Disclaimer: Still not mine! And I don't make any money from it, promise!

Tempting the Fates

Chapter Fifteen

Growing Pains

Nico

Digging through monster bones and, presumably, monster hyde was not exactly one of the things Nico envisioned himself doing as part of his second excursion through Tartarus. At least, Nico hoped that it was monster skin because it was acting like a tarp for a roof over everything and he couldn't imagine what else might be leathery but scaly at the same time while also being fire proof because when it landed on the hot stove in the back it just kind of sizzled and smelled gross without actually bursting into flames. Given the first trip around Tartarus had been by himself without a kelp-for-brains companion, his journey while viperous had been a lot less ridiculous.

"Non riesco a credere a quello che sto facendo per te."

"I love it when you speak Italian to me."

Nico threw one of the bones directly for the other demigod's head.

Jerk.

All so Percy could have some demon jerky.

Seriously, drinking the battery acid water was abhorrent but seemed less revolting than the idea of ingesting some Titan thigh or gorgon gumbo or cyclops steak or whatever it was the Gorgon sisters were peddling. Zeus' sand lays only knew what the sauce itself was made out of, "probably baby's blood and unicorn tears," he muttered bitterly to himself as he continued digging through the wreckage.

When they had cleared out enough rubble to create a crawlspace of sorts the son of Poseidon had looked at him hopefully those Mediterranean eyes taking on that baby seal I'm-so-helpless-please-don't-club-me-just-love-me look that they had. Then there was the bottom lip that pouted out like a puppy and oh for fuck's sake! Why did his bottom lip have to tremble? Saying no was like drowning a dolphin— you just couldn't do it without being the world's biggest asshole. And why was Percy standing so close? Their arms were bordering on breaching the effective distance Nico tried to keep at all times. Then Percy said to hell with that and put a hand on the child of Hades' shoulder lighting his nerves up like a nuclear grid during the missile crisis.

Nico balked, stumbling a few steps away in what he hoped was a fluid motion but wound up with him falling on his ass.

"You have got to be kidding me…"

"Please please please, Neeks? It's too small for me but you should just about fit. Please? C'mon. I'm starving here. I'm pretty sure my stomach's about to wage war on the rest of my intestines."

Iaepetus— Bob— stood right behind them blinking as he watched. His shelves for hands might have been able to clear the building as a whole away but it might do more damage than good— at least in Percy's eyes. It had become clear in a matter of seconds that Percy felt the instability of the roof meant it might collapse and Bob's massive calloused hands would compromise the structure. Whatever was cooking might still be salvageable and, hell, it might even be hot! A home cooked meal! Knocking the rest of the roof in, though, would probably ruin it and make for surly son of Poseidon.

Nico might battle monsters but he didn't have a death wish and facing a petulant Percy was a sure way to go.

And given the son of the sea god apparently had no qualms with consuming questionable cuisine but drew the line when it came to contamination, that made Nico his number one hope for filling his belly.

"What if it collapses on my head!?" Nico directed his gaze anywhere but at the older hero's face. He took to glaring at a spot beside the sole of his left shoe were some gorgon dust hadn't quite settled all the way yet. Their presence was still extant in the air, not yet ready to osmose back into Tartarus an begin the process of forming once more. It sent a shiver up Nico's spine but mostly it made him want to throw up again.

He'd been doing that a lot this trip. Even more than the first one.

Standing up straight next to the ramshackle headquarters of Gorgon Sister's Gourmet Grub, Percy gave a swift nudge of his foot to the building then glanced over at Bob. It only swayed a little. Bob's assessment seemed to say the same.

"Bob can get you out!" Was his unhelpful offer and yet he was beaming with pride all the same. The Titan had his broom resting over his shoulder as he had finally given up on attempting to clean the gorgon dust. Much of it was cleared away, though, and he seemed pleased with his handiwork. Nico didn't have the heart to heart to be harsh with him.

Besides, it was all Percy's fault.

"See. Bob's got this all covered. You'll be fine."

And then Percy flipping Jackson smiled.

"Farei qualsiasi cosa per te. Non è giusto." What lefty is lips was more of a wheeze or a creak than a laugh but the sound was foreign to his throat unlike the brazenness that travailed it. It rang paltry even to his own ears.

"You owe me, Jackson," the Ghost King snarled before disappearing into the shadows of the tiny hole the two boys had managed to dig. Into the side of the shack he went. What would have been a roomy fit a few weeks prior pressed in against Nico's shoulders from both sides. His heart skipped a beat, afraid for a moment that he was going to bring the whole building down on himself.

Apparently I've grown.

Which was a bit awkward given the time in the clay jar nearly suffocating to death and having less than three calories a day to eat. Apparently this hadn't done anything to stop a growth spurt. Then again, his limbs had felt achy and over extended, more gangly and knobby than normal. He'd written this down to Tartarus and the overall wrongness he felt just being down there. But when he took a second to think about it (because Nico rarely thought about anything that had to do with himself, and the time he did spent was focusing on the more dishonourable aspects) his bomber jacket wasn't so loose in the shoulders nor was it drowning his chest nearly so badly as it had before. And the fall had only been.. a day? Two? More?

