grating sound of some sort of construction work happening nearby. Percy’s attention flicked between all these things, as well as back towards the man, who had now been joined by a group of friends.

They all seemed similarly rude and pushy, but Percy remembered to school his expression this time around. He tried to ignore the group of men, not wanting to draw trouble for no reason.

That was, until a familiar voice caught his ear. Familiar in a bad, stomach-seizing way.

Percy instinctively turned his head a fraction, holding his breath, to set his eyes on a face he had hoped never to see again. And much to his horror, the face turned toward him as if he had sensed Percy’s gaze and heart-attack.

Gabe’s bulging eyes widened and an actual smile split across his face as he pointed at Percy and said loudly, “Oh, no fucking way!”

“Oh, boy,” Percy whispered, wondering if his heart had actually stopped. He felt frozen. He felt – he felt –

No. This couldn’t be happening.

“Well, Jesus Christ, eh?!” Gabe laughed, moving towards Percy. Percy flinched back as a heavy arm was thrown over his shoulder, Gabe giving him a shake which almost passed as friendly. Almost. “Long time, no fuckin’ see! How are you, kid? It’s been so long!”

Not long enough, thought Percy darkly.

“Um,” he coughed, trying to shrug off his arm but finding it too heavy. He became fiercely aware of how it would only be too easy for Gabe to grapple him or pin him with it- “I’m, um, I’m good,”

“The hell are you doing here?”

“Where’s your voice?” Gabe asked, mockingly sympathetic. “I don’t think you’ve ever been this quiet, Perce. You surprised to see me? I’m surprised to see you – what happened to moving outta the city with your daddy?”

“I’m on a fieldtrip,” said Percy, hating how small his voice sounded. All that new boldness from living with Poseidon and Triton, all that new spirit. Just gone when it came to him. Percy hated how he could be nothing more than a weak, scared child in front of him.

“Oh a fieldtrip, eh? Cute, cute. Hey, Perce, it’s funny that we’ve run into you – you know I’ve had a couple of randoms calling me up asking about you,” said Gabe, giving Percy another ‘friendly’ shake, turning him around to face away from the food truck. “Don’t suppose you’ll, ah, hang out for a bit? So we can talk about the fact. I got a couple of questions for you, see,”

Percy blanched, struggling to swallow back his immediate protests. “I’ll be missed,” he said, pointing toward the museum. “My teachers are waiting for me. I just, y’know, came out to grab some better lunch-,”

A dollar was tucked into the front pocket of his coat; not enough to cover the cost of his food, but Gabe still smiled as if he’d done Percy a favour. “We’ll give you your lunch, don’t worry. And anyway, since when have you not caused trouble on one of your little field-trips? We’re doing you a favour, getting you out of it,”

He didn’t like this.

Then he was shoved into a car. Percy screamed, screamed and kicked before he even realized what was happening. He could see the crowd shuffling uncomfortably, some people looking towards the car.

Yes! Yes!

“HELP! PLEASE HELP ME—-”

Something cracked, pain burst in the back of his head, and Percy fell into darkness.

Chapter Text

Percy woke up to the shock of cold on his face. He spluttered, realizing it was cold water, soaking him to the bone.

“Morning, Sleeping beauty.” He stilled at Gabe’s voice, and then the events of the day came rushing back to him. The field trip. The kidnapping. 

“Can we make this quick?” asked Percy, strangely emboldened with fewer people around despite never feeling more worried. “You dragged me all the way here – what do you wanna talk about?”

Gabe huffed, cracking open his beer first. He reclined in his seat and took a long, deep swig, smacking his lips for a few seconds before finally answering. “Right, right, yeah. C’mere, sit down. I don’t like having you sulking over me,”

Teeth gritted, Percy sat on the furthest available spot from Gabe, his legs tensed so he could spring back to his feet at a moment’s notice. He felt dirty just being here; dirty and cornered and in so much trouble, for so many reasons. He resisted repeating his question about what Gabe wanted to talk about, knowing that if he tried to rush things, Gabe would just find a way to drag it out even more.

Finally, after drinking some more beer, Gabe said, “Someone’s been asking questions about your mommy and daddy,”

…Of all things, Percy hadn’t been expecting that. He had already forgotten what Gabe had said next to the sidewalk about it- “W-What?”

“Yeah,” nodded Gabe, snorting. “Really fuckin’ nosy of ‘em, and they keep avoiding explaining exactly why it’s so fuckin’ important. ‘Do you know who his daddy is’, they keep asking. No I fuckin’ don’t, and why should I? Anyways, you care to tell me why some stranger finds it so important who your daddy is?”

Percy blinked, shaking his head. “No,” he lied. “He’s just a normal dude,”

“How normal?”

“He, um, I mean…he collects…um, fishing lures. He’s super boring and not important at all,” Percy nodded as he spoke, hoping that he was convincing enough. “So I dunno who’d care about who he is…A-Are they sure they’ve got the right person?”

Gabe squinted at him, quiet for a few seconds as he raised his beer back to his lips. “Funny coincidence, don’t you think? Not a lot of kids strutting around this city with a name like Percy,”

“I guess,” said Percy, his hands in his coat pockets as he tried to look relaxed. “But I don’t know what it’s about, Gabe. Is that, uh, all you wanted to talk about?”

“No!” Gabe barked, making Percy jump. For some reason, Gabe looked suddenly tensed and annoyed – probably upset that he wasn’t getting what info he wanted from Percy. “It is not all I wanted – give me something, kid, by fuckin’ Christ. You know these guys were gonna pay me to talk about you?!”

Ohh, thought Percy, biting his tongue. Oh, boy. That sounds…that sounds like a lot.

“What do you mean, ‘gonna’?” Percy asked cautiously.

“It means Gabe here gambled on ‘em offering more if he held out, but instead they bailed on him,” piped up Gabe’s friend, emerging from the kitchen to lean against the doorway. His eyes were hard as he stared at Percy.

Percy swallowed, asking him casually, “Who’re you, anyway?”

“Markus,” answered the man.

“Where’d you two meet each other?”

“Quit changing the subject,” snapped Gabe. Percy realised that maybe he should’ve been keeping track of how many ‘strikes’ he was on – Gabe was suddenly looking way surlier and angrier than he had before, which could only mean bad things. And even though it wasn’t technically Percy’s fault that Gabe had made gambled on something and lost, historically Gabe had always found ways to make it Percy’s fault.

“What’s your daddy’s name?” Gabe asked, shifting in his seat to lean towards Percy, his fingers laced together.

“Paul,” said Percy; it was the first name beginning with ‘P’ that came to mind. “Paul Smith,”

Gabe’s friend, Markus, snorted quietly from the doorway.

“What’s his job?”

“He, um, he works in a fishing tack store. Because it’s, y’know, connected to the fishing lures he likes,”

“Right, right. So he’s not worth much?”

“Nah, not really. I-I think he inherited some money from his, um, his mom, but not loads,”

“He’s lying,” said Markus, swirling his bottle of beer idly in one hand.

“What do you know?” Percy couldn’t help but snap at him, crabby with anxiety and disturbed by this stranger seeing through him so easily-

“I know that my friend over here wouldn’t be getting mysterious phone-calls about you if your daddy wasn’t someone important,” Markus said. “Don’t make me convince you to be honest, now,”

“You can’t touch me,” retorted Percy, calling on all his false bravado to make himself heard. “It’s one thing to shove me into a car and drag me all the way here – it’s another thing to start threatening me, too,”

“Oh, I’ve not threatened you yet,”

Percy couldn’t stop the small shiver of fear that went through him, even glancing helplessly at Gabe for some sort of backup. Gabe, however, didn’t seem to be listening. He’d lit a cigarette but was letting it burn to ash between his grubby fingers as he stared into space. Percy wondered if he’d ever had to think so hard and if he was about to have some sort of stroke from the strain.

