Sunburn- phoebus apollo

---vii. an eye for an eye

PERCY HAD SEVERAL REVELATIONS ON the way back to Camp Half-Blood--most of them having to do with how rotten his luck was--but the main takeaway was that his sister was still bad at feelings. It wasn't surprising, considering how Rhea had acted all his life, which was one of the reasons for his protectiveness. When she was on Ogygia, she was holding on to Calypso like a lifeline, and now she was crying onto Percy on this raft. Percy knew that his sister didn't make friends fast, but when she did make them, well, she could never let them go. Calypso had honestly seemed more upset about the fact that Rhea was leaving her than the fact that he was, so it was obvious that they'd been close--and he had his sister's shaky hands to prove it.

So, yeah, Rhea had always been bad at feelings.

Apollo seemed kind of bad at them, too, though, given his extensive track history, so many that evened things out.

And speaking of Apollo, Percy needed to burn some sacrifices for him as soon as possible, or he was pretty sure some Very Bad Things were going to happen to him. Rhea seemed very adamant about this, and, well, Rhea was always right, so Percy always listened to her. That was just an unspoken rule in their sibling relationship, only secondary to the rule that they were ride or die for each other. Rhea literally burned up a mountain for him, and he nearly got into a fist fight with a god trying to protect her honor, so that was that. Their bond had been sealed the moment they were born, even though Percy could be stupid sometimes and Rhea could be dead pessimistic.

Not that either of them was actually dead, of course.

Everyone back home didn't seem to get the memo, though, considering he and Rhea just crashed their own funeral.

In a morbid way, it was kind of nice, seeing how many people would miss them. Beckendorf had been the first to shout Percy's name, and Silena had actually tackled Rhea to the ground in a hug, uncaring of the dirt getting on her clothes and the way Rhea clawed futilely at her shoulders to let her up. Annabeth's reaction, too, had been a nice surprise. She'd embraced Rhea so tightly he'd thought her sister's eyes would pop out of her skull. Then, instead of punching him like Percy had expected, she'd wrapped her arms around him so fiercely she'd nearly cracked his ribs. She'd also yelled at the two of them so loudly he thought she would bust a lung, but that was fair, he figured. He and Rhea had apparently been gone for two weeks.

When Chiron eventually brought them into the Big House, Percy didn't tell them the whole story. He just couldn't bring himself to talk about Calypso, and Rhea didn't seem all that eager to share either, which just reinforced his assumption that she missed her. He told them how Rhea had caused the explosion at Mount St. Helens and gotten them blasted out of the volcano; how the two of them had been marooned on an island; how Hephaestus and Apollo had found them and told them they could leave; and how a magic raft had carried them both back to camp.

All of it was true, of course, but the more he talked, the sweatier his palms felt.

"You've been gone two weeks." Annabeth's voice was steadier now, but she still looked pretty shaken up. "When I heard the explosion, I thought the worst. Apollo's reaction didn't exactly reassure me, either. I think he must have sped up global warming by a good few years--you should see the photos they have of Antarctica right now--"

"Alright, yes, we know!" Rhea interjected tersely, her hands clenched into fists in her lap. Annabeth immediately quieted, an apologetic expression on her face, and Chiron cleared his throat, looking at Percy pointedly.

Right. Okay. Time to change the subject.

"Listen," he said, sparing Rhea a quick nervous glance. She looked pretty upset. "We're sorry. But we figured out how to get through the Labyrinth. I talked to Hephaestus."