"Luke, get out of my way!" Percy yells pushing through the warriors to get to the infirmary.

"Damn, Perce! That hurt!"

"You should have moved then." Percy opens the door to the infirmary to see Eli sitting on his bed with a big smile of his face. Percy runs and launches himself to Eli hugging him tightly.

"I missed you so much. It's so weird not to talk to you all the time."

Eli hugs Percy back with a huge smile on his face.

"But you got to admit. It's good to have our own bodies again."

"Yeah."

He's warm. Percy thinks which is weird since his body was just dead.

"Thank you." Percy snaps open his eyes and stares at Eli and he stares back, both with wide eyes.

"Holy shit. You heard that?"

Eli nods slowly. "Yeah, like you were talking in my head."

Percy grins. "Guess we still can talk all the time. But you really are warm. Like a heater."

"That's part of what others like about people from my planet. We all have some association with heat elements. It makes us unusually warm."

"Too bad I'm cold. Like ice." Percy lays against Eli's chest and snuggles up to him. Eli just grins and wraps his arms around the son of Chaos. The both of them talking about random stuff.

"You really are pale, Percy. You used to be so tan. And your hair is so dark." Eli reaches to touch his hair.

"Perks of being the son of Chaos. You turn into a sheet with dark hair." He lets out a laugh.

The door suddenly bursts open and the two boys jump slightly.

"Hey." They say in unison.

The warriors stare at them before they all yell at the same time. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Eli and Percy share a look before looking at the warriors in confusion. "What did we do this time?" They say.

The warriors look between the two of them before Luke starts talking. "You guys are like the complete opposite in looks but exactly the same in personality."

Eli looks at Luke. "I'm smarter. Percy's a dumbass.

"I am not! I can be smart too!" Percy whines.

Eli rolls his eyes. "You were too dumb to figure out that you liked Nico."

Percy looks away and eyes the wall. "That was different."

"What was different?"

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." Eli says as Nico walks through the door.

Nico is not a devil. Percy thinks hoping Eli hears.

He can be. Eli says to him in his mind.

Maybe in certain circumstances.

Like when you and him—

Percy pinches Eli in the arm. "Don't say that."

"Hey! I was just kidding! Lighten up, bro."

"I have lightened up, have you seen me?"

"Yes, I see you, Percy but that doesn't change the fact that he can be—" Percy puts a hand over Eli's mouth and sheepishly smiles at the warriors who are staring at them in confusion.

"Okay, what did we miss?" Luke questions them with an eyebrow raised.

"A lot. But that doesn't matter it's all good now. Right Eli?"

Eli nods and grins at the warriors. They look like they don't believe them but shrug it off. Percy slips off the bed and instead sits on the floor, leaning against the bed post. He motions for Nico to come sit next to him and Nico lays his head on his lap. Percy tangles his fingers in Nico's hair and Nico closes his eyes with a small smile on his face.

"So, when are we leaving? Zoë is right here so you can't blame her being with Artemis this time."

"I don't know." Percy shrugged looking at Eli. "Are you well enough to leave?"

Eli tilts his head to the right in thought. "I believe so."

Percy nods closes his eyes. "It has been a long day."

"What have you been doing today?" Zoë asks, sitting down in a chair she dragged over.

"I had an interrogation." He puts simply.

"For who?"

"The two blonde bimbos in camp. I asked Annabeth why she started spreading rumors about me and how she got Jason on her side. It turns out that Annabeth had a picture of me kissing Piper and showed it to Jason. He got mad and started hurting me and blah, blah, blah the rest doesn't matter."

"You kissed Piper?" Percy opens his eyes.

"No. Some other guy did but apparently he looked close enough to me from behind and Annabeth decided that she'd just give it to Jason."

"You said he was hurting you. What did he do?" Percy and Eli stiffened when Silena asked that and Percy looked down.

"He used to have some campers come up behind me and pinned my hands behind my back so I couldn't move. He then had Piper use her stupid charmspeak on me so I couldn't talk." Percy took in a breath and Nico grabbed his hand. "After that Jason would bring out a knife and he would cut me with it. Sometimes he'd stab my arm, depending on the day and how he was feeling. It wasn't just him though. A lot of the campers started doing stuff like that until it became a regular thing. Everyday I would wake up and then I'd go to sleep with new marks on my skin. But it doesn't matter now. I left camp and Dad found me and brought me home."

