Ha ha ha hey so when's the last time that I posted a new, original never-before-seen story for you guys. A shamefully long time ago that's what, ha ha ha sorry I've been having the week from Hades after the week from Hades after a week of presenting a play I wrote so I've been a bit busy.
So this is basically the love child of my watching more and more Supernatural and also noticing the metaphorical potential of Sisyphus all at the same time, while on a train. I am aware that nobody else has this combination of things happen to them, yes. This story went in a completely different situation than I expected, but hey. Also I listened to a lot of jazz music on 8-traks while revising. That means nothing to you, but enjoy the detail. Also the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below.
DATE: February 18th
LOCATION: Bismarck, North Dakota, USA
KILLS: 10
Hazel holds her hand out. Nico places his knife in it.
"Double digits," she says with a smile.
"In record time too," he replies. "Barely two months."
"Nicely done," she compliments. She's not only talking about their progress on the hunting front. She's also inspecting the corpse before them, before it vanishes.
"The tip made it seem like it'd be much harder," Nico says.
Hazel shushes him. "Don't jinx us."
"Two children of Hades hunting ghosts- not to mention that black cat we had in the passenger seat a while back," Nico says. "You know, I think it's done. Especially after Miami…"
"Miami would have been fine if you'd just watched the motel mirror," Hazel chides. She'll never forgive him. Modern as his little sister looks in her black jeans and sharp leather jacket (the one with the belt around her waist) she is a girl of her time every now and then. She eats apples on Christmas for a year of good luck and avoids ladders like the plague. "Okay, well... I clean, you get us food."
"Will do ma'am," Nico said. "I saw a burger place not far. I'll walk, you can take the car. Got your keys?"
"Yup," Hazel says as she pats her pocket. "Don't be too quick. The kill was quick but gross- this'll take me a while."
"Agreed."
"Like your clothes. They're disgusting. You can't walk into a restaurant like that."
"Did you want to get dinner then?"
"I'm not paying," Hazel laughs. "There's an extra jacket in the car. Go change."
He does, and then he walks off. It's a routine they're both used to.
Hazel rocks at packing, so Nico figures that she'll pull up at the burger joint by the time he gets the order. He hopes that that's soon. It smells like hearty meat, melted cheese and greasy fries. He's been americanised, he knows. Plus he's always hungry after a kill. Hazel's taken to keeping sandwiches wedged between the seats of the car, packs of chips tucked under the seat like life jackets in an airplane or granola bars in the glove compartment. Ghosts are even harder to handle than monsters.
It all started after the doors of death closed- more than ten years ago. The doors closed, but they didn't suck back all the ghosts that had escaped back into the underworld. So in that respect, it was only half a victory. Since then, half-bloods had dispatched most of the big ghosts -the last one being Jason's very elaborate and nearly legendary hunt and capture of John Kennedy- but there were still some left.
Sometimes the ghosts were nobodies -just regular mortals who were still afraid of death even after bathing in it. Sometimes they were serial killers or bitter half-bloods or confused members of lost civilisations who screamed every time a doorbell rang. Either way, they weren't easy to find, just like the ghosts liked it. So it went without saying that they put up a fight when it was time for them to go back to where they'd come from. Good thing that Nico was good at fighting.
Over Christmas dinner of that same year, the year that the doors closed (it was only a few months after), Nico heard Hades and Persephone moaning about the ghosts loose around the world. He'd volunteered to be the Underworld's own personal hunter, and so he had become. It wasn't a bad deal. Hades mysteriously managed to pay for his expenses the way that gods did. He'd gotten the car when he turned eighteen. He was always on the move. Always busy. He made it work. Not to mention the extra cool feature that Nico's skeleton ring, the one that got him a free pass through most of the Underworld with a flash of his knuckles, had been granted an extended feature. While wearing it, he could kill ghosts. Of course, dispatching them came naturally to him, it was in his blood. But this way… this way he's more efficient. More deadly. It also keeps the monsters away, which is always good when two Big Three kids lived together.
Speaking of which. The restaurant door opens. Arms wrap around his waist.
"No need to get gushy. You'd get food either way," Nico tells Hazel.
"I know. Maybe I just love you."
Nico scoffs and she wacks him. Hazel also has a skull ring, but she doesn't wear it on her hannd- which is busy with the wedding ring. Hazel wears the skeleton ring around her neck, so her feisty slaps and hits could be worst.
"Order 64," a teenager in a red and white uniform yells.
"Please tell me that we're 64," Hazel says.
"We're 64."
"Bless you."
They eat in the car. Their next tip is leading them to Indianna. They can get there by noon tomorrow if they take turns driving through the night. Fed, vitorious and content, they decided to go for it.
It's dark. Hazel is curled up in shotgun- her feet are up on the console even though Nico tells her that if they crash she'll break her pelvis. Her so-called 'witty' comeback is "well don't crash". She has her jacket over her head and she's kicked off her boots. There's a hole in her sock. Her hair is frizzing because it was a rainy morning. She makes little wheezing noises when she sleeps- not exactly snoring. She's pretty cute.