“Gabe,” said Percy carefully. “Dude, listen. I don’t know who’s been calling you, I don’t know why they’re calling you, but there’s nothing – there’s nothing interesting about me and my dad. What do you want me to say? Just…just tell me what you need me to say so I can get out of your business and get back to the museum before I get expelled,”

For a moment, Percy was hopeful that Gabe would huff and nod and grumpily let him go – maybe he had mentally tired himself out too much to keep him here. Only, when Gabe glanced up at Percy, his expression was dark.

“What, so you can run back home and tell your daddy we bothered you?” he demanded.

“I won’t tell,” said Percy quickly, his throat seizing.

Markus stepped further into the room, leaning to place his beer bottle down on the coffee table. “One minute we can’t threaten you because you’ll tell daddy, the next you won’t tell anybody at all,” he said, clicking his tongue disapprovingly at Percy. “Gabe, what do you wanna do?”

Crap, crap, crap, crap, thought Percy, eyes darting around the room. This was falling apart. Playing along wasn’t working, arguing back wasn’t working – this was all starting to feel pretty serious, what with Gabe looking so mad suddenly and his friend acting like he was someone’s hitman. And that wasn’t even considering the whole thing about someone mysteriously calling up Gabe and offering money for information about Percy and his parents.

He needed to get out of here. The front door was a no-go, but there was another option: the fire-escape. Percy wasn’t sure which room it was in, nor how to get there without being grabbed. He just had to…had to keep it together and wait for an opening. He’d survived seven years with Gabe, he could survive a few more hours if he had to.

“I need to think,” grunted Gabe.

And despite all of Percy’s internal panicking and worrying, he still impulsively said, “Careful, you’ll hurt yourself,”

The next thing he knew, glass and beer was raining down on his head. Percy raised his arms to cover himself as the beer bottle shattered on the wall behind him, only briefly startled but otherwise used to this.

“Jesus, Gabe!” Percy yelled, glancing at himself, at the tiny glittering shards dusting the shoulders and arms of his coat. He could feel it in his hair but knew better than to touch it in case the glass dug into his scalp. Worse than the glass was the stink of beer. Percy jumped up from the sofa as the beer wet his back from where it dripped down the wall and the back his seat. He startled when Gabe copied, lurching to his feet and reaching his grubby hands towards Percy.

Percy darted away out of his reach, gasping, “Listen-!” only to splutter as a fist drove into his gut. Not Gabe’s, but Markus’s, which hit harder than Gabe’s ever had. Doubled-over and winded, Percy couldn’t do anything as his shoulder was shoved and he stumbled back, hitting a wall and sliding to the floor.

Some things really don’t change, Percy thought, wheezing slightly as he curled around his belly, settling in for what was going to be a long and tense wait.

Chapter Text

In the hour that followed, Percy didn’t move from the spot on the floor where he’d fallen. Gabe and Markus settled back down, Gabe with a new bottle of beer in his hands. His other two friends (Frankie and Leon, Percy learned they were called) eventually joined them from the next room, smelling strangely sweet, and sat giggling together on the soggy sofa where Percy had had a beer bottle shattered over his head. Neither of them seemed to notice or care that their seat was wet or sharp, and chortled at the glaring Percy was doing from the corner once he’d recovered from being punched and winded.

Gabe’s idea of ‘thinking’ about what he wanted from Percy was drinking and smoking and ignoring Percy for the better part of an hour, flicking on the TV and watching it semi-distractedly. As time passed, Percy realised that he should be less worried than Gabe and more worried about Markus, who blatantly watched Percy from the corner of his eye and had started pointedly fiddling with a switch-blade. It felt like he was trying to make a point about how worried Percy should be as obviously as possible, as if he thought he was in a movie of some sort. Well, movies were based on truth usually so…it worked, he supposed. 

“Get over here.” Gabe finally spoke up. Percy bit back a scathing remark. He slowly got to his feet, his butt feeling very numb from sitting for so long. The back of his neck was sticky from beer and his stomach was tender where Markus had punched him. Markus watched him as he crossed the small living room to stand in front of Gabe, his fists clenched by his sides.

“Yeah?” asked Percy, trying to ignore all the eyes on him, surrounding him on all sides.

“How did your daddy find you when I thought he wasn’t meant to be around anymore?” Gabe asked slowly, almost carefully, like he was trying not to make some sort of mistake with this. He must have been thinking really hard. “I’m sure your mom said he was a goner. Was she right? Is he some sort of fuckin’ criminal who faked his death or whatever?”

Percy couldn’t help but snort slightly. “Um, no. She meant gone from the country. He’s not American, so…”

“Right, right. So how’d he find you?” Gabe pressed (over vague sounds of disgust and disdain from his friends).

“Um…” Percy had thought of a few lies to tell about his dad while he’d been sat waiting, but this wasn’t one of them. Lying on the fly, he explained, “My social worker knew Mom before I was born. She did the math and said that I kinda resembled her friend – my dad. It took a few weeks to get the paternity tests done but it turned out that her hunch was right so, um, now I live with him,”

Gabe looked unconvinced. “Hell of a coincidence,”

“I know,” said Percy genuinely, because his lie was honestly less of a coincidence than the truth, where his social worker had turned out to be his biological aunt who had a built-in radar for locating her relatives.

“You really gonna let him keep shit-talking you, Gabe?” asked Markus from his seat, the switch-blade landing softly in his palm as he flicked it between his hands. “He’s bareface lying, bro,” Shut up! Percy wanted to scream, Shut up!

“I’m not,” retorted Percy. “And what does it matter, anyway? What’re you gonna get for knowing this?”

“If those guys ever call him back – money, obviously,” answered Frankie, giggling at Percy’s tone. Percy fought not to roll his eyes yet made a mental note of what he’d said. Money for information about Percy’s father? Yeah, that sounded fine…

“They’ll call back,” said Gabe insistently to his friends, which made it even more intriguing. “And when they do, they’ll know I’ve got some good shit to tell ‘em,”

Percy shifted his weight. “Anything else?”

“Yeah,” said Markus. “Something true, for once,”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” said Percy. Like an idiot.

 He’d said it in as casual a tone as possible, didn’t even look at Markus, but still Markus took it as some great slight against him. Percy whirled around at the sound of sudden movement, only just raising his arms to defend himself before Markus was on him. He had him by the coat, dragging him towards the nearest wall, slamming him against it – Percy resisted, trying to jab his knees up into Markus’s stomach, only to feel a hand around the base of his throat. He wasn’t being throttled, but he was being pinned – his screams, however, were silenced by the feeling of something sharp pressing into his belly, his skin stinging when he exhaled.

“I’d shut up if I were you,” Markus snarled, bad breath wafting into Percy’s face. Percy’s eyes flicked down to see the tip of the switch-blade being pressed against his midriff, almost cutting into his t-shirt and flesh.

“You’re crazy,” Percy rasped, willing himself not to breathe in case he impaled himself-

“And you’re a lying brat,” Markus retorted. He looked insane, his eyes seemingly shaking in their sockets. Where the hell had Gabe picked up this guy? He was either on drugs or a fucking assassin. Even Gabe hadn’t ever threatened him with a knife before.

