I'm back! And guess what, you probably do not care, but I'm so proud of myself that I need to tell you guys this: scarcely a week ago I had 27 pages pendant for writting out in the computer (because old-fashioned me likes to write things by hand first) and only minutes ago I officially brought that number down to 0. I worked really hard this week, I swear!
Anyways, I doubt that you are intrested in my daily struggles, like the cold I got this week that almost kills me (not literally, I'm just overreacting, but I was so hoarse I seriously couldn't speak) or the fact that I've been very busy, and, as I know you do not care, I'll leave for you to do what you've come to do: read! ;)
Testing the Ground
To say that the Underworld wasn't a peaceful place to be was an understandment, but that didn't mean that Hades' palace was a nasty place to live in. Most of times, anyways.
Although there was always an exception to the rule, Persephone thought as she slowly raised her perfectly groomed eyebrows, looking across the table they were sitting at and blinked into Hades' black eyes when the violent slam of a door came to interrupt their silent meal.
"I understand that this means your son is back?" the goddess questioned emotionlessly as she reached for the jar of lemonade that stood in the middle of the table and filled her glass.
"Hm" Hades replied absentmindedly, his gaze focused on his plate.
"Are you going to at least go and try to talk to him?" Persephone inquired, straightening herself on her chair.
Hades shrugged, finally raising his eyes. "The last time I tried to do that he shut the door in my face and didn't speak to me for a week" the god pointed out half-heartedly.
"So instead of going up and try to talk to him you'll let him slam the door until he knocks down the building?" she proposed with a piercing gaze.
"I think that marble and obsidian are hard-wearing enough to remain in perfect state after a child's tantrum" Hades said, returning his attention to his meal.
"You're just mad that the last time you actually tried to talk to him he ignored you, aren't you?" Persephone teased. Only when her husband groaned in response did she know she was right and burst into laughter. "Hades, how can you really be offended by that? It's just a mortal teenager thing or something".
"You're only saying that because you haven't seen him when he's like this!" Hades replied, pointing to the door of the dining room with his head, through which only moment ago the sound of Nico informing he was back home had come.
"Oh, bet that, had it been me, he wouldn't have closed the door in my face" Persephone bragged, blinking coquettishly at her husband. Hades plainly huffed.
"You go and try that, I want to see it" Hades challenged. "I'm certain you won't get past the closed door of his room".
"We'll see" the goddess replied, making a leather bag appear in front of Hades' plate with a twist of her wrist. "That's fifty drachmas if I win, you into this?" she asked.
"You put the number, Persephone, but I'm still sure he won't talk to you anymore than he did me" Hades said, taking his wife's right hand in his to close the deal as he repeated Persephone's gesture and made an exact copy of the goddess' own offer appear in the table.
Smiling mischievously, the spring goddess brought herself to her feet and walked to the door, blinking one of her emerald eyes to Hades before she exited the room.
In all true, she probably had just done the stupidest thing she would do this century because, really, what reason did Nico di Angelo have to open his door when he hadn't done so for his own father. Good thing she liked challenges, then.
When she finally reached her stepson's room she took a final second before knocking the door.
"Dad, I'm fine! Go away!" Nico informed from the inside.
"Not him" the goddess chanted sweetly, knocking once more.
"Persephone, tell dad I'm still not going to open just because he sent you!" the demigod pointed out tiredly.
"Fair point" Persephone accepted. "But your father didn't send me. In fact he's sure you won't even open the door to me and bet me fifty drachmas that I wasn't going to make it past your door. Here's the deal, you let me in and tell me what's going on before you demolish the place and twenty five of those are yours" she proposed.
Two whole minutes went by before Nico finally gave her an answer.
"The door is not even locked" he accepted in a low voice, giving in.
Smirking mischievously, Persephone entered the room under the surprised stare of Hades, who had at least been decent enough to spy his family from a considerable distance that enabled him to listen what they were saying. Knowing her husband, Persephone put special care in remembering to close the door behind her.
