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They got on the carousel thinking that the ride would be over soon. But instead of stopping after a couple of turns, they kept going, around and around and around.
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Nico knew this was a bad idea. It was hard enough to try to focus on anything, much less form a plan to save himself from his utterly ridiculous predicament. His peripheral vision strained to make out the nauseating blur of crowds and vivid colours. To top it off, the obnoxious tunes and sounds of the park were enough to turn Nico’s ADHD mind into overdrive.
He clung tightly to the waist of his medic boyfriend as he glared daggers ahead at the giant, wailing mess that was the cause of his grief: Percy Jackson. Nico had tried his very best right from the start to protest when that damned Jackson tried to rope him in. It’d be fun they said. Nico called bullshit.
Nico, however, now takes vengeful glee in how Jackson, who suggested this in the first place, is now the same boy turning green in the face. The cackle dies in Nico’s throat as the movement momentarily throws him off balance. He steadies himself as best he can with Will’s help but even so, there was no way Nico or Will could’ve prevented the oncoming dizziness. After all, they had been going round and round for what felt like eons…
- Half an hour before -
“Aww c’mon Neeks it’ll be fun!” Percy was jumping up and down, pointing excitedly towards the attraction that caught the interest of the son of Poseidon.
A scowl of distaste grew on Nico’s face as the whole group turned their heads towards the direction. Jason laughed in agreement as Hazel’s eyes lit up, taking in the scene of the grand equine-themed carousel. Nico shook his head as he went to adamantly refuse but was cut off when Hazel seized his arm. He steeled himself for the upcoming battle he was bound to lose.
“Please Nico,” her excited, golden eyes bore pleadingly into his. “Let’s go.” She turned on her heels eagerly and attempted to drag along her half-brother before he rooted himself firmly in place. He gently plied away the younger’s vice grip from his arm.
“I’d rather not.” Hazel pointedly frowned at him before he tried for a smile and added, “-but you go, Hazel. I’m gonna go uh— grab something to eat.” He glanced towards Percy who happily skipped over to the ride, Jason in hand. The two made their way to the back of the long line full of children, perfectly fitting in. He shook his head, “I’m sure you’ll have fun with Percy and Jase.” Hazel begrudgingly didn’t move. He sighed.
It had been months since the last time the whole group was gathered. Him, Will, Reyna and well, six of the seven (Nico tried not to think about the unusual death of Leo Valdez). Even though the two Praetors and Centurion should be overwhelmingly busy back at Camp Jupiter, here they were. Nico didn’t know how they all conveniently found time during this specific occasion.
The only reason why Nico was even at this obnoxiously crowded place was because he was supposed to be on a date. His first date outside of camp with Will. It’s not like Nico was big on PDA, but he’d like the option of holding hands without all this unnecessary unwanted attention. But instead, here he was, chaperoned by a group of nosy demigods, barely able to do anything with the boy due to the prying eyes that stalked their every move. His eyebrows furrowed at the apparent lack of alone time he had spent with his boyfriend on their long-awaited date.
They had to escape.
“Nah-uh.” A firm hand struck down on Nico’s shoulder as if reading his thoughts. He turned his head in dismay, glaring. “You will go on that ride Nico di Angelo and-,” the grip tightened. “-you will enjoy it.” Reyna stood her ground; a stern look present on her face giving way to the tiniest of smirks. The others snickered.
Nico silently cursed the Roman Praetor that now flanked his side. He went to protest but was interrupted by a warm, familiar hand that entwined into his. The Italian turned upwards; his eyes were met with the prettiest, pale blue ones. Oh, how Nico loved those eyes that seemed to sparkle under the sunlight. And gods, that smile. Nico was doomed. Doomed to ride a pony with Will Solace. A small blush crept its way into the cheeks of his slowly returning olive complexion.
Will chuckled gently at his scowling boyfriend. Amused by his behaviour, Will couldn’t help but think how adorable Nico is. “Well I think,” he paused. “It’d be fun to go for a ride.” He playfully squeezed Nico’s hand as he tilted his head in expectation, fully aware of Nico’s complaints.
Nico groaned. “Not you too Will.”
“It can’t be that bad,” the distracting mop of blond hair pretended to think for a moment, eyes lighting up. “Plus, it’s good exercise!”
The shorter boy rose a brow in disbelief. “All we do is sit.”
Nico couldn’t understand why Will was willing to go on that kid-appeasing ride, rather than, oh I don’t know, ditching his group of friends for some valuable time outside the camp. Quality time that was painfully difficult to arrange. Precious time which took much persuasion and organisation to convince Chiron to give the camp’s head healer a day off.
