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Leo was startled awake by a scream from the deck above. This was nothing out of the ordinary, of course. A ship with six traumatised demigods and a murder-crazed satyr onboard didn't often guarantee sweet dreams for all it's passengers.
However, as they sailed along the Mediterranean, away from the Croatian town of Split, Leo couldn't help but feel unsettled by that particular scream. He couldn't make out whose scream it was. It wasn't high pitched enough to be either Hazel or Piper's, but it didn't sound like one of the boys. And besides, the panicked yell had came from above him. His crew mates were all presumably asleep in their cabins, just down the hall from Leo.
Leo rolled back over in his bunk, surely whoever the scream had came from would alert him if there was trouble, and he couldn't hear anyone else moving below deck. Perhaps he'd imagined it. He must've been having a nightmare, the scream being the last thing he heard before regaining consciousness.
But still, Leo lay awake, tossing and turning for what felt like hours, disturbed. Phantom screams rang in his ears. Checking his watch, he realised what seemed like ages had only been a few minutes. He blamed the ADHD.
Curiosity got the better of him, and Leo kicked back his covers. Instinctively, he grabbed his tool belt. Not a shirt. That was far too time consuming, and besides, it was July. Even at one in the morning, the air would still be warm above deck.
He sauntered quietly down the corridor, checking for anyone awake, but the rest of the crew appeared to be out cold. Percy's cabin door lay eerily open, which was strange. No one had been in there in a week, unless perhaps Nico had finally taken up the offer of crashing in Percy's cabin. Leo stuck his head through the doorway, but the cabin was empty. Surprisingly though, Percy's bed was made. Percy never made his own bed, so someone must've made it up for him. For him to come back to, Leo hoped.
Leo froze. He could swear he could hear footsteps above him on the deck. Who on earth would be up there? His friends were all sleeping peacefully, even soft snores escaped from Coach Hedge's cabin.
The only logical thing to do was to investigate.
Leo crept up the stairs and poked his head out onto the deck, where he could see a figure pacing back and forth, their arms flapping nervously at their sides. The figure looked harmless. Definitely not a threat, but in the darkness, Leo couldn't make out their face. He reached into his tool belt and grabbed a flash light.
The person screamed, startled by the white light being shone in their face.
It was then that Leo cursed himself for not putting on a shirt.
Nico di Angelo stood over him, ghostly pale in the torchlight. He was wearing his usual skull T-shirt and aviator jacket, Gods, Leo thought, does he own anything else? He seemed startled, and almost offended.
An awkward silence hung in the air, only broken by Nico's quick breathing.
"Uh," Leo started, "did you scream?" He ambled up the steps and onto the deck, but stayed a good six feet away from Nico. That boy freaked Leo out, with his creepy outfits and grey, faded complexion.
Nico nodded. His arms were still shaking violently at his sides, flapping in the same way Leo's did when he was excited. But Nico looked scared, or maybe upset. It was hard for Leo to tell, but he definitely wasn't excited. It felt ironic, for Nico to be scared of Leo. Leo wasn't a freaky emo kid.
"Are there any monsters?" Leo asked, worried that was why Nico had screamed. But surely Festus would've alerted him to danger by now.
Nico shook his head, but said nothing. He didn't seem extremely talkative.
Leo cocked an eyebrow up, trying to figure Nico out. He seemed so... vulnerable. Not like his usual creepy self. "Why'd you scream?"
Nico stared at him, still silent. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came, only fast, shallow breaths.
Leo wasn't sure if Nico couldn't speak, or just didn't want to. He stepped closer to Nico, but Nico backed away, seeming panicked. Leo realised his eyes were bloodshot, as if he'd been crying. "Are you okay, dude?" Leo asked, his voice faltering. Nico still creeped him out.
Nico nodded shakily, but it was unconvincing. He paused, then shook his head, no. Immediately, his hand flapping became more violent, and his breathing even faster. He realised Leo was staring at him, and dug his hands into his pockets, then turned away.
