#quite proud of how nico turned out honestly

[batryz]

You are my sun, my moon & all my stars ☀️⭐

(dark curls) (and) (watercolour eyes)

Sometimes de-stressing is just cherishing the love of your life in your arms before you get hit with another life or death quest again!

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 15: RACHEL MAKES A BAD DEAL

Will snapped out of his daze like a bad dream, right into the familiar feeling of someone needing his attention.

It was Nico, but to his surprise, the son of Hades had concerned eyes on him. A question in the tilt of his head.

Will used the back of his hand to brush Nico's cheek in thanks as he shook his head.

"If you need out," Nico whispered, trying to make him hear the urgency in his quiet voice-

He shook his head more forcefully and whispered back, "I'm, just, I don't want to dwell on this. I'm not proud of the fact that I, kind of still have some anger at Percy lodged somewhere in here about nobody telling me I was suddenly head of my cabin as I rushed off to save someone else," he gestured with his other hand to the back of his head with an uncommon frown.

Reaching over to take the book, he'd thought the matter was settled. He wasn't expecting the distance to be closed and Nico to take the moment to place a quick kiss on his cheek, right on the edge of his lip.

Nico looked as surprised as he did for the impulse, and both blushed as Nico hastily put the book in his hand.

"You two are dating?!"

Percy's blurted shout was just loud enough they all winced at the noise and he only felt a bit sorry as he tried to modulate his voice back down, "I've been here the whole time, when did you two..." he trailed off in maximum confusion and great relief Nico's crush really had apparently full blown faded. Either that or Nico's Italian roots had flared up at a strange time?! Or was that a French thing to kiss someone on both cheeks? But Nico hadn't kissed the other one-

"Oh, Percy," Annabeth sighed.

Will's voice was now squeaking as he flipped to his spot to start without responding and the chapter title came out like someone was plucking on his vocal cords. "Rachel Makes a Bad Deal."

"Get this girl a lawyer, stat!" Alex said as if nothing had happened.

Percy was still ogling the pair and then looking at his assortment of books, then to Annabeth; but was clearly going to be ignored by everyone else.

I grabbed Will Solace from the Apollo cabin and told the rest of his siblings to keep searching for Michael Yew.

The first time Will's name had even been mentioned on Percy's radar, and it was him he turned to for help, Nico noted with interest. It was no surprise to him, Will was the most helpful guy he'd ever met.

We borrowed a Yamaha FZI from a sleeping biker and drove to the Plaza Hotel at speeds that would've given my mom a heart attack.

Nico couldn't help a flinch of distaste at the mental picture of Will clinging to Percy's back for no other reason than fear for his safety. Percy might be able to walk off crashing that bike and keep running to get to Annabeth, but Will wouldn't.

Of course, Percy was more likely to fling Will over his shoulder and keep going, engine or not, but it was still a bad stint to envision.

 I'd never driven a motorcycle before, but it wasn't any harder than riding a pegasus.*

"It is nothing like riding a pegasus," Annabeth looked at him in her usual concern for his mental faculties. "The skill set is completely different seaweed brain, how you even think one relates to the other- no, how you're not dead is-"

She shut up as Percy gently kissed the back of her hand, looked her in the eyes, and said, "Quite time wise girl." The strain in his voice was unmistakable. He might have her here, warm and alive beside him now, but he still needed that security from his past like a blanket to feel like she'd stay that way in his memory too.

She nodded dumbly and squeezed his hand in understanding of that.

Along the way, I noticed a lot of empty pedestals that usually held statues. Plan twenty-three seemed to be working. I didn't know if that was good or bad.

"Why is that so accurate to every part of your life?" Magnus sighed.

Percy would honestly like an answer to that too.

It only took us five minutes to reach the Plaza—an old-fashioned white stone hotel with a gabled blue roof, sitting at the southeast corner of Central Park.

"Whoever picked that spot was trying to get in your good graces," Jason rolled his eyes, wishing he knew New York better to instead glean if that was a strategic place.

"I don't like something just because it has a blue roof," but Percy's protest sounded half-hearted at best. He had smiled at the building on more than one occasion as he passed for the color.**

Tactically speaking, the Plaza wasn't the best place for a headquarters. It wasn't the tallest building in town, or the most centrally located. But it had old-school style and had attracted a lot of famous demigods over the years, like the Beatles and Alfred Hitchcock, so I figured we were in good company.

"It's not the worst reason to pick it," Nico nodded along. Taking a moment to remember its historical importance and why other demigods had been drawn there was a motive he'd consider.

I gunned the Yamaha over the curb and swerved to a stop at the fountain outside the hotel.

Will and I hopped off.

Nico was a little surprised at the jealousy that flitted through him. Had Will once had a crush on Percy like he did? It wouldn't surprise him. He'd once had a mild panic attack at the idea of getting on the back of Mrs. O'Leary with Percy and him being that close, so he knew he had no right to begrudge Will if he'd had a bit of a thrill for this chance.

The statue at the top of the fountain called down, "Oh, fine. I suppose you want me to watch your bike too!"

She was a life-size bronze standing in the middle of a granite bowl. She wore only a bronze sheet around her legs, and she was holding a basket of metal fruit. I'd never paid her too much attention before.

Then again, she'd never talked to me before.

"That is the best way to get your attention," Thalia nodded. "Gods forbid you try giving the boy a silent signal."

Percy ignored her as he continued holding Annabeth close and watching the book intently. Or he really hadn't registered she was talking to him. They'd believe both.

"Are you supposed to be Demeter?" I asked.

A bronze apple sailed over my head.

"Great guess Percy," Alex gave him a thumbs up. "Hope you try again."

"Why do you want to hear her throw more apples at me?" Percy gave her an exaggerated hurt face.

"Your thick head can take it and I crave violence through physical comedy you don't get enough of," she shrugged.

"Yeah, no, I get that," Precy nodded in understanding while Magnus and Annabeth looked between the two in ever-growing concern.

"Everyone thinks I'm Demeter.'" she complained. "I'm Pompona, the Roman Goddess of Plenty, but why should you care?

"No, yeah, why should I care about a Roman goddess?" Percy looked around at Jason. "I have enough of my own to deal with!"

Jason held up a finger for each point he made. "They overlap frequently, you should be more respectful, and so she might actually care about you."

Percy didn't seem to hear a good reason yet as he kept watching him before shrugging and turning back towards the book while Jason studied his fingers with a stubborn frown of how he could do better next time.

Nobody cares about the minor gods. If you cared about the minor gods, you wouldn't be losing this war! Three cheers for Morpheus and Hecate, I say!"

"Watch the bike," I told her.

Pompona cursed in Latin and threw more fruit as Will and I ran toward the hotel.

At least Alex got a laugh out of that while Percy grinned along at least it was easy to please somebody around here.

"An apple a day keeps the Percy away, got to make note of that one," Jason huffed.

"It took two apples, gods Jason, thought you were the smart one," Percy smirked.

"I'm just glad he didn't decide to catch one," Thalia said saintly, "that's a marriage proposal in Greek culture."

Percy looked at her and spluttered in concern, but for once he didn't drop Annabeth's hand and act like a scared little kid embarrassed of the future. Just an average boyfriend put on the spot of such words being spoken in his presence.

Will didn't try to fight off a small smile for these guys, and gave Jason a silent nod when he threw him a look, having obviously dodged the real stupid quote that he was mocking.

I'd never actually been inside the Plaza. The lobby was impressive, with the crystal chandeliers and the passed-out rich people, but I didn't pay much attention. A couple of Hunters gave us directions to the elevators, and we rode up to the penthouse suites.

"You might not have paid it much mind, but somebody made sure you got the best view," Magnus's skin crawled at the idea of how much a carpet in that place would cost while his shoes went across.

Of course, Annabeth was in there, and he'd shove his way past any security guards to get to her side too, it just bothered his brain a little that somebody had taken the time to make a keycard for the top of the building instead of just utilizing the lobby that could fit two or three entire homeless shelters more conveniently.

Demigods had completely taken over the top floors. Campers and Hunters were crashed out on sofas, washing up in the bathrooms, ripping silk draperies to bandage their wounds, and helping themselves to snacks and sodas from the minibars. A couple of timber wolves were drinking out of the toilets. I was relieved to see that so many of my friends had made it through the night alive, but everybody looked beat up.

"Percy!" Jake Mason clapped me on the shoulder. "We're getting reports—"

"Later," I said. "Where's Annabeth?"

"So that she can be there for the sweet revenge of you dumping those in Chiron's lap and tell him to figure out the alphabet," Will nodded.

Percy laughed, a cautious noise of hope that if Will could joke at a time like this Annabeth's injury hadn't been to bad at all.

"The terrace. She's alive, man, but . . ."

I pushed past him.

"I would too," Thalia scowled. That boy was lucky he'd still had all his limbs attached, or hadn't gone through a wall while being in Percy's way.

Under different circumstances I would've loved the view from the terrace. It looked straight down onto Central Park.

It was the perfect height too, Will hadn't really the chance to look on with the kind of awe he'd wanted to. High enough that the people below were indistinguishable, just little specks of life around, but not to tall he felt above them like a god would, easily able to overpass the sight of them and just see around what they were there to do.

The morning was clear and bright—perfect for a picnic or a hike, or pretty much anything except fighting monsters.

'But that's what he and Annabeth did best,' the thought flitted through Percy's mind strangely. Not joyful, exactly, a bit of pride sure because that kind of skill was what kept them alive and what made them friends in the first place, working so well together.

It was more of longing. Not quite sadness, just that he wanted them to be able to do more than just be good at that.

He glanced down at her now comfortably melded into his side as if she'd never leave again, and gods he hoped she wouldn't even as his imagination ran wild in the world above of everything they could do together. Picnics and hiking and more, finally without a single bad thing happening to one of them.

It sounded like a pipe dream, and he should just settle for being happy his girlfriend was here with him too.

Thankfully for Percy, such similar thoughts were floating through her head, but she had more plans and schemes afoot to make sure they'd come true before the next problem.

Annabeth lay on a lounge chair. Her face was pale and beaded with sweat. Even though she was covered in blankets, she shivered. Silena Beauregard was wiping her forehead with a cool cloth.

Percy's hands ached for a moment like he needed to pop his knuckles. What he wanted was to shove them all away from her like he had on the bridge, scoop her safe into his arms and never put her down until she was at the feet of a god who could, and would heal her without a single hesitation. No deals, no posturing, no tit for tat. Just godly healing out of the goodness of their heart so she'd be okay again.

That kind of alternate reality just didn't exist.

Will and I pushed through a crowd of Athena kids. Will unwrapped Annabeth's bandages to examine the wound, and I wanted to faint. The bleeding had stopped but the gash looked deep. The skin around the cut was a horrible shade of green.

Nico vividly remembered Will once promising to show him a wound every color of the rainbow, and his mind wandered for a moment wondering what it would take for a wound to turn blue...no that was probably oxygen deprivation and bad. Or purple...maybe a rare kind of poison?... Percy's wound had once been green when Annabeth nearly died, what an interesting comparison...

"Annabeth . . ." I choked up. She'd taken that knife for me. How could I have let that happen?

"You didn't let it happen Percy," Annabeth looked up at him with her eyes solid steel gray. "I did it, and I don't regret it."

Because she'd lived to not regret it, Percy still felt compelled to call Blackjack over and stampede him for this happening. What good was that curse if he couldn't protect what mattered most?

"Poison on the dagger," she mumbled. "Pretty stupid of me, huh?"

"Loving the correlation here that your hubris has no effect on you claiming idiocy on cleaning your own bunk for inspection, and saving Percy's life," Jason grinned.

"It's a very short and top-secret list my enemies would kill to get their hands on," Annabeth nodded seriously.

Will Solace exhaled with relief. "It's not so bad, Annabeth. A few more minutes and we would've been in trouble, but the venom hasn't gotten past the shoulder yet.

"You could almost die really isn't 'so bad' as you are about to die," Nico mock agreed that sounded like a great thing.

"See, this is why you'll do great work in the infirmary, making sure they hear the important details," Will nodded.

Just lie still. Somebody hand me some nectar."

I grabbed a canteen. Will cleaned out the wound with the godly drink while I held Annabeth's hand.

"She doesn't have to, drink it?" Magnus wasn't trying to correct Will, but up until this point that's how he understood it.

"No," Will kindly agreed, "it's preferable to ingest it orally to make sure it breaks down fully in the body, but in situations where they're unconscious, or worse some sort of poison is involved, better to pour it on the wound directly to let the healing kick in as fast as possible. Both are dangerous of course, we're always afraid of using to much, so you have to make that kind of choice on the fly."

Magnus and Jason both nodded in understanding, low levels of anxiety still circling the room despite Annabeth obviously being okay.

"Ow," she said. "Ow, ow!" She gripped my fingers so tight they turned purple, but she stayed still, like Will asked. Silena muttered words of encouragement. Will put some silver paste over the wound and hummed words in Ancient Greek—a hymn to Apollo. Then he applied fresh bandages and stood up shakily.

The healing must've taken a lot of his energy. He looked almost as pale as Annabeth.

His anger he'd been helping her instead of looking for Micheal had been well buried. He'd been professional and done all he could for her like any kid who passed through the infirmary any other day of the year.

After though, as he'd fallen slowly down the tacky patterned wall and sat alone in the hallway, he'd let himself cry softly for a while, letting it all have him before he made himself get up and go find his siblings. Memories of Micheal teaching him that hymn following him, trying to ask himself what Lee would say to them, to him as the oldest now.

It was a petty feeling he wasn't proud of as he'd glanced back at the door without a last prayer for Annabeth before turning away.

Nico rested his head gently on Will, causing Will's breath to catch softly as he stayed like that for several moments after Will kept reading, only pulling slightly back away again when his voice managed to get back to steady.

"That should do it," he said. "But we're going to need some mortal supplies."

He grabbed a piece of hotel stationery, jotted down some notes, and handed it to one of the Athena guys. "There's a Duane Reade on Fifth. Normally I would never steal—"

"I would," Travis volunteered.

Will glared at him. "Leave cash or drachmas to pay, whatever you've got, but this is an emergency. I've got a feeling we're going to have a lot more people to treat."

Will had known Travis was just trying to lighten the mood, but Will had found it far from endearing or funny. He'd felt five times his age. He'd felt very alone and frustrated beyond words to shout at even his dad, only a vague hope even he'd understand a fraction of what he was feeling and not even that was enough to bother trying to ask for a summons that would only be ignored. Obviously he was doing the most important thing in trying to quell Typhoon right now.

But having Nico here now really was like a missing puzzle piece he hadn't realized was needed in that picture back there. He fit so easily into the moment in Will's imagination, like he'd been standing silently off to the side and followed him out and just been a quiet acceptance for everything he'd been feeling. It really did make the memory retroactively bearable instead of a painful new twisting he'd been expecting.

Nobody disagreed. There was hardly a single demigod who hadn't already been wounded . . . except me.

'The obvious solution here was to throw everybody in the river Styx so nobody could ever get hurt again,' Alex shook her head as she bit her lip. She couldn't make herself say that even in jest. Even if they all knew she wasn't an actual idiot and nobody tried to explain why that was a bad idea, it just wasn't for anybody else but her.

"Come on, guys," Travis Stoll said. "Let's give Annabeth some space. We've got a drugstore to raid . . . I mean, visit."

"Really wasn't any funnier the second time," Nico grumbled too, giving Will another small moment to smile he wasn't the one to say it even if he'd been feeling it. It would have just sounded scathing coming from him right now.

The demigods shuffled back inside. Jake Mason grabbed my shoulder as he was leaving. "We'll talk later, but it's under control. I'm using Annabeth's shield to keep an eye on things. The enemy withdrew at sunrise; not sure why. We've got a lookout at each bridge and tunnel."

"Thanks, man," I said.

He nodded. "Just take your time."

He closed the terrace doors behind him, leaving Silena, Annabeth, and me alone.

She hadn't heard that, and a part of Annabeth wanted to smack Percy for not sharing such a thing with her while part of her mind had been running calculations and numbers and more plans of what needed to be done. Not that she didn't trust the rest of the campers to get it done without her, she just needed to be involved, she had been practically since she set foot in camp.

Silena pressed a cool cloth to Annabeth's forehead. "This is all my fault."

"No," Annabeth said weakly. "Silena, how is it your fault?"

"I've never been any good at camp," she murmured. "Not like you or Percy. If I was a better fighter . . ."

Her mouth trembled.

Thalia's fist formed tight, wanting to punch this girl in the face and then hold her tight and promise she understood. Gods did she understand what Silena had fallen into. She wished she could scream in her face for being pulled under Luke's charms, and she wanted to promise everybody who'd ever met him had been fooled too.

She'd never had the chance to act on any of it, and a part of her was selfishly glad for it. Silena had been drowning long before Thalia had known to help pull her out and maybe splash her a few more times to make sure she stayed awake the rest of her time at Camp.

Ever since Beckendorf died she'd been getting worse, and every time I looked at her, it made me angry about his death all over again. Her expression reminded me of glass—like she might break any minute.

Jason understood that feeling all to well, it's how he looked at himself every time in the mirror. Like even if all the pieces were found and glued back together, you'd always see the cracks.

I swore to myself that if I ever found the spy who'd cost her boyfriend his life, I would give him to Mrs. O'Leary as a chew toy.

Will was just to emotionally exhausted to read that as he should, the same tempo as his usual reading like he had not a single insight into how he should feel about that, the same way most of them had been getting along so as not to agitate Percy about the truth.

He was just a little off this time, and it made Percy flinch. His hand to his temple, his core shaken by the mixed emotions that were poured in from the truth creeping a little closer than it needed to right now. His stomach rolled violently, the only thing grounding him was Annabeth wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing close as she whispered, "it's okay Percy."

It wasn't okay, he felt feverish all of a sudden, then cold flashes before the world was forced to settle back and he looked down at her still swallowing convulsively.

"You're a great camper," I told Silena. "You're the best pegasus rider we have. And you get along with people. Believe me, anyone who can make friends with Clarisse has talent."

Annabeth had been hard-pressed not to lean forward and hug him tight, and judging by the look on Silena's face she'd felt the same. If it hadn't felt like someone had ripped her arm off and sewn it on backward she absolutely would have.

She stared at me like I'd just given her an idea. "That's it! We need the Ares cabin. I can talk to Clarisse. I know I can convince her to help us."

"I guess if anyone could, my money would be on her," Magnus agreed hesitantly, not that he had any money to be betting, so, what did that say?

Percy agreed, yet something about all this still set him on edge. Like if he could go back in time or give himself a dream he'd shut this down.

"Whoa, Silena. Even if you could get off the island, Clarisse is pretty stubborn. Once she gets angry—"

"She turns into a raging green monster?" Alex asked hopefully.

"Nah, that would be useful," Percy huffed.

"Please," Silena said. "I can take a pegasus. I know I can make it back to camp. Let me try."

I exchanged looks with Annabeth. She nodded slightly.

Percy exchanged a look with Annabeth now, still reeling just a bit from Chiron basically saying he was in charge, still wrapping his head around the fact that he and Annabeth were basically defacto leaders here. When did Silena need his say-so to do this? Gods, nobody was going to start trying to get him to do supplies counts next were they?! Camp didn't have the math budget for his attempts!

I didn't like the idea. I didn't think Silena stood a chance of convincing Clarisse to fight. On the other hand, Silena was so distracted right now that she would just get herself hurt in battle. Maybe sending her back to camp would give her something else to focus on.

Jason listened with an intense fascination at hearing Percy handle this situation. He had a sense in the back of his mind like he could have weighed in on a similar situation if he could ever unlock his own head, but for now he found himself nodding and feeling Percy was leaning in the right direction even if nobody had asked him.

"All right," I told her. "I can't think of anybody better to try."

Silena threw her arms around me. Then she pushed back awkwardly, glancing at Annabeth. "Um, sorry. Thank you, Percy! I won't let you down!"

Percy glanced from Annabeth to the book with a smile much less awkward this time. "Does everyone need to apologize to you when they hug me now?"

"I'll give you a list later," she chuckled.

Once she was gone, I knelt next to Annabeth and felt her forehead. She was still burning up.

Magnus shivered at how much necter she must have been given to be feeling so warm, how close she'd come to dying and he never would have known. He knew their magic healing wasn't instantaneous either, like with Percy's scorpion sting, or when they taxed themselves to much. She just needed rest. The question was if she'd let herself do that.

"You're cute when you're worried," she muttered. "Your eyebrows get all scrunched together."

"You two are the worst," Thalia rolled her eyes in pain. "You only admit you like each other in life or death situations and I'm the one who has to hear about everything in between."

"Not anymore," Annabeth tried to protest from under Percy's arm.

"Percy was about to kill us all, again!, when he decided to kiss you instead! My statement stands," Thalia huffed.

"You are not going to die while I owe you a favor," I said.

"The important things in life," Will nodded.

"Duly noted," Nico chuckled.

"Why did you take that knife?"

"You would've done the same for me."

It was true. I guess we both knew it. Still, I felt like somebody was poking my heart with a cold metal rod.

Alex looked a little to interested in that analogy, which gave Magnus the conclusion that she'd either A, done that personally before, or B, felt that personally. Neither conclusion was giving him the best feeling.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?"

I looked around to make sure we were alone. Then I leaned in close and whispered: "My Achilles spot. If you hadn't taken that knife, I would've died."

She got a faraway look in her eyes. Her breath smelled of grapes, maybe from the nectar.

"Mmm," Annabeth agreed fondly. "It had tasted like those jam tarts your mom mailed me last weekend."

For some reason Percy wasn't the slightest bit surprised his mom had done something like that and he hadn't known about it.

"I don't know, Percy. I just had this feeling you were in danger. Where . . . where is the spot?"

"More like why was the spot," Jason shook his head, he still couldn't get over that.

"Nobody ever asks how is the spot," Alex said seriously. "Let me know if you need a massage Percy."

"Alex is over there planning to kill me," Percy decided, only mildly kidding.

Annabeth nodded, like the thought had crossed her mind at least once too.

I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. But this was Annabeth. If I couldn't trust her, I couldn't trust anyone.

"The small of my back."

She lifted her hand. "Where? Here?"

She put her hand on my spine, and my skin tingled. I moved her fingers to the one spot that grounded me to my mortal life. A thousand volts of electricity seemed to arc through my body.

This felt private in an awkward way, when they already knew such a thing. Magnus blushed and Jason averted his eyes to everywhere in the room while Will kept reading with only a slight change in expression of sweetness like he was reciting a poem.

"You saved me," I said. "Thanks."

She removed her hand, but I kept holding it.

"So you owe me," she said weakly. "What else is new?"

We watched the sun come up over the city.

Annabeth finally felt the urge to lean away from Percy and rub her cheeks from smiling so much. She didn't act on it, but the thought still crossed her mind that she'd finally managed a time to sit around, holding hands with Percy in the most romantic place possible for them.

Of course it finally happened after one of them nearly died, again, Thalia hadn't been wrong about that, but she'd take what she could get.

The traffic should've been heavy by now, but there were no cars honking, no crowds bustling along the sidewalks.

Percy had once tried to read this weird book of poems from a big white book, mostly for the cool art on every page. This morning felt like it would have fit right in, it had that other world vibe to it.

Everything was normal, the world was about to end as usual. Everything felt disconnected, his city at a screeching halt and holding its breath for what he'd do next.

He and Annabeth, at the center. Not talking, but finally, not a world apart.

Far away, I could hear a car alarm echo through the streets. A plume of black smoke curled into the sky somewhere over Harlem. I wondered how many ovens had been left on when the Morpheus spell hit; how many people had fallen asleep in the middle of cooking dinner. Pretty soon there would be more fires. Everyone in New York was in danger—and all those lives depended on us.

His mom was somewhere down there, Percy leaned forward anxiously in his seat to no one's surprise. Anybody in danger and of course his first instinct was to lean into it.

He hoped she'd stayed in, knowing the invasion was on the way. That she and Paul were anxiously watching the news and had ordered takeout that would be forever until it got there at this rate. They'd have the usual friendly argument about which pizza joint was better, but Percy couldn't be there this time to decide which sounded better, Famous Sal's with the crust or Original Sal's sauce, or both. Usually they never went for both.

"You asked me why Hermes was mad at me," Annabeth said.

"Hey, you need to rest—"

"No, I want to tell you.

"Don't ever tell Annabeth she needs to rest," Thalia sighed from experience. "She thinks that's the perfect time to find the end of pi or something."

"I'd be happy to help her with that one at least," Percy said with his trademark smirk, just to hear Annabeth call him a seaweed brain when she knew he knew which kind of pi Thalia meant.

It's been bothering me for a long time." She moved her shoulder and winced. "Last year, Luke came to see me in San Francisco."

Thalia startled, her bow appearing in hand with an arrow loaded on pure instinct as she looked around at Annabeth who didn't even blink as she watched with an apologetic frown.

No, she never had told anybody but Percy about this. She'd wanted to, after she'd slammed that door shut. Thalia had been the first person she wanted to call, then Percy, but she'd sat on her bed alone and done neither because nobody would have understood.

She'd heard her brothers playing outside, they'd been having a watermelon fight or something without inviting her as usual, and she'd wished she still had her cousin around. To be six again playing blocks with Magnus.

It had never strayed past the thought, fear had trumped the idea to quickly about getting yet another person in her life hurt and killed just by her proximity.

Annabeth watched him now, sitting across the room from her, watching her back with true concern in their shared eyes. The fact that he was down here and seemed to be mildly enjoying himself most of the time was not something she'd ever mentally prepared for in her life and was still cautiously trying to figure out how to approach.

But she flashed him a hopeful smile now, weary, and tired, but really looking at him in a 'yeah, this happened,' way just for him, and he instantly returned it.

Thalia had already tucked her weapons back away but still seemed shaken. Annabeth finally leaned out from under Percy's arm, her heart fluttering at his little throat protest but storing that away for later as she put a questioning hand on hers.

Her sister didn't push her away, but she didn't look happy either as she studied her silently while listening.

"In person?"

"Well, I'd hope if he sent her an Iris Message she'd just hang up on him. I assume this conversation was needed in person anyways," Will instantly started babbling unwieldy with his words at the sudden tension of Thalia's piercing look, more deadly to some than anything she could shoot.

Percy started cutting his hand across his throat and giving him an obvious look, and yeah, Will agreed, forced laughter never improved a situation no matter what Percy's impulsive mouth tried to say otherwise.

I felt like she'd just hit me with a hammer.

"Don't be ridiculous Percy, hammers are for children," Alex rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, use a better example, like mule, maul, muah, shit how do you pronounce that thing?" Will went crosseyed as he tried to remember the strange name of Thor's hammer.

"No, you got it man, mewmew," Jason chuckled, "deadliest weapon in the universe."

"Mjolnir," Magnus offered anyways. "Like, mule, near."

"We're never getting out of here," Percy sighed. They couldn't even shut up about which hammer to hit him with.

"Yeah," Annabeth nodded like she'd already accepted that. She seemed pretty comfortable though, all things considered, so he couldn't find it a bad thing in that moment either.

"He came to your house?"

"This was before we went into the Labyrinth, before . . ." She faltered, but I knew what she meant: before be turned into Kronos. "He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He looked scared, Percy. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world. He said he wanted to run away, like the old days. He wanted me to come with him."

Thalia felt an immediate sense of pride as she heard that. Her little sister finally learned her lesson, would finally stop running to him right into death's arms, but the feeling was rotten just under the surface. Just like a gift from her own dad. Of course Thalia finally got her wish, and the pain on Annabeth's face was her reward.

"But you didn't trust him."

"Of course not.

