PJatO || Nicercy || PJatO || The Prince of Atlantis High || PJatO || Nicercy || PJatO
Title: The Prince of Atlantis High – Of Teen Love, Friendship and Secrets
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus; all-human High School AU
Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Rick Riordan for he created the awesomeness that is Nico di Angelo. And everything else related to Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus. Aside from the Gods, they belong to the old Greeks. This fanfiction and its OCs on the other hand are entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.
Warnings: shounen-ai, explicit intercourse, anal, masturbation, toys, fluff, h/c, self-esteem issues, domestic violence, child abuse, alcohol abuse, threesome, shoujo-ai, hetero
Main Pairing: Nico/Percy
Side Pairings: Percy/Annabeth (beard), Nico/Drew (one-sided), Piper/Annabeth, Frank/Hazel/Leo, Ethan/Alabaster, Jake/Will, Luke/Octavian, Thalia/Luke, Charles/Silena, Chris/Clarisse, Jason/Reyna, Malcolm/Katie, Grover/Juniper, Shane/Lacy, Gleeson/Mellie, Chiron/Lupa, Hades/Persephone, Paul/Sally
Football Team: Luke Castellan, Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, Travis Stoll, Connor Stoll, Chris Rodriguez, Charles Beckendorf, Jake Mason, Shane McNabb, Leo Valdez, Grover Underwood
Swim Team: Perseus Jackson, Will Solace, Katie Gardner, Mitchell Logan, Austin Barton
Misfits: Nico di Angelo, Lou Ellen Torrington, Alabaster C. Torrington, Ethan Nakamura
Student Council: Annabeth Chase, Malcolm Cage, Octavian Simmons, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Ella Dare, Hazel Levesque, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Clarisse la Rue
Cheerleaders: Silena Beauregard, Drew Tanaka, Piper McLean, Lacy Hunnigan, Zoe Nightshade, Phoebe Burge, Thalia Grace, Bianca di Angelo, Hylla Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Kinzie Cohen, Nyssa Black, Kayla Hein, Miranda Gardner, Juniper Hedge
Staff at Atlantis High: Principal Chiron Brunner, Counselor Lupa Brunner, Paul Blofis, Howard Claymore, Mellie Hedge, Gleeson Hedge, Janitor Bob, Small Bob
Percy's Family: Gabe Ugliano, Sally Jackson, Tyson Jackson, Mrs. O'Leary
Nico's Family: Hades di Angelo, Persephone di Angelo, Thanatos di Angelo, Zerberus
Summary: Percy Jackson is the Prince of Atlantis High – he's new at school and the captain of the football team and king of school, Luke Castellan, had taken him under his wings. Luke is one half of the Golden Couple, together with the cheerleader Thalia Grace. Finally, after all the schools he has been to, he finds a place where he seems to fit. He finds friends and feels at ease.
But nothing is perfect. Thalia is part of a purity club and since she won't put out, Luke is screwing one of the nerds behind her back. The friendly cheerleaders are not all that friendly, at least not all of them. There are the outsiders, who call themselves the Misfits, and wow, their leader is smoking. So while dealing with his own very dark secret, as well as the other secrets this school seems to harbor, Percy also has to deal with his attraction to the rebel Nico.
In a school where being gay translates to being bullied, Percy finds himself in a cover-relationship with the Princess of Atlantis High. Annabeth Chase. Now that Luke and Thalia are close to graduation, there is a lot on pressure on the future Golden Couple. But of course his bad grades give his teachers the amazing idea to make antisocial Nico his tutor, so Percy learns and Nico may make more friends. How is Percy supposed to deal with his attraction to Nico and how is Nico supposed to deal with the things he notices about Percy? Like the bruises he tries to hide from everyone.
The Prince of Atlantis High
Of Teen Love, Friendship and Secrets
Chapter 3: Not Giving People a Second Thought, That Can be Dangerous
Over the last three weeks, Nico and Percy had somehow come to the unspoken agreement that Friday, after school, they'd meet in the parking lot and go to Percy's place for tutoring. Fridays were perfect. Most Fridays, Gabe would be out for poker or bar tours, while the Chases had a family night so Annabeth didn't mind much. It was also the perfect excuse to ditch Luke whenever his mentor wanted Percy to attend some kind of party. But it was this day, three weeks after their first tutoring session, that Percy hit a brick-wall. He was sitting by the bleachers with Luke, Grover, Jason and some others from the football team, watching the cheerleaders train. Many of the football team had girlfriends on the cheerleading squad – Luke had Thalia, Grover had Juniper, Charles had Silena, Shane had Lacy. Percy grinned as he watched Travis, Connor and Chris pull some kind of prank on Jake. He wasn't part of the football team himself, but since he was close friends with most, he liked to spend any free period or recess that they got with them.
