Disclaimer: I do not own anything besides the basic plot.

Pairing: Nico/Percy

Summary: AU: Percy likes comic books so when one shows him how to summon a demon he tries it. It was supposed to be a fake ritual but when it works and not only summons a real demon but the prince of demons dubbed the Ghost Kind he's not sure whether to cry or check himself into the looney bin. Little does he know of the full consequences of summoning this demon and it's way more than he bargained for.

Chapter 10: Rat Trap

NICO

Jason stood with his arm around Piper's shoulders as if to shield her. Piper had other ideas and proudly stood next to her boyfriend. Her demon features were visible, her small black horns curved delicately up, they were only about an inch in length. She was nervous but that was to expected, Piper was a demon who was dating an angel. That just wasn't done.

"Let's get this over with, sit… please." Hades was only polite because his wife kindly jabbed him in the ribs with her spatula.

Percy was tucked beside Nico, a cookie in hand and green tea steaming on the table in one of the nicest cups he thinks he's ever seen his human with, he deserved even finer things. Nico could have gone through an extensive list of what his Percy deserved if it wasn't for the bundle of tension stifling the room.

Hades went through every single gruesome and mundane detail of how to control someone and make them do something that went against their very being. It involved blood, which was almost a given and a clay pot to keep the stolen body part in.

"So, the most crucial part is to find those clay pots then." Jason said while he too was enjoying one of the tension-killing cookies from the gods.

"Exactly," Hades agreed while Persephone kept a hand on her husband's arm. A way, Nico knew, that help to keep his father's temper at bay.

"But, " Nico said gaining everyone's attention. "The problem is that Luke is the only one who would know the location of said pots. It would be in a place that he's 100% sure no one else would know about." That was the kicker, location.

"It's not like any of us could gain his trust either, he knows us all too well. He's seen all of our faces." Hazel's point was good but Nico had something that he was sure Luke didn't know about and that was Frank.

"Wait, while that's true I think you are forgetting that Frank can shift?" As soon as attention was brought to him Frank paled.

"H-hey I can only shift into animals. You know, not people." The poor boy looked ready to shift into something small and hide.

"Oh, an animal will work perfectly." Jason interjected before Frank could talk himself out of it. "Luke must have a spot for animals, often the crazy ones do."

Nico noticed that Percy wasn't eating his cookie but concentrating deeply on the conversation. In fact even Leo and Annabeth were paying full attention. That was good it meant they got how serious the situation was.

"I remember Luke when he was little." Jason made sure everyone was listening. "There was one animal that he liked, kind of ironic when you think about it but it was rats."

"Rats?" Frank's voiced cracked, the big guy hated them.

"This could work." Hades mused while he stroked his beard.

Frank's fate was sealed, if Hades agreed there was no way he was getting out of it. Hazel didn't seem worried at all instead she was whispering words of encouragement into Frank's ear while Leo did his best to help calm him down as well.

For how much torture and pain Frank could deal sometimes the guy was a complete softy when it came to shifting into small animals. Nico knew it was because one time he got stuck as a cockroach for a week and in that week Hazel had tried to step on him numerous times. The guy still had nightmares about it.

Frank sat up, straight-backed and spoke with an even voice. "It'd be my honour to do this, if not for all of the innocent beings that Luke has hurt."

"Great, just, how do we get him to notice you?" Piper asked, looked like no one had thought of that.

"If this Luke is as you say then he will return to the cemetery where he attacked Percy if not to gloat and relive how he scared Nico." Geez his mum had wisdom like no other. Of course she said it with a sweet smile on her face.

"How will I stay in contact with you, when I'm shifted most of my abilities are limited." Frank brought up a good point.

Nico already had an answer. "We will lend you power from each of us, enough that he doesn't sense it but you'll be able to keep contact with Hazel.

"Just not your Nico, he's already been near enough to know what you feel like. If he suspects anything he'll pass me by without a thought or crush me, even if I happen to be a rat." Frank settled his hands on the table and his brow was creased with concern.

"Take it from me, I'm sure he's never met me." Persephone was practically singing as she volunteered.

"Dear, I'm sure someone else will do." Hades didn't like the idea at all.

"Oh come on, it's perfect. He's never met me, ever and I've got plenty of power to spare." His mother was smiling like it was all some big game. Sometimes she scared him, he'd never ever let her know though, ever.

"No, daddy, mum's right." Hade's little princess spoke up. "Luke's never met her and there wasn't a trace of her on Nico when Luke was around. He'd never know, unlike the rest of us." Persephone was pleased with her daughter.

"Well, Persephone, dear… are you sure this is what needs to happen?"

"Very sure," a timer dinged. "Oh, look at that, more cookies." That woman was way too happy.

SUMMON

Nico had left Percy at home and safe with his mother and father. It was still weird to think that his parents knew about his human. He'd always imagined that'd it would have been far more different but he couldn't be upset with the results as his mother adored Percy and the other humans in the house.

Frank was beside him chattering away with Jason. The two of them seemed to get along well enough and Nico couldn't complain, Jason was a very powerful asset and an even stronger friend.