"Now, what in Olympus is going on here" the goddess inquired as soon as she entered, finding Nico laying in his made bed, although he had taken out one of the pillows from under the covers and now seemed very interested in killing himself from asphyxia.
For a moment, Nico didn't answer and, quite frankly, Persephone started to fear that the boy had either been successful in his suicide attempt or wanted to ignore her completely, but suddenly the body in front of her groaned like a zombie in one of those old-styled movies she'd watched with Hades and sat up.
"What?" Nico inquired, confirming her theory that he had ignored her the first time.
"What has you like this?" Persephone repeated patiently, taking a seat in the corner of the mattress.
Sighing, Nico gave into his stepmother's question.
"Okay, you see there's… there's this girl at the camp" he started, only to interrupt himself when he saw the glare in Persephone's eyes.
"If that's so you just have to ask her out!" the goddess informed, holding back laughter.
"I'm not talking about that" Nico protested, sending the pillow he had been holding against him and to Persephone's face, who only avoided the item thanks to her godly speed.
"Okay, okay, fine, I'm not going to say anything!" the goddess tried to defend herself, regaining her seat.
"Persephone, I'm talking about Annabeth, Annabeth Chase, from Athena, Percy Jackson's girlfriend" Nico pointed out, as if speaking to a child. "Our relationship is purely intellectual".
Still laughing, the goddess had no other remedy but to give into his stepson's serious expression and stop giggling.
"Fine, so, there's this girl at the camp, this Annabeth, who apparently you are not romantically but intellectually interested in so, what's with her?" she inquired.
"As I was saying" Nico continued. "She is a child of Athena" he repeated, turning to his hands while fidgeting slightly.
"So…?" Persephone pressured, more confused than when she had first heard the door being slammed. Teenagers, really.
"Well, now that the war against Gaea is over, the Athena cabin has decided that we, the campers, should start attending the school at the camp regularly" the demigod explained, finally yielding to Persephone's worried expression.
"And what's the problem with that?" she questioned confusedly. "I agree with her, the mortal world is not what it used to be, you need a higher academic degree to get a good job. It might seem useless to you right now, but the mortal knowledge can come in handy later in your life".
"Yes, I know" Nico nodded. "It has nothing to do with going to school".
"Then what's the big deal?" Persephone inquired.
"The problem… the problem is that… that I haven't really been to a school in, like, seventy years or something" the boy said, his voice becoming lower and lower until it was almost a whisper.
"Nico…" Persephone let out softly as she bit her lower lip, sighing hollowly and then reached for her stepson's right hand. For a moment, she feared that he might push her away, as he fidgeted slightly, but in the end Nico decided against jerking away and let her do.
"It's pathetic" he mouthed. "I survive two wars, three if you count World War II, go through Tartarus and come back I'll die thanks to Annabeth killing me because I don't know who the president after Roosevelt was".
Laughing at her stepson's blunt sarcasm, Persephone dared to circle the boy's shoulders, smiling.
"I see, I see" the goddess nodded, rolling her green eyes until an idea made its way to her brain. "How about you tell this Annabeth to give you two weeks before the test and during those weeks you study with me? How does that sound, you studying with me mortal stuff?" on her side, Nico fidgeted with indecision. Probably a goddess teaching mortal subjects wasn't such a good idea either. "C'mon, what do you have to lose?" she inquired.
"Are you sure?" Nico asked, raising a black eyebrow.
"Well, yes. I only get the chance to leave this place once every six months" she reminded him. "But it's more of the mortal world that you can expect from your father".
Grimacing, Nico had to recognize that his only option was to nod.
"I think you win, then" he signed-in.
"Knew it!" Persephone chanted, nudging him softly. "Well" she finally decided after a couple of silent minutes, as she brought to herself to her feet and extended her right hand to Nico so she could help him do the same. "Now, I think we should get going back to the dining room. Your old man is probably biting the napkins in worry".
