Short Summary: It's Percy's birthday and everyone's all excited to give him his presents and celebrate his birthday with him. Well, everyone except the birthday boy in question. Wait- What does he think he's doing?! /OR It's Percy's birthday and he's hiding a big secret./ Trigger warning: Self-harm and near suicide.
Extended Summary: It's Perseus "Percy" Jackson's birthday, the eighteenth of August. Everyone is excited. Why wouldn't they be? It's not everyday the Hero of Olympus celebrates his birthday (it's only once a year~). Deals are struck with the gods as the demigods prepare for the celebrations upon remembering the hero's birthday on the day itself and the demigods are in a rush against time to set up the preparations on time. On the other hand, Nico di Angelo can't shake off that impending feeling of death. Percy, on the other hand… Wait, where has Percy gone to? Oh there he is. Let's go over and surprise him! Wait- WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE STYX DOES HE THINK HE'S DOING?! /OR It's Percy's birthday and everyone's dearest Kelp Head is hiding a big secret./
Main Characters: Perseus "Percy" Jackson, Nico di Angelo
Side Characters: Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace, Thalia Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Zeus
(Shush I like Nico and Thalia better than Frank and Hazel)
Mentioned: Paul Blofis, Sally Jackson and Poseidon
Pairings: Nico/Percy (slight), past Percy/Annabeth (barely)
Warnings: Minor character death, Out of Character, Angst, Hints at Bullying, Slight Mentions of Abuse, Graphic Self-Harm and Near Suicide
Personal Warning: Romance, friendship and family fluff is not my kind of thing.
~Silenced~
Happy Birthday Percy!
(Maybe not)
Eighteenth of August.
The date reflected in the stormy grey eyes of the blonde girl, shock and panic clearly written on her face.
"Oh Gods! It's Seaweed Brain's birthday today!" Annabeth gasped as she looks up from her calendar.
"Wait what?!" Jason exclaimed, snapping up from his laid-back stance.
"Really?" Thalia asked, looking up from sharpening one of her arrows. "Kelp Head?"
"Apparently!" Piper trilled in excitement before letting the words sink in. "Wait what?"
"It's Water Boy's birthday?" Leo wondered aloud.
"And you all forgot," Nico whispered darkly in an accusatory tone.
The other five demigods in the room all stared down at the ground sheepishly, avoiding the eye contact of a deadly disappointed Nico.
Looking in from the a corner of the window of Zeus's Cabin, a shadow sighed and backed away. Not even people he considered his best friends remembered his birthday, not like he expected them to. Who would want to remember and celebrate the birthday of a murderer anyways? Hero of Olympus? Saviour of Olympus? Slayer of Kronos? Downfall of Gaea? Bane of the Minotaur? No, he's just a murderer.
With that, the shadow left, intent on hiding himself for the rest of the day. How? By retreating into his cabin. He's the only one who stays there anyways. Also, everyone would expect him to be by the lake or with his family. Maybe if they cared enough, they would have found that his mortal family, Paul Blofis and Sally Jackson, had died not too long ago in a car accident. He wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if Death Breath knew about the duo's death though, being the son of Hades and all.
Stupid ADHD…
Oh, how he hated his birthday.
"It doesn't matter! At least we remembered in the end, right?" Jason chuckled sheepishly, forcing a grin.
"Right! We can still set up the celebrations for him!" Annabeth laughed, preparing some paper to start planning. "Now, how do we start? Anyone knows how to bake a cake?"
"I do," Thalia answered, picking at her nails.
Dumbfounded looks from the other five were all directed at her almost instantaneously.
"What?" Thalia sighed as she looked up. "I may seem to not be the sort, but I have secrets I hide too."
"I can bake too!" Piper exclaimed, smiling widely.
"Expected of Beauty Queen…" Leo muttered.
"Shut up."
The cabin with only one occupant living in it had its curtains drawn, a dull and gloomy aura being emitted from it, warning away anyone from approaching. The cabin reflects the mood of its occupants. Therefore, for this one, it all depended on the mood of its lone occupant, who happens to be Seaweed Brain (as fondly called by Annabeth), Kelp Head (as Thalia teasingly called him), Water Boy (or sometimes even Aqua Man as Leo had nicknamed him), the day's birthday boy.
Birthday boy in question had retreated to his cabin, drawn the curtains and hid underneath his blanket, almost as if he was hiding.
Oh. He was, actually.
From what?
Something.
Not a single soul cared enough to know anyways.
