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Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Truth or Dare

Nico POV

“Jason! Truth or dare?” Nico rolled his eyes at the ceiling.  Everyone knew that nine times out of ten Jason would pick truth and on the off chance that he chose dare, Frank’s dares were so feeble that there would be no hesitation of fear.

“Truth.”

“Um…” Frank was just bad at this game in general. “When, uh, what is… your favorite… season?” he said it like it was just as much of a question to him as to Jason.

“I’m gonna have to go with...Summer. I really like hanging with you guys.” Nico raised his eyebrows, but he wasn’t really surprised. Jason said cheesy things like that a lot. “Anyways it’s the furthest away from Winter and Khione.” Nico heard what sounded like Leo and Piper’s BFF high five which was way more complicated that it had to be but to them was like second nature. Their bond had become even stronger after defeating Khione. Twice. 

“Ok. Percy!” Nico closed his eyes and smiled. He’d known Percy long enough to know what he’d pick.

“Dare!” 

“I dare you to…” Nico could feel Jason lean over to his sister and whisper something to her.  Well, kind of feel.  After Taurturus he had become more aware of people’s auras, but only if he was paying attention to it.  It was like he could sense Jason’s aura move over to Hazel’s and he heard the whisper. Hazle gave a small hum of consent.  Nico cracked his eyes open to watch. “To do Hazel’s hair. Rules are that it has to look nice, no help from anyone,” Jason fixed Piper with an I know what you’re up to look. “Verbal or otherwise, and you need to use at least one accessory.” 

Nico watched as Percy cracked his knuckles with a determined look on his face.  He knew that Percy could braid (Anabeth had dragged him to one of her weaving classes and while she made a gorgeous tapestry, he had spent the entire time learning to braid with three strings. It had looked very painful) but he also knew just how difficult Hazel’s hair could be.  He was often witness to the long battle his sister fought every morning just to get her hair to it’s daily tameness and even that was wild. He watched Percy size up his sister’s hair.  

“Hazel, do you have a hair brush?”

Hazel handed him her brush and everyone watched as Percy walked out of the cabin with it.  Jason followed him, presumably to make sure he didn’t go ask anyone for help.

“He’s gonna go throw it in the woods so he can say he lost it.” Leo turned to Frank, who seemed a bit uncomfortable with the seating arrangement that had him next to the flaming Hephestus camper. “Wanna bet?” The Mars boy looked as though he would like to say no, but was afraid he would get deep fried.

“Leo, I thought we agreed to stop teasing Frank.” Anabeth chided from across the room.

Percy ran back into Cabin 13 carrying a cup, Hazel’s brush, his iPod, and a few flower clips that were probably taken from the Stoll brothers, who had their own private stash of hair accessories that they occasionally used to decorate Chiron’s tail.  Jason flew in behind him clutching a medium size speaker and a small vial of hair glitter.  Apparently Jackson had found a good use for his self appointed chaperone. 

Percy set the cup and hair things on the ground beside Hazel and took the speaker from Jason.  He scrolled through his iPod until he found the song he was looking for and plugged it into the speaker. The music blasted through the cabin as he set to work. 

Percy sat on his knees behind Hazel and lightly tapped her on the shoulder. He whispered something into her ear and her eyes widened with shock. Then her mouth slowly curved upward and she nodded. As soon as she did, Percy took the cup and dumped it over her head.  Everyone stared as he started to brush her hair. He was using the water as well as the brush, which was practically gliding through Hazel’s hair. The six demigods marveled as Hazel’s hair became slick and straight . 

Nico watched through his barely open eyes and the son of Poseidon deftly twisted his sister’s hair into a crown. He slipped the glitter from Jason’s hand and sprinkled silver all over his masterpiece. Then he glared at Hazel’s hair and the water he’d dumped onto her head slowly returned to the cup, careful not to mess up the glitter.

“What about the flowers?” Leo broke everyone from the trance.

Percy grinned “Well it was never said that it had to be Hazel’s hair that I put accessories in.  So,”  he turned away from Hazel and looked at his girlfriend. “I decided to give these beautiful flowers here (which, by the way, I definitely did not steal) to the prettiest, most caring, and lovely person I know.”  His gaze shifted slightly and his grin turned evil. “Jason.” Nico could see the fear in Jason’s eyes as he scrambled to get out of Percy's reach, but Hazel and Anabeth grabbed hold of him from either side as Percy poured the cup out over his head, twisted his hair up like Moana and tied it off with a flower.  A soaked Jason sat shivering on the floor of Nico’s cabin. 

“It’s so-o cold.” His teeth were chattering more than Nico had thought possible.

“Really?” He could tell that Hazel has feigning surprise. “It was really warm for me.”

“First come, first serve.” Percy highfived Anabeth as Frank tossed Jason a towel.

“Annabeth, truth or dare.” Nico shut his eyes again and someone turned off the music.

“Truth.” 

“Has there ever been a time when you wished you weren’t a demigod?”

“Almost every second, but if being mortal means I’d never meet any of you guys, I’d go through everything again.” 

“Aww, that's so sweet.” Leo’s laugh sounded forced. “Of course, if I had the choice between normal troublemaker and part-greek-god trouble maker, I’d choose part greek.” Nico wondered if Leo was thinking about his mom. After all, if he hadn’t been a demigod, Hera never would have bothered him. If he’d been mortal, his mom wouldn’t be gone.

“Nico.” Anabeth’s voice rang through his thoughts.  Nico sat up and opened his eyes.

“I was beginning to think you were asleep, Nico.” Percy remarked. Nico rolled his eyes.

“Dare.” 

Anabeth made a series of tapping noises on the floor of the cabin, looking at Leo, who answered in a similar fashion. Nico assumed it was morse code. Bianca had tried to teach him at one point. She said that they could have a ‘sibling language’ and it would be ‘fun’.  The only thing that had stuck with him was I’m here for you which was somewhat ironic. He snapped his attention back to the alive demigods in front of him to keep himself from crying.  They were his friends. They were alive. They weren’t ghosts. That was still a bit new to him.

“Alright.” Apparently Anabeth and Leo had finished their plan to ruin his life. “So Nico. You know Shakespeare?”

Yes. Nico thought. The guy wouldn’t stop going off about how the romantic tension between Benvolio and Mercutio had been downplayed over the years and how awful it was that modern people thought he was serious most of the time. Nico nodded his head, a bit wary of what where she was going with this.

“Well, I dare you to reenact the scene in Romeo and Juliet where Juliet poisons herself. But instead of a vial of water or a sleeping potion, you are going to use normal pomegranate seeds.”

Nico furrowed his brow, sure that there was more to this, but nothing came.

“When? I mean I can’t memorize her whole monologue in ten minutes.”

“So Thursday afternoon.” Hazel suggested.

“No one can memorize all that in two days.” Percy protested.

“I don’t think you have ever seen Nico perform.” Hazel countered.  Annabeth shrugged.

“Thursday afternoon, then.” she said. 

Frank looked at his watch. “The harpies will be out soon. We should probably all get back to our cabins.”

After the six other demigods had gone, Nico snuck out of camp and shadow traveled into the closest library, where he checked out a copy of Romeo and Juliet.  He spent that whole night reading through the classic romantic tragedy.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Nico falls out of a tree

Will POV

Will wasn’t surprised when Nico didn’t show up for breakfast.  The Hades boy usually slept in late and missed the morning activities.  He went to cabin 13 to check on him anyway. He knocked on the door. Nothing. Well that was normal. Nico slept like the dead. 

“Hey Will.” Will turned to see Hazel Levesque and her boyfriend Frank Zhang walking over from the archery range. “Looking for Nico?”

“Um…” Did Hazel find it weird that he was looking for her brother? Did she think that he was being creepy? Everyone in his cabin had found out about his crush months ago, but he had made them swear on the river Styx that they wouldn’t say anything.

“He's not in there.” well that was strange. Nico never got up before eleven at least. “He wasn’t there when I got up either. I don’t think he even slept.”

“Well thats Nico for you.” Frank shifted his quiver on his shoulder. “Sleeps for twelve hours or not at all.” Hazel giggled.

“I don’t know where he is, but if I had to guess, I’d say over by the pegasus stables.” Hazel pointed, despite the fact that Will knew where the stables were. “But away from people. In sight but out of hearing range.”

“Thanks.” Will called to them as he turned toward the stables.  He had a few choice words to share with the adorable Hades camper about proper sleeping habits.

Nico was right where Hazel said he would be. Will watched the small Italian.  He was lying on a tree branch a few feet above the ground with earbuds in and reading from a small, thick book.  He was mouthing either the music he was listening to or the words he was reading.  Will could have stood there for two eternities and a lifetime, just watching the kid, but Nico wouldn’t be there that long and Will would rather talk to him.

“Hey di Angelo!” he called.

Nico’s eyes widened and he tried to turn towards Will, but seemed to forget that he was on a tree branch and rolled off it. 

“Oh Gods. Nico! I’m so sorry! Are you ok?” Nico groaned as Will ran up to him.

“Fine.” he sat up. “Bruised, but fine.”

Will picked up the play book that Nico had been reading. “Romeo and Juliet?”

“Gimmie that.” The hades camper snatched the book out of Will’s grasp.

Will raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry. I just didn’t think you were the romantic type.”

Nico’s face flushed as he walked around to the back of the tree. “I’m not.” He was back on the branch above Will. 

“Did you really just shadow travel back up there?” Nico looked down and raised his eyebrows. “Why can’t you just climb?”

The smaller boy scowled. “Tall kids just don’t know how lucky they are.” he grumbled.

“I’m just saying-”

“Hey, Neeks!” Percy Jackson appeared from behind the tree.  He reached out his arms in a way that made Will wonder if the Poseidon boy was inviting Will to hug him.  He was just about to ask when Nico tumbled out of the tree again and straight into Percy’s outstretched arms. “Is the Apollo kid bothering you?” he asked playfully.

“Let me go, Jackson.” Will had to bite his lips together. He wasn’t jealous of Percy.  He was an amazingly kind and funny person, especially given what he had gone through.  The dude had saved the world twice and been through tartarus for the elysium's sake. It wasn’t like Will wanted to do that. He didn’t even think he could. He was a medic, not a hero. But he had seen the way that Nico had looked at Percy for years. The adoration in his eyes. Will maybe kind of possibly definitely wanted Nico to look at him like that. 

“I’m not a damsel in distress.”

“But you do need a Romeo, don’t you?” Percy refused to let go and tightened his grip.

“I’m not your Juliet.”

Percy waggled his eyebrows as if this was the reaction he was hoping for. “Then who’s Juliet are you?” 

The Hades camper’s face turned red and he looked at Percy with a hatred that made Will glad he wasn’t Percy. “Maybe I’m not Juliet.” he said through gritted teeth. “Maybe I’m Romeo.”

Will wasn’t exactly sure what was going on at this point. “Mmkay. Jackson, put Nico down, Nico, how about you be literally almost anyone else in that play so you don’t die.”

“But what if I want to die?” Will grew worried. Nico was just kidding, right? He sounded serious, but with Nico it was hard to tell. Will really hoped that Nico was joking.  He had thought he was starting to enjoy himself here and have fun at camp, but he didn’t know for sure. He knew for a fact how easy it was for demigods-or people in general, really-to hide their emotions and smile instead. He knew a few kids who had hurt themselves and one Aphroditie girl who had committed suicide and no one had any idea until it was too late.  That was the thing with suicide. It’s always the people you least expect. He remembered the girl had been found deep in the woods a few days after a game of capture the flag.  Her name was Audrey and everyone was so shocked. She had always smiled at everyone and she had great taste. But her siucide note said she felt like no one knew the real her and like she was forced to stay inside a perfectly crafted Aphrodite coffin. Will had also had his fair share of kids who cut themselves. If there was one thing he had learned from his experience with taking care of demigods, it was that you couldn’t rule anyone out.  After the Audrey incident, he had asked Chiron if anything like that had ever happened at camp before. Chiron showed Will a large, worn book which had all the names of all the demigods that had ever come to Camp Half Blood with a years column for how long they stayed. It also had a cause of death column. A large percentage of campers had died of monster attacks, which was sad but not surprising. However, Will was shocked at how many kids had committide suicide in the 1950s. More half bloods had died of self hatred then monster attacks.

“Will?” Nico had crawled out of Percy’s arms and was standing in front of Will, looking up into his eyes. “Not really. I don’t want to die.” Will smiled, resisting the urge to bite his lip. 

“Good.” It took all his self control to keep from hugging the Hades boy. He was still worried about him. 

“Yay! Happy ending! Group hug!” Percy attempted to throw his arms around both Nico and Will, but Nico dodged away so Percy ended up giving Will an awkward side hug instead. “Aw, come on Ghost King. Am I really that repulsive?”

“I don’t like being touched.”

“Fine, fine. I can tell when I’m not wanted.” 

“I don’t think you actually can.” Nico said to his back.

“Either that or he only leaves when it’s convenient.” Will looked back at Nico and remembered why he had come. Other than to marvel at how amazing the Hades camper was. “Alright, di Angelo, did you or did you not sleep last night.”

“What is this, an interrogation?”

“A daily check up.”

“Well doctor Solace, don’t you need to see how tall I’ve grown then?”

“Being the very experienced and well trained doctor that I am, I can tell that you have grown just about no inches since yesterday.”

“Oh ha ha. Well don’t you need me to…” Will watched Nico try to come up with a better way to distract Will. “Do you need me to take my shirt off, doctor Solace?” 

Will’s breath caught in his throat and he stared at the cute boy standing in front of him.

“N-no.” he stammered as his face went beet red. He was grateful at how far away from other campers they were. “That won’t be necessary.” 

“Then if you don’t mind,” Nico waved his copy of Romeo and Juliet in front of Will’s face. “I have a book to finish.” 

Before Will could stop him, he disappeared.  Will leaned against the tree and moaned.

“You can’t just shadow travel away after saying something like that, Nico.” He muttered as he hit his forehead against the tree.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: Nico’s Bunker

Nico POV

“What the Hades, di Angelo!” Nico banged his head against the wall. “What were you thinking? ‘Do I have to take my shirt off?’ He is gonna hate you so much now!” 

Nico was in his ‘bunker’, as Hazel called it. He didn’t argue with her. Mostly because he generally avoided arguing with his sister, but also because she had been nice enough to create it for him. The bunker was half the reason Nico hadn’t left camp already. A few days after he got out of the infirmary, he had started getting panic attacks. They mostly happened when he was in a group with people he didn’t know, or just when he was around people.  Hazel had created a small pocket of air under the Hades cabin that was sturdy enough that Nico could spend as long as he needed and just get away from everyone. She had made sure that no one would bother him by making no exit and no entrance. The only way in or out was through shadow travel. It was also protected in that no one except Nico and Hazel knew about it. They knew that someone would try to get into it or make sure it was safe. But there wasn’t all that much breathable air down there. A few days after the war with Gaia, Percy had freaked out because Nico was asleep but didn’t look like he was breathing. Nico had woken up to Percy screaming at him that he wasn’t allowed to die. After convincing Percy that he had just overreacted and nothing was wrong, Nico talked with Hazel about it. Through experimentation, they discovered that Nico had acquired the ability to slow his heartbeat and breathing to a speed that would be considered dead to everyone except Hazel and Nico, who could sense when a person died. Hazel had a theory that when he had eaten the underworld pomegranate seeds, he had ‘unlocked’ a ‘not quite dead’ ability from Hades. 

Nico banged his head against the wall again. Will probably wasn’t even interested in him. 

“Nico. Stop. This is such a stupid way to spend your summer. Even if Will is, like, half the reason you aren’t back with your dad.” Nico groaned as he sat down and hid his face in his hands. “Talking to yourself. Not at all a sign of insanity.” he shook his head.  He needed to do something else. Take his mind off Will. He wished Bianca was still around. Even if she did join the hunters of Artemis, she would know what to do. She always did. Nico pulled out his earbuds and iPod and turned on shuffle mode.

It’s like forgetting the words to your favorite song

You can’t believe it you were always singing along

It was so easy and the words so sweet

You can't remember you try to feel a beat

Nico’s whole body shook with sobs as he tightened his arms around his knees. He thought of all the music he had that had been given a new meaning over the past four years. In the back of Nico’s mind was always the fear that he would forget this, just like when he was ten, just like Percy, just like Jason.

You spend half of your life trying to fall behind

You’re using your headphones to drown out your mind

It was so easy and the words so sweet

You can’t remember you try to move your feet

He felt like he’d gone from casual listener to connecting on a spiritual level to feeling like the song had been written about him. Nico relaxed his grip and leaned his head back against the side of his cavern, letting himself cry. Lately he had been getting better at emotions and allowing himself to feel. Not in front of people, not around people, not with people-but with himself. He wasn’t the ‘let's talk about our feelings’ guy and he never would be, but he was becoming a person who was ok with who they were and what they felt. Part of him was glad his father stuck him in a casino for seventy years. At least in this era he was accepted. See, there. Nico grimace. Maybe he shouldn’t be spending so much time at camp. That had almost sounded like a positive thought. He thought about the iPod he was clutching to his chest. It had been his sisters when they were at Westover Hall. It was the first place he had gone when he’d discovered his shadow traveling ability. Nico sighed and unlocked it. He went to pictures. His sister had taken a lot of pictures of him. Nico winced. He was so...niave and stupid back then. He wished Bianca had taken more selfies. He wished he hadn’t held her back. She would have had more friends if he hadn’t been so clingy. She was so beautiful, she would have been one of the ‘popular’ kids. Nico yawned. Will was right, he should probably sleep at one point or another. He normally tried to go to sleep around two am to avoid nightmares, but late morning might work too. Nico closed his eyes, thinking about the truth or dare question Percy had asked last night.  If he was mortal he’d still have his sister and his mother. But he wouldn’t have Hazel or Reyna, both of whom he considered family. For the first time in a long time, Nico had pleasant dreams.

…

Nico woke up lying in Percy’s bed. He knew this because everything was blue. Blue covers, blue walls, blue floors somehow. 

“This is why I can’t have nice dreams.” he grumbled. He had learned that his emotions affected his shadow travel. He often woke up after nightmares in his small burrow. He wasn’t sure if this was a survival instinct or that he felt safe there. He had managed to get a general control over accidental conscious shadow traveling, but doing it in his sleep was complicated. His emotions were more raw and he didn’t have as much control. In any case, he had learned that he shadow traveled to Percy’s cabin when he felt comfortable. Percy had kind of become like an older brother to him. An annoying older brother, to be sure. He was constantly teasing Nico about his crush on Will and even going so far as to act in the obnoxious way he had earlier that day.

“Nico?” Nico sat up. Percy was standing in the doorway of cabin 3.

“Um…” Nico really wanted to shadow travel away but he had learned that he couldn’t escape all his problems. Just the ones involving Solace. “Sorry. I was, uh, practicing being dead.”

Percy raised an eyebrow and smirked. Nico mentally kicked himself. Even to him that sounded pathetic. Probably because it was pathetic. He scrambled off the bed. “Demigods don’t need practice being dead.” 

“Sorry.” Nico said again. “I’ll just leave now…”

“And if they did practice being dead, they wouldn’t do it in Posidon’s cabin,” Percy continued as though Nico hadn’t spoken. “They would do it where they planned to die.” He turned so his back was facing Nico. “Of course most demigods don’t know where they are going to die and certainly not when. But Juliet isn’t most demigods and got to choose where she poisoned herself...Now Percy! Talking to yourself about how Nico doesn’t know that Annabeth has planned for his death to take place a little bit in the woods near Zues’s fist? How silly for you to say such things aloud.” Percy glanced back at Nico and jerked his head at the door. Nico took the sign and ran out of the cabin.

“Nico?” Cecil asked as Nico ran past.

“Sorry, Cecil. No time to talk. Deaths to plan, poison to acquire, knives to steal.”

