Chapter Text
Percy doesn’t end up in the infirmary at 2:29 in the morning out of instinct, foresight, or any kind of divine ‘chosen one’ intervention.
He ends up in the infirmary at 2:29 in the morning because some Apollo kid was hooking up with an Ares kid on the beach, and they found you.
They found you, not Percy. He didn’t even have a clue until he woke up to Chiron in his cabin.
Percy had had his fair share of rude awakenings over the years, usually because of horrific demigod prophetic dreams, but the expression on Chiron’s face immediately alerted Percy that something was wrong, even through his groggy haze.
“Chiron?” he rasps, and he sits up as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. He has to make sure he’s not still dreaming.
“I’m sorry to wake you, Percy,” he says. “But I need you to come with me.”
“What’s wrong?” he asks. “Is everyone okay? Is camp okay? Is there an invasion?”
“Nothing so ghastly,” Chiron says. Though his tone is a bit lighter, it still doesn’t ease Percy’s concerns. “But it does concern you.”
“Great,” Percy mumbles, and he pulls himself out of bed. Normally he would have the foresight to change, but a part of him is still worried that Christmas has come early and Kronos has already invaded the city.
So he follows Chiron—with all the sneaking around he’s done since getting to camp, it’s strange to be out this late and not have to worry about being eaten alive—clad in flannel pajama pants, a Yankee’s tee, and Converse he didn’t get the chance to fully lace up.
“You’d tell me if something was wrong,” Percy says, glancing up at him. “Right?”
“Of course,” he nods. “I wouldn’t classify this as something going wrong. Just… rather shocking.”
“Great,” he repeats. “Are you going to tell me?”
Chiron is silent for a moment, and Percy frowns. “Now I’m really worried.”
“I suppose it’s best to rip the bandage off,” Chiron says. He stops right outside the Big House and lets out a sigh. “An hour ago, a girl was found on the beach. She looked as if she’d been washed ashore.”
Percy’s frown deepens. “What? Gods— is she okay?”
“Yes,” Chiron says. “I checked her over for injuries, but she only had some minor bruises. No water in her lungs, somehow.”
“That’s crazy,” he says. “How could someone even wash up here? Even with demigods— don’t we have protections against that?”
“All of this makes me believe there was some… divine intervention,” Chiron says slowly. “Especially with who she is.”
Percy crosses his arms. “You’re making this sound like a huge deal. Who is she?”
“Percy,” Chiron says, soft but firm, “it’s your sister. Somehow, she’s come back to life.”
And for a second, all he can do is stare.
“What?”
“I could never forget her face,” he says. “Or the presence of a child of Poseidon.”
Percy shakes his head. “No, Chiron— if this is a joke, it’s not funny.” He huffs a mirthless laugh and looks down at his hands. “And if this is a shitty dream, then it’s really shitty.”
“Perseus, this is real,” he states.
He’s still shaking his head. “How can it be real? She’s dead— she’s been dead for years.”
“I don’t know,” he admits. “Mr. D has already gone back to Olympus to figure it out. But if I had to guess, your father decided to meddle.”
He wants to call it a lie. Honestly, he wants to punch Chiron for getting his hopes up about something like this. But deep down, Percy knows he’s telling the truth.
“Can I see her?” he asks. “Is— is she okay? Does she know who she is?”
“In time,” Chiron says. “I cannot be sure, but it doesn’t look like she remembers anything from her life.”
Percy shakes his head again. It doesn’t feel real. He’s imagined what it would feel like to meet you since the moment Luke told him about you, but he knew it could never happen.
But now, all that stands between Percy and his sister is a few doors.
“I want to see her,” he says.
“Of course,” Chiron nods. “I just need to make sure it won’t mess with her further. This isn’t like Thalia coming back with the fleece—though I have suspicions, I can’t be sure how this happened. It could be a very delicate matter.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt her more.”
Chiron nods again and he opens the door to the Big House. He follows him up to his office door, then stops when Chiron gestures at the couch.
“I just need to discuss a few more things with her.”
Percy nods wordlessly and sits down, then Chiron disappears into his office.
A million things are running through Percy’s mind, namely guilt.
Shouldn’t he have been the one to find you?
Maybe it doesn’t make sense, but it’s you.
