Hello, I'm back! Two stories in English comming right now because I could finally manage to get a grip on my computer. For those of you who do not know it, I'm having my computer out of service for a couple of weeks, so I'm really struggling to get things done and moving.
Whatever, it's summer vacations and I'm looking forward writing a lot, no matter how hard it is to get the things published.
So, as I was saying, Hades has always been one of my favorite gods from Greek mythology, and the other day I was talking with this friend of mine and so he just asked 'you know, what would happen if Hazel and Nico were just taking care of some random kids and then they asked who was Hazel's father and she's like "Pluto" and then the boys "Pluto the dog?"'
And although the idea was simply too predictable and obvious, I still managed to find it hilarios, and since I love Disney and the other short humorous stories I had published were doing just fine I decided to wite it either way.
So... Here it goes.
Hope ou like it!
Misfortunate Namesakes
There were several 'rather not' at Camp Half-Blood. One of them was, for example, to be nearby when Leo Valdez was trying one of his inventions for the first time, or telling Drew her hair was having a bad day. Another one of those was leaving either Nico, or Hazel, or better yet, both of them, in charge of children.
For Nico it was obvious why he came out as an immediate 'no', but why Hazel, one may ask, if she was all smiles and sweet as honey?
Well, the way in which the campers discovered such a thing was simple: sending both children of the Underworld to take care of two kids.
The reason why Chiron had allowed such a thing was simple too.
Two demigods, claimed sons of Demeter, lived in Nevada with their mortal parent, like most demigods did, actually. The only problem there was that the boy's father, a famous and recognized doctor was soon-to-be sent to Africa for matters of investigation for a couple of months.
Wanting to protect his children he decided not to take them with him, but he had no family that could watch over them, so he had turned to Demeter and she, being the loving mother she was, had remitted him to Chiron, who had agreed to receive the boys in the camp even if they were younger –six and seven years respectively– than the average of campers.
At the same time, Nico had been visiting Hazel at Camp Jupiter, and he was to be going back to New York in a couple of days. Hazel was going back with him, just to spend a few days with the Greeks, and given that Will Solace had specifically forbid Nico from shadowtravelling in at least another three months, they were going to travel on Mrs. O'Leary's back.
And that's how it was settled that Nico and Hazel were to leave the Roman camp and alter the curse a little to pass and pick the children up from Nevada and then direct themselves to Camp Half-Blood. Both Hazel and the father of the boys agreed, Nico had finally given in to Hazel's pleas.
It was simple, wasn't it? These were two of the heroes who had saved Olympus, saviors of the world they were talking about, they could surely handle two young kids, right?
Not so fast…
The trouble started as soon as they left the boys' house. Dr. Smith was a nice, kind-looking person, who was presumably in his thirties and greeted both Hazel and Nico cheerily.
The two boys, John and Julian, looked nice enough at their house, childish smiles spread up on their lips and a naughty look in their light-brown eyes.
The moment they saw both children, Nico knew there would be trouble coming, but decided to keep his mouth shut.
They left the house soon, parting from Dr. Smith, who promised to call at least once a week his children, and were in the street again soon enough.
Both kids were instantly charmed by Hazel, with her sweet voice and awkward giggles, which was not at all surprising. Who wouldn't love his little sis?, thought Nico.
The boys knew who their godly parent was, so it was just natural that they were rapidly asking that to their newly found friend.
When they asked, Hazel self-consciously shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
"Um…. Pluto" she answered after thinking on it for a couple of seconds, not sure about if she should translate it to her father's Greek form, given that the boys were Greek.
"Pluto" the younger boy, Julian, asked in disbelief. "Like the dog?"
"Sorry?" Hazel squeaked, not sure if she had actually heard him correctly.
Fortunately for her, in that moment Nico came to her aid.
"It's a television show" he explained, matter of factly, not saying how was it that he knew that, though. "It has this mouse which owns a dog an all."
Hazel eyed him cautiously. A mouse that owned a dog?, she seemed to be asking, but the children nodded, and Julian leaned down to pull out a stuffed yellow dog from his suitcase, proudly handing it to Hazel, who stared at it in distrust.
"She isn't talking about that Pluto, though" Nico continued, turning to the boys. "That would be misfortunate, and she doesn't look like a dog now, does she?" he asked; the kids had to admit that Hazel, in fact, didn't look like a dog. "But I'll show you what an actual dog looks like" Nico then said, smirking mischievously just before he whistled loudly.
A few seconds after that, the shadows in front of them started to condense until they outlined the figure of a gigantic, black dog, which wagged its tail happily and barked loud enough for it to be heard in San Francisco before leaning down to lick Nico from head to toe.
Excited screams were heard from both of the boys as Hazel was greeted in the same sticky way by Mrs. O'Leary.
"So, its name is Pluto?" John asked eagerly.
"It's a girl" Nico deadpanned just before jumping on her back. Hazel then proceeded to tell them the dog's name as he helped the kids on Mrs. O'Leary's back, with some help from Nico, who showed himself unsure about touching the children at firs.
