But when Cressida's birthday rolled around in August, not much had changed. She and Pollux had barely come out of their cabins for the last month. Not to eat, not to train, not for anything. And when her birthday finally arrived on August first, she'd never wanted to not celebrate it more.
Pollux wasn't in any good shape after losing his other half to do more than kiss her cheek and say everything he usually did. "Happy birthday Cress. You may be a year older but you're still my baby sister."
She tried to get him to stop, knowing that it would kill him to say that because he and Castor always said it together, but he insisted. He'd also been a big help the few times she'd woken from a nightmare about watching her brother die. She'd only fallen asleep out of complete exhaustion because she'd been too scared to fall asleep before. So, she'd spend her nights with her father, dancing.
It was probably the only time she actually felt calm in the last month.
Clarisse had scrawled a quick message into the card Annabeth slid under Cressida's door seeing as Cressida didn't want visitors and Annabeth was nose-deep in Daedalus' laptop.
But Percy? Percy was determined to give her a good day. She deserved it. She needed it.
So, with Clarisse's help to get Cressida out of bed and dressed, breaking down the door and not taking no for an answer as she coaxed her out of bed and into the bathroom.
Clarisse had then walked her over to the road at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill where Dionysus was waiting outside of the white van where Argus was sitting in the driver's seat.
"Papa? What's going on?" she'd asked, tucking the hair Clarisse had brushed behind her ears.
"A birthday present for you, Jewel," he answered, a Diet Coke can in his hand despite it barely being ten in the morning.
"But, Papa, I-"
"Just this once," he interrupted. "I am forced to deny you want you want, in favour of what you need."
"Papa, that makes no sense."
"But it will," he said as he stepped closer to her. "Enjoy your day, my Jewel, and I pray you come back to life."
Her father kissed her cheek as he pulled open the sliding door of the van and held out a hand to help her inside. And she was surprised to find Percy inside.
"What's going on?" she asked, confused, looking between the two.
"Hey, Grape Girl," Percy called and her gaze settled on him. "Do you trust me?"
She bit her lips as she remembered how happy she'd been the last time he'd asked her that question. How quickly things had changed since then.
"Do you ask stupid questions?" she sighed, and he grinned.
"Then buckle up."
And her father guided her into a seat as she put her seatbelt on, giving her a final kiss before he slid the door of the van shut and Argus began to drive.
Cressida realised that he was taking them into Manhattan pretty quickly, but Percy said nothing the entire drive.
He was fulfilling a promise he made months ago and never got the chance to follow through on. His idea to cheer her up what to give her a day full of completely normal teenage things and not a single demigod problem in sight.
He started their day off slowly with a movie.
It was some action-adventure comedy that Percy would never remember the name of or what happened in it because the second they sat down and the movie started, Cressida hugged his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. And she didn't move for the next 157 minutes. He thought she'd fallen asleep at one point but when he dared glance at her, he watched her eyelashes flutter as she blinked, awake and watching. And while she enjoyed the film, the arm that she was sleeping on was slack and relaxed, but the other arm was about to break the armrest with how nervous he was.
She seemed a bit more relaxed when the movie was over, and Percy took her outside to treat her to churros and a hotdog from a street vendor.
Percy then led her to the subway, his breath hitching when she laced their fingers together, so they didn't lose each other in the crowd. They'd ridden the underground train to Percy's favourite arcade.
That was where he got her to smile. She was overstimulated with all the sounds, smells and colours, the scene both similar and different to the Lotus Casino and much better than it.
They did everything, ski-ball, basketball, shooting games, claw machines, he even took her to laser tag. But Cressida's favourite thing was probably the bumper cars.
She'd never driven a car before so the first time she rode with Percy as she watched what he did. The second time he let her drive as he corrected her technique. And then the third time....
Note to self - next time Percy took Cressida to drive bumper cars, he needed to bring a helmet.
Despite the fact that he was fairly certain he got a concussion, she smiled, and it was all worth it.
He'd then taken her to this classic old-fashioned, New York-styled diner where she had the best cheeseburger and pizza of her life.
They took another subway back up to Central Park. They sat on a bench, overlooking a lake as they had ice cream. He didn't even have to ask her what she wanted. He simply sat her down on the bench and walked over to an ice cream vendor - rocky road for him and cookie dough for her.
It felt like more than two friends celebrating a birthday after they'd finished their dessert. Because on the walk back to Percy's apartment, it just felt natural to walk with his arm around her. And when she didn't protest, he just held her closer to him.
He'd told his mother beforehand that Cressida didn't want to be treated like glass because she lost her brother, so thankfully, she simply greeted Cressida with a hug before presenting her with the completely purple cake she'd made for her.
