Chapter Text
Nico hated his life. Correction, he really hated his life. The last thing he wanted was to be brought back to the very place it happened. There was a reason his father moved him to New York. Whilst still being born and raised in Italy, when he was around six he moved to Texas. It was going steady Nico, Bianca and Maria all thrived in Texas. Well…until the incident.
The incident happened when Nico was 10. At the ripe old age of 10, he learned that he could lose people pretty quickly. Maria and Bianca were arguing, over something pointless, and Nico was in the backseat of the car playing mythomagic. He didn’t really pay attention to the argument or what was happening on the road. The last thing he remembered was getting put on a stretcher with the words “2 females dead in the car, a male child injured; he needs immediate medical attention.”
After the incident, he was taken in by his father who quite frankly didn’t give a fuck about what Nico did as long as he stayed in New York. He stayed in loneliness for three years. Until, on his thirteenth birthday, he found out he had a stepsister. Hazel. He wasn’t happy about Hazel coming to ruin his peace at first, especially still grieving with the loss of his real sister…but that doesn’t matter anymore. Nico grew closer to Hazel as time went on and they soon became inseparable.
When Nico turned sixteen, his father decided he wanted to be “present” and apparently that meant moving across the country to go live in some deserted place (Texas). And on top of that Hades wasn’t even going to stay long!
“Nico. I’m leaving tomorrow.” Hades said as he was driving, looking at Nico in the rear view mirror.
“What? What do you mean?” Nico was shocked. Literally. Like his father moved him and Hazel across the country just to leave?
“I won’t be long. Don’t worry, I just need to sort out some finance things back in New york. I’ll be back by Friday.” His father stated.
Nico stayed silent. If this is what his father thought present meant then he got his definition all wrong. Nico looked beside him, Hazel was sleeping quietly with her head resting on the window. Hazel’s mother also died, which is why she came to stay with Nico and Hades. Hazel had just turned fifteen, her birthday in December making her a Freshman whilst Nico was a Sophomore At his last school it was…bad to put it nicely. Nico wasn’t exactly popular and he had the whole ‘emo’ thing going for him so obviously he was a prime target for bullying. He got outed when he was fourteen and also somehow got locked in a classroom until his stepsister got him out. Nico really didn’t mind it until they started bullying Hazel. Then he got into fights which ended up in a lot of suspensions…but Nico preferred not to think about those. Hazel kept going on about how this was a “fresh start” and hopefully she would be correct.
The car made a turn onto a street lined with big houses, each having a driveway and front garden. The houses looked cozy but they were still pretty big, of course his father wouldn’t move into a small house. They backed up in a driveway in front of a house. Nico gently shook his stepsister.
“Haze…wake up, we’re here.”
Hazel’s eyes shot open, her head jerked away from the window. She instinctively looked around cautiously.
“Sorry Nico..just forgot where we were..um so this is it?” Hazel pointed to the house they were parked at.
The house was pretty nice, to be fair however it was hard to be fair when Nico and Hazel lived in a penthouse back in New York. This new house had a more..comforting feeling. It was just a standard American house. Nico opened the car door and got out.
“Nico. The Solaces live next door.” Hades said. Nico started blankly at him, he could vaguely remember the name but he completely forgot anything else.
“Like as in Will and Naomi? Do you seriously not remember them..you were so upset to leave them when you moved to New York.”
Nico remembered. How could he forget about his childhood best friend? Will was his first (and only) friend back in Texas. If Will lived here then.. Nico turned to look down the street. His old house was at the end of the street. It was significantly smaller than the other houses but it was his home. He forced himself to look away.
-— <3 ——
After the boxes were lugged inside the house and Nico helped Hazel unpack in her room. He went down the hall where Hades said his bedroom was, his bedroom was situated the furtherest away from the stairs and right next to the bathroom whilst Hazel’s and Hades’ rooms were down the hall right next to the stairs. Nico sighed and pushed the door open.
The room wasn’t that bad, a double bed was pushed to the far wall tucked away into the corner with a nightstand next to it. Right next to the door was a small desk with a black plush chair. On the other side of the door was a dark chestnut brown wardrobe. Nico hastily unpacked everything, He just really wanted to go to bed despite it being only nine.
Everything was…sort of into place. The empty boxes were all tucked away in one corner of the room and his clothes were thrown into the wardrobe. He didn’t really have any hobbies so the rest of his stuff were just plants, old mythomagic cards and random books and those were just on his desk in one big pile. Nico groaned and rubbed his eyes, he really hated moving. It was just such an effort for what?
