[TW: Needles and blood]
(Previously on Pain: "Percy- you're throwing up blood!")
Before he could respond, Percy gagged again, vomiting the substance in his mouth. He recognized the metallic, ironic taste once Apollo said it, but couldn't stop vomiting long enough to make a coherent sentence.
He was breathing heavily, sweating hard. He saw the dark red, almost black colored blood dripping from the toilet. He pushed himself up with the best of his ability and saw the toilet. It was full of black blood. There was no distinction between the dark red and black; they blended together.
Apollo was frozen in place, not knowing what to do. Percy suddenly felt woozy at the loss of blood. Feeling suddenly scared, Percy looked at Apollo.
"'Pollo?" He managed to croak out weakly. Tears were trailing down his cheeks, pain was bursting through his throat. The taste of blood, filling his mouth.
"'Pollo," he managed to say again, breathing harshly.
The blood was thick and sticky. The only way anybody could throw up this much blood was if they had a punctured lung, which even then would need a source to completely fill with blood.
Apollo snapped out of his frozen state once he heard Percy's pleas. He did not know what was wrong, but still knew he had to do something.
"Percy, go to the infirmary. I have to IM somebody, but make sure that you're being treated by Will."
Percy nodded and got up, swaying, and left quickly. Apollo fished a drachma out of his pocket and grabbed some water from the sink, muttering quickly.
"Apollo?"
"Poseidon, you need to come to Camp Half-Blood, and quickly. I need to contact Chiron and Hades, and Chiron needs to call a meeting... sorry. You need to come quickly, okay?"
Poseidon looked confused but nodded. Apollo found Chiron and told him the details of Percy's dream, quickly going to the infirmary. Will was doing tests on Percy's blood sample, and Percy was covered in blood.
"Have you found anything?" He asked hurriedly.
Will looked at his father.
"No, I checked his blood with dozens of different tests and he seems healthy. I don't know what's wrong!"
Apollo nodded, looking over the tests. Percy did, indeed, look healthy. Wondering what could be wrong, Apollo thought through his symptoms.
Suddenly, his thoughts were burst with a pained gag, and Percy bent over to the bucket. Teats of pain went down his cheeks. Percy was in too much pain to feel anything about crying, and Apollo frowned upon the thought.
He whimpered slightly, shivering and retching blood. He quickly glanced at the bucket, cringing slightly at the black blood.
It seemed like the kind of thing a curse would do, yet there was no way of Percy getting a type of curse like it.
A poison or enchantment was impossible, and mortal health was good. Even better than most people's, ironically.
Apollo approached the boy in question with a small, pained smile on his face and held his hand.
"'Pollo?" Percy asked, voice hoarse and raw.
"Yes, I'm here, Perce. I'm here," he repeated softly, his heart breaking at the pain Percy was in.
Percy weakly squeezed his hand before gagging and vomiting into the bucket again, letting loose a whimper of pain.
His insides were burning, his organs were on fire, the blood in his mouth burning as it passed.
He gave a small sob and Apollo brushed his hair away from his eyes, stroking it gently while muttering softly.
"'Pollo, help...please..."
Apollo's eyes filled with tears.
"I'll try, I swear Percy, I will. I swear on Styx, just please, be strong, Perce for me."
Percy gave a small nod.
"'Pollo?" He asked quietly.
"Yeah?" He whispered softly.
"Stay with me. Please."
Apollo's heart broke. Tears streaming down his face, he rubbed Percy's back comfortingly.
"I will, Perce. I will."
Will watched this exchange quietly from the corner, a few tears loose from his eyes. He left the room swiftly, unnoticed by neither of the other people in the room.
Percy seemed to have stopped vomiting. Apollo took a rag and cleaned Percy's face with it carefully.
Percy spit some of the blood out of his mouth and took a deep breath, his breaths shuddering. Apollo squeezed his hand tightly and gave him a weak smile as a flash of light appeared in the middle of the room.
Poseidon paled upon seeing his son. He was covered in blood and shaking, and Percy imagined himself to look horrible. Apollo gave him a grimace and walked out with Hades and Poseidon.
Percy's blood ran cold as he remembered the vision which caused the current situation. He wanted to curl up and cry, but he knew he couldn't afford that right now, especially with the recent update. He didn't want to sleep, he knew that if he fell asleep, he'd see Nico being tortured...
