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greenconversesTitle: Death's Dare
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Rachel/Nico, with appearances from the rest of the cast and the gods
Summary: After an attempt on her life, Apollo decides Rachel needs a bodyguard and who better to take the job than a certain son of Hades? Too bad they're not going to make things easy for each other, especially when it comes to their feelings.
Notes: Meh. The title of this chapter should be "melodramatic" but I think that's just the reflection of my dissatisfaction with it. Sorry for the shorteness, but the fun stuff happens in the next couple of chapters.
Chapter 11: Worth
“So, this kissing thing. A fairly recent development between you two, I guess?”
One thing Percy had apparently never learned while at Camp Half-Blood was how to hide his emotions from people. It was a widely known fact among fellow demigods that he proudly wore his heart on his sleeve and was sometimes easier to read than a picture book, especially when he was angry.
Nico didn't know why he was bothering to try and hide his emotions now. He knew the other man was mad; he wouldn’t have dragged him out on a terrace for a private talk if he wasn’t.
“Um, about a week?” Nico replied, leaning against the terrace railing casually. He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to ward off the chill that the cool night air brought in.
“A week,” Percy repeated slowly, his green eyes narrowing. “You mean after we talked about you not getting involved with Rachel on any sort of personal level because it would be really really bad and stupid, you decided that it was all right to go ahead and do it anyway?”
“Actually, she's the one who kissed me,” he clarified, and winced as soon as the words came out of his mouth, realizing that it was not going to help his case with Percy any. “I mean, we both sort of – ”
“I don't care which one of you started it. It shouldn't have happened in the first place. You knew Rachel was off-limits going into this, and I know we joked about sexual tension and shit, but I didn't think you'd actually...” Percy trailed off, his anger momentarily getting the better of him. “There are hundreds of thousands of women in this city, and you had to go and pick the one girl who isn't available. What was so hard about staying away from her?”
Nico's hands balled into fists, his own temper being stoked by Percy's words.
Of course Percy wouldn't understand what it was like to be faced with this sort of dilemma. It was easy for him to preach about limits and staying away from up on his righteous pedestal. The older man had Annabeth – he'd always had Annabeth, and he'd never been faced with a moment where he had truly been forbidden to be with her. Athena's disapproval was nothing compared to what Nico had faced with his involvement with Rachel.
Percy had always had everything, and Nico had absolutely nothing because the boy in front of him had taken it all away when he had let Bianca –
Nico derailed that train of thought as soon as it started. He wasn't going to go there, not right now. Perhaps a small, vicious part of him that had never completely forgiven Percy for his role in his sister's death, but that had no part in the discussion they were having now and it wouldn't be fair to bring it up.
“You wouldn't understand,” Nico sighed. “It wasn't like I didn't try to keep away from her. I just... couldn't.”
That was true, to an extent. There had been a certain inevitability about everything that had happened between them. He had been pulled toward Rachel the moment he'd walked into her life, and Nico doubted that they would've been able to avoid it even if they had wanted to.
“Then you weren't trying hard enough,” Percy snapped, set in his stubborn mood. “Your job is to protect Rachel, and pulling this sort of shit is just going to hurt her, in more ways than one. Not to mention you're just going to cause problems with the gods if they find out that you've been breaking vows.”
Nico betrayed no emotion at this, though his silence seemed to tell Percy more than any sort of denial could've done. Percy's green eyes went wide for the second time tonight, and he stepped closer to Nico, hissing, “Nico, tell me they didn't – ”
“Look, do you really think I wanted it to be like this?” he asked, drawing himself up to his full height. He was past the days of letting Percy intimidate him. “I never really thought anything would come of it, that Rachel would actually feel the same way. If I had known how much trouble it'd get me in, I'd have never kissed her in the first place. I was looking for some difficult relationship, and it certainly wasn't worth it to – to – ”
It wasn't worth it to get attached to her, develop somewhat significant feelings, and then have to back away for good so soon, not when he was already hurting and he knew Rachel would be too. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Rachel.