Nico keeps one hand on the stearing wheel and pulls a blanket from the back seat (where she'd have slept if it wasn't so damn cluttered) and covers her up. Nico doesn't mind being alone. But he really doesn't mind having Hazel around either. When he left the camps to hunt, he wasn't planning on looking back. There was no going back for him, that was clear in his mind. What he'd told Jason when they met Cupid in Europe about dissapearing once Gaia was back to sleep- well, he was serious. The only reason he'd have ever gone back was for Hazel. And here she was with him, loving him enough to come to him too.
DATE: March 3
LOCATION: Rock Springs, Wyoming, USA
KILLS: 17
Of course the ghost they're after heard that they were coming and is now cocooned in several layers of protection. And of course the ghost was a Canadian booze exporter during the prohibition, so he's rich. Like, filthy rich.
The first protection was a sphinx. They solved that riddle, but they have reasons to believe that there are seven layers to go through so really there isn't much to be happy about.
The second was a huge fence locked with technology that would have the CIA drooling. Hazel (very obsessed with computers since her rebirth and ergo good with them) hacked it with no problem.
The third was a beast that Nico dispatched.
Now they're fighting with mistforms so powerful that they are out of Hazel's range, so they're calling somebody who knows more than enough about the mist.
"Hello?" A voice, soft despite how sucky speaker phone is, says.
"Sally?" Nico asks. The phone is sitting on the car's console. Hazel's wrapping an ace bandage up her wrist. "It's Nico and Hazel."
"Hey you two." He can hear the smile in her voice. With a day bad as this one, it doesn't hurt for someone to be glad to see you or hear your voice.
"Hey," Nico says.
"Hello Mrs. Jackson," Hazel says smiling.
"We have a problem with the mist," Nico says before Hazel can ask for news. He explains. Sally Jackson, Wonder Woman, has a solution. They thank her but Nico says that they have to go back to work as soon as possible. Nico likes Sally Jackson, actually he adores her. But talking to her always makes him comfortable.
"Have you called anyone else lately?" she asks.
"No," the children of Hades chorused. Mrs. Jackson clucks her tongue.
"I'd call Jason if I were you. He and Piper have news, also he's worried. So is Percy. And Leo's half out of his mind…"
Of course they're all worried about Hazel, not him. She was the one on the ship, she's the one who made history in both camps, she's the one whose tunnel systems are still used by New Romans as emergency bunkers or escape routes if New Rome was to be attacked. She's the one that always says cute and funny shit without even thinking about how cute and funny it is. So Hazel's the one who inquires more on the subejct, not Nico.
"What news?" Hazel asks.
"I don't know, you'll have to call."
"She's having a baby isn't she?" Hazel gushes.
Nico wants to hang up right now.
"I don't know you'll have to call," Sally repeats. But the little motherly lift in her voice sends Hazel squealing and scrambling for her own phone. Nico grabs her hand.
"After."
"My wrist," Hazel chides.
Nico lets go and apologises. Sally says goodbye, tell them to call her son, and the conversation ends.
Talking to people on the outside is never a priority for Nico. But every now and then he catches a new piece of news and starts wondering- which makes him want to stop and go back to New York or Washington DC or wherever people are stationed… but he can't. He has to stay on the road, he has to stay focused, if he looks back that's where he might be held. Back. Hazel doesn't see it that way and he knows that she'll look through the pile of tips in the back seat to try and find a tip that'll take them near DC when they finish this one job.
DATE: March 17
LOCATION: Mezula, Montana, USA
KILLS: 13
Hazel's laying on her bed and her voice is soft, her lips pulled into a smile, and her fingers twirled in her hair and Nico knows what this means. Frank. She's talking to Frank.
So Nico grabs his keys, wiggles them around and mouths something that's not even an excuse but that she nods at anyways. He leaves the room and sits on the hood of the car, looks at the stars and tries not to freeze to death,
Frank is a good guy. He's always been decent with Nico unlike the majority, and he's done so much more for Hazel- notable making her happy as fuck, which any brother can and will learn to respect in a guy so long as he never has to deal with a little sister in tears. Also without his blessing, there's no way in Hades that Hazel would have dropped her nice little job at a nice little jewelry store and traveled with him to do his ghost-hunting thing. And Nico is infinitely grateful that she's with him.
Not necessairly the company, though Hazel is one of the few people that Nico can spend hours with without needing a shitload of alone time to recharge afterwards. It's more for Hazel's… thougtfulness, he supposes. Hazel thinks of little things like maybe we shouldn't eat burgers for the seventh meal in a row or how about we get a room with two beds tonight so nobody wakes up with a knee in the stomach, or let's bring an extra blanket for the stake-out. Things he wouldn't think about but that he's always grateful for.
So when she's on the phone with Frank, a token of the regularly paced domestic comfort that her second life should have gotten her, Nico gets the fuck away and gives her room. Also if they start having phone sex, nico doesn't want to be anywhere near that (though he doubts that either of them are kinky enough).
"How's Frank?" Nico asks when he judges that he figures that he's as close to frostbite as he can get and walks back in.
"Good," Hazel said. "He gets to come home for a week."
"Nice. When?"
"Mid-April. You look frozen. I'll boil water." They travel with a coffee pot. Hades wasn't super impressed with Hazel's Starbucks bills but by that time she had gotten Nico addicted to a higher quality of coffee, and gas station caffeine just wasn't going to cut it anymore.