As the vision flickered through his mind, he gagged again. An anxious Will was working quickly on the counter and muttering furiously.
He finally took a needle and filled it with a pale yellow liquid. He squinted it ever so slightly, and gave a sigh of relief as he moved toward Percy.
"It's okay, Percy, just give me your arm," Will said softly.
Percy turned his arm and Will checked for a vein before nodding slightly. He took the needle and injected it, making Percy flinch.
His stomach churned dangerously, but vomit -or blood, in this case- didn't come. He took a deep breath, shakily steadying himself and sitting upright.
Will watched him carefully and after a few minutes, gave him a bottle of water. Percy took it gratefully and downed it quickly, feeling the liquid heal his hurting throat.
"I'm not sure how or why you threw up like that, and more so threw up blood, but the injection has to do for now. I could try to figure it out in case it happens again, if you'd like, but besides that I have the antidote down. You can talk to Apollo later, too."
Percy just nodded, exhausted from the vision and vomiting half the blood in his body out.
"You lost loads of blood, it'd do you good to sleep."
Percy shook his head, not giving verbal answers. He didn't want to see Nico get tortured. It was his fault for not being able to protect him, especially seeing as he was the one to get the vision.
Will frowned sadly and shook his head.
"I'm leaving now, if you need or want anything, there's always someone on standby."
Percy nodded his thanks. Despite all of his protests against sleeping, he drifted off to a warm sleep.
For once in his life, he didn't dream, vision or nightmare or not. Just blacked out peaceful coziness.
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After what felt like a second, he yawned and stretched slightly from under his blankets. He blinked and looked around. He was still in the infirmary. From the window, the sky seemed crimson. Percy guessed it to be around dinnertime.
He felt refreshed and got up. Since nobody stopped him, he assumed he was right. He found some paper and Will's pen, and wrote a note in Ancient Greek. He rushed off to his cabin before anybody saw him.
He closed the door and rubbed the sleep put of his eyes. With a sigh, he grabbed a hoodie and thin sweatpants to change into.
After changing, he looked around boredly. He was wide awake, and dinner was over by now. Not that he felt hungry, mind you. Perhaps it was stupid, but he wanted Apollo.
He ran his hand through his hair. It was so stupid. He couldn't even spend a few hours away from his boyfriend.
"Fuck this shit," Percy muttered angrily. He was annoyed with himself.
Percy got out of his cabin and walked toward the creek. Careful to avoid people, he ran toward it. After getting to the creek, he sat down and listened to the running water.
"Are you okay?"
"Holy fucking shit-!" Percy yelled, jumping up from his spot and uncapping Riptide instinctively.
He saw his father looking at him with raised eyebrows.
"Don't sneak up on me like that," Percy muttered, pouting childishly.
Poseidon put his hands up innocently.
"Nah, I don't think I will."
Percy rolled his eyes and turned back to face the water. He felt Poseidon move forward and wrap his arm around Percy.
"So?"
"'So' what?"
"Are you okay?" Poseidon repeated, looking at Percy.
Percy only looked forward toward the creek.
"H-how could I be? They- she- has him, and they're probably torturing him-" Percy's voice broke with a quiet sob.
Poseidon wrapped Percy in a hug.
"It'll be okay," he cooed.
"H-how? Y-you know, I a-always thought th-that this w-would all end someday. T-that I'd be h-happy."
Poseidon squeezed Percy tighter, softly reassuring him.
"And you will, Perce. Don't worry. I promise, it'll get better, the wars and battles and fights will be over. I promise."
Percy couldn't stop it anymore; he sobbed. Openly in his father's arms, he sobbed, clutching his father like a lifeline.
Poseidon only held him and whispered comforting words in his ear, but it was more than Percy could ever ask for.
It had been nearly half an hour when they broke apart. Silent tears were still drisseling down Percy's cheeks, but he paid no attention to them.
"I'm sorry, I have to go, but I can come tomorrow, okay?" Poseidon said, giving a small smile to his son.
Percy nodded, smiling back to his father. Poseidon disappeared with a flash. Percy pulled his hood up and walked quickly toward his cabin, careful to be unnoticed.
Once he finally got in, he froze in shock and happiness.
"Apollo."