I don't own Percy Jackson or Angels by Within Temptation.

Chapter 5 – Angels

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The next day, Nico was waiting at the doors in the morning when Percy came in. "Hey," Percy said, surprised. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Waiting," Nico responded.

"For what?"

Nico didn't answer.

Percy's face broke into a grin. "A girl?"

"Get lost," Nico mumbled as his cheeks flamed red.

Percy laughed and started singing, "Nico's got a girlfriend."

"Percy, what are you doing?" came a voice from down the hall, and Nico looked gratefully to…Rachel. Nico's grateful expression fell.

"Nico's go…" Percy was cut off by Nico's hand covering his mouth.

"What was that?" Rachel asked, coming to a stop in front of them, crossing her arms and looking pointedly at Nico.

"Nothing," Nico said loudly over Percy's muffled words.

Thalia walked in the doors with her hoodie up, staring at the floor and listening to Green Day on her iPod. She wished her music was louder when she heard the voice of Rachel Elizabeth Dare saying "Hey look, it's the freak!" and laughing.

She looked up and saw Rachel standing with two tall boys with dark hair. The boys turned around and she saw that they were Percy Jackson and Nico.

Nico turned back to face Rachel. "Shut up, Rachel."

She looked shocked. "What?"

"Shut up."

Thalia was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Nico turned back to her and grinned, taking his hand off Percy's mouth and wiping it on his pants. Then he stepped forward, took her hand, and in front of Percy, Rachel, and Annabeth, who had just walked up, kissed her. It was short, but it made her feel like she wanted to smile again, which was weird. She was in school.

Nico looked at Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel. Percy had his mouth wide open in shock. Annabeth was smiling ear to ear. Rachel looked livid.

"She's your girlfriend?" Percy asked when he'd got his voice back.

"She's your girlfriend?" Rachel asked. Her voice was as poisonous as her face.

Annabeth didn't say anything. She was too busy smiling.

"Yeah," Nico answered.

"Is that a problem, Dare?" Thalia asked, glaring at Rachel.

Rachel smiled. She looked a bit like a snake. "No, of course not, Grace." Rachel spat out Thalia's name like it was a bad word.

"Knock it off, Rachel," Annabeth said.

Rachel looked like she wanted to respond, but the bell rang, and they all had to go off to their homerooms.

"I'll see you at lunch," Nico said to Thalia before going with Percy to their homeroom.

Percy made kissy faces at him when he walked over. Without breaking his stride, Nico shoved him into the lockers and continued down the hall.

Needless to say, their homeroom teacher was shocked when Nico wasn't the last person there.

*Three*Weeks*Later

"Come on, Thals," Nico said, tugging on his girlfriend's hand.

"Nico…" Thalia began, then trailed off.

"It's just one lousy dinner," Nico pleaded. "Please?"

Thalia sighed and looked at the house in front of them. "What if they don't like me?"

Nico sighed and put his hands on her upper arms. "They'll like you. I promise."

"But what if they don't?" Thalia protested.

Nico shook his head. "They will."

"But…" Thalia began, but was cut off by Nico's finger on her lips.

"They'll like you. Now shut up and come inside with me." Nico turned around and pulled Thalia with him into the house.

It was just as black on the inside as it was outside. The first room had a stone floor, black walls, a black washer, a black dryer, and a staircase made of wood.

Nico dragged her into the kitchen, where there were black counter tops, a black stove, and a black sink. The floor was a dark-colored wood. There was a vase of flowers on the counter, and another next to the sink. The walls were off-white and decorated with black vines.

Across the counter in the other half of the kitchen was a black stone table. Sitting at the table doing homework was a girl who looked about college age. She looked like Nico, with her black hair and black eyes. She looked up at them and smiled when she saw Nico. Thalia thought she looked familiar.

"This is my sister, Bianca," Nico introduced. "Bianca, this is Thalia. My girlfriend."

Thalia thought she saw Bianca's eyes darken when he said "girlfriend", but she didn't say anything.

Bianca smiled. It seemed a bit forced. "Hi, Thalia."

"Hi." Thalia wasn't as good at fake smiling as Bianca was. Her's looked very forced.

It was silent for a few seconds until Bianca said, "They're in the living room."

Thalia wasn't sure who she was talking about, but Nico nodded and said, "Thanks." Then he guided Thalia through a door to the living room. There was a big black couch facing a flat screen TV. The floor and walls were the same as in the kitchen. And there was a man and a woman sitting on the couch.

Nico took her over in front of the TV. The man on the couch was wearing black jeans and a black polo shirt. He had the same dark eyes and dark hair as Nico. The woman was the opposite, with light blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing white jeans and a black ruffled shirt.

"This is Thalia. She's my girlfriend," Nico said, a bit shortly. He looked at the man, never once glanced at the woman.

The man gave a smile that made it look like he didn't have much practice. "I'm Hades. I'm Nico's dad."

The woman's smile lit up the room. "And I'm his mom, Persephone."

"Stepmom," Nico said.

Thalia decided she didn't like Persephone. She looked too much like all of Thalia's foster parents when they first met her. Fake.

Persephone turned her blinding smile on Nico. "You didn't tell me you were dating anyone," she accused.

Nico gave her a poisonous look. "Why would I tell you?"

"Nico," his father said in a warning tone.

"No, no, it's okay," Persephone said, putting a hand on her husband's arm. "I understand. He was keeping it a secret." She giggled girlishly.