"Or in anger" Nico pointed out, shrugging, but he still walked up to the door and opened it for Persephone, smirking.
"We'll have to find out that part" the goddess replied, laughing as she circled Nico's back before they directed themselves to the dining room, where the lord of the death already awaited them with a fuming expression.
"Looks like someone was busy" Hades welcomed them, almost harshly, ones might have said, if his family hadn't known him any better.
"Looks like someone is mad" Persephone teased as she took her seat in the head-table contrary to Hades', and Nico did the same on the chair placed to his father's right.
Directing her husband a disarming smile, Persephone leaned over the table to reach for both of the bags filled with drachmas that had been left there by Hades and herself. Still grinning, she sent one of the bags, complete, to Nico, who caught it on flight. When Hades sent her an inquiring gaze, Persephone only shrugged.
Still smiling, even when once in a while Hades sent a fuming glance to Persephone's direction, same that she replied by sending a kiss and smirking the family continued their meal.
―*―*―
When the next day the spring goddess decided to start Nico's day by banging at his door before eight o'clock in the morning, Nico seriously thought he had surely made the wrong decision when he'd talked with her the previous day.
Unlike what one might think, Persephone was a terribly responsible and organized person, and so she already had come up with a whole plan of studies that Nico, really, was only more confused about.
The start was easy: the Greek and Roman heritage humanity bears is amazingly huge and, fortunately enough, they didn't have to lose a lot of their precious time going through Greek and Latin history, but that only meant that they had a little more time to go on about modern history, math and science.
During the first week, it was only Persephone who daily sat with her stepson in the castle's library and went through every single book that she thought might have be something children with the opportunity to regularly attend a mortal school would have seen during class.
Finally, as the due day became closer and closer, Persephone realized that, hell, this was the Underworld and she was a goddess, the freaking queen of the place, and so, the morning of the eighth day she presented herself to Nico's bedroom with Helen Roberts, a high school teacher that had been dead for ten years but that talked up a storm and was thrilled to be useful for once.
That was an extreme measure all in itself, but Nico was not yet aware of how far Persephone was willing to go until the next day when they were supposed to study kinetic and potential energy and the spring goddess presented herself in company of an uncommon character: Albert Einstein himself.
This scene repeated itself during the four remaining days, with Persephone bringing different historical characters to impart the subject they were going through on that particular day to the point that Nico honestly decided that he had seen everything that had to be seen. On the other side, though, he really couldn't say that Persephone's ways weren't working and neither could he blame the goddess' inventive, however bizarre.
When the feared day finally arrived, Persephone was the first one to wake up and thus was the one in charge of waking everyone else up.
This time, was the one Nico regretted ever having told her in the first place the most, as she had her mind set on him having dressed in something that had been previously ironed and also made sure he combed his hair, as if he were going somewhere that was not Half-Blood Camp and as if someone cared about those kinds of things there.
Unfortunately for Persephone and Hades —who had to stand his wife's rambling—, it was still summer and the spring goddess couldn't leave the Underworld, though Nico really thought that Persephone being trapped in his father's domains was the best thing that would happen that day. Really, knowing her, had she been able to leave the Underworld she would have gone straight to Annabeth and try to buy him a decent place in a class that was not meant for eight-year-olds' with the very same fifty drachmas that she had won from Hades two weeks in the past. Either by that or by threatening Annabeth's own place in the Underworld, who knew.
Really, it was for the best that she stayed underground, though, to be honest, he did miss her trusting smile as soon as he knocked on Cabin 6 and Malcolm opened it for him, calling for Annabeth sooner than the son of Hades would have liked.
Unlike what he thought, the leader of Athena's cabin didn't appear with a knife and thirst for blood, but with a sheet of paper and a pencil. Oh, and with a beaming smile too, but that really wasn't important.