"So you need to be back in Vancouver?" Nico asked. Hazel nods.
"And his posting's over in May."
"I know," Nico said. It's plugged into his phone.
"Well, we can make our way North in..."
"I rather be back home early," Hazel said. "Open up the house. Let some air in. Fill the fridge and all that."
"Oh," Nico said. "Okay."
"Really?" Hazel asked looking away from her coffee pot.
"Yeah. Sure. Just as long as you leave the coffee pot behind." Hazel smiled.
"They have Timmies in Canada. I don't need it."
DATE: April 8
LOCATION: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
KILLS: 18
Hazel drops her bag on the bench next to the door. Valdez made it, so the bench blares out the exact weight of her bag and makes a fart noise.
"Should've turned it off before leaving," Nico says. She says something about how there is no Off button, and tucks her necklace -the one with the skeleton ring and her house key- back into her shirt.
"You know, you could stay for supper," Hazel says. "Tonight. Tomorrow. Until Frank gets home. After that…" She offers him these options as if they're tempting.
"Nah," he says. "You two need some alone time."
"He'll love seeing you. You two can geek out about Myth-o-Magic..." Again, as if this was the offer of the century.
"Nah," Nico replies. "I'm going to drive up the coast. See what local ghost stories I can bust."
Hazel looks like she wants to say something but she settles on, "Make sure nothing's above any native american cemetaries. Leave those alone."
"I know," Nico says. "I didn't start doing this yesterday."
"I know," his sister replies bitterly. "That's what worries me."
DATE: April 21
LOCATION: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
KILLS: 34 (it was a good drive up the coast)
Hazel's things are all on Zhang Manor's porch and Hazel herself is sitting on the railing, looking up at the forests and paths and ponds all around it. The place was rebuilt by Mars after the War with Gaia. It looks exactly like the house that Frank, Emily and all the other Zhangs before them grew up in.
"Ready?" Nico asks climbing up the porch.
Her eyes are red but she smiles and says that her fingers feel stiff from all those weeks without a knife. He reads through it and she knows he does, so she picks up her things, loads them in the trunk and tells him that he's driving before diving into shotgun. Sometimes he forgets that if Hazel is with him, it's because she can't be with Frank. His sister loves him dearly, but even for her he's a second choice.
DATE: May 6
LOCATION: Peoria, Illinois, USA
KILLS: 35
Hazel, like a boss, manages to kill off the fully armed ghost of Leonidas I, ancient king of Sparta, with a switchblade that she keeps tucked into her cleavage.
The body thuds and two swords clatter on the ground. This surprises Nico on many levels.
1) It's always harder for Hazel to kill Greeks. The fighting style is so disorganised compared to the Roman, so the fact that she killed a Spartan King without even having a cup of coffee in her system is amazing to him.
2) His sister keeps a knife in her cleavage?
3) He's bleeding out since he didn't kill the fully armed ghost of Leonidas I, so everything is out of focus and startling.
"NICO!" She kneels next to him and pulls him upright. He wants to tell her not to do that because his head is killing him. She pressed something to it, probably to stop the bleeding, but he wants to tell her to knock that off too.
"Nico you're staying with me," she said.
"Tired," he said. His voice is slurred, like that time he was fifteen and got so drunk he threw up in a Camp Half-Blood washing machine.
"Yes but don't you go to sleep," Hazel said. "Come on. Let's think of other things. Let's think of- of- oh gods Nico, I don't even know what to make you think of… this'll sting."
She pours javel water on his scalp and he screams. In retrospect, it was probably nectar and not javel water. It's common practise for demigods to douse each other in it before sending them off to the hospital. It's an extra boost that can buy a few minutes to someone, plus it's nearly impossible to sneak the food of the gods into a hospital ward.
He screams. She apologises over and over and over. She feels all his pockets and finally pulls the cell phone out of an inside pocket of his cell phone and dials three simple digits before Nico passes out.
DATE: May 12
LOCATION: Springville, Illinois, USA
Kills: 35
"So," Nico says. "Next tip says that we should probably consider this little town in Virginia with lots of vowels in its-"
"No."
"No?" Nico asks.
"No," Hazel says. "We are currently driving out of the hospital parking lot. You are not hunting anytime soon."
"They let me out. I'm fine!"
"No, you are being left out because I managed to smuggle some ambrosia in and because the health care system is ridiculous down here." Hazel says. Her voice is as sharp and cold and final as a blade. Nico's head throbs. The stitches from his left ear to a spot between the eyes are covered by gauze and cotton, plus he's hyped up on pain killers that are not helping the demigod ADHD. But it throbs anyways. He feels a headache coming on and that headache is named Hazel Levesque.
"Dad will cut us off if we do."
"Persephone's working on him," Hazel keeps her eyes on the road as she delivers her plan. "I've got it all under control. We are taking a break. No ghosts, no hunting. Hell, I'm not even letting you stay in this car."
"Where's it going to go?"
"Leo's in Florida on business. He'll change his flight to stop in Springfield, pick up the car, drive it to a safer place."
"But where are we going then?" Nico knows before she even says it. "New York..."
"With a short stop in DC," Hazel says,"Yes."