Completely unknown to the birthday boy (or teen), a certain child of Hades had just shadow travelled to his room, taken a glance at him, and shadow travelled out again.
What for?
That child of Hades had his suspicions. And he's worried for the Kelp Head he and the others have all grown to like (or love) and rely on.
Maybe they put too much pressure on him.
But that's just part of it, isn't it?
Nico di Angelo sighed to himself as he reached the interior of Zeus's Cabin once more. No one seemed to have noticed that he had gone missing for a few moments. Maybe that's how Percy felt? Ignored?
No, that's still just a small part of it.
Its hard to be ignored when you're basically the hero of the generation anyways.
"No, I insist that we decorate the entire interior of the Poseidon Cabin!" Leo protested.
"I wouldn't recommend that. Percy is there and doesn't seem to be wanting to leave anytime soon," Nico chuckled drily from his corner of the room.
"Styx Death Breath! You scared us!" Thalia gasped dramatically.
"Just bake your cake," Nico sighed. "I've been here all along anyways."
Nico di Angelo could have sworn on the Styx that he heard something about know-it-all sons of Hades.
Perseus "Percy" Jackson could have sworn on the Styx that no mortal or demigod cared for him at all.
Maybe no one. Poseidon didn't really seem to care, either that or he had a really strange way to show it. Hades, he didn't even show up when Percy was mourning his mortal parents death. Like, what sort of husband ignores their wife's death? Granted, she was only one of his many wives. Shows just how unfaithful the gods are.
Percy had changed his position, no longer hiding under the covers of his bunk, he was sitting on his bunk instead.
Oh! Don't forget about the blade in his hand, the point of its tip firmly planted on his wrist.
He tried, he withstood it. All the mental torture, the mental abuse.
What does "Seaweed Brain" and "Kelp Head" mean?
It basically means "brain full of seaweed" and "head full of kelp". Those phrases which basically mean one thing: "stupid".
It hurt a lot, being constantly called names throughout his life. "Dumb", "moron", "idiot", "imbecile", "stupid" and so much more. When he thought he had found a place to call a second home, with others like him, he never expected to be called another version of "stupid" again. And he laughed it off whenever someone called him by those nicknames, but no one cared enough to notice the disobedient tear that occasionally trickled down his face and dripped onto the floor whenever he was called one of the two nicknames. "Seaweed Brain". "Kelp Head".
Honestly, the physical abuse from Gabe felt like nothing next to the verbal abuse.
Maybe he should write letters. Suicide notes, that's what they're called, right?
"You will not disrupt or watch our celebrations today!" Thalia declared to the gods on Mount Olympus through an Iris Message (IM). "Any prophecies go to our mailboxes, any quests get postponed to tomorrow and any 'surprises' will not be tolerated and will be met with merciless attacks. Because, we aren't going to birthday parties without any weapons since who knows what monsters may decide to attack us? Wait! Monster attacks will be met with utmost ferocity as well! Wait, why am I telling you this? Ignore what I said about monsters."
"And what makes you think we will allow you to make such demands of us?" Zeus asked, balantly ignoring the irrelevant parts of the message.
"Well, I don't know? Maybe the declaration of war against the Olympians by teaming up with your next immortal enemy?" Leo replied cheekily, surprisingly having the others to back him up with serious looking nods.
Zeus paled.
"Alright, terms and conditions agreed to," he quickly agreed, before swiping through the IM.
The six demigods couldn't help but laugh at Zeus's expression, yet one of them was forced, unable to shake of the feeling of impending death.
Percy pressed the blade down, drawing a little straight line across his arm, taking care to avoid the main blood vessel. No, he wasn't willing to die just yet, not when he had planned everything perfectly.
No, he would attempt suicide the moment he turned eighteen. He planned it perfectly.
He wasn't stupid, he wasn't an idiot, he wasn't dumb, he wasn't a moron and he definitely wasn't an imbecile.
For now, he pressed the blade down again, drawing the third line of the day.
He watched in sick fascination as blood seeped out of his cut wounds and mixed together, forming a slight pool on his arm. He couldn't help himself as he gently lapped up some of the red liquid, enjoying the warmth of the liquid and the metallic tang of the blood. He ignored the sharp sting of the fresh cut wounds as he traced over the wounds, even purposely pressing open some old scars to watch them reopen and bleed.
Oh yes, he had definitely lost part of his sanity by this point.