Percy couldn't help but stare at the beautiful Italian on the cheerleading team. Bianca really looked a lot like her brother. The tanned olive-skin, the dark tousled curls and the even darker eyes.
"Dude, if Annabeth catches you staring at another girl as intensely as you're staring at di Angelo over there, she's going to rip you a new one", noted Jason, nudging Percy amused.
"I—It's not like that", objected Percy embarrassed, glaring at the handsome blonde.
"Well, you're forced to spend a lot of time with her brother, guess you got to ogle her too, eh?", joked Travis, wiggling his eyebrows. "Saw her getting out of the show when you were over, huh?"
"Oh, naughty. Chase would kill him", laughed Connor next to his brother.
"What are you boys talking about?", asked Thalia as she and the other cheerleaders joined them.
She ruffled Percy's hair and sat down next to Luke, kissing her boyfriend on the corner of his mouth. Soon there was a lot of chatter all around Percy. He liked that, the more people, the easier it was for him to melt into the background. His sides still hurt from last night's kicking. He just wanted to lean back and sleep, really. So the more people there were, the busier they were with each other, not noticing him. It always gave him a moment of peace. He enjoyed those. At least until he noticed movement from the corner of his eyes. Bianca di Angelo sat down next to him.
"Hello", smiled the beautiful cheerleader, who normally didn't talk to him.
"Uhm... Hello?", nodded Percy confused, tilting his head some.
"You're adorable", laughed Bianca amused, patting his hair. "Thalia is right with that. Listen, my brother Thanatos is due to return from college for the weekend today, but... the idiot forgot his keys at his dorm. I was supposed to let him in, since our parents are at work and Hazel has a student council meeting, but Coach Beauregard scheduled a last-minute training."
"Thank you for all that information...?", tried Percy, completely confused at this point.
"You truly are adorable", stated the Italian, patting his hair once more. "Your study-session with Nico is today. Since I can't be home, he has to. So... your study-session moves to our house. Here's our address, I hope you can find it? That won't be a problem, right? I'm sure you could move it to another day too if you'd prefer that. I'm just supposed to give you the message since Nico ditched the last two periods in favor of getting his bike fixed."
"Oh... uhm... okay...", nodded Percy slowly, staring at the piece of paper. "Sure. Thanks."
He couldn't really reschedule. Most of the week, Gabe was home and the weekends Percy spend either trying to be a normal teen or working part-time as a waiter. Friday was the day Gabe wasn't home, so he wouldn't know if Percy was gone or if someone else was coming over.
/break\
Percy was spending lunch with Annabeth, just the two of them. Annabeth had the student council meeting so she would have to stay longer. And Percy had to work, so he appreciated to get some food inside his starving stomach. They were sitting beneath a tree, Annabeth leaning against him.
"Do you think di Angelo would mind taking over your math tutoring?"
Percy blinked a couple of times and stared at Annabeth dumbfounded. "Wait... You're... why?"
"I love you, Perce, but you're hopeless", stated Annabeth with an amused smile. "Or at least I thought so, until di Angelo took over your history tutoring. Rachel told me you already improved. You even know answers during class. Perhaps you just needed the right one to teach you. So I was wondering if he'd mind helping you out with others too. Besides, I really have a full plate myself this year and I don't feel like our study-sessions are really useful."
And it meant less time of acting like a couple, but Annabeth kept that part to herself. With how much she had to do around school, with classes, for the various clubs, it just tired her and when she was tired, she didn't really feel like putting up an adoring look and kiss him.
"Sure, I could do that", nodded Percy after a moment.
