Alone Again (Percico/Pernico AU)

Chapter 19

Rachel blinked, collecting her thoughts. "What?"

"I mean, last time he left the building and almost collapsed. Do you think he'll do the same again?"

"Depends. If he's with who I think he's with, he's probably fine."

"Rachel, who was the other person on the phone?"

"Ethan Nakamura."

*****

Percy was really struggling to come up with ways to convince himself that this was a good idea. When Grover had called him, he was stupidly shooting a water gun at Luke, who was doing the same right back. He hadn't even realized that he had been called before Luke ran out of water.

"What are you doing?" Percy called to Ethan from his position.

Ethan covered his phone's microphone. "Your roommate called, so I talked to him."

"Ethan, I swear-"

"I did nothing!" Ethan exclaimed, going the phone to Percy.

After the cell had ended, Percy joined the other two again. The two were trying to decide what to do on the wall of the school. Eventually, Luke and Ethan got to work while Percy kept their supplies full. After about ten minutes, Percy sat against the wall of school, staring up at the nearly full moon. He looked down at his twitchy hands.

Stupid ADHD.

"Guys, how much longer are we staying?" Percy asked, looking towards Luke and Ethan.

Luke turned towards the youngest of the three. "Why?"

Percy shrugged. "Just asking."

He saw Luke return to his former task, whatever that happened to be. His eyes scanned the area as he nervously tapped his foot. He never exactly liked the night. Of course, he thought it was fine before he got jumped when he was eleven. Now he always felt uneasy. He'd just have to find a good way to cope.

Percy sighed, finally looking towards his feet. He inhaled shakily, confused as to why he couldn't relax.

Everything's fine.

Right?

Perseus Jackson could not have been more wrong.

*****

Nico and Rachel left the apartment after telling everyone to relax and to continue with the movies. They planned to try to find Percy, though they had absolutely no idea where he would be.

"What's a familiar place to all three of them?" Rachel questioned, struggling to see in the dark as she drove.

"Well, there's school and there's...I'm definitely the wrong person to be answering this question," Nico replied, trying and failing to pull more suggestions out of his mind.

Rachel shrugged. "Guess we're going to your school, then."

Nico provided directions as Rachel continued driving, hoping that they were there. Upon their arrival, though, Nico didn't exactly enjoy the sight in front of him. Four or five police cars were in the school's parking lot, along with an ambulance. The lights were aggressively blaring through the dark night, causing the two to squint from the brightness. Somehow, Nico managed to see someone being rolled into the ambulance in the distance. It took off, and eventually, the police officers all left the school as well.

"What happened?" Nico questioned, looking around the area.

Rachel flicked her eyes around as well. "We should go back."

Although Nico wanted to leave the car and look around, he nodded. He knew Rachel wasn't exactly accustomed to this sort of thing. She didn't like to get involved in anything that had to do with the law.

The two drove back home in silence, the eerie reminder that their friend could've been the one in ambulance lurking in the atmosphere. They had done their best to shake it off, to convince themselves that it couldn't be Percy. Of course, they were bombarded with questions the second they walked through the door.

"Did you find him?"

"Why are you back so soon?"

"Nico, can I use your homework?"

"Is Percy okay?"

Rachel sighed, somehow managing to silence the interrogations. Then, a phone rang. Everyone took theirs out, and after figuring out that the ring belonged to Thalia, everybody quieted down as she answered and put it on speaker.

"Hello," a woman spoke from the other end, "who am I speaking to?"

"Thalia Grace."

"Perfect. I've been informed that you are the legally correct emergency number for Luke Castellan and Perseus Jackson."

The entire room exchanged glances, anxiously waiting for the conversation to continue.

"Okay. Did something happen?"

"We would like to ask if you would come down to the police station."

"Why?"

A sigh came before the answer. "They're both waiting for interrogation."

Ooh, trashy chapters. I've also just realized that there's no opening A/N on this chapter and it's kind of weird for me, but whatever😂

By the way, Project Demigod is literally flawless.

Go read it.

Okay.

I'm not sure why I decided to mention it.

But too bad.

It's good.

Bye.