#nico in the corner calling his dad for help and hades is just like yeah fuck let them kill him

[happyk44]

Jason: I'm sorry, my dad tried to do what to you?

Nico:

Nico: Nothing. I didn't say anything.

Percy, climbing in through the window: HE SAID THAT HE TRIED TO KILL HIM WHEN HE WAS A KID!

Nico: Oh my God, Percy, where the fuck did you come from?

Percy: From outside, obviously.

Percy, uncapping Riptide: Anyway, Jason, would you like to come with me to embark on a quest to kill your dad?

Nico: Percy, no!

#something about how percy wove a protective cloak around Nico's shoulders and gets enraged when people threaten that #Jason: I mean... He did let Hera throw me to literal wolves as a two year old 🤔 and i love nico dearly so... #nico in the corner calling his dad for help and hades is just like yeah fuck let them kill him #i always thought he could stand to be killed more hera used to do it a lot but then she got bored and frankly i just dont have the time #happy talks pjo #nico di angelo #percy jackson #jason grace

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 11: CLARISSE BLOWS UP EVERYTHING

"You guys just sit back and chill-ax," Will told, tugging on Nico's sleeve hopefully. "Magnus has been getting snacks, so we'll just grab some of everything and bring it back too!"

"Is that what those jokes about a buffet were?" Percy asked, he was the least motivated to crawl out of his beanbag as fatigue was already setting in again. Whoever said words don't hurt had never read this book!

The others gave it no passing thought as Thalia lounged back comfortably too, staring up at the shadowed ceiling and twirling her bracelet around with a pensive look. Jason went over to see Hearth, Magnus, and Alex were already having one of their ASL talks.

Nico waited until he was sure Percy was out of earshot in the first room with a fridge before asking, "so did Zeus really go from denying Kronos is coming back to blaming it on Chiron in the span of a year?"

"No, Kronos is his dad," Will admitted with a sad smile, already pulling out a whole pizza with different toppings every other slice. "He doesn't like to talk about it much, but, yeah. That's why they blamed Thalia's tree on Chiron instead. Messed up, huh?" He pulled out a pile of perfectly gooey, melted s'mores next.

"I'll say," he scowled for the friendly enough centaur, even if the head of activities had always given him the same uneasy look as everyone else in that camp about what to do with him, at least Chiron had never been outright rude to him.

In this short time, Will had already pulled out a wide assortment of food, practically covering the bed in as many options as he could think of, watching Nico intently the whole time. He hadn't once reached for anything though, so Will asked just to be sure, "anything specific you're going to want?"

Nico resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he plucked up a singular french-fry. "This'll do." He tried to smile like he was hoping Will would laugh it off. He should have known better at this point.

"You've got to eat down here," his scowl seemed to have more weight than anybody else Nico had met, perhaps because it set so firmly into his face, an effort to keep it there instead of his natural smiles.

"No, I don't," he said back without concern. "Child of Hades thing, I don't need to eat as much as-" the lie was passing easily from his mouth, he could barely remember a time he wasn't lying to somebody after Bianca's death.

"Bullshit," Will called out at once, and Nico stopped dead, the french-fry fell from his fingers. He felt such a shock rock through him he glanced over his shoulder to make sure Thalia hadn't appeared.

He didn't ask how Will knew he was lying. Instead, he threw him a bone, the least he could do after Will had been so friendly to him. "It, it's for practice," he finally relented. Couldn't tell him to much, it was still weird to him why Will was asking at all.

"Practice," he repeated, drawing the word out uncomfortably like a hiss, but it didn't even cross Nico's mind to mock him right now.

"Yeah, I'm going on a trip, and might not get food around every corner. Relax, I'll eat something small later." Tartarus probably didn't have magical refrigerators to quench his every desire, he actually needed to make a pit stop to find those seeds just in case this took to long-

"Nico," Will sounded so angry he startled and looked around for a monster before those piercing blue eyes kept looking right at him. "You're always off on some trip! You need to come back to camp, ask for a quest to do this right, let me, somebody help!"

"I don't need your help!" He instantly snapped back, but there was no force to his words for the touch of concern still resonating in him Will had said that at all. "You, you don't even know what you're asking for."

"Then tell me. I'll help." Will didn't look away, didn't even flinch from meeting his gaze, had just blindly signed up for a trip to Tartarus! Will Solace was officially the most frustrating, stubborn person Nico had ever met, and he laughed. Percy and Chiron might actually kick him out of Camp officially if they heard if he was trying to draw anybody else into this. Reason number two he needed to go alone.

Will raised an unimpressed brow, and Nico once again sidestepped by lightly fibbing, "that's not necessary, Jason has some friends, I'll figure it out with them."

"Oh," Will finally deflated and looked ready to let it go, which somehow made Nico feel worse than if he'd tried to insist anyways. Idiot, he chastised himself. He'd never survive down there.

Nico swiped up a fried chicken leg blindly and walked out before he had to make any more half-promises.

Will watched him go with the strangest feeling he usually only got while watching Katie Gardner flirt with Connor Stoll. Jealous.

He doesn't need you along, he reminded himself as he picked the rest of the food up to follow. You'd just slow him down, barely ever leaving camp and having no real clue what was out there. Jason probably had some healing friend too, at least he was getting help from someone. What little comfort he did take from that thought carried him into putting all the plates out on the table, smiling and waving off the thanks from the others it had literally been no trouble.

Then he saw Jason and Nico whispering quietly, Nico was picking off little bits of the fried skin and chicken and eating normally enough, so he instantly turned away. He really was happy if Nico had made a friend with the weird kid who kept using Roman names, and he wouldn't keep bothering Nico now. He snatched up the book and decided he wasn't very hungry himself as he started reading before even Percy had finished his first plate.

"That wasn't a very long lunch," Magnus said in surprise to see Will shuffling pages around the book. He hadn't even gotten the chance to tell Hearthstone maybe he'd like a nap, but at least Jason hadn't stuck around long.

Alex was already laughing at the new chapter title though as he grabbed up a bowl of real, deep fried, not-kale chips and slathered them in chili while calling to Percy, "careful Perce, or she might take your title away!"

"Didn't she just blow up everything?" Percy seemed to be agreeing, snatching pepperoni floating around him from his destroyed pizza before they could settle on the plate. "What else is left? A whale?"

"Hopefully not the quest itself," Jason sighed as he flopped back into his seat with a bowl of fruit.

"Just keep practicing those first six," Magnus told Alex when he sat back down. "I'll quiz you later."

"Done deal," he winked again and turned to Will, leaving Magnus staring at the side of his head with no urge to do the same.

"You are in so much trouble," Clarisse said.

"Story of my life," Percy nodded without surprise.

"What's Tantalus going to do, drown you in bar-b-q sauce?" But there was a note of unease in Magnus's voice like he wasn't sure if he was kidding or not as he did drag his eyes away from Alex.

"Hopefully I won't have to find out," Percy sighed as he rubbed at his temple. If all went well, the tree should have been healed and Chiron should have gotten his job back! If not, well, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the other outcomes.

  We'd just finished a ship tour we didn't want,

"Was it straight to the poop deck?" Alex asked. "Wait, or the stockade? What's ship prison called?"

"The brigadier," Percy at least knew why this information came naturally to him, "or the brig for short. Haven't you ever seen a pirate movie? The captain always says take him to the brig at least once."

"Must have missed those," Alex shrugged, though he looked plenty interested in changing that.

Nico was looking at Percy again, and being as invisible as usual as he bit his lip against the urge to go to his side and laugh about all the awesome pirate stories he'd made up himself. Percy would just laugh at him, or laugh him off, and gods forbid he ever get that close to him without combusting.

through dark rooms overcrowded with dead sailors. We'd seen the coal bunker, the boilers and engine, which huffed and groaned like it would explode any minute.

Percy winced uneasily and the last of his crust fell to the floor. He'd lost his appetite all of a sudden, and Thalia biting her lip and not looking at him wasn't a promising indication.

We'd seen the pilothouse and the powder magazine and gunnery deck (Clarisse's favorite) with two Dahlgren smoothbore cannons on the port and starboard sides and a Brooke nine-inch rifled gun fore and aft—all specially refitted to fire celestial bronze cannon balls.

Jason's eyes were glazed over by then like he couldn't decide if that was the coolest battleship he'd ever heard of, or the strangest. He knew with absolute confidence he'd never been on a boat before regardless, so probably the first.

Nico couldn't help an amused snort at the expression. He didn't know much about that Roman camp, but he'd already picked up on the uneasy look's Jason had given Percy nearly every time his dad was mentioned; he didn't seem to be a fan of Neptune. He'd probably avoided the sea like Percy did the air. Jason had bounced up the second he'd entered the room and been asking him with great eagerness what he did know about the Sea of Monsters though, so hopefully his curiosity would eventually trump misgivings. It hadn't been much though, so Jason was back to watching Will intently the moment his mind had finished imagining it all.

Will didn't seem to be reading with as much bubbliness as usual though, and everyone was noticing. Nico sat back in his seat with surprising guilt he told himself to ignore, he'd done nothing wrong by making sure everybody stayed out of this until he came back with proof of Gaea, then he'd take all the help he could get.

Everywhere we went, dead Confederate sailors stared at us, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls. They approved of Annabeth because she told them she was from Virginia. They were interested in me, too, because my name was Jackson—like the Southern general—but then I ruined it by telling them I was from New York. They all hissed and muttered curses about Yankees.

"Can't say I was really rooting for them to like me, but them disliking me feels more foreboding," Percy muttered.

Will smiled without humor as he remembered the boat being summoned in the harbor and Silena wishing Clarisse good luck. One of the ghosts had asked if she was related to P.G.T Beauregard* as Clarisse was packing to go aboard and she'd run off as if offended.

Tyson was terrified of them. All through the tour, he insisted Annabeth hold his hand, which she didn't look too thrilled about.

"I'm not much of a hand-holder myself," Alex sympathized, "but he did just save her from a Hydra! If that's all he wants in return, it's nice she's helping him."

It was probably the nicest thing Alex he'd said while here.

Finally, we were escorted to dinner. The CSS Birmingham captain's quarters were about the size of a walk-in closet, but still much bigger than any other room on board. The table was set with white linen and china.

"I've never had a walk-in closet, you can fit a table in them?" Magnus seemed to be struggling with this as much as he did some monsters.

"We had to suck it in to sit in the chairs smashed against the wall, not exactly luxury," Percy disagreed what 'fit'.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, and Dr. Peppers were served by skeletal crewmen. I didn't want to eat anything served by ghosts, but my hunger overruled my fear.

"I don't get it," Nico said, looking around at the others and trying not to especially watch Percy. "If they're summoned back right they're practically normal. Can drive, cook, hold weapons or anything."

"I'm concerned why you know that," Jason admitted.

Nico froze as he realized he was getting a little to comfortable down here, again, and opened his mouth with a quick lie coming to mind when-

"Just part of the pranks that go around camp," Will shrugged, emphasizing the no big deal of it. "Percy hasn't been around them as much, but the Ares campers love to brag about it when they occasionally manage it."

"That was terrifying, thank you," Magnus shivered.

Nico still didn't get it and now felt even more like a freak of nature as clearly he was the only one, but a rush of gratitude swept most of that aside as Will had gone right back to reading like nothing had happened, and even more, Thalia and Percy exchanged a curious look but clearly weren't going to contradict that.

"Tantalus expelled you for eternity," Clarisse told us smugly. "Mr. D said if any of you show your face at camp again, he'll turn you into squirrels and run you over with his SUV."

"Sounds like a waste of gas when he could make a tiger appear to do it," Alex pointed out, and yep that was more on brand.

"I'm sure Grover will agree when we get him back," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Did they give you this ship?" I asked.

"'Course not. My father did."

"Ares?"

Clarisse sneered. "You think your daddy is the only one with sea power? The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for a naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?"

"Woah," Jason said in appreciation, now that sounded like something he could wrap his head around about Mars.

The captain stood behind her looking stiff and angry. His glowing green eyes fixed me with a hungry stare. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone."

"None of that made this existing feel any better," Magnus clarified with an 'ugh,' face.

'Remind me later how much you dislike ghosts when I tell you about einherjar,' Hearth told him with an amusing smile that didn't amuse Magnus. He'd finger spelled that last word and then showed him the sign for it which did nothing to encourage him.

Clarisse smiled. "Destroy anyone. I like that."

"Of course she does," Percy sighed, "like everybody on this quest?" Where were the other two companions she was supposed to have, hopefully more sensible kids from camp!

Tyson gulped.

"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "Luke might be after the Fleece, too. We saw him. He's got the coordinates and he's heading south. He has a cruise ship full of monsters—"

"Good! I'll blow him out of the water."

"I will pause to admire her confidence," Will told with an almost natural smile again as he punned his own name, causing the others to groan and Nico to roll his eyes at him.

"You don't understand," Annabeth said. We have to combine forces. Let us help you—"

"No!" Clarisse pounded the table. "This is my quest, smart girl! Finally I get to be the hero, and you two will not steal my chance."

Thalia couldn't imagine how that must feel, to often being forced into the center of attention thanks to her dad whether she wanted to be or not. She was sorry for Clarisse though, and might not be alive right now without her making it back alone, so she couldn't scoff to much at the childish idea to her of wanting to impress.

"Where are your cabin mates?" I asked. "You were allowed to take two friends with you, weren't you?"

"They didn't ... I let them stay behind. To protect the camp."

'Does not play well with others' was one of the first things they'd realized about this girl back when she'd first tried to induct Percy into the toilet royalty, but this was a new extreme. Had her own siblings, everybody at camp refused to go? Was it just faith Percy would come back and save them all before Clarisse had left the state of New York?

"You mean even the people in your own cabin wouldn't help you?"

"Shut up, Prissy! I don't need them! Or you!"

Sounds lonely, Jason kept to himself. A gut feeling told him he'd been on quests, but there was something in that same feeling that made him question if he'd been alone on them too...or at the very least felt this burden Clarisse was shouldering alone.

"Clarisse," I said, "Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about the camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail."

"No! I don't care what the Oracle—" She stopped her-self.

"Not another one of those things!" Magnus protested.

"I'm curious if Annabeth or Percy did ask for this same quest if they'd have gotten the same prophecy," Alex admitted.

"That's a really good question," Will considered. "The future is a tangled mess, my dad's tried explaining it a few times and it's just a pure headache. Theoretically the outcome is dependent on who partakes in the quest, but prophecies have been in place for centuries before they come true which means some parts of them are set points in time that must happen." Clarisse had never told anyone her prophecy though, so he couldn't be any more certain.

"Well, we all know that thing's got more double meaning than a riddle, homo phone-"

"Homophone," Magnus corrected.

"So we won't know until we finish," Percy finished with an exasperated look at Annabeth's cousin.

"What?" I said. "What did the Oracle tell you?"

"Nothing." Clarisse's ears turned pink. "All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're not helping. On the other hand, I can't let you go ..."

"So we're prisoners?" Annabeth asked.

"Guests. For now."

Percy twitched uncomfortably at the idea of being an involuntary guest, again. First the hotel, now this, not to mention where he was currently trapped. Could he go just one year of his life without being held prisoner?

Clarisse propped her feet up on the white linen tablecloth and opened another Dr. Pepper.

The snide comment was on the tip of Alex's tongue Clarisse would get along with Luke with that kind of display, but he bit it off and amazingly didn't say it. He remembered Annabeth saying last year how the campers who lived there year around were the ones who went to visit Olympus, and had specifically named Luke and Clarisse. Now she'd been betrayed in a sense by both of them back to back. Annabeth might not be here, but she had a suspicion Will at least was a year-rounder as well as often as he called that camp his home, so that was probably why he was being a little more stiff than usual while reading.

"Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies."

"I have a feeling it'll involve something worse than old plumbing this time too," Thalia said grimly. Clarisse hadn't tried to pull that stunt on her the winter she'd been there, but it wasn't for lack of spirit on creativity the few times she had seen the daughter of Ares making some kind of war plans about being underground.

The dream came as soon as I fell asleep.

Grover was sitting at his loom, desperately unraveling his wedding train, when the boulder door rolled aside and the Cyclops bellowed, "Aha!"

Percy yelped as loud as Grover had. No, not yet! He hadn't enough time-

Will kept reading in that same calm, soothing way he had about himself. Everything was going to be okay, he seemed to be silently assuring even if he had to deliver the worst news.

Grover yelped. "Dear! I didn't—you were so quiet!"

"Unraveling!" Polyphemus roared. "So that's the problem!"

"Oh, no. I—I wasn't—"

"Come!" Polyphemus grabbed Grover around the waist and half carried, half dragged him through the tunnels of the cave. Grover struggled to keep his high heels on his hooves. His veil kept tilting on his head, threatening to come off.

Percy's hands were twitching in frustration as he chanted in his head not to reach for his pen, not to jump in and help. Just because he wasn't dead didn't mean Grover wasn't still trapped, that he'd never made it away from this horrible place!

The Cyclops pulled him into a warehouse-size cavern decorated with sheep junk. There was a wool-covered La-Z-Boy recliner and a wool-covered television set, crude bookshelves loaded with sheep collectibles—coffee mugs shaped like sheep faces, plaster figurines of sheep, sheep board games, and picture books and action figures. The floor was littered with piles of sheep bones, and other bones that didn't look exactly like sheep—the bones of satyrs who'd come to the island looking for Pan.

"I never wanted the answer of what would happen when you cross disturbingly isolated sheep farmer and little old ladies," Alex frowned. He wasn't the only one, they were all feeling a little jittery about that last detail. Thalia had lived on the streets long enough to be grateful the monsters disintegrated when killed for more than one reason, and it wasn't just ease of the mist covering it up. She didn't want to see that either, now here Grover was witnessing the worst.

\Polyphemus set Grover down only long enough to move another huge boulder. Daylight streamed into the cave, and Grover whimpered with longing. Fresh air!

A concept being denied to all of them now they all fought back a whimper for. One of those basic commodities you don't appreciate until you can't step outside your own front door and indulge in whenever you wanted.

The Cyclops dragged him outside to a hilltop overlooking the most beautiful island I'd ever seen.

It was shaped kind of like a saddle cut in half by an ax. There were lush green hills on either side and a wide valley in the middle, split by a deep chasm that was spanned by a rope bridge.

Beautiful streams rolled to the edge of the canyon and dropped off in rainbow-colored waterfalls. Parrots fluttered in the trees. Pink and purple flowers bloomed on the bushes.

Hundreds of sheep grazed in the meadows, their wool glinting strangely like copper and silver coins.

And at the center of the island, right next to the rope bridge, was an enormous twisted oak tree with something glittering in its lowest bough.

The Golden Fleece.

Even in a dream, I could feel its power radiating across the island, making the grass greener, the flowers more beautiful. I could almost smell the nature magic at work. I could only imagine how powerful the scent would be for a satyr.

Grover whimpered.

"This is an epic setting for the monster movie we could get going," Alex fluttered his hands like a movie director prompting his shot. "The clashing settings of the inside of his home and that landscape, expectation subversion and horror. Guy's sitting on a goldmine."

"I'm sure Hollywood would love your pitch," Percy told him in exasperation.

