PARENTHOOD // PERCICO

chapter five - splashing about

Nico had thought Zoella had been clingy before all of this, but hell, it had gotten so much worse. Well, not worse. Just different. It was less when she was sleeping and more just ... always. She never wanted to be without one of them now, rather it was Nico or Percy, she just wanted to be seen with them.

According to Nico's baby books, which, the more he raised a kid, the more he realized those aren't completely accurate- but, even still, according to them, Zoella was gaining 'object permanence' so now she liked it when they were there in her sight, and pretty much hated it when they weren't.

But, really, it wasn't that much different. Just laying her down on the floor was not really an option anymore.

However, Zoella wasn't the only one having problems with separation. Nico was currently at the training camp and that meant he hadn't seen his baby and he was extremely worried. Not because he didn't think Percy couldn't take care of her. Despite his stupid moments, he was actually very smart and capable. However, he was just a worrier, so not knowing what was going on with Zo was stressing him out.

Also, teaching? Kind of crazy. These kids were like- seven through ten. Which, sure, they were now competent enough to learn basics, but they didn't really listen. Most of them were there because their parents were worried that there would be another attack.

Some of them wanted to be there. There were these two siblings, a ten year old girl, and a seven year old boy. He saw him and Bianca in them and that was... scary. Then, there was a 9 year old girl, she wasn't exactly super happy to be there, but she was just good at everything they had gone over so far.

Then there were two more boys- who Nico thought they were only friends considering they were close in age, too close to be siblings- and didn't give him twin vibes, but were very close. They also seemed like they had begged their parents to let them attend.

They also were very interested in Nico. 'Can you really shadow travel?' 'Can you show us?' 'Did you really bring that really big statue across the world?' 'How was Tartarus?' 'How'd you get out?' 'Is your dad really Pluto- or Hades?' 'Were you really locked in a jar once?'

He wanted to answer those questions but at the time didn't want to get into that. Because, well, they were like nine. So, he always gave them the dumbed down answers. "Yes, no, yeah- but I had help, not great, don't wanna talk about that, yes, yup."

What else was he supposed to say to all that.

"Alright everybody, that was..." He thought about a word to say. He didn't want to lie to these children, but 'fantastic' was not a word to describe their work for the day. "... great," He ended up settling with. "But the day's come to an end, I'll see you all Monday," He laughed awkwardly as one of the other kids decided to swing another shot at the dummy. "And we'll introduce archery, so that'll be fun..." He said, trying his best to convince the kids it would be.

Despite having one, and thinking he was doing pretty good with handling her, he actually wasn't the best with children. "But let's all clean up because I have a daughter I've been dying to get back to," He said, starting to grab the broom to sweep up the mess of hay that had been created with the amount of sword stabs the dummy had gotten.

Soon all the kids piled out except for one. She never left until Nico left. It was kind of weird but Nico never said anything. It was the same girl that was good at everything, but always acted like she didn't want to be there.

Pick a side. Do you want to be here or do you not?

"Do you want any help?" She asked, sitting in one of the chairs in the corner.

Her voice shocked Nico. Usually she didn't talk. "Um... you're good, don't worry about it," he said, smiling a bit as he swept everything into a power.