Note: Posted With Permission

Warning: This is rated 'M' for a reason, I don't make light of the rating system, and it gets progressively more mature as these go on.

Summary:Nico never allowed himself to touch, only to be touched, it was better that way. Percy/Nico

Chapter Thirty-Six: All in the Family

Percy was wolfing his breakfast down, he was eating for energy. "You sure can put it away," Poseidon observed proudly. He didn't say a word; he just let his father load him up with two more fried eggs and a handful of sausage. "Might want to slow down a little, champ," Poseidon told him, handing more food out to the small militia of children seated around the kitchen table. Percy hadn't cared to learn their names; he was happily ignoring each and every one of them. They all ranged in age, the youngest of them being four—or was it five?—and the oldest besides Tyson and Triton was probably fifteen. Each of them was different in some way, eye width, the size of their brow, thin or full lipped. But, one thing was the same in each and every young man. Curly hair and eyes each varying shades of blue, some were closer to hazel and others to green but it was blue all the same. It seemed that they all had differing personalities as well, but each of them—good or bad—was brought into check at the sight or sound of Poseidon. "Isn't this nice?" The man asked taking a seat at the head of the table beside Percy, Triton wasn't too happy about sharing the right hand seat as he now sat on the left.

"Kidnapping? Aiding and abetting? Assault?" Percy asked, taking another bite of his eggs and shoveling sausage into his mouth. His father chuckled heartily, finally laying down some toast and eggs for himself, he poured himself a generous cup of black coffee.

"No," He said. "Finally sitting together at the table as a family,"

"Where's Odie?" The smallest child, the five year old, asked. "He didn't come home,"

"Eat your food, Orpheus," Poseidon said without looking up from his plate.

"But, Dad—!" The child receiving a scathing look and quieted instantly.

"Odysseus regretfully could not make it to breakfast this morning, but he'll be back soon enough," Poseidon told them. "Now, no more talk about him. Doesn't anyone want to ask their wayward brother Perseus a question?"

"Yeah," This one was the fifteen year old. "What's he doing here? He never came around before,"

"Morpheus—"

"Moses, Dad." The self-proclaimed Moses corrected.

"Morpheus," Poseidon said again. "A better question."

"No, I'll answer it," Percy smiled, he received the same scathing look that had silenced Orpheus but he didn't care about the ramifications of that silencing glare. "Because your father, the man you all so revere, is unequivocally and without a shadow of a doubt, an asshole."

"Perseus!" Poseidon shouted and Triton stood to his feet, his hands slamming the table.

"Are you going to let him sit there and bad mouth you like that?" He yelled at Poseidon. "Why the fuck as we still putting up with his shit, Dad? He doesn't want to be here, let him leave! Messing with him and his friends was fun at first, but now I'm sick of it."

"Triton, go to your room," The eldest of the men said. Triton's mouth hung open, then in a heaving of sighs he pushed his chair into the table with more force than necessary and left. His thoughtful, "Whatever" sailed back into the kitchen and left Poseidon scowling. The breakfast table grew innocuously quiet after that, Percy being the only one sitting there and smiling.

"What happened to you?" This one had thick glasses, what was his name? Daedalus?

"Car crash," Percy told him, flexing his toes. He wasn't well enough to walk, hell he wasn't well enough to stand yet. But when the time came he was going to make a run for it. The little boy who couldn't have been older than seven spoke around a bite of toast.

"Why aren't you in the hospital? You're hurt,"

Percy turned his eyes to Poseidon, "Yes, why aren't I in the hospital, Dad?"

"That's enough, no more questions for anyone," Poseidon said, his plate near empty. "Percy is…grounded, Daedalus, so he's not to use the phone, the computer, or even go outside. Everyone understand?"

A rather eerie chorus of, "Yes, father," Broke the air and Percy shook his head.

