Perfect Little Blue Boy (Percy Jackson)

Chapter Thirty Nine

Nico

I was told that Sally and Paul had an emergency in Culver City and we had to meet them there. It made sense. Paul's family is from that area.

So we shadow travelled and got in a really nice taxi. I fell asleep for most of the car ride. Percy was asleep before I was, though. He must've been awake before I was, too.

And yeah, we were wearing nice stuff. I was expecting to attend something like a funeral. You have to look nice at those. So I was expecting a tragedy of sorts.

Percy

Culver City, California. Hell's Kitchen.

I have connections. My mom's cousins is Gordon Ramsay, weirdly enough. My great aunt married a Brit, and they had Gordon in the UK. He's supposed to be over for Christmas again.

And when I say that I'm going to school for the arts, I'm majoring in culinary arts. I'm minoring in animation.

We talk quite a bit, though. I'm Jacks age. Well, a year older. But when Gordon would be in town and he couldn't be home enough just because of his job, Jack would stay with us. That didn't start until I was 13 and they came to America more often, but still.

I like my cousin's. They're pretty cool. And Holly figured out I was gay before I did.

But yeah. I was able to get ahold of them an they were able to get me a reservation here for our six month anniversary. And we were like special guests and everything. They'd be recording this for an episode.

It was a big deal. Nico has always talked about eating Gordon Ramsay worthy food. He loves watching Gordon. And because of that, I haven't told him were related to him. I wanted to surprise him.

Nico has done so much for me these past six months, okay? I wanted to make it up. Nico is the only reason I'm not dead right now. He's the reason I went from constantly trying to kill myself to being... Semi okay. To being able to laugh or smile and not feel bad that it was faked.

He's the reason I'm not as insecure about my body. I can swim shirtless now. That's like... Huge.

I've never been able to do that. Not without a shirt or makeup. Because I cover with makeup for swimming.

He was still asleep when we got there, and so I tapped to wake him up and got out, heading to his side to open the door for him. Be a gentleman. I'm capable of that much.

"Percy... What are..." Nico remarked, and rubbed his eyes before they went wide. He saw Hell's Kitchen behind me. "Percy, what are we doing at Hell's Kitchen? Isn't there like a family emergency we have to go to?"

He got out of the car and I closed the door behind him.

"Nope," I told my boyfriend. "There's no emergency, I made it up because we missed our flight this morning."

"Still," he said, a little confused. But he seemed really excited and it was adorable, let's be honest. "What are we doing here?"

"Well I know you didn't want to make a big deal out of our six month anniversary." I explained as the car drove away. "But I did and I know how much you love Gordon's shows. So happy six month anniversary."

He needed a moment.

"Oh my..." The son of Hades managed, looking behind us at the building and then back at me. "How? I've looked at reservations. They're expensive."

"I have connections," I assured him. "Gordon is my mom's cousin. Her aunt moved and got married in the UK. And Gordon will be spending Christmas with us. He has for the past couple years."

Nico store at me for a minute.

"Is that okay?" I asked.

He gave me a huge hug, which was... For once I didn't actually hate hugs. Which, I've never hated his hugs or Tyson's hugs. But I wasn't dreading the idea of a hug.

"It's perfect."

I gave him a small kiss before we headed inside.

Gordon

Serving family is not the same as serving celebrities. After Percy has gotten ahold of me for somehow getting a table here, I figured why the hell not.

I called him last night to ask him what the event was that this was for. He had the table and everything. Special guest star and the whole package deal. I figured that it's the least I could do for him. At least once.

This is for his six month anniversary.

So suddenly this was a big deal and I have stressed it to all of the cooks that this is an important dinner. Because if Percy decides to marry young and get married in like another six months, this dinner matters. This dinner has to be perfect.

And he didn't say he was going to propose or anything. Which let up a bit of the stress. All I knew was that this was for their six month anniversary, his boyfriend didn't know that I was related to Percy, but this guy apparently loved to watch all of my shoes. Which, when he said that, I felt honored.

Percy was one of the last ones to arrive and he somehow must've gotten his boyfriend to think something important was going on, because he was dressed up nice. They were shown to their table, and once appetisers were out, I went over to talk to them.and see how the food was and how they were..Outside of planning for this, I really haven't talked to Percy.

Now, this was an Italian themed night. Percy talked to me two months ago about this. This was planned. He said Nico loved Italian, it was just a suggestion.

So it's Italian night.

"Gordon, this is Nico," I was introduced to his boyfriend. Who might be younger than him? It was hard to tell. And we shook hands. He had a good, firm grip. Especially for his size. He was smaller. Skinnier, I should say. "Nico, this is Gordon."

We exchanged hellos and he had the accent. I had to ask.

"I heard you liked Italian," I pointed out to Nico and he nodded his head. "Are you Italian at all?"

"Yes!" Nico told me. "I am. I was born in Venice, actually. We moved to America when I was younger, probably 5. I loved Italy, haven't been able to go back, though. One day."

"Really?" I questioned, as that seemed odd. Over ten years and they haven't been back yet. "your parents haven't even gone?"

And that's where the confusion was.

"Oh, no," he explained. "My dad wasn't from Italy. He was visiting when he met my mom. But when we moved here my dad's brother sort of put a small bomb in our house in hopes to kill me and my older sister. But he ended up killing my mom and my older sister eventually died, too. It's been a long time, though, so don't feel bad. I'd feel worse for Percy, his dad is an asshole."