Percy had wanted to scoff right back at her scoff, but she'd looked to weak to take it. Having to be propped up in that chair, having her arm be supported by bandages, it made this moment of her finally calling him the idiot for the obvious in Luke have zero satisfaction.

I thought it was a trick. Plus . . . well, a lot of things had changed since the old days.

She hadn't changed as much as she thought she did, Magnus hid a wince well. Honestly, if he'd been hearing this any time other than past tense, he would have been just as convinced she'd have dropped everything to do what Luke asked too.

This sounded like it should have been a victory, he could have been hopping around with joy and wanting to go get ice cream with her to celebrate she was finally seeing this creep clearly. She might shove that ice cream up his nose, and he'd probably deserve it.

I told Luke there was no way. He got mad. He said . . . he said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I'd get."

Oh how the temptation had been there too. Annabeth had been to exhausted to cry in front of Percy, finally saying all of this out loud. The memories of her time with him from that first day had gone through her mind faster than even a god could beam them in. For one breath she'd been about to say yes. To run away with him again and make new memories. She'd take him somewhere safe, she'd do what the gods couldn't and help him, cure him of Kronos and all the wicked that had taken him over and he'd be there for her again just like he always was when she'd needed him-

But her thoughts had stopped cold right there as more recent times had come to mind. Percy holding her tight at the bottom of the ocean as the sirens played in her ear. Percy rushing to her side on top of Mt. Othry's. Percy following her into that Labyrnth without hesitation.

That's when she'd told him no. Because Percy wasn't perfect, but he was the one she truly needed more than Luke would ever be, even if he'd started her on this path.

Her forehead broke out in sweat again. The story was taking too much of her energy.

"It's okay," I said. "Try to get some rest."

"Not the bedtime story I'd use before naptime, but, it might work for some," Will muttered, jiggling his leg anxiously. He should have stuck around, made sure she wasn't over-taxing herself, or that Percy wasn't instigating anything. She was his patient at the time, he should have kept a better watch on this.

Percy whispered something in her ear. She shook her head, keeping her eyes on Thalia. He shrugged and turned back to the book, to Will, with an obvious 'get with it' look.

Will smiled and agreed. He'd left her in the best hands possible.

"You don't understand, Percy. Hermes was right. Maybe if I'd gone with him, I could've changed his mind. Or—or I had a knife. Luke was unarmed. I could've—"

Thalia swallowed the nasty comment she would've without hesitation. She also knew Annabeth never could have done it.

"Killed him?" I said. "You know that wouldn't have been right."

"Coming from a guy who actually did not just stab the guy in the face for stabbing you, I guess Percy does have some authority on this," Nico nodded casually.

"The only authority I should ever be given," Percy groaned as he sagged in his seat. He was already tired of being in charge of Camp, and it had only been one night!

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Luke said Kronos would use him like a stepping stone. Those were his exact words. Kronos would use Luke, and become even more powerful."

"He did that," I said. "He possessed Luke's body."

"But what if Luke's body is only a transition? What if Kronos has a plan to become even more powerful? I could've stopped him. The war is my fault."

Jason couldn't help biting at his lip, probably stretching his scar out another few inches. 'My fault,' left a hollow echo in his mind, words he knew had come from his own mouth. That part of him wanted to agree Annabeth should have done something about this instead of doing nothing, a choice in itself.

He watched though as Thalia gave a look of such anger it would have sent any other person running but Annabeth as she watched back, clearly bracing herself for impact as his sister told his would-be-sister, "You're still doing it! You're still putting everything he does on yourself! His actions and going through with it are not your fault!"

"You can't pretend I'm not at least partially responsible when I had the chance-"

"It's not pretend! It's not make believe! We've never played that because we don't need to make up monsters in our life to fight! I swear I'm going to kill your stepmom one of these days, what other people do isn't your fault!"

Percy, nor anybody was obviously going to intervene here, nobody was foolish enough to think these two couldn't handle their own fights. Jason couldn't stand to watch anymore. "Guys!" Both girls stopped and looked at him, them, like they'd forgotten anybody else was in the room. "Can you not put a pin in this like you've clearly been doing for years." Clearly not a long-term answer for a long overdue conversation, but even now neither would give ground that both were sort of right. He didn't know how long ago all this had really been, but probably not that long! He didn't know how much time or what it would take to make them feel at peace, but arguing about it now didn't seem to be bringing them much good.

Her story made me feel like I was back in the Styx, slowly dissolving.

Annabeth sighed she'd ever made Percy feel like that. She really only brought misery to everyone in her life. Gods knew why she fell back into Percy's side and he put his arm back around her at once, but she wasn't going to deny the comfort she needed right now as she willingly sank back into him.

I remembered last summer, when the two-headed god, Janus, had warned Annabeth she would have to make a major choice—and that had happened after she saw Luke. Pan had also said something to her: You will play a great role, though it may not be the role you imagined.

She repressed the urge to slam the book shut as she once again realized everybody in this room had seen that moment and she hadn't been able to shut it down then either.

I wanted to ask her about the vision Hestia had shown me, about her early days with Luke and Thalia. I knew it had something to do with my prophecy, but I didn't understand what.

Percy couldn't take his eyes off her head resting on his chest. He gently stroked her hair out of her face a bit, the feel of her gray bangs had no different texture than the rest of the golden locks though his brian half expected them too.

To his surprise, she somehow relaxed a tad, sinking more of her weight into him. So he kept doing that.

Before I could get up my nerve, the terrace door opened. Connor Stoll stepped through.

Thalia was admittedly disappointed a change of subject was coming as she chewed on the rest of her long overdue words to Annabthe. Luke had already accepted Kronos into his mind years before she or Annabeth could have done anything to make a difference, the Titan's influence ran to deep for him to change, there were any number of things she still wanted to shout in her face to make her drop this once and for all about this being anyone but Luke's fault.

"Percy." He glanced at Annabeth like he didn't want to say anything bad in front of her, but I could tell he wasn't bringing good news.

"Pretty sure if a poisoned knife couldn't finish her off, another hour of that day going as expected won't either," Alex said with way to much confidence over somebody's mortality who wasn't Percy.

"I think I'd rather have the poisoned knife than hear it though," she was mostly kidding as she rotated her shoulder exaggeratedly, but she had been pretty grateful at the time for the brief interruption of Percy's intense look on her being distracted. Maybe she should leave a few jars of shaving cream unattended when she got back in retroactive thanks.

"Mrs. O'Leary just came back with Grover. I think you should talk to him."

"I still hope she gets rewarded with more hotdogs," Magnus never would have thought he'd say such a nice thing about a dog in his life, but she really had earned it after doing so much for Percy.

"I'll find a way to hire a hotdog guy to follow her around as long as I can," Percy nodded.

Grover was having a snack in the living room.

"You mean he was snacking on the living room," Nico corrected mildly.

"Mmm, got to love that oak finish," Jason nodded with a fond smile.

"I always wonder if he likes the aftertaste of sawdust or if that's a drawback," Percy said. "Like, that shiny stuff they put on wood, does it make it taste smoother going down? Does he get the runs and doesn't care?"

"So this is why Grover started hanging out with Juniper over you," Annabeth finally nodded in understanding.

"Hey, he does not," Percy huffed.

She sat up from him with a teasing smile and would have happily weaved together the past months in a delicate half-truth to prove her point before Will decided to keep reading loudly before another of their arguments could get started.

He was dressed for battle in an armored shirt made from tree bark and twist ties, with his wooden cudgel and his reed pipes hanging from his belt.

The Demeter cabin had whipped up a whole buffet in the hotel kitchens—everything from pizza to pineapple ice cream.

"Why do I feel like that was some kind of peace treaty regarding Hawaiian pizza?" Annabeth chuckled.

"Katie's a great mediator like that," Will agreed.

 Unfortunately, Grover was eating the furniture. He'd already chewed the stuffing off a fancy chair and was now gnawing the armrest.

"Dude," I said, "we're only borrowing this place."

"I had no previous assumptions that would stop him," Thalia rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm just hoping nobody tried to book the room under my name," Percy sighed. It would be just his luck for the desk clerk to wake up and find Percy Jackson attached to the mini-fridge bill.

"Blah-ha-ha!" He had stuffing all over his face. "Sorry, Percy. It's just . . . Louis the Sixteenth furniture.

"Is he a furniture conisure?" Alex asked with interest. "Or does he gain knowledge of the chair from nibbling on it?"

"You mean like, if he ate a book he'd know it back to front?" Jason grinned.

"Yeah!" Alex smirked.

"No!" Jason's grin didn't dim anymore than Alex's as they snickered anyway.

Delicious. Plus I always eat furniture when I get—"

"When you get nervous," I said. "Yeah, I know. So what's up?"

He clopped on his hooves. "I heard about Annabeth. Is she . . .?"

"She's going to be fine. She's resting."

The fact that she hadn't barged past Percy to see what this was, and in fact had barely tried to sit up before practically nodding her agreement to sit this one out spoke volumes of just how worn out she was.

Grover took a deep breath. "That's good. I've mobilized most of the nature spirits in the city—well, the ones that will listen to me, anyway." He rubbed his forehead. "I had no idea acorns could hurt so much.

"What kind of wildlife has Grover been living in?" Magnus rubbed the side of his head with a little to much experience. "I've known that for months."

"Coins, apples, branches, squirrels, phones, honestly anything with enough gravety will hurt," Alex agreed.

"Alex, only one of those things is normal to fall on your head, and that's a bad day in itself," Percy frowned at her.

"You right, who stands around and waits for an apple to fall without their mouth open," Alex mock agreed, "must be why doctors are so afraid of them."

"Nope, we're moving on from this," Will sighed as Percy opened his mouth wearily.

Anyway, we're helping out as much as we can."

He told me about the skirmishes they'd seen. Mostly they'd been covering uptown, where we didn't have enough demigods. Hellhounds had appeared in all sorts of places, shadow-traveling inside our lines, and the dryads and satyrs had been fighting them off. A young dragon had appeared in Harlem, and a dozen wood nymphs died before the monster was finally defeated.

It wasn't mentioned how the dragon was killed, and Nico was very hard pressed not to ask for personal interest of how a bunch of nature spirits managed that. Did one of them manage to throw some belladonna down its throat?

Magnus went pale like somebody had just tried to get him with a poison dagger next. He was not pleased dragon's were just casually showing up in these armies still! He tried to take some comfort that they hadn't needed Percy around to get rid of it at least. Maybe they weren't as deadly as he kept imagining... yeah, and maybe Alex had a crush on him back. Time to get out of delusional land Magnus, he scolded himself.

As Grover talked, Thalia entered the room with two of her lieutenants. She nodded to me grimly, went outside to check on Annabeth, and came back in.

Annabeth had always been a side sleeper, so to see her lying prone on her back, her body trying to twist onto her side to get comfortable but then murmuring in pain and shivering to stay still had caused her to pull out her own vial of nectar and trickle a little more on just to help ease her a few moments more. Thalia had snagged a few extra pillows off more chairs and finally, hopefully gotten her comfortable by giving her legs some elevation and giving her just enough cushion to be partially in her natural way.

She listened while Grover completed his report— the details getting worse and worse.

"We lost twenty satyrs against some giants at Fort Washington," he said, his voice trembling. "Almost half my kinsmen.

Percy hadn't needed an empathy link with Grover to understand the pain in his voice for that. His entire Camp had been out risking their life last night and he hadn't even gotten reports back from all the cabins on how many kids died. He could already feel in his bones the long-reaching repercussions this battle was going to have on Camp if they even survived this, how huge the place was going to feel without so many satyrs running across the field, how quiet the cabins were going to be.

River spirits drowned the giants in the end, but . . ."

Thalia shouldered her bow. "Percy, Kronos's forces are still gathering at every bridge and tunnel. And Kronos isn't the only Titan. One of my Hunters spotted a huge man in golden armor mustering an army on the Jersey shore. I'm not sure who he is, but he radiates power like only a Titan or god."

I remembered the golden Titan from my dream—the one on Mount Othrys who erupted into flames.

Annabeth's eyes flickered to Jason, watching with his usual intent interest in all things, and deeply wondered herself at the other Titan that they'd never come across. She'd always theorized the rest must have gone into hiding, like Oceanus, crawled back to the shadows to scheme again; hopefully waiting another thousand years or so. Now she wondered what exactly other kids out there had been dealing with in all this.

"Great," I said. "Any good news?"

"Always get the bad news first, makes the good news linger," Will tried to say in his usual chipper tone of voice.

"Or just emphasizes there was no good news," Magnus frowned.

"Okay Debbie Downer, we're going to go around the room after every chapter now and say what the best and worst part of this was," Will mock threatened.

The fact that he got unanimous horrified faces from everyone else quickly destroyed that idea, but Will got a genuine moment to smile again at everyone agreeing on that.

Thalia shrugged. "We've sealed off the subway tunnels into Manhattan. My best trappers took care of it. Also, it seems like the enemy is waiting for tonight to attack. I think Luke"—she caught herself-

Annabeth made a small sigh of relief. The feeling of being understood came rarely to her. Whether Thalia wanted it or not, she couldn't stop her little sister from putting her arm through hers and leaning comfortably like that. Thalia's tense jaw clearly showed she wanted to snap at her again.

The fact that she didn't push her away meant she really appreciated the support.

Gods, Percy was getting a headache just looking at Thalia, he had no idea how she played jump rope with that line when he still had no clue how to deal with it either.

"I mean Kronos needs time to regenerate after each fight. He's still not comfortable with his new form. It's taking a lot of his power to slow time around the city."

It hurt Magnus's brain a lot to imagine how exactly he was doing that. Did he just, concentrate really hard on a clock taking an hour to move a second? Did he clench all his muscles and make some gross noises before brushing off his hands in triumph? Was there a magic potion with the blood of his enemies involved? And all in a borrowed body?!

Grover nodded. "Most of his forces are more powerful at night, too. But they'll be back after sundown."

I tried to think clearly.

"A tough act on any other day," Jason nodded seriously.

"One I usually don't manage unless I'm about to die," Percy sighed.

"Okay. Any word from the gods?"

"Which is really showing how desperate you are," Alex said, "you get annoyed when they do that."

"Special circumstances and all that," Percy groaned. He'd take Mr. D showing up to save their butts compaling the whole time. He'd take Ares showing up and yapping nonstop!

Thalia shook her head. "I know Lady Artemis would be here if she could. Athena, too. But Zeus has ordered them to stay at his side. The last I heard, Typhon was destroying the Ohio River valley. He should reach the Appalachian Mountains by midday."

"So at best," I said, "we've got another two days before he arrives."

Jake Mason cleared his throat. He'd been standing there so silently I'd almost forgotten he was in the room.

Nico mock jumped in his seat. "He's stealing my gig."

"Honestly though," Percy chuckled. "I'm so used to it being just my friends dealing with all this, not half the camp just hanging around for the end of the world with me this time."

"Percy, something else," he said. "The way Kronos showed up at the Williamsburg Bridge, like he knew you were going there. And he shifted his forces to our weakest points. As soon as we deployed, he changed tactics. He barely touched the Lincoln Tunnel, where the Hunters were strong. He went for our weakest spots, like he knew."

"Like he had inside information," I said. "The spy."

Will's voice shook with unease of how he was supposed to keep casually saying that. He'd never asked his dad to place a curse upon anyone like he had the person who ratted them out, but then when he'd found it was Silena...to put a name to the faceless person in his mind...the idea still made him sick what he'd wanted done to her. Obviousy his dad had been to busy to pay attention to do it anyways...

"I'm really starting to hope this whole spy thing is just a conspiracy gone way out of hand," Magnus grumbled, "and Deadlus just made Kronos one of those crazy shield vision things. Maybe Kronos just has a prototype not as good as yours he doesn't want to brag about."

"Yeah man, let's hope," Percy knew it was a joke, and yet some part of him hoped it was true. Especially after the horrible results of that bridge, he still didn't want to believe anybody inside Camp would conspire to kill the rest of them.

"What spy?" Thalia demanded.

I told her about the silver charm Kronos had shown me, the communication device.

"That's bad," she said. "Very bad."

"Thalia, with the most potent quote of my life," Percy waved grandly at her.

"Sounds like she's been taking lessons from Tyson," Jason agreed, Percy had beat him to saying that by one breath.

Thalia waved grandly from her seat with the hand that wasn't being held in a vice-like hold by Annabeth.

"It could be anyone," Jake said. "We were all standing there when Percy gave the orders."

"But what can we do?" Grover asked. "Frisk every demigod until we find a scythe charm?"

"And that comes with its own problems, not the least of which is how good the frisk will be," Alex tried to say snidely like the most innocent interpretation of that was someone keeping the charm in their mouth while Percy went through their bag, but they all twitched unpleasantly at how quickly that could turn into a shit show of distrust.

They all looked at me, waiting for a decision. I couldn't afford to show how panicked I felt, even if things seemed hopeless.

The thing was, Thalia smiled to herself, she was sure that Grover and Jake had felt the exact same way. She knew she had.

"We keep fighting," I said. "We can't obsess about this spy. If we're suspicious of each other, we'll just tear ourselves apart. You guys were awesome last night. I couldn't ask for a braver army. Let's set up a rotation for the watches. Rest up while you can. We've got a long night ahead of us."

The demigods mumbled agreement. They went their separate ways to sleep or eat or repair their weapons.

It wasn't the rousing comfort Percy would have liked to have given them, but it was the truth he'd needed to hear out loud. Just something to get them through another few hours.

"Percy, you too," Thalia said. "We'll keep an eye on things. Go lie down. We need you in good shape for tonight."

I didn't argue too hard.

"You called me a nanny and threatened to throw a baby bottle at me," Thalia accused. "I don't even know where you planned on getting one! You call that, not too hard?"

"I don't even remember that," Percy said with an apologetic smile. "I think I was just hangry."

"Fair, you did actually go to bed after some food," she chuckled.

I found the nearest bedroom and crashed on the canopied bed. I thought I was too wired to sleep, but my eyes closed almost immediately.

In my dream, I saw Nico di Angelo alone in the gardens of Hades.

"Nico's back," Will said with as much enthusiasm as ever.

Nico gave him the least begrudging smile humanly possible. "Of course I am you McNugget, I'm stuck in Percy's life apparently."

"And nobody said that was a bad thing," Percy shrugged.

Nico gave him a grateful smile as his dull surprise faded quickly. Of course Percy had dreamed about this moment, it made sense with the hindsight he'd been dreaming of the coming Oracle so frequently and this was tied in. It just bothered him a bit that the one time he'd been hesitantly willing to offer a part of his life voluntarily, that had been snatched away from him too. He was still half convinced his life was a cosmic joke to some god out there.

He'd just dug a hole in one of Persephone's flower beds, which I didn't figure would make the queen very happy.

"I could cure cancer and it wouldn't make her happy," Nico clearly said what he thought about that concern.

"Well yeah, more people, more people destroying plant walkers out there, I can see how she wouldn't appreciate that," Percy nodded like Nico had just agreed with him.

He poured a goblet of wine into the hole and began to chant. "Let the dead taste again. Let them rise and take this offering. Maria di Angelo, show yourself!"

"No McDonald's sacrifice this time?" Alex asked in surprise.

"I tried, multiple times," Nico sighed. "Nothing. I was starting to wonder if my dad was blocking me, so even though I didn't like it, I tried ditching the ceremonial aspect and just using my raw power."

"And how did that work out?" Will asked, still trying to get a handle on how much of Nico's powers he used casually and how much was pushing some limit.

Nico just grinned at his interest and pointed at the book. Will grinned back and turned away, but one of these days he wasn't going to get to use that excuse anymore. Will was looking forward to that.

White smoke gathered. A human figure formed, but it wasn't Nico's mother. It was a girl with dark hair, olive skin, and the silvery clothes of a Hunter.

"The one time you didn't try to summon her and now she pops in," Jason agreed with Nico's put-out look. "She's your sister all right."

"Hey-" Thalia muttered, narrowing her eyes at the pair and trying to figure out what was being implied here.

"Yeah, really miss conspiring with her to steal extra cookies from the cafeteria and tag teaming our dad for another hour to stay up," Nico's voice was dripping with sarcasm, but it didn't hide the hurt nearly as well as he thought it did.

"Bianca," Nico said. "But—"

Don't summon our mother, Nico, she warned. She is the one spirit you are forbidden to see.

"Why?" Magnus, Jason, Alex, and Will all said at the same time, Will admittedly because he was reading it and thinking it.

"I get a half-baked answer," Nico groused. He wasn't pleased at the idea it was his dad blocking her from him specifically, or perhaps her soul was being kept somewhere safe so vengeful gods or step-mom's couldn't do anything to his mother's spirit. Either way, he'd still never had a proper face-to-transparent-face with her, and it was a deep wound to him he didn't know what to do with any better than his crush on Percy. He was surprised he didn't resemble Swiss cheese more and more lately.

"Why?" he demanded. "What's our father hiding?"

Pain, Bianca said. Hatred. A curse that stretches back to the Great Prophecy.

Alex and Magnus exchanged interested looks. They hadn't been expecting that tid bit.

And more, how the heck did Bianca know that? What ghost gossip was she getting, and how reliable were her sources? Magnus couldn't help but think of an infinite line of whispers with ghosts and what got lost in translation there.

"What do you mean?" Nico said. "I have to know!"

The knowledge will only hurt you. Remember what I said: holding grudges is a fatal flaw for children of Hades.

"I know that," Nico said. "But I'm not the same as I used to be, Bianca. Stop trying to protect me!"

Brother, you don't understand—

Nico swiped his hand through the mist, and Bianca's image dissipated.

Will was shocked at the cold dismissal. All he'd wanted for so long was to talk to her, to get just a piece of his family back, and Will had understood every bit of that. This was starting to feel more like revenge. Like Nico was slipping back down the slope holding onto something to tight, only now it wasn't so much a person as just an idea of how to make sense of something not even the Lord of the Underworld had full control over.

"Maria di Angelo," he said again. "Speak to me!"

A different image formed. It was a scene rather than a single ghost. In the mist, I saw Nico and Bianca as little children, playing in the lobby of an elegant hotel, chasing each other around marble columns.

A woman sat on a nearby sofa. She wore a black dress, gloves, and a black veiled hat like a star from an old 1940s movie.

"Maybe that's because she was," Thalia rolled her eyes at Percy managing to get a timeline from that of all things.

"My mom and Paul dressed up for a Halloween event one time in a getup like that," Percy shrugged why he even recognized it.

She had Bianca's smile and Nico's eyes.

On a chair next to her sat a large oily man in a black pinstripe suit. With a shock, I realized it was Hades. He was leaning toward the woman, using his hands as he talked, like he was agitated.

Jason couldn't help a mental mark of interest that was also a trait passed down to his kids. Like with Sally and Posideon, he found it deeply fascinating to note such things...only to glance at Thalia and think of the few things Zeus had done when present. He'd never really felt a connection like that to either parent mentioned, and while he understood why in theory, it still left something lacking in him he didn't understand why everyone got that except him.

"Please, my dear," he said. "You must come to the Underworld. I don't care what Persephone thinks! I can keep you safe there."

"Ooo, can I get that one in writing?" Alex demanded. Most likely only to wave it under the Queen of the Underwold's nose, but for a delusional moment, Will thought she also meant as proof the gods cared for their mortal lovers.

"You do," Percy sighed, "for a limited time now, and this offer expires until we get out of here, so act fast," he said in a false sponsorship voice.

"Deal of a lifetime I won't pass, no downpayment required, no interest," Alex chuckled.

"No, my love." She spoke with an Italian accent. "Raise our children in the land of the dead? I will not do this."

"Maria, listen to me. The war in Europe has turned the other gods against me. A prophecy has been made. My children are no longer safe. Poseidon and Zeus have forced me into an agreement. None of us are to have demigod children ever again."

"But you already have Nico and Bianca. Surely—"

"No! The prophecy warns of a child who turns sixteen. Zeus has decreed that the children I currently have must be turned over to Camp Half-Blood for proper training, but I know what he means. At best they'll be watched, imprisoned, turned against their father. Even more likely, he will not take a chance. He won't allow my demigod children to reach sixteen. He'll find a way to destroy them, and I won't risk that!"

"Certamente," Maria said. "We will stay together. Zeus is un imbecile."

"Okay, Nico's mom was kind of awesome too!" Jason threw his hands up in exasperation. He was mostly kidding, but it was ingrained a little to deeply to entirely just be a joke. "Thalia, how did we luck out of this!"

"Dad does not know how to pick um," Thalia reminded in exhaustion.

The others gave a soft laugh for their antics, Nico's sticking out the most for being able to look back on this moment with anything but a sob.

I couldn't help admiring her courage, but Hades glanced nervously at the ceiling.

"Percy's braver than a god confirmed," Annabeth managed a light joke about this, nobody in here had even glanced nervously at the ceiling. They'd really grown far to comfortable down here. They'd probably all be blasted to ashes the second they got top side again just for Zeus's pent-up anger with no obvious target.

Percy just grinned at the compliment without a care in the world.

"Maria, please. I told you, Zeus gave me a deadline of last week to turn over the children. His wrath will be horrible, and I cannot hide you forever. As long as you are with the children, you are in danger too."

The phrasing of that kind of bothered Will, and the way Nico flinched made him confident he'd gotten the same understanding from that. Hades seemed to care more about Maria than the kids. Gods, had anybody besides his own mother ever put him first?

Maria smiled, and again it was creepy how much she looked like her daughter.

Which Nico heard as, apparently he'd inherited more from his dad.

"You are a god, my love. You will protect us. But I will not take Nico and Bianca to the Underworld."

It really was just the greatest thing Nico had found a way to disappoint both of his parents at once, Nico mentally congratulated himself. That was obviously something all aspiring teenagers long to do in their lives!

Hades wrung his hands. "Then, there is another option. I know a place in the desert where time stands still. I could send the children there, just for a while, for their own safety, and we could be together. I will build you a golden palace by the Styx."

"Was it, of any comfort it wasn't just some random act that landed you in there?" Magnus asked in sympathy. "Got to mean something your dad wanted you there to be safe and out of the way."

"Yeah, I guess," Nico said lackluster. It didn't sound like there were any great options, but still, the fact that his dad had basically cast him aside would never feel great. He glanced around and wondered just how long Posideon expected them to be in here.

Maria di Angelo laughed gently. "You are a kind man, my love. A generous man. The other gods should see you as I do, and they would not fear you so. But Nico and Bianca need their mother. Besides, they are only children. The gods wouldn't really hurt them."

"Oh such sweet naivety I've never been blessed with," Alex genuinely tried to say without disdain but wasn't quite sure she hit it right.

"Can we rewind back to kind and generous?" Percy scratched at his ear. "Because I'm not entirely sure which god she thinks she's making googoo eyes at."

"Guys," Nico groaned, more tempted at every growing mocking comment to cast them into a black hole.

They actually shut their mouths, a rarity nobody was used to seeing.

"You don't know my family," Hades said darkly. "Please, Maria, I can't lose you."

She touched his lips with her fingers. "You will not lose me. Wait for me while I get my purse. Watch the children."

She kissed the lord of the dead and rose from the sofa. Hades watched her walk upstairs as if her every step away caused him pain.

Despite his jokes and his irrevocable grudge on Hades for taking his mom as leverage, there was a small part of him that felt bad for the Lord of the Underworld as he touched his lips for a moment and looked at Annabeth, knowing what was coming in a way he couldn't explain.

A moment later, he tensed. The children stopped playing as if they sensed something too.

Like a low buzzing in his ears, a feeling that started in the base of his skull and with practice he'd even learned to hone in on. Death had been approaching.

"No!" Hades said. But even his godly powers were too slow. He only had time to erect a wall of black energy around the children before the hotel exploded.

