This is going to be my first ever Percy Jackson fic, and that's only because of this cute ass ship. I've wanted to write a PJ fic for a long time, but never had an idea or, yeah know, motivation. But now, after I was introduced to this ship and then more or less became obsessed with it, there will probably be several fics.

P.S. – I haven't even finished Mark of Athena yet, so yeah. Sorry for the mistakes. Oh, and I've read like, a hell ton of spoilers for House of Hades, so…

Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson characters. Shocker.

Aquarium Talk

A boy in black jeans and a fading aviators jacket, silver skull ring hugging his finger, stood in front of the tank staring in at all of the sea creatures that lazily circled the beautiful tank. Coral and sand covered the bottom of the tank providing cover for the small fish that had a beef to pick with anything larger than them, but didn't dare try to start anything.

Nico almost laughed at what he would hear from those tiny angry fish. Probably something along the lines of, 'Just wait, just wait. Your day will come when I'll be swallowing you.' Or maybe it'd be more along the lines of, 'What you lookin' at? What you lookin' at? You wanna go? Let's go! I can take you! You ain't so big!' He watched as a fish darted out of a small cave, nipping at the fins of one three times bigger than it.

Snorting, he shook his head, turning from the glass. He meandered his way through a tunnel, staring up through the glass at the clear blue water tinted with green. A green that reminded him of his eyes.

Shaking his head again, this time in annoyance, Nico tried to dislodge the image of that black-haired, green-eyed boy from his mind. To distract himself, he watched a shark easily twice his length glide past. 'Just keep swimming. Just keeping swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim, swim.'

Nico snickered. He'd recently seen Finding Nemo, and was quietly regretting it. If only his simplest reason was because it got stupid tunes stuck in his head, he'd be perfectly fine.

He found himself standing in front of the largest tank in the aquarium. Sharks, fish bigger than any giant he'd ever faced, and even a whale floated through the dusty water, unconcerned with their audience.

How had he even ended up in an aquarium, anyway? He was sure it hadn't been a conscious decision. He was almost positive it hadn't been. He was supposed to be looking for the Doors of Death, not screwing around an aquarium, but here he was, daydreaming about an unobtainable boy and fish talking. Gods, he was a mess.

He startled out of his daze, staring wide-eyed as the hugest anything-he'd-ever-seen swam past the glass, so close that its fin touched the glass. It was large and kind of shaped like a square, but pressed nearly flat. An eye larger than a rounded table, beady and black, stared back at him. Its ugly, twisted mouth opened and closed slowly, tiredly. It was a sickly shade of white. He didn't understand how the ugly, oval-square thing could have been classified as a fish. What did it eat? What ate it?

"They're known as sun fish," a voice he'd only heard on a few occasions, but that he knew all too well, said.

Slowly, he turned to stare at the man, his hand resting on the hilt of his Stygian blade. The man, as he already knew, was Poseidon, God of the sea, brother of his father, one of the Big Three, and most important of all, father of his unobtainable boy. "Aren't you supposed to be busy being schizophrenic? Or fighting with Zeus, or is he Jupiter at the moment?" Nico spat bitterly, turning back to find the sun fish still staring at him.

'Puny demigod,' it seemed to tease, 'There is no hope for you.'

Poseidon didn't flinch. "I don't think it'll be so bad as I am here for only a few moment, Mr. Di Angelo, and your thoughts are making it easier," he said, "Did you know that sun fish grow to their environment? He has so much potential, but he's trapped here instead." He paused, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Kind of like you, I supposed."

Nico was silent. He reached out a cautious hand, pressing just the tups of his fingers to the glass. "What are you getting at? What do you want?"

"Nothing, I've just come to talk."

Again, Nico was silent. He couldn't look at the man. He reminded him too much of him, and he didn't want, nor did he need, to remember more.

"You see, it's a funny thing, love," Poseidon began, and Nico couldn't help when his eyes jerked to the god, but he was staring off into the tank. "It's a fickle, fragile thing. It comes and goes. It stays and grows. It withers and flowers. It grows for the most unexpected people."
"What are you getting at?"

"Don't let your love for Percy distract you from your quest." The god finally turned to look at Nico.

Nico just stared at him. "How did you-"

"That would be my fault," a woman to his right said, laughing with a beautiful, tinkling laugh that reminded him of Bianca.

He glanced at the goddess, jaw tightening. Per usual, her features were always in motion, never staying as a specific structure. He watched, any hope he had falling, as her eyes shifted between storm grey, cerulean, sea foam green, onyx, gold. Her hair would grow long and black, or shorten to spikes, then it crimped and curled, turning golden brown, or grew long and blonde. In her face, he saw is mother, Bianca, Hazel, Annabeth, Thalia, Reyna, even Percy's mother, all of the women he'd ever found beautiful. That was just Aphrodite though, wasn't it?

He could have throttled the goddess if it would have done him any good.

"I just love tragic love stories, and yours, dear boy, is rather tragic indeed," she said sweetly, her smile beautiful and utterly irritating. "I just had to share with someone. I didn't think your father would have appreciated my little tale so much." She rolled her perfectly made-up eyes.

"The gods are forbidden from seeing demigod children," Nico told the pair as if reading from a script, his voice flat and cold.

"Oh, but that doesn't stop us, now does it?" Aphrodite smiled, her glossed lips spreading wide.

"What do you want?" he growled, glaring at the pair in turn. He was getting rather tired of asking that question. If he had to ask one more time, he wasn't sure what he'd do.

"To tell you to keep loving," Aphrodite said simply.

Poseidon cleared his throat. They glanced toward him. "Not to let 'love' get in the way of your quest."

"Oh?" Aphrodite said politely, her smile deadly sweet, "But love is the greatest motivator, isn't it, dear boy?" She was looking at Nico now, but he stayed silent. He had no answer for her, only more questions for himself.

"Or the greatest distraction," Poseidon countered. He spread his arms out to his sides, sweep his hands around the room, as if to use the aquarium as an example.

"It's both," Nico muttered, already done with their conversation, "And if I'm distracted, it's your fault." He shot a glare at the goddess, not caring if he would pay for it later.

Aphrodite just smiled. "I only planted your seed, I did not make it grow. That was all your doing. I can help make it more interesting for you, though. Demigod love is so interesting already. So much fun."

Nico sighed, taking a step back from the tank. The sun fish seemed to huff and slowly swam away. "No, thanks. It's already interesting enough." He turned, headed towards the shadows, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets. "I have a quest to get back to."

"Remember what we said," the goddess said, a smile even in her words, "Also, love is love, and it works in mysterious ways. If I were you, I wouldn't give up on it just yet."

Nico stopped in his tracks, spinning around to stare back at the goddess, but both the god and goddess were gone. Sighing in frustration, he melted back into the shadows he had appeared from, disappearing from sight.

This will probably turn into a series of one-shots, but we'll see. For now, this is the only one. I hope you liked it :D