Title: Promises
Pairing: Percy/Nico
Disclaimer: I do NOT own any Percy Jackson characters, they all belong to Rick Riordon.
Warnings: boyXboy, potty mouth
A/N: Sorry for all the mistakes you find :)
Also if anyone wants to be my beta and beta this, I'll be more than grateful!
Thanks to all those who reviewed!
Chapter seven
I remember now. That girl on the side walk. She was that nurse…
A sharp stench woke me up. It worked instantaneously, jolting my body and mind from unconsciousness. Opening my eyes, I saw a young looking man hovering over me. Within his hand was a small vial filled with a clear substance. He capped the tubed and leaned away from me, smiling.
"Well that's interesting." He hummed, grabbing the chart from under his arm to write something on it.
I stared at him as I shifted myself to a somewhat sitting position. What the hell was going on? Who was this dude? I've never seen him in my life! Was he one of Apollo's kids or something? I think they were the medical ones out of the other campers. The man seemed to sense my stare and he glanced up over his glasses, a smile breaking out on his face.
"Ah, how rude of me. I'm Empedocles, a pleasure to meet you Nico Di Angelo." He gathered his pen and the small vial into one hand, holding out the other to me. I hesitantly shook it, saying a meek "pleasure" back.
"You must be wondering about me, right?" I nodded. "I was called by Chiron to see to your condition. He told me about your lack of power but he didn't mention that your eyes had turned red. That's intriguing to me." His soft brown eyes shifted left and right, trying to look into both of my eyes simultaneously. The contacts were out? When did that happen?
"Can you tell me how that happened?" He asked, placing the clipboard (with the pen attached to it) and the vial on the small nightstand on the left side of the bed.
I feel so confused and just out of it. In a daze, I told the man what he wanted to know.
"Interesting…very interesting Mr. Di Angelo. Has anything else happen since then?"
I shook my head no.
"Well, that's good." He pushed his oval glasses into his short brown hair. "I plan to keep watch over you, Mr. Di Angelo. For now, instead of going to your cabin you will be spending the nights here where I can make sure nothing else occurs. I got permission from Chiron to do this, so don't worry." He smiled. "Also, my assistant will be coming in a week's time to do the blood work and see if this is an internal thing or just strictly external. I think you've heard of him, Hippocrates?"
"The father of Medicine."
Empedocles nodded eagerly. "That's correct!"
"So what are you looking for exactly?" I asked. He had said that Hippocrates was going to check my blood and everything, what did that leave him?
His eyes gained a small glint of glee. I suppressed the urge to shiver at it.
"I'm looking for shadows."
"Shadows?" Both of my eyebrows rose incredulously at him.
"Yes, shadows Mr. Di Angelo. I've never seen an event transpire quite like this. First time, in all my life." He laughed lazily. "My first time working with a child of Hades."
I swallowed at his words. They made me uncomfortable. Shaking his laugh off, he told me to rest some more. It was still early in the morning the next day, the sun was barely out and I was excused from morning activities today. Empedocles left after that, taking with him the clipboard and vial.
It was silent now. Empedocles was strange and a little annoying the way he talked. Something about him seemed off. He was too happy for my taste and I had a feeling it was going to be a very long week. I scowled, slouching down further under the white pristine covers. I hope the nights go better than this, or it will turn out the same as what I've been doing so far. Staying awake. I wonder if Mrs. O'Leary would pop in, in the middle of the night? Turning onto my side, I sighed. Feeling my eyes droop, I decided to take a small nap to pass the time.
I found the green and white contact case resting on the nightstand. Both onyx colored lenses rested in them. After placing them in, I went to grab some lunch. The day went pretty normal; no one seemed to notice any changes. The evening activates were boring as hell, and I saw no signs of Empedocles anywhere or Percy for that matter. We (Percy and I) were on different schedules, him joining in with Athena's cabin and I joining in with the ever unpleasant Ares cabin. I've been noticing that a lot lately. I was always paired with the Ares cabin for some reason.
Dinner passed by quickly, we had chicken today. At the end, I had gone to my cabin to collect some garments before heading over the infirmary that will be my new 'home' for the next few days.
