Disclaimer: I HATE CHOCOLATE! It's true. True as the sentence "I own the Percy Jackson Series at the same time as owning the Harry Potter Series." Yep, those two phrases are equally true. Which is to say, not at all.
~All Because of Blackjack (2) : Angel~
"What in Merlin's Magically Holy Pants do you mean you don't know how to apply make-up?!"
I blink a few times to adjust to the slight hearing loss induced by Jiana's inhumanely loud screech.
"Geez, Jia, what did you do? Drink 'Essence of Banshee Shriek'?" I ask, pushing my palm to my ear.
"You have a date in exactly three hours and twenty-two minutes! A date! In less than three and a half hours!" she shrieks at me with slightly less volume, "How are we supposed to help you if you can't help yourself?"
Ginny nudges my hysterical best friend with her shoulder, "Calm down, Jia, I'm sure we'll make it. I'll take care of her hair and I'm sure she doesn't need any make up."
"B-b-but...!" Jiana says, "Oh, fine! I'll go get your outfit."
"Thank you, Ginny." I say, clasping my hands together, "Thank you."
She laughs lightly as she walks behind me and starts braiding locks of hair right beside my face. "Here, put these pins along your… bangs. Have you ever cut them?"
"Err… yeah, well, being blind lets you get off with bangs that supposedly impair already impaired vision." I say, a slightly bitter tone to my voice.
"Oh, sorry." She says guarded. Probably because I tend to go whack at the mention of my past blindness. (Mostly because I still don't know what happened with the whole "body for wholeness" deal Mr. Snake-Voice was talking about.)
I smile, "No worries." I look at the pair of skull clips and smile, "Thank you for not getting the butterfly clips Jiana wanted."
"I figured you'd like this better." She says, relieved at the fact I didn't go… "all depressing, seriously", as Jiana calls it.
Jiana finally comes back in the room holding an outfit on a hanger that consisted of a black t-shirt with a large white skull and crossbones design at the bottom left, a pair of purple and black striped arm warmers, a pair of black tights and a black and dark blue tutu skirt.
I blink at Jiana and say, "What is that monstrosity?"
"Hey, all you wanted was a black-themed outfit right?" she says grinning, "Well, I went all out with my wardrobe and just turned them black and blue. Literally."
I sighed. "At least it won't be freezing, I guess."
"Yep!" Jiana says cheerily, happy that I didn't push it, "You'll be snug as a bug in a rug! Especially with this scarf and vest I picked out specifically for you!"
Huh, she did have a scarf and one of those weird poofy vests on her other hand. Not that it mattered, really.
"Yeah, sure." I say, "Snug as a bug in a rug full of annoyed, maybe. Why the hell do I have to do this, anway?"
"Simple, because you lost." Jiana says as Ginny puts on the finishing touches to my hair, "Also, because you like him."
"I do not!" I say loudly.
"Oh, yes you do." Jiana says in a sing song voice. "Allie and Nico sittin' in a tree-"
I glared threateningly Jiana stops, "Oh, whatev, Allie, you know it, you just denying it."
"Ugh, whatever Jia, c'mon, let's go put that monstrosity in me." I say rolling my eyes and getting up.
000 Nico 000
"You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe, shine like gold , buzz like a bee, just the thought of you can drive me wild."
The song blared out of my (Demigod-safe Hephaestus-approved) black skull-print headphones that was connected to the special (again, Demigod-Safe Hephaestus-jealously-approved-cause-he-couldn't-invent-it) phone. I was wearing an aviator jacket (a new one, the old one is, well, small. Duh), a long sleeved grey shirt, a pair of jeans and black combat boots.
"Oh, you make me smile."
Suddenly, Percy nudges me and points to the other side. I turn to see what he's pointing at and I feel my breath hitch.
She walks with Ginny and Jiana at her left while Annabeth walked at her right, framing her face are about three or four thin braids at each side with the rest of her hair swaying gently behind her, followed by the dark-blue scarf she had on. Her hands are stuffed into the pockets of a grey-ish blue puffy vest.
"Dude." Percy nudges me again, "You're drooling."
I blink in surprise and run my hand through my hair, making my headphones fall to my shoulders. I glare at Percy and mutter, "Shut up, Kelp for Brains."
"Huh?" Percy says, confused.
Kale, who was on Percy's other side looks at me, "Is he usually this brain dead?"
"Unfortunately." I say, sighing.
"What do you mean "Kelp for Brains"?" Percy asks, still confused.
I roll my eyes, "Don't think too hard, Seaweed Brain, or you might overload before Annabeth gets here."
Without me noticing, the trio that was at the end of the courtyard had already reached us.
"Um… Hey." I say as Alisa approaches, Real smooth, di Angelo.
"Look at me, Hellboy!" She says angrily, gesturing at her clothes, "I'm wearing a skirt. A skirt! Outside of school!"
I grin, more comfortable with this side of her than the calm looking model she was a minute ago, "Aww, don't worry Starshine, you look real cute."
She blinks, startled, and her face colors.
