Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Wait," Percy said. "So you mean--"

"Right," Nico said again. "But it's cool. We're cool. I mean, I see now... you're cute, but you're not my type."

"I'm not your type... Wait. So--"

"See you around, Percy," Nico said. "Annabeth."

She raised her hand for a high five.

Nico obliged. Then he walked back across the green, where Will Solace was waiting.

And as he went, Nico’s heart hammered against the thin wall of his chest. What had just happened? Had he really just-- yes, yes he had. He’d confessed his deepest, darkest secret to the person who’d dominated his life for so long. His passion, his curse. His first love.

His hand still stung from where Annabeth had high-fived him as he walked away.

It was fine. He was fine. A little shaky, maybe… but he wasn’t drowning in that wave of sick loathing that so often overwhelmed him. That meant he was healing, didn’t it? It was well past time to move forward.

What he was moving toward , now… that was scary.  He had agreed to stay at camp, something he’d never done for more than a week at a time.  Which meant he had to figure out how to live with people. Actual, living people. And maybe get a few of them to like him, somehow-- starting with the one waiting for his return with his arms crossed across his chest.

He stopped in front of the Apollo cabin, and spread his hands wide. “Okay,” he said. “I’m ready now.”

Will Solace raised an eyebrow. “I told you, you’re spending three nights in the infirmary,” he said. “Couldn’t you think of anything you might want to bring with you? Toothbrush? Nightshirt? National bestseller?”

Nico blinked at him, his mind refusing to settle on any particular thought. Then he ventured, “...I lost my toothbrush in- in the Underworld, back in June.”

Will raised both eyebrows. “You haven't brushed your teeth since June?”

“Well…” Nico tapped his forehead. “I had one on the Argo II , but obviously...”

“Yeah.” Will exhaled, rubbing the back of his head. Nothing needed to be said about that.

“And while I was traveling with Reyna, I had one in my backpack.”

“Which is where now?”

Nico sighed. “I left it on the boat in the Sound, after Michael Kahale attacked us.”

“Long story short, you need a new toothbrush,” said Will.

“Yes, probably,” Nico agreed.

Will studied him for a long moment, looking as though he had something he desperately wanted to say. At length, all he said was, “All right, then. If that’s all you’ve got, then let’s go.” 

Nico fell into step beside him as he crossed the grounds towards the Big House. “It’s fine,” he said. “I’ve always traveled light.”

“You say that like it’s a good thing,” Will said.

Nico shrugged. “I like being unencumbered,” he said.

“So… you always wear the same clothes?”

“I wash them,” Nico said defensively.

“Where?” 

“Here and there,” he said. “Laundromats, rivers... Water is water.” Glancing sidelong at Will, he said, “I washed my t-shirt in a public fountain once.”

“You did not,” Will said, disbelievingly.

“At 2 am,” said Nico, in that perfectly serious deadpan that even confounded Hades. “The beat cop was a block away. No one saw me but a stray dog and the local owl population.”

“You try that here, the harpies will eviscerate you,” said Will.

“They can try ,” said Nico. “But don’t worry. I don’t enjoy doing laundry in strange places.”

“Well, good,” said Will. “Then I’d think you were really weird.” He grinned at Nico, then lengthened his stride.

“Hey-- what do you mean, really weird?” Nico demanded, half-running to keep up. “Hey!” 

He chased him all the way up the porch stairs and through the side door into the Big House, where he stopped and stared. The camp infirmary itself was just inside the door, a reasonably sized room that typically held three bunks separated by partition curtains, an examination table and a bank of cabinets stocked with supplies. The same random posters that had been up when he first arrived at camp still adorned the walls, hanging over the additional cots and exam tables that had been moved into the space. And the French doors at the far end of the room had been opened into the rec room, which had been set up as a makeshift hospital.  The Apollo kids were obviously used to handling a high volume of patients after epic battles; from the look of things, the original infirmary space was dedicated to outpatient treatments and checkups, while the rec room was relegated to patients who were more long-term. And judging from the number of campers he’d seen at dinner in slings and bandages, they’d healed and released as many patients as they currently had in the hall.

“Wow,” said Nico. “Were all of these beds filled?”

“Yeah,” Will said over his shoulder as he set his things down. “Many more than once. Which you might have seen, if you’d come by at all.”

“Sorry,” Nico murmured, hardly listening to himself.

Will turned, and noticed him hovering awkwardly in the doorway. "Come on in," he said, exasperated. "It’s not the Ares cabin. We’re much cleaner, and we definitely don’t have as many booby traps."

"Um, okay," said Nico, wandering into the room. "So... Now what?"

"First, I'm going to give you a physical," Will said. "Shoes off, please."

Nico choked. "Excuse me?"

Will folded his arms. "It's protocol," he said. "I have absolutely no information on you in our files to use as a baseline, so I'd have to do it at some point anyway. Now, take off your shoes!"

"All right!" Suddenly nervous, Nico toed off his sneakers, noticing as he did so what rough shape they were in. Probably, he needed to look into getting a new pair. He pushed them under the exam table with his foot, hoping Will wouldn’t notice.

He needn’t have worried; Will was busy writing on a clipboard. "Step up onto the scale," he said, gesturing to the archaic black metal weight balance hulking in the corner.  “I know it’s a relic, but it’s pretty accurate.”

Nico shrugged. “It’s pretty close to what my doctor had, back in D.C.,” he said, stepping up onto the wobbly little platform. Was that the last time he’d been to the doctor? They might have put him through this back when he was first here… “Are you sure I don’t have a file here? It might be under ‘unclaimed’.”

“Eh, this is easier,” Will said, adjusting the height scale until it rested on top of Nico’s head. Automatically, Nico stood up straight. “Five feet, four inches.”

“I’m still growing,” Nico said defensively.

“Uh huh.” Will moved on, moving the sliding weight across the bar until it balanced. He pursed his lips. "You’re still fourteen, right? Even so, you're underweight."

"...I didn't eat much at all during the month of June," Nico admitted.

"Dare I ask why?" Will said, glancing up from his clipboard.

Nico shrugged. "Various reasons. I wasn't hungry, there was no edible food available... I spent several days in a large brass jar..."

Will looked horrified. All he said, though, was, "You said June. July was better?" 

“Well, I don't look like a famine victim anymore, so I’d say yes," Nico said. He didn’t think about how terrible that sounded until he heard himself say it out loud. How about you stop trying to be funny, Di Angelo.

“Hmmm.” Will frowned, jotting down a few more notes on his clipboard. “Okay. I’m going to pull the curtain, so if you could put on that hospital gown, right there...”

It was Nico’s turn to be horrified. “You’re joking.”

Will smirked. “Yes, I’m joking.” A dimple flashed in his cheek. “You should see the look on your face. Would that really be such a bad thing?”

Nico scowled at him. “Wearing a backless dressing gown and little else while another camper does Hades knows what to me? That’s not my idea of fun.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Will said breezily. “It depends on that other camper, and what he’s got planned for you, doesn’t it?” He winked- winked!- at Nico, who promptly felt all the blood rush to his head. He dropped his gaze to the floor, searching for some way to respond-- and coming up completely empty. 

Fortunately, Will noticed his discomfort. “Still joking,” he said gently, touching Nico’s shoulder. It was a light touch, but Nico instinctively flinched away from it, the way he always did, and Will withdrew his hand. “I always think it’s interesting,” he continued, “which campers will put on the gown, and which ones refuse.”

Nico frowned, still staring at the tops of his stockinged feet. There was a hole in the big toe of his left sock. “Someone actually put that thing on?”

“Mitchell, Son of Aphrodite, practically dove into it,” Will said. “We proceeded to have a very informative discussion about underwear for the next twenty minutes. Most people call me out on my joke; that time, the joke was on me.” 

Nico snorted. “Serves you right.”

“Maybe it does,” Will said amiably. He walked over, patting a hand on the exam table. “Hop up here,” he said.  “No tricks, I promise,” he said, when Nico eyed him warily. “Don’t look so suspicious.”

Nico grudgingly walked over and climbed up onto the table. 

“Now, my disclaimer,” said Will. “This physical is not going to be like a normal one--”

“Because you aren’t a certified doctor?” Nico asked.

Will lifted his chin. “I’m more efficient than any mortal doctor,” he said. “I’ll explain as we go. Fair warning, though: I’m going to need to touch you. Are you okay with that?” 

Nico fidgeted uncomfortably. “...maybe?” he said. “Touch me where?”

Will put his hands up in front of him. “Usually I use the palm of my hand, or the tips of my fingers. I’ll tell you each place as I go, and you can tell me if it’s all right or not. Okay?” After a moment, Nico nodded. “Okay. First, temperature.” He turned his right hand sideways. “Forehead.”

He didn’t move, and after a moment Nico remembered he was waiting for permission. “That’s fine,” he said.

Will’s hand was cool against his forehead. He only held it there for a matter of moments before he announced, “Good. That’s normal.” And he went to make a mark on the clipboard. Then, he came around, standing in front of Nico, who stared at the front of his shirt. “As long as I’m here, I might as well do the rest of the EENT now,” Will said, crouching down until he could look Nico in the eye. “I’m only going to use the tips of my fingers. May I?”

“Ahh…” Nico said faintly.

The corner of Will’s lips quirked slightly. “I promise not to stick them in anything.”

Nico closed his eyes reflexively. “It hadn’t crossed my mind,” he said. “But… I guess that makes me feel better? Okay.” 

“Okay.” Will lifted Nico’s chin with his thumbs, checking his sinuses, ears and throat with the lightest, most clinical touch of his fingertips, tilting his head from side to side while Nico desperately worked to keep his face from flooding with color. “You have allergies?”

“Mostly spring plants and pollen,” Nico grumbled. “I blame my stepmother.”

“Ah.” Will turned Nico’s face straight again, then leaned down, looking deeply into his eyes. Instinctively, Nico looked away, uncomfortable, but Will caught him firmly by the chin. “Nuh-uh,” he said. “I’m not done checking your eyes. Look right here.”

His eyes were so blue. Not an ocean blue, or the color of ice, his eyes were a cloudless summer sky… rimmed with lashes like golden smoke... they were so pretty. Nico found himself squirming again, almost as though Will could read his thoughts and knew what thought train he was riding.

But all Will said was, “Man, you must suck at staring contests.”

The challenge in his tone snapped Nico right out of his discomfort. He glowered at the son of Apollo, meeting his gaze squarely, as if determined to intimidate him into submission-- or being just as inclined to look away.

Will quirked an eyebrow. “Scary,” he said. Then he grinned. “But your eyes are fine. So that’s good.” And he turned to make another note on his clipboard.

Nico released the breath he was holding as quietly as he could, not wanting to draw attention to how rattled he was by this entire experience. Did Will really do this for every camper?

“Lungs next.” Will extended a hand, waited for Nico’s nod of approval, then rested the palm of his hand against Nico’s back, telling him to breathe deeply, in and out.

Nico cleared his throat. “Shouldn’t you have a stethoscope for this?” he managed. 

“No need,” Will replied. “Your lungs are clear, and your heart sounds fine.” He started to slide his hand down Nico’s back, then paused. “Permission to check your other organs?”

“It’s fine,” Nico said. “You can stop asking.”

Will nodded, then slid his hand down to Nico’s lower back. “Most regular doctors will do a lot of poking and prodding during a physical,” he said. “Checking organ size, seeing if there’s tenderness or fluids in various parts of the body. Stuff like that.” He lifted his hand, and shrugged. “I’ve never needed to do that. Your organs are all working properly, which is good. Your heart rate is a little elevated…” 

Gosh, I wonder why, Nico thought to himself, fervently hoping that he wasn’t about to start blushing like a fool again.

“... And your body is still producing a ton of adrenaline and cortisol, like you’re still on the run from something, even though the threat has passed. Also, I get the feeling you haven't been sleeping…”

“I didn't sleep at all last night,” Nico admitted. “And the night before that wasn't great either.”

Will raked his hands through his hair, then sighed, staring at them. “Now I have to wash these again,” he said. “Do you always have trouble sleeping?”

Nico shrugged. “I slept an awful lot while we were transporting the Athena Parthenos,” he said.

“Yeah, I heard all about that, remember?” Will said. “It’s the whole reason you’re here.”

“You wanted to know how I sleep,” Nico retorted. “I’m just giving you the facts.”

Will gave him a sour look, but he dropped the subject. "Any wounds or serious injuries, past or present, that I should record in your chart?"

Nico hesitated. "Well, there's this..." And he pushed up his sleeves.

He thought the wounds looked a lot better, but Will sucked in a breath. “Nico…” he said. Without hesitating, or asking permission, he reached out and took Nico’s arm, pushing up his sleeve with one hand and gently turning it to get a better look. “What did this to you?” he asked. “When?”

Nico gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to pull away. He tried to distract himself by recounting the days since the attack. “We were attacked by… by a wolf in Evora, maybe… twelve days ago, now? He dug his claws into my arms.”

“Almost two weeks, and the scratches are still so red,” Will said. “Don’t they hurt?”

“It’s fine,” Nico said. “They’re a lot better than they were.”

Will sighed. “It is not fine,” he said, his fingers hovering just above the raised pink wheals surrounding the stitches. “I don’t think there’s any infection, and the wounds seem mostly closed, but I’m still going to clean the sutures and put something on them.” He stood and headed for his work table, near the wall.

“You don’t have to--”

Turning, Will leveled a finger at Nico’s nose. “You are in my house now,” he said. “It is my job to make you feel better. So, rather than stoically dealing with the pain, you will have to stoically deal with my treatment. Capisce ?” 

“ Io capisco, ” Nico muttered automatically, a little surprised. He wondered where Will had learned this random Italian term. Did he speak Italian? “ Neanche tu riesci a capire una parola, vero? ”

“Sorry, were you saying something?” Will asked a little too sweetly, as he pulled on his gloves. “I hope you weren’t complaining over there…”

Apparently not. “Niente, ” Nico said, mimicking his tone. “Not at all.”

“Good.” Will picked up the bottle of topical antiseptic and a medical swab and sat down on the stool next to the table. He made quick work of cleaning the sutures, the liquid feeling very cold against the heat of the inflamed skin. “How does that feel?” Will asked.

“Fine,” Nico said automatically. Feeling Will’s disapproving stare on the back of his neck, he amended, “I mean, it’s cold, and it stings a little in some places, but not too bad.”

Will nodded. “Okay,” he said. Spinning on the stool, he tossed the swab in the trash can behind him, then came back around. In his hands now was a plain white container of some sort of cream. Or was it technically a paste? He put some on his fingers and spread it over the wounds on Nico’s biceps, humming softly. When they were fully covered, he rested his hand over the whole area, and sang the rest of the song he’d been humming. He didn’t sing very loudly, so the words were difficult to decipher, but Nico heard enough to figure out it was a prayer to Apollo, god of healing-- and Will’s father.

And then, amazingly, his arm stopped hurting. The pain had been a constant ache, mostly tolerable and barely noticeable after the intense pain of the first few days, but Nico could tell when it stopped. “Oh,” he said.

“Uh huh,” Will replied, switching to Nico’s other side. “Amazing how that works, isn't it? If you use medicine, things feel better!” 

“Imagine that,” Nico murmured. “Where were you two weeks ago?”

“Not in-- Evora? Where is that, even?”

“Portugal,” said Nico.

“Yeah,” said Will cheerfully. “Never been there.”

“Never been where?” The door creaked open, and Nico heard the footfalls of another camper as he walked into the office. “Oh man, Will, you weren't doing a baseline physical on another patient, were you? You promised!”

“It's still early,” Will said reasonably. “Most of you weren't here yet, and no one is really awake either. And this patient is staying at Camp, so I'd have to do it eventually.”

The son of Apollo walked around the front of the table, leaning over to see who was sitting there. “Oh, it’s Nico! ” he said. “Good morning.”

“Hi,” Nico said. “Austin, right?” The younger boy grinned, tapping two fingers against his temple in a little salute. 

“I'm almost finished here,” Will told his brother. “Then we can talk through the transport assignments.”

“Take your time,” Austin said. “I'll check the lists for this morning, see if anyone is awake and ready for checkout.”

“Thanks, Austin,” said Will.

Nico watched him round the corner, then said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Will raised an eyebrow, closing up his jar of healing salve. “You feel up to helping? Sure you don't just want to get a little more sleep?”

Nico shrugged. “I'm awake,” he said. “Might as well make myself useful.”

Will considered that. “Okay,” he said. “I could use more bandages, if you're willing to cut them. But with all the packing we’re going to need to do, I don't have a ton of space available.”

“You can put me anywhere,” Nico said. 

“I was hoping you'd say that,” Will said. “I'm going to set you up on one of the empty bunks, with a tray table, if that's okay.”

“Lead the way,” Nico said. 

Chapter Text

Will stopped by one of the counters along the way, picking up a bolt of clean white fabric and a pair of scissors. Then he led Nico down the row of bunks, stopping at an empty one not far from the porch door. “Here, this’ll work,” he said, pulling one of the tray tables away from the wall and wheeling it over the bunk. “Sit on this side, and I'll show you what you need to do.”

“Okay.” Nico did as he was told.  Gods, he was tired. Stupid tired, if he felt like being honest. Which he didn't. Instead, he stared at Will's lithe, clever fingers as they manipulated the fabric. He'd let those fingers touch him, even though he hated being touched. And it had been... fine.  Nothing too intimate that made him uncomfortable. Nothing special. He wondered if he wasn't a little disappointed about that, and he sort of hated the part of himself that was disappointed.

Will was still talking. His words ran over Nico's skin like liquid gold, flowing and shimmering in the early morning light. They didn't make a lot of sense, but then, they didn't need to. Will had folded the fabric, and was cutting the strips equal distances apart, not quite all the way to the edge. When he laid it out flat, he cut the fabric on the diagonal, connecting the cuts so that the fabric was one long continuous strip.

He was still saying things. Such a kind, warm, pretty voice... Nico could listen to him talk all day.  "Do you understand?" Will asked, holding out the scissors to him.

"Hm?" Nico said, staring at the scissors for a moment. "Oh. Yeah." He took the scissors from Will, and cut a few of the strips himself. "Does that look right?"

"Yeah, that looks good." Will hesitated. "Are you sure you feel up to this? I can leave it here for later if you'd rather--"

"Will," Nico said. "Go to your meeting. I'll be fine, really!"

Will scowled at him. "I am going to break your habit of using that word for everything," he said.

"Stop being a mother hen and go!" Nico said.

Will threw up his hands. “All right, Señor Stubborn,” he said. “But I will be back. And if you have questions--”

“Go!” Nico pointed.

“Fine!” Will said, turning and stomping off down the row of beds.

Nico shook his head, adjusting the scissors for another cut. His siblings were waiting for him. What was he thinking, lingering around here?

~*~*~*~

Still grumbling about his send-off from Nico, Will found his siblings gathered around the ping-pong table in the rec room with two of the Roman healers, studying their whiteboard agenda and a variety of post-it notes.  Kayla and Austin looked up at him as he joined them, with identical knowing smirks on their faces. “What?” he asked, irritated.

“Noooothing,” Kayla drawled. “How’s our newest patient?”

“Ill-tempered and stubborn,” Will said sweetly. “Thanks for asking.” Both of his siblings cracked up, and he folded his arms. “Can we talk about the transport, please? I’ve got a lot to do this morning.”

“I bet you do,” Kayla said. Will glowered fiercely at her, and she cleared her throat, looking down at the board again. “We made a list of everything each patient would need for five days on the road. The drive takes about 46 hours, as the Roman Eagle flies, but I don’t think they’ll drive straight through, and having an extra day’s worth of supplies seemed safe.”

Will nodded. “That sounds good.  No one is in critical condition anymore, and many just need painkillers and extra space for propping up healing limbs… what’s the situation on space in the SUVs?”

With all the work his siblings had done, the meeting took less time than he would have anticipated. In about half an hour, they had a decent idea of how and where each Roman patient would be traveling. “Okay,” said Will. “So, we should be prepared to load patients into the SUVs just after breakfast. Even if the rest of the Legion isn’t completely packed up, we’ll be ready to go when they are.”  He turned to his siblings. “Austin, get Ryan, Nina, and the nymphs to help put together the patient’s travel kits. Kayla and I will do a quick sweep of the floor, see if anyone needs anything before breakfast. Then we’ll be in to help.” He picked up the whiteboard. “I’ll put this by the door, so that we can easily check the schedule while we’re getting things ready. All right? Let’s get to work!” 

He waited for a moment while the rest of the group dispersed. Kayla stood beside him, watching them leave. “Checking on patients, hm?” she said.

“Yes,” he replied. “It’s what I do every morning.”

“Not just when you have one special patient you’d like to look in on?” 

“Now, what makes you think that is even remotely true?” Will asked her, keeping his tone light.

“Come on, Will,” Kayla said. “I know you. You’re, like, the president of the Nico Di Angelo Admiration Society. You talk that kid up every chance you get. It’s a little weird, sometimes. You can’t tell me it isn’t a big deal that you’ve got him here.” She frowned. “Why is he here, anyway? He seemed like he was okay, last time I saw him.”

Will walked into the big room, hanging the white board up on the wall just inside the door. “When Coach Hedge came back to camp, and told us some of what they’d been going through, he mentioned that Nico had been Fading. Disappearing, dissolving into shadows, because he’d overused his shadow travel abilities. That was scary enough. Then I found out that there was a point where he was unconscious for three days, and they couldn’t even move him, he was dissolving so badly.”

“Di immortales,” Kayla breathed.

“Yeah,” Will said. “And don’t ask how they got him back-- it was insane. I shudder to think about what would have happened if Coach Hedge didn’t have the healing skills he has, unorthodox though they may be.”

“So… three days here, for the three days out there?” Kayla asked.

“To start,” Will said. “Hopefully he won’t need more.”

“Hopefully?” Kayla teased him.

Will rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to keep him in here,” he said. “If he stays in the infirmary, it’s because he still needs healing.  I’d rather he just… be well.” 

“Even if it means you won’t see him every day?” 

“I’ll figure something out,” Will promised her with a little grin. “Now, speaking of his Highness, the Ghost King… while you’re in the other ward, could you check on him for me? I’m sure he’s fallen asleep, but I want to make sure he didn’t doze off with the scissors in his hand.”

“Sure,” Kayla said. “Where did you put him?”

“Bunk 3,” said Will.

She snorted. “And he didn’t see right through that? Putting volunteers in bed to do menial labor is a terrible idea. No one would ever get any work done!”

“I don’t think he sensed any ulterior motives,” Will said. “I’ve been told I have a very honest face.” 

“Either that, or he is just as smitten as you are.”

Will covered his eyes with one hand. “Just go check on him-- them, okay? Do the rounds in the other ward, and let me know if you need anything.”

“Going,” she said, waving a hand and heading off towards the bunks on the other side of the partition wall. With a sigh, Will picked up his clipboard, ready to check on his patients on the near side. Since it was still early, many of them were still asleep, but he had plenty to keep him busy.

He was changing the dressing on a particularly nasty burn when Kayla returned, poking her head around the partition curtain.  “How are things on the other side?”

“Everything’s good,” she said. “Couple patients needed pain meds, but nothing big.”

“Good,” he said, placing a clean square of gauze over the freshly treated area. “And Nico?” 

She grinned. “You called it. He's totally asleep-- though he’s not holding the scissors. Not sure what he did with those.”

He nodded. “I thought he would be,” he said. “Asleep, I mean. You didn't move him or anything, did you?”

“No, I was going to go get him a blanket,” she said.

“Great,” he said. “You do that, and I'll be there in a minute to help get him settled. This won't take long.”

“No problem!” said Kayla.

It took Will a few more moments to tape down the gauze and make sure his patient was comfortable. Then he crossed to the other side of the room where he’d put Nico. Walking around the curtain, Will stopped and smiled. Nico had fallen asleep sitting up on the bed. He’d put his pillow on top of the tray table, folded his arms over it, and put his head in the crook of his elbow. “Couldn’t make it easy on yourself, could you,” Will murmured, shaking his head. Nico desperately needed to sleep, a deep, healing sleep that would replenish some of the resources he’d used so recklessly while he’d been out saving the world. Falling asleep sitting up wasn’t going to give him what he needed, and a quick touch of his shoulder confirmed Will’s suspicions. “Relax,” he whispered, as if Nico could hear him. “You’re safe now. You don't need to fight anymore.”

With a little sigh, he sat back and considered how to move the slumbering demigod into a position that was actually comfortable for sleeping. Normally he’d just lift him off the tray table and set him back on the pillow in one motion, but Nico was already lying on the pillow, which put a crimp in that particular plan. Frowning thoughtfully, he attempted to push Nico up into a sitting position.  The son of Hades was sleeping deeply enough that he barely stirred as he did so; he was also sleeping deeply enough that he didn’t want to stay in that upright sitting position. “Whoops,” said Will, diving to catch him before he crashed backwards onto the bed. Getting an arm around him, Will sat on the bed, Nico lolling against his shoulder like an oversized sack of flour.

“Ooh-kay,” said Will. “That could have gone better.” 

Pushing the tray table with the two fingers that could reach it wasn’t effective for moving the table closer to him.  He tried to get a good handle on the pillow, but Nico was between him and the table tray, and he was just far enough away from the table that he couldn’t get a good grip to lift it-- and dragging it off meant upsetting whatever was underneath the pillow, including the scissors.

He was just about to try again when Kayla came around the curtain with an armful of bedding. She stopped and raised an eyebrow at him. “You just couldn’t wait, could you,” she said. 

Heat rushed into his face as he hissed, “Just-- grab the pillow and put it back on the bed, please!”

With a smirk that told him he would never hear the end of this, Kayla set the blankets down on the end of the bed and pushed the tray table off to the side. Then she lifted the pillow off of the table and tossed it onto the bed behind him. “Yup, here are the scissors,” she said.

“Mm,” said Will. He was preoccupied with hauling Nico’s dead weight up to the pillow and settling him back onto it. 

“Huh,” she said, surveying the neat pile of bandages he'd left there. “He did a pretty good job!”

Will looked back over his shoulder, as he picked up the blanket she’d brought.  “He did more than I thought he would, before he fell asleep,” he said. Shaking out the blanket, he spread it over Nico in one smooth motion. Then he spent a moment fussing with it, adjusting the blankets.

She gathered up the pile of bandages.  “I’ll take these and get them sterilized,” she said. “Whenever you're done tucking him in, I'll meet you down at the First Aid station.”

Will turned to her, blushing all over again. “I am not tucking him in!” he hissed vehemently at her.

“Uh huh,” was all she said, as she vanished around the corner.

Chapter Text

The healers from the Apollo cabin didn’t need to leave the infirmary for breakfast. The harpies brought food up for the healing campers once the meal in the dining hall was cleared, and Will would usually grab something then. He was busy getting a few of the injured Roman centurions ready for transport-- some of the poisoned wounds took longer to heal-- when Austin stuck his head into the room. “Breakfast, Will,” he announced.

“In a minute,” Will said, waving his hand. “I just need to--”

“Oh, no,” Austin said, coming all the way into the room. “I know how this works. You say ‘In a minute’ all morning until it’s practically lunchtime and your hands are shaking from food deprivation. Well, not on my watch, mister! I will handle the transport details for the next fifteen minutes or so. You go set a good example for your patients, and eat something!”

He couldn’t argue with that. “All right, all right,” Will said, holding his hands up in defeat. “I’m going!”

Surveying what the harpies had brought, he decided to make himself a breakfast sandwich-- toast with cream cheese, eggs, and bacon. And maybe tomato? He blinked at the tomato slices, a little nonplussed, then shrugged and tossed one on there as well. “Breakfast of champions,” he said to himself. “And the rest of us, too.” 

His thoughts strayed back to Nico. He was the only one in the place that was still asleep. True, he needed the rest, but he really couldn’t afford to be missing meals either. And maybe he’d end up sleeping straight through until lunch… but Will found himself making a second sandwich anyway, wrapping it up in aluminum foil and setting it aside.

When at last he was done, he picked up his sandwich. He had only taken one bite of it when the infirmary door flew open, and the imposing figure of Reyna Ramirez-Arellano strode into the room. On her heels was Nico’s sister, Hazel Levesque.  

Reyna zeroed in on him immediately, nailing him to the wall with the intensity of her stride alone. “We heard Nico was here,” she said. 

“Is he all right? What happened?” Hazel demanded. “He was just fine last night, and when I woke up this morning, he was gone, and Jason and Percy said he was in the infirmary!”

Will raised his eyebrows, then swallowed the mouthful of sandwich. “Yeah, he’s here,” he said, answering Hazel’s questions with his eyes fixed on Reyna— arrested by her exacting gaze.  “And true, he's no worse than he was yesterday-- but you know better than anyone, Praetor, that he pushed himself beyond all endurance. He needs to rest, so I ordered him to spend three days here.”

“Three days?” Hazel said.

“At least,” Will confirmed. “He needs it. He's exhausted, and he's even said he hasn't slept much since he’s been back here.”

“Considering how much he slept on our return trip, maybe he’s sick of it,” Reyna murmured. “Still, three days... I'm surprised he agreed to that.”

“Me too, if I’m honest,” Will admitted. “I expected I'd have a fight on my hands, but he was very willing.”

“Hmmm…” said Reyna, eyeing the young medic suspiciously. He gave her a winning smile, hoping she wasn't going to hurt him. 

“I just don’t understand,” Hazel said. “What is wrong with him that could take three days to heal?”

“When all is said and done, I expect it will take a good deal longer,” Reyna said. 

Something in her tone made Will focus on the Praetor for a moment.  Did she know something that he didn’t?  When her expression revealed little, he turned his attention to Hazel, and tried to explain. “When I was training to be a healer, to use the gifts of Apollo, I learned… there was only so much I could do before I had exhausted myself. It’s like, the reservoir of power is only so deep, and when you use it up, there’s backlash.” He nodded at her. “I’m sure it’s happened to you, at least once or twice.  You use your demigod abilities to do something incredible…”

“And afterwards, you keel over,” Hazel said, nodding. “Yeah, that’s happened to me.”

Will gestured towards Nico’s bed with his sandwich. “He’s completely tapped out. He overextended himself so much, I don’t know how he still has the energy to move, much less argue with me about everything. He says he’s fine, but…” he shook his head. “I think we need to improve on his definition of ‘fine’.”

Reyna studied him again, then nodded, as if she had come to some decision about him. Will wondered what it was, but did not feel brave enough to ask.

“May I see him?” Hazel asked. “We’re leaving in a few minutes, but I didn’t want to go before I said goodbye.”

“Oh-- of course!” said Will.  “He's asleep, though.”

“It’s a lost cause, then,” Reyna huffed. “It’s almost impossible to wake him when he’s sound asleep.”

“Oh, I bet I can wake him up,” Will said, giving her a grin. “Would you like me to try?”

“I don’t know,” Hazel said. “If he needs rest…”

“He can go right back to sleep after you leave,” Will promised. “Come on-- at least you can say goodbye to him.” 

So the girls followed him back to one of the curtained-off beds, where Nico was, as Will said, sound asleep. “Di Angelo!” Will said. “There are some people here who want to say goodbye to you!” When he didn’t move, Will said, “I told them I could get you up, and they don’t believe me. To prove them wrong, I’m just going to have to sing you the Apollo Cabin Wake-up Song. Okay?” He still didn’t reply. Will looked at the girls and shrugged. “I did warn him.” 

Then he sang:

“Waaaaay up in the sky, the Harpies do fly

While down in the nest, the Harpies all rest.”

“Will,” said Nico, without opening his eyes.

“Shhh… YOU’LL WAKE THE DARN HARPIES!!!”

“Solace, what are you doing?”

“The- BRIGHT sun comes UP!”

“Stop.”

“The Half-bloods awake!”

“Stop.”

“Good MORNING! Good MORNING! The Harpies all say!”

“Solace--”

Will folded both of his arms in front of himself, with his elbows together, then opened them as if they were a giant beak. “CHIRP!”

Nico was sitting up, wide awake and staring at him. “What the Styx was that?” he demanded. 

Will grinned innocently. “The Apollo Cabin Wake-up Song,” he said. “I did warn you.”

Nico pointed. “Go, before I am forced to throw something at you.”

“Going, going,” he said, putting his hands up and turning to do just that. “Thanks , Will.”

“Thanks, Will!” The girls chorused.

He glanced at them as he left. Hazel was wiping away tears from laughing so hard, and Reyna had a fist pressed against her lips as she fought a smile. 

~*~*~*~

“You didn’t have to come see me,” said Nico, propping up his pillow behind him and scooting back against it. “The Legion is packing up. I’m sure there’s plenty of more important things you could be doing.”

Reyna shook her head. “I wasn’t going to leave without saying goodbye,” she said. 

“And I wanted to make sure you were okay!” Hazel swatted him. “Also, I have a bone to pick with you. Percy was complaining all through breakfast-- just like he did that time the ichthyocentaurs didn’t want to meet him. Only this time, all he kept saying was, “What does he mean, I’m not his type?”

Nico went white. “Oh, gods,” he said.

“Yeah,” said Hazel. “ 'Oh, gods' is right! And then Jason said he knew-- you told both of them, before you even told your own sister??”

“Hazel, I’m sorry,” Nico said, licking his lips nervously. “I didn’t think--”

“No, you certainly didn’t,” she said. “That's why you wouldn’t stay in Percy’s room on the Argo II, isn't it? Why you were so driven to find the Doors of Death, even though it caused you so much pain?” His lack of response was answer enough for her. “Nico… I am so angry I could strangle you right now! Why didn’t you just say something? I was right. There.  You didn’t have to go through that alone!”

Nico’s hands were shaking. “I… didn’t want to deal with it. I hated myself so much for it, I didn’t want to say it out loud. I didn’t want it to be my truth, my only motivation. I didn’t want to put one more barrier between myself and everyone else!”

“Nico…” said Hazel.

“And Jason only found out because Cupid forced me to say it,” Nico continued, unable to stop now that he’d started. “Hazel… you know the world we came from. Our demigod brother, the one so infamous for all the terror and death he caused? Homosexuals were right there on the list of undesirables he killed in his camps-- ”

Hazel put her hands on the sides of his face. “Historians say he was one himself,” she said. “So full of hatred, anger and self-loathing that he lashed out at anyone like him… that isn’t so much of a leap, is it?”

“Stop,” said Nico, his voice shaking.

“What’s that fatal flaw you told me about?” she said. “Something about anger, and grudges?  Is that who you want to be?”

“No!” he cried, pushing her hands away and burying his face in his hands, unable to face her exacting gold gaze anymore. 

“Then stop hiding things from your sister!” she demanded. His only response was a broken little sound, almost a sob, and she pulled him into a hug, helpless to do anything else. “Promise me,” she whispered, “that you won’t do that again. Promise me you won’t hide your feelings. Not from me.”

Unable to trust his voice, Nico nodded. Hazel sighed and rubbed his shoulder. After a little while, she said, “...would you have told her?”

“Her?” Nico said, though he thought he knew who she meant.

“Bianca.”

Nico sighed. “I… I don’t know,” he said in a ragged whisper. “I don’t even know who I’d be, if she were here.” He thought about that. “Not that, you know, I wouldn’t be... I mean--”

“I know what you mean,” Hazel said. “...I wish I could have known you before you lost her.”

That statement hung in the still, silent air for a long moment. Then Nico snorted. “I have it on good authority,” he said, his voice a little rough, and muffled by her shoulder, “that I was an excitable, know-it-all, talkative nuisance.”

Hazel smiled. “Oh really?” she said. “I… can’t picture that at all.”  She giggled, and Nico started to laugh-- a hiccupy, weak sort of chortle, but a laugh nonetheless. After a moment, he sat back, scrubbing his cheek with the back of his hand. She smiled sadly, rubbing a thumb gently just under his eye. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have upset you when you weren’t feeling well to begin with.”

“I’m fine,” he insisted. “I’m just a little tired.”

“Because you don’t sleep,” said Hazel.

“He slept plenty when he was with me,” said Reyna.

Both siblings turned and looked at her, startled; they’d completely forgotten she was there. Nico winced. “Reyna--”

Reyna shrugged. “I regret to inform you, Hazel,” she said, “I also knew before you did.” She raised a hand to forestall any protesting she might have heard. “And no, he did not tell me. I witnessed the entire Cupid incident one night during… a rather unfortunate series of events.” 

Nico shook his head, not understanding-- until it came to him. “Bryce Lawrence,” he whispered. “Reyna--”

She held up her hand again. “Even if I had not already known, Percy’s whining this morning would have simply reinforced what I already guessed.” Nico pinched the bridge of his nose. “Which, then, begs the question,” she continued. “If you have come to the conclusion that Percy is not actually your type, enough so that you could walk right up to him and tell him so, it means you must have recently met someone who is, actually, your type.” She folded her arms and leveled a knowing gaze at him. “So, who is it?”

“Oh wait! I almost forgot!” Will swept back through, setting a tray on the bedside table. “You were sleeping during breakfast, so I made you a sandwich…” he paused, taking in the scene before him. “Is… everything okay?” 

“Uh, yeah,” said Nico. “You… made me a sandwich?” 

“You were the only one who didn’t eat,” said Will. “So, yeah. I did. Make sure you eat it before you go back to sleep!” Nodding to the girls, he turned and headed back out again, twitching the curtains closed behind him.

Hazel and Reyna watched him go. They glanced meaningfully at each other, then back at Nico, who picked up the sandwich and stared at it, looking utterly puzzled. “That was awfully nice,” Hazel offered.

“He’s ridiculous,” Nico muttered, starting to unwrap it. “It’s still warm!”

“He was just eating when we came in,” Reyna said. 

Nico looked up. “I didn’t say thank you,” he said.

“You can tell him later,” Hazel said. “I’m sure you won’t forget.”

Reyna pushed off the wall. “I’m going to go,” she said. “There’s... someone else I need to find before we leave. Hazel, I will see you at the convoy.” She turned to Nico, then frowned. “No, don’t--”

“I’m fine! ” Nico said, throwing back the blankets and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, despite Hazel’s protests. “I’m not saying goodbye to you like some sort of invalid in a sickbed.” Rising, he walked over and faced her squarely. “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”

Reyna put her hands on his shoulders. “You know you are welcome at Camp Jupiter,” she said quietly. “Whenever you wish.”

“I know,” Nico said. “But… no. I think I will stay here… for now.”

Reyna smiled. “I thought that might be your answer,” she said. “All right. But if you need us, call. Any time.” 

“I will,” Nico said. “I promise.”

Reyna nodded, then pulled him into a hug. “You said it was an honor travelling with me,” she said. “But the honor was all mine.” 

Nico’s eyes prickled, as they had at the campfire the previous night. “That’s high praise, coming from you,” he whispered.

“The highest I can give,” she said. Then, she pulled back and looked him in the eye. “And don’t forget-- we do not speak about Albania.”

“Of course not!” Nico shuddered. “Never happened. Doesn’t bear remembering.” 

“Good.” Reyna nodded. “Now, I must speak to your boy. Excuse me.” Turning on her heel, she headed for the door, her cape swirling behind her. “Will! A moment of your time, if you please.”

“Muh- my… what?” He watched Will put down his healing salve and follow Reyna out onto the porch, helpless to do anything but what the Praetor requested. Then Nico looked at Hazel, wide-eyed. “...he’s not my boy!"

“Not yet,” said Hazel. Then, seeing the stricken look on Nico’s face, she relented. “Calm down, Nico. It’s Reyna. She’s wouldn’t do anything to embarrass you!”

“But she-- what if she--” Nico stammered.

“Nico,” Hazel said firmly, resting a hand on his shoulder. “You trust her, don’t you?”

It took him a moment to process her words rationally. Then he nodded. “Yes,” he whispered.

“Okay.” Hazel waved a hand at the window. “So don’t worry about it. Come back to bed, and finish your sandwich.”

Nico nodded, but his eyes were still fixed on the pair talking on the porch. Reyna wasn’t smiling, so obviously she wasn’t making a joke at his expense… but what were they talking about?

“Nico!” Hazel said. “Get your skinny butt over here, or I’m telling on you!” 

“All right!” Nico turned around and came back to bed, as ordered. He’d learned long ago: ignore your sister at your own peril.

Chapter Text

Nico woke as he always did, abruptly and on edge. His eyes swept over the area, assessing for threats; buttery sunlight poured over the whitewashed walls, spilling onto the floor and pooling at the foot of the bed.  Right… I’m still in the infirmary, he thought . Beside him, the partition curtain swayed as gently as a reed, caught between the warm summer breeze flowing through the window and the slow, lazy downdraft of the ceiling fan. Nico watched the blades spin overhead, listening to the shouts of campers playing in the distance and the steady drone of cicadas— the strange music of an August afternoon.

He felt strange, too. Something had changed… he felt calm. Peaceful. For the first time in a long while, he realized that he didn’t have to run, didn’t have to worry that someone was after him or that he wouldn’t have a place to sleep when night fell. If anything were to threaten the camp, there was an army of demigods prepared to handle it. It couldn’t reach him, here at the heart of camp.

Ah, that was it… he felt safe.

And almost as soon as he realized it, a sick wave of guilt flooded through his chest, drowning any sense of security. What right do I have to expect others to protect me? He thought bleakly. To believe in this ‘safety’? If something were to happen to the camp, I need to be right there on the front lines to defend it. He had to be. As a son of Hades, he could never forget, nor take it for granted; he would always have to make an effort to convince people that he was on their side.

Sitting up, he rubbed a hand over his face. He could tell hadn’t slept enough, but he definitely wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep now. Something was pulling him out of bed, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it… letting his primal ‘zombie’ brain lead him, he rose and headed to the door, seeing if maybe he could figure out what it was.

“Oh, hi, Nico!” Will’s sister Kayla, passing by with a large stack of pillows in her arms, waved awkwardly to him through the rec room door. “Are you hungry? There’s pizza.” She gestured in the general direction of a table near the wall while he blinked at her, trying to parse what she was saying. “Almost everyone else has eaten, but we couldn’t wake you. There’s still half a pizza left, though... go ahead and take what you’d like.” 

By the time it occurred to him that he should thank her, she was rounding the corner and starting up the stairs, lugging her pillow load back to its home in deep storage. 

He wandered over and planted himself in front of the table. Too tired to really consider a plan of action, he picked up a piece of cold pizza and started to eat.  He was pretty sure that it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. He was also pretty sure he was still half asleep. It didn’t stop him from grabbing another piece when he finished the first. 

That must be why I woke up... I’m hungry. 

He didn’t know how long he stood there, mindlessly eating, before Will rushed around the corner from the infirmary. There was no good explanation for why the room seemed suddenly brighter when he came into view, or why he immediately drew Nico’s attention when he appeared. Nor could he figure out why Will’s body released angels when he saw Nico. “There you are,” said Will. 

Nico blinked at him. “Was I missing?” he asked, feeling smart.

“You weren’t where I left you,” Will said. “And it’s not like you haven’t…” he stopped himself and tried again. “I might have been a little worried.” 

“Worried?” Nico wrinkled his nose. “About me? I’m fine.” 

Will huffed a breath, but all he said was, “I guess you are.  Were you going to go back to bed?”

Nico shrugged. “I’m awake,” he said. 

