Disclaimer: I do not own the fantabulous Percy Jackson series or its characters. That is Rick Riordan's only. I can only try to do his characters justice by writing fanfiction.

Meanwhile, enjoy this Elf AU Solangelo Story. I'm not sure if there will be side ships, but there will be brief mentions of a few.

I'm so sorry if the characters are OOC, this is my first fic.

Enjoy!

One

"Blasted Orcs," muttered Nico di Angelo as he sped through the forest, right hand clutched tightly around a scroll. He ran so fast his bangs, which usually flopped over his forehead, had parted enough so that you could see his stunning eyes. The breathing behind the mask covering his nose and mouth never slowed, for he had been training for this. At some point, he heard the whizz and thud of an arrow shot by one of his companions hitting one of the accursed creatures. Serves them right, he thought, and turned around just in time to see his path blocked by a particularly nasty-looking orc. Nico skidded to a stop.

The Orc grinned unpleasantly and lumbered towards him slowly, showing its equally unpleasant teeth. It seemed sure that Nico was dead meat. This angered Nico, but he didn't let it show. All he did was slip the scroll into his sack, hoping it was discreet enough.

"Hello, Elf," the Orc said, its grin growing.

"Hello, Orc," Nico replied in a lofty tone.

"Won't you show me your beautiful face? I know how you elves pride yourselves on your beauty."

"I'll keep my face hidden, thanks very much," Nico said shortly. The Orc's grin faded a bit. Good.

"Enough pleasantries. Where is the scroll?" the Orc snapped, taking a menacing step forward. Nico widened his eyes, hoping his acting skills wouldn't betray him.

"W-what scroll?" he faked a scared voice, internally grimacing at how weird he must have sounded.

"You know what scroll, Elf," the grin had disappeared now, and Nico was grateful for it. The Orc was now snarling at him. "GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Okay, okay!" Nico whimpered, and took the scroll out of his sack. It was snatched from his hand by the Orc, who bellowed in victory.

"Paussesei lei vaulumenai!" it shrieked in its native tongue. I have the scroll. Then it bounded away into the night.

All the while, Nico di Angelo stood stock-still, his face neutral. If the Orc had looked back, it might have noticed and suspicion might have been aroused. But victory had clouded the creature's mind. Elves were usually not so willing to give up their possessions, after all.

A female elf walked up from behind him, followed by a satyr. The other elf was a head taller than Nico, and had dark eyes and skin like most of her clan. Her hair was in its usual braid, and she stood with perfect posture, like the proud leader she was. Nico could see her smiling, even though the mask blocked his vision of her mouth.

The satyr was a bit on the short side, and his features were not as elegant or slender as the elf he stood next to. His face was covered as well, but there was a scraggly beard, a large nose, and a scowl hidden under the piece of cloth. He was wearing the standard protector's uniform: a shirt that read praetego, or the elven word for protect. Unfortunately, his shirt was a bright orange that hurt Nico's eyes. It somehow worked, though- bright orange with the chestnut brown of the fur on his legs. Over the last few days of working with this satyr, Nico had come to tolerate the outrageous color.

"You gave them the decoy," the female said. There was no question about it. Nico allowed himself a smile.

"How were my acting skills?" he asked as a reply.

"Could be better," she told him, a hint of humor in her voice as she ruffled his hair.

"Aw, come on, Reyna!" he mock-complained. He batted her hand away like a cat with a butterfly

"Shut it, cupcakes," the satyr said suddenly, stopping the elves' banter. The jovial mood evaporated quickly, and their faces turned serious.

"What is it, Hedge?" Reyna asked in a low voice. Her hand was on the hilt of her dagger.

"There's a light over that way," Hedge replied, eyes narrowed at a speck in the distance. "Should we check it out?"

Nico frowned. "There could be a malicious group of creatures there. We shouldn't-"

"Wait," Reyna interjected. "I've studied a bit of the geography around this place with Annabeth of the Aethina clan. It is a small village, a bit run down. There aren't many people living there, and there are quite a few abandoned houses there. We could seek shelter in one of them."

"But it is inhabited," Nico commented skeptically.

"Just humans," Reyna waved it off. Nico frowned, but went along with that plan. Their enemy thought them too conservative to be close to humankind. And it was true, for the most part. Humans were just so damn ignorant. An elf could just stand there in the middle of the street and perform magic and humans would deny the existence of elves and magic and all the wonderful aspects of their world. Why would anyone want to ignore magic? It was completely illogical. Nico thought humans were rather stupid. Well, there was a ton of other things Nico could say about humans that were not nice in the slightest, but...

They're territorial as well, he remembered as he sneaked through the streets of the town. He recalled reading about how humans disliked having anyone in their living spaces. Some even shot intruders, no questions asked. Odd, Nico thought. And rude. What if someone desperately needed help?

"In here," Reyna whispered, and climbed in through an open window. He shrugged and climbed in. His brow furrowed immediately upon seeing the interior of the house.

"You're sure nobody lives in this house?" Nico questioned, flicking a well-dusted desk. He looked over all the pieces of paper on the desk, scribbles all over them. There were some drawings as well, mainly of plants Nico knew to be medicinal. Whoever lived here was probably a healer.

Reyna made a noncommittal gesture. "The human would probably never know anyway. Go find a room."

It was Elven custom that, if there were enough of them, there would be only one person to a room. This house certainly looked big enough to host the three of them. Nico shrugged, and turned back to try and figure out the meaning of the scribbles on the paper. He was always curious about the different languages in the world, and even learned the local language of the humans to some extent. After a while, he was able to decipher the meaning of one of the papers. As he had suspected, it was some medical mumbo-jumbo. Interesting. Nico fished around in his sack until he had found what he was looking for. This will do, he thought, and put it back.

