In Shadowed Eyes

Even the Gods can show sympathy, however unwelcome their blessings may be. When Aphrodite, a goddess born of sea and foam, grants a blessing to another child of the ocean, she irrevocably alters the prophecy. Because when Percy Jackson looks across the Lotus Hotel and Casino and meets the wide, dark eyes of a Son of Death, everything changes. Percy x Nico

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Bianca's bottom lip was trembling when she made her demand, so Nico knew that his sister was on the brink of either breaking down into frustrated tears or punching out their new friends. Maybe Percy could sense the same because he quickly moved to reassure her.

"I'll answer everything you want me to," the green-eyed boy answered, eyes still scanning the bright but almost empty street. "But we need to move to somewhere more secure."

"We need to figure out how long we were in there too." The blonde- Annabeth- added, drifting towards the side of the group. Nico briefly wondered why before it occurred to him that this was one of the basic defense strategies in Mythomagic. He had been pushed into the middle with Bianca, so the others could intercept all attacks first, and Annabeth took the best position to cover Percy's back. She must not have the reach to be point then.

The dark-eyed boy internally pouted at being considered weak but stayed beside his sister anyways.

As the group moved down the street in search of a newsstand, Nico stared at their surroundings with unabashed amazement. His head could have fallen off his neck by how quickly it moved around; everything was so bright and colorful! Signs advertising products he had never heard of, buildings so tall they seemed to scrape by clouds, sleek, unfamiliar cars filling the road… It hadn't been like this before, had it?

Nico's head hurt when he tried to remember what the street previously looked like, so he abandoned those thoughts. It was barely enough to keep up with everything he was seeing now. The itch to run and explore was nearly irresistible to the young demigod. Maybe Percy could sense that too because his hand somehow found itself in the older boy's grasp again. Nico didn't bother to extract it; Bianca used to hold his hand too when they walking outside to keep him from running off.

They eventually found a newspaper stand available. "It's only been two days," Annabeth said, to two sighs of relief, "We have three more left."

"To do what?" Nico piped up. He didn't see the confused looks shared between Annabeth and Grover (a satyr!) when Percy answered him.

"My friends and I are on a quest to the Underworld. We have to… find something for someone."

'The Underworld? Like where Hades is?' Nico bounced on the balls of his feet. "That's so awesome! Can I go with you? I don't have a Hades figurine yet but his card is my favorite! He has the highest attack points of his brothers and if he's wearing his Helmet of Invisibility, then no one can attack him for three turns. I wonder if he'll look like his card form?"

The boy almost fist-pumped the air when another thought occurred to him. "Hey, do you think he'll autograph my card if I asked him to?"

"First, you're not going into the Underworld with us," Annabeth said sternly, ignoring Grover's exclamation of 'Di Immortales, he wants to go?!', "You're not ready to meet the God of the Dead and hopefully you'll never have to. Second, if you ever are unlucky enough to meet him, don't ask for autographs."

Nico would have argued this if Percy hadn't beaten him to it.

"What are we going to do with them then? We can't leave them here alone. L.A. is supposed to be filled with monsters!"

"We can't bring deadweight with us into the Underworld either," Annabeth argued. "What would they do if we got attacked?"

"Then they would have us to defend them," Percy retorted, "What if they get attacked here?"

"I'm not saying we should abandon them without weapons or shelter," the blonde snapped.

"Okay, let's have a time out here!" Bianca interrupted, forming the T-shape with her hands. "Not that I don't appreciate you talking about us like we're not even here, but Nico and I can make our own decisions. You promised answers when we got to somewhere safer. How about that cafe?"

They decided to follow his sister's suggestion and entered a white, blocky shaped building with shiny barstools and red vinyl seats. Since none of them felt hungry, Annabeth merely ordered several pop drinks with a familiar red and white logo and they took a seat in one of the back booths. Grover and Annabeth ended up on one side while Nico sat between Percy and Bianca on the other.

As they waited for the drinks to arrive and his sister took hesitant, fleeting glances outside- Bianca looked even more unnerved by the different cars than Percy's sword- Nico studied his friend. They had dropped a lot of new terminology today but the one that stuck out in his head was demigod. An in half-mortal and half-god. The younger boy really wanted to know which one Percy was related to.

It was the sea-green eyes that clinched it. Also their card game, the talking fish, the sword's name, and Annabeth's nickname for him. "Are you the Son of Poseidon?"

"Yeah, I am." A startled but pleased smile crossed the older boy's face. "What gave it away?"

