Hello Internet.
To those who care enough to read this A/N, I have a confession to make.
This fanfic has been hijacked by Valdangelo.
Yes, I'm sorry if you don't ship them, but in writing this story I realized like half of it was entirely Nico and Leo as like the super bestest buddies and then… poof, they're shipped! They're adorable, and I couldn't help it—I didn't even ship them until I found myself writing it and was like holy shit what am I doing?!
And that was just totally out of left field, even for me. Trust me, when it gets there, you'll be just as surprise as I was. But, this story ISN'T about them—at least, I didn't intend it to be. The long breaks in between updating come from the fact that I've been writing this epic romance novel surrounding my new OTP and then realizing I still have to, you know, FISISH THIS STORY AS IT'S MEANT.
But, you know, shit happens. Beautiful, wondrous shit that makes me very happy.
I know you don't believe me, but this story is almost done—I've written all the major plot points out already and now have to connect them all so they make some sort of sense. And, if you hadn't noticed by now, I'm quite wordy with my descriptions, so that could take a while.
But, the show will go on. Spoiler: heavy emphasis on Nico and Leo towards the end.
(Cue internal groan—I've no idea why I do this to myself).
Anywho, enjoy.
-Weezila
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Thalia didn't give a second thought to her reflection in the mirror anymore—or at least, she tried not to.
She got up, got ready for the day, brushed off the last vestiges of sleep with ease and was out the door in three minutes flat. The benefits of being an immortal Huntress: human things like sore muscles and groggy mornings were things of the past, and since she was hardly as vain as Shelly or as proper as Jezebelle, her morning routine was short and sweet.
All Hunters could get ready in less than twenty seconds, it was totally possible and actually routine considering the life they lived while out on the hunt, but for today as the three senior Hunters stayed in Archstone, there was no need for the haste. Shelly liked to spend time selecting her crazy wristbands, trying on every piece of crazy clothing she'd brought to see what combination she'd yet to try out, and doing her platinum hair up with neon ribbons and straightening the already ruler-strait strands. Jezebelle went through the meticulous, well-rehearsed motions of lacing up her corsets and dresses, re-lacing and shining her heeled riding shoes, pinning up her barrel curls with a hundred bobby pins and picking out the correct hair comb for the day. In a way, their routines when they had the time had not changed since they'd joined the Hunters—Shelly in 1986 and Jeza in 1863.
Thalia didn't expect her routine of shaking out her hair, tossing on whatever black clothes were nearest to her, and adding onto the dark eye make-up she pretty much never bothered to take off would change much through the centuries. She kept thinking maybe she'd try something different just to mix it up, but never got around to it. Shelly said she used to think that too, until the turn of the century in which she decided she liked retaining the pride she had for her time. Jeza didn't comment on the passage of time much, but she had said once or twice as she went through her nightly routine of gently and patiently brushing out her curls that she would not lose her dignity no matter what the current fad asked of her.
She'd sat ram-rod straight in front of hers and Shelly's shared wardrobe mirror, rhythmically running her brush through her hair with an expressionless look as she'd point blank refused to put one of Shelly's ridiculous clips in her hair or let Thalia come near her with any sort of makeup—black or otherwise. Shelly had just rolled her eyes and said no one ever changed their style, and Thalia couldn't help but agree silently. Jezabelle wore riding pants out on the hunt, but on their days off like today, she had returned to floor length dresses that skimmed across the tops of her feet and swished with her walk—complete with petticoats, underdresses, and corsets. She looked to be dressed up as a maid in the civil war every day of high school. Thalia knew both Jeza and Shelly got some really strange looks, but luckily they were strong enough to scare off any dissent.
It was proof, Thalia decided, that you could still be feminine and yet independent of men. She herself was not very feminine, a hard core tomboy to the end, but Shelly had been a daughter of Aphrodite once upon a time and she was not afraid of mini-skirts, high heels, or make-up. Only, she did those things for herself rather than to attract any boy's attention. Or, maybe she did, with her rather sadistic tendency of enjoying squashing their hopes into dust.
Jeza was a very different version of feminine, but she was still very much so. Her version was more of natural beauty, one of a proud woman who did not need a single thing in the world to be proper, put together, and respectable. Thalia had seen her get blasted by a frost giant and sucked under a mud pit and emerge both times still looking dignified and controlled while everyone else looked like drowned rats spitting out twigs. She had only been mortal during the civil war when Artemis found her, but she alone after the passing of Zoe acted most like the graceful goddess they followed.