“Gabe,” Percy said quickly, glancing to the side at his ex-stepfather, who was watching on with a look of dumb bewilderment. “Gabe, I-I can’t tell you anything if you let this guy stab me,”

“He’s got a point,” muttered Frankie.

“Nah, keep it up,” Leon suggested. “Kid’s not gonna speak without a little pressure, is he?”

“I’m telling you the truth-,”

Suddenly the sharp pain from the knife intensified and Percy gasped out in horror. His eyes flitted down to his stomach, and he almost wished he hadn’t because now he wanted to throw up. Markus was pressing the blade into Percy’s stomach, not enough to gut him, but enough to cut into his skin and slowly carve out a trail of blood in a long straight horizontal line just above his belly button. Pery whimpered. He saw Gabe standing up from behind Markus, and suddenly it was gone. But now Gabe was standing over him, and Percy knew what was coming.

Gabe’s foot swung at him one, two, three times, hitting Percy across his middle and side and forearms as he tried to curl up to protect himself. Percy tried not to scream with varying levels of success. He bit his lip so hard he could taste blood. When Gabe stopped, he could barely breathe. Percy coughed and coughed and coughed, the normal itch in his lungs becoming unbearable. Suddenly, he was immensely glad he hadn’t had much lunch, he didn’t want to vomit all over the floor.

“Better not snitch,” Markus piped up from where Frankie had made him sit down, as far from Percy as possible. “We might not know much about your dad right now, but when we do? We’ll fuck him up. He comes after us, we’ll fuck him up. Believe that,”

Percy stared at him. Honestly, had he not been punched and kicked and fucking knifed, he probably wouldn’t have believed his threats. In his current pain-induced, fear-struck haze, however, a large part of him quivered and felt sick at the thought. He blinked and his over-active imagination had pictured scenes of four men barging into Poseidon’s house, smashing his furniture; one of them pinning Percy down and making him watch as they grappled with his father and brother, beating them with their fists until they stopped moving.

It would never happen. Percy knew it would never happen. And yet his mouth had gone dry and he couldn’t blink the images away. Shame punched Percy in the gut at how shaken he let himself be by one idiot’s empty threat.

Gabe grabbed at Percy again, shaking him slightly as he said, “Last chance, you little shit. What’s so interesting about your dad that people wanna pay me to know all about him, huh?”

Think of something, think of something, Percy thought rapidly.

“H-He, um…” he stammered. “He cheated on his wife!”

Oh, god, anything but that, Percy thought the second those words had left his mouth.

Gabe leant back, perplexed. “What?”

“Um…” Percy blinked, swallowing with difficulty. He wished more than anything that he could take those words back. Like, yeah, he was almost certain that that was the truth, but that didn’t mean that anyone had so far acknowledged it. What with Amphitrite being dead and all, it seemed wrong to even think about how Percy’s existence was proof of her husband’s disloyalty.

“Well?” Gabe gave Percy a pressing shake, seeming interested.

“M-My dad…cheated on his wife,” Percy repeated, unable to backtrack and change his mind about his words. “He cheated on her, which is how, um, how I exist. What if…what if, maybe, his wife’s family are the guys calling you up? I mean, they must be pissed-”

“How would they know to call me?” demanded Gabe.

Percy shrugged, as best he could in his stepfather’s grip. “I dunno. I dunno! But that’s the only, um…the worst thing I can think of that he did,” Gods, he hated this entire conversation. He prayed to every god in any religion that Amphitrite would forgive him wherever she was in heaven…or something.

And, y’know, Percy wasn’t exactly best friends with his father. He knew first-hand how much of a grumpy asshole he could be. But that didn’t mean that Percy didn’t hate telling Gabe about possibly one of the worst things his father had done as a way to get himself out of trouble. It felt wrong. It felt like a betrayal, in a weird way, even though anyone who looked at Poseidon’s two sons from two different mothers and put together the timeline could immediately figure out that Poseidon was a cheating sleazebag.

Suddenly Percy didn’t appreciate the way Gabe’s grip slackened, looking over at his buddies to ask them, “Whaddya think?”

“I think…maybe…” his friends muttered, rubbing their chins.

“What does your, ah, stepmom think of things?” Gabe then asked.

“I…I don’t know. I’ve never met her,” lied Percy. “…They’re divorced,”

“So why’s it matter to her if he cheated on her if they ain’t even together?”

As Percy struggled for an answer, Frankie reasoned, “Hey, he cheated. I’d be pissed if I found out my girl had fucked some other guy while we were together. I’d want revenge,”

“…Revenge by going after the kid?” suggested Leon. They seemed to think that was a reasonable possibility and started discussing it between themselves, saying how they’d probably do the same thing to a kid if they were born from their cheating girlfriends.

Percy held his breath, carefully keeping himself from saying anything when Gabe added his two cents, saying, “Yeah, Sally would’ve been fucked up if she’d fuckin’ done that to me-,”

 “Can I use the bathroom?” Percy asked abruptly.

Gabe glanced over at him distractedly, his face red and his eyes slightly unfocused. He almost seemed to have forgotten that he still had hold of him. “Huh?”

“The bathroom,” repeated Percy, making a show of squirming slightly. “I really need to go,”

“You’re not a baby, you’re not gonna piss yourself if you need to go,” Gabe grunted.

Percy pursed his lips, glancing over at Frankie – this was his apartment, he’d learned in the past hour. Frankie caught his eye and his expression and said, “Ah, I don’t wanna risk someone ruining my sofas. It’s the one on the right, kid,”

“Thanks,” said Percy, waiting for Gabe to let him go.

For a moment, Percy wasn’t sure that he would. He felt himself recoiling, bracing for another blow to come – only to sway on his feet as Gabe released his grip on his coat. “Fine, go on,”

Percy ducked past, scurrying across the living room to the tiny hallway with two doors; one for the bathroom, one for the bedroom. As Percy headed towards the bathroom, he glanced back, accidentally locking eyes with Markus. The creep stared at him for a second before glancing at Gabe, who had started talking to him.

Percy took the opportunity to move not into the bathroom, but into the bedroom.

The bedroom reeked of all sorts of nasty odours, like someone had upended a trashcan full of juices onto the mattress, and yet Percy was grateful to be in there and quietly shut the door behind him. The window, thank god, had the fire-escape right outside of it as just Percy had hoped. He leapt up onto the filthy bed, crawling across it to reach the window – it was already cracked open, so all Percy had to do was shove it up a little more to make enough space to slide his body out into the cold December air.

Suddenly forgetting the pain around his midsection and the sharp chips of glass still covering him, Percy got to his feet on the groaning metal platform and began his rush down the stairs. It was noisy, too noisy, but hopefully those idiots wouldn’t realise that it was him making the commotion and would take a while to realise that he hadn’t gone into the bathroom at all, and-

“Shit,” Percy swore as he reached the bottom of the fire-escape, where a ladder was meant to fold out to reach street-level. Except there was no ladder, just a ten-foot drop into the alley below.

While not appallingly high, Percy still needed to take a few moments to catch his breath and brace himself for the fall. His efforts were rushed along by a shout from above him. Eyes snapping up, Percy saw a greasy head poking out of a window a few floors above him, followed quickly by the muffled sound of shouting and arguing.

