~* Bad Day *~

It was going to be a bad day. They happened more and more lately; Paul was learning to read the warning signs that one was brewing. He was at once grateful for the insight and resentful that he needed it.

Paul knew from the moment Percy emerged from his room that morning that today would be such a day. The boy, normally loud and clumsy after waking (in the way teenagers should be), was silent, every movement deliberate and careful. His fingers constantly twitched and plunged into his pockets, eyes staring at shadows Paul couldn't see. Paul expected the boy to slip out during the day and abandon his classes to find Annabeth or the ocean. He had clasped Percy on the shoulder before they went their separate ways after breakfast, trying to impress love and understanding without words.

It was a bad day, so Paul started when he found his stepson in his office after the final bell rang. Percy sat gracelessly in one of Paul's uncomfortable plastic office chairs – well 'sat' was an overly generous term for the way Percy sprawled, legs thrown over the arm of the chair, one hand firmly lodged in his pocket while the other fiddled with anything within reach on Paul's desk.

"Hey Percy," Paul said, keeping his voice level and calm, as if he wasn't surprised to find the demigod waiting. "Let me just put a few things away, and maybe we can grab a pizza on the way home?"

Percy made a vague noise to indicate he heard but otherwise made no comment, still fiddling with the papers within his reach. His eyes briefly flickered over Paul, searching him from top to bottom (checking for injuries or perhaps just making sure Paul was real – either way, it made his heart ache), before flitting around the room, stopping on every shadow.

Paul opened his mouth to say something more, something useless to fill the silence as he filed away his plans for the day when shouting suddenly broke out in the halls. Paul couldn't stop his body from tensing, reaching out towards Percy.

"It's just other students."

Percy's eye twitched but otherwise seemed unbothered by the shouting. "Yeah, I know."

"Okay, good, good. I'll just, hang on a moment, let me just—" Paul floundered, feeling off-balance as he tried to pull his attention away from his twitchy stepson.

He forked a thumb towards the hall, but Percy didn't pay him any attention, eyes back to searching the shadows. Right, Paul thought, pushing away his parental concerns in favor of playing teacher, and ducked out of his office into the hall.

"Hey kids, we doing alright?" Paul called casually, striding towards the disturbance.

Two seniors at the end of the hall whirled at his voice. As he closed the gap between them, he saw the unmistakable signs of trouble: anger-flushed faces, clenched fists, and papers strewn across the floor under the boys who stared daggers at one another.

"It's none of your business, Blofis," the taller of the boys (Anderson, Paul's mind helpfully supplied) snarled.

"Well now, you see—" Paul began when both teenagers suddenly tensed, faces paling.

"Um, actually we were just—" Anderson stammered.

"Gonna go, yeah, going, sorry Blofis—" the other boy cut in.

"Mr. Blofis—"

"Mr. Blofis, right, yeah, sorry—"

The boys nearly tripped over each other in their haste to backpedal, hurriedly grabbing their things as they all but ran away from Paul.

"Um, okay, are you sure you don't want to talk about this?" Paul called, confused and rather alarmed as they retreated, but neither teen even so much as looked back as they ran out of sight.

Weird, Paul thought, shaking his head. Maybe he'd reach out to their homeroom teachers, to see if they had any insight into this odd behavior. He turned, still puzzled, and almost had a heart attack when he found Percy standing at his side.

"Percy!" Paul grabbed his chest, heart pounding. "You scared me, I didn't hear you coming."

Percy stood at his full height just a breath behind Paul, back perfectly straight and shoulders squared. His eyes were fixed unblinkingly at the place where the other teenagers disappeared. The absolute stillness was a shocking contrast to the restless teen Paul left moments before. Percy didn't even blink at Paul's startled shout, and, for a moment, Paul found himself looking at Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon and equal parts hero and bane of Olympus, the one that monsters checked their closets for at night and whose story would be told for centuries to come.

"Percy?" Paul didn't dare reach out and touch the demigod. "Hey, buddy, it's okay. Everything is okay."

Percy turned his unblinking gaze to Paul and for a terrible second Paul saw the ocean in their depths, storming and unpredictable. The very air around them buzzed with it, the roar of the tide loud in the silence. Then the son of Poseidon blinked, and it was gone.

"Yeah. So . . . pizza?" Percy asked, slouching forward and shoving his hands back into his pockets.

"Pizza," Paul confirmed and, realizing it was safe now, reached out to place a hand on his stepson's back. Percy's eyes crinkled as he gave Paul a half-smile, leaning into the contact. "Whatever you want, bud."

A/n I am alive if only just. I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to reply to everyone's reviews from last chapter, but please know that I cherish every single one and thank you so much for sticking around. Hope you enjoyed ~*