DΣΜΙGΘD ΘΠΣ-SΗΘΤS, ΛU'S, ΛΠD SΗΘRTSTΘRΙΣS

A transformation

This is a Percico short-story requested by tumblr-user shiningstarz94. I hope you enjoy it! It actually wasn't supposed to be this long, but whatever! ;P

Pairings: Percico, Percabeth, Jiper

Words: 7764

Time: This is taking place half a year after the war against Gaea.

Percy was walking up Half-Blood Hill. He was drenched in sweat from his monster fight, and he just needed to rest. He'd just reached the top, where the pine tree that earlier had been Thalia was standing, when he suddenly was knocked over by something coming out of the tree.

Percy landed on his back, and someone was lying on top of him. As he looked up, two dark eyes stared horrified back. As the person leaned back, Percy could see it was a girl, her long jet-black hair flying wildly around her face. She was maybe fourteen years old, about three years younger than Percy.

The girl hurried to crawl away and sat down in front of him. Percy couldn't help but smile to her as he sat up; she seemed pretty flustered.

"Well, hello there," Percy grinned. "Who are you?"

The girl gave him a confused look, glanced down at herself, and then back at Percy.

"You..." she said hesitantly. "You don't recognize me?"

Percy frowned a bit and tilted his head, studying her face more carefully. Then he shook his head.

"I'm sorry. What's your name? Then maybe..."

"My name? Uh... It's... uh... Nicole," she said at last. Percy kept studying her face. Maybe there was something about her...

"Nicole... Doesn't ring a bell. Sorry," he admitted at last. Then he rose and reached a hand down to help Nicole up. She took it hesitantly. Together we walked down to camp.

"So, Nicole... You must be a demigod. Who's your parent?" Percy asked.

"Uh, Hades..." she said. She seemed quite nervous.

"Hades? I didn't thought he had other children than Hazel, Bianca, and Nico," Percy wondered. Nicole sent him a weird look.

"Are you from the past too?" Percy continued, completely oblivious. "I mean, all of Hades’ other children are either from the 30's or 40's..."

Nicole bit her lower lip, which Percy found really cute.

"I'm not from America," she said at last. "I grew up in Italy. I moved to America, when the monsters became too many... My father told my mother about his realm. He wanted her to live with him there, but she died in an explosion together with my sister. Hades took me to the underworld, where I'd lived until now," she finished, looking down in the ground.

"So," Percy said. "You are from this age?"

He retrieved another weird glance from Nicole, but she nodded after a moment.

"Alright!" Percy grinned. "Have you been to camp before?"

Nicole nodded, but didn't say anything else. Her black t-shirt blew a little in the wind, making her shudder.

"Well, I need to take a bath. I'll see you later, I guess?" he asked. Again, Nicole just nodded. Percy smiled a last time to her before heading into the boys' showers.

After shifting to clean clothes, he heard the conch horn, which signaled that it was time for dinner. It was the first time since he and Annabeth had broken up, he actually felt happy, though her empty seat in the mess hall was like a knife in his chest.