He had spent the rest of his time at Camp Half-Blood, sleeping in his own cabin and choosing his own activities. He made sure to fill up his activities for the whole day, something in him went against everything that made him not move around.
He made sure his routine stayed somewhat the same, to move and fight every few hours. The only time where he actually rested was the bonfires of the times where he had to eat food.
He had to eat, besides, he was a growing boy.
Clarisse and him were attached at the hip, getting weird looks from everybody around them because how they know Clarisse was because of her violent personality. There wasn't a lot of hazing like Percy had expected, for a camp the sneering was very minimal, but it might have been because he's Clarisse's friend.
Grover had only stayed for a few days to help Percy get settled and comfortable around the camp. Then he had left for his search for Pan, the god of the Wild, satyrs and folk music. Pan is to satyrs what Dionysus was to mortals back in ancient Greece.
That left Annabeth, who stayed mostly around her cabin. Her siblings sent Percy wary looks at almost every corner he walks around. Before meeting Annabeth, he hadn't known that it was typical for children of gods to look the same. Athena's children all have blonde hair and gray eyes, intimidating gray eyes.
The two of them would talk on occasion. An ongoing theory from both Percy and Clarisse was that Annabeth's siblings held her away from him. There were times on occasion where she looked like she wanted to reach out and talk to him, but instead, she'd hold back.
At their first Capture The Flag, she looked taken aback when Percy had followed the Ares cabin over to their side of the line, over to their homebase. She had called out his name, he had turned around. Then she didn't say anything.
Percy wasn't angry with everything happening, the not talking, the barely looking at him and even the awkward nods. But he was getting frustrated with her questioning looks, as if he hadn't tried to reach out to her.
Then the start of the school year was coming up and most of the campers had returned back home. When Percy shouldered his bag and whistled for one of the camp's pegasus, a hand landed on his shoulder. "Annabeth?" He raised his eyebrows at the empty air in front of him.
Then she appeared, her cap in her hand and a small smile before she put back on her cap. "You're leaving?" She asked.
"I am." He nodded, "I'm starting at a new military school, they want me there on time." He said and crossed his arms as he leant against the pegasus that kept calling him 'Little Lord'. "Why care?"
She let out a breath, "I care." She said, "I just couldn't show it." She pinched his arm but he remained, staring at his shoes because that looks slightly less insane than talking to the air in front of him. "I'm sorry, my siblings aren't happy that the son of a sea spawn is here. I tried by saying that Triton-"
"Triton isn't my father, Poseidon is." Percy said and pursed his lips. "Triton is just a way of trying to make it bearable for you to admit that you're friends with me."
She was quiet and Percy was sure that she had taken off in her invisible state. "I'm going back to California." She said quietly, "Will you be there?" She wasn't denying anything that he said.
"Of course." Percy let out a breath. "I'll be in California, but I'll be traveling around, going on all types of bootcamps."
"You'll be a good soldier at bootcamp." Annabeth joked.
Percy smiled and shook his head, "I might be too much of a wild card to be a good soldier." He admitted, "They're remedial, because I missed so much class." He said quietly.
"Missing class is no joke." Annabeth said and then it felt like she had thrown her arms around him. "Thank you, for not being angry."
"Frustrated, more so." Percy joked and he watched Annabeth's footsteps walk away from him. He clenched his jaw one more time and looked at the camp, he turned around and got up on the pegasus, he asked him where to go and Percy unfolded the little paper in his hand.
"Westport, Connecticut." Percy answered, the pegasus waved out his wings and fanned it up and down, hard enough to lift them into the air. Hermes had come to him on the beach, when Percy had found a way to be outside past the bedtime that was set up. Where no harpies could reach him.
He could remember the concerned and apologetic look on Hermes' face as the god had first approached him. Hermes had apologized that his son had tried to murder him and that the first quest given to him would be to check up on May Castellan.
Percy had nodded and stood up, the god reached out and grabbed Percy's wrist. Telling him to be gentle with her, that she was fragile and Percy had agreed. So there he sat, on a pegasus, flying over the forest.
Then, just as Percy glanced down to the ground to see how far they had gotten, he saw the lonesome white house out in the forest. It barely poked out of the trees but the small clearing had been an indicator for him.
The house was disorganized, moss grew on the roof and it looked like the gutter had been clogged. It looked like a delivery of firewood had been made outside for about three months worth. It looked like only a small part of it was cleared and put aside neatly. The white house had turned into a beige color.
The smell of burned cookies shot up through his nose as Percy dismounted the pegasus. He petted it and told the pegasus that he'd call for him if he was needed. The magical creature neighed and walked off into the forest.
Percy walked on the path, waving between the overgrown grass before he arrived by the door. The initial knock on it pushed it open and Percy braved through the abandoned house. "Luke!" A woman's voice called out, it was shrill and hoarse, as if she had been screaming for days on end. "Oh my sweet boy." The woman said and Percy's heart bottomed out when she threw her arms around him.
She misses her son, and no-one had told her that he disappeared. "Come in! Come in!" She urged Percy, not allowing him to correct her and tell her his name.
"This way, my dear!" Ms. Castellan steered me toward the back of the house. "Oh, I told them you would come back. I knew it!" She then nudged him over to the kitchen where there were hundreds of sandwich boxes filled with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Percy had to keep his breath in when he saw the mold growing in most of the sandwich boxes. A stack of cookie sheets laid on the oven and each one of them had burned cookies on it, there were empty Kool-Aid pitchers and Percy wondered if she was only drinking that.
