"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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0016. | STUCK BETWEEN LOVERS AND HATERS
Vela knew Annabeth wanted an explanation but truly, he didn't even know where to begin. There was so much to answer for and only so little time as the mechanical spider ran ahead, guiding the way for them to follow. Annabeth had fallen to the back of the group, though, where Vela always trailed.
"What was that back there?" She whispered, closing the gap between them so their shoulders brushed against each other and their conversation was kept private. "Like, seriously? I've never seen you act like that before! It was like-!"
"It was him." Vela cut her off.
"Who was who?"
Vela sighed. "Nico is him." He elaborated. "Remember my mum's voice in my head after the crash? Remember how she was telling me to find this person - with a, um, a voice to ground me, and uh, eyes like the sky? I thought it was someone else, I thought it was supposed to be someone who would explain everything about me but it wasn't! It was Nico." He said.
"You're not making any sense." She frowned curiously. "What was Nico?"
"The answer." He said. "I remember why I fell. It wasn't because you loosened the sky when you held it - it was because I was moving to make room for someone else. I didn't crash, Annabeth, I fell. I was moving so Bianca could take my place, that was why she knew me. I moved from the sky so that she could be up there and watch over Nico."
"But..." she stammered, stepping over a rock. "why?"
"I don't know yet." He sighed again. "But it feels different, y'know? I had control through my transition. That's never happened before and it's because of him. I don't know why but finding Nico has fixed some part of me - it's why I didn't want to leave him, he felt safe." He admitted. "But it was also weird... I know my protectiveness has increased since Artemis attacked me, but when Eurytion tried to hurt him... it was weird. It was all instinct to save him."
Annabeth paused for a while and didn't speak. Vela thought she was just going to ignore him when she suddenly spoke. "Maybe..." she pondered. "Maybe it's like an empathy link or something, like Grover and Percy have. So because of this link, your instincts are telling you to protect him."
That actually made a lot of sense. "So this is just some empathy link my mum has made because I helped his sister?"
"I guess," she said. "But you've gotta ask your mom first - if you think she's the one who's done this, then you've gotta talk to her."
That was the response he had been dreading. "How am I meant to talk to a woman who didn't even tell me I was a god? She only talks to me in my head, and even then, she hasn't spoken since Minos appeared." Annabeth pursed her lips.
