Percy was going to argue, but he realized that not only was it an argument he would lose, but he no longer had the energy to argue. What was the point of it?
"Well if you're going to stay, then you can help me clean up," he said, which would have sounded like a joke had it not been said so humourlessly. "Because I need to move, or else I'll tink, and I can't. Not yet."
Matching actions to words, he tried lifting himself up with a grip on the counter, nearly slipping on a puddle of spilled tea, but finally managing to get himself upright. "Or I can clean, and you start the kettle. We need tea."