He saw why Hermes had needed him to check up on his former lover. Ms. Castellan started to hum a hymn while she started to make a new batch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Does she order new boxes from Amazon or did she throw the old ones away?
"Ms. Castellan?" Percy spoke up from the kitchen table, shifting uncomfortably. "Can I help with the wood out front?" he asked, it was the least he could do for her. He knew of children with parents who aren't all that well mentally.
He had grown to respect taking care of their parents in a way they wouldn't end up getting hurt. They'd talk about the constants in their life, the cleaning after the routine cooking that burned, like Ms. Castellan's cookies.
"Oh my Luke!" She smiled as she stopped humming, "Such a helpful boy, always!" She said and Percy stood up from the chair. He grabbed a few boxes of PB&J sandwiches and managed to walk outside while she was distracted with her burning cookies in the oven.
Percy put it out by the edge of the clearing before walking over to the pile of wood, he slowly fell into the routine of throwing the wood into the wheelbarrow, pushing it to the covered spot for the firewood and picking it up to place it down neatly.
He did that for an hour to finish up the pile of wood before he walked back over to the boxes and disposed of the molding sandwiches in the trash container outside of her house. He then set aside the boxes before walking over to the Castellan shed.
His breath hitched when he saw the small bed and the Kool-Aid containers. It hadn't been used in years and Percy could see a younger Luke sit out here whenever an episode would happen and the house wouldn't be safe for him. Percy took the covers of the bed and tucked it into the corner and he put the pillow on top.
Luke had been sleeping between the spiders and the dirty tools. It was a small insight to the life of Luke and for Percy, it made him more human. But regardless of that, he won't forget the attempted murder on his life.
Percy clenched his jaw before reaching out and grabbing the manual lawn mower. He has used that kind of lawn mower before, he'd go around the garden back at home, cut Mr. Ed's grass with it too.
He pushed it out to the front garden of the house and cut the dried out grass, with each beanbag stuffed animal, he carefully picked it up and cut the grass before carefully putting it back in its place.
After that he raked it all together in a bunch and he set stones in the shape of a ring near the edge of the forest. He grabbed some firewood before he set it down and started building a fire, the presence of the goddess the home was needed, maybe it would give May somewhat of a comfort. He looked into the house in the living room where she was looking outside, watching Percy do all the chores around.
A small smile played at her lips before her eyes began to glow and her mouth dropped open into an 'o' shape. She was having a fit, but going by the glowing eyes Percy assumes that she was collateral damage of the gods.
He watched her through the window, screaming out for Hermes and for Luke. Percy averted his eyes down to the building fire, he wasn't May Castellan's son, but he was a son regardless and she was just a mother who wanted more of a life than she could take.
Percy took the backpack from the ground and opened it. He looked peered down and thought for a moment that there was a lightning bolt, before realizing that a god had flashed down in front of him. "I ate my dinner on my way here." Percy said quietly as he looked up at the pained expression of Hermes.
"Hestia made this for you." Hermes said and held out a white bag with containers in it. "She thanks you for the fire you built." Percy grudgingly accepted the bag with food, he hadn't trusted anyone else but Clarisse or Grover, maybe Annabeth if she had spoken to him. "She said wherever you go, there is warmth and a sense of family."
Percy winced softly when he heard another piercing scream of Ms. Castellan. "I don't feel like that." He said as he opened the plastic bag and took out the containers. He grabbed the silverware and first offered the mac and cheese to Lady Hestia, some for Triton before burning a slightly smaller portion for his father.
"I suppose you have a talent for it." Hermes said as he sat down on the half-broken lawn chair. "She wasn't always like that." The god said tenderly, as if it was a memory that wouldn't fade in half a century.
Percy just continued to eat the food that was given, there wasn't a lot left after sacrificing it to the gods that were taking care of him. The demigod looked up at the immortal, "Luke slept in the shed." He stated. "Most likely because of her episodes."
He opened the container of arepas and felt homesick for his other friends at Camp Jupiter. He scarfed them down before drinking a bottle of water from out of his backpack. It was slowly turning darker and darker.
Percy glanced back at the house to see May Castellan screaming at a mirror that was placed in front of the window. Then, she slapped herself before her eyes stopped glowing and she crumpled down.
He shot up to his feet to run over to the house, but he found Hermes putting a hand on his shoulder. "You've done good here, rest." The god insisted but there really was no room for arguing. "I'll get you to Camp Jupiter after this, don't worry."
Percy sat back down and watched as the god calmly walked over to the house. Watching through the windows, he saw Hermes lift her up bridal style and walk over to the stairs. The lights in the windows lit up as Percy continued to watch Hermes bring May over to her room.
He averted his eyes to the hearth and his eyes caught the sight of a letter, but it wasn't burning. With the last of his energy of the day, and the last of his courage, he plucked it from deep out of the fire. It didn't hurt him, the flames or the warmth.
'You've done all that you could have done. The past cannot be changed, Perseus.
-Hestia'
Percy blinked as he never expected to receive a letter from one of the oldest goddesses around on Olympus. Footsteps approached and he looked up from the letter. "Let's go." Hermes held his keys in his hand and the taxi appeared behind him.
This time Percy read Mercury instead of Hermes on the cover. Without any distrust, Percy stepped into the car with his bags and fell into the comfort of it all.
A/N: Shorter chapters for all kinds of mini quests for the gods!