Hangover

The pounding that rang through his head was too dull to be concussion induced, but too sharp to be sleep deprivation. Percy groaned, scrunching up his face and burrowing deeper into the bedding.

"Wake." The voice was soft and gentle, a cool hand on his forehead.

Percy jerked, hand reflexively going to the pen under his pillow. The hand on his forehead pushed some sweaty hair back from his clammy eyebrows and the motion was so tender that Percy's fingers didn't even close around Riptide.

"Good morning, my sleepy prince."

Percy cracked an eye open –and immediately regretted it as the light assaulted his poor, innocent, aching eyes. A high-pitched whine may or may not have escaped his dry lips, head pounding with renewed vengeance.

"The lights are dimmer now, open your eyes slowly."

Percy squinted at up at the owner of the calm voice; there was a nagging voice at the back of his head that said he should be more wary and suspicious, but the lull of the voice was laced with something comforting and familiar—

Queen Amphitrite smiled down at him, her hand gently carding through his hair.

"Am I dying?" Percy croaked, not sure what was more suspicious: the pounding in his head or the queen of the ocean bathed in blue light standing over his bed.

The hand gently swatted about his ears. "Perish the thought, no. How do you feel?"

"Like someone bashed my head in."

Amphitrite made a sympathetic noise, and really the thing she was doing, scratching lightly behind his ear as she tucked his hair away, that…that was really nice. Should he be concerned? He felt like maybe he should be.

"Yes, that seems to be a common side effect for mortals. Here, let's get you up. I hear showers help."

"We can take showers underwater?" Percy mumbled as Amphitrite bustled around the room, doing gods only knows what. The sound aggravated Percy's head, which rang like a horde of hellhounds were running amok around his skull. He wondered how rude it would be to go back to sleep.

"There is not usually a need, but we can make it work. Here, up, up."

If it were Triton, or Paul, or literally anybody other than a mom, Percy would have whined and curled into a pathetic ball of pain and regret, but the thought of telling Amphitrite 'no' wasn't even an option. Percy dragged himself into an upright position, and bit his lip so hard he tasted blood. Oh gods kill him now, his head was going to split in half. Dear Poseidon, he was going to be sick.

"There, there, slow, go slow."

Amphitrite was at his side in an instant, cool hand back on his forehead, the other rubbing slow circles on his back.

"Come on, shower."

Percy let the queen of the ocean manhandle him to her feet and towards the bathroom adjourned to his room. The lights had been dimmed so they only mildly assaulted his eyes and . . . and there was now a shower in his bathroom.

Huh.

"There's . . . how?"

Amphitrite chuckled, the sound soft and gentle like a bubbling creak, and push him into the bathroom.

"Come to breakfast when you are finished."

Percy stood, swaying slightly in the doorway, blinking stupidly as the goddess swam from the room. A shower? Under the sea? Percy looked back at the shower, uncomprehending.

I'm too sick for this, he thought but curiosity got the better of him and he crept forward. When he pulled back the curtain, it revealed a pristine shower complete with shampoo and all, the space encased in—Percy couldn't help snorting out loud—a pocket of air.

"An air pocket so I can shower then go back into the ocean," Percy muttered, which was a mistake as the sound echoed in his throbbing head.

But he was already stripping out of his clothes, eager to test the shower out regardless of its ridiculousness. The shower did in fact make him feel better, if only marginally. Maybe it was a psychological thing. Annabeth would probably know. Although he felt slightly more human, he still wanted to crawl under the blankets and maybe die there, except then Annabeth would kill him. Or something. Gods he wanted to go back to sleep.

"Breakfast," Percy reminded himself, vaguely recalling the queen of ocean requesting his presence so he should probably not ignore that.

Right. Go to breakfast. That shouldn't be too hard, except his stomach rolled at the thought. Clothes. He should start with clean clothes.

"Oh, for Olympus's sake are you still getting dressed? Mother wants you for breakfast, hurry."

Percy choked on nothing, yanking a clean shirt over his head with more force than likely wise given his current state, and whirled on the figure in the door. His memories from the night before came back to him in a tangle, semi-coherent mess at his brother's rude interruption, but that hardly matter because—

"Oh gods."

Triton frowned, swimming closer. "What? Are you going to be sick? Seriously Perseus, have you never had a hangover before—"

"Triton." His brother's brow furrowed in alarm as Percy lurched forward, grabbing him by the arm. "I called her Mom."

A/N I know it's been a hot minute since I posted last. I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to respond to the reviews this time, but please know I read and cherished each and every one. Hope you are all staying safe and healthy, please take care of yourselves. I hope you enjoyed ~ *