A/N:

First published in archiveofourown under the name sharlatan, written for skyrat. i'd never read the tale before trying to write this so i hope this still had the original flavor in it loll

...

Once upon a time in the rolling hills of Attica, there was a man with 12 children. That by itself is not unusual, because in the olden days before advanced medical care families had many children to combat the high childhood mortality rate, but this man had been blessed with the fact that none of his children died. They didn't succumb to the plague, the scarlet fever, or any other kind of disease. Unfortunately, this meant that he had to care for many people, so when the 13th child came, the man didn't know where to turn for help.

In desperation he went into the woods, where Zeus, the king of gods, found him. "Let me be the godfather of your son, and I will take care of him and bring him happiness on earth." The man refused, for he thought that Zeus only gave to the rich and starved the poor.

When the king of gods left, Thanatos, the god of death, came. "Make me the godfather of your child, for with me as a friend he will lack nothing."

To this the man agreed, for Death took everyone without consideration of their status. The child thus became a godson of Death, Nico di Angelo, and our story begins

It was a dark and stormy night. There had been a succession of dark and stormy lights leading up to Nico's 16th birthday. Sometimes Nico wondered if the weather had echoed his mood, because his 16th birthday is the day when he will be kicked out of the household. Oh, that's not what they say it was. They used phrases like, "Becoming a man!" and "Setting out for yourself!" and even"Beginning your journey into adulthood, alone!"

If only Bianca was there, but Bianca had disappeared one day when they were out in the woods, and no one had ever seen her again. It was rumored that the goddess of the hunt had taken a liking to her and added her into her train of immortal huntresses, and Nico had known that this was so. She was the sister closest to his age and cared for him in the rambling household full of people, and she was also the one one who abandoned him first.

As the rest of his family clapped him on his back and made toasts to his achievement of staying alive for 16 years, a single knock on the door broke through the celebration. His father looked at Nico and said, "That's for you, my son.

Take your bags and go now. I wish you luck."

"Thanks," Nico mumbled, then reluctantly picked up a small bag of his meager belongings and answered the door. A beautiful man stood outside, with great big wings the color of the night, only those wings did not blend in the night but stood out from it. His wings almost offensively exuded an impression of, look at us and look at how nightlike we look, even nightlier than an ordinary night! The man himself was dark as well, and much better looking than any of the boys inside the house or in the village.

"Come with me," the beautiful man said, as the rain fell on him but failed to make him wet.

With a last look at his father, who nodded to speed him along, Nico set out into the turbulent night.

The man led him into the woods, and Nico followed him there, wondering if he, like his sister, will be snatched up by a godly force. Perhaps he will become Zeus' personal cupbearer, although he stopped that train of thought immediately. He was not so handsome that the king of gods will take an interest in him, and Nico's brain nearly fried when he thought about the duties of the cupbearer of gods. Tempting, but no, and also impossible.

"I am Death," said the beautiful man, "and I am also your godfather."

Nico knew enough about revering the gods to bow to the man-no, the god- in front of him.

"It's an honor to meet you, Thanatos. Er, I imagined you to be a bit, uh, different."

"That's a common sentiment," Thanatos replied. "But here I am and here I will help you along your way."

"You will?" Nico wondered if the god will also give him a pat on his back and a long speech about his journey into manhood.

"You will be a physician," the god said.

"What?"

"I said that you will be a physician," Thanatos repeated himself, this time his beautiful face frowning a little because of Nico's apparent inattention. "I will make you the best physician-" he stopped here, then corrected himself, "the second best physician, because of course you will not be as brazen as Asclepius is."

"That's, very generous of you," Nico wondered if he had to enter into an apprenticeship now.

"I will send you to the place where you can learn the secrets of medicine, and then when the time comes I shall help you become the best-sorry, the second best."

Saying that, Thanatos placed a hand onto Nico's shoulder and then the world winked out of existence for a second. In the next second the world winked back into Nico's eyes, and it was completely different. He was standing, alone, in front of a palace where an old bearded man was waiting for him.

"Ah, there you are!" the old man exclaimed, and walked toward him. "I have been waiting for a long time for you, ever since the dream came!" He beamed at Nico.

"Who are you?" Nico asked, his mind reeling from all the changes. He clutched his small bag to his chest tightly, but his possessions didn't bring him the comfort that he so desperately needed.

"I, young man, am your teacher," the old man boomed, "and you, you little skinny tyke, are my student and successor!"

