It was obvious, the universe was against him. Or maybe it was the gods…
"Definitely the gods." Percy thought as he coughed into his pillow. He groaned and rolled over, throwing the covers off himself as he panted. It was too hot. He felt like he was melting and the thought of food alone made him want to throw up.
He wasn´t sure if he was glad that his mother and Paul decided to take a two week vacation a few days ago or not. Sure, he was miserable but at least they had fun and could enjoy themselves. Hopefully his mother wouldn´t call, she would instantly pick up that something was wrong and would come back.
Percy thought she deserved this vacation. He was a demi-god, for god´s sake! He didn´t even know that he could get sick, the last time he had been sick had been long ago.
Percy shuddered as he tried to block out the memories. He groaned again as he saw the time. It read 12:08 p.m.
"Great, I can´t sleep anymore." He thought surly. He couldn´t get up enough courage to call Annabeth who would surely be able to help him. She had enough things to do with her architecture. He would leave her alone.
It was just a little cold! Nothing he couldn´t handle!
Deciding to try something different, so that maybe he could get a few hours of sleep more, he tried to sit up, only for the room to start spinning.
Percy held his head in his hands, eyes blinking in a feverish daze as he winced.
"Okay, not a good idea…" He muttered while slowly getting out of his bed. He clutched a pillow under his arm and the blanket and walked down the hall towards the bathroom.
Water didn´t cure his sickness, but it soothed him. He somehow felt more comfortable in his bathroom than any other place in the house. Maybe it was the fact that there was simply more water near the room or that it was the room Smelly Gabe almost never used.
Throwing his pillow into the tube while slowly laying down on it, he brought his blanket up, suddenly feeling cold as he snuggled into the warmth. It was a bit uncomfortable but he would live.
If he survived literally hell, he would survive this.
Slowly his eyes closed, he started to drift of, letting out a sigh of content as he felt the water in the pipes.
BAM!
Percy´s bright, feverish, sea green eyes fluttered open as he tried to understand what was going on.
"Shhh! I told you to be quiet!" A voice hissed angrily at someone.
"How the hell should I have known he would sleep in the bath tub? That´s a new one even for Seaweed brain!" Another growled back.
"What are you doing inside my bathroom?" Percy asked slowly as he looked up to his two cousins. Thalia and Nico ended their glaring match, looking towards him now.
"What are you doing inside your bathtub at 1 a.m?" Thalia shot back with a scowl on her face. Nico shot her a disapproving look.
"It´s easier to just sleep here than try to explain to the police why a teenager is sleeping on the beach instead of at home in this raining weather." Percy answered easily, sitting up and raising an eyebrow at the bags at their feet.
"Why would you-argh! Forget it Fish-face. Nico and I wanted to stay here for a bit, Sally´s out right? We thought that we could have a family sleepover." Thalia stated with a small smile on her lips as Nico huffed and turned away, muttering something about "…stupid father…" "…always me, just wanted a Happy meal…"
Percy personally thought it was safer not to ask, so he just sighed.
"You can share my room or sleep on the couch, do whatever you want." He told them turning around only to start coughing again.
Two pairs of eyes instantly zoomed in on him.
"Dude, are you…sick?" Nico asked in disbelief. He didn´t even know Demi-gods could get sick without poison!
Percy tried to protest, but he ended up dry-heaving, the two cousins jumping back a bit.
"I think that answers the question, Death-breath." Thalia stated as she stepped forward, kneeing besides the tube to gently pet Percy on the back. Her electric blue eyes narrowed in concern.
Nico chose to ignore the nickname for once, sitting down besides Thalia, watching their cousin with a worried frown.
"I don´t think I should be here then. Who knows, maybe he would actually die with me around." He started to get up only to be pulled back down by the now, panting Percy who still looked sick.
"If you take a step into the kitchen, then maybe. Otherwise you get to stay." Percy told him with a teasing grin as Thalia chuckled and Nico glared at them with a pout on his face.
"True, but let me try something! I have read that if you are really sick, almost near death or something, electro shocks could help you!" Thalia suggested as she reached out to place her hands on his chest like she had seen people do with these machines.
"NO!" Both Nico and Percy yelled in panic.
Percy jumped up and backwards, his back hitting the wall, while Nico snatched Thalia´s hands away.
"What?" Thalia asked annoyed. She just wanted her cousin to feel better! For Hade´s sake, he looked worse than Nico! Nico at least had the excuse that he was the son of death literally, so he could get away with looking like he would fall over and stop breathing.
"You do not shock someone to make them feel better!" Nico hissed at her, eyes wide as Thalia slowly lowered her hands and crossed them above her chest.