"Yes," Polyphemus said proudly. "See over there? Fleece is the prize of my collection! Stole it from heroes long ago, and ever since—free food! Satyrs come from all over the world, like moths to flame. Satyrs good eating! And now—"

Polyphemus scooped up a wicked set of bronze shears.

Riptide was in his hand without any call on his part, he could not just sit here and let that thing kill Grover while he slept- but then Thalia snatched his elbow and yanked him back into his seat, putting a plate of cheese enchiladas onto his lap.

"Eat, Jackson," she ordered. "Grover won't forgive you if you let those go to waste."

Percy's head was buzzing unpleasantly as he made his blade vanish back into his pocket and stabbed the first bite. She hadn't said he was okay, but he took the feeling implied by her words close to heart.

Grover yelped, but Polyphemus just picked up the nearest sheep like it was a stuffed animal and shaved off its wool. He handed a fluffy mass of it to Grover.

"Put that on the spinning wheel!" he said proudly. "Magic. Cannot be unraveled."

"Worst wedding present ever," Alex wasn't so sure he meant that though, it could be fun to work with.

"Hope he's not expecting some stellar dowry to make up for all this trouble," Nico said drolly.

"Oh ... well ..."

"Poor Honeypie!" Polyphemus grinned. "Bad weaver. Ha-ha! Not to worry. That thread will solve problem. Finish wedding train by tomorrow!"

"Isn't that ... thoughtful of you!"

"Hehe."

"But—but, dear," Grover gulped, "what if someone were to rescue—I mean attack this island?" Grover looked straight at me, and I knew he was asking for my benefit. "What would keep them from marching right up here to your cave?"

"Wifey scared! So cute! Not to worry. Polyphemus has state-of-the-art security system. Have to get through my pets."

"Pets?"

Grover looked across the island, but there was nothing to see except sheep grazing peacefully in the meadows.

"Now if they were llamas, I'd be a little more frightened," Jason looked around carefully to make sure he wasn't missing something, "but sheep?"

"Are there greek stories about killer sheep?" Magnus more clearly asked.

"I'm just going to assume yes," Percy sighed when he realized nobody was going to get an answer as he kept eyes on his plate.

"And then," Polyphemus growled, "they would have to get through me!"

He pounded his fist against the nearest rock, which cracked and split in half.

'I think I'd take him over the sheep though,' Hearth admitted. There was definitely a forbidding look on Thalia, Will, and Nico's face when prompted before that had nothing on that impact.

'I'm reserving judgment,' Magnus would rather not deal with either if he could get away with it.

"Now, come!" he shouted. "Back to the cave."

Grover looked about ready to cry—so close to freedom, but so hopelessly far. Tears welled in his eyes as the boulder door rolled shut, sealing him once again in the stinky torch-lit dankness of the Cyclops's cave.

Percy had had a good night's sleep with no nightmares, as much food at his disposal as he could want, and even friends surrounding him during this ordeal. As miserable, useless, and drained as he already felt again having no way to get back, all he wanted as he watched the half-empty plate be whisked away was to give his best friend a hug when he saw him again.

I woke to alarm bells ringing throughout the ship.

The captain's gravelly voice: "All hands on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"

"Probably on her way to destroy that guy for calling her Lady Clarisse," Nico said confidently, making Will snort beside him and grin again.

Then his ghostly face appeared above me. "Get up, Yankee.

"At least he didn't call you Yankee doodle," Alex offered.

Percy tapped his temple in frustration for a moment to the bafflement of all of them as he tried to explain what memory that could have jogged, "I think Annabeth once told me the backstory of that weird song."

"Remind me to ask," Magnus said eagerly.

Your friends are already above. We are approaching the entrance."

"The entrance to what?"

He gave me a skeletal smile. "The Sea of Monsters, of course."

"Is there going to be a moat around the ocean?" Jason was clearly still struggling a bit with this. "An archway in the middle of nowhere uselessly warning people away? A Do Not Enter Sign on a buoy?"

"I like your answers better than what's there," Thalia chuckled.

I stuffed my few belongings that had survived the Hydra into a sailor's canvas knapsack and slung it over my shoulder. I had a sneaking suspicion that one way or another I would not be spending another night aboard the CSS Birmingham.

"I should really have a talk with Clarisse's lack of hospitality scaring you off," Will agreed sardonically.

"I wish I had that feeling now," Percy sighed.

I was on my way upstairs when something made me freeze. A presence nearby—something familiar and unpleasant. For no particular reason, I felt like picking a fight. I wanted to punch a dead Confederate.

"I mean, usually you don't need outside help to have that feeling if you're a decent human being, but..." Magnus trailed off uncomfortably for where they now realized Clarisse might be.

The last time I'd felt like that kind of anger ...

Instead of going up, I crept to the edge of the ventilation grate and peered down into the boiler deck. Clarisse was standing right below me, talking to an image that shimmered in the steam from the boilers—a muscular man in black leather biker clothes, with a military haircut, red-tinted sunglasses, and a knife strapped to his side.

My fists clenched. It was my least favorite Olympian: Ares, the god of war.

"A feeling I can't even disagree with, which is really saying something considering the other contenders we've heard of," Jason muttered with a very put-out look. The Mars/ Ares debate still raged in the back of his mind even if it had quieted some since Ares's defeat. Always worse than any of the other gods shown, and hardest yet to shake when he was on display like right now.

"I don't want excuses, little girl!" he growled.

"Y-yes, father," Clarisse mumbled.

"You don't want to see me mad, do you?"

"No, father."

"No, father," Ares mimicked. "You're pathetic. I should've let one of my sons take this quest."

A shockwave couldn't have reverberated through the room with more power, the insult felt like a slap to each of them whether they'd experienced such horrible words personally or not. None of them had really been able to claim to like Clarisse much, but she'd shown at the very least she wasn't a bad person.

A comment like that even made those not in the know if Clarisse might be Luke's spy in the camp. It was just such a horrible thing to say, she was out here by herself risking her life to save a dying camp the two people in charge of it couldn't be bothered to care about only to have that thrown out? Who wouldn't turn against the gods?

"I'll succeed!" Clarisse promised, her voice trembling. "I'll make you proud."

"You'd better," he warned. "You asked me for this quest, girl. If you let that slimeball Jackson kid steal it from you—"

"But the Oracle said—"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAID!" Ares bellowed with such force that his image shimmered. "You will succeed. And if you don't ..."

He raised his fist. Even though he was only a figure in the steam, Clarisse flinched.

Percy had nearly destroyed the planet seeing his mom in such a state, the least he could do was contemplate drowning Ares without mercy now as he imagined storming in there to show this god just what he'd planned to do to Gabe in that moment.

"Do we understand each other?" Ares growled.

The alarm bells rang again. I heard voices coming toward me, officers yelling orders to ready the cannons.

I crept back from the ventilation grate and made my way upstairs to join Annabeth and Tyson on the spar deck.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked me. "Another dream?"

I nodded, but I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to think about what I'd seen downstairs. It bothered me almost as much as the dream about Grover.

Jason wished he could go back and reread his chapter about Percy stabbing Ares a couple more times now as that moment solidified in his head what nothing yet had. Whatever the gods were to him, it wasn't this. He wanted to go home. He would take Nico up on that offer and find out who Mars, Jupiter, and his gods really were to him.

Clarisse came up the stairs right after me. I tried not to look at her.

She grabbed a pair of binoculars from a zombie officer and peered toward the horizon. "At last. Captain, full steam ahead!"

This, at least, was Clarisse in her natural state. Will could barely imagine her as scared as Grover in the face of that monster, how he now wished he'd volunteered to go on this quest with her and get between her and Ares when somebody had needed to. At least she had come back a conquering hero, but he now feared how her own father would have punished her if she hadn't.

His eyes flickered to Nico and away, but he bit his tongue to stop himself asking if Hades was demanding anything similar. He'd been told to butt out and was getting help from Jason.

I looked in the same direction as she was, but I couldn't see much. The sky was overcast. The air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron. If I squinted real hard, I could just make out a couple of dark fuzzy splotches in the distance.

My nautical senses told me we were somewhere off the coast of northern Florida, so we'd come a long way overnight, farther than any mortal ship should've been able to travel.

The engine groaned as we increased speed.

Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."

Alex cleared his throat uneasily. It didn't feel right to be making trivial comments after hearing that, but he imagined if Clarisse had been here she'd be telling them all to quit gawping already. "How literally were we supposed to take that chapter title?"

"That's never a good thing to be asking," Percy reminded with an uncharacteristic coldness to his voice, his face as drawn and tight as if he were living a nightmare.

I wasn't sure how he knew that, but it made me nervous.

After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead of us came into focus. To the north, a huge mass of rock rose out of the sea—an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other patch of darkness was a storm brewing. The sky and sea boiled together in a roaring mass.

Percy felt a tingling sensation across the back of his neck and glanced at the ceiling before shaking it off and scolding himself for such thoughts. He wouldn't be able to feel something like that no matter who his dad was, but the thought didn't entirely fade from his mind there was a storm brewing, and it wasn't in Florida.

"Hurricane?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Clarisse said. "Charybdis."

Annabeth paled. "Are you crazy?"

"Jealous Percy?" Thalia grinned. "I thought Annabeth only asked you that."

"If something hasn't blossomed between her and Clarisse yet, I like my chances," Percy scoffed at her.

"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla."

Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, and I got the feeling something lived up there that I did not want to meet.

"Or would come back from meeting," Will assured. These were primordial monsters, one of the firsts. Whether a child of Gaea or Oceanus didn't seem clear, but he knew Percy could not kill them. Even if anaklusmos pierced them, they would never vanish long enough to make a difference.

"What do you mean the only way?" I asked. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them."

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them."

'Talk about your rock and a hard place,' Hearth protested.

"I hate magic," Magnus agreed.

"Thank you!" Percy waved at him in relief someone else had finally said it.

"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth said. "That's another gateway. Jason used it."

"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand ..."

"I swear she makes this difficult on purpose," Nico groaned.

"If she'd said something like her ship wasn't fast enough to beat the Symplegades, I'd understand," Jason agreed without thinking, "but this," he sighed at the idea that girl needed some strategy in her life. He was still waiting for that epic team up she and Annabeth could destroy anything together, this could have been a great moment to show that.

"Well she didn't bring a dove, so it's probably a moot point," Thalia reminded. Clarisse wouldn't listen to anybody else on this regardless of what path she'd picked.

"You are crazy," Annabeth decided.

"She can have that title as long as she doesn't make a bid for my Lordship next," Percy huffed. He had a really, really bad feeling about this.

"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"

"Aye, m'lady."

The engine groaned, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed.

"Clarisse," I said, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"

"And spits it back out again, yeah."

"That doesn't mean you survive the trip!" Alex spluttered she seemed to be overlooking that important detail.

"What about Scylla?"

"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."

"Choose Scylla then," I said. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."

"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship.

"Then leave the ghosts up there to stall," Nico reminded, "free bait."

"Now see, that's a use I can almost get behind these things existing," Magnus nodded.

Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlwind.

It was impossible to imagine what on earth sort of mortal body was going to contain anything being described here. For any of them, as nobody but Percy would have been near this. They just kept picturing one giant mouth sprouting out of the ocean with teeth on all sides vanishing you into a black pit never to be seen again until she exhaled you to the stars above.

We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"

She said it with such relish I almost wanted to believe her.

"Optimism," Will groaned.

"It, apparently, won't get you everywhere," Thalia blandly agreed. Even if Annabeth hadn't told her otherwise, she couldn't see how this would ever have gone well.

The engine hummed. The boilers were heating up so much I could feel the deck getting warm beneath my feet. The smokestacks billowed. The red Ares flag whipped in the wind.

As we got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder and louder—a horrible wet roar like the galaxy's biggest toilet being flushed. Every time Charybdis inhaled, the ship shuddered and lurched forward. Every time she exhaled, we rose in the water and were buffeted by ten-foot waves.

I tried to time the whirlpool. As near as I could figure, it took Charybdis about three minutes to suck up and destroy everything within a half-mile radius.

"Sounds like the worst wave pool in existence," Jason was starting to look a little gray and wondering if he could swim. He had no memory of it like everything else, so he didn't like his chances!

"I'll take the abandoned water park any day," Nico agreed. Hades probably had a water slide under that place straight to his domain to fast-track how many souls were lost in there.

To avoid her, we would have to skirt right next to Scylla's cliffs. And as bad as Scylla might be, those cliffs were looking awfully good to me.

Undead sailors calmly went about their business on the spar deck. I guess they'd fought a losing cause before, so this didn't bother them. Or maybe they didn't care about getting destroyed because they were already deceased. Neither thought made me feel any better.

"And what would make you feel better?" Will asked looking right at Percy, his gaze so focused on him all of a sudden like he was trying to pry his mind open as if it wasn't on full display in his hands. "All of them running around screaming?"

"Um, no," Percy blinked and looked at Thalia, then Nico for help. Will was acting weird, and he was pretty sure he didn't know him well enough to even be certain if this was normal weird or concerning weird. "Backup plan maybe?"

Annabeth stood next to me, gripping the rail. "You still have your thermos full of wind?"

"Well that's what we have Annabeth for," Magnus reminded with his own grin.

"Right, yeah, glad to help," Will rolled his eyes but at least stopped leering at him.

Nico flushed and looked to the ceiling and nobody needed a mind reader anymore to work out they'd missed some kind of debacle.

I nodded. "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirl-pool like that. More wind might just make things worse."

"What about controlling the water?" she asked. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before."

She was right. I closed my eyes and tried to calm the sea, but I couldn't concentrate.

Charybdis was too loud and powerful. The waves wouldn't respond.

"I—I can't," I said miserably.

Nico's ears pricked in confusion, his mind flagged on that sentence as he tried to realize its existence. It was possible that creatures even older than Poseidon could dominate his control, it was even in the realm of possibility Percy himself wasn't strong enough with his own powers yet to be pulling such a stunt.

Regardless of the answer, Thalia smacked her friend on the shoulder and laughed, "don't worry, Annabeth won't hold this over you."

"What a relief," Percy answered honestly though, he was starting to feel pretty useless on this quest in the freaking ocean!

"We need a backup plan," Annabeth said. "This isn't going to work."

"Annabeth is right," Tyson said. "Engine's no good."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."

Before he could explain, the cosmic toilet flushed with a mighty roaaar!

Jason was now squirming so much in place he looked like he might need to use that thing himself. He'd never had occasion to be seasick before, but just the idea of that was making him so!

The ship lurched forward and I was thrown to the deck. We were in the whirlpool.

"Where's her off switch?" Percy asked through numb lips.

"Not as easy as yours," Thalia said in a voice far to doom like.

"Full reverse!" Clarisse screamed above the noise. The sea churned around us, waves crashing over the deck. The iron plating was now so hot it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"

Dead Confederates rushed back and forth. The propeller grinded into reverse, trying to slow the ship, but we kept sliding toward the center of the vortex.

A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse. His gray uniform was smoking. His beard was on fire. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"

"Well, get down there and fix it!"

"Can't!" the sailor yelled. "We're vaporizing in the heat."

Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"

"We're going in too fast," the captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death."

"No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it."

Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"

"He's a Cyclops," Annabeth said. "He's immune to fire. And he knows mechanics."

"Go!" yelled Clarisse.

"Tyson, no!" I grabbed his arm. "It's too dangerous!"

He patted my hand. "Only way, brother." His expression was determined—confident, even. I'd never seen him look like this before. "I will fix it. Be right back."

Tyson had faced down worse monsters already than some ship, but physical prowess didn't mean he'd developed enough mechanical know-how to win this fight. Alex was twining up the edge of his shirt like he was imagining it as his garrote, before he seemed to realize he was doing such a thing and quickly dropped his hands.

As I watched him follow the smoldering sailor down the hatch, I had a terrible feeling. I wanted to run after him, but the ship lurched again—

Percy's hand was left floating in the water now stretched towards nothing, his throat clenching tight. Wrong, wrong, wrong. He couldn't let Tyson do this, he was just a kid. There was something he had to tell him, but what-

and then I saw Charybdis.

She appeared only a few hundred yards away, through a swirl of mist and smoke and water.

The first thing I noticed was the reef—a black crag of coral with a fig tree clinging to the top, an oddly peaceful thing in the middle of a maelstrom.

'I wonder if Luke had to fetch one of those if he'd be as salty,' Hearth signed. It seemed a plenty impossible task to him nobody should have lived through just as much as the first one.

Thalia snorted without amusement and silently corrected him another hero had, Odysseus. Hearth threw his hands up in exasperation there was just no winning, and boy was he right about that.

All around it, water curved into a funnel, like light around a black hole. Then I saw the horrible thing anchored to the reef just below the waterline—an enormous mouth with slimy lips and mossy teeth the size of rowboats. And worse, the teeth had braces, bands of corroded scummy metal with pieces of fish and driftwood and floating garbage stuck between them.

Charybdis was an orthodontist's nightmare.

"Once again, Percy and the stellar descriptions for the win," Alex applauded that visual hell.

"Thank you, I'll be here for eternity," Percy groaned as he sunk farther into his seat. Nobody had yet told him if Tyson was going to be okay, and now he felt like he was looking into the mouth of hell. There was no such thing as a lesser of two evils in this case, every option ahead was going to get blown up!

She was nothing but a huge black maw with bad teeth alignment and a serious overbite, and she'd done nothing for centuries but eat without brushing after meals. As I watched, the entire sea around her was sucked into the void— sharks, schools of fish, a giant squid. And I realized that in a few seconds, the CSS Birmingham would be next.

"Lady Clarisse," the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"

"Fire!" Clarisse ordered.

Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. One blew off the edge of an incisor. Another disappeared into her gullet. The third hit one of Charybdis's retaining bands and shot back at us, snapping the Ares flag off its pole.

"Oh, so it was effective then," Jason said, covering his eyes with his hand like he couldn't watch anymore.

"I'm more glad by the second Clarisse isn't in here, because I'm pretty sure she'd find a way to kill us," Thalia nodded.

"Again!" Clarisse ordered. The gunners reloaded, but I knew it was hopeless. We would have to pound the monster a hundred more times to do any real damage, and we didn't have that long. We were being sucked in too fast.

"We're all gonna die," Percy repeated. Even his powers wouldn't be enough to save Tyson and Annabeth when they had to jump away or be eaten alive!

"Magnus might never talk to you again if so," Alex pleasantly reminded him at least he'd survived the blast, but that was of no comfort if he'd been the only one to do so. If that memory of Annabeth leaning in to kiss him had all been a figment of his scrubbed mind...

Then the vibrations in the deck changed. The hum of the engine got stronger and steadier. The ship shuddered and we started pulling away from the mouth.

"Tyson did it!" Annabeth said.

"Wait!" Clarisse said. "We need to stay close!"

"We'll die!" I said. "We have to move away."

I gripped the rail as the ship fought against the suction. The broken Ares flag raced past us and lodged in Charybdis's braces. We weren't making much progress, but at least we were holding our own. Tyson had somehow given us just enough juice to keep the ship from being sucked in.

Tyson's the strongest kid in the world, Percy kept silently assuring himself as he glared daggers at the book in Will's hand as if demanding his thoughts become true. Stronger than Hercules, and even smarter than the hero of legend with his short time under Beckendorf. He was going to get more of that too, his little brother-

Suddenly, the mouth snapped shut. The sea died to absolute calm. Water washed over Charybdis.

