Work Text:
After the war with Gaea, Annabeth suggested to Nico that he try to get himself caught up with school. He hadn't been to school in three years, and before that, the last time he went to school was back in the 1930s. Nico refused to go back to school this year, so when Nico was beginning to redecorate the Hades Cabin, Annabeth bought a medium sized black bookshelf and collected all the textbooks she could find. She then told Nico that he could study the books himself and try to catch up.
It was a large collection of textbooks and workbooks, so Annabeth thought they would last him at least a couple years. She definitely didn't think that he would come up to her in the middle of July the next year and tell her that he went through all of them and asked if she had any more.
Of course Annabeth didn't think he was lying, he wouldn't ask for more if that were the case, but she was suspicious about whether or not he actually learned anything. Annabeth decided to design a test for him. (Which was completely designed to help him and she had no fun while creating it. No way.)
So that's where they currently were. Annabeth and Nico were sitting in the Athena Cabin. Nico was taking the test Annabeth made while she read a book. A few of Annabeth’s other siblings were scattered throughout the cabin doing their own thing. Everything was peaceful.
“I'm done.” Annabeth looked up from her book and towards Nico who was sitting at the desk next to her. Annabeth frowned. That was way too fast. Annabeth designed the test to take an average of three hours. She planned to get through at least 165 pages of the book she was currently reading, but Annabeth was on page 107 and only two hours and thirteen minutes had passed.
“Are you sure?” Annabeth asked.
Nico nodded.
“Did you answer everything?”
Nico nodded again.
“All the sections.”
“Yes Annabeth. I answered all 315 questions, and I'm tired.”
Annabeth was confused. Very confused. She came to the conclusion that Nico probably started guessing at some point since he had no idea what he was doing.
“Well, if you're sure, you can go. Come back in like two hours and I'll be done.”
“Great.” Nico got up and stretched his arms. “See ya Annabeth.”
As soon as Nico walked out of the cabin Annabeth took his seat and the answer key she made and started going through it.
An hour and 23 minutes later Annabeth found Nico watching over another one of Percy and Jason's competitions. Today's seemed to be art since they were both sitting in front of a canvas and had paint all over their hands. Nico, on the other hand, was sketching in a sketchbook Hazel got him for his birthday. He was apparently pretty good. But Annabeth wasn't focusing on that right now.
She got to the desk he was sitting at and dropped his test and the answer key in front of him. Nico flinched in surprise and looked up at her. “How?’ Annabeth asked. She didn't understand. And she hated not understanding.
“How what?” Nico asked. He actually looked confused.
“I graded your test.”
“How did I do? I didn't fail did I? That was my first test in years. I didn't fail, right? Is that why you're mad?”
“You didn't fail,” Annabeth reassured him. “And I'm not mad. I'm confused.”
“About?”
“How?”
Nico sighed. “How what?”
“How in the world did you get everything right? Everything!” Annabeth was still confused, but Nico seemed to be excited.
“Really?”
“Apparently!” Annabeth collapsed in the seat next to him. Jason and Percy we're now focusing on them too.
“I was sure I got number 127 wrong at least. I wasn't sure whether the answer was A or C. But apparently C was right.” He was shuffling through the test now.
“Explain,” Annabeth sighed.
“The question?”
“No! How? How did you get through all of those books and learn everything in them in less then a year. I thought they would last you at least until next year.”
“It was fun. I don't know.”
At some point Percy had abandoned his painting and started flipping through the answer key still sitting on the table.
“Hey Jason. You know why Khrushchev decided not to go to the Paris Summit?” Percy asked.
“Ummm...something to do with a spy plane right?”
Percy frowned. “Yeah. The u2 Spy plane apparently.”
He flipped through the test. “Do you know what bond allows water to travel up through a plant?”
“Ummm….no.”
“Capillary Action.”
He flipped through the packet again. “How about the derivative of 3cos(2x)+ sin(7x)?”
“Umm…”
“No? But seriously. What average 15 year old knows how to find the derivative of a trig function. I don't know how to find the derivative of a trig function.”
“That's because you're you Percy.”
“Excuse you Mr. Grace. And my point still stands.”
That was apparently not the right thing to say since Nico was now curling into himself and looked like he didn't want to be there.
Annabeth set a comforting hand on his shoulder, but kept her grip loose in case he didn't want it there. “That's really amazing. I didn't know you were that smart.”
Nico frowned. “I'm not smart. I just have an above average memory.”
“Don't be modest Nico,” Percy interjected. “Being able to get a perfect on a test that Annabeth made, means you're smart.”
Nico stayed silent. He made a show of looking at the clock before he mumbled something about promising to help Will and quickly leaving.
