this is like my longest thing up here holy shit. and, dun dun dun round of applause wee, IT'S JUST A SNIPPET. hmph. I'm so proud. xD but yeah, this is a snippet of a story i've been working on and i got bored so i just thought i'd post some of it to get some initial feelings about it/ *shrugs* so drop a line because I'll be posting the entire thing when it's ready. thanks, ja nee.
"Luke, help daddy do the dishes, will you?" Annabeth said, still cradling a small, snoring baby in her arms, close to her chest. She situated the baby into one arm and picked up her plate in the other, brining it and setting it down beside the kitchen sink, barely touching the silver rimming.
"Kay," Luke returned, hopping up not-so-gracefully from his seat at the table, nearly tripping over the baby stool and shattering his dish to pieces. Percy chuckled lightly at his son as he rose from his seat as well. He caught up with him and grabbed the china from his hands.
"C'mon, bud," he said, ruffling his boy's hair lightly and setting their plates down on top of Annabeth's. The blonde in question was already halfway up the stairs with her second child, smiling fondly at her two boys. She shook her head softly and walked into the light blue room they had for the baby on the second floor.
Luke and Percy turned on the hot water of the faucet. Luke grabbed the first plate as Percy wet a rag and walked to the table. He began to clean the leftover marks of their dinner, especially the high chair. Luke ran hot water over the plate, recoiling several times when the water hit his skin. He grabbed the rag next to him and wet it before spreading dish soap on top of it. He scrubbed lightly at the remnants of their messy lasagna and salad dressing. He ran it under the faucet again.
Percy finished wiping everything down and returned to the sink. He set the wet rag down and picked up a dry one, grabbing the plate handed to him by Luke. He began to dry it.
"Percy!" Annabeth called from above. "I need your help with the baby! Come here for a second, please!"
Percy finished drying the plate and called back. "Be right there!" He flashed his son an apologetic smile. "I'll be right back, bud. Keep up the good work."
Luke groaned internally. He hated doing the dishes. He watched as his father disappeared to his little sister's and his mother's aid. He watched in faint fascination at the bubbles that collected on his skin when he stuck his hand into the soapy dish water. He had just about finished up with the last plate when he heard a chair rattle behind him and a muttered, "Styx." He turned around, wet dish rag still held in his hand.
Standing in the middle was a strange man about his father's age with dark hair and light skin.
"Hey, kid-" the man started. That was all he managed to get out before Luke attacked.
He stepped forward, rag in hand, and began to slap it against the intruder's body, screaming all the while. "Mom! Dad! THERE'S A WEIRD MAN IN OUR KITCHEN!" Luke ignored the small "ow"s and "stop"s and "what the hell is up with you, kid?"s.
Luke continued to scream until Percy came flying down the stairs, knocking down a few hanging pictures from the wall on his way. "Luke!" he yelled, riptide in hand. "What's-"
"Perseus Jackson!" the strange man exclaimed. He stuck out a hand and in one fluid motion, swiped away the rag from Luke's clutches and slapped it down on his head and then threw it on the floor. "Wanna explain why I was beat up by your little…" he trailed off, scanning the boy in front of him for the first time since he was no longer under attack by some random ten year old. "look alike?"
"My son," Percy replied as he set down riptide on the table with a grin. The man seemed to blush at that.
"O-oh," he stuttered.
"And I've got another one upstairs, too. A daughter."
"Oh, so you and Annabeth, you…" he stopped, probably trying to get his pink cheeks under control. He settled on, "Congratulations."
"Thanks, man." He went in and grabbed the man into a hug. At first the guy with the dark hair seemed reluctant, but eventually hugged back. "Haven't seen you in a while, Nico."
"Yeah," Nico replied. "And what an eventful reunion it was," he muttered before pulling away. "How's Annabeth?" He a hand on the back of a chair.
"She's good. She's taking care of the little one."
