Disclaimer:
I do not own the PJO characters.
They came over the hill and everyone started crowding around them. I heard Jamie trying to get through.
As soon as he was through, he yelled, "Trish!"
I turned and ran, I don't know where I was running too, but I didn't want to hurt anyone anymore. I ran straight into the woods and past Zeus's fist. I just kept running, until something I ran into something.
"Ow," I said sitting on the ground brushing the dirt off me.
"Oh, sorry," I looked up and saw Nico standing right in front of me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"Well, I saw you run away, and I know how you feel," he held out his hand to help me up, I reluctantly took it. "I ran away too, a bunch of times. But it doesn't have to be that way. I realized that you do have people who care about you and you don't have to run."
"You don't understand, I'm not running because I don't think anyone cares. I know people care about me, but that's the problem, I don't want to have people care about me, I don't want to hurt them anymore."
"What do you mean hurt them?"
"O-on our quest, something happened," I took down my hood and looked at Nico, "I don't know what to do anymore. Several Immortals want me dead. On our quest, one of them went after us, Nemesis. She tried to kill me, and then tried to kill everyone else for trying to protect me. W-when she went after Coral, that's when I had enough, a-and I-, something inside me was unleashed and I almost killed everyone. And now more than one Immortal is after me! I just don't know what to do." I sat back down and up my head in my hands.
"H-hey, its going to be okay," I was surprised when he said that. Nico, Nico di Angelo was telling me that it was going to be okay.
"Y-you don't know that," I responded.
"No, I don't know that, but I know some place you can go for now, until everything cools down a bit. Some place where most gods would not want to go."
"Where? Your father?" I asked.
"Yeah, it seems perfect. My father likes you, and most gods wouldn't dare go down there."
"Heh, I guess its good that I'm on Hades' good side."
Nico grabbed my arm and before I knew it, we were surrounded by darkness. We then found ourselves in Hades palace. It looked just like before sleek, jet black, marble floors, ceilings so high you couldn't see them, and Greek fire torches on the walls.
"Why would you bring her here?" a voice boomed. I looked to where it came from, it was Hades sitting on his throne.
"P-please Hades, I-I didn't know where else to go," I stammered. I might like Hades, but jeeeez he was scary.
"But you should not be down here, Zeus will be all over me for letting you stay down here. Plus, how do I know you're not just going to destroy me and my wife."
"Hades please, I wish no harm to anyone. So what if I yelled at Zeus a few times, but that doesn't mean I want him gone, that's not the kind of person I am," I explained.
"Let me think about it, for now, Nico take her to your room."
"You have a room?" I asked Nico as he led me down a hallway.
"Yeah, but I don't use it much."
We walked in front of a huge door and Nico pushed it open. I was awestruck, this place was huge, it wasn't just a room, it was like a bunch of rooms.
"Holy crap on a cracker," I muttered.
"What?" Nico asked.
"Oh, I said 'holy crap on a cracker'," I repeated.
"Oh. Um well, I, uh, I have a question. I-I wanted Will to ask you, but since you're here, I thought that I would ask you."
"Hmm?"
"Well, um, you said that you were Christian right?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Well, don't Christians think that, uh, gay relationships are like, wrong?"
"Well, uh, mostly. That's the way my parents are, but I never got that. I mean you love who you love right? Plus if God didn't want there to be gay relationships, then he would have made it so that there wasn't any. I don't know what everyone has against that type of stuff, but I don't. Look, there's nothing you should be afraid of, let them hate, that's their opinion. But to me you and Will are the best OTP."
"Oh, um, what's an OTP?" Nico asked.
I laughed, "It stands for 'one true pairing'."
"Oh, okay."
"Well, uh, what should we do now?" I asked.
"Um,"
Just then a skeleton bust through the doors and said, "Lord Hades would like to see you now."
"Is that?" I asked.
"Yes, that's my butler," Nico said walking out the giant doors, I quickly followed behind him.