The sight of a leg swinging out onto the fire-escape was all the motivation Percy needed to shove himself off the edge, dropping to the floor and clumsily tucking into a roll to try to spread the brunt of the impact. He hissed as the rough alleyway floor tore into his coat at his elbows, ripped his jeans and skinned his hands and knees, but he didn’t stop to check himself before he was on his feet and sprinting as fast as he could. There was a horrible pain in his right knee, but Percy wasn’t letting that stop him. He couldn’t.

He didn’t know where he was, but that didn’t matter much to Percy, who had found himself running through city-streets to escape bullies (and rats— God knew how large the New York rats could get) on quite a few occasions. He chose a random direction and ran that way, only to change direction so abruptly that he even surprised and confused himself. He ran in the direction of where he saw people, hoping a crowd would obscure him if he was still being chased, or at least deter Markus or Gabe or their other friends from still trying to reach him. Percy glanced back once or twice to see if they were behind him, but he was too disoriented and panicked to see very clearly.

Eventually he saw an entrance to the subway and rushed down the steps, hopping the turnstiles and asking the first person he saw where in the city he was. With that information gleaned, he waved off the man as he tried to offer Percy further help and made his way towards the platform, his mind already subconsciously plotting the easiest route back to the museum – he knew this city better than he realised. Courtesy of Mom’s lessons on what to do if he got lost.

If I take this train – and then get off at – and then head down a block and – yeah, yeah, I know how to get back, Percy thought in a rush. How long had he been missing from the museum? Was there a chance that he could go back and pretend like nothing had happened?

The train was perfectly timed, stopping right as Percy jogged onto the platform. Though he was drained from his sprinting, his body burning with acid and breaths coming very raggedly, he didn’t sit down. He couldn’t. He stayed by his feet, by the door, smiling shakily at an old lady who asked if he was okay, babbling some nonsense to her about being late to meet his friend. Finally Percy caught a whiff of the dried beer on the back of his coat and had to dig his fingers into his legs to stop himself from ripping it off him, swallowing back gags.

The train shuddered along, eventually pulling up at the station Percy needed, where he hurried out and automatically scanned the platform for familiar faces. He was half-convinced that Markus was going to leap from the shadows and shove him onto the tracks. When he didn’t, Percy still couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief.

Percy emerged from the subway onto a very busy street close to Central Park, feeling abruptly colder than before. Percy still stripped off his coat and chucked it at the first garbage bin he saw down an alley, which helped just a little with the stink of beer. Now in nothing but a t-shirt and sweater, Percy trembled violently as he walked at a brisk pace down the street, shoulders bumping into oblivious tourists, eying the museum in the distance. It sat exactly as he had left it all those hours ago, and yet Percy felt like he was returning to it as a slightly different child.

He hurried inside, taking the steps two at a time, numbed hands clenched at his sides to stop them from shaking too badly. Percy realised about halfway to where he’d left his school group behind that he probably needed some sort of plan, some sort of idea of what he was going to say to everyone. A part of him silently hoped that no one had even noticed his disappearance, or at least not cared enough to say anything. This would all be a lot easier and a lot quicker to blow over if no one cared enough to-

Percy’s hopes were promptly dashed by the sound of raised voices in the distance.

He slowed his approach at the sound of the voices, apprehensive and sick with nerves. Rounding a corner, he was faced with the familiar mini-atrium which sat outside the cafeteria where the school groups ate, and in that atrium was a whole host of people.

At the centre of them, not unlike the eye of a storm, was Poseidon. He seemed to be furiously ripping into both of Percy’s teachers – Mrs Dodds, who looked stony-faced and inconvenienced, and Mr Pope, who looked close to tears – while adults in the museum uniform milled about, speaking into walkie-talkies and casting anxious glances at the very angry father amidst them.

Percy caught the words ‘imbeciles’, ‘ignorance’ and ‘charges’ being spat by Poseidon, but it was honestly becoming very hard to hear everything as his heartbeat became a loud percussion in his ears. His stomach and head hurt, and he could only hope that he wasn’t bleeding through his shirt. His vision was wavy as he watched Poseidon turn away from the teachers, raking a hand through his already-messy hair, jaw visibly clenching even from this distance. Percy had seen Poseidon stressed, annoyed and provoked more than once (and worried, as he’d been worried for Triton that night he’d disappeared for a few hours-), but this was easily the worst he’d seen him. A museum worker approached him to whisper something to him and Percy genuinely thought Poseidon was about to melt the guy’s brain with the strength of his glare-

“Percy?!”

Fuck.

Chapter Text

Perseus looked tired. That was the first thing that came to mind when Poseidon finally layed eyes on his son— who had given him one hell of a heart attack for disappearing from the field trip into one of the busiest cities in the world .

Poseidon stayed frozen for a second, watching the Grover kid hug Perseus, who looked so exhausted— he didn’t even hug back. Then Po was moving, with quick, long strides to get to his son. To hold him and demand that he never do that again. His hands latched onto Perseus’s upper arms. The boy flinched, eyes glazing over for a second before he stared into Poseidon’s eyes with a frighteningly dead look. 

“ Perseus. Where have you been?!” Poseidon snarled at him, too worried, too frustrated to care about his tone. Perseus stared up at him blankly. He shook his son, trying to get him to say something, anything.

“How could you do that? How could you just…disappear?! Do you have any idea how…” He trailed off, unnerved by how Perseus was so quiet. He was never this quiet. From the corner of his eyes, Poseidon could see the staff and teachers staring at him. He collected himself and waved over a staff, directing him to lead them to a more private place. 

They were guided to a small conference room with a couch and a few chairs and after the staff member left, Poseidon moved to close the door.

“Can you keep it open?” Perseus asked, his voice a croak.

Poseidon ogled at him. “Oh, now you speak?” he hissed, regretting his tone a twinge when Perseus looked away.

“Keep it open,” repeated Perseus, and something in his voice rang alarm bells in Poseidon’s head. 

“If I leave it open, will you make another run for it?”

Perseus shook his head harshly, almost desperately. Dread latched onto Poseidon more and more. But before he could say anything, Perseus looked down at where Poseidon was still gripping his wrist.

“Ow,” he muttered, and Poseidon realized with horror that he had been gripping his son’s wrist tightly enough to turn the flesh white.

“Shit,” swore Poseidon, quickly loosening his grip but not letting go. He couldn’t risk it. But the already reddening skin underneath caused his stomach to flip. He had done that. Poseidon diverted his attention to something else. 

“Jesus, you’re freezing,” Poseidon muttered as his readjusted grip made him realize how cold Perseus’ skin was against his own. He dropped to one knee as his free hand moved up to Perseus’ other arm, touching his wrist, then his forearm, then the space above his elbow, finding all parts of him to be ice-cold. Where had his jacket gone? What had he been doing out in the cold like that? Poseidon pulled off his own coat.

“You don’t have to-,” Perseus began hoarsely, but Poseidon quickly shushed him. He guided Perseus’ arms through the sleeves of his jacket and drew it around Perseus' front, wrapping him up.

A shudder ran through Perseus as warmth enveloped him. Throughout all of this, Poseidon had realized with an increasing feeling of wrongness, that Perseus hadn’t resisted once. The boy had never been a huge fan of physical contact or affection, and would normally tense if Poseidon tried to pat his head or give him a hug. But just now, even though Poseidon had been touching him more than he ever had before, Perseus was limp in his grasp, bonelessly moving as Poseidon guided his limbs.

This was wrong. Something had happened. What had happened?

“I’m going to ask once, and only once,” Poseidon’s words were hard and carefully-controlled. Perseus looked up, half startled, “What were you thinking, Perseus?”