The warriors didn't know much about what happened after the war with Gaea because Percy never wanted to talk about it. They knew that a few times he got hurt but they didn't know that it happened so often.

Eli gave Percy a sad look, knowing that he still didn't tell them the full story.

Please don't say anything about it Eli. They don't have to know the whole story.

Eli just nods slightly and Percy leans his head back onto the bedpost

"Can we stop talking about depressing things now?"

"Uh, yeah. Did you tell Nico about that person you dated ten years ago, Percy?"

Nico looks at Percy but he has a look of confusion on his face before it changes to realization.

"You mean Somah?"

Luke nods his head.

"I never dated Somah."

"Then why were you guys so close?

"Because he—" Percy cuts himself off and turns away from Luke.

"Because he what?"

Eli starts laughing and Percy starts turning red. "Shut up Eli! It's not funny!"

"Yes it is!"

"Wait. Did you two, like... do that?"

Percy stares at Luke while Nico's eyes widen and he stares between Percy and Luke.

"No! I mean... almost... kind of? I don't know, it's confusing."

"How is that confusing? It's a yes or no question."

Percy's face goes even more red and he looks at Nico. "No, we didn't."

Luke stands up. "Okay, so you two weren't dating, you didn't do that, so what were you? Did you just make out or something. Because I caught you two once and you can't deny it."

"We weren't anything." Percy looks away. "And I never made out with him."

Luke's eyes look like their about to pop out. "I saw you guys! And you said that you almost had... Uh..... that."

"Why do you keep referring to it as 'that'?"

"I don't know? Because I can? Stop changing the subject! How did you almost do the deed with Somah and claim that you two never made out when I clearly saw you two together. If it's because Nico's here then you just have to tell us because the key to a healthy relationship is honesty."

"I am being honest! I never made out with Somah."

Something seemed to click in Nico's mind when he looks at Eli.

"Eli did." He whispers. Percy and Luke snap their heads to Nico and Percy just nods.

"Eli liked him. A lot. I knew Somah liked Eli too so whenever they would hang out, I would go to sleep so it was just them. They would make out a few times but I didn't really care even if they were technically using my body, which sounds super weird. I didn't care because I wanted Eli to be happy. When they almost 'did that deed' as you put it Luke, Eli stopped it and told Somah that when he gets back to his own body that they could... yeah."

"Wait, so let me get this straight. You let Eli use your body to make out with Somah?"

"It sounds really weird, but yeah."

"Shit. I can't imagine doing that. And you get the memories once you wake up."

Percy's face goes red again and Eli just snickers. "I get to see Somah again." Eli says with a wide grin.

"Yeah. And I don't have to be there with you."

"You're the one who offered."

"Wait, Percy offered? I thought you just asked."

"Nah, he offered. And I wanted to refuse at first so he wouldn't have to do that but he told me some stuff and I gave in."

"If I didn't know better I'd have thought Percy wanted it."

"I did not. I was going through some stuff and decided that just because I couldn't be happy that Eli shouldn't either. He deserves to be happy with someone he likes, even if I had to make some sacrifices."

"That's like friendship goals right there." Silena said with a smile, holding hands with Beckendorf.

"Well he is my best friend. He knows everything about me. And I still can't keep secrets from him."

"What does that mean?"

Percy looked at Eli and they had a silent conversation. Finally they both nodded and spoke at the same time.

"We can still talk to each other telepathically."

The warriors eyes widen and stare at the two.

"Well shit. How'd that happen?"

Percy looks at Eli then back to Beckendorf.

"I gave him a hug when I walked in-"

"More like ran in." Eli mumbled. Percy glares at him but continued.

"I was thinking he was warm, like a heater and he somehow heard me and we found out. I don't exactly know how but it might be because we've been in each other's head for years."

The others nodded.

"Are we just going to stay in the infirmary and tell weird stories? Because I have a lot about you people." Luke said.

Everyone paled and shook their heads.

"We do not need you telling stories, Luke."

Luke pouted. "Why not?"

"Because you're terrible at telling stories."

"I am not."

