How Do You Say Gods- Sea of Monsters

12: WE CHECK IN TO C.C.'S SPA & RESORT

I swear I did pick the order at random and find it just as funny as you guys Jason got this chapter, poor thing!

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Percy was beginning to wonder if he'd just sunk to the bottom of the ocean and never come out, so this was his eternal punishment. Hades was sending his torment to him via hallucinations in revenge like some long distance favor. Doomed to just relieve his worst mistakes over and over. Tyson was dead and Annabeth probably was too...

"Percy," but Thalia was at a loss what to say to him this time. Anything she could think to say just sounded heartless or dismissive, she just wanted to help him keep going to the part where he found out Tyson was okay rather than this guilt and pain that had him staring so blankly ahead.

"Tyson knows you're a good brother Percy," Will said in a calm, solemn voice. He could have been speaking at the cyclops's funeral or making a toast for their return, he just meant every word. "He never felt rejected by you, you did all you could, he knows that." He had the book firmly in his hands and wasn't going to be giving it up until Percy was ready for him to. He still missed Michael, Lee, and many of his siblings he'd lost over the years, kids he'd barely become close to, who had virtually nothing in common except they shared a cabin, a dad, but still called each other brothers and sisters.

"I-" Percy looked all around and still wasn't entirely convinced this wasn't some prolonged, elaborate torture. He started rolling his pen around in his hands again though, he could never remain inactive. "I was so awful to him, at camp, and I never," there was still this horrible headache he couldn't shake. He was still missing something about Tyson, a connection he longed to understand even as he finished, "I never called him my brother."

"I know that feeling," Thalia whispered, a catch in her voice as she closed her eyes tightly before opening them again. That she couldn't save her own little brother. Somehow, Percy knew, she did understand, both of them did. Half-bloods didn't make it through life without loss. Maybe it was Luke, maybe it was somebody else to her.

Nico felt for Percy as much as the others, truly he'd never wish to see him in so much misery, but he wasn't entirely sure what he'd do to offer comfort even if he'd ever freely let himself do that. Though Percy was feeling all that now, Nico knew Tyson was okay. He'd gotten his mother back, his brother, and his girlfriend. He wasn't bitter about it, he just wondered for the first time if he and Percy had anything in common.

Percy finally told Will to give up the book already. He had to find out what happened to Annabeth and Clarisse, find some salvation in saving their home. He couldn't fail Grover too, he had a wedding to crash.

Will passed it to Jason with the same sad, but cheerful smile again, but it was Thalia who winced and couldn't seem to look at the kid in the purple shirt all of a sudden, swallowing hard and twining the links of her bracelet up in her fingers.

So when Jason read the new chapter title, it was Percy who said with a light smack to her shoulder, "gods, this is why I should have never taken a girl on a quest!"

"Bite your tongue mister," Thalia gave a forced laugh, but she smiled lightly right back. "We could all use a spa day after the hell we've been through."

She suddenly released a barely forced laugh as she recalled what a cute guinea pig he'd apparently made and then gave him such an evil smirk he was already dreading whatever had happened to him there. Had he gotten his nails buffed? Did a monster try to drown him in a mud bath?

"Seconded!" Alex raised his hand so fast he almost smacked Magnus in the face.

"Maybe you take Grover there for his bachelor party Percy, always good to keep your promises," Jason reminded, but there was something funny in this he was missing. It wasn't clicking right in his mind, which was even weirder than the other dozen weird things he'd been dealing with. How could he know anything about this place?