(Annabeth and Nero are written by cornelia_fogwell)
28.11.2075
He just wanted to go grocery shopping.
Just wanted to not look at anyone as he was passing by the homeless people, ignoring the misery they were in and just trying to be basking in the fact that he had it better.
Like it was said, he just wanted to go grocery shopping.
He didn't think that he'd stop at a girl's side, seeing her being cornered by something that's seemingly her own fears following her.
She seemed so small and vulnerable, yet everyone walked by.
Everyone except for the psychopath of the entire city, that person stood there now and stared at her, head tilted in confusion.
Things were disturbing. The rummaging that was going on in his body, his heart racing as irrationally as he never thought it could, and the entire god damn appearance of that girl sitting in the dirty, cold corner.
Her hair was messy, all over the place, strands entangled in others, resulting in something Nero could feel to hurt when trying to get out of there. There was also something entirely else wrong with her hair, since strands being ripped out or cut short, blood oozing from a big wound that was revealed by the patch of missing hair in directly that area.
The redhead was sobbing, or at least it seemed like that, since her whole body shook over and over again, small noises emerging from the bundle of pathetic human Nero saw her to be. She grabbed her own legs pretty hard and must be pressing her face into them too, not revealing any inch of her eyes, lips, nose - not anything of her entire facial features.
In general, her clothes were covered in blood, just like her fingertips, as if she'd scratched someone with them and got them so badly that they bled onto her clothes. Maybe she scratched someone's eyes out? That'd be a person Nero would've love to meet and talk to.
Not a little, whiney girl that got beaten up or something.
Something inside his chest hurt, nevertheless. The carelessness of the people around him that should possess enough empathy to see how bad she must be feeling, maybe that was it. Seeing that they all are just as heartless as him in the end.
Maybe it really was pity. Pity because she had no one, and she'd probably even accept the help of a diagnosed psychopath.
But Nero shouldn't be able to feel pity for someone else. Not for her pain, not for her helplessness, he shouldn't feel for the redhead at all.
Yet, whatever it was, it made him take a few steps forward as he glared at the people around him leaving her alone with Nero.
There had to be some kind of sick underlying intention in coming closer to the girl, examining her wounds and trying to find out how bad it is and if he should bring her to his mother's place.
His mother was a very rich, famous doctor, after all, so the girl couldn't wish for anything else, couldn't she? Maybe he really subconsciously wanted to trick her into trusting him or something.
Nevertheless, he stepped even closer, only stopping when he saw how the cramped body of that girl flinched at the noise of his feet landing on the ground before her.
"S-Sir?" her quivering voice asked, the face still not coming up from where it was placed onto her legs. Nero's mouth twitched upwards, wondering if she knew that it was a young man standing in front of her by the way he'd walked.
"You don't have to call me that."
"I-I'm sorry."
He kneeled down to get more on eye level with the stranger (if she'd show her face, at least) and just thought for a moment before nodding to himself.
"Show me your face," he demanded, putting a hand on one of the knees to signal how close he was to her.
What was supposed to be threatening her, became too soft and too warm, and she seemed to actually calm down more than feel at danger.
"My face is... not normal. I don't want to disgust you," she mumbled, and Nero knew for a fact that it must totally be what she thought that would happen.
"Show it to me," he said again, more demanding and harsh, not caring even the littlest bit about how that could be disturbing to him or anything. He was quite sure that nothing could really disturb him, especially not any face, no matter how distorted it may be.
"Sir, please-"
"My name is Nero."
"Nero... Nero Arcanus Pyke?"
"Yep, that's who I am."
He saw a little twitch in the way her face was pressed into her legs as if she wanted to look up, but reminded herself of the fact that she didn't want to traumatize him.
"You know I can get you to a doctor right? My mother-"
He cut himself off, frowning deeply as he heard the girl let out a little sob, wondering if he did anything wrong.
Stop caring so much! You can't!, something in his heard screamed at him, making him snap his head up, away from the blood on her that he desperately wanted to get rid off.