He fished some pjs out of his wardrobe and changed into some plaid pyjama pants and a baggy black hoodie. Just as Nico was about to flop onto his bed, someone, probably Hazel, knocked on his door. He internally groaned and went to open the door.
Hazel was on the other side, she was still dressed in her jeans and Olivia Rodrigo shirt that she came in.
“Hey Nico!! Can I come in?”
Nico stepped to the side gesturing for her to come in. She took a couple steps inside and sat right down in the middle of his bed.
“So…what was dad talking about earlier? Whose Will and Naomi?” She asked eagerly whilst fidgeting with his bedsheets.
“Oh..Will was my..friend when I used to live down the road. Naomi was his mom.” Nico said remembering how Will’s unruly blonde curls matched perfectly to his mom’s.
“Friend?” Hazel perked up. “Was he hot? or cute? Oh my god, if they live next door we should totally go say hello!” Hazel spoke faster than Nico could comprehend.
“Firstly..we were ten. You don’t really notice if your friend is ‘hot’ at that age,” Nico said whilst sitting down beside Hazel. “And second of all. we are totally not going to say hello. It’s late now and Naomi might be sleeping, she’s a doctor you know. Well she used to be a singer but then became a doctor .”
“Okay so he could be hot right now…? and it’s not that late it is literally like 9:30pm. But I guess I am a bit tired from travelling all day..but first thing tomorrow morning we are going to say hello.” Hazel said.
Nico rolled his eyes. Hazel stood up but instead of leaving she started organising the pile of stuff on his desk, meaning she had a question. She took a deep breath before speaking.
“Doyouthinkitwillbeliketheotherschoolandwewillgetlikesuperbulliedorwillwemakefriends?”
Nico blinked once then twice, what?
“Haze slow down..what did you just say?” Nico raised an eyebrow. Hazel fidgeted with a deck of cards before speaking again.
“Do you think we will get bullied again..? Like it was in New York?” Hazel asked with wide eyes. Although Hazel hadn’t been bullied as bad as Nico, she still experienced some incidents.
“No way, people here are way less..judgmental than in New York and anyway” Nico smirked “If they try to bully you or me, I’ll throw punches and you’ll just cuss them out until they get scared enough to back off.”
Hazel turned around and grinned. She always used to shout ‘inappropriate’ words at her bullies or threw rocks at them until they got annoyed enough to stop. Her way of getting rid of bullies was probably better than Nico’s but you can’t change the past.
“I’m going to bed, Hades is leaving at 9am tomorrow surprise surprise…but just wake me up if you need anything.”
“jeez Nico how much can you sleep? You will probably wake up at noon or something,” Hazel rolled her eyes and switched off the lights.
“Goodnight Nico”
“Goodnight Hazel”
-— <3 ——
Nico groaned as he got shook awake. He lifted his hands to shield his eyes from the disgustingly bright sun shining through his window.
“Nico! Will and Naomi are here!” Hazel said as she continued shaking him awake.
Now that woke Nico up. He shot up and nearly fell out of bed.
“What? What do you mean they’re here?” Nico questioned.
“I mean they are downstairs right now. They came to say hello after hearing that we moved in! Quick come say hello, Naomi has a shift soon.”
“What? But i’m in my pjs..and my hair is probably sticking up anywhere but my head.” Nico scoffed and flopped back on his bed.
“They won’t give a fuck, you literally haven’t seen them in what? six years? I bet they just wanna know if you’re even alive.”
Nico groaned and dragged himself out of bed. He grabbed his phone and turned on his phone camera to check his hair, like usual, he was right. His messy dark curls were sticking up. Nico tried to get them to cooperate by running his hand through them but it didn’t do much. At least they weren’t sticking up everywhere anymore.
Hazel was waiting by the door impatiently, she was wearing a purple shirt with a cool flower design on the front and some flared jeans. She also seemed like she was going to explode into a small ball of fear.
“Why did they even come down here at like..so early?” Nico asked.
“It is 11:30am Nico. I have been up for four hours, you just like to sleep in like a cat.”
“Well you know what they say, with great power comes great need to take a nap.” Nico smirked, Hazel always hated when he said that. He now does it purposely to piss her off.
“NOBODY SAYS THAT! and a NAP not a fucking coma!” Hazel exclaimed. “Let’s just go downstairs they probably think we’re lunatics shouting up here.”
“Correction, you are the lunatic shouting up here.”
