ᴄᴀᴠᴇ ᴄᴀɴᴇᴍ: ᴘᴀʀᴛ ɪɪ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴀʙᴇᴛʜ/ꜱᴏʟᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ

xᴠ | ᴏᴜɪ, ᴏᴜɪ! ᴄʀᴏɪꜱꜱᴀɴᴛꜱ! ʙᴀɢᴜᴇᴛᴛᴇ!

CW: referenced grooming/SA of a minor

The first thing Percy notices when he peels his face from the wet grass is the Eiffel Tower, and his first thought is, Hey! I've been here before! I know this place!

And then he realizes that he might have been better off in the Alps. He's no geographer, but he's pretty sure this is significantly further from Rome than where he was before.

"Jesus," Will swears as he stands up on wobbly legs. Then, he too notices where Raphael the hellhound took them. "Oh no. I will not let some quest ruin the City of Love for me!"

Percy's never really been close to Will Solace. Sure, he owes the guy everything for saving Annabeth's life during the battle at Manhattan against Kronos and the Titan army, but besides putting the traumatized son of Apollo onto a stolen motorcycle and whisking him away to the makeshift med bay, he never had the time to get to know Will.

Sally Jackson always raised Percy to never give anyone a reason to be a dick to him. Well, those weren't her words exactly, and he definitely has given people some reasons to be a dick to him, but never Will. At least, he thinks so. He'd know if he'd done something to piss Will off.

Maybe this is all in Percy's head. Maybe Will isn't being a dick to him.

Raphael sniffs Annabeth's still form on the ground, wagging his tail.

"All good, Annabeth?" Percy asks.

She sits up at last. "Wow," she says in awe. "Sorry, it's just... the architecture of this city never ceases to amaze me. I mean, have you ever really thought about how fucking ugly the Eiffel Tower is? And we just wore those on our clothes twenty-four-seven in middle school like it's some kind of romantic icon!"

Percy can't believe it, but he agrees with Annabeth. He used to romanticize this place because of the time they earned an all-expense paid one-month anniversary date courtesy of Hermes, but really, what difference did being in Paris make?

Well, the food was amazing. He'll give Parisians credit where it's due.

"Yeah," Percy agrees. "The Eiffel Tower is just a bunch of steel beams in a funky shape."

Annabeth scoffs. "Actually, it's puddle iron."

"Oh."

"Common mistake. Don't get down on yourself," she teases. "Does anybody have money for a- Fucking shit!"

"Boo," Nico deadpans and emerges into the light before tripping on his loose shoelaces and falling into Will, who catches him like it's second nature. It probably is second nature at this point.

"I sure missed Italia," Nico says, looking up from the grass and then at his surroundings. "Oh. This is..."

Will then addresses Annabeth and Percy. "It's best we take the night to get our strength up. Nico and I can find a hotel and a place to hide Raphael. You guys go find food; I'm sure Nico's starving."

"Bold of you to assume Percy and I aren't also starving and tired," Annabeth says.

Percy chuckles. "You should have seen the breakfast we ate this morning!"

"Dammit," she swears. "I left the takeout containers in the hotel fridge."

"All good," he replies.

"Not all good. I wanted the rest of that avocado toast."

There's a moment of silence for the avocado toast, even though Percy had no intentions of eating the soggy leftover breakfast. Come to think of it, they should have just eaten that at the restaurant and saved the pancakes.