Author's note: Apologies for the delay in getting this updated this week. I'll be back to the regular twice a week uploading schedule on Wednesday!
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Chapter Seven: Resolution
Note to self, Nico thought as he tore through the patch of wilderness, ducking under tree branches and jumping over roots in his haste. Next time you need to check on a disturbance in the Force, remember to bring your damn sword!
About five seconds after the gigantic monster had started chasing him through Central Park, Nico had realized he'd left all of his weapons in his bedroom at Rachel's place. To be fair, he hadn't thought the disturbance would try to eat him once he had found it, but he really ought to have known better by now. He hated to admit it, but he was incredily out of practice with this whole getting attacked by monsters business. There hadn't been that many in Europe, and those he did encountered tended to give up once they found out who his father was.
The monster let out a roar, and there was a loud crack! a moment later. Nico glanced behind him for just a moment — the creature had just punched a hole through one of the trees and was in the process of uprooting another.
Yeah, he didn't think this guy would be too impressed by the, "I'm the ghost king, the son of Hades!" line. He'd probably think that meant he'd taste extra delicious or something.
With a creature of this size, Nico didn't have a lot of options in the fighting department without his sword. Hand-to-hand combat would be absolute suicide, and he didn't have the necessary time to summon skeleton soldiers. He needed concentration to do that correctly, and if he stopped now, he'd be monster chow. Besides, he didn't think the soldiers would do much besides get stomped on —
Nico let out a yell and skidded to a stop as large chunk of tree crashed through the canopy of branches above and landed in front of him.
"I don't like to chase my food, demigod!" the monster shouted, a vicious laugh in his voice. "Stop now, and I promise to keep you in one piece!"
"Shit, shit, shit!" Nico muttered, skirting around the tree trunk and changing directions.
If he could just get out of here and into an open area, he'd probably stand a better chance. Maybe he could summon some rocks to box the monster in long enough to find a weapon, but damn, he wasn't going to die because of this thing! His father would never let him live it down.
The trees began to thin, and Nico burst out of the wilderness onto one of paths in the park, right in front of a large expanse of baseball fields.
Unfortunately, he promptly managed to smack headlong into a jogger passing by and the force sent both of them sprawling to pavement in a mess of limbs and curses.
"Ow, what the hell!" the jogger who sounded an awful lot like Percy Jackson shouted.
Nico accidentally smashed his elbow into the other man's nose, and yelped, "Sorry!" as he was shoved off a moment later.
"Nico?" the jogger demanded, sitting up and revealing that he was, indeed, Percy Jackson. "Man, what the fuck are you doing?"
Nico had never been more relieved to see the son of the sea god in his life, even if Percy looked like he wanted to clobber him.
"Percy!" he exclaimed, grabbing the other man by the neck of his T-shirt. "Do you have Riptide on you?"
Percy's forehead wrinkled, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Of course. Why…?"
The ground shook under them and the tree line exploded as the monster burst out of the forest. Nico ducked, covering his face with his arm to avoid getting splinters of wood in his eyes. When he looked up again, the monster was hovering over them.
It had grubby brown skin that was covered in patches of wiry dark hair that climbed all the way up to its head. Its legs and arms were the size of tree trunks, and it had a pot belly that hadn't seemed to slow it down any during the chase. Sharp, dirty claws extended from its fingers and his mouth was stretched into a grin that bared all of its impossibly sharp and yellow teeth. Like most monsters, it didn't have a pretty face and that only meant it would have even more of an attitude problem.
It definitely didn't look very happy about having to chase its snack across the park.
"Half-blood! I will tear you apart!" it shouted and let out another roar, spittle flying everywhere.
"That's why," Nico said, scrambling to his feet.
He yanked insistently at Percy, hauling him up just before the monster smashed its fist on the path where they had been sitting. The pavement cracked under the pressure, leaving a sizeable impression in the ground.
"Holy shit," Percy replied, pulling a pen out of the pocket of his basketball shorts as the monster advanced a few feet and they backpedaled toward the baseball fields. "What did you do, Nico?"
"Me?" Nico demanded, dodging another swipe from the monster. A few feet from him, Percy clicked the top of his pen, and Riptide appeared, the Celestial Bronze glowing in the gloom. The monster snarled at the sight, and advanced. "I didn't — I'm not you, Percy! I just stumbled across this thing!"
