30. Ear Pain

The slow scratching sounded like a monster's claws on the rocky floor of Tartarus as it made its slow approach from the left, shrill and ominous, and dangerously close—too close; the sound reverberated in his skull, sending thrills of pain down his spine and—

Percy awoke with a strangled sort of scream, Riptide uncapped and in his hand. He twisted around in the sheets, hopelessly tangling his legs and throwing himself off balance as he thrashed from side to side, heart in his throat as he searched for the danger. His adrenaline-spiked body recognized the water sliding against his skin and he curled it protectively around himself, ready for attack, to defend, to—

"Whoa, whoa, easy there—"

Percy had burritoed his legs in the sheets, but that didn't deter him from bringing Riptide to bear . . . only to blink as the golden tip came to rest at the base of his brother's throat. Triton held his trident tightly in one hand, the gleaming three-tipped prong catching the green light of the water as its wielder reached his free hand out towards the demigod. Triton froze, one eyebrow raising meaningfully as he steadily met Percy's gaze when the sword came to rest at his throat.

"Peace, brother, it's me. You were—"

"What the hades is that sound?" Percy shouted, heart hammering in his throat as he flinched against the spine-curling scratches. He kept Riptide at the draw but angled the tip away from Triton to the room at large, heart calming a little at his brother's obvious lack of distress.

"What sound?"

"That—Styx, can't you hear it?" Percy's free hand came up to his head, holding his left ear, and he flinched, shaking his head violently as he tried to dispel the terrible sound.

"What sound, Perseus, there is no sound—"

"Styx, Styx, Styx," Percy cursed.

He trusted the sea prince's firm belief in their safety, so he dropped Riptide onto the bed, not caring as it bounced clean off the mattress, his other hand coming up to grab at his hair. The sound wouldn't stop, the slow scraping of monsters coming to enact vengeance. The pressure made his head spin, his skin crawl, he was so sure something was coming, coming from behind his brother to attack.

His hand tightened around his ear as Triton continued to make useless conversation, brow furrowing as he loomed over Percy.

Wait. Pressure. Pressure. Pressure in his ear.

"Is there something in my ear?" Percy shouted, letting his hand fall back enough to present his left ear to the confused prince.

"Why would there—sweet Poseidon, is that a krill?"

Percy's eye twitched as he watched Triton lean in out of the corner of his vision. The shrill sound grew more panicked and with a hysterical sort of giggle, Percy realized it was a voice, the gargled unclear voice of the krill. Of course a krill would have a high, shrill voice. It might have been cartoonishly funny if the sound wasn't right against Percy's eardrum.

"Get it out," Percy said, only vaguely aware he was shouting over the painful intrusion. "Triton, get it out, it's pressing against my eardrum."

"I'm trying, calm down, you're frightening it."

Triton grabbed Percy by the jaw, tipping his head to the side to get a better look. Percy flailed, elbows flying. He felt nauseous, the world lurching uncomfortably as vertigo took hold of him. He floundered, an elbow catching Triton in the nose as the world spun around him.

"Dammit, Perseus, I'm trying to—"

"I can't help it, shit I feel sick, Styx, get it out, get it out," Percy chanted, trying to grab onto Triton for support as the world tipped and went weirdly curvy. "Shit, shit, no, no, no, not that way, the other way, the other way, ow, ow, that's my eardrum, that's my, Triton! Triton get it out!"

"Hold still, Perseus, I'm—I'm trying, but it can't hear me if you keep shouting, calm down—"

"Get it out, get it out—"

"He really swam in there, hold on—"

"Ow, ow, Styx, Styx, Styx, Tri—"

"You are hurting him. Stop moving at once."

Percy froze, feeling Triton do the same as the booming command broke over their heads. Inside his ear, the frightened krill froze as well, the shrill sound ceasing but the pressure continued, making Percy's eye twitch with pain. A second later, the ocean curled around him, swirling about his head with great care, swirling faster and faster until . . . Percy blinked as he noticed the spinning water out of the corner of his eye. It had formed like a mini whirlpool above his ear and, as he watched in amazement, the force of the whirl's pull literally sucked his unwanted guest clean out of his ear.

The relief was instant. The pressure released in a gust that Percy realized was himself letting out his breath. Triton held him upright as Percy sagged in relief, rightening the demigod before he could slump over. Percy let Triton manhandle him into a seated position, far more occupied feeling his ear and assessing any lasting damage to care.

"Ow," he said, clearing his throat as his ear throbbed. His voice still sounded funny to him, and pain laced around his skull from the trauma inflicted on his unsuspecting eardrum.