Hazel playfully shoved Nico, despite Nico insulting Hazel, she had a small smile on her face. Hazel went downstairs first, followed by Nico. Honestly, Nico had no idea what to expect. Had Will changed? Did Naomi still do a full glam makeup look everyday? Did they both still have golden blonde hair?
“Hi guys! Sorry we took a while, Nico was sleeping.” Hazel said with a cheesy grin.
She placed herself on the couch right next to Naomi and Will. Speaking of Naomi, she didn’t change a lot. She still had long,curly hair and a bold glam makeup look. Only now, wrinkles were forming on her face.
Whilst Naomi didn’t change that much, Will did. He used to be a scrawny little kid with a mop of messy blonde hair. He used to be sunburnt all the time because he refused to wear sunscreen. However now, Will had shot up to around six feet, his hair was still a mop of messy blonde hair but he managed to pull it off. And also he apparently used sun screen now because despite it being February; he was so tanned that he could’ve quite literally represented the sun itself.
Nico realised everyone was staring at him, waiting for him to say something. He sat down quietly beside Hazel. He honestly had no clue what to say.
“Hi. Why are you guys here?”
Will, Naomi and Hazel all stayed silent for a minute before Will started laughing, followed by Naomi. Hazel slapped Nico gently on the arm as if to say “you absolutely suck at talking to people! you can’t just ask that!” In Nico’s defence how was he supposed to know how to talk to people? The only people who talked to him nicely was Hazel and Hades…on second thought maybe only Hazel.
“You have not changed at all Nico dear, I remember when you were a child and just said the first thing that came to mind.” Naomi chuckled.
Nico smiled apologetically whilst Hazel started talking to them. Apparently Will is attending the school Hazel and Nico were supposed to attend although he was a Sophomore like Nico. He wants to become a doctor and he does track. Nico tuned out most of the conversation after Will had stopped talking because - no offence Naomi but he didn’t really want to know about a patient who got a whole glass jar stuck in their throat. Hazel was listening intently to Naomi’s story whilst Will was looking directly at Nico. Nico raised his eyebrow and Will immediately looked away with a faint blush.
After another one of Naomi’s ‘craziest patient stories’ as she called them, It was time they had to leave. Hazel got up to show them to the door, which was conveniently right outside the living room. Nico waved a quick goodbye as they left the house, leaving Nico and Hazel in silence. Hazel immediately sprung back to Nico’s side. She fidgeted with one of her multiple bracelets and said,
“I thought you said he wasn’t hot!”
Nico sighed. This was going to be a long conversation.
“I said I didn’t really notice if he was ‘hot’ given that i was literally a child.”
“Wait so you do think he is? I thought you had a crush on Bianca’s old friend? What was his name…Percy?”
Nico rolled his eyes.
“Okay I got over my crush on Percy a LONG time ago plus he isn’t my type.”
“So who is your type? Will?” Hazel asked, obviously very interested in the matter of who Nico found attractive or ugly. When Nico stayed silent, Hazel gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. She squealed and was grinning like an idiot.
“Ohmygod! Nico this is great! And he goes to the school we are going to TOMORROW! And he may be in your classes?”
“I doubt he will be in any of my classes, he is literally studying to be a doctor.”
“He may be in your Biology class! You’re doing Biology right? Of course you are!” Hazel squealed again as if Olivia Rodrigo was standing right in front of her.
“Hazel calm down, I’m pretty sure he is straight anyway and I literally just met the guy,” Nico shrugged and stood up but then Hazel dragged him back down on the sofa.
“Shut up! Nico did u not listen to anything Naomi just said? She mentioned Will used to have a boyfriend! And I saw the way he was looking at you! He definitely likes you!”
Nico stared blankly at her; truth be told he did not in fact listen to a word Naomi said. Although he’s sure someone like Will would never be interested in Nico. Not that Nico would ever be interested in Will either. He just met the guy! Sure Will was cute but still. Even if he was looking at Nico, he was probably wondering what happened to the younger Nico. Nico sighed a ran a hand through his hair.
“Hazel. I am in my pjs. I’m sure the only way he was looking at me was in disgust and I never said I liked him!”
“Like he cares about fashion! Did you not see what he was wearing? It was atrocious. He’s lucky he has a pretty face or else that outfit would have gotten him bullied big time.”
Hazel wasn’t wrong, Will’s outfit choice was…questionable. He was wearing cargo shorts with a white shirt. It kinda gave millennial if you asked Nico.
