For we once so loved the world by HowlingDarkness95

Chapter 18

Several days before Percy's 19 th birthday

Percy was at the airport, for the second time in his life, though the first didn't really count in his mind because he'd been rushing like Hades to get his uncle's precious weapon back to him. His eyes kept darting from side to side, his hand fingering Riptide in his pocket, the cool metal of the pen calming him down slightly. He jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder, whirling around immediately, only to find his mother smiling at him warmly, her bright blue eyes sparkling with excitement and amusement.

"Mom!" Percy said, sighing, "Please don't scare me like that."

Sally laughed, a musical chime in his ears, "Oh Percy, why so tense? I'm the one going on the plane you know. Besides, you should be happy that you'd be left unsupervised for awhile." She said, giving him a knowing look.

He blushed slightly, "Mom..." he whined, grinning, "There's just so many people here, I'm not used to it. But, you should enjoy your holiday. It's been so long since you got one." He said softly, smiling at her.

Sally smiled at her son, "Oh Percy, you've grown so much! And don't worry; I'll be back before you know it!"

Percy laughed, "No, no, no. Don't worry about me. Really! I can go to camp and all, just enjoy your honeymoon. And Paul." He grinned wolfishly.

His mother's face turned a beet red, and she smacked him lightly on the arm, the both of them laughing."Percy, could you do me a favor? Run to the sweets shop and grab some candy for me will you? I have to wait here for Paul to come back, and look out for our flight."

Percy blinked at the strange request, but shrugged it off, he couldn't read the sign anyway, his dyslexia prevented that, so he might as well go. 'Blue?" he grinned.

"Blue." His mother smiled at him.

As he walked away from her, he didn't notice the way the smile dropped of her face or her saddened look as she stood alone in the midst of a crowd.

Percy paid for the bag of sweets he had chosen and walked back to where he had left his mother. He glanced around, not seeing her. He walked further, looking for his mother, only to bump into Paul, who was queuing with both their luggage, the plane tickets in his hands.

"Hey Paul." Percy said, causing said man to look up from where he was checking his tickets.

"Percy!" Paul greeted, "Where'd you go?"

"Oh, I went to get some sweets for mom, she said she wanted to have them on the plane in case she got airsick. Where is she by the way?"Percy said, frowning slightly.

Paul smiled at his step-son's protectiveness of his wife. "Relax Percy; she just went to the washroom, no monsters involved."

Percy looked at him and blushed; he didn't know that he was being that obvious. "Oh."

"But she's been gone for quite awhile, you should go look for her," Paul said, he pointed to one corner, "She went there I think, I need to check in our luggage, could you go find her? we probably need to go in soon."

Percy nodded, depositing the bag of sweets with his step-father, cutting through the throngs of people. He kept an eye out for any unusual behavior amongst the humans though, he didn't know which one could be a monster, and despite his parents' reassurance, he was still a son of the big three, and his scent was extremely strong, monsters were bound to be attracted. He just didn't want to ruin the start of his mum and Paul's well deserved break.