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1
"Bianca"
"Yes, tesoro?"
"Could you cut my hair?"
The child held out a long, thick braid.
The older girl smiled and took the scissors.
"Of course."
■□□□□□
Bianca ruffled her little sib's now short hair, as a sign of affection.
"All done! Do you like it?", she asked, showing it in the mirror.
The child nodded exitantly, turning around to look at the shorter hair on the sides.
"Also... could you call me Nico?"
"Of course! Everything for my little brother."
■□□□□□
After their mother's death, the Fury Alecto had been tasked with deleting their memories of the fact.
She went to the underworld, but there, her sisters, Megaera (the Grudging) and Tisiphone (the Avenger), had convinced her not to do it.
The kids deserved the right to get revenge on those who destroyed their family, they said.
They had the right to hold that grudge and be angry about this.
Alecto decided to let them keep their memories.
Nico has known what killed his mother for all his life.
The Furies couldn't know, when they left him his memory, that his fatal flaw would have been holding grudges.
That his anger would have nearly killed him many times.
That his revenge could have destroyed him and the world alike.
He was five when she died, and at the beginning didn't understand.
He was five when he and Bianca were left at Lotus Hotel.
He was ten when they were sent to Westover Hall.
He was twelve when the manticore attacked.
For more than half his life, his main caretaker had been his sister.
If she was ok with him being himself, he had no problems in his life.
Everything was going to be ok.
2
When he arrived at camp the first time, after the "wine dude" comment that Mr D had obviously not appreciated, a tall, buff girl with an angry face ("Camille", apparently) was tasked to show him around.
She was a daughter of Ares - who did not have 5000 in attack powers, apparently - , and she was far less annoyed by his questions that he had imagined she would be when he first saw her.
She showed him the big house, cabin 11, where he was going to sleep, and the infirmary for the routinely check up they did to every demigod who turned up after a fight.
"'Sup, nerds?" She exclaimed, entering without bothering to knock.
"Always nice to see you, Clarisse," came a voice from behind a half opened door, "what brings you there? Someone managed to hit you in a fight? That would be a first!"
"As if she would came here for a mere hit! There must be blood at least!" Objected another voice, that seemed to come from under one of the beds.
"As if any of you losers ever had a chance to come close to hitting me in sparring," the girl (Camille? Clarisse?) snorted.
"I brought you a newbie, he survived a manticore. You have to check him up, Chiron says."
A tall, blond boy, who could've been not older than 17, came out of the door.
"Hi," he said to Nico, "a manticore? Well, let's get sure you don't have any venom in you and all that stuff."
Then, as an afterthought, turning to the girl: "Did you show him around?"
"Of course! What do you take me for, Fletcher? An incompetent?" She bites back, with no real venom in her words.
"My apologies," he responded with a smile.
"Then I'll take it upon me to make sure he arrives safely to his cabin when he's done. Claimed?"
The girl shook her head, her expression cupe, and she left without saying goodbye.
The blond doctor turned to Nico.
"Well, welcome to Camp Half Blood! I'm Lee Fletcher and I'm the head of both cabin 7 and infirmary. That idiot over there, he's my brother Michael. Yew, get up and introduce yourself, be polite!"
A dark haired, maybe 15 years old, boy got up from under the bed, a screwer in one hand and a level in the other.
"Michael Yew, son of Apollo, a pleasure to meet you. Don't ask me anything about medicine, I'm only here to fix this bed because we owe Hephestus' cabin too many favours already. All I can do is give you the plague if I hit you with an arrow."
Nico thought he maybe should introduce himself.
"Nico di Angelo. I... I like pirates... and Mythomagic, I guess"
"Unclaimed," whispered Lee to his brother.
Michael nodded in understanding, and they were silent for a couple of seconds.
"So... you're good with arrows?," asked Nico.
"Can you help me with a thing?"
"I'm a bad teacher, if that's the question," said Michael raising his hands.
"Do you know the Hunters?"
