Experimental fic. IDK how often it'll be updated. Big Kid job will 100% get in the way.

Look, Triton hadn't meant to get attached to his baby brother. As far as demigods go, Perseus was too good, too kind, and far, far too much like his poor Pallas for Triton to be comfortable interacting with the fleeting, mortal child. Just seeing Perseus sent pain lancing through his non-existent heart, even if he was secretly proud of all the demigod had accomplished.

Oh, how Pallas would have loved her little mortal uncle. They were very much alike. So, for the sake of his sanity and the chance he could get another child needlessly killed, Triton pushed away their budding relationship and was content for it to stay that way.

Unfortunately, that plan was shot to Tartarus and back in an instant.

He had been on his way back from collecting reports on the Hudson River's worsening condition when he stumbled upon his little brother, curled up and crying on the beach. The mortal's eyes were bloodshot and almost swollen shut, his hands shook with fine tremors as they clawed at his pale and scarred legs. But the silent sobs were the most heart-wrenching part. They were the cries of one who was forced to mute their suffering, to push it down and away so as to not be found vulnerable. The cries of one who knew no one was coming to comfort them.

That just wouldn't do. Close or not, Triton wasn't about to sit aside while his family suffered. He could never leave a child in need.

His father wouldn't be too upset with the delay. He was, afterall, "finally" taking interest in his baby brother.

"Perseus?" he asked softly as he settled into the surf by the demigod, waves surging forth to embrace the both of them.

The child flinched before letting out an audible sob and flinging himself at the god, who was quite startled to have a lap full of too bony mortal. He fumbled to settle Perseus into a more comfortable and supported position and studiously ignored the fact that he hadn't had someone cling like this to him since his sweet daughter was slaughtered. Now was not the time to dwell on that when another child so dearly needed a hug.

"Can' do it no m're," Perseus slurred between hicks and sniffles.

Now Triton was shaking as he wrapped his arms around the delicate body. Gods be good, Perseus was a child- a little guppy that still dearly needed his family. And he was ignoring his plight out of selfish desire not to be hurt again. But hardening his heart and pushing away Perseus' past attempts at a relationship had only left the demigod adrift without any support, it seemed.

Part of him was angry, not just with himself, but with his father for letting Perseus get to this point. Sobbing silently on the beach from an obviously stressful and unhealthy situation should not be how he finds his baby brother. For all the hero had done for the gods, he should live a charmed life now, blessed a thousand times over, without pain or struggle, wanting for nothing.

"What can't you do, little one?"

"She wan's me t'be somethin' 'm not. They all do."

Triton's heart broke even as his control over his human shell cracked. Of course it was Athena's brood. Anything that accursed goddess touched was ruined. There was no joy in having his assumptions about the surface dwellers once more being proven correct. They could not be trusted with the sea's rich gifts and wondrous children.

Two noxious green tails joined his arms in cradling the child and poisonous claws gently scritched through mussy hair. He was startled to find that Perseus' hair was reaching past his shoulders and poorly kept. Yet another sign of the demigod's state of suffering.

"You are of the sea and waves, Perseus, and that holds you to different standards. If your little mortals cannot understand that, they do not deserve you." He had long lost his lisp when speaking around a mouth of sharp fangs.

"But 'm bad, Tri. Never do anything the right way. I messed up and now Annabeth is mad." Again was left unsaid at the end.

Perseus was so, so quiet. He had to strain to hear him over the crashing waves. Waves which were growing in intensity. Triton wasn't sure if it was his doing, or if their father had discovered his weeping child. Perhaps both.

"What did you do that upset her so?" With how irrational Athena's spawn could be, a number of things came to mind.

"Caught a fish and ate it raw," the sweet child mumbled.

Triton bit back a slightly hysterical laugh. Of all things Annie-whats-her-name could be turned off by, it was a little one just trying to feed himself. No wonder Perseus was so thin if they refused to let him eat. Those of the sea must be nourished by the sea- it was simply the way of the world. While they could eat land food, it never filled them with nutrients the same way. It was not surprising that Perseus was much the same, seeing as he was more brine than blood, so to speak.

All children under the waves learn to catch their own meals early on in case needs must. As for eating it raw? How exactly were they to cook things to human standards in salt water?

He told Perseus as much and got an adorable blush in response.

"But-"

"Hush, little seastar. If the land pains you and shuns you so, I will simply have to steal you away to the depths."

When no refusal was forthcoming, their father decided to make himself known. Poseidon was struggling worse than he to hold onto a mortal shell, so Triton tucked Perseus' soft head of curls into his neck and held the child tighter.

A storm of the ages raged around them, Perseus oblivious to the fact, obscuring them from Olympus' view.

Six eyes darker than the lowest abys looked on at god and mortal with a strange mix of anger, pride, and a possessive love that chanted mineminemine. Countless tentacles wound around them as Posiedon pulled his children to his side. Even after millenia of life, Triton felt the safest in his father's grasp.

A buzzing thrum echoed between the three of them, only missing the strong tenor of his mother, when at last they reached the sea god. Perseus, seemingly startled and out of it, tried to lift his head from Triton's shoulder.

"No, little pearl," Poseidon said with a thousand crashing waves in his voice. "Keep your eyes closed and averted. Your brother and I are not in a state you can handle seeing."

Not yet, the very water echoed between the deities.

The demigod melted at their father's touch, nodding softly into his shoulder with a small sigh. Gods, he was so tiny compared to them. It made Triton clutch him closer, even as they melted into sea foam at their father's will.

In a blink of an eye, they came to heel in the Royal family of Atlantis' private wing. The sea lanterns made of bioluminescent algae cast a soft blue light on the sandstone-and-gold walls, as well as the Queen and her Ladies.

