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#its big nico and bianca hours

randompjofan · 7 months

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more pjo headcanons cuz the last one was really long

•will has a southern accent but it faded a bit over time

•the tyche and nemesis kids argue alllllllll the time and it drives chiron insane

• they constantly manipulate each others luck in training/chores, sometimes even dates (not very often since the aphrodite campers aren't above breaking a few toes)

•the hunters of artemis will ALWAYS accept trans girls

•when artemis learned how close nico and reyna were to the point where they were like siblings it reminded her of bianca and she felt so bad that she let reyna took every other saturday off

•the other Hunter were wary of this until reyna brought up that nico was gay

•calypso is t e r r i f i e d of toasters

•leo finds it hilarious but made a quiet toaster for her anyway

•hazel cant visit the underworld with nico anymore because it gave their dad the hades/pluto effect

•https://youtu.be/WskMx1_PBv4?si=k8CnHTZa3qFydOGV this did indeed happen in the big house one day

•one time rachel and annabeth were hanging out (it was mentioned in hoh that rachel and annabeth were good friends dont come at me) and percy was on his way to see annabeth and rachel and annabeth pretended to argue as a joke

•percy ran straight back to his cabin

•once during capture the flag dionysus decided to be a little shit and split every couple on opposing teams

•there was much making out in that game

•will made clarisse a friendship bracelet when he was 13 and shes worn it ever since

•percy laughed at the irony of it and got a nice kick in the shin

•upon meeting hearthstone and blitzen everyone has thought at some point they were dating. Magnus has never told anyone otherwise

•T.J. has been single since he arrived at valhalla and alex and mallory have made it their mission to get him a gf cuz if anyone deserves bitches its T.J.

•hazel was completely shocked upon leaving the underworld and realizing how diverse the world is

•jason takes FREEZING showers

•leo takes the hottest showers known to man and is known to make cabin 9 extremely humid

•all you need to do to find leo in a crowd is start singing girl on fire by alicia keys

•"this girl is on-"

"FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

•as zoe was put in the stars by artemis, she lives in elysium AND the cosmos and has meet andromeda and perseus before

•the judges in the underworld spent a little over an hour trying to decide where luke would go (every option was available)

•they solved it with a rock paper scissors match and he got elysium

•athena has to remind most of the gods what they're the god of a lot

•it got so out of hand with hermes she tattooed it onto him for another century

•the hypnos campers can tell when people are awake or sleeping and will sometimes tell the harpies who for money

•nico went to the underworld once and came back with a whole ass haircut and will thought it was the hottest thing

•nico did hate mcdonalds because of the bianca thing but after tsats when he saw her for the last time he ended up liking it again because he has finally moved on

•jason met grover, they're actually good friends

#pjo hoo toa

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artsybookworms · 2 years

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A pointless thread in which I rate the PJO books:

10/10: A classic. One of the things I love about these books is Percy’s narration. He’s so endearing and witty and I immediately wanted to root for him. Also, this was a very good introduction to new characters. Even the minor ones feel like real people who you can love and cheer on. The plot is fun and well-paced while being surprisingly heart-warming.

9/10: Tyson appears!! I honestly love the internal conflict in this book. I wrote a whole post about this, but in a nutshell, the main characters (who in YA typically have “forgivable flaws” like being too nice or some bs like that) struggle with real issues like prejudices against another character. These flaws aren’t pretty, and in fact, make Percy and Annabeth kind of unlikeable. But they learn through their time with Tyson that he’s not so different than they are, and they form a love and friendship for one another. This is such an important lesson to be teaching young kids who are entering schools where they’ll be faced with a variety of people and cultures. The plot itself is enjoyable and I love young, awkward Percabeth, although I still prefer TLT.

9/10: First of all, I love that Percy gives no shits about the prophecy or the gods. His best friend is in trouble and gods be damned he’s going to help her. (Budding Percabeth ahhhh). The plot is exciting and I love the introduction of Rachel! One of my favorite characters tbh. This is probably controversial, but I never really got attached to Bianca, so her death wasn’t that sad to me. I was honestly just worried about Nico’s well-being and how it would affect his relationship with Percy. Overall, it’s a solid book, and the character development is *chef’s kiss*. Also, this is literally so minor but Percy and Thalia’s fight where he lifts all the water out of the lake and is about to like,, launch it at her?? That scene ruined me as a kid plss it was so hot

9/10: Alright I know some people don’t like that Rick pit two girls against each other in this book, but I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Like,, they’re 14 year olds? I think it’s normal to have petty fights about a boy they like, especially when they’re forced to spend hours of time together on a quest. It’s not like Percy isn’t jealous either—remember how he reacts when he thinks Annabeth’s joining the Hunters or notices that she has a crush on Luke? Also, Annabeth is written as a well-rounded character; I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s sexist to have a scene where she’s jealous of another girl. Jealousy is a normal flaw to have, and people are more than their flaws. If you want to pick out flaws in the Riordanverse books, there are plenty to choose from. This ain’t it💀 Idk maybe I need to reread it, but Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel are some of my favorite characters, and I liked that we got to see them interact with one another. Anyways, I also loved the introduction of Calypso! That whole scene was so soft and honestly heartbreaking. But of course, I have to talk about the Percabeth kiss. What a scene😭 Something I really appreciate about PJO is that the romance is a slow burn. It’s obvious they’re going to get together, but not in the boring way. Their relationship feels natural, well-paced, and so satisfying when they finally act on their feelings for each other. Ugh. I’m so lonely.

10/10: The River Styx scene?? Annabeth’s literally his tether to the real world,, I’m sobbing. Honestly, this whole book is chock full of quality Percabeth moments. There are so many good scenes in TLO tho; I really feel like it was a good conclusion to the series. Beckendorf’s death? Absolutely tragic. Silena’s death? Heartbreaking. Clarisse killing the drakon and dragging its corpse around after? I’m gonna go feral. Percy turning down immortality?? Demanding that the gods take care of their children instead?? This is why he doesn’t suffer from main character syndrome!! We stan!! My standards are unachievably high!!

All in all, PJO is such a good book series. The characters feel real, the conflicts are well-developed, and the payoff is satisfying. It has such a tight plot—there are very few parts that feel pointless or like filler. It has its flaws, but Rick seems genuine about learning and improving his representation and supporting authors who are better qualified to tell their stories. PJO will always be something near and dear to my heart.

#percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #pjo #leo valdez #nico di angelo #hoo #percy jackson headcanon #piper mclean #hazel levesque

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pcvensies · 3 years

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Dating Nico Di Angelo would include...

+18 content labeled. as always, gender neutral reader, and all genders + trans inclusive. enjoy! 💜

it takes him some time to open up at first

i believe you meet when he first appeared, so you got to know little hopeful sweet sunshine nico

even when you’re not in a relationship, when you first meet he’s kinda awkward

it’s not his fault, though, for the longest time, all he had was his sister, human (demi-god, perhaps) interaction is hard

you start to get close because you seem to be the only person to actually take time into asking about his interests

you dont make fun of him for his mythomagic games, you actually put effort into learning and listening to him talk about it

it makes him feel safe

and comfortable

so you let him ramble about it for hours

after bianca’s death, he turns cold and angry

he’s so full of rage, and you don’t blame him

you get his first smile after it happens, when making a reference to the game

he realises you were actually listening the whole time

but then he leaves

you meet again a lot after him and percy find each other again, lets say... after Manhattan?

you and him soon connect again, in his strange, kinda cold way

NOW TO THE RELATIONSHIP

Nico was born in the 30’s, and even if he’s lived a lot in the present day, i like to believe when related to dating he keeps some of the manners of back then

he’s so respectful of you

asks before even holding your hand the first time

your first date is so cute, he takes you stargazing but stares at you the whole time

he’d always lend you his jacket if you were cold

such a chivalrous king

his hands are always cold, so when he hugs you, he wraps his arms around you BUT under your jacket / sweatshirt

he also likes hugging you from behind and putting his hands in your pockets

LOTS of cheek kisses

soft ones when you wake up in the morning next to him

fast ones when he sees you around but you’re both busy

lots of little and fast ones when he’s trying to make you laugh

“nico stop! it tickles!” “no way i’m stopping when you laugh like that”

he smells like burntwood and rain

he loves cuddling but won’t admit it

he’d hold you close, his head laying on your chest as you run your fingers through his hair, or your hands up and down his back

but he’d also be the big spoon, wrapping his arms around your stomach, the tip of his nose caressing your nape

he’s so good at braiding hair (again, as he only had bianca)

so if you have long hair, he braids it when he’s nervous or anxious about something

he’d sit you on his lap and start at it

if you have short hair, he loves caressing it, massaging your scalp

its v relaxing for the both of you

JAWLINE KISSES ARE HIS PERDITION

you’d just give him the littlest one and he’s already purring

“hm...” “yes?” “that’s nice, amore...”

amore, vita mia, bella/bello, cara/caro, estrella mia... you name it. italian petnames all the way

he also uses english ones

he switches between them depending on the mood

but in bed, it’s always italian ones

he can’t focus so they slip

TALKING ABOUT BED ... +18 until it says so!!!!!

i want to say he’s a bottom, but i also think he’s a top ???

so he’d switch depending on yall’s mood

he PURRS and GROANS so much

you’d expect him to be quiet and non vocal but NO!

(won’t say you’re a girl cause not all girls have vaginas, not all people with vaginas are girls, and the same with boys and penises, so)

if you have a vagina, he LOVES when you ride him

he loves being able to look at your face, and to see you in power

if you have a penis, he’d either give or receive depending on what you prefered, cause he really doesn’t care as long as you’re happy

he enjoys both ;)

he doesn’t have much sex experience so if you wanted to try new things in bed he’d be kinda worried that he’d do it wrong

after practice he really proves to be a fast learner

he loves when you give him hickeys

he’s so pale and they are very noticeable

not big ones, tho, just a little mark every now and then

he looks in the mirror the next morning and sees it, and it fills him with pride to know he has you, and you have him

not +18 anymore!

aftercare is so sweet

he’s very gentle, he’d help you clean up and offer to get you dressed again if you wanted to

he’d also brush your hair after it

nico would hug you so tightly to his chest, pressing little kisses to your head and forehead

“i’m so lucky to have you, cara/o... i love you so much”

he’d sing you italian lullabies to sleep, whispering in your ear until you fell asleep

he’d make sure you’re well covered by the blankets and resting nicely before falling asleep himself

i’d say he makes breakfast the morning after but he’s a nocturnal boy so i think you’d wake up before he does

but yeah he’s baby

i love him and miss him sm

#nico di angelo x reader #nico di angelo #nico di angelo one shot #nico di angelo imagine #percy jackson #pjo #percy jackson imagine #percy jackson x reader #leo valdez one shot #leo valdez #thalia grace x reader #annabeth chase x reader #jason grace x reader

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heroes-of-olympus-next-gen · 3 years

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Growing up is all about growing old together with the same love as we started together.

This post is dedicated to the amazing @rue-cimon 🥰🥰🥰

You never know what is going to happen next in your life. Life is a big maze that you don’t know where it will get you. Life is a mystery. A big rollercoaster with its ups and downs. Nico could never imagine that the best moments of his life would be with a certain son of Apollo that used to gets on his nerves when they first met. But life is supposed to be like that. Making the best memories with people you never expected to be anything more than friends.

The rain was pouring on the windows and thunder was echoing in a distance. The air had the distinctive smell the soil had when it was raining. It was around 8 o'clock, and the sun was long gone on the horizon. All the lights in the living room were closed except for the small light by the small table in the corner and the television that was playing a thanksgiving special episode of a show Nico had no idea what it was.

Nico glanced over at his husband who was cradling their infant son in his arms. Bianca was sleeping on his lap, but neither of them was bothered to move. The programme stopped playing an ad of a toy started playing. That was their cue to get out of the couch and get some things done. “I’m going to put Ryder in his crib,” Will whispered.

Nico tried to move without waking Bianca up which was a lost cause. Their two-year-old started fussing as she got uncomfortable and a bit disorientated as she had just woken up. He decided that it would be better if he just took her in his arms while he ordered take out. After Ryder was born, it was the easiest way to eat. Bianca rested her head on his shoulder while he was ordering. Her white blankie covered with gold stars was tugged in her hand. The little blanket was a gift when Bianca was born from Reyna along with her favourite elephant plushie that she couldn’t sleep without.

Will came inside the kitchen and opened the window. “Do you smell that?” He turned to Nico who had just gotten off the phone.

“Smell what?” He asked a bit confused.

“It smells like snow. You really can’t smell it?”

“I bet it’s the rain. It has been raining all day long.” Nico explained as he saw through the open window.

“I know how rain smells. That’s not the way rain normally smells. You’ll see.” He stated. Will really wanted to snow. He never had snowy memories growing as it never snowed in Austin or in Camp as it was protected from weather conditions. But he wanted Bianca and Ryder (especially when he was older) to experience the magic of snow.

“I’m sure about it. Now, it’s bedtime.” He said to Bianca who was trying really hard not to fall asleep. Will kissed the top of her head and Nico put her down for the night. They sat down a couple more hours and ate their take-out before going to sleep as well. Ryder was going to wake them up anyway in a few hours.

Bianca climbed on their bed around 7 am. “Papa, daddy, it’s white outside.” She said joyfully. She basically dragged them out of the bed while frantically pointing at the window.

“See, I told you that it was going to snow,” Will mentioned.

“You were right. It snowed.” Nico smiled.

Ryder woke up that day without crying himself awake, which meant that they could show him the snow while Bianca was playing with the snow. Those were the memories worth waiting for. Nico had never thought that he would have made it that far. That he would find love in many different ways. That he would find happiness in watching his daughter and son growing up and discovering the world. Growing up is all about growing old together with the same love as we started.

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skeletal-kitt · 4 years

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The big three kids and their magic items: hear me out

This turned into a story about that one time Hades enchanted Nicos skull ring with similar powers to the helm of darkness. (TOA cannon, takes place a couple weeks after Apollo left camp for the quest, slight mention of Solangelo).

So Percy has a pen that turns into a sword and had a wrist watch that could turn into a sheild at one point.

Thalia has a mace canister that turns into an electric spear and a bracelet that turn into Aegis the sheild.

It would be pretty cool for Nico to have a magic item like that.

I know he already had a Stygian iron sword but I’m talking about something to help him with his powers. Something kind of like Hades’s helm of darkness that Nico could draw power from instead of having to use his own.

I’m thinking about that skull ring with ruby red eyes that he twists around his finger a lot. He seems to always be wearing it. (I think Bianca gave it to him or maybe Hades I can’t remember wich).

Hades enchants the skull ring as a birthday present for Nico. (He’s trying to be a Good Parent’TM). Except he wants it to be a surprise and it’ll take a few days to enchant it so he takes the ring while Nicos sleeping and he has no idea.

Nico wakes up and immediately feels like something’s not quite right. He’s not sure what it is but somethings off. He goes through his morning routine and gets to breakfast. He talks to Will and tells him how he feels.

That’s when Will says “is it because the skull ring you always wear is missing?” He’d been holding Nicos hand and noticed the ring was gone. Nico is shocked because yes that’s exactly why he feels weird but how?! He never takes the ring off he sleeps with it on!!

So Nico goes back to the Hades cabin and looks all over for it. He tears apart the bed thinking maybe it fell off and got lost in the sheets. He looks in every drawer in his room and bathroom. Rifles through the laundry looking in anything that has pockets.

Nico searches every nook and cranny of the Hades cabin for that ring. After a couple days he gives up on looking for it there. Maybe he left it in Apollo cabin, he spends a lot of time there with Will, Kayla, and Austin. He can’t find it anywhere there either.

At this point he’s asking random people he runs into if they’ve seen the skull ring. Campers start making jokes about it, saying Nico treats the ring like a lost pet. Someone puts up wanted posters with a drawing of the ring and quote “ if you found this ring please return to Nico di Angelo “.

Nico doesn’t even care. Let them make all jokes they want, at least it’s something harmless and kinda funny this time, not like all the jokes they used to make about him being creepy, a scary loner, or an oddball outcast.

Anyway Nico ventures into the underworld to look for the ring in his room in Hades’s palace. He runs into his dad in front of the doors and asks him if he’s seen the ring.

Hades literally has the ring in his hand behind his back, he just got back from Hecates place to finish up the enchantment, but Nicos birthday isn’t until tomorrow and he can’t blow the surprise so he makes the split second descision to reply “no I haven’t seen any rings but I’ll keep an eye out for it, hope you find it”

So Nico continues to his room to look for the ring and Hades sits at a drawing desk writing a note to explain the enchantment of the ring and a small apology for not letting Nico know he was going to take the ring for a few days and wishes his son a happy birthday

Nico can’t find the ring in his room wich means he’ll have to search the whole palace. But he spent most of the day traveling through the labyrinth to get to the passage to the underworld so he’s a little tired.

He texts Will (let’s pretend they have phones) that he’ll be spending a few days in the underworld to search the palace for the ring and to tell Chiron he made it there safely. They say goodnight and Nico goes to sleep.

Hades leaves the note and ring on the nightstand for his son to find when he wakes up.

Nico finds the note written in Ancient Greek and the skull ring and he’s ecstatic to have it back. The note explains the rings powers. It’s basically like Hades’s helm but to a smaller degree.

It can shroud Nico in shadows at his will like he’s practically invisible. The ring has its own power source connected to the underworld so Nico can draw some power from it for shadow-traveling and raising the dead and doesn’t have to use as much of his own power. That’ll come in handy when tired or drained.

It does kinda have a time limit though, if all the rings power is used in a short period of time it has to wait until at least an hour after it gets dark to get its power back. The ring charges it’s power better in darkness by absorbing the shadows.

Hades, Nico, and underworld creatures are the same way, theyre all more powerful in the mortal world at night.

Nico was surprised to read the slight apology from Hades for taking the ring (Hades rarely apologizes for anything, especially not for small misunderstandings like this), and for the happy 15th birthday. Nico had forgotten about his own birthday.

He neatly folded the note and put it in his jacket pocket and put on the ring. It looked as though it had been recently polished. The silver was shinier and the ruby eyes gleamed at him brightly. (Nico later finds out that the ruby eyes glow in the dark now).

He tried looking all over the palace for Hades to say thank you but he had vanished. He was probably busy with running the underworld. Nico sent a text to Will telling him all about the ring and that he’s coming back to camp now.

Later that night at dinner in camp, Nico sacrificed a whole meal of Hades’s favorite foods to him as a thank you.

Nico had his favorite food for dinner. Will, Kayla, and Austin had made him a huge chocolate birthday cake. It was a little lopsided and the icing was uneven. But Nico didn’t care about that. He was happier than he’d been in years for his birthday. Will led a sing-a-long at the campfire and Nico told scary stories afterward.

He slept over in Apollo cabin that night. They stayed up and talked and giggled for hours and built a giant blanket fort and watched Disney movies. Nico felt happier than he’d ever been, surrounded by his best friends, twisting the skull ring on his finger and knowing his father was watching out for him. He dozed off during The Lion King cuddled up with Will and slept peacefully though the night.

(No shut up I totally did not cry writing this, you probably cried reading this you big sap).

Now a little bit about how Nico uses the ring:

When he’s on mini quests he tries not to use it too much because he doesn’t want to be totally dependent on the ring and doesn’t want to use up all its power in one go. He only uses it in emergencies when he’s fighting and getting drained or already used up too much of his own power.

When he’s just chilling at camp and nothing much is happening he casually uses tiny bits of its power to mess with his friends or get out of awkward conversations or for playing hide and seek or sneaking into the Apollo cabin or playing pranks on campers or stealth tactics for capture the flag.

The ring always recharges fully at night, there’s no harm in using tiny bits of it throughout the day. Nico isn’t as tired as he used to be and doesn’t have to take as many naps. And no more passing out right after shadow-traveling.

Well that’s about it. I just wanted to explore the possibilities of Nico having a magic weapon like Percy and Thalia.

#Nico di Angelo #Percy Jackson #Thalia Grace #Hades #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Heroes of Olympus #Trials of Apollo #Nico di Angelo skull ring #Will Solace #Chiron #solangelo #Camp Half-Blood #big three kids #PJO #HOO #TOA

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depressedacadamia · 3 years

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The Anatomy of the Sun

Chapter II: One more Hour

A/N: Here’s chapter 2! I think I will be updating this around every 1-2 weeks because the chapters are really long. Anyway, here it the second chap, I hope you like it and please comment!

Word count: 17K

Warnings: Kissing (more like making out), a tad of angst, r!pe mention (the patient is a victm), some mental illness references if you squint.

Chapter I

Tagging: @showtunesandsolangelo

It’s all about lines.

Jason was feeling good, he could feel it- today was going to be great. He finally managed to correct the cute barista who kept on calling him Jack and he had found the perfect parking space. He was excited- maybe he’d even get into an OR today and take back his 007 status. That was until he was almost hit by a motorcycle. He watched as the rider swerved from side to side until finally, they pulled up, leaning their motorcycle to the side as they pulled off their helmet. He watched as Hazel shook her head back and forth, letting her dark curls bounce about as she stretched her neck. She ran past him, shooting him a respectful nod as she entered the hospital with her motorcycle helmet in her gloved hands.

The finish line at the end of residency.

Roommates. Nico was officially putting up a poster for roommates. He didn’t know why he didn’t just ask Hazel but at the same time, he did. Asking Hazel was a portal into too much family drama than he could handle. Having to attend family dinners with his family was bad enough, he didn’t want to start arguing with Hazel. Besides, he just wanted 2 complete strangers that he didn't have to interact with. He pressed his thumb into the pin, securing the poster.

Waiting in line for a chance at the operating table.

And then, there’s the most important line. The line separating you from the people you work with.

Juniper was waiting to get the lift, her bag swinging in her hands. She had made a bad impression on everyone so far- maybe it was because she was a model. She couldn’t lie, people had lacked respect when talking to her in particular and she had a feeling that it had something to do with her ex- career. Finally, the lift pinged and its doors opened, only for it to be full of people. She could tell they were all staring at her, not because she looked spectacularly bad that day (she had not slept properly in a month) but because they clearly all knew of her previous occupation. Juniper mumbled something about taking the stairs and decided to keep her head up high.

At least she wasn't under tons of crushing debt.

Hour 1

Nico slipped off his boots, trading them for some worn out trainers that were much more safe. The boots were old but he hadn’t worn them often due to their uncomfortable nature but for once, he had decided to wear them. Did he know why he chose them? No, he had just decided to slip them on.

“I would ask how last night went, but I think I know and I really don’t want to hear details,” Hazel said as she walked past Nico to gain access to her locker, referring to the bruise at the base of his collarbone.

“You’re just jealous that you haven’t scored an attending yet. I’ll bet you I’m in trauma today,” Nico bragged as he pushed his boots into the already overcrowded locker. Hazel rolled her eyes at her brother's typical behaviour.

“You know that he might think you guys are dating?” Hazel added, slipping on her white coat. Nico snorted as he pulled on his scrub shirt over his long sleeved t-shirt.

“I’ve made it very clear to him that we are not dating,” Nico scoffed, “ Now all I have to do is wait for the chase.”

“The chase?”

“The chase, you know? The whole trying to pursue this person you like. It gets to a point where I will have all the power and he will do anything I want,” Nico explained. Hazel raised an eyebrow at his boastful tactics but decided to make no further comment. She did however want to make a comment about the roommates poster he had put up.

“What's up with the roommates poster by the way? Since when did you want people living with you?” Hazel asked, slamming her locker shut, just as Nico closed his. Her hair was frantic, similar to her brothers who's olive skin was particularly glowly today- she did not want to know what from.

“The place seems empty and I need other people paying rent to afford it,” Nico complained. Now it was Hazel’s turn to snort. It wasn’t quite as big a knowledge that the Di Angelo’s were also extremely wealthy than it was knowledge to know of their surgical legacy- Well Bianca’s surgical legacy. Hazel, who was not in the mood to have a confrontation with her brother, simply nodded and left.

“Please! I’d be the perfect candidate! I’m super quiet and I won’t make a mess!” The intern opposite Nico begged as she told him all the things which supposedly made her a good roommate. Nico disagreed. There many reasons that he did not want her living with him but it came down to one which was she was much too young.

“No,” he concluded unsympathetically. He was about to get up and leave when he heard another plead from the intern.

“But why?”

“Where were you when the challenger exploded?” He turned around, slightly annoyed but nonetheless, still intimidating as usual.

“What?”

“The space shuttle, Challenger- where were you when it exploded?” he challenged.

“Uh, I think I was in kindergarten,” she looked up, trying to remember.

Nico huffed out, “Exactly.”

“Percy! We’re going to be late! We aren't going to be late, we’re already late!” Annabeth shouted as she stood by the door in her scrubs, her bag in hand. Percy, with his bed hair, rushed out of the kitchen in his scrubs, grabbing his jacket from the sofa before heading towards Annabeth and placing a soft kiss on her cheek in hopes of lightening up her mood.

“Come on Wise girl, we gotta go,” he grinned cheekily as he grabbed her by the hand opening the door of their house. Annabeth, unable to stay mad for so long, sighed before giving in and heading to the car.

“We are never having morning sex again if it means we’re going to be late,” Annabeth warned. Percy, feigning mock offence, held a hand to his heart and gasped.

“Your words wound me!”

Annabeth slapped his shoulder as she started the car towards the hospital. Percy stopped mucking about and placed another chaste kiss on her cheek to make sure all was well.

Juniper and Jason were both complaining. Nico didn’t think he could handle one of them complaining, let alone trying to deal with both of them- that was a challenge. They were all leaning by the stairs right next to the nurses station which were next to the elevators.

“But Nicoo, why would you put up a poster for roommates if you don’t want roommates? I swear, I’m a great chef and I clean obsessively!” Juniper argued, slumping her arm slightly on Jason.

“I do want roommates but we’re working together 100 hours a week, you want to live together too?” he shot back. He held 4 mocha latte’s in one of those 4 cup holders you get at a coffee shop. Without asking, Juniper snatched two, shocking Nico.

“That’s for not letting us be your roommates,” Juniper pouted as she handed one to Jason who nervously accepted. Jason leaned forward, trying to convince Nico,

“Please, I have to live with my sister and she blasts her music so much. I’m pretty sure my eardrums have popped,”Jason begged. Hazel, in this exact moment, joined them, giving Jason a sympathetic look before noticing the coffee in Nico’s hand. She casually took one from Nico, not caring about his reaction- she had taken his food before on several occasions (although the Happy meal incident did not go over well).

“Why aren’t you taking one?” Hazel nodded her head towards the last coffee in his grasp as she sipped hers- she frowned. Nico never ordered mocha latte. She had expected to be tasting coffee with way too much creamer or a hot chocolate but instead it was the distinctly strong taste of coffee.

“It’s not mine,” Nico hummed as his eyes searched towards the elevator, waiting for it to open. Hazel knew that Dr Solace was already here so what was Nico so invested for? It can’t have been Percy but perhaps the resident who would come with him

“Oh, you’re bringing bribes now?” Hazel pointed towards the coffee, thinking of Dr Chase.

“It’s not a bribe,” Nico defended, looking away sharply as he listened to Jason and Juniper continue to slander his name due to his lack of compassion with them living with him.

“Look, I just want to live with two total strangers that I won’t have to talk to or be nice to!” he confessed, throwing his free hand about in exaggeration. Unexpectedly, Dr Chase made her way down the main stairs (which surprised everyone as they expected her to be downstairs not upstairs). She quickly assigned them all tasks.

