Alright then. 14/8/2020 is when I start writing this. Let's see how long it takes this time.
Ahri has heard a lot of things about New York: The Big Apple, The Melting Pot, … However, what makes it interesting to her is the fact that it is also Percy's city. He doesn't speak about it much, but when he does, he always has a soft and sad tone, like talking about a dream he only remembered halfway. She and Wukong has tried to imagine the kind of city that lays the foundation for the man Percy is today. Because of that, when he decided they needed to go back to his hometown, she was undoubtedly excited. Finally, she could see for herself the city of the gods. No more speculations, no more guesswork.
She didn't expect it to be so…noisy.
New York is undoubtedly a metropolis, with its' skyscrapers pierce the sky and non-stop coming tourists… But that, she has seen from other cities. The most prominent thing here is the noise. There's noise wherever she goes to: from the vehicles, the buildings and the people. Even in the night, the city is still full of activities, more so than the day. That reminded her of another nickname the city received: The City That Never Sleeps. None of the cities the squad visited so far have topped New York's liveliness, as far as she concerned. She could definitely see its influence on Percy now, the energy hidden behind the facade. She hasn't managed to explored even half of the city after a year of staying here. Times like this would have been the perfect time to go dig around the city and marvels at the modern architectures or have a midnight snack at a food truck.
Except tonight, Ahri isn't at any of the place mentioned above. She is standing at an old, unassuming brick building on the Second Avenue. She has just attended an unofficial war council caused by one single person, and now she has to be moral support for that man to meet his family. At the moment, he is still hovering his finger on the door bell.
"How long have it been?" Ahri whispers to Wukong. They have been watching over Percy from afar like a pair of stalkers watching their potential targets. Percy's mind is an enigma that confused Ahri even after half a decade of working together. He could be very calm and collected when facing with the most dangerous situations, and the next thing you know, he turns into a bumbling idiot who failed to complete the simplest tasks.
"It's not even 10 minutes yet. You need to be a bit more patience, Fox." The half-monkey warlock nudges Ahri. In the group, Wukong is the most care-free one, possibly even more than Apollo. Compares to the dark, quiet vibe with occasional outbursts Percy gives off, Wukong is practically a ball of energy waiting to be released. He would have run out there and press the bell for Percy if it's not for his wish to do it himself.
"You are the one to say." She huffs "You couldn't even wait for 5 minutes until dinner's ready. Percy has scolded you so many times about that, yet you still complaint every time."
"Not as bad as you, though." Wu shrugs "Besides, this is a whole different topic. I want to respect his choice, at least."
"Since when did you become so sensitive?" Ahri stares at her friend.
"I don't joke around when it comes to family matters." Wukong answers "Lord know I would trade anything to see dad again."
"Oh… right." Ahri suddenly feel ashamed about her behavior "It's been a while, hasn't it? I miss him, too."
"Aw, don't look so sad!" Wu laughs and gives her a head pat. Fuck, she loves it when he does that "He wouldn't be happy if he saw you like this!"
"He would be angry if he knows that we were homeless after his death." She tries to play it cool, but the deep shade of red on her face betrayed her. Luckily, the shadow hides her embarrassment.
"Well then, we were lucky that we met Percy, weren't we?" This positive outlook in life of Wu is what make him so endearing. It was her the first impression of him, too, on the fateful day they met, the day he saved her life.
"Yeah, it really was life-changing. I'm still worry about Percy, thou-" Ahri stops dead in her tracks. She sees Percy press the bell button firmly and says something into the speaker. After a slight delay, the gate buzzes open and he walks in.
"Shit! Follow him, quick!" She drags Wu's arm, and together, they rush through the gate before it closes.
Percy has never sweated so hard in his life. Using a combination of the Mist and faking his voice, Percy manages to get in as a gas leak checker. Each and every steps feel like it is filled with lead. It has been so long since the last time he saw home, not even talking about coming to it. A million scenarios run through his head. Sally's apartment is only on the third floor, yet this is harder to climb than the Empire State Building. He's scared to think of WHAT Sally would do, and Paul, and Estelle…
One more step, one more step, ….
Finally, he arrives at the door. The anxiety he's feeling must be enough to trigger another PTSD. He hesitantly knocks on the door and wait. There's a rummaging sound from inside the apartment, and a male voice calling out.
"Coming!" Percy feels nauseas. It's Paul, just on the other side of the door. They're about to face each other, every cell in Percy's body is screaming for him to run. But he can't chicken out now.
The door opens and Percy's nose is filled with the scent of chocolate cookies. His heart skips a beat when he sees the person on the other side. Paul Blofis greets him with a warm smile. "Sorry for kept you waiting, the house was a bit messy-"
The smile gets swept away when he sees who he's talking to, followed by the blood in his face. Paul looks as good as anyone else who's seen a dead man come back. Seconds gets stretched into infinity. All the words he's recited over and over in his head got washed away instantly.