Will wagged his fingers in Nico’s face, grinning. “Tsk, tsk Nico. It’s not only just sitting. The art of horse riding is a difficult one to master-.” An idea started to form in the blonde’s head. “-and if you ever want to get close to the Pegasi back at camp, this is a good way to go about it!”
“You do know they’re made of metal and plastic, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re comparing lifeless, painted objects to actual winged horses.” Nico scoffed. “I’m sure Blackjack would be absolutely on board with me riding him after I befriend the plastic unicorn.”
Ignoring him, Will locked eyes with the two girls. “Don’t you agree Hazel? Reyna? The best way to gain the Pegasi’s trust is through a ride with their extended, carousel brethren!” The child of Apollo was beaming.
Hazel enthusiastically nodded in agreement; a smile plastered across her face. With three well associated equine trainers surrounding him; Reyna on his right, Will to his left and Hazel blocking the front, Nico couldn’t help but finally give in. In a last attempt to protest or flee backwards, he glimpsed back at Piper, Annabeth and Frank in hopes that they would come to his aid. He was met with their sympathetic smiles. Traitors.
Instead, they pushed him forward, promising to grab him some food at his pitiful protests of being hungry. Hazel and Will linked arms with the grumpy boy and happily dragged an unamused Nico to join a whooping Percy and a chuckling Jason. Nico rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath about how embarrassing it was that 4 teenage boys (two who were nearly adults) were taking up space in a kid’s ride that Nico only deemed acceptable for Hazel to ride. For Hazel who suffered so much as a mere child. She deserved all the happiness in the world. But also, because Hazel was his sweet, baby sister and if you think the look on her face didn’t rival the cutest baby in the world, then you must be blind.
Nico’s never been to a theme park and neither has Hazel. But Nico has been trapped for several decades in the Lotus Hotel Casino and that was basically the same thing. Except more gambling and less character mascots. So, it’s only a matter of time before Hazel’s infectious excitement is starting to rub off on Nico too. The bounce in her step brings about the softest smile on Nico’s face and the gust of wind that proceeds to wack cinnamon curls into his face only mildly annoys Nico. Nico might even be looking forward to riding with Hazel and Will (or at least eager for Annabeth and Piper to secretly take photos of them on Annabeth’s phone) but he would never admit that.
Joining Jason and Percy, Will bumped shoulders with Nico sending him a reassuring smile. “C’mon sunshine, lighten up.” Nico snorted. Telling a son of Hades to lighten up. That was a good one. “I promise it’ll be fun.”
-----
The once overflowing line of children dispersed as soon as the announcement was made. The parade was about to start.
They were up next; the previous round of people about to be released. Percy runs like a mad-man towards the inner part of the carousel and claims the black Pegasus which looks uncannily like Blackjack. Jason takes a seat on the unicorn diagonal to Percy’s while Will proceeds to sit on the one-seater golden seahorse. Nico is a little disappointed. He settles onto the ash-grey horse (which is actually a pony) besides Will, as Hazel climbs onto a rip-off model of what seems to be Arion.
Turning around to watch Hazel, Nico realises that the parade didn’t just cut the waiting time, but left the ride deserted. It left Reyna, Annabeth, Piper and Frank as their only onlookers. The demigods would be riding alone.
Despite the risk of attracting monsters, Annabeth takes photos of the riding campers. Frank holds all the belongings and food while Piper and Reyna yell at them to pose before they round the corner, coming into the frame of Annabeth’s phone. A couple turns in, Percy and Jason are sharing the Unicorn, posing as a rather obscenely, overly affectionate couple which causes their respective girlfriends to cackle.
Nico has just slipped off Hazel’s horse after a few obligatory sibling photos and goes back to his steed which now has Will on it. Hiding his smile, Nico accepts the outstretched hand of his boyfriend.
The ride hits a little bump in the road, causing Nico to stumble onto the back of the pony. Then things take a turn for the worst.
- Present Time -
“When will this stoooop.” Percy looks like he’s going to lose his lunch over Jason soon. Jason doesn’t look that great either. The ride has progressively been going faster.
Will is slumped forward on the pony. He’s holding on to the pole for dear life while Nico sits saddled in behind him, finding solace in the comfort of his boyfriends back. It’s kinda romantic in a way but a bit ironic Nico thinks. He wouldn’t be caught dead initiating physical intimacy, but he’s glad for the excuse to hug the mop of blond hair. Also, no matter how many times Nico has shadow-travelled, it’s never made him feel as nauseous as this gods damned ride. But that might be because Nico usually passes out afterwards.