“Jason, you’re running the code team* today. Nico, take the trauma pager. Hazel, deliver the weekend labs to the patients and Juni- you’re on sutures,” She announced before heading back up the stairs, only to be stopped by Nico.

“Dr Chase, I was hoping I would be able to assist in the OR today, maybe even perform a minor procedure. I think I’m ready.” He thrusted the mocha latte into her direction, “ Mocha Latte?”

Dr Chase accepted the drink slowly before taking a small sip. It slightly burnt the tip of her tongue but she appreciated the gesture- however, unfortunately for Di Angelo, this did not mean that Dr Chase had accepted his request for surgery.

“Wait, if he gets to cut, then I wanna cut too!” Hazel insisted.

“So do I!” Juniper squished in between the interns. Jason, off to the side mumbled something about how it would be nice to get a second shot. However, this simply irked Dr Chase even more. She held her hand up signalling silence- at least the interns got this sign right.

“Stop talking,” she started, “Every intern wants to perform their first surgery. That’s not your job. Do you know what your job is? To make your resident happy. Do I look happy? No. Why? Because my interns are whiny. You know what will make me look happy? Having the code team staffed, Having the trauma pages answered, having the weekend labs delivered and having someone down in the Pit doing sutures. No one holds a scalpel until I’m so happy, I’m Mary freakin Poppins!”

The interns, as clueless as ever, all stood staring at her with hopeful eyes as if they were baby birds expecting Annabeth to just feed them. She climbed a few steps before turning around and calling out,

“Why are y'all standing there, move!”

Quickly, all the interns scattered to their assigned jobs.

Hour 2

Will was waiting for an elevator as he noticed a short mop of black messy hair pick up a few files off the floor and clumsily place them on top of the overwhelming pile they already had in their small arms. Nico going to an elevator. Trying to not turn around and offer his help, Will kept to himself, smiling slightly at the small grunts the doctor beside him made. Nico finally managed to take a few more steps into Dr Solace’s eyeline, so he was standing next to him instead of behind. He tapped his foot as he decided to further his plan along.

“New york has ferry boats. There are also ferry boats where I come from. I didn’t know there were ferry boats here,” Nico mused. Will, slightly amused by Nico’s lack of geographical knowledge, retorted.

“New York is surrounded by water.”

“Hence the Ferry boats,” Nico concluded before admitting, “Now I have to like it here ya know. I wasn’t planning on liking it. I’m from Italy- genetically engineered to dislike everywhere- except Paris.”

“I have a thing for Ferry Boats,” Will decided to add, smirking slightly as they entered the empty elevator. Nico being the stubborn person he was, attempted to press one of the buttons with his elbow and Will had to practically force the floor level out of Nico. It involved a lot of bickering back and forth until they finally agreed and the elevator doors closed.

Out of nowhere, Nico quickly said, “I’m not going out with you.”

Will, already wounded that his attemp- could he even say attempts? Nico had cut him off before he had even gotten a chance to say anything but he was determined to get to Nico.

“Did I ask you to go out with me?” He turned around, smiling slightly so he only showed some of his sparkling teeth, “Will you go out with me?”

“I ain’t dating you and we aren’t sleeping together again. You’re my boss,” Nico decided to cut to the chase.

“I’m your boss's boss.”

“You're my teacher, and my teacher’s teacher,” Nico pretended to resist only resulting in Will mocking him.

“I’m your sister, I'm your daughter.”

“You’re sexually harassing me.”

“I'm riding an elevator,” Will protested. Nico glanced at the back of Will’s head and thought

His hair looked particularly neat today- it would be such a shame if it got messed up.

“I’m drawing a line. The line is drawn. There’s a big line. Don’t cross the line,” Nico breathed heavily, as if he was holding his breath. Will, still hellbent on teasing the cute intern, turned around, with his arms crossed and his hair as perfect as ever.

“So this line, is it imaginary or do I have to get you a marker?” he smirked, his voice low and teasing- Nico could tell. His crystal blue eyes were going all hazy and his baby pink lips were slightly tilted to the side as if they were just mocking Nicp by being there. They looked soft, no they were soft- Nico knew that from experience. He could see a small mole on the side of his neck as well as a purplish bruise that he may or may have not left there.

Overcome by his lack of impulse control, Nico flung himself onto Will, dropping all the files in his arms and mashed his lips on his- a gesture that was returned just as harshly by Will. The files flew across the elevator floor as Nico’s hands came up to desperately weave themselves into Will’s hair. They fought for dominance in the kiss slamming each other into the elevator- it was hot, needy and totally inappropriate. But it seemed that neither of them cared. Their lips just couldn’t get enough of each other. It was like a fire was getting ignited, a fire that couldn’t be put out. It was in both of them, absolutely raging, uncontrollable. Will was tempted to tell Nico, mind the hair but just then Nico slightly bit at Will's bottom lip, pulling it backwards gently and sucked ever so slightly, before returning to the kiss that had Will plastered against the elevator wall.

So you want to play dirty Di Angelo?

Nico was not going to give Will the chance though. Absolutely consumed by the kiss, he slightly pulled at Will’s hair evicting a small, but low, growl out of Will’s throat. Nico wasn’t sure if he heard that correctly but just as he was about to test it again, he heard the ping of the elevator. The fire within was smaller but it hadn’t died. Nico quickly pulled away and started scrambling towards the floor, trying to grab at the files as the elevator door slowly pulled itself open. Will, still a tad shocked, also helped, trying to organise the files into the right cases before handing them over to Nico. They stepped out of the elevator in sync, just like their pagers. Since Nico was also in trauma, he figured that whatever Dr Solace was getting paged for, he was also meant to be helping.

“I’ll join after I finish with these files,” Nico called out, as Dr Solace nodded and hurried off. Nico smiled to himself as he noticed that Dr Solace’s hair was sticking up in several different directions.

As Nico made his way into the Pit, he noticed a large crowd of doctors all looking slightly concerned- he hoped it was not for his patient- the more gruesome the injury, the more surgery required. However, the second he was told that it was a rape victim, he understood the facial expresions- they were disgusted at the crime, not the injuries attained.

“Dr Solace has gone to prep for surgery along with Dr Jackson,” a nurse informed him as he entered the room.

“Okay, we’ve got a 25 year old female, found down at the park, status post- trauma. She came in with a GCS* of 6. BP* is 80 over 60. Exam is significant for blunt head trauma, as well as unequal breath sounds, her right pupil is dilated and she’s ready for X-ray,” the nurse recited as Nico entered the room. He scanned his eyes across the room before his eyes landed on something familiar.

Were those his boots?

No, they were obviously not Nico’s boots, but they were the same boots. He wanted to shudder, knowing a potential rape victim was wearing the same shoes as him the day she got attacked. It was weird right? It felt weird, it was like there was some weird unknown connection and that in a way, these 2 people were very much connected- as if they were the same people who were living parallel versions of each other's lives. During Nico’s quick zone- out session, a nurse continued to try to call his attention- something he only noticed when they snapped Dr Di Angelo!

He quickly nodded as he grabbed his flashlight from his pocket and pulled her eyelids open, looking for a reaction from her pupils.

“Call ahead to clear a CT, let them know I’m coming,” Nico commanded, “Load up the portable monitor and call respiratory for a ventilator*. I will get X-rays while I’m down there.”

As he helped wheel the patient out of the trauma room, he glanced back at the boots identical to his. There was a blood splatter at the front of it, the laces where messily undone and the heel was the same height. He wasn't acting paranoid right? He couldn’t help but think that this was a weird coincidence.

Nico was slightly surprised to see Dr Zhang scrubbed in on the surgery with them rather than Dr Mclean- after all he was the head of Cardio and she was the head of General surgery- but even then, why any other attendings other than Percy and Dr Solace were required, Nico truly did not know.

“What is she? 5’2, 180 pounds? And she took a beating like this,” Will mumbled.

“They should castrate the guy,” Percy announced from the other side of the table, trying to stop the swelling of her brain

“Look how shredded her hands are, she tried to fight back,” Will pointed out.

“Tried to? The rape test came back negative, she kicked his ass!” Percy told them. Nico was invested to see how Dr Solace was repairing her hands while the 2 attendings talked about the bravery of the patient.

“So we have a warrior among us, huh?” Dr Zhang joined in. Nico couldn’t help but feel a tinge of annoyance. She had a name. She was a person. He didn’t know why he felt so strongly about a patient all of a sudden but he had a faint feeling that it had something to do with those boots.

“Allison… that's her name…. Allison,” Nico cut in the conversation. All the attendings stopped to look at him. Percy, being as supportive as ever, smiled and nodded before returning to fixing her skull. Will looked at Nico, his eyes calm, like the ocean at rest. To an extent, it reminded Nico of Percy’s eyes- something that could always calm Nico down. He watched as Will’s lips slowly parted as he murmured Allison's name under his breath. Dr Zhang took a pair of clamps from the nurse before slowly pulling his arm back.

“I think I’ve found the cause of our rupture….more suction.” As he drew his arm back, the surgical interns and residents crowded by his arm to have a look at the cause of the rupture. However, once the foreign object was removed, the surgeons became more and more confused- what exactly was this, a tumor? A mass?

“What is this?” Dr Zhang turned towards the doctors. They all scooted closer to get a closer look. Nico took a glance for a couple of seconds before opening his eyes wide in horror as he realised what exactly he was looking at. He was in a state of horror and curiosity.

“Oh my god… she bit it off,” Nico started hesitantly. Dr Zhang, Dr Solace and Dr Jackson all looked to him, stopping their individual procedures, waiting for Nico to continue speaking.

“Well, come on- spit it out!” Percy told Nico. Utterly conflicted, Nico decided to just spit it out- just as Percy had told him to.

“That's a..that's a…. um that’s a penis.”

Almost on instinct, Dr Zhang called for a kidney bowl and practically flung the castrated appendage away from himself. Will couldn’t tell if he should laugh or be alarmed at how Nico was the only person able to identify the penis.

Hour 5

The water ran over the surgeons hands as they scrubbed between all the crevices in their hands with soap. In between fingers, around thumbs and nail brushes scrubbed at fingertips. Dr Zhang and Dr Solace both stood side by side as they washed their hands practically in sync- just like their miraculous surgical skills.

“I can’t believe she made it through that surgery,” Will began as he switched off the tap by nudging it slightly with his elbow.

“She has a long road to recovery. Fighting off infection, physiotherapy and not to mention therapy itself,” Frank, in his honest nature, responded. He copied Will, turning off the running water with his elbow as he reached for some paper towels to dry off his hands.

“And she needs to wake up in the next 72 hours if she wants a chance at fighting. She’s a fighter, I believe she can make it.”

“Speaking of making it to places, we should get a drink later and you can tell me the long story of what makes a hot shot doctor leave a big apple for New York,” Frank offered as he threw his paper towel into the bin.

Will shrugged slightly, “It’s a short story really- your Chief of surgery made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“Chiron asked you to come?” Frank asked, genuinely shocked.

“Yeah, why?” Will turned around looking at Dr Zhang. He watched as Frank’s expressions twisted before he shook his head, gave a small smile and mumbled never mind.

“Do you know what the Code Team does? They save lives- yeah, I know. I shock a heart and another patient gets to live to see another day, pretty cool huh?” Jason slightly bragged, trying to make conversation with Hazel - who he knew was overly competitive. He was leaning over the shoulder of Hazel who leaned over the desk at the nurses station, organizing the patient files and lab results.

“Bambi, don’t say another word until after the hunter shoots your mother,” Hazel’s voice drawled with boredom. Jason practically speechless only managed out a meek,

“I don’t like you.”

Hazel sharply turned around, “You know, I have a BA* from Smith, a PHD* from Berkeley and an MD* from Stanford and I'm delivering lab results. It's gonna take me ages to get through these-”

“-Well then you better get a move on with it,” Dr Chase walked past, surprising the doctor. Hazel slightly intimidated, tried to protest that she wasn’t complaining but it seemed that Dr Chase didn’t really care. A doctor behind her with thick curly hair and a smug expression stood, trying to keep his expression neutral.

“This is Dr Underwood. Lucky Valdez got to get rid of him so now he’s got Mccaffrey and I’ve got Underwood on my service. Levesque, have him shadow you and show him how we run things on my service,” Dr chase commanded before walking off, slightly sashaying.

“Hey, I’m Grover Underwood, nice to meet you.” He held his hand out to Hazel who looked at it and recoiled slightly before looking at it in disgust. Jason was still trying to figure out if he liked this guy, he seemed quite polite so far but he truly wondered what Underwood did to get kicked off Valdez’s service- he had heard that Valdez was a pretty chill resident, getting kicked off his service would seem pretty hard.

“You’re the pig who called Nico a nurse.. Yeah, I hate you on principal,” Hazel admitted looking him up and down.

He did what? Jason thought as he eavesdropped on the conversation beside him.

“And you’re the pushy, overbearing kiss ass… I hate you too,” Grover grunted.

Okay, I defo don’t like this guy, Jason decided.

“Should be fun then,” Hazel sarcastically smiled as they both set off just as Jason's pager beeped signalling another Code Blue.

Jason ran around the corner, nurses following him as he found the patient's room. Immediately, he introduced himself. He had become more and more familiar with this procedure and while it had taught him that Hades was enjoying his job a bit too much, he was also hopeful for the patient in every room he had to run to.

“I’m Dr Grace and I’ll be running this code. What do we have?”

“57 year old male with an asystole pulse*,” A nurse from beside the bed answered. Jason ordered the defibrillators to be used as he had another person put on compressions, another on the ambu bag and someone administering drugs.

“Charging to 200, clear!”

The Pit was quite full as Dr June walked in, searching for her next patient. She picked up a chart from the nurses station that was positioned next to the emergency entrance and flipped the page to see the name. Mrs Lu, Bed 3

“Hi Mrs Lu, I'm Doctor June. I'm gonna sew up your wound, you’re going to need around 6 stitches.” Juniper turned around to start setting up the equipment from the tray only to hear a frantic cry of words coming from behind her. She only recognised the chinese word for hurt but even then, she could not decipher what Mrs Lu was saying. She sighed, wondering how long it would be until she could get a hold of a translator. She was tempted to ask Dr Zhang but she knew it was selfish and plain old rude of her to assume that Dr Zhang would be able to help her. She decided to wait for a translator.

Nico and the penis in a box. Yes, you read that correctly. Nico was holding the penis in a box or how he would like to put it, the forgein object in a cooler. They were making their way towards the office of the Chief Of Surgery. He slightly remembered the walk up to the room, the carpet and walls seeming familiar, like a second home. As he walked into the office, he was surprised to find Secretary Hedge there instead of Chief Chiron. He rapped his knuckles on the door gently, grasping the attention of the man sitting in the chair.

“Hey, I was told to leave this with the Chief.” He raised his arm with the cooler in his hand.

“Is that it?” A seriously over eager Secretary Hedge asked. Nico slowly nodded, trying to not fuel the secretaires curiosity. In a complete turn of events, Hedge asked,

“Can I see it?” Hedge watched as Nico struggled to keep his facial muscles under control- laugh or cringe, Nico did not know. Just as Hedge muttered a small, forget I asked, Chiron walked in with his white jacket and a large smile on recognising Nico.

“Nico! It’s good to see you!”

At this, Nico smiled. He had known Chiron for very long but the mass majority of the time that he had seen him, the attention was entirely focused on the potential for his sister- not much for him. He felt a bit guilty that he was enjoying the shine of her mentor while she was struggling but he finally felt noticed.

“How’s Bianca? I heard she was leaving the Mayo Clinic. Is she going back to the UN?” Chrion asked almost immediately. Nico could feel all the happiness and life in him slowly drain.So nothing had actually changed. He was still in his sister's shadow despite the fact that she wasn’t even here. Gods, she wasn’t even in this time period! Bianca was in a nursing home thinking she was reliving her surgery days and here was Nico somehow still under her shadow. If Bianca’s mentor wasn’t willing to see Nico’s potential as a surgeon- how many other Doctors thought that he was only here due to his Di Angelo status? Percy? Dr Chase? Did Doctor Solace think that?

Why does it concern me the most if Dr Solace doesn’t see past my status?

Nico decided that it must be because Dr solace was the head of his favourite department- Trauma.

“Uh, no. She’s taking time off-”

“-To write another book I suppose?” Chiron cut in, smiling as he picked up some papers off his desk and moved them underneath a folder. Nico simply attempted a smile in return, a gesture that did not alarm Chiron- he had known Nico Pre-Bianca and her alzehmiers. That Nico had been a very smiley person. Nico, who could have sworn his facial muscles were deteriorating as he smiled, decided to move the conversation to the matter at hand- the penis in a bo-

- The foreign object in a cooler .

“Well, I’ve got it,” Nico said half heartedly, lifting the cooler in his hand up slightly. Chiron turned to his secretary, conversing a few words with him, as if Nico had never entered the room.

“Uh, Hedge, how long did the cops say they’d be?”

“You know how slow they always are so he better take it with him-”

“-Take it with me? You want me to take a penis around the hospital with me?” Nico cut off Hedge, with growing anxiety- he did not want to have to babysit a penis. Gosh, being on Solace’s service was meant to result in fun, not this!

“It's the chain of custody rules. All medical matter in a rape must stay with the person who collected it until its placed into police custody,” Chiron ,who was secretlty relived to not have to keep the penis, recited.

“So I have custody over a penis,” Nico deadpanned. Sheepishly, the secretary nodded trying to not laugh at the poor kids' situation.

“Until the cops come from it, of course,” Chiron reminded Nico, as if knowing that the police would take their sweet time was any more re- assuring.

“And what am I meant to do with a penis?” Nico frantically asked, his cool persona falling and being slowly replaced by one of panic and desperation. Chiron and Hedge simply gave obscure looks at Nico’s question before looking back down at the papers in their hands.

Hour 10

Hazel sighed. She had been sighing all day. Every patient either had a benign tumour* or a condition of no interest to her. When was someone going to be seriously ill? They were surgeons for god's sake, not lab running rats! Both Hazel and Grover made their way to the next patients room, seriously disappointed. On entering the room, they both saw the family crowded round the patients bed, holding their hands together like there was a prayer commencing.

“You have a disorder called multinucleate cell angiohistiocytoma. It's not a cancer or a sarcoma, it's very rare but minor. You will be discharged today,” Hazel, slightly bored, attempted a smile. The family, still taking in the good news, were catatonic for around 5 seconds before all hell broke loose. There was crying, cheering, claps and laughs. Grover and Hazel both looked at each other with the same expression- Get me out of here .

“Wait wait, does this mean I don’t need surgery?” The patient ,still propped up by his elbows in his bed, inquired. Hazel simply nodded before getting pulled into a bear hug, against her will may I add, and practically almost suffocated to death. Her eyes widened as she stared into Grovers soul trying to get him to help her. Unfortunately for Hazel, Underwood was much more invested in watching her uncomfortable encounters.

Jason was sitting in a chair, letting it spin it around and round. The nurses station was quite empty with only the occasional nurse in and out. He stopped his spinning to bury his head in a very interesting chart that consisted of a case to do with a-

- Clink!

Nico set down the cooler on the desk with a loud sound that jolted Jasons’s head out of his head before letting his eyes land on the cooler. Jason, curious and wanting to engage in conversation with Nico began questioning the contents of the cooler. Nico who really did not want to tell Jason attempted to warn him

“Ooh, what’s in the cooler?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“No.” Jason got up from his seat and came to stand next to Nico, “ No, I do wanna know.”

Nico, who really wasn’t about to greatly resist, decided to tell Jason. Afterall, if it ruined Jason’s day as well, it would mean he wouldn't be the only miserable person moping about in the hospital.

“It’s a severed penis.” Nico shrugged quite nonchalantly as he gained amusement from the horrified expression slowly growing on Jason’s face. He watched as Jason's expressions contorted between fascination and disgust, trying to figure out which emotion to settle on. He wanted to prove Nico wrong but at the same time didn’t want Nico to not like him.

“I don’t think I wanted to know that.” Jason looked back down at his book, with a meek expression and his head slightly bowed as if he was praying. As Jason entered a world of truly unnecessary overthinking, Grover and Hazel came in arguing, what about, Jason did not know and in all honesty, after what Nico had told him- he did not want to know. Deciding he wanted to shift his discomfort to someone else, he looked to Hazel.

“Do you know Di Angelo is babysitting a penis in a jar?” he pointed towards the cooler sitting on the table top. Hazel, with piqued curiosity, quickly made her way over towards the cooler and opened the lid, taking a quick peek at the bitten off contents before shutting it.

“It’s a cooler, not a jar,” Nico whined slightly, not really directing his comment towards anyone.

“Talk about taking a bite out of crime,” Hazel commented as she picked something out of Nico’s hair. Nico didn’t really know whether to thank her or to resist the gesture. It felt weird- right? It was weird that Hazel was filling Bianca’s void. It was weird that Nico first thought about Hazel when people talked about his sister. It was weird that Nico was completely okay with this. He felt it was simply not right but at the same time, he didn’t want it to stop. Was he being unfaithful to Bianca? Was he betraying her? Or would she want him to move on from her, grow closer with his family who were actually lucid.

Jason watched Nico’s facial expressions with intensity- such intensity that had Nico not been stuck in a hole of problems, he a hundred percent would have noticed and even been creeped out by Jason’s intense stare. Despite only knowing Nico for around a month, he cared deeply about him. He wanted to know what was so concerning to him so much that he froze up and his eyes went all glazed like he was on autopilot. Nico was a closed off person who wore all black and covered up his secrets with wicked smiles and sarcastic quips but Jason could see the vulnerable child within Nico. He felt responsible for him and everything that happened to him.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jason asked tenderly, making Nico lift his head- effectively stopping him from daydreaming. For a second, when Nico lifted his head, Jason saw a glitter in Nico’s eyes that reminded him of innocence. Youth, life and calamity- instead of the empty, cold and lifeless onyx eyes that could give even Lucifer nightmares.

“The rape victim I had today, Allison, she had the same shoes as me. And ever since… It just doesn’t sit well with me, ya know? I never wear those boots normally because they’re so uncomfortable And it’s… stupid and I’m tired so nevermind, just leave it.” Nico batted his hand, dismissing the subject. Jason raised his eyebrows at the abrash statement and gesture before attempting Nico’s wicked smile.

“Do you know what you need?” Jason wiggled his eyebrows, letting the secret into the open like a breath of air. Immediately, Nico caught onto what Jason was talking about. He was offended and shocked that Jason had been doing it without him- This was their thing and Jason was doing it behind his back without him? The betrayal was heartbreaking. What next? Solace sleeping with someone else?

“No! It’s sick and twisted and we said last time was the last time,” Nico firmly said. He watched as Jason’s face contorted between guilt and excitement.

“You’ve been doing it without me?” Nico released. Jason shuffled his feet together nefor mumbling a ‘maybe’.

“Do you know what would happen if anyone knew?” Nico huffed out but Jason had made up his mind.

“I’m doing it- you can come with me or you can sit here and be miserable,” Jason confirmed as he dragged Nico by the white collar, which was considerably easy when you realised that Nico was an entire head shorter that Jason- and some would argue even more.

Nico and Jason had their faces pressed up onto the glass staring at the cute babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or as the doctors would simply call it- the NICU. Nico couldn't help the overwhelming smile that made his way onto his face as he stared at the cute babies as they attempted to talk, throwing their limbs about cluelessly. He listened to Jason who urged them with non-existent words and funky sounds that was considered the universal baby language. Nico looked at Jason- his platinum blonde hair and faintly light blue eyes reminded him to an extent of Will but at the same time- there was a clear difference. Will had faint freckles that decorated his face like a cake being decorated by icing sugar- whereas Jason had a pale complexion. Will’s hair was more of a golden blond and reminded of Nico of sunrise on a summer morning- hot, warm and some may even say beautiful and then there was his eyes-

- Why was he reciting this like he memorised it in the shower for fun?

Nico decided to put Wil- no, Solace out of his mind. He listened to the absolutely adorable sounds that Jason was making- he reminded him of Bianca when she used to babysit Estelle- Percy’s younger sister. Estelle was absolutely adorable and Nico considered her to be his younger sister as well, considering the amount of time she spent with the Di Angelo’s- especially during Percy’s med school and residency years when he was meant to be babysitting Estelle and had instead handed her to Nico and Bianca.

“You are such a softie,” Nico said, giggling slightly at Jason who was still cooing at the babies. For a couple of moments afterwards, Jason froze. Was Nico complimenting him? Or was it an insult? What on earth did the word ‘softie’ mean here? Did Nico like sofites? Or was ‘Softie’ Nico’s equivalent of ‘ absolute loser’? However, before Jason was able to come to any sort of conclusion, his pager beeped, signalling another Code Blue that he had to respond to.

“Ah shit, I’ve got a code to run, I’ll catch you later.” Jason waved before breaking into a jog and leaving. After Nico said his goodbyes to Jason he continued watching the babies for some more time. He was fascinated- how did humanity get from there to here. The babies were pure and new and hadn’t been exposed to the harsh realities of the world- how will they turn to what Nico has become? How did they get from Point A to point B? As Nico pondered over these philosophical thoughts, he carried watching the babies but something caught his eye. He could have sworn that baby he just saw went blue momentarily. It was crying and thrashing about but maybe Nico was only seeing things. He was tired, sleep deprived and if he had to be honest- this wouldn't have been the first time Nico saw things that weren’t actually there.

He watched it again, more intensely. With an analytical fine tooth comb. There- the baby turned blue again! So he wasn’t hallucinating! He rushed into the room, quickly taking out the chart of the baby and scanning his eyes over the info. He was aware that if he was caught, the consequences would not be great. That was probably the understatement of the year. After finishing with the chart, he set it down and took his stethoscope and started listening to the heart of the baby- something there wasn’t right, Nico could feel it. Nico did not often have such strong feelings but he had learnt that when they occurred, they were never wrong.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing here?” a doctor with pink scrubs walked in.

“There were no tests ordered and the baby has a heart murmur-” Nico began, taking the stethoscope out of his ears.

“-I know and you’re surgery, you are not authorised to be here. Do you know what could happen if you were caught?” The intern pressed on but Nico refused to step down here.

“Are you going to do any tests to confirm?” Nico asked, his tone clearly one of concern.

“It’s a benign systolic ejection murmur*. It will go away with age.”

“So you aren’t doing any tests.” Nico realised that he couldn’t win this in any way- well for now. He started to make his way towards the door before the intern decided to slam another attempt at a guilt tripping insult at him but in reality just made Nico doubt their abilities. He seriously felt bad for the Valdez resident if these were the meatheads he had to teach.

Hour 15

Frank felt betrayed. He had to say, he was never truly familiar with such a feeling. He had experienced the odd chance of it but in reality Frank was used to succeeding- in fact he had dedicated all his life to it. Many people saw him as soft, simple and easy to beat opponent but in reality that was one of his greatest strengths- people underestimated him until they met him. To an extent this had made Frank slightly arrogant- but he wouldn’t say it wasn’t necessary. The truth is, every surgeon has to be arrogant to believe that they can cut open another human and somehow fix them as if they were a god like deity but right now, Frank wasn’t thinking that he was arrogant, no. He was thinking that Chiron was being arrogant- believing that he was all so big and mighty and could just throw Frank about with his lies and schemes.

