Chapter 8: Nico decides to go to hell.

You wouldn't think it, but I actually love all that ancient history stuff. It's kind of handy when there are monsters waiting around every turn, learning all this stuff is almost as important as a weapon when fighting of all the nasties. Visiting all of these historical places with the smartest girlfriend anyone could possibly have, is definitely a plus side of our relationship.

First place we went to was the Parthenon, pretty much out of respect for Annabeth's mom. Annabeth was telling me something about some bloke called Thomas Bruce and how he took some of the statues years and years ago, and put them on display in the British museum and how it wasn't fair when my stomach growled. If looks could kill, I would've keeled over then and there. "Sorry." I smiled weakly at Annabeth, who brushed me off with a grin. My heart did a little flip at the sight of her looking so happy.

"You really are cute when you're worried." I could tell she was thinking about the most recent time she saved my life, by taking a knife aimed at my Achilles spot, and relief flooded over me; relief that Annabeth was still here, relief that the poison had not spread, relief that we had won the war.

Annabeth linked her arm through mine. "You take in much more information and you're brain will explode." She batted her eyelashes. "Where are you taking me for lunch then?"

We decided to go back to the hotel so that Nico wouldn't starve, strangely though, we found him standing outside the doors of hotel with my old maths teacher, Ms Dodds. As we got closer we could hear him saying. "And tell Father that I was invited on this quest and I will stay with Percy and Annabeth until everything is sorted." He waved her away and gave us a grim smile.

Annabeth jogged ahead of me. "What was that about?"

Nico shrugged nonchalantly. "Dad, you know how he is." He gave me a sideways glance as I caught up with them. "He doesn't exactly like Percy does he?" This was true. I guessed that Hades wasn't going to well, not hate me because Nico wasn't the child of the prophecy. Hades was going to hate me whoever I was. "Yeah well," Nico continued. "He isn't happy about me coming with you pair on this quest. He sent Alecto to bring me back." Nico's face fell slightly. "But I'm not going anywhere. He's going to have to like it or lump it." I looked nervously at the cobbles beneath his feet, waiting for the ground to swallow him up.

"He's going to be unhappy when he gets your message. I doubt Ms Dodds is going to sugar coat it for him." I guess there wasn't much point in getting Nico's hopes up.

He brushed the hair out of his eyes. "He can't hate me much more that he does now anyway. So I guess it's all cool." Nico tried for a grin. But it looked like he was just gritting his teeth to distract him from pain.

Annabeth's eyes went from my face to Nico's. I could almost hear the gears in her mind working. "I don't know what you can do. There definitely isn't much you can do to appease him while you're here." She smiled sympathetically. Then with a clap she said, "so where shall we go for lunch?"

We decided to eat at the hotel. Then afterwards Nico could get his nap and Annabeth and I could do more sightseeing. We sat at a table in a corner of the breakfast room of our hotel with Nico half heartedly picking at a pita bread thing while Annabeth and I chowed down on a bowl of rice and vegetables and stuff. I wasn't paying much attention. Too hungry.

Nico put down his lunch. "I think I'm going to live in the underworld." We'd finished this conversation a good half an hour previous. I probably said something that filled him with confidence like "Cool story bro." My mouth full of rice and raw peppers.

Annabeth placed her fork on the table delicately. "With your dad, why when you have a cabin at camp now? You've been accepted now."

"I've got to do something. I don't think he even likes that I've got a home."

I shovelled pudding down my throat. "Plus you've probably got loads to learn. I mean, you could have plenty of tricks up your," swallow, "sleeve." Annabeth sighed and thrust a serviette in my direction. "That's true. But maybe you should think about it more. Make your decision back at camp." Nico shrugged and walked out of the room dropping his tray of half eaten food in the bin.