“…I didn’t run away,” Perseus said quietly. Annoyance rushed into Poseidon’s system.

“Oh, you didn’t, did you?” challenged Poseidon, leaning down to chase Percy’s averted gaze with his own. He pressed his fingers to Percy’s cold-flushed cheek to turn his head back towards him, not letting him avoid looking at him. “What did you do, then? You just decided to go on a leisurely stroll in the middle of a city for, oh, almost three hours? While no one knew where you were or if you were safe?” 

Perseus still looked dazed, and the sight of it made the anger spill out of Poseidon.

“I wouldn’t have minded half as much had you not lied to your friend and left your phone,” Poseidon continued angrily. “I had cops on the way here, Perseus. We were about to declare a fucking city-wide manhunt. Now you can wipe that sulking look from your face and start giving me some damn good reasons as to why you decided to put everyone through that!” 

It was only after he had said everything that he realized that perhaps he shouldn’t have started to shout. But he wanted Perseus to understand, to know how worried Poseidon had been. When the staff had called him and told him that his son had been missing for over an hour , goodness, Poseidon had felt like his heart had frozen in his chest. He had sped to the museum as fast as he could, not caring how many speed limits he broke— money existed for a reason anyways— and he had spent the remaining two hours trying to find any clue of why Perseus might have run.

Had he been such a horrible father? Had his son finally had enough? Was this the way fate was telling him that he should have gotten his shit together, faster? Had he lost his son too?

What would Amphitrite have said?

What would Sally have said?

He watched Perseus’ jaw clench, something dark and pained in his eyes. He pressed his lips together, like he didn’t know whether or not to snap at Poseidon or cry.

“Can we go home?” Poseidon almost missed it, from the way Perseus said it so quietly. He opened his mouth to retort, but then Perseus lifted his head and met his eyes, and Poseidon faltered. There was something there that Poseidon didn’t like. There was something there that was full of pain and an exhaustion no child his age should have. 

And Poseidon found himself nodding.

Chapter Text

Now that the chase was over, Percy's anxiety skyrocketed.

His hand was trembling so much he could feel it almost like a vibration from where he buried it under his thigh against the sofa. He tried clenching it into a fist, and tried to pull it open like he was straining for something, but the tremor simply wouldn't vanish. He decided to ignore it, like the rest of his problems. Poseidon wouldn't notice anyways.

Speaking of Poseidon, he was approaching, according to the heavy footsteps that Percy could hear. Off handedly, Percy mused about how he could recognize everyone's footsteps in the family. Poseidon's was heavy and slow. Thetis was steady and light. Triton's was accompanied by low humming most of the time, or they were the fastest because nobody else ran through the house.

“Here,” Poseidon said. He was holding out a glass of water, and although Percy knew it wasn't beer, he half expected to be met with the sharp taste as he slowly sipped it. The water was good, well, as good as water could be, it cleared his head a bit.

Poseidon didn’t say anything. Percy felt him lean back against the sofa, though Percy himself sat straight and tense. Thetis was on a business trip in Florida. Meaning, Poseidon’s impulse control was halfway across the country, and there was nobody to stop him, nobody for Percy to run to when Poseidon lashed out. Nobody to run to if Poseidon ever threw the glass of water at Percy's head just like- no.

“You were fine this morning,” Poseidon said calmly, Percy still tensed. “Or so I thought. Is today an important day?”

Percy blinked at the floor and shook his head minutely.

“Did someone say something in school? Was it the girl who ruined your lunch?”

“No,” Percy finally muttered, wondering who had told Poseidon about that as he simultaneously wondered what these questions were meant for. Where was the scolding? Where was the punishment? Where was the pain?

“Was it being back in the city? I know the, ah, the move from there to here has probably been a lot, though we have not discussed it. It was also quite abrupt,”

“No,” Percy said again, still thinking, why is he asking this?

Poseidon made an impatient sound. Percy winced despite himself.

“Then what?” Poseidon asked, the hard edge to his voice returning. There it is. “What? What else could have possessed you to disappear like that?”

Oh, right, thought Percy, feeling idiotic. That’s what he meant.

“Nothing,” stammered Percy exploded, teetering on the edge of self-control as panic suddenly grabbed at his chest, its claws digging deep. “I-I didn’t run away on purpose, I – I got distracted – I was gonna come back-,” He’s not going to believe that—

“Oh, well, that makes it just fine, then,” said Poseidon sarcastically. “Where exactly did you go?”

Percy closed his eyes, trying to breathe deep and think of something. Distantly he screamed at himself, why are you lying?! Why aren’t you telling him what actually happened-?! But Markus’ voice rang in his head. 

We’ll find your daddy. And we’ll fuck him up, ya hear me?

“The park,” he heard himself answer. Because he couldn’t, he couldn’t, look at Poseidon and admit, I let my ex-stepfather kidnap me then trash-talked you to some of the worst people in the world and they might find you and hurt you.

“The park,” his father echoed. “Right. Were you alone the entire time?”

Percy couldn’t help the way his head suddenly turned, looking at Poseidon with wide eyes. Like a deer in headlights.

“Oh, now there is a reaction,” Poseidon said, cocking his own head. “Who was it?”

Now that he’d met Poseidon’s eyes, Percy couldn’t look away. He chewed his lip. “…Some…some teenagers,” he mumbled, his mouth and tongue starting to feel slightly numb.

Poseidon’s brows shot up. “Beg pardon?” He didn’t seem to buy any of it.

Percy didn’t repeat himself, but Poseidon seemed to have heard the first time. He scoffed in disbelief. “Teenagers that you had never met before, I assume. Is that right? Jesus Christ, Perseus.”

Percy’s hand trembled harder, his knees almost bouncing at this point.

“Teenagers,” Poseidon repeated, scoffing again. “Alright, fine, fine…So why did you choose to wander off with them? What were you doing? Were you aware at all of how worried we all were?”

Percy shrugged.

“No, Perseus, use your words. Enough of this silence,”

“And say what?” asked Percy, irritable with anxiety. “You’re just gonna shout at me,”

“No,” he said stiffly. “I am not…I am trying not to shout. I just need to know why…even if your reasons are, ah, difficult to understand,”

Percy didn’t really understand either, but he had to spin a story somehow .

Poseidon’s weight shifted again, restless. “…They were drinking and smoking, I suppose. I can smell it on you,” he said. His suddenly steady tone seemed very intentional, proving his word about trying not to shout.

The smell of cheap beer stung Percy’s nose —- he stifled a flinch.

“Dare I ask, did you join in with the drinking and smoking?” asked Poseidon.

“No!” Percy snapped abruptly, shuddering at the thought. After growing up in an apartment thick with smoke in the air and musty from the stale dregs of beer left in discarded cans, one thing Percy knew he would never do was fall into the same habits.

“Alright,” Poseidon said tersely. “I trust you,”

Do you? Percy wondered.

“I am just unsure where the limits of your poor decision-making lie today, so I had to ask,” his father continued. “I also have to ask if you are hurt or unwell?”

Percy shook his head despite the pain in his belly from the cuts and the sting of his palms. He focused on taking another breath and letting it go, then another, then another, then another, until Poseidon spoke again.

“You should…go have a hot shower,” he told him, suddenly sounding oddly resigned. “God knows you will have caught your death of cold after wandering around in this weather and no coat. I will make you something to eat, then we will talk more. If you are ready,”

Percy turned to leave quickly, eager to get away and be by himself, and rapidly went upstairs and locked the bathroom door behind him. Then he let the tears fall.

