Favonius' POV Prologue
I love ice cream. Being the west wind, I'm always a bit warm and ice cream is cold and refreshing. One of the best things about working for Cupid is there's an ice cream cart near his home. Just ahead of me right now.
Mortals surround me, walking at their leisure and stepping around my giant wings that they can't see. The girl working at the ice cream cart blushes when she sees me. I get that a lot being devilishly handsome and all. My mortal form is a tall, lean, young man about 18 years old with jet black, curly hair and warm brown eyes. The young (and sometimes old) mortal women just fall over themselves when they see me.
I hand the mortal girl a dollar and she gives me an ice cream sandwich. Cupid only gave me a 5 minute break so I guess I'll have to eat while I head back to Cupid's home: Diocletian's birthplace and my work place.
Salona (cupid's home) is a nice city even if it is ancient and falling apart. I make my way past the ruins of temples and rows of columns and sit down on the hill. Cupid will be here any moment and I'm determined not to be caught off guard this time. So I relax on the hillside and pretend I'm not prepared. My ice cream bar is now just a sticky mess held together by two bars of chocolate. Therefore I am forced to cram what's left of it into my mouth before it gets all over me. So now it's all over my face. What a mess. I'm still wiping off the childish mess on my face when the entire aura of the city changes and I am thrown off of my feet (or off my butt since I was sitting) Cupid chuckles.
"After working for me so long you still have not learned to prepare yourself against me," Cupid muses. I morph from my mortal form to the literal west wind. Cupid's invisible so it's only fair that I be invisible too. He can't touch me if I'm not solid anyway. "How can you ever avoid falling in love, if you can't even see it coming?" Cupid's question didn't follow up with a blow now that I was just a breeze, but his words hurt just as much. More even.
After I killed my boyfriend, Hyacinthus, Apollo took the new of the horrible deed that I'd done to the other main gods. Apollo couldn't directly take revenge on me, but he could get the gods to punish me. And so they elected that I be forbidden to ever fall in love. I thought this was a bit harsh. All of them had done something horrible to mortals at least a dozen times, even ones they had cared about too. Not to mention, their punishment was impossible. You can't just stop yourself from falling in love. Love is the kind of fall that happens when you stand on the edge of a cliff and the ground crumbles beneath your feet. Nearly impossible to stop. And unfortunately my wings do not apply to this metaphor so I wouldn't be able to fly away and save myself. Anyway, the irony is, the gods forbade me from falling in love, but I work for a love god who never tires of mocking my awkward position.
Cupid appears in front of me, all handsome and slightly evil looking.
"I have a job for you," he says. "Nico di Angelo proved himself to me when he faced me a year ago. I want you to end his suffering."
I blink. "Um, you want me to kill him?"
Cupid sighed. "No. I want you to find someone for him."
This wasn't in the job description. I brought people who sought love to Cupid. I wasn't supposed to find their OTP. But he's the boss, so I just say, "With whom?"
"That is for you to decide."
I nod and turn to leave but Cupid calls, "And Favonius?"
"Yes master?"
"You do remember Hyacinthus?"
I grit my teeth. "Yes master." Of course I remembered. No one else remembers as clearly as I do. It replays in my head every night after all.
"Good," Cupid says. "We wouldn't want another accident." And with that Cupid disappeared, leaving me to wonder what in Hades was he planning.
Chapter 1 Nico's POV
Jason's walking towards me annoying determination radiating off of him the way death radiates off of the dying. He's smiling a perfectly proportioned smile that he probably practices in front of the mirror just in case he has to pretend to be friends with someone who hates him. I'm one of the only one who doesn't idolize the son of Jupiter so that smile's normally directed at me.
"Hey Nico. How are you?" Jason asked.
"Better," I'd be a lot better if you'd leave. "I can walk around and everything now." The infirmary finally let me leave a week ago after an excruatiatingly long month of sitting in bed. I've never been so worn out from shadow traveling. And I've been pretty drained from shadow traveling before. When it was finally over I passed out for the umpteenth time and woke up with too many (like one or two people) taking care of me. I was tired of people taking care of me. "I only wish I could be let alone," I explain with a pointed glare. Jason ignored the hint and looked me over with a concerned look. There was a time when my silent, almost telepathic, threats scared him. But I guess I used them on him too much and he grew immune to them. Done studying me, Jason nodded his approval of my recovered health (as if I needed his approval) and asked, "Are you playing capture the flag tonight?"
