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Percy had been coughing up blood for about an hour.
Granted, it was only small globs every five to ten minutes, and let it not be said that he was complaining, but it hurt . It felt like he’d tried his hand and swallowing a flaming sword. Several flaming swords, he amended to himself. He was sitting on the balcony of the low-end motel they’d taken up refuge in, his feet swinging where they hung over the edge between the bars. He coughed again into a tissue and made a point to not look at the shock of red when he pulled it away from his mouth.
Behind him, the door to their room was propped open. It was a hot night, humid to boot, and after the day they had, everyone just wanted some peace and quiet. Piper and Jason were still at each other’s throats, but it had settled to a kind of stalemate, silent and tense and unbearable. His escape to the balcony wasn’t nearly far enough to rid himself of their palpable frustration, and he dropped his eyes longingly to the pool below him.
He sensed someone approaching from behind, but didn’t turn to look. Hazel settled beside him, crouching for a moment before deciding to stick her feet through the bars and dangle her feet beside his.
“You feeling any better?”
Percy shook his head. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, and he in turn tilted his head to rest against the top of her’s.
“I wish they’d stop fighting,” she said softly. “I understand where they’re both coming from, but it’s awful to be next to.”
Percy sighed, hoping to convey his agreement. Hazel didn’t seem bothered by his selective mutism. She wrapped her hands around his arm and settled closer into his side. Despite the hot night air, it was a welcome gesture; both of them were missing someone else after the day they’d had.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be faster, Percy,” Hazel said softly. “I could have stopped it.”
He shook his head. Wanted to tell her that there was no way it could have been avoided, but talking sounded like the worst possible option. She shifted and took a deep breath.
“Do you think if you hung out in the pool for a while, the water might heal you?”
When he shook his head again, she sat up to look at him. “Because it’s not salt water?”
He nodded and then tilted his head and made a face to indicate that that was only part of it. Hazel looked down at the pool and frowned for a moment, then asked, “Because it’s chlorine?”
Percy nodded again, more deliberately, and she frowned curiously back at him. Before she could say anything else, he felt something shift in his chest and he was coughing again, gripping the bar of the railing hard with one hand and pressing a clean tissue to his mouth. Hazel rubbed small circles between his shoulder blades and watched with worried eyebrows.
From the door to their motel room, Piper emerged, barefoot and grumbling to herself. She plunked down on Percy’s opposite side and patted his shoulder with something between sympathy and lingering annoyance.
When the coughing calmed down, Hazel sighed at the bloodied tissue and reached behind Percy to offer him the waste basket he’d brought out with him. The three of them sat in miserable silence for a while, watching the sun set low and brilliant over the hills behind the highway.
“Sorry about the fighting,” Piper said, her tone unexpectedly quiet. “You guys don’t deserve this.”
Hazel leaned forward so she could look at her. “No one plans these things. At least we all made it here in one piece, right?”
They shared a moment of silence, considering the bruises and cuts they’d acquired during the battle earlier that day. It ended with both Piper and Hazel looking warily at Percy, who stared stubbornly down at the pool.
“I’m sorry, but if he had just-... gods . I know I need to get over it, but it was a big deal, you know?”
“Your birthday?” Somehow, Hazel’s concern sounded fresh and genuine, as if she hadn’t been listening to the argument all weekend. Percy sighed as dramatically as his throat would allow and rolled onto his back, flopping his arms out on either side of him as he went. Piper made a point of ignoring him.
“It’s not about my birthday, I’m not four . I just… You know, my dad has been so busy, and he finally had time to spend with me. And because Jason prioritized ‘his duties’, not only did he miss my birthday, but I had to go to New Rome to find out what was going on, and then my dad got called away. So no birthday, no boyfriend, and no dad time. And when I tried to tell Jason how his actions made me feel, he got all bent!”
“His duties are important,” Hazel said, not unkindly. Piper pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes and groaned.