“You sure about that?” Will said, looking him over and raising an eyebrow.

That irritated Nico. “Yes,” he snapped. “I’m fine.”

Will raised the other eyebrow. “Really. Well, since you’re fine , would you like to come with me as I make my rounds?”

“Um,” said Nico, startled out of his irritation. “I mean… sure, I guess...  is that okay? To get close to your patients, I mean.”

Will shrugged. “Are you going to inflict death on them?”

Nico blinked at him. That seemed an odd question. Why would he ask that?   “No.”

“Then I think we’ll be fine,” Will said, lifting his clipboard off a hook on the wall and handing it to Nico. “Come on!”

Nico trailed along awkwardly in his wake, gripping the clipboard and feeling painfully out of place.  “Isn’t someone going to ask questions about why I’m helping you?”

“Nope,” Will said cheerfully. “Now that the Romans have left, my sibs are all busy breaking down the far ward. They’ll be doing laundry and moving cots all afternoon. And most of the patients here are used to me pressing random campers into service.” He paused, picking up his kit from the infirmary counter. “Plus, this way I don’t have to worry about you wandering off.”

Nico bristled. “I already told you, I didn’t wander off!” He said. “You act like I’m just going to disappear—“

“It’s not like it hasn’t happened before!” Will snapped back.

"Don't be dramatic," Nico said. “I told you I was staying—“

“ Last time , you told us you were staying, too,” said Will, rounding on him. “ Last time , you started building the Hades cabin yourself, but you were gone before the foundation was fully laid.”

Nico didn't have a good argument for that, and they stared at each other for a long moment while he groped for something to say. “But this time, it’s different,” said Nico. “I have a better reason to stay!”

“Oh really?” Will said, folding his arms. “And what is that?”

Too late, Nico realized that he wasn't ready to confess the real reason he wanted to stay-- especially not to Will. “I just… want to,” he said lamely. Then, anger surged through him.  “I don’t need to tell you my reasons!”

“That’s true, you don’t,” Will said, diffusing all the tension with four little syllables. Nico wasn’t sure if it was an ability he’d inherited from his father, Apollo, but it was certainly a superpower. Unfortunately, he ruined it by saying, “But if you aren’t willing to share, then you can’t get mad at me for checking in and making sure you don’t disappear on us again.”

Nico’s temper, which he had inherited from his father, spiked again. “I told you--”

“Save it,” Will said, thumping him in the center of the chest with the back of his hand. “You aren’t going to win this one, and it isn’t good to bring that kind of anger around healing patients. Take a few deep breaths, count to ten, then come join us.” He headed into the partitioned area and crouched next to the bed.

Nico watched him walk away, seething with anger that had no outlet. Will was right on all counts, and Nico had no good argument to the contrary, but he hated to admit it. And he could feel his anger draining again as he watched Will talking quietly to his patient.  How could someone so kind and compassionate as Will Solace also be so infuriating? 

Taking a deep breath, he released it slowly, then glanced down at the clipboard, buying himself another moment or two by figuring out what Will wanted him to do. It turned out that the form was surprisingly simple; it was marked with the time, and had three sections, one for each patient. There were several checkpoints, plus a spot for notes. 

Approaching the bed, he heard Will say, “...no fever, so that’s good! And your pain level?”

“Two,” said the patient, a child of Hephaestus with a lump like a goose egg on her forehead. “It hardly hurts at all.”

Nico found the box with the pain levels and circled ‘2’. Next to it was a ‘temperature’ box, and in it he simply wrote, ‘Normal’. 

Will was checking the patient’s eyes— using an actual tool this time, not just staring into them as he’d done to Nico that morning. “Your pupils are responding to light much better. And no dizziness?”

“None,” she said. “But I haven’t done much moving around today.”

“That’s probably good,” said Will. “I’d like you to spend one more night here, for observation, but if you feel like joining the other campers for dinner or the campfire, that would be all right with me.”

“Really?” she asked.

Will nodded. “We still have some work to do to get that swelling down, and until I’m sure all the concussion symptoms are gone I don’t want you doing physical activities, but other than that, I’m satisfied. I’ll check in with you for the next few days, make sure none of your symptoms come back, but please call me if you notice anything in the meantime. All right?” As he stood, he caught sight of Nico. “Oh! Sorry-- could you write--”

Nico turned the clipboard around and showed him how he’d filled out the form. “Did I miss anything?”

Will scanned the paper, eyebrows raised. “Nah,” he said, grinning. “That’s great! I didn’t even tell you what to do with that.” 

Nico rolled his eyes. “It’s not exactly rocket science.”

“Well,” Will shrugged. “We had to make it easy enough that anyone walking in here could do it, but I still have to guide most people through it the first couple of times.” He tapped on the edge of the page. “One thing. See the boxes on the side? Check the middle one.”

Nico turned the clipboard back to face him, and traced the side of the paper where Will had indicated. “Oh-- the one that says ‘checkup’?”

“Yeah,” Will said. “I have to move her magnet to the ‘checkup’ column.”

“I’m sure that’ll make sense at some point,” Nico said, drawing an ‘x’ in the box.

They continued down the row of beds, checking in with any patients remaining. Most of the campers on their side of the room seemed to be ready for release, or very nearly so; Nico ticked the ‘checkup’ box for three more patients before he heard loud voices from the rec room doorway.

“Kayla!” Austin shouted. “I thought you said there was pizza left.” 

“There was! More than half of a large one,” Kayla called back.

“Well, there isn’t anymore,” Austin said. “There’s only a couple of pieces-- and they’re mushroom .”

Will looked askance at Nico. “I didn’t know there was that much left. Did you really eat all of it?”

“Uhhh…” Nico stared fixedly at the clipboard, keeping his expression neutral while his mind whirled. Had he?  It was a very large pizza, and he wasn’t really known for eating that much— though, while he was traveling with the Athena Parthenos, he’d suddenly developed the world’s largest appetite. And, casting his mind back nearly twenty minutes, he might have been staring into a nearly empty box when Will called to him. “...maybe?”

There was the warning thud of approaching footsteps, and Austin stuck his head into the ward. “Will!”

“Hm?” Will said, never taking his attention off of the wound he was cleaning. 

“You didn’t see what happened to the rest of the pizza, did you?” Austin asked. 

“Wasn’t my day to watch it,” Will said calmly. Resting his hand over the angry skin of the wound, he started his healing prayer, effectively ending the conversation with his brother. Grumbling, Austin disappeared out of the ward and back into the rec room proper again. 

Nico waited until Will was done with his chant, and he was sure Austin and Kayla were out of earshot. Then in a low voice, he confessed, "...I think I must have."

"Hm?" Will said, putting the items back into his kit.

"Eaten all the pizza," said Nico, still keeping his face carefully neutral, and willing his ears not to turn a telltale shade of red.

Will glanced sideways at him. "Should I be worried that you don’t remember?" he said.

"I was half asleep," Nico said defensively. "And I was hungry.  Kayla said everyone else had eaten already.”

Will looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. "They did," he said. "Austin's probably just looking for a snack." Raising his voice, he called to his brother, "Hey Austin? I'm pretty sure there's a bowl of fruit on the ping pong table..." He grinned at Nico. “He hates fruit."

Sure enough, a moment later Austin snarled back, “... Apples? What agent of Chaos thought that apples were a good idea?"

Will snickered, and Nico's lips twitched in spite of himself. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away...” he called out.

Austin’s footsteps thudded down the corridor again, and then he appeared in the doorway, scowling. "Here, then," he said, throwing an apple at Nico. "You need this more than I do!"

Nico dodged the apple, turning so that the fruit projectile bounced harmlessly off of his shoulder. He almost laughed, especially when he got a load of Austin’s furious face. 

Will, though, didn’t find it funny. "Austin!” he said sharply, looking up from his sutures. "What are you, stupid?"

“Relax, Will,” Austin said, rocking back on his heels. “It was a joke.”

“Not a very funny one,” Will said, glaring at his brother with a surprising amount of venom. “What exactly were you trying to say there?”

There was a moment of awkward silence, and when Austin replied, it sounded like he was choosing his words carefully. “I mean… he’s a patient, right? If he doesn’t want to be one, then he needs the apple more than I do.”

"It's not like it hurt me," Nico said lightly, trying to break the tension. Picking up the apple off the floor, he rubbed it on his sleeve, then took a bite.

"Maybe not," Will said, drawing the words out. "But if you’d caught it, Nico, the two of you would be engaged now."

Austin froze midway through rage-peeling a banana. "Excuse me?"

Nico lowered the apple, glancing between Austin and Will. “What do you mean, exactly?” 

“In Ancient Greece, if a person tossed an apple to his lover, it was considered a proposal,” Will said. 

Austin pointed his banana at Nico. “He is not my lover!” he declared.

Nico had been on the verge of saying the same thing, but he stopped, slightly offended at the way Austin had just said that. What right do you have to be offended? He thought to himself. With your creepy ghost powers, do you actually think someone would want you as a lover, anyway? 

But maybe it mattered to him that Will didn’t think he was undateable.  And that mortified him more than he’d like to admit.

"So you weren’t proposing to Nico?" Will asked, his voice still icy cold.

"What? No!" Austin said, his eyes wide.

"Because proposing to someone without properly courting them first is bad form, Austin," Will said. "Do I need to send you to the Aphrodite children for dating advice and sensitivity training?” 

"Aw, come on, Will," Austin cried. "I didn't even know that was a thing, honest! And anyway, I'm not- I mean, I don't-" 

With every stammered word, Nico felt as if a pressure was growing in his head. Go ahead, he thought. Say what you’re thinking. It’s not like I don’t already know.

"You. Don’t. What?'' Will said, emphasizing every loaded syllable.

Austin swallowed hard. “I wouldn't tease Nico like that," he said. “Especially because he doesn’t know me well enough to know when I’m joking around.”

Nico looked up at him, surprised out of his building fury. That had been… nice, actually. Considerate. Letting out a shaky breath, Nico said, “Well, I didn’t catch it, so I guess you’re off the hook.”

"Right."  Austin took a deep breath. "Right. Sorry. I’ll..." He ducked out of the room and darted down the hall.

Nico stared at the clipboard again, not daring to look at Will. After a moment, Will exhaled, and pulled off his gloves. "Well," he said quietly to Nico. "Pretty sure he's forgotten about the pizza, now." Rising, he said, "Let's check the other ward."

Nico gaped after Will as he walked away. “...Did…  did you that on purpose?" he demanded, scrambling after him.

“Maybe,” Will shrugged.

“But why?” Nico said. “I mean… that was a little harsh.”

“Well, he started it,” Will countered. 

Nico frowned, his mind working over that statement. "But he didn't know what it meant. Throwing the apple, I mean. And I didn't know, either. So why would it be that big of a..." he trailed off as they rounded the corner into the far ward.

"Look, it's not a big deal," Will said. He kept right on walking, not noticing that Nico had stopped.  "Besides, he probably was trying to get back at me, because he knows I— well. Just… forget about it, okay?”

It hadn’t occurred to Nico, even being in an infirmary, that he’d have to worry about his powers reacting to anything.  None of the patients up until that point had tripped his sense of mortality; they were all healing, in stable, consistent states of repair. But this one… He headed towards one of the bunks as if drawn by a magnet. “Will..." Nico called after him.

"I mean, brothers tease each other,” Will said, rambling on, not noticing that Nico was no longer following him. “It’s what they do. And sons of Apollo have big egos- we have to take each other down a peg now and then, or else we’d—"

"Solace!"

"Would you just- " Will rounded on him, then paused, seeing Nico’s attention wasn’t even on him anymore. He came back to the partition curtain, peering at Nico’s intent expression.  “...what is it?"

Nico pointed at the second bunk in.  “There’s something very wrong with this patient.”

Will frowned, immediately heading towards the bed Nico had indicated. Then he cursed. Walking back into the hall, he called, “ Kayla? ”

Kayla’s red hair appeared around the end of the row. “Yeah, boss?”

“Could you send Nina down here, please? And any other extra hands you can spare.” 

“You got it!” Kayla disappeared again. 

Will quickly returned to the patient’s bedside, trying to shake him awake. “Damian,” he said. Nico studied his pallid face, the hair stringy and damp with sweat, the glassy, disoriented expression when he finally opened his eyes. Will glanced up at Nico. “How did you know?”

“I can see it,” Nico said hoarsely. “An aura of death, hanging over him.” He fidgeted uncomfortably.  “Can I do something?” he asked, stepping up uncertainly to the end of the bed. “To help, I mean.”

Will had moved the bedclothes away from the patient’s leg, which was heavily bandaged and looked swollen. He pulled a pair of gloves out of his kit and started tugging them on. “Well, that depends,” he said. “How strong of a stomach do you have?”

Nico snorted. “I have been known to hang out with zombies. I think I’ll be fine.”

Will nodded, then glanced past him as one of his sisters appeared at the edge of the curtain. “Nina,” he said, his tone making his ‘scolding older brother’ act with Austin sound like a soothing bedtime story in comparison. “Did you check on this patient earlier?” he asked her. When she nodded, he pressed, “And did he look like this when you saw him?”

“He had a little fever,” she said in a small voice, knowing that she was in trouble. “I gave him aspirin for it, like we’re supposed to.”

“Did you check his chart?” Will asked patiently. Nico could tell he was furious, in spite of his calm tone, but he was trying not to take it out on his younger sister. When she shook her head, he pointed at the clipboard on the end of the bed. “Read the notes at the top. What does it say?”

She picked up the clipboard and read it, her lip trembling. “It says--” she tried. “It says--”

Nico leaned over and read the words. “It says, ‘If patient shows signs of infection-- fever, chills, confusion, aches, or weakness-- to immediately report it to Will Solace.”

“Fever should have been reported to me,” Will said, including the newly-arrived nymph assistant in his words. “This is why we always check the charts when we do our rounds. Did you unwrap the wound and look at it?”

She shook her head. “The bandage wasn’t dirty-- I didn’t think it needed to be changed.”

Will pointed to the red, swollen skin visible around the edges of the bandages. “Do you see this?”

“It didn’t look like that before!” she protested.

“That might be true,” Will said, gently tugging at the tape around the edges of the gauze padding. “But the swelling would have been visible under the bandage this morning, even if you couldn’t see it around the edges. This is why you have to take the bandages off and check the wounds every day.” The tape came loose, and he lifted the bandage.

Nina immediately shrieked, covering her face, but Nico leaned in with a low whistle. “ Wow , that is gnarly,” he said, sounding almost awestruck. 

In spite of his anger and concern for his patient’s well-being, Will’s lips quirked in a little smile. “I can’t argue,” he said, continuing to pull up the rest of the tape that held the gauze over the wound. “Manticore claws are nothing you want to mess with.”

“A wound from a manticore causes that much pus?” Nico asked, clearly fascinated. 

“It does when it gets infected,” Will said, “and since their claws are so filthy, that often happens. I thought we were out of danger, but it looks like I’m going to have to lance it.”

Nina and the nymph both turned visibly green at the prospect, but Nico nodded. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“...help hold him down,” said Will. “His other leg, if you would… yes, that’s it. Lotus, hold the gauze, please…” he handed the gauze to the nymph assistant. “Nina, hold his shoulders and arms, to keep him from flinching too terribly while I make the incisions.” Nina rushed gratefully to do so; Nico noticed she positioned herself so that her back was to them, and she wouldn’t have to watch the procedure. 

Will met his eyes briefly, with a sort of fondly exasperated expression, as if he dealt with this sort of thing often. “Ready?” he said.

“Hit it, Sunshine,” said Nico. 

“You are so lucky I am doing careful work with a scalpel right now or I’d probably deck you for that one,” Will said, his voice preternaturally calm as he drew the scalpel through the swollen skin. As soon as he did so, a substantial amount of pus began to pour from the wound. 

“Wow,” said Nico. “That’s incredibly disgusting.”

“The gauze, please,” said Will, holding out a hand.

Lotus handed it over, and Nico watched with fascination as Will absorbed as much of the infection as he could with clean cloths and gauze, pitching them into a nearby basin when they were saturated. When the fluid from the wound came clear, Will held out his hand. “Nectar,” he said. Lotus picked up the bottle from the work table and held it out, but not nearly close enough for Will to reach. Nico turned around to look, then sighed with exasperation when he realized she wouldn’t turn around to see where he was in order to give it to him. Taking it from her, Nico unscrewed the top of the flask, then passed it to Will, who looked a little amused. “Thanks,” he said. Then he said, “Damian, this is going to sting quite a bit, but once it calms down you are going to feel so much better, I promise.” He glanced up at Nina, and Nico, and said, “Ready?” When they nodded, he said, “Here we go…” before pouring the nectar over the open wound. 

Nico felt Damian’s leg go rigid under his hands. He held on as firmly as he could, in case the wounded demigod tried to thrash about, but to his credit, the patient didn’t move, or even cry out. “Breathe,” Will whispered to him as he quickly put a bandage over the wound and pressed the tape down. “The worst is over now. Just keep breathing… there you go…” 

It didn’t take much time for Will to finish his treatment. Within minutes, he had everything cleaned up, the patient was given painkillers and was resting comfortably again. Will took the clipboard from Nico for a moment, making the notes for the case himself, and meanwhile Nico leaned over the semi-conscious demigod. “Considering how heinous that wound looked, I thought you handled that really well,” Nico told him. “And the aura of death hanging over you is a lot less strong now, so I think you’ve got a good chance of pulling through. So hey! That’s good news, huh?”

Patting him on the shoulder, he turned to head out of the ward, and came face to face with Will’s bemused expression. “What.”

“Nothing,” said Will. “I was just thinking, I’m glad he’s half delirious right now.” 

“Why?” Nico said. 

“Because,” said Will. “You’re actually a pretty good assistant around here. You don’t need help with the forms, your death sense actually proved very useful, and you are excellent at handling the more… disgusting parts of healing.” Shaking his head, he added, “...but we really need to work on your people skills.”

Chapter Text

“Nico!”

Nico awoke with a start as the curtains around his bed snapped open. “Wha-at?” His head ached and felt fuzzy.  “What’s going on?”

“It’s dinnertime,” Will said, tying back the partitions. “Unless you’re still full from the pizza.”

Nico frowned, pushing up onto his elbows. “I could eat,” he said vaguely as he thought back through the events of the afternoon. The pizza… Austin and his apple… helping Will with his rounds… when they’d finished, he’d toppled face-first into bed, and he must have been asleep since then. 

Will looked him over briefly, then his lips quirked into a wry smile. “Don’t push yourself,” he said.

Nico bristled. “What are you, my--” He broke off abruptly, realizing what he was about to say. His mother… in spite of everything, she was still little more than a shining, silhouetted hole in his memories. His father was an absentee parent, at best. His sister was willing to become a Hunter of Artemis so she’d no longer be responsible for him. Not that he’d ever blamed her for that; he wouldn’t want to be responsible for him, either.

But what  did that make Will, then? 

“I’m your doctor, ” Will said breezily, answering his unspoken question. “Which gives me permission to say shit like that.” Turning, he tugged back the curtains on the other side of Nico’s bed. “The harpies need lots of space for the dinner carts, so we have to open them for meals,” he said. “Feeling up for food, Damien?”

...helping Will heal Damien’s leg wound. That had also been a part of his afternoon. He locked eyes with the other demigod over Will’s shoulder, and the kid stared back at him with the widest of eyes. 

“Damien?” Will said gently.

“Huh?” Damien tore his gaze away from Nico, looking at Will. “Oh, right! Yeah, food. Awesome.” 

“Great!” Will glanced back at Nico briefly, then turned and headed back down to the other end of the ward. “Dinner in five!”

He followed Will with his eyes until he disappeared around the corner. Then he looked back at Damien, whose attention was still riveted on him. Nico sighed. “What.”

“...You’re the Son of Hades,” he whispered.

“Yeah…?” said Nico.

“Are you going to devour my soul?” he asked.

Nico raised his eyebrows. “ No ,” he said. “Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know,” the kid said, spreading his hands wide. “I don’t know your life!”

“I don’t eat souls!” Nico said. “I can sense mortality. I can release a trapped soul, if need be….” I’ve turned someone into a ghost, he thought, but didn’t say it aloud. “But I don’t like it. I don’t go around inflicting death on people, and I don’t get off on witnessing it.” 

The kid sat for a moment, digesting that. “So, you weren’t following Will around hoping to see people bite it?”

“No!” Nico exclaimed. “ Di Immortales! Do I look like that much of a ghoul to you?”

“Uh…” Damien scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I dunno. I was kind of out of it earlier. And you said something about how close I was to death…”

“Yeah.” Nico was actually a little embarrassed about that. “Will said that probably wasn’t a great thing to say. But I thought you’d be pleased to hear it.”

“Maybe…” Damien sat back and pondered. “Maybe next time you should say, ‘You’re more likely to pull through!’  or ‘You’re going to live!’ Instead of, ‘You’re less likely to die now’.”

Nico frowned. “Don’t those mean basically the same thing?” he said.

“Yeah, but one sounds more hopeful,” the kid replied. 

“Ah.” Nico thought about that for a moment. “I guess I can see that.”

“So, what’s your name, Death Boy?” the kid asked.

“Don’t call me that,” Nico growled. “I’m Nico di Angelo.”

“Cool,” he said. “I’m Damien White. Son of Nemesis.”

"Ah,"' said Nico. "Nice to meet you- I mean, actually meet you."

"Yeah," said Damien. "Hey, you couldn’t use your powers to tell me when I'm getting out of here, could you?"

"Sorry," Nico said stiffly. “They don't really work like that."

" ... but you think I'm getting better?"

"Oh, yeah,'' Nico said. "The death aura is even better than it was this afternoon— you almost can't see it anymore."

Almost immediately, he regretted saying that. Damien’s eyes widened. “But... you can still see it?”

Nico put his hands up, placatingly. “All mortal creatures are at risk of death," he said. “I usually only see death auras if I'm actively looking for them— or if they're really bad. Yours is so faint now, I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn’t looking for it."

"So... it's good," Damien said.

"Even if you weren’t here in the infirmary, you would survive at this point," Nico said.  "With Will looking out for you? You've got nothing to worry about."

"Good to know." Damien leaned forward, fascinated. “What does it look like? A death aura."

"Um..." Nico squirmed. “It’s... sort of like a shadow. It kind of... looms over a person.. When it's a very small chance of death, it's pale gray, almost translucent. But the stronger it gets... it gets thicker. Darker. And sometimes it spreads, big enough that I can see it from far away." 

“So, like, during the Battle…” Damien said. “Was, like, the sky totally black overhead?”

“...I didn’t notice,” Nico said. He hadn’t thought to look. “I was a little preoccupied with, you know, stopping the Romans and defending the camp.”  Right then, one of the dinner carts trundled around the corner, saving him from answering more awkward questions. 

"Aw man," Damien said. "Still, that’s wild. I don’t even have powers, really— I mean, I’ve got dyslexia, ADHD, and I attract monsters, which is pretty basic, as far as demigods go. Sounds like you've got lots of cool abilities!"

"Yeah," Nico said wearily. "It's super fun being a son of Hades."

"Right?" Damien said, accepting a plate. “Can you really summon a skeleton army?”

“...not a full army,” Nico said. “Look, it’s not like it’s actually a good thing.”

“Are you kidding?” Damien said. “It’s awesome!”

“It’s really not,” Nico said with a little more heat. “Being a son of Hades— seeing death, summoning skeletons— I freak people out. So many people avoid me, and who can blame them? I’m scary.” He scowled at the harpy holding his plate. Unimpressed, she held it out to him, and after a moment, he took it from her.

Damian was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "I don't think you're scary."

"You asked if I was going to devour your soul,” Nico said, rolling his eyes.

"Well yeah— but that's not fear, that's just self-preservation. And a healthy respect for an unknown demigod’s abilities,” Damien said. “Besides, making allies with the strongest campers is just good practice, so I reeeaally don't want you on my bad side." He picked up his sub sandwich and took a bite, studying Nico’s face. “You’re really not that bad,” he said.

“...you don’t know anything about me,” Nico muttered.

“I have been talking to you for five minutes, and you haven’t threatened me or said anything rude,” Damien said. “Compared to Sherman, you’re a teddy bear. And I hang out with Sherman on purpose.”

“Why?” Nico asked. But then he answered his own question. “Self-preservation,” they both said at the same time.

“Right,” said Damien. He watched as Nico tugged his tray table over and set his plate on it, sitting cross-legged on top of the blankets. “So, are you a patient or what?" he asked. “I mean, you don't look like there's anything really wrong with you."

Nico sighed. “Yeah," he said, unfolding his napkin. "Will’s got it in his head that I need to spend three days in the infirmary, because I spent three days, um…” he trailed off, reluctant to get into the details of what had caused him to Fade nearly out of existence. “...incapacitated, I guess."

Damien stared at him. "Incapacitated from what?" he asked.

Nico shrugged uncomfortably.  “... an excess of questing?" he said. "I overused one of my abilities. But yeah…it’s nothing serious. I'm fine now, really."

Damien squinted at him. “I dunno," he said. “Will’s got a pretty good sense of who needs healing and who doesn't. Kind of like your death sense, right?” He pointed his sandwich at Nico. “He wouldn't keep you here unless he thought you needed it."

That gave Nico pause. Did Will really see something in him that needed attention? ...he'd knew if there was something really wrong with himself, wouldn't he?

"So, what was it like?" Damien asked, his mouth full of food. Swallowing, he added, “I haven’t been on any sort of formal quest yet.”

Nico barked a laugh. “If we’re talking formal quests, then neither have I,” he said.  “But they do have a way of putting you through the wringer.”

“What did you do?” Damien asked.

Nico hesitated. “I… did my part in stopping Gaea,” he said. “However small it was.”

“Except it wasn’t small,” came a voice from behind them. Cecil, the son of Hermes from the battle the other morning, wandered over, carrying a thick binder that Nico recognized-- the type of binder that one might collect their trading cards in. “You’ve been stuck in here, Damien, so you haven’t heard the stories, but--” Nico shot him a warning look that might have scorched holes in the wall behind him. Cecil faltered, then said, “--trust me, he did plenty.”

“A hero, huh?” Damien said. “Goes out, saves the world, then comes back and holds a guy’s leg down while they’re draining his wounds of infection!”

“I do what I can,” Nico said with deadpan modesty.

Cecil turned a little green. “...drained…?”

Damien smirked at Cecil’s sudden, sickly pallor. “Yeah. What was the word you used, Nico? You said it looked gnarly. ”

“Oh, it did,” Nico said earnestly. “It was this sort of yellowish, swollen mass all around the wound, and when Will lanced it a ton of pus came pouring out of it…” Cecil gagged, and both boys started to laugh. “Yeah, that’s the face most of Will’s siblings were making, too,” Nico said.

“Can’t imagine,” Cecil said weakly, dropping into the chair between their beds. “Where’s Sherman? I’m surprised he wasn’t here to get in on this.”

“I’m sure he’ll crutch himself over here when he’s finished eating,” Damien said. 

“What game are you playing?” Nico asked.

“Mythomagic,” they both replied in unison.

“Ah,” said Nico, as if he’d expected-- and feared-- that answer.

“Do you play?” Cecil asked.

“I… used to,” Nico said slowly. “It’s been years.”

“Can’t be that many,” Damien said. “You can’t be more than, what, fourteen? You should help Cecil, since he’s terrible at this game--”

“Hey!” Cecil protested. “I’m improving.”

Damien raised his eyebrows at Nico, then rolled his eyes, giving his opinion of Cecil’s skills. 

Nico shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I’d be next to no help, at this point. Probably best if I sit this one out.”

“Suit yourself,” Damien shrugged. “Here comes Sherman. Get ready for a world of hurt, Cecil!” 

At first glance, Sherman Yang reminded Nico a little of Frank Zhang. For one, they were both a similar size. Both were of Chinese descent, and even had similar coloring. And they both had similar haircuts, which, considering they were both children of the God of War, didn’t surprise Nico in the slightest. But that was about as far as the similarities went. There was a steely glint to Sherman’s eye and a cruel, sneering tilt to his lips that was completely at odds with Frank’s bashful-yet-honest nature. He hobbled towards them on crutches with Will trailing behind him, carrying a narrow box and wearing his stubborn, ‘Doctor Knows Best’ expression.

“Ahh, there’s my victims!” Sherman boomed.

“Hi, Sherman,” Cecil said, a little sullenly.

Will rolled his eyes. Setting the box down on the end of the bed, he walked to the corner of the room and came back with another chair, as well as a step stool from under the counter. “Sit,” he ordered Sherman, picking up the stool and setting it on the floor. “And figure out how you’re going to prop your foot up.”

Sherman rolled his eyes. “Honestly, Will--”

“Don’t give me that,” Will said sternly. “You’re the one who was trying to walk on your broken foot using only one crutch. You can’t risk any more ambrosia, and you’re going to wind up giving yourself more problems if you keep doing things like that!”

Sherman turned his head so Will couldn’t see him, mouthing a mocking ‘blah, blah, blah’ and rolling his eyes. He looked at the rest of them to share in the joke. Nico scowled, hating him on the spot.

“If you get stuck here for another two weeks, you’re going to be sorry you didn’t listen to me,” Will said mildly. He glanced at Nico, noticing his uneaten sandwich. “Not hungry after all, huh?”

“Oh. No, I--” Nico glanced at the sandwich, then rubbed his forehead. “I’ll eat it. I’m just… moving a little slowly.” 

Will studied him for a moment too long, which made Nico wonder again what exactly the healer saw when he looked at him. Then he nodded. “Take your time,” he said. Picking up the box from the end of the bed, he handed it across to Sherman. “Have fun, guys.” Catching Damien’s eye, he gestured subtly to Sherman, then drew his finger across his throat. Damien lifted his chin in acknowledgement, and Will winked before heading back to the rec room side again.

“Okay, ladies,” Sherman said, setting his deck down on the end of Damien’s bed and rubbing his hands together. “Let’s see what the cards have in store for us tonight!”

Nico picked up his sandwich and doggedly started eating while he listened to them play. Not that he was interested. Of course not. It just gave him something to do while he attempted to finish his dinner. But about the time he heard Cecil attack the Hyperborean Giant with River Nymphs-- which was patently ridiculous, the Hyperborean giant would freeze them just by proximity-- he set down his napkin, pushed back the tray table, and slid down to the end of his bed, looking over Cecil’s shoulder at his hand. “They weren’t kidding,” he said. “You are terrible at this.”

Damien and Sherman both burst out laughing, and Cecil looked back at him, his face a comical mixture of panic, fury, and shame. “So sorry!” 

“Look,” Nico said, reaching over his shoulder and tapping his cards. “Think about it like Capture the Flag. If you are wounded, and you need to heal yourself, you wouldn’t do it in the middle of a combat zone.”

“Nah, you need to be in a safe place to do it,” Cecil said. “ Oh . So I should play this first--” he wiggled the Nemean Lion, which naturally had high defensive markings.  

Nico nodded. “And then, on your next turn, use the ambrosia. That way, you prevent more damage, which would negate your healing. Also?” He tapped the Chimera, which was simply sitting in Cecil’s hand. “Next time, use this against the Hyperborean Giant.”

“But it’s such an expensive card,” Cecil complained. “It uses up, like, all of my mana, and it doesn’t do that much damage, all things considered--”

“Read the card, Cecil,” Nico said.

Cecil frowned at the card, reading the fine print about the creature. Then his eyes widened. “Oh,” he said. “Oh wait , a Chimera gets that kind of bonus against ice creatures?”

Both of the other boys groaned in disbelief. “You had a freakin’ chimera -- in your hand-- ” said Damien, “and you didn’t use it?”

Nico sighed inwardly, then settled at the end of the bed behind Cecil, so he could see the cards in his hand. “Discard,” he said, waving a hand at Cecil as he pulled his plate down closer to himself. “Discard, and draw up. Let’s see if there’s any way to salvage this situation.”

Half an hour later, the shouting from the infirmary reached such a level that Will was certain someone was going to wind up dead, or worse. Hurrying across the rec room and into the infirmary proper, he heard laughter mingled with the shouts, and paused just inside the doorway to listen.

“You are only doing this well,” Sherman snarled, leveling a finger at Cecil’s chest, “because you’ve got that kid helping you!” He glowered at Nico.

Nico shrugged, spreading his hands wide. “Cecil’s the one drawing the cards,” he said. “He has the devil’s own luck. I’m not really doing that much, really.”

“That’s bull,” Damien said, laughing. “Cecil can barely figure out how to hold the cards, usually. You think strategy like a child of Athena.”

Nico made a face. “It’s just how the game is played,” he said. “That’s all.”

“Oh yeah, that’s all ,” Sherman muttered, settling himself back down and picking up his hand. “Not like you don’t have all the cards memorized either. Or have some weird, freaky ability to know how they all work together.”

“It’s not weird at all!” Nico said indignantly, scowling at Sherman’s use of the word ‘freaky’. “I just... used to play with the cards. A lot .” He’d spent countless hours, creating mock combat situations with different combinations of cards.  It had always been really fun to pretend that mythological creatures and heroes were real. That is, until the day when he discovered that they were real-- and could really kill him, if they wanted.

“You should get your own deck and play,” said Sherman, shuffling his cards. “That way, you wouldn’t be able to help him .” He glowered at Cecil.

A little bell went off in Will’s head, reminding him of something he’d seen recently. Turning, he walked down the hall and disappeared through a nearby doorway.

Damien rolled his eyes. “Cecil needs the help,” he told Sherman.

“How’s he going to learn, if he doesn’t think for himself?” Sherman retorted.

“Guys, I’m sitting right here ,” said Cecil.

“Well, don’t you agree you could still use some help?” Damien asked him.

Cecil shrugged. “I have to admit, I am actually learning a lot, having Nico explain things as we go.”

“But you can’t have him playing for you forever,” Sherman argued. “Then you’re not actually improving, are you?”

“You’re just mad that I’m beating you,” Cecil said smugly.

Sherman pointed at him. “ You are not beating me,” he said. He pointed at Nico. “ He is, by proxy. And I’m saying, he should have his own deck, so I can beat him fair and square.”

Nico winced. “I did have a lot of cards, once upon a time…” he said. “But--”

“You mean these?” Will said, returning from Chiron’s office with a sizeable box. Plunking it down on the bed beside Nico, he flipped open the flaps. 

Cecil turned around and peered into the box. His mouth fell open. “Holy Gods of Olympus,” he said. “What is all that?”

“...the expansions,” Nico said faintly. “ All the expansions. And the foil-wrapped collectible basics.” He lifted one of the folios out and unzipped it. “I-- I always had the basic decks with me, until I destroyed them. But I couldn’t carry the whole collection with me--”

“I should say not!” Cecil started pulling out the other folios-- six of them. “How old were you, ten?  Oh man-- and there are full boxes underneath these, too! This is a lot of cards for anyone to carry!”

“These were all yours?” Damien said. “Hand one of those over, Cecil, let me see!”

“Yeah, give that here,” said Sherman, plucking the one Nico held out of his hands and turning it around so he could see it, even as Cecil pulled more folios out of the box and handed them across to Damien.

“Hang  on, now--” Will protested. 

“No, it’s fine,” Nico said. “I-- I don’t even want them, really.” 

Will gave him a strange look. “Why not?” he asked. “You obviously used to love this game.”

“ Used to being the operative words,” Nico said. 

Will looked into the nearly empty box. “What’s this?” he asked, reaching in and pulling out a handsome, leather-bound book from near the bottom. Flipping open the cover, he said, “Oh.” Looking up at Nico, he said, “It’s a photo album.”

Nico blinked at him. “What?” he said softly.

“Yeah,” Will said, turning the page gingerly. “It’s all in black and white-- There’s a family photo, see, look--”

Nico put his hands over his eyes. “Close it,” he said quickly. “Please, Will. Close it.”

Startled, Will snapped the book shut. “Okay.”

Nico took several deep breaths. “I- I’ve never seen that album before. I didn’t know it existed.”

“...isn’t it a good thing?” Will said gently. “I mean, they’re memories of your family, aren’t they?”

“Will,” Nico said. “They used the Lethe on us when my mother died. I have almost no memory of anything before I turned eight years old. The years in that book…” he drew his hands down and peeked through his fingers at Will. “I’m still trying to deal with what’s happening now . I don’t know if I’m ready for what’s in that album yet.”

“I get it,” Will said. “Do you want to put it back in Chiron’s office?”

Nico considered, then nodded. “Maybe just for now,” he said. 

Will nodded. “I’ll put it on the bookshelf, and you can get it when you’re ready,” he said.

Nico blew out a gusty sigh, dropping his hands away from his face. In spite of himself, he looked into the box, casting about for any sort of distraction. There was a deep blue velvet drawstring bag near the bottom of the box that caught his attention; it was where he kept the decks he’d built for himself. The one in the bag had to be the last deck he’d made before Percy had returned and told him that Bianca had died. He’d been trying to create the ultimate deck, one that could defeat everyone in Cabin Eleven. He remembered putting the Talos card in this deck, but he couldn’t remember what else he’d put in there. 

Taking a deep breath, he opened the bag, drawing the deck out with shaking fingers.

It was worse than he could have imagined. He wasn’t surprised to see the skeletons, because he’d always favored those; skeletons were hardy against elemental attacks and tough to destroy-- ranged attacks were all but useless against them. And he’d he’d always loved any deck where you could generate a horde of level one monsters.  But as he continued to flip the cards, he saw how far down this rabbit hole he’d fallen. Zombies. Hellhounds. Cerberus, the gatekeeper to the Underworld. The Furies. Just holding that card, Alecto’s face sprang into Nico’s mind, completely unbidden; the lawyer and de facto babysitter his father had chosen for him and his sister, so many years ago.

And then, he turned over Minos. The ghost king, whom he’d destroyed, whose title he’d claimed for himself.

This was his all-powerful deck. He’d unknowingly created his own family, constructed for himself the world he would dwell in before he even knew what that would mean for him. What a cold, lonely existence the Underworld could be.

“...Nico?” Will said tentatively.

“ What.” The word exploded out of him, savage and barbed.

“Are you okay?” he said. “...you’re talking to yourself.”

“I’m fine .” He flipped the next card, slamming it furiously down onto the bed next to the others. Then he realized that it was Nyx, the goddess of night, staring up at him.

And then he completely lost it.

“ανόητο αγόρι,” he snarled, throwing the cards down onto the bed. Eris. Geras. The sight of Akhlys’ face made him want to scream. “Είσαι ευτυχισμένος τώρα? Είναι αυτό που ήθελες?” What kind of fool child had he been? Did he think these gods and monsters were powers that he could control?

“Nico!” Will’s voice was strained now, and a little desperate. 

“ Ti piace questa forza? ” Digging his fingers into the blankets, he was dimly aware that he was yelling; yelling at the idiot child he had once been. “ Sei felice così? Hai quello che hai sempre desiderato. Sei fortunato, eh?” He wanted to tear the blanket apart with his bare hands. Wasn’t it wonderful, this world he’d played with so casually? Wasn’t it just fantastic?

“What’s he speaking now, Italian?” Sherman’s voice sounded far away. 

“Will…” Cecil sounded worried. 

“Nico!” Will said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Nico shook him off, violently wrenching his arm away. “ DON’T TOUCH ME!” 

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, but Will did not cringe or back down. “You need to calm. Down.” Will said tightly.

“Or what , exactly?” Nico demanded.

“Or you’re going to bring the house down around us!” Sherman cried. 

“It’s all right-- the ground stopped shaking,” Damien said quickly.

Will’s touch had jarred Nico out of his tirade, but Sherman’s words brought him completely back to his senses. Looking around, he saw that chips of dried paint had rained down from the ceiling, and were lying on the bed and the floor around him; the overhead fixture still swung gently back and forth. He looked at the other three boys, who stared back at him, pale and shocked, then turned to Will, who offered him a wry, slightly shaky smile. “I’ve been telling Chiron the infirmary could use a makeover,” he said. “Maybe now he’ll believe me.”

Nico tried to take a deep breath, but his chest was unbearably tight. “I… I’ll be right back,” he said. Before anyone could say a word, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and bolted for the rec room door.

Will got to his feet and followed him to the door. “Nico--” he called, then stopped as Nico disappeared into the bathroom at the end of the hall, slamming the door behind him.

Sherman let out a low whistle. “Wow,” he said.

“I had heard that it’s a bad idea to get him angry,” Cecil murmured. “Guess we know why, now.”

“That’s so weird, though!” Damien said. “He was totally fine when he was playing with your deck, Cecil. Why did those cards set him off so badly?”

Will came back to the bed and peered down at the array of cards, spread out amongst the paint chips and rumpled blankets. “I think,” he said slowly, “that this deck hit a little too close to home.” 

Sherman snorted. “That’s an understatement,” he said. Looking down at the folio, still open in his lap, he said, “Have you noticed how old some of these cards are? Do you think he inherited them from, like, his mom or his uncle or something?”

“Nah,” Will said, starting to gather up the cards from Nico’s bed. “I’m pretty sure they’re all his.”

“There’s so many…” Cecil said. “What do you suppose we should do with them?”

“Keep them,” Sherman shrugged. “He obviously doesn’t want them.”

“That doesn’t seem right, though,” Damien said. 

“Why?” Sherman asked. “ You saw what just happened. He literally flipped his shit over a deck of playing cards. I don’t think that bodes well for future Mythomagic tournaments.”

“You, of all people, shouldn’t criticize a person’s PTSD,” Will said quietly. 

“Yeah,” Damien said. “As long as he doesn’t have any of those cards that set him off in his deck, he’d probably be fine.” He started nodding. “You know what? Yeah. I want to build a deck for him. Find out what cards he doesn’t mind using, and build something that would balance against your aggressive Spartan deck, Sherman--”

“Hey!” Sherman complained. 

“--and maybe then someone will be able to beat you, for once!”

“Why you gotta do me like this, man?” Sherman said, folding his arms and glaring at Damien.

Damien shrugged. “I’m a child of Nemesis,” he said philosophically. “I believe in balance.”

“Well, if you’re going to make him a deck,” Sherman said, picking up the folio in his lap and leafing through it, “then I’m going to make him one, too!” Gleefully, he started pulling out cards. “Just you wait. I’d like to see him win with this pansy-ass collection of weakling cards I’m gonna pick for him!”

“Waaaait, I want in!” Cecil said, picking up a third folio. “I’ll build one too!”

“Oh yeah,” Sherman said, delighted. “Your deck will be terrible . He’ll never be able to win with your deck! Do it!”

Will finished picking up the cards on the bed and slid them back into the velvet bag, fighting a grin as he listened to the others animatedly going through the cards. He’d just finished shaking the paint chips out of the blanket when Nico appeared in the doorway. “Hey,” he said, pinching the blanket in the center and folding it in half with practiced fingers. “How are you?”  

Nico shrugged one shoulder. “I’m okay,” he said, though he didn’t sound like he completely believed himself. “Sorry about the…”

Will waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it.” Gesturing towards the bed, he said, “I put the cards back in the bag. I don’t think the paint chips got onto the sheets at all, so I’m just going to grab you another blanket.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Twisting his skull ring in his fingers, Nico glanced at the other boys, who were too engrossed in their task to notice his return. “You’re sure it’s okay if I stay here? If you need to move me somewhere else, I understand.”