You’re his sister. He’s always had a connection to you, even when you were gone—gods, the night after he found out you existed you appeared in his dreams. Percy’s spent almost every moment since he found out about you wishing you were still here, that he could meet you, and when it finally does happen—somehow, because he still doesn’t understand what the fuck went on for this to happen—he’s not even the one to find you? He’s just asleep like every other night?
He huffs a sigh as he hunches over, his forearms on his knees. His leg bounces up and down at a rapid pace, moving his entire body with it, but this is one time he can’t lay his ADHD to rest. He’s more surprised he isn’t up pacing the entire room for the hundredth time.
If Percy feels like this, he can’t even imagine how you must feel. To come back for seemingly no reason with no memories, after four years in Elysium.
Luke said you’d been killed by a monster. You were buried like any other person.
You were gone.
But you just… came back.
He lets out another harried sigh and falls back against the couch. He’s exhausted, but there’s no chance of him being able to go back to sleep. Not with you around.
Suddenly, the door opens, and Percy instantly darts up from his seat. You walk out with Chiron and it’s almost surreal.
You look like all the pictures, all his dreams, just older—more mature. He wants to cry and scream and hug you all at once.
Your eyes widen slightly, and you glance at Chiron for a moment before you focus back on Percy.
“Uh— sorry,” he says, wincing a bit. He doesn’t know how to act around you, not when he knows you but you don’t know him. “I waited for you. I thought it would be good to have someone on the other side.”
“That’s really nice,” you murmur. “I… I see why. Word on the street is that you’re my brother.”
Percy nods way too many times. “Yeah. Uh— yeah. We’re both children of—”
He pauses, his gaze moving past you to Chiron. He has to have explained all this to you, right?
“Poseidon,” you finish, and you let out a slightly shaky laugh. “Chiron laid out all the basics.”
“This has all got to be really confusing,” he says. “I remember how lost I was when I first got to camp, and I didn’t even…”
“Die?” you ask wryly. He nods again. He really can’t finish any sentence around you—he’s so worried of saying the wrong thing and accidentally hurting you. Percy doesn’t know how any of this works.
“It’s strange,” you admit. “I… I lived this whole life before this, and I don’t even remember any of it.”
Percy’s heart clenches painfully. He doesn’t know how he’s going to explain everything to you when you start remembering.
When you start remembering Luke.
“Really?” he asks. “There’s nothing?”
You shake your head. “I have my name, but that’s all. And…”
Percy frowns. “What?”
You pause for a moment before you shake your head again. “Nothing. This is just…”
“Weird?”
You nod with a slight laugh. “Yeah. To say the least.”
“If it makes you feel better, you’re not the first person to come back to life,” Percy says. “Uh, a girl named Thalia used to be a tree before she was turned back into a human.”
You frown. “Wow.”
“We can get to all of that some other day,” Chiron thankfully interrupts. “Percy, will you take her back to your cabin?”
“You’re sure we won’t get eaten by the harpies?” Percy asks. “Aello is out for my blood.”
“I promise,” Chiron says. He glances at you, your frown noticeably deeper, and he looks back at Percy. “Perhaps we should, ah, hold off on this sort of discussion. Until tomorrow, at least.”
“Of course,” Percy says. “Sorry. You must be exhausted.”
“A little,” you admit. “Apparently coming back to life takes it out of you.”
“Come back here first thing in the morning,” Chiron says. “We have… quite a bit to talk about.”
“That’s an understatement,” you murmur.
Percy smiles a bit, and he gestures with his head for you to follow him. You do, and Chiron goes back into his office. He nabs a bag of ambrosia squares from an empty bedside as the two of you go through the infirmary just to be safe, and when he glances back at you he sees you frowning.
“Are you okay?” he asks. “Does anything hurt?”
“You’re a Yankees fan?” you say instead.
Percy blinks, then he realizes you’re looking at his shirt. “Uh— yeah.” He chuckles. “I’m from New York, and my mom loves them, so…” he tugs at his shirt. “I know you like the Red Sox. Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” you say. “We can’t all be perfect.”
Percy can’t help but smile. You died and came back to life, and you remember nothing but your name and your love for the Boston Red Sox.
“That means you keep up with baseball, right?”
“When I can,” he says. “We don’t really have technology out here.”
“Have the Red Sox won a world series since I’ve been gone?”
“They won last year, actually.”
Your eyes widen and you instantly grin. “Really?”
He nods. “They beat the Cardinals.”