Leo racked his brains, trying desperately to figure out what was going on with Nico, who was now sitting on the deck, ten feet away from him, facing away. He couldn't see Nico's face, but Leo heard his panicked breathing. Was he having an asthma attack? No, no, he'd heard of something like this before.
Leo remembered Piper acting in the same fashion during their first quest. What had she called it? "Hey, uh, Nico?" Leo called out, "Are you having a panic attack?"
Nico whipped his head round to look at Leo. The air was silent and thick around the boys. Nico nodded.
Leo cursed under his breath. What was he supposed to do? He was no good at organic life forms, especially not organic life forms that were malfunctioning. If only Nico was a machine, then he could fix him. But panic attacks? Leo was clueless. He considered waking Hazel, or Piper. They'd be better at dealing with this. Or he could turn around and leave Nico to fix himself. He almost did, but he stopped himself.
Leo remembered the years he had spent alone, panicked, on the run. He'd wished he'd had a friend then. He couldn't turn his back on Nico and leave him here, in the dark, by himself. He inched closer to Nico, worried he'd freak and run off. But he stayed where he was, hugging his knees and trembling in a ball on the deck.
Leo sat down across from Nico. He still seemed to be panicking, and fresh tears were rolling down his ghostly cheeks. Leo had never seen Nico cry before. He was surprised Nico knew how to cry. Leo reached into his tool belt and pulled out some loose wires and began to fidget with them, looping them around his fingers.
He was aware of Nico watching him. "Sorry, uh, it helps me focus my thoughts," Leo said sheepishly, uncertain of why he was nervous around Nico. It wasn't his usual 'this-kid-freaks-me-out,' nervousness. He wasn't sure why, but Leo held his hand out to Nico, offering him the loose wires. "Here," he said, "try it. It might help you calm down, or something, I don't know."
Nico nodded, taking the wires. His hands were colder than ice, sending a chill up Leo's spine. Nico fiddled with the wires silently for a few minutes, whilst Leo tapped the wooden deck mindlessly, watching him.
Here in the dark, alone, Leo realised that maybe Nico wasn't as freaky as he first thought. He seemed so sensitive and gentle. As if his cold nature was just a facade.
"Nico?"
He looked up, the boys meeting each other's gaze.
"Can you talk?" Leo asked. He tried to make his voice gentle, but that was difficult for Leo. He was used to turning everything into a joke, but he figured Nico might not appreciate that.
Nico shook his head, looking slightly ashamed. He opened his mouth, but struggled to make more noise than a single, strangled sob. He brushed the tears away from his cheeks and tried to calm his breathing again.
Leo watched him, his eyes filled with curiosity. He heard Nico talk, just a few hours ago. "Why not?" he asked, then cursed himself. How was Nico going to explain why he couldn't talk, if he couldn't talk? Leo felt like an idiot.
He had a thought, and reached into his tool belt. From it, he pulled a notebook and a biro. It looked strikingly similar to Percy's sword, Riptide, in pen form. Both of the boys noticed this, sorrow filling their faces. Percy was still missing, along with Annabeth. Nico had claimed they were still alive, down in the depths of Tartarus, but for how long, neither of them knew.
Leo uncapped the pen, half expecting it to transform into a sword. It didn't. He passed the pen to Nico, along with the paper. "You can write something, if you want."
Nico half smiled, grateful to be understood for once. He scribbled something down quickly on the paper, then handed it back to Leo gingerly.
In scrawled handwriting wrote "I go non-verbal when I panic. Sorry. I'll be fine soon."
Leo read the note over a few times, then looked back up at Nico. He was shaking, out of fear or chill, Leo didn't know. But he seemed to have stopped panicking so violently. His breathing seemed unsteady, but gentler than before. He was calming down. That made Leo relax a little.
Leo was hesitant, not sure what to say. "Do you... want a hug? Or something?"
Nico shook his head vigorously, waving his hands in front of him. His expression turned sour, as if he was scared of Leo touching him.
"Hey... hey, dude," Leo said calmly, raising his arms above his head, "it's cool. Personal space. I get it. I'm the same."
Nico calmed back down, and started fiddling with the wires in his hands again. A silence settled between the two boys, but it wasn't awkward. Just a gentle, comfortable silence.
