Summary: PJO + Disney Descendants
Lou Ellen curses Nico's shadow travel abilities, causing him to end up in Auradon - a world of fairy tales - where he must keep his true identity a secret and juggle the news he has a half-sister of sorts and find a way to return to Camp Half-Blood.
Of course, his misfortune wouldn't be complete without a villain secretly plotting to overtake and rule Camp Half-Blood.
Ships:
Solangelo
Ben/Mal
Carlos/Harry
Evie/Doug
Audrey/Chad
_____
One thing Nico didn't expect when his cacodemons followed him out of the Underworld was how attached they would become to Lou Ellen, the daughter of Hecate. Every one of his children adores the magic user.
Lou Ellen isn't as much of a fan of the cacodemons as they are of her. She claims they are attracted to her aura due to her magic. Nico thinks that is bullshit. His cacodemons can sense objects and people that are inherently good.
Lou Ellen and the Hunters of Artemus draw in the cacodemons, and they avoid the Ares cabin like the plague, except for Clarisse. They love the daughter of Ares almost as much as Nico and Lou Ellen.
Nico isn't happy about his kids' bond with the tightly wound daughter of Ares, but he's glad to have a willing babysitter whenever he needs. He and Will let Percy and Leo watch their kids when they went on a date once, and well, let it be said, neither of those idiots should ever be responsible for children - human or otherwise. Clarisse is always ecstatic to take the cacodemons off Nico's hands. She believes she can train them to attack Percy on sight if she prays to Ares hard enough.
Today, Nico is running around Camp Half-Blood, frantic with worry. He woke up that morning with Will, and all of the cacodemons were missing from the Hades cabin. The door was still securely shut, but the cacodemons have Nico's shadow travel ability, as many Underworld beings do.
None of the children were with Clarisse on the training field. She claimed not to have seen them since dinner at the pavilion the evening before. There's only one other place Nico thinks his kids could be.
They enjoy canoeing with Percy on the lake or joining Leo in Bunker Nine, but it isn't often the cacodemons roam around the camp alone. None of Nico's friends have seen his kids. That leaves one person.
Lou Ellen is screaming bloody murder when Nico skids to a halt outside the Hecate cabin. The front door is thrown open, tilting haphazardly. Nico cautiously steps onto the porch. He's learned from personal experience that it is dangerous to enter the Hecate cabin without permission.
Lou Ellen is a fan of traps, particularly for intruders. Nico knocks on the open door and steps back. Zeus only knows what spell Lou Ellen will storm out with. Lou Ellen pokes her head around the door, looking frazzled. Her hair sticks out in frizzy directions, and her makeup is smudged. "Di Angelo," she snarls when she sees him standing on the porch.
Nico gives her a tiny wave. He takes another step away from the angry girl, not that distance will protect him from magic. "Hey, Lou Ellen."
"Don't you, "hey," me. Get your godsdamned little shits out of my cabin." Lou Ellen shuffles to the side and directs Nico into the cabin.
Nico ducks past her. He stops short at the sight of the cabin's interior. Spell and potion ingredients litter the floor. Glass from smashed bottles crunches under Nico's boots. Lou Ellen has the cacodemons rounded up and trapped in a corner using a spell.
The cacodemons chirp with happiness when they see Nico. Nico steps over a large uprooted plant that looks like it could eat him if it wanted to. "What the Hades did you all do?"
"They wanted my attention, but I was working on a new spell. When I ignored them, they started destroying my stuff in retribution."
Nico grinds his teeth. He's too young to deal with idiotic children who get revenge when they don't get enough attention. "Release them, please. I'll ask Clarisse to put them through training drills as punishment."
"And what else?"
"What do you mean what else? I'm punishing them. What more do you want from me?"
"I want you," Lou Ellen pokes Nico in the chest hard enough to sting, "to do your job as a godsdamned parent. Your "punishments" aren't doing anything to stop these demons from destroying this camp! The least you could do is help me clean their mess up."
"I would offer to help clean, but Will and I have had our date scheduled for weeks. This is the first time in a while that he's not working overtime with an emergency at the infirmary."
"I'll give him an emergency," Lou Ellen says.
Nico notices her hand moving too late. He doesn't have time to move before her spell encases him. He holds his breath in case this particular spell works through inhalation. Lou Ellen is fond of that type of spell.
The precaution is futile.
The spell's effects settle into Nico's bones. He can feel it like an icy shiver sliding under his skin. "What did you do to me?" he asks, horrified. Lou Ellen is well known for the nasty spells she procures.
She smirks at his distress. "Nothing you don't deserve. Now, get out of my cabin and take your demons with you."
