Percy bent over the countertop. His strong, scarred arms supported him, and a sleek black strand of hair fell in front of his eye. Beside him was his sister, just turned five. Her chubby hands moved the plain, still warm cookies around so they were places just so. She giggles at the colors of frosting laid before her, reaching across the table.
"Here you go, Blu," says Percy, using her affectionate nickname. His fingers close around one of the icing tubes, and slides it back towards her. The color is red, and comes out too quickly when she squeezes it over the cookie. The sugary paste covers the cookie, and begins to drip sloppily down the sides. Upset by the mistake, Blu begins crying, deep green eyes welling with tears.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," says Percy kindly. "Come here, do you need a hug?" His sister nods wordlessly, turning and letting his warm arms envelop her. She sniffs into his oversized swim team sweatshirt, and closes her eyes. For a brief moment, Percy rests his head on hers, taking in the warm and her smell of pine.
"Alright," he says, pulling away. "We can fix this cookie, okay? Look, we'll make it better." Reaching down, he used a finger to scrape the extra frosting from the side. He popped it in his mouth. Blu stared up with a look of shock as Percy licked the frosting from his finger. Then, her face lit up. Clapping her hands together, she grinned.
"Percy, you ate the frosting, you silly!" Giggling, she turned and did the same with the excess frosting. The red coloring was spread over her mouth, and a tiny smudge of it on her nose. Percy couldn't hold in his laughter. For the first time in a long time, he really laughed. Deep belly laughs, rolling through the room and filling up the space to the ceiling.
Blu was confused for a second, but then joined him. She laughed so hard she snorted, tiny eyes shut with hilarity. For a second in time, there was just the two of them. For that mere moment, all the hurts, the scars, the death, the quests had been erased from Percy's mind. It was just him, his little sister, and something so minorly funny that it caused a laugh attack.