Will instinctively shifted closer to Nico at the display of power going on there. Nico had managed to hide him from a Titan with only a fraction of that energy. He couldn't help but wonder where in the continental US that explosion had taken place and what the Mist had manipulated the rest of the world to see, like if Zeus had just bombed Pearl Harbor or something.

The force was so violent, the entire mist image dissolved.

It probably had felt like the entire world had blacked out there for a second, Thalia shook her head in misery for what those mortals had just been caught in the middle of. They hadn't even the chance to catch their breath before her father locked in on his target, and of course, hadn't even managed to hit his target. She felt the need to apologize to Nico for what her father had done, but she tightened her grip on Annabeth's arm with no other idea how to convey to her that she didn't need to. Her father's actions weren't her choice.

When it came into focus again, I saw Hades kneeling in the ruins, holding the broken form of Maria di Angelo. Fires still burned all around him. Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder rumbled.

Little Nico and Bianca stared at their mother uncomprehendingly. The Fury Alecto appeared behind them, hissing and flapping her leathery wings. The children didn't seem to notice her.

They had no reason to, she might as well have been a noisy cloud to them for all the threat she was.

"Zeus!" Hades shook his fist at the sky. "I will crush you for this! I will bring her back!"

"My lord, you cannot," Alecto warned. "You of all immortals must respect the laws of death."

Hades glowed with rage. I thought he would show his true form and vaporize his own children, but at the last moment he seemed to regain control.

"More than some gods can say," Annabeth gave her own soft, begrudging compliment amid the quiet of the room and Nico's set-in-stone face. There didn't seem to be any 'right words' any of them could have given right now, acknowledging what his mother had died wanting. Hades wasn't the boogyman of their lives like some believed.

"Take them," he told Alecto, choking back a sob. "Wash their memories clean in the Lethe and bring them to the Lotus Hotel. Zeus will not harm them there."

"Why?" Magnus asked hesitantly. He didn't want someone to think he was wishing Zeus had blown up that hotel next, but, you know, weird.

"That place is, outside of time," Annabeth grasped at old texts swimming in her head to explain. "Out of bounds for the gods, like entering one another's domains, except in this case no one has dominion over that place."

"Of course, once we came out, we're kind of free game again, so I'm not sure what's stopped Zeus in the meantime," Nico said acidly.

Jason and Percy were much more caught on the part where Hades had ordered his own children's memory erased of such events. Even Percy couldn't totally write off Posideon doing such a thing to him if he'd done something to far above his place as a half-blood.

Perhaps his guilt had led him into changing his mind and their current whereabouts? Reagrdless, the clear betrayal in Nico's hidden face as he sat far back in his seat, the shadows pulsing around him again as if itching to pull him in once more said all he wouldn't. Despite what he'd previously claimed, they both knew in that moment he hadn't fully gotten his own life back, and he'd been living with bits and pieces of his past for years now.

It left a discouraging feeling in the pair of them what they had to look forward to if they made it out of here.

"As you wish, my lord," Alecto said. "And the woman's body?

"Take her as well," he said bitterly. "Give her the ancient rites."

Alecto, the children, and Maria's body dissolved into shadows, leaving Hades alone in the ruins.

"I warned you," a new voice said.

"Well that person's dead," Percy shivered. Even he might not have walked up to a god and said 'I told you so,' after a thing like this happened.

Hades turned. A girl in a multicolored dress stood by the smoldering remains of the sofa. She had short black hair and sad eyes. She was no more than twelve. I didn't know her, but she looked strangely familiar.

"Errr," Alex cast her mind around trying to guess which god this could be, but she just didn't know the Greek pantheon well enough to make any wild guesses. This could be Hera, Persephone, Athena, or anyone else not even mentioned yet for all she knew.

"You dare come here?" Hades growled. "I should blast you to dust!"

"You cannot," the girl said. "The power of Delphi protects me."

Magnus shivered as that made a wicked kind of sense. The propchyes that tormented everyone who heard them were somehow 'gifts' from Delphi, weren't they? Somehow more powerful than even the gods could shut down, hence the stupid law that caused all this.

With a chill, I realized I was looking at the Oracle of Delphi, back when she was alive and young.

"Nope, don't like that," Jason shook his head, mildly considering curling into the fetal position for a second. This whole Oracle business had always sat with a weird taste in his mouth he'd never properly known how to define because the idea of Oracles didn't phase him, just the way they were delivered in Percy's life.

This started with that same feeling it was going to end badly, and he didn't think Percy's luck was going to be anything to do with it this time.

Somehow, seeing her like this was even spookier than seeing her as a mummy.

"I disagree," Magnus groaned as he raised his hand. "Mummies are ten times scarier than ghosts. Only powerful bad ghosts can hurt you, from what I've heard. This mummy has been sitting in her shell for how long?! Alive and, and- just stuck!" Percy had once said she wasn't malevolent, just present, but that didn't make him feel better.

"I'm going to have so much fun later just jotting down what Magnus's scale of top 100 scariest monsters are," Jason said absently.

"As long as you get his reasoning in why on each," Alex agreed.

"You've killed the woman I loved!" Hades roared. "Your prophecy brought us to this.'"

He loomed over the girl, but she didn't flinch.

His mom would have liked her, Nico had remembered absently thinking as he'd watched this the first time alone. She had guts, she'd looked Hades in the eye without fear and spoken to him with a calm sense of respect where most trembled in fear. It hadn't done her much good in the end.

"Zeus ordained the explosion to destroy the children," she said, "because you defied his will. I had nothing to do with it. And I did warn you to hide them sooner."

"I couldn't! Maria would not let me! Besides, they were innocent."

"Nevertheless, they are your children, which makes them dangerous. Even if you put them away in the Lotus Hotel, you only delay the problem. Nico and Bianca will never be able to rejoin the world lest they turn sixteen."

"Because of your so-called Great Prophecy. And you have forced me into an oath to have no other children. You have left me with nothing!"

An oath that he'd kept, the only one to do so, Thalia couldn't help some grudging admiration for Hades in that moment. As much as he resented his lot in life, he seemed to make the best of it, something she still struggled to do herself under Artemis's tutelage.

"I foresee the future," the girl said. "I cannot change it."

Black fire lit the god's eyes, and I knew something bad was coming. I wanted to yell at the girl to hide or run.

"Then, Oracle, hear the words of Hades," he growled. "Perhaps I cannot bring back Maria. Nor can I bring yon an early death. But your soul is still mortal, and I can curse you."

The girl's eyes widened. "You would not—"

"Oh, but he would," Will couldn't help but say in a smaller voice. Honestly, before he'd gotten to know Nico this was most of what he knew about Hades. His unique curses, his wrath more wild than Zeus's.

Around camp, children of Zeus were spoken of as good omens, many great heroes to come following in their footsteps. Children of Posideon were wild cards, causing the good and the bad. But children of Hades were rarely even acknowledged they existed at all, more a myth than the surrounding stories of why the Oracle was trapped in her fleshy prison.

He felt humbled by moments like this, getting to hear a piece of history through the greatest heroes of his time. This poor girl who deserved to have her story told through the children of the gods who had wronged her, the facts; not Travis's old joke she'd slept with the wrong ancient priest.

"I swear," Hades said, "as long as my children remain outcasts, as long as I labor under the curse of your Great Prophecy, the Oracle of Delphi will never have another mortal host. You will never rest in peace. No other will take your place. Your body will wither and die, and still the Oracle's spirit will be locked inside you. You will speak your bitter prophecies until you crumble to nothing. The Oracle will die with you!"

"That was a, surprisingly elegant curse," Alex said in fascination.

"Hades really said I'm sick of being singled out and somebody's going to remember it," Magnus agreed.

Percy shivered down to his core at what he'd heard, a sense of danger that always seemed to follow him he felt sickened over. The worst kind of pain. This wasn't a danger he was afraid of, but knew it meant something to someone else.

The girl screamed, and the misty image was blasted to shreds. Nico fell to his knees in Persephone's garden, his face white with shock. Standing in front of him was the real Hades, towering in his black robes and scowling down at his son.

"And just what," he asked Nico, "do you think you're doing?"

A black explosion filled my dreams. Then the scene changed.

"What, did Hades do to you for that?" Annabeth asked him quietly as Will caught his breath.

"Turned me into a goat for a while, sent me to my room, the usual," Nico shrugged to hide how his hands still shook slightly having that memory forcibly revisited. The empty echo of the emotions he'd felt back then, tied into the crazy mix of feeling it all again with an audience. Gods, was this how Percy felt all the time?

Will bit back the rather important question of how long he'd spent as a goat and how he'd gotten changed back. Pesky details that Nico obviously didn't want to get into right now.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was walking along a white sand beach.

Percy's eyes burned like she'd kicked sand in his face. His skin twitched uncomfortably, that urge to get up and do something but he had no clue what. Sometimes his dreams were connected and wanted to show him something, but what exactly he was supposed to be putting together here he was fumbling as much as he did every quiz he'd ever been subjected to.

She wore a swimsuit with a T-shirt wrapped around her waist. Her shoulders and face were sunburned.

She knelt and began writing in the surf with her finger. I tried to make out the letters. I thought my dyslexia was acting up until I realized she was writing in Ancient Greek.

That was impossible. The dream had to be false.

Annabeth made a face that very clearly said she'd rather Percy be having a dream that was meant to lead him somewhere rather than an average old night seeing Rachel in swimwear.

Rachel finished writing a few words and muttered, "What in the world?"

I can read Greek, but I only recognized one word before the sea washed it away: Περσεύς. My name: Perseus.

Will hadn't quite realized he'd read over Percy's name the first time because they read through this so naturally. He only realized it when he noticed Jason was trying to crane his neck around Nico to get a look at the book so he could see the Greek on the page for himself.

Percy sighed indulgently as Will showed the book to him, and then Alex and Magnus so they could see some more Greek letters. He'd never been patient enough to sit through his writing class on getting a lowercase Q right, he didn't get the big deal personally.

Rachel stood abruptly and backed away from the surf.

"Oh, gods," she said. "That's what it means."

He didn't get the big deal of what that meant either!

"Has she been, plagued by dreams of what the original Perseaus got up to?" Jason asked hesitantly.

"She said she needed to talk to Percy about something, hopefully she literally meant you and not hoping you could summon ghosts of your name," Alex agreed.

"I feel bad for Percy that even in his native language he still can't read all the material before it's snatched away," Magnus said. Percy actually seemed to enjoy reading sometimes, he might get into it more if other books were magically geared for his brain.

She turned and ran, kicking up sand as she raced back to her family's villa.

She pounded up the porch steps, breathing hard. Her father looked up from his Wall Street Journal.

"Dad." Rachel marched up to him. "We have to go back."

Her dad's mouth twitched, like he was trying to remember how to smile. "Back? We just got here."

"There's trouble in New York. Percy's in danger."

"Did he call you?"

"No . . . not exactly. But I know. It's a feeling."

Mr. Dare folded his newspaper. "Your mother and I have been looking forward to this vacation for a long time."

"No you haven't! You both hate the beach! You're just too stubborn to admit it."

"Now, Rachel—"

"I'm telling you something is wrong in New York! The whole city . . . I don't know what exactly, but it's under attack."

Her father sighed. "I think we would've heard something like that on the news."

"I like that that's his protest," Thalia frowned. "Not, hey, if it's under attack, we're safe here my only child."

"Yeah, don't think anybody's safety has ever been this guy's concern," Percy rolled his eyes.

"No," Rachel insisted. "Not this kind of attack. Have you had any calls since we got here?"

Her father frowned. "No . . . but it is the weekend, in the middle of the summer."

"You always get calls," Rachel said. "You've got to admit that's strange."

Her father hesitated. "We can't just leave. We've spent a lot of money."

"Can not convince me this man doesn't know when to cut his losses," Alex said scathingly. She had a feeling Rachel was going to be one of them someday.

"Depends on the brand of stubborn asshole he is," Magnus scowled.

"Look," Rachel said. "Daddy . . . Percy needs me. I have to deliver a message. It's life or death."

"Can she though?" Jason asked with a raised brow. "Will she be slowed by the magic keeping everyone else out? Is Percy's mom and a handful of others actually awake in the city watching all this?"

"We'll have to put a pin in that one too Jason," Thalia reminded him in a tone only an older sibling can have, one part revenge, one part sympathy, as Percy shivered with distress for that jumble of questions and thoughts now in his head.

"What message? What are you talking about?"

"I can't tell you.

"Then you can't go."

Rachel closed her eyes like she was getting up her courage. "Dad . . . let me go, and I'll make a deal with you."

"Oh, no," Percy said at once, his gut in such painful knots with his stomach even his mom couldn't untie them.

Mr. Dare sat forward. Deals were something he understood. "I'm listening."

"Clarion Ladies Academy. I'll—I'll go there in the fall. I won't even complain. But you have to get me back to New York right now."

"Rachel, no," Percy said again, knowing full well she couldn't hear him, but still having half a mind to somehow storm out of here right now and convince her she was being nuts! He would know, he was an expert on impulsive plans!

He was silent for a long time. Then he opened his phone and made a call.

"Douglas? Prep the plane. We're leaving for New York. Yes . . . immediately."

"That moment where he finally accepts his daughter's brand of crazy and it's still with a string attached," Annabeth said in sympathy Percy heard clear as day in her voice. He licked his lips nervously as his sense of nausea increased like someone was trying to flush his system the wrong way.

Rachel flung her arms around him, and her father seemed surprised, like she'd never hugged him before.

"Oh, gods," Magnus frowned. Why was that easily in the top ten depressing things he'd heard in here?

"I'll make it up to you, Dad!"

He smiled, but his expression was chilly. He studied her like he wasn't seeing his daughter—just the young lady he wanted her to be, once Clarion Academy got through with her.

"Yes, Rachel," he agreed. "You most certainly will."

Rachel wasn't the kind of person to back out of that either, Percy knew without question. Assuming the world still existed up there and wasn't some wasteland of destruction.

Heck, even if it was! And Rachel had somehow been one of the few survivors on earth! She would have honored her promise and still gone to see the stupid building to at least throw a brick at it.

The scene faded. I mumbled in my sleep: "Rachel, no!"

I was still tossing and turning when Thalia shook me awake.

"Something I will always be happy to do for you Perce," Thalia said way to casually, but Percy couldn't even deny he'd like to be awoken from his nightmares more often. Even if it was by her worried expression.

"Hey, if you throw water at Percy to wake him up, does it work?" Jason asked in delight.

"No," Thalia sighed, "I tried that first."

"Of course you did," Percy scowled, he knew he didn't drool on his pillow that much!

"Percy," she said. "Come on. It's late afternoon. We've got visitors."

I sat up, disoriented. The bed was too comfortable, and I hated sleeping in the middle of the day.

"Visitors?" I said.

Thalia nodded grimly. "A Titan wants to see you, under a flag of truce. He has a message from Kronos."

"I need you to tell him very specifically," Alex took a breath, then released a wild raspberry.

She held it too, as long as she could, while Will passed the book to Jason.

"Hang on, stop going to fast," Percy was mock digging through his pockets, "I got to jot this all down!"

She finally ran out of breath and they both started laughing. Annabeth smiled at their antics, she'd been desperately wanting to shake Percy out of his rut of usual pain in knowing something important with Rachel was coming but still unsure what to do without hurting him more by bringing something else up. Alex seemed to have the magic touch for that.

Thalia squeezed her arm again in mutual understanding of that feeling too.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*I have in fact ridden horses (not pegasi sadly) and motorcycles and they do feel and move completely differently, proving to me that RR has likely not ridden at least one, likely either.

**I would be totally guilty of picking a building for nothing more than the aesthetic. There's a rainbow building in downtown Dallas I've already decided will be my headquarters during the zombie apocalypse. My brother thinks I'm nuts, but he'll regret not thinking ahead like me when he's scrambling for a cool building to stake a claim in.

[onthewaytosomewhere]

"... and that's when there was no going back." For firstprince plz!

ok this one got written in between dancing in the street (literally) cuz once i thought of it i couldn't get out of it's grip

so Nico luv i bring to you Henry spilling all his secrets (well at leat one big one) in a live(?) interview so he can get alex back post the lake house and b4 alex would have made his mad-dash for the castle

hope ya like :)

It has been two days since he left the lake house in Texas, and Henry is in the middle of yet another interview, pitching yet another thing the crown has forced him to do when he gets one of those questions he always gets. It’s always either some variation of “Is there anyone special in your life?” or “And when will you be doing your stint in the military, like your brother?” He honestly would not put it past his Gran to force the questions to be asked. It is in that moment that he decides he’s done with this-he’s done being someone he’s not just to please someone who, if he’s honest, has never cared about what he wants. So when the reporter asks, “Prince Henry, is there any special lady in your life?” He turns to her and smiles, “Actually, there is someone special, and I messed things up with him quite spectacularly, and if he’s listening, I hope he’ll give me another chance.” Since he’s already reached the point where there is no going back, he continues, “Even though I ran when he tried to tell me how he felt, I hope he’ll hear me when I say ‘I love you’ and I’m coming to you just as soon as I finish this interview.” He takes extra care to stress every male pronoun he uses and waits as the reporter and others in the room process what he just said. “Um …” “You don’t need to ask. I’ll answer it; I’ve been waiting too long to say it. I’m gay, and I’m in love with a man. I want there to be no confusion as I say that I have never been interested in any of the women you have all snapped pictures of me with as more than friends. Unfortunately, as a prince, I have been told certain things are expected of me, and until now, I have let that hold me back from being me. I hope you all will allow me a bit of privacy as I work on being myself.” He pauses once again, letting his words sink in. Before the reporter can ask any sort of intrusive follow-up question, he continues, “If you’ll excuse me, I need to cut this interview short. See, I have a flight to catch and need to figure out where that flight needs to land.” He gets up to leave, thanking the reporter and apologizing for the abrupt end to the interview. On his way out of the room, he opens a text to June on his phone and simply writes, ‘Can you please tell me where he is?’ He gets a text back almost instantaneously telling him Alex is still at the lake house. Then another telling him if he fucks this up again he’s not going to like the consequences. He is met by Shaan, who left the interview toward the end, and Shaan nods, “The plane is ready to take you back to Texas, sir. I arranged for a bag to be packed for you to meet us there. Unless you will need me, I am planning to stay here. Maybe run a little interference as necessary; give you some time to do what you intend to do.” “Thank you, Shaan. I appreciate that.” Henry’s on the plane heading to Texas, a long flight in front of him. When he checks his phone again, he sees a series of text messages from Bea, most of which contain joyful emojis. Surprisingly, there is a text from his mother that simply says, ‘I’m proud of you, Hen,” and while that is unexpected, he’s not sure now is the time to unpack how he feels about that message. Perhaps even more surprising is a text from Pip that is simply a heart emoji; he isn’t sure he realized Philp knew how to send emojis, but that is another text he’ll decipher later. Right now, he needs to figure out what he will say to Alex when he gets to him, providing, of course, he’ll even listen to him. He’s hoping, with every fiber of his being, Alex will talk to him, and he didn’t just blow up his life on British television, with no chance of reconciliation with the man he loves—the man he’s loved for longer than he wants to admit since he’s being honest.

this can also be found on ao3 if you'd rather, they'll all be there as they get written

[wrongcaitlyn]

Hi!! First of all: I’ve been following dear reader since the first chapter of talk your talk and tbh this series has seen me grow up? If that makes sense??? It’s like “woah. It’s only been a YEAR?!” because I’ve just done so much growing and I think a lot of that is due to your writing, so, just, like, thank you sm. (Hope that’s not weird!!)

For my actual question: I think it was touched on briefly but never in depth: how did Austin, Kayla, and Apollo react to Nico and Will’s relationship? Like, they def knew something was going to happen, but how did they feel about that? How long did they know? Like I can just imagine them having so many bets about when they were finally going to start dating and who would confess first and stuff 😭 esp Kayla bc I get the feeling she’s just a liiittttle bit nosy but!! yeah!!

ahshdf omg thank you?? that's so insane to find someone reading from the first chapter!! (logically, i know that people did, because it received hits, but like, wow that's so crazyKLDSF) - and LITERALLY SAME. honestly i've done so much growing with the characters, i remember writing them when i was literally in the same year of hs with them and everything, and so so much has changed in that single year, it's been crazy. to know that that's been the same with some of the readers is so so incredible to hear!! (and not weird at all, i totally get it) i feel like specifically looking back at my end notes over the years... i recently reread talk your talk just because i was in a fic drought and it's so crazy to see all of those end notes... it genuinely felt like a diary at some point, sophomore year of hs SUCKEDsdfj

and on to the question!! ahh i didn't really go into depth with this and i absolutely should have! thank you for asking :)

basically, i think that they were all very very aware of will's crush on nico. nico's crush on will was also pretty obvious, but bc kayla lived with will 24/7 and austin was more in contact with will, they knew more about him first and foremost

austin would return home every break and be like "are they dating yet?" and kayla would just sigh very loudly.

either way, when they eventually did find out, they were very supportive (in the teasing sibling way), but let's be real - leo and nico were like siblings to them for quite a long time! they spent a lot of time at apollo's house, and in a lot of ways, the dynamic between them as a household didn't really change - nico was still the same nico that they'd always known

as for apollo... god i'm so excited bc eventually i'll get to write his pov of their relationship, and i just imagine him... god, just so happy to see his son in love and happy. don't get him wrong, he's absolutely happy for aroace austin too, but there's something about seeing will get it right the first time, and have this little budding crush on his friend in middle school turn into a solid relationship throughout high school and knowing that one day that's gonna be his son in law and he already loves nico like a son - like that's seriously gonna hit so hard.

i think that at first, apollo's like "ah, a middle school crush. i can't wait to impart my breakup wisdom to my son"

and then, obviously, as time goes on, he thinks to himself that god, he really likes this kid. he actually really hopes that they don't end up breaking up... even though he's had such bad experiences with romance that it's kinda hard not to imagine it ending up that way, yk?

but then they do eventually get together, and apollo is ecstatic, but throughout that first year he's just kind of watching, observing, slowly taking note, trying to see if they really could be the one for each other when they had found each other in literally middle school

but i think that by the time their senior year comes around, and nico's father's death, and how they manage to get through all of that, he thinks that yeah, they're definitely it for each other. and that makes him more proud than any grade or college acceptance or grammy that they could've gotten

(have you noticed i love apollo and will and nico dynamic. bc i do. idk why but i just do. they're so. hsdflsdfljsd)

thank you for the ask!!

[marichild]

fanfic asks but I answer all of them

01. favorite fic you wrote this year.

there's two in terms of writing style. first, I'd say Blood-Stained Wings is probably the favorite. it's my first chaptered fic after months-long hiatus, and though it does deal with some heavy topics the heejay banter is kind of therapeutic to write. while the plot is definitely not my own and I should've read the manga first instead of jumping into it, I think I evolved quite a bit since my last fic in 2021. 

the second one is probably the Nico's outing in his own perspective fic. it was an an incredibly heavy, difficult one to write, but I am proud of the outcome. for the first time, I felt like I truly captured Nico's mindset the way I'm actually happy with. as I've mentioned before, Nico is among the easier characters to write for me, but his general attitude and prickliness as well as the intense loneliness and despair do make it hard quite a lot. the mindset I had writing this fic was...sort of productive, I suppose. though it would be nice if I didn't have to feel that way often.

in terms of plot: the Nouzen brothers fic, the single parent Will fic, and the Meg graduation fic.

 while I am sure that Asato details more about the Nouzen brothers in vol. 10, I did write it before I read vol. 1 and after reading it, I felt good about having captured the essence of their bond, especially when Rei detailed that he was pretty much Shin's hero and he was kind of a spoiled crybaby (admittedly, that part is sort of having to read between the lines in my fic). the final lines especially are what I'm proud of, even though it isn't exactly true to the end of the battle in vol. 1, I think in terms of the show it's good enough, especially Rei's despair at what he did right before he enlisted, and the way the battle progresses, I suppose.

the single parent Will fic's inspiration came from a trans Taeil fic where wooil was endgame a long time ago. I don't remember who wrote it, much less what the title was, so I couldn't cite it. while I could've done better in the writing, I'm excited to expand on the universe, especially since I can elaborate more on solangelo's bond with Lena. 

as for the Meg graduation fic, there's not much to say except that fic was a spur-of-the-moment thing that I actually liked. I'm always down for more Meg content is the gist of why I wrote it.

02. least favorite fic you wrote this year.

the ereri reincarnation fic (not linking it). I actually wrote it a while ago, which I then more or less remastered but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I'm planning to leave it up until January and then delete it, because honestly I HATE it. for a fandom that is so dear to me I completely messed up my first fanfic in it. literally the other one-sided ereri fic I wrote is so much better.

03. favorite line/scene you wrote this year.

oooh! I have a few eheheh

from the Nouzen brothers au: "Rei, when will Mom and Dad come back?" Shin asks, petulant and whining.

He doesn't understand.

(Of course he doesn't Rei didn't explain, Rei didn't try to help; all he is good at is misery. Wallowing in his own misery.)

"I can't hear Mom's voice," Shin's voice is angry and scared and demanding.

He doesn't get it; he doesn't get the terrifying weight of what all this means.

(Or it's more that Rei tried and tried but Shin is too young too small too innocent right now and Rei doesn't have any more words to properly explain not without being blunt and too honest and that'll ruin Shin that'll ruin Shin's innocence and Rei can't lose Shin he can't lose his baby brother—)

"Why did Mom die?"

from the Yuto's death fic: It's his own blood and Roku's staining his body, and really, he wouldn't have it any other way if this is how things must end.

04. total number of words you wrote this year.

uhhh *calculates* 272,030 words. haha?

05. most popular fic this year.

ever since I posted more than that, it's easily my most popular fic on ao3, and it has 2508 hits as of now. and on wattpad, my most popular fic is surprisingly all this time, with 1.8K currently. I mean, I could've done better on those fics, but at the time, I liked what I had, so I guess it's fine. I'm really so grateful to everyone who liked them! thank you so much.

a close second on ao3 is the karmagisa cave fic...somehow I am not surprised given the nature of the fic...I wonder if anyone actually expected me write mature content about a fifteen and fourteen-year-old 💀💀💀

06. least popular fic this year.

I am actually not surprised that my Yuto death fic since it was posted on 24th November, only has 3 hits so far. I think mainly because the Sousei no Onmyouji fandom is pretty much dead at this point and I don't think anyone really reads any ships other than RokuBeni, RokuShimon and ShiMayu anymore, sadly.

on wattpad it's the reincarnation fic, thank god.

07. longest completed fic you wrote this year.

sadly it is the reincarnation fic, at 32,668. but that's irrelevant, so outside of that it would be the single-parent Will fic, at 11,550 words. 

08. shortest completed fic you wrote this year.

you're my star. yeah, that thing where sunsun essentially teased each other while being sappy at that window in their bedroom (in the old dorm before tamed-dashed era) and stargazing. it's 806 words and I have no regrets about that. stargazing is a love language for me.

09. longest WIP of the year.

unsurprisingly, Blood-Stained Wings, and it's only going to get longer as we adventure into 2023. we still have 8 chapters left to go, fam :)

10. shortest WIP of the year.

technically it's the beomjun psyche&eros!au, but since I haven't posted any chapters it would be the solangelo post-blood of olympus au. 14,350 words.

11. fandom you enjoyed writing most for this year.

because of Blood-Stained Wings, I would say enhypen and txt, but truthfully I've had quite a lot more fun doing riordanverse and 86 fanfics. especially 86, since I'm in the progress of working through the series (10 more volumes to read!!!) and I just love the entire premise of that series so much. not to mention that the anime is just beautiful, godly.