…

Nico took a deep breath. He was ‘off stage’, which really just meant out of sight of his audience. He thought about the seven demigods sitting in the tree in front of him. He hadn’t performed for a group of people since Bianca died. He’d done a few skits with Hazel but that was it. Nico steeled himself. These were his friends. He was comfortable around them. He could do this. He exhaled slowly and clutched his dagger in one hand and his pomegranate seeds in the other as he walked into the small clearing that they were using as a stage. One more breath as he sunk into character.

Juliet was kneeling in the center of a clearing, one of his hands was clenched into a fist and the other held a dagger. 

“Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.” His voice had such feeling in it that you would barely believe that this was a boy who normally spoke in a bored monotone. “I have a faint cold thrill through my veins, that almost freezes up the heat of life” All seven demigods in the tree were stunned. They had never seen this side of Nico before. 

Nico could sense people’s auras if he was paying attention to them, but he was focusing on faking his own, scripted death. If he was paying attention, he might have felt Leo slip away part way through his monologue. But though Nico di Angelo had many hidden talents, multitasking wasn’t one of them, so he continued to recite, unaware that he was one audience member short of when he had begun.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: The Second Part of Annabeth’s Plan

Will POV

“Dude. He is totally into you. Just ask him out.” 

“But what if I just misinterpreted it. What if I mess up and he’s not interested in me and I ruin any chance I might have had.” Will was helping the Dionysus and Demter kids gather strawberries to sell with his best friends Cecil and Lou Ellen, and had just finished recounting the events of the day before.

“Well you could always spend the rest of the Summer pining over him and then make lame excuses all year to come back and see him, only to chicken out so the entire year results in nothing.” Will sighed. Lou Ellen was optimistic like that.

“Either way, there is no way in Hades that he wasn’t hitting on you.” Cecil stopped picking strawberries and looked up at Will. “Or he might just have really bad people skills.” 

Will groaned and hid his face in his hands. He loved his friends, but they were not good at pep talks. He wondered where Nico was. He hadn’t seen Nico all afternoon yesterday or this morning. Maybe Nico was avoiding him. Will hoped that wasn’t the case but he wouldn’t be surprised if it was. He kind of wished he could avoid himself too.

“Will, you have been obsessed with the boy for years. Get off your lute and tell him how you feel.”

Will knew Lou Ellen was right. When Nico had first come to camp, Will had felt like he had to get to know him, but he never got up enough courage to talk to him. Then his sister died and he ran away. Will may or may not have spent that next summer fantasizing about the cute happy boy he’d seen.  He didn’t see Nico until the battle of Manhattan, two years later. Will could tell it was the same person he had so wanted to be friends with when he was eleven, but he was so different. For one he had grown up. Fourteen year old Will’s first thought was Gods he’s so hot . Of course then the (way more logical) medical side of Will’s mind kicked in, telling him just how malnourished the Hades boy was, and he could see how pale his skin had gotten. Will watched the boy as he fought and realized how wrong all of his fantasies had been. The kid in front of him was no longer that happy go lucky boy he had seen playing with Mythomagic cards. Gone was the excitable ten year old and in his place was this broken boy who, for years, had felt betrayed by the person he was now fighting under. Will marveled at the cold, controlled, burning rage in those eyes. This was a new side of Nico that Will had never even thought about. He had known that Nico was a Hades kid but hadn’t really ever considered what that meant. But instead of being frightened of Nico, all Will had wanted to do was fix him. He wanted to make the boy feel loved. He really, really wanted to hug him. After the battle, Will had assumed that Nico was finally going to stay. Will still couldn’t gather enough courage to walk up to the Hades boy and say anything that mattered. That was when Will had realized the way Nico looked at Percy. Like he was an unreachable deity. Nico didn’t stay long. No one was surprised. He wasn’t social and didn’t participate in activities like the campfire, but Will saw it as his own personal failure. The next time Will saw Nico had been just before the war with Gaea. This time he didn’t need courage to talk to Nico. All he had to do was see him and his medical instincts kicked in. You didn’t have to be a doctor to see how close he was to death. You did have to be a halfblood to see he was becoming a shadow. Will felt in that moment like he needed to keep this kid safe from himself. He wanted to keep this poor boy alive. Will knew with all the certainty in the world that Nico di Angelo would work himself to death if he believed he was doing the right thing. But even in his weakened state, Will could see that nothing was going to keep Nico from fighting in the oncoming war. And he did fight. Will could see how powerful the Hades kid was, decimating and slaughtering hundreds of monsters. He knew that he wouldn’t let Nico get away again (partly because he was only inches from killing himself). He swore on the Styx to himself that he would at least befriend the Hades kid, so he gave Nico a three day sentence in the infirmary. Lucky for Will, Nico’s friends convinced him to stay after three days were up, and for the past few weeks, Will had been trying to find a way to tell Nico how he felt.

“How?”

“I don’t know, seduce him with your gods awful poetry.”

Lou Ellen rolled her eyes. “Or just find him and tell him you like him. Simple.” 

“Are we talking about the same di Angelo? Nothing about that kid is sim-”

“Solace!” Cecil was cut off by Leo Valdez, who was running up to them. Leo looked more worried than Will had ever seen him. “It’s Nico!”

“What?”

“Nico! I saw him going down to Zues’s Fist with pomegranate seeds! I think he’s gonna try to hurt himself or something!”

Will took off running. He was not going to let di Angelo hurt himself. Gods. Why couldn’t the stupid little Italian see when he was loved. Will should have paid better attention to him. He knew that Nico thought that everyone at camp hated him. He had said as much before. Gods, Nico! Why can’t you see that there are people here who care about you and who love you? Will ran faster than he had thought possible, but he didn’t think about that. All he could think about was Nico. He should have made sure that Nico wasn’t actually thinking about killing himself the other day.

Will reached the edge of the woods in time to see Nico look to the sky, say something Will couldn’t hear and, with tears in his eyes, eat and swallow what Will assumed were pomegranate seeds.

“Nico!” Will sprinted forward just in time to catch Nico’s limp body. “No, no, no, no, no.” Will put his fingers against Nico’s wrist. He was as cold as death. But that was just Nico’s regular body temperature, right? Poison couldn’t work that fast, could it? Curse the children of the Underworld and their irregularly cold skin. “Nico please. What the Hades, Deathboy? You’re killing me.” Will couldn’t find a pulse. He frantically moved his fingers to Nico’s neck. “If only you would listen. No one here hates you, di Angelo.” Still no pulse. As a last resort, Will put his hand on Nico’s chest. “You have a family here. You are not allowed to leave. Not without a doctors note. People here care about you. I care about you.” His voice frayed. Will abruptly moved his hand from Nico’s chest to the ground, grabbing the first thing he found and chucking it as hard as he could. Nico’s dagger sunk up to it’s hilt in the tree directly in front of him. “Gods dammit Nico! Why aren’t you breathing? Why don’t you have a pulse?” Will’s eyes burned as his vision blurred. “Please no, Nico. No no no no. You are not allowed to leave, Sunshine. I-I can’t-” his voice broke. Will leaned down so his face was hovering over Nico’s.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: Will Explodes

Nico POV

“I can’t live in a world without you.” Nico felt a drop of water fall onto his cheek. He opened his eyes to see Will’s face looming above his, eyes filled with tears.

“Neither can I.” he said softly. Without really knowing what he was doing, Nico pulled Will’s face the inch closer it needed to be for the perfect kiss. Will was warm and tasted like strawberries and somehow sunshine. In Nico’s opinion, it really was the perfect kiss. That is, it was the perfect kiss until Percy ruined it by falling out of a tree. 

Thump . Will flinched out of the kiss and both boys looked toward the sound. The origin of said sound happened to be one Perseus Jackson, lying face down on the ground just a few feet away.

“Um…” Will turned towards Nico who hid his face in his hands. If Will didn’t already hate him for pretending to be dead or for kissing him, he would certainly hate him now. Nico was afraid he would die of embarrassment. Well at least if he died now he could die having kissed Will Solace. He’d wanted to do that almost all summer. Five more thumps told Nico that the other demigods had also decided to reveal themselves. A glance up told him that Frank was inching himself off his branch.

“Were you all up there the entire time?” Will looked like he was on the edge of a panic attack. Nico wanted so bad to shadow travel him away. Somewhere he could calm the Apollo boy. But that might not be so welcome. “You just let me think he was dead?” Nico had never seen Will this...angry. Neither had anyone else, judging from their faces which were displaying a mixed range of emotions from shocked to afraid, the former being Jason and Piper and the latter being Hazel, who looked like she was about to cry.

“Um, best seats in the house?” It was less of a joke and more of a weak excuse. Leo must have known he was walking on thin ice.

“Best seats in the-? You told me that you were worried that Nico was going to hurt himself! I actually thought-! Was this whole thing just a set up?” He turned to Nico. “Was this just all a joke? Were you in on this?” Nico didn’t know how to respond. He’d had no idea that this was going to happen. He had thought this was just a reenactment. And then Will had come and he’d had no idea what to do, so he’d just pretended to be dead. Nico silently cursed himself. He was such a possum. Nico saw the flames in Will’s eyes, a burning rage but also shame. Will thought Nico had done this to embarrass him. Nico was frozen in place, too afraid to answer Will’s question. He realized that the son of Apollo was still supporting him. He had fantasized about Will before, but never had he imagined looking into his eyes and seeing so much doubt and anger. He personally hadn’t thought Will was capable of such strong but dark emotions.

“Will.” Piper’s voice shook. Nico knew that her charm speak was powerful, but he wasn’t sure anything could calm Will down. “It’s not Nico’s fault. He didn’t know that you were coming. He was doing a dare. Blame us, not him.” Will seemed to search Nico’s eyes and saw the truth in them. He tore his gaze away from Nico’s as he stood. Nico knew what would come next. Will would tell him that he wasn’t interested in him in that way and they should just stay friends. Nico winced. He always seemed to fall for the ones that were unreachable. But unlike Percy, Will would probably act awkward around Nico. After all, he had kissed him. Nico needed to go. He needed to go now. He didn’t think he could take Will’s disgust with him. Will was straight anyway. Probably. Nico had just thought that maybe...because...but he shouldn’t have thought that it would work. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Will probably wasn’t saying...when he said he couldn’t live in a world without-no. It was probably that he didn’t want anyone else to die. He was a medic, he said things like that. Nico couldn’t do it. He couldn’t. The onslaught of-no. No. he felt like his chest was contracting. He couldn’t breath. He couldn’t breathe. He put his hands over his ears but that did nothing to keep out his thoughts. He was so stupid to have thought Will liked him. He was so stupid to have ever even considered that Will could like him. He was a son of Hades. No one liked him. No one even wanted him at camp. Breathe. He had to breathe. He couldn’t breathe. He had known that he would be rejected at one point or another. He felt like his ribs were being crushed and his heart was being held captive by it and would burst at any moment. He felt like he was the one trapped. There were too many people here. He had to go. He needed to be alone in his bunker. Alone. He needed to be alone. He needed to breathe. He needed to breathe. He couldn’t breathe. No one here liked him. No one at camp wanted him here. They pitied him. That was the only reason they talked to him. Talk talk talk. Everything was so loud. It was so loud. There was so much noise. He pressed his hands harder against his head. It was so loud. He wished everything would just stop. That everyone would just stop. Stop stop stop. He had stopped breathing. He needed to breathe. He needed to breathe. He couldn’t breathe. He felt a hand on his shoulder and jerked away.

“Nico!” He opened his eyes. He hadn’t realized they were closed. All his friends were looking at him like-like they were scared. Scared of him. He had known this would happen. Nico flinched. He had known that the ‘warm welcome’ wouldn’t stay warm. He hadn’t expected to stay so long anyway. He needed to get away, far away. His eyes locked with his sister’s. She had concern in her eyes. He could handle the pain of being hated, but nothing could have prepared him for the gash of hurt that her gaze ripped open inside him. He couldn’t go to his bunker. He couldn’t go home. He needed to be somewhere where no one would bother him. Nico squeezed his shut as tight as he could and went to the first place he could think of. 

Everything

               Was

                      Silent

                               And

                                     Still

Nico could breathe. He could breathe. Hot tears spilled from his eyes and burned his cheeks. He wished he had died when he ate those seeds. He wished...he wished...he wished… Nico dug his nails into his forehead. He should have known. He should have known. He wished he’d never been a demigod. He wanted his sister. He wished Bianca was still alive. He wished that she had survived instead of him. He wished she’d never chosen rebirth. He wished his father had just left him in the casino. He wished he’d never met Percy Jackson or Annabeth Chase or anyone else. He wished he still thought that greek mythology was nothing more modern than a card game. He wished that he could gather up the will power to destroy the small statue of his father that his sister had sacrificed her life for. 

Nico sat there crying. He didn’t care if he never got up. He didn’t care if tears did nothing. He hated everything. He hated everyone. He hated himself. He wanted Nico di Angelo dead. He wanted Nico di Angelo to suffer. He wanted Nico di Angelo to suffer the pain of living. He wanted Nico di Angelo to hurt the way Nico di Angelo had hurt him. He felt useless and unlovable. He was useless and unlovable. Nico didn’t even know where he was and he didn’t care. He just wanted it to be over. All of it. Everything. Nico had escaped from the grasp of the people who loved him and had run deep into the darkest corner of his mind. The corner that held his blackest fears and his worst memories. The corner that held tartarus. The corner that had brought him deep into the North Woods.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Will Decides That He Needs a PHD in Psychology

Will POV

“Nico.” Will put his hand on Nico’s shoulder, but the boy flinched at his touch. He had his hands pressed against his head and he was rocking back and forth on his knees, his eyes shut tight. 

“No, no, no, no.” the smaller boy shook his head violently. Will gasped as Nico began to flicker. He was turning to shadows and shadow traveling, so fast that they could barely register his disappearance. The ground beneath Will’s feet cracked open so fast that he would have been halfway to tartarus before he realized he was falling if not for Percy grabbing his sleeve and pulling him away from Nico. Everyone around Will looked just as shocked as he was. Everyone except Hazel. Will tried to catch her eyes as he made his way over to her. She looked worried.

“What’s going on?” 

“Panic attack.” This was like no panic attack Will had ever seen, from a medical point of view or a demigod point of view. The closest thing he had ever seen was when Pollux was dealing with his brother’s death. They were lucky that of the two Dionysus children, Castor was the one with the ability to cause madness. But this...this was ten times worse than that. In the back of his mind, Will wondered if Apollo covered mental health as well as physical. If so, he needed to get on that, because some of the demigods he’d known really needed a therapist.

“Nico!” Piper must have used all her charmspeak power to break through Nico’s walls because she looked ready to pass out. Nico opened his eyes and removed his hands from his ears. He looked up and Will saw how fragile he was. He was broken. This was a boy who had gone through tartarus alone and felt like he was still there. But he was just as close to breaking as he was to snapping. For the first time in his life, Will was truly afraid of Nico. Afraid that if this boy felt like he had nothing left, he would destroy the world and himself in the process. Will saw all of Nico di Angelo, the space that held back the black hole of misery he could cause, the misery he’d felt for years. A misery that would be so easy to let free. A misery that was being held back by the small boy it belonged to, a boy who clutched so close to his chest the little love he still had. Nico’s eyes were filled with fear and hurt. Will could almost see in his eyes how overwhelmed and afraid he was. He could almost see Nico’s destination a split second before the boy was gone. And then he was gone. The ground stopped shaking and the wind died down. Will realized that without knowing it, Percy and Jason had been responding to Nico. They had known that he was close to the edge and had been unconsciously preparing themselves for a fight. Will looked at the demigods standing around him. Jason and Leo were holding an unconscious Piper up, Annabeth was crying in Percy’s arms, Frank stood frozen, still looking at the spot where Nico had been. Hazel looked at Will.

“Well?” she looked at him expectantly. “Are you going to go after him or not?”

“What? He could be anywhere!” Will glared at Leo, still angry with him for what he had done.

“This is my fault.” Annabeth’s voice was choked with tears as she spoke. “I should be the one to look for him.”

“No.” Hazel didn’t take her eyes from Will. “This isn’t your fault and you are not going to look for him.”

“We should arrange a search party.” Jason shifter Piper in his arms.

“We don’t even know if he’s still on the campgrounds! What use would a search party be?” Percy protested.

“Nico is still on camp grounds,” Will was starting to find Hazel’s golden stare a little unnerving. “And Will is going to find him. No search party.” Will knew in his heart that she was right.

“What?”

“No!”

“How?”

Hazel ignored the other campers.“You know where he is?” Will nodded. “Go. I’ll yell at them for you.” Will ran. He would have time to thank her later. After he found Nico.

…

Will knew where he was going. He wasn’t exactly sure how. It was like Nico had projected a gps signal into his head before he disappeared. He reached the creek and almost flew over it. He ran further into the woods than he’d ever gone before, but he didn’t pay much attention to that. He had to get to Nico. It struck Will that this was the second time today he was running into woods to get to Nico. He really hoped that this didn’t become a habit of his. Will stumbled. He’d reached the area he’d seen Nico go to, but it was less of a spot and more place. Will knew Nico was around somewhere. He could almost feel the absence of light from where Nico was. He felt drawn to it. Will stopped. He could see the small boy curled up in on himself, his body shaking with sobs. With no heastation, Will ran over to Nico and drew him into his arms in a thoughtless attempt to squeeze the darkness out of his life. He sat there with his arms around Nico, the two opposites that they were. Nico represented death and destruction and darkness and Will was a figurehead of healing and light. Contradiction itself. After a while, Will felt Nico’s bony arms wind around him as a wet face hid itself in his shoulder. Eventually, Will felt Nico pull away and reluctantly, he let him. Will looked at the face looking up at him, wide eyed and anxious and full of doubt but also full of wonder, Will had a feeling of nostalgia. Nico looked so alike to the ten year old Will had seen years ago.

“Y-you don’t hate me? You don’t-” But his small soft voice was cut off by Will leaning down to kiss him. It wasn’t a bird singing kiss or a world saving kiss or an endless kiss or a hungry kiss. It was their kiss and it was wonderful. Kissing Nico was like traveling the world, new and wonderful and so different from anything Will had ever experienced.

“No, Nico. I don’t hate you.”

The boy smiled hesitantly at him, then hung his head.

“I’m sorry for-for-”

“It’s ok. It’s not your fault.” Will gently tilted Nico’s chin upwards and looked him in the eye. “On the other hand, I can’t decide whether to kiss or kill your friends.” Nico chuckled softly. “Are you ready to go back yet, or do you want to stay here a little longer?”

“I think I’m ready.” Will slid his hand into Nico’s as they stood.

“Good. Hazel said she would yell at them for me, but I’m not confident in her scolding abilities.”

Nico raised his eyebrows. “Never underestimate a Levesque.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: Fireworks

Nico POV

Hazel was a force to be reckoned with. Percy and Jason would both compete every so often to find out who was the most powerful, but Nico knew for a fact that it was Hazel. The entire camp could probably hear her. 

“-I mean what were you thinking Annabeth? Daughter of the goddess of wisdom and yet you forget to add emotions into the equation? One would think that you would calculate every possible outcome, but it seems you didn’t think ahead. And I thought that Percy was impulsive. And you.” Will and Nico came in sight just in time to see Hazel turn from Annabeth to Leo. “What could you possibly have said to Will that got him so worked up? He looked like he’d entered a race against Victory and the four winds and was winning.” Leo bowed his head. Both Jason and Percy looked like they were considering popping drachmas into their mouths now so they would be able to make it to the Underworld when no one could find their bodys. Annabeth looked like she would rather face Arachne again then be on the receiving end of Hazel’s rage. Frank kept trying to put his hand on Hazel’s shoulder to calm her down but she kept ignoring him. Hazel was alternating between New Orleans French and English and Nico doubted that the 7 demigods she was yelling at could understand half the things she said, but everyone looked too scared to tell her. “Jackson! You of all people should have known that things like this can’t be rushed! And you know who he is! How did you think he would react? And the whole death thing? We’re demigods , for Elysium's sake! Death isn’t something you use to get two people to start dating! I don’t care if it worked for you and Annabeth, you should have known!” she took a breath and saw Nico and Will standing a few feet away, holding hands. Nico bit his lip, afraid that Hazel would start yelling at them too. Instead she ran up to them and threw her arms around him.