"No"
"Why?"
"Because it's none of your business." I was already giving up. Jason was too frigging stubborn.
"You can't just hide from the world. You have to come out of the shadows and you might find that people accept you more than you think."
Yeah right. Come out of the shadows. How many times has he already said that? I will do no such thing. I won't be coming out of the closet either if that's what he's trying to say.
"Leave me alone," I say and turn my back to him. Jason grabs my arm. "Let go! What did I say about grabbing me?" I yell. He's too strong for me.
"Stop running away!" Jason yells back. We're attracting attention now. I stop struggling. "I'm not running away," I explain. "just getting away from an annoying hero who thinks he's my friend." Jason let's go shrinks back like he was actually hurt that I told him what he already knew. I run away.
There's too many people surrounding me as I run to my cabin. Most of them get out of the way. I bump into some of the slow ones who glare at me. Whatever. No one likes me here anyway. I reach my cabin and push the door open. My sister Hazel and her boyfriend Frank jump a little at my abrupt arrival. They're not really supposed to be in the cabin together, since it's against the rules. But it's Hazel. Hazel grew up in the 30's, only a few years before me, when everyone had sticks up their asses. No sex before marriage, no races you weren't familiar with, no gays. And Frank looks uncomfortable enough sitting on a bed with Hazel that I don't tell him to back up.
"Hi Nico! Do you want to sit with us?" Hazel said and gave Frank a meaningful glance. Frank cleared his throat, "Yeah! You should hang out with us," Frank said trying to sound sincere.
"No thanks. I was just…getting my sword."
"Oh. Are you playing capture the flag?"
"No," I said flatly. "Just practicing." Hazel frowned at me. She's been trying to get me to be more social and spend time with people more. I love her for trying but I wish she wouldn't. "Okay," Frank said. I grabbed my sword and hurried out. I might as well practice now. I'm not sure I'm strong enough to summon the dead so I head to the sword arena.
The arena is cold. Which is a good thing to me since I'm wearing all black on a sunny day. That is the only good thing. Percy's here. Percy stopped shredding the dummy he was working on when I walked in.
"Hey Nico." Wow. Third time I've heard that in one day.
"Hey," I mumbled back, trying to show as little emotion as possible. Which is pretty hard, since the mere sight of Percy fills me with emotion. Like pain, regret, love, and a lot of other really annoying teenage emotions. I hate being 15. It was so much easier being 10. At that time, when I saw Percy I just thought about holding his hand or giving him a little chaste kiss on the cheek. I could easily write that off as "friendly", but now what I thought about when I saw Percy was slightly less innocent and a lot harder to ignore.
I tried to step around Percy but he blocked me.
"Training alone?" he asks. I nod reluctantly. "We should train together then!" Percy says. Oh hades no. Being that close to Percy while he was sparring and probably displaying perfect muscles was not going to help me now.
"No thanks" I say.
"Oh come on. I'll go easy on you."
I'll go easy on you? Gods! Does he realize how annoying and demeaning it is when he treats me like I'm still a child? I don't want him to go easy on me! I want to like girls. I want to hate Percy. But as Bianca used to say, you can't always get what you want. I always hated it when she said that. Because it's true.
I meet Percy's sea green eyes with my dark brown ones and allow some of my anger seep into my voice. "I'd really rather train alone Percy," Percy looks hurt and he takes a step back like I actually physically hurt him. I don't care. I do not care. Yes I do, I'm going to regret this.
"Alright I can train with you for a little while," I say reluctantly.
Percy grins at me and moves into position to fight me. He can go easy on me if he likes. That doesn't mean I'll go easy on him.
