'Jason, do you think this is really necessary? I start to regret this… I mean, it can wait for another week, right?' Jason looked Percy in the eye.

'Mister Jackson, you just heard you got accepted into university and your girlfriend's birthday is tomorrow, both of which you want to celebrate with her. You were hammering on about it for three weeks. You prayed to about every god ever for the last week. Also, this isn't even boarding, you are just checking in your suitcase!'

'Sir, will you please put your suitcase on the conveyor belt, there is a line,' the girl behind the counter said with a smile that was so fake that Keeping Up With The Kardashians seemed real in comparison. Jason put Percy's suitcase on the belt for him, checked it in properly and pulled Percy along, to airport security.

Like the white boys that they were, Percy and Jason got through Airport security fairly quickly, which meant they had two hours to be nervous on the airport. 'You told me we had to be here by seven A.M. on the dot or we'd be late!' Percy complained.

'I got in too late once!' Jason backfired. Percy rolled his eyes.

'Too late? You? Sure.' Jason took a deep breath.

'Let's go get coffee, shall we?'

The line to get coffee was long. Percy looked through the glass display case. 'Can I get a donut too? I didn't eat this morning.'

'Were you that nervous?'

'...no.'

'I'll get you a sandwich. That has more nutritional value.'

Percy didn't complain while Jason ordered a black coffee, a sandwich and a coffee with extra milk and sugar.

'Here. Try to eat up. Otherwise you'll get queasy on the plane and it won't be nice.' Percy gave him a nod and started to unpack his sandwich. Jason rolled his eyes and pulled him over to a bench on the side.

Percy ate up the whole sandwich in three minutes. 'Don't eat too quick!'

'I can't help it! I am hungry and I have to step into a flying sardine tin soon! Do you really think that there is time to worry about how quick I eat!?'

'Well, otherwise you'll feel even worse!'

'Sure, mom.'

Jason pouted. 'Come, let's go see what kind of things they sell around here.'

They sold nothing special, just the usual designer clothes, alcohol, candy and light reading material. Jason bought a magazine to keep himself entertained (like he was going to be bored with the five books and tablet that he brought along, plus he probably had to take care of a really nervous Percy). Percy's eyes glazed over all the stuff in front of him without seeing any of it.

'What if my suitcase gets lost and I won't be able to give Annabeth her birthday present?'

'Percy, stop asking paranoid questions, please, I don't know. We'll get to board the plane in ten minutes, you can focus on that.' As soon as he said it, Jason wished he hadn't. Percy turned really pale. 'I think I might be sick.'

'The toilets are right over there!' Jason exclaimed, while jumping up.

'As a figure of speech!'

'No more of that kind of speech until we have reached the ground of California! What if something really happened?'

'Sorry, Jay.'

'Just calm down, alright?'

'Yeah.' Yet, of course he didn't.

Finally, they were on the plane. Jason had hoped that Percy could have the aisle seat, but the gods weren't with him on that front. They had a window seat and a middle seat. Jason took a deep breath and decided that he would take the window seat, so that Percy had the middle. It was terrible, but probably better than having Percy be able to look out the window to see how high he could fall to his doom.

Jason stared at the seat in front of him (which had a mother with a baby in it, haha, classic annoying situation) and prayed to the gods that no-one would take up the aisle seat. But the gods didn't care about what Jason wanted. Four minutes before take off, a strange, middle aged man with sunglasses, a purple overcoat and a weird hat in the same colour sat down in the aisle seat.

Percy tried to haphazardly greet the man, but he didn't react or even seemed to notice. Percy looked at Jason, who shrugged. It was either a regular weirdo or a god, so he had absolutely no reason to talk to him.

The flight attendants started to explain the safety procedures. Jason tried to distract Percy by showing him pictures in his magazine, but it didn't really work. Percy couldn't really focus on it. Neither could he on the safety procedures, luckily (this once, ADHD came in handy).

When the plane started riding, Percy clutched the arm rests of the chair. 'Oh no. I can't go back now.' Jason patted him on the arm.

'Come on, it'll be fine. I am here, remember? Ze...'

'Don't say his name!' Percy said way to loud, so that people around them turned to look (except for the strange man, who kept staring at the seat in front of him like he was going to do that the whole flight).

'My dad won't strike us down while I am on the plane, Percy.'

'Are we talking about the same person? And who says she who shall not be mentioned just takes over for one second?' Jason swallowed.

'That won't happen,' he said, partly to himself.

Percy buried his face into Jason's arm when the plane started to take speed in order to take off. 'This is it...' he muttered. Jason put an arm around his shoulder.

'Come on, sit up straight, otherwise the sudden change in pressure will hurt more.' Percy slowly sat up again, still holding on to Jason's hand for dear life.

When the seatbelt light went out, the man on the aisle seat immediately stood up to presumably go to the toilet (where else should he go?) and didn't return for twenty minutes. Jason cautiously picked up one of his books.

'Did you bring anything to entertain yourself?' He asked Percy (and to distract yourself from thoughts of sudden death, he added internally). Percy nodded and got an ancient looking tablet out of his backpack.