"Ah. What-"
"Wait," Luke piped up as he finally recovered from his shock. Both men seemed to finally again register that he was there. "Who is this guy?"
"Oh, right!" Percy said cheerfully.
"Oh, right," Nico said not so cheerfully.
"Luke, this is Nico di Angelo. He's an old friend of mine. We used to go on quests together. I haven't seen him in years. Speaking of which, what are you doing here? Not that I'm not psyched to see you again, of course."
"Well, uh, yeah." He pulled back his coat to reveal a nasty looking cut on his side. "I was doing something for Chiron and got a little...ah...caught up."
"Shi...st. Schist." Percy caught himself as he rushed to a cabinet in the kitchen where he kept his first aid supplies. "Luke, help him sit down."
The little Percy blinked rapidly before reaching out to grab the man's arm and guide him into a chair. Nico waved him off, sitting down tiredly on his own.
"So, Nico," Percy began. he walked over to Nico's aid. "Why didn't you just shadow travel to camp and ask Will to heal you?" He carefully dabbed a wet cloth over the wound causing him to wince. Percy murmured an apology and continued at his work, albeit a little more gingerly.
"Well, first of all, Will Solace would never let hear the end of this. Especially not after-that other incident. So I shadow traveled here."
"What other incident?"
"Well-"
"What's shadow traveling?" Luke interrupted. Nico turned to look at him. Percy kept at his work, flipping to another side of the towel as the other was getting too bloody.
"I'll show you," Nico said.
"Wait!" Percy exclaimed. "You can't do that! You're inju-"
"Relax, Perce. Trust me. And you," he nodded at Luke. "Pay close attention."
Percy cocked his head and momentarily stopped in his cleansing of the wound. Nico leaned down to the floor and grabbed the rag he'd thrown down earlier. He focused on the material and on the shadow behind the fridge. Then he threw the cloth into the shadow. It disappeared and reappeared a nanosecond later from the shadow next to the sink from the cabinets overhead.
"That's shadow travel. Expect I usually do it with my entire body." In similar ways, Percy and Luke's eyes widened. "That's so cool!" Luke yelled, rushing over to pick up the kitchen cloth. Percy chuckled in amusement at his son fawning over the dish rag. "You've grown," he said.
"I'm a big boy now," Nico said and rolled his eyes slightly. Percy grinned and continued to clean Nico's abdomen.
"You never answered my question."
"Hmm?"
"What other incident?" Luke's grin faded and he dropped the rag and took a seat across from his father and diagonal from Nico. He listened closely and leaned his elbows on the wooden table.
"Well, about five months back, I was helping out some new campers at Camp Half-Blood and took them on a quest. We had to go retrieve something from Artemis and the Hunters," he shivered as did Percy. "but things got a little too hairy. We ran into a manticore in the middle of the night. Only one out of the three demigods were awake with me. We were all exhausted. I was healing the one demigod that was awake from a wound she suffered a few hours before by some rogue magic squirrels-" he paused. "Long story. But they were not friendly creatures, I'll tell you that." Percy snickered. "It was all too familiar other than the squirrels." He paused again and took a deep, steadying breath. Percy only looked down. Luke couldn't really tell what he saw on his father's face. Guilt? Sadness? "I wasn't going to have a repeat of when I was ten. So I left Cindy to rest and told her to wake the others but make sure they didn't follow me.
"When I was about five minutes away from camp, the moon shone down on the end of the manticore's tail and his eyes glared through the darkness. Much like the one I used to have all the time." Luke could tell he was attempting a joke and a small smile spread across his dad's features. Nico grimaced, but Luke guessed it was supposed to be a smile of his own. "His face flashed for a second and, lucky me, it was Dr. Thorn. He still seemed angry. You'd think over ten years that a grudge would disappear. Although I do suppose I'm one to talk.