12. favorite character to write about this year.

surprisingly, even though it was a short one, I really enjoyed writing Yuto's perspective, especially since he's such a twisted, fucked-up character. the thing about Yuto is that while he is incredibly messed-up, he does have feelings and all and I don't think his crush on Rokuro was obsession or anything. he genuinely did believe that Rokuro could help out with his big dreams, and I imagine it must have hurt (though less than the anger and disdain, given his character), to see him siding with the exorcists, and then in love with Benio, of all people, despite them being the Twin Stars. I did quite a lot of thinking about his character.

13. favorite writing song/artist/album of this year

I listened to 86 soundtrack a lot, not just because I love the series, but because the composing and production on them is just so genius. especially on tracks like The Answer and LilaS. other than that, I listened to a lot of txt, nct, kard, and the attack on titan soundtrack for the same reasons as the 86 soundtrack. (watch me start the seven deadly sins again just for the osts).

14. a fic you didn't expect to write. 

I did not think I'd write a Yuto/Rokuro // Yuto death fic fic, however one-sided, even after Yuto dropped the bomb on Rokuro. I love me some gayness, but still. I actually thought my first fic would be RokuBeni or ShiMayu, and if we're talking gay, at least RokuShimon. 

another fic I considered but didn't expect to write was the Raiden/Shin fic, even though it was one-sided similar to above. I did think about the potential of that ship, but I concluded that because of Shin's unstable mental state up until the end of season 1/vol. 4, and how because even Raiden expected the same thing out of Shin as everyone else unlike Lena who did not (which is why ShinLena makes much more sense), it wasn't a viable option. then I thought, hey, why not one-sided while continuing to make ShinLena happen? and boom. 

(I also didn't expect to write a trans Karma fic, but there ya go.)

15. something you learned this year.

I learned that it isn't stupid to take new ideas and fly with it - and that taking breaks improves the quality of my writing by a lot. even if it takes ages to update, it's better to do it at my own pace so that ultimately, both the readers and myself will be happy with the outcome. my hiatus largely improved my writing and I can thank my beloved Daphne @blue-food-hourrrr and Rei yoink_s for encouraging to me to put myself first. not just because for writing, but because it saved me a lot of times, not having to stress about something else on top of the mess going on.

16. fic(s) you completed this year.

well, I haven't completed any chaptered works this year. any completed chaptered fics on wattpad is only because while I wrote them all as a large one-shot, I split them into chapters on wattpad for easier reading, since it's harder to read huge chapters on there than on ao3.

17. fics you'll continue next year.

of course, Blood-Stained Wings! with eight more chapters and a sequel for the Arisuin/Kang mansion arc, I have no intention of letting it go. I will also be beginning the beomjun au and trying my best to continue the solangelo au :) unfortunately, I don't know the status of the eremika modern au :(

18. current number of WIPs.

4, if you count the published ones. in my drafts, I have about eleven, after a lot of drafts-cleansing. it WAS ten, until I started a girl from nowhere au last night lmao.

19. any new fics to start next year. 

well, the girl from nowhere au is a definite yes, as well as this solangelo friends-to-strangers-to-lovers au I've been trying to get off the ground. it's a little difficult, but it'll happen eventually. I also think I might just restart the eremika modern au after deleting the current one. 

20. number of comments you haven't read.

zero, both on wattpad and ao3. I love interaction on my fics, and I kinda feel bad if I ignore comments, lmao. this might be because I don't get that much to begin with.

21. most memorable comment/review.

someone once told me that my eremika au was very well-structured and I was doing a good job with Mikasa's biracial roots. because of that comment, I really want to do a better job with it. someone also said that my Nico outing fic needs more attention, which made me really happy. one of my favorite attack on titan authors stumbled across a piece I kinda wanna erase from my memory and said that they don't understand how I low-key hate it when it lives in their soul, and that it was both true to character and heart-warming. that was definitely memorable, coming from a writer I respect so much.

22. events you participated in this year.

I did participate in like eight days of auctober. as for anything else, either I didn't or I did and I just don't remember lmao.

23. fics you wanted to write but didn't.

I had this idea for a more 2010s-2020s based ShinLena modern au which I scrapped.

I wanted to write a Riki-centric sunki/wonki which I didn't, I might do that later, actually.

24. favorite fic you read this year.

if you need, come build your home in me by yrbeecharmer is definitely up there, as well as The Sign for Rainbow Rose and From the Ashes by Gates_of_Ember. proud flesh by dearestheart, and definitely Homecoming by meaninglessmusings. I'll probably get judged really hard for this, but Sex Education and its sequels by livixbobbiex. I started reading it on a dare and ended up liking the dynamic of post-canon karmagisa quite a lot more than I already did. 

25. a fic you read this year that you would recommend everyone read.

for solangelo fans, if you need, come build your home in me and The Sign for Rainbow Rose are definitely ones you should read at all costs. 

for enha fans, probably no soap radio (wonki) and its sequel, we got history (heejay) by linearity. and The Star Gatherer by fancyfriday17 pls.

and txt fans, and pls read the an inquiry on love series by lovelanguages I am begging. and tiankiztli by sital if you're in the mood for trans gay txt :)

86 fans...Homecoming is set between the Morpho Operation and the vol. 4 epilogue. and it is so worth your time, I PROMISE. 

I have too many attack on titan fic recs so I guess trawl through my ao3 bookmarks?

26. number of favorites/bookmarks you made this year.

um...714. my total number is 724 and this year I bookmarked 714 fics on ao3. to be fair I made my account really late in 2021.

27. favorite fanfic author of the year.

yrbeecharmer, Gates_of_Ember, buoyantsaturn, meaninglessmusings, lovelanguages, and linearity no argument.

28. longest fic you read this year.

probably if you need, come build your home in me.

29. shortest fic you read this year.

I don't know???

30. favorite fandom to read fic from this year.

definitely the riordanverse! I haven't just been reading solangelo, yk, even if it is predominantly that one. I also enjoyed reading a lot of txt because for some reason quite a lot of moas tend to be poetic about writing their fics, and synonyms with that word. 

[chenziee]

Thank you @kerowyn-fr​ for the cute prompt :D I hope you like it :)

[READ ON AO3 OR UNDER THE CUT]

----------

When Garp handed him the newspaper with a stupid grin on his face, former fleet admiral Sengoku already knew he wouldn't like what was written inside. Taking a deep breath, he slowly unfolded the papers and immediately, the huge, bold headline punched him in the face, making him nearly choke on his tea.

Somehow, he wasn’t even surprised that Morgans found out about Kaido’s defeat faster than the navy but goddamn it, this bunch of kids really did it. Sengoku honestly didn’t think he’s see the day of Kaido’s fall, much less for it to happen thanks to some stupidly young pirates—the words ‘Straw Hat - Heart - Kid Alliance’ seemed almost mocking at this point. Damn brats doing the government’s job for them again.

Although, he did have to admit he would love to see Sakazuki’s face when he found out about this.

Looking at the attached photo of the apparent post-victory celebration, Sengoku’s eyes zeroed in on Trafalgar Law’s blurred figure and despite himself, he smiled. The kid might be a pirate, a member of the worst generation no less, but Sengoku still couldn’t help but feel proud of him, proud of the child Rocinante died to save. When he had talked to him on Dressrosa, he was worried the pirate was going to burn out, or completely lose his way after getting his revenge, but his lively—if annoyed—expression while he ate his rice ball and shoved at an equally annoyed Eustass Kid’s face with his foot… It gave Sengoku the feeling that instead, he had found himself somewhere along the way.

With the ruins of Onigashima behind him, he really looked like he was about to own the seas  and Sengoku hoped Roci was watching and was happy about the man his adopted son had grown into, about the great things he had managed to accomplish.

Just then, Garp moved to stand right behind Sengoku, reaching over his shoulder to poke at the photo. “Can you believe these three? They can’t even celebrate beating two of the emperors at once without fighting. I bet you Luffy started this,” he said, before bursting out in loud laughter.

Sengoku had to laugh as well. It really was ridiculous; they were like three little peacocks showing off their tails to see whose is the prettiest.

Wait, three?

He frowned, looking at the photo again. Now that he thought about it, Law really wasn’t the type to shove at someone with his bare foot, judging from how reserved he always acted during warlord meetings—all two of them that he actually bothered to show up for anyway. But he could only see Law and Eustass so where was the little Monkey?

Now that he looked closer, he could see that the foot in Eustass face was twisted at an unnatural angle that could only mean the ankle was either fractured several times over, or it was made of rubber. Following the limb with his eyes, he finally noticed another body splayed on the ground in between Eustass and Law, and soon he also found the arms that held up a plate stacked full of rice balls. It looked like the little Monkey was trying to keep the plate as far away from Eustass as he could and Sengoku was sure those rice balls were the whole reason of this scuffle. Then, he finally reached his head resting against Law’s thigh, clear threat in his eyes as he bared his teeth, looking like he was ready to bite Eustass’ metal arm off.

Sengoku shook his head in disbelief. It was no wonder he didn’t notice him at first; for one, his black hair was blending almost perfectly with Law’s dark coat, and two, who would look for the little Monkey in someone else’s lap? Certainly not Sengoku, and certainly not in Law’s lap.

Suddenly, the reality of what he was seeing downed on him.

Someone had a few questions to answer.

—————

As the Polar Tang pulled up to the Thousand Sunny one sunny afternoon, Law was surprised to see another small ship already there, swaying gently in the waves next to the Straw Hats’ ship. He didn’t recognise the vessel so at first he assumed maybe Straw Hat’s brother came to visit but then he noticed the navy flag and froze.

Listening carefully, he couldn’t hear any fighting; it was completely quiet, almost eerily so. But Law couldn’t see any damage anywhere, and the navy ship seemed too small to be a threat in the first place. The more he thought about it, the stranger it all seemed. He gripped Kikoku tighter, gesturing to his crew to wait at the Tang for now before he called forth a room and teleported himself onto the Sunny.

His anxiety wasn’t eased when he opened his eyes to see absolutely no one on the ship. Looking around the deserted deck, he tried to at least find some signs to tell him what in the world had happened but there was nothing except something that looked like a half-eaten newspaper page.

He was almost starting to panic when he noticed some movement in the direction of the kitchen and when he looked, he found all the missing Straw Hats in a huddle by the door, the movement he saw apparently being Tony climbing over everyone else to get as close to the door as he could.

Law sighed, rubbing at his forehead. He swore he would murder all these people one day—if they didn’t manage to stress him out enough to kill him first.

“What the hell is going on here?” he asked when he made it up the stairs to stand behind the Straw Hats, making everyone turn around to stare at him.

“Torao, hi!” Tony whisper-shouted from where he was hanging onto Nami’s shoulder, the only one who bothered with a greeting.

A long and heavy silence filled only with the crews judgmental, accusing stares followed. Honestly, this crew was so damn lucky their doctor was so cute or he would have beheaded all of them and stuck them to the mast.

“Well?” he prompted, raising an impatient eyebrow.

Several glances were exchanged until finally, Roronoa looked at him. “We were hoping you would explain why Luffy is getting a lecture.”

Law only gave him a blank look, trying to let his silence speak for itself but before the intended effect could arrive, Usopp interrupted, “Yeah, you could have warned us. Why didn’t you tell us who your grandfather was?”

What?

“For real. I almost had a heart attack when he got on board,” Nami added with a glare at Law as if it was somehow his fault.

“Right? Between Sanji, Luffy, and Torao, I can’t tell whose family is crazier.” Usopp shook his head before continuing in a disappointed tone, “And the fact neither of them bothered to tell us is ridiculous.”

Black Leg clicked his tongue then, lightly kicking Usopp in his shin. “Don’t lump me in with them, my only family is in East Blue.”

What?

“What the fuck are you people on about? My whole family is long dead,” Law snapped, his fingers flexing threateningly as his grip on Kikoku tightened again.

A beat of silence passed. Then Robot slowly raised his hand and pointed at the kitchen with his thumb. “Explain why this guy came here demanding he talks to his ‘grandson’s super boyfriend’, then.”

“And why he then grabbed Luffy and dragged him inside to talk about you. They’ve been in there for about half an hour now. I only hope Luffy isn’t getting squeezed to death,” Nico Robin added oh-so-helpfully.

Law’s head was spinning. First a nonexistent grandfather, now he was suddenly Straw Hat’s boyfriend? Ridiculous. He might have liked being around him, maybe his heart even fluttered when Straw Hat smiled at him in that blinding way of his, and perhaps he's been letting Straw Hat touch him more than strictly necessary, possibly even holding his hand once or twice but they weren't dating. Hell, Law hadn't even confessed yet.

He shook his head to make himself focus on the matter at hand. This 'grandfather' was a more pressing matter than his unaddressed feelings. "I'm going in," he sighed, then paused, looking around the eavesdropping huddle of people. "And get the hell out of here or I'll toss you in the sea."

"Sure you will," Nami muttered with a roll of her eyes, a smirk on her lips.

Law shot her and all the other grinning idiots a glare, which finally made them all shuffle away. Law was sure they’d be back the second he closed the door behind himself, though. With a sigh, Law gripped the handle and pushed the door open.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, two people and a goat turned to look at him and Law did a double take. Straw Hat was one thing. A random, actual, live animal on board was weird, but he’d seen much weirder on this ship. The old man who was sitting opposite of Straw Hat, however, that was a completely different issue.

“What the fuck?” Law muttered, unable to say anything more coherent.

“Hello, Law,” fleet admiral Sengoku said with a nod.

“Torao!” Straw Hat greeted as well, grinning and waving at him before he pulled out the chair next to him. “Come sit, your gramps has really good rice cakes!”

Law slowly turned to stare at Straw Hat instead and, a short moment later, moved forward as if on autopilot, too stunned to do anything but comply. Only when sat down and Sengoku tilted his rice cake packet towards him did Law manage to break out of his trance. “You're not my grandfather," he blurted out, eyeing the rice cakes suspiciously.

Sengoku hummed. "Technically not but you are still Rocinante's boy so I feel responsible for you."

Law blinked; it was true Cora-san was like a father to him and Sengoku did say Cora-san was like a son to him but that seemed a little shaky a connection to warrant the old man going around claiming he was his grandfather.

"We've been chatting about you," Straw Hat said, stretching his hand out to grab a handful of the rice cakes Sengoku was still holding out, then offering a few to Law.

At that, Law finally conceded and accepted the snack. He had to admit they were pretty tasty. "What about me have you talked about?" he asked, doubtful, yet almost afraid of the answer.

Straw Hat pursed his lips and frowned, quite obviously trying to remember the actual contents of the conversation. "Just how cool your powers are and that I shouldn't break your heart or something. It's not like I'm going to do that though, why would anyone do that?"

"Break my—" Law sputtered, his eyes going wide as he stared at the pirate who seemed like he didn't understand the implications of such a statement.

"I was just making sure your boyfriend was aware of the worth certain people place on you and your devil fruit and the danger that puts you in. Also that I will feed his precious hat to Baarbara if he makes Roci cry,” Sengoku explained, pulling out a rice cake of his own.

Ignoring the use of Cora-san’s name over his own, Law took a slow, deep breath before responding curtly, “I can take care of myself—”

“That’s what I said,” Straw Hat next to him announced proudly.

Law paid him no mind, simply continuing— “and he’s not my boyfriend.” He frowned, then added one last question, “Also who the hell is Barbara?”

“Baarbara is my goat,” Sengoku said fondly as he glanced at his pet, who was by his side happily chewing on something that looked suspiciously like one of Nami’s maps—Law really hoped he was wrong about that one. “But are you sure about that?” the former fleet admiral asked with a raised eyebrow, his eyes dropping down’t Law’s body to pointedly stare somewhere just above the tabletop.

Only when he followed his gaze did Law realize the position he was in. Somewhere along the way, Straw Hat had turned to the side in his chair, putting his legs over Law’s lap and, for some reason, Law had apparently put his own hand on his knee without even noticing. It was… yeah, it felt pretty damn intimate and Law felt heat raising to his face.

Slowly, he looked up at Sengoku, who looked like he was trying very hard not to burst out laughing. Then, his gaze slid to the side to glance at Straw Hat.

The other pirate was grinning back at him, looking entirely too amused by Law’s mortification, and Law scowled. “You’re not my boyfriend,” he said quietly, sounding uncertain even to his own eyes.

“I kind of am,” Straw Hat said, his grin widening even more. “Torao, you can be so stupid sometimes.” As soon as he was finished speaking, he started laughing in that cute, contagious, absolutely maddening way of his and Law…

Law has never felt so dumb and mortified in his life.

Yet, he still couldn’t find it in himself to push Straw Hat away when he leaned forward to give Law a messy, loud kiss on the cheek. Somehow, this had turned out to be simultaneously the absolute worst and best day of Law’s life.

He was still not showing his face around the Sunny again for a while though.

[thebigqueer]

Solangelo - "Boyfriends" - One-Shot

Summary: Will and Nico decide to make their relationship official.

Word Count: 929

Read on AO3

There’s a specific kind of intimacy that comes with the evening. The darkness gives way to soft touches, romantic glances, knowing smiles. A feeling that you’re sharing a secret with your lover, existing in your own universe.

This is what Nico thinks about as he gazes at Will’s profile, which flickers in the firelight. His hand grips Nico’s lightly, touching his skin with a caress so soft it’s barely noticeable. But when it comes to Will, everything is noticeable. The way he moves, the way he breathes, the way he exists. Everything he does is with a purpose.

Will and Lou Ellen are discussing something, but Nico can barely hear anything over the thrum of his heart, the roaring in his ears. Will’s laughter bubbles over the amphitheater, providing a happier glow to all the campers, and now Nico feels like he’s floating, getting high off the drug of his laughter.

He tightens his grip on Will’s fingers and presses their fingertips together. He needs to hold on before he can float away.

“Well,” Lou Ellen says, trying and failing to stop some giggles from spilling out, “I should go and head to sleep. I have to get a birthday present for Cecil tomorrow and I’ll need to sleep early.” She stands and offers a wave to the boys. “See you guys later!” A moment later, she’s faded into the darkness, slipping into her own cabin.

Will turns to Nico and smiles. “Are you excited for Cecil’s birthday this weekend?”

His words float around in Nico’s head, but he doesn’t quite hear them. He’s too busy staring at Will’s face, admiring his ethereal beauty. Nico only offers a half-hearted hum.

Will frowns. “Everything okay? You’ve been a little quiet tonight.”

Now Nico laughs, because the accusation is so absurd. He’s better than okay; he’s absolutely drowning in giddiness. “Yes,” he whispers.

“Are you sure?” Will asks, leaning in a little. “You look kinda… lost.”

Nico only continues staring, watching the flames lick at his blue irises. He’s not sure what it is, but Nico gets a sudden urge to pull into Will, to hold him in his arms. To make sure that he’s real and breathing and existing and really here.

So that’s what Nico does: he spreads his arms out and holds Will in an embrace. There’s a hesitation from Will, a reluctance, as if he isn’t quite sure how to respond. But that passes quickly and he melts into Nico, circling his arms around his waist and pressing his limbs into Nico’s back. Nico rests his head against Will’s shoulder.

“This is new,” Will comments. His voice is soft in Nico’s ear, blanketing him in a velvety warmth. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”

Nico laughs again. “Yes, honestly. Everything’s better than okay.”

Will offers a hum of doubt. “Okay, if you say so. You’re just not usually this publicly affectionate with me.” After a second, he adds, “Not that I’m complaining or anything.”

Nico doesn’t respond, and they sit like that for a moment, absorbing each other’s heat, letting their passion linger in the air. Energy crackles around them. Each second in each other’s arms feels like they’re wandering into new territory, diving deeper into the wide ocean of their mutual affection.

There’s a pull in Nico’s heart, an urgent calling. It’s been there for a few weeks now, trying to push him to make their relationship real. But he’s been too nervous - what if they’re not ready for this? What if they decide it’s not going to work out?

But then he thinks of that night under the fireworks on New Years, when Will told him that they can go as slow as they need to. Maybe Nico’s ready to press the acceleration wheel on their relationship.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Nico whispers, “Will?”

“Yeah?” the blond responds.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything.”

Nico tilts his head so that he’s facing Will once more, locking their eyes together. He needs him to understand how important this moment is for both of them, to understand that this is a step that Nico is committed to.

“I want to be your boyfriend,” he says. The word sticks on his tongue, lingers as a sweet aftertaste. Nico likes the way “boyfriend” feels in his mouth. “I want… I want you to be my boyfriend. I want to make this official.”

He watches the flames burst in Will’s eyes. Surprise sweeps over and takes control over the blond’s features. He looks like a deer caught in headlights.

Then he laughs. “You mean, like, be… actual boyfriends. Like, I call you my boyfriend. And you do the same. Is that what you mean?”

“What else does being boyfriends mean?”

“What if you meant boy-space-friends? Like only guy friends?”

A small chuckle escapes Nico’s chest and he leans forward, touching his forehead to Will’s. “I think we’re a little too far along for that.”

Will smiles and brings his thumb to Nico’s face, brushing gently over his light freckles. “I want to be your boyfriend too. I want this to be something.”

“Let’s make it something, then. I’m ready if you’re ready.”

Will closes his eyes and bends his head to Nico’s neck. “Then let’s be ready to rule the world together. As boyfriends.”

He says the last word like a promise, like a prize. Like Nico is something to be proud of.

Nico smiles. If Will is making a commitment to be his, then Nico has to respond with his own vow.

“Boyfriends,” he promises.

[iatethepomegranate]

We are not alone in the dark with our demons, Chapter 14

In which Caleb buys a house in Rexxentrum with Beau and Yasha, becomes a professor, learns how to be a person, and does what he can to protect the children (and hurting adults) who came after him in a way he had never been protected.

Content warnings: references to Caleb's backstory but it's pretty mild

Chapter summary: The Mighty Nein have their beach episode, Essek wears a sunhat, Luc learns a new word that isn't a swear, and Caleb has a good day.

Chapter notes: This chapter is pure fluff, with a little melancholy that is well-resolved. Enjoy it while it lasts. Chapter title is from Joy by Sleeping At Last.

****

Chapter 14: It is the calm water in the middle of an anxious sea

Caleb sent a quick message to Nico while Jester ferried the Nein into the street. “Hallo, Nico. Remember my home is open to you if you need anything. Food, shelter. Protection. Anything. Password: Wilkommen. Take care, please.”

Nico didn’t reply. He never did. But Caleb breathed, and he was okay. Essek, disguised as another half-elf, a redhead this time, squeezed his hand.

“Are you all right?”

“Ja. We know he’s alive. That helps.”

“Good.” Essek opened his pink parasol as they stepped into the sun, shielding them both. “Beauregard warned me that redheads burn in the sun more easily than most humans.”

Caleb chuckled, surprising himself a little bit. “Ja, Jester packed a lotion to help with that. I may need help rubbing it in.”

Essek raised an eyebrow. “I believe I can help with that.”

“Hold that thought.” Caleb needed to let Felix know Nico was still alive, before he got distracted. “Hallo, Felix. My cleric friends’ gods have confirmed Nico is alive and has found water recently. Keep talking to him.”

Felix’s response was swift. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would do if… thank you. Uh, how is Nicodranas? I’ve never been.”

Caleb found himself smiling. “Hot and sunny. Not ideal for someone of my complexion, but we have sun protection. My friends are dragging me to the beach.”

A laugh came through the link, quiet and stiff, as if unpracticed. “My parents told me stories about your disagreements with the sun, even here. So, uh, be safe. And have fun with your special Aeor friend.”

Caleb found himself burning another spell, just because he was not about to let this child have the final word. At least, not that final word. “Very funny, Felix. My colleague and I will likely stay in the shade. The sun does not agree with him, either. Spell progress?” Felix had indicated he was copying out Fly from a scroll Astrid had supplied on Caleb’s behalf. Felix was an Evocation specialist, so he had been struggling a bit. Caleb still had hopes of converting him to Transmutation entirely, and teaching him Fly would be a good step, and safer to experiment with than the more-challenging Polymorph without supervision. It was quite advanced for him, however.

“Fine, I will let you change the subject. I have the spell copied, but the somatic element is complicated. I may need help.”

And then Caleb burned one more spell. “I will visit in the next few days and we will work it out together. Remember to take breaks. See you soon.”

“Ja, see you soon.”

“I like that kid,” said Beauregard.

The group linked up with the Brenattos deeper into the city and then worked their way to the beach. Other families were out on the sand, so they wandered a little further afield until they found the same spot the Nein had visited when they had first visited Nicodranas together.

Essek, with Jester’s help, set up the beach umbrella in a shaded area further from the water. Everybody arranged their bags there, leaving enough room for Essek to sit comfortably, along with one or two others. Towels were laid out to keep the worst of the sand out of everyone’s asses, but mainly Essek’s. By now, his disguise was wearing off. The clothes he wore underneath, however, covered most of his skin, alongside the enormous sunhat Caduceus had brought from the Grove. So he didn’t bother re-casting.

Essek settled himself under the umbrella, pulling his spellbook from the pocket dimension. The others disrobed to varying degrees; most of the ladies were straight-up naked, aside from Veth who wore a thin shift dress that would not be too weighed down if she chose to get in the water. The group passed around two glass bottles of a sun lotion developed by Yeza, slapping it onto each other. Caleb slapped Fjord’s pec, as had become customary. Fjord squawked, as was tradition.

Soon enough, the Nein, plus Luc and Yeza, barrelled toward the shoreline. Caleb settled beside Essek, passing him the lotion bottle.

“If you would?”

Essek slipped the spellbook back into its dimension and uncorked the bottle. “Take off your shirt.”

Caleb threw his shirt aside and sat with his back to Essek. He had waited until the others left. Neither Caleb nor Essek were particularly touchy-feely around other people, aside from a few casual things like fixing each other’s hair or leaning against each other. It was less uncomfortable to do so when there was some physical distance from others, even if they were still in view.

This thing between them still felt fragile sometimes. Aeor had strengthened their bond, but they’d had to do a lot of unlearning along the way. A lot of healing. Caleb had disintegrated the one chance he’d had to see his parents alive again. He’d given up the book of letters to bury them between their graves. Essek had begun to peel away years of conditioning to be selfish in his pursuits, of pulling away from people to stay safe, of understanding his worth through a purely transactional lens. Honestly, Caleb was working on unlearning those things himself.

The lotion was a cold streak from one shoulder blade to the other. Essek’s hands were delicate and careful as always, working the lotion into his skin with small, slow circles.

Essek did not touch very many people. Every touch he gave Caleb felt precious. At this point, Caleb was fairly certain he had been conditioned to melt at even the slightest point of contact between them.

Essek kissed his shoulder, ignoring Jester’s wolf-whistle in the distance. “I missed your shoulder freckles.”

“You see them most nights, Essek.”

“It’s different in the light. I can see colours.” Essek’s fingers ghosted the skin, drawing lines between freckles Caleb couldn’t see at this angle. His other hand continued to work the sun lotion into Caleb’s back. Caleb closed his eyes, listening to the soft roars and hisses of waves, the shouts of his friends, their splashes in the water. This was comfortable in a way Caleb still struggled to accept that he deserved. But he was trying. And sometimes he succeeded. Today was better than most.

Essek took his right arm and massaged lotion into the skin, working tension out of Caleb’s muscles and tendons and joints as he went. Heat pooled in Caleb’s gut, and if they had been alone, he would have pushed Essek onto his back and kissed him senseless. Among other things. Instead, he let Essek work, sagging back against him. Essek spent some extra time on Caleb’s wrist, gently guiding him through stretches to stave off a repetitive strain injury from casting. Then he moved to Caleb’s left arm, and repeated the process.