“I’m so glad that you’re ok.” she whispered in his ear. Then she turned and hugged Will. Nico watched his eyes widen as Hazel whispered something to him, then his almost imperceptible nod. Nico wondered what she had said, but decided he would ask Will later. The other demigods just stared. Stared at Nico. Stared at Will. Stared at Nico and Will. Stared at Nico and Will holding hands . Will looked at him and smiled.

“I’m so sorry, Nico!” It was Frank. Well that was a bit surprising. Frank was rarely ever the first person to do anything. Nico felt himself begin to smile back at Will.

“It’s ok now.” He found himself saying. “Just never do something like this again.” he watched as his friends frantically nodded, desperate to get on his good side. 

“One thing I’m still confused about.” Will looked at Percy. Nico thought this had to be going somewhere because no one ever looked at Percy for answers. “You were up in that tree the entire time, why did Percy fall off. He’s not all that clumsy.” now that Nico thought about it, it was kind of odd.

“Oh, that.” Once again, Frank surprised Nico by taking the lead. “Well once Hazel saw Will running towards us, she knew what was going to happen so she used the mist to make a sort of sound proof, frosted glass so we couldn’t see or hear anything that happened between you two.”

“I, um, may have been trying to see through the glass by getting as close to it as possible and letting it support my weight.” Percy added, sheepishly.

“And I’d just made it back-Will how are you so fast-so I asked what was happening-”

“And scared me out of my wits and I lost focus-”

“And the wall disappeared and I lost my balance and fell.”

“Sorry.” Leo rubbed the back of his head.

Will looked at Nico and raised his eyebrows. Everyone else burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny!” Percy protested. “My nose is probably broken!”

That just made them all laugh harder. Even Nico chuckled a bit. When they finally stopped laughing, Annabeth turned to them.

“So what actually happened?” Will and Nico shared a glance then shook their heads. There was no way in Hades that either of them was going to talk about that for a long time.

“It was a dare not a truth, Chase.”

…

Nico was excited. And a bit sad, if he was telling the truth. The summer was almost over and his sister was going back to New Rome the next day. On the other hand, Camp Jupiter was coming over to watch the annual end of summer fireworks display that Camp Halfblood always had. Camp Jupiter ment Reyna. Nico hadn’t seen her in person all Summer. They Iris messaged each other all the time, but it wasn’t the same. Plus, Nico really wanted to introduce her to Will. His boyfriend. Nico could barely wrap his head around the word. He was also excited because Thalia was coming as well and she was bringing her hunters. She had tasked herself with getting the Hunters of Artemis up to speed on modern things and improving their social skills. Nico knew from his past experience how antisocial the hunters could be. 

“Nico? You ready to go yet?” Nico pulled on his t-shirt and looked at himself in the mirror. He was still small and pale and (according to everyone who hugged him except Will) far too bony. But he looked more confident than he had ever been. Even before Bianca died he was always...not unsure . Just, not confident. Nico tucked his shirt in. He was proud of himself. Over the weekend he had gone shopping with Piper, bought clothes that weren’t only black, and managed to avoid raising the dead to smother one previously mentioned Aphrodite girl. Well, Piper had argued that one shirt that had a few colored fireworks exploding on it didn’t count as not black, but Nico felt accomplished. Nico nodded at the boy in the mirror. “Coming!” He stepped out of the bathroom and gasped. In front of him stood his sister in a nice black dress, wearing dark eyeshadow and eyeliner and her hair-

Hazel frowned and touched the slick, golden adorned, crown that turned into gentle waves at the bottom. “Does it look bad?”

“No! No, it looks wonderful.” He reached out to hug her. “Percy?”

“And Annabeth. Who knew she was so knowledgeable in the art of makeup?” She pulled back and lifted her hand to brush away a tear from Nico’s cheek. “Are you ok?”

He smiled. “I was always the younger sibling. Bianca was always there to take care of me. And then I became the older sibling when you came along. And look at you now. Wearing makeup and you protecting me . You have grown up so much and I’ve only known you for less than a year. I wish I could have spent more time with you.”

Hazel punched Nico’s arm. “You still can spend time with me, tu perruche. Neither of us better be dying any time soon.”

“Did you just call me a parakeet?”

“How many languages do you know?”

“I have a lot of free time.”

She chuckled. “Come on, or we’re gonna miss the fireworks!”

…

Nico was happy. He snuggled further into Will’s warm arms as he watched the fireworks, surrounded by his friends and people who loved him. He looked up into Will’s face, the flashing fireworks creating odd shaddows. 

“Thank you.” he whispered.

Will looked down at him with such adoration that Nico’s breath caught in his throat. Will leaned down to kiss him. Nico had to say that this was certainly the best Summer that he’d had in a long time.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: The First Date

Will POV

Will couldn’t wait. It was a week after the annual end of summer fireworks show and Will was finally positive that Reyna Ramirez-Arellano wasn’t hiding behind every tree just waiting for him to mess up. He wasn’t so sure about Thalia, but at least he knew that she would make it short. To be fair, he had kind of expected more death threats, but maybe the rest of the seven were still embarrassed about the whole Juliet-dare-incident. In any case, he was plenty scared by the three he’d already gotten. The first person was Hazel. After she hugged Nico, she had surprised Will by hugging him as well. He’d thought that it was her way of telling him she was ok with him dating her brother until she had whispered into his ear: “You hurt him, I hurt you. I can get in your head, make you go slowly insane. I can bury you alive with a single thought. I can curse you with a touch. So don’t hurt him. Clear?” he’d nodded. He didn’t know what else to do. Next had been Reyna, just before the fireworks show. Will had just claimed the perfect spot and he was setting out blankets for his and Nico’s friends to sit on when he was knocked over and pinned to the ground by two snarling, metallic dogs. A face loomed above his. 

“So you’re the Solace that Nico has been swooning over all summer.”

“Um...hi?” Sometimes, Will wished that he had ADHD like most of his siblings. They said it made it easier for them to keep track of things like swords being swung in their faces. Or in Will’s case, spears.

“How I would love to slit your neck,” She hissed. “Just a little. As a reminder. But then Nico would find out.” she sighed and lowered her spear. “When Nico introduces us, you will act like this never happened. Just remember-” she drew a finger across her neck before calling her dogs to her and walking away. Will was terrified. Last was Thalia. She came the day after the fireworks. Will was sitting against a tree reading up on psychology when he heard a thunk . He turned to see a silver arrow sticking out of the tree, right next to his head. Attached to the arrow was a note that read:

I have perfect aim. 

If you hurt him, I will 

hunt you down and I 

promise I won’t miss.

Love T

Will wasn’t sure who he should be more scared of. But after a week of watching his back, Will was finally positive that they were threatening him as an if .

Will opened the door to cabin 13. It was late morning, but he was positive that the Hades kid was still asleep. He crept over to the bed and pulled the covers back to reveal… nothing. 

“Nico?” Will called. Had he been wrong? Was Nico already awake and Will just- Thump . Will turned to see his boyfriend lying on the ground. “Nico?”

“Hmm.”

“Where were you?”

“Mm dresser.” Nico mumbled.

“Why were you up there?”

“I had trouble falling asleep.”

“That-isn't really an answer.”

“Mm.” Nico rolled over and groaned.

“Come on, death boy, up.” Nico stayed stubbornly on the ground. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“It’s too early for surprises.”

Will crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s almost lunch.”

“Like I said, too early. Anyway, summer is over. Aren’t you supposed to go to school, or something?”

“Chiron lets me stay up until school starts to help with hurt campers. And school doesn’t start for another week.”

“I have to put up with you for a whole nother week?” Will rolled his eyes and hauled the Hades camper up by his arms. 

“Get to.” he corrected. “Now get dressed.” He turned towards the bed, made it out of habit and sat down. He looked up to see Nico still standing in front of him, giving him a pointed look.

“What?”

“I’m not changing with you right here.”

“I-wha?” Will realize that Nico normally didn’t have anyone living in his cabin with him. There was always at least one other Apollo kid at camp so Will had never changed anywhere other than the bathroom. “Nico, that’s not-just change in your bathroom.”

“Why can’t you just wait for me outside?”

“Because if I do, you’ll just crawl back into bed.” Nico scowled as he grabbed a bundle of clothes from his dresser and trudged over to his bathroom. Will wondered what it would be like to have the Apollo cabin all to himself. He decided that it would be lonely. Even when he went home he was barely ever alone. Will had two sisters and his mom kept bringing home animals. Will was ninety percent sure that she was the pet store’s only customer. 

“What’s your surprise?” Nico stood in the doorway of his bathroom with his pajamas under one arm. Will smiled and tugged him out the door of his cabin and through the camp towards the pegasus stables. Standing close were two already saddled pegasi.

“Oh, wow, horses with wings, never seen one of those.” He deadpanned, but Will could see he was interested in where this was going.

“It’s not the horses, Nico, it’s where they’re taking us.”

…

“So where are we going?” Nico and Will were standing in the center of a park in a small town Will had found on the internet a few days earlier. 

“First we’re going to the movies, then we are going to a small cafe and last is a surprise.”

“I really hate surprises.”

“You’ll like mine.”

“Correction: I like you.”

Will pecked him on the cheek before tugging him towards the movie theater. He had picked out a movie about two men in black suits who had to save the Earth from aliens, but at the same time they worked with aliens. Nico liked it. He said that it showed how there wasn’t only one side of things. Aliens didn’t always try to kill you, Hellhounds had more on their minds than ripping you apart, Hades wasn’t evil. Will had thought that Nico would have been more surprised by the movies, due to being from the forties. When he remarked on this, Nico just shrugged. 

“Jules-Albert kind of took it on himself to tutor me in things he thought I should know. Took me to see a few movies, to get modern . Mostly we just traveled, though. Spent two weeks straight in the Paris Catacombs in order to learn French.” Will gaped. He could hardly believe that he was dating someone who said that sort of thing so nonchalantly. 

“You know French?”

“Vous doutez de moi?”

“What did you just say?”

Nico smirked. “I’ve learned a bunch of languages over the past few years.”

“How?” Will slipped his arm through Nico’s as they began walking towards the cafe.

“Jules-Albert would take me to different historical places of death and make me learn the history. As you can guess, historical places of death have a lot of dead people. Almost everyone believes in some kind of afterlife and everyone understands death. If I hear a language long enough, I just sort of pick it up.”

“It took you two weeks to learn French?”

“It took me two weeks to learn modern French. I picked up old French after the first week. The older the language, the easier. The more forgotten the better. Dead languages, gotta love them.” Will shook his head as they entered the coffee shop. No one could say that Nico di Angelo wasn’t remarkable.

Nico and Will ordered their drinks and sat outside.

“So where else did you go?”

“Well I went to Egypt, met a couple mummies, a dog of death. Those Egyptians had some dirty minds.”

“Dog of Death?”

“Hmm.” Nico agreed, taking a sip of his tea.

“Where else?”

“Well I went to Pompeii. Did you know that-” but he was cut off by the buzz of Will’s phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and set it on the table.

“It can wait.”

“Will, it could be important. Do you know anyone who would text you if it wasn’t?” Will smiled and picked up his phone to see who had texted him. He read the text, then he read it again. Will looked up at Nico.

“I have to go.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: Will’s Family

Nico POV

“I have to go.” Will’s eyes were wide and anxious. Nico wondered what he was so worried about.

“Where do you need to go?”

“Texas.”

Nico reached over to Will’s hand and envisioned Texas. He felt the cold surround both of them and held on tighter to Will. Then it was warm again. Will stumbled and grabbed hold of Nico’s arm to keep from falling. Nico himself was a bit off balance as well, but he hid it. Will didn’t need any more to worry about. As soon as Will was steady, Nico raised his arms to call Jules-Albert so he could take them wherever Will needed to go.

“Nico, how did you know to go here?” Nico looked around. They were on a street. There were some houses on the street. There was nothing at all special about this street and he honestly wouldn’t have given it a second glance if Will hadn’t said anything. Nico had absolutely no idea what his boyfriend was talking about.

“Huh?” He watched as Will went up to the front door and ran in. Nico honestly had no idea what was going on or what to do. He felt like he would be violating some rule if he went after Will, but he was also seventy eight percent sure that if he stood out there for too long, someone would call the cops on him. He could almost hear them now. ‘ You are under arrest for looking emo and being too young to loiter. Anything you say can and will be used against you. ’ Now that he thought about it, Nico wasn’t sure if he would be considered an immigrant. He wondered if his father had gotten him papers. Or was the Lord of the Underworld a citizen of America. Did gods get citizenships? He wondered if that would really matter, since any papers would probably be rendered useless. ‘ Now look here young man, this says that you are eighty five. ’ ‘ That is correct, sir, though I’ve been told that I look very young for my age. ’ His friends would have laughed, but Nico doubted that the Texas Police Department would find it all that funny. 

“Rosa, Rosa!” Nico looked up to see a little girl standing in the doorway that Will had run through. “Rosa a boy is here! Did you get another boyfriend?” Nico looked side to side. There wasn’t anywhere to hide. A young woman appeared behind the girl.

“Will, did you bring a friend?”

Nico heard a muffled thump and then, “Oh gods, Nico!” Will popped up beside them and scrambled to get back to Nico. “Um, Nico, these are my sisters, Rosa and Emmalie. Rosa, Emalie, this is my boyfriend, Nico.” Rosa’s gaze hardened at the word. Nico wondered if she disapproved of him. Did she not approve of Will dating boys?

“Will, Will, Will! Does he know? Did you tell him? Is he one?” Emmalie jumped around them, pulling at Will’s flannel. Will nodded, still looking a bit distracted. She turned towards Nico. “Hi! I’m Emma! I’m mortal, but I can see monsters! Will’s a son of Apollo! He can glow in the dark and heal people and stuff! What can you do?”

“Um...” Nico wasn’t sure how to respond. Most people didn’t really like the children of Hades. And he had a feeling that raising the dead wouldn’t be half as cool to Emma as glowing in the dark. “I can...make hats out of paper mache?” It was one of the few things he remembered loving to do with his mother. She had been so carefree and happy and she’d always been ready to play with him.

“Come inside, Nico.” Rosa stepped aside to let Nico in. Inside the Solace household was...a mess. Nico looked around and saw clothes all over the floor. There was a shoe on the mantle and a raincoat in the fireplace. The coat began to move and Nico watched as a small snout made its way out from under it before turning into a golden labradoodle.

“Sorry, it’s a bit of a mess right now.” Will stood beside him. Will, the boy who made Nico’s bed out of habit. Nico turned and gave him a small smile.

“It’s nice. Homey. People actually live here.”

“Will,” Rosa closed the door. “She still doesn’t know and I’d like to keep it that way until we find out what’s happening.”

“Oh, right. Um, Nico?” Will bit his lip. “Do you mind, uh, watching Em for a moment?”

“Sure.” Nico wondered what was going on, but he didn’t pry for details or ask. Will would tell him when and if he was ready. Until then, all Nico had to do was be flexible. Maybe he could plan a trip somewhere to make up for their interrupted first date. “Yeah, I can do that.”

As Will and his sister went upstairs, Nico turned towards the girl in front of him.

“So, uh, how old are you?” Dammit, Nico. How lame are you?

“I’m eight and Rosa is twenty three and Will is fifteen. How old are you? Are you fifteen too?”

“Eighty five, actually.”

“Wow.”

“Um, so, what do you want to do?”

“Can you show me how to make pay perm ashay hats?”

Nico blinked. He hadn’t been expecting that. “Sure.”

…

When Rosa and Will came back downstairs, they found Nico running around with paper mache horns pretending to be some monster or another and Emmalie wacking at him with her paper mache sword.

“Get back, you evil Manticore, you.” She shouted, climbing onto the back of the couch. “I will send you back to the depths of tartarus from whence you came.” Nico froze at the name but only for a moment. She had no idea what she’d said, and it really didn’t matter. He shook off the feeling of dread that had washed over him. Emma was talking to the Manticore, not him.

“No, please!” He cried in a raspy voice. “Noble demigod, have mercy!”

“Die!” She leapt from the couch and crushed Nico to the ground.

“Argh!” Nico tossed up some of the golden glitter that he’d taken from Emma’s craft room. “I’m disintegrating!” He rolled out from under her and took off his horns. “When a monster dies, they sometimes leave something behind, spoils, something like a feather or it’s pelt or ,” He offered her his horns. “The horn of a Manticore. Don’t know what it does, but I bet it’ll look pretty wicked in your room.” Nico saw Will and Rosa watching them from the steps. “Why don’t you go put it there.” Emma nodded and ran off. “Hey.” He saw that Will had tears edging his eyes. Nico stood. “You good?” Will ran a hand across his eyes and smiled wryly. Maybe. He might have just grimaced. Nico never really understood the difference.

“Fine. Thank you.” Nico wanted to ask what he was being thanked for. He hadn’t done anything. 

“Do you want me to go back to camp and tell them that we might not be back for awhile?” Will nodded numbly. “Ok.” He decided to leave the room to shadow travel. Maybe Rosa knew that he was a son of Hades and that's why she didn’t like him. Maybe she didn’t know and knowing would make her hate him more. He wondered why he felt like he needed her approval. Nico decided that he really liked Emma, though. He liked playing with her a lot more than he would have thought. He hoped that Will was ok. He seemed more distant than Nico had ever seen him. He took a steadying breath. Long Island was half the country away from Texas. Nico could do it, he’d just be really tired. That would be ok. He could handle tired. He’d spent half his life sleep deprived. He hadn’t slept at all in Tartarus. Nico sighed and pictured Camp Halfblood. He closed his eyes and felt the cold of shadows embracing him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Will Tells a Secret

Will POV

Will wanted to cry. This couldn’t be happening again. He didn’t know if he’d be able to handle it. He had thought that it was over. That they were finally done with it. The last time it had happened was four years ago. His mom had noticed it and reluctantly told his stepfather. Will was 10 and Rosa had been 19. Emma was four and didn’t understand what was going on. But Will did. 

“What’s up with your mom?”

“She’s sick. Cancer.”

“Oh. Can’t you help her? Aren’t you a son of Apollo?”

“No. I can’t give her ambrosia or she would burst into flames and no one will teach me anything useful. It’s not fair.”

“So why don’t you teach yourself, then?”

Rosa had gotten him medical books and journals and encouraged him to keep learning. By the time he was 14, the entire Apollo cabin recognized Will as the most skilled healer they had. Will put his head in his hands. Rosa had said that none of them had known and it wasn’t his fault, but Will still felt awful. He heard Emma clomp down the stairs.

“Where’d Nico go?”

“Back to camp.” Will wished that they had just Iris Messaged camp instead. He needed Nico now more than ever, but he knew that he was being selfish and that Nico didn’t need to get caught up in all this.

Almost as if he’d been summoned, Nico appeared in front of Will.

“Hi.” He looked half delirious, half asleep. He stumbled and crumpled to the floor.

“Oh, gods. Nico.” Will knelt beside him. “I’m so sorry. I forgot how far it would be. I didn’t even think.”

Nico smiled wide up at him. “We were in this same position two weeks ago.” He paused and looked thoughtful. “Except I was dead.”

Will groaned.

“Is he ok?” Rosa was looking on, concerned.

“Shadow travel takes a lot of energy. Normally he just passes out after a long trip, but  being the stubborn person that he is, he can sometimes stay awake if he’s really set on it. The only time I’ve ever seen him like this was when he stayed up for 2 weeks straight.” Nico and Percy had been trying to see who could stay awake longest. Percy had given up after three days, but Nico had kept going. He would have gone longer, but Will had made him sleep.