Will grinned. “I think they’re fine,” he said. “Do they look traumatized at all?”

“...I guess not.” Nico watched them for a moment. “Wh-what are they doing?”

“Deck building,” Will said casually. “...for you.”

Nico blanched. “I can’t—“ he gasped. “I can’t do it. I can’t play this game--”

The boys looked up at this outburst. “What,” Sherman drawled. “Scared of a few scraps of paper? Or do you just not want to face me in fair combat?”

“Shut up, Sherman,” Damien said, smacking him in the shoulder. “Nico, listen. It has been too long since we had a player of your caliber come through camp. It’s just not fair if you never play with us.”

“Honestly, I‘d pay money to see you kick Sherman’s butt,” Cecil chimed in.

“Hey!” Sherman complained.

“So if we build the decks for you, you won’t have to mess with cards that trigger you,” Damien finished. “Just tell us what you don’t want to see in there, and we’ll make sure to avoid them.” 

Nico rubbed a shaking hand over his face. “I... don’t think I could play, though. Not tonight--”

“Oh yeah, no,” Damien said quickly. “Not tonight. I don’t even know if I want to play again tonight. But, like… when you’re ready.”

Nico opened his mouth, determined to put him in his place, to remind him that he’d said no and Damien had no right to force him to do anything he didn’t want to do… but the words died on his lips when he saw the expression on Will’s face. Will, who was afraid he was going to leave again. Will, who thought that Nico was the one who pushed others away. Will was holding his breath, waiting to see what his answer would be.

He didn’t know if he could play Mythomagic anymore. But these boys were trying to include him. He knew that he had to try.

“...all right,” he said quietly.

Damien started to grin. “Yeah?”

Nico shrugged helplessly. “I’m not making any promises, though.”

“You can always keep helping me,” Cecil piped up. “I mean, that seemed to be working out well.”

“For you , maybe,” Sherman growled.

“We’ll see.” Exhausted, Nico flopped onto his bed, curling up onto his side with his back to the other boys. “Later.”

Will rested a hand on his shoulder. Nico scowled and shook his hand off, though much more gently than he had a few moments before. Will didn’t seem to mind; his eyes sparkled like the dawn’s light on the Long Island Sound. “I’ll get you another blanket,” he said quietly, crossing over to the infirmary’s linen cabinet.

Well, at least one person was happy about this.

“Who’s on your no-no list, Nico?” Damien persisted. “We can make a formal list later, but at least for now we can check and make sure the big ones aren’t in the decks we’re making.” When Nico didn’t say anything for a long moment, he said, “...Are you not speaking to us, now?”

“No, I’m thinking ,” Nico said. “Umm… King Minos. Talos. Geryon. The giants, Otis and Ephialtes. Triptolemus. The katobleps. Lycaeon. Orion. Akhlys. Anyone from Tartarus, really… Eros .” His voice took on a definite edge. “I do not want to see that jerk in any deck, unless I am able to demolish him.”

“Aw, man…” Sherman groaned, and started flipping through his deck. 

“What happened with Cupid?” Cecil asked.

“I do not want to get into it,” Nico growled.

Will looked like he would have liked to hear the answer to that question, too. But he shrugged, tossing the blanket over Nico and covering his entire body with it, including his head. Nico tugged the blanket down, scowling at Will and his stupid, adorable dimples.

“Anybody you do want?” Damien asked.

“Morpheus would be cool,” Nico said thoughtfully. “Briares wouldn’t be bad. And I know that the Seven would disagree, but I always liked the card Chrysaor.” 

Will snorted. “From what I heard, he was a first-class jerk.”

“They said that about Hercules, too,” Nico said. “Doesn’t mean the card isn’t powerful. Plus, he’s a pirate.”

“Hmm,” said Will. “You like pirates, huh?”

Nico shrugged. “They’re all right.”

“Got it,” Damien said. “Anyone else you can think of?”

“...Iapetus,” Nico said softly, after a moment. “I think he was in there somewhere. I wouldn’t mind having him on my side.”

Chapter Text

It shouldn’t be this hard to fall asleep , Nico thought, staring up at the newly discolored patches on the ceiling. I’ve been doing it all day, on and off, and I wasn’t having any trouble. But now that it was time for bed, the medics had turned out the lights and everyone had settled down, sleep refused to come. 

Maybe I shouldn’t have slept so much today… 

Lying awake in the dark, Nico was acutely aware of every breath of every sleeping person within 100 feet of him. He’d never appreciated before just how noisy the living were! So much noisier than the dead. Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes and released the air slowly, determined to try again. 

If I’m as exhausted as they keep saying I am, this should be easy… right?

It didn’t feel like he fell fully asleep, though. He simply kept roaming the boundary between dreaming and wakefulness, seeing the familiar shadows of his nightmares to the soundtrack of the room around him.  He saw his mother’s face to the accompaniment of Damien’s snoring. Bianca’s laughter mingled with the jarring sound of cicadas and crickets. 

The memories of those he’d loved and lost clung to him like bittersweet burrs. He hadn’t wanted to open the photo album when Will pulled it out of the box, afraid it would stir up more memories to gnaw at his chest, leaving it raw, hollow and aching. He had years of practice pushing those memories away.

King Minos’s face swam before his eyes, and he scowled, regaining his focus and pressing forward.  Minos was a memory he could handle, but it was a reminder of the other, darker specters that now lurked in his subconscious.  

He’d only started running recently, to flee the dreams of Tartarus.

Building speed, he hurtled past the echoes that refused to let him go, when out of the corner of his eye he recognized a familiar place. Pausing, he stared at the memory; it was Camp Half-Blood, which was strange because he rarely dreamed of the camp.  In all the years he’d known he was a demigod, he’d never spent longer than a week living there. He’d spent more consecutive days in the Underworld than he had at Camp Half-Blood.  

He allowed himself to be pulled into the dream, knowing what it was before it even began to play out. It was the memory of the last time he’d left camp, almost exactly one year before. 

It was a beautiful morning in late August, maybe ten days after the Battle of Manhattan. Chiron had called a meeting of the head counselors from every cabin-- not a war council, but a debriefing, a discussion of camp scheduling for what little was left of summer-- and a plan for the demigod influx that was bound to happen, with the gods being required to claim their children. A lovely thought… but Nico was already starting to fear he had worn out his welcome. He knew it was customary for children of the Gods to sit at the table of their godly parent, but sitting alone at the Hades table did little to ease his feelings of isolation. And he just… wasn’t good at approaching people and talking to them. More often than not, he tended to startle people when he did so. Then they looked uncomfortable, and he hated that. Conversations were always awkward. Mostly, he wasn’t sure that this was truly where he belonged. Maybe there was a reason the Children of Hades never stayed at camp with the rest of the demigods. Maybe they were always destined to be outsiders. 

He didn’t want to go to this meeting, for a number of reasons. He’d been sitting by the central hearth when Percy found him. “Hey,” he said.

Nico leaned back on his hands and looked up at him, pretending that his insides didn’t feel like the swirling maelstrom whenever he saw the Son of Poseidon. “Hey, yourself,” he said. 

“I didn’t see you at breakfast this morning,” Percy said. 

“Yeah… I-” was hiding. “--slept through my alarm,” he lied. 

“Ah,” said Percy. “I’ve done that.” He didn’t mention the incredibly loud conch horn that summoned every camper to mealtime, and Nico didn’t either. It was easier to believe the lie. “But hey-- you heard about the meeting Chiron’s called, right? You should be there.”

“Why?” Nico asked.

Percy blinked. “Because… you’re the head camper for the Hades cabin.”

“I’m the only camper in the Hades cabin,” Nico reminded him.

“And I’m the only camper in the Poseidon cabin,” Percy countered. “Head camper privileges come with the territory.” He offered him a hand, to pull him up. “Come on. It’ll be nice to have you there. And it’s good for you to have a say in what goes on around here.”

“You think so?” Nico said doubtfully, taking his hand.

“I know so!” Percy said, tugging him to his feet. He gave him a companionable punch to the shoulder. “You’re a son of the Big Three. It’s time you claimed your rightful place around here.”

Percy had a smile that made his pulse race-- and it was twice as hard to resist when it was genuine. “...If you say so,” Nico managed.

“I do!” Percy grinned. “It’s gonna be great. You’ll see.” 

He was on the verge of saying yes, and willingly followed the well-meaning advice of a boy he idolized. But then Annabeth called, “Hey, Seaweed Brain!” from the porch of the Big House.  

Nico’s heart sank. One of the hardest things he’d had to deal with, in the ten days he’d been back here, was watching the new ‘unit’ that was Percy and Annabeth. They were both so ridiculously, giddily happy — and worse even than admitting to himself that he wanted to be with Percy instead (which he didn’t, of course not, why would he ever want that), was feeling like what they shared was something he never could have. Something that wasn’t meant for someone like him.

Percy turned and waved to her, and when he looked back, he was almost glowing-- lost in the mindless infatuation of a new relationship. “Gotta go,” he said. “I’ll see you there!” 

And just like that, he was gone, running down the path to his girlfriend, taking her hand at the foot of the porch stairs. Nico stood in the middle of the path, his insides churning, thinking, If I have to sit through this meeting, watching them make googoo eyes at each other...

He was so focused on the pair on the porch that he didn’t notice the children of Hermes coming down the path until they pretty much bowled him over. “Hey, speed bump!” one of them yelled, while the others laughed. “Stop in the road, and you’re going to get run over!”

Nico turned the full force of his glare on them, causing every last one of them to flinch. “Jeez, man, what’s your problem?” Another one of them muttered as they hurried away. “Freak.”

That had done it. Turning on his heel, Nico strode into the forest, slipping into the first shadow he came across and traveling away. It didn’t matter to him where he wound up, so long as he wasn’t at camp.

The jump should have taken him to a bridge near the New Jersey Turnpike; he’d spent three nights camping there in the hot August weather. But in this dreamscape, the shadow delivered him to the Underworld, to the mouth of the pit. “No…” he said, turning and running away as hard as he possibly could, even as he felt the inexorable pull of Tartarus drawing him in. He never should have stopped, no matter what memory he wished to explore. His past was a minefield more treacherous than the grounds surrounding the Ares cabin.

There was no fighting the pull of the pit.  There was no success to be found at the bottom.  He had only survived the first time because he was bait for the Seven. This time…

“This time,” Nico growled, “it’s a dream. And it only has as much power over me as I allow it!”

He made the choice, and he stopped running. Steeling his resolve, he turned and leapt into the chasm, rocketing through the poisonous air into the heart of Tartarus.

Just as before, he landed in the center of the throng of monsters pushing to be next through the Doors of Death. He drew his sword, ready to make his stand, but the poisonous fumes that served as air in that dark kingdom rattled in his lungs, smothering him until he fell to his knees. He lay on the ground, gasping like a beached fish, while the empousai discussed how they would divvy up his entrails.  And he had thought it was the end, that no one would even know, much less care, that he was gone.

Then his savior, the terrifying black voice of the void itself, told them to wait. Nico was of more use to them alive than dead. 

They fed him the water of the Phlegethon, and as he drank the blood of Tartarus, his breathing cleared… and he saw… he saw… He trod on the veins and sinew of a primordial god who housed monsters in its internal ecosystem.  They formed beneath the layers of his skin, bursting out from boils to pour their misery onto the world. The sky above the cursed realm was no sky, but a membranous ceiling, housing this strange greenhouse of evil. And his children…

They gave him a tour of the place. They paraded him to the edge of monstrous vistas while his mind screamed for release from the assault on his sanity.  They left him with Akhlys, who wept her poison tears and effusively praised the perfection of his pain. 

And then the giants came, picked him up and put him in the brass jar, sealing the lid and closing him into an interminable darkness… in that perfect blackness he couldn’t tell if he was solid anymore. He was Fading, disappearing forever, and no one would rescue him… no one would care…

His eyes flew open.

For a long moment, he lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling again and gasping for breath. But he realized he couldn’t see the paintless patches on the ceiling anymore; with all the heavy drapes drawn closed, the infirmary was as dark as the inside of a brass jar. Nico raised his hand, but he couldn’t see it in the darkness, couldn’t tell if it was solid or not. He might still be dissolving. How could he tell?

Panicked, he flung himself out of bed, blanket still clutched in his hands, and stumbled blindly in the direction of the porch door.  It’s right there… you came through it earlier… A sliver of moonlight streamed through the screen door like a beacon of hope. He seized the handle, but found it locked fast; his hands shook as he fumbled with the lock, and the hook-and-eye latch above his head. And then it came open, and he was free. 

Tumbling out onto the porch, he stood in the light of the moon and frantically held up his hands, staring at the backs of them. They were solid, his knuckles white where he gripped the blanket. He couldn’t see the grass through them. 

“Just a dream,” he whispered.

For a long moment, he simply stood, repeating those words to himself and gasping as if he’d run straight from the mouth of Tartarus. He wasn’t going to be able to go back into that dark tomb of an infirmary. Not after that dream. 

Feeling drained and shaky, he wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, then turned and headed down the porch. There was a lounge chair up against the side of the house, under the eaves; dragging it into the moonlight, he collapsed onto it, huddling under the blanket. It would just be safer to stay there until morning.

~*~*~*~*~

Okay, I might be reaching my limit , Will mused as he climbed the stairs to the Big House, coming in on the rec room side. He’d been doing a really good job of pacing himself through all the healing he’d been doing, he thought, but this morning he’d awakened to an empty cabin. He hadn’t even heard his siblings when they’d risen, gotten ready, and left-- and they were rarely quiet. 

It wasn’t late by any stretch of the imagination; children of Apollo were notoriously early risers. Something about being ‘up with the sun’, he supposed. But he had that achy, muddy feeling behind his eyes, the sort that made him wish he could crawl back into bed and sleep for another hour or two. Yeah… I definitely better take it easy today.

With a sigh, he tugged the door open-- and blinked as several of his siblings charged past him, splitting up and running into various rooms on the ground floor. A couple of them headed up the stairs, and they never took patients upstairs. “Um…?” he said. When no one stopped or even acknowledged him-- Nina even yelped and ducked into the kitchen to avoid him-- he rubbed the aching spot between his eyebrows.

He found Kayla and Austin just inside the infirmary door, facing the counter. Whatever was happening had them pretty agitated; Kayla’s hands were flying through the air in a way they only did when she was very upset. “Do I even want to know what’s going on?” he asked them as he entered the room, setting his bag down on the counter beside them.

Both of his siblings jolted, then quickly turned. He could tell by their expressions that they weren’t exactly happy to see him. “What,” he said, starting to get annoyed.

Austin looked at Kayla nervously. “Um… it’s Nico,” said Austin. “He’s--”

“He’s gone!” Kayla exploded. “He’s just gone , like he’s always gone--”

Will’s heart lurched. I was right… this was all too much for him… I shouldn’t have pushed him so hard to stay--

“He’s not gone ,” Austin chided her. “He’s just not in bed.”

“NO ONE ELSE went wandering off in the middle of the night,” Kayla said. “Who does that? It’s not okay!”

Okay, calm down. Will took a deep breath. Just because they haven’t found him yet doesn’t mean he’s actually left .  He glanced over at Nico’s bed. His blanket is missing, but ...

“Kayla!” Austin hissed, slapping her in the shoulder with the back of his hand.

Immediately she hushed, looking at Will, frozen between fury, fear, and something akin to pity. “I’m sorry, Will,” she said quickly. “I know you wanted-- I mean, we all want-- Maybe I should have--”

...his shoes were still there. Will held up a hand, silently asking Kayla to wait, then headed towards the bed. The curtain between Nico’s bed and Damien’s was tugged back about six inches, as though someone had grabbed it while rushing by...  Looking past the curtain, Will asked, “Did anyone check the porch this morning?”

“What?” Kayla said. “Um, no.”

Will nodded, moving towards the screen door.

His siblings followed him. “Oh-- it’s open,” Austin said. “I didn’t notice that.”

The screen door didn’t close properly. They all knew it; lockup procedure for the infirmary included pulling the screen door tightly shut and fastening the latches, so that it wouldn’t let mosquitoes in-- or bang all night in the wind, keeping Chiron awake. If it was open, that meant that someone had walked through the door during the night. The harpies prevented campers from roaming the grounds, so it was unlikely that someone entered the infirmary from outside. Plus, the door latched on the inside, so to come in from outside, a person would have to break the latch, and it was definitely still intact. That left only one possibility.

Stepping out onto the porch, he glanced to the right, and then to the left-- and found their wayward demigod, wrapped in his blanket and huddled in one of the lounge chairs, staring into the dawn sky as it grew ever brighter. 

Kayla charged through the door right after Will, and when she saw Nico she lashed out like a solar flare. “ There you are!” She pushed past Will and stomped towards the lounge chair. “What in Hades name are you doing out here?”

“Kayla,” said Will, following her. There had to be some explanation for this, but in the mood she was in, she probably wasn’t going to wait to hear it.

“If you are going to go wandering off in the middle of the night, the least you could do is let someone know where you are!” Kayla exclaimed.

Nico didn’t even look at her. “I don’t answer to you,” he said. “I don’t have to tell you anything.” 

"The disrespect !" Kayla declared, as if her words could cause Zeus to appear and smite him with lightning bolts. "You know, some people would be really upset if you just disappeared!"

"What," Nico said. "Like you?"

"Oh please," Kayla snarled. “After what you put us through this morning? You could go to Hades for all I care!”

"Kayla-!"  Austin murmured, his tone a warning.  But Nico didn't react, barely even blinked at her words.

Before Kayla’s anger could seriously go nova, Will cleared his throat. “Kayla,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Could you go get us some ice?”

“What?!” she demanded, turning on him. “I don’t think--”

“The ice machine in the rec room is so slow,” Will said calmly, as if he hadn’t heard her. “It takes forever to fill the reservoir, and it was driving me crazy yesterday. It’s faster to go to the dining pavilion than it is to wait for the machine to make more.” He let her sputter for a moment before he said, “Please. Let me handle this.”

“ Fine ,” Kayla said, turning on her heel and storming away, down the porch steps and across the grounds towards the dining pavilion.

Will glanced at Austin, who sighed, shrugging. “I’ll go call off the hunt,” he said, pointing back at the house behind him. 

Will nodded, looking back after Kayla as stalked across the grass. Her anger was an issue for later; he had other, more pressing matters to deal with. Taking a deep breath, he cautiously approached Nico’s chair. “Good morning,” he said.

Nico took a deep, shuddery breath. “Is it?” he said.

“So far,” Will said, “I think.” He crouched down next to the chair.  "I'm sorry about Kayla. When she gets mad, she speaks without thinking."

Nico stared at the sky for so long, Will was just about to ask if he was okay when he said, "I think she said exactly what she was thinking."

Will shook his head. “She was upset because she couldn't find you," he said. "I'm sure she'll apologize once she calms down."  Nico lifted one shoulder and dropped it again. 

Will leaned over to study his face. Nico’s pupils were wide, and he was shivering in spite of the blanket-- and the warm August morning. “What happened, Nico?” he asked gently.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Nico said. “It was so noisy. The living are noisy.”

Will fought a smile. “Okay,” he said. “Communal sleeping is hard to get used to at first. Was that why you came out here?” 

Nico shook his head. “...I got tired of running,” he murmured after a long moment, his eyes still trained on the horizon. “Running, always running… awake or asleep… so I stopped, and I turned around, but…” He shook his head violently. “It was no good. It didn’t do any good.”

“You’ve lost me,” Will said. He put a hand on Nico’s forehead, and his patient didn’t stiffen or flinch at all at the physical contact.  That wasn’t normal, and it worried him. Nico was burning a low-grade fever, nothing high enough to make him delirious. “Look here,” he said, holding a finger up in front of Nico’s eyes. It took him a moment to focus on it, and even longer for him to track it with his eyes when Will moved it back and forth. 

Will breathed out slowly, and nodded to himself. He’d been waiting for this. From the stories he’d heard, from everything he’d been told, there was no way that Nico could be as calm and stable as he seemed.  Or even as functional. Will had asked after him for days, knowing that eventually he was going to crash, collapse, or have some sort of meltdown as the events of the past few months-- and really, the past few years -- finally caught up to him.

Last night, Nico’s reaction to the Mythomagic cards didn’t surprise him. This… sort of did. To be honest, he’d expected something a little more… spectacular. But then, Nico wasn’t really the type who tried to draw attention to himself. Taking Nico’s wrist as if he were checking his pulse, Will said, “Well, I have good news and bad news.”

Nico’s eyes wandered over, settling on Will’s face a year later. “Yeah?”

Will nodded. “Good news-- your cortisol levels finally dropped. That means you’ve finally relaxed enough to rest and heal properly.”

Nico gave a hollow little laugh. “Rest. Great. What’s the bad news?”

Will bit his lip.  “Now, you’ll actually notice how awful you feel,” he said. “So the next couple of days are going to suck.” 

Nico considered that for another long moment. “So… not a good morning,” he said.

Will smiled in spite of himself. “Okay, I’ll allow it.” He put out a hand. “Come on,” he said. “Think it’s okay if you go back to bed now?”

Nico looked out at the sky, then at his own hand. “...yeah,” he said, taking Will’s hand. “It’s light enough out now.”

“It was too dark before?” Will asked, pulling him up into a sitting position.

Nico nodded. “I couldn’t find myself,” he said. “And I-- ow .” He pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. 

“Right on cue,” Will murmured. “Yeah. Now that you’re finally out of ‘fight or flight’ mode, you’re having a stress reaction to extreme combat conditions.” He wrinkled his nose. “And to be honest… you’ve been fighting for a long time. I don’t know if this is built up from a month ago, or a year ago… or if…”

“I get it,” Nico said crossly, putting his hands over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

“It’s pretty normal,” Will said, making an effort to be reassuring. “Lots of people feel this way-- and most have not been through what you have.”

“Lucky them,” Nico said. He let Will pull him to his feet, then his knees buckled. 

Will grabbed him by the shoulders and stood him upright, waiting until he took his own weight before releasing him. “We’ve got about ten feet between us and your bed,” he said. “Think you can make it, or do you want me to carry you?”

Nico’s reaction was immediate and predictable. Irritably, he shrugged Will’s hands away. “I can do it,” he said, turning to walk through the door-- and nearly running into the doorframe.

Will gently guided him the extra two steps to the left and pointed him towards his bed. “That way,” he said. “There you go.”  He followed Nico inside, ready to help if needed, but it really was only ten steps from the door to his bed. Nico fairly flung himself across it when he reached it.

Will studied him. “Did you really sleep in your jeans last night?” he asked. When Nico didn’t answer, he said, “That can’t be comfortable. I could go get some--”

“I have some,” Nico whispered.

Will paused. “What?” he said.

“Hazel decided I needed clothes. She took me to the gift shop for emergency things, and we ordered the rest. It’ll be here… I dunno when.” 

Will folded his arms. “You’re just mentioning this now ?” he said. Nico shrugged, and he sighed. “I will go to your cabin and find a change of clothes. Meanwhile, I will send Austin to you with some over-the-counter meds. Hopefully that will help with your headache and fever.” 

Nico nodded into his pillow, and Will turned to go. “I will be back soon,” he said. Then he hesitated. “Austin’s got decently thick skin, so I’m pretty sure you’re not going to make him cry or anything, but… try to be patient with the other medics, okay? I’d prefer not spending my day cleaning up emotional messes with all of my siblings.”

Nico snorted. “I’ll try,” he said. “But I’m not making any promises.”

Chapter Text

Almost immediately after Will pulled the curtain around his bed, Nico started to shake. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, but he was terrified. He felt empty and fragile, like his very essence had flooded out of him through millions of fissure cracks. He desperately wanted to call Will back, to let the quiet reassurance in his voice calm his nerves again, but he didn’t dare. He couldn’t reveal to the other campers how vulnerable he was. He’d be wide open to any sort of attack, and he knew there was no way he could defend himself. Without Will nearby, the tide of his anxiety was rising, and he was too exhausted to keep himself from drowning in it.

On the other side of the curtain, he could hear Will’s voice. “Oh, hey. Would you mind... ” he said before his voice dissolved into murmurs. He was probably talking to Austin; it seemed like his younger brother was always at Will’s elbow. 

“Sure.” It was definitely Austin. He could hear his voice clearly, cutting through the air like a dagger: “Hey, listen… Don’t go spending too much time on that guy.”

Frozen, Nico lay on his side, staring at the smooth, white expanse of the partition curtain. It was one thing to imagine people saying things like that about him; it was quite another to hear the words spoken aloud.

“...excuse me?” Will said, his voice as frosty as a midwinter’s night.

“Come on,” Austin said. He dropped his voice, but it was still loud enough to carry. “We both know what you’re doing here. Don’t try and pretend--”

Nico closed his eyes, and wished he could close his ears. After what Kayla had said, Austin surely was going to convince Will that Nico needed to leave. Please, not yet… he thought.  His head felt like someone had taken a vise and was squeezing his temples tightly together.  He doubted he even had the strength to defend himself against his own nightmares, and he knew for certain that he wasn’t well enough to leave the camp yet.

For his part, Will sounded furious. “How dare you… after what you pulled yesterday, what gives you the right--”

“Will, listen to me,” Austin said urgently. “It’s not about him--”

“Like hell it’s not!” Will exploded.

“It’s about you!” Austin said, effectively stopping Will’s tirade. His voice dropped to a murmur that Nico couldn’t hear properly.  “...exhausted… can’t do this… for days… it’s time to...”

Will sighed. “I can’t,” he said. “Not yet.” 

Austin murmured again, maddeningly quiet. Nico strained to hear what he was saying. Maybe he shouldn’t have been trying so hard to listen in on a personal conversation, but the partition curtain wasn’t any sort of barrier; it was their fault for having this discussion so close to his bed. 

“Fine!” Will exclaimed.  The curtains swayed in the breeze created as he swept down the ward. 

“Love you, big brother!” Austin called.

There was a pause. Then the screen door creaked and slammed shut. 

So that was it, then. Nico closed his eyes again, shutting out the infirmary and its stupid occupants. Maybe it was a mistake to have come here. Will’s siblings obviously thought so, and it was only a matter of time before Will agreed with them.

There was a heavy sigh, and then the curtains rustled at the end of his bed. “Hey,” Austin said.

He didn’t want to look at the son of Apollo, didn’t want to talk to him. Fury flowed through his veins like molten lava, seething into pools of fiery red and glowing through all his cracks and fissures. But he’d promised Will he’d try to be civil. “Hey,” he said tersely, keeping his eyes tightly closed.

Austin paused at the end of his bed. “...are you okay?”

“Fine,” Nico bit out. Then he relented, just the slightest bit. “...my head hurts.”

He could feel Austin’s footfalls as he walked up alongside the bed. “Well, you’re in luck-- Will sent me to you with some aspirin.” He set the small plastic cup of pills down on the table beside Nico’s head. A moment later, there was a ‘thunk’ as a glass of water joined them.

“Thanks.” This was bad. Usually his anger found an outward target, smothering and draining the life from everything around him. But he couldn’t project outwards-- he didn’t have the energy. His anger had nothing to consume… except himself.

“Sure.” Austin hesitated, hovering uncertainly beside the bed. Nico could sense him, like a heavy storm cloud looming above a volcano. “Listen… you probably won’t see much of Will today, and that’s kind of my fault. And I’d apologize, but I’m really not sorry, so…”

“Why?” He opened his eyes to look at the son of Apollo, his vision growing black around the edges. Wasn’t Austin aware of the impending eruption? Couldn’t he feel the waves of heat rising off of him? 

“Because he’s going to take one look at you,” Austin said, a little bit of heat in his voice now, “and he’s going to want to heal you. But you are not sick, and you are not injured-- you are exhausted and dangerously depleted, and so is he. If he tries to treat your symptoms, not only won’t he fix what’s wrong with you, he’s going to put himself into a coma, and he will be an absolute bear during recovery and I’m not going through that again. No sir.”

Nico blinked at him. “...this has happened before?”

“Uh, yeah,” Austin said. “After the Battle of Manhattan? He was a disaster. When he finally let himself drop, he slept for almost two days solid, and when he woke up he was a level of cranky that is unmeasurable by human standards.”

“But… when you were talking to him just now…”

“I told him that he should  have slept in this morning,”  Austin groused. “He was still sleeping when we left, and we were super quiet, but no. He thinks he needs to be here, for some reason.”

“...you weren’t trying to convince him that I needed to leave?” Nico asked, still trying to process what Austin was telling him.

“What-- no,” Austin said, snapping out of his tirade and looking at Nico. “Why would I do that?”

It was funny how much lighter he felt, now that his anger was receding. “Why wouldn’t you?” he murmured. “I’d send me packing, if I could.”

“What are you talking about?” Austin asked slowly. “Are you delirious? You sound delirious.” He put a hand on Nico’s forehead. “Ooh, yeah… you’re burning up.”

“I was angry like lava,” Nico murmured. “But I’m not angry now. Don’t worry, it’ll cool off in a minute.”

“...It really doesn’t work like that,” Austin said. “Here, sit up-- you need to take that aspirin. I’ll help you, come on…”

Nico groaned, but didn’t resist as Austin pulled him upright and thrust the pills into his hand. He looked down at the little plastic cup in his hand, shrugged, then tipped it up against his lips, swallowing the pills in one. 

“O-kay, that was terrible,” Austin said, picking up the glass of water and giving it to Nico. “Chase those down, you hardass. The quicker the pills hit your stomach, the quicker they start working.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nico grumbled. But he did as Austin said.

Austin fidgeted. “So… you’re not mad at me, for making him stay on the clinic side?” he asked. “I mean, if he insists on being here instead of resting, we need him to save his strength for emergencies.”

Nico finished off his glass of water, then shook his head. “No, I get it,” he said, handing it back to Austin and leaning back against the bolster pillow. “If something happens like it did with Damien yesterday, you’d need him for that. And that’s... definitely not me. I’m fine.”

Austin folded his arms, surveying him critically. “Well, no, you are not fine,” he said bluntly. “I don’t have a fraction of Will’s healing ability, but I can tell just by looking at you that you’re not okay.”  

“No, I just meant…” Nico trailed off, losing his train of thought. “I’m not upset. That’s what I meant.”

“Well, good,” Austin said. “I’m glad. Now, do you want something to help you sleep?”

“No,” Nico said quickly. “W-why would I need that?”

Austin raised an eyebrow. “From what we’ve seen, you don’t usually sleep for more than a couple of hours at a stretch. And you hardly slept at all last night.”

“That’s not true,” Nico said, lying through his teeth. “I slept fine, once I was out on the porch.”

“Dude, your dark circles have dark circles,” Austin said pointedly. When Nico didn’t give in, he sighed. “Have it your way,” he said. “But if you don’t want Will ordering you to spend more days in the infirmary, you have got to get some sleep!” 

Nico watched him disappear through the curtains, his shadow moving towards the rec room, and sighed. He was grateful that Austin hadn’t insisted he take some sort of concoction to ensure he’d sleep. The only thing worse than his nightmares would be the assurance that he couldn’t easily wake up from them. 

He stared at the ceiling, ignoring the dull ache behind his eyes, pretending he had a good reason to still be awake. Will was coming back with his pajamas, after all, and if he fell asleep now, he’d just have to wake up again, and then he’d be grumpy. Not that he wasn’t always grumpy… Why was he always grumpy? It was because people were annoying. That was the only explanation.

Plus, it might be the only time he’d see Will for the rest of the day...

He sank back into the pillow, which felt miraculously cool against his skin. Maybe it wasn’t just anger-- maybe he did have a fever. It had been years since he could remember having one; running from monsters- and himself- kind of didn't leave a lot of time for catching colds or being ill.

All things considered, that was pretty sad. Maybe they were right to be concerned about him.

Through the muzziness of his head, he became aware of shouting from the other side of the curtain.  “Idiota!”  Damien had a visitor… a female visitor, from the sound of it. And Nico didn’t need any of his childhood knowledge of Italian to interpret her annoyance. “E quando sarò venuto a trovarti!”

“Come on, Lucky,” Damien said. “You know I can’t understand you when you start speaking Italian!” 

“Perché dici cose così stupide?”

Unconsciously, Nico had rolled onto his side to face the curtain, drawn in by the conversation. “Chi nasce tondo non può morire quadrato,” he murmured without thinking. It was something his mother had said to him, once upon a time. One who is born a circle will not die a square, Niccolo, she said. You can’t expect a person to change his nature.

The girl on the other side of the curtain laughed, and Nico blinked, suddenly embarrassed. He hadn’t considered that he might be overheard. The girl murmured something to Damien, who said something about the previous night, while Nico mentally kicked himself. Why couldn’t he have kept his mouth shut?

Then the curtain twitched open, and a face peeked through, her lovely dark eyes alight with curiosity and mischief. "Scusi, " she said, "Parle Italiano?"

Nico stared at her, still lying on his side, unable to muster the energy for much else. “A-- a little,"  he said, dredging up his childhood language as best he could through his foggy brain. "My mother was Italian."

She wrinkled her nose at him. “Your accent is strange.“

"I'm not surprised,”  Nico said. "I last spoke it maybe seventy years ago...''

“What’s he saying, Lucky?” Damien whined from behind her.

She blinked at Nico. Then, she stepped through the curtain, letting it fall closed behind her. “Oh, right!” she said, ignoring Damien’s noisy complaints from the other side of the partition. “I heard about that-- You’re the Son of Hades, right? Your sister, the Roman, she was from the past too.” 

Nico nodded, pushing himself up. “Hazel. Right.” He winced, looking at the curtain behind her. “Shouldn’t you, ah--”

“I talked to her at dinner the other night,” the girl-- Lucky?-- said, switching to English with little trouble-- and continuing to ignore the issue of Damien. “She was nice! But she doesn’t speak Italian.” She beamed at him. “Not like you.”

“I’m very-- er, bad,” Nico stammered, scooting back to lean against the pillows at the end of the bed. “At speaking, I mean.” Even at his best, he struggled to talk to people, and pretty girls like this one always left him utterly wrong-footed. With the way he was feeling today… mentally, he started the countdown to her disgust and rejection. “And my accent is strange. You even said so.”

"At least it’s properly Italian, though. Not like my cousins in New Jersey." She rolled her eyes. “ I can’t understand a dang thing they say.” 

“Really?” Nico asked, curious in spite of himself. "What do they sound like?" 

"Oh, man," she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her sunglasses.  "It’s like... hold on.” Turning away from him, she grabbed the hood on her long sleeved t-shirt and pulled it up over her head. Then she put her sunglasses on. Finally, she turned back to him, posturing. "Eyy, goombah. Keh-sa-deech?"  Nico wrinkled his nose in confusion. “Mah-la-say-ree? Sembri mezzo-morto. Needa pizzolino, gapeesh?"

“What language are-- is that even…?” Nico furrowed his brow, staring at her in consternation. “You’re joking.”

“Ayyyy, ya jamoke! ” she cried, pointing at him. “You sayin’ my Italiano is fugazi?” The word was utter nonsense in Italian. Some of what she’d said he’d understood-- Mezzo-morto meant ‘half dead’, and gapeesh sounded enough like ‘Capisce’ for him to get the point. But it was the accent that really got him. There was a heavy, almost thuggish emphasis on the vowel sounds, with none of the lilting cadence he associated with the language. And something about her pronunciation of the word-- “Fuh-GAE-zee”-- was just so funny, he couldn’t help himself. He started to laugh. 

Bianca had always hated his laugh. She complained that it was too loud, and almost sounded fake. So he’d tried to tone it down, swapping the boisterous ‘Ha-ha-ha’ for an understated, percussive hissing. She’d hated that, too. Eventually, he’d stopped trying to please her, but her opinions had done enough to shape his laugh. 

And it had been a long time since he’d laughed-- really laughed, for the sheer joy of the moment-- and the sound didn’t come out exactly right. There was a hoarse, wheezing rasp in the sound that he didn’t remember being there before. Not that it stopped him.

For a long moment, the girl stared at him. Then she started towards him. “Are you okay?” she asked, touching his shoulder. “I’m so sorry-- I shouldn’t have been acting so stupid; you’re sick and it isn’t right for me to--” Her concern only made things worse; he sucked in a breath and waved a hand, trying to let her know he was all right. And then she caught on. “Di immortales, are you laughing?” she demanded. He nodded, wiping his eyes, and she huffed a breath. “I thought you were dying or something! Does your laugh always sound like that?”

“I dunno,” Nico wheezed. “What’s it sound like?” 

“ Like a pit of asthmatic snakes ,” she replied bluntly, which set Nico off all over again. After a moment, she joined in, her laugh clear and warm as sunlight-- and completely lacking in scorn.

"Come on, you guys," Damien yelled from the other side of the curtain. "Chiara? What are you talking about?"

“Your name is Chiara?” Nico said. 

“Oh-- yes!” she said. “Didn’t I say?”

Nico shook his head. “I’m Nico,” he said.

She grinned at him.  “I know, ” she said, flashing a pair of adorable dimples that somehow just reminded him of Will. 

“Lucky…” Damien whined.

"You shouldn't… what’s the damn…”  Nico scrunched up his face, hunting for the word he wanted. “Be mean to him like this," he said finally. It was close enough.

"Oh-- you mean tease him?"  she replied. "But teasing is fun! Playing hard to get is how you keep them on the hook, you know?" 

Nico shook his head. “No,” he said. “I really don’t.”

She grinned at him, tossed her hair over her shoulder dramatically, and said, "...dis gamook thinks l'm gonna be all like, ‘ti voglio ben’assai’ –? Aduzipach !”  Nico started to laugh again, that strange, hissing sound that wracked his entire body, and Chiara couldn’t help herself. “I mean, edi-conosc’ ?” She leaned hard into the phrase, ‘Do you know who I am?’, posing like her swaggering, self-important cousin from New Jersey, and Nico collapsed into his wheezy laughter again, coughing and sputtering.

Someone cleared his throat from the foot of Nico’s bed. The quiet sound was enough to cut through their laughter, and they turned to see Will, holding a small pile of clothes and staring at the two of them as if they’d lost their minds.

“Hey, Will,” Nico managed hoarsely, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Hey, yourself,” Will replied. “What is going on here? I thought you were having some sort of seizure, I swear!” At this, both Nico and Chiara collapsed into gales of laughter. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Mi dispiac’,"  said Chiara in her heavy New Jersey accent, which set Nico off again. “I was just--” Seeing Will’s frown, she cleared her throat, talking in her natural accent again. “I was just introducing Nico to my cousins.”

Nico bit his lip, trying to keep a straight face and failing miserably.

Will shook his head disapprovingly, and sighed. "All right,” he said firmly. "Nico needs to rest now, Chiara."

“Ooh, is it just me, or does he seem like he’s mad?” Chiara asked.

“I don’t think he’s having a good morning,"  Nico said.

“Hnn…” Chiara didn’t sound like she agreed. Then, without any warning, she leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. 

Nico promptly turned red to the roots of his hair. “W-what was that for? Chiara… ”

She winked at his stunned expression. “Remember what I said before? You gotta keep them on the hook, right?”  She flicked her gaze towards Will for the briefest of moments, the corners of her lips quirking slightly, and in spite of himself, Nico turned his head, curious to know what she was seeing.

She was right-- Will did look almost angry, like he wanted to tell them off but didn’t know exactly what to say. “Chiara--”

Chiara saved him the trouble. "Si, si , I am going," she sighed, climbing to her feet.

"It was nice to meet you, Chiara,” said Nico. “Thank you for coming by."

Chiara pushed her sunglasses up her nose. “Fuhgeddaboudit ."

Chapter Text

While Nico tried valiantly not to laugh, Chiara slid gracefully past Will, through the partition curtain, and disappeared. And Will still stood at the foot of the bed, holding Nico’s pajamas, trying his damndest to sort through the muddy slew of feelings that flooded through him. 

He never wanted his patients to know when things affected him; it wasn’t something they needed to worry about when they should be focused on healing . But he was tired, and he could feel his usually impeccable self-control slipping. And he really hadn’t liked seeing Chiara kiss Nico. It didn’t matter that it was only on the cheek. He didn’t like it.

And they had definitely noticed. Chiara had even seemed amused. And Nico, well… now Nico was having trouble meeting his gaze, his eyes glued to the striped pattern on the bed sheets.

An era of awkward silence spread out between them.

Will cleared his throat. "I see you've met Chiara Benvenuti," he said.

"Benvenuti?" Nico snorted, tracing the lines with an idle finger. "Who's her godly parent, Tyche?"

“... yes, actually,” Will said.

Nico looked up at him. Then he started to laugh-- a dry, half-hearted chuckle that was a far cry from how he’d laughed with Chiara. Will felt a pang deep in his chest; he wished he could make Nico laugh like that. “How appropriate,” Nico said, glancing at the partition curtain to his right. “Though I wonder what Nemesis would have to say about that…”

Will looked at him oddly. “What do you mean?” Was something going on between Damien and Chiara? Surely the camp gossip chain would have alerted him to that by now...

“Nothing,” Nico said, waving a hand. “She's very nice."

"Mm," said Will, pressing his lips together in a thin line. 

He was trying very hard to keep his expression neutral, but the way Nico studied his face made him nervous. “You look tired," he said.

Will raised an eyebrow. "Dear pot,'' he retorted, coming around the side of the bed. 

Nico raised an eyebrow right back at him. Unlike his laugh, it was an expression he seemed born to use. “What?”

“It’s an expression… ‘The Pot calling the Kettle Black?’” Will said. “It means--”

“I know what it means,” Nico said, sounding annoyed.  “That’s not what you said. You said, ‘Dear Pot.’”

“It’s my way of saying, you have no room to talk about me looking tired...” His gaze sharpened. “Your fever’s worse,” he said. He put his hand against Nico’s forehead before Nico could stop him. “Did Austin give you aspirin, like I asked?”

“Yes,” Nico said, pushing at Will’s hands. “He did, and I feel a little better, honestly—“

“You should really be resting right now,” Will said. “Why are you still awake? Chiara shouldn’t have—“

“I was waiting for you to come back,” Nico grumped. “And Chiara was only here for a couple of minutes. She wasn’t—“

“Maybe I should try—“ Will started to reach for Nico’s head again.

“No— Will—“ Nico grabbed Will’s hands, pulling them away before they could touch his skin. “Stop, stop, stop!”

They stared at each other. Will’s intensity was enough to scorch the earth. “Is there some reason you don’t want me to help you?” he said.

Nico was frozen.  Will wondered if he even realized he was still holding his hands. “I’m sorry— I mean, Austin said—”

Will's face hardened. "What did Austin say, exactly?" he asked.

"He just said that you needed to take it easy,” Nico said. “He said that you would probably try to heal me, but that you shouldn’t do it, because you’d overextend yourself.” 

Will growled. “Dammit, Austin--”

“...and that if I didn’t see much of you today, it was his fault.” 

Will tugged his hands out of Nico’s grip and stepped back, dragging his fingers through his hair. "It is his fault," he said tersely. “And I'm mad at him for saying so.” He sighed. “He's right, though, and I'm mad at him for that, too.''

Nico nodded seriously. "I understand," he said.

Will looked at him askance. “Well, could you explain it to me, then?” he asked. “Because I really don’t understand it.”