Through the haze of calm, Caleb was dimly aware this was a huge step for Essek. Taking care of each other’s hair, leaning against each other, passing things to each other, taking charge when Caleb was in a bad way… these were all forms of affection he had grown comfortable with in front of the Nein. This was more intimate than Essek usually allowed with an audience, however distant they were at the moment. Caleb was proud of him. He knew it wasn’t easy to be exposed like this. To wear your heart on your sleeve even among people you trusted. How hard it was to trust in the first place.

“You’re cuddly today,” Caleb said quietly as Essek carefully swept his changed, now singular, braid aside to work the lotion into the back of his neck. “I like it.”

Essek rested his forehead on the back of Caleb’s head. “I suppose I am.”

“What brought this on? I would like to repeat it.”

Essek hummed thoughtfully, pulling back. Caleb turned to watch him gaze out at the sea, dissecting his own thoughts. “You are… happier today. I missed it.”

Caleb had become aware during their time together that Essek, while attracted to Caleb in general, was especially enticed by two specific things: Caleb’s mind and his happiness. It was… sweet. Caleb hadn’t experienced that in a relationship before. That hadn’t been Astrid and Wulf’s fault, or even his. They hadn’t had the freedom to be like that. It still took Caleb unawares that he had this with Essek sometimes. A partner so invested in his happiness that it was a literal turn-on for him, essentially a requirement for his sexual interest. And, most days now, Caleb was happy frequently enough that it was practical. And healthier than anything he had experienced in a relationship before.

Essek also looked adorable in his huge sunhat and lightweight poncho that kept most of him safe from the sun’s rays. And a pair of sunglasses Jester had painted for him, pushed down his nose so he could look at Caleb better while they were in the shade together.

Caleb squeezed his knee. “We should come back here tonight. Have you swum in the ocean before?”

“No. Have you?” Essek adjusted his glasses so he could look at their friends playing in the water. Fjord and the clerics were having a magic water fight. Veth and Yeza walked along the shoreline, feet in the water, swinging Luc between them. Veth looked at home there; watching her willingly touch the water for the pure joy of it hurt Caleb’s heart in the best way. The lesbians had wandered off somewhere and probably wouldn’t be back for a bit. Kingsley was working on a sandcastle he had started with Luc, before the boy had been distracted.

“Ja. The first time we came here. You’ll like it, I think.” The vastness of the ocean, the enveloping nature of it… Caleb could remember how much it had felt like looking into the beacon, and how much of a comfort that had been. “Can you swim?”

“I have been taught, yes.” Essek didn’t sound pleased about it. Most of his upbringing had been utilitarian, shaping him in the service of Den Thelyss.

“Just think. You and me. Alone with the moon and the endless expanse of ocean. It feels like the embrace of possibility, if you let it.” Caleb knew that, of all people, Essek would understand.

Essek softened. “That does sound wonderful. Shall we go after dinner?”

“Ja. I will cast the tower afterwards. I want you all to myself.”

It was only because Caleb knew Essek so well that he could pick out the rise of colour in his cheeks. “The feeling is mutual. Go, spend time with our friends. Do not burn.”

Caleb smiled, sliding his pants off and setting them aside. He left his smallclothes on this time, and worked the lotion into the flesh of his legs and feet. Essek cleared his throat and returned his attention to his spellbook. If they had been alone right now…

Caleb pushed the thought away. In a few hours, they would be alone. For now, he had prepared Telekinesis for today and he knew a few friends who would love to be thrown around in the water for a while.

Luc rushed over to Caleb as soon as approached the shoreline. Caleb squished the wet sand between his toes and watched the boy run, managing to catch him when he launched himself at Caleb’s middle.

“Uncle Caleb! Mum says you know a really cool spell that can throw people! Throw me!”

Caleb looked over to Veth and Yeza. Veth gave an enthusiastic thumbs up while Yeza facepalmed, but did nothing to stop it.

“Okay.” Caleb set Luc down. “This spell is called Telekinesis.”

Luc’s eyes glazed over a bit. “Tele…”

“Repeat after me: Tele.”

“Tele.”

“-kin.”

“-kin.”

“-esis.”

“-esis.”

“Telekinesis.”

“Telekinesis.”

“There you go.” Caleb moved his hand, muttering the incantation. “Ready?”

“Yes!”

Caleb reached out the magic and lifted Luc in the air with the spell. “All right?”

Luc kicked his legs about, staring all around. “This is so cool!”

“Ja, so cool.”

“Throw me!”

Caleb looked to Veth and Yeza. “I’ll send him near the others.” He raised his voice so Fjord, Jester and Caduceus would hear. “Incoming!” And he pelted Luc into the water, aiming him in the central point between the three of them. Luc soared through the air, landing with a splash. Caleb pulled back the force a bit so Luc wouldn’t fall too hard. Luc still had the ring of water walking on, but he had an intuitive grasp of its use and had wanted to be thrown in. But it did mean that he was able to pop right up to the surface without issue, jumping up and down on top of the water with glee.

“Oh! Oh!” Jester yelled. “Me next!”

Caleb plucked her from the water with his magic, and managed not to drop her when he remembered she was naked. He threw her across the water, to a point to his right that appeared to be a similar depth from whence she had come.

The spell lasted ten minutes. And those ten minutes were well-used, pelting his friends into the sea. Beau and Yasha returned in time to participate, which was good. Beauregard in particular had always been fond of this.

As the spell faded, Caleb waded into the water and let it take his weight, floating on his back. He gazed up at the blue sky, squinting a bit. The protection amulet lay there, occasionally bobbing away from his chest when he slipped under a tiny bit. He had gotten back into the habit of wearing it since the Vergesson heist, and all that had happened in Eiselcross and beyond. The thing didn’t bother him as much as it used to. Essek still wore his as well. Even if Caleb hadn’t thought it prudent to wear the amulet to shield himself from the Assembly’s prying eyes, even if they would not move openly against him, he would do it for Essek’s sake. It was easier to do these things for other people.

“Hey, Caleb.” The voice was a little muffled as Caleb’s ears were underwater, but he knew Fjord’s voice.

He carefully righted himself and began to tread water, a little clumsily but more easily than he had the first time. “Hallo, Fjord. Thank you for not scaring the shit out of me this time.”

Fjord chuckled; as usual, he had no trouble staying afloat. “Oh, I thought about it. I need to get you back for slapping my tit.”

“I will live in fear until you have found your revenge.”

“As you should,” Fjord said haughtily. “Oh, and Jester keeps demanding I invite you onto our ship. Unrelated to the impending revenge, of course. I have no stake in this at all.”

“Of course.” Caleb enjoyed Fjord’s sarcasm; he could pivot from sincerity to bullshit quicker than almost anyone he knew.

And, in true Fjord fashion, he pivoted again, dropping right back into sincerity. “In seriousness, though… if you ever need a break from civilisation, there’s always room for you. And Essek. Together or separately.”

“I appreciate that,” Caleb replied. “Knowing our luck, I will choose the perfect time for Uk’otoa to attack.” He did not clarify whether this would be good or bad luck, as he himself was uncertain.

“An extra hand wouldn’t go astray. You have saved my life many times on the sea.”

Fjord had almost been lost forever, killed and transported away. That night had been the perfect example of why Caleb never went a day without preparing Counterspell. Losing him would have been unbearable, especially after Molly.

Fjord’s hand found his shoulder. “Hey, I’m right here.”

“Ja, you are.” Caleb shook off his melancholy. And remembered why he had found Fjord so attractive from day one: whatever shit Fjord had going on, he was always ready to reach out and steady someone else. That, and the fact he had a nice face and an incredible amount of skill both in combat and in conversation. “I’m sure there will be time for sailing. Maybe in a few weeks, depending on how chaotic Rexxentrum becomes. I will try to drag Essek along, if he’s not too busy elsewhere.”

“Sailing the Lucidian Ocean with a pirate crew is an unlikely place to find a drow fugitive,” said Fjord.

“Ha! Indeed.” And, because they were already talking about Essek, Caleb broached a similar subject. “By the way, Essek and I plan to come back here after dinner so he can swim more comfortably. We will not be back until morning; I have the tower prepared. If you could, ah, keep the others distracted so we can slip away without too much innuendo, I would appreciate it.”

“I promise to try.” Fjord glanced fondly towards Jester. “She’s observant and has the best-worst timing.”

“That she does.” One of the wonderful things about her, but Caleb would prefer to shield Essek from that tonight. Essek had become more comfortable with the Nein’s teasing, but he was still a little shy, especially about his relationship with Caleb.

“We’ll make sure you get your date, either way.” Fjord patted Caleb’s shoulder and submerged himself, darting like a bullet towards the clerics. Then, he emerged from the water with a huge wave behind him, but Caduceus had seen him coming and retaliated with one of his own.

Caleb watched the water-fight for a bit before he retreated to the beach umbrella, throwing himself onto the towel beside Essek and closing his eyes for a nap.

***

They stayed out until sunset began to approach. Knowing the Zhelezo would soon close the gates, the group packed up, dressed and headed back to the Chateau. Essek, disguise refreshed, used Prestidigitation as they walked to clear the sand off everyone.

After dinner, Beauregard asked Caleb to send her and Yasha back to Rexxentrum. Caleb drew them a circle in Jester’s old room, sending them on their way while Essek watched him work. There was a quirk to his lips that Caleb now knew meant he was looking disrespectfully.

Then, with the lesbians gone, it was just the two of them. Caleb pocketed the rest of his chalk, and held a hand out to Essek. “We could teleport from here.”

“We could.” Essek glanced at the door behind him. “That may worry our friends.”

“I’ll message Fjord. Let him spill the beans in a few minutes when Jester comes looking for us.” Caleb pulled out his wire. “Hallo, Fjord? Essek and I are about to teleport to the beach. Could you tell them where we’re going when they ask?”

“Will do. Have a good night. You deserve it.”

Caleb tucked his wire away. “We’re good. Let’s go.”

Essek grabbed his hand, though Caleb was now fully aware that physical contact was not a requirement for teleportation. “Allow me.” He muttered a word and Jester’s bedroom fell away. The air and light rushed away, before it all came back in a rush. Caleb took a deep breath.

They had landed on sandy grass, a few paces from the beach itself. The two of them took off their shoes and Essek’s poncho and hat, stashing them in Caleb’s amber. Essek gazed out at the waves while Caleb worked the ritual. A ritual he had originally created as part of his plan to save his parents. Now he used it to stash his partner’s shoes so they could walk on the beach together. That felt like growth. Like allowing himself to be happy. Ultimately, he knew that was far more respectful of his mother and father’s memory than trying to break time to bring them back, putting his own life at risk. Even if he was damn sure it would’ve worked. If he hadn’t collapsed into dust at the end of it all. Part of him still felt like that would have been a worthy price to pay… but he knew they wouldn’t see it that way. Most of him understood that. All they had ever wanted was for their son to be happy. They would have wanted him to live, and live a good life.

Caleb sat there after the amber had claimed their things, staring into the stone. Essek waited patiently, not rushing or peppering him with questions. He knew the meaning of the vault, and had enough context to Caleb’s shit to suspect where his mind had gone. Even if he couldn’t read Caleb’s thoughts.

He would try to live a good life, like his mother and father had always wanted. It was the right thing to do. For them, and for himself. He deserved good things. Caleb just had to keep reminding himself, possibly forever. And the joy of surrounding himself with people who loved him was that they would remind him if he couldn’t.

The best way to honour Leofric and Una Ermendrud was to be happy, kind, and do good for himself and others. Even if he still felt like a piece of shit most days, he would keep trying.

Caleb scooped up the amber and settled the chain around his neck. Essek held out a hand, which he accepted, letting the drow leverage the entirety of his slight weight to pull Caleb to his feet.

Hand-in-hand, they stepped onto the sand. Let their toes sink in, wiggling with the joy of that simple feeling of being enveloped.

The two moons above gave Caleb just enough light to see his surroundings, reflecting off the sea like a mirror. Essek would have no trouble seeing, and he was safe from the discomfort from the sun. And the darkness was a safe enough disguise that he was not forced to concentrate on a spell to avoid detection. They were about as safe as they could be.

Essek lifted Caleb’s hands to his lips, kissing each knuckle in turn, his eyes boring into Caleb’s. Then he tugged Caleb towards the shoreline. There, they let the tide lick their toes, laughing as it tickled. Essek’s laugh was sweet and soft, his smile warm and unburdened. That was rare. So rare. Caleb’s heart swelled.

He leaned down to kiss him. Essek slid in close, fingers splayed across Caleb’s back. And they kissed and kissed and kissed until they couldn’t breathe.

They took a five-second break. And then they kissed again.

[aphroditestummyrolls]

Tagged by: @rhubarbdreams @cactusdragon517 @morallygreywaren and @ceraunos (I’m so sorry this took so long! Thank you for thinking of me, it is so flattering <3)

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

This was SO FUN. It was so nice to go through my old stories... I’m really proud of my writing. That’s something I never thought I’d say, and it’s something I’ve decided I’m going to do unabashedly from now on. <3 Happy almost April, everyone! 

Gaining Heart (Spartacus) 

The days following the defeat of Glaber had been a flurry of activity.

Agron found himself not only leading on field of battle, but leading organization and defensive strategy. Those fucking Romans had moved into the temple as if it was their own home, claiming all that they saw— but they had also brought much of their own. Food, wine, supplies— it was a gift from the fucking gods, and needed proper inventory.

Agron knew not how to do that. Nasir and Naevia were invaluable, cleaning each chamber of any evidence of battle, cataloguing lists and categorizing everything from barrels of grain to rolls of bandages.

Tangles and Roots (The Old Guard)

He was covering Andy.

The hangar was dark, shadowed by the last of the night while dawn crept up over the skyline outside. The plane was set to land any minute now, and Nicky’s eyes flicked from corner to corner, finger on the trigger of his gun and his jaw grinding hard. He could swear he saw shapes moving along the roof— the banks of high windows above them left eerie patches of weak blue light, flickering with little flashes of darkness.

It was probably just birds. He was out of practice— they had done nothing but sit around in the six months since Merrick, trying to heal the deep wounds left in their minds… and bodies, in Andy’s case.

Nicky swallowed, stepping that much closer to his friend’s side as they took their places in the shadows.

Still Awake? (The Old Guard)

He pretended to sleep. His eyes were closed, and his muscles were stiff, tying themselves into knots where he laid in his cot between Andy’s empty bedroll and Joe and Nicky’s snuggled up bodies. Booker refused to be comfortable— he refused to rest. The day had been rough, and the fighting had left a bone deep ache inside him, even while the physical wounds had healed.

All the Time in the World (The Old Guard) 

The first time Nicolo and Yusuf bathed together, it was by the river— he wasn’t sure which river. It had probably changed names and countries a hundred times by now. All he remembered was that, by the time they heard the steady rush of water and cleared the brush and trees to the bank, he was half mad with annoyance.

If that man made one more grumbled complaint— one more clearly telegraphed grimace— about the supposed smell of him, Nicoló might have to break their truce and run the bastard through.

Kissed by an Angel (The Old Guard)

Nicky felt his lips flicker into a private smile, setting the pot on the stove to simmer and turning to look out the window into the garden. Joe’s garden.

He was humming to himself— Nicky couldn’t quite hear it, but he could tell by the set of the other man’s jaw under his beard and the purse of his lips as he concentrated. The weeds wouldn’t rip themselves, the overgrown shrubs wouldn’t miraculously be already pruned and waiting for them.

They were finally back in Valletta. Finally home.

Patron Saint of Satisfaction (The Old Guard)

It had been a long, long few weeks.

Joe’s shoulders were tense and knotted, and his whole body still ached from the train ride he and Nicky had taken all that day. There was a stifling, choked sensation in his gut that would rise in waves, up his throat to the tip of his tongue until he was ready to scream. The whole way to their safehouse, he brushed shoulders with his lover— practically leaning on him— and let himself take refuge in the feeling of Nicky’s warm hand entwining their fingers.

Waking Dreams (The Old Guard)

At first, they could’ve been anywhere for all Joe knew.

There was nothing in the world but Nicky— his scent, his body, his quiet sleeping breaths. Joe felt himself hover on the edge of sleep and wakefulness, the familiar thrum of pleasure making up the backdrop of his thoughts.

He nuzzled into his Nico’s neck, pressing sloppy, half asleep kisses to the back of his neck.

Here There Be Monsters (The Old Guard) 

The morning had been blustery and hot. The scent of ozone made the sea air thick as it blew through his hair where they all stood, crowded around the lower deck. They all squinted against the bright sunshine, but Joe knew better than to trust the blue sky.

”If I’m getting in, I’ve gotta do it soon—“ he spoke up, cutting into some conversation that he hadn’t been listening to, “There’s a storm coming in from the East.”

Nile— still so young, so far from the American Midwest, and in her first field season— raised an eyebrow at him from behind her sunglasses.

He smiled at her bemused look, shooting his gaze over to Andy. Andy smirked, huffing a laugh. “If anybody knows, Joe knows.”

In Loving Memory (The Old Guard)

The wind whipped up off the water, cold and salty despite the way the sun beat down on them. It was alright, honestly— refreshing after all those stuffy hours in the car.

These immortals were highly resistant to normal modes of transport. Like a plane— a real passenger plane, not a Russian cargo plane full of drugs. It was all cars and boats and trains, low to the ground, literally under the radar.

Nile understood why. She didn’t want to end up strapped down to a lab table like the one they escaped all those months ago. She’d just rather take a nice plane from the closest airport to Provence and get to Valletta in a matter of hours, rather than drive through three countries and all the way down the Italian boot, just to bribe a fishing boat.

Feed My Soul (The Old Guard) 

Malta looked good on Nicolò.

Joe leaned on the railing of their balcony, looking down into their old, old walled garden where his Nico shuffled around in the herbs. He was looking for something particular, the bridge of his nose scrunching as he peered at the mess of overgrown pots.

Joe beamed, the familiar, all-encompassing warmth of loving that man filling him up and making him feel expansive and bright. There was a cathedral ceiling in his chest, airy and golden with the light of dawn through its tall, jeweled windows. There was a house of worship where his heart should be, and he traced the lines of the other man’s body like he was devoting a painting to him.

Sono Qui (The Old Guard)

Andy left Booker on the beach.

She felt his gaze follow her, but couldn’t bring herself to look back.

It wasn’t as if they had never separated before— as if the four of them had been constantly attached from the time they finally found the Frenchman, even after months and months of dreaming and searching. There were plenty of times where they spent months, or sometimes years apart. They took breaks from each other, they traveled. Just a year ago, Andy had declared that she needed a break— was that last year of being alone the thing that led Booker to betray them? Maybe they should’ve stayed together. She never should have left him. She understood how it felt to be alone in the world… to lose someone so precious that life loses its color.

Andy had left Booker plenty of times. It wasn’t something she liked to think about now, but she had… She had assumed he was handling it like her. Somber and drunk, wishing for some type of release. They’d talked about it enough times. But not like this.

Brother of My Heart  (The Old Guard)

Joe clenched his hands on the steering wheel, flexing his fingers to feel the stretch in the tendons, even though any injuries from the fighting had long since healed.

While driving away from the ruins of Merrick’s car, the adrenaline was still rushing in his veins, and all his self control was devoted to staying reasonably within the speed limit. The last thing they needed was to get stopped by some bobby cop while covered in blood and dust, with a bullet through Andy’s stomach.

Right now, they needed to blend in. So, Joe didn’t press the gas pedal into the floor.

Care and Feeding (The Old Guard) 

Nile couldn’t ever remember liking the cold.

Even at home in Chicago. Sure, her memories of warm Christmas masses, bright lights on the tree, and gently falling snow outside the kitchen window made her throat dry with that familiar, wistful grief. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to seeing pine trees or twinkle lights without thinking of her mom’s mac n cheese, or how early her brother would wake her up on Christmas morning.

But loving Christmas, and loving snow? Those were two completely different things.

Going Underground (Star Wars) 

Poe wasn’t sure what it was like when they broke through the atmosphere into Yavin IV. He didn’t watch through the Falcon’s wide front window as the familiar jungles passed by in a blur of green underneath them, and he couldn’t pick out the roof of home from the surrounding grasses as they came in for a landing.

The first thing he saw as he came to, bleary and aching, was Finn. They’d fallen asleep right where they were, pressed shoulder to shoulder at the holochess table, Poe’s head on Finn’s shoulder. It took him a sluggish moment to recall why his hand had its own throbbing pulse, and why Finn’s soft, dark skin was pockmarked with strange cuts, glistening with bacta.

The second thing he saw, swallowing against the rush of memories filling his fuzzy mind, must have been a hallucination.

STAR WARS VIII: The Battle of the Force (Star Wars) 

“General, I don’t know how much longer we can hold ‘em off—”

Poe’s voice crackled from the shoddy reception, nearly engulfed by the constant bombardment in the background.

“Commander, the Resistance depends on taking down this dreadnought.” Leia kept her voice steady and strong “Stand your ground.”

Beyond What We Can See (Star Wars) 

If he was being honest with himself, he supposed that he’d been feeling the Force his whole life. He’d always just brushed it off as basic intuition— he thought everybody felt this way. It wasn’t until he started seeing the way the Force was treated in the First Order—as a myth, a fearful, distant thing—that he realized how much he needed to keep his head down. Even though he only felt it in small ways, he was different. He buried the feelings, tried to ignore the nagging dread that said that he didn’t belong there in his platoon. That none of them did.

But that wasn’t something he was allowed to feel. The Force wasn’t supposed to be something any of the troops knew firsthand.

Like She Always Did (Star Wars) 

The first time she left was barely a memory. More of a dream. He didn’t remember the fight they had, but he knew in hindsight that they must’ve had it for much longer than the tail end that he saw. Maybe it was what got his little feet out of bed in the first place. Daddy’s eyes were rimmed with red and Mama was pacing out her anger into the sitting room rug. Poe’s eyes were wide as he watched from the threshold to the hall, his little hand gripping onto the pillow that he’d tugged along with him from his room.

Love Will Help You Heal (Star Wars) 

Every inch of him throbbed, the last dregs of whatever the interrogation droid had injected him with still pumping through his bloodstream. He was so tired. How long had it even been? Getting captured on Jakku felt like a hazy dream, as if it was weeks ago.

No one was coming for him. He knew that much—he’d probably be mad if they endangered the resources to try—but he couldn’t help but wish anyway. Death seemed so close, like a cold hand on his shoulder, by his side in the recirculated air of the Star Destroyer.

He wished they’d just hurry up. His drug-addled, sleep deprived mind didn’t know if he was asking for rescue or death. Maybe they were the same thing now.

Dying a martyr. At least it suited the image—Poe Dameron, Poster Boy of the Resistance.

Ghosts of Future and Past (MCU/Captain America) 

His head was throbbing. His back ached. Everything in him pulsed with agony like he’d been hit by a train.

A train. Bucky.

“Bucky is alive.” 

He could feel the winter cold at the memory, his eyes snapping open as the past few moments came flooding back to him.

There had been another Steve. Even without the mask, he’d looked just like him. It must have been Loki playing tricks again, it had to be.

Sweet as Honey, Gold Like the Sun (Stranger Things) 

Steve was drifting after high school graduation. He drifted right out of the halls of Hawkins High and into a desk job at his dad’s office. If he was being honest, he’d been drifting since the Gate closed— maybe even since Nancy broke it off.

He wasn’t mad. She was his best friend. He and Jonathan were even friends now. No, he hadn’t been mad for a long time— but he was lost. The kids were going to high school. Dustin would be getting his license one of these days, and Steve’s last function to his little gaggle of brats would become all but useless.

The idea of not serving a purpose left the bitter tang of anxiety in his throat. Once the kids didn’t need him— and Joyce and Hopper and even Nancy— Steve would be left behind. Again.

Okay... Some of these may have been more than just what is considered “Opening Lines”, but I can’t just leave something feeling unfinished, and I’m a little tipsy, which means I am bending the rules <3

**EDIT** i forgot to look for patterns and pick my favorite! I mean, I think all storytelling/creative expression (anything from developing a recipe to composing a painting to writing a story) follows a distinct formula. And the best way to establish the story is by starting it with the most important element front and center— I almost always start with my main character. A thought or a feeling, a situation or a sensation. They’re the focal point from which everything ripples out. Those first ripples (the 2nd, 3rd or 4th lines) are usually about building the setting. It’s an equation that works so well for me, and though I sometimes shake it up by adding immediate dialogue or flipping the positions of setting and main character, it has served me well ❤️ i think my favorite has to be Brother of My Heart. It’s the first really, immediately big story Ive ever had. So many comments, so much warmth, so many kind people— it grew my confidence and helped me make friends. It reminds me of how truly wonderful fandom can be, even just with the first few lines.

I’m going to continue to bend the rules by not tagging anyone immediately-- it’s giving me weird anxiety levels, so I’m gonna wait and do it later maybe. If, in the meantime, you see this and want to do it, write me down as the one who tagged you! <3 Feel frrrreeeeeeee! 

[phykios]

honesty and promise me, part 3 [read on ao3] [co-written with @darkmagyk]

Several more weeks and hookups later, Annabeth thinks she should probably come clean. Some people might bury it deep, and for sure, Annabeth’s considered it, but, well. It is kind of embarrassing that she didn’t know Percy’s name at first. Stuff like that doesn’t usually bother her--she’s had nameless one night stands in the past, and despite Thalia’s ribbing, she knows that Thalia doesn’t really care either. It’s just that, you know, he’s Thalia’s family, and they’ve seen each other a few more times, and they are planning to continue to see each other a few more times in the future. Or more than a few times. 

Anyway, she kind of feels like she owes it to him. Like he deserves this small nugget of truth, payment for all the times he’s fucked her blind. It’s nagging at her, and she hates feeling like she owes anyone anything. 

Piper certainly seemed to think so, when Annabeth had told her over their monthly brunch date.

“It’s just common courtesy at this point,” she said. “Like, what if you guys end up married and then sell your story to Hollywood, they cast my dad as the male lead, and it comes out in interviews that you didn’t know his name for like a month? He’s gonna get the wrong idea.”

Annabeth wasn’t sure which part was more ridiculous: the movie, Piper’s dad being involved, or them being married.

Anyway, sharing some of her avocado fries, Piper had reminded her that being mean wasn't very punk rock, shutting her up effectively.

She’s out on site in the Lower East Side, taking measurements for plots of land, writing down sun angles and measuring the wind velocity between the brick buildings, when she gets a text from him. 

I’m on a break and I’m starving 😩 Want to grab something to eat?

It’s 2pm on a Thursday and he wants to grab something to eat. If Annabeth didn’t know any better, she’d say that that sounds like a real, honest-to-goodness, bona fide date. (Meeting up at and subsequently leaving bars together does not count as a date, she’s pretty sure. Neither do the booty calls.) He’s been getting a little free with his texts, that boy, sending her selfies and memes and questions about her day, and now this? An invitation to their first, actual date? She should block him on principle, just for the sheer audacity.

sure, wya

520 8th, text me when you get here 😁

That’s another thing: Percy loves his emojis. If this is going to continue, they’re going to need to have a serious talk about that. 

She doesn’t need to text him when she gets there; he’s already outside, leaning on the stone edifice of the building like a particularly jacked rent boy in his tight t-shirt and broody look, cigarette between his fingers. The sweatpants sort of ruin the image, though. He looks particularly comfortable in a way that warms Annabeth right from the inside out. “You know, when Nico said you smoked, I honestly didn’t believe it.” she says, not even bothering to say hi. 

He looks up from his phone and smiles, the sun behind his teeth. “Hey!” 

“Hey, yourself.” She doesn’t even hesitate--she plucks the cigarette out of his hand, taking a drag off it herself. “You been smoking for a long time?”

