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Percy stood in his cabin's bathroom in front of the sink mirror, and thumped at his new scar. It wasn't his first scar, not by a long shot, but it was the newest. He'd only been at this camp for a week and already he managed to get his arm hair singed off, via actual lava(!) on a climbing wall. Built for training? Training what, he wasn't sure, there was nothing like this in his basement. His best guess was reflexes. He had to force himself not to climb it too quickly.
( Going rooftop hopping, and subway surfing with his brothers made him an exceptionally fast and agile)
But that's not even how he got hurt the most. He rubbed his thumb over the thin white line on his bicep. If he stared at it too long. He would imagine it knitting back together like slash from the hellhound did, leaving four white lines across his front from his shoulder to his hip. He had no idea how he was gonna try to explain that to his family the next time they saw his chest.
( Not a pleasant image.)
Clarisse and her siblings gave it to him. Said it was because he made their cabin look stupid? He's not quite sure how, since he was being toured around by Annabeth and they dragged him to the bath to “initiate” him to camp life via swirly. He could have broken her hold on him, but he didn't want them to know how trained he is. Besides, their swirly attempt didn't even work. He accidentally flushed them out with the plumbing water. Something he didn't know he could do.
Like oopsies, he found out he had a super cool healing factor if he touched water because a bunch of children tried to run him through with their spears and pushed him into the creek, ( did that count as trying to drown him?) because a different kid decided that it would be really funny if she used him as bait for her “strategy” to win a fucking game and test her theory about his parentage at the same time.
She was wrong, and had since been taking that out on him. For some reason, Chiron thought it would be an excellent idea to pair the girl who wouldn't care if he got stabbed and in fact had watched it happen without interfering as his “camp tutor” for everything Greek he didn't know. So now every time she looked at him it was with a stare that made him feel like he just poked her between the eyes and murmured gross things about his father, who Percy had never meant, and didn't want too very badly. He was a-okay with the dad he had now and in fact, very much wished he was with his family.
“ This place sucks,” he muttered to his reflection.
Sighing, Percy pulled out the phone Connor had “borrowed” for him. It was a cheap, beat-up thing, but it worked. Percy hadn’t dared to call anyone yet, afraid that Annabeth would somehow find out and rat him out to Chiron since he wasn't letting her come on his quest, but tonight, after the disaster that was his first capture the flag game, he couldn’t hold back anymore. He needed to hear a familiar voice, especially now that he was going to the underworld.
His thumb hesitated over the power button, Conner warned him over how tech could be used by monsters so he’d kept it off until now. Fuck it he thought, pressing down on the button until the screen lit up. He had to wait for all the apps to show up before he could press the call app and dial Dick’s number from memory.
The phone rang twice before someone picked up.
“ ‘Yello?” The voice on the other end was sharp.
He felt his chest tighten. “ Hey, Dick,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady. “ It’s Percy.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and then, “ Percy? Oh my god! Where are you? Are you okay? We've been looking everywhere for you!” Dick’s voice shifted from sharp to frantic in an instant to relieved. Percy winced, leaning against the bathroom sink and pressing his free hand to his temple.
“ Hey, hey, calm down,” Percy said quickly, though his voice trembled just enough to give away his nerves, something he knew Dick would hone in on . “ I’m fine. I’m safe, I promise.”
“ Safe?! Percy, you’ve been missing for a week. A week! Bruce has half the Justice League looking for you. Jason’s been threatening to start fights with anyone who looks mildly suspicious, Damian keeps muttering about ripping out the spines of the people who took you, Alfred’s worried sick, Tim hacked fbI servers to look for you, Babes has has slept for maybe 15 hours this week because she has been combing every security camera on the planet with facial recognition. Where are you?”
“ I didn’t mean to worry everyone. But… ” Percy swallowed hard, his hand tightening around the phone. “ I… I can’t tell you that.”
“ What do you mean you can’t ?” Dick’s voice cracked slightly, his tone shifting to something more Nightwing than Dick Grayson. “ Are you being watched?”
“ Maybe hard to say, but I swear, I wasn’t kidnapped,” Percy said softly. “ I—uh—ran into some trouble, but I’m okay now. Really. I just… needed to hear your voice, that’s all.”
There was silence for a beat, and when Dick spoke again, his voice was quieter and he’d somewhat lost the edge. “ Percy, please. Whatever’s going on, you can tell me. I’ll come get you, no questions asked. Just tell me where you are.”
Percy stared down at the chipped tiles of the bathroom floor, his chest aching with the weight of the conversation. He wanted to tell Dick everything—about the monsters, the gods, the camp—but the words felt too big, too surreal. How was he supposed to explain something like this over a phone call? And even if he tried, would Dick even believe him?
“ I don’t really know where I am, but I’m not in danger,” Percy said even though it felt like a lie. “ I promise. I just… I can’t come home yet. There’s something I have to do first.”
“ You don't know where? Something you have to do?” Dick’s voice was a little incredulous now. Percy imagend him standing with three question marks above his head. “ You're not really convincing me you're not kidnapped here.”
Percy closed his eyes and gave a watery laugh, the corners stinging as he fought the urge to cry
Dick’s sigh crackled over the line, heavy and full of worry. “ Percy, this isn’t like you. Running off without telling anyone? Keeping secrets?”
Percy flinched, guilt twisting in his gut, he looked down at his timer, only a few seconds left. “ It wasn’t really up to me but I swear I’ll explain! But if you don’t hear from me in two weeks I’m dead.”
“ What the fuc-” the line went dead, and Percy shut off the phone in his hand again. Percy wanted to say more but didn’t want to risk it. He slipped it into his pocket, his chest still tight.
He didn’t know how he was going to get through this mission/quest thing.