#last chapter! i can't believe i finished a non-pre-written WIP in less than a month

[tagthescullion]

Diplomacy: a Net of Embellished Lies

Fandom(s): Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus

Rating: G

Summary: Five times Nico lied to the people around him, and one time he told the truth.

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5

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Chapter 6: The Truth

I may have used you, but Nico used you and lied about it.

That’s what Gaea had said. But Gaea would have said anything back in that suffocating mud in Alaska for Hazel to let go.

You’re wondering if we can trust the guy. So am I.

Jason’s words had cut deeper than Hazel was willing to admit out loud. 

The few months she’d known Jason before his disappearance the year before, he’d always seemed like an agreeable boy. Perhaps a bit reluctant as a leader, Hazel had always found his jolly disposition faked to a certain degree, it made her think he wasn’t all too sure about what he was doing, but he’d always been honest and hardworking. And above all, he’d been understanding.

That empathy had clearly dissipated like hot steam when you opened the window after a shower.

Hazel sat on a comfortable armchair in her cabin, next to the sleeping form of her brother. 

After the absolutely ghastly day they’d had, she thought he deserved to sleep properly. And that he wouldn’t do if he was alone after the whole ordeal he’d been through. Much less on a ship with hostile allies.

She wasn’t sure how long he’d actually rest, he’d refused to go to bed for a long while, offering to take up the first few watches above deck, but eventually Hazel had coerced him into at least trying to get some shuteye.

He looked small, exhausted, too thin and gaunt. And yet, there was such an angelic definition to his sleeping face that Hazel had no doubt the prophecy’s line, ‘twins snuff out the angel’s breath’, wasn’t only referring to his surname.

Angels, however, weren’t supposed to lie.

Hazel’s idea of an angel was heavily influenced by the nuns in her childhood school. Sammy had once commented that biblical angels weren’t the cute cherubs they painted in churches, but in spite of all the reasoning he’d given, Hazel had still imagined a young-looking, humanlike creature dressed in a white tunic, and who did acts of good in the name of an all-forgiving God.

Hazel couldn’t quite believe in God after everything that had happened both to her and to the people she loved, but in her mind, Nico di Angelo was nothing short of a guardian angel.

He’d rescued her from death itself, guided her in a world that had changed almost entirely, led her to a safe space where she could try to belong. He was a shoulder to cry on, and a source of knowledge of all things mythical. Every time Hazel had felt everything was overwhelming, or whenever her blackout memories were happening too frequently, Nico had been there to offer his support. All of that in exchange for nothing. 

Had it been in exchange for nothing?

Hazel’s brain was battling itself. 

One side was falling prey to Gaea’s, Octavian’s, Jason’, even Leo’s mistrust. Nico had lied. He’d hidden important information from her, he’d lied openly to Percy, he’d betrayed Camp Jupiter’s hospitality by refusing to acknowledge the existence of another section of demigods.

The opposing side called all of that bullshit. Nico was her brother, the only family she had in this century. None of his lies had been personal, nor had he kept information for nefarious purposes. 

“You look troubled.”

Nico’s sluggish voice startled her.

He’d woken up and was looking at her with concern.

“It’s nothing,” Hazel said, trying to clear her expression.

Nico raised an eyebrow. His manner reminded Hazel of their father.

He stretched like a cat, crossed his legs, and leaned with his back to the wall and her comforter around him like a cocoon, despite the Mediterranean summer’s heat. 

“You are a terrible liar,” he said.

Unlike you. But Hazel couldn’t tell him that, could she?

Hell, of course she could. But whatever anger or mild betrayal she felt wasn’t strong enough to want to hurt him.

“I hope you’re feeling better,” she said instead.

Nico shrugged. “Physically, yeah, I guess.”

“Is your Catholic guilt acting up again?” She asked. 

Nico snorted. He seemed to be on the brink of despair. “It was my fault. I should have been quicker.”

“I could have been quicker too,” she told him. “And the rest. But even demigods have limitations.”

Nico wasn’t looking at her. 

“If they didn’t have to rescue me,” he muttered. “Percy could have gone to Annabeth sooner.”

“Even Percy has limitations, Nico,” she argued. “They would have fallen earlier, perhaps. What if they fell and we didn’t even know what had happened to them?”

He didn’t look much relieved. 

“We will find them,” Hazel promised. 

Finally, Nico looked her in the eye.

“Yes,” he agreed. “We will. I owe them that and more.”

“Why?” She asked.

“Why what?”

“Why do you ‘owe them’ so much?” She wondered.

“This and that,” he said, waving his hand dismissively.

“No.” 

The firmness in her own voice surprised her. And her brother too, his eyes snapped up to meet hers again.

“It’s always the same with you,” she told him. “You hide your past and expect the rest of us to ask no questions because ‘Pluto sent you’ and nobody dares challenge that. But it wasn’t Pluto who sent you, was it?” Hazel breathed in to give herself some courage. “It was Hades. You’ve been lying to us —to me— since last year!”

