Collar Full (Solangelo AU)

Nico “Death Boy” Di Angelo was known throughout the world as one of the most popular artists in the music industry. He was unique, with a personal flair to his style, a drifting loneliness in his voice, a chaotic grin that would appear on his face almost never. He’d never openly been in a relationship, due to the fact he had promised to himself to never fall in love. His bandmates, however, had a completely different outlook to it. Leo Valdez, more commonly known as Fire Elf, was in a committed relationship with a woman named Calypso, and he liked to gloat about her to anyone who would pay attention long enough. Frank Zhang was rumored to be dating Hazel Levesque, a model and who was in multiple million-dollar movies. Lastly, the bassist, Percy Jackson, who was married to Annabeth Chase, a girl many fans had taken to calling her mom. She came onto the stage sometimes, since they all toured with the boys. Sure, Nico had those once in awhile lonesome nights alone in his bus bunk, but he ignored the pain and promised himself he was better off this way. He instead devoted his time to his music, being sassy, and proudly taking the title of hottest member. Nico had the world in his pale palms, basically in control of millions of people who would follow him relentlessly. Life was pretty good for the leader singer of Virtual Veins. But of course, he’d always have bad luck trailing after his success, luck that proved to be worse than he thought the last concert of their world tour.

“I’m quitting the band.” A silence roared through the mass of people, who were mostly wearing either confused faces or ones who were in utter terror. He chuckled nervously, as Nico stared at him with his mouth slightly ajar, sweaty hair hanging in front of his face, gloved hands still gripping his mic stand. “Look, I love these guys, but Annabeth and I are starting a family. I’m going to be a father! I’ll need to spend a lot of time on that. I’m sorry,” Percy continued. The fans began to murmur in agreement, some shouting curses, a few with tears streaming down their cheeks. Everyone was having a different reaction, including the entire band, because it wasn’t as if they had rehearsed this all before hand. Leo was the first to move, scrambling off his seat and tripping over his drum set to race over to the cowering man with the bass around his neck, wrapping him in a large hug. Frank smiled sweetly, set down his guitar, and strolled over, joining in on the hug, crushing both Percy and Leo in a tight embrace. The people in the crowd before the stand seemed to expect Nico to run and pile on top of them. Instead, the younger man bit his lip, water welling up at the tips of his eyes, as he opened his mouth.

“How could you?” The question rang out throughout the now quiet stadium, as the trio broke apart so Percy got a view of Nico’s trembling form. Then, the singer disappeared, stumbling away from the problem at hand. He didn’t stop moving until he burst through the stage’s back exit doors, where they emptied out into a dimly lit street. He fumbled with his jean pocket, pulling out a cigarette and his lighter eagerly, lighting it as quickly as his shaking hands were able to. Putting the stick to his lips, he breathed out a heavy gust of smoke, finally allowing himself to cry, now that he was utterly alone. Like always.

Notes