PJatO || Nicercy || PJatO || Nicercy || The Prince of Pluto || Nicercy || PJatO || Nicercy || PJatO

Title: The Prince of Pluto – A Journey to the Stars

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus

Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Rick Riordan for he created the awesomeness that is Nico di Angelo. And everything else related to Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus. Aside from the Gods, they belong to the old Greeks. This fanfiction and its OCs on the other hand are entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Warnings: m/m, scifi AU, aliens, alpha/beta/omega dynamics, hurt/comfort, fluff, pining, explicit intercourse, oral, anal, knotting, f/f, m/f, polyamory (m/m/f)

Main Pairing: Nico/Percy

Side Pairings: Reyna/Annabeth, Nyssa/Piper, Octavian/Luke, Ethan/Alabaster, Jake/Will, Frank/Hazel/Leo, Jason/Calypso, Grover/Juniper, Charles/Silena, Chris/Clarisse, Malcolm/Katie, Bryce/Drew, Paul/Sally, Tristan/Beryl, Maria/Marie, Hades/Persephone, Poseidon/Amphitrite, Thanatos/Triton

Percy Jackson Characters: (by planet/asteroid of origin)

Sun: Will Solace, Octavian Simmons, Austin Lake, Kayla Knowles
Mercury: Luke Castellan, Chris Rodriguez, Travis Stoll, Connor Stoll, Cecil Markowitz
Venus: Piper McLean, Silena Beauregard, Michael Kahale, Drew Tanaka, Mitchell, Lacy
Earth: Perseus Jackson, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Ella, Ethan Nakamura, Tyson, Sally Jackson, Paul Blofis, Tristan McLean, Beryl Grace, Maria di Angelo, Marie Levesque
Moon: Calypso Nightshade, Zoe Nightshade, Phoebe
Mars: Clarisse la Rue, Frank Zhang
Vesta: Charles Beckendorf, Leo Valdez, Jake Mason, Nyssa Barrera
Pallas: Annabeth Chase, Malcolm Pace
Bellona: Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Hylla Ramírez-Arellano
Ceres: Katie Gardner, Miranda Gardner, Juniper
Jupiter: Jason Grace, Thalia Grace
Saturn: Kronos (King)
Chiron: Chiron, Grover Underwood, Gleeson Hedge
Uranus: Gaia (Queen), the Giants
Neptune: Poseidon (King), Amphitrite (Queen), Triton, Proteus, Kymopoleia, Benthesikyme, Rhode
Orcus: Bryce Lawrence
Pluto: Nico di Angelo, Bianca di Angelo, Hazel Levesque, Mrs. O'Leary, Small Bob, Hades (King), Persephone (Queen), Thanatos, Olethros, Makaria, Melinoe
Eris: Alabaster C. Torrington, Lou Ellen Blackstone

Summary: The moon-landing had changed the course of history when human made first contact. It opened Earth up to space-travel, exploring the solar system and their now allied planets. Chiron Academy is the leading high school training future space explorers.

Percy Jackson grew up dreaming of one day traveling the stars. When he gets into the academy, he makes a lot of new friends, among them his new crush the half-Plutonian Nico.

Things change when Nico confides in his friends that he is actually the prince of Pluto – and that Pluto is in the middle of a horrible war. Together, the group of their close friends, they decide to ditch school, steal a space-ship and go out into space alone and unsupervised to help.

The Prince of Pluto

A Journey to the Stars

Chapter 16: Beginning of the Journey of the Andronauts

"Okay, now that we're on a steady course, run by me who has to sleep on the couch."

They had been driving steady for hours, had just officially passed the moon. At this point, they were probably safe. Until now, there had been a tenseness about being caught, about the academy sending someone after them because they had noticed. But by this point, they could safely assume that they had a good enough head-start. Just a bit of the tension left their bodies and Percy allowed himself to turn away from the windscreen to look at his best friend.

"On the couch?", echoed Chris with a mild edge of protest to his voice.

"No one is sleeping on the couch", sighed Annabeth.

"How? Because I may not be a genius like you, but I sure can count. And we're way more than twenty people. The Princess Andromeda is a small exploratory vessel, it has ten sleep-quarters, plus captain's quarters. That's not gonna hold everyone", pointed Percy out.