That's what Nico wanted to tell him, but he found himself trailing off in frustration. Percy would never believe him if he told him the true extent of his feelings for Rachel; the other boy already had it in his head that he'd only gone after her as some interesting challenge. If he already thought so little of him, nothing Nico said otherwise was going to change it.
And Nico never got a chance to say otherwise, for in the next moment another voice spoke up, one he didn't particularly want to hear at this moment.
“Wasn't worth it to what, Nico?” Rachel asked from behind, her voice frigid.
At any other time, it would have been comical how fast his and Percy's heads whipped around to stare at Rachel as she stepped out onto the terrace, not bothering to shut the behind her. But there was little humor to be found in this moment, and certainly not when Rachel was looking at the two of them with betrayal in her eyes.
“Sorry, Rachel, we're just – ” Percy began, stepping forward but Rachel cut him off with a glare and he stepped back immediately.
“I know what you were doing, Percy, and I don't like it one bit. I can't believe I'm saying this to you of all people, but you have absolutely no right to talk about or make judgments about my life or my relationships without my consent,” she said cuttingly, pulling herself up to her full height. “Just because we kissed once doesn't mean you get to act like an overbearing ex-boyfriend when you've found out I've moved on. I understand that you're concerned about me, but this is absolutely none of your business so kindly butt out.”
Percy looked properly cowed by this, but Nico had no time to be pleased by the hero being taken down a peg for Rachel's eyes had slid over to him and she didn't look happy. She didn't even look angry, just defeated, and that was probably the worst thing about it all.
“And you – ”
Rachel's composure crumpled briefly, her lower lip trembling as she stared at him. She took a deep breath to steady herself and something in Nico's chest contorted painfully. He knew what was coming, and he could do nothing to stop it.
“The only reason I even thought about breaking my vow as the Oracle was because I thought it was – that you were worth it,” she said slowly. “But if all you're ever going to do is back down whenever you're confronted for it, and act like none of it matters to you... I guess I was wrong.”
Rachel met his gaze, clearly hoping for him to say something to deny what she had said, to tell her that she hadn’t heard him right and that everything he had said to Percy was all just a misunderstanding.
And as much as Nico wanted to, he couldn’t. The letter from his father was burning a hole in his back pocket and Percy’s gaze was boring a hole in the side of his head, both of them reminding him that there was nothing he could do to change this. The end would have come for them regardless.
If he’d had the choice, he wouldn’t have ended it like this though. Not with an audience, and certainly not by deliberately hurting Rachel like this. She deserved better than this.
She deserved better than him.
“I guess you were,” Nico replied with a careless shrug.
Rachel exhaled sharply, and the line of her body went rigid. He met her gaze for half a second, long enough to see the miserable disappointment flash across her face, before he looked away, focusing at a point over her shoulder.
“Fine,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “Fine. Have it your way.”
She whirled on her heel and moved back into the apartment, slamming the door shut behind her with as much force as she could muster.
“Happy now?” he asked Percy, bitterness infusing his tone as he watched her disappear around the corner and he heard the echoing slam of her bedroom door a few moments later.
Beside him, Percy heaved a deep sigh. He couldn't bear to look at the other man, not when he had gotten his way yet again, and Nico was once again left with nothing.
“No,” Percy said softly. “Not really.”
Nico made a derisive noise under his breath.
“You can show yourself out,” he said, and folded himself into the darkness.
*
Over the next three days, the punching bag in Rachel's in home gym got quite the workout, as did the dart board in her bedroom as she worked through her anger about what happened with Nico Friday night. She'd tossed around quite a few old canvases around her studio for good measure too, especially when she knew he'd be listening so he'd understand that she wasn't anywhere close to forgiving him for what he had done.
Rachel didn't believe any of that nonsense about redheads having a naturally fierce temper – her temper had been perfectly normal before she had started spending her time with stupid, manipulative, asshole demigods.
Nico had lied to her.
