Percy moaned as his eyes fluttered open. Despite being shot once—almost twice—he had had rather pleasant dreams while he had been out. The words he heard when he woke up were quite nice, too, the voice that spoke them almost musical. “Does that mean you want to go camping, Percy, or are you just happy to see me?”

Percy slowly shook his head from side to side. It was much too bright. He tried to raise his arm to shield his eye, only remembering that he had been shot in his arm when pain flared.

Percy felt as though he had been through a barfight. His shoulder throbbed with pain, but the rest of his body felt sore. His skin felt raw and exposed. Silently, he noted to himself that getting shot was not the best idea, even if it was to save his boss.

Percy’s mind was whirling with the implications of what Tempest had just said. His cock throbbed between his legs, almost painfully. Sugardaddy. He would never have thought just how great of an impact a single word could have on him, but ‘sugardaddy’ definitely took the cake.

Percy gingerly lowered himself into the wheelchair that Tempest had so helpfully provided. Thankfully, Will was there to help him, and the doctor’s firm but gentle grasp on his arm helped ease the pain that throbbed when he moved. It took a few moments for Percy to settle into the chair, but the moment he did, he leaned back and sank into the soft backrest of the chair.

Groaning softly from the ache in his arm, and naked as the day he was born, Percy couldn’t help but feel a little bit self-conscious when Will approached him with a sling for his arm. The next few minutes started out promising, but devolved into Percy squirming where he sat. Will’s fingers were masterful, it seemed, in both the art of healing and relentless teasing.

When Nico stepped out of Percy’s line of sight, the bridge of Scipio came into full view. Percy’s breath hitched in his throat at beholding the sheer magnitude of what was essentially the brains of the ship.

Percy had himself never been on ARKIII, but the size of Scipio’s control room was what he had always imagined the ARKIII’s would be. In fact, he felt as though the bridge was more suited to be the command centre of a project similar in scope and calibre as OMPHALOS.

Percy, however, understood that there was good reason for the room’s exorbitant size. Scipio was the only Trinity-class starship that served the people of C-Vita Lyrae, called such because it fulfilled the roles of mothership, habitat, and flagship. Scipio himself could only do so much, and maintaining the life-support systems and defenses of the colossal ship were taxing enough. Scipio’s bridge was also the mobile command centre of the entire New Rome fleet.

Percy looked at Nico. Guilt he’d been hiding for years twisted and turned in the pit of his stomach. It hadn’t gnawed at him this badly for so very long. “Me breaking up with Nico as soon as I did wasn’t an accident.” Percy leaned back again, tears stinging the corners of his eyes. “I didn’t have the courage to do it when I did, but I definitely had the motivation.”

Percy looked at Jason. He didn’t know why, but he did. Jason immediately looked at him, distressed. When Reyna held Jason back, Jason pulled his arm away and ignored her. He walked over to Percy and stood in front of him.

Percy could feel everyone looking at the two of them. “You might be fooling them,” Jason whispered, reaching down to take Percy’s good hand, “But you’re not fooling me. I know this is painful, and I want you to know that you don’t have to say anything more. You’ve already told us more than enough.”

Percy’s words gave Jason pause. His body was half-off, half-on the bed. The sheet had fallen just enough that his torso was bare to the elements, but it had pooled around his waist. It had also shifted so that from Jason’s point of view, he had a good view of Percy’s lithe musculature.

Jason had always preferred men younger than him, especially when they were slightly innocent. His dick twitched against his leg when he thought about how he delighted in the way that his more inexperienced partners often just let slip the word ‘daddy.’ He shivered.

Luke Castellan had been the one exception to that. He had loved hearing Luke say ‘daddy’ just as much, but he had looked forward to a life with Luke. The boy had been fifteen years younger than him—in the physical sense, at least. He had never really bothered to ask after Luke’s actual age, so enraptured in the young man’s charm as he was. Although, now that he knew Luke had been turned against him, he could only imagine that his ex-fiancé had been genuinely young.