They were currently going on autopilot, now that they were out of the biggest problem zone (for now). So Annabeth blacked out the screen to instead pull up a chart – the schematics of the ship, all the rooms of it. Yeah no, Percy was definitely right. They were more people than they had rooms.

"Captain's room is yours", stated Annabeth and as she spoke, with a little ping did Percy's name pop up in the captain's quarters. "Due to limited space, you're going to share with Nico. I'm sure you two don't mind that, do you." Percy blushed furiously in reply, though he shook his head.

"Jason and Grover share the room next to yours. I'm sharing a room with Juniper and... Reyna." It was now Annabeth's turn to blush faintly. "We have quite some couples among us, so we'll be able to save beds that way. I took into account who'd actually be comfortable sharing a bed. So we have many rooms with two beds that three people will share – Charles and Silena share with Clarisse, Nyssa and Piper share with Rachel. I double-booked Luke and Octavian with Alabaster and Ethan, that's going to be a bit crowded but they'll be fine. Chris and Jake share, Frank and Tyson, Will and Leo. It's going to be a tight fit for Lou Ellen, Ella and Hazel though, but Beckendorf volunteered to work on a set-up third bed for their room. Bianca and Thalia get a room to themselves."

"That is... a surprisingly well thought-out plan", noted Luke pleased. "And yes, it's going to be a pain to share with Tav and Al and Ethan. I really hope Al can keep it in his pants."

"Another reason why couples share a room with another person. No dirty business, this isn't going to be a fun orgy-cruise", sighed Annabeth pointedly.

"Jake, huh? That's a good match", nodded Chris. "Can live with that."

"But you really want to leave Percy and Nico unsupervised?", asked Rachel doubtfully.

"Hey!", exclaimed Percy with a small pout.

"Captain's quarters only have one bed, since it's designed for only one person", sighed Annabeth. "I'm sure it's going to be fine. The two blush nearly half the time when they make out."

Percy narrowed his eyes at her. She was right, but still. A bit less mockery would be nice.

"Okay, let's make a schedule", declared Annabeth. "There should be three people at the helmet at all times? Just to make sure. A pilot, a captain, a navigator."

"We definitely need to take shifts. We also need more than two teams", pointed Luke out. "We gotta go through the crew, see who else is fit for the positions. The fact that one of our pilots is also the captain is not ideal. Someone needs to check if anyone else has piloting experience."

"Me, Luke and Annabeth on rotation for the captain's position. Octavian and Rachel as navigators. Chris and Ethan as pilots", muttered Percy thoughtfully. "Okay. If someone else is taking next shift, I'll go and check to see who else would be up for the task – or to be trained in."

"You go, and also get some rest", ordered Annabeth, ushering him out.

The best address to go to for this was Hazel. Percy didn't know the first years enough to know. He knew his own team and he assumed Luke would have spoken up if there was someone he had in mind for any position too. The safest option was to train a first-year.

Percy smiled pleased as he saw that all the sleeping quarters were already labeled. That was why Annabeth had put on the show with the schematics of the ship; she had labeled the rooms right away. The little key-pads in front of each room now claimed who lived there.

"Hazel. You got a moment?", asked Percy as he pressed the communicator-button on her room.

There was a little screen above the name-display and key-pad to allow communication. After a moment, the screen flickered to life, showing Hazel's smiling face.

"Sure thing, come on in", replied Hazel, before opening the door. "What can I do for you?"

The three of them had apparently already more or less unpacked, Ella laying sprawled out on one bed, with a small pile of books right next to her. That made sense, of all the few things they could take with them, to take something to occupy their time. They were going to spend weeks, more like months, traveling. Not much to do during that time. Lou Ellen sat on the other bed.

"We need more people in the control room. We agreed on three teams of three people to man it constantly – captain, pilot, navigator. However, with the current lineup I am pulling double-duty as pilot and captain, an we don't have a third navigator. So, the question is... You happen to have anyone with the potential to become pilot, or navigator? Preferably with some experience already."

"Me!", exclaimed Ella excitedly. "I've been studying navigation!"

"...And medical stuff?", asked Percy surprised.

"I like knowledge. All the knowledge", declared Ella with a broad smile.

"Okay. That's good", nodded Percy pleased.

"Talk to Leo?", offered Hazel after a moment. "His mom's a mechanic for cars, but his dad's a ship's mechanic. He talked a lot about his dad and traveling to Vesta with him."

"Leo? Okay, will talk to him, thanks Hazel."