“You should take him up to your room so that he can sleep.” Will nodded and turned back the boy in front of him.

“Nico, why?” He scooped Nico into his arms and carried him up to his room.

“Well I couldn’t just leave you.” He probably only said it because he was sleep deprived, but Will thought it was one of the sweetest things he’d ever heard his boyfriend say.

“Nico, I love how sweet you are. Now you need to sleep.” he set Nico on his bed. “I am going to stay here until you fall asleep.”

Nico jolted up, his eyes were wide with fear. “No! Please don’t make me. I can’t sleep now. They’ll come. I don’t want to worry you and if they come then you’ll worry.”

“Who will come?”

“Nightmares.”

Will silently cursed himself. He’d never even considered that Nico might have nightmares, but it made so much sense. Nico had lived alone with literal ghosts for more years than was healthy and he’d gone through Tartarus alone. Will sighed. “Nico, I promise that I will stay right here the entire time and I won’t let you have any nightmares.” Nico slowly nodded and sunk back down. His breathing slowed as he gave in to what must have been an unbearable wave of sleep. Will sat on the edge of his bed, watching his boyfriend. His wonderful boyfriend who had traveled halfway across the United States three times in twenty minutes for him. His amazing boyfriend who still had no idea as to why he was here. Who hadn’t wanted him to worry more so had kept his problems to himself. He smothered Nicoran his hand through Nico’s hair in an unsuccessful attempt to smooth it down. Nico looked so peaceful in his sleep. Will yawned and realized how tired he was. He curled up near Nico’s feet and closed his eyes.

…

Will woke with a start. Someone was...whimpering? He sat up and rubbed his eyes, startled to find that he was not in the Apollo cabin but rather in his room at home. The events of earlier that day began to refill his head. The date, the text, his mom, Nico-Nico! Will looked over to see his boyfriend curled into a tight ball and whimpering at the head of Will’s bed. Will crawled over to him.

“Nico?” he softly laid his hand on Nico’s shoulder. His boyfriend flinched at the touch. “Nico! Wake up.” He shook him gently. “It’s just a nightmare, sweetie.” Nico’s eye’s flew wide open in fear, tears spilling over their brims. He saw Will and wrapped his arms around him, a thing that still surprised Will. (He’d always thought that Nico hated being touched, but when one of the Hermes campers had seen them holding hands and asked, Nico had said “Hazel’s family, Reyna and Thalia are as close as, I doubt Rachel would let me tell her to stop and Will is warm. But everyone else best stay three feet away, unless they’ve got a reservation for Elysium.” ) He enfolded the Hades camper in a hug. “You’re ok. I’m here.” Will murmured into his boyfriend’s hair. “Do you want to talk about it?” He felt Nico shake his head. Will heard what sounded like a muffled question and pulled away. “What?”

“Why don’t you hate me?” It was not at all what Will had been expecting. 

“Why don’t I…? What kind of question is that?”

“I’m in your way and you have other things to worry about and you should be with your sisters, but instead you’re here comforting me and everything I do just gets messed up and-”

“Nico. Who put those thoughts into your head?” Nico opened his mouth like he was about to say something but he closed it again. Will sighed. “Turn around.”

“What?”

“I’m going to braid your hair while I talk so I don’t strangle you.” Nico blinked a few times, then turned so that his back was facing Will. “I don’t hate you, Nico. Anyone who does is a moron and doesn’t see how amazing you are. They don’t see how passionate you are about the things that you love or how great of an actor you are. They don’t see how strong you are and how much you have been through, how you can still smile after all you’ve seen. And how willing you would be to sacrifice yourself for someone you care about. Nico, for Elysium’s sake, you shadow traveled me here, which must have been tiring, then went to camp and back, which completely wore you out. You took care of Mrs O'leary and became friends with Bob.” He paused. “You know, I was there when you first came to camp. You probably didn’t even see me. All I wanted to do was be friends with the excitable boy my age with the playing cards. And then when I got home I went out with my mother and bought a pack of Mythomagic cards. I was so excited to see you that summer, but you weren’t there. And when you came back after the Battle of Manhattan you didn’t even talk to anyone. You just stood in the shadows looking uncomfortable and I kept wanting to go over and say hi, but you were always looking at Percy like…And I thought that you didn’t like people. Nico, I spent forever thinking that you didn’t like me. And when you showed up for the war with Gaea, I shouldn’t have been so surprised. You always showed up for the most desperate times. But what surprised me most was that you knew my name. I thought you didn’t even know that I existed. I spent all summer trying to get up the courage to ask you out. Lou Ellen even went so far as to try creating a new spell to block out noise without earbuds. Cecil walked around for a week not being able to hear anyone. But…I don’t think that I could ever hate you.”

“I saw you.” Will froze. “When I first came to camp, you seemed so cool. You were my age and everyone else was so much older and there weren't a lot of people in the first place. But you also were so sure of what you were doing. You were so comfortable there and in your cabin and with your family. To me everything felt...temporary. Like I was still playing a game. Like everyone was some powerful character and I was a setback card.”

“Oh Nico. you’re not a set back card, you are an ace.” Nico turned towards Will and raised his eyebrows.

“Wrong game. And deck of cards.”

“Well I never learned to play. I have been waiting for you to teach me.”

“For five years, Solace? I have either a really devoted, or really stubborn boyfriend.”

“Why can’t you have both?”

“Well in that case, you should be jealous of me.”

“Oh? And why is that?”

“Because my boyfriend is so much better than yours.” Will snorted and tossed a pillow at Nico’s face.

“Well let me tell you a secret.” he lowered his head conspiratorially to Nico, who leaned in so he could hear. “I’m not jealous of you, you wanna know why? It’s because I love the boyfriend I have and how amazing he is and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.”

Nico leaned back on his heels. “That's only because you don’t want the world.”

Will frowned. “I think that you're missing the point.”

“Also the world probably means Gaea. I hope for your mental sanity and physical safety that you don’t want to date Gaea.” Will rolled his eyes and Nico smirked.

“So, paper mache?”

Nico looked at him with an accusatorial stare. “I have a glow in the dark boyfriend who I didn’t even know glowed. Don’t you go turning on my past. That’s ancient history.”

“Right. So, I glow in the dark. That is literally the extent of my powers. I’m really not a fighter.”

“Yeah, but-” Nico yawned. Will looked over at his clock and saw that they had only been asleep for four hours. Normally Nico would sleep for a whole day after shadow traveling. He must still be exhausted.

“Nico, you should go back to sleep.” Nico sat rigid and widened his eyes in defiance. 

“No.” Will knew how stubborn Nico could be when he wanted, so he didn’t argue. Seeing Will’s admittance of defeat, Nico relaxed again. “Tell me about your family.”

They had never really talked about their families before. Nico had a touchy past because he didn’t remember very much of his mother and had spent years feeling like his sister had abandoned him. “My mom always-” No he couldn’t start there. “You have met Rosa, my step sister. My mom got married to her father, Jake, when I was six. Um, my mom’s name is Naomi Solace-Lieya. Jake Lieya. Em was born when I was seven. Jake makes really corny jokes and does all the cooking and is a writer and a stay at home dad. Mom can’t cook for her life and is a lawyer. Rosa just got back from college, studying to be a history major. She wants to teach.”

“I don’t think that Rosa likes me all that much.”

“What?”

“I don’t think she approves of me. Son of Hades, ‘n all.” Will doubted that that was true. Rosa wasn’t someone who would judge someone on their parents. “So where are your mom and Jake?”

“Hospital.” Nico’s curious expression became muted. “My mom...my mom has leukemia. We thought it was over, but...it always comes back.” Will’s throat tightened and he looked down. He felt Nico’s arms wrap around him and leaned gratefully into the embrace.

“You, Will Solace, are the strongest fighter I know. You fight your own doubts and everyone else's. You fight the weight of all the deaths you have witnessed and you fight life and you are so positive and happy despite everything and you make me think that things can always get better.” Will scoffed.

“ ‘M not all that positive and happy right now.”

“If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn’t be a human being. You’d be a game show host.” Will turned to look at him.

“Is that from Heathers?” Nico shrugged.

“Jules-Albert was a big 1980’s fan.” Will giggled and rested his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Thanks.” He hoped that he never lost Nico. They were veering towards the point of no return in their relationship. Where Will might shut down without Nico. The medical side of his brain pointed out that it sounded like he was addicted. The poetic side of his brain said that it would gladly submit to the addiction if it meant being with Nico. The medical side of his brain said that addiction wasn't a good thing. The poetic side of his brain used some flowery language to tell the medical side to shut up. The medical side scolded the poetic side for using such flowery language.

“Will?” He heard his elder sister knock at the door. “Are you awake? Dinner is ready, if you’re hungry.”

“You ready for a home cooked Solace Special?” Nico smirked.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11: Rosa Leiya

Nico POV

Nico wished that he’d just stayed upstairs in Will’s room. Life had been so much easier then. He knew from past experience with the Jacksons that he didn’t belong at family dinners. Families always talked and laughed and knew what to say to each other without being awkward and worrying about messing everything up. As soon as Nico had come downstairs, he’d remembered why he thought that Rosa didn’t like him. Dinner was vegetarian chilli. Nico only ate a few bites.

“Do you not like my chilli, Nico?”

“Um, no, it’s great, I just don’t really eat all that much.”

“Hmm. Well tell us a bit about yourself.”

“I-uh, I grew up in Italy and, um, I like to write poetry?” It was all he could think of that wasn’t directly demigod related.

“And your parents?”

“My mom died when I was ten.”

“That must have been awful for you.”

“I don’t really remember. It feels like it was decades ago.”

“Your English is very good.”

“Occasionally, when he is really annoyed at someone, he’ll slip into Italian and no one can understand him.” Nico glared at his boyfriend.

“If the campers could understand me, there would be a lot of mouths to wash out.” he said under his breath.

Unlike the Jacksons, Will’s family was quiet. His stepfather still wasn’t home and Emma seemed to have picked up on the mood. Nico felt like something was missing from the family. He could see how hard Rosa was trying to keep the conversation going. Nico wished desperately to help her but he knew that he would just mess it up. Piper would have been able to keep the conversation afloat. After dinner, Rosa suggested that Will and Nico go back up to Will’s room and set up an air mattress for Nico to sleep on. Nico only just kept himself from shadow traveling up the stairs. All he wanted to do was get away. And also sleep, but he knew that wasn’t happening. Not after his nightmare. He shuddered. If staying awake all night meant that he wouldn’t have to face that again, he would. After Will had fallen asleep, Nico crept downstairs. He wasn’t sure why, it had just seemed like the thing to do. So he didn’t wake Will. He ended up deciding to go outside.

“Hey.” Nico jumped. He hadn’t been expecting anyone to be out here. “Nico, stop acting like a cornered rabbit and sit.” Rosa patted the step beside her. Nico sat. They waited there a long time before she sighed. “So you’re dating my brother.” Nico nodded, then realized how pointless that was considering the fact that she couldn’t see him anyway. “Nico, demigods have a hard time surviving life, and adding love into the mix just makes it even more complicated. My brother has so many girls, mortal and otherwise, falling over him, why did he choose you?” Nico shuddered. Her words sounded so alike to the ones he rarely went a week without hearing. The words he never could answer. He blinked through tears. “I have seen him date other people before but he has never looked so at ease. So happy.” She turned to face him. “So I’ll tell you this, son of Hades: I don’t care who your father is or what you can do or how many armies you’ve defeated. I care about my brother and I can tell that you care about him too. So if anything happens to him…” she fixed him with a cold stare.

“So,” All the venom had disappeared from her voice. “Would you like hot cocoa?”

…

When Will came down the next morning, he found a very tired Nico and Rosa talking about all his annoying quirks.

“-No, but every time I get a hurt he goes ‘Nico! Are you ok? You need to rest and here’s this excess ambrosia so you might blow up but at least you will blow up healed’ and I’m like ‘Will! It is literally just a paper cut!’” Nico liked Rosa’s laugh. It was warm and welcoming and reminded him of his sister.

“Em once skimmed her knee when she fell off her bike and he said that we should go to the hospital to get it x-rayed.” 

“That sounds like Will.” she chuckled and rose.

“What do you want for breakfast, Nico?” She paused and turned back towards him. “Or do you not eat as a general rule?”

“Well normally it’s a general rule, but now that I know you better, I’ll make an exception. Sit down.” She raised her eyebrows but sat all the same as he opened the Solace-Leyia pantries and pulled out his ingredients. “So how long has he been interested in health...stuff?”

“As long as I’ve known him. What are you making?” Nico raised an eyebrow.

“If I tell you it’ll spoil the surprise. And Will, stop hiding and say good morning.”

Will crept off the dark staircase he’d been hiding on. “How’d you know I was here?”

“You can’t hide in the shadows from a boy who can literally melt into one.”

“Will,” Rosa was (understandably) a bit cautious. “Dad texted me last night. They still don’t know, but he says that she wants you to come see her today.” Rosa had told Nico how Naomi had hidden all the signs that her cancer was coming back. She said that Naomi had hated all the cure procedures that she’d have to go through and how much living she’d miss if it didn’t work. Will leaned heavily on the kitchen table as he slid into the chair next to Rosa, who wrapped her arm around him in a much more comfortable and smooth side hug than Nico had ever been part of. Will looked at Nico with a question that Nico had expected.

“Will you come?” he nodded. Will relaxed a bit. “Thanks. What are you making? Please tell me. I’m scared that you’re going to burn the house down.” Nico rolled his eyes.

“You don’t trust in my ability to cook?”

“I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I got very bored in the Underworld.” Among the many skills he’d picked up was also an uncanny ability to identify flora and fauna. His stepmother had gotten fed up with him trampling her plants and had given him a really annoying talking book called ‘Nico di Angelo’s Guide to Nature That Will Never Leave Him Alone Until He Knows Everything By Heart’. Unlike other Olympians, Persephone wasn’t at all vague. The book’s name was Jeff and it had taken Nico eight months to get it to leave him alone. “Crepes.” Will raised his eyebrows. “You don’t spend two weeks in the Paris Catacombs without picking up at least ten crepe recipes. Almost all ghosts want to be remembered. Even if all they have to tell you about their lives is a family recipe.”

“I’m not even going to comment on the Paris thing.” Rosa retracted her arm. “I’m gonna go wake Emma. After breakfast do you want me to drive you to the hospital, or...?” 

“Uh uh. Nico is not allowed to shadow travel until he is fully rested again and since he seems to be refusing to sleep, he’s not going anywhere.” Rosa smiled and headed upstairs. Nico could feel Will’s eyes on him as he moved around the kitchen.

“I’m like my mom.” Nico performed a tricky maneuver that involved dropping the pan he was holding and flailing desperately to catch it before it hit the floor. Will snorted.

“Go away.”

“It’s my house.” Nico rolled his eyes.

“How are you like your mom?”

“I can’t cook for my life.”

“Then I’ll just have to do the cooking for us both.” Nico froze, realizing what he’d just said.

“Thanks for being here Nico.”

“Will, please stop thanking me.”

“What?” 

“Just-you keep thanking me for something that-that people should always do for people they care about. And I-you just-act like no one else would ever do this for you and that is not at all true. But if-if no one you’ve dated before would do this as an immediate reaction, then...then maybe you aren’t dating the right kind of person.” Nico squeezed his eyes shut, sure that Will would be angry at him for saying something like that, but Will just laughed. Nico felt his boyfriend’s strong arms wrap around his waist from behind and a head settle itself on top of his.

“I’m dating the exact right kind of person. Let me tell you that they are so considerate and rarely think of themselves and they aren’t afraid to speak their mind and they are always there for me. I’ll give you another clue. Their name is Nico di Angelo and they are right in front of me.” Nico blinked for a few seconds before remembering that he was dating Will. He’d momentarily forgotten that.

“Yes, they are also making your breakfast, something rather difficult to do when they are locked in place by a human seat belt. Release me, you fiend.” Will chuckled and kissed him on the cheek before removing his arms.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: Nico meets Mrs. Solace

Will POV

Will bit the inside of his cheek. He was so nervous. He felt Nico squeeze his hand, reminding him to breathe. He wanted to let Nico know that he knew how lucky he was to have him as his boyfriend, but he’d been trying to stop thanking him. It was hard.

“They said you can come in now, but only two people at a time, so I’m going to be just out here.” Will smiled at Jake. He was glad that his mom had married someone she loved. He knew a few demigods who had really abusive parents and stepparents. Nico led him through the door to his mom’s ward. Naomi Solace-Lieya. She wasn’t in the emergency room, so that was reassuring. Then he saw her. Will had always thought that his mom was vibrant. He’d never thought of any reason that Apollo wouldn’t like her.

“Will!” She beckoned him over. “I’m so glad that you came. Jake tells me that you arrived yesterday. However did you get here so fast?”

“Um, mom, this is Nico, my boyfriend. He is a son of Hades and can shadow travel. Nico, this is my mom.” He watched Nico shift on his feet.

“Uh, Hi, Mrs. Solace.”

“Oh, please, call me Naomi. Get in here.” She enfolded Nico in a hug. “I am terribly sorry that your first impression of me is like this. The doctors won’t let me get out of this cursed bed.” she laughed. “Though I guess it’s my own fault for waiting so long, I just was praying it wasn’t the real thing. But enough about me, how did you two get together? Will has been talking about you for years, sweetie. I thought that Emma would be in college by the time he finally got up his courage and asked you out.” Nico smiled tentatively as Will felt his own face heat up.

“Well it was more of a tragedy than a date,” Will had never seen Nico warm up to a person so fast, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. His mom was just that kind of person. “Will overreacted and thought that I was dead.” His mom snorted.

“That’s my boy.” She reached over and mussed Will’s hair. “Always going around and randomly diagnosing people with death.” 

“Hey!” Will was beginning to feel like his family was gaining up with Nico and creating a weird Will quirks club. “I’m not that bad.” Nico and his mother just smiled at each other.

“You really are.” Nico said, chuckling softly. “You really really are.”

When she finally caught her breath, Will’s mother turned back to Nico. “So Nico, tell me a bit about yourself.”

“Well, I spent the first ten years of my life in Italy, then my dad stuck me and my sister in a hotel for seventy some years. I ran away from camp after my sister died and spent the next few years just chillin in my dad’s basement,” Will thought that was a bit of an understatement. The Underworld was a bit more than a basement. “Popping up and giving random advice to people before disappearing again,” At this point, Will was fairly certain that Nico was quoting the seven, who joked that he always showed up at the weirdest times with the weirdest advice. ‘Hey, Percy! Why don’t you go for a swim in the styx?’ ‘Jason, how about you attempt to avoid dying?’ ‘Frank! Put on this bowtie’ ‘Leo! Quick, hide!’ (why) ‘I just don’t want to look at you anymore’ . At this point, Nico was just shadow traveling around camp, scaring people out of their wits and telling them to do stuff. Will wasn’t sure what freaked the campers out more, the fact that at any point in time Nico might pop out at them or that Nico di Angelo- the Nico di Angelo-knew their names. And he did. Nico somehow managed to know the names of all the kids at camp, despite his small social circle and negative one score in social interaction. Will privately believed that Nico spent his free time hiding in the shadows and spying on campers and he was confident that Nico would be able to get black mail on everyone in camp, if he wanted. “Um, yeah.” Nico shuffled his feet and looked down, as if just realizing how much of his life he’d just shared. Will squeezed Nico’s hand. He remembered the ten year old boy he’d first seen at camp. Every so often, he would catch a glimpse of that boy, but then Nico would retreat back into the shadows he’d grown up hiding in.

Will’s mom seemed to pick up on Nico’s retreat, because she turned to Will. “So how has camp been? How are Kayla and Cecil and Lou Ellen and Austin? Oh, and how have things with the Romans been?”