Then, just as quickly as it had closed, the mouth exploded open, spitting out a wall of water, ejecting everything inedible, including our cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS Birmingham with a ding like the bell on a carnival game.

Percy was dragged back to one disaster at a time, he'd thrown his instinct into stilling the water around him for once instead of stirring it up and the results left Will's mouth almost frozen in place for a moment before Percy released him and was clutching his pen again to fight off the urge to just read this himself already if his head would stop spinning.

We were thrown backward on a wave that must've been forty feet high. I used all of my willpower to keep the ship from capsizing, but we were still spinning out of control, hurtling toward the cliffs on the opposite side of the strait.

Another smoldering sailor burst out of the hold. He stumbled into Clarisse, almost knocking them both over-board. "The engine is about to blow!"

"Where's Tyson?" Percy demanded at the same time Will was still reading it from the book. Nobody cracked a smile.

"Where's Tyson?" I demanded.

"Still down there," the sailor said. "Holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer."

The captain said, "We have to abandon ship."

"No!" Clarisse yelled.

Percy's eyes flashed dangerously, he fought the urge to punch somebody who wasn't here and thankfully Thalia didn't have long stringy brown hair for him to confuse in her silvery camo jacket.

"We have no choice, m'lady. The hull is already cracking apart! She can't—"

He never finished his sentence. Quick as lightning, something brown and green shot from the sky, snatched up the captain, and lifted him away. All that was left were his leather boots.

"Scylla!" a sailor yelled, as another column of reptilian flesh shot from the cliffs and snapped him up. It happened so fast it was like watching a laser beam rather than a monster. I couldn't even make out the thing's face, just a flash of teeth and scales.

I uncapped Riptide and tried to swipe at the monster as it carried off another deckhand, but I was way too slow.

"Everyone get below!" I yelled.

Nico was starting to wonder if they were inside Charybdis as turned around as he was starting to feel. Percy was trying to save the ghosts, Percy couldn't just fight his way out of this. He wasn't leaving without Tyson, of course not, but the rest, well...something was slipping in him that he'd barely ever given proper words to, and it left him feeling to confused for an emotion he'd never acknowledged.

"We can't!" Clarisse drew her own sword. "Below deck is in flames."

"Lifeboats!" Annabeth said. "Quick!"

"They'll never get clear of the cliffs," Clarisse said. "We'll all be eaten."

"We have to try. Percy, the thermos."

"I can't leave Tyson!"

Percy had done it again in sync with the reader, and Will's heart ached for the guy. He knew better than most it oftentimes hurt worse to heal than the original injury had led you to believe it would, he wished he could look Percy in the eye and promise him Tyson was fine no matter how bad it hurt his head now, but the damage could be worse than the band-aide he'd be fixing.

The son of Poseidon was taking, slow, deep breaths, but there was fear in his eyes. Something was fixing to happen, a part of the epic story that hadn't been told around the campfire that night. Clarisse had certainly never bragged much of her own quest, and that alone should have sent him into worrying and wondering just what they had gone through...

"We have to get the boats ready!"

Clarisse took Annabeth's command.

Jason pumped the air with a victorious smile now, convinced things were going to be smooth sailing as those two finally worked together and Percy would douse the water to get Tyson back!

She and a few of her undead sailors uncovered one of the two emergency rowboats while Scylla's heads rained from the sky like a meteor shower with teeth, picking off Confederate sailors one after another.

"A death for them I can't even laugh at," Alex whispered with still trembling hands Magnus's were twitching to grab. Alex didn't like holding hands though, and boy was that a weird thing to do to comfort someone, a boy!, he'd barely known for two days!

"Get the other boat." I threw Annabeth the thermos. "I'll get Tyson."

"You can't!" she said. "The heat will kill you!"

I didn't listen.

This came to no one's surprise.

I ran for the boiler room hatch, when suddenly my feet weren't touching the deck anymore. I was flying straight up, the wind whistling in my ears, the side of the cliff only inches from my face.

Scylla had somehow caught me by the knapsack, and was lifting me up toward her lair.

Without thinking, I swung my sword behind me and managed to jab the thing in her beady yellow eye. She grunted and dropped me.

The fall would've been bad enough, considering I was a hundred feet in the air. But as I fell, the CSS Birmingham exploded below me.

KAROOM!

The word did nothing to define the explosion. Even their imaginations couldn't quite comprehend the heat, the impact, how Percy felt his whole world blackout for the span of that second where the air had been ripped apart. They were dead, they were all gone.

The engine room blew, sending chunks of ironclad flying in either direction like a fiery set of wings.

Icarus himself couldn't have screwed up this bad. Thalia refused to show even a tick of her anger for Clarisse's pigheadedness causing this, nor bow her head in remorse for her sister nearly dying again. She wouldn't give Percy the wrong impression like that, just kept steadily looking ahead at the book and refusing to blink a single tear at what a miracle it was they were all okay.

"Tyson!" I yelled.

"He's immune to fire," Magnus whispered desperately into the eerily silent room. Percy hadn't echoed that one, he'd just remained locked into place. Alex was working his jaw like he was fighting back the urge to rip something to shreds. "He, those Canadian's, and bulls did nothing to him, and being Poseidon's kid too, maybe he-" Hearth put a calming hand on his shoulder, just the tips of his long slender fingers. He fell silent as the absent promises meant nothing to the god's reality.

The lifeboats had managed to get away from the ship, but not very far. Flaming wreckage was raining down. Clarisse and Annabeth would either be smashed or burned or pulled to the bottom by the force of the sinking hull, and that was thinking optimistically, assuming they got away from Scylla.

Then I heard a different kind of explosion—the sound of Hermes's magic thermos being opened a little too far. White sheets of wind blasted in every direction, scattering the lifeboats, lifting me out of my free fall and propelling me across the ocean.

Jason had fallen back into his seat hard like he'd been knocked back into it. The absent thought flickering across his mind how many other explosions could happen, was Zeus going to strike him out of the sky for being up there so long just to add insult to injury at this point?

I couldn't see anything. I spun in the air, got clonked on the head by something hard, and hit the water with a crash that would've broken every bone in my body if I hadn't been the son of the Sea God.

The last thing I remembered was sinking in a burning sea, knowing that Tyson was gone forever, and wishing I were able to drown.

"My-" the word brother lodged in Percy's throat, even as he now knew what he hadn't been able to grasp this whole time, what Tyson meant to him. "He can't be-" but it wouldn't come out. Just like his little brother, it all got lost.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*P.G.T Beauregard was a general in the New Orleans, Louisiana Confederate army, and eventual traitor to the 'traditional cause.' Do I headcanon ancestry to Silena? Yes, yes I do.

#pjo #Percy Jackson #Nico di Angelo #Will Solace #solangelo #Alex Fierro #Magnus Chase #fierrochase #Jason Grace #Thalia Grace #Hearthstone #reading the books #fanfiction #characters read their own books #SoM

[solangelover]

A Glowing Future

Submission by @satans-little-helper33

This piece takes place right after Nico’s final chapter at the end of Blood of Olympus.

Main Characters: Will Solace and Nico DiAngelo

Solangelo fluff

Nico’s encounter with Eros had cracked him wide open and left him feeling vulnerable and broken, forced to face his own reality and feelings, exposed in front of Jason; he was forced to share his darkest secret for a god’s amusement. Nico now knew he could trust Jason to keep it to himself, though, and he was beginning to realize that in order to crawl out of his self-constructed prison, his barriers first had to be torn down.

The feelings that had haunted him for so long—the shame, the fear, the denial—caused by the mentality of the 1940s he’d grown up in began to fade away. 

He was no longer that scared little boy who had been enraptured by the presence of a powerful demigod, and now that he had finally confessed his past feelings to Percy, Nico felt that he could finally move forward. 

Hades’s son made his way back down the hill to where Will was waiting for him, wearing scrubs,  jeans, and a crooked smile that made his heart skip a beat.

--------

“Sorry I didn’t come visit you in the infirmary,” Nico said, wearing the hint of a smile.

“It’s alright, I forgive you,” Will Solace said, his mouth set tight but laughter in his eyes, like he was trying to stay mad at Nico and failing.

“You wanted me to stay there--”

“For at least three days. Doctor’s orders.” Will started to lead Nico back toward the infirmary.

“Really, I’m Fine,” Nico began, but then his knees buckled and Will hoisted him back up.

“Uh huh. Right. Let’s get you to a bed.”

--------

Even after Coach Hedge’s nature magic/sports drink concoction, which had sustained Nico for a while, the arduous task of shadow-travelling the Athena Parthenos across the world had caught up with him again.

When Nico opened his eyes again, he was in the infirmary half sitting, half lying on a piece of furniture that was somewhere between a bed and a stretcher. 

“Welcome back to the world of the living,” a familiar voice intoned, “have some ambrosia.”

Will sat on a chair beside the bed; the room of the infirmary he was in was long and lined with similar bed-stretchers, separated by white curtains that shimmered in different colors when they were moved.

Several other beds were occupied with demigods sporting now-relatively-minor injuries left over from the battle with Gaia and the monster army: a daughter of Hecate 2 beds over was glaring at her leg in a cast as if she was insulted by the inconvenience.

Nico turned back to Will, and noticed that beside the bed there was a small table with a baggie of ambrosia squares on it. Nico reached out to pick one up but encountered a familiar problem: his fingers passed right through the baggie and ambrosia, as if he was becoming one with the shadows permanently. His hand appeared fuzzy around the edges, as if he was dissolving.

“Uhh, maybe if I try again--”

Will frowned, then sighed. “This is what happens when you overextend yourself. Here, let me help you.” He picked up a square and held it out to feed Nico.

Nico leaned back. “What are you doing?”

“No arguing. Open up.” Solace said, his tone making it clear that he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Will took none of Nico’s shit. That was one of the things Nico found most endearing and annoying about him; no matter how hard the son of Hades tried to push him away, Will simply refused to let him.

Nico took the ambrosia, and after a few moments they looked back at his hand, which seemed to be coming back into sharper focus.

“You had me worried there, diAngelo,” Will said, smiling, and briefly gripped his hand to check if it was now solid. Day of the Dead skeletons tapped out a jig in Nico’s chest.

“You were worried...about me?” Nico said, still wrapping his mind around the fact that Will had wanted a death demigod to visit him in the infirmary.

“Get some sleep.” he said, closing the ziplock bag.

“I’m not tired.” 

“Well you will be in a second. CLOVIS,” he called out. The calf-like son of Morpheus appeared around the corner and Will told him “we’ve got another stubborn one,” throwing a teasing smile Nico’s way.

Clovis yawned. “I’m all over it,” he said, and--despite Nico’s protests--touched his forehead. The son of Hades drifted off into a deep sleep.

----------------------------------

Nico awoke feeling more rested than he had in weeks. 

He quickly sat up, suddenly worried, because the last time he’d felt this rested, he’d been asleep for three days.

Nico stopped a passing Apollo healer. 

“How long have I been out??”

The healer scratched his chin, trying to estimate. “About 6 hours?” He walked off.

Will walked into the infirmary, arguing with a Demeter camper; something about herbs and supplies? He turned and spotted Nico.

“Well, good evening, sleepyhead! How was your nap? Feeling better?”

“I think 6 hours is slightly more than a nap.” Nico retorted.

“Well, count yourself lucky that Clovis has learned to control his powers better. A while ago he put a camper out for a week by accident.” Will made his way toward him. “Can you stand?”

“Um, let’s find out.” Nico swung his legs over the bed and got up. Aside from stumbling a little, he was feeling much better. Nico marvelled at the healing powers of sleep.

As if he read his mind, Will said, “Oh yeah, sleep has endless benefits.”

Nico twisted his skull ring. “Hey, I came in here at about noon, which means--”

 The conch horn signalling the dinner feast echoed across the valley. Will grinned. “I think that’s our cue.”

--------

The Half Blood campfire that night still carried with it an aura of elation spurred from disbelief, that they had won the battle against Gaia and made allies with the Romans, and a sort of desperation to feel alive brought about by all of those who had died in the process. Nico felt a pang for Leo, though he had a strange feeling that his death wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed.

Will sat by him at the bonfire, the Apollo cabin on his left and Nico on his right, leaving Nico unsure as to whether Will had sat next to him or his cabin. He chastised himself for hoping that it was the former.

The enchanted flames in the brazier blazed brightly with the energy of the campers, and Nico felt the warmth flare in his heart as he cast a glance at the son of Apollo, the light from the fire reflecting off of his blonde hair. 

--------

Nico lay in his bunk that night after the campfire, staring up at the ceiling of the Hades cabin that was inset with precious stones. He quickly realized that there was no way he was falling asleep any time soon, and he climbed out of bed. The whole room was drenched in liquid shadows, and despite his exhaustion after the journey shadow travelling with the Athena Parthenos, Nico stepped forward and became one with the darkness with ease.

  He melted from the shadow of a tree, finding himself by the lakeside at the edge of Camp Half-Blood. A full moon cast a pale glow on the night. Nico walked down to the sand and sat down; the silence was intoxicating, and Nico closed his eyes and listened to the gentle lapping of small waves against the shore. Suddenly he felt something nearby, heard the brush rustle, and wondered whether the cleaning harpies had come to eat him for being out past curfew. Nico drew his Stygian sword, which seemed to pull at the darkness like a magnet, and got ready to defend himself. What actually emerged from the brush was Will, who abruptly spotted Nico’s sword and laughed quietly. 

“Expecting a fight?”

Nico quickly sheathed his sword. “What are you doing out here?” He noticed for the first time that Will had something in his hands.

He held up two goblets. “Mind if I join you?”

Will was the only one at camp who was not blatantly wary of him; after several years as an outcast, the effect felt foreign.

Will sat down next to the son of Hades and spoke to one of the goblets--“Pomegranate juice”--and handed it to Nico as the cup filled with garnet liquid. 

“Are these--” Nico began.

“Glasses from the dining pavilion? Yeah. I snuck a couple out before dinner ended.” He wore his trademark mischievous smile. “I noticed you asked for pomegranate juice at dinner.” Nico felt his face grow warm as Will turned to his own cup and requested ginger beer. Soon the glass was filled with amber.

“It...reminds me of my mom.” Nico said quietly. “Not Persephone, ironically. When Bianca, my mom, and I...” his voice caught on Bianca’s name “when we lived in New Orleans, I was little, but I remember her giving us pomegranate juice on special occasions. It was a tough thing to find where we lived, so she would only have it on celebrations or...when my dad came to visit. I was just a baby when she was murdered.”

He stared down in silence at his drink.

“It wasn’t your fault, you know. Bianca, your mom, none of it,” Will said gently.

“I know,” Nico muttered, his voice nonetheless doubtful.

Will placed his hand on Nico’s, and he tensed, ready to pull away, but then instead turned his palm up to hold Will’s. 

Nico turned his head to look up at Will, his pale blue eyes shining in the moonlight, almost periwinkle, an indiscernible expression on his face.

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Will murmured, his gaze taking Nico in. Will looked into his dark eyes as if he could perceive all of him, good and bad, and was still enraptured by what he saw. 

Will reached out hesitantly, as if to touch Nico’s face, but stopped before, gaging his reaction, and when the son of Hades didn’t pull away, he brushed the ink-black hair out of his face.

Involuntarily, Nico’s eyes closed and his heart began to race. His life had, for years, been spent more with the dead than the living. No one had touched him tenderly for what felt like eons, not since Bianca, and only now did he realize how starved for physical affection he had been. Not just starved, he thought to himself, afraid of it… 

And in that moment he decided that he was not going to be afraid anymore.

  Will’s gaze moved from Nico’s eyes to his lips, and he leaned in carefully as if approaching a wild animal. Nico closed the distance, and as their lips met, his life bloomed before him like a chrysanthemum opening layer by layer. Suddenly Nico could see a future before him that wasn’t ruled by death and solitude. 

Unnoticed by either of them, a dead mouse at the edge of the forest was brought back to life and scampered off into the trees.

 - Alya

@satans-little-helper33

My writing blog: @from-story-to-screen

#submission #not mine #but I love this #I miss this #I miss Solangelo #when I would read infirmary fics for days on end #will and Nico’s dynamic is just so nice #it’s like my comfort zone #nico di angelo #solangelo #will solace #pjo #hoo #toa #infirmary #three days infirmary fic #solangelo fanfiction #solangelo fanfic #fic

[buoyantsaturn]

Riding Bikes Across the Street Without Looking Either Way (2/2)

summary: “Well, you can stay with me and Annabeth as long as you need to, okay? We’ve got a shitty couch with your name on it, and we’ll make sure your dad never finds you.”

word count: 3,955

read on ao3 | read chapter one

Nico hadn’t slept in three days by the time he arrived at Percy’s apartment late at night, around two days after he’d left home. He’d barely stopped along the way, so when Annabeth opened the door for him, she looked like she’d seen a ghost. (At this point, Nico felt like he might as well be one.) 

“Oh my god,” Annabeth said as she grabbed Nico’s shoulder to pull him inside, drawing him straight into a hug. “Neeks, you look like shit. Are you-- Are you bleeding?”

Nico refrained from reaching up to check his head, and looked to the side in an attempt to stop Annabeth from looking too closely, though she took his face in her hands and turned his head back the other way. “I’m fine,” Nico muttered when Annabeth gasped. 

“You are not,” she argued. “You’re going to the hospital.”

“I just drove for two days, I don’t wanna drive anymore,” Nico told her. “Can’t I sleep first?” 

“Oh, you are not driving like this,” Annabeth said as she started further into the apartment. “You probably shouldn’t have driven in the first place! Wait here. Percy just put Luke down for the night, but he’ll take you.” 

Then Annabeth disappeared around the corner, so Nico stood in the doorway with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his coat. He let his eyes fall shut and his head tip forward, and just about fell asleep standing up until his body started to lean, and he startled awake to catch himself. When he opened his eyes, Percy was there with his coat in hand and concern written across his face. 

Nico blinked up at him, and Percy seemed to take that as his invitation to draw Nico in for a hug. Nico flinched back when Percy got too close to the wound on the side of his head, so Percy jumped back like he’d been shocked. “Dude,” Percy whispered, his eyes full of something like pity that made Nico’s stomach turn. Percy pulled on his coat and held out a hand. “Alright, give me your keys.” 

For a second, Nico didn’t move. He wanted to argue, to say he was too tired and that they could just go in the morning, but he didn’t want to get hit again. (Percy wouldn’t hit him, would he?) Nico took the keys out of his pocket and dropped them into Percy’s hand. 

They walked down to the road and got into Nico’s car. It wasn’t until they were a few minutes down the road that Percy tried asking what happened, though Nico wasn’t very willing to share. He hadn’t told Percy much more than things have gotten worse and I’m coming to New York, so he was sure that Percy was more worried for him than he was letting on. Percy’s mind was probably reeling over all the different things that might have happened to leave Nico in such a state, but Nico couldn’t bring himself to say it. 

He let Percy guess, though he never got very specific. Percy had narrowed it down to Hades and drinking, though Nico knew those weren’t hard to figure out. 

When they sat down in the hospital’s waiting room, Percy finally said, “You know you’ll have to tell the doctor what happened, right? I mean, maybe they can help you, like, file a police report or something.” 