He laid one arm around Annabeth's shoulders and she snuggled up to him. He was like one gigantic teddy bear, always in for the cuddles. One day, Clarisse had bought a black and white hoodie for Percy as a joke. It had eyes sewn to the hood, as well as ears. They had claimed that a teddy bear should also look the part and since he was Luke's and Thalia's little baby, he had earned himself the nickname 'panda baby' from her. Annabeth wasn't much for cutesy little nicknames, but she had to agree with the sentiment. Percy was as cute as a baby panda and as cuddly as a teddy bear. Even though Annabeth couldn't enjoy boys in that way, she liked the support and cuddles. While Percy was hugging her, her eyes were fixed on something else entirely. The cheerleaders had some emergency training – Coach Beauregard was a hard-ass and when she wasn't pleased it easily happened that the cheerleaders had to stay the whole weekend. Most thought Annabeth spend so much time watching them because her mentor and practically-sister Thalia was on the squad, but most of the time Annabeth spend trying not to drool over the native American goddess known as Piper McLean, who surely inherited her actor father's good looks – seriously, she should be a model somewhere. Mainly so because she wasn't the Barbie-type. She was a wild beauty, her hair messy and chopped short by herself, never wore make-up, but rather torn, baggy jeans. Unless it was time for cheerleading. The way those skirts flew should be illegal. No, seriously, it should be because those were overly sexualized minors... oh, wow those legs were amazing. Annabeth gulped.
"You and di Angelo, do you get along? I mean, is it really okay...?", asked Annabeth absentmindedly, still focusing on the way Piper moved. "I wouldn't want you to be forced to spend extra time with someone you don't get along with, Perce."
"No, it's fine. I mean, we're not friends, but he's okay", shrugged Percy with a frown. "I'm supposed to go to his place today for the tutoring. I'm kind of curious, to be honest. You've seen the di Angelo manor in the news too, after all. That thing is like a castle. I'm sure he has butlers or something. Heh, like Batman. Oh man, I so can see him having a bat-cave!"
"You're nerding out again, please stop it", interrupted Annabeth with a fond look. "You dork."
"Sometimes I wished you were less of a book-worm and more of a 'dork' too", pouted Percy.
/break\
"You are such a dork", laughed Alabaster as he was laying on Nico's bed upside-down.
"I actually like it. It looks good", stated Ethan critically, walking around Nico to look at him from every angle. "We'll get that for you too. Kinky werewolf-vampire roleplay, mh?"
Nico rolled his eyes amused. They had decided to try out the make-up and add-ons for Nico's cosplay. After all, cosplaying two werewolves as humans would be boring, so Hades and Nico had gotten everything to fix their faces like the wolves from Teen Wolf. Alabaster's hands were like magic when it came to those things, so Nico had asked his friends to come over and help him.
"Please refrain from mentioning your sex-life. I don't need to know those things", muttered Nico.
"Oh come on, when's the last time you got laid? At least live through us", grinned Alabaster, before he turned onto his stomach and smirked wickedly. "Or are you nailing Jackson?"
"Excuse me?", snorted Nico ridiculed, shaking his head. "What the actual fuck?"
"Oh come on, you and him, alone in one of your bedrooms, you the teacher, he the not-very-bright student... I'd come up with about ten different fantasies in as many minutes", stated Alabaster and rolled his eyes. "Besides, he's a jock. It's like a statistically proven fact that most jocks are closet gays. Totally, I swear. Scientists found that out. I'm sure you could... bend him some."
Nico heaved a breath and rolled his eyes. "I thought you wanted to do Hiccup and Nightmare Prince Jack for this years Comic Con? I mean, not that I'd mind the additional... pack members. Dad does Peter and we're trying to convince Bianca to do Laura Hale."
"D-o-r-k", spelled Alabaster out and rolled his eyes once more for good measure.
/break\
Percy groaned exhausted as he finally reached the large estate. Every second week, he had to work on Friday afternoon. Today was such a lucky Friday. Now he was tired, even more so due to the long walk to the di Angelo place. The gate was open, so getting to the door wasn't a problem. It was the gigantic wooden door that looked like the entrance to hell itself (seriously, there were faces and creepy stuff caved into the wood) that was the real problem.
"Uhm... Nico? Hello?", called Percy out while ringing the doorbell for the seventh time.
The door opened and both of them stared equally surprised for about a whole minute. Percy's mouth was open slightly as he stared in total awe at the sight in front of him. Nico was only wearing black sweat-pants that hang low on his hip-bones, all that olive-skin bare. All those abs. Nico di Angelo was hiding quite the nice six-pack there. Nico was panting, sweat glistering on his delicious skin, the dark curls clinging to his forehead. The gloomy, dark-dressed Nico had been intriguing, but half-naked, sweaty Nico was about ten seconds of Percy staring at him from making Percy drool. Somehow he would have never thought that Nico was hiding all of that.