“Oh Chiron! So you asked Solace to come here?” Frank confronted, his hands resting on his hips.

“Yeah, Solace was an old student of mine...” Chiron trailed off, unaware of the purpose of the conversation.

“Oh so he left a private practise in Austin, Texas just because you asked?”

“Yes.”

“No other reason? Just a favour for an old professor,” Frank said with a hint of sarcasm lingering behind the words.

“It will be years before I retire,” Chiron began to reassure, understanding the nature of the conversation of the root of Frank's passive aggressive attitude.

“ Chief of surgery is mine, you told me so,” Frank reminded him.

“It was yours, now I'm not so sure.”

“I am the best surgeon here! I have the lowest mortality rate, you can’t just bring someone-”

“-Ask me why. Ask me why I'm not so sure of you," Chiron repeated, trying to get Frank to understand his motives. Chiron liked Frank, they had done a lot for each other. In fact, it had been Chrion who had helped Frank get over his low self- esteem, something that had bothered Frank for almost his entire life.

Frank, feeling defeated, almost stormed off. He knew he shouldn’t feel guilty but he couldn’t help letting a bit of it creep in as he remembered how somehow, he led Chiron, his mentor, to believe that his low self-esteem no longer existed. Maybe it was Chiron’s great desire to no longer see Frank suffer that made him see past it but Frank knew better. He wasn’t mad because the job may not be his, no- he had only wanted the job due to the benefits that came with it. Frank was mad because Chirom bringing in another ex-mentee of his simply brought his low self-esteem back all over again.

It was like med- school except this time, there were actual lives at stake. Did Chiron truly feel that he wasn’t good enough- that Solace would be a better Chief of Surgery better than Frank? He didn’t want to admit it, but Frank knew that he had become somewhat arrogant in an attempt to lie to himself and hide the lack of self esteem. The arrogance had only started when he was in residency but over the years, as he saved more lives, it accumulated. Yet, somehow, Frank still did not think it was good enough. Clearly Solace was. Why else would Chiron bring another threat to Frank’s anxiety if Chiron didn’t believe Frank's anxiety had gone? Surely Chiron wouldn’t do this knowing how badly it would hurt Frank.

Would he?

Hazel was bored. She knew it, Grover knew it and so did every nurse in a 1 metre radius of the stretcher that she sat in with the charts of her patients in a stack in front of her. This was New York Presbytarian! They were meant to have the best surgical residency in the country and here she was delivering lab results to over joyous patients- none of which had any sort of interesting condition. You’d think that someone in a hospital would be close to dying but no, it seemed that all of her patients were in ‘tip top’ condition.

“People need to get sick because I refuse to spend my residency doing this,” Hazel complained as she flipped the pages of the chart.

“Exactly. How can we be in the OR if people are just gonna live?” Grover agreed. They continued complaining, depressed about their current state. Hazel wanted to get this done and over with. The quicker she finished the job, the quicker she could get into a surgery. She took the 20 case files and separated them into 2 piles, each with 10 files.

“Here.” She handed one pile to Grover as she got up, “ You take 10, I take 10. We go in, we go out- no hugging, no laughing, no crying. Don’t be slow,” she instructed.

“Slow? If anything you’re the slow one,” Grover retorted as they made their way to the hallway.

“You wanna bet?” Hazel challenged, stopping a second to look at Grover. He mumbled a ‘You’re on’ before they both ran off, trying to finish first.

“You literally aren't letting anyone live with you!” The psychology resident complained. Nico turned on them.

“Favorite 80’s band?”

“That has nothing to do with this!”

“I’m still waiting.” he tapped his foot impatiently.

“I don’t know, the Bangles?” They shrugged cluelessly while Nico scoffed.

“Yeah, absolutely not.” Nico began walking away- he had to babysit a penis after all.

“Is there even a right answer?”

“AC/DC, The rolling stones, Guns N’ Roses,” Nico called out, not looking back, as he walked away.

“You will be free to leav- OOF!” Grover was cut off by an enormous bear hug from almost the entire family. He wanted to push them all away from him- after all, 3 families had hugged him so far and he had only visited 4 of the 10 patients he had. If he continued at this rate, Hazel was for sure to win.

“You have a cyst on your lymph node- but tests have confirmed that it was not cancerous which means you probably have some sort of infection- we will put you on broad range antibiotics before discharge tomorrow,” Hazel recited as she dodged a hug aiming for her resulting in 2 family members in an embrace. She quickly slipped out of the room without notice and smiling to herself- 5 down, 5 to go.

“Clear!” Jason called again, it had been 26 minutes into a code without any reaction to CPR, drugs or shocking. Jason knew what was coming next. He could feel it, like it was hanging over his shoulder waiting for his patients to walk into their arms. Death hung at the shoulder of every doctor as their guardian angel- something he remembered Nico saying. When he had said it, he didn't remember. He put his arm out, signalling the nurse to stop CPR. He took a shaky breath.

“Time of death, 15:45.”

Hour 20

Nico watched as the heart monitor stayed stable, reaching the apex before dropping and repeating. Allison. Attempted rape. Boots. Those were the words just floating around his head. Here she was on a vent, alone, like a vegetable and only hours ago she had been alive- smiling, talking, fighting.

“I've called every hospital in the country. Sooner or later the guy who did this is gonna seek medical attention and when he does, that penis you’re carrying around is gonna nail him,” a voice coming from behind Nico said. He turned his head slightly to see the golden curls that he had messed up this morning. Nico’s eyes were cast back onto the lonely woman. How could anyone so vulnerable be so alone?

“Where's her family?” The words slipped out of Nico’s mouth before he could stop them. Will shook his head slightly, his hair bouncing slightly from the impact.

“Doesn't have one.”

“No siblings?” Nico asked, thinking of Hazel and Bianca.

“Nope, both parents are dead. She moved to New York 3 weeks ago. Welcome to the city,” Will took a bite out of an apple miserably. Nico too was miserable- they both had good reason to do so. What kind of world did they live in where the system was so disadvantaged to anyone who wasn’t white, male, heterosexual and neurotypical? What kind of system forced minorities to work in society's most unwanted but vital jobs? What kind of system forced women to be terrified of walking home alone- day or night?

“Nico? Are you okay?” Will’s soft and concerned voice broke into Nicos thoughts. The question left him speechless- was he okay? The cynical, sarcastic and natural answer was No- obviously no. But for some reason, Nico did not want to say no, but rather leave his own pain to himself- not burden anyone else with it.

“Yeah.. I just gotta do something.” With that, Nico ran off looking for Dr Zhang.

Nico found Dr Zhang climbing the stairs. The hospital had a comfortable endless buzz, something that all the staff were used to- Frank was hoping to get a calm and perhaps even silent moment to himself. Instead, he got an intern.

“Dr Zhang, there’s this patient. It’s a baby in peds and they had a tetralogy spell with a heart murmur,” Nico started, his legs struggling to keep up.

“Did Ped’s ask for a consult?”

Nico stayed silent, partially because he didn’t want to feel guilty for lying and partially because he did not have a lie on him- not one that he could pull off at least.

“Di Angelo, you’re a bright kid but we can’t just walk in there without a Peds consult. It’s not like I’m the Chief of Surgery,” Frank said sympathetically as he walked off.

“Hehehee, you’reee hott,” the drunk slurred as they leaned slightly forward in a terrible attempt to flirt with Juniper. Juniper still stood in the Pit, it’s fluorescent lights giving her a headache- along with the noise levels and annoying patients. Slightly disgusted by the stench of alcohol on their breath, she pushed them back gently, making sure they didn’t flop onto the stretcher.

“You’re drunk,” she deadpanned as she prepared the sutures, “And you also need to hold still.”

Juniper was sick of the Pit, she was sick of the flourecsant lights that made her skin look like puke and most of all, she was sick of her patients; drunk and disorderly were the mass majority and since the morning, not one major casualty had come through those doors other than the rape case Nico had been assinged to.

“I know you! You’re that lady from the magazine with the red bikini..” they trailed off, their voice in a musing and questioning tone. Juniper had to physically stop herself from scoffing- It was a pink bikini. She didn’t hate her fans but sometimes people made it weird, especially drunk ones who enjoyed invading her personal space a tad too much.

“It was a pink bikini.”

The seats by the hospital doors were the perfect place (other than the vending machines) to hide from your residents- so naturally, Nico and Hazel were there, camping away during lunch. The penis in a box sat in the chair next to him as he nibbled at the rainbow sour gummy strips.

“Watcha doing?” Hazel asked as she made her way towards him.

“I’m sitting with my penis.”

“Which one?”

In response to this, Nico scrunched up his face in a sarcastic, sardonic smile that read No <3.

“I kissed McDreamy...in an elevator. I was having a bad day,” Nico started with his voice relatively quiet.

“So what do you do on your bad days, make out with McDreamy?”

“Yeah that and carrying around a severed penis just makes everything so shiny and happy,” He retorted in response to his sister.

“Jason said Allison was wearing your boots.”

“…. It's weird right? “

“It’s weird that you care so much. They’re boots and popular ones too- anyone could have them,” Hazel argued. Nico opened his mouth to respond but in that moment a bunch of frantic shouting cut them off. Behind them, right outside the hospital a man had pulled up. His skin was sickly pale, there was blood all over his legs and groin and he was struggling to move.

Nico looked at his facial features and did not expect for the man to look… well normal. For some reason, he had envisioned the man to look evil- to resemble hate itself but he just looked normal. That's when it hit Nico- rapists don’t look like rapists. They look like average people because that's what their best advantage is- the trusting nature of humanity. They don’t look evil because they need to fit in, to gain the trust of others and protect their reputation. They look normal because anybody could be a rapist- they don’t wear posters pointing it out and it’s not written on their foreheads. That's what they do best- hide.

Nico and the transport staff rushed the man in the gurney towards the operating room, their legs moving as fast as possible. The police were going to arrive soon but for now, he would have to be handcuffed to his bed. The rapist was found, Allison was alive, now what? There was no way they’d be able to re attach the penis and honestly, Nico did not want to- in his eyes, the rapist got exactly what he deserved

“Call reception and tell them we need security up here ASAP,” Nico ordered, finally taking charge. As the gurney was charged into the surgical department, Dr Chase caught on.

“What dya have Di Angelo?”

“Take a look for yourself.” He nodded towards the middle of the man's body, more specifically his groin. Annabeth quickly lifted up the drapes before letting them drop- here eyes widened and she looked at Nico with disbelief painted across her face.

“Page the Chief and Solace and tell them we’ve got the rapist,” she commanded as she took Nico’s position on the gurney and continued wheeling him to an OR.

The heart monitor was beeping steadily. The heart was moving- beating. Nico and Hazel, stood side by side watching Dr Chase performing surgery- unfortunately, they weren't assisting however they were still getting tested on their medical knowledge. The OR had it’s regular flicker of lights, the smell of antiseptics and the hues of blue across the room.

“I saw Allison, you can't believe the beating that she took and then you see this!” Nico whisper-shouted towards Hazel.

“It's like that old saying- you should see the other guy.” Hazel nodded.

“Why aren't we attempting to re-attach the severed penis?” Annabeth's stern but questioning voice cut through their conversation.

“Teeth tear not slice- you can only reattach when there's a clean cut. If she had sliced it off with a knife, perhaps then we could re-attach,” Hazel quickly recited.

“And the digestive juices didn't leave a lot of the flesh to work with,” Nico added on.

“So what are we doing?” Dr Chase asked, a hint of boredom lingering in her voice.

“Sewing him up minus a large part of the family jewels,” Nico snorted slightly.

“What will his outlook be?” Dr Chase asked while holding her hand out for the nurse to take the instrument out of her hand.

“He will be urinating out of a bag for a very very very long time,” Hazel said, slightly pleased.

“Not to mention he will never be able to have sex again,” Nico said, not in least bit sympathetic.

“Oh too bad, what a shame,” Hazel drawled.

“Let's all take a moment to grieve,” Annabeth said sarcastically before immediately asking for a clamp.

Hour 25

“Chief!” Frank jogged, trying to catch up with Chiron while waving frantically. He had taken time off and realised if he wanted this, he had to think about everyone- not just himself. He needed to learn his faults and how to get over them.

“Frank.” Chiron nodded, “Do you need something?”

“Why can’t I be chief? You helped me before, you believed in me, what changed?”

“You really want to know?” Chiron sighed looking at Frank who nodded. “You’re too comfortable in your job. You never go the extra step. Your arrogance isn’t impressive- if you want to be chief Frank, you have to earn it.”

The words knocked Frank back- My arrogance isn’t impressive? If I recall correctly, you told me to be more arrogant and now it’s a problem? You tell someone to do something and then you tell them to do the exact opposite. What in the name of Pluto is his problem?

The interns were all pretty different but they could agree that they hated their job. They were sitting on the stretchers by the vending machine (which at this point had become their hangout away from the attendings) and were complaining- which apparently makes up 80% of all human conversations.

“My head hurtss,” Grover groaned, throwing backwards against the wall.

“Maybe you have a brain tumor,” Hazel said after sipping some coffee.

“No, you want me to have a tumor.”

“I'd personally rip your face off if it meant I got to scrub in,” Hazel confessed, not feeling guilty in the slightest. Juniper made her way from the vending machine, holding a snickers bar like her life depended on it.

“I've been suturing all day, my hands are numb and I'm regretting not taking foregin languages in high school,” she sighed as she plopped her bottom onto the stretcher, leaving space for Nico and Jason.

“At least you’re helping people,” Jason called as he put his hand up the vending machine in an attempt to retrieve his chips which had decided to not obey the laws of physics and get stuck. Nico who stood behind him shuffled Jason out the way, gave the vending machine a violent kick before the packet of chips fell out, directly into Jason's hands- that was until Nico literally stole them from him.

“At least you get to practise freakin medicine!” Grover called out, sick of delivering lab results to patients.

“Mrs Lu, the chinese lady, I had to send her away. I mean I stiched her up but she stayed camping in the Pit- she left in the end though,” Juni said in a defeated tone.

“The police can't send some crime person down so I have to spend the night with a penis,” Nico complained before looking over to Grover, “ Grover don’t make the joke.”

Grover tutted, “It was too easy anyway.”

Finally, Jason cut in the conversation. They were all sick of being used and not actually learning. Gosh, did the hospital not realise that they were also doctors- not useless med students who couldn’t find their heads from their ass!

“Who here has no idea what they’re doing?” Jason cried. Everyone, except Grover, shot their hands up. Nico was not ashamed to admit he did not know what he was meant to be doing- saving lives or babysitting penises?

“Are we meant to be learning something? Because I don’t think I'm learning anything!” Jason added as he slumped further in the stretcher that they were all sharing.

“Except how not to sleep,” Juniper retorted.

“It's like there’s this wall and the attendings and the residents are over there being surgeons and were over here being-” Hazel started passionately but was cut off by her brother.

“- Suturing, code running, lab delivering penis minders,” Nico finished.

“I hate being an intern,” Grover concluded. Nico seated beside him grunted in agreement. The interns continued their mindless complaints until Dr Chase walked in, her expression stern and her arms resting on her hips in a manner that screamed And what exactly do you think you’re doing? All it took was a raised eyebrow from Dr Chase and the interns were scrambling off the stretcher and rushing off back to their jobs. She snatched the unopened pack of chips that Nico had left on the stretcher and helped herself.

Nico often made very bad decisions. It was something the people around simply expected of him at this point- if it wasn’t Bianca then it was Hazel or Percy (but normally Percy would also join in on the bad decisions). Despite being warned not to, Nico found himself staring at the baby from the NICU earlier. As Nico looked up slightly, he saw 2 people cooing towards a baby and Nico could only assume that they were the parents. He could feel the dumb and stupid thoughts brewing and bubblinmg in his mind. He tried to stop them, he tried to tell himself to not move towards them but he couldn’t help himself- he never could in all honesty. While Nico was a very patient person sometimes, some impulses just couldn’t be left on stand-by.

As Nico finished explaining to the parents what he believed to be wrong with the child, the intern in pink scrubs from earlier who had specifically told Nico to leave walked into the communal area. Nico was absolutely busted- car lights on, bambi style busted.

“I warned you to not come back here,” They snarled before beheading into another room and practically grabbing Leo Valdez by the arm. Leo slowly retracted his arm out of their grasp before dusting it lightly.

“Hi, can I help you?” Leo started, his lips parted in a gorgeous and genuine grin- something that even Nico had to admit was cute.

“If our baby is sick, we want him treated,” The parents started, their voices thick with worry and concern. Nico could practically hear the tremble in it.

“Of course, which child is yours?” Leo asked with his professionalist front- he’d have to deal with the interns later.

Frank hated the interns. He hated Chiron and he hated his life. Not necessarily in that order. He was used to the incompetence of the interns. He was used to them making mistakes or hesitating but the one thing he wasn’t used to was pure disobedience. He had directly told Di Angelo to not approach peds or any of their cases. So what exactly Di Angelo was doing with Valdez and his intern talking to a pair of seemingly very concerned parents, Frank honestly did not know and would have liked to have kept it that way.

“Dr Valdez, can we speak for a second?” Frank asked. He and Leo were good friends, he knew that Leo wouldn’t get offended or turn it into a scandal.

“Sure, I’d like to know what on earth is going on though. No offence, but your intern shouldn’t be here,” Leo started, his hand brushing his curls out of his face.

“I told you earlier to not come back and look who’s here!” The intern snarked in Nico’s face.

“The baby had a tetralogy spell* earlier and a heart murmur- they aren't consistent with a benign systolic ejection murmur!” Nico argued. Frank turned to the intern, he could already see them faltering. He wouldn’t call himself scary- it was mainly just him being tall and built like a marine, not that he really cared.

“How sure are you? How sure are you that it is a benign systolic ejection murmur? 100 percent sure?” Frank turned to the intern. He watched as their face twisted, like they had just realised that they had been a fly trapped in a spider's web.

“Are you 100 percent sure about the diagnosis?” Leo turned towards his resident, a look of hesitation and slight horror creeping up onto his face. His previous interns from the past 2 years were so much easier than this. Everyone listened to him, barely anyone died and there weren’t sneaky, semi- famous italian legacies sneaking into his department. Not that he blamed Nico, in fact he had to admit that he was secretly impressed with the doctors observation skills- especially considering he was an intern. But after all, he was a Di Angelo.

“I dunno...like 75 percent..” They mumbled towards the floor. Gods, if his intern was wrong, it would be on his ass! How on earth was he about to mess up so badly? This was his 3rd year in residency- he couldn’t afford to screw up.

“Can I see the patient's chart?” Dr Zhang held his hand out towards the intern who hastily handed it over- as if it was a ticking time bomb. Dr Zhang flipped through a few pages, pretending to read them. In reality, he had already made up his mind and was just humming the tune to Stayin alive .

“Valdez, the patient's on my service now. That chill with you?” Frank concluded. Leo gave a thumbs up, slightly relieved to have some sort of work off his back but also slightly saddened that an interesting case was snatched out of his hands by his ignorant intern.

“I want an EKG*, chest X- ray and an Echo*, let's make it quick, we don't have all day,” Frank told Nico, who nodded before quickly running off.

“He can do that?” They whispered into Leo’s ear with an astonished tone.

“Yeah, he's attending.”

“So is your girlfriend.”

“She is not my girlfriend!” Leo protested as the intern raised an eyebrow. Leo did not have a strong case here, considering Calypso was always seen with him or vice Versa. In fact, they often arrived and left the hospital together, worked on similar cases and they knew each other's coffee orders like the back of their hand. It wasn’t like anything could happen between them. In reality, they arrived and left together due to their apartments being in a close proximity, they had similar cases co-incidentally due to their specialties and well, the coffee orders… Well that was hard to explain- how would Leo say Oh yeah, I just watch her everytime she orders her coffee because her lips look very very nice and soft and when she takes a sip, her eyes flutter a bit and it makes her eyes look magical and then there’s when she’s getting mad at me because I’m taking ages to leave my apartment and she just looks like she’s about to implode but in a very sexy, cute and beautiful way.

Yeah, no way was he saying any of that.

Hour 30

Was there anything left to do? Juni had been here for so long she could practically feel the fluorescent lights in her head. The Pit was empty, the blue stretchers all cleaned up with no patients walking in. There was officially nothing to do- empty emergency and waiting room. For the sake of checking, Juni walked into the waiting room one more time, looking around for any injured souls- alas, there were none.

Except Mrs Lu, who stood in the middle of the hallway, waving her hand towards Juni as if she was gesturing for her to follow her. Juni looked around- it wasn't as if there were any patients here, what could go wrong? She tiptoed outside into the brutal thundering of the rain, which plastered her hair to her face and her white coat to her scrubs. The wind was chilly and strong- whispering to her temptations and desires. The wind was always so ethereal- it could destroy but it could also be beautiful.

“Mrs Lu? Where are you taking me?” Juniper called out as she jogged blind in the dark while the wind whipped around her face. She found herself crouching behind the large industrial hospital bins. A young girl, barely into her early 20s sat there with a large bloody wound across her forehead. On viewing it, Juniper immediately hissed. The gash looked deep and Juni could already see the edges of it forming a scab. There was blood stuck to her face, some infiltrating the tip of her eyelids and the girl herself was trying to not screw her eyes in pain.

“Oh my gods…What.. What happened?” Juni was speechless.

“A big machine in the factory.. it .. it fall on us,” the girl explained. Juniper was relieved- she knew a bit of english, enough for Juniper to understand.

“It’s going to be okay now, you can come inside an-”

“-No! No, no inside. Here!” The girl protested frantically, shaking her head back and forth which made Juniper think Ouch .

“But, I need to stitch you up and she went inside.” Juniper pointed to Mrs Lu.

“She allowed, me not allowed! I will go jail!”

Juniper realised what she was trying to tell her. Mrs Lu was a legal immigrant but the girl was an illegal one. An overwhelming amount of sympathy and admiration surged inside of Juniper. The amount of bravery this poor girl must have and all the stuff she must have gone through. Juniper knew that if she helped the girl and was caught- everything would be over. A small voice in her head was telling her to help- she was doctor after all, she took the hippocratic oath which stated I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required

“The injury is deep but I think I can fix it. I need to go and get some stuff first so you have to stay here okay. Stay here.”

The girl nodded, the corner of her lips turning into a grateful smile, “Thank you.”

As Juniper was about to jog back to the hospital, she remembered she did not have one piece of information that she got from every patient- illegal or not.

“One question, what’s your name? I’m Juni,” She asked.

“Nuwa. Nuwa Lu,” the girl responded with comfort settling onto her face.

Nico didn’t like that he was short. He constantly had to push to the front of crowds, people were often belittling and it also meant he had to walk twice as fast to catch up with people who were like 6’4- Like Dr Zhang. He was not afraid to admit that he was short- he simply didn’t like that for some reason it was a bad thing; if anything, it meant he was an eco-friendly version of a human.

“Dr Zhang,” Nico sounded slightly out of breath, “ What’s the diagnosis?”

“It was the tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia*. I’m booking an OR,” he confirmed.

Nico stopped walking as Frank stood by the elevator. Normally, Nico preffered to simply nod at people when they expected a thank you. It was just 2 words that he would never expect to come blurting his mouth and honestly he did not expect the words Thank you to come out when he spoke to Dr Zhang so of course, he did not say thank you. Yes, he was grateful but Thank you? To Nico, that was almost as close to I love you on the list of forbidden words.

“I appreciate you backing me up here-”

“-Nuh uh. Listen kid, you were right one time but what you did, going behind another doctor's back and speaking to the parents, trying to steal a patient from another service. Don’t ever pull that again, you got it?” Dr Zhang reprimanded him. He knew that Di Angelo had a lot of potential but if he was gonna think with his head in his ass all the time, there were going to be problems

Nico knew this was Dr Zhang's version of- you did good but also you did bad. In all honesty, Nico couldn’t care less. In fact, he was so smugly obsessed that he was right that he was very much beyond okay with being told off if it meant he was right, it was worth it. Especially since that smug little intern thought that they were so right in their gloriously pathetic little mind.

Will did not like feeling like this. He had been lucky to avoid it all his life but for some god forsaken reason, depression had started to chase him. So he took a job where he would have no time for depression- if you’re working 24/7 you don't really ever get the chance to listen to your thoughts. But as he sat down at the desk by Allison trying to focus on his charting, he could feel himself slowly losing all motivation. The beeping on the heart monitor, which normally drew a large smile across Will’s face, wasn’t helpful- it was depressing. The entire room felt bland, empty and he could feel his mind and thoughts going numb. He was trying to hold his head up, trying to be strong for his patient, trying to finish the day without having a slump. His eyes flickered back up towards Allison, whose eyes had remained closed- as if she was vegetable.

“Okay, you’re all sewn up!” Juni finished up the last touches of the stitches of Nuwa’s forehead before rolling back the squeaky old chair that she was sitting on.

“Nuwa, you might have a scar and you have to come back in 5 days okay? I need to take out the stitches and clean the wound to make sure it doesn’t get infected. So you need to come back. We will meet here, same place at 7pm. 5 days okay?” Juniper informed, trying to not rush her words all out in a panic. She watched as Nuwa gave a small nod with a shy smile indicating she understood. As Juniper packed up, she realised she had to remind Nuwa of something else.

“Oh but you can’t tell anybody that I helped you outside the hospital. I might lose my medical license and my job. Do you understand?”

“Come back in 5 days and dont tell.” Nuwa nodded eagerly towards Juni who gave her a brief hug.

“Dr Chase, do you think I’m too confident?” Dr Zhang anxiously asked. He didn’t think he’d ever have to ask such a question. To him, it seemed obvious- no. Frank recalled all his life, simply never having the confidence to do things and sure, he had boosted it up a slight notch by becoming a surgeon- a world renowned one none the less- but he wouldn’t call himself overconfident.

“No,” Annabeth answered bluntly but Zhang knew her better than she thought he did.

“Don’t lie,” Frank mumbled slightly.

“You are my boss,” Annabeth retorted. Anyone who had been nearby would have immediately snorted at such a comment- When did Annabeth Chase actually care about her bosses opinions?

“Fine, in the next 30 seconds anything you say, I will not take to heart, starting now.” Frank raised his watch before diverting his eyes to his resident who immediately started talking.

A bit eager, Chase?

“I think you’re cocky, arrogant, bossy and pushy. You also have a god complex,” Annabeth started which caused Frank to frown. God Complex? Since when?

“You never think about anybody but your damn self- “

“- Hey wait a-”

“-I have another 22 seconds and I am not done.”

Frank scratched his head while rethinking his life decisions. The most prominent thought at hand was-

Oh shit maybe this wasn't a great idea

The interns were serving their last hour on call and it had gotten to the point where they were all desperate for their lives at work to come to an end. Jason, Juniper and Hazel were all in the locker room, freshening up and looking forward to leaving the hospital.

“I need a drink, a man or a massage or a drunken massage by a man,” Hazel mused. A short ‘ew’ came from Juniper as she brushed through her knotty hair. Jason on the other hand, did not respond and instead was violently harassing his teeth with his toothbrush. Hazel took one short glance at Jason before an alarmed look creeped onto her face.

“What's wrong with you?” She asked, slipping on a new scrub shirt.

“I lost 5 patients today and I feel like the angel of death,” he spat his toothpaste out, as if he had a deep vendetta against it.

