Stabbed

"Oh, wow this is awkward, I didn't think you were done monologuing. Man, Annabeth's gonna kill me."

Percy stared at the knife embedded in his shoulder, grateful that at least the sudden movement roused his consciousness enough from its bored stupor to step just out of fatal stabbing range. Thus, the knife-in-shoulder-not-in-chest thing.

"Monologuing?" the monster gawked, looking equally as surprised as Percy about the whole situation.

"Yeah, you kept going on and on, and usually it takes longer. Guess your backstory wasn't all that tragic. Hey, do you mind taking it out or, you know what, I got it—"

Best not give the monster back its weapon, Percy supposed, taking a few steps away from the stunned monster while grasping the knife with the opposite hand and yanking it out.

A fresh blossom of pain shot down Percy's arm, warm blood oozing out of the fresh wound, but he ignored it. The monster recovered from its shock, realizing that it had achieved and then subsequently lost the upper hand. It would have been funny, except, you know, he got stabbed.

"No hard feelings, I'm sure it was a semi-interesting backstory," Percy said as the monster lunged at him. Percy didn't even bother uncapping Riptide, slicing the monster through with its own knife.

"Probably a solid four, maybe five outta ten on the interesting scale, I mean you did tick off somebody enough for Chiron to send me out so there's that, and man that hurts," Percy complained, rolling his shoulder as the monster dissolved into a cloud of golden dust.

Blood sluggishly dripped down his shoulder, and Percy sighed in annoyance. The call from Chiron came in as he was walking home from school, so he didn't have time to run and grab ambrosia or anything of the sort. It's pretty late, maybe no one on the subway will notice, Percy thought as he shrugged off his shirt and tried to assess the damage.

A light breeze ruffled Percy's hair, bringing with it the subtle hint of the ocean. Oh no, Percy only had a second to think before rough hands were grabbing him and turning him around.

"What were you doing?" Triton demanded angrily, pressing his palm flat against the bleeding hole in his idiot brother's shoulder.

"You guys always act like I do this on purpose, I wasn't trying to get stabbed—are you even supposed to be here—"

"There was a monster literally right in front of you and you zoned out—"

"He was a really bad storyteller, I was super bored—"

"Perseus Jackson—"

"Don't full-name me, it's fine, he barely stabbed me. Zeus isn't going to strike me with lightning for you being here is he?"

"Do you think I would come here if he would?" Triton snapped, pulling his hand back and inspecting the now healing wound.

"Don't kidnap me again, I have a geometry test tomorrow."

"Zeus still thinks I hate you."

"Yeah because you're super convincing."

"And you're a super idiot." Triton's eyes flashed. "What were you thinking Perseus? I was just sitting there, trying to listen to court, and suddenly, your dumbass gets stabbed."

"Wait, are you keeping tabs on me now?"

"You are part of the ocean you idiot." Triton whacked him upside the head, but the blow lacked any true heat. It was more like a weirdly aggressive ruffling of hair. "As am I, as is Father. Of course we know when you've been hurt. Father normally can't do anything about it, and I didn't care enough to notice before."

Triton scowled down at him and Percy felt . . . weirdly guilty. There was also this weird sort of glowing feeling? I didn't care enough to notice before.

"I'm sorry I startled you."

"You were stabbed, Perseus."

"Oh my gods, barely Triton, honestly—"

"Barely? Barely? For Father's sake, Percy there's no such thing as barely stabbed, I swear—that's it you're coming back home, geometry's not a useful subject for a demigod anyway."

A/N

Percy: *is stabbed*

Also Percy: So do you want this back or can I keep it?

Please let me know what you think, and please stay safe and healthy.