A/N: Okay, so, this took way longer than I expected it to cause I had this like weird lack of inspiration period where I didn't want to write stuff, but I wanted stuff to written. It was a problem. And then I was doing summer homework (which, for the record, SUCKS) and then I was actually working on the Oh, Nico 50th Chapter Spectacular (ikr? be proud of me. Only 27 OCs left woo!) and then I finally wanted to write stuff, but I didn't want to write anything. I know, it was sad, I apologize.
Anyway, but finally this decided to happen, so here it is, I hope you like it and stuff okay.
OH ALSO. So, like, apparently a whole bunch of you were like deeply affected by the Hazel-Nico scene in the last chapter. And, like, it was not meant to be that emotional. Like, it was just Hazel and Nico existing as they would've in the past, but in the future. There was no adorable undertones or whatever you guys seemed to find. I don't even know, but like I got a bunch of reviews about how heartbreaking it was, and I swear, that was not my intention.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad I gave you heartbreak. I just didn't know how. Anyway, just wanted to express my feelings on that. Review reply time.
WhatIfNicoWasSCREAMINGLYGay: Glad you liked the chapter. And yeah, stereotypically gay Nico would just be… weird. I like to think that he's not gay, he just likes guys. You know? Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
LeapingFang: Updating! Thanks for reviewing.
Smart Girl: I talked to you already so I'm not gonna even. Thanks for reviewing.
creamtherabbit77: Ikr? Me too! Fictional characters written by fictional characters are just the best though, don't you think? Thanks for reviewing!
countingmoons: I talked to you too. Thanks for revewing. (although I will say your zomgwtfbbq was beautiful, and an amazing GL reference that is the main reason I haven't read that book to my sister yet)
ihatejasongrace: I'm not gonna ask why you hate Jason cause I don't think I wanna get into that. Somehow I doubt that the Hazel-Nico scene made you cry more than TFIOS, because TFIOS makes people cry, like, a lot, and (again) Hazel-Nico was not supposed to make people cry! But anyway, I'm glad you like it, especially TARDIS-stealing-vader-killing Nicolas (he's my favorite, it's not even okay). Thanks for reviewing!
MisunderstoodSociopath: I talked to you too, I think, but I'll just say this: Actually writing the Nicolas Angel books is not as easy as it sounds. Like, trust me, I've tried. I'm so bad at like the filler stuff. It's just like no. But I'm trying. Thanks for reviewing.
kittyhawk09: I love your review omg. And that you liked Percy raising his eyebrow because just lol. And, okay, no, here's the thing with the end of that chapter (which btw I am fully aware makes no sense, but I'm working on fixing that). Nico found out from Frank that his friends (including Jason) visited his graveyard and cried and angsty stuff like that, so he gave Jason the apology that day. Jason found it outside and immediately called Percy. He was acting all nervous because he knew that if Nico was alive again, Percy would know, but he also didn't want to make the mistake of bringing up Nico if Percy was still all sensitive/panicky about it. Does that make sense? I hope you enjoy the book signing in this chapter, I enjoyed writing it :D And yeah, I think once this fic is over (or at least once Nicolas Angel stops being (somewhat) important to the plot) I'll write it out as a companion piece. Except apparently it's really hard to write in context, so that might take awhile. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
Mist: Glad you liked it. Thanks for reviewing!
ObsessedwReading: Thanks :D Thanks for reviewing!
ClarityValdangelo: Is Clarity another ship name? Or is, like, your name Clarity and then your last name is Valdangelo as if Leo and Nico were your fathers? Just wondering. I'm glad you like the fic, and that it's, as you say, "amazhang" :D I have very very few social media accounts, so sorry I am unable to talk to you more, but if you ever have anything specific you want to say to/ask me, let me know in a review, and I'll get back to you :D Thanks for reviewing!
fanficlena: Glad you liked everything. There's more Percico in this chapter :D :D :D Thanks for reviewing!
ImmortalMystery: Glad you liked the chapter. I will of course post more Nicolas Angel, I physically can't stop. As for Caleo, there's no way that Calypso would die after leaving Ogygia, cause she was an immortal goddess before she was banished there. Maybe, maybe, she loses her immortality and just becomes mortal, but I think if that happened she would still be able to live out her life with Leo and then die of old age/monster attack. And I figured out how to be vague about Leo's love life, so it doesn't even matter. Hopefully, you didn't die of boredom while waiting for this update, and I hope you like it. Thanks for reviewing!
Wolfgirl13: Glad you like it :D Thanks for reviewing!