"Of course. Aunt Artemis' ancillae. They arrive, destroy us at capture the flag, take a couple of girls who want to join them, and leave to sadly come back in a year if we're lucky. And demigods, you'll discover, are never lucky."
"My sister joined them. Do you think I could as well?"
"Aren't you a boy?"
"I was born a girl. Do you think Artemis would take me?"
Michael looked confused for a second, then realisation hit him.
Before he could say anything, Lee intervened.
"Nico, do you know the story of Siproites?"
"No. Is he a demigod?"
"No, he was a mortal.
A hunter that one day saw Artemis naked as she was bathing in a lake, in the woods.
Usually, men that see the goddess naked don't live to tell the story. She turns them in stones, stags, jakalopes.
Siproites, knowing this and feeling guilty for having seen Artemis without her permission, throw himself at her knees begging for forgiveness and grace.
She didn't kill him: she turned him into a girl, and Siproites joined the Hunters."
"So Artemis accepts boys who look like girls?"
"I think Siproites was a girl all along. She didn't turn her into a boy in a girl's body; she gave her a body that fitted best the girl she was."
Nico thought about it for a couple of seconds.
"Do you think she'd give me a boy's body, if I ask nicely? She took my sister, it's only fair."
Lee smiled softly.
"Your sister made her choice, that's not Lady Artemis' fault.
Don't worry, you'll keep seeing her often. As that idiot said," he lifted his chin to point at Michael, "the Hunters swing by to destroy us at capture the flag once every four, maybe six months."
Nico didn't look too convinced.
"About a boy's body... how old are you? Ten?"
"Twelve!"
"Oh, sorry," Lee chucked.
"Like our Will," Michael added.
"We'll have to introduce them, Will could use friends his age."
"Right. We could swing by our cabin later, on our way to Hermes."
Nico was pretty confused and tired, but one thing he had heard had piqued his interest.
"You said something about a boy's body?"
"We have binders. Not much else. You could try talking to Chiron about puberty suppressant and hormones, but they tend to have complications in us demigods..."
"What's a binder? What does that mean?"
Nico was increasingly confused.
"A binder is... wait, let me show you. I think we have one that could fit you."
□■□□□□
At dinner, Nico ran to Bianca, who was sitting near the other Hunters at cabin 8's table.
"Bianca! You'll never guess what I've got!"
Lee and Michael shared a knowing look and a smile at their table, next to them.
3
Two days after getting Diocletian's scepter, at 4 in the morning, Jason is awake on the Argo II's deck for his ward.
Nico knows this because it was supposed to be Percy's turn.
They reassigned those recently, not wanting to do the whole time tables again, preferring to keep it as if Percy and Annabeth were going to come back in a jiffy.
It also helped with hope.
In the oscurity of night, moving nearly soundlessy, Nico isn't surprised when Jason jumps in surprise upon noticing him.
"You should really stop this. One day you're going to kill me," commentes Jason, as nonchalantly as someone whose soul just did a backflip could manage.
"How can you be sure that isn't the goal?"
Nico is sarcastic, but his tone doesn't help understanding it.
Luckily, Jason is getting used to speaking with him.
"You would have found a more efficient way, for one."
Nico lets a small smile appear on his face, and nodds sightly.
There are a couple of minutes of companionable silence.
Then Jason asks: "Did you wanted to tell me anything, or were you just trying to see if I was actually going to die?"
Nico doesn't answer at first, and Jason does not pressure him.
"I'd like... if you are amenable to... could I came out to you again?"
"Why?" Jason asks, not ostile but genuinely curious.
"Cupid... he forced me."
Nico chooses his words, thinking carefully about each one.
"That... It wasn't me coming out.
It was him forcefully outing me.
I had no control over it.
Over when, where or to whom come out.
I'd like to have that back.
To be able to choose to come out now, on this ship, to one of my friends."
Jason nodds his understanding, serious.
Nico takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.
"Jason. I would like to tell you something, because you're my friend and I'd like you to know it. I'm gay."