Thalia wondered how different she would seem to mortals in a couple hundred years' time. Would rocker-chic go out of style? And ugh—would she have to live through a retro stage when Uggs came back into trend? Blah, kill her now.
Despite being the Lieutenant, she was still decades younger than a lot of the girls she now called sisters. She'd found after her joining that she was the most personable of them all—she could talk to mortals and recruit them left and right, and because of this, their numbers had doubled since the Titan war. But there were still about two dozen girls who were decades to centuries older than her, who knew what time was bringing with it, who knew what struggles Thalia would have to endure from now on. They knew struggles that Thalia didn't quite grasp yet.
But she knew they were coming. She knew by the way she didn't even recognize herself in the mirror anymore. She felt at least twenty at this point, but time had messed with her pretty badly, being a tree and then suddenly immortal and all. Her reflection just didn't match who she felt like, and it threw her off. Not to mention that the silver aura, the enchanted circlet tiara to mark her status that never went away, the unnatural health and composure. It wasn't her, it wasn't who she'd always seen looking back at her in the mirror.
She hoped that, in time, when her mortal life was only a tiny fraction of the time she'd lived on this earth, that her reflection would become more natural, more real to her. She didn't ask the other girls though. The only thing worse than not knowing, is knowing it wouldn't get better, and she didn't want to risk it. She didn't want to hear that she could never look at her reflection comfortably again.
She didn't want to hear a lot of things actually, not wanting to hear the truth of her reality, but it just couldn't be helped sometimes. Like, Percy asking her what would be a good birthday present for Jason next month, or Annabeth plotting out the designs for her next goal: New Athens, a hidden, protected city she was determined to one day build to mirror New Rome on this side of the country. Like Mr. Blowfis considering updating his lesson plans for next year if they got any more demigods, or Nico mentioning that he might steal Leo and go to Italy again next summer, just to see if he could dig up any more of his memories (and in the past months his shadow traveling abilities have gotten ridiculously good, so if it was just those two they should be able to slip in and out without trouble).
These events were all varying ranges of important and trivial, but the main thing was that they were all moving forward. Jason was another year older and Annabeth was working on doing all she could to optimize her impact in these few decades of life she had left. Mr. Blowfis was planning for next year when this school year had only just started, and Nico was moving on from his troubled past.
It was that last one that bothered her the most, right after the fact that Jason was getting even older than her. Since she'd met the kid, all Nico had ever done was wonder at his missing memories and struggle to figure out where he fit in to the entire equation, struggling to put his past behind him. The fact he'd mentioned Bianca the other day without yelling or glaring and openly called Hazel his sister… the fact he got along with her and Percy like true cousins, and how he seemed content about the horrors he'd seen in his young life… it wasn't Nico. It wasn't the Nico she knew. This Nico, this person he'd become since time stopped effecting her, it wasn't her Nico.
Her Nico was a bubbly little ten year old that asked annoying questions. Her Nico was equally as likely to sell Percy over to Hades as he was to help them. Her Nico was broken and ferocious and uncontrolled, but also clueless and naive.
This Nico was different, more diplomatic and confident in his place and his abilities. This Percy and Annabeth and Jason—they were all different. Jason was… grown, independent and strong, and a leader in his own right. This Percy was mellower and more willing to support than to butt heads or fling himself into every fight he crossed. This Annabeth was more suspicious, warier and more distrustful just as much as she was wiser and infinitely more clever. They were the same people, but that had changed. Grown up.
But her? She was the same exact Thalia as she had been the day before she'd turned sixteen, and she would be this same exact Thalia until her death, no matter how many centuries lay before now and then.
The days were going to come when Nico took off, going to find whatever it was he needed to find in this world. Percy and Annabeth were going to get less and less concerned with the world and more concerned with each other and some quiet life somewhere. Jason was going to run his course as Praetor of Camp Jupiter and do something—maybe go to college, maybe travel with Piper, maybe just find a job in New Rome and live there peacefully. Maybe Percy and Annabeth would manage to build New Athens, maybe New Rome would grow even stronger. Maybe the demigods at Archstone would all survive high school and find jobs that fit their personalities, or… you know, maybe they wouldn't survive high school.
But it was coming, this change. Thalia saw it, she dreaded it.
