Chapter Text
That night, Annabeth had decided to take a break. She was overwhelming herself with work from all the classes she was taking. She wasn’t getting much sleep at all and was running off nothing but black coffee with just a dust of cinnamon from the local cafe. She had invited Magnus to come visit New Rome for the week. He arrived earlier that day during one of her few free periods. Then Hazel had given him a tour while she had to sit through a two hour long architecture lecture.
Percy had been trying to get her to take a break for weeks, so she decided to treat herself. She made a reservation at the fanciest restaurant in New Rome that evening to bring Percy, Magnus, Hazel, Frank, and herself to dinner. She put on a nice blue dress, covered her sleep deprived face in makeup, and brushed her hair for the first time in a few days. She forced Percy to wear a collared shirt, and thankfully Magnus had fashion designer friends who always forced him to travel with formalwear.
So there she was. It was eight o’clock at night and she and her friends (minus Hazel) sat in a gold upholstered booth in a restaurant that only sold food over fifty dollars a serving.
Hazel skittered through the restaurant to their seat near the back wall. “I’m so sorry I’m late!” She said, brushing off her short purple dress and plopping down next to Frank in the circular booth, “praetor duties.”
“No it’s fine!” Annabeth chuckled, “I barely got here on time myself and I’m the one who made the gods damn reservation.”
Seeing that their entire party had arrived, a waiter came to take their drink orders. Annabeth ordered the fruitiest alcoholic beverage on the menu (minus the alcohol).
“I’ll have what she’s having,” Percy said, his usual routine.
“Sweet tea please,” Hazel said with a smile, “extra sugar.”
“Dr. Pepper,” Magnus said awkwardly.
Frank went last, “And just a water for me, thank you sir.”
The waiter finished jotting it down and left them dinner menus to peruse.
“Oh gods,” Percy grimaced looking at the prices, “I do not have this much money.”
“I do,” Magnus shrugged, “I’ll pay.”
Annabeth let her mouth hang open, “how do you have this much money!”
“Let’s just say Alex has a rich asshole of a dad with a shit security system.”
Frank chuckled, Hazel just widened her eyes and opened her menu as though she preferred not to ask.
“So,” Frank said to Magnus , “tell us more about your friends, they seem interesting. What kind of powers do norse demigods have?”
“Ah well it’s not much really,” Magnus chuckled, “most people just get to be a monster beacon honestly. I mean if you die in battle and become an einherji you get super strength and stuff. I heal or whatever. My friends- Samirah and Alex?- they’re children of Loki. They get the cool stuff, they can shapeshift.”
“Dude no way!” Frank smiled, “I’m a shapeshifter!”
“How‘s Alex?” Annabeth smirked.
“Huh?” Magnus stared at her like a deer in headlights, she almost laughed.
“I said ’How's Alex?’”
“Oh uhm uh she’s uh he’s good, I think.”
Annabeth held back a giggle as she hummed and nodded. Magnus was stupidly obvious.
The waiter showed up to bring them their drinks and took their orders. Most of them ordered various pastas, Percy glared at Magnus as he ordered shrimp on his alfredo fettuccine. Annabeth ordered a salad. The waiter left them their drinks and strode away.
Hazel sat in front of Annabeth. She watched as the young praetor took a sip of her iced tea and grimaced. “What’s wrong Haze? You want me to call the waiter back?”
Hazel brought a hand to her forehead and shook her head no. “I just have the worst headache…”
“Oh,” Annabeth frowned, “I have Advil in my purse if you’d like some…”
“That’d be nice,” Hazel smiled sheepishly. Annabeth dug in her bag while Percy and Magnus debated what the coolest animal to shapeshift into was. Frank put in a few words to confirm or deny their statements, though he was paying more attention to Hazel, who was staring a hole through the table.
“Here!” Annabeth said, finally locating the travel sized bottle and popping two out for Hazel. But Hazel didn’t look up. “…Hazel?”
“Hm?” Hazel quickly looked up and blinked for the first time in minutes, “oh! Thank you.”
Frank put a hand on her shoulder and whispered to her “are you okay?”
Annabeth was only able to make out a bit of her response, “I’m not sure… something is wrong… I don’t know.”
Everyone was worried, so they drifted off into quiet conversation, paying more attention to Hazel than what they were saying. At one point she winced and grabbed her stomach.
“Woah,” Frank said, his hand immediately on her shoulder, “you okay?”
Hazel shook her head, “I think I’m gonna be sick.” With that she got up, still clutching her forehead, and walked in the direction of the bathroom. Frank quickly excused himself and followed.
Percy’s eyes followed them as they walked away. “I’m worried…”
“Yeah…” Annabeth agreed.
“….hey… you remember when Leo came back to life?”
“Of course,” Annabeth said, then her eyes widened, “oh… oh shit… you think someone-“
“Just a hunch,” Percy shrugged, “gods I hope not.”
“What’s going on?” Magnus asked, confused.