"Where's your sword?" Percy demanded, glancing in his direction. "You can't expect me to fight this by myself!"
"I left it at home!"
"Oh, you've got to be kidding — "
Percy ducked as the monster swung a claw at him, and he thrust his sword upwards, stabbing it in the palm. The monster howled and backed away momentarily, but the wound only seemed to enrage it further because the next thing it did was grab the metal bleachers from the baseball field and toss it at them.
Nico yelped and dived away, while Percy did the same in the opposite direction. The bleachers slammed down in middle of the field, kicking up a cloud of dust and missing him by a few feet. Nico rolled away, coughing, and caught sight of a giant shadow moving toward him in the dust. He had to do something to give them more time, otherwise they'd both get smashed.
He reached out and laid his palm on top of the dirt, forcing all of his concentration on the ground below him.
Please, he pleaded, calling out to the minerals of the earth. The ground trembled beneath him as the monster approached, and Nico pushed back his fear, concentrating. Come forth. Lend yourself to the son of Hades!
"NICO!"
He glanced up just in time to see the huge palm crashing toward him, and he had just enough time to move so he could avoid the brunt of the blow. He couldn't avoid it completely though, and the monster swatted at him like a particularly annoying fly, knocking him the pitchers mound. Nico's head smashed into the ground and he lay there, face down in the dirt, ears ringing and gasping for breath. He could feel something warm trickling down the back of his head, and he was pretty sure at least half of his ribs were broken —
He could only lay there, helpless as his senses recovered, as the monster grabbed him by the legs, hoisting him off the ground, upside down. Percy shouted something at him from down below, but he couldn't focus enough to understand what it was.
A gust of hot, moist air blew against his face. Nico didn't want to, but he looked down anyway and, once his gaze cleared, he groaned out loud. He was dangling above the monster's gaping mouth, and he could see all the way down its slimy throat.
"One demigod down," the monster gurgled, moving Nico closer to his mouth. "One more to go!"
In the split second before he was dropped to his untimely doom, Nico closed his eyes and reached out toward the ground, praying with all his might.
PLEASE!
His gut tugged, pulling upwards and upwards and…
The ground underneath the monster split open, and Nico swayed in the monster's grip as it trained to regain its footing.
"What — "
"Sorry," Nico said, feeling the power of the earth course through him, "but the sons of the Underworld really don't digest well."
He had enough time to savor the monster's wide eyed look of horror, before Nico yanked his hand upwards. The ground followed his movement, surging forward and impaling the monster from the bottom up. The creature's grip slackened on Nico's ankles and its eyes rolled back in its head just before it burst into dark smoke.
Nico didn't have time to congratulate himself for a job well done, for as soon as the monster disappeared, so did the support keeping him suspended in the air. He dropped like a stone, and probably would've broken several more important bones, had he not landed on top of Percy.
Again.
Gods, he was going to be hearing about this for ages.
"Nice improvisation, but I am not your stunt mat, di Angelo," Percy grumbled, sounding fairly disgruntled. "Could you please stop falling on me?"
"You're invincible, like it could hurt that much," Nico wheezed, rolling off of Percy and kneeling on all fours, his head swimming. "Oooh, the ground isn't supposed to swirl like that, is it?"
"You're lucky that thing didn't knock your brains right out of your head," the older man said, the dirt crunching as he got to his feet. He grabbed Nico's arm and tugged him to his feet, despite his protests to the contrary. Percy threw Nico's arm over his shoulder and started dragging him away from the scene. "C'mon, we've got to get moving. The cops will be here in a couple of minutes, and I don't think a fresh criminal record will win me any prizes from the fire department."
Percy was telling the truth — Nico could hear the distant wail of police and emergency vehicle sirens coming ever closer to the park — but Nico was pretty sure he had a concussion on top of all his injuries and that walking up right was not going to do him any favors right now.
"I'm going to hurl if you jostle me like that again!"
"Well, we're going to walk unless you have enough focus to shadow travel to my apartment."
Shadow traveling while he was injured and tired probably wasn't the best idea in the world, but it sounded a whole lot better than walking around with his brain knocking against his skull every few seconds.
"Stop moving and hang on," Nico mumbled, wrapping his other arm around Percy's waist and concentrating.
