How are you? I hope well!

(If you guys want to, you can follow me on my Instagram beca_haru/ and my page on facebook . / , so then you can check my drawings. Sometimes I post some drawings of this fanfiction, and they are very cool hahahaha)

Bye!


"Hey, Percy…"

"Hm?", The demigod hummed without looking up from his paper. It was one of those rare days when his friends - or in this case, just Jia - had "divine permission" to visit his apartment ("divine permission" being a catchphrase adopted by William whenever he, Jia, or Mahi might appear in Percy's abode).

Both were organizing ideas and pulling some information out of books to for a project. Meanwhile, Jia herself typed everything on her cellphone.

She always complained about the fact that Percy didn't have a computer.

"Who exactly was that boy?", asked her.

"Boy?"

...

Percy and Nico ran in absurd sync, both descending the stairs towards the main exit. Before turning down the last hallway, Percy heard an unmistakable hiss. He grabbed Nico by the arm before he could continue to run and turned him in the opposite direction. Nico turned to him with a confused expression.

"Why?"

"They are coming from there!"

The two turned and then launched themselves away from the main exit. Fighting there would be stupid since A): The neighbors could see and even then, they would only be seeing Percy hitting a very tall strange woman with a very thick accent which would make the whole situation very difficult to explain. B): The space was narrow, so not ideal for not being pounded into pancake-formed demigods. C): It would be dangerous for other residents as they could be used more easily as bait or hostages. And D): It was already time for Mr. Hermann's afternoon nap, and you really don't want to see Mr. Hermann being forcibly awakened from an afternoon nap. The guy was scary.

They proceeded to the only other exit, the one in the back. This time, Nico was the one who pulled Percy in the opposite direction of the door before they turned down the hall.

"What?", it was Percy's turn to ask.

"Three human dogs"

"Right. Terrace then"

"Terrace"

And the two went back up the stairs as fast as possible.

Up there, the wind was strong. It looked like it would rain at any second. He stared at Nico for a moment. The boy wore faded jeans, a black T-shirt with tiny skulls, worn-down sneakers, an aviator jacket, and a leather backpack. He looked like an ordinary boy but the black sword and messy hair gave him a certain heroic air. Percy, on the other hand, felt like an idiot. Pajamas? Hands smelling of Cheetos? Swollen eyes? Riptide still in the form of a pen? This didn't even come close to the most suitable hero-equipment.

...

Yellow highlighter on line six of paragraph eight.

"The one… you know, like two weeks ago, at the printer shop"

She took a few sips of the canned pineapple juice. Percy couldn't understand how she could like that crap. It was terrible.

"Nico?", he asked.

"That's it, Nico. Nico Di Andalo?"

"Di Angelo. Nico di Angelo", Percy corrected a bit too quickly.

Zhao chuckled weakly and raised her left eyebrow as she typed another. Percy knew she did that when she thought of something funny and sometimes even mean. In general, the girl expressed her opinions developed in her brain with alarming speed. This time, however, she just continued the conversation.

"So, who is he?"

"What do you mean?" Percy raised his eyebrows in confusion. "You've already met him. Nico di Angelo, black clothes, Italian..."

"Oh, of course. But I meant, like…", she put down her cellphone and waved her hands, "Like, who is he, you know? Your cousin? Did you meet him at school? Summer friend? That kind of stuff."

Percy stared at the wooden table with a frown. That was his usual seaweed-brain way of thinking, Jia was already used to it.

"Well, uh... We're summer friends, I guess? When I met him, I was 14 years old. I think he was 12. Or 11. Something in that range", the son of Poseidon waved his right hand like it didn't matter.

He hoped she would believe that.

Jia rested her face on her fist like she was super interested.

"Go on. Continue"

Percy sighed.

He would have to lie.

...

A few minutes later, two dracaenas and three human-eared dogs burst onto the terrace.

"Hey, don't you guys have anything else to do?", Percy snarked as he uncapped Riptide and prepared to fight.