He glances behind at his little sister. Hazel is the only one who has continued to enjoy this situation. The ecstatic smile on her face warms Nico’s cold heart, her chocolate-brown locks flying through the air and the gleam in her golden eyes almost makes her look like a normal thirteen-year-old girl. But she isn’t. Hazel is a powerful demigod. Centurion of the Twelfth Legion, able to control the mist just as well as the Goddess of Magic herself (if not better), prevented Gaea’s first awakening and is the only being permissible to ride the legendary Arion. It’s almost as if Hazel’s imagining that she’s riding on her dear old friend once again.
So, it breaks Nico’s heart when Hazel’s brought out of her trance due to Percy’s wails and the concerned voices of their onlooking friends.
Now you might think, nine powerful demigods against one malfunctioning carousel; it’s no contest. They only needed to either forcibly stop the machine or all get off with preferably no injuries. Jason could fly off hoisting a squirming Percy and Nico could shadow-travel him and Will out of there. But what about Hazel? She seemed fine and the eight of them could definitely put their heads together to stop the ride. Easy, right?
Except Jason is too groggy to function, much less able to fly himself or Jackson out without crash landing or smacking their heads against the roof. Nico’s mind is way too jumbled to even try shadow-travelling. He might as well end up in Australia with Will (Nico thinks for a second that that might not sound so bad). But also, Will would be furious, and Nico doesn’t really want to pass out for the rest of his date (if he manages to get out of this in one piece).
Therefore, the only people they can rely on have split up into two. Reyna barks that she and Frank are going to go look for some park assistance from the maintenance team, while Annabeth and Piper have gone over to the ride’s control panel box. Piper calms down the panicking ride operator with charmspeak and orders him to step out and take a lunch break. Meanwhile, Annabeth looks over the controls trying to figure out the mechanisms and what went wrong. But Annabeth isn’t a mechanic and Leo isn’t there. Piper tries to charmspeak the ride into stopping because hey, it worked on Festus once, why not a carousel? But that didn’t work either.
Instead, the ride speeds up even more. The boys all groan and at this point, Percy is shrieking his head off. “Annie do somethingggg!”
Annabeth growls in frustration. The pressure affecting her dyslexia much more as she tries to read the buttons on the control panel, searching for some sort of emergency stop button. She finds it but to no avail, the ride still doesn’t stop. Her next best bet is to try to slow the ride down enough for them to hop off. Annabeth has a plan.
“Hazel!” Annabeth runs back out. Are there any rocks beneath the surface?”
Hazel nods in understanding. Her senses search the ground beneath until she locates one that should work. “But Annabeth-,” she shouts. “Won’t it break the ride?”
“All you need to do is jam it slightly into the gears that are turning it. Not hard enough that it’ll penetrate through the floor, but at the right time, should slow it down if not jam it.”
Hazel takes a deep breath as she waits for the right timing. She closes her eyes in concentration, getting ready to summon the slab of stone with Annabeth counting her in.
The speed of the ride causes her to miscalculate the amount of force needed. The ride abruptly stops. Like hitting the breaks in a car, the demigods jolt forward. They all manage to hold on.
Except for the son of Poseidon, who goes flying.
-----
The group are in a quiet nook of the park. Will is checking Percy over for any serious injuries as Annabeth spoon-feeds her boyfriend some nectar. “This is like deja vu isn’t it?” Percy cracks a smile. Annabeth just rolls her eyes and poked at the fading bruise on Percy’s forehead.
The others are a little queasy and shaken up, but overall okay. They are looking through the photos on Annabeth’s phone. Flicking through the photos that began with some nice candid and set up shots of the five that soon revealed the point in time where everything went wrong.
The son of Hades snorted at the blurry shots of Percy mid-yelp. A chuckle to his side alerted Nico that Will had slipped in beside him. A smile graced his face as he took Nico in hand staring down at the phone. Will glanced between the phone, the group and then to Nico. He subtly gestured his head down the path. A silent message passed between them.
Wanna make a run for it?
Nico nodded his head slightly. Looking to make sure the others were occupied, Nico gave Will’s hand a quick squeeze and they made a mad dash into the oncoming crowd. Weaving through to the other side, the shouts of their friends dulled out until it blended into the chatter of the park visitors.
Will and Nico were laughing hysterically at the thought of their friends’ faces and ducked into a haunted house to enjoy the rest of their date.