Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.

37. Percy's A-Maze-ing Back-Up Plan for Labyrinth Navigation.

"Percy?" The sound of Nico's voice roused him from his slumber, repeated instances of his name forcing him into the land of the living.

"Huh?" Percy groaned, lifting his head from the pillow to look at the demigod who was sitting up beside him. Nico looked far too awake for whatever time in the morning it was, though his eyes still held a slight puffiness to them that reminded Percy of the tears from the night before. He wondered whether or not Nico had slept well, or if his wakefulness had been caused by staring at the ceiling for the last few hours. He sincerely hoped that it was the former; that the night of no sleep that preceded the exhausting events of the day previous had knocked Nico out cold when his head hit the pillow, allowing him to sleep through the night with little bother from his dreams.

"Morning, Wavey!" Apollo's voice greeted from where he was leaning in the doorway. He scrunched up his nose and shook his head. "Yeah, no, that didn't work. It didn't sound right, let me try that again. Morning, Seashell!"

Percy let out another unintelligible grunt before letting his head drop back onto the pillow, the act of keeping it aloft requiring too much energy. "Nico, make the sunshine go away."

"The curtains are closed Percy, I don't know what you're on about," Nico informed him, obviously trying not to laugh.

"I don't like you right now," Percy responded and rolled over so he was face-down in the pillow.

He felt the bed rise beside him before swiftly dipping again, the new body beside him radiating far more heat than Nico's usually did. Which wasn't exactly hard – Nico radiated physical coolness, even in summer, despite not having an ounce of actual 'cool' in his body. Unfortunately, it meant that Percy was now playing host to somebody completely different in his bed.

"Apollo, get out of my bed before I throw you out of it." Percy threatened into his pillow.

"Ooooh, somebody isn't a morning person." Apollo laughed beside him.

"Nico, why did you let the crazy god in my bed?" Percy asked, still refusing to look up. If he couldn't see it, he didn't have to believe it was happening.

"You love it really, Seashell." Apollo hummed.

Percy finally rolled onto his side so he could see Apollo. "Why are you in my bed?"

"Fulfilling your lifelong dream of course." Apollo grinned wickedly before he laughed. "Actually I came to tell you that everyone going on the Quest is setting up breakfast downstairs so we can eat and discuss travel plans, etcetera, etcetera. So you need to get your cute butt down there, ASAP."

"Why did you get sent to tell me that?" Percy raised an eyebrow at him.

"My shining personality and devastating wit make me the ideal candidate to wake up to in the morning." Apollo gave him a winning smile.

"Luke asked him to." Nico corrected from where he was stealing a t-shirt from Percy's closet.

"Why?" Percy asked.

"My shining personality and devastating wit make me the ideal candidate to wake up to in the morning," Apollo repeated, grin widening.

Percy sighed. "I hate you."

"Why did you ask Solis to wake me up?" Percy made a beeline for Luke as the three of them entered the room.

"He volunteered." Luke shrugged. "Here, I got your breakfast because I knew you'd grab a piece of toast and be too lazy to get anything else." Luke gestured to the plate beside him, stacked high with waffles and various berries, blueberry syrup drizzled over them.