Written for the angst big bang. Spoilers for Percy Jackson and the olympians, the lost hero and a little for the son of Neptune.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

I.

The morning after it happened – it, of course, being the disappearance of Percy Jackson – nobody realized anything had happened at all.

That, perhaps, is the worst part about that day.

Not his actual disappearance.

Not what everybody felt when they realized he was gone, excruciating though it was.

No, the worst part is that moment, that second, when they finally fully realized that he wasn't just messing around. No their hero, their leader, their friend was actually missing, possibly – though nobody wants to think it, let alone say it out loud – dead. Really, the worst part is the guilt for not having realized, for not even having considered the possibility that something bad could ever happen to him. (But he's a son of Poseidon and they should have known something would happen because he attracts more monsters than most other half-bloods.) It wasn't until that afternoon when his sword fighting class rolled around and he wasn't there that they realized he was truly gone. And they didn't even know how long he'd been missing. He could have disappeared yesterday, just as soon as he stepped inside his cabin, he could have gone missing in the middle of the night, or, for all they knew, he could have gone missing five minutes before breakfast. It's horrifying really to contemplate that their friend might have been dying somewhere while they were having fun.

(Annabeth might never forgive herself for that.)

In their own defense – not that anyone would ever really talk about that day again, not if they could help it – it wasn't exactly the first time something like that had happened. Percy did sort of have the habit of suddenly disappearing without any warning or explanation. (If you were lucky, or more importantly, if you were Annabeth, you might get an explanation later.) There was that time last summer, right before their battle at Olympus, when he'd just been gone. Malcolm remembers, quite vividly in fact, how much Annabeth freaked out when she realized he was gone. (Not that he, or anyone else for that matter, would ever say that out loud, especially not to Percy. Because absolutely nobody, not even the biggest idiot in the world, was that suicidal. And if they were, well getting killed by a monster would be less painful.)

And then of course there were his trips under the sea – those happened at least once a week. As it turns out sea creatures have a lot of problems – and this is something that Malcolm, nor any of his other siblings as far as he could determine, didn't know but then they wouldn't have had a way of finding out. They had big problems, small problems, interesting ones, boring ones and incredibly hilarious ones. And Percy being Percy – and this was the one thing Malcolm had never been surprised about when he heard the stories because he was Percy – would always help. Those underwater trips could last any amount of time from 20 minutes to hours, so, in all honesty, Percy not being there that morning wasn't entirely surprising. In fact, in some ways, Malcolm would classify it as a normal part of their camp life. He'd show up later, he always did after all, with stories of his adventures under the sea. (Annabeth once told him that her favorite story, and the funniest one – and Malcolm can attest to that since he actually went out of his way to hear it – was the one where Percy and Tyson spend four hours of their lives helping a tiny, incredibly sarcastic baby shark find its parents.)

Not even Annabeth thought there was anything odd about Percy not being there that morning.

Annoying, more than definitely and something they would talk about later.

But it wasn't odd.

Like everyone else she's assumed that he had just gone or a walk that had somehow ended in some kind of adventure.

(When he gets back, she thought, I'll let him know that this is unacceptable. At the very least he should leave a note.)

But it's okay, it's normal.

She'll laugh at his stories when he comes back – because there is always some story.

Except he doesn't.

But then his sword fighting class comes around and he isn't there. And that is weird, more than weird in fact, because Percy wouldn't be late for that and if he were going to be he'd let them know.

Malcolm is the one who organizes the first search party. 'He's probably just gotten into a fight and gotten a little hurt,' he assures Annabeth. 'He probably can't move or something and he simply doesn't have any drachmas to contact us. He's just waiting for us, wherever he is. Or maybe he's in the ocean, healing, and tomorrow he'll show up. It will be alright.' What he doesn't say, what nobody says, what nobody wants to contemplate, is that there might be another reason for Percy not contacting them. He might be dead. He might have finally found that monster that was faster than him. And Malcolm knows Annabeth has already considered the possibility, she's his sister after all, but she probably doesn't really want to think about it. But then nobody does. (He thinks it would be incredibly unfair that Percy would die all alone, while his friends didn't even miss him. It seems unfair that he would just die after having won the war.)

But as long as they don't say it out loud it won't be truth. (Like that makes sense.)

They searched for hours, in the strangest places, but Percy Jackson, their friend, their leader, was just nowhere.

It was almost like the earth had just swallowed him.

