Chapter Text
..There was a knock at the door and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red from the cold.
He was smiling, but he looked around anxiously, "Hey! Where's... Where's my sister?"..
Percy was just about to explain that she had wandered off to find the bathroom, when Bianca came back into the room, wiping her hands on her pants. She grinned at her little brother and opened her arms for a hug, which Nico gladly ran into. Percy's heart warmed at the sight of Nico throwing his arms around his big sister and grinning like a madman. Tears were sparkling in his dark eyes and he looked at Percy over Bianca's shoulder. It was hard not to smile back at him.
When Bianca pulled back, she shoved her hand into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out the figurine she had collected for Nico, and gave it to him.
"Look what I found, Nico." she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
"Sweet!" Nico took it, admiring it with sparkling eyes and pumped a fist in the air, "Now my collections complete!"
Bianca ruffled his hair and he took a seat beside Percy, fiddling with the statue. Bianca took a seat beside him, and he ignored everything around him, except for his sister (which he was leaning on) and his toy.
Later that night, after the meeting in the big house, Nico caught up with Percy outside.
"Percy!" He called as he ran after him, and Percy stopped and turned around.
"Hey, Nico, what's up?"
Stopping in his tracks, Nico blurted out, "You kept your promise." And he looked on the verge of tears. His grin was so wide, Percy thought it might break his face.
Then he took Percy by surprise and surged forward, throwing his arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Percy laughed and hugged him back, arms tight around his waist. This kid was just the epitome of innocence.
"Thank you." he whispered against Percy's collarbone, "Thank you so much."
After Nico pulled away from, he waved and ran off to the Hermes cabin and Percy knows he'll never do anything that will top saving Bianca.
~~~
The day the Hunter's left, Percy had to drag Nico to say good bye to his sister.
It wasn't that he didn't care. It was more like, he was pissed that his sister was leaving him and didn't want to say goodbye because he didn't want her to leave. His mind set seemed to be, if I don't say goodbye, she won't (can't) leave.
So, Percy grabbed him around the waist, picked him up, kicking and screaming, and carried him across the field to Bianca di Angelo. The kid was almost too light, carrying him was no task. It was the kicking that made it difficult.
Percy set him down onto the ground in front of his sister, and took a step back.
Bianca instantly pulled Nico into a lingering hug, then leant down a bit to his eye level.
"Now, you listen to me, mister." She mumbled quietly, with a small smile and tears in her eyes, "I love you a lot. And I will come and visit you as much as I can. But this will be good for me. And you'll have a family here, too." She glanced over Nico's shoulder, at Percy and her smile grew, "Percy will be your family, okay? And Grover. And everyone else. You'll love it here."
Even though Percy couldn't see his face, he knew there were tears in Nico's eyes, too, "I'm gonna miss you." he said, and his voice was more solid than Percy expected.
"Yeah. Me too." she hugged him one last time, and then went off to her new family, the group of young girls in silver parka's. Percy put a hand on Nico's shoulder, and watched the Hunter's depart Camp Half Blood.
With an idea swirling in his mind, and a new smile, Percy pulled out riptide from his pocket and veered Nico away.
"Wanna learn how to sword fight, Nico?"
He popped the cap off with his thumb and Nico instantly got that bounce back into his step.
"You bet I do!"
So, they headed off to the arena.
~~~
The week following the Hunters departure, they had a sing-a-long around the camp fire after supper. The Apollo kids were playing their instruments and everyone was singing stupid songs and the majority of the cabins were sitting with their respective cabins. Percy didn't follow by that rule though. He sat between Nico and Grover, his arms around both of their shoulders, urging Nico to sing louder.
As the song ended, Percy's right arm prickled with biting cold. He absently removed his arm from Nico's shoulder, and leaned on it, but his elbow buckled from how frozen it suddenly was.
With eyebrows knitted in confusion, Percy glanced up at Nico, and nearly fell off his seat. Nico looked at him curiously, and Percy had to force himself to breathe.
Nico was glowing with this black mist that seemed to seep from his very pores and roll off him in waves. It whispered and hissed as it coiled around Percy's fingers, and Percy pulled his fingers away. He tried to flex them, but they were so cold it hurt. Nico's olive skin had also gone translucent, leaving a skeleton with dark ghostly features stretched over the milky bone.
"Percy?" Nico asked, concerned.
Percy stood up and called for Chiron. By the time the Centuar trotted over, everyone was staring at Nico in awe.
Chiron's expression explained it all.
Nico was being claimed.
The entire camp held it's breath as Chiron folded his front legs and bowed his head. Then, with Chiron in that position, everyone started to follow suit. They got off their seat, onto their knees and bowed their heads. Nico was still staring at Percy, searching his face for answers. He was scared.
Percy knelt, too.
"Hail, Nico di Angelo," Chiron announced, voice rough, "Son of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, God of the dead and riches."
Tension swept over the camp like a storm clouds shadow. Nico was blinking and staring at the campers, then at his hands. The tension was suffocating Percy to the point that he actually started to hold his breath.
Then Nico grinned, which was an odd look with the skeleton under his skin being visible, "No way!?" he threw his hands up, "This is awesome!"
He started to ramble about Hades' attack powers and the different moves he had and his magical weapons. He pulled the Hades figurine from his pocket and began to fiddle with it, eyes fixated on it.
Percy couldn't help it. He loved this kid. He started to laugh, eyes scrunching up and hands on his stomach. Nico glanced at him, his smile growing even wider, and started to laugh with him. He thrusted the Hades' figurine into Percy's face, pointing out the weapon he was holding, explaining it's powers and Percy could hear Grover laughing, too.
"This is so cool!" Nico exclaimed again, and everyone was smiling with him now.
The singing resumed and even though Nico was a glowing skeleton that radiated death and cold, everything was back to normal. Sure, it was a bit unsettling for Chiron and a few of the campers that they had two of the most dangerous demigods here now, but they're still family. Everything was normal.