Chapter Text
Ch. 5
Unnecessary Love Advice
"What on Olympus was that?" Will asked that night.
After escaping the monster bloodbath, they flew along the Missouri until the sky got dark. Will let Gumpi and Scarecrow go graze, while Nico grabbed takeout from the nearest McDonald's. Now they were sitting in a tent that Nico got from Reyna, who got it from the Hunters.
Will never thought he, a son of Apollo, would be sitting in a Hunter's tent, but then again, he supposed Nico wasn't exactly pumped about flying halfway across the country.
"What was what?" Nico asked, his mouth full of pickle. He'd been avoiding Will's gaze ever since the incident with the Earthborn. For the last twenty minutes, he'd been giving a vivid description of the draconae he grappled with.
"Don't play stupid, Nico," Will snapped. "You know what I mean. That whole..." He waved his hands around, "Wave of depression and poison tree thing. You know something about it."
"I don't want to think about it."
Will sighed. "I'm not trying to pry, I just want to make sure I know all the crucial information!"
"Well maybe I do, too! Before I go jumping to conclusions, I want to know what she has to do with the Oracle!"
A distant moo interrupted their argument. They both froze for a moment, Nico reaching for his sword.
A moment of silence, then Nico said, "It was just a cow."
"But seriously, Nico," Will continued, grabbing Nico’s shoulder. “You can tell me any-”
Nico shrugged Will’s hand off. “Don’t touch me.” Suddenly, he looked very tired. “I’m going to sleep. You take first watch.” He marched off to his sleeping bag and lay down, leaving Will with two half-eaten hamburgers and many, many questions.
Sitting in the grass, holding bow and arrow at the ready while fighting off exhaustion was not how Will had imagined his first quest. Before the Battle of the Labyrinth, he and his younger siblings had dreamed of glorious adventures, where they killed any monster that dared approach them, didn’t stop for trivial things like food and rest, and returned in three days flat, bringing home the carcass of the monster they had been sent to hunt. In hindsight, they had been surprisingly bloodthirsty, considering that they were supposed to also be healers.
Will wondered what Nico’s first quest was. He vaguely remembered meeting a much younger and cheerier (and annoying) Nico when he first cropped up, nearly four years ago. He had disappeared very quickly, though. What had the son of Hades been doing in that time? Did he hang around the Underworld, living with his godly father? Or did he go tramping around the world, chasing monsters and training by himself to become as powerful as he was?
“Will, hon, you’re not going to get the boy if you keep up with this stubbornness.”
Will jumped. Standing behind him was a woman he had only seen once, in a dream. As he peered closer, he realized she wasn’t actually there. It was just an Iris-Message. Thankfully, Will wasn’t nearly as light-headed as last time he saw her.
“Aphrodite. What are you doing here?” he asked, although he knew what was coming, and dreaded it.
Aphrodite flipped her long black hair over her shoulder. “Well, you clearly need advice from a love expert. Sometimes, you boys are just so hopeless.”
"I do not need love advice, Aphrodite!" Will hissed, trying hard not to shout.
Aphrodite giggled. "Oh, your denial is just the cutest! But really, after all you've done for him, do you really expect me to believe that?"
Will grimaced as memories surged through him. Nodding politely as a tiny, black-haired boy chattered along about Mythomagic. Trying to get the skeleton army-wielding boy to sit down for an examination after the Battle of the Labyrinth. Talking animatedly to stupid Mitchell about how he wanted to be the Son of Hades's friend.
"So I cared. So what? Lots of people care about lots of other people." Will was losing the argument, but the last thing he wanted was Aphrodite's "help".
"And I care about you and Nico!" The goddess of love was positively squealing. "Look at the two of you. You're tall-"
"Only six-two," Will muttered. Lee Fletcher had been taller.
"And he's short."
"Tell that to Nico's face." Cecil once called Nico a midget. It took several hours, four wrenches, and a flamethrower to find him trapped in a Celestial Bronze cage inside Bunker Nine. Also an entire week of toilet-cleaning duty.
"You're full of life."
"Like anybody else who is alive isn't. How can somebody be half full of life?" Will shot back rhetorically.
Aphrodite shook her head. "It happens to more people than you'd think. And look, you see the glass half full."
This was ridiculous. Thankfully, at that moment, the IM flickered, and the goddess said, "Oh, it seems that I'm out of drachmas. Oh, don't give me that judging look," she added as Will raises his eyebrows. "I just got back from a shopping spree in Milan. Fashion comes from a place, you know."
Will opened his mouth to ask exactly how one could buy clothes with Ancient Greek money, but the Iris message ended. Aphrodite was gone.
He glanced down at his watch. 2:27. Will's shift was over.
