The sounds of sirens echoing across New York City were a norm; constant in the City That Never Sleeps. There was always something happening, an emergency here, a crime there. Always something.

People are always too wrapped up in their own lives; never looking past themselves. They turn their heads in the other direction when walking past beggars on the street, children asking for money.

If they couldn't see the problem, then it didn't exist. Out of sight, out of mind.

Simple solution.

A child in dirty clothes, alone on the streets asking for money or help was something of a regular occurrence, and thus wasn't paid attention to, in typical, minding-your-own-business fashion, even if they seemed to have a peculiar metallic stench around them. That would only make them more avoidable; give people a reason to justify ignoring a helpless child.

He was clutching at something that looked like a stick of some sort, fist clenched, knuckles white. Like a lifeline. And if it appeared bronze, then it was most likely a trick of the light, and once you blinked, it was an ordinary stick once again.

Stumbling a little, the boy looked up and saw a couple that was just leaving a restaurant. This was his chance.

"Excuse me, can I have some food please?" he asked, voice timid and soft, the man looked down at the skinny child, taking in his disheveled and dirty appearance. His hand lifted to push him away, but stopped when a smaller hand covered it, giving it a small pat, before the lady knelt down in front of the boy.

"What's your name, little boy?" she asked, voice lowered and softer to not scare the child.

"My name's Percy."

"Well, Percy, I'm Emily and this is my husband Joel. Do you know where your mom is? Or your dad?"

"I don't have a dad."

"Well, that's okay, what about your mom? Do you know where she is?"

At this, tears welled up and began to trickle down as Percy just numbly shook his head, refusing to speak. Glancing back to shoot a concerned look at her husband, Emily once again looked at the boy, carefully reaching out and wiping a few of his tears away.

"Hey, it's okay, shhh, it's gonna be alright. Do you know where you live then? We can take you home if you want?" The sincerity in her tone and words did nothing to stop the tears, only succeeding in making him cry harder. Sending a panicked look back at her husband, she turned back to Percy.

"It's okay, shh, don't cry, don't cry. How about, Joel and I can take you back to our place, you can eat some food, maybe take a shower and get you some clean clothes, and then we can take you to a police station or something and find somewhere for you to go? Does that sound alright?" Seeing as his wife was set on helping this child out, Joel knelt down as well, reaching out to gently pat his arm.

"Yeah, what foods do you like? Do you like pizza? Candy? Chocolate? Maye ice cream?" At the mention of every child's favourite food, Percy blinked some tears away and sniffled, swiping at the gathering snot under his nose.

"Can I have blue jelly beans?"

"I'm sure we can find some, and you can have them for dessert, after you finish eating your real dinner. Sound good?" Reaching into her purse, she pulled out some tissues and dabbed at the tear tracts clearing a path through the grime on his face.

Nodding, Percy turned and raised his arm to his face, smearing the tears, snot and dirt into his already grubby sleeve. The movement of his arm brought their attention to his stick, still tightly clutched in his fist. Again raising their eyebrows at each other, Joel shrugged, dismissing it as a child's obsession, before rising and leading the way down the street. Standing up, she offered her hand to Percy, offering a gentle smile before following after her husband.

-Line Break-

They headed up to their apartment after exiting the cab, the bag of groceries swinging from Joel's arm as he held the door open for his wife and Percy.

"Honey, you prepare some food for Percy, I'll go give him a shower and get him cleaned up, 'kay?"

"Sure, what would he like? Macaroni and cheese? Spaghetti bolognese?" He started placing all the items from the shopping bag into their proper places around the kitchen, glancing back to where Emily was herding Percy down the hall towards their bathroom.

"Can I have blue macaroni and cheese please?" Emily paused, trying to comprehend the request.

"Blue macaroni and cheese? Why blue?"

"My mom always made blue mac and cheese. Is that okay?" He looked up at her, eyes shining and she noticed the colour of his eyes. They were a sea green, like staring out into the ocean on a bright and sunny day. She had never seen eyes like that before.

"Well, we can try and add some blue food colouring and see how that turns out." At this compromise, he grinned for the first time, before walking into the bathroom. After showing him where the different shampoos and soaps were, she went out to grab a towel and a change of clothes for him, digging through the bag they had bought on the way home. Once she gave them to him and made sure he was alright by himself, she returned to the kitchen. Her husband was halfway done, with the pasta cooking in a pot, before she remembered Percy's strange request.

"Honey, do we have any blue food colouring?"

"I think so, it might be in the cupboard over there, why?" He gestured at a cupboard to the side, glancing at her as she walked towards it and started looking around.

"He asked for blue macaroni and cheese, said that was how his mom made it," her voice slightly muffled as she shuffled through the things.

"Aha! We have some left," she turned around, her face lit up as she triumphantly held up the small bottle, before she walked over and put a few drops into the pot, watching as the water slowly turned blue.

"Hopefully that'll make the macaroni somewhat blue. I don't really know how to make the cheese blue though...," trailing off thoughtfully as she studied the cheese mixture Joel had prepared. Chuckling, he reached over and took the bottle from her, and trickled the remaining liquid into the bowl.

"Hopefully this will turn blue and not green," he replied as he picked up the wooden spoon and resumed mixing, watching as the colour started turning into a strange blue green.

-Line Break-

When Percy came out, he was still clutching his stick in his right hand, seemingly unwilling to relinquish it. The clothes they had bought for him were a little loose on his thin frame, but now he no longer looked like he had been out on the streets for the past few weeks, despite the sunken in cheeks.

"Oh, Percy, you've finished cleaning up, lovely. Come eat, and then once you're done, you can have some of those blue jelly beans from earlier, yeah?" Emily motioned for him to take a seat, before placing the food in front of him, feeling a warmth in her chest as his eyes lit up. Gingerly setting his stick next to him on the floor, he began digging in.

The couple once again exchanged concerned looks as he devoured the food, clearly worried about this unknown child; why was he by himself? Where were his parents? Why was he adamant about keeping the stick? How long had he been on the streets without decent nutrition?

Joel made his way to the couch and switched on the TV, browsing through the channels before settling on the news, leaning back and relaxing.

"-still no sign of the son, police are looking into the case to piece together what has happened. In the two weeks since the bodies of Sally Jackson and her husband Gabe Ugliano have been found in the empty apartment, it has been confirmed that Ms Jackson has died due to severe head trauma and blood loss, but the cause of death for Mr Ugliano is still unconfirmed. His body was found mutilated and broken, with several limbs out of alignment. No one knows how this has happened, but for now, the authorities' prime suspect is their 6 year old son, Percy Jackson. He is wanted in for questioning, and people are advised to report if they have knowledge of his whereabouts. His last known location was the apartment of his parents, and this is a photo taken from his school records. Please dial this number to report any knowledge on him. Next up, is global warming real? Or just another ploy for raising taxes? This is the Fox News Channel and I'm Georgia Smith."

Joel stared at the screen; rather, at the picture on the screen. Despite a few scrapes here and there, the sunken cheeks and thinner face and frame, it was glaringly obvious. The boy looked exactly like the one sitting at his table, eating blue macaroni and cheese. He whirled around, blinking his eyes to make sure it was real.

Sure enough, he just shovelled in another mouthful, but it was the same child. Even the name was the same. There was no mistaking it.

He and his wife had taken in a wanted fugitive.