Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.

59. Apollo and Percy are a Katy Perry Classic.

There was a long pause that followed Percy's question, his company looking awkwardly at one another in the hopes that someone else would answer.

"I think the logical answer would be that we will have to have another meeting with the Counsellors and some of your lot to try and figure out what in Chaos' name we're going to have to do now." Apollo was the one who finally answered him with a sigh. He dragged a hand over his face and gave them all a defeated look. "Though all I want to do right now is go for a nap and hope that this is all resolved when I wake up."

"I thought you said-" Percy started, frowning at Apollo and shaking his head before starting again; deciding to take a softer, more conciliatory approach instead of just blurting everything out. "You can go and lie down, you know?" He purposefully held Apollo's gaze, trying to search for answers within the god's eyes - eyes that were now a veritable match for the sky of the screaming storm outside the window. Gone was the blue of a sweet-summer's day, a stormy blue with striking grey clouds taking its place. It felt strange to see, with Percy absentmindedly wondering if Apollo's eyes were a window to the skies as well as his soul, before realising that Apollo was holding his gaze because he was waiting for Percy to finish speaking. "None of us would begrudge you. I know you said about preferring company, but-"

"Percy, darling, I really am fine," Apollo assured him, swift to soothe his worries. "If I begin to feel at all faint, you'll be the first to know, and I wholly expect you to catch me should I fall."

Eros started to mutter something beneath his breath, earning a sharp dig to the ribs from Aether before Percy could distinguish the love god's exact words.

"I don't want you fainting on me," Percy warned. "Not if you can help it."

"Well, I-"

Apollo stopped talking when the door was flung open, a familiar face rushing in with a wild look in his eyes.

"What in Zeus' name has happened to my father?" Triton asked, chest heaving. It was clear that he had just been running; long waves of ink-black hair spilling out of its normal ponytail, untamed, windswept and tangled when he was usually meticulous about combing out knots and tangles. It was also clear that he'd had to transform from his two-tailed form in a hurry, now dressed in a black and white Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts, shoes nowhere to be seen on his bare, bronzed feet. He also, most obviously, wasn't green. He looked to Apollo and Percy with a desperate expression on his face, pressing a hand to his heart and shuddering. "I can feel it, here, that something has shifted, something has changed. But I can't quite tell what. The sea is raging against the sky and Zeus' power feels different."

"Did Dad tell you what he was doing today?" Percy asked, figuring it was the only place that they could and should start.

"Dad hasn't been home since you arrived back from your Quest," Triton deadpanned. "He's been stuck in meeting after meeting on Olympus. He warned us in advance that we probably wouldn't be seeing much of him. I didn't realise that we wouldn't be seeing any of him."

"I have a feeling that may have been my fault," Eros sighed, holding his hands up in an apology. "Unintentional, I swear."

"Well nobody gets kidnapped on purpose, Sherlock. Well, aside from you - back when that used to be Aphrodite's preferred method of setting you up with people. Going to guess that this wasn't planned though?" Triton rolled his eyes at Eros before looking him up and down. "Glad to see you're looking alright though, I was beginning to think that we'd never see you again."

"You noticed I was gone?" Eros frowned before protesting. "And it was never willing back then, either!"

"I had to listen to your stand-in worry about you disappearing on him," Triton responded with a shrug. "None of us realised that you'd been kidnapped. The general assumption was that you'd show up out of the blue one day and say you and your harem lost track of time."