"I've got a call to make," Poseidon stood, his once full plate that had been brimming to the top with food was now gone. Well, Percy thought to himself, at least I know where I get my appetite from. "Morpheus, you're on clean up,"

"Aw, man," Morpheus said, but Poseidon ignored him as he exited the kitchen. Twelve eyes made up of varying shades of blue all turned on Percy at once. It would have been sixteen if Triton and Odysseus were there. "How do you get away with talking to Dad like that?" Morpheus asked him the moment that Poseidon was gone, he was oldest in the room now next to Percy and Tyson, who only smiled like a child.

"He talks about you all the time, but I've never even seen a picture of you," Someone else said, someone who's name Percy didn't even slightly recall.

"Can I sign your cast?" Daedalus asked. "I'll sign it 'live long and prosper' 'cause Dad let's me watch Star Trek," He smiled widely and made the Vulcan sign of peace. More questions than he cared to answer were asked and Percy sighed. He was happy to be seated in a wheelchair, even if it was stolen as it made getting around a lot easier.

"Well," Percy said, wheeling himself backward. "I'm beat, who'll help me up the stairs?" Six hands flew into the air and Percy sighed again. He felt like a celebrity amongst the masses and shook his head. "Don't worry about it, I'll just crawl back up there."

"Do you have medicine at least?" It was Daedalus again and Percy thought that this kid was quite inquisitive. "I mean hurt people take medicine, right?"

Before Percy could answer that he felt small hands tugging at his shirt sleeve, "Percy," The smallest of them said, but he pronounced it Puh-see. "Do you know where Odie is?" The kid stared at Percy with the biggest eyes he had ever seen; in fact his face seemed to be made up of mostly eye and smile. Damn it, he was adorable. Percy couldn't hold a grudge against any of these boys—none of them hated him the way Triton seemed to hate him and they had done nothing wrong to him.

"If I had to guess I would say he's at my house," Percy told the boy. "At least, that's where I hope he is." Then the kid hugged his neck and Percy just sighed all the harder, he had never asked for this. Orpheus looked at him with a huge grin.

"He safe?" He said in the serious tone that children take when they want to be understood thoroughly. Percy nodded and the little boy broke out into the world's largest grin.

"Is it true you're gay?" This one was fourteen, or maybe thirteen—the one who's name Percy couldn't recall.

"Anti," Morpheus said in the way brothers do when they want the other to shut up, but won't come out and tell them to.

"Don't call me that," The kid looked over at Percy, and the glance he gave him wasn't anywhere near disappointed or disgusted. It was genuinely curious. "I'm Antaneus, if you're going to call me anything please, for the love of God, don't call me Anti. Call me Tanner,"

"Percy," Percy said, reaching a hand across and shaking Antaneus'—Tanner's—hand. "And I don't know what you call it; I have a boyfriend if that's what you mean." He shrugged.

"What's it like?" The whole room grew quiet again.

"I don't know," He told them, "like having a girlfriend, I guess." Percy shrugged again. "I was dating a girl before I started dating Nico."

"You had a girlfriend?" Morpheus sat, he had been piling dishes into the dishwasher but now he was genuinely interested.

"Of course I had a girlfriend," Percy said, almost offended. "What, cause I like guys too I can't have a girlfriend?" The group suddenly seemed bashful, but Percy smiled when he saw the next question appear in Morpheus' eyes.

"Was she hot? Did she have, like, big boobs?" He mimed the universal sign for large breasts and Percy laughed, this was a kid after his own heart.

"She's pretty hot," Percy grinned, "Here, I've got a picture of her on…my…" He trailed off. A while ago Percy had gotten tired of wearing those God awful hospital gowns so he begged his mother to bring him some clothes from home. The medical staff didn't have a problem with it because he showed good aptitude with being able to get himself out of bed and into his wheelchair when he was on his pain meds so if he needed to go to the bathroom he could without assistance, and if he was having trouble he could have always just pressed the nurse call button. He was wearing jeans, which meant he had pockets. His cell phone was still in said pocket. His fucking cell phone was still in his fucking pocket. How could he have been so stupid?

"Are you going to show us?" Morpheus asked, he noticed that the kids older than twelve had gathered around him. Percy tried not to make a show about having the phone; he slipped it back in his pocket stealthily.