“Hey at least you're not the actual angel of death. I’m pretty sure there’s a serial killer with that alias,” Hazel responded thinking about her conversation with Nico. For some reason The angel of death reminded her of some conversation they’d had.

“Charles Cullen- convicted of 40 murders, suspected of more- currently in prison on life sentence and is 60 years old,” Nico recited as he walked into the locker room. Juniper and Jason both stopped dead in their tracks, slightly alarmed at the information that was spilling out of Nico’s mouth like he memorized it for fun.

The best part was he actually did memorise it for fun.

Casting her eyes away from her brother, who in no way surprised her with that information, Hazel sighed, “Jason, 95% of code patients can't be revived. Most are already dead by the time you get there.”

“What! Why didn't you tell me that when I was going on and on about how great it was gonna be!” Jason cried, embarrassed about his bragging. Hazel took a deep breath as she made her way to exit the room.

“Because, you’re Jason and I’m Hazel.”

Hour 40

Nico was getting really sick about the penis in a box. It literally had to follow him everywhere and worst of all, people asked him what was inside it. What kind of conversation starter was ‘oh, just a bitten off penis’? So when Nico saw Dr Solace still in the room of Allison he felt slightly relieved- at least Dr Solace wouldn’t ask him what was in the box; mainly because Dr Solace was in the surgery where the penis was retrieved.

As Nico approached Dr Solace, he noticed that he wasn't really there. His eyes seemed less alive, less sparkly and more like the dull blue hues of the hospital. It was just something about the way his hand had propped up his face as if he had no further energy to continue anything that made Nico slightly alarmed for him.

Alarmed? You’re just worried that he may pass out because then it would mean no more surgeries.

At least, that's what Nico told himself. Besides, he had other things to worry about- like how he was going to lead Solace on. Afterall, there was a reason he was putting up with him.

“Hey, how’s Allison?” Nico asked, standing directly behind Will. Will, depressed as ever responded in a small tone.

“So far, nothing’s changed.”

“Have you been here all night?” Nico asked in slight astonishment and borderline concern.

“Yep. I have 3 brothers and a sister. They’re all doctors as well. If I was in a coma, they’d all be here- I’d want them here because having nobody… I can’t imagine that.”

“I can.”

Nico hadn’t meant for the small comment to slip out of his mouth. Wills face scrunched up immediately as he turned his head to look at the intern.

“What are you on about? What about your sister?”

For a fraction of a second, Nico was horrified at the thought that somehow Will had figured out that Hazel and Nico were siblings. But then Nico remembered that Hazel levesque was not an infamous name within the world of doctors and Bianca Di Angelo was.The first person to come to mind was Hazel, not Bianca. The guilt was overwhelming- did this mean Nico was forgetting his sister? He couldn’t do that, not when she needed him! Hazel was just a girl who happened to make sarcastic quips like him, who just happened to stand up for him, who happened to be slightly related to him. So what? Did it make them family? No! In Nico’s eyes, they weren’t even siblings. Just 2 people who had to get on with each other for the sake of others around them, Bianca was his real sister.

“That’s true, I do have my sister,” Nico said but even as the words left his lips, he knew he wasn’t talking about Bianca.

“She’d be ordering surgeons around and flying cowboys* from Prague to do amazing medical procedures,” Will continued as he got up to throw a wrapper in the bin. When he returned, he leaned against the door frame slightly, as if he was a bad boy in one of those high school cliche films.

“So we’re kissing but we’re not dating, huh?” One of his eyebrows raised slightly resulting in a ridiculous face that Nico believed to be hilarious- not that he’d ever let Solace know that he thought that. Nico fell back into scheming mode- if the conversation was heading where he thought it was, he needed to have his manipulative little plan out and ready.

“I’m all for the kissing. In fact, there should be more kissing,” Will hummed.

“I don’t know how or why it happened,” Nico admitted.

“Is it gonna happen again?” Will asked before lowering his voice, “ I need to bring some breath mints. Put some condoms in my wallet.” Will winked and Nico could physically feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. He had never blushed this badly in his entire life- not even when Percy winked at him.

Abort! Abort! This was not part of the plan. Why are you blushing you incompetent good for nothing nincompoop!

“There’s this baby upstairs in peds. It’s new and not neglected. It hasn’t been disappointed by anyone or rejected. How do we get from there to here? Alisson is wearing my boots and someone has beaten the crap out of her and here she is with nobody.” Nico was practically counting down the minutes left before he could leave at this point. However, before Will could respond, a rapid beeping came from one of the machines hooked up to Allison. Will scurried forward in a panic.

“Her ICP* has doubled. Page Jackson and get an OR ready- tell them to prep for a craniotomy*. Hang a mannitol and take a blood gas*!” Will shouted over the frantic beeping of the machine.

Nico was pacing back and forth. He felt like he was Allison’s mother. There she was in surgery all by herself and he- someone who had never met her- was pacing back and forth like they had known each other their entire lives. His head practically shot up as he saw Will and Percy come through the doors he had been waiting in front of. Solace shot him a sympathetic smile as he walked past- Percy on the other hand had stayed in front of Nico and his expressions looked grave.

How was Percy meant to say this? This was his childhood best friend of his entire life and he was somehow meant to tell him that his patient was most likely now a vegetable. He didn’t know why it was going to be so hard- Nico was someone who knew how to take news. Sure, Nico never took it well and would often just isolate himself until someone forcefully dragged his butt out but he would never break down. Well, Percy had never thought he had.

“I had to leave a flap of her skull open until the pressure and swelling in her brain goes down,” Percy confessed nervously, ruffling his messy hair that had been matted down under his scrub cap.

In a pained voice, Nico whispered, “She isn’t gonna make it.”

Percy hadn’t heard Nico use such a voice since his mother had passed away. Nico had been a bit different after that- as one would expect- but the tone that he had adapted when the tragedy occurred was a tone that truly inspired fear in Percy. It was the voice of calamity combined with pain. It was like destruction without the anger, it was like love without the trust, it was like a human with no soul. It was heart wrenching.

“She’ll be fine,” Percy insisted as he pulled Nico into a hug, letting the shorter boy rest his head on his shoulder. Nico wondered if Percy was right. He liked the possibility, the chance that it was true.

But Nico realised that she’d only be alright if she ever woke up.

Nico and never been happier to sign off the custody of something away from himself. Finally, the penis he had been carrying around owud no longer be his possession- he already had a dick, thank you very much. Just ask Solace.

Will and Percy did not really interact with each other much. It wasn't anything personal but they just both run such busy departments that hanging out was something much easier said rather than done. Despite this, they were together as they stormed into the room of 312. Percy and Will were not violent people- they were surgeons, doctors, sworn under the hippocratic oath to do no harm. But it would be an understatement of the year if one were to say that they did not look like terrifying bloodthirsty hungry beasts as they slammed the light on and snarled as they walked into the room of the rapist.

Will slammed his hand onto the side of the stretcher. Once, twice and a third time. It startled the man in bed to jump awake. Threateningly, Will slammed his hand above the man in the stretcher so he was practically leaning over him while Percy stood on the other side with both hands resting on the other handle of the bed.

“We have good and bad news. The good news is that my unbiased girlfriend who is also an exceptional surgeon managed to stop you from bleeding to death,” Percy snarled.

“The bad news is we’ve given your penis to the cops. Have a nice life,” Will growled as both men left the room with Will slamming the door so hard, the hinges rattled.

Nico enjoyed watching the babies. He however, did not enjoy watching the babies with Jason, Juniper and Hazel. Watching a cooing to babies was a very private matter- if word ever got out to his attendings that this happened… well Dr Zhang had already warned him. As he watched them, he realised they get the chance to start afresh. They may have no knowledge but they give people the chance to start afresh, to be something else and change opinions.

“All right, you guys can move in,”Nico groaned, giving up. Jason and Juniper squealed, jumping up and down celebrating.

“I can't believe I caved,” Nico admitted.

Hazel snorted, “I blame the babies.”

Hour 48

The world felt groggy as her eyelids fluttered. This wasn't her cheap New York hotel room, the lights wouldn't be on. She wanted to breathe but she couldn't do it alone-she could feel something obstructing her throat. It felt like something had been forced down there and immediately memories had come flooding back. The rapist, how she had been forced to her knees, the beating. She realised this must be the hospital and if she could think and her eyes were open, then she must be alive. She watched as a doctor with curly blond hair looked at her with astonishment before grabbing the arm of another doctor- with sea green eyes and a mop of balck hair on his head.

The elevator always took ages to arrive and always took even longer to get you to the floor you wanted. Will did not mind this. Nico on the other hand, definitely minded this. He had beds to sleep in and mythomagic cards to nerd out with.

“It's intense, this thing I have for ferry boats again,” Wills voice cut straight through Nico’s thoughts. Nico turned his head to look at the source of the voice.

Of course it's you

Nico knew what would happen if they climbed the empty elevator and he was tired. Part of his plan was revived around Will Solace pinning after him and this was the perfect chance to start it.

“I’m soo taking the stairs this time,” Nico decided.

“You have no self control!” Will called out knowing Nico’s reason for not boarding the elevator, “ It’s sad really!”

Hour 49

“Hey Reyna, pass the coat next to you,” Percy asked as he grabbed his bag off the floor and kissed Annabeth on her head. Reyna tossed the coat towards Percy before grabbing her backpack and zipping up her jacket. The attendings and residents filtered out slowly, one by one leaving Leo in there by himself. Leo didn’t mind being alone. In fact, he enjoyed it. There was something about being able to hum songs while you worked with no distractions that simply appealed to him. He was currently humming a song his Tia Callida had taught him when he was little.

“Are you humming?” A voice came from behind him. Normally, Leo would have ignored the voice or made a snarky remark but he recognised this voice.

“What! Uh, no?” He shrugged sheepishly as he turned around to look at Calypso who had her eyes half closed as if she was enjoying the tune.

“Oh don’t try lying to me Leonidas . I liked it anyway,” she admitted as she leaned forward to access the coffee machine. Calypso was the only person who knew Leo’s full name and the only person he’d ever let get away with calling him that. Leo could feel a rush of butterflies from Calypso's compliment. While it seemed minor, Leo rarely got compliments- so he appreciated them but he also did not know how to properly take one without blubbering.

“What are you still doing here?” Leo asked.

“Hoping to get rid of me I see?”

“No! No, it’s just we came in at the same time and your shift is over so you’re probably tired so you should probably go home and relax,” Leo rambled.

“You also came in at the same time you know. You shouldn't be here as well.”

That shut Leo up. He sat himself on the sofa, not wanting to move. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tired and sleep sounded so nice right now but he did not want to go home. Every time he went back to his apartment, the nightmares would come rushing back and he would wake up covered in sweat. It was like he was cursed.

“Are you okay?” Calypso’s voice sounded concerned.

“I should be asking you that mi amor.” Leo winked before mentally slapping himself. Why on earth did he call her that? Everyone knows that mi amor means my love- it's practically common knowledge!

“You aren’t going to sweet talk your way out of my question Leonidas.” Calypso’s eyes narrowed slightly as she sat on the sofa next to Leo. He sat with one leg slightly bent on the sofa and the other dangling off it whereas Calypso had both her legs crossed as if she was back in nursery.

“I’m tired Callie. Aren’t you?”

“We’re surgeons. It’s what we signed up for. And I’ve seen you tired before Valdez, you aren’t like this.”

“Like this?”

“So… distant. You’ve barely gone on any rants or tangents since forever. You only order black coffee or an almost suicidal amount of espresso now. Everytime you smile, you only do it because someone just approaches you, otherwise your face is unreadable or miserable!” Calypso cried, throwing one of her arms up.

“Just because I’m less talkative Callie doesn’t mean there’s something wrong. I need to coffee to stay awake,” Leo defended himself calmly, holding both of Calypso’s hands to help keep her from exploding.

“What is keeping you up that you need so much caffeine? Is it work, family… a partner?” Calypso’ face physically scrunched up at the idea of Leo losing sleep over doing the deed with another person.

“I...I’m just not getting as much sleep as I should be getting. You know how tough work can be on residents especially because I’m looking for a peds fellowship,” Leo lied through his teeth. He could feel the empty pit of anxiety inside of him calm slightly as he saw the stressed out facial features of Calypso relax. While he felt guilty for lying, he felt better that it wasn’t stressing her out so much. It was only then that he noticed how close their bodies were. They weren’t extremely close but they weren't exactly far away either.

“I've got to tell you about this couple I had today. So the mother is all excited because she wants a boy and the dad is really really excited because he wanted a girl and they’re both arguing back and forth about which one the baby will be. So I do the ultrasound and guess what!”

“What?” Leo asked, practically smitten with her features. The way her eyes widened with glee as she talked about her patients, or how her smile was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Her cheeks had these dimples that would appear every time she spoke but when she smiled, the ones under her eyes would show up and it was always endgame for him then. Her eyes were like pools of honey- sweet, delicate and magical. There was just something about the way her curly hair would always be in a tropical hairstyle as if she was on a beach that made him want to kiss her.

“They had twins! Yeah, so it was a case of twin to twin transfusion syndrome* and one was a boy and the other a girl. So in the end they both got what they wanted and I got myself a very very interesting case!”

Leo chuckled as he watched her rant. As they fell into conversation about their patients, they got closer and closer until they both had their arms leaning on the sofa and were gazing at each other's faces. Calypso’s eyes drifted downwards towards Leo’s rolled up sleeves- as they always did. As her eyes traveled upwards, she spotted something by Leo’s collarbone- like a flick of ink. She didn’t know if she read it right but it looked like it said Bad Boy Supreme with a small fire around it.

“Is that.. Is that a tattoo?” Calypso asked, her hand reaching forward to pull at his shirt slightly to gain a better view. Caught slightly off guard, Leo froze before remembering that he did in fact have a tattoo. He unbuttoned the first 3 buttons to give her a better view.

“Leonidas… did you actually… oh my gods.” Her hand had accidentally pressed on Leo’s chest which was surprisingly muscle. Leo looked scrawny, wasn’t the tallest (still taller than Nico) and didn’t hang out with any other people beside his colleagues so Calypso was not expecting a firm plate of muscle to be directly underneath her palm.

“Yep. You said I should get Bad Boy Supreme tattooed, so I did,” he said rather shakily. Could you blame him though? You try talking normally while the girl you’re in love with touches your chest and has her face up so close against it you could feel her breath.

“I did not think you had it in you,” she confessed, her face still close to his chest with her finger now tracing the art.

“ Mamacita , I’m offended,” he huffed jokingly. She raised her head slightly to raise an eyebrow only to be slightly alarmed at how close they were. If she moved one millimeter upwards, their lips would touch. Her hand was warm on his chest and she could feel his heart beating slightly faster as she traced the words of his tattoo. Her other hand was in his hair- the luxurious chocolate curls which obstructed his face bothered her- she wanted to see his eyes. She pushed them back ever so slightly. She was so close to his face, she could see the different shades of brown that pooled in his eyes- in a sort of chaotic manner that made his eyes look majestic. She couldn't help but stare into them and draw herself close to him- his eyes were honey and she was a bee. She dared to move her head slightly higher so that their eyes locked. They knew what each other were thinking. They could feel each other's thoughts.

Leo kept his gaze on Calypso’s eyes which had darted down to his lips. She watched as he swallowed and his lips parted softly. She raised her head and moved slightly forward and they could each other breath dancing on their lips. Their lips brushed, like a painter's first stroke on a canvas. They were slow, not desperate- it was like they had all the time in the world. Their lips were barely touching like butterfly wings. Leo could feel her warmth and inhale the coffee on her breath. Just as they were about to truly kiss, Leo’s pager started beeping making them both scramble backwards away from each other.

Without another word, Leo got up and left the room.

All the things that have a little * by it will have definitions down here! Code team: The team on call who are required to respond to a code blue which is when someone's heart has stopped GCS: Stands for the Glasgow Coma Scale. It measures a person's level of consciousness after a brain injury- it measures the function of the eyes, body and speech. BP: Is an abbreviation for the 'blood pressure'. Ventilator: Is a machine that essentially provides air for your body when you cannot do it yourself- often patients who suffer extreme injuries will be put on a ventilator. BA: Stands for bachelor of Arts which is an undergraduate degree- please keep in mind that it's not a literal degree in art, it's just called that. PHD: Stands for Doctor of Philosophy. Once again, this isn't a literal doctorate degree in Philosophy. MD: Stands for Doctor of Medicine- now this is a degree that is literally in medicine. Asystole Pulse: In the most basic way I could put it, flatlining. That means that the heart has completely stopped. Benign tumour: If a tumour is benign, it is harmless or not posing any threat to the body. Benign systolic ejection murmurs: Is normally a harmless condition where the heart makes a murmur because something is obstructing the valves in the heart. Tetralogy spell: When there is a quick drop in oxygen in the body and it makes the skin appear blue. EKG: Stands for electrocardiogram which is when those wires are stuck to your chest so that they can measure your heart's electrical signals. An EKG can also be called an ECG. Echo: An 'echo' is an abbreviation of echocardiogram- not to be confused with electrocardiogram. An echocardiogram is basically an ultrasound of the heart. Fallot of tetralogy with pulmonary atresia: This is a very complicated condition but essentially, it's the result of the 5 defects that this condition causes in the heart. Cowboy doctor: Is a doctor who is so definite in their diagnosis, they refuse to consider any other options. ICP: Stands for intracranial pressure which is just the pressure in your brain. Craniotomy: Not to get confused with a craniectomy, a craniotomy is when a piece of skull is removed temporarily to expose the brain. Mannitol: Mannitol is a sugar alcohol that can be used to decrease the intracranial pressure. TTS: Also known as Twin to Twin transfusion syndrome is a rare condition where twins in the womb share the same placenta- the result of this is one child getting more oxygen and nutrients than the other.

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outoftimewriting · 4 years

Text

Imagine (based on the incomplete fanfic Son of Underworld) (3/5) (Son of Hades! Percy AU)

Before reading, check the masterpost - and read the warnings before proceeding :)) Good reading!

Percy goes back to Yancy, and things proceed as normal. He has nightmares, he misses his mom, who he only saw for a week. He thinks back on last summer and asks himself if it's worth going back to.

Annabeth tries to go back to her father's family. It doesn't go well, but at least they could keep contact using a landline for the three months she can deal with the monsters in her father's new location. There's a weekend he tries to visit her in San Francisco - but he still isn't perfect and lands in Sacramento.

It takes him an hour and a half to reach her - and it's the best weekend of the year, even if he doesn't meet anyone in her family - she is afraid they'll double the monsters in her house.

And her stepmom is racist. So there's that.

Annabeth makes fun of his Academy Uniform, the blazer and the black gloves, the red tie that he hates, and he calls her Wise Girl - he is two grades over her because of her years as a runaway.

It feels a little like a date. There's pizza, and they hold hands when she takes him to see the Golden Gate. He notices that Annie's eyes look literally like molten silver - every demigod carries a trace of their parent, he finally notices.

He can't come back after that - they were attacked by a Hydra, and killing it was only possible because he managed to use fire - a green, weird fire that he did not know he had - to cauterize the stumps.

Blackjack shadow travels him back to Yancy Academy and he and Annie keep the contact for another two weeks before she has to go back to Camp since San Francisco is becoming too dangerous.

It's his last year of middle school. Next year, he doesn't know if he'll continue in Yancy or go for a scholarship at Phillips Academy, in Massachusetts.

It's far. It's almost four hours from his mother, it's six hours from Camp. But it's the best school on the East Coast.

He does his midterms exams. He is in all high of A+ in Geometry, Algebra II, Economics and Government, Ancient World History, and Health&PE.

U.S. History and Science keep between B- and D+, and he is okay with that.

Language Arts and World Cultures can go die in a hole. He hates reading, writing makes him anxious and the only language he can get a C+ is Latin.

They give him a tutor for English - his GPA is only sustained by math. His grades raise a little: They go from F to E+.

There's a girl being tutored with him. She is Cherokee and a grade below him - her name is Piper.

He hates verbs. He hates To Kill a Mockingbird. He will kill a mockingbird if it stops them asking him to read again.

He cheats in his essays - makes skeletons write them for him. They suspect - it's not his handwriting, it's not the way he writes, it has no errors.

They can't prove it, so he scrapes Language Arts with a D+.

His midterm GPA is amazing. He goes see his mother for Christmas, even though he thinks there's no Christ. Maybe. Who knows? He is not celebrating Jupiternalia anyway.

He barely put his bag down when his four weeks with his Mom go down the drain - Thalia and Annabeth appear in his door. He grabs his backpack, his weapons, and go.

Annabeth looks at his hands with wonder - it's the first time she sees them bare in two years, but he puts his gloves back quickly enough.

Thalia is less skittish around him, and that's good. Better, at least. He notices that her eyes aren't only green - there are waves in them, it's like looking at the sea. It changes with her humor, perhaps? He doesn't know.

They make fun of his uniform - but they are going to Westover Hall, and he will merge better if he looks like a preppy kid from a boarding school.

Percy knows about the Mist this time. He helps Thalia to control it - his heart aches when he thinks of his friends. Its been a year and a half now. He misses them.

The daughter of Zeus asks him who taught him.

"The same person who taught you"

She looks at him appreciatively now, but he knows he'll come short of whoever she is measuring him against.

They see the kids. There's a girl looking nervous and overlooking the gym, and a boy by her side fiddling with his cards. Their hair is black just like his - he wishes for a brother and a sister.

Their skin is not like his - but it doesn't matter that they have a different mom, does it? In the end, it's family. Grover says they're powerful - so Big Three might be a possibility.

They're not children of Poseidon - their skin lacks the tan and the hair lacks the messiness, the windswept look - And Zeus is a lot of things, but a hypocrite isn't one of them, is?

Percy dances with Annabeth, and he feels alive. Then, he is running to save the children.

He doesn't shadow travel them. Shadowtravelling with more than one person is tricky, and he still hasn't mastered not going to Wyoming.

He kills the manticore with his Warhammer, but as it crumbles to dust, Annabeth falls.

The earth trembles at his feet - but it's Thalia's hand in his shoulder that remembers him there's two kids here, and Artemis Hunt is all looking at him with varying degrees of disgust and fear.

It's nothing he is not acquainted with. For being black (and not even a normal shade of black), for his clothes, for not having a father, for having a father and it being Hades. Just now, he was being judged for being a man.

Misandry is news for him. His mother raised him to respect all genders (even when he discovered a few months ago there's more than two), that women deserve the same as men. Annabeth fights alongside him frequently enough. Clarisse wipes the floor with his ass. Katie Gardner doesn't - it doesn't make her weaker, or less deserving of respect.

He knows women have to fight for their place in society much more than he has to. He knows these women are probably traumatized by violent men and unable to fight back.

It still doesn't make it right for them to be bullies. It gives a reason, but not a justification.

And when they take Bianca Di Angelo, who has a little brother and barely has any idea of what she is doing, who was just attacked by a thing that shouldn't exist and is probably still in shock, he wants to scream.

Artemis sees something in Bianca - and he finally looks at the girl's eyes. There's a storm raging in them.

Zeus is a hypocrite, after all.

But it's not his place to say anything, nor to the children, nor against Artemis, so he just leaves the tent and goes ask the only other boy here to teach him Mythomagic.

Nico Di Angelo asks way too many questions and has an infinite source of energy. He is prideful - a trace common of all Zeus children. His eyes aren't stormy like his sisters, there aren't clouds in his irises. They are white, like his probable father's lighting bolt.

Nico asks him why he has green eyes - and why they turned black after the question. He doesn't know the answer.

Apollo appears and says something about flying in the sun car - it's the first time he and Thalia agree on something.

But calls for Blackjack. He is not flying, not even under a god's asking. Apollo understands.

Thalia goes with him. Better through shadows than through air. He doesn't want to leave Nico with the misandry archers - but he has Grover, and Percy would probably land them in Iowa.

The daughter of Poseidon holds his waist while they ride on the hellhound. He focuses the best he can - and, for the first time, he lands exactly where he wants to land: in the woods at Camp.

Thalia helps him get to the Big House under weird looks of the year-rounders. They are there at least three hours before Apollo.

"You're kinda heavy, Corpse Breath. But that was cool."

"Shut it, Kelp Head"

He is anxious to just leave and go back to his mother, but Annabeth is in danger: They need a quest.

He has dreams. He can't fault Annabeth for doing what he would've done without a second of hesitation. It's Luke.

He helps Nico settle at Cabin 11, and avoids the huntresses. Connor hugs him, and Clarisse wipes the floor with him in wrestling - they are his friends now.

Clarisse, Connor, Annabeth, Grover, Charles. Luke, Ethan, Alabaster. The scales are tipping. He doesn't care for masters - he cares who is the defending.

Artemis goes missing, and they finally get a quest. Zoe Nightshade doesn't want a boy in the quest but tough luck: He is the most experienced camper here right now AND the quest goes through a desert, so he is going.

There's some doubt about taking Thalia - she is a daughter of Poseidon and can't do much in the wasteland.

So it's decided: Phoebe, Bianca, Zoe, Perseus, and Grover. No one is happy about it, and Percy knows Thalia is going to follow them.

He introduces himself as Perseus to them. He is stoic and doesn't smile around the girls.

Capture the Flag is horrible. He doesn't leave his post and blocks Zoe with skeletons for enough time that Thalia manages to snag the flag and cross the river.

The huntresses get mad and try to fight the campers - Phoebe tries to hit Nico with the pommel of her sword and a lightning bolt hits her, putting her out of commission.

He is claimed. Bianca isn't, but it doesn't matter: She is not a camper, she is a hunter. Her loyalty is to her half-sister now.

They leave in the morning without Phoebe before anyone wakes up.

Bianca looks at him weirdly because of his soft white and blue sweaters and scrunchies that he started using to take off hair from his face, and the contrast it makes with his dark skin and demeanor.

Newsflash: He doesn't care for a prejudiced daughter of Zeus's opinion.

Zoe doesn't even look at him twice: They have trans girls in the hunt, they're caught up with modern times. Except for the misandry and the exclusion of genderfluid, agender and non-binary people. But sure, caught up.

Nico asks him to protect his sister. He says he is going to try, but he understands death better than some. He says it'll be dangerous, but he'll do his best.

For some reason, Nico doesn't look worried.

Thalia joins them in the Space museum. She came in her Pegasus, Porkpie, and they fight the Nemean Lion together. His hellhound startles the hunters, and Thalia laughs.

They kill the Nemean Lion, and Perseus thinks he finally perfects his power over the earth when he uses a stone spike to pierce the monster through the mouth and barely gets tired.

The duster is not his style, but beggars can't be choosers. Zoe is warming up to them, he thinks, but he doesn't care either way: his objective is Annabeth.

He still hasn't managed to open the ground or to control metal's proprieties, but he controls the earth beneath his feet, shadow travels (very badly controlled, but sure), raises armies of skeletons and money and gems just sprout when he wants them. He has power.

But he isn't completely in control yet, so he doesn't want anyone touching him. And it's been such a long time since anyone except his mother ever been close to any skin below his neck.

Perseus has dreams. He is grateful that Artemis took the sky for Annabeth, so he burns the coat in her name.

Thalia says she has met Apollo, and Perseus is glad at least one god is on their side.

Perseus feels in the air: life. This town is cloying with the smell of life, of forests and waterfalls. He hates it on principle but wishes she could enjoy it.

