Author's Note:

Welcome to my first Percy Jackson fic! Originally when I had this idea, it was going to be a one-shot, but as I wrote I found it was more of a two-shot. So here's part one. Nico is sixteen, and the Giant War is over, Percy's home safe. Please review. Any constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks for reading!

EDIT (04/11/11): This is not an update, just a minor edit.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.

Dinner with Death: Part One

Nico's Christmas was going well.

That should have been the first warning sign.

Usually Nico spent his Christmas at Camp Half-Blood - even he didn't like being alone on Christmas - but this year he was spending it at the Jacksons' house with Percy, Sally, Paul and, of course, Annabeth.

Percy had invited Nico over for the day. Mind you, "invited" probably wouldn't be the term Nico would use. "Blackmailed" would probably be more accurate. Percy had visited Nico in the Hades cabin on Christmas Eve specially to "invite" him.

"You have to come," Percy had said, "You can't sit around camp all Christmas."

"Firstly, I don't have to come anywhere," Nico had muttered grumpily from where he was sprawled on his bed, "And I'm sure your mom won't want some moody "emo" kid hanging around her apartment on Christmas. And also-"

"That's not true and you know it," Percy had interrupted, "You know my mom really likes you, it's like having another kid to her-"

"Oh yeah, that makes me want to come all the more," Nico had mumbled.

"And we'll open presents and have cake," Percy had ploughed on, "and Annabeth'll be there, and…and," he had started to falter under Nico's death glare, "It'll be great!" he had finished somewhat lamely.

"No, not coming," Nico had declared with utmost finality, "And don't think I don't know you're only doing this 'cause Annabeth put you up to it."

Nico had turned on the bed, and put his back to Percy. There was silence for a few minutes. Nico could almost hear the gears whirring like mad in his cousin's head as he tried to come up with some new way of convincing Nico.

Finally, Percy had spoken. "Right," he had said, in that serious tone that spelled danger to all who opposed him. He had got up from his perch on the bed opposite Nico's, "I hoped it wouldn't come to this, but here we go," he had dropped on his hunkers next to Nico's bed and spoken in an ominous whisper, "If you don't come, I'll flood your cabin."

Nico had turned over and sat bolt upright. He had looked at Percy as if he had threatened to murder him brutally.

"You wouldn't," he had said in a small voice.

"Well, I'd rather not, but if you insist on being sooo stubborn," Percy had replied, trying and failing to look menacing, "I don't really have much of a choice."

You see, Nico was deathly (no pun intended) afraid of water. He didn't even like taking baths. And his cabin was his sanctuary, the one place he felt comfortable. So the idea of a flooded cabin was, to him, worse than a trip to the Underworld.

"Fine," Nico had muttered, very quietly, and he had slumped back onto the bed.

"What was that?" Percy had asked, grinning.

"I said, fine. I'll come. Now get out of my cabin."

Percy had grinned to himself. "See you tomorrow. And if you could come in through the front door?"

"Don't bet on it," Nico had grumbled, "And wipe that smirk off your face," he had said without turning around.

"I wasn't smirking!" Percy had exclaimed, before bolting from the cabin before Nico remembered he could summon undead warriors and torturers.

And so Nico came. He did in fact knock on the front door, rather than shadow-travelling directly into the apartment, but only because he liked Percy's mom, and tried to be respectful to her. She was one of the few adults who was truly kind to him, and he looked at her as a mother figure. Not that he'd ever admit it.

Despite his original reluctance, Nico was actually quite enjoying himself. When he arrived with a few presents which he had bought in a panic the day before, he was greeted with much enthusiasm by Sally and Percy, Annabeth not having arrived yet and Paul not yet up.

Once everyone was assembled in the sitting room the present swapping began.

Nico hadn't been planning on buying Christmas presents, so the ones he got were not exactly high class. Still no-one minded, everyone was in a good mood and the holiday spirit was in the air as they sat down to watch Christmas movies. Well, it was really only Paul and Nico watching, since Sally was cooking the mighty Christmas dinner, and Percy and Annabeth were…busy, in another room.