He opens one eye.
"How was it?"
Jason smiles.
"I should be the one asking you that, actually.
How was it? How do you feel?"
Nico thinks about it.
"Better.
Like I took a little bit of the power Cupid appropriated from me back.
Like it does no longer matter that much I was outed to you, since now you know because I choose to tell you.
It still hurts, but a little bit less."
Jason smiles.
"Thank you for telling me."
4
The minute Reyna speech is finished and everyone's going to the dining pavilion for the after-deadly-battle party (something that's becoming more common than anyone wish it was, honestly), Nico is joined by Clarisse.
"Do I need to kill her, loser?"
"Sorry?"
"Purple-cape, there. The Romans' boss. The one that hugged you."
"No, thank you.
She's a friend, she's allowed to touch me."
Clarisse nodds sharply.
They go toward the pavilion, where the Ares and Dionysus cabins are already challenging the Romans at drinking games and Chiron looks like he's regretting his past three thousand years of living.
□□□■□□
Their friendship is peculiar.
Nico's short, not that physically strong, quiet and introverted.
Clarisse's tall and buff, loud and always ready to make a mess.
They met in Nico's first day at camp, but they started talking when he was wandering around in the armery and saw her polishing a sword.
Upon discovering nobody had given him more than standard training swords, she took it upon herself to assign him his own weapon.
It took five days.
Nothing seemed appropriate, nothing fit as well as she wanted.
The fifth day, he entered the armery pretty discouraged.
She was already there, smiling like a kid at Christmas.
"I found it."
The Stigian blade is perfect, as if it was made for him.
"Maybe it is," she had commented, "maybe the Fates made it so it could end up in your hands one day."
After that, they were friends.
He helped her, and she protected him.
□□□■□□
"Beside that, are you ok? Are you fine?"
"I'm good, thanks. What about you? How is it going with Silena and Chris?"
"It's great."
She smiles softly.
"Chris started also dating Charles, did I tell you?"
"I didn't know! So now you're a proper, symmetrical square."
"Yeah, I guess we are.
Are we seriously gonna talk about relationships?
I can't even reciprocate, I don't know if you like someone," protests Clarisse.
Nico doesn't answer, but he turns sightly red.
"You do like someone?
Who is that?
Do I have to kill them?"
Nico feels strangely thankfull she hasn't assumed it is a "she" he fancies.
It's peculiar he hasn't come out to her yet.
She's one of his best friends at camp, she always defends him from bullies, and she's queer as well.
"I'm gay," he says, and it feels so light to being able to say it without thinking for hours about the implications of a specific person knowing and how said person would react.
"Cool, great for you, thanks for telling me.
Do I have to kill him?"
"As if you could. You never managed to beat him."
"Who..." Clarisse's face scrunches up in confusion, then she turns toward Nico so fast she nearly falls over the bench they are sitting on.
"Solace? The guy's a cheater! Every time I try to spar with him I get hay fever!"
Nico starts to laugh, his first genuine laugh since way before the jar.
Clarisse looks proud for a second, then turns to look at the party.
"Solace... Solace... oh, there he is, he's trying to help those idiots recovering from the drinking challenge."
"Half of your sibilings partecipated."
"Yeah, those idiots, that's what I said.
We gotta set you two up...
Have you been in infirmary, lately?"
"Not since I went to... I went missing"
She shoots him a look that says: "we're gonna talk about your newly acquired quest trauma later," then her mind seems to take a whole different turn and Nico swears he could see the gears turning inside her head.
"After such a big battle and such devastating events, he'll want to make sure you're ok, if only because he mother henns all his friends.
I hope he's planning on locking you in infirmary for at least a day. We could use more, but one will suffice.
I have to talk with him. See you later loser!"
She gets up and sprints toward the pavilion.
Nico doesn't even bother running after her.
Honestly, when her brain starts making "war plans" with that intensity, he's always almost scared.
5
"I'm booooooored"
Kayla throws herself on her bunk in a scenographic manner.
