Voice of an Angel

Nico sat in Reyna’s garage plucking at the strings of his guitar, an odd sweet melody flowing from it. He was lounging on one of the love seats they’d dragged in. His thoughts were full of that green eyed boy, Percy Rachel had said. He sang Nico’s song with such passion; with such understanding it was all he could think about for the past week. He couldn’t get their brief encounter out of his head.

The young Italian had seen him in the crowd and headed toward him with the intent of wooing him. He figured he could compliment him on his performance for the song, Percy would fanboy, and then he could ask for a date. Instead he lost his nerve and in his retreat Percy had bumped into him. The older boy had called him cutie, CUTIE! Nico had squealed internally and tried not to melt into a puddle on the floor.

His was jolted from his musing as the door leading from the house into the garage burst open. Connor and Travis waltzed in casually, matching grins on their faces. “Sup, Di Angelo?” they greeted together.

Nico groaned, he did not want to deal with the two tricksters today. He sat up on the couch, running a hand through his hair, “What do you two want this time?”

The brothers feigned a look of innocence, “Now why would you ask us that, can’t we just want to visit our residential Ghost King?” Travis asked dramatically.

Rolling his eyes at the duo, Nico stood from the couch. He walked over to his guitar case, putting the instrument away before turning back to the other boys. “You two don’t ‘visit’ you come around when you’re bored or need something, and based on your behavior it’s the later. So what is it you want?” he deadpanned, not in the mood to beat around the bush with these two.

“Well actually Mr. Smarty Pants, we were here to offer help,” Connor stuck his tongue out at him. “We didn’t realize you had a band until recently or we would have offered help sooner. It just so happens a good friend of ours owns a studio and we were here to offer you a professional space to practice and record in.”

The dark eyed boy stared at them surprised, “How much for an hour?”

“That’s the best part,” Connor smirked, “we’re calling in a favor from said friend so you get a full day free.”

Nico eyed the two boys, “What did you two do?”

The brothers stared at him confused, “Huh?”

“This is too nice; you’re making up for something. What did you two break this time?” He waited with dread to hear what it was.

There was a long pause, “Okay you got us. This is an attempt to make up for the incident with Reyna.”

Ah, so that was it. A few months back Travis and Connor had attempted to prank Reyna by saran wrapping her car. However it had gone wrong when Reyna got an emergency call from the studio she taught hand to hand combat at and was almost fired for being over half an hour late. Needless to say the Latina girl was not amused.
“That’s a pretty good way to make up for it. How long do we have and where is it?”

The brothers grinned, “Full day for the next 3 days, it opens at 8. It’s that really pink building two blocks down from the Thai place.” Connor informed him, knowing food places where the best landmark to give Nico- besides everyone knew about the Pepto-Bismol pink building, it was kinda hard to miss.

Nico nodded, “Sweet, I’ll have to let the others know. Now I have to bone to pick with you two.” He glared at the Stolls who looked at him confused and scared. “Why the hell have you never mentioned your incredibly hot friend?”

The two raised an eyebrow at him, “Who exactly is that?”

“Tall, dark, and handsome, perfect voice with the amazing green eyes. Rachel said his name is Percy,” he looked at the other boys for an explanation. The pair’s faces split into shit eating grins.

“Ooooh, Percy,” Travis drawled, “Sorry, thought never occurred to us. Perce is like a brother to us; don’t exactly think of him as hot- though I suppose I can see where you’re coming from.”

“So you’re interested in the Sea Prince?” Connor asked his tone too casual for Nico’s liking.

“I might be,” he answered carefully, “he’s pretty good looking, and I’m assuming from the performance of my song he’s gay.”

The large grins were starting to creep Nico out, “Well maybe we’ll bring him by sometime or something. He’s single at the moment.” Nico smiled at the news. “Guess we’ll see you tomorrow then,” and with that the brothers left.