I'm surprised too, how can she look so much prettier by just blushing? And… with that thought, my face heats up.
Fortunately, she turned her head and mutters "Just c'mon, Hellboy."
000 Alisa 000
My face is hot. Really hot. As in, I can't believe it's snowing because of how hot my face is hot.
Oh, and I'm walking side-by-side with Nico.
When I saw him standing beside Percy, with his eyes closed and his back against the castle wall, my heart skipped a beat. It was nostalgic somehow.
The way the fur lining on his aviator jacket brushes his cheek. How his grin doesn't completely reach his eyes… How I would almost never get a chance to sneak a peek at his face because his eyes are almost always on me.
I notice it all today as we walked towards Hogsmeade.
It starts to snow, soft-looking iciness dropping from the sky. It's cold. Very cold. Not normal cold. Hisss…
Suddenly, Nico grabs my hand and shoves it inside his aviator jacket.
"What's that for, di Angelo?" I mumble into my scarf, as both my hand and my face warms. For very different reasons that had one similarity, the reason they're warming up.
"You looked cold." He said simply, as if he took a girl's hand every other day,
I roll my eyes habitually, "So, where are we going on this 'date' you made me take."
"Ouch," he says, grinning slightly, "You sound like you don't even want to be here."
I feel strangely light. So, teasingly, I say, "Well… this date is just a bet. Something like a dare."
"Ah, well, it'll be the best dare-date you've ever had." He says, grinning as he led me to… to…
"Wait. Where are we going?" I ask, slightly horrified at the direction we had set on.
He grins cheekily, "There."
Oh. My. Gods. No, way. Madam Puddifoot's?!
"You make me go in that pink horror house, you die. Die a horrible, excruciatingly slow death." I say in a threatening voice.
He laughs lightly, "No, silly, you think I want to go in there?" He makes a face and says teasingly, "The fear factor for that thing is right up there with Percy in the Hephaestus Cabin and girl cooties."
I glare at him, knowing that he directed us here just to see my reaction. "Well then, Hellboy, where are we going?"
"C'mon, I heard of this place from Hermione." He says, "She said it was built a few months after the whole Voldemort thing. Like a sort-of celebration of the end of the Voldemort-Age."
We dash around a horde of couples heading to Madam Puddifoot's, I felt bad for some of the boys who were putting up fake smiles as their girlfriends dragged them excitedly to the pink horror house. Poor guys.
Behind the pink building, a small stone path leading to a street filled with newer-looking shops lay below a sign proclaiming the street as "New Hogsmeade".
He pulls me along the small street and stops at a small outdoor cafe named "Cafe Morta" which proclaimed itself to be "Serving Human Delights Since 1802".
"The place sells human food." he says, "Thought you might want some since you probably haven't been to America since... you know."
His face turns away from me slightly, making me realize he's probably just as nervous as I am.
I laugh, teasingly say (but also meaning it, a little) "Aww that's sweet, Hellboy. Real sweet."
He rolls his eyes at me, grinning and I grin back. Okay, so again, never gonna say this out loud, but Nico's grin is adorable. Yeah... never gonna say that out loud.
We sit in a typical human cafe set up. Two small face-to-face chairs under an umbrella. However, since we are in wizard territory and it is Valentine's Day, the umbrella was enchanted to create soft snow-like heart-shaped red and blue bubbles that float down gently, unaffected by natural wind but somehow affected by me blowing them towards Nico (not exactly intentionally, but he is the one in front of me).
"So... aren't we gonna order?" I ask when he just sits there, grinning that goofy (adorable) grin.
"Nah, they have a special today." he says, "I've been here once before, so I know their food is good."
A all-too-cheery waitress comes in with a tray of food.
French fries, curly ones arranged as pairs shaped like hearts. Milk shakes, pinkish, with a twisty heart straw. Sodas where the bubbles somehow looked like hearts. Spaghetti, the hotdog pieces cut into hearts. Burgers, the sesame seeds somehow magically shaped like, who would've guessed, hearts.
I attacked the french fries, not realizing how long it's been since I've had good ol' fashioned artery-clogging heart-stopping fast food. Heaven.
"Jhis ish aweshum!" I say through a mouthful of burger. "Havemfft hahd shumthim lahk vhish ihn yearsh!"
His mouth is full too, but he looks up at me anyway and manages a grin.
A grin that actually reaches his eyes.
It takes me by surprise and my mind instantly photographs the look on his face.
His usually darkly serious black eyes twinkle under the pale pink umbrella. His mouth stretched wide revealing his pale white teeth. I almost forgot how to breathe for a second.
Seeing him grin like that, I felt that his name that was a constant opposite of who he was actually fit him, for once.
I could feel my face getting warmer as I try to hide under a mouthful of food and make my braided hair fall to my face when I think...
He looked like an angel.
A/N : Hehe, obviously this arc hasn't ended yet, so... yeah. I was going to continue, but that sentence right there seemed like a perfect place to cut the chapter off! ~Nyx
P.S. I'm SOOO sorry for disappearing off of the face of FanFiction!