"Let's do something"
"I was just about to go and see if Yan needs any help in the infirmary," says Will.
"No way," objects Nico, "you just came back from a twelve hour shift.
Yan's more then capable to hold the infirmary themselves. If things go bad they'll just quote Shakespeare to the patients until Apollo gets tired of hearing it and heals them himself.
Come back here and cuddle."
Will pouts sightly, but turns back and sits next to his boyfriend.
Nico puts his head on the other's shoulder.
They've only been together for a couple of weeks, and neither is too keen on PDA, but they're in the Apollo cabin, alone with Kayla and Austin, who are his friends, so Nico doesn't feel excessively self concious.
"Fuck, marry, kill?" Proposes Kayla.
Austin raises his hand slowly.
"Hug, qpr, kill for you is ok?" Says Will.
"Yes, great, thanks"
"What doest that mean?" Asks Nico, confused.
"I'm not the greatest fan of thinking about fucking or marrying people, I'm romance and sex adverse, so we use "hug" and "qpr" (queerplatonic relationship, a kind of relationship that blurrs the lines between platonic, romantic, and something else entirely), two things I'm more comfortable with," explains Austin succinctly.
"I know what a qpr is, Annabeth infodumped to me about her and Percy's relationship more times that I could count. But it's not like people actually immagine to fuck or marry the subjects mentioned in the game," objects Nico.
Kayla looks confused, Austin cracks a knowing smile, and Will's arms squeeze Nico lightly.
"Because they don't, right?"
Adds Nico after a couple of seconds of silence.
Nobody answers him.
Nico gets up and motions toward the door.
"You... you'll find me in... in my cabin."
He hears Will calling after him, but gives it no thoughts.
He rapidly crosses the camp and locks the door when he arrives to the Hades cabin.
He doesn't go to the dining hall when the horn sounds, and doesn't answer to Will's knocking later that evening.
That night, he introduces himself into the Big House, eluding the Harpies patrolling, to look at Chiron's computer and do some researches.
□□□□■□
"Let's play fuck, marry kill!" decides Kayla, "Austin!
Hug, qpr, kill, Pocoyo, Pato, and Elly from Pocoyo"
They're in the Apollo cabin again, and it's the first time someone has mentioned that game since Nico stormed out to them nearly a month ago.
He can feel Will's disapproving glare to his sister from his position, with his chin over his boyfriend's shoulder and his arms around Will's stomach.
It took him three days to convince Nico to come out of his cabin and eat, last time.
Austin gasps drammatically, "how dare you turn my iperfixation against me!"
Kayla nearly falls over in a fit of giggles.
"Answer!"
"I'd qpr Elly, absolutely, so then hug Pocoyo and Kill Pato.
I don't want to kill Pato!
But I absolutely want a qpr with Elly, and I can't kill Pocoyo."
"You'd kill Pato?!" Nico's so shocked he almost forgets the implications of the discoveries the game brought him last time.
"I can't do anything else! Are you suggesting I kill Elly?!"
Austin looks offended on her behalf.
"I'm going to ask you one, so you'll get how hard it is."
Nico cuddles a little closer to Will and nodds.
"Fuck, marry, kill... Kayla, help me, I need a good one."
He turns toward his sister, who's biting one of her nails in concentration.
"Ooh, I have a great one! Fuck, marry, kill, Ares, Zeus, and Apollo, in Mythomagic!"
Austin looks really proud of humself, Will makes a disgusted face, Kayla claps with enthusiasm and Nico freezes.
Many things go through his mind at once.
□□□□■□
That time when he was little, in Italy, when he said to another kid he thought Ares was handsome and the kid stopped wanting to play with him.
Annabeth explaining to him that she doesn't feel romantic attraction unless a strong bond is formed, and him thinking that must be the reason he never got a girlfriend, he simply never had female friends and he never managed to develop any romantic feelings.
