Hey everyone, so happy to be back after a long, long break from FF. As I've matured, I've come to look back on my previous works as, ah, well... not great. Sub-optimal, one might say. So I'm hoping to revamp my image with a new story like this one :). Reviews are incredibly appreciated! Let me know if you think this should be a multi-chapter fic or if I should keep it as a one-shot, I'd love to hear thoughts! I was thinking about doing a whole series of these as a story about the Heroes of Olympus in college/NYC, but I like the ending to this so much I'm not sure... Let me know!
Enjoy, and happy reading!
"Okay. I'm not going to say anything to Annabeth, and no one's going to get in trouble, but…"
These were the first words that Nico registered Percy saying as he regained consciousness from his mid-afternoon nap on the couch. Groggily, he forced himself to pay bleary-eyed attention.
"Who was the idiot who left the ambrosia out with the mortal food? If you didn't already get this, you're an idiot. Whoever you are."
A melody of shuffling and opening/closing of drawers led Nico to believe that Percy was rectifying the situation, albeit reticently. Percy was never one to enjoy household chores, even ones so minute as redistributing ambrosia.
Shifting his attention, Nico ignored the cricking in his neck in order to look across the room, where he found Jason and Frank playing cards. If facial expressions were any indicator, Jason seemed to be losing spectacularly. He was alternating between Latin and Greek swear words.
Nico's focus was drawn back to Percy as the older boy looked down at him with a bemused expression. "Don't you have homework to do, dude?"
The son of Hades grumbled in response. "Meh. Can get to it later. Nap now."
Percy's responding eye roll was more felt than it was seen.
"Jut get on it before Annabeth gets home."
Nico meant to respond in a begrudging affirmative, but with his face stuffed into a pillow, it more closely resembled "Muh-fuh-neh-huh."
"Vlakas!"
Apparently Jason was still losing valiantly behind him. Nico smiled into the couch cushion. Percy's use of the word "home" did not go unnoticed.
It was a year and a half after Gaea had been defeated that the Heroes of Olympus congregated in order to put a deposit down on a mid-sized loft in Lincoln Center. Now, you might be thinking, What?! How the Hades can eight teenagers afford a loft in Manhattan? The answer is quite simply, really: the Olympians needed to repay their children for saving them from utter destruction — again — somehow. In lieu of invitations to become immortal, the Heroes decided it would be more suitable to ask for donations toward the Cost of Living in Manhattan/Close to Olympus is Ridiculous Foundation. Proceeds went towards eight poor, misunderstood demigods just trying to make it in a big city like New York. Touching family story, really.
All in all, what they ended up with was a sum so large they could all split an astronomically priced apartment in the heart of Manhattan and still store some away for college.
It was one of those few and far-between times in which being a demigod — or Greek hero in general — actually paid off. Go figure.
So there they were almost a year later; center of the city, good proximity to Mount Olympus, and most of them making their respective ways through college.
Just as Nico was re-waking up from his nap and pulling out his Trigonometry homework (being two years younger than the majority of your college-age friends meant Trig, AP classes, and lunch periods. Great.), he heard the jingling of keys in the door and prepared himself for another inhabitant of the loft (Leo had taken to calling their group the "Loft Heroes" because of Jason and Percy, both of whom had done the whole memory-loss-camp-switch-a-roo thing. No one laughed except for Leo. Excessively.). In walked an exhausted-looking Annabeth, followed by Leo and an equally exhausted-looking Piper. Piper beelined it for her boyfriend and greeted him with some sort of affectionate full-body slap that was received by the son of Jupiter with an, "oof." Nico quirked an eyebrow. Girls.
Leo seemed fine, though. So there was that.
Annabeth proceeded to toss her messenger bag onto a nearby coat hook and plop herself down onto the closest possible seat. This, unfortunately, happened to be the couch upon which Nico was currently residing. He pulled his legs down onto the floor quickly in order to avoid them being sat on by the daughter of Athena. Subsequently he watched as she blew a piece of hair out of her face with a puff and let her head drop dejectedly into her palms.