“Who do you think taught Thalia how?” He raises an eyebrow, bemused. “Is that a problem?”

It is, but it’s not like she can tell him that without losing some of her credibility. “Wouldn’t smoking fuck with your cardio?”

Percy shrugs, conceding. “A little. I used to be a lot worse, but I just can’t quite kick the habit. It’s mostly a stress thing, anyway.” 

“Rough practice?” she asks, putting just enough effort into her lip wobble to make it abundantly clear that she’s making fun of him. “Were the other boys being mean to you because of your tights?”

He grins at her, saucy. “Annabeth Chase, do you really think that NYCB rehearses here? In the Garment District?” But he laughs before she can stammer out an answer (and thank God, she’s lived here three years and can barely keep the boroughs straight, let alone the neighborhoods). “I just wrapped up teaching a class. I don’t have to be at rehearsal until 5, I was thinking we could hang out? Bryant Park?”

A first date at the New York Public Library. She almost hates to admit it, but Percy Jackson might be kind of her dream man. “I believe I was promised food,” she sniffs, but she does hold out her hand, and when he takes it, lacing his fingers through hers, she’s sure that he can feel her heart beating, palm to palm. 

Twenty minutes later they’re settled on a bench in the corner of the green, Annabeth halfway into a ham sandwich and Percy juggling a salad and an iced coffee. He’s been regaling her with tales from the more exciting side of ballet, a side she hadn’t even imagined could actually exist. “So by the time I land in Paris,” he says, taking a sip of coffee, “the guy’s foot has swollen up to, like, twice its original size, and when I finally managed to find some wifi to check my phone, there’s, like, eight missed calls from my mom and my agent, and an email from her that just says ‘READ THIS,’ in all caps, and of course the article is in French, which I didn’t really speak at the time, and I was so stressed that my ADHD made it so I couldn’t even read the Google translation, and I had to ask someone to translate it for me.”

“Oh my god,” she says, struggling to keep it in.

“And that’s how I found out that I’d been moved up to first cast in Le Corsaire, from the poor barista at a coffee shop in Charles de Gaule!” He laughs. 

“That’s insane,” Annabeth says. “And the show was the next day?”

“It was that night! I had to haul ass to the opera house and get warmed up, because I was going on in about four hours. You should have seen the looks on everyone’s faces when I stumbled in, I’m sure that they all wanted to kill me.” Percy chuckles, taking a bite of leafy greens. “Now I wasn’t just the twenty-year-old upstart American, I was the twenty-year-old upstart American who skipped town when I wasn’t supposed to.”

“How did it go?”

“Killed it, of course,” he says, deservedly smug. 

Despite her best efforts, she’s absolutely entranced; he’s a great storyteller. “I bet you break that story out at parties all the time, don’t you.”

He laughs. “Whatever gets the donors to open their checkbooks, right?”

“I can’t believe you lived in Paris. I’ve always wanted to see it.” She’d had a few chances to when she was in college, the semester she’d studied abroad in Rome, but she just never got around to it. Just another item on her long, long list of regrets, placed somewhere between the sketchy burrito from last week and not telling her mom to fuck off earlier when she’d had the chance. “If I were you, I’d never leave.”

Percy shrugs. “It was amazing, I won’t lie. But towards the end I just really, really missed it here. All my family is in NYC, you know? My mom, step-dad, and my sister live here, and Thalia and Nico and Hazel, too. I tried to come back and visit whenever I could, but being away from them was really hard.” There’s something soft and inviting in his expression when he says, “I’m really happy to be back home.”

“What are they like?” Annabeth asks. “Your family. Your non-mob family, I mean.”

He rolls his eyes, but he grins another one of those blinding grins, too. “My mom is the most amazing person you will ever meet. Not only did she support my dance habit, she did it as a single working mother who had to raise an angry, ADHD asshole of a son who didn’t always appreciate her. I don’t even want to know how many hours she had to work or how many scholarships and grants she had to track down in order to pay for me to go to SAB, but somehow she made it work, and managed to write her novel at the same time. She married my step-dad the summer I turned sixteen, and my baby sister was born the next year.” 

Even Annabeth, cynical and black-hearted as she is, has to smile back. The love he has for his mom is so palpable, so tangible, she can practically see him glowing. “And the…” What had Thalia called them? “The ‘Cousin Consortium’?” 

At that, Percy laughs, full-bellied, unrestrained. “The name was Nico’s idea. I didn’t really have many close friends when I was a kid, apart from my buddy Grover--he had to wear this really gnarly leg brace and I liked to dance, so you can imagine how much we got picked on--but we were all really close growing up, since our dads were all assholes. They may have left us emotionally scarred, but at least we had each other’s backs the whole time.”

This is a very Percy thing, she’s starting to realize: he can not and will not hold back on his feelings. He simply refuses to. Where most guys might try to hide or downplay their affection for their friends, Percy’s is written all over his face. Maybe it’s a byproduct of doing ballet, but he’s so unashamed of his love for his friends and his family and his art, that maybe Annabeth kind of wishes she could be included in that love too, if it always feels this warm and joyful. 

“I think it’s amazing that you guys are so close. I only had the one cousin when I was growing up, and we didn’t really talk all that much,” Annabeth says, almost without her permission. Something about him, it’s just so easy to talk to him. He makes it safe to open up.

“The med school guy, right?” 

Annabeth nods. “Magnus. Fifth generation Harvard student. We’re all very proud.” 

Ugh. Even she has to wince at the false cheer in her voice. Percy gives her a half-smile, sympathetic and soft. “Harvard not really for you, then?” he asks, picking up the threads of a long and complicated story, and one that she absolutely does not want to get into right now. Or ever, if she can help it. 

“More like I wasn’t really for Harvard.” Which wasn’t entirely untrue. She had been good enough for the university in Cambridge, Mass--good enough for two degrees and graduation with honors--but she had never been good enough for her mother’s capital-H Harvard. Never good enough for her mother at all, really. 

Percy takes her hand. His fingers are cold from his iced coffee. “Hey. It’s their loss,” he says, with a sincerity and an intensity that makes her blush.

Every part of her wants to pull away. His thumb is rubbing against the joint of her finger, soothing and sweet, and she thinks she may break out in hives from it. “Damn right it is,” she mumbles. 

He is so nice. So nice and hot and sweet. Objectively, what she’s about to do is a terrible idea, and might torpedo a really good thing that they have, but if she doesn’t come clean now her own guilt is going to drive her insane.

“Okay, I have a confession to make.” Percy raises his eyebrows, slurping the last dregs of his drink. “When we met… and then when we hooked up the first time… I may have… thoughtyouwereJason.”

He blinks. “Pardon?” he asks, mumbled around the straw.

Annabeth buries her head in her hands. “Please don’t make me say it again.”

“You… thought I was Jason?”

“Well,” she sputters, glaring at him through her fingers, “you were being all bro-y with Thalia!”

He is valiantly trying to hold in a smile. “You know, I distinctly remember telling you my name that morning.”

“I was really hungover,” she whines, “and you were shirtless and making breakfast so I wasn’t really… paying attention.”

“For a whole week?”

This is so embarrassing, why couldn’t she just keep her stupid mouth shut? “Yeah.” She slumps her shoulders, stuffing her hands into her jacket pocket. “Sorry.”

She’s not entirely sure what she expected: at best a couple of weird looks and a tentative promise to meet up later that would end up not working out, at worst she thinks he’ll just get up and leave her here at Bryant Park. Either way, they’d be doomed to months of awkward interactions, until eventually they wouldn’t be able to be around each other, and Thalia would have to pick a side--and Annabeth’s seen what Thalia does to people who cross her family. She’s seen Thalia beat a dude to pulp for calling Nico the f-slur. Picking Percy over Annabeth? That’s nothing.

So when he starts laughing, Annabeth is completely at a loss. Slowly, at first, then all at once, he’s laughing so hard his shoulders are shaking, and he has to put down his salad so it doesn’t topple over onto the grass. His head is tilted back in joy, the grey, late afternoon light adamant that Annabeth can see all of his features clearly, from his screwed up eyes to his bright, white teeth to the single dimple in his cheek.

Of course, even his laughter is hot. Asshole. 

“You thought I was Jason!” He shrieks.

Annabeth crosses her arms, scowling. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I really don’t mean to laugh,” he giggles. Annabeth can feel her own giggle rising in response, and she ruthlessly quashes it. “I can definitely say I’ve never heard that one before. You do know Jason is blond, right?”

“As a matter of fact, I did not. Besides, you and Thalia look exactly alike.”

He scoffs. “No we don’t.”

“Uh, yeah you do. You, Thalia, and Nico are all basically clones of each other.” 

“Okay, Captain Glasses, whatever you say.” He rolls his eyes, but there’s no heat behind it.

“I’m sorry,” Annabeth feels like she has to say again.

He cocks his head. “For what? For thinking I was Jason? He’s a pretty cool guy.”

“No, for,” she blushes again. All this blood rushing to her head can’t be good for her. “For sleeping with you when I still thought you were Jason.”

Percy scoots closer to her, throwing her a grin and slinging his arm over her shoulders. Without even realizing that she’s doing it, she settles in beside him like she’s been doing it her whole life, slotted up against his torso, tucking her booted feet beneath her legs. “I am choosing to take that as a compliment,” he says, smirking. “You couldn’t resist my charms, even when you thought I was a brogrammer.” 

Annabeth can’t help herself. She kisses him, wiping that smug grin right off his face, and when she finally retreats, after what feels like hours, he looks so dazed she could probably keep calling him by any name she wanted and he wouldn’t even realize it.

After their lunch, they meander for hours, headed in a vaguely southerly direction, holding hands the whole time, a steady, uninterrupted flow that took them all the way from Midtown to Greenwich Village. He tells her about his first day at ballet school; she tells him about her favorite monuments. “There are two architectural environments in America,” she says, ranting, speaking with enough force that she might forget the feeling of his hand in hers, “endless dead suburbia, or cities where every single building is either a concrete or a glass block--and not even Brutalist concrete, just shitty, poorly designed, paint-by-numbers concrete. It is an absolute travesty of modern government that they don’t fund any public works projects anymore.”

“That’s why all the gardens and stuff?” he asks.

“Nowadays everything is built by the lowest bidder. At least I get to add some beauty back into the city.”

“I know what you mean,” Percy says. “Paris is practically overflowing with public works, you almost forget about it sometimes.”

She sighs. “You’re so fucking lucky. Paris is so beautiful and everything in New York is just hideous.”

“Aw, come on,” he says. “Not everything. What about the Empire State Building, or Central Park?”

“Well, obviously, those,” she says, just a teensy bit flustered, but she’s not about to give up the argument without a fight. “I just mean like, normal, every day buildings: offices and apartments and stuff. It’s all so samey and boring.”

He looks to her right, pointing at the building they are passing. “What about this one?”

She turns.

If she had known they were headed this way, she never would have taken them past here.

“It’s… okay, I guess,” she mumbles, staring up at the arched windows, pedimented doors, and Rococo details of Miss Minerva’s Private Pre-College Prep School. A shudder goes down her spine, like someone walking over her grave. “There are better Beaux-Arts buildings.”

Sensing her discomfort, he picks up the pace, and changes the subject.

Finally, he stops outside a nondescript building, turning to face her. “This is me,” he says, a little bit mournfully, squeezing her hand. “Are you okay to get home safely?”

This man is ridiculous; it’s not even dark out. “I think I can manage a few blocks,” she says, lightly swatting him. “Isn’t it kind of early for you, though? It’s only four o’clock.”

He flushes faintly, one hand coming up to rub at his neck. “Uh, well, I always give myself a little extra time--you know, time blindness and everything.”

“You baked in extra time in case I wanted you to walk me home, didn’t you?” She mock-gasps, secretly delighted. “Scandal!”

“Guilty,” he grins. “You’ve been to mine so many times, I was curious.”

She just barely stops herself from laughing out loud at the very idea of Percy coming to her apartment--as if. Thalia hasn’t even been to her apartment. Nobody knows where she lives, none of her neighbors know who she is, and this is entirely by design. “Cut me some slack; a girl’s gotta have some mystery. Can’t make it too easy for you, can I?”

“I have a feeling you’ll never make things easy for me,” he says, white teeth gleaming.

“You better believe it,” she smiles back. “Now that I’ve foiled your plans, are you going to be too bored?”

“Oh, I’ll think of something,” he shrugs. “I’m very resourceful when it comes to boredom.”

Inspiration strikes, and she grasps his hand, pulling him down the alleyway. She almost hates to admit it, but she has something of a Pavlovian response when it comes to hanging out with Percy. Annabeth has come to expect some really excellent sex whenever the two of them meet up, and maybe spending all afternoon with him has made her a little bit horny. 

She presses him up against the brick wall, hidden from the street by the long afternoon shadows, and kisses him. His hands flounder for a second, before coming up to rest on her shoulders, this thumbs tapping against the base of her neck, fingers fluttering on her jacket. It’s an intimate touch, kind of chaste and very respectful, and he holds her with precision and grace. He wouldn’t do anything she wouldn’t want to. This is a date with no expectation of sex on his part. But Annabeth does not want grace right now, spooked by the ghost of her old school. She does not want precision. She just wants him. She just wants to keep him on his toes, keep him interested, blow his mind a little. 

She just wants to blow him, to be honest. 

He squeaks into her mouth as her hands fly to his belt, deft fingers practically ripping it off of him in an increasingly familiar motion. “H-hey,” he says, squeezing her shoulders, “this is--”

“Do you not want me to?” she asks, one hand playing at the top line of his underwear. 

“No--I mean, are you sure? I’m-I’m okay with this, I just want to--”

“I know.” She kisses his cheek, then drops to her knees. “But we’ve got some time to kill, don’t we.” 

Afterwards, when she’s finished with him, Annabeth wipes her mouth, and he whimpers. 

“Ho… holy shit,” he pants, flushed and trembling. 

She tucks him back into his boxers, doing up his fly. “There we go. That was better than being bored, right?”

He nods wordlessly, swallowing, shaking. His eyes are glassy and glazed, stupid like he’s just shot out his brain through his dick.

In the short time they’ve been together (though, honestly, this might be the longest relationship she’s ever been in before… and they haven’t even broached the “dating” conversation yet) Annabeth has been on the receiving end of several different Percy looks. His face will light up with joy when he first lays his eyes on her, so happy to see her (though she can’t really fathom why), glinting like the sun on the water. His eyes will narrow, glaring, even as he furiously tamps down on his growing smile when they start arguing over something stupid, like Annabeth’s affinity for olives. He’ll grin at her, knife sharp and slanted, licking his lips and looming over her after she comes down from yet another orgasm via his mouth or his hands.

Percy looks at her now like someone took a bat to his head, and instead of seeing stars, he sees little miniature Annabeths flying around. 

He pulls her to him and kisses her, entirely too sweet for what she’s just done to him, but that is also a very Percy thing. And when she leaves him with a final kiss on his cheek and squeeze of his ass, she can feel that look burning a hole through her jacket, following her down the alley and around the corner, and she finds that she doesn’t mind the weight of it at all.

[theimprobabledreamersworld]

Yayy! Despite trying to fight off a monster of a cold, I’ve got a new chapter written! :D

As I mentioned yesterday, this one is written from Logan’s POV because I’ve been wanting to create a back story for him in this story :) 

I’ll post the chapter under a line on here, but please check it out on Ao3 too! I love reading comments and stuff to find out what people think :)

Hope you like it!

Taglist: @psychedelicships  @edupunkn00b  @jwillowwolf @kacklingisanart @look-ma-im-on-tv @stardustlv @lost-in-thought-20

Chapter 5. My Heart Was Made Of Stone. And You Broke It Twice.

“But the wind has changed. My walls are weakening. They’re gonna fall soon. And I’m gonna need you.”

Logan was a man who always kept his emotions in check. He never let himself get too consumed by any kind of feeling. Happiness, sadness, love, hate, anger… Ever since he was sixteen, he refused to be vulnerable ever again. If you’re vulnerable, you can be broken. He had been broken far too many times when he was growing up.

His parents were agreeable, he couldn’t deny that… but he was never enough for them. Even as a young child, nothing was quite good enough. He remembered when the class teacher told his parents that he was the first child to learn how to write his name… he stretched up to show them and they let the paper flutter to the floor saying it wasn’t neat enough. He was only four! It got worse as he got older. Every time he was proud of something he had achieved, like getting a high grade, he was always asked why it wasn’t full marks. The unattainable goals were never reached and it took a lot to even vaguely satisfy them. He worked himself into the ground for the entirety of his school life, it affected his health, but they still weren’t happy. He was never strong enough, creative enough, serious enough, smart enough… and it hurt so much to know that. His friends however were amazing, they would always encourage him and make him take breaks when they knew he was working way too hard. They could always cheer him up and he was eternally grateful for that. Logan clenched his fists… he hated how much it knocked him down when he would walk in smiling over something that happened at school, to be told they weren’t interested and to just go and study. He always set himself up for the fall almost every day… no wonder emotions became such a hinderance. Luckily, music was his salvation for about eight years.

Logan took his head out of his hands, readjusted his eyes to the light and felt how raw they were from crying before staring at the dusty piano in the house intently. He used to be pretty good at playing. He loved his classical music, and still does. Just not playing it anymore. When he still had lessons, he was always thrilled with the challenge of increasingly difficult pieces given to him by his teacher. It was funny, his music teacher was the only person who ever truly believed in him. He was also the one person who could convince Logan to perform. The last concert he ever played in was the day before his sixteenth birthday, he played his most difficult piece to date… Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu Op 66. They decided on that because it was originally a piece that no one was ever supposed to hear, Chopin never wanted it to be released after he died… but they did it anyway. His teacher said that he could then perform it however he wanted to, artistic interpretation and all that. He practiced and practiced at school so his parents wouldn’t hear it before. When it got to the concert, and his parents actually turned up, he was genuinely surprised. He walked out on the stage and sat down looking for his teacher who gave him a smile and a thumbs up, then the music began. He felt almost like he was watching himself play, he had never played with such determination before and as the final note rung out… there was silence. Before the room broke out into applause, his teacher was standing up clapping vigorously, then some of his classmates and other parents stood up too. His parents however were sat down, clapping politely with a neutral expression on their faces and Logan’s smile faltered. He gave a quick bow and walked quickly off the stage. His teacher followed him and gave him a hug while telling him how proud he was. Logan couldn’t stop the tears, he had never cried in front of another person, but no one had ever been proud of him before either. How embarrassing. The first time he had been shown positive interest by someone he respected, and he cried until the top of their shirt was damp with his tears. His teacher just held him and told him everything was okay. After he had calmed down and the tears had stopped, he went to go and join his parents for the second half of the concert, but their seats were empty.

In that moment, he didn’t get upset again and stayed unusually calm, and he knew that this was the final straw. He stayed at a hotel for the night at the insistence of his teacher, that way he could sort out his head and start looking up different apartment options. Which he did realise could be tricky as a sixteen-year-old… but he was smart, reliable, didn’t drink or smoke and had a substantial amount of money at his disposal. He waited until the morning and snuck back into his parent’s house to collect all of the things that he deemed necessary. Thankfully, the hotel manager was understanding and let him stay for the bare minimum price until he could find an apartment for himself. It took a few months, and the landlord had to be persuaded by his music teacher, but he found an apartment which was close to everything he needed and was affordable. One day, he would repay that teacher back for everything he had done for him.

He looked at the calendar, the picture of him and Virgil smiling and holding up their wedding ring hands was taunting him on the wall. He noticed the date. Wow, it had been ten years since he left without looking back, and he never heard a single word from them.

That was clearly for the best.

Ever since then, he never let emotions get the better of him ever again. However, as he looked around at the decimated living room, he had clearly broken and let all of those emotions consume him once again. Logan inspected the damage, as he traced the hole in the wall, the shattered photo frames and glass covering the floor, it caused his heart to fill up with regret. His heart was already full of pain, the regret was enough to make his heart quite literally tear in two. Virgil was the first person he felt like he could be vulnerable with again. When they first met, there was something about him, something that reminded him of himself. Maybe this guy was just as broken as he was, as he saw him hiding in the corner of the coffee shop trying to stay away from the world. He told Virgil this many times, but he had encased his heart in stone to keep it safe. As their relationship developed, as stupid as it sounds, he could feel the stone wall cracking and breaking off piece by piece, and he honestly didn’t mind in the slightest.

Now, he didn’t know what was going on with his heart. He was hurt, he was angry. It’s not every day you find out that the man you’ve been married to for the last five years spent most of his life as a well-trained and dangerous assassin. Going by Virgil’s words alone, the body count to his name is staggering and who knows how many people he’s hurt over the years. The argument they had earlier in the evening was playing on repeat in his mind.

“I couldn’t tell you!” Virgil shouted across the room.

“Why the hell not?! I’m your fucking HUSBAND Virgil, you are supposed to trust me. No matter what’s happened in your past!” Logan rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Okay, you want to know why I hid everything from you? I did it to PROTECT you! My past is something that can be used against me, it is still being used against me. If anyone from it came after you… I would never be able to forgive myself!” The tears wouldn’t stop rolling down Virgil’s face as he spluttered out the words while his body shook with sobs.

Despite the hurt of seeing Virgil in so much pain, Logan couldn’t contain his anger. “What makes you decide if I need protecting? I can handle myself, ever since I was sixteen I’ve been on my own… You know that!”

Virgil sighed, like he was debating whether or not to say his next sentence.

“Remember when we met all those years ago? You told me about how you were attacked and how scared you were after it? Well… it was me. I was the guy who saved you. Every day since that moment, I vowed that I would protect you no matter the cost. Then I fell in love with you along the way, and I’ll love you until the end of time. If you want to know the truth about me, I know he gave you something. Look at it, and I won’t blame you if you try to turn me in to the police afterwards. I have to go now though, otherwise you will get hurt… I’m sorry, Lo.” Logan was left dumbfounded, and Virgil ran out of the front door, slipping away into the night.

There had been so many lies and too many secrets. He remembered that USB stick he threw in a drawer months ago. He opened it up and stared at the blue object, the label that read ‘Virgil… ?’ taunted him mercilessly. He looked over at his open laptop that was spared from his destructive anger, should he look at it?

Logan shook that thought away instantly, he needed to clear up first before making any kind of decision. He crouched down on the floor and started to sweep the glass over towards the sofa with his hand, just so he could clean it properly soon. He got to the first photograph, him and Virgil sitting in a restaurant holding hands and smiling at the camera. That picture was taken by Thomas and Nico, their two closest friends… He thought he should text them and see if they could come over. Virgil left half an hour ago, and he already felt too alone.

He’d contact them later, but for now. He wanted to stare at photographs and revel in his memories.

[solangelover]

3 Days + 1: Day 2

@solangeloweek ‘s Solangelo Spring Ball 2020 - Collab w/ @nicostolemybones

Read on AO3 or FF.Net

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Will was practically dead on his feet at this point. Working for the past few days straight, not including the entire battle that came before, he could feel the exhaustion pulling at his limbs. In moments of weakness, he considered curling up under his desk and napping right there. Instead, he’d shake his head and focus on what he was doing.

People are in pain, people need healing, I need to keep going. He knew this thinking wasn’t great for his health, but it helped him do as much as he could during the many battles they’d all been through. Besides, at some point, one of his siblings would always kick him out and force him to sleep in their cabin. It usually worked out.

Now that everything was winding down, he finally had time to track the son of Hades down and forcibly help him. He knew for a fact that Nico had been a major part of defeating Gaea, which also meant that his body needed some major recovery time. Will was honestly a bit surprised that he got the boy to come in so easily, but Nico had looked overtired, so maybe he just couldn’t protest anymore. Whatever the case, seeing Nico di Angelo, scary-emo-death-boy number one, sleeping peacefully in front of him, he knew he made the right move.

It’s always annoyed Will, how everyone judged Nico just because he was the son of Hades. He remembered him in the battle at Manhattan, where Nico really saved everyone at the perfect time. Even Will, as he frantically healed as many people as possible, stopped to watch the raw power of the prince of the underworld. It was frightening to know that one boy held so much power, but it was clear that he wielded it for the good of others. Will was glad that Nico was on their side.

Will yawned wide, jaw cracking, and he looked at the clock. Only 10 PM, he could still get a little more done before the night shift took over. He glanced again at the sleeping son of Hades, reluctant to leave him there.

When Will exited the curtain, he came face-to-face with Austin. “Dude, Will, it’s time for you to leave.”

“What?” Will asked, confused. “My shift goes to 11.”

Austin just shook his head. “Nu-uh. Nope. You’re leaving the infirmary and going back to the cabin to sleep. You’re tired and you know it.” His words left no room for argument.

But Will tried anyway. “But it wouldn’t be fair to whoever’s taking over.”

“I’m taking over, and I’m saying it’s fair. You’ve been here for days, Will.” He put a strong hand on his older brother’s shoulder, comforting, but firm. “You have to rest, you know that.”

Will sighed, glancing back toward the patient behind the curtain. “Yeah… but I finally got Nico here, and I don’t think I should leave him.”

Austin chuckled at that, peering around Will. “I can’t believe you got him here. I thought he would’ve bitten your hand off if you tried to touch him.” Will shot him a tired glare, like he’d heard the kind-of-not-a-joke too many times. “Look, I, quite frankly, don’t want to be the only person here when di Angelo wakes up, so let’s compromise. You sleep in that bed there,” he pointed to the bed neighboring Nico’s, “while I work the infirmary. If he wakes up or anything, I’ll get you. Otherwise, you will sleep tonight.”

Will nodded solemnly and saluted his brother, who scoffed and shoved him toward the aforementioned bed. It’s not like Will didn’t want to sleep, gods, did he want to sleep. But he was a “workaholic” according to his siblings and usually needed someone to look out for him. He was also immensely proud of his siblings as they’d been stepping up to help a lot in the past few weeks.

Will cast one last look toward Nico’s curtain before collapsing into his bed and knocking out instantly.

--

Will awoke to a loud cracking sound and his whole bed shaking.

He jolted upright and confirmed, yes, his bed was shaking, along with the entire infirmary. He thought it was an earthquake before he heard a strangled scream from the bed next door.

“Will!” Austin shouted, but Will was already out of bed, leaping over the one foot-wide fissure in the ground. He turned to see Austin a few feet back from Nico’s bed, his hands out in front of him and his face frozen in fear.

“What’s—”

“I don’t know! His powers are acting up!” Right as Austin said this, Will noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He spun around to see a hand clawing its way up the opening in the ground. He spit out a curse in ancient Greek, grabbing the closest thing to a weapon that was in reach—a mop, apparently—and brought it down on the decaying hand. The zombie flinched back, but more were on their way and, surely, they needed more than a mop to stop this.

Will shoved the mop into Austin’s hands. “Hold them off.”

He didn’t wait for his brother’s reply before he rushed to Nico’s bedside. The son of Hades was thrashing in his sleep, his face contorted in a mess of fear and pain. Will normally didn’t wake people when they had nightmares, knowing it was a normal process of the brain and especially common for demigods. But this was dangerous, something had to be done.

“Nico,” Will went for a softer tone, hoping that he could calm the boy down in his sleep. “Nico, listen to me. You’re in the infirmary. You’re safe. Please, calm down.” Will pushed as much meaning as he could into his words, threading his hands through Nico’s hair like he did earlier. Nico was sweating and his breathing was frantic still. Will began to sing a hymn to his father like he did while healing, pressing his palms to Nico’s head and cheek. Dark tendrils were leaking out between Nico’s fingers where he was clutching at the sheets desperately.

“Come on, Nico. I believe in you. I’m here for you. You’ve gotta calm down for me, okay? I’ve got you.” Will leaned over and pressed his forehead to Nico’s, pulsing his healing powers out from where they connected. “I’ve got you.”

