Chapter Text
Percy
Percy sighed as he exited the front door of the school building, glad to feel the sunshine on his face, despite the biting cold. He looked around for Nico, who was usually outside before him, but didn’t see him anywhere. Maybe he had stayed late in class to talk to some friends, or to bug the science teacher with questions. Yesterday, Nico had talked almost nonstop about the lesson they had had on the moon landing. To Percy, the science of space just seemed too remote to interest him deeply, but he supposed since Nico had been trapped outside of time for sixtyish years, discovery of this advancement probably rivaled his discovery that the Greek gods were real.
Percy didn’t mind having to wait, he’d spent a lot of time with Nico over the past week and a half. Last Friday they’d gone down to Central Park and on the way back had come across a large pile of stuff, mostly junk - if Percy was being honest - on the sidewalk. Stopping Nico, he decided to look through it. It hadn’t rained or snowed recently, so there was the chance they might find something good.
“Why are you bothering to look through other people’s trash?” Nico had asked.
“Well, you might be surprised what you might find. Sometimes when people are moving, they just can’t take everything with them, and they don’t have time to sell it, so it ends up out here.” Percy left out the number of times he and his mother had found furniture, toys, or other household items on the side of the road, and taken them home… things had been rough for a couple of years.
Percy shifted through the ratty furniture and cardboard boxes with various odds and ends, and picked up a box near the bottom of the pile. He quickly glanced in side, and was glad he did.
“Holy shit, no way! Nico, look at this!”
The smaller boy scampered over, looked in the box, then looked up at Percy in confusion.
“What is it?”
“It’s a Nintendo 64! I had a friend at one of my old schools who had one who I could play it with! My mom could never a-, well she’d never buy me one, but this one looks like it still works! And they left some games in here too!” Percy placed the box down on top of an upturned nightstand, removed the consol, and began placing the game cartridges in his pockets. “I bet they got rid of it because they got a new one, like a Game Cube or something. But hey, even if it doesn’t work, no difference in it being in the garbage here versus at our house, right?”.
Percy probably would have continued rambling on, excited as he was about this find, but he noticed Nico staring into the now mostly emptied box, unmoving. Percy glanced over, curious to see what the kid was looking at. His dyslexia made it difficult to decipher the cursive script labeling the tin that had lain beneath the game consul, but after a few seconds, the writing became clear. Mythomagic. Percy looked back to Nico, whose face was like stone, impassive and inscrutable.
“You can take them, you know. If you want them,” the older boy said quietly.
“It’s… a stupid game. For stupid kids,” Nico replied, just as quietly, only the faintest tremor in his voice.
Percy laughed lightly. “I know we are demigods, fighting monsters, and saving the world all the time. But that doesn’t mean you don’t get to be a kid sometimes too.”
“I thought you found this game annoying,” shot back Nico, covering up whatever emotions the sight of those cards had insighted with a light jab.
“Uh, excuses you, I never said that.”
“Well maybe I could tell. You aren’t that great of an actor,” said Nico snarkily.
“Ha! Whatever Neeks, but incase this Nintendo doesn’t work, we’ll need something to do this weekend,” replied Percy, pocketing the tin of cards. Together, they hurried home to test out their new tressures.
To both boy’s great joy, the Nintendo 64 did still work, and a few of the games did as well. They spent the entire weekend playing Mario Kart, laughing and trash talking each other’s driving skills. They even got Sally to join in on a few games, until they got tired of losing to her. Nico didn’t offer to teach Percy the rules of Mythomagic, but Percy saw him flipping through the cards when he thought he wasn’t looking.
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The son of Poseidon decided to walk around the courtyard that lay between the two main school buildings and the small gym, restless as he waited for Nico. Despite the cold, a fair number of middle schoolers also occupied the concrete court, some playing basketball, some huddled together in groups talking with their heads close together. It wasn’t until his second lap around courtyard that Percy saw a group of kids standing in a knot behind the bleachers. He slowed as he walked past them, he couldn’t see their faces, but their voices did not sound friendly. He was familiar with bullies, having been a preferred victim over the years, and he wasn’t about to let it happen to some other poor kid in front of him without doing anything. A part of his brain knew that he should grab a teacher - the part that didn’t want to get expelled from yet another school. And he might have, had Percy not caught sight of the kid who was getting pushed around - Nico.
Something flared hot and red in Percy’s chest; he wasn’t thinking- everything was burning, red emotion. Next thing he knew he was standing chest to chest with the tallest, ugliest looking bully in the circle that had been pushing Nico around.