Chapter Text

Percy quickly stripped naked and got into the shower, shivering for a bit before he aggressively yanked the shower handle to turn the water on, immediately dialing it to the hottest setting. Logically, he knew the water was probably scalding and he should probably get it to a regular temperature, but he was just so cold. He could still feel the icy Manhattan wind on his skin, he could still hear his blood roaring in his ears as he ran from Gabe and his friends. He shook his head, trying to get the memory out. Instead, he heard little clinks and clanks as small shards of glass fell out of his hair. He paused, staring at the glinting pieces on the shower stall floor, slowly getting washed away by the water. He ran his fingers through his hair and came away with more shards. He stared at them in his hand, shining softly like little stars— fallen stars. And he squeezed.

Drip

Drip

Drip

Crimson droplets stained the tiles— and Percy couldn't care less.

-

Percy jolted as Poseidon knocked on the bathroom door.

“Perseus?” Poseidon called through the door. “That is long enough, I think. Five more minutes,”

Percy didn’t call back, but he did drag himself to his feet and reluctantly switch off the water. Poseidon must’ve heard it as the sound of footsteps a second later signalled his retreat.

Percy was glad it was a darker colored towel as he gingerly wiped the new cuts on his hand. His previous arm injury already stung as well, and his scalp burned from the glass that had been in it. He shook his head, hoping none were left. It would be a disaster if Poseidon found them. Percy winced at the thought. He sluggishly shrugged on his clothes and left the bathroom.

He could smell the beginnings of a dinner that Poseidon would be cooking downstairs, but the smell made him nauseous, flashing back to the cheap beer and pizza smell the apartment had had. Percy slipped into his room, closed the door, and limply slid down onto the floor. He brought his hand back out, staring at its violent shaking. He tried to squeeze it with his other hand, hoping the temors would stop.

No such luck.

Percy sighed and leaned back, exhaustion taking him like a wave.

-

Who knew how long it had been when Percy heard footsteps nearing his room. They were too light to be Poseidon’s, so that meant it was probably Triton. Something told Percy that he should probably move from where he was curled up bonelessly on the floor, but his body wouldn’t listen to him. In fact, he tried. He tried to move, but his limbs felt like stone, and his heart was pounding too loud, too loud to focus.

The footsteps came nearer and the door to Percy’s bedroom opened anyway, revealing Triton’s face. He looked worried, scanning the room for any sign of Percy, before falling on Percy’s prone figure on the floor in front of him. He started.

“Percy?” Percy opened his eyes wider, trying to show Triton that he was awake. His vocal cords weren’t working either. Triton’s eyes widened too, and he rushed over to his younger brother, hurriedly kneeling on the floor next to him. He gently shook Percy.

“Percy? Perce– hey, shithead— you good?” I’m fine. I’m okay, Triton. I’m just so tired right now. Percy’s voice still wouldn’t work. He tried to move again. His finger twitched against Triton’s warm hand. He noticed, of course.

“Perce, you’re scaring me. H-hey, c’mon, say something.” Triton gently pulled Percy’s limp body onto his lap, frantically stroking the hair from his face. 

Say something!

“F-fine,” He croaked, internally wincing at his voice. Triton did not look convinced. Percy tried again. “D-Don’t tell… don’t tell Po.” He gasped. Triton’s grip tightened on him. His brows furrowed.

“ That’s what you’re worried about? What the fuck, Perce?” Triton’s hands rubbed Percy’s cold arms, trying to generate more warmth. They rubbed against the cuts on his arms. Ow. Ow. Ow.

His voice was gone again. Triton must have noticed because his voice went much higher.

“Okay— okay, I won’t tell him. I promise. Hell, I promise, Percy, I got you. What do you need?”

Percy didn’t answer.

“Bud, you gotta work with me here, hm? Say something!” Triton hissed at him.

“F-fine. I… I’m fine,” Percy paused, forcing his voice out once more. “I’m…cold.” Triton nodded desperately. His hands were shaking, and Percy felt bad. But he couldn’t think right now, the cold was too luring, darkness was starting to overtake his vision.

“Here, I got you. You’re going to be okay, Percy. You hear me?” Percy distantly felt himself being lifted up off the ground and settled into his bed. Triton quickly swaddled him with blankets, cocooning him so tightly, so warmly. 

Percy fell asleep to Triton’s warm fingers massaging his temple. 

Chapter Text

Triton burst into the house, panting from the run. 

“Papa!” He yelped as he saw Poseidon. Poseidon looked up from his seat at the kitchen table, massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

“Ah, Triton. Hello.” Triton rushed over to his father.

“What— what about Percy?” He gasped. His younger brother had been missing for a few hours now, Triton had come back from a search for him. 

Percy, where are you?

“He’s fine. He just decided to make some bad choices.” Triton paused at that.

Percy was many things, in his opinion. Percy was spirited, emotional, lively, reckless, even. But Triton did not see Percy as someone who willingly made bad choices. 

“What happened?” Poseidon sighed.

“He met some teenagers he knew and went to the park with them.” What? No, that did not sound like Percy at all.

“Really?”

“Yes. I could smell beer and smoke on him, but he told me that he was definitely not doing any of the drinking or smoking.” Something didn’t add up for Triton here. 

“Oh…okay. Where is he now?”

“I told him to take a shower, I believe he will be out by now. He’s probably in his room,” Triton started to head for the stairs. “Don’t bother him!”

Triton ignored him.

-

The lights in Percy’s room were turned off, and something set a prickling dread in Triton’s gut. He might just be sleeping, a part of him reasoned. But something told him it was different.

The door was cracked open a bit. He hesitantly pushed it open all the way…

And stopped short.

-

Percy was on the floor, somewhat hunched around himself in a little circle, but his limbs were splayed out awkwardly, like he had fallen on that spot and hadn’t been able to move. At first, Triton thought he was unconscious, and he hesitantly called out,

“Percy?” At this, Percy twitched, and something cold settled in Triton’s stomach as he realized that Percy’s eyes were open . They flickered from the ground to halfway to Triton’s face, his gaze settling somewhere around his midsection, like he wasn’t exactly sure how to look his older brother in the eye. After a second of blank uncomphrehension, Triton quickly kneeled down next to Percy.

“Percy? Perce– hey, shithead— you good?” He hoped his brother wouldn’t notice the way his voice was shaking as he threaded his fingers through Percy’s hair, faintly noticing the jasmine scented shampoo— Papa was testing it out to see if it was better than the one they usually used— and the slightly damp curls. 

“Perce, you’re scaring me. H-hey, c’mon, say something.” Triton gently pulled Percy’s limp body onto his lap, frantically trying to get any response, even a squeak.

C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!

“F-fine,” Relief burst in Triton as Percy’s hoarse voice reached his ears. But something in him grew darker as he registered what his younger brother said. He was most definitely not fine. “D-Don’t tell… don’t tell Po.” 

What the fuck? Why—why was Percy worrying about Poseidon? Didn’t he know? Didn’t he know that if their father knew, then he would try his best to wrap Percy up in bubble wrap and shield him from anything the world could throw at him? Even if Triton’s relationship with his father was strained as of now, he had no doubt that Papa loved him, loved both of them.

“ That’s what you’re worried about? What the fuck, Perce?” Triton’s hands rubbed Percy’s cold arms, trying to generate more warmth. They were too cold, he’d just gotten out of the shower, and he was wearing long sleeves, why was he so cold? Percy didn’t respond, and Triton panicked again.

