Fatal Flaw: Empathy (Nico di Angelo)

Chapter Sixteen

I woke up to a loud banging sound at my door, which was lined with silver and black chains. Wait. My door isn't lined with that, it's lined with seashells. The color of my sheets aren't usually black, and though it's not unwanted, I can't help but be confused about where I am.

"NICO DI FUCKING ANGELO! WHERE IN THE NAME OF TARTARUS IS MY SISTER I SWEAR TO THE GODS IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW, I-" Percy was shouting outside, and Nico had gotten up groaning about how early it was. He opened the door and Percy fell inside, landing on his elbows in almost perfect plank position.

"Your sister's sleeping, calm down."

"Calm down? My sister didn't show up at the cabin last night after her practice with you and you want me to calm down? She's sleeping in a cabin with only you here and you're telling me to calm down?" Percy looked at him eyes twitching and I continued to pretend I was asleep.

"Well, yeah, considering you locked her out outside your cabin and wouldn't open it because you were too busy with Annabeth to remember that your sister knocks at precisely half past midnight every night." Nico looked at me. "No matter what."

Percy's face grew horrified as he realized just how true Nico's statements were. "Oh, gods. I can't believe this! You're right! I'm a horrible brother..."

"No, Percy, you're a demigod. You're half human. You make mistakes and you have other people in your life besides your sister. It's fine." I didn't know that Nico could give such good advice, but I payed attention to that anyway. Nico came and shook me.

I decided to play dumb, and continue to sleep. "Come on, Gamberetto. Work with me." The skin of his hand touched my arm, and I could feel The flustered feeling from last night still lingering. Along with a bit of irritation. "Percy, you try."

Percy walked over loudly, and put his hand on my arm. I spring up immediately, because his regret and guilt from last night about locking me out are seating and painful. Each moment of happiness he had with Annabeth now felt like a shard to his heart for letting me down. I gasped in pain.

I hugged him. Percy looked at me confused for a moment, before remembering what Aphrodite said about the powers. "Hey, Shrimp? I'm sorry. About yesterday... I..."

He didn't seem to know what to say, so I gestured for a pen or pencil and paper, Nico brought me a pen, and offered me a ripped out piece of paper from his notebook. "Here."

I wrote immediately. 'It's okay, Percy. It was thrilling, and great. Besides, I got to spend the night in this cool as heck cabin. We should go visit the underworld sometime! Anyway, Nico is like a best friend, so I didn't mind staying here.'

I gauges Nico's reaction by handing him the paper, and I felt a twang of guilt. We hadn't talked about yesterday yet, not enough to satisfy the questions bubbling urgency. I pushed Percy out of the cabin, and I made for Nico. I whispered in his ear. "I know I don't have training tonight, but we need to talk about yesterday. Tell Percy that tonight you're testing me, and I'll take you underwater for a chat. Or maybe, you choose where you want to go. Bye Re Fantasmi!"

I hug him quickly before he can respond and I rush to Percy's side holding my hair ties I'd taken out to show him I'd found what I was looking for. We were about to walk to our cabin when I smacked his shoulder, yanked him down, and climbed onto his shoulders. My legs were dangling over his shoulders, and I was using my hair as a curtain to block the sunlight, and hugging his head. He sighed at my behavior before grabbing my legs to make sure I wouldn't fall off him. I raised my eyes up, and all I could see was Clarisse walking away from us, Will walking over to Nico, who was sulking again, and Annabeth who was walking toward us. My gaze lingered in Nico's frustrated face longer for a second, but turned quickly to Annabeth.

"Hey, seaweed brain. Heya Shrimp." Shrimp has grown to be a nickname that anyone close to Percy would use for me except for Nico, who obviously insisted upon our first language, "gamberetto," which was actually what had gotten me the nickname Shrimp in the first place but whatever. "Though, you seem to be a koala, right now. Or maybe a toddler."

I nodded my head at her slowly before going back into my curtain of hair.

"Nico and her train for three hours in the middle of the night, so she's very tired and sore." I could feel Percy's deep voice all over myself, since his voice was very booming. "And... I think we might've locked her out last night. She was in Nico's cabin, therefore why we weren't awoken by a sleep lacking Aletha wielding a dagger and freezing both of us to the wall. And she wouldn't be lacking of sleep because of the training, I tell you that."

I parted my hair, and saw Annabeth's prominent blush. Her blonde hair was messier than usual. I smirked at her, sending a classic meme face to her: le derp. She couldn't help but laugh, and Percy tried putting me down, but cling to him viciously. I pulled at his hair, scowling as he jumped around.

"What exactly did you do, Aletha? Hey, Hey, HEY! Get off me!" I scratched at his scalp again before hugging him and trying to sleep again.

This time it worked:

Aletha! Aletha!

Nana? Is that you?

Yes, it is. Oh my goodness! How was yesterday? Your very first kiss with Nico? Hopefully many more to come...

Eww, Nana! I mean it was... unplanned. And unexpected.

Not by you of course. No matter how clumsy you are Aletha, the water wouldn't have tripped you. I did that.

Nana! Why?!

Anything for my newest OTP. Oh, wait till Jin hears this! UWU!

... Nana, I can't believe you sometimes. You're so... teenager-y.

Heheh. I have no regrets. Anyways, I need to tell you, Jin will be training you starting on Sunday. I thought to send you the good news myself. Don't worry about Styx, because I kind of tricked him into hearing your voice.

Okay... wow. How did you- never mind. Okay.

I've got to go now. I'll talk to you later, okay? See you.