He felt the shadows reach out for them, and a moment later, the cool night air and the police sirens had faded into the hot, stuffy space with the humming refrigerator that was Percy's apartment kitchen across the city.
"Nice," Percy said. "Although could you maybe aim a little to the left next time? My leg's in the garbage can — hey, Nico!"
Nico's legs buckled under him and he dropped to the floor. Percy kneeled beside him a second later, overturning the garbage can in the process, and pressed a hand to his cheek.
"Shit, your head's bleeding. Dammit, Nico, you're such an idiot — "
Percy's curses were the last thing Nico heard before the darkness claimed him and he passed out.
Awareness came back to him slowly. Nico regained feeling in his limbs first, realizing that his body ached a little less than he thought it should. He was lying on something soft and slightly lumpy, and he shifted restlessly. He moaned and heard footsteps move closer to him.
He opened his eyes, and was immediately greeted with a pair of green orbs hovering anxiously above him. Nico groaned in misery.
"Go away, Dare," he mumbled, throwing an arm over his face. "I don't want to see your ugly face right now."
A moment later, a trickled of ice cold water landed on his face and Nico sat up, spluttering and fully awake. Percy was standing over him, a glass of water in one hand and an irritated expression on his face.
"Percy," Nico said stupidly, realizing he was lying on Percy's sofa in the middle of his apartment. "What…?"
"I'm glad you think I'm pretty enough to be confused with Rachel, but I don't think she'd think of it as a compliment," Percy replied, setting the glass down on the coffee table. "How are you feeling?"
"Uh… a lot better, actually," he replied, touching his head experimentally. It was a little tender, as if he'd had the wound for a few days and it was nearly finished healing. "How long was I out?"
"Maybe about an hour. Your head injury was more superficial than anything, but you did have a few broken ribs. The ambrosia should've cleared that up for you, and you should be back to normal if you hang out for a few more minutes. Let me know if you start getting any headaches, though," Percy said, sitting down on the coffee table in front of him and crossing his arms over his chest. "You were really lucky that that thing didn't bash your brains out all over that baseball field. What were you thinking, trying to take on a monster that size without a weapon?"
Nico blushed. It'd been a long time since he'd been lectured by Percy about safety and he suddenly felt like he was 10 years old again, playing his first game of Capture the Flag at Camp Half-Blood.
"In case you didn't notice, I was running away from it, not fighting it," Nico clarified a little indignantly. "I felt something weird and I went to go check on it. I wasn't expecting to find the monster. I mean, you felt it, didn't you? That's why you were in the park, right?"
Percy shook his head.
"I jog in Central Park on Wednesday nights. I didn't know anything was wrong until you showed up," he replied. Nico frowned at this, and he hastened to add, "That doesn't mean you didn't feel something. You're loads better at sensing that sort of stuff than I am… besides, what was that thing?"
Nico's stomach turned, and this time he was sure it wasn't because he was about to throw up.
"You didn't recognize it either?" he asked, and the older boy shook his head again. Nico sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, shit. That's not good."
Percy leaned forward, his brow furrowed in thought. "Do you think this has anything to do with Rachel?"
He hadn't had thought about it much, but he wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility. After all, strange monsters just didn't show up in Central Park without a seriously good reason.
"Probably? I dunno, it seemed more interested in eating me more than anything else," he replied. "Although I don't think I'd be too upset if it went after Rachel."
"Oh? Did you two get in another fight?"
Nico sank back into the sofa, his earlier frustration from coming back to him. He glanced away from Percy, staring at one of the pictures on the wall behind him.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"That bad, huh?" Percy said, walking over to the fridge and digging around inside for a water bottle. He tossed on at Nico, who caught it easily. "Well, I hope you get over whatever she did to piss you off by Friday night, because I'm not hanging out with you two if you're just going to fight the entire time."
Nico frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Rachel didn't tell you?" Nico shook his head and took a long drink from the water bottle. "Oh, we do this thing where we have movie nights on Friday if I'm not working. We get together at someone's apartment, watch a movie, and get ragingly drunk. It's fun."
"I'm sure it is. I don't think I'll be participating, since as of today, I have been relegated to the status of the help," he replied dryly, finishing off his water and crumpling it up. He tossed it toward Percy's recycling bin by the door; it tipped off the edge and landed on the floor with a hollow echo.