Nico was shaking his head before Percy had even finished talking. “I don’t want to file a report,” he insisted. “I don’t… I don’t wanna think about it anymore, and I don’t want him to know where I am.”

“Oh. Right, of course,” Percy said quietly, then wrapped an arm around Nico’s shoulders to bring him into a side-hug. “Well, you can stay with me and Annabeth as long as you need to, okay? We’ve got a shitty couch with your name on it, and we’ll make sure your dad never finds you.”

“Thanks,” Nico whispered, and his head fell onto Percy’s shoulder. “Um, and can you do me a favor?”

“Yeah, of course.” 

“When we get back to your place, can you call Seph? Just to let her know I got here safely, but...don’t say where I am. And then delete her number. Maybe block it, too.” 

Percy rubbed his arm. “Yeah, man, I can do that.” 

A moment later, Nico’s name was called, and he tensed. “Will you come back with me?” he asked Percy as he got to his feet, and Percy nodded. A nurse took them into the emergency room and had Nico sit on one of the beds to wait for the doctor.

Another minute or two passed before a man with curly brown hair and a lab coat approached and said, “Hi there, Mr. di Angelo. I’m Doctor Markowitz, and I’ll be taking care of your examination before my supervisor comes over. It says on your form here that you have a head injury, do you want to tell me a little more about that while I take a look?” 

Nico ducked his head and shrugged. Markowitz glanced toward Percy, who said, “He doesn’t want to talk about it.” 

“Okay, noted,” Markowitz said as he pulled on a pair of gloves. He stepped up to Nico’s side and located the wound quickly, carefully brushing away Nico’s hair to get a better look at it. “Can you at least tell me what made the wound?” 

“A glass bottle,” Nico muttered, and averted his gaze when Percy’s eyes widened. 

“Glass?” Markowitz repeated, then took a closer look. “Well, it doesn’t look like there’s any broken pieces in here, so that’s good.” 

“The bottle didn’t break,” Nico replied. “I don’t think.” 

“Must’ve been one heavy-duty bottle to hit you this hard and not break,” Markowitz commented, and Nico suppressed a flinch. “Alright, hang tight for just a minute while I call my supervisor over. I’m thinking you’re going to need a CT scan to rule out a concussion, and possibly an X-ray to make sure your skull is all in one piece. I’ll be right back.” 

As soon as the doctor was out of sight, Percy turned to Nico and asked, “He hit you with a glass bottle?”

Nico folded his arms over his stomach, one hand wrapping around his other arm. He didn’t respond. He didn’t have time to, either, before Percy’s phone started to ring. 

“It’s Annabeth,” he said, “probably just checking in. I’ll be right back, okay?” 

And then Percy was gone, too, and Nico’s hand gripped tighter. He could hear Percy at first, answering the call and saying that they’d already talked to a doctor, but then his voice dropped lower and Nico had to strain to hear it. 

“He’s not acting like himself,” Percy whispered. “It’s like he’s fifteen again, he’s barely even talking to me.” A pause, and then, “Can that happen? Can something like this make him, like, regress, or whatever?” Nico’s fingernails began clawing at his skin. “Oh, the doctor’s coming back. I’ll let you know what’s up as soon as I can.” 

On top of a moderate concussion, Nico had a skull fracture, was severely dehydrated, and had reached the point of exhaustion that the doctors were surprised to still see him upright. Nico declined an IV drip of fluids and something that would help him sleep, insisting that he just wanted to leave, so Percy drove him home with a prescription that basically boiled down to rest. 

Nico passed out on the couch as soon as they were inside, and didn’t wake for almost twenty hours. When he did finally awaken, he got up to find Annabeth in the kitchen making dinner. 

“Hey, Neeks,” she said as she stirred a pot of pasta. “How are you feeling?” 

“Fine,” he replied, folding his arms across his stomach and eying the stove. “Can I help?” 

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him. “Shouldn’t you be resting?” 

“I just did.” Nico’s nose scrunched up at the idea of sitting on that couch any longer. “I’m rested. So, can I help?” 

“Why don’t you see if you can help Percy with Luke, instead?” 

Nico hesitated. “But I like cooking.” 

“Do you like babies?” 

“I...don’t know.” 

“Well, if you’re going to be staying with us for a little while, then I’d like to know that you’re comfortable around my son,” Annabeth told him. “You never know, I might ask you to babysit. So, go hang out with Luke, and I’ll shout for everyone when this is ready.” 

Nico huffed and said, “Fine,” then turned out of the kitchen. Before he could fully leave, though, he stopped himself and said, “Actually, um. After dinner, do you think you could help me with something?” 

“Maybe,” she replied, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. “What is it?” 

“I need to change my phone number.” 

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah, we’ll figure that out.” 

As it turned out, Nico got along with Luke just fine. It was almost easier than hanging out with adults, he realized, because he didn’t feel the need to try to hold a conversation. Luke could only say a handful of words, anyway. Nico spent a good half hour just holding blocks whenever Luke gave them to him. 

As dinner came and went, Nico learned what sorts of things Luke could and couldn’t eat, and then later on watched how to go about putting Luke to sleep at night. Apparently parenting was easier than people made it seem. How had Hades messed up so bad?

When the living room was once again baby-free, Annabeth sat down with Nico to help him figure out how to change his phone number. Percy was laying across the floor for some reason, and had been asking Nico about college in an attempt to get his mind off of running away from home. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really something Nico wanted to talk about, either. 

“So, do you need to, like, transfer to a new school or something?” Percy asked as he tossed one of Luke’s toys into the air above him. “You know, since you can’t go to class.” 

“It’s all online,” Nico replied. He was watching Annabeth work from the opposite end of the couch because the brightness of his phone screen hurt his head. “I talked to somebody at NYU last summer about doing all online classes.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to do that?” Annabeth asked. “You can’t even look at your phone long enough to see who’s texting you.”

“And that doctor said you need to avoid screens for at least a week, didn’t he?” Percy added. 

Nico felt his heart rate rise as his anxiety spiked again. “Well, what day is it?” he asked, hoping his voice wasn’t shaking as much as his hands were. “Maybe I’ll have time to rest before my classes start.” 

“It’s Wednesday, the…” Percy drew out the last word as he pulled out his phone, “...sixth. When do your classes start?” 

Nico dropped his head into his hands. “Two days ago.” 

“Okay, no big deal,” Annabeth said without raising her eyes from her laptop screen. “Just email your professors to explain the problem, and ask for an extension on anything you missed.” 

“But I won’t be able to do anything for another week, and at that point, I’ll be two weeks behind in, like, half of my classes,” Nico complained, scrubbing his hands over his face and then scraping his hair back from his face. “And then what if I can’t catch up? Maybe I should just take the semester off.”

“Alright, take a breath.” Annabeth reached over and set a hand on Nico’s arm, but he flinched out from under the touch. “I think you should sleep on it. There’s no need to make such an impulsive decision.” 

Nico pulled his knees up to his chest and dropped his gaze to the floor. “No. It’s better if I drop the classes now instead of having to withdraw later. I’ll just start up again in the fall.” 

He glanced up again just in time to see Annabeth and Percy sharing a worried look. He grabbed onto his arm and squeezed. 

The apartment was too small for three adults. Maybe if Nico hadn’t had to sleep on the couch, then he would’ve been less of an inconvenience to Percy and Annabeth. He tried to make up for it in other ways. He cooked whenever he could, and he washed the dishes every night. Nico was trusted enough to look after Luke on his own for short periods of time - if Percy needed to run out to the store while Annabeth was in class or at work, usually. 

Still, Nico was in the way. He hadn’t quite assimilated into their home, and he’d heard them whispering late at night when they all should have been asleep that money was tight. 

Things came to a head when Nico finished off a pot of coffee one morning, assuming that the others had gotten their share. He was feeding Luke so that Annabeth could get out the door in time for class when Percy stumbled into the kitchen, half-awake and already grumpy. He grabbed a mug out of the cabinet before reaching for the empty pot and freezing at the sight.

He slammed the pot back into place, and Nico flinched.

“Damn it, Nico, did you drink all the coffee?” Percy snapped.

Nico sunk in his seat, hoping to appear as small as possible. He watched Percy pick up his mug again, and imagined it shattering against his skull. He wound his arms around his stomach and ducked his head. 

“The least you could do is make another pot,” Percy continued. “God.”

“Sorry.” Nico pushed his chair back, the legs screeching against the floor and making him flinch again. “Sorry.” He was up on his feet one second, and then he blinked, and he was in the living room. He could hear his pulse in his ears. His head darted back and forth, but there was nowhere to hide. 

Oh god, why wasn’t there anywhere to hide? 

He couldn’t hide in the bathroom, because Annabeth was in there. He couldn’t hide in either bedroom, because the doors didn’t have locks. 

He went into Luke’s room anyway. Nico figured he would have a better chance at hiding underneath the crib then he would Percy’s bed. And then, when he shut the door behind himself, he saw the window. 

The fire escape.

Nico pulled the curtains loose and climbed out the window before sliding it shut. He heard Percy shouting for him as he sat down on the nearest step. He almost got up and ran down the fire escape just to make sure he wouldn’t get hit. Instead, he stayed perfectly still to ensure that the creaking of the fire escape wouldn’t give him away. 

He only wished he’d brought a jacket.

Nico was blowing on his fingers to keep them warm when the window slid open. He must have already been frozen to the step, or maybe it was the panic that kept him from jumping up and running away. 

“Nico,” Annabeth breathed with a sigh of relief. She held a hand out to him. “What the hell are you doing out here? Get inside, it’s freezing!” 

Nico hesitated. “Is...Percy gone?” 

Annabeth frowned, waving her hand impatiently. “What are you talking about? Why would he be gone?”

Nico stuffed his hands under his arms and ducked his head. Of course Percy wouldn’t be gone. He lived there. It was Nico that was always going to have to run away.

“Do you need him to be gone?” Annabeth asked gently. 

Nico shrugged. 

Annabeth sighed, and Nico tensed. She sounded annoyed. “Alright, don’t move.” 

Then she shut the window. Maybe she locked it, too, so that Nico wouldn’t be able to get back inside. He would freeze to death out there, and he could finally stop being everybody’s problem. 

The window opened again, and Annabeth poked her head out. “I told him to back off. He won’t come into Luke’s room while we’re in here, so would you please come back inside?” She held her hand out to him again, and this time, Nico took it. Her hand was unnaturally warm, or maybe he had let himself get colder than he thought. 

Nico’s bare feet touched the carpet and he immediately dropped to the floor while Annabeth shut the window behind him. She wrapped him up in a blanket and wound her arms around his shoulders. “Tell me what happened, Nico.” 

“I…” His teeth started chattering. Why was he shivering now that he was back in the warmth? “I drank the last of the coffee. I thought Percy already had some.”

“So your solution was the freeze to death in repentance?” 

“He was mad,” Nico whispered, his arms tightening around his knees. “I thought he was gonna hit me.” 

“Nico,” Annabeth said, her voice stern but not harsh, “you know Percy would never hit you. He loves you.” 

“I thought my dad loved me.” 

Annabeth pressed her forehead to the top of Nico’s head. “Neeks, this isn’t working out.” 

Nico’s next breath caught in his throat, and he felt his eyes sting with the beginnings of tears. 

Annabeth started rubbing his back. “I know we said that you could stay here as long as you need, but… Nico, this place isn’t big enough for all of us, and Percy and I… Our money is spread so thin already that we’re constantly stressed about paying the bills on time, and having you here too… We can’t walk on eggshells in our own home. I’m sorry, Nico. We love you, and we’re not kicking you out, but we need to start looking for another option for you. And maybe a therapist, too.” 

Nico dropped his head onto his knees as his tears started to fall. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m messing everything up. I never should’ve come here, I’m sorry.” 

“No, Nico, you have nothing to be sorry for,” Annabeth assured him. “And I’m glad you came here and got away from your dad. I’m glad you’re safe. And I’m sorry that Percy’s such an ass when he doesn’t get his coffee right away. I should’ve warned you about that.” 

“Not your fault,” Nico muttered.

Annabeth patted his shoulder. “Not yours, either. Are you gonna be okay?” 

Nico hesitated, then nodded. 

“Do you think you’re ready to talk to Percy?” she asked. “I think he’d like to apologize.” 

“Yeah,” Nico said, still nodding. “I’m ready.” 

Annabeth stood, then offered a hand to help Nico to his feet. She led the way out of the room and toward the living room where Percy was sitting on the floor with Luke, and as soon as Percy saw them, he jumped to his feet. 

“Nico!” Percy exclaimed, rushing forward with his arms held out, though he froze when he saw Nico flinch. Percy glanced at Annabeth, his expression wavering and his arms drooping slightly before he asked, “Um, can I hug you?” 

Nico took a step closer and nodded. Percy’s arms closed around him. 

“Dude, you had me so freaked out,” Percy said into Nico’s hair. “I’m so sorry for yelling at you. I’ll try not to do it again, I promise.” 

“Thanks,” Nico replied, shifting subtly until Percy released him. He took a few steps back and held his arms over his stomach again, as if defending a weak point. 

Annabeth set a hand on his shoulder. “I have to leave for class, but are you going to be okay?” 

Nico took a deep breath and met her gaze. “I’ll be okay.” 

“Good. When I get home, we can start looking for a therapist,” she said in a way that let Nico know she also meant if that’s okay with you. “And Percy, when you put Luke down for his nap, you two should start looking for apartments.” 

Annabeth pulled Nico forward and kissed his forehead. She kissed Percy on the lips, then Luke on the top of his head as she grabbed her bag, and then she was gone. 

Nico didn’t move for a few minutes. Percy settled back onto the floor with Luke and eventually turned the TV on for some background noise. Nico edged his way toward the couch and sat down in the corner, curled up with his knees to his chest. 

Percy reached back and tapped on Nico’s shin with his fingers. “Hey, no hard feelings, right?” he asked, his head tipping back to rest on the cushion next to Nico. “I love having you here, dude, and I’ve missed you a lot, but I’m sorry that it’s not working out. Besides, don’t you think it’ll be better to have your own place, anyway?” 

Nico’s arms tightened around his legs. “I don’t...want to live alone. I don’t think I can.” 

“Oh.” Percy’s gaze turned back to Luke. “I guess I always assumed that you were the type to like having your own space. Uh, okay, well, we can…” Percy hummed in thought. “We can look on...Craigslist? To find you a roommate?” He glanced back at Nico, and there must have been something about the look on Nico’s face that made Percy burst into laughter. “Okay, you’re right. Stupid idea.” 

Percy scooped the TV remote up off the floor and tossed it back to Nico. “Go ahead and put on whatever.”

Nico flipped through the channel guide for a few minutes, but ended up sticking with whatever kid’s show was already playing. 

“Maybe you could crash with somebody we already know,” Percy said. “We could talk to Jason or Leo, or-- No, wait, now that I think of it, I think Leo might be crashing on Jason’s couch… Hm. You can’t get a dorm at NYU if you’re not taking classes this semester… Man, the only person I can think of that has a spare room is my mom.” 

Nico felt himself perk up for the first time in days. “Do you think you could ask her?” 

Percy shot him a teasing grin. “You wanna live with my mom?” He looked away before Nico’s expression could fall, and shrugged. “Alright, I’ll call her after lunch. I’m sure she’d love to have you.”

Nico had his first meeting with a therapist the day before moving out of Percy and Annabeth’s apartment. It didn’t take long to pack up his belongings, mainly because he’d hardly taken anything out of his car to begin with. But when he got to Sally’s with the Jackson-Chases not far behind, they unloaded everything from his car to take inside. The guest room was a bit of a tight squeeze with all of Nico’s boxes and suitcases inside, but he had plenty of time to unpack and organize later. 

He came out of the room - his room - to thank Sally and Paul a few more times, but when he stepped into the kitchen, Sally beat him to it. She pulled Nico into a hug, practically squeezing the life out of him as she did so, and kissed the side of his head. “We’re so happy to have you here, Nico,” she whispered to him. “You stay here as long as you need.” 

“It won’t be forever,” Nico promised her after weaseling out of the hug. “I just need to figure some stuff out, and maybe I can try to get a dorm when the fall semester starts, and--” 

Sally took Nico’s face in her hands and pressed her lips to his forehead. “Take all the time you need, honey.” 

Nico felt like he might cry. He forgot what it was like to have a mom.

thanks for reading!

buy me a coffee | more nico birthday event stuff

#nico di angelo #percy jackson #annabeth chase #i'm in hell #mine #my writing #nico birthday event

[lifeofroos]

Part 65: Nico is doing some research with the gang.

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. In this chapter, Nico and his friends go to look for his family line. The rest is on AO3 and FanFiction.net! And in Tumblr tags like Pjo, Dionysus, Nico di Angelo, etc. 

This Might Be Crazy: Chapter 65: Grape flavoured Gatorade

Hades had been easy to persuade. He was almost eager to let me go to Italy, as if he wanted to see if there were any di Angelo’s left as well. It meant part of my plan succeeded. Now it was time to do some research. 

There was a centre of genealogy in camp Jupiter, where they obsessively kept track of family lines. Every line was written down in a huge book, which were a metre or so tall and broad. You couldn’t even lay them down on a table, you had to sit on the floor with the book in front of you. So it was the best place to start. 

Will went with me. He was the first I had told about my plans after my last therapy session. Already waiting by the centre was Hazel and furthermore, I had brought Pollux from Camp Half-blood with me. Dionysus already knew about my plan, so it felt safe to get his son on board. 

I sat down in front of my book. ‘Okay. We have a clear goal.’

‘We’re demigods,’ Pollux noticed dryly. ‘We never have clear goals. Or maybe we do, but it’ll become less clear in a minute or so.’

I narrowed my eyes. ‘Then we have one minute of serious study. Go. Search for Italy. Search for di Angelo.’

We managed to look through the Italian lines for a whopping five whole minutes before someone got distracted, when Hazel pointed at a name in her book: ‘That’s sounds like the last name of one of the new recruits.’ Will left his own book (Which had a fold-out family tree; they went for extra in camp Jupiter) to go look over her shoulder. ‘We have a new recruit called Gio Colombo. There is a Colombo over here.’

‘From 1876,’ Will thoughtfully said. ‘That could be a possible connection’

‘Maybe.’ Hazel sighed and looked at the branch that came after the aforementioned Colombo. ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to find Gio’s name, though. Not like this.’

Will blinked, before smacking his hand against his forehead. ‘We’re idiots, too,’ he mumbled. We all gave him a strange look. ‘What Hazel just said made me think: We should have just started looking for Nico himself, instead of the di Angelo lineage. There might be lots of people with the name Di Angelo. After we found him, we can search for family members.’ 

I blushed a little. ‘Eh, yeah, that sounds like common sense.’

Will sighed. ‘We’ll do that from here on out. Unless! Wait, before we make another mistake, Hazel, are there any maps for these books? As in, is there any way to see in which books which names are?’

‘Eh… yeah, I think so. Let me go take a look, I am sure...’ 

‘Of course we do.’ A girl with a hoarse voice  walked around the corner, with a map in her hands. She laid it out on the floor. ‘Look. Over here, you can see the family name, which are sorted alphabetically, and the books the names are in. Then, you can look it up again, and…’ There followed a whole lot of other instructions, which I kindly ignored. 

