It was terrifying seeing Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, Hero of the Camp, become Percy Jackson, the broken boy.

Or man. That was probably the better term to use now, Frank mused. Percy was far from being that little 12 year old boy that he once was. He was in his twenties now, and Frank only wished that he could have known Percy when he was younger. They would have probably gotten on quite well, he thought, since they had so much in common. They both didn't fit in, both became leaders, both had trouble accepting themselves.

But he didn't have much in common with the man in front of him.

Percy was sitting on the ground, in an empty grey room, and he honestly looked dead. His eyes were glazed over and dark with heavy bags underneath them, and he seemed too skinny to be healthy under his baggy clothes. There was an uncomfortable lag to his minimal movements, and if Percy had been born white, he would probably been as pale as a corpse.

Frank realised, quite worryingly, that Percy looked like Nico back when Frank first met that scrawny, pale son of Pluto. It made Frank want to run over to Percy, wrap him in blanket and give him some soup to eat... but he didn't think that would go down well.

Frank felt uncomfortable with the silence, but was even more uncomfortable with the idea of breaking it. He didn't feel like he belonged here, he felt like he should leave. It was liked he'd walked into the funeral of someone he didn't know, but he was afraid to leave in case he makes some noise and disturb everyone.

But he couldn't leave, he just couldn't. Because he came here to find Percy, and he was not leaving until he was found him inside this sad man.

Although Frank hadn't known Percy for long, he'd been surprised when Rachel had told him that Percy had 'gone away'. Well, she told Hazel who told him, but he didn't think that those details really mattered. What mattered was that Percy had left, and after two years of just simple postcards, people had began to get a bit irritated.

Of course Percy frequently called up his family and went to see them (Percy's little sister was always enthusiastic to show off her new present from her big brother) but that wasn't enough for everyone else.

He knew Annabeth had left too, and was burning herself out by pushing everyone away and studying hard to become an architect. The break up had hit them both hard, and neither of them really had the best coping methods.

"Why are you here?"

Frank nearly had a heart attack when Percy finally spoke, which was ridiculous because Percy had been anything but loud. It was barely a whisper, and revealed nothing.

"I-I," Frank had to stop himself for a minute and went over the speech he'd made in his head, "I'm here to bring Percy Jackson back."

"I know that," he laughed in a cold sort of way, "I mean why you?"

Frank asked the same question when he began this journey. Why me? Why not Rachel or Grover, who'd known him for longer? Why not Nico who could shadow travel, or Will who was a doctor and had known him well too? Why not Jason the leader, or Piper who knew all about emotions, or motherly Hazel or- the point was, the list went on, and yet here he was.

"I don't know," Frank said honesty, "I guess everyone was... busy."

Grover had a family, Rachel was busy setting up her own art gallery, Nico didn't want anything to do with Percy, Will didn't want to upset Nico, Jason was busy improving his camp, Piper... well... she was focused on reaching out to Annabeth, she didn't have the time or energy to try and sort out two broken heroes. Hazel said she couldn't handle it, and everyone else apparently agreed. He wasn't mad with them though, he knew where they were coming from. He understood. He wouldn't have come if someone had offered.

"Meaning they didn't want to," Percy translated.

Frank didn't understand when people said Percy was an idiot, he seemed smart enough to Frank. A bit too smart sometimes, in a way that was completely different to Annabeth's brand of intelligence.

"Basically," Frank admitted, "But they do miss you. So much."

"I know that," he sighed, "It's not like I'm completely hiding though. If they cared enough they could find me."

"You don't really want them to though, do you?" Frank said. It felt odd, separating himself from his friends, but he felt like he needs to do this to try and get somewhere with Percy. "That's why you never call or go to see them."

"...I don't have an excuse for that. I'm just a coward."

Frank couldn't help but snort at that.

"Your history would say otherwise."

"This isn't history though, this is right now. And right now, I'm hiding away from everyone I know in the only place I could think of."

"Greece."

Percy nodded, and slowly got up. Frank winced at the sound of Percy's knees clicking, and winced yet again when Percy threw back the curtains and let in the light.

"Bit dramatic, don't you think?" Frank tried to joke.

Anything to liven the mood, and maybe make Percy smile. But Percy was just a silhouette against the dawning sun, untouchable and cold.

"...I guess it was," Percy eventually agreed, "A Disney villain in the making, huh."

"Hero. A Disney hero in the making."

"...As long as I'm not Hercules, I guess I can live with that."

Frank suddenly realised how tired he was, how long he'd been going for, and just how hard he'd worked to find this man. The feeling got stronger when he realised that the room wasn't actually empty, it was just sparsely furnished and there was a bed in the corner begging for him to use it.