“Good. Better than expected, actually. Frank and Reyna are really good at keeping the legion together and integrating them with camp at the same time. Everyone is good, less deaths now that Gaea is gone, most monsters are still picking their way through tartarus. They started relying on the short cut through the doors of death and forgot how to get out on their own.” Will felt Nico’s grip tighten slightly at the mention of the pit.

Will’s mom nodded. She was one of the few mortals who could see through the mist with perfect clarity and it was one of the reasons Will had been going to Camp Halfblood since he was eight. His mom had been so worried that a monster would attack him and he wouldn’t know how to defend himself. That turned out not to be a problem. Will never got attacked by monsters unless he was with another, far more powerful demigod. His theory was that he had such useless demigod abilities that his scent was so weak that monsters and satyrs could only smell it if they were a few feet away. This made Will one of the only demigods that Chiron allowed to have a phone, right after Annabeth, who could no doubt single handedly take out an army whilst applying for college over the phone. It also meant that Will could make runs to the store and get medical supplies without being attacked by an empousi and that he could attend school and get his doctor's degree. Unlike most demigods Will didn’t have ADHD or dyslexia, so he actually could study medical documents and such, a thing that most all of his siblings were jealous of. On the other hand, it also meant that Will was dead weight in fights. He wasn’t as good an archer as some of the Apollo kids, but he was by far the worst swordsman in the whole of camp. The only Apollo-ish thing that he could do other than heal people and occasionally hit his target was curse people to only be able to speak in rhyme, an ability that came very much in handy when dealing with the Stoll brothers.

“Will, darling, do you mind stepping out for a moment? I have something I’d like to discuss with your boyfriend.” Will blinked.

“Uh, ok.” He looked over at Nico, who gave him a desperate ‘ save me ’ look, and kissed him on the cheek before letting go of his hand and heading to the door. Maybe he’d get something from the hospital cafeteria for Nico. Like chocolate. Will personally shared Remus Lupin’s belief that chocolate made everything better. It also made Nico happy, and that was more than enough reason for Will. Nico would be fine anyway. He had faced much worse than Will’s mom. Will smiled and headed down the hallway, completely oblivious to the oncoming flood.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13: Nico Delivers Bad News

Nico POV

As soon as he saw the door close behind Will, Nico bit his lip and turned back towards Naomi.

“You know, don’t you.”

“I’d like you to confirm my suspicions, yes.” Nico sighed and nodded.

“I’d say you have a week and a half left, judging on how strong your aura is.”

“Hypothetically, would my time be better spent going through procedures, or being with my family.” He bit his tongue. He hated it when people died. Everyone around them died a little too and he didn’t want to see how much of Will would die if his mom did. They had such a great relationship and Nico wanted at least one of them to still have their mothers.

“Family. Procedures wouldn’t be able to do anything.” Nico remembered the time he had ‘accidentally’ peeked at Thanatos’s planner. He had deaths planned up for the next three months at least, some in darker ink than others, but if a person was within two weeks, There was nothing anyone could do.

“Well, now that that is confirmed, I’d like to talk about my son. Rosa will be able to handle it and Emmalie is so young that she will end up forgetting me. Jake will have the girls to take care of and that should keep his mind off it and he has dealt with this sort of thing before but Will…” Nico knew what she was saying was true, but she was acting like he could help Will and Nico wanted to scream that she should be asking someone else because he had no idea how to help anyone and when he tried the person got locked in his father’s dungeon or pulled into Tartarus. “I know that Will has witnessed so much death and he always feels like it’s his fault, but…He is going to need someone to be there for him and Rosa won’t be able to fill that void. But...I think that you might be able to-and I know how much I’m asking of you and you don’t have to, but I see how much he cares about you and if anyone will be able to get him through this, it’s you.” Nico shut his eyes tight. Will. He was beginning to understand why people said that the person they loved was their world. Nico felt like the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. It was less the pressure of Naomi’s words and more the knowledge that he would have to tell Will that his mom was dying. The knowledge that Will would fall under a mourner's spell, almost unreachable from the outside world, almost inconsolable. Almost. The word made Nico’s load just a little lighter. Almost meant hope and though hope was normally Will’s line of work, Nico suspected that he'd be able to conjure some up as well. Either that or he’d end up doing something stupid and probably hurting himself, which would also drag Will out of the dark pit of mournfulness. He slowly nodded and opened his eyes. As soon as he had seen Naomi, Nico had known she was Will’s mother. If someone didn't really know either of them, they might have a hard time telling because of how different they looked at first glance. Their almost contrasting hair and skin hid their matching eyes and smile. Nico had liked her immediately. But he had also immediately seen her aura. Nico had learned early on that the stronger the aura was, the closer the person was to death. Illness was also a different shade of dark from the death Nico normally saw, that of stab wounds were greyer and sudden, though a bit lighter than a shade than poison, which needed an antidote and had almost nothing to do with the immune system. Most of the time.

“I have no idea what to do.” Naomi smiled.

“Will has a healer mindset. He will probably hide. He feels like he has to keep up a happy facade in front of people. Like whoever he’s around has gone through worse and he shouldn’t complain.” Nico had never thought of Will that way but...it made sense. “But everyone needs someone to talk to. Someone to confide in. All you have to do is be there for him.”

“Do you...do you have any plans or...or things you want to do before…” Nico wasn’t afraid of death, but he had learned not to speak so casually about it, especially when hanging around Will.

“Before I die? I actually do have one thing I want to do, other than go on a vacation with my family. Do you mind calling in Jake? I want both of you to help me with this.

…

“Will, Nico can see that I’ve been marked for death. I’m not going to try to escape it this time.”

Nico squeezed the hand that hung limp in his own. “Your-what? No! You can’t just give in.”

“Will, sweetie, I’m not giving in. I’m going to die whether I get the treatment or not. I’d rather go on vacation with my family when I’m alive then, than regret the time I spent hooked up to a machine when I’m dead.” Will sagged, seeming to get the unfortunate logic in his mother’s choice. Nico wanted to do something that would show Will that he was there for him but didn’t know how.

“Y-you-” His voice quivered. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, his hand slipping out of Nico’s. 

Naomi sighed. She looked so tired. “Please go after him.” Nico hurried out after his boyfriend, struggling to catch up to him. He cursed whoever decided to make tall people and their long strides. Nico found Will in the hospital garden. He was sitting on a stone bench, the look in his dry eyes was so far away that Nico was surprised Will even heard him when he spoke.

“Hey.” He sat next to Will.

“Hey.” Will didn’t look at him, he just continued to stare at nothing. “Nico?” his voice was small and fragile. “You knew?” Nico nodded. He didn’t know if Will could see him or not but he felt like he shouldn’t say anything. “Of course you knew. I just-you knew and…” he sounded defeated. Nico tentatively put an arm around his boyfriend, still unused to the comforting aspect of his new relationship. Will gently leaned his head on Nico’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.” Nico could hear his voice wavering with tears. “I-I’m really sorry I-”

Nico rested his head on Will’s “Will. No. Please don’t be sorry.”

“But-I-I feel so...helpless and angry. At… everyone. Even at you. And my mom. And it’s not a logical reaction or...I just want everyone to live and...being angry isn’t going to help but…” He raised his eyes to meet Nico’s. “Nico, I don’t want to be angry at you but it’s so hard and I just feel like I’m going to lash out and I am going to hurt something. Nico, I want to hurt something. Or someone and…” Nico felt like he was looking through a cracked window and into Will’s soul. He realized just how much he still had to learn about him. He wanted to help Will, but...oh.

“I-um, this probably won’t help but, I felt kind of like that when I learned that my sister had died-and you are handeling it so much better than I did. I felt betrayed and-and so so angry. I wanted to-'' Nico took a breath. He’d never shared this with anyone, but Will was more than just anyone and this was the only way Nico knew how to help. “I wanted to hurt Percy. I wanted to drag him to the fields of punishment and throw him into a pit of eternal flames and see how long it took him to go insane. I wanted to hurt my sister too. I wanted to make her regret leaving me...I-'' He faltered. The reason he hadn’t hurt Percy was so selfish. He wanted Percy to live with the regret of Bianca’s life on his hands. Ten year old Nico had thought that was a worse punishment than everlasting tourture in the Underworld. Fifteen year old Nico saw how painful Percy’s life had been and agreed. Not that he wanted to punish Percy anymore. “I ran away because I felt like no one cared and I didn’t matter, but also because I was scared. I was scared and angry so I ran away.”

“But you got better.”

Nico hesitated. “Yeah, I got better.” Not for a long time, though. He hadn’t really stopped constantly feeling pain until after the war with Gaea. He realized that Will was like a cure. A ray of sunshine that pushed out self hatred and dark that threatened to swallow him whole. “Will-I-” Nico had no idea how to say what he wanted to say. That he’d be there for Will? No, Will knew that and it wasn’t what he needed to hear anyway. He watched his boyfriend pull out from under his arm and look at him. Nico could almost hear the words before they came out of Will’s mouth.

“N-Nico I’m really grateful that I have you and-and I-I-”

“I know.” Nico cut him off. “I know. Family. I’m not part of that. I’ll go back to camp and tell Chiron that you won’t be coming back before school starts. Um, but if you need me…”

Will looked grateful that he didn’t have to tell Nico that he didn’t want him there. “I’ll Iris Message you.” Nico nodded and turned to find a patch of shade dark enough to make it to camp. “Nico.” Will grabbed his arm. “Um, thank you.” Nico bit his lip and gave Will a small smile before walking away.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: Family Vacation

Will POV

Will missed his mother. She was still here, but he already missed her. He hated the way she smiled and laughed like nothing was wrong and the way she-

“Will?” He looked up. Rosa was standing in the doorway of his room. No, not his room. The room he was sleeping in. In the beach house they had rented for the week. Will looked down again. Down at the sheets of his bed. Not his bed. His hands were clenched tight and his vision was blurry, but he didn’t want to cry. He didn’t know what he wanted. He’d given up on hoping his mom would get better. That wasn’t happening. But everyone was acting so happy and carefree. He wanted them to stop. He wanted them to realise that she was dying. He wanted them to stop acting like everything was ok.

“Go away.” He choked out. He just needed to be alone.

Rosa didn’t leave. She walked over and lay down on the bed next to Will.

“If you you don’t leave, Rosa I swear to all the gods-”

“Rosalisa.” Will faltered. He’d barely even heard her voice, it was so quiet.

“I-What?”

“My full name is Rosalisa.” She took a shaky breath. Will had never seen her this...vulnerable. He wondered how he’d never thought to ask her full name before. He had known that Rosa was just a nickname. “My-my mom...she used to call me Rosalisa. Well, so would everyone else but...after she died, whenever I heard my name or thought of myself...it was her voice. Always. I couldn’t stand it so I started going by Rosa.” Will realized how little he knew about his step sister. He didn’t even know how her mother had died. “Will, if there is one thing that I regret, it’s not knowing my mother. You have the chance to do everything I couldn’t do. So many people wish that they had just one more day with someone they loved. You have another half week. Don’t spend it being angry. She loves you so much.” She stood and made her way back toward the hallway.

“Rosa.” Will grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. After a moment, she returned it. “Thank you.” She pulled away and smiled.

“Be the person you wish you had.”

…

Will bit his pen and stared at the page in front of him. He had to do this. He clicked the pen and set it down. He had no idea how to start. ‘Dear diary?’ ha. No way.

Dear mom.

A drop of water fell onto the page, but Will kept going.

I love you. And I miss you already. You would have been so disappointed. Your funeral was so black. Most of the people must never have even met you, or they would have worn their warmest and brightest clothes. Everyone kept giving us weird stares like they were judging us and pitying us at the same time. I felt so uncomfortable. I didn’t cry the whole funeral. The speeches were so awful, so I didn’t cry at those, either. Well, at one point I felt like I would cry out, but that's not the same, so. I know that you always said that funerals should celebrate a life not mourn a death, but I don’t think that anyone there would agree. They probably like going to funerals and wearing black. They probably crash funerals for fun, pretending they were the person’s distant family. They never smiled and they were all sniffing the whole time and dabbing their eyes with frilly handkerchiefs, even though their eyes stayed dry the whole time. I got your letter...

Will's throat constricted a little when he thought of how much his mom had put into one letter. She had written one for Emmalie and Rosa, too. Jake had given them their letters after the funeral. He’d also given Will a small package. Will had opened the letter first. His mother had packed so much feeling into it. She wrote about losing her mother and getting through it. She talked about meeting Will’s father and how absolutely awful he was at poetry. She talked about things Will had never heard her talk about before, like her rocky relationship with her father and growing up in the mortal world being able to see through the mist. She talked about him too. She had told him stories about himself that he’d forgotten and precious memories he never wanted to lose. She fit so much into one letter that Will didn’t remember the small package until he put the letter down. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. Scrawled on the top was his mom’s handwriting. It’s time to tell your own story .

“I will, mom.” Will leaned back against his headboard and let the tears flow over his cheeks. His last gift from his mom. He held it up. A small, leather bound notebook. It had jagged pages. It looked handmade. Will knew his mom must have made it, but when he couldn’t guess. He opened it back up but rather than look at the first page, Will stared at the writing inside the cover with unseeing eyes, but he had already memorized what it said. I love you sunshine. He hugged it to his chest and closed his eyes. He didn’t smile. He wasn’t ready to smile yet. Maybe not for a long time, a true trademark Solace smile. Will could see the black of his eyelids, threatening to take him. It was late, but he wasn’t going to do anything tomorrow anyway. The warm tears slipped out of his closed eyes and stuck on his lashes, empty of meaning. How are you supposed to celebrate the life of someone who left yours. Will felt like he wanted to sink into oblivion but...his mother had believed that he could handle this. He might not be as strong as anyone he knew, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t strong.

“I will.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 15: Orientation

Nico POV

“Are we sure this is a good idea?” Nico was nervous.

“I am not letting you spend one more year with a zombie as your informant on the world.” Nico frowned. It wasn’t that bad, was it? More likely that Annabeth wanted everyone to avoid all possible death by being attacked by a monster alone. She was halfway to group mom already, what with the dark blue van that was a present from her dad that they were all sitting in. He felt a small hand slip into his and looked over at Hazel. It was courageous of her to be looking back at him because if her face could tell him anything, it was that she was wishing they had just shadow traveled. Nico couldn’t disagree. Annabeth really wasn’t the world’s best driver.

“Maybe school won’t be that bad.” She murmured to him. “We can meet new people. Plus, are you really going to argue with Annabeth? The sooner we get there the sooner we can leave. Time flies when you’re having fun, right?” Nico smiled. He was pretty sure that wasn’t how school actually worked, but he wasn’t about to say so. Hazle was, like him, going to be the only person they already knew in her grade and Nico knew that that might be a bit tough for her, especially since she was still adjusting to moderness. In addition, Frank wouldn’t be there because he was being a Praetor at Camp Jupiter.

“It will be fine. Anyway, it’s the school Rachel goes to, and she hasn’t been kicked out yet, so we have a chance.” 

“It’s a school of the arts, Wise Girl. They’d be mad to kick Rachel out.” Nico silently agreed. The paintings on her walls were forever tenants in Nico’s memory.

“Hey Annie! Are we almost there? I promised Jason here I’d model for him.” Leo struck a ridiculous pose in the back seat. The school that the seven demigods were driving to required a major and Jason had chosen Fashion and Apparel Design. Jason said it was a joke because at least one person in a relationship should enjoy clothes, and if Piper wouldn’t, then he would. Nico had had a vision of Jason absentmindedly waving a stick around while bolts of cloth and ribbon and needles and scissors flew towards a mannequin. “What?” Everyone was staring at Leo.

“Did you just call Annabeth Annie?”

“Well don't you think that Annabeth is way longer than it has to be? It’s like saying ‘Leo’s Very Dangerous Possibly Exploding Flares in Case of Emergency’ instead of saying Valdez Candles.” As he spoke, he took from his toolbelt one of the previously mentioned candles. Next to him, Jason practically leaned out the window to get away from the thing. On Nico’s left, Percy smirked. Only a few people (read: the Modern Objects Warrior Club) knew how to use the deceivingly innocent looking items that Leo made and those who didn’t had dubbed them Valdez Death Candles.

“No, Leo, it’s like calling Kronos K-bro.” Percy blinked then turned back towards his girlfriend in front of him. “Actually Annabeth, how long do you think it will take him to try to take over the world again? I really want to use that now.” Nico could hear the girls in the front seat rolling their eyes at each other.

“We should be there in five minutes, Leo.” Leo sighed and stuck his hand back into his tool belt. Nico watched as he pulled out a packet of pipe cleaners and began fiddling with them. In retrospect, puting seven ADHD demigods in a van for two hours was a really bad idea. Out of all of them, though, Leo was probably the most hyperactive. Nico had never seen that kid stay still for longer than a few seconds. It was a wonder Hazel could look at him without getting motion sickness. The pipe cleaners in Leo’s hands quickly turned into a small dragon, that looked exactly like Festus, who Leo had to leave at camp because their new school had a no dragons policy. At first, everyone had thought that Rachel was kidding, but apparently some kid had jumped out at the princable with such a scary dragon that she had stumbled back into the glass window behind her and fell through from the second story to the courtyard. When she finally got back from the hospital, she had made a no dragons policy. Nico thought that it was a stupid decision. If it had been him, he would have gotten rid of full windows, because it was either less of a window and more of a wall, or the principle was really small. He also would have made a no doing stupid things rule, but then he would have had to expell Percy and Leo and Jason. Actually, that was great motivation to add that rule.

“What’s it called again?” Leo was majoring in the culinary arts. Nico hadn’t known he could cook, but there were lots of things he didn’t know about his friends so he wasn’t too surprised.

“Lisseray School of the Arts.” Annabeth was, of course, majoring in architecture. It was a perfect cover for her to continue designing Olympus and get a professional opinion at the same time.

“Here we are!” Piper and Percy were both majoring in the performance department, but different parts. The school was an old, ivy covered brick building. Nico liked it. He liked old looking buildings. They felt comfortable. They were also some of the only things still around that were older than him. The seven demigods opened the doors to Annabeth’s van and all but fell on top of each other trying to get out. 

“Well a pile of demigods kneeling at my feet. It must be my lucky day.”

“Rachel!” Nico leapt up, only for his ribs to be crushed in the bone breaking hug Rachel Elizabeth Dare gave him. Once he had decided to stay, he and Rachel had caught up and ended up bonding over doing old greek-ish things with modern objects. They decided to create a club, just for fun. They originally wanted to call it the We Used to Have a Crush on Percy Jackson But Now We Have Better Things To Do Club, but then they realised how many people would join if that was their name so they decided on the Modern Object Warrior Club, or M.O.W.C. for short. It was a small club and the only other members were Percy and Annabeth (though Leo was an honorary member and regularly graced them with tutorials on how to use his latest and most dangerous invention. They were the only people who weren't afraid of Valdez Mints.), but that was fine with Nico, who preferred to have a fairly small social circle anyway. “Ribs.” he squeeked. 

“Sorry.” she set him down. “I am so excited that all of you could make it! And by the look of Annabeth’s car, you didn’t have any trouble with monsters getting here, though with Annabeth’s driving, the monsters might have been kinder to Hazel.” Annabeth playfully shoved her shoulder.

“I have many skills, driving just isn’t one of them.”

“I still can’t possibly fathom how they even let you get a licence.”

“They saw my brilliance and decided to overlook my test results in order to let me help the world.”

Percy leaned over to Leo and whispered just loud enough for Nico to hear, “Five drachma says she threatened them with a rearview mirror.”

“You're on.”

“Let's get you settled in your rooms and to the orientation!”

…

Nico wasn’t sure if he liked his room or not. It wasn’t spacious or small but it was kind of bland. He did know that he didn’t like the fact that he was going to have a roommate. Not one of the seven, not someone he knew. A roommate who was a boy his age who he did not know at all. He did not want to have to sleep in a room with a boy he didn’t know.

