"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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0026. | THE WORLD WOULD NEVER STOP HURTING HIM
Vela didn't get a wink of sleep. He had spent the rest of the evening sat on the edge of the window sill of his honeymoon suite and looking out into the city. He was hopeful that maybe he'd see Silena coming back over the horizon on a pegasus with the Ares cabin flocking behind her but he saw nothing for the hours that he sat there.
Instead, he sat watching the sky change colours, drifting from blue to yellow to orange to lilac to black. It might've been beautiful but Vela couldn't focus on it. He usually was a great admirer of all things beautiful, it was why he lov— liked Nico so much. Oh, screw it! He thought. I love him. There was no denying it, not anymore. After a year of knowing the son of Hades, Vela was without a doubt in love with him.
And he missed him too. Seeing him in his dreams wasn't enough and it hurt to think that after being awoken so abruptly, Nico would have woken up on his own without Vela by his side. He missed him so much. He knew the theory behind keeping his distance from Nico, to keep him safe, but Vela wasn't sure if anywhere was safe anymore.
He had tried to reassure himself that he was the safety that Nico needed, but now he wasn't so sure. He had been so arrogant, so ignorant, he had thought that his swim in the Divine Waters and the Styx had made him invincible, completely untouchable. But now Kronos knew the places of his weaknesses. He knew about Nico, and he knew about his eye. Vela was screwed.
He was struggling to stay optimistic. He remembered how he used to be, how hopeful he had been when he was younger that everything would turn out okay in the end. But now he wasn't so sure. Now he had been beaten, and bitten, and scarred, and killed, and betrayed, and resurrected, and poisoned, and burned, and broken, and, and, and—!
Would it ever stop? He wondered. And he felt awful for thinking it but he couldn't help but wonder if it would always hurt this much or if one day, he would wake up and the world would stop hurting him so very, very much.
Evening had fallen and Percy had asked for Vela's company at the Reservoir by the Harlem River. The defence of the campers were satyrs, the Athena cabin, Percy, the Hunters, and Vela. Thalia's scout had seen an army bigger than anything ever seen coming straight for them through the Reservoir. Annabeth decided that Percy and Vela were needed there, so they were.
Vela was fidgeting. He could tell it was irritating Annabeth but still he didn't stop, he couldn't stop. He didn't feel quite so powerful anymore and all he could think about was Nico and Silena, his loved ones who were missing from him. "Vee, could you stop?" Annabeth gritted her teeth, flexing her wounded shoulder that she was adamant about fighting with.
