At Your Service- A Royalty Solangelo AU

Chapter 29

TW: Discussions of Death, Poor coping mechanisms, guilt

He was 16 when the royal children became his responsibility. After fighting in several proxy wars across the greco continent, Percy was well known among the royal family which is likely why they trusted him with their most prized possession. 

He remembers the day he met the prince almost perfectly. He had returned from war just days before, only to be dragged back into an audience with the king. Terrified, Percy thought he was being summoned back to combat, but instead, he found the children of the royal family. 

At the time, King Hades was still there- having not moved to take a more powerful seat in Olympia- and he stood towering behind his children. Many people thought him to be a dangerous man, but Percy had spent enough time in his presence to know that was not the case. While powerful, there was nothing more important to him than his family, a cause that had drawn Percy to be in that room that very moment. 

There were two other soldiers in the room with him, Jason and Frank, who were also there for assignment. Jason was assigned to Nico, Frank to Hazel, and Percy to Bianca. 

They were never to leave the children alone, and that was not hard. Percy and Jason were forced together almost constantly, Bianca and Nico always wishing to spend their time together, so it became a very comfortable job. 

Until it wasn't. 

Percy had taken the night off, spending it with Chase who had landed herself in the hospital wing for the evening. This message was supposed to be sent off to Jason, letting him know he was on duty for both royal children, but for some reason, it never made it past the first servant. 

While he would not learn this until the next morning, Bianca had died that night. They were walking through the garden when a supposed prank went wrong, striking down the sweet Princess in front of her brother. 

Percy will never forget the first time he saw Nico's face following the incident. As soon as he heard the news, he had rushed to the hospital wing that next morning, startling Kayla whom he nearly knocked over on the way in. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. 

When he reached the side of the bed where Bianca lay, it wasn't the princess that caught his attention, but the small boy who was curled up next to her. 

It took him a couple moments to recognize him, he looked smaller than ever. His eyes were red from crying, and his body was curled into such a tight ball. He was broken. 

Then, in a voice that was gravely with crying, the Prince leveled his angry eyes with him. "You promised."

He had to stagger back, the words hitting him with more force than he ever thought possible. He could feel his heart being torn into a million pieces. 

The worst part? He had promised. 

That very first day that he had been assigned to Bianca's detail, he was cornered by a very aggressive 12 year old who made him promise above all else to always keep her safe. And he promised with full confidence that nothing bad would ever happen to her. 

He had failed. 

From that day forward, he had sworn his life to paying back the Prince. But it was never that easy. 

The first few years of it were incredibly rocky, the Prince almost acting like he had a death wish, doing heinously dangerous missions with little care seemingly as a giant 'fuck you' to Percy. It made his life miserable, and he deserved it. 

But as they grew up, they grew together. It started off slow, with Nico lowering his guard for a few moments to let Percy see what he was thinking before immediately going radio silent on him again. Then later, a couple conversations where Nico began to share his memories. Then leadership details where Percy was dragged alongside the Prince to fight together. 

In all of it, Percy had seen Nico's strength. But in none of it, had he seen Nico's true feelings. 

When Nico had first come out to Percy, they had just gotten back from a detail. They were walking in the gardens along with Annabeth, and Nico had casually admitted to past feelings for Percy. The confession, of course, caught Percy off guard which could have easily been the wrong reaction in a different company. But, Nico didn't seem to mind, moving onto lighter subjects without a second thought in the world. Like it didn't matter. 

It did. 

Nico would never know this, but Percy spent the rest of the years playing damage control. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable with the truth from Nico- he was actually quite happy for him- but he unfortunately did not share the same opinion with the other diplomats. Whenever a rumor arose, Percy was there to get rid of it. He had sworn his life to protect the Prince, and that was not just limited to physical altercations. In everything he did, he wanted to make sure that he would never cause the prince pain, and ensured that it was the same for everyone else. 

In many ways, the Prince was the same as the day he met him. Quiet, watchful, and always 10 steps ahead of the next person. But also in many ways, he was different. 

The most noticeable was his vulnerability. In all the years Percy had known him, Nico had never once grieved a loss. For a few moments, he would cry as anyone else would do, but the next day it was like it never happened. That was the problem. He was emotionally incapable of handling anything, shutting down the moment something bad happened only to reappear with a mask. And each time something happened to him, the mask only got thicker. 

That had been the case forever, a dangerous game the Prince played with himself, but it had started to slow recently. In small increments, that mask he had worked so hard to build was beginning to fall away, revealing a truly impressive young man.

As Percy watched from an upper balcony, he could tell anyone the exact reason why Nico no longer wore his mask. It was a reason taking form of a tall blonde man, one who was walking with his arm protectively around the Prince. 

Will had become a guardian angle of sorts. Never before had Percy seen Nico willingly open up to a person, especially not one so new.  He began to speak more, though Percy never heard about what, and he seemed more at ease. Most shockingly though, were the tears. 

At first he thought that Will was the cause of them, but with time, he realized they were only sourced from comfort. Will had become a beacon of hope for the prince, giving him an outlet to express every feeling, every pressure that had mounted on him throughout the past several years. It was a strange relationship, which Percy thought would have ended in bloodshed, but the violence had waned- for now- to a beautiful connection. 

Percy could tell, despite their outward act of hatred, that the pair had grown to care for one another. Wherever Nico went, it was likely that the blonde was close behind, and in darker moments, the two could be found together. 

He never told other people about this observation, but he knew he was right. His job for years had been watching the prince and playing damage control, so much so that he knew all of the little ticks, he learned the tricks of the game.

It was in the way that they always stood glued slightly closer together than a normal pair of acquaintances, or even friends. It was the way that they looked at one another, eyes finding one another no matter where they were stationed across the room. Whether they knew this or not, the pair actually cared for one another. Whether they noticed it or not, they gravitated towards one another in a room. Whether they could feel it or not, something different hung in the air around them. 

So as Percy watched the pair stroll through the garden, Nico tucked permanently into a under Will's arm, he felt for once that he may not have failed. And, as he watched Nico lean into a soft kiss that was planted on top of his head, Percy knew that he had a constant that- this time- would not leave him, and he would do everything in his power to keep it that way.