“Neeks? Please tell me that this is your room?” He heard Jason knock on his door and went to open it. “Oh, thank the gods that this is your room. I’ve already knocked on three other doors. Not the best first impression.” Nico rolled his eyes. Jason seemed to have forgotten that he wore glasses again. He plucked them from his friend's shirt where they hung and handed them to him. “Thanks.”

“So who are you rooming with?” He slipped out into the hallway. The other boys were all the same age so they would probably be roommates, though with only two students per room, one of them would be with someone they didn’t know, just like Nico.

“Percy.”

“Ah, yes. That will be quite tranquill then, won’t it?” Jason laughed and they started walking towards the auditorium where Rachel had told them the orientation would be. He wondered what Will would major in if he was here. It had been a week since he’d last seen his boyfriend. His mom would have maybe half a week left. Nico bit his lip and shook his head to clear it. His thoughts kept slipping back to Will. He thought instead about everyone who was here and what they were going to major in. Hazel would be in Fine and Studio arts. Her drawings, portraits especially, were breathtakingly realistic. Piper was doing musical and drama theater and Percy was going to do improv and stand up. Nico thought that Leo would be the person from the group to be in comedy, but he said he wanted to be able to make a three course meal next time they had a picnic. Nico himself was majoring in creative writing. He had always liked writing, but at this point it was really just something he thought would be a good way to expel the pain of the past years, Tarturus specifically.

The orientation was boring. Nico thought that he and the seven would fit in perfectly at their new school. The principle was a small woman who occasionally made awful puns throughout her long speech, which some students laughed obligingly at, but Nico could tell that most of the kids in the auditorium just wanted her to stop talking. Nico himself had lost interest after the first few minutes and was only half listening.

“Here at Lisseray, we like our students to be creative.”

The girl next to Nico scoffed. “No duh. It’s an art school. We're sure as Hades not here to learn accounting.”

Nico looked around at his friends who were sitting in the row in front of him. There hadn’t been enough room for him to join them but he didn’t really mind. It gave him the chance to sit taller than Percy for once. Leo, who probably hadn’t planned on listening in the first place, was fiddling with something that Nico couldn’t see in the gloom. Hazel was drawing something on her arm, Piper was playing with her hair and Percy was staring at nothing. Annabeth and Jason were the only two still paying attention. Actually, Annabeth might not have been paying attention, but Nico would have bet on her ability to repeat the lengthy speech on the spot if asked. How much longer was this going to take? Nico really just wanted to be back in his room, listening to music, contemplating the complexity of...something. Nico rolled his eyes. He wouldn’t do that. Maybe he would explore the grounds or the school. That would make sure he didn’t run into his roommate, whom he hoped to avoid at all costs. Nico wished he could shadow travel away, but they weren’t supposed to use their powers at school, mostly because that was a really good way to get kicked out of almost all schools. He wondered if he could animate an exoskeleton. It was still a skeleton, but the thing that had lived in it didn’t necessarily have to be dead. Maybe he’d test it out after he managed to escape his friends. He would also have to find a good secret place to hide from everyone. If he had a panic attack he knew that he sure as Hades couldn’t hide in a room if someone else had access to it. 

“The most important rule of school is to learn. In this school, we teach the way that you learn and we never stifle curiosity!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 16: Nico’s First Day

Nico POV

Despite the tour he’d gotten the other day, Nico had no idea where he was going. To be fair, he hadn’t paid too much attention during the tour, so they might have given out maps and Nico just hadn’t noticed. On the other hand, he decided that he liked this school. It didn’t have a dress code or uniform or anything like that other than the anti dragon thing so Nico got to wear black ripped jeans and a black t-shirt. Every day. It wasn’t that different from camp other than he was forced to wear the orange Camp Half Blood t-shirt there and here he was invited to flaunt his style. Nico decided that if he could flaunt a dead style anywhere without feeling like he was being boxed into Hades shadow, it was here, so early that mornin= he had knocked on the door to Piper and Annabeth’s room and asked for eyeshadow. He was glad that he had such accepting friends. Not only had the girls given Nico a small container with varying shades of dark eyeshadow, they had also shown him how to apply it and had somehow tamed his hair enough to turn him from messy normal Nico into dark brooding Nico. He hoped that this would keep people from talking to him because despite the fact that he liked how he looked with it, the original point of the makeup had been to enforce his natural ‘don’t talk to me’ aura. It seemed to be working. On the bright side, no one was talking to him. On the down side, he was completely lost and if he asked for directions it would shatter his unapproachable-ness he had acquired. He ended up discreetly following a group of girls who looked his age and hoped that they were in his math class. Lucky for him, they were. Nico sat in the back of the class and watched the rest of the room fill up. In the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of light and turned to see the girl who had been next to him the other day in the auditorium slide into the seat on his right, a camera in her hands, pointed at him.

“Hi.” So much for his ‘don’t talk to me’ aura. He scowled. The girl just rolled her eyes. “No? That’s fine. I’ll just talk to this picture of you instead. Hello Deathboy.” Nico nearly turned to look at her and ask how she knew people called him that before remembering the makeup. And clothing. And that she was looking at her camera, not him. “No. Don’t tell me that is your actual name.” She must have seen him flinch. “I mean, no judgement, but Deathboy? Is your last name McZombie?” Nico slunk down in his chair and watched as their teacher walked to the front of the room. It wasn’t like people hadn’t made fun of him before, but this girl was so close to the truth. Well, not the McZombie part. He was glad for a moment that none of his friends were in this class or he would never have heard the end of it. As the teacher started calling names, the girl lowered her voice and kept talking. “Okay, so you won’t tell me your name, no matter. I’ll find out soon enough. Don’t you want to know how you look in the picture, though?” She waved her camera around.

“Jaelie Mackintosh?”

“Oh, no, this year it’s Granny Smith.” The girl called, her eyes trained on Nico, calculating his reaction. “Jaelie Manzana Granny Smith.” The class laughed. Nico continued to glare at Jaelie. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I have ways of making you talk.” Nico turned to his bag and grimaced. He really seemed to find just the most inquisitive and stubborn people. It was getting to be like a law of gravity that all annoying, happy, friendly people end up near him. He took out his notebook and flipped it open to the first page. Sometimes, Nico wished he had writer's block, so he could just stare at the blank page and get his mind to mirror it, but he always had something to write and some pain to use.

Losing someone you love leaves you angry and broken.

Losing the only one you love leaves so many words unspoken.

Words she’ll never hear and I’ll never say.

That have echoed through my head ever since that day.

“Nico di Angelo?” He jumped and looked up.

“Yes?” He tried to make it sound as though she had interrupted something important.

“Well if you have better things to do, feel free to fail my class.” Nico glared at his desk.

“di Angelo? Isn’t that, like, angel in italian?” Nico was glad that Jaelie was speaking in a low voice. He didn’t need the whole class to know that the emo-y kid in the back was saddled with a name like angel.

“So?”

“So I like languages. Are you from Italy?”

“No, I’m from mars.” Nico deadpanned. “Yeah, I’m from Italy.”

“Your English is good.”

“Well you can’t spend seventy in Las Vegas without picking up at least some English.”

“ Then it’s unfortunate that some of us don’t have seventy years to spend. ” Nico blinked. Jaelie had flawless Italian.

“ So is your Italian. ” She smiled.

“ I told you I could get you to talk. ” Nico huffed, but he was secretly glad. He was historically bad at avoiding people who wanted to be his friend.

“ What’s your major?” She waved her camera at him. “ Right. ”

“ Okay, my turn. How old are you? ”

“ Eighty three. How long have you been here? ”

“ It’s my third year. Favorite play. ”

“ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. ”

“ Really? Me too! ” Nico decided that he liked Jaelie. She had good taste.

“ Favorite game? ”

“ Is that an offer? ” Well if she wanted to play at questions, then questions they would play.

“ Would you like it to be? ”

…

Nico and Jaelie sat outside for lunch. Most of the students were talking loudly and running about, gossiping and such, but after realizing that all of his friends had lunch at a different period, Nico and Jaelie decided to sit up against the side of the building, far enough away that no one would bother them but close enough that they could watch the other kids their age. They had been playing at questions all morning, both refusing to lose, and had decided to take a break for lunch so that they could actually learn more about each other. Jaelie had insisted on telling Nico about his own life, using all the astute observation skills that she had picked up from reading mystery novels.

“You are from mars,” They were speaking in English again. “Where they speak Italian and you were heading for Rome in your ship when you crashed in Vegas. You ended up staying in a hotel for seventy years because, being a Martian, you have a much longer lifespan than us humans. You finally fixed your ship but found out that humans had landed on Mars and the Martians had gone into hiding so you now have to pretend to be a human to keep them from suspecting and to gather information for your species to tell them when they can finally meet us.”

“Are you sure that you aren’t in creative writing or improv?”

“I’m not done yet. You came to earth with a crew who are also attending this School but are older than you or at least look so in human eyes, so they aren’t in any of your classes. You also have…” She looked him up and down. “A boyfriend.” She decided with certainty. “Who isn’t here and you miss him. A lot. Oh, stop looking like a paranoid chicken and tell me if I’m right, di Angelo.”

“In a sense. Crew, check, boyfriend, check, hotel, check. Not from Mars, though. Also not reporting to anyone. No one cares enough to hear any report I give anyway.”

“Why isn’t your boyfriend here?”

“Family matters. Now, on to you, Mackintosh.” Nico was eager to get off the subject of Will and Jaelie didn’t push. “First off, your parents run an apple picking farm because...because they thought it would be hilarious. You are an only child, so you get to have your parents all to yourself. Your parents are goofy and make puns and you help out on the farm over the summer and there is no place you would rather be. You have...a dog-no, a cat who...who you snuck onto campus because...you were afraid your parents would forget to feed him. You don’t normally hang out with people because...you would rather be behind the camera and not have anyone looking at you. And…” Nico paused and looked at Jaelie, mimicking the way she had sized him up. “You’re...pansexual? Single. You think that watching people fail at flirting is a fun pastime but in the long term you want someone who is loyal and friendly.” Nico cringed, ready for her to yell at him for assuming such things and to tell him how wrong he was about her life.

“Ace Aro, actually, though you were right about the flirting. It is a great way to spend time and a really fun game. And trust me, the people at this school can be just awful at it.” Nico looked up and raised his eyebrows. 

“I’m actually surprised that I didn’t get more wrong. I am absolutely awful at reading people.” Jaelie smiled and slid next to Nico so that he could see her camera screen. With anyone else, he would have been hyper aware about how close they were and, with the exception of a few people, already planning an escape route, but he didn’t even realize that they were barely an inch away. Jaelie felt like a best friend who he had somehow forgotten and he felt comfortable around her.

“That’s one of the things I like about photos. They capture a moment and you can create so many stories with one moment.” Nico could understand that. He wished that he could keep real moments like they were photos.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17: Hazel’s Weekend

Hazel POV

All in all, Hazel’s first week wasn’t as bad as she had expected. She didn’t get to see Nico as much as she would have liked, but she had lunch with Leo and Annabeth, so she wasn’t alone. It kind of reminded her of eating lunch with Sammy, except no one was bullying her here. Well, not at lunch. A boy in her history class kept making racial comments about history that he directed at her and all the girls in her class were obsessed with boys. One of the girls in her class had seen her drawing a picture of Frank on the back of her math test and asked her who he was.

“O.M.G. he is so hot! Who is he?”

“My boyfriend.”

“Oh, come on Haze,” She really didn’t like the nickname, but she didn’t want everyone in her class to hate her. “We all know that you don’t have a boyfriend. Please tell me that he is an actual person and not from your imagination. I don’t think I could stand it if he wasn’t real.” 

“It would be a shame if he never got to witness how hot I am. “

“I could get him to fall for me in five minutes.”

“Leana, you are such an amature. I could do less.”

“Bet.”

Hazel was not at all comfortable with the girls in her class betting on how quickly they could get her boyfriend to fall in love with them, not because she thought he would, but rather because she felt like her life was on display. She wondered why they thought that she didn’t actually have a boyfriend.

When the weekend finally came, Hazel practically ran to Nico’s room. They hadn’t had very many chances to talk because of their schedules. When she opened his door, Hazel found Nico sitting on his bed, writing, and a girl she didn’t know was on the other bed.

“Where’s your roommate?” Nico looked up, startled. He patted the bed beside him, inviting her to sit when he saw who it was.

“He, uh, is sort of avoiding me.” Hazel raised her eyebrows. Normally it was Nico who avoided people, though to be fair, plenty of people were wary of Nico and a few went out of their way to keep from running into him. Nico raised his eyebrows back at her and she decided to drop the subject.

“Are you going to introduce me to your friend, or have you forgotten your manners?” They both grew up in the same time period, and they were taught similar things, though Nico’s manners seemed to have dissipated over his time in the Lotus hotel.

“Ah, yes. Hazel, this is Jaelie. She is in most of my classes. Jaelie, this is Hazel, my sister.”

“A crew member?” Hazel started. Did Jaelie know about the Argo ii?

“Ah, yes. Because you won’t let go of that Mars thing, Hazel is one of the crew.” Ok, now she was confused. Was her brother joking around with someone?

“Hello Lady Hazel, it is such an honor to finally meet you.” Jaelie stood, took Hazel’s hand and leaned down to kiss it. “M’lord di Angelo has told me of you. He holds you in the highest of regards, Milady.” In the back of Hazel’s mind, she briefly connected Jaelie and Sammy’s behavior. She decided that she liked Jaelie. She held her head high as though she deserved such praise before cracking and falling into fits of laughter, Jaelie soon following suit.

“So even here he couldn’t escape the attention of those with a sense of humor.”

“Nope. No one escapes the great and stubborn Jaelie.”

“Well it’s good to know that he isn’t acting totally unsocial.” Jaelie laughed.

“Mostly, though. Ok, Hazel, I am so jealous of you.”

“What? Why?” Nothing about her life was interesting other than the demigod part, which no one could possibly be jealous of. Also, she reasoned with herself, Jaelie didn’t even know about that part.

"Well you're Nico's sister, aren't you? He must have a double life to be as antisocial as he is. He must have had to save the public countless times. I can't get a single story out of him, so you have to tell me all about being his 'guy in the chair'."

"Well," Hazel side eyed her brother as she drew the word out. He nodded at her before she continued on. "The real secret is that I'm the super hero and Nico is my side kick. You won't believe the number of times I've had to save him." Jaelie laughed again. Hazel had to admit that her brother seemed to attract the best people.

…

Hazel was walking back to her room when she stopped short in the hallway. Her door was open. She shook her head softly, reminding herself that she had a roommate. Leana could just have forgotten to close the door behind her. Still, there was always the very real chance that a monster had snuck into her room. She cautiously pushed the door open, her hand hovering over the hidden dagger Annabeth had given her, just in case.

“Hazy, darling.” Leana and a few other girls from her class were standing on Hazel’s side of the room, near her closet. “We were just wondering where you were. You don’t seem to have any dresses.” Oh. Why were they even looking through her stuff?

“I like to have access to all my limbs without worrying about my dignity.” Too late, Hazel realized how 1940s that sounded. She had seen the style these days, and knew that dignity was not a top priority among the kids at Lisseray.

“Oh, of course not darling,” The word seemed to roll in her mouth as though she was trying to make it last as long as she possibly could. “I’m only saying that you don’t have a single one. And, we were thinking, because this is your first year here, we could show you around the town.” Hazel drew her eyebrows together. She hadn’t known that there was a town near here. “The school lets us do really whatever we want over the weekends, so we thought we could take you shopping because you obviously need our help. Like, no offence but,” She looked Hazel over with disgust and Hazel thought that offence was almost certainly implied. “You honestly have no sense of style. At all. Like, I’ve never even heard of Camp Jupiter. And jeans? Darling, you dress like you're from the eighties.” Hazel had missed the eighties, due to being dead and all, but she hadn’t thought that their style was all that bad. To be fair, though, most of the hair styles were a bit over the top and at least half the entire world’s hairspray had probably been used in that era, and Hazel had no idea why anyone would purposefully brush their hair up to knot it. Weren’t normal, naturally occuring knots hard enough to get out already?

“Um, ok?”

…

Hazel stared at herself in the full length mirror. Leana had put her into a far too small, velvety blue, string strap dress. She hated it, and she didn’t hate many things. She striped it off and put it in a pile of dresses she had already tried on. None of them were her. They were all too...showy. Hazel really didn’t understand this era. She took another dress from the hook on the dressing room door. The last dress. Leana and her friends had told Hazel that they wouldn’t let her leave without getting one dress, at least. Hazel was beginning to think that she might have to shadow travel out to escape, despite the fact that she'd never done it without Nico's help. Her brother was a lot better at shadow traveling. She held the last dress out in front of her and examined how she looked in the mirror. Unlike the other dresses, this one had sleeves. It was like...a sweater dress. Hazel slipped the dress on and tugged the bottom down, trying to get it to go farther than it did. She was a bit uncomfortable with the length, but she could just wear leggings under it and no one would know a thing. She unlocked the dressing room door and pushed it open, walking out to show the other girls her dress.

“Oh, Haze, I put that in there as a joke. I didn’t think you’d actually put it on.” Hazel shrugged. This was the only dress she liked and they were the ones who dragged her here anyway.

“I like it.” She said. One of the girls whispered something to the girl next to her, who giggled.

“Well if that’s what you want…” Hazel nodded. “Do you have money?” Leana sounded skeptical. Hazel had no doubt that if she had chosen any other dress, Leana would have bought it for her, but it didn’t really matter. Before leaving Camp Jupiter, Hazel had pulled out of the ground a few non-magical un-cursed items and sold them to a pawn shop owner in New Rome for some mortal money. She definitely had enough to pay for the dress. Hazel nodded.

“Thank you for taking me here.” Leana scowled as though she regretted it.

“Anything for a friend.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 18: Jason Learns to Draw

Jason POV

The first week that Jason spent at Lisseray School of the Arts, he learned one important lesson. He could not draw. And it was not for lack of trying. Jason had spent his childhood around wolves, then in the roman legion. He knew that if everyone could see what he saw in his head, they would never again doubt his place at Lisseray. The good news was that he hadn’t been kicked out. Yet. The bad news was that he would be soon if he didn’t find a way to show people his designs in the next week. The first week was way too easy to be a good example of every class. It had to be. The teachers were probably just using the first week to ease kids back into the school curriculum.

“Please, Piper. I really need work and I don’t know who else to ask.”

“No, Jason. I am not going to encourage my mom by getting mixed up in anything remotely related to her.”

“Good luck with that.” Percy nudged her and pointed across the lunch room to a table of athletes who were staring at Piper. Piper just rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“For all you know, they might be checking you out. Speaking of which, you gonna join any sports teams?”

“Well I was thinking swim, but I’d probably just end up messing up all the averages. Maybe track?”

“Given all the running we do already, you’d think that we’re already on one.”

“Hey, Jason, why don’t you ask Hazel? I’m sure that she’d be able to help.” 

Jason sighed. “Hazel already has enough on her plate, what with all the modern stuff, plus a new school is just flat out hard.” He didn’t want to bother her. Anyways, she was more detailed than he could ever even think of being. “Wait, doesn’t Annabeth draw? Being an architect and all?”

“Yeah..." Percy said around a bite of lunch. "But she’s all lines and math, though. What about Leo? With all the blueprints he has lying around, I’m sure he has drawn the figure of a person at least once in his life.”

“And isn’t that all you need anyway?” Jason nodded, wondering why he hadn’t even thought of Leo. He’d never even thought about his blueprint but now that he did, it would make sense that Leo would know how to draw. Hephestus children had no less imagination and artistic talent than their father who, despite most mortal mythology classes, was the god of creativity as well as blacksmiths. Anyway, Jason didn’t need to know how to draw facial expressions. That was Hazel’s department and he didn’t want to stray in there and make a mess of everything.

