"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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0012. | PEACE NEVER LASTS WHERE CHAOS THRIVES
For the first time in a while, Percy felt at peace.
He hadn't known how much he had missed Vela until he remembered him. Vela wasn't like Annabeth, in terms of amnesia; Percy could remember Annabeth. He remembered her name the second he awoke two months ago in Lupa's presence, and ever since, her face had been becoming clearer and clearer in his mind. Honestly, someone as seriously beautiful as Annabeth was difficult to forget.
But Vela—once Percy remembered him, he struggled to see why he could ever forget the boy he felt as if he had gone through so much with. Vela felt familiar to him in the same way that Fluffy had. Of course, they were the same person, but Percy recalled how easy it was to trust Fluffy, how easy it was to be around him, and now... now he could feel the genuine comfort of knowing that he had Vela to be with him. Vela who was so trustworthy and selfless, Vela who he could be so comfortable around, and be wound up by, but also laugh so hard with. Percy struggled to imagine a time when Vela had ever let him down.
Even then, as they sprinted out from Iris's convenience store, Vela a blur of rainbow clothes, Hazel with her sword unsheathed, and Percy almost falling over his own two feet he was running so fast, Vela still managed to catch him by the elbow, steadying him without even breaking concentration.
The three ran into the clearing where Frank stood, alone. He had barely a mark on him and he held his spear as if the weapon was the basilisk rather than the three long, winding piles of golden monster dust. Hazel sprinted over to him immediately, instinctively. Vela and Percy stood back to back, surveying the clearing for any threats of the monster army that had passed through before the basilisks.
"Are you okay?" Hazel demanded as soon as she got close to Frank.
Frank nodded as he looked at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. I—," Frank cut himself off, and Percy frowned, uncapping Riptide because he thought Frank had caught sight of some hideous monster that had snuck up on them, but it seemed he was wrong. Frank wasn't staring at a hideous monster, instead he was staring at Vela. "Who— hi." He settled on saying, his cheeks turning pink form embarrassment.
Percy refrained from being frustrated. Vela had that sort of effect on people, Percy could recall him making people blush without meaning to, even if it was only because Frank was so embarrassed about stumbling over his words.
Vela stuck his hand out for Frank to shake like the gentleman he was. "Hello, Frank." He smiled his lopsided smile that highlighted the dimple by his scar—not that Percy paid attention. "It's nice to properly meet you."
Frank looked like he was going to pass out. Luckily, he didn't. Instead he shook Vela's hand with a great shyness and hesitance that made Percy smile to himself. Vela's smile turned to a grin when Frank accepted the handshake, and Percy's eye twitched as he regained a memory of Vela, younger looking, practicing his handshakes with a guy as muscly and tall as Hephaestus himself—or rather, Vulcan.
