Hazel took Nico to the mall. It had been a week since he had been discharged from the hospital and Hazel had tried to spend as much time as she could with him. Nico seemed happier (he had cried only twice in her presence) but Hazel knew that sometimes people hid their tears behind smiles.
"Where are we going?" Nico asked.
"I was thinking you might like to go to Butch's Breeches and Co.," Hazel suggested.
"As long as it's better than Buford's Market," Nico said.
"Trust me, it is," Hazel replied.
As they walked towards their destination, Hazel thought of how Nico had quit his job. She was glad that he was removing himself from a stressful situation, but she worried that he might have trouble finding a job. If financial stress got to him, would he try to take his life again? Hazel had already buried a mother; how could she bury her brother?
"This place is too colorful," Nico announced as they walked into Butch's Breeches and Co. "Why are there rainbow-colored jeans? Who would buy them?"
"You'd be a surprised," a store employee said, walking up to them.
He was tall and muscular with a warm complexion and warm, brown eyes. He smiled and Hazel noticed he was wearing braces. Over the man's button-down red and orange jacket a nametag read "Butch." Hazel noticed tattoos decorating the man's forearms. She was able to make out a rainbow and a herd of flying Pegasi as Butch talked with his hand.
"What are you looking for?" Butch asked.
"Something less colorful than this," Nico said.
Hazel repressed a sigh. She loved her brother, but sometimes he was as difficult to deal with as a fungi-covered coffin. She suspected Butch was used to dealing with passive-aggressive customers because he merely flashed a smile as white as fluffy clouds.
"We have solid-colored clothes over in our Basics collection," Butch said.
"I don't want clothes that are one color and bright," Nico amended. "I want them black."
"Follow me to our Noir collection, then," Butch said breezily.
Nico sighed, but complied. Hazel followed the two men over to a small corner of the store where haphazardly folded clothes were crammed on a couple shelves.
"As you can, this is not one of our best-selling collections," Butch said.
"It should be," Nico said, rummaging through the clothes.
He checked the tags of clothes before stacking some in a pile on the ground. Butch looked at the pile with a mixture of alarm and excitement as it gradually grew.
"Alright," Nico said when he had gone through everything. "Where are the dressing rooms?"
Butch directed Nico over to them and Hazel was left waiting again. She sighed. Nico hadn't smiled in the week since he'd been released. It wasn't like he smiled often, but it still hurt to see him walking around like a crow with its feathers fluffed up against the cold. She wanted him to see the light again, but her nightmares were filled with the possibility of that never happening. If she couldn't give her mother a reason to live, then how could she help Nico find the will to keep on going?
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Judgmental (a Percy Jackson AU)
FanfictionWhat would you do if you were in their shoes? Percy Jackson has never had an easy life. Now finding a job is near impossible after his latest screw-up: landing in jail. Annabeth Chase planned her life out carefully. She did everything right, but...