Nico slept in a tiny ball, curled up right underneath the blanket. The last time Will had seen Nico like this was during those three days in the infirmary. He remembered that vividly. They had argued viciously for a few minutes, then Nico decided to lay down and refuse to sleep, a conviction that lasted all of thirty minutes.He slept three days straight, so deeply unconscious that a few campers even started to become concerned that he had fallen into a coma.
Nico was different, asleep. When he was awake, he had an attitude taller than Will’s brother, Michael Yew. He seemed to know just about everything, and everyone respected him. But asleep...Nico didn’t seem quite so larger-than-life. He was just another camper, someone forced by the Fates to grow up too quickly.
But even asleep, it was impossible to forget Nico’s heritage. His black sword was less than half a foot from him, absorbing most of the light from Will’s flashlight and casting shadows into Nico’s face. And something felt off- like someone had prescribed a sleeping medicine just a bit too strong.
Will reached over to shake Nico’s shoulder, and was sucked into his dream.
-It was dark, and it was hot. The air was dry like smoke, but then he realized the air was smoke, and the glowing, harsh ground was fire. All around, monsters writhed in agony as their mutilated bodies knit slowly back together-
Will leaped pack with a yell, wondering what the heck just happened. He knew that Nico was a powerful dreamer, second only to the Hypnos cabin, but he didn’t know that someone could be sucked into a dream like that.
It wasn’t even appropriate to call the few seconds of what he’d seen a dream. That was a nightmare, and one so horrible that he knew it had to be something Nico had experienced before.
Now that Will looked closer, he could see signs that Nico was having nightmares. He was sweating, and he could see Nico’s hands pushing against the fabric of the sleeping bag, as if they were trying to push some unseen invader away.
Will usually called up a Hypnos kid, usually Clovis or Poppy Aster, to deal with nightmares at the infirmary. He didn't know how to deal with them on his own, the way they did it, but he did remember that waking someone up in the middle of one was generally not a good idea, unless you wanted to be punched in the face.
Then Nico’s hands tore through the fabric and started wildly swinging through the air.
“Woah!” yelped Will. “Nico! It’s okay!” He grabbed Nico’s shoulders. “Wake up, Nico.”
Nico’s eyes shot open. They were dilated to a dangerous degree for a moment, and his breathing was labored. “No- trap-” he gasped.
Will did the first thing that came to mind. He hugged Nico. “It was a nightmare, Nico. It’s alright.”
Nico must have been really out of it, because he didn’t even struggle. He asked, “You’re not going to go all therapist on me and make me describe my dream, are you?”
It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to tell Nico that he had seen part of his dream, so Will just said, “No. You can tell me if you want, but I’m not going to force you into doing something you don’t want. That’s just ineffective.” He grinned and added, “You’re probably better at lying than I am at detecting them, anyway.”
Nico gave a small chuckle, saying, “Good. Then can you please stop hugging me?”
Will let go quickly. “Well, I’m exhausted,” he said frankly. “Do you feel up to guard duty?”
Will dreamed he was in Camp Half-Blood. It was near sunset, and all the demigods were doing their normal activity. Jake Mason, freshly out of his body cast, ran past, yelling, “I figured it out!”. Katie Gardner wielded her shovel as she chased one of the Stoll brothers, who presumably had stolen something important. Again.
Annabeth and Piper walked near him, deep in conversation. For some reason, Will felt compelled to follow them.
Annabeth said, “Percy’s disappeared.”
“What? Again?” Piper, who was carrying Chuck Hedge, responded distractedly.
For the two months after Gaea’s defeat, Percy had disappeared half a dozen times. The first time caused a big ruckus. From what Will had heard, Percy had walked out (“stormed out, leaving a watery ruin in his wake” the Stoll brothers claimed) of his first period class, and didn’t return until noon the next day, bloody and carrying a giant tooth. Annabeth had freaked, and three search parties were out by sixth period. Will, Nico, Lou Ellen, and Cecil had been one of those teams. Gods, Cecil had been so outraged when they learned it was just a fluke, and almost conned Percy into ‘paying’ him until Annabeth intervened. Then he vanished for four hours in Queens, allegedly fighting giant crocodile of some sort. And three days in New Jersey, where he fought a manticore family and/or a mutant duck. There had been a lot of speculation. Will personally thought that sneaking off to fight monsters was a sort of coping mechanism. Eventually, though, Percy’s disappearances became old news. He did find it strange that the son of Poseidon would run away from Camp Half-Blood, when he just as easily could have just found a monster to fight in the woods, though.
“This time was different,” Annabeth insisted. “We were having an argument. At first, it was just about who caused our team to lose Capture the Flag, but somehow, it turned into a fight about... well, everything. Then he crossed the line. He-” She gulped. “He brought up Tartarus. He said we should go back, battle it out to see who would survive then. I punched him in the face and told him that he might wake Gaea up again with his new nose bleed."