“I know! I know , and I don’t want to make him choose between his people or me. I’d hate to ever do that to him. It’s just… the way he reacted . Like I was giving him some ultimatum. I just wanted to talk about how his choice effected me, and he got so defensive, and now every time it comes up we can’t stand it, and it’s turning everything into an argument, and-”
“Piper,” Hazel said, the volume of her voice halved, “Is he like…” She gestured to the open door. The motel room was just that; one room. No place to be properly out of earshot.
Piper waved the concern away. “He’s in the shower. Gods. Gods, I’m sorry, you guys. I’m being so selfish about this. And that stupid monster today, and Percy, this is the last thing you need.”
Percy coughed weakly in reply, but made no move to sit up.
“You have to process it,” Hazel offered, trying to be supportive despite the persistent length of the argument.
Piper groaned and ran her hands down her face, pulling her lower eyelids down for a minute before letting them spring back up. “I thought I had such a handle on this relationship crap.”
Hazel tried for a smile. “No relationship is perfect. It’s healthy to butt heads every once and awhile, I think. Means you’re actually talking about the things that bother you.”
Piper watched the neon motel sign blink on and off. “You’re way too good for this world, Hazel,” she said miserably.
Percy nodded his head against the cement walkway in agreement.
“You can probably sip some more nectar now,” Hazel said, ignoring the compliment with a slight flush to her cheekbones. She glanced back to watch Percy as he stiffly pushed himself up. The bruising around his throat was already beginning to yellow from the last dose he’d taken.
Hazel stood and went inside to get some, leaving the two of them alone. Piper made no effort to hide the fact that she was staring at where the wound had been.
“Won’t even get a cool scar,” Percy croaked, swallowing with great difficulty.
“For getting your throat sliced open? You’d have to tell that story all the time . You don’t need that noise,” she said, her tone exhausted but edging on sassy. She seemed grateful for the change of subject, if nothing else.
Percy gave her a wry smile and carded his fingers through his hair, the ghost of the monster’s grip still lingering from when it had yanked his head back to cut his throat.
“Weird weapon, though. Cursed to heal whatever it hurts. Not so handy for a monster to have.”
“Not very efficient, either,” he managed, tentatively brushing his fingers against the skin below his adam’s apple. Piper laughed, said something about him being ungrateful, and then Hazel was back with a yellow water bottle in hand.
Percy took a slow sip and closed his eyes as a rush of relief made its way down his damaged throat. He felt Piper pat his shoulder again, more sincerely this time. He allowed himself another sip.
Hazel had grabbed a regular water bottle from her backpack and offered it to Piper. The two of them passed it back and forth while Percy nursed his nectar, sipping as much as he dared until he could feel heat behind his eyes and a tipsy lilt to his balance.
He made a few experimental swallows and found, much to his crippling relief, that the pain had nearly halved. “Oh thank gods, that was awful,” he rasped, more comfortably now.
“Other than that, Mrs Lincoln,” Piper drawled, sipping at her water, “how was the play?”
“First of all,” Percy said, his tone blustery enough to imply he’d been wanting to say this for a while, “you made him the bad guy.”
Piper blinked. Clearly she hadn’t expected the conversation to swerve so immediately back to the argument between her and Jason, and even less so was she expecting Percy to be the one to redirect it.
“You’re pissed, right? Because he’s not hearing what you’re saying and you can’t just let it go, so you keep arguing. But you’re blaming him. Even if his choice did ruin your birthday and your dad time, the second you make him the bad guy, he’s not going to really listen anymore. He’s just gunna defend himself.”
Piper stared at him. She didn’t look offended, but his bluntness had clearly caught her off guard. Percy glanced at Hazel, who was watching also, silent.
“Like,” he said, hesitating due to momentary self-consciousness before pushing on. “Example. Annabeth and my mom really get along great, right? So last mother’s day she got my mom this huge bouquet and went all out. Which was great, except I got home from school and they were already celebrating, and honestly, it felt like Annabeth had sort of stolen mother’s day from me. Which I know is petty as hell but I had this whole dinner plan that I never got to do for her because they’d already gone out to eat.”
