Pandemonium

Percy was feeling better.

Not good, just better.

He still felt like his body had been invaded by some nefarious being. He just hoped it wouldn't come true, literally. Otherwise, he should be good.

They had shifted him to a guest room in the tower. This time, Apollo had volunteered to carry him to his room. Tony had offered a stretcher or a wheelchair, but Apollo pretended to not hear him. But Percy didn't want to be treated like an invalid either, so he resolutely declared that he was fine to walk on his own, and he did it too, but Apollo kept hovering over him the whole time. If anyone else had done that, Percy would've been severely offended, but he knew that Apollo was aware that Percy wasn't totally fine.

Also, now that the fog in his mind had started to clear, he knew that he had to make it up to Apollo in all the ways he possibly could.

He was distracted by Kym and Nat bickering. They were standing near the window of his room and comparing knives.

"My knives are sharper than yours." He could see what Kym was trying to do.

"I don't think so."

"Can we put that to a test?"

Thankfully, Rhode decided to interfere. She was sitting on a chair beside Percy's bed and knitting a scarf, occasionally talking to Pepper about her work. She didn't even look up from her knitting to tell Kym.

"Kym! No fighting with Percy's friends."

"But Rhode, they are the Avengers, they're basically known for fighting. Their job is fighting."

"Nobody likes doing their job for fun."

"I like my job."

"You're the only one."

"Percy and Apollo like their jobs too."

"What's your job?" Steve asked Kym. He was talking about something to Triton. They seemed to be getting along well. Oh boy, this was going to be interesting.

"Curiousity kills cats." Kym pointed her knives at Steve.

"We're not cats." (Was that Tony?)

"Are you like in the mafia or something? That'd be cool. But then don't tell us. We'll have to arrest you. Will we have to arrest them Nat?" Clint still had his gummy bears which he was secretly tossing to Percy whenever nobody was looking. But Apollo kept intercepting it. The bastard.

"They're not in the mafia Clint." Nat seemed sure.

"You don't know that."

"No offence you guys, but I'm more likely to believe that you're royalty or something with how y'all walk and talk. Not Percy though. He's normal." It was Tony who said this. Bruce and he were standing together and just watching everything unfold.

"...."

"No way."

"Which country?"

"Does that mean Percy's a prince?"

"We cannot confirm or deny anything you are hypothesising." Wow, Tri, nice save. Percy rolled his eyes.

"But we can mess with them, right Tri?" How old were his siblings again? Kym would definitely be mistaken for his younger sibling with this attitude of hers.

"You can't ask someone if you can 'mess' with them in front of them. It invalidates the intention you have towards them."

"Why does that sound dirty?"

"It does not."

"Yes, it does not, Kym." Apollo was sitting beside him in bed, occasionally checking Percy's IV and secretly feeding him Ambrosia. His siblings had seemed vary of Apollo and his intentions in the beginning, but now they just seemed relieved that Percy and he weren't fighting anymore.

Percy was feeling even more guilty now.

"Oh you will shut up, Apollo."

"What did I do?"

"Don't think we can't see that you're trying to corrupt our brother."

As his siblings and Apollo bickered with each other and with the Avengers chipping in on occasion, he couldn't help but feel happy that his friends and family were getting along so well.

But he still had stuff to do and so he closed his eyes, feeling deep inside him and searching for his domains. They were all intact. No changes so far as he could tell. The camps were doing well. They seemed undisturbed as he was yet to inform them of the looming threat. He didn't want to alarm them unnecessarily, but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.

As he wasn't feeling too well and had to find the cause for his sudden illness, he decided that the best course of action would be to inform the senior most demigods, his team, and let them break the news to their camps. He thought that staying in the background and running things through his team would facilitate them all in the long run, demonstrating to the camps how to work in his absence in case he became indisposed again.

With this plan in mind, he began searching for his team.

He tried to reach Nico, Will, Piper, and Leo. He came up blank.

Hazel and Frank were in New Rome.

Rachel and Meg couldn't be reached either.

Clarisse, Chris, Katie, Travis, Kayla and Connor were in Camp Half-blood.

