Percy Jackson

In need of a nap, we headed to my cabin and I remembered to text Grover before sleeping.

Percy: Hey, thanks for being there after lunch. I'm feeling a lot better now, I'm going to lay down for a while and take a nap. And if you felt useless, I'm sorry..Nico just sort of knew what was going on, I was talking to him about it earlier. I'll explain it eventually. Just not right now. Soon, though. I promise.

A few minutes later, he responded.

Grover: Any time, man. That's what friends are for, right? And I figured that it probably had something to do with him anyways. I don't know what, but I wasn't that offended when you asked for him. He helped?

Percy: Yeah, he did. I'm gonna lay down, though. I'll talk to you later.

Grover: sleep well :)

Turning off my phone, I crawled into bed and between the warmth and Nico, I fell asleep in five minutes.

•••
Grover Underwood

At least he was okay.

That night, he slept through dinner. But I mean he laid down at like 4:30, 5. Dinner was at 6. Nico wasn't here, either. I assumed he like went to make sure Percy was okay and fell asleep.

Not in like a sexual way or whatever. Just like making sure he's okay and then you get tired and you wake up confused.

Trust me Percy and I did that many times in Yancy.

"Is Percy okay?" I was kind of shocked that Jason was the first to ask me.

"Percy?" I repsonded and he said his name back. "Yeah! He texted me about an hour and a half ago and told me he was fine. He'd explain everything soon ish. Before the end of the summer. He didn't tell me anything."

"Did he just cry it out or..." Piper asked me, a little confused. "I mean, he was pretty upset."

"I really don't know," I was honest about it, shrugging. "I had a class to teach and Nico took over with Percy. I figured it had something to do with him. We'll find out."

And come campfire, he was awake. So was Nico. And uh... Things happened.

Percy did look better, so that was good. But the posture of which him and Nico both had and like how close they were... It was weird.

Like, they're turned towards each other to the point in which their inner knees are touching. That's not... I mean, just considering that Nico has a boyfriend? It didn't seem right.

A few of the others walked in and took immediate notice of this. Percy and Nico had yet to take note that we we're here. Didn't notice, so they kept doing this.

And then Nico holding Percy's cabin, and Percy's fine with it.

"Doesn't..." Hazel was the one who brought it up. "I don't care about Percy being on the other end of this, but doesn't Nico already have a boyfriend?"

"That's what I thought," Leo agreed..

Piper just smiled.

"What?" Jason was taking this news well.

"Did you guys not realize this?" Piper thought that this information wasn't all that new.

"What?" Annabeth didn't get it.

"The dates that Nico's been on?" She pointed it out to us. "Why would Percy take him in? We have Argus here for a reason. Not to mention, taxis. Or like, he can shadow travel, he's the child of Hades. Percy has no week to go with outside of like that first week when he actually had to do stuff."

"He was just being nice." Hazel figured.

"He's... Hazel, if all goes well, he's your brother in law."

"He.... What?"

She just nodded her head and we joined Percy and Nico, who pretty quickly shifted their attention to us.

"Hey, Percy," I wasn't too loud, and with how much talking there was, I doubt anyone else could really hear us. "Can I ask you something? Like, something serious?"

"Yeah!" Percy insisted, nodding his head. He did seem quite a bit better now. "What's up?"

"Are you gay?" I asked, which caught him off guard. "or bi, I guess. I mean, either or, I really don't care. It's just nice to know and you've been kind of off since Nico was outed and I just thought maybe that's why."

"Am I..." His voice drifted for a moment. "Yeah, I was gonna talk about that tonight, um..."

"I don't think you have to worry," I assured him, giving him a smile. "Between Frank and Hazel, they figured it out and they brought it up to us, curious what we thought and I figured I'd ask. I wouldn't bother with coming out, though."

"You wouldn't?"

"No," I insisted. "Just like let us know when you get a boyfriend, that'd be great."

"Well, uh—" he told me. "Actually..."

•••
Percy Jackson

I was relieved when I found out that the others just figured it out. I don't know how, but I didn't care.

So that was a small little accomplishment for myself. Being out. Even thought I really didn't come out. But I was out. That was something that I've never been before.

And with the drama over, camp had to move on to the next thing. Now that we're not fighting wars and constantly having quests.

9/11. Camp session was being extended an extra month this year just for 9/11. Camp held a lot of people that had to evacuate Manhattan. I wasn't one of them, but they tell me about it sometimes.

I was in the hospital with my mom. My brother's body was never found.

We were in the North Tower when it was hit. Mom had a job interview. I was sick and Parker was, too. So we stayed with Mom that day.

Needless to say, she didn't get the job.

And this year was the ten year anniversary.

It doesn't feel like it, it feels like it's been... I don't know. Sometimes I wake up and I forget that he's dead. Other days it feels like I haven't seen him in 60 years.

Shocking enough, most Roman Demigods didn't know what 9/11 was. So people told them about it, before the council meeting about what we were doing for it.

"I remember when 9/11 happened," Frank remarked the next day at lunch. And just hearing it... It was weird. "I mean, not entirely. I was little. But I remember Mom was still home and she came home and said that the World Trade Center was attacked and we had a family of 5 stay with us until their plan wasn't grounded anymore."

"Yeah," Leo added on. "It was a shitty day. I was in school when it happened. Class just started and like right after attendance the principal announced what happened and we didn't actually do anything that day. We watched the new. Played games. Most kids for picked up from school. There was 20 kids at lunch that day."

It was silent for a moment. And they looked at me.

"Where were you?" Annabeth asked me being she's never asked before. "When it happened? You would've been in school, right? I was right around 9 that it happened."

I shook my head.

"I had a cold, I didn't go to school that day, probably should've." I told them, letting out a breath. "Mom should've made is go to school. We weren't that sick. But she had an interview that day, brought is with."

I paused.

"I was in the North Tower when it happened," I told them. "We were on the 78th floor. 15 floors below where the plane crashed. I thought my mom was dead, she hit her head and blacked out and the lady interviewing her carried her down and got her to am EMT. She was fine, it was just a concussion. I got trampled on the way down, broke my leg and two of my fingers, but that was it. I was lucky. Parker, not so much."

"What happened to Parker?" Leo asked me.

"He died," it's been ten years, what am I supposed to tell them? "He went to the bathroom, they never found his body. Needless to say, my mom didn't get the job. We visit every year. Go out for breakfast, visit the memorial, I think Paul's coming with this year. We're meeting his parents for lunch so it would make sense."

They uh... They stayed away from the topic after that.