AN: WARNING! VERY OOC! SUISIDEL THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS! BEWARE!
Disclaimer: Do I look like middle-aged man to you? You know what, don't answer that. I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus series. Sorry, to disappoint.
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The door was shut and locked. It felt unreasonably cold in his cabin, despite the heat wave outside.

Percy looked down at the gun in his hand, wondering why it was a gun. Why not Riptide? Or some other pointy object? Why a gun? 'Because, if you're gonna commit suicide, you don't need to be original,' he thought to himself with a bitter laugh.

His thumb rested on the safety, contemplating turning it off. No one was there to stop him, this time. Last time, Annabeth had been there. But, she wasn't now. She was probably off telling Thalia how he thought she couldn't take care of herself, which wasn't true. He knew she could take care of herself, but he had seen her after some of those nightmares.

Hades, he'd even *had* some of those nightmares, where he was back in that pit.

Percy had just wanted to let her know that she didn't *have* to take care of herself all the time, that she could let someone help her. He'd never meant to say that she *couldn't* take care of herself.

But, Annabeth wasn't the only reason he was sitting in his cabin with the blinds drawn and the door shut and locked. Annabeth wasn't the only reason Percy had a gun in his hands. No, there was more. So much more. Everyone thought he was so strong, they all thought that he could do anything, get through anything, but that wasn't true.

After coming out of that little hell-hole, Percy had been plagued by nightmares. Not really nightmares, more like memories of what had happened down there. And even though he knew each time that they would make it out, it didn't make it any less terrifying. Tartarus had broken Percy in so many ways...

The safety clicked off.

Percy sighed and closed his eyes...
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As Jason walked past the Poseidon cabin, he knew something was off. The door was shut and the blinds were drawn. The door to Percy's cabin was never shut, not unless he was, um, *with* Annabeth in there. But, Jason knew for a fact that Percy wasn't with Annabeth, as Annabeth was the reason he had left his own cabin in the first place.

And the blinds were almost never drawn, not even when he was with Annabeth. They both had developed a fear of the dark in Tartarus, one that would probably never really leave.

Jason, assuming the worst, looked at the cabin in horror. He recognized that kind of stillness over a place. "No," he whispered under his breath, starting towards the door. When he got there, he tried the knob. Locked, just as he'd thought.

He knocked on the door, praying to whatever god over saw this stuff that he wasn't too late. "Percy? Dude, can I come in?" He called, biting his lip. He heard a slight gasp and the heavy thump of someone dropping something. "Percy?" He tried again when the other boy didn't answer. He heard a cough and then, "Go away, Jason."

Jason smiled in relief, he wasn't too late. "Can't. Annabeth crashed my cabin to talk to my sister, Piper is out visiting her dad, who knows where Leo is, and Frank and Hazel are over at Camp Jupiter. You're my last bet at doing something fun this afternoon," Jason replied, trying to hide his relief that Percy had answered him.

"Now's not a great time, Jason." Percy didn't realize that Jason had no intentions of going anywhere. "Okay," Jason said, and he walked around to the back door, which he was hoping Percy had forgotten about. Percy had, of course, forgotten to lock that one. "The guy remembers to lock every single window, but not the back door?" Jason muttered, shaking his head.

Jason entered the cabin to find Percy, sitting cross legged on his bed, eyes closed, gun rising slowly towards his head. Jason calmed himself before speaking. He had enough experience to know that you shouldn't yell at someone when they had a gun in their hands.

So, he just asked, "Why?" Percy's eyes snapped open, looking franticly around the room before locking in on Jason. "I thought I locked the door," was all Percy could come up with. "You forgot the backdoor," Jason informed him. "Now tell me why." The way he said it made it sound more like an order than a request.

The look in Jason's eyes was not one of shock at finding his friend like this, nor was it one of pity that Percy felt he had been driven to this. It was more one of... Sorrow? Hurt? Regret? It almost looked like Jason was lost in a memory, not standing in the corner of the Poseidon cabin, trying to stop his friend from committing suicide.

