King of My Miserable Life

Chapter 2

"A bond as important as that of a husband and wife is the bond between siblings."-Lee Dong-Wook

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"When would he have to go back?" Sally asked, her hand on her stomach. She looked at the man in alarm, her eyes wide. "You're saying...we'd have to send him back..."

"I'm afraid so, Mrs. Jackson." the man's suit was blacker than the ones worn at funerals. "Tomorrow morning the plane will be ready."

"Does he even get a choice?" Paul broke in. "He doesn't even know who he is yet."

The man tapped at his clipboard. "I'm taking orders, sir. I'm just the messenger. He needs to be on that plane tomorrow. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

"Inconvenience?!" Sally's hands were gripping at her hair. "You obviously don't have children if you'd call one of them being taken away from you an inconvenience!"

The man's facial expression never changed. "The plane leaves at nine tomorrow morning."

Sally threw her hands up in surrender. "I can't believe this! I can't believe this! Paul, did you hear him? Did you hear him?"

Paul kissed the side of her head. "I know, Sally. I know. He's taking our son away."

Her eyes filled with tears, her arms wrapped around her stomach. "Nico..."

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Nico scowled down at the map, a coffee in one hand and the map in the other. New York City, no matter how long he had lived there, would forever hold buildings that seemed to hide in plain sight. Percy had gotten them lost in the first hour, Nico had begged for a coffee the whole second hour. Finally, when he had gotten to clear his headache away, he took to actually trying to figure out where the hell they were. Turns out they had been on the wrong side of town all along.

"I don't have money for a taxi." Percy bounced around Nico. "We'll just have to walk."

"Just have to walk?" Nico huffed. "We've been walking for five years now."

"We don't have any other choice." Percy looked over Nico's shoulder. "Did you find where it is?"

"I think so." Nico traced the streets with his finger. "We'll have to go this way. That good with you?"

Percy shrugged. "We just need to get moving before she bites our heads off."

"We're already in trouble, trust me." Nico folded the map up and stuck it in his pocket. "Come on." He sipped his coffee and started walking again, his converse splashing in the puddles. "It's going to start raining again."

"You need another shower anyway." Percy looked towards the sky. "I like the rain."

"Of course you do." Nico crumbled his empty paper cup before throwing it into a nearby garbage can. "What water don't you like?"

"I feel like that was sarcastic." Percy looked around them as they walked. "How long do you think it'll take to get there?"

Nico shrugged. "Who knows. We'll just have to find out."

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"Nico, Percy!" Sally ran from the lobby of the building to greet her two sons. "Where have you been?" Paul was right behind her, talking to one of the black-suited men. The man looked Nico over, made sure it was the boy they were looking for. He nodded his approval with one movement and stalked back inside, looking like he was heading for a funeral.

"We got lost." Percy scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry... This place is impossible to find."

"And we didn't have cab money." Nico added. "So we had to walk. In the rain. It was Hell."

"Don't curse." Sally hugged each of them, staying with Nico for a second more before pulling away. "Let's go get some food. Whatever you two want."

"I thought we had to do something here." Percy frowned. "We came all this way and you didn't need us?"

Sally moved a hand to his hair and ruffled it. "Sorry, Perce. Seems like Paul and I got it taken care of. Let's go get something to eat and I'll tell you all about it."

Nico stomped against the ground impatiently. "Yes, can we? We need to get out of this rain. I vote McDonald's."

Sally gestured to the nearest yellow arches. "Then let's go, boys."