Everything was going too well, Nico thought in passing. How right he was.

"So, Nico," said Paul, trying to make conversation, "You're a son of the Big Three, yeah?"

"Yep," said Nico. It was a bit awkward between them, as Paul was fairly new to the whole demigod thing still, and Nico wasn't exactly the best at talking to people he didn't really know. Unless they were dead, of course. Still, if he was spending Christmas here, he may as well try.

"I'm a son of…" Nico trailed off, wary of invoking his father's name.

"Hades?" supplied Paul, looking at Nico quizzically.

"Uh, yeah," said Nico, "Though I try not to say the name too much. Names-"

"Have power, yeah, I know, sorry," said Paul, "Percy and Sally told me, but sometimes I just forget."

"Sure," said Nico, "It tends not to have as much effect when mortals say the names, anyway."

Paul stiffened slightly at the mention of "mortals". Oops, thought Nico, another epic fail at tact.

"So what's that like?" asked Paul, a little stiffly, "I mean, I know Percy gets attacked a lot, but most of the monsters come from the Underworld, don't they? So they must keep away from you more."

"A bit, yeah," said Nico, "A lot of the smaller monsters keep away from me, 'cause they're kinda scared."

At this Paul looked puzzled. "Scared?' he said, 'Scared of what?"

Nico shifted around, feeling a little uncomfortable. "Well, scared of me."

Paul shot Nico a weird look, and said, "Well, no offence, but why would they be scared of you?"

Nico considered saying something like "Cos I'm an awesome monster-slayer, man!", but decided to tell Paul the truth: "Well, I can kind of send them down to Tartarus."

"Ah," said Paul. He was silent for a while, obviously pondering this.

"Still, though, I do get a lot of weird stuff happening to me," said Nico suddenly.

"Really? Like what?" asked Paul, now looking a little more wary of the monster-banishing son of death.

"Well, I get a lot of ghosts paying me visits, wanting help to the Underworld. And I'm sort of known as the king of ghosts so…"

"Sorry? The king of ghosts?" exclaimed Paul incredulously.

"Yep," replied Nico, "And it's not a joke, either. I get all sorts of Underworldly visits. And I'm not talkin' Mafia!"

Silence reigned for another while before Paul spoke again. "And these visitors, how do they tend to arrive?"

Nico seemed surprised by this question. "They usually come by shadow-travel, which involves-"

"Bending shadows?" interrupted Paul.

At this, Nico turned to stare at Paul in disbelief. "How did you know that?"

In answer, Paul pointed towards the shadowy corner behind Nico. He turned to look, and saw the shadows contorting in a way that he recognised as typical for shadow-travel.

"Oh no," groaned Nico, "I knew things were going too well. Who could this be?"

He watched as the shadows contorted and formed into a shape. The shape slowly gained solid form, and stepped out. It was…it was…

"It's a lawyer!" cried Paul, astonished.

"No, it's not," muttered Nico darkly, "It's Alecto."

The bland-faced figure stepped forward and spoke. "Greetings, King of Ghosts, Son of the Lord of-"

"Yeah, yeah," Nico broke in, "Skip the pleasantries. What do you want?"

"It is not a matter of what I want, Mr. di Angelo," replied the Fury smoothly, "I serve the Lord of Death and-"

Nico jumped to his feet suddenly and stepped towards the Underworld creature. "Fine!" he said, rather loudly, "What does my father want?"

Alecto reached into the shadows. The darkness started to contort again.

Nico glanced back at Paul. He looked a little stunned, but didn't seem to be scared, which was good. Nico didn't want to be dealing with a frantic mortal now.

The shadows stopped fluctuating, and from them Alecto pulled a sheet of paper. Nico could see the top of the page bore his father's symbol.

He groaned. "Not another one of his memos."

The Kindly One straightened the paper out with a flourish, and began to read in the style of a town crier.