It was the look in Jason's eyes that made Percy put the gun down. That look of sadness in his friend's eyes, it hurt to realize that he might have put it there. Sure, they hadn't always been the best of friends, being the sons of Poseidon and Jupiter, they had clashed at times. But, in the end, they had worked together to defeat Gaea and her minions. And, afterwards, they had become better friends, setting aside their differences and realizing that they made a great team. If they were both on the same team for capture the flag, they were almost unstoppable.

Jason walked over as soon as Percy set the gun down. He picked it up and tossed it across the room, where Percy couldn't reach it. Jason sat down on the bed next to Percy. He looked at the raven haired boy sitting next to him, who wouldn't look up and meet his eyes. After a couple minutes, Jason broke the silence.

"Percy, look at me." Percy hesitantly lifted his eyes toward the other boy's. "Why?" Jason asked in a whisper. "I-I don't know." Percy shook his head. "I guess it all just became too much." Percy whispered. He ran his fingers through his hair. "It's like everyone expects me to be invincible or something. But, I'm not anymore then they are. I've just got one of the Big Three for a dad. It's like they expect me to fix everything, but I can't. There are some problems that I don't have answers to.

"And, like with Annabeth. I don't get her! One minute, she loves me, and the next, when I'm trying to help her and stuff, it's like she hates me! I don't get it!" Percy's head fell into his heads. "And don't even get me started on Tartarus."

Jason blinked. Percy had seemed so fine after Tartarus. Well, as fine as you can be after going through literal hell. There had been nightmares, but eventually, with no Coach Hedge to stop her, Annabeth had moved into his room, so the two could comfort each other without waking the rest of the ship, and the nightmares seemed to have stopped. But, they obviously hadn't.

Percy looked up at Jason through tired eyes. "Can we not talk about this? I feel like I'm going to do something stupid if I don't get my mind of this." The whispered request barely reached Jason's ears, but he heard it and nodded.

So, they talked for about an hour about non-consequential stuff, consciously avoiding the gun in the corner and the topic that came with it.

"Jason?" Percy asked. They had fallen into an easy silence, both lost in their own thoughts. "Yeah?" "You seem like you've done this before. If you don't mind my asking..." Percy trailed off, not sure how to put the question. Jason looked at him. "Have I ever had to talk someone out of committing suicide before?" Percy nodded, confirming that that had been his question. "Yeah, I have. Twice, actually. The first time went pretty well. The second time... not so much..." Jason stopped and looked away.

Percy just sat there, shocked. "Wow... I'm sorry, dude," Percy set a comforting hand on Jason's knee. Jason gave him a weak smile. "It's not your fault. The Titan War was hard on a lot of people." Jason looked up, meeting Percy's eyes. "But, hey. Right now, I'm two for three. Don't make me one for three, Percy." Percy nodded, "I won't."

The conch shell sounded, signaling dinner. Percy jumped at the sound, his hand automatically going to his pocket where Riptide rested. Jason paled slightly seeing Percy going for the weapon. Percy noticed. "It's alright; it just startled me, that's all. I'm not going to do anything stupid, I promise." Jason visibly relaxed. Then he looked at Percy, skeptically. "You, not doing something stupid? That'd be a first, Kelp Head."

"Hey! Only your sister is allowed to call me that!" Percy responded with mock rage. The two teens laughed, and when the laughter finally subsided, a loud rumbling sound came from the direction of Percy's stomach. Percy looked surprised, while Jason burst out laughing all over again. "Guess we... need to get... you some food!" Jason managed through gasps of laughter.

Percy shoved at him playfully, "I was going to ask Chiron if you could sit with me tonight, but I guess I won't anymore." Percy got up and started for the door. Jason stopped laughing, his eyes widening. "Percy, come on! You know I didn't mean it! Please, can I sit with you? If you don't let me sit with you, I'm going to have to sit alone with Thalia, and you *know* how she gets sometimes! Please, Percy?" Percy kept going as if he didn't hear the other boy. "Hey, Percy, wait up!" Jason ran to catch up, still trying to convince Percy to let him sit with him.
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AN: Well, what do you guys think? Honestly, I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Please review!