Only when all its passengers were up did Mrs. O'Leary finally begin walking.
Just for preventing accidents, Nico was sitting behind Mrs. O'Leary's head, with Julian behind him, next John and lastly Hazel, who was supposed to be the responsible adult watching over the children.
They hadn't even turned the first corner when the boys' rambling renewed itself.
"So" Julian started from behind Nico, trying to stand on the animal's spine, which resulted in a panicked yelp from Hazel and John pulling his brother down. "If Hazel's father is Pluto-not-a-dog, then who is your godly father?"
"Hades" Nico nearly snarled at him, keeping his eyes focused on the direction they were heading just to may sure they didn't end up in Texas by accident.
"Like the juice?" John asked from the back.
Nico turned over his shoulder, confused.
"Excuse me?" he muttered under his breath.
"It's the brand of a juice!" Hazel explained from behind, almost shouting. "Like Jumex and that."
So this was actually all to what his father's legacy had come to? A juice brand and a cartoon dog? First they didn't want Hades in Olympus and then this? No wonder the guy was bitter after all that shame…
"I don't eat that bottled crap" he retorted finally. Hazel had to bite her tongue not to pinpoint how he ended up in McDonald's more often than not.
And so the rambling continued 'Had they ever met any god?' Yes, and it was not pretty. 'Had they ever been to Olympus?' Yes, and it was not that impressive. 'Why was Pluto –the dog they were sitting on– the size of a school bus?' Point number one, it was a girl, and her name was Mrs. O'Leary. Point number two, it was a scary, dangerous hell-hound who would gladly eat them up if they didn't behave.
Sadly, Nico's tactic to shut up the boys only resulted in them being more interested in the dog: 'If she was so dangerous how had they trained her?' Good question, but neither Nico nor Hazel had an answer for that.
Nico could actually feel every single ounce of his self-control tighten not to snap at the boys each time one of them opened his mouth, and he knew Hazel was straining just as hard to not tell them to keep silence.
That was when he started thinking.
His first thought was a prayer, more like a wish–he really hoped he hadn't been as annoying as those two on his back, though it was quite unlikely, so all he could actually do was pity Bianca for having had to stand him as well as take care of him while he was just babbling nonsenses like that.
His second thought was a question. Was this how Percy had seen him back at Westover Hall? This loud and noisy and annoying and restless? Unlike him, Percy was a natural with children and human beings, and he was usually at ease around them, but Nico doubted even he could stand rambling like those two on the back.
Lastly, his third thought was that he wanted to throttle those kids, without caring it would infuriate Demeter. What was Demeter to him, anyways? She was his stepmother's mother, so what did that make her to him? His step-gradma? Well, she was actually his aunt on Hades' side, so…
Whatever, back to the murderous thoughts.
Fifteen minutes later he realized there was no way he could stand a four day trip –the time it would take to reach Camp Half-Blood on Mrs. O'Leary's back– with those children. And he knew that the same could be said about Hazel.
Taking a sudden decision he ordered both the boys and his sister to dismount the dog, with surprised looks from everyone, same he ignored as he proceeded to dismiss Mrs. O'Leary, who seemed somewhat confused but did as ordered.
"We're making things my way" he muttered after ordering them to grab each other's hands.
"But Nico, Will said–"Hazel started to argue, just to be cut off as Nico shot her a glare scary enough to shut her up. Plus, she really wasn't willing to cross the country with those children, which probably helped shutting her mouth too.
With a surprised yelp from both boys, the shadows started to condense around them, until they finally swallowed them up.
When they realized where they were, the well-known buildings of Camp Half-Blood already surrounded them. Nico immediately cherished the view of his salvation, just before his knees trembled, to which he would have fallen down if Hazel hadn't been there to support him.
And then he heard it. The nagging of a well-known voice.
"Nico di Angelo! Did I not tell you that–!"
"Shut up, Solace!" Nico barked at him, turning to the voice. "I'd rather spend three mare days locked up at the infirmary with you that fifteen minutes with these two, and you'd do the same so don't even dare to lecture me about it!"
Noticing how convinced and serious Nico sounded Will decided to actually keep the nagging for another time and rather went to help Hazel hold Nico up by passing Nico's left arm over his shoulders.
"That's for your stupid brand name" Nico snapped at the boys, who were not even paying attention to him anymore, concentrated in the architecture and all the new people around them instead.
In that moment Percy, charming as ever, a natural with children walked over from the crowd that had formed around the new comers and took it upon himself to hand the boys to their cabins companions since they had already been claimed to be Demeter's.
Said and done, Nico did get to spend three more days at the infirmary due to his lack of self-care, as Will had put it down, and through all that time he kept muttering about 'stupid names' and 'the reasons why being a child of Hades sucked', even as Will couldn't understand a thing.
Just tell me, from 1 to 10, how wierd was that?