Without another word, Nico was whisked away from the palace gates and into the streets. The sights and sounds of a busy city suddenly assaulted him, and despite the huge changes to his life, Nico caught himself grinning. He was excited, why wouldn't he be? This was probably the greatest thing that ever happened to him! The only thing that could make it better is if Bianca- no, don't think about her. Slightly subdued, he followed the old man into a clean building and entered his new life.

Word has been spreading like fire throughout all of Greece, that a new genius physician had arrived. He was no Asclepius, that was true, but Asclepius was a son of a god and now a god himself, and Nico di Angelo was human through and through. Nico di Angelo could look at a person and divine whether or not the person is curable, and if they are the patient was sure to live. No one knew that the secret to his power was due to the influence of his godfather, Thanatos.

When Nico had finished his training under the old man who was Asclepius in disguise, Thanatos had appeared to him again.

"My godson, I will now tell you the secret to your success. Whenever you are seeing to a patient, I will appear at the bedside of that person. If I am standing to the head of the person, they shall live and you may administer care. If I am standing at the feet of the person, then it is their time and you must not cure them. If you dare to cheat me I will, in the words of your master, make you regret that, you little tyke." Pleased with himself, Thanatos then vanished, leaving a very disoriented man in his wake.

Now let us leave the side of Nico di Angelo while he is busy making a name for himself. The city that he arrived in all those years ago had a palace, and within the palace it had a royal family, and within the royal family there was a demigod.

Jason, son of Zeus, heir to the throne of the kingdom, and currently running a high fever. It was a hot day, filled with sword fighting, wrestling, and state lessons. He started out feeling a little chilly during the morning, hoping to warm up during the day, but all that happened was that Jason was sweating buckets all the freezing to death. No one was aware that Jason was running a high fever, not the sword master, not the lyre master (who commented that Jason's voice was a bit raspy that day), and not even Jason himself. Sickness was something that happened to other people, and he had never been sick before.

So it was like this that Jason was wandering through the outskirts of the city, hoping that the beautiful scenery and the shade of the woods could somehow make him feel better.

He breathed heavily, and sighed. This was a bad idea. The leaves shaded him from the sun, but also left him shivering. The scenery was beautiful, but it did nothing to quell the pounding in his head. Was he cursed, was that it? He forced himself to start thinking of a plan. A sacrifice to the gods, that was what was needed. When he gets back to the palace he needs to order a sacrifice to the gods, and then he has to contact Thalia to see if she and her godly mistress has any idea about the curse that he was surely under. A quest might even be needed in order to lift this. He also needed to start instructing his little brother about the art of statecraft, because if he died from this curse his brother will have to replace him as the prince and heir to the kingdom.

There were so many things to do, Jason felt overwhelmed. During his moment of weakness, there was no mental barrier he could erect to prevent the responsibilities from crushing him. So many things, so many people, he has to overcome this curse. Somehow.

With this thought in his mind, Jason renewed his resolution and started to walk back to the city. Unfortunately, it's at this moment when he sneezed, tripped on a root, and slowly watched the world become fuzzier by the second. Before he passed out completely, he thought he heard a melodious voice say, "Ow, the fuck is this person doing here?!"

When Jason woke up the first thing he noticed was a white ceiling and the fact that he was lying down. He stayed still, listening to see if there was anyone else in the room. A series of soft snores alerted him to the presence of a man sleeping in a chair across the small room. Jason sat up slowly, eyes flickering across himself, the bed, the room, searching for exits and his sword in case things became dangerous. The pounding in his head had ceased and he was feeling normal again; he briefly wondered if he had been deluding himself about the curse. When Jason located his sword, he snatched it up immediately and tiptoed his way to the sleeping man.

His sense of preservation clashed with his honor. This man had obviously picked him up when he fell unconscious in the woods, so it wouldn't be courteous to point the sword at him. However, who knew what the stranger had in mind? But he didn't take away your sword, his mind argued with him. Maybe he was just stupid, Jason thought. This man didn't offer bread or wine yet, so he's not under hospitality. His mind argued again that as Jason was unconscious it would've been hard to feed bread and wine, and anyways the stranger could've saved Jason from being trampled upon by deer or eaten by wolves so-

The man woke up. His eyes trained themselves on Jason' sword.

