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Jason wanders into the galley, finding a little kid in Nico's aviator jacket. "Um, hello?" The kid whirls around, bright eyed with an even brighter smile, a slight gap between his teeth.
"Hi! I'm Nico!" Jason's eyes widen, realizing their last encounter with Cronus must have gone poorly for Nico. Nico has a pretty thick Italian accent, that explains why he knew the way around Venice.
"Hey Nico, I'm Jason. Do you have anyone with you?" Nico shakes his head.
"No, but a minute ago I saw my sister, Bianca, and those two demigods. They were so cool! Especially Percy!" Jason smiles bittersweetly, recognizing that Nico's crush must've started early.
"Yknow Percy's here too, so is Annabeth. I've never met Bianca though, sorry." The ship suddenly shakes, red lights flashing.
"You're about to meet a lot more demigods too. Our ship's under attack I gotta go help, wanna come with?" Nico grins even wider and nods, racing to follow Jason.
They arrive on deck to Leo throwing fire at a Empousa while Piper attempts to charmspeak her. Annabeth and Percy are both fighting a different one, while a third and fourth crowd Frank and Hazel against the side. Hazel looks a tad washed out, probably seasick from the ship shaking. Jason winks at Nico, who is transfixed on Leo and his fire, before running towards Frank and Hazel, sword drawn.
--
The empousai defeated, Leo turns to go back to the engine room, eyes locking to a younger Di Angelo. "...Nico?" The boy is staring at him, cheeks flushing upon being recognized.
"Hi, who are you?" Leo chuckles, realizing that this Nico doesn't have his Nico's memories. Not his. Nico isn't his. Leo flushes, jerking his head quickly to shake the thought before walking over to Nico.
"I'm Leo, Jason's friend. How are you?"
Nico beams, "I'm good! You looked really cool while fighting, like a superhero. Percy says I'm probably a son of Hades, who's your parent?" This Nico hadn't even been claimed yet? How young had he been made?
"My dad's Hephaestus, how old are you Nico?"
"Woah, Hephaestus is really powerful in mythomagic, that's really cool! I'm ten, but I'm almost eleven." Percy walks over, realizing something is amiss.
"Hey Nico!"
"Hey Per- woah Percy you got tall." Percy laughs.
"Well I'm a lot older now, so yeah."
Leo looks up at Percy, a question plain on his face, what happened to this kid? Percy looks away, patting Nico on the shoulder.
"I gotta go do some stuff in my room, but Leo's gonna look after you for a while, okay Ghost King?" Percy walks off.
Nico's eyes widen as he whispers "Ghost King." Leo slings an arm around his shoulders, steering him towards the engine room.
"Pretty cool nickname huh Neeks?"
"Yeah! Hey can you show me that fire trick again?"
Leo giggles, "Yeah, sure. Watch." He lights his hand on fire, letting the flame dance in Nico's eyes as he stares, entranced.
"That's so cool." Nico reaches for it so Leo quickly puts it out.
"Careful dude, fire's dangerous, you can't touch it, even if it is magic."
Nico scrunches up his nose, "Obviously fire's dangerous, my mom died in a fire, I know that you can't touch fire."
Leo raises his eyebrows at the easy admission, "My mom died in a fire too." Nico frowns, leaning forward to hug Leo, "I'm sorry. That must make your fire scary to use." Leo hugs back, smiling gently.
"It was for a while, but I'm okay now." Nico quickly pulls away, now back to full size, wide eyed and scowling.
"Sorry."
"Hey Neeks, you're fine. Can I ask a question though?"
Nico pulls his jacket tighter around himself, "Sure I guess."
"What happened to that happy little kid?"
Nico pushes himself further away from Leo, sighing. "His sister died, he fell in love with a guy even though that's illegal where he's from, and then he spent his time with ghosts, being manipulated for months. He put himself through hell to help with the Titan War efforts and people at camp still thought he was a traitor. Bad things, basically." Leo shuffles over to Nico, wrapping him in a hug again.
"My mom died in a fire I started," Nico tightens his hold, "I was trying to fight Gaia since she had appeared but the shed caught fire and she was locked inside and-" He sobs, burying his face in Nico's shoulder.
Nico kisses his curls, making him look up. Nico kisses him on his cheek, wiping away his tears. He whispers, "It's okay, You're gonna be just fine. How long have you been holding that in?"
"7 years." Nico kisses him on his forehead and nose.
"Leo that's almost half your life." Leo nods, pushing closer to Nico, who cups his face with one hand. Leo leans forward, kissing him softly like he's wanted to for months. Maybe right after sobbing about part of your trauma isn't the greatest time to finally makeout with your crush, but he's taking the opportunity given.