Chapter Text
Percy didn’t always have trust issues.
Sure, he wouldn’t have called him the most trustful person on the planet. He had learned enough the hard way to make sure that wasn’t going to be a thing, most likely.
Kids could be mean at school at times. He had definitely been bullied more than a few times at school, made to feel like he belonged to a friend group, only to be kicked out or made a mockery of.
But nothing compared to the level of issues he was going to face once he entered camp. Compared to that, he was the most trustful person at the beginning of this whole mess anyway.
It had just been one thing on top of another. On top of another, until it had never really been the same for him in the end.
That house of cards started to fold the day he got his first quest.
(Though really, the whole thing started before then. When Annabeth had set him up to be pulverized by Clarisse during Capture the Flag, he tried not to think about that too long-term. Especially after the two of them became close friends, but it had, admittedly, caused some trust issues in the meantime.)
It was kind of hard not to have some trust issues when picking quest mates. After having people avoid him like the plague for over a week, he finds out that, apparently, someone who hadn’t been avoiding him enough that he could call him a friend was going to betray him.
He admittedly already had some issues with making friends. Kids could be cruel at times, and he’d had more than a few kids' fake friendships only to have them end in a mean practical joke, and this line in the prophecy reminds him of that.
He thought he was going to escape it at camp, where there were supposed to be more kids like himself. More kids who went through some of the same struggles he did. Apparently not.
Apparently, even in camp, some of the same clicks and behaviors ran rampant outside of camp, which part of him found wild.
You would think they dealt with this problem enough outside of camp. That they wouldn’t want to drag it into their safe space and turn it on themselves, right? Or at least that’s what he would have thought before now, and he wonders what odds he has of getting that to change at all.
Some part of him in the back of his mind had debated taking the same strategy he had with Annabeth for both questmates. Taking two people he would never consider to be his friends along. If for only a moment.
After all, on a quest where you needed to succeed in order to save the world, it probably was best to try and circumnavigate that line, right? But then again, maybe it was truly impossible to avoid that line entirely? He was too new at this kind of thing to honestly know.
Either way, in the end, he decided he would rather have someone he knew. And it had shown time and time again that despite what other people had done, not everyone would turn their back on him.
Grover was a natural pick for the quest. Especially after he made sure to tell him that his Mom was still alive, which got him in trouble, there weren’t many people he had known who would do that for him. If he couldn’t trust Grover at the end of the day. Who could he trust?
Chiron hadn’t been entirely the happiest about his dismissing the other prospects. Especially when he hadn’t even listened to the different options in the first place, but he really had known his choices before he had stood in the amphitheater anyway.
Just seeing Annabeth had solidified it was all it did.
At this point, all he needed to do was talk to Grover and make sure he was good to come on the quest. He was pretty sure this was not going to be a problem, considering he had talked about needing a searcher's license before and how being put on a quest would help him get one.
Grover is surprised that he picked him. But to Percy, if he isn’t going to take someone who won’t be a friend. Then there is only one option for him at the end of the day.
“You being my first friend isn’t for a lack of trying. You know that Grover. And I want you with me because I, now more than ever, really need someone that I can trust on this.” Percy reminds him.
Percy isn’t really surprised that Grover doesn’t realize this. Percy hadn’t talked too much about previous schools before Yancy. But sometimes things just naturally slipped out. So Grover had heard, sometimes even in passing, of some of the more notorious school incidents involving him.
Nothing in full detail. But more than Percy would have let slip usually, admittedly.
But he guessed he had never really told him just how bad things were before they became friends. How Grover really was his first friend, and he managed to keep it for more than a month or two. How other than his Mom, he’s the first person he feels like he can really trust.
And at the end of the day. When he’s going across the country trying to stop the end of the world, he would rather have no one else at his back than Grover.
Becoming friends with Annabeth made him a little nervous at first, he had to admit.
For one, while he hadn’t particularly cared for old parental rivalries, Annabeth very much did. And when the reveal had happened…well, to say she hadn’t taken the news well might have been putting it lightly. Things had gotten better by the time of the quest. She had at least tapered off eventually, but she initially had complained a lot about the series of events. But he didn’t think they were close enough to call each other friends.
And he wasn’t sure if they ever would be.