When the genealogist walked away, I looked at my friends. ‘Did any of you understand any of that?’

‘There is something, somewhere, and it’ll help us,’ Pollux stated. 

‘Yeah, not. We’ll just have to keep looking until we find… well, me,’ I answered. 

The rest mumbled something, before we all turned back to our books and maps.

After quite a lot of searching, Pollux tapped my shoulder. ‘I found... a di Angelo, from the nineteen-thirties.’ 

I crawled over to him. ‘Where?’

‘Here. Francesca di Angelo,’ Pollux muttered. He had a funny look on his face. 

‘Where did she live?’ I asked.

‘According to this, eh… Rizziconi? Is that how you pronounce it?’

‘Could be. Rizziconi is not Venice, far from it, but Francesca is probably a woman, so…’

‘So what?’

‘It means she probably went to live with her husband. Which means we might be related.’ Will, who was hanging above the book as well now, tapped the picture of the man next to her. ‘Then again, if she has a husband, she probably took his last name…’

‘Not according to this book? Her husband's name is not di Angelo,’ Pollux answered. ‘Oh, I see it now, her married name is right under her maiden name. Her married name is not di Angelo.’ He sighed. ‘Anyway, then we should go up, because her parents must be the di Angelo branch. The name probably comes from her father. He had a bunch of kids, anyway, eh, your mother might be around there somewhere, I think…’ 

‘I see no Maria,’ Will breathed into my ear. 

‘No,’ Pollux stroked a strand of hair out of his face. ‘Then we go up a ledge, maybe it is a different di angelo branch. Then we are looking for a man with a daughter named Maria, because at this point she can only have gotten that name from the male line if it is the correct line…’ Pollux almost tore the paper out. My head began to spin. 

‘How do you keep track of this?’ Will asked.

Pollux shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Anyway, I… still see no Maria di Angelo, I think, at which point we should go even further up… and that runs off the map, which means I have to flip a page.’ He sighed.

Will looked over his shoulder. ‘Hazel, did you find anything useful? We might find something here after another hour or so, but…’

Hazel pushed her book closer to ours. ‘I have been looking at Hades’ family line. The map doesn’t show every family member of his children, but I think that if we combine our maps, we can find something.’ She put her book under that of Pollux. 

I looked over her shoulder. I saw my dad and, miracle miracle, my own name, next to Bianca’s and slightly further away from Hazels’. It mentioned my mothers’ name, the names of my grandparents and those of my great-grandparents. ‘Pollux, do you have a… Nicola di Angelo somewhere?’ I inquired. ‘Never knew I was named after my grandfather, but alas, it made sense. Or otherwise a Marco di Angelo? He was my… great grandfather. It doesn’t run further.’ I took a deep breath and put my hand against my forehead. ‘He… I mean Marco… was married to someone named Maria Veronese...’

‘I have a Maria Veronese!’ Pollux exclaimed, while excitedly pointing into his genealogy book. ‘I got a Maria Veronese and praise the gods, she is married to a Marco di Angelo. They have a son, Nicola di Angelo, Who has a daughter, Maria di Angelo, who…’ He took a deep breath. ‘Has a son named Nico di Angelo.’ He pointed into the book, before laying down with an arm over his eyes. His breathing went very quickly for some time, until it slowed down again. ‘Oh, man.’ 

Wil kneeled down next to him. ‘Are you okay?’

He opened his eyes. ‘I am.’ He shrugged, even though he was still on the floor. ‘Information overrun. Dangers of the job.’

‘If you want to see ‘child of Dionysus’ as a job,’ I said, while staring into the book. 

It was told me who of my family members had died. It was strange to see a ‘deceased’ next to Hazel and it hurt to see it next to my mother and sister. For a moment, I doubted whether I was doing the right thing by going to Italy, but I shook that thought off. I could worry about that later. Pollux didn’t almost drive himself insane for me to walk away now. 

‘So. Unsurprisingly, all of my grandparents and their siblings have passed away. My mother had two sisters and a brother. Her brother didn’t have any children... but her sister did. That, sadly, means she changed her last name and then moved to… Toulouse.’ I raised my eyebrows. Sure, France, why not. ‘Okay, but I can’t do anything with that,’ I muttered, a little sad. ‘Alright, then her second sister, she had a daughter and two sons… blah-blah-blah… and...’ I took a deep breath, ‘to make a long story short, her three youngest descendents live in Foggia.’ It felt like a relief. Finally. A place of reference. 

Will produced a notebook from his pocket, with a pencil. ‘I am writing that down. What are their names? Of the last decendants, I mean?’ 

‘Sofia, Elena and Lucia. Their parents are still alive too, eh, Gabriella and Collin. That doesn’t sound all that Italian to me… anyway, them.’ 

‘Cool.’ I looked up at Will, who wrote it all down, before looking back at me. ‘Do you think that's' enough?’

‘What do you think? Actually, Will, how do you feel about me going to Italy?’

‘I am already worried and you haven’t even left yet. However, it’s Italy. I think Dionysus, Hades and Persephone, or, I don’t know, Apollo for that sake, will be there to save you whenever you are almost getting yourself killed, or something.’ He tugged on his shirt. ‘You’ll be fine. It’s Italy, the gods are with you.’ 

I nodded. ‘Thanks,’ I whispered. 

He gave me a tender smile. ‘I hope you’ll get something from it.’ 

‘I hope so too,’ I heard Pollux say in a defeated voice. ‘Otherwise this whole exercise was for nothing and my head hurts.’ 

‘Are you seriously hangover from a book?’

‘Shut up, Nico.’  

Hazel got up and stretched her limbs. ‘Shall we go get something to drink? I’m parched.’ 

‘I feel like getting lunch,’ Will answered.

‘I find these ideas top-notch, if I can be candid,’ Pollux said from the floor. Slowly, he got up. ‘Although I also got a life supply of grape-flavoured Gatorade with me.’

‘That’s called purple,’ Will corrected him. 

‘Grape-flavoured.’

I sighed and stood up as well. ‘Let’s get something to eat. I got my information.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Now I just have to seek out contact with one of them, and then maybe...’ I could actually go. To Italy. Now that it was basically within reach, it felt like the scariest thing ever. 

A/N: More Nico/Dionysus kid interaction! I wanted to add Dakota but then the truth hit me. Honestly that still hurts me to no end, I loved my kool-aid boy.

Does Pollux have a canon last name, actually? I don’t think so. I don’t even think we are ever told about heir second parent is. In the fandom, it ranges  from some mortal woman to some guy to Ariadne herself, I believe. 

#nico di angelo #will solace #hazel levesque #pollux #pjo #percy jackson #fanfic #fanfiction #percy jackson fanfic #percy jackson fanfiction #pjo fanfic #pjo fanfiction #solangelo #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson and the olympians fanfic #percy jackson and the olympians fanfiction #hoo #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #tower of nero #toa #hoo fanfic #hoo fanfiction #heroes of olympus fanfic #heroes of olympus fanfiction #therapy #hurt/comfort #dionysus #dionysus pjo #hades

[specialagentlokitty]

Nico x reader - Secret Santa

Could you please write a Nico di Angelo x Dionysus kid reader, and it's based around Christmas, and maybe they do secret santa, and the reader gets him, but doesn't know what to get for him - Anon❤️

Frowning at the name on the bit of paper in front of you, you scruntched up your brows in thought and sighed heavily.

“What in hades name am I supposed to get him...?” You whispered.

“So, who’s your get kid?”

Jumping, you yelped and hid the paper, placing your hand over your heart, you pouted and glared at the man next to you.

“Dad! I told you not to do that!”

Dionysus chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

“So?”

Sighing heavily, you simply just handed over the paper and buried your head in your hands.

“Hades kid? That’s not fun, what do you think you’ll get him?”

You shrugged your shoulders and turned to your father, gazing at him intensely before poking him.

“I’m not sure, but I have time to think.”

“Don’t stress too much about it kid, if he hurts you or threatens you I’ll kick him out.”

Rolling your eyes, you laughed a little and stood up, kissing his cheek you walked away, towards the beach where you knew you would find Percy, hoping he could shed some light on what Nico might want.

“Hey Percy!” You called.

The hero turned around and stood up from where he was sat in the water, walking towards you with a grin on his face.

“What’s up (Y/N)?”

“I need help..” you mumbled.

“Not sure I’m he best person, given my track record, but sure!”

Cracking a smile at him, you and Percy begun to slowly walk down the beach.

“Do you have any idea on what I could get Nico?”

“Secret Santa, right?”

Nodding, you glanced at him from the corner of your eyes before turning your attention back to the sandy beach.

“Honestly I’m not sure, I’ve never actually seen him celebrate Christmas. Leo tried to get him to last year, but that didn’t work out well. Maybe ask Leo to help you make him a little figure?”

Thinking over the idea, you gasped in realisation and nodded frantically, quickly hugging Percy you spun around.

“I know what to do! Thanks!”

Without waiting you ran back towards camp, looking for the familar scruffy head of hair you called Leo, and it wasn’t too hard to find the flaming boy.

“Leo! Leo!”

“Finally! A girl wants me!” He cheered.

Taking Leo by the hand, you dragged him away you from the others and took him to a secluded spot.

“Will you help me make Nico a gift for secret Santa?”

“Damn, I thought you had finally fallen for me.” He pouted, “But Sure, what do you have in mind?”

Giving him your idea, he seemed to approve and said he’d show you what to do and help you make it.

As the next week passed, you added the finally touches to the present bow and grinning nervously and all your friends.

“He’s going to love it (Y/N)!” Annabeth grinned.

“He really is.” Piper agreed.

Taking a deep breath, you picked up the box and steeled your nerves.

“I’m ready.”

All of you walked over to where secret Santa was being held, and you all waited for your dad to speak.

“Swap gifts or whatever.” He shrugged.

“Oh my gods...” you whispered.

Dionysus gazed at his cup in what almost looked like sadness and you couldn’t help but snicker. The god of Wine couldn’t drink it, but since you were a kid you were turning most drinks into wine, you just had between control over it now.

Eyes raking over the crowd, you spotted Nico in a far corner looking uncomfortable and quickly made your way over. His cold eyes landed on oh and softened just a fraction.

“Hey Nico.” You smiled.

“Hey.”

Glancing away you shyly held out the present to him.

“I... Uhm... got you... I hope you like it...” you muttered.

Nico’s face turned to disbelief as he gently took the small box from your hands. Carefully he unwrapped it and he froze, and you started to panic, without thinking to rushed an apology and ran away.

“Wait!” Nick called.

Shaking your head you ran away from the party and towards the big house where you slammed he door shut and ran to your dads room, finding more comfort there then your own.

“Woah! What’s wrong?” Chiron asked as you sped past him.

“Nothing!”

Slamming the door closed you collapsed onto the bed and sniffled a little ignoring the banging on the door.

“(Y/N), please open the door!” Nico pleaded.

There was a short pause and Nico sighed.

“I.. I really like it...”

Sniffing, you got up and padded over, opening the door to face the child of hades.

“Y.. you do...?”

He smiled softly and nodded, holding the little figure of his sister ever so gently.

“It’s amazing, did.. did you make her?”

“Yeah...”

Nico placed the figure in his pocket and hugged you gently, placing his head on top of yours and you wrapped your arms around his waist.

“It’s the best gift ever..” he spoke quietly.

Neither of you said anything but you both jumped away when someone stormed down the hall, turning, you found your dad coming towards you, a murderous gaze on Nico.

“How dare you touch my daughter!” He yelled.

Nico paled even more and quickly ran away, but not before planting a kiss on your cheek

#percy jackson #percy jackson x reader #nico x you #nico de angelo imagine #nico x reader #nico imagine #nico di angelo x reader #nico de angelo #leo valdez

[gii-heylittleangel]

Hey there! Yes, it’s another PJO fic because why not, huh? This story came from this post from @sippingdaisies​, which I haven’t strictly followed but I loved the idea it gave me, so I wrote it and it only took me six months yay

I hope you enjoy it!

Read it on AO3 or keep reading here!

*

Percy finds Nico sitting on the grass, watching Will lead the archery class—and why Will is the one leading it, Percy has no idea. At his first look, Percy hadn't actually recognized Nico; he's dressed in black jeans and a camp shirt, without his usual aviator coat, both of which are not usual for him. What does make Percy know it's Nico is the Stygian sword by his side and his silver ring glinting on the sun.

His footsteps don’t seem to startle Nico when Percy stops by his side, sitting with legs crossed and staring at the scenery after a few seconds of looking around. Percy has to give it to him: Nico chose a wonderful spot to sit and watch the camp.

The sun is rising in the sky but it’s warm enough to be comfortable and nice to be under it despite it being autumn—or maybe it’s just the camp’s magical barriers. Percy can also see most of the camp from the place, being on a small hill right in front of the archery area, giving a full view of the class, which Nico seems very interested in watching.

Percy smiles softly, placing his hands on the grass behind him and leaning back. Nico arches a brow at him, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

“Fancy seeing you here, Percy. I thought you were in Camp Jupiter.”

“I was but we got a few days off and I decided to come check on everyone.” Percy nods at the almost empty camp. “Though there’s not much to check on.”

Nico chuckles, nodding. “Yeah, most of the campers decided to go back to the mortal world. Something about ‘living a normal life’. You know, regular teenage stuff.”

Percy laughs, shaking his head. “Teenagers, huh?” He watches the small kids run around Will, playing with the arrows and bows—which Percy doesn’t advise anyone to do—screaming in joy, and seeming very happy about everything. “I’ve heard you were quite the rescuer this week.”

Nico groans, rubbing his hand over his face. “Did Will tell you too?”

“Nah, it was Chiron. He was very impressed and proud, so he called me. Very nice work, I have to say.”

A blush colours Nico’s cheeks and Percy smiles. “Yeah, if you consider passing out for half a day after the rescue a ‘nice work’.”

“Don’t undersell it, man. From what Chiron told me, you saved a lot of lives, the kids’ and the satyr’s.”

“Maybe,” Nico mumbles but the look on his face shows off some pride. “It was nothing, really.”

Percy hums sarcastically and waves at the kids. “Any of those are new? Or I just don’t recognize them for being away for too long?”

“Oh no, most of them are new.” Nico points at three out of the five children in Will’s care. “One of them arrived yesterday and the other two are some of the demigods I helped bring here.”

The three kids seem very young, seven or eight years at the most. Percy can’t help but feel sad and happy at the same time; he knows they’re safe here but he can’t help thinking about them losing their normal lives so young.

“Have they gotten claimed?”

Nico shakes his head. “Not yet but Chiron’s sure they’ll be soon if the gods can keep their promise.”

Percy nods, watching as one of the kids almost hits Will with one of the arrows, the bow too big for his hands. Nico points at the kid, his face in a frown. 

“I rescued him a couple of weeks ago from a sphinx. Gods, this kid was really something. Even the sphinx didn’t seem to know what to make of him. I think it wanted to kill him more out of annoyance than anything else.”

“What do you mean?”

Nico sighs, resting his elbows on his knees and supporting his chin on his hands “Well, since he can see through the Mist, he saw what the sphinx really looked like and, when I got there, he was just walking around it, poking and asking a million questions about it, like why do you always ask the same question? Where are you from? Can you fly? Why do you have a body of three different species? I swear, I think that kid was only still alive when I got there because the sphinx was too confused about him.”

Percy chuckles, turning to look at the kid following Will like a shadow. “I almost feel bad about the sphinx.”

Nico scoffs, rolling his eyes. “You should feel bad about me because, now, he follows me around, asking so many questions that I don’t even know how to answer. All day, he’s following me, going everywhere I go, sneaking up on me, always asking something. Your dad is Hades? Does that mean you can talk to ghosts? Do you see dead people? Are you like the kid from The Sixth Sense? Can you kill someone if you snap your fingers? Are there any ghosts here now? Do dogs have ghosts? Can you see them too?” Nico keeps going, ranting about how much the kid talks, how he never seems to run out of questions, and how he has no filter whatsoever, and how Nico hides around the camp to escape the kid.

Percy only smiles, remembering the time he went through all of that with Nico years ago, how he once got on Percy’s nerves with all of his indelicate—to say the least—questions. Nico doesn’t even seem to notice how much Percy’s enjoying it, too busy gesturing too much, sometimes slipping into Italian when English seems to fail him. It’s entertaining and Percy can only say well deserved.

When Nico finally stops, he turns to Percy and frowns, squinting his eyes. “What?”

“Oh, nothing, it’s just… All of it, it reminds me of something, y’know? It happened a few years ago with me, but I don’t remember exactly what happened.”

Nico shoves Percy to the side playfully. “Oh, shut up. I wasn’t like that.”

Percy smirks. “Yeah, sure, nothing like that.” He tries to fake Nico’s younger voice, high-pitching his own, “Does it ever run out of ink? Do you fight a lot with Thalia? Does that mean you can surf really well?”

“You’re impossible,” Nico grumbles but Percy can see a small smile on his lips.

“Good thing I’m not your type, then, huh?”

Nico groans, burying his face in his hands. “Why did I have to tell you that? I’m never gonna hear the end of it, am I?”

“Gods, no. I need something to annoy you with so I’ll remember you of it every chance I get.” Percy smiles, leaning back on his hands. “Wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.”

Nico sighs, throwing his head back. “I hate you.” 

Percy chuckles, elbowing Nico playfully. Nico rolls his eyes with a small smile, muttering about how he has an idiot for a friend. They stay quiet for some time after that, watching the kids try to hit the target, until Nico bumps his shoulder against Percy’s softly.

“Thanks.”

Percy frowns, turning to face him. “For what?”

Nico shrugs, staring down at the grass. “For… everything. I mean, I wasn’t exactly the best person to you for a while and here you are, still my friend.”

“Dude, I completely get it.”

“I’m serious, Percy. The way I acted and treated you after Bianca—”

“Is completely understandable, believe me.”

Nico scoffs, turning his gaze away from Percy. “It wasn’t just that. I ran away after you told me about Bianca, I betrayed you…”

“And then you saved me,” Percy interrupted him again, bumping their shoulders. “Nico, you’re a good person, one of the best I know. The good you’ve done outweights any bad you’ve done or could do, and that’s what matters to me. You saved my life more times than I can count and, in the end, always fought for what’s right. How could I not be your friend?”

Nico’s lips open in a small smile as he looks back at Percy. “Thanks. Sometimes I forget you’re not a complete idiot all the time.”

Percy fakes disbelief, placing a hand on his heart. “You take that back.”

Nico laughs loudly, closing his eyes and shaking his head softly. “You are impossible.”

“And not your type, don’t forget about that.”

Nico rolls his eyes, muttering something under his breath that Percy’s pretty sure it’s him called Percy some very unflattering things in Italian.

Percy smiles, bumping their shoulders again and turning forward to look at the other campers. He can see Nico smile softly as he watches Will teaching a couple of the new kids how to use a bow.

“That’s the kid I told you about,” Nico points at a little boy by Will’s side, his mouth moving a mile a second while Will looks desperate, his eyes searching for the two of them, pleading for help.

“You definitely told the kid to ask Will for his help, didn’t you?”

Nico laughs playfully, nodding. “Oh yeah, for sure.”