Nico immediately stilled, his breathing ragged but slowing down. Will tentatively opened his eyes and gazed down at the son of Hades. His eyebrows were drawn together, but the panic had subsided. Will leaned back, trailing his hand down Nico’s arm to grip his hand. He looked back toward Austin, who was still wielding the mop and staring at the ground. Will looked down right when the fissure closed up, leaving only a thin crack behind.

The brothers met each other’s gaze, nodding as soldiers did at a job well done. Austin’s eyes flicked over to Nico, who was still asleep. Will rubbed his thumb across the back of the hand he was holding, staying there until the son of Hades was fully back to sleep.

Will sighed and stood up, placing Nico’s hand gently back at his side. Austin shook his head, but instead of making some snide comment about Nico’s heritage, he said, “We don’t get paid enough to clean up the gods’ shit.”

Will chuckled, knowing there was nothing really to say about that. He placed a comforting hand on Austin’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Thanks, Austin.”

They continued with clean up for a little before Will was directed back to bed. All he could think about as he fell asleep once more was the pain on Nico’s face. We’ve got a lot of healing to do.

--

Will woke at the crack of dawn like normal, and despite the interruption, last night was the most sleep he had gotten in a while. He pushed himself out of bed, cleaned up a bit in the infirmary bathroom, and walked over to his desk, where Austin was slumped over some paperwork.

He gently shook his brother awake. “Hey, Austin. You can go back to the cabin, I can take over.” Austin grumbled as he woke up, rubbing his face.

“Ugh, Will, isn’t it someone else’s turn this morning?” He yawned wide. Really all of the healers had been going non-stop, not just Will.

“It’s fine, Austin, I slept last night. I’m still head medic, anyway.” Will chuckled as his brother rolled his eyes at him, finally standing up to leave.

Then, he suddenly looked more alert when he noticed the line across the ground. “Wait, oh shit, you remember what happened last night?”

Will frowned, but it wasn’t directed at his brother. “Yes,” he muttered as he glanced back to where Nico’s curtain was still pulled closed.

“Dude, that was crazy. I don’t think you should be here alone with him.”

“It’s fine. He was having a nightmare. We know a lot of demigods’ powers are linked with their emotions.” Will tapped his chin in thought. “I’ll talk with Nico to learn more about it today. But I’m going to sanitize this area for now. Don’t want any zombie remains in my infirmary.”

Austin shuddered. “That’s nasty. I’ll send over whoever else is on shift to come and help.” He then smirked when he met Will’s eyes. “Seemed like you had di Angelo all under control last night, though.”

Will felt his cheeks heat up. “Shut up, this is serious. I just did my job.”

“Mhmm,” Austin hummed as he strolled out of the infirmary. “Sure thing, Doctor Solace.”

Will stared after him for a minute before shaking his head and sitting at his desk. He looked over what Austin was working on, trying to focus on something else besides the brown-eyed boy behind the curtain. After some preliminary checks, Will began to pull out cleaning supplies. He crouched on the ground and ran a finger over the newly formed crack in the ground. It seemed fine. You would never know that there was a gaping hole there last night.

Ten minutes later, two of Will’s siblings stumbled into the infirmary. They greeted each other with a tired “good morning” each. Will only said that this area needed to be decontaminated. No one really needed to know the context—it was an infirmary, after all. All kinds of things happened in here.

As the others finished cleaning, Will washed up and went to check on Nico. He slipped behind the curtain, happy to see that Nico was still asleep. He was worried that Nico wouldn’t be able to sleep long after his nightmare, but he seemed fine now. Will blushed at the memory of pressing his face so close to Nico’s. At the time, Will was only thinking about how best to help Nico, but now he couldn’t help but be a little embarrassed by his actions. But it did help Nico calm down, so he wasn’t going to overthink it.

Will sat in the chair by Nico’s bed and looked over his clipboard. He frowned in thought, pondering over what he knew of Nico’s condition and how to treat everything. As he mumbled to himself, Nico stirred and slowly opened his eyes. Will looked over to see Nico rubbing his eyes and looking around, slightly disoriented from his setting. How cute, Will thought before he could stop himself.

He shook his head before clearing his throat. “Mornin’, Sunshine.” Nico turned his head toward the sound of Will’s voice, finally remembering exactly where he was. He groaned and threw his arms over his eyes in response.

Will laughed lightly and asked, “Sleep well?”

Nico groaned again before moving his arms and staring up at the ceiling. “I feel like I’m more tired.” He flexed his fingers, like he knew how tense they were throughout the night.

“Well, I have a few possible answers to that.” Nico swiveled his head, staring at Will in surprise. Will raised an eyebrow. “What? It’s my job to figure out what’s wrong, then hopefully fix the problem.”

“I guess, I just…” Nico trailed off, now looking confusedly at the ceiling. “I didn’t really think there was an explanation, I guess.”

Now, there was an interesting thought. Will hadn’t considered that Nico hadn’t considered finding a solution to his fatigue and exhaustion. Maybe the son of Hades wasn’t stubborn, he just never cared for himself properly before. Will hummed in acknowledgement as he jotted a quick note to be really clear in any future treatment instructions for Nico.

“Okay, first thing to address: you had a nightmare last night.”

“What?!” Nico burst out, sitting straight up and looking at Will with a slightly horrified expression.

Will put his hands out in front of him in a placating manner. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. Austin and I were both here, and we handled it. You’re fine.”

Nico gazed down at his hands, which were slightly shaking now. “A nightmare… you said it could explain why I’m tired.” He looked up at Will. “I used my powers last night, didn’t I?”

He caught on fast, Will thought. “Yes, you did, but—”

“What did I do? Was anyone hurt? Did I destroy anything?” Nico glanced around frantically, looking for any signs of damage or any newly filled beds.

Will wanted to reach out like he did last night and help comfort Nico, but he wasn’t sure if that was welcomed at the moment. “Nico, look at me.” He waited for them to lock eyes before continuing. “You’re fine. We’re all fine. No one got hurt, we’ve decontaminated the area for any zombie—”

“Oh gods, I summoned zombies??” Nico seemed on the verge of despair, like Will was about to kick him out for something out of his control. Will really wanted to cry for the kind of expectations Nico had about his life, but he managed to hold back.

“You tried to summon zombies. Austin and I stopped it, and you actually calmed down enough to control your powers.” Will reached out, but Nico pulled his hand back, as thought he would hurt Will. “Nico, please, I promise it’s okay.”

Will slowly reached for one of Nico’s hands, and this time, Nico let him make contact. Will pushed out his power through his fingertips to where he touched the back of Nico’s hand. Nico’s posture relaxed immediately, his eyes fluttering shut as a sigh escaped his lips. Will smiled at him when he opened his eyes again.

Nico’s lips lifted upward for a brief second before he looked down and hid his face behind his bangs. “I’m really sorry about that. My powers are… difficult, sometimes.”

Will shook his head, not that Nico saw. “Everyone’s powers get out of hand at times. You’re extremely powerful, so it’s no surprise that they’re hard to control. Honestly, you utilize your powers really well, I’m sure it’s not easy.”

Nico looked back at Will, his mouth slightly open as he was taken aback by the words of praise. Will held his gaze and tried to convey his sincerity about what he said.

Before the silence could stretch on too long, Will spoke again. “So, yes, you had a nightmare and used your powers, accidentally, last night. You were already suffering from overusing your powers, so the extra usage didn’t help.” Addressing whatever he was dreaming about that made him react so strongly would have to wait for another time.

In the pause, Nico’s stomach grumbled loudly. Nico flushed red as Will chuckled. “Which brings me to my next point: you need food. You’re malnourished, as I’m sure you weren’t concerned with proper, nutritious meals while carrying the Athena Parthenos across the ocean.” That got a snort out of the son of Hades, which Will counted as a win.

The healer got up and grabbed a plate of food his sister had brought over from the pavilion. It was standard for the morning shift to come in with food for the overnighters. Nico got his own full plate per Will’s instructions, which he only got minimal teasing for.

Will placed the food on Nico’s bedside table. Nico scowled at the food and said, “I can’t eat all that.”

“We can share,” Will said before he lost the nerve. “But you’re going to have to eat as much as you can.” He moved toward the food first so that Nico felt more comfortable. It worked as he watched the son of Hades tentatively nibble on some toast.

A little into their breakfast, Will continued with his diagnoses. “So, aside from power drain adding to your tiredness, it sounds like you also have chronic fatigue.”

Nico looked confused, so Will added, “It’s a condition where you’re often tired for long periods of time, even if you slept a decent amount. You may also experience headaches, body aches, or lack of concentration.”

Will let that sink in, watching Nico mull over it for a minute. Then, the boy spoke up and said, “That makes sense.”

That really wasn’t what Will wanted to hear. “It does?”

Nico nodded. “I think so. I mean, I’m always tired, but I usually don’t get enough sleep, so I figured it was that. I didn’t know there was a name for it or anything.” Nico looked less concerned and more thoughtful. Did he never think to diagnose his symptoms as something treatable? Ever?

Will couldn’t really wipe the genuine concern off his face, so he turned toward his clipboard to write things down. “Well, this will require a bit of a lifestyle change. Actually, probably a lot of change for you. No underworld-y stuff, mister,” Will wagged his pen at the son of Hades, who rolled his eyes. “I’ll be developing a treatment plan for you over the next couple days.

“While I’m at it,” he turned back toward Nico, who had started on the pancakes. “You probably also have chronic pain. I’m guessing your body usually hurts, at least a little?” Nico hesitated before nodding. “Yeah, chronic pain and chronic fatigue can get mixed up sometimes since both may cause symptoms of the other. But, considering everything you’ve been through, I’m guessing the normal symptoms of both conditions have been overshadowed by, ah, everything else. Not that I think you’re recovered from the entire war yet, but I have a feeling that those underlying conditions are there.” Will’s lips pulled into a thin line as he thought about what he just said. Nico had gone through so much in both wars, and probably outside of the wars, too. His body has endured a lot of strain, it’s a miracle it hadn’t snapped yet. The gods really didn’t give this kid a break, did they?

Nico sighed and rolled his shoulders back. “Sure, why not? At least I’m probably used to it by now.” The son of Hades gazed upward, like he wanted to ask the gods why, but he was tired of it by now.

Will shook his head. “No, you deserve better than that.” Nico whipped his head back toward Will, eyes wide. Why is it that painful diagnoses are fine, but care from others is out of the ordinary? “You do, Nico. I promise, I’ll do whatever I can to help take that pain away. The gods owe you a break from all… this,” Will waved his hands around at nothing, but he knew Nico understood. Will huffed out a breath, upset that he couldn’t do as much as he’d like to help.

“I didn’t know,” Nico began quietly. He peeked up through his bangs at the son of Apollo before quickly looking away again. “I probably wouldn’t have admitted to—to having chronic pain, before today. I didn’t realize it until you used your powers on me.”

Will sucked in a breath. “You—”

“I’ve never felt… nothing before that.”

Will was not going to cry for Nico’s pain right now, he was not. Instead, he held out his hand, palm up, a clear invitation. Nico eyed it for a second before slowly, hesitantly, lifting his own hand and settling it lightly in Will’s. Will closed his hand around Nico’s with barely any pressure, not wanting to crowd the son of Hades or make him uncomfortable. He smiled, holding Nico’s gaze as he pushed out some of his healing powers. It didn’t actually heal, but it soothed nerve endings to bring temporary relief, which was very useful as a medic. But right now, as he watched the son of Hades nearly melt and the sensation, Will believed the entire purpose of his power was for this boy before him, who deserved peace and freedom from pain so, so much.

After a moment, Will gently lowered their hands. Nico’s eyes fluttered open and for a second, Will saw the eyes full of peace and joy. He really wanted to see that again. Both boys had blush painting their cheeks when they pulled their hands away.

“Hey, Will, could I—”

Will sprung backwards, away from Nico, at the sound of his sister’s voice. Nico jerked back as well, nearly knocking over the plate of food near him. Will’s sister stood just behind the curtain, unaware of the panic she just caused.

“What?” Will squeaked.

“Um, I wanted your opinion on the Ares boy. Are you—” The curtain rustled where she touched it.

“Fine!” Will called. “I’ll be there, just a sec.” He glanced back at Nico, who was red in the face and decidedly not meeting Will’s eyes.

“Sorry, I’ll be right back,” Will mumbled as he shuffled out through the curtain.

When he met his sister’s eyes, she looked concerned for all of two seconds before her smile turned sly. “If you’re too busy with your patient right now, I can probably—”

“Shut up and show me the problem,” he grumbled, moving past her and grabbing the clipboard from her hands as he went. The daughter of Apollo chuckled and followed, thankfully choosing to discuss the patient’s treatment plan and not her older brother’s flaming cheeks.

When Will returned, he found Nico staring out the window of the infirmary, which really only offered a view of the sky above. His breakfast, only halfway eaten, was pushed to the side. Will smiled at Nico as he cleared the plate away and straightened up things on his supply cart. He sat back in his chair with an exhale and picked up his clipboard again. But before he could say anything, Nico asked, “Aren’t you tired?”

The question caught Will off guard. “Huh?”

Nico twisted the skull ring on his finger nervously, but elaborated, “Didn’t you say you’d been working here for days? Shouldn’t you take a break?”

Will was caught by the worried expression on the son of Hades’s face. “Um, well I slept last night, and that was honestly pretty good.”

This only deepened Nico’s frown. “But I interrupted you.”

Will shook his head. “It wasn’t your fault, Nico. And still, I got a good amount of rest. But thank you for your concern.” He smiled, hoping to convince Nico to drop the subject, but also touched that he seemed to care so much. Though the hypocrisy of his words was borderline ridiculous.

Nico clearly wasn’t convinced, but Will began talking before anything else could be said on the subject. “So, to get back to your injuries we didn’t really address yesterday, I’m going to need you to take off your shirt.”

There was a solid three seconds where both boys just sat there, until Will’s words sunk in and they were back to being a blushing mess. Will, ever the professional, cleared his throat and said, “I need to get a good look at your injuries to start healing them, and since you’re awake, I won’t have to cut your shirt off.” Will was truly digging himself a hole that he could never climb out of. He really hoped his siblings weren’t listening right now.

“I-I-um, yeah, okay.” Nico, for his part, didn’t immediately shadow travel away. So that was good. “Like, right now?”

Not trusting himself to say anything intelligent, Will simply nodded and focused on his clipboard, attempting to give Nico some semblance of privacy while he stripped his shirt off.

Will didn’t notice Nico was done until the boy quietly cleared his throat. Will looked up to see a bare-chested son of Hades with a blush that spread down his neck. Don’t stare, don’t stare, don’t stare, Will chanted to himself. But it was so hard because Nico was a warrior meaning that he had muscle on his slender body that was apparently always swallowed up by his shirt or jacket. Not only that, but he had scars littering his torso. Will almost desperately wanted to reach out and touch them. Not in a weird way (okay, it’s a bit weird), but more of a reverent, almost sad touch, like he could take away the pain that caused the scars through touch alone. As head medic, Will has learned how to deal with the scars of demigods. He’s learned not to touch or to ask, just focus on the problems he was meant to deal with. But he’d never seen any demigod Nico’s age with as many scars as he had.

Will kept his eyes pinned to Nico’s right shoulder, maneuvering around him so he could get a good look. The gash was still a faint red, like it was irritated, and possibly previously infected. “I’m going to touch you, okay?” Will warned, getting a nod in response. Will gripped Nico’s outer shoulder to steady him as he continued his inspection. The wound wrapped from the front of Nico’s shoulder over and down his upper back. The deepest part seemed to be at the very top.

“Can I ask what caused this?”

Nico nodded again and spoke quietly. “It was, um, Lycaon. Reyna, Coach Hedge, and I encountered him while we were coming back.”

Will bit his tongue as he immediately wanted to yell. This was from someone as dangerous as Lycaon?? And he hadn’t come in to get it treated?? He took a deep breath before starting, “Nico…”

“I know, I know,” he huffed. “Reyna and Coach had fixed it up, I didn’t really think about it. It was fine enough for me to fight.” He tried to shrug his shoulders, wincing slightly now that he was really aware of the injury.

Will shook his head. “I get it. Just, come in sooner next time, okay?” Will stepped back and went to grab some ointment from his supplies. “Luckily, Hedge knows satyr healing magic, so he probably prevented any major infection.”

The healer turned back with a green salve in his hands. He got to work on Nico’s shoulder, operating in a focused silence. Nico sat there and avoided breathing too deeply so he both didn’t move his shoulder and didn’t smell the weird minty-medicinal scent of the ointment. The salve felt cool on Nico’s shoulder, though it definitely stung. Nico hissed through his teeth when Will was at the deepest part. The son of Apollo mumbled out an apology, but they both knew Will had to put more there to clean out the wound better. All in all, it didn’t seem to be as painful as Will expected, though he knew Nico had an extremely high pain tolerance.

Once Will was finished, he washed his hands and grabbed a roll of bandages on his way back to the bed. “We’ll just keep that for now and check on it daily. The salve should help push out any remaining infection and soothe the irritated skin around the wound. It may or may not need stitches later, but let’s just get it wrapped up, and we can be done with it for now.” Nico lifted his arm and was pliant as Will wound the bandage up and around his shoulder.

“So, Neeks,” Will broke the silence while he worked. He saw Nico make a face out of the corner of his eye at the nickname, making Will grin. “What is your favorite color?”

Now Nico just looked confused. “Why?”

Will rolled his eyes. “Because I’m curious. It’s a basic question, Ghosty.”

“Really? These are the nicknames you came up with?”

“I’ve got more, and I will use them all until you answer my question, Death Breath.”

“Tch,” Nico turned his head, but Will could’ve sworn the boy was fighting back a smile. “Blue.”

“Really?” Will asked, surprised. They met each other’s eyes as Will tucked the end of the bandage back in. “What shade?”

Nico cocked his head, and that’s just adorable. “Not sure yet.”

That was an odd answer that Will was not going to overthink at this moment.

“Okay, Mister Mysterio. My favorite color is black.”

“Really?” Nico didn’t believe him at all.

“Okay, fine, it’s yellow,” Will grinned brightly.

Nico scoffed, “Of course it is. Typical Apollo kid.”

Will put a hand to his chest in mock offense. “Well, excuse me, we can’t all be mysterious and cool like you, Prince of the Underworld.”

That got a breathy chuckle out of Nico, which was as close to a full laugh as Will had gotten thus far, so he was over the moon.

Will glanced at the clock, then jumped up in surprise. “Oh! It’s past lunch already!” He smiled sheepishly at Nico. “Sorry, I get caught up in my work easily. I’m going to go get us some food, be right back!” He bounded right out of there without waiting for a reply, largely because when he looked back at Nico, he realized he was still shirtless and they had just been joking around in close proximity and wow, Will was really pushing his luck on not messing up a new friendship (maybe more, Will’s not ready to talk about that just yet).

When Will came back with a full plate of food for the both of them, Nico was leaning back in bed, shirt on and eyes closed. It didn’t look like he was asleep, but he was definitely dozing off.

“Nico, hey, you gotta get up and eat. No sleeping yet,” Will spoke softly, hoping not to startle the son of Hades. Nico made a disgruntled noise but dutifully sat up, moving his bandaged shoulder around as he stretched.

“Hey, don’t move your shoulder so much,” Will chided.

“It’s uncomfortable,” Nico pouted.

“It’s healing, which may be an unfamiliar feeling to you, but that’s what’s supposed to happen.” Will settled the food between them and sat on the end of Nico’s bed.

“It’s not good for fighting,” Nico commented, and Will nearly choked on his fruit.

“Yeah, you’re not meant to be battle-ready at the moment, di Angelo.” Will leveled a glare at his patient, to which Nico simply shrugged as he picked up a sandwich.

They chatted a little as they ate, both of them mostly focused on the food. After clearing the plate away, Nico settled back against the bed while Will once again grabbed his clipboard and sat in his chair.

“One last thing before I let you rest again.” Will took a deep breath before continuing. “I remember feeling a lot of darkness in you at the end of the battle. I still felt it yesterday when I did my preliminary assessment, but I’d like to get a full picture of what we’re dealing with.” Will looked to Nico for confirmation, who solemnly nodded.

Will held both of his hands out, and Nico placed his hands on top, reaching over to grip Will’s wrists. The hold was a lot firmer and less comforting than the last time they held hands. They both understood the importance of this assessment. Will shut his eyes and concentrated. It felt like Will sent out feelers from where he connected with Nico, seeking out all of the issues in Nico’s body. The healer had to push past any of the physical injuries they previously discussed, focusing only on that sensation of darkness he remembered from during the battle. He thought about Nico’s shadow-traveling abilities, the dark swirls of energy emanating from his hands last night, the stories he heard about Nico fading out of existence. He could not—would not—let something like that happen again. Not when he was around to do something about it.

Will shuddered as he encountered large amounts of darkness spread throughout Nico’s body. It was much less than a few days ago, but last night’s incident didn’t help any. It was hard to describe, but the deep, swirling shadows felt contradictory to Will’s very soul.

Will gasped as the connection suddenly broke off. He looked up to find Nico sweating and staring at him, his hands held close to his chest.

“Nico?” Will breathed. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“What? No, you—” Nico’s eyebrows drew together in worry. “You looked like you were in pain. I thought I was hurting you.”

“Oh,” Will gulped, smoothing his sweaty hands down his shorts. “No, no you didn’t hurt me. I was just… there’s a lot there. Darkness. I—I’m not sure how to deal with it.”

Nico looked sad but resigned when he lowered his gaze to his lap. “Sorry,” he whispered, almost so quiet that Will didn’t hear.

“No, hey,” Will’s hand hovered over Nico’s knee, unsure if his touch was welcome. When Nico didn’t pull away, he took it as a sign and settled his hand down in a reassuring gesture. “We’ll figure it out, Nico. You’re not at risk of fading, thank the gods. But,” he let out a frustrated puff of air. “We’ll have to figure out how to purge the rest of the darkness out so you can better use your powers without risk.”

The son of Hades tentatively looked up at Will, his brown eyes wide with worry and the barest hint of hope. “So, I didn’t… hurt you?”

It did something to his heart, that Nico so strongly cared for Will yet immediately pinned the problem on himself. “No, you didn’t. I promise, I’m fine.” He sent him his most sincere smile, to which Nico breathed a sigh of relief and untensed a little.

Will leaned back and mumbled to himself as he noted his observations on Nico’s papers. He then put it aside, feeling a bit tired from using his powers all day. He turned to Nico, who was fiddling with his skull ring and bouncing his knee nervously. “I think,” Will started, causing Nico to still his movements and face the healer, “that we’ve done enough for today. You need to rest more, I think that’s the best thing for your body right now.”

Will waited for acknowledgement before adding, “Nico, I promise that we will figure out the best way to help you fully recover. I care a lot about you—r well-being.” Nice save, Will. “I want you to be at your best. But you’re going to have to trust me, okay? I know it might be asking a lot. You probably don’t remember me from before—”

“I do.”

Will blinked. “You… you do?”

Nico nodded, avoiding eye contact. “You were a medic during the battle of Manhattan, too. Saved a lot of lives.” He turned to face Will. “I trust you. At least that much.”

The son of Apollo was stunned silent for a few seconds. He did not expect Nico di Angelo, hero of two wars now, to remember him. He might’ve teared a little, blinking and turning away so that Nico didn’t notice. “You had to add on that last part, huh?”

They shared a small laugh. “Well, all I know about you is your favorite color, Solace.” Will glanced back over his shoulder to see Nico settling back in his bed, eyes already drooping.

“We’ll have to work on that, then,” he smirked. “Good night, Neeks.”

“Night, Will.”

A/N: Now passing onto my collab partner!

[geekkatsblog]

Grey's Anatomy 16x21 review

Wow just wow

We start with the most minor event of the episode.

___________________________________________

Deluca

Finally realized he needed help, I had kinda found myself on the 2 way fence with him because on one hand I knew that he was having problems mentally, but he was right and I've experienced people ignoring what I know and have to say because of my mental health, so I was livid that everyone was just ignoring him, but then I also could see where Bailey and the others were coming from. Deluca was acting quite irrationality and it's hard to listen to someone who seems so rash and aggressive as well as ignoring orders, allow allowing him to be around patients would have been a mistake, (that hospital has had enough bad press.) I'm glad he had his breakdown because now he can get the help he needs to function rationally, we can see that he's clearly an amazing surgeon and I could definitely see him going into the diagnostic aspect of things. That would be a great addition to Grey's If you asked me. He has a lot of potential to be a great surgeon and when he gets the help that he needs he can do even better because his coworkers will support him now.

___________________________________________

Teddy/Owen /Tom

😬🤦🏾‍♀️ (They actually managed to make me feel sorry for Owen.)

When Teddy first came to Grey's, I loved her she was one of my favorite characters despite the mess with Owen and Christina, she was sweet and peppy without being over the top with it and she was one of the most respectful women on Grey's but now just like Alex they just poofed away her character development. I guess I should be glad that Henry died because she would have probably cheated on him too. I couldn't believe that after sleeping with Tom she had the audacity to marry Owen that SAME NIGHT (WTF). How could she do something like that to anyone? That's low. At this point I'm thinking she should end up with neither and be alone because this is just a hot mess.

Never thought I'd ever say these words but poor Owen, this is the healthiest he has been in any relationship and I want to say he deserved it for what he did to Christina and then to his other girlfriend when he slept with Christina but then he just found out in the most brutal way, in front of all of his co workers who weren't buying the wedding gift thing at all, so now not only does everyone basically know that he was cheated on but he found it out at the same time as them.

Tom I feel sorry for but as the situation went further and further I started to feel a little less for him. He loves Teddy, yes but continuing to sleep with her when you know she's engaged and has a kid with them is down right awful. Then he went to confess his love for her and even after she turns him down he still sleeps with her. I was so proud of him when he had dumped her but now he's in the same position once again and also at the back end of the stick. Teddy is probably going to choose Owen just like she was going to in this episode.

They can stay in that circle but as long as Amelia is officially out of that mess at this point i couldn't be bothered.

___________________________________________

Amelia/Link

Speaking of my darling Amelia, she got her baby, a health little boy. I'm so happy for her, she even managed to have her baby without a hitch a rare treat in Grey's. When she walked off on her own after her water broke I'll admit I was a little scared. I love how they brought in Bailey although I would have preferred Link, I enjoyed the parallel they did between George helping Bailey and her helping Amelia. It gave me major nostalgia vibes that has now confirmed my urge to rewatch the series. Amelia trully was a trooper and was so adorable. The few moments we got to see with her and Link were adorable. They're going to be an adorable little family.

The baby currently has no name which is probably going to be revealed next season which gives them enough time to read all of the request that people have for the baby to be called Derek.I read someone saying the baby is going to be named after Bailey but I don't think so, Derek was her brother and besides Meredith already has a son named Bailey, three Baileys might be to much.

___________________________________________

Richard

Thank God he is alright, it turned out to be a hip replacement gone bad, (I knew the diagnosis would have been something I saw on House.) Deluca like everyone suspected was the one to solve the case. I'm glad it wasn't a wrong diagnosis and everything went well, but what I want to know is wouldn't he have been feeling pain in the hip prior to his episode because an infection gone that long should have been painful but Idk I'm not a doctor. He actually had very little screen time for being the major storyline of the episode, but this wasn't meant to be the season finale so I'm guessing they were going to focus more on the recovery.