A yelp was heard in the other room, followed by some cursing. Nico sighed in exasperation and trudged towards the noise.

"Hedge, we don't know if there is a human living in here, quit making so much noise, damn it! Really, Hedge, I thought that-" the elf stopped suddenly, eyes widening.

"Um, sorry, I guess I'm not Hedge. My name's Will, though," a young man with sunny blond hair and an equally sunny smile on his face said. Nico felt faint.

"Oh gods," he finally squeaked, turning red. "I'm so sorry, I'll get out of your living space, please don't shoot me!"

"What? Shoot you?" Will looked up in confusion. His bright blue eyes et Nico's onyx ones, and for a moment they just stared at each other.

"You speak the Elvish language," Nico murmured, breaking eye contact.

"Indeed," Will flashed another one of his sunny grins at Nico. "You're an elf, then?"

"Yes," Nico replied curtly. "And no, I do not know any Santa Claus, or a Santa, or a Claus. I am clearly not that short, and I clearly do not wear very tight clothes of ghastly colors. You humans dream up the weirdest things. Like, who in hell would think of that shit?"

And with that, he gathered up all the dignity he had, and huffed childishly, putting his nose in the air.

Will tried muffling his laughter, he really did.

He had a long day that day. One of the citizens had walked into a trap that they had set up themselves. He always was rather absent-minded a lot, mused Will. Unfortunately, as the town healer, he had to tend to the nasty wound himself, since his apprentice was on holiday at the moment.

That had only added on to his daily load of work, which included checking the children of overly protective parents for any diseases (It's just a cold, she's fine!) , reprimanding the town troublemakers, Travis and Connor Stoll, about pranking Katie Gardner, and telling Dakota that he should not drink that much (one bottle is enough, Dakota! DAKOTA!).

Then he had stubbed his toe on a couch and started cursing like a sailor when someone wearing a hood and something resembling a ninja mask came in, shouting in the Elvish language to a person named Hedge about not knowing if there was a human in the house or not. And he turned out to be the most adorable elf, insulting humans in a surly tone of voice and blushing and hiding his shyness behind a curtain of toughness.

And he just had to make that comment about Santa Claus and send Will laughing so hard, the people (which is rather far, mind you,) in the next village could surely hear him.

When Will finally laughed it out, the elf was sitting cross-legged on the carpet, looking very much disgruntled.

"Sorry," Will breathed, trying to keep calm. He had questions, after all. "Must you keep your face covered?"

The elf touched his mask, as if he forgot it was there. "Yes."

"Why?"

"That's a secret. Like my face is." The elf was avoiding eye contact. Strange.

"What about your name, then?" Will inquired, eager for knowledge.

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'.

"Well, I gave you my name, Death Boy," the healer whined. A small chuckle came from the newly dubbed Death Boy.

"Excuse me?" Death Boy asked in an amused manner. "What the hell makes you think that I am somehow related to Death?"

"Um… Good question." Will bit his lip. Where had the nickname come from? "But we're getting off topic. I gave you my name, and I'm letting you stay in my house. Can't you tell me your name?"

"There are two others, too," Death Boy muttered. Will waved his hand dismissively.

"Fine, my name is Nico." he growled after a pause.

"See? That wasn't so bad! You didn't burst into flames or anything, did ya, Death Boy?" the healer beamed. Nico rolled his eyes and mumbled a "not yet", which made Will laugh. Then the elf yawned.

"Oh, you should probably get to bed!" Will exclaimed. Nico made no protest and promptly fell asleep right on the floor.

How adorable! Will internally squealed as he picked the slender elf up. And light, too. Are most elves this light? Oh my gods, his mask is slipping! Oh…

The elf looked angelic. Will had already observed the intense dark brown eyes that looked like they were black, and the long eyelashes, but he did not get to see the features hidden behind the mask. He looked, then, at the small nose and slight mouth, and felt Nico's soft skin under his own hand, and wondered how a living being could be so beautiful. But Will's healer instincts had kicked in, too, and he knew that Nico's body heat was not as it should be- it was much too cold for an elf- and Nico had very pale skin and heavy bags under his eyes.

Will set Nico down in his bed, and went out of the room, already planning which herbs to use for the elf in the morning.

But that, apparently, wasn't the Fates' plan for Will. When he stumbled into his room, intending to wake Nico and treat him, Nico wasn't there.

Accursed elves! Is it not part of their custom to say a proper goodbye? Will thought angrily. He had planned on getting to know Nico better. He was just about to start cursing a whole lot of things (which may or may not have included Nico, Nico's house, Nico's very adorable nose…) when he saw something strange. A parcel, neatly wrapped. And on it, a note that read: Thank you, Sunshine.

That's a nice nickname, Will thought. He opened the parcel and found a bunch of rare herbs that could be used to treat all kinds of maladies and illnesses. He smiled and was glad that he didn't curse Nico, even though he really should have said a proper goodbye. Nico's nose really was very adorable, however…

What? Will slammed on his thought brakes. Elves haven't even accepted homosexuality yet, Will. Plus, he's way out of your league. Just dream that your future husband has such a cute nose.

Hai. So... what do you think of this chaos?

Again, I am so sorry if this sucks. I am horrible at this stuff, and I literally had to push myself to add in some random curse words for Nico just because.

- S.