Sex jokes at Westover Hall, those that he never understood but kept overhearing. Thay made him feel disgusted, and not in a religiously-is-wrong way.
"I'm not the greatest fan of thinking about fucking or marrying people," had said Austin that one time.
People did think about fucking other people, he had discovered in his researches.
Like, for real.
He had searched for the meaning of "romance and sex adversed", and he had found a lot.
He had spent three days thinking about his life, his relationship, in the light of what he had found out.
□□□□■□
"Could... could you perhaps... use... like they do for you, use..." he stutters.
Will half-turns around to see him better, and Kayla inclines her head and arches her brows in confusion, but Austin seems to get it.
"Oh, of course! Hug, qpr, kill, Ares, Zeus, and Apollo, in Mithomagic."
Will looks like he wants to ask questions, but Kayla fulminates him with a glance that says, "later, when we're not here".
Nico smiles at her gratefully.
Will is a great doctor, and he has undoubtedly inherited Apollo's desire for unlimited knowledge, but Kayla is an archer.
When she shoots an arrow, she may not consider anything else, but you can be sure she'd do anything for that arrow to get exactly where she wants it.
And now, she wants Nico comfortable with them and with his boyfriend.
She wants to repair to what she considers a past mistake, that made Nico more uneasy in their presence.
Nico understands, and he's thankfull to her.
"Kill Zeus," he answers.
"I don't want to have Ares as a qpp, so I'll hug him, I guess, and qpr Apollo.
Well, that could've been worse.
Kayla, fuck, marry, kill, Clarisse from Ares, Katie from Demeter, and Travis from Hermes."
Will relaxes at his boyfriend's calm response, happy that the other's not uncomfortable.
Kayla, on the other hand, looks like she wants to summon a grand piano and drop it on his head.
"I need to kill Travis, to get revenge for last week's capture the flag game, but Clarisse and Katie are both hot."
□□□□■□
When the horn calling them to the dining pavilion is played, Kayla and Austin instantly get up and move toward the door.
"Go ahead, we'll join you later," says Will, and in a second he and Nico are alone.
Neither of them has moved from the bed they were sitting on during the game.
Will moves so he and Nico are facing each other, and waits.
Nico plays with Will's sweater's cuffs and doesn't meet his boyfriend's eyes.
"Did my sibilings make you uncomfortable? I probably shoud have stopped them, sorry."
Mutters Will, also lowering his head.
"No, don't worry. I think Kayla knew what she was doing, she did good.
I actually wanted to talk to you about a thing."
Nico places exitantly his hands upon his boyfriend's.
Will's eyes are searching for his, but he's not kinda ready yet, so he keeps starring at their now intertwined hands.
Will doesn't force him.
"I... I did some researches, after... after last time," he begins exitantly.
Will nodds and keeps holding his hands, applying a soathing pressure.
'Doctor's tricks,' thinks Nico, gratefull.
"I think I am asexual. Sex repulsed, like Austin."
□□□□■□
It makes him feel so light, having said it.
He had never understood the saying "to feel a weight lift up from one's chest" until Jason had said he accepted and supported him after Cupid, and this is pretty much the same feeling.
Except that this time there was no evil love god, no being outed, no fighting, no terror.
It's a thousands times better.
He knows Will and his sibilings will support him, he has no doubts.
He wasn't certain about it until he said it, but now he's sure.
It's such a freeing feeling, Nico thinks his soul will start floating.
□□□□■□
"Oh... ok. Thank you for trusting me with this.
Do you want to tell me about it? Like, what does it mean for you?"
Nico thinks he's in love.
"I never really got why people talked about sex, you know?
Like, in my old school, the other boys had lists of attractive girls and stuff.
I thought I didn't understand because I liked boys, or because I'm trans, and I only talked to Bianca.
I think she was ace as well.
She was older than me, and she once got a sex ed class. I remember she threw up and she didn't want to tell me what they had explained her.
Maybe that's why she joined the Hunters.
