"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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0029. | THE DESERVED HONOUR AND RESPECT
"Vela?"
Vela had spent millenniums admiring the love of a mother to her child. And he had also spent years understanding it himself. He had been in the presence of burning solar eclipses and felt the fires of the dead on their pyres and the basking flames of the burning of Alexandria. But nothing—nothing—could compare the the sheer warmth Vela felt at the sound of his mother calling his name.
Her face betrayed everything her voice didn't. The tears of worry for his battered body and missing eye; the plastered look of shock to see him alive after she was so sure Typhon had killed him; the pure, unadulterated joy she expressed at seeing her son alive; and that immediate pride to see her child—a child of Aphrodite—standing over the dead body of Kronos.
"Mum?" his voice croaked horribly as the other Olympians swarmed the scene, but only Vela and his mother stood still, staring at each other.
Vela felt a tear slip from his seeing eye just as Aphrodite fell into a graceful run. Her sandals slapped against the marble stone floor as she raced over to her son and Vela let out a muffled sob when his mother gathered him into her arms. She had shrunk from three meters tall to a human height, and though Vela was physically taller than her by a long shot, he felt small in her arms.
She stroked her fingers through his hair, letting him bury his head in her shoulder as she whispered comfort to him as only a mother could. "It's okay, my love. It's over." She promised. "You're safe."
Vela cried harder, staining her lilac chiton to a darker hue from his tears but she never let him go. She just held him tighter, repeating "You're safe." to him so many times that he knew it was no longer for his sake. She was repeating to herself that he was safe, her son who she thought had been destroyed was safe in her arms; wounded yes, but safe.
Vela wasn't sure how long they stood like that until they were interrupted. Vela lifted his head to see the Three Fates themselves carrying off Luke's body, covered in a white and green shroud. Ares had made his way over to the mother and son, blocking Vela's final view of the son of Hermes.
Ares clapped Vela on the back, a bright grin on his face as if to say 'I call the kid who gave Luke Castellan the knife son'. But the proud slap was too hard on Vela's wounded body and he gasped with the shock of the pain and collapsed to his knees, hissing.
"Vela!" His mother cried, sinking to her knees beside him, immediately cradling his pained body.
Ares stood almost awkwardly beside the mother and son, a guilty look on his face for underestimating his strength. He sort of kneeled beside Vela too, helping him sit up but was scorned by the burning heat of Vela's back. Aphrodite picked up his shirt from the back, lifting it to reveal a trail of horrific bruising all across his shoulders and spine.