He waved a hand before hurrying out to find Leo. Leo... Leo... Ah. There. Solace, Will. Valdez, Leo. Annabeth had put the two omegas together, which made sense. Percy hoped they'd get along. After a couple of tries, he gave up. Apparently, no one was in. Great. Where would he find this boy he had barely ever seen, much less actually gotten to know...

"I'm so tired", muttered Percy, running his fingers over his face and yawning.

"You look like crap", noted Clarisse as she walked up to him.

"Gee. Wonder if that's because we left late in the evening and been flying for hours, which I spent in the control-room instead of getting to do whatever it is everyone else got to do. Presumably sleep."

Clarisse snorted and reached out to ruffle Percy's hair. "Wuss. I was sparring with Reyna."

"...Yeah, I can smell it", grunted Percy and made a face.

"Oh, fuck off", snorted Clarisse amused, shoving him a little. "Well, I'll be taking a shower. You should go to bed. Sleep some, mh? No one needs a captian who falls asleep on their feet."

"I will sleep. As soon as I find the kid. Leo. I gotta go find Leo."

"The scrawny one? I told him to go and eat something. Build up some fat that can be turned into muscle-mass. He waved his arms wildly and declared that he has mechanics to learn."

"Mechanics to learn", echoed Percy. "Find Beckendorf, find Leo."

"Find bed, find sleep", called Clarisse after him.

Percy made a dismissive hand-gesture and hurried to the engine room. Next to the engine room, there was a workshop for the mechanics, kind of their office. Even if the engine didn't need attention, they could work there on other projects, they stored equipment and things there. Chances were that Beckendorf and the others were still getting everything put away there. When loading the ship, everyone had been in such a hurry, they had just dumped everything where there was space for now to be put away later – food, tools, equipment, their clothes and personal belongings, since rooms hadn't been assigned yet. Wait. Percy wondered where his things had gone...? Were they still standing in a corner in the common room? He still had to unpack.

"Beckendorf? Have you seen Leo?", called Percy out as he entered the engine room.

"Here and present!", exclaimed someone from the background.

Percy followed the sound to reach the workshop, where Beckendorf, Nyssa, Jake, Tyson and Leo were indeed still putting everything away, running inventory, with Beckendorf holding a clipboard.

"Hey, Leo. Hazel, she told me you might have some experience with piloting?"

Leo stared at him with those big, dark eyes. He was kind of adorable, like a puppy with the broad bouncy curls. Carefully, Leo put the big box him and Tyson were carrying down on the ground.

"Uh. Kinda?", offered Leo awkwardly. "My dad, he's a mechanic on the fleet. He's away a lot so he never got around to teaching me much about repairs, but when we last flew to Vesta to visit my grandparents there, he showed and explained the ship to me. This is a similar model."

"Interested in becoming a pilot?", asked Percy curiously.

"I... yeah?", asked Leo slowly. "I guess? I was thinking about doubling in mechanics and piloting when we'll enter our second year, but... I mean, can I really do this here?"

"Go to Chris. Sit in, observe, learn. So you're ready", declared Percy. "Beckendorf?"

"We'll be fine", nodded Beckendorf. "You go, Leo. Learn how much you need, you can come back here whenever you want and have time, okay, kiddo?"

He ruffled Leo's curls, making Leo smile and duck his head. Kind of adorable. Blinking slowly, Percy decided to sit down. Okay, he was definitely tired. But he'd have to first put his stuff away.

"You... okay there, Perce?", asked Nyssa slowly.

"Peachy. Gonna go find my room. First find my stuff. Then my room."

"You'll find both at the same place. When Annabeth sent out the room-assignments, we put all the stuff away – including that of those in the control-room", informed Jake. "We kinda just dumped it in the room, but still. Your stuff is in your room."

"Amazing. Thanks, guys. Good night. Wake me when we crash."

"Don't jinx it, Jackson!", called Nyssa after him.

Percy just waved over his shoulder and then made his way toward the captain's room. Captain. There was a small smile on his lips when he read the display in front of the room. Jackson, Percy. Di Angelo, Nico. That looked good. Their names, next to each other like that.

"Nick! What's the code for our room?", asked Percy as he pressed the communication-button.

"03-13. Welcome home, gattino."