He pressed the blade down yet again, repeating the whole process. What could go wrong? Worse come to worse, he'd just have to run his arm under water to heal it, as much as he wished not to do so, therefore this was his last resort. No one would ever know. No one could ever know, especially not his friends. He needed to be strong for them, be the leader they all looked up to. All for them. Because that's how much his friends meant to him. He was hurting them just by staying and he didn't want to hurt them any longer. So he prepared to take the only way out he could think of.
Personal loyalty would be the end of him one day. Just which day would it be?
His eighteenth birthday, eighteenth of August, year twenty eleven, if everything went according to plans.
"Everyone ready?" Jason asked.
Thalia held the cake along with Piper, while Leo and Annabeth held balloons. Jason and Nico both carried the presents that the group had somehow mysteriously managed to get their hands on within the past three hours.
"Sure we are Sparky," Piper giggled into his ear. "Come on, let's surprise one Percy for us!"
Nico frowned as the feeling of impending death grew stronger as they approached Cabin 3, Poseidon's Cabin. It couldn't be… Could it?
No… Percy would never do such a thing.
…Would he?
Percy smiled darkly to himself as he watched blood flow from the seventh cut. The pain felt like heaven, like bliss. If this was how cutting felt like, he could only dream of what it would be like to die.
Well, he wouldn't have to dream for much longer, would he?
The clock showed the time.
It was 2.21 pm.
Just another minute and he'd be free.
The blade was firmly placed against his jugular vein, the main vein on his throat. He could feel the thump of his heartbeat under the blade, steady and calm despite the situation. He closed his eyes, calmly sitting on his bunk.
Well, that was until the door to his cabin opened.
It was 2.22 pm.
"Kelp Head?" A voice stuttered.
He recognised the voice to be from Thalia.
His eyes snapped open.
No! They couldn't, not after he planned everything so well, not after he spent his time hiding himself so diligently! They didn't care! None of them did! They didn't understand how he felt!
He slowly met the frantic gazes of Annabeth, Jason, Thalia, Leo and Piper, one by one. A sinking feeling in his stomach started to form as he realised that the longer he stayed, the more hurt he was causing to his friends.
The cake slipped and collapsed onto the ground. The balloons were let go of and ended up floating along the ceiling of the Poseidon Cabin, Cabin 3. Some of the presents were dropped as Jason and Nico hastily put them down.
He hadn't noticed the son of Hades yet.
His grip on the blade tightened.
"Perce…? Come on, put that blade down, please?" Leo attempted to coax the son of Poseidon.
Silence.
"Percy?" Jason stepped forward tentatively, only to be stopped by the glint of warning in Percy's eye and tightening of his grip around the knife, pressing it down slightly harder. The son of Juptiter immediately held up his hands in surrender and took a step back. "Woah there, chill!"
No response after that.
"Percy, put down the blade," Piper ordered with faked finality, attempting to pour charmspeak into her words.
Her emotional instability caused the charmspeak to fail completely.
"Seaweed Brain, please, put down the blade and just talk to us," Annabeth begged.
Still no response.
At least none that they could tell.
What they didn't know was that Percy was a short distance from snapping.
What they didn't know was that Percy's eyes were brimming with unshed tears, the hurt from being called "stupid" slowly coming back.
What they didn't know was that Percy had pressed the blade deeper, enough to draw blood, although he was still hiding the blood.
But what they don't know won't kill them.
"Gods Percy! What are you doing?" Thalia gasped as she finally noticed the little trail of blood from where his blade was. "Stop, please stop. We can just talk this through!"
Nico gulped. This was where the aura of death was coming from. He could try to help save his crush by attempting to shadow travel the blade itself, but he had never done that before. Then again, there's always a first time to everything.
Nico took a deep breath and tried just that, calling the shadows to grab the blade and transport it to him. Satisfaction filled him as he saw the shadows creep closer to the blade and engulf it, allowing it to pop out of another shadow on the opposite side of the room. The blade tumbled and clanged on the ground with some level of finality. Success.
Percy frowned as he felt the blade escape his grip, yet simply reached for the pen in his pocket. Riptide. He would have preferred to use the other blade and not have contaminated the legendary sword, but he had no choice.
It was 2.27 pm.
Where was Riptide? Percy wondered as he felt in his pockets.
Well, that was until he saw the son of Hades holding the pen and the blade in slight delight.
Well, he still had his other options left if he really wanted to. Maybe he was being desperate, but who cares? Besides, he knew his so-called friends didn't really care for him as a person, they only cared for him as the Hero, the Saviour of Olympus. For all the things they all saw him as, it was never who he really was.
He smirked slightly to himself.