"The Lord and King of the Under-"

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold up." objected Paul suddenly.

Nico turned around again to look at him, now more than slightly irritated.

"What?" he snapped.

"Let me just get this straight," Paul said, "You just said "memos," yes?"

Now Nico was really flummoxed. "Uh, yeah."

"Ok," said Paul, "So are you saying the God of the Dead communicates by memos?"

Nico had to laugh at that. "Yeah, he does. Why, what did you expect? Enchanted scrolls of parchment? Skeletal carrier pigeons? Telegrams?"

Paul shrugged. "I don't know. It's just… whoever thought the Greek Gods would be so…modern!"

Nico chuckled. "Yeah, I know, pretty weird, huh?"

He turned back to the messenger Fury. "So! You were saying?"

Alecto cleared her throat. "The Lord and God of the Underworld presents his greetings and-"

"Nico? What's going on?"

The prince of death turned to see Sally standing by Paul, with a plate of mince pies in her hands and a look of mild surprise on her face.

"Oh well, um, Mrs Jackson, um, this is," he paused, wondering how to explain the presence of a spirit of vengeance in Sally Jackson's living room. On Christmas.

"Alecto." Paul told her. Nico glared at him. Great. Just great. Now all he needed was for Sally to remember Alecto was the infamous Mrs Dodds' real name and -

"Alecto? You mean…" Sally paused, realisation dawning, "You're Mrs Dodds! You attacked Percy!"

- he was screwed. It would take Zeus himself to stop the rant of a protective mother. Nico slumped back onto the sofa. He knew it was gonna be a while before he got his message.

About ten minutes later.

"- any idea how much you scared him? He didn't even tell me for ages! And who-"

Sally had been going non-stop for some time now, and she was getting louder. Alecto just stood there completely impassive. After all she was there to deliver a message, and she was the unceasing Fury, and thus the most patient one. Nico hated burnt food, but he was praying that something would start to burn in the kitchen. It seemed the only way Sally could be distracted.

But then: "Mom? What's going on? I heard you shout- ARGH! Mrs Dodds!"

Nico had never been so happy to see his cousin. He looked a little dishevelled, but he was, mercifully, fully clothed.

"Percy! There you are! This monster just appeared here a few minutes ago! I was just giving her a piece of my mind! Who do she think-"

Percy looked even more astonished than usual. "Appeared? But why? What's -" his gaze fell on Nico, "Nico? What's going on?"

Sally paused, seeming to remember Nico. "Well, yes! Nico, what on earth is going on here?"

Nico stood up again. "Thought you'd never ask," he said testily, "Alecto is here to deliver me a message, so if you could all be quiet, she'll give me the memo, and be on her way."

Sally blinked. "Oh. Right. Well. Why didn't you say so before?" And with that, she bustled back to the kitchen.

Nico heaved a sigh of relief. "Right. Now, Alecto, please?"

"Thank you, Mr. di Angelo. Now, this is your message," the Fury held the paper out in front of herself again.

"The Lord and God of the Underworld presents his greetings and good wishes to all present. He requests -"

"Percy? What's wrong? Is there a monster? Who's that?" It was Annabeth, also dishevelled.

Being the smart one, she immediately focussed on Nico. "Nico! What's happening?"

Nico snapped.

"IN THE NAME OF ALL THE GODS!" he roared, "WILL EVERYONE JUST STOP INTERRUPTING!"

Dead silence.

"Thank you," muttered Nico, "Now, Alecto?"

"The Lord and God of -"

"You can skip that bit."

The spirit sniffed irritably. "He requests the presence of his son at a Christmas banquet, in the Grand Feasting Chamber of the God of the Underworld. And," she reached into the shadows for a second time, "I was instructed to give you these," she pulled a set of dark robes out from the shadowy corner and handed them to Nico.

"You are to wear those robes to the banquet. Be at the Chamber by six o'clock this evening. That is all."

And with that, Alecto stepped back into the shadows and disappeared.

~P~

Don't forget to review! Part Two up in a few days.