"Nico!" she squeaked, giving him a fast hug as soon as they directed themselves to the Big House. "Okay, this is easy. Now, don't worry about this test, it really has no value at all, it's just to know the level you are in for a mortal school so we can help you improve that level, alright?" she bombarded him, pointing to a chair and a squared table, still smiling.
Groaning under his breath, the son of Hades took a seat and proceeded to receive the test Annabeth was offering him.
"When you are ready, just give it to Chiron or me, okay?" she ordered, and then, she left him to his own devices.
Nico sighed, reading the first of more questions than he dared to count.
―*―*―
Honestly, Hades thought, finally deciding his wife's pacing wouldn't allow him to read anything.
"It's just a testing exam, he's not applying for college, Persephone, for Elysium's sake!" he pointed out, putting his book down in frustration, as he knew that the spring goddess would ignore his logical thinking and continue walking form one side of the bedroom to the other anyways.
"I'm aware" Persephone muttered, but didn't stop her nervous movements.
"Then why can't you be a normal person and sit down to wait!" he replied back.
Huffing, Persephone directed herself to her side of the bed and took a seat, keeping her eyes focused on the wall across the room.
"He'll be fine" Hades assured, taking Persephone's right hand in his left and squeezing it. "He had the best teacher he could have wished for".
"Thank you" Persephone let out as surprised as she was thankful.
"I was talking about Helen, but…" the god's statement was cut short when his wife sent one of her pillows flying to his face. At least she was smiling a little now.
When only moments later instead of pacing Persephone started praying to the wisdom goddess, Hades decided to be decent for once and not mention anything about it.
―*―*―
It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon when the silhouette of Nico di Angelo came out of the shadows in Hades' castle, finding his parents about to take supper thanks to a curious coincidence.
"How did you do?" Persephone asked immediately wrapping her arms around Nico before the boy was even completely solid. On her side, the demigod could only roll his eyes and smirk, returning the goddess a tiny squeeze before they broke off.
"Fine" he replied, enlarging his grin as Persephone inquisitive gaze asked everything that she didn't want to say with words.
Rolling his eyes for what seemed to be the thousandth time of the day, Nico walked over to his place at the table and waited for Persephone to do the same before he continued.
"Apparently, my knowledge on history and algebra is higher than the average of people my age" he started. "Which means that I'll be working with a group of sixteen and seventeen year-olds instead of one of fourteen and fifteen".
Persephone's smile enlarged itself so much that Nico was seriously scared that she'd hurt herself. Not that she seemed to care, really. And neither could he say that her beaming, proud eyes didn't give a warm feeling to his chest.
"Thank you" he whispered, his voice so low that, had it been simple mortals he was with, they wouldn't have heard him. But they weren't mortals, and Persephone replied by warmly winking one of her emerald eyes.
"Well, autumn starts next week. Who votes for a trip to Panama City?" she proposed, receiving a groan for an answer from both males of the family. "C'mon, you lazy people, I'll pay" she offered; how she had come to the conclusion that offering to get the part of the money done when she was talking to the god of riches was a way of convincing him to surrender to what she wanted was a good idea, she didn't know, but fortunately, it seemed to work. "Just the three of us, together".
"You'll be insisting the hole month if I refuse, am I right?" Hades questioned.
"Probably" Persephone accepted. "But that doesn't mean that you can't refuse".
"Then so be it" he accepted, rolling his eyes affectionaly.
On their side, and very honestly, Nico had to say that he really wasn't thrilled with the idea of going to the beach, with all its sand and sea and sun and sunburns, but maybe… maybe the part of the three of them together could work.
And who knew, maybe… maybe it really was time to start testing the ground with his family.
Well, I'm not really sure of how this idea came, one day my mind wa sjust wondering and them BUM! I had a new plot. I thought it was too cute to not give it a try, what do you think? Please feel free to write your opinions in the comment bix! ;)
Read you soon!