Persephone was quickly falling into the "Supremely Annoying" category, Thalia decided.

Nico mumbled a few choice words that Thalia was sure his father wouldn't have liked, and pulled her away towards the stairs to their left. The stairs led to a black hallway, with doors on either side. Nico led her down to the end of the hallway and opened a door that had a skull-and-crossbones painted on it. Nico's room was painted a dark blue color, like the night sky. His walls were covered in Green Day posters. Thalia looked around, then looked at Nico, who had sat down on the bed.

"So I guess I didn't have to worry about them not liking me. More like you not liking them," Thalia said, smirking.

"Yeah, Persephone bugs me sometimes." Nico looked down at his hands.

"I could tell." Thalia sat down next to Nico on the bed.

He looked at her. "It's just, she tries to act like she's my mom. She asks me questions about school, she tries to give me advice. And maybe I shouldn't blow up at her, but…" Nico trailed off and looked back at his hands. "Never mind."

"I get it."

He looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Nico, I've been living with people like that since I was seven. Whole families like that. Remember? Foster kid?"

Nico nodded, looking forward. "Right, sorry. Forgot."

Thalia shrugged and looked around his room. "I guess you like Green Day."

"Best band ever." Nico used his hands to emphasize his words.

"Definitely," Thalia agreed, nodding.

Nico stood up and put a disk into the cd player sitting on the desk. A few seconds later, American Idiot started playing.

"It's my favorite album," he explained, standing next to the cd player with his hands shoved into his pockets.

"I can't decide between this one and 21st Century Breakdown."

Nico nodded. "Yeah, that one's good, too. But this one has Holiday."

"21st Century Breakdown has 21 Guns."

"Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

"Viva La Gloria."

"St. Jimmy."

"American Eulogy."

"Give Me Novocaine."

"Song of the Century."

Nico stared at her. "What?"

Thalia burst out laughing. It was something she'd been doing more often in the past three weeks. "It's a good song!"

"Yeah, all thirty seconds of it," Nico said, stepping forward.

"It's nearly a minute!"

Nico gave her a look. "The fact that that was your argument just shows how boring it is."

"Okay, maybe it is boring. But 21st Century Breakdown has East Jesus Nowhere and Peacemaker, too."

"Yeah, but American Idiot was made into a Broadway Production."

"With songs from 21st Century Breakdown. And that girl was amazing at 21 Guns."

Nico had taken a step closer, and Thalia was standing. "Well, yeah." His voice had gotten quieter.

"And Letterbomb." Thalia's voice softened, too.

Nico was closer. "Yeah."

"And…" There was something else, but Thalia couldn't think of it.

"Shut up," Nico said, and leaned forward to kiss her.

After half an hour or so (it could have been longer, they weren't really paying attention to the clock) of making out, Thalia said goodbye to Hades, Persephone, Bianca, and Nico, and went back to her foster home. Amy Moore could tell that something was different. When asked where she'd been, Thalia said, "Out," instead of swearing.

*Two*Weeks*Later

It was the longest time Nico had ever dated anyone for. Nearly a month and a half. Thalia's social worker, Shelly, was very happy that Thalia was being relatively pleasant for her foster-mother, it was rare. Thalia was just happy that that particular meeting had been short.

They were in the library studying for a test in math. It was one of the subjects Nico was almost good at, so he helped Thalia to understand. She found that she had an easier time understanding and remembering things when Nico helped her.

But she didn't usually think that while she was studying, and at this particular study session she was getting a headache. Algebra II was hard.

Nico chuckled when she put her head down on the table and groaned. "Go get some water," he said.

Thalia nodded into her book and stood up. She walked out the door towards the water fountain.

Nico sat there, looking around. He knew that she wouldn't be back for a while, she would probably go to the bathroom and sit there for a few minutes before she came back.

"Hey, Nico." The voice came from behind him, and he turned around.

"Hey, Rachel."

Rachel sat down in the seat previously occupied by Thalia. She put the books in her arms on top of the Algebra II book that Thalia had been studying out of. "Whatcha doing?"

"Studying for that Algebra test tomorrow."

Rachel nodded.

"Helping Thalia study, actually," he corrected himself.

Rachel looked like she was trying not to make a face. "Are you still dating her?"

"Yeah." Nico hid his clenched fists below the table. "I am."

Rachel leaned forward. "Do you really want to keep dating her? She's a freak."

Nico's jaw clenched along with his fists. "She's not a freak, Rachel."

"But she's not good enough for you. You could do so much better."

"Go away, Rachel," Nico growled.

Rachel pouted. "Oh, come on, Nico. She's not worth it."

"Get the hell out of my face, Rachel." Nico's voice was dangerous.

Rachel leaned forward.

The first thing that Thalia saw when she walked back into the library was her boyfriend kissing Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

And the first thing Nico saw when he pushed Rachel away was Thalia leaving the library.

For anyone who thought this was going to be a happy chapter, you obviously haven't read my other stories. I don't really do happy. I know this is sort of typical, boy meets girl, boy and girl start dating, boy gets assaulted and kissed by different girl, first girl sees and assumes boy is cheating on her. Usually the boy explains and the girl doesn't believe him, and they break up until they realize that they can't live without each other, and then they end up getting married and living happily ever after. I swear that's not how this is going to work. I have something much more interesting planned. Sorry I took so long. My goal is to have the next chapter up in a week, but I don't know how well that's going to go. I'm starting school in two weeks, so obviously uploading is going to be harder. But I'll do my best.