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The first time Chiron forced Nico, Will, Cecil, Lou Ellen and Drew to go on a supply haul, Nico was ready to take his chances and dive in the nearest shadows.
The whole ride there, he felt uncomfortable as he fidgeted in his seat of the Camp van. He still felt a little strange around Will’s other friends, and throwing Drew into the mix was more stress-inducing. He didn’t really know what to expect of the daughter of Aphrodite, who seemed to switch between keeping to herself and doling out snarky comments in response to teasing from Cecil or Lou Ellen.
So of course, because the Fates seemed to enjoy watching him suffer, when Cecil and Will had paired off and Lou had insisted on grabbing something by herself, he was left alone with Drew.
The two were silent, sitting perched in their own seats and not paying much mind to the other. Nico had gone about ten minutes playing Temple Run on his phone ( he was pretty sure being off the wifi would keep him safe, but otherwise he was more than happy to fight a monster or two if he could just beat Kayla’s stupid high score ), when he finally looked up and realized Drew was gone.
Blinking in surprise, he quickly stood up, eyes scanning the immediate area. He saw a flash of the bright orange that could only belong to a camper’s shirt from Camp Half-Blood. Sure enough, as he hurried in that direction, he recognized it to be Drew.
She walked fast enough that it was hard for Nico to stay on her trail. He finally tracked the daughter of Aphrodite to one of the stores on the second level. To his surprise, it wasn’t some high-end or fast fashion styled shop as he was expecting. It was a small store with a warm and earthy feel, relaxing him ever so slightly as he stepped inside.
His relaxed feeling dissipated as he saw her standing to the back of the store, perusing some items on a shelf. He stalked over to her, tapping her shoulder irritably.
She didn’t even turn around, engrossed in what she was looking at ( seashells, Nico realized ).
“Took you long enough. Slow walker I guess; short legs do that for you.”
Nico glared at the daughter of Aphrodite’s back, standing up straighter immediately. He had grown a solid inch since the end of the war, after finally getting into better eating habits and with Will’s aid, but it still left him on the shorter side. Nonetheless, he moved so that he was in Drew’s vision field, glaring intently.
“You can’t just disappear like that. We have this stupid buddy system for a reason. Now, what was so important that you just ditched me out of nowhere?”
Drew snorted, glossed lips twisting into an annoyed sneer, “Wouldn’t you like to know, Death Boy.”
Nico returned her look of annoyance, standing tall. Before he could speak up, however, Drew continued, “I thought you and Solace were attached at the hip. He probably would’ve mentioned it. Although you probably didn’t get what he was talking about; I doubt you were even around long enough to care.”
Nico scowled, opening his mouth to retort when it occurred to him what she was referring to.
“The anniversary of the Battle of Manhattan,” he said, frowning slightly. Drew glared at him again, although it seemed to have lost some of it’s force.
She opened her mouth, and for a second Nico was sure she would shut him down with some scathing remark. Instead, she seemed to visibly deflate, focusing her gaze on a conch she was playing with in her hands.
“I don’t like to waste time on tears over whoever died fighting. Some of them, like Sile- like certain traitors, don’t deserve to be mourned, no matter how heroic they were in the end.”
She pursed her lips, placing the conch back but still keeping her gaze averted. “But I still give myself a day each year to remember them all. No matter how much I hate them for either leaving me all alone or betraying everyone they were supposed to love or both , I can’t just forget them like that.”
She went silent as Nico mulled over her words. A part of him wanted to press her about Silena. From what he had heard, despite selling out to Kronos, she died heroically and was currently somewhere in the Isles of the Blest with Beckendorf. Her hatred seemed so wrong and misdirected. But he supposed that was exactly it; the tone in her voice, the bitter expression that probably mimicked the acrid words dancing on the tip of her tongue were things he knew all too well.
It was the same way he felt about Bianca, when she left him and consequently died. An angry annoyance that was a thin veil for a deep hurt that felt like it was getting worse every day.
Nico realized then that she was probably waiting for his reaction. He shrugged in response, turning his own attention to the shells in front of them.
“How many do you need? We should get everything picked out and paid for before Will decides to get on the mall announcements for us.”
He felt her eyes boring into the side of his head, refusing to turn to meet her gaze. Nico knew he probably wasn’t the right person to comfort or help her navigate her feelings, so he figured just letting it drop and helping her out with what he could do was the best option.
Drew seemed to agree, turning back to the selection and handing some shells to Nico to carry. “Five shells for now. And since you’re being a sweetheart and playing butler, I’ll pay for one more so you can give it to Solace. He’ll probably cry or whatever, so it’ll be great.”
Before Nico could protest, she topped off the shell pile on Nico’s arms and turned to head to the cash register. Nico huffed, blowing some hair out of his face as he begrudgingly followed, vaguely wondering if it was too mean to chuck one of the said shells at the daughter of Aphrodite.
By the time they got back to the arranged meeting spot, Will and Cecil were sitting on a couch, playing some weird hand slap game as Lou Ellen was sitting with her legs over the side of her armchair and drinking an iced coffee. The moment Will caught sight of Nico and Drew, he grinned, losing his focus as Cecil smacked his hands hard .
While Will was muttering a variety of colourful curses under his breath, the other two demigods settled down on an armchair each. Cecil arched an eyebrow at the single bag with Drew
“You really restrained yourself, huh?”
“Mm, funny. You could use some of my self-restraint. Maybe you’ll stop making unfortunate hair decisions in the middle of the night then.”