"I pulled out my blade and waited for him to advance but he just seemed to look at me. I was almost waiting for the Hunters to appear like last time, but no such luck. Then I heard rustling behind me in the bushes. I almost thought it was another monster but when I looked behind me, it was one of the kids, Allen, son of Iris. I knew he had come to help and I was about to yell at him to go back when his eyes widened and I suddenly remembered that, oh yeah, there's a manticore that still needs to be killed.
"So I turned around but before I could even breathe I felt a searing pain in my stomach. I swung my sword around blindly for a little bit before my vision managed to clear. And what do I see? I see Allan knocked out and beneath the roaring face of Dr. Thorn. So I marched over and stabbed it through like a shish-ka-bob. It screamed and then glittered all over Allan. So I picked him up and trudged back to camp. I grabbed the other two kids and with the last of my strength, shadow traveled everyone back to camp.
"I was told later that I passed out once we stepped out of the shadow of the amphitheater. I remember waking up in the infirmary to Will Solace's angry face. He must've scolded me for about an hour before he finally let me rest. But he didn't let me leave that stupid place for an entire week. And he made me promise on the River Styx that I had to tell him whenever I went on a quest and to not throw myself at any other manticores. Butch went to go help the kids finish the quest. Allan really looks up to him now, I think. But basically I got taken down by freaking Dr. Thorn. It was pretty pathetic if you ask me. And then I was babied for seven whole days by a still fuming and utterly annoying William Solace who I believe was worse than the manticore."
Nico finished recounting his story and Percy had finally finished with cleaning and applying nectar combined with neosporin on the gash. "Sounds more like pretty heroic to me." He put a large band aid over the wound.
"Not really," Nico grunted. "Thanks."
Luke sat there stunned as Percy wiped a hand across his brow and put the supplies away. "You fought a manticore?"
"Yeah."
"That's awesome! What else have you fought?"
"Well, I mean there was that one cyclopes, and that old Chimaera, and I had to re-fight that stupid Minotaur. I had a little run in with a basilisk. And there's always drakons and-"
"So cool! What about harpies, and gryphons, and gorgons, and hellhounds, and the hydra, and sea serpents, and stymphalian birds, and-"
"You're really talking about your father here. He's more heroic than I ever was. Especially when we were younger."
"Now that's not true, Nico, you-"
"You knew each other when you were younger?"
"Yeah, and he-"
"What were you guys like?"
"Well we were-"
"Did you fight together?"
"Yeah, and-"
"How many hellhounds have you seen?"
"Nico's probably seen more than me-"
"Why?"
"-because he's a son of Hades."
The conversation was like spitballing fire. Percy would barely get out an answer before his son asked another question. Nico, on the other hand, couldn't get in a word at all.
"Really? That's awesome! Wow, you're so cool, Nico!"
"Eh? Not really…" Nico began.
"Who's Will Solace?"
A small uncomfortable silence fell over the trio. Percy smirked at Nico and Nico's eyes begged him not to say anything. "Well," Percy began.
"Percy…" Nico warned.
"Will Solace…"
"Don't."
"is Nico's actual type."
"IT'S BEEN YEARS, PERCY. Let it go."
"What?" Luke asked, watching the strange exchange like a tennis match.
"Nothing," Percy said smugly, laughing as Nico scowled at him. "Hey, Neeks, does he remind you of anyone when he was ten years old?"
"Shut up."
Luke was even more confused now. He was about to ask "what" again when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. "What's all the ruckus?" Annabeth questioned. "I had finally gotten Bianca to get to sleep from all the noise and yelling…" she trailed off as she finally registered just who it was in her kitchen. When Luke looked back to Nico his head was hung low and his hair cast a shadow across his eyes and hid his face.
