When I Don't Remember You (Percico)

Chapter Twenty Six: Morning Seems So Far Away

Rachel Elizabeth Dare

He didn't leave his cabin at all on his birthday.

I brought him food that I don't think he ate, and if I'm being honest, I'm not sure how much he's eaten in the last month because he's lost weight that I'm not sure he can afford to lose.

To heavily sugarcoat it, I was worried about the son of Hades. He's going through a lot, some of which because of the job with his dad I don't even know about because he can't talk about it yet, but what's worse is that he's goinpg through this and nobody else knows or, if they've noticed, don't really know why.

And, worst of all, they don't ask him or talk to him about it.

"Hey, where's the birthday boy?" Leo had asked as he joined us for lunch. In the off season with construction of camp and everything, the table rule has been ignored so we're all sitting together. "I can understand sleeping through breakfast, but it's lunch. I have a present for him."

Leo held up a little box.

"I don't... Think he's really in the mood to celebrate his birthday," Thalia explained to the others, which obviously earns people's attention because it's his birthday. Why wouldn't you celebrate it? "I don't know why because either he wouldn't talk about it or just didn't have it in him to speak, but he had like... A major breakdown last night in his cabin and after it happened Rachel and I asked if he wanted to do anything to like, celebrate his birthday to make today better than last night and he just shook his head, so..."

"Oh, shit, did something happen?" Piper asked, now worried about the son of Hades. "I don't know him that well since he's only been here for like two days now, but... He seemed kind of tired all day yesterday and even when we met. Is he always like that?"

"Lately he has been, but usually he had some energy," Grover told the newer demigods, sighing. "Nothing new has happened that I've heard, but he's also been gone on a job for his dad that he's not supposed to talk about and I know that he been looking for Percy between things for his dad, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's just spread himself out too much. Winter is hard for him, too, just because his sister died two winters ago now and that messed him up very badly. This last fall he seemed to be finally getting better, even a little this summer, but especially this fall and... I don't know."

"His sister..." Jason spoke aloud, almost like he was trying to remember something. "Was she in the hunt?"

And apparently she was, because Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover looked at him like he was a little crazy.

"Yeah she- she joined right before I did," Thalia confirmed for her little brother. "Why... How did you know that?"

"I..."

Jason thought for a second.

"I'm pretty sure I met Nico," Jason insisted, which was news because Nico treated him like a complete stranger the other day. "like, right before I woke up on the bus with Piper and Leo. I was um... I was at Camp Jupiter, or like a quarter of a mile away, and I noticed him and his younger sister walking towards the camp, seeming a little lost, so I did my job and went down and introduced myself and... Yeah. It seemed weird because he said that they were demigods so they already knew, but when I asked about family because usually when you go to Camp Jupiter you like, live there, his sister said that her mom died a long time ago and then Nico said that his mom died years abo and his sister died more recently on a quest with the hunt, like two years ago. When I asked who his parent was, then, he said Pluto, but our other Praetor, Reyna, called him on being Greek because he was wearing his bead necklace and after that I walked away to show his sister around because she's Roman and Reyna asked about some demigod she met before coming to camp a few years ago."

"He..."

There's one issue, there, though.

"Nico doesn't have a younger sister, though." Annabeth pointed out. "He had an older sister, Bianca. She's the one that died. He was so devastated when she died because it meant he was... Alone."

Jason then realized something.

"Oh, no, they're not full blooded siblings like Thalia and I," Jason went on. "Hazel's his half sibling through their dad. She was dead for 70 years, Nico brought her back on his dad's orders so they're definitely siblings. He visits her at least once and week to check in and..."

And he stops himself for a second, and I realize the other half of Nico's breakdown last night.

Sure, I knew about their plans for his birthday because Percy literally would not shut up about them as soon as they started planning for it. I helped him plan some of it out, looking at restaurants to make reservations and hotels to stay at.

But if Hazel's Roman, and if she's at Camp Jupiter, not only would that be the job Hades is having him do that he isn't supposed to tell us about.

Probably because he isn't supposed to tell is about Camp Jupiter existing.

But furthermore, and more importantly: it means he heard us all talking about how, because Jason's here, Percy has be there because it just makes sense, despite himself knowing that he isn't there.

He knows that Jason went missing and ended up here and somehow his boyfriend went missing and isn't there.

No wonder he was devastated after hearing those theories all day. He's not allowed to shut them down.

But the others don't know that part of it.

"So that's the job?"

And luckily for the sake of Nico not getting questioned, Jason shrugged.

"I think that's just part of it," Jason insisted. "he wouldn't know if Percy was there, though, because I know they meet up at a cafe in New Rome for lunch, not in the camp itself."

"Either way, it's not smart to ask, he can't talk about it," I reminded them. "If he finds Percy, he'd find some way of letting us know without telling us directly. But either way, I think he's just taking today to like, recharge and not be exhausted because he had been shadow travelling a lot, on top of everything else he's had going on."

"You're right, he'd also probably be feeling at least a little better if he knew where Percy was," Grover agreed with my point. "He's never been a big person to celebrate his birthday anyways, so it's not like it's new, but hopefully when Percy's back he'll be closer to normal again. Those two always get kind of anxious or just... Weird when the other is in trouble."

Clarisse rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, because they won't admit that they actually want to be friends with each other and move on from the weird situation they had after Bianca died," the daughter of Ares nearly gave me a heart attack when she said friends because I was worried she said something else. "Also, it makes sense. Percy is one of his only friends that actually talks to him and hangs out with him. Percy was also the like, only person besides Thalia, although Thalia wasn't here as often because of the hunt, who made an effort to be nice and reach out to help Nico after she died. Of course he's going to feel weird that he's gone, it's one of his three only friends, gone without a trace. They were close, let Nico respond to this however he needs to."