Being Human: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

An Awkward Game of Chess: Chapter 13

I was playing chess and... uh, had this idea. I know it's totally irrelevant, but whatever. Our "mystery child" decided to add it in.  I feel like I should add some Percy/Nyx friendship fluff, so here you go. I don't really have a lot of Percy/Nyx in here, so here you go. Nyx and Percy just... hanging out. I've seen a lot of authors add kind-of irrelevant chapters in books, so here's mine. 
(Also, you kind-of have to read or else some stuff in the future might not make sense. Okay? Okay. Have fun reading!)

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Nyx felt the need to visit me every week (I think it was a week- time is difficult in Tartarus), whether it was in dream or if she just showed up at the shack. I never told her, but I enjoyed her company. It got lonely.

Sure, every once and a while an empousa or two would show up and talk to me, tell me what's happening up top, but it didn't happen often. At least I knew who lived and who died now- turns out the 7 gained (partial) immortality and Jason died on a quest. 

Where was I? Oh, right. Nyx's visits. Well, today when Nyx came, she brought something I hadn't seen in a long time: a chess set. Yeah, I can play chess. Don't question it. 

"What do you have for me today?" I asked, eyeing the wooden box Nyx held in her hands.

She smiled, setting down the box so I could see it. 

"Chess?" I questioned.

"You seem familiar with it," she said. "Have you ever played before?"

"Yeah, I actually have," I answered, remembering when Annabeth had taught me to play. She told my mom we were going to play chess, and my mom didn't believe her. Imagine her surprise when she came in 10 minutes later to see us playing chess.  

Nyx smiled and set the box down, taking the pieces out. "I suppose you could help set up the board then." I knew it wasn't a question. It was a command, and I obeyed it.

I chose white, and she went with black. No surprise there. 

I took the first move, as white does, and moved a pawn two spaces forwards. "Anything new?" I asked.

She moved a pawn, and answered, "Nothing too important."

I hummed, moving a knight. "One of the empousa visited yesterday."

"Oh?" she asked, moving another pawn, but putting her rook in the open if I could move the pawn in my path. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," I said somberly. I moved my pawn so she could capture it with the one in front of her rook. "My friend Jason passed away on a quest."

"The son of Jupiter?" she asked after taking a moment to move her knight.

I captured her knight with mine. "Yes, it's a shame I didn't get to say goodbye."

She didn't respond, and captured my pawn. 

I smiled, moving my rook all the way to capture hers.

She scowled, making another move with a bishop.

We continued on like that for a while. Making moves, talking about the little things.

Zagreus came and rested his head on my feet. I patted his head and watched closely as Nyx made her next move.

I smiled, and moved my knight. "Checkmate."

Wide-eyed, she stared at the board, taking in every position of every piece. "Best two out of three?" 

I grinned. "You know it."

She won the next round, but I ended up winning in the end. 

Two to one. 

"Rematch," she ended up saying at the end of the third round. 

I had a feeling we would play every week. 

Why?

She left the set on the table.