DATE: April 13
LOCATION: Somewhere between Chicago and New York. Wagon 4, seats 12C and 12D
KILLS: 35
"Look at the guy in 11C," Hazel says quietly. Nico looks up from the Stephen King book that Hazel shoved in his hand at the train station, expecting to see a monster or a ghost. Nope. Just a guy wearing a beanie.
"What about him?" Nico asks. Hazel crosses her right leg over the other. Her boots cover her calves and are circled by leather straps.
"He's kind of cute."
"For God's sake Hazel."
"Kind of cute and definitely gay," Hazel says. "I was talking to him about how traveling alone is, when you went to the bathroom to check on your stitches. He just broke up with his boyfriend. He's totally into guys with-"
"No."
"But-"
"Hazel, do I try to hook you up all the time? On trains?"
"No, but I'm married," she says. "He's a backpacker. His name is Sven. He speaks seven languages and would love to work on his Itali-"
"No."
DATE: April 13
LOCATION: Washington, DC, USA
KILLS: 35
They took a cab to Jason and Piper's house because they're both working. Jason gets home about ten minutes after they do and Nico has ever seen anybody more happy to see Hazel. He's like a worried big brother. Percy will be the same. Except Jason's also thrilled to see Nico.
He's in a wheelchair. An accident during the giant war landed him there, but now he can walk around on his own for a bit at a time. On some days he's strong enough to use crutches only. Today he switches and sits often as he walks around the house to show them the rooms they can pick out from or raid the fridge before settling on calling Piper so that she can pick up something on her way back home…
Piper works in the white house. Her job and status would probably blow Nico's mind if he knew anything about the government.
Jason is a physics teacher at a high school. He's not interested in politics anymore. He enjoys watching Piper sweat, though.
Speaking of Piper, Hazel was right. She's six months pregnant although you couldn't tell. Definitely not that she was carrying twins either. Hazel immediately starts spewing name options and Piper makes her stop because they've already been arguing about it too much. Jason laughs and pulls her onto his lap and Piper just asks for someone to pass the pad sew in its floppy metal take out tray and melts against Jason.
Leo materialises just as Jason asks if anyone wants pad thai or can he finish it. Valdez polishes it off, talking at a thousand miles an hour the entire time.
He works at the Smithsonian, more specifically at the Museum of Air and Space. Leo complains about his boss. Jason counters with a story about his. Piper tells them not to get her started, so Leo turns the conversation to a stupid thing his dog -a giant ass Alaskan malamute named Spock- did.
Most of their stay with Jason and Piper is this domestic. Nico and Hazel, especially Nico, aren't used to a real house, to have access to food without the use of one of Hades' magical credit cards, or getting to use a shower that works the same way for nearly a week in a row. Nico sleeps in the same place every night, and sleeps as much as he wants without a check out time or noisy neighbours- which is good for his head. But in a way it weighs on Nico, which is probably why Hazel agrees to cut their time in New York a bit when they're on their way.
Jason approaches him before they leave.
"Percy's doing okay," he says.
"Why would I care?" Nico answers violently.
"Because you wouldn't ask about him out of all people, but I know that you still have to care some way."
Leo's given the car a check up so Hazel's anxious to get behind the wheel and check it out on their road trip to New York. Nico's glad. He has to get out of here- mostly because he hates how Jason is right.
DATE: April 31
LOCATION: New York City, NY, USA
KILLS: 36
So Nico wasn't quite expecting the Jackson-Chase kids to be so noisy, but Annabeth has them well managed so at least they shut up when Nico's asleep though he barely sleeps for their entire stay with Percy and Annabeth.
Hazel loves them, of course. Erica and Louise Chase-Jackson. They've got their dad wrapped around their pinky, their mom softening up like butter and the rest of the world bowing down at them. Erica's like Percy, Louise makes Nico think of Annabeth. One's all wild hair and hyperactivity, the second is all cute bows and large words thrown out at random. Both of them have sandy curls and eyes that are equal part blue and green. Nico loves them too. They're great. They call him Uncle Nico, ask pertinent and clever questions about his weapons (which they know not to tell mortals about) and they offer him tea (in the form of water) in tiny plastic cups all the time. Super imaginative, super creative.
They're not the problem with his sleeping pattern. Space isn't a problem either. Their appartment is nice, so it's not like they're all stepping over each other at 3:00 AM when Louise gets sick because she ate something with lactose in it. Percy and Annabeth work all day and the girls are at daycare or Sally's house, depending. New York's a big city. There are plenty of demigods to visit if they were to run out of tourist attractions (Hazel's met her sister-in-law Clarisse at a little café about five times so far). Nico's the problem, really. He's never been quite comfortable around Percy since… well, since a long time.
Don't get him wrong. Nico is not a lovesick puppy. He does not have a crush on Percy Jackson (anymore), he doesn't envy Annabeth or silently fantasise about being in her shoes. No, none of that. It's just that secrets are a heavy thing and they hang in the air all the time. Like Damocles' sword. Nico just gets to sit there with this big secret hanging over his head and no possible clue as to the timing or even whether or not the sword will fall and slice through his skull. That's his main concern at the moment. That one day, the string holding up Damocles' sword is going to snap and Percy's going to find out about Nico's… predicament? History? Emotional life?