"Today my sssssschedule issss busssssy with your death, you bassstard!" the dracaena on the left hissed.

"Be careful what you say, buddy. This is a family building", muttered Nico, who was frowning at the monsters.

Percy looked at his opponents. The three dogs looked quite grown up, which meant that Thorn wasn't kidding. The dracaenas in turn, carried with them an interesting variety of pointed weapons.

"How are we going to do this?" Percy whispered to Nico as the monsters surrounded them.

"Well, we're at a disadvantage here", Nico replied. "How about you get the dracaena and the skinny dog on the left and I get the big-eared one in the suit and the less tough dracanae".

"All balanced", Jackson agreed. "So, are we going to gang up on this pumped dog last together?"

"What are we waiting for?", Nico asserted as he ran toward his snake woman.

...

"Nothing so exciting. Um, there was this summer camp I went to when I was a kid. One day we searched with the responsible staff for two children: Nico and his older sister, Bianca. That's how we met. That's it. The end"

She crossed her arms.

"Okay, okay, but then what?"

"What do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes. Meanwhile, Percy started shuffling one of his feet on the ground. It was silent, almost imperceptible, but there. Oh gods, how he hated to talk about or think of his old life.

"I saw how you look at each other. It's like there's a lot of history between 'summer camp' and 'That's it, the end'. Like, you guys met, okay. And then…?" Zhao encouraged.

Percy started to pick at his nails. He felt uncomfortable. How should he talk about the after? The son of Poseidon hesitated for a few seconds.

"Um, you know, Nico thought I was great. He was kind of annoying at first…" Percy continued, "but at some point we, uh, had a really bad fight. Then we gradually made up. So, I, uh, I went to college and we stopped talking very often"

Jia raised her eyebrows. Percy's foot continued that nervous dance along the floor.

"Oh, a fight? I want to know every detail, dud-"

"Because his sister died."

The answer came out faster than Percy would have liked.

Simple. Cold. His sister died. It seemed so easy, saying it that way. It was like commenting on something from a remote past, like remembering some insignificant detail from childhood. I liked gummy bears.

His sister died.

No, it wasn't such an odd thing. That event had changed things in his life. Back then, he could barely imagine what it must have been like for Nico. It was painful just to think of it as a single piece of a whole fucking puzzle in Nico's life.

Jia had put a hand to her chest, her eyes wide in clear shock.

"But how? Why was he mad at you? What..."

Please, don't blame her. Jia was often too direct and had trouble picking things up because her height was really tiny. Not that one thing necessarily had anything to do with the other.

Anyway, Percy had no choice but to continue the story and lie more:

"Well, Nico… he was very young and he trusted me. We took his sister on an, uh, excursion away from the camp but he couldn't go. He made me promise I'd take care of her…" His sea-green eyes lost themselves in memories, aiming glazed-over look at the old wooden floor. Paff, paff. The noise of his foot, wrapped in his torn white sock was intensifying.

The thought of a life of a demigod being so full of stories like this was nerve-racking, even more so at such a young age. Percy had seen too many deaths already. He already had said too many goodbyes.

Contrary to popular belief, frequency doesn't make it any easier.

"Was it an accident?" The girl's voice was more cautious as if she feared, a wrong word would break Percy in two.

He wasn't going to break. He wasn't going to cry. He was stronger than that.

(But not always. Sometimes, he broke into more than two pieces.)

"Yes. She… had some lung problems. She had an attack…" No, not really. Lung problems? Ha! Ridiculous.

It was so ridiculous because he remembered everything in detail. The mythomagic piece, the junkyard, the deep despair as he searched for Bianca relentlessly in the rubble, Nico's devastated look when he realized that an important member of his much-admired team was missing. Why her?

Percy could understand him. Losing someone so important was a devastating feeling.

"My god, Percy..."

