Tharcico
Percy was sitting on the couch with his mother in their apartment. Paul, Sally's boyfriend, was on a trip with his class and wouldn't be home in two days, so Percy and his mother had decided to make a mother-son movie night.
They were in the middle of watching Catching Fire when the room suddenly darkened, and two people stumbled out of the shadows in the corner. Percy jumped up from the couch, nearly toppling over the bowl of blue popcorns, and caught the two teens before they fell face fist on the floor and knocked over his mother's favorite lamp.
It was first when Sally had helped him getting them over in the couch that Percy recognized them; the girl's short, spiky hair, silver clothes and tiara, the boy's black clothes, and his Stygian Iron sword at his waist. Seriously, who else would materialize from the shadows in Percy's apartment?
"Thalia? Nico? What happened?" Percy asked his two cousins.
"Monster attack," Thalia said through gritted teeth, wincing in pain.
"I'll get the nectar," Sally said and disappeared out of the living room.
Percy kneeled in front of his cousins and began to examine the two for wounds. He started with the unconscious Nico since he looked worst, ripping off his ruined jacket and t-shirt at the shoulder. He had a gaping wound in the shoulder, the spike still pierced into the skin – a spike filled with poison Percy only recognized too well.
"You fought the Manticore?" he asked disbelieving as he moved over to Thalia and began to look her through for wounds. Thalia only managed a weak nod. Percy helped her get off her jacket, and saw that a spike had grazed her side, not a very bad cut, but the poison was still spreading through her, into her heart.
Sally came with Percy's emergency supplies, and started feeding Thalia some ambrosia. The wound slowly closed, but the poison kept spreading. Cursing, Percy looked up at his mother, but she could only shrug helplessly. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, already regretting what he was about to do.
"Mom, could you help Thalia down on the floor? I need them to lie down, their wounds up," he said, and together they got Thalia down, groaning in pain.
"Sorry Thals, but if I shall help, I need to cut the wound up again…" She just nodded, her blue eyes shut.
"Mom, do we have anything to lessen the pain?" Percy asked.
"I'll check," she answered and disappeared again. Percy turned his attention back to Nico on the couch. He would have to pull out the spike, and they didn't have any time for pain-lessening drugs – his shoulder and arm were already turning green from the poison. Biting his lip, Percy took a firm grip in the spike with one hand, the other holding a towel around it to catch the blood. He took a deep breath and pulled.
Even though he was unconscious, Nico groaned in pain as the spike was removed from his shoulder, and blood started gushing out of the wound.
After placing the bloodied spike on another towel on the coffee table, Percy let his hand hoover over the wound, closed his eyes, and concentrated, reaching out with his mind like he did when he tried to find nearby water. He felt a tug in his gut, and felt the poison flowing under his hand in Nico's veins.
It was a power he'd discovered in… Tartarus, when Akhlys, the goddess of Misery, had attacked Annabeth and him with poison. He'd ended up nearly choking her, only held back by Annabeth. After Akhlys had run away, Annabeth had made Percy promise never to use these powers again, but seeing both of his cousins lying for Death's door, Percy needed to make an exception. He just hoped that Annabeth would understand.
But the poison wasn't the only thing Percy felt; he could feel Nico's blood run through his body, every single little drop, and he felt as if he was inside Nico's veins, and oh gods, this was so much more intimate than he'd realized.
Percy felt so completely overwhelmed that he forgot all about the poison until he felt his mothers hands on his back, which snapped him out of it, and he concentrated on the poison again, while he tried to block out the moaning and gasps escaping from Nico's mouth. Okay, this was waaaayyy too intimate.
He focused on the green veil and willed it to the wound and up in his hand. It was a long, slow, and tiring process, but after what felt like hours, but probably only was minutes, Percy felt liquid snaking up from the wound in Nico's shoulder, and collect in his palm. He reached out with his mind, and let out a relieved sigh when he didn't find any more poison.
He opened his eyes and saw that his mother was holding a bottle out for him to drop the poison down in. When it all was inside, she sealed it, and gingerly went away with it.
"Move on to Thalia," she said as she returned with a new, empty bottle, "I'll take over here."
Percy nodded and crawled over the girl on the floor. Her face seemed a bit more relaxed than before, but she was obviously still in pain, and her skin was still green. Percy grabbed the knife his mother had laid beside Thalia and leaned in over her.
"Thalia?" he asked unsure, and retrieved a groan. "I'll open the wound now," he warned, and in one swift motion drove the knife over her skin. Thalia barely even flinched.
Man, Percy thought, she must really be in pain.
Blood started to flow out, but now Percy was aware that he could control it, so he hurried to concentrate, closing his eyes, and willed it in again. Thalia squirmed uncomfortable under his outstretched hand. When he was sure the blood didn't spill out, he began to search for the poison that nearly had reached her heart. A moan escaped Thalia's lips, and she began murmuring.
"Percy, this is so weird. I can... feel you in my veins." And some of the worst was that he could feel her blood rush up towards her cheeks and ears.
"Don't worry, it's just as weird for me… I can feel your blood rush to your cheeks," Percy answered. He felt Thalia moving under him, her whole body a web of veins filled with liquids, and glancing up at his closed eyes. None of them said anything else until Percy had all the poison out of her body and sealed in the bottle. Sally came over and was about to feed Thalia some nectar, but Percy held out his hand.
"I wonder…" he said, and focused on Thalia's wound. The blood slowly coagulated. Both Thalia and Sally stared at the wound.
"Percy… how?" Thalia asked astonished. Percy grimaced.
