Happy Halloween from the Daggers~

While a good chunk of time had passed between a dragon stomping a guildhall on top of him and security rushing him to the hospital, to Percy it had been mere seconds if that long. He jolted back into consciousness with a loud gasp as his body finished the tensing motion it had started before the piece of roof knocked him out. He'd have probably screamed if he could have, but sucking in the breath to do so was so excruciating that he pressed back into the hospital bed in agony. It was a sobering pain that grounded him. His ribs were broken. The pressure was gone. It was soft under him. The incessant beeping. He wasn't amongst the rubble anymore. No, he was safe, but not unharmed. He was so groggy, it was hard to keep his eyes open, so he shut them again and nearly passed back out.

In the murky darkness of his reviving mind, he was left to mentally mull through his situation. So he'd been no help after all. He'd been a liability. Who'd had to pull him out? Saved his life? Such a bitter taste. He was so frustrated with his own weakness that hot tears immediately rushed to his good eye, slipping out of the closed lid as he tried to pound the mattress with his fists, except he could only do half of that. One fist was good to do the motion, but the other was restrained. A cast. Taking bleak stock of his injuries, he also found that his leg was injured as well, though he wasn't sure how badly just by feeling. Seemed certainly broken, at least. Percy tried to pull himself closer to full consciousness, managing to crack his eyes open and blearily look around. Was it wrong to hope his parents weren't there?


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Of course, Artemis was here. If there was one thing he could rely on, it was that his brother would have to endure the consequences of his weakness by having to wait in the hospital for his little brother to wake up. Good thing it wasn't wrong to hope his parents weren't there, because they certainly weren't. The twinge of disappointment was an emotional betrayal since he'd much rather only deal with Artemis. "Princesses are... usually rescued... before the castle crumbles on top of them..." Percy's voice crackled through a small attempt at a smile, weak from disuse. He too would use humor to cover his very obvious devastation of both mind and body. It'd been a while since he'd been this disgusted with himself.

Shifting to try and get more comfortable, he once again winced, surprised by how much pain there was. One day he'd make sure to replace the hard hospital bed mattresses with something better than these. "How long was I out?" he asked quietly, the jokes already wearing into something more subdued and miserable. He hoped Artemis hadn't gotten in trouble for spending too much time here. He'd also like to think he hadn't worried him too much, though he could tell by his tired eyes that this had been an ordeal. An apology rushed up to his lips, but he refused to say it this time. Apologies were worthless when you keep doing worrisome things over and over again. Yes, he was sorry he caused Artemis to worry, but he rather wished he'd just stop worrying because Percy knew he'd never stop ending up in these situations until he either got what he wanted or could no longer pursue it for some reason. Since he couldn't control how his brother felt and he knew he'd continue to be selfish about this one thing, his sorries died in his throat. "Are my guildmates okay?" the younger Dagger asked lastly, his right eye beginning to sting with angry tears.

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Percy groaned less in a physically pained way and more in emotional dread when he heard Artemis say Nessa had found him. "Of course, she did..." he hissed through a tight throat. Arty was right. This didn't feel like luck to him either. It was all around crappy and unlucky, as expected. If there was anyone he didn't want to come to his rescue and make worry about him, it was Nessa and Mura. How embarrassing. Now he'd never be able to look her in the eye when he returned--

The thought stopped dead once his brother spoke of their parents and what they had done. His face jerked to face his brother, eyes wide in disbelief.

"They....they what?!"

The news of what his parents had been up to for the past couple days derailed any petty worries and bruised egos over Nessa being the one to find his crushed body. Percy, though his face went through a gambit of emotions, understood. He hated it, but he understood. They only saw him as a weak, magicless boy chasing a dead-end dream who had no business in joining a guild for mages. And they sought someone to blame for allowing someone who never should have joined to join. It was his fault, but Fairy Tail almost paid the price. As a second layer, it prevented Percy from kicking up any dust about it and insisting on going back, if he wanted to keep his guild out of trouble. An effective tactic. Possibly the only one that would force their youngest son's hand and keep him from stubbornly running back to prove himself. "...couldn't even come tell me themselves," he mumbled bitterly, his right eye freely releasing the frustrated tears that had been building on his lower lids. "Everything's so messed up.."

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For about the millionth time in his life, Percy, still shedding hot and angry tears, vaguely waved his brother's apology off with his good arm and said "It's fine" in a quiet voice. "It's just...how it is," he sighed, finally getting a handle on his emotions and drying his eye. No choice but to accept it. It wasn't like he could change anything right now.

It would seem there was more bad news on the horizon, though this one he had anticipated cropping up eventually, even if he wasn't sure exactly when. "Yeah, I recall that," Percy said in an odd tone, somewhere between sarcasm, dread, and humor. As if he could forget his monumental failure that had cost two weeks of his life to mystery and another few days to recovery. He'd never forget that look on Artemis's face when he told him what he'd done. "Thanks. I've been looking all this time, but came up with nothing..." he half lied, trying not to let his discomfort show. Percy acted like he hadn't been avoiding finding out what he'd done. In the first few weeks following his failed efforts to make that demonic contract, he'd obsessively tried to track his whereabouts. He nearly made himself sick trying to fill in the gaping black hole in his memory. But in the months following, he was put off by some disturbing nightmares and a nagging feeling at the back of his brain. His efforts to look slowed and he buried himself in other things. Before long, he'd stop looking into it altogether, neither admitting to himself that he didn't want to know nor letting his brother know he had stopped searching. He was fooling himself into thinking he wanted to know because it was the right thing to do, while everything inside of him knew that if he found out, he'd never be the same.

Another lie slipped from his mouth as he laid a hand on the folder, but didn't open it. "It'll be nice to maybe find out what I did...or hopefully didn't do," the younger brother said, looking so much older than nineteen for an instant. It was so tiring, dealing with all the things he did. A gigantic load would fall from his shoulders if he'd just abandon his search for the one thing he didn't have. If only he could just embrace his life as it was, as an intelligent man with a great career who loved his work. His family didn't realize how counterproductive their treatment of him had been. If they hadn't made him feel like his lack of magic was a disability and took things away from him to 'keep him safe', maybe his obsession with getting it and proving himself wouldn't have happened.

Being a man of science was a curse. As much as he couldn't admit he didn't want to know and could have easily taken the convenient out presented to him by his brother by burning it, deep down he knew his curiosity wouldn't be satisfied with never knowing. He might not be ready to know right now, but some day he'd have no choice but to look and confront it. That's how Percy was. He might play ostrich and hide his head for a little bit, but sooner or later he'd come up for air. He'd want to know how much it would take to repair whatever damage he'd potentially caused to people. He'd also want to hide it, internalize it. It was shameful. "I'll go it alone, but I'll be careful," he assured Artemis, turning to look at him properly. Despite how dire the information was, it made him feel good that his older brother had spent all this effort to find it for him and gave him the courtesy of trusting it to him. Mismatched eyes searched the familiar face seated nearby. Did he already have a clue what happened? That was a stupid question. Artemis had every reason to assume Percy's experience had been identical to his, just with no beneficial result.

After a moment of silence passed, tense and heavy, Percy released a trembling sigh. "Art, I'm actually terrified to find out," he confessed with a rye laugh, followed by a wince.

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