“I’m going to get changed. I’ll be right back.”
Nico made his way back to his room thinking about what Hazel said. Will was attractive but to say Nico had a crush? That was a bit too far. Like who even would have a crush on a guy that he just met? Well not just met but haven’t talked to each other in years. Will barely even said anything to Nico! If you were going to meet your childhood best friend, don’t you think you should..you know have a conversation? But maybe that was also Nico’s fault for not starting one? Nico sighed as he opened his wardrobe and remembered how last night he couldn’t be bothered to organise his wardrobe so it looked a mess.
After 10 long minutes, Nico finally organised his wardrobe into a more socially acceptable way. He decided to wear his usual outfit; black baggy jeans with a random band shirt. Today’s victim was a Fleetwood mac shirt. As he got dressed, he kept thinking about his new school. Hades said it was a small school in the middle of nowhere. There were likely no rich, prestigious kids who thought they were better than everyone. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any bullies either because Nico could not be bothered to get suspended. Nico took a deep breath as he walked out his bedroom and down the stairs.
“Nico how are we getting to school tomorrow?”
Hazel asked.
She has somehow managed to change into an oversized hoodie and sweatpants whilst Nico was organising his wardrobe.
“Do you know how far it is? Maybe we could walk to school?” Nico suggested.
Back in New York, Jules-Albert drove Nico and Hazel around but he couldn’t make the move to Texas. Hades most likely took the car so Nico and Hazel probably would have to walk. Hazel grabbed her phone and typed something into her maps app.
“Dam, dad wasn’t lying when he said it was in the middle of nowhere..it’s 6 miles away.”
Nico and Hazel both sighed. Hades never mentioned what to do if they couldn’t get somewhere. As Nico was trying to think of what to do, Hazel perked up. She had a manic grin on her face which made Nico kind of uneasy.
“Let’s ask Naomi and Will! Will is sixteen right? He may have a drivers license.”
Nico debated his options, he could either not go to school (Hades would kill him for that though) or just ask Will for a ride. Nico wanted to avoid people, especially Will, for as long as he could. Hazel was staring at him, waiting for an answer. For Hazel’s sake, Nico thought.
“Okay fine but i’m not asking them.”
Hazel shot up from the sofa and practically ran to the front door. She slipped on some crocs and left the house shouting a quick “be right back” whilst running down the driveway. Nico sank down onto the sofa. His plan to avoid everyone was going to shit. After a couple minutes, Hazel burst into the house again. She kicked her shoes off and came to sit next to Nico.
“Will can give us a ride! He’ll meet us outside at 7:15am!” Hazel said, still catching her breath from running.
Nico groaned, he should’ve just decided to not go to school.
—— <3 ——
Later that night, Nico was attempting to fall asleep but failing miserably. Normally, he would have no problem falling asleep but he was just overthinking about tomorrow. He knew Will Solace would be going to the same school because he literally is giving Nico a ride but who else? When Nico used to live here, Bianca had a couple of close friends she invited round. One of those friends was Percy Jackson. The same Percy Jackson who Nico had a crush on. The same Percy Jackson who Nico thought was the cause of Bianca’s death.
Nico didn’t remember much about the day of the incident, whilst he had tuned out the arguing between Bianca and Maria, he heard one name being said repeatedly. He remembered how angry Bianca got after Maria wouldn’t let her hang out with Percy. He remembered being in an ambulance. He remembered shouting at Percy for ‘causing Bianca’s death’.
Now Nico obviously knew Percy didn’t directly cause Bianca’s death but he felt guilty at getting mad at Percy. Percy had also lost someone that day. If Percy was attending the same high school Nico is meant to be going to, Nico may just die. He couldn’t face Percy again, not after everything that happened. Although the incident happened six years ago, Nico still held grief. It had gotten better over time; Nico learnt how to cope without projecting on other people.
Nico sighed and stood up. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he might as well do something useful like getting rid of the boxes in his room. He picked up the boxes and brought them downstairs, unsure of where to leave them, he just left them next to the front door. So much for being useful. Nico went back upstairs to his bedroom. He decided to just not think about Percy. Instead he wondered if Annabeth and Percy were together yet. Or if Percy still had the same hair? Or if he changed? He would be a Senior by now wouldn’t he?
Nico had to force himself to stop overthinking. He looked over to his digital clock and saw it was 4am. Nico groaned and decided to just close his eyes. As if the Gods above heard his prayers, he finally fell asleep.