The two of them watch as Will gets more desperate and more desperate as he tries to answer all the kid’s questions, the others starting to get into it too, their voices growing louder so they can be heard over the others until the two can hear them all the way over. Neither Percy nor Nico make a move to help, too busy laughing between them.

#littleangelwrites #pjo #riordanverse #hoo #toa #niico di angelo #percy jackson #pjo fandom #camp counselor nico di angelo

[satans-little-helper33]

Solangelo Fanfiction

This piece takes place starting at the end of Nico’s scene at the end of Blood of Olympus.

Main Characters: Will Solace and Nico DiAngelo

Nico’s encounter with Eros had cracked him wide open and left him feeling vulnerable and broken, forced to face his own reality and feelings, exposed in front of Jason; he was forced to share his darkest secret for a god’s amusement. Nico now knew he could trust Jason to keep it to himself, though, and he was beginning to realize that in order to crawl out of his self-constructed prison, his barriers first had to be torn down.

The feelings that had haunted him for so long—the shame, the fear, the denial—caused by the mentality of the 1940s he’d grown up in began to fade away. 

He was no longer that scared little boy who had been enraptured by the presence of a powerful demigod, and now that he had finally confessed his past feelings to Percy, Nico felt that he could finally move forward. 

Hades’s son made his way back down the hill to where Will was waiting for him, wearing scrubs,  jeans, and a mischievous/crooked smile that made his heart skip a beat.

“Sorry I didn’t come visit you in the infirmary,” Nico said, wearing the hint of a smile.

“It’s alright, I forgive you,” Will Solace said, his mouth set tight but laughter in his eyes, like he was trying to stay mad at Nico and failing.

“You wanted me to stay there--”

“For at least three days. Doctor’s orders.” Will started to lead Nico back toward the infirmary.

“Really, I’m Fine,” Nico began, but then his knees buckled and Will hoisted him back up.

“Uh huh. Right. Let’s get you to a bed.”

Even after Coach Hedge’s nature magic/sports drink concoction, which had sustained Nico for a while, the arduous task of shadow-travelling the Athena Parthenos across the world had caught up with him again.

When Nico opened his eyes again, he was in the infirmary half sitting, half lying on a piece of furniture that was somewhere between a bed and a stretcher. 

“Welcome back to the world of the living,” a familiar voice intoned, “have some ambrosia.”

Will sat on a chair beside the bed; the room of the infirmary he was in was long and lined with similar bed-stretchers, separated by white curtains that shimmered in different colors when they were moved.

Several other beds were occupied with demigods sporting now-relatively-minor injuries left over from the battle with Gaia and the monster army: a daughter of Hecate 2 beds over was glaring at her leg in a cast as if she was insulted by the inconvenience.

Nico turned back to Will, and noticed that beside the bed there was a small table with a baggie of ambrosia squares on it. Nico reached out to pick one up but encountered a familiar problem: his fingers passed right through the baggie and ambrosia, as if he was becoming one with the shadows permanently. His hand appeared fuzzy around the edges, as if he was dissolving.

“Uhh, maybe if I try again--”

Will frowned, then sighed. “This is what happens when you overextend yourself. Here, let me help you.” He picked up a square and held it out to feed Nico.

Nico leaned back. “What are you doing?”

“No arguing. Open up.” Solace said, his tone making it clear that he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Will took none of Nico’s shit. That was one of the things Nico found most endearing and annoying about him; no matter how hard the son of Hades tried to push him away, Will simply refused to let him.

Nico took the ambrosia, and after a few moments they looked back at his hand, which seemed to be coming back into sharper focus.

“You had me worried there, diAngelo,” Will said, smiling, and briefly gripped his hand to check if it was now solid. Day of the Dead skeletons tapped out a jig in Nico’s chest.

“You were worried...about me?” Nico said, still wrapping his mind around the fact that Will had wanted a death demigod to visit him in the infirmary.

“Get some sleep.” he said, closing the ziplock bag

“I’m not tired.” 

“Well you will be in a second. CLOVIS,” he called out. The calf-like son of Morpheus appeared around the corner and Will told him “we’ve got another stubborn one,” throwing a teasing smile Nico’s way.

Clovis yawned. “I’m all over it,” he said, and--despite Nico’s protests--touched his forehead. The son of Hades drifted off into a deep sleep.

----------------------------------

Nico awoke feeling more rested than he had in weeks. 

He quickly sat up, suddenly worried, because the last time he’d felt this rested, he’d been asleep for three days.

Nico stopped a passing Apollo healer. 

“How long have I been out??”

The healer scratched his chin, trying to estimate. “About 6 hours?” He walked off.

Will walked into the infirmary, arguing with a Demeter camper; something about herbs and supplies? He turned and spotted Nico.

“Well, good evening, sleepyhead! How was your nap? Feeling better?”

“I think 6 hours is slightly more than a nap.” Nico retorted.

“Well, count yourself lucky that Clovis has learned to control his powers better. A while ago he put a camper out for a week by accident.” Will made his way toward him. “Can you stand?”

“Um, let’s find out.” Nico swung his legs over the bed and got up. Aside from stumbling a little, he was feeling much better. Nico marvelled at the healing powers of sleep.

As if he read his mind, Will said, “Oh yeah, sleep has endless benefits.”

Nico twisted his skull ring. “Hey, I came in here at about noon, which means--”

 The conch horn signalling the dinner feast echoed across the valley. Will grinned. “I think that’s our cue.”

The Half Blood campfire that night still carried with it an aura of elation spurred from disbelief, that they had won the battle against Gaia and made allies with the Romans, and a sort of desperation to feel alive brought about by all of those who had died in the process. Nico felt a pang for Leo, though he had a strange feeling that his death wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed.

Will sat by him at the bonfire, the Apollo cabin on his left and Nico on his right, leaving Nico unsure as to whether Will had sat next to him or his cabin. He chastised himself for hoping that it was the former.

The enchanted flames in the brazier blazed brightly with the energy of the campers, and Nico felt the warmth flare in his heart as he cast a glance at the son of Apollo, the light from the fire reflecting off of his blonde hair. 

Nico lay in his bunk that night after the campfire, staring up at the ceiling of the Hades cabin that was inset with precious stones. He quickly realized that there was no way he was falling asleep any time soon, and he climbed out of bed. The whole room was drenched in liquid shadows, and despite his exhaustion after the journey shadow travelling with the Athena Parthenos, Nico stepped forward and became one with the darkness with ease.

He melted from the shadow of a tree, finding himself by the lakeside at the edge of Camp Half-Blood. A full moon cast a pale glow on the night. Nico walked down to the sand and sat down; the silence was intoxicating, and Nico closed his eyes and listened to the gentle lapping of small waves against the shore. Suddenly he felt something nearby, heard the brush rustle, and wondered whether the cleaning harpies had come to eat him for being out past curfew. Nico drew his Stygian sword, which seemed to pull at the darkness like a magnet, and got ready to defend himself. What actually emerged from the brush was Will, who abruptly spotted Nico’s sword and laughed quietly. 

“Expecting a fight?”

Nico quickly sheathed his sword. “What are you doing out here?” He noticed for the first time that Will had something in his hands.

He held up two goblets. “Mind if I join you?”

Will was the only one at camp who was not blatantly wary of him; after several years as an outcast, the effect felt foreign.

Will sat down next to the son of Hades and spoke to one of the goblets--“Pomegranate juice”--and handed it to Nico as the cup filled with garnet liquid. 

“Are these--” Nico began.

“Glasses from the dining pavilion? Yeah. I snuck a couple out before dinner ended.” He wore his trademark mischievous smile. “I noticed you asked for pomegranate juice at dinner.” Nico felt his face grow warm as Will turned to his own cup and requested ginger beer. Soon the glass was filled with amber.

“It...reminds me of my mom.” Nico said quietly. “Not Persephone, ironically. When Bianca, my mom, and I...” his voice caught on Bianca’s name “when we lived in New Orleans, I was little, but I remember her giving us pomegranate juice on special occasions. It was a tough thing to find where we lived, so she would only have it on celebrations or...when my dad came to visit. I was just a baby when she was murdered.”

He stared down in silence at his drink.

“It wasn’t your fault, you know. Bianca, your mom, none of it,” Will said gently.

“I know,” Nico muttered, his voice nonetheless doubtful.

Will placed his hand on Nico’s, and he tensed, ready to pull away, but then instead turned his palm up to hold Will’s. 

Nico turned his head to look up at Will, his pale blue eyes shining in the moonlight, almost periwinkle, an indiscernible expression on his face.

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Will murmured, his gaze taking Nico in. Will looked into his dark eyes as if he could perceive all of him, good and bad, and was still enraptured by what he saw. 

Will reached out hesitantly, as if to touch Nico’s face, but stopped before, gaging his reaction, and when the son of Hades didn’t pull away, he brushed the ink-black hair out of his face.

Involuntarily, Nico’s eyes closed and his heart began to race. His life had, for years, been spent more with the dead than the living. No one had touched him tenderly for what felt like eons, not since Bianca, and only now did he realize how starved for physical affection he had been.

Will’s gaze moved from Nico’s eyes to his lips, and he leaned in carefully as if approaching a wild animal. Nico closed the distance, and as their lips met, his life bloomed before him like a chrysanthemum opening layer by layer. Suddenly Nico could see a future before him that wasn’t ruled by death and solitude. Unnoticed by either of them, a dead mouse at the edge of the forest was brought back to life and scampered off into the trees.

#satans-little-helper33 #solangelo #fanfiction #percy jackson #the lost hero #nico #will

[ashis2gay4u]

Heroes Of Olympus Heathers! AU

Here's the character list, in case people get confused:

Veronica: Percy Jackson

JD: Nico di Angelo

Martha D: Annabeth Chase

Heather C: Nancy Bobofit

Heather M: Silena Beauregard

Heather D: Drew Tanaka

Ram S: Luke Castellan

Kurt K: Octavian Augur

Big Bud Dean: Hades di Angelo

Veronica's Mom: Sally Jackson

Veronica's Dad: Poseidon Jackson

Kurt and Ram's Dad's: Hermes Castellan / Jeremy Augur

Ms. Fleming: Hecate Hearths

Principal Gowan: Zeus Skyson

'[text]' signifies what Percy is writing in his journal.

Now, on to the story!!

~

Percy Jackson stepped into the high-school, taking a deep breath as he tightened his grip on his open journal and pen. Another first day at Hell.

A boy bumped into him, one of the jocks.

Percy froze, and glared at him, "Hey, don't be a dick-"

The jock laughed, "What did you just say to me, bitch?" he asked.

"N-nothing," Percy replied, inching away, realizing who he was.

"That's what I thought, wimp," he said, smirking. His best friend walked up to them, and pushed Percy into a locker.

'Introducing Octavian Augur, the lead quarterback of the football team, and his best friend Luke Castellan, the captain.'

'Octavian allows his dick to lead him everywhere, and has a sense of cruelty regarding everybody. He's also the smartest guy on the football team, which is like being the tallest dwarf. Luke is charming, but is obsessed with being known. He did everything and anything to make sure people knew where he stood, and who he was.'

"What you got there, sissy? A diary?" Luke laughed, pointing at it.

"What a fag," Octavian added, knocking it out of his hands.

Percy watched in distaste as the two high-fived, and went to pick up his journal, only to find his best friend Annabeth Chase standing there, holding it out to him.

"Here you go, Seaweed Brain," she said, smiling.

Percy smiled back, taking the journal from her and cradling it against his chest, "Thanks, Wise Girl."

"No problem, Perce."

"Another year of Hell, and then University or College. Did you get your applications replied to yet?" Percy asked, opening his journal to continue his entry.

"Yep, all of them."

"You sent out ten, how in-"

"You must forget why you call me 'Wise Girl', Seaweed Brain," she teased, laughing as he blushed. "What about you?"

"Nothing. I sent out five, and no reply from anywhere. I'm doomed if I can't get into New Rome University, it's where Uncle Neptune and Dad went and they're both top-notch marine biologists."

Annabeth hummed, staring off into the distance. He followed her gaze, and found them both staring at Luke's ass.

"Annabeth-"

"I know, I know... But he has to still love me, I know he does..."

Percy was about to speak up, when people started clearing out the hallway. He quickly pulled Annabeth aside, and watched as the "Heathers" walked by.

They aren't all named Heather, but they definitely fit the trope in their own way; gorgeous, dumb, and cruel.

The first Heather stepped out, brushing her long, claw shaped, hot pink nails through her hair. She wore her usual emerald green outfit as she strutted down the hall, winking at the popular boys and sneering at the geeks and rebels.

'Introducing Drew Tanaka, the "Beauty Queen".  Bulimic, narcissistic, and obsessed with sex. Has a mean streak a mile wide.'

Percy didn't like her at all.

The second Heather stepped out, giggling as she stared at her phone, probably texting her boyfriend. She wore her usual yellow attire, which she somehow managed to pull off despite her black hair and crystal blue eyes.

'Silena Beauregard, the "dumb" one. She was sweet and kinder than the other two, but she got picked on for it often by her two best friends.'

Percy liked Silena, they used to be friends when they were younger, but then high school came and they stopped talking. He's sure she doesn't even know his name anymore.

The final Heather stepped out, donning her blood red clothes and scrunchie. She walked to the front of the group, seeming unimpressed with her friends.

'And last but not least, Nancy Bobofit, the queen fuckin' bee...'

Percy paused in his writings, before smirking.

'She is a mythic bitch.'

People started whispering about them, saying how they'd wish they were nicer, how pretty they were, how sitting at their table even once grants immunity, etc.

One guy made a creepy comment about a basement, nudity, a camera, and rats, but he chose to ignore it for his own sanity.

He watched as they went into one of the few non-gendered washrooms, fitted with three toilets, three stalled urinals, and three sinks each.

He suddenly felt the urge to pee, and after giving Annabeth a look of "wish me luck" he followed them in, heading into the first stall he saw.

Toilet, dammit all.

He could hear Drew puking in the stall next to his, and he cringed inwardly as Nancy said, "Pull it together, Drew. Bulimia is so last year."

"Yeah, Drew, maybe you should see a doctor," Silena added helpfully in a softer tone.

"Maybe you're right, Silena, I should."

The door opened, and the voice of Hecate Hearths, the student counselor, rang out into the room.

"Ah, Nancy, Silena..." She paused as she heard Drew puking again, "...And of course, Drew. Didn't you hear the bell? You're all late for class."

Percy quickly set to work in his journal, a plan forming in his head.

"Drew isn't feeling well, we're helping her," Nancy said sweetly. Her voice made Percy's blood boil, but he knew he couldn't back out now that the note was finished.

"Actually, Miss Hearths, I have the hall pass right here!" Percy said, flushing and stepping out of the stall.

Drew was now standing next to her friends, and the three of them stared at Percy in shock and awe.

Miss Hearth checked the note, and nodded. "Alright, but get back to class soon!"

As soon as she was gone, Percy found himself cornered by the three girls.

"Who are you?" Nancy demanded, glaring at him.

"P-Percy Jackson."

"Why would you do that?" Drew questioned next, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I want immunity," he blurted, "If you let me sit at your table just once, no talking necessary, people will think you at least tolerate me and leave me alone."

Nancy laughed, "Seriously?"

"I also do report cards and late slips!" he added.

"What about prescriptions?" Drew asked curiously.

"Drew!"

"Sorry, Nancy."

Nancy grabbed his chin, squishing his cheeks, and moved his face side to side, "For a greasy little nobody, you do have good bone structure..."

"And a symmetrical face!" Silena said excitedly, "If I took a meat cleaver down the center of your skull, I'd have two matching halves. Very important!"

"Of course, you could stand to lose a few pounds," Drew said, smirking at him.

"You know, this could be beautiful... Some eyeliner, maybe some light eye-shadow and mascara, and we're on our way. Silena, get this boy some blush, and Drew I need your brush. Let's make him beautiful~"

"Let's make him beautiful!" the other two repeated, doing as they were told.

"Okay?" Nancy asked sweetly as she sat him on the counter of the sink.

"Okay!" Percy said excitedly.

~

Percy was nervous as they all stepped out of the bathroom during second period, his face all made up with a blue-green eye shadow, black eyeliner, red blush, and mascara. His hair was somehow tamed due to Nancy's harsh brushing.

People turned to look at the four of them, and once again, the halls erupted into whispers.

"Who's that guy?"

"Who's the sexy dude?"

"Who is he?"

Nancy smirked and pushed him to the forefront, and Percy gasped as he turned to see Annabeth staring at him, "Percy...?"

"Percy."

"Percy?"

"Percy!"

Everybody started fawning over him, and his face lit up like a lighthouse on the shore at night, "Fuck yes!"

Nancy smirked, turning to the other girls. She nodded her chin at Annabeth, who was staring at Percy with a look of shock.

"Let's see how much of a man he really is," she whispered.

Drew and Silena nodded, giggling.

~

"No, no way!" Percy said, "It'll crush her!"

Nancy's smile faded to a snarl, "Are we gonna have a problem here?" she snapped, glaring him down.

He gulped, backing away.

"You've got a bone to pick?" she advanced, backing him up against the lockers. Drew and Silena moved to block his only two exits.

"You've come so far, why now are you pulling on my dick? I'd normally slap your face off, and everybody here could watch~" she purred, smirking.

Percy suddenly became aware of everybody watching the scene in silence, and he felt his body begin to tremble in fear.

Drew snatched the note from his hand and headed towards Luke.

He barely managed to get it back from her, but he gripped it like a lifeline as Nancy snapped her head in his direction.

"Well, I'm feeling nice, so here's some advice, listen up, bitch."

Silena, in all her pure glory, began to speak, Drew following her lead.

"I like!" They managed to say it in sync, which scared Percy half to death.

"Lookin' hot, buying stuff they cannot~" Nancy sang, her voice much more attractive than her face.

"I like!"

"Drinking hard, maxing dad's credit card~"

"I like!"

"Skippin' gym, scaring her-" she turned and smirked towards Annabeth, causing Percy's blood to run like ice through his veins, "-screwing him~" she then pointed at Octavian, who waved.

"I like!"

"Killer clothes, kicking nerds in the nose!"

He scrambled back as her leg swung up inches away from his face.

It's official, he's died and gone to Hell.

"If you lack the balls, you can go play dolls, let your mommy fix you a snack!" Nancy snapped, advancing again, "Or you could come smoke, pound some rum and coke, in my Porsche with the quarterback!"

"Honey what you waiting for?" Silena asked, managing to slip the note from his grip.

He reached out for it, only to have Drew block his way, "Step into my candy store!"

"You just gotta prove you ain't a pussy, anymore!" Nancy said, motioning to Silena, who had already delivered the note.

"And step into our candy store~" the three said, smirking.

"Percy, Percy look! Luke just invited me to his homecoming party! This proves he's been thinking about me!" Annabeth said, rushing over, the note in hand.

"Color me stoked," Percy said nervously, feeling extremely guilty at the excited look on her face.

"I'm so happy!" she said, seeming on the verge of tears.

"Yeah..." he said, forcing a smile.

~

"McDonald's has always been my place to go, always. No matter where we move, it's always right there!" Nico di Angelo said with a small smile.

Percy laughed, trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach as he payed for the coffees, "Yeah, but it'll make you fat."

"Not if you work out daily, it doesn't," Nico insisted, "Come on, do I look fat to you?"