Nico on the other hand had his own reasons for staring. Percy's mouth was forming an O in a cute way, rosy-pink lips parted as the sea-green eyes stared at Nico in what was quite obviously lust. A reddish blush was dusting Percy's cheeks, most likely embarrassed about the thoughts inside his head (although Nico would have liked to see those). On top of the messy, dark hair sat a cute, frilly little cap that matched the puffy apron that was snug around Percy's waist, highlighting the curve of the boy's body. Nico's mind supplied him with pictures of Percy in nothing but the apron and the little hat. Not that those were helpful now. He blamed AlaBastard and his perverse ideas.
"Sorry, I was in the middle of working out... didn't hear the doorbell", stated Nico casually and turned around, leading the way inside. "Interesting choice of clothes by the way, Jackson."
Percy frowned confused and looked down himself to notice he was still wearing the embarrassing, frilly apron. Groaning annoyed, he blushed in embarrassment and wanted to justify himself. Before he had the chance to, any word died on the tip of his tongue and his blush intensified. Nico had his back turned on Percy and – aside from it being as well-trained and nice to look at as the front – there was a large tattoo all over Nico's back. Starting at the shoulder-blades were two black-feathered wings, the longest and last feathers disappearing beneath the pants. Down Nico's spine, right between the pair of beautifully detailed wings, ran one single line written in italics. Nico di Angelo had a tattoo. A freaking hot tattoo that turned the di Angelo into an angel. Percy could feel himself hardening a little at that. He had a thing for body-art, apparently. That was new.
"You have a tattoo", stated Percy bluntly, cursing his always-running mouth.
"How anything can escape your Sherlock-like observation skills is beyond me", drawled Nico amused, looking at Percy from over his shoulder. "I got it on my sixteenth birthday in Venice."
"What does it say? I mean, the words...", drawled Percy, mildly embarrassed by his idiocy. "Llama... uh... armor delta... What does that mean?"
Nico couldn't bite down the genuine laughter that Percy massacring Italian elected from him. "L'amore della mia vita è mio angelo custode. The love of my life is my guardian angel."
Percy's heart sped up at the sound of Nico's laughter, just like it had the first time he had heard the unique sound. But wow, Nico speaking Italian was just so amazing, he could listen to it all day.
"That's... a weird catch-phrase, dude", commented Percy with a frown.
"Don't call me dude. And it's not a 'catch-phrase'. It's... something my mother used to say", replied Nico, his voice growing soft and also melancholic-sad toward the end, at the mention of his late mother. "Whatever hardships life brings to you, it also gives you love and the love of your life is your guardian angel, the one who will always support and protect you."
"That's nice...", admitted Percy softly, biting his lower lip in awe.
"Anyway", grunted Nico as they finally reached a door after the third corridor and two flights of stairs. "That's... my room. I'd like to take a shower first, if you don't mind. Get... comfortable..."
Percy stared around in awe. The whole room was bigger than the whole apartment he shared with his dog, mother, brother and Gabe. No surprise why Nico had looked kind of claustrophobic when he had first entered the apartment. The bed was so large, it would take up more than half of Percy's and Tyson's bedroom. Black silken sheets and black curtains surrounding the bed for a sense of privacy. The whole room was dark and gloomy, but also kind of tasteful. Not like the cave of a vampire as the Stolls had jokingly suspected it to look like. Nico walked over to an ebony wardrobe – every piece of furniture was dark ebony. The Italian kept looking at Percy doubtfully.
"Stop staring so concerned", growled Percy annoyed. "I'm not gonna steal something."
"That... is entirely not why I'm staring", stated Nico truthfully. "More worried that you clumsy, flailing thing will break something and hurt yourself in the process. Sit and don't move."
Percy huffed and obliged, sitting down on the large bed. The frown melted at the softness of those sheets and the way that mattress seemed to embrace his body. He wanted to die in this bed. He barely noticed how Nico left and how time passed, he was so busy fondling the sheets. Who needed a boyfriend if he had a bed like this? Percy would marry this bed. A ringing sound interrupted his thoughts. It took a moment to notice that it must have been the door. Since he could hear the water running from next door – that bastard had his own bathroom connected to his bedroom – he decided to go and open the door. It was probably that big brother reason why they met here. Skipping back to the door – patting himself on the shoulder mentally for remembering the way – he opened the door to the proof that 'di Angelo' was Italian for 'sex on legs'. Nico, Bianca and Hazel had already made him suspicious – yes, he could admit that Bianca and Hazel, for being girls, were hot. But apparently sexiness was a gene and it had been passed on to all the children. Tall, dark and handsome, with chocolate skin and golden eyes. Golden eyes that sparkled with amusement.