Lou Ellen choked on her drink, coughing violently between her giggles. Meanwhile, Cecil huffed, immediately running a hand through his recently-dyed blue hair. “Bully.”
“Whatever, Smurfette.”
Nico snorted at that, unsure of the reference but just finding the name Smurfette to be humorous. Before Cecil could snap back, Will finished his stream of curses and wincing, shaking out his hands as he smiled.
“We have about fifteen minutes to kill, you know. I was thinking, well, what’s a fun thing to do to wrap up this trip.”
Cecil grinned, “Build me a bear, William, my love!”
Will shot him a look, “Wha- no? That’s…” he sighed, rolling his eyes. “I was going to suggest using a photo booth.”
Silence lapsed between the group, broken by Drew a few seconds later. “I’d rather build a bear.”
Cecil and Lou Ellen both nodded eagerly as Will rolled his eyes again. “ C’mon ! We can build bears or whatever at Camp. But the photo booth thing is something we really get to experience here.”
Before anyone could keep arguing, Will already shot up, heading in the direction of what Nico could assume was the photo booth, turning around to gesture wildly for the others to follow. No one seemed to have the heart to ignore the pure excitement radiating from the son of Apollo, following along and muttering complaints under their breaths.
The first photo strip turned out awkward. Everyone didn’t know how to pose and tried to stay spaced out ( which was hard in the cramped booth ). But the pictures were admittedly pretty funny and kind of sweet, as they began to relax and go a little crazy with the photo booth.
By the time the demigods headed to meet Argus with the Camp van, each had at least three photo strips, all with different people and faces. The drive back was much more lively, as they all laughed at their faces and swapped photo strips.
After arriving at Camp, the demigods went their own ways. Cecil went to his cabin to deliver some things he picked up to his siblings and Lou Ellen tagged along, while Drew headed to her own cabin. Nico spent the next half hour helping Will organize and catalogue the medical supplies he bought. They were silent initially until Will finally spoke, not looking up from the cotton balls he was unpacking.
“So, how was your time with Drew? I know that, well, you might have not been too excited, but y’all seemed much more sociable on the ride back.”
Nico shrugged, finishing counting and recording the number of the tongue compressors in front of him before answering, “She’s… pretty bearable. We didn’t rip each other’s hair out, so I think that’s a win.”
He heard Will laugh lightly at that. “Ah, yeah. That’s always a positive.” He went silent for a moment, “She seemed a lot happier on the way back. I mean, she actually addressed me, which was cool. Seems you managed to wear her down a bit.”
Nico blinked, turning his attention to Will. The son of Apollo still had his back turned to Nico as he frowned. “I don’t think I did much. But why is it such a surprise that she was talking to you? Do you two…” he trailed off, not wanting to come off pushy.
Will finally turned around, still smiling, although there was some sort of wistful sadness to his expression. “Drew came to Camp maybe a year after me. She was really close to Silena and, to most people’s surprise, Michael. The two of them were both pretty bitchy, for lack of a better word, but they got on really well because of that sort of snark, I guess. Anyways, we kind of became friends through that, y’know? She could be snappy, but it was never with actual bad intentions. But…” he paused for a moment, hand moving to the bandage around his wrist as he began fidgeting with it. “After they both died, she changed a lot. I get what she felt - I think I felt a lot of that grief too - but she chose to lash out with it.”
Will sighed, dropping his hand from the bandage and running a hand through his knotted curls. “We got into a weird fight after the war. It got pretty emotional and we both… said some things that shouldn’t have been said. I guess we formally forgave each other a week later, mostly to avoid another Cabin war, but it’s been awkward since.”
Will finally made eye contact with Nico. His gaze was still heavy with sadness, but there was a glimmer of it’s typical warmth nestled in. “I don’t know if we are really friends, but it made me really happy to see her a little bit more like the old Drew today. So whether you did something intentionally or not, thank you for being welcoming to her.”
Nico felt his face flush at the sincerity of Will’s words, shrugging in response. He really didn't believe he did much, but he didn’t want to argue about it or give away anything about his and Drew’s private conversation.
It was then he remembered the conch shell he had got for Will. Grabbing the bag from under the cot he was sitting on, he stood up and handed it to Will quickly.
“This was for you,” he mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he averted his gaze. There was an awkward silence as Will slowly opened the bag and removed the shell, and Nico debated whether or not it was too late to take it back and bail.
His inner slight spiral was interrupted as he felt Will’s arms around him. The son of Apollo pulled away after a few seconds, leaving Nico with a strange feeling of warmth that overpowered his cringe at the contact.
Will was grinning sheepishly as he seemed to register the confused look on Nico’s face. “Sorry, I know you don’t like hugs and stuff but- it’s so pretty! And honestly, I mean… I don’t think I told you about my collection right?”
Nico stared blankly at Will. “Your what?”
“Ah, I like to collect seashells and stuff. Cheesy, I know, but it used to be this thing between my mom and I; whenever she goes on tour now, she tries to head to a beach in that location and sends me a shell, and I try to do the same sometimes. They also make excellent presents, as you seemed to figure out.”
As Will continued talking about his collection and admiring the shell in his hands, Nico shook his head slightly in disbelief, feeling a smile tug at his lips. Their friendship might be scattered all over the place, but it seems Drew held on to some sort of care and memories in regards to Will, as he did for her.
He made a mental note to somehow subtly thank her in the future for her help, turning his attention back to Will.