Climb (Percy Jackson x Reader)

twenty-eight

(Y/N) turns, her head cocking to the side when a boy walks out, his hands stuck in his pockets. He couldn't be any older than Will. His black hair brushes the top of his shoulders, messy enough that it looks like he'd just gotten out of bed. In the darkness, his skin appears as white as snow, but the firelight casts an orange glow across what (Y/N) realizes is an olive tone. When he meets her eye, she notices the glint of something sinister in his gaze—she'd seen that glint before, in the eyes of the god who ruled this realm.

But there was something else about this boy, something about his appearance that nags at her.

"Are you (Y/N)?" he asks. His tone, colored with traces of an accent, sounds exhausted and unenthusiastic. The daughter of Persephone doesn't miss the hint of scrutiny in his voice, either.

"Yes," she answers, examining him carefully. Apart from that resemblance to whom (Y/N) assumes is his father, there was something familiar about him. "Have we . . . Have we met before?"

The boy shrugs. One of the hellhounds walks up to him, nudging his side. He obliges it, scratching at its scruff.

"They're down this way," he says. The hellhound trails behind him as he brushes past her. (Y/N) fights her amusement at his attitude, so aloof and gloomy for a kid, and follows him to the sitting room.

Hades, lounging in his chair, looks up when the boy knocks on the doorframe and motions boredly to (Y/N). Persephone shifts her focus from the vase that decorates one of the room's side tables.

"Ah!" Hades exclaims, grinning. "Thank you, Nico. You didn't have to bring her."

"It's fine." Nico turns to leave, and (Y/N)'s brow furrows at the distasteful glance that he and Persephone share. She watches his expression as he looks at the hellhound, and a memory resurfaces when he smiles at the animal.

"Wait, we have met before," she says, pointing at Nico, who turns to her. His smile vanishes. (Y/N) can feel the gods' confusion on her back. "We played air hockey."

Nico meets her gaze with a blank expression. "Maybe we did. But everything becomes muddled after what turns out to be seventy years of oblivion." He looks pointedly at Hades, who sighs.

"Son—"

"I'm going to my room." Nico storms off, and the hellhound follows close behind.

Hades's shoulders slump.

(Y/N) turns to the king, her eyes wide. "That was awkward."

Persephone huffs a chuckle. "Indeed."

"You kept your kid in the Lotus Casino for seventy years?" (Y/N) asks, and Hades rubs at his temple. "Why?"

"It was to protect him," he explains, though regret drips from his words. "I wanted to keep him and his sister from the prophecy for as long as possible."

Both had affairs, Lupa says in her memory, though Hades had more. He sired two demigod children with one of his mistresses.

So she'd been correct in wondering whether they were half-bloods, (Y/N) realizes. The same concern she'd felt upon Thalia's return begins to resurface in her stomach.

Persephone drops into a chair, crossing her arms. Her jaw appears tight, likely from restraint.

Hades continues, "When the Jackson boy became desperate to prove himself even after retrieving Zeus's master bolt, I figured my children would be safe to live their lives as they pleased. I sent Alecto to remove them from the Hotel two years ago. Bianca, clever girl, figured out who they were after an incident with a monster. She joined the Hunters of Artemis—you've met her, actually." (Y/N)'s eyebrows shoot upward, and Hades nods at her surprise. "Nico wanted to find me, but after Alecto insisted, he continued to go to school with the mortals. When Zeus agreed to your terms for allowing interaction with our half-blood children, I brought Nico here. I wanted to explain why I did what I've done, and ensure his safety, but he's upset. He misses his sister, and he's angry at me."