Once they had come upon the cemetery Frank went the rest of the way on his own. They were careful to do a cleansing spell so Frank didn't smell like any of them.

Jason and Nico were in the treeline covered by a masking spell which hide not only them but any possible trace they could leave. The angel was down on his knees filling a bowl with holy water. Jason had tried to explain what exactly it was and had just told him to watch.

He touched the edge of the bowl and the water turned a brilliant white and revealed the image of Frank, on his own, walking to the cemetery. Now Nico understood, it was looking a looking glass, it allowed them to watch whoever from a remote location.

"If anything happens we will be able to see it." Jason explained while he kept his fingers on the edge of the bowl.

Now that Nico looked closer the bowl was nothing special, just a carved wooden one. The bowl wasn't special but the runes on it were. Angels had their own language, as did demons, and the foreign words were carved all over the bowl. The pattern didn't seem to make sense but Nico was sure that there was some reason to it otherwise it wouldn't have worked.

"Good, last thing I want to tell my sister is that her man was stepped on and it wasn't by her." Jason snorted at Nico's little jib. They both had a small chuckle.

In the image on the water it showed Frank, just before he entered the cemetery. He had a small bottle full of a dark glowing liquid, the power his mother had given him and he quickly drank it. The Asian-looking demon grimaced and shook his head.

Soon they were watching their friend morph into a rate. It started with his teeth first and Nico so wished he'd have brought Percy's phone with him. It would have made for a hilarious picture. Then it was his nails they became long and black, deadly looking. After he was shrinking and rapidly looking height. In Frank's place was a rat. I nearly black rat with beady little black eyes to match.

Frank scurried into the cemetery, stopping here and there to sniff and bite things. He really had his rat-act down, who knows what the shape-shifter got up to in his spare time. He probably morphed into a hideous creature to scare the death, again, out of the souls they kept.

The cemetery looked about how they had left it when they were there, messy and charred. There were also some zombies still milling around, Nico would have to fix that later but those guys were harmless to just wander since the Prince of Hell had summoned them.

"Think Luke would come back just a day later?" Nico asked curiously, he didn't know him like Jason seemed to.

"He likes to gloat," was the quick response.

A weird garbled voice was heard coming from the bowl. No, it was coming from the water. It sounded like someone was talking while under the water. Each time something was said the water in the bowl would ripple with the intensity of it.

"So he does."

Jason nodded and slid his fingers into the water disrupting the image for a few seconds before withdrawing them to the edge again. The water seeped into the wooden bowl leaving it dampened and the sound came out more clearly this time.

"Kill those disgusting undead creatures, I want no trace of that demon trash that was here." Luke spat.

He must not have been near Frank otherwise he'd be in the image but close enough to hear. They heard Frank give a mighty squeak that would make any rat, especially Luke, proud.

"Yes your excellency," came a drone of voices, most likely the ones that the psycho angel used to do his dirty work and the ones that Nico had tried not to hurt.

Shadows passed over the water-image and Frank moved just behind a tomb stone acting as a rat, watching but not going too close. Frank squeaked again.

"What is that, oh…" Luke stepped into the image with his hands on his hips. "Well out of all the places you could be I suppose this would be one of them then."

Luke crept slowly up to Frank as not to scare what he thought was an actual rat. The ex-angel was rummaging through his pocket and pulled out a small foil-wrapped chocolate.

"Got this off a snot-nosed brat," he explained while he peeled the wrapper off.

He dropped a small chunk of it after breaking it just in front of Frank. Kudos to his acting skills because he skittered away and hid behind a stone briefly before coming out to sniff then gobble the little treat down. At least Frank really did like chocolate.

A trail of chocolate was laid out with the last piece laid carefully on the palm of Luke's hand. Oh the method was simple and Frank would have perfect follow through.

"Come on now, eat up then I'll show you my home. You'll like it… if you behave." A small shudder wracked the rats body but before Luke could notice Frank stopped it while he slowly made his way up to the last piece.

To act the part his slowly sniffed around Luke's fingers and there was no telling what was going through Frank's mind. That's when Frank bit him but it was only to get at the chocolate. Nico and Jason couldn't help but laugh as Luke let out a howl.

"Why you little… well I guess it's my fault for putting the temptation in front of you." Luke picked Frank up, his hind legs scrabbling for purchase.

The image turned black when Frank was stuffed into a backpack.

Jason dumped the bowl out. "That was a success."

"Almost too easy though." Jason hummed in agreement.

PERCY

Nico's mother was totally the bomb and made him miss his mum all that much more. He'd have to remember to call her soon.

Persephone was currently telling baby stories. She'd even known Reyna as a baby and they were all eating up the information with eager ears.

"So, Hazel and Frank have been together since they were little?" Leo asked fidgeting in his seat. The Latino had already been sitting for nearly half an hour and he was about at his limit.

"Oh they have. If the invention of the camera had been sooner there would be a million and one pictures of all of them." She sighed out. Percy had no problem believing it.

