The demigods and their entourage were to stay on Olympus for the next few days. They had already burnt the shrouds for the 4 campers but nobody was ready to face the hollow left by Percy just yet.
Clarisse had big shoes to fill and was doing an admirably well job. She missed Percy too, she would spar daily with Thalia and Reyna but it was nothing like sparring with Percy. She shoved the grief to the back of her mind focusing instead on helping the Campers.
Tony was the same, he tried to keep himself distracted and busy as much as he could. But no matter what he did, the thoughts would slam back full force at night where he had nothing to distract him. He had huge bags under his eyes which he didn't even bother to cover up. No point in hiding when everyone knew.
The other day, two days after 'The Day' Tony was searching for Steve and had gone into the training arena. He was about to call out when the memories of the day before the battle hit him full force. Percy laughing over something stupid with Clint, the prank war he will never get to play.
He slumped against the wall trying to regain his breath, after a complete minute he managed to even his breath out, forcing back the tears that threatened to fall down he stood up, brushing himself off and walked away, trying to pretend nothing had happened.
Percy's room in the dorm lay untouched. Most people couldn't even bear looking at the door. Tony one time saw Nico late at night just standing in front of the door, his eyes blank.
He pulled a blanket out of a cupboard and draped it around the still unresponsive Nico and dragged him off to the couch in the shared living room, where he sat Nico down on the couch and went into the kitchen and made two cups of hot chocolate and then some, okay a lot. If anyone else came by.
These days no one slept much really, they could all see it in each other's faces but no one mentioned it either. As if dragged by the smell of the chocolate one by one everyone drifted silently into the living room.
Not one of them looked in any good shape. Wordlessly Tony passed cups and glasses of hot chocolate to everyone Steve helping him with a small smile. Once everyone was curled up somewhere Tony sat down too between the only space available which was between Bruce and Natasha.
They were all quiet for a few minutes just sipping from their cups. The Percy shaped hole in their hearts and the room, evident in everyone's eyes.
Nico was the one to break the silence starting with a small smile, "Once on his birthday, I went to visit him, I was this skinny kid and he offered me some cake, it was blue of course, he brought me to Sally who made me some food and even more cake, and we talked for the rest of the time, laughing. That was the first time in a long time I had experienced something like a family."
Nico had a small smile on his face as he finished despite his watery eyes. There was a silence followed by this little speech and then Clarisse spoke up,
"The first time I saw him, he was just 12 and this scrawny teenager," They all smiled imagining their scary Percy as some scrawny 12 year old, "He sassed me, of course he did and then I dragged him to the girls' toilet to give him a swirly, just as his head was about to hit the water, the water hit me and all the pipes exploded covering anything and anyone in water. Including Annabeth, she wasn't too happy about that though."
There were a few more chuckles at this and one by one they retold some story or incident involving Percy. They laughed and laughed over some of the really stupid things he did.
Tony decided then and there that this was a decidedly better way to spend his night than wallowing alone in his loss. All of them really laughed for the first time in days.
As the laughter died down and they all sat sharing content smile and silence once more, Thalia for the first time since the Battle felt that maybe things would get difficult but that she would be okay, as long as she had her family by her side. Both old and the new.
Poseidon donned a blue suit for the occasion. It had been two weeks since the battle, and today it was Percy's funeral. He was to be buried beside his friends. The day was gloomy, and the seas were stormy and dull, reflecting the mood of the Gods.
Poseidon had accepted Percy's death as soon as he and Percy had that talk, but it still hurt. He knew how to cope with it though, how to block the emotions out if he so desired, he'd had eons of practice doing that, but that couldn't help contain the few tears that escaped, Percy always managed to be the exception.
The rites were conducted by Hades himself, the pallbearers being Poseidon, Tony, Nico and Chiron. Instead of black they were all dressed in blue.
Thalia did not cry, she did not shed a tear, she stood strong and helped the younger ones, along with Clarisse. Nico was standing dark and stoic beside Hades. Poseidon did let a few tears down, and the rest of the Olympians mourned in silence.
Tony had at first completely refused to come to the funeral since it would cement the fact that Percy was indeed gone, but he knew he would regret it if he did, so he cleaned himself up and wore Percy's favourite blue suit with tridents to match.
The shroud covering Percy was a beauty to look at, the blue painted so beautifully that it seemed as though the waves from the sea were rolling on it.
Thalia gave a short speech, even though she had written a longer one she didn't have the strength to talk about him for so long without breaking down.
Nico refused to speak and Tony came up but couldn't bring himself to say anything so he simply knelt in front of the shroud and whispered, "I love you 3000 kid, I hope you're happy."
Each person knelt by the shroud and whispered their final words before standing back. The shroud was lit by Poseidon, whose eyes were noticeably redder than before. The campers watched the flames dance across the blue cloth looking strangely like a beautiful dance of fire and water.
The body was then cremated, the atmosphere still heavy and thick with grief. The last ones to leave were Tony and Poseidon.
Poseidon placed a hand on Tony's shoulders, "You know that the rest of the world cannot know about this right?"
Tony simply nodded, "Yeah, but he'll always be there."
Poseidon clapped a hand on his shoulder, "I know I've said this before but thank you Tony. Thank you so much for all you did. Whenever you need any help don't hesitate to ask us, just pray for us and we will find you."
And before Tony could say anything else Poseidon had already left, the scent of sea breeze lingered in the air long after. Tony sighed thinking about what was to come.
Natasha, Clint and Steve had been called back to SHIELD and regardless of how much they wanted to stay, they had to leave in a week. Bruce thankfully would be here. Thor was going back to Asgard, something about finding Loki. Thalia had left with the Hunt and Nico had wandered off. Tony had tried searching for Nico but he couldn't find him. He just hoped that wherever it is that Nico was, that he was okay.
He bid a goodbye to the Campers however Chiron promised him that he could visit whenever he wanted, so that was that, they had all parted ways, he supposed it was their way of dealing with it.
"You coming Tony?" A voice called and he turned around to see Nat walking towards him softly.
"Yeah, gimme a minute, I'll be there." Tony replied. Tasha gave him a one armed hug and softly walked back. Tony walked forward and pressed his two fingers to his lips before touching them to the gravestone. He promised Percy that he wouldn't cry, or shut himself down 'cause Percy would have hated that, so he vowed to be more open.
He took one last look at the sea stone and walked to the jet that would take him home.
A/N Okay...so just one more chapter to go and I promise you're gonna like that one! The next chapter will be up on 17th July, 2021! Thank you so much to all the lovely people who have shown their support for this story! Please continue to do so and I'll see you soon!