“Good job Percy,” Jason sighed.
“What did I say?”
Annabeth followed after him. She knew for a fact that Nico was not in the infirmary helping Will since the Apollo Cabin was currently doing archery. But Annabeth had a guess about where he would be. There weren't a lot of places where people could be alone at Camp.
She found him on the pier at the Lake. There were some campers sailing around, but the beach was empty except for the two of them. She slowly sat down next to him. She picked up a rock next to her and threw it towards the lake. It skipped three times before sinking.
It took a few minutes before Nico said anything. “What do you need Annabeth?”
“Are you okay?” No. That wasn't a good question. He obviously wasn't okay. He wouldn't have ran away from the arts and crafts building if he was okay.
“I'm fine.”
“Sure.”
Nico sighed. “It's nothing. Really. Don't worry about me. I'm fine.”
Annabeth really couldn't think of what could possibly be wrong. All they did was say he was smart. Annabeth gets called that all the time, and every time it made her chest swell with pride. Wait...no. Not every time.
“I get called smart a lot. And it makes me happy. But sometimes it feels like that's what I'm expected to be. So it gets kinda annoying. Like I'm not allowed to mess up. That my plans have to work and not just because the fate of the world rests on it, but because everyone will stop trusting me if my plan fails.”
Nico stayed silent. Annabeth sighed. She really didn't know how to comfort people. She looked at facts and reason. Emotions? They were messy and worked differently for every person.
She should have let Percy or Jason come. They would have known what to do. She could still go back and get them. It didn't look like Nico was going anywhere.
He started talking before Annabeth got up. “No one's going to stop trusting you just your plan fails. You're not expected to be perfect.”
“I know. But the worry is still there. The worry that everything will be all messed up because I forgot to factor something in.”
“Then you tell everyone your plan and they help you by thinking over everything one last time. And then it's everyone's fault if it fails.”
Annabeth smiled. “I'm supposed to comforting you. Not the other way around.”
Nico shrugged.
“Thanks though.”
They fell into silence again. Maybe this was okay.
“I don't know why, but it felt weird hearing someone call me smart. I mean...most of my plans are stupid and reckless and usually end badly.”
“It can't be that bad if you're still here.”
Nico grimaced. “I got caught up in Minos’ manipulation when I was trying to bring Bianca back, I told Percy to jump in the river Styx, I brought him to my dad and got him captured, I fell into Tartarus by myself, I got captured by Giants and almost got Rome destroyed, I let you and Percy fall into Tartarus….”
Annabeth cuts him off. “Woah. Stop. First, you were upset and got manipulated. There's nothing wrong with that. Your emotions were wild. Don't blame yourself for that. Second, you didn't know that Hades would do that. You wanted to know about your Mom and got tricked. And you saved Percy and got him to the Styx. Which brings me to third, if Percy hadn't jumped into the Styx, he would probably be dead. How in the world was that a bad idea.”
“I…”
“No. I'm not done. You fell into Tartarus because you were trying to help. Don't you dare blame yourself for getting captured. Ever! And never, ever blame yourself for Percy and I falling. That was in no way your fault. No one could have done anything. If anyone, it's my fault for not paying attention to my foot being bound.”
Nico was staring at Annabeth with wide eyes.
“Maybe Minos manipulated you, but you beat him and saved us in the end. You may have gotten Percy captured by Hades, but you saved him and practically the entire world in the end. You convinced Hades to fight for us. That's just amazing. And you got Hazel to camp Jupiter. Helped both camps, but kept it secret so it wouldn't start a war. You tried to find the Doors of Death yourself, and ended up in Tartarus, but you survived even though you were by yourself. You got captured, but you kept yourself alive to tell us where the Doors are. You got everyone to Epirus. You shadow traveled the Athena Parthenos, Reyna, Coach Hedge, and yourself halfway around the world to save Camp. And there are probably great things you did that I'm missing.” Annabeth took a deep breath. “Everyone makes mistakes and screws up. And there will always be things you regret. Like me blaming myself for falling into Tartarus or for not paying enough attention to Luke.”
“Neither of those were your fault.”
Annabeth gives him a sad smile. “Maybe. But I'll always think it is. And it's important to remember these things. But it's also important to remember that what you do next is equally important. How are you going to fix it? Balance the good with the bad.” Annabeth’s smile gets a bit brighter. “And I think you definitely have a lot more good than bad. You're not a complete screw up for messing up a few times.”
Nico stared at Annabeth for a few moments before a small smile came to his face. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
“You better. Or else I’ll yell at you again.” Annabeth stood up and motioned for Nico to do the same. “Let’s go find you some more textbooks.”