Chapter Seven

                                    

                                          

Nico touched down on the beach, cast his glamour, and looked around. The rain from the past few weeks had turned into a drizzle, then sunshine. The beach crowded- full of little boys and little girls, making sandcastles. He cast a perfunctory glance at his surroundings. A teenage boy- fairly good-looking- caught his eye, and smiled.
Nico looked away reluctantly. 
No reaping, he thought. 
He'd never gone so long without reaping. It was hard. It was tiring. It was-
Nico gasped. From behind, arms had snaked around his waist. He felt a weight on the top of his head.
"Percy! What are you doing?" It came out half gasp, half laugh. Nico could feel Percy's chin on the top of his head. He smelled saltwater.
"You do it to me all the time. It's my turn."
To Nico's disappointment, Percy detached himself and walked round to face Nico.
"Woah. You don't look too good."
"That's rude."
"You're very pale."
"That's still rude."
"Want to get ice lollies?"
Nico glanced at the sky. "Fine, I guess." He and Percy bought ice lollies from a stand, and then sat on the beach, high above the coastline, where the sand was dry. 
"You look so thin," said Percy.
Nico smiled, and didn't answer. He licked his ice lolly, staining his tongue red with the dye. Percy had a blue one. 
Nico smirked. "You seem to like the sea a lot. We always come here. You always get blue stuff. Your robes are blue."
Percy stuck his tongue out at him.
"Even your tongue is blue."
 "What flavour?" Percy asked.
"Want to try?"
Instead of offering Percy his lolly, he licked his lips, staining them red, and blew a kiss. "You'll have to come closer to taste."
Percy dropped his ice lolly.
"Aww, now why did you do that?" Nico gave Percy a dry smile. His lips were burning with cold, and his tongue buzzed with sugar. 
Percy picked up the lolly from the sand and threw it into the nearest bin. His fingers were crusted in sand and the juice from the lolly. 
"You know how you're a lust demon?"
"Obviously."
"Do you choose to be one? And how long have you been doing it for? Because I don't think you could legally do that if you were really young. Even in Hell."
"All the young demons under fourteen have the same job- they're the voice that counter the angels. No reaping- they don't need to at that age. After fourteen- that's a milestone, it basically means 'of age', they get put into a division- Nightmare, Sin, Soul, et cetera. I was put into the Sin division. There are seven branches in the division."
"The Seven Deadly Sins."
"Naturally. I was put in the lust branch."
"You don't choose?"
"No. The Devil chooses."
"And he's okay with it?"
"He's neutral with it. He chooses one that he thinks we'll be good at. My sister, Bianca, she's in the Nightmare Division."