“How are your classes going?” Jason didn’t have class with either Percy or Piper, but lunch made up for that.

“Oh, you will never guess.” Despite her best efforts to avoid everything Aphroditie, Piper always managed to pick up the best gossip. “Percy is plagued by girls asking him out for next weekend. ‘Oh Percy,” Leo was the best at imitations, but Jason had to admit that Piper had a decent impression of an enamored fangirl. Jason wondered how many she had experienced with her dad. “I’m so lonely. You have strong arms, hug me’.” Percy was leaning away from her, visibly struggling to keep the smile off his face.

“I’m sorry, I’m dating someone.” He said as he tried to scramble away from Piper.

“Oh,” Piper slumped her shoulders over exaggeratedly. “Is it that Piper girl? But she is so...un beautiful.” Jason and the seven knew that to Piper this was a half complement. On one hand, it separated her from her mother, but on the other, the person was always implying that her beauty was the only good thing about her and that she didn’t even have much of that.

“No, not Piper. I’m dating her boyfriend.” Jason laughed. There was a joke at camp that to the rest of the world it looked like Jason and Percy were dating and they had made it their thing.

“But what about Annabeth?” 

“She’s in, like, twelve electives plus Olympus and architecture. She has virtually no free time.”

“Twelve electives? I only have one!”

“The word you are searching for is overachiever.” Piper supplied. 

“Speaking of which, Piper, will you tell my girlfriend that I miss her?”

“Why?”

“I haven’t seen her since we got here. I don’t have any classes with her and no extra time after homework.”

“That’s because you take so long to do it.”

“Ok Mr. I can actually pay attention despite my dyslexia and ADHD.”

“Yes Mr. Using his ADHD and dyslexia as an excuse, I can pay attention because I know how to focus.”

“That’s because you grew up being trained to follow orders.”

“Yes, and you grew up being able to bad mouth the gods, so-”

“M’kay kids,” Piper cut in. “Everyone knows you like each other. Just kiss and get it over with. We don’t have the resources for a full on 'Battle of the Best'.” The past summer Jason and Percy had had a spat that turned into a full on war. A war that the rest of camp joined for fun but Percy and Jason took with all seriousness. They probably would have torn each other to pieces if their girlfriends hadn’t stepped in. The plan was actually Leo’s, which just goes to show how desperate everyone was. Piper and Annabeth had stood on the roof of the big house and (with an enhanced, non-mooing, megaphone from Leo) Piper yelled so that everyone looked at them. Then, with everyone watching, Annabeth grabbed Piper around the waist and kissed her. Everyone stopped fighting and stared. Everyone except Jason who was so surprised that he fell out of the sky. Now the entire camp was betting on when Percy and Jason would kiss or if they would get their girlfriends back some other way.

Jason rolled his eyes. “Well Perce, what do you think? Should we kiss?”

“No, this place is just too open. We’ve talked about this, Jace. I’m not ready to go public yet.” The bell rang and Jason grabbed his bag.

“Alright then. Have a nice rest of your day guys!” He called over his shoulder as he started in the direction of his next class.

…

Jason knocked and heard the scrambling of someone jumping off their bed to open the door. Leo stood in the doorway. He blinked his eyes like he was clearing them before giving Jason a trademark Valdez smile.

“Sparky!” He stepped aside to let Jason in. “Welcome to my humble abode.” Inside was what looked like another hallway. Leo led him through the left door into what Jason assumed was his room. Leo’s room was a mess. There were blueprints and cookbooks all over the place. His tools were scattered around and cooking utensils were just as abundant.

“The two rooms?”

“Well I very well can’t work with a mortal watching me. Also, he kept getting annoyed at having to look at my side of the room. He says that it’s a mess. A mess! It is lightly organized chaos! I know where everything is.” Jason gave his friend a pointed look. “Plus it’s fireproof.” Almost everyone Jason hung out with had nightmares. It was probably one of the only things that all demigods had in common. In Jason’s personal opinion, dreams, no matter how horrible they could be, were more useful for quests than prophecies. All that prophecies did was give vague information that made people paranoid and didn’t help all that much. Of course, some demigods had dreams that were not at all informative and all they did was bring up past traumatic events. Those were the kinds of dreams that kids woke up from screaming. Some campers also unconsciously used their powers, things they had grown to rely on to protect them. In Leo’s case, he woke up on fire. Jason wandered over to Leo’s bed where there was a mini waterfall and a few drachmas.

“How is she doing?” He was talking about Leo’s girlfriend, Calypso. After everyone had finished pummeling Leo, he had introduced them to her. They had soon realized how much time she had lost on Ogygia and how out of place she was. Annabeth had the idea to have her roam with the Hunters of Artemis for a while, just so she could take Thalia’s modernizing classes with girls who were closer to her era. Jason felt bad for Leo, who had probably forgotten how long she had been gone when he brought her back.

“She’s good. Still confused by the mystics of the toaster.” Leo cracked a smile, but Jason could see how lonely his friend was.

“You miss her.”

“Yeah.” On the tip of Jason’s tongue sat the words ‘do you wanna talk about it’, but if he knew anything about his best friend, Leo would crack some joke about Jason turning into a child of aphrodite, what with all the love advice he seemed eager to share with Leo and brush it off, not answering the question in the least.

“So, I actually came to you to talk about drawing. Not that I don’t want to talk to you and stuff, like I barely have a single class with you.”

“Me? Drawing? What do you need help drawing?”

“I was wondering how hard it would be for you to teach me how to draw a realistic figure. Not realistic like details, but realistic like actually looks like an actual body shape. Would that be hard?” Jason watched Leo’s signature smile spread across his face.

“Well it depends, how hard are you willing to work?”

Chapter Text

Chapter 19: Enter Piper, Stage Right

Piper POV

“But really, Shakespeare?” Percy complained at lunch. “Like, who even knows Shakespeare?” Piper turned toward him, face void of emotion.

“ ‘But soft, what light through yonder window breaks’. “ She deadpanned.

“Okay, but, like, no one else knows and if they do, it’s not more than that.” Piper raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve got the entire thing memorized. ‘It is the east and Juliet is the sun! Arise fair sun and’-”

“Whatever. What I’m saying is that it’s so old.” Jason rolled his eyes.

“Hamlet is a classic, Percy.” He held up his apple. “ ‘Alas, poor Yorick’.” Percy huffed and returned to his ranting, but Piper tuned him out. She was thinking about the play. Earlier that day during the daily morning briefing they had that other schools would just call an assembly, Rachel had announced that this quarter’s play was going to be Hamlet. Lisseray School of the Arts wasn’t like other schools, as Piper had learned soon after her first day. They didn’t have one play per year, they had four. One for each quarter. Participation wasn’t a requirement but as far as Piper could tell, everyone was doing something for the play. She wasn’t quite sure where Rachel fit in, though. She seemed to be more staff than student, popping in and out of classrooms, checking on everyone, Piper didn’t even know what her major was and neither did anyone else she talked to. Piper had reached the conclusion that Rachel was either the student president or vice principal.

She wondered how the school would portray Hamlet. From accidentally overhearing multiple conversations, she had picked up that Lisseray always put it's own spin on whatever play they did. And, the first quarter was always some Shakespearean or Shakespearean style play. Rachel had told her that last year they did Two Gentlemen of Verona, but they had one person on the side of the stage with a laptop, narrating the play like it was gossip on a blog that they were writing. She had told Piper that everyone in the school had the opportunity to submit their own idea and a small section of script for the play and whichever film student had been chosen to be the director that year would decide what they would use. The entire play was basically student run with them taking care of everything and the occasional teacher supervising things that might be dangerous, like flying for Peter Pan. Piper wondered what she would do if she was re-writing the whole play of Hamlet. She had no idea. To be honest, she wasn’t really all that familiar with Shakespeare. The only reason she even knew Romeo’s speech was because her eighth grade english teacher told her class that they would be reading assigned monologues in front of the whole class. She said that they didn’t have to memorize their monologues and that she was going to give them a paper with the monologue on it, but she assigned all the girls Juliet’s monologue and all the boys got Romeo’s. Piper hated it and tried to argue with her teacher, but her teacher insisted that all girls were Juliets and all boys were Romeos, which was dumb because it was an awful story to role model for young love considering that hey both die at the end, not to mention the age gap, so she had spent that night memorizing Romeo’s speech. The next day when her teacher handed her the paper with her monologue, she thanked her, ripped it up in front of the whole class, and continued on to recite Romeo’s monologue while staring right into her english teacher’s eyes. Piper had almost gotten expelled for that. She had really hated her eighth grade english teacher.

“-right Piper?” Piper snapped her head around to face the boys at her table.

“Sorry, what?” 

“Percy was just trying to get me to show him my somewhat improved drawings.”

“Yeah and I promised him that we won’t laugh, right Piper?” Percy repeated. She smirked.

“Of course. You know that we would never laugh at you Jason.” Jason sighed and reached into his bag.

“You always laugh at me.” He pulled out a folder and opened it to reveal a variety of human shaped bodies, all with different styles of clothing drawn on. Piper slid the folder over the table to her so she could look closer.

“Wow, Jason. These are really good. Especially if you only learned this yesterday afternoon.” Jason shrugged.

“Leo is a really good teacher. Also, I now owe him one no-refusal test drive of any new invention of his choice.” Percy raised his eyebrows.

“I didn’t realize that you were that desperate.” Everyone in camp knew to never do anything that involved them on the receiving end of a no-refusal test drive from Leo, given that his inventions had an uncanny reputation of blowing up in the hands of anyone except himself. The bell rang and the three of them began to gather their stuff together. “Good luck, bro.” Percy patted Jason on the back. Piper held up crossed fingers so he could see.

“Here's to hoping you don’t blow up!” Jason smiled and waved to them as he left for his next class. Percy turned to Piper, who had convinced Annabeth to translate their schedule into Greek so it was easier to read.

“Physics?” He asked as she pulled her schedule out of her back pocket. They were in all the same classes so they traveled around together.

“No...History.”

…

“Hey, Hazel!” Piper called as she caught up to the younger girl.

“Hi Piper! How are you?” Hazel, polite as ever, was on the edge of a group of girls who looked to be her age. Piper was glad that Hazel had found friends. She knew how anxious the younger girl had been about people liking her.

“Good, you?”

“I’m good.”

“Hey, I was looking for your brother, but he isn’t in his room. Do you know where he is?”

“He might be...Um, I think this is his roommates day to use the room and it’s a…”

“”It’s Tuesday.” The girl next to her supplied. Hazel smiled.

“Thanks, Maddison. It’s Tuesday, so he and Jaelie should be outside spying on people. A little into the woods there is a clearing. I’d try there.”

“Thanks Gem!” Piper called, using the pet name they had decided (after much debate) was a good fit. Piper was Rebel. She turned toward the doors that lead out to the woods.

Piper had a bit of trouble but she eventually found the clearing and, as Hazel had predicted, Nico. In the clearing there were two people. Nico and a girl Piper didn’t know. Nico was leaned up against a tree writing in a notebook and the girl was lying on her stomach with something up to her face, binoculars probably, Piper thought, looking through the bushes at a few kids who were just hanging out, as far as Piper could tell.

“Hey Piper.” Piper jumped. Nico must have sensed her because he didn’t look up from his notebook. She wondered what he was writing. She walked over and sat next to him.

“So?”

“What?” He didn’t sound annoyed at her, so that was a good sign, but he still hadn’t looked at her. She craned her neck to see what he was writing in his notebook, but he shut it and slipped it into his bag before she could read anything in it. He sighed and looked at her. “What do you want, Piper?”

“You heard about the play?”

“What, the play that just about everyone has been talking about all day? No, I haven’t heard.” Piper rolled her eyes.

“Well, any student can enter an idea for a script or theme in general, and I was thinking-”

“No. Piper, I don’t write like that.”

“But it’s Hamlet. Anyway, you don’t have to use the actual words and that sort of thing. Come on, Nico. Please?”

“What are we begging him for?” The girl had turned around and was sitting up. Piper saw that around her neck were not binoculars but rather a camera. She turned to Piper and held a hand out for her to shake. “Jaelie, by the way.”

“Piper.” Jaelie nodded then turned back to Nico.

“So, what are we convincing him to do?”

“Enter a script for the play.” Piper watched Jaelie’s eyes twinkle with a somewhat evil gleam. She decided that she liked this girl. Also that she didn’t want to get on her bad side.

“Nico, you would be so good.” He wrinkled his nose.

“I don’t even know how I would twist it.” Piper was surprised that Nico seemed to be giving in so fast.

“How about ‘Sarcastic Shakespeare’?” Jaelie spread her hands wide like she was framing the words. “Hamlet can just Sass his way through life.” Nico raised his eyebrows at her.

“What, like ‘to be or not to be, that is the question. Oh wait, no it isn’t.’ or like ‘brevity is the soul of wit. Except for you. You just happen to say dumb things at the right moment’?” Jaelie smirked.

“Alas, poor Yorick!” She held her camera up and Piper got a sudden feeling of dejavu from earlier at lunch.

“Oh my gods! Is that Yorick?” Nico asked with mock horror.

“No, it’s Jared. I just went and dug up the skull of someone I didn’t know so that I could act like it’s Yorick.” Piper watched Jealie fight to stay straight faced before bursting out with laughter.

“Fine. Maybe.” Piper couldn’t believe that Nico was relenting. She had come fully prepared for a 'no' and two skeleton armies. “It probably won’t be chosen anyways though.” Piper smiled. Nico saying 'maybe' was like Aphroditie not being jealous. Though it must have happened at least once, she thought.

“Probably won’t still leaves hope for a possibly will.” Nico rolled his eyes.

“Go grace someone else with your wisdom and leave us alone.” Piper just smiled and turned back towards the school. She wasn’t sure why she thought that Nico should write the script for the play, she just had a feeling, and a good one at that which, for a demigod, was rare.

Chapter Text

Chapter 20: Nico Re-Writes Shakespeare

Nico POV

Nico was exhausted. Honestly, who gives thirteen to seventeen year olds four days to write a whole script? Plus school. At least his roommate Justin was happy. Nico hadn’t been sleeping and, in consequence, hadn’t had any nightmares. Justin was mean and Nico prefered to spend as little time as possible with him.

“Nico!” He jerked his head up.

“Hmm?” He had learned quite a while ago that he was not the most enunciated person when he was tired. He also didn’t have the best filter, so it was probably for the best.

“Come on. Class is over.” He let Jaelie pull him out of his seat and towards...honestly, Nico didn’t know. She was the only thing keeping him from being kicked out of school at this point, dragging him to and from classes and keeping him awake. She was also probably the only reason he was even still alive. Not because he wouldn’t be able to survive without sleep, that he could do, but she was reminding him to eat, which he suspected that he didn’t need but he knew that Will would disagree. Nico cursed.

“Language.”

“Sorry.”

“What’s even wrong?” Nico shook his head. With his filter deteriorating, he didn’t trust himself to speak. The truth was that his mind kept jumping back to Will. He really needed to stop thinking about him. Not that he didn’t want to, but when he did, he felt...homesick? Nico didn’t really know. He’d never really had a home like that but maybe that old saying was right. Home should be where the heart is. 

“Never were words so true.”

“Isn’t that from Beauty and the Beast?” He said that out loud? Ugh. He really should sleep. Wait, no that’s what Will would tell him. He realized that he could technically get away with anything here. Anyway, just a few more days and the over-tiredness would wear off. Then he could return to his previously scheduled bet with Percy.

“What day is it?”

“Friday.” 

“What?” Nico cursed again. Hazel would not be proud, but he knew that Will cursed more. Will would probably be astonished that Nico even knew English curse words. He tried to avoid swearing in any language that people who knew him would understand. He also tried to avoid cursing in general, but he had just given up at some point over the past few days. Friday was the due date for the script so that the directors could spend the weekend reviewing them and choosing which one to use and they could announce it on Monday. He had to turn his script in by eleven fifty nine and he planned on turning it in at the last minute. Nico only had one more scene to write, but he also needed to hear someone read it to him to make sure everything fit. He had already roped Jaelie into a reading, maybe Leo would be free too. They would probably be the best people to work with for this. Piper and Percy were already in the play, Hazel wouldn’t have any idea what would be going on. Or she would just be scandalized. Either way, he couldn’t ask any of them. Annabeth would say yes right away, but Nico knew that she was really busy and Nico didn’t want to see Jason’s reaction to his version of Hamlet, in which one could not ignore the gay factor. He would have to write himself a reminder to make sure that Jason wasn’t hiding in any vents or bushes. Annoyingly enough, after Nico had publicly come out, Jason had started spying on Nico. And spying like hiding in the rafters of the Hades cabin while Nico was muttering passive agressive things to himself about...someone. In short, Jason was the first person to discover that Nico had a crush on Will, and it wasn’t because Nico had told him. Jason was an amazing friend, to be sure. He was accepting and the first person in years to get through Nico’s walls enough to plant a seed of doubt in his belief that everyone hated him. Nico just wished that Jason would butt out of his love life.

“Nico. Come on.” Jaelie was pulling his arm again. Was class over already? It wasn’t that he was falling asleep in class, he had no problem staying awake. The problem was that his sleep deprived mind lost its ability to focus on more than one thing at a time, so as he wrote in class, class disappeared.

“School is out. It is officially the weekend.”

“Thank the gods. Now we can go bother Leo and I can turn this cursed thing in. I am so ready to sleep.” And, with luck, avoid nightmares. They had gotten worse in the what, four weeks now, since he had seen Will? He hadn’t told any of his friends, they would just worry and he didn’t want them to worry. He couldn’t tell Jaelie, who was mortal. He wanted to talk to Will, but he knew that Will would iris message him when he was ready to talk and if he hadn’t, it was because he needed to be alone. Nico knew it was selfish, but he hoped that Will iris messaged him soon. He missed him. Nico looked up from his laptop to the crowd of kids in the hallway he was in, looking for Leo who’s last class of the day should also be in this area. He caught a glimpse of curly brown hair and ran towards it.

“Valdez!” Nico caught up to the Hephestus kid, Jaelie behind him. “You are now helping me.” Leo smirked.

“What, the child of death asking me for help?” Jaelie stumbled but quickly regained her balance. 

“Yes, I’m just that desperate. No, Valdez. For one thing, I didn’t ask. For another, sometimes people actually appreciate your talents. Plus, I heard a rumor that you have soundproof walls. And an actual room, something I currently don’t have. And it’s now the weekend so you can’t use homework as an excuse.”

“This sounds suspiciously like blackmail.”

“These are facts, Valdez. If you really want blackmail though I’m sure I can dig up something good on you.” Nico wasn’t sure if not sleeping for a week had any impact on his ability to scare people or if it made him harder to believe, but Leo seemed to get that Nico wasn’t kidding. To be fair, Nico was rarely ever kidding when he was talking about blackmail. It was less that he would spy on people, that was Jason’s thing. It was more like people’s darkest secrets gravitated towards him.

“Fine. what do you need me to do?”

“How do you feel about doing a read through?”

…

“Take up the bodies: such a sight as this becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot.” Leo beat his fist against his chest twice before wiping a fake tear from his eye. Nico bit his lip and finished editing his script as Jaelie clapped enthusiastically from the bed. “That was actually a lot more fun than I’d thought.” Nico raised his eyebrows without looking up from the computer in his lap.

“Was it? Maybe you should switch majors.” Leo was silent for a moment.

“I might. Culinary isn't really for me.” Oh. Nico wasn’t sure what to say. He had meant it sarcastically, but Leo seemed like he’d actually been unsatisfied with his choice. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to keep cooking and all but...the kids here are...I don’t know, competitive? And way fancy. Not really me.”

“What do you think you want to do?” Jaelie moved over and took Nico’s computer from him.