Nico smiled after them, he was that much closer to a date with Dream Boy. Hazel had been on him recently about his romantic life, it’d taken Nico a long time to come out of the closet and he’d never actually dated anyone since. His sister insisted he needed to find someone, or at least try. While he realized she was only worried, her constantly trying to set him up on dates had gotten a little annoying.

Reyna walked into the garage, a plate of sandwiches and fruits in one hand and a try of drinks balanced on the other. “Oh great, you’ve finally cracked,” she said with a dramatic sigh.

“What?” The dark haired boy asked confused, frowning at her.

“I come in here to find you smiling like a loon at absolutely nothing, I figured you’d finally snapped and gone crazy or something,” she said with a teasing smile.
Nico huffed and stuck his tongue out at her. The Latina chuckled setting the plate down on a battered wooden table before carefully lowering the tray of glasses as well. He approached her, gently bumping her shoulder before grabbing a glass.

“Gods you’re such an ass,” he grumbled taking a sip. Reyna rolled her eyes at him teasingly before grabbing her own glass and sandwich. She walked over to the couch and sat down. “It just so happens that I got good news, though from a very surprising source.” Reyna raised her eyebrow in question, a silent request for him to explain. “Connor and Travis have apparently found a professional space for use to practice in,” Nico raised his hand to stop Reyna’s obvious comment about the brother’s questionable trustability.

“I know what you’re going to say but they’ve reassured me that this is to repay you for the time they almost got you fired, so I highly doubt they’d risk your wrath a second time,” he promised taking another sip of his drink. He grabbed a pomegranate and some grapes before joining her on the couch.

“Good news indeed, but I doubt that had you smiling like you just won the world champion title of mythomagic in the middle of an empty garage Niccolo,” she gave him a knowing look and he sighed popping a grape in his mouth.

“Fine,” he groaned, extending the I for emphasis, “they may or may not have told me that Percy is single.”

“Percy? As in ‘Gorgeous eyed, beautiful voiced, too hot for this world, that you can’t shut up about’ Percy?” Reyna leaned forward fully interested now.

Nico spluttered and glared at her, “I do not talk about him that much!” She howled in laughter, “Nico, it’s been one week since the performance and I’ve already lost count of how many times you’ve ranted about him calling you cute or how he gets your lyrics or his smile, or eyes, or hair, and blah blah blah. Hell I could probably draw a spot on picture of that boy from how much you describe him to me.”

Glaring harder he pulled his knees close to his body and broke open his pomegranate, “I hate you sometimes, you know that?”

Reyna smirked, “Only when I’m right, so like….. 98% of the time.”

The rest of the band, plus Frank, slowly poured in after that. They all grabbed sandwiches and drinks before sitting in the various worn furniture around the garage. Nico informed them of the Stolls repayment and Reyna of course told them about Percy’s single status which resulted in several cat calls and winks at Nico. After they finished their food they set up and started practice.

The next day found them in front of the overly pink building. Reyna grimaced at the structure, “You sure this is it, doesn’t look like much of a studio.”

“You know any other pink buildings two blocks from the Thai place?” Nico asked sassily before walking up to the door. The others followed; the door was unlocked so he walked down the hallway until it turned to the left into a waiting room like area with two doors. One was label restroom and the other unlabeled so he turned the handle.
The door opened into a large acoustical space, the floor was padded and the room shaped appropriately. Nico stared in awe as the others shuffled in behind him, after the all took in the space they started to set. It was a literal surreal for them all, never having practiced in such a professional space before. Nico walked outside with Jason, helping him bring his kit in. They just finished setting up the last drum when the Stolls opened the door.

Nico nodded at the pair before grabbing his guitar. “We thoughts we’d sit in on your session today if you don’t mind, never actually hear any of your stuff,” the pair explain sitting down in the corner. The band shrugged before beginning practice.

They were halfway through their third song, an original written by Reyna, when the door opened again. The band paused to look at who entered, Nico’s heart stopped in his chest. Staring at him wide eyed was Percy flanked by two girls, one with frizzy blonde hair and calculating grey eyes and the other dark skinned her hair messy with beads and feathers. Both boys seemed frozen staring at each other.