“No, it totally makes sense,” Nico said. “He’s telling you what to do. Even if it’s what’s best for you, and even if you acknowledge that he’s right, it’s still super annoying.” He rolled his eyes. “Trust me. I have lots of experience with this sort  of thing.”

Will’s lips twitched in spite of himself. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,”  he said. Glancing down, he realized he’d dropped Nico’s pajamas on the bed. "Oh look! Convenient pajamas.” He picked them up and tossed them at Nico. Gently, of course. “Are you all right to get changed?"

"Yes," Nico said grouchily, pulling his shorts off of his head. “I'm just fine.''

Will hesitated, then sighed. "All right, then," he said, turning to go. 

He didn’t get far before Nico called out, “Wait--!” A little surprised, he paused, looking back over his shoulder. 

Nico sat back on his heels, looking surprised himself. “Uh,” he said, trying to think of something to say. “Um. Thanks.” He lifted the pajamas, which were crumpled in his fist against the bed. “For these.”

Will sniffed. "Well, You should have brought them with you to begin with," he said.

"Oh-- get out of here," Nico growled at him, instantly annoyed. 

“And I have to ask, what is up with the beds in your cabin?” Will drawled. “If you picked those out, I have some serious questions--”

“Go!” Nico reached behind him, picked up his pillow and threw it at Will.

Will, a four year veteran of camp life, caught the pillow easily. “Temper, temper,” he tsked at Nico, tossing it onto the foot of the bed. “You really do need a nap, don’t you? I’ll leave you to it, then.”

Nico scowled at him with all the ferocity he could muster-- which admittedly wasn’t much. But in some perverse way, it made Will feel better. Maybe Chiara could make him laugh-- but no one could piss off Nico quite like Will could.

Once outside the curtain, though, he scrubbed his hands over his face. Being clinic-bound, especially on a day like today when things were winding down, was just about the most boring thing imaginable. And wondering what was happening on the other side of the partition was going to make a long afternoon even longer.  Taking a deep breath, he released it in a rush, stalking towards the open first bay and his kit, which was already open on the counter.

Almost immediately two of his siblings appeared, hovering just over his shoulder. He tried to pretend he didn’t see them, busying himself with restocking the canisters on the counter, but after a moment their presence scraped on his already raw nerves. “What," he growled at them.

“... are you okay?'' Ryan Wright asked him in a tiny voice.

"Oh yeah!" Will said, slamming the lid of the jar of tongue depressors down on the counter. “I'm just swell, thanks for asking." Turning, he found them standing there staring, and said, "Do you have something important you needed to discuss? If you don't, please go now."

Ryan fidgeted. “We were just wondering where we fit into the rotation..?”

Blessedly, Austin came in just then. “I just put the schedule on the white board," he said, "Sorry it took a little longer to get it posted today."

"It's all good! Thanks, Austin!"  Casting one last uncertain look in Will’s direction, his siblings scampered off towards the rec room, more than willing to pick up their assignments-- and get away from Will’s hostile gaze.

Will returned his attention to the canisters, pouring more tongue depressors into the jar and replacing the lid. Austin stood beside him, probably waiting to see if Will was going to say anything, but Will was not inclined to speak first. After a moment, Austin reached out and picked up the jar of cotton-tipped applicators, then reached up into the cabinet for the box in order to refill them.

“ ... I'm not going to apologize," Austin said. 

"I didn't ask you to," Will snapped at him. He reached for the jar of sterilized instruments, peered through the side to check the fluid level, then ripped the top off, deciding that it looked a little low and also needed refilling.

“If you would have just slept in today, maybe this wouldn’t be necessary,” Austin said. 

“You guys lost Nico this morning,” Will reminded him. “And who found him?”

“We would have found him eventually,” Austin said evenly. “And he’s pretty much tucked in for the day now. There’s not a lot you can do anyway-- you could go back to the cabin and get some rest right now.”

Will shook his head. He didn’t know how to explain that he needed to be here-- needed to be able to check on Nico-- without inviting a scrutiny of his motives from his nosy siblings. He couldn’t say why, but he had a feeling that Nico’s surprisingly understated stress reaction wasn’t the end of the situation. Something much more desperate was coming, and he needed to be on hand when it happened.

“Look, I understand why you’re mad at me--”

“I'm not mad! I just…” Agitated, he raked his fingers through his hair, and attempted to change the subject.  "Austin...? Describe Chiara to me."

"Chiara?" Austin blinked, then shrugged. “I dunno... she's-"

“Freaking gorgeous?" Kayla offered from the doorway.  Will hadn’t seen her since he returned from Nico’s cabin, but it didn’t seem like her mood had improved. “Oh, come on,” she said when they turned to stare at her. “Eighty percent of the campers here would tap that, and the other twenty percent are children of either Hypnos or Hades.”

“Asleep, or dead?” Austin said, amused.

“No, asleep or gay,”  Kayla retorted. 

Both of her brothers blinked at her. "Excuse me?" said Austin.

"Come on," said Kayla. “Your gaydar hasn’t been pinging away at you? I mean, I was thinking Nico was Ace, or maybe Aro, since he’s so stand-offish, but I heard he told Percy he used to have a crush on him... maybe he's just touch-starved, I dunno..."

Austin clutched at Will’s sleeve. “...Did Kayla just become possessed by the spirit of Cabin Ten?” he asked.

Kayla shot him a dirty look. "Just because you are oblivious about these things doesn't mean the rest of us are," she said hotly. "And Will's got a vested interest in this topic. Don’t you, Will?”

“It does explain why he said that Chiara is ‘nice,’” Will said weakly, leaning over the counter again.

She smirked at him. “I'm telling you right now, though… if you're looking for a cure for celibacy, that kid is not it."

Will looked up from his work, turning red to the roots of his hair. “The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind!" he sputtered. 

"It's been over a year," Kayla told him. "But who's counting?"

"You are, obviously," said Austin, folding his arms. “What kind of score sheet have you got on us?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Kayla countered. “It’s not like you have any points on it.”

Austin shrugged. “Tease me all you want. I am way too focused on my music right now to even have time to consider a relationship.”

“Look,” Will cut in, annoyed. “If all I wanted was a fling... I'm pretty sure I could find one. I'm not interested in something casual."

"But... I guess I just don't understand," Kayla said. “... why? Why that guy?"

Will shrugged. “The heart wants what it wants," he said. 

"Okay, but… really? "

"I've got reasons," Will said, losing his grip on his already fraying temper. "Plenty of them. The biggest being, he has saved the lives of everyone in this camp-- twice. He's saved your life twice, Kayla.  And yet, many of the campers have no idea who he is -and those of us who do , don't know him any better."

"And he thinks we want him out of here," Austin said quietly. Both Will and Kayla looked at him. “He asked me if I’d convinced Will to send him packing yet. I’m sure he was thinking about what you said this morning, Kay.”

“...I didn’t really mean it,” Kayla said sullenly.

"I know," Austin said, "And I told him that. But he still thinks it's just a matter of time before we send him away."

"And how is that fair?" Will demanded.  ”Before even remotely addressing the idea that I'm interested in anything else, I want him to heal, and I want him to feel welcome here. That's it."

"All right, fine!" Kayla said. "I'm not even arguing about that.” She glowered at him. “Question dodger."

"It's not a dodge,,” Will said calmly. “I”m tabling this discussion until we’re not all exhausted and irritated with each other. The first order of business is to get Nico feeling better. And since I am not allowed near him today--” he held out a compress to her. “--you get to take this in to him."

Kayla's mouth fell open. She looked at Austin, who shrugged again. “I did tell him that," he said. "Will’s clinic bound, except for emergencies.”

She scowled, then snatched the compress from Will, grumbling unkind things about both of her brothers in Ancient Greek.

Will held onto the compress, not ready to release it yet.  "I think the best thing to do, when dealing with Nico, is to treat him like he's a moody, temperamental son of Ares."

"All children of Ares are moody and temperamental," she snapped, refusing to look at him.

"No, they're all surly," Will said. "Pretty consistently surly. This is different. I haven't totally figured it out yet, so in the meantime--"

"Keep a neutral expression, let the insults roll off, and try not to trip the land mines," Kayla rolled her eyes, reciting the Apollo cabin action plan for dealing with children of Ares. "Got it." Giving one more firm yank, she pulled the compress away from Will and stomped towards the door.

"On the plus side, he's way more polite than the Ares kids," Will called after her.

 "That remains to be seen!" Kayla retorted, disappearing around the corner.

Once she was away from her brothers, she paused, taking a deep breath, and then another. Bedside manner had never been her strong suit; she was an archer, first and foremost.  But learning field medicine was important, and after a battle like the one they'd just had, all hands were needed. Austin was right-- Will could, and would, work himself into a state of exhaustion, trying to heal everyone. If nothing else, she owed it to him to help out. Even if that help included caring for a moody, temperamental son of Hades. 

That didn’t mean this was going to be easy. She was tired, too, which made it harder to keep her temper. But if she stalled for too much longer, the compress in her hands was going to melt and start dripping all over. With a little sigh, she lifted the curtain that surrounded Nico’s bed.

The demigod in question was curled up in a tiny ball, huddled against his pillow with the blankets wrapped tightly around himself. He didn’t look settled at all, and her heart went out to him. She could hear Austin’s words echoing through the back of her head: He thinks we want him out of here. 

It’s partly my fault he thinks so, she reminded herself. Better set things straight.

She walked over to Nico’s bedside, wondering if he was asleep. But no, he was still awake, staring at the white partition curtain. "Hey," she said softly, crouching next to the bed. "How are you feeling?" Nico huffed and closed his eyes. It was textbook Ares tough-guy behavior, and Kayla fought a smile. “I, uh… I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier,” she said.

He opened his eyes again, studying her expression suspiciously. “Why?”

She sighed. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” she said. “I was upset because you wandered off when I was in charge, but that’s my problem, not yours. And the first thing I did when we found you was make it seem like I wanted you to leave, when really I was relieved you were still here…” she shrugged. “My internal filter is a little busted.”

The corner of Nico’s mouth tugged in a weak smile. “At least you have one,” he said. Then he sighed, and closed his eyes. “I just need to be able to stay until I’m strong enough to defend myself,” he said. “Then I’ll be out of your hair.”

“Are you kidding?” Kayla snapped, and Nico opened his eyes again, a little surprised. “You are going to take one idle comment, spoken in anger and apologized for , and use it to justify leaving again?” She jabbed him in the shoulder. “No way, mister. You think we all get along perfectly all the time? We all have days when we drive each other crazy. But then, we work it out, we apologize, and we move forward.” She shook her head. “You have the right to be here. You’re one of us, after all. So be one of us. No leaving without saying goodbye, you hear me?”

Nico stared at her, more shocked than angry, and she wondered if she’d gone too far. But then he said,  “But… what if I just… make people uncomfortable?”

Kayla stared at him. “So?” she said. “ Make them uncomfortable. It’s good to challenge people. Get them out of their comfort zone.” 

Nico blinked slowly. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said with a little grin. “You might be surprised-- some people are into that sort of thing.” It made her think of Will. And speaking of her brother… and the action plan that she’d so cheerfully abandoned… "Will mentioned you had a slight fever," she said, lifting the compress in her hand. "He thought a compress or an ice pack might help with that. Would you like to try it?"

He looked at her guardedly, as if expecting some sort of trick, but she just smiled at him. "What would I do with it?" He asked.

“Put it on your forehead," she said. "Or the back of your neck, that'd work, too. If it's anywhere on your pulse points, it'll bring your temperature down."

He considered that for a moment, then nodded. "All right." But when she moved to stand up, he flinched. "Please-- let me do it." He untangled a hand from beneath the blankets. 

"O-okay," said Kayla, handing the compress over to him and stepping back again. "I can just--"

"No, it's okay," Nico said quickly. "I just... I don't like to be touched."

"...okay then," Kayla said. Looking behind her, she pulled over the chair at his bedside and sat down, watching as he turned onto his back and covered his eyes with the compress. She noticed he made sure that the cool fabric reached his temples. "That looks right," she said. "How does it feel?"

"...Cold," said Nico. "In a good way." With a deep sigh, he relaxed back into the pillows. "Thanks, Kayla."

More polite than an Ares kid, Kayla thought. Will was right about that, too. Watching him for a moment, she said, "I think, for demigods, recovering from power exhaustion is the hardest thing. It doesn't hurt like a broken bone, you can't fix it with a square of ambrosia, and it feels like maybe nothing is wrong at all. You can almost function like normal. Maybe no one would even notice that anything is wrong."  He didn't move. For all she knew, he might be asleep. But it felt as though he was listening, so she went on. "Problem is, you aren't all right. It feels like, in the place where all your energy goes, there's this empty, black hole, and you're nothing but a hollow shell, so much less than normal." She quirked a grin. "It always makes me feel super cranky."

Haltingly, Nico said, "I'm... not used to people seeing me when I'm so spent. Usually, I just find a place to lie low for a few days."

Kayla snorted. "The way you say that, it sounds like maybe you camped out in a cave, or hid in some bushes." When he said nothing, she raised her eyebrows. "I was kidding."

"You're not far off," he said. "I've stayed in some strange places. Not that I have many options... Usually when I shadow travel I... Well."

"It takes a lot out of you," said Kayla. "Did you really bring the Athena Parthenos all the way back from Greece by shadow travel?" 

"Not all the way," said Nico. "I got us as far as South Carolina, and I couldn't have done it without Reyna's help."

“Really,” said Kayla, intrigued. “Does she shadow travel too?”

Nico hesitated. “...no,” he said.

“Oh,” said Kayla. “...then how did she help?”

Nico seemed to be struggling. It was like he knew there was something he wasn’t supposed to say, but he couldn’t find an easy way to deflect the subject. “...by helping.”

“Well, I figured that,” Kayla said. “What did she do?”

Nico yawned. “Helpful stuff.” 

Kayla stared at him. “That’s all I’m getting out of you on this subject, isn’t it,” she said.

“Mmhmm.” 

She watched him for a long moment. Then, she murmured the question that was on everyone’s mind. “You are completely exhausted. You are falling asleep talking to me. So why are you still awake, Nico? Why are you fighting so hard?”

His mouth turned down in that scowl they were so familiar with. At first, she thought he would refuse to answer, but when he finally started to speak, she realized he was searching for the words to explain. “I told you… I don’t like people to see my weaknesses. I don’t like thinking about anyone being around me when I’m asleep. I hear them coming, outside the curtain, and I… I can’t relax.” 

Kayla couldn't believe it. “This isn’t a battlefield, Nico,” she said. “No one here is your enemy.”

Nico shook his head. “That’s an irrational statement,” he murmured. “Everyone is a potential enemy.”

Kayla rubbed her temple with her fingers. She wasn’t going to reason with an exhausted, feverish demigod when her own fuse was so short. “Okay… okay. Isn’t there anyone you trust here?”

Nico thought about it. “Percy,” he said slowly. “Annabeth. Jason.” He hesitated, then said honestly, “...And Will.”

She nodded encouragingly. “Okay. And you know I’m Will’s sister, right?”

“Yeah…” he said. 

“Good,” she said. “So since he can’t be here himself, I’m going to say what I know he’d say: I will watch the outside of the curtain for you. And I will make sure no one comes through to disturb you while you’re sleeping.” 

He was so still, he might have been a corpse. But then she saw his hands were shaking; they were clenched so tightly, his knuckles were white. “Really?”

“Yes, really. It shouldn’t be too hard; I’ll just make sure I’m on rotation over here, so none of my siblings barge in on you.” She folded her arms. “And trust me, even Clarisse wouldn’t want to mess with me on a day like today. I’m too cranky for mortals.” She studied him, gauging his reaction. “Would that help you sleep? Knowing I’m on the lookout?”

For a moment, he still didn’t move. But then, to her relief, he nodded. “I think it would,” he said. “Yeah.”

He sounded like he was falling asleep. She wasn’t sure if she could believe him, but then she saw his hands had relaxed out of their fists, and with every breath he took, he seemed to relax more and more into the mattress. “Good,” she said softly. “Then get some rest, Nico. I’ll watch the curtain.”

“Mm,” he murmured. “Thanks.”

Resisting the urge to pump a fist in the air-- not that he’d see it, with the compress over his eyes-- Kayla started to rise from her chair and head towards the split in the curtain. Her hand was on the partition when a question occurred to her. "Nico?" She called him softly. 

“Nnn?” he replied.

"Why did you decide to stay this time?"

"Will," said Nico.

Her mouth dropped open. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Something he said," Nico continued sleepily. "And what Jason said, too. Be brave. Stop running. People will accept you. Pull your head out of that brooding cloud... Stubborn jerk." He hesitated, then said, “...sometimes I forget to be one of us. Sometimes I need reminders.”

In spite of herself, she smiled. “You’re in the right place, Nico,” she whispered. “We’ll make sure you remember.”

She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw the ghost of a smile flicker over his lips. “‘kay.”

Kayla twitched the curtains closed around Nico's bed, then glanced towards the infirmary. She half expected to see Will standing there, hovering, waiting for a report, but he was nowhere in sight. Maybe he had his ear up against the partition, but she doubted it.

At least now she understood, at least a little, what Will saw in Nico. He was a little broodier than most, but more insecure and vulnerable than she would have expected from such a powerful demigod. And utterly surprised by even the smallest gestures of kindness.  But then, he had spent four years as an outsider, an outcast. She probably shouldn’t be surprised that he was so guarded. It did make her wonder what he would be like, if he was supported. If he was cared for, and loved. 

Her brother had good instincts about people, and she was sure that talent didn’t just help him as a healer. She had always trusted his instincts, and they had never failed.  He could see a potential in Nico that few others had recognized or acknowledged, and now, just a little, she was starting to see it, too. And even though it would make no difference to Will, one way or another, she could even say that she approved.

Chapter Text

Okay… here it is. I guess I’m asleep, now.  He’d put up a good fight, but deep down, he knew it was going to happen eventually. And now he had to face a whole lot of uncertainties.

Nico looked around himself. He was on the porch steps of the Big House, just outside of the rec room doors. He didn’t have any scary memories attached to this place, so… surely he’d be all right, if he just stayed here. 

Right?

I’m just going to sit here. I don’t need to run.

To be fair, he was too exhausted to run, even if he wanted to. And he really, really did want to. For so long, it had been the only option he had, and he didn’t know what would happen if he actually faced some of the memories he feared most. So, bravely-- or foolishly-- he decided to stay right where he was. Sit, wait, and see what would happen.

They offered to accept me, to protect me… let’s see if they are as good as their word.

He knew that it was a bad test of loyalty, as far as that went. His own subconscious knew that the campers here weren’t going to truly accept him. Deep down, he simply couldn’t believe it.

But the porch stairs weren’t Tartarus, and were nowhere near it. So if he sat here, he’d be safe. 

Right?

~*~*~

Will sat back from healing Katie Gardner, feeling hollow. There were too many wounded, and he was already stretched too thin. And Michael was lost, and Silena was dead, the elevators were breached, and… this park on Mount Olympus sheltered them all-- for now-- from the battle below. But eventually it would reach them, and at that point, what good would all of his work have been?

Out of the corner of his eye, Thalia marched past the park, past all of them, into the palace where Percy, Annabeth and Grover had gone. Moments later, they rushed back out, racing across the skybridge, headed for the elevator. And Will’s blood ran cold. There was only one reason why they would run like that.

Kronos was here. It was the end.

Without thinking, he stood and started to follow them, but he stopped at the edge of the park. Even if he ran-- and he was a good runner-- he wouldn’t catch them in time. And then he’d have to wait for the elevator to go down 600 floors and return, and by then it would probably be too late... 

“Will!” Malcolm Pace called to him. The Son of Athena had taken a nasty wound to his leg, and wasn’t able to fight anymore. But he’d brought Annabeth’s shield up to Olympus with him, so that he could still see the fighting in the city below. 

Will raced to his side, kneeling beside the shield.  “Percy just went--”

“I saw,” Malcolm said grimly. “It doesn’t look good.”

“...I don’t think it’s ever looked good,” Will said. “But then, I’ve pretty much only been looking at the wounded and dying since we started this battle.” He nodded at the shield. “What’s going on down there?”

Malcolm hesitated. “Once you see it,” he warned, “you might be sorry you asked.”

“We have to know what’s coming,” Will said. “Show me.”

Malcolm sighed, and touched the edge of the shield. Swiftly, images came into focus on the brass surface.

“How are you getting such good reception on that thing?” Will marveled.

“No clue,” Malcolm said. “But I’m not complaining… there.”

Will winced as Malcolm scanned over the street below. “Gods of Olympus.” 

“They’ve surrounded the building,” Marcus said grimly.

“So many wounded…” Will said faintly. His heart quailed at the sight; he wanted to rush immediately to the ground below and start healing but knew that he was already overextended, and he did not have the power to heal so many. 

Lee and Sara always warned him that he was in danger of giving everything he had in the name of healing another. But he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t sit idly by while others suffered and died.  And this… 

This could easily be the fight that destroyed him.

Malcolm cursed. “They got Clarisse.”

Will tried to focus on the image of Clarisse, frozen in a block of ice, but his battle reflexes were in hyperdrive. If Clarisse was incapaciatated, there were very few lines of defense left between the Titan’s army and where they stood. “We have to move,” he said urgently. “Get everyone out of the park. Where is Kronos? Is he already at the elevator?” 

Malcolm tapped the edge of the shield again. “No-- there he is,“ he said. “Still outside. He’s facing--” Malcolm caught his breath. “That’s Chiron.”

“Chiron…” Will stared at the valiant, unwavering form of their mentor as he stared into the face of Kronos. “He’s almost out of arrows,” he said faintly.

Malcolm zoomed out, scanning the crowd. “I don’t see Percy and them yet,” he said. “There’s no one left to help him.” 

“Then there’s no one left to help any of us,” Will said, his voice hollow.

The Son of Athena looked at him, stunned. “Will!” he said.

Will spread his hands. “Am I wrong?” he asked. “How will we protect all of the wounded in the park? If Kronos comes up here, he could obliterate us all in a matter of seconds--”

“No!” Malcolm shouted as Kronos sent Chiron crashing into the building, burying him in a pile of rubble.

A curious sort of numbness crawled up the back of Will’s neck, seizing his temples in its grip. There was nothing they could do to stop the army, or quell the insatiable madness of Kronos. Nothing to prevent the inevitable march of destruction.

“ Di immortales ,” Malcolm muttered, on his knees in front of the shield with no thought to the pain in his leg. “You can’t attack a Titan! Annabeth, what are you thinking??” 

This was how it ended… he hadn’t even had a chance to call his mother and tell her goodbye-- she had no idea she’d never see him again...

“Wait a minute,” Malcolm said suddenly, peering into the shield. “Who’s-- is that Mrs. O’Leary?” 

“What?” Will said, pulled forcibly out of his thoughts by Malcolm’s words.

Malcolm pointed. “Someone just showed up with… look at that. The whole army is moving to get out of his way.” He put his fingers on the surface and pushed in towards the figure, trying to see his face, then growled in frustration as he realized the tiny figure was wearing a helmet. “Who is that?”

“I know who it is,” Will breathed. “That’s Nico.”

“Nico?” Malcolm wrinkled his nose, trying to remember. “Oh-- that weird kid who came to camp two years ago? What is he wearing on his head??”

Will wasn’t listening. He was staring at the army, who parted before Nico as if he were fearsome. He watched as Nico raised a hand, and an entire army of skeletons crawled out of the earth… and he felt his spirits rising. The fight wasn’t over. All was not lost. 

Malcolm gasped. “He brought gods with him!”

“Of course he did,” Will murmured, remembering something he’d seen in the dining pavilion over a year ago. “Nico Di Angelo talks, and the gods listen.”

“What are you even talking about?” Malcolm said, raising an eyebrow at him. “Will? ...Will Solace, are you even listening?”

~*~*~

“Will!”

Will started awake, blinking up at the son of Nemesis hovering over him. “Damien!” he said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “Sorry, I must have spaced out there for a minute.”

“Dozed off is more like it,” Damien said. “You okay, there?”

Wasn’t that a loaded question. “It’s been slow today, here in the clinic,” Will said easily. “Kind of boring, after all the action we’ve had the past few weeks.”

“Riiiiight,” Damien said. “Well, sorry to interrupt your nap. Austin said if I was well enough to sit on the porch, I was well enough to bring myself over to you, so you could look at my glorious battle wound.”

“Sure,” Will said, groaning a bit as he pushed himself out of his chair. “You need help getting on the table?”

“Nah, I think I got it,” he said. And truly, he did; he put his hands on the table, hopped onto the step with his good leg, and turned around, seating himself on the end of the exam table. 

“Good work,” Will said. He pulled up a stool and sat down, preparing to unwind the gauze around Damien’s leg. “Why were you out on the porch?”

He listened as the Son of Nemesis started rambling on and on about the unfairness of certain demigods horning in on his game, and stealing his girl right out from under his nose-- ah, that must have been what Nico meant when he’d mentioned Nemesis before. And he went on to complain about how Kayla had read him the riot act for talking in his own bed because Nico needed to rest.

Will listened, but he didn’t really hear what Damien was saying. In his mind, he was remembering the end of the dream, the moments that came after he’d been jarred out of his reverie.

“Come on, Malcolm,” he said, rising. “We’ve got to get as many people as we can under protective cover. Kronos’s whole army may not be with him, but one Titan can still cause a lot of damage!”

“That’s better,” Malcolm said, letting Will pull him upright. “I don’t know where you get it from, but we need that optimism of yours, Will-- now more than ever.” 

He knew where his optimism came from. It stemmed from the chance they were given when the Son of Hades had appeared, turning the tide of a war-- and restored a hope to him that he had thought was lost forever.

~*~*~*~

There were voices coming from inside the rec room. People were talking, laughing… it was a celebration, like the one they’d been having at the camp since the battle ended. The relief that catastrophe had been avoided, and that they had survived. The feeling that, despite the casualties and losses they had all suffered, that would take time to heal, they might all begin to move forward.

He wanted to go inside and join them, but an ominous feeling crept over him when he started to rise from the porch steps. Going inside would put everyone at risk. He wasn’t meant to be here; from the beginning, Hades had only rarely been allowed up onto Mount Olympus. And even with the changes that had been happening here… he was still an outcast. And for good reason.

A black SUV pulled up in front of the Big House.  As if on cue, the doors flew open, and Romans started pouring out of the door. They filled the yard, standing in formation, looking as strong and impressive as they always did. And their Praetor, Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, swept through the door, her purple cloak billowing behind her as she crossed the porch and strode down the stairs.

“Reyna,” Nico called.

She glanced back over her shoulder, a cold, almost baleful look in her eyes. Then she continued to the SUV. One of the centurions opened the passenger door for her, and she climbed inside, her gaze always trained straight ahead as the door closed behind her.

He was so busy staring at her profile that he almost missed the head of cinnamon curls that walked past him next. “Hazel!” he cried, springing to his feet.

Hazel turned to face him, folding her arms scornfully. “What, now you want to talk?” she demanded. “It’s way too late for that, bro . Maybe next time you won’t keep secrets from your sister!” She turned on her heel and flounced away.

It’s just a dream, Nico reminded himself, clenching his fists as he watched his sister head towards the SUV. It’s just your subconscious. It’s not real.

For something so obviously imaginary, it certainly hurt a lot.

~*~*~*~

“It’s looking so much better, Nyssa,” Will said, moving his fingers gently around the goose egg on her forehead. “Really it is. And your symptoms haven’t returned?”

“Nope,” she said. “I’ve had a bit of a headache, but no disorientation, no dizziness… I even went into the forges for a little bit--”

“Nyssa,” Will said, frowning.

“--I wasn’t working, don’t worry,” Nyssa said quickly. “I just wanted to see what everyone was up to. And I didn’t stay very long, because I got nervous, but it didn’t trigger my symptoms at all.”

“Well, that’s good, then,” Will said. His fingertips lingered on her forehead, but his mind was obviously somewhere else. “Hey, Nyssa…?” he asked.

“...yes, Will?” she answered when he didn’t continue.

“Have you ever made something for a camper who-- who might have been afraid of the dark, but didn’t really want to say anything about it?” He spoke slowly, like he was still figuring out what he was asking. “Like… a nightlight, I guess, but for someone who isn’t five years old.”

She snorted. “You think there’s a camper around here who needs a nightlight in a crowded cabin?” she said. “...Or maybe it’s for one of our new friends, who might not have any other campers living with him…?”

Will frowned at her. “It’s a hypothetical situation,” he said. “You never know what kind of fears people have.”

“That’s true,” she said. “Um… I feel like there ought to be something that would work, down in the Forge. And if we don’t have anything on hand, I’m sure someone’s got a schematic I can adapt. Might take a day or two if that happens, but if we have something available I’ll send it your way.”

“That would be amazing.” Will smiled. “Thanks, Nyssa.” 

~*~*~*~

The door to the back seat of the SUV was still open. Obviously, someone was going to join Hazel in the car; Nico was fairly sure it would be Frank. But while he was bracing himself for the contemptuous expression that was bound to be on the affable demigod’s face, a petite, dark-haired older lady came down the stairs and walked past him. He only saw the back of her, but he knew her hands, the line of her shoulders, her proud, straightforward carriage. The shock of recognition wrenched its way through his chest. “Mama?” he whispered.

A younger girl, equally dark-haired, bounded down the stairs and seized his mother’s hand. And his eyes filled with tears as his mother wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. “Bianca--!” 

Bianca looked back at him, almost through him. “I told you,” she said. “You can’t go looking for our mother. It isn’t allowed.”

“But-- but that was because of the curse,” Nico cried as they turned away from him. “It’s been lifted now! It should be all right!” He watched helplessly as they headed towards the SUV. “Please!!” he screamed.

Bianca glanced back sadly at him through the window as the door closed. And the demigod holding the door handle turned and met his gaze; it was Will Solace.

He stood on the ground in front of the stairs, fighting a swelling sense of betrayal. It’s just a dream! He reminded himself, roughly scrubbing his tears away.  As he did so, Will came up the path and paused just beside him, shoving his hands into his pockets. “What made you think you were special?” he whispered scathingly to Nico. Then he walked past him to the porch steps and up into the rec room, disappearing into the darkness.

Nico stared after him, breathless and aching, when he heard the SUV’s door open again. Whirling, he half-hoped that one of the people he loved would have changed her mind, found a space for him in the car… but it was the driver’s side door that was open now. And the driver was coming around the car to climb inside...

Leo caught his gaze, smiled, and gave him a little salute before climbing into the driver’s seat and closing the door.  And suddenly, instead of devastation, Nico was swamped with an odd sense of foreboding. “Wait,” he whispered as the sound of the car’s ignition filled the air. “No, wait! Stop!!” 

And a fireball hurtled through the sky, screaming like Octavian, striking the SUV and blowing it up in an explosion like a supernova.

He ran past the steadfast Romans to the SUV, even though it was burning like a bonfire, the heat scalding his body as he tried to get close. He dug his fingers into his hair, sobbing, raging at the gods, demanding that they take him as well. Waves of heat shimmered off the SUV as it continued to burn, and all that answered him was the silence of the wide blue sky.

~*~*~*~

“There she is,” Will announced as Annabeth came through the door. “I told you she wouldn’t forget.”

“Sorry, Will,” she said, with a rueful grin and a one-shoulder shrug. “You know I’m terrible at these things.”

“No excuses,” Will said, wagging a finger at her. “This’ll take half an hour, tops.”

“And if I came here two days ago, I might have been here for hours,” Annabeth countered. “I know how this place gets.”

“Touche!” laughed Will. “Okay. I’m going to have Nina do the preliminary screening, and I’ll be in shortly to get a good look at that ankle.”

“It’s totally healed!” Annabeth protested.

“There are still things you can do for it,” he said. “Strengthening exercises, for instance. Compression. It all depends on the--”

“All right! Whatever you say, Doc,” said Annabeth, her eyes sparkling in her otherwise serious face. “See you in a bit, then!”

~*~*~*~

The ground under the SUV suddenly gave way. The Romans wavered this way and that as a wide chasm opened in the earth, and the car began a long fall into the pit below. Nico was forcibly reminded of the parking lot in Rome… Percy’s pale face calling to him from the edge…

Only this time, instead of everything being drawn inexorably into the deepest depths of the Underworld, a terrifyingly familiar voice echoed out of the abyss. “I will take them, little demigod,” he said. “And as you request, I will take you as well!” The faceless void of Tartarus, and his horrible pulsating form, started to flood out of the chasm, looming over him and blocking out the sky. “But first, I will let you watch as I destroy Camp Half-blood!”

He couldn’t scream, filled with the same paralyzing, mind-numbing horror he felt the first time he laid eyes on the primordial God. And he was powerless to stop him as he surged over the ground and up the porch stairs, tearing through the infirmary and the rest of the Big House. 

He had to stop this. He had to do something … 

But all he could do was scream. 

“Anyone! Please! HELP ME!!”

~*~*~*~

Annabeth giggled in spite of herself. “Be careful, Will!” she said, trying to sound stern. “That tickles!”

“Sorry,” Will said, gingerly rotating her foot with his hands. “You really did a number on--” The side door of the infirmary burst open, and Clovis charged in, interrupting his thoughts. “Clovis?” he said, surprised. 

The son of Hypnos was, strangely, wide awake. "You need to wake him up," he said hoarsely. "NOW."

"Wake who up?" Annabeth asked.

"Nico," said Clovis. 

“Nico…?” Will glanced at the curtain to his left, then called over his shoulder to his siblings. “When was the last time someone checked on Nico?”

Ryan looked up from his clipboard and shrugged. “I haven’t,” he said. “He’s on my rotation, but Kayla told me not to worry about it, that she’d handle it.”

Will frowned. Rising, he walked over to the rec room door. “Kayla?” 

“Yeah, boss?” she called back.

“Have you been checking on Nico?”

“Yeah,” she said, appearing in the doorway. “Every half hour. He’s sound asleep, and hasn’t moved all afternoon. Still burning a low-grade fever, but it hasn’t gotten worse or anything.”

“You didn’t notice him having a nightmare, did you?” he asked.

“A nightmare?” A blank look crossed her face, especially when she noticed Clovis standing there. “No…” Immediately she started walking towards the curtain. “I’ll check on him. I promised…” and she disappeared inside.

“I’m surprised you didn’t wake him yourself, Clovis,” Annabeth said, but her eyes were on Will, and seemed to be asking a similar question.

Clovis put his hands up. “That is one demigod that has never let me into his dreams,” he said. “He has amazing control, for someone that isn’t a child of Hypnos. But he was screaming and screaming, so I tried to open a window into his dream, to see if I could wake him, and I saw…” he shook his head, his face going white. “I saw…”

“ Will?!”

All three of them froze. “Kayla?” Will called back.

“WILL!!”

Will didn’t bother going around the outside of the curtain. In one fluid motion, he pulled back the partition curtain that separated the clinic from where Nico slept. “Kayla, what’s wro--oh, holy Gods of Olympus.” 

Kayla stood next to the bed, both hands fisted in her hair as she stared, wild-eyed, down at Nico di Angelo, who was translucent. Will could see the blanket through his arm where it lay atop the coverlet. Even knowing it was useless, he reached out to shake him awake, but recoiled in shock when his hand passed through his shoulder.

Coach Hedge had described Nico’s condition as Fading. The word simply didn’t do justice to how terrifying it was to see it happening.

“W-what do we do?” Kayla asked, her voice a high-pitched squeak.

“I don’t know.” Will hovered his hands helplessly over Nico’s still form, trying to think of what to do. Even without touching him, he could sense the pain and distress in him like a poison. “I don’t know! I don’t think--” Desperately, he murmured one of the prayers to Apollo he used for healing, but without a precise target it had little effect. He cursed. “Everything I want to try, I’d need to touch him!”

“Wake him up,” Clovis said. “He’s using all of his energy to fight whatever he’s facing. If you wake him up, he should stop.” 

“But how can I wake him without--” Without touching him. He’d done it yesterday, with the power of the stupid song Lee Fletcher used to wake them all up with when he first moved in. But Nico hadn’t been deeply asleep then. This… this was going to call for something much more involved-- and a part of himself that he almost never acknowledged.

“What about Piper?” Annabeth said. “She’s done this sort of thing before, to call Jason back. I can go get her, if you--”

“No time,” Will said roughly, closing his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he made the only decision he could. “I’ll do it.” 

Annabeth stared at him. “You? But--”

“Will, are you sure?” Kayla said at the same time.

“I did it yesterday,” Will said. “...Where’s Austin?”

“Supply closet,” Kayla said. “Do you need him?”

Will shook his head. “Make sure he stays there.”

“What do you-- oh right!” Kayla said, springing into motion. “How much time do I have?”

“None,” Will said, taking a deep breath.

“Awesome,” Kayla muttered as she disappeared around the corner. “I’ll do my best!” 

Annabeth blinked at Kayla as she raced past, then shook her head, turning to Clovis. “I still think I should go get Piper,” she said tensely. “I think Aphrodite Cabin is doing Arts and Crafts. If something happens--” She stopped as a sound behind her caught her attention. They both turned back to the bed.

"If the sky--” Will’s voice cracked on the first words. Clearing his throat, he continued, his voice wavering, “--above you…” He paused, took a deep breath, and this time the air and sound connected. “...should turn dark and full of clouds..." Crouched next to the bed, he had gone so still it seemed he'd turned to stone. But he kept singing, his warm baritone voice poured from his throat, rounded and warmed by his Southern twang, shimmering in the air like liquid gold. "And that old north wind should begin to blow..."

"...oh my," said Clovis.

Will ignored them. His eyes were closed tightly, and his face was chalk white; he was as agitated as Annabeth had ever seen him. But his voice didn't waver. "Keep your head together and call my name out loud.... Soon I’ll be knocking upon your door."  It was a tether, a lure cast into dark water, meant to reel people in. There was power in that voice. Why had she never heard him sing before? 

Annabeth thought the song sounded familiar-- and as Will moved into the refrain, she was certain she recognized it. 

"You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I'll come running to see you again." His eyes were closed, so Will didn't notice when Nico opened his. The Son of Hades's pupils were so dilated, his eyes were pools of black, but he stared at Will as if he were a lifeline. "Winter, spring, summer, or fall," Will sang. "All you have to do is call and I'll be there..."

"Will," Nico said hoarsely.

Will opened his eyes. "Hey," he managed. Quickly he reached out, grabbing Nico’s arm, and nearly collapsed when his fingers closed over warm skin.  There was an audible sigh of relief, as if a crowd of people had been holding its collective breath. Startled, Annabeth looked around and realized that was exactly what happened; like a siren, Will’s voice had summoned most of his siblings and several of his patients to the infirmary.

"Are you okay?" Nico asked.

"That's my line," Will said, his voice still shaking. He cleared his throat. "Clovis said you were having a nightmare."

“I… I was,” Nico said. “But from the look on your face, I think you were facing something scarier than I was.”

“Don't change the subject,” Will snapped. “Ryan… grab the sport bottle out of the fridge beneath the counter, would you? The one with the Gatorade emblem on the side.”

Nico snorted. “What, are you taking healing tips from Coach Hedge now?”

“All things considered, yes,” Will said. “You’re lucky I haven’t analyzed his mushroom plant patches yet, or I’d be putting those all over you, too!”

“What are you talking about?” Nico asked, rubbing his eye with his thoroughly solid hand. “What are you even doing here? I thought you were handling emergency cases today.”

“Oh, I think that ‘Fading out of existence’ qualifies as an emergency!” Will exclaimed.

“Fading…” Nico echoed numbly. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes,” Will said heatedly. He looked up as Ryan returned with the water bottle, which he promptly thrust into Nico’s hands.  “Were you going to mention the nightmares at some point?”

“We’re demigods,” Nico said weakly, absently popping open the top of the water bottle.. “We all have nightmares.”

“Not like yours!” Will declared.  “I personally have never had a nightmare that almost made me disappear off the face of the earth!”

“...They’ve never done that before,” Nico admitted. “I mean, they’re bad, but I know how to handle them. It’s fine--”

“ W hat part of this is fine?”  Will demanded. “What were you dreaming about? Clovis said he could barely look at it.” 

Nico’s eyes widened, and he went as white as the partition curtains around him. His horrified gaze darted around the infirmary, at the crowd of demigods who had gathered and were all currently staring at him. “Uh--” 

“It was Tartarus, wasn’t it?” Annabeth said softly. Most of the crowd turned to look at her as she came around the bed to sit at his side. “That’s what you were fighting.”

He looked at her, and she could tell it was on his lips to deny it. But holding her gaze, he must have been able to tell that she understood. After a moment, he nodded, his eyes filling with tears. All around them, the campers in the room burst into a chorus of murmurs.

"He was staring into the heart of the pit?" Clovis whispered, his eyes wide. "No wonder my mind didn't want to process it."

“And last night?” Will pressed. “When you wound up on the porch? Was that dream about Tartarus, too?”

Nico nodded, then shook his head. “It started there, but then it went--”

“What? Somewhere worse?” Will seemed to have reached his limit. “You really are hopeless, you know that?” When Nico looked at him, clearly offended, he said, “I am going to start keeping track of how many times we say this. There are people here who can help you , but we can’t read your mind! If you’d mentioned this, and we’d talked to Clovis about this yesterday, or two days ago, I’m pretty sure this whole situation could have been avoided!”

Nico opened his mouth to protest, and Annabeth could see the exact moment he realized he had no argument for that. It was the simplest thing he could have done, but obviously it had never occurred to him to ask. “...oh.” 

To be fair, Annabeth hadn’t thought of that, either.  And from the look of surprise on Clovis’s face, it was the first time he’d thought of it.  How did Will come up with that?

“Yeah. Oh ,” Will sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “Well, conveniently, he’s right here. You get to ask him, since you were kind enough to drag him all the way out here.”

Nico lifted his head, saw Clovis hovering near the end of the bed, and groaned, dropping his head back against the pillow. “I’m sorry, Clovis,” he said. “Thank you for coming here and rescuing me.”

“That was a strong dream,” Clovis said, yawning. “Even if you hadn’t begged me, I still would have come.”

Nico nodded. “I… hate to be a bother,” he said hesitantly, “but is there any way… you could help me avoid that dream? At least until I’m strong enough to handle it myself.”

They all stared at him for a long moment. This demigod had just revealed he had dreams of unspeakable horror, dreams that could kill him… but he hated to be a bother?  “Of course I will,” said Clovis. “Just send yourself towards the Hypnos cabin when you fall asleep. We’ll help you make good dream decisions.” 

“Good,” said Nico. “Thank you.”

Clovis nodded, then yawned again. “Speaking of which,” he murmured, “think I’ll be heading back that way now…”

Will grunted, pushing himself to his feet. “I get that,” he said. “I could use a nap, myself.” He cast a dark look at Nico, then clapped a hand on Clovis’s shoulder.

“I could help you with that,” Clovis said.

Will shook his head. “Hafta finish Annabeth’s check-up first,” he said. “Coming?”

“In a minute,” said Annabeth, reluctant to leave Nico’s bedside. He had risked everything-- his sanity, his life-- to help them find the Doors of Death. He’d guided the quest to Epirus. And then he’d nearly destroyed himself transporting the Athena Parthenos back here, to help reunite the camps. They’d known how risky it was when he first suggested it, but seeing him so drained and shaky, so terribly vulnerable… it wasn’t really her fault he’d ended up this way, but she still felt responsible for his condition. Or maybe just a little guilty.