"I just remembered I deleted it," He said. "Shame too, she's blonde, nineteen. Cute smile, nice body," He told them and then mimed the same sign Morpheus had in front of his chest, the boys all sighed dreamily.

"How far did she let you get? This one time a girl I know let me feel her boobs," These kids were horndogs. Percy wondered if he was anything like them.

"We got pretty far," He told them, Orpheus tugged on his shirt sleeve again.

"Boobies," He laughed, giggling childishly behind his hands. Percy couldn't help but laughing slightly, making the best of a bad situation. He needed to keep their attention.

"Anyone here got a girlfriend?" He asked.

"Well," Tanner said. "There's this girl I really like in school…" After that Percy was regaled with tales of all the young men's run ins with young women, he tried to seem interested and he figured he must have looked it because no one made mention of his phone, it didn't even seem to be relevant anymore now that he had mentioned girls. When Poseidon came back into the room the boys were all laughing and smiling jovially.

"Dad!" Daedalus said. "Percy's so cool!"

"He's alright," Antaneus said, but a small smile tugged at his lips. Percy figured him to be pessimistic type because the next thing he knew Poseidon was laughing.

"Well, if Antaneus likes you you must be a riot," He grinned. "See, it's not so bad here is it?" Percy didn't say a word to him. "Either way, finish getting this kitchen clean. Percy, I have some pain killers if you want one?"

"No thank you," Percy said stiffly, he desperately wanted one, Orpheus had climbed into his lap and was quite happily sitting there leaning against the one spot on Percy's side that hurt the most, but he wanted to be coherent when he made his phone call. First he would call someone from his family, then he would call the authorities.

"Suit yourself," His father grinned. "It does my heart good to have you here, Perseus." It was a wondered Poseidon did not have the world's largest hangover—he had drunken the entire bottle of gin and then in procession had a few beers the night previous. After about thirty minutes Percy had feigned sleep so the man would leave him alone as he did not want to speak to him, at all.

"Can someone take me upstairs? I'm tired," Percy lied.

"Morpheus, help your brother up the steps, Antaneus carry the wheelchair,"

"Yes, father," The boy's echoed. Morpheus, who was rather tall for a fifteen year old, pulled Percy's arm over his shoulder and helped him out of the kitchen while Tanner, who was tall for a thirteen year old, pushed the wheelchair behind them. They took the stairs one at a time, Orpheus trailing behind them with a huge grin. While they ascended the stairs, slowly, Percy couldn't help but wincing.

"Anyone else notice," He said between his teeth. "that we've all got the worst names in the world?" Morpheus, who Percy came to finally call Moses after a while, and Tanner both laughed.

"Dad's just really into Greek mythology," Tanner shrugged.

"Granddad was, actually," Moses corrected. "Guess what his name was?"

"Kronos." Percy said. "Yeah, I know." He grinned, though it was strained. "Do you guys really like living here?"

"Oh, we don't live here," Moses said. "Dad gets us all on the weekends or during breaks from school but we all go back home to our Moms once they're over."

"Yeah, Dad really doesn't seem to like your Mom though, he's always cussing when he says her name."

"Yeah, well, my Mom doesn't really like Dad either," Percy told them. "I'm not his biggest fan myself." They led him into the room appointed for him and Orpheus and Daedalus, or Philly and Davie as they preferred to be called—Orpheus' nickname given to him by his brothers since he couldn't think of one on his own—came barraging in behind Percy, Tanner and Moses. They sat him on the bed.

"Percy, Percy, Percy!" Davie—Daedalus—said excitedly. "Can I sign your cast now? Can I?"

"Sure, kid," Percy said and a smile to match Philly's spread over Dave's face, he took off and ducked out of the room, ran across the hall and returned with a lime green dry erase marker. He sat on the bed and went to signing Percy's cast.