"Hey, hey, it's okay", except that nothing had been okay since he was 11 years old. In fact, even before that. Sometimes he secretly wondered if he had ever really been happy. "It was a long time ago. Nico and I talked to each other, we made up. We became, well, I would even say friends. As I said, we got better little by little..."

Of course, after trying to kill each other a few times.

"I shouldn't have made you talk about these things, man. I'm sorry." Jia looked rruly distraught. She even tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and avoided eye contact. That was the not-so-subtle way of saying she was feeling really bad, according to William.

Percy gave a short laugh that died sooner than intended.

"Hey, I told you. Everything is fine. But if it's going to make you better, then you're forgiven. Now, can I go get some energy drinks without running the risk of arriving in the living room and seeing that ugly long expression on your face?"

Jia looked uncertain, but she still replied with a slightly sulky undertone.

"My face will only change if you also bring snacks"

He smiled.

"Right"

Then he turned his back to the girl and his smile faded. Perseus Jackson didn't need snacks. He needed to get his head on straight.

...

"Pull me! Now!"

"I'm trying!"

Well, it turns out their plan had worked, but not that well. It never does.

Percy had done well with the first big-eared dog, and Nico had managed to obliterate his dracaena with admirable speed. Percy's second opponent tired him a little bit, nearly cut his index finger (Yes, seriously. Don't laugh!) and gave him a blow to the chest that would knock the air out of even a buffalo but like a good seaweed-brained demigod, he resisted.

The big opponent, the one who would be killed by both him and Nico simultaneously, from time to time was getting into one of the fights. He had kicked Nico, throwing the boy's backpack across the terrace, which Percy thought was extremely disrespectful: you can't mess with anyone else's backpack, that's completely against the code of honor of monster and demigod street ring fighters (everyone knows that, come on!). He also hit Percy in the ribs, but his lack of strength showed that he didn't really want to finish them off, not right now. He was seemingly more interested in showing everyone that he could defeat two children of The Big Three on his own. Well, as long as Percy could fight one opponent at a time, he wouldn't complain. Advantages were always welcome.

In the end, after a headless snake woman, another with a torn throat, and two humanoid dogs who had learned to fly after taking deep cuts to their chests, they were ready for the ultimate challenger.

Turns out…. Well… It was a little more difficult than expected.

Percy wasn't too proud of the beating he'd taken, and he was pretty sure Nico wasn't either. By a stroke of luck mixed with cunning and training, they managed to have the last dog hanging from the parapet of the terrace.

The only problem was that it wasn't exactly hanging on the terrace. His strong hand was wrapped around Nico's right ankle. Nico, meanwhile, was clinging to the parapet and his long fingers seemed to be giving away slowly.

"If I go", growled the dog, "your little friend will go with me!"

Percy tried to lift Nico who looked more and more scared. In a fit of despair, he did the only thing he could think of: he threw Riptide like a spear at the monster's forehead and managed to impale it right in the middle.

The big-eared dog looked at him in surprise, as if he said "Really? Like, really?". And then he fell.

And here we are again, facing this intricate dialogue:

"Percy, I'm going to fall! Come on!"

"Shit, I'm trying!"

Percy had the necessary agility to be able to grasp Nico's wrist just in time to prevent his fall. His fingers were sweating, and he was afraid he'd make the boy plummet to the far-down floors and having to see him smashed on Harlem's dirty asphalt, keeping company with the monster's dust.

As one more death on his account would not be beneficial for his mental or social state, he grabbed the boy's wrist with his other hand. Nico was nothing heavy, but the position they were in made things a little difficult for the older demigod. Finally, Nico got some stability after holding Percy's forearm firmly.

"One... two... three!"

And finally, thank all the goddamn gods, he managed to pull him.

They both fell backward, Percy tossed onto his back, and Nico awkwardly curled up in a fetal position.

Before, Percy's heart was racing from the fear of falling, but now he was staring at Nico's body, thinking things like Okay, did I break his arm? The rib? Maybe something else? Maybe the spleen... but do spleens break? His brows were already furrowed in concern when suddenly Nico started to laugh. And he didn't laugh as Percy had seen him laugh. Not in that restrained, uncertain way, like he was wondering if laughing was the right thing to do.

