Life With Hades
Nico Di Angelo walked briskly into his father's throne room. He hated it when his all-powerful father summoned him. He didn't know what to expect. Would it be that old look he always got? As if his father resented him being alive- like he wished Nico had gotten crushed by that giant robot instead of Bianca. Or by some miracle, his father might have that little twinkle in his eye saying 'maybe you could be my kid after all.'
Unlikely though. Nico knew his father hated him. He didn't know why, but he would one day. He felt as if it was his own personal mission to find out why he wasn't the perfect child. Or at least a mediocre kid. Was it because he was friends with Thalia and Jason? Or did his father just hate Percy Jackson so much that it over flowed towards Nico?
Nico stormed past the skeleton guards stationed outside of the palace throne room. He figured if he would have been wearing a cape right then, it would have snapped and curled by the way he swept into the room. The son of Hades slowed his pace and stopped walking when he stood in front of the Lord of the Dead.
He knelt on one knee. "Father. You called for me."
He hadn't meant it to be a statement when it passed his lips. He meant to say it as a question, not a reminder; but that didn't stop Hades from replying in his harsh way.
"Of course I summoned you. You wouldn't be here if I hadn't, now would you? Why do you waste my time with such obvious statements?"
"I- I just assumed you might have forgotten when you wanted to see me sir." Nico kept his head down, eyes on the floor.
"Forgotten?!" Hades roared. "I am over 3 millennia old! I do not forget. Even if I do wish to forget petty meetings with my son."
That didn't stop you from not getting me a birthday present last year. Nico thought. Or even remembering to thank me when I caught Persephone making that sword against your wishes.
He hadn't meant to scowl. And if he had, his head was bent, how had Hades known his thoughts of resentment?
"Oh… and what's that look for?" Hades snapped. "What have I forgotten now? Your favorite color? Is it your birthday? How old are you turning now? 16? Oh, that's right!" The god exclaimed. "It doesn't matter how old you are anymore. Because Jackson went off and already saved Olympus, while you were down in Manhattan 'saving mortals'. That'll be the day- when a child of Hades saves the day and becomes a hero to everyone."
"Why can't I ever please you?" Nico couldn't take it anymore. He snapped his head up and stood up- no longer kneeling before the Lord of the Dead. "The way you talk about him, you act as though you love Percy Jackson more than you love me! I'm your son. I'm the son of Hades. Not Percy. "
His father didn't even seem fazed by his outburst. Hades even stifled a yawn.
"See! There it is again! You act as though you don't love me. As if I didn't help you reconcile with your siblings after the second Titan War. Who convinced you to go up to the surface and help? Not Percy Jackson." Nico was screaming now.
"Who tried to bring Bianca back to life? Not Percy Jackson. Me! I did all those things! I went on a dangerous quest to get you back a sword you didn't even know existed."
"Percy went on it too." Alecto pointed out. She was squatting on the back of Hades' throne.
"Shut up!" He yelled at the Fury. She simply stretched out her wings and spiraled up to the ceiling less palace. "Do you honestly hate him so much that all that emotion just spills onto me when you see my face?" That was it. His face.
"My face." He realized. It was the way he looked. The way he acted. The way he talked and thought and smelled and saw. It was because of her.
"My face." Nico repeated.
"Yes. I believe you just talked about the state of your face." Hades swirled around and faced his throne. He sat down in its regal substance. "Now, the matter at hand-"
"That's why you hate me!" Nico cut off his father to the god's extreme annoyance. "I look like my mother. You can't stand the way I'm like her. You lost her forever, and now you can only have a part of her when you talk to me. But it isn't even a whole part. Just half. I'm a half-blood. A demigod. The son of Maria Di Angelo and Hades the Lord of the dastardly."
And with that final breath of courage, Nico walked out of the room and ran down a stone corridor, into a shadow. He took a deep breath and traveled to his empty cabin in Long Island, New York.
And once he sat down on his bed, Nico pressed a pillow to his face and wept.