"What were you and Dad arguing about last night?" Moses asked, taking the seat Poseidon had been in the whole night. Tanner leaned against the wall and Percy couldn't help but see himself in each and every one of their faces. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

"Everything," Percy told him. "Your Dad kidnapped—"

"Hey, booger-eaters, get out of here," Percy's eyes flew open. Triton was standing at the doorway. The boys all begrudgingly made their way out of the room without a word, everyone but Davie who was adding the finishing touches to his creative signature. "You two, dog-breath," Triton said, looming over the child.

"But, Tony, I'm not done…" Triton took the marker out of his hand.

"You are now, go." Davie scowled at his older brother but ran out of the room when Triton feigned punching him. "Hey! Next time I see you you get two for flinching." Then they were alone.

"What do you want?" Percy asked when Triton closed the door behind the kids.

"It's my job to keep them from asking too many questions is all," Triton shrugged. "I don't want you here anymore than you want to be here."

"I highly doubt that," Percy told him. "You know, my offer from yesterday is still open. You can help me get out of here."

"Look," Triton told him. "I got Dad to get you a fucking wheelchair so you can get around up and around here by yourself, that's all I can do for you." He shook his head. "I can't believe I almost listened to you."

"You should have." Percy said. "You still should." There was a knock at the door and Triton opened it. It was Tyson.

"Hi, Percy! Hi, Tony!" He grinned, he was a large one, probably twenty-five, but his face betrayed nothing but innocence all around. His left eye was milk white with blindness, but his good eye met Percy's amiably, with no hint of any sort of malice or interest; just pure, unabashed happiness.

"Hey, buddy," Triton said, surprisingly gentle. "Why don't you go to your room and color?"

"Coloring!" Tyson smiled gleefully, then he walked away from the door and presumably went to his own room. Triton closed the door behind him and sighed heavily, leaning his forehead against it.

"I know I'm a bad person, Percy," He said quietly. "I'm the worst kind of person, but I don't care anymore." His shoulders rose and fell languidly with his slow breathing. "I used to hate who I had become, but the more I did shit I normally wouldn't do the more Dad started wanting to spend time with me. The more he loved me."

"Why does it matter if he loves you or not?" Percy asked.

"You wouldn't fucking care, you've got a Dad. A real one," Triton said, referring to Paul. "I've been watching you for a long time, Percy. I had to, Dad talks about you so much it was driving me crazy. 'You know I bet Percy would like this game," He imitated Poseidon's voice. "Or, 'Look at that girl, she'd look good on Percy's arm," He sighed. "I've seen you and that guy at the park together, tossing the football or playing a one on one pick-up game. Why is it that you get that and I don't? I'm the older brother; I shouldn't be living in your fucking shadow, man."

"You think that's any excuse for your actions?" Percy asked.

Triton leered and smiled at the same time and it made for a horrible effect, "I'm not asking for your forgiveness, or for your fucking compassion." He said quite fiercely. "I just figured you deserved to know why I hate you so much."

"Do you hate me, or do you hate who Dad thinks I am—who you can never be?" They were quiet after that. "Triton, I could forgive anything you guys did to me. Hell, you could have both been in the car that made me crash and I wouldn't care. That's the kind of guy I am, but when you mess with the people I love that's when I get fucking upset. So I want you to know why I'm going to beat the shit out of you for touching my boyfriend."

Triton opened the door, "I look forward to it," He threw over his shoulder then he stepped out and closed it behind him. Percy sighed heavily, he quickly pulled the cell phone out of his pocket, and rapidly hit call.

A dark, dark rain cloud had fallen over everyone's relatively slowly lightening Winter Break and mood. Percy had been kidnapped, Nico had almost been raped, there was no winning. Nico couldn't be consoled; he refused to come out of Percy's room. He refused to eat, to sleep; he just sat in bed crying. Grover had tried to talk to him. Aaron had tried, Rachel, Annabeth, Juniper, Thalia, Jason, even Leo had tried and he was the worst person when it came to people and their feelings. But he wouldn't talk to anyone, not even his father.