It doesn't matter what it's called. It's for Nico to know, and Nico alone (along with Jason Grace and Hazel- but those are side details).
He plays house guest well. But Nico can tell that Hazel is dissapointed that he and Percy aren't reconnecting or something like that. As if they'd ever connected.
DATE: May 7
LOCATION: Hazleton, PA, USA
KILLS: 38
They're driving back to Vancouver. They'll make their way across the country slowly but surely, passing through Canada at the Pembrooke customs in Manitoba. But there was a town called Hazleton that they randomly spotted on the map at their last diner, so they had to stop there to make one of Sally Jackson's doggy bags dissapear.
Hazel is already drilling him even though they're nowhere near Vancouver.
"Dad says you're still cut off," she says. "So don't you start traveling again without me."
He'd say that his head is better, but that's not true. His concussion was bad, and demigods are particularly bad healers because of all the moving around- Nico particularly so. He's starting to need bigger quantities of nectar or ambrosia for the food of the gods to create some kind of relief, which is bad. It happened to Jason after his leg accident, and he nearly overdosed once without even realising that he was too close to the limit.
"And if you don't want to stay in Vancouver-"
"Which I don't."
"-Fine," Hazel said. "But you're staying in the province. I'm confiscating your passport to make sure of it."
More rules to keep him safe during the six months that Frank will be home ensued. British Columbia would be free of ghosts by the time those six months are up.
DATE: October 29
LOCATION: Vancouver, BC, Canada
KILLS: 112
"Not once," Hazel spat. "Not once did you visit."
Nico can tell by her everything that that's not a good thing.
His sister doesn't even look dressed for travel. She's wearing her Vancouver Kannucks jersey and shorts that are so not appropriate for the weather (he doesn't care if Vancouver's weather is tempered by the sea- it is cold as fuck in Canada). Her hair is loose around her face. She's not wearing her skeleton key necklace. Her nails are painted a metallic shade of gold. Out of all things, she's wearing slippers which she hates.
"I have to content myself with shady voice mails or weird emails," Hazel said. "What were you doing that made that I couldn't even IM you?"
She's nearly yelling now. She looks so tense, it's ridiculous.
"I- I thought that…" He's stuttering on every single world in his vocabulary. "That you'd want time off…"
"Time off from what?" Hazel counters. "Knowing whether or not you're alive?"
"You knew I was alive Hazel."
"No thanks to you!"
Quiet.
"Look, I… I'm sorry. I just thought that…"
"Never mind," Hazel says. "If you still think that I don't care about you, that I think that being around you is a chore, then that's your problem. I've done everything that I can to show you that you're not a burden. I've said it out loud and everything. What happened to your head?"
She's going to kill him. He had a sneaking suspicion that she would, but now it's official.
"It's not healing well," he says. "I… I might have busted my stitches somewhere near Victoria and the only person who could help me was this Hyperborean cult with tweezers and…"
Hazel looks like she'll send him back to their father the hard way. Hades once let it slip that Maria di Angelo worked in the foreign affairs field at some point. He's trying to channel any possible diplomatic skills he may have inherited.
"This is why I need you when I go around," Nico tries to explain. "Why I try not to make it a pain or not to get in your legs so that you keep coming back…"
She closes her eyes and shakes her head, tugging at her hair. Rarely has Nico seen her this furious and suddenly he has the overwhelming urge -no, need- to check.
"You… you are coming back right?"
Suddenly she's crying. Nico nearly jumps back, but he's good enough of a brother to realise that he should hold her at this point.
"No Nico," she finally says. "I can't."
She pulls her jersey off and Nico sees that her cami is tight against her fairy build. Mostly because her stomach is all rounded and yes his sister is pregnant oh gods.
DATE: November 7
LOCATION: Vancouver, BC, Canada
KILLS: 112
So Hazel isn't super happy with him but she has released certain details to him (probably by accident). Frank has been gone for two weeks, back to the army hospital in Germany where a steady flux of soldiers are coming and going because of politics that are all Greek to Nico. Hazel is four months pregnant. She doesn't know if it's a boy or a girl and it doesn't matter to her or to Frank.
These details are obtained as they sit on the porch above the garage, their legs threaded through the safety bars. Nico is nursing a beer, and Hazel has a Sprite in her hand since caffeine and booze are officially not an option. The trees had been cleared enough to build the estate, so they've got a nice sky above them. All endless darkness and shiny dots and whatnot. Nico has no idea who looked up to that one day and decided to find constellations and pictures and meaning.
"Even after the baby's born you're not coming back, are you?" Nico asks.
"Of course not," Hazel said. "There's going to be a baby."
Nico nods. Of course. What a stupid question.
"Are you happy, though? About Fetus I mean?"
She slaps him. "It's not a Fetus, it's a baby! And I am happy. I'm thrilled, actually. I always wanted to have kids. Had that little rebellious phase once I found out that women could go out of the house, never mary or have kids and shave their legs, but I'm over that. I'm just worried about you."
"My head will be-"
"Not your head, idiot. About you in general," Hazel says. "I mean, I always knew I wanted this. The whole marriage/mortage/job/children pack. And now I'm here. But you... you don't know where you're going and it's going to bite you in the butt."
"I know what I want."
