Percico: Stories to Be Rewritten

Chapter 9

Nico and Percy were hanging out in the Big House, snuggled up on the couch together watching 'Love, Actually' on the big screen TV that Mr. D had finally given up on the 'No technology in the Big House.' rule and bought to watch his wine channel. It was nine at night, and Elisabeth walked in at the very end of the movie, and Nico and Percy kissing romantically on the couch. Nico heard the door open and smiled. "How did the date go?"

There was no answer. Percy and Nico sat up and looked over at her, and they both froze.

Elisabeth looked like she just walked out of a mixed martial arts tournament. Her arms were covered in bruises, hand print sized and just turning greenish purple. The skinny jeans and tan hippie shirt that she had borrowed from Alex were ripped a little bit and covered in dust. Her bronze Brass Knuckles were out, covering her whole hand in bronze, specked with blood. She looked like a mess.

Nico was the first to react, jumping off and over the couch to get to her. She had a blank look on her face, like someone had hit her and she didn't know what to do. Holding her shoulders, he looked her in her eyes. "Elisabeth, Elisabeth, are you ok?" She nodded slowly, her amber eyes looking into his dark hazels in a daze. "What happened? Did Nick do this to you?"

Then her lips twitched into a smile. "No." She didn't sound like herself at all. That voice was a droning, blah sound that didn't quiet fit with her.

Nico looked at Percy, who was right behind him with no experience on what to do. Percy looked her over a little, then ruffled her hair like nothing was wrong. "What happened, Lis? Did one of the Aphrodite girls get jealous of you?"

Elizabeth laughed a little. "No, Percy!" She was starting to sound a little like herself. Nico arched an eyebrow, a little weirded out by this.

"Then what happened?"

After Nico sat her down on the couch and a hour passed, Nico and Percy knew the whole story. Nick had taken her to a extra training he was having that was hosted by the Ares cabin, and after they would go out on a date, but she got roped into it as well. Then, one of the guys tried to hit on her, "And he was really ugly looking! He looked like Toad from the X-Men!", and he was really putting it on strong. She tried to ignore him, but he kept trying and trying and trying till finally Nick noticed.. Nick was about to tap him and tell the slim she was taken, when the guy grabbed both her arms and tried to kiss her. So, she bashed his skull with her's, and when he was dazed, she kicked him in the groin and punched him away. The blood was from the guy. "Guess I kicked him a little too hard. But I was scared! I didn't know what to do!" Then, after the practice, Nick took her to the beach, where they had a picnic and looked up at the stars talking. "It was amazing! Turns out we like the same things! And he actually likes drawing a lot too!" Then he took her to the Big House, because Nico and Percy had made it clear that she was to come strait here after the date, and he kissed her. Thats why she looked dazed. It was her first kiss with a guy, ever.

Nico nodded slowly, understanding every word of what she rapid fired at them like all teenage girls did. Percy, on the other hand, fell behind. "So.... This wasn't Nick's hand print? It was the slime?"

"Yes, Percy!" Elizabeths said, hugging a pillow to her chest, her lips pursed in a cute pout. "Now listen better!"

"How can I" Percy asked, "if you keep talking like a rapid firing gun! I only caught a few parts of that!"

"Then let me repeat it for you!" Elizabeth opened her mouth, taking in a deep breath, when Nico interrupted, saving Percy's fine butt from being subjected to listening to the whole story again.

"So, you two going to keep in touch over the school year? After all, you are both leaving tomorrow." Nico asked. Elisabeth's face fell, her big smile turning into a sad frown. She leaned into her knees and planted her face in the pillow.

"I don't know." She admitted. "He lives a few blocks from the orphanage, but I'm probably going to get shipped out of their as soon as they find a home for me." She sighed in defeat. "Maybe this time I'll just stay there cause they can deal with the crap I throw at them."

Nico looked at Percy, his eyes pleading with him. Percy smiled a little, and cleared his throat. "Actually, I called your orphanage a week ago." Elizabeth looked up at them, her eyebrows arched in a 'What you talking about?' manner. Nico smiled wide, encouraging Percy to continue. " Well, it turns out that my apartment is a little ways away from your gym, and Nico is already moving in with me, plus there will be an extra room, so-"

"Hold on!" Elisabeth shouted, her eyes widening into the size of dinner plates. "Are you asking me if I want to move in?!"

"No," Percy said, a playful smile on his face. " I want to know if you want us to adopt you."

The reaction that came from Elisabeth was nothing like what Nico or Percy expected. First, she paused a second and tried to comprehend what she had just heard, then she grinned wide, she screamed, and finally hugged them. Percy was ready for the screaming, and Nico was ready for just a hug, but not at the same time. So, it was kind of an awkward hug scream bungle and they all three fell backwards into the arm of the couch.

"YES!" Elisabeth screamed, almost crying with joy. "YES YES YES YES!"

"Then we will be giving you a trip to the orphanage tomorrow." Nico said, his ears ringing her screams in his them. "And we will make this official!" Elizabeth started cry then, just the kind of unattractive snot cry that just looked horrible on anyone, even a Aphrodite kid. Nico and Percy both held her while she cried, both actually ready for this reaction and had a box of tissue on the coffee table just for this.

"You" she sobbed, blowing her nose into a tissue Nico offered her. "You guys are the most amazing people ever!"

"Well," Percy said smiling. "It was either adopt or get Rachel pregnant, and Nico didn't approve of that." Nico smacked him in the back of the head. Elisabeth laughed a little.

"Percy is only joking." Nico said, already planning his way of killing Percy later. "You were our only choice. Now, how you going to tell Nick?"

Elisabeth straitened up, here tears stopping instantly as she realized that she would have to tell him. "Oh my gods! I got to tell him! But how?! He is leaving right at five in the morning!"

"Why not just go over and get Alex to deliver a message?" Percy suggested. Elisabeth grinned wider,.

"Perfect! she doesn't sleep anyway!" She jumped up from the couch and started to run to the door, then she turned around. "How do I word it?!V VI don't know what to say!"

"Just," Nico commented, laughing a little out of how silly this was. "tell him exactly what's going on, add a picture of you and him looking up at the stars or something. Just do what you would do."

She smiled. "Thank." She winked at him and added a little extra word to it that made Nico feel a little fuzzy on the inside. "Dad." Then she was gone.

Percy smiled at Nico, pulling him into his lap and hugging him close. "Well, that went better than expected." Nico nodded.

"I'm just glad she said yes."

"I'm not." Percy said jokingly. Nico didn't get the joking tone and whirled on him.

"What you mean?!" Percy laughed, a big goofy smile on his face and a sparkle in those oceanic orbs he called eyes.

"I mean that I don't get to have endless time just with you anymore." Nico blushed a little. "That, and we are going to be the most weird and dysfunctional family ever." Nico shrugged and leaned in, kissing Percy on the lips.

"Don't worry." He said. "We are going to survive this adventure."