Hello, PJO/HOO fans! This is officially my first story in your fandom, so I hope you like it. It'll probably end up being a two- or three-shot. So, I was just rereading Blood of Olympus and I realized how completely wonderful Solangelo is and I needed to write something to vent my fangirliness so I could sleep. So yes.
Very unfortunately, I do not own any of these lovely characters. Rick Riordan does.
Nico was fine with the Hecate cabin having defenses. In fact, he expected that all the cabins would have some way to protect themselves, especially considering the ridiculous amount of attacks that took place on a daily basis.
But turning someone into a cat just for ringing your doorbell seemed a bit excessive.
He twisted around, trying to catch a glimpse of his new body, and saw a black tail flick out of sight. He groaned to himself, and it came out as a guttural hiss. Not only was he a cat, he was a black cat. Didn't he have enough bad luck?
He had told Lou Ellen when he was going to show up. He expected she would at least disable the transformation magic when she had someone coming over, especially when she was the one that needed his help.
The door, carved with magic runes, clicked open. Someone was answering the doorbell, no doubt. Light shone out, burning his sensitive eyes. Well, at least that hadn't changed. Lou Ellen scooped him up and examined him with a critical eye. "Well, what have we here?"
He hissed and scratched at her arms, unhappy with the sudden physical contact as well as her apparent forgetfulness towards the fact that he had promised to come over to answer some questions about 'death magic,' as she had put it. She almost dropped him, but he dug his claws into her shirt. He did not want to fall. The floor was suddenly way further away than it had been.
She sighed. "Darn it," and then yelled over her shoulder, "Kayla! Did you curse the doorbell again?"
Another girl appeared at her shoulder. "Yeah, why? I was just practicing- oh," she stopped abruptly at the sight of the pure black cat in her councilor's arms, staring balefully at her with bright green eyes.
"Um," she said uncertainly. "Um, I didn't think anyone was coming by... Um, who is it?"
Lou Ellen hefted Nico in her arms, prompting him to frantically scrabble for purchase again. "I'm not sure, but I think it's Nico di Angelo."
Nico tried to nod.
"Oh, great!" she said. "I know just who should take care of you while we work on getting you back to normal."
Nico attempted a protest (No! Not great! Not great at all!) but could only manage a chain of unhappy meows. Lou Ellen had apparently made up her mind and was already halfway across the common area in the middle of the ring of mismatched cabins.
Nico squirmed in her arms, but she had apparently grown used to his protests, because her arms were clamped tighter around him than before. She was heading straight towards a cabin that glowed golden like a second sun, even at night, and burned his eyes. Cabin Seven. He got a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and thought he suddenly knew where Lou Ellen was heading with this.
He hissed in protest, but she pretended not to hear him. She knocked on the door once, then barged in without waiting for anyone to let her in. "Will?" she called, probably waking up half the cabin. A chorus of sleepy complaints rose from the bunks. She made a beeline to a particular bunk and shook its occupant awake.
Will woke up, eyes soft and hair ruffled with sleep. Nico's narrowed green eyes darted around the (thankfully darker) interior of the cabin, trying to look at anything besides Will Solace and his... um... shirtlessness. He found a very interesting spot on the floor, and he thought he felt Lou Ellen's chest shaking with laughter. Nico silently swore revenge on her as soon as he got back to normal.
"Lou Ellen? That you? Wassup?" he asked, words slurred together with sleep. Before Nico could object to the plan that the daughter of Hecate had formulated, he was shoved against Will's chest. He noticed it was warm... really, really warm. Then he hated himself for noticing that.
"Can you take care of this cat for a couple days?"
Will blinked a couple times, clearly still half-asleep, as he processed her request, the gears in his brain clogged with exhaustion. "Um, I guess. Where did you even get a cat? We're not allowed to have normal pets."
"Great! Thank you! You only have to watch him for about two days, okay? Thanks again!" Lou Ellen thanked him, completely ignoring his follow-up question. Before the Apollo boy could press her for an answer, she had disappeared out the door again. Will sighed in exhaustion and some confusion, got back into bed, and set Nico on his chest.
The son of Hades turned unlucky cat curled up under the covers by instinct, only to be jolted out of a sleepy haze when the boy he was curled up on yawned and shifted, causing what felt like a miniature earthquake to the undersized cat.
After a short moment of absolute terror, Nico relaxed and fell back asleep. Will sleepily petted him as he drifted off, and that helped. His traitorous cat self purred steadily as the warm fingers massaged his ears. Not that he would ever admit it, but it felt really, really nice.
As he fell asleep, he thought that maybe (just maybe) this wouldn't be so bad.
Yeahh, I know it's kind of short, but that just seemed like the place to end this chapter. If you like it and want to see more, please tell me with the magical box that says review!