Okay just putting it out there but in order to type this up I had to stop watching Supernatural (which I discovered on Netflix not too long ago) and if you're a spn fan I think you understand how big of a sacrifice I have made. Seriously. This is like one step below giving up your arm for your brother (except actually not really). Don't say I don't have dedication.
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Oh wait me and dedication yeah right.
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So OwlWingedHorses (her FFN name is Owlcat92) and I were having a conversation on DeviantArt about the need for Nico/Reyna bonding and this happened.
He honestly didn't know why he chose Paris. When Reyna had done calculations, she'd told him that they needed to stay overnight around Spain or France so he could regain his energy.
He had been to Paris before on errands for his father (from Persephone, really, but if Hades so commanded it, Nico would jump all the way to Paris just to retrieve some lilies), so it was the easiest place to visualize, making it the easiest to shadow-travel to. They wound up on a hillside, giant Athena statue in tow, just outside of the city.
Nico practically collapsed there on the spot; he sat down, his head cradled in his arms, trying not to faint from exhaustion. Just today they'd already stopped in Kiev, Budapest, Warsaw, and now Paris (they'd picked bigger cities in the hopes that they'd attract less attention). He'd been stuffed with so ambrosia and nectar that he wouldn't dare ingest any more.
Not that he would want to- ambrosia tasted like pandoro, a dessert that he, Bianca, and his mother would make every New Year's day, while the taste of Cherry Coke fizzed in his mouth whenever he drank nectar (he'd only had it once; Percy had pulled it out of his secret hiding place under his bed and given it to him when he received his first tour of camp). Both were bitter reminders.
...
(He would never admit it to himself, but he knew in his heart that the Cherry Coke would be blue colored if it were real).
"So this is Paris," Reyna said matter-of-factly, jarring the son of Hades from his thoughts. He nodded.
"Yeah. You ever been here before?"
"No." She provided no elaboration, and Nico didn't ask for any. "Can you stand?" Just moving his head sent his brain spinning.
"No, I, don't-"
"It's no matter. I'm surprised you made it this far at all." The way she said it conveyed no criticism, but not quite trust in his abilities, either. It was the Roman way of speaking, he supposed. "Get some rest. I'll stand watch, and once you're no longer completely useless, we can go into the city and find something to eat."
He was about to protest but suddenly keeping his eyes open felt like an impossible task and he laid his head back, the familiar crunch of dying grass rustling in his ears as he fell into sleep.
It was darker outside when he woke up than it had been when he'd gone to sleep, which puzzled him for a second. Reyna, looking poised and collected, glanced his way calmly, even though he hadn't made any noise.
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah. I'm starving though. You hungry?"
"We can't leave the statue here." His sleep-addled brain hadn't thought of that one. Nico sat up and yawned, stretching his arms.
"Right. But we're no good if we're too hungry to defend it. Got any favors you can pull, Ms. Praetor?" She glared at him and he decided to not push his luck with this girl any further.
"I could ask the same of you. I suppose you're still too weak to summon something to defend it..." She trailed off, obviously deep in thought.
"So we have nothing?"
"I didn't say that. It's just..." she looked at him, and for the first time, her eyes held a spark of something other than malice. He couldn't put his finger on the emotion, but it was there, guarded closely but not quite closely enough. After a moment, she shook her head. "Never mind. I think I have a way to protect it, if only for a short time." She bent down, closing her eyes, and traced a design with her finger, drawing an invisible circle in the grass around the statue. She stood, and the design- a rune, he realized- shimmered.
"I haven't used magic since I was very young. It won't last long."
He realized in that moment that her expression was fear.
To be honest, she was disappointed in herself for not knowing even an inkling of French besides "merci" and "bonjour". She was fluent in English and Spanish, could read Latin (and speak a fair amount of it as well), and even knew a few phrases in Greek and Portuguese. But French? She didn't exactly have time to learn a practically useless language.
Well, she supposed, it wasn't exactly useless anymore. They were wandering the streets of Paris now, hoping to find a place to eat that wasn't packed with snooty French or gluttonous tourists. She admitted to herself that had she been alone here, her situation would be pretty much hopeless. She was more grateful than she'd ever voice aloud that at least the son of Pluto (or was it Hades? She'd heard somewhere that he was actually a Greek and had been claimed at Camp Half-Blood years prior to his arrival in New Rome) seemed to have a grip on things.
Speaking of...
"Donc nous avons juste tourner à droite sur le coin?" The old woman nodded kindly.
"C'est vrai."
"Merci beaucoup." Nico bowed his head a bit, obviously thanking her.
"Le plaisir est pour moi. Avoir une belle nuit avec votre petite amie!" Reyna wasn't quite sure what the woman had said, but she could only guess as Nico walked stiffly back over to her, cheeks ruddy against his pale skin.
"This way," he muttered, eyes stormy.
"Gods, the sheer amount of couples out on the streets," she remarked dryly, dodging yet another pair making out on the sidewalk. Regretfully, it seemed Dakota had been right when he vividly described the process of French kissing at dinner one night. "I thought that the whole 'Valentine Day' tradition took place in spring? Surely this amount of affection isn't usually acceptable."
"Don't ask me," he replied ruefully. "I'm from the 1940s. Holding hands was a big deal back then, much less... what?" he glared, the boy seeming to realize Reyna was staring at him, eyes wide.
"The 1940s? That's impossible," she breathed, and he laughed humorlessly.
"You're a daughter of a Roman goddess who has spent the past few days shadow-traveling across Europe with a son of Hades and a giant magical statue of Athena. Is it really?" She noted vaguely that he was Greek after all.
"I suppose you're correct," she acquiesced. He snorted, and it was her turn to glare.
"It's just you're the one that speak like they're all old and formal. Whatever. Anyway, you're right- all this sloppy romancey stuff is gross. We see enough with Piper and Jason and Annabeth and... uh, and Percy, as it is already." His expression seemed like he regretted bringing up the topic. She agreed. Gods, the images of that awful Greek girl with him... she forcefully pushed them from her mind, barely succeeding in maintaining a calm expression.
"Is it a European thing, do you think? All the open romance?"
"Kind of, but more like Paris itself. It's the city of love, you know." His tone conveyed the same enthusiasm as if he were talking about the weather last week. "C'mon, you said yourself that the magic thing wouldn't hold for long. There is no way in Zeus that I'm shadowing again without a full stomach. Let's go- this place around the corner isn't supposed to be too expensive."
She followed him into the smoggy Paris air.
Translations:
"So we just turn right on the corner?"
"That's right."
"Thank you so much."
"The pleasure is mine. Have a nice night with your little girlfriend!"
*Skips out of creating a real ending* Thanks for reading! There will be more chapters to this because I think their relationship in the next book has the potential to be very complex and wonderful. The French is from Google Translate so my apologies if it's wrong!
Despite the tone I accidentally set for this, I do not ship Nico and Reyna. Like, no. Sorry for any confusion.
Also, in case anyone was wondering why the Hades Nico knows French and all that stuff: I have a headcanon that when Nico initially disappeared, he spent a lot of his time studying and learning as much information (about everything) as he could in an attempt to show Percy that he was just as smart as the Wise Girl. Also another one where his "curse word" is Zeus instead of Hades out of respect and probably a lot of fear.
Anyway, thanks again!