He had to have, because no one – not even the supposedly soulless children of Hades – could do such a 180 degree turn with their feelings in a matter of minutes like he had. She'd felt the emotion in Nico's kiss, seen it in his eyes before he had disappeared with Percy out on the terrace. No one could fake that depth and sincerity, and certainly not a terrible actor like Nico.
Oh, he'd had her fooled for a couple hours. It had been easy to get caught up in the moment, to let herself get carried away with hurt and betrayal over what she had heard, but after she had finished listening to all the mopy country songs on her mp3 player (hey, a girl was allowed to have a lapse in musical judgment after having her heart crushed, okay) and wallowing in her misery, Rachel'd had her realization.
For some ungodly reason, Nico had lied to her to get her to stay away from him, and it was his lack of honesty that pissed her off most of all. If he was doing this for her protection or some other macho bullshit, she was going to kick his skinny ass all the way up and down Fifth Avenue. Protecting someone wasn't about keeping them in the dark, and Rachel needed to know what was going on.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Nico was content to play his stupid game and keep her in the dark. He'd spent most of the weekend avoiding her, except when they needed to leave the apartment and then they'd only engaged in the bare minimum of conversation. He wasn't acting nice or mean or anything at all, really. He was just there, lurking in the background, like the proper bodyguard he should have been the entire time.
Well, Rachel had never wanted a proper bodyguard in the first place. She wanted her impulsive, obnoxious son of Hades back, and she was only going to get him by finding out what had turned him away from her in the first place.
And if Nico wasn't going to tell her, she knew just the immortal who would.
*
Rachel noticed Nico hovering out of the corner of her eye as she put the final touches to a drawing on her sketchpad, but she didn't acknowledge his presence until he cleared his throat moments later.
“Yeah?” she said, trying to sound disinterested. She swiped a piece of hair out of her eyes, and sat back in her chair.
“I've got to make a trip to Athena's Library. They finished the research for me over the weekend and Malcom just IM'd me about it,” Nico replied, his eyes focused on a point somewhere over her shoulder. “I probably won't be gone for more than a hour so, um. Don't leave the building, okay?”
Rachel crossed her fingers behind her back. “Sure, no problem. Not like I've got anywhere to go anyway.”
Nico's gaze turned suspicious at her tone, but Rachel turned back to her sketch pad, tracing and retracing lines and shapes until she heard him pull on his leather jacket and walk toward the door. She kept up the pretense of being a good little girl just until she heard the distant ding of the closing elevator doors, and then she slammed her sketchpad shut, and quickly rose from her chair.
She hadn't expected to be left alone so soon like this, otherwise she would've been slightly more prepared to get up and go. An hour didn't give her much time, and traffic was probably going to be a bitch and a half since it was early evening, especially in Midtown, but at least she'd be able to get to her destination in time without Nico trying to stop her. And once she was there, he really couldn't do anything to interfere anyway.
As she hurried to the hall closet to slip on her flats and a light jacket, a flash of white on her carpet caught her eye and she paused. Lying on the floor by the end table was a piece of paper – an envelope, actually, with a broken black seal on the back. It must've fallen out of Nico's jacket pocket on his way out, she figured, because it hadn't been there when she'd come back from class today.
Rachel bent down to pick it up, and once she had it in hand, she realized she knew who that seal had belonged to – she'd received a similar envelope like this when she had been called to have lunch with Hades and Apollo last month. The note inside was written in Hades's familiar scrawl too, although this time it was written in Ancient Greek. She did recognize one word on it though – Apollo.
Was this what had spurred his strange behavior on Friday? A stupid little note from his father?
Frowning, Rachel pocketed the letter and grabbed her keys, more determined than ever to get an explanation. She paused at the hall table to write Nico a note of her own, just in case he got back before her and wouldn't jump to the wrong conclusion.
Sorry, had to make a quick run to Apollo's temple. Don't wait up for me.
She pinned the note where she knew he'd see it, and hurried out the door.