"Damn, now I'm really sorry for forgetting my keys", laughed the man amused. "Gotta apologize to Nikki for interrupting his... naughty times with his hot, naughty maid."
"Eh?", grunted Percy confused, blinking a couple of times with his large doe-eyes.
Thanatos smirked and tipped Percy's head, no something on Percy's head. Right, he had been so distracted by Nico's room, he was still wearing the stupid apron and the tiny hat.
"You must be Nikki's current boyfriend then, mh?", asked Thanatos, taking a long moment to look Percy up and down. "Well, you're cute enough. Sexy, little maid. I wonder how naughty you are?"
"I'm Percy Jackson. Nico is my tutor", muttered Percy, fuming.
He whirled around and stormed back to Nico's room, tearing the apron off and picking the hat off his head, stuffing both into his bag and fishing for his history book. He was laying on his stomach on the floor, forehead resting on the book as he silently cursed his life. He jumped about two feet high when a soft, warm hand touched his sides, tickling along bare skin.
"Where did you get that bruise?", asked Nico's voice, sounding oddly concerned.
Percy twisted a little, noticing that him getting rid of the apron had riled his shirt up, revealing the nearly black bruise that ran along his left side. Putting on a fake smile, he straightened his clothes.
"Don't tell me gossip doesn't reach the Misfits?", asked Percy jokingly. "I'm in a fight club."
It was what he told others. After all, he was the captain of the swim team, he spend a lot of time close to naked. He took boxing lessons, got rough a lot, but oh you should have seen the other – at least that was what worked on everyone else. Oh, wasn't their captain strong? Everyone swooned at that, praising him and his abilities. Percy whimpered softly as Nico poked his side hard.
"Don't lie", warned Nico with an annoyed glare before laying down next to Percy. "I detest lies. If you don't want to talk about it, just say so. Don't lie to me again, or I'll kick you out and you can see who's willing to tutor you, Blofis and extra-credits be damned."
"W—What...?", asked Percy, staring at Nico with those large, sea-green eyes of his.
"If you don't want to talk about something, just say so and I won't ask again", replied Nico. "It's none of my business after all, so you're not obliged to answer me. But never lie to me again."
"O—Okay...", nodded Percy, still uncomfortable with the fact that Nico had seen through his lie.
"Good", grunted Nico pleased. "Now let's try again. Where did you get that bruise?"
"I...", started Percy and took a deep breath, fake smile slipping off. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Fine by me", said Nico, pulling the book closer. "Now let's get back to the Victorian age."
Percy's heart was racing with nerves. How had Nico done this? How could he have known that it had been a lie? No one had ever questioned him, Luke would just pat his back in a praising manner.
Nico's mind was racing in confusion. Why would Percy lie about this? It were just a couple of bruises. Looking at Percy, he would say the other got them when he defended some poor granny's purse from evil thugs. But there had been something akin to fear in those amazing eyes when Nico had called him out on his bluff. What was the boy hiding? Nico doubted that the Golden Boy was getting bullied. What else then? Was Annabeth Chase secretly some abusive, malicious girlfriend who got off by hurting her lover? Percy surely was the type who wouldn't fight a girl.
/break\
It was about an hour later that Hades di Angelo arrived back home and found his way to the bar where his oldest son was already waiting with two bourbons, grinning at his father.
"Ciao, papà", greeted Thanatos. "Sit. Tell me more about Nikki's boyfriend."
"You know Nico despises that nickname", pointed Hades out, sitting down and looking amused at his firstborn. "And if you have information on Nico's love-life, please share them with me."
"The little cutie with the apron?", asked Thanatos confused, clinging glasses with his father. "Though I guess that was part of some kinky roleplay. Anyway, when I got home, this sexy maid opened the door. He was quite easy to fluster. Really adorable. Percy something-or-another."
"Mh", grunted Hades, running his finger around the rim of the glass. "Interesting. Nico told me that he was merely tutoring this Percy Jackson jock. But kinky roleplay... Well, he had always enjoyed cosplay, I guess there's not much of a leap. That reminds me, we need to get his measures."
"What?", snorted Thanatos amused, cocking one eyebrow.
