A/N I started another fic! This one should be a maximum of 8 chapters, I'm aiming for 5...
Enjoy!
Watching thunderstorms was always one of Nico's favourite things to do. He loved the way the sky filled with pregnant black clouds, loved the way the rain came down in heavy lashings like Zeus was brandishing a whip. But most of all, he loved the lightning.
He could watch it zigzag across the sky for hours on end, each white flash searing his eyeballs and leaving glowing marks in his eyelids. He especially enjoyed trying to guess where each dash of light would land.
His rented apartment in New Rome never gave a good view of the sky, and he was still banned from shadow travelling by a certain child of Apollo, so he was glad that he'd made the decision to ride Blackjack back from Camp Jupiter to Half-Blood Hill earlier that day. Flying during a thunderstorm was a particularly stupid thing to do: the only people to have tried it so far were Jason, who was of course lightning proof, and Percy, who's thick skull absorbed most of the strike. He'd still spent a good week in the infirmary though, with Annabeth swinging between the extremes of yelling at him loudly enough for the whole camp to hear, to kissing him for ever increasing lengths of time (Nico had been spending quite a bit of time helping out in the infirmary, for completely innocent, public-protecting reasons that had nothing whatsoever to do with the afore mentioned child of Apollo). It had been a relief to almost the whole camp when he'd pulled through, although Clarisse expressed regret at his full recovery. Just in time for capture the flag, too...
No one else had bothered to try it (although there were rumours that Clarisse would, to prove she could do anything Kelp Head could).
The thunder rumbled outside, and he pulled the curtains open even wider to get a better view.
Of course, the storm would just go around the valley, storms always did. But they were still exiting to watch...
Will hated thunderstorms, he remembered, and then chided himself. You don't care about him. Bad Nico.
Another roll of thunder preceded the downpour. One of the things he particularly liked about watching a thunderstorm from Camp Half-Blood was the way the rain stopped about two hundred metres above the centre of camp and slid around it to the boundary line, as though the entire camp was under a giant glass done. Sure, the water ran into the valley once it hit the ground, but only in very tiny trickles.
Pushing open the widow, Nico stuck his head outsized and cranes his neck so that he was looking straight up at the clouds. Then the rain started.
Only this time, the magical done did not divert the rain. Instead, the water droplets fell straight down, splashing onto the sandy basketball courts and hammering onto the roofs of the cabins, washing dust from their walls.
Nico blinked in astonishment. Not only was the rain disregarding the camp's magical boundaries, it was also...
Nico chuckled dryly to himself. "It's purple. The rain's purple!"
Then he wondered who he was talking to.
He watched the rain pound onto the strawberry patches, turning them into muddy swimming pools bad then overflowing down the hill, and waited. There was no storm without thunder. And thunder always came have in hand with lightning...
BOOM!
Even though he'd been expecting it, the sound still made him jump. A bright streak of acid green light followed a moment later, striking a statue of Zeus in the centre of the open area between cabins.
Ironic, Nico smirked.
The thunder rolled again, and another green bolt split the violet rain and landed on the edge of the forest.
There was definitely something magical about the storm.
I wonder if anyone else is watching this... his gaze strayed to the Apollo cabin for a few moments; he caught himself and looked away quickly, as though the golden building had burnt his eyes.
Watching a few more of the strangely coloured lightning strikes, he wondered idly whether Jason would be able to control them, and then pondered whether the purple rain would change the colour of the bay. He wished he could see Percy's expression if that did happen...
Yawning, he stumbled over to his bed and tumbled into oblivion.
/*\
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Nico jerked awake, sweat glistening on his pale forehead. Groaning to himself, he rolled over to check the clock by his bed, silently cursing who ever it was that had seem fit to wake him at...
2:12?!
He was going to kill them, whoever they were, even if they had interrupted one of his worst nightmares yet.
Grabbing a hoodie from the bed post and pulling it over his bare chest, he got up and looked at the window.
The storm was still raging around camp; the basketball courts were covered in puddles the size of tanks, and violet waterfalls were gushing from the roof of cabin 3. Green lightning raced towards the bay.
He could leave them out there on the storm. That would teach them to wake him up...
BAM! BAM!
"NICO! Open up!"
He recognised the voice, but couldn't quite place it...
If it's important, they'll come back in the morning, he reasoned, and turned back to his pile of blankets.
"If you don't open this door in the next three seconds, I'm going to break it down! I mean it!"
Or not.
He opened the door. Standing in a bedraggled heap on his porch was Lou Ellen, her hair hanging in rat's tails and her soaked clothes clinging to her agile frame. He looked quickly at her face, blushing slightly, and she barged past him into the room, slamming the door behind her.
"L-Lou," he stammered. Sure, they'd hung out a few times since the fall of Gaia, but he didn't know whether they were friends, or allies, or what? He certainly didn't expect her to come barging into his cabin in the middle of the night in a magical thunderstorm, looking as though she'd been swimming in the bay, and dripping water over the carpet.
"Ni-Nico," she replied, teeth chattering. "S-sorry for the t-time. I j-just need you t-to do something for m-me. Then I'll be on m-my way."
"...um, okay?" Nico ventured. He didn't know what the daughter of Hecate would ask him, and he wasn't sure if he shouldn't be worried for his soul.
But Lou didn't ask for his soul, or anything like that. Instead, she thrust a dripping wet bundle into his arms. "Have a cat. Bye!"
"Woah, wait! What?!" Nico stared first at her, then at the writhing bundle of soaked fur he was clutching against his chest.
"Just for a f-few days, Neeks!" She yanked the door open and vanished into the night.
"What do I do with a cat?!" He cried after her, but he didn't get a reply.
He realised suddenly that the hoodie he'd been wearing was now covered in water from the cat's fur. "Thanks a lot, cat."
He dropped it onto the end of his mattress and pulled the thing back off, dumping it over a chair in the corner. He looked back at the animal just in time to see it tuck its face under its paws, obscuring wide blue eyes.
As he got back into bed, the thing curled up near his feet and started purring. "What am I meant to do with you, eh?"
"Meow," the cat replied. Ah, well. It had been worth a try. Once, the Hecate had procured a talking hippo from somewhere...
"Well, you can't sleep on my bed."
It ignored this and scooted closer to his toes.
"I mean it. Gerroff..." he yawned, and fell asleep.
The golden cat stayed curled up on his ankles as the storm raged around the Hades cabin, and Nico slept soundly. Nightmares did not trouble him for the first time in a very long while.
And the cat purred.
A/N If you liked it, please hit the magic box marked review!
~Fi
(BookFiend)