No, no, none of that. Nico laughed heartily. The thin chest rose and fell in the most infectious laugh Percy had ever heard in his life. Then Percy himself started laughing too, unsure why. Nico turned, and his face was lit up by an admirable grin. His closed eyes shed tears of amusement. His hands held his stomach, and he had a dimple on his right cheek.

The bruises, the cuts, the pain, the tiredness? None of that mattered.

The laughter gradually diminished in intensity and in the end, there were only silly smiles on the tired teenagers' faces.

"Do you know the funniest thing?" Nico asked, his arms splayed out on the concrete floor as if he was going to make a dust angel.

"What?" Percy raised his eyebrows.

Silence.

"I want to know how we're going to explain this noise to your neighbors..."

Then they started laughing again.

...

Richard Jansen made a mechanical motion with his hands as he placed another hot dog on the napkin and then handed it to Percy.

He raised his whitish eyebrows.

"So, they really attacked you?"

Percy took a generous bite of his meal.

"Yes sir. Mr. Richard, I swear!" Of course, with a mouth full of sausage, bread, and mustard, the phrase was more like a Shyes sr. Mr Shishard, I shwear!

Richard was a friendly amateur fisherman in his late 60s (Percy never asked how many exactly). He loved cooking contest shows and his wife Clara's homemade sweet rolls. He was already retired. In his youth, he worked as an assembler of Fiat cars, but later he became a salesman at a dealership not so far away, and there he remained until the end of his working life. The apartment he lived in was a jumble of posters of cars and colorful flowers as Mrs. Jansen owned a flower shop.

Percy often found himself thinking about what it would be like to live a life like that. Peace. No monsters, no quests, never saving the world more than you could count on your fingers, no powers. Growing old in the life that he was born into was nearly impossible. He shook his head in an attempt to dispel the torturous thoughts.

"Raccoons…", Richard muttered, "I can't believe it…"

"Well, believe me, Mr. Richard", Percy held up the five fingers of his left hand "five raccoons. It wasn't easy, right? I and my friend almost fell there"

Richard stopped to reflect for a moment, looking away. He shook his head in disapproval.

"I wonder why… I think man has invaded the space of these creatures too much, boy..."

"I agree..." or Fy afree, which would be the most suitable translation. He swallowed. "Oh, Mrs. Olive!"

Then he walked to the other side of the terrace, blatantly avoiding the conversation with Richard. In general, he would very much like to chat with the fisherman, but he didn't know if he could hold the five raccoons excuse for much longer. Cause, seriously, five damn raccoons climb up to a fucking terrace in the middle of Harlem to... fight with two kids that popped out of nowhere? Really, not even Percy himself was dumb enough to fall for it.

"Oh, Percy, dear!", the woman smoothed her perfectly aligned curls. "I've already asked you to call me Erica, just Erica. I'm in my mid-fifties. Don't let others see me as an old hag"

He laughed.

"Okay then, Erica. And how's John doing?"

John, if Pecy hadn't lost count yet was Erica Olive's seventh husband. She was an extravagant neighbor, who was always dressed in pompous and colorful dresses (today's one was emerald green with gold accents). Her dyed hair was of a chocolate-brown color, her nails were painted black, and her bony fingers were always adorned with large golden rings. Her voice was hoarse from the continued use of numerous cigarettes ever since her preteen years.

Mrs. Olive wasn't rich. If she were she certainly wouldn't live in this building. She always complained about the hideous carpet in the hallways. Sometimes she told Percy that she "had a sum in store". The son of Poseidon thought it rude to question her about it. Anyway, what Mrs. Olive actually had were a lot of crazy stories, especially about her ex-husbands. And she cooked very well. She commented that a man's love is reached first through the belly.

