in honour of the percy jackson series, i have managed to write this chapter. (there sadly is nothing left in the drafts, so fic will still be on hold D:) enjoy!

WARNINGS:
-flashbacks
-child abuse (in the past)

Regulus sucked in a sharp breath when the seat belt suddenly tightened, pressing his body against the backrest while his head flew forward, snapping backwards almost immediately with a force and hitting the back of his skull against the headrest. "Merde," he groaned, the headache spreading almost immediately. The car was parked on the emergency lane, with others passing by at quick speed on their left and a huge fleck of dead grass on their right. There was nothing in sight except for the highway and plants.

In the back row, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was groaning as well, probably rubbing the back of his head like Regulus was – he hated that they were probably looking similar right now; similar like (no, he won't even dare thinking the word). Only James didn't seem to be affected by the force he stepped on the brake with, or at least he apparently didn't hit his head; but his fingers were clutching to the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles had turned white and the boy's chest was heaving with heavy breaths. "Everyone out. Now," he ordered, voice slightly strained. "I'm not listening to you fighting like this any more, so you better settle this now or I'm leaving you here and going to get Remus on my own. Understood?"

By the sounds of it, the Bastard (yes, capital B) left the car without a word, throwing the door closed soundly. Regulus just sighed, his chest still constricted, but he nodded. "Alright." He got out of the car as well, just standing there and staring at the older boy pacing on the fields of greens (more like browns) while James stayed seated in the car. After a while, Sirius stopped, turning around to look directly at Regulus. Even without words, the younger boy knew he was asking him to come closer. With a beat of hesitation, Regulus took a step forward. And another. And another. And another until he started properly walking and finally arrived by the son of Aphrodite; chin raised and face monotone to not show what he was thinking at the moment. "What do you want?"

"To settle this," He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named declared, pulling something from his pocket. It didn't take long for Regulus to realise that what he was holding was his hand-mirror/foldable spear. "I don't know why you seem to have so much built-up negative energy towards me, but this is your opportunity to get rid of it." He paused. "Let's make a deal. If you get me to stay on the ground for ten seconds without me getting up again, I will stay silent for most part the rest of our quest. If I win, you have to be nice to me. How about that?"

Regulus shook his head. "I'll be civil and not call you any names as long as you don't, either. But if you insult my friends, family or the Roman gods, including their descendants again, then this deal is over. Understood?"

The boy in front of him obviously didn't like that; his jaw worked hard and his eyes were sharp, but after a moment, he nodded. "Okay. Deal." With a swift motion, he unfolded his spear, the bronze shimmering in the midday sun.

"Deal." Following his example, Regulus pulled his dagger from his trousers where he'd been keeping it since the chimaera attack. He moved to stand out of reach of Sirius' spear, making sure his feet would keep him balanced during the fight. "Ready?"

Of course, the spear spun in the older boy's hands lazily (fucking show-off), then he mirrored Regulus position; perfecting his stance, before he nodded. "Go."

Prepared for the jump in his direction as soon as the word fell, Regulus side-stepped, trying to get in closer range since it would deem Sirius' spear useless and Reg's dagger useful. A wipe with his arm – and therefore the spear's handle – in the younger boy's direction caused him to duck. As soon as Regulus was close enough, he tried to strike for his abdomen with his dagger, but Sirius brought distance between them quickly.

With a dissatisfied grunt – despite knowing it wouldn't be that easy – Regulus kept trying to close in on the boy, dodging every move swiftly (like the Swiftie he was). When he noticed a small loophole in Sirius' fighting technique, he wasted no time in trying to take advantage of it – only for him to fix the hole and get the upper hand again. It kept going like this; with Regulus trying to gain some advantage just so Sirius could strengthen his defences further. Fucking annoying, that was.

Taking a deep breath, the younger of the two leapt forward once more, dagger finally reaching its destination. Well, Regulus had certainly hoped for more than a slight scratch on the upper arm, but at this point he just wanted to get this over and done with, so he stepped closer to shove Sirius backwards. Of course, his plans were crossed by none other than Sirius himself, the dull end of his spear smacking Regulus in the face, leaving what felt like a red line across his cheek. A little surprised by the sudden pain, he sputtered, blinking irritatedly.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, Reggie! You're okay!"

What?! He stepped back, losing balance.

"It doesn't even hurt, does it?"

Another step, and Regulus wished he couldn't see him in front of his eyes, his older brother at the young age of seven trying to comfort him after Nanny Walburga had smacked him in the face for disliking the lunch she had made them. There had been tears in his eyes.

Sirius stepped closer, reaching out for the little boy who had been sobbing in his bed. "Everything is okay, Reggie. You're safe."