His mother had an even more complicated relationship with Poseidon's mortal child than he. For all Perseus reminded his mother that she was not enough for her husband, she desperately wanted another child to mother. Amphitrite was torn between all the flaws and failures Perseus represented, and the comfort and love the child could bring, if only she could be vulnerable enough to open her heart and love him. After thousands of years of loss and betrayal, this was not an easy task.

"Husband, my son, what is this?" she asked in a cool tone. Not hostile, which was good, only wary.

"Mother, the foolish demigods wish for Perseus to shun all he is because it does not meet their silly surface ideals. They are starving him of the proper nutrients his body needs," he snarled, glaring at the ceiling as if it was said idiotic mortals.

Somewhere far above, the freak hurricane of their creation raged on stronger.

That seemed to decide something in his mother, her eyes hardening as she promptly reached for the sleepy child in his arms. Perseus let out a cute little squeak as he transferred arms, prompting Amphitrite to coo at him.

"Collect yourselves," she told them calmly, tucking a strand of inky hair behind the demigod's ear. "You are not helping Perseus when you cannot even maintain a form he can look at. I will get him settled down for the evening- nothing productive will happen until he is coherent."

Triton did as his mother bayed. Retreating to his room, he settled himself onto the soft, sandy floor, closed his eyes, and breathed deep from his stomach. Perseus was safe; his mother and father were safe; his little sisters, absent as they were, were safe. Any pain or trauma his little seastar had incurred from the surface, he would help heal. None could reach the child here. He repeated this mantra until he felt sufficiently contained.

With a calmer mind, Triton rose and swam to his wardrobe. Perseus would need something more comfortable than jeans and a ratty orange shirt to sleep in. He pulled one of his favorite tunics, a soft one of a pale purple color that Pallas had loved, and a pair of loose breaches out. He didn't own very many pairs of pants, but he had to own a few for when he was inevitably forced to the surface.

They would be big on his baby brother's tiny, thin frame, but they would do until his mother inevitably arranged clothing from him.

There was only one room in all the palace that Triton could see his mother taking a child she had decided to forcibly adopt. It was a quick swim to the door across the hall from his. He knocked softly and entered to find Perseus sitting at the foot of the bed, his mother standing behind him and humming softly as she plaited back his now neat, shoulder-length hair. Little pearls and sea flowers dotted the braids. It had been an age since Amphitrite had a child that was willing to sit long enough for her to play with their hair.

The little one turned to look at him and blinked, as if surprised to see Triton standing there.

"Hi, Tri," he said with a sleepy smile. He was obviously overwrought and running on adrenaline.

"Hello, seastar. I have some clothes that are better suited for sleeping than jeans."

"M'kay." He reached out and stroked the fabric, eyes widening in awe. "Soft."

He chuckled a little and his mother's eyes glittered with laughter in a way they hadn't in the years since the prophecy of the Second Titanomachy came into being.

"Indeed. Do you have enough energy to change yourself, or do you need a hand?"

Perseus flushed in embarrassment and shook his head 'no'.

His mother's eyebrows creased in worry. She moved to look the child in the eyes, making sure he was focused on her before speaking. "There is nothing wrong in asking for help when you need it, sweet one. We are your family and we want to support you and care for you."

She kissed the tip of his nose even has Posiedon's voice rumbled from the doorway. "She's right, little pearl. No one will judge you or think that you are weak here."

After a moment of time, Perseus turned his blood-shot eyes towards Triton and quietly asked him to help him change. It was quick work to strip him of the horribly scratchy surface fabric and settle him into Triton's sleep clothes. He was right on both accounts- the shirt and pants were far too big on the little one, and his mother had that look on her face she got right before a clothing spree. Good. Perseus needed a little spoiling, going by the evidence he had been presented with.

Poseidon waited until he finished before moving forward to stand by his wife. It was surreal to watch his parents work in tandem to settle and tuck Perseus into the coral and sea sponge bed. Not since Pallas had been a wee thing had he witnessed such an act.

With a flare of power, Poseidon called forth the school of venomous fish from the coral of Perseus' bed. They flitted through the water like so many jewels, one breaking off every so often to nuzzle into the demigod, exclaiming excitedly about the kind little lord. Triton called two of his own subjects, a set of sea serpents with gold-and-blue scales and sharp spines. One, he commanded to settle at the demigod's head, and the other at his feet.

With a curtain of fish with strong enough venom to drop a whale and two overly protective serpents, Triton only felt slightly nervous to let Perseus out of his sights. However, the child needed to sleep, and he and his father had yet to discuss the issue with the Hudson.

"Protect him and notify me of any change," he told his servants, who bowed in acceptance.

Perseus reached out and pulled the serpent by his head into his arms like a toy to cuddle with, which made the serpent smugly look at its partner as it flattened its spines so as to not harm the child. Triton snorted and cast a soft smile at the sleeping demigod before silently following his parents out into the hall.

His heart was heavy. In trying to prevent more pain, he left such a sweet little one to fend for himself. Pallas would be ashamed of him. She was always so caring, taking in strays and doing her utmost to make her family happy. What would she think of him ignoring her hurting uncle? She probably would have cried and bullied him into helping Perseus, in all honesty.

Fine. He had learned his lesson. Perseus needed someone to look out for him, to support him and guide him to understand the nature of Posiedon's brood. Sitting by had only brought them both pain and strife, so he would hold onto his brother with two clawed fists and protect him viciously from all that had hurt him in the past. He refused to lose another child to Athena and her ilk. He refused.

Damn what the Olympians demanded and their cruel laws. Perseus would stay where his family could care for him and help him grow. From the look of his parents, Zeus would have to carve a bloody path through all of the ocean if he wanted to kick up a fuss about the boy. The little one was theirs and theirs he would remain.