His careful assessment of his injury came to an abrupt end as the third person in the room stepped forward, hand reaching out. Percy looked up to find Poseidon's face murderous as his fingers closed around a barely visible krill still spinning in the water just next to Percy's head. The little pink body was curled into itself, radiating fear and shame. Eyes so small Percy wouldn't have been able to discern them if not for his father's gift found Percy's own eyes. Percy saw sorrow in those little eyes, a great, deep sorrow and self-loathing and acceptance of its fate.

Styx.

"Wait," Percy said, reaching out to snatch the krill from between Poseidon's fingers. He cradled his hand against his chest as Poseidon frowned, too surprised by the sudden objection to react fast enough to stop Percy. "Don't hurt him, he didn't mean to."

"You were literally screaming in pain a minute ago."

"Shut up, Triton, it was in my ear. But, he didn't mean to," Percy added hastily because Poseidon still looked ready to murder. "He was just like . . . lost?"

"He crawled into your ear." Poseidon looked the absolute opposite of forgiving, and Percy almost flinched at the harden anger on his face. "I heard you screaming."

Oh gods, that was embarrassing. Percy's face grew hot. "Ah yes, well, sorry—"

"He hurt you."

"He didn't mean to," Percy repeated, exasperate. "It was probably just an accident. He just got too close and maybe I rolled over on him or something and he couldn't find his way out."

"You are still in pain."

"A little," Percy admitted, knowing better than to lie. "But he didn't mean to. Look at him, he probably just wanted to swim by, say hi, not crawl around in my ear. He was all ready to let you crush him."

Percy opened his palm enough to peek down at the sad little krill. The pink creature curled against Percy's thumb, its near translucence body trembling in misery. He was actually kind of cute for something that had been crawling around in Percy's ear and causing head splitting pain a moment ago.

"Only you would get attached to a damn krill," Triton exclaimed, throwing his hand in the air.

"He caused you pain," Poseidon repeated, not giving up the point, crossing his arms and glaring at the tiny krill with so much malevolence that Percy was amazed it didn't burst into flames from the sheer intensity.

Percy thought for a moment. "Tyson cracked a rib the other day when he hugged me."

"Tyson cracked a rib, dammit, why didn't you tell anyone, lift up your shirt, let me see—"

Percy looked at his father as he swatted Triton's motherhenning efforts away. "But you're not going to punish him for that because he didn't mean to either. I mean, if we're talking about things that cause me pain, there is a really, really long list, and frankly in like terms of magnitude and mental scarring, this one is totally low on that list. There are like a million things above it and this wasn't even purposeful—and for crying out loud, Triton knock it off, I'm fine, I'm fine, it healed in like three hours, I'm in the ocean, remember? Honestly."

Triton didn't look satisfied as Percy shoved him off, mindful of the krill tucked under his thumb. The sea prince sat back and Percy grunted as he settled half on Percy's legs, but decided to ignore him, looking up at his father instead.

"I'm okay, Dad," Percy said honestly. "My head hurts a little—"

"A lot."

"Okay, my head hurts a little bit more than a little—"

"You screamed like a baby—"

"I did not—"

"I can literally feel your pain from here."

"For Dad's sake, Triton shut up." Percy threw his pillow at Triton's stupid face. "I'm fine, I'm fine, really. It freaked me out more than anything and I'm sorry I freaked you out, but it's all good. It's fine, really." He gave his dad a small smile. "I am okay, Dad."

"Stubborn child," Poseidon sighed, but he uncrossed his arms, his murderous aura fading into something far softer.

That made Percy smile in earnest and, to his surprise, a small, albeit exasperate, answering smile flickered upon the sea lord's face.

"You're too forgiving," Poseidon scolded. "Come here."

He reached his hands out and without thinking, Percy submitted his head for investigation. Poseidon's calloused fingers spread out over Percy's skull and almost immediately the lingering sharp stabs of pain retreated, the aching in his ears vanishing without a trace. It was a tender gesture and one of the few times Poseidon had actually touched Percy since he traveled down to his father's domain. It made something stick to Percy's throat and filled his chest with warmth.

"There," Poseidon said, releasing him and swimming back a pace.

Percy stared down at his hands for a beat, watching the krill as it trembled and shook, not quite daring to look up right away. "Thanks, Dad."

Poseidon shook his head but there was an unmistakable fondness in his expression when Percy dared to lift his head. "If Zeus discovers our deceit because of that creature . . ."

"Ah," Percy said, fighting the urge to laugh nervously at the weight of the unspoken threat. A few more words were traded, but when Poseidon departed ten minutes later, the krill was alive and safely tucked in the palm of Percy's hand.

"Do I want to know what he'd do?" Percy asked Triton once their father had gone.

"No." Triton eyed the krill distrustfully. "Now tell me about those cracked ribs."

A/n Turns out there will actually be 31 chapters here because this one snuck up on me. The other one is mostly written. Thank you all so much for sticking around, you are the best! Let me know what you think and I hope you enjoyed ~ *