What they don't know won't kill them.
But it will kill him.
Personal loyalty to the end, remember?
Athena was right. The most dangerous flaws are those who seem deceptively good.
And they once asked how loyalty was a fatal flaw.
Maybe that was something that made no sense to most people who didn't know Perseus personally.
But maybe all he ever wanted was to be seen as Percy Jackson, the boy who gets kicked out of essentially every school he goes to, the one who lost his closest mortal family, the one who was broken down deep inside yet kept a strong facade up. Maybe he wanted to be seen as that rather than as Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, the demigod who beat Ares when he was twelve, the Slayer of Kronos, the Downfall of Gaea, the Bane of the Minotaur, the Hero of Olympus, the Saviour of Olympus.
It was just a coincidence anyways.
Why couldn't he have lived a normal life?
Right, he was a demigod.
Why couldn't he have lived a normal demigod life?
Right, he was a child of the Big Three.
Why couldn't the gods have left him alone?
Right, he was part of two Great Prophecies.
Why couldn't he live a normal demigod life after all that?
Right, Tartarus flashbacks and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Basically a rundown of what was so wrong about his life, both mortal and demigod.
"Instead of trying to kill yourself, let's talk about this," Piper said with finality, successfully applying charmspeak to her words. "What's wrong?"
Percy couldn't help but feel the sudden urge to spill out everything messed up about his life.
So, despite the faint protests of the remains of his sane mind, he spilled everything. From how the mutual breakup with Annabeth shattered him, how everything he does ends up with people getting hurt (Beckendorf, Silena, Zoë, Bianca, Bob…), to how his feelings for a certain son of Hades were driving him insane and how everyone expected him to be someone he wasn't.
Then when he was finally done, he sat there stoically, staring into space while his friends embrace him in a hug.
"Why?" His broken voice asked.
Unspoken words hung behind his far from completed question. Why do you bother helping someone who's not worth saving? Why do you force me to speak when I so clearly don't? Why do you try to save me when I so clearly don't want to be saved? Why do you bother trying to lead me on? Why do you bother trying to lie to me? Why do you even try?
"Because we care for you Perce, its not good to bottle everything up. And I speak from experience," Leo replied gently, taking care not to trigger the son of Poseidon.
"Shush, I'm not worth it," Percy muttered, curling up and burying his head in his hands.
Glares were instantly shot at him.
"Not a word Seaweed Brain, you're worth it and don't let anyone tell you otherwise," Annabeth cooed softly, edging even closer to the son of Poseidon and stroking him gently on the back while everyone else let go.
But what if I'm the one telling myself that? Percy thought cryptically, flinching away slightly and instinctively from Annabeth's touch, a pang in his heart at her clearly hurt expression. Slight hurt from the meaning behind his most popular nickname also stabbed at his heart.
They all back off and the feeling of loneliness came crashing down again.
And he broke.
No matter what they all said, the son of Hades was far from emotionless.
He had a crush on Percy too, although he would never admit it, same as he knew the son of Poseidon would never admit it willingly. So when Percy had confessed, everything went dull as he got absorbed in his thoughts, the main one being: What?!
Then, looking at the breaking Sea Spawn, Nico couldn't help but feel his heart speed up as he looked towards the older boy.
No matter what Percy thought, his friends would always be beside him, ready to help.
Word Count: 3042 words (or somewhere around there)
(A/N:
Hi! This is another one-shot! Same universe (sorta) as Melodies. So this means that this is another prequel of sorts to my mysterious Pokemon PJO crossover fanfic! I'm also really happy about the reviews, favourites and follows from all you amazing readers! So, this is a birthday celebratory fic for Percy, because if I'm not wrong, today is his birthday. (Eighteenth August... right?) I mean, sure its not a happy fic, because I don't write happy fics, but it is a birthday fic.
So... I also have to transfer the first chapter of OGAP (Of Gods and Pokemon) to my computer from paper and I'll be able to publish the chapter! I'll probably take down SaD (Stars and Dimensions) as well. Not one of my best works if I say so myself.
I think I work better writing one-shots compared to long stories. *sigh* What happened to the time when I swore I would never write/read fanfictions and one-shots? Down the drain I guess. New lesson kids: Don't swear promises you can't keep since you'll only get jinxed.
Well, besides the point, I've come up with a new system when writing, as you can probably see. Short summary, extended summary, main characters, side characters, mentioned characters, pairings, warnings, personal warnings, story, word count and author's note in that specific order. Anyways...
Peace out!
Summer)