Nico Di Angelo: Death, Fear, and New Siblings

Chapter 2: the hero comes home

I do not own PJO or HOO. The true owner of either of those series’ is Rick Riordan.

Paul Blofis’ P.o.V.

Sally was ecstatic, her not so little boy was coming home after all that time, and he had apparently saved the world again. As his step-father I couldn’t be more proud, or happy. The last year had been horrible: Sally had been in a deep depression, people at work were questioning as to where Percy had gone. Even his classmates were worried. Annabeth came over all the time to check in and give us updates but even she was a mess. Then when she left to go find him the only thing she could talk about was how dangerous the quest they were going on was. But now all of that was over. Percy, Annabeth and Nico would be here any minute for dinner. There was a knocking on the door, Sally nearly tripped as she ran to open it but before she could get there it opened. Percy stepped into the room. As I looked at him, with his eyes holding back more pain and wisdom than ever before, with the plethora of scars covering his body which was more tan and well-muscled than I had ever seen it; my mind took me back to the first time I had met him.

I had been with sally for maybe a month. She had told me all about him, and despite his record, which would scare the proverbial pants off of anyone with my chosen profession she could say nothing bad about him. She didn’t make excuses for the things he did, she just acted like they weren’t a problem. I would learn much later that that was because they were so much less of a problem than Percy’s real troubles. Still, Percy had been made to look like a delinquent. On top of that he had had trouble with step-parents in the past and if he didn’t like me I would be gone before I knew what had happened. Percy was Sally’s entire world, and at the end of the day nothing mattered more to her that him. So I stood at the door to her apartment; I was petrified, it was a sad sight really. After taking several moments to collect myself I managed to knock on the door.

“Could you get that Percy” came sally’s voice.

“Sure thing” came another voice that I guessed was Percy. The door opened and a tall well-built teen who could be mistaken for eighteen as easily as fourteen stood before me. His dark hair had a grey stipe in it and I couldn’t decide if it was dyed or natural. He was wearing an orange shirt from the camp he goes to, his jeans where well worn, as well as his shoes but the look worked well for him. The most striking things about Percy were: his eyes, their deep green holding so many layers that I could tell he had seen things no teenager should ever have to, and how normal he was, he was polite and a little goofy, he had a firm handshake and walked easily and smoothly. He was nothing like the stories I had heard of him made him out to be.

“Hello I’m… ” I tried to say before he cut me off.

“Paul right? I’m Percy.”

                Over the course of the night I learned never to judge Percy because no matter how much you know there is still something you don’t, even if you’re Sally. Despite doing poorly in school, not liking to read and being dyslexic he was well read in Greek literature. He had managed to read the Iliad, The Odyssey, the ballads of Orpheus and Theseus and The labors of Heracles. He was a leader at his camp, had several friends none of them whom could be considered bad influences, he was an athlete who was good at swimming basketball, and apparently fencing, though he said he has an unusual style. Apparently he was just unfortunate in that trouble followed him wherever he went. Of course he was also protective of Sally and was able to thread a number of subtle threats into every conversation we had had.

“I hope you don’t wind up like Gabe” he said at one point.

“Why what happened to Gabe?” I asked walking right into the trap. I knew that Gabe was

Sally’s abusive ex and that he was Percy’s old step-dad

“Oh he disappeared, no one knows where he is now, and I don’t want you to wind up like him.”