Nico, for the fifth time that day and the tenth time in the two days of his arrival, repeated what his "older brother" told him. "Wait, so my cousin was kidnapped, but in reality ran away, and my other cousin whom we haven't heard from in years, might be dead. Like Sally is?" 

Jason rolled his eyes, "For the umpteenth time: Yes all of the following is correct."

     Nico thought for a moment. It still didn't completely digest in his stomach, but he divinely wanted to help his older siblings. "So... we're gonna go find them right...?" It took Jason a minute to reply. He needed to figure out how he would tell his baby brother the second, possibly, probably, more important thing: their older siblings may already be dead. They haven't heard from Percy in over two years, and Thalia's been on her own for almost two months.

     "Well, I mean... if we're logically thinking here--" Jason shifted his position, feeling uncomfortable with what he had--needed-- to say.

 "Because they're not dead. They can't be dead. They're both too stubborn to just be dead,"  Nico continued as if he hadn't heard Jason speaking. Which, in this case, may very well be likely. 

      Nico moved over to his wardrobe. "W-what are you doing?" Nico had this mixed look of confusion and concern on his face that of course, Jason couldn't see. 

Nico replied back, "Packing my backpack...?" 

Jason rolled his eyes. He could see that. "I know that, dummy." Nico released a sigh of relief, from knowing his cousin had not had one-too-many hits to the head. 

Jason replied tiredly, "I meant: Why are you packing?" 

Nico stiffened as he turned around holding one arm outwards and one in a shrugged position. He knew what his cousin would say as soon as the words leave his mouth. "I wanna go too...?"

                                                                            ***

     They stared at each other for a good 30 minutes. Which quickly turned into a one-sided staring/glaring contest in the first 10 minutes. 

What was going through the elder's head was: I'm gonna kill 'im. 

What was going through the younger's was nearly the opposite: Please don't kill me. I still have a whole ship to command.

   "H-hey, Thals," Percy finally said, breaking the tension with only a couple words. 

"Don't 'Hey, Thals' me. Whey the hell have you been!" She finally exploded. Before she had been trying to convert her anger into the killer glares she'd been sending her younger cousin. 

   That obviously didn't work seeing as how right after she yelled, Reyna raced towards Percy's living quarters. She stopped though when she put her hand on the freezing doorknob once she heard her captain's wavering response, "A little bit of everywhere?  On the ocean?"

   Thalia's eye twitched. She was just about to enter another rant when Reyna got over herself and walked-slash-examined the bedroom. When she entered, Thalia's jaw dropped just a little bit. Barely noticeable. But just enough for Percy to realize Thalia still had that crush on Reyna.

   "Oh, great timing Reyna, really! Why don't you take our dear Thalia here and... um... Say, you don't still have that extra bed do you?" Percy asked, feeling a tad bit relieved. Reyna raised an eyebrow but nonetheless nodded. Once the girls left Percy, sighing a sigh of relief, collapsed on his bed, almost instantly falling asleep, not even minding he slept through dinner.