Work Text:
Five Letter Word That Starts with ‘D’
Nico stood at the top of the training ground, watching the demigods he was currently teaching sword maneuvers to. At the moment, he sent them to work in pairs, so he could check their positioning. It was a mixture of some Apollo kids, a handful of new Hephaestus children who just showed up a week ago, and Cecil and Lou Ellen – from the Hermes and Hecate cabin, and two of Will’s best friends.
Right now, they were all trying to disarm each other, and it seemed like everyone was getting a good hold on it – at least, as good as he expected from their third session. Nico sighed as his mind wandered off to this morning when he was helping out Will in the infirmary. Twice a day, Will always made sure to ask Nico to check no one had died on the mission that Apollo was on. As usual, Nico immediately informed Will that, no, no one has died Will. I will sense it immediately if someone had.
Will mumbled how he just wanted to be sure, then changed the topic to Connor Stoll, who decided to pull a mass prank on the Aphrodite cabin, that ended up turning half the cabin to the infirmary, and the other half to chase Connor up the climbing wall. Nico enjoyed those times with Will, it was just nice to be together and enjoying their normal.
“CECIL!” Lou Ellen yelled out, and it snapped Nico back immediately. Everyone stopped to see Lou Ellen on the ground, gently bleeding down her forearm.
“Step back!” Nico called, when people started to circle around her, immediately they did. Kneeling, Nico held out his hand to Lou Ellen, “Can I?” Lou Ellen showed Nico her arm, and Nico sighed seeing it wasn’t a deep cut. Shaking his head, Nico looked at the class, “This is why you have to have control of your blade, grasp your sword too far down, and you lose all control of where it’s going.”
Taking a guess at the time, Nico figured class would be over soon enough, “Let’s bring you to the infirmary, Lou Ellen. It’s not deep, but you should still get it cleaned up.” He looked around at everyone else as he helped up Lou Ellen, “I’ll see everyone else tomorrow, dismissed.”
Lou Ellen was able to walk on her own, so the two headed to the infirmary as everyone started to leave. Cecil walked over, “I’m sorry, Lou Ellen. I really didn’t mean to.”
Waving him off, Lou Ellen shook her head, “I’m not dying. It’s fine, Cecil. I had just warned you not to wave your sword around.”
Nico nodded, guiding them to the infirmary. The class had completely dissipated behind them, everyone going back to their cabins or going to meet up with some of their friends with their extra time. They were just within view of the infirmary when Nico felt something deep within him – he staggered from the feeling.
“Nico?” Cecil and Lou Ellen both stopped to look at him, worried.
“I’m fine,” Nico said, straightening and trying to put on a brave face, but he knew that feeling and he was about to vomit just thinking about it. “Go on to the infirmary.”
He saw the two of them look at each other, “Should we get Will?”
“No!” Nico said immediately, he needed to figure out what he was feeling first. The feeling subsided for a second, and he thought maybe he had just imagined it. “Just go, I’ll be right behind you.”
There was a beat, before the two nodded and walked off. Nico saw that they looked back twice before they got to the door. The feeling, however, got deeper into Nico and he knew what just happened. Someone just entered his father’s realm. Someone close to him.
Nico was some ways away from his cabin, but there was a shade tree three steps from him. He dived into the shadow and found himself in the Hades cabin. He immediately sunk down to his knees and closed his eyes, trying to figure out what was happening. Who it was happening to.
Taking a deep breath, he followed the feeling into Hades – he knew whoever’s trial it would be, he wanted to be at it. Still, he had a feeling it might be a few hours his time. Sure enough, he saw two images – that were clear enough he wondered if Hades himself was giving them to Nico – as a sort of apology. The first image was of a bloodied warrior, face down, a sword being yanked from his back, before immediately being thrown back in. Although Nico couldn’t see his face, he recognized the blond hair, he also recognized the sword that lay to waste. Thanatos was already collecting the soul. Before Nico could stop him, or say anything, he flashed to the line to enter Hades, and there was the blond solider.
“JASON!” Nico tried to yell, but nothing came out of his mouth. It was just a vision, Nico wasn’t there. Jason seemed to have just arrived, his clothes were still bloodied, but otherwise he looked in tip-top condition. The one thing Nico saw was Jason had tears running down his face.
“JASON!” Nico tried again, but it was no use. The world around him swirled and he knew he was being pulled out of the vision.
When Nico came around, he was still on his knees, tears now coming down his face. He was crying, yelling Jason’s name, his whole body was shaking.
Nico knew death. He understood death. He’s even brought about death before. Still, he was hoping he wouldn’t have to feel this again. And for Jason. Jason was the first person from modern times who found out about him, truly about him, his sexuality, something that he was horrified about. He remembered Jason being so positive about it. Assuring that Nico would still be welcomed around Camp. Jason was so ecstatic when Nico told him, one night, that Will had asked him out – and Nico said yes.
“Jason…” Nico cried, his vision out of focus from his tears. He didn’t even realize anyone was in his cabin until he felt arms wrap around him. The first thing Nico noticed was the blonde hair, and he couldn’t help but think it was Jason – but it wasn’t Nico knew that before he could even open his mouth. It was a different shade of blond, the skin was darker, and he could feel his boyfriend trying to comfort him.
Nico looked into Will Solace’s eyes and attempted to form a coherent sentence, but all that came out was “Jason” followed by more tears. Will wrapped his arms around Nico and Nico allowed him, burying his head in Will’s chest. Nico sobbed, he didn’t care, he just needed to grieve over his friend.