"Don't treat me, I just want to die. They took my sister, my parents, they- I've got nothing left-"
"Come on, ma'am," Nero said with a small grin at the way the title stilled her quick breathing for a moment, "Leaving you here is a no can do."
This is a pretty good tactic to kidnap her, actually, he thought and blinked, trying to hold onto that thought.
I'm not caring. I can't care. I was diagnosed with a condition that makes me very much unable to care. And she's believing that I want to help her, haha!
"You promise that you won't leave me alone after all?" the girl asked with an unsure tone in her still shaking voice.
"Pinky promise," he said, taking her pinky finger with his to intertwine them for a moment, making the girl laugh slightly before putting his hand on her chin as well as he could.
"I'm looking now, 'kay?" he asked to get the girl's permission, and when she muttered a little "yes", he innerly celebrated himself for manipulating her.
Slowly, he lifted the head up by the chin, revealing more and more of damaged skin that he didn't exactly mind until he saw her eyes.
They were horrific.
Nero couldn't suppress a sharp breath and a little flinch as his other hand rose up as well, being placed on her right cheek.
She was definitely blind, that poor girl, and he could only very distantly sense that her eyecolor must be green. All around the eyes and pouring through her face were wounds that he certainly could sort into wounds made by acid, and it looked like the tears she must've cried where full of that acid, deforming her face even more. Her green eyes were overthrown with a heavy fog, while almost not visible tears formed with every moment he looked at her without saying a word.
"...Acid," he breathed out, hearing a sob dwell up from the girl's side.
Nero had often imagined how it would look if he poured acid into someone's face, how the skin would melt and deform as soon as it got in touch with the deadly substance.
But seeing it in person on another person hit as different as it could.
Sure, it was still fascinating to see how the skin curled up into visible acid wounds around her eyes, almost like a mask.
Then, Nero used his hands to grab hers and slowly stand up without any more doubt or words, his standing up signaling her to get up as well.
Her legs seemed not very stable either, which was why Nero shortly considered carrying her, but on the other hand, that would be too much, wouldn't it?
Instead, he just supported her and lead her on the way to the hospital his mother worked at, ignoring the terrible, judging glances they were receiving from the people around him.
It was so weird, the fact that the girl knew who his family was but didn't know him, didn't know the scandal his diagnosis was. If she knew, she either must've just not care or trust him nevertheless, but he didn't guess that to be likely.
"What's your name, ma'am?" Nero asked after a little while of her sobbing whenever she blinked, seemingly worsening the feeling of the acid in her eyes.
"A-Annabeth," she told him, shivering a little as a cold wave of air hit them, Nero blinking perplex at the motion.
"Are you cold?" the black haired asked, already taking of his thick, warm coat.
Good, good, you're persuading her into trusting you.
"U-Uhm, yeah, k-kinda," Annabeth told him, her long, ginger hair blowing around her face, setting the destruction going on there even more into focus.
And that was the moment he gently put his coat over the redhead's shoulders, seeing how she immediately sunk a little into the warmth that must've overcome here. Nero stuffed his hands into his pockets nonchalantly, wondering if her wounds were the reason for her feeling cold.
Well, it was November, yes, but it wasn't really a cold day - at least not for him.
Maybe that was explained by his Icelandic genes.
Nevertheless, he stared at Annabeth for some time as she walked closer to him, trying to get all the security she could even get.
It was so ironic. Everyone around them seemed like they wanted to warn her, they looked at them, specifically at Nero, with hatred and worry.
And yet, the girl was trusting him because she couldn't see any of those glares towards them, and she probably couldn't even feel uncomfortable because at least Nero wasn't hurting her like her body did.
He was in a high position of power over this girl.
And while he usually dreamt of an opportunity like that, this felt... he felt genuinely worried - but he couldn't. There was no god damn way that this was possible. There was no way he could truly want to just help her.
He felt a slight shift coming from Annabeth, and as he turned his head a little, he was staring right into her face as he found it to look beautifully ugly.
He had just wanted to go grocery shopping.