"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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0021. | MEN DON'T CRY, BUT I DON'T CARE
Vela was wiped. He had never been so tired in his life. Days of running across the country was killing him. His muscles were heavy, his muzzle stung with the leftover pain of his broken nose and cracked skull and his knee crunched with every step. Hundreds of miles later and he had reached Manhattan finally.
But being a six and a half feet tall ash grey wolf with a golden scar over the eye wasn't exactly inconspicuous in a city like Manhattan so Vela found an alleyway on the outskirts of the city to change. All he had left in his packed clothes stash were a pair of jeans and a pink t-shirt - no shoes. Barefoot it is.
He got a lot of weird looks as he walked down the streets, and at one point he could've sworn he saw a woman who looked like the older female version of Percy looking at him from a window. Weird.
He didn't have any money so he couldn't even grab a taxi and he was really regretting it. His knee felt like it was on fire now he was in his human form. He was sure without his werewolf endurance that was ever-present he would've collapsed by now. Still, limping along gave him time to think.
Vela thought about his mom and why she hadn't answered him. It made him feel insignificant where before he had felt equal to her. The fact that she had sent him off on what turned out to be a survive-or-die quest without telling him why and then didn't tell him a well done, or anything, hurt his feelings. She made him feel like the other members of the Aphrodite cabin, never acknowledged, only claimed. So he was mad. So mad that next time they met, he wasn't going to hug her. No way! Hugs were suspended and saved for people who didn't send him off to get beaten up.
And then, as always, his thoughts led to Nico. It was kind of embarrassing that all Nico had done was get mad at his friends back at the Ranch, but Vela thought it was the most wonderful thing. Since his first glance, Vela was utterly obsessed with the son of Hades.
Everything his mom said about Nico and their bond made sense. Vela had never felt so connected to someone despite their distance.
He wished Nico was there with him then as he walked through Manhattan barefoot. Vela was sure if Nico was with him then being beaten up wouldn't have been so bad because at least he would've had a reason to have survived if not for himself.
Neither would limping through New York to a strawberry farm. But Nico was still at the Ranch with Eurytion as far as he knew and that comforted him. Vela wanted to keep Nico safe whilst he helped defeat the Titans. Then - then he would go get him and they would be able to spend some proper time together without any threat of him getting hurt.
Night fell pretty quickly but Vela was nearly at the strawberry farm marked by the heavy woodland and scent of monsters stained the dirt. He walked past them but no monsters seemed to bother him. Vela was pretty sure it was because he just really wasn't in the mood to kill some monsters right then and that mood was just radiating from him.
