Death and Madness 2

Olympus is pretty sweet

"POLLUX"

"VIOLET"

He pulled me into a bone crushing hug, though his arm looked broken. Gods, even I wasn't exempt from injury. I had a few million cuts all over me, and bruises that were just forming. 

But we were alive, all of my friends were alive and that's all I cared about. Also, Olympus was pretty sweet. I was just happy we were allowed here.

When Pollux let me go, I slipped my hand back into Nico's. 

Pollux grinned at me and winked over exaggeratedly. "Date night again?"

"I was hoping you'd offer to plan it" I grinned back. 

I grabbed Nico's jaw and planted a kiss on his cheek because I can do that now. Sure, neither of us were totally big on going public or anything and I love to be called mysterious. But I needed Pollux to know. And I hoped that somewhere in Elysium, Castor knew too. 

Pollux just grinned wider, "Di Angelo, you should be glad our Dad already likes you"

"Me?" Nico's eyes widened like he couldn't believe it. 

"You take care of Violet" Pollux shrugged, "And you're all grumpy and moody like him"

"I'm not grumpy" Nico said grumpily. 

I saw Hades walking unsurely behind us. He hadn't yet caught up to us, but he looked so out of place in the godly city. Maybe one day he'd fit right in. Maybe one day no demigods or monsters would be discriminated against and made to feel lesser than they were. 

"My lord" I bowed dramatically and gestured him to walk ahead. Hades and Nico rolled their eyes in sync. Pollux and I snickered. 

We came into Olympus to a hero's welcome. Sure, we had to explain that Hades was THE Hades to the guard of the Empire state building (He wouldn't quite believe it was Hades until the god threatened to show his true form), and the ride up was torture- Stayin' alive wasn't exactly normal elevator music, but it eased the awkwardness of riding up to the 600th floor with your bestfriend/boyfriend/guy you kissed and his dad who apparently made a bet about when you would kiss. 

The god of the dead looked stunned when his relatives clapped him on the back. I doubt he'd ever gotten such an enthusiastic welcome before.

I saw Thalia Grace- as Nico told me- a huntress of Artemis, in crutches, Connor and Travis Stoll who winked when they said they didn't loot the city much, they went off to tell Percy his parents weren't allowed in Olympus on account of being mortal. 

Apparently, Chiron had gotten hurt as well and Mrs O'Leary had dug him out of the rubble and rushed him to Camp as fast as she good. We had suffered losses, but things still seemed hopeful.

Clarisse marched in, still shivering from her time in the ice block, and Ares bellowed, "There's my girl!"

The god of war ruffled her hair and pounded her on the back, calling her the best warrior he'd ever seen. "That drakon-slaying? THAT'S what I'm talking about!"

She looked pretty overwhelmed. All she could do was nod and blink, like she was afraid he'd start hitting her, but eventually she began to smile. I winked at her and blew her a kiss, at which Nico frowned.

The next person I was most excited to see was of course, my favorite bisexual. 

"PERCY" I couldn't help but wince when he hugged me back, but I ignored the pain. Nico stood aside awkwardly as Percy let me go again. "You're alive"

"Don't sound so disappointed" He snorted. 

"Truly the greatest tragedy" I went along with the joke, "I can't believe you survived, but you have to promise me if something ever happens to you, I get your Mom"

"My mom's not up for a deal!"

"She's amazing and I'm stealing her" It felt good to mess around. But I could see Percy's eyes scanning for Annabeth. 

"Where's Annie?"

"She's okay" Percy said, "Well, she will be. Apollo's healing her"

"And Luke?" Nico asked. 

"The prophecy-" Percy's eyes turned stormy like he wasn't ready to talk about it yet in detail. "A hero's soul cursed blade shall reap. Rachel came to Manhattan to warn me that I wasn't the hero. Luke stabbed himself in his Achilles spot."

"He turned... he turned good at the end?"

"Good is not the word I'd use" Percy frowned. "More like... maybe he realized his mistakes, maybe he didn't like hurting Annabeth, who knows. I'm sorry though, that he turned out to be such a jerk. I know you guys were friends"

"Yeah when I was five" I snorted, "I did a lot of things at five, like pee my bed. Doesn't mean I still do"

"Unnecessary information, but okay" Nico raised his eyebrows and a ghost of a smile twitched at the edges of his lips.

"He told me to tell you-" Percy spoke up again, looking between Nico and me like he knew what was going on, "Well, Luke said tell Maeve I'm sorry. I remember he called you that last year too and Annabeth started calling you that"

"It's my middle name" I explained, "I hated my name when I was a kid cause I thought being named after a color was stupid"

Nico looked me up and down, I stared down at my purple outfit.

We all chuckled at that.

"I think someone's waiting for you" Percy pointed behind me, as I turned, he slipped away, leaving me and Nico to face my dad. 

Dionysus's head was wrapped in a bandage. He looked me up and down and said, "Victor Keller"

"Violet Keen" I grinned. 

As much as Dionysus pretended to get people's names wrong at camp, I knew the real reason. I could see it in the sadness in his eyes everytime another demigod died. He said the wrong names so he wouldn't get attached. 

"Violet Keen" He amended. He was a little eccentric, a little weird, made into a joke. But he was my dad and he looked down at me with a small smile playing on his features. "Rose wine for Hades and Persephone, huh? Maybe you have potential, yet. Hades might just be the most stubborn one of us and you managed to convince him to help... maybe I underestimated you"

I bumped shoulders with Nico. "Couldn't have done it without him" 

"Nico di Angelo" 

"Hang on, how come you say his name right on the first try?" I frowned. 

"I like him more than you"

Nico gave me a shit eating grin.

"In any case, I approve" He looked between us, "And as thanks for my bravery, Zeus has cut my probation at that miserable camp in half. I now have only fifty years left instead of one hundred. So I suppose some good came out of fighting that no good Typhon"