"John? Humph. That idiot." She shook her right hand in indignation, waving cigarette smoke back and forth. "I kicked his ass. Yeah, that's what I did."

Percy raised his eyebrows.

"What? No… like, seriously? You guys looked so good together..."

The boy tried to pretend to be surprised or sorry for the situation. It was difficult, especially after the fourth or fifth time Mrs. Olive came whining about her problems. In addition to her husbands, she was also a professional speed dating collector.

"Oh boy, this I have to tell you. He was texting that woman from the bar, you know, the blond harlot I told you about? Yeah, I was totally..."

Percy stopped listening to his friend for a moment. Across the terrace, Nico held up a red plastic cup. It must contain soda, perhaps mixed with Mr. Andersen's tequila (which Jackson highly doubted, even though Andersen was incredibly persuasive when he wanted to be).

The black-haired boy gave a very short roguish smile. Percy raised his full glass filled to the rim with coke in response to the greeting. He had the impression that the boy gave a tiny, almost imperceptible giggle through his nose, then turned his dark eyes back to Mrs. Rita, who was talking nonstop. The question that the son of Hades had asked him earlier kept hammering in his mind.

"... and then he said, 'China? What do you mean China?' and I said 'China China, you idiot! That's where I'm going to kick your skinny ass if you don't get out of my apartment in five minutes!' Then he fled the room like a kicked puppy!"

She laughed. Percy followed the woman's laughter, even though he didn't know what he was laughing at. He paid more attention to the thoughts contained in his mind.

It wasn't like Percy had few options.

No, no, let's face it, he had only three and none of them pleased him. And of course, he didn't know which one to choose. Each would have consequences in its own way, and if there was one thing that the son of Poseidon was constantly running from in his life, it was consequences.

He looked at his glass. Suddenly Mr. Andersen's tequila didn't seem like such a bad idea.

He heard a tinkle, metal against metal. It Mrs. Olive's bracelets dangling in front of his eyes.

"Hey, Jackson?"

"Oh, hi. Hey"

She sighed and rested her left hand on her hips.

"What ails you, dear?"

"Hm?"

Mrs. Olive rolled her eyes.

"Don't pretend to be dumb. Love thing? Look, I understand that very well and..."

"What? No, not really. It's just, um..."

It definitely wasn't a love thing, and if it was, Erica Olive would be the last person he'd ask for advice. He swallowed the sarcastic comment and smirked.

"You can tell me, I'm here to listen. I'm good at other topics too, boy"

The woman waved her hand as if to say "Speak quickly, I have more to do!". Percy doubted very much that Erica had such an important matter to deal with right now, because, after all, she was on the terrace of an old building in Harlem eating sausages and mustard on bread.

He hesitated. A comment wouldn't hurt, would it?

"It's just that a friend of mine asked me something and I don't know how to respond". Percy rushed through the sentence like he was pulling off a bandage.

The woman raised an eyebrow.

"Who? The one there dressed like a witch?"

She then pointed with her chin towards Nico. Percy thought of arguing that if anyone in that place was dressed as a witch, it was definitely her. Instead, he simply chose to ignore it.

"Oh no", he lied once again. "It was actually another friend..."

The son of Poseidon looked away quickly. Surely Mrs. Olive had noticed. She always noticed everything.

"What did he ask of you?"

A few seconds of silence. Percy wondered how he should respond to this.

"Let's say... That he asked for something that could change my life once and for all. So, I have three possible answers: 'No.', 'Yes.', or ''Go find it elsewhere.'. And none of these answers seem like, you know, the right one."

The woman studied him carefully. She looked at Percy from head to toe with one eyebrow raised. She inhaled her cigarette slowly.

"Well, Percy, dear, I'll give you some advice. In this life, I've had many moments like this of pure indecision. When something tested me like that, I did this: I went there, looked the person in the eye and said the first answer that came to mind. You know what they say, the first is the one that counts, something like that? So, this is my advice. Usually the first thing from the heart. The rest is too rational.