Still, Annabeth tells herself later as the night falls, surely everything will be alright. He's just in the ocean and he hasn't woken up yet. Tomorrow he'll come running and he'd hug her and he'd tell her how sorry he is and everything would be alright.

It's nothing.

II.

Years ago, when Grover first met Percy, he never actually thought they'd stay best friends.

Definitely not for as long as they have.

Not because Percy wasn't a good friend – he is the best friend one could have – but because Grover was convinced that he wasn't a good enough friend to Percy. It's strange thinking about this now, after all that has happened, but it was the way he felt back then when he first brought Percy here. Percy had been so strong, so brave and he was just the satyr that couldn't even manage to protect the people he was supposed to. (And really, no matter how many times Percy and Thalia and even Annabeth tell him it's alright he'll never forgive himself for the total disasters that were their arrivals at camp.) The truth was he'd assumed – even though he never said it – that once Percy made it to camp and was surrounded by other half bloods he'd forget about him. (Now, so many years later, he knows what he did not know then. That Percy, though he made other friends, never considered not hanging out with him.)

And now, now on a just a random day, he's just gone.

It's almost like his best friend has just ceased to exist, for no apparent reason.

Somehow, deep down – though he'd never acknowledge it – Grover had always known it would end this way. This was, after all, how the life of most half-bloods went. Despite that, after all this time, he'd somehow managed to convince himself that it wouldn't happen or that when Percy died – if he is dead – somehow would at least be with him. That, he supposes, was just stupid.

That afternoon he roamed through the forest, trying to find his best friend and desperately trying to use their empathy link. A part of him was kind of hoping that Percy would just jump from behind a tree yelling 'Gotcha!' Annabeth would kill him and Grover might join her but at least he would be alright. But all he could hear were the voices of campers and dryads as they searched all around him. And though the silence does not necessarily mean that Percy isn't here – he could be unconscious after all – Grover is sure that Percy isn't here. (And that's terrifying because if he isn't here, then where the hell is he? And why can't he find him using their empathy link?)

That night, as the camp slept – or tried to at least – he lay outside staring at the huntress and trying to make the now apparently useless empathy link work.

But there was just nothing.

He can't even tell if his friend is alive or dead.

Months ago, back when the war was still going on, Percy had told him that while he'd been sleeping in Central Park Percy had not been able to find him either. He'd never figured out why, but he'd assumed, at the time that it had something to do with him being magically put to sleep. (Maybe, just maybe, that's what happened to Percy.) It was terrifying because it seemed like Percy didn't exist at all. He wasn't dead – of this he is mostly sure – because he would know that. (At least he thinks he would.)

By the time Juniper finds him the sun is already coming up.

He thinks that she's here to get him to sleep, but she doesn't say anything, just sits beside him and waits. (For what he is not sure.)

That night, Grover does not cry.

He cries later, much later, when he can't quite convince himself it will all be alright.

But that's later.

This is now. When everything is still possible and fixable.

And his best friend is just around the corner.

III.

Chiron is the one who tells her he's missing.

It's logical really; he is the leader of the camp after all. Considering the life of half-bloods and their lifespan, it can't be the first time he's had to tell a mortal parent their child was never coming home. (Or maybe it was if her son's stories about how some parents treated their children were true.) Perhaps that was why he was so calm when he told her, but then by the time they told her Percy had been missing for a while so he might have already gotten used to the idea – if such a thing was possible of course. And the truth was that ever since Percy had started going to camp – and even before that – Sally had always known this would happen at some point. That someday Chiron would stop by to tell her that her only son was never coming home. It wasn't the first time Percy had gone missing – he'd gone on quests or he'd disappeared for days or weeks at the time but this time it was all different. Because unlike every other time Chiron came to tell her.

He came in the morning, too early to be the bearer of good news.

He was worried and sad and at the same time completely calm and she'd known, even before he said a word, that her whole world was about to shatter.

But he isn't dead, at least there is that. He isn't dead.

Just missing.

Which, considering the past few years, wouldn't worry her except of course that Chiron is in her living room. That nobody – not his friends, not even Annabeth which is truly worrying – knew where he'd gone off too. And yet, despite that, her first reaction is relief. Because when she'd first seen him she'd assumed he'd come to tell her that her son was dead. But he isn't, just missing, and though that's terrible, it's still a relief. He'll show up in a few weeks, she tells herself, sorry about what happened. He'd hug her and smile and she'd be unable to stay angry at him because she loves him so damn much. She would be completely convinced about that, except Chiron is sitting in her living room and he's worried even though he's trying to hide it.

She doesn't ask what he thinks has happened to Percy.