Our blunt practice swords clang together and soon we are both in a daze as our trained bodies take over what we need to do. Sometimes I have trouble focusing when Percy's around (my ADHD's fault. Not mine) but when I'm fighting I'm pretty good at not getting stabbed because I was distracted by Percy's eyes.
I swing at Percy's head and he ducks. The force of my swing throws me off balance and before I crash into Percy, he grabs my arm, uses my momentum to push me onto the ground, and place his sword on my throat. I arch my head back trying to keep my throat from pressing into the sword too hard. I'm gasping for breath and for a panicky moment I can't breathe and it feels like I'm back in that bronze jar in Rome. Then Percy lifts his sword and I can breathe. I take Percy's hand when he offers to help me up and we stand face to face. I can feel Percy's breath on my face. He's too close. It's too hard for me not to lean forward and kiss him but somehow I manage to turn away quickly and pick up the blunt sword.
"Good job," I say with my back still turned to him while I put away the blunt sword away.
"You're leaving already?" Percy asks.
"Yeah. Thanks for sparring with me."
"Are you going to participate in capture the flag tonight?"
"No."
"Well you'll at least come to the goodbye campfire right?"
"No. Wait what?"
Percy blinks at me, "Um, remember? Now that the 2 camps are at peace everyone can stay where they want. Most people want to stay here, but some of the seven want to stay at Camp Jupiter. Tomorrows the day they leave. Annabeth and I are leaving."
I completely forgot. I knew Hazel and Frank were going back tomorrow, but I forgot more people were going. I hadn't really thought about going to the campfire to say goodbye. I wasn't close to any of the demigods who lived at Camp Half Blood.
"So are you coming?" Percy asked again.
"Okay," I answered without thinking. I was busy thinking about what I was going to do. Was I even going to stay anywhere?
"Do you know where you're going to stay Nico? You can stay wherever you want."
"Um, I'll think about it." I left and almost managed to not look back at Percy.
Everyone gathered around the campfire after Capture the Flag for their final bonfire together. The fire reflected the demigod's moods. Bright orange and dark purple. Everyone was happy to find a place to belong, but they were sad to leave their friends. I'm pretty sure I contributed to the darker colors in that fire. Hestia looked up from the flames and gave me a knowing look and I tried to cheer up.
I decided to stay at Camp Jupiter. I would be with Hazel my sister and Reyna who had grown to be like a sister to me. I looked over at Hazel. She smiled at me happy that I was going with her. My eyes moved to Percy. He was preoccupied with kissing Annabeth. They smiled every time they paused for air. I quickly looked away and my eyes didn't move up from my converse until the singing stopped and the campfire was over.
So many people cried. Annabeth and Piper hugged and sobbed. They hugged Hazel too. Piper's staying at camp half blood so they won't see her much. Jason and Percy hugged the way guys do, slapping each others backs. All around everyone was a mess. I stood at the edge of the crowd watching. I didn't cry because I wasn't leaving anything behind. But something still made me feel uneasy.
Hazel walked over to me and hugged me. As we were leaving for our cabin, Hazel asked, "Who's that" I followed her gaze and saw Hestia.
"Hestia," I answered. "She's the Greek goddess of the hearth."
Hazel's eyes widened. "A goddess?" she said sounding amazed. "But she looks so…young." She does look very young. And lonely.
"Would you like to meet her?" I ask Hazel. She turns and studies me. She's done this a lot lately. She loves me but she doesn't understand me.
"Alright," Hazel says and we walk over to Hestia.
Hestia looks up and smiles warmly at us. I bow and hazel does the same.
"Hello again lady,"
"Hello again Nico di Angelo and hello Hazel Levesque."
"Hi," Hazel says affection for the goddess who looks like a little girl showing in her voice. Hazel loves children. I know she'll be a good mother. "I read about you at Camp Jupiter. I thought it was so brave that you gave up your throne for Bachus, I mean Dionysus."
Hestia smiled again, "You are kind Hazel I like that about you. It wasn't brave though, I just did what I could to keep my family together." Hestia turned to me then. "I'm sure Nico would do whatever it takes to keep his family together too." Hazel nods in agreement but I suddenly felt really exposed like there was a spotlight pointed at me. I stared at my shoes again. I'm not very brave. I run when I don't want to handle things, but I do think I would do anything for Hazel. I had for Bianca. So why did I feel so guilty?