"I hope you're not about to introduce me to your sword," his voice was the melodious tone that Jason had heard. The stranger, who was handsome when he was sleeping, was absolutely captivating when he woke. Jason didn't drop his sword, only slipped it into his sheath with trembling fingers.

"That's better," the stranger smiled, and Jason felt himself smiling with him too. "I'm Nico, and you are?"

"Jason," he replied. "This is your house, right?"

"Yeah, it's my little shack in the woods," Nico stood up, and his tunic slipped a bit to reveal his freckled collar bones. Nico had light freckles everywhere, Jason noticed, then noticed that he noticed and told himself to stop it. This was not the time to be ogling at the cutie.

"Are you hungry? I have some bread and wine for you," Nico asked, and there was a quiet tension, signalling the beginning of a contract over the room. If Jason accepted Nico's offer of hospitality, it would ensure his safety under Nico's roof as well as his own behavior. "It's dark outside and you can stay here for the night."

"Thank you, I'd like that," he replied. Nico grinned again, and Jason felt his heart beat faster. He led Jason to a different room and brought out the wine and bread, sharing them with Jason, and the hospitality contract was complete.

"So, would you mind telling me why I found you alone and passed out in the woods, while you were running a high fever to boot?"

"I was running a fever?"

"You were burning up so bad I was surprised when Tha- I was surprised that you were even curable." Nico sloshed his wine around a cup and drank it, licking a stray red drop that trickled from his lips.

"I- I wasn't aware that I had a fever," now Jason felt dumb, he had even been planning for his funeral and his brother's succession to his position, for goodness' sakes! "Good thing you seem to be a doctor, huh?" He gestured around at the room filled with herbs and medical supplies.

"Good thing you weren't a crook who would immediately kill me when you woke up," replied Nico.

"Haha, sorry about that, just needed to make sure of everything first," Jason chuckled uncomfortably. "I'm the prince, so assassinations and kidnappings aren't exactly unusual."

That got Nico's full attention. "The prince? Prince Jason? You're the prince?"

"Yeah," Jason scratched his head, "I'm not saying this to brag about it, but I just figured that since I owe you hospitality and all you should know about it. And I'll reward you for saving me, just come to the palace-"

"No need," Nico interrupted. "If this was an official medical call then I won't mind, but I don't take payment from people I stumble upon in the woods and then take as guests," he sniffed distastefully, "bad practice."

"Still, I need to do something for you," Jason insisted.

The man hesitated. He looked at Jason, "Visit me often when I'm here, then. It would be nice to be friends with royalty," he explained hurriedly, taking his eyes off of Jason suddenly. "Because of, uh, benefits, yeah. That's it. Benefits of being friends with royalty."

Jason cleared his throat, embarrassed by how much Nico's red face is affecting him. "That'd be nice, uh, it'd be really nice. How will I know when you are here?"

"You'd just know, they always talk about it when Nico di Angelo is in town," explained Nico. "I'm kind of famous."

"Nico di Angelo…you're the physician!" Jason exclaimed. "The one-"

"Second best to Asclepius, yeah I know, I know. But I can't just start bringing people back from the dead, can I?" Nico looked pointedly at Jason.

"Of course, of course," he agreed with him immediately, making Nico look satisfied with his response.

Morning came while Nico and Jason were still talking. Nico would be silent for a while, but then a gleam would come into his eyes and he could go on and on about whatever subject peaked his interest. He had no reservations towards Jason either, even when he knew that Jason was a prince. Jason was under the impression that Nico saw even royalty as part of the natural cycle of life and therefore, equal to the poorest patients.

"Do you often ask people who you save to be your friend?" he asked Nico, as the sky changed from inky black to a dusky blue.

"No, not often," he replied, then frantically added on, "I-I mean, most of them aren't like you, uh, I meant to say that they're not royalty. L-like I told you, royal benefits, I uh…better be invited to some banquets?" He tacked that on the end of his explanation, as if wondering whether or not royal benefits meant being invited to banquets.

Jason laughed. "Of course, I'll invite you to all the banquets you want."

When the chariot of Apollo finally came appeared, Jason and Nico set out into the woods and to the city. Nico came into the city with him, but as soon as they entered the crowd, he disappeared.

Nico was fucked the moment he stumbled on the stranger in the woods. Fucked right in the heart with Eros' arrow stuck there. Every time he talked to Jason, every time he even looked at the other man the arrow twanged and made his insides turn into jelly. And he was a prince, and perhaps by some twisted chance Nico might be permitted to be with him but it would never last, and also, he berated himself, it wasn't possible.