*
On the shadows of the roof of the high rise across the street, a solitary figure watched with dark amusement as the Dare heiress burst out of her apartment building and frantically flagged down a passing taxicab.
He pulled a cell phone from the pocket of his jacket as her red head disappeared inside the yellow body of the car, and dialed the number as he had been instructed. The other end picked up after two rings.
“Yes?”
“Our Oracle is out and about, sans her obnoxious little shadow,” he reported casually, as if he was remarking on the weather. “Shall we make our move tonight?”
There was a pause, and then the voice on the other end said, “Yes. As of now, consider Operation Cassandra a go. We'll have everything ready for you when you arrive.”
The figure snapped the phone shut at this, and leaned over the edge of the building, watching as the vehicle that held his prey disappeared down the avenue.
“I'll be seeing you soon, Rachel Elizabeth Dare,” he said, a malicious grin alighting on his face. “Very soon indeed.”
Next
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Rachel/Nico, with appearances from the rest of the cast and the gods
Summary: After an attempt on her life, Apollo decides Rachel needs a bodyguard and who better to take the job than a certain son of Hades? Too bad they're not going to make things easy for each other, especially when it comes to their feelings.
Notes: Meh. The title of this chapter should be "melodramatic" but I think that's just the reflection of my dissatisfaction with it. Sorry for the shorteness, but the fun stuff happens in the next couple of chapters.
“So, this kissing thing. A fairly recent development between you two, I guess?”
One thing Percy had apparently never learned while at Camp Half-Blood was how to hide his emotions from people. It was a widely known fact among fellow demigods that he proudly wore his heart on his sleeve and was sometimes easier to read than a picture book, especially when he was angry.
Nico didn't know why he was bothering to try and hide his emotions now. He knew the other man was mad; he wouldn’t have dragged him out on a terrace for a private talk if he wasn’t.
“Um, about a week?” Nico replied, leaning against the terrace railing casually. He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to ward off the chill that the cool night air brought in.
“A week,” Percy repeated slowly, his green eyes narrowing. “You mean after we talked about you not getting involved with Rachel on any sort of personal level because it would be really really bad and stupid, you decided that it was all right to go ahead and do it anyway?”
“Actually, she's the one who kissed me,” he clarified, and winced as soon as the words came out of his mouth, realizing that it was not going to help his case with Percy any. “I mean, we both sort of – ”
“I don't care which one of you started it. It shouldn't have happened in the first place. You knew Rachel was off-limits going into this, and I know we joked about sexual tension and shit, but I didn't think you'd actually...” Percy trailed off, his anger momentarily getting the better of him. “There are hundreds of thousands of women in this city, and you had to go and pick the one girl who isn't available. What was so hard about staying away from her?”
Nico's hands balled into fists, his own temper being stoked by Percy's words.
Of course Percy wouldn't understand what it was like to be faced with this sort of dilemma. It was easy for him to preach about limits and staying away from up on his righteous pedestal. The older man had Annabeth – he'd always had Annabeth, and he'd never been faced with a moment where he had truly been forbidden to be with her. Athena's disapproval was nothing compared to what Nico had faced with his involvement with Rachel.
Percy had always had everything, and Nico had absolutely nothing because the boy in front of him had taken it all away when he had let Bianca –
Nico derailed that train of thought as soon as it started. He wasn't going to go there, not right now. Perhaps a small, vicious part of him that had never completely forgiven Percy for his role in his sister's death, but that had no part in the discussion they were having now and it wouldn't be fair to bring it up.
“You wouldn't understand,” Nico sighed. “It wasn't like I didn't try to keep away from her. I just... couldn't.”
That was true, to an extent. There had been a certain inevitability about everything that had happened between them. He had been pulled toward Rachel the moment he'd walked into her life, and Nico doubted that they would've been able to avoid it even if they had wanted to.
“Then you weren't trying hard enough,” Percy snapped, set in his stubborn mood. “Your job is to protect Rachel, and pulling this sort of shit is just going to hurt her, in more ways than one. Not to mention you're just going to cause problems with the gods if they find out that you've been breaking vows.”