Nico had the decency to look ashamed. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were fixed on the sky outside her window.

“He told me not to—,” Nico started. “Father, I mean. He told me to pretend to be one of you guys. He said it would be easier if I made myself pass for a Roman demigod. Children of Pluto may be considered bad auguries but they’re better than a Greek demigod —you’ve seen how Octavian’s like—.”

“How did you find out about Camp Jupiter?” She inquired. 

“Father told me,” he answered. “I saw Jason and Reyna last year in Mount Tam. They were scouting the enemy lines, and so was I. I was curious because, well… because I’d never seen them before, and demigods that age weren’t likely to be alive without some training.”

“Did father tell you then?”

Nico huffed. “As if. He told me they weren’t enemies, that was all I needed to know, and that I stayed well away from them.”

“Which of course you ignored,” Hazel guessed.

Nico made a more-or-less gesture with his hand. “Father knew I wouldn’t leave it fully alone. But the war had begun, and I had to spend most of my time convincing him to be part of the battle.”

Hazel swallowed down the envy she felt at Nico so casually being invited to converse with their father. Pluto had ignored her for her whole life with the exception of two minimal conversations, yet Hades had allowed his 12-year-old son to convince him to take part in a battle. 

Still, it wasn’t Nico’s fault. 

“And then I saw you,” Nico continued. “I knew you were one of them, whatever it was they were, not a Greek demigod. But you were also my sister, I couldn’t leave you down in the Underworld if you could have another chance!”

“How did he react to that?” Hazel had never asked that before. Maybe she’d been afraid the answer would be awful.

Nico shrugged. “He wasn’t exactly happy I was messing around with life and death. But he was glad, I think. Your death was an unfair thing, he’d been upset about that.”

Hazel doubted Hades, or Pluto, or whatever he wanted to be called, had been upset necessarily, but it was kind of Nico to suggest it.

“Anyway,” her brother said. “He had to explain then, I couldn’t just take you to Camp Half-Blood. Chiron realised Jason didn’t belong immediately. He’d have known about you too, and he doesn’t like me at all, he wouldn’t have let you stay.”

“What about the ambassador thing?” She wondered. “Was that real or was it just an excuse to give you some leverage?”

“He told me to use that name,” Nico said, giving her a funny look. “I would never have come up with that alone, I don’t think I fit very well in the diplomatic category.”

“You know how to bend the truth to your convenience,” she argued. “A pity you hate people, you could have gotten far in life with that.”

Nico gave her a wry smile. “My grandfather was a diplomat, did you know?”

Of course she didn’t. She didn’t even know his mother’s name.

“I see you got the unsociable genes from the other side of the family,” she commented.

“Or from his wife,” Nico offered. “My nonna hated people too, but she was cleverer than I, because she knew through gossip you could blackmail others so she endured social events all the same.”

“Sounds charming,” Hazel deadpanned. 

“Hard times, I suppose,” he said. 

“Because of the war?”

Nico shook his head. “Because she was a woman born in the nineteenth century, more like.”

There was a moment of silence. Not too charged, Hazel thought. She’d learned more about Nico in a quarter of an hour than she had in almost a year. 

Nico leaned forward and took her hand.

“I’m sorry,” he said. Hazel knew he meant it. “I should have told you sooner. I…” He sighed. “At first I didn’t know if I could trust you. Don’t take it personally! I— I hate being disappointed by people, it’s easier to keep everyone at arm’s length. And then, as the time passed I thought —perhaps I hoped— that I could ditch the Greek side. In Camp Jupiter people may be wary of me, mistrustful now, but they’re not scared. I liked being there as if I belonged.”

Hazel squeezed his hand. She wasn’t sure why Nico owed so much to Percy Jackson if he wanted to leave that part of his life behind so badly, but she thought Nico had told her enough, it could wait for another day.

“You’ll always have a place in Camp Jupiter,” she promised him. “When we get back—” Not if, when. “Well, either we’ll be killing each other or we’ll leave all this resentment and hate behind. Let’s hope for the second one.”

“Mild difference, those two outcomes,” he stated.

Hazel rolled her eyes. “Let me put it in other words: either we’ll both be dead, or you’ll have a place in the Twelfth Legion if that’s what you want.”

Nico snorted a laugh. “Sums it up nicely.”

“Now let’s go eat something,” she pulled from his hand and got him up, comforter poncho included. “I’m starving, and I want you to eat something too.”

“I—”

“At least a couple of grapes, as an apology to me,” Hazel insisted. “And to whoever else you’ve been dishonest to in the past year.”

Her brother didn’t look amused. 

“Fine.”

#last chapter! i can't believe i finished a non-pre-written WIP in less than a month #hazel levesque #nico di angelo #jason grance #percy jackson #pjo #hoo #pjo hoo toa #riordanverse #pjo fic #mis fics #tagthescullion #embellished lies