"Do you have a better idea then, Death-boy?" She sneered at him as he slowly shook his head. He had never been sick before! At least he couldn´t remember…
"How about you two would let me sleep?" Percy suggested with a cheeky smile. He was glad he had company now. The place seemed awfully lonely without anyone there.
The two cousins looked at each other and shrugged.
"If that´s what you want." Nico muttered feeling uncomfortable when looking at his sick cousin. The only people he met who looked sick were usually dead within the next few hours. That thought wasn´t comforting.
"You aren´t going to sleep inside the bathtub, Aquaman." Thalia stated with a stern look in her eyes. Percy swallowed as he saw her ´big sister glare´ which she used on Jason, Nico and him sometimes.
He would sooner win an argument against Annabeth than Thalia when she was like this. So, he nodded and tried to get out of the tub without complain, ignoring how Nico´s jaw dropped. The Sea prince would usually fight and argue with Thalia at all costs!
Even Thalia seemed shocked as she stared after the swaying form of Percy, who was currently heading towards his room.
"Hey Zombie-boy, I may think he´s dying…" She muttered in disbelief to her cousin who nodded mutely.
"Should I call Annabeth or Sally?" He asked only to see Thalia shake her head. A smirk on her face.
"Nuh hu. I think we can get our dear cousin back to health ourselves. We don´t need to bother the two of them, that´s what family is for right?" She stated rather confidently as she looked at Nico daring him to disagree with her. He just nodded. It couldn´t be that hard to cure a fever. They could handle it.
…or not.
They had agreed to split up on their tasks. Thalia had suggested that they would both try to do something that would make their cousin better. Well, it escalated a bit into a competition between them.
Hades and Zeus weren´t on best terms anyway, both had a temper.
They had a little argument at the beginning when Percy had drifted off to sleep in his room and since then they had a bet. The one who could cure their cousin would win.
So far Thalia dropped a wet rag on Percy´s forehead which instantly dried up much to her frustration, while Nico smirked at her. His idea had been to cool their cousin down with taking away the blankets, which earned him a smack to the back of his head as Percy started shivering and curling up into a ball.
After a few other useless attempts on getting their cousin to cool down, Thalia settled for going out to get medicine. Nico argued he would be faster with his shadow traveling, but Thalia refused, saying that he looked like a little kid and wouldn´t get any medicine anyway.
This left Nico were he currently was. Trying to make some soup for his sick cousin which he would eat later. He searched up a recipe from the computer trying to make a simple chicken soup.
It backfired. Horrible.
He had no idea how he managed to set the pot on fire, but that wasn´t important right now. With a nervous and panicked look, he searched for something to put the fire out. He had to hurry before somebody noticed it or it became too big. Not to mention what his cousins would say to his miserable attempt at cooking.
An angry looking Thalia chose to come through the door at that moment. "Damn mortal stores aren´t open at 2.30 a.m! The nerve-What the Hades?!" She screeched as she saw the fire, rushing up to the stove to help Nico, who looked at her with guilt on his face.
"What did we say about cooking, Death-breath?!" She hissed at him while inching away from the fire, to turn on the water and trying to put it out. It wasn´t really working.
"Not to?" Nico shot back as he tried to help her. Only the thing was that the fire wasn´t getting smaller.
"This is all your fault!" Thalia growled out in irritation as she felt the heat from the increasing flame. She was staring to panic now.
"Shut up!" Nico retorted annoyed that she was putting all the blame on him. He just wanted to help!
Nether of the two cousins noticed the water increasing as it flowed out of the tap, drenching them and putting out the fire with a ´Splash!´.
The two soaked cousins stared dumbfounded at each other and turned to look at the entrance to the kitchen only to see a rapid breathing, irritated son of Poseidon looking at them with a raised eyebrow.
"When I said "Do what you want" I did not mean setting my kitchen on fire." Percy stated with a flat voice as the other two winced.
"We were trying to make you feel better! With food and it …failed." Nico muttered feeling uncomfortable with the reprimanding look sent his way. Thalia huffed and looked away, not having the heart to correct him when he looked like that.
Percy´s eyes soften.
"Well…" He drawled out as he stepped into the kitchen and touched them to dry them off. "You two could keep me company and watch "Finding Nemo" with me." He suggested with a sly smirk on his face as his two cousins muttered under their breath, but complied. After a bit complaining and shoving the three dozed of in the middle of the movie.
When Sally and Paul came back later on, planning to surprise Percy with getting back earlier, they did not expect to see the three snuggling into each other on the couch. It was so adorable that Sally took a picture which she made sure to show them in the morning.