Nico betrayed no emotion at this, though his silence seemed to tell Percy more than any sort of denial could've done. Percy's green eyes went wide for the second time tonight, and he stepped closer to Nico, hissing, “Nico, tell me they didn't – ”
“Look, do you really think I wanted it to be like this?” he asked, drawing himself up to his full height. He was past the days of letting Percy intimidate him. “I never really thought anything would come of it, that Rachel would actually feel the same way. If I had known how much trouble it'd get me in, I'd have never kissed her in the first place. I was looking for some difficult relationship, and it certainly wasn't worth it to – to – ”
It wasn't worth it to get attached to her, develop somewhat significant feelings, and then have to back away for good so soon, not when he was already hurting and he knew Rachel would be too. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Rachel.
That's what Nico wanted to tell him, but he found himself trailing off in frustration. Percy would never believe him if he told him the true extent of his feelings for Rachel; the other boy already had it in his head that he'd only gone after her as some interesting challenge. If he already thought so little of him, nothing Nico said otherwise was going to change it.
And Nico never got a chance to say otherwise, for in the next moment another voice spoke up, one he didn't particularly want to hear at this moment.
“Wasn't worth it to what, Nico?” Rachel asked from behind, her voice frigid.
At any other time, it would have been comical how fast his and Percy's heads whipped around to stare at Rachel as she stepped out onto the terrace, not bothering to shut the behind her. But there was little humor to be found in this moment, and certainly not when Rachel was looking at the two of them with betrayal in her eyes.
“Sorry, Rachel, we're just – ” Percy began, stepping forward but Rachel cut him off with a glare and he stepped back immediately.
“I know what you were doing, Percy, and I don't like it one bit. I can't believe I'm saying this to you of all people, but you have absolutely no right to talk about or make judgments about my life or my relationships without my consent,” she said cuttingly, pulling herself up to her full height. “Just because we kissed once doesn't mean you get to act like an overbearing ex-boyfriend when you've found out I've moved on. I understand that you're concerned about me, but this is absolutely none of your business so kindly butt out.”
Percy looked properly cowed by this, but Nico had no time to be pleased by the hero being taken down a peg for Rachel's eyes had slid over to him and she didn't look happy. She didn't even look angry, just defeated, and that was probably the worst thing about it all.
“And you – ”
Rachel's composure crumpled briefly, her lower lip trembling as she stared at him. She took a deep breath to steady herself and something in Nico's chest contorted painfully. He knew what was coming, and he could do nothing to stop it.
“The only reason I even thought about breaking my vow as the Oracle was because I thought it was – that you were worth it,” she said slowly. “But if all you're ever going to do is back down whenever you're confronted for it, and act like none of it matters to you... I guess I was wrong.”
Rachel met his gaze, clearly hoping for him to say something to deny what she had said, to tell her that she hadn’t heard him right and that everything he had said to Percy was all just a misunderstanding.
And as much as Nico wanted to, he couldn’t. The letter from his father was burning a hole in his back pocket and Percy’s gaze was boring a hole in the side of his head, both of them reminding him that there was nothing he could do to change this. The end would have come for them regardless.
If he’d had the choice, he wouldn’t have ended it like this though. Not with an audience, and certainly not by deliberately hurting Rachel like this. She deserved better than this.
She deserved better than him.
“I guess you were,” Nico replied with a careless shrug.
Rachel exhaled sharply, and the line of her body went rigid. He met her gaze for half a second, long enough to see the miserable disappointment flash across her face, before he looked away, focusing at a point over her shoulder.
“Fine,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “Fine. Have it your way.”
She whirled on her heel and moved back into the apartment, slamming the door shut behind her with as much force as she could muster.
“Happy now?” he asked Percy, bitterness infusing his tone as he watched her disappear around the corner and he heard the echoing slam of her bedroom door a few moments later.
