Haven't I done enough? (TUA and PJO/HOO crossover)

Chapter 12

"Run Boy Run"

Ben was extremely curious, but not for the reasons you might think.

He wasn't curious about what his 'little' brother wanted with a crystal eyeball.

No.

He was curious about the person that was, apparently, following his best friend and waiting for her outside of the lab building his family went through.

A black haired guy, who couldn't be older than 28 or something, was just sitting on a bench, twirling a black ring between his fingers, his gaze set intently on the pavement at his feet, as if trying to make it reveal its secrets.

"I know you're there"

That got him out of his thoughts. He didn't need to ask who the dude was talking to. He had a gut feeling, something that told him that the man was talking to him.

Nico di Angelo raised his head and stared at the ghost in front of him. Maybe it was thanks to his powers or Vanya's book, but he already knew who the other all-dressed-on-black man was. "Ben Hargreeves" Nico straightened his spine "Died at 16 for unknown reasons, at least as far as my knowledge goes. Scared of going to the realm of the death which, may I say, caused my dad tons of paperwork" he muttered the last part but Ben heard him anyway, making him stare at the guy with his brows furrowed and head tilted. Nico let out a long sigh "You know Persia, right?"

Ben studied him, and, as far as he could tell, the dude was crazy, so he just nodded his head yes. Nico let out a tired sigh, and, in Ben's eyes, he looked ten years older.

"You've read your sister's book, I presume?" Another nodded "Ok, listen. I need you to promise me that you'd do anything in your power to prevent Percy from reading that book" before Ben could say anything, Nico continued "if you know Percy as much as I do, you'd know that she evades libraries like the plague ever since she was 12 because her dyslexia causes her migraines and the only books she reads are imported ones translated to Greek or Latin. So, yeah, there's no way she'd have known about the book even if it was showcased" Nico took a deep breath "She's like a sister to me and if she knew that someone she trusts published a moment of when was extremely vulnerable, she'd be crushed. She has suffered a lot, more than you could imagine"

Ben sighed and took a seat beside the son of Hades "She's going to read it someday, you know?" He let his head fall back, letting his eyes follow the path of the clouds "I'm not going to asked how you know her because I remember that, since we were almost 12, she always said that she wished she could tell us what she did on the summers'' Nico had his eyes on the road still, but Ben's next words surprised him a little "I was there." Ben felt the demigod's gaze on the side of his face but didn't acknowledge it "The day she... she couldn't take it anymore. Klaus and I thought it would be a great idea to visit her, you know, to check on her, and good thing we did."

Ben hesitated a little, there were two possible reactions to his following words: 1)The man would think he's crazy, which is unlikely because he acknowledged his existence, a ghost; or 2)he would believe him and, maybe, would know who he was. It was worth a shot "When Klaus and Diego were cleaning her apartment, I saw a figure. Another ghost approached Percy's unanswering form and looked at her with eyes full of regret and pain." He looked at the building his family went into. "I knew, just with the way he kissed her forehead and said 'I'm sorry' that his death was the last straw for Percy." He hesitated "Do you-" he stopped and cleared his throat "Do you know who it might have been?"

The Ghost king just sighed and nodded his head before saying "I think I do." He looked at the threes in front of him while Number Six looked at the side of his face "His name was Jason. He died almost 10 years ago. He-" His voice waver and he cleared his throat and blinked his tears away "He was, as we used to say, Percy's soulmate. They understood each other in ways no one really could began to understand" He finally looked at Ben "Two years before he died, Percy told us she was leaving, that she needed space from... everything and everyone" Nico looked so tired, but still he continued "We gave it to her with the promise that she would call no matter what."

Ben kept listening, with eyes full of concern for the girl he loves as a sister.

"When Jason died, it was me who told her. We went to the funeral and we cried. Well, at least I thought so" Nico sighed again "I should've realized that she wasn't crying, I should've been able to see through her smile, but I didn't. And when I, or anyone really, realized how much she was hurting, it was already too late"

All around the two, the world kept moving, not really paying attention to the sorrowful aura that surrounded them.

"When she first left, we didn't ask where she was going, you know? We just let her be" Nico let his head fell on the back of the bench "So when she disappeared, we really didn't knew where she was" He let out a humorless chuckle "That is until your sister wrote that book"

A silence fell between the two but it wasn't more that a few minutes before Nico spoke again

"The day your father died, one of our friends was attacked. We don't who did it or why" He took a deep breath and looked at Ben in the eyes "We told Percy yesterday, and I'm not saying this because I think she's weak, on the contrary, she's one of the strongest persons I know, but I've seen her going through hell enough times to know that she is tired; so I'm asking you to be with her" Before Ben could even asked how he was going to do that while being a ghost, Nico stopped him "She can see you and hear you, and even touch you I think, she just doesn't realize it yet"

What both men didn't know was that a green-eyed waterbender caught sight of them through one of the windows of the building, making her wonder who Nico was talking to.

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