"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 !
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
0020. | YOU MUST EARN THE PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING HIM
When Vela said he hated heights, he meant he hated heights.
Of course that didn't make much sense considering his two thousand year position in the vastness of space in which he was in a constant state of being at a tremendous height, but with great height comes great fear of falling.
He didn't recall much about his fall to earth, only that the exhilarating speeds had caused a flurry of fire around him (maybe—it was a little hazy) and that it had scarred him so brutally he couldn't stomach any form of fast travel that wasn't running (boats or planes? Ew!). And crossing a bridge made of ice that could melt or shatter at any moment surely didn't help his fear of falling.
Neither did Adonis's inability to hold onto the railing which left Vela with one hand glued to the railing for his own peace of mind, and the other holding on tightly like a baby elephant to the back of Adonis's silver jacket in case his footing were to slip on the ice.
"Why do they have a bridge?" Vela heard Leo's voice echo from further down the bridge than he and Adonis. Vela frowned. Weird question.
"Leo," Thalia sounded frustrated. "This isn't a good place to stop. What do you mean?" Vela glanced back to them. Leo had indeed stopped halfway up the bridge, forcing Thalia and Jason behind him to stop too. Vela paused his step and let go of Adonis's jacket, they nearly to the top. Adonis was now closer to Piper and Coach Hedge than he was to Vela.
"They're wind spirits." Leo elaborated, looking between Jason, Thalia and Vela for some glimpse of recognition that one of them understood what he was insinuating. None of them did. "Can't they fly?"
Vela tilted his head to the side. "I suppose they need an anchoring point." He looked at Leo. "Else they might float away." He joked but no one laughed.
"So they bridge isn't always here?" Leo clarified.
Thalia shook her head, no. "The wind spirits don't like to anchor to the earth—," Vela rolled his eyes as she refuted his joke. "—but sometimes it's necessary. Like now. They know you're coming."
Vela glanced behind Leo, to Jason, to see if he had a clue what was going on with Leo. Jason met Vela's glance and took the god's hint. "Leo?" Jason prompted. "What are you thinking?"
"Oh, gods!" Thalia cursed and Vela scowled at the insult. "Keep moving, Leo. Look at your feet."
Vela took the bait and looked at Leo's feet and his stomach dropped through body. In Leo's excitement of his eureka! moment, his feet had heated up and began to melt the ice of the bridge beneath his feet. Leo's shoes were smoking and the ice around him was steaming as it began to thin. Vela clamped both his hands down on the railings either side of him. "Leo," he spoke very carefully, fearfully. "You break this bridge and I'll kill you." Vela gulped.