"Well, of course we have to take Nico's boyfriend with us to Comic Con", pointed Hades out like it was the only natural thing to say. "So I need his measures for his Stiles-cosplay."
"With the ship, you may actually get Bianca on board", joked Thanatos amused.
Hades joined his laughter as they fell into light banter about university and how the others were.
/break\
It was a usual Friday night, once Percy had left again. Lou, Alabaster and Ethan came over for their weekly superhero-marathon. Today's topic: X-Men. They had the three Iron Man movies last week and this week, they'd tear through at least the X-Men trilogy, maybe even the Wolverine-ones.
"Okay, dude, it's no fun if you don't help me making puking sounds every time Wolvy and annoying redhead number one make googly eyes at each other", grunted Lou irritated, elbowing Nico.
"What?", asked the Italian confused, rubbing his side.
The four were sitting together on the black leather couch in Nico's room, in front of his flat-screen. Alabaster was cuddled up to Ethan, but even the couple was giving Nico weird looks at this point.
"You haven't paid attention once. Not even when Hugh Jackman was nearly naked there!", complained Alabaster, throwing popcorn at Nico. "What's wrong, man?"
"Just... a lot on my mind", whispered Nico and shook his head. "Sorry, I'll try and focus."
Much to his surprise though did Ethan turn off the TV. "It's a movie and we've all seen it at least a dozen times now. If you have a lot on your mind, try sharing it with us. We're your friends."
Nico nodded stiffly and turned a little to face his three worried friends. "It's just... You know I value honesty, right? That people don't lie to me. Even if they don't tell me everything, they shouldn't lie."
"Yeah. It's annoying as fuck", agreed Lou gravely, earning a glare. "What? Just being honest."
"So, what's the problem? Jackson been lying to you? Oh, don't give me that look, Nico. Aside from your family, he's the only one you saw since Ally and I had been over this afternoon", snorted Ethan and rolled his eye. "So either your family was annoying or your studying session was bad."
"It's wasn't... bad", muttered Nico, frowning. "There's just something and I told him, he doesn't have to tell me, but he also shouldn't lie. And now I feel like a hypocrite, because I want to know."
"You're interested in a jock's private life? That's new", snorted Alabaster, looking stunned. "Why?"
"None of your business", growled Nico defensively. "It's his. And he doesn't want to share."
Ethan's frown turned from curious to concerned. "You're worried. You don't worry easily, Nico. So whatever is up, it must be serious. Look, I'm not telling you to tail him and play super spy, but if there's a reason for you to be worried, then maybe... confront him."
"After I made clear that I won't be chasing after his secrets?", snorted Nico with a glare.
"Well, then be subtle about it!", huffed Lou, waving her arms around. "The guy's a jock. I'm pretty sure you can get everything he knows out of him without him noticing."
"He's not that dumb", defended Nico, feeling his ears heat up a little as his friends snickered. "Oh, shut up about it. Can we please finish the movie now? I want to get to the part where Scott dies."
"That's... two more movies to go then", pointed Alabaster out, a little amused.
"All the reason more to continue watching", stated Nico flatly.
Ethan sighed and took the remote, but before he pressed play, he felt the need to say one more thing. "Look, I really don't know what it is that's making your alarm-bells go off like that and I can't even imagine what it could be, but... I wish someone would have had those alarms setting off in their head when I lost my eye. So, if... Don't drop it. Don't let anything happen to the kid."
Nico nodded stiffly and even Alabaster and Lou had solemn expressions on their faces at that. The topic was a raw and sore one still and all four of them tried to avoid it. Apparently, Nico really had been radiating concern if that was the vibe Ethan got. And Ethan was completely right. Whoever had caused that bruise was probably causing more. Maybe it had only been a one time fight and the golden boy had been embarrassed about admitting that he stooped so low, or maybe there was more to it. But Ethan was right. If Nico just stood back at the sidelines and it did turn out to be something serious, Percy could be the next one to lose an eye. Or more. And Nico was not going to have that on his conscience. He just needed to find a way to confront Percy without confronting him.
Author's note: Next chapter will have family moments for the di Angelos - aka Thanatos and Hades embarrassing the life out of Nico in front of Hazel, Bianca and Persephone concerning his sexy, little maid. Also, Percy will learn a shocking truth from Luke!
AND YES, at the end of this story, Nico and Percy will have a Sterek cosplay moment on Comic Con! xDDD