“Okay— okay, I won’t tell him. I promise. Hell, I promise, Percy, I got you. What do you need?” 

Percy didn’t answer.

“Bud, you gotta work with me here, hm? Say something!” Triton begged him.

“F-fine. I… I’m fine,” Percy paused, forcing his voice out once more. “I’m…cold.” Triton nodded desperately. His hands were shaking now, his heart was racing too. What was happening? What was happening to his little brother?

“Here, I got you. You’re going to be okay, Percy. You hear me?” Triton quickly lifted him onto the bed– wincing at how light he was— and swaddled him with blankets, cocooning him tightly. He brushed the hair from Percy’s face and worked his numb fingers around his scalp, hoping the gentle massage would do some good.

Percy’s eyes slowly fluttered closed, and Triton watched his now sleeping younger brother with furrowed brows.

He would make this right.

He had to.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Poseidon moved towards the stairs, wondering why Perseus had not yet woken up.

“Papa.” Triton’s voice was unusually serious. Poseidon frowned and turned towards him.

“Yes? What is it?” Triton didn’t meet his eyes, nails picking his cuticles raw. Poseidon narrowed his eyes. Triton hadn’t done that particular nervous habit in a while, it had been more of a childhood thing.

“I think…well…maybe you should leave Percy to sleep.” Despite his initial hesitance, Triton rushed through the words when he did say it. 

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” Triton fidgeted more. “He looked…tired.” Poseidon studied his oldest more. There was something Triton wasn’t telling him, something big. What was it?

Was something wrong with Perseus?

“He still needs to go to school.” Poseidon reasoned, and Triton took the bait.

“No, he—!” He abruptly cut off, and Poseidon knew something had happened. He didn’t press, though. Triton was almost a grown adult, he would tell him if the circumstances called for it.

He headed up the stairs.

-

Upon opening Perseus’ bedroom door, Poseidon discovered that Percy was actually still asleep, despite how the boy had not once woken up late. Additionally, his youngest was not in his bed, but in the window seat, blankets twisted around him, and his head lolling uncomfortably. 

He stepped into the room, unfortunately not realizing that a breeze was closing the door, and it slammed shut, jolting Perseus awake. Poseidon could hear the audible crack of his neck, and he winced in sympathy.

“H-Huh?” Perseus’ voice was hoarse, eyes bloodshot like he hadn’t slept, despite the obvious fact that he had. He dazily stared at Poseidon, causing the older man to frown. 

The winds had been cold yesterday, could Perseus have caught a cold?

He watched as his youngest frowned at him more, then something like realization struck him as he stared back out the window, then he hurriedly attempted to get out of the window seat, but only succeeding on falling onto the floor because of the way he was tangled in the sheets. 

Despite the less than stellar circumstances, Poseidon wanted to snap a picture of Perseus, some part of him deep within his shell cooed at teh way Perseus struggled to get out of the giant blanket cocoon.

How did he even get there in the first place? Poseidon thought amusedly. As Perseus finally got out of the pile, Poseidon stepped forward.

“Wait, wait. Hold on,” He reached a hand out to Perseus’ forehead and rested the back of his hand against it, comparing the temperature. Contrasting to what he would have thought, Perseus’ forehead was actually ice cold, and Poseidon belatedly realized it would be somewhat due to the fact that Perseus had slept on the window seat, and the boy always kept the window propped open for some strange reason, letting the frigid air into the room. 

“Hmm, well you don’t have a fever.” He mused out loud, glancing down at Perseus. The preteen was still staring up at him like he didn’t quite understand what was going on. Although Poseidon wished he could think otherwise, he knew that it was true to some extent, and he most definitely would not stand still sending Perseus to school in his current condition. Triton would have to go alone—

Triton.

Poseidon came to a stop.

Triton knew. He knew something was wrong.

How had he known something had been wrong? 

Poseidon thought about it, and decided that while it was most definitely suspicious, Triton could have been the one to leave Perseus’ door ajar after checking in on him this morning. But if that was the case, why had he been so hesitant at telling Po why Perseus shouldn’t go to school?

“But I think you could use a day off school either way,” He said to Perseus first, who looked up at him like he was crazy.

“W-what?” Perseus leaned out of his touch warily, leaving something cold and empty behind in Poseidon’s palm where contact had ceased.

“A day off of school.” Poseidon repeated slowly, in what he hoped was a soothing tone. The look on Perseus’ face said otherwise.

“Why? What— what would I even do all day?” Ah, a good point. Poseidon considered it.

“Rest. Get some sleep, you look like you need it. And ah, Thetis will be coming by later,” Poseidon remembered with relief. “Does that sound like a good plan?” 

Perseus nodded mutely. Another gust of wind blew into the room from the open window and Perseus shivered. Poseidon noticed that his lips were slightly tinged with blue, his eyes still dazed. He looked so… lost. Despite the fact that Poseidon had just implied that he should go back to sleep, he wasn’t moving, still staring up at Poseidon like he was a figment of his imagination. 

The older man reached out to touch the younger, trying to gently guide him back to bed, but the boy flinched as the hands neared him, eyes widening in sudden alarm. Poseidon jerked backwards, heart pounding, and they stared at each other each with comically wide eyes.

What the hell was that?

A beat of silence.

“I– I’ll leave you to sleep, then. In your bed.” Poseidon stammered, still trying to wrap his head around the odd reaction. Perseus had always been plenty wary of him, always hesitant. But outright scared? 

It’s almost as if he thought I would hi– no.

No no no.

That can’t be.

Poseidon numbly exited the room and went downstairs.

Triton looked at him apprehensively as he slouched onto a chair at the kitchen table.

“Uh, Dad?”

“Triton.”

“Yeah?”

“You, you would tell me if…there was something, ah, wrong with Perseus, right?” Triton tensed, looking anywhere but Poseidon’s searching eyes.

“Yeah dad. I would.”

“....Very well. Your brother won’t be going to school today, it seems that he slept on the window seat with the window open and isn’t feeling well.” Poseidon informed him. Triton didn’t look surprised.

“That’s too bad.”

“Yes, it is. But you still need to go, so off with you.” 

Poseidon watched his oldest leave through the window.

Chapter Text

Poseidon opened the door for Thetis, who looked like had been swept up in a tornado, wavy hair sticking out in every imaginable direction and deep bags under her eyes. Poseidon winced at her generally frazzled look.

“How’s Percy?” She demanded as soon as she saw him.

“Well hello to you too,” Poseidon said dryly. “And Perseus is fine, just tired.”

She let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, that’s– that’s good. That poor kid, what happened?” 

“I don’t know.” As was his answer with most things regarding Perseus, Poseidon noted with shame. 

“What, he just ran away? Out of nowhere?” Thetis arched a skeptical eyebrow. Poseidon groaned.

“As far as I’m concerned. He’s not exactly telling me what happened despite the numerous times I asked.”

“And I bet you were your normal grumpy self when you asked?”

“I…I tried to appear understanding and open to anything he might say.”

“Okay, so yes you were grumpy.”

Poseidon spluttered. “My youngest son was missing for almost six hours! Of course I was grumpy!”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Then, Thetis hugged Poseidon. He stiffened in surprise, confused on why she was doing such.

“Thetis?”

“I’m sorry if I sounded so demanding. How are you doing?” Thetis’ kind eyes were now trained on Poseidon, and the man was once again reminded of the times when they were both younger, in school. His best friend’s eyes hadn’t changed throughout the years. The same kind eyes that had been reflected in her sister, Amphitrite. Something tugged at his heart at the sight of Thetis’s compassion.