She doesn't want to know.

(Not until she has no other options.)

Chiron stays with her for the rest of the day, even though he has nothing to say.

He leaves at night telling her everything will be alright and he'll visit soon.

He doesn't.

(He calls, constantly, but he never comes by again and she knows this is because he has nothing to tell her. Still part of her wishes, he would come by anyway.)

Annabeth comes by constantly, trying to figure everything out, and Grover comes by once or twice. Annabeth makes dozens of promises, swearing she'll find Percy. She doesn't really doubt that, at least she wouldn't if the younger girl hadn't looked so lost and scared. Sally can't quite bring herself to have Annabeth face the truth, she herself hasn't accepted yet – though she's been thinking about it more and more. That no matter how hard she tries, she might never find him.

They cry and talk and hang onto each other and try to keep their heads above water.

It doesn't actually work.

But then nobody is calm in those weeks.

Not even the ocean.

The seas are in turmoil, she sees that every time she goes to the beach. (In a rather desperate attempt to see if Percy would just show up there. Stupid, she knows.) So she knows that Poseidon is just as worried as she is and probably just as in the dark – perhaps not as in the dark as she is, he is a god after all. Still, he doesn't show up, doesn't come by, and doesn't send her any message to tell her that something has happened. She expected, hoped, that he would do at least that, but he never does.

She hates him for that, hates him for not being man enough to at least tellher.

But Percy is alive, she knows that.

Because if he were Poseidon would come and tell her, it would only be fair. (It might be stupid but she believes it completely.)

But the months pass by and she still hears nothing from or about her son.

Perhaps the truth is that Poseidon is simply a coward.

(That might be something that deep down she had already known.)

IV.

Truthfully Paul never thought he'd actually have children.

He didn't hate children or anything – if he did, he never would have considered becoming a teacher, that would just be stupid – but he didn't think he'd make a good father either. If it happened, it would be something he would be happy with – at least he assumed that – but it wasn't something he was necessarily searching for. And he certainly never imagined that the day would come, he would suddenly have a teenage stepson. A teenager, it should be noted, that got into so much trouble, and such strange trouble, that at first Paul was completely convinced that all stories were exaggerated. (How was he supposed to know that the truth was much stranger than those stories?) This wasn't how he thought his life would turn out but it did and he wouldn't want it any other way.

His life is perfect, despite all the strangeness.

And then Chiron – and he still can't quite believe that man is actually a centaur – comes to tell them that Percy is missing and just like that the world falls apart.

Somehow he'd been convinced that now that that war was finally over everything would be alright. (Which, considering all he'd learned in such a short time was probably exceptionally stupid.) He'd believed that the worst was behind them and that now they could finally build a great life.

And he thought, strangely enough, that the worst feeling he could ever have was standing next to Sally underneath Olympus and not knowing whether Percy was alive. He'll never forget that feeling of helplessness, pain and he never wanted to experience anything that bad again.

But here they were again.

Unlike the last time it didn't end because Percy didn't come back. Days turned into weeks and then into months and everything stayed the same.

The worst part was that Sally was hurting, drowning in her pain and there was absolutely nothing he could do for her. He couldn't go look for Percy, though he would really like to. Because their world, and his by extension, was far too dangerous and even if he had known where to begin searching, which he didn't, if his own fellow half-bloods themselves couldn't find him how was he supposed to?

The only thing he could do was sit beside Sally and pray that everything would be alright.

(Percy's father was a god after all, surely praying would help him?)

V.

The day before it happened was just another normal, random day.

Nothing noteworthy happened on that day, nothing that generations of half-bloods after them would keep talking about. In fact Annabeth is convinced that if Percy hadn't disappeared the next day she probably wouldn't remember anything about that day. She'd assume she knew what happened – it was their first day at camp in the winter after all – but only because she was so used to the way life was at camp. There was no indication at all that anything would happen at all – perhaps the fact that it was such a normal day should have been an indication but it wasn't. After all, they weren't going on a quest and the war was over and they all seriously thought they were safe. As it turns out they were stupid and blind and completely naïve. They'd thought, stupidly enough, that bad things would only happen in the summer when they went on quests or in the outside world. But not at camp, not now that the war was over, and definitely not in the winter. (Nico would remind them, if they said this out loud, how wrong they are. After all Bianca died in the winter not the summer, in the snow, not the sun.)

Perhaps the complete normality of the day should have tipped them off.

But it didn't.