Percy bared his fangs playfully at that as he entered their room. Damn. The room was nice. Slightly bigger than the other rooms. Fancier. Not by much, but still. Last time, the moon-mission, he hadn't slept here. He didn't like being captain, he had rather shared one of the regular rooms with Grover. But this wasn't a school-exercise, this was for real. He was taking this seriously.

"Hey, babe. You look really tired", noted Nico gently.

"...You really know how to flatter a guy", drawled Percy unimpressed.

He stretched out and yawned. Sleep. His eyes scanned the room, searching for the hastily packed suitcase he had taken along, that nearly all of his things had fit into. He didn't see it.

"Empty suitcases are under the bed. I took the liberty of putting your things away. Well. Your clothes in the closet and I put all your other things on the desk for now so you can put them wherever you want. Aside from toiletry, I did put that in our bathroom. We have a bathroom."

"...What? We do? If I had known the captain's cabin came with its own private bathroom, I would have slept here back when we went on our last mission!", exclaimed Percy.

Eagerly did he run over to the only other door he saw. Pressing a button, the door slid open with a soft whooshing sound. A bathroom! Okay, he was tired, but he also could use a shower. Quickly, he stripped down and then entered the shower-cabin. A good, hot shower always soothed him.

Only when he got out of the shower did he consider one thing. He was sharing a room, and a bed, with his boyfriend. They hadn't even seen each other naked yet. The highest of their feelings was some over the clothes touching and a lot of kissing. And perhaps Annabeth's room-plan, not leaving couples alone in a room, was very good there, because they shouldn't get too distracted.

"So... we should... talk", drawled Percy awkwardly as he stepped back into the bedroom.

Nico was sitting on the bed, holding a book. Slowly, he lowered the book at looked at Percy, waiting for his boyfriend to go on. This was going to be awkward, naturally. Alpha and omega, sharing a bed like that. Everything already smelt like alpha, because Nico had been in here for hours already, spreading his scent. Percy padded over to the closet to get new clothes out.

"I'm not ready to have sex yet. I just... we're gonna share a bed now. And I figured I should mention that... that's not gonna... change things in our relationship. We're just sleeping together. Not..."

By the time he turned around, changed into loose sweat-pants and a blue shirt with the academy's logo on it, he saw his boyfriend blushing furiously. Nico was ruffling his own hair shyly.

"I... I... uh... I wasn't expecting anything. But you're right. That was... important to bring up. And... while we're talking... I... I do nest, you know. I just, I nest. So don't... when you find clothes in the bed or anything, it's not that I'm sloppy, it's on purpose. Same for loose feathers of mine."

"Okay. Okay, yeah, that's good to know", nodded Percy pleased.

He lifted the blanket and crawled under it. He curled together in a circle, pawing the mattress. Once he was settled in, he closed his eyes and heaved a content, little sigh. Moments later and he could feel a warm presence against his back. He blinked and turned to stare at Nico.

"But... cuddling is okay, right?", asked Nico unsure.

"Cuddling is very okay", nodded Percy pleased.

"Rest well, Perce", smiled Nico, pressing a kiss to Percy's shoulder.

It seemed very easy to rest well when one had such a comfortable, nice-smelling alpha right behind him. The stress of the past hours of flying, of escaping and hoping they wouldn't get caught, finally got to melt off him completely and Percy found himself dozing off.

/break\

Nico woke up with Percy in his arms. This was a nice way of waking up. Smiling to himself, he buried his nose in Percy's hair, inhaling the omega's sweet scent. It soothed him. In all of this mess, he felt soothed and calmed with Percy in his arms like this. As though he knew exactly that everything would work out. Which was ridiculous, considering that they were on their way to an active war-zone. There was no way that all of this would work out. Rolling over a little, Nico wrapped his wings tightly around Percy, as though he was trying to shield Percy from the future.

"Ni—ico—o... you're suffocating me with feathers."

Percy fought his way up to sit, deliberately pulling a feather out of his mouth. Flushing, Nico removed his wings from his boyfriend, but the look on Percy's face was mainly amused.

"I do not mind the hugging, or the wing-hugs, but... feathers in mouth?"

Smiling bemused, Percy leaned down to kiss Nico softly. Both of them yawned and stretched.

"No one woke me", noted Percy after a moment. "Why did no one wake you?"

"Amore, you... needed your rest. I'm sure everyone did fine without you for a couple hours. You needed to sleep", countered Nico gently. "Let's get changed and check for food."