Percy, in all his idiocy, made the mistake of eyeing him up and down, hoping Nico didn't notice how his eyes lingered on his lips.

Blushing, he said, "No, you don't."

"Exactly."

"PERCY! WHERE IS MY COFFEE?"

"C-coming!"

"You have some... Interesting choice in friends."

"Yeah, I hate them, but I need them."

"Why?"

Percy said nothing, merely walked out.

~

That question is what was brought to the forefront of his mind as Nancy stood before him, hands on her hips.

"Nobody will talk to you, touch you, or even look at you! You don't get to be a nobody, you get to be dead to everybody!" she screeched, causing his ears to hurt.

Silena giggled, "I know who I'm sitting with at lunch on Monday."

Drew smirked, "Do you, big boy~?"

Percy turned to look at the others at the party, but everybody was turned away.

"I-"

"Come Monday morning... Percy stew will be on the menu~" Nancy purred with a smirk akin to that of a wolves before it tore out the jugular of it's prey.

He fled the party, tears in his eyes.

~

"P-Percy, what are you doing in my room?"

Percy took a deep breath as he stared at the other boy, before smirking, all of his uneasiness fading away as he stepped away from the window.

"I'm sorry, but I really had to wake you."

"W-why?"

Percy's smirk evolved into a huge grin, his cheeks flushing a dark red, "You see... I decided I must ride you 'til I break you~"

"W-what-"

"Nancy says I got to go, you're my last meal on Death Row," he purred, moving to straddle the younger boy, "So shut your stupid mouth, and lose those boxers~"

Nico's face went bright red, and he pulled Percy down for a kiss.

The rest of the night went even better then Percy had hoped it would.

~

"She's dead! Fuck! I just killed my best friend-"

"Percy, calm down, love," Nico cooed, cupping the older boy's face.

"W-we need to call 911-"

"-and get ourselves arrested for murder?" Nico questioned, an eyebrow raised.

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Percy shouted, on the verge of a panic attack.

"Suicide note," Nico said, standing up and grabbing a pen and paper. "Write."

~

"Hey, Dad!" Hades di Angelo said, smiling at his son.

Nico rolled his eyes, his grip around Percy's shoulder getting tighter, "Hey, son."

"How was work?" Hades asked, before changing his voice, "Oh! It was crazy! They wouldn't let me blow it up, but I did it anyways!"

"That's great, son."

"Thanks, Dad," Hades finally noticed Percy, who smiled weakly and waved shyly, "Hey, Dad, meet my new girlfriend!" he added in a poor imitation of Nico's voice.

"Dad, this is Percy. Percy, this is.. My dad."

"Hello, Percy."

"Hi, Hades..."

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" Hades asked.

"Oh, no... My mom is making my favorite for dinner, fried salmon. With lots of ah... Salt."

"Oh, that's funny, isn't it dad? The last time I saw mom, she was waving out of a building you blew up seconds later."

"Yes, son," Hades said darkly, "Yes, it was."

"Uhm... I'm gonna go..."

~

"Drew! Silena! Open the door!"

"On no, oh no!" Drew laughed, locking the doors.

Silena gave him an apologetic glance, "No, no... No."

"You make our balls so blue~" Luke sang drunkenly.

"They're hanging sadly~" Octavian added.

Percy ran off, tears in his eyes and a burning rage in the pit of his stomach..

~

"Sword fight, eh?" Drew purred, the red scrunchie in her hair standing out against the green outfit she wore.

"What?" Percy questioned, staring at her deadpan.

"The sword fight in your mouth, idiot," Drew snarled.

"What? When-"

"Last night, yeah! Turns out the pretty girl was Percy Jackson dressed in drag!" a kid said from a few meters away.

'What?'

"Oh, everybody is talking about last night, Percy~"

"You bitch-"

"Apparently not like you, mutt. Go slobber on some more cock, eh?"

~

"Sword fight, eh?"

"Nico, I-"

"I know, Sea Prince, I know. Come on, we'll make 'em pay~"

~

Nico smirked as he loaded up his gun, "Not real, just tranquilizers. My grandpa Kronos brought them back from World War two."

"Well... Okay. What do we do though?"

"Plant a note saying they killed themselves for being gay for each other."

"Hah! Brilliant!"

"Mmhmm, they made you cry, so now they'll pay. They'll wake up as laughingstocks."

"I love you," Percy said, kissing Nico.

He hummed against Percy's lips, "Our love is God, baby."

~

"We love our dead gay sons, whether they were pansies or not!" Hermes Castellan and Jeremy Augur said at the funeral, just before Luke's poor mother broke down in tears.

"My son!" she wailed, "My beautiful, beautiful son!"

~

"You're a fucking psychopath! Get the hint, Nico!"

"But, Babe, our love is God~"

"Then God is dead!" Percy screamed, glaring daggers at the other.

He stormed off, ignoring Nico's call of, "You'll be back, sure as day turns into night! Nothing can break our bond!"

~

Silena clung to him, gripping his t-shirt so tightly he was scared her nails would cut into his skin through the fabric.

"I stand in a boat... On a raging black ocean, low in the water, and nowhere to go... The loneliest lifeboat, filled with people I know..."

"I know, Silena, but don't worry, we'll make it to shore someday..."

~

"Percy, please, talk to us son!" Poseidon Jackson cried, waving the book Moby Dick around.

"Your problems seem like life and death," Sally Jackson added, staring at her son with tears in her eyes, "But believe me, they aren't!"

"You don't know what my life is like!" Percy screamed back.

"Yo, boy, keep it together~" Nancy purred in his ear.

"You've burned that red scrunchie, come join us in Hell!" Octavian and Luke said in unison.

"Somebody's here for you~" Nancy said, smirking.

Percy's eyes widened, and he rushed upstairs.

~

"Don't make me come in there, Percy."

"Go away! I'll scream, and Mom'll call the cops!"

"Don't you want to make s'mores with me? We can smile and cuddle while their screams burn out! Ha! Get it, burn out?"

Percy knew he had only minutes to figure out how to get away, when he spotted the bed sheets.

'He wants suicide so badly? I'll give him one he didn't plan...'

"Percy, open the door! Open the door right now!" Nico snapped, brandishing his gun.

Silence.

"Don't make me come in there!"

Silence.

"On the count of three!"

Silence.

"One!"

Silence.

"Two- Fuck it!"

He kicked in the door, and froze at what he saw.

"No... Percy, why...?" Nico whispered brokenly, dropping to his knees. "You were all I could trust... Please don't leave me alone..."

The hanging body said nothing, merely swung back and forth.

"I can't do this alone," Nico sobbed, yanking at his hair. He suddenly got a crazy look on his face, onyx eyes wide and crazed, his grin so wide it could split his face in half, "Still, I will if I must!

He climbed back out the window, laughing.

"Percy?" Sally questioned, "I brought you a snack, blue cookies-"

She saw him there, hanging in the closet, and screamed.

His eyes opened.

~

"Drop the bomb."

Nico chuckled, "Oh, this little thing? I'd barely call this a bomb..." Percy gaped as the smile on Nico's face stretched, a crazed look in his eyes. “This is merely to trigger the packs of thermals upstairs in the gym, now those are bombs!”

Percy knew he didn’t stand much of a chance against Nico, but he also knew he had to try.

Nobody was going to hurt his friends anymore.

"I'm a fucking dead boy walking, and you're going down with me!" Percy shouted, tackling Nico to the floor.

Nico laughed, "I knew that noose was too loose!"

The gun went skidding far off, and as Percy was just about to reach it, Nico pinned him to the ground, smiling at him crazily. "I don't think so~!"

Just as his hands clasped around Percy's neck, a gunshot rang off.

Percy gave a sob as Nico spat up some blood, his beautiful onyx eyes wide in shock.

And then the unexpected happened.

Nico kissed him, sweet and gentle, before standing up and grabbing the bomb.

~

"I.. Am damaged. Far too damaged," Nico said softly.

Percy merely stared at him, not knowing where this was going.

"But you... You are not beyond repair," he added, looking up at him with a sad smile. He pressed the button on the bomb, the one to set it off.

"Wait-"

"Stick around a little longer, make things better, it's too late for me."

"Please, no!"

"You beat me fair and square..."

"Nico-"

"Please, stand back now, I'm not quite sure what this thing will do... I don't want my Sea Prince getting hurt," the younger replied, motioning with his hand for Percy to back up.

Percy took ten steps back, eyes wide in horror as the timer clicked down.

10.

"A little further..."

Percy took a dozen more steps back, full-on sobbing by this point.

5.

"Our love is God, baby," Nico said with certainty.

3.

"...Say hi to God."

~

"You look like Hell," Drew said with a sneer.

"I just got back," Percy replied, walking up to her.

"Hey-! What're you-"

In one swift motion, he kissed her cheek, yanking the red scrunchie from her hair.

"No more. War is over. We're all damaged, we're all broken up and hurt, but that's okay! We'll heal, all of us! If nobody loves us now, someday, somebody will."

Drew put a hand to her cheek, blushing as she glared, "You stupid-"

"Shut up, Drew," Silena said, "Percy's right."

Percy smiled at her, and she smiled back at him softly.

He turned to Annabeth, who was sat in her wheelchair, "Annabeth, are you free tonight...? I was thinking, maybe, we could hang out..? Rent a movie, something with a happy ending..?"

"Are there any happy endings...?" Annabeth asked softly.

"Maybe not now, but someday there will be," he said confidently.

She smiled, throwing her arms open.

He eagerly obliged, hugging her tightly.

"For now, let's party!" A kid yelled.

For the first time since he first became a "Heather", Percy felt happy, and free.

{La Fin}

~Ashton Bende

#percyjackson #heathers!au #nico di angelo #percico #nicercy #blb #trigger warnings #character death #heathers

[i-write-shakespeare-not-disney]

Warm Me Up Ch. 33

Please, please, please PLEASE make moodboards and fanart for this T.T This is twice the usual length.

Click Here for Ch. 1

Click Here for Ch. 32

index

Almost as soon as Nico and Will left the terminal, the screech of a small child made every passerby freeze in confusion. Kayla, in a denim jumper and a yellow shirt with flowers, jumped onto Will without mercy and Nico had to help him keep his balance.

She hugged him tightly, burrowing her face in his stomach. Despite his attempts to pull her away so he could carry her properly, she wouldn’t budge. “Kayla?” He leaned over trying to see her face, overcome with shock and worry when he realized she was crying. “Kayla! Why are you-no, princess don’t cry!” She sniffed and looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Yes!” she moaned. “I missed you.” She reached up and he pulled her up, resting her against his hip. “Hi, Nico,” she greeted shyly.

“Hey there, Kayla,” he smiled.

“Where’s Mom and Dad?” She gestured to the crowd and Will saw his parents struggling to get through other people finding their relatives. He smiled as they reached him and pulled him into a hug. “Hey, guys,” he greeted.

“How was the flight?” his father asked.

“It was good. Went by pretty quickly. Way better than driving.” He turned and saw Nico setting their carryon items together on the floor, fidgeting with them to stay distracted. “Nico,” he said tilting his head toward his parents. He looked up, panic clear in his eyes. “Come over here,” he said gently.

He swallowed and stood beside Will, giving his parents a nervous smile. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Solace. Nice to see you again.”

“We’re glad to have you visiting,” his mom answered with a smile.

“Thank you for suggesting the flight over the drive,” his father said, giving him an approving nod. Nico cleared his throat and nodded, remaining close to Will. “Come on, I left the car on. If I turn it off in this heat, we’d be melting.” Will hefted his sister, shifting her weight while Nico grabbed their things and followed.

When they got to the house, Will led Nico to the guest room where he would be sleeping. He set his duffel bag on the bed and turned to Will, biting his lip. “What?” Will questioned.

He stepped nearer and wrapped his arms around him. “I won’t get to sleep next to you for a week,” he murmured. “It sucks.”

Will chuckled and pushed his hair back. “You could always sneak over to my room in the middle of the night,” he suggested. Nico scoffed and leaned into him, tilting his head to look at him. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said easily. He smiled and bumped his nose. “I love you.”

Will blushed and smiled widely, leaning in to kiss him. “I love you more.”

Nico laughed, tilting his head back. “Oh, God, no,” he groaned. “Tell me we’re not going to turn into one of those couples,” he teased. “What’s next? ‘You hang up first. No you hang up first. No you hang-’”

Will covered his mouth, laughing at the idea of such a mushy interation and smirked. “You’re such a dork,” he laughed. He intertwined his hand with Nico’s and raised an eyebrow. “You know, we have to tell Kayla that we’re dating.”

“I don’t think she’ll mind. She likes me,” he answered.

Will chuckled and fought back a smile. “Yeah, that’s… kind of the problem. I think she likes you too much….” Nico frowned and tilted his head in confusion. He bit his lip and grimaced. “I’m pretty sure she has a crush on you.”

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, his eyes going wide. “What makes you say that? She’s like, seven!”

Will laughed and nodded. “Yeah, exactly. It’s a little girl crush. Like… I don’t know, like when you crushed on a teacher or a babysitter.” Still, Nico seemed dubious and uncertain. “She kept asking me what things you like to eat and if you could sleep in her room. She also asked if you missed her.”

He winced and shook his head. “The only family member that likes me and now she might hate me because I’m dating you. Perfect.” Will laughed and took his hand, pulling him out of the room.

“Come on, let’s watch a movie. You need to relax, you’re so tense.” Nico blushed and looked at the floor, letting Will guide him out to the living room. They knelt near the DVD collection his parents had and debated over what movie to watch. Being away from his parents, Will could see Nico relaxing more and he hoped he was able to feel comfortable for the rest of the week.

Eventually, they decided to watch Troy, simply because Nico had never watched it and it was one of Will’s favorites despite historical inaccuracies. They sat on the couch beside each other, but before Nico could lean into him like they always did when they watched movies, Kayla came bounding from the hallway with a journal and seated herself on Nico’s lap.

“Can I show you my drawings I did?” she asked. Nico nodded and watched as she opened the journal to show her wobbly stick figures. “See this is you, me, and Will eating pizza.” She turned the page. “This is me and you when I got my bear.”

“What does that say?” Nico questioned, angling the journal. Will peered over his shoulder to look at the misspelled, blocky handwriting. “I… like Nico. He is nice and made me a… bear.” Will smirked and glanced at him as he stared at the journal in surprise, a small smile on his lips. Kayla was blushing, keeping her head down, waiting to turn the page.

She turned the page when Nico angled the journal back and continued to show more drawings that had little captions at the top. Will allowed the movie to start playing while Kayla remained seated, insisting that she wanted to watch too.

“Fine, but if I tell you to cover your eyes, do it. And don’t get scared when you see blood, it’s fake.” She nodded and smiled widely once she was given permission to stay.

A few minutes into the movie, Will felt Nico nuzzle into him, and his hand slipped into his own, fingers intertwining, fitting perfectly between each other’s spaces. As Will leaned his head to rest against Nico’s soft hair, he heard Kayla ask, “Why are you holding my brother’s hand?”

They pulled apart, but Nico’s hand gripped Will’s. Dark, panicked eyes flitted to him, and Will hesitated as he pulled Nico back toward him. “Well, he’s my boyfriend. He gets to hold my hand.” She froze and looked over at Nico who looked like a deer in headlights.

“Boyfriend? Like… where you kiss and stuff like the movies?” Will nodded. “But… you’re a boy.”

Nico shifted and fixed one of her pigtails. “Yeah, he is. But that’s okay. Because I like him a lot, and he likes me too.”

“Oh. So it’s okay?” They both nodded. “Oh.” She frowned and leaned against Nico’s shoulder. “Well… be nice to Nico,” she said, glaring at Will.

“What?” he questioned. “Are you hearing this?” he asked Nico, who was fighting back laughter. “She’s defending you, not me! Child, I am your brother!”

She shrugged and nuzzled into Nico, still glaring. Will bit his lip as he realized that his sister was angrier at him than at Nico for being in a relationship. He hoped she wouldn’t be angry too long though. She was only seven anyway.

After the movie, Will’s mom called him to the kitchen. “Hon, what food does Nico like? I need to figure out what to make for dinner.”

“He loves hamburgers. But we usually get those when we go for fast food,” he answered. “And fries. Nico loves fries.”

She smiled and raised an eyebrow as though Will had just given her a challenge. “Honey, your boyfriend hasn’t tried a nice, homemade, Texas burger. Is there anything he doesn’t eat?”

“Raw tomatoes and raw onions,” he answered automatically.

“Got it. Now, go watch movies, take him downtown, take him to SoCo, but get out of my kitchen while I work my magic.” Will smiled and saluted her as he turned away. Kayla and Nico were debating on the next movie, torn between Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

“But we just saw one with Greek people and stuff,” Kayla said.

“But… Hades,” Nico countered. Will snickered and crossed his arms. “Will, what do you think?”

“I think there’s a lot of Austin worth seeing. Let’s check out SoCo.” Nico raised an eyebrow in confusion. “South Congress. It’s a strip of a bunch of little shops,” he explained. “Kayla likes checking out the bookstore there.”

Almost immediately, Kayla lit up and stood pulling Nico along so he’d follow. “We’re just walking there?” he asked.

“It’s a block away actually,” he answered. They stepped outside and Will took his sister’s hand as they walked to the corner of the street. Along the way, he took Nico’s hand, lacing his fingers with his. He noticed Nico tense and glanced at him as he looked around nervously. “What?”

He shrugged and bit his lip. “Isn’t Texas really conservative? Is it okay to do this?” he murmured.

Will smiled and looked at him fondly. “Austin’s a little different. More conservative side is more west Texas, I think. There are a few neighborhoods, but right now you’re at the heart of art expressivity and liberalism.” Nico chuckled and squeezed his hand. Will leaned forward and kissed him lightly, causing him to smile and blush.

Suddenly Kayla’s hand pulled away and he looked over to her. “I want to hold Nico’s hand,” she said, reverting to the angry glare. She stood on the other side of Nico and grabbed his hand.

“Come on this side,” he said pulling her between them so he was on the outer edge. “It’s dangerous for you to be the closest to the street.” She nodded and gripped his hand, skipping nonchalantly. Will glanced at Nico, with disbelief on his features while Nico fought back a smile.

They reached South Congress, and Will saw Nico’s eyes widen as people sped by on a bicycle or walked along the streets with bags in their hands. He peered curiously at the stands outside offering an impromptu poem, jewelry, or henna tattoos. There were two guys at one corner, sitting while they strummed away on a guitar and sang, both horribly off pitch and unintelligible.

“It’s kind of like New York but… you know with more space,” he noted. “Is that a costume shop?”

“Can we go to the book store first?” Kayla asked, shaking Nico arm. “Please?” He nodded and the three of them started walking down the sidewalk. Will saw a lesbian couple pass by, one girl’s arm over the other’s shoulder as she held her hand. A few seconds later, a gay couple passed by holding hands too. “Look! Like you and Nico!” Kayla shouted.

A few people glanced over at the sound of her voice, but kept walking. The couple looked over and chuckled while Will and Nico waved awkwardly. They waved at Kayla and kept walking. “Let’s keep our voices down, Kayla,” Will said with an embarrassed smile.

“I think I like it here,” Nico murmured, smiling at him, leaning into his shoulder.