"Do you want a hot drink or anything to eat by the way?" Percy asked, quietly and gently like he was afraid to overstep his boundaries.

Frank almost wanted to laugh. It was Percy's house after all, Frank should be the one acting like that, not him.

"How did you afford this place?" Franks asked instead. "It looks like it'd be expensive."

"Hermes. He said he'd get me a good place to live if I helped a few of his kids get to camp."

"Oh..."

Frank wondered whether or not that was actually a fair deal, and he also wondered if he should really ask a question that was stuck in his head, but he went ahead with it anyway.

"How long ago did you do that?"

"Three, maybe four years ago. I can't remember exactly."

Wow.

"So you had this at least two years before you left?"

"I didn't want to have to come here," he said quietly, "I hoped everything would get better after that first year, and everything would go back to normal."

Percy walked away from the window finally, and sat on the old sofa that was in the middle of the room. Frank only joined him when Percy has beckoned him over. When he was finally settled, he asked the big question, the one that apparently had Annabeth going mad: why did he leave his friends? Percy was all about his friends and family it seemed that they were all they lived for, so why did he leave?

"What happened?"

"Everything," he chuckled, "It would take me years to explain it all, but I can tell you the final thing... the final thing that sealed the deal for me."

"Okay."

"Grover broke our empathy link."

Frank couldn't help it. His jaw dropped, and he stared at Percy in complete shock. Percy just looked away.

"B-But you were best friends... and I thought empathy links couldn't be-"

"Broken? I didn't think so either... I don't know, maybe they can and it's all super easy, it was no trouble at all to cut it off."

He imitated cutting a thread with scissors before falling against the back of this sofa. He looked agitated now, with his brooding expression and the antsy tapping of his fingers against his thigh. He looked really to explode. But Frank wasn't going to move and avoid the impact.

"Grover said it was just because he didn't want to have an empathy link with someone when he was going to get married, and said that Juniper was a bit... worried about it. But I know the truth. I'm not as dumb as I look."

"You don't look dumb."

"I know; I look shit."

Frank jumped a bit at that; he didn't think he'd ever heard Percy swear. Mind you, most of the time Percy was surrounded by kids so he couldn't really swear, but it was still shocking. And the bitter way in which he spit out that word just made it even worse.

"Grover was sick of me influencing his moods all the time; making him angry and sad and upset and guilty and giving him nightmares... not on purpose though. I'd never want anyone to go through what I had to..."

He shivered, and gets up, beginning to walk in slow circles around the room. He looked deep in thought, like he had too many things to say but he didn't know what how and if he should say them. He looked like he's trying to analyse a map to find the fastest way home.

"But he could have just said- I would've understood- was he really that scared of me?"

"He wasn't-"

"He was," Percy snapped loudly.

His fists were clenched, and he was standing right in front of the sofa, staring Frank down. He was tense like a spring waiting to snap, but then he let it all out. He let go. He took a deep breath, and relaxed.

"They're all afraid of me. That's why they didn't come. That's why Grover cut the link, why no one can look me in the eye, why Annabeth... and now you're afraid of me too. Great."

"I'm not," Frank answers, but he wasn't so sure about it. This man didn't look very safe.

"Don't lie," he seemed to beg, "Everyone is afraid of me. My friends are afraid of me, my allies are afraid of me, my enemies are afraid of me... even I'm afraid of me."

He dropped down to his knees in front of Frank, and looked up at Frank with tired eyes.

"I'm sorry. You've come so far to find me, and it's probably been hell for you, and I-I'm just ruining everything like I always do."

Frank wanted to argue that Percy wasn't ruining everything, but he was aware of just how tired he both probably was, and how this wasn't the kind of conversation to be having while you're half asleep.

"We should probably have this talk in the morning."

"...You're right," Percy agreed, "You take the bed, I'll-"

"No, you take the bed."

They stared each down for a while before Percy seemingly gave up, raising his arms to the ceiling and backing up.

"Fine, we'll just have to share the bed then."

Frank couldn't be bothered to argue.

"Okay."

Percy closed the curtains, cloaking the room in darkness once again. Frank tried not to knock anything over as we got his bag and got out his pyjamas. They both changed in silence and then stood before the bed, wondering who should get in first. Percy obviously got bored with this, as he just sighed and crawled up, pressing himself up against the wall. Frank got in after him, facing away from Percy, out into the dark room.

It was only as they both lying there in the darkness, their backs almost touching, that Frank realised just how ridiculously big the bed was for one exceptionally skinny person. For a second, he entertained the idea that Percy had girlfriends who he brought back here, or at the very least one night stands. But Percy didn't seem like that kind of guy and the thought made him uncomfortable, so he pushed it away and tried to fall asleep.