He kills a spartoi. He doesn't manage to kill more, but now he knows. He wishes he could open the ground and swallow all of them, but even his own skeletons he only manages to turn them into piles of bones.

The boar carries most of them: it's still just a boar and they are five, so both he and Thalia enjoy Blackjack, who now is almost the size of a small rhino.

Perseus meets Ares awake this time. He didn't snitch on him to the gods, but he wishes he did.

Meeting Aphrodite is awful. Percy looks at her, and he sees blonde hair that he can't decide if it's golden or brownish, he looks at her eyes and see the blue and grey fight for dominance in the irises. Her skin flicks, and he sees a scar crossing her eye.

For a moment, her skin turns as black as his - his desire for family.

He hates her more than he hates Ares when she looks at him with a smile and says that his love life will be the most interesting tale she has ever woven.

They cross the junkyard. Bianca dies for a figurine of Zeus, and Perseus wants to scream at the skies for the injustice. He isn't close to Bianca, he won't miss her, but he blames himself.

What if he was good enough at shadow traveling to take all of them away? What if he was able to kill Talos before? If he saw the figurine in her hand, if he was clearer in his warning, if, if, if.

He is a son of Hades, and death follows him. The stench of it grabs at his clothes, but he doesn't cry. Bianca is not the first to die in the name of the gods - she won't be the last one.

Perseus tries and tries to reach for any part of her body - everything is gone.

The Hoover Dam goes exactly the same way - Percy finds the mortal girl cute, but he doesn't ponder on it. It's not the time. He tells her his name is Percy, because why not. He is not seeing her again.

He laughs at the dam joke and feels a little freer. He cares about Zoe. It's difficult not to.

They fly away, and Perseus doesn't like it, but he barely flinches.

They get closer - all of them. Perseus always makes friends in quests, and he is happier for it.

Thalia catches Nereus - and she tells them all about Bessie, the ophiotaurus. Percy thinks that, for a serpent cow, it's pretty cute.

Grover leaves with it back to Camp Half-Blood and away from the temptation that Thalia feels. He knows it - he feels it too, deep inside of him, the urge to kill all of them.

But is Kronos any better?

They meet Annabeth's father. Her stepmom caught a glance at him and sneers like he is covered in blood.

Luke is in Mount Othrys. Percy doesn't join him. He wants to. The drachma is still in his pocket. But Luke needs to pay for what he has done to Annabeth. This is not about the war that looms on the horizon, this is about his best friend.

They fight. Perseus holds the sky, but the thing in his fingertips is not the earth, it's something older and harder, that presses him to his knees. He draws strength from the earth, and he holds on.

They win, but at what cost? Luke falls. He cries and throws the drachma over the cliff - a promise gone with one of his first friends.

Zoe is dead. Three people dead, for a goddess who couldn't care less about them. Perseus wants to go back in time and accept Luke's proposal.

He wants to cry and he doesn't. They go to Olympus. Thalia joins Artemis, and he feels betrayed: just because she is afraid of power, she is going to throw the weight of this prophecy on him?

And on top, she just joined the eternal misandry group, and something in his heart festers. He thought he had one more friend in her, but she was just another pawn.

Annabeth basks in her mother's praise. He wants to vomit - two people are dead, but who cares.

Thalia pleads for the ophiotaurus life, but she doesn't lift a finger when they talk about his death. He hates her. He holds a grudge for his cousin just like his father holds one for his brother.

He just saved their asses for the third time, and they're talking about murdering him because he might not save them a fourth.

The gods. They take and they take and they take and the demigods keep giving.

His father saves him - no one dares to go against Hades' vote to let him live, because he is a hero.

They go back to camp, and Perseus is charged with the task to tell Nico.

"Well, so bring her back"

The boy says it non-chanlantly like he is counting on it. Percy feels guilt creep at his heart like a plague, all the ways he failed to save Bianca. If he just had a better grasp in his powers, if he was just better. And here it was, something else he couldn't do.

"I can't, Nico"

Nico yells at him. He screams that he killed his sister. Percy starts to retract, and they end up in the pavilion. Everyone is there, and they don't lift a finger to help.

Percy is so tired. He hasn't seen his mom since October. He just lost one of his best friends. He was on a mission for a week. He held the sky in his hands. Zoe is dead. Thalia is gone. Death follows him. The guilt claws at him - for not being enough.

Nico shouts and shouts. The final straw is when he says that he shouldn't have trusted a son of Hades, how everyone told him not to. He tells no one wants him here, and before anyone can say anything to contest it, spartoi appear.

People scramble for their weapons, but Percy opens the ground and swallows all of the skeletons. When they're gone, so is Percy.

Turns out? Percy doesn't want to be here anymore either.

Nico is prideful. People in camp scrambled for his attention. A couple of kids of Aphrodite tell him that Perseus wasn't a good company, trying to get in his good graces. This time around, there's no one to sing the praises of Percy Jackson.

Grover takes him aside and explains, a little against him own will, what happened with Bianca. He gives him the figurine.

Nico feels guilty. He is too prideful to admit, but he feels it burning in his heart - so he tries to understand what he just did. Grover tells him about the last two years. The guilt now fights with admiration, and resentment battles with adoration.

Some people steer clear of him for a while. Charles Beckendorf is too kind to isolate him - but Nico sees the sadness in his eyes. Annabeth doesn't talk with him - she just lost three best friends in a swoop. Grover reluctantly tells him more about Percy. Clarisse wipes the floor with him - and he doesn't complain when he wakes up and his makeshift bed in Cabin 1 is crawling with bugs - He is pretty sure Connor hates him.

Katie Gardner doesn't talk to him anymore. Will Solace - who is his best friend - consolates him. He tells Nico he was pretty awful to Percy last summer, and Percy still came back.

Pretty awful doesn't even begin to cover what Nico did. But he nods and settles. It's going to be fine.

Perseus wanders the Underworld. He plays with Cerberus, and it's finally time to go make peace with his father and meet Persephone.

There's the heavy weight of a drachma in his pocket.

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lifeofroos · 3 years

Text

Part 26. I thought this would be a good title because it is a lot like the title I used way back for chapter one. This chapter is the last chapter D.L. (During Lester), so the world will be a little different in the chapters after this one.

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. In this chapter, Nico tells Dionysus that the voices in his head have gotten worse. The rest is on AO3 and FanFiction.net! (And also Tumblr tags like Nico di Angelo, Pjo, Fanfiction etc.)

Chapter 26: Demeters’ Divine Orange Juice.

I did not expect a juice box to appear during dinner time, but I wasn’t surprised either. While the others got up, I stayed at the table. I looked up at Will, who was standing next to me. ‘I said I would help you with the mental health talk during campfire hours…’ Will leaned over and kissed me on my forehead.

‘It’s okay, Nico. This is more important. It is going to be okay.’ It will not be okay. Not until you get down here, where you belong.

When they were all gone, Dionysus came over and sat down on the opposite side of the Apollo table. ‘Hello, Nico.’

‘Hello?’ I picked up my juicebox.

‘Did your boyfriend tell you that he spoke to me yesterday?’

‘Yes.’ Of course he did. ‘He… he would not keep something like that a secret.’ How do you know? You can’t tell what he keeps secret from you. That is what they are secrets for. Naïve child.

Dionysus looked at my pained expression. ‘The voices are taunting you, aren’t they?’

I nodded. ‘Yes. They… they actually quieted down after I got to terms with being able to turn stuff to bones. The only time when they really rose again, was when I was in distress, like when we talked about Bianca. But now… they are there all the time again. They have not been back for long, that is why I didn’t tell you yet. I… I hoped they would just leave again.’ I shrugged. You shouldn’t have told him. You shouldn’t have told anybody. No one here is trustworthy and neither are you. Shut up.

‘Right. However, next time I’d rather see that you tell me immediately.’ I shrugged again. I did not know what to say. I knew he was right.

‘Do you think there is a reason that they have flared up? Aside from it being just a random thing for a few days.’

I nodded. ‘I have two ideas. One is that something is going on in Tartarsauce, or at least in the underworld. I hope not. What I think is more likely is that it means something is going to happen to Apollo. Maybe they… if I can call them they…’

‘That is actually good. That way they are not a part of you, but something else that needs to get out.’

We are a part of you. We will never get out. ‘They refer to themselves as ‘we,’ so I always thought of them as they. But anyway, maybe there is something cosmic changing and that is why there is a flare up.’

Dionysus nodded. I put in the straw and took a few sips out of my juice carton. It dawned on me that I never actually drank a whole carton of Demeters’ divine orange juice, even though it was the drink that I associated with therapy.

Dionysus stared at the camp. ‘About every ancient creature already showed its face in the last couple of years. The only one still out and about is the snake, so… I more or less hope that you are right. Well, you are still here. You are quite the menance, won’t you say? You hear voices from Tartarus. ‘The other option is a lot more likely.’

‘Apollo is coming this way of course. They defeated the second emperor in camp Jupiter, so their last stop will probably be camp Half-blood, to collect a team to aid in defeating Nero and the snake,’ I finished the train of thought.

A little absentmindedly, Dionysus nodded a couple of times. ‘Listen, Nico. You had a big role to play during the Titan war and the Giant war. There is a chance that Apollo might ask you for help.’ As if anybody would want your help. ‘But I... I think it would not be a good idea to go along with him. You shouldn’t built up any more trauma.’

‘I cannot blame Apollo if he asks.’ There is only one person to blame in this situation.

‘Hm.’

‘I mean, he has come far, but he is not there yet. He probably wants all the help he can get.’

‘And it might be best if you let someone else do that this time.’ I looked at the ground. Dionysus sighed. ‘However, I won’t hold you back if you decide to go. You should make that decision yourself. And, well, if the prophecy demands it, I guess trying to stop it will only do more harm. All I can do is tell you that I would rather see you stay in the camp.’

I did not answer. I knew I would probably go if asked. Mostly because Apollo would probably also ask Will and I couldn’t let him go alone.

‘Nico?’

‘I… I know, and I understand.’

He gave me a sad look and sighed. ‘I also want you to know that if you do decide to go, it doesn’t mean that I stop helping you.’

‘Yes.’ He will. ‘But, eh... we are talking about a hypothetical.’

‘I have a sneaking suspicion that you already thought about it, a lot. I might even go so far as to say that you have already made up your mind. That makes it more than just a hypothetical.’ I shrugged and took a small sip. The juice tasted like mud.

For a little while, we were both silent, until Dionysus scraped his throat.

‘We need to see what will happen. To a certain extent, you are correct. We are arguing about a hypothetical. Until we know better what is going on, you should keep using the strategies I taught you to keep the voices under control.’ I nodded. Keep us under control. Idiot.

‘Yes.’ Don’t trust him. ‘Eh, one more thing: the voices are more specific if I am talking to someone or doing something. Then they usually try to make me think I am doing everything wrong. However, if I am just, eh... being, it is more… ominous chanting. Come to Tartarus, free our lord, that sort of stuff.’ I shrugged. ‘Not much different from what I had way back in January, when you first reached out to me.’

He nodded a few times. ‘Alright.’ He stared at the strawberry fields. The sun had almost completely set at this point. ‘Nico, can you promise me that you will say it if it feels like you can’t handle it anymore?’

‘Yes.’ I nodded. I could say that, although I thought I could not say it with confidence.

‘Good. If there is nothing else, than you may go.’

I slowly drank the juice I had left. ‘Yes. Thanks.’ Don’t thank someone who wants to hurt you.

‘I think I’ll go join the others at the campfire. I promised Will to help with the mental health speech.’

‘Yes, go do that. Perhaps I’ll even join you. I am curious to see what Solace made of it. It can’t be much good, but you know, maybe it is pasable.’

A/N: No joke, putting the voice outside of yourself is how they told me to handle my eating disorder.

Also I like to think Chiron lets Will and Nico sleep in the same cabin, because it helps both of them sleep better.

After this, the story will be A.L. (After Lester), as I already said. There is already a lot planned, It will be a long time before I run out of story to write!

I reread some parts from tower of nero and realised that I veered off canon here and there. Whatever, Rick Riordan can’t even keep his own canon straight. In the last Olympian, he states that Hades met Maria di Angelo in Washington, which would mean they never were in Italy. However, in The tower of nero, it is said that Nico went to school in Italy. I’ll make of it what I can.

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chameleonwritess · 4 years

Text

Forever Starts Today (Epilogue)

Myriad of Stars

Not-So-Secretly in Love

Feels Like Home (Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3)

Forever Starts Today (Epilogue)

Extras:

Infirmary Duties

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Pairing: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace

Nico has spent so much of his life fixating on his past. Now that Will's been in his life for so long, it's finally time for Nico to start focussing on his future.

He knows exactly how to start.

Word Count: 4383

Read the whole series on AO3

Nico smiled fondly as Percy clumsily dipped Annabeth in the middle of the floor. She attempted to scold him but couldn’t contain her laughter enough to do so properly. Nico had never seen her look as radiant as she did in her white dress trimmed with silver, her embroidered wedding train flowing out around the dancing couple from where it was attached into her curled up-do.

She wasn’t the only one looking radiant- Percy was dressed in a deep blue suit with a turquoise tie and grey flowers attached to his lapel. His hair was looking surprisingly tame, too, and Nico knew Sally Jackson was to thank for that. He looked ridiculously handsome and the bright smile added to his features just completed the look. Nico grinned at the sight. Two of his best friends had just gotten married and not a single monster had attacked the wedding. It was perfect.

“You’re looking uncharacteristically happy,” a familiar, snarky voice spoke besides Nico. He turned his head to the side and rolled his eyes at Reyna. She was dressed in deep plum robes and carried a champagne flute in her hand with an air of grace.

“They’ve both been through so much. I’m allowed to be happy that they’re happy- they deserve this,” Nico pointed out.

“Wise words, di Angelo. Who turned you into Socrates?” Reyna responded with a smirk. Nico elbowed her gently.

“Don’t bully me, I’m trying to be a better person,” he complained. Reyna let out a laugh at that.

“You were fine as the grumpy little emo we met you as,” she pointed out, ruffling his hair.

“Oi,” Nico batted her hand away, “don’t touch the hair- Will spent half an hour getting it into a ponytail.”

“Oh, he likes a man in a bun, does he?” Reyna raised an eyebrow. Nico flushed bright red and tried hard to keep in his laughter.

“Stop it, he’s only over there, he’ll hear you!” he complained, snorting a little through his nose.

Reyna let out a laugh too and finally settled into a stool next to Nico. Her eyes scanned the hall, taking in the appearance of all their remaining friends. The years hadn’t gone by without losses- one of the most significant being one of Nico and Reyna’s best friends, Jason Grace. His sister was here today with a few other Hunters that Percy and Annabeth knew well from their years of cooperation with them.

Nico tried not to think about their losses too much. He knew if he dwelled on the dead more than the living, he’d find himself right back in the mental state he was in when he lost Bianca. That was a place he never wanted to go back to.

“Piper’s doing well,” Reyna pointed out. It was true, Nico noted, as he glanced across the room and saw that other couples had started to spill onto the dance floor now Percy and Annabeth’s first dance was over. Piper had invited the daughter of Demeter she was currently seeing onto the dance floor and the two girls were twirling around and smiling. It was good to see the dark bags that had resided under her eyes over the past few years were finally dissipating.

“You are, too,” Nico reminded Reyna. Piper and Reyna both had a very long history with Jason and Reyna had seemed to everyone as if she’d recovered quite quickly from his loss. Nico knew her better, though. He knew she was still hurting a lot even if she didn’t want her legion to see it.

Reyna shrugged.

“All wars have losses. They’re never losses we’re prepared to make but we have no choice but to move forwards from the consequences,” she commented.

“Who’s Socrates, now?” Nico teased. Reyna rolled her eyes and smiled, taking a drink of champagne.

“Enough about that,” she batted the topic aside, “weren’t you going to put your big plan into action tonight?”

Nico sighed.

“I was but then I found out the wedding date and didn’t want to encroach. I’m not sure I’ll have the confidence, anyway,” he shrugged. Reyna raised a pointed eyebrow at him.

“These are all just excuses because you’re nervous. Percy and Annabeth won’t think it’s any such thing. You said yourself- tonight would be perfect, right? I say you still go for it,” she encouraged.

“I mean, I do have it on me but what if he-“ Nico started to voice his concerns when a flash of blond appeared in his field of vision. It appeared Nico’s boyfriend had finished his conversation with Hazel and Frank.

“Care to dance, dashing fellow,” Will Solace announced, bowing in front of Nico’s chair and offering his hand out. Nico took a moment to take his appearance in. Will had gone for an unusual choice of wedding attire, selecting a brown waistcoat with matching fitted pants over a baby blue shirt with a royal blue bowtie tightened snugly around his neck to match Nico’s tie that he’d been forced to wear for the event. His impish smile added to the outfit, making him look cuter than ever.

Nico snorted out a laugh and grabbed Will’s hand, hopping down from his stool.

“I suppose I could be tempted, on one condition,” Nico shrugged his shoulders.

“And what condition may that be?” Will asked, flashing Nico a grin.

Nico smirked back and gripped Will’s hand a bit tighter. In one swift movement, Nico slipped off his stool and put his arm around Will’s back, pressing his palm into the small of Will’s back and pulling him close against his chest.

“I get to lead,” Nico smirked, looking directly up into Will’s blue eyes.

“Sure,” Will responded breathlessly, his cheeks flushed red. Nico internally fist-pumped. His one mission in life was to make Will blush as much as possible and he was surprisingly very good at it as of late.

“Honestly,” Nico heard Reyna mutter behind him as he dragged Will onto the dance floor. As the two began dancing, Nico wondered if maybe Reyna had been right and he should go ahead with his previous plans for tonight. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, at all, it was just that he was… scared.

Nico pushed all thoughts of what he may or may not do that evening out of his head as Will leant down and whispered into Nico’s ear,

“Bets that Percy stands on Annabeth’s feet at least three times?”

Nico chuckled lowly underneath his breath as he spun Will around.

“Pretty sure I already saw him step on her toes four times. I reckon it will be eight times before she drags him off the dance floor,” he decided.

Will threw his head back a bit and laughed, capturing Nico’s full attention. Nico smiled at his boyfriend. He didn’t need to think about anything else with Will at his side.

Nico had sucked up all the courage he could muster and was going to do it. Reyna had given him the push he needed and he’d already texted Will to meet him at the top of Halfblood hill, just within the borders.

Whilst the new phones Leo had designed for them all were seemingly monster-proof, Nico still didn’t want to run any risks at all. Not tonight.

Now, here he was, pacing beside Thalia’s tree, half expecting the Lieutenant herself to appear and tell him to stop disturbing the soil above its roots.

No one did descend from the clouds, though, and Nico was left alone, waiting for Will. His boyfriend wasn’t late by any means- Nico didn’t think Will even could be late considering his promptness to every date the two had been on for the past six years- it was just that Nico was exceptionally early. His nerves had carried him to their meeting destination half an hour before the scheduled time.

Nico huffed out a laugh as he tried to dry the sweat on his hands using his jeans. He’d been dating Will for six whole years. It didn’t seem that long, really, although Nico also felt like someone could tell him he’d spent eternity with Will Solace and he wouldn’t argue. Still, six years was a long time for demigods when wars were seemingly around every corner.

The last few years had been relatively peaceful in comparison to the first few Nico spent outside the Lotus Casino. Nico was glad. He didn’t think he could cope with any more losses right now. He was still carrying the weight of all his other lost loved ones close to his chest, as were many of his other friends.

Will would be here soon, Nico noted, checking his watch for the twelfth time in the past ten minutes. He usually arrived at least ten minutes early so any second now, Nico would spot him walking up the hill.

Now that both of them had left Camp Halfblood, they lived in an apartment near Percy and Annabeth, near enough to both the mortal college Nico was attending and the hospital Will was interning at. Nico really didn’t understand how Will was still only an intern considering he’d had more medical experience than most doctors in the world and he was only twenty-one.

Nico still wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do with his life. Right now, he was very happy taking his degree in psychology. Nico had never imagined that he’d find himself attending school, never mind going on to college, but he’d found himself to actually enjoy the learning environment. Will was very proud of him too, not that that impacted his enjoyment of it in the slightest.

“Neeks, what’s got you looking so worried?” A soft voice startled Nico out of his thoughts as a hand encircled his wrist, gently. Nico stopped his pacing to come face to face with Will who had also changed out of his wedding attire, now sporting a light blue hoodie with a basketball shirt underneath. Nico nearly laughed out loud. Will didn’t even like basketball- especially with the number of arms he’d had to sew back on after particularly aggressive games at Camp Halfblood.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Just- anxious to show you this, I suppose,” Nico wormed his way around the truth. Will considered him with analytical eyes as if he was a particularly complex branch of the nervous system in one of Will’s many anatomy books.

“Alright, I’ll believe you for now but you’d better not be lying, di Angelo,” he conceded, taking a hold of the sides of Nico’s corduroy jacket to tug him in a bit closer.

“Why would I lie to you?” Nico mumbled. Will smiled, clearly pleased with his response, and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.

“Aren’t you boiling in that jacket?” Will asked when he pulled away. Nico went red in the cheeks. He honestly was way too warm in the thick jacket intended for Winter. Despite the Spring breeze, it was just too heavy, but Nico had once been gifted the jacket by Will and he wasn’t about to take it off for tonight.

“A little, but it’s night and I run cold so I wanted to be prepared,” Nico argued. Will laughed and stroked the sunshine embroidered on the pocket that he’d sewn on himself.

“You, sir, are the biggest dork I know,” Will accused, “but-“ he continued when Nico tried to interject, “it just makes me love you even more.”

Will placed on arm over Nico’s shoulder and kissed the top of his head as Nico began to lead them higher up the hill for the perfect viewpoint.

“Now who’s the dork,” Nico grumbled, glancing up at Will with way more adoration in his eyes than he’d intended.

The two walked in silence for a little bit, Nico analysing the sky until he finally decided on the perfect spot.

“Ok,” Nico announced, “here’s good.”

“Nico, I hate to break it to you, but we’re still in the middle of the hill,” Will pointed out, looking around him as if he expected to find some big surprise.

“You’re so impatient,” Nico complained, tugging Will’s hand to get him to sit down on the ground next to him, “do you trust me?”

Will’s eyes found his, softening under the gaze.

“Of course I do, death boy,” he promised. Nico smiled and nodded, checking his watch again. Once upon a time, he would have complained at the nickname, but he’d grown to love with over the years. Not that any of the others would find out- they still found a sword at their necks if they attempted to call him ‘Neeks’ or made a jab at his heritage. Will was just… Will. He got away with everything when it came to Nico.

“We have about ten minutes. Tell me about your day whilst we wait,” Nico insisted.

“Nico, you were with me for most of it,” Will snorted with laughter. Nico rolled his eyes.

“I know that, duh, but who did you catch up with at the wedding? How was your trip to the hospital before you came here?” Nico asked. Will sprawled himself out across Nico’s lap, gazing up at him cheekily.

“Aw, you care about me that much?” Will teased.

“No, I just want the gossip,” Nico shrugged. Will gasped in mock horror and Nico huffed a laugh, brushing stray hairs away from Will’s eyes as his boyfriend finally launched into the stories he’d been after.

“So I talked to Piper at the wedding first, when you went over to talk to Percy and Annabeth. I asked how she was doing with Carys and the two are doing well. Piper’s thinking of asking her to be her girlfriend soon which is cute. Apparently, Carys memorised her coffee order after only two dates and she brings her flowers every date,” Will started.

“That is cute,” Nico noted, “pretty sure you don’t even know my coffee order.”

“You don’t like coffee, you nerd. You get a small hot chocolate with almond milk in every café we go in,” Will proved, his face breaking into a grin.

“Wow,” Nico said satirically, “a man after my own heart.”

Will lightly hit his stomach in complaint before continuing his story.

“So after that, Carys came up and I said hi and made small talk but decided to leave the two alone so they could get to the good stuff,” Will said, causing Nico to snort at his phrasing, “so I went to talk to your sister and Frank, ask them how they were doing and stuff.”

“You were talking to them for way longer than that. What are you hiding?” Nico noticed. Will pouted.

“When did you get so good at reading me?” he complained.

“Somewhere between Apollo arriving at camp and that time you tried to convince me Lou Ellen and Cecil still weren’t dating despite the fact I’d seen them making out in front of the Hecate cabin,” Nico noted.

“Fine, Hazel did tell me something but she made me swear not to tell you, so I won’t,” Will conceded with a sigh.

“What? That’s so unfair, she usually tells me everything,” Nico huffed. Will shrugged.

“She wants it to be a surprise,” he pointed out. Nico wracked his brains to think of a way to prise the information out of Will when he had a perfect idea.

“Okay, you won’t tell me? I’ll tickle it out of you,” Nico decided and before Will could even jump up in protest, Nico had flipped himself onto all fours above Will and his hands were already tracing lightly up and down his abdomen.

“W-wait, Nico! N-no hahaha don’t p-please don’t,” Will stammered, wriggling around under Nico’s dancing fingertips. Nico grinned down at his boyfriend as he became a blushing, writhing mess. Watching Will come undone beneath his fingertips was something that always made Nico’s day, even if it was just tickling this time.

“Tell me, then, Solace,” Nico demanded.

“Nicoooo,” Will complained, breathing heavily as he attempted and failed to grab Nico’s hands and still them.

“Fine, fine! I’ll tell you, but you have to pretend you don’t know when she tells you herself,” Will spluttered, gasping for breath as Nico’s hands finally stilled.

Nico pulled Will back up to a sitting position but remained firmly in his lap, looking expectantly into Will’s eyes. He still couldn’t believe Hazel had told Will something before she’d told him. Will was practically already a part of the family.

“She’s pregnant,” Will whispered as if there were people around to overhear, “and Frank is going to ask her to marry him once the baby is born.”

“No way!” Nico yelled, jumping to his feet angrily, “I’m going to be an uncle and my own sister didn’t bother to tell me?”

Will laughed at Nico’s antics before the smaller boy dived back down and grabbed Will’s face, planting a hurried but intense kiss on his mouth.

“Thanks for telling me. I’m going to hold this against her forever when she tells me and you dramatically announce that you already knew. Then I’m going to look so betrayed and declare that she’s no sister of mine anymore.”

“You are so overdramatic. I can’t believe how grumpy and quiet you used to be,” Will laughed, pulling Nico back into his side. Nico finally sighed and settled in. He was still struggling to comprehend the information. He was going to be an Uncle and his sister had wanted to keep it secret from him.

“There’s more,” Will added. Nico looked at him a little frenzied.

“What could possibly top that news?” he asked.

“Hades has invited all four of us to the Underworld to celebrate the birth of his grandson,” Will sighed. Nico’s heart sped up a little in panic. Will and the Underworld was not a good combination, as Nico recently discovered.

The first time Will went to the Underworld was the Spring after Hades had invited him. Nico had figured it was safest to take him when Persephone wasn’t around. Nico wished he’d remained as cautious.

Will usually visited the Underworld every Spring. Hades was gradually attempting to infiltrate more and more of Nico’s life and, as he constantly reiterated, apparently Nico’s love life was integral. However, after Will officially finished his course and was allowed to intern at the hospital that Autumn=, Hades invited the pair down for a meal.

It turns out, Persephone does not like children of Apollo and children of Apollo are surprisingly adept at killing plants. Nico really hadn’t been expecting an invite back ever again.

“Are we going?” Nico asked, uncertainly. Will raised an eyebrow.