Inside the shop he picked is way passed bleached bones and hides and dug through the collapsed building finding that not only was there monster jerky left but it was still hot. Stealing what he could only assume were drakon oven mits— he'd seen a pair that Persephone had and while these weren't nearly as nice (hers were custom made and designer, all the rage) they did the trick. Flame retardant for up to one million degrees. Pretty impressive stuff.

Nico shoved the massive pot out through the opening before, just as he'd expected, the whole of the framework came crashing down on his head. When he came to Bob was standing over him grinning. "Got you out!" He sang song'ed happily. Lifting the teenage boy up, he pulled him from the wreckage and sat him down next to Percy who was…

"Seriously? Seriously?"

Nico punched the older demigod in the shoulder one, two, three, five, seven times for good measure. Percy merely raised his eyebrows as if to say 'what?'

"A house collapses on my head and you're sat here eating monster food? What planet are you from?"

Nico then proceeded to rant in his native tongue because the older teen drove him maniacal in only a way the sea prince could. "Perché devo cura di te? Si sta facendo infuriare!"

Kicking at his shins for good measure, Nico turned back to the custodial Titan and thanked him for his help. After all, it wasn't like he was ungrateful or anything but Poseidon's son could have— he didn't know— maybe held off on stuffing his face until he'd checked Nico wasn't concussed or something. Or asked if he wanted some, which he didn't, but that was besides the point.

"Listen! I'm starving. And besides, Bob said you were breathing. You're fine! Have some of this, honestly. It's so good."

Nico was tempted to stab him through with his Stygian sword not for the first time.

—

Bob, bless his little black heart, lead them forward. They hadn't told him exactly where they were going as of yet, but he seemed to sense so much. He might not be highest on an IQ test but the Titan was loyal and compassionate. Every few minutes he would check on Nico to make sure he was alright. Apparently the hut had been made of Drakon bones— presumably what the wings were also made of— and he'd taken a pretty hard hit to the head.

Besides being a little fuzzy and his skin occasionally melting off his muscles— which was habitual given how virulent the atmosphere was and besides they could just choke down some more Phlegethon— and the way his lungs and heart were still struggling, he was fine.

Somewhere behind them Percy was gorging on Gorgon food and dismissing Nico's warning about how messy it was.

"Because nothing says I survived Tartarus like slumming with a shirt covered in monster sauce."

The older demigod deftly ignored him and continued eating; he seemed hellbent on gobbling up as much as he could. "Who knows when we'll find food again?" He had argued. "It's not exactly Chipotle but… at the end of existence, can we really be picky?"

He had tried once more to offer the younger demigod some but he had simultaneously rolled his eyes, snorted, and struck him with a look even his father or Persephone would be proud of; the hero even stumbled a little missing a bounce in his step.

With that he stalked off ahead trusting Bob with Percy partly because he heard the groan that left the other and he knew, he just knew, that the numbskull had gotten that shit all over his shirt and he could not handle even an 'I told you so' at the moment without bludgeoning him to death. On top of the normal neurasthenia the other's company revealed in Nico, Tartarus multiplied his malignancy. Little things were boiling his blood.

Just breathe. Just breathe. Just breathe.

It was an easy enough mantra to help subside the squeeze of his heart or the faint feeling in his lungs. Maybe breathing in all the dead monsters was poisoning him from the inside…

Forget that. Just breathe.

Besides, he'd felt the other presence coming. Being in tune with spirits made him like the metal detector of the spectral realm; he felt Jason before the other was even aware of where he was. That wasn't exactly uncommon and since the son of Jupiter wasn't dead,he was presumably asleep. And asleep meant that whatever the time difference was, it was night time… or he was unconscious. But he was betting on the former. It was impossible to tell the time with only darkness and red tinged electrical storms overhead.

Their conversation was only brief and that suited Nico fine. It was enough to refuel his hope just slightly knowing that no major news meant none of those above ground had died. Still, it was embarrassing for Jason to witness the spectacle that was Bob and Percy… more so Percy. Bob could always be forgiven because bless him, his heart was in the right place even if its as ten sizes too big and his brain was about nine sizes too small. Nico would never fault him.

He was too good of a companion. And his only company in his father's halls save for the spirits.

"Percy's shirt is ruined. Too much gorgon sauce! All over the place but… maybe next time he needs a bib?"

Pinching at the bridge of his nose was all he could do to keep his head from exploding because he knew what came next even before the Titan told him. At the mention of Hygieia's No Hassle Hydra Strength all purpose Kitchen Cleaner, Nico could feel the heat of Tartarus sucked from the area immediately surrounding him replaced by an icy chill.