TheWhoLockedSupernaturalist: Your penname makes me happy. Also you make me happy cause you reviewed like four of my stories :D Here's the more you asked for. Thanks for reviewing!
One last thing before I let you guys read. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE READING THE CHAPTER. I am fully aware that the end of the last chapter made little to no sense, it was a weird time when I was writing it, so I changed like a sentence and a half, added a word here and there, so I suggest going back to chapter ten and just re-reading that last scene with Percy and Jason. Hopefully it will make more sense this time around. If, however, you are still confused, read my reply to kittyhawk09 above, I explained everything there.
Now, on to chapter eleven! I hope you all like it, and please review! Also sorry if this chapter's a little disjointed, I wrote it out of order. Hopefully it makes enough sense.
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO, James Patterson, or anything else I reference. I technically own Nicolas Angel (but who am I kidding, I don't really), this fic, and any OCs I incorporate.
Chapter Eleven
Percy called Nico, before doing anything else, wanting to make sure that he wasn't betraying his cousin's trust before he made any decisions.
Nico was distracted for most of the phone call, and- after repeating himself for the fourth time- Percy asked him why.
"Sorry, Perce," Nico told him, finally sounding like he was listening. "I'm waiting for Adrianne's friends to get out of school so I can make sure they're coming to your thing on Saturday, and also I'm trying to read Nicolas Angel and the Curious Cousin except I haven't gotten very far because I'm really annoyed that you made Luke my cousin."
"Yeah, sorry," Percy acknowledged. "I had no plot for that book, I felt the need to put him in there. Warning for book five, Leo's your cousin too."
"Seriously?" Nico asked, then sighed. "Well, whatever. I'm paying attention now. What's going on?"
Percy suddenly hesitated, unsure of how much he should bring up over the phone. Nico was busy, he decided. He didn't need to worry about anything for now. "Jason was asking about you. I was wondering… I wanted to know if it was okay if I told the rest of the gang. You know, about you being alive?"
For a minute or so, there was silence, and when Nico finally spoke, he sounded nervous. "Well, you and Annabeth know, and Frank and Hazel. Who's left? The Golden Trio?"
Percy smirked. "Jason, Piper, and Leo, yeah. I feel like Reyna and Thalia should know too. And Rachel, if she hasn't already figured it out."
"Yeah, let the oracle find out herself," Nico decided. "Let me talk to Reyna and Thalia, I don't want to alert the gods of my existence just yet, and there's no telling how much they tell Artemis. It's just the seven coming on Saturday, right?"
"Yeah," Percy confirmed. "So do you want them to find out then, or can I tell the other three?"
After another pause, "Well, what did you tell Jason when he asked?"
"I told him you were alive, and… he hung up on me," Percy explained. "I figured I could give him some more details."
There was yet another small bout of silence. And then, Nico sighed. "Yeah. Sure. In fact, gimme a few hours, I'll come over to your place, shadow-travel us to meet the others, and I'll explain everything. I just want to finish these books first, and I think I can knock em out before tonight, if I can get past this stupid Luke scene, but then- Ooh! There's Jeannine! Gotta go, Percy, see you later!"
The line went dead, and Percy couldn't help but laugh at his little cousin, even as he dreaded the conversation that was to come.
"Percy, we need to have a serious talk about these books," Nico proclaimed that night as he shadow-traveled into the Jacksons' living room.
Percy looked up from the notes he was preparing for the book signing and raised an amused eyebrow at his cousin. "Why, what's wrong with them?"
Nico scoffed dramatically, as if to say, What isn't? "There's a whole chapter and a half in book five where Leo and I dress up and pretend to be pirates," he pointed out.
Percy sighed. "Yeah… that was Leo's idea…"
"And then in book seven," Nico continued, "Frank and I have a three hour-long Mythomagic battle over the last piece of pizza."
"Also Leo's idea."
"And in book nine, I mysteriously lose my scar after Hazel almost dies, because I was 'given beauty from the power of love'... That is an actual quote, Percy."
Percy shrugged apologetically. "That one came from Piper."
Nico stared at him incredulously. "How do people read these books and not hate you?"
Percy chuckled. "I think it's a fan thing. Like, the first few books are good so you fall in love with the characters, and then it doesn't matter that the rest of them suck cause you're already hooked."
Nico shook his head, looking disappointed. "Wow, Percy. Never in my life did I think you would become the next James Patterson."
Percy laughed. "Whatever. The 'next James Patterson' became a best-selling author and hasn't had a mortgage in three years, so…"
Nico rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. "Anyway. The books were good, actually. Like, really good. I'm proud of you, Perce."
