Nico di Angelo is a frequent cover face for many magazines. A talented young CEO of the di Angelo cooperation that grows ever more influential. He is among the most desirable man out there according to numerous surveys.
But the man sitting on the throne right now is far more striking than any photos ever taken of the di Angelo heir. His silky ebony hair tipped in gold, a burning crest make up the crown floating on top of his head, the night sky of his eyes replaced by the glowing sun, ruby-liked feathers dusted his olive skin and on his back are a pair of golden wings rivaling stars.
They say that in his real form, the deity is powerful enough to eclipse heaven and covers the earth in darkness. Nico di Angelo is a man to be respects and fears.
But currently, he’s a very bored man.
Every hundred years, he has to comes to this meeting between heavenly deities and every single time, he hates it. There are six thrones, one at both ends of the table and two on each side. Nico occupies one of the thrones at the head. While opposite to him is the mischievous smile of Luke, the Golden Kirin also known as the fifth and center god of the Four Holy Beasts. He takes on the appearances of a handsome young man with blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. A single glowing horn sprouts in the middle of his forehead.
Lord Octavian, the Black Tortoise of the North and bringer of Winter grumblingly seats on the right along with Annabeth Chase, the High Lady of Autumn, and the White Tiger of the West. Facing them are the Lady of Summer Rachel Dare, her long curly hair resembles the burning flame. Fitting for the Red Bird of the South. But the throne beside sadly left vacant.
The seat of the Azure Dragon, Lord of the East and bringer of Spring had been unoccupied for a while. And the others didn’t particularly appreciate the extra workloads put on them in order to keeps balance in the world. And Nico is the receiving end to those complaints. Every. Single. Time.
“We need a successor to the title of the Azure Dragon.” Lady Annabeth starts.
Here we go again, Nico silently curses from his seat.
“Well, consider it impossible then.” Octavian laments, “There is no one with the dragon bloodline left to inheritances the power. Even members from the closest lineage are rare to come by and they are not fitted for the position. In fact, I bet Leo Valdez is the only dragon descent that we know.”
“What a shame, he could have been a perfect candidate.” Lady Rachel says, “Sadly, his winged dragon form isn’t recognized by the throne.”
Luke rests his head on his left hand, the smirk didn’t leave his face, “I understand you guys concerns. But it’s something can’t be done, considering some stuff happened in the past. Isn’t that right, Nico?”
Bastard.
Nico throws the blonde deity a death glare, “My clan may have been overdoing a little bit”, he mutters.
Octavian scoffs at the remark, “A little bit? Right.” His snake tail hiss in agreement. That little snake has a surprisingly large vocabulary of insult words.
“A whole clan went into close extinction and that is just a little bit?! The previous Azure Dragon lord went missing right at the end of the war and ever since we have to keeps things not falling apart”
“I have to agree with Lord Octavian here, oddly enough.” Lady Annabeth subtly throws a glare at the man before turning to looks at Nico, “I know there was a feud between the two families but as I said before. It was a little extreme and now we are facing the consequences”
“Now, now, let not blame this on anyone,” Luke says halfheartedly.
Nico is irritated by all the commotions, he has a company to run and life to deals with. What he doesn’t need is people to guilt trip him for something out of his control.
“I’m out of here!” Nico declares. Standing up from his throne.
And before Annabeth or Octavian could stop him like before, Nico is gone with a snap of a finger.
“Here we go.” Rachel muses alongside Luke, while Octavian and Annabeth are less than, please.
Nico appears outside the castle-like building that hidden from mortals’ eyes. To them, it’s just a nicely built private estate.
The presence of the sun absences from the blue sky, winds gently blows through the city as people busy on their own business. Nico fixes his suit as he sets out for a walk with nowhere in mind particular. He even when as far as to hide his aura, no one could find him unless he wants to. Nico trusts that Frank, Selena, and Ethan will handle the company’s business just fine, right now he wants to be alone.
Until the scent of freshly baked bread and deserts stops him from his track of aimlessly wandering. Nico stops in front of a blue painted building; Poseidon & Proserpina bakery writes in white elegantly, contrast with the ocean blue color. There are artworks depicting waves and seashells carves into the walls of the shop. Without hesitation, Nico decides that this would be a nice place to stop for a while, he opens the door and steps inside.
The interior takes him by surprise, the place looks like a little garden with blooming flowers of various color. Blush green plants cover the walls, letting only glimpses of the original blue paints. Whoever taking up all these plants are doing a marvelous job in order to maintain this many plants and flowers.
It’s a bit cooler than the outside but Nico doesn’t mind much as he heads to the metallic table, while eyeing the sample sweets behind the glass.
“Uhm, sir. We are about to close” suddenly an angel descent in front of him. Messy black hair that looks so soft, healthily tanned skins from the sun and those big bright blue-green eyes that triumphs all precious gems. The beautiful angel even wearing a blue frilly apron on top a white short, while showing off those nice long legs. Nico is completely stunned by the ethereal beauty of the guy standing before him that his brain short-circuits for a minute before able to process what is being said to him.
“I’m sorry” Nico slips. Eyes still being so captivated by the gorgeous mortal.