Which was ironic since, arguably, she earned her spot on the quest because of that. If she didn’t consider him a friend, that meant she couldn’t fulfill the prophecy, right?
Right?
Which was important since there was a line from the prophecy hanging over their heads. That he would be betrayed by someone who called him a friend.
And while he liked to think he knew who met those qualifications…well, he wasn’t entirely sure if he was right.
Grover was a given, of course. So was Luke. Annabeth might also be a given now. And maybe there was someone else he wasn’t thinking of.
Honestly, that was what he was hoping for at the moment. Since he liked none of those options, if he was being honest, he already had enough problems wrapping his head around this.
Let alone thinking about the fact that one of his friends might not actually be it. No matter what the prophecy said.
The first time Percy starts to question Luke is after the incident in the Underworld. After the flying shoes nearly drag Grover into the Pit. Part of him knows it can’t be a coincidence. And his trust issues make it impossible to ignore completely.
Some part of him will spend the next few months thinking that Luke is probably the thief, but he has no way of really proving it. And since he has no way of really proving it, he can’t really bring it up.
Years of being the scapegoat means he knows better than to point fingers without proof at someone like Luke. It won’t go well.
And maybe there is some part of him that doesn’t want him to be the thief. Luke had always treated him well. And Percy wants this time to be different. He wants the camp to be different. He wants to think that maybe it won’t happen here this time.
So maybe he is so desperate to cling to one of his few friends that he was willing to fall for Luke’s lies. Even knowing by now that he should know better. Because he had people whom he thought were friends before they turned their backs on him and hurt him.
Luke wasn’t the first to do something like that.
Luke was just the first person who had almost killed him.
Well, now Percy was just plain confused.
The quest was over. And as far as he could tell, none of his friends had betrayed him. Or at least not overtly. There was a mess with the whole shoes. But he didn’t know what to make sense of. He knew better than to outwardly accuse Luke of possibly cursing it if it was him. (And part of him was hoping it wasn’t him.)
But then, who had cursed the shoes? Part of him is questioning Luke, but part of him is already clinging to the hope that it isn't him. And so he won't press the matter yet. Despite the fact that questioning has already started internally. Had begun in the Underworld if he was being honest.
Ares was the most likely candidate. Even would have had access to Grover during the whole diner incident. Could have quietly cursed them then. And he had been working for Kronos at the time unwillingly. But…Ares wasn’t a friend. So that didn’t fulfill the line of the prophecy about being betrayed by a friend. Nothing that had happened during the quest seemed to meet that.
It seemed to be something that had yet to happen.
Which terrified him because it meant that anyone who was a friend. Or a future friend could turn his back on him. And just what were they going to do?
Back at school, the worst thing they could do was make some mean comments. Or destroyed personal effects. Here, there could be actual injuries depending on what was happening. Or even worse.
Though he really hoped it didn’t end like that.
But if they were working for Kronos…that was a real possibility.
Percy had been hoping that with the end of the quest. And more time to settle into camp. With a new environment and new people. Maybe some of his trust issues that always seemed to exist. Would start to wane.
And they had.
A little bit.
But for the most part, they still existed. Because apparently, years upon years of issues were impossible to shake. No matter how much he wanted to.
“You still haven’t figured out who the thief is?”
Speaking of trust issues.
Poseidon hadn’t been happy to learn they still didn’t know who was taking orders from Kronos. And while he apparently trusted the camp to an extent. He apparently didn’t trust it enough to leave Percy alone, completely unsupervised.
So now Percy had to deal with Triton coming to visit Cabin 3. Once a week, every week. Until either Percy returned to his mother, possibly at the end of the summer, or they found the thief. Whichever came first.
(Percy wasn’t entirely sure how this arrangement had gotten away. Considering certain other Gods' views on the whole situation. But he guessed that if they weren’t paying attention to the situation, they couldn’t exactly know that Triton was visiting either?)
Something that Triton had made very clear from the beginning. He was not very happy with the arrangement. Even if he wasn’t being made to stay at the camp, he apparently didn’t want to be here at all, even for short visits.
Which, to be honest, made both of them.
