Hate to Love (Valdangelo)

Monster

Nico told Leo about Mythomagic, even though he swore to himself he would never tell anyone.

He lead Leo to his room, which was originally a guest room on the Argo II.

They were almost there when Jason came running down the stairway, his sword drawn, breathing deeply.

He looked around until he spotted Nico and Leo. He gestured wildly for them to follow him as he turned and ran back up the stairs.

Nico ran forward, and Leo followed. Nico drew his Stygian iron sword, and heard a snap and a small whoosh behind him. He figured Leo opened one of the pockets on his tool belt pulled something out of it, then snapped it shut. He also must've set his hand or a finger on fire, because Nico could smell smoke, and that would also explain the whooshing sound from before.

They soon reached sunlight at the end of the stairway. When Nico stepped on the landing, he was greeted with the sight of the rest of the seven and Hedge with weapons drawn, fighting against a...

"What is that?" Leo exclaimed. Nico just shook his head in confusion. He had no idea what this thing was... It was like a mix of a harpy and a mermaid.

It was really weird. The tail was a dark blood red, and the scales were small and hard to see. There were sharp needle-like things on both ends of the fin. The feathers were the same color as the scales. It had sharp teeth, and its pale skin was tinted red. It had bright red eyes that were darting in every direction as it attacked-also in every direction.

It was flying, and the more it moved, the more water droplets flew from its tail. It was fast. No one could get a good hit on it before it flew to the next person to slash it's tail at. It would also swing its clawed hands, but that was hard, since it was still trying to fly.

"Come on!" Leo said as he lobbed a fireball at the back of the creature's head. It hit it, but didn't do much damage, as it just brought its attention to the two of them.

"Leo, you idiot!" Nico said, and Leo shrugged helplessly. Nico swung his sword, trying to hit it in the throat, but it was too fast, and it flew around him to Leo.

Leo put his hands up as they caught on fire, trying to protect himself. Nico was already running to a shadow.

The thing put its tail to the side to prepare to strike. Just as it brought it up to slash Leo, Nico was between them, in the shadow of the creature. He brought his sword up in time to slice the fin off of the rest of the tail.

"Thanks," Leo breathed out, and Nico nodded.

The creature screeched and dove at Nico with its claws out. Leo took this opportunity to throw practically every tool on the face of the Earth at its face.

It brought its hands up to protect itself, Leo threw another ball of fire at it, and its hands burned.

A golden tip suddenly protruded from its chest, and it dissolved into dust. Percy stood behind where it once was, holding Riptide out. He brought it down.

"What was that?" he asked, then looked around at the different faces. No one had an answer.

"Just be glad it's dead!" Coach Hedge screamed, and a couple heads bobbled up and down.

"But..." Annabeth started. She looked frustrated that she didn't know what they were dealing with. Children of Athena got so upset when they don't know something.

"Oh, for the love of Zeus, girl!" Hedge began. "It's dead. Worry about what it was later. Right now, it's time for dinner." He swung his hands in a shooing motion. "Go, go!"

.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Nico and Leo sat next to each other that evening, surprising everyone. Nico could feel the surprise radiating off of them; he didn't need to see the expression on their faces.

They were even more surprised when Nico and Leo were talking silently about Mythomagic, and Leo made a joke, causing Nico to chuckle.

Nico looked over when the entire room went silent, and he first saw Frank with a fork full of rice pause before his opened mouth, his eyes wide open and staring at Nico.

It was a similar reaction all around the table.

"Nico?" Jason asked. "Did you-Did you just-?"

"Laugh?" Nico interrupted him with a slight smile. "Why, yes, yes I did."

Percy put down his spoon. "At something Leo said?" Nico nodded. He knew why they were so shocked. He barely even talked anymore, let alone laughed, and he was pretty sure everyone thought that Nico hated Leo because of his "happy-go-lucky" personality.

He did, actually, at first. But after hearing that it was all basically an act, he started to like the older boy. He could relate, to a point.

He nodded. Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Since when have you two been so chummy?" Percy grimaced at the mention of chum, and Nico shrugged. Leo answered before Bico could even open his mouth.

"This afternoon, actually." Now both of Annabeth's eyebrows raised.

"It's a long, boring story that we need not get into this very second." Leo deadpanned, and went back to his quesadilla. Nico also raised his eyebrows. Leo glanced up and saw Nico looking, and shrugged. Nico shook his head and went back to his dinner, fighting off the urge to look at Leo's cute elfish face-

Oh gods, not again.