"You...you named your daughter Bianca?" Nico asked quietly. Annabeth silently made her way to stand behind Percy's chair. Percy ran a hand through his hair and tried for a smile. "Nico, I'm sorry. I should've consulted you first but I...wanted to honor her and-"
Nico stood up abruptly, cutting Percy off. Annabeth gulped and exchanged glances with her husband. "Stand up, kid," Nico ordered, staring directly at Luke. He swallowed his sudden fear and rose slowly to his feet. Nico made his way over to him and kneeled in front of him. He gingerly placed his lean hands onto Luke's shoulders. "You listen to me, kid. Your sister, Bianca," he seemed to trip over her name. "you've gotta take care of her. Even if she gets annoying, no matter what, you be a good big brother. Keep her safe and care for her. If you don't, I'll come after you." Nico was pretty intimidating, but somehow, Luke could tell that last part was more on the joking side. But the rest was deadly serious.
Luke nodded. It wouldn't be hard because he'd planned to do just that anyway. Nico nodded curtly and rose to his full height; he was almost as tall as Percy maybe give or take a few inches.
"I should get going," Nico declared smiling briefly at Annabeth. "Thanks for your help, Perce." Luke realized he didn't really want Nico to go. He liked the way he told stories and how he smiled and how he was humble and he seemed like a true hero.
"Come back later, Nico," Annabeth said fondly. "We'll make you dinner. Just call us, okay?"
Nico nodded. "Bye," he said. He smiled at everyone and winked at Luke before stepping back and disappearing into the shadow behind him. And he was gone.
After Nico left, Luke turned to his father. "Who was that guy?" He had a dumb grin on his face. "He was awesome!"
Percy and Annabeth chuckled lightly. "That was Nico di Angelo, son of Hades," Percy replied. "He's also an old friend of mine."
"What was he like when he was younger?"
"Well, believe it or not, he was your age when he found out he was a demigod. Remember Uncle Grover? Well he was my protector when I was young but when we found out about the prophecy, we were on high alert and looking for new demigods to gain and always keep away from Kronos." Annabeth sat down and motioned for Luke to sit on her lap. He clambered on and she wrapped her arms around his small chest as he leaned forward in anticipation to hear the story. Percy had only told him several stories about his demigod quests when he was small. "It was me, your mother, Grover, and Thalia Grace-remember her?-and we were sent to find two demigods found at a boarding school. Dr. Thorn, one of the teachers there turned out to be a manticore, the one Nico talked about in his story. And believe it or not, he was the one that turned me into a hero and you mom into a damsel in distress." Annabeth punched him on the arm. "Ow! I'm just kidding. In fact, your mother was probably the hero and I was the damsel in that instance.
"Nico was one of the demigods we were sent to get. He was ten, like I said, and he was actually a lot like you just were." He chuckled. Then he frowned. "Although, later in his life he grew much more sad and angry."
"Why was he like that when you talked about Bianca?" Luke interrupted.
Percy went a little rigid before relaxing. Annabeth put a comforting hand on his arm. He took a deep breath. Percy then proceeded to explain what had happened to Bianca, choking on his words a few times. "That's why I wanted to name her Bianca. Not only to honor her, but to honor Nico, as well."
Luke was sullen. "Oh." Percy noticed this. He took a deep breath and pushed his own sadness and guilt away for the time being.
"But Luke, the story gets better! Nico was an awesome demigod. He was a lot like you that first year." Percy began to explain what happened in the years after the quest with the Hunters and the meeting with Atlas, the titan. Luke steadily grew more and more excited as Percy recounted his run ins with Nico di Angelo. He was practically bouncing out of his mother's grasp as Percy described what had happened at the Triple G Ranch with Geryon and how Nico had gotten much more powerful and even summoned ghosts.
Percy told his son about how Nico defeated Minos and took the true name of the Ghost King. Annabeth piped up a few times to correct her husband but otherwise stayed silent. But when Luke looked back at her, she was usually smiling happily except for a few sad parts of the story. Percy talked until Luke was yawning but he still refused to go to bed until his father had finished his story. So Percy told their story all to way to the end of the war with Gaea. And by that time, it was too late.
Luke was obsessed with Nico di Angelo.
hope you liked it. leave a review to let me know it wasn't complete shit. or was it? gosh i hope not.