“And what do you think you are doing here, shit face?” was the next thing Percy was cognizant of saying.
The tall 8th grader only laughed. “Oh look, Jackson here has come to defend wittle waby Nico! How noble….!” His voice dripped with sarcasm as he made a sympathetic face. “To bad he can’t do anything about it!”
On the last word, the boy pushed Percy firmly in the chest. Had he not had years of training from Chiron on how to stand while confronting an enemy, Percy would have been bowed over into the boys behind him. As it was, the jab had little effect.
Brushing off his jacket Percy replied, “Oh, I highly doubt there’s nothing I can do about it. Unless that’s to many negatives for your pea sized brain.” Stepping forward in to the bully’s space, Percy repeated emphatically, “There is something, I can FUCKING do about it!”
It would have come to blows; Percy knew it, the bully knew it, everyone watching knew it, had not the algebra teacher stepped in.
She separated all the boys involved (why was it only the boys?) and called over additional teachers to give them a talking to. Unfortunately. Percy had the misfortune of talking to the Vice Principal.
“You know that ANY type of fighting is UNACEPTABLE, CORRECT?” the Vice Principal grilled him.
“Yes but-,”
“So you know we are going to have to contact your parents?”
“But nothing happened!” Percy protested. “Ms. Gonzalez, the math teacher, came out here before they could-”,
“Tu-tut.” Interrupted the vice principal. “Before YOU could, its sounding like, Mr. Jackson.”
“I wasn’t going to start a fight!” continued Percy. “They were pushing around Nico! They are so much bigger than him, it’s no surprise that you all couldn’t see it, he’s so much smaller than them…”
“Shut it!” said the administrator, “Unless you want to add this incident to the long list of disciplinary problems I know you have, Mr. Jackson”
Percy bit his tongue, literally, to stop from speaking the retort he that flashed to the top of his mind. The pain reminded him of the stakes that were at play.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Varillano” he said demurely, looking down. “I know I should have alerted Ms. Gonzalez earlier, but… I just wasn’t thinking…”
“I’m sure you weren’t!” exclaimed the VP. “You are all lucky Ms. Gonzalez got involved when she did. Otherwise, your mother, Nico’s aunt, would be down here to hear about the ruckus you had been causing, understood?”
Percy only nodded, looking down. He was aware of the behavior expected from him, no matter how much it chaffed him to perform it.
“We will send a note home with both you and Nico today, and expect a reply from her tomorrow, understood?”
Again, Percy nodded with a “yes ma’am”, while looking emphatically at the ground. Luckly it seemed to appease the aggravated vice principal, and she let Percy and Nico walk home soon after.
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“I didn’t NEED your help!” shot Nico at Percy, once they had walked over a block from the school.
“Oh yeah? Could have fooled me, it being, six against one and all,” shot back Percy, still peeved from his interaction with the vice principal. “Anyway, its not about that,” continued Percy, under his breath.
Unfortunately, Nico’s sharp ears heard what he said, and the small black haired demigod pivoted, placing himself firmly in front of Percy. “Oh yeah, what’s it about then, oh mighty son of Poseidon?!? You don’t think I’m strong enough to defend myself?!? That this common, unclaimed demigod, needs you to protect him?!?”
“It’s about you not causing any more problems!” yelled Percy, surprised by the forcefulness at which the words left his lips. “I already cause enough problems for my mom! A new school every year, I don’t need You to do the same thing! You are supposed to be the good kid! I’m the kid that’s good for nothing. I’m the problem child! We can’t both be that!” Percy didn’t know where all these words were coming from, spilling out of him on the corner of 80th street and Madison. But it just kept coming.
“I want to be a good kid! But I’m not, every school, every year, I cause problems. I get in fights. I hate bullies! And what does that mean? I’m out on my ass to a new school every fall. But that can’t be you, okay? My mom already has a big enough problem to deal with!!!”
They walked in silence the rest of the way home. When they reached the apartment, Percy made sure he was first to the bedroom, and slammed the door behind him. A cruel thing to do, he knew, but he couldn’t deal with anything more that day. He just needed to be alone
He lay face down on the bed and yelled into the pillows, stupid bullies, stupid teachers, stupid stupid stupid why couldn’t anyone be on his side for once?!? But he knew it was all hopeless. Slowly the anger drained from his body, leaving him feeling tiered and drained. With a sigh that could challenge the wind gods Hermes had trapped in the thermos, Percy opened the door, letting Nico back into their room.