We walked back into the throne room, but now Persephone was also sitting on a throne.
"So this is the one who is causing all that ruckus on Olympus, to be honest I wasn't expecting this," Persephone laughed, "But to be honest, you do have a bunch of potential."
"Um, thank you?" I said.
"You are most welcome," She replied.
I smiled at this. "Well Persephone and I have come to somewhat of an agreement. You may stay down here for as long as you would like, but you must learn to control this curse of yours," Hades said.
"Well who is going to teach me to use it?" I asked.
"We don't quite know sweety," Persephone said, "Your curse is so much older than us, and we don't know much about it. But here in the underworld, we have many resources and we're sure we can find something or someone who can help."
"we also have something for you," Hades explained, he held something out for me. It was a pair of gloves. "These should keep your curse down a bit, we don't know how much, but it will help a little. They're made out of celestial bronze."
I grabbed them and put them on, they were surprisingly light and very comfortable. I smiled, "Thank you, do you mind if I IM someone?"
"Sure, ask Nico, he should have a fountain in his room for Iris messages," Persephone replied.
"Come on," Nico said, he sounded annoyed.
"A-are you okay?" I asked him as we walked back down the hallway.
"I'm fine," he grumbled.
"Are ya sure?" I shouldn't have pushed but I wanted to know why he was mad.
"I said I'm fine!" he yelled turning around.
He stared at me. "Sorry, I didn't mean to push you," I said in a small voice.
He just turned back around and we walked into his "room". He then led me to a small fountain in the a far back corner. "Who to?" he asked.
"Uh, Jamie," I said as I put my hood up.
Nico threw a drachma into the fountain and said, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Jamie at Camp Half Blood."
The image shimmered and suddenly I was looking at Jamie. Jamie gasped when he saw me, "Trish! Where are you, are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine."
Then Katie came up to the image. "Do you know how worried Coral is! She's been crying this whole time! You better get your butt over here and calm your sister down!" she yelled.
"I'm sorry, I really am, but I can't," I stammered.
"And why not?" she said crossing her arms.
"B-because, I don't want to hurt anyone."
This time Jamie spoke up, "You won't hurt us Trish, we know you."
"What about all those times when I almost did!" I yelled.
Just then I heard Will screaming. He showed up in the image and yelled, "Nico di Angelo! You better get your butt up here, we've been worried sick about you! We sent a search party out of you two!"
I stepped up, "Will, look I'm sorry, but I made Nico bring me here. I didn't know where else to go but there are Immortals after me and this is the only place I could think of where I would be safe. I'll make sure that Nico comes back to camp, but I'm staying here."
"No Trish you can't!" Jamie yelled.
"I'm sorry Jamie, but I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Don't you think that you just being away isn't already hurting us! Coral hasn't stopped crying since you jumped off of Olympus and no one can make her stop. And me, have you thought about how worried I am!"
"Well its better you be worried than dead! I'm too dangerous to keep at camp with everyone. Plus down here Nemesis can't harm me," I said.
"Please Trish, come back to us," Jamie pleaded.
Just hearing him say that made me tear up. I did, I really did want to go back, but it's safer for me to stay down here.
"Well," I said, "I was calling to tell you that I'm okay, a-and that I might v-visit sometime." I started to choke up. "I-I'll IM you later." I waved my hand through the mist and the image disappeared. I sank to the floor crying.
Nico looked at me for a moment then decided to sit down next to me. We sat there for what felt like hours until Nico finally decided to say something. "So is this what you really want?"
"No, but I don't have a choice."
"Why do you keep putting your hood up when ever you talk to people? You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Nico said.
"No, its fine. I do that because I don't want many people to know, once they see my eyes, they'll know something is up. Athena, she gave me a book telling me that I was the "chosen one" and stuff, and I don't want more attention than I already have being the child of Hera and all that."
"Yeah, I not a fan of attention either," Nico sighed, "So, have you eaten anything today?"
"Have you?" I laughed.
