Chapter 3

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"Percy! What in the underworld is this?!" Nico said stepping in the cabin.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tidy up." Percy answered with a nervous laugh.

Nico sighed and eyed the scattered clothes lying around, an opened bag of potato chips on the table next to some empty cans of coke with the bed completely rumpled and unmade.

"How do you expect a baby to live in this condition?" Nico said still holding on to Mallory who's eyes were now drooping.

"What? I didn't know she was arriving." Percy answered, "I didn't even know she existed 'till this morning." He mumbled.

"Alright Seaweed Brain, stop making excuses and help us clean this mess up." Annabeth said joining in.

So Percy and the other demigods managed to tidy the cabin up while Annabeth and Hazel helped Nico prepare the other bed for Mallory. They changed the sheets and took out a light blue baby blanket from the bag to cover her just in case she gets cold.

After cleaning the whole place up, they all gathered up and watched how Mallory slept. Secretly though, they were all glancing at Nico who was smiling sincerely at the sight of the sleeping Mallory, as if he was amused by how small and cute she was.

What they didn't know was that Nico himself didn't know why he was so amused by that little bundle of joy. She was like a piece of heaven; alright, that sounded a bit corny.

"I have to say, I was surprised you knew how to handle her Nico." Alessa said still looking at Mallory.

"I-" Nico started to say but was stopped short. Honestly, he didn't even realized that he was capable of handling a new born until that moment.

He wasn't actually keen on stuff like these. Seriously, when it was only him and Bianca, he was the one who's always been taken care of. And even with Alessa and Hazel around, he still felt they were the ones who always took care of him; like the time they would nurse him back to health just after the war, or the time they'd get him something to eat when he was too lazy to get out of the cabin.

Even in the underworld, Hades would send some ghost to help him out with things.

After all these, the feeling of taking care of Mallory kinda refreshed him. He liked the feeling of attainment every time she flashes him a smile or light up the mood with her cute little giggles.

It was weird but...

"..it only felt natural for me to take care of her." He said out loud unconsciously.

"What?" Percy said, his tone was a bit serious and nervous.

Nico looked at him surprised of what he himself said, but he remained calm and looked at Mallory's sleeping face.

"I meant, I like taking care of her. Besides, I don't think I can just stand around and leave you guys panicking when something may happen." He smirked at them.

They all looked away and felt embarrassed about that little fiasco earlier. Even Annabeth admitted that it was foolish of her to panic like that. But what can she say? She doesn't know the slightest thing about crying babies.

"Anyway," Nico said, "I'll get us some lunch at the pavilion, you guys stay here and look after her while she sleeps."

He started to walk away when he felt multiple arms grab the hem of his shirt.

"NO!" they all said in unison.

"You stay here and Jason, Leo and  Frank will go. I think they can handle it themselves." Annabeth said taking charge.

With that, the three guys stepped out of the Poseidon cabin and headed to the pavilion.

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The Poseidon Cabin went after Frank and the others left. You could hear Annabeth typing away on her new (almost) Daedalus Laptop. Hazel and Piper were silently chatting together and Percy laid beside Mallory propped upon one elbow while Nico sat across Annabeth reading a book by Robert Brown entitled, "INFERNO"

Annabeth saw Nico pause at what his reading and looked at Percy and  Mallory, doing so, he stifled a giggle.

"Annabeth, look at that!" he whispered while pointing at the bed where Percy was holding Mallory's hand while silently cooing her like an obsessed mom.

"Awww, that's so sweet!" Annabeth said loud enough for only them to hear.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Nico said unconsciously.

"What? Why?"

"I-I just do." He paused, "Normally Percy's the type of brother who's a bit too overprotective. And it might be a problem to get close to her when she's all grown up."

Annabeth noticed that Nico had this strange thing going on for Mallory, but that couldn't be, right? One thing's for sure, Nico's 14 and Mallory's currently a year old; wouldn't it be too weird? And yet, it seems possible. She wondered if...

"Hazel! Piper! We needto talk outside!" Annabeth suddenly said standing up. Nico and Percy were about to ask what's going on when Annabeth quickly told them to just stay where they are and ignore them.

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Outside, Annabeth checked to see if anyone else was in hearing range only to see Jason and the others come back from the pavilion with trays of roast beef.

"What's going on?" Jason asked as he and Leo gave Frank the trays and asked him to get them inside the cabin.

"I think I might answer that question." A voice said from nowhere. Jason recognized that voice and immediately shuddered, he was not in the mood to meet this god again.

"Eros?" Piper asked.

"I'm quite in a hurry so I'll just state this as plainly as possible." The voice said as a soft breeze flung around them, "Yes, it is possible for him to fall in love. Just because he was rejected once, doesn't mean he can't fall again."

Once the voice stopped, a gust of wind fell upon them and everyone fell silent.

"What was that about?" Leo asked.

"He's talking about Nico wasn't he?" Hazel asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." Piper answered, "It seemed pretty obvious to me."

"Wait, hold up!" Jason said, "What are you guys talking about?"

Annabeth sighed and massaged her temples, "We think Nico might be a paedophile because he obviously has a thing for Mallory."

"So? What's so wrong about that?" Leo asked with his hands crossed. "Honestly, I don't see the problem here. So what if Nico's in love with Mallory? The potion will wear off and she'll be 14 too, everything might work out!"

"True that." Alessa seconded the notion.

"That's not the problem here." Annabeth said, "Its Percy."

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"What are you guys talking about?" Frank suddenly asked from behind, giving the rest of the demigods a minor heart attack.

Hazel sighed and filled him in with the detail which Frank amazhangly understood. According to him, they shouldn't worry too much about what's going to happen and just let everything be. Of course, that only lead to Leo teasing him about being a human fortune-cookie that Hazel immediately put a stop to.

"Hey guys?" Nico's voice broke through the tension, "Are we gonna eat lunch or what? Percy said he's getting angry."

Everybody instantly said yes and begun ushering each other inside the cabin where Percy was starting to dig in. Good thing Jason and the others already gave each of their offerings to the gods before they took it to the cabin.

As they were eating, everyone was surprised to see Percy suddenly stand up from the table and ran to Mallory's bed where a gold light started to form around her.

Hazel almost choked on a piece of celery and Jason almost got ran over by Nico who hurriedly followed Percy to Mallory's side.

"Whafs hafeniyn?" Leo said with a mouthful.

No one managed to answer because almost all of them were looking at how little baby Mallory magically grew into toddler Mallory.

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Yeah, I finally managed to update some part of this story... I feel bad about not being able to update this for so long. But it might take a while for me to update it again.. sorry for the crappy writing..T-T

Just watch out for the next chapter!

Thanks for being so patient!