After a while, Leo spoke up. "So," he began, "did anyone fill you in on where Festus came from?" Reverting to talking about Festus and machines made sense to him. They brought him comfort, and talking about them made him happy. Surely they could do the same for Nico.
Nico shook his head, then gestured for Leo to continue talking.
Leo's heart raced, excited to finally have someone to listen to him. His hands flapped enthusiastically as he began to tell Nico about his time with Jason and Piper. He couldn't help noticing Nico's mouth curling upwards and his tears stop rolling.
Leo spoke excitedly about finding Festus in the woods back at Camp Half Blood, his words getting faster and melting together. He told Nico about how the dragon lived in Bunker 9, a safe shelter that had been abandoned after the last Civil War. He explained the bronze dragon going haywire after the death of Charles Beckendorf, and how he was the only one able to fix him.
Nico listened intently as Leo talked. His voice began faltering as he retold the tragedy of King Midas' mansion, and Festus relaying his last wishes to Leo through morse code.
"He wanted to be reused," Leo sighed sadly, "he made an excellent dragon. But he makes an awesome figurehead too. The Argo II wouldn't be the same without him."
Nico nodded in agreement, rocking gently back and forth to soothe himself.
Leo continued, telling Nico all about the Argo II plans he found in Bunker 9, and how, with the help of his cabin mates, he'd built the ship for the quest.
After a while of Leo's excited info-dumping, Nico said quietly, "that sounds awesome."
Leo perked up. "Dude?!" he exclaimed, "You're talking!" His hands shook eagerly, happy for his friend.
"Yeah," Nico laughed gently, "I feel okay now. Less panicked."
Leo noticed Nico was still fiddling with the loose wires absentmindedly, in a similar way to how he fidgeted. He gestured to them. "You can keep those if you want," he offered, "they help me focus when I'm stressed."
Nico smiled. "Really?" He watched as Leo nodded, and pulled more scraps of wire and metal from his magic pockets.
"See," he grinned, "I've got plenty! You keep those. If they help you, then I don't want to take them away from you. Gods, the amount of teachers who took away my fidget stuff! No wonder I was hyperactive!" Leo didn't realise, but he moved himself ever slightly closer to Nico, the rift between them closing.
Nico studied Leo as he rambled about the detentions he endured before he finally got his ADHD diagnosis. He watched the way Leo's fingers sparked when he got mad, the way his eyes darted about. He studied Leo's bare chest. He'd never noticed the scars before. Leo was covered in small marks. They looked like burns, which didn't make sense as Leo was supposedly immune to fire.
"Your scars-" Nico interrupted.
Leo went quiet. Leo was never quiet.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- I- I shouldn't have brought it up," Nico muttered, but he seemed unfinished.
"No, it's cool," Leo said quietly, "I don't mind talking about them." He laughed. "They're just from accidents in the forges." His voice faltered nervously and he went back to fidgeting with scrap metal.
Nico frowned. He didn't want to push it but, "I thought you were immune to fire," he said quietly.
Leo avoided Nico's gaze and focused on his scrap metal. He knew deep down Nico saw through his mask. Nico understood perfectly how Leo felt, and he knew it. He knew Nico had felt the same pain he had. The two boys were more alike than they seemed.
"I'm immune when I choose to be," Leo whispered, "if I choose not to focus on it, the fire burns. Not badly. I can make it stop whenever I need to. But sometimes," he trailed off. He didn't know why he was telling Nico any of this. He was just the creepy Ghost King. Yet he felt safe with Nico now. Not completely, but safer than he had before. Perhaps Nico isn't as freaky as he seems, Leo thought.
There was a silence between the boys for a while. A gentle, comfortable silence. Leo lay back, his head resting on the deck, looking up at the stars and constellations. He could feel Nico's eyes on him, but he didn't feel threatened. He sighed. "I haven't in a while," he whispered, his voice gentle and shaky, "not since we left for Rome on the Argo II. It was an accident at first. I wasn't focused and suddenly my skin was on fire. I was able to stop it immediately." His fingers danced with nervous flames, illuminating his tawny brown face.