“I don’t know. I’d like to go back to mechanics, but that isn’t really something they do here, is it?”

“You could switch to Design and Applied Arts.” She turned the screen so that both boys could see what was on it. Jaelie had pulled up the Lisseray web page. On it were the majors that students could choose from. She clicked on the Design and Applied Arts major link and showed Leo. “See? You could work backstage with things like sets and machinery. Like flying machines.” Leo nodded. Nico was glad that Leo was admitting that he was unhappy with his major. Nico knew that if he was in Leo’s place he would stay in the major out of stubbornness. “Alright, let’s get this thing submitted!” Nico was very grateful for Jaelie. He was still a bit confused by computers. She was pretty much doing everything except writing the script. It was also her computer. “Done!” Nico let himself slump back on Leo’s bed. 

“What time is it?” He moaned.

“Eleven fifty eight.”

“Isn’t there, like, a curfew?” Nico hoped not. He didn’t want to have to deal with Justin again. He had been angry that morning because Nico had kept him up all night by writing. Nico sighed. It didn’t matter that there was a curfew because he wasn’t going to sleep in anyone else’s room. If they heard him…

Nico groaned and hauled himself up. 

“Probably.” 

“You can stay here if you want. It’s probably past curfew anyway.” Nico shook his head.

“Thanks but I’m not too far away.”

“I have lots of practice sneaking around this school at night, so I’m good too.”

Leo led them out of his room, into the mini hallway that he’d made and out the main door. Nico was tempted to ask Leo to build him a divider too, but he decided against it.

“See you round di Angelo. It was nice meeting you, Mackintosh.” Nico nodded at him and Jaelie shook his hand. Nico realized that Leo hadn’t flirted with Jaelie the entire time they were there. Maybe he really missed Calypso. Nico realized that all his friends had so much to worry about on their own. It only reinforced his belief that none of them had to know about his dreams.

Chapter Text

Chapter 21: Backstage

Leo POV

Leo was astonished. He had no idea how Nico managed to stay awake for days on end. He could barely keep his eyes open. After Nico and his friend, Jaelie, had left the night before, Leo had thought about what Jaelie had said. The main reason he had wanted to major in the Culinary arts was he wanted to learn how to cook more Mexican heritage style food. He had thought that it might bring him closer to his mother.

“Leo! Sorry it took me so long.” Rachel ran up to him. She had agreed to help him try to convince the principal to let him switch majors. Well, Rachel thought that it wouldn’t be very hard and that Leo wouldn’t need her, so she was kind of just there for moral support. Honestly, Leo wished that Calypso was there too, but she was with the Hunters of Artemis and Thalia in some forest or another. 

“It’s fine.”

“Alright, so, A. here is a donut. B. she is really nice and you have no reason to be worried about anything.”

“The donut is to bribe her?”

“What? No! The donut is for you. You eat it. You have had a donut before, right?” Leo rolled his eyes as he grabbed the donut and bit into it. “Good. Now put the mints away and do your thing!” Leo realized that he had a tin of mints in his hand. He seemed to have a habit of taking mints out of his toolbelt before battle. He stuffed his fist back into his toolbelt before marching through the door and into the principal’s office. It was a nice room, boring and a bit too grey for Leo’s taste, but nice nonetheless. He walked over to the large desk across the room behind which sat a large chair. Oh, the principal was there too.

“Ah, Mr. Valdez. Sit.” Leo looked around and saw a wooden chair next to him. He pulled it up and sat. “So, what do you want to talk to me about dear?”

“I’d, um, like to switch majors. I don’t think that I’m quite cut out for culinary arts.” The woman nodded. Leo realized that he didn’t know her name. He hadn’t paid attention long enough to catch it in the assembly. He looked at her desk and saw a small plaque that read Principal Hawthorne in gold cursive writing. He had to squint to read it. Dyslexia was a great excuse but got in the way a lot.

“Do you have a major in mind?” Principal Hawthorne reached behind her desk and took out a stack of papers that Leo assumed had something to do with him. Either that or she was bored of him and had decided that grading papers would be more exciting than this conversation.

“I was thinking Design and Applied Arts? I like building things and I think that I would be good doing things with the stage crew.” He watched her nod and write something down.

“Well Mr. Valdez, I think that you would excel wonderfully in stage crew and we can always use another pair of hands building sets. I’m afraid, however, that we do need a parent or guardian's aproval.” Leo tensed. He had momentarily forgotten that most kids were normal and actually had normal parents and guardians that weren’t half horse. He momentarily wondered if she would call his father. He doubted that would go well. Leo tried to remember what Annabeth had said about that when she filled out their school form-thingies online. He silently cursed himself for not asking her.

“Uh…” Principal Hawthorne looked like she was waiting for him to say something.

“It’s fine, dear. I’ll just give your mother a call and ask her if she can come up this weekend.” Leo’s eyes widened. Who had Annabeth put down as his mother? He was so confused, but he could tell that he’d just been dismissed. He wandered out into the hallway.

“Well that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Leo jumped. He had forgotten that Rachel was there. He smiled wide.

“Honestly, Rach, I have no idea what you were so worried about.” She shoved him with her shoulder and smiled back. “So, any plans for the rest of the weekend?” He assumed that she did, she had so many friends here he was surprised that she even came to support him that morning.

“Nope. Whacha wanna do?” Leo hadn’t gotten that far. He had kind of been planning on going back to his room and working on the automon porcupine he had been trying to get to work. It kept blowing up. Or maybe he would work on the phone that he was building for demigods. Rachel raised an eyebrow. “No.” 

“I-what?”

“I can see it in your eyes. You are not allowed to slink back into your room. We are going to go celebrate this.” Leo looked at her.

“Celebrate...?”

“You switch majors, of course! There is this amazing cupcake place in town and it is the perfect place to go to celebrate something. Or just the perfect place in general.” Leo raised an eyebrow at her.

“Well as long as there are cupcakes.”

…

Rachel was right. CrazyCakes had the best cupcakes that Leo had ever tasted. They were also giant. Like, larger than his hand giant. He decided that he had to spend more time with Rachel. Mostly because of the cupcakes, but also because as the unofficial leader of M.O.W.C. she took great interest in his inventions. 

“What’s up with that alarm clock you were working on?” She asked around a mouthful of cake.

“It was supposed to be a portable monster alarm. For, like, when demigods need to sleep. Getting captured while you're asleep isn’t as fun as one might think.”

“It didn’t work?”

“Oh, it did. It also alerted the police.” Getting out of that situation had taken some fast talking, all of Leo’s effort to keep from stabbing the police officer with a screwdriver and a rubber chicken. “I left it to Nysa. Thought it might be a bit difficult to work on something so loud here. I swear that Zeus could hear it, it was so loud.” It was a miracle that the thing hadn’t been blasted with lightning yet.

“How’s the work on the phone going, by the way?” Leo groaned. He loved a challenge, but sometimes he wished that people would stop challenging him. 

“Difficult. It’s more of an Athena problem, changing the coding and stuff, but I can do it. I’m not getting very far but I am making progress. Though at this point I’m thinking that it would be easier to just make a celestial bronze phone case. I’ll have to test that out.”

“You could use Percy and Jason.” Rachel suggested. “Set them loose in the world. Give one of them the phone you’re coding and the other a normal phone with a celestial bronze case and compare results.” Leo nodded.

“Mhhhmphhmmm?” He held up a finger before Rachel could ask. “Sorry. You know what I never got?”

“What?”

“Why can’t we use phones inside the boundary? Like, I know that it alerts monsters to our presence, but don’t they already know where we are? Or do they forget where camp is? ‘Cause I was under the impression that the border was there to protect us from monsters.” Rachel cocked her head.

“I don’t know. Maybe it would be like inviting them in?”

“Yeah but Chiron has a camp phone and computer, right?”

“He never lets anyone use it though.” Rachel pointed out. Leo waved her off.

“Do you think that the Hecate kids have a ' hide [insert object’s name here] from monsters' spell?”

“They have so many spells, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.” Leo would have to ask them over the break when he went back to camp. He wondered how many of his friends would join him over the break. Percy and Annabeth were both going to visit their parents, Hazel would be heading back to New Rome and Camp Jupiter and Piper and Jason would be staying with her father. Leo realized that out of the seven of them, only three still had their mortal parents. He sighed as he came to the conclusion that he would be the only person in his friend group going back to camp for the holidays. Leo didn’t even know why a boarding school would have holiday breaks. He wondered if the school would let him stay. Not because he didn’t want to go back to Camp Halfblood, he did, he just didn’t want to be there without his friends. Probably not.

…

“Leo? Your mom said that she’s coming tomorrow so that she can sign the transfer papers in person.” Leo was on his way back to his room after dinner when Principal Hawthorne stopped him. He had completely forgotten about the entire parent dilemma. Who had Principal Hawthorne talked to? Leo was one hundred and three percent positive that she hadn’t talked to his mother. He bit the inside of his cheek and smiled for Principal Hawthorne. As soon as she let him go, he ran straight to his room. Even as he freaked out about his family tree situation, Leo still took the time to admire his handy work. The walls hadn’t been too hard to put up but given all the thought he had put into designing the perfect walls Leo thought that he deserved an award. Maybe he would make one. And finally, our most famous and difficult to get award, the Super-sized McShizzle Life Size Statue award goes to the Bad Boy Supreme himself, Leo Valdez! Leo grinned and waved to his audience. Thank you, thank you. This is such an honor, though I can’t say I’m surprised. To be fair, Leo had managed to make sound proof, fireproof walls that could stand a centaur stampede and didn’t take up too much space. He still needed room to work. After more attempts that Leo would like to admit, he had finally gotten the walls down to six inches. He wondered again who Principal Hawthorne had talked to.

Leo found out the next afternoon. He was sitting outside and creating a small model version of the Hephaestus Cabin chariot with a few improvements that he hoped to add, out of sticks to keep himself from thinking about whoever Principal Hawthorne thought was his mother. It wasn’t working. Leo would never admit it, but he was nervous. None of the families that had ever fostered him were still in contact with him, not that he ever wanted to see any of them again. He couldn’t think of any family of his mother’s that would want him and he didn’t want them either. Leo tried to imagine his father walking into the Principal’s office. Nope. No no no no. He shook his head. Principal Hawthorne had said mother. Not guardian, not aunt or uncle or foster parent or father. Mother. 

“Hey, you Leo Val-dez?” Leo turned to see a kid about his age standing behind him. The way he said Leo’s last name made him think the boy was reading it off somewhere, maybe his arm.

“What’s it to you?” Wait, no. That sounded too harsh. “I’m afraid that my entire weekend is filled, but I might be able to make time for a date with you next weekend.” The boy flushed bright red and immediately dropped his gaze to the ground.

“N-no. I-I-Principal Hawthorne sent me to get you." He stuttered out. "S-she said that your mom is here.” Leo pouted.

“Shame. I am a very good kisser if I do say so myself.” He stood and started towards Principal Hawthorne’s office before turning back as an afterthought to the boy, who was staring at him, still red in the face. “My offer still stands.” He winked before turning back around to whatever doom the Fates had cooked up for him.

As it turned out, the Fates were being uncharacteristically nice to him. He entered the Principal’s office to see a middle aged woman sitting across from Principal Hawthorne and smiling at him. It occurred to Leo that this was the second time in his entire life that he was entering the principal’s office without being in trouble. Oh gods. He was turning into a teacher's pet. The woman who Leo assumed was the person Principal Hawthorne thought was his mother stood and crossed the room to reach him. Her features seemed familiar, but Leo couldn’t place them.

“Leo!” She pulled him into a warm embrace that almost made Leo wish that she was his mother. He hoped that she didn’t end up being a monster. She, like most people, was taller than him, but not by much so she had no trouble whispering into his ear.

“Leo, I’m sorry that we haven’t yet met. I’ve heard a lot about you from my son. I am Sally Jackson and as much as I would love to tell you to call me Sally, I am afraid that right now you have to go with mom. Is that okay?” Leo nodded. It had been awhile since someone had hugged him, just him, with all their love. It made him miss his mother, but it also made him like Sally immediately. She was also just a really likable person. She pulled back and he reluctantly followed suit. Now that he knew who she was, he could see all the similarities between her and Percy.

Leo didn’t really pay attention to the conversation that Sally had with Principal Hawthorne. Partly because of his A.D.H.D. but mostly because he was imagining Sally as his actual mother. Maybe she wasn’t, but it didn’t really matter because he already felt like she was and he had a feeling that she didn’t mind.

Chapter Text

Chapter 22: Hamlet Re-Imagined

Percy POV

Percy could hardly wait for the end of the day. It was Monday of his third week at Lisseray and the adaptation that they would be performing was going to be announced during everyone’s major block. Which was at the end of the day. It was just really bad planning in Percy’s opinion.

“Percy! Stop!” He knew that Piper was just as nervous as he was but she managed to keep her movements silent or at least quiet. Percy couldn’t help his tapping foot. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t like he could click a pen like most of the other kids in his class. His pen didn’t even click. To be fair, Riptide was way too cool to click but on the other hand it was a pen with a cap so it was physically impossible to click it. Still, he stopped. It must have been Piper’s charmspeak. Percy wondered if she even knew that she had used it. He doubted it. 

Percy looked back up to the front of the classroom where the teacher was...Percy didn’t know. He thought that he was in math class but he wasn’t sure. He wondered how anyone was paying attention to class. How did the teachers expect them to be able to focus in class when everyone was so on edge about the play. Percy realized that this was the first year he was ever excited about the school play. Probably because it had always taken so long. That was the thing about Lisseray, it was just the right speed. It was like...normal school on fast forward, or as Percy called it ADH-Speed. 

He thought about all his other schools, the ones he’d been kicked out of. He hadn’t been to the Principal’s office once so far, two weeks and he didn’t even know the Principal’s name, a new record for him. The shortest time he had ever been at a school without being sent to the Principal was twenty minutes, but that was because his first class was chemistry and he had managed to break half of all the school’s beakers. Technically the first fifteen minutes were before school even started, but lasting twenty minutes sounded more heroic than five. He glanced at the clock. Three minutes ‘till lunch. Noooo. Three minutes was like, forever. Percy sighed. He thought about his weekend. He still hadn’t seen Annabeth, but it had overall been a good weekend because he’d gotten to see his mother and show her around the school. He knew that it made him sound like a kindergartener (so excited to show their parents their desk and this is where I have nap time mommy!), but he didn’t really care. It wasn’t like anyone at Lisseray even spent their weekends inside. Everyone was spending as much time as they could in the fleeting sunshine and warmth that would soon turn brisk as fall descended to warn them all of winter. Percy was not a winter person. He was more of a summer-sun-tanning-beach person. Winter was just flat out insulting. Cold and covered in water that he couldn’t swim in? No thank you. Percy didn’t think that it was fair that he could swim in the freezing cold oceans in Alaska and be fine, no hypothermia in sight, but had to bundle up extra when snow came around (frostbite is real and dangerous, kids). Like, snow was water too, right? Well apparently it wasn’t water enough to be in his father’s domain.

Percy jumped up as he heard the bell ring and grabbed his and Piper’s bags before rushing out the door with the flood of classmates with the same idea. Minus Piper’s bag, of course.

“Percy!” She ran out after him and started fighting her way through the crowd towards him. “Give me back my bag!” Percy had to fight to keep from throwing the bag at her, though he wasn’t sure if it was because she was charmspeaking him or just because he was the type of person who followed the letter of the law. Well, most of the time he didn’t even follow the law at all, but when he found a loophole in an order someone gave him, well, exploiting it was the only way they would learn to be more specific. But he managed to avoid throwing Piper’s bag directly at her head (by sheer force of will) and waited for her to catch up to him before handing her the pink Hello Kitty bag he’d stolen. At this point, Percy wasn’t sure if Piper even knew why she had all the Hello Kitty merch ever sold in the entire universe. Or how it had started, for that matter. In any case, it had become an inside joke among the seven that you couldn’t have a Piper without something Hello Kitty. Percy was already putting together his Halloween costume by stealing a few of the things she had two of from her stash. He’d enlisted Annabeth into the steal-things-so-Percy-can-dress-up-as-Piper-for-Halloween club. So far it only consisted of them and Jason but he wanted to get Nico involved as well. He knew that Nico wouldn’t do it unless Percy either bribed him or blackmailed him. He wondered if Jason had any dirt on Nico that they could use. Unfortunately, it was unlikely that he did and even if there was something that Jason knew, Nico could probably blackmail them right back. Percy had gotten to the point where there were only four people he was afraid of: Nico, Hazel, Annabeth and Persephone. Nico had the frightening skill of staying awake for longer than should be humanly possible (without dying, according to Will) that could probably be credited to his stubbornness as well as the uncanny ability to find dirt on anyone . Percy had seen Hazel angry but he knew that what he’d seen wasn’t even close to the full extent of her rage and he would rather go through Tartarus again than face it. Annabeth. And Persephone was already scary enough without meeting her. Like, who wanders down to the underworld and goes ‘oh, this is nice. I think that I’ll stay.’? And that didn't even touch the fact that her name meant Bringer Of Destruction in Greek. And honestly, who wouldn’t be afraid of her? He was also afraid of his mom, but anyone who wasn’t had an entirely ‘nother thing coming for them. And it was more respect than fear.

Percy and Piper grabbed their lunches and started out towards their usual spot outside.

“What do you think they ended up picking?” Piper shrugged nonchalantly like she didn’t care what they picked, but her voice betrayed her excitement.

“Maybe it’s going to be sit-com style.” Percy tried to imagine what a sit-com style Hamlet would be like. Granted, it was difficult because he didn’t know all that much about the original play and he knew even less about sit-coms, mostly due to the fact that he’d never watched one.

“What about a circus?” Piper rolled her eyes.

“It’s a tragedy, Percy, not a comedy. Besides, no one even goes to circuses anymore.”

“Well it’s not like there are any to go to.” Percy knew that he’d been to a circus at one point or another in his life, but he couldn’t remember when. He did, however, distinctly remember a man in a bowler hat and only one eye watching him and his mother. “Well what about a mystery? Like, the detective is trying to solve the murder and we see the story from a bunch of different perspectives.” Piper looked at him like he’d just figured out the answer to life. Which, if anyone had asked, Annabeth said was 42 and he said was his mom’s blue cookies. Grover agreed with him, so Percy considered it a win. Point to Percy.

“That may be the most intelligent idea that I have ever heard come out of your mouth.” Percy wrinkled his nose and pouted like he was offended by her statement.

“Percy said something intelligent?” Jason had come up just in time to hear the tail end of their conversation and sat next to Piper. “That should be in a book of records. Did someone record it?” Piper snorted while Percy just continued to pout.

“No, I wish I had though.” Percy huffed and turned to Jason like he was ignoring Piper.

“We were just talking about what we think the play will end up being.” Jason smirked.

“Maybe it will be about aliens and I’ll get to put you two in the most ridiculous costumes.”

“Gods I hope not.”

…

Making it through the rest of the day was torture, but somehow Percy managed. He and Piper stood in a group of kids their age who were also majoring in theater.

“Hello students of Lisseray School of the arts!” Rachel’s voice over the speakers brought up a cheer from the crowd around Percy. “Welcome to the official announcing of this year’s moderniz-edly written Shakespeare extravaganza!” Another cheer erupted. Percy was afraid that they would miss the announcement, but Rachel must have done this before because almost as soon as the cheering died down she began to speak again. “This year will be a bit different, fellow Lisseray-ians. This year the directors have decided to turn two different ideas into one play. So, without further ado, get ready for the most entertaining news cast you will ever see, tonight at eight the Sarcast will follow Hamlet prince of Denmark in his last game of the season!”

Beside Percy, Piper cheered with the rest of the crowd so hard that he almost mistook her for a fangirl. She looked like she was going to faint out of excitement.

“Go Sarcast! Go Nico!” Percy blinked. Nico?