"No you don't," Hazel says. "You're just running in circles to make it look that way. That's why you took the job from Hades in the first place and that's why you haven't stopped. You were running from Percy and the Argo II's crew and everyone else because you didn't want them to find out about the whole gay thing. Which is fine. I know what it's like to get crap for things you can't control and I've always respected your right to keep things to yourself. But it's getting old, Nico. It's getting dangerous- don't you dare tell me otherwise, you had Hyperboreans fix your dangerous head injury with tweezers. You really can't do better than that when you need help? That's alarming to me. I think it's time for you to stop running and settle. Start getting comfortable with the people you know or meet some new ones or do something."
"I hunt ghosts," Nico says.
"Hunting and running aren't exclusive," Hazel says. "Don't fight me on this, we both know it's true."
She gets up slowly and kisses his head.
"I'm not saying that you have to tell everyone or go to Christmas parties or move into New York. I'm not saying any of that. I just think that you need to start making a person out of yourself instead of just maintaining the Son of Hades facade."
Before dissapearing back into the house she tells Nico not to leave his bottle laying around and to have sweet dreams.
That's plenty of sentimental bullshit for one night, so Nico retreats to a place where he has zero risks of getting any of that. The Underworld.
He doesn't think too much about what Hazel said. He just leaves- which, in retrospect, he often does when Hazel gets gushy. He just shadow travels to the Underworld (after leaving a note on her bedside table promising Hazel that he'll be home on time to make her pancakes- he's not totally insane and definitely not in the mood to get yelled at again).
Except apparently he is thninking about something because his traveling is all funky and he doesn't end up in Persephone's garden (where he may be able to step on a few flowers before getting spotted), but on a hill. Then he realises where he is. Near Sisyphus's Hill.
Sure enough, there's the little creep. Or so Nico assumes because a bolder is slowly coming closer and closer to him. Great. Just the person Nico wanted to see. It's no use leaving now. Sisyphus will spot him, and for a guy stuck rolling a rock up and down he does have a knack for Underworld gossip. The last thing that Hades would thank Nico for would be a rumour that his eldest son was a coward.
"Well, well, well," Sisyphus says about a split second after spotting Nico and slapping a disgusting smile on his little troll face. "If it isn't the Ghost King. I'd bow, but my hands are a little full."
"Understandable," Nico said.
Unlike Jason, Nico gets respect from his father's realms. And unlike what Percy and the merfolk are like, Nico takes that respect.
"But I would hate to think that I'm not honoured to have you in my little slice of Hades," Sisyphus says. "If you'd just take this boulder for a second-"
"I know your tricks," Nico said. "Don't even try."
"Oh no I-" All the talking has deconcentrated Sisyphus and he nearly falters. He catches his step.
"Nice one," Nico says.
"Thank you. As I was saying, I wouldn't trick you Mr di Angelo," Sisyphus says.
"How kind."
"You and I have a," Sisyphus says, his jaw locked, "a lot in common Mr di Angelo."
"I doubt it," Nico said.
"Oh, come on now. Of course you're more dashing."
"Flattery isn't your way out of this place, bud," Nico says. He's not amused anymore.
"But if you'd only look at the impossible burdens graciously imposed on us," Sisyphus said. "Your father gave me this rock. And you…"
"I hunt because I can," Nico said fiercely. "My father doesn't force me to do anything."
"I know," Sisyphus said. He grinned wickedly. "But you force yourself into silence."
Nico ignores him. The first time that Hades really spent any sort of time with Nico was a tour of the Underworld. It wasn't to show Nico limits or anything. Technically Nico could throw himself in Tartarus and Hades would have no legal objections. It was more an issue of showing Nico what was where and which spots tended not to be as nice. Sisyphus had gotten a special warning. Nico wasn't supposed to talk to Sisyphus, but if he did he had to be firm and completely avoid being evasive and trying to run away. Sisyphus fed on that. He'd gotten more powerful people than Nico to completely melt and try to free him- even Persephone once. So he stood his ground.
"You don't want to answer me," the little demon says maliciously.
"Nobody does, Sisyphus. You're a crook."
"Alas silence is an answer too," Sisyphus says with a grin. "You know, I was a king once. But then I went wrong, so they say. Everyone turned on me too. And now I have to do the impossible over and over again."
"Nobody turned on me," Nico said. He's about to lose his patience, screw his father over, and walk away.
"That's right. You turned on them."
Nico punched him square in the jaw and for possibly the first time in his imprisonment, Sisyphus dropped his rock and nearly got run over. He wasn't too happy about that and rather bitter as he got back to his feet. Before he shadow-traveled away, Nico heard him yell:
"Hit me as you wish son of Hades, but you and I are both stuck!"
DATE: November 8
LOCATION: Vancouver, BC, Canada
KILLS: 114
Hazel took the morning off work to collect the pancakes that he promised in the note. This is very easily done when you are a pregnant woman and also Hazel said that the Canadian system was way better about maternity leave than the states, but Nico is focusing too hard on pancakes to absorb a discussion about feminism and maternity rights and sexism in the work place.
