Shattered

Nico

Farmers were clearly masochists. No one in their right mind would willingly get up at such ungodly hours unless they liked to feel pain. And yet Jason got him up at five in the morning. Every. Single. Day. If he slept with his Stygian Iron sword he would have run Jason through by now.

Nico rubbed his eyes and looked at the Garfield clock that hung on the kitchen wall.

Six O'clock.

He was cutting it close, but he should be able to finish making breakfast by seven. Not that there was any deadline for when breakfast had to be served, but considering his idiotic blond friend got up at four, it didn't seem right to make him wait long for breakfast.

He stalked over to the ancient fridge and pulled out the last of the eggs, a loaf of white bread, and the milk. He deposited the collected items on the kitchen counter, which was ivy green like almost other surface in the house, and walked over to the stove and turned the burner off that had been cooking the sausage.

The son of Hades pulled out a large mixing bowl and a casserole dish from the cabinets beneath the counter. He set the mixing bowl on the counter, only to pick up the loaf of bread again.

Carrying the casserole dish and the loaf of bread he walked over to the kitchen table, where Percy currently sat.

A little over a week had passed since he had discovered Percy in the bathtub and he was determined to keep the son of Poseidon alive and on his way to well. That night he had confiscated any sharp objects and locked them away in a kitchen drawer and hid the key in his underwear drawer. It wouldn't stop the older teen, but Nico hoped he would be able to hear Percy if he tried to force it open. The son of Hades may have gone a little overboard when he removed all the pockets from the son of Poseidon's clothes, but how else was he going to stop him from getting Riptide?

He sat the dish and bread in front of his friend, seemingly startling the older teen. "Percy, I need you to take the bread, tear it into little pieces, and put it in the dish," he told the dazed teen, miming the instructions as he did. "And while you do that I'll start on the eggs." Nico went back to the eggs and bowl on the counter and began to fill the mixing bowl with the eggs, discarding the shells onto a paper towel.

From the corner of his eye he was glad to see that Percy was doing as he was told. At first the son of Poseidon was almost hesitant to rip up the bread, but to Nico's delight Percy began to really go to town on the bread, tearing the loaf into hundreds of little pieces.

"When you're done with that, gently pat the bread down into the pan," he explained as he added the last egg into the bowl. "There's a frying pan full of crumbled pork sausage on the stove, if you would please, take the sausage and pour it over the bread." Nico opened the utensils drawer and pulled out a fork and began to beat the eggs; a whisk would be better, but the fork would take up less room in the wash. He wasn't lazy, he was just working smarter.

Percy slowly got up from his chair and Nico couldn't help but notice how Percy winced when he pushed himself up using armrests. Nico resisted the urge to frown at Percy's condition. In the three weeks since they had arrived at Demeter's farm, Percy had lost an alarming amount of weight. Percy had always wore baggier clothes, but now Nico wasn't even sure how they stayed on the older teen. If it wasn't for Nico making the son of Poseidon eat something, Percy would have starved to death by now. Still it wasn't healthy for someone to eat so little.

There was an irony there that Nico wouldn't admit.

Percy's usual tan skin had lost most of its color. And his eyes, gods his eyes, once as beautiful and ever changing as the sea, had lost all of their luster and life. Percy had once told Nico about the ghoulish disguises he and Annabeth had used in Tartarus, and while Nico had never seen them, he couldn't help but think this is what Percy had looked like.