Leo was hesitant to continue. "I don't know why it felt good," he said, his voice almost inaudible, "but it did. I was hurting and it made the pain go away, even if just momentarily. I just felt so alone. I've always been alone. From the beginning. I was surrounded by people, but still, I always felt second best... or seventh best." He fell silent, then lifted his head to look at Nico. He worried he'd think he was a freak, or a masochistic pyromanic, but Nico looked at him with nothing but empathy.
Nico was still for a moment. The he shrugged off his beloved aviator's jacket and discarded it in a pile next to him. "I know. I know, Leo, I know." Nico's arms were carpeted in scars. Some small, others bigger.
Leo noticed none were new, and sent a silent prayer of thanks to the Gods. For once in his life, Leo was lost for words. He wanted to tell Nico he was sorry for the snide remarks he'd made. That he was grateful for Nico's help. He wanted to tell him so much, but words escaped him.
A feeling of silent empathy passed through the boys. Leo felt understood for once. Maybe him and Nico weren't so different after all. He was still creepy, but less so.
Nico budged closer to Leo, surprising both of them. He lay back against the deck next to him. The two of them gazed up at the night sky. They were inches away from each other, but Leo felt much closer. They weren't touching, but it felt as if they shared something deeper, more physical than even touch.
"I'm sorry," Leo whispered. He felt stupid as soon as he said it. How could sorry fix anything?
Nico sighed gently. "It's oaky," he said, "I've been Tartarus and back. Not much hurts anymore. I'll be fine." He paused. "Thank you."
Leo felt Nico's hand brush against his, gently and quickly. It was over as fast as he felt it, Leo was skeptical. Perhaps he'd imagined it. Yet still, his heart skipped. Why? He had no idea.
"Tartarus..." Leo said, thinking out loud, "is that why you were panicking?"
It took a while for Nico to respond, as if he was contemplating his answer. "No," he paused momentarily, "not this time."
Leo turned onto his side and studied Nico's features. His pale skin looked pearlescent in the moonlight, and his dark hair fell into his face like waves of twilight. He was a breathing manifestation of the moon.
"Something happened in Split," Leo guessed, "with Jason. You've been even stranger than normal. Sorry, shit. You're not strange, just-"
Nico cut him off, "It's fine. I know I'm strange. That's just a given with children of Hades. We're always outcasts. We don't fit in, just like Hades." A single tear welled in his eye. It rolled down towards Leo, and he reached out and brushed it away.
Leo worried Nico would shy away from his hand, but he didn't. He allowed Leo to rest it gently on his cheek for a moment. Leo didn't want to push it, so he recoiled.
The feeling of his heat-leathered fingers lingered on Nico's face, making him anxious.
"I think you're wrong," Leo said, smiling warmly, "look at Hazel. She's from another time. She's a Hades kid, or Pluto, whatever. Sure, she's different, but she doesn't let that bother her. Everyone loves Hazel."
Nico laughed, but it was pained. There was no humour. "Hazel isn't like me..."
Leo nudged Nico. "Why do you say that?"
Nico looked hesitant. "She's... normal. I'm a freak."
Leo laughed loudly, the sound ringing out and making Nico's face soften. "Nico," he said gently and sweetly, "we're demigods. We're all freaks of nature. Hazel can summon gold and diamonds. I can do this," he lit up his hand with glistening flames, illuminating himself as if he was the sun itself.
Nico watched intensely as Leo's magical fire sparked. Leo could tell Nico was staring, and he desperately wanted to impress him. He curled his fingers, making the flames dance obscurely, like a blazing figure. Eventually he let the fire die, but Nico's eyes stayed enchanted.
Nico reached over and touched his hand to Leo's fingertips where the fire had been. They were surprisingly soft, and warm like melted honey. Nico's skin was cool, and their fingers touching sent a chill up Leo's spine.
Nico pulled his hand away. "I'm sorry, I was just," he paused, "curious."