That brought her to tears.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Sweetheart, you have nothing to apologise for," Sally replied with a hand on her shoulder.
"I just - I don't know how to do this without him."
Sally pulled her into a hug. "It gets easier. It doesn't seem like it now, but I promise you, it gets easier."
Their hug lasted a few minutes as Cressida pulled herself together and blew out her candles. And when she did, Percy put a hand on her back. "Come on. I have a present for you, then we can eat some cake."
"Go ahead. I'll start cutting it up," Sally insisted and Cressida let Percy tug her into his room where he pulled a small blue box from where he'd hidden it in his sock drawer.
"What, no bracelet charm this year?" she asked with a small grin as she wiped her face with her hand.
"Just open it," he said as he presented her with the box.
Curious, she did as he asked, opening the box to reveal what looked like a small bracelet charm in the shape of a book and she furrowed her brows.
"It's pretty," she admitted as she pulled it out and he took the box back. "But I don't get it. You always give me something related to our quest. What does a book have to do with the maze?"
"This actually has nothing to do with the quest. And it's not a book. Watch."
And she did watch as he reached for the tiniest of switches on the corner of the little rectangle and suddenly, she was holding a photo frame. But there wasn't a single photo inside. The photo kept changing.
One second, she was looking at the photo of her and Castor as Pollux was tied in grapevines, then the image changed and she was looking at her sitting atop her brother's shoulders. Then there was a picture of her and Annabeth together. Of her Annabeth and Thalia before she left to join the Hunters. Of her and Percy sliding down grapevines last summer. Of Tyson squeezing her in a hug and her and Grover making grapevines dance. There were dozens of photos that appeared, some of which she had no idea how he got his hands on.
Her knees buckled as she sat on his bed, simply staring at the frame. "How-how did you get these?"
"Castor. And Pollux," he answered as he sat next to her. "They helped get all the pictures and Tyson designed a way to put them all in one place. So, you can see everyone you love all at once."
And she watched again as Percy hit the switch and the frame shrank back into a charm that he then attached to her bracelet. And the second he was done, she kissed him.
And this time it was Percy's turn to fold like a cheap suit for a few seconds before he pulled away, his hands holding her biceps as he rested his forehead on hers.
"What's wrong?" she asked, and he sighed.
"It's not that I don't want to kiss you, because believe me, there's nothing I want to do more. But it's not fair to me and it's not fair to you and it's not fair to Castor if you don't deal with your grief first before we even give a relationship a try."
"But I -"
"Hey," he said as he met her eyes, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. "I'm not going anywhere."
"I can't expect you to wait until I get my shit together," she said, and Percy just smiled.
"My mother loves you and I swear she's already on the verge of calling you her daughter. And don't even get me started on the fact that your father knows everything that's already happened between us and the conversation I had with him to get permission to take you out today was probably the most embarrassing conversation of my life and it's not going to be for nothing."
She couldn't help but chuckle at that. "It was weird to see you work together or even agree on something."
"Did you have a good day?" he asked, and she nodded.
"I did. Thank you. Really."
"You're welcome," he said as he pressed his lips to her cheek.
"Percy, Cressida! Cake is ready," his mother called from the kitchen and with their hands linked together he led her back to the kitchen where they gorged themselves on cake.
However, Sally had insisted that Cressida stay the night and that she was in no condition to head back to camp.
At his mother's instruction, Percy found some of his clothes to lend Cressida to sleep in. And he wasn't sure if it was his heart or his stomach doing somersaults inside his chest (it was probably both) when she came out of the bathroom dressed in his black sweats and NYU t-shirt. Both were oversized on her, Cressida needing to roll up the waistband on the sweatpants a couple times to make them stay on her hips (Percy really had gotten taller). And her hair was out and flowing down her back but as they sat on the couch eating birthday cake and watching a movie, Percy couldn't help but play with it and eventually twisted it into an elegant braid down her shoulder. Rope-tying was apparently a useful skill when not on a ship.
Percy was more than happy to sleep on the couch and give Cressida his room for the night, taking the time she was changing in the bathroom to quickly clean it - or make it look clean. However, when she'd fallen asleep on the couch, Percy had lifted her into his arms rather easily as he carried her towards his room.
But there was no way he could leave her there alone, there was no way he could abandon her when she grabbed his hand, preventing him from leaving as a bunch of different emotions shone in her eyes. Grief. Sadness. Fear. Along with one very clear request; a very clear plea.
Stay. Please.
So, he'd left the door open, and he pushed away whatever he felt in order to help his friend who was still trembling as Percy held her to his chest, the blanket cocooned around them in a protective bubble.
And as he did, the grapevine that she'd grown on his fire escape that had withered when Castor died, came back to life a little.