Hades himself was in the darkest sort of mood, he was beyond pissed and he was calling every connection he had to hunt down Poseidon Jackson. But, as mad as Hades was it did not compare to the anger in the surprisingly aggressive Paul Blofis. "What the fuck do you mean you'll keep get to us when you can?" He screamed into the phone, talking with the police. It seemed that Poseidon was still slightly untouchable, there was no witness that could say they saw Percy being taken and considering he was no longer a minor there wasn't a lot the local authorities could do for them. Finding Poseidon was proving to be difficult as well. His home, one of many apparently, was vacant.

Zeus, however, was seated on the Blofis' couch, quietly sipping his wine. He knew Poseidon couldn't make a move, he couldn't get anywhere not without any sort of money, and the moment he tried to use any sort of card or identification Zeus would know about it. "How about you do your job and find my son!" Paul yelled and slammed the phone down on the receiver so hard it nearly shattered.

"Paul," Sally said quietly, dully. "I just got Odysseus to sleep," She informed him, when she had found out that Poseidon had taken Percy she had cried and after she was done crying she found herself simply doing it all over again. Then, she just stopped. Sally couldn't feel anything anymore but numbness and that hurt all the more. She clenched her fingers so hard in her fists that her nails drew blood. Paul was quiet, his dark eyebrows drawn together in a mixture of anger, concern, and fatigue. He took her hand and unclenched her fist, wiping the blood away with the handkerchief in his jacket pocket.

"Don't do that," He told her just as quietly as she said. "We'll find him."

Sally shook her head, "I've been so afraid he would do this," She told him. "That he would take Percy from us. He's never liked the fact that I wouldn't let him see him, he hated me because of it but I didn't care. I didn't want my boy—our boy, yours and mine, around that kind of misogynistic, chauvinistic, pig-headed, asshole." Her shoulders shook as well. "Turns out Poseidon's got a whole stable of sons, but Percy was the prize amongst them. You know why?" She asked rhetorically, still shaking her head. "Because Percy was like forbidden fruit, he could go see his other kids anytime he wanted to, but Percy? Oh, Percy was like the fucking Rosetta Stone."

"Here," Persephone pressed a cup of coffee into Sally's hands, it was decaf. "Sit down, dear." Persephone guided both grieving parents to their seats on the couch opposite the love seat. Without Paul's yelling the living room was intensely quiet, no one spoke, most hardly dared to breathe. Percy was being held prisoner against his will somewhere and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Nico was a mess. Somehow he felt all of this was his fault, if he would not have flown off the handle about the kiss Percy would not have wrecked his car, and if Percy had not have wrecked he wouldn't have been so weak that he couldn't fight back against his Dad. Nico couldn't even cry anymore, his tears had run dry but his eyes still prickled and now his stomach was paining him to no end from the constant need to throw up. If he were in his room he might be destroying everything, if he were in his room he would have punched so many holes in the wall, broken his headboard, his guitar, ripped down posters done something to just help alleviate all the violent feeling swelling inside of him underneath his heavy, heavy sadness.

Just when the worst feeling of despair he had ever felt so far had settled into his chest, a blinding, stabbing, piercing melancholic darkness so sharp that Nico thought it would rip him in twain, his phone rang. But, his phone didn't just ring, it rang. The ringtone was one of those annoying, overly autotuned, overly studio-mixed songs that he only put up with in the car rides with one certain Person. The same Person who had set the ringtone so Nico would know it was Him calling. Nico's ears perked up and he jumped, nearly screaming for his phone. He found it on the floor under the bed when the song was halfway over. "Percy!" His voice was rough from the crying, he sounded hoarse and nasally but he didn't care.

"Nico, I don't have long." Percy started off by saying quickly in his ear. "I love you." He said.

"I love you too," Where Nico thought he didn't have the strength to cry anymore he found a second wind, tears overflowed down his face in abundance now.

"I don't know where I am, the street sign is too far away for me to see from this window and I was still pretty unconscious when they brought me in. Wherever it is it's a nice neighborhood. We're still in the state, I think, but Dad's talking about getting a boat and taking us all somewhere. You—tell my Mom I love her too, okay? If I don't get away I want you all to know I love each and every one of you."