Will held him, and Nico felt him crying as well. While Will’s arms were steady and strong around Nico, Nico could still feel his chest shuttering as he cried. It took Nico seconds, minutes, hours, maybe a whole millennia to form a sentence, “He’s gone. He-” Nico swallowed, “-he died in battle.” Nico shook his head and looked at Will, trying to swallow more tears that were coming up, “I think – I think he sacrificed himself.”
Will took hold of Nico’s hands, “I don’t suppose we can hope for a turn around like Leo?”
Nico shook his head, rubbing his eyes on the corner of his shirt, “No, he was already waiting in line to be judged. He’s already gone. There’s no undoing it.” His voice shook, and he looked up and stared at the ceiling, wishing there was some way to undo it. But he was a child of Hades, he knew how death worked.
Still a part of him wondered about trying to get him back, he got Hazel back, he could do the same with Jason. Then, of course, he thought of Bianca, and how she never wanted to come back. Nico tried too hard that she finally just decided to be reborn. “There’s no undoing it.” Nico said again, this time more firmly. “Jason wouldn’t want that.”
Nico felt another tear streak down his face, and Will released one of Nico’s hands to wipe it away, “You’re right, you know.” Will said, kissing Nico’s other hand, “If he did die in battle, sacrificing himself – it’s the only way he would have wanted to go. He’s a true hero.”
“He shouldn’t have had to go at all.” Nico snapped at Will, then reeled himself back, “I’m sorry, I know. He died a hero’s death.” Nico leaned heavily on Will, “I knew they were going on a dangerous quest, but I really didn’t think they would die, any of them.” Taking a deep breath, Nico added, “Just – after everything we went through on the Argo II…”
Will kissed the top of Nico’s head, and Nico sat up, “I know death is inevitable, early death is even more inevitable for us demigods but…” He shook his head, “It’s stupid…”
Will squeezed Nico’s hands, “No, it’s not, continue Nico. It’s okay.”
Nico hesitated for a second longer before continuing, “But I guess I just thought, after the two wars we went through, and making it out – I guess I just hoped that would be all for our lifetime. You know, most of them went away to finish school, they were all so excited about starting college.” Nico sighed and wiped away the last few tears coming down his face, “We can’t ever hope that, not for us. We never know what’s going to happen.”
“We never know,” Will agreed, “But we have to have hope, Nico. Hope for a future, hope for our friend’s future. Yes, death is inevitable, but we can keep fighting to give ourselves and our friends another day.”
“Sometimes it’s just not enough,” Nico sighed, before laying down on the floor of his cabin, just to stare up at the dark ceiling, “Jason was the first to know I was gay,” Will laid down next to Nico, and Nico immediately adjusted so his head was on Will’s chest, Will hummed to let Nico know he was listening, “I thought he was going to hate me. I was sure he was going to shun me away – then tell everyone on board and they would push me away too.” Will had one arm around Nico, and the other was softly stroking Nico’s hair, “I was constantly on edge when we got back to the ship, he told me he wouldn’t tell, but he encouraged me to come out to them. I was sure that, if I annoyed him, or made the wrong comment to him, he would just shout it out to the world.”
Will already knew this information, Nico had told it to him before, but Will also knew that Nico just needed to talk about Jason – and Will understood that. So, he let Nico continue, “He showed me, many times over, that he trusted me and I slowly trusted him.” Will felt Nico smile, just a tiny bit, “He was the second one to realize I had a massive crush on you.”
“Second?” Will asked, his was information that he didn’t know.
“Annabeth, first. She figured it out pretty quickly after I told her and Percy about my crush on him.” Will shook his head, “Then Jason figured it out, and he was set on pep-talking me until asked you out. One night he ambushed me into Cabin One all night and I still couldn’t shadow-travel, so he talked me through how to ask you out. He gushed so much about how wonderful you were, you would think he had the crush on you.” Nico squeezed Will’s hand, “Granted, he heard all that information from me, so…”
Nico let go of Will and rubbed his eyes, “He was out-of-this-world excited when I told him we were dating. He ended up electrocuting the entire dining pavilion.” Nico let out a small laugh, and Will laughed as well, he remembered that day well. “I think the markings are still there.”
The two boys smiled softly as Nico shared a few more stories around Jason, before he slowly sat up and looked at Will, who sat up as well, “I should probably go and tell Chiron, shouldn’t I? I need to give him proper funeral rites.”
Will nodded, reaching out for Nico’s hand, “I can go with you.” He squeezed his boyfriends hand.
“Thank you,” Nico said a small smile still on his face as he thought about the good memories, suddenly, though, it fell, “Percy and Annabeth.”
It took Will only a second to realize, “Do you think they are back from Boston?”
“I don’t know, I would think so.” Nico said softly, “They will want to be there for it, I doubt we can get Thalia with communications down, but I can go into Manhattan to check on them – to tell them before...”
Will nodded, “I’m going with you,” He said, “We can talk to Chiron, get that set up, then we can go to tell Percy and Annabeth.”
Nico agreed, but didn’t move. He stayed quiet for a second, then looked at Will, “I’m going to ask father if I can be on the panel of judges. It shouldn’t take long, at all, he’s set to go to Elysium, but just in case.” Will had a feeling that Nico wanted to be on the panel of judges for other reasons, like seeing Jason one last time, but Will thought that was okay. He had heard intermitted stories of how horribly Nico took his sister, Bianca’s death, and thought that this was still miles better.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea, Nico.” Will sat forward to give Nico a soft kiss on the cheek.
For a minute, the two sat there, thoughtfully thinking over what was to come. Finally, Nico tugged on Will’s hand, “It’s not going to get any easier, so let’s go find Chiron.” With a nod, Will and Nico stood up, and prepared to deliver the news of the Son of Jupiter / Zeus death to the camp and to their friends.