Chapter Text
His sister is dead.
She was attacked in an alleyway in which she was caught without her staff or wand that were, of course, stored safely inside the Duat. However she always needed a few minutes of concentration to access her personal space in it and he doubts she had enough time to pull them out. She'd never been particularly good at hand-to-hand combat either seeing as she focused more on healing and protective magic. Whenever he insisted that she learn other types of magic and hand-to-hand combat, she would always respond saying that the protective and healing magic would help when most needed.
She was wrong.
And now his little sister is dead, leaving behind memories of joyful smiles and kaleidoscopic eyes. Leaving behind a child with everchanging ocean green eyes and permanently windswept hair as dark as night.
Part of him blames himself for what happened. It tells him that he should have been more persistent on her learning hand-to-hand and other types of magic. That he shouldn't have let her go to that accursed beach where she first met her child's father. That he should have stopped her from going to Manhattan in the first place because there's a very good reason magicians are supposed to stray clear of that city. And yet, the reasonable part of him says, she wouldn't listen to him, she would have gone to Manhattan and that beach anyway. She wouldn't be his sister if she wasn't as stubborn as a mule, after all. He has no place to talk though, since that trait runs in the family.
Now there's a three year old child, already exhausted from crying, with a dead mother and an unknown, possibly dead father, sleeping in his arms.
He glances at Julius and Ruby sitting next to him holding their own children, who have red rimmed eyes after crying so long for the aunt they'd never see again, and he knows that he shouldn't have the kid stay with them. Don't get him wrong, Julius and Ruby would greet him with open arms and care for him as if he were their own. But taking care of two children is already tiring and he doesn't want to give his brother and sister-in-law another child to worry about. And besides, the House of Life is already worried about Carter and Sadie. It wouldn't do good to add another kid to the equation.
Amos Kane sighs as he watches the coffin holding the body of one Sally Jackson lower in the ground. He's going to regret this isn't he?
Amos runs to the pool and stops Percy from jumping in it.
Its been a few months since Sally's death. There are still the unexpected tears whenever something reminds him of her and the occasional dreams but the kids getting better. There are a few more paperwork to be taken care of for the guardianship process to finish fully. Amos hates paperwork with a passion.
Anyway, the pool. Percy's been determined to live in the pool with the crocodile, Philip of Macedonia, for a while now. Apparently Percy loves the pool, and by extension, Philip. Of course Philip wouldn't harm Percy, Amos just doesn't want the kid to think that going swimming with crocodiles is a good idea. He tells Percy as much but he just turned four year old and four year old kids tend to forget those kinds of warnings. There's also the fact that Percy doesn't know how to swim. At least Amos thinks he doesn't. He's not really sure. Four year old children usually don't and Amos isn't about to to take a risk like that, even if he could easily get the kid out of the water before any damage is done.
"Come on," he mutters, picking Percy up "You can't go in there Percy."
Percy pouts, with those adorable sea-green eyes looking pleadingly at him. "But why, Uncle Amos?"
"Because Philip is a crocodile Percy. He can be dangerous."
"But Philip is nice!"
"Please Percy, listen to me and don't try to go into the pool again."
Percy crosses his arms and stubbornly stares at him.
He sighs and says "Just go inside. Khufu wants to show you a new food he likes. Cheerios, I think." Percy's face lights up at the mention of the baboon and turns around and starts running.
Amos rubs at his eyes as he watches Percy go inside, hopefully to find Khufu and not make any more messes.
He's about to continue with his paperwork when he hears something like glass crash inside and, resigned, goes inside to check what happened.
He's he's going to go grey early, he just knows it.
Amos fondly watched Carter, Sadie and Percy argue about who gets to blow the candles.
It was Sadie's sixth birthday, they were in Ruby's and Julius's living room and at some point the kids started to argue over blowing the candles.
"I should blow them," Carter insisted. "because I'm the oldest." Percy in response yelled "I'm the youngest so I should-"
"It's my birthday! I'm going to be the one to blow the candles!"
Amos, Julius and Ruby had small but fond smiles on their faces. The children continued arguing like that for a while more when suddenly there was a loud noise upstairs and the birthday cake exploded splattering on everyone and dirtying the white walls. Sadie started crying, Carter looked rather stunned and Percy just looked around for a moment before shrugging and licking the frosting off of his fingers.
The adults exchanged worried glances. If word got to the House of Life that their magic was acting up this early it'd be... problematic, to say the least. They had always said that Carter and Sadie should be separated and this would only cement their belief.
He understands why they don't want to separate their children. If someone tried to separate him from Percy, well, he wouldn't react so well. Because that's what Percy was to him now.
Then Amos registered that there was still noise coming from upstairs. It was coming from the room right on top of them. "Where's that noise coming from?" he asked Ruby who was sitting next to him.
"I think it's the bathroom." she said, a small frown on her face.
And yeah, the plumbing in the toilet had exploded. And, just like Julius and Ruby he was very confused because "They where fighting about blowing the candles" he said, blankly staring at the toilet that was spouting a whole lot of water, "so why, just... why did the plumbing explode?"
He was met with silence, Julius and Ruby looking as lost as he felt.
Ruby is dead.
Being a diviner, she'd seen something Julius refused to talk about and they'd decided that freeing Bast, the one thing keeping Apophis in his prison, was a good idea. To close the obelisk she'd drawn magic from her own reserves and the effort had killed her.
The children were asleep after screaming and bawling their eyes out. Ruby was Carter and Sadie's mother and the closest person to one Percy had ever since his own died.
He glanced at the cat Sadie had already named Muffin sleeping on her lap and is painfully reminded of just why that coffin is empty.
The House of Life had already started planning a court in order to separate Carter and Sadie and give guardianship of Sadie to her grandparents, and Amos is sure Julius is going to lose.
He glances at Percy, curled in a ball, sleeping in the chair next to him, and he feels sorry for the boy. He's only five. How much more will he lose? He'd become close to Ruby after she told him the history of Perseus, Percy's namesake from Greek Mythology, and how Sally had named him that in hope that he would receive Perseus's good luck. A failed attempt at good luck, if you ask him. Ever since Ruby told him about Perseus, Percy has been fascinated with Greek Mythology and would demand that Ruby told him as much as she knew. Of course, whenever they stayed overnight, she'd read her science books like bedtime stories instead of the stories Percy wanted, but he still listened intently.
Now there was no more comedically told Greek Mythology, no more scientific bedtime stories and, he thought bitterly as he glanced at Carter and Sadie, no more seeing each other whenever they pleased.
Children so young shouldn't have to know death so personally, it's not fair.
But when do good people ever get fair?