She waved her hand.

"Um, thank you, Mrs. Ol- I mean, Erica."

"You're welcome. Go there and settle it with your friend who is certainly not the one over there. Now, I'm going to see if Andersen still has one of those little drinks…" She winked at Percy and walked away.

Percy sighed. He didn't know if Olive's great advice would do any good.

Without even realizing it, he had devoured his second hot dog.

...

Jia was leaving. The work was done quickly, it took about an hour to do it, and Jia had to go to dinner with her mom ('It's been scheduled for a month and a half, man. My mom is crazy!', she said).

"If one day you want to run away from Mrs. Li, my sofa can always be yours", he smiled.

"That sofa made out of stone? I prefer to sleep in Foofoo's house, thanks"

Foofoo was her dog.

He shrugged.

"It's up to you"

The girl smiled back. Percy found it funny how she always looked angry even when smiling. Jia would certainly be one of Ares's daughters, the ones who roamed the camp displaying axes and swords sometimes bigger than themselves.

Suddenly, before the girl could close the door, struck with a sudden thought, Percy stopped her.

"Why did you ask that?", he fired before she turned away.

"Ask what?" She looked confused.

"About… Nico. Earlier. You had, like, a few days to bring it up. So why did you ask it right now?"

Her expression changed to an understanding one.

"Oh, that. I ran into him a couple of blocks away earlier today... He asked me if you were home. He said that you two have business to take care of. Why aren't you telling us about it? You know you can count on us, right, dude?" She sighed. "Well, I have to go. I'd let you know I made it home alive, but you don't have a fucking cellphone, so just assume I didn't explode and blah blah blah. Good night, catfish head!"

Jia turned and disappeared down the halls. Percy stopped for a moment. What was Nico doing wandering around Harlem? He closed the door and stood there thinking for a few seconds. His brain seemed to be in a state of numbness. Ah, yes. It had been three days since he'd fought the monsters on the terrace and two weeks since Jia, he and Nico had the awkward conversation at the printer shop.

The dreaded three days.

He sighed heavily and headed for the kitchen. He would need a cup of coffee if he wanted to deal with the conversation that followed. Maybe more than one.

About twenty minutes later, when he was halfway through his cup, a knock sounded on the door. This time, he wasn't surprised. He walked to the front door and opened it.

"Hey, man", he said without much energy.

"Hey", Nico replied, seemingly feeling the same.

Percy stepped aside and Nico entered. The son of Poseidon sighed.

"Sit there on the sofa. You can take off your coat if you want. There's coffee."

Nico seemed to need coffee just as much as Percy. In fact, he looked like he needed 48 hours of uninterrupted sleep and a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs from Sally, all followed by a nice batch of blue cookies.

"Um, okay..."

The boy hesitantly walked to the sofa. He was noticeably nervous, maybe even just as much as Percy. And Percy, for his part, wasn't quite sure why Nico would be nervous. He had no reason to be.

The older demigod then went into the kitchen. In a minute or two, he returned to the living room with another cup.

Nico sipped the dark liquid. Percy did the same. Suddenly, perhaps tired of all that uncertain atmosphere, the Italian fired:

"Look, Percy, about what I asked of you last week, I..."

"I think I have an answer", Percy interrupted abruptly. The worst thing was that he actually didn't have an answer.

"Oh, yeah?"

No, I don't have one! Fuck! He wanted to scream.

"Yes." His voice was firm as if he'd made a thoughtful decision after much deliberation. Percy had never made a thoughtful decision with much deliberation in his entire life.

Nico looked at him expectantly. Percy felt his heart skip a beat. He hoped he didn't look as nervous as he was.

It was the first time he would take any advice from Erica Olive. It couldn't go that wrong, could it?

The son of Poseidon took a breath and began to speak.

"It's time for innovation

It's time for us to make a change

It's time for a Chinese New Year

It's time for me to make a way"

Chinese New Year - SALES