In Percy's mind, his family had messed up just as much as he had. Everyone, save for his mother, had made him feel like an outcast since childhood. The twins had made it their personal mission to torment and tease him. When he finally mustered the courage to turn his back on them, their attempts to reel him back in to the family had been feeble at best. But he had been the one who sucked up his pride and apologised despite every indignation that told him he deserved the same from them..
Pulling back when he was certain that he was getting her shirt wet, Percy tried to wipe the tears away and compose himself again. Very seldom did Percy cry, and his embarrassment was so great that he was unable to so much as lift his head and look Lily in the face.
"I don't even know if he did," he admitted, voice more hoarse around the edges than he would have liked.
"I was conjecturing, perhaps comforting myself. He.. he laughed at a joke I made while we were battling, just before he–" A shuddering sigh left Percy before he was able to continue. "I thought that's when he might have stopped hating me." Percy remembered the day vividly. He could never forget the smile on his brother's dead face. It was seared into his mind, and somehow opening that empty trunk had only made it seem even more like it was just yesterday.