"Hi." Is all he can come up with. Paul stares as him, his mouth agape like an actual blowfish.
"You…. You…" Paul stutters, taking a step back away from Percy. It's a miracle he still manages to not drop onto the floor. He's ready for a scream, and Percy doesn't know whether he should stop him or not.
Before either of them made a move, Percy hears small foot steps behind Paul. Paul turns around to see a young girl in her pijama, a teddy bear held firmly in her arms.
"Dad? Who are you talking to?" It tastes bitter in Percy's mouth. He knows he left when she was only one years old, but the way she looks at him with no recognition still feels like stab into his heart.
"I…. This…. It isn't an appropriate time for me to show up, is it?" The way Percy stutters and avoiding eyes contact takes him back to when he was just in kindergarten and got questioned by a teacher (Well, Paul is a teacher). He can feel the Mist starts to manifest in his hands, ready to leash out and and wipe Paul and Estelle's mind clean. He holds it back.
"Is… is my mother at home?" He swallows the lump in his throat. He still hasn't seen his mom yet, and that terrified him.
Then, as if she's on cue, Sally shows up. She is holding a tray of freshly baked cookies, which explained the smell earlier. She has a tired smile on her face, one that is going to be wiped off really quickly.
"Paul, what's taking you so long-" The cookies' tray falls out of her hand as soon as she sees Percy. Sally is stunned. Of course she is stunned, why wouldn't she be stunned? Her son, who vanished 5 years ago, has just showed up at her door step. That reaction is expected, what Percy fears is how she's going to react after that.
Percy can't even bring himself to look straight at her. You don't deserve to be here. Just look at this, the moment you showed up, you ruined a precious family moment, the voice he tries to pushes back all this time reemerges. What you're doing here is wrong, just leave-
NO. STOP IT, Percy mentally slaps himself. IT'S TIME TO FACE IT. DON'T YOU DARE RUN NOW.
Sally walks toward him, her steps light like walking in a dream. With each step, Percy winces. The walk feels like an eternity, thanks to the crippling anxiety in his mind. As Sally stands in front of him, Percy still can't read her face, and that terrified him. She examines his face in silence, and Percy takes a small step back into the shadow. The light emits from inside the apartment only shines on half of his face, which make the already scar-ridden face even more ominous. Scenarios after scenarios appear in his head, none of which is even remotely positive. He's bracing himself for the worst. Then….
Sally does something unexpected. She raises her hand up and touch his face in such a gentle manner that Percy just melts right on the spot. Her eyes aren't filled with fear, doubt or fury. They are filled with love.
"You look tired." That single line is all it takes to break Percy. His vision gets blurry and the lump he just swallowed down shoot up again. Before he knows it, tears are running down his face.
"I am tired." He lets out a sob and pull his mom into a bear hug. She embraces him with no malice, just pure, simple hugging. Her hug is just as comforting as he remembers it to be, if not more so. So when Paul gets out of his daze and puts his voice over a C8, when Estelle keeps tugging Paul's shirt to ask who the stranger is, or when Sally's tears soaked his vest, Percy doesn't care. He's finally home.
"I…. I have a lot to tell you, mom." Percy pulls himself out of the hug. "I'm so sorry-"
"Let's get you inside first, shall we?" Sally smiles "It's must have been freezing outside."
"Yeah, it was…" Percy chuckles, then remembers. "Shi-Shoot!" He glances at Estelle "I have two people waiting for me right now. I need to call them first-"
"No need to, we're already here." Wukong's head pokes out behind him "Hi! You must be Sally, right?"
"Sorry for my friend here." Ahri leans over his other side "I hope we're not interrupting something important."
"Well, it wouldn't be nice to let our guests standing outside for too long, would it?" Sally's eyes shine "I suppose we're going to have a sleepless night today."
Ay! 4/11/2020! Not that bad! (still need a lot more improvement, though.)
Hi, It's me, your lovely author, back at it again with another chapter. A lot have happened since the last time I posted. The Tower of Nero has been published, marking the end of the Percy Jackson storyline. Honestly, it's a bit sad to see it ends, but also satisfied to see a conclusion for the series. The ending of the book is different from the ending I imagined (which will lead straight into this story), which got me worried at first. Then I remembered that I'm writing a fanfiction, not a canon entry to the series so…. Yeah, not need to split hairs over that detail. Also, I went back to the previous chapters and saw some mistakes, mostly unfinished sentences and other stuffs. That will need to be fixed.
So, yeah, that's it for the Author's Notes. We'll read Annabeth's POV in the next chapter. I hope you're excited. Thank you for reading and…. Until the next time.
*Okay, so if you have read the new description for the story then you'll know I have made the decision to reduced the time of Percy's disappearance from 7 to 5 years. After reading the reviews, I noted that people think the time period is too long for Percy to go and come back, so I make it a bit shorter in order to make the story more realistic. That's it, thank you for reading.