Empedocles was already there, writing away on his clipboard about one thing or another. He peeked up from his musings briefly, acknowledging my presence before going back. I paid no mind to him as I placed my clothes for tomorrow in the small drawer imbedded in the nightstand. Then I made my way to the bathroom to change into a pair of sweats and a plain t-shirt.
When I came back out, Empedocles was waiting for me.
"Please have a seat Mr. Di Angelo. I'd like to go over a few things before you go to bed."
I did as told, sitting lightly on the edge of the twin mattress. The man took his own advice and sat down on a plastic chair he had moved in front of me.
"Before we start anything, please put those silly contacts away." I did as told, biting my tongue to stop myself from retorting to his somewhat insult.
"Now, I want you to do a few things for me. This will help me understand to what extent of you is affected." He reached over to the small lamp and shut it off. This plunged half of the bed into darkness.
In my absence he had turned off the main lights and instead used the small bedside lamps to light the room. I could see his face perfectly clear beneath the shadows that crossed over his face. He was smiling that gleeful smile again.
"I took the liberty to talk to young Perseus Jackson about you Mr. Di Angelo. He told me several interesting things." If possible the smile grew wider. Anymore and it will split his face in half.
I hope it does, I thought.
"I have prepared some experiments to test out my theories." He chuckled at my cautious (it was a glare) look. I didn't want to be this creepy asshat's lab rat. "Don't worry; they are completely ethical and safe."
That didn't sooth me much. I was still his fucking lab rat. Empedocles stood up then, making his way over to the other side of the room and to the side of the first bed. With a flick of the wrist, the lamp was off. He did this to the others, steadily making his way back to the middle.
"I have taken the liberty of setting a few things around the room. I will call out the name of the object and I want you to find it and bring it back. Simple no?" By now, all the lamps were out and only the one still shinning was one on the other side of Empedocles' bed, where the man stood, clipboard and all.
"First item, Mr. Di Angelo, is the cream colored hairbrush."
I sighed. What was the point in this? Looking around, I spotted the brush on one of the beds opposite the room. Pushing myself away from the white mattress, I collected the small accessory.
"The book titled, gods behaving badly*." It was on a plastic chair two rows from me.
"A bottle of whiteout." On the floor underneath a bed.
We did this for some time, him calling out random objects that were hiding in random places and me sniffing around for it. I found every single item he had called. I set the small treasures onto the pristinely made bed next to mine as Empedocles turned some of the lamps back on.
"Well done Mr. Di Angelo. You did better than I'd expected. This will be all for tonight. We will continue tomorrow night."
I muttered a "Sure" before turning back to the small pile of trinkets. "What about these?"
"Oh, I almost forgot about them. Silly me." He pushed his glasses further upon the bridge of his nose. "Help me take them back to where they belong."
He prattled on to whose was what's. He would be taking the stuff that belonged to Chiron and Mr. D while I distributed the others to the campers. By the end of his speech, I was already feeling drained and tired, and we didn't even do anything strenuous. In silence we gathered the things we were responsible for.
"What is it Mr. Di Angelo?" I shook my head to bring me out of my thoughts and looked up.
"Huh?" I asked.
"You stopped."
I furrowed my brow, unaware that I had in fact stopped picking up the last of the items on the mattress. My hand was holding onto the book, but it was half in the air and half still grounded. How long was I standing like this? Long enough it seems to catch Empedocles' attention.
Why did I stop?
"Mr. Di Angelo?" He was waiting for my answer.
Why did I stop?
Oh, yeah.
Mrs. O'Leary.
I could sense her.
"She's just outside the infirmary, waiting."
Empedocles nodded and continued to pick up his things in silence, clipboard nowhere in sight.
* I do not own this book. It is a good book, you should read it ;)
Well there you go, a new chapter! I'm really bummed I couldn't get this up sooner, but I hit a snag in this. I was almost forced to not post this today, but I powered through! I had trouble writing this chapter out, but hopefully the next chapter won't trouble me. Let me know what you think!