xXGoldenDarknessXx: Thank you for being my very first reviewer for this story! I meant to upload two days ago but then I had to go camping with my family. But I hope you like it!

Mrs-diAngelo25: I like both types of Hades, I think I prefer writing for the one I use in this story. I'm really excited about the way I'm doing these chapters.

infinity heart star lightning: I think you'll probably be crying in future chapters. I have everything planned out and I've written half the story all ready, so I don't think there will be any problem with uploading on time.

raisa864: Hey, you're new! Sorry, before you the reviewers were all people who I recognized, and it was pretty exciting to see a new person. Thank you so much, I hope you like the new chapter!

SummerSpirit18: That chapter was intended to make you sad, but if that makes you sad just wait for the next few chapters. I think this chapter is even more angsty.

TeamLeo: Thank you, I hope the wait wasn't too long.

I don't own Percy Jackson or Forgiven by Within Temptation.

Chapter 2 – Sixth Grade

"Nico?" he heard from the kitchen. Nico groaned quietly. He didn't want to talk to his father. He knew they were having a guest for dinner, Hades had told him this morning, and he knew that it was his father's girlfriend. Hades thought he was being secretive, but Nico knew. He'd heard them talking on the phone the other night. And he really didn't want to meet his father's girlfriend, Persephone, her name was. He especially didn't want to imagine what the two of them were getting up to the nights when his father was away. He'd managed to subdue those images until now, but once he knew what Persephone looked like he knew he wouldn't be able to push them out of his mind. He'd much prefer to go lie in his room with his headphones on and pretend that there wasn't a huge pile of homework waiting for him.

But he couldn't avoid them, so he dropped his backpack by the door and went into the kitchen.

His father was sitting at the table next to a woman. She had black hair and sparkling black eyes, but all Nico could think was that her eyes didn't sparkle nearly as much as his mother's had. They weren't the same color, either; Persephone's eyes were black, as black as night, with what looked like little gold flakes in them, although Nico wasn't close enough to tell. Maria's had been dark dark dark brown, so that they looked like the darkest of dark chocolate. Persephone's were gorgeous, but Maria's had been warm and beautiful. Nico had his mother's eyes.

"Nico, this is Persephone," Hades said, smiling.

Nico nodded. "Hi." His voice was emotionless, like his face.

Persephone smiled, too. "Hi," she said, sticking out her hand for him to shake. He stared at her and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Hades cleared his throat and gave Nico a pointed look. Persephone noticed it and laughed. Her laugh was beautiful, but to Nico it sounded like nails on a chalk board. His mother's laugh had been like honey. Bianca had gotten his mother's laugh. Nico couldn't remember what his laugh sounded like. It had been so long since he'd laughed.

"Don't worry, I'm used to it. I'm a school teacher," she told Nico, then turned back to his father. "A lot of kids aren't very receptive on the first day of school."

Hades laughed with her, but he was looking at Nico, his eyes begging. Nico's eyes were like stone. "I have homework," he mumbled, and rushed back to his room.

Hades sighed. "He seems like a sweet boy," Persephone remarked.

"He is. Once you get past the not-so-sweet part." But Hades hadn't seen the sweet part of Nico in a while. Actually, he hadn't much of Nico in a while. He was usually at work, and Nico was usually at school.

"Like a nut." Persephone laughed. "You have to get past the hard shell to find the good part. How old is he?"

"Eleven."

Persephone hummed and nodded. "Sixth grade?"

"Yeah," Hades said, and stood up. "Dinner?"

Persephone laughed again. "It's four o'clock!"

Hades gave her a smile. "But by the time we're finished it will be seven."

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't take three hours to make spaghetti."

"It does when I'm cooking."

They laughed, and Hades led Persephone to the cooking area.

Nico sighed and put his headphones over his ears. He didn't want to hear them laughing together. Didn't his father remember Maria? Why would he choose someone else? Especially someone like Persephone. She was so…fake. She was a teacher, of course she was fake. Nico had never met a teacher who wasn't fake. Fake smiles, fake enthusiasm. He had thought once he got to middle school the teachers would stop being fake. Or maybe it was just him. They thought he couldn't hear them, but he could. He was never Nico, he was always Bianca di Angelo's younger brother. And that would have been fine, except he wasn't Bianca's younger brother because she'd been such a wonderful student and they expected him to do just as wonderfully. No, he was Bianca's younger brother because she'd died in seventh grade and they felt sorry for him. And of course they had him all figured out because that's what they did, right? They figured kids out. He was just a messed up little boy to them and he could see the pity in their eyes and he hated it. He hated them.

He hadn't even been paying attention to what he was listening to until a familiar piano intro started. Normally he skipped this one, in fact he hadn't heard the whole thing in months. But today he let it play, listening to the words as tears ran down his cheeks.

Couldn't save you from the start, loved you so it hurt my soul. It was about Bianca. He didn't know how they'd known and maybe it hadn't been written for Bianca but it was about her. It was everything he wanted to say to her.