Jason, Jason, Jason! He fell in love with that hair, those lips, those eyes, that chiseled nose, that dumb little scar. Jason, Jason, Jason! Nico remembered lifting him into his bed (his bed! Jason had slept in his bed!), relieved that Thanatos had been standing by Jason's head, made him drink the water and the herbal cure, washed his face and waited for him to wake until Nico himself fell asleep. Jason, Jason, Jason! And the man had kept his promise, had visited Nico often, had talked to him, laughed with him, so much so that Nico found himself wandering through Jason's country often. He even bought a little shop to turn into his clinic in the city.

And Jason didn't notice a thing, or do a thing. The man sometimes blushed and looked at Nico a fraction of the way that Nico wished Jason would look at him, but it never came to be more than that. Maybe I should take the initiative, Nico occasionally thought, but then the sight of Jason surrounded by beautiful women would occur and he would dispel his thoughts.

It came to be one day that the king fell ill. So ill that it was rumored to be that there was no more time left and that Jason would soon be the new king.

Jason came into Nico's clinic that day.

"You have to help me," he said, "please."

"To make sure your father doesn't die or to make sure he does?" Nico joked.

"Nico, I'm being serious," Jason gripped Nico's shoulders tightly. "Please, help him. Save his life."

"Take me to him and I'll see what I can do," he said.

Jason led Nico into the palace and the bedchambers of the old king. Thanatos was there, standing at the foot of the king.

"There is-" Nico hesitated, he looked at Jason. His love's eyes weren't red from crying, he knew that because Jason had been holding it in. Jason had been holding everything in and he was so tense and sad and worried that-that-

Nico sighed. "I can do something about this."

Thanatos looked at him sharply, but Nico ignored his godfather, he knew that because he was his godson Thanatos would forgive him for one time, this one time only. He ordered the king to be turned so that Thanatos stood next to the head of the king, and proceeded to administer the cure.

Three days later, when the king finally broke his fever, Jason whooped and hugged Nico tightly.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he clamored into Nico's ears. "Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Nico replied faintly, staring at his godfather. Thanatos was invisible to everyone else, and when Jason released Nico, he leaned into Nico's ears as well.

"Child, you have broken my rule. I will overlook it this one time because I care for you, but if it happens again I will personally end your life."

"I know," Nico whispered. He looked at the confused Jason, "I mean, I'm kind of tired, I'm going to go home now." He turned to go, but was stopped when Jason grasped his shoulders again, this time, tenderly.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm incredibly grateful," Jason leaned in -and Nico hoped, he hoped so hard- and placed a gentle kiss on Nico's cheek. He then leaned his forehead against Nico's, "Thanks, get some good rest, okay?"

That day Nico stumbled home with red cheeks and a pounding heart.

His good mood didn't last, and three days after Nico had left the city to visit a shrine, Jason was struck down.

It was the same disease that had almost taken his father, and by the time Nico rushed into the city, into the palace, and into Jason's bedchamber, Thanatos was already standing next to Jason's feet.

"Nico?" Jason's voice was hoarse, "You know, I don't think it's a curse this time," he joked, having once told Nico what he had thought his first fever had been.

Nico didn't say a thing, he only sat next to Jason, took his hand, and started to try and memorize everything about Jason before he had to go.

"Is this curable?" Jason asked. Even in sickness he still retained all of his glory, though his voice is a bit hoarse.

Nico still didn't say a thing, because Jason will live, and he wouldn't, and that's okay, it really is, he just wanted to look at him more. Just a bit more.

Fearing the bad news, Jason sighed, but looked relieved. "Since I'm dying anyway I think I can tell you now that I've been in love with you for a pretty long time."

And that was it, that was the big reveal, the big peak in this whole mess. It sounded a bit small in the room, like it was some sort of nonchalant declaration similar to "the sky is blue, the grass is green". Well, apparently "Jason Grace is in love with Nico di Angelo" can be added to that now. Nico smiled, grateful that at least he had this.

"Don't be an idiot, Jason, of course this is curable." He pressed a small kiss to Jason's hand and one more to Jason's lips. At least he had this.

When Jason's fever broke three days later, again he looked around his room, waiting to see the man slumped against a table sleeping. This time, Nico wasn't there.

Jason would undergo many trials and tribulations before he ever saw Nico again, but that is a tale for another time.