26. Thrown Against Something

Percy had been in his father's castle for a grand total of five days before the confrontation. To be fair, it was a rather impressive number given the circumstances; Percy tended to rub people the wrong way in less than five hours much less five days so there was that. He supposed it was hard when your brother was begotten illegitimately when your dad cheated on your mom for like the millionth time. (And really, Percy knew that he would never ever forgive Paul if he cheated on Sally. He liked to think he'd give any illegitimate kid the benefit of the doubt but he wasn't sure he could be so generous. So really, he supposed he understood Triton on some level. Then again, Paul wasn't Percy dad so . . . . It was weird.)

Regardless, Triton's contempt for his demigod half-brother came to a head after an ill-adviced snide remark on Percy's part that was the end jab in a long line of escalating passive aggressive behavior between the two. Percy had a second to remember Triton was, in fact, still a god even if he was a giant jerk and that ticking him off probably wasn't in his best interest before – Triton moved faster than Percy could react, grabbing a fist full of the demigod's shirt and shoving the boy against the wall so hard the very foundation shook. Sand dislodged from the force of the collision, stirring murkily into the water around them as Percy's hand came up too late, wrapping around Triton's wrist like it could retroactively stop the physical confrontation.

The force of the hit made Percy's teeth chatter, breath leaving him in one fell swoop. Star burst before his eyes, momentarily blurring his half-brother's face. He spared a rather dazed moment to wonder how pissed Poseidon would be if his sons full on brawled in the middle of the hallway, trying to force his momentarily stunned limbs to reach for Riptide, when—Triton dropped him like he was on fire.

The whole ordeal lasted maybe two seconds, too quickly for Percy to even get his breath back. It happened so fast, Percy didn't even have time to unwrap his death grip from around Triton's wrist. The two sons of Poseidon blinked at each other, Percy's arm awkwardly stretched out between them like a weird tether.

"Shit," the minor sea god cursed. "Are you hurt? Shit."

"What?" Percy asked not understanding but the question fell on deaf ears as Triton lurched back at him . . . taking Percy's head in his hands?

"Shit," Triton repeated, fingers canvasing Percy's head like he was looking for injuries. "Mortals are so fragile. Are you hurt?"

"Um."

Percy couldn't think of a coherent response, too thrown by the sudden change in Triton's intentions. Was this still a confrontation? It didn't feel like one. He tried to pull away from Triton but Triton was apparently having none of that, twisting Percy's head to the side and probing every inch for injuries.

"Cut it out, I'm fine," Percy said finally finding his voice, a sentiment immediately undermined by the hiss he inadvertently let out when Triton found the bruise from where his head connected with the wall.

"Shit," Triton cursed again. "I didn't mean to use so much force, but you're fine, this is—"

"Of course I'm fine," Percy said crossly, "it'll heal here in a second anyway, get off of me."

"Stop being such a little—"

"What are you two doing?"

The voice boomed down the hall, stern and unyielding, the water shimmering with barely contained disapproval and suspicion. Percy and Triton's heads snapped up in unison, guilty eyes finding their father coming towards them. Poseidon's eyes narrowed at the pair, face severe and strict (his god face Percy liked to call it) as he scrutinized his sons. Percy imagined they were a weird sight, Triton's hands buried in Percy's hair and Percy's hand still wrapped around Triton's wrist. Shit, Percy thought. He'd been there less than a week and Poseidon was going to see he was more trouble than he was worth and send him back home. His stomach sank at the thought, bile rising bitterly in his throat.

"I asked a question." Poseidon's voice broke no argument, his disapproval a near choking tangible force in the water. Triton flinched, the moment invisible to the eye but Percy felt it.

Poseidon's eyes snapped to Triton, frown deepening in disapproval and Percy felt his gut twist uncomfortably for an entirely different reason. Poseidon's words from what felt like an eon ago echoed in his mind you are my favorite son. . . . and he couldn't help but pity Triton in that moment. Poseidon didn't seem to hold any reservations about the guilty party if the narrowing of his eyes were anything to go by. Relief blossomed in Percy's chest, followed immediately by guilt. Shit.

