Flower Food || [P. Jackson] ||

Chapter 17: Baby Got Back (Dat Arch Tho)

The train ride was at least five hours long and Percy couldn't sleep a wink. Even when the sun slowly started to rise beyond the horizon through the rapidly changing scenes, and even when Will began to perk up like a flower and admonish the others for their poor sleep schedules, Percy couldn't close his eyes for more than a few seconds.

There were too many things going through his head.

His mother, who he couldn't even properly grieve because of the gods, lost forever because he hadn't been fast enough to save her.

His father, somehow the actual god of the seas, lurking somewhere in the skies and merely watching as his son went on a life-threatening mission just to clear his worthless time. 

His dream, which still haunted him even now, and had him cautiously looking over his shoulder every couple of minutes, paranoia creeping dutifully into his skin and making goosebumps itch on his arms. 

"Percy?" 

Percy jerked lightly at the sudden call of his name, and he blinked stupidly as he turned around and met several gazes, all with varying levels of concern. 

"You look a little pale," Will said, frowning lightly as he leaned over and grabbed Percy's wrist, muttering numbers under his breath as his frown deepened into a worried scowl. "Your heartbeat's way too high. Don't tell me you've been feeling this awful the entire train ride and you didn't tell us!" 

"I don't feel like anything," Percy tried to defend, tugging at his hand uselessly and sighing when Will only tightened his grip. "Oh for - look, I'm fine. Quit squeezing me, you're going to seriously cut off my circulation." 

"Doubt it," Will grumbled, but he let go anyway. "Annabeth, hand me a square of ambrosia." 

"I told you I'm fine!" Percy barked when Annabeth wordlessly obeyed and took out the small sandwich bag of golden pastry. "Don't waste it on me, save it for when we really need it." 

"Are you hungry?" Song-ee's soft voice was the next to speak, and he felt his resolve start to crumble like a piece of wet tissue when she sidled up close to him, her arm warm and comforting against his own as she reached up and brushed a strand of hair away from his eyes. "You really do look paler than normal." 

"Just eat it, seaweed brain," Annabeth said, her voice devoid of any actual contempt as she slid some ambrosia across the table in between them. "Look, Grover's stress eating because of you." 

Grover looked up from munching on his bunch of tin cans with a deer in the headlights look, and he gave one large, harsh swallow before he turned his large eyes to Percy and said, "come on, man. You really don't look that good." 

Percy let out another sigh, this time of annoyance, before he begrudgingly allowed Song-ee to feed him the ambrosia, who looked both relieved and nervously worried at the same time. "You just all peer pressured me, I hope you know."