Nico, again, quirked an eyebrow. "Long day?"
"The longest, ever." She replied, head still in hands. The sound was muffled initially but Nico got the message. It was a head-in-hands kind of day.
Annabeth was a sophomore in the Architecture and Design school at NYU, paid for overwhelmingly by merit scholarship money instead of the squirrel fund the twelve Olympians had provided them. Just, you know, because she was Annabeth. Along with that, she was still in the process of redesigning Mount Olympus because of the destruction Luke/Kronos had done to it almost three years before. Her design process had been a little derailed by the whole Gaea thing and the sudden disappearance of her boyfriend of four months.
Speaking of Percy, where was he? Nico was pretty sure that wherever Annabeth was at any given point in time, Percy would most likely be trailing about four feet behind. Usually he was looking for monsters that were — or weren't — going to jump out of thin air to attack them. Other times he was just confused and wandering behind her as she gave him direction on where they were going. The son of Hades blinked in a moment of great self-reflection. How on the Gods' green earth did I have a crush on that boy for more than three seconds? The thought made him shudder. Percy would spend most of his days walking continually into walls like an out-of-control Sim if it wasn't for Annabeth. The two demigods were made for each other.
After their plans for New Rome had fallen through (Not enough respect for Minerva. Too much Latin. Way too far from Mount Olympus.), Percy and Annabeth had redirected their dreams back to the Empire State and worked out their plans for education.
Well, Annabeth had.
Getting Percy to commit to a four-year college was about as easy as herding Apollo's sacred red cows with both hands tied behind your back and blindfolded. So, not at all. He had laughed outright at the possibility of joining Annabeth at NYU, citing the fact that with my track record and GPA they'd sooner accept me into the University of Tartarus. Columbia was the same way, Fordham was a no-go because of something to do with the Jesuits and his mom's side of the family never getting along (?), and Pace was "barely even in New York City." He had compromised with CCNY's Oceanography program, joined the swim team to fully regain his trust in water, and was fully content to lose a race every now and again to lower suspicion about his abilities. Although in his words, if an Olympic scout happens to see me at school and give me his card, I'm not going to say no. Annabeth whacked him good for that one. He never joked about it again, but Nico was pretty sure he was still thinking it.
Nico looked over his shoulder to where Piper was leaning her head on Jason's shoulder, muttering incoherently about research papers on cognitive dissonance and its effects on hamsters or something ridiculously serendipitous like that. Nico rolled his eyes. Psych majors.
Annabeth stirred next to him. "Please," her voice was hoarse, like she had been yelling orders at freshmen in group projects all day, "please tell me there's some leftover Pad Thai. Either that or ambrosia. Someone feed me ambrosia until I spontaneously combust and die."
Well that wasn't going to happen. Annabeth was the one who signed all of the lease paperwork. She earned a few laughs, but mostly just concerned looks. Nobody was sure which one she was going for.
"What was the project today?" Asked Frank. He and Jason had both received athletic scholarships to Fordham College Rose Hill; Jason for track, Frank for football. The daily trek into the Bronx was grueling, but being able to choose classes with priority helped them settle in.
"A dome. A fucking dome. I'm not sure if these are sophomores in high school or college, because my group members obviously do not know what they're doing."
"Or," chimed a new voice entering from the stairs to the loft, "maybe you're just a million lightyears ahead of everyone else because you're just that good." It was Percy. Annabeth's tired look seemed to soften when she looked at him. Instead of seeming world-weary like she had a minute ago, she now just seemed sleepy. It was so blatantly cute Nico almost projectile vomited onto his textbooks.
Annabeth, for her part, seemed placated. "They should still know how to make a Gods-forsaken dome…"
Percy grinned as he walked up to the couch and planted a kiss on her forehead. Piper cooed from across the room, which clued Nico in on the fact that the Percy and Annabeth Show was being watched by most everyone in the apartment. Creepy or cute? Tune in later to find out.
Annabeth smiled groggily at her boyfriend.
"You need to stop working yourself so hard, Wise Girl."