The next step backwards, while Regulus pretended not to be close to tears. It was just from the shock. He knew he was lying to himself.

"You know, I'll always be here to protect you! Me and Snuffles, we're your personal guards!"

This time, Regulus slipped, misplacing his foot and causing him to fall on his ass, then back with a quiet yelp falling from his lips without any control whatsoever. For a second, he almost wished to be back there when he was still six, unaware of the gods and monsters. It was stupid, considering the nanny they had at that age was an abusive bitch, but at least his brother was still there with him. He felt his face heating up, pressure building behind his closed eyes, but he didn't dare show it. Especially when Sirius was celebrating his victory right next to him, as well.

Instead, he got up, taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart and nodded at the older boy. "You win. Congrats."

"Thank you! No more being mean now, little Reggie," Sirius said in a voice that reminded Regulus so much of.. Well, Sirius, but when he still remembered his brother. It was like a punch to the face, but Regulus swallowed the returning emotions and just nodded.

"Don't call me Reggie." With those words, the son of Venus returned to the car, settling back in his seat next to James, who looked a little cautious.

As Sirius entered the backseat, the walnut-skinned boy asked, "So did you guys solve it or am I going to have to deal with more of your fighting?"

"No more fighting!" Sirius announced excitedly. "Regulus will be nice to me now."

"Civil," Regulus muttered, but got promptly ignored.

Satisfied, James nodded. "Alright. Then let's continue our road trip, we still have a long way ahead of us." Silence fell over them like a soft blanket, the steady noise of their car starting to lull the youngest of the three into a gentle slumber, drifting in and out of reality every once in a while.

They were near Rapid City when James declared he was too tired to keep driving and took the next exit to a petrol station. Parking the furthest from the actual station, the walnut-skinned boy raked a hand through his hair and yawned. His glasses reflected the shop's lights outside as they got gently placed on the dashboard and Regulus briefly regretted dozing off throughout the past five hours as he watched James lean backwards, close his eyes and fall asleep instantly.

Quiet snores from the back of the car that had been consistent for at least an hour now told the youngest of the three that he was the only one wide awake right now. What now? Groaning, he thumped his head against the head rest. Ugh, what was he supposed to do now?

He should've brought a book. The next second he remembered the book he lost in the car crash that had involved the Minotaur. Had it really only been five days ago? It felt like months since the day his father threw him out to go back to Camp Jupiter.

His father...

Pictures from his dream the day before flashed in front of his eyes. The urge to climb out of the car to go, find and rescue the man appeared just as quickly and shockingly as it disappeared again, leaving Regulus with a sour taste in his mouth. What was he supposed to do?

Save him.

The thought lingered at the back of his mind, but he didn't know how to address it properly. Of course Regulus had to save his father, but it wasn't just his. And he still wasn't sure he ever wanted to go back to New York to visit him, but... Regulus won't let the guy die. That was not fair, he couldn't just decide that he wasn't worth being rescued. Now that was clear, he needed to find a way to actually go and save him. They still had at least two days of driving ahead of them until they arrived at Camp Jupiter.

Orion Black may not have two more days.

Regulus had to tell them.

His gaze wandered from out of the window to his right to the front windshield to the sleeping James to his left; beautiful, sleeping James, and he decided that it could wait until the morning. Instead, Regulus swallowed harshly and exited the car as quietly as he could, taking his dagger for safety measures. Taking a deep breath, he walked away from the car and the shop, listening to the dry grass crunching underneath his feet as soon as he stepped off the parking spot next to their car. There was something peaceful about it as Regulus walked underneath the starry dome of the sky with occasional cars zooming past in the distance.

Carefully lowering himself to the ground, the curly-head leaned backwards to look up at the sky. Just outside of the city, there weren't too many stars, but in comparison to the night spent in Madison, where he hadn't been able to see a single one, this was nice. Though, a bonus he had in Madison which he didn't have right now was having James lay next to him. He felt his fingers tingling at the memory, at the thought of kissing the other boy, causing his face to heat up. For sure, the tips of Regulus' ears were red right now. At least the darkness and lack of witnesses would cover for the evidence.

So what if Regulus wanted to kiss James? Last night, the other hadn't seemed to off-put with the idea of kissing Regulus, either. Oh gods... Maybe he should try to sleep.

Aware that he wouldn't be able to sleep, he ignored the idea and instead kept looking at the stars, trying to keep his brain empty until the pitch black night sky eventually lightened; a sign that the sun would rise soon. With that, Regulus officially waved his sleep schedule goodbye as he slowly got back up, taking step after step back towards the car in which James and Sirius were likely still asleep. His hand was already reaching for the handle when he spotted someone by the front of the shop.

