To Hold Up the Sky (Percico/Pernico)

Chapter 4: Banished by Springtime

Nico walked over to his cabin, his sword dangling from his hip. He could feel the bags under his eyes, giving him a nasty headache. Without at the least taking off his clothes, the son of Hades kicked off his shoes and climbed under the covers. He closed his eyes, sighing as the last month's events played in his head.

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The son of Hades walked down the dark hallways of the underground palace, the place reminding him eerily of a black version of Olympus. Nico stopped walking when he heard angry voices echoing from the master bedroom.

"Hades, I have had enough of this! I am sick and tired of that brat being here 24-7!" Persephone yelled, her arms in the air with anger. She paced the floor with irritation, her eyes burning brightly.

Hades sighed. "Dear, I cannot simply turn him away."

"Why? You never let any of your other children live here. Heck, I never let any of them stick around in the underworld for more than five minutes. It was hello and then goodbye!" Persephone sniffed. Nico could picture her arms folded across her chest, running around dramatically.

"He needs protection, my darling, he is only sixteen and is facing more than any other of my children have dealt with throughout their whole lives." Hades answered. Nico felt his heart leap at his father's words. Maybe Hades really does care for him!

"And I'm Zeus. You've become attached to him, haven't you?" Nico winced, as he could feel the glare Persephone was giving Hades from outside the door.

"No, my dear, you very well know that I wish his sister was alive in his place." Hades stated, his voice sounding bored. "His sister Bianca could've done more than him in a lifetime." The son of Hades felt his heart get crushed by his father's words. He couldn't blame him though.

''You've always been a waste of space.' Nico's inner voice crooned at him.

'Shut up.' Nico thought furiously at himself. He leaned heavily against the door, trying to pick up more of the conversation.

"Well then let him prove himself!" His wife said with an urgent tone. "Send him on a quest!"

Hades stopped at that thought. Nico imagined his father stroking his chin, thinking hard. "And my dear, do you have one in mind?"

Picturing the smirk playing on Persephone's lips, she replied, "Oh yes, I have the perfect one."

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A few minutes later Hades called Nico from his room. Still breathing heavily from running back to his quarters, Nico obliged and went to stand in front of his father, hand instinctively on his sword handle. "You called for me, father?"

Hades regarded him coolly. "I did. I summoned you here to give you a quest."

Nico didn't answer, wanting his father to interpret that as surprise. He slightly lifts his eyebrows to add to the look. But he couldn't suppress a shiver as he looked at Hades, for he knew he'd be dead if he was caught eavesdropping on him.

Falling for Nico's act, Hades looked a bit smug, for getting a reaction out of Nico wasn't something easy to do. "Yes boy, a quest. Your step-mother and I decided it was time you stopped hiding here and did something."

Nico's face flushed at that. He steered the topic away from his humiliation. "And what would this quest be?"

Hades told him the quest, causing Nico to swear under his breath. He wasn't going to like this quest one bit.

"And Nico?" Hades said as Nico turned to leave.

Nico reluctantly turned to face his father, eyebrows raised.

"Don't ever come to the underworld again. Not until you've died." Hades told his son.

Turning furiously from his father, Nico strode to the door, went through the crack, and vanished. He had lost his only safe haven from camp, and it was all Persephone's fault.

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Nico woke abruptly, sweat gleaming in the green light and skin hot to the touch. He looked at his fireplace that burned green flames with a sigh. The greenness was going to make him sick.

A knock on his door jerked him from his thoughts. "Nico?" the voice asked. "Are you in there?"

Realizing it was Percy, Nico felt a slight blush appear on his cheeks, making him look like he was recently in cold air. He calmed himself down as fast as he could, thinking about his quest from the previous month to get him to stop acting like a sixth grader. But there was still a slight tinge of pink on his face present as Percy, who clearly got sick of standing there, opened the door and walked in.

The older demigod scanned the room in front of him, his sea-green eyes meeting his raven black ones when Percy found Nico. But instead of telling Nico why he was there he became a little pink, matching the same flush on Nico's pale skin.

"What?" Nico asked, getting annoyed with the older demigod. He didn't want to be awakened for another stupid reason like eating food again. This son of Hades wouldn't budge out of bed until he was told why.

"Um...you're uh, kinda, uh, only wearing underwear." Percy said, his face getting redder as he forced the sentence out of his mouth.

"...Oh!" Nico said, matching the tomato red Percy's skin color as he looked down on himself. He noticed the covers thrown off his bed and reached for it to pull onto his lower self, leaving only his chest and head bare.

"Well, uh, I'll wait outside till you're dressed." Percy stammered before practically running to the door.

Nico watched Percy with utter confusion as the son of Poseidon left, not understanding why he was suddenly being so bashful. Percy was never bashful. Could his appearance have disgusted him that much to cause him the blush with embarrassment so hard? After all, it wasn't like Percy hadn't seen guys without pants on. If he hadn't, then how did he get changed for gym? Nico shook his head. 'I'm clearly over thinking this.' he thought before getting out of bed and changing into another skull shirt that lay crumpled on the floor.

Once he was dressed, Nico opened the door, revealing a waiting Percy Jackson with his hands in his pockets.

"C'mon, we have a council meeting to attend." Percy said before striding off, Nico following closely behind.

As they entered the main house, they were greeted by Chiron. His solemn eyes seemed to look even more tired, his shoulder slumped forward.

"Hey Chiron." Percy greeted. "How are things?"

Chiron sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm not exactly positive. Since you two took so long, they decided to start without you."

"What?" Percy exclaimed with anger, pretty much saying what Nico was screaming in his head. "They can't!"

"I'm sorry Percy, I tried to stop them from doing so, but Dionysis voted them to." Chiron said. Suddenly, he took Percy's shoulder into his grip, looking straight through Percy's eyes. "Promise me to be rational with them, Percy. Keep in mind they all just lost many of their friends and family."

A different emotion passed into the sea-green eyes: anger. He could see the steel as Percy nodded his head to let Chiron know he understood, for Percy understood what they were going through. It wasn't fair what Tartarus did. Then without looking at anyone else, Percy walked into the meeting room, Nico trailing behind him. But as they entered the room, what they had expected wasn't a fight.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, so I decided to have Nico's quest a month before revealed bit by bit in each chapter just for the heck of it. I am almost done with the next chapter, just bear with me (Seriously did I just do that pun? Wow.)

QUESTION: What do you think Hades will give Nico as a quest?