And I've always played fuck, marry, kill as if the first two questions were "who's more aesthetically attractive" and "who do you want as a best friend for the rest of your life".
I felt sick when I realised people just assumed I actually wanted to fuck somebody.
About that, does it bother you? That I'll never have sex with you?"
Doubt starts to creep up from Nico's feet toward his neck.
Will shakes his head so fast he looks like a dog drying himself.
"Never.
I like you for you, not for the sex we could hypothetically have.
Are you ok with kissing and hugging and cuddling, like we do now, or did you change your mind?"
Nico thinks about it.
"I'm 100% ok with hugging and cuddling.
I think kisses are good as long as they don't involve tongue.
I know we did kiss like that sometimes, but I realised it has sexual implications, and for now I'm quite uncomfortable with that.
I could change my mind later on, maybe I will become more comfortable with the idea..."
"You can change your mind as many times as you want, you know it, right?
We go at your pace.
You can decide something that was off limits until yesterday today's ok, and the opposite too.
Whatever makes you the most comfortable, I'll respect your boundaries."
Nico nodds, not sure what he's supposed to say.
He knew Will was gonna be supportive, but this is so different from his childhood, from what he feared it would be his future.
"Thanks. You too.
Like, the same applies to you. If you ever feel... uncomfortable or... stuff."
Will smiles, and Nico swears one doesn't need the sun when Will Solace's smile exists.
"Thank you.
Now, I think we're supposed to go to the dining pavilion.
Kayla and Austin must be waiting for us, and technically there's a rule to avoid two demigods from being in the same room alone with a closed door."
"That's why they put that rule? Sex?
That's disgusting! How can you allos live like this?!"
"Honestly, you sound like Austin!
He'll be so happy to have someone to complain with about Kayla and me and us allos!
If you're ok with telling them, of course."
"Yes, I'd like them to know.
And I can't wait to complain with Austin about you."
"Ok, rude?!"
They were still bickering and laughing wheen they arrived to the dining pavilion.
+1
"Nico!"
Reyna jumps down her pegasus and runs toward him.
It's a warm, sunny day, and the Preator seems way happier than the last time Nico saw her.
She hugs him in the moment she reaches him.
"How are you? Are the Greeks treating you well?"
Nico is pretty overwhelmed.
He hasn't heard from her in nearly five months, between the construction of new cabins in both Camp Half Blood and New Rome, his father's requests, and her diplomatic missions as a Preator. Iris message are not the same thing as speaking in person.
He didn't even know she was gonna be there today.
"I'm great, what about you? How was the journey? Why are you here, are you on a quest?"
"No, I'm... wait, you don't know?"
She looks perplexed.
Nico shakes his head and raises a brow.
"Will invited me, I thought he told you.
I mentioned I finally have some free time after the mess the past months have been, and he suggested I spend it here, to catch up with you and the rest of the crew.
That was actually so nice of him, I'll have to thank him. Do you know where he is?"
Nico is still trying to figure out what just happened (it's not every day you get to spend time with your adopted-as sister that lives half country away), but he motions toward the cabins.
"Infirmary, obviously.
He refuses to take more than half a day off, even though Yan is becoming way better at handling things there.
They haven't given anybody the plague in nearly a month!"
□□□□□■
"So, why did Will actually asked you to come over?"
Nico is laying on the grass near Thalia's tree, and Reyna is petting Peleus next to him.
She smiles.
"How did you figured it out?"
No use in hiding it, he wouldn't even have mentioned it if he isn't sure, and although she is great at faking ignorance -it comes with her job-, she doesn't see the use of it in this moment.
"Will kept looking at you as to invite you to do something.
Boy couldn't keep a chickpea in his mouth.
Is that even a saying in English?
Non riuscirebbe a tenere un cecio in bocca."
Reyna laughs.
"Well, that is actually the reason I'm here."
She becomes serious.
"Look, I've got a theory.
I think I'm right, but I really don't want to assume, so I'll begin with facts.
Stop me if you get uncomfortable, ok?"
