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For the record, Percy has loved his brother's brain since 2007.
Nico showed up, joked about surfing, and Percy immediately realized that he would kill everyone in this room, and then himself, if necessary for Nico. Niko offered to plunge into Oblivion so that Percy could not be killed, Niko was the first to learn about Rome, Niko dragged the statue of Athena, Niko…
However, no, this story should not start with Niko, but with the camp. Yes, perhaps the problem is not in the specific god, but in the very atmosphere of teenage madness.
When Percy Jackson changed and remained just Percy, Mr. D did not immediately transfer the camp to him. And how could he leave Percy in charge of those who saw him as anything but a god? Clarissa, who came for the weekend, said that Jackson was a fucking faggot, and in principle this described the attitude of all the older half-breeds towards him: the youngest of them were already approaching the age of eighteen, they had gone through wars and through attempts to hide their problems in alcohol, drinking quietly after lights out so that neither the children nor Chiron would find out. With Mr. Dee. However, after a dozen years? When did all these children really grow up (and die)?
That day, Percy looked at the older half-bloods during practice, who were trying their best to do all the exercises, but Percy saw everything quite clearly. He was the same way not so many years ago.
At dinner, Percy said, it's short and to the point, “there will be penalties for alcohol.” They believed him: despite the jokes of all his beloved cousins, the children still saw authority in him, which was just wonderful.
But back to Nico: Percy knew he was letting the kids drink. Percy looked after his children perfectly, sparing no effort to listen whenever he was called by his first name, fearing that he was called in a moment of fear or helplessness. Percy was watching, but Nico knew on which days Percy was vacationing with another part of the family: Hypnos, Hero or Poseidon, and Nico rarely called him by name... In short, Nico knew when to allow the children to bring a bottle of mild alcohol and pour it for the company. And Percy knew it, but the bottle wasn't nearly as scary as what Percy had faced in his time.
But Percy loved his brother's brain not because of that, but because, unlike Percy's head, there was order in it. Once, when he was still a demigod, he complained about the thoughts that kept bouncing back and forth-the charms of ADHD and the song stuck on the edge of his consciousness; however, none of this could be compared to what Percy felt when he became a god. He followed a whole horde of children, he thought that he would have to visit their mortal parents, kept in mind that he should spend time with Apollo, and finally wished for a simple human embrace with a partner for at least a century.
Niko really arranged everything.
Percy, breathing heavily, adjusted his native anaclousmos. The brother was standing completely calm in the middle of the arena, and this completely angered Percy. The children screamed as Percy gathered his strength and attacked Nico.
Nico was a god in the body of a twenty—five-year-old boy, Percy was a seventeen-year-old mortal teenager, and yet at twelve he defeated Ares, so the younger god didn't scare him so much. Especially the younger god, whose techniques Percy knew as his own.
To knock out someone else's punch, slip under the hand raised for a swing, twist your own and intercept the Anaclousmos. Nico wasn't the least bit tired, but the kids were gasping, as they did with every fight, and that meant something: when Percy Jackson fought Hades, everyone was just praying for him.
Nico tried to go on a fierce offensive, but Percy was able to act quickly, and although he could not match the strength of a mortal god, he was still a master swordsman and deftly pushed Nico back.… After seventeen minutes, he began to get tired, twenty—five - he almost tripped over his own foot, at the twenty-sixth minute he could not withstand the blow of Niko's blade and, withdrawing his arm too abruptly, fell by inertia after anaklousmus. The punch in the nose came pretty quickly.
The blood tasted good. Percy didn't think he'd ever miss the taste of iron, but so many decades had passed, and now he was licking it off like an idiot, with Nico grumbling and the children gasping.
"Don't scream like that, no one will die or be reborn from a broken nose," Percy laughed softly and a little hysterically. Niko shushed him. “Who knows how to handle a first-aid kit? Fix this idiot's nose, and do whatever you need to do. Why are you shouting like that? Your director has gone crazy and agreed to become a mortal for a day, don't worry, tomorrow morning he will torture us again.”
In general, yes, Percy was offered to become a mortal for a day. Torment him and give him a good night's sleep without the help of his partner. An ingenious plan, if you turn a blind eye to the fact that Percy had half a thousand children under his control, none of whom had any special self-control.