The son of Hades barely noticed her attention. He only had eyes for Will Solace, ignoring all the other demigods who had started to disperse.

“Okay, I’ll tell Kayla,” said Will. He hesitated, glancing at Nico one more time, looking for the world like he wanted to say something. Then he sighed and turned, guiding Clovis towards the door.

Nico watched them go, a congested look on his face. “He’s mad at me,” he murmured. 

Annabeth looked after them, then turned back to Nico. “He was worried about you,” she said. “And I can tell he didn’t like singing in front of me and Clovis.”

“Which was my fault,” Nico said.

Annabeth shook her head. “Don’t look at it like that,” she said. “You are who you are. You’re not used to relying on anyone but yourself. That’s not going to change overnight.”

“Then why is he mad I didn’t talk to Clovis?” Nico asked. 

“...I don’t think that’s what he actually wanted,” Annabeth said. “Let me ask-- is there anyone you would have told about the nightmares? One of us, from the Argo II? Hazel?”

Nico shook his head slowly. “No.”

Annabeth nodded. “ That’s what he wants to change most,” she said. “He wants to replace that ‘no one’ you’d tell things to with ‘someone’.” 

“...someone like Clovis?” Nico asked.

Annabeth sighed, exasperated. “Come on, Nico! You’re not usually this dense!” she said. “Didn’t you listen to the song he was singing?”

Nico nodded. “It was... beautiful,” he said. “Do you know that song?”

“I do,” she said, studying him. “And I don’t think it’s an accident he picked it… You look flushed.” She rested a hand on his forehead. “Yeah, I think you’re running a fever. I’ll go get--”

He grasped her wrist gently, keeping her from leaving. “I’ve been running one all day,” he murmured. “It’s fine. What is the song called?”

“You’ve Got a Friend,” Annabeth said.

“Ah,” said Nico. “Who is it?”

Annabeth sighed, shaking her head. “Whoever you want it to be,” she said, resting a hand on his hair. “Go back to sleep now. We’ll talk about this later.”

Nico clutched at her arm. “But what if… what if I wind up back there again?”

“You’re supposed to go to the Hypnos cabin, remember?” Annabeth said soothingly. “Come to think of it, I might do the same tonight. I’m tired of the arai chasing me through the Mansion of Night.”

“I always start with Akhlys,” Nico said hoarsely. “She said I was perfect.”

“Oh, don’t even remind me of her,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “Percy tried to kill her.”

Nico’s eyes flew open wide. “He didn’t,” he said. “She is one of the primal goddesses. He couldn’t!”

“I thought he was going to,” Annabeth whispered. “I really did. It scared me.”

Nico sighed. “That idiot,” he said, letting his eyes sink closed again. “He shouldn’t scare you. He ought to know better than that. He’s not scary, like me.”

Annabeth smiled. “You’re not scary, Nico,” she said gently. “Deep down, you’re not scary at all…”  His fingers twitched against the bed, as if he was looking for something-- or someone. When it happened again, she took his hand and held it. “Hypnos cabin, Nico,” she whispered. “And give me a sign when you get there. I won’t leave until I know you’re okay.”

Nico nodded slightly, and stopped struggling, allowing sleep to claim him. About five minutes later, he gently squeezed her hand and released it, sighing deeply. 

“Sweet dreams, Nico,“ Annabeth whispered to him, rising from his bedside. “You’ve more than earned them.”

(Click here for my 'Three Days' playlist)

Chapter Text

After seeing Clovis off, Will stood on the porch for a long moment, taking deep breath after deep breath and trying to stop shaking. He shouldn’t have snapped at Nico-- this was hardly his fault-- but he really hadn’t been confident he could save him. And what a story that would be, losing the person he’d liked for so long, just when he had the chance to get to know him better…

He was getting ahead of himself again. He had to make sure the boy was safe, stable, and reasonably healthy before he could even think about pursuing a relationship with him.

If Nico even wanted one.

I probably need to make sure I’m healthy, too, Will thought, leaning heavily on the porch railing. His legs were shaking from the effort of standing upright, and the familiar ache of energy drain was starting again, just behind his eyes. Better head inside while I still can.

The partition curtain between the clinic and Nico’s bed was still open when Will walked inside. Annabeth was still sitting at Nico’s bedside, on the side facing him, but she didn’t look up until the soft scrape of rubber on metal caught her attention. “He asleep?” he whispered, pausing with the curtain halfway closed. 

Annabeth nodded. Skirting the bed, she stepped across into the clinic before Will finished pulling the curtain closed. “Will…”

“I know, I know.” Will sighed, making his way over to the stool by the counter and dropping heavily onto it.

“Do you, though?” Annabeth said. “That was incredible . You just saved his life!”

“I’ve saved a lot of lives, Annabeth,” Will said wearily. “Every one that I possibly could.”

“You didn’t use that method, though, did you?,” Annabeth retorted. “Your voice is a serious gift, and I am sure I’ve never heard you use it! Why would you w--” she stopped herself.

“Why would I, what?” Will said, raising an eyebrow. “Waste it?” 

Annabeth blushed. “As a child of Athena, my mother gifted me with the power of weaving , Will,” she said. “Forgive me for envying the Gods-given gifts of others.”

“You could have this one, if I knew how to offload it,” Will muttered. 

Annabeth studied him. “...is it just stage fright?”

Will looked up into her exacting gray eyes. Annabeth was wrong; her powers of perception were surely another gift of her Goddess mother. “...mostly,” he hedged. “My mother used to make me get up on stage with her at her concerts. Usually harmony parts and things like that, but one time she tried to get me to sing solo…” He shuddered, remembering the weight of every stare from the audience, the pressure and the judgment. “I couldn’t do it. I ran offstage, and never went on again.”

Annabeth shook her head. “What do you do during music class, then?”

“Ditch,” Will said, quirking a grin. “When I first showed up at camp, they made me go, but I screamed so loud when I walked through the door that they didn’t try again for the entire first year I was here. And when I do have to go, either I act like I have no idea what’s happening, or I use the musical knowledge I have to make everyone else unhappy. Sometimes I sing perfect tritones against everyone else until the dissonance drives everyone crazy and they ask me to stop singing.”

“Will!” Annabeth laughed. “That’s terrible.”

“Worse than ‘wasting my talents’?” he asked.

“If it was your only talent, I think I’d be a lot more upset about it,” said Annabeth, shaking her head. “Damn you multitalented Apollo children.”

“Why are we damned?” Kayla asked, coming around the corner. Seeing the look on Will’s face, she grinned. “Oh. Right. Isn’t that just disgusting?”

“Completely,” said Annabeth.

“Hey,” Will protested weakly, but he didn’t push the issue. The other reason he didn’t like singing for people was that, once they heard him, most people would pressure him to sing again. The less he had to say about the subject, the better.

“Quick warning, bro,” Kayla said breezily. “Austin is right behind me.”

“Great,” Will groaned. It had been necessary to keep Austin away while he was singing; most of his siblings were really good about respecting his personal boundaries, but Austin, who took great pride in his own musical talents, was highly offended that Will didn’t use his. The only time he’d ever made the mistake of singing within Austin’s earshot, he’d badgered Will incessantly-- daily, and often-- for the next six months. It hadn’t just been hell for him, either; there had almost been a riot in the Apollo cabin, and they’d all decided, collectively, that Austin wasn’t allowed to hear Will sing again. Ever.

But that didn’t mean Austin would be happy about missing it. And sure enough, Austin stepped into the clinic, arms folded across his chest, seething with indignant fury. “Will Solace."

Will rubbed a hand over his face. "I know," he said, anticipating the complaint he was about to receive. "I'm sorry."

"I can't believe you sang and you didn't tell me it was happening!" Austin lamented. "Why you gotta do me like that?"

"I'm sorry," Will said again. 

“And getting Kayla to help you keep me away? That’s low, bro. Really low.”

“If there was another way, I would have done it,” Will said. “Believe me.”

"Uh huh," said Austin. “Well, you owe me, now. I’ll think of some way for you to make it up to me once you’re feeling better.” 

Will wrinkled his nose. “What are you talking about? I’m fine,” he said.

"Yeah?" Austin said. "Stand up."

Scowling, Will did as he asked.

Austin glanced at Annabeth. "He look like he's a little off-kilter to you?"

Annabeth held up a hand, gauging how much Will was leaning.  “…he’s definitely listing a bit, yeah," she said.

“Thought so." Austin turned to his sister. "What do you need from him?"

“Huh?” Kayla blinked. "Oh-- I just need to know which stretch worksheets I should pull from the PT binder, for Annabeth’s ankle." She glanced at Will. “That was what you were going to suggest, right? What do you think, Two and Three?”

Will, who was stubbornly attempting to stay on his feet-- in spite of the fact that he felt ready to keel over-- stared at her intently as he tried to process her words. “...Yeah,” he said. "Five might help too, but Two and Three should be good… you didn’t need to ask me that, Kayla. You’ve got better instincts for physical therapy than I do."

“She’s your patient,” Kayla said kindly. “And I wanted to make sure those stretches wouldn’t stress the bones too much.”

“No, it should be fine.” They’re all being way nice to me, Will thought distantly. I must look really terrible.

"Okay, then," Kayla said. "No worries. I got this."

"And you are going to go lie down," Austin commanded him. "Before you fall down."

"I'm not gonna...'' Will began. Then he pitched forward into Annabeth, who caught him by the shoulders.

"Ah yes," said Austin. "Such a good example you set for your patients." He quickly moved to take Will's weight from Annabeth. "I’m actually impressed you didn't turn into dead weight on us. Come on, let’s--"

Irritated, Will pushed his hands away. "I'm fine," he snarled. "I'll go myself." He stumbled past them and out of the clinic.

"Don't take the rec room side," Austin called after him, watching him go. “The bed on the other side of Damien is empty.''

A few seconds later, Will zombie-lurched past them, headed in the other direction. Then, to their surprise, the screen door opened, then closed again. " ... did he just leave?" Austin said, starting after him.

"Austin, it's all good.'' Kayla said, calling him back. “Leave him be.”

"Yeah," said Annabeth. “Besides, I'm pretty sure I know where he's headed."

Will stumbled across the lawn, ignoring the stares of curious campers. He was dizzy and shaking with fatigue, and he needed to focus so he didn't wind up collapsing into a bush somewhere. Not much farther , he told himself. You can do it. 

He wasn’t sure he believed himself, though. The world around him didn’t seem entirely real, even though he could feel the heat of the sun, and the tree branch he walked into hurt as it scraped against his face. Someone called his name, but he waved them away. Focus, Solace, he thought. Almost there.

He staggered up the porch steps and reached for the door to Cabin 15, but paused with his hand on the doorknob. On a normal day, this cabin could put completely alert demigods to sleep. With his current level of exhaustion he'd probably collapse two steps inside the door. But he needed-- he really wanted--

The door opened, and Clovis's sister Maude blinked up at him. "You're right, Clovis," she yawned. "The son of Apollo is at the door."

"Well don't keep him standing there," Clovis said, rising from his chair. “He's not going to last much longer."

He wasn’t wrong; Will was fighting to keep his eyes open. "Please, Clovis," he said. "I need--"

"I know." Clovis gripped Will's shoulder with a gentle but surprisingly strong hand. "Maude, grab his other arm... there we go," Together, they started to lead him towards the first of the empty bunks on the far wall.

"But I don't--" Will protested.

"You do," Clovis said firmly. "How do you think I knew You were at the door? First you must sleep. Then we can talk.'' 

“Wait-- what?” Will said, befuddled. “I just wanted to know--”

“Yes, yes,” Clovis yawned. “I can show you, but you need to stop fighting so hard. Lie back, close your eyes, and just leave everything to me.”

Will didn't have the strength-- or the energy-- to argue. Obediently, he put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. The room was cozy and warm, and it was on Will's lips to ask how they could bear to have a fire crackling away in the fireplace when it was the middle of August, but he was sound asleep before he could form the question.

“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Will opened his eyes. He was right where Clovis had put him, lying on his side on the first bunk inside the cabin door. Staring down the row of tidily made-up bunks, he noticed Clovis sitting in the armchair in front of the fireplace. 

Will sat up. It felt as though no time had passed, but he no longer felt the dizzy weight of exhaustion. “...how long was I out?”

"Time is relative,” Clovis said, still gazing into the fire. "You're lucky you made it here, you know.  If you'd wandered into the wrong house-- Cabin 11, say-- in the shape you’re in? Things could have turned out quite differently for you."

Will shuddered. That was true; winding up in the Hermes cabin-- where pranking was a way of life-- while half asleep? That was a dangerous prospect. He was really quite grateful he’d made it to the Hypnos cabin instead.  But, he still didn’t understand... "Clovis… how am I awake?" he asked, approaching the armchair.

"You’re not," Clovis said. 

Will blinked at him. “I’m… not.”

“Of course not,” Clovis said. “You’re too exhausted to be awake right now. But you had questions, so you came here. Which is good, because I can answer them just as easily when you’re asleep.”

“You can?” Will murmured. He might not feel so exhausted in the dreamscape, but that didn’t mean his mind was working too quickly. “I mean, that makes sense… if anyone could do that, it’d be you.” He paused. “This is how you got the information from Nico, when he was bringing the Athena Parthenos back, isn’t it?”

Clovis nodded. “The Son of Hades is a strong dreamer,” he said. “It’s easy to find him, even when he’s far away. Though he often complained that I ‘pulled him off course’ by dreaming too powerfully.”

Will stared at him. “Do you… bump into a lot of people?” he asked. “When you’re dreaming.”

“No,” Clovis said, shaking his head. “I try to keep to my own space, so that I don’t interrupt people’s dreams. Though sometimes I will peek at them-- I get curious, you know.” He shrugged. “I don’t see personal things, mind; just the surface level dreams. But meeting people, having conversations-- no. Dream networking is hard to do if two people aren’t in the same room.”

“...Dream networking?” Will asked.

“Sure,” said Clovis. “Like we’re doing right now. How else do you think you’re talking to me?”

"But..." Will looked at the room around him.

"My dreamscape looks like this cabin," Clovis said simply.  “It's easiest for me to create a space I’m familiar with, and comfortable in. But the difference is, when I'm dreaming..." he waved a hand, and countless doors appeared in the walls around them. “I have power over reality.”

"Whoa," said Will. "What are those?"

"They're dream doors," Clovis said. “Portals to other people’s dreams. The windows are that way, too- look." Sure enough, out the window to Clovis's left, the sky was blue and cloudless. Beside it, the next window was a glorious sunset over the ocean, with bands of purple and orange painting the deepening night. 

"Amazing," Will murmured. "So, when you said you opened a window into Nico's dream, you meant it literally."

Clovis pointed. “I looked out that window into a hellscape," he said. "It was awful. Worst thing I’ve ever experienced. I may never sleep again."

" ... you're sleeping now," Will pointed out.

"Oh right..." Clovis shrugged. "Anyway. I imagine you are here for this." He led Will over to a door in the wall. It was black with a silver knocker shaped like a skull on it. 

"That’s Nico’s, right?" said Will. “It has to be.”

“It is.” Clovis studied the door. "I never thought this whole look suited him," he remarked, gesturing vaguely at it.

Will blinked at him. "No?" he said.

Clovis shook his head. “Someone who looked at this door might think that the person it belonged to was kind of dark, or scary, or maybe cruel. He's not, though. And he’s not cold or heartless, either.  Intimidating? Sure. Melancholy? Oh yes. But he listens , Will. And I’ve never heard him make fun of another person.” 

“I never have, either,” Will murmured.

“Plenty of people around this camp have laughed at me or ridiculed me... don’t think I haven’t heard them,” Clovis said. “But not him. Never him. And as powerful as he is, a son of the Big Three… he'd have the right to mock a pitiful weakling like me."

"You are not pitiful, Clovis," Will said.

Clovis shrugged one shoulder. "It took me a long time to master build­ing a dreamscape as simple as this one. You want to see what Nico did in the fifteen, twenty minutes after he fell asleep?" He gestured Will towards the door.

Will, feeling slightly nervous, turned the knob. Then he gasped, gazing down the long, brightly lit hallway. There were rows of doors in the cream colored walls, and the floor had a runner carpet on it.

Clovis clucked his tongue. "I told him he just needed a safe room for himself. One room.  But he went kind of crazy, and now each of his dreams has its own room, with its own door he can open or close on it."

“He built this himself?” Will said, touching the wall in amazement.

“All I did was give him the idea,” Clovis said. “I don’t even know how he figured out how to separate all the dreams out for himself… I’m hoping he will explain it to me sometime soon.”

"Hm?" said Will, wandering down the hallway. The door at the end was slightly ajar. "Is that where he is?"

"I guess so," Clovis said. "Though why he left the door open, I have no idea."

"Maybe just in case you needed to find him," Will said, already reaching for the doorknob.

...Or in case you did, Clovis thought, watching him walk through the door. But he didn't say the words aloud.

Will slipped into the room at the end of the hall, and stopped in surprise. On the other side of the door was the open night sky, peppered with countless stars. He was standing on a roof, high above the treetops or any other buildings, with nothing to obstruct the view. And the ground below was dark; even the town, a little ways away, emitted a soft, warm glow, not at all like a modern city. If Camp Half-Blood wasn’t surrounded by forest, it might have a similar feel, he supposed.

"What is this place?" he breathed.

Near the edge of the tiled roof, a figure lifted his head, then turned and looked at him. “...Will?" he called.

“Yeah," said Will.

Nico sat up. " ... what are you doing here?'' he asked, sounding bewildered.

"I crashed out." Will said, walking a few steps towards him. "My sibs were right. I overextended myself.”

“...You’re in my dream,” Nico said.

“Yeah.” Will shrugged a shoulder, uncomfortable. “I thought I'd see how you were doing.  Is… that okay?”

“Oh-- I mean, I guess…” Nico ran a hand through his hair. “How did you even get here?”

“Clovis.”

“Ah.” Nico sighed. “I suppose I should have guessed that.” 

Will walked carefully along the slope of the roof until he reached the place where Nico was sitting. He looked out at the unfamiliar landscape around him. “Where are we?”

“On the roof of the Jupiter Optimus Maximus,” Nico snorted. “Temple Hill, just outside of New Rome. Kind of an unorthodox place for star watching, I guess, but it’s the tallest building around. So… onto the roof I went.” He shrugged. “The Romans think I’m strange, anyway.”

“Wonder why,” Will said lightly.

Nico sat back on his elbows, looking up at Will. “I… still don’t understand what you’re doing here,” he said. “I thought you were mad at me.”

Will sighed. “I was,” he said, sitting down beside him. “I mean… I was frustrated and irritated, and I lost my patience. I shouldn’t have said what I said to you.”

“Why?” Nico said. “You were right. I didn’t even think about talking to Clovis about my nightmares, and it was the simplest solution ever--”

“It’s not about that,” Will said. “You didn’t need to think of talking to Clovis. If you would have just told me about it, I would have told you to talk to him!”

Realization dawned over Nico’s face. “You were angry because I didn’t tell you .”

“Still as dense as ever,” Will exhaled. “ Yes. I can understand not wanting to share personal things, but come on! How hard is it to say, ‘I’m not sleeping because I have terrible Tartarus nightmares’?”

“It’s not always Tartarus,” Nico said.

“Does that matter?” Will asked. “Nightmares are keeping you awake. You wouldn’t even have to say what they were about. We would want to help!”

Nico sighed. “I was managing,” he said.

“By not sleeping,” Will said. “That's not--”

“No,” said Nico. “Since long before that. All demigods get bad dreams. Don't you?”

Will huffed. “Children of Apollo have the gift of prophecy,” he said. “Some more than others, but we all have dreams that show us flashes of what's to come.” He shook his head. “In my case, I always forget them when I wake up, only to remember them as they happen. It's like the worst kind of deja vu.”

Nico bit his lip. “I have dreams. Lots of them. Recurring dreams. Memories I can't escape. I learned to outrun them before they take hold. But recently, I started dreaming about Fading. I was dissolving into nothing, and no one even noticed. And when I woke up in the dark, I couldn't tell if I was really there or not.”

“...that's why you were sleeping on the porch,” Will said. “Why it's easier for you to sleep during the day.” 

Nico nodded. “I can see I'm not Fading right away.”

“Well, after seeing it happening firsthand,” Will said, “I just have to say… it’s a perfectly valid fear.”

Nico’s lips turned up in the ghost of a smile. “Thanks.”

“Next time, please say something, okay?” Will said. “I mean, if you don’t feel comfortable actually asking for help… maybe we can have a code word or something!”

“...A code word,” said Nico. 

“Yeah, you know-- like the sort of thing you’d do if you were cornered by an  overenthusiastic lovebird at, say, the campfire for instance… and you can’t exactly yell ‘SAVE ME!’ to your siblings because that’s just rude, and you still have to live with these people, so… you use a code word. Like, you subtly mention that you always wanted to visit BERMUDA, and thankfully one of your siblings is listening…”

“...I was going to say something about how incredibly dorky a code word sounds,” Nico said slowly, “but you’re making it sound like having one saved your life.”

“Just my evening,” Will said. “It’s a ridiculous-- yeah, actually, don’t ask.” He waved a hand. “It would be really easy though. You could just say, I don’t know-- something about stargazing.”

“I am not going to do that,” said Nico.

“It could be, “You know what I love? Stargazing.” Or, “What’s the best place you’ve ever been stargazing?”

“Will, that’s so lame,” Nico said, rolling his eyes.

“Do you have a better idea?” Will asked him, raising his eyebrows. “Or are you going to let yourself Fade again next time?” Nico leveled a glare in his direction, and Will met his gaze without blinking. “I don’t want you to Fade away,” he said quietly.

Nico looked away first. “Neither do I,” he said.

“Okay, then,” said Will, gently but firmly. “Think about it. Some way to let me know you need something. Or anyone, really. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

Nico nodded, then laid back onto the roof, staring up at the sky again. Knowing that this was as much of an agreement as he was going to get out of the Son of Hades, Will also stretched out, staring up into the sky.

"I have to say," Will said, after a time, “when I walked through the dream door… this wasn't what I was expecting.”

Nico snorted. "Of course not," he said.  "We just had a big discussion about how terrible my dreams are. You probably thought I’d be fighting something."

"No, I just thought... " Will started. “If you could pick anything to dream about, that it'd be something... happy.”

" ... like what?" Nico said.

Will opened his mouth , then closed it again, "Um, I don't know... like your birthday."

"Not really a happy occasion," Nico said. "I can’t remember any from before we went into the Lotus Hotel, and I haven’t celebrated one since we came out."

Will stared at him.  “You're joking."

Nico shrugged. “Only Bianca knew when it was," he said. “She died before my birthday. And it’s not like my father remembers it.”

“Well. You’re not alone in that.” Will shook his head. "But what about--"

"No,” said Nico. “I don't do ‘happy’. Most of the 'happy' memories I have are tied to things that are terrible, or people I've lost, or... whatever.” He leaned back on the roof again, putting his hands behind his head. “I didn’t try for something happy. I just wanted... quiet. A peaceful dream."

Will also laid back, staring up into the dazzling sky. “... you don't have any happy memories of camp Half-Blood?”

"I haven't spent more than a month there," Nico said dryly. "Total."

"I take it you've never seen the stars from our star-watching rock, then?"

Nico shook his head. “I haven't, no."

"Oh, well, you gotta,” Will said, as if it was common knowledge that the stars at their star-watching site were superior.  "At the new moon? Can’t be beat. I can take you there sometime, if you want."

Nico smirked. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with me picking New Rome for my peaceful dream, would it?”

"...I might be a little miffed about it, sure,” Will admitted. “But dude! You’re a Greek demigod. You can’t go on thinking that the sky over New Rome was better than the one at Camp Half-Blood.”

"I wasn’t thinking about it,” Nico retorted. "I just wanted to look at the sky, and the view from this roof was one of the best."

“ One of the best," Will said. "Not the best?"

"No," Nico said. "Not the best."

Will waited a few moments, then asked what he thought was the obvious question. "Well... what is the best one, then?"

Nico gazed up thoughtfully. "Probably..."  The ground below them shifted, catching Will's attention. He looked down as the clay roof tiles turned to soft grass. A handbreadth away, some of the plants grew almost to waist height, but his eyes were drawn upwards even further than that, where overhead, a sky of black velvet glittered with millions of sparkling diamonds.

"Where are we?" Will breathed.

"The Yunhe rice terraces, in the Zhejiang Province, China," said Nico. He sat up, gazing around at the landscape, as if he were making sure it was just as he remembered it. Which, of course it was; they were in his dream, after all.  "One of the first shadow travel trips I took I wound up there. Not a soul for miles when I woke up, just an endless sea of stars above me."

"It's incredible," said Will, lying back and staring up into the endless expanse. After a moment, Nico flopped back onto the grass beside him.

For a while, the two of them laid together in the grass in companionable silence, listening to the song of the night insects and the soft rush of the wind through the rice paddies. 

“...Nico?” Will said, after a time.  “...can I ask you something?”

“...do I have to answer?” Nico asked warily.

“Not if you really don’t want to,” Will said. “I’m just curious.” Still feeling Nico’s hesitation, he quickly added, “It’s not about nightmares, I promise.”

Nico huffed softly. “Fine. What.”

Will chewed on his lip, trying to figure out how to phrase the question. “Kayla said… she overheard Percy talking in the dining pavilion--”

Nico interrupted him with a sound that fell halfway between a groan and a laugh. “Gods of Olympus!” he cried. “You tell someone a thing, to try and-- I don’t know, give yourself closure, and then you find out the person you told has literally no filter, and everyone on earth knows about it!”

“For future reference,” Will said dryly, “if you speak anything aloud, anywhere on the grounds of camp, ten minutes later everyone will know all about it. The rumor mill here is pretty incredible.”

“Not that you’d know anything about it,” Nico said, raising an eyebrow.

Will lifted his chin. “I’m not a gossip, if that’s what you’re implying,” he said. 

“Sure.” Nico studied him. “So, was there an actual question attached to that fun little  rumor that Kayla told you?”

If only he could be sure that the starlight wouldn’t reveal how much he was blushing. “Maybe I’m just wondering who I need to be more jealous of,” he said lightly, as if he were teasing. “Percy, or Chiara.”

Nico snorted. “How about neither,” he said. “Chiara, pretty as she is, is definitely not my type. And after three years of suffering through an unrequited love, I think that Percy outing me to the entirety of Camp Half-Blood has effectively put a nail in the coffin of that crush.”

“So it is true,” Will said.

Nico looked at him. “You think Percy would make up a lie like that?” he said. “Not likely. And I wouldn’t have told him something like that about myself if it wasn’t true.” He sighed. “If it didn’t have to be true, that would have been better anyway.”

“Why?” Will asked. 

“I was in school in the late 1930s,” Nico said. “I saw what bullies did to kids who were ‘sexually inverted’. I heard about the places they sent you to rehabilitate, or how they punished people who were caught… why would I ever want that reality for myself?”

“Nico…” said Will.

“And then Percy happened, and I knew, ” Nico said, covering his eyes with his hands. “But I couldn’t stop myself from being attracted to him. It’s not like it’s something you can just turn off, you know?”

“Yeah,” said Will. “But… Why him? Why Percy?”

Nico shrugged his shoulders, his hands dropping into his lap. “Imagine you’re standing there, facing certain death, and you’re terrified. And then out of nowhere, in walks this person who is just… strong, and confident, and powerful… like a hero you’ve read about in stories, or imagined in your best daydreams. And he looks at you and promises that everything is going to be okay… and you believe him.”

“I… can imagine that,” Will whispered. It was the biggest understatement he’d ever uttered.

Nico’s mouth twisted bitterly. “I think I loved him before I realized it ,” he said. “Before I even knew what love was. There wasn’t a way for me to guard myself against it. Wasn’t a way to make it stop. And sometimes...”  He hesitated, then said, “Sometimes I wondered if Percy was only nice to me because he felt like he had to be. Because of what happened to Bianca.”

“Does that bother you?” Will asked him neutrally.

“...yeah,” said Nico. “Partly because that would mean he felt guilty for something that wasn’t really his fault. And partly because… well, if you liked someone so much, and then realized that person was just being nice to you out of guilt or something… that kind of sucks.”

“I guess it does, yeah,” Will conceded. “But you know…”

“I know what you’re going to say,” Nico said, stopping him. “Friends wouldn’t treat me like that. You’re right. Jason never did. Reyna didn’t either.” Will looked out over the terraces, leaving Nico staring at his profile. “And you never have,” he said softly.

Will glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “Oh, so you actually noticed?” he asked.

“It’s hard not to,” said Nico.

“So… you’re pretty sure you’re over him, at this point?”

Nico gave him a look, and Will wondered if he’d totally given himself away. But Nico shrugged, and said, “As sure as I can be, yeah. He’s been dating Annabeth for a year, so it’s not like I haven’t had time to deal with it.”

“People do break up, you know,” Will said.

Nico raised an eyebrow. “You think those two are going to break up?” he said.

“...no,” said Will.

“Me neither,” said Nico, looking back up into the sky. “But it’s okay. It doesn’t bother me anymore. My relationship with Percy has always been strange, but I don’t feel like it’s as important to me as it once was. It might be nice to get to know him, you know, as a person. Not while running through a combat zone, or wading through pits of hate and self-loathing.”

“Can you do that?” Will asked.

“Maybe,” said Nico. “I don’t know if it will be easy… but I think I’d like to try.” He shrugged. “I’ve known him longer than just about anyone else. It’d be a shame to cut him off completely.” 

Will nodded. “I guess that’s true,” he said.  He’d seen so many people who’d been unable to give up on someone they’d loved before, but to hear Nico talk about it… it really did sound like he was over Percy. Like he’d moved on, and he could actually build a different kind of relationship with the Son of Poseidon.  But that was an easy thing to say, and a harder thing to actually do . It would be interesting to see how Nico reacted, if he and Percy were alone together.

Suddenly, Nico sat bolt upright, ruining the serenity of the scene around them. “Someone is looking at me,” he said.

“What?” said Will.

“Someone-- there’s someone sitting by my bed,” Nico said. “I can tell he’s there. I can feel it.”

“So?” said Will, also sitting up. “What’s going to happen? You think he’ll get bored if you’re not awake to entertain him?”

“No,” said Nico, growing more agitated by the moment. “I’m too vulnerable-- he could-- I have to--”

“Nico!” Will reached out to grab his hand. “It’s okay! You don’t have to wake up-- nobody at camp is going to hurt you.”

“You don’t know that!” Nico said.

“I do , actually,” said Will. “You think we’d let people walk into the infirmary and endanger our patients? Come on.”

Nico raked his fingers through his hair. “M-maybe it’s irrational,” he said, “but I can’t help it. I can’t sleep if I know someone’s watching me. I’m already waking up, I can feel it.”

“Wait--” said Will. “What happens if you wake up, and I’m--”

“I don’t know!” said Nico, his eyes wide with panic. “I’m sorry--” 

And he was gone, leaving Will alone with the rice paddies swaying gently in the breeze.

Nico gasped, his eyes flying open. Immediately, he turned his head to the chair at his bedside, to see the person he knew was there, and his heart jolted in recognition.

“They told me you’d probably be out for a while,” he said, sitting forward and leaning his elbows on his knees, smiling that troublemaker’s smile of his. “I’m a little surprised to see you awake.”

“Percy,” Nico said hoarsely.

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry-- I can’t--”

“Nico!” Will’s chest lurched, the blood rushing in his ears as he reached out a hand towards the Son of Hades.  But before he could catch him, Nico vanished, slipping through his fingers. And as his hand fell to the empty grass, the only sound was the gentle breeze riffling through the tall grass of the rice paddies, and the thundering beat of his own heart.

Lost him again , thought Will. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Did I expect things to be different, just because I’m in a dream?

There was a loud ‘crack’, like a tree branch breaking and crashing to the ground. Will whipped his head around, but there were no trees in the field… just a wide rent in the starlit sky, like it had been torn apart, the edges dissolving and falling away into blackness.

A shock of fear pulsed through Will. He shot to his feet, looking desperately around for the door he’d come through-- anything that might give him a clue about how to escape. To his surprise- and relief- the door was still there, in spite of everything. It stood alone in a bare patch amidst the tall grass, without a wall or anything to bind it, and it was further away than he would have liked. Resolutely he started to sprint towards it, but before he was even halfway there, it became unmoored, unconnected to the landscape. He watched in horror as it tumbled into the widening abyss opening beneath it.

Wake up, Will, he ordered himself. Wake up!

But before he could obey his own command, the ground under his feet fell away, and he was tumbling through space, into the infinite darkness below… and though there was no bottom, he felt himself growing closer and closer to colliding...

Will shouted, his eyes flying open. His whole body tingled with the force of impact, and for a moment, he stared at the ceiling, taking deep breaths and trying to get his bearings. He was alive-- that was a plus. He was… not in the Hypnos cabin anymore, which was where he probably should have been. Nor was he in the infirmary. But this place was very familiar, nonetheless…

“Oh,” he murmured, his eyes sinking closed again. “This is my cabin.”

“Yes,” said a warm, lovely voice from right beside his bed. “Your siblings wanted you back at the infirmary, but Clarisse refused to carry you that far when your own bed was right here.”

“Clarisse…” With an effort, Will turned his head to look at the person beside him. “...Piper?”

“Yup,” Piper smiled, leaning forward. “How are you feeling, Will?” 

Will blinked at her owlishly. “...awake.” Awake, and achy to the marrow of his bones. “Ugh, I shouldn’t be awake yet.” Why was he awake? His forehead creased in concentration. “What time is it?”

“Late afternoon, sometime,” Piper said, holding up her watchless wrist. “Not quite dinnertime. From what I understand, you had a pretty good nap this afternoon.”

“Maybe,” said Will. “...you said Clarisse brought me here? How on earth did that happen?”

“Oh, Will,” said Piper, suddenly grinning broadly. “You have no idea how much time and effort went into getting you out of the Hypnos cabin. From what I gather, the planning started minutes after you went in, but I really didn’t even get involved until just after lunch...”

She’d been heading out of the dining pavilion when Annabeth caught up with her. “Piper?” she said breathlessly. “I hate to do this, but… I need a favor.”

Piper studied her friend, eyebrows raised. When Annabeth asked a person for a favor, it was kind of a big deal. To Annabeth’s mind, anything worth doing was worth doing well, and usually that meant doing it herself. If she couldn’t do it herself, well, she’d find the most capable and reliable person around to take over for her. And who wanted to let Annabeth down? “You know me,” said Piper. “Happy to help. What’s up?”

“Your cabin has rec time right now, right? You don’t have to lead any activities or anything?” 

“Nope,” said Piper. “It’s facials and gossip until 3pm… yay.” She rolled her eyes. “I like catching up with my siblings, but after everything we’ve been through lately… they are convinced I need some sort of mud bath, and that doesn’t sound relaxing at all .”

“Well…” Annabeth twisted her fingers. “Would you mind checking up on Sophie for me, then? I gave her a special mission, and while I am fully confident in her ability to carry it out, well… she’s only nine, and I’m afraid she’s going to get railroaded by the older campers.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that too much.” Annabeth’s youngest sister, Sophie, was well-renowned for being the most organized and conscientious camper in all of Camp Half-Blood. More than once, Chiron had let the child arrange the daily schedules for everyone in the camp, himself included. She was the most brilliant and articulate almost-fourth grader on the planet. Piper was sure that when her teachers saw her on their attendance list, they broke into a sweat.

“Still…” Annabeth wrinkled her nose. “I kind of saddled her with something ridiculous.”

“What do you mean?” Piper turned, following her gaze to a picnic table between the dining pavilion and the edge of the cabin campus. “What is she doing?”

The bell rang, signalling the beginning of the next activity, and Annabeth yelped. “Sorry! I have to go!” Before she was finished talking, she was already on the move, heading towards the Arts and Crafts cabin. “Thanks so much, Piper, I owe you one!”

Puzzled, Piper shook her head. Then she sighed, heading towards the throng around the picnic table. At first glance, she couldn’t find Annabeth’s younger sister, but that could have been because every demigod present was in motion.  

Lou Ellen was chasing Cecil around the table. “I knew it was a mistake to give you that,” she yelled. “Give it back-- it’s not ready yet!”

“What are you talking about?” he said, laughing gleefully. “It works great!”

“What works great?” Piper asked.

Lou Ellen sighed. “I enchanted a couple of clay pendants with my Awake spell.”

“Wait--” said Piper. “The same ‘Awake’ spell that you gave Leo that one time, while he was working on the Argo II?”

“Yup,” said Lou Ellen.

“The one that kept him up for three days? And gave him caffeine jitters like nobody’s business?”

“I know, I know, the spell’s too strong,” Lou Ellen agreed. “That’s why I didn’t cast it directly on anyone this time-- I put it on something else instead.” She glowered at Cecil. “Only some people ran off with it before I was done testing it. Give that back, Markowski!”

“No way,” said Cecil, clutching the clay pendant in his fist and holding it against his chest. “This thing is great! Do you have any idea how much I could have used this yesterday?”

“You wouldn’t need it at all if you just slept at night like a normal person, instead of reading comics with a flashlight!” Lou Ellen yelled.

“Sleep is for the weak,” said Cecil.

“Hear, hear!” shouted Travis Stoll.  It was his last week at camp before he left for college, and he seemed to be trying to cram in as much mischief as possible before he left. 

Piper raised an eyebrow at him and his brother, who was, as usual, standing beside him. “What are you two supposed to be?”

The boys blinked innocently at one another, then back at her. “What does it look like?” Travis said, spreading his arms wide.

“...you look like a shrubbery,” said Piper.

“See? She totally gets it,” said Conner, leaning on his brother’s shoulder with an audible rustle. 

“... why are you a shrubbery?” Piper asked. “Why is Cecil a shrubbery too?”

“The Demeter kids were very accommodating,” said Conner, explaining nothing. 

“It’s all part of the plan!” said Travis, with a cheeky grin. 

Piper rubbed her temple. “Why do I feel like this is the sort of plan Leo would have had a hand in?” she asked.

“We were thinking that too!” piped up a voice from behind her. Piper turned around to find Jake Mason and his little brother, Harley, leaning over an intricate contraption on the picnic table. “That’s why we’re using the grabby claw, instead of the catapult.”

“No,” said a small, imperious voice. “You’re not using the catapult because you can’t make it work without punching a hole in the wall of the Hypnos cabin, and you know Chiron’s going to make us rebuild it if that happens.” 

Piper sighed in relief. Bless Athena and her hyper-rational children. “Sophie,” she said, turning to the little girl. “Annabeth sent me to check on you.”

“I don’t need checking on,” Sophie said, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Everything is under control here. I mean, the plan is overly complicated and kind of stupid, but I think it will work. It ought to work. Right?”

“...I don’t know,” said Piper slowly. “Maybe you should walk us through it once.”

“All right,” Sophie sighed, walking over to a planning board that was obviously of her own devising; it was impeccably neat and easy to follow, in spite of the fourth-grade handwriting. It was tacked to an easel that someone had commandeered from the arts and crafts cabin. “Let’s review. The mission: to rescue Will Solace from the Hypnos cabin.”

“ That’s what you’re doing here?” Piper winced. “Ugh. What possessed him to go in there?”

“Long story,” sighed Kayla. In all the commotion, Piper hadn’t even noticed her standing next to the board. “ Really long. I don’t have time to explain it again. Short version: it’s good he went, because he needed the sleep, but if we don’t get him out of there we won’t see him for a week, and I don’t want to deal with Sherman.”

“Correction: NO ONE wants to deal with Sherman,” Lou Ellen piped up. “I’m pretty sure Will doesn’t even want to deal with Sherman, but his pride as a healer won’t let him slack off.”

“Focus, please,” Sophie snapped. “Currently, the plan goes like this: someone needs to go to the door of the Hypnos Cabin and create a distraction. While the campers are caught off guard, the stealth team--”

“That’s us,” Connor volunteered.

“--is going to take their places in the bushes surrounding the cabin. They will need to station themselves close to the windows, so they can hear-- and they will have to wear the clay tablets Lou Ellen made, to make sure they don’t just fall asleep while they’re waiting.”

Travis gave her a thumbs up. Cecil held up his tablet with a manic grin, and Lou Ellen rolled her eyes.

“Plan A is to attempt to remove Will from the cabin with the Hephaestus Cabin’s… grabby claw,” said Sophie, her tone expressing her obvious disdain for the name.

“Yeah!” said Harley. “It’s on a drone, so we can fly it in over everyone’s heads. And we can operate it with the controller!” He held up a controller that looked like it came from an Xbox, and Piper felt a pang in her chest. It reminded her so much of Leo.

Kayla leaned over to Piper, and whispered, “...we’re all pretty sure Plan A isn’t going to work, but Harley’s excited about it, so we’re letting it happen.”

“Why won’t it work?” Piper whispered back.

“For one thing,” Kayla said, “Will’s really heavy. Especially when he’s dead weight.”

“If Plan A doesn’t work,” said Sophie, “ we go to Plan B, and our covert operatives in the bushes make their entrance through the cabin windows.”

“All right!” said Connor. “That’s us!”

“Those operatives will locate Will, lift him, and carry him to the rendezvous point.” Sophie tapped the diagram on the board. “Here. There they will meet up with the transport team.”

“Who’s the transport team?” Piper whispered to Kayla.

Kayla nodded her head to her left. Ten feet away from them stood Clarisse La Rue, arms folded, watching them impassively.

Piper looked at Kayla, eyes wide. “ Clarisse is the transport team? Seriously?”

“Clarisse has a soft spot for Will,” she said, shrugging. “None of us understand it. And Will won’t tell us why. She said she doesn’t mind carrying him, but--”

“I’m not going in that place,” said a voice from right behind them, making them jump. “No freaking way.”

The two girls looked up at her, slightly guilty at having been caught talking about her. “You don’t have to,” Kayla said quickly. “I was just explaining-- we appreciate that you’re willing to help move Will--”

“Oh, I have no problem hauling his ass to wherever,” Clarisse said. “But I’m not going in that cabin. No chance. You guys get him out, I’ll take him wherever you want.”

“Does the rendezvous point I picked look like it’s far enough away?” Sophie asked, catching her attention.

“I really think we need a distraction,” Conner shouted. “Hey, Pipes-- you should go to the door and, like, flirt with Clovis or something.”

“Cecil-- if you don’t get out of that tree and stop acting like a monkey I will turn you into a pig and take that tablet back!” Lou Ellen shouted.

“I can get it for you!” Harley cried. An instant later, the drone with the grabby claw whizzed by Piper’s ear, nearly clocking her in the temple as it gained altitude.

“Okay, guys, come on!” Kayla shouted.  “I only have a couple more minutes-- I need to go back to the infirmary.”

“Are you still on duty?” Piper asked. 

Kayla shrugged. “I made a promise,” she said. “So now, I’m the only one from the Apollo cabin who can check up on Nico, and after what happened earlier--”

Will, who had barely seemed awake for much of the story up to this point, sat up abruptly. Piper jumped, trailing off mid-sentence. “What?” she said.