"You're so cold," Leo whispered. He summoned a flame to warm his hand, let it die, then held it to Nico's face. Leo wasn't sure if it was just from the heat, but Nico's face seemed to blush slightly. He held the cold boy's face until his skin was no longer cool to touch. Eventually he realised what he was doing and sheepishly pulled his hand away. "Sorry," he mumbled.
Nico's eyes were wide, but he shook his head gently. "It's okay," he said softly, "I- it's nice."
Leo sat up and produced two blazing balls of fire in his palms.
Nico sat up anxiously. He wanted to back away from the flames, but he just watched intently as the fire danced.
Leo extinguished the blaze, and whispered softly, "lean forward." He cupped Nico's face in one hand and let the other rest behind his neck.
Warmth flooded Nico's body. Colour filled his skin, making him glow a soft olive. His cheeks burned softly. Soft tears threatened to fall.
Leo snatched his hands away at the sight of Nico crying, "Gods, fuck!" he exclaimed, "Did I burn you?"
Nico shook his head, struggling for words. "Happy tears," he whispered, "warm feeling. Happy tears." He took Leo's hands and pressed them to his waist. "Your hands... they give a warm feeling. A happy, safe warmth."
Leo left one hand on Nico's waist, and used the other to wipe his tears away. "A warmth, you say?" He laughed softly.
Nico nodded, gently grinning. "It's hard to explain. When you warm your hands like that, there must be some sort of magic. When you touched me, a sensation overcame me. That sort of warm, fuzzy feeling," he said, "I haven't felt it in years. Please... don't let go."
"I won't," Leo whispered, almost inaudibly. Then he laughed, "that's a new power." He contemplated the thought. Sure... fire could bring destruction, but people rely on fire for warmth, for light, for life. Perhaps there were two sides to Leo's powers.
Just like there were two sides to Nico. His cold, angry side, and this soft, vulnerable side.
Then all at once, everything changed.
Nico's lips were against his. Leo couldn't tell who kissed who, but it was over as quickly as it began.
Nico broke into floods of tears, cursing himself and pulling at his hair. He began to stand, as if to leave, but Leo grabbed him.
"Wait, Nico," Leo said quickly, panic in his voice, "don't- don't go." Nico tried to escape his grip, but Leo was stronger.
Nico felt the panic bubble up inside him again, threatening to burst. He let out a terrified wail, but Leo pulled him close. Leo's arms felt strong around him.
Leo shushed him, gently. "It's okay," he whispered in Nico's ear. "You're safe. I won't tell anyone. You're safe." He held Nico close, comforting him with soft words. It wasn't quite Piper's charmspeak, but Nico relaxed into him.
"I'm sorry," he sobbed, "I don't know why I did that. Fuck. Please don't tell anyone. I won't do it again, I promise I'm not a creep, I- I- I just, you-" he broke off.
Leo brushed the tear's out of Nico's face, then cupped his chin. "I promise," he said, "you're okay." He pulled Nico's face gently towards his. "Can- can I kiss you again?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Nico had no words. He nodded anxiously.
Leo pressed his lips against Nico's. Play it cool, he thought. His heart was racing, and he worried he might burst into flames, literally. But he didn't.
Nico's lips tasted slightly of pomegranate, a reminiscent of the seeds that saved him. Leo sent another silent prayer of thanks to the Gods. Thank you for letting him live.
The boys broke away from each other, then Leo pulled Nico into an embrace.
Nico curled into Leo, soaking up his warmth and clinging to the happiness his touch brought. They lay there on the deck, under the stars for hours, finding comfort in each other.
At some point, the two of them must've fallen asleep, only to be awoken by the harsh July sunrise. A figure stood over them. Leo blinked the sleep out of his eyes.
"Nico... I-" Jason mumbled.
Leo panicked. Jason couldn't know about Nico. He'd promised to keep him safe.
"Fuck," Nico cursed, "morning Jason."
Leo thought Nico would've freaked, but he just stood up, grabbed his aviator's jacket, and said "I'll talk to you later. Uh, both of you," then climbed the mast to his lookout basket.
Jason regarded Leo with a strange look, but kept quiet.
It stayed that way. Quiet.