“Didn’t you see the sign outside?” There was a sign?!
“Urg, I’m…lost,” Nico says.
The beauty angel takes a judging looks at him from top to bottom while raising an eyebrow, “Yeah, I never see you before. You know what. Luckily, I have some cakes left. Why join me, handsome suit?”
Nico’s brain officially shuts downs after the charming angel throws a teasing smile at him, it’s harder to forms a comprehensive sentence at this point.
“I don’t want to intrude beside let me pay you at least”
“Nah, I’m close now so no need to pay me”, the angel playfully winks at him and Nico’s heart skips a beat or two. Or three, “Just wait for me a minute”
The lovely angel quickly disappears behind a door that presumably leads to the kitchen. Only to reappears with a tray of the tea set and two plates, each with a slice of red velvet cake on top.
“Here you go”, the blue angel happily set the tray down before handing him his plate.
“Thank you”, Nico carefully set the plate down.
“I’m Percy by the way” the blue angel introduces, “Perseus Jackson”
“Nico di Angelo. Nico to meet you.” The cake seems to melt inside his mouth as Nico take a bit. Honestly, this is the best red velvet cake he ever eats and that is the highest compliment Nico could give. Considers, Silena’s cooking is something to dies for.
“This is delicious”
“Thank you, Nico.” Percy laughs, “I learn from the best. My mom used to work at a bakery and her mother was also an avid baker. I guess I'm inheriting her love for baking when I opened this little shop”
“This is a lovely place. It’s so unique, like a combination of the sea and garden”, Nico comments.
“Yeah, I try to put my love for the sea and gardening into this place.” Percy seems to radiant in happiness, his eyes shine as he talks about this precious bakery, “My friends help me found this building and we basically rebuilt everything from scratch.”
“I’m glad” Nico nods, “That I’m lucky enough to find this place”
“How flattering” Percy laughs, a faints pink dust his face. And a part of Nico wishes to see Percy laughing like that forever.
“Enough about me, how about you, Nico?”
“Urg…I came from a big family you could say” Nico slowly confess, it has been a while since Nico feels so much comfortable to talks about himself, “I have six older siblings and a younger sister. My family comes to New York from Italy a long time ago and have been here ever since. I work for my family business for a while now.”
“It must be nice to be surrounded by lots of brothers and sisters then?” Percy asks.
“On the contrary, it’s tiring. They can be a pain in the butt but I tolerances them.” Nico sighs, “But we are all protective of Hazel, she is the youngest of the family and we are all worried about her”
“Understandable, I also have a little sister,” Percy says, “My mom and Paul married a year ago and now Tyson and I have Estelle to spoils rotten.”
“Paul?” Nico asks.
“Yeah, he’s my step-father.” Explains Percy, “Turn out, my father is married to another woman when he with my mom. I heard he’s with his own family somewhere in the far north of some Nordic countries now. It was just mom, Tyson and I for a while before Paul steps into our life”
“I’m so sorry” Nico suddenly has a surge of hatred for the irresponsible man that is Percy’s biological father. Cheated on your spouse is something Nico vows never to do and hearing this make his blood spoils.
Maybe he could do some digging later on and accidents happen every time.
Nico’s phone abruptly light up with a ding.
Nico, where are you?
Luke tells me that you abruptly disappear from the meeting.
Annabeth and Octavian are not happy, and they might or might not tell Bianca and Thalia about your behavior?!
Frank.
And another one.
Nico, what did you do?! This is not acceptable! What if father hears about this? We will talk when I get back from Germany.No, Thalia! Don’t encourage this.
Bianca Grace di Angelo.
Nico read the messages and can’t help but be annoyed by the implication of its. Now Bianca will not leave him alone, she would be scolding him about being a proper heir to the family and so on.
“What’s wrong?” Percy curiously asks.
“It’s my friend. I ran away from a boring meeting and now my older sister will have a talk with me later on.” Nico complains, “I better go back”
“Tough luck” Percy softly smiles, “Yeah, it’s getting dark. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nico”
“Me too, Percy. I’ll come back if I manage to survive” Nico jokes. While thinking that he might spread the words of how delicious Poseidon & Proserpina bakery is. Nico knows enough people to boosts this underrated bakery, and with luck, he might be able to get away from Bianca.
“I’ll wait then” Percy offers his hand and Nico happily take it for a friendly hand-shake.
Just as their hand touches, an electric shock runs through them and caught the pair by surprise. Both quickly retreats their hands in shock.
“Huh, that never happens before” as Percy questions. Nico is left aghast, just for short seconds but Nico clearly sees a faints patch of glimmering blue-green with hinted of gold scales on Percy’s hand before its quickly vanish.
His heart hammering inside his chest as Nico takes a quick look around the bakery as realization dawns on him. Blooming flowers, green plants, an overwhelming blueness. This must be a joke.
Fate is a joke.
No way.
Nico stares deeps into the lovely eyes before him.
Could Percy be the last living of the bloodline that thought to be gone?
Could Percy…have the Dragon bloodline?
Could Percy be…the Azure Dragon’s heir?
At that point, Nico knows his life is changing.