"No."
"Me neither."
"Well, there isn't really anything good down here, you wanna go to Mc Donald's?"
"Yeah!" I said excitingly, "but we can't be gone long."
"We won't, now come on," Nico said as he grabbed my shoulder and shadow traveled up to a Mc Donald's. I put my hood down as we walked inside.
We walked up to the lady at the counter and she asked, "What would you two love birds like?"
We both scrunched up our faces at that comment. "Uh, ma'am?" I said, "He's my cousin, and he's gay."
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry. You just seem like you would be a couple because he's dressed in all black and you have a cloak on, so you both look emo."
We stared at her. Apparently Nico didn't like that comment because he yelled, "Listen lady, you can't go around assuming people are together! Also I'm not emo! My favorite color is just black!"
"Nico, calm down," I said.
"But." I just looked at him and shook my head.
I turned to the lady. "I'm so sorry about that. But you need to understand you can't go around saying stuff like that."
"Who am I to take crap from two kids, I said sorry okay," she exclaimed.
At that I got a bit mad, but I tried to keep it together. "Well technically, he's like twenty some, I think, so he isn't really a kid. Also we are your customers, and you should NEVER talk to your customers like that. So if you excuse us, we are going to go find a different place to eat."
She just looked at me as I took a stunned Nico's arm and pulled him along. I looked back to see the lady walking away from the counter, so I twirled my fingers making it look like she slipped.
As we walked out the door, I heard her yell, "F #%!"
"No cussing!" I yelled back which just made her get angrier.
We were all the way across the parking lot when Nico finally snapped out of his shock. "That was awesome! I didn't know hanging out with my cousin would be so fun," he laughed, which shocked us both.
We stared at each other for a moment before we broke out in laughter. Once we had calmed down a bit I asked, "So, do you know where a different Mc Donald's is?"
"Are you kidding, I've been all around the country. I probably know every Mc Donald's within a hundred-mile radius."
For some reason this made us laugh even harder.
"Which I have a question," Nico asked, "So how did you know that I was twenty?"
"Well, in the Heroes of Olympus you were 14, right? Well its like 5 years after when that happened and your birthday is what January 28?"
"Yeah."
"So if you do the math, then ta da."
"But how did you know when my birthday was?"
"The internet, duh."
"H-how is it on the internet?"
"Don't ask me," I said raising my hands up in the air.
"Hmm, well lets go get some food, I'm hungry."
"Okie dokie, sounds good to me."
Nico then grabbed my arm and shadow traveled us to a different Mc Donald's. With this one, we thankfully didn't have any problems.
We sat down and started eating. "You definitely don't act twenty," I said pointing a fry at him.
"Well I don't act a ninety either," he said grabbing the fry out of my hands and shoving it in his mouth.
"Hey, that's my fry," I pouted. I tried to grab a fry from him but he smacked my hand away. I kept trying but Nico was just to fast.
I took my hand and stuck up two fingers keeping his hand frozen in time. I reached over and grabbed a fry. "Ha," I said putting the fry in my mouth.
"Hey that's not fair, no curses," Nico complained.
"You never specified the rules," I bragged.
"What rules," Nico laughed.
"You know, two years ago if you had told me that I would be sitting in a Mc Donald's with Nico di Angelo, who just so happens to be my cousin, I would stare at you like you were a banana."
"Why a banana?" he asked.
"I don't know, just something I've said since I was little," I explained shrugging my shoulders.
"Well," Nico said, "We should probably get back before my dad yells."
"Okay," I answered, a little disappointed, but I knew better than to stay up here too long, there are Immortals after me anyway.
We threw our trash away and Nico once again shadow traveled us back to Hades palace.
When we got back to Nico's room a "nice" surprise was waiting for us. It was Will and Jamie.
Thanks for reading! I'm posting this a bit earlier than I usually do, but I really wanted to finish it so I started early. I hope you enjoyed. Stay safe a be a banana.
-Lou Ellen