"What? Did Rachel seriously call you that?" Percy said, sitting down on the coffee table again. "Holy crap, what did you do to earn that demotion?"
"I didn't do anything. I just said some things she didn't want to hear, that's all," he said. The older man motioned at him to continue, and even though he'd rather be doing a million other things — including being digested by that stupid monster — than confessing his failure of a love life to Percy Jackson, he let the story flow out of him anyway. "She was upset, and somehow we ended up getting into an argument about our feelings for each other, okay? I was already pissed that she said we weren't friends, but then she had to go and throw out the, 'I can't ever love you,' card and it sort of boiled over from there."
Percy sighed heavily, rubbing his hand over his face. "This is why you were supposed to create boundaries, kid, so this sort of stuff doesn't happen. What was Rachel supposed to tell you? She's the Oracle, Nico, you know she can't lo — "
"Don't lecture me, Percy!" Nico snarled, shooting off the sofa and towering over Percy menacingly. The older man narrowed his eyes, unimpressed. "I know what I should've done differently and that I have a stupid fucking habit of falling for people that are unavailable and out of my league. But it's not just about that. I thought we were finally becoming friends, and then she goes and acts like I'm dirt under her fingernails. It's not fair."
Those last words made him sound like the world's most petulant teenager and he didn't much care. Demigods were made to have short unfair lives, but somehow, Nico always managed to get the even shorter end of the stick. Wasn't it bad enough that he was a son of Hades? Couldn't the Fates give him one thing to make his life a little easier?
"Look, I get it," Percy began and Nico glared at him because no, no he didn't. Percy had the love his life, his family, his happiness. He didn't know one thing about unfair. "It sucks, but you have to remember… you're not there to be Rachel's friend. You're there to keep her safe, no matter how much it makes her hate you. When all this blows over, maybe you can be friends — maybe — but right now, you just can't."
Percy wasn't saying anything Nico wasn't already aware of. Hadn't he thought the very same things after the first monster had showed up at her penthouse? What had he done to change any of that? He'd only grown closer to Rachel since then, grown more attached to her, to the point that he could no longer separate his personal feelings from his professional.
But having Percy say it out loud only reinforced the fact that he was failing at his task, reminding him once again what an absolute mess he was. He shouldn't be trying to be Rachel's friend; he shouldn't be trying to be Rachel's anything.
And yet…
Nico thought Rachel needed a friend more than a bodyguard right now, just like he needed more than a useless job and a place to stay. Just because he was the son of Hades didn't mean he didn't have emotions or didn't feel like everyone else — sometimes he thought he felt more than regular people. He knew could be both a friend and protector for Rachel if he tried, and if she wanted him to.
If only she would let him prove that to her instead of pushing him away — truly, this was the real reason he was so angry with her. He was tired of being pushed to the side and taken for granted.
"I know, I do," Nico said, deflating. He sat back on the sofa, his shoulders slumped. "For once, I just wanted more."
Percy smiled sadly, as if he knew anything about it, and said nothing more.
The were on in the penthouse's kitchen and the TV was on full blast in the living room when he got back later that night. Rachel wasn't in either room, which was slightly unusual. She was always yelling at him for leaving lights on when he wasn't around and he certainly wasn't going to miss a chance to point out she was a flaming hypocrite. His talk with Percy had lessened his anger towards her, but that didn't mean he had to be nice to her.
"You left the TV on, Dare!" he shouted, toeing his boots off and throwing them in the corner by the terrace doors. "So much for the environment, huh?"
There was no answering reply, which made Nico's frown deepen and caused an uneasy feeling to settle in his gut. He wandered through the living room, flipping the TV off as he passed, and into the kitchen where he was met with yet another disconcerting sight. The refrigerator door had been left wide open and a bottle of wine laid shattered in front of it, the red liquid pooled on the floor and spattered on the edge of the counter.
"What the hell," Nico muttered, shutting the fridge door and trying to push the liquid's eerie resemblance to blood out of his mind. "Dare, you better not be messing with me!"
Silence greeted his call and the hairs on the back of Nico's neck stood up. Shit, just how long had he been gone? He tried to reassure himself that Kate's wards on the apartment meant that nothing could get in, but if that was so, why wasn't she answering him? Maybe she was in the shower...
