Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.

28. Nathan Shore Loves Puns.

Percy never thought that he would be quite so glad for Triton to start talking. But, after a more than half an hour tirade from Nathan about how unfair it was that Percy, well, Caeruleum – which he kept pronouncing wrong, got to have Riptide, he was relieved when Triton finally interrupted. Apparently the summons had not been as urgent as Triton had made them out to be and it seemed that he was regretting making it seem so.

"Nathan, please!" Triton pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just, for the love of the rest of the gods, shut up!"

"But he gets to have Riptide and that's not fair." Nathan pouted. "I should get to have Riptide, dad has always promised to have the one of the cyclops make me a sword so I don't see why I can't just have that one!"

"Believe it or not, I know it's not fair." Triton sighed, sheer boredom on his face. "Because you've been trying to tell us for the past half an hour."

"Thirty-six minutes, actually," Bellerophon informed them.

"You timed him?" Triton laughed.

Bellerophon held up his arm, showing off his watch. "Watching the seconds tick by was more interesting than having to listen to him, so yes, I timed him."

"So, why did you come and collect us?" Percy asked, wondering if Triton would answer his question and give them a momentary respite from Nathan talking. "Dad only saw me and Bells a few hours ago."

"He called a family meeting." Triton shrugged. "Said that it was important and sent me to collect you three. Are you the one he claimed the other night and then went to speak with the next?"

"Why do you think it was him and not me?" Bellerophon asked.

Triton levelled him with a dry look. "He would have warned me that you were walking the Earth again."

"Yeah, it was me that he claimed." Percy nodded, hoping that he could intervene before the two started bickering. "And it was me he was speaking to when you came to fetch him."

"He said that you remind him of Percy." Triton fixed him with a glare, eyes narrowing as his gaze flicked to Percy's hand where Riptide was loosely in his grip by his side. He honestly hadn't wanted to let go, the familiar weight of his first sword was one he had missed. Leaving Riptide behind had been one of his biggest regrets but he knew what Apollo had said before was true. Riptide was one of the most recognised weapons of the modern age – at least amongst the Greeks for certain. Pretty distinctive amongst the Romans too, even if he'd only been at Camp Jupiter for a short time. He'd wanted to masquerade as a completely different person. It wouldn't have been believed if he had Riptide.

"I've had that a lot since our arrival." Percy nodded, not wanting to give too much away as Bellerophon held in laughter beside him. "The circumstances of our claiming are apparently identical."

"You totally staged that." Nathan huffed.

Percy just sighed. "Do you know how dumb you sound whenever you say stuff like that?" He shook his head. "Poseidon wasn't aware that I walked the Earth again, how could I have staged his claiming which was a reaction to my presence in the creek?"

"I can see why you're compared to Perseus," Triton smirked. There was a hint of intrigue and almost hope in his gaze and Percy couldn't help but remember what had happened during his last year on Earth, when his relations with his dad and the godly side of his family had grown stronger. He'd been happy to call Amphitrite his step-mom - which had been strange at first, but she'd eventually accepted that he wasn't going to die and leave them alone anytime soon and had decided that it was in her best interests to act contrary to her sister-in-law's usual approach to Zeus' children and accept her husband's demigod son. And, despite Triton's desire to be known as Poseidon's favourite son, he'd grown on Percy. Like a fungus. A really irritating but lovable fungus. Everything had changed when Nathan came along, but before then, before Percy's life was once again thrown into disarray, he thought that things were going his way for once.