“I’m doing…well. As well as I could be.” Poseidon sighed deeply. He motioned her towards the table. “Perseus will be glad to see you, I will call him down.” 

He went upstairs and knocked on his son’s door.

“Perseus? Are you awake?” No answer. 

At least he’s finally getting some rest after yesterday’s hectic events.

Poseidon opened the door and entered the room. There was a lump on the bed, and despite the pure exhaustion that was slowly catching up to him, he chuckled.

“Perseus,” He called softly, not wanting to wake his son up with a scare, “Perseus, wake up. Thetis is here.”

Still no answer. Poseidon frowned. Perseus was usually a very light sleeper.

He must have been more tired than I thought.

He approached the bed and pulled back the covers slightly. Perseus’ face was calm, finally peaceful, and that soothed something in Poseidon. 

He smiled, taking a moment to listen to Perseus’ ragged breaths—

Ragged breaths?

Poseidon inhaled sharply, gripping Perseus’ shoulder and shaking him firmly,

“Perseus? Perseus, wake up, are you alright?” Alarm crept up in him as Perseus remained unresponsive.

He put a hand on the boy’s forehead and recoiled in shock. He was burning up.

But this morning, he was fine!

He shook his son harder.

“Perseus! Wake up!”

That got something out of him. The boy’s eyes fluttered, slightly opening into hazy slits. He suddenly went into a coughing fit, his chest making a horrible rattling noise that made Poseidon’s stomach drop.

“P-Po?” Perseus gasped.

“Are you feeling alright? Are you hurting anywhere?”

“My– my chest…hurts. Th’ air f’ls th’ck.” Perseus rasped, eyes sliding around in what Poseidon noted to be an effort of focus, however much he was failing at it.

“Okay, okay. I understand. Perseus, s-stay awake. Do you hear me? Stay awake!” Poseidon commanded harshly, trying to stop his son’s eyelids from drooping again.

He quickly scooped Perseus up— goddamn he was so light, Poseidon would need to check up on how much he eats— and thundered downstairs. Thetis looked up in alarm at his pace.

“Po, wha—- Percy!” She gasped in horror at Perseus’ limp body in Poseidon’s arms. Poseidon stormed past her. 

Poseidon’s thoughts were a jumble. Car. Car. Get to the car. 911? No, my house is too remote. Hospital. Rush hours? No. No traffic at this time. Is he breathing right— gotta take my keys. Where the fuck are my keys?! He’s not breathing properly, what should I do? Oh, good, he’s getting oxygen again. It’s okay Perseus, you’re going to be okay.

“Poseidon,” Thetis interrupted his spiraling. He almost snarled at her out of the stress of the situation. Sometime in the time he had been panicking, she had run outside the house and pulled up her car by the front door. “Get in! I’ll drive!” Poseidon didn’t argue. Thetis could be a monster on the road.

-

Poseidon tried to remain mostly upright as the car swerved violently again, probably from Thetis executing some crazy driving move that Poseidon had no idea where she learned from. (They’d gone to the same driving school, after all.)

He focused again on his son. Perseus was panting slightly, chest heaving as he tried to get enough oxygen. He had fully succumbed to unconsciousness a few minutes ago, giving Poseidon a damn good heart attack when he realized, but at this point, Poseidon would take the fact that he was still breathing as a win. It certainly felt like he could stop at any moment now. 

Poseidon took a shaky breath himself, trying to stamp down the flood of helplessness that arose each time Perseus took another labored inhale. He gently brushed some of the hair out of the preteen’s clammy face, fingers lingering a touch longer than needed on his son’s cheek. 

Thetis glanced back worriedly in the rearview mirror.

“Is the little guy doing okay?”

Poseidon loosed a breath. “I— I’m not sure. He’s…breathing. Just get us to the hospital as fast as you can. And then we’ll see.”

“Of course.” Thetis’s driving got even more unpredictable after that, but they made it to the hospital in a record time of 7 minutes.

Chapter Text

Triton came home to an empty house. He’d called both Percy and Poseidon’s names a few times in case they were home, but upon further inspection the house was completely empty, which was…wierd. He was pretty sure that his father had told Percy to rest.

He pulled out his phone and called his father. It rang a few times, then picked up.

“Triton?” Triton recoiled at his father’s hoarse voice, thick with tears.

“Papa?” The childish address slipped out in his evergrowing panic. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”

A pause, then,

“Triton? Is that you?” Oh, it was Thetis.

“Yeah, yeah. What’s going on? Why is papa crying?” Triton demanded, heart thundering in his chest. The last time that had happened, Mama, Mama had—

“Oh, Triton, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. We– we’re at the hospital…” his breathing hitched “Percy has bacterial pneumonia.” Triton forced himself to breathe at his aunt’s words. Okay, Percy was going to be okay. Bacterial pneumonia was bad, but the hospital could handle it, he would be okay.

That didn’t stop him from rushing to his car and breaking every single traffic law in existence. He didn’t mind the fines, that was what his father’s money was for.

-

Triton hated hospitals with every fiber of his being. He’d been there countless times, going with his mama for chemotherapy, or his father to visit mama when she had been staying at the hospital. Triton could never get over the sterile scent of the building, the smell of suffering and death, or the shouts or wails that would echo through the walls once in a while, signalling yet another soul had beens snatched by the reaper. 

He found Percy’s room number and stepped in. 

It was a nice room, definitely not one of the standard hospital rooms but the upgraded VIP ones, no doubt requested by his father. It was dimly lit, there was a full couch and a minifridge, and Percy’s bed had some of the nicer covers.

Speaking of Percy’s bed.

Percy seemed to be sinking into the bed, pale and unmoving. He had a tube going into his mouth, taped at the sides, most likely delivering supplemental oxygen, and the heart monitors beeped at a steady pace. He looked like a child, Triton realized. And although some part of Triton had always known that Percy was indeed a child, it was still a revelation of sorts. With Percy’s dry sarcasm and mature reservedness, it was often easy to forget that Percy was only 12 years old. 

“Triton.” His father looked up from where he was sitting by Percy’s bedside.

“Papa.” Triton’s voice was breathless, like he didn’t want to admit something. He swallowed back sudden tears. “Papa, what’s going on?”

“Bacterial pneumonia.” 

“No, I know! I just… why? He was fine yesterday!”

“The doctors said… that Percy most likely has weakened lungs. The cause is unknown for now, but…it probably upped the chances for getting infected with the streptococcus bacteria.”

“Oh,” Triton didn’t know what to say to that. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Yes! Yes,” Poseidon seemed eager to finally share some good news. “The doctors expect a full recovery. Some antibiotics and plenty of rest and comfort should have him as good as new in a week or two.” 

A week or two. Triton didn’t like the sound of that, however optimistic it may be. It would still mean a week or two of Percy suffering. Recovering nonetheless, but also suffering. 

“That’s good.”

“Po.” Thetis spoke up for the first time from where she was watching on the couch. 

“Yes?”

“Tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

“Thetis—”

“No. Triton needs to know. As Percy’s brother, he has a right.”

“Know what?!” Triton demanded, furiously looking from his father to his aunt, a plea in his gaze.

Poseidon sighed.

“The doctors found a concerning number of…lacerations on Perseus’ arm and stomach. While it could be dismissed as an accident, their primary concern is that the wounds look rather, ah, intentional.”

What.

“What, you mean,” Triton tried to understand. “Are you saying that Percy self-harms?!”