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Percy stomped back to his (and now Tyson’s) cabin.
Oh how he hates Tantalus. That ghost should stay in the fields of punishment where he belongs.
Tyson was already inside working on.. something. Percy couldn’t tell, he was never in the forges often. Tyson quickly hid his project under a blanket and hopped off the bed, talking excitedly.
But Percy didn’t understand a thing. His mind was all over the place with anger at Tantalus and growing frustration with Tyson.
Percy was about to go get his notebook so he could draw but Tyson suddenly hugged him, his big eye watering.
“My brother..” Percy gasped at the sudden touch, “..Happy!”
He tried to shrug out of the hug (unsuccessfully) while Tyson kept on blabbering.
Tyson’s tall stature trapped Percy in the hug and made it harder to breathe and soon the weight of everything crashed down on Percy. Annabeth’s dislike of Tyson, Tantalus, and now this..
His eyes began to burn.
It was all too much.
“Tyson— stop. Just- just! Stop it!” Percy began to struggle harder and Tyson quickly let him go as if burned by fire.
With his hands now free, Percy covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Stop it! Why are you so annoying and- and- loud?! ” He screamed.
Percy ran out of cabin three to the ocean. He toppled into the sandy beach and barely missed hitting his head on a boulder.
He was on all fours now, half in and half out of the water.
Percy tried to steady his breathing with the slow lapping of the waves that helped calm him. The sea seemed to be waving lazily at him. Percy wondered if Poseidon purposely made the ocean calm today for him.
He adjusted his position until he was in the water up to his chest with his head on the soft sand and curled up.
Percy breathed in the salty breeze (which may have been tainted with his tears) and closed his eyes.
He could’ve been laying there for minutes or days before heavy footsteps on sand made him open his eyes and look up.
Tyson was there with his big eye full of guilt and his hands behind his back.
“Brother.” He whispered.
Percy winced at his hoarse voice and wondered if Tyson had cried.
He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times looking for the right words to use in this situation.
Tyson beat him to it, “I’m sorry for hugging you.”
“What? Oh - Tyson I-“ Percy licked his lips, ”I’m not mad at you for hugging me! I’m not mad at you at all..” He mumbled the last bit.
Tyson blinked at him.
He adjusted his position again so he was now on his side, facing Tyson,
“I was just.. It- everything was just so..” He wrung his hands together. “Everything was a lot.” Percy finished lamely.
“Overwhelming?” Percy forgot that his brother was actually smart. Tyson just acted so childish that it didn’t even occur to him that a word like that existed in his vocabulary.
“Yeah..” Percy mumbled.
“I’m sorry for overwhelming you, brother” Tyson looked like he was about to go hug him again but thought better of it.
Percy let his eyes wander everywhere but Tyson’s face until he spotted something brown sticking out from behind Tyson.
“What’s that?” Percy questioned.
He finally looked at Tyson’s face and noticed that it seemed to light up.
“A gift. For you!”
Percy tilted his head in confusion. Really? Tyson still wanted to give him a gift even after he yelled at him?
He sat up and his brother passed him the, now that he saw it, brown box.
Percy untied the twine wrapped around it and set that and the lid in the sand.
He looked at Tyson. Tyson looked at him. He looked excited, as much as a 6ft tall cyclops could look.
Percy took the blue headphones out of the box with immense care that surprised himself.
“..You got this for me?”
“Made it for you!”
Percy put the headphones on and a soft melody played for a few seconds before it was quiet again. The ocean and all noise around him was muffled.
Tyson reached out and pressed a button on the headphones and suddenly, Percy couldn’t hear anything. It was a shock at first, and he might’ve yelped.
The lack of noise was calming and his thoughts seemed to lower their caffeine intake and lay down for a bit.
Percy sat there just watching the waves and then slid the headphones to hang on his neck and looked at Tyson.
“Thank you.”
“Anything for my brother.”