Tidalwave - A PJO fanfic (COMPLETE)

Six

*In Between*

14 yrs.  

Nico's alive.  

I'm... fine.  

That's all that matters.  

Being stuck in a cave, alone most of the time, kind of took a toll on my mental stability-whatever you want to call it.  When Nico came back from New York I hugged him, which took him by surprise.  He didn't hug me back, but it wasn't like I expected him to.  

He stayed longer and didn't leave suddenly.  I even got a few sentences out of him each day.  We talked about the randomness things.  A couple times a week, the unconscious goddess (yes, she was still asleep) would twitch, like she was waking, but in the end she would still be asleep.  

Every now and then we'd get my Greek cousin Allora Tyke to 'babysit' the goddess and Nico and I would explore random cities.  He taught me small bits of Italian and I tried to teach him some Latin, but neither of us could process the words correctly.  

Everything was going fine until we became wanted criminals.  

We were just minding our own business when the bank across from us got robbed.  Nico just sat and watched, while I tried to help the police and track down the robbers.  But somehow it got twisted that I was a part of the robbers and I soon got famous on the news.  

It happened twice again in different states, one time at a Musuem and another time at an Art Gallery where I apparently tried to steal the Monalisa.  Whoever was committing the crimes was intentionally going out of their way to frame me.  

Allora stayed a few days at the cave while Nico and I tried to track down my framer.  We Mist-traveled and Shadow-traveled through almost every state, every time we arrived, we nearly passed out.  

When we came to New York I subtly got separated from Nico and went to Manhattan, and after a while I tracked down my mom and Percy's new apartment.  I found a ball cap at a Thrift Store and a cardboard box, filling it with chocolate and candy from my mom's old job at Sweet on America.  

I put a letter inside the box along with a few other things, then sealed it up and put an address on it to make it look legit.  Then I bought a pack of gum and some sunglasses, and my disguise was complete.  

I knocked on the door and waited for it to open.  And when I saw who it was, I nearly broke my cover.  He was older, for sure, but I could never forget my brother's sea green eyes.  

"Uh, package delivery."  Dang I was bad.  If he was smart, he wouldn't buy the act at all.  

But he just shrugged and took the package from me.  I chewed my gum nervously as I heard the TV in the background.  It was on the news.  I heard my name on it, with my mom saying something but I couldn't hear what it was.  

"Percy?"  A girl with blonde hair and stormy gray eyes peeked her head past a wall in the apartment.  

"Just a package,"  he said, holding up the box.  "How much?"  

I shook my head.  "Already paid."  

"Well, thanks,"  he said, but stopped before closing the door.  "You look familiar."  

I nearly had a heart attack.  More than anything I wanted to rip off the hat and sunglasses and hug my brother, but I couldn't.  Greeks and Romans hated each other.  But Nico was Greek, and he knew I was Roman.  He didn't care.  

Would Percy care?  He was my brother, he never got mad at me before.  But...I couldn't risk it.  If he hated me when he found out I was Roman I would never be able to bear it.  For now, it was better not to know.  

"I get that a lot,"  I said casually.  "Have a good rest of your day, sir."  

It felt weird calling my brother sir.  

When I was a couple flights down the stairs I Mist-traveled back to where I'd left Nico to find him asleep in an alley.  The sudden toll of traveling caught up to me and I passed out next to him.  

A/N:  Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter :)  And sorry for any grammar mistakes, once again I did not check before publishing this chapter.  

Byyyyeeeeee 

- Anne