Triton was not a friendly god. (But then again, when had Percy met a friendly god?) He seemed to dislike Percy on principle alone. Which was bad enough since it wasn’t like Percy asked to be born.
He seemed to only tolerate these meetings because of the fact that he hated the fact that the actual thief was at large. Otherwise, he seemed to view them as a waste of time.
(Which, honestly, Percy kind of got. There were probably more effective ways to communicate that no he didn’t know who the thief was than this. He wasn’t entirely sure why their Dad insisted on doing it this way.)
“No, Triton. ” Which he was about as happy as Triton was about this to be clear. The fact that the thief might still be running around. The fact that someone might turn traitor on him who called him a friend…it unnerved him; he wasn’t going to deny.
Not that he was going to tell Triton any of that.
“I am looking out for any signs of the potential thief, I promise Triton. But nothing has changed since the last time you visited.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Triton grumbled.
Percy gives a tired sigh at that. This really was proving to be an exercise in futility, he swears. “Triton, really. I have no reason to be hiding the person who framed me for the missing master bolt.”
If Triton knew half the stuff he went through to get the master bolt back. Heck, if he knew half the things he went through before he even got to camp. They wouldn’t even be having this conversation, Percy is pretty sure.
But Percy really doesn’t feel like he should have to explain that to the god to get him off his back. So he hasn’t told him everything that has gone down.
Besides, their Dad could just as easily have told him half the stuff he’s been through. It wasn’t entirely his responsibility to mention that he had to fight the Chimera. Or deal with Ares having stolen two different items of power.
That shouldn’t be his responsibility to get Triton off his back, in his opinion.
Percy’s trust issues had mostly settled by the end of summer, he liked to think. The prophecy was still lingering in the back of his mind. Unable to thoroughly shake. Especially with Triton’s weekly meetings.
But at this point, there was not much he could do about it. For all he knew at this point, that line could be years in the future. Maybe it had already passed, and he just hadn't realized it.
That’s what he had kept telling himself anyway, which led to him making the mistake of choosing to trust Luke and follow him into the forest. It would prove to be nearly fatal in the end.
Despite Luke’s best efforts. Percy survives the pit scorpion. And manages to scramble back to the camp even if it is very close.
Some part of Percy is really glad right now that he doesn’t have many items to take home. He’s not sure if in the few hours between now and when he leaves. He could manage to scrape together more than what he had to take back home if he didn’t.
He collapses on the bunk. Fully intending on taking a short nap before he packs things up. Before someone else decides right now is a good time to announce their presence.
“What in Khaos’ name did you manage to get up to right before camp closed?” Triton’s voice just about sent him jumping in surprise.
Crap.
He probably should have realized Triton was going to pay one more visit before he returned to Manhattan to make sure he hadn’t found the thief.
Well, there goes any chance of having a peaceful evening before he goes home to Mom.
Triton wasn’t as angry as he expected over this, to be honest. He was more annoyed, which Percy wasn’t entirely sure what to make of, since that wasn’t the reaction he had been expecting from the god.
Triton massages his forehead. And Percy can almost see the headache forming in the God’s face, and before he can ask what’s getting the God worked up, the God pretty much answers the question for him. “Why didn’t you just use the charm we had provided when he first cornered you in the woods, Perseus?”
Oh.
That honestly wasn’t what he had expected Triton to be mad about if he was being honest.
He had thought he would be mad about not seeing Luke’s true colors sooner. For going into the woods alone with Luke or something like that. Not about the charm of all things. Which, in his defense, he had honestly forgotten about the charm.
It had been something Triton had given him during the first weekly meeting, with instructions to use as soon as they found the thief. So they could be brought in immediately. Which, of course, Percy had utterly failed in the heat of the moment. Percy realizes with a wince internally.
(Though with the amount of lectures he’s heard from Chiron about non-interference. He wonders if Triton would have actually been able to come.)
“I forgot about it?” Percy confessed sheepishly.
That earned him an exasperated look from Triton. “You forgot about it?”
Percy shrugs in response. “Look, he was busy monologuing. I was busy trying to think of ways to get maybe him to call off the pit scorpion-”
Triton chooses that moment to cut him off again. “I’m sorry to call off the what-”
Percy holds up the still bandaged hand for the god to see, who is just staring at him now like he’s seen a ghost. “Yeah, Luke summoned a pit scorpion and set it on me.”