“I have no problem if she doesn’t mind,” he shrugged.

“Will, every time I go down there she asks me if I’ve broken up with you yet. She’s even actively sought me out whilst out of the Underworld to tell me to get rid of you,” Nico smirked.

“Really?” Will asked and his eyes looked surprisingly bright. It was almost as if he was proud of finally having found an immortal enemy.

“Yes. She still hates you,” Nico assured him. He pretended not to notice the small fist pump Will did out of respect for his boyfriend’s reputation.

“We could always just suggest we have the meal in the summer months, anyway, even if the baby’s born when Persephone’s there,” Will shrugged. Nico raised an eyebrow.

“That seems a bit illogical. It would just be a meal for the sake of a meal,” he pointed out. Will shrugged.

“Hades has a surprisingly good chef. I don’t mind.”

Nico shook his head in exasperation when suddenly, a bright light caught his attention.

“Will, it’s starting,” he gasped excitedly.

“What’s starting?” Will queried. Nico grinned at him.

“There’s a meteor shower tonight. I brought you here so we could watch it,” he explained. Will gasped up at the sky as another light shot across it and then turned to smile at Nico.

“You’re such a sap,” he pointed out, “but thank you. This is a nice surprise.”

Nico curled up against Will’s side with his head on his shoulder as Will rested his own head on Nico’s, gazing up at the sky as he curled his arm around Nico’s back. It strangely reminded Nico of the position they’d been in the very first time they sat together to watch the sky. It had been a campfire night and Will had invited Nico. Nico had been so tired he hadn’t even registered what he’d been doing when he curled up against Will. Knowing what he knew now, he supposed Will hadn’t minded.

The two watched the meteors flash across the sky in silence for a while before Will spoke up.

“I can sense that there’s a reason you brought me to the meteor shower. Like, I feel as though I’ve forgotten an inside joke or something,” he muttered. Nico shifted slightly to turn and face him.

“Well, it was a long time ago, now, but when we first went to the campfire together during the summer we got together, I was so sleepy I traced your freckles and tried to tell you that they looked like a myriad of stars,” Nico smiled, bringing his finger up to once again trace Will’s freckles, “now the stars remind me of you so I wanted to bring you to see this.”

Will’s eyes melted as he gazed back at Nico.

“Every time I think you can’t get any more romantic, you go and pull off something like this. How am I supposed to top this?” he sighed, moving to cup Nico’s face. Nico felt his heart rate increase tenfold. Will had given him a perfect opening. The meteor shower was still raining above them in the stars. Now was the time.

The small, black box in his jacket pocket felt as if it was burning a hole through the fabric.

“Well,” Nico started, noting how short his breath was, “you could say yes.”

“What?” Will asked in confusion, his eyes going wide as he watched Nico get to his feet. Nico pulled the box out of his pocket and knelt down onto one knee, opening the box to present the ring he’d spent hours pondering over with Piper, Reyna and Annabeth. There was no backing down, now.

“William Solace,” he started, glancing at Will tentatively and noticing that he already had tears forming in his eyes, “when I first met you, I thought you were an idiot. Not because you were stupid, but because, for some strange reason, you wanted to be friends with me. You were persistent, infuriating and I thought I’d manage to scare you away within a day. I’d clearly underestimated just how persistent and infuriating you were because you stuck around. You always have stuck around. I was in such a dark place when you first met me and you stuck around to help pull me out. Whenever I doubted myself, you stuck around and assured me that I was safe, that I was enough and that I was loved. When someone sticks around that much, it’s hard not to fall in love with them, and falling in love with you was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done in my life. I fall more in love with you every day and-“ Nico paused to sniff. He was crying. “-and I want that to continue for the rest of my life. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want to wake up every morning with you by my side so I can tell you how incredible you are, how kind you are, how impressive you are and how amazing your mom’s pancakes are. I promise that’s not the only reason why I’m asking this, but Will, will you marry me?”

Nico wiped his eyes with his free hand the second he finished only to see Will in a similar state, tears pouring freely down his cheeks.

“Nico,” he sighed, “do you even have to ask? Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes I will marry you and I am so mad that you beat me to it but I suppose I can forgive you because of the speech you just gave.”

“I’ve had it memorised for a month,” Nico laughed through his tears. Will’s laughter soon joined his own and before he could even move to stand up or sit down, Will had leapt on top of him and was kissing him. It was salty and messy and their lips were hardly touching because of how much they were both laughing, but Nico didn’t think they’d ever shared a more perfect kiss.

“You are so incredible, Nico di Angelo. I love you so much,” Will announced when the two finally finished laughing. Nico pushed them up into a sitting position rather than being sprawled out on the grass.

“I love you too,” he added. Will glanced down at the ring still stored in the little box Nico had been clutching so tightly.

“This is beautiful. I hope you like the one I bought for you,” Will sighed as Nico took his hand and gently slid the ring onto his finger.

“You already bought me one?” Nico asked. Will rolled his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Obviously!” he said, “you’re not the only one that wanted to get married, y’know.”

“I’m glad,” Nico smiled, resting his head against Will’s. Will cupped his cheek and pressed their lips together once again, his lips curving up against Nico’s in a smile.

This time, Nico kissed him back properly rather than laughing, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend- no, fiancé-’s neck to pull him closer. Will wrapped his arms around Nico’s waist, his thumbs sliding underneath Nico’s shirt so that he could slide a hand up onto Nico’s bare back.

Nico could feel the cold metal of Will’s new ring on his finger against his skin. He pressed further into the kiss, holding Will as tightly as he could. Right there, Nico wasn’t afraid of the future at all. He was going to marry Will. For a son of Hades, Nico’s life was pretty incredible.

He wouldn’t change one bit of it for the world.

#solangelo #percy jackson #solangelo fanfic #my fanfic #my writing #myriad of stars #a myriad of stars #percy jackson fanfic #nico di angelo #will solace #my fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction

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fallfromthaliagrace · 4 years

Text

Percy Jackson’s Birthday Pt.2

“ Let get this party started!!!” yelled Leo as he ran into the ocean. The crowd laughed and followed what Leo was doing, while some were hanging out next to food bar, others hangout on deck chair getting a tan. Percy take out his surf that Sally got him, being the son of Poseidon surfing naturally came to him. Yet, that didn’t stop Leo from challenging Percy to a surfing race. Needless to say, Leo lost.

“ Hey! You cheated!” said Leo,

“ Sure, Leo.” Said Percy as he rolled his eyes.

Leo and Percy stared at each other for a minute, then started to laugh uncontrollably. About five minutes later, the laughing stopped due to the fact that Leo and Percy had food stuff in their mouth. Percy was eating a cheeseburger while Leo was eating some pepperoni pizza. After eating, both of their stomachs were full of goods. Leo and Percy sat next to Piper, Annabeth, and Calypso, drinking a blueberry smoothie.

“ Annabeth,” asked Leo, “ Wanna see who is a better builder?”

“ At what?” replied Annabeth whose eyebrows were raised

“ Sandcastles.” Said Leo

“ You are so going to lose, Leo.” said Annabeth

“ Are you sure about that?” replied Leo

Annabeth nodded, “ Yep, you better watch out.”

“ Leo, I don’t really think you should -” Said Piper

“ Pips, whose side are you on?” asked Annabeth

Piper looked at Leo then Annabeth, “ You know what, I am going to find Jason.” And with that, Piper left to find Jason.

“ Percy, you are on my side right?” asked Annabeth

“ Calypso, You on team Leo?” asked Leo

Percy and Calypso nodded.

“ Okay, Let get started then -”

“ Wait, instead of Team Leo or like Team Annabeth, you guys should go team Althea and Team Hephaestus.” Said Percy

“ I like that idea, how about you?” asked Leo

Annabeth nodded her head in approval, clearly ready to beat Leo. Leo counted down to three, “ Let the contest begin.”

It has been a good hour, everyone had crowded around Annabeth and Leo to see their sandcastles. Both of their sandcastles were beautifully made yet similar. At the top of Annabeth’s sandcastles, there is a big A carved into the sand while Leo craved Hephaestus into the sand. Annabeth and Leo both had their own unique style to building their sandcastles, Leo built his dad next to his sandcastle and Annabeth made an owl and olive tree next to her sandcastle.

“ Done!” Said Leo and Annabeth at the exact same time.

“ who is going to decide who wins?” asked Annabeth

“ Percy? As it is his birthday.” Said Leo

“ Okay then, Percy.” Said Annabeth, “ Go head, pick a winner.”

Percy couldn’t pick between his girlfriend and best friend, yet if he didn’t pick, Annabeth would be mad. So, instead of picking who wins, Percy decided to call it a tie.

“ Both of you did amazing, I couldn’t choose.” Said Percy

Annabeth smiled and kissed Percy. The crowd cheered and went to look at the sandcastles more closely.

Later, Percy played Volleyball with Nico, Will, Piper, Jason, Thalia, Leo, Clarisse, Hazel. . They even played capture the flag on beach, Annabeth, ( as the leader) Will, Leo, Percy, on the blue team while Clarisse, ( as the leader) Piper, Jason, Hazel and Nico is on the red team. The blue team won. After that, the sevens decided to do something helpful for the world, they picked up the trash on the beach. Percy was disgusted by how much trash there were on the beach.

Everyone was having the greatest time of their life, everyone chatting with one and other. The night sky was navy blue, it was 9:27 when Percy was talking to Jason.

“ Percy?” Said Sally as she tapped Percy’s shoulder, “ Paul, Estelle, and I are going back home.”

“ Why?” asked Percy as he stepped away from Jason telling him he will back.

“ Estelle fell asleep and Paul has work tomorrow morning.” Said Sally as she turned over to see Paul holding Estelle’s sleeping body.

“ Oh okay.” whispered Percy trying to not wake up Estelle. Paul gave Estelle to Percy, Percy hugged Estelle and kissed her on the forehead. Percy gave Estelle to Sally, and hugged Paul. “ Thank you, Thank you for everything.” Said Percy.

“ Paul, dear, can you please take Estelle to the car.” Said Sally as she handed Estelle to Paul, “ I will be there in a couple of minutes.”

Paul nodded and left, leaving Sally and Percy alone.

“ Mom, I love you,” said Percy, “ I am sorry for all those times where I would leave without telling you, Mom, I -”

“ Percy,”

“ No, Mom, you sacrificed everything for me and you even married Gabe for a decade just for me. You would do anything to get me safe -”

“ Percy, that just what mothers do, they protect their kids from dangers and did anything for them.” Said Sally as she wiped her tears, “ and I am proud to call you my son, Percy, you are a brave boy.”

“ Mom -”

“ Percy, listen to me.” Said Sally, “ I would do anything for you, just as long as you are happy.”

“ Percy, you mean the world to me and your sister too.” said Sally as she pulled Percy into a hug.

“ You Guys are my sunshine, pride of joy, and happiness.” Said Sally, “ Perseus Jackson, I love you.”

“ I love you too, mom,” said Percy, and they stood there, hugging each other.

“ Hey Percy! What do you want to do with your present?” asked Nico then realizing Percy was in the middle of something, “ oh wait, was I Interrupting something?”

Percy released Sally, “ Oh, not all Nico.”

“ Sorry, it's just that, the party is ending and Annabeth was wondering what you are going to do about the present.”

“ Take It home, I guess?” Said Percy as he raised his eyebrows

“ Yeah, but Percy, there many presents that you can’t possibly fit in to a taxi.” Said Nico pointing to Percy’s birthday gifts underneath a tree.

“ Oh, um, -”

“ Percy, I can take the gifts to your house.” Said Sally as she walked closer to the tree.

“ Mom, you don’t have to!” Said Percy

“ Percy, Like Nico said, you can’t put all those presents in taxi.” Said Sally, “ and beside on the way to the house, we passed by your apartment.

“ Okay.” Said Percy

Percy and Nico help Sally with the present. It was difficult to get the heavy sculpture wall piece into the car but with some help from Paul, they were able to get into the car. Soon enough, they got all of Percy’s gifts in the car and was ready to leave.

Someone had come out of the beach, yelling Nico’s name. Of course it was Will. Apparently. Will was looking for Nico because He got Nico’s favorite smoothie and couldn’t find him. Nico asked Percy if he was coming.

“ Nico, go ahead.” Said Percy, “ I will be there in a couple of mins.”

Nico nodded, and took Will’s hand and headed toward the beach. Percy turned around to face Sally, who was smiling at him.

“ Mom, I love you” Said Percy as he hugged Sally

“ I love you too,” Said Sally, “ I hope you had a fun birthday, me and annabeth worked very hard on it.”

“ Mom, it was the best birthday ever.” Said Percy

Sally smiled and hugged Percy. Percy said goodbye to Sally and Paul. Percy watched as Paul, Sally, and Estelle drive away.

The city sunset was fading, and it almost time for everyone to leave for start tomorrow. As the last thing, Percy wanted to do was to relive old memories at camp half blood when it was night. The night sky came, everyone sat by the campfire and sang like old times when they were young. It was a magical night.

Before everyone could leave, Percy went up on stage and pick up the microphone.

“ Before everyone leaves, I just wanted to say, thank you so much for everything, every one of you guys have been so important in my life.” said Percy, “ I don’t know what I would do if you guys weren’t in my life.”

“ That all I wanted to say, I love you guys.” said Percy as he placed the microphone back into its place, “ Goodnight!”

The beach was almost completely empty, the sevens plus Grover and Thalia had decided to stay a little bit longer. Together, they sat near the water, watching the waves come and go. Jason and Piper lay next to each other, looking at the stars. While Nico rested his head on Hazel’s shoulder, the same with Annabeth and Percy. Frank was sitting with a smoothie in his hand and Leo building a sandcastle. Thalia was braiding her hair and Grover was chewing on some Diet Coke. Calypso had left as she was tired and Will had to go to work tomorrow.

“ I can’t believe it has been 10 years.” said Percy as he stroked Annebeth’s hair

“ Yeah, crazy it is?” asked Nico

“ Totally is, it was like yesterday I met you.” said Annabeth as she looked into Percy’s green eyes, “ Seaweed brain.”

“ Then, Percy had to go on this crazy quest to get Zeus’s lightning bolt because Zeus accuses Percy of stealing the lightning bolt.” said Grover

“ Turned out, Luke stole it and He and Ares were plotting to bring back the Kronos.” continued Frank

“ But Percy stopped them, and retrieved the lightning bolt and saved the world from a war.” finished Jason

“ After that quest, Percy had an other -“

“ Guys,” said Nico, “ Look at the stars.”

Everyone looked at the sky, a constellation had appeared in the sky. Thalia gasped and placed her hand over her mouth. Annabeth’s eyes started to fill with tears. Up at the sky was a constellation that Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover instantly realized as they were there when the constellation was made by Artemis.

Up at the sky, where the dark blue and the blue clashed was the constellation, “ the hunteress.” The Hunteress, Zoe Nightshade, a tall, graceful, beautiful, and a loyal huntress of Artemis who sacrifice herself to save Percy. The huntress raise her bow and release her arrow. The arrow flew across the sky, the arrow slowing turned into a shooting star. The shooting star was red, then white, and finally blue and disappeared into outer space.

Percy looked at his friends after seeing such a magnificent sight, Annabeth had tears in her eyes and the same for Thalia, Thalia’s face was soaked with tears. Grover was weeping quietly. While Nico, Leo, Frank, Piper, Jason and Hazel was awed yet had tears in their eyes. They had heard of the quest that Zoe, Thalia, Grover, Bianca, and Percy went on to save Artemis and how Zoë knew that prophecy was talking about her yet she still decided to come. Percy wiped his and Annabeth’s tears away, and looked up in the sky. Percy saw as the constellation slowly disappeared but Percy could have sworn that Zoe smiled at him before disappeared into the dark night sky.

“ Th-at, That was truly,” said Annabeth

“ Beautiful.” finished Thalia, “ It was truly beautiful.”

“ That was a shooting star,” said Grover, “ shooting stars means positive energy and good luck for anyone who sees it.”

Everyone looked at the sky, then at each other. A moment of silence.

“ Hey Guys, do you know Leo is a constellation?” asked Leo

“ Really?” asked everyone expect for Thalia

“ Yeah, The name Leo is associated with fire.” said Leo as he started to some fire.

“ Leo! Don’t burn anything down.” said Nico, “ Or else, Percy had to put you out.”

“ Again.” said Thalia

“ Thalia? Did you know that Leo was a constellation?” asked Hazel

“ Yep, Leo is one of the zodiac, Leo is between the Cancer and Virgo.” said Thalia, “ Leo’s symbolizes lion and it means lion in Latin.”

Everyone looked at her, confused. They didn’t know that Thalia was into astrology, yeah she is a hunter and all but she never really told anyone she was into the stars.

“ What?” asked Thalia as knowledge everyone’s stares toward her

“ You never told us that you were into astrology.” replied Piper

Thalia only shrugged, then check her phone. The screen showed 10: 24. Thalia furrowed her eyebrows together, and close her phone.

“ Sorry Guys,” said Thalia as she stood up, “ Febe texted me, saying I need to come back!”

Thalia brushed off the sand on her pants, said goodbye before leaving. Right then and there, a ring pop on Grover’s phone.

“ Juniper says that I should probably come back to camp hill blood right now as it takes a long time to drive back.” Said Grover, “ and that she is getting worried.”

“ Grover, you should probably go then!” Said Piper, “ Before you worried juniper too much!”

Grover looked at Percy, who nodded and stood up to hug Grover.

“ Thank you for sticking for so long, I love you.” said Percy

“ I love you Percy , goodnight everyone!” said Grover and left.

The Sevens started to talked about their quest they had been on, the quest to free Hera, the quest to free Thanatos, the quest for Athena Parthenos, the quest to the dark on death, the quest for the Physician’s Cure, and of course all the quest, Percy has been on. They even talked about the prophecy, as they got deeper with the talk. Percy felt himself the time had flown past as it now 11:09.

“ Guys, can we stop talking about this?” said Percy out of the blue , “ It brings back horrible memories.”

Everyone quickly came quiet, all of them felt bad for talking about the quest when it was Percy’s birthday. Leo looked at the sea, Piper checkout her pink and red nails, Hazel and Nico looked up into the sky full of stars, Jason suddenly becoming really interested with the rock in the sand, while Annabeth looked at Percy with a saw soft look on her face. Percy suddenly feeling bad for making them sad.

“ Sorry.” said Percy quietly

“ Percy,” said Annabeth, “ Don’t be sorry, We should be the one saying sorry.”

“ Yeah, Sorry Percy.” said Nico, “ It your birthday too.”

Piper, Jason, Hazel, Leo, and Frank, said sorry, clearly feeling bad for talking about the horrible memories Percy had to go through. Of course, they didn’t mean to talking about it, it just somehow came up their minds. So, instead of the bad memories they talked about the good memories.

They talked for a good twenty minutes, when the group noticed the Piper wasn’t talking like she usually is. They found Piper asleep on Jason’s shoulder.

“ I mean, I know why she is asleep.” said Hazel quietly, “ It literally 11:34.”

“ Jason, you should probably take her home,” said Frank, “ Piper need her beauty sleep.”

Jason quietly laughed, trying to not wake Piper up. “ Goodnight!”

As time passed, the seven started to leave to go home. Leaving Annabeth and Percy, the only on the beach. It is now 11:41, getting closer to not being Percy’s birthday anymore. Annabeth and Percy was talking about how the day went.

“ Perc, we should go home.” said Annabeth as she stood up, “ it also midnight.”

“ Okay, Can I first saying goodbye?” Said Percy as he point to the ocean

“Of course, I'm going to call the taxi.” Said Annabeth

Percy nodded, Annabeth exited the beach leaving Percy only on the beach. Percy walked closer to the ocean, the feeling the sea to call out to him, the feeling of home. Percy touched the salty water, he suddenly felt more awake and stronger.

“ Dad? I don’t know if you are going to hear this but I just wanted to say thank you, Thank you for giving me my life.”

Annabeth came back to the beach, “ Percy! the taxi is here.”

“ Okay!” yelled back Percy,

“ I love you.” Whispered Percy to the sea

With that, Percy left the beach with Annabeth. Ready to go back to their cozy apartment, Percy took one more glance at the sea, the ocean shine in the moonlight. The taxi pulled away from the beach, Percy smiled at the ocean full of blue.

The beach was now empty, well not really. From afar distance, a curly black hair man who had a muscular body. The man had blue eyes, elfish features, and sly grin came down from the sky with a package, no, two packages. Then, there was a cloud of smoke, when the cloud of smoke faded. The man had disappeared.

When Percy and Annabeth, got back to their apartment, Percy opened the door and quickly went to the bathroom. While Annabeth noticed two packages addressed to Percy. Curious, Annabeth picked up the package and placed them on the table and locked the door.

“ Percy?” asked Annabeth, “ Did you ordered something?”

Percy shook his head as he came out of the bathroom, “ No, why you ask?”

“ Well, there are two packages on the table.” Said Annebeth as she picked up one of the boxes.

“ Really? I didn’t order anything, Maybe it was you who ordered it.” asked Percy as he walked over to the table.

“ No, It has your name on it.” said Annabeth as she handed Percy one of the boxes, “ This one has your full name on it, it could only be -”

“ Dad.” said Percy as he grabbed the scissors on the table and rips the box opened.

Inside the box, was a picture frame of Poseidon, Tyson, and Percy posing in the Aquarium.. It was one of the rarest occasions where Poseidon would take Percy and Tyson on trips but that day will always remain in Percy’s heart. With the picture, was a short letter from Poseidon, saying, Happy Birthday, Percy. I love you.

Percy smiled, and placed the box back on the table. Annabeth had opened the other boxes and was reading a letter. Annabeth smiled to herself as she read the letter.

“ Annie? Who is it from?” asked Percy as he sat down on the floor next to Annabeth

“ It from Camp Halfblood, Apparently, Chiron felt bad for missing the party as he had to stay in duty so he sent you a gift.” Said Annabeth, she handed Percy the box.

“ Oh, he didn’t have to.” said Percy as he examined the box.

The box was an orange box with a brown bow, inside the box was another white box with a blue ribbon. Surrounding the box, was a bunch of notes, curious, Percy picked up one of the notes. Happy Birthday Percy! — Connor Stoll. Something clicked into Percy’s mind.

“ Wait, is all of these letter from -” said Percy

“ Yes, Percy.” said Annabeth, “ Everyone at camp halfblood wrote you a happy birthday card.”

“ That, That so sweet, when we go back, remind me to say thank you” Said Percy, “ Wait, no. I should write them a letter.”

Percy grabbed some paper and placed it on the table. Percy was trying to find a pen and was having no luck.

“ Hey Perc, Maybe you should look at Chiron’s gift.” Said Annabeth

Percy looked confused yet he still opened Chiron’s gift, inside the box was a pen and a letter. Percy took the note and read it.

Dear Percy,

I have gotten you a pen for your birthday as it marks the 10 year anniversary since the first quest. Today is a very special day in Olympic and here in the mortal world. It was like yesterday, I gave you the riptie not knowing how much greatness you would bring to the world. Like I said in the letter, I am sorry I couldn’t be there for your birthday, everyone at camp is getting ready for another year of school. I hope you a fun birthday.

Signed, Chiron

P.S. the pen is actually works, not a sword.

Percy smiled, and took the pen to write camp hill blood, a letter. After, he placed the pen back into its original spot and put the letter into an envelope to be mailed out tomorrow.

Percy came back and tackled annabeth with a hug, “ Thank you for the best birthday ever.”

Annabeth kissed Percy, “ I can’t wait till next year”

Late in the Night, when the city’s asleep, Percy and Annabeth were cuddling by the window with the mermaid blanket that piper got him. Percy, thinking how lucky he was, Percy has an amazing family who loves him dearly, Percy has friends who stuck with him, Percy has wonderful girlfriend who he loves and makes him happy everyday. Percy is lucky enough to live another day. Percy looked at the night sky, the stars are shining, the moon is brightest it has ever been, the moon reminds Percy of Annabeth’s stormy grey eyes.

“ Perc?” asked Annabeth, “ You alright?”

“ Yeah,” Said Percy as he smiled at Annabeth, “ Just thinking how lucky I am.”

“ I love you.” Said Annabeth, “ Seaweed Brain.”

“ I love you too.” said Percy, “ Wise girl.”

part two of my one shot!! :)

#leo valdez #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #hazel levesque #frank zhang #jason grace #thalia grace #zoe nightshade #piper mclean #nico di angelo #will solace #solangeo #posideon #happybirthday #grover underwood #juniper #seaweed brain #wise girl

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buoyantsaturn · 4 years

Text

Riding Bikes Across the Street Without Looking Either Way (1/1)

summary: “Ah, Nico, pour me a drink would you?” Hades said. “I’d do it myself, but the bottles keep moving out from under my hand.”

Nico stopped about ten feet away from him, scratching uncomfortably at his forearm as he muttered, “Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”

word count: 5,083

WARNINGS: physical and emotional abuse, self-harm, alcoholism, violence

read on ao3

It was a few days after Christmas, but Nico and Hades still felt the effects of the anniversary of Bianca’s death, clinging to them at every moment and wrapping around their hearts and squeezing like a rubber band. This time of year was always harder on them than usual - Nico more than Hades, though Hades liked to play the victim rather than the victimizer when he started drinking.

Usually it was just the occasional off-handed comment - “If only Bianca were here,” with a pointed look Nico’s way, just in case he hadn’t been feeling guilty enough already - but sometimes his words were much more pointed - “She would still be here if it weren’t for you,” more often than not said with a drunken slur to his words. He never started throwing punches when Hazel or Persephone were in the room, as though even the alcohol wouldn’t let him forget that he couldn’t leave witnesses to his abuse. It was just his words against Nico’s then - and the bruises that Nico struggled to hide from his sister.

The passing of the holiday usually brought them both out of their bad moods. Nico finally regained the energy to leave the house, at least for long enough that he could attend Christmas Mass with his family, and Hades’s drinking tended to slow down on Christmas Day.

When Hades came stumbling into the house late on the twenty-seventh, though, Nico’s heart stopped. If Hades was still drinking so heavily, then things would only get worse for Nico.

“Nico!” Hades called, and Nico flinched, but didn’t move. “I know you’re awake, Niccolo! You come when I call you!”

He would rather run and hide, actually, but he knew that if he didn’t listen to his father, then Hades would just keep shouting until he woke Hazel and Persephone, and Nico didn’t want them to interact with him in this state. Nico rose from the couch and followed the sound of Hades’s voice until he found his father leaning against one wall, staring down the table of expensive liquors across from him.

“Ah, Nico, pour me a drink would you?” Hades said. “I’d do it myself, but the bottles keep moving out from under my hand.”

Nico stopped about ten feet away from him, scratching uncomfortably at his forearm as he muttered, “Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”

Hades lifted his head slowly, his eyes locking on Nico and narrowing. “What did you say to me?”

Nico’s hand tightened around his arm, the sharp pain of his nails digging into the skin reminding him of the pain that would come if he didn’t keep his mouth shut, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. “You’ve had enough.”

With one hand on the wall to brace himself, Hades started toward Nico, tripping over his own feet on the first few steps. “Is that any way to treat your father?” he snarled.

Nico’s head snapped up, and he glared, gaze unbreaking, into his father’s eyes. “Is this any way to treat her memory?”