"You tried telling a story before and you skipped around the main point and then when you finally got to the end we were all so confused."

Luke shrugged. "Not my fault."

"Yes it is!" Everyone yelled.

"You guys always pick on me." Luke pouted.

"Because we love you Luke." Silena says as she pats him on the shoulder.

"Excuses, excuses."

"At least we're telling the truth."

"Yeah, whatever." He says as he smiles.

"Love you guys too."

"This is cheesy." Percy tells them. "This is so cheesy I betcha we can make another moon."

"The moon is not made of cheese, Percy." Zoë tells him, as if he was a child.

This just causes Percy to grin. "I can make it cheese." Percy brings his fingers together, getting ready to snap when everyone jumps on him to stop it.

"No! Percy don't! We don't know what that could do to the planet."

Percy just shrugged. "Exactly. This will let us find out." He put his hand up again and snapped his fingers. The others stared at him wide eyes and ran out the infirmary.

They looked up at the sky, searching for the moon in the sky while Percy is still in the infirmary laughing on the floor, not know that Nico is right next to him smiling.

"You didn't do it did you?"

Percy jumps and stops laughing and looks at Nico. "Guess I didn't fool you, did I?"

Nico grinned. "Nope, I'm pretty sure you would have gotten in trouble and caused a lot of problems on Earth if you did that."

Percy smiles widely. "But they don't know that."

Nico stepped closer to Percy and pressed his lips to his when a yell was heard from outside.

"Percy! I'm going to kill you!"

Luke runs into the infirmary but Percy flashes himself and Nico somewhere, not caring where they ended up. Well until they looked around and found themselves on Olympus right in the middle of the throne room.

"Schist." Percy muttered as the gods stared at them. "Hi guys." He looks at Nico, who has his hand intertwined with his and looked back at the gods. "Sorry for intruding we were just escaping and I wasn't paying attention to where we would end up. We'll leave now. Bye."

Percy pulled Nico out the throne room and when the doors shut they immediately started laughing.

"Did you see their faces?"

"Hades and Poseidon looked like their eyes were gonna burst!"

"And Aphrodite looked like she was going to explode."

Once they caught their breath, Percy flashed them back to camp to see the warriors glaring at them.

"Wassup dudes? How's life?"

"We got outside and Eli was already laughing so we figured you were playing us."

"Well, you are correct. I don't feel like getting in trouble with my father right now."

"How is Chaos?"

Percy looks at Beckendorf. "I don't know. I haven't talked to him. Why?" Beckendorf shrugged.

"He probably misses you."

"Probably."

Percy closes his eyes and waited for contact with his father. He opened his eyes and a portal showed up in front of them.

"You called?"

"Yes I did. I don't know why. But I did. And now that you're here, you have to stay."

Chaos looked at Percy with an eyebrow raised. "For what?"

Percy shrugged. "Dinner. Haven't eaten with you in a while."

"I feel like this has to do with something else but okay."

"Good, lets go!" Percy runs out the door and to the Chaos table and summons some blue food. He sits on top of the table and waits for his friends.

"Why the hell are you on top of the table?"

Percy shrugs. "I like eating like this."

"I have no idea how I deal with you, Zeno." Chaos shakes his head.

"I am just that great."

"Yeah, a great idiot." Luke says, grinning.

"Dad! Luke's being mean to me!" Percy cried out.

"Oh, I can show you mean." Luke lunges at Percy and they both fall off the table. Percy yelps and the warriors watch in amusement as Luke sits on top of Percy.

"Get off! You're heavy!"

"I'm not that heavy."

"That's debatable."

Luke scoffs. "It is not."

Percy rolls his eyes and pushes Luke off and gets back on the table. "Now that the demon-spawn is gone for now, Father, I would like to introduce you to Nico. I don't care if you've already met. Nico this is my father, Chaos and he is hardly an adult."

"I guess that's one thing you've got in common." Nico says.

"Hey, no fair!"

Nico just grins and sits down. Chaos shakes his head and sits opposite of Nico.

"Luke what are you still doing over there?"

"I'm planning."

Percy creates a portal underneath Luke, causing him to fall in and gets spit out on the table. "Plan later, eat now."

Luke grumbles something and Percy just laughs as they begin to eat.

It has been a long day.

🌟