"Gee, thanks, Nico," Percy deadpanned. "Because you know I live for your approval."
"Of course you do," Nico agreed. "Why wouldn't you?"
Percy would've continued making comebacks, but Annabeth called from the bedroom, "Hey, boys! Stop flirting and get going, or you'll be late!"
Percy rolled his eyes, trying not to make it obvious that he'd seen Nico blush. "All right, we're going," he called back. "See you later!"
A few minutes later, Nico and Percy appeared out of the shadows right in the middle of Jason Grace's California vineyard, crushing some grapes in the process.
Nico glared at his surroundings. "Gods, I hate California. Too hot, too sunny, and grape juice just does horrible things to my boots."
Percy chuckled and ruffled Nico's hair. "Come on, grumpy. We've got some explaining to do."
Nico was getting very sick of being hugged. And pretty much of people thinking he was dead in general. This whole time travel thing would've been so much easier if people just hadn't assumed things.
But after Jason had hugged him, and Piper had hugged him, and Leo had stared at him like he was a ghost before pulling some screws out of his tool belt and constructing a mini airplane (at least some things never changed), and Nico explained his plan (and some backstory about Bianca because the Golden Trio had not been present for that part of his life), and also Jason kept looking between Percy and Nico like one (or both) of them was going to explode, things finally seemed to be back to normal.
And then the future stuff started happening.
Nico got kinda confused by the dialogue of it all, because it had been fifteen years and he had missed a lot, but eventually he figured out that while Jason owned a vineyard, Piper had her own beauty salon (go figure) where she was great at convincing people to pay her insanely high prices for really simple stuff (because charmspeak yay) and yet hadn't been shunned by society yet because she was also really good at making people look pretty. Leo apparently owned an Auto Shop of some kind, possibly with a girl but Nico wasn't entirely sure, and Leo insisted that he was also Percy's manager, but Percy assured Nico that that was in no way, shape, or form true.
Also Jason and Piper had a daughter. Her name was Tris (named after Piper's dad, not the main character of Divergent as Nico had originally thought) and she was four, and chubby, and she called Nico "Magic" for some reason he was too afraid to ask Jason about, and also she was really cute and Nico was not okay with it.
He really wasn't one for children.
Eventually, the evening wore down, as Leo had to get back to the workshop, and Piper had to put Tris to bed, and Percy offered to read her a bedtime story, and suddenly Nico found himself alone with Jason and he didn't know what to do about that except he knew exactly what to do about that.
Because he had just spent 24 hours reading a ten-book series about his life, from Percy's point of view, and he had figured out some things.
"So…" Jason began awkwardly.
Nico cut to the chase. "You told Percy."
Jason winced, in fear and guilt, as if he had been waiting all night for this. "I didn't mean to betray your trust," he promised, talking quickly. "But it had been three years, and Percy's nightmares were just getting worse, he was in a really bad place, and he blamed himself for your death, because he knew that you'd been avoiding him after he and Annabeth fell, and he thought he'd done something to make you hate him, and not want to be around him, permanently, and so I- I had to let him know that your feelings were… the opposite. I'm really sorry, Nico, but I thought you were dead, and I couldn't-"
"Jason, stop, I'm not mad at you," Nico interrupted before the son of Jupiter could continue.
Jason froze. "You- you're not?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "Of course not. I knew it had to be for a good reason, or you wouldn't have told him. And… I mean, it's good that he knows. This way I don't have to talk to him about it."
Jason frowned. "Did he bring it up to you?"
Nico laughed. "No. I've been reading his books, and- though it's not specifically stated- Nicolas's ex-best friend he was in love with? So obviously Percy."
Jason smiled. "Yeah…"
"Does anyone else know?" Nico asked, serious again.
"Not to my knowing," Jason assured him. "Percy may have told Annabeth, but I certainly haven't told anyone else."
Nico nodded. "Good. That's good. Let's… keep it that way, if you don't mind."
"Of course," Jason agreed.
Nico sighed, glad he'd taken care of that. Now that no one openly hated him (not counting the Hunters, but he'd deal with them later) and he wasn't so hopelessly lost about his friends' lives in the future, he could focus on his mission, and the many different parts of it.
He was getting there. He'd have Bianca back soon.
The Q&A session went about as well as could be expected.
That is to say, it went horribly.
Fans were and forever would be an ethnic group that Percy would never understand. They read books, or saw a movie, or watched one episode of a TV show, and suddenly there would be nothing else in the world. There was just this fandom that took over their lives and, until they found a new fandom to obsess over, nothing else would matter.
Somehow, the fictional universe that Percy created for therapeutical purposes became one of those life-controlling fandoms.