She spread a map of Vancouver on the breakfast nook and circled all the places he may be interesting in visiting, as well as the best restaurants and cafés. Nico says that he rather stay at home, but to keep her mood up he suggested that they could go out for supper- and the illusion of sociability made Hazel smile. She illustrates three different ways for him to use the public transport system to get himself to the jewelery store where she works when he gets hungry for supper. She may not have spent much of her life in Vancouver, but Nico knows right away that it's become her home town. She gives him a guided tour of the fridge's content, shows him how to use the microwave, and then she goes to work.
Nico finds the old training courses in no time. Emily Zhang had six brothers- the fact that they didn't make it to adulthood like she did was besides the point- and so her parents had needed somewhere to train all those kids. That's how all around Zhang manor, you could find sand pits, race tracks, old archery targets hanging crookedly on trees, obstacle courses (either on the ground, in the stream or in the trees given the Zhang Party Trick), balance beams, rope walls... Not to mention the attic's large weaponry collection. It's great. Like Camp Half-Blood without the line-ups, or the Underworld with the sun. Nico does a few courses and he's beat. No wonder the Zhangs managed to whip themselves into top shape and kiss their mortal vulnerability and status goodbye generation after generation despite the lack of divine blood.
He also thinks a lot. Mostly about what he heard Hazel talking on the phone about when he walked downstairs this morning, but consequently about what Sisyphus said last night.
When he walked into the kitchen trying to remember where the coffee maker was stationed (critical element of his morning well-being), Hazel was sitting at the table talking to (probably) Annabeth on the phone. From what Nico could tell it was about Christmas plans. Piper and Jason were going to stay in DC for their babies' first Christmas with her dad, and Dr Chase was going up to New York, so apparently it was every man for themself on Christmas this year- but they could all relocate to Percy and Annabeth's place for the New Year's. It blew Nico's mind how they all put so much planning into being together for a few hours. The opposite was probbaly true; Hazel probably shook her head at him and wondered how he could spend so much time alone (although of course she'd figured it out).
Which made him think about what Sisyphus and Hazel had said (though he'd much prefered her kind, sisterly approach).
Was Sisyphus right? Was Nico forcing himself into a life of solidarity? A life that, judging by how much he always seemed to do better and be happier with Hazel around... a life that maybe he didn't want after all? A life that he maybe needed to take baby steps to get away from? He wasn't an idiot. He knew that if he'd had a place to crash, people to watch over him and a more regular life his head would have already been healed. He had people, he had back-up plans, what Nico really needed was the guts to look people in the eye. Underworld kids were never the best at that. But maybe it was necessary to try. Everybody needed somebody, right? Hazel had Frank. Bianca had had the Hunters for a while.
Also were his fears stupid? He knew that there was no such thing as a stupid fear- you had the right to be afraid of whatever you were afraid of for whatever reason, yada yada. Percy and Annabeth had windows and lamps and night lights all over their appartment to create permanent light, Jason barely breathed when he was on a bridge given how close to water those were, Piper was scared shitless of wild cats because of a close call during the Argo II's voyage...
But being scared of how Percy and the rest of the people he could call friends would react to his being gay... was that really a well-founded? Jason had been nice as fuck about it when Nico himself had had no idea what to do and how to react. Hazel already knew and she was being her usual preppy, sweet Hazel self about it. Piper had been the driving force of more than one bills preventing various forms of discriminations across the country and she was a child of Aphrodite anyways, and those tended to be super chill about people sleeping with pies if their hearts so desired. Annabeth had probably already guessed because she was Annabeth, and either way, she and Percy had legally changed their firstborn child's name from Eric to Erica after "he" had announced to them that she didn't feel like being a boy at the age of three. Nico had to respect that as a sign of acceptance and love. He had to know that these people would back him up in anything and who in the world he may end up with one day was no different.
Was he being paranoid because of things he'd heard or seen when he was a kid, back in the fourties? Was that what he was stuck on? Was stigma to Nico what the boulder was to Sisyphus? Was he so, so scared of sexuality (that word had never been in his vocabulary before this very moment) and so oblivious and helpless with the subject that he had to run away from every single reminder of love and old crushes and human interaction to keep himself sane? He was starting to think that Hazel was onto something and that the answer was yes.
Except unlike Sisyphus, Nico couldn't go on forever.
And so that's how and why he made Hazel choke on her Philadelphia roll when he asked her what everybody's plans for Christmas were.
DATE: January 1
LOCATION: New York City, NY, Canada
KILLS: 0
The kids had all crashed but through the power of caffeine, booze or company none of the adults were anywhere close to being tired though the crystal ball had dropped over Times' Square hours ago.
The kitchen of Percy and Annabeth's appartment was filled to the brim. Jason's prosthetic leg was propped up against the oven with his crutches and he was sitting on the counter next to a very tanned Reyna (thanks to her Olympian training- long story). Leo was sitting on the ground building pyramids out of empty beer, wine, champagne, juice and water bottles and making the periodic innuendo. Piper was running laps between the kitchen and Louise's bedroom, where Alice and Eleanor Grace were asleep and defying the expression "to sleep like a baby". Rachel Elizabeth Dare was laying down in the middle of the floor (you'd think that she was drunk, but she wasn't). Annabeth and Percy were perched on bar stools with the streetlight and starlight of the window as their backdrop. Hazel was the only one on a proper chair since everyone had taken to babying her and treating her like a rare glass heirloom (Nico had a sneaking suspicion that Frank had had serious conversations with people before leaving his pregnant wife and that blood oaths had been sworn). The iPad was still on the counter behind her, where they'd propped it up while Frank was on Skype. As the Seven brought up all the cool monster kills that they'd made in the last year, Emily and Andreas, Reyna and Leo's mortal significant-others-or-so-we-think, were sitting in a corner and comiserating about how they didn't have any cool stories to tell.