Already, Percy was less inclined to respond to her fighting- only just so, but the difference was still noticeable to her. He was tired, he'd fought a lot in his short life, and suffered greatly even now because of it. And he was older, not as young or as lively as he'd been going into the Titan war, going to the underworld or sailing the sea of monsters or traversing the labyrinth. He and Annabeth were older, battle hardened, and tired. They were still quite able, but not so willing to fight for fun anymore.
It didn't mean Thalia couldn't still pull it out of him, but she saw how reluctant he was to put her on the receiving end of a hurricane now. He didn't naturally clash with her just by being in the same room because they both as so much energy and power inside of them that they butted against each other because of their polar differences. She still felt like that, but he was more… restrained. Like there was a typhoon behind a glass wall, only visible if you looked but cut off and completely silent behind an easy-going smile. She felt ready to burst at the seams when her powers kicked up, but he could point his in the right direction with a knowing accuracy she just didn't have.
Even Nico, who was still a couple years younger than even Percy, had a control and a silently restrained quality to his powers that Thalia was left to wonder at. Then again, she shouldn't be so surprised—if he didn't want to go insane as most of his siblings in history did, he needed to have double the control anyone else with powers did.
Her stomach flipped as she realized that if Nico did go insane one day, she would have to bear witness. She'd have to watch as his mind decayed and he turned, watching his slow fall from the sidelines… holding that with her for the rest of eternity…
No, he'd be fine. He had Percy and Annabeth and the rest of the Seven who would help keep him stable. She had to believe that, just as she had to believe that they had all grown strong enough to be able to live long lives, that they'd die peacefully in their sleep somehow and not in battle as she was almost certain they would.
Because they were heroes—not even, they were leaders of heroes… and, well, she'd sacrificed herself into a tree without a second thought, and she had no doubt they would too. There were just so many possibilities for her to honestly think she'd ever get to see them live out their lives as happily content old people who play shuffle board and knit. They were heroes, and heroes didn't sit still well, sitting on the sidelines as she'd volunteered to do. They would lend their hands to any cause, and she had no doubt one of those causes would kill them eventually.
And Jason… eventually, she'd lose Jason again.
She'd lose Percy, who she'd unwillingly seen as a little brother after she'd awoken from her tree-state, still in mourning for her lost little brother and then having to put up with the foolishly trusting son of Poseidon. As it was, he'd been a vaguely familiar jittery optimist who liked to pick fights with her and had the utmost faith she could beat Kronos, right up until she'd opted out of the prophecy, so of course she'd reluctantly started to think of him like family. The fact he insisted on nothing else didn't really help avoid that.
She'd lose Annabeth, the little girl she'd semi-adopted with Luke all those years ago. She already had lost Luke. She'd lose Nico, who she'd formed a protective streak towards since he'd mostly been a clueless ten year old for her mortal life and then a tortured orphan up until recently.
She'd lose Ms. Sally and Mr. Blowfis, the parental figures who never so much as blinked when they called her family. She'd lose all the demigods she was living with in Archstone, the people that were all somewhere between roommates and family. She'd lose all the mortal friends she was making now who wouldn't end up accepting her offer to join the Hunters.
Not for the first time—more like for the thousandth—she wondered why this was a good idea again. Why would she subject herself to being here, when she had so much to lose? She had everything to lose. Everything she was gaining now would be gone one day. Why was this worth that future pain?
The answer found itself, as it usually did after her many moments of doubt, when she left hers and Annabeth's room ahead of her fellow Hunters as usual to meet up with the others in the dining apartment, immediately having her attention stolen by Percy waving her over as he continued to tell Annabeth all about whatever trivial thing he was interested in that day as the daughter of Athena hummed at him over the crossword she was doing in the newspaper and the cup of coffee clenched like a life-raft in her fist. She, Percy, and Nico were the only ones to ever drink coffee, considering what it did to normal demigods, but those three had more than enough sleep troubles to require some stabilizing aids, and no one denied them that.
The answers to her questions of doubt usually found themselves as Nico slumped in, half the time dragging McDonalds behind him much to Annabeth's displeasure and Percy's amusement. The answer was in the way demigods groaned all around them for the homework they put off or the clubs they were talking about joining/participating in that day.