Sensing that something was wrong, he mentally called for Apollo.

-

Percy had recovered pretty quickly and was looking better by the minute. But whatever had managed to enter his system hadn't left completely. It was reducing, but very slowly, from what Apollo could tell.

The bigger mystery though was how it had entered him, because the only thing Percy had eaten in two days was a large cup of coffee that Apollo had forced him to take.

Apollo participated in the conversations around him on occasion, but he was still trying to decipher the cause of Percy's sudden illness. He didn't know how to prevent this if it would happen again or even to treat him if Apollo wasn't near him.

He had been engaged in a verbal spat with Kym and Triton about his intentions with Percy when he sensed Percy calling to him in his mind, sounding a little urgent.

His reaction must have been a little intense because suddenly, all conversation paused around them.

He turned to Percy.

"I'm a little sleepy." Percy said.

Everyone looked at each other and slowly started to move out of his room. Percy was asked to call them if anything was needed. When Apollo got up to go, Percy grabbed his hand.

"Apollo." Triton's stern voice sounded.

"I want him stay, Tri. Please." Percy told him.

Apollo was beyond confused. Why would Percy want him to stay? He'd gotten very close to his siblings in the past two decades. What he had with Apollo was a tentative friendship at best. They were still tip-toeing around each other.

Some of his confusion must have shown on his face, because Percy asked him just then, "Do you have any issues with staying? Anything else to do? I can ask someone else to stay instead." His voice was low and soft, vulnerable even.

"No. I'll stay. Need to make sure you're alright." His own voice sounded like the softest whisper.

Apollo's throat felt choked. He couldn't take his eyes off of Percy. The moment felt delicate somehow, like it would shatter at the tiniest of sounds.

The door clicked shut behind Triton.

-

Tony watched as Tri walked out and closed the door behind him. Apollo stayed inside. He wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Why is he still inside?" Kym tried to push Tri out of the way and move to the door. But Tri stopped her. He looked stern as he said,

"Percy wants him there."

"Well, I will not allow it. Apollo has a reputation, Tri. You cannot possibly be ok with this."

"Trust Percy's judgement, Kym. They were friends for years before of all of this remember?"

"We both know that they always wanted to be more than just friends."

"Well now they have a chance."

"You can't possibly believe Apollo means well!" She was livid. "Awful good timing isn't it? Just when-"

"Enough, Kym." Rhode stepped in. "Let's just trust Percy on this."

"You don't even know if he's thinking straight! Apollo's the only one who's been around him continuously these days and suddenly Percy's fucking poisoned!"

"Kym, you're not thinking straight." Rhode tried to reason with her.

"YOU ARE THE ONES NOT THINKING STRAIGHT!" She bellowed. The skies darkened outside. Heavy rains smashed against the window pains. Tony thinks he saw a streetlight collapse onto the street from the strength of the wind.

Kym straightened her posture and shook herself a little. The rain outside eased to a drizzle. Her voice was low and cold as she said the next words. "You two don't know what it feels like to be married off against your will for the sake of politics."

She then turned and walked away.

"I'll take her home." Rhode said, turning to her brother. "Should I tell father?"

"No. Let Percy decide whether he deserves to know or not." He said, looking pained and vaguely guilty.

Tony barely understood half the references. But he came to know a couple of things.

One, that Percy and Apollo weren't a couple and the family had varying opinions about their relationship. Two, that something had happened that had caused a huge strain in their relationship. Three, Apollo had a reputation for something and was not to be fully trusted.

Four, was a little complicated. Kym had clearly been married off for political gains against her will and was very much bitter about it and clearly loathed her husband. From what she insinuated, either Percy or Apollo was married off the same way. He knew that Apollo has an unhappy marriage, but Kym seemed to care little for Apollo. But that only left Percy and surely Percy would've told them if he had been married? And didn't he mention that his relationship status was 'complicated'? But he knew better than to jump to conclusions. Overall though, the whole thing seemed very 'complicated'.

Tri walked off to a corner with his phone and was talking rapidly into it. He seemed to tense up and cut the call in frustration.

