16. Concussion

Percy had been left in the lobby with strict instructions not to move by his frazzled but otherwise unharmed girlfriend before she ran off to help literally put out fires around the building.

In hindsight, maybe having all of the seven gathered together in one concentrated area outside of camp wasn't the smartest decision in the world; but, then again, it was pretty stupid of the monsters to attack the seven. Really, it was just an unavoidable evil in their lives and Percy really didn't regret it. He just wished they hadn't run out of ambrosia. But it was fine, Percy wasn't that hurt. He'd just been thrown back a few feet and broke his fall with his head. So, concussed but in all seriousness totally fine. He just maybe saw a little double and his words slurred a bit but Annabeth was overreacting.

He crossed his ankles and stared up at the ceiling as he listened idly to Annabeth and Jason calling back and forth. ("Where is Percy, he could put these fires out—" "Grab a bucket and fill it Grace, you lazy, ungrateful brat. So help me if you go and bother Percy when you gave Piper the rest of the ambrosia." "She needed it—" "Her cut wasn't that bad!" "It really wasn't Jason, you did overreact a little. I didn't realize it was all we had, Annabeth, I'm sorry." "It's not your fault—")

Percy hummed to himself, grinning up at the ceiling as everyone ganged up on poor Jason. Honestly, Percy was on Jason's side for once. Percy didn't blame him one bit. He wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing if it were Annabeth. Still, it was always fun to hear Jason get yelled at. Percy would come to his rescue as soon as Annabeth let him sit up again.

"Hey Perce, how ya feeling?"

"Hmm?" Percy turned his head, squinting through his double vision to peak at whichever of the seven abandoned their thankless task of cleaning up after the monsters to keep him company.

He had to cross his eyes and squint to force his vision to make sense of the person standing before him and even then, he blinked several times before he managed to convince himself that yes, that was indeed—

"G-man!" Percy cried in delight.

Indeed it was the satry, smiling somewhat sadly down at his old friend.

"Percy, what did you do?" Grover asked, somewhat exasperatedly as he leaned down to inspect the demigod.

"Hit my head, Annabeth thinks—"

"Annabeth knows you have a concussion," Grover interrupted firmly. "She told me I could come check on you instead of helping out. You know, to make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"Won't do anything stupid," Percy huffed, which earned him a look.

"But hey, man, it's good to see you!" Percy said before Grover could lecture him. "Man, I haven't seen you in forever, miss you, dude."

Grover shifted on his hooves, his brow wrinkling a little. "Yeah, I'm sorry Percy. I just . . . with the whole—I always mean to stop in more and see you, especially after what happened but—"

Grover trailed off, hands clenching and unclenching at his side.

"Hey G-man, don't worry about it," Percy dismissed, trying to sit up.

"No, no, no," Grover fussed, forcing Percy to lay back down. "Annabeth said you're not supposed to move."

"You're no fun," Percy complained but allowed himself to be wrangled back into a supine position. "I'm fine, I feel fine, my head isn't bleeding, and there are only kind of two of you."

"Only kind of," Grover repeatedly dryly, moving so he was sitting cross-legged on the floor.

His face was exasperated but there was a fondness to the tug of his lips, and a sadness around the corner of his eyes as he gently moved Percy's head onto his lap, searching for further injuries.

"I just told you I was fine," Percy complained, batting at Grover's hands but only half-heartedly, more or less giving into the fussing.

"Yeah, I just wanted to check." Grover kept up his investigation until he was satisfied Annabeth hadn't missed anything (which was unlikely seeing as this was Percy and Annabeth would never allow herself to miss anything).

Percy crossed his hands over his chest, eyebrows raised in amusement as he watched Grover.

"Finished?"

"No more damaged than usual, I guess."

"Yeah," Percy grinned, a little cross-eyed. There were dark circles around his eyes, new scars around the edge of his face that Grover took in with worried eyes.

"You gonna stay around for a while?" Percy asked hopefully.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be around for a while Perce," Grover promised. "Somebody has to keep you out of trouble. Guess I haven't been doing a very good job lately."

Percy's answering smile was both sad and understanding. "It's fine, Grover. I understand. Besides, Annabeth's not half bad at keeping me out of trouble. I'm just glad you were able to swing by."

"Yeah, me too, Perce. Me too."

A/n I love Grover, where is my Grover, why isn't there more Grover, this is a great travesty in this fandom I shall never forgive. Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

Up next: Sleep Deprivation