From afar, nothing looked wrong. Just two people– two elderly ladies chatting with each other. But then he heard the hissing. Quiet hissing which slowly got louder the longer he watched them. Were they coming towards him? Without needing to think about it, the dagger wandered from his left hand to his right one, ready to defend himself. Then he mentally scolded himself. Why would he need to defend himself against two old women?

They got closer and Regulus realised their eyes were glowing red like rubies in the early morning dawn. Next thing he noticed was their hair. Or more like; what he thought had been wild thick curls. The curls turned out to be small snakes that were hissing and baring their teeth in his direction. Slowly, his gaze wandered down to the old ladies' huge bronze fangs that looked almost painful with the way they grew out of their jaws. Gorgons.

Like it was a reflex, he rammed his elbow into the car window behind him, hoping it would make enough noise to wake at least one of the two sleepy-heads inside. Regulus could take one gorgon for sure, but two? He didn't want to take chances. Especially after that run-in with the Chimaera. Ignoring the dull ache in his arm from the hit, he gripped the dagger more tightly. The gorgons kept advancing on him. He should lure them away from the car if he hadn't succeeded in waking anyone.

Kicking the car door with his heel one last time, he ran from the car, his eyes always set on the monsters who looked ready to attack. Regulus didn't need to be a genius to figure out that their green cashier aprons were a cover-up to stay at the petrol station and catch passerby descendants of the gods.

His feet kept running backwards, with his dagger outstretched into the gorgons' direction and he only stopped when he felt like the car was out of the monster's range, prepared for the leap the first gorgon took the second his body came to a halt. With his right hand, he swiped for the monster only for it to jump aside. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy. The curly-head just wished it was. A claw tried to grab his left arm, long fingernails just barely not digging into his flesh as Regulus pulled away, trying to fend off both of the gorgons at once.

There was hardly a moment to take a breath as he tried to stab them while doing his best not to die himself. Whenever he did have a mind to, though, he remembered to curse them out in true Regulus Black fashion. "Es stultior asino," he spat at the gorgon that was currently trying to bite his arm off.

"What did he say?" she asked the other gorgon as soon as Regulus had escaped her once again, proving his point.

The other one, obviously the smarter one, replied in a very annoyed tone, "You're stupid!"

At one point during their fight, they had called each other by their names, and Regulus remembered them from learning about monsters at Camp. The stupid one was Stheno, while the smart one was Euryale. Their third sister, Medusa, luckily wasn't here. Minding Regulus' dagger, Stheno tried attacking him again, the snakes on her head hissing louder in disappointment when he dodged. "I just asked what he said!" Stheno complained with a wail, yelping and stepping away when Regulus tried to ram his weapon into her side.

"Idiot," Euryale snarled, then grabbed Stheno's upper arm and pulled her in with her, both of them suddenly attacking Regulus so his only way out was dropping to the ground and rolling underneath them. As soon as he was back on his feet, James suddenly stood beside him, his axe ready to strike in his hand.

"Sorry we're late to the party, we didn't realise you guys started without us," a familiar voice said to Regulus' right and he turned his head to find Sirius twirling his spear lazily in his hand.

To his left, James grinned. "Now it's only going to become better."

Feeling a boost of confidence and energy, Regulus announced, "Ede faecam!" Then they attacked.

After that, the gorgons didn't last long. For the first time since they left for the trip, the three of them actually, properly felt like a team. It was almost exhilarating, experiencing the fight together. Regulus watched as James and Sirius moved around each other as if it was muscle memory, as if they had been trained for exactly that and despite the ache in his chest because of it, he knew that this was what they must've been like before his idiot brother hit his head and got his memories wiped.

When the gorgons had turned to dust, leaving two vials behind, Regulus couldn't help the string of relieved curses falling from his lips in Latin, rubbing his forehead as he finally noticed how the sun was slowly rising from the horizon. Gods, he was tired.

"Latin is so asthmatic," James breathed next to the son of Venus, chest still heaving with adrenaline from their fight.

"You sound asthmatic," Regulus commented, watching the soft, walnut skin in the older boy's face take on a reddish tint as he attempted to stammer through an explanation that was soon cut off by Reg's quiet chuckles.

Besides them, Sirius let out an exasperated sigh.

Since James now was wide awake, the boy decided they would resume their trip, climbing into the driver's seat while Regulus slumped into the front passenger seat and let his eyes fall shut. He was officially tired enough to sleep.

With a quiet rumble, the car turned back on and James drove them back on the highway, going steadfast towards Camp Jupiter. They were just half an hour from Mount Rushmore, but between the three of them, they decided it was not important enough for them to stop and take a look. So, after handing Sirius and James some snacks for breakfast, Regulus leaned back, closed his eyes and fell asleep.