On the second day after he'd disappeared – when they'd run out of logical and illogical places to look – they'd tried to remember the details of that random day. Thinking that perhaps something had happened, something that would explain everything that had happened, and they'd simply missed it. Perhaps there was some clue that would help them find Percy – perhaps something he said or did, perhaps something anyone else said, anything. But no matter how hard they tried nothing stood out at all. (The only thing that stood out somewhat was the fact that Will Solace had finally managed to get Percy to hit the target with his arrow. Which was a freaking miracle, but it didn't explain what happened. And he only managed it once.)

It was just an ordinary day.

Completely uneventful.

Then the day was over and he was just gone.

Now normal is something of the past.

The day before Connor and Travis played a ridiculously complicated prank on the Aphrodite cabin. At the time it had been hilarious, but in all honesty Annabeth can't quite remember anymore why.

(Percy won a sword fight from Clarisse, but she got her revenge when they had a wrestling match later.)

What Annabeth remembers best is sitting around the campfire, in Percy's arms, singing songs and watching as the campfire rose higher and higher. They'd just been so happy. All the bad things that had happened, all the pain they had been through, seemed to have finally disappeared and now they could finally begin a new life. She'd felt at home. (The Stoll brothers stole wallets and Annabeth found her own the next day, but they never found Percy's even though Connor swore he'd taken it and put it in the bag.)

For a moment, just a moment, they lived in an (almost) perfect world.

And then they blinked and the moment was just gone.

She can still hear him, mostly at night, singing and laughing and just being happy.

He'd kissed her in front of her cabin and as he'd walked away, he'd said: 'See you tomorrow, wise girl.' He'd been so sure that tomorrow would come; he'd never considered it wouldn't be there, Annabeth remembers that quite clearly. But then she'd been sure too.

She wishes she could go back and freeze that moment and simply never have tomorrow come.

But one can never go back and tomorrow will always come.

And for some reason, this time, it just didn't bring Percy with it.

VI.

The moment of,f it's completely silent.

It is the middle of the night and the stars are bright in the dark sky, not that anyone will see it. Everyone is asleep, well, everyone with the exception of the Stoll brothers who were planning some elaborate prank. Percy was dreaming of the sea, like so many times before. He'd been unaware of anything happening around him, unaware that he's about to be taken from the place he calls home.

There's a bright light, suddenly, and then he's gone.

His bed has been slept in, his clothes are lying on the ground in disarray and his Christmas presents – the few he'd already gotten because he'd had some great idea of what to buy and he was afraid he would forget otherwise – are lying wrapped up, in the back of his closet.

But he, himself, is gone.

At first glance it seems as if he's just stepped out for a moment, like any second he's just going to walk back through the door.

But he won't.

The moment just after it happens, it's still silent and the world still seems the same.

The world however has changed completely and yet nobody knows.

At least not until the next day.

VII.

She's exhausted.

So tired and lost and scared and angry as well and so many other things that Annabeth doesn't really have time to analyze. (Nor does she really want to, it might be better not to know.) She's angry at Percy, for daring to leave her, of not stopping whatever had happened to him – even though she'll readily admit that there was probably no way for him to stop what happened to him. She's angry at whichever of the gods, it is that targeted Percy this time – if it was one of the gods. (She kind of hopes it is because at least they won't kill the hero that just saved them, right?) Angry at the world for going on happily as her world falls apart, angry for allowing something else to happen to them, again. (They've saved the world, they've saved the gods, and didn't that at least earn them a few months of respite?) Above all she's terrified, trying to figure out what happened to him. Because, oh gods, what if he's actually dead this time?

And she's tired, so tired of all that has happened to them, tired because the world won't just leave them in peace.

She can't sleep because every time she closes her eyes, she dreams of the horrors that might be happening to him. And she doesn't know if they're just nightmares or actual demigod dreams.

Sometimes she dreams he's lost in the darkness, going left then right, seemingly unable to find any way out of it. If Daedalus hadn't died, she would have believed he was down in the labyrinth, but the labyrinth isn't there anymore. (And, yes, she's looked.) He's always screaming her name, at times accompanied by others. (Tyson and Grover and his father and once he even scream for Clarisse – that must mean that if her dreams are more than simple nightmares brought on by her overactive imagination, Percy is really completely desperate.) He tries desperately to find a way but there seems to be no way out of the vast darkness he is trapped in. He seems so lost and afraid, more afraid than she's ever seen him before. At first, when the nightmares first arrived, she'd wake up screaming his name, a fact that only made Malcolm worry about her more – if such a thing was at all possible. Sometimes she wakes bathing in sweat, searching for the light herself, convinced that she too is trapped in that same vast darkness.