Despite herself, Hazel made a small ‘aww’ and patted Percy’s thigh supportively. He allowed her a small grin before looking back to Piper.
“We argued about it, right? Cause I was kinda upset even though what Annabeth had done was really nice. I tried to explain that what she had done left me out, and she get defensive because she’s basically in the family too and was just trying to do something nice.”
Percy cleared his throat, pausing to see if he was about to cough and relaxing considerably when the urge passed without incident. “My point is like, we fought because I basically blamed Annabeth’s kind gesture for my bad mood. When really, I was upset because I had a need for like, inclusion and stuff, and to celebrate with my mom, and I felt like I didn’t get it.”
“But she could have told you ahead of time,” Piper reasoned. “Let you in on it. If she had, there wouldn’t have been any drama.”
Percy shook his head. “Yeah, but that’s not how it worked out. Like… basically, I blamed my bad mood on her doing a nice thing for my mom. But I wasn’t upset that she’d done something nice. I was upset because I had a need to celebrate that didn’t get met. And the second I blamed Annabeth, she didn’t want to think about why I was actually offended, she just wanted to defend herself, because she hadn’t really done anything wrong.”
Piper looked down at the pool. In the fading light, it was brightening as the underwater lights began to outshine the sunset. “You’re saying that I should just speak for myself.”
“And not blame your mood on Jason, yeah. I know you’re upset, and you want him to understand that. But he’s upset too. You’re both trying too hard to defend yourselves. You’re not really, like. Listening to each other.”
Hazel was giving Percy a proud-of-you smile that made him feel a little bashful, and he returned it awkwardly. Piper was still staring down at the surface of the water. For awhile, they sat and listened to the rising chorus of crickets. Inside their motel room, the shower finally turned off.
“How did you and Annabeth work that out?”
“Oh,” Percy said easily, his throat repairing itself with each passing minute, “I came back later that day and explained myself better. Told her that I had wanted to surprise my mom, and I was discouraged when she beat me to the punch. Apologized for blaming her, and then she apologized for not cluing me in sooner. So like, I got the apology that I wanted in the first place, but the second time ‘round, I didn’t make my girlfriend feel like a jerk for being amazing. So it was better.”
“You two are disgustingly good for each other,” Piper groaned. “But okay. Okay, you’re right. I have been blaming Jason. But he did bail on my birthday.”
"Yeah. And that was a sucky thing to do. But he won't admit that if he's busy trying to defend himself."
Piper frowned down at the pool a moment longer before giving Percy's bicep a light smack. "When did you get so good at this shit?"
Percy shrugged. "Annabeth and I started out as, like, frenemies. We've gotten pretty good at working this stuff out."
After another brief pause, Piper looked over her shoulder into the room and sighed. “Is it worth it to bring it up again tonight?”
"Depends. You think you can manage it if you're still frustrated from the last round?"
Hazel leaned over Percy's lap and took up Piper's hand in her own. "You just have to speak for yourself. Jason loves you, he don't want to fight either."
Piper squeezed her hand back and smiled at them both, her eyebrow turning upward with sincerity. "You guys are awesome. Thank you."
"Amazing what a death race to Ancient Greek Murder Land can do for a friend group," Percy mused. Hazel giggled and gave Piper's hand one last squeeze before letting go of it.
“Soda,” she announced. “We’ll go get some sodas downstairs, you go talk to Jason. That okay?”
She stood and looped her hands under Percy’s arm to gently tug him to his feet. Piper rolled her eyes, but grinned. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks guys.”
“Hey," Percy started, brushing off his legs and pressing his hands against his lower back to work out a kink, "maybe also spot me a dollar, I refuse to buy your nasty orange soda with my own hard-earned money.”
Hazel swatted his arm, but Piper pulled a crumpled five out of her pocket.
“On me. And there’s nothing wrong with orange soda, you heathen.”