“That— that’s huge!” you exclaim. “Oh my god, they broke the curse and I didn’t get to see it? This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me!”
“You know you died, right?”
“And look how well that worked out for me.” You shake your head. “I need to go to the library or something and find some footage.”
“As much as I would love to do that,” Percy says, “we have a few other things we have to focus on.”
You huff and shake your head. “Fine. But as soon as we figure all this out, I’m figuring out some way to see those games.”
Percy chuckles. “I don’t think anyone’ll deny you that.”
“Good.”
Silence settles over the two of you as you walk back to the Poseidon cabin, and Percy just feels awkward.
He always thought about what he would say to you if he finally got to see you again, and now you’re alive somehow and right next to him and he has no idea what to do.
“You’re sure you’re not hurt?” Percy finally decides on. “Chiron said you just washed up on shore.”
“I feel surprisingly okay,” you say. “All I remember is waking up at the bottom of the lake. I thought I was going to drown, so I kicked my way up, and then got to shore.” You shake your head. “Somehow, I didn’t drown. My clothes weren’t even wet. I’ve got to be the luckiest person out there.”
“You’re a child of Poseidon,” he says. “We can breathe underwater so we can’t drown, and our clothes don’t get wet unless we want them to.”
“Like I said,” you incline your head, “luckiest person out there.”
“I just don’t get why you’re back,” Percy says. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you are. I just don’t understand how, or why— or why now.”
You open your mouth to say something, but you’re not able to get any words out before a yawn interrupts it.
“Maybe that’s a tomorrow problem,” you say.
“I think you’re right,” Percy says. He opens the door to the camp store and you follow him inside, but you frown.
“What is this?”
“The camp store,” he says. “You don’t really have anything, so I wanted to get you some things.”
You just stare as he starts taking things. “You’re just… stealing?”
“Just a couple toiletries and some clothing,” he says. “They won’t miss it.” He stashes it all in a Camp Halfblood tote bag and holds it out to you, and though you’re a bit hesitant, you still take it.
“Thanks,” you say. “We won’t get in trouble?”
“I think everyone will cut you some slack for a while,” Percy says. “A guy did this for me my first day and it helps—makes you feel more at home.”
You hum, and this time you open the door for Percy. “Nice guy.”
Percy swallows the sudden lump in his throat, trying to ignore the chill that trickles down his spine as he realizes the implications of his words.
“Yeah,” Percy mutters. “He was.”
Eventually, the two of you get back to the Poseidon cabin. He opens the door for you and you slowly walk inside.
Again, it’s strange that you’re here. It’s like if a piece of his history textbook suddenly came to life and started walking around—he’s heard so much about you, imagined what he thought would be an impossible meeting so many times, but now that it’s actually happening he doesn’t know what to do.
And it hits even more as you walk over to a picture of yourself hanging on the wall, surrounded by a myriad of others.
It’s one of many of you and Luke, him holding you close with an arm slung around your shoulder as you beam at the camera with the brightest smile imaginable. Before Luke got his scar, before you died, before he went off the deep end.
“I put a couple of your pictures up,” Percy rushes to explain, his throat feeling scratchy, “and a few of your old things. As— as a way to remember you.”
“I love it,” you say, and the tension dissolves in his shoulders when he sees your smile. It really is so much brighter in person. “I— I can’t believe I don’t remember any of this.”
“We’ll figure out a way to get it back,” Percy says. “I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” you say idly as you continue to take all the pictures in. He can’t imagine what it must feel like to see all these memories of a past life you have no recollection of.
“I don’t,” he says. “We’re gonna figure it out.”
You’re silent for a while as you keep looking at them. Then you take one of the pictures off the wall, the one of you and Luke at a baseball game.
“Luke,” you murmur, as if you don’t realize you’re saying it out loud. You blink, then you turn to Percy. “His name is Luke, isn’t it?”
He nods, almost in disbelief. You don’t remember a damn thing about your old life but you know Luke’s name.
How is Percy supposed to tell you what he did?
You laugh softly as you trail your nail over the edge. “We must’ve been pretty close if I got him to go to a Red Sox game.” You look over at Percy. “Does he go here too?”
After a moment, Percy shakes his head. “He— uh, he used to.”
“Makes sense,” you murmur, and you put the picture back on the wall. “I got the easy way out. Everyone else had to deal with the fallout.”