"Rachel?" he called, hurrying toward the main hallway that led to the bedrooms.
It was dark except for the light streaming out of the open doorway to Rachel's studio. Something was definitely wrong here. Rachel never kept her studio door open, unless she was yelling at him through the opening.
Cautiously, he glanced into her studio and wondered if he needed to retrieve his sword from his bedroom. He couldn't see her among the forest of canvases and papers in front of the door, but he heard rustling further in and moved quietly into the room.
Nico let out a perceptible sigh of relief when he caught sight of Rachel a moment later, seated with her back to him in front of a large canvas and painting so furiously that her movements were nearly a blur.
"Dare, you left a big mess in the kitchen in your hurry to be the next Monet, and I'm not going to clean it up," he said, pausing behind her. She said nothing, continuing to paint and he cocked his head, wondering if she was wearing earbuds — she wasn't. "Unless you want that to be part of my duties now or something, but since I've already fought my monster quota for the week, I'm gonna pass."
Once again, she didn't respond and Nico's uneasy feeling returned in spades. He reached out to touch her shoulder.
"Rachel?"
Her back stiffened as his fingers brushed her shoulder, and she whipped around. Nico bit back a gasp and stumbled backward in shock. Rachel's expression was twisted and fierce, made even more so by the streaks of paint across her face and her terrible, glowing green eyes. Nico had only seen Rachel like this once, right after she had accepted the power of the Oracle, and it had scared him witless then, just like it was doing now.
"I," the Oracle of Delphi said, her voice deep and echoing. The sound caused a chill to run down Nico's spine, "am not Rachel Elizabeth Dare, son of Hades."
Nico nodded dumbly, finding it hard to speak.
"I can see that," he rasped, his throat tight with fear. The spirit in front of him frightened him more than that stupid monster in the park.
"Do you wish to speak to me?"
"Um…" he squeaked. "No?"
She stared him down with her glowing eyes, her gaze both totally compelling and repulsive at the same time. A hissing voice crept into the back of his mind, prodding at him and willing him to fall deeper into her gaze. He could find out everything he ever wanted if he just asked a simple question…
"Stop!"
Nico tore his eyes away from her, panting from the effort. He didn't dare look at her again until he heard the sound of the paintbrush sweeping against the canvas once more and he sneaked a peek to make sure her attention had been swayed.
"Well," Nico said, clearing his throat after his voice cracked. "I'll just leave you…to your painting then…uh …Oracle."
As he backed a few steps toward the door, she suddenly stopped moving and her body went slack. She slipped sideways off her chair, landing with a loud thump on the floor. Nico let out a yelp of alarm, and scrambled through the canvases to get to her side.
"Oracle?" he whispered, dropping beside her and pulling her carefully into his arms. "Can you hear me?"
He gently touched Rachel's face. Her skin was cold and clammy, and he quickly moved to check her pulse at her wrist. It was sluggish, but steady, and her breathing was a little too shallow for his liking. He gave her a tiny shake; she groaned and stirred in his arms. Her eyes fluttered and when she opened them, Nico let out a breath he hadn't been aware that he was holding — her eyes were back to normal.
"Nico?" Rachel whispered groggily, trying to move. "What...?"
"Don't move," Nico said, cradling her closer to him to keep her still. He touched the side of her head. "I think you might've hit your head on the floor."
"What happened?" Rachel asked faintly, her eyes tired and glazed. "I don't remember…"
"The Oracle. She — she decided to take your body out for some midnight painting, I guess."
Rachel groaned, closing her eyes and reaching up to rub her temples with one hand. She pulled it away after a moment, making a face as she glanced at her paint-covered hand.
"That explains the splitting headache then. Gods, I haven't blacked out in a long time."
"Does this happen a lot?"
She shook her head, wincing. "Not any more. I have her under control most of the time. But during the first year… it was rough. I'd wake up in the art room at Clarion all the time. Had to go to the counselor because everyone thought I was on drugs," Rachel shrugged humorlessly, her gaze focused on his chin. "When I let her have the time and space to paint subconsciously, I usually don't have any problems. I don't know why she did this tonight."