Nico, Jason, and Frank had just left and this was a good way to pass the time even if Nico had given his mother orders to make them all go to bed at a descent time. Percy thought he was old enough to make his own bedtime but the demon had spent enough time with him to know that he'll sacrifice sleep doing mindless tasks like playing games on the internet. So maybe it was a good thing.

Leo was still there pacing, "Mrs. Persephone, ma'am."

"Oh Please Leo, call me mum, really I think you've earned it." She smiled sweetly and Leo mirrored her.

Percy grinned, this awesome lady was awesome. Of course Leo ducked his head with a flush on his cheeks nodding and smiling.

"Right, m-mum," he stammered and twirled his hair nervously.

"Good boy, now what is it sweetie." She asked while Percy never thought his friend could get any cuter. He was sure that Frank and Hazel could agree.

Where was Hazel anyway? She hadn't gone with the boys but perhaps she had snuck off to make sure that Frank would indeed be ok. Percy couldn't blame her, he was having a hard time not just bolting out the door to make sure nothing's happened but, as Nico had told him, if anything did he would let him know right away via telepathy.

"So like, we share memories and all that stuff," Leo stopped pacing and used all his focus to look at Persephone, mum, while he spoke. "And I was wondering, there's some stuff that just doesn't pop into my mind, why is that?" Oh, good question, Percy had been wondering that as well.

"Well sweetie," she looked around to make sure that both Annabeth and I were listening. "It's because nothing, human, angel, or demon retains every little spec of memory. If they did I think our heads would be grossly huge." She chuckled.

"Oh," Annabeth perked up from her seat dusting crumbs off of her shirt. "So like short term, and long term memory."

"Exactly sweetheart," geez if this was anyone else Percy's sure that they would have all had it with the pet names by now but she was so darn sincere, there was definitely something in the cookies.

"Persephone and I also share our memories." Hades spoke up surprising them all. "When we first went through the head rush of all those memories it wasn't like you could recall what you wanted at will. Often a memory is just a feeling. It would be nice if you were able to pull out what you needed from the memories but it doesn't work that way. If your partner has forgotten it then those memories won't have been shared." He went back to eating a cookie. Persephone was practically a ray of sunshine the way she beamed at her husband. In return he looked like he could melt into a puddle from her smile, it was kind of cute.

"Like something on the tip of your tongue but it just escapes you no matter how hard you try?" Annabeth asked sitting up straighter, her brows furrowed to show her interest in the subject. It did concern them all.

"Exactly!" Persephone grinned at the girl and it made her blush and nod.

SUMMON

Later that evening he and Leo were chilling on the couch in a tangle of limbs and blankets. They were watching Iron Man and Leo was practically quoting each line. Hazel still wasn't back but Leo didn't seem all that worried about her absence, no doubt she told him where she was.

"If I ever invented something as cool as the Iron Man suit there'd be no way that the government cronies would get their hands on it." Leo stated while eyes big brown eyes were glued to the screen.

"Yeah, well as for me they still haven't made an Aqua Man movie so for now I'll pour all of my love into Captain America." They both snorted.

"But Percy," Leo twisted so they could look at each other. "Everyone knows that Aqua Man is the lamest superhero out there and like wrong universe."

"Hey they still have those Marvel versus DC games and stuff so there in the same universe somewhere." Percy defended.

"But seriously if you're Captain America then Nico is Bucky." Leo pointed out with a huge smile.

"Have you been reading fan fics again?"

"Maybe?" Leo grinned and they both turned their attention back to the movie.

The movie was nearly over and then they both had to go to bed. It was weird to have someone tell him what to do but the way it was done was with care. Percy just hoped Nico would be home sometime before he fell asleep.

All too soon the end credits were rolling and then accompanied by Persephone telling that that it was time for bed. Apparently Annabeth didn't have the same rules as them but, she had always been the more responsible one.

As Percy got ready for bed his mind wandered to how he could help. Right now his options were up in the air since really, he's new to the whole magic-is-real and demons-aren't-all-that-bad world. Nico would teach him, there's no doubting that.

Being Nico's mate gave him special privileges. With his mind on the subject he began to recall some of Nico's memories of when he was listening to a lecture about bonding. Even though he'd been passing notes with Frank Percy learned enough from the memory (he also learned that the most Nico could draw was a stick figure.).

The memory also told him that he'd have access to some of Nico's power that Nico would be sharing with him. If that was so then all that needed to happen would be some lessons. From the memories Percy also learned that if a human indeed became a mate to a demon the human would take on some characteristics of their mate, namely wings and their own bit of power. Though Percy quickly started to think about something else when they got into the territory of how the wings would appear, it involved blood.

After brushing his teeth Percy made his way to his and Nico's bed. It was still weird to think that he was sort of kind of, ok really, married. It was more binding than any civil ceremony the Earth had to offer and a million times more special to the human.

Percy hoped into bed and made sure to plant himself in the middle of the bed. He was still self-conscious around Nico so he wore shorts and a shirt, usually it was just shorts.

A giant yawn left his lips and he let his body sink into the soft mattress. Soon the human was asleep.

…..

I hope the little part with Persephone and Hades further explained how their shared memories work. I didn't want to be stupidly convenient.

Also, Leo is fucking adorable. That's all.