Tartarus was impossible. Not only were they being trailed by monsters, racing against the clock, attempting not to be discovered by Gaea's minions who would very literally like to stomp in their skulls and use them for hockey practice but he was expected to deliver the older demigod to the Doors of Death, get them safely through and not succumb to a major embolism in the brain. The Gods really were asking way too much of him. At the end of this if they didn't offer him immortality— or at least the promise of Elysium— he was going to have some very choice words with the big dude up in the sky. Ones that would certainly result in his being zapped into oblivion with a whole lot of who gives a fucks on his part.

"Put that away!" Nico growled for the hundredth time.

Not only was the son of Poseidon's shirt in tatters— literally it was little more than a neck hole, some arms, and then a whole load of streamers somehow still connected at the front (the back was far better off but apparently Bob had realised how strong the 'hydra' part of Hygieia's cleaner was after a few sprays and saved that much)— but the guy kept making inappropriate jokes about how hot he was or the draft his new lack of actual shirt allowed.

"Literally hot. No, really. Look. My skin's coming off. That must be a whole new record of attractive." The smile he flashed Nico was worth at least a million sand dollars, coming in like the tide and washing up onto shore.

This might have been handsome if the skin on his face wasn't actually blistering.

"I give up!" Nico shouted to no one in particular and when Percy wasn't paying attention shoved him into the Phlegethon. Not exactly the most mature behaviour but watching the other sputter and inhale some of the molten liquid was satisfying. Speaking of, his own skin was starting to sizzle and slide down his arm.

"Sick," he mumbled and leaned over lifting some of the water to his lips. And like each time before he was convulsing on his side for a moment but while his limbs were flailing about (Bob had just accepted this as normal and didn't try to interfere after the fifth time), Percy took the opportunity to sneak up and in an act of vengeance pulled him down into the water.

Thrashing about without full limb control he managed to thwack Percy in the face. The son of the sea just cackled before dragging the both of them out of the water.

Despite the difference in composition, Percy appeared dry. Even the tatters of his shirt appeared dry. Nick on the other hand was soaked through, bomber jacket, black skinny jeans, shoes and all. Factor in the humidity of Tartarus and the clothes were like a swamp. Shoving clumps of dark hair out of his eyes, he glowered at the other man.

Scratching at his chest, specifically in the exact proximity of his exposed nipple for the fiftieth time. Percy opened is mouth to speak, the smile coming in like the tide spreading across his lips… but before he could he was the recipient of Nico's wet bomber jacket chucked at his head.

"Put those away!" The son of Hades bellowed.

"I don't have anything to put away! Besides, I'm not wearing your jacket. You'll freeze. I felt your skin before. Even down here you're freezing!"

Nico glared but stripped off his tshirt. Underneath he wore a vest, the tank top not noticeably. The bomber jacket was pulled back on straight away to cover up his pale skin and gangly limbs along with his various battle scars (privately and publicly afflicted).

"At least put that on. No monster is going to take you seriously if you look like a cheap stripper."

"I do not look cheap!"

Nico caught Bob's eye.

"Percy does look cheap," the Titan agreed sadly.

"Oh for the love of the gods," he muttered and threw off his tattered shirt. Bob scowled because apparently littering— even in a chess pit like Tartarus— was morally detestable and shoved the rag into his back pocket. God only knew what he would use it for but Nico wouldn't question. The guy was resourceful if anything and he'd made the halls of Hades in even sharper shape than before.

The black top was too tight and revealed more of Percy's muscled mid section than was strictly necessary— a fact that flushed the younger man's cheeks and had him looking away— but at least his chest was covered. Now to keep his gaze up. Yup. Strictly up or forward.

"We should be going. Monsters have your scent," Bob chimed in.

Neither of the two found this particularly startling. Even if the Gorgon Sister's Gourmet Grub wasn't a massive staple, it was only a matter of time.

"Our scent?" Percy balked.

"Yes. Is good. Like warm buttery bread. Or mommy making cookies. Cinnamon and satyr… mmmm my favourite." Before he could start dribbling on the floor and make their path any more obvious, Nico motioned for them to continue on.

"Where are we heading?" was the most sensible question Percy had bothered posing since they had wound up in the hell hole.

"This way. Is a pit stop. Will be a good place to stop and rest."

For once, the younger boy didn't argue. He could use a rest. The tightening in his chest was amplifying and his limbs were more gelatinous than he would have cared to admit. A five minute breather would be much appreciated.

"Plus there is food."

"Wait… actual food? Or more monster food?"

"Human food."

"Why didn't you tell me before I started eating this stuff?"

Bob scratched at his head as they continued forward, the Phlegethon staying to their right. There was a few minutes of genuine consideration before he answered. "Well… Gorgon sisters is very good. Lady Hades," because he couldn't pronounce Persephone's name without stuttering, "always says it is good to try local cuisine."

And for once the older demigod had no reply for that.

Nico smirked and patted Bob on the back.

That was why he was his best friend; you couldn't find them better than Bob.

AN: Sorry this wasn't action packed! I'm really trying to get some interaction in before all the fighting and the angst that will inevitably come up. I hope you still find this enjoyable and not too slow. I promise the next chapter will be more involved and a bit more charged. As always, thanks for your time and please R&R! :)