"You said it was your favorite," Nico told him, "Do you have any other cool powers?"

"A few. I have some control over water and I can talk to horses. I can also breathe underwater."

"Does being a Son of Poseidon make you a great surfer?"

"No clue. I'll have to try surfing sometime to find out."

"Do all of the fish and horses have to do everything you say?"

"Well, they don't have to do anything but they've been very helpful to me so far."

"Does you magical sword-pen ever run out of ink?"

"Jeez, Nico. I never tried to write with it. Why don't you find out?" Percy handed the grey pen over. The dark-eyed boy promptly stole a few napkins from the table dispenser and found out that rich blue-black ink did make a mark there. Nothing obviously magical though.

His fun was cut short when the blonde girl snatched the pen from his hand and returned it back to Percy with a pointed look. Nico scowled. He was quickly revising his former opinion of her.

"Alright, so he's a Son of Poseidon. The Olympian. Poseidon," Bianca muttered. Her arm brushed against his, a silent reminder from his scared older sister that they would be able to get through this together. Nico tried to give her a reassuring smile. Percy would keep them safe, Nico just knew it. "And you guys are?"

"I'm Grover Underwood," the curly-haired boy with the wispy little beard said. "I'm a satyr."

"And I'm Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena," the blonde stated, lifting her chin up a bit.

"I see," his sister said slowly, "And you two are on a… quest together? But I thought Athena and Poseidon hated each other."

'I knew playing all those games of Mythomagic was going to be useful someday!' Nico thought.

It was Percy and Annabeth's turn to exchange looks. "Er, we're working on it," he said, grinning.

An ugly emotion rose in Nico's chest when the blonde responded to the boy's grin with a shy smile of her own. "What about Bianca and me? Do you know who our godly parent is?"

"We haven't figured out yet but we do know that you're not mortal," Annabeth answered.

"Because we could see Percy's sword?" Bianca deduced, her dark eyes cautiously assessing the others. "There's something hiding the monsters and magic from normal people's eyes."

"And you couldn't figure out that we were demigods before we saw the sword," Nico pointed out. "So demigods don't look any different from normal kids."

"Not any different to them. They were afraid that monsters were going to attack us and to do that, they need some way to find us first."

"A lot of monsters in Greek myths had great noses, so maybe they have to sniff us out? Do I smell?"

"You had a bath last night, so I smell strawberries," Bianca said, pressing her nose against the messy hair of the younger boy, "Are you using my shampoo again?"

The dark-eyed boy shifted guiltily in his seat. "No?"

The back-and-forth between the two siblings was watched with fascination by the others present. Grover stopped them from escalating into a fight. "So, any questions you want us to answer?"

"Maybe you can share the basics with us first before we ask any questions," Bianca suggested sweetly. Nico tried not to snicker into his Coke. His sister had pulled that trick often enough on him to get as much information as she could.

The explanation from Annabeth and Grover, with some input from Percy, was woefully inadequate. It covered Camp Half-blood, celestial bronze, monster names, demigod dangers, and the quest the trio were on, though they were given a vague answer of finding some lost artifact in the Underworld. The look on Bianca's face meant that there would be a lot of research in his future.

Nico didn't mind. His sister didn't show it as often as he did but both di Angelo siblings were nerds.

"I see," Bianca stated softly, when they were done. "I have one question then. Is there anywhere safe that you can take Nico and I to?"

The dark-eyed boy looked at his sister in betrayal. No! He didn't want to hide with Bianca! He wanted to see the Underworld with Percy!

"No. Sorry," Grover said mournfully. Bianca's lips pressed down to a frown. Nico beamed.

"Do you have any weapons for us then?" The younger boy pressed. 'I want a sword just like Percy's.'

"Er, no. None of those either," Annabeth replied.

"Then we'll be going with you," the dark-eyed girl declared. Nico merely sat and drank his Coke while his sister calmly refuted any arguments and reiterated that they would be following the kid with the monster-killing sword in his hands. Of the questing trio, it was Percy that didn't try to dissuade them.

When the drinks were done, Annabeth hailed a cab and used her Lotus Hotel card for payment. The meter spun around to the infinity symbol, the driver called the blonde a princess, and Nico watched in disbelief as the Daughter of Athena traded an infinite credit card for a cab ride.

As the taxi driver floored it to Santa Monica Beach, his sister leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"How many?"

"Three," Nico whispered back.

"Good. Keep them."

"Obviously."

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