I Could Give In To All Of The Gloom (Mute! Percy) (Percico)

All I Ask Of You

Percy Jackson

Everyone store at me when I grabbed my throat because I felt that in my soul. That hurt.

"Wait," Beckendorf remarked, as everyone was in shock. I kind of was to, because I didn't think that'd come out. "I thought he couldn't talk."

"So did I." Chiron agreed, as I had his attention along with Mr. D, and Luke, the leader of Camp still. He thought about leaving. About rebelling. But Annabeth talked him down and he's been here. In the summer. He got his own place for the school year. College. "I was under the understanding that Percy didn't have a voice box. Do you have one, Percy?"

I nodded my head.

"Was it tampered with?" Luke asked me and before I could answer, Mikhail did.

"It has been now." He remarked. "Good luck trying to do that again, dude. It's not happening. Not after that."

Well duh. Words I could mutter and just deal with pain if I wanted to. But a scream? After years of silence?

It's like when you go to a concert. You're singing and screaming all night. Your throat hurts for a few days, right?

Me talking hurt for a month.

Screaming was going to probably have permanent effects on my voice. I wouldn't doubt that I'd never be able to talk again.

"I mean, the kid's not lying." Mr. D remarked to lighten the mood. "I've never heard Peter talk before. Screaming is gonna mess you up, kid."

It's Percy.

"Either way," Chiron cut in. "What brings you guys here?"

Everyone pointed at Mikhail.

"Hi," he told the centaur. "I've never been here before. I met a god once, though. Does that count for anything? I don't think he's my dad. We have different dad's."

"We?" Luke asked.

"Percy and myself."

Luke took Mikhail to go through the ropes of everything. Chiron took me to look at my voice box and what not.

I sat down in his office and he got medical stuff out.

"Have you ever been able to talk?" Chiron asked me as he got like check up stuff. And I nodded, grabbing the whiteboard he always had in here.

Yeah, I wrote down. I talked a lot as a kid. Nothing really happened to my voice box. I just stopped talking when I was 6 or 7.

He read that and nodded his head.

"Got it," the centaur responded and I erased it. "Why did you stop talking?"

My older brother, Mikhail got in an accident. A car accident. I explained, recalling the worst day of my life. My step dad of the time, Gabe, lost control of the car. He walked out with just a broken foot. But Mikhail went into a coma and Gabe got abusive. He threatened that if I told anyone, he'd basically kill me. I didn't even know he was doing it to my mom until they got divorced because that was the reason they got divorced. But after that he found out that I didn't like girls and that didn't set well. So nothing that ever came out of my mouth as right and he always told me to shut up. I was never called on in school, I didn't have friends to talk to. I just talked less and less an just stopped. That was kindergarten. I'm a senior now.

Chiron read over that once or twice before telling me I could erase it. Started to ask different questions. More opinions. A what if sort of idea.

"If you had the opportunity," Chiron reasoned with me. "Would you talk? Actually use your voice?"

I don't know, I started off. Probably eventually I would. It'd be weird to get used to, after I've been writing and using sign language for over ten years. But I guess so.

"Have you ever thought about going to voice therapy?"

I did after I met my dad a few times, I answered his question. Just because I was sort of intimidated by him being a god like everyone else always is at first. But we could never afford it. I knew that.

"Okay..." I think he had ideas. "I'm going to talk to Apollo. I'll be right back, I'm just going to call him up."

Okay.

•

Not an hour later I was in an operating room and I was out cold. On Olympus. Nobody told anyone at camp as far as I knew outside of Luke and Mr. D.

I don't remember anything, obviously. I was drugged up and old cold. But I woke up, and I woke up in my cabin. Middle of the night. Apollo was there, waiting for me to wake up.

"Oh, good!" The god perked up when he saw I was up. "You woke up! How do you feel?"

I shrugged. Nothing good or bad.

"Sounds about right." Apollo agreed to what I told him. "Look, your voice box is fine. There was a little mishap in there that Chiron said was probably caused by something major it wasn't used to. I know you are mute. Chiron talked to me about not being able to go to speech therapy. Do you want to go to speech therapy?"

Again, I shrugged. We can't afford it.

"Okay, if you could." He rephrased his question. "Money not being a problem. Would you?"

I thought about it before nodding my head. I wanted to do a when ago. But money sucks and I was used to not talking.

"Good." Apollo insisted and handed me a piece of paper that had a schedule on it. "Because your parents are on their plane home now according to what their plan was. Meaning you go home in the morning, and you can start voice therapy tomorrow."

My eyes went wide. Because what the fuck, where does this come from?

"Don't worry about it, Percy." He seemed genuine in the offer. "You've done a lot for us. I owe you for getting Artemis to back off of me when you guys brought Nico here. And plus, I've been wanting to work with somebody that's mute for years now. I love helping people get their voice back. You can't tell anyone at camp until after you've gotten your voice back, though. Because I turned down a few kids here for different things they want that just... They don't need it. Or at least don't need it at my level of attention. You actually messed up your voice and would've never talked again had we not had our powers and caught it as quick as we did. That's more critical than what most demigods ask me for. For what they want, they can go to the infirmary and get the same result. You can't."