"Yeah, well, if someone else wants to volunteer to design Olympus' new garden for Artemis while I'm doing my 3D design homework, be my guest." There were no volunteers. "Until then, I'm going to go draw up some plans." This seemed like a task more daunting than fighting Arachne, if you judged by Annabeth's face. She looked downtrodden by the amount of work she was doing, and Nico felt a sudden pang of guilt as he thought about all of the responsibilities she held within the house. Annabeth, however, was obviously more focused on current things: she got up from the couch, stretched, groaned at the strain on her sore muscles, and made her way toward the her hovel/studio in the loft. But she didn't make it more than a step before her boyfriend gently took hold of her arm, almost pleadingly, so she would turn to look at him. It took her a while to look at him. Nico wondered what she was so fixated on; it was the loft, and she was looking at it like she looked down at the pit to Tartarus. Nico was left wondering how bad her stress levels had become lately. Percy looked at her imploringly, as if to say, don't work too hard or I will be taking extreme and unwanted measures to stop you.
It was such a private moment that Nico was sure he wasn't the only one that looked away.
By the time he looked back, Annabeth was already halfway up the staircase and Percy was staring at her retreating form. While many might find this concerning, Nico often caught there two gazing at each other when they thought no one was looking. They were drinking in the fact that the other was there, as if they might dissolve and float into the wind at any minute. He knew that neither of them took for granted the fact that the other was present, unharmed; safe. Often times he knew it was hard for them to believe. Those were the times when he could see the dark cloud that Tartarus had left sitting idly over them; the memories and scars that neither the two of them nor he himself would ever be able to scrub out of their minds. He used to feel jealous that they had had each other, while he was stuck in hell alone. He and Percy had fought about that once, a screaming match that lasted a full day. The loft had almost been forced into sides, Nico versus Percy, but thankfully they were able to resolve it rather quickly; because, in reality, they knew there was nothing to be said or done that could make the pain of the memories go away. The two of them ended up closer than they had been before, and the issue was never brought up again.
Percy was still standing where he had been when Annabeth walked up the stairs, muscles taut, as if ready to either fight or run up the stairs to drag her back down. Nico was pretty sure it was the latter. He knew that Percy struggled with how much Annabeth overworked herself; especially in the wake of the war against Gaea. There wasn't much he could do, but when there was something to be done, Percy was the only one she would listen to.
Perhaps Percy was thinking the same thing, because his shoulders relaxed and he himself dropped resignedly onto the couch as if mentally exhausted from the small exchange.
Jason was the one to finally break the silence with a call up the stairs. "Still up for Pad Thai, Annabeth?"
A resounding grunt of agreement was the only reply he got. The son of Jupiter chuckled and walked over to the fridge to prepare her the leftovers.
There was a moment of contented quiet in the normally bustling apartment. So, naturally, Leo had to come barging in and ruin it. He entered the common area from his room toting a handle of Jack Daniels in one hand and his bluetooth speaker in the other. "It's finally FRIDAY, bitches!" He bellowed. Nico could feel a migraine coming on; it would be a doozy. "Let's turn the fuck up!"
Piper burst into a fit of giggles, while Jason just rolled his eyes. Percy cracked a grin but all the same stood up to take the handle from the smaller boy's hands.
He paid the son of Hephaestus no mind as the boy protested angrily. "No JD until you're done your homework for the weekend, my man. House rules."
Leo's mood deflated like a pathetic, yet somehow endearing balloon. "But—but—"
"No buts, man, it was a condition to Chiron even letting up stay here. GPA of 3.5 or above."
Leo turned the music down and mumbled something along the lines of "fine, dad" while closely resembling a small, scolded child.
This made Percy blanch and then redden in embarrassment as if someone was tampering with the thermostat on his face. "Stop calling me dad, dude! Hephaestus is literally going to blast my ass into dust with some sort of workshop tool!"
