"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.
0013. | WHICH PRECIPICES SHOULD HE JUMP OR RUN?
Vela knew Annabeth wasn't particularly supportive of the way that Vela had elected to deal with Hercules. He knew, had she been in charge, Piper would have done the talking and they likely would have disturbed the old god on the other side of the island for the sake of safe passage. But he also knew that despite the bravado of chastising him, she was secretly quite proud of him for defending Piper as he had, and also for his one-punch-knockout.
In her defence, it was very cool of him.
Hercules had stayed unconscious long enough for Leo to sail the Argo through the Pillars, and only when he was a tiny speck in the distance, even to Vela's sharp eyes, did he finally wake and shriek and curse their names. Vela might not have been practical in his diplomacy, but no one could argue that he wasn't efficient. He had got them safe, that meant he had done his job.
He was also incredibly anxious.
Vela felt as if he was on the precipice of something great or something terrible. His anxiety likely came from not being able to predict whether what was to come would be terrible, or great. Because what came next was saving Nico.
He had done it, he had made it—finally—to the Mediterranean. He was so close to Rome. So close to him. They would be there by morning. His secret works on the Engine Room had sped up the process apparently as Leo said, though Leo never knew Vela had done it. He had assumed that his ADHD had convinced him that he had already fixed it and forgotten. It had never occurred to him that Vela might have been the one to fix it.
Even the air of the Mediterranean was different. It filled his lungs in an expanding way, puffing his chest until he felt near enough ready to float away. To have the tips of his toes to bend as they left the ground and he was lifted away from this precipice he was nearing. He felt as if he could be lifted away from it all, the air in his lungs lifting him until he came home again, be that in the sky as he once was, dreaming always of Nico, or to Nico himself.
To be with Nico... To hold him in person, to come before him and fall on his knees, to dig his bones and joints into the earth to ground himself from this lifting feeling and to humble himself. To beg Nico's forgiveness for not doing enough for him ever, for not saving him, for not looking after him. He would bed his forgiveness and he would live eternity in guilt and recompense.
And Vela couldn't wait for that. He couldn't wait to be able to live his immortal life recompensing for Nico's forgiveness, because to have that forgiveness also meant he must have succeeded in saving him. That was Vela's precipice.
Would he save his love?
Or would he just become the latest in a long line of miserable immortals separated from their hearts?
