trigger warning (Percy Jackson au)

Chapter 20: keep-Percy-From-Crying day

XX

Keep-Percy-From-Crying Day

Warning: strong language.

"Percy! Percy~!" Door slam number one. "Percy!" Door slam number two. Damn, she was in the bedroom, right in his ear. Suddenly he was cold - someone had pulled the blanket off him. He groaned and rolled onto his back.

"What? What?" He was hit by a sense of déjà vu at the situation. This exact scenario had happened before, with the same people. "What happened?"

"You're in the paper!"

He sat up immediately. That didn't sound good at all. He hadn't done anything good so it must have been something really, really bad- "What? Why?"

"Look!" Thalia shoved newspaper in his hands and the smell of ink wafted up to his nose.

After a moment, he forced his eyes open, trying to adjust to the morning light. He'd just gotten to sleep a couple of hours ago. His eyes focused on the headliner. New Year Goes Off With a Bang! Whatever, whatever, he didn't really care.

His eyes moved down to the gigantic picture plastered all over the front page. It had been taken when the fireworks were still illuminating the streets and the people in them. The camera had been centered to take a picture of a couple kissing in the light, one figure lifting the other into the air. The profiles weren't clear but those clothes and that shared cloud print scarf gave it away.

"It's you, right? You and Jason? Oh my god," Thalia laughed and clapped her hands. "I knew it! There is no one on this Earth who has a scarf like that. Annabeth only made one." She pulled the page out of his hands and looked at it again, probably for the thirtieth time that morning. "And you guys are sharing it, like movie characters or something. Gosh, that's so cute."

Percy dropped his burning face in his hands.

Thalia laughed and sat next to him on the bed. "Right when the ball drops, under the fireworks, with a thousand people all around, and you two are the lucky couple who end up in the paper. The caption calls you the 'moonlight pair', agh that's so perfect." He groaned and she prodded his shoulder. "Aww Percy, are you embarrassed? Your face is turning so red, like a tomato!" He blushed even harder at that, though she had no idea why.

"Go away, Thalia."

"No, this is too amazing. The rest of us watched it from Annabeth's place, sitting together and hoping to give you two some coping time alone, some space to say your goodbyes, and then - and then - you end up in the paper! Gods, you had a better night than we did."

"I didn't even know you read the paper."

"I don't, but Reyna does." He looked up at her beaming smile in mild fear. "Yup. And so do Annabeth, and Piper, and Leo, and Miss Valdez. And I'm pretty sure Leo's already called Beckendorf-"

"God, make it stop."

"-and so does Dr. D. And," She pulled out her phone. "It's time to tell Jason."

"No." He leapt at her but she danced out of his way, leaving him to fall on the ground in a helpless heap.

"He's still on the plane, right? I'll just email him-"

"Thalia, stop."

"Percy, don't be a butt." She snapped a photo of the front page and began to type furiously on her smart phone. She ran out of the bedroom when Percy began to chase after her, her high peals of laughter bouncing off the walls. "And, sent!" She stopped in front of the couch and he ran right into her, sending them both flying into the blue sofa.