THIS IS ME TRYING

33: Work Together

2 DAYS had passed and Percy still hadn't awoken, neither had Thalia. Luna spent the entire 48 hours beside her brother's bed in the infirmary, refusing to move until her Percy was better. However, on the 3rd day, Grover and Annabeth had finally managed to get Luna outside by promising her that they'd keep watch over him instead. They had been offering to watch him across the 48 hours too, but Luna was just too stubborn to agree. But, when the 60th hour passed by, Luna felt like she had to stretch her legs and inhale fresh air. She also needed to shower immediately.

She spent the early afternoon in the wooden restrooms, standing in the shower stalls for way longer than she needed to. When the hot water turned cold, Luna still didn't move. She just looked down at her feet, allowing the water to shower upon the back of her head. The water made her injuries sting, especially the beaten up knuckles on her right hand. Luna liked the sting, which sounded crazy, but she thought she deserved the extra pain.

Luna couldn't stop thinking about her Mom— both Hecate and Sally. She couldn't erase what Luke had said to her, about how Hecate was ignoring her because Luna hadn't joined Kronos. It seemed true, but Luna didn't entirely believe it. Maybe Luke had just dragged out the truth and made it more dramatic to make Luna feel worse. Because, if Hecate hated how the Gods treated her, what Luke was saying made sense. But... how was Luna supposed to know that if Hecate never planned on speaking to her? That was the part that didn't make sense. Luna didn't know Hecate, but she had some hope that her Mom wouldn't just throw her under the bus that quickly. Luna had only been a claimed Demi-God for a year— she was still too new to know any better. Camp Half-Blood had provided her with a new reality and, even if Luke thought it was a cult, it was a place that Luna felt safe... when it wasn't being invaded by monsters trying to break the barrier.

Luna had been thinking of Sally, and the other reality she had to live. The human life she had in New York: school, homework, grocery shopping. She had tried to write letters to Sally whilst staying with Percy in the infirmary but, even after 2 days, Luna had nothing. Every time she wrote a letter, she'd write the wrong thing or spell the words completely wrong. Luna didn't want to make Sally worry about Percy's safety, but she couldn't exactly write an optimistic letter because she was so upset. Luna would've just texted Sally, but cellphones attracted monsters. After her 7th attempt of writing a letter, Luna had started crying again; that was when Tyson walked in, apologised a thousand times, and then offered to write it for her. During the few hours, Tyson had revealed that Poseidon had offered him a chance to create weapons for the fight to come in the Forge of Hephaestus, which was a workshop for crafting advanced weapon in the depths of the ocean. Tyson had agreed to help his Father... and Luna hadn't seen him since— they had promised to send each other the occasional Iris Message.

Luna felt like she had lost two brothers.

After her shower, that consisted more of standing completely frozen under lukewarm water than actual cleaning, Luna decided to travel back to the infirmary. The feeling of her clean clothes— a fresh Camp t-shirt and long denim shorts— surprisingly made her feel a lot better. And, just got a moment, she allowed herself to think of something positive— Luna was looking forward to gaining her second bead on her Camp necklace at the end of the summer.

The slight breeze against her wet hair sent shivers through her; it was usually still quite hot during this time at Camp, but Luna guessed the weather was being effected because of Thalia's return. Luna wasn't entirely sure how she felt about Thalia— she was quite nervous to meet her, honestly. Thalia Grace had been occupying the infirmary bed beside Percy and, during Luna's 48 hours of consistently watching over her brother, she was worried that Thalia would wake up before him... then Luna would've been in a room alone with the girl who shot lightning bolts through multiple teenagers. Despite originally telling Clarisse to let her die, Luna didn't particularly want her death to involve being sizzled into human-bacon by a million volts of electricity.