Beside him, Percy heaved a deep sigh. He couldn't bear to look at the other man, not when he had gotten his way yet again, and Nico was once again left with nothing.
“No,” Percy said softly. “Not really.”
Nico made a derisive noise under his breath.
“You can show yourself out,” he said, and folded himself into the darkness.
*
Over the next three days, the punching bag in Rachel's in home gym got quite the workout, as did the dart board in her bedroom as she worked through her anger about what happened with Nico Friday night. She'd tossed around quite a few old canvases around her studio for good measure too, especially when she knew he'd be listening so he'd understand that she wasn't anywhere close to forgiving him for what he had done.
Rachel didn't believe any of that nonsense about redheads having a naturally fierce temper – her temper had been perfectly normal before she had started spending her time with stupid, manipulative, asshole demigods.
Nico had lied to her.
He had to have, because no one – not even the supposedly soulless children of Hades – could do such a 180 degree turn with their feelings in a matter of minutes like he had. She'd felt the emotion in Nico's kiss, seen it in his eyes before he had disappeared with Percy out on the terrace. No one could fake that depth and sincerity, and certainly not a terrible actor like Nico.
Oh, he'd had her fooled for a couple hours. It had been easy to get caught up in the moment, to let herself get carried away with hurt and betrayal over what she had heard, but after she had finished listening to all the mopy country songs on her mp3 player (hey, a girl was allowed to have a lapse in musical judgment after having her heart crushed, okay) and wallowing in her misery, Rachel'd had her realization.
For some ungodly reason, Nico had lied to her to get her to stay away from him, and it was his lack of honesty that pissed her off most of all. If he was doing this for her protection or some other macho bullshit, she was going to kick his skinny ass all the way up and down Fifth Avenue. Protecting someone wasn't about keeping them in the dark, and Rachel needed to know what was going on.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Nico was content to play his stupid game and keep her in the dark. He'd spent most of the weekend avoiding her, except when they needed to leave the apartment and then they'd only engaged in the bare minimum of conversation. He wasn't acting nice or mean or anything at all, really. He was just there, lurking in the background, like the proper bodyguard he should have been the entire time.
Well, Rachel had never wanted a proper bodyguard in the first place. She wanted her impulsive, obnoxious son of Hades back, and she was only going to get him by finding out what had turned him away from her in the first place.
And if Nico wasn't going to tell her, she knew just the immortal who would.
*
Rachel noticed Nico hovering out of the corner of her eye as she put the final touches to a drawing on her sketchpad, but she didn't acknowledge his presence until he cleared his throat moments later.
“Yeah?” she said, trying to sound disinterested. She swiped a piece of hair out of her eyes, and sat back in her chair.
“I've got to make a trip to Athena's Library. They finished the research for me over the weekend and Malcom just IM'd me about it,” Nico replied, his eyes focused on a point somewhere over her shoulder. “I probably won't be gone for more than a hour so, um. Don't leave the building, okay?”
Rachel crossed her fingers behind her back. “Sure, no problem. Not like I've got anywhere to go anyway.”
Nico's gaze turned suspicious at her tone, but Rachel turned back to her sketch pad, tracing and retracing lines and shapes until she heard him pull on his leather jacket and walk toward the door. She kept up the pretense of being a good little girl just until she heard the distant ding of the closing elevator doors, and then she slammed her sketchpad shut, and quickly rose from her chair.
She hadn't expected to be left alone so soon like this, otherwise she would've been slightly more prepared to get up and go. An hour didn't give her much time, and traffic was probably going to be a bitch and a half since it was early evening, especially in Midtown, but at least she'd be able to get to her destination in time without Nico trying to stop her. And once she was there, he really couldn't do anything to interfere anyway.
As she hurried to the hall closet to slip on her flats and a light jacket, a flash of white on her carpet caught her eye and she paused. Lying on the floor by the end table was a piece of paper – an envelope, actually, with a broken black seal on the back. It must've fallen out of Nico's jacket pocket on his way out, she figured, because it hadn't been there when she'd come back from class today.