The worst part is she can't figure out whether it's real or not.

She hopes it isn't, she hopes Percy isn't lost in the dark somewhere. But there's a part of her – a part she doesn't really want to acknowledge – that wishes that the dream are true. Because if the dreams are true than at least she knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Percy is alive.

Now, so many weeks later, Malcolm no longer hears her scream.

Because she no longer sleeps in her cabin.

(She told him, though that the dreams have faded, that they've gone and have been replaced by something else. He didn't really believe her, but at least he pretended he did.)

The truth is she didn't exactly mean to move into Percy's cabin and in reality she supposes she hasn't – her stuff, after all is still in her own cabin. But most nights, when she's just too tired to go anywhere else and she wants to be surrounded by Percy and feel close to him, she stays in his cabin and sleeps in his bed. (Her siblings know, she's sure of this – they are Athena's children after all – but nobody speaks of it, so they pretend it isn't happening.) She lies underneath his covers, imaging that being among Percy's stuff means that she's closer to him. And she wonders, at times, if Silena ever did this. If after Beckendorf died, she'd snuck into his cabin and sleep in his bed, trying to recapture all that she has lost. She tries not to think about her, but once she does she can't stop. She's afraid that if she thinks about it too much she'll turn out just like her, she'll turn into the girl with the dead boyfriend. (She's not sure if that's better or worse than the girl with the missing boyfriend. Might it be better, she sometimes wonders, to know he is dead? Because then at least she knows.)

When she can't sleep – which happens quite a lot as she's desperate not to dream – she cleans his cabin, folds his clothes and makes up his bed. So that he'll know when he comes back that somebody was waiting for him. (Not that he wouldn't already know that.)

She finds her Christmas present in the back of his closet.

She doesn't open it.

(When the time comes, when she finds him, they'll open their gifts together, no matter when that is.)

At night, when there's no light and there's no hiding from her dreams anymore, when it seems like life itself is suffocating her, she tries, desperately, to think of other things. She thinks of campfires and dancing and laughter, of quests and games and happy memories from so long ago that seem to belong to other people. It's never enough.

Sometimes she wonders what Poseidon thinks about her staying in his cabin.

(Maybe the Gods don't really care who sleeps where. Maybe that's just something they themselves made up.)

On her best nights, which are far and few in-between, she dreams of the last time she saw him. So happy, so filled with life, promising he'd see her tomorrow. In her dream he always walks away, smiling, and disappears into the darkness.

She wakes before he comes back.

VIII.

The last time Clarissa saw Percy he won their sword fight.

And, more importantly, he was being insufferable.

(She might have told him to go off and disappear. She didn't exactly mean for him to do that.)

At the time it didn't really matter. She told herself at the time that someday she would win from him. That day would more than definitely come, no matter how much time it took. Of course, to accomplish that, he must first be found. And in all honesty that doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon.

She's actually worried about him.

She'll never say that out loud.

(And if anyone even thinks she's worried about Jackson they should more than definitely keep their mouths shut.)

Because the truth is they are friends – even if she can't quite explain how in Hades that happened. If she thinks about it, not that she spends much time doing that, she thinks it started when they were searching for the Golden Fleece. (Or, at the very least, that's when they started to trust each other.) But in the end she's not sure if there's a specific moment in time when they became friends, it just sort of happened. Let the others believe what they want, let the others think she isn't worried. At least that might make them feel better; the knowledge that there is someone level headed enough to be able to figure out a plan.

In all honesty, she thought he would be found quickly.

She thought his disappearance wouldn't last longer than a day.

He might be dead – in fact, if she's completely truthful, she truly did believe that. Because if he were alive, he would have found a way to contact at least Annabeth by now. She knows that would have been better, even if the whole camp would have felt lost, because then, at least, they'd know. Better to know the truth immediately, better to accept it, than to spend months trying to find someone that cannot be found. She doesn't say this either – even though she's sure everyone else has thought it, at least once – because she knows that Percy being dead would be bad. (And so unfair considering they had just survived a war, couldn't they at least give them a year?) And mostly because Annabeth might kill her if she says it out loud and well Clarisse is not stupid enough to make Annabeth angry, especially not in the state she's in. She can understand her, though, the memory of Chris, completely insane, is still too hard to think about even though he is by her side.

She's worried about the little punk.

She also misses him.

That might be the strangest emotion, the one thing she has trouble wrapping her head around.