"Well," said Hestia interrupting my thoughts, "You have to get up early tomorrow. I don't want to keep you up too late." Hazel smiled at Hestia again, "Thank you Hestia. I hope I see you again." We got up but Hestia said "Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to speak to Nico for a minute?" I froze. Did I do something wrong? Hazel agreed and before I could react she left.
"Please sit down Nico. You've done nothing wrong," Hestia soothed. I sat across from her stiffly.
Hestia looked me straight in the eyes and stayed staring at me until I started to feel even more uncomfortable.
"Um, you wanted to tell me something?" I asked.
"Yes. I was wondering how well you are dealing with things right now."
I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. Was this going to be like another therapy session with Jason in which she tries to get me to come out? "Ok I guess," I answer.
Hestia frowns. "I am not talking about Percy, Nico. Where have you chosen to stay?"
"Um, Camp Jupiter?"
"Are you sure you're happy with that choice?"
"Um I think so. I'll be with Hazel"
Hestia smiles again, "Your sister, I like her. And as I said I'm sure you would do anything for her, but you have to live for yourself too. You can't live your life to make her happy. So I want to know if this is really the choice you want to make right now."
My eyes wander to my shoes again. I'm feeling guiltier by the second. I understand that she's trying to help me but I don't know why. I don't know what. Now that she mentions it though, I don't think I want to go to Camp Jupiter. I shake my head slowly.
"I told Hazel I would stay," is all I can manage.
"And maybe, you will someday. But are you ready to commit, to belong somewhere again?"
No. I'm not. I can't. I don't know how. I haven't stayed in one place since I was 10. And before then I didn't really have a home. Bianca was my home and I lost her.
My voice comes out hoarse when I say, "I only know how to run away from things. I wanted to give Hazel a home when I saw her in Hades. She deserved that, but I don't know how make a home for myself." Hestia's palm is warm on my cheek.
"That's alright," she says softly. "You are strong Nico di Angelo."
I look up at her and she continues, "You have had a hard life and you have made it through a series of obstacles all on your own. Not many people can do that. But most people know how to lean on others and you do not. Learn to do that. Find where you belong. After everything you deserve that."
My vision goes blurry and I realize I'm crying. I hate that I can't control my own emotions. I try to box it up, but it ends up erupting from me like a volcano eventually.
"Why are you trying to help me?" I ask.
"Because I care about you. You are a kind boy even if others especially yourself do not recognize it. I saw it the very first day you came to camp and you spoke to me. No one ever thinks of me, but you did. This is my way of thanking you. Now go to bed. You have a big decision to make." I obeyed and Hestia stood up on the tips of her toes and kissed me on the forehead. It felt like a blessing like when the good witch kissed Dorothy to give her protection in The Wizard of Oz. Bianca read that to me once.
"Sleep well Nico di Angelo."
Hazel's still awake when I step into our cabin.
"Are you ok? You look a little pale. What did Hestia tell you?"
"I'm alright. Hestia just helped me realize something."
Hazel nods satisfied. She looks so happy. She's completely oblivious of the choice I'm about to make. She thinks I'm going to Camp Jupiter with her and I don't want to tell her I'm not. So I say goodbye to her in the only way I can without telling her. She'll understand when I'm gone.
"Hazel I just wanted to say I'm so grateful I found you that day. I was sad and lonely because Bianca left, but I found you. I'm proud to be your older brother Hazel."
Hazel looks even happier and I feel even guiltier.
"I'm glad you found me too. I grew up an only child, but I always wanted siblings. Now I have you and I wouldn't wish for anyone else to have found me that day," Hazel says. I feel stupidly happy when she says that even though I'm not sure it's true. I'm her only other relative besides Hades. But if this was the 30's she'd have tons of siblings. I'd hardly stand out and if my secret got out I don't know if she'd still wish it was me who found her.
I kiss her cheek and say goodnight and I'll see her in the morning. I won't and I hate myself for being such a liar.