As Percy Jackson stared at the scowling teen who was pressing him into the cavern wall with a level of force that was sure to leave bruises for days, he couldn’t help but wonder—why did things always turn out like this?
It’s not like Percy wasn’t trying to avoid this sort of thing. He’d more than had his fill of quests and prophecies and annoyance for one lifetime. So then, you ask, why was he in this situation? Hadn’t he had his fill? Look, everyone made a dumb decision or two after a break up, sue him.
It wasn’t like Percy had been expecting a trail of monster remains on his get away to Montauk, or for that trail to lead into a cavern with even more signs of fighting. And it wasn’t like Percy could just leave that be, right? His mom, Paul, and Estelle were all at the cabin, so he was just making sure whatever had run through this place was long gone.
Percy had wandered deeper and deeper into the system of caverns, following the patterns of strewn monster bodies, upturned stone, and claw marks to find the source when, in the largest cavern yet, Percy found a pile of monster corpses stacked to the ceiling. It was, frankly, concerning how many monsters had been in this cave, and Percy couldn’t help wondering how he, or anyone, would have managed against this many monsters without getting overrun—
Which is when Percy heard the sound of ragged breathing.
His first instinct was to raise his sword in the direction of the sound, but there was nothing. Just inky black. Percy frowned, straining his hearing—and he heard it again, from the same spot. His eyes narrowed.
“…Hello?” He called out tentatively, Riptide held aloft to shine its glow over the gloom. Which is when he noticed something. The darkness… wasn’t receding—
Before the thought could fully register, a slim figure shot out of the patch of black, pale skin barely visible in Riptide’s light before—without warning—his sword moved on its own, Percy barely managing to keep it in his grip before he found himself being pressed against a wall by a dark eyed teenager.
“Who?” The boy rasped out—which is about the moment Percy realized the boy was injured.
“I’m Percy,” Percy offered quickly. “And you’re hurt, let me—”
The arm against his chest pressed in painfully, cutting him off.
“Who sent you?!” The boy snarled, dark eyes narrowing threateningly.
“Nobody?” Percy replied, and the boy scoffed, clearly not believing him, the look of derision in his dark eyes eerily familiar.
Actually—Percy thought, letting his eyes take in the boy’s features—a lot of things about him were eerily familiar. The silky dark hair, the wide dark eyes, even the olive tone of his skin felt familiar, if only Percy could place where…
Wait. It couldn’t be. Bianca had sworn—shit, what was his name?
“…Nico?” Percy got his body slammed into the wall for his question—which was either a yes or a no, hard to tell.
“For someone who claims not to have been sent by anyone, you sure don’t act like it, Percy,” the boy—Nico—sneered, voice still raspy. “If that even is your name.”
“It is! Look, your sister told me about you, she’s—”
Riptide ripping itself from Percy’s hand and piercing the wall next to his face stopped him short.
“I don’t have a sister,” Nico said, voice flat. “Now, how about you answer my questions—” Nico paused, body tensing for a moment, before he breathed out and the pile of monster corpses in the center of the room began to move. “—or I kill you, and make your corpse do it for me.”
Of course, Bianca’s long lost little brother would be an amnesiac necromancer. Was it too much to ask for someone else to have to deal with this sort of thing?
Meet-Cute? Nah, Meet-Murder XD. Basic notes on this AU, Nico got accidentally let out of the Lotus during TLT (Yep, Percy’s fault), and thanks to that, has no memory of having family, and has basically been surviving on his own, dodging recruitment and death by monster by the skin of his teeth for years. Percy has his work cut out for him XD
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