Disclaimer: I do not own PJatO, HoO, or ToA

AN: Special thanks to Charmed Forever Fan and coralie14 for their kind reviews. And thank you to everyone who favorited or followed.


"Get out." Percy halted, his face bewildered as he stared at Nico in disbelief.

"You promised!" His sister stared at him in shock. Nico sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and counting to ten. This could not be happening to him. He would open his eyes, and Percy Jackson would not be standing in the middle of his living room, dead as a door-nail. Of course, when he looked again nothing had changed.

"C'mon Neeks, you don't mean that." Nico ignored him, focusing instead on his guilty looking sister.

"No. I am not watching him. Find someone else." Her hands were twisting the hem of her sweater nervously as she glared at the floor.

"Nico, you promised." His eyes narrowed, gaze hardening.

"Yeah, and you left out some pertinent information before that. So I'd say it's really shitty of you to expect me to go through with said promise." Makaria shrank back at the venom in his voice, and Nico almost, almost, felt bad about hurting her feelings.

"Nico dude, I didn't know it was your birthday." Percy had made his way to the cake, helped himself to a slice, and was currently attempting to eat. The cake of course fell through him as soon as he dropped it in his mouth, the plop deafening in the tense room. Nico blinked at him, once, twice, then groaned as he went to find the paper towels in the pile of boxes.

"You've known him for eight years and you don't even know his birthday?" Makaria's voice had reached a decibel that threatened to alert all the dogs in the neighborhood to her presence.

"Don't act all indignant on my behalf. I'm still mad at you." He stalked past her, trying to clean up the chocolate mess Percy fucking Jackson left on his floor.

"The real question," Percy muttered, blushing and ignoring being called out on not knowing his friend's birthday, "Is why I can't eat." Nico rolled his eyes, snatching the cake from Percy and glowering at him.

"You are dead. Of course you can't eat mortal food." He snatched the plate from a flustered Percy, and slammed it on the counter. He turned back to his sister, eyes narrowed. "I cannot deal with this. You need to take him somewhere else." Nico pretended he didn't hear Percy's sputtering and squawking behind him as he stared Makaria down.

She studiously avoided his gaze, still twiddling with her sweater, shoulders hunched. "It's not like I have anywhere else to take him." She chanced a glance at him and quickly cowered under his fury. "Uncleseidon will be furious with dad if he finds out." She paused, picking a stray fiber from the sleeve. "And you know Percy won't just behave. He'll cause an incident. And no matter how much daddy loves me, even he can't keep this under wraps if we don't do our part."

Nico clinched his fists. She was right. Percy wouldn't just wait. He'd do something stupid. He always did something stupid. And with the peace between the Big Three so tenuous… Anything could unbalance it.

"You call my dad Uncleseidon?"

"Yeah, all the kids of the underworld do. It's kind of a thing." Nico sighed, fighting the amusement back.

"No, you idiot, only you call him that." Makaria stuck her tongue out, hands on her hips. Nico shook his head and directed his attention back to Percy. Percy was giving him that look. That Percy look. Like he was the cutest baby seal on the face of the planet and Nico was the only one standing between him and disaster. He sighed. "I guess you can stay. You'd cause too much trouble if I left you on your own."

Percy's grin made all of this stress worth it. And it terrified Nico. "Man, thanks. You are the best." He went to clap Nico on the shoulder, which Nico skillfully dodged. He ignored the hurt in Percy's gaze as Makaria started making her way to the door.

"Well this is wonderful. Everything is in order and I can just be on my way-"

"Oh, no you don't." Percy interrupted, stopping the goddess from leaving the apartment. "I still have a ton of questions." She huffed, trudging to the couch and slumping down.

"Fine. It's not like I have work to do or anything." Nico scoffed, joining her on the sofa.

"You don't have work to do." She nudged him playfully, a smile playing on her lips.

"I know. But I do have a date later." Percy stomped over, a frown still in place, though he focused most of his ire on Makaria, and squeezed himself onto the two seater, pressing himself uncomfortably close to Nico.

"Newsflash, this is a little more important. How did I even wind up dead? You said I wasn't fated to die, so… What happened?" Nico had to agree with Percy on this one. He had never heard of something like this happening. Makaria blushed, looking anywhere but at Percy.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure? I mean, fate is usually pretty open to interpretation, but not when it comes to death. Daddy hates it when things are out of balance, so the Fates make extra sure that that side of things run smoothly." Percy frowned, considering this.

"But, that makes it even more confusing." Percy leaned closer, invading Nico's personal space. Nico tried to back away, but with the confined space he was stuck. "Nothing adds up."

"I've been thinking about that too." Makaria nodded, getting quiet and thoughtful. "The only thing that makes sense is for someone to be messing with fate." She smiled, waving wildly. "But, I mean we all know that doesn't make sense either."

"Do we?" It was out of his mouth before he could stop it. Nico didn't want to be roped into some grand mystery. He didn't want to find some crazy person meddling with fate, he just wanted to enjoy his new apartment and relax.

Percy perked up, the exuberance rolling off of him in waves. "Yeah, I mean, someone could doing this on purpose. And it's our job to stop them.

"Uh, we don't know that anything fishy is going on, it could just be a fluke." Makaria looked about as excited about solving this as Nico did. Which is to say not at all. Percy crossed his arms petulantly, pouting at both of them.