"I, uh. I sort of developed this ability to control poison down in… you know," Thalia nodded, "and now I can control body fluids…"
"Well, uh, that's kinda… unexpected?" she said, making it sound like a question. Percy could only nod, and Sally gave her son a huge hug.
Three heads wiped around when a cough came from behind them, and Percy saw that Nico was now awake.
"You weren't the only one who developed new, deadly powers, Percy," he said, his voice hoarse. Percy hurried over to him, sitting on the floor at the pale boy's head.
"Hey, Nico, you're awake," Percy smiled a little. "How're you feeling?"
"Like a boy who's been pierced in the shoulder, knocked in the head with a huge hammer, and then used his last energy to get to safety. So fine," Nico said, the last dripping of sarcasm. Percy cracked another smile. "But Percy, you… you weren't the only one to develop new powers. I'm also sure Annabeth has some, but not as strong as yours or mi–" he coughed, "mine. I developed something my father now has named Death Touch." He grimaced.
Percy frowned. "That doesn't sound pleasant," he commented, and retrieved a glare from Nico.
"I can with a single touch suck out all your life."
Percy couldn't help it; he leaned a bit away, and Nico saw it. Percy immediately felt guilty.
"See? Your powers aren't scary," the pale boy said, and looked away. "You are sure about your powers, you can't just accidently kill someone if they surprise you by placing a hand on your shoulder."
"Nico…" Percy started, but he wasn't sure how he should comfort the younger boy. He looked desperately up on his mother. Her eyes sad, she gestured for him to keep trying, and then she quietly walked out of the room, gesturing that she would come back soon. Thalia sat up and crawled over, and sat beside Percy on the floor.
"Nico," she said gently, "please look at me."
Nico reluctantly met her blue eyes. Percy couldn't help but think about how they all had black hair, while their eyes represented their fathers' various domains; his own sea green, Thalia's sky blue, and Nico's dark brown eyes.
Thalia kept talking, hesitantly reaching out and brushing Nico's hair out of his eyes. "Nico, you're still family. We'll figure out how to help you control your powers, right Percy?" She elbowed him hard – and unnecessary – in the ribs.
"Of course! We'll figure something out, just like we always do, right?" he said and smiled to Nico. "We have always found a solution, no matter what the problem was. Remember your father's sword, when Persephone called on us three to help her? Even though it was only us three, we managed to give a Titan amnesia." He instantly regretted using that as example. Bob, or Iapetus, had sacrificed his life for him and Annabeth when they escaped Tartarus.
But Thalia saved him, "or the time when you managed to convince Kelp Head here to bathe in Styx. We couldn't have won if it hadn't been for your genius plan, or Kelp Head to do it."
"Yeah," Percy said, "and you brought the Athena Pantheons to Camp Half-Blood and prevented another war between Romans and Greeks. And Thalia, stop calling me that!"
Thalia just smirked at him.
Then Sally came in with a plate filled with blue cookies. "Here you go," she said and placed it on the table.
"Thanks mom," Percy grinned and handed the two others a cookie.
"You could restart the movie, Percy, if you want to," Sally suggested, and then added, "I'm guessing you two will stay over for the night, so I'll go prepare the beds." She kissed them all three on the foreheads, and then left again.
Percy looked between the two others. "You want to watch a movie?"
They both shrugged so Percy got up and began to fiddle with the DVD machine. He accidentally hit the play button, and the movie started, just as Katniss reached out and touched the poisonous fog. Ironically.
"You wanna watch this"– he pointed at the screen– "or another movie?"
"You got any Marvel movies?" Thalia asked.
"Wait, Marvel. Those are the ones with superheroes, right? The comic books," Nico said as he slowly sat up. Thalia nodded.
Percy looked around in the box of DVD's and brought up eight movies, a broad grin on his face. "Every single one," he said proudly.
Thalia's face lit up. "THOR! Please, can't we see Thor?"
The boys looked at each other. "I'm fine with it, I haven't seen any of them," Nico said, and retrieved two disbelieving stares.
Then the Thalia and Percy looked at each other, and the same idea came to their minds. Together they yelled, "MARVEL MARATHON!" and Nico rolled his eyes at their enthusiasm.
"But Thals, then we must start from the beginning and see Captain America," Percy said, and Thalia had to agree with him. So, Percy put the disk in, while Thalia climbed onto the couch beside Nico. Percy plumbed down on Nico's other side, but before hitting play, he turned to the others.
"What about we jump in our pajamas?" he asked. "That way we don't need to get up again later."
"Percy, we don't have any pajamas here," Thalia reminded him.
"Nico can loan one of my old ones, and I'm sure my mother has something for you." At Thalia's grimace he added, "Or you can just stay in your blood and dirt stained clothes."
Grumbling Thalia got up to find Sally. "I'll take a bath then too." And with that, she disappeared. Percy turned to Nico.
"You want to loan a pajama?" Nico looked uncertain, but after a glance down on his ruined clothes, he nodded. "I'll go find one. Take a cookie more." Without even waiting for an answer, Percy stuffed a blue cookie into the younger boy's mouth and headed for his room.
Soon they were all three sitting under a ton of blankets and pillows, Thalia in a t-shirt she'd lent from Sally, and Nico in Percy's old blue pajama with small fishes on. They started with watching Captain America. When it ended, they chose Hulk, and after that, Iron Man 1 and 2, then Thor, followed by the Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Thor 2.
When Sally woke up next morning, she found the three teens sprawled on top of each other on the couch, the ending of Thor 2 on the television. Chuckling, she found her camera and took a picture of them, they looked too adorable not to.