They reached the bookstore, a small, quaint, and crowded little space with books everywhere- even on the checkout counter. While Kayla inspected a book case, Nico and Will checked out some books on the other side. They could still see Kayla, sitting on the floor, looking inquisitively at the covers.

Nico pulled him away from the shelf and wrapped his arms around his torso. “I want you to show me all the places you like here. A museum or a park, a favorite restaurant, anything. I want to know the place you call home.”

Will grabbed his chin in one hand, his arm over one of his shoulders, and said, “You’re my home.”

A deep scarlet blush spread across Nico’s cheeks and he put his hand over his face. “God, you are so fucking cheesy,” he mumbled into his chest, hiding his embarrassment.

“You love it,” he mumbled past his fingers. Nico groaned and Will opened his mouth to bite his fingers playfully.

Then Nico gasped, jumping in his arms and hitting his head on the bookshelf behind him. “Don’t do that,” he breathed, his eyes on his lips, his entire face red, his lips parted. And he still hadn’t pulled his hand away. Will raised an eyebrow and put a little more pressure on his fingers. Nico gasped again, his lips trembling and his body tensing.

Slowly, he let go and his hand fell away. “That’s interesting,” he whispered, with his own blush spreading on his cheeks.

Suddenly, Kayla was coming between them holding up a book. “Can I get this one?” She was looking at Nico, who looked flustered and confused.

“Yeah. Yeah, sure thing, Kayla,” he answered. He smiled at her and walked back to the counter to pay for a book.

After they left the bookstore, they spent time checking other stores out from antiques to costumes. It wasn’t long before Nico said he was hungry and Will suggested they go back to the house. After so much walking, Kayla had to be carried back, but Nico didn’t seem to mind.

“Hold on a sec,” he said, stopping him in the front yard. He went inside to check if his mom had finished cooking yet. Immediately he was enveloped in the scent of burger meat and bacon, and he could hear oil sizzling for fries. His stomach growled and he went in search of his mother.

As he went into the hall, he could hear arguing. He hesitated as he neared the closed door to his parents’ bedroom and listened.

“Would you calm down!” his mother snapped.

“No! How can you be so calm about this, why are you welcoming this kid?”

“Because he’s our son’s boyfriend, Lester, and we have to give him a chance,” she insisted.

“No. Not after what happened. They broke up, remember? And you know it was earlier than Will told us. He acted different. I don’t know what that boy did, but he hurt Will, and we can’t let that happen again.”

“We don’t know that,” she said. “Will hasn’t talked to us about it. If they’re together it must be for a reason, and Will is smart.”

“I know he is, but he also doesn’t understand relationships. Naomi, how would he know if he’s setting himself up for another heartbreak? He’s just a kid!”

“He’ll learn! All kids get their heartbroken, it’s life! As parents, we need to be there for him.”

“So just let him get hurt when we know we can stop it?”

“We can’t stop it,” she said, getting angrier. “We can’t force them to stay away from each other, they’re adults in another city.”

“We can try,” he shot back. “I don’t want that kid around Will. I don’t want him hurting my son or taking him down the wrong path. I can talk to Will, I can-”

“No,” she interrupted. “No, Lester. Because you can’t control your emotions when it comes to the family, despite being a psychologist. We cannot force them apart. I don’t know what to think of Nico either, but he’s been here less than a day. Right now, all I know is that they’re always touching in some way when they’re together like magnets. All I know is that when Will looks at him he looks happy. And when Nico looks at him, he looks calm. Right now? That’s enough to provide a good dinner.”

“Not for me,” he answered.

“I don’t care,” she said, using the tone of voice she always used when she was done with an argument and ready to have the last word. “Because you are not going to upset them when they’re only visiting and I haven’t seen my child in almost two months. Can you at least wait until one of them gives us a reason to be wary?” There was silence. “We are going to have a nice dinner. And you will behave yourself. Understand?”

There was shuffling and then the door opened. Will stared at his parents, both of them looking like deer in headlights. He clenched his jaw and looked away. “We’re back,” he muttered, turning to go outside and get Nico.

“Will,” his mother called. He stopped, only because she had been defending them. “Sweetheart, hold on. Come here.” He turned and kept his eyes on her. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that. We’re trying okay? I promise you that. We- I’m going to do my best to make sure Nico feels welcome.” Will’s eyes flitted accusingly to his father. “Don’t pay attention to your dad, he’s just being an asshole.” She tilted his face so he would look at her again. “You’re happy. And that’s all that matters right now.”

“Yeah, okay,” he said. “You might want to check on the fries.”

She froze. “Oh shit.” She hurried to the kitchen, and, ignoring his father, Will followed her with a smile. “Go ahead and get Nico in here, hon.”

He nodded and went back outside. Nico was chasing after Kayla while she screamed excitedly and went around the porch’s pillar. He managed to catch her and turned around immediately as Kayla began to chase after him.

“Hey, guys dinner’s ready,” Will called leaning against the wall.

“Wait, I have to catch Nico,” Kayla shouted back, her words infused with giggles. As she ran, her foot caught on the house and she fell, making Will react immediately. She stood right back up, despite both Nico and Will stopping to see if she was okay.

She hadn’t realized her knee was bleeding. She was still running after Nico until Nico picked her up and Will stood beside him. “Oh God, Kayla,” Will said worriedly. “Come on, let’s get her inside.”

“What? No! I wanna keep playing!”

“Kayla, you don’t want that getting infected. Come on, your brother’s a doctor, he can make it better,” Nico said. She pouted but stopped protesting as they got her inside.

His mom noticed immediately. “What happened?”

“She tripped over the hose while she was playing,” Will said. “I’m going to clean her up.” They went into the bathroom while Will got the first aid kit. “Distract her for me, babe?”

“Alright Kayla,” he said. “Do you know the I Spy game?” She nodded. “Okay, let’s play while Will fixes your knee, okay?” She nodded and Nico glanced around the bathroom. “I spy with my little eye something… pink.” While Kayla scavenged the bathroom for something pink, Will poured peroxide water over her knee. She twitched, but Nico kept her from looking as the bubbles spewed.

“Um… the soap?” she asked. He nodded. “Okay. I spy with my little eye something clear!”

Will wiped her scrape and put ointment on it before covering it with a band-aid. Nico had guess several times and couldn’t guess what Kayla had seen. “What is it?” he asked.

“The mirror!” Will snorted and covered his mouth at Nico’s dumbfounded expression. “Ooh, Mommy made burgers!” She hopped off the counter and ran out.

“The mirror? Is that cl- Wait, did she say burgers?” he asked.

Will smiled and nodded. “Mom wanted to make something you liked. So she made burgers.” Nico smiled, blushing slightly. They went to the kitchen and washed their hands, preparing to eat.

While Mom set up the table so everyone could style their own burgers, Kayla and his father sat down with drinks. Will glanced at his father fleetingly, hoping he wouldn’t make it obvious how unsure he was of Nico. When his mother sat down, they all started making their own burgers and she took a breath as she pulled her hair away from her face. “So, how did you two meet? I’ve heard so much about you, Nico.”

“O-Oh uh… well I was performing at a café. I play the guitar, and a friend and I were performing a song,” he explained. “Then Will decided to try and talk to me.”

“He was a bit of a jerk, actually,” he added. Nico rolled his eyes, but blushed, knowing it was true. “He was super defensive and I ended up walking away. After that, our friend Leo had us carpool to a party.”

“He planned that, you know,” Nico said, munching on fries. “When we went to pick you up, he just told me he had to ‘get something.’ Then he walked out with you.”

“You know, that doesn’t surprise me. It’s no wonder he had us both in the back.”

“Who’s Leo?” his mom asked.

“He sings some of Nico’s songs. He’s our friend. Actually I think he’s over in Houston,” Will answered. “But yeah. We didn’t like each other very much when we first met.”

His mom chuckled and shook her head. “So when did you two start liking each other?” she asked.

Both of them frowned and looked at each other. “I’m not sure. I know I realized it because….” He paused, remembering the drunk extravaganza and the accidental kiss with Percy. He really didn’t need to add to the reasons his father didn’t like Nico. “I found out someone else liked him. I got kind of jealous and… realized I liked him.”

Nico was resting his chin on his hand. “I can’t pinpoint a moment,” he murmured. “I never liked being around people too much. I never hung out with anyone. I wasn’t used to people genuinely caring. But Will did. And it wasn’t hard to be around him. It got to the point where I didn’t want to be away from him, but I was also scared to be around him. I’m not sure when, but… yeah.” He blushed and looked down at his food, laughing softly at himself. “I’m actually just lucky he liked me back.”

Will scoffed and bit his lip, reaching for his hand. He squeezed it gently. I love you. Nico looked at him with a smile and held his hand tighter. I love you too.

He let go so they could eat, and the second Nico bit into his burger, his eyes widened. “Oh my God,” he said, shoulder slumping with a sigh. “This is f- ah. This is incredible, wow.”

His mom laughed and she looked at him with a joyous smile. “It’s alright you can say it; it’s fucking incredible, right? A little homemade Texas taste.”

“Momma! You can’t say bad words!” Kayla reprimanded.

“Yes I can honey, I’m an adult. You can’t.”

Nico chuckled and nodded. “This is the best burger I’ve ever had. Oh man and the fries. God I love fries.” Nico was quiet for the rest of dinner as he stuffed his mouth with food.

Dinner was good. Nico seemed more relaxed as Kayla and his mom included him in conversation, telling embarrassing stories of Will or talking about things he should see while visiting. His father remained quiet, chuckling from time to time, giving small responses, but he didn’t seem too obviously upset.

When they finished, Nico went to the kitchen with his plate and offered to do the dishes. “Oh, no don’t worry about that,” Mrs. Solace said. “I’ve got it.”

“You already cooked. Really, it’s okay I can-”

She put a hand on his arm and smiled. “Nico, you’re a guest here. Guests don’t do dishes. Go.” He smiled and nodded, turning to join Will in Kayla’s room. Will’s mother was sweet. And Nico felt incredibly touched by the fact that she had made his favorite food for him. Maybe Will was right, and being here wouldn’t be so bad.

He walked over to Kayla’s room. The door was open, and Will and Kayla were on her bed talking. Nico walked in, but Kayla, who had her back to him, hadn’t heard. “-and he’s funny, and nice, and he plays with me. And you look happy, so it’s okay that you took him away.”

Will chuckled and pushed a strand of hair away from her face. “Oh, really? You sure?” he asked. She nodded. “I’m glad you like him. Wanna know a secret?” She nodded, leaning forward. “I’m in love with him,” he whispered, not-so-silently.

Kayla immediately let out a gasp. “Really?” she asked. Will nodded. “Oh my gosh! Are you gonna marry him?”

“What?” they asked at the same time. Kayla jumped and turned looking at Nico with a horrified expression.

“Nobody, nobody!” she shouted. “It’s nothing!”

“Ah, okay,” he said, sitting beside Will. “What are you guys doing?”

“Nothin’,” she answered, unable to withhold her smile.

“Alright, princess, Mom said it’s your bedtime, so go to sleep, okay?” She nodded and hugged Will tightly before turning to Nico and hugging him too. She shimmied into her covers and Will covered her up and took Nico’s hand as they left the room, shutting off the light.

He could hear the faucet where Mrs. Solace was washing the dishes and the TV where Mr. Solace was in the living room watching a show. Suddenly, he was pulled aside and Will kissed him so intensely, he got dizzy. He fought back a groan as he was pressed against the hallway wall. Will pulled away slightly, keeping Nico’s bottom lip between his lips.

“Holy fuck,” he breathed, looking into Will’s eyes.

“I love you,” he murmured, leaning in, his lips moving against Nico’s as he spoke.

“I love you too, amore,” he said with a smile. He found it incredible that he had once gone a day without telling Will he loved him. He found it incredible that he had ever been afraid to say it to him. They’d only been dating officially again for a little over a week, and he couldn’t stop saying it any chance he could.

“I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. Are you going to shower today too or wait till morning?”

“Morning,” he answered. “I’m going to go to bed now. Running around with Kayla is more exhausting than I thought.” Will chuckled and tugged on his hair gently. “I’ll see you in the morning, baby.”

“Goodnight, love,” he answered kissing his cheek. Nico went into the guest room and Will went into the bathroom.

It was a small, cozy room with a lamp and carpeted floor. Nico pulled his duffel bag out and changed into something cozy to sleep in. The bed was soft and comfortable. But it was also cold and empty. He’d gotten used to sleeping beside Will. Eventually, he was able to fall asleep, despite how restless he felt.

The next morning, he woke up to someone nudging him gently. “Nico. Babe? Wake up, baby.” He groaned and opened his eyes. “Love, I have to go somewhere, okay? I don’t know if I’ll be back when you wake up.”

“Where you going?” he murmured, wondering if Will could even understand.

“Dad asked me to take Kayla shopping for school supplies and clothes while he worked on the yard. Figured if I went early, no lines.” Nico started to get up, but Will gently nudged him down. “No, it’s okay go to sleep. Text me when you’re up. Love you.”

“Love you,” he responded, already feeling the urge to sleep again. Will kissed him lightly, and Nico grimaced. “Mm, I have morning breath,” he mumbled into his pillow.

He heard Will chuckle. “I don’t care.” He felt his hand run through his hair and another gentle kiss on his cheek. Then he heard a door shut and sleep overcame him again.

When he woke up a second time, he groaned and sat up, wincing at the sunlight streaming in so intensely through the window. He checked the time and winced when he saw it was 11:30. He hated how his medicine messed with his sleep schedule. He reached over to his bag for a toothbrush and his medicine, taking the small pills dry and leaving the room to brush his teeth and take a shower.

When he got back to the room and got dressed, Will still wasn’t back yet, and he was slightly nervous about leaving to go and interact with Nico’s parents alone. But he figured staying in his room past noon would look bad too, so he steeled himself and left the room anyway.

“Hey, Nico,” Mrs. Solace greeted.

“Hi. I’m so sorry I’m so late in getting out of the room.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “No worries, hon. Will told us waking up could be a little difficult. Are you hungry? I could make you some eggs.”

“No, it’s fine, I’m okay,” he said with a grateful smile. “I can just wait for lunch.”

He turned away and started to text Will on his phone, but the voice of Will’s father distracted him. He looked up and saw him sitting at the dining table. “Could we talk for a moment?” he said.

Nico froze and looked between the two of them. Will’s mother looked stressed and slightly angry. “Lester, don’t,” she warned.

“I just want to talk to him for a minute,” he answered. “Sit down, Nico. Please.”

He went over to the chair and kept his eyes on Mrs. Solace because she was less intimidating. “What’s going on?” he asked slowly.

“Lester, we talked about this,” Mrs. Solace said with her hands on her hip.

“I know, Naomi. But I have to do this. For Will.” Nico gulped and felt his hands begin to sweat. Mr. Solace’s blue eyes flickered to Nico. Although they were cold, there was also some nervousness about his movements. “Nico…. We’d-” Mrs. Solace cleared her throat. “I’d like to talk to you about your intentions with my son.”

“Intentions?” he questioned.

“I just want to make sure that we’re on the same page. There are some things that… are a bit concerning.”

“Like?” Nico asked uneasily.

“Like… whether or not you’re trustworthy when it comes to being with my son. Are you capable of caring for him? Watching out for him? Because as far as I’ve seen, he’s been the one taking care of you.” Nico furrowed his eyebrows and clenched his fists under the table. “I only know things in Will’s point of view. The hurt that you have caused in the past and the repercussions it’s had on my son.” Nico winced at the word ‘past.’

“That’s in the past,” Nico breathed out, feeling his heart pounding. “I’m not going to hurt him.”

“Will has put you on some type of pedestal, making sure you have everything you need to be happy. What have you done for him?” Nico opened his mouth, unsure of what to say to that. He already felt like he wasn’t doing enough for Will. He didn’t need this man telling him all of these things. “Frankly, after the stunt you pulled on New Year’s, I don’t think I can-”

“New Year’s?” Nico exclaimed, in utter shock. How the hell did he know about New Year’s?

“New Year’s?” Mrs. Solace questioned. “Wait a second, what happened on New Year’s?”

Nico’s breaths turned irregular as Will’s dad crossed his arms. “Yeah, I know about that. Because I had to watch my son feeling torn apart because you decided to go out, get drunk, and cheat on-”

“I never cheated on Will!” Nico shouted back, feeling dizzy. “That’s not what happened!”

“Isn’t it? Isn’t kissing someone you’re not dating considered cheating?” Nico didn’t answer, staring at him with wide, panicked eyes. Even his mom seemed to step back a bit, unsure of him. “And what about the drunkenness, Nico?”

“I don’t drink anymore,” he spit through clenched teeth. “I’ve been sober for four months. I stopped for him.”

“Frankly, I don’t think that really matters. Addictive tendencies return.” Nico gulped, feeling nauseated. “I’ve seen it happen several times in my field. And I’ve seen the destruction it leaves behind. The hurt it causes in people.” Nico shut his eyes and shook his head. “Alcoholism isn’t just fathers who drink too much and beat their wives and promise it won’t happen again. It’s also boyfriends who go out and cheat and come back promising it won’t happen again.”

“No. No, stop it, I’m not like that!”

“Then what are you like Nico? Because I know your type-”

“My type?” he scowled.

“Yes, type. The type that parties and goes out and drinks too much and doesn’t care about other people’s feelings and focuses solely on themselves-”

“No!” he shouted. “No! I’m not like that, you don’t know me at all! I’ve been going to therapy, to a psychiatrist, I’ve been taking Zoloft, and I quit drinking because I wanted to be better for Will. I care about him more than I’ve cared about anyone in my life, including myself!”

“Okay, you’ve been on Zoloft for what, four months as well? Less? That’s not enough time for it to take effect. You are not in the position to have a healthy relationship yet. You still have things to work on with yourself-”

“No.”

“Before you can even try to get into a relationship. This, right now? This will end badly, with my son being the only one getting hurt.”

“That’s not true,” he said, his voice shaking with rage. “I’d be hurt too. I’m trying. I’m trying so hard for him.”

“Right now, just trying is not good enough. And I’m not comfortable with you being around my family.”

“Lester, that’s enough,” Mrs. Solace said tensely.

But Nico was broken. He stood up, shaking, dizzy, his heart pounding. “No! You know what, screw you! You don’t know a single fucking thing about me or my life or what I’ve been through. Will does! Will knows everything and he’s helped me so much. The person you’re comparing me to is someone I was eight months ago! I’m not like that anymore! I’m better! No, I’m not good enough, and maybe I’ll never be, I know that! I know how destructive my shitty mind can be, and so does Will, and he’s still willing to be with me. And that’s enough.” He took a few deep breaths, feeling weak and afraid. “I would never hurt him, because I love him. I’ve gone too long telling myself I’m not good enough or worth the trouble of being loved, and I’ve only recently started to change that with your son’s help. And I will not let some arrogant, closed-minded, demeaning asshole make me revert to that shitty thought process and ruin my progress!” He turned away, his entire body hot and tense as he left the house and slammed the door.

Click to read Ch. 34

#solangelo #will solace #nico di angelo #nico and will #will and nico #nicoxwill #willxnico #will #nico #pjo #hoo #fanfic #depression #anxiety #insecurity #please reblog #and send feedback #thank you #percy jackson