"The moment I met you,
I held my breath.
And you've been taking
it away ever since,
Nico di Angelo."
[ NICO DI ANGELO x MALE OC ]
[ PERCY JACKSON SERIES ]
[ HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES ]
cover by @humaneity !
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
0008. | HIS WORST FEAR IS TRUE, THAT IT'S ALL HIS FAULT
Okay, so maybe Vela wasn't actually doing as well as he was pretending to be.
He had been hauled back to the ship, his leg too weak to put any pressure on it all, and Vela was ridden by an entirely new fear—that he might be the reason that Nico gets even more hurt. If he stepped the wrong way and put weight on the broken bone, then Nico would get hurt. If he stretched too far, he'd rip open the wound at his appendix even further, then Nico would get hurt. If Vela did anything too strenuous, too stupid, then Nico would get hurt.
He needed to be wrapped in bubblewrap if Nico stood any chance at all at surviving with the rate Vela was going at.
Once they were back on the Argo II, Frank had left Percy to help set Vela down whilst he went to get Leo to get the ship going. Percy lowered him to the floor and Vela grounded his weight onto his uninjured leg so he could sit. His stomach ached with the movement and he winced, peeling back his t-shirt to reveal his abdominals. His t-shirt was wet through with ichor and he knew Nico stood a chance at bleeding out if he didn't heal soon. "Fucking hell!" Percy cursed once he saw the hole in Vela's appendix. From the pain, Vela could tell the wound had cut all the way through Nico, likely an arrow hit through from the back. "That looks bad."
"I need stitches." He grunted.
"You need a coffin." Percy winced.
Vela sent him a harsh look. He couldn't bare the thought of thinking about the extent of what these wounds could do. He felt sick even dancing around the idea that Nico might not even be alive when he found him.
"Sorry." Percy pulled an apologetic face. "You don't need a coffin. You look great. You'll be fine, right as rain." He listed, making a grimace that Vela guessed he meant as a comforting smile.
"Convincing."
Before Percy could bolster him further, Annabeth and Frank came barreling back up the stairs with Leo in tow. "Oh my gods!" Annabeth's hands flew to her mouth when she saw the state of Vela.
Percy threw his hands up in surrender. "It wasn't me this time, I swear!"
Leo looked like he was going to wretch up his lunch. "Oh gods," he hunched over, hanging on the railing that led to the quarterdeck. "That looks disgusting." Vela rolled his eyes. "Is your leg supposed to bend that way?"
"Obviously fucking not, Leo." Vela snapped, gritting his teeth through the pain. "His femur is broken."
"His? Why're you talking about yourself in third person, is that a new thing?" Leo looked at Percy to check. "Is he delirious?"