"What is going to happen to me?"
"You'll find out." Lou Ellen releases her spell. Nico's cacodemons run to his legs and clamber onto his body.
Nico rushes from the cabin when the cacodemons find holds on him. He bursts into the Apollo cabin like a wild man. His kids jump off his body and scatter into the recesses of the room.
Nico's sudden appearance startles the few Apollo kids in the cabin, Will being one of them. His tense posture relaxes. "Oh, good. You found them. Is that everyone?" He doesn't react when the spider cacodemon climbs his body with its spindly legs and crouches on his shoulder, hissing at everyone.
"Lou Ellen did something to me," Nico gasps out. "The kids got in her cabin and ruined her stuff. She got mad at me and cursed me or something. She wouldn't tell me what she did!"
Will grabs Nico's flailing hands - he needs to do that often - and presses them together between his unnaturally warm palms. "Death Boy, calm down. Take a deep breath. There you go. Let's go outside, and you can tell me what's wrong." Will pauses at the door before leading Nico outside. "Kids, all of you better stay in this cabin and behave. You're already in trouble for running away this morning."
They sit on the porch of the Apollo cabin, chilling in two of the white lawn chairs the Stoll brothers stole from somewhere. The chairs appear at a different place every week, and no one knows who moves them.
Will rubs Nico's back in a clockwise manner. He found out this soothes Nico's nerves after one of Nico's extensive stays in the infirmary. "Alright, tell me what's wrong."
"The kids got into Lou Ellen's belongings and ruined everything. I told her I couldn't help clean up today because we planned a date. She got angry and cursed me. She wouldn't tell me what the curse was. I don't know what to do."
"Okay," Will says to buy time. "This isn't the first time I've dealt with a cursed camper. I'll examine your body, looking for the curse. We'll figure out what to do from there."
Nico nods.
Will runs his hands over Nico's arms, chest, and legs. His healing powers don't find any abnormalities - other than Nico's body fading into darkness. Will already knows about that. Nico overextended his powers a few nights before during Capture the Flag. He won the game for their team but almost died in the process. Will has forbidden him from using his powers until his body returns to normal - which should be today. "There's nothing weird. My guess is Lou Ellen faked a curse to freak you out."
Nico sighs in relief. He was not looking forward to dealing with one of Lou Ellen's spells. "Is our date tonight still on?"
"Yeah. If there happens to be another emergency, I'll ask Kayla to take over for me. I don't want to miss another date with you."
Nico blushes. Even after dating for over a year, Will still flusters him. "Alright, Solace. Meet me at my cabin around five this afternoon."
"Alright, Death Boy." Will pecks Nico's lips before going back inside.
Nico mentally orders his cacodemons out of the Apollo cabin. He tracks Clarisse down again and asks her if she is still free to babysit for him and Will that afternoon. She is, so Nico leaves his kids with her. She needs time to enact their punishment.
The rest of Nico's day alternates between being moody in his dark cabin and teaching sword fighting lessons to the younger campers. Five o'clock arrives with Will on Nico's doorstep.
He's dressed in loose jeans and a bright tie-dyed T-shirt. Nico shields his eyes when he opens the door. "Wow. That is a very interesting shirt."
Will smiles. "You think? I really like it."
Nico answers safely, "I like it if you like it."
"I know that means you hate it," Will says. "That's okay. We don't have to like each other's clothes. We just have to like each other."
"Ugh," Nico groans. He shrugs his jacket over his plain black shirt and ripped jeans. "Do you have to be so sappy?"
"Yep."
"Whatever." Nico locks his cabin behind him. He learned his lesson when Leo convinced Jason and Hazel to put sticky notes on the entire interior of his cabin the last time he went on a date with Will. "Grab onto me."
Will threads his fingers with Nico's and prepares for the nauseating feeling of traveling through pure darkness.
Something is wrong. Nico noticed it the second he called the shadows to do his bidding. The shadows envelop his body as usual, but they feel different - heavier somehow. He has no control over his destination.
He doesn't panic because freaking out while between the world and shadows can have horrific effects. He closes his eyes and awaits whatever is on the other side of the shadows when they part.
_____
Words: 1,742
Published: 11/2/23
This is a silly project I'm working on when I have downtime between working on my serious fics or when I have writer's block. This will be updated whenever I have the time to complete each chapter. The tags will be updated as I go along.
This isn't my best work. This is a fun project. I write bits and pieces when I have extra time or when I have severe writer's block. Because this is supposed to be a stress-free project, I'm focusing only a little on editing each chapter. I'll do one or two quick once-overs before posting, but I'm not spending hours editing.