Annabeth started to cry. Will immediately wished he wasn’t seeing this. Annabeth crying, especially now, after two months of peace, was just wrong. Piper grabbed her and sat her down on a nearby rock.
“The look on his face,” Annabeth said. Will thought it couldn’t have been much worse than the look on Annabeth’s right then, but he figured it would be a bad idea to tell her. “He asked me if I had ever actually cared for him. Then he just... ran off. Dived into the ocean and swam away. I think... I think that was his final straw.”
Piper paled. “You don’t mean-”
Annabeth looked down. “You have to help me. I panicked. I called Chiron, the other demigods, everyone, to help me find him. But they just laughed at me and told me it would be like the other six times.”
Piper looked like she was about to agree to help, but then her eyes widened. Will looked over to see what she was staring at. Behind Annabeth, Percy appeared, wearing the same old grin he always had.
“Hi, Annabeth!” he said cheerfully. “I got you this flower.” He held up a cluster of small, pink, five-petaled blossoms.
Annabeth gaped at him, her tear-streaked face pale as she stared at the ghost she surely thought he was, then grabbed his wrists and pulled them towards her. She examined them, searching for some sort of wound. But Will already knew Annabeth wasn’t going to find anything.
Meanwhile, Piper peered curiously at the flowers. “Oleander?” she asked. “Did you pick those up from your backyard or something?”
Percy’s grin grew amused, as if he was laughing to himself at some inside joke that only he understood. “Or something,” he agreed. “It’s not as if I’m rich enough to buy an actual bouquet from a flower shop. Sorry if I worried you, Annabeth. I just had to blow off steam, you know? Anyways, I’m off to bed. See you tomorrow, ladies.” He waved as he walked away.
Will sighed, not paying attention to Annabeth and Piper debating about something. If this was what having prophetic dreams was like, he was glad he didn't have more of them. The rest of his dreams passed in a forgotten blur.
Somehow, the flight to North Dakota wasn’t interrupted anymore, and the chariot landed for a break later that day. Clouds covered the sky.
Nico leapt out of the chariot, looking infinitely more relaxed than he was during yesterday’s botched landing.
The Missouri river was still next to them. Will remembered that that river went all the way up to North Dakota, so provided they didn't- You know what, I'm not even going to finish that thought, he decided.
"C'mon," Nico said, gesturing at a path. "There's a town that way. We can grab some food there."
Will's stomach growled. "Food sounds good," he agreed. "You got money?"
"My dad's loaded," Nico reminded as he started down the path. "I'm hungry; let’s go."
North Dakota was a sea of grass. Will and Nico kept to a well-beaten dirt path, but on either side of them grew knee-high grass, stretching for forever in each direction. Cattle roamed everywhere. Ahead of them was a dusty looking town.
A blond teenager in a tractor slowed next to them. "'Ello, son. Where'd you come from?"
Will's mind blanked.
Nico saved them. "Oh, we were just hiking, you see. Now we're just trying to find a decent place for lunch."
The man grinned. "No problem, son! I got enough space for a pair of string-beans like you in here."
Will hesitated, glancing at Nico, who shrugged. "I could use a break."
They clambered up into the tractor seat. It was a tight fit, but they managed to squeeze in together, even if Nico was practically sitting in Will's lap like a very, very grumpy cat. "Next time," he hissed in Greek, "park closer."
As they approached the town, Will was able to make out a sign at the side of the road.
"Welcome to Jamestown, 'The Buffalo City'," he read. "Weird. I always thought Jamestown was in, like, Virginia or something."
"That's a different Jamestown," Nico replied. "Thank Hades for that. Colonial Jamestown was full of greedy scum who can't get off their butts to save their lives."
"That's right," the tractor driver said. Will would have jumped, but there wasn't enough space. "I remember going to that old place. Literal golddiggers, right, boy?” He reached over Will to high five Nico, but he just stared blankly at the hand.
A long and awkward silence ensued. Will studied the tractor driver. He was wearing a dirty, yellow plaid workshirt and bell-bottom-y blue jeans. He was tanned like a California sunbather, and had calloused fingers, despite looking only about 16.
Before long, they were stopping outside a KFC in the middle of town.
A woman holding a little girl's hand waved at them, shouting, "Hallo, Fred!" with a strong Southern accent. Both she and the girl had long brown hair braided down her back and brown eyes.
The tractor driver, whose name was apparently Fred, replied, "Just dropping off a couple of boys I found in the grazing ground. Are we still good for dinner, Lindy?"
As Lindy and Fred talked, Nico found the lock on the tractor door and let him and Will out.
"Thanks for the ride, um, Fred," Will said.
The tractor driver grinned, showing brilliantly white teeth. "Oh, you don't have to call me Fred, son. Nor Mr. Death Breath there."
Nico tensed. His hand edged towards his pocket.
"You can call me Apollo, or if you prefer, Will, Daddy!"