“Nico!” said Will, as if that explained everything. “Oh, my gods-- I have to go check on Nico!”

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Across camp, another demigod was staring at his bedside visitor. “Percy,” Nico said hoarsely. 

“Hey,” Percy said, giving him a lopsided smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Uh…” The question made him think of Will-- did everything make him think of the Son of Apollo? “Everything sucked less when I was asleep.”  Rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, he said,  “...I’m a little thirsty. Could you…?”

Percy followed his gaze to the tray table next to the wall, and the pitcher of water on it. “Oh! Yeah, sure,” he said, reaching over with one of his long arms and snagging the pitcher, as well as the cup next to it. To his credit, he poured the water like a regular person, and handed the cup to Nico.

“Thanks,” Nico said, taking a long drink of water while he waited for his mind to process what was happening. Finally, he set the cup down on the bedside table. “So.”

“So,” said Percy. 

There was silence for a long moment. Then Nico said, “...why are you here?” 

Percy rubbed the back of his head. “I wanted to see how you were,” he said. “Annabeth said you were having a rough day.”

“I’m fine,” Nico said automatically.

“Uh huh,” said Percy. “That’s not what I heard.” 

“You can’t believe everything you hear.” Listlessly, he picked at a loose thread on the light cotton blanket. 

“So… you weren’t having a nightmare about Tartarus that was making you fade out of existence?” Percy asked, folding his arms.

Nico huffed. “...okay, yeah,” he said. “Guess you heard right. That was probably the worst of it, though.”

“You don’t say,” said Percy. “So… what? On your list of bad days, this doesn’t even rank, and you can’t understand why people might make a big deal out of it?”

Nico looked thoughtful. “There might be some truth to that, now that you mention it…” He made a face. “It’s more that… I find all this… concern about me to be a little weird.”

“Oh, so we’re not even allowed to worry about you, now,” Percy said. “You want everyone to go back to ignoring you, instead?”

“No,” said Nico quickly. “It’s not that. It’s just… I don’t know.” Nico rubbed the spot between his eyebrows, which did little to dispel his headache. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Try,” said Percy.

Nico’s forehead wrinkled. “All these people keep coming by,” he said. “And they look at me like there’s something wrong with me.”

“Dude,” said Percy. “I’m not surprised. You look seriously wrecked.”

“Thanks,” said Nico.

“I wish I was kidding,” Percy said. “I mean… you looked worse when we rescued you in Rome, for sure. But other than that…” he waved a hand in front of his own face. “You just look exhausted. And, forgive the expression, but you’re pale as a ghost.”

“Okay, I get it,” Nico said. “I’m a little run down.” Percy snorted at the understatement. Nico ignored him. “But it doesn’t explain why people keep… looking in on me. Like they’re worried or something.” His gaze landed on that loose thread again. “Like they care.”

He could feel Percy’s eyes boring into him. “What a terrible thing,” he drawled. “To have people worried about you.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Nico asked. “Because you’re worried about me?”

“...well, yeah,” said Percy, as if it was obvious. “I mean, can’t a guy come check up on his friend?”

“...are we friends, Percy?” Nico asked softly. In the silence that followed his question, he dared to look up, meeting the Son of Poseidon’s stormy gaze.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Percy sniffed. “Well, I didn’t come to check up on Sherman, ” he said, breaking the tension.

“That’s something, I guess,” said Nico.

“I also didn’t come here to make you uncomfortable,” Percy said stiffly. “I can go, if you want.”

“It’s not that,” Nico said, shaking his head. “I just mean…” he faltered, thinking of what he’d told Will. Then he took a deep breath, deciding to be honest. “I’ve never been able to tell if you actually were my friend, or if you just… felt bad for me. Because of-- well, because of Bianca. Or--” 

“Nico,” said Percy, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “Let me tell you something. Sometimes, people are friends because the moment they meet, they understand one another. They just-- click, like magnets. And sometimes people are friends because, after everything they’ve been through together, they can’t help but be anything else.”

“Like Reyna,” Nico murmured, remembering the words she’d spoken in South Carolina, less than a week earlier..

“Oh sure,” Percy grumbled. “First person you think of would be the Praetor. You’ve known her, what, a month? I’ve known you four years!”

The corners of Nico’s mouth twitched. “Sorry,” he said.

“Wait-- wait ,” said Percy. “Now you’re apologizing? You? Man, you must be in worse shape than they thought!”

“Don’t get used to it,” Nico growled. He fidgeted uncomfortably. “I just figured, if I’m going to stay here, with living people, I’ve got to be better about dealing with them…” He frowned at Percy. “Is that funny?”

“No,” said Percy, fighting a smile. “You’re right. It’s a good thing to think about.” He shook his head. “Anyway. Friends. And not because I feel sorry for you. Though I would like it better if you didn’t go around being all sneaky and not telling me things anymore.”

“Hey,” Nico protested weakly. “The secret I told you yesterday was a pretty big deal. The biggest one I ever kept from you.” 

“I suppose,” said Percy. “And it didn’t involve getting thrown into a dungeon by your father, which is a step up from some of the other secrets you've kept from me.”

“I heard you were talking about it,” Nico said blandly. “I’ve gotten a lot of questions about it already.”

“About-- oh.” Percy’s brow furrowed. “It’s not like I told anyone about it…”

“Nope,” Nico said. “Just talked about it loud enough for everyone to hear. Thanks for outing me to the entire camp. Awesome.”

“...I didn’t even think about that.” Percy’s expression darkened, a fierce summer squall over the Long Island Sound. “Did someone give you a hard time about it?”

Nico blinked, startled. “No,” he said. “I mean… Hazel yelled at me for not telling her myself, but other than that...”

Percy sat back, raising his eyebrows. “You told me before you told her? That’s your own fault, then. I’m not claiming responsibility for that.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Nico said. 

“I really am sorry, though,” Percy said. “I wasn’t thinking about… I shouldn’t have outed you like that.”

“It’s okay.” Nico smiled thinly. “I guess… it’s not really a secret. Plus, you’ve saved me a ton of awkward conversations.”

Percy grinned. “That’s one way to look at it,” he said.

Nico shrugged. “It’s not like it matters a whole lot, anyway,” he said. “I mean, I’m a son of Hades. Not exactly ‘attractive’, by anyone’s standards.”

“...I dunno, man,” Percy said, folding his arms. “Don’t sell yourself short.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I just mean… you’ve got a lot to offer. A lot more than you notice yourself.” He rolled his eyes at Nico’s incredulous look. “Oh, come on. For one thing, you’re a much more thoughtful person than I am. Like, if you hadn’t paid attention to Bob, for instance, he never would have helped us in Tartarus. You are more sensitive to people’s feelings, too. And the gods know you would destroy yourself, if it meant saving someone else.” He leveled a finger at Nico’s chest. “You think there isn’t a person alive who would like how thoughtful and selfless you are?” 

“...this is a weird conversation,” said Nico, face glowing like a beacon. “Why are you so interested in this, anyway? I didn’t think it was going to bother you so much.”

“Well, you know,” Percy said lightly, sitting back in his chair. “Getting rejected before you even knew you had a shot? Kinda sucks.”

Nico stared at him. “You have a girlfriend,” he said. “And have had one for a year.”

“I lost six months of it,” Percy reminded him.

“Well… yeah, I suppose. But still.”

“I didn’t even have a chance to let you down easy.”

Nico snorted. “Judging by how things went with Rachel… I’m okay with that.”

Percy gave him a sour look, but it faded quickly. Obviously, he had other things on his mind. “So… how long-- I mean, when did you…”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Does it matter?”

“I’m just curious,” Percy shrugged.

Nico sighed. “...when you rescued us,” he said. “Me and Bianca. On the cliffs outside of Westover Hall.”

Percy’s eyes widened. “ That long?” he said.

“Well, I don’t think I put a name to it, back then,” said Nico. “It was just… a feeling. Like, did you know you were in love with Annabeth the moment you met her?”

“Oh, no way,” said Percy. “I mean, I guess there was a moment, sometime in the middle of that first quest, when I-- but it wasn’t what you’d call ‘love’.” 

“Yeah,” said Nico. “That. It’s like, you can trace the path all the way back to that moment, even though at the time you didn’t have any idea what that feeling was, or what it meant.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t exactly a straight path.”

“I imagine not,” Percy said, smirking. “Pretty sure you hated me, down in the Labyrinth.”

“I sure wanted to,” said Nico. “...it wasn’t easy. You kept turning up and being all helpful and kind.”

“Gosh, sorry,” said Percy.

“The only thing that was helpful at all was when you brought Rachel with you,” Nico said. “And Annabeth was so mad at you… that made it easier to be mad at you too.”

Percy’s mouth fell open. “You know,” he said, “for the longest time, I wondered why you were willing to listen to Annabeth down in the Labyrinth. That was why?”

“She was miserable, because of you,” Nico said. “We were kindred spirits.”

“Thank you for that,” Percy said dryly, as a sudden commotion on the other side of the curtain caught his attention. As he turned to look over his shoulder, the curtain tore open and Kayla peered in. “I thought so,” she groaned. “Gods, I’m so sorry, Nico! I swear, I was only gone for about 20, 25 minutes--”

“It’s okay, Kayla,” said Nico. 

“No, it’s not,” she said. “That’s the longest amount of time we’ve seen you sleep, and you probably would have kept going if someone hadn’t woken you up!” She shot a dark look at Percy.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Percy said defensively, putting his hands up. “I swear, all I did was sit in the chair.”

“But he doesn’t like it when people watch him sleep,” Kayla said. “It was my job to make sure no one disturbed him.”

“Ah.” Percy looked at Nico. “Sorry, dude.”

Nico was too tired to be irritated, but he did his best. “I already said, it’s fine,” he said. “I think I’ll be able to go back to sleep more easily, now, anyway.” He looked back at Kayla. “How’s Will?”

She tensed. “What do you mean?”

He frowned at her. “What do you mean, what do I mean?” he said. “You haven’t seen him?”

“I left him in the Apollo cabin,” she said. “Piper said she’d look after him until I get back…”

“Apollo cabin?” Nico said. “I thought he was in the Hypnos cabin.”

“Ugh,” said Percy. “Why would he go there?”

“Ah--” Nico could feel himself turning red all over again. “Well, he--”

“He had a good reason,” said Kayla firmly. “And we had a good reason to get him out of there. Which is why he’s in the Apollo cabin now.”

“But you don’t know if he woke up?” said Nico.

“He was still asleep when I left…” Kayla’s eyes widened. “You mean, when this one woke you up, he was still--”

Nico nodded, his eyes wide. “He could be stuck in limbo, somewhere,” he said.

“Gods--” Kayla was at the curtain opening in a heartbeat. “You boys are going to be the death of me,” she muttered as she vanished around the corner.

“It’s the risk you run,” Nico whispered, “when you hang with a Son of Hades.”

Chapter Text

Piper wouldn’t have thought it possible. Mere moments ago, Will was barely coherent, fighting to keep his eyes open. Now, he was on his feet, determined to get back to the infirmary. Trouble was, he didn’t have the energy to make it across the cabin, much less across the camp. “Whoa-- whoa!” she said, surging out of her chair and grabbing Will’s shoulders to support him. “Easy there, big guy.” No, he wasn’t the size of Frank Zhang, but Will was a head taller than she was, almost of a size with Jason. And with the full force of his dead weight crashing into her, she got an all-too-vivid flashback of that cornfield in Ohio. “I don’t think you’re going anywhere, just yet.”

“You don’t understand,” Will said, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “I need to check on Nico, it’s important--”

“Uh huh,” said Piper. “But I told you Kayla went to check on him, remember? I’m sure he’s fine.”

“It could end up just like last time,” he said, as if he hadn’t heard her. “No one else cares-- ‘Don’t worry about it, Will.  Children of Hades just like it better when they’re by themselves, Will. It’s no use trying to keep him here.’ It’s such bullshit.”

“Will--”

“That’s just an excuse they use, because people don’t want him here! No one really wants to be alone all the time. And it’s not going to be the wedge that drives him away again. Over my dead body!”

It might be, if I can’t get you to calm down, Piper thought. “Will!”

“I have to go,” Will said. Struggling again, he nearly knocked the pair of them to the floor. “No one else cares. He’s my responsibility!”

Responsibility? That was interesting. “Okay, okay,” Piper said soothingly, doing everything she could to charmspeak him into a state of calm. “I get it. You’re worried. But I’m sure Kayla will buy you a few minutes.” With an effort, she got her hands on his shoulders again, forcing him to look her in the eye. “And before you go rushing to his rescue, I think you need to take care of yourself a little. Yeah?”

It took a moment or two for her words to fully sink in, and a moment or two more for him to register how sensible they were. “Yeah,” he said, sagging just a little bit. “Yeah, okay.”

“Good,” she said, guiding him gently back to the side of the bed. “It’ll be fine. We’ll get you there, I promise. Just… sit for a minute, okay?”

Grudgingly, and having very little choice in the matter, Will sat on the edge of the bed. He glowered at her, or maybe in her general direction; he was having trouble focusing his gaze on anything specific. 

“That’s good,” said Piper, breathing an internal sigh of relief. “Now, you’re the healer-- if you were the patient, what’s the first thing you would tell yourself to do in this situation?”

“Go back to sleep,” Will groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “But that’s not going to happen. Could you go in the mini fridge and get the sports bottle for me? The one with the orange lid.”

“Of course,” Piper said. Looking around, she found the appliance in question, tucked under the end of his bunk. “I didn’t know you had one of these.”

Will snorted. “Hephaestus cabin has more appliances and technology than anyone. I figured it would be okay for us to have one mini fridge.”

“Okay, fair,” Piper said, fighting a grin. “It’s not like there’s much in here anyway…” She easily found the bottle with the orange lid and pulled it out. “This what you’re talking about?”

Will nodded, holding out a hand for it. “Thanks.”

She stood just out of reach, holding the bottle. “What is this, exactly?” she asked.

“Ah…” Will scratched the back of his neck. “Emergency energy drink. I have a couple of them stashed in the infirmary, too, but I keep one here, just in case.”

“Uh huh,” Piper said skeptically. “Emergency, huh? Do I want to know what’s in this thing?”

“Probably not,” Will said. When all she did was raise an eyebrow at him, he huffed and caved. “A lot of vitamins, electrolytes, and herbs known for energy replenishment,” he said. “Magnesium and B12, ginkgo biloba and licorice root, sea kelp…”

“Yum,” said Piper, wrinkling her nose and handing him the bottle.

“...and a full can of Monster,” Will added.

Piper rounded on him, eyes wide. “You’re kidding . That’s--”

“--insane?” said Will dryly, popping the top open with his teeth. “There are reasons why I don’t let anyone else touch it. And I only use it when I’m totally depleted, but people still need healing.” 

As he took a long pull on the bottle, she stared at him in mounting alarm. “You’re not going to try to heal anyone else today, are you?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No. Hell no. I swear it on the Styx, I’m not even going to think about it.” With a sigh, he stared at the bottle’s orange lid. “I’d go right back to sleep, if I could.”

“...why don’t you?” Piper asked.

“You weren’t here a year ago,” he said. “At the end of the Battle of Manhattan. When Percy told the gods that they had to acknowledge their children. There used to be twelve cabins, and twelve only, Piper-- four of which were empty, or nearly so. And the Hermes cabin was always overcrowded, because all the unclaimed demigods went there.”

Piper nodded; she’d gathered, from talking to some of her siblings and the other demigods around camp, that the place had been different in the years before her arrival. “Hades’ cabin is cabin thirteen,” she offered.

“Right,” said Will. “After the battle, Nico stayed at camp for a whole week. Started building that cabin himself. Everything seemed fine-- and then one day, he just left. Out of nowhere. And no one did a damn thing to follow him, or find out what happened. Nothing.”

Piper waited. “... ‘Children of Hades like being alone,’ I take it?”

Sourly, Will bit the top of the water bottle again. “None of us had any choice in our parents, did we. But none of us had to deal with being excluded because of our parents, either. For most of us, finding out we had a godly parent meant we weren’t alone. But for Nico…” he shook his head. “Children of Hades were never welcome at camp. So that loneliness is a legacy he inherited.” Scowling, he took another long pull on the water bottle, then grimaced. “I think he even believes it, somehow.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Piper asked.

“It means he doesn’t have a damn happy memory in his head!” Will burst out, with more energy than Piper had thought he could muster. “Not a place, not an event… no comforting moment to escape to if things get bad for him. You know what he dreams about? An empty field, and a sky full of stars.”

Piper blinked. “...What’s wrong with that? It sounds peaceful.”

“Peaceful, and lonely ,” said Will. “If he keeps doing things by himself, it’s just going to feed into the belief that he’s better off being alone.”

“But maybe he likes it that way,” said Piper. Seeing the scathing look he gave her, she put up her hands. “I’m not saying it because I want him to leave… I’m saying, some people find comfort being alone. Just because he wants to look at a sky full of stars by himself doesn’t mean that he’s lonely doing it.”

“But, isn’t being alone, like, the definition of lonely?” Will argued.

Piper’s lips quirked. “Obviously, you are not a person who enjoys ‘alone time’.” 

Will opened his mouth to retort, then frowned, thinking about it. “...no,” he said. “You’re right. I don’t go looking for ‘alone time’, ever.”

“There you go,” Piper said. “Nico’s a different person. When he was with us on the Argo II , he spent most of his time in the eagle’s nest so he didn’t have to talk to us. Maybe he thought we’d reject him, or push him away. He was definitely wrestling with something, and he wasn’t comfortable enough to talk to any of us about it…” She shrugged. “It’s not a good or a bad thing, but keep in mind that he might not always want to be around people. For some, ‘being alone’ is not the same thing as ‘lonely’.”

“I guess you’re right,” Will said. Morosely, he took another pull from the bottle in his hand, then shuddered, making a face.

“...yeah, it didn’t sound like it would taste good,” Piper said, wrinkling her nose.

“It’s vile,” Will agreed. “But it gets the job done.”

“You are looking a little more alert,” Piper said, studying him. After a moment, she asked, “How did you know that, about Nico’s dream?”

“Oh,” said Will. “I, uh… when I went to the Hypnos cabin, Clovis showed me how to go into Nico’s dreams.” Defensively, he added, “After seeing him almost fade out and disappear, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t dreaming something that would kill him.”

Piper raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Will’s ears had turned a vivid shade of red, and that told her everything she needed to know. “Well, now I understand why you wanted to go to the Hypnos cabin,” she said. “No one could understand what possessed you.”

Will snorted. “Mystery solved?” he said dryly, bracing himself for another sip of the energy drink, and hesitating.

“I think so,” said Piper. “Here, while you finish your pick-me-up, let me finish my story. Hopefully it’ll distract you from how bad it tastes.” 

Will crossed his fingers, giving her a sardonic grin. Then he kicked one leg up onto the bed, leaning back against the bolster pillow at the end of his bed, and looked at her expectantly.

“Right,” Piper said, watching as he lifted the bottle to his lips again. “Well, for whatever reason, I got myself assigned a role in the plan…”

“Let me get this straight,” Piper said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You want me to go and knock on the door of the Hypnos cabin.”

“Yeah,” said Conner.

“And when Clovis comes to the door… I’m supposed to distract him while Harley flies a drone through the window.”

“You’re supposed to flirt with him,” Travis corrected.

“... why ?” Piper asked.

The Stoll brothers looked at each other and grinned. “Because it’s funny,” Conner said.

“Bucket list worthy,” Travis agreed.

“Can’t I just… ask if we can take him?” Piper asked.

“No!” they said together. “That would ruin the plan!”

Sophie ran up then. “Okay, Harley’s ready,” she said, all business. “Better get moving before he makes himself un-ready again.”

“You heard the lady!” Travis said, turning Piper towards the cabin door and giving her a little push. “Good luck! You’ll do great!”

“Yeah, super,” Piper muttered to herself as she stomped towards the cabin porch. Lou Ellen had given her one of the Awake medallions, so she wasn’t worried about falling asleep, but the darn thing was jangling her nerves more than a little bit. You faced down Gaia, she told herself firmly. You can handle Clovis.  

Truth be told, she wasn’t worried about handling the situation... but flirting with Clovis seemed pretty rude. Especially when everyone knew Jason was her boyfriend. Well, I just won’t do it, then , she thought to herself. They can’t make me. Taking a deep breath, she rapped on the door.

“Piper!” Travis hissed, his hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone.

She made the mistake of glancing in his direction. He proceeded to bat his eyes at her in an exaggerated fashion, while Conner made exaggerated kissy faces next to him, and Cecil rolled about in exaggerated hilarity. She took a step towards them, ready to show him exactly what she thought of them, when she heard the doorknob rattle.  Hastily she turned back towards the door, her bright, diplomatic smile plastered on her face. “Clovis! Hi.”

Clovis blinked at her, sleepily. “Ms. McLean,” he said, yawning. “Are you here for storytime?”

“Huh?” Glancing past him, she noticed that there were, indeed, several campers seated on the rug in front of the fireplace. One of Clovis’s brothers was sitting in the armchair with a picture book, showing off one of the images on the page.

“Just before naptime, we always have storytime,” said Clovis. “It’s gotten pretty popular.”

“I… see.” The camp had… naptime? Well, it did seem like the sort of activity that the Hypnos cabin would be good at hosting. And there were far more people in the cabin than she had been expecting. Did the commandos in the bushes know about story time?

Behind Clovis, the drone with the grabby claw slowly flew in through the open window. The claw swung slightly from side to side, tapping against the sill as it came through. Clovis heard it, and started to turn to see what it was. “I didn’t know about story time!” Piper said quickly, catching his attention again. “Looks like it’s pretty popular...” 

Clovis shrugged philosophically. “Afternoon naps are treasured all over the world,” he said. “Chiron was skeptical, but I knew people would come.”

The drone was struggling; it flew in entirely the wrong direction at first, the grabby claw swinging over the heads of the story time campers, before it came about, zeroing in on the bunk where Will lay. “Actually, Clovis,” said Piper, making a quick decision, “I’m not here for story time. I’m here to get Will. His siblings want him back in the infirmary, in case there’s an emergency.”

“Oh,” said Clovis. “Well, that’s fine.”

Piper blinked at him, surprised. “...really?”

“Yeah,” said Clovis. “He already got what he came here for, I am pretty sure. And yes, he still needs to sleep, but he can do that just fine back in the infirmary.”

“So… we can just take him?”

“…Sure,” said Clovis. “Why not?”

Piper rubbed her temple with her fingers. “Awesome. Thanks so much, Clovis.” She turned and stuck her head out the door. “Hey, you guys--”

Behind her, there was a whirring sound, and a loud ‘thud’. “I lost the signal,” she heard Harley shout from outside. 

“You heard the man,” Travis cried. “Plan B— go!”

“Wait!” Piper called. “You guys--”

CRASH! The Sons of Hermes came through the windows with more speed and enthusiasm than stealth. They took out the screens as they came, too, noisily plowing through the story time circle on the rug before figuring out that their target was in the front of the cabin. This information was ON the planning board, so they really should have known better. 

“Guys!” Piper cried, trying to do some sort of damage control. “Just grab him and bring him this way! Let’s go!”

The campers at story time had been more than willing to overlook the drone, annoying as it was. But they were far less pleased by the arrival of the commandos, and were starting to complain loudly.

Though apparently, no one could complain as loudly as the commandos themselves.  “Ugh!” said Cecil. “Why is he so heavy? Like, for real? He’s not that big a dude.”

“He’s bigger than you are,” Travis said pointedly, getting under his other arm. “Maybe if you did more training and less geeking, you’d be able to lift him.”

“Cecil’s not wrong, though,” Conner said with a grunt, picking up Will’s legs. “What does he eat, bricks?”

“Piper?” Kayla came up behind her, just outside the porch door. “What’s happening?”

“Clovis said we can just bring Will out through the door,” Piper said. “But our brilliant B team is-- GUYS! Stop trying to get him back out through the window!”

“Apollo’s arrows,” Kayla muttered. “And I think my brothers are idiots.”

The chaos in the cabin was only building, and the nappers were getting restless. “Is there anything we can do to stop them?” Piper asked, feeling a little desperate.

“You wanna try Charmspeaking them?” Kayla offered.

“I mean, I can...” said Piper, trailing off as one of the nappers stood, his hulking form looming over everyone else in the cabin. 

“STOLL!” 

Both the Stoll brothers froze immediately. “...Ellis,” Travis said guardedly. “Fancy seeing you here…”

“What in Hades’ name are you three doing?” Ellis Wakefield demanded. “You are ruining story time. And that makes me cranky!”

“Uh…” Upsetting an irritable Son of Ares, particularly at naptime, was the sort of thing every camper actively tried to avoid. “We’re trying to get Will back to the infirmary.”

“So TAKE HIM THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE A DEMIGOD WITH TWO BRAIN CELLS!” Ellis roared, making everyone flinch. He stomped across the cabin, shoved Cecil out of the way (causing the son of Hermes to go flying), and picked Will up in a bride’s carry, as if he weighed nothing. Then he turned and headed towards the door, looking for all the world as if he would pitch Will through it like a sack of flour.

“Wait-- wait! Ellis!” Piper said quickly, holding up her hands. “Don’t throw him-- Clarisse offered to take him for us. Could you just--”

Ellis glanced out through the door, saw that Clarisse was indeed standing in the yard, then glanced back at Piper. With a grunt of assent, he turned sideways and headed through the door, careful not to bump Will into the doorframe. 

With a sigh of relief, Piper glanced back over her shoulder, and saw that the story time campers were advancing on the Sons of Hermes, who were (rightfully) looking a little nervous. “Um, we’ll just be going now, okay?” Travis said, trying for bravado, and mostly succeeding.

“...yep, I think a hasty retreat is in order,” Conner said, backing towards the window. “Go! Go! Go!”

Piper sighed, turning and heading out the front door as the Stolls dove out the window, pursued by an avalanche of angry nap persons. As she scrambled after Ellis, she heard Clovis’s sister Maud ask, “...what about this one?”

She didn’t know what “other one” the Daughter of Hypnos was referring to. It was a problem for another time. She caught up with Kayla and Ellis just in time to hear Clarisse ask, “What in Hades’ name you doing in there?”

Ellis shrugged. “Rather take a nap than do arts and crafts,” he said.

Clarisse stared at him for a long moment. Then she said, “Respect. Arts and crafts sucks.” She put her arms out for Will, and Ellis handed him over without comment. Almost immediately, Clarisse tossed Will over her shoulder and took off across the lawn. 

With a little yeep, Kayla took off after her. Then she turned around, cupped her hands around her mouth, and called, “Thanks, Ellis!” before hustling after Clarisse and her brother.

“Yes, thank you, Ellis,” Piper said, exhaling in a huff. 

Ellis shrugged. “No prob.” He looked after the angry nap crew, his eyes glinting. “The only thing better than nap time is pounding on Sons of Hermes,” he said, cracking his knuckles. Then, he strode off down the hill, not running-- and not needing to, as he quickly closed the distance between himself and the fleeing Stoll brothers.

“...is that everything, then?” Sophie asked.

Having handed the drone back to Harley and Jake, Lou Ellen appeared beside them. “Yup, I think so,” she said.

“What about Cecil?” Sophie said, folding her arms.

Oh, thought Piper. That was the other person that Maud had been talking about. “Is he still in the Hypnos Cabin?”

“Yes,” said Lou Ellen. “The idiot broke the necklace I made when Ellis threw him. And, well, he usually stays up all night reading comics, so he is basically in a coma right now.” She shook her head, disgusted. “Clovis said they’d keep him, as sort of an exchange program.”

 

“And then, I caught up with Kayla and Clarisse,” Piper said. “And like I said, Clarisse decided it was easier to bring you here than all the way to the Infirmary, and there wasn’t much we could say to talk her out of it… so, here we are.”

Will slowly blinked at her, more out of confusion than sleepiness. “That is… one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever heard. And I live with these people; you know they do idiotic things all the time.”

Piper grinned. “I won’t argue. It does make for a pretty good story, though, you have to admit.”

“Do I?” Will asked faintly. Then the cabin door flew open with a ‘bang’, causing them both to look up in alarm. 

Kayla barged into the room, breathing hard. She nearly collapsed in relief when her gaze landed on Will. “Gods of Olympus!” she gasped. “Will. How are you?” 

“...still deeply exhausted,” he said. “But way more functional than I was earlier. What about you? Are you okay?”

“...yeah. I’m good.” Kayla braced her hands on her knees, taking a couple of deep breaths, then said, “I am very glad to see you awake.”

“Uh, thanks,” he said. “And thanks for sending everyone to my rescue.”

“Oh, did Piper tell you what happened?” Kayla rolled her eyes. “It was such a disaster.”

“Why did you run back here?” Piper asked. “Did something happen?”

“Apparently not,” Kayla said, exasperated. “When I finally made it over there, Nico was awake-- but he said he didn’t know if Will was awake, or if he was, like, stuck in dream limbo or something. So I freaked out and came back.”

Both of the girls turned to look at Will, who shrugged. “I was a little worried about it, too, if I’m honest,” he said.  “But when the dreamscape dissolved, I just woke up.”

“Well, good.” Kayla saw the water bottle in his hand and made a face. “Oh, Will.”

“It’s fine, Kay,” he said.

“No it’s not!” she said, stomping up to him and snatching it out of his hands. “Using this thing totally messes up your sleep cycle-- you know that!”

“Not today, it won’t,” Will said wearily. “Trust me. I’m just hoping for enough steam to get myself back to the Infirmary.”

Piper felt the tension brewing between the two siblings, and decided to do something before Kayla snapped. “You should bring pajamas with you,” she said quietly. “That way, you don’t have to come back here at all until tomorrow.”

Will thought about that for a long moment, then nodded. Kayla shot a look at Piper that would have flayed the flesh off a drakon, but Piper shook her head, beckoning her over. “We’ll go get your toothbrush and stuff,” she said breezily. “You just pull out some pajamas, and maybe a bag to put stuff in. We’ll be right back!”

“Are you kidding?” Kayla hissed at Piper as soon as they stepped into the cabin bathroom. “He is dead on his feet, and you’re encouraging him to go back to the Infirmary?”

“Don’t give him a hard time,” Piper murmured back. “Yes, he’s a mess, but from what I can tell, he’s not going to rest easy until he sees for himself that Nico is all right.”

“But…” Kayla paused, her eyes narrowing. “You know something.”

Piper shook her head. “I don’t. I just… have a feeling.” She raised an eyebrow. “Am I reading the signs right?”

Kayla shrugged helplessly. “It’s not like he’s told us, either,” she grumbled. “But… yeah, it’s what we’re thinking, too. It’s not like he’s subtle.”

“Mm,” said Piper. Then she nodded at the array of toiletries on the counter under the mirror. “And I thought my siblings were bad.”

“You cannot neglect your skin care,” Kayla said primly. 

Piper sighed. “Grab what he needs,” she said. “Just the essentials, Kayla.”

Kayla cackled. “Spoken like the Aphrodite cabin leader,” she said. “What does that look like for your siblings?”

“Bonkers,” Piper groaned. “Drew has at least three tackle boxes full of just eyeshadow palettes.”

 “What are you two doing?” Will called from outside the bathroom door.

“Girl things,” they replied in unison.

“Ugh,” Will shuddered. “I don’t want to know what that means. But can you hurry up, please?”

“Relax,” Piper said, poking her head out of the bathroom door. “We’re almost ready. Then we’ll get you to the infirmary, so you can check on your boy.”

Will flushed in spite of himself. “He’s not my boy.”

“Mmm…” said Piper. “If you say so.”

~*~*~*~

“So… Will was in the Hypnos Cabin?”

“Huh?” Nico blinked, startled out of his thoughts by Percy’s words. “Uh, yeah.”

“And you knew about it, even though you were asleep.” Percy raised an eyebrow. “What’s that about?”

“Um…” said Nico, wondering how he could avoid this question. “...I have some power over dreams.”

Percy folded his arms. “Since when.”

Nico shrugged, uncomfortable. “Since… always? I don’t know. I started realizing it more recently-- I could send messages to people through dreams. And if I concentrate, I can send people dreams. I’m no child of Hypnos, obviously, but Hades has some power over dreams.”

“Okay,” said Percy. “But that’s still not explaining why Will went to the Hypnos cabin.”

Nico went red to the roots of his hair. “ I don’t know why he did it,” he said. “He said it was because he wanted to check on me. I dunno.”

“He went to the Hypnos Cabin because he wanted to check on you-- while you were sleeping in his infirmary?”

“He’s… very dedicated?” Nico said, raking his hands through his hair. “I don’t get it either. It makes no sense.”  

Percy leaned back, folding his arms. “So… what did you guys do in this dream, then?”

Nico shrugged. “Nothing… just talked, really.”

“About…”

“Nothing!”  He scowled at Percy, desperately furious-- or furiously desperate, he couldn’t tell which. “You sure there wasn’t something else you wanted to talk about?”

Percy smirked at him. “S’matter? You don’t like being put on the hot seat?”

“No,” Nico said. “...I’m done talking about this. Next topic, please.”

“All right, all right,” Percy said, laughing. “Sheesh.” Shaking his head, his expression grew serious.  “There was something I was thinking about asking you, actually.”

“About what?” Nico asked warily.

 “Well, it’s about…” he hesitated, as if trying to make a decision about something. “...Bob,” he finally said. “And Damasen.”

“The giant?” Nico blinked, a little surprised. “What about them?”

Percy sighed, staring at his hands. “They saved my life in Tartarus. And they sacrificed themselves to help us reach the surface. And all I keep thinking is, there isn’t any hope they’ll make it to the surface themselves, is there?”

Nico thought about it for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he said truthfully. “Tartarus doesn’t like to relinquish any of its denizens. And Hades doesn’t let the dead rise again-- at least, not easily.” He spread his hands wide. “But nothing is impossible, is it? Gods are capable of marvelous things, and Titans and Giants are nearly as mighty. I think that there is hope for Bob and Damasen-- especially if you keep their memories alive.”

Percy raised his eyebrows. “You really think so?” he asked.

“I try not to say things I don’t believe,” Nico said. “It’s why I didn’t--” he stopped himself, shaking his head.

“Didn’t what?” Percy said, quickly jumping on his words. “What did you not? Are you talking about Leo--?”

“ No ,” said Nico. “I didn’t say it, and I won’t say anything because-- because having an odd feeling about something doesn’t make it any less true.”

“But if something was weird about it,” Percy pressed, “then he might have managed to take the Physician’s Cure after all--”

“ Percy ,” Nico said firmly. “I felt him die-- and the dead can’t return. I don’t like it any better than you do, especially since--” his voice cracked, and he quickly clamped his mouth shut, shaking his head. “Don’t ask me to give you hope where there isn’t any,” he said hoarsely. “Just-- don’t.”

“Okay, okay,” Percy said gently. “Sorry-- I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Nico shook his head. “It’s fine,” he said. Only this time, he heard himself doing it, that thing Will always said he did: automatically saying that things were ‘fine’ when they really weren’t.

He was lucky, though. Percy didn’t seem inclined to push him to find out what was wrong. “You look tired,” said Percy, studying Nico’s expression. “Do you want me to go?”

Nico shook his head. “Dinner is soon,” he said. “I’m not that hungry, but I’m trying to stay awake for it.” Before Percy could say anything else-- and before he could second guess the impulse-- he said, “Okay, now I have something to ask you.”

“Uh oh. You look determined.”  Percy gave him a lopsided smile. “Go ahead, ask away.”

“Well...” said Nico. “You’ve known me longer than anyone else here, pretty much.”

“True.”

“And you know where I came from,” Nico said. “Who my family was, and is.”

“I don’t know everything about you,” Percy joked. “I mean, you surprised the hell out of me yesterday.”

“I saw my father,” Nico blurted. “While we were traveling with the Athena Parthenos. And he… he told me he wanted me to be happy,”

Percy paused. “...whoa.”

“Yeah.”

“ Your father? The King of Melancholy?”

“Yep.”

“The one who wasn’t ashamed to exalt your sister over you-- to your face?”

“That’s more of what I’d expect from him,” Nico murmured. “...How can I do it? I don’t know how to be anything but miserable.”

“I dunno,” Percy said, scratching his nose. “You’re a pretty clever guy. I think you’ll be able to figure it out, if you give yourself the chance.” Seeing Nico’s doubtful expression, he said, “Do you know what makes you happy?”

Nico frowned, considering it. “No,” he said truthfully. “But I think I know what doesn’t make me unhappy.”

Percy had to think about that for a moment. “At least it’s a start,” he said. “But you should start thinking about it. What do you like? What makes you happy?”

Nico nodded, his mind whirling. “But… but do you think…?”

“Do I think what?” Percy asked.

“Do you think it’s too presumptuous of me to seek my own happiness, when so many others--”

“ Nico ,” said Percy, rolling his eyes. “You have saved every person in Camp Half-Blood twice , and everyone in Camp Jupiter at least once. You’ve saved my life at least as often as I’ve saved yours. Nobody has done more for less.” He leaned forward, earnest in spite of his exasperation.  “I think you’ve more than earned the right to be happy.”

“But… where do I even start?” Nico asked.

“... I don’t know,” Percy said. “Um… avoid things that suck, and do more of the things that don’t?”

“This fever sucks,” Nico offered

“Yeah, I’d try to steer clear of those,” Percy said.

“Tartarus sucked,” Nico said.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Percy said. “I think it has some potential as a tourist destination.”

Nico blinked, replaying that sentence twice in his head before he decided that he did hear that correctly.  “...say what, now?” he said faintly. 

“Sure,” said Percy. “I mean, there are people who really dig that whole “horror destination” thing. They might really enjoy the scenic… pustules.”

Nico stared at him. Then he ventured, “Come for the monsters, stay for the fire water?”

Percy cracked a smile. “Or, how about-- “Meet the Arai! They’ll curse your grandmother!”

For the second time that day, Nico started to laugh. He couldn’t help himself; the idea was so ridiculous. He rasped and wheezed with mirth until Percy grabbed the cup of water from the bedside table and pressed it into his hand. “Sorry,” he said, though he didn’t sound sorry.

“Uh huh,” Nico rasped, taking a sip of water.

A voice called to them from the other side of the curtain. “Did I hear happiness in this room? Or... whatever that weird sound is that Nico makes when he tries to laugh?” 

Nico looked towards the curtain, his expression brightening in spite of himself. “Shut up, Solace,” he said, sounding almost cheerful.

Will tugged opened the curtain and peered down at them. He looked utterly exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes, but he grinned at Nico and said, “Professional diagnosis: that laugh of yours is not healthy.”

“Hey, Will!” said Percy, leaning back in his chair. “I heard I have you to thank for solving the nightmare problem.”

Will blinked at him. “Well, it’s Clovis who will really do all the work…” he said.

“But you thought of it,” Percy said. “It’s a great idea. Annabeth and I are actually heading over to talk to Clovis once I’m done here. So, thank you.”

Will waved a hand. “It’s what I’m here for,” he said. Then he returned his attention to Nico. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” said Nico automatically. “...ish.”

Will crossed the room, put a hand on Nico’s forehead. “Still low grade,” he said. “Better, but it’s the fever that won’t quit!”

Nico nodded. “I guess I earned it,” he said. 

Will shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “No one deserves day-long fever. How about another compress? You could put it on the back of your neck while you eat.” Nico shrugged listlessly, and Will gave him a rueful smile, resting a hand briefly on top of his head. “Come on,” he said. “A compress, some aspirin, and a little chicken noodle. You’ll feel much better.”

Nico rubbed the top of his head irritably. “Okay, mom .”

In absolute defiance of his wan, pale expression, Will cracked a grin. “Now that’s sounding better,” he said. “And here I thought you were missing me.”

“Missing what? Your obnoxiously sunny disposition?” Nico grumped. “Keep dreaming, Solace.”

Will raised his eyebrow. “Like you know what I dream about,” he said airily.

Nico folded his arms. “I think I have an inkling,” he said.

“No,” said Will. “ I know what you dream about. But you don’t have any idea what I dream about.” 

Nico opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, realizing that Will was right.

Percy pushed himself out of his chair with a groan. “I know what I dream about,” he said. “Right now, it might be pizza.”  He clapped Nico on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said. “Get some rest, all right?” His eyes still on the Son of Hades, he held up a fist towards Will. “Both of you, get some rest. Seriously.”

Will obliged him with a weary but emphatic fist bump. “No worries,” he said. 

Percy grinned at him sidelong, then turned and headed through the curtain. “See you guys later.”

And then he was gone, leaving Nico and Will staring at one another.

“I’m sorry,” Nico blurted out. “About before. Leaving you like that. I…”

“It’s okay,” Will said. “I’m okay. I just woke up, that’s all.” He offered Nico a tired smile. “So, you got to have your conversation with Percy, huh.”

Nico blinked. “I guess I did,” he said.

“...And?” Will said. 

“...And what?”

“You said you weren’t sure if it was possible to be friends before,” Will said. “To just have a normal conversation with him.”

Nico rubbed his forehead. “How do you even have the brain cells to rub together to remember that?” he asked.

“Somehow, the important stuff sticks,” Will replied. “So?”

“So…” Nico thought back through the conversation. “...yeah.” 

“Yeah?” Will said.

Nico nodded. “Yeah,” he said, feeling the faintest of smiles tugging at the corner of his lips. “Friends. I think it’s possible.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, Will!” Nyssa tapped on the doorframe of the rec room politely, even though it was open and she was easily able to enter. She didn’t want to startle the son of Apollo, whose back was to the door. “That thing you asked me about? I think I found something that will work.”

He didn’t turn around, just kept placidly folding the stack of sheets sitting beside him. Frowning, she walked into the room. “Will?” she said, coming around the sofa. 

While his hands moved automatically, the rest of him was frozen stiff, staring into space with a dead-eyed, slack-jawed expression. She thought he was just spacing out, but slowly he turned his head and looked at her, opened his mouth to respond, and said, very eloquently:

“Hnuuuuuuuuurghhhhhhhhhh…”

Nyssa yelped and backed up a few steps. “What in Hades’ name--?” 

Blessedly, footsteps came hurrying down the back hall, and Ryan Wright charged into the room. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry!” he said, scrambling over to Will. “I only left for a couple of minutes-- you’re fine, Will!” He patted Will on the shoulder, a little awkwardly. “Keep going-- you’re doing great!”

With a small grunt, Will returned to passively folding sheets. Nyssa looked at Ryan, wide-eyed, and he shrugged helplessly.  “Sorry about that,” he said. “It’s my job to watch him-- I really was only gone for a couple minutes, I swear!”

“What-- how--” Nyssa stammered. Then she stopped, putting a hand to her forehead and inadvertently touching the knot that was still there. “Is Kayla here somewhere?”

Ryan nodded quickly. “She’s in the infirmary.” And he pointed, somewhat unnecessarily; newer campers were always so eager to please.

Nyssa nodded, still staring at Will with a mix of concern and horror. After a moment she turned and headed down the hall to the infirmary, where she found Kayla sitting on the rolling chair, leaning sleepily against the counter. “What in the name of all the gods is going on here?”

“Oh, hi, Nyssa,” Kayla said, rubbing one eye. “S’up? Did you come in for a check-up?”

“...not even remotely,” Nyssa said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “What is wrong with Will?”