'... can that thing support anything?' Jason whispered.

'Some really old games that will give me just enough entertainment to not be bored. I have to think about out sudden plumet toward the earth while the lord smites us too, after all!' Jason looked he deep in the eye.

'I am really not appreciating gallows humour right now, Percy.'

'What gallows humour?' Jason bit his lip. They should have just taken the train - who cares that it takes way more time than flying?

'Don't worry about it. Try to relax, alright? Go to sleep, that might be good for you...'

Percy tried going to sleep, he really did. Yet, just as he dozed of, the sketchy man came back. He didn't just sit down, no, he fell backwards into his chair, causing the baby to give a weep. Luckily, his mother managed to calm him down.

On the second turn, the man decided to run off again. Percy inhaled deeply. 'Jason, I don't think this will work.' Jason accidently pulled the corner of his magazine.

'Well...'

'Ladies and gentlemen! We will be walking by with our selection of food!' The purser said over the intercom.

'Do you want anything?' Jason quickly asked his friend. Percy shrugged. Jason gave a small prayer to Hestia - thanks to food, he muttered.

Jason got the menu card and showed it to Percy. 'It is around lunch time, we could both order a packet of sandwiches... with something to drink...'

'Lunchtime? Also, I have just eaten...'

'Well, it always takes some time for the cart to reach you, seeing as how we are seated close to the middle of the plane...'

'So we could drop out of the air before the cart even reaches us?'

'Perseus Jackson...'

'Sorry, sorry, Jason Grace... I mean, I wouldn't say I was joking, but...' Jason gritted his teeth and pointed at the menu.

'Pick.'

'Turkey sandwiches with a coke, please.'

'Good boy.'

In the time it took the servers to reach them, the mysterious man had jumped up and sat down again three times. At this point, Jason had realised that the baby was not the worst annoyance on the plane (not at all, actually. The baby had fallen asleep and wasn't crying at all).

He ordered their food. Just as Percy tried to take a sip of his coke, the fates decided that they just had to be funny and a wave of turbulence hit the plane. Percy screamed and would have dropped his coke if strange man hadn't quickly put out his hand to catch it. Percy blinked. Jason shook his head a little.

'Thanks...' Percy muttered. Mysterious man didn't react.

Percy swiftly put his cup down on the table in front of him. The turbulence got slightly worse. Percy grabbed Jason's hand. Jason patted him on the shoulder. 'Shh, it's alright, I'm here...'

'And that should stop him from striking us out of the sky or at least playing with me?'

'Percy, if we evacuate, I promise to disregard the rules just this once and fly you out of the plane, no many how many mortals see us,' he whispered. Percy took a shaky breath - it seemed to calm him down a little. He closed his eyes.

Jason looked around the plane for some time. When he made direct eye contact with weird neighbour, he immediately wished he hadn't. The man simply looked too invested in what Jason had just said. Jason quickly turned to take a bite of sandwich. The man stroked a single hair, next to his hat.

After a few minutes, Jason realised Percy had fallen asleep against his shoulder. He elected to let him sleep - less nervous talking and more rest was a good thing. Mystery man got up quieter this time - apparently even he had some common sense.

Percy managed to sleep through the majority of the three hour flight. He woke up just as the plane started to lose height. He screamed again and clutched Jason's arm. Man in the aisle seat turned his eyes on him (he had tried to get up again, but a flight attendant had stopped him from doing so).

'What are... whuh... are we falling!?'

'No, but the flight has almost ended and the plane is getting ready to be on the ground again.' Percy loosened his grip on Jasons' arm, but he didn't let go.

'Here's your sandwich,' Jason said, while pushing Percy's sandwich into his hands. Percy took a nervous bite.

'How quickly do planes usually lose height?'

'At the speed we are right now,' Jason answered. Percy nodded.

'Yeah, yeah, that's logical,' Percy answered meekly.

He screamed once more, when the plane hit the ground. While it was quickly losing speed, he hugged Jason's arm and didn't stop until the plane was completely still.

Mystery man was surprisingly swiftly gone. He simply wasn't on the plane anymore while everyone else was struggling with their suitcases. Percy and Jason, on the other hand, took their sweet time to get off and walk to the exit.

'Jason?'

'Yeah?'

'We... survived. And so did the suitcases.' Percy smiled. 'Jason, we are still alive!' He cheered. Jason grinned. 'Yeah, we are. Oh, there's Annabeth's father to pick us up!' He pointed at the car in the distance. Annabeth's father waved at them. Percy nodded and dragged his suitcase towards the car. He waved at Frederik and also Magnus, who was looking like a ghost in the back of the car.

Arnaldo moved his hat a little, so that he could hold his phone to his ear. 'Boss, There is magic in this world, I repeat, there is magic in this world.' On the other side of the line, Arnaldo heard someone sigh overdramatically. 'Arnaldo, I might believe you once you come back with more proof then video footage of a paranoid kid on a flight and his friend.' He hung up. Arnaldo cursed out loud. Yet, he would prove the existence of magic, no matter what it took.