Then there was him and Catherine, he put Catherine out which I guess was fair enough, his memories would have ended during the fight so he doesn't have any recollection on anything else. I'm glad that they're going to make her work for it a bit and more importantly that she's ACTUALLY learning her lesson. I do think they're going to end up together again. How?? Idk especially because I don't think money is going to be of much help seeing that that was a large part of the issues so she might actually have to work for it the normal way.

She's definitely getting there after all she was willing to step down from her organization to look after him and that right there is love.

___________________________________________

Meredith

Now I love Meredith, she's awesome. However, Her and Deluca...... am I happy that she was there for him? Yes, because no one else was on his side not even his sister, but at the end of the episode when he finally admitted something was wrong then would have been a good time to check him into the hospital. Taking him to her home isn't going to help. He needs an evaluation and possibly meds, especially now when he seemed to be accepting to the help. I just hope this isn't going to be another Alex and Rebecca moment again.

Dr Haynes asked her out, I don't know how I feel about it. I mean theh have cute conversations about their kids and past spouses. But besides that peek we got into his life at the convention, his only role in the show is to magically end up around her and I'm going to need more material on him before I can ship. Quite honestly I feel like Meredith is fine on her own right now TBH.

___________________________________________

Bailey

Finally listened to Deluca, I guess there were no chances to be taken with Richard, which is a very right way to go about it. And then she helped Amelia through her birth. It was sad to watch because not only was it a very similar birth to her own (besides husband on the surgery table as the patient) bringing up memories of her first birth. But she also had to deal with the fact that she would have been either just about due or already have delivered her baby girl around the same time but instead her baby is gone and she doesn't get to have that joy everytime they either mention or reference her miscarriage I die a little inside and when she brought up the pregnancy club😭😭😭😭 . She definitely was strong for staying through the birth.

(I still have my fingers crossed that they will adopt a baby or at least a younger kid, I've always wanted to see them raise a kid from young together. We only got peeks with Tuck and that's probably because his dad is still around.)

___________________________________________

Maggie

I was kind of disappointed with the lack of screen time she got with Richard, same with Bailey but anyway, what happened to her dream man? Where is he? I mean I know it would have take a while to settle things to take leave from his job,but no phone calls or any mention of him O hope the plot isn't just going to drop off.

___________________________________________

Jackson

Continuing the work of Mark Sloan, supporting his mother and possibly transitioning to Station 19.

___________________________________________

Notes and questions

What will Amelia's Baby be called?

How will Richard's recovery go and will he and Catherine reunite?

Is Meredith going to choose Deluca or Haynes? (Not gonna lie I'm tired of Mer a d love triangles.)

Who will Teddy pick? Tom or Owen? (I'm definitely over this love triangle as well.)

What happened to Maggie's new love interest? When is he coming back?

Is Jackson leaving for station 19?

Will Nico and Levi be in a relationship again?

What will happen with Jo and her new path in life?

Will Deluca get the help he needs and unlock his full surgeon potential?

[chameleonwritess]

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.

[creativenicocorner]

behind the scenes time: 1.) what's your favorite scene (terpsichore and/or otherwise) you've published so far? 2.) ever think of rewriting any scenes/fics from an alternate pov? 3.) top 3 favorite fanfic tropes? :v

Director’s Cut Questions

Oh boy you’re hitting me with some hardballs!! Hell yeah! Hehe

1)  Oh GEEZE dskjkdsj this is a hard question XP I..uh…dang, there have been so so many that I enjoyed writing! I can't be decisive to save my life at times XP

I’m quite proud of the xxx scene from ch10 in Terpsichore, and also the entirety of ch3 in Alto Mare, oof and that moment in Of Names & Ebb where the narrative kind of flips.

But man oh man…I think, I think despite all of that, and all the newer things I’ve written, a scene that always has a soft fondness in my heart is Ch3 in Terpsichore, the Aquarius section, where Barbara and Walter have their picnic date, and they get very drunk and sing and dance:

It was upon finishing their first bottle, their meal more than finished, and Arcadia glowing in the valley like a collection of lightning bugs with hues of pale yellows and reds, that Barbara got up and managed to walk a straight line to the car. Walter watched her saunter while collecting some of the trash, a hum in his throat when he heard the car start for a moment.

He thought the worst, and quickly turned around to see Barbara sitting in the driver’s seat- door open. Collecting himself, Walter walked over and leaned on the roof of the car, looking down at his rosy cheeked companion who was slowly cranking up the dial.

“Walt…” she looked up grinning, the intro to a song playing with chimes and languid guitars, a tasty bass line starting, “..Walt.” she repeated.

“Yes?”

“Quick - ask me what my sign is.”

A low laugh escaped in the form of uneven exhales through his nose.

“Quick!” she said in earnest, racing against the started song. Those deep blue eyes wide.

He humored her and leaned lower, “What’s your sign, Barbara?”

She shot her hand out in response, and waited for him to take it - she didn’t have to wait long, and let the lyrics of ‘Aquarius’ answer for her, mouthing along. 

It’s one of the first scenes I was really profoundly proud of and enjoyed writing. I’m not the biggest fan of my earlier chapters, and I often think of rewriting some of them, but this? Aaah Walter asked and then saying “What’s your sign?” and Barbara answering by mouthing the lyrics to Aquarius as they start to dance together??? Sparks a lot of joy in me.

[Sigh] if only I knew how to animate, the soft tenderness I would have arted of this, I often think of drawing a comic of this moment…but it never seems to come out right. 

However Barbara pushing Walter out of a window in ch8 is a VERY close second. 

Oh god, and in 3rd would be ch7 with the changeling party that happens in the Anything Goes section. Otto searching for Walter, the chaos of the party, and Walter quoting the Great Gatsby fgjkfdjgs All this to say, that couch moment between Otto and Walter is gah so tender to me. 

Ch14 Julia wasn’t so bad either, dang! It’s really hard to choose >~<’’’’

2) Eeeeeh not 100%

I like the freedom of writing as an omniscient narrator so that if I want to change pov or view into someone else’s storyline I could just, do that. Or, erm, maybe it’s less omniscient and more of a messy fondue pot of perspective. 

I like the ability to give descriptions about characters that even the characters themselves might or might not know. While simultaneously playfully scrutinizing the characters along the way. Even give details other characters wouldn’t know about, because what is important to me is that the reader knows about it, hopefully adding a heavier weight to a potentially juicy moment, maybe even an extra layer of situational irony. Or sometimes, even choosing to withhold information/character reactions to things…sometimes that can be just as powerful, I think.

It doesn’t matter who’s perspective is being followed (kind of) as long as the scene / moment works(™) and can deliver the emotional and atmospheric weight I’m gunning for. Why get stuck on one perspective when you can use all the perspectives you want or need to your disposal (in hopefully a coherent way) to get the story across? And again, that sweet sweet situational irony/poking at the characters. 

Goodness I hope I’m explaining myself alright. 

Whether I’m successful at it or not, while not making it too confusing, is another thing. It probably makes me out as a bit of pretentious writer, or absolutely confusing…I’m not sure. 

One of my biggest fears is whether or not any of my writing makes sense to begin with, and yet I have the most fun choosing such a confusing approach to things XP

Idk, I need to think about pov more, and stop being a baby and better learn writing rules I suppose, there’s always room for improvement…and I’m no professional…my best is the only thing I can do, and along the way I can only hope it makes any sense. Honestly it’s a miracle to me anyone can make sense of anything I write haha. 

Sorry for the tangent, I might have spilled too many of my guts answering that, and a bit of self doubt seeped through along the way.

That aside, it would be neat to revisit We’ll Meet Again from a more Barbara focused angle. Looking through the world 9 times at a Stricklander from 9 points in his life and reading about all the different ways she dies (Also a fun add on: the reason I chose 9 moments is because cats are said to have 9 lives >;3c  )

3) Found Freaking Family babieeee! (Friends to lovers is in this category, sorry I don’t make the Nico rules hehe and totally not a cop out to sneak a 4th trope)

Begrudging father figure and snarky ward 

Assholes with a heart of gold

[harlot-of-oblivion]

A Rose of Unconscious Beauty (Part 6)

All work and no play make Dante a dull devil, but when he finds out about his brother's flowery friend he sees an opportunity to cure his boredom. Well, that and his curiosity about what kind of woman catches Vergil's attention. So, he decides to spontaneously visit your garden to see what all the buzz is about.

Hope you enjoy these two finally meeting! And gardening puns...just all the gardening puns. 😆❤

Here’s the link to the list of all the flowers featured in this part. 🌹🥰🌹

Chapter 1: Meeting Dante

Life has been pretty good for Dante since he got back from his little foray into hell. He may still be in quite a bit of debt, but that never stops him from living life to the fullest. For the first time in a long time he does not feel so alone in the Devil May Cry shop. There is just one problem that plagues him now as he leans back in his chair, feet propped up on the edge of his desk as a huge overdrawn yawn escapes his mouth…

He is bored.

Very, very…BORED.

The occasional odd job usually keeps him entertained, but business has been slow recently. There is only so much games of pool and swimsuit magazines before Dante is positively itching to fight something…anything. Nero has taken advantage of this dry spell and is finally getting hitched to Kyrie. Even Vergil, who he annoys into fighting sometimes just for sheer fact that it relieves his boredom for a while, has taken to disappearing from time to time.

Oh yeaaaaah. The mysterious flowery friend.

Dante ponders the potential of that whole situation giving him something to do besides sitting alone in his shop. He did not think it strange when Vergil started to go out more…in fact, he is proud that his brother is finally embracing his humanity and making this world his home. But when his cranky brother came back to the shop with pretty little blue flowers wrapped around his beloved Yamato…well, now that just piqued his curiosity. He tries to goad Vergil into telling him where he got the flowers or where he has been disappearing off to lately, but that conversation usually ends with him being stabbed a lot. Dante got his answer one day when Nero asks if he knew this florist that his old man just recommended to him. It all just suddenly clicked. The constant visits, the soft cloud nine smiles, just the overall secrecy…

Vergil…has a crush.

Just the idea of his brother being head over heels for someone has Dante shaking his head in wonder. Vergil has already left the shop, probably visiting his florist friend if Dante had to guess. It happens to be the day that Nero and Kyrie are supposed to meet their savior of flowers. He wanted to tag along to see what all the hype is about, but Nero absolutely refused to let him. Usually, that is not enough to deter Dante, but then his nephew just had to sick Kyrie on him. And how could anyone say no to her? So, here he sits…extremely bored and very curious.

I have to know if it’s true…if my dumbass brother really is lovestruck…

A sudden idea pops into Dante’s head as he takes out his cellphone and begins to text:

Dante: Hey! Gonna see your old mans flower girl today, amiright?

Nero: NO. Forget it.

Nero: Im not spying 4 u

Dante: NO ONE said ANYTHING about spying!

Dante: Just a couple of pics!

Nero: NO U CREEP

Dante: OH C’MON!!!

Dante taps on his screen vigorously as he provokes his stubborn nephew to reply, but after a few minutes of continued silence he gives up. He rolls his eyes as he groans in mild irritation and drops his phone onto the desk. His nimble fingers stroke his scruffy chin in thought, wondering if there will ever be an end to this torturous boredom…then it hits him faster than the Devil May Cry van. Nico! Dante snaps his fingers and nods his head in approval at his own ingenious idea. He snatches his phone back up and begins to text again:

Dante: Heyyyyyyy

Nico: Wat

Dante: Wanna help a friend out?

Nico: Lemme guess

Nico: U want me to spy for ya, right?

Dante: A couple of pics is NOT spying

Nico: Yeah yeah whatever

There is a long pause and Dante almost thinks his last-ditch effort is a bust. Until…

Nico: Mayyyyybe I’ll do it

Nico: Wats in it for me tho?

Dante only has to think about her prize for second before replying.

Dante: I’ll let you check out my guns

Nico: Ive already seen my fair share of muscles

Dante: Im talking about Ebony and Ivory

Nico: U GOTTA FUCKIN DEAL

Dante clenches his fist in victory. Nico tells him to hold tight while she finds a good hiding spot and the perfect angle. So, he grabs the nearest swimsuit magazine to read while he waits for Nico’s sneaky photos.

He only has to read a couple of pages of articles and check out a few curvy ladies before his phone vibrates. “Well now…let’s see what we've got,” he announces aloud as his hand instantly picks up his phone and eagerly opens up the message. Here she is! is written below two pictures of a bubbly woman with a bright smile and lively eyes. In one photo she is sitting down at a garden table, and in the other she is standing by a bed of flowers. She is wearing white summer dress and has a white flower in her hair. Dante chuckles in glee because now he understands why his brother has fallen so hard: the local florist is a total babe!

Dante is about to get back to his magazine when another text from Nico comes through:

Nico: Yoooooooooo

Nico: U didnt tell me that Vergil was gonna be here!

Dante: Im not my brother’s keeper!

Nico: Im NOT about to get stabbed if he catches me

Nico: Im out

Dante: WAIT

Dante: I’ll sweeten the deal!

Dante: If you get a pic of them together

Nico: DANTE

Dante: Then I’ll let you check out my guns

Dante: FOR A WEEK

A very long pause follows and Dante thinks that Nico is still going chicken out despite his sudden add on to her prize when her response chimes in:

Nico: U better hold up your end of the deal, Dante

Dante: Nicooooo u know I always keep my word!

Nico: Cuz if u dont, I’ll run u over with the van

Dante: No u wont

Nico: VROOM VROOM BITCH

Dante’s amused chuckle echoes throughout the shop. “So, that’s where you’re running off to,” he comments to himself. “The secret garden.” As he waits for Nico’s next photo, he starts to wonder what kind of a woman catches the eye of his broody brother. I mean…sure, you’re a cutie, but Dante knows that Vergil is not so easily swayed by looks alone. Of course, he could be reading into this too much and you’re actually just a really adorable friend…which is why he has to see both of you together. If Vergil has that soft smile on his face and if you show any sign of reciprocating his brother’s feelings…

His phone vibrates and Dante immediately opens the message. How's this for ya? reads Nico’s text along with a bunch of laughing emojis and a video clip. He arches an eyebrow as he presses play. He sees Nero, Kyrie, Vergil, and you all walking together by a bunch of flowers. He cannot make out the soft conversation of the group, but he does hear a lighthearted giggle as you do a twirl. Dante squints his eyes when he notices your hand reach for something in your dress…then his eyes widen as you throw petals into the air. The distinct growl of his brother comes through the audio and Dante nearly chokes on his own laugh. Some of the little pink flowers you threw…are sticking to Vergil’s hair!

I’m totally saving this just for the look on his face!

Dante kicks his feet off of the desk and he leans forward in his chair, never taking his eyes off the screen as Nero and Kyrie step out of frame. He tilts his head when Vergil kneels and you start to pluck the flowers from his hair. Dante has to rub his eyes to make sure he is really seeing these events correctly. Things get really interesting when you move in closer. The awkward expression on his brother’s face is pure gold. But what really has him pressing his nose to the screen is when Vergil stands up and you both just stare at each other. It is like a scene cut straight from a romantic movie. Dante has never seen his brother look so…totally in love. And you are mirroring the exact same expression.

Jackpot!

The video starts to shake and he hears Nico quietly cursing up a storm. The screen is a blur for a moment before it just totally cuts off. Dante is still for a while as he takes in everything that just happened. He honestly did not expect Vergil to be bitten by the love bug. A genuine smile curls on his lips as he thinks that maybe you are exactly what his brother needs to finally let go of the past and start living. But he cannot be the helpful little brother that he is without at least meeting you first. The genuine smile turns mischievous as Dante texts Nico about happened after the video ended and where exactly is this secret garden in the city...

(A Week Later...Reader’s POV)

The late afternoon sun beats down as you wipe the sweat from your brow. You examine the rambling roses you are currently pruning, checking to see if you missed anything before standing up and stretching your legs. Sweet basil, it’s hot, you thought, taking off your gardening hat and fanning your face as you pocket your pruning shears. You think about Vergil and how he always seems to keep cool while wearing a long blue coat in the summer.

The power of Sparda must also include internal air conditioning. You giggle at your own quip as you put the gardening hat back on your head and decide to take a break. As you walk through the multitude of flowers you search for any sign of the Son of Sparda among the flora. He has not called to inform you that he is stopping by today, but that does not necessarily mean he will not show up unannounced…annoyingly startling you before buttering you up with an offering of beautiful blooms.

Vergil has been regularly visiting you in your garden now. Sometimes both of you read and drink tea under the fruit trees, other times you have to work and just let him read in peace while frolicking about your garden. Every now and then he insists on looming close behind you, claiming that he wants to observe how you arrange bouquets and care for the flowers. There are a few times that you somehow rope him into helping since he is so inclined to learn and you must admit…seeing a tall and imposing man handle tiny flowers carefully is so endearing, making you fall even harder for the handsome devil.

You step through the backdoor and walk into your kitchen, heading straight for the fridge and swiftly open the door. When the cold air hits your face you sigh and just stand there for a moment to cool off as you reach for a bottle of water. You close the fridge and head to your office to check the status of a shipment on your computer while you guzzle down half of the bottle. The flowers for Nero and Kyrie’s wedding are well in supply, but you ordered some extra ribbon, wires, needles, and other miscellaneous supplies. It is a little stressful that you only have so much time to pull this off, but that only pushes you to do your utmost best to give them the best flowers they have ever seen. All seems to be order, you mentally note, finishing off your water bottle as you tab out of the website.

Time to get back to work! You go back out to the garden, grab the garden hose, and turn on the outdoor faucet. You adjust the nozzle on the hose to spray into a mist and set off to water some flowers. “Alright, my darlings!” you say cheerfully as you step up to the first section of flowers. “Who’s thirsty?” You happily spray their petals with glistening droplets as you hum softly. One of the many reasons why you enjoy gardening so much is just how tranquil it can be, your mind slipping into a peaceful state as all your worries just drift away and you feel like a flower basking in the warm sunlight.

Although, you do find yourself ceaselessly daydreaming about a certain white-haired gentleman while gardening lately. You cannot get the feel of his slicked back locks out of your thoughts, yearning to do more than just pluck petals from his hair. You wonder if the bergamot scent is from a cologne he is wearing or the constant cups of his favorite tea. And the expression on his face after you picked the stray petals from his hair…cheeks slightly blushing as his gleaming silver eyes stare straight into your soul. The very memory of it has you shivering in delight as you turn around to water the next section of flowers.

“Holy hollyhock!”

The sudden appearance of a man in a long red jacket standing in your garden has you jumping back in surprise. Your foot steps on the garden hose, making you lose your balance and start to tip over. Thankfully, the stranger has quick reflexes and quickly leans forward to catch your fall. “Whoa! Easy there!” he exclaims as he sets you upright, doing his best to avoid the misty spray of the hose still clutched in your hand. That is when you notice his distinct white hair swaying in front of his blue eyes. And his face…if it was not for the slight fuzz of a beard or the care-free expression, he would be the spitting image of Vergil. Which can only mean…

“You must be Dante.”

“What gave it away?” he asks, dramatically holding his hands out to the side as he nods his head in confirmation.

“You wouldn’t be a Son of Sparda if you didn’t scare your local gardener to death!”

Dante tilts head at your answer and smirks as he examines you from head to toe. “I dig the overalls,” he comments as he gestures to your attire. You look down at your green gardening overalls, the phrase "I like big buds and I cannot lie" imprinted on the front surrounded by large colorful flower buds.

“Thanks!” you laugh, turning off the garden hose. “I’m Y/N! I don’t recall Vergil saying that he was going to finally introduce me to you.”

“So, he’s told you about me? Did he mention that I am the better-looking twin?” he jests as he takes a step back and strikes a charmingly rugged pose.

“Uh, he mentioned that you are a demon hunter, a foolish buffoon, and…whoa!” Your eyebrows shoot up as you closely examine his coat. “Your jacket does look really expensive!”

Dante rolls his eyes as he relaxes from his over-the-top stance. “He just can’t let that go, huh?” He shakes his head and lightly chuckles.

“So…what brings you to my garden?” you inquire kindly, not letting his surprise visit distract you from being hospitable. Dante did not mention his brother being present here with him, so you hope that Vergil does not mind you being friendly and helping his brother out if he needs it.

“The girls keep telling me I need something to brighten up the shop,” he explains as he scratches the back of his head. “So, I figured some flowers from my brother’s friendly neighbor florist might do the trick.”

You smile sweetly. “Okay! Do you have any kind of flowers in mind?”

“Well, my mother’s favorite flowers were-”

“Burgundy roses!”

Dante quirks an eyebrow. “Did you just read my mind?”

A giggle escapes your lips as you shake your head. “Vergil told me that his mother had a modest garden herself, and that she grew those roses a lot. Don’t worry,” you affirm as your hand sets down the garden hose. A big confident smile spreads across your face as you twirl in excitement, pausing to strike your own cute pose. “I got you covered!”

He nods his head in approval. “Right on.”

You make small talk with Dante as you lead him to the rose section of your garden, asking if by “the girls” he means the other two demon hunters that work with him. He confirms your guess and grumbles about how unfair it is that you know so much the crew while he knows next to nothing about you. That is quickly remedied though as he bombards you with the oddest series of questions…most of them involving strawberries and pizza. When you tell him that you used to work at the local pizzeria and bakery in your home town he enthusiastically asks if you made the pizzas. You laugh at his boyish glee and inform him that you sometimes helped with the pizzas, but you mostly baked the pastries and desserts.

“Here we are!” You point to a bush full of the dark reddish-purple roses as you step through the various buds and blooms. “Roses of unconscious beauty!” Dante studies the rose bush as you approach it, lean in, and inhale their lovely fragrance. You breathe out in delight and start looking for the best blooms for a bouquet. “Aren’t they lovely?” You look over your shoulder and see that Dante is barely paying attention. His blue green eyes gaze distantly at the rose bush, reminding you a little of Vergil’s silver blue eyes when he recedes into his head. You wait a moment before deciding to coax him out of pensive stupor.

“Flower for your thoughts?”

Dante blinks and shakes his head. “Sorry about that. I was just…remembering something.” He walks over and stands next you, a small grin appears on his face as he peers down at you. “These would look nice on my desk. I’ll take ‘em.”

“Alright!” You reach into your pocket, taking out the pruning shears still stored in there and begin snipping some select roses, carefully removing the thorns before sticking them in another pocket until you can properly tie them together.

Dante quietly watches you for a few moments before he crosses his arms and leisurely leans back. “So…you and my brother.”

You snip a third rose as you glance over at him. “Me and your brother…?” you repeat, hoping he will expand upon the conversation he started. Dante just continues to gaze at you inquisitively. Your brow furrows in puzzlement as you wonder what he is trying to imply…until it suddenly hits you.

No way. He can’t be…

“Are you…Dad-terogating me?”

“Am I what now?”

“You know…that thing fathers do when daughters bring home their boyfriends.” Your voice drops as you do your best impersonation a stern father figure. “What are your intentions little girl?”

“Oh man,” Dante snickers. “And what if I am?” he counters with a puckish smirk.

“Well, Mr. Sparda,” you begin with a cheeky grin, turning to him while you clutch a thornless burgundy rose close to your chest. “I only have the best intentions towards your brother, Vergil. They include smiles, laughter, and a healthy dose of poetry with dash of tea…Oh!” You dip your hand into the front pocket of your overalls. “And lots of flower showers!” Your grin turns cheerful as you toss pink hydrangea petals high into the air.

Dante stares at you closely for a moment, totally unfazed by the petals scattering around him before he chuckles softly. “Well now…how can I argue with that? My party pooper of a brother needs it.”

You giggle and go back to snipping more roses. A fourth one is freed and you begin to remove the thorns from the stem. “It’s sweet of you to look out for him, you know,” you point out with a genuine smile. “You’re a good brother, Dante.”

He smiles back and is about to respond when an awful hellish screech fills the air. Your head snaps over to the direction it is coming from, but you already know what those sounds mean. Dante casually looks over as well, but he does not look as concerned as you. His face reminds you more of the neighborhood kids when the ice cream truck drives by. “Looks like our flower pickin’ is gonna have to wait,” he surmises as he struts briskly towards the commotion.

You pocket the pruning shears and the rose in your hand as you hurriedly follow behind him. The screeching is now really loud and as you step into to a clearing you see the familiar forms of demons just beyond the gates of your garden. Even though you live in a city known for its constant hellish attacks, the sight of their malformed bodies never fails to freeze your blood. The closest one, resembling a large corrupted bat, flies over the gate and hovers near one of your apple trees. It shrieks as its throat starts to glow red. Anger floods through your body when you register what it intends to do to your lovely fruit trees.

“Oh, no you DON���T!” you shout as you run by the gardening tools still laying out, grabbing the garden hoe as you pass by and rush towards the bat-like creature. It swivels around just as you draw your makeshift weapon back and swing up at it with all your strength. The hoe connects and a pained squeal rings out as the demon is knocked back a little bit away from the apple tree. You let out a shuddering breath, quickly realizing that perhaps smacking a demon with a gardening tool was not the best idea.

Multiple gunshots startle you out of your internal dread as they streak up at the bat-like demon. It shakes violently before it drops to the ground and disintegrates. You turn around and see Dante holstering two guns behind his back before giving you a round of applause. “Not bad! Very inventive use of…” his hands pause as he inspects your tool curiously.

“It’s a hoe,” you bluntly inform him.

“Really?” Dante puts his hands on his hips as he circles around you, shielding you from the oncoming demons notice. “Well then…you really know how to handle a hoe!”

You snort and check your tool for any signs of it being broken or bent. “You know what they say…a dirty hoe is a happy hoe!” you joke, flashing him the disgusting bloody residue on the tip. Dante hunches over as a hearty laugh burst from his lips. You feel a sense of accomplishment at making such a clever gardening pun, but it is short lived as a series of terrible growls and roars remind you of the current danger. “Umm,” you mutter softly, “as much as I would like to give more demons a good hoeing…”

Dante reigns in his boisterous laughter and nods. “Yeah...get yourself to safety.” He runs and skillfully jumps over the gate. Before he goes to deal with the demons, he looks over his shoulder at you. “Even though I’m not a hoe I can still get rid of these nasty weeds,” he quips with a wink.

You laugh and shake your head at his own gardening pun before retreating back to your house, sighing in relief as your backdoor comes into view. When you are a few feet away from safety, a low rumbling growl reaches your ears, making you stop in your tracks. You still have your garden hoe, so you hold it up in defense as you scan your surroundings for any immediate threat. It is quiet for a moment…then a series obscure red streaks zoom around you. Your eyes try to track whatever is circling you, but you cannot see what is stalking you like prey.

Your body is quaking now as you turn around to glance behind you. A lizard-like demon with a vicious red blade protruding from one of its scaly arms is leaping through the air straight at you. Your instincts kick in and you raise your gardening tool up in defense, even though you feel certain that it will not enough to block that sharp blade. A series of tumultuous emotions sling around your mind, but one strongly overtakes you as the image of Vergil pops into your head…regret.

I didn’t even get to tell him that-

Before you are able to close your eyes and brace yourself for the deadly impact, a sudden blur of blue spheres pop up and knock back your scaly assailant. A familiar form clad in a blue coat suddenly appears next to the demon and proceeds to hit it with a series of slashes. When he finishes his ruthless onslaught, he turns his back on the demon and dramatically sheaths his sword. Just as the hilt of the sword slams into the case, the demon convulses in pain one last time before collapsing on the ground.

The regret you felt earlier fades away as your devilish rescuer turns towards you. The usual scowl on his face is now even more severe as he scrutinizes your appearance. He may be fuming with rage, but you do not mind, nor do you care. “Vergil!” you cry, trying to thank him for saving your life, but you feel so overwhelmed that no words come out. All you can do is smile gratefully as your eyes well up with tears, so happy that you get to see the man you feel so deeply for again after all.

Read Part 6 (Ch. 2) here

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