But no matter how hard she tries there is nothing she can do.

Nothing but wait that is.

Wait and hope.

IX.

For some incredibly bizarre reason during Percy's first summer at camp Mr. D. and Chiron organized a scavenger hunt. One that would not take them through the woods like would be expected, but through New York City.

This, of course, happened after they came back from their quest.

(And, in all honesty, for all they knew they'd gone on scavenger hunts during their quest. But considering how everyone else – especially the Ares cabin – reacted to the idea Annabeth is quite convinced that they didn't.)

It also happened in the time Luke was still with them.

To this day – not that they spend much time thinking about it, at least she doesn't think they do – nobody has actually figured out why they were doing a scavenger hunt of all things. Not when there were so many other games they could be playing, games that actually helped in their training. As far as anyone could remember it was not something that had been done before – in all the years she lived at camp it hadn't even been a possibility. At least not as far as Annabeth knew. In retrospect, it was the dumbest idea anyone ever had, but then it seemed that way at the time as well. Especially when one considered the fact that it included all the half-bloods leaving the safety of camp and going to New York City and attract dozens of monsters.

Yet, when it was first announced it did sort of seem like fun, like it could be interesting.

(At least that's what the Athena and Hermes cabins thought. Annabeth has always thought it might be better not to contemplate why the Hermes cabin thought this was a good idea.)

It might have been interesting for everyone if the obstacles actually made sense or included monsters.

But they didn't.

All Chiron did was split them in groups of two and sent them off on a tour of New York City, where they tried to solve a list of riddles. No monsters, no fighting, no learning of skills that could be used later. (Though, admittedly, everyone would attract at least one monster in the outside world, especially when so many were together.) Annabeth and her siblings simply think that, for some reason they'll probably never figure out, Chiron and Mr. D. just needed them to be gone from camp for a few hours. And they simply couldn't be bothered to come up with a better way to accomplish this.

She and Percy teamed up.

(Naturally and yet not because in the before – before the quest – she always teamed up with Luke.)

Luke had teamed up with Chris Rodriguez.

(Annabeth had actually forgotten that. She thinks that might have been the moment Luke convinced his brother – though he did not know the other boy was his brother – to join him. She tries not think about that.)

In all honesty, it had been fun, even if she still hasn't figured out if she learned something useful – as in something that would help her survive. She had been the one who deciphered the clues, but Percy had lived in Manhattan his whole life, he was brilliant at finding even the most random places she never would have thought of.

(Three hours in they got attacked by monsters. He was the son of Poseidon after all; he would attract millions of monsters.)

Thankfully Chiron had been smart enough not to include a trip to Olympus in the game. She's not sure if Percy would have survived that.

They'd won, though Chris and Luke had been a close second, and, truthfully, Annabeth can't quite remember what they won.

They never had another scavenger hunt.

(Considering the fact that the Hermes cabin went on a stealing spree and half of them got arrested and had to be bailed out, that wasn't exactly surprising.)

X.

Nobody told him his brother was missing until he'd already been gone for two days.

There probably was a reason for that.

It was probably because he cried so hard when Annabeth finally told him.

The worst part was that he'd been so happy on his way to camp. He'd been imagining all the fun he and Percy and Annabeth would have for two whole weeks.

Still, despite the fact that he was worried and he cried, he was sure that Percy was fine. Because he brave and strong and he always managed to survive everything. And yet, despite that, despite the fact that Annabeth knew this too, she was so worried about Percy that it actually scared Tyson. And she'd told him, no matter what he believed or thought that wasn't good. (He knows that when something bad happens, they always hide it from him, so that he doesn't have to suffer. When they do tell him it can't be good.)

Still, he's sure that his brother is alright.

They just don't know where he is.

(And maybe the problem is that Percy himself doesn't know where he is either. Maybe that's why he doesn't call them. Because he doesn't know either.)

Annabeth asked him to look in places she could not and so he searched the ocean – even though he knew that Percy wasn't there.

(He'd been right about that.)

His real search, alongside the big dog, he started at their old school. He's not sure why he began there. He hadn't liked the school itself – nobody, besides his brother, had been nice to him. But it was the place he met his brother and it was the place they spend most time together and they did have fun there. It was a connection to his brother, though, and that might have been why he chose this place.

(The school is empty, which is probably a good thing because he doesn't want to run into anyone he once went to school with. They were not nice.)

"Come on girl, let's find my brother!"

And so off they went and began their very long search.

He would find his brother.

His brother is fine.

Tyson is sure of this.