Finn Jackson

I had a lot to tell Mom when I went back the next week.

But it gave me time to think about it, and to kind of realize that Vati has kept things away from us for a reason. It's more than him not wanting to talk about it because of who Poseidon is. It's personal.

I got back from visiting Mom the next week, and Nico and Dad were both gone. Dad had office hours, Nico was also at work. Luana was at a friend's place, I think, so it's just Carlos and I.

"Hey! How was the visit?" Carlos asked me, sitting in the living room with a textbook and notebook open.

"Good!" I responded, closing the door behind me. "Yeah, good. We talked about Vati a lot. With what happened last week and all."

"Yeah..." Carlos remarked and sighed. "That was something. I guess I didn't put a lot of thought into it. The gods were really shitty to him as a shit."

"We're they?" I questioned. "I guess Vati never really told us much about Poseidon. He stays away from the subject. I guess I get it, after what Vati said to him last week and all, but... I don't know. Does Nico tell you a lot about when they were younger?"

Carlos nodded his head.

"Yeah!" Carlos told me, putting his notebook down on the coffee table. "he told me about almost anything. I was kind of shocked when I realized that your dad was Percy because he did some like, crazy things when they were younger. We heard it from Sally and Paul, too, because they're like close with Nico. Estelle and I sorta grew up together, so we heard about your dad a lot."

I sat down, thinking about that.

"They never talked to each other, though," I reasoned. "Until we moved to New York."

Agreeing, Carlos shook his head.

"Apparently," he started off. "When your dad graduated and moved to Germany. Moved here, he basically cut everyone off. Not immediately, but given a year the only people he talked to were Sally, Paul, and sometimes I guess him and Grover talked. Once a year or something. Not often. You know about the others, obviously. It's your grandparents. But yeah."

"He cut them off?"

I tried to think of my dad doing that. Just... Leaving his entire life. Not talking to his friends ever again. Out of nowhere.

My almost step brother shrugged.

"I mean, yeah." He reasoned, unsure how else to word it. "Dad was never mad about it, he always told me that he understood why he did it. Some other people were upset when Percy stopped calling them. But according to my dad, through stories and everything, Percy was hurt really bad at the end of it all, when he graduated."

It was weird to think about it like this, though. About my dad when he was my age, a little older. In a worse spot that I don't really understand.

On one hand, I want to know so I can appreciate what Vati gave me even after what he went through as a kid. Beyond just the abuse from Gabe.

On the other hand, I don't want to hear the wrong thing and completely change how I think of him.

"Really?"

Carlos just nodded his head.

"Ask him about it," Carlos insisted. "I'm sure he'd tell you."

Returning to his homework, I went to the studio and worked on a painting for a bit until Vati got home. Putting his work bag in the studio, he walked over to see what I was painting. It wasn't much, just a portrait.

"That looks really good," Vati told me as I put my paint brush down. "you're getting a lot better at color matching."

"Thanks..."

"It's true," he insisted. "How was school?"

I shrugged.

"It was pretty good, nothing super exciting really." I responded. "Visited Mom afterwards for a little bit. Um..."

I turned to face my father.

"Why don't you like talking about Poseidon?"

Vati's expression dropped, and I felt so bad asking when I saw it.

Pulling over a stool, Vati sat across from me.

"Wh... WHY do you ask?"

"I mean... I don't know," I responded, shrugging. "I guess Mom and I talked about it a bit and she said you never told her much and Carlos said that Nico told him a lot."

Vati sighed.

"Nico was always more open with Carlos about it because him and Hades have a decent relationship." He told me. "From what Nico's told me, which he wasn't there a ton, Hades was still around for Nico and Carlos. Plus, they lived in New York, within ten miles of Olympus, he almost had to tell him."

"But you never...?"

For a second, he looked down, trying to think of a decent explanation for this. It seemed to be pretty hard.

"I never told you guys much about Poseidon and what not because I came back to Germany to get away from it." Vati struggled to put it into words. "by the time I was your age, I was so anxious to get out simply because I couldn't deal with it anymore. I couldn't handle it and stay sane. So I graduated, and walked away."

"Couldn't deal with what, though?" I questioned. "like... It doesn't make sense."

"The gods," he told me. "Their bullshit, their way of living. Something's wrong when you're told that you won't live past your 16th birthday, and that's what I was told. But when I lived, it was because somebody else killed themselves. The gods were being threatened, so instead of dealing with it, we we're forced to deal with it. I woke up in California with no memory when I was 16 years old because Hera couldn't ask me to visit and talk to the Romans, she had to wipe my memory and take away nine months of my life that I spend trying to remember my name. Because she wouldn't let us just talk. It's ridiculous and traumatizing to think about the fact that I watched Nico's older sister die when I was 14 for absolutely no reason outside of the gods didn't want to take care of their own problems and she was a very heroic type. It's even more insane that my best friend tried to kill herself a year after leaving camp because she was still having these PTSD episodes. At the age of 19."

Vati stopped.

"I don't talk about it because it brings back a lot of either bad or remorseful memories," he finished off, sighing. "which makes me sad, and I don't like being sad. Especially with you guys. It's okay to be sad sometimes, but it's good to avoid it if you can. And I can. But if you ever want a story, I have a lot of cool ones that don't make me sad."