She waits for Nico to nodd before continuing.
"I'm aromantic asexual.
Venus once told me no demigod was going to heal my heart.
It took me years to understand it.
I thought she had cursed me.
Turns out she was just speaking facts.
I've never felt any desire to have romance or sex with anybody.
I always thought those concepts were exaggerations, something people only say as jokes.
Do you know how I found out?
I had a fever induced nightmare.
Somehow, that night, in my dream, I felt romantic attraction.
I was so disgusted by it that I woke up and had a panic attack.
I went to Venus' temple, in the middle of the night, to ask if it was a prophetic dream and pray her to spare me from that kind of feelings.
There, I found a priestess, a girl that was in my same cohort ages ago. We were friends. We had lost contacts when I had become a centurion and she had become a priestess.
She listened to me as I explained my dream and vented about my fear of experiencing that again.
She was the one suggesting me to go look up aspec identities at New Rome library.
By then, I couldn't even recall what romantic attraction felt like, but I'm so sure it was so different from everything I've ever experienced in my life that, when I found the word "aro", I was certain it was referring to me.
After that, it was easy to find "ace" as well.
I'm not properly out at camp, but I would tell pretty much everyone who ask.
I own a couple of pride flags, and they're displayed upon my bed.
Once, Will Iris messaged me, to talk about that project we're arranging with your infirmary and our healers, while I was in my room, and he saw them.
We talked a little about it, since his brother Austin, if I recall correctly, is aroace as well.
And so far we have only objective data.
Will did indeed ask me to come here, nearly two weeks ago, initially refusing to tell me the reason.
He said he thought you would have appreciate me being here.
I, of course, had to know more about it - what if you were in danger? those doctors and their privacy protocols -, so I asked him a couple of questions.
Let me tell you, your boyfriend is one of the worse liars I've ever seen.
He's so bad it's not even a compliment any more, he's not really honest, he's just really shitty at lying."
"Must be the Apollo thing."
"I genuinely doubt even Apollo himself is that bad.
He crumbled after the first question.
His answer had no logical sense, nor any connections between each other.
The only good thing I can say is that he firmly refused to break your trust and tell me the only thing I was trying to understand.
So yeah, your boyfriend's incredibly loyal, props to him. Shitty liar, but loyal to fault."
Nico snorted.
"So, I decided to come here even if I wasn't sure why he wanted me to," proceded Reyna.
"I have a theory, as I said before, but I don't want to impose. Stop me if you become uncomfortable.
Why would Will Solace, Apollo's child, camp healer, your boyfriend, need the presence of me, Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano, daughter of Bellona, Preator of the twelfth legion, your adopted sister, with whom he has never talked of anything but strategic medical technicalities, at Camp Half Blood, the place where you live, druing a moment of peace?
It obviously has something to do with you.
Now, why did he call me and not someone else?
Why not Hazel, your blood sister? You two are closer than we are.
So, the key is something I have, Hazel doesn't, and Will needs, related to you.
The main differences between me and Hazel, that Will knows or cares of, and are somehow related to you, are that I was with you when we transported the Athena Parthenos, and I'm aroace.
You haven't had Athena Parthenos induced nightmares in nearly three months, nothing flashback inducing has happened that I know of, and you have queer related trauma.
How close am I?"
Nico nodds, impressed.
"That was kinda scary.
Pretty accurate, I'd say.
I'm ace as well.
I think Will called you when I first discovered it.
I run away and left him and his sibilings hanging for a week.
He probably suspected something and thought you could help more than he could."
"That's so sweet!," noticed Reyna, "I'm sorry I arrived too late to actually help."
"But you helped!," objected Nico, "you helped a lot!
I had never heard the story of someone else's discovery of their own aceness. Austin is nice, but I wouldn't talk to him about this, we're not that close.
I think I'd like to have discussions about it.
Will is great, he's so supportive, but I don't think I've come to terms with it myself yet."
"Me neither, not completely at least.
But, hey, we can help each other out!"