GREEK TRAGEDY [PERCY JACKSON A.U] ✓

NINETEEN: REHABILITATION

"Percy?"

    He was at her side in an instant, green eyes darting over her entire body to check for injuries.

    "I'm here. I'm here, Thea. You alright?" He whispered as he tucked a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

    Althea grimmaced and used him as leverage to help her out of bed, holding onto him tightly when her legs threatened to buckle under her.

    "How many times..." She started, voice hoarse. "Have I told you not to call me Thea?"

    Percy couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, Pollux, go get Chiron, will you?"

    Maddie slammed into his side, eager to get at Althea for the first time in months.

    "Oh my gods." The younger girl whispered, starting to get teary-eyed.

    She cupped Althea's face with her hands and stared into her eyes with a hard intensity. The two sisters seemed to exchange words between their eyes alone, not speaking for a few moments.

    "I missed you, Mads." Was all that Althea said to her sister before pulling her into a tight hug.

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    Henry had attached himself to Althea the moment he saw that she was awake, so the grownups were unable to have a real conversation. However, Althea was quite happy to spend most of the day following her brother around to his lessons and training sessions.

    "Oh, shit, Knight. Nice to see ya." Clarisse said gruffly, but not unhappily, as Henry dragged his sister into the arena.

    Althea smiled, rolling her eyes a bit at the half-assed greeting. "You, too, La Rue."

    She watched from behind Clarisse as Henry and all the other children in his age bracket sparred with wooden swords and shields, surprised to find that her little brother had progressed significantly since the last time she'd seen him train. He was shaping up to be a real warrior.

    The thought of her baby brother, seven years old now and still oh-so delicate, becoming a fighter like she and Percy were was sickening, to the point where she actually felt her stomach turn. He was too young, too kind, too small to be a genuine fighter.

    She would fight in every war, turn the goddamn world upside down all over again, if it meant keeping him from every single thing that would harm him.

    And she hated herself for knowing she was one of the people that had hurt him.

    So when Clarisse called the lesson, announcing her dueling prodegies could go, Althea crouched to Henry's height and brushed his sweaty, rust-colored curls back from his face.

    "Hey, dude." She said, giving him a sip of water from her water bottle. "Ready to go to lunch?"

    He grinned, showing that his missing tooth was growing in. "Can Percy sit with us?"

    "Alright, but only if you promise to eat your whole lunch, okay?" She bargained, since he'd always complain that he didn't want whatever was left on his plate halfway through the meal.

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    Althea gripped Henry's hand as they walked to the dining pavilion, nervous to see the campers' reactions to her being back after months of being in a coma.

    Luckily, though, Percy was running at her to sweep her off her feet in a hug, spinning around in circles so fast that she got dizzy.

    "Hey, Thea." He said casually when he set her back down, pressing a kiss to her forehead.