Percy frowns. “You were killed by a monster. I don’t think anyone considers that the easy way out.”
“It kinda was,” you say with a shrug. “I— I don’t remember much about it, but Chiron said I was in Elysium. There aren’t any monsters down there, and there certainly aren’t any responsibilities.”
“Well,” Percy sits down on his bed, “I’m glad you’re here. You don’t know how many times I’ve imagined meeting you.”
You chuckle. “I didn’t know I was so popular.”
“I’m serious,” he says. “Poseidon is one of the Big Three, and they made an oath not to have kids. I was the only Big Three kid in general when I got to camp—when I found out about you, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to have a sister to talk about all of this with.”
Your eyes soften, and you lean against his bed frame. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry about?”
“I— I don’t know,” you say with a slight laugh. “I just feel bad that I couldn’t be there for you.”
“You’re already doing a pretty good job at being a big sister,” Percy says wryly.
“Thanks,” you say. “You’re doing a pretty good job at being a younger brother.”
Percy laughs and smiles, and you smile too. He’s beginning to understand what Luke always said, about your presence embodying warmth. He’s only been around you for a few minutes and he already feels better.
“I’ve never had a brother before this,” you say. “So there might be a couple speed bumps.”
“We’ll get through them together,” Percy says. “Besides, I… I kind of always considered you my sister. Ever since I found out about you, even though you were…”
“Dead?” you guess, and he winces. You chuckle a bit. “It’s still weird for me, too. Can’t imagine what it must be like for all of you.”
“Weird,” he says without really thinking. “Really weird. But I’m thankful that you’re back.”
You smile. “So am I, Percy.”
You let out another yawn, and you sit down on the bed across from him. “God, what time is it?”
Percy glances at the clock in the corner. “3:34.”
You whistle. “I really chose a great time to come back, huh?”
He chuckles, and he kicks off his shoes as gets up to turn the lights off. “I think some sleep would do us both some good.”
You nod and do the same. As you lay back, one hand behind your head, you continue to look around the cabin.
“Are these your band posters?”
He shakes his head as he sits back down. “They’re yours, actually, but you’ve got good taste. I love Pearl Jam.”
“I used to have good taste, you mean,” you say wryly.
“Hey,” he says. “I meant what I told you. We’re gonna get your memories back.”
“How are you so sure?”
“I’ve done a lot of impossible things,” Percy says. “And so have you, from what I’ve heard. It’s kind of the Poseidon kid way, honestly.”
“You’ll have to teach me some things, then.”
“And when you get your memory back, you’ll have to do the same,” he says.
You smile and nod. “Deal.”
Percy smiles too, and he lays down. “You really should try and get some sleep. Chiron wasn’t joking when he said we have a lot to talk about.” He huffs a slight laugh. “Whatever the reason is for you coming back, I guarantee there’s gonna be some people upstairs that are mad about it.”
Your eyebrows rise. “Upstairs?”
“Olympus,” he says. “The gods don’t really like things happening out of their control.”
You hum, and for a moment there’s nothing but silence and the sound of both your breathing. It’s a little strange having someone else here other than Tyson, but he’s thankful for it.
“What’s gonna happen to me?” you ask. There’s an edge of fear in your voice, and Percy frowns.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie.”
“Nothing is going to happen,” he repeats. “I’m not going to let anything happen. The gods have already messed with your life enough—they don’t get to do it again.”
Percy half-expects to hear the sound of thunder echoing across camp, but the silence continues. Maybe Zeus isn’t listening in on him for once, or maybe he just expects the disrespect at this point.
“I really am the luckiest person,” you say. “I’ve got someone like you looking out for me.”
“You were looking out for me when you were gone,” he says. “You might not remember, but I could feel it. So I’m just repaying the favor.”
Again, silence. It’s temporarily interrupted by the sound of sheets shifting, then you speak.
“I’m really glad I got to meet you, Percy,” you murmur.
He can’t help but smile, and he tries to ignore the tears beginning to spring in his eyes. He has no idea why you’re back—no idea what this could mean. Maybe your dad did bring you back, maybe it’s a bizarre case like Thalia, maybe you play a part in something that they don’t even know about yet and it’s nothing but bad news.
But for once in his life, Percy’s not going to question it.
You’re alive and you’re here.
“Me too,” he whispers.
(For now, that’s all he needs.)