The sting from the open-palmed slap on Nico’s cheek should’ve been expected, but he was surprised nonetheless. He tried not to show it on his face, or in any part of him, and kept his face turned away even as Hades grabbed the front of his shirt to yank him forward. Nico could smell the alcohol on his breath as he hissed, “You don’t get to tell me how to treat her memory, you little shit. Not when it’s your fault she’s dead!”

“It wasn’t my fault,” Nico whispered, unaware that he’d said the words out loud until Hades slapped him across the face once more - the other cheek, to even things out.

“You look just like her,” Hades said, his voice softening, though his grip didn’t. “You, Bianca, Maria. You all look the same. But I’d rather have either of them than you. It should’ve been you.” He hefted Nico up by the front of his shirt and tossed him aside, toward the display of liquor. “Pour me a drink and get out of my face.”

Nico did. And then he ran.

Nico hid in his room for a few hours, unable to sleep, but unable to make himself get out of bed, either. Not when there was a possibility that Hades was still stumbling around on the main floor of the house, waiting for his favorite target to reappear. It wasn’t until sometime after three in the morning that Nico finally crept out of his room, just with the intention of heading to the bathroom, but on his way back to his bedroom, he heard the rumbling snores that signified Hades had finally passed out.

Nico tiptoed down the stairs, unsure of where Hades had fallen asleep but wanting to be cautious in case he wasn’t out cold. He found Hades sprawled out on the couch, still fully dressed all the way down to the loafers he’d worn to work. Carefully and quietly, Nico sneaked closer to his father in order to retrieve his laptop from the coffee table. When he knew he was in the clear, Nico hurried back toward the stairs, though he hesitated in the hall as he passed the liquor display.

He glanced back over his shoulder. Hades was sound asleep, so there was no way he would notice if something happened to one of the bottles. And there was a full wine cellar underneath his feet that very moment. What could be the harm in taking a couple of bottles?

Nico tucked his laptop under his arm and grabbed the two glass bottles - decanters, he thought Hades had called them once before - and carried them away. He took them to the kitchen and set them on the counter, putting his laptop aside before he opened the first decanter and poured its contents down the drain. A moment later, he did the same with the second decanter, then replaced the bottles exactly where he’d found them before he retrieved his laptop from the kitchen and ran up the stairs, his nervous pulse pounding in his ears.

One Week Ago

FROM: Percy; You need to get out of there, dude. And now that Hazel’s at school, you don’t need to stay behind just for her. I don’t want you getting hurt anymore.

A Few Days Ago

FROM: Percy; Merry Christmas, Nico! Any updates?

Yesterday

FROM: Percy; Can you at least text me back so I know you’re not dead?

Today

TO: Percy; i think i messed up. big time.

Nico would have slept the day away if Hazel hadn’t come to wake him. She burst into his room sometime after noon and jumped on his bed, startling him awake and causing his heart to stop until Nico realized who it was.

Not Hades. It’s Hazel. It’s okay, I’m safe.

His heart rate spiked for a moment as he realized that he had no idea what his face looked like after taking a few hits the night before, so rather than sitting up, Nico tucked his face into his pillow and dragged his blanket up to his ears. “What do you want?” he groaned.

“I’m only here for another few days,” Hazel reminded him, poking him in the sides in an attempt to get him to move. “What’s the point in hanging around here if you’re just going to sleep all the time?” Hazel flopped on top of her brother. “Spend time with me!”

“Okay, okay!” Nico shouted as he attempted to roll Hazel off of him. “Give me a minute to wake up, would you? I’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes.”

“Ugh, fine,” Hazel replied. She hopped off the bed and started toward the door, but Nico stopped her before she could reach it.

“Hey, uh… Dad isn’t here, is he?”

“No, he left for work a few hours ago.”

“Did he seem...mad?”

“No.” Hazel leaned back against the closed door and rolled her eyes. “Hungover, but not mad.”

“Okay.” Nico took a breath. “Get out, let me get dressed. I wanna go out for breakfast.”

“I think you mean lunch,” Hazel pointed out. “But as long as you’re buying, I won’t complain!”

Finally, Hazel left the room, closing the door again behind herself, and Nico dragged himself out of bed. He grabbed his phone off the nightstand where he’d left it to charge while he slept, and opened up the camera. His cheeks were slightly pink, though that was probably just from sleep, and he didn’t notice any visible bruises even if he could feel them. His mouth stretched out in a yawn, and his jaw clicked as though realigning from the slaps he’d taken.

He got dressed quickly and went downstairs to find Hazel. “Ready to go?” he asked, and Hazel followed him to the door. “How do you feel about stopping by the store while we’re out? We could get some snacks or something for you to keep in your dorm this semester.”

“I can buy my own snacks,” Hazel told him.

“Fine,” Nico said. He stepped into his shoes and grabbed his keys. “Anything else you need? Shoes, a new coat? Do you have enough money in your bank account? Because I can transfer--”

“I’m good, Neeks,” Hazel told him, shoving at his shoulder as she started out the door. “Besides, if I need anything, I’m barely an hour from home. I can just swing by here when I have time, or you could bring me anything I forgot. Part of the reason I chose this school was because it’s so close to home, you know.”

Nico swallowed around a lump in his throat. “Right. I knew that.”

They stayed out for a while, spending about an hour at the restaurant where Hazel had lunch and Nico had breakfast, then Nico allowed Hazel to drag him around from store to store at the nearest mall. They didn’t end up buying anything, despite how often Nico offered, and returned home just in time to stop Persephone from cooking dinner. Nico took her place in the kitchen and made a meal for three after Persephone told him that Hades was “working late” again that night, which Nico took to mean swung by the bar after work and won’t be home for a few more hours.

Hazel went off to her room to finish up some packing to prepare herself to head back to her dorm, and Persephone insisted that she wash the dishes since Nico cooked. That freed Nico up to bring his laptop down to the living room and work on his writing. He hadn’t started his online college classes until Hazel had, and like her he was between semesters at the moment, but that just gave him more time to do some free writing. It was one of the only things he’d ever felt like he was good at - whether it be academic papers, fictional stories, or articles for his high school’s newspaper - but he still couldn’t decide what exactly he wanted to do. In the meantime, he typically spent his free time writing whatever came to mind - fiction, this time.

He’d gotten himself so caught up in the story he’d written that he hardly even noticed the passing of time. Hazel had come by at some point to spend more time with him, but when he’d been mostly unresponsive, she’d said her goodnight and headed off to bed. He could only guess that Persephone had gone to sleep as well, though he knew for certain that Hades had not yet returned home. Regardless of how zoned out Nico was, it was hard to miss the slamming of the front door and stomping footsteps that signaled his drunken father’s arrival.

When the front door finally did slam shut, Nico’s blood went cold. He wanted to run for the stairs, but then he would have been in a direct line of sight from the foyer. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hide from Hades forever, anyway.

“Nico!” Hades shouted, and oh God, he sounded angry. “Niccolo Vincenzo, what happened to my scotch? Nico!”

Nico considered the chances he would be able to run upstairs unheard and barricade his bedroom door. He even thought about calling the cops to finally get Hades caught in the act, but then Hades shouted for him again.

Nico stood, and went to his father. He kept a safe distance between them again, larger than before, but he knew it wouldn’t do much to help. He kept his gaze down and locked the fingers of his right hand around his left wrist, prepared to keep his mouth shut.

Hades lifted one of the decanters and held it out for Nico to see. “Look at this! Do you see something missing?”

“The scotch,” Nico murmured.

“Speak up!”

“The scotch is gone,” Nico tried again, louder this time but maintaining a monotone voice. He squeezed his own wrist. “Are you sure you didn’t drink it all?”

“This bottle was half full last night!” Hades screamed. “I know my limits, and I know I didn’t drink all of it, so tell me what happened!”

Nico dug his fingernails into his skin, but that didn’t stop his next words from spilling out. “I poured it out!” he shouted back, squeezing his eyes shut. “I dumped it all down the drain! It’s gone, and you’re never getting it back!”

He should have kept his eyes open, so he would have seen Hades approaching. He could have watched as Hades adjusted his grip around the neck of the bottle in his hand, and would have had plenty of time to run, but instead his eyes stayed firmly shut until the last moment. After a few moments of no response, Nico looked at his father just as Hades swung the glass bottle, connecting to the side of Nico’s head with a sickening crack!

Nico’s body crumbled to the floor, and Hades stepped over his motionless body on his way to the wine cellar.

Nico’s head was pounding. He didn’t want to open his eyes, because he was almost certain the room was spinning around him. He started to move, pushing his palms against the carpet, but as soon as he lifted his head off the floor, he felt nauseated. He swallowed down the bile rising in his throat and forced himself to stand, immediately feeling woozy and leaning against the wall for support.

He took a few minutes to breathe through the pain, and reached up to assess the injury to his head. At the slightest brush of his fingers, Nico flinched as the throbbing pain was accompanied by a sudden sting. He took another deep breath against the pain and squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t look at his hand - wouldn’t have been able to see it in the darkness anyway - but he knew that the warm stickiness he felt could only be one thing. He wiped the blood off on the thigh of his jeans.

Nico started moving, though he couldn’t quite see straight. Or maybe he just wasn’t walking straight. “Can’t do anything straight,” he joked to himself, but the vibration of his own voice in his head just exacerbated the pain.

It took much longer than it normally would have to make it up the stairs and down the hall to Hazel’s room. He didn’t bother knocking before he went inside - she wouldn’t be awake to welcome him in anyway - and he’d finally started seeing clearly by the time he was standing over Hazel’s bed, shaking her awake.

“What?” she mumbled, still mostly asleep. “What’s happening?”

“Hazel, wake up,” Nico demanded. “There’s no time to explain, but you need to finish packing. I’m taking you back to your dorm right now.”

“But...why?”

“Please, just trust me on this.”

Hazel sat up in her bed and rubbed at her eyes. “Okay, fine. Can you turn the light on?”

“No,” he said without a reason why. After a second, he said, “Dad and Seph can’t know.”

Hazel hesitated.

“Please,” Nico begged.

Hazel got up. They packed up her things by the light of their phone’s flashlights, and moved her suitcases and other belongings quickly and silently out to Nico’s car - it had been a gift when he graduated high school, whereas Hazel had asked for a trip to Rome, which left her without her own means of transportation. Once they’d loaded the car as full as it could be, they started to drive.

When they pulled onto the highway, Hazel finally said, “Okay, we have time now. Tell me what’s going on.”

Nico tapped his fingers against the steering wheel anxiously. “It’s...hard to explain.”

“Try me.”

He huffed, and tried to give himself time to craft an answer. How could he explain without letting out the truth of his abuse? If Hazel found out he’d been hiding those beatings from her for so long, she might never forgive him. “It’s...Dad’s drinking problem. He normally starts to get better after Christmas, but that didn’t happen this year. I don’t trust him.”

“You just have a bad feeling?” Hazel questioned. “We had to move me out of the house in the middle of the night because you have a bad feeling? Tell me what happened, Nico!” She reached over and flicked him in the ear, causing Nico to flinch and swerve across the center line. Luckily for them, no one else was dumb enough to drive at that time of night, and Nico was able to correct himself immediately, though he still chose to pull the car over onto the shoulder. He took his hands off the steering wheel, watching them shake for a moment before they dropped to his lap and curled into fists as though they would stop the adrenaline from pumping through him.

He didn’t look up at Hazel, because he knew he wouldn’t like what he would see if he looked in her eyes - concern, anger, fear, probably, or maybe she just thought he was going insane. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he whispered, staring down at his lap.

Something brushed against his hair, and Nico flinched away from the sting that accompanied it once more. “You’re bleeding,” Hazel said softly, as though she hadn’t intended for the words to be spoken aloud, then panic seeped into her words as she continued, “Nico, why is your head bleeding?”

Nico looked up at his sister finally and saw everything he expected to see in her eyes, except...there was something else there, too. Sadness, maybe, almost like grief. There was enough grief in this family as it was, and Nico didn’t need to add to it. He glanced out the window and realized he’d stopped under the orange glow of a streetlight. If he’d just kept driving, he could have kept this hidden just a little while longer.

“I don’t want to talk--”

“No!” Hazel shouted, and Nico felt himself curling inward. “You’re bleeding from your head! You could have a concussion or something! You shouldn’t even be driving right now! If this is why we had to leave, then you will tell me! Who did this to you?”

“Hades!” Nico screamed back at her. “Hades did it! He came home drunk, again, and he yelled, and he… He hit me.”

“He couldn’t have possibly drawn blood with his bare hand--”

“No.” His voice had quieted down once more, and he could no longer find it within himself to look at Hazel, so he stared at the glowing lights of his dashboard. He would need to get gas, soon. “With a bottle. A glass bottle.”

A moment of silence passed as Hazel processed the words. As she struggled to pull her phone out of her pocket, she announced, “I’m calling the police.”

“No!” Nico lunged for the phone and ripped it out of her hands. “You can’t do that, because if he finds out-- I can’t let him hurt you, Hazel, I have to protect you, like I should have protected Bianca--” Nico buried his face in his hands, wishing he could claw through his skin, into his brain, just to stop his thoughts from swimming. “Oh God, he was right, it should’ve been me. Bianca would have protected you better than I ever could. He wouldn’t even miss me, so he wouldn’t be like this in the first place. God, this is all my fault.”

Suddenly, the door to his left was ripped open, and he was pulled from the car. When had Hazel gotten out? Had he even buckled his seatbelt in the first place? Why was Hazel wrapping her arms around him, pulling him close and squeezing? Didn’t she know he killed their sister?

“It’s not your fault,” Hazel sobbed into his chest. “None of this is your fault!” She snaked her arms up to grab Nico’s face, careful not to move her fingers too close to his injury, and she forced him to look at her. “Say it. Say the words, it’s not my fault.”

“But… if I hadn’t--”

“No! Say it’s not your fault.”

“It’s… It’s not my fault.”

“What isn’t your fault?”

Nico tensed. How was he supposed to answer that if Hazel didn’t tell him what to say? How was he supposed to know what would appease her? What if he answered wrong? “I… I didn’t kill Bianca.”

Something akin to horror shone in Hazel’s eyes, and Nico feared for a moment that he’d answered wrong, but rather than running, Hazel just hugged him once more. “Why didn’t you ever talk to me about this? I love you, Nico, I would have tried to help.”

“I had to protect you.”

“We could have protected each other.”

It took a bit of arguing to get Nico back in the car. Hazel insisted on driving, considering both Nico’s physical and emotional state, but Nico refused to get in the passenger’s seat. “I’m fine,” he lied, over and over again, until Hazel got in the car and threatened to drive off without him.

They arrived at Hazel’s dorm building just as the sun started to peek over the horizon, and got to work moving her belongings into the dorm. Her roommate was still gone for the holidays, so they didn’t have to worry about bothering anybody as they came in and out. It hardly took more than half an hour to get everything settled, but Hazel was reluctant to let her brother leave.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” she asked, hugging Nico tight.

“I’ll be fine.” Gently, he removed her arms from around him and put a bit of distance between them before he said, “Listen, Hazel. I need you to promise me something. Don’t go back there, ever again.”

“But what about the rest of my stuff? Everything that didn’t fit in your car?”

“I can move it into a storage unit, if you want, or I can bring it all here in a few hours.”

“And what about you? You’re not staying there, are you?”

Nico shook his head. “I’ve been talking to Percy. He said I can crash on his couch for a while before I figure things out.”

“You’re going to New York?”

“Yeah. And as soon as you graduate, I want you to move out there with me. I want you to be as far away from here as possible, and I don’t want to worry about what you’ll do if you have no other option than to go back ho-- Back to Hades.”

“What about Seph?”

Nico hung his head. “I can’t think of everything, Hazel.”

“But if Dad’s drinking is just going to keep getting worse, we can’t just leave her with him, can we?”

“She’s an adult, just like us. She can leave him, too, if that’s what she decides, but I don’t have any say in what she does.”

Hazel frowned. “But you have a say in what I do.”

Nico scrubbed his hands over his face. “No, that’s not what I meant, and you know that. I’m just trying to--”

“Protect me, I know, I know.”

“Look, until we know who’s side she’s on, I don’t want you talking to Seph, okay?” Nico instructed. “If there’s an emergency, call me first, and if it’s… I don’t know, urgent, call Seph only as a last resort. I don’t want anything getting back to Hades. We need to cut him out completely.” Hazel looked like she was about to argue, but Nico jumped back in again. “I know this is a lot for you right now, so out of the blue, but I need you to trust me on this. I know that… That I don’t seem all that stable right now, but I think we both know why that is, so I just need you to be on my side here. Please.”

“But...for the rest of our lives? They’re the only parents we have! I mean, what if something horrible happens that we need to know about? Or like… I’m going to get married someday. I always thought I’d have at least one parent at my wedding, and now with my mom gone… He’s the only family you and I have left, Neeks.”

“We have each other.”

“You know what I mean. People can change. Make a deal with me, okay? In a year, we call him, and if nothing’s changed, then… I’ll reconsider cutting him out for good.”

“Hazel--”

“When I get engaged, then.”

“He’s not going to--”

“Don’t you want Seph to know when you get married?”

“When I said ‘cut them out,’ I meant cut them out! I’m trying to--”

“Frank can protect me!” Hazel interrupted, not wanting to hear Nico repeating himself again. “And Frank and I can protect you, too! I’m not just going to give this up, Nico, so level with me here. When Frank and I get engaged, I’m telling Seph. I want you to be there with me.”

Nico grit his teeth, and one hand circled his other wrist. “When we’re both engaged,” Nico tried.

“What are the chances that we’ll both end up engaged at the same time? You’re not even seeing anybody, Nico, that’s practically impossible.”

“That’s my offer. We come back when we’re both engaged - or married, whatever - and we come together. Not any other time. Do we have a deal?”

Hazel didn’t look happy, but she sighed and nodded. “Yeah, deal.”

Nico sneaked back into the house. He had no way of knowing if Hades or Persephone were home, and he wanted to get in and out as soon as possible, preferably without being seen. He glanced toward Hades’s office as he crept past it, ensuring that his father wasn’t inside, though with his focus drawn away, Nico didn’t notice Persephone standing in the hall directly in front of him, and he walked straight into her.

“Nico?” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you up and about so early. Were you… sneaking back inside after doing something you shouldn’t?”

“I didn’t-- I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nico tried to deflect, and looked away from her. He could see the stairs, and wondered if Persephone would be able to stop him if he made a run for it.

She gasped, and took Nico’s head in her hands, tilting it to better look at the wound just above his ear. “Nico, you’re bleeding! If you took after your father more I’d guess you’re just coming home from a bar brawl, but you’re not old enough to get into the bars… Honey, what happened?”

He considered the possibility of taking a shower before he left - it would probably stop others from noticing his injury - but he didn’t have the time. “I don’t-- I can’t tell you...here.”

Nico allowed Persephone to follow him up to his bedroom, the only place in that house where he could truly feel safe, and Nico told her everything. More than he’d told Hazel; he told her that Hades had been abusing him for years, physically and verbally, and finally that he’d knocked him unconscious the night before. He let slip that he’d moved Hazel back to her dorm and gave her strict instructions not to contact Hades or Persephone, or to come back to the house ever again.

“I’m leaving, too,” Nico told her, maintaining the monotonous voice he’d used throughout his speech.

Persephone, on the other hand, had been in tears from the beginning. “When?”

“As soon as I’m packed. Don’t try to stop me, either, because it’s too late. There’s nothing you can do.”

Persephone pulled Nico to her and kissed the top of his head. “I’m so sorry, Nico. If I had known… But I understand. Wherever you end up, please, somehow, let me know you’re safe. I promise, I won’t bother you after that.” She squeezed him tight for just a moment, then released him. “If you ever change your mind, I’ll be here for you.”

He was packed and ready to leave by noon, but he had one last thing to do before he left. He stepped into Bianca’s bedroom, which hadn’t been touched since the day she died - aside from the occasional dusting, or when Nico or Hazel had sneaked in to borrow from Bianca’s closet. He took a lap around the room, as if to say goodbye.

There was a small box sitting on her desk, tucked into the corner and covered in a layer of dust - clearly the room wasn’t being cleaned as well as they thought. Nico picked up the box. It would hardly be missed, and it could easily be slipped into Nico’s backpack. He opened the lid and looked inside - there were a few pairs of earrings, a necklace with a tangled chain, and a single silver ring.

He remembered the day Bianca had given it to him, and the day he’d given it back - the day of her funeral, when he’d set it on her pillow after they’d returned home from the cemetery. Someone must have moved it, and Nico was for once grateful that someone had disturbed this room.

He slid the ring on his finger, and took the box.

Nico went out to his car, and didn’t see Persephone before he left.

As soon as he was on the road, he called Percy.

“Nico?” he answered right away. “What’s up, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright,” he replied. “I’m on my way over.”

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valdez-and-the-argo-crew · 4 years

Text

God!Percy fic ch. 5

Previous chapter: https://valdez-and-the-argo-crew.tumblr.com/post/616320304875175936/god-percy-fic-ch-45

Two sons of the sea

Alone on a quest

That line made sense. It was actually the most understandable thing I’d ever heard an Oracle say. I looked over at Jamie, who was currently fast asleep. He was handling the quest pretty well.

To return escaped spirits

To the cold hands of death

The part about escaped spirits made sense as well. The Arai were the escaped spirits, and I assume the underworld is what the second line was talking about.

For better or worse

One choice changes all

I’ll take vague descriptions for 500. I make about a million choices a minute, and one of them is supposed to change everything?? That’s comforting.

He will bring peace to Olympus

Or be the cause of its fall.

And to top it off, I might kill the gods...again.

It’s been two days of straight traveling, but Jamie and I finally have reached a point where we believe we can intercept the Arai.

Which means we can finally get off this train we’ve been on.

I turn to Jamie, and shake him gently on the shoulder.

“Hey bud. Rise and shine, let’s go kill some things.”

He sat up and stretched, rubbing his eyes. I didn’t need any godly powers to be able to tell he was not at all awake. I almost felt bad about Jamie being here on the quest. He’s 6, he deserves to be building sandcastles and riding Pegasi, not saving the world.

“Are we there yet...?” He asked, narrowly avoiding another yawn.

“Yeah. Now come on. We need to get off the train.” I tugged his arm gently, but that was somehow counterproductive. He passed out once again, leaving me with no other choice.

I stepped off the train with my brother on my back, holding both of our bags. I have to admit, it was nice. It made me miss mortality. Ever since I became a god, I’ve been...detached. Emotions and connections were hazy and inconsistent, and at times, I found myself wondering why I’d spent years building up relationships.

But just carrying Jamie grounded me. So I let myself smile as I walked out of the train station and immediately into somebody I hadn’t seen standing in my way

“Shit my bad I didn’t see— Nico?” I paused to look at the boy in front of me.

“Percy?” He tilted his head to one side— a habit he had when he was confused. “What in Hades are you doing out here?”

“Uhh...believe it or not I’m on a quest.” I laughed a bit.

“You? But you’re...y’know...a god? What’re you on a quest for?”

“It’s beyond me. But apparently I might destroy Olympus again so...I got that going for me.” I laughed again and adjusted my weight. A sleeping 6 year old gets heavy quickly, even for a god.

“who’s the kid? He’s not...like...” Nico trailed off, looking between Jamie and me.

“Like what...?” I said before it struck me. “Oh gods no. No no no, he’s my brother. Another Poseidon kid. His name is Jamie.”

Nico smiles a bit. “Alright then. So...where are you headed? Because I have a feeling we’re both here for the same reason.”

“The Arai?” Nico nodded. “Well...I was thinking first we just find some place to crash and get organized, but seeing as Jamie here has been out like a light for hours, I’d say he’s well rested. So...” I shrugged. “I guess we go after them?”

“Yeah...I guess,” Nico looked at Jamie again. “He seems too young to be on such an intense quest, is he doing okay?”

I saw the look in Nico’s eyes and I knew what he was afraid of. Ever since Bianca, he’d been wary of quests, especially when younger children were involved.

“It’s been surprisingly mundane. Not one monster attack.” I said, to which Nico raised an eyebrow.

“Not one? Weird.” A pause settled over the two of us as I shifted my weight to keep Jamie supported on my back.

“Well...you two come with me, I can lead you to where the Arai are.”

I followed him out of the train station and through the quiet suburbs of the town we were in. We kept walking and walking until we came across a deserted park area, and I could feel the Arai nearby.

Now, I’d like to say I’m not as stupid as some people make me out to be, but looking back on these next a few moments...definitely makes the list of top 10 stupidest things I’ve done.

“Percy...”

I glanced around. “What?”

Nico looked up at me. “Hm?”

“Did you say something?” I asked, still looking around.

“No?” Nico said, with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh...I could’ve sword I heard...” I trailed off, shaking my head. “Never mind.”

“Listen to me Percy...”

And my big mistake...is that I did.

Using my Awesome And Useful Godly Powers, I split my conscious. I know, impressive, right?

Part of me stayed walking with Nico, carrying Jamie who was still out cold, but the other part of me slipped away, still looking around for the voice.

“Are you listening...?”

“Who are you?” I said aloud, now able to look all around. “What do you want from me?”

“We don’t want anything Percy. We want to protect you.”

“First of all, I’m a god so...good luck. And secondly, I don’t talk to disembodied voices. Sorry, gotta go.” I took a few steps forward, only to be cut off buy something appearing in my path.

My body reacted on instinct, jumping back and pulling Riptide into action. What had appeared in front of me looked exactly like a fury, and I can’t say I’m particularly fond of furies.

But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a fury at all. Wrinkled features, bat-like wings and brass talons, not to mention the glowing red eyes...this wasn’t something I’ve ever encountered. Not in this plane of existence, at least. But something lit up in the back of my mind. A hazy memory...

“Who are you.” I pointed Riptide right at her, hoping to pry some useful information from her.

“You know who we are,” she said, as more creatures looking just like her appeared around her. “And we’re here to tell you that you don’t have to kill us again.”

“Again? I’ve never...” wait. I thought about it. I could remember...something. Like a memory that never happened, but would’ve in a different timeline. I could recall...Tartarus. Annabeth and I...she was...blind, and I was in pain...

It struck me. “You’re the Arai. And if things had played out differently, I would’ve killed you years ago.”

The Arai laughed, which sounded rather like an asthmatic dog wheezing. “He does remember.”

“You still haven’t told me what you’re trying to talk to me about. I could just kill you now, and the quest would be over.” I eyed each of the hags in front of me. “You have 10 seconds to talk before I dice you.”

“If you kill us, you’ll suffer every death you’ve ever bestowed. But it doesn’t have to be like that.” One of them stepped forward. “You chose immortality, but what you don’t know...is how much more powerful you could be. More than Hades, more than your father...” she took another step closer. “More powerful than Zeus.”

I lowered Riptide. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Zeus has been in charge for too long. What has he ever done for you? He gave you godhood and confined you to your silly camp. He forbid your dear old daddy from being there while you grew up. He let neglected half-bloods raise Kronos, and forced you to save him.” She was circling around me now. “You can prove you’re a worthy god, not one to be stuck on camp duty. Don’t you want that, Percy?”

“Oh shut up.” I swung riptide right through her chest, causing her to dissolve into a flurry of gold dust.

A fountain of pain erupted from my gut. Riptide clattered to the ground as I toppled over, putting my hand to the pain. Golden Ichor flowed though my fingers from the wound that had appeared. One word came to my mind. ‘Minotaur’. My wound was right where I’d stabbed the Minotaur all those years ago, right outside of camp.