“What makes you think something is wrong?” Kayla asked, her words oddly stretched by the tail-end of a yawn.

Nyssa gave her an incredulous look. “I’m pretty sure I just heard him speak Zombie,” she said. “Is he dead? Is he… undead?”

Kayla snorted. “Nah,” she said. “Our fearless leader needed to take a good long nap today, but opted for a high-powered energy drink instead. So now his body is wide awake, but his mind is dead asleep.” She smiled wryly at the daughter of Hephaestus. “I can see how it would be terrifying if you didn’t know about it, but honestly, it’s kind of funny. We just need to keep an eye on him, and... not expect any deep conversation.”

Nyssa’s stony expression told Kayla plainly that she did not see any humor in the situation. But then again, she wasn’t the sort to joke around, even on a good day.  “He was fine earlier today,” she said. “What happened?”

“Oh, you know,” Kayla said, waving a hand. “We’ve been working pretty steadily for the past four days. Will just handled one emergency too many, that’s all.” She reached for her clipboard. “I’ll get your chart, one sec.” 

“I was already here for a checkup— and that is the last thing you should be thinking about right now,” Nyssa said flatly, putting a hand over the clipboard and holding it down against the counter. “You look exhausted, too.”

“It’s been a day,” Kayla admitted, giving her a wan smile. 

“Do you need help?” Nyssa pressed. “I’m pretty much fine… Is there something I can do?”

“Oh, no,” said Kayla, waving a hand again. “It’s pretty quiet right now, and I’m almost done here. Austin agreed to take the late shift, so I’m just covering for him until he gets back, and then I’m going home.”

“You better,” Nyssa said. She reached out and brushed Kayla’s cheek with one of her calloused thumbs. “I’m not used to seeing you looking so tired.”

Kayla’s lips twitched. “You’re trying to say I look like shit in the nicest way possible, aren’t you?”

“Hey.” Nyssa frowned at her. “Usually you Apollo kids are all about self-preservation. You are too smart to run recklessly into danger—“

“Wow, that’s flattering,” Kayla muttered.

“—and I like that about you,” Nyssa continued seriously. “I have lost too many people who were heroes, throwing themselves into battles and never returning. I feel like it’s safer to find friends among the people who will take care to come back every time.”

“Nyssa…” said Kayla.

Nyssa cupped Kayla’s face in her strong, weathered hands. “You need to take care of yourself,” she said. “Or I’m going to have to step in and make sure you do.”

Kayla had closed her eyes for a moment, letting herself relax into Nyssa’s touch, but at these words she opened them again. “Promise?” She said softly, looking up at Nyssa through golden lashes.

Nyssa raised an eyebrow. “You must really be tired,” she drawled, just as softly. “Where’s the pushback? The ‘I can take care of myself, Nyssa’?”

“If someone’s offering to take over, so I don’t have to do things,” Kayla murmured, “at this point, I’ll totally take them up on it.”

“You should be careful,” Nyssa warned. “With an attitude like that, someone could take advantage of you.”

“Still waiting…” said Kayla. 

Nyssa smirked, then leaned in, her intense gaze fixed on the curve of Kayla’s lips. Kayla let her eyes sink closed again, feeling Nyssa’s warmth, her breath ghosting softly over her skin; sometimes the daughter of Hephaestus’s need to help and to care for people felt overbearing to independent Kayla, but today, it felt amazing. It was sort of like how, when you didn’t have enough vitamin C, carrots became the tastiest food ever...

“No!” 

Startled, Nyssa turned her head, and Kayla sighed, opening her eyes.  Well, that just figures, she thought, turning to look at the partition curtain. 

“...that wasn’t for us, right?” Nyssa said slowly.

“I doubt it.” Kayla listened for a moment, then shrugged. “He’s probably just having a nightmare,” she said quietly, reaching for Nyssa again. “Pay no attention, I’m sure he doesn’t--”

“--Kayla?” The voice came from the other side of the partition again, hesitant and uncertain.

Kayla closed her eyes again, and resisted the urge to swear. “Or, maybe he does,” she said, pushing up to her feet with a sigh. “Hold that thought for me, would you?”

~*~*~

As much as it looked like he had impressive control over his dreams, Nico would be the first to admit he had a long way to go before he mastered the skill. As if to illustrate his own shortcomings, while wandering down the hallway he’d created for himself, it transformed into a train.

He blinked. “Why a train…?” he wondered, staring down the long, narrow hallway. Well, it didn’t look that different from the hallway he’d created, but now he had windows to look through, instead of doors that safely blocked his dreams from view. Nervously, he turned his head to peer out into the dim, gray landscape that spread out endlessly around him. No nightmares in sight— the train was rolling peacefully through the fields of Asphodel, he recognized. But there wasn’t a train that ran through the Fields…was there? 

All in all, it was an odd place for his subconscious to take him.  Uncomfortably, he remembered his words to Reyna, in that battlefield in South Carolina: “In Asphodel, millions of ghosts wander around aimlessly, trying to remember who they were. You know why they end up like that? They never spoke out, so they were never heard.”  Was there something that he felt like he needed to say? Something that he was keeping to himself?

Of course there is. Coward.

On the ground outside of the window, the souls of the lost drifted through the fields around him, not even looking up as the train raced by. It would almost be soothing, if it wasn’t so soul-crushingly depressing. As he stared out into the neverending gray, his eyes traced the contours of a familiar figure, and his heart jolted in recognition; blonde, shaggy hair gleamed in the non-existent sunlight as the train raced past--

Nico pressed a hand to the glass, straining his eyes to see him even as the landscape whisked him away. Was that really Will? Had he gone back to Cabin 15 in an effort to reach Nico... or was Nico’s subconscious just showing him what he most wanted to see? He was going to spend the rest of his life, looking for Will Solace in his dreams, and it was all the fault of that lousy son of Hypnos…

...which wasn’t really fair. He needed to thank Clovis for many things...

Reaching up, he pulled the cord that told the conductor to stop the train. Immediately the wheels howled, metal screaming against metal as the train came to a stop.  Nico moved towards the exit, intent on traveling back and making sure that Will wasn’t lost in limbo in his dreams, for the second time that day. But as he came down the steps into the endless dark of the Underworld, something else caught his attention. The train had stopped next to one of the rivers, and it called to him like the voice of a Siren in the deep. The Lethe, Nico thought as he moved towards it, recognizing the pearly white waters of the River of Memory. He stared down into the depths of the water, knowing that it could bring oblivion, relief from the most terrible and intense of his memories--

“The remembering is hard, little friend,” came a voice from behind him, a voice he recognized. “Seeing all the moments of life that you wish you could forget, playing themselves out over and over. But the lack of memories… knowing there is something missing… in so many ways, that is worse…”

He knew that voice. Maybe it was the Mythomagic cards from last night, or the fact that Percy had mentioned him earlier in the day... It was Bob, he knew it was Bob. Nico turned, wanting to see his face, but as he did his foot slipped on the riverbank and he toppled into the Lethe. And as he sank below the depths of the water, he looked up at the kindly visage of the former Titan and thought, “...I don’t want to forget your face…”

“No!” Nico burst out of the water and sat up, gasping and dripping. But he wasn’t on the bank of the river-- he was in the infirmary again, and it was full dark outside. Also, the bedclothes were damp. Running a hand through his sleep-tousled hair, he found it was also wet.

 “What-- ughhh,” he grimaced, plucking his damp shirt away from his body. “ Gross. ” Obviously, something was wrong with him-- this was not normal. Was it? 

He heard soft murmuring on the other side of the partition. He didn’t know what time it was, or who might be out there, but he hoped it might be someone who could help him. “...Kayla?”

There was a moment’s silence, and a shuffling of feet, then the curtain twitched open, and Kayla poked her head in. “Hey, are you o--ooooh kay,” she said, giving him a quick once-over. “Yeah, I guess that would wake you up, wouldn’t it?”

Nico opened his mouth to ask, but she had already turned around to her companion. “I’m so sorry, I need to deal with this. Do you mind…?”

“It’s fine,” Nyssa said, crossing until she was just visible through the crack in the curtain. “But when is Austin coming? Fifteen minutes?”

Kayla glanced at the clock again. “Just about,” she said.

“I’m coming back,” Nyssa said firmly. “To make sure that you go home and get some rest tonight. ¿Entiendes?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Kayla, rolling her eyes-- but looking somehow pleased at the same time.

Nyssa nodded. “Oh-- and I’m leaving Will’s thing on his work table!”

Nico choked, and Kayla snorted. “Will’s… thing? How’d you get your hands on that?”

“I mean-- it’s the thing that he asked me for--” As if it suddenly occurred to Nyssa what her words sounded like, she blushed. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!” she cried, turning and hurrying towards the rec room door. 

Kayla chuckled softly as the door banged shut behind her. “Sorry,” she said to Nico. “I love yanking her chain.” She tugged the curtain closed. “Come on, let’s get you up so you can get changed.”

“What is wrong with me?” Nico asked plaintively, swinging his feet over the side of the bed. 

“Nothing’s wrong,” Kayla said. “Your fever broke, that’s all. It’s a good thing.”

“What’s so great about it?” Nico grumped. “I feel disgusting.”

“Would you rather still feel achy and tired?”

“...well, no,” Nico said.

“Okay then!” Kayla grinned at him. “Like I said. A good thing.”

“Hooray.” Nico wrinkled his nose. “Is there any way I could take a shower? I feel gross.”

“Sure.” Kayla motioned over her shoulder with her thumb. “There’s an outdoor shower, just around the side of the house.” 

“...an outdoor shower,” Nico said, raising both eyebrows.

“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Kayla said, rolling her eyes. “After the incident in 1996, they rebuilt the outdoor showers, to prevent any risk of public indecency.”

Nico pressed his lips together, trying to act cool in the face of that bit of knowledge, even as he felt his ears turning red. Again.  “...huh.”

“Yeah, it was quite a happening.” Kayla smirked. “Chiron said once that he was surprised Mr. D didn’t have extra years tacked onto his sentence after that little debacle.”

“I don’t want to think about it,” Nico said quickly. “So… outside?”

Kayla stood. “I can show you where it is,” she said. “If you feel up to it, I mean. If not, I’m sure we could get Will awake enough to give you a sponge bath...” 

Color flooded Nico’s face. “No! Thank you! Shower’s great!”

Kayla grinned wickedly at him. “Meet me at the side door,” she said, heading towards the curtain. “I’ll get you a towel.”

Nico covered his eyes with his hands, taking about four deep breaths before he felt able to follow her.

~*~*~

When he heard the words “outdoor showers,” Nico’s mind conjured up an image of one of those open-air showers that he’d seen at the beach, the type that was basically a pipe with showerheads attached.  He’d walked past one once, where what looked like a full army regiment was rinsing off after combat drills, completely naked to the open air, laughing and snapping one another with towels. He’d stared at them with horrified fascination, mortified but somehow unable to look away.

If the outdoor showers at Camp Half-Blood had been like that, Nico would have turned around and walked straight back inside, not even caring about how gross he felt. But these showers were maybe about fifteen feet away from the house, and built like horse stalls, with an awning roof and three walls that stood about six feet high on all sides. Each of the stalls had two curtains-- one that closed off a little changing area, with a couple of hooks and a bench seat on one side, and another that led into the actual shower. It made the odds of someone accidentally barging in on a showering person pretty low. 

After hanging up his towel on the hook, Nico pulled the first curtain closed, then walked into the shower and closed the second curtain. Then he sighed, feeling something in his body release. Why he felt safer behind two curtains instead of one, he couldn’t say. 

As he peeled off his sweat-soaked clothes, he listened to the stillness and quiet of the night.  Most of the campers were at the campfire now, so nothing interfered with the symphony of crickets and the summer breeze. Tossing his sweaty clothes through the curtain and onto the cement slab, he took a deep breath, then turned on the water. It was still hot out, even with the sun down, and he left the water a little bit cooler, so that it felt refreshing against his skin. 

The water felt so good. It had felt good the first time he’d used the shower in the Hades cabin, once the battle for Camp Half-Blood was over. He’d been so tired he’d almost fallen asleep under the spray, but he’d blearily realized he could barely remember the last time he’d used a shower. On the Argo II, Leo had put in bathrooms that he’d boasted were “better than you’d find in any cruise ship.” But the water pressure, understandably, wasn’t great, and with five of them on board, Nico had always showered as quickly as he could. 

Another one of the perks of staying at Camp Half-Blood, he thought. Being able to take showers as long as he wanted…

“Save some water for the fishes, Nico!”

Bianca’s voice echoed through the back of his head, jolting him back to reality. She knew he tended to daydream, especially in the shower, and they weren’t supposed to waste water. Shaking himself slightly, he reached for the shampoo. Figures , he thought. There was no way I could take as long of a shower as I want...

Except he couldn’t focus on what he was doing. Minutes later, he paused, thought about it, then dunked his head under the spray, rinsing the soap out of his hair. She’d be so mad at me...

“Yo, Nico!”

Nico jumped, not expecting someone to call him from so close. “Yeah?” he said, pushing his dripping hair out of his face. He poked his head through the curtain-- being careful to ensure it was only his head.

Austin’s hand came through the first curtain and left a small pile of clothing on the bench. “Kayla sent me to bring you this,” he said. “She figured you probably wouldn’t want to put your own clothes back on.”

“Oh,” said Nico. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. “No, you’re right, I probably don’t. Thank you.”

“No prob!” The hand waved, then retreated again. Nico returned bemusedly to his shower. What did he have left to do? He’d washed his hair, and rinsed it, and he’d lathered up the washcloth with soap-- when had he done that?-- but he didn’t think he’d used it yet. Shrugging, he rubbed it over his shoulder and over his neck, willing himself to stay focused and finish what he’d started.

A few moments later, he turned the handle and shut off the water, then reached outside of the curtain and grabbed his towel. After briskly drying himself off, he wrapped the towel around himself and opened the curtain, seating himself on the bench outside.

Then he glanced at the pile of clothing beside him. It was light colored, which already had him wrinkling his nose, but then again, it was better than his sweat-soaked pajamas. But… picking it up, he unfolded it and held it up. What was it-- a robe of some sort? He stood and tugged it over his shoulders, putting his arms through the sleeves, but it didn’t feel right. It didn’t close properly in the front-- which was awkward on SO many levels-- and he had a hard time bringing his arms forward, like the garment was constructed backwards--

Oh. Oh no. He did know what this was.

In lieu of his pajamas, Kayla apparently expected him to wear the backless hospital gown.

~*~*~

Scratching the back of his head, Will wandered into the infirmary. He wasn’t entirely sure what was going on— he’d come to, just a few moments earlier, staring at the blank screen of the rec room TV.  And he’d looked at the clock, confused by the time on the display; he’d come back to the infirmary to check on Nico just before dinner, but now it was a little after 8pm. Where had the time gone? And how had he ended up here, of all places?

Suspecting that he wasn’t going to like the answer, he’d pushed himself to his feet and slogged his way into the infirmary. The place was pretty quiet, but he expected that; they only had a handful of patients left. Thank the gods. But one of his siblings ought to have been around, keeping an eye on things...

As if on cue, the screen door opened and closed, and Austin came back into the infirmary. “Oh, look who’s awake!” he said. “He-yo.”

“Austin,” Will said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I feel like I’ve been a liability today.”

“Nah,” Austin said with a grin. “You followed directions, didn’t wander off, and managed to help way more than we were expecting. I wish you would have gone back to sleep, but you didn’t seem inclined…”

Will frowned. “I...helped? With what?”

“Oh, you know,” Austin said breezily. “Folding partitions, rolling and restocking clean bandages… you even did sleep checkups on a couple of campers. Specifically Sherman, who looked really freaked out.” He smiled dreamily. “I’m going to remember the look on his face forever.”

Will closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “Glad I could be of service,” he said. Then he asked the other question that had been on his mind since coming into the infirmary. Gesturing at the conspicuously open curtain, he said, “...where’s Nico?”

“Oh-- he’s outside taking a shower,” Austin said. “Thanks for reminding me, I need to change the sheets before he gets back--” and he vanished down the hall before Will’s brain had caught up to himself.

“He’s-- what?” Will said. “But he shouldn’t do that, unless--” his fever broke. Well, that would explain why Austin wanted to change the sheets. Scanning the rest of the room, his eyes landed on a small pile of clothes on his work station. It was a pair of spare sleep clothes-- they always kept a few around, for emergency purposes.

Next to the pile of clothes was a small object that he didn’t recognize. Puzzled, he picked it up and turned it over in his hands; there was a knob on the side, and when he turned it, the device whirred into life. “Oh,” he said, a little surprised. Then he clicked the knob a few more times, and grinned. “Oh, that’s so good , Nyssa! Perfect!” The daughter of Hephaestus couldn’t know just how perfectly her device would work for what was needed. If he’d made a direct request, designed the thing to his own specifications, it wouldn’t have been as good as what she’d given him. He was going to have to think of a way to repay her.

He grabbed a piece of tape from his workstation and put it just above the knob. Then he grabbed a pen and wrote a little note on it. Picking up the device and the stack of clothes, he headed towards Nico’s bed. But once he reached his bedside, he paused, absently setting the device on the bedside table. “...If Nico has gone to take a shower…” he said bemusedly, “...why am I standing here holding his clothes? Won’t he need them?”

Of course he would. If he wasn’t so tired and braindead, it would have occurred to him sooner. Shaking his head, he turned and headed towards the porch door, brushing past Austin, who’d just returned with an armful of bed linens.

“What’s up?” Austin asked him. “Are you going home?”

“Nah,” Will said, waving a hand. “I’ll be right back!”

~*~*~

Nico stood inside the first curtain, seething with embarrassed rage. He absolutely did NOT want to do this… but he wasn’t going to stand out here all night, inside this curtain, with his butt hanging out of this backless hospital gown .  He took a deep breath, and consoled himself with the fact that it was pretty late, and nearly everyone was at the campfire, and maybe no one would be nearby to see him.

Steeling his resolve, he pulled the curtain open--

--and nearly ran smack into Will Solace, who stood just outside with another folded pile of clothing.

Nico was pretty sure he’d never wanted to crawl into a bronze jar and die as much as he had in that exact moment.

Will blinked at him. His lips twitched. “...I see you’ve received the official Infirmary hazing,” he said. “Congrats.”

“This has happened before?” Nico demanded, his face burning in spite of himself.

“I already told you, we love our hospital gown,” said Will. “Kayla was actually nicer to you than most of the others.” He held out the stack of clothing he was holding. “Clean pajamas, so you don’t have to march across the camp with your scrawny rear-end hanging out.”

Scowling, Nico snatched the clothing from him quickly, in case he decided to tease him further and not let him have them. But Will simply grinned at him. “Thanks,” Nico muttered.

“You’re welcome,” Will said cheerfully. “I’d tell you to thank Kayla, since she left the clean pajamas for you, but since she’s also the one who gifted you with the hospital gown--”

“Austin’s the one who brought it out,” Nico said darkly, tugging the curtain closed.

“Aha!” Will said. “Well then. Kayla is your savior, after all; she probably asked Austin to bring the clothes out to you first, but he brought the gown instead.” 

“Ha ha,” Nico called through the curtain.

“Don’t be mad,” Will said. “They’re just teasing you. It means they like you.”

Nico paused, the t-shirt halfway over his head. “It’s kind of an odd way to show it,” he said.

“Well,” said Will. “We are adolescent campers. Everything we do is weird.” 

As he considered that, Nico snorted. “I like how you lump yourself into the same category,” he said, putting his arms through the sleeves.

“Mom raised me to be self-aware,” Will replied. “She thought it was fine for me to inherit my father’s gifts, just… not his ego.”

Nico smirked. “Gods bless your mom, then,” he said. Fully dressed now, he tugged the curtain open again.

Will’s smile broadened. “Heyyy,” he said. “It’s nice to see you in a color.”

The pajamas were simple, a well-worn pair of soft cotton shorts and a faded blue t-shirt that said “My Other Ride is a Pegasus”. Nico shifted his weight a little awkwardly. “What, the Hawaiian shirt wasn’t enough for you?”

“It wasn’t your style, really,” Will said easily. “But just a plain, solid color? Looks good.”

“...It makes me feel like I’m somebody else,” Nico said uncomfortably. “Someone I don’t recognize.” 

Will’s grin softened a little bit. “We’ll work on it,” he said simply. “Ready to go?”

Nico nodded, balling up his old pajamas in his hands and tucking them under his arm. Together, they headed back towards the house.

“So, your fever broke,” Will said. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yes and no,” Nico replied. “That weird, heavy feeling is gone… my head feels better, and everything isn’t as achy as it was before.”

“That’s good,” said Will.

“But I’m still tired,” Nico said, scowling. “I still feel drained and weak, and I hate it.”

“No nightmares, though?” Will asked.

“No…” Nico frowned. “Maybe. A small one. I can’t remember exactly what it was about…” It felt like someone was calling his name. Someone far away. But every time he reached for it, the face and the name escaped him.

“Mm…” Will said softly. Then he said, “...I left you something on your bedside table.”

“What?” Nico asked, looking at him. 

“I left you something,” Will said patiently. “On your bedside table.” He hurried up the porch steps.

“Like… a present?” Nico asked, trailing after him. “For me? You shouldn’t have.”

Will flushed. “It’s nothing big,” he said quickly, “so don’t get excited.   It just… I asked Nyssa to help me out, and it turns out she basically already had what I needed, so--”

“So I shouldn’t feel special?” Nico asked lightly, stopping in the doorway to look up at him. He barely stopped himself from saying, Too late...

Will shot him a dirty look. “Hey, I’ll take it back if you don’t want it!”

“I don’t even know what it is yet!” Nico said. “But…”

“But?” said Will.

“It’s just... people don’t usually think of me for any reason,” said Nico. “Like, making me a sandwich, or leaving things for me on my bedside table. It’s… strange, to me.”

“Um, I’m sorry?” said Will.

Nico smacked him in the arm. “I’m trying to say thank you ,” he said.

“Oh,” said Will. “Well… you’re welcome. Hopefully it helps.”

“I’m sure it will,” Nico said. Then he flushed. “I mean. Every time you do something, it… well… I’ll keep you posted!” Turning on his heel, he tugged the door open. “Good night, Will!”

“Good night, Nico,” said Will, turning to watch him go. He sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

“Don’t look at me,” Nico growled at him, hunching his shoulders up by his ears. “Turn yourself back around right now!”

He didn’t dare to look back, but once he was inside the partition curtain he collapsed onto his bed and curled up in a tiny, shaking ball. How close had he come to saying too much, just then? Will was a thoughtful person, and a conscientious doctor, but as far as their relationship went, that was about it. He probably did things like this all the time-- what was on the bedside table might just be some sort of concoction that would make him sleep, one that he wouldn’t take--

--so why did it feel like such a special thing, that the Son of Apollo had gotten something for him?

Taking a deep breath, and willing his heart to slow its frenzied beating, he lifted his head and dared to look at what Will had left for him.

It was not a potion. It looked like… like a brass egg, sort of. Just a little too big to be held in one hand. Curious, Nico reached out a hand and picked it up, hefting it in his grasp. It had a lens at the top, and a knob on the side, with notches that seemed to designate several settings; there was also a little piece of tape with an arrow, pointing to one of the notches, along with the words, ‘This One’. 

Nico turned the knob to the first setting, and the little egg whirred to life. Light spilled out of the lens at the top, projecting all over the ceiling and the curtains; the patterns of light made it look like he was underwater. To add to the effect, the orb projected a sound like rippling waves.

“Huh,” said Nico. He turned the knob again, and this time, the projector cast swirling gray light against the ceiling, and the sound was like drops of rain. There was even the gentle flicker of distant lightning, accompanied by a low grumble of thunder. The third setting was an aurora effect, maybe a little bit too bright but beautifully soothing, and the sound effect was like wind through the trees.

  That one is nice, he thought, turning the knob one more time. I wonder why this next one is the one he--

Out of the orb sprang a thousand points of light, a galaxy of stars projecting into every corner of the room. The sound of crickets and nightjars chirped softly from the egg in his hands. 

Oh, of course. It was just like his dream.

A slight thrill went through him as he realized that the little egg provided just enough light for him to see his own hands in the darkened infirmary. If he had a nightmare, if he woke in the dark, he wouldn’t need to panic. He would know that he was okay.

It was enough to set his heart pounding again. What did this mean? Will said Nyssa already had this thing, so it wasn’t a big deal… but would he have gone out of his way to mark that particular setting, if it didn’t have a particular meaning?  Or was this just the sort of thing that friends did for one another? 

He was too tired to think about it, he decided. Setting the orb down on the table again, he climbed under the blanket-- a fresh one, he noticed, someone had changed the sheets-- and let his eyes sink closed. 

Even if he was just a friend… what had he ever done to deserve a friend as thoughtful as Will Solace?

Chapter Text

Though he couldn’t see more than a sliver of light coming through the curtains, Will knew it was dawn when he awoke. He always rose with the sun, and usually he got straight up, drank a glass of water, did yoga, and took a shower before his siblings started stirring. 

Not this morning. 

He’d slept in the infirmary, so he had no idea what was going on in his own cabin. But that was okay-- they could handle one night without him. Besides, Kayla was so apocalyptically cranky yesterday, he didn’t think anyone would do something to risk facing her wrath. And the infirmary was still and quiet. He’d awakened twice during the night, listened for a moment to Damien’s soft snoring and the steady, persistent song of the crickets from the sound machine. He hadn’t heard the screen door either, and could see from where he lay that it was still locked, the latch fastened. 

Good. So the nightlight helped, Will thought sleepily. Not that he’d ever call it a nightlight to Nico’s face. 

Rolling onto his back, he stared at the ceiling-- and noticed that the lights reflecting on the ceiling were changing. Above the partition curtains, he could see the storm clouds roiling, like they did in Cabin 1-- and then it changed to the water pattern from Cabin 3. Nico must be awake, Will thought. 

He didn’t really want to be awake yet, himself, but his daily habits were firmly ingrained. Wake up when the sun rises and get a glass of water. So now, even as he was lying there wishing he could just go back to sleep… he was thirsty. Of course. 

With a soft groan, he pushed himself upright and got to his feet, then shuffled through the curtain and towards the sink on the clinic side of the infirmary. As he passed the curtains around the first bunk, he paused. “Nico?” he called.

The lights on the ceiling snapped off in a hurry. “Who’s there?” It was just a whisper, but Will could hear the battle-ready reflexes in the sound. Nico was alert enough to be wary-- and Will wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

“Stand down, soldier,” Will murmured softly. “It’s me, Will.”

“You’re here already?” Nico asked. “You are way too dedicated to your work.” 

“I am not on the clock,” Will retorted. “I was going to get some water. Would you like some?”

There was a brief pause, and then Nico said, “Sure, why not.” Then there was a rustling of fabric, and the bed creaked.

“Don’t get up,” Will said. “I’ll bring it, give me a sec.”

There was another hesitation. “Okay,” Nico said. 

So, still too tired to actually insist on being up, Will thought as he filled the pitcher by the sink. That’s probably for the best.  If I can get him to go back to sleep, maybe…

There was one thing Will knew for sure, after years of working with healing demigods; once a patient was past the point of maximum discomfort or pain, once they were healing properly, there would be a period of crankiness or whining. No one enjoyed being cooped up in bed, and for an ADHD, battle-ready demigod, it was the equivalent of hell on earth. Damien was a perfect example of this; yesterday he’d driven everyone crazy. This was good, because it meant his infection was cleared up, but it was bad because every child of Apollo had a short fuse yesterday.

Will was worried about what Nico would be like, now that his fever was gone. Having already seen what sort of thing could happen when someone set him off, he had to make sure that everyone kept things easy around the son of Hades today– for all of their sakes.

When Will stepped through the curtain around Nico’s bed, pitcher of water in hand, the son of Hades looked up at him and smirked. “Nice hairdo.”

Without thinking, Will put his hand to the back of his head, forgetting he was holding an extra cup. Thankfully it was empty. “Sorry,” he said, trying to keep his tone light, like he didn’t care that he had no idea what his hair looked like. “But it’s not like you have any room to talk.”

Nico shrugged, not seeming too bothered by the comment. “I don’t pay much attention to my hair, most days,” he said. “But it’s odd to see you without your hair, you know, styled.” 

Will sniffed. “Sometimes, I have other priorities,” he said, setting the cup down on the bedside table and pouring some water into it. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m all right,” Nico said, a little stiffly. “No nightmares, which was nice.”

“But you’re awake,” Will pointed out, handing him a cup of water.

“Yeah, well… the hallway is boring,” Nico grumped, taking a sip of the water. “There’s only so many hours I can wander up and down that hall.”

“You didn’t want to go back to stargazing?” Will remarked.

Nico made a face. “I tried that,” he said. “But there were too many thoughts in my head. It wasn’t very relaxing.”

“Hmm…” said Will. “You want to try something different?”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Like what?” he asked, over the lip of his glass.

“My mom taught me a thing once... She’s a singer, and she has a lot of rituals she does for controlling her nerves before and after a show. She taught me one of them when I was really young, and I still use it when I can’t sleep, or if I want to relax and shut out the world for a little while.” 

“Huh.” Nico took a long drink of his water, then set the glass back on the table. “Sure, why not. It’s not like I’m doing  anything else right now.” 

Will huffed a laugh, then grabbed the chair and pulled it up to Nico’s bedside. “Close your eyes, then,” he said. “Go back to your boring hallway.”

Nico smirked. “Okay, fiiiiiine...” He flopped back on the pillow and closed his eyes.

“Now, pick a door,” Will said. “Or… hm. Maybe create a new one. Make it a different color, so that you don’t mistake it for the other doors in the hall.”

It was strange-- a person couldn’t just fall asleep, but it didn’t take long before Nico said, “Okay, found it.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a blue door,” Nico said. “And on it, there’s a…” he trailed off. “Well. I won’t mistake it for any other door.”

Will was very curious about what the door had on it, but he didn’t press the issue. All he said was, “Good choice. I like the color.”

“You don’t say,” Nico murmured, unsurprised. “What happens when I open the door?”

“Right,” said Will. “When you open the door, it leads to a staircase going down. There are twenty-one steps to the bottom, and we are going to count them from the highest number to the lowest. And on each number, you will take a deep, low breath, until you reach the very bottom.”

Nico’s eyebrows were furrowed, doubt painted in every line of his face. But he took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “Twenty-one,” he said, his tone saying plainly how he felt about the whole endeavor. 

By the time he’d reached step fifteen, though, his forehead had smoothed, and he seemed much more relaxed. Even his voice seemed more even, almost dreamlike. Will’s lips quirked in a smile; Nico was defensive and skeptical, but if you asked him to try something, he was going to do it as well as he could.

Presently, Nico reached the end of the numbers. “You’ve arrived at the bottom of the staircase,” Will said. “And there is a Guardian waiting there, to guide you to another room.”

“...Jules-Albert?” Nico murmured. “Okay…”

Will raised an eyebrow. Who is Jules-Albert?   “The room you are entering is your very own,” he said. “It is a safe place, free from judgments, nightmares, and wildly racing thoughts.”

“...what’s in this room?” Nico murmured. “It’s so dark.”

Will thought hard. His mother had guided him to his own room when he was so small, and he felt as though it had always been furnished, always been cozy and warm. “...Probably you haven’t turned on the lights yet,” Will said. “Each person’s room is different, so I can’t tell you what exactly you will find there…”

“What’s in yours?” Nico asked.

Will hesitated. This was his private space, and he felt vulnerable telling anyone about it. Well, maybe he wouldn’t share all the details. “...there is a window,” Will said. “And a comfortable chair. I like to sit in the chair and look out the window when I am in my room.”

“Does it have a nice view?” Nico murmured.

He didn’t ask what was outside, Will noted. Interesting.  “It does,” he said. “It’s my favorite place, so I love to look out the window and see it there.”

“What else?” Nico said. 

“...there’s a fireplace,” Will said. “A big stone hearth, casting warm light over the rug lying on the floor… and someone I love is there with me, and we are having something hot to drink. And we’re not really saying anything, just… being together, and looking out the window at the view…”

Nico was quiet for a moment so long, Will started to wonder if he’d drifted off. But then he said, sounding quite sleepy, “...I’m too old to be sitting on someone’s lap, don’t you think…?”

Will blinked, his mind immediately conjuring up an image of Nico sitting on his lap, in front of the ski lodge window in his own mental room. “Nnnnnot necessarily,” he said. Though he probably wouldn’t want his mother with them in that scenario…

But Nico smiled-- Smiled! A soft smile unlike anything Will had ever seen on his face before-- and murmured, “ Buonanotte, Nonno… ’m not scared anymore, since you’re here…”

As he watched Nico fully fall asleep, two things occurred to him: one, even if Nico’s room had the same elements that his did, it was obviously in a very different place and time. And two… it felt as though Nico might have remembered something from his past. Perhaps, underneath the nightmares that tormented his internal landscape, he did have some happy, comforting memories after all.

The curtains around Damien’s bed slid open decisively. “Hey,” said Chiara. “I didn’t see you at breakfast this morning.”

“I knowwww,” Damien said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. “Don’t remind me.”

“I thought you said you were going to be out of here by this morning,” Chiara taunted. 

“I am! I’m supposed to be!” 

“You were SO SURE, you said you’d meet me… but you didn’t show, did you?”

“It’s not my fault!” Damien exclaimed.

“Oh no?” Chiara folded her arms. “Then whose fault is it?”

“Will Solace,” Damien said glumly, pointing at the curtain to the left side of Chiara. “I am all ready to go. I could be out the door already. But Austin wants me to be checked over by Will before I get released-- and he’s still sleeping. Right. There.” He folded his arms indignantly, and sighed. “So I have to wait.”

“Ahhh,” Chiara said. “Well, Will is the expert, isn’t he? Better to be safe than sorry.” 

“Yeah, but there’s so few of us left here,” Damien complained. “Like, other than me and Nico, there’s only like two other people. And one of them is--”

“Whoooooa… if it isn’t the LOVEBIRDS!”

Chiara immediately started muttering under her breath in Italian. “Shermannnnn--!” Damien hissed.

“Damian and CHEEY-RA, sitting in a tree,” said Sherman, obnoxiously pronouncing her name wrong. “KAy- Eye- Ess- Ess-”

“SHERMAN!”

The curtain Damien had pointed at earlier flew open, revealing a wild-eyed, frowsty-haired Will Solace. All three demigods blinked at him in surprise as he leveled a finger at Sherman’s chest. “If you wake up Nico, so help me--”

Chiara yelped as the curtain on the other side of Damien’s bed slid open, and an aura of oppressive darkness seemed to roll through the room like a dense fog. At the heart of that darkness, there appeared what could only be a shadow-eyed hell demon with a vicious case of bedhead. The creature bared all of his teeth in a disconcerting grin. “Good morning,” he crooned.

Everyone in the room went very still. Damien didn’t want to breathe. Even Sherman didn’t seem inclined to make a witty comeback.

“Are we all done making noise now?” Nico asked. “Because some of us were sleeping, and actually having decent dreams for once. And we would appreciate it if there was a little less noise!”

Still no one moved. It was like they were frozen in time.

From the other side of the bed, Will cleared his throat. “Are you hungry, Nico?”

“NO!” Nico closed the curtain as viciously as if he were slamming the door, which shouldn’t have worked, but somehow did. And after another moment, he said, from the other side of the curtain, “Actually, YES!”

Will huffed a breath. “Thought so,” he murmured, and as if by magic, the tension in the room released, the tableau around Damien’s bed becoming unfrozen. 

“W-what just happened?” Damien asked faintly.

“Well, sometimes when people are healing properly, they get pretty cranky,” Will said. “So that’s a good thing. It’s just… Some demigods are more cranky than others. And it seems like Nico is the type to be apocalyptically cranky.”

“...understatement,” said Damien. “Um… maybe you could check us out, quick, before we accidentally piss him off again?”

Will looked at them for a moment, then sighed, running his hands through his rumpled hair. “Tell you what. Have you eaten yet? Let me wash my face, and let’s do breakfast quick, and then I’ll see about getting you guys out the door, okay?”

Having gained their grudging consent, Will started herding his patients towards the rec room. As they passed by Nico’s bunk, he waited until the others had cleared the rec room door before asking, “What do you want to eat, Nico?”

“I don’t know,” was the grumpy reply. 

“Do you want an egg sandwich, like the other day?” Will asked.

There was a longer pause. “Sure, whatever,” he eventually said. 

Will nodded. “Okay! I’ll bring that by in a minute,” he said, following the others into the rec room, where the tables with food waited for them. No one spoke, quickly and quietly putting food on plates.

Austin loped into the room a few minutes later, and raised an eyebrow at them. “Why are y’all so quiet?” he asked. “Nice bedhead, bro.”

“Shut up.” Will pushed a plate into his hands. “This is for Nico,” he whispered. “Code black . Be careful.”

Austin blanched. “Ooh, boy,” he said, and now he was whispering too. “What does that look like?”

“About as terrifying as you might expect,” Will said. “Stay as calm and neutral as you can.”

Austin swore. “Great,” he said. “Pray for my soul, everyone.” Bracing himself, he turned towards the infirmary door.

“Godspeed,” Will whispered. The whole group waited in silence, holding their breath and listening, but there were no loud crashes or screams, and a few moments later, Austin reappeared in the doorway, unscathed.  

“How was it?” Will murmured as the tension escaped the room, the pressure valve released.

“About as tense as you’d imagine,” said Austin. “But he apologized before I left. I think he’ll be okay if you don’t push him on anything . Or bother him at all.”

Will nodded. “Okay, good,” he said. “Best case scenario, he manages to go back to sleep, and nothing aggravates him for the rest of the day… let’s cross our fingers.” He jerked a thumb at the others. “We’re going to eat, and then I’m going to check these two out, get them out of the hot zone.”

“Great,” said Austin. “I’ll keep an eye on the other side, hopefully keep things from going nuclear.”

The peace lasted roughly ten minutes, before Jason Grace charged into the infirmary through the newly opened porch door.  “Is Nico here?” he asked excitedly, waving around a scroll that was in his hands. “Is- is he awake? I need to talk to him.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea,” Austin said slowly, holding up his hands. “He’s kind of…”

The curtain twitched open just a little bit, and like a lurking gremlin, Nico’s voice came from the shadows within. “Is that Jason?” 

All the hairs stood up on the back of Austin’s neck. “Yeah…” he winced. 

“I can talk to him,” said Nico. “It’s okay.”

“...are you sure?” Austin asked.

“He’s just going to keep coming back if I don’t.” Austin could hear the eyeroll in Nico’s voice, but Jason seemed oblivious.

“Okay,” said Austin, still feeling skeptical. Then he mouthed to Jason as he guided him towards the curtain, “He’s REALLY CRANKY. Be CAREFUL.”

“What?” Jason asked, confused. “Are you trying to… Hi, Nico.” He cast another bewildered look at Austin as the curtain fell closed, then looked at Nico, pointing over his shoulder. “What’s his issue?”

Nico shrugged. “You got me,” he said. “I think all the long hours they’ve been putting in are starting to catch up with them. They’re fine, though.”  He eyed Jason’s wild, excited expression warily. “What’s up?”

“You’re not going to believe what we just found!” Jason said, fumbling with the ribbons around the scroll. “It’s incredible!” 

Nico leaned over as Jason unrolled the scroll at the foot of his bed, his heart beginning to pound as he recognized the figure that appeared above the roll of parchment.

“Leo…”

Chapter Text

Will was giving Sherman his laundry list of stern warnings for the umpteenth time when a slight movement outside the window caught his eye. As soon as he realized it was the flowers in the window box shriveling, he stopped his lecture mid-sentence, dropped his clipboard, and crossed the rec room in four long strides. He didn’t wait for Austin to call for him. He didn’t need to hear Jason’s voice through the curtain, tight as a guitar string, to know that something was wrong.  

He was through the curtain in a flash, barely even pausing to take in the scene: Jason was hovering beside the bed, but Nico had the bedding in his fists, and was staring at the scroll in front of him– was that Leo? Ugh, Jason – as if it could be destroyed by the sheer force of his glare.  Whatever was on the scroll had set him off even worse than the Mythomagic deck from the other night; the lights were flickering, and tiny fissures were spreading out across the floor beneath the bed. 

Will snatched the scroll off the bed and shoved it into Jason’s hands. “Sorry, Will,” Jason started to say. “I didn’t think–”

“Save it,” said Will tersely, turning and grabbing Nico by the shoulders. “Nico, look at me.”

“Don’t touch me!” Nico said, wrenching his shoulder out of Will’s grasp. “I told you, I don’t like it when people touch me!”

“And I told you you needed three days without using any of your Underworld powers,” Will retorted. “Now knock this off or I’m demanding another two!”

Nico looked up, pinning Will with a furious glare.  “What makes you think you can tell me what to do?” he demanded. “You can’t tell me how to feel! You don’t know--”

“Don’t know what?” Will demanded.  “What it’s like to lose someone you care about? To be so furious about it that you think you might go nova and leave nothing but a smoking crater behind you?” The cracks in the floor widened, and he leaned forward, grabbing Nico’s shirt. “I swear, if a single bone comes up through that floor there is going to be a reckoning!”

Nico shoved him away. “You are so flipping annoying!” he shouted. Pushing to his feet, he charged through the curtain and burst out the side door, onto the porch.

Austin, who had been hovering just outside the curtain, stared after him. “...did he just say flipping ?” he said.

Jason was still standing, arms full of crumpled-up scroll, a stricken look on his face. “I didn’t think he was going to react like that,” he said. “I thought he’d be happy. I–”

Austin snorted. “Happy?” he said. “Have you met Nico before? Happy isn’t really his thing.”

Will balled up his fists. “Just– whatever,” he said, already moving toward the door after Nico. “I’ll deal with this.”   

“Wait! Will, did you finish–?” But Austin’s words didn’t even register as Will charged out onto the porch, the door banging shut behind him.

He glanced around, not sure if he should expect carnage and chaos or a desolate wasteland. But then he stopped, surprised, watching Nico pace furiously up and down the lawn in front of the porch. Cracks were spreading across the ground under the stairs, and the grass did not look healthy, but there were no bones yet, which was a good thing. Before he could open his mouth, Nico snarled, “I’m trying to control it. I am . I just… I wasn’t ready for that!”

“Ready for what?” Will said, walking to the railing and leaning over it, as if his insides weren’t churning, as if it were any normal summer afternoon. “What did Jason show you? It looked like a message from Leo. What did it say?”

Nico stopped, balling his hands into fists. “It was a message from Leo,” he said. “That… maddening, insufferable idiot jerkface is alive!”

“Alive…?” Will’s mouth fell open. “There’s no way— how did he—“

“Aesclepius’s cure,” Nico said. “And he went and found Calypso, because that was an important item on the to-do list.” His voice dripped with so much sarcasm, it could wilt the grass, if it wasn’t wilted already.

Will’s thoughts were still whirling, too fast to process everything at once. Aesclepius’s curse… oh, that’s not good. Someone is probably going to have to pay for that at some point… But that was a problem for the future. With an effort, Will brought himself back to deal with the issues of the present, and the demigod pacing in front of the porch like a lion in a cage. “But if Leo is alive… that’s still pretty amazing, don’t you think?”

