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Percy's been feeling off for the past hour, since Echidna's little pet caught him back on the train they fled, but he brushed it off for the sake of the quest. He couldn't worry his friends, not when there was so much more going on of higher importance. So he fought through the numb mouth and shaky legs and that incessant pressure behind his eyes, trying to think of anything else other than the incredible discomfort he was in. He just wanted to sleep, or maybe puking would be more beneficial. He thinks both.
Annabeth led them to the Athenian temple situated right in downtown St Louis, and looked as though it'd simply fallen from the sky and not moved at all. It was a strange infrastructure of two curved towers stretching high into the air and held up only by the perfect balance against each other. No internal support, Annabeth told the boys. Just perfect symmetry.
Grover was still sour about the monster, and was lingering back from the others. Annabeth was talking to Percy about contacting his dad or something like that, but he feels so shaky suddenly that he isn't focusing on her words. He can barely see her, his eyes are so blurry.
“I don’t want anything from him. He’s had his chances. Honestly, you’ve done more for me in the past few days than my father has done in my entire life. If I have to stick with someone, I–”
He forced his tongue to work with the rest of his mouth and produce the sounds, without sounding as panicked as he felt. I'm dying, I'm dying and they can't know.
“Careful.” Annabeth said confidently. “I–” she said more, a lot more, but Percy's given up on forcing himself to process it. His ears were thrumming and he felt the most terrifying out of body sensation ever. He gulped hard, and Annabeth noticed a flicker of utter confusion upon his features. “Percy?”
Percy grunted in panic and felt as though his body was completely shutting down; the world was tilting, tilting, tilting, the noises were tunnelling in his echoey ears and he's painfully aware of the ground getting closer and closer and just before his eyes slip shut he hopes Annabeth will catch him. A concussion on top of whatever the hell this is is not too high on his list of plans.
Annabeth reached out to catch Percy before he hit the ground, barely processing him falling until he was in her arms. His eyes were small slits as he fought to keep them open. Hooves clipped over the floor and came up to the pair, previous disagreement all but forgotten due to the situation at hand.
“What happened?” Grover asked, voice sharp and concerned.
“Think– stingers were poisoned–” Percy whined breathlessly, forcing the four words out before his eyes rolled back and a loud gasp slipped out of his slack lips. The rest of his body tensed up horribly, as though he had lost all control of his movements.
“Oh, fuck!” Annabeth exclaimed, trying to hold him securely so his bones won't smash into the floor, but trying to not smother him in her panic. She was acutely aware of the gurgling noises in his throat as though he were suffocating.
Grover was freaking out behind her– he feels the responsibility whenever something happens to the team. “Okay. Okay, so, the stingers were poisoned. He's seizing, so… just… we wait? Right?”
It was obvious he was talking through it to himself to keep himself calm, but as Percy's body twisted in Annabeth's arm and saliva gathered at the corners of his mouth, Annabeth gave Grover a sensible slap. “Stop freaking out. He's probably conscious enough to hear us. We can figure the rest out after!”
They'd made too much of a scene– they were in a popular tourist location after all– and soon a whole crowd of nosy and concerned visitors formed around the three children, voices overlapping painfully.
“Are you kids okay?”
“ –he epileptic?”
“I called an ambulance.”
“ – ‘s okay, sweetie, your boyfriend is okay.” Annabeth stifled an angry retort at that one. How could they just assume she was his girlfriend? But she didn't start an argument with the stranger; this wasn't the time for her pettiness.
“Can you guys step back?” Grover yelled to the gathered crowd, sensing how fast Annabeth's breathing had gotten. The crowd didn't listen.
“Step back! Give the poor boy space!” A loud-mouthed crowd member shouted over the din, and soon only one woman stood near them, looking on in concern and crouching to check Percy's pulse.
His twitching and grunting was slowing down gradually, but Annabeth didn't mistake the small throaty noise he made, and rolled him to his side to allow him to spit up whatever tiny amount of food he'd eaten those past few days.
His body unstiffened bit by bit. Annabeth made sure he could see her when he came around; he looked so afraid.
“Hey, Seaweed Brain, you're okay now. You're safe; you're with me and Grover in Athena's temple.” She conveniently left out the part about the hoards of people who were also around, taking what they thought were sneaky glances back at the trio.
“Hmpgh?” Percy groaned, rubbing his eyes. Annabeth could see the scared tears.
“It's alright. How are you feeling?”
“Tired.”
“You should rest. We can find a cheap place for the night.”
“But– but the quest!”
Annabeth tutted.
“Perseus. You're poisoned. You had a seizure.”
“I did?”
Grover chuckled softly before crouching down too on his thin legs. “Oh, you did. Scared the hell out of us.”
“Fuck.” Percy rubbed his face and sat up. “Sorry. I feel better now though, we can still continue.”
The pair stared at their blonde friend questioningly.
“That's not gonna happen. But if we don't get out soon, they're gonna be sending in the ambulances.”
Percy groaned as Grover whispered. “Pretend you're epileptic, okay? And that this happens often.”
Percy glared at him playfully. “I mean, we can't really tell them I was stung by a monster, can we?”
Grover looked embarrassed. “Get up, you impertinent boy. I'll sort the crowds out.”
Annabeth helped Percy to his feet, which was a job and a half, while Grover reassured the crowd that his friend was fine.
They'd figure it out.