“Just concerned, that’s all,” Annabeth said, “well.. with Hades and Pluto kids, sometimes they feel it when someone they’re close to dies… we’re kind of worried. But who knows, it could just be food poisoning.”
“Yeah,” Percy added, “Hazel usually has that kind of physical reaction, Nico’s usually more of the screaming and crying and breaking things variety.”
“Hm,” Magnus nodded and took a sip of his drink.
They sat quietly till the waiter brought their food. Hazel and Frank still weren’t back.
Annabeth sighed and unwrapped her silverware from her napkin. Before she could take a bite of her salad, Magnus interrupted her. “Uhm Annabeth…”
She looked up at him, “yeah.”
“I uh.. well,” he cleared his throat, “I wanted to tell you something.”
She dropped her fork and diverted her attention to Magnus, “I’m listening.”
“So I uh… uhm Alex, no uhm- I’m- fuck,” he sighed, “I just wanted to tell you that I’m-“
“Hey guys,” Frank slid into the booth cutting him off, “Hazel’s coming in a second she’s just fixing her makeup.”
“Oh, is she okay?” Annabeth asked.
“She’s a little sick but she wants to stay, I told her she doesn’t have to.”
Annabeth nodded sympathetically, then seemed to remember the conversation she was in the middle of. “Oh! Sorry Mag, what were you saying?”
He looked away awkwardly, “Oh it doesn’t matter anyways it’s-“
“No! No, it’s fine. Just tell me.”
Magnus sighed, “Annie, I lik-“
A crash and a scream cut him off. Annabeth saw Frank’s eyes widened as he stood. She turned around to look behind her at the back wall where the commotion was coming from. Her jaw dropped at what she saw.
There was a hole in the wall revealing a dark tunnel, but it was what had broken through that had shocked the customers. A boy about Magnus’ age lay on the floor, barely holding himself up. He was covered in blood, and a bit of a pool was forming around his left hand… which seemed to be missing. The other person, well, wasn’t a person. They were much too tall to be human. Annabeth couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Percy managed to form the word first, “…Bob?!”
His head turned, he saw Percy and cried harder. He was already crying like a baby. Clutching a few backpacks and calling for help.
“Bob!” Annabeth yelled and leaped out of the booth. Magnus seemed to have finally caught a glimpse of the pandemonium because he followed her out of the booth and began pushing to the front, all the while shouting that he was a healer.
Annabeth managed to push to the front. Through the blood and the dirt, she recognized the boy. “Is that.. shit.”
She stepped forward and put a hand on the cowering boy’s shoulder. He shot up immediately and rummaged in a bag he had next to him. “Don’t touch me!!” He screamed, pulling out a gun. Very few demigods ever used those, Annabeth was shocked and stepped back throwing her hands up. His hand shook, “I’ll shoot.”
His hand was shaking violently, there was no way he could shoot, at least not straight. Annabeth took a deep breath and forced herself to stay calm. “Drop the gun Will.”
“I’ll shoot!” He repeated. He turned it on himself. Before Annabeth had time to react, he pulled the trigger…but nothing had happened. Thank gods, it was empty. Annabeth watched as Will Solace fell to the ground at her feet sobbing.
She dropped her hands and turned around to look at the crowd of onlookers. Behind her Hazel stood frozen, staring at the boy on the ground. Frank pushed his way through to her. He nudged her but she stayed unmoving. Magnus pushed through the crowd with a lot more effort than Frank had. He ran up past Annabeth and placed a hand on Will’s forehead.
He grimaced. “Is it that bad?” Annabeth asked.
“There’s so many bad memories fresh in his memory it’ll be hard to heal. I’ll only be able to keep him stable for a few minutes,” he said frantically. “For fucks sake can someone get an actual doctor in here!!”
“What the actual hell happened…” Annabeth thought aloud. She turned to the right, Bob was hugging Percy and crying. She and Percy locked eyes. He was breathing heavily and shaking, his eyes were wide. He looked… terrified. He looked like he had when… oh gods… oh no…
Finally, some paramedics from New Rome’s hospital showed up. They lifted Will onto a stretcher and Magnus let go of his forehead. He dropped to the ground. There was blood on the knees of his nice pants and he looked absolutely drained.
Annabeth rushed to help him to his feet. He stumbled and caught himself on her elbows. “Woah, are you okay?”
He looked at her with a very similar expression to Percy’s. “I- it’s… it’s really bad.”
“W- where’s my brother?” Hazel blurted out, to no one in particular. Her eyes darted from the floor to Bob to Percy and Magnus and Annabeth alike. “Where in Hades is my brother!”
With the lack of an answer and the uncertain look on everyone’s faces, she sobbed and ran once again in the direction of the bathroom. Frank calmly dismissed himself to follow.
Annabeth looked to Percy. He was definitely crying now. Magnus’ face wasn’t too reassuring either.
“…Is now a bad time to tell you I like guys too?”