The Stables | Saturday Night

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

For once, the chill in the air wasn't Nico's fault. He didn't mind it so much, but he turned up the collar of his jacket to fit in with the rest of the world right before he walked into a shadow just off the boardwalk. Sure it was a quick trip on foot, but Nico liked shadow traveling and Mrs. O'Leary didn't mind his sudden appearance in her section of the stables.

Especially when he'd brought food to share. "How do feel about tacos?" Nico asked, holding up a steaming to-go bag he'd procured from El Burrito Loco. Mrs. O'Leary's whole back end wagged in anticipation as the demigod withdrew a shiny triangle from the bag and proceeded to unwrap it. "I won't tell Percy I gave you an extra dinner if you don't."

Yeah, because he needed to worry about Mrs. O'Leary talking. For the moment at least, the only thing Nico had to worry about was her drooling on his shoulder before he could toss the tacos toward her giant hellhound mouth. Turned out his collar had a secondary purpose - keeping the slobber at bay.

[Stable open! Note: Mrs O'Leary looks like a poodle to normal humans.
ETA: The Luke parts of the conversation are NFB por favor!]

Comments

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"It's not about this Luke," Nico countered, watching Percy with his hellhound and wishing he had something to call his own. "It's about what's going to happen to you the next time you see Kronos wearing his favorite Luke suit."

Nico had a special hope for their Luke.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Percy stared at Nico and shook his head. "I know the difference. This changes nothing when I see that Luke. You think I'll hesitate? Is that what this is about?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Ding ding ding! Percy Jackson's figured it out!" Nico rolled his eyes again with a huff. "Dude, like it wasn't already hard to fight him. Now that you're all...involved I can't even say." And he couldn't. Apollo would kick his ass and never let him drive the sun.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Percy threw one of his hands up and shook his head. "You're an idiot. I know the differences. I've had people yell at me and lecture me about one person not being the other. You need to trust me or go on whining and making me remember how you were when I met you."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Nico was all ready to say fine, he'd had to try but he'd drop it when Percy had to call him a whiner and bring up their past.

"Don't go digging in the past, Percy. You don't know what it was like for me." If his words weren't enough of a warning, Nico's eyes flashed another.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"And you don't know how it's going to go for me so stop assuming that I'm going to risk everything just because of the thing I have with Luke," Percy snapped, laying off talking about the past for now.

"Truth is, you don't know. Neither do I. So lay off."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Nico hated when Percy had a point, but he could back off. For now. "Fine, but you know as well as I do that I had to say something. Apollo be damned, some things are too important to just ignore and hope for the best."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I know," Percy admitted, shrugging and rubbing his eyes. "But you should have said something. Punching me in front of a class just means I'm gonna retaliate."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I had a lot of pent up energy and stuff that week," Nico said, looking down at one of Mrs. O'Leary's massive paws. "Sorry if I hurt your face. Not that it lasted long."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I can't help that water loves me that much," Percy said, shrugging and giving Mrs. O'Leary head a pat. "And you weren't the only one feeling like that. It was kinda fun getting a chance to fight again."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Like Percy hadn't been busy in Nico's room that week. "Yeah. I almost miss the monsters. I haven't gotten to use any powers in a fight for a while."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Hey, it might not have been making out in the woods, Nico, but it was something.

"You could take your chances and go for a walk off island," Percy suggested. "They might smell you."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Right, because raising the dead in public's always a good idea. There's only so much the Mist can deal with, you know?" And he didn't need Chiron calling him out for being reckless.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I've been a fugitive before, it's not so bad," he joked, shaking his head and smiling at Mrs. O'Leary. "You get your picture in the paper and everything."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Of course you'd be proud of that," Nico said, opening his bag and pulling out a cooled taco to consume. "Lucky me, no one knows my name so I'd be pretty safe from the media."

It wasn't luck so much as everyone being dead. And Nico being 81 years old.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I'm not proud of that, I was kidding," Percy said, shaking his head. "Freaked my mom out pretty good. I'm sure the press were on her doorstep every time it happened."

He did feel bad about that.

"Gabe took it as an opportunity to sell himself."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"He sounds like a total tool," Nico replied, having heard just enough about the man to make that judgment. "Your mom's cool though. She seems to take this whole thing pretty well."

Even the blowfish guy got into it in the end, after all.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, she's cool," Percy said. Of course he thought that, though. "Anyone who can take on the Minotaur and not be too messed up is cool."

Percy had been the one kinda wrecked after that.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Man, you always did get to kill the coolest things," Nico remarked, suppressing the urge to share the Minotaur's attack power. "Not that it helps much here. Only thing I've done is kill flying zombie fish with Jason." Uh huh.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Jason?" Percy couldn't help pulling a face at his double's name. "He any good?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

It was almost entertaining to see Percy's distaste for Jason.

"Very," Nico assured his cousin with a new smile. "He only had a baseball bat, but I could see him joining our ranks if things ever got ugly here."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Jason was a face stealer. Percy was always going to think that Jason sucked. It was just gonna be a thing.

"It's good to know he's got more than just a big mouth," Percy quipped, shrugging. "I thought he just liked to run his mouth."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"What do you mean by that?" Nico asked, almost defensive of his friend who actually had a really nice mouth, truth be told.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"What do you mean what do I mean?" Percy asked, looking confused. "Seems like it was pretty clear. He has a big mouth."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"What'd he say that makes you think that?" Nico asked, managing not to sigh at Percy's stupid. "Since I know you don't mean the size of it."