Rachel's eyes moved away from his face and scanned the room. He followed her gaze, finally taking note of the circle of paintings surrounding them. They were crude, hurried scribbles painted with dark and frightening colors, not at all like Rachel's other paintings in the back of the room. It was almost as though they had been painted by someone else's hand entirely.
Nico glanced at the one Rachel — the Oracle — had been working on when he had walked in, and he had to do a double take. It was the monster he had just fought, right down to its squashed nose, the drool dribbling down its chin and the fierce expression on its face. How had she…?
Oh right. She was the Oracle. She knew everything.
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked, twisting so she could look over his shoulder. She wrinkled her nose, a movement that looked rather intriguing with all that paint on her face. "Oh, ugh. She never paints nice things."
Nico took a closer look at all the other paintings. They were glimpses of bloodied teeth and gangly limbs with sharp claws attached; terrifying faces with red eyes and cunning, cruel expressions — it was a portrait collection of monsters.
Nico had never seen any of these monsters before, not even in the darkest pits of the Underworld, just like he had never run across anything quite like the monster tonight.
It worried him, more than he would admit out loud. How was he supposed to protect Rachel from something he didn't know how to fight? And did the appearance of these monsters mean that the real enemy was someone they didn't know either?
He started in surprise when he felt fingers graze the side of his face. He turned his gaze back to Rachel. Her brows were scrunched with worry as she traced the scratches on the side of his face, one of the few physical remnants of his fight with the monster.
"Nico?" she asked, sounding utterly exhausted. "How'd… how'd you get this? And why are you so dirty?"
"We can talk about it later. Can you stand?"
"I think so."
Nico stood and gingerly helped her to her feet. She only stayed upright for a few seconds before her knees buckled and he caught her, wrapping an arm around her waist to steady her.
"Sorry. Sorry, I think I got paint on your shirt," she said, her cheeks reddening and hands shaking. She was embarrassed to have him see her like this, Nico realized. "I usually can handle this, I swear. Just give me a minute."
"You shouldn't have to handle this. Hold on," Nico replied, dipping so he could sweep her up into his arms and carry her out of the studio. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"Talking to Annabeth around eight," she replied after a moment, pressing her head against his shoulder. "I think. It gets fuzzy around there, anyway."
Nico stared at her, aghast. "She possessed you for five hours? Is that normal?"
"Unfortunately," Rachel said as they moved into the hallway and toward her bedroom. "I lost a whole weekend once my sophomore year of undergrad. Took me a week to recover from…"
Like most half-bloods, Nico had never given much thought to what kind of physical toll came with hosting the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle was considered a bit of a fainting, horrific poetry spewing sideshow at Camp Half-Blood — at least, by those who had never had misfortune to consult with her and respected her true power like Percy. He'd always imagined Rachel just called upon the Oracle whenever someone needed it; not that the spirit took her body for midnight painting joy rides. He'd exhausted himself using his powers more times than he could, but at least he got to chose when to do it.
"Nico?" she asked, drawing him out of his thoughts as they approached her room. "I… I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize for this, Dare. You can't control it and — "
"That's not what I meant."
Nico glanced down at her briefly, knowing she was referring to their earlier fight. He'd forgotten all about being mad at Rachel in light of the Oracle's appearance, and he briefly tried to summon his frustration and anger again. But seeing her like this, vulnerable and utterly exhausted, made him pause. Would getting angry solve anything? Would it be worth it?
No, he realized. It wouldn't.
"Just forget about it, Dare," he said, opening her bedroom door. He reached out and flipped the light on. "You don't have to apologize. I shouldn't have pressed you today. You aren't obligated to return any of my misplaced feelings, and I shouldn't have expected that out of you."
"Because I'm the Oracle or because you think I'm not attracted to you?" Rachel asked, her voice a little stronger than before. "Because, in case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of helplessly and ridiculously attracted to you."
Nico stilled, his annoyance overcoming the little flutter of his heart almost instantly. Oh, so now she was attracted to him, huh? How and when had she decided that? And what had happened to being the help?
"No, you're not," he said, setting her down on her bed a little rougher than he had intended. He took a step away from her, and she sat up, her legs dangling off the edge of the bed. "You're not really interested in me, and the sooner you stop deluding yourself to try to make me happy, the happier we'll both be."
"Oh, stop putting words in my mouth, di Angelo," Rachel said with a scowl, reaching out and grabbing a handful of his shirt.
