To Hold Up the Sky (Percico/Pernico)

Chapter 3: Adele Visits Camp Half-Blood

Nico lay in bed, staring at the ceiling of his cabin. It was half past midnight, and Nico found he couldn't sleep for the first time in forever. Why? One word: Percy.

The Son of Hades thought that he was over Percy. After his visit to Cupid, he had tried his hardest to not think about how his heart would leap whenever Percy smiled at him, or when Percy had that seaweed brain expression on his face that made Nico want to kiss him. He tried so hard to not go nuts when the son of Poseidon paid attention to him instead of Annabeth, made lame jokes, and laughed.

But now he knew that he was wrong. He still acted like a silly schoolgirl and blushed whenever Percy was even a little close, like sitting next to him. Nico still had the urge to bolt whenever the guy walked up to him. This son of Hades was not over this boy, and he hated himself for it.

'He'll never like you back.' said a voice in his head. 'He likes girls, not skinny teenager boys.'

'But what if he does? What if he does like me?' Nico thought desperately.

'Don't be silly, what would a hero like him see in a boy like you?' the voice in his head scoffed.

The conversation Nico was having in his head stopped as he heard a strange tune echo through the camp.

"Is that... Adele?" Nico asked out loud. He got out of bed and opened his door to look outside.

What he saw terrified the crap out of the son of Hades, which is saying something. Clouds pressed to the magical boundaries of the camp, trying to break through. The dark blue of the sky was too close to the land to be possible, unless...

"No." Nico whimpered as Adele's voice echoed through the camp, the lyrics suddenly making sense.

"Let the Skyfall, when it crumbles. We will stand tall. And face it all together." Adele sang, the song becoming louder and louder as someone or something cranked up the volume.

Nico didn't wait any longer. He ran to Half-Blood Hill to look outside the boundaries, passing confused campers that were asking him what's going on. "Later." he replied to all of them, terrified of what he's about to see.

The land was flattened to the bone, with trees collapsed and houses crushed against the weight of the sky. With obstacles out of the way, Nico could see for miles around, including New York, which was now flat, staining the ground grey.

"Oh gods!" someone shrieked, a crowd of people looking at their world that was now as flat as a pancake. Apparently a crowd of people had followed Nico to the boundaries, for he now heard a lot of voices murmuring to one another.

"Nico!" a voice from the crowd said, leaving butterflies in Nico's stomach when he recognized the voice. Percy pushed through the crowd, Riptide drawn out and gleaming in the morning sun. "Whats going on?"

Nico blushed a light pink, a little embarrassed at being in the spotlight. But he caught himself and regained his composure, looking out into the crowd.

"The sky has fallen." he announced. "Tartarus took the sky from Atlas and consumed the titan's essence, leaving no one to take the sky when he let it fall."

The crowd gasped at Nico's terrible news. One Hermes kid spoke up, saying, "How do you know?"

Nico looked at the person coolly, replying, "I had a dream about it, like most people."

The boy looked unconvinced. But as he opened his mouth to retort back at Nico, a young girl beat him to it and asked, "What should we do?"

It was Percy who answered that question. He stepped up to stand by Nico. "We should contact Camp Jupiter and see how they're doing. Maybe they can help." Percy said. He turned to glance at the crushed land outside the border. "As for our current problem, we'll have a council meeting about it." After hearing the murmur of agreement in the crowd, the son of Poseidon then left without another word, heading straight for the Athena cabin to find Annabeth.

"He's probably trying to contact his mom." someone muttered before Nico could ask. "Annabeth's got a cell phone."

"Ok." Nico said, uncomfortable with the kid's bluntness.

How did he know what he was going to ask? A son of Hades shouldn't be so readable! Then a terrible thought entered his mind. What if they knew he was gay? What if they knew he had a crush on Percy? His heart started to hammer in his throat.

But as Nico sat there, he realized he was being ridiculous. Of course they didn't know! If the camp did, things would be very different for the son of Hades. And not to mention it was reasonable for someone to ask why a person suddenly left. He was just being paranoid.

But who could blame him? Being gay in the 1930's wasn't a picnic. Even though he was very young, Nico did notice guys when he still lived in Italy. Plus, Nico didn't know how to handle crushes. He would stammer and blush whenever he was in the same room as his crush. Plus, it wasn't like he could run to his mother and say, "Omgs, Mom, I found this guy who's SO cute and adorable..." That was plain unacceptable.

Yet Nico couldn't help but wonder if his mother would've accepted him as being gay. Sometimes he wanted to break his promise to Hades to never summon his mother and ask. Bianca had known he was gay. She had merely waved her hand away when Nico confessed and said, "Nico, I don't care about that. Love is love, no matter who it's for." He missed her too much.

Before he could get too depressed, Nico shook his head, clearing his thoughts, for they were getting out of control. Noticing that the campers were still gathered around waiting for anything else he had to say, he said. "Well, I guess we should all get back to normal duties." The crowd gathered at the border nodded and left, heading towards the dining pavilion to eat breakfast.

Nico sighed and looked outside the borders into the flattened world, knowing that nothing was ever going to be the same ever again. How in Hades were they going to fix this?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone, just wanted to say how thankful I am for all of your support! You all have made me feel very lucky, so thank you so much! *Hugs everyone and starts the wave (terrible pun that makes me laugh cause its that bad).

QUESTION: Which HOO character do you love the most and why? OR Which HOO character do you hate the most and why? PLEASE ANSWER I LOVE READING YOUR COMMENTS!:D