Shattered

Nico

"Then put the little triangle before the 'T'."

"The little triangle before the 'T'... Really Jackson?"

"What is that not right? Let me see my work again."

"No, your answer is correct, but the little triangle? Really?"

"Well what's wrong with it?"

"That's the Greek letter Delta!"

"Huh, I guess it is. I never noticed that before."

There was a sigh. "How did you make it this far in life?"

"Honestly, it was a team effort."

That was the strange conversation Nico woke up to. He couldn't quite tell who was talking, as everything sounded as if he was underwater. He knew one of them must have been Percy, but who was he talking too? Jason? Poseidon? Demeter? His father? Then he realized that Percy was alive!

And so was he!

With that epiphany his eyes flew open. After the initial blurriness faded and his eyes focused, he realized that he was in his bed at Demeter's farm. Nico slowly turned his head to the source of the argument and couldn't process what he was seeing.

Okay, I must have died. Or this is some kind of fever dream.

There sitting across from him on Percy's bed, was the raven haired son of Poseidon and the lord of the underworld. His father was sitting at the edge of the bed, holding Percy's Precalc notebook in one hand while writing down something with the other. Percy was sitting upright in the bed, trying to read whatever his father was writing down. The older teen's hands were wrapped in bandages, as well as his right forearm. His right leg was propped up on top of two frilly pink pillows and was wrapped in bandages from his knee down to his ankle.

But he's alive. That's what matters.

"I could understand if Grace didn't know the Greek alphabet, but you? Delta was Daedalus' calling card! Nico told me all about it!" his father cried, staring at Percy in disbelief.

The son of Poseidon rubbed the back of his neck with one bandaged hand. "Oh yeah. Kind of forgot about that!"

He thought about making some kind of noise to announce his presence, but decided this was too rare of an opportunity to pass up; Percy and his father interacting without them being knowingly watched?

Nico knew that his father wasn't Percy's biggest fan; the accusation of him stealing Zeus' master bolt and years of watching him deal with his unrequited feelings for the son of Poseidon had made sure of that. But lately though he wasn't so sure of his father's feelings for the older teen. His father seemed to care for Percy's wellbeing, not just physically but mentally as well. He had caught the god telling Percy that he would be there for him if he ever wanted to talk. Whenever the lord of the underworld would depart from the farm house he would ruffle Percy's hair as well as his. He even seemed to be slipping him some extra allowance money to spend on the son of Poseidon.

"Okay now that you have found the rate at which the balloon is deflating," his father said, trailing off to let Percy finish.

He watched as Percy pursed his lips, deep in thought, before he answered, "we multiply that by seven seconds."

Hades nodded with a slight smile. "And?"

"We... subtract the volume we just found from the original volume of the balloon."

Now his father was beaming with pride at the son of Poseidon. "Excellent," he cried as he wrote down what Nico assumed was the remainder of Percy's homework. When he finished he closed the notebook and set it on the nightstand between their beds. "I believe you are now officially caught up with your school work."