With a surprising amount of strength, she tugged him forward and before Nico quite knew what was happening, his mouth was on Rachel's and she was kissing him. It wasn't a very good kiss and her technique was kind of sloppy, but holy shit he was kissing Rachel Elizabeth Dare and she was kissing him back and this was possibly the best thing that ever happened to him and oh shit, Apollo was going to murder him —
She pulled away before the full force of what just happened could hit him. Under all the paint, her cheeks were pink, eyes gleaming like emeralds, and lips wet, and she was honestly the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life. And she had just kissed him. What did this mean? What… how was he supposed to respond to that?
"You taste like paint," he blurted out, unable to help himself.
Rachel's brow furrowed in confusion, but then her face split into a beautiful smile and she began to laugh.
"You've got paint all on your face now, Nico," she said, wiping tears of laughter from her face with the back of her hand. It only served to smear the paint on her face some more, making her look even worse. "You look hilarious, I wish you could see it."
Nico wanted to join her in her laughter, but the confusion in his heart and the other emotions rolling through him prevented him from doing so. He couldn't tell if he was angry or happy or if this kiss had completely terrified him, and he didn't know why she had done this to him after he'd been so sure that she couldn't… that she wouldn't return his feelings. Was she manipulating him? Surely she couldn't be that cruel.
"Why'd you do that, Rachel?" he asked, and she stopped laughing immediately at the growl in his voice. "Why?"
"Because I think you're handsome and funny and brave, and I've wanted to kiss you for weeks," she said, meeting his gaze evenly. "I'm sorry about before. I should've said… I should have told you the truth, because you are my friend and I've known that for a while now. I'm an insecure mess, and I'm sorry I took that out on you and hurt you. I want you more than I've ever wanted anyone in my life, and maybe if things were different, we could have something serious… but that's not how things are, and will you please stop me, I'm rambling."
Nico stared at her for a long time, overwhelmed by her apology and confession. At first, he was still convinced she was just trying to get back on his good side, that she didn't mean a single thing she'd said, but he knew she wouldn't put them both in danger by kissing him if she wasn't sincere. Rachel took her position as the Oracle very seriously, and she wouldn't do anything to jeopardize it unless…
Unless she knew it would be worth it.
"So," he said at last, running a hand through his hair. "We like each other, then?"
"I'd say so, yes."
"But we can't do anything? Like date or whatever?"
Rachel's expression fell just enough to confirm Nico's thoughts.
"I'm not sure," she said slowly. "I know what Apollo would say, but — "
Nico didn't let her finish, moving in and sealing his mouth over hers. If this was the only opening he had, he wanted to make sure the one kiss she had from him was something worth remembering, not that sloppy little disaster from before. He deepened the kiss, sliding his hand into her hair and pulling her close to him. He wanted to memorize every bit of her — her taste, the warmth of her lips, the feel of her against him — so he'd always remember what this moment had been like.
"Oh, wow," Rachel sighed, breaking away and looking a little dazed. She reached up to touch her lips with her fingers, and then looked at him. "You're… you're way too good at that."
He grinned, leaning a hand on her bed beside her. "Trust me, I know."
She rolled her eyes at him. "Someone's sure full of himself."
"For good reason," he whispered against her lips, and kissed her a third time. She didn't protest, and returned his kiss with equal fervor. She was a quick study, and she knew just how to respond to him. Nico imagined she'd be as a quick in similar areas of study, and that thought stoked the fires of desire within him to new heights. He wanted more of her, much more than this…
A distant rumble of thunder sounded overhead, and Rachel pressed a hand against his chest. He pulled away reluctantly, shooting a glare at the ceiling. Damn Olympians, always sticking their nose in places where they didn't belong.
"We should stop," Rachel said breathlessly, and Nico felt a rush of pleasure as he took in her mussed appearance. He had done that, not anyone else, and she had let him do that.
"We've already stopped," he said unnecessarily, and she leveled a glare at him.
"You know what I mean. We shouldn't do this ever again."
"Otherwise, I'll get barbequed?"
"Probably," she said, her fingers entwined within the material of his shirt. They were still fairly close to each other, close enough to be in danger of another kiss or two, and Nico found he really didn't care much at all about being barbequed so long as he could just stay like this — with her — for a little longer.