My vision swam as I reached out for my sword. I closed my hand around it and swung at the nearest Arai I could reach. It wasn’t enough though. She simply screeched in pain.

“You can be strong Percy. Chiron has nothing more for you. That silly camp of yours is not built for someone with as much potential as you.”

“You talk too much,” I said, struggling as I got to my feet. “I’m not going to turn my back on anyone. Camp is my home.”

I suddenly felt the presence of water. I looked to my left to find a sprinkler in the ground next to me, which gave me an idea.

I willed the sprinkler to explode, allowing me access to the waterlines. Raising my hand slowly, the water began to form a small ball between me and the remaining Arai.

“Percy!” Came a voice in the distance. Nico was running towards me, Jamie following close behind.

I kept my focus on the water as it grew bigger and bigger. I used it to engulf the three hags in front of me. They gasped for air as they slowly started to drown in the water.

“Percy! Oh gods what happened to you. Jamie stay back.” Nico said, running towards me, but I showed him off.

“I got this, Nico it’s fine.” I kept my eyes strained on the spirits in front of me. Another one exploded into dust in the water. I lost my balance as my skin turned searing hot. I couldn’t focus anymore as burns crept up the sides of my arms. Mount St. Helens... the explosion.

I lost control of the water, letting the two remaining Arai fall to the ground. Another one died on impact with the ground.

I couldn’t breathe.

Somewhere to my right Nico was running toward me but I couldn’t focus on that. I started coughing, gasping for air, but I couldn’t get it. What is it what did I kill?

Sounds became muted as I started coughing more violently. I think Nico was calling me. I think Jamie was too.

What the hell did I kill? My vision doubled as I couldn’t get oxygen. I’m a god this...this shouldn’t be killing me... why...

I felt Nico shaking me. His voice sounded so far away.

“Percy! Percy are you okay? Percy what’s going on!” He shook me violently.

Oh gods... I’m drowning...

I coughed more and this time I was coughing up sea water. How? I’m the son of Poseidon, I can’t...I can’t drown...I’m not supposed to drown...

The boar. Ares...the lightning bolt situation... I’m drowning like I drowned Ares’ boar.

“Jamie!” I heard Nico say. “I know I’m asking a lot but take my sword. You have to kill that last Arai.”

And that’s when I lost consciousness.

#percy jackon and the olympians #pjo stuff #percy jackson #rick riordan #pjoverse #trials of apollo #pjo #chb #annabeth chase #percabeth #god!percy

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solange-lol · 5 years

Text

Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you forever.

SolangeloWeek Day 4 - AU/Crossover

Words: 2238

Read on Ao3

Nico and Will have been friends since 4th grade, and in all their years of knowing each other, Nico never once considered dating him.

Sure, Will may have technically been part of his coming out process. He always pinned the realization that he was gay on his pitiful crush on Percy. Looking back, while that may have been his first crush on a guy, it was really the first time that he shared a bed with another boy that triggered it. That wasn’t to say he was having any of those thoughts at 10 years old. (6 years later and he still isn’t. Not really, at least). And that boy just so happened to be Will

Seven years later and Nico still remembers that night. Of course, he had shared a bed with Bianca before, but this was different. Maybe because it wasn’t with his sister this time. Something about the closeness of it all, how they watched movies from Naomi’s laptop, having to sit shoulder-to-shoulder in order for both of them to see the screen. Neither of them ever minded the closeness.

Even now, Nico doesn’t mind. After his sister died, he tended to keep people at a distance. Will had never been one of those people.

He remembered how Will came up with a conspiracy theory that night about who they were actually twins separated at birth, despite neither sharing any obvious traits.

“You have small ears,” Will had told him.

He was offended for a moment but refused to let it show. “So?”

Then Will smiled. “I have small ears too.”

Nico didn’t feel offended after that.

Years later now, they know very well that there's no way they were closely related.

Anyway, as he said. He never really considered dating Will. That is, until Will told him about the plan.

It had started innocently. They were at a local coffee shop, one that Will and Nico found themselves at just about every Friday. This was no different. As they sat down, Will said: “I need your opinion on something.” Nico looked up from his phone. “I’m wondering if I should go out with Lacy.”

“Lacy?” Nico asked. “Whose Lacy?” Part of him wanted to make fun of the name, but he knew it would earn him a disapproving look. Especially coming from someone named Niccolò. (Really though, who names their son Lacy? He feels bad for this guy).

“Girl in my chem class. She asked me out earlier and I haven’t given a response yet,” he said it like it was nothing, going on to talk about wanting to ask someone out before prom so its not just a meaningless date, but Nico, who nearly chokes on his coffee, doesn’t hear him.

“Hold up, you want to go out with a girl? Will, you’re gay!” He didn’t mean for it to be harsh, it just surprised him. Will was the first of the two to come out; they were in 6th grade when he told Nico he liked boys. That’s all he’s ever told Nico.

Will winces a little, glancing around. He’s never been ashamed, but you could never really know with high schoolers.

“I mean, I am. Or, I thought I was. But I don’t know anymore. And the way she talks to me, I dunno. It makes me feel nice.”

“That’s what compliments are supposed to do. Doesn’t mean you should go out with her,” Nico points out. At Will’s dirty look, he apologizes. “Sorry. Anyway, you’re bi now?”

Will shifts in his seat. “Maybe? Why is that such a big deal?” He sounds angry now.

“I’m sorry, it’s not,” he sighs as he apologizes again. It feels like everything he could say at this moment is bad. He continues hesitantly. “I’ve just always looked up to you and your pride, and you changing all that, it’s just… confusing.”

“I’m sorry if this is ‘confusing’ for you, because it’s about ten times more confusing for me,” Nico immediately regret his words when he heard not only the anger but the genuine hurt in Will’s voice. “And being bi doesn’t change any of that. I still like guys.”

“I know, just-”

Will cut him off. “Who I am isn’t your decision. And you have no right to be upset by this,” he stands, grabbing his bag with one hand and coffee with the other. As he turns to walk away, Nico stands quickly.

“Where are you going?” he asks

“Home,” Will sighs. “I’d say ‘bye’ but I wouldn't want to upset you.” With that, he leaves.

It takes Nico a minute before he understands. Bye. Bi. Dropping back down to the table, he puts his head down and groans.

***

It isn’t until later that night when he finally texts Will.

[7:30] To: Will: Call me

He considers sending an apology as well, but he knows Will would prefer to hear it spoken first.

Nico bets he knows Will better than this Lacy girl does.

He mentally hits himself for that one. Shh. Be Supportive.

(It’s true, though).

It takes a few minutes, but Nico’s phone eventually buzzes lighting up the screen with Will’s face. It’s a photo that Nico took of him at the pier last summer when Will didn’t notice. His hair is lit up by the setting sun, making it nearly glow, and his eyes are the same color as the water. He’s smiling contentedly, not a care in the world. He never stopped smiling for long.

Nico wonders if he smiled at all after their fight earlier that day. He can’t remember the last time they fought like that. To be fair, Nico definitely deserves all the insults.

He taps the ‘accept’ button and holds the phone up to his ear.

“Hey,” Will’s greeting is quiet and sad-sounding, and Nico tries to ignore his heart sinking.

“I’m sorry.”

He hears Will scoff, but he can’t tell there’s any real anger behind it. Judging by Will’s tone when he speaks next, it seems like there isn’t. Not like before, at least. “I would hope so,” he says.

“I am. I didn’t mean to flip out, I was just surprised. You know someone for so long that when something changes, it’s a little startling. It’s like if you grew a mustache or something. It would be different, but that doesn’t mean its bad different.”

“You hate facial hair,” Will points out.

“You’re right,” Nico takes a deep breath. “But I don’t hate you. Even if you grew a mustache, or if you’re bi, that’s cool. You’re still just as annoying.”

“You realize you just contradicted yourself,” Nico can hear him smiling. It makes him smile too, and something stirs in his stomach. Huh.

“My point exactly.”

“Well,” Will said. He swallowed, and Nico swore he could hear his voice shaking. “It’s good that you don’t care because I asked her out. And she accepted.”

“Oh.” Nico couldn’t figure out why he was upset. He knew this was coming. He already knew Will was going to ask her out. He was happy for him, right?

Was he?

Part of him knew no, he wasn’t happy. Good for Will and all that, but why not him? Why Lacy, some girl Will hardly even knew when he and Will were already practically dating?

Oh.

Nico felt hot and cold at the same time. Was this why he got upset? Not because Will wanted to ask out a girl, but because Will didn’t want to ask out him?

Did he like Will?

He swallowed harshly. Date Will? He never considered it before, but it all made sense now. The way they talked, all the physical contact. He couldn’t even see Will with anyone but himself.

Nico scolded himself for that last part. Will was allowed to be with people that weren’t him. Will didn’t even like him back, as far as Nico knew. He swallowed again. That hurt.

“Oh?” Will sounded even more nervous than before. “Like, bad ‘oh’?”

“No! No, I’m just- that’s great Will!”

Will breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. Because I’m definitely going to need some help getting ready.”

Nico laughed along with him, but, honestly, he felt like he was about to throw up.

***

Nico had been avoiding Will. He would never admit it, but he thought if he avoided him it would make certain feelings disappear.

Unfortunately, not being around Will just made Nico miss him and want him more. He found himself thinking more about Will’s eyes and how they looked like an eclipse, with white shooting out from behind his pupil, which then faded into various hues of blue that darkened at the edge. Or his hair, and the golden curls around tan ears or that rested on his soft, freckled forehead. Every time he found his mind wandering, he wanted to hit himself. He needed to snap out of this daydream. Will doesn’t like him.

It wasn’t until hours before he was supposed to leave to go to Will’s house to help him prepare for his date that Nico caved. He had been making excuses as to why he couldn’t hang out all week. If he turned down this, Will would definitely know something was up.

When he showed up at the Solace residence, Will was already waiting at the door. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to show. I even got you coffee just in case you changed your mind, and I needed to bribe you over here.” he held out the cup. “Large mocha with cream.”

He took the cup. “You know my coffee order?”

Will looked confused. “Of course I do.”

Nico supposed it wasn’t that weird; he knew Will’s by heart as well without even reading the corresponding cup in his other hand. Latte with whole milk and two shots of vanilla. Still, he narrowed his eyes, although there was no real threat behind them. “Whatever,” he said, then softened. “You didn’t have to.”

Will shrugged, a small smile on his face, and Nico felt guilt rising in him for being so flakey throughout the week.

“At least let me pay you back,” Nico said, reaching into his back pocket for his phone. He always kept a $5 bill in the case for emergencies.

Will just waved him off. “Don’t even bother, dummy, it’s on me. Besides, it allowed me to clear my head a bit,” he scratched the back of his neck. “Dunno why I’m so nervous anyway.”

(Nico was never going to get over Will paying for things for him. God, why didn’t he just ask him out before?)

“I don’t know either,” he told him. “Maybe you just need to be more like Simon snow and stop thinking so much,” he tilted his head. “You look the part, so you’re already halfway there. And you never know; this could be your Agatha.”

Will tapped his foot against Nico’s. “And who would you be, Baz?” At Nico’s not-quite-careless shrug, he raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t they get together in the end?”

Stupid Will. Stupid love.

“Alternate universe, maybe,” Nico tries to play off his burning cheeks by taking a spit from his coffee. Judging by the look Will gave him, he failed.

***

The Friday after his date, Will seemed quiet. He and Nico waited in line almost silently, barely exchanging more than a greeting. Nico insisted on paying for both after they ordered, and to his surprise, Will didn’t argue.

“Do you wanna take these outside?” he asked instead.

Nico was worried. Did he do something wrong?

Did Will know?

They found a bench outside and sat down. There was hardly anyone around; most people were still at work or in school.

“So…” Nico shifted. “How was your date?”

“It was good. We saw a movie. Went to lunch.”

Nico nodded. Part of him was surprised at how unexcited Will was about it, judging by the three-word sentences. The other part of him was thrilled, but he pushed that down as guilt rose within him. “Cool.”

“She kissed me.”

“Yeah?” Nico held his breath.

“Yeah. It was nice.”

He nodded again, ignoring his heart sinking in his chest. That statement felt like a direct punch to the face. “So, you’re bi then, I guess?”

“Um, yeah. I mean, maybe. I don’t know,” Will took a deep breath. “I didn’t really want to go out with her though.”

“No?” Now Nico was really confused.

“No. I didn’t realize until she kissed me, but-” Will placed his hand on top of Nico’s, and Nico felt his heart skip a beat as Will looked him right in the eye. Eclipse. “The person I wanted to ask out was you.”

Nico couldn’t breathe when Will leaned in and kissed him. He forgot the world around him, forgot anyone who could see them, forgot everything all together.

Then there was a rush of feeling. His heart was beating fast in his chest, and there was a heat of butterflies pooling in his stomach. He was only aware of Will and his mouth on his. Nico shifted head, now kissing Will back. He put down his coffee so that the hand that wasn’t being held by Will’s could move to rest on Will’s cheek.

When they finally pulled back, Will laughed. “Uh, would you want to go out with me?” he asked, cheeks dusted pink.

Nico just smiled softly before Will pulled him back in.

~~~

Thanks for reading! Taglist underneath (message me to be added/removed, no offence taken)

@internallyexplodingrainbows @aleclight-ofmylife-wood @unicornsgomooo @anxiouswinter @soulangelou @number-of-fucks-i-give-0 @underworldystuff @theeloquentsnake @solangelover@thefandomsaretakingover @internallyexplodingrainbows @hairasuntouchedaspartoftheamazon @motivatedcryptidtamer @emilyfairchild @wherethewildthingsare-nt @my-face-is-a-potato

#me in march: id write a glee au if i didnt love myself #me now:#solangeloweek #solangeloweek2019 #solangelo #nico di angelo #will solace #liz writes.com #percy jackson #pjo #heros of olympus #trials of apollo

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dumbledearme · 6 years

Text

chapter twenty-two—and our regrets

read Child of Land and Sea here

Act III — Deep Blue Sea

Part VII — There will be times in this journey, all you'll see is darkness. But out there somewhere, daylight finds you.

They reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight. "Whoa," Bianca said. "This stuff... some of it looks like real gold."

"It is," Thalia said looking around cautiously. "Like Andy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."

"Look!" Bianca said. She raced down hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in the moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!" She yelped in surprise as the bow shrunk and became a hair clip. "It's just like Andy's sword."

"And you call this junk?" Grover commented.

Zoë's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

"But—"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."

Bianca set the clip down.

"I don't like this place," Thalia said. "Zoë's right. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now, come on. Let's cross this yard."

After several hours of walking - and stopping to check the cool stuff around -, they saw the edge of the junkyard. "We're almost there," Zoë said. "Thank the gods."

But at that moment there was a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal. Andy whirled around. Behind them, a bronze giant in full Greek armor, impossibly tall, gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at them, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off.

"Talos!" Zoë gasped.

"What the hell is a Talos?" Andy asked.

"One of Hephaestus's creations," Thalia said. "But that can't be the original. It's too small. A prototype, maybe. A defective model."

The metal giant drew his sword.

"Someone took something," Zoë deducted. "Who was it?" and she stared accusingly at Andy.

"Hey! I may be a lot of things, but I am no thief!"

Bianca also glanced at Andy, but her expression was different. It seemed almost... guilty.

Talos took a step toward them. "Run!" Grover yelped.

They split up, drawing their weapons. Andy rushed to Bianca's side. "It was you," she accused. "You took something!"

"No!" Bianca lied, her voice quivering.

"Give it back, Bianca! Throw it down!"

"I... I didn't... I'm sorry. I think it's too late!"

"What did you take?" Before Bianca could answer a shadow blotted out the sky. "Move!" Andy tore down the hill, Bianca right behind her, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where they'd been hiding.

Bianca brought out of her pocket a trading card. "It was for Nico," she said. "He doesn't have this one!" There were tears in her dark eyes.

"Throw it away!" Andy shouted. "Maybe he will leave us alone!"

Bianca dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened. The giant kept coming. Thalia made a blue arc of lightning shot out of her spear and hit the monster. But it didn't matter. It raised its foot to stomp and Andy saw that his sole was threaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole.

"Crazy-idea time," Andy said. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. We need to get inside."

"How? We'd have to stand under its foot!"

"We just need to distract it," Andy said. "Time it right."

Bianca was thoughtful. "Alright," she decided. "I'll go."

"What? No! You could die. I'll go."

"This is all my fault," she shook her head. "I thought I could escape from all responsibilities, but... I have to do this, Andy." She picked up the card from the ground and pressed into Andy's hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him... Tell him that I am sorry."

"Bianca, don't do this!"

But the young Huntress did not listen. She charged at the monster's left foot. Thalia had the giant's attention. Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself.

"What are you doing?" Zoë yelled.

"Get it to raise its foot!" she said.

Andy called the giant and ran up to its big toe and stabbed it with Riptide. Talos looked down at her and raised his foot to squash her like a bug. Andy couldn't see what Bianca was doing; she had to turn and run. The foot came down about two inches behind her and she was knocked into the air. She hit something hard and sat up, dazed.

The monster was about to finish her off. "Andy!" Thalia shouted running her way, but it was hopeless. The giant raised his sword – and then it froze. Talos cocked his head to one side, like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.

"Yes, Bianca!" Andy cheered.

Zoë looked horrified. "She is inside?"

The monster staggered around endangering them. Thalia grabbed Andy's arm and ran with Grover toward the highway. Zoë was already ahead of them. "How will she get out?"

The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines. The giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. Talos careened back into the junkyard, but he was falling apart now. He crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed.

The others ran to him. When they reached the wreckage, they searched frantically, calling Bianca's name. They crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. They searched until the sun started to rise.

Zoë sat down and wept. Thalia yelled in rage an impaled her sword in the giant's smashed face.

"It's light now," Andy said. "We're going to find her."

"No, we won't," Grover said miserably. "It happened just as it was supposed to."

"What?"

He stared at Andy with tears in his eyes. "The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain."

At the edge of the dump, they found a tow truck. Thalia had to drive, she was the only one who had her shit together. Zoë sat on the front with her, while Grover and Andy were behind.

Andy caressed the card Bianca had tried to steal. What was she going to tell Nico? She had made him a promise. How could she explain she'd lost his sister? "It should've been me," she whispered. "I shouldn't have left her-"

"Don't say that," Grover took her hand. "Anthony is gone, and now Bianca... I wouldn't be able to deal with... if..." he sniffled. "Do you think anybody else would be my best friend?"

"Ah, Grover..."

Andy tried to comfort the satyr. Grover looked extremely fragile and emotional. That wild wind of Pan had really messed with him.

When the road ended, they had to continue on foot. The desert went in all directions. They decided to go farther upstream, following the river. Zoë was not speaking to anybody and Andy worried about how bad she looked. She tried to keep with the Hunter's stride and said, "What happened to Bianca was not your fault. It was mine. I let her go."

Zoë shoulders slumped. "No, Andy. I pushed her into going on the quest. I was too anxious. She was a powerful half-blood. She had a kind heart, as well. I... I thought she was going to be the next lieutenant."

"But... you're the lieutenant."

Zoë suddenly seemed exhausted. "Nothing can last forever. Nothing should. Over two thousand years I have led the Hunt, and my wisdom has not improved. Now Artemis herself is in danger."

"That's not your fault either."

"If I had insisted on going with her-"

"Yeah, well, if I hadn't tried so hard to prove that I'm better than Thalia, Anthony wouldn't be gone. If I hadn't been jealous and childish and stupid. If, if, if. There was nothing you could've done, Zoë. We can't keep doing this. Asking ourselves 'what if'. We need to move forward. We need to be strong. We need to live... with our regrets."

Zoë didn't answer. The cliffs around the river were getting taller and they were getting out of breath. But Andy was not in the mood for silence.

"You've made my sword," she said.

"Who told thee?"

"I had dream."

Zoë studied her. "It was a gift. Yet another mistake."

"Who was he?"

Zoë shook her head. "Do not make me say his name. I swore never to speak it again."

"You act like I should know him."

"I am sure you do. Every girl wanted to have him and every boy wanted to be him. I believe nothing has changed in all these years."

Her voice was so bitter Andy decided not to push her. "And your mother was a water goddess?"

"Yes. Pleione. She had five daughters. The Hesperides."

"Were those the girls who lived in a garden with the golden apple tree and a dragon guarding it?"

"Yes," Zoë said, wistfully. "Ladon."

"But I thought there were only four sisters."

"There are now. I was exiled. Forgotten. Blotted out as if I never existed."

"Why?"

"Because I betrayed my family to help a boy. That's why I don't care much for you. You have that look in your eyes... I remember it all too well. After his direct assault on Ladon failed, I gave him the idea of how to steal the apples, how to trick my father, but he took all the credit. You won't find that on the legend, of course. He never spoke of me."

"But-"

"Look!" exclaimed Thalia. "Hoover Dam."

They stood at the river's edge, looking up at a curve of concrete that loomed down between the cliffs. People were walking along the top of the dam.

Andy grinned. "Seven hundred feet tall," she said. "Built in the 1930's."

"Five million cubic acres of water," Thalia added.

Grover sighed. "Largest construction project in the United States."

Zoë stared at them. "How do you know all that?"

"Anthony," Andy explained, her heart pounding.

"He was nuts about monuments," Thalia said.

"Spouted facts all the time," Grover sniffled. "So annoying."

Andy's eyes hurt. "No, it wasn't."

Zoë was still staring at them strangely, but Andy didn't care. Her mind was frozen with the cruel fate: this was one of Anthony's personal favorites, and he wasn't here to see it.

"I want to go up there. Please? So I can tell him when... when we find him."

"You're completely lost," Zoë said, enigmatically. "But that's where the road is."

They walked for almost an hour before they found a path that led up to the road. Then they straggled back toward the dam. It was cold and windy up there. Grover kept sniffing the wind and looking nervous. He didn't say anything, but Andy knew he smelled monsters. "How close are they?"

He shook his head. "Maybe not close. The wind on the dam, the desert around us... the scent can probably carry for miles. But it's coming from several directions. I don't like that."

"There's a snack bar in the visitor center," Thalia said.

"You've been here before?" Andy asked.

"Once. To see the guardians." She pointed to the far end of the dam where there were two big bronze statues. "They were dedicated to Zeus. A gift from Athena." She smiled, her mind far away and Andy realized how much she liked Thalia when they weren't fighting.

"Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoë said. "We should eat while we can."

Grover cracked a smile. "The dam snack bar?"

Zoë blinked. "Yes. What is funny?"

"Nothing," Grover said. "I could use some dam french fries."

"And I want to buy a dam T-shirt," added Thalia. Before they noticed, they were cracking up, while Zoë watched them, puzzled.

"I do not understand that reference," she said.

As Andy laughed, she heard a moo. "You heard that?" she asked.

"Not a dam thing," Thalia chuckled.

"Are you okay?" Grover asked, the smile melting off his face.

"Yeah," Andy said. "You guys go ahead. I'll only take a minute."

They hesitated, but went into the visitor center without her. Andy jogged to the north edge of the dam and looked over. "Moo."

She was about thirty feet below in the lake, but Andy could see her clearly, Bessie, the cow serpent. "What are you doing here, Bessie?"

"Moo!" Her voice was urgent, like she was trying to warn Andy of something.

"How did you get here?"

"Moo!" Bessie wanted Andy to come with her. Andy wasn't sure how, but she understood. Bessie was telling her to hurry.

"I can't..." she told the cow. Bessie did a flip and disappeared into the water. Andy hesitated. Something was wrong. Bessie was trying to warn her of that. She followed the road with her eyes until she saw them - two skeleton men walking slowly toward her.

Andy ran to the visitor center. There were more coming. She bolted down the stairs and through the museum entrance. She ran through the exhibits and walked behind a tour group. She uncapped Riptide.

She got to the opposite side of the balcony and heard a sharp noise behind her. Without thinking, she spun, slashing with her sword. The girl she had tried to slash yelped. "Oh my God!" she shouted. "Do you always try to kill people for sneezing?"

"You're mortal!"

The red-headed looked at Andy in disbelief. "What is that supposed to mean? Of course I'm mortal! How did you get that sword to pass security?"

"I didn't- Wait, you can see it's a sword?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Well, it's either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world," she said. "And why didn't it hurt me? I mean, not that I am complaining. Who are you? And, whoa, what is that you're wearing? Is that real fur?" She talked so fast Andy was getting dizzy.

Andy tried to concentrate and snapped her fingers like Thalia had done at Westover Hall. "You do not see a sword," she told the girl. "It is just a ballpoint pen."

The red-headed blinked. "It's a sword, weirdo."

"Who are you?" Andy demanded.

She huffed indignantly. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now, are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?"

"Don't scream! I mean, I'm in a hurry. I'm in trouble."

The red-headed looked over Andy's shoulder and her eyes widened. "Bathroom!" She grabbed Andy's arm and pushed her inside the bathroom. Andy leaned on the door and heard the skeletons moving outside.

"Oh my God!" Rachel was saying to them. "Did you see that kid? It's about time you got here. She tried to kill me! She had a sword, for God's sake. You security guys let a sword-swinging lunatic inside a national landmark? I mean, jeez! She ran that way toward those turbine thingies. I think she went over the side or something. Maybe she fell!"

The skeletons moved off. Rachel opened the bathroom door. "All clear. But you better hurry." She looked shaken, her face gray and sweaty.

"I owe you one, Rachel Elizabeth Dare"

"What are those things?" she asked. "They looked like skeletons."

"Do yourself a favor... Forget you ever saw me."

"But who are you?"

The skeletons turned around. "Gotta go!" and Andy bolted for the exit. She found Thalia, Zoë and Grover eating. "We need to leave," she gasped. "Now!"

Zoë stood up, cursing in Ancient Greek. "She's right. Look!"

The skeletons entered the snack bar and started to surround them. Then Grover had a brilliant idea. "Burrito fight!" He shouted and started throwing his food. Everyone went crazy throwing food, shrieking and screaming. Bodies and food and drinks were flying everywhere.

In the chaos, Andy and the others raced downstairs. They raced across the street to the pavilion with the winged statues. The skeletons moved forward.

Andy glanced at the statues. "Thalia..." she whispered. "Pray to your dad."

Thalia glared at her. "He never answers."

"He will now. Ask for help. The statues might... give us some luck contacting him." The skeletons kept coming their way. "Do it!" Andy urged her.

"No!" Thalia said. "He never answers, Andy."

"Ask him for help!"

"Try it," Grover pleaded.

Thalia closed her eyes. Her lips moved in a silent prayer. The skeletons closed in. Then the bronze angels stepped in front of them and slashed outward, sending the skeletons flying across the road.

"Man, it feels good to stand up!" the first angel said.

A few of the skeletons were getting up again. "Trouble!" Andy shouted.

"Get us out of here," Thalia yelled.

Both angels looked down at her. "Zeus's kid?"

"Yes!"

"Could I get a please, Miss Zeus's kid?"

"Please!"

The angels looked at each other and shrugged. "Could use a stretch," one decided. And next thing, they grabbed them and flew straight up, over the dam and the river, the skeleton warrior shrinking to tiny specks below them.

"Tell me when it's over," Thalia yelled, her eyes tightly shut.

#andromeda #deep blue sea #fanfic #genderbend #fem percy jackson #andy jackson #child of land and sea

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