"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 !
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0009. | THE GREAT FATES KNOW IT, HALF OF HIM IS DEAD
Percy didn't need to know Vela well to know where he'd go, he could hear his stomps perfectly well enough to navigate after the god. He stopped outside his cabin door, leaning on the frame with his arms folded against his chest, watching Vela.
Percy knew Vela needed him, but he wasn't sure how. He didn't know what Vela needed from him—if he needed him to listen to him, to provoke him, to hug him, to comfort him, to stress with him—he really didn't know. Instead, he leant against the doorframe and surveyed his stropping friend with concern.
Vela was pacing back and forth, his hands flexing in and out of fists, desperate to hit something so badly the sinew and veins became prominent in the back of his hands, disappearing under his hoodie sleeve. Percy saw his brow furrowed into an expression of pure frustration. He couldn't imagine what Vela was feeling right then, the hurricane of emotions that was surely wreaking havoc in his head, but he could see how it mustered into frustration.
He was frustrated without an outlet.
Percy decided to take the fall for the team. "You good, champ?" He asked, then cringed at his words. Paul used to call him champ when he was stressed out from school exams. It was a textbook-dad-move, but he wasn't sure what else to say.
Vela sent him a look like what the fuck do you think?
Percy flashed his eyes from awkwardness when Vela looked away. He was angrier than he had expected. Honestly, when it came to Nico, Percy wasn't sure what to expect from Vela. Nobody knew exactly what Vela had done when he found out where Nico had been trapped, all Percy knew was that the sky had turned black, like the sun had been extinguished. The world had turned cold, it had felt stifling. Something in Vela had changed, he had snapped somewhere deep in his mind without Nico. Percy wasn't sure how to fix that but he wanted to try.
He sighed quietly. "Jason didn't mean anything by it," he guessed. "Of course we'll save Nico. Jason didn't know what he was talking about, it's the curse of the children of Zeus," he tried to make a joke. Vela didn't laugh. "Thalia's the same, you know that. They both think they know best, they're wired that way. Jason thinks he knows what's best for everyone."
Vela began to fiddle with something in his hands, and only upon closer inspection did he see that it was his ring. The ring he always wore on his right hand ring finger, the one with the weird looking stone atop the obsidian band, the one that to Percy looked quite ugly, but to Vela, seemed to be the possession he cherished most in the whole wide world.
"They were acting like they know Nico." Vela cursed, the muscle in his jaw pronouncing as he spat his words. "Like they're the only ones of us who can measure worth. What do they know about Nico?"