It had been twelve years, and yet he still wasn't sure how he felt about that.
At first, the questions were ones he always got, ones he expected. Things like, "When's Nicolas's birthday?" (January 19), "What's Nicolas's favorite color?" (Black) "Has Nicolas seen Star Wars?" (Dude, physically just reread book two, it's on the first page).
But then, as the afternoon wore on, the questions started getting a bit more… meaningful.
"Throughout the series, Nicolas continues to use his shadow powers to travel, even after he's inherited Bi's car, and is legally old enough to drive it. Why doesn't anyone ever teach him to drive?"
And that's when the flashbacks started.
"Percy, you're a good driver," Nico commented as he attempted to lean back in the passenger seat, despite the fact that he'd been too lazy to find out how to recline it. "Who taught you?"
"Well, I took Driver's Ed," Percy explained as he turned around on the beach, starting back towards the cabin. After they'd saved the world from Kronos, Percy had been excited to show Nico Montauk. And also show off his new car. "And then, this was Paul's car, so he gave me some pointers."
Nico was frowning at him. "Driver's Ed?" he repeated.
Percy tried hard not to find it incredibly sad that Nico didn't know what that was. "Uh, yeah, it's… a class you take, through school, that teaches you how to drive."
"Huh," Nico muttered. "Guess I'll never have that… I don't exactly go to school… And I don't really have parents to teach me… Percy, how am I gonna learn to drive?"
Percy took his eyes off the road for half a second to give Nico a look like he was crazy. "Don't be stupid. I'll teach you."
Nico's face lit up as he grinned at his cousin. "Seriously?"
Percy laughed at the younger boy's excitement. "Of course."
"Thanks, Percy."
Percy reached over to ruffle the kid's hair. "No problem, Nico."
It took Percy about a second and a half to realize the fans were still waiting for an answer, which for him was a pretty good time.
"That is a very good question," he began slowly. "The answer to that… is… I think Nicolas simply didn't have someone he could trust to teach him. Bi had already died by the time he was old enough to drive, and if you'll remember, Jace actually offered to teach him, and got in a car accident that night. That was in book… six, I believe." He glanced at Nico, waiting in the wings, for confirmation. The son of Hades nodded, and Percy tried not to think about how Nico knew more about his books than he did. "So, Nicolas realized that maybe he couldn't trust Jace with his life, in that way, unlike how he could trust him in battle. So I think if there had been someone Nicolas trusted with his life on a day-to-day basis, then they would've taught him."
The fan who'd asked the question seemed satisfied with that answer, saying, "Thank you," into the microphone and sitting back down. But then the next person to raise her hand, who Percy recognized as Adrianne- both from having seen her around, and from Nico having pointed her out as soon as they'd entered the room- said, "Follow up," and asked a question that surprised Percy. "This person that Nicolas could trust. Are you talking about his best friend? The one who died?"
Percy stared at her in shock long enough for the other fans to start laughing awkwardly, causing Adrianne to blush and look around in embarrassment. Percy could see Nico out of the corner of his eye, his fists clenched in anger as the son of Hades glared at the audience. The shadows gathering dangerously around Nico snapped Percy out of whatever trance he'd fallen into.
"Sorry," he said quickly into the mic, silencing the crowd. "I'm really sorry, that just... Surprised me. Um... Wow. Yeah. That's... a great question. I, uh, I assume you're talking about Nicolas's old best friend who he had a crush on, right?"
"Yes," Adrianne confirmed, smiling sheepishly.
Percy tried not to look at Nico as he continued, but honestly couldn't help himself. "Though I wouldn't go so far as to say Nicolas's friend died- although that is a brilliant conclusion that you've made based on what little information on that character exists- you're definitely right that at some point before the start of the series, Nicolas lost this friend in some way that caused him to keep most, if not all, thoughts of his friend out of his mind." Percy sighed. "If Nicolas did still have that friend- if the circumstances were such that Nicolas could feel he could trust this friend the way he used to… If Nicolas's feelings for his friend weren't as extreme as they are, then yes, I'd say something as important as learning to drive would've been an experience they shared."
Adrianne nodded and thanked him and took her seat, and Percy was very proud of himself for that mini-speech. Until he looked back into the wings and saw that Nico was gone.
A/N: I was gonna write more but that's not gonna happen because I'm evil like that. Sorry there wasn't actual Nicolas Angel in this chapter, there was supposed to be but I got lazy. There will be in the next chapter, for sure. Also, next chapter gonna's be kind of really extremely angsty just because. :D Anyway, hope you liked this, please review!