"I hear you," Jason tells Andreas. "I've been keeping quiet."
"No, Piper's making you keep quiet," Leo cackles. Jason tosses a tiny spring roll to bring Leo's pyramid down with various crashes. Percy bursts out laughing.
"Quiet," Piper said smacking his arms. "The kids will wake up and if they do you are putting that leg on and fixing the damage yourself."
"I don't think anybody's got Nico beat," Percy said. "How many ghosts were you at yesterday, Nico? Your grand total of the year?"
"125."
Murmurs of approvement and a nice whistle from Leo.
"But that's not the half of what I did last year," Nico keeps going in a rare burst of courage and articulation. He knows enough Latin to have heard Carpe Diem once before. Seize the day. He's not good at Carpe Dieming but here goes bupkis.
"Yeah?" Jason frowns.
"Yeah," he nods. "I figured out something important."
Hazel's eyes are sprawling.
Nico hasn't purposefully hunted ghosts since he found out about his incoming niece or nephew. Of course if he runs into something or hears about murderous ghosts on the East Coast, he'll take a shot but he hasn't gone back to the motel/drive/burger joint/drive/kill/motel/drive routine. He's been staying with Hazel and keeping Zhang Manor clean, sorting out the attic and getting his head checked out by doctors and letting Hazel stuff him with food- a dream come true for her, probably.
He's spent Christmas morning with a stupid hat on his head. He has cooked a Thanksgiving turkey (and gotten harassed by Canadians who insist that Thanksgiving is in October). He has played tourist on a ferry to Vancouver Island. He's gone shopping for stocking stuffers. He has taken a plane to Ottawa to see the big Rememberance Day ceremony on Parliament Hill on November 11. He's started to pick up French. He's even gone to brunches and baby showers for her friend and he's even managed to go out a bit on his own. Brunches. But the dates and exploring on his own were pretty cool too. He has done things. Mortal, mundane, stupid, meaningless things. Things that turned out to be awesome.
But he can tell that she knows what he's up to and her eyes are glowing and he swears that she's about to tear up because of Fetus imbalancing her hormones or whatnot. He couldn't back down now if he tried.
"Actually, I already knew this but I finally... well I finally decided that you guys should know that I... well..."
He can't think of a single euphemism and isn't quite brave enough to say it out loud so settles with:
"I've been seeing a guy named Nick," Nico says slowly.
"He's not been seeing him he totally has a boyfriend," Hazel blurts.
"What?" Piper interjects before Nico can give his sister a look. She has a smile on her face. "No way! Is he from Vancouver?"
"How old is he?"
"Is he cute?"
"How long have you been holding out this information?"
"And you didn't bring him here?" Percy says.
That alone makes Nico relax a thousand times as he listens to Hazel spill all the beans she has on him. Everyone's hanging on her lips.
"He has a boyfriend, his name's Nick and I totally hooked them up," she says. "We were at the airport to go to Ottawa for the big huge Rememberance Day ceremony because Frank and I were supposed to go but things changed and his deployments got moved and whatever. Then they called Nico to a security office because his passport is a forgery so it was weird in a machine for a second, but this guy Nick Dicaire heard "Nico di Angelo" wrong so he was there too, and they got talking and I made them sit together on the plane and it was super cute and it still is."
Everyone looks okay and totally engrossed as Hazel talks about how Nick's a hairstylist, how he comes over for supper all the time, how he has more piercings than anyone she's ever met even one in his lip and Leo makes a comment about how there's probably more that only Nico knows about and Piper throws a spring roll at him to shut him up and holy crap this is exactly the banter that Reyna got when she met Andreas or that Jason and Piper got at first and Nico's going to be sick because of how similar it all is. But in a good way?
"Does he have Skype?" Annabeth asks. "Put him up on the iPad."
"Time differences," Nico tries to explain.
"Vancouver is three hours behind," Annabeth says cocking an eyebrow. "It'd only be 10:00 PM."
"If he's asleep at 10:00 PM on New Year's he's weak and doesn't deserve you," Leo calls out bitterly as he rebuilds his pyramid.
Nico keeps the information to himself that Nick is insomniac because he is completely unwilling to explain how he knows that, but Hazel blurts that Nick has Skype (which he can't even be angry at her for because she's smiling at him and he's always been a sucker for that, never mind that her hands are folded over her baby bump and her eyes are glowing).
So that's how Nico ended up huddled in a corner with the iPad, embarassed out of his mind and probably blushing- not because there's anything wrong with him or with Nick or with him and Nick, but because he knows that the second that Nick answers the call he's going to say 'hey Babe' and that Nico's present company is going to go nuts and definitely wake up the kids now and Nico's going to have to explain the huge grin on his face.
He's had worst problems to run away from, so he thinks that he'll stick around now.