Sunflowers and Roses: A Solangelo AU

Chapter 1

Nico stared in awe out of the window of his brother-in-law's truck as they drove slowly through the streets of a very, very small town. There were a few buildings lining main street, but Nico barely paid them any attention. He was too stunned by the smallness around him to even really care.

"Everything is so small." He said, his eyes wide like a little kid's when they see snow for the first time. "Why is everything so small?"

From the front seat, Hazel Zhang, his adoptive sister, giggled. "Not everywhere can be as big as New York." She said, turning around to smile at him.

He frowned at her.

Hazel Zhang, or Hazel Levesque, which was her name before she fell hopelessly in love with his Chinese-Canadian baby-man brother-in-law, had one of the prettiest smiles he had ever seen on anyone.

She had skin brown like milk chocolate, golden eyes that sparkled in the sunlight, and fluffy chocolate curls that stuck up in every direction in the North Carolina heat.

"But everything is so... quiet." He pointed out, noticing there wasn't anyone outside. All the shops looked abandoned.

"It's Sunday." Frank added to the conversation.

"I need a little more than that, Zhang." Nico glowered, eyeing his brother-in-law. How could "Sunday" explain why no one was walking around, and why every store seemed to be closed?

"Church, Nico. Almost everyone is at church." Hazel said patiently, trying to pat her frizzy curls down.

Nico sat back. "Ah." Was all he could manage to say.

It made sense enough. He remembered his mother waking him up at the crack of dawn, dressing him up for church, and taking him and his older sister, Bianca. He remembered the itchy clothes, the stiff pews, and the mind numbing rambling of the preacher.

His mother was catholic, and devoted to it, too. A discomfort settled over Nico, like it often did when he thought about his mother.

Hazel turned around and smiled again, but this time, it seemed more forced. He wondered if she knew what he was thinking. 

"Maybe tomorrow I can take you site seeing after work, yeah?"

He was about to point out that he was pretty sure he was seeing all the sites worth seeing right now when he felt the truck start to slow down. He looked around, expecting to see Hazel's house, but he didn't.

They were still in the middle of the street, completely stopped. Frank had rolled the window down and was now talking to a familiar looking guy with tanned skin, sea green eyes, and tousled black hair, with an all too familiar voice.

Nico gulped. Oh gods...

"Percy, guess who's here!" Hazel said excitedly across the center console, gesturing back to Nico.

Percy Jackson glanced back, and his face broke out into a huge grin.
Oh gods...

"Nico!" He smiled. "It's been too long!"

Nico offered the shadow of a smile, but he knew it looked like a wince. His first day in North Carolina, and he was already being visited by ghosts of his past.

Didn't he come here to run away from the ghosts?

"Hi Percy." He mumbled, not wanting to seem rude, but also not eager to engage in conversation.

"Nico's decided to move down here." Hazel said, omitting the reason... or several reasons... why, which he was grateful for. Percy didn't need to know. No one did.

"Oh that's great!" Percy was saying. "Annabeth was actually just thinking of you yesterday! Maybe you should come over, meet the kids and catch up!"

It took Nico a minute to realize Percy was talking to him. He wanted to scream.

Annabeth... Kids... "catch up"...

"Sure." He mumbled. "Sure why not?" 

Percy beamed at him, and Nico's stomach knotted. He used to live for that smile... Now all it did was make him want to crawl into a hole and cry.

"Well, let me get these two to the house!" Frank chirped. "We'll see you tonight?"

"Can't wait!" Percy grinned, stepping away from the truck and waving as Frank drove off.

Nico was the only one that didn't wave back.

"Why didn't you tell me he was here?" Nico grumbled as soon as tall-dark-and-handsome was out of sight.

"I did tell you." Hazel said back. "I told you we all moved here together after... you know."

Nico did know, and it was just another thing that made him want to rip his hair out.

After one of their best friends, Jason Grace, had died in an explosion on the electric company he worked for, all of his friends had been done with New York. They all had too much baggage in the big city, and moving to a quiet, dead-end town had been the solution to all their problems.

Nico was the only one who hadn't left New York. He had several flimsy excuses, and he used every last one, from the view of the NYC skyline to wanting space. 

He was twenty when that happened. Hazel had just turned eighteen.

They drove the rest of the way in silence, listening to something on the radio that made Nico want to pour acid in his ears. It would've hurt less. 

This guy, Morgan Wallen or some shit, needed a major hairstyle change. And Frank needed to change the radio station.

Finally, they pulled into a driveway, and Nico was staring at Hazel's humble southern home. It was a small, two story wood house, painted a soft green color. The flower beds were blooming with pansies and rose bushes, and the grass looked freshly mowed. It had been a long time since he'd seen grass. He didn't make a habit of visiting Central Park.

The house had a wrap around porch, complete with a porch swing and a table for morning coffee or evening lemonade. Nico blinked.

The house was nestled in a clearing in a wooded area. When he got out of the truck, he heard birds chirping and a creek bubbling nearby.

He moved to North Carolina for the quiet, but he thought the quiet would probably drive him crazy.

He turned to his sister. "I change my mind. I want to go home." 

She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him. She was three years younger than him, but she liked to think she was the older sibling, especially at times she deemed him "unreasonable".

"Neeks, it ain't that bad here. Just relax. Give it time." Her southern accent came out just a little then, which warned him she was getting impatient with him.

He sighed. Studied her.

He didn't know why his sister insisted on living in the South. With the muggy heat, conservatives, racists, and mosquito epidemic, why she would ever want to live below say, NEW FREAKING YORK, was beyond him.

Still, she constantly assured him it wasn't as bad as he thought. 
"Yes, it's hot, but it's also freezing in the winter time, so you'd feel right at home!" She'd say. Or "Yes, there are more conservatives, but a lot of people in Springdale are kind, and they won't bother you!" or "There are racist people everywhere, Neeks." 
She never could defend the mosquitoes though. 
"Straight from hell those bugs." She'd grumble, and he'd smile, because Hazel almost never cursed, not even with "hell" or "dam". She was too much of a cinnamon roll for it.

"Just give this place some time." She said before walking away to join Frank in lugging the bags up the porch stairs and into the house.

She called over her shoulder,

"Who knows. Maybe you'll find something to fall in love with here."