Sea Angels

~2~

A/N: trigger warning for this chapter

Percy woke up when a pesky ray of sunlight seemed adamant on streaming right onto his face, blinding him as he blinked his eyes open. With a muffled groan, he sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He then realized someone else was in the bed with him. Cautiously, he looked to his left, and there was his sleeping cousin, clutching a pillow like a lifeline.

He took in his surroundings, noticing that he, in fact, was not in his own cabin, but in the Hades cabin. It shocked him that Hades hadn't personally struck him down for sleeping in his cabin, but then again, Nico was in here, surely he wouldn't risk his own child. It shocked him even more that Nico let him sleep with him-in the same bed, no less! Percy thought that after Nico admitted his feelings about him that things would be awkward, and waking up beside the younger boy definitely counted as awkward.

Nico let out a muffled noise into the pillow, and Percy froze, not daring to wake up the sleeping son of Hades. All the campers knew how Nico coveted his rest, and if you woke him up, you had better be in a different continent before he recognized you.

Slowly, Percy slipped out of bed, wincing when the springs creaked underneath him. He made sure one last time that Nico was still asleep before quietly leaving the Hades cabin, carefully shutting the door behind him as he slipped out.

Immediately he was greeted by walking into Jason, causing for his glasses to fly askew on his face. Percy straightened out the son of Jupiter's glasses in embarrassment, heat rising in his cheeks as he did so.

"Sorry, man," Percy apologized. "I didn't see you."

"Well, I'm seeing way more of you than I should see," Jason commented with a sarcastic smile on his face. "You might want to put a shirt on. The Aphrodite girls are staring."

Percy looked towards the Barbie Dream-house cabin, and sure enough all the daughters of the goddess of love had their jaws hanging open, gawking a Percy's physique. Again, blush flooded his face, but he crossed his arms over his chest, determined to not feel embarrassed.

"I wear less when I go swimming," he retorted. "Sweat pants cover more than swimming trunks, bro."

Jason laughed at that. "What were you doing in the Hades cabin?" he then asked, all traces of joking gone.

"You didn't hear the scream last night?"

"What scream?"

"Ah, so that explains why I was the only one there."

"Percy, stop being cryptic for a moment, please. What happened?"

Percy's sea green eyes darkened, like the calm before the storm, glaring at his bare feet. "Nico had nightmares, so I comforted him."

"Where was Will?"

The son of Poseidon flinched, much to Jason's surprise. He had never seen Percy flinch before, other than at Annabeth's threats. Speaking of which, where was Annabeth?

"You didn't hear?" Percy released a bitter laugh. "I can't blame you, then. You're probably busy what with being Pontifex Maximus. There are way too many minor gods and goddesses out there."

"Cut to the chase, Perce. What happened?"

"Chase," Percy mumbled incoherently, "that was her last name. Solace, that was his last name."

"What are you blathering on about?" Jason shouted in frustration. He was waiting for Percy to give him an answer, but he kept dodging the question.

"They're gone. They're gone." Percy began rocking back-and-forth on the balls of his feet to his heels, clutching his arms around his bare chest so tight that his nails dug into his skin. His eyes became eerily unfocused, and he kept muttering "They're gone" under his breath, deeply concerning Jason.