Here I am left in silence. You gave up the fight, you left me behind, all that's done's forgiven. You'll always be mine, I know deep inside, all that's done's forgiven. He contemplated throwing his iPod across the room, but he couldn't make his arms move. He hated the song, he hated the singer, he hated Bianca for leaving him. But he couldn't hate Bianca, because if he hated Bianca then what did he have left? A father and his father's girlfriend. Great.

I've been so lost since you've gone. Why not me before you? Why did fate deceive me? Everything turned out so wrong. "Why did you leave me in silence?" His mouth moved unconsciously with the words as tears blurred his vision.

When his father opened the door to his room he found Nico asleep on his bed. If he'd looked closer he would have seen tear tracks running down Nico's face, but he didn't, just shut the door behind him.

Hades proposed two months later, which Nico thought was ridiculous, they'd only been dating for eight months. But he didn't say anything, just tried to be happy for them. And for once he really did try, tried to think of all the reasons why this was a good thing, tried to smile at them when they told him, and for a few minutes he managed it.

But the wedding night came too soon, really, they should have waited more than a month after the proposal. It was a beautiful ceremony, at least that's what the lady sitting next to Nico kept whispering to him. She smelled like old person sweat and cat pee and mints and he spent the entire time trying not to gag, and so missed the ceremony all together, not that he was upset. He was sure there would be plenty of photos.

After the wedding Nico was assaulted by people saying congratulations, and he wasn't sure why because he wasn't the one who just got married. Do people really congratulate you on getting a new stepmother?

When he finally escaped the well-wishers he knew he couldn't go to the reception, he'd die. Dancing and smiling for hours, and after the way that lady had smelled he didn't think he'd be able to stomach any wedding cake. Although he had to laugh at the ornament on top of the cake. Instead of the traditional bride and groom standing next to each other, the bride was pulling the groom by the collar. Which, now that he thought about it, might have been exactly what happened.

So Nico left and wandered around the streets for a while. He contemplated going to Percy's, but he didn't want to have to tell to his best friend why he wasn't at his father's wedding. He told Percy just about everything, but what Percy didn't know Nico wouldn't have to explain.

So he wandered until he found himself at the docks. He'd been gone for nearly an hour and a half now, but he couldn't imagine his father or Persephone worrying about him. So he sat down on the docks with his feet dangling over the water. There was no moon and the docks weren't used anymore so there were no lights and the water was dark. Nico liked it. It was quiet.

He put his hands into his jacket pockets and felt something. Pulling it out he realized he'd pocketed one of the matchbooks they'd used that day in science. He opened the matchbook. It was full, it must have been one of the new ones. He struck a match, and it blazed to life. He liked how it looked against the water. He dropped it, and it sizzled as the water extinguished it.

He lit another and dropped it into the water. Absently he continued lighting and dropping the matches, watching them burn and then sizzle out.

Would his father come? Would Hades notice that his son was missing, or would he be too excited with his new bride. Come to think of it, did Nico even want to be at home tonight? Or had they booked a hotel room somewhere? Because really, Nico didn't want to be home for that.

Maybe Percy's mom would let him stay the night, just to be safe. But no, he was staying with them for three weeks while Hades and Persephone went on their honeymoon. He couldn't impose on them for even longer.

He'd finished lighting all the matches and was staring at the empty matchbook, contemplating dropping it into the water as well, when he heard the characteristic shouting and laughing of drunk teenagers on a Friday night. He'd had a run in with a group of drunk teenagers a few months ago, which had resulted in a sprained ankle and a nasty cut on his cheek, and Nico had no desire to repeat that. So he ran from the docks and away from the direction of the voices and didn't stop running until he'd gotten home.

It was nearly one o'clock in the morning when he got there. Hades and Persephone weren't home yet and Nico assumed they were either still at the reception (he'd heard those things could last a long time) or they really had booked a hotel room and not told him. Actually they might have told him, he rarely listened to them. But really, who would leave an eleven year old at home alone?

He poured himself a glass of water and went to his room to drink it in case they were at the reception and they came home before he'd gone to bed.

He didn't find out where they'd been because he didn't leave his room until Monday morning.

I was so excited when I saw the email for my first review. The first chapter of my last multi-chapter story - The Sadness of Mistakes - didn't get a single review. Which I guess isn't surprising since it was my first multi-chapter story, but it was still really exciting to see that the first chapter of this story got five reviews.

Okay, I meant to upload on Monday, but then my parents made me go camping for two days. I got back like an hour ago and went straight to the library to upload. There will always be at least a week long wait between chapters (except for this one, I'll upload on Monday unless I have a very good reason). I plan to upload on Mondays, but if I don't it's because I don't have access to a computer that I can upload from or because I haven't finished the chapter. But don't worry, I've got the first five chapters finished and I'm about halfway through the sixth. So we should be okay.

Oh my God, school starts next week. I'm not sure if I'm excited or not. My schedule is awful, but it'll be nice not to sit around the house all day. And I'll still have all the writing time, I usually write in class. So I think I'm pretty excited. I still don't have a job, but I'm going job hunting tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I have spent the days counting down to the day I could update, but I made myself wait a week. I will definitely update on Monday, I promise. And chapter 3 is better than either of the two chapters I've already uploaded.

Review, and I'll see you all on Monday (well, sort of)!