"I ran into the wall," Percy blurted out, his voice too loud in the narrow hallway.

Then Poseidon's full attention focused on him and wow okay, Percy was not prepared for that. Poseidon didn't look the slightest bit impressed as he swam closer, his expression revealing how little he believed Percy's incredibly stupid declaration.

"You ran into the wall?" Poseidon repeated and boy did it sound a million times stupider coming from his low tenor.

But Triton's grip tightened on Percy and the demigod didn't even hesitate.

"Yep," Percy said, popping the p with an air far too casual to be believable.

The silence that followed was suffocating. Poseidon's eyes burned into Percy's soul, the Earthshaker's face an unreadable slate of scrutiny. Eventually, the lord's gaze turned to his eldest, back to Percy, and to Triton once more. The quiet tension made Percy want to claw out of his skin. Gods, this was why dealing with monsters was so much easier. Just swing a sword and done, not this insufferable nonsense with emotions and inferiority complexes.

"Alright," Poseidon said, abruptly shattering the silence, causing both his sons to jump a little. Poseidon grinned, the serious weight of the moment melting into an unnerving cheerfulness.

"Try not to be so clumsy in the future," Poseidon cheerfully instructed, heaving his trident into the air and spinning on his heel (fins?) as he started to swim away. "Glad you two are getting along so well!"

The parting remark was thrown over his shoulder and sounded more like a command than an observation. The two sons of Poseidon remained frozen as their father cheerfully disappeared from sight. Percy half expected him to suddenly reappear and call them out on the blatant lie, or worse, take Percy home.

Triton broke their frozen stupor first, shaking his head and frowning down at Percy. Which reminded Percy that the minor sea god was uncomfortably close, still all up in Percy's business like a weirdo.

"Could you like, let go of me and take at least three steps back? You're making me super uncomfortable," Percy demanded, and once more his voice was too loud for the small space.

Triton surprised him with immediate compliance, hands falling to his side and retreating to a respectable distance.

"Why . . . " Triton's brow furrowed, his voice level as a half-frown graced his otherwise expressionless face. "Why would you lie like that?"

Percy shuffled his feet instead of answering, staring at the shimmering wall decoration to the left of Triton's ear. He didn't know how to answer that without sounding pathetic or overly emotional. Maybe if he stayed silent long enough Triton would just leave it be.

"You are Poseidon's favorite, he would not have hesitated to take your side."

"Yeah, well," Percy said, super uncomfortable to hear the words spoke out loud by his brother. Gods, he wished Triton would stop staring at him. Percy couldn't help it if he was amazing and the guilty part of his brain could shut up about it.

Triton didn't get the nonverbal memo, silently brooding as Percy tried to inch his way away from this conversation.

"It didn't even hurt," Percy grumbled, shoving his hands into his pocket and shrugging his shoulder so hard it jarred his admittedly tender head (it was healing but he had taken quite a hit).

"Hm."

Triton's face was obnoxiously blank, eyes calculating silently in an expression the gods seemed to collectively fall into when they were thinking hard (usually about annoying important things like whether to kill you or not).

"Have . . . " Triton paused, his breath weirdly loud for a being that didn't even have to breathe to exist. "Have you seen the armory yet?"

The question threw Percy, who came to a halt in his not so subtle attempt at escape.

"Ah, no?"

"Come then, I'll show you."

Gods never made any sense, Percy thought in exasperation as it became apparent this was not up for debate. He threw his hands in the air but gestured for Triton to lead the way. His half-brother surprised him with a half-smirk and Percy couldn't shake the feeling that something important just happened.

A/n You became brothers is what happened, Percy. This fic is in the same timeline as the last one and so will the next one. Thank you all so much!

Up next: Kiss it Better