Percy's stomach rumbled at that. Right. He should have eaten something before going to bed, but somehow he just... he had been dead on his feet; sleep had priority over food there. Right now however, food sounded very good. The two of them got out of bed and got changed, while very decidedly looking into different directions. This was going to be awkward for a while, probably.

"We need to figure out a meal-schedule too. We can't expect the limited cooks we have to be on duty 24/7, there needs to be-", started Percy as the two walked the halls together.

"Percy, please. Slow down. We only just woke up, I haven't had coffee yet. Please."

Nico groaned and grabbed Percy's hand. Immediately, Percy shut up with a slight flush.

"That's Percy Jackson for you. A hundred percent right from getting up."

"Thank you, Annie. Exactly what I needed. Teasing in the morning", huffed Percy with a pout.

The three of them rounded the corner into the dining hall together. The room was mostly empty, Charles was sitting in a corner, nursing a coffee and leaning over schematics of sorts. At another table were Rachel and Piper sitting, eating together. After waving at Beckendorf briefly, they made their way over to the counter. Behind it stood Juniper, smiling at them.

"We need to make a plan", blurted Percy out the moment he stepped up to it.

"Perce. You haven't even had hot chocolate yet. Tune down your brain", called Grover out from behind Juniper. "Besides, put some trust into us. Kitchen-plan is taped to the black-board."

Grover motioned over toward a very old-fashioned cork-board. Curiously, Percy walked over to check it. Two fixed hot meal times, in the morning and the evening. Sandwiches would be prepared for people to take in the times between, for those on different shifts/rotations.

"And for all other needs, if you want something special, the kitchen's not locked. You are free to get in here and cook for yourself", offered Juniper with a smile. "That okay with you, captain?"

"I... Yeah. Yeah, that's good. You did well", nodded Percy awkwardly.

Now he felt foolish for trying to micromanage everything. But he was the captain. Wasn't that his responsibility? He startled out of his thoughts when Nico nudged him, carrying a tray.

"Sit with me and eat, amore", requested Nico softly. "I got you a hot chocolate."

There was one hot, savory meal offered every day, during both times, as well as breakfast-food, because while for someone, it was going to be dinner, it was going to be breakfast for someone else. Which suited Percy just fine; he had always had a good appetite and never limited himself when it came to meals. Judging by what was piled up on Nico's tray, Nico knew that very well – because Percy knew that Nico only ate a very basic breakfast.

They sat down with Rachel and Piper and Nico took his black coffee and Plutonian breakfast off the tray to push the rest over toward Percy with a smile. Mh. A boyfriend who knew exactly with what food to bribe him. Percy truly had chosen wisely. Returning Nico's smile, Percy piled the light-blue tentacles up on a spoon and dug in. Food. He groaned pleased.

"Good cooking, G-man", called Percy out with his mouth full.

"Gross. Stop it, Percy", complained Annabeth disgusted.

Now smiling at Annabeth, Percy grabbed a fork full of bacon. His stomach eased now that some food was in it. He hadn't realized just how much of his nerves yesterday had also been due to exhaustion and hunger. Putting the spoon down, Percy reached for the hot chocolate.

"I'm getting nauseous just watching the things you eat and drink and the combinations of them...", commented Piper slowly, picking at her salad.

"Hey. Neptunian. This is normal breakfast! Rhode reassured me!", exclaimed Percy.

"It's still weird", noted Piper, motioning vaguely at his plate.

Shrugging, Percy grabbed the doughnut. Damn, Nico really knew what Percy liked.

"The shift-plan", stated Annabeth after a moment, pulling a sheet out of her pocket.

She pushed it over the table toward Percy. The next couple weeks were going to be hell in that Percy wasn't good at sitting still and doing nothing. Waiting. They were just going to have to wait until they got to Pluto. Waiting and doing nothing was torture, Percy needed to be occupied. Now that he had his schedule, he could make a proper schedule around it. Training-sessions, other things to do, when to sleep, when he'd have time for food – he would have to take the meal-plan into consideration for that. Planning things through was technically not really something he liked much either. That was Annabeth's thing. He liked to be more spontaneous and get a lot of things done, at random times. The following weeks were going to be an experience, that was for sure.


Author's note: Dare I say - THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED? xD Next chapter, we're making a quick pit-stop on Vesta to get rations and maybe sneak in a little Nicercy date ;)