Work Text:
Nico di Angelo was no stranger to fuzzy memories.
He always had too many, which made him lose track of them.
He would often confuse people from his past with people whom he’s never met.
This is one such memory of his.
It starts with darkness. Cold, painful darkness. His nose feels too heavy and stiff to breathe. Nico feels much smaller than usual. It makes him uncomfortable. But then a warm hand rests on his cheek. His eyes blearily open, and he is laying on a person’s lap.
The room they are in is slightly damp, with ferns growing out of the gaps in the floorboards. Everything is grey and bleak, as well as the sky, which Nico sees from a round window. The person is gently humming a tune, which sounds like a lullaby.
The lullaby seems to try to soothe his piercing headache, by aiding the damp cloth on his forehead. There is another person in the room as well. An older boy with short brown hair and strong eyebrows is sitting across from Nico and his caretaker. The boy has his eyes narrowed and hardened, but even Nico could see the longing they hold.
Nico wonders whether it was for his caretaker.
He then looks up to get a good look at his caretaker’s face.
This is when his mind goes blank.
He swears he knows what they look like and who they are. He swears he does.
But now, in this broken memory, he can’t seem to see a thing. It pains him.
The control he had over his mind and this memory slips through his fingers like water.
He feels rage fuel through his veins. He always expects to remember everything he had seen. He feels like that is his duty.
Eventually, some small things come back to him. He remembers the gentle lullaby. He remembers their hand carding through his hair. And now, a few details suddenly pierce through the haze of blankness.
A small scar on their lip.
A khaki shirt, with a black neckerchief.
A red armband.
A Star of David around their neck, glinting in the diffused sunlight.
And eyes which would haunt Nico for the rest of his life.
The eyes were surrounded by red eyelashes, long and luscious. They had a gentleness to them which Nico had only ever felt with people like Bianca. They were big and round, which meant that Nico could plainly see the fear in them.
They reminded him of nature, of hillocks and flower fields, of fairies and bluebells, of mythical goddesses and angels with hearts of gold.
And they were blue.
Periwinkle blue.
~end