Triton just stared at him for a long moment before giving a deep sigh and finally saying. “Alright, I think you need to start from the beginning of today’s events.”
Yeah, that was probably the best.
Telling the story a second time isn’t any easier than it was the first time, Percy realizes. Percy isn’t entirely happy to do it, even if he gets why he has to do it.
About halfway into it, Triton surprises him when he decides to summon an Atlantean healer to give him a once-over. Percy tried to insist several times that Chiron had done a plenty good job at healing him. Or else they wouldn’t be even having this conversation in the first place.
Triton had still insisted at the end of the day.
Percy had made the comment of. ‘I’m surprised you care.’ After Triton had decided to summon the healer.
Which had earned him the snapped comment of ‘Just because I dislike you does not mean I want you dead’. Which color him surprised. Since that could be interchangeable in the pantheon at times.
(Part of him thinks it's really more because if he doesn’t do something. Their Dad will be furious. But Percy doesn’t actually voice that part out loud.)
What’s even more surprising is when the healer arrives with company. Triton hadn’t mentioned that his mother was coming along. And if it had been any other day, Percy would have probably been mentally scrambling, trying to figure out why she was here, considering Triton looked mildly surprised at her presence as well.
As it was, he was still too tired from the day's events to figure out why the queen of the seas had decided to come along. That was a problem for him to figure out, he decided.
“Mother, this is a surprise.”
“Your father wanted to come.” She answered the unasked question. “But I was afraid that if he came, he might end up flooding the camp.”
Percy blinked. That actually made sense, knowing the stories about his Dad’s protectiveness. But apparently, in the post-poison brain, it hadn’t occurred to him.
“The thief’s not even here anymore.” Percy protested, inhaling a bit sharply when the healer pressed a bit too much where the welt must still be. Though from what he remembered about the myths…
“That probably would not have stopped father if he was angry enough.” Triton finished what he was thinking.
“How is it?” Amphitrite asked, choosing to ignore their commentary, apparently as the healer continued to turn his hand over in theirs with a frown. He wasn’t sure what they were seeing.
“The poison has been extracted, as was said before. However, that being said…” The healer dropped his hand, fully turning away from him to address Amphitrite. “I would like to take him to Atlantis for observation for a while. Pit scorpion venom is not something to be trifled with, my lady.”
“I really am fine.” Percy tried to protest.
Well, mostly fine. He would probably get nauseated again if he stood up. But it wasn’t like he had to tell either of them that. Besides, what was the actual likelihood of him being allowed into Atlantis right now?
The healer gave him a doubtful look at that proclamation before asking. “Would you be able to walk out of this cabin right now unsupported if I asked you to?”
“Um,” Percy began, trying to think of a believable lie. Knowing he had barely made it to the cabin in the first place.
“I will take that as a no.”
“Mom will freak out if she doesn’t hear from me.” Percy tried to argue.
And as much as he loved Chiron, he had no faith the centaur would inform his mother that he was alive. Besides, he wasn’t even sure the centaur would be told where he was about to go either…
“Uncle could be a problem as well.” Triton pointed out.
Amphitrite hummed in consideration. “He could be, though technically, as long as he continues to ignore the issue. He can’t complain about us doing something in response to a problem that he claims ‘doesn’t exist.’”
Percy wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that. Since that arguably meant he could stay in Atlantis indefinitely. His brain was too muddled to really figure out how to feel about it. There was a part of him that was curious about it.
On the other hand, it also meant being away from his mother. And he did not know enough about these gods to not be sure if this felt like a threat or not.
“Don’t worry, I just need to keep you down there for a day or two.”
Yeah, that wasn’t as reassuring as he felt it should be. Especially since he was so new to this world. And had trust issues for days. But it didn’t seem like he had much choice in this matter at the moment.
Great.
“I will inform your mother,” Amphitrite said, giving him a reassuring smile.
Well, that was something he guessed. At least she wouldn’t think he had completely picked camp over her.
Hopefully.
He was going to have to put his trust in a goddess he had just met. Which he wasn’t going to deny was kind of hard to do. When he had just had his trust broken by a friend he had had for several months.