“Yeah!” said Nico wildly. “Amazing! We’re all just supposed to be happy about it, right? Or relieved? Or excited?” He stopped for a moment, opening and closing his fists. “I just– I don’t know whether I want to rip things apart with my bare hands, or– or punch him in his stupid face–”   

“Y’know,” Will said thoughtfully, holding up a finger,  “that’s not a bad idea.” 

That stopped Nico’s rant cold. “...what?” he said.

“Well, not punching Leo in the face, exactly,” Will said, coming down the porch steps. He stopped in front of Nico, holding his hands up at chest height. “But boxing is a good release. I do it myself, quite a lot, really. Go ahead, punch it out.”

The son of Hades eyed him warily; probably it was the last thing he’d expect Will to say. “I don’t want to punch you ,” he said.

“Really? Not even a little?” Will teased him. “Sometimes I wonder.” When he still didn’t move, Will said, “It’s either this, or I’ll have to lug a punching bag over from the training yard. It’ll take too long, and Clarisse will yell at me, so I’d rather not do that.” Raising an eyebrow as Nico continued to hesitate, he said, “Come on, it’s not like you’ll hurt me with those scrawny arms of yours.  I bet my sister Kayla punches harder than you!”

“Shut up, Solace!” Nico growled.

“I bet Leo can punch harder than--” The end of that thought got lost as Nico slammed his fist into Will’s hand. Will laughed, deflecting the punch easily. “There you go! Hit me again!”

Snarling, Nico started swinging, punching at Will’s open hands with all the rage-fueled strength he could muster– and, as it turned out, he probably could punch harder than Leo, though it was nothing Will couldn’t handle. The entire time, Nico kept ranting a string of barely intelligible insults-- he may have called Leo a ruffian, a wet sock?, a cad , and a lousy, no-good creep, but it was difficult to say for certain, and entertained though he was, Will wasn’t about to ask him to repeat himself. 

Though it seemed as though he was out of control, he only missed Will’s hands twice. The first time, he hit him in the shoulder so hard that Will’s muscles bunched, but Nico barely noticed. When he clocked Will in the chin hard enough to send him back a pace, though, it pulled him up short.  “Will--”

“It’s okay!” Will said quickly, rubbing his jaw gingerly. “I’m fine, really. I am. Come at me again!” He put his hands up at the ready.

Nico shook his head, putting his own hands up in surrender; he was breathing hard, and even from a few feet away, Will could see his arms shaking. “It’s okay. I’m good.” 

“You sure?” Will said, putting his hands down and studying him. “Whoops– I think you may have popped a suture or two.”

“Huh--? Oh…” Nico looked down at his arm. A drop of blood had beaded at his elbow, dripping onto the grass at his feet. He grimaced. “I guess I did.”

“Just a second– don’t move, okay? I’m gonna go grab my field kit.” He hesitated, unsure if he should leave him alone, but Nico waved a hand at him, and didn’t look like he was going anywhere. So Will dashed up the stairs and into the infirmary, but he’d barely gotten a hand on his kit before he was bombarded with questions.

“Is Nico all right?” Jason was still there, and had sprung from his chair as soon as Will stepped through the door, following him into the clinic. “What happened?”

“Yo, doc!” That was Sherman, shouting at him from the doorway of the rec room. “What gives? We good, or what?”

Meanwhile, Austin hustled towards him, double time. “Will, what do you want me to do with Damien and Sherman?” he asked in a low voice. “Is there anything in particular I need to tell them, or can I just let them go? They’re driving me crazy. ” 

Will held up a hand, then glanced over his shoulder back out the screen door. Nico was now sitting on the top step of the porch, his head leaning against the railing, and he breathed a little sigh of relief. Then he looked at Austin. “Yeah, it’s fine, let them go,” he said. “Tell them we’re adding them onto the “check up” list, and they’ll probably be seeing me this afternoon or tomorrow morning at some point.” Austin clapped his shoulder, obviously grateful, and headed back into the rec room. 

Picking up his kit, Will looked at Jason. “I’m sorry I’m making you wait,” he said. “It might be better if you came back later…”

“I don’t mind waiting,” Jason insisted. “It hasn’t been that long, really. And I really want to apologize. Do you think he…?”

Will glanced towards the door again. “He’s definitely calmed down, but I’m not sure how easily he might be set off again… let me talk to him, feel things out, and I‘ll let you know.”

Once Jason had given his assent, Will turned towards the door and headed back towards the demigod waiting for him on the porch. Nico had his head resting against the porch spindles, folded in on himself as if he could disappear if he simply made himself small enough. “You all right, there?” Will asked gently.

“I’m fine,” Nico said, completely unconvincingly. “You don’t have to waste so much time on me. I’m okay. If they need you--”

“Shut up, Di Angelo,” Will said, but not meanly, setting his kit down and sitting beside him on the step. “I am not going to leave you out here on the back porch, bleeding . And it is not a waste of time to fix you up properly so you don’t get worse.”

“Reopening my sutures isn’t ‘worse’?” Nico said.

“Well, yeah, I guess it is,” Will said. “Who told you to do that, anyway?”

“Gee, I dunno,” Nico muttered.

“So, okay, that was mostly my fault,” Will said. “But it kept you from dissolving into shadows from using your powers, and that would definitely count as worse. Here--” he handed him a bottle he’d pulled from the infirmary mini fridge. “Powdered unicorn horn and Gatorade.”

Nico made a face. “The Coach Hedge special,” he said.

“If it works, I’m not knocking it,” said Will. He worked in silence for a moment, sponging the blood off Nico’s arm, cleaning the wound and numbing the skin in preparation for fixing the popped sutures. The claw marks were mostly healed, so the reopened cut was small, requiring only a few stitches to repair.  “So. Did venting help?”

Nico thought about it for a moment. “A little,” he said. “Yeah.”

“Well, the ground stopped shaking, and I think the plants will recover, so that’s a good sign,” said Will. When Nico just sighed, he leaned forward, trying to see his face. “Is something else bothering you?”

“No,” came the immediate, expected reply.

“Okay,” Will said. 

After a moment, Nico looked at him askance. “That’s it?”

Will shrugged. “If you don’t want to talk to me, I won’t force you. Maybe you’d rather talk to Jason. He’s still here, I could go get him if you wanted--”

“No,” Nico said quickly. “No, that’s okay.” He fiddled with his silver ring, until Will ordered him to hold still. “I’m still angry.”

“At Leo?” Will said, his voice very even as he carefully pulled the suture through Nico’s skin. “I don’t think you’re alone in that.”

“He thinks it’s okay to just let people think he’s dead, while he’s off gallivanting around like the-- the--” He groped for the appropriate word.

“Stop trying to censor yourself,” Will said. “Let it out. What is Leo?”

“He’s a selfish asshole!” Nico exploded. “Do you think he has any idea how many people wept for him, worried about him-- miss him? And he just drops a note saying, “Hey guys! I’m not dead anymore!” like it’s no big deal? I don’t care how fucking noble his sacrifice was-- you just can’t do that to people you l--” he choked on the word. “...you love. You just can’t.” He scrubbed at his eyes with the back of one hand.

Will watched him, quietly aching for him. “Do you... love Leo?” he asked.

Nico snorted. “That unreasonable fucktard? I hate him very much at the moment. I wish he was here right now-- I don’t care how noble he was being-- too many people are upset that he’s gone. And he hasn’t even said where he is, or when he’ll be back…”

“Gosh,” said Will, pausing for a moment in his work. “Isn’t it funny how irritating that is? Does that sound like anyone else you might know?”

“I thought I killed him,” Nico said quietly, not really hearing what Will said. 

Will lowered the needle and stared at him. “ You? How?”

“I didn’t stop the onager,” Nico said. “When Octavian fired it-- when he was caught up in the ropes, I just--”

“Stop right there,” Will said, holding up a hand. “You don’t get ownership of that. I didn’t stop the onager from firing either.”
“But at least you tried to talk Octavian out of it,” Nico said. “I was willing to let it go. I figured, good riddance.”

“You weren’t alone in that thought, either,” Will said. When Nico looked over at him, he lifted his chin. “I’m pretty sure I told a roomful of people that I wished I had the skill to shoot him down myself.”

“Saying it is one thing. Making it happen is quite another,” said Nico.

“I do realize that, thanks,” said Will, picking up his needle again. “The only reason I’ve never done it myself is because--”

“Because you’re a good person,” Nico interrupted him. “You don’t hurt people, you heal them. You calm them down and get them to listen. I can’t see you ever doing something that would cause the death of another person.” He looked down at his hands. “Not like me.”

Will was glad Nico wasn’t looking at his face-- he was sure it was glowing like an ambulance siren. Clearing his throat, he said, “And what are you like, Di Angelo?”

Nico thought about that for a moment. “I… don’t even know anymore,” he said. “I thought I did.  The world saw me as creepy, gloomy and unhappy, and I accepted that. Embraced it, even.  It’s easier not to have to deal with people.  Easier to be alone.”

Will tied off the suture, snipping the threads with his surgical scissors. “And yet you’re still here. What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know,” Nico said. “What am I still doing here? The living are noisy, thoughtless, and upsetting, and force me to have feelings about them…”

“It’s terrible, right?” Will said lightly. It was always hard to tell from Nico’s tone if he was serious or joking, and it was even harder now with his tone flat from exhaustion. But Will decided to act as though he was joking. “Why would anyone choose to live here?”

“…the alternatives are worse,” Nico said quietly.

That, Will was pretty sure, was not a joke. “I believe you,” he said, reaching for the container of healing salve. He began to spread some over the scratches, even the ones that were mostly healed. “How does your arm feel?”

“It’s fine,” Nico said.

“What have I told you about using that word for every situation?” Will said. “Let me check the other one quick, while we’re here.”

Nico turned about halfway, hardly lifting his head from the banister, and extended his left arm out to the side for Will’s inspection. Will snorted, then moved down a step and closer to the banister so that he could actually see Nico’s arm, catching his elbow gently and rolling up his sleeve. “This one’s okay,” he said, checking the sutures. “A few of them popped, but the skin had mostly healed already. I’ll put some salve on this one, too, just in case.” Nico hardly moved as he reached for the jar, his head tilted back, eyes closed.  Will chuckled. “You all right, there?”

“I’m tired,” Nico murmured. “Why am I so tired? I feel like my bones are made of Jello.”

“Maybe your body is trying to tell you something,” Will said, closing up the salve and putting it in his bag.  “Come on, we’ll go back in and you can rest.”

“I’m not usually so weak,” Nico said, sounding disgusted with himself.

“You never give yourself the chance to be,” said Will. “Always pushing yourself too hard, instead of letting yourself rest and heal!  You deserve to be healthy, Nico.  And that isn't a weakness.”  When Nico said nothing, he leaned over and got a good look at Nico’s glazed expression. “You’re not even arguing with me, which ought to tell you something.”

“Whatever,” Nico said, too sleepy for the words to have any bite.

Will shook his head, fondly exasperated. “Time to head back in for a nap, I’d say,” he said, offering Nico a hand. “Come on, up.” 

Nico allowed himself to be pulled up to his feet, but promptly he toppled forward, leaning against Will for support. “Uh, hi,” Will said.

“...it is not a good day for up,” said Nico.

Will bit his lip to keep from laughing. “Well, let’s get you back inside, so you don’t have to be up anymore,” he said. Then he turned to the door behind him and called through the screen. “Jason? Would you mind giving me a hand?”

Jason poked his head out from the curtain. “Huh? Oh, sure.” When he caught sight of the two of them standing on the porch, Will doing his best to keep Nico upright, he hustled towards them. “What happened?” he asked worriedly. “Is he okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” Will said. “We found a way to release some anger without summoning zombies, which is great news. The only downside to an otherwise perfect technique is that it can really wear a person out. As you can see,” he said, nodding towards Nico, whose face was pressed blearily against his shoulder. “Don’t worry, he’s just wiped. If you don’t mind grabbing my bag, I was going to figure out how to carry–”

“Willard Anthony Solace,” Austin’s voice echoed through the screen door.

Will closed his eyes. “That’s not my name,” he whispered.

“You best not be planning to lift or carry that demigod,” Austin’s disembodied voice continued. 

“Lord have mercy,” whispered Will.

“Jason is right here , and I’m sure he would be willing to help you transport Mr. di Angelo back into the infirmary,” Austin said. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Grace?”

“I sure would,” Jason said easily, without skipping a beat. He’d been around camp long enough to know how things were done, and didn’t seem surprised at all by their exchange. “You just want me to piggy-back him, right?”

“I was going to do a fireman’s carry–” Will started.

Austin cut him off. “Piggy-back is JUST FINE, Jason,” he said. “Ignore my overachieving he-man of a brother!”

Will sighed, then turned to Jason with a shamefaced grin. “Sorry about that,” he said, as Jason stepped down the porch step. That was some convenient thinking, because it allowed Nico to basically fall onto Jason’s back, instead of Will and Jason figuring out how to lift his dead weight. “Brothers, am I right?”

Jason hefted Nico’s weight a little bit higher onto his back, locking his arms under Nico’s knees, then turned to look up at Will. Both he and Nico had similar expressions on their faces, and belatedly Will realized that neither one of them had a brother. He cleared his throat, and picked up his medkit. “Right. This way, please…” Opening the screen door, he gestured them though, then followed down the hall to Nico’s bunk, where they got Nico settled in a matter of moments.

“Nico,” Jason said, crouching beside the bed. “I’m so sorry. If I had known how upset you were going to be about that message, I would have waited to tell you.”

“S’okay,” Nico said sleepily. “I didn’t know either. Took me totally by surprise.”

Jason smiled. “You were surprised that Leo made you angry?” he said. “He tends to have that effect on people.”

Nico shook his head. “Surprised by how angry,” he said. Then he glanced at Will. “I still want to punch him.”

“We’ll figure it out later,” Will said. “For now, just rest.”

“Promise I won’t miss next time,” Nico murmured.

“Mm-hmm,” Will said teasingly. “You sure you don’t secretly have a thing for Leo?” 

Nico, though half asleep, grinned. “... ‘s not my type,” he said.

Jason stood, then paused, looking down at him. “You know, I heard you told Percy he’s not your type either,” he said. “So… who exactly is your type, Nico?”

Nico didn’t open his eyes, but weakly, he turned his right hand over and flipped Jason off.  

Jason folded his arms, giving Nico a disapproving glower that he couldn’t properly appreciate. “Don’t think for one minute that your Underworld sign language is getting you out of this discussion,” he said. “Inquiring minds want to know!” 

Nico was nearly two-thirds of the way asleep, but he somehow managed to roll his eyes– with them closed– and mouthed the words, “Blah, blah, blah…”  Will put a hand over his eyes, fighting the urge to smile. 

Jason glanced at Will, then sighed, exaggeratedly aggrieved. “And with that, I’m going to go,” he said. “Get some rest, Nico. Are you out of here tomorrow?” When Nico didn’t reply, he looked at Will.

“Probably,” Will said. “We’ll see how he’s feeling in the morning.”

Chapter Text

For a long time, Nico’s dreams were quiet and dark. Not terrifying, suffocating dark, like being trapped in a brass jar; it was more like being curled up in a cave, or a cozy nest of some sort. There was nothing to run from, no monsters lurking in the shadows. He wasn’t Fading, he was solid. Just… deeply, deeply tired. Too tired to wander the halls of his Dreamscape. Too tired to even move. 

But that was fine. It didn’t make him anxious at all. He was safe here, floating through dark water. Nothing was going to reach him or hurt him here. He was surrounded, supported… he could sleep now. He needed to sleep now.

Except a voice echoed over the surface of his dream, through the stones clinging to the ceiling of the cavern above him.

“Nico…?” 

The voice was familiar… Was he dreaming of it? 

“Nico!”

No, that wasn’t his dream. Someone was calling his name. 

“...wha?” Nico said, swimming up and out of sleep’s clutches. “...Hazel?”

“It’s only been two and a half days since I saw you, and you’ve already forgotten who I am?” Hazel teased. Her image was hovering over the pitcher of water at his bedside, grinning down at him. “Hi, big brother.”

“I thought Romans couldn’t use the Iris message system,” Nico murmured, still feeling drowsy and half asleep.
“I have connections,” Hazel said. “Anyway, how are you feeling? I’m sorry I woke you, I figured you would be awake by now. Isn’t it close to dinner time there?”

“Uh…” Nico looked past the curtains around his bed, a little surprised that they were open. Through the window, he could see the sun was lower in the sky; it was easily mid-afternoon, maybe even later than that. “Probably? I’ve slept a long time today.”

“You’re still in the infirmary, looks like,” Hazel said. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” said Nico. “I thought I was doing pretty well, until Jason showed up with–” Remembering Leo’s letter, the events of the morning came back to him in a flash. He looked up at Hazel.  “Did they talk to you? Did they tell you?” 

She nodded. “Piper got a hold of me earlier,” she said. “I still can’t believe it. I mean, I believe it– I told you, there was something about his death that didn’t feel right!”

“You did.” Nico’s jaw set. “I felt it too. But people aren’t supposed to cheat death– you remember what happened to Sisyphus. And Aesclepius. And–”

“Me?” Hazel suggested mildly.

Nico stopped short, closing his mouth. “That was totally different,” he said. “You weren’t trying to cheat death.”

“And yet I totally did,” Hazel said. “I was very ready for them to call me back, once we released Thanatos. I’m still surprised they haven’t.”

“Don’t say that!” Nico said. 

“Why?” Hazel said. “It’s true. And if they haven’t called me back yet, maybe they’ll leave him alone too.”

“Maybe.” Nico felt as though the frown was etching itself into his face. He didn’t trust the gods even a little bit– and Hazel’s reminder that they could come for her at any time kicked his anxiety into high gear again. He couldn’t lose a sister again. He didn’t want to lose anyone important to him. Not again.

“Nico?” Hazel said. “Talk to me.”

“Well, aren’t you mad at him?” Nico burst out. “Even a little? I heard that chipper message of his– totally lacking in useful information– and I thought I was going to destroy the infirmary again.”

Hazel blinked in surprise. “I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised– pissing people off is his superpower– but Leo made you that angry?” she said. “...and what do you mean, ‘again’?”

He bunched up the blanket in his fists. “ Yes,” he said. “I’m still angry about it. Will helped me work through a lot of it earlier, so that I didn’t kill all the plants for miles around, but I don’t think he’s here right now, so we should probably change the subject.” He held up a finger, signaling for her to wait. “Now that I think about it…” He trailed off, listening intently.

“What’s up?” she whispered, after a moment.

“...I think I’m the only one here,” Nico said. 

“Really?” Hazel raised her eyebrows. “That seems strange… even if it was dinnertime, I don’t think they would have just left you there alone…”

Nico shrugged, as if he expected that was exactly what they had done. “...Are you almost home, then?”

“Couple more hours,” Hazel said.  “We’re just making a quick pit stop to refuel. And don’t think I didn’t notice you changing the subject– you don’t really think they would leave you there alone, do you?”

“Camp’s never been welcoming towards Children of Hades,” Nico said. Then he sighed. “You know what, I don’t even know at this point,” he said.  “They all keep telling me that I have a place here, but it’s like I’m just holding my breath, waiting for them to tell me it’s a joke. And I don’t know how to stop doing that.” 

She got a thoughtful look on her face. “I thought you wanted to be at Camp Half-Blood,” she said. “I thought you chose to stay there, even though we said you could have come with us.”

Nico blinked. “I do,” he said. “I did.”

“Well then,” Hazel said. “I guess I’m just surprised you would let some haters keep you away from something you wanted. You, who are stubborn enough to escort a statue across the world. Who united mortal enemies to achieve a common goal.”

“Reyna had a lot to do with that,” Nico muttered.

“She couldn’t have done it without you,” Hazel said staunchly. “Without your strength, and your bravery. And you’re going to let a little thing like centuries of prejudice stand between you and what you want most?”

Slowly, the corners of his lips turned up. “When you put it that way…” he said. 

“But if they really do start ignoring you or something, let me know.  I’ll tell Frank and Reyna, and we’ll figure out a way to get you to Camp Jupiter.”

“I could bring myself there, you know,” Nico said.

“Uh-uh, no way,” said Hazel firmly. “Not while there’s a risk of you Fading. And before you ask, yes, I heard about that too!”

Nico rubbed his temples. This was why he didn’t like being around the living– so nosy! “It wasn’t that big of a deal…”

“Nico!” said Hazel.

“And it was kind of a good thing, anyway,” Nico said.

“On what planet is you Fading a good thing?” Hazel demanded.

“Because when it happened,” Nico said, “Clovis showed me a way to keep my nightmares from being so overwhelming. And that’s been really helpful.” He yawned. “In fact, when you woke me up just now, I wasn’t dreaming about anything at all.”

“...Well, good.” She frowned at him. “But I still don’t like that these bad things keep happening to you. You need to take care of yourself!”

“You sound like Will,” said Nico.

“Well, I hope you’re listening to him,” said Hazel. Then her eyes glinted. “I heard he went into your dreams…? What was that about?”

He gave her a look. “I am not going to talk about that,” he said. 

“Why?” she said, leaning in. “Was it scandalous?”

“ No ,” he said. “Please. I just know that if I tell you about it, I’m going to hear someone whispering about it over lunch two days from now.”

“I wouldn’t tell anyone your secrets!” Hazel said, eyes wide.

Nico raised an eyebrow at her. “Maybe not, but you obviously talk to Piper,” he said. “And she is head camper in a cabin that heads up the rumor mill around here. I know better.”

“Okay, okay,” said Hazel. “But tell me this: did you like having him there?”

Nico scowled at her. “He was just checking on me because I’m his patient,” he said. “Don’t read more into it than that.”

“I’m not talking about him ,” Hazel said. “I’m asking about you . Did it feel good, having someone come to check on you?”

“...I mean, I didn’t hate it,” Nico said. “Why does this matter at all?”

“It matters , Nico,” said Hazel, “because you’ve been alone so long. You need to remember what it feels like to connect to other people– to enjoy their company, and appreciate when they look out for you.”

“Well, of course I appreciate it,” Nico muttered. “But he’s ridiculous. Like, even that star lamp he gave me–” His eyes widened, realizing he’d said more than he intended. 

“He gave you what?” Hazel jumped on it. “What kind of lamp?”

He sighed. “He gave me a lamp that projects stars onto the ceiling,” he said. 

Hazel’s mouth fell open. “You mean, like the night sky?” she said. “But you love looking at the stars– you used to do it all the time at Camp Jupiter! How did he even know about that?”

He gave her a dark look. “What do you think I was dreaming about?”

Her eyes lit in understanding. “I seeeee…”

“Hazel,” Nico said.

Hazel put her hands up. “I get it, I get it,” she said quickly. “Still… that’s really thoughtful of him.”

“Right?” Nico said, almost too quickly. “Like, but it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Anyone could have realized I like stars, and have given me that lamp… And he didn’t design it or anything– Nyssa gave it to him like that.”

 Hazel’s lips quirked. “Are you trying to convince yourself that he didn’t mean anything by it?” she said gently.

He looked at her desperately. “Should I just assume that any time someone I’m remotely interested in does something nice for me, it means I have a chance with them? I can’t do that, Hazel. I know who I am, and I’m not someone that anyone could…” He trailed off, seeing her expression.

Hazel was staring at him. Her mouth had fallen open during his tirade, and now she had a hand planted over her mouth. “...could what?” she said softly.

Nico shook his head. “You know what I mean,” he said.

“Let me ask you something,” she said. “If I said this to you… If I said that there was no way anyone could ever love me, or care about me, or be anything but repulsed by me–”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nico said, waving a hand. “You are a golden child of the Underworld. Even your gifts are beautiful. I, on the other hand–”

“What about your sister?” she asked. “Could she have been worthy of love?”

Nico’s gaze was distant. “She was,” he said. “Infinitely worthy.”

“Then why doesn’t that extend to you?” Hazel asked. 

He sighed. “It just… isn’t me,” he said. “I’m not that person. I can’t see how it would ever be possible.” 

She was quiet for a minute. “Would you want it, if it was possible?”

“I’m a human being, Hazel,” Nico huffed. “Of course I would.”

“Don’t be like that,” she chided him. “There are plenty of people in this world who aren’t interested in having romantic relationships. The Hunters of Artemis would have no members if that wasn’t true…”

“That might not be a bad thing,” Nico said darkly. Then he relented, “But you’re right. I guess it is possible.” 

She looked thoughtfully at his downcast expression. “I think,” she said, “maybe just leave yourself open to the possibility. Even if you can’t see it for yourself… maybe someone else can.”

“Sure,” he said, but not like he believed her.

A voice suddenly called in from the porch. “Nico?” 

Nico turned his head. “Yeah?” he called.

The screen door swung open, and Will stuck his head in. “You’re awake–? Oh.” He caught sight of Hazel’s image and stopped. “I’m sorry– I didn’t know you were on a call!”

“It’s okay,” Hazel said, glancing over her shoulder at something Nico couldn’t see. “It sounds like everyone’s getting ready to go on my end, too.”

“I’ll give you a minute to sign off, then,” Will said, and disappeared again, the screen door banging softly behind him.

“...you said a lot there, big brother,” she said quietly. 

“Yeah, well…” said Nico. “It didn’t seem like you were going to let it go.”

“I thought you didn’t want to tell me things,” Hazel reminded him. “I thought you didn’t want your business to get back to the ears of the Aphrodite cabin.”

He met her eyes. “Maybe in this case, I’d make an exception,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said. “In this case… I think I’d need all the help I can get. Don’t you?”

She grinned at him. “Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe not. We’ll see, won’t we?” 

He shrugged and gave her a rueful grin. “Take care of yourself, Hazel,” he said.

“That’s my line,” she said.

“Say hi to Frank for me,” he said.

“I will,” said Hazel. “Bye, Nico.” And she dissolved into mist.

For a moment he sat back, staring at the spot where her face had just been. Then the screen door swung again. “What was that about ‘needing help’?” Will asked.

Nico turned and looked at him. “Were you eavesdropping?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I… might have overheard a little bit,” he said. “The word ‘help’ jumped out at me, and I’m hardwired to be concerned.”

“You told me to ask for help if I needed it,” Nico said. “Didn’t you?”

“That’s true, I did,” Will said. “...Is there anything I can do?” 

That was a loaded question. “Umm… I’ll let you know,” said Nico. “Anyway, where is everyone? It was pretty quiet when I woke up.”

“Ah.” Will scratched the back of his head. “Well, you’re the only one left now. So the other Apollo campers are at rec time… and you were asleep, so I was sitting outside.”

“You would like outside time,” Nico said.

“Sunlight is healthy,” said Will airily. “As long as you wear sufficient sunblock.” 

Nico got a mental image of Will chasing campers around with sunblock and sunhats and smirked in spite of himself. 

“ Anyways ,” said Will, reading Nico’s expression as if it perfectly revealed his thought train, “Since you’re awake, and you’re the only one left here, I thought maybe you’d like to go to the dining hall for dinner. If you’re up for it, that is.” 

“Oh.” Nico thought about it, then shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”  Following the thought train back to the station, he said, “Since I’m the only one here, you’re probably ready to get me out of here too, right?”

“Now, I’m not saying that,” said Will. “Well, technically, I mean. Your three days are pretty much up, so if you wanted to go back to your own cabin, you could.  We figured out a work-around for your nightmares, and you don’t like people watching you sleep anyway.” 

“That’s true… though if I go back to my cabin, I might not be able to sleep while I’m dismantling the–” he stopped himself, seeing Will’s expression. “I mean, yes! Sleep, in my own private space. Sounds amazing.”

Will shook his head. “I am not going to ask,” he said. “I am going to simply suggest that before you start projects at night, you turn out the lights, get into bed, and put your head on the pillow for five minutes.”

Nico blinked. “That’s it?”

“Yes,” said Will.

“...well, what’s the point of that?” Nico asked.

“You aren’t going to notice that you’re tired,” Will said. “Not if something interesting has caught your attention. But if you need to sleep, trying for five minutes will prove it to you. If you’re still awake after five minutes, get up and do whatever you want. But I bet, at least for now, that you’ll sleep.”

Nico thought about it, then nodded. “I can do that,” he said.

Will smirked. “Because you’re pretty sure it won’t work,” he replied.

Nico shrugged.

Will lifted his chin. “Well, we’ll see.”

~*~*~*~

As they crossed the grass towards the dining pavilion, Nico noticed Will seemed more tense than usual– like he had something he really wanted to say, but couldn’t think of how to say it. Nico tried to shrug it off, but as they stepped into the building he stopped, hunching his shoulders. “It’s okay,” he said. “If you want me to wait a minute and come in separately from you, it’s fine.”

“What?” Will said, startled. “Why would I do that?”

Nico fidgeted uncertainly. “Well, you seemed like you wanted to tell me something,” he said. “So I figured it was that.”

“Why would you figure that?” Will asked, folding his arms. “What have I done up until now that makes you think I would ask that of you?”

“Well,” said Nico in a small voice. “I mean. I wouldn’t want to be seen with me.”

“Good thing I’m not you, then,” sniffed Will. “For your information, I have been worried about how you would wind up sitting by yourself if I brought you here.”

That had completely slipped Nico’s mind. “Oh,” he said. “But why is that a big deal? It’s fine, I don’t care really.”

“I care,” said Will. “I didn’t bring you out of solitary at the infirmary just to have you sit by yourself here… that kind of sucks.” He scowled. “If I’d thought of it, we could have just stayed in the infirmary and eaten together.”

“Just the two of us?” Nico said. Then, as Will’s face turned red, he actually thought about what he’d just said.  “Yeah, no wonder you pushed for us to come here.”

“No– that’s not it,” Will said, looking away. “I just wish I’d…”

No way. Nico stared at Will, thinking that if the rest of that sentence was “I wish I’d thought of it sooner”... well, there was no way that could happen. Right? Not entirely sure he wanted the answer, he still ventured, “...You wish you’d what?”

Suddenly an arm dropped around Nico’s shoulders, interrupting the moment. “Hey!” said Percy. “Guess what? Jason and I talked Chiron into letting us all sit at the same table– like, a “Son of the Big Three” club or whatever. How about that?” He looked pleased with himself.

Nico shrugged his arm off.  “What makes you think I want to sit with you two?” he asked, folding his arms. “Maybe I’d be happier sitting by myself.”

Jason put a hand on Nico’s shoulder. “We’d be happier if you came and sat with us,” he said.

“Ugh, dude,” said Percy, making a face, “you are the only person I know who could get away with saying something like that.”

Privately thinking that he could think of at least one other person who would be able to say that, Nico stole a look at Will. The son of Apollo’s cheeks were pink, and he was still avoiding Nico’s gaze.

“Something like what?” said Jason, baffled by Percy– and oblivious to the odd tension between the other two boys. “Something honest?”

 “Honestly cheesy ,” said Percy. “Forget being the Pontifex or whatever, you should start a company for inspirational signage.”

Jason rolled his eyes and looked at Nico, who pulled his attention back from Will and raised an eyebrow at him. “He’s not wrong,” Nico said. “I don’t know how you kept a straight face while you said something so sappy.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Jason warned, pointing at Percy, who was grinning like a jackal. “Just because he can’t say something honest without people thinking he’s making a joke, he makes it seem like anyone capable of having an emotion is the weird one.”

“Nope, it’s just you,” Percy chirped without hesitation.

Nico shook his head, wondering how the pair of them could exist within ten feet of one another without the world exploding. He glanced at Will again, and though his face was still faintly red, this time he met his gaze. “I think you know what I think,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets. “It solves the problem of having to sit by yourself.”

“Sure,” Nico griped. “Instead I have to sit between these two idiots and keep them from destroying the place. What fun.”  Will snorted, and Nico’s eyebrows went up in surprise. Somehow, Will had known he was joking. His own father had trouble with that.

Then, across the way, he noticed something– someone– that he hadn’t seen in a long while. Putting a hand on Jason’s arm, he said, “Hold on, I’ll be right back.” Then he turned and walked towards the fire at the center of the pavilion.

“Nico?” Jason started to go after him.

“Jason,” Will called softly. “Give him a second.” 

Jason glanced at him. “Where’s he going?”

“Ah,” Percy said, following him with his eyes and nodding in understanding. “To talk to an old friend.”

Nico picked his way through the crowded pavilion until he reached the fireside, where he bowed his head to the goddess sitting at the hearth. “Hestia,” he said respectfully.

She smiled up at him, her eyes warm as embers. “Nico di Angelo,” she said quietly. “You have finally come home.”

He tilted his head. “...I have, haven’t I,” he said. 

“Yes,” she said. “Can’t you feel it?”

“...I don’t remember what home feels like,” he said slowly. “Those memories were taken from me years ago. And I certainly haven’t felt it in the time since then. I haven’t had a home since…” he trailed off, and shrugged. “I can’t remember when.”

“No, you haven’t,” she said. “Home is the place you return to, when the battles are done.  It is a space of rest, of healing, of safety.”

“There is no such thing as a place of safety,”  Nico protested.

“There is,” Hestia insisted. “Young Nico, you have seen much of the world, and little of it has been kind to you. But I have sat at the hearth for millenia, and I tell you, you have come home to warmth, to healing, and to rest.” She nodded. “You don’t believe it yet, but you will. Give it time, and trust that you are where you need to be.”

Nico looked up, caught sight of Will as he made his way across the pavilion to the Apollo table. He looked back, as if to check up on Nico, and grinned as he caught his eye. Nico quickly looked away, back at Hestia. “Thank you for your guidance, Lady,” he said.

She smiled again, the embers glowing softly. “One more thing,” she said. “Family is… complicated. You may not always get along perfectly with your relatives, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come through for you.” She nodded at the two boys still lingering at the edge of the circle, just beyond the firelight. “Even something as simple as sitting with you at dinner.”

“...I am fine sitting alone,” Nico grumbled.  Hestia didn’t say anything, but her cool, even gaze was faintly skeptical. After a moment, Nico squirmed, shifting his weight. “All right, I’ll try.”

“Good,” she said. “I am sure I will see you again.”

“I look forward to it,” Nico murmured, bowing his head a little. Then he turned and headed back to where Percy and Jason were waiting. When he glanced back at the fireside a moment later, she was no longer there– though her warm, inviting presence could be felt in the gently crackling flames.

Her words echoed in his head: Trust that you are where you need to be .

“I’ll try to do that too,” he murmured to himself.

“Say what?” Percy asked.

Nico shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied. “Shall we go?

Chapter Text

“So,” said Percy, as the campers migrated towards the cabins. “Campfire?” 

“Um…” Nico hesitated. After the noise and bustle of dinner, he was definitely feeling overwhelmed, and the boisterous singing of campfire songs did not sound appealing at the moment.  But obviously, he was expected to go to the campfire, so he should probably go. Then he remembered that everyone was encouraging him to be honest, and say what he was really feeling, so he said, “I don’t think so. Tomorrow, maybe.” 

Jason paused, and Percy turned to look at him. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah… I’m just tired,” Nico said. “Dinner took a lot out of me.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, towards the Big House. “I think I’m just going to go get my stuff and go back to my cabin. That’s okay, right?”

“Oh– yeah!” said Percy. “Do what you gotta do, man. We’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah,” said Nico. “Good night.”

He walked across the grounds, up the stairs of the Big House and into the infirmary, where he stared at the bed he’d slept in for the past two nights. The bedding hadn’t been stripped yet; obviously, none of the Children of Apollo had been in the infirmary all night, since there was no one left to treat. But he was glad about it, because in the vein of being very honest… he didn’t really want to go back to his cold, empty cabin.

“Suck it up, snowflake,” he told himself in his best Coach Hedge impersonation. “You can’t stay here forever.”

But here… here, he’d felt secure enough to sleep. There had always been someone here when he woke up, to reassure him that he wasn’t fading, or dying, or losing his mind. He wasn’t alone.  And as much as he hated being with people, most of the time– they were noisy, inconsiderate, annoying, thoughtless adolescents, especially in this place– he really didn’t want to be alone either.

With a sigh, he flopped down on the bed, and lay face down on top of his folded pajamas. He didn’t even care. Closing his eyes, he thought dimly about what Will said, about simply lying down for five minutes with his eyes closed and letting sleep take him.  Yeah right, he thought. My brain never shuts up enough for me to just fall asleep like that.  At the same time, the quiet whirr of the ceiling fan and the chirp of the night insects was a very soothing lullaby… well, maybe a couple of minutes would be fine…

Will was running late to the campfire. This was a problem because he was the head counselor for the Apollo cabin, and the Apollo campers were expected to lead the campfire songs each night. Not that Will himself did a lot of that– though he didn’t mind a good call and response song, singing was something he actively avoided. No, mostly they needed him there to curb his siblings’ enthusiasm. (The existence of the Apollo cabin was also the main reason that the camp did not have, and would never again have, a karaoke machine. Apparently they’d had one once… Once.)

But on his way to the campfire, he bumped into Jason, and asked after Nico. When Jason and Percy told him that Nico had gone back to his cabin, he thought he’d better check on the Son of Hades quickly before going to join his siblings. But when he reached Cabin 13, it was empty and dark, and he realized with a sudden chill that Nico hadn’t been there.  So now he was running back to the infirmary, to see if Nico had taken his things with him– because if he had, he could be anywhere at this point. 

“For the gods’ sake, Nico,” Will muttered as he loped back across the campground, “you better not have wandered off to somewhere strange– I don’t have time to go looking for you!”  Despite Nico’s assurances that he wasn’t leaving, Will still couldn’t trust him at his word– the demigod had a history of vanishing without warning.  But when he pulled the curtain, he stopped panicking, because Nico was sound asleep in his bunk; he hadn’t even taken off his shoes. As relief flooded through him, Will smiled, feeling like a major obstacle of Nico’s had finally been overcome: there was at least one place where he felt safe enough to let his guard down and sleep.

Even as he thought it, Nico stirred, and Will winced, remembering how Nico could always tell he was being watched. He came over and knelt by the bed before Nico could panic. “Hey,” he said softly.

Nico lifted his head and blinked at him blearily. “Will…” he said. Then he cursed, pushing himself up. “I’m sorry– I only meant to put my head down for a second, I swear–”

“It’s okay!” Will said. “I didn’t mean to wake you. You can sleep here tonight if you want– I didn’t mean to chase you out, if you’re not ready.” Nico blinked at him some more, and he shook his head. “Go back to sleep. I’ll come back and check on you after the campfire, okay?”

“Mmkay.” Nico nodded, then flopped back down and buried his face in the pillow again.

Will huffed a laugh, then rose to his feet. But before he left, he paused. “I am going to take your shoes off,” he announced to Nico, who didn’t even move as he tugged his sneakers off and put them on the floor next to the bed. “Also, it might be time for new ones, hm? These ones are pretty destroyed.” Nico didn’t lift his head or make a sound, and Will sighed softly. “I’ll be back in a little while,” he promised. 

Nico awoke in a rush, pushing himself to sit up before he was even aware of what he was doing. Then he rubbed a hand over his face. It’s late, he thought. Outside the windows, the campgrounds were dark and quiet.

There was a light on in the clinic, though. Curious, wondering if someone had just left the lights on, Nico stood and walked over to the curtain, pulling it open. Will was sitting at the counter, leaning on his hand and looking half asleep.

“What are you still doing here?” Nico asked. 

Will started, and turned to look at him. “Hey,” he said, stretching a little. “You’re awake.”

“And you’re falling asleep sitting here,” Nico said pointedly. “Why don’t you go back to your cabin and sleep?”

“It’s okay,” Will said. “I didn't just want to leave you here alone.”

Nico opened his mouth, then closed it again, and sighed. “Will,” he said. “I will admit I do want to sleep here.  I mean… my cabin is kind of like a vampire theme hotel, and it really doesn’t really feel like home yet--” He caught the smile on Will’s face and paused, mid-thought. “What.”

“Does it feel like home here, then?” Will asked. 

Nico hesitated. “...Hestia said that home is a place of rest, healing, and safety,” he said. “Isn’t that what this place is for?”

“Well, yeah,” said Will. “...when there are people here…”

Nico sighed, exasperated. “I don’t need medical care, I’d just rather sleep here than in my cabin. You don’t have to stay here with me, that’s silly.”

“But you shouldn’t be here by yourself,” Will said, chewing on his lip.

“I’d be by myself in my own cabin anyway,” Nico reminded him. “I ought to start getting used to it.”

“But if you need something–”

“I’ll be fine,” said Nico. “I know where the bathroom is, and I can get water if I need it. If there’s a super emergency, I can find Argus or Chiron, right? So you can go back to your own cabin, take care of your siblings, sleep in your own bunk. No worries.”

“I’ll come by first thing tomorrow to check on you,” Will blurted.

Nico smirked. “And if I’m not even awake yet, it’ll be like you never left,” he said. Then he came over, chasing Will out of his chair. “Go on. Go home.” 

“Okay, okay,” Will groaned, getting to his feet. He eyed Nico suspiciously. “You’re going to change into pajamas, right?”

“I will, once you get out of here,” Nico said, making a shooing gesture with his hands. 

Will rolled his eyes. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” he said, as he walked past the curtain towards the infirmary door.

“Some of us aren’t so blase about showing our bodies, William,” said Nico primly.

Will paused at the door, with his hand on the handle. “You’re sure you’ll be okay here?” he asked. 

Nico stopped, looking up at Will's sleepy, earnest face, and felt a flood of skeletal butterflies fluttering in his stomach again.  How many times had they been this close during the last three days-- but he was feeling so terribly that he hadn't thought too much about it. Now... he must be feeling better, if he had time to notice his reaction to the Son of Apollo. But it wasn't just that he was hot; sure, he was, even when he looked tired. But it was how much he cared, and how much he was willing to give. Even to someone like Nico.

He cleared his throat. “I promise,” he said. “I’m good. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Moonlight streamed across the porch, kissing Will with silver light as he stepped through the screen door. He turned back. "Make sure you latch that door when you close it," he said. "Otherwise it'll bang all night."

"I will," said Nico.

"And I forgot to turn off the lights in the infirmary-- will you--"

"No problem," said Nico. "I'll get them."

"And don't forget your--"

"Will!" Nico growled. "You don't need to parent me-- just go home to bed!"

“Okay, okay,” said Will. The dimple in his cheek was too adorable to be believed, and Nico's heart started pounding in spite of himself. “Good night, Nico.”

“Good night, Will,” said Nico.

Nico watched his long, easy strides as he loped across the grass, back across the field towards the circle of cabins. And he wondered how he was supposed to keep his cool when he saw him tomorrow-- or any day in the near future. He certainly didn't want to ruin whatever sort of friendship they were forming, but he couldn't help but feel like-- no, he shouldn't feel like that. Not when he remembered who, and what, he was.

But he couldn't help that feeling of longing. What he wanted was just within reach, and yet was miles away from anything he could expect, or deserve.

Hazel's voice echoed in his head. “...maybe just leave yourself open to the possibility. Even if you can’t see it for yourself… maybe someone else can.”

"Okay, Hazel," he whispered to himself. "I will try to do that. For you."

With that decided, he walked back into the infirmary, letting the screen door swing shut behind him. After all, tomorrow was a new day, full of new problems-- and new possibilities.