Percy didn't know. He slept on Niko in the house of Hades. His brother was warm and big, and even though he grumbled that Percy had a pillow to sleep on, he actually didn't mind spending the whole night like this. That is, at first they talked and watched ancient movies that none of the children understood (Percy refused to recognize them as his children when he first heard that the Avengers were boring). And then Percy fell asleep, and Nico didn't even move, guarding his brother's sleep, allowing him to enjoy these last moments of a mortal and healthy body, and not the one Percy Jackson had.
Everything came to light in the morning when Percy, divine, rested and with a whole nose, showed up at breakfast and did not see half of the children. That is, at first he was scared, and then… Then he looked back at his brother, at these pathetic guys, and got angry.
Okay, okay, until you decide to lift me up on a pitchfork (and no, not that century, but did you understand me?): I don't really support Percy's methods because it's very cruel, but the kids... overreacted, just like Niko.… However, yes, I am an impartial storyteller, for sure.
"Tell your siblings that we're going to have a long morning workout today. The huntress and Artemis are coming soon, and I don't want to blush in front of any of my sisters.”
And he left to inspect the condition of the camp, because he had to invent a punishment for a couple hundred children and, gods be right, there weren't that many places in the camp, even if he forced them to clean every pebble with toothbrushes: two hundred half-bloods and one god would fix everything too quickly.
In training, Percy did not shout, he did not even raise his voice: he walked clearly and steadily with Niko and corrected everyone, until even experienced warriors began to breathe heavily, barely holding their hands with heavy weapons. Percy smirked when someone decided to ask for a break.
“Will you tell the monsters about the break too? Or the Waistline? This handful of girls will smash you all in the first minutes of the capture the flag game if you don't get together.”
Anyway, okay, Percy couldn't torture the kids that much. Morning practice lasted an hour longer than usual when Chiron folded his arms and told him to let the half-bloods go, and Percy never argued with the teacher.
He ordered lights out and housecleaning: a whole hour for the children to cover their tracks. Percy knew who took the hint and who thought about it. that the cleanliness squad would go through the houses, which were themselves as clean as the others. They all walked together from the arena to the main clearing, and only there did they split up.
The crowd, which was quieting down with every step (Percy could hear the idea of where to hide the bottles in the fading whispers), spread out into the houses, and for the first time no one joked with Percy goodbye or asked Nico anything. Everyone suddenly seemed to realize that they were being raised by the gods and the last thing they wanted was to be punished. Nico jerked himself when Percy grabbed him by the neck.
Nico could have escaped, but they were both immortal again, which meant that sooner or later Percy would have found him in the underworld, in Rome, or even in the camp house. It didn't make sense to run, but it definitely made sense to fight.
Nico grabbed Percy by the elbow and knocked his brother to the ground with his hip. I must say that it wasn't even a clean move (I did it much more elegantly when I was sixteen) and Percy, of course, noticed this.
"Are you having mating games again?" Hestia pulled up one knee and looked at them with a chuckle.
“No, I wanted you to shame him," Percy rolled over, pressing someone else's hand and all his weight on Nico's neck while the god tried to stick his tongue out at him.
“Nico, you can't do that," Hestia shrugged, “Percy, you can't do that either."
“I didn't even say anything," he released his brother and resentfully sat down on the grass.
“And I've known you since you were three years old, you can't suggest this to Hera, she'll agree”.
Niko just sighed heavily, and Percy gave his aunt a high five. It's nice to be the beloved child of the queen of the gods.
I laughed a lot when Percy told me what happened next, so I think I'll skip everything that happened between this huge violation of the rules and our arrival at the camp.
“Talia, you're disgusting," Niko pursed his lips and tried to kick me in the shin, like I became mortal because I didn't prevent drunkenness in the camp. "Since when do you two even follow the rules?"
Percy laughed as he lay on the grass in the main clearing. It was the middle of the night, and although Lady Artemis trusted these two (it's hard not to trust a guy who doesn't even have sex with his partner, and a gay), the only place we could meet was here. Nico winced when Percy, without getting up from the grass, ran his hand through his hair.
“It happens when you start making them up, bro. I'm sure you'll figure it out one day, too”.
And well, this god in the body of a twenty-five-year-old guy stuck out his tongue at us. The question remained open: who entrusted these two children?