Piper and Leo had taken to calling Percy and Annabeth "mom and dad" because of how paternal the two had gotten since moving in together. Annabeth found it amusing, but for some reason it freaked Percy out to no end. Nico speculated it was because the boy had never been responsible for anything in his life. Well, it wasn't even like he was incredibly worthy of responsibility at this point, because Nico was sure that he would own no clothes if Piper didn't shop for him and would consistently forget to even buy groceries if Annabeth hadn't made a chore chart for all of them (Nico was on laundry duty because he was the only boy that didn't wig out washing panties. It was like they wanted him to constantly roll his eyes, he was sure of it.)
Anyway, Piper had even gone so far as to comment "dad" on all of Percy's Instagram pictures, which confused and alarmed him. Everyone else — Nico included — thought it was hilarious.
The situation progressed with Percy chasing Leo around the living space in an attempt to discredit his paternal title and Leo was combatting him by yelling the word "dad" in as many languages as he could think of ("Padre! Paterfamilias!"). Nico chose then to grab his lighter and proceed to fish out the joint he had rolled earlier that day from his hoodie's pocket. He saw Frank raise an eyebrow at the small object but when confronted with Nico's middle finger in response, his hands went up in surrender and he went back to studying his playbook.
Just as Nico was about to light up, he heard a ping from his phone. He wrestled with the device before finally managing to turn it on, and seeing that the text was from Hazel. His anger melted.
Will be home later on tonight because my lab is running late; sorry! Save me some food, please! Love you, Hazel
Nico had to grin at the formality of her texts. Perfect grammar, signature at the end. How very 1940's.
He glanced over to see Frank smiling down at his phone as well, meaning he had received a similar message from his girlfriend.
Relaxed, Nico sighed and let himself fall back into a lazy position in the couch and held the end of his Zippo up to the tip of the joint. He would have to get as many puffs in as possible before Percy slapped him upside the head and threw it away.
It was good to be home.
Later on that night, after Nico had become a drowsy, lethargic presence in a room of drinking half-bloods and all of the apartment's residents were drifting off to sleep, he again found himself on the couch. Opposite him in a love seat were Percy and Annabeth, with whom he had just been discussing dates for their return to camp. He knew the both of them were anxious to get back to counseloring. He understood. If Nico though of Camp Half-Blood with half of the fondness that those two did, he would never want to leave.
Annabeth was residing in Percy's lap after a few glasses of wine. She seemed a bit more relaxed. Although, in fairness, that could be attributed in large parts to her current closeness to Percy.
As her eyes drooped down for the third noticeable time, Nico watched as Percy patted her leg fondly to get her attention. "Alright, Wise Girl," he whispered, "time for bed. Come on."
Annabeth nodded dazedly and moved to get up, but Percy held fast onto his grip of her and instead picked her up in the same way one would a bride over the threshold to her new home. If Annabeth was surprised by this, she didn't show it. All she did was snuggle closer to Percy's chest and yawn softly as he looked down at her, eyes sparkling.
He addressed Nico. "Alright, man, we're headed up. Don't stay up too late."
Nico nodded silently and tipped his empty glass toward them in acknowledgement. Percy seemed satisfied with this. He padded up the stairs to his and Annabeth's shared room as quietly as he could.
Nico began to think about the old proximity theory someone had told him about some time ago. That if you spent enough time with someone, eventually you would develop romantic feelings for them, or something like that. He clicked open his phone to look at his home screen — it was a picture of himself and Will Solace, sitting next to each other at some dive bar in Brooklyn. Will had insisted upon the photo. Nico, surprisingly, had relented.
He smiled at the picture softly and closed his eyes, lost in memories.
Maybe the theory was half-right. Maybe he saw these people as family because they lived and acted like one. But maybe not. Maybe it was the other way around.
Will was always better at philosophy than he was, so Nico resigned himself to not knowing. He'd bring it up with him in the morning.
There you have it! Sorry for any typo's here and there; the story is un-beta'd. Anyway, please review whether you think I should continue with these! I have a few ideas; a monster attacks one of the seven, Calypso comes by, Annabeth has a stress breakdown (we saw the beginnings of that here), drunk!Heroes, etc.
Thanks so much, and please review!
-Summer Sunrises
