Not To Be

It's Percy. It's fucking Percy Jackson standing in front of him, with his too dark hair and too green eyes.

And even though he's invulnerable, Nico thinks, for just two seconds, that maybe if he runs his sword though him fucking Percy Jackson will die.

Then the huge weight of even just the idea of Percy, the great hero Percy Jackson, being dead and gone hits him like a freight train moving at an impossible speed. So, he settles on just leaning against the apartment door frame, hoping the brief moment of terror hadn't flickered across his face.

"Nico." He sounds out of breath. What could he have possibly been doing? Why stop by here?

"Hey Nico, who's at the door?" One of his roommates, whose hair was darker then Percy's, something Nico didn't know was possible, had leaned back from the couch to see who was making Nico give off the unpleasant aura of anger. "Oh, the hero." He turned to mutter something to the brunette sitting next to him. The words exchanged were brief and in a language Percy hadn't heard before, but anybody with half a brain could tell they were insulting.

Nico knows Percy has heard this voice before. It was the same one that told him that Nico wasn't speaking to him anymore a couple months back. Right after his wedding in fact.

Percy shoots Nico an odd look. "Who are the roommates?"

"Aiden son of Thanatos and Rylee daughter of Hypnos. What do you want Jackson?" Already Nico wished he hadn't given Percy an answer. It wasn't any of his business who he was living with. Forget the fact that monsters swarmed the place at least once a month, it was home, it was warm and most importantly it was in New York.

"I need your help, there's a half blood and monsters and it's all gone-"

"What about Annabeth?" Nico cut him off. One wrong answer and the son of the seas god may be having a chat with his old man.

"Well she's outside." Percy responded immediately, confused as to why Nico even had to ask if his wife was there. Nico frowned and Percy thought for the first time since Nico had stopped all forms of contact with him that maybe he had really pissed off the ghost king. The question was, what had he done?

"I can't be of much help then. Good luck Jackson." And the door was slammed shut.

Percy Jackson had been told by many people that he was a blind fool who could never really quite see what was going on in front of him. So, it was no wonder he had never realized that not only was there Calypso, Annabeth, and Rachel after him, that a small insignificant son of Hades was in that line too.

First it was all of the awkward worrying over him at Camp, then he had showed up at Percy's apartment and stayed there for the entire birthday celebration, then the River Styx, and so many more memories that they crowded his head. Each had Percy, each was painful stab to his chest, each a reminder of just how broken a heart could be. Maybe Nico had just been stupid. After all, he was the last to hear about Annabeth being Percy's official girlfriend. (Looking back, was it really all that surprising? He had assumed they were dating when he first met Percy. But, he preferred not to think about the time when his sister was alive.) But their wedding had been the last straw. Ignorant or not, it had been cruel just to invite him. So Aiden, in a fit of very Aiden-like rage, had called to chew Percy out. Most of the words were in the gibberish of a language Percy didn't under stand. (French.) But the message had gotten across. 'Nico di Angelo is done speaking to you.'

"You okay?" Nico hadn't even known he was sitting on the floor until Aiden was kneeling beside him.

"Never better."

"Bull shit."

"No Nico?" Annabeth asked.

"Uh, he kind of slammed the door in my face..." Percy shifted from one foot to the other. What had he done?

"Oh gods, Percy you didn't...Percy you couldn't..." Her eyes widened in enlightenment. Percy once again felt out of the loop.

"What?" He asked warily.

"Percy, your head is so full of kelp! You never let him down. Oh, poor Nico!" She looked up at the building, her face worried.

"What?" Percy repeated. He was so confused. Let him down? What was she talking about?

"Nico is fine." Both of the older demigods turned around faster then anyone thought was possible. Standing there was a brunette girl, the on who had been sitting on the couch in Nico's apartment.

"Oh, it's you." Percy said dumbly. Annabeth looked at her, then to Percy and then back at her.

"Who?"

"I'm Rylee, daughter of Hypnos. I've come to take Nico's place in your little quest thing." She strode forward and offered her hand up for them to shake.

Percy and Annabeth shared a glance. Percy knew they needed Nico, but he also knew they didn't have a hope of convincing him when he was angry.

"Okay then. Lets get going."