Rachel bent down to pick it up, and once she had it in hand, she realized she knew who that seal had belonged to – she'd received a similar envelope like this when she had been called to have lunch with Hades and Apollo last month. The note inside was written in Hades's familiar scrawl too, although this time it was written in Ancient Greek. She did recognize one word on it though – Apollo.
Was this what had spurred his strange behavior on Friday? A stupid little note from his father?
Frowning, Rachel pocketed the letter and grabbed her keys, more determined than ever to get an explanation. She paused at the hall table to write Nico a note of her own, just in case he got back before her and wouldn't jump to the wrong conclusion.
Sorry, had to make a quick run to Apollo's temple. Don't wait up for me.
She pinned the note where she knew he'd see it, and hurried out the door.
*
On the shadows of the roof of the high rise across the street, a solitary figure watched with dark amusement as the Dare heiress burst out of her apartment building and frantically flagged down a passing taxicab.
He pulled a cell phone from the pocket of his jacket as her red head disappeared inside the yellow body of the car, and dialed the number as he had been instructed. The other end picked up after two rings.
“Yes?”
“Our Oracle is out and about, sans her obnoxious little shadow,” he reported casually, as if he was remarking on the weather. “Shall we make our move tonight?”
There was a pause, and then the voice on the other end said, “Yes. As of now, consider Operation Cassandra a go. We'll have everything ready for you when you arrive.”
The figure snapped the phone shut at this, and leaned over the edge of the building, watching as the vehicle that held his prey disappeared down the avenue.
“I'll be seeing you soon, Rachel Elizabeth Dare,” he said, a malicious grin alighting on his face. “Very soon indeed.”
Next
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 03:35 am (UTC)lol
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 04:32 am (UTC)Well then...ahh...I'm just gonna go look in your archive, then...
*is sheepish*
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 01:44 pm (UTC)Oh Nico. Seriously the boy broke my heart this chapter especially with this Of course Percy wouldn't understand what it was like to be faced with this sort of dilemma. It was easy for him to preach about limits and staying away from up on his righteous pedestal. The older man had Annabeth – he'd always had Annabeth, and he'd never been faced with a moment where he had truly been forbidden to be with her. Athena's disapproval was nothing compared to what Nico had faced with his involvement with Rachel.
Percy had always had everything, and Nico had absolutely nothing because the boy in front of him had taken it all away when he had let Bianca –
Oh Nico it's okay.
And then Rachel was great here. I love love love that she knows him and knows he was lying. And her dressing down to Percy (which he deserved but he felt sooo bad about it.) was great.
So excited to see who is watching Rachel, what she finds out(does this mean more Apollo?!) and if Nico comes to his senses anytime soon.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 09:07 pm (UTC)And yes, it does mean more Apollo. ;) Thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 08:38 pm (UTC)But you didnt, so YAY. :D
This part made me laugh, for some reason:
...but after she had finished listening to all the mopy country songs on her mp3 player (hey, a girl was allowed to have a lapse in musical judgment after having her heart crushed, okay)
So, yeah. In other words awesome chapter, I am eagerly awaiting the next one.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 12:19 am (UTC)I was initially quite angry with Percy (which has never happened before), but this part absolved him in my mind, at least a bit:
Beside him, Percy heaved a deep sigh. He couldn't bear to look at the other man, not when he had gotten his way yet again, and Nico was once again left with nothing.
“No,” Percy said softly. “Not really.”
Thank god Rahcel figured out the lie. Looking forward to the next chapter!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-26 07:26 am (UTC)Oh, and a belated very happy birthday to you! :D
no subject
Date: 2010-05-29 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 09:22 pm (UTC)Brb, heart breaking.
BUT OMFG WOMAN, YOU KNOW HOW TO DO CLIFFHANGERS.
ILY :Dno subject
Date: 2011-05-04 07:42 am (UTC)Incidentally, I think Apollo looks like this:
Just leaving you some godly eye-candy.