Percy had said it when all this started, that all he wanted was a boring life; that a boring, normal, totally uneventful life was all he could ask for anymore. Thalia had thought him insane, as usual, but secretly she'd quickly realized what he meant, and agreed 100%. These boring mornings, when nothing special was happening and the biggest problem was an English test later in the day, were days she could remember having.
Early in childhood, there was always that question of whether her mother had remembered to buy food, wondering how she was going to get Jason to day care and herself to school if their mom was hung-over – or still drunk—and couldn't drive. Then, on the run, it was that question of whether they were going to survive the next hour much less the next day. Then at Camp Half-Blood, it was training, training, training, and prophecy this and prophecy that and this war and that fight—it never ended.
Then, of course, life with the Hunters was fun, but it wasn't easy. It was a challenge she loved to take, an adventure every minute, but it wasn't normal life. Normal life was something Thalia had never known… until now. And… she liked it.
No sane teenager liked eight hours of boring classes, liked homework and teachers and the mundane things of public high school. Maybe she wasn't sane, but maybe choosing to be there rather than being forced made it better. Whatever it was… she liked this average life.
Of course, she knew it wasn't going to last. Forget the oncoming storm the gods had planned, in a couple years she'd 'graduate' and it would be time to return to Artemis for good. Permanently.
And like she said… Nico would take off, Percy and Annabeth would move on, Jason would grow up even more…
And she'd just be gone, living that adventurous life she'd chosen while those who meant the most to her slowly got older somewhere else in the world. She'd live and live and live until one day she lost one of her friends or family who had lived to their extent. Maybe it would slip her mind as the decades dragged on and she'd forget. Like Shelly, who just tilted her head and shrugged the one time Thalia had asked what had become of her big sister.
"I have a niece in college, I think." She'd shrugged like it didn't matter, but Thalia couldn't stomach not knowing if Jason had a child, if that child had become something, what he was doing…
"Mind if I sit?" A new voice broke her from her inner preoccupation and she glanced up to see Mary Meter shyly asking to sit with the children of the Big Three.
"Sure!" Percy forgot whatever he was saying and grinned broadly at her, gesturing for her to sit. Thalia didn't miss the way the medic opted out of the two chairs next to Percy for the one directly next to Nico, though the son of Hades was too wrapped up in tuning out Annabeth's scolding for the McDonalds to truly pay notice of it.
Poor girl. She was in for a surprise, Thalia thought to herself, snorting lightly into her orange juice.
"What?" Percy frowned at her, but she just shrugged.
"Don't worry Kelp Head, you'll catch up eventually." She shoved his shoulder condescendingly, and he rolled his eyes.
"Percy." The son of Poseidon twisted around in surprise to see Stephanie and Damon Fleet side by side behind him, looking blank as ever. They never did take towards those "emotions" things, so they were like twin statues most of the time—the terrible duo as the Lacrosse team had started calling them. As children of the goddess of victory, they couldn't lose if they chose not to, at least when they were playing together. Percy had gone with a bunch of demigods to see them tryout in the first couple weeks as everyone found their niche at Goode, and he knew first hand that they were a pretty fierce tag-team as they played in perfect synchronicity. It was made all the more impressive that no one had ever seen them express any emotion at all.
Not that they didn't feel it, because just last week Damon had hung James Kore out the window by his ankle for hitting on his sister, and the son of Aphrodite was definitely not up for a repeat. Stephanie, of the two, periodically blushed sometimes too upon receiving a compliment, but that was as far as their expressive emotions went. They just didn't tend to show anything at all, and strange as it was, they were a quite calming presence to be in.
Thalia in particular hadn't even bothered to recruit Stephanie for the Hunters, knowing she wasn't about to go anywhere without her brother. They were a wordless unit to be taken as two halves of a whole, not unlike the Stolls, although the Fleets were even closer and actually legitimate twins. Unlike the Stolls though, they weren't identical: Stephanie looked quite alike to mortal pictures of what her mother, Nike, appeared as: tall and lean with long reddish auburn hair and clear green eyes. She even had the same aura of being chased after and yet uninterested, something even Aphrodite held against Nike. Damon, on the other hand, had a deeper maroon colored hair cropped short and spiked up in every direction as if he'd taken a shower and then just shaken his head sharply and his hair had stayed that way. His cheeks and nose were covered in freckles that his sister didn't have on her clear pale skin, and his lips were fuller, his nose angles differently. He stood at exactly Stephanie's height and shared her obvious definition, but his limbs were thicker, more like a discus thrower rather than a lacrosse player.