"Percy—" Nico had never heard his own voice like that, even when the thought that Percy had cheated on him had been in his mind he had never heard so much pain and need culminated together with bitter despondency and regret. Even when he thought Triton was going to do all those horrible things to him—he closed his eyes and simply cried harder.

"Be strong for me, okay baby?" Percy asked, and Nico could hear that familiar smile in his words, that smile that had made Nico a better person. "I'm going to call the police next. I love you, Nico,"

"Percy! Percy, please don't go yet!" Nico sobbed, and then heard something on the other end of the phone. He couldn't make out whose voice was speaking but at the next moment the line went violently, and so very coldly dead. There wasn't even a dial tone to comfort him thanks to the technology of our day. Suddenly Nico missed the sound of Percy's voice. He wanted to sit there and cry, he wanted to bawl his eyes out but there was a fire in his belly now. Nico jumped up and opened Percy's door with a heavy swing, he marched with purpose into the living room full of gathered teens and adults and they all turned to look at him morosely. "Percy called me." He said, his voice shaking obtrusively. Then his knees buckled and he fainted.

Poseidon snapped Percy's phone. He snapped it in half, then in fourths, then he crumbled it into eights and if it would not have been almost finite dust he would have gone to sixteenths, and maybe even thirty-secondths. "How dare you!" He shouted at Percy, who was glaring at him. "Give, give, give that's all I've done for you and what do you do in return? You call him?" Percy's brothers were all gathered outside of the door, even Triton, staring in at the ruckus.

"Do you think I'm afraid of you?" Percy asked in a voice that was far stronger than he actually felt. Nico was devastated, if he couldn't hear that much over the phone then he would have either had to have been deaf or dumb. He had to get away, if not for himself then for Nico. He wasn't sure how much more stress his young boyfriend could handle, but on that note he wasn't sure how much more stress his body could handle either. Mentally he was fine, but he was tired and there wasn't a part of him that didn't hurt now. He was putting on his bravest front, but if Poseidon pressed him much harder he might have passed out.

"I can make things very difficult for you, Perseus," Poseidon told him darkly. "If you'll just stop fighting me and—"

"No!" That might have been too much, he felt all of his cells and nerve endings throb at one time and he closed his eyes in mind numbing excruciation. This time his words came out as a hiss, "I won't stop fighting you, ever!"

"Then stay in here and rot!" His father turned on his heel and moved to the door, all of Percy's brothers dispersed in one large exodus, and he slammed it closed. It still shuddered seconds after its initial closing. Fatigue hit Percy like a ton of bricks and his head hit the pillow the moment Poseidon was gone. Percy breathed deeply, his chest expanding and compressing greatly with the efforts of his breathing. Sweat was beading down his forehead and he squeezed his eyes closed. He heard the latch for the door release and he tried to sit up but the effort was too much for him.

"Here," It was Daedalus. "A sick person really needs medicine," Two pills were pushed into his mouth and awkwardly so was water squirted from a bottle. "It's just Tylenol; it's all I could reach,"

"Thank you," Percy coughed, his younger brother smiled handsomely behind his gigantic glasses. The kid was smart; he didn't speak in that childish, questioning way that kids (some even years older than him) still spoke. He seemed like the kind of kid who would give Annabeth a run for her money if he stuck to his schooling.

"Tomorrow I want to finish signing your cast," He grinned briefly and flashed Percy the Vulcan peace sign again. "But I have to go before Dad sees me," He told him hurrying to the door. "Feel better, Percy!" Then the door closed again.

The medicine must have been both extra-strength and fast acting because a few minutes later he was feeling better. Relief flooded his system and he sighed. Percy had to get out of there, just because he had somehow won over the younger children didn't many anything. Anyone with any real kind of power seemed to be disinclined to help him. That person being Triton, without his help Percy didn't think he would be able to escape. But, Triton was so worried about shining in their father's eyes that he wouldn't even bat an eyelash in Percy's direction. Percy had to change that, his new prime objective: get Triton's help.

Even if it killed him.