The rest of the team were talking to each other and occasionally looking at Tri. Pepper came up to Tony and laid a hand on his arm.

"Let's all go have some lunch. There's a lot to talk about."

-

They heard all of the commotion inside the room. Kym wasn't subtle with her accusations, and Percy saw how hurt Apollo was. He sensed the poisonous words seep into the man beside him.

By the end of the tirade, Percy had scooted closer to Apollo and taken hold of his hand.

"Don't mind her." Percy told him, voice barely rising above a whisper. "I trust you."

"You really shouldn't, Percy." Apollo turned to look at him, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I have a reputation, remember. Lots of flowers in my garden. Besides, everything went to shit the moment we started talking again."

"No. No." Percy rushed forward and cupped Apollo's face in his hands, wiping at imaginary tears with his thumbs. "You're the only reason I'm alive right now. Don't listen to them. Listen to me. Please, Apollo. Let me make this right."

Apollo opened his mouth to reply, but a sudden pain in Percy's chest made him double over in pain and fall into the Sun god's chest.

Apollo held him tight. Percy felt so small in his arms. One of his hands over to press over Percy's heart. The hand glowed and the pain subsided to a dull throb.

But Percy couldn't breathe. He was choking, scrambling for breath, as if drowning in air. He remembered feeling like this once.

He watched Apollo frantically trying different ways to cure him, his eyes wild and scared for Percy, looking like he was living his worst nightmare.

But the pain went as fast as it came and Percy was lying against Apollo, panting in relief.

Apollo fed him some Ambrosia and Nectar.

"Do you know why this is happening?" Apollo asked him.

"No idea."

Percy didn't want to talk about it. He tucked his face in Apollo's neck. He smelled like a pleasant summer day.

He knew this 'illness' had something to do with Kronos and his return. He had a gut feeling. But searching for answers now would be a waste of time. What they needed to do was get prepared to face the inevitable war. He decided to divert the topic.

"I can't seem to sense Nico, Will, Piper, Leo, Rachel or Meg. Can you track them for me? We need to assemble the team."

Apollo started like he wanted to protest, but then just sighed and nodded.

Percy pulled back and watched as Apollo seemed to drift into the recesses of his mind and search for their friends. Percy saw his eyebrows draw together and lines form on Apollo's forehead. He wanted to smooth them out.

"What's wrong?" He asked instead.

"I can't sense them either. I'm now searching from the sun chariot, but I can't find them anywhere."

"But, all of them? How could he take them all?" The dread pooling in Percy's stomach was evidence enough that he knew this had somehow occurred. He prayed to any force in the universe in the hopes that maybe they were mistaken. Maybe they had all decided to take an off-planet vacation?

Apollo didn't seem to have heard Percy's questions. He had frozen in place.

Percy tentatively touched his hand, hoping to bring him back.

After what seemed like five minutes, Apollo looked back at him, eyes blank and unseeing, "I just spoke to Chiron. Nico and Will left camp two days ago, no word from them ever since. Leo's intern and Piper's secretary haven't seen them in two days. Same with Rachel and Meg."

So this was it, Percy thought. The big move that he made by distracting Percy with his mother's abduction. And Percy had fallen for it.

He hadn't cared to check in on his friends or his domains, so busy searching for his mother. If only he had thought to check on his domains for a moment. Spared a moment to even call his friends for help, they would be with him right now.

Now though, they had all been missing for two days and he hadn't even known.

Nobody had cared to report it yet because they always disappeared on occasion for demigod stuff. Going MIA for two days while visiting either camp was a fairly normal thing for them, and so nobody had raised an alarm. Percy should've known. News of his mother's abduction was all over the place. They would've called. They would've helped.

How had he not realised?

It seemed like there was nothing he was doing right these days.

And he couldn't go searching right now either, what with his health being this bad. He was a god now, but even then he gets the shittiest deal.

Apollo held him, but didn't look at him. He was guilt ridden too. Percy could sense it. He wrapped his own arms around Apollo, and sensed him lean into it.

And they sat like that, for gods know how long, just holding each other and staring into the distance.