Misery Loves Company

I wouldn't say Love always makes you happy

Thanks for your patience waiting for this chapter Xx HAPPY CHAPTER 50!

Chapter Warnings: canon character death (brief), mentions of death (from previous chapter), depictions of claustrophobia (elevator, shrinking, and tight spaces), injury, discussions of death of a main character (does not actually occur, its a manipulation), canon outing of a character (references to cupid scene). Let me know if I missed any.

Disclaimer: dialogue and scenes have been used directly from House of Hades in this chapter (Cupid scene), all rights and recognition go to Rick Riordan.

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Percy wasn't sure what he expected from the moment Leo evoked Nico's name to Phobos and the scenery had begun to shift—but it was not the merry sound of arcade music that emanated from the various consoles that manifested around him.

The Lotus, even as an illusion, still held its addictive nature. The way the air seemed hazy with promise, 'Relax, Hero.' it seemed to whisper, 'Have some fun, enjoy your youth'

The temptation was consuming, the way the lights and sounds reached out for him with clawed invisible hands that tried to dig into skin and tug. Someone was bungee-jumping in the lobby and Percy wanted to join—to feel the familiar rush of falling, without the risk. No monster chasing him or Pit to descend into.

In fact, it was a struggle to remember exactly how he came to be stood in the familiar lobby; why was he there? Had someone been with him?

A scan of his surroundings told him that he was in fact alone, no familiar faces among the crowd. And more than the strangely addictive—calling—atmosphere, that was the fact that sat on his chest, weighed at him. He was alone.

His hand tingled, his palm empty and Percy had the distinct feeling that it shouldn't feel that way; that there was supposed to be another palm pressed against his, and fingers laced with his own.

Annabeth.

The name brought with it a flood of memories, flashes of a garage and burning fire and a flood and bodies and spiders and...here. Suddenly, the lights weren't so bright and the music less consuming and the awareness of time moving around him—too quick, too slow— settled into his bones.

They needed to get out of there; Percy didn't know if Phobos' manifestation of the Lotus Casino would have the same time-bending properties as the real thing, but he wasn't willing to risk it.

He found Leo first, entirely by luck, destroying some poor soul in a robot fighting ring. How the son of Hephaestus had managed to build a robot in the little time they'd been there, and double the size of his opponents at that, Percy couldn't comprehend.

"Leo!" Percy hissed, grabbing the makeshift controller from his hands, "We have to go."

"Percy?" Leo blinked up at the son of Poseidon, brows furrowed in clear confusion.

"This is the Lotus Casino," Percy hastened to explain, "Time passes differently here, we can't stay."

"But-" It came out as a childish whine. Percy didn't let him complain any further, dragging him rather forcefully from the ring and slipping into the crowd.

"Why are we—take me back, Percy!" Leo tried to wriggle out of the grip that Percy had on his wrist.
"This is one of Nico's fears," Percy refused to let go, "Remember, we're in Phobos' cave trying to find out who he's been taken by."

The fog over Leo's eyes lifted, clarity seeping in as the words settled. "Why the fuck is an arcade one of Nico's fears?"

Percy sighed, "Nico spent seventy years here, all in the span of a few months. It forcibly removed him from his time and dragged him into an unfamiliar future."