"Even so," he muttered, "You are going to help me, right?" Makaria sighed, leaning back.

"I mean, yeah. I've got to talk to the fates, get this whole death thing," she gestured at him broadly, "Fixed. And I guess while I'm at it I can keep a lookout for anything suspicious." She said it begrudgingly, and Nico knew that she'd rather do anything else. But Percy seemed to be doling out his signature grins like they were candy and it was Halloween.

"Thanks."

"Sure, sure." She dismissed. "You should be thanking Nico. He's doing a lot more for you than I am. It's super tedious and annoying dealing with soulstones."

Nico frowned, his brow raised. "Soulstone?"

Makaria wrinkled her nose, pulling the glowing gem back out of her bag and handing it over to Nico. "Mortals need to either be in their body, or in the underworld. It's just the way things are. If they aren't, then they can't be less than around ten feet away from the soulstone. And a child of the underworld must have it in their possession at all times."

"Ten feet!" Both boys shouted at once. Nico stood, pacing furiously.

"That is unacceptable. He'll be right beside me all the time!"

"Hey-" Percy tried to interrupt, indignant. Nico ignored him.

"And what if I lose it? Or just leave it at home because I need space?" Makaria shrugged, a bit miffed by his outburst.

"Then Percy fades into nothingness. His soul will cease to exist. He won't go to the underworld, he won't get his life back. He'll be gone."

Percy was silent, staring at the stone with an unreadable expression. Nico was at a loss for words. What did you say to that? Makaria seemed to take pity on him, waving her hand over the gem, making a cord appear around it. "As long as you don't take it off of your neck, no one else can. You won't lose it, and it can't break." Nico swallowed, nodding. She stood as well, placing the necklace gently around his neck.

It's warmth startled Nico, but he said nothing, the weight of what was happening finally sinking in. Percy seemed to find his voice though, and even though his gaze was focused on the soulstone resting on Nico's chest, his question was directed at Makaria. "Do you think I'll live again? Like, is it worth it? What are my chances?"

She patted him on the shoulder, smiling encouragingly. "Of course it's worth it. I know that you'll come back, it's just a matter of when. And on that note, I really do need to be going." She patted Percy once more, and pulled Nico in for a fierce hug. "I love you adelphos." Nico hummed in acknowledgment, hugging her back.

"Back at you sorella." She pulled away, smoothed his hair, and disappeared into the shadows.


Percy frowned at the spot where Makaria stood a few seconds ago. It was difficult to process everything that had happened tonight, just thinking that it had been less than three hours ago made his head spin. "I wonder if anyone's found my body yet."

Nico stiffened, refusing to look at him. "I'm not sure, we can check the news." Nico turned on the tv and began milling about the apartment, organizing his bookshelf. It was on a commercial, some weird cleaning apparatus that no one anywhere needed. Since when did people even clean baseboards? Nico was still pretending Percy was not sitting in the middle of his apartment, cleaning up both fallen slices of cake with more focus than was probably necessary.

Percy wasn't going to lie, the reception he got was not what he expected, and it stung. A lot. If Nico needed a place to stay, he'd be more than happy to take him in for as long as it took. He found himself watching the younger boy, brows furrowing as Nico just kept tidying. It was odd to see him dressed so casually - just a pair of sweatpants, a tank top, and his hair pulled back - and with a rush of shame Percy started to understand why Nico might not want to be his host. He didn't even know he had an apartment in New York, and both boys lived in Manhattan.

Or, rather, Percy's mother whom they were staying with over winter break lived in Manhattan. Percy and Annabeth shared a place in New Rome while they attended college.

"In other news, local boy found shot dead less than ten minutes from his home. It looks to be a robbery gone wrong, but with no witnesses-" Percy cut the TV off, unable to keep listening.

"Mom and Annabeth are going to be so worried." Nico made some sort of noise in acknowledgement but continued flitting about. "Do you think, maybe we could go see them?" That stopped him right in his tracks.

"We can't do that. How am I supposed to know it was you? Very suspicious." Percy scowled, throwing himself back on the sofa.

"You're a son of Hades, don't you just know when people die?" Nico scoffed, finally looking at Percy.

"No, dumb-ass. Do you know how inconvenient that would be? There are one hundred and five deaths every minute of every day." Percy huffed throwing his hands up in the air.

"I still don't see why we don't just tell your dad what happened." Nico rolled his eyes, placing a hand on his hip and looking at him like he questioned his intelligence. It was the first time all day Nico didn't look like he wanted to run away from him or punch him in the face.

"Uh, yeah, I'm not snitching on my sister. She's right about it causing an incident, and she did remember my birthday. Unlike some other people." Percy blushed, turning away.

"Sorry about that."

"Whatever Percy." And just like that the almost comfortable atmosphere was gone. Nico turned back around and started unpacking another box. Percy scrambled, trying to to come up with something to loosen him back up.

"Well, maybe I'll just call them myself." He paused, "Can I call people?"

Nico groaned, glaring at him. "You can touch things, but only a child of the underworld can see or hear you. Plus, the mist keeps anyone else from noticing what you are doing. And it works on demigods and mortals with the sight." Percy's jaw dropped as he floundered. Tonight just kept getting better and better.