They also didn't dress the same like the Stolls did to troll with everyone. Stephanie tended to wear something not amiss in a catholic school—plaid skirts, tennis shoes, and knees high socks, the whole nine yards. Not even ironically, but seriously, with her white collared shirts pinned up to her neck at a blank, silent look when someone commented. Damon was a very typical high school jock, with socks and slides, often sleeveless jerseys or graphic tees and sports shorts.
They tended to keep to themselves and keep quiet, not needing words with each other and not needing anything else but the other. Thalia knew that Percy was probably over the moon they'd finally approached him, the avid social butterfly that he was.
"Hey guys! What's up?" He said eagerly, abandoning his breakfast to grin at them welcomingly too.
Stephanie tilted her chin up slightly- a cue Thalia picked up to mean that she would then be speaking for the both of them. "We would like to inform you that we will be at your swim practice this afternoon. Todd has invited us to watch." She said evenly.
Percy blinked in surprise. "Oh, ok! That's great, but ah, do you know why he'd…?"
Stephanie's cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink, and Thalia snorted again.
"Did he ask you both to watch, or did he ask you, Steph?" She smirked broadly, and the blush turned a more solid pink.
"Knowingly or not, he asked us." Damon answered that time, stoic as ever, but they felt rather than saw his displeasure at the situation. Stephanie just blushed a little more.
Percy's eyes got a little wide and then his grinned doubled.
"Don't say it." Stephanie said a tad too quickly, turning on her heel and striding away with Damon glued to her side without a word. Percy started to laugh but he was obviously trying hard to keep it quiet.
Thalia rolled her eyes and clapped him on the back rougher than necessary as she went back to her breakfast.
"You know, Kyle's thinking of asking Tilly out this weekend." Mary offered quietly, watching the exchange quietly.
"He'll have a rough go of beating Tilly to it," Percy smiled at her mischievously after he got his laughter under control, if only just barely. "She won't shut up about him." He grinned.
"This gossip," Annabeth tisked without looking up from her paper.
"These are my friends, wise girl! How awesome is it that they all get along?" He beamed, laughing to himself once more.
"Did I hear someone say gossip?" Darla was suddenly there, slipping into the seat beside Percy without preamble. "Who're we talking about?" She said eagerly, putting her chin in her hands in rapt attention.
"Stephanie and Todd," Mary supplied helpfully.
Darla scoffed. "So yesterday—but did you hear the rumors on Olympus? Apparently the parents are planning a trip down to earth. A wind spirit let it slip that Aphrodite's planning a massive shopping trip with her kids, isn't that crazy?" She gushed.
"Woah, woah, back up," Annabeth had finally abandoned her puzzle and her eyes were wide at this news. "No spreading this, Darla I'm serious! Who have you told so far?"
The daughter of Hermes looked shocked. "You knew! Oh damn it I'm losing my touch! How did you-!?"
"Darla! Who did you tell!?"
"Only the sisters so far, and I think Jimmy and Miranda overheard us talking this morning-"
"Go tell them to keep this quiet—the gods are gonna be pissed as hell if they aren't the ones to surprise their kids, right?" Annabeth got up and took her by the arm, dragging her to her feet and pointing back towards the door.
"What? What are you not telling me?" She demanded in irritation. She was such an easy-going person, it was only ever this knowledge thing that got under her skin. She hated having to sit on something big and not tell anyone.
Annabeth and Percy exchanged a look and a message was given and received.
Percy got up too and then leaned down into Darla's ear, whispering something to her. Her face slackened in first horror, then excitement, and then a forced calm expression. Percy leaned back and smiled widely at her. "Got it?" He asked seriously through the smile.
"Yes Captain!" She squealed eagerly, mock saluting and then high-tailing it out of there, on a mission.
"What just happened? What about our parents?" Mary said in confusion.
"Don't worry, the gods will do what they want anyway. We'll all find out eventually." Nico dismissed, wrapping his thin hands around his coffee mug and glancing over at her absently. She blinked at him for a long moment although he wasn't looking any longer, and then nodded dutifully as she went back to her own food.
Thalia tried not to smirk.
Yes, one day some very important things would be gone, but that didn't mean that this right now wasn't worth it. Some things were meant to move forward… to get better.
And she really hoped things would only keep getting better.