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"Hey, Nico," Hazel gently knocked on the door to Nico's room at Percy's apartment.
"You can come in," Nico called. Cecil laughed at something.
"Actually can I talk to you for a minute, outside..." Hazel licked her lips apprehensively.
"Uhh, sure?" the door clicked open and Nico stepped out, Hazel noticed Will and his friends were sitting on the floor. Lou Ellen threw cards at Cecil.
As Nico shut the door, his expression was carefully guarded, posture a bit tenser than Hazel was used to seeing.
"What do you want to talk about?" Nico asked slowly, picking over his words.
"Let's go out in the hall, okay," Hazel smiled reassuringly, "since everyone else is still in the living room."
"Okay..."
"We're gonna step out for a second," Hazel said, mostly to Percy who was glancing at the two siblings. He nodded. Hazel led the two of them out into the hallway.
"So what's this about?" Nico glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was coming.
"What's going on with you?" Hazel finally asked she clasped her hands in front of herself politely.
"What do you mean?" Nico furrowed his eyebrows, taking a step away from his sister.
"You never want to hang out with me and everyone else, you'll spend time with me and Frank but whenever I ask if you want to come do something with everyone you say that you're busy," Hazel explained keeping her voice level, "I don't understand. If you were going to hang out with Will and Cecil and Lou Ellen why didn't you tell me?"
"If I said that I was hanging out with Will and his friends, you would have said for them to come over too," Nico grumbled, looking everywhere but Hazel's face.
"Yeah, exactly. They could have come too. It was just a coincidence that everyone happened to be in the same place at once," Hazel spread her hands, "but I just want to know why? We want to spend time with you. I want to Nico. All I want is for you to be happy and to have friends."
"I have friends, I have Will, Cecil, and Lou Ellen," Nico explained, "and Percy and I are friends now. What else do you want?"
"Jason, Leo, Piper, Annabeth, Frank, they want to try and be friends with you but you keep pushing them away," Hazel said, "I thought that you and Jason were friends."
"Yeah, sure..." Nico shrugged.
"I just want to understand your thinking Nico. Don't try and push everyone else away," she put her hand on his shoulder but Nico backed up, "I'm your sister, you can tell me anything."
"It doesn't matter, I just don't like doing stuff with you guys? Is that so horrible?" Nico asked, furrowing his eyebrows, "I like hanging out with Lou Ellen and Cecil. And of course I'm going to spend time with Will, he's my boyfriend."
"I'm not saying that you can't spend time with them, I would love it if all four of you would come and watch movies with us or something. If you told me that you were hanging out with them I'm sure no one else would have minded if you brought them with," Hazel tugged on one of her curls, it bounced back into place when she let go, "I'm not trying to pressure you into anything Nico. If you tell me what you're thinking I can understand."
"It doesn't matter if you understand it or not. You're not going to get it," Nico grumbled, "why does it matter who I hang out with, it's not like it matters if I'm there or not. And Cecil and Lou Ellen like having me around."
Hazel sputtered for a moment, "are you implying that we don't like having you around?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Nico I wouldn't try and invite you all the time if we didn't want you around!"
Nico pinched the bridge of his nose, he took a deep breath, still not looking Hazel in the eyes, "you guys sure have a wonderful way of showing it," Hazel's eyes were wide with surprise, "Hazel, you're my sister. Of course you're going to invite me over. But news flash, everyone else doesn't really like me. They think I'm scary and intimidating."
"After the war with Gaea, everyone is past that now, people like you around. And you're staying at camp now, and Percy's apartment so you have more time for people to get to know you," she waved her hand in the air dismissively, "people aren't scared of you."
"No, people aren't scared of you Hazel," Nico pointed an accusatory finger at Hazel, "people still flinch when I walk past, they don't like me because I'm the son of Hades. I can read people a lot better than you think. Leo is uneasy around me. Frank always gets nervous whenever I'm in the same room as him. And I don't understand Jason."
"Frank gets nervous when you're in the same room as him because you're his girlfriend's brother. Of course he's going to be nervous around you," Hazel explained softly, "I don't know about Leo but I doubt that he's as uneasy as you think. Jason wants to be your friend, and I thought that you guys got along."
"Jason pities me," Nico spat, "I don't want to be around you guys when you treat me like some fragile vase. A ticking time bomb. A liability. You ' don't know whose side I'm on' . You 'don't know if you can trust me '." He made quotes in the air as he spoke, waving his hand in a circle.
"That's not true and you know it," Hazel responded, furrowing her eyebrows, "no one thinks of you like that! We trust you."
" You trust me. Percy trusts me. That's pretty much it," Nico leaned back on his heels, "Hazel I like being around Will's friends because you know what. They treat me like a friend. Wish I could say the same about all of you seven demigods of the prophecy."
"Nico what are you—"
"Sometimes I don't want to hang around people that treat me like I'm dangerous like I'll snap at them or do some huge scary thing," Nico stared down at his hands, "Maybe I just want to have the ability to choose who I hang around without being judged okay. Is that too much to ask?"
"No, Nico, of course not. I just want to know why—"
"Why I don't ever want to hang out with you guys?" Nico finished, "maybe you never saw it Hazel, but I can see how people think of me still. At camp, there are still a great majority of people that are scared of me or don't like me. I stick around because I know the people that like me. I know my worth." He tapped his foot on the ground in an agitated rhythm.
"Maybe my worth is only a couple friends and a boyfriend. But at least now I know it," Nico grit his teeth, "I don't want to hang around the people that only needed me to get the job done, and then pretended to be nice to me for a while."
"Nico..." Hazel pleaded.
Nico turned towards the apartment door, "I don't want to hear it, Hazel. You wanted to know why I never wanted to hang out with you guys and I told you my reasoning. I don't really want to hear your response about how wrong I am about all of that. I just assume the worst about things so I don't get hurt. I appreciate you trying but I want to choose who I hang out with, without you guys judging me."
"Nico you're so thick-headed," Hazel huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest, "if anyone else tried to invite you, you wouldn't even give an answer. So everyone always tells me to invite you."
"They should get up the nerve and ask me themselves if they aren't really scared of me. I appreciate it though. I'm going to go back to playing cards with my friends. You guys can still have a lovely night without us," Nico pulled the apartment door open, "I'll think about spending time with you guys if I can actually see evidence that you guys want to actually treat me like a friend."
"You never give us a chance to!" Hazel exclaimed.
"Have fun with your video games I guess, or whatever you guys are playing right now," Nico let out a slow breath and went back inside, leaving Hazel in the hallway until she huffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest, returning inside.
Nico didn't say anything to the rest of the Seven as he passed and only went back to his room where Will, Cecil, and Lou Ellen were still waiting.
"What was that about?" Will asked, taking Nico's hand as he got close enough for him to.
Nico licked his lips and shrugged, "sibling talk, it didn't matter."
Will furrowed his eyebrows, knowing right away that something was wrong. But he must have seen some sort of plea in Nico's eyes, so he didn't bring it up right away.
"Nico, I really think that you should try cheating, it'll help you win, and also if you do it enough times, Lou Ellen will throw her cards at you," Cecil said with a grin, "I recommend it to anyone daring enough to try it."
"You'll regret cheating by tomorrow," Lou Ellen threatened, glaring at him.
"Now guys, remember, we're all friends here. And also stabbing is not permitted in the presence of Will Solace," Will said, pressing one hand dramatically to his heart, "do you all understand